EXCLUSIVE: Derek Mio has been cast as the lead in Season 2 of AMC’s anthology series The Terror.

Season 2 is co-created by Alexander Woo (True Blood) and Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island) with Woo, who is currently under an overall deal at AMC Studios, set as showrunner. Josef Kubota Wladyka (Narcos) will direct the first episode. The next iteration will be set during World War II and center on an uncanny specter that menaces a Japanese-American community from its home in Southern California to the internment camps to the war in the Pacific. The 10-episode Season 2 is expected to air on AMC in 2019.

Mio will play Chester Nakayama, the son of Japanese born immigrants who has dreams of leaving his insular Japanese-American community and joining the army. Throughout the season, Nakayama transforms from a naïve kid to a war hero.

Mio, a fourth generation Japanese American, has a personal connection to this story. One of his grandfathers was from Terminal Island and sent to Manzanar internment camp after Pearl Harbor. His other grandfather was from Hawaii and served in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service and was stationed in Japan during the Occupation as an interpreter and cultural liaison.

The Terror season two is executive produced by Ridley Scott and is an AMC Studios production, produced by Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360.

Mio will next be seen in Medal of Honor, Netflix’s upcoming docuseries produced by James Moll and Robert Zemeckis. His previous TV credits include Hawaii Five-O, Rosewood, Lethal Weapon and CSI: Cyber. He’s repped by Greene & Associates Talent Agency and manager, Susan Yoo.