Lovecraft Country's Jurnee Smollett joins Allison Janney in new Netflix thriller

Jurnee Smollett and Allison Janney
(Image credit: HBO/Warner Bros.)

Jurnee Smollett has secured her next role – she'll star opposite Allison Janney in Lou, a new thriller coming to Netflix.

Lou will follow a woman living on a remote island (Smollett) whose daughter is kidnapped. She teams up with the mysterious older woman next door (Janney) to hunt down the kidnapper, but their journey into the wilderness will test their limits and expose dark and shocking secrets from both of their pasts.

The movie is helmed by Anna Foerster, who has previously directed episodes of popular TV shows like Westworld, Outlander, and Criminal Minds, from a script written by American Crime Story writer-producer Maggie Cohn. Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams will produce the thriller.

Smollett is known for her roles in HBO's horror series Lovecraft Country and the DCEU movie Birds of Prey, in which she played Black Canary. She's currently filming the sci-fi flick Escape from Spiderhead alongside Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller, which is also headed for Netflix this year.

Janney, meanwhile, is known for her roles in Juno, Hairspray, and The Hours. She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing the mother of Margot Robbie's Tonya Harding in 2017's I, Tonya and, since then, has appeared in movies like the Octavia Spencer-led horror Ma, Bad Education, about the largest public school embezzlement in American history, and the Fox News drama Bombshell.

While we wait for Lou to arrive on the streamer, check out our list of the best Netflix thrillers that you can watch right now.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.