Former True Detective and The Path star Michelle Monaghan has been tapped as the female lead opposite Mehdi Dehbi in Netflix’s drama series Messiah, from producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey.

Created by Michael Petroni (The Book Thief), Messiah is described as a 21st Century political thriller that chronicles the world’s reaction to a man, Al-Masih (Dehbi), who emerges from the Middle East claiming he is sent from God and creates a groundswell of followers. Is he what they say he is or is he a dangerous fraud bent on dismantling the world’s geopolitical order, causing civil havoc as he beguiles the world’s media and its audience? At its core, Messiah is a series that challenges us to examine what we believe and who we are.

Monaghan will play Eva Geller, a highly specialized US intelligence officer who pits her wits and years of experience against Al-Masih (Dehbi) – an incendiary religious-political figure emerging out of Syria whose influence is growing. Whip smart, tenacious and determined to prove she is right, Eva literally goes to the ends of the earth to prosecute this allusive figure while running headlong into the truth about her own moral convictions.

Petroni, Burnett and Downey executive produce with James McTeigue, and Andrew Deane.

Monaghan is coming off a starring role in drama series The Path, which just completed its third and final season on Hulu, and previously starred in the first season of HBO’s True Detective opposite Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. She will next be seen in Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission Impossible: Fallout opposite Tom Cruise, in which she reprises her role as Julia Meade.

Monaghan is repped by ICM Partners and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.