Mr. Robot Casts Strange New Character for Final Season

Sam Esmail's acclaimed Mr. Robot is heading into its fourth and final season this fall and when it does, the series will see a new face joining the cast. Ashlie Atkinson is set to appear opposite series stars Rami Malek and Christian Slater as a series regular for Mr. Robot's final season with Atkinson set to play a somewhat unusual character on the series.

According to Deadline, Atkinson will play Janice, a character described as a "chatty taxidermist with a peculiar sense of humor." Atkinson has previously appeared in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, and the Netflix film Juanita, while her television credits include Happy, Fosse/Verdon, and CBS All Access' One Dollar.

In Mr. Robot, Malek plays Elliot Alderson, a brilliant programmer who works as a cyber-security engineer. Elliott is drafted into an underground society of hackers by the group's mysterious leader, played by Christian Slater. The show's first season saw the hacker group go to war with a massive conglomerate referred to Evil Corp. Season two dealt with the consequences of that attack. Season three sees the reveal that they've been played for a patsy with the corporate overlords intentionally unleashing what appeared to be economic revolution in order for themselves to profit, leading Elliot to try to find a way to stop these true villains by reversing the 5/9 hack and setting his sights on taking the top one percent down.

The full season 4 trailer was released late last month and certainly paints a dark picture of how that will play out. Elliot/Mr. Robot (Malek/Slater) are still wriggling on the hook of business magnate/hacker overlord Whiterose (BD Wong) even as he works on his plan to get out from under Whiterose -- a plan that could lead to major violence in this final war. However the final season of Mr. Robot plays out, Esmail has been clear that when the ending arrives, it will be exactly how he planned it all along.

"Since day one, I've been building toward one conclusion — and in breaking the next season of Mr. Robot, I have decided that conclusion is finally here," Esmail said via statement. "Everyone on the creative team, including the amazing people at USA and UCP, didn't want to say goodbye, but we ultimately have too much respect for Elliot's journey to extend past its inevitable ending. Therefore, season four will serve as the final chapter of the Mr. Robot story. To fans of the show: thank you for the past three years, and I can't wait to share this exciting final season with you."

Mr. Robot Season 4 premieres on the USA Network this fall.