Kumail Nanjiani is rounding out his wildly successful 2018 with some exciting casting news.
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The actor/comedian/screenwriter will be joining the cast of the upcoming Twilight Zone reboot, which is set to air on CBS All Access next year. The show will also feature Sanaa Lathan (recently seen in Netflix’s Nappily Ever After) and Adam Scott (best known for playing Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation).
Considering Twilight Zone is an episode-to-episode show, Nanjiani will likely only appear in one episode of the series. According to TV Line, the new show is described as a “modern reimagining of the original.” In the age of Black Mirror and Amazon’s Electric Dreams, sci-fi anthologies seem to be all the rage.
One face you will see consistently throughout the new show is Jordan Peele, who will act as the host/narrator of the series in addition to his role as executive producer.
Peele and Nanjiani are coming off of a great year, having both been nominated for Oscars for Get Out and The Big Sick, respectively. In fact, Peele beat Nanjiani for Best Original Screenplay. Nanjiani was quick to congratulate his opponent before jokingly tweeting, “The Big Sick came in second!”
This Twilight Zone news is coming off the heels of a recent announcement regarding Silicon Valley, the show in which Nanjiani co-stars. It was announced that the HBO comedy will not be returning until 2020. Apparently, the show’s executive producer, Alec Berg, has his hands full with the recent Emmy-winner, Barry.
The future is only looking bright for Nanjiani, who is about to spend a lot of time working with actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’ll be featured in the upcoming Dr. Dolittle reboot, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, which will star Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role and also feature Tom Holland. Nanjiani can also be seen in the untitled Men in Black spin-off, which is set to star Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.
TV Line also reported that the Nanjiani episode of Twilight Zone will be written by Alex Rubens. Rubens has worked with Peele on many projects, being credited for multiple Key and Peele episodes and for co-writing Keanu alongside Peele. Most recently, Rubens has written episodes of Big Mouth and The Last O.G.
The Twilight Zone will debut sometime in 2019 on CBS All Access.
