HBO's Masterpiece 7-Part Crime Thriller Series Has One Of Its Best Casts

Published Oct 26, 2026, 7:44 PM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

HBO is the home of a masterpiece crime thriller series that needs to return for another season, and it has one of the best casts HBO has ever put together, which is high praise, given its history. Over the years, HBO's most popular TV shows have thrived due to impressive casts, gripping stories, unique concepts, and genres that viewers continue to return to.

Crime thriller is one of HBO's most beloved genres, having hit it time and again with multi-season series and limited series. Some of HBO's hits in the crime thriller genre include all-time series like The Wire, The Sopranos, True Detective, and more. All of those shows came with star-studded casts, who brought to life complex characters in gritty worlds.

HBO's crime thrillers have featured actors like Matthew McConaughey, Amy Adams, Nicole Kidman, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, Idris Elba, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, and many more. In recent years, that casting trend has continued to be valid for engaging new crime thrillers, including one that stars an Oscar winner and comes with a varied roster in a key way.

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That HBO crime thriller series is Mare of Easttown, which was released on HBO on April 18, 2021. Starring Titanic's Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown follows Winslet's Marianne "Mare" Sheehan as she investigates a murder and a disappearance in the small town of Easttown, Pennsylvania. The HBO crime series managed to put together one of its best casts to date.

Mare Of Easttown's Cast Mixes Veterans With Rising Stars

The key factor that makes HBO's Mare of Easttown work is how the thriller series put together a well-rounded cast featuring both industry veterans and rising stars. For instance, in the veteran sector, besides starring Winslet, HBO's Mare of Easttown also features powerhouse actors like Guy Pearce, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Julianne Nicholson, and more. An example is Smart, who is one of the biggest names ever when it comes to TV shows, having won five Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in Hacks in as many seasons.

Looking at just their work on the HBO series, three actors left Mare of Easttown season 1 with their own Emmys. Winslet won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, while Peters took home the statuette for Supporting Actor, and Nicholson got the award for Supporting Actress. The work of those veterans might have made HBO's Mare of Easttown pop, but the show needed the new bloody of talented rising stars like Cailee Spaeny and Angourie Rice.

Both of those young stars have since seen their careers grow in exciting ways since Mare of Easttown premiered on HBO in 2021. Rice led the musical version of Mean Girls and now plays one of the main roles in the Apple TV mystery thriller series The Last Thing He Told Me, which returned for season 2 earlier this year. As for Spaeny, she has starred in several high-profile projects, including movies like Priscilla, Alien: Romulus, Wake Up Dead Man, Beef, and more. Mare of Easttown saw the potential in its younger stars.

HBO Has Expanded Mare Of Easttown In A Shocking Way

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Despite the enormous success of Mare of Easttown, HBO has yet to formally renew the crime thriller series for another season. For years, fans have waited to hear that the show would be coming back. While that seems likely, given that Winslet told Deadline in January that there is a strong chance that Mare of Easttown season 2 will shoot in 2027, HBO has continued the show in a surprising way.

Rather than the follow-up to Mare of Easttown being another season, it was the confirmation of a shared universe. Deadline reported that Nicholson would reprise her role as Lori Ross in Task season 2, putting both HBO crime thrillers created by Brad Ingelsby in the same universe. Mare of Easttown's cast continues to deliver.