Jodie Comer has been cast as the lead in HBO’s new thriller series The Chain, taking on the role of Rachel, a suburban mother whose daughter is kidnapped in the story based on Adrian McKinty’s bestselling novel.
The 33-year-old actor is the latest major name attached to a project that HBO ordered to series in January. Damon Lindelof is creating The Chain and will serve as writer, executive producer and showrunner, while the pilot script was written by Lindelof and Carly Wray from a story developed with Breannah Gibson.
For Comer, the role extends a run that has made her one of Britain’s most sought-after screen actors. She won Emmy and BAFTA awards for playing Villanelle in America’s Killing Eve, took a second BAFTA for Channel 4 drama Help in 2021 and has since kept moving between stage and film work. In March, she finished her run as Tessa in Prima Facie and then returned to Liverpool for five days of performances at Liverpool Playhouse from March 17 to 21.
The casting also puts her back in another high-profile genre project after playing Bridget opposite Hugh Jackman in The Death of Robin Hood, which is due in UK cinemas on September 2. The new HBO series is being expanded beyond the original book’s mythology, giving Lindelof room to shape a thriller around the collapse of an ordinary life after a child is taken.
That is a familiar setup, but the appeal here is the combination of Comer and Lindelof. Lindelof, known for Lost and Watchmen, is working under an overall deal with HBO, and The Chain adds another ambitious title to a network that has already handed the series a full order before cameras roll. Comer, meanwhile, has built a reputation for roles that turn on pressure, grief and control — the kind of material she has said invigorates her and leaves her feeling spent in the best way.
She has spoken often about being drawn to work that reaches into emotion and experience, saying that her emotions were very accessible to her at a young age and that she has learned not to be “crying before you’ve even started.” She has also described being pulled toward characters and material that let her explore something deeply and leave the work behind feeling transformed. Rachel looks likely to sit squarely in that territory.
The casting gives The Chain a face audiences already know and a creative driver with a record of turning literary material into event television. What HBO has in Comer and Lindelof is not just another adaptation, but a thriller built to carry the weight of a simple, brutal premise: a mother, a missing child and the chain of choices that follows.
