Deadline reports that erstwhile exotic dancer and future Smurf Joe Manganiello has been cast opposite Barry Sloane (Longmire, Revenge) in History’s Navy SEAL drama SIX. The 8-episode series will follow “a brotherhood of modern American warriors, Navy SEAL Team Six,” whose mission to kill a Taliban leader in Afghanistan is complicated by the discovery of an American working within the terrorist group.
Manganiello will play Rip Taggart, a “gruff, haggard, and aggressive military man” and former Seal Team Six squad leader, who currently finds himself in a small African village fending off attacks from Boko Haram. Sloane will lead the series as John “Bear” Graves, the team’s newly-minted leader. The series is being co-written by William Broyles Jr., a journalist and former U.S. Marine turned screenwriter (Jarhead) and producer, and his son David, a military Special Operations veteran. Broyles Jr. previously drew from his military career when he created China Beach, a drama that was set during the Vietnam War and ran on ABC for four seasons.