Rick Kumazawa (You) joins FX’s Shōgun S2. No info on his role other than the fact that he will be playing a character named Gaspar. The first season of the Emmy-winning show followed Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) as he fought off the Council of Regents who teamed up against him.

The White Lotus’ Natasha Rothwell is bringing her zen to Hulu’s untitled Cable Guy pilot from Sony Pictures Television. Inspired by the 1996 Jim Carrey movie of the same name, the series is moving forward with Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. set to lead a story exploring the darkly absurd side of male friendship. Rothwell will play the latter’s oddball sister, who lives at home with their parents.

Benny Safdie’s live-action/CGI hybrid film Lizard Music has cast Alicia Silverstone, joining Dwayne Johnson and 10-year-old actor Theo Clark. Adapted from Daniel Pinkwater’s 1976 novel, the story follows a boy who discovers a mysterious broadcast of lizards playing weird music, sending him on a magical adventure with an eccentric old man and his 111-year-old chicken. All character details are under wraps.

Anne Russell, most known for her Broadway appearances in Jerry Herman’s musical Hello, Dolly! and Mame, dies at 103. She also appeared next to Elizabeth Taylor in ABC’s TV film These Old Broads.

Bride horror comedy Ring Leader will see Vanessa Marano (Switched At Birth) star and sit in the producer’s chair via her production company Calabrian Rhode (Netflix’s The Royal Treatment). Described as Bridesmaids meets Send Help, the film follows a bridesmaid (most likely Marano) trapped in a deadly bachelorette weekend as it heads to Fantasia Film Festival’s Frontières Co-Production Market.

Louis Cancelmi (Bride!) joins Hulu dramedy pilot Chicks, alongside Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who). Set in old Boston, the series follows two estranged half-sisters who decide to commit risky frauds that ironically turns into a bonding experience. Cancelmi plays Danny McKeever, a man who wants to be a big-time con-artist who begins a partnership with the two sisters.

Two actors who have played Marvel villains before, Corey Stoll (Ant-Man) and Ralph Ineson (The Fantastic Four: First Steps), join Apple TV’s Monsterverse series. The show will follow the story of Colonel Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), who was on a secret mission to stop the Soviets from unleashing a new titan to destroy the U.S. during the Cold War.

Ed Harris (The Abyss) is returning to Paramount+’s Dutton Ranch S2. Harris said in an interview after filming season 1 that he was ready to leave the show because he felt his character was being underutilized. Now, with the new showrunner Benjamin Cavell (Wri: SEAL Team), Harris has returned to the show.

Hamish Linklater (Widow’s Bay) and Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) join Elizabeth Banks in Apple TV’s untitled comedy series. The show follows Heidi (Banks), who sets out to start a second life fresh off a messy divorce.

Netflix’s anticipated 13 Going on 30 reboot is adding to its ensemble. Tim Meadows (Peacemaker), Dan Bucatinsky (The Comeback), and Taylor Ortega, who shot to popularity after leading Netflix’s Big Mistakes, are all joining the cast in undisclosed roles. Production is ongoing in L.A.

Hal Williams, most known for his role as Officer “Smitty” Smith in NBC’s 70s sitcom Sanford and Son, dies at 91. He also starred in various 80s sitcoms as well, including 227 and Private Benjamin.

Luke Wilson (Legally Blonde) and Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) join feature comedy Mini War, from the writers behind stoner classic Grandma’s Boy (2006, trailer). The film follows Joe (Wilson), a stoner who unexpectedly inherits a mini golf course from his late uncle. While he is eager to turn his life around, the owner of the go-kart track across the street wants to destroy the golf course to widen his cart empire. Hudgens plays a hotdog stand owner stuck in the crossfire between the two courses.

Aimee Lou Wood still has Daddy Issues. The White Lotus actress is returning for the third and final season of the BBC comedy alongside David Morrissey, who plays her dad. Season three will jump ahead 18 months, with Wood’s Gemma contemplating reintroducing romance into her life now that she has finally found her rhythm as a mother; we’ll see how long that lasts.

The thirteenth doctor, Jodie Whittaker, is jumping over to Hulu for dramedy pilot Chicks. Whittaker will star alongside Ellen Pompeo as estranged half-sisters whose lives take a turn when their smart-ass dad unexpectedly dies, leaving them nothing.

