House of David reveals its lead actors

The Amazon Prime Video series, now shooting in Greece, will star at least four veterans of the Bible-movie genre (one of whom is playing the same role as before!).

L to R: Ashraf Barhom as Judas Iscariot in The Savior (2013), Ayelet Zurer as The Mother in Last Days in the Desert (2015), and Martyn Ford as Goliath in the original trailer for Of Kings & Prophets (trailer 2015, series 2016).

Five months after it was first announced, we finally have a cast list for House of David, the Old Testament series being produced by Amazon Prime Video.

Here’s the list, courtesy of an article that appeared in Variety last week, with the actors grouped according to their characters’ family and/or political ties:

• David — Michael Iskander, in his first onscreen role

  • David’s father Jesse — Louis Ferreira (Shogun, Stargate Universe)

  • David’s brother Eliab — Davood Ghadami (EastEnders, Holby City)

• Samuel — Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe)

• Saul — Ali Suliman (Paradise Now, The Swimmers) *

  • Saul’s wife Ahinoam — Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons, Man of Steel) *

  • Saul’s son Jonathan — Ethan Kai (Emmerdale Farm, The Turkish Detective)

  • Saul’s daughter Mirab — Yali Topol Margalith (The Tattooist of Auschwitz)

  • Saul’s daughter Mychal — Indy Lewis (La Fortuna, Industry)

  • Saul’s cousin/general Abner — Oded Fehr (The Mummy, Star Trek: Discovery)

• Doeg — Ashraf Barhom (Tyrant, 300: Rise of an Empire) *

• Goliath — Martyn Ford aka The Nightmare (The Machine, The Nevers) *

Deadline also reported yesterday that an actor named Alexander Uloom has joined the cast in “an undisclosed but key role”.

As it happens, four of these actors—the ones with asterisks next to their names—already have Bible-movie experience. One of them is even playing the same character that he played before, though his earlier performance has never been shown to the public aside from a couple of shots that appeared in a since-deleted trailer.