Rian Johnson hasn’t revealed many details about his upcoming Peacock mystery-drama series Poker Face, but co-star Lil Rel Howery dropped some hints tonight on the red carpet for the premiere of Jordan Peele’s Nope.
Howery, who headlined the 2018-19 Fox sitcom Rel, isn’t out for laughs this time.
“Aw, that was fun to do,” he told Deadline about Poker Face. “I just finished it like a month ago. So it’s not comedy, it’s straight dramatic. You don’t see me in a villain role a lot of times. It’s very villainous, and I enjoyed everything about it.”
Pressed for details, Howery backpedaled a bit, saying the character is the villainous “type.”
Natalie Sitek/Deadline
“Type, yeah — that’s all I’m gonna say. I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he added with a big laugh. See the clip below.
The anthology-like Poker Face‘s cast also includes Natasha Lyonne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Adrien Brody, Stephanie Hsu, Benjamin Bratt, David Castañeda, Dascha Polanco, Chloë Sevigny, Ellen Barkin, S. Epatha Merkerson and Judith Light. Writer-director-EP Johnson (Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) has described the 10-episode series as a fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery, but other details remain under wraps.
Ram Bergman, Nena Rodrigue and Lyonne also serve as EPs on the 10-episode series from MRC Television, which was ordered in March 2021.
Lil Rel Howery will go against type as a “villainous” character in Rian Johnson’s Peacock series ‘Poker Face