‘Strike Back: Origins’ Coming to Cinemax

Strike Back: Origins Starring Andrew Lincoln
'Strike Back: Origins' Photo Courtesy of Sky

Before Andrew Lincoln led a ragtag group of survivors during a zombie apocalypse and before Richard Armitage helped a hobbit on his journey, they both starred in the UK series Strike Back: Origins. And now US viewers will get to see the show for the first time when it kicks off a six-episode run on Cinemax on October 25, 2013 at 10pm ET/PT.

Strike Back: Origins, originally known as Chris Ryan’s Strike Back, will take over the spot Strike Back normally occupied on Cinemax. Based on the book by Ryan, Strike Back: Origins aired in 2010 on Sky and led into the Cinemax show starring Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester.

The Plot:

Strike Back: Origins tells the story of John Porter (Armitage), an SAS soldier who realizes a connection between a current hostage situation and a mission he ran in Iraq in 2003. He appeals to Hugh Collinson (Lincoln), a fellow team member from that mission who now runs the stealth counterterrorism unit Section 20 for the UK government, to allow him to join the rescue mission. Porter and Collinson have gone in sharply different directions in the years since their original mission went awry, with one enjoying a successful military career and the other’s life falling apart.

Porter makes an appearance in the first season of Cinemax’s Strike Back, during which he is captured on a mission and Section 20 head Col. Eleanor Grant (Amanda Mealing) brings in U.S. Special Forces soldier Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton) to work with Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester) and the team. Scott previously ran a mission with Porter in Iraq and had knowledge of their target, terrorist Latif.