Syfy's experiment to debut a television series alongside a multi-platform shooter game is set to move forward, with actor Grant Bowler as the star.

Bowler is probably best known to genre fans in a seven-episode stint as Cooter in HBO's "True Blood" as well as Capt. Gault in the "Lost" episodes "Cabin Fever," "Meet Kevin Johnson" and "Ji Yeon." Cooter was the leader of Russell Eddington's biker gang with a name fit only for premium cable channels like HBO.

He is set to headline "Defiance," a new series from Syfy from "Farscape" creator Rockne S. O'Bannon. Bowler will play Jeb Nolan, a police officer in a boomtown filled with humans and aliens on a new Earth built from a once uninhabitable planet. Nolan, according to a Syfy release, is a former Marine who lost his wife and child in the way against the aliens, and has to balance that with his new job.

It's not announced when the series will debut, but when it does, it will include a massive multiplayer online game from Trion Worlds. The Redwood City, Calif., company has already had success with its Rift game, and looks to add Defiance and End of Nations to that list.

Neither Syfy nor Trion released any additional details of the game, except that it would be a shooter game. Also no word if Syfy would follow the route of its successful Battlestar Galactica Online game, which now boasts 7.5 million users in the cable channel's partnership with game maker Bigpoint.

Mark Stern, Syfy's president of original content, shared the cable channel's excitement about bringing Bowler into the project.

"Grant's charismatic charm and his depth as an actor make him the perfect anchor as we build the ensemble for this sweeping adventure series," Stern said in a release.

Production on the series is set to begin in April in Toronto where Syfy also films "Warehouse 13."