Michael Gandolfini (A24’s Warfare) joins the cast of David Robert Mitchell’s horror film They Follow. Sequel to It Follows (2015), the film will take place a decade after the events of the first film, where Jay (Maika Monroe) was haunted by an evil curse that can only be transferred to others by sexual intercourse.

Jimmy Tatro officially boards live-action HBO series DC Crime as Gorilla Grodd. A Superman spinoff, the show will be centered around Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) formatted like a true-crime docuseries.

Rosario Dawson (Sin City franchise) and Stephen Root (Widow’s Bay) join psychological thriller The Girlfriend, starring Meghann Fahy (Sirens) and Glenn Howerton (Blackberry). The film tells the story of a husband (Howerton) who hires an escort (Fahy) to become friends with his depressed wife, Eve (Dawson).

JT Mollner’s next thriller, Skeletons, adds Keith Carradine (Dexter) to join Brie Larson (Room) with producer J.J. Abrams. A “modern take on the creature horror film,” it will follow a young boy who discovers his loving parents are hiding a secret about his mother’s true nature. Character roles are under wraps with filming ongoing in Australia.

Sam Neill passed away at 78. In his long legacy of TV programs, he embraces his darker side in one of his most memorable performances as the weasel Chief Inspector Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of Peaky Blinders.

Sent by the Crown to “clean up” the streets of Birmingham, Campbell was the series’s earliest antagonist, and within his first five minutes on screen, you knew exactly who he was.

His opening scene at the local police station has stuck with me since the first time I watched it. There’s an unmistakable moral superiority to the way he speaks; he commands through fear, making it clear, without ever raising his voice, that the officers are no longer working with him, but for him. Campbell’s evil comes from conviction, not cruelty alone, and Neill’s portrayal establishes from the very beginning that what makes him so dangerous is that he never sees himself as the villain.

Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby disliked many but feared very few, making Campbell’s ability to rattle him all the more impressive. Their one-on-one confrontations were always a masterclass in tension, with Murphy paying tribute, saying:

“I admired him and adored him in equal measure. He was one of the kindest, funniest, and gentlest people, and one of the finest actors. RIP.”

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Campbell’s introduction in Peaky Blinders - Scene

Tommy meets Campbell Peaky Blinders - Scene

From Christmas Charmer to Time-Traveling Cowboy. Trevor Donovan will lead The Devil’s Train, a time-travel action film based on Matthew Dickens’s comic about a stuntman-turned-cowboy. Donovan’s performances have tilted into much safer territory recently with his latest being Chasing Christmas (2025) where his worst enemy is a doodler (trailer).

Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) joins Amazon MGM’s action film The Kellys, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Liam Hemsworth. The film follows a disgraced NYC cop who teams up with his family to save his wife, who is taken hostage by terrorists. No info on Rapace’s role as of now, but we’ve seen her star in action thrillers like What Happened to Monday (2017) and Unlocked (2017), where she was chased by various government agencies. Maybe she’ll be a part of the terrorist organization that forces Arnold Schwarzenegger back to action.

Isabel May, the star of Taylor Sheridan’s 1883, will lead Amazon MGM Studios’ Love Love, a new romantic comedy feature from filmmaker Joey Power (dir. After Everything). May will play a struggling tennis prodigy who forms an unlikely romance with a ball boy at the US Open. Production starts this fall in New York.

Tracey Ullman (Netflix’s Steve), Sam Spruell (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), and Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) join FX’s Alien: Earth season 2. Details regarding their roles are under wraps. The second season will follow our protagonists as they go against Weyland-Yutani’s attempt to retrieve their lethal alien assets.

Reda Elazouar (Sex Education) joins Clive Owen in action-thriller Scorpion, directed by Richard Hughes (Dir: The Enforcer). Elazouar will play a young police officer on his first mission with Afghanistan veterans.

From the world of X-Men to the Baywatch beach, actor Blair Redford (Fox’s The Gifted) has been added in a recurring role on Fox’s Baywatch reboot series premiering next Jan.

Joanna Pettet, known for her role as James Bond’s daughter in 1967's Casino Royale, dies at 83. She also starred in Sidney Lumet’s The Group (1966) and made many TV guest appearances in shows like Police Woman and Knight Rider throughout the 70s and 80s.

We met them in The Sandlot, and now they are Dugout Dads. Patrick Renna is set to star and produce a new series about an idealistic dad who volunteers to coach his kid’s Little League team, only to discover the parents are more unruly than the ten-year-olds. While not directly related to the cult classic 1993 film, several of the original cast members will return in new roles for Dugout Dads.

