The countdown to Jensen Ackles’s new crime series, Countdown, is on. Expect the show to stream its way to viewers this summer. Prime Video announced when the action-packed series will drop and released some first-look images. Countdown stars the Days of Our Lives alum, Eric Dane, the actor formerly known as McSteamy, and Jessica Camacho, who fans will recognize from All Rise, The Flash, S.W.A.T., and Sleepy Hollow. Ackles posted the big news on his Instagram.
Secret Task Force
Look for Countdown to have a super-sized debut on Wednesday, June 25. Three episodes will be instantly streamable, and then new episodes will follow weekly. The newbie drama’s season finale touches down on Prime Video on Wednesday, September 3.
Creator, executive producer, and showrunner for this venture is Derek Haas, a man whose work broadcast TV fans know well. He’s one of the guy’s behind Dick Wolf’s One Chicago franchise (Chicago Med, Fire, and P.D.). He also spearheaded the FBI franchise (FBI, Most Wanted, and International).
Countdown jumpstarts its action after an officer with the Department of Homeland Security is murdered in broad daylight. That’s when “LAPD detective Mark Meachum (Ackles) is recruited to a secret task force, alongside undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement, to investigate. But the hunt for the killer soon uncovers a plot far more sinister than anyone could have imagined, kicking off a race against time to save a city of millions.”
MORE: A Supernatural reunion starring DAYS alum Jensen Ackles is happening on Prime Video’s The Boys.
He Elevates Everyone Around Him
Men’s Health magazine had the exclusive and talked to Ackles and Haas about the upcoming crime drama. “There’s plenty of action and adventure, but there’s also humor and a lot of heart in the show, especially in the way the characters relate to each other,” Ackles previewed. “Which feels like it aligns with a lot of the things I’ve done before,” he said, probably referring to Supernatural, where he played the heroic Dean Winchester for 15 seasons.
Ackles, who is also starring in the final season of Prime Video’s The Boys and is one of the actors leading its spinoff, Vought Rising, called the secret task force a group of “outcast officers that don’t necessarily find comfort with their unit. They’re renegade mavericks in their departments, and they see themselves within each other.”
Meanwhile, this is the first collaboration for Ackles and Haas, who told Men’s Health that “Jensen has that innate natural joy and love for what he does that not only translates perfectly to the character he plays, but elevates everyone around him, myself included.”
The series will stream in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. In addition to Ackles, Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria‘s Dane, and Camacho, the cast includes Violett Beane (The Flash), Elliot Knight (The Boys), and Uli Latukefu (Young Rock).
Since leaving Days of Our Lives, where he played the OG Eric Brady, Ackles has worked steadily in primetime TV. He has also ventured behind the scenes to direct and produce.
Check out the first-look photos below. Again, Countdown debuts exclusively on Prime Video on Wednesday, June 25.
