Gugu Mbatha-Raw has already worked with Apple once in a supporting role on The Morning Show, and she’s collaborating with the company once again, this time in a lead role.
The English actress will star in a psychological thriller series titled Surface for Apple TV+. Reese Witherspoon, who starred in The Morning Show, will produce the project.
Plot details are under wraps, but we do know that the series hails from Veronica West, who co-created Hulu’s recent High Fidelity series and is also serving as a co-executive producer on the upcoming Dexter revival.
Mbatha-Raw is a truly talented actress who’s had some bad luck and never quite got the big break she deserved. She was cast as the lead in J.J. Abrams‘ highly anticipated series Undercovers, but the show was quickly cancelled.
She starred in the excellent Beyond The Lights, basically doing Bradley Cooper‘s A Star Is Born but first and (arguably) better, but the film didn’t get as much attention.
She also had significant roles in Disney film A Wrinkle In Time, which was a box office disappointment, and The Cloverfield Paradox, which didn’t lead the franchise anywhere.
She has earned great reviews for her turns in the ‘San Junipero’ Black Mirror episode and Amma Asante‘s Belle, but those haven’t led to the kind of roles talents like her may have gotten thirty years ago.
Nowadays, if you’re not in Star Wars or a Marvel film, you’re not a star (ironically Mbatha-Raw is in the upcoming Disney+ Loki series). But who knows, maybe Surface can finally be the role that launches Mbatha-Raw to superstardom. Apple are hoping that one of their shows truly hits and becomes a pop culture phenomenon that leads to a massive subscriber increase, why couldn’t it be this?
#Peace.Love.Surface
