Lena Headey to Lead Kurt Sutter’s Western Series ‘The Abandons’

After an agonizingly long absence from the small screen, the time has finally come for Lena Headey to make her grand return. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Game of Thrones actress has found her next major gig in Kurt Sutter‘s passion project The Abandons. Netflix greenlit the project last fall giving the show a straight-to-series order, and now, it is exciting to see that progress is being made as the show has begun calling up its cast.

The Abandons will be set in the Old West and will follow a group of outlaw families as they pursue what is being described as their “Manifest Destiny.” Headey will play a central character named Fiona, the matriarch of an adoptive family. Her character is described as “a strong, devout matriarch who, unable to have her own children, took in four orphans to create her own family. Driven by a higher purpose — and a strong-willed Irish temper — her faith and love for her family trump all.” From that description, the role entails some of the aspects that we’ve seen Heady tackle in previous gigs.

Heady was last seen in a major small-screen role on HBO’s Game of Thrones where she portrayed the fan-favorite character Cersei Lannister. She earned a whopping five Emmy nominations for the role which will go down in her career as one of her best and easily most memorable. While she hasn’t had any major small-screen roles since, Headey has lent her voice to a handful of animated shows including Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Infinity Train, and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. She is set to return to HBO as part of the ensemble cast for the upcoming political drama White House Plumbers which will also star Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux.

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The Abandons Will Be Sutter’s First Project on a Streaming Platform

The Abandons will be Sutter’s first project to debut on a streaming platform. The Emmy-winning filmmaker is best known for the FX crime show Sons of Anarchy and its spin-off Mayans M.C, from which he was booted following inappropriate set behavior. His relationship with Netflix began in 2019 when he was tapped to write and direct the period horror This Beast. Sutter will serve multiple duties on The Abandons as showrunner and executive producer. Other executive producers for the show include Stephen Surjik and Otto Bathurst, both of whom will also direct episodes of the show. Netflix gave a 10-episode order for The Abandons, however, the streamer is yet to set a premiere date for the western series.

Read the full synopsis for The Abandons from Netflix below:

“The Abandons is set in 1850s Oregon and follows a group of diverse outlier families in their pursuit of Manifest Destiny. The series explores the corrupt force of wealth and power that covets their land and attempts to force them out. These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law. The Abandons will explore that fine line between survival and law, the consequences of violence, and the corrosive power of secrets, as this family fights to keep their land.”