Why Mark Wahlberg revived a beloved private eye for Netflix with ‘Spenser Confidential’

Growing up in South Boston in the ’70s and ’80s, long before films like “Good Will Hunting” and “Mystic River” came along, Mark Wahlberg didn’t see many authentic depictions of his hometown on the big or small screen. Sure, “Cheers” gave the city a friendly, feel-good sheen. But there weren’t many movies or series that captured the real tough, gritty flavor of Southie. So what few there were tended to stick out.

“Back then, there weren’t a lot of Boston stories being told,” Wahlberg says. “The only things I can really remember shooting in our neighborhood and familiar surroundings were (the 1978 heist film) ‘The Brink’s Job’ and ‘Spenser: For Hire.’ ”

Airing on ABC from 1985 to 1988, the crime drama “Spenser: For Hire” centered on author Robert B. Parker’s private eye Spenser — a former Boston cop and boxer who is as quick with a quip as he is with his fists — and his best friend, Hawk, played respectively by Robert Urich and Avery Brooks.

Now, in his latest collaboration with director Peter Berg, with whom he has made films including “Lone Survivor,” “Deepwater Horizon” and “Patriots Day,” Wahlberg is bringing a fresh take to one of modern crime fiction’s most beloved detectives — and potentially launching a new franchise around him — with the Netflix film “Spenser Confidential.” In the film, Spenser (whose first name has never been revealed) comes out of prison after five years and teams up with a UFC fighter named Hawk, played by “Black Panther” and “Us” star Winston Duke, to uncover a conspiracy tied to the deaths of two Boston cops.

Producer Neal Moritz (“The Fast and the Furious,” “21 Jump Street”), whose Original Film developed the project with an eye toward a potential new franchise, says Parker’s estate gave them fairly wide latitude to deviate from the Spenser canon. When asked once how his books would be viewed in 50 years, Parker is reported to have replied, “Don’t know, don’t care.”

“We had guidelines on what it could and couldn’t be — just organically what it was thematically and like (including) Hawk, who was beloved from the books,” Moritz says. “But, honestly, we bought that material because we liked it so much. It wasn’t like we were saying, ‘Oh, we want to change everything.’ We wanted to make it a great experience for the moviegoer who knew about Spenser from the past but also for somebody who didn’t know anything about him.”

For his part, before being approached about the film, Duke was completely unfamiliar with the Parker books or with the ’80s series, which spawned a short-lived Hawk spinoff along with a number of made-for-TV films. But going back and watching old episodes of “Spenser: For Hire” deepened his respect for Brooks, who he had grown up watching on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

“Avery Brooks’ turn as Hawk was so meaningful for black viewers who got to see this cool, debonair black brother who was doing an unorthodox job at the time and just killing it,” Duke says. “It was really great when it came to representation onscreen. It’s such an honor now to be picking up the baton in this relay, to have my own version of Hawk that’s very much a product of the present.”

Moritz first brought the project to Sony Pictures, where he had a production deal at the time, but the studio passed. For Netflix, which has rushed in to fill the void of midrange adult- oriented films that the studios have largely abandoned, the project offers the potential to build out the type of film franchise that the streaming giant is largely lacking.

For Wahlberg, starring in a movie that is going straight to streaming is uncharted territory and, while he says he’s open to seeing where Spenser could go in further installments, he will wait to see how the audience responds to this one.