Six months ago, we heard that Clara Rugaard of the Netflix movie I Am Mother had signed on to star in Sky’s supernatural crime thriller series The Rising, which draws inspiration from the Belgian show Hotel Beau Sejour. Now Matthew McNulty of AMC’s The Terror and BBC’s The Three Musketeers has also joined the cast, filling a role that Daniel Ings (Lovesick) had been set to play when Rugaard’s casting was announced. That role was said to be the “estranged father” of Rugaard’s character. Given that Ings is only 12 years older than Rugaard and McNulty is 15 years older than her, either they’re casting the role a bit young or we’re going to be seeing this guy in flashbacks.
Emily Taaffe (Silent Witness), also quite close to Rugaard’s age, is playing her character’s “beloved mother”. Nenda Neururer (A Brief History of Struggle), Solly McLeod (Boxing Day), Alex Lanipekun (Spooks), Robyn Cara (Ackley Bridge), Rebecca Root (The Queen’s Gambit), and Ann Ogbomo (Zack Snyder’s Justice League) round out the cast.
Rugaard’s character is Neve Kelly,
a woman who discovers she is dead. She’s scared and confused by this new existence. But, when she realizes she has been murdered, she’s furious. She’s determined to find her killer and get justice, believing that it was someone she knew.
The two seasons of Hotel Beau Sejour both followed characters who were seeking to solve their own murder. That series was created by Nathalie Basteyns, Kaat Beels, Sanne Nuyens, and Bert Van Dael. It’s said that The Rising will have “a distinctive tone and visual style” as it tells a story about “love, justice, and the cost of pursuing the truth in a world that wants to keep it hidden”.
The first Sky drama to be produced entirely in-house by Sky Studios, The Rising has been filming since May. Deadline notes that McNulty replaced Ings when the show was in pre-production, they’ve just been holding off on making the announcement for several months.
Industry‘s Ed Lilly is the lead director and associate producer on The Rising. The show is executive produced by Serena Thompson for Sky Studios, Julian Stevens, and Pete McTighe. The writing team is made up of McTighe, Charlotte Wolf, Charlene James, Roanne Bardsley, Gemma Hurley, and Laura Grace.