Benedict Cumberbatch Will Star in the British "Political Thriller," Brexit

Benedict Cumberbatch may be a genuine Hollywood movie star these days, enshrined in the ultra-profitable Marvel Cinematic Universe by his role as Dr. Strange among other things, but he hasn’t forgotten about the arena where he rose to fame—British TV. As such, he’s just been announced as the main star of Brexit, a two-hour television film from the U.K.’s Channel 4. As the name would imply, the film revolves around the so-called Brexit vote of June 2016, wherein British citizens voted to leave the European Union.

Cumberbatch will star as Dominic Cummings, the man who served as “leading strategist” and campaign director of the “Vote Leave” movement. It will be interesting to see exactly how that character’s treatment is handled, considering that the vote is still quite a hot-button issue. Channel 4, presumably, is trying to cash in on some of that controversy, calling the film an “utterly timely and compelling new political thriller from Olivier- and Royal Television Society-winning screenwriter James Graham.”

“Unpacking the anatomy of the historic, high-stakes campaign to win the hearts and minds of the British people, this one-off drama set primarily during the referendum will, for the first time, explore the myriad tactics employed to swing one of the most surprising referendum results in living memory,” Channel 4 said.

The use of the phrase “political thriller” to describe the story does seem a little odd, does it not? It’s not as if we don’t know the outcome of the Brexit vote. The story almost seems more like a legal drama than anything one would refer to as a “thriller.” Are there attempted assassinations and car chases involved at some point?

Benedict Cumberbatch Will Star in the British “Political Thriller,” Brexit