As we enter summer proper, entertainment news tends to slow down as all the execs and stars steal away on their yachts for the season. Nevertheless, casting news continues. This week, we’ve got updates from series like One Piece, And Just Like That, and Dexter: Original Sin, as well as new projects from Greta Lee, Michael Fassbender, Bob Odenkirk, and more.
It wouldn’t be a new season of Sex And The City(‘s spin-off) if there weren’t some new good-looking guys around. According to Variety, the third season of And Just Like That has added Logan Marshall-Green (Big Sky), Mehcad Brooks (Supergirl), and Jonathan Cake (Desperate Housewives). Additionally, second season recurring guest stars Sebastiano Pigazzi and Dolly Wells have been bumped to series regulars in the new season. Hopefully they can fill the hole left by Che Diaz. [Mary Kate Carr]
The Better Sister, Prime Video’s new thriller series starring Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel, has added Lorraine Toussaint (The Equalizer, Orange Is The New Black) to the cast. Per Deadline, “The Better Sister meditates on the terrible things that drive sisters apart and ultimately bring them back together. Biel leads the cast as Chloe, who moves through the world with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) struggles to stay clean and hustles to make ends meet. When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, laying bare long-buried secrets.” Toussaint plays Catherine Lancaster, described as “Grand dame of publishing, New York City queen-maker, Chloe’s (Biel) mentor and boss, Catherine is always thinking about the long-game.” The cast also includes Corey Stoll, Bobby Naderi, Maxwell Acee Donovan, Kim Dickens, Gabriel Sloyer, Matthew Modine, and Gloria Reuben. [Mary Kate Carr]
With the news that production has officially begun on what we’re calling Freaky Friday 2, news about the film’s cast has come alongside it. Much of the 2003 film’s supporting cast, including Mark Harmon, Chad Michael Murray, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Haley Hudson, Lucille Soong, Stephen Tobolowsky and Rosalind Chao, are all set to return, per Deadline. Newcomers Sophia Hammons and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan have also joined the film, which is actually getting a theatrical release in 2025. Does this mean that Disney has more faith in this requel than they did in Hocus Pocus 2? We can only hope. [Drew Gillis]
The 2021 film Nobody is also getting a sequel, and that film will also star Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk, reports Deadline. Odenkirk is also attached to co-write and co-produce the film, which will be directed by Timo Tjahjanto. Plot details are still under wraps, but presumably, the sequel will pick up where the original left off. Universal is aiming for an August 2025 release date. [Drew Gillis]
Rosemarie Dewitt and Eric Bana’s forthcoming Netflix series has found two more additions. Titled Untamed, Deadline reports that Lily Santiago and Wilson Bethel have signed onto the series following a brutal death in Yosemite National Park. Santiago will play Naya Vasquez, a former L.A. cop working for the park’s ranger squad. Bethel, meanwhile, is Shane Maguire, a former soldier now serving as a Wildlife Management Officer. [Drew Gillis]
Star of stage and screen Aaron Tveit is set to lead Earth Abides, an upcoming sci-fi series for the fledgling streaming platform MGM+. Per a press release, “When a plague of unprecedented virulence sweeps the globe, the human race is all but wiped out. In the aftermath, as the great machine of civilization slowly and inexorably breaks down, only a few shattered survivors remain to struggle against the slide into extinction.” Tveit will lead the group of survivors as Charlie; Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Elyse Levesque, Luisa D’Oliveira, Birkett Turton, Hilary McCormack, and Jenna Berman round out the cast. [Drew Gillis]
Michael Fassbender is taking his talents to Paramount+ with The Agency, an espionage thriller formerly titled The Department. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime actually ordered the project, which is based on French series Le Bureau des Legendes, to series back in February 2023. However, the channel is now more or less just a segment of Paramount+. Regardless, Fassbender will play Martian, a CIA agent ordered to abandon his undercover life; however, that life doesn’t exactly stay in the past. The Oscar nominee is also executive producing, and Jeffrey Wright will also join as Henry, a mentor to Martian, per Variety. [Drew Gillis]
James Marsden and Vince Vaughn are set to star in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, reports Deadline, which leads up to believe there’s a good chance that at least one of them will play a character named Nick. The trade outlet describes the film as “a buddy action comedy set in the criminal underworld,” but other details are still under wraps. 20th Century snagged the project in May after what was reportedly an intense bidding war. [Drew Gillis]
Netflix’s One Piece adaptation is heating up for season two with the inclusion of four new villains. Damian Lasker will play Mr. 9, Camrus Johnson as Mr. 5, Jazzara Jaslyn as Miss Valentine, and David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3, reports Variety, which notes that all four characters are pulled from Eiichiro Oda’s original manga. Season one premiered in August 2023; no release date for season two has been shared yet. [Drew Gillis]