Anthony Guidera, an actor known for his roles in The Godfather Part III (1990) and Species (1995), has died at 65. Guidera made his film debut as a bodyguard in Francis Ford Coppola’s sequel and later appeared in titles including The Rock (1996), Armageddon (1998), and L.A. Dicks (2005).

Mary McDonnell (The Boroughs) joins the cast of Fox’s Baywatch reboot. The show follows Hobie Buchannon (Stephen Amell), a Baywatch captain and the son of legendary lifeguard Mitch Buchannon. McDonnell will play Gayle, the mother of the protagonist Hobie.

Zsa Zsa Zemeckis, the daughter of Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis, is making her acting feature debut in Star-Crossed Lovers, a modernized Romeo and Juliet film. Zemeckis will play the secretly pregnant 17 year old, Mila, navigating a relationship with a much older man and her conservative parents who don’t approve.

Paul Sparks (House of Cards) joins Apple’s sci-fi action thriller Liminal. Based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths, the film explores a world in which a tenth of Earth’s population suddenly gains telepathic powers, and the newly telepathic Boston Police force has to deal with it. He will star alongside Vanessa Kirby and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman franchise)

Kelli Berglund (Heels) stars in Hulu’s new Prison Break series. The show will follow a soldier-turned-corrections officer who takes a job at one of the deadliest prisons in America. Berglund will play Cheyenne, a female inmate. Elgin James (Showrunner: BBC’s The Outlaws) serves as showrunner, EP, and director of the pilot.

Amita Rao (FX’s Adults) stars in horror-comedy mockumentary See Bot Run. The film follows the underpaid workers of a tech company on the day of their AI product launch, only to find out that their invention begins to turn against them. Rao will play Deena, an overenthusiastic intern at the tech startup.

A new pilot from Young Sheldon producer David Bickel adds a TV comedy veteran, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), to the cast. In To Life (clip), Alexander will play a mental health professional who recommends microdosing mushrooms to his anxiety-ridden patient whose hallucinogenic side effects don’t go away.

HBO’s highly anticipated pilot, How To Survive Without Me, adds to its lengthy ensemble, none other than series lead Ray Romano’s son Joe, who will make his TV acting debut as a younger version of his dad’s character.

Jason Clarke may join Michael Mann’s Heat 2. We’ll have more details if this confirms.

In more Amazon casting news, the anticipated second season of Mr. and Mrs. Smith has cast Francesca Scorsese in a recurring role. After building a name for herself outside of her father’s shadow with her viral social media following, Scorsese has recently begun acting in projects like the HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are and the new Netflix movie Roommates. Season two has just started production in L.A.

Jennifer Beals, known for Paramount+’s The L Word, is also moving over to Amazon, joining the cast of the upcoming thriller series Bishop. Alongside Joel Kinnaman as a brilliant but troubled homicide detective, Beals will play a psychologist within San Francisco’s Police Department. An exact release date has yet to be announced.

Rob Delaney (FX’s Dying for Sex) joins the untitled Apple TV comedy show, starring Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games franchise). The show will follow a woman fresh off a divorce, setting out to secure a living for herself and her kids. No info on his role. The show will be written and EPed by Liz Heidens (Wri: Will Trent) and Matt Ward (EP: Best Medicine).

Disney+’s hit Korean superhero show Moving Season 2 starts production. Many of the original cast, including Ryu Seung-ryong, Han Hyo-joo, and Zo In-sung (Hope), are set to return. The show follows three high school students whose lives turn upside down when they realize they are superheroes, being hunted down by a secret government organization.

Tom Kane, the voice actor behind Master Yoda in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Professor Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls, dies at 64. His voice performance as Woodhouse in FX’s Archer, Lord Monkey Fist in Kim Possible, and Magneto and Ultron in various Marvel projects left a mark on the childhood memories of many viewers. He will be missed.

HBO’s Harry Potter series is losing a Weasley, with young actress Gracie Cochrane exiting the show ahead of its Christmas Day premiere. The role of Ginny Weasley will be recast for the second season.

Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here) is ready for a hug. The Oscar-nominated actress has been cast in Barbara Paz’s debut feature Cuddle. Torres will play an immigrant woman who meets a professional cuddler (Willem Dafoe) who offers platonic comfort to strangers craving connection.

Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) joins the cast of John Wick spinoff Caine, directed by and starring Donnie Yen (Caine in the John Wick franchise). The film will follow Caine (Yen) right after the events of John Wick: Chapter 4, as he is freed from serving The High Table. No info on Montgomery’s role.

Freya Allen (The Witcher) and Maria Pedraza (Money Heist) join the cast of road movie Europa. The film will follow a young British woman who escapes from London and drives across Europe, only to form an intense relationship with another woman. Think of it as a European Thelma & Louise (1991). Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) also stars in the film.

Isabella Rossellini will play a woman plagued by lost love in Vermillion. A film about Marie Antoinette’s pre-war love triangle. Directed by Jon Amiel (The Core). Shooting early 2027. Rossellini will also be honored with the coveted Excellence Award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

Connor Storrie (Heated Rivalry) has his eyes set on A24 boarding his second project with the studio in just a few months. After just joining the Molly Gordon comedy Peaked, the new A24 project, Please, comes from Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn and, unfortunately, both the plot and Storrie’s role are being kept under wraps for now.

Michael Ealy (Power Book II: Ghost) stars as MGM+’s upcoming The Magnificent Seven remake. Based on the legendary 1960 Western film of the same name (Trailer), the show follows seven elite gunfighters who are hired to defend their village from a ruthless bandit. Ealy will play Vin Tanner, who was played by the iconic Steve Mcqueen in the 1960 film and Chris Pratt in Antoine Fuqua’s 2016 remake.

Slow Horses breakout star Ruth Bradley is joining the Irish coming-of-age comedy Bender alongside comedian Bill Burr and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids). Billed as Superbad meets Derry Girls, like her role in the Apple drama, Bradley will play a sharp-tongued and no-nonsense character, a matriarch trying to keep her family together. Filming will begin this summer.

“Nerds!” Actor Donald Gibb has died at 71. He’s best known for unforgettable supporting turns in cult classics like the fraternity comedy Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and the Jean-Claude Van Damme-led martial arts movie Bloodsport (1988). Clip

Melissa Barrera (Scream VI) stars in the upcoming horror feature Inhabit. Written and directed by Adam Alleca (The Last House on the Left), the film will follow a young woman who moves into a rundown apartment only to be terrorized by a possessive entity.

Will Patton (Yellowstone) is adding another western to his resume, set to join MGM+’s The Magnificent Seven series. Inspired by the 1960 original feature, Patton will play a new character, a ruthless and cruel land baron and one of the show’s primary antagonists. From Heroes creator Tim Kring, the series remake is starting production early next month.

The season five cast of Apple TV’s The Morning Show continues to grow with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) set to join. In the New York-set drama, Caplan will play Gwen, a passionate Broadway theater director, though there’s still no word on how her onstage antics will factor into the series’ cutthroat world of morning news.

HBO and Sky Television’s legal drama War has cast Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) and David Harewood (Sherwood) to lead the next case in its second season. Following two rival law firms, both taking on one explosive defamation case, season two has already begun production prior to season one’s premiere at the end of this month.

Golden Globe nominee Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) stars in the new drama Beatrice. The film follows a woman who returns to her husband and child after dying in a car accident, in a new body that they can not recognize. Valentina Bellè (Ferrari) also joins her in the cast.

Squid Game’s Front Man as a martial arts master. Korean star Lee Byun-hun (No Other Choice, Squid Game) will lead a Korean martial arts action film, Nambeol. The project is being described as a hard-boiled martial arts action film set in the early Joseon dynasty. Nambeol means Northern Expedition or Northern conquest in Korean, so we can expect to see some hand-to-hand combat between a rag-tag group of Korean warriors and Japanese pirates in this film.

Apple TV promotes James Marsden from guest star to series lead for new thriller Disavowed. The Paradise actor recently joined the second season of Apple’s ongoing crime dramedy Your Friends & Neighbors, as a suspicious, bold billionaire, unafraid to get his hands dirty. In Disavowed, Marsden will play the opposite type of character, a legendary and respectable CIA officer, with the series coming from Iron Man (2008) co-writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

Get your broomsticks out, Disney is developing Hocus Pocus 3. Serving as the sequel to Disney+’s most-watched original film in 2022, writer Jen D’Angelo is returning with Hannah Waddingham’s mother witch character set to take more of the focus. Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker have not signed on yet, but are expected to reprise their roles.

