Farahani isn’t yet a household name stateside, but her presence reaches much farther than her indie-heavy résumé might suggest. She is the kind of global style icon who sits in the front row at Paris Fashion Week and models Cartier jewelry. She has amassed nearly 12 million Instagram followers. One thing Farahani had not done, however, was a TV show (besides a voice-over role). “I was one of those dinosaurs who was so loyal to movies and cinema,” she said. “I never took any proposition seriously because it was a bit like I wanted to keep cinema alive.” And so she signed on, and she learned on the job. For Kinberg, who cast her first — ahead of even the “Jurassic Park” veteran Sam Neill — Farahani sets the tone of the series, which is inspired by “War of the Worlds” and takes place across multiple countries.
