Posted in: HBO, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Ava DuVernay, benjamin bratt, dmz, hbo max, rosario dawson

DMZ: HBO Max Limited Series Adds 9 to Cast; Director, Writer Confirmed

Ava DuVernay (When They See Us) and Roberto Patino's (Westworld) four-part limited series adaptation of DC Comics series DMZ for HBO Max made some major news on both sides of the camera on Monday, with nine additions to the cast and two additions to the creative team confirmed exclusively by Deadline Hollywood.

Rutina Wesley (Queen Sugar), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Nora Dunn (The Big Leap), Henry G. Sanders (Queen Sugar), Venus Ariel (NCIS: New Orleans), Jade Wu (Marvel's Luke Cage), Rey Gallegos (Animal Kingdom), Agam Darshi (Funny Boy), and Juani Feliz (Harlem) are set to join Rosario Dawson (Briarpatch, Rent, Sin City), Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order, Traffic), Hoon Lee (Banshee, Warrior), Freddy Miyares (When They See Us, The L Word: Generation Q), and Jordan Preston Carter (The Haves and the Have Nots). In addition, Ernest Dickerson (Juice, Bosch) will direct & executive produce three episodes, with Carly Wray (Watchmen, Westworld) joining the writing team and serving as a co-executive producer. Patino serves as writer, showrunner, and executive producer, with DuVernay directing the pilot and executive producing

Ariel's Nico is a foul-mouthed scavenger with a hankering for mischief, while Wesley's Athena is a calculating operative for the separatist Free States of America — and the most effective power broker in the DMZ that no one there has heard of. Dunn's Oona is a powerful fixture of near-mythical stature who oversees an all-female commune, along with the most valuable currency in all the DMZ: the water supply; Wu's Susie has a revolutionary past hat has shown her that the best of humanity can be discovered at its worst moments. Gallegos's Cesar is a ruthless and devoted consigliere who'll stop at nothing to secure his gang's authority in the DMZ, while Gummer's Rose is a jaded medic who tirelessly cares for the ill and injured of this disenfranchised population, regardless of the cost. Darshi's Franklin is one of the only smugglers who can get someone in or out of the DMZ. Finally, Feliz's Carmen is the fearless and fiery partner to the biggest bad in the DMZ and a critical source of power and community in her native Spanish Harlem, while Sanders's Cedric is a straight-shooting citizen of the DMZ whose only care in the world is protecting his grandson.

DMZ is set in the near future, when America is embroiled in a bitter civil war, leaving Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ), destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world. It chronicles the harrowing journey of fearless and fierce medic Alma Ortega (Dawson) to find the son she lost in the evacuation of New York City at the onset of the conflict. Throwing gasoline on the flames of that conflict is Parco Delgado (Bratt), the popular, and deadly, leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the DMZ. He wants to rule this new world and will stop at nothing to secure that outcome. The drama will examine the stark political and cultural divide in American society, where Alma must contend with the gangs, militias, demagogues, and warlords that control this lawless no man's land. In doing so, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone there has lost…hope.

"I couldn't be more thrilled to bring this epic to the screen with my boundary-pushing partners at WBTV and HBO Max, a sublime cast led by Rosario and Benjamin, and my partner and friend, the inimitable and ever-inspiring Ava DuVernay," said Roberto Patino. "DMZ offers up an explosive playground which, more than anything else, exalts the resilience of community and the human spirit. I can't wait to welcome the die-hard fans of the comic books and new viewers alike to this intoxicating, haunting and inspiring world."

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