Homeland's Morena Baccarin to join Melissa McCarthy and Miranda Hart in Spy

The 34-year-old American actress, who played Brody's wife in the hit CIA thriller, has been cast in Spy, a new comedy film from Bridesmaids' director Paul Feig.

Baccarin will join an impressively star-studded cast, that so far includes Melissa McCarthy, Allison Janney and Bobby Cannavale, as well as a host of British stars such as Miranda Hart, Jude Law, Rose Byrne and Jason Statham.

Spy centres on a CIA analyst Susan Cooper, played by McCarthy, who goes into the field for the first time, presumably with hilarious consequences.

Baccarin will play one of the agency's top spies, who is described as "extremely deadly", according to The Hollywood Reporter, which also reports that Jude Law is tipped to play a "suave super-spy" while Statham will play an "overconfident yet clumsy" operative.

Allison Janney is set to play top CIA agent Elaine Crocker, who is "tough but with a biting sense of humour," reports Deadline.

As well as Homeland - a role which won her an Emmy nomination - Brazil-born Baccarin has starred in The Good Wife, The Mentalist, V, Heartland, The OC, How I Met Your Mother and Joss Whedon's cult sci-fi series Firefly.

Spy is expected to hit UK cinemas in May 2015.

Follow @RadioTimes