[credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Rian Johnson (6855052782), CC BY-SA 2.0]
As excitement builds for Rian Johnson’s upcoming Peacock series Poker Face, MusicObserver has learned that four new actors have been added to an already star-studded cast. Cherry Jones, Luis Guzmán, Hong Chau, and Reed Birney will join an ensemble helmed by Natasha Lyonne (Orange Is The New Black) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, last seen on the small screen playing Uber founder Travis Kalanick in Showtime’s Super Pumped. The show has been billed as a ‘mystery comedy-drama’ and will feature a new case each week. Also signed up are Ron Perlman, Nick Nolte and Simon Helberg – however whether these actors – or any of the new four – will be principal characters or one-off guest stars is a tightly kept secret at this stage.
Casting aces
Getting Guzmán could be seen as a coup for showrunner Johnson. He’s currently the talk of social media through his casting as Gomez in the new Addams Family show, Wednesday. Jones brings with her an assurance of quality – her TV projects have included Black Mirror, Succession and The Handmaid’s Tale, where she won an Emmy for her portrayal of Holly. Poker Face will be Chau’s only TV work of 2022, although she’s been seen on the big screen three times, in The Menu, Showing Up and Brendan Fraser’s return to leading roles, The Whale. Birney has plenty of experience in the mystery genre from two seasons playing Sylvester Lisko in Home Before Dark.
Writing winners
There’s a good reason for Peacock to have gone all in on Johnson with Poker Face. A fall of fantasy with both Game Of Thrones and Lord Of The Rings series may lead viewers to long for the less lavish, and a classic whodunnit might be playing their cards right. His last two movies as a director have been Knives Out, and its sequel, the imminent Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The Agatha Christie-esque storylines and impressive ensemble casts (headed up by Daniel Craig in both flicks) mean Johnson is in familiar territory. The show creator will direct and executive produce Poker Face, although it will be his first foray into writing a TV series. Given he scooped the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Knives Out and the format being self-contained episodes – little movies if you like – any concerns should likely be hastily folded.
Awaiting the deal
Why Poker Face though? With no leaks in potential plotlines (as befits a crime caper) we can only speculate. A poker face, of course, is one of the most popular poker terms, meaning the face one pulls when trying to hide emotions. Could it be referencing a suspect under questioning from a detective? Could it refer to the game itself? Perhaps – but card terminology has always spilled out through to popular entertainment. Think Lady Gaga’s song of the same name, or the classic 1980s-90s sitcom Full House. We can go back as far as 1946 to find Jack Carson and Joan Leslie in Royal Flush (and Eddie Murphy won’t tell you this, but Coming To America owes that movie quite the debt). With details on the upcoming series – even its release date – being currently kept locked behind a…well….poker face…from Peacock, fans should stay tuned to MusicObserver for the latest news.
