Timothy Olyphant’s Upcoming Crime Thriller Is Ozark Meets Killing Eve

Any TV show is elevated by the presence of Timothy Olyphant, and the actor’s upcoming Apple TV series combines the best of crime thriller shows Ozark and Killing Eve. While both of these series were widely considered to have fallen off by the end, with Killing Eve‘s series finale particularly maligned, they both had stellar first seasons. This bodes well for Olyphant’s new show, which is a limited series.

Though many crime thriller aficionados dinged Ozark for feeling too much like a retread of Breaking Bad, where the Netflix show really excelled was in how it differed from the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Though Walt and Ozark‘s Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) are both husbands and fathers, the meth kingpin known as Heisenberg actively tries to keep his criminal activities out of his home life, while it doesn’t take Marty much convincing to turn his money-laundering into a family business, making Ozark a fascinating case study of generational corruption.

Meanwhile, MI5 agent Eve Polastri’s (Sandra Oh) international hunt for unhinged assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is an intriguing enough premise, but the mutual obsession the pair develops with each other makes Killing Eve one of the most engrossing crime thriller series of all time. In such a male-dominated genre, this distinctly female story — which boasts A-list showrunners like Phoebe Waller-Bridge (season 1) and Emerald Fennell (season 2) — stands out for all the right reasons.

So, when you combine the “crime runs in the family” premise of Ozark with the female-driven cat-and-mouse story of Killing Eve, the result is Lucky. Based on the novel of the same name by Marissa Stapley, the Apple TV series, which premieres on July 15, stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucky Armstrong, a young con artist whose incarcerated father, John (Olyphant), taught her everything she knows.

However, when Lucky wakes up to find her husband Cary (Drew Starkey) and the $10 million in cash they stole missing, she finds herself being mercilessly pursued by both sides of the law. It’s a thrilling plot, but that’s just one of the reasons to watch Lucky.

Lucky’s Stacked Cast Could Make The Show Apple TV’s Best Crime Thriller Yet

Apple TV couldn’t have come up with a better cast to bring the characters from Stapley’s pages to the small screen. Lucky is Taylor-Joy’s first TV series since The Queen’s Gambit, the 2020 Netflix miniseries that resulted in heaps of critical acclaim, 11 Primetime Emmys, and a legitimate resurgence in chess-playing. In that role, Taylor-Joy more than proved her aptitude at playing dark, morally complex antiheroines, a description that fits Lucky Armstrong to a T.

Though Olyphant is often the leading man of his TV shows, such as Westerns Deadwood and Justified and comedies Santa Clarita Diet and Stick, lately, he’s taken on supporting roles in his small-screen projects. Earlier this summer, he played Jennifer Garner’s love interest in Peacock’s The Five Star Weekend, and Lucky looks to be making better use of his talents, playing a charming man who doesn’t live his life within the confines of the law.

Like Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening is drawn to darker characters in her television projects. This year, she famously starred in the cast of Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch as Beulah Jackson, the ruthless matriarch of a ranching empire. While Beulah at least operates under the pretense that she’s a law-abiding citizen, Bening’s Lucky character, Priscilla Matheson, is a high-ranking mob boss, further allowing the actress to flex her considerable villain muscles.

Rounding out the quartet of Lucky‘s main cast members is Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Billie Rand, the FBI agent persistently hot on Lucky’s heels. In the crime thriller genre, the role of the law enforcement official is often a thankless one, especially compared to the flashier criminal characters. However, Ellis-Taylor brings a unique blend of professional ambition, fierce intelligence, and surprising compassion to Rand, and she more than holds her own opposite her A-list co-stars. Should Lucky be the hit for Apple TV it’s shaping up to be, it won’t be, well, luck; with this cast, it’ll all be skill.

Release Date

July 15, 2026

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Jonathan Tropper, Cassie Pappas, Jonathan van Tulleken