Last month, production began on Rian Johnson’s upcoming Peacock TV series Poker Face, “a case-of-the-week mystery series” that is set to star Russian Doll‘s Natasha Lyonne. There has been a lot of casting news about the new series and the latest update from Variety says Big Bang Theory alum Simon Helberg has been added in an unknown role.
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In addition to Lyonne and Helberg, Poker Face will also include Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Looper), Benjamin Bratt (Doctor Strange), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once), David Castañeda (The Umbrella Academy), Adrien Brody (Succession), Jameela Jamil (She-Hulk), Tim Meadows (Space Force), and more.
“Poker Face is a case-of-the-week mystery series, anchored entirely by Natasha as the ‘detective,’” Johnson previously explained. “The show was created around her, and the whole thing is tailored to Natasha like a bespoke suit. It could only exist with her charisma and presence at the center of it… She’s got a very Fellini-type sensibility, where the funny and absurd is a way into the dark and personal. It’s inspiring to me, seeing how unafraid she is to push further and further in that direction.”
“Rian Johnson’s distinct sensibility and talent for telling edge-of-your-seat mysteries is a massive gift for Peacock, and we can’t wait for audiences to delve into each case,” added Lisa Katz, President, Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, in a statement when the series was announced. “Paired with the acting genius of Natasha Lyonne, this series will be entertaining and addictive.”
This isn’t the only Johnson-led mystery fans have to look forward to. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is hitting Netflix later this year and will serve as the long-awaited follow-up to Johnson’s Knives Out. Glass Onion will follow Daniel Craig’s Detective Blanc solving a completely unrelated case from the death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) in the first film. The new movie will feature performances from Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Madelyn Cline, Jessica Henwick, and Ethan Hawke.
“In the ’30s, when it was really taking root, you think about the state of the world back then, and how much moral uncertainty there was in the world, and that’s something that’s very distinct to the whodunit genre, is the moral certitude of it,” Johnson told Vanity Fair. “It has this comforting thing where the world is thrown into chaos by this crime, and the detective comes in and you know that the good-person detective is going to set the world right by the end of it. Figure it out, restore moral order, and the bad person will go to jail. You can see why that would have felt really, really good in the ’30s. And I think that’s also, that feels really, really good right now.”
Poker Face does not yet have a release date. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is expected to stream on Netflix this fall.
