Marvel’s directing duo, brothers Joe and Anthony Russo might be pulling a Duffer Brothers, turning their sights to TV, with Syfy’s ‘Deadly Class’. This series, about an elite school of adolescent assassins, is based on the Image comic book series by Rick Remender and Wes Craig. Remender co-created the TV series with Miles Orion Feldsott, executive producer of the digital comedy series ‘American Koko’. Lee Toland Krieger is directing the pilot and is expected to serve as showrunner.
The show is described as:
The pilot Deadly Class follows a disillusioned teen recruited into a storied high school for assassins. Maintaining his moral code while surviving a ruthless curriculum, vicious social cliques, and his own adolescent uncertainties may prove fatal. Set against the backdrop of late 80s counterculture, Deadly Class is described as a coming of age journey, unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Syfy has set the core cast as:
Benedict Wong – Master Lin
Master Lin [is] the headmaster of the School for the Deadly Arts. Deadly and feared. He’s an ever-changing chameleon who keeps his students desperate for his approval.
Wong is of course best known to genre fans for playing… well, Wong, in last year’s ‘Doctor Strange’. Before that, he played Kublai Khan for two seasons on the Netflix series ‘Marco Polo’ and he had a small role in ‘The Martian’. He will be seen in the anthology series ‘Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams’ which will be available on Amazon and is reprising the role of Wong in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ due out next year.
Benjamin Wadsworth – Marcus
At one point we were all Marcus, an awkward outcast full of social anxiety struggling to find his place in the cold and brutal world of high school. Marcus is bottled rage. If his life had been normal this kid might have been an artist, even a poet. Instead, he’s had to survive life on the streets of San Francisco. His eyes show it. He’s morally centered in an unethical world.
Wadsworth may be best known for his Youtube series ‘Dad vs. Lad’, but he has made numerous TV appearances on shows such as ‘Teen Wolf’ and ‘Girl Meets World’. He had the lead role of Henry in the pilot for the TV adaptation of ‘Let The Right One In’ which was not picked up to series by TNT.
Lana Condor – Saya
Mysterious and guarded with a deadly reputation. Saya was banished from one of the top Yakuza clans in Japan, sent to the School for the Deadly Arts to redeem herself. Driven to be the valedictorian, nothing will stand in her way.
Like Wong, Condor should be familiar to comic fans for portraying a Marvel superhero; in her case, Jubilee in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’. She had a part in the Mark Wahlberg/Kevin Bacon drama ‘Patriots Day’ and she will be seen next July in Robert Rodriguez’s anime adaptation ‘Alita: Battle Angel’.
Maria Gabriela de Faria – Maria
One minute Maria’s an extrovert and an exhibitionist, a tornado of ever-changing emotions—fierce, charming, beautiful and oozing femininity — the next she’s murderous, feral, and crippled by rage. At the School for the Deadly Arts, her instability is treated like a superpower.
(Er, beautiful isn’t an emotion… just sayin’.) de Faria is a phenomenon in Spanish-speaking countries having been part of the Nickelodeon series ‘Isa TKM’ and its follow-up ‘Isa TK+’ which spawned sold out concert tours and two #1 albums. Most recently, she was the lead on another Spanish-language Nick telenovela ‘Yo Soy Franky’ on which she played an android.
Luke Tennie – Willie
A hardened gangster, but underneath is an honest and thoughtful person who would rather be reading comic books and listening to music than engaging in blood work. Forced by his mother, leader of an LA gang, into the School for the Deadly Arts, he is under endless pressure to become the thing he hates most.
Newcomer Luke Tennie only has one major credit to his name, a small role in the Rob Reiner-directed true life drama ‘Shock and Awe’ which stars Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Jessica Biel, Mila Jovovich and Tommy Lee Jones. The film has not yet been released in the U.S.
Liam James – Billy
Billy [is a] skater punk, son of a corrupt cop and now a misfit at the school. He’s off-kilter and high energy. Billy combats every situation with sarcasm and humor. Always a glimmer of mischief in his eye.
James most recently starred in the small film ‘Speech & Debate’. Prior to that, he was a regular on the ABC drama ‘The Family’ and on the series ‘The Killing’. He may also be remembered for playing young Shawn on the series ‘Psych’.
Michel Duval – Chico
Chico, scary, muscular, son of a cartel drug lord. Everyone knows not to mess with Chico. The only one who can hurt him is his girlfriend.
Duval is best known for the long-running telenovela ‘Señora Acero’ (‘Lady of Steel’) on Telemundo and before that, starred on the series ‘Lo Imperdonable’ (‘Unforgivable’). He starred on the USA series ‘Queen of the South’, which was an adaptation of the telenovela ‘La Reina del Sur’.
In addition, the cast includes Henry Rollins as Jürgen Denke, Taylor Hickson as Petra, Siobhan Williams as Brandy, Jack Gillett as Viktor, Sean Depner as Lex, Ryan Robbins as Rory.
The ‘Deadly Class’ comic book has been published by Image Comics since 2014.
Source: Deadline
