Unidentified sees Zachary Levi tackle the TV role of a CIA operative amidst action and science-fiction elements.
Zachary Levi has found quite a niche for himself as a geeky onscreen icon. The former star of NBC’s 2007-2012 tech-nerd-turned-brain-altered super-agent show Chuck has yielded a steady stream of work, recently on NBC revival series Heroes Reborn and even inherited the role of Asgardian ally Fandral in 2013’s Marvel Cinematic Universe entry Thor: The Dark World. However, an upcoming NBC television project could see him making a (legitimate) badass turn.
Deadline reports that NBC is moving forward with an action-packed drama series called Unidentified, serving as a starring vehicle for perennial network player Zachary Levi. Solidifying the star’s hold on the project, the would-be series will be a co-production of the network’s corporate parent NBCUniversal and Levi’s own company Middle Man Productions.
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Launching with a script by Sean Finegan, author of currently floating spec script Free Fall, Unidentified will see Levi tap into his darker side as an embattled CIA operative trying to protect his family from what is described as “an unimaginable secret.” With the chosen CIA career path of Levi’s (thus-far unnamed) character, we could conventionally expect said secret to involve black ops wetwork and the various other off-book violent incursion that affect the volatile geopolitical balance. However, the described “high-octane thriller” that will be Unidentified will also apparently contain science fiction elements. Thus, the secret that Levi’s character will look to protect could be just about anything from monsters, alien invaders, time-travel or, perhaps, all of the above.
Levi currently has another notable small screen project on his docket with the upcoming Netflix miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace, which is currently in production in Ontario. That project will see Levi co-starring alongside the Oscar-winning former star of HBO’s True Blood Anna Paquin and Sarah Gadon of 2014’s Dracula Untold. Yet, with Unidentified, we have a potential career-altering role, with Levi as the centerpiece of a proper television action vehicle, rather than the former nerdy wish-fulfillment scenario alongside Yvonne Strahovski’s sexy super-agent that we previously saw on Chuck.
Unidentified has just entered into the developmental stage and a premiere could be quite a while away. However, fans wanting to get a glimpse of Zachary Levi’s rarely-tapped dramatic side will likely have that urge sated sooner with the gestating Alias Grace, which will likely hit Netflix (and the CBC in Canada) sometime in 2017.
