‘Iris’: Tom Hollander, Niamh Algar to Lead New Thriller Series from ‘Luther’ Creator!!

Fresh off delivering a follow-up to his thriller, Luther, with last year’s sequel, Luther: The Fallen Star, writer and creator Neil Cross has announced a new Sky Original thriller series, Iris, as his next project. The cast for the eight-episode series will be led by Tom Hollander and Niamh Algar as part of a co-production between Sky Studios and Fremantle. The series is set to start filming in Sardinia, Italy this month, and has been described as “unapologetically exciting” and a “sun-drenched chase thriller.” Per the logline, Iris will follow “a rootless but enigmatic genius, Iris Nixon played by Algar, who steals a code from a charming philanthropist, Hollander’s Cameron McIntyre before vanishing.” The series’ official description adds, “Armed only with her lethal intelligence and chameleonic charm, the clock is ticking for her to work out what the code could unleash before she is found.”

Algar and Hollander are familiar faces to the watching audience with Algar appearing as Sandie in the period drama Mary & George, and Hollander as Quentin in the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus. Algar‘s Nixon is a highly intelligent and gifted puzzle solver, who, in the aftermath of coming across a post online about a highly secretive code, goes on to crack it. Her ingenuity leads her straight to Hollander‘s McIntyre. Soon enough Nixon realizes her feat of brilliance has armed a dangerous man with a very powerful weapon, and to salvage the situation, she decides to steal the technology and disappear. Despite living quietly in Sardinia, she’s still not out of McIntyre’s reach.

Iris comes from the same mind which pieced together the acclaimed BBC show, Luther, starring Idris Elba in the lead. “All I wanted to do was to make a show I wanted to watch,” said Cross in a statement regarding the new series. “Iris is an unapologetically exciting, witty, chase-driven adventure show and features a lead character the like of which I don’t think we’ve ever met before on TV. With Niamh Algar and Tom Hollander bringing these complex characters to life, coupled with Terry McDonough’s direction, I couldn’t be more excited to share this world and these characters.”

Who Else Is Behind ‘Iris’?

Joining Algar and Hollander as part of the cast for Iris are Doctor Who‘s Sacha Dhawan and Poldark‘s Peter Sullivan. The series will also star Maya Sansa, Meréana Tomlinson, and Debi Mazar. The team behind the camera includes Breaking Bad director Terry McDonough as lead director on the series, while Tim Bricknell serves as series producer. Susan E. Connolly and Ian Scott McCullough are on the writing team, while Cross and McDonough exec produce alongside Dante Di Loreto and Jenni Sherwood.