Ivan Mbakop, Arica Himmel, Dax Rey Join Giancarlo Esposito in AMC’s ‘The Driver’ Remake (Exclusive)

AMC’s upcoming remake of British drama The Driver has bulked out its cast with three new additions, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Ivan Mbakop, who starred in Netflix’s Red Notice and played Detective Caudle in Marvel’s Hawkeye mini-series, has joined the six-part series, alongside Arica Himmel, who played a teenage Rainbow Johnson in ABC’s Black-ish prequel spin-off Mixed-ish and has just wrapped shooting a lead role in Disney+ rom-com feature Prom Pact, and youngster Dax Rey, who starred alongside Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes in Netflix limited series True Story and Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris in Apple TV+ feature Swan Song.

The three join Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Zackary Momoh (Doctor Sleep, Harriet) and Paula Malcomson (Redemption).

Set to launch on AMC and AMC+ and due to go into production in August, the series comes from creators Danny Brocklehurst (Safe, Come Home) and Sunu Gonera (Snowfall, Class of ’09), with Theo Travers (Billions,House of Lies) set as showrunner.

The drama stars Esposito as Vince, a taxi driver whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffeur New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster The Horse (played by Momoh), a man notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at U.S. southern ports. Mbakop will play Zenzo, The Horse’s elder, short-tempered brother, while Rey will play Luke, The Horse’s son. Himmel, meanwhile, will play Vince’s daughter Michaela.

The three-part 2014 BBC original, created by Brocklehurst with Jim Poyser and produced by It’s a Sin and Years and Years banner Red Production, followed David Morrissey as a taxi driver employed by a criminal gang.

Esposito, Gonera, Brocklehurst, Morrissey and Travers will executive produce alongside Josh Kesselman and Danny Sherman from Thruline and A+E Studios’ Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson. The series is produced by AMC Studios in association with A+E Studios and Thruline Entertainment.

Mbakop is repped by the Identity Agency Group, Himmel is repped by CESD, Untitled Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein, and Rey is repped by Take 3 Talent Agency, Osbrink Agency, and imPRint.