The Prime Video series adaptation of Criminal, the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips, had been filmed ages ago, but the streamer is finally set to release the crime saga. The trailer has now been unveiled, and the two-part series will both be released early next year, with the first chapter, Coward, premiering on January 13 and the second chapter, Lawless, premiering on January 27.
Criminal tells “the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” The official logline for the series says it will show viewers an interlocking universe of crime stories.
The cast include Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Adria Arjona (Hit Man), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), Kadeem Hardison (A Different World), Pat Healy (Better Call Saul), Taylor Selé (BMF), Logan Browning (Dear White People), Gus Halper (Rustin), Aliyah Camacho (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Michael Mando (Better Call Saul), Marvin Jones III (Halo), Michael Xavier (Wild Cards), Dominic Burgess (Palm Royale), John Hawkes (True Detective), Garrett Hedlund (Tulsa King), Chris Diamantopoulos (The Boys in the Boat), Lawrence Kao (Walker: Independence), Kyle Bradley Davis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Aina Brei’yon (Dark Matter), Robert Lee Hart (Chicago PD), Katie Stevens (The Bold Type), and John Pyper-Ferguson (Suits), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), and Luke Evans (Fast & Furious 6).
Hunnam will be playing the lead character, “Leo, a brilliant master thief who sees all the angles, and specializes in plans with no guns and no violence. Like a chess player, Leo thinks three moves ahead. Other crooks think he’s a coward, especially compared to his father Tommy, who went to jail for murdering the most feared man in the city, Teeg Lawless.”
Arjona is taking on the role of Greta, “a sharp-tongued top-level car thief and driver and the widowed mother of Angie. Ever since her husband died in a bank job gone bad, Greta has been battling with herself about how to escape the only life she’s ever known – and the only place she’s ever thrived. The problem is, she’s good at this. She’s looking for a big score, a lump of money she can use like a gun to shoot her and Angie out of this life and into another one.”
Jenkins’ character is Ivan, “Leo’s dad’s best friend, and has always been an uncle figure to him. He used to be a robber and criminal, but is now currently suffering from dementia. Leo is trying to care for him but realizes he’s more work than he can handle.” Hardison is playing Gnarly, “an old friend of Leo and Ivan. Gnarly was his nickname as a boxer back in the 1970s and it’s all anyone calls him. He walks with a limp, an old one. Gnarly’s a local legend, and he can go from warm to fierce in a heartbeat. He commands respect, partly because he can inflict massive physical damage, even at his advanced age — and partly because he has the authority and gravitas to stop other men in their tracks.”
Clarke’s character is Mallory, “a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits. Part of a heist crew with Ricky Lawless, who she’s in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair with. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding secrets that will bring her and her entire crew into the danger zone.“
Hawkes is set to play Sebastian Hyde, “a hard man who is six months out from a stroke, and now walks with a cane. Once the biggest shark in the shark tank, Hyde is now showing his humanity a bit — maybe a bit too much. The owner of a gambling club, the kind of man whose name is accompanied by fear, Hyde can be both amused by someone one minute, and a ruthless enforcer the next.”
Healy’s character is Seymour, “a veteran thief and one-time part of Leo’s dad’s crew. Seymour does what he has to stay alive and get rich while trying to survive in the criminal world.”
Browning is playing Jenny, “an Internal Affairs detective with a dry sense of humor and an absurdly calm demeanor. She presents as an even-tempered woman who appears to be without a care in the world. Jenny is very smart; her father was a criminal and she loves her job — which gives her the right to question, harass, terrify and imprison cops all day long. Jenny was raised with Leo as her playmate/buddy/blood brother for life.”
And Evans is playing Tracy Lawless, “who was pushed out of the outlaw life of his family (his father is the legendary Teeg Lawless and Ricky is his little brother) at the age of 18 when a judge gave him a choice of prison or the military. In the Army, Tracy thrived, his wild outlaw instincts getting funneled into the strict discipline of the military. He was placed into the Special Forces and trained to be an expert in covert operations and guerilla warfare. But underneath it all, the Lawless blood still pumps in his heart.“