TV Casting Call: Emilia Clarke, Renée Zellweger, Halle Berry, and Wendie Malick

By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 11, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | July 11, 2024 |

Emilia Clarke has been added to the cast of Criminal, based on the Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips graphic novel. The cast at this point is insane: Charlie Hunnam, Richard Jenkins, John Hawkes, Adria Arjona, Logan Browning, Kadeem Hardison, Pat Healy, Michael Mando, and Dominic Burgess, among others. In addition, Brubaker is a co-showrunner on the series along with Jordan Harper, a very fine novelist.

In news that just seems right, Mireille Enos is reuniting with her The Killing co-star Joel Kinnaman as a fifth season cast member of For All Mankind, where she’ll presumably be playing someone about 30 years younger than Kinnaman’s character. Poor Kinnaman. Much of the original cast has shuffled off with all the time jumps, but Kinnaman remains, aged up and trembling, sapped of all his Kinnaman-ness. Enos — who I always like to remember is married to Alan Ruck — will be a fine addition as “a member of the Peacekeeper Security Force on Mars,” which almost certainly means that she and Kinnaman will share scenes together.

Renée Zellweger, currently working on yet another Bridget Jones sequel, is giving television another go. She’ll star in Jane Smith, a legal thriller based on a James Patterson character from his novel with Mike Lupica, 12 Months to Live. It’s set up at Max. Smith is a brilliant defense attorney who is saddled with a challenging case right after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.

I haven’t loved the Night Court reboot, but I have enjoyed seeing Wendie Malick as Dan Fielding’s volatile ex. She’s now been upped to a series regular and will fill the prosecutor role vacated by India De Beaufort. I hope she’s still left with enough time to continue appearing on Shrinking, too.

Elsewhere, Ellen Pompeo, who I feel has left Grey’s Anatomy a couple of times now, will appear in as many as 14 of next season’s 18 episodes. She’s basically a series regular again.

Finally, Halle Berry and Glenn Close are uniting for a legal drama characterized as a “high-end, glossy and sexy adult procedural.” OK! Unfortunately, it comes from Ryan Murphy, but I’ll let that pass because of the whole sexy adult procedural thing. I also love that legal dramas are coming back.