The Hilarious Prank Johnny Knoxville Pulled On The Last Frontier's Showrunner [Exclusive]

"The Last Frontier" is a show that aims to surprise you at every turn, so it's only fitting that the first season ended perfectly in line with how it all began. The Apple TV series from showrunner Jon Bokenkamp tells the story of a US Marshal whose world comes crashing down around him — quite literally, in fact — when a transport plane carrying several of the nation's deadliest and most violent inmates falls out of the sky in the wilds of Alaska. From there, Jason Clarke's no-nonsense lawman Frank Remnick is forced to work next to (and oftentimes against) shifty CIA agent Sydney Scofield (Haley Bennett) and the mysterious convict known as Havlock (Dominic Cooper) ... along with having no shortage of escaped prisoners to deal with from one episode to the next.

That "inmate-of-the-week" structure, as Bokenkamp described to me in an interview with /Film, is what allowed for some serious creativity when it came to casting the supporting cast of colorful characters — up to and including famed stunt performer and "Jackass" mastermind Johnny Knoxville, of all people. Knoxville pops up relatively early on as S.T. Covington, a notorious criminal and white supremacist. As compelling (and convincing) as he is on screen, however, the behind-the-scenes shenanigans he got up to are most definitely worth highlighting. The prankster put his boss squarely in his sights, according to Bokenkamp, in a gag that could've ended quite badly, seeing as it involved Knoxville revealing some disconcerting (but not even remotely true) things about one of his co-stars.

Although the showrunner was tightlipped about exactly who else this involved, the cheeky anecdote will come as no surprise to many a "Jackass" fan.

You know exactly what you're in for when you cast Johnny Knoxville on an otherwise serious and dramatic espionage series. "The Last Frontier," one of the year's under-the-radar streaming options, recently concluded its twist-ridden plot with a finale that will likely leave audiences wanting more. That's largely thanks to a cast of character actors fully embodying their roles, from Jason Clarke to the great Alfre Woodward. Even Knoxville acquits himself as well as anyone else as one especially nasty piece of work, complete with scars and face tattoos hinting at a much darker backstory.

But, as showrunner Jon Bokenkamp tells it, Knoxville's casting led to one of the more hilarious back-and-forth conversations he had during production. In an interview with /Film, he regaled me with how the actor ruthlessly pulled one over him:

"We got lucky [with Johnny Knoxville's casting], we have great casting. But, I'll tell you, Johnny Knoxville — he started emailing me. We got to know each other, and he started emailing me about another one of the other actors who had really some kind of concerning ideas about what they wanted to do with the character. Like, wardrobe choices and things that made no sense for the [Alaska] weather. And I was about to confront the other actor, when I realized he was completely screwing with me. And I felt so stupid and yet so honored that I had been had by Johnny Knoxville."

Start placing your bets! Which unfortunate co-star nearly ended up on the chopping block? Knoxville mostly interacts with young actors Kya Rose and Tait Blum, but I'd like to believe he put a scare into Clarke or Dominic Cooper. "The Last Frontier" is now streaming on Apple TV.