‘This Is Us’ Season 4 Casts ‘When They See Us’ Duo, M. Night Shyamalan (Watch the First Trailer)
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – When “This Is Us” returns to NBC for its fourth season, the ensemble will be growing significantly.
Joining the cast in various capacities still to be announced are “When They See Us” stars Asante Blackk and Marsha Stephanie Blake, as well as Omar Epps, Bahara Golestani, Jennifer Morrison, Timothy Omundson, director M. Night Shyamalan, Julian Silva, Auden Thornton and Nick Wechsler.
These castings were announced via a trailer for the season that NBC dropped Saturday. In it, Mandy Moore’s character, matriarch Rebecca Pearson notes how strange it is that “just like that a complete stranger can become such a big part of your story.”
From there, the trailer offers glimpses of some of these new characters, including Morrison as a member of the armed services, Epps as a mechanic and Thornton as a waitress, with Rebecca commenting that “it’s actually kind of terrifying” how “a single cross with one person you’ve never met can change everything.”
The premiere episode will also be extended, airing linearly on Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. and ending “shortly after 10 p.m.,” per the network.
These new players are in addition to the usual extended Pearson clan that consists of Milo Ventimiglia, Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Chris Sullivan, Susan Kelechi Watson, Jon Huertas, Hannah Zeile, Niles Fitch, Logan Shroyer, Mackenzie Hancsicsak, Parker Bates, Faithe Herman, Eris Baker, Ron Cephas Jones and Lyric Ross.
NBC has also confirmed that key Season 3 players Griffin Dunne, Tim Jo, Elizabeth Perkins, Phylicia Rashad and Caitlin Thompson will return in Season 4, as well.
This is Blackk’s second-ever television role after his turn as the young version of the real-life Kevin Richardson in Ava DuVernay and Netflix’s” When They See Us.” Blake also starred in that limited series, as the real-life Linda McCray, and also recently booked a part in “How To Get Away With Murder’s” final season . Epps was most recently seen on USA’s “Shooter,” while Golestani had a role on TNT’s “Animal Kingdom,” Silva has been starring on USA’s “Queen of the South,” and Thornton most recently appeared on an episode of CBS’ “Bull.” Morrison, who starred on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” has been spending time working behind-the-scenes in television of late, directing an episode of HBO’s “Euphoria”; Omundson is best-known for his work in USA’s “Psych” and is also attached to a second television movie based on that series; and Wechsler is known for small-screen work ranging from the original “Roswell,” to NBC’s “Chicago PD” and “Shades of Blue,” to the CW’s “Dynasty” reboot. For Shyamalan, this role marks his first acting gig where he is not playing himself or not making an appearance in a project he also produced and/or directed.
“” is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and executive produced by Dan Fogelman, Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Ken Olin, Charlie Gogolak and Jess Rosenthal.
Watch the “This Is Us” Season 4 trailer below:
