Continuing/Returning Series
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Luke Mitchell (Tomorrow People) has been cast as an Inhuman who will help Skye (Chloe Bennet) understand her past in ABC’s Marvel show. For you non-nerds, The Inhumans go back to 1965 and the Stan Lee days of The Fantastic Four. They’re a race of superhumans created by the alien Kree (don’t ask) at the beginning of the Kree-Skrull War (also don’t ask). The mythology of the Inhumans is being developed for the Marvel flick scheduled for 2018. (THR)
New Girl. Damon Wayans Jr. has decided not to return to his role as Coach in FOX’s Zooey Deschanel sitcom next season. Fans of the show will recall he was in the pilot, but his show Happy Endings prevented him from sticking with the series. After Happy ended, he signed on to New Girl as a guest and worked his way up to regular this season. (TVLine)
Upcoming Series.
American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson. Courtney B. Vance (The Preacher’s Wife) will play Johnny Cochran in Ryan Murphy’s true crime show for FX. Previously announced cast include John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, David Schwimmer (Friends) as Robert Kardashian, Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story: Freakshow) as Marcia Clark and Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) as O.J. Honestly, I can’t believe we’re still talking about this goddamn thing in 2015. (TV Line)
Pilots
Divorce. Thomas Haden Church (Sideways, Wings) will play the male lead opposite Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City) in HBO’s comedy pilot about… wait for it… a divorce. Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live) and Talia Balsam (Mad Men) are also on board as Parker’s friends. (THR)
Warrior. Will Yun Lee (Hawaii Five-O) has joined NBC’s martial arts drama pilot from David DiGilio (Crossbones) . “In a grounded, contemporary multicultural and sometimes magical milieu, a damaged heroine works undercover with physical and spiritual guidance from a mysterious martial arts master to bring down an international crime lord.” He’ll play “a deadly and dangerous martial arts expert who is head of a Japanese crime syndicate where he enjoys considerable power, wealth and respect.” (Deadline)
Shaq, Inc. Meryl Hathaway (The Comeback) and Miles Fisher (Psych) will be the leads along with Shaquille O’Neal in the TruTV pilot based loosely on Shaq’s post-NBA dealings in the business world. Matty Cardarople (Selfie) and Carl Anthony Payne (Martin) are also on board. Do I have to be the first one to point out that the only thing Shaq is worse at than shooting free throws is acting? Also, what’s TruTV? (Deadline)
How We Live.Chris Klein (American Pie), Lindsay Price (Eastwick) and Jared Gertner will be the three leads in the NBC single-camera comedy pilot about a man (Klein) and his wife (Price) who move to the suburbs and he starts blogging about the lives of those around him like some kind of David Attenborough anthropologist. Did they come up with this idea in 2006? (Deadline)