As buzz grows louder for his new Netflix series The Politician following last week's trailer, Ryan Murphy has started casting his next show for the streamer, and multiple sources have told Collider that Broadway sensation Jeremy Pope has landed the lead role.
Murphy took to Instagram back in February to announce that his next series, Hollywood, would "begin principal photography this summer," calling it "a love letter to the Golden Age of Tinseltown." Pope is expected to play a gay, aspiring writer in 1940s Hollywood, and he'll likely be joined by a slew of Murphy regulars, including Darren Criss (American Crime Story), Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story), Jim Parsons (The Normal Heart), David Corenswet (The Politician) and Joe Mantello (The Normal Heart).
Murphy recently told Time Magazine that his Pose star Patti LuPone and Holland Taylor had joined the Hollywood cast, and sources add that Murphy will be casting actors to play closeted screen legend Rock Hudson and two-time Oscar winner Spencer Tracy. Netflix declined to confirm or comment on any casting.
"This straight-to-series production will be my third show for Netflix and I couldn’t be more excited or proud about the work we are doing together," wrote Murphy, who co-created Hollywood with frequent collaborator Ian Brennan. The two of them previously co-created Glee, Scream Queens and the upcoming Netflix series The Politician starring Ben Platt and Gwyneth Paltrow. Murphy will follow The Politician with Ratched, which is expected to debut on Netflix in 2020, with Sarah Paulson playing the infamous nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Pope recently made his Broadway play debut in Choir Boy, in which he plays a young man coming to terms with his sexuality and identity, and he also made his Broadway musical debut in Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, in which he played Eddie Kendricks, a founding member of the Motown group. His peers noticed his work on stage, voting him just the sixth actor in Tony Awards history to be nominated for two separate performance in the same year. Pope is represented by Gersh and Door 24, and representatives for the actor did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Per Time Magazine, Hollywood is expected to debut on Netflix in May.
