'War of the Worlds' TV Series Casts Lead Roles

The classic tale of the War of the Worlds is being reimagined for TV, and the upcoming production's cast has finally been set.

According to a new report from Deadline, Hereditary's Gabriel Byrne and Downton Abbey's Elizabeth McGovern have been tapped for lead roles in the series from Urban Myth Film.

In addition to the two stars, Lea Drucker (Le Bureau Des Legendes), Natasha Little (Silent Witness), Daisy Edgar Jones (Cold Feet), Stephane Caillard (Marseille), Adel Bencherif (The Profit), and Guillaume Gouix (The Returned) have also joined the ensemble. Addition casting is still underway.

The new take on the popular H.G. Wells story is written and created by Howard Overman, known best for his work on the hit series, Misfits. This version of War of the Worlds will take place in modern-day Europe and follows the small groups of humanity left on Earth after an attack made by extra-terrestrials. The series is set for eight episodes, each an hour long, and production is no underway in the UK and France.

Gilles Coulier (Cargo) is set to direct the first four episodes of the series, while Richard Clark (Versailles) will helm the remaining four. David Williamson (De Dag) has been hired as the director of photography and Richard Bullock (Les Miserables) has been brought on as the production designer.

AGC Television will co-finance and co-distribute War of the Worlds alongside Canal+ and Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa. AGC TV will distribute the series in North America.

This War of the Worlds series is one of two that are currently in production, both based on the same source material. The other series is set to release on BBC later this year with Rafe Spall and Eleanor Tomlinson set to star.

Are you looking forward to the War of the Worlds TV series? Let us know in the comments!