If the upcoming crime series at Amazon, “Criminal,” hasn’t piqued your interest yet, it should. Variety announced this week the two leads, Emilia Clarke (“Game Of Thrones,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) and Luke Evans (“The Hobbit,” “Our Son”), and the project is shaping up quite nicely.
The series is based on the graphic novels by comics writers Ed Brubaker (creator of Marvel’s Winter Solider character) and Sean Phillips and is said to be about an interlocking, intergenerational story of families connected through shared criminal history. Brubaker will serve as co-showrunner and executive producer on “Criminal” along with Jordan Harper (“The Mentalist”).
The cast is pretty stacked at this point, and on top of Clarke and Evans, features Adria Arjona (“Andor”) Charlie Hunnam (“Triple Frontier”), Richard Jenkins (“Step Brothers”), John Hawkes (“True Detective: Nigh Country”), Logan Browning, Kadeem Hardison, Pat Healy, Taylor Sele, Gus Halper, Aliyah Camacho, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Michael Xavier, and Dominic Burgess.
Clarke will play Mallory, described as “a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits. Part of a heist crew with Ricky Lawless (Halper), who she’s in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair with. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding secrets that will bring her and her entire crew into the danger zone.”
Evan’s character, Tracy Laweless is described as a man, “pushed out of the outlaw life of his family (his father is the legendary Teeg Lawless and Ricky (Halper) is his little brother) at the age of 18 when a judge gave him a choice of prison or the military. In the Army, Tracy thrived, his wild outlaw instincts getting funneled into the strict discipline of the military. He was placed into the Special Forces and trained as an expert in covert operations and guerilla warfare. But underneath it all, the Lawless blood still pumps in his heart.”
Additionally, if that’s not all enough, filmmaking team Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (“Captain Marvel,” “Half Nelson”) will direct the first four episodes.
Evans’ recent TV roles include “Echo 3” for Apple TV+, “The Alienist” at TNT, and “Nine Perfect Strangers” for Hulu. Clarke’s career obviously launched into the stratosphere thanks to HBO’s “Game Of Thrones,” and her recent TV credits include Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” series on Disney+. There is no word when this will air on Prime Video, but it is undoubtedly a contender for our annual Most Anticipated TV Show for 2025.