Spy: Big Kiwi stars home to film Pacific Panthers

Frankie Adams has returned home to star in the new series.

Hollywood stars Frankie Adams and Beulah Koale are among the star cast filming The Panthers, the dramatisation of the founding of the Polynesian Panthers in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Adams and Koale are former Shortland Street alumni and also starred in Samoan drama One Thousand Ropes. The pair attended the premiere together in Apia, Samoa in 2017.

Adams has found international fame in sci-fi series The Expanse, and Koale in Hawaii Five-0. Koale has come home to New Zealand after filming sci-fi movie Dual in Finland alongside Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul.

Producers are thrilled to have them as part of The Panthers' cast, which stars young actor Dimitrius Koloamatangi as Will 'Ilolahia, the black sheep of his noble Tongan family and "The Professor" of the Ponsonby streets in the mid-70s.

Beulah Koale is starring in the new series.

'Illolahia's parents' generation were welcomed to NZ with open arms during the boom of the 50s, when additional workers were needed.

But when the economy tightens up in the shadow of a global oil crisis, and with unemployment on the rise, the country begins turning in on itself and 'Ilolahia wants change. He forms the rebel-activist group, the Polynesian Panthers.

He and his crew learn to fight with their minds as well as their fists, with their street gang turning into political revolutionaries fighting racial discrimination sweeping New Zealand during the era.

The mini-series charts the rise to power of Sir Robert Muldoon, who is being played by acting veteran Roy Billing, who appeared in the Aussie historical crime series Underbelly and is great casting by producers.

Dimitrius Koloamatangi is starring in the new series

Both Preston Crayford and Billing appeared in the Aussie historical crime series Underbelly.

The dynamic six-part series started filming at South Pacific Pictures last Sunday and will appear on TVNZ 1 next year.

NZ On Air has invested more than $5 million to bring to life the racial blame, prejudice and misdirected anger of the era.