After spending more than a decade in the 18th century while filming Outlander, Sam Heughan’s next TV role will be set firmly in the present day.
Heughan has joined the cast of a six-episode thriller series titled Embassy, where he’ll star opposite Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons. The show comes from AGC Television, Ascendant Fox and Turbine Studios. It will be the first series role for Heughan since wrapping work on Outlander, whose final season premieres March 6 on Starz.
Embassy has also brought on director Christian Alvart to helm two of its six episodes. Production is set to begin in February.
AGC Television is financing and distributing Embassy worldwide (it hasn’t yet landed a home in the United States). Kendrick will play Layla, an American diplomat who, after mercenaries storm the U.S. embassy in London, has to choose whether to protect the ambassador (Simmons) or follow his orders to get a high-value asset safely out of harm’s way. Layla “must rely on her instincts,” the show’s logline reads, “and the reluctant help of her ex-fiancé, a British SAS soldier (Heughan), in the tense hours before extraction.”
Rom Lotan created the series. John Strickland (Line of Duty, Bodyguard) will direct four of the six episodes, with Alvart handling the remaining two. Lotan and Strickland executive produce with Ascendant Fox’s Hester Ruoff, Bart Ruspoli and Matt Mitchell; Turbine’s Daniel Hetzer, Jakob Neuhausser, Justin Thomson and David Tanner; and AGC’s Stuart Ford, Lourdes Diaz and Miguel A. Palos Jr.
In between work on Outlander, Heughan has also appeared in another Starz series, The Couple Next Door, and in the first season of the Channel 4 drama Suspect in the U.K. His movie credits include Love Again, Bloodshot and The Spy Who Dumped Me. He is repped by United Agents, UTA, Anonymous Content and Viewpoint.
Alvart is repped by Players Management and Ensemble Entertainment.
