HBO Max and producer Ava DuVernay have revealed nine actors joining the cast of the limited event series DMZ, an adaptation of the Vertigo comic series.
Joining Rosario Dawson (Zombieland: Double Tap) and Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order) in the series are Venus Ariel (NCIS: New Orleans), Rutina Wesley (Queen Sugar), Nora Dunn (The Big Leap), Jade Wu (Luke Cage), Rey Gallegos (Animal Kingdom), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Agam Darshi (Funny Boy), Juani Feliz (Harlem) and Henry G. Sanders (Queen Sugar).
DMZ was created by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli. It follows a war-torn America where another civil war has begun out and left Manhattan a broken shell of its former self, being deemed a demilitarized zone that has been separated from the rest of the world as the people left behind struggle to form new lives and gain control in the DMZ.
The limited series is being brought to life by DuVernay and Roberto Patino (Westworld), both of whom will executive produce. Joining them on the production team is director Ernest Dickerson (Bosch), who will direct the latter three of the four episode series after DuVernay directed the pilot, and writer Carly Wray (Watchmen). Both will also serve as executive producers.
Ariel will play the series regular role of Nico, “a foul-mouthed scavenger with a hankering for mischief.”
Wesley will play Athena, “a calculating operative for the separatist Free States of America—and the most effective power broker in the DMZ that no one there has heard of.”
Dunn will play Oona, “a powerful fixture of near-mythical stature who oversees an all-female commune, along with the most valuable currency in all the DMZ: the water supply.”
Wu will play Susie, “whose revolutionary past has shown her that the best of humanity can be discovered at its worst moments.”
Gallegos will play Cesar, “a ruthless and devoted consigliere who’ll stop at nothing to secure his gang’s authority in the DMZ.”
Gummer will play Rose, “a jaded medic who tirelessly cares for the ill and injured of this disenfranchised population, regardless of the cost.”
Darshi will play Franklin, “one of the only smugglers who can get someone in or out of the DMZ.”
Feliz will play Carmen, “the fearless and fiery partner to the biggest bad in the DMZ, and a critical source of power and community in her native Spanish Harlem.”
Sanders will play Cedric, “a straight-shooting citizen of the DMZ whose only care in the world is protecting his grandson.”
Additionally, HBO Max revealed the characters played by Hoon Lee (Banshee), Freddy Miyares (When They See Us) and Jordan Preston Carter (The Haves and the Have Nots). Lee is Wilson, “an unflinching warlord with swagger to match who rules over the prosperous neighborhood of Chinatown. His only rival for domination comes from Spanish Harlem.” Carter is “the orphaned child of war Odi, an old soul with a curiosity that yearns for the world outside” and Miyares is Skel, “the ruthless triggerman of one of the DMZ’s most powerful gangs. He is also a talented graffiti artist with a profound passion for art, which serves as his lasting connection to his humanity in a world where survival is predicated on power.”
DMZ tells the story of a near future America that’s embroiled in a bitter civil war, leaving Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ) that’s destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world. The four-part series chronicles the harrowing journey of fearless and fierce medic Alma Ortega (Rosario Dawson), who sets out to find the son she lost in the evacuation of New York City at the onset of the conflict.
Throwing gasoline on the flames of that conflict is Parco Delgado (series star Benjamin Bratt), the popular — and deadly — leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the DMZ. He wants to rule this new world — and will stop at nothing to secure that outcome. In this adrenalized and expansive drama which examines a stark political and cultural divide in American society, Alma must contend with the gangs, militias, demagogues and warlords that control this lawless no man’s land. In doing so, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone here has lost…hope.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
