Exclusive: Ritu Arya and David Caffrey on Apollo Has Fallen, Zara’s Evolution and The New Threat

Following the success of Paris Has Fallen, the eight-episode action thriller reunites Arya with Tewfik Jallab, who returns as former protection officer Vincent Taleb. The series is created and written by Howard Overman, with David Caffrey and Alice Troughton directing.

This time, Zara and Vincent find themselves caught in a dangerous conspiracy after a hijacking, with ruthless mercenaries, past betrayals and a deadly virus threatening Europe. The story moves from Libya to Madrid as the two are forced to confront not only an escalating international threat but also questions of loyalty and trust.

For Arya, returning as Zara also meant stepping into a version of the character who has grown more experienced
while carrying more responsibility.

She said, “Zara has still got the same trust issues as before, if not even more. But she’s a little bit more hardened and a bit better and more experienced at what she does. She’s leading her own team in Libya on a project, and at first, it’s not that high-stakes. She’s just rolling with the punches and enjoying it – until a terrorist threatens the world with a deadly virus and things start to really kick off. From then on, she’s really pushed professionally. But the threat also feels very personal this time. Zara is forced to question who she can rely on and what she’s actually fighting for. The rules that she always operated under don’t apply anymore. That puts her in some very complicated situations.”

Zara’s development is also central to how director David Caffrey approached the character. While she has the training and background to handle the physical demands of the mission, Caffrey says the role also requires Arya to balance the action with the more emotional and lighter sides of Zara.

“She may be an unlikely action hero, but when she’s thrown into the action, she is actually able to step up to the plate. She would have come from an MI6 background and would have trained in all kinds of combat situations. So she’s done everything she needs to do. And so, she’s very much able to handle it when one minute she’s thrown into the deep end in Paris, and the next in Benghazi. She also has to cope with all the emotional things that come her way. This show has a little bit of a sparkle to it, and Ritu is certainly somebody who has a bit of a twinkle in her eye as this particular character. Ritu conveys all of those elements of Zara superbly.”