Role Call: Spinoffs and Spies

There’s a lot to cover in this week’s Role Call – from the Walking Dead spinoff to a spy thriller, to a return to children’s television, our favorite cast members are bringing us all sorts of interesting new entertainment this year! Take a look!

Frank Dillane‘s (young Tom Riddle, HBP) Walking Dead spinoff has yet to hit the airwaves but the new series has already been picked up for two full seasons! Entertainment Weekly reports that the new companion series will begin airing in late summer and will run for only six episodes. Show runner Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy) is excited for the support from AMC, saying,

This vote of confidence from our partners at AMC is gratifying, to say the least. We’ve been blessed with amazing writers and a stellar cast—and we can’t wait to build this apocalyptic drama over the next two seasons and hopefully beyond.

Sir Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart) is no doubt pleased with the reception of his latest film, Cinderella, which earned nearly 70 million dollars during the opening weekend, but we were a bit tickled when this interview from MTV After Hours popped up! The actor reveals who he truly is, his favorite musician, and which celebrity he’d like to work out with. Take a look at the interview below!

In an interview with MoviePhone, Cinderella‘s male lead, Richard Madden, talked about working with Branagh and made a tiny mention about working with him again on the West End in Romeo and Juliet:

He’s inspirational. It was like taking a master class every day in acting and just how to conduct yourself and me and him and Lily have a great chemistry together, and a great working relationship and we’re working together in 2016. Lily and I are playing Romeo and Juliet on stage, and Kenneth is directing on the West End in London. Doing Shakespeare on stage with Kenneth Branagh, I don’t think it gets better than that.

Another familiar face from the film, although almost unrecognizable as a blonde, is Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange). Kenneth reveals to HitFix that she told him she would only take the role under one condition. Take a look below:

Variety also reported that Helena’s drama Codes of Conduct was picked up for a six episode run on HBO. No word yet on when the series will begin production or when it will debut.

Get ready, New York! John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick) will be reuniting with the rest of the remaining Pythons for a special screening of The Holy Grail at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24 at the Beacon Theater. Tickets can be purchased here!

Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) will lend her voice to Mama Rose once more, this time on a cast album for the play! No word on when the Gypsy cast album will be available for purchase.

Actor Freddie Stroma (Cormac McLaggen) is set to take on Michael Bay’s drama 13 Hours, “as an undercover CIA agent in Libya in the film, which centers on the attack of a US State Department Special Mission Compound in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11”. According to Digital Spy, the production is slated to begin filming next month in Morocco and Malta. The film is based on the book by Mitchel Zuckoff titled Thirteen Hours: A Firsthand Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi. Stroma can be seen this summer when his Lifetime series Unreal debuts on June 1.

Jim Broadbent is rumored to be taking on a well-known children’s series…according to the Huffington Post, he will be tackling the role of ‘Voice Trumpet’ in the return of the Teletubbies series. The voice trumpet in the previous series appeared from underneath the grass in every episode to make announcements.

Genevieve Gaunt, who portrayed Pansy Parkinson in Prisoner of Azkaban, will appear in a new film called The Face of an Angel, inspired by the ongoing Amanda Knox trial. She is also set to star in Slapper and Me, opposite Luke Newberry, who portrayed young Teddy Lupin in the cut scenes from Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

I went for the romantic lead, so I asked, ‘Am I the slapper?'” she laughed. “No. Slapper is a dog and Luke [Newberry] and I are the leads. It’s a coming-of-age British film and I play a girl who works in a chippie [fish and chip shop] and has a Yorkshire accent.

Speaking of Luke, it was announced this week that he has joined the cast of BBC One’s From Darkness. He revealed a tiny bit about his role, saying,

Katie Baxendale has written a gripping and complex human drama, and Boyce goes on a remarkable journey of self-discovery.

Read the synopsis of the crime thriller below, which will also star Adrian Rawlings, who portrayed James Potter throughout the Potter series:

From Darkness tells the story of Claire Church (Duff), a former police officer who moves away to the remote Western Isles in an attempt to escape the past and violence that still haunts her. Soon, Claire is pulled back into an investigation she thought she long left behind, by her former lover and colleague DCI John Hind (Johnny Harris) and his new DS Anthony Boyce (Luke Newberry).

That wraps up this week’s Casting News – check back next week when we check out the first Pixels trailer, a television spot for Child 44, and hear more about Ex Machina and Star Wars from Domhnall Gleeson!