Tom Ellis has played the devilish Lucifer Morningstar on the FOX urban fantasy series Lucifer, but also reprised the role for The Flash. Now, he’s stepping away from the supernatural to the procedural in the latest series in the Dick Wolf universe, CIA, a spinoff of the FBI franchise.
CIA is a one-hour crime drama centered on two unlikely partners: a fast-talking, rule-breaking loose cannon CIA case officer (Ellis), and a by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent who believes in the rule of law. When this odd couple are assigned to work out of the CIA’s New York Station, they must learn to work together to investigate cases and criminals posing threats on U.S. soil, finding that their differences may actually be their strength.
“There was talk that if they maybe had shared their information with each other, 9/11 might not have happened, so the notion that the CIA can’t work on home soil became very different. I think they’ve got very different philosophies about how they go about things, and I think from an entertainment point of view, that’s where our show’s going to sing. So, it’s not just about the cases that we’re doing, but it’s about the two people tackling the cases and how they are with each other.”
To date, Ellis’ partner in crime solving has not yet been announced, but Ellis has been doing chemistry reads with actors to find the perfect match.
In the meantime, he gave us a description of his character, who will be named Hart Hoxton.
“He is someone, like many CIA operatives, who has to operate outside of the rules and outside of the laws,” Ellis shared. “They have to match their opponent’s ability to be deceitful, which means there’s a lot of moral ambiguity for him. It’s a very different approach to what the FBI is, and that’s what we’re exploring. The FBI is a very buttoned-up, do-it-by-the-book approach. And Hart is renegade. I’ll just make it up as I go along, but I want to get this result out of it, slightly dubious character, that’s the alchemy and the fun of what the show should be.”
And since the CIA doesn’t employ foreign nationals as agents, Ellis will be using an American accent.
“They don’t allow Brits in the CIA, apparently,” he joked. “I might go undercover as a Brit at some point in it, but yeah, I am going to be American in it.”
