After three long years, the gentleman thief is back — and he is not alone. Lupin returned to Netflix for its fourth installment on Oct. 23, and the French mystery series picked up four years after the events of the previous season, with a slate of fresh faces joining the ensemble around Omar Sy‘s Assane Diop.
Once again, Sy returns as Assane Diop, the modern-day French gentleman thief who models himself on Arsène Lupin, using disguises and cons to get justice. But when season 4 opens, Assane remains behind bars in a high-security prison, planning to lay low and serve out his sentence. Those plans are upended when “Lupin” signs an announcement that multiple museums are to be hit with simultaneous heists — and a copycat pulls them off as planned.
“Assane proclaims his innocence, but everything points to his guilt,” the Netflix logline reads. “A camera even shows him in one of the museums during a robbery in which Captain Belkacem is seriously injured. To prove his innocence and unmask the copycat, Assane must escape and don the Lupin costume once more!”
(Harald Krichel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0))Théo Christine as Raoul Diop
The biggest casting change of the season comes courtesy of the four-year time jump. Théo Christine takes over as an older Raoul Diop, Assane’s son — a role played by Etan Simon since season 1. Christine steps into the part because the boy audiences remember is now a young adult, and the trailer teases that Raoul’s evolving dynamic with his father will play a significant role throughout the season.
Christine is a French actor with credits in the French television series Skam France as well as the films Summit Fever, Infested and My Best Part. And despite playing Sy’s on-screen son, this is not the first time the two have acted alongside each other — both are starring in the upcoming epic adventure film Dumas: Black Devil. Sy, who also serves as co-showrunner for season 4, told Variety: “What’s funny is that actually happened afterward. We approached Théo for Lupin, and he said yes. Then, while we were working on the series, he got the role in Dumas.”
(François NAVARRO-GUY / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0))Brice Derouéné as Young Benjamin Férel
The time jump reshuffles another role too. French actor Brice Derouéné takes over as the younger Benjamin Férel, Assane’s closest friend from school, replacing Adrian Valli de Villebonne. Antoine Gouy continues to play the adult version of Benjamin, one of the show’s returning favorites alongside Ludivine Sagnier as Claire Laurent, Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira, and Shirine Boutella as Sofia Belkacem.
Laïka Blanc-Francard, Agustín Bruzzone and Noah Pierre D.
The newcomer slate rounds out with three more names. Laïka Blanc-Francard is another new face in season 4 — Netflix has not spelled out her part, but she arrives with credits including Reign Supreme, Stalk and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Agustín Bruzzone joins as a douanier, which means “customs officer” in French; the Argentine actor made his feature film debut in the Italian movie The Golden Door and is also an electromechanical technician with experience in movie and TV production. Finally, Noah Pierre D. appears in three episodes as Samuel, and has acted in shorts such as Mute and The Chess Player, both of which he also directed.
(Siebbi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0))With a copycat on the loose, a prison to escape, and a son who has grown up without his father, season 4 gives every one of these new characters something to steal — the audience’s attention included.
Why the New Faces Matter
Every long-running series faces the same question in its later seasons: how do you keep the world feeling alive without losing what made it special? Season 4’s answer is to let time do the work. The four-year jump means Raoul is no longer the child Assane left behind — he is a young man with his own perspective on the father who keeps disappearing. Christine’s casting gives that relationship real dramatic weight, and his prior work in Skam France and the horror hit Infested suggests an actor comfortable with intensity.
The smaller additions matter too. A young Benjamin means flashbacks to the friendship that shaped Assane; a customs officer means the copycat’s operation has a logistical spine; and an undisclosed role for Blanc-Francard means the show is holding at least one card close to its chest. For a series built on misdirection, that is exactly as it should be.