Hey All,
Here are the news items for this past week:
RENEWALS
Paramount Plus has given Star Trek: Discovery a 5th season renewal while Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been given a second season renewal before its debut season has even aired. (Variety)
Netflix has given Squid Game a second season renewal. (Variety)
CANCELLATION
CBS is pulling the plug on the drama Bull in the wake of lead star Michael Weatherly deciding to quit the show. The series finale will air this May. (TV Line)
TV CASTING NEWS
Julian McMahon will be exiting FBI: Most Wanted during its current, third season. It is being reported he is leaving to pursue “additional creative pursuits.” His last episode will air on March 8; that episode is expected to introduce a new team leader to fill the void left by Jess LaCroix’s departure. (TV Line)
Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) has signed on to star in the small series adaptation of the 1988 box office film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown that follows the rocky romantic lives of a number of women, including one who works as a voice actor dubbing for foreign films. Rodriguez will play Pepa and she will also serve as an executive producer. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Birds of Prey) has joined the cast of Ahsoka Tano on Disney Plus that will star Rosario Dawson in the title role. Details on Winstead’s character are currently, however, being kept under wraps. (Variety)
There will be a One Tree Hill reunion on the new CBS medical drama Good Sam that stars Sophia Bush as Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz will guest star in an upcoming episode. Burton and Lenz will play sisters Gretchen and Amy Taylor, who cross paths with Bush’s Dr. Sam Griffith when Amy is admitted as a patient at Detroit’s Lakeshore Sentinel Hospital. (Entertainment Weekly)
Elizbeth Mitchell (Lost) has landed a recurring role on the CBS drama FBI: International, playing Angela Cassidy, the long lost mother of Scott Forrester (series lead Luke Kleintank). who worked for the U.S. government before selling information to the Russians. (Deadline)
Actor Fra Fee (Hawkeye) has joined the cast of the upcoming Disney Plus Beauty and the Beast prequel series that will find Luke Evans and Josh Gad reprising their roles of Gaston and LeFou (aka Louie). Newcomer Briana Middleton will play Tilly, Louie’s stepsister. Fee will star as Prince Benoit Berlioz, a childhood friend of Tilly’s, who has grown into a handsome, charismatic, confident prince. Also, actor Jelani Alladin (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) has also joined the cast, playing Jean-Michel, a talented artist who has a quik wit, a sharp intellect and a fierce independent streak. (Deadline and Variety)
The HBO dramedy The White Lotus has added new series regular cast members to its upcoming second season. Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander (The Night Manager), Adam DiMarco (The Magicians) and Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart) have joined the cast. Abraham will play Bert Di Grasso, an elderly man traveling with his son Dominic (newly added cast member Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos) and grandson Albie (DiMarco). Hollander will play Quentin, an English expat, vacationing with his friends and his nephew. Lastly, Richardson will play Portia, a young woman traveling with her boss. (TV Line)
Joshua Jackson (The Affair and Dr. Death) has landed the lead role in the upcoming Paramount Plus small screen adaptation of the box office film Fatal Attraction. The series will explore the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders and coercive control. Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) will star as Alex, who becomes obsessed with her lover Dan (Jackson) after a brief affair. (Variety)
Toks Olagundoye (Castle and The Neighbors) has joined the revival of L.A. Law on ABCthat will once again be set at the venerable law firm of McKenzie Brackman. She will play the new character, Assistant District Attorney Erika Jackson, starring opposite original series stars Blair Underwood and Corbin Bernsen, who are reprising their roles as Jonathan Rollins and Arnie Becker, respectively. (Deadline and TV Line)
MOVIE CASTING NEWS
Daniel Radcliffe will play Grammy-winning musician ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic in the upcoming Roku original movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story that will follow every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle. (Variety)
Johnny Depp will star as French King Louis XV in an upcoming movie set to be directed by French director Maiwenn who will also star as Jeanne du Barry, a countess who was Louis XV’s last mistress. (Variety)
That’s it. Enjoy!
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