Heart Eyes, the horror rom-com starring Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding, has gained two new cast members in the form of Jordana Brewster and Devon Sawa, per Deadline. The movie, directed by Josh Ruben, “follows a pair of co-workers in Seattle who are pulling overtime on Valentine’s Day. When the Heart Eyes Killer strikes, they’re mistaken for a couple by the elusive couple-hunting killer. The duo are forced to spend the most romantic night of the year running for their lives.” Gigi Zumbado (Promised Land, 9-1-1) has also been cast. [Mary Kate Carr]
A24’s upcoming revenge thriller Huntington continues to build up its roster. Bill Camp is the latest addition to an ensemble that features Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Zach Woods, Ed Harris, Jessica Henwick, and Topher Grace. There are no details about his character but the film itself centers on Powell’s wonderfully named Becket Redfellow, who takes some extreme steps to inherit the billion-dollar fortune he thinks he deserves. [Saloni Gajjar]
Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow is making another political thriller. The plot is being kept secret, but per Deadline, it’s set in the White House as a national crisis unfolds. The film has already acquired an impressive ensemble with Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, and Gabriel Basso. And now, Past Lives star Greta Lee is in the fold for this as-yet-untiled movie, which will be released on Netflix. [Saloni Gajjar]
Young Sheldon had to fall for Young Sherlock to rise. Now here we are, with Prime Video adding to its roster for its gritty Sherlock Holmes series. Joseph Fiennes and Natasha McElhonne will play Silas and Cordelia Holmes, parents to the budding (and possibly annoying) 19-year-old detective. Sherlock, played by Fiennes’ real-life nephew Hero Fiennes Tiffin, takes on his first case at Oxford University and unravels a global conspiracy that changes his life. [Saloni Gajjar]
Listen, a Dexter prequel set 15 years before the original doesn’t sound supremely exciting, but Original Sin is amassing a stellar cast, so maybe it’ll surprise us. Case in point: Showtime’s series is bringing TV’s erstwhile vampire slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar in. She’ll appear in a special guest role as Dexter’s (Patrick Gibson) new boss. The show, which also stars Christian Slater, Patrick Dempsey, and Molly Brown, is the origin story of how Dexter became the serial killer we fear and love. [Saloni Gajjar]
As if Timothy Olyphant voicing the Terminator robot in Terminator Zero wasn’t a cool enough choice, Netflix’s animated series expands with a cool cast. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Rosario Dawson, André Holland, Ann Dowd, and Sonoya Mizuno join the lineup of this action-packed sci-fi show. The eight-part series expands the Terminator franchise with new characters. [Saloni Gajjar]
Andrew Lincoln, who recently returned to The Walking Dead universe with The Ones Who Live, is shedding that American drawl for his regular British accent. He returns to his roots via a new ITV thriller, Cold Water. Set in a Scottish village, it follows Lincoln’s John, a repressed man who moves his wife and child away from London. An encounter with their new neighbor leaves John with a new crisis. The cast includes Indira Varma, Eve Myles, and Ewan Bremner. [Saloni Gajjar]
Chloe East of The Fabelmans and the upcoming Heretic has joined No Good Deed, the new Netflix series from Dead To Me creator Liz Feldman, per Deadline. The series is described as a “half-hour, dark comedy that follows three very different families vying to buy the very same 1920s Spanish-style villa that they think will solve all their problems. But as the sellers have already discovered, sometimes the home of your dreams can be a total nightmare.” East will play the daughter of Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow’s characters. “Emily” is their “artsy but put-together daughter. She’s been away at college, but there may be other reasons she’s been distant.” [Mary Kate Carr]
Fresh off his nostalgic documentary Brats, Andrew McCarthy will lead Orion, a new sci-fi thriller centered “around a heated interrogation between a U.S. Intelligence expert tasked to help an amnesiac astronaut recover his memory in order to determine ‘who’ or ‘what’ killed the rest of the crew before they crash landed back on Earth,” per Deadline. Disney alum Debby Ryan and Drew Van Acker (Last Survivors) also star. Bouwer (Gaia) serves as director with a script written by Anne Vithayathil. [Mary Kate Carr]
Netflix continues to build a great cast for Four Seasons, the series based on the 1981 film of the same name (which was written, directed by, and starred Alan Alda). Will Forte is the latest heavy hitter to join the show, alongside his fellow Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey. Fey created the show alongside her 30 Rock writers Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield. Steve Carrell, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Erika Henningsen also star. [Mary Kate Carr]