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We now know more of the faces behind the upcoming Queer as Folk reboot!
Deadline reports that more actors have been announced as part of the cast for the upcoming Queer As Folk reboot. In mid-August, we learned that nonbinary actress Jesse James Keitel would star in the show. The Big Sky performer will be playing a “trans, semi-reformed party girl who is struggling to grow up.”
Congratulations to UL Lafayette theatre alumna Candace Grace (formerly Taylor), ’15, who has been cast in the lead role of the ABC pilot "Acts of Crime.” We loved seeing Candace perform on the Burke-Hawthorne stage & can’t wait to see her on our TVs! https://t.co/CZO86c3gcu pic.twitter.com/OPHbbpMHE9
— UL Lafayette (@ULLafayette) February 11, 2021
Meanwhile, we also know that this reboot of Russell T. Davis’s 1999 series will take place in modern New Orleans. The show will follow a group of friends “whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy.”
But the new information we recently learned is that Johnny Sibilly (Pose, Hacks), Candace Grace (Acts of Crime), Devin Way (Grey’s Anatomy), Ryan O’Connell (Special), and Fin Argus (Clouds) will join Keitel on the show as series regulars.
But who will they be playing? Sibilly will play, “a successful lawyer who is not as put together as he seems.” Meanwhile, Grace will “play a non-binary professor navigating the rocky transition from punk to parenthood.” Way, on the other hand, will be a “charming and sometimes chaotic commitment-phobe who finds a reason to stay in New Orleans after tragedy rocks his community.” O’Connell will portray “a pop culture nerd with cerebral palsy who is more than ready for some independence.” Then lastly, Argus will be “a cocky high schooler whose confidence belies his lack of real world experience.”
This reboot is created, written, and executive produced by Stephen Dunn. Dunn will also direct the pilot episode. He’ll then be joined by Russell T. Davies as an executive producer alongside Jaclyn Moore, Lee Eisenberg, Emily Brecht, Nicola Schindler, and Richard Halliwell.
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“It is a surreal honor to adapt the notoriously groundbreaking series by Russell T. Davies,” Dunn said at the show’s announcement, according to NBC.
“When the show originally aired, the idea of unapologetic queer stories on TV was so provocative that I felt I could only watch Queer As Folk in secret. But so much has changed in the last 20 years and how wonderful would it be if the next generation didn’t have to watch Queer As Folk alone in their dank basements with the sound muted, but with their family and friends and the volume cranked all the way to the max.”
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For anyone who is unfamiliar with Dunn’s work, I suggest you check out Closet Monster (2015). It is one of my most fav films. He does stellar work and I am really pumped for this reboot.
Ryan O’Connell’s Netflix series, Special is outstanding. I’m thrilled to hear that he’s going to be in this reboot!
Don’t know who most of these people are, which is really not relevant, if the show were good. I’m honestly have been underwhelemed by Davies for a good decade plus now, his recent HBOMax stuff included. I’ve never seen Little America even when I had my free sub to AppleTV+ and was checking out what looked interesting to even sample. So Dunn is a fully unknown quantity as well.
And since they’ve been trying to develop this, first at Bravo and now at Peacock, since NBC Universal’s inhouse production will own the series, it just seems like an unimaginative waste of time. The idea of a large queer, particularly diverse cast, in terms of sexuality, gender and race, and set in New Orleans, is a good one, but it needs strong stories and good writing. I’m expecting either have a baked and under-baked revamp like Chilling Tales of Sabrina or something sad like the reboot of Charmed.