Jordan Peele and Misha Green recruit Michael K. Williams for their journey into Lovecraft Country

Jordan Peele and Misha Green (Underground) have now recruited yet another veteran explorer for their upcoming expedition into HBO’s Lovecraft Country: Actor Michael K. Williams, who, between The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, is probably about as familiar as anyone can be with the wilds of what makes good HBO programming tick.

In an earlier stage of production than Peele’s much-touted Twilight Zone reboot, Lovecraft Country is no less literary in its focus, taking as its source material Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel of the same name. Ruff’s book ties together the cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos with the more prosaic, if no less awful, dread experienced by black people in America on the daily.

Williams joins a cast that includes Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett-Bell; he’ll be playing Montrose Freeman, the no-nonsense father of Majors’ sci-fi loving protagonist, Atticus Black.