‘Strike Back’ Revived for Fifth Season at Cinemax
Cinemax is reviving its first foray into original scripted programming. The premium cable network and U.K. collaborator Sky are bringing back Strike Back for its fifth season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The drama was renewed for its fourth and then-final season in 2013 and wrapped its run in October 2015. The new season, which will feature an entirely new cast, will resume production in 2017. A premiere date has not yet been determined.
Strike Back will be overseen by a familiar face: Jack Lothian, who penned a few episodes of the fourth season, will serve as head writer and showrunner. He will executive produce alongside Andy Harries, who developed the novel for television. Sharon Hughff also will exec produce alongside Michael J. Bassett, the drama’s go-to director. Bill Shephard will produce. The series will continue to be produced by Left Bank Pictures.
The new incarnation will center on the Section program, disavowed and disbanded, that is restored in order to track down a notorious terrorist following a brutal prison break. Tasked with covert military intelligence and high-risk operations, the resurrected unit embarks on a lethal manhunt that will uncover a vast web of interconnected criminal activity. As the team journey across the Middle East and Europe, they uncover a deadly conspiracy which threatens to overwhelm them all and change the face of modern warfare forever.
Alin Sumarwata stars as Gracie Novin, a gearhead who is looking to make the step up. Genuine, honest to the point of bluntness, she’s the heart and soul of the team.
Daniel MacPherson is set as Samuel Wyatt, a barroom philosopher who works best alone. Wyatt has no intention of being dragged into a team situation. But what he wants and what he gets are rarely the same thing.
Roxanne McKee will portray Natalie Roberts, a woman who comes from a military family and excels at psychological profiles and seeing weaknesses in others, though she might be blinded to her own fault-lines.
Warren Brown rounds out the cast as Daniel “Mac” Macallister, a man of his word, physically capable, driven by a desire to avenge the team he’s lost. He’s easygoing, affable — and utterly deadly.
This marks the fifth season of the franchise on Cinemax and sixth on U.K. broadcaster Sky, which aired the first season of the drama — Strike Back: Origins — in 2013. It’s unclear if any of the original stars — including Philip Winchester or Sullivan Stapleton (the latter of whom stars on NBC’s Blindspot) — will return in any capacity.
Strike Back launched Cinemax into original scripted programming. The HBO sibling’s roster of originals consists of Robert Kirkman’s Outcast; Quarry, which is awaiting word on a second season; and The Knick, whose fate beyond season two remains unclear.
Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/strike-back-revived-fifth-season-at-cinemax-954406