EXCLUSIVE: Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Bikeriders), Stephanie Nur (Lioness, 1883), Artoun Nazareth (The Promised Land, Muppets Now) and Molly Price (Elsbeth, The Spot) have signed on as series regulars, joining Will Poulter and J.K. Simmons in Beat The Reaper, Apple TV‘s upcoming dramedy. Details of their roles are under wraps.

Based on Josh Bazell’s novel of the same name, Beat the Reaper stars Poulter as Dr. Peter Brown, an intern at Boston’s worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. But when a patient recognizes him from his dangerous past, Brown has eight hours to elude the government, mob hitmen, quack surgeons, and a trail of dead gangsters to somehow beat the reaper.

Beat The Reaper, Bazell’s debut novel, was released in 2009. The dark comedy tells the story of medical resident Peter Brown, who is also in the Federal Witness Protection Program due to his past as a mafia hitman. When a dying mobster ends up at the hospital where he works, he recognizes Peter as Pietro Brnwa, the hitman. Peter finds himself at a crossroads: he needs to save the mobster’s life or his past will be exposed.

Sam Catlin (Sugar, Breaking Bad) adapted the novel for TV and serves as showrunner and executive produces for his Short Drive banner under his deal with Apple TV. Apple Studios and New Regency are serving as co-studios. Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan Natalie Lehmann, and Laura Delahaye executive produce. Tim Van Patten directs the first episode and serves as executive producer. Rachel Toffler co-executive produces for New Regency and Tiffany Prasifka co-executive produces for Short Drive.

Herriman can most recently be seen as Lawrence Cole in Reacher spinoff Neagley, and upcoming in Amazon MGM’s submarine actioner Subversion. He is repped by Art/Work Entertainment, Paradigm and Lisa Mann Creative Management.

Nur is known for her work in Taylor Sheridan’s Lionness and Yellowstone prequel 1883. On the film side she appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in DJ Caruso’s Biblical period piece Mary on Netflix. Nur is repped by Innovative Artists and Trademark Talent.

Nazareth’s credits include The Odyssey, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Dumb Money, The Promised Land, Muppets Now, The Conners, SEAL Team, and United States of Al, among others. He is repped by Venture Entertainment Partners and Artistic Talent.

Price is maybe best known for her work on John Wells’ NBC series, Third Watch. She’ll next be seen recurring on the new A24 suspense thriller, The Spot, with Claire Danes and Ewan McGregor. Price is repped by Innovative Artists and Abrams Entertainment.

East of Eden, Zoe Kazan’s period miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, managed to score top spot on Netflix’s weekly ratings charts, but it did it with only 6.5M views.

The series, which stars Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames, launched on October 1, and managed to hold off Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and Wonka’s Golden Ticket to lead the charts.

But its 6.5M opening was the lowest since the end of March, when the second season of One Piece topped the charts in its third week on the streamer with 5.9M views.

The series, which also stars Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist, which chronicles the dark side of the California dream, couldn’t compete with other, similar period fare.

American Primeval, Mark L. Smith’s Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin series set in 1857, opened with 10.4M at the start of 2025, and WWII miniseries All The Light We Cannot See, from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight, drew 9.8M in its first week.

Netflix was keen to point out that the series also hit the top ten in 80 countries and was number one in 22 countries and the adaptation helped Penguin Classic sell 200% more books since it was announced.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story drew 5.7M in its third week, taking its total to 32.3M.

The reboot of A Different World was third with 5.1M views, while Wonka’s The Golden Ticket was fourth with 4.3M views in its second week on the charts. The reality competition series opened with 4.6M and its ratings were helped by the season’s two-part finale, which dropped on September 30.

The rest of the list was made up on Lego One Piece, the second season of The Gentlemen, Crew Girl, WWE’s Raw, the first season of The Gentlemen and season 14 of Gabby’s Dollhouse.