Atomic Cast Revealed: Game of Thrones Star Leads Sky's Explosive New Nuclear Thriller

Sky Atlantic has a new thriller called Atomic, and the premise is basically: two guys who should never be within a mile of nuclear material end up hauling the stuff across deserts while every spy agency on Earth breathes down their necks. Not exactly a chill watch.

The setup

Alfie Allen and Shazad Latif play Max and JJ, who cross paths on a smuggling route in the Sahara and almost immediately land in a mess they did not sign up for: they get tricked into moving highly enriched uranium through North Africa and the Middle East. CIA, MI6, and a grab bag of other 'opposing forces' start closing in fast, which leaves the new duo with one choice: either cut and run to save themselves, or risk everything to stop that uranium becoming a bomb in the wrong hands.

Max is a free-spirited drug smuggler mid-job when he stumbles into this nuclear cargo. JJ is an enigmatic outsider on the run for reasons the show keeps close to the vest at first. JJ is also a nickname Max slaps on him: short for 'Jihadi John' — provocative, yes, and very much the tone of their odd-couple dynamic.

Where it came from (and the nerdy thread running through it)

Writer Gregory Burke built the show off the late journalist William Langewiesche's 2006 nonfiction book The Atomic Bazaar, which sounded the alarm about non-state actors cobbling together enough nuclear material to make a crude device. The book dug into the pipelines and players — terrorists, drug cartels, the whole ecosystem — and the series takes that real-world scaffolding and fictionalizes the rest. Burke also leans into nuclear science and a bit of quantum-theory metaphor: the idea that, like atoms, people can exist in multiple 'states' until circumstances force their hand. Inside baseball for a chase thriller, sure, but it gives the chaos some texture.

'It was pitched as the two worst people in the world have to save the world.'

Who is in it

• Alfie Allen as Max — A free-spirited drug smuggler who ends up holding black market uranium after crashing into JJ's world. Where you've seen him: Game of Thrones, SAS Rogue Heroes.
• Shazad Latif as JJ — An enigmatic outsider on the run, dubbed 'Jihadi John' by Max. We do not initially know why he's running. Credits: Star Trek: Discovery, Nautilus, The Pursuit of Love, Penny Dreadful, Toast of London, Spooks.
• Samira Wiley as Cassie Bryce — A skilled scientist working undercover for the CIA who is convinced Max and JJ are aligned with violent extremists. Credits: The Handmaid's Tale, Orange Is the New Black.
• Brian Gleeson as Mark Ellis — Former CIA, heading to Syria to help Cassie bring Max and JJ in. Credits: Bad Sisters, The Lazarus Project, Frank of Ireland, The Bisexual.
• Franklin Virgüez as Antonio Alam — A cartel boss expecting a shipment of uranium that promptly goes missing. Credits include: Papá a toda madre, The Two Lives of Estela Carril, The Lord of the Skies, Cosita Linda, Rosario, Natalia del Mar, Eva Luna, Por estas calles, among many others.
• Avital Lvova as Oksana Shirokova — A Russian who plays the London socialite by day and carries out not-so-legal business for Moscow by night. Credits: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Power, Trackers.
• Stuart Martin as Robert "Rab" Mackintosh — A soldier with history with JJ. Credits: In Flight, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, Jamestown, Rebel Moon.
• Vahid Gold as Khaled Awad — Works with the drug enforcement agency in Beirut and taps Cassie for her nuclear expertise. Credits: World's End.
• Charlie Murphy as Laetitia — Max's girlfriend, kidnapped by the cartel as leverage: deliver the uranium or else. Credits: Peaky Blinders, Happy Valley, Obsession, The Capture, Halo.

Big picture

Atomic started life as: what if two people you would never trust with a microwave have to stop a nuclear disaster? Mix in CIA and MI6 pressure, a cartel boss missing a very dangerous shipment, and a personal ticking clock — Laetitia's life — and you get a fast, messy collision of crime drama and geopolitical nightmare. It is a lot, and that is the point.

Where to watch

Atomic is streaming now on Sky and NOW.