Jodie Comer has been tapped to star in Damon Lindelof’s upcoming limited series “The Chain” for HBO.
Comer will play Rachel, a divorcée who is undergoing treatment for cancer, who gets a call that her daughter, Kylie, has been kidnapped and is now part of The Chain. To get Kylie back, she must kidnap another child after paying a ransom. Kylie will be released when the parents of the child Rachel has kidnapped take yet another child and continue the chain.
The series is created by Lindelof and adapts Adrian McKinty’s New York Times best-selling thriller about a parent drawn into a harrowing chain of criminal events.
Lindelof will serve as showrunner for the eight-episode series, a position he has not held since working on HBO’s “Watchmen.” He also is an executive producer and writing the pilot script alongside Carly Wray, with Breannah Gibson also contributing to the pilot story.
Plot details of the series are otherwise under wraps, but Lindelof is said to be expanding the mythology of McKinty’s award-winning thriller.
Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer executive produce for Media Res, which co-produces the series with HBO. Shane Salerno, Breannah Gibson and Joe Iberti also executive produce. McKinty serves as co-executive producer.
The adaptation is the first project under a deal with the television studio Media Res (“The Morning Show,” “Pachinko”), which serves as the co-studio on the series. It also comes after HBO has signed a two-year overall deal with Lindelof, which began in September 2025.
Comer most recently starred in Danny Boyle’s zombie film “28 Years Later” and is making her return to TV after her Emmy and BAFTA-winning turn as assassin Villanelle in BBC America’s “Killing Eve.” Lindelof’s most recent credits include “Watchmen” and “The Leftovers” – both with HBO — and “Mrs. Davis” for Peacock.
