The past few years have been eventful for Johnny Flynn, to say the least. Having broken out through roles in the Netflix sitcom Lovesick and the National Geographic series Genius, where he played a young Albert Einstein, he's had no shortage of high-profile roles of late, between Netflix's Ripley miniseries, Kate Winslet's directorial debut, Goodbye June, and the Bill Nighy-led drama & Sons. This Christmas will see the ever-rising star take on his most magical assignment yet when he appears in HBO's new Harry Potter series adaptation in the role of Lucius Malfoy, originally iconically played by Jason Isaacs. Before that, however, he's about to begin a new life of hardship in 1800s Wisconsin.

Premiering this fall, the new historical western drama A Prayer for the Dying casts Flynn as a veteran named Jacob Hansen in the aftermath of the Civil War. Based on the novel of the same name by Stewart O'Nan, it recounts his move to the small Scandinavian settler-filled town of Friendship, where the war's effects are felt the most. What should be a fresh start for Jacob and his family becomes a living nightmare with the sudden eruption of an epidemic and a devastating wildfire. As the community's sheriff, undertaker, and pastor, he's left with an impossible choice to either save his family or fight for the town that gave him a new purpose. It's a chance for him to find redemption and save his soul, but he won't have to do it alone.