The cast of Starz‘ upcoming eight-episode hour long wrestling drama Heels has gotten a bit bigger. Mary McCormack has been cast in a lead role opposite Arrow star Stephen Amell and Hunger Games actor Alexander Ludwig. The series was announced back in August 2019 and Amell recently noted on Twitter that the show would be “going to camera in less than a month”. Production on Heels had previously been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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According to Deadline McCormack, who recently starred in ABC’s The Kids Are Alright, will play Jack Spade’s (Amell) business partner, Willie. Described as the logistical brains behind the local wrestling organization who came up during the glory days as Wild Bill’s (Chris Bauer) valet, Willie grew tired of babysitting the wrestler and left just as his career took off. When Wild Bill returns to the local wrestling circuit, it complicates her life as does the reflection of her younger self that she sees in Crystal (Kelli Berglund).
Amell has previously teased that the series will see some crazy stunts as it is a show about wrestling and that he will do those stunts himself.
“I’ve got a lot of training to do starting in January, but yeah, eight episodes,” Amell said in an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast earlier this year. “I’m not going to have a stunt double. I can’t. I’m going to be in a Speedo. How the f-ck am I going to have a stunt double? I’m going to wear wrestling trunks, we call them trunks, but it’s ostensibly a Speedo.”
He then explained that his character will wrestle a few times in the first episode and that it was going lead to some interesting times on the series.
“I’m going to have to do some crazy sh-t.”
You can check out the description of Heels below.
“Written by Michael Waldron (Loki), with Mike O’Malley set as showrunner, Heels is about the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small-town pro wrestling. Set in a close-knit Georgia community, it follows a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals — one of them played by Amell — war over their late father’s legacy. In the ring, somebody must play the good guy, and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel (Amell). But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind.”
In the ring, Amell’s Jack Spade is the charismatic villain, or heel, of the Duffy Wrestling Association (DWA). In the real world, he’s its hard-working owner, a husband and father trying to make ends meet while fighting to realize his impossible dreams. He has the mind of an artist in the body of a warrior, and a Steve Jobs-ian need for perfection — and for control. He says he’ll do whatever it takes to build the DWA into an empire. Will he go so far as to risk his marriage, or his relationship with his brother?”
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