Jordan Peele
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Following the Academy Award-winning success of ‘Get Out’, Jordan Peele is turning his attention to the small screen, with a new comedic science fiction anthology series ‘Weird City’ which will be available on YouTube Premium.  Peele has also won an Emmy for his work on sketch comedy series ‘Key & Peele’ and will be collaborating with Emmy-nominated writer Charlie Sanders.

‘Weird City’ is set in the futuristic metropolis known as Weird and each episode will focus on a social issue of today filtered through a comedic sci-fi lens.  Jose Molina (‘The Tick’, ‘Agent Carter’, ‘Sleepy Hollow’) will serve as showrunner and executive producer of this six-episode series, which premieres sometime in 2019.

Though their roles are not known at this time, among the big names that Peele has attracted to this project are LeVar Burton, Michael Cera, Laverne Cox, Rosario Dawson, Sara Gilbert, Dylan O’Brien and Ed O’Neill.  Burton first gained recognition for playing Kunta Kinte in the landmark series ‘Roots’ but is perhaps better known for his iconic role as Geordi La Forge on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and in several subsequent films and other ‘Trek’ projects and for hosting the educational PBS series ‘Reading Rainbow’.

Michael Cera became the poster boy for millennial slackers in his role as George Michael Bluth on ‘Arrested Development’ and in such films as ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World’, ‘Superbad’, ‘Juno’, ‘Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist’ and ‘This is the End’.  Last year, he voiced Dick Grayson/Robin in ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’.

Laverne Cox is best known for playing trans prisoner Sophia Burset on Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black’, which just returned for its seventh season.  She also starred as Frank-N-Furter in the live performance ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again’ and starred on the short-lived legal soap ‘Doubt’.

Rosario Dawson has appeared as nurse Claire Temple in Netflix’s various Marvel Comics-based series, including ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Luke Cage’, ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘The Defenders’.  In other comic book-related projects, she voices Wonder Woman in Warner Brothers’ animated ‘Justice League’ movies and appeared opposite Michael Cera in last year’s ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl.  She also has a regular role on ‘Jane the Virgin’.

Sara Gilbert is known for co-hosting the morning chat-fest ‘The View’.  She also reprised her role as Darlene Conner on the recent revival of sitcom ‘Roseanne’ and will appear when the show returns in the fall as ‘The Conners’.  She also appeared on the now cancelled sitcom ‘Living Biblically’.  She has also appeared on ’24’, ‘ER’, ‘Bad Teacher’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’.

Dylan O’Brien recently wrapped the sixth and final season of ‘Teen Wolf’ on which he played sidekick Stiles, and the YA film series ‘The Maze Runner’, in which he played the lead, Thomas.  He has also had roles in the movies ‘Deepwater Horizon’, ‘The Internship’ and ‘American Assassin’.

Ed O’Neill portrays patriarch Jay Pritchett on the successful sitcom ‘Modern Family’ which will kick off its tenth season this fall.  Before that, of course, he was best known for playing Al Bundy in the classic ’80s-’90s series ‘Married with Children’.  He has also had roles in ‘Dragnet’, ‘John From Cincinnati’ and ‘The West Wing’.  He is also a frequent voice actor, having had roles in ‘Finding Dory’, ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’, ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, and ‘The Penguins of Madagascar’.

‘Weird City’ premiers next year on YouTube.  Check back for more information as it becomes available.

Source: Deadline