Paramount Series 'Coyote' to Feature Former Border Patrol Agent Smuggling Illegal Alien into U.S.

Paramount Network is set to premiere a drama starring Emmy-winning actor Michael Chiklis as a former U.S. Border Patrol officer who turns against American immigration laws to illegally smuggle an endangered young woman across the southern border.

The series now filming in Baja, Mexico, will be titled Coyote, and stars Chiklis as former Border Patrol officer Ben Clemens. After serving the United States for 32 years, the character turns against American laws. The series is centered on a young woman that Clemens helps break immigration laws by smuggling her into the U.S.

Chiklis claims that the series “isn’t about this side or that side, it’s about people,” Deadline reported.

Michael Chiklis, who is best known for his acclaimed starring role in the hit FX police drama The Shield, also described the main character’s decisions as being about “learning and growing.”

“There’s something to be said about accomplished people really learning and growing when they come out of their comfort zone,” Chiklis said about the new show’s main character. “To play someone whose point of view is galvanized, who looked through a certain prism, and to be thrust into a complete different set of circumstances, to have his preconceived notions of the world broken down, fascinated me.”

Coyote — which will be executive produced by Michelle MacLaren, a TV director known for her work on Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones — is just the latest immigration-related TV drama to hit the airwaves in recent years.

Last week, the Disney-owned cable network Freeform debuted its Party of Five reboot, which sees the parents of five children being deported (instead of being killed in a car crash like the original 90s series). Also, the Sons of Anarchy spinoff series Mayans M.C.  — which follows Ezekiel ‘EZ’ Reyes (JD Pardo), a prospect in the Mayans M.C. motorcycle gang located on the California and Mexico border — has been renewed by FX for a third season. Later this month Apple TV Plus is set to air Little America, and episodic anthology series inspired by the true stories of immigrants and refugees in America.

Coyote is set to premiere this summer on the Paramount Network.

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