Four years after wrapping up BBC America’s hit show Killing Eve, Jodie Comer has found her next major TV project in the form of a new HBO TV show from Watchmen and Lanterns creator Damon Lindelof. Comer has signed on to play the leading role of Rachel in the upcoming HBO miniseries The Chain, based on Adrian McKinty’s award-winning 2019 novel.
What do we know about Jodie Comer’s The Chain TV show?
Per Variety, The Chain has been granted an eight-episode series order from HBO. In the limited drama, Comer’s Rachel is described as “a suburban mom who must consider the unthinkable when her daughter is kidnapped.” The project will be written and executive-produced by Lindelof, who’s also set as a showrunner. The pilot episode is being written by Lindelof, Carly Wray, and Breannah Gibson.
The series adaptation will be executive-produced by Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer of Media Res, along with McKinty, Shane Salerno, Gibson, and Joe Iberti. It will be co-produced by HBO and Media Res. The project will be a part of Lindelof’s overall deal with the premium network.
For her iconic performance as Villanelle in Killing Eve, Comer won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. She was most recently seen in the 2025 horror movie 28 Years Later with Aaron Taylor-Johnson. She will next star in Hugh Jackman’s upcoming thriller movie The Death of Robin Hood, which arrives in theaters on June 19, 2026.
The novel synopsis reads, “When a mother is targeted by a dangerous group of masterminds, she must commit a crime to save her kidnapped daughter—or risk losing her forever. It’s something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it’s a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn’t do as she’s told, the boy will die.
“Rachel is now part of The Chain, an unending and ingenious scheme that turns victims into criminals—and is making someone else very rich in the process. The rules are simple, the moral challenges impossible; find the money fast, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act you’d have thought yourself incapable of just twenty-four hours ago. But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning.”