Actress Morena Baccarin is about to invade the planet earth. She has been cast in a lead role on ABC’s upcoming remake of the 1980s invasion series V, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Baccarin played the Ori leader Adria in the tenth season of Stargate SG-1, and in the DVD movie Stargate: The Ark of Truth — which will make its U.S. television premiere in just a few weeks.

She’s also well-known to genre fans as Inara Serra in Firefly.

Baccarin, 29, will play Anna, described by the site as “the leader of the Visitors who is remarkably knowledgeable about human culture and media manipulation.” The character appears to be the remake’s answer to Diana, the mouse-eating villain who was etched into the memories of children everywhere by actress Jane Badler.

Written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, the original V began as a miniseries on NBC in 1983. The story centered on a group of technologically-advanced alien “Visitors” who arrived on Earth seeking an alliance, only to be revealed as reptilian beings who wanted to use the population as a new food source. It continued in the 1984 miniseries V: The Final Battle, which apparently wasn’t final enough to stave off V: The Series in 1984-1985.

Last year Johnson published the novel “V: The Second Generation” and announced his intent to continue the franchise on television. But in October, Warner Brothers announced that The 4400 creator Scott Peters would instead helm a complete remake of the original.

Instead of focusing the resistance on cameraman Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and Dr. Juliet Parrish (Faye Grant), the new V will focus on Erica Evans, “a Homeland Security agent with an aimless son [who] has some serious problems,” according to TV Guide.

Via GateWorld.net