'Lovecraft Country' Adds Tony Goldwyn As A Wealthy, Racist Sorcerer
Lovecraft Country has found a villain in Tony Goldwyn. The actor has joined the cast of the HBO series as a wealthy racist who dabbles in black magic. In other words, he's bad news. The horror series, which is being produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, is adapted from the novel by Matt Ruff about Lovecraftian monsters and racial tensions lurking in 1950s Jim Crow America.Deadline broke the news about Tony Goldwyn joining the Lovecraft Country cast. Goldwyn plays "Samuel Braithwhite, patriarch of his family, who views people as assets and objects and outsiders — including his daughter Christina — as inferiors." In Lovecraft Country, Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) "joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback."
Here's more info from the book synopsis, which explains a bit more about Goldwyn's character (and also has a slightly different name for the main character):
Chicago, 1954. When his father goes missing, twenty-two-year-old army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Samuel Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus's ancestors—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal, the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Braithwhite and his son, Caleb—which has gathered to perform a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan's destruction.
In addition to Majors, Smollett-Bell, Vacne and Goldwyn, Lovecraft Country features Wunmi Mosaku, Aunjanue Ellis, Michael Kenneth Williams and Abbey Lee. The series is produced by Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, and Warner Bros. Television with executive producers including Jordan Peele, Misha Green, J. J. Abrams, and Ben Stephenson. Green also serves as showrunner.
I've yet to read Lovecraft Country, but everything I've heard about it sounds incredible, and I'm excited to see how the HBO adaptation turns out. No premiere date has been set yet.