Stellan Skarsgård and Dakota Fanning Set for New Apple TV+ International Thriller Series

Stellan Skarsgård and Dakota Fanning are set to star in an untitled thriller series for Apple TV, with the Swedish actor playing Brandt, the head of a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, and Fanning portraying an undercover agent for the U.S. Treasury Department who infiltrates the organization. Apple TV announced the project on March 30, 2026. The series comes from creator and showrunner Alex Cary, who previously developed the miniseries A Spy Among Friends and worked as a writer-producer on Homeland. According to Apple, Fanning's character becomes conflicted between her mission and a belief that her principal target — the heir apparent to the conglomerate's corrupt power — is at his core a good man and worthy of her love. Sony Pictures Television is the studio behind the production.

Skogland to direct, Cary to run the room Canadian filmmaker Kari Skogland will direct and serve as executive producer on the series. Skogland is best known for her work on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier for Marvel Studios, as well as The Handmaid's Tale. Cary executive produces through his FLW Productions banner under his overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. Julie Gardner executive produces for Bad Wolf America, and Brittany Kahan Ward of Lewellen Pictures also serves as executive producer. Both Dakota Fanning and her sister Elle Fanning are executive producers on the project. The series remains untitled.

Skarsgård rides awards momentum into Apple project The casting reunites Skarsgård with the Fanning family in a professional sense, following his collaboration with Elle Fanning in the 2025 Norwegian drama Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier. In that film, Skarsgård played an aging director attempting to reunite with his estranged daughters, who hires an American movie star — played by Elle Fanning — to make a Netflix film. Sentimental Value won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Skarsgård won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his role and received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. According to Der Tagesspiegel, both Skarsgård and Elle Fanning were nominated as best supporting actors at the Academy Awards but neither won. The new Apple TV series marks Skarsgård's first announced project since that awards run, and also follows his recent work in the Star Wars series Andor.

Stellan Skarsgård, born June 13, 1951, is a Swedish actor with a career spanning decades of international film and television work. Dakota Fanning, born February 23, 1994, began her career as a child actor, appearing alongside Sean Penn in I Am Sam in 2001 and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds in 2005. Her recent television credits include Ripley, The Perfect Couple, and All Her Fault. Elle Fanning, born April 9, 1998, is Dakota's younger sister and has received nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golden Globe Awards over the course of her career.

Dakota Fanning steps into espionage territory after recent TV run Dakota Fanning's role as a Treasury undercover agent marks a turn toward the espionage thriller genre following a run of recent television projects. Her character's arc, as described by Apple, involves navigating the tension between professional duty and personal feeling toward her target inside the conglomerate. Skarsgård's character Brandt sits at the center of an organization described as having world-changing political and criminal reach. The project brings together a production team with strong credentials in the spy and political thriller space, with Cary's background on Homeland lending the series a particular genre pedigree. No premiere date or episode count has been announced for the Apple TV series.