There are a couple new horror anthology series in the works, hoping to unseat American Horror Story from its horror anthology throne. It’s hard to compete with a cast that stacked. One such new series is The Terror, the adaptation of Dan Simmons’ 2007 bestseller being executive produced by Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker that AMC gave a 10-episode series order to earlier this year. Adapted by David Kajganich (A Bigger Splash), The Terror is set in 1847 and provides a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition to find the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which all sounds very historical and normal, the kind of story that might be shared on Drunk History. In real life, Franklin’s crew died from pneumonia, tuberculosis, and other mortal ailments. But in The Terror, they’re hunted by a mysterious and terrifying beast dwelling in the frozen wilderness. Twist! And as of today, The Terror has its cast. It’s certainly no AHS billing, but it’s promising.
Mad Men’s Jared Harris is returning to AMC, playing Francis Crozier, captain of the HMS Terror and second-in-command of the royal expedition. He’s a smart and ambitious Irishman who has clawed his way up the ranks of the British Royal Navy but has become increasingly disillusioned by the politics and pageantry of it all. Ciarán Hinds (best known as Mance Rayder on Game Of Thrones, but also powerful presence on the underrated and short-lived limited series Political Animals) has been cast as the expedition leader himself, Sir John Franklin. Paul Ready (Utopia), Adam Nagaitis (Suffragette), and, most enticingly, Tobias Menzies (who is spectacular in everything he has ever done but especially in Outlander) round out the cast.