Better Call Saul favorite Michael Mando has picked up his next starring role in a series with his casting in the Apple TV+ crime drama show Sinking Spring, per Deadline. The show, which comes from director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) and writer Peter Craig (Top Gun: Maverick), is based on the book Dope Thief, Sinking Spring by Dennis Tafoya. Craig created the series and will direct one episode.

Sinking Spring will feature Mando in a lead role opposite Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), whose casting was announced in August. Mando plays Manny Cespedes while Henry plays Ray, friends who first met while serving time in the Youth Authority. The story follows the two delinquents as they “pose as DEA agents to rob an unknown house in the countryside, only to have their small-time grift become a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard.”

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Scott executive produces for Scott Free Productions alongside David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, and Clayton Krueger. Craig and Henry also executive produce. Tafoya is on board as a consulting producer.

“I’m really only interested in characters who are deeply compromised,” Tafoya said of developing the characters in the story Sinking Spring is based on, per an interview with Michael A. Ventrella. “Maybe because I see myself that way, maybe because people who are self-contained, capable and sort of unassailable are cyphers to me. I don’t know many people like that in real life, either. Good writing is about tension, and I think that tension between the way we live and the way we want to live is what generates story in a really interesting and organic way.”

He added, “My characters are drug addicts and criminals, but their awareness of themselves and the gap between what they want for themselves and the lives they lead is something we can all identify with. In Dope Thief, the main character is trying to figure out where things went wrong for him and whether he can get to a better life that’s about connection and engagement with his own best impulses. You don’t have to be a criminal to feel that way.”

Michael Mando Earned Great Praise During His Better Call Saul Run

     AMC

Michael Mando is especially well known for his breakout role as Nacho Varga in the Breaking Bad spinoff series Better Call Saul. While he was not featured in the original series, Mando became a fan favorite with his role, playing the character in all six seasons. His final episode in the sixth season has been cited by many as one of the strongest episodes of the series, showing how much of an impact he had left with viewers.

Mando is also known for appearing in the Marvel movie Spider-Man: Homecoming as the villain Scorpion with his other film credits including The Colony, Make Your Move, and The Hummingbird Project. He also had a notable role in the TV show Orphan Black and appeared in multiple Far Cry video games, such as last year’s Far Cry 6 alongside Better Call Saul co-star Giancarlo Esposito.

Sinking Spring does not yet have a premiere date set at Apple TV+.