Sci-Fi Storm

It’s pilot happy season, and there have been some casting announcements:

Syfy has added Patrick Fischler (Lost, Once Upon A Time), Zabryna Guevara (Gotham, The Get Down) and Ritchie Coster (The Dark Knight, Blackhat) to the pilot for Happy!, based on the graphic novel from Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. The show follows Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU), an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop turned hit man, who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit gone wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue winged horse.

Fischler will play Smoothie, a well-dressed mob enforcer and sardonic soulless torturer who claims to take a ‘New Age’ approach to his work.

Guevara is playing Amanda Hansen, a single mom facing every mother’s worst nightmare; the disappearance of her young daughter.

Coster is Mr. Blue/Leonardo Scaramucci, the lead villain whose wealth and status as a legitimate businessman in the wine import trade support an increasingly profitable and highly illegal sideline.

In another Marvel pilot, but for Fox, one of our favorites, Amy Acker, fresh off the final season of Person of Interest, will star in the unnamed X-Men-based show written by Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and directed by Bryan Singer. The show focuses on a family of human parents with mutant children, on the run from a mutant-hostile government. Acker will play mother Kate, who is struggling to deal with her separation from her husband Reed (Stephen Moyer, True Blood) and her increasingly challenging teenage children.

And while not technically a pilot since it got a straight-to-series order, Marvel’s Inhumans added a long list of series regulars to the cast. Anson Mount (Hell On Wheels) will play the leader of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, described as “the enigmatic, commanding King of the Inhumans, with a voice so powerful that the slightest whisper can destroy a city.”

Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) will play Maximus, “…clever and charming Inhuman that is fiercely devoted to the people of Attilan, especially his brother, Black Bolt –though he harbors an intense desire to wear the crown himself.”

Serinda Swan (TRON: Legacy) will play Medusa, “Queen of the Inhumans and wife of Black Bolt — his most trusted advisor, a fiercely resilient warrior who has the ability to move and control her hair the way most people use their hands and fingers.”

Eme Ikwuakor (Extant) will be Gorgon, “Cousin of Black Bolt, member of the Royal family, and leader of Attilan’s military. With super strong legs, complete with hooves, he can generate destructive seismic waves with a single stomp. The yin to his cousin Karnak’s yang, Gorgon would rather fight than talk to solve his problems.”

The seemingly always busy Ken Leung (The Night Shift, Lost) is the aforementioned Karnak, another cousin and Black Bolt’s “closest advisor. His gift is an ability to see the fault in all things — people, plans, structures, everything. He’s Black Bolt’s most ardent supporter and strategist and is often seen as the royal family’s planner and philosopher.”

Mike Moh (Empire) will play Triton, “Black Bolt’s cousin, he’s calm under pressure and supremely athletic. His gift is his fish-like ability to live underwater.”

Sonya Balmores (Soul Surfer) will play Auran, “Head of the Royal Guards on Attilan, a capable and no-nonsense woman. She is fiercely loyal to the King of Attilan.”

Isabelle Cornish (Home and Away) will play Crystal, “the youngest member of the royal family and has the ability to control the elements. Impetuous and independent she is also deeply devoted to her family.”

And last but not least is Ellen Woglom (Hated), who will be playing an “undisclosed character.” All we know is she is “smart, intense, and focused—so focused that often times, social skills take a back seat. Her job at a private aerospace company is her life, second only to her passion for all things space and lunar. She’s primed to be swept up in an adventure.”