Derek Jacobi to Join Jeremy Irons in Showtime’s The Borgias

Tony and Olivier Award winner Derek Jacobi will join the previously announced star Jeremy Irons in Showtime’s new historical drama The Borgias, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Academy Award winning director Neil Jordan will create and executive produce the series, as well as direct the first two episodes.

The Borgias is set in Italy in 1492, and follows a powerful crime family. Jacobi will play the role of Cardinal Orsini.

Jacobi won a Tony for his performance in a 1985 production of Much Ado About Nothing and a 2009 Oliver for Twelfth Night. Additional Broadway credits include Uncle Vanya, Breaking the Code, Cyrano de Bergerac, and The Suicide. He is slated to play the title role in Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Donmar Warehouse later this year. His films include Gladiator, Gosford Park, and Underworld: Evolution.