Ava DuVernay’s ‘DMZ’ for HBO Max Adds Benjamin Bratt

The demilitarized zone is about to get some epic action with Benjamin Bratt’s addition to the initial cast of the upcoming HBO Max civil war drama, DMZ.

Based on the DC comic of the same name, DMZ is director Ava DuVernay’s second project set within the DC comics fore to receive a green light. She is currently working on a treatment for a New Gods movie alongside comic book writer Tom King.

Bratt—on his second comic book movie role since 2016’s Doctor Strange—will play a character named Parco Delgado, the ruthless leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the DMZ. He’s hell-bent on becoming the undisputed leader of the DMZ and will move heaven and earth to make it happen. Delgado is also described as “a wildly magnetic, affable and equally influential man.”

DMZ centers on life in a futuristic New York City amidst a brewing civil war, turning the island of Manhattan into a demilitarized zone. The series has been ordered to a pilot by HBO Max, with Duvernay at the helm. Westworld executive producer Roberto Patino will serve as the showrunner and EP.

Adapted from the comic book written by Brian Wood, DMZ features a warring conflict between to factions of chaotic America—the federal government and the Free States armies.

The logline for the show reads: “In the near future, America is embroiled in a bitter civil war, leaving Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ), destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world. Leaping off the pages of the popular DC comic, Patino’s DMZ chronicles the harrowing journey of a fierce female medic who saves lives while desperately searching for her lost son. But as she contends with the gangs, militias, demagogues, and warlords that control this lawless no man’s land, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone here has lost—hope.”

Deadline first reported on the news.