Renowned television creator David Chase is returning to HBO with a dark new limited thriller series titled Project MKUltra. This marks Chase’s first series for the network since his era-defining mafia masterpiece, The Sopranos, ended its six-season run in 2007, a show widely credited with transforming modern television and popularizing morally complex antiheroes.

Project MKUltra will explore one of the most disturbing and controversial chapters in American intelligence history. The series centers on real-life CIA chemist and spymaster Sidney Gottlieb, infamously nicknamed “The Black Sorcerer.” It is based on John Lisle’s extensively researched book, Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, which investigates the agency’s infamous mind-control program.

Between 1953 and 1964, the CIA’s MKUltra program conducted covert and often unethical human experiments in an effort to develop methods of mind manipulation. These experiments used LSD, hypnosis, and electroshock therapy — often without the subjects’ consent — under the guise of countering supposed Communist “brainwashing.” Despite the CIA’s efforts to destroy program records, its existence became one of the most notorious examples of government overreach in Cold War history. Ironically, Gottlieb’s experiments with LSD inadvertently helped spark the 1960s counterculture movement.

David Chase will write the limited series under his Riverain Pictures banner, as part of a first-look deal with HBO. He will also serve as executive producer alongside Nicole Lambert, head of production and development at Riverain. Lambert previously collaborated with Chase on The Many Saints of Newark, the 2021 prequel film to The Sopranos.

A seven-time Emmy Award winner, Chase revolutionized serialized storytelling with The Sopranos, which earned 21 Emmys and is frequently cited among the greatest television series of all time. The show’s influence is still evident in acclaimed dramas like Breaking Bad, The Shield, and Six Feet Under, as well as more recent psychological thrillers such as Severance.

Since wrapping The Sopranos, Chase has largely remained out of the spotlight, directing the 2012 feature film Not Fade Away and co-writing The Many Saints of Newark. His earlier television credits include Almost Grown (1988) and writing roles on acclaimed series such as The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure, and I’ll Fly Away. In 2024, he was profiled in Alex Gibney’s two-part documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival.

While specific casting and production details remain under wraps, Project MKUltra is already generating anticipation among both critics and audiences. Combining Chase’s trademark psychological intensity with one of the most chilling true stories in U.S. intelligence history, the series promises to be one of HBO’s most talked-about projects in years.