Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay star Matthew Rhys plays mayor of cursed town

Emmy Award-winning actor Matthew Rhys will play the mayor of a cursed island town in his latest television show, Widow’s Bay.

In the Apple TV series, Rhys, 52, portrays Tom Loftis, a mayor desperate to revive his struggling community, but whose residents view him as “soft and cowardly”.

Tipped as a blend of horror and comedy, the 10-episode drama premieres on 29 April and is set in a quaint town 40 miles (64km) off the coast of New England.

With unreliable mobile service, no wi-fi and a deeply superstitious population that does not respect him, Loftis is determined to bring in tourists and secure a better life for his teenage son.

According to the show’s synopsis, his plan initially works and tourists begin to arrive, but unfortunately, the locals were right.

After decades of calm, old stories that once seemed too far-fetched to be true start happening again.

Blending horror with character-driven comedy, other cast members include Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll and Dale Dickey.

In addition to starring in the series, Rhys also serves as an executive producer.

Emmy-winner Hiro Murai, director and executive producer of The Bear, directed five episodes of Widow’s Bay.

The Welsh actor has built a career playing men who appear restrained on the surface but conceal something far more volatile beneath.

Rhys was recently seen in Netflix’s thriller The Beast in Me, where he played property tycoon Nile Jarvis. He previously played a KGB sleeper agent in The Americans, for which he won an Emmy Award for his acting in 2018.

In November, he returned to Wales for a national tour of Playing Burton – a one-man stage production in which he portrayed legendary actor Richard Burton, raising funds for the Welsh National Theatre in honour of Burton’s centenary.