AMC‘s upcoming remake of British drama The driver has expanded its cast with three new additions, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Ivan Mbakop, who starred in Netflix’s Red notification and played detective Caudle in Marvel’s hawkeye mini-series, has joined the six-part series, along with Arica Himmel, who played a teenage Rainbow Johnson on ABC’s blackish prequel spin-off mixed-ish and just landed a starring role in the Disney+ rom-com feature Gala Pactand the younger Dax Rey, who starred in Netflix limited series alongside Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes True story and Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris in the Apple TV+ feature Swan song.
The three join Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Zakary Momoh (Doctor Sleep, Harriet) and Paula Malcomson (Redemption).
The series will launch on AMC and AMC+ and will go into production in August. The series comes from creators Danny Brocklehurst (Safe, Come home) and Sunu Gonera (Snowfall, Class of ’09), with Theo Travers (Billions,house of lies) set as showrunner.
The Drama Stars Esposito as Vince, a cab driver whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to kill New Orleans-based Zimbabwean mobster The Horse (played by Momoh), a man notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants in southern ports in the US to drive. Mbakop plays Zenzo, The Horse’s older, irascible brother, while Rey plays Luke, The Horse’s son. Himmel, meanwhile, will play Vince’s daughter Michaela.
The 2014 three-part BBC original, created by Brocklehurst with Jim Poyser and produced by It’s a sin and years and years banner Red Production, succeeded David Morrissey as a taxi driver employed by a criminal gang.
Esposito, Gonera, Brocklehurst, Morrissey and Travers will executive produce alongside Josh Kesselman and Danny Sherman of Thruline and Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson of A+E Studios. The series is produced by AMC Studios in association with A+E Studios and Thruline Entertainment.
Mbakop is represented by the Identity Agency Group, Himmel is represented by CESD, Untitled Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein, and Rey is represented by Take 3 Talent Agency, Osbrink Agency and imPRint.