EXCLUSIVE: Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen is adding more star power to its cast. Oscar winner Jeremy Irons has been tapped for a lead role in the HBO pilot, a take on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic limited comic series. He joins previously cast Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Adelaide Clemens and Andrew Howard.

Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All

Set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own. As Lindelof recently noted, the project is not an adaptation of the 12 issues of the comic but an original story that remixes them.

As has been case with all Watchmen castings, no details about Irons’ character are provided, but I hear he will play an aging and imperious lord of a British manor.

Lindelof, who wrote the script, executive produces the pilot with Nicole Kassell, who is directing, and Tom Spezialy. Watchmen is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros Television.

This would mark only the second major TV series role for Irons, following his starring turn on The Borgias. Irons, who won an Oscar in 1991 for Reversal of Fortune, also is a Golden Globe, Emmy, Tony, and SAG award winner as well as the winner of an Honorary César Award, and a Premio Europa Per il Teatro.

Iron recently co-starred in Red Sparrow and played Alfred in Justice League and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He is repped by CAA.