HBO's new legal thriller War, created by George Kay of Lupin and Hijack fame, follows the headline grabbing divorce of Hollywood star Carla Duval and tech entrepreneur Morgan Henderson across eight episodes, as their split escalates into a fight between two of London's most powerful law firms, Taylor and Byrne and Cathcarts and Sons, both willing to play dirty to win.
The couple at the center
Sienna Miller plays Carla Duval, a glamorous, fierce Hollywood star carrying real wounds from a marriage she felt let down by, wounds that eventually pushed her to set a honey trap to expose the truth about Morgan. She is also mother to teenage son Gabriel, who shares a close bond with his stepfather, adding another layer of difficulty to an already hostile split. Dominic West plays Morgan Henderson, the charming, ambitious founder of social media platform Zephyr with a background in hedge funds, who intends to fight the divorce with everything he has.
The lawyers caught in the middle
Pip Torrens plays St. John Smallwood, Morgan's sharp, hyper competitive lead lawyer at Cathcarts and Sons, whose years long friendship with Morgan gets tested by the pressure of the case. Phoebe Fox plays Serena Byrne, the brains behind upstart firm Taylor and Byrne, who left Cathcarts after being passed over for partner in what she saw as an outdated power structure, and who now has to balance loyalty to her client Carla with her own ambitions and life as a mother. Nina Sosanya rounds out the cast as Beatrice Ubosi, a formidable Cathcarts and Sons partner known around the firm as Her Majesty.