Norman Reedus Wrapped Daryl Dixon in June. He Already Has an Apple TV Thriller.
Norman Reedus has joined Apple TV's Disavowed as a series regular opposite James Marsden. His role is undisclosed. It is his first announced series since he finished shooting the last of Daryl Dixon in June — sixteen years after he first played the part.
Disavowed comes from Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, and follows CIA case officer Brad Griffin (Marsden), fired mid-hunt for the assassin who killed his colleague, who then goes after the $15 million federal bounty on that assassin himself.
Everything actually announced so far
- James Marsden as Brad Griffin, announced with the series order on May 6, 2026. He also executive produces.
- Norman Reedus, announced August 31, 2026. Role undisclosed — every trade says so explicitly.
- Michelle MacLaren directs the first two episodes and executive produces. Announced August 28, three days before the Reedus news.
- EPs: Marcum, Holloway, Tom Spezialy, MacLaren, Rebecca Hobbs, Marsden, Theresa Kang and Caroline Garity.
- Apple Studios with Blue Marble Pictures, Kang's company, which made Pachinko and is developing Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere for Apple.
Not announced, at all: episode count, production start, filming location, premiere date. The series has not begun shooting, which realistically puts it no earlier than 2027.
Why Reedus is available now
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon has run three seasons — six episodes in 2023, six in 2024 as The Book of Carol, seven in 2025. The fourth and final season is eight episodes and was confirmed at Comic-Con in July for 2027, not 2026. Filming on it wrapped in June 2026, which is what makes this casting possible at all.
He also has The Boondock Saints III in pre-production, a Takashi Miike horror film shot in Kyoto, Darren Aronofsky-produced Pendulum, and Neon's The Housewife with Naomi Watts. Reedus and Marsden have worked together once before, in the 2000 thriller Gossip.
The people behind it are the interesting part
MacLaren directed eleven episodes of Breaking Bad, four of Game of Thrones — the only woman to direct the show across its first six seasons — plus Westworld, Better Call Saul, The Morning Show, Constellation, and episodes of the original Walking Dead, which is a second Reedus connection. She has two Emmys as an EP on Breaking Bad.
Marcum and Holloway wrote Iron Man, and then Punisher: War Zone, Transformers: The Last Knight, Men in Black: International, Uncharted and Kraven the Hunter — a run whose Tomatometer scores go 29, 16, 23, 41, 15. Disavowed is billed as an original idea of theirs, which is a genuine departure from a filmography built entirely on other people's IP.
The lane Apple is buying into
- Slow Horses — renewed through season seven; season six premiered September 16, 2026.
- Presumed Innocent — Apple's most-watched drama ever; returning as an anthology with Rachel Brosnahan.
- The Last Frontier — cancelled after one season in December 2025, despite sitting fifth on Apple's own top ten at the time.
- Prime Target — no renewal decision, roughly a year on.
Apple clearly wants this genre and has two of the best examples of it. It has also killed one thriller that was charting and left another in silence for a year. A big cast is not the same as a safe berth.
Marsden is already an Apple lead — he joined Your Friends & Neighbors as a season two regular — and plays Cyclops in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. More casting news: Ridley Scott wants the kid from Adolescence and Hugh Grant for his Treasure Island.