Viola Davis Is Leading a Paramount Thriller — and It's a Woman Who Controls the Room This Time

It was just announced that Paramount+ has set its new thriller Ascent in motion — and the lead could not be more perfect. Viola Davis, one of the greatest actors of her generation, an Oscar and Emmy winner, is set to bless our screens as the main character. She will work alongside John Logan, the screenwriter who brought us Skyfall and Gladiator.

Davis will play Catriona Vail, a corporate elite problem solver who has to fall back on her long experience when her daughter gets into trouble. According to Deadline, production is set to begin in LA in 2027.

Not much information is available at this point, but we are excited to see where Davis takes us with this role. Starring in a thriller comes not only with great acting but also with a good old-fashioned action sequence — and we are beyond curious to know how Viola Davis is preparing for that. In the usual thriller playbook, women get the role of victim, mother, or daughter while men get all the action. Jason Statham, we are looking at you.

The thriller genre has historically not been kind to women. Think about it — from Hitchcock's blondes to the endless stream of wives-in-peril narratives, women in thrillers have been defined by their relationship to danger, not their ability to navigate it. The rare exceptions — Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman, Viola Davis herself in Widows — stand out precisely because they are exceptions. Catriona Vail, a corporate elite problem solver who has to call on decades of experience to save her daughter, sounds like someone who controls the room rather than fears it. About time.

Viola Davis has already won an Oscar and an Emmy — the most prestigious awards an actor can receive. Ascent is something different. With nothing left to prove, why not conquer a new genre? We will be watching.