The “Purple Guy” from the FNaF franchise joins Superman 2. Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) is set to join the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow. No info on his role, but we would love to see him in a slightly unhinged Superman-villain role, like Trickster or Toyman, that could highlight his ability to swing from comedic to crazy real fast.

Mini Tidbits:

Vision Films (Extinction) has acquired the rights to the Jeff Bridges-narrated documentary In the Company of Wolves: An American Journey (trailer). The doc follows wolves and other animals throughout history, exposing how the wild reflects the state of our society. The film will premiere at Cannes next week.

David Arquette (The Mess We Made), Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind), and William Zabka (Cobra Kai) join Season 2 of Prime Video’s Scarpetta. The show follows Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman) and Dorothy Farinelli (Jamie Lee Curtis) as they solve a grisly murder in their hometown.

Abigail Bresline (Little Miss Sunshine) and David Denman (Brightburn) join the cast of the final season of Netflix’s The Night Agent. Bresline will play a young FBI agent, and Denman will play a veteran CIA agent and former head of a Joint Terrorism Task Force.

HBO Max’s drama pilot How to Survive Without Me casts Rita Wilson (Sleepless in Seattle) in a lead role. An ensemble family drama, Wilson plays the “Me” the title is referring to, a lovely and accomplished mother who finds a way to keep her family connected even after losing her battle with cancer.

Melissa Collazo (Motorheads) will lead Prime Video’s The Probability of Miracles. Based on the novel of the same name, the show will follow a teenager dying of cancer who moves to the town of Promise, where miracles are said to happen. Henry Eikenberry (Euphoria) will lead alongside Collazo.

Disney is not letting go of Diego Luna that easily. The Andor actor has been cast in the upcoming live-action Tangled movie in an unknown, presumably new role. Luna can currently be seen on his journey to becoming a devoted rebel leader in the ongoing second and final season of Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s Andor (S2 trailer). Tangled will begin filming next month in Spain.

Mexican cartels, possessed children, and the supernatural. Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and Demián Bichir (The Nun) star in action-thriller Hold The Devil, directed by Álex de la Iglesia (The Day of the Beast). The film follows a police officer, Sara Myall (Randolph), and a security guard, Henry Campos (Bichir), who are trapped in a remote house with a young boy whose supernatural power makes him the target of a ruthless cartel leader. Randolph nailed the role as a lonesome cafeteria manager and grieving mother in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers; we’re excited to see that nurturing performance carried into the thriller genre.

Mini Tidbits:

Fox’s Marriage Market has found their host in actress and comedian Whitney Cummings (NBC’s Whitney). The newest matchmaking series will follow singles who relinquish all control of their love lives to their families, with an engagement as the end goal.

The many nurses of M*A*S*H, Gwen Farrell Adair, has passed away at 94. The actress starred as multiple nurses, as well as an anesthesiologist, popping up all throughout the CBS war dramedy’s eleven-season run.

Beau Starr, actor best known for the Halloween franchise and playing Ray Liotta’s abusive father in Goodfellas, dies at 81.

Evie Templeton (Netflix’s Wednesday) joins Gothic thriller Victorian Psycho, which will premiere in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes. The film follows a governess as she arrives at a remote gothic mansion, where strange things start happening around her. Alongside Templeton are Maika Monroe (It Follows), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus).

Ahead of its season one premiere, Amazon has already started casting for season two of its college-set romance series Off Campus. The lead of Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025), India Fowler, will play a sociology major freshman and the season’s main love interest. The show premiere is scheduled for May 13th.

Spooky Pictures’ newest horror, Sundowning, brings on two rising stars to its cast. Heated Rivalry breakout actor Robbie G.K. and Elizabeth Dulau, who was able to go toe to toe with Stellan Skarsgård in Disney+’s Andor. The film exposes the terrifying secrets of a secluded end-of-life facility.

Ulrich Thomsen (Legends), Erik Svedberg-Zelman (Helicopter Heist), John Larroquette (Night Court), and Rob Yang (Succession) join the cast of Prime Video’s thriller Bishop. The show follows Bishop Graves (Joel Kinnaman), who is on a hunt for a serial killer targeting San Francisco’s rich class.

Éanna Hardwicke (A Very Royal Scandal) joins Channing Tatum in Amazon MGM’s Motorsports film Isle of Man.