Taylor Kitsch, known for playing Tim Riggins in the NBC drama Friday Night Lights, is set to join Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick in a new Netflix drama called Painkiller.
He is the latest star to join the series, which is a dramatisation exploring the depths of the opioid crisis in America, focusing particuarly on OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma.
The show is based on journalist Patrick Radden Keefe's article in the New Yorker, "The Family That Built An Empire Of Pain" and the book Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier. Meier is consulting on the series.
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Kitsch will play Glen Kryger, a man whose life is turned upside down after suffering an injury and taking opioids to deal with the pain.
Aduba will be playing Edie, an investigator looking into Purdue and trying to build a case against the company amidst the crisis, while Broderick will be playing the infamous Richard Sackler, senior executive of Purdue Pharma and the face of the Sackler family.
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John Ales (Euphoria), Sam Anderson (Lost), Carolina Bartczak (Most Dangerous Game), Jack Mulhern (Mare of Easttown), Ana Cruz Kayne, Ron Lea (Orphan Black), Tyler Ritter (Homecoming), West Duchovny, Dina Shihabi and John Rothman have also joined the series.
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Ales plays Gregory Fitzgibbons, a doctor in rural West Virginia, Anderson plays Richard's (Broderick) father Raymond Sackler, Bartczak plays Glen's wife Lily, Mulhern plays Glen's stepson Tyler, Kayne is an ambitious young attorney, Lea will play Bill Havens, a veteran lawyer, and Ritter is U.S. Attorney John Brownlee.
The show is directed and executive produced by Peter Berg, whom Kitsch previously worked with on Friday Night Lights and Battleship.
Production on the six-episode series has already begun, with a release expected in early 2022.
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