Marvel's Luke Cage Star Alfre Woodard Joins Stephen King's Salem's Lot

The cast for New Line Cinema's big screen adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot has just gotten a major new addition with Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard signing on for a role. Deadline reports that Woodard will play a gender-swapped version of Dr. Jimmy Cody from the original novel, just referred to as "Dr. Cody" in the trade's write-up. As in the book, Woodard's character joins some of her fellow townspeople to hunt down the vampire threat. She joins a cast that includes Lewis Pullman (son of actor Bill Pullman and star of Bad Times at the El Royale) as lead character, Ben Mears. Others set to appear include Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, and Spencer Treat Clark.

Woodard's career in Hollywood spans across five different decades with her making a major splash in 1983 when she was nominated for an Academy Award for Cross Creek. Her recent hits include roles in 12 Years a Slave and Disney's photo-real remake of The Lion King, but younger fans may know her best for appearing on Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix and the pivotal scene she shares with Robert Downey Jr. in Captain America: Civil War. She can next be seen in the Netflix original film The Gray Man, reuniting her with Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

The new Salem's Lot, technically the first feature film adaptation of the King novel, is set to be written and directed by Gary Dauberman, who previously worked with Woodard on The Conjuring spinoff film Annabelle. Dauberman previously dabbled in the realm of Stephen King by writing the scripts for the two IT movies. Salem's Lot marks his second as a director having previously helmed 2019's Annabelle Comes Home..

"I did have a unique way into it but again, I think the book in itself is unique," Dauberman previously told SlashFilm about his work on the film. "Certainly now, I haven't seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time and I'd really love to tackle that. It's one of my favorite books. It's one of my favorite Stephen King books. We felt it should have the cinematic treatment that we gave It. It was a miniseries as well. The experience of bringing that to the big screen was such a joy that I was so happy we will have the opportunity to do that for Salem's Lot."

No release date for the new 'Salem's Lot has been announced yet but production is scheduled to begin this month.