Manhattan alumna Olivia Williams and Harry Lloyd (Game Of Thrones) are set to star opposite J.K. Simmons in Counterpart, Starz’s upcoming straight-to-series drama from MRC, Anonymous Content and Gilbert Films. The Imitation Game‘s Morten Tyldum executive produces and will direct the first episode. This is the first major movement on the series since Simmons came aboard more than a year ago, with active casting now underway as the project gears up for production.

Described as an espionage thriller with a metaphysical twist, Counterpart is the story of Howard Silk (Simmons), a lowly cog in a bureaucratic agency who discovers that the agency he works for is really guarding a crossing into a parallel dimension. Through Howard and his counterpart on the other side, the show will navigate themes of identity, what-ifs and lost love. Starz ordered two 10-episode seasons in 2015.

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Williams will play Emily Burton Silk, Howard’s wife, a mysterious woman whose secrets become the centerpiece of the first season’s story. Lloyd will portray Peter Quayle, an upper-crust director at Howard’s agency whose carefully calibrated career slowly begins to unravel as he sinks deeper into the world of espionage and double lives.

Williams is filming Stephen Frears’ Victoria & Abdul. Her TV credits include Dollhouse and Halcyon. She’s repped by ICM Partners, Independent and attorney James Adams.

Lloyd is performing John Malkovich-directed The Good Canary at the Rose Theatre Kingston, and recently signed on to star in indie film The Wife opposite Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. He’s with ICM Partners, Curtis Brown Group and Brookside Artist Management.

Created and written by Justin Marks, Counterpart is executive produced by Tyldum and Marks with Amy Berg, Jordan Horowitz, Keith Redmon and Bard Dorros with Anonymous Content, and Gary Gilbert with Gilbert Films. Simmons serves as a producer.