Susan Kelechi Watson Joins Dakota Fanning In Apple TV’s Alex Cary Thriller

EXCLUSIVE: Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us, The Residence) has been cast to star alongside Dakota Fanning in the as yet untitled Apple TV thriller from Alex Cary (A Spy Among Friends, Homeland).

In the series, Fanning stars as an undercover Treasury agent in a multi-billion-dollar international conglomerate with world-changing political and criminal tentacles, who becomes conflicted between her mission and a belief that her principal target, the heir apparent to all that corrupt power, is at his core a good man and worthy of her love.

Watson will play the series regular role of Dawn, a handler for US governmental covert operations.

The previously announced cast also includes Stellan Skarsgård, Daryl McCormack, Grace Gummer and Joely Richardson.

Hailing from Sony Pictures Television, the untitled thriller is executive produced by Cary, who also serves as creator and showrunner under his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television and his FLW Productions banner. Julie Gardner (Lady in the Lake, Doctor Who) executive produces for Bad Wolf America, and Elle Fanning executive produces alongside Dakota Fanning and Brittany Kahan Ward of Lewellen Pictures (Margo’s Got Money Troubles, The Great). Kari Skogland (Smoke, The Handmaid’s Tale) will direct and serve as executive producer.

Watson was most recently seen recurring on ABC/Hulu’s High Potential and starring in the Shondaland limited series The Residence for Netflix. She is best known for playing Beth Pearson on the NBC series This is Us, from Dan Fogelman, for which she received back-to-back SAG Awards, AFI Awards, and individual NAACP and Critics Choice nominations.

In film, Watson will next be seen in Netflix’s Don’t Ever Wonder for director Eugene Ashe. She starred in Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opposite Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys, and is the executive producer and star of the HBO adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, as well as the executive producer of Premature on Hulu. Watson is repped by Authentic, UTA, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.