Yahoo News Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson join Chernobyl series
Sky and HBO's upcoming drama based on the catastrophic Chernobyl disaster in the 1980s has added two more names to its cast.
Good Will Hunting and Mamma Mia's Stellan Skarsgård will be joining the five-part mini-series alongside his Breaking the Waves co-star Emily Watson (Apple Tree Yard).
The true-life drama, which will be shown on Sky Atlantic and available to stream on NOW TV in the UK, will chronicle the events of the 1986 nuclear tragedy and the people caught up in it.
Skarsgård is set to play Boris Shcherbina, a government official who was appointed leader of the Kremin's commission on Chernobyl in the immediate aftermath of the accident.
[Stellan Skarsgård in River]
Meanwhile, Emily Watson will take on the role of Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist committed to solving the mystery of what led to the disaster at Chernobyl – something which quickly leads her down a troubling and dangerous path.
Skarsgård and Watson join The Crown's Jared Harris, whose role as a Kremlin-backed Soviet scientist was announced last year.
Related: The Crown's Jared Harris reveals King George VI nearly didn't feature in the show
"Nobody would see it as a privilege to spend five months in a dilapidated nuclear plant, unless it was to play in a script like this..." Skarsgård said of the ambitious project, while Watson said that she was "honoured" to take part in the Craig Mazin-penned series.
"This is a significant piece of work and I'm honoured to be part of it. I can't wait to get started with this amazing group of people, and am especially excited to be working with Stellan again," she said.
Chernobyl, which will start production in Lithuania this Spring, will be directed by Breaking Bad and Blackstar's Johan Renck and will mark Sky and HBO's first big project together.
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