Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) and Julia Garner (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) have joined the cast of the six-part limited series Waco. The series will premiere on the Paramount Network in 2018 and is produced by Weinstein Television. The show, which is currently in production in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is based on the true story of the 51-day standoff that began with an ATF raid of a religious sect in Waco, Texas and ended in a massacre. The cast includes Michael Shannon, Taylor Kitsch, John Leguizamo, Andrea Riseborough, Rory Culkin, Paul Sparks and Shea Whigham.
Benoist will play Rachel Koresh, the legal wife of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and considered the matriarch of Mount Carmel. Garner will play Michelle Jones, the younger sister of David Koresh’s wife Rachel, whom also had a child with Koresh.
Waco will reveal the untold story exploring the true life details leading up to and chronicling the 1993 standoff between the FBI, ATF and David Koresh’s spiritual sect, The Branch Davidians. Told from several perspectives of those most intimately involved in both sides of the conflict, this story has never been shared on television before – and is surprising in its stark contrast to the media narrative at the time and what is remembered of Waco almost 25 years later.
Benoist is known for playing the lead role in The CW’s Supergirl and Marley Rose in the musical series Glee. She played Rachel in the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash, directed by La La Land‘s Damien Chazelle. Garner is known for playing Susan in the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Kimberly Breland in the series The Americans and Claudia Gunns in The Get Down.
Waco is written by John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle (No Escape), Salvatore Stabile and Sarah Nicole Jones. Four episodes will be directed by John Erick Dowdle with two directed by Dennie Gordon.
Shannon, Kitsch, the Dowdle brothers and Salvatore Stabile are executive producers of the series along with TWC Co-Chairmen Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, President and COO David Glasser, Co-head of Production Jennifer Malloy, and Head of Scripted Television Megan Spanjian of Weinstein Television.
