Natalie Martinez Has Joined The Cast Of Bad Monkey From Ted Lasso Co-Creator Bill Lawrence
The next project from "Ted Lasso" showrunner Bill Lawrence is rounding out its cast with actress Natalie Martinez. Per Deadline, the actress will play opposite Vince Vaughn in the series "Bad Monkey," based on the darkly funny Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name.
Martinez rounds out a talented and intriguing cast that already includes Michelle Monaghan ("True Detective"), Jodie Turner-Smith ("Queen & Slim"), Meredith Hagner ("Search Party"), Rob Delaney ("Catastrophe"), and Arturo Luis Soria ("Insatiable"), with "Saturday Night Live" cast member Alex Moffat in a guest role.
The plot reads like a Florida headline
Fresh off the cancellation of her most recent project, NBC's "Ordinary Joe," Martinez is joining the cast of the upcoming Apple TV+ series. She will be playing a medical examiner who teams up with Vaughn's detective-turned-health inspector Andrew Yancy when he decides to investigate a mysterious severed arm caught by a fisherman in the Florida Keys. Like most of Hiaasen's stories, the 2013 book on which the series will be based captures the kookiness of Florida through a cast of peculiar and sometimes villainous characters, including, in this case, the titular bad monkey.
Deadline reports that Martinez's role is actually a recast, having originally been given to Broadway star and "New Amsterdam" actress Ana Villafañe. The outlet reports that the role may have been written for an actress a bit older than Villafañe, so Martinez may be more of a match for the role. Rosa is a love interest of Andrew's in the book, and the recast narrows the age gap between co-stars from 19 years to 14 years.
Morbidly funny "Bad Monkey" seems like a tonal shift for Lawrence after the gentleness of "Ted Lasso," but it also sounds perfectly in the wheelhouse for the man who brought us the increasingly zany Florida-set series "Cougar Town." In fact, Lawrence has been delivering pitch-perfect comedy shows–like "Scrubs" and "Spin City" — long before "Ted Lasso" made waves. But the success of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series has certainly made fans extra intrigued to see what he does next.
Lawrence signed a reported nine-figure deal with Warner Bros. Television just last month, and is also developing a show called "Shrinking." "Bad Monkey," though, may be the series we see first, as it's reportedly already entered production. Lawrence will executive produce the series alongside Matt Tarses, Jeff Ingold, Liza Katzer, and Marcos Siega. Siega, who recently helmed episodes of "Dexter: New Blood," will also direct the first episode of "Bad Monkey."
"Bad Monkey" will air on Apple TV+ but has no announced release date at this time.