Casting News - March 20, 2019
Apple's Defending Jacob; Audience's Mr. Mercedes; Epix's Pennyworth; and Hulu's Castle Rock.
HULU's CASTLE ROCK
- Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins, Elsie Fisher, Garrett Hedlund, Matthew Alan, Yusra Warsama and Barkhad Abdi will star in the drama's upcoming second season. Caplan starred for four seasons in Showtime's Masters of Sex and next appears in Apple's upcoming drama Are You Sleeping. Robbins has recently starred in a pair of one-season shows on HBO - The Brink and Here and Now. He also won an Academy Award for the film Mystic River. Fisher played the lead role in the 2018 film Eighth Grade. Hedlund starred in the HBO limited series Mosiac. Alan has recurred on TNT's Murder in the First and Netflix's 13 Reasons Why. Warsama has recurred on BBC One's Our Girl. Abdi received an Academy Award nomination for the film Captain Phillips.
- Season two will explore a feud between warring clans that comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes - from Stephen King's novel Misery and played by Kathy Bates in an Academy Award-winning performance in the 1990 film adaptation - gets waylaid in Castle Rock.
- Caplan will take on the role of Annie Wilkes, a nurse and superfan battling to overcome mental health issues in Castle Rock.
- Robbins will Reginald "Pop" Merrill, a famed patriarch who is dying of cancer and at a reckoning with his family.
- Fisher will play Joy, Annie's home-schooled teenage daughter who is starting to have questions about her mother's sanity.
- Hedlund will play John "Ace" Merrill, the town of Castle Rock's legendary bully who is taking over his uncle Pop's business and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem's Lot.
- Alan will play Chris Merrill, Pop's nephew and Ace's brother who struggles to keep peace between the Merills and the Somali community.
- Warsama will play Dr. Nadia Omar, the Harvard-trained Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem's Lot whose rational and scientific mind will be put to the test.
- Abdi will play Abdi Omar, Nadia's tough, older brother who leads the charge to build a Somali community center that will deepen the roots of his people in Maine.
AUDIENCE's MR. MERCEDES
- Kate Mulgrew, Brett Gelman and Natalie Paul have booked recurring roles on the drama's upcoming third season. Mulgrew currently stars in Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, which returns for its seventh and final season later this year. She previously starred for seven seasons in UPN's Star Trek: Voyager. Gelman is currently appearing in Netflix's Stranger Things and Amazon's Fleabag. Paul starred for one season in HBO's The Deuce and one season in USA's The Sinner.
- Mulgrew will play Alma Lane, another life-long resident of Bridgton, Ohio and a compelling force in Morris' (Gabriel Ebert) life since he was a boy. She is a bit vicious and a lot smart.
- Gelman will play Roland Finklestein, a smart, passionate defense attorney who is representing Lou (Breeda Wool) in her murder trial. He believes he can win the case if they go to trial and keep Lou out of prison.
- Paul will play ADA Sarah Pace, the prosecutor on Lou's case. At first glance one might think her soft, but she is a hardcore prosecutor with a strong moral compass. She doesn't support or believe in Lou's vigilantism and refuses to back down from pursuing justice.
EPIX's PENNYWORTH
- Emma Paetz and Jessica Ellerby have joined the cast of the upcoming drama starring Jack Bannon and Ben Aldridge. Paetz appears in HBO's upcoming drama Gentleman Jack. Ellerby has recurred on Sky One's Living the Dream.
- Paetz will play Martha Kane, who will eventually become Martha Wayne, the mother to Bruce Wayne aka Batman.
- Ellerby will recur as The Queen.
APPLE's DEFENDING JACOB
- Michelle Dockery and Jaeden Martell are set as the leads opposite Chris Evans in the upcoming limited series created by Mark Bomback. Dockery previously starred for six seasons in PBS' Downton Abbey, two seasons in TNT's Good Behavior and in the Netflix limited series Godless. She next reprises her role in the upcoming Downton Abbey film. Martell has played lead roles in the films It, The Book of Henry, The Confirmation and St. Vincent. He also recurred on Showtime's Masters of Sex.
- Dockery will play Laurie Barber, Andy's (Evans) wife.
- Martell will play Jacob, Andy and Laurie's son and an accused murderer.
