Netflix is losing the streaming rights to ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks and Recreation’, so the natural move is to replace them with something similar. Steve Carell is reuniting with Greg Daniels, who adapted ‘The Office’ for American TV, and executive producer Howard Klein to bring ‘Space Force’ to Netflix. Daniels serves as showrunner, of the series which is described as “a workplace comedy centered around the people tasked with creating a sixth branch of the armed services.” Yes, it’s based on the real idea that Donald Trump came up with, for… basically, a real version of ‘Star Trek’. Paul King (‘Paddington’, ‘Paddington 2’) is directing at least two episodes. Production is said to have just begun.
Carell will star, as Mark R. Naird, “a General tapped by the White House to lead a new branch of the Armed Forces with the goal of putting American ‘Boots on the Moon’ by 2024.” Now the rest of the cast is being filled in with the legendary John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, and Tawny Newsome, all as series regulars, with Jimmy O. Yang, and Alex Sparrow in recurring roles.
RELATED: ‘The Office’ Vets Bring ‘Space Force’ To Netflix
This will be Malkovich’s first sitcom gig, but he will be seen in HBO’s upcoming ‘The New Pope’, a follow-up to ‘The Young Pope’. He will play Dr. Adrian Mallory, “Head Science Advisor, brilliant, arrogant and hoping to prevent space from becoming the next great international battlefield.”
‘Parks & Rec’s Schwartz plays F. Tony Scarapiducci, “a self-centered media consultant whose Machiavellian goals only sometimes line up with those of Mark or Space Force.” In addition to playing Jean-Ralphio on ‘Parks & Rec’, Schwartz has recurred on ‘Modern Family’, and does tons of voice work, on ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, ‘Duck Tales’, and ‘BoJack Horseman’. He also voices the titular video game character in the ‘Sonic the Hedgehod’ movie.
Silvers co-starred in this year’s acclaimed comedy ‘Booksmart’. She was seen earlier this year on the Hulu horror anthology ‘Into the Dark’, and thrillers ‘Ma’ and ‘Glass’. On ‘Space Force’, she will play Carell’s character’s daughter, Erin Naird. “Popular and an A-student in Washington DC, Mark’s daughter is an outcast in Wild Horse Colorado after transferring to a remote military base and turns to delinquency.”
Newsome’s character, Angela Ali, is described as a “Helicopter pilot, ambitious and competitive, with secret dreams that she keeps close to the vest.”
Newsome is headed into space in another upcoming series, ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’, an animated show coming to CBS All Access. Newsome voices Ensign Mariner. She is also a cast member of ‘Brockmire’ and ‘Sherman’s Showcase’ which both air on the IFC, and of the streaming show ‘Bajillion Dollar Propertie$’, which is moving over to Viacom’s PlutoTV, after having started on Comcast/NBCUniversal’s Seeso.
Yang is probably best known for playing Jian Yang on HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’, but he has also appeared on ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and the movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. He will appear in Blumhouse’s upcoming film ‘Fantasy Island’.
On ‘Space Force’ he plays Doctor Chan Kaifang, “Doctor Mallory’s right hand man, Chan is a brilliant astrophysicist and rocket engineer who immigrated from China as a teenager and loves all things American, from fly fishing to the Baltimore Orioles.”
Finally, Sparrow portrays Yuri ‘Bobby’ Telatovich, “A charming observer from the Russian Government, Yuri is curious about many things in Mark’s life, like his daughter, or the tech specs of the Javelin missile.”
Recently Sparrow was seen on the Lifetime series ‘UnReal’. Previously, he won the Russian versions of ‘The X-Factor’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’.
It was previously announced that Don Lake from the Disney Channel’s ‘Pup Academy will play Brad Gregory, “Mark R. Naird’s gatekeeper and assistant, Brad is actually a one-star general in his own right.”
As for Carell himself, he is also starring in Apple TV+’s ‘Morning Show’, with Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon.
Since production has just begun, it’s likely that ‘Space Force’ will arrive sometime in 2020. How do you think a space-based version of ‘The Office’ sounds?
Source: Deadline
