After Liam Neeson & Bob Odenkirk, Your Next Surprise Action Hero Is Anna Kendrick
Action heroes in movies and television often fit the same kinds of molds, to the point that stars like Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone, and Steven Seagal are better known for action and adventure than any other genre. There are exceptions to the rule, however, such as Liam Neeson with the Taken franchise and Bob Odenkirk in the Nobody films. Now, another unexpected actor is stepping up for some action. Anna Kendrick is moving away from the genres that shot her to stardom in the first place, and she'll star in MGM+'s Embassy, an action thriller with a star-studded cast.
Kendrick is best known for her roles in movies like Pitch Perfect, Twilight, and Up in the Air, and the closest she's come to playing an action hero so far was as a supporting character opposite Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal in The Accountant. Embassy will allow her to step up in the genre, as well as bring her back to TV for her first live-action lead role on the small screen since HBO Max's Love Life, which ran from 2020-2021.
She'll have a scene partner who already knows his way around a stunt sequence, although most of his action was set in 18th-century Scotland. Outlander's Sam Heughan stars in Embassy opposite Kendrick, with J.K. Simmons also on board the new MGM+ project. Embassy will be an on-screen reunion for Kendrick and Simmons, since both actors appeared in The Accountant together in 2016. They'll play very different characters for the upcoming TV show, however, with Kendrick getting into the thick of the action as a leading lady this time.
Embassy Positions Anna Kendrick As An Action Thriller Lead
For Embassy, Anna Kendrick plays Layla, a resourceful and intelligent American diplomat who finds herself facing a sticky situation when mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London, armed and ready. She must either choose to protect the U.S. ambassador (J.K. Simmons) or follow the ambassador's orders about a high-value asset currently being held within the walls of the embassy. Sam Heughan comes into the fold as a British SAS soldier, who also happens to be her former fiancé. Layla needs his help as the hours count down until extraction can take place.
The show will run for six episodes. Although a trailer hasn't yet been released to give a taste of Kendrick in action, Michael Wright, the global head of MGM+, said:
Embassy is an exciting addition to the MGM+ slate—a high-octane six-part thriller with an exceptional cast and creative team. Anna Kendrick, Sam Heughan, and J.K. Simmons, along with series creator Rom Lotan and directors John Strickland and Christian Alvart, have created a cinematic thriller that reinforces MGM+ as a destination for classic storytelling for a modern audience.
Kendrick herself hasn't commented on Embassy finding a home for American audiences, but Sam Heughan shared on Instagram that he's "Excited for this one" with an "Epic cast." It will also be Heughan's first TV role since the end of Outlander, where he spent more than a decade as Jamie Fraser. Despite all of his experience in fighting in battles all across Scotland on Outlander, Heughan might not have all that much of an edge on Kendrick when it comes to modern action moves.
Anna Kendrick Is Increasingly Moving Away From Her Stereotypical Roles
Anna Kendrick has accumulated plenty of credits over the past 20+ years, but she's still largely known for a select few of her projects. Her time in the Twilight spotlight as Jessica began in 2008, and she would reprise the role in three of the next four movies in the franchise. She also starred in the Pitch Perfect trilogy from 2012-2017, which allowed her to make use of the singing skills that earned her a Tony nomination in 1998. Between Pitch Perfect movies, she continued singing as Cinderella in the film version of Into the Woods.
In recent years, she started making more daring choices. In 2021, she starred in Stowaway, a sci-fi drama thriller that featured her as Zoe Levenson. As the ship's doctor on a two-year voyage to Mars, Zoe was key to the film, and it was nothing like Pitch Perfect. She mixed things up again with Alice, Darling, a psychological thriller that starred Kendrick as Alice, a woman in a psychologically abusive relationship with Simon (Charlie Carrick). Woman of the Hour, a Netflix crime thriller, took her in yet another direction in 2023.
Suffice it to say that even before Kendrick joined the cast of Embassy, she was already moving away from roles like she had in Pitch Perfect and Twilight.
The Best Action Heroes Are The Ones Nobody Sees Coming
For better or worse, Anna Kendrick doesn't necessarily look like somebody you'd expect to be co-leading an action TV show. Add on the fact that she has more experience in singing on screen than throwing a punch, and Kendrick might seem like an unlikely fit for action and adventure. That said, some of the very best action stars of the 21st century are also pretty unlikely.
Bob Odenkirk, who was best known for playing a slimy lawyer on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, showed off what he could do beyond Saul Goodman. Nobody, which premiered in 2021, featured Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell, a family man who eventually goes back to his old life: as an assassin. It was followed by Nobody 2 in 2025, and Odenkirk already has ideas for Nobody 3 and 4 sequels.
Liam Neeson had some action experience before the first Taken film premiered in 2008, largely thanks to Batman Beyond opposite Christian Bale in 2005 and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999. Still, he was much better known for projects that didn't involve throwing punches or brandishing lightsabers, such as Schindler's List in 1993 and Love Actually in 2003. Then, Taken was enough of a hit in 2008 that it was followed by Taken 2 in 2012 and Taken 3 in 2014.
Oddly enough, Neeson isn't the only Love Actually alum to go from a Christmas rom-com to an action-packed role. In addition to Andrew Lincoln moving from Love Actually's most iconic scene to playing Rick in The Walking Dead, Colin Firth eventually joined Taron Egerton for Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Firth will likely still be best known for non-action roles, and going all-out for Mamma Mia was certainly memorable.
All of this said, the best example of an unlikely actor becoming an action star has to be Bruce Willis, who didn't quite have the expected physique of an action star when he landed the first Die Hard movie. The actor was credited with a grand total of two movies before Die Hard premiered in 1988, and his most high-profile role was as David Addison in Moonlighting on the small screen from 1985-1989.
Co-leading a network TV dramedy doesn't seem like the most natural gateway to action stardom, but the original Die Hard was such a success that it was followed by four sequels over the next 25 years. Between Die Hard, Pulp Fiction (1994), and The Sixth Sense (1999), Bruce Willis built a strong legacy for himself, and it likely never would have been possible if he hadn't won audiences over as John McClane in 1988.
It remains to be seen if Anna Kendrick will get a taste for action-packed projects after Embassy on MGM+, and a premiere date has not yet been announced at the time of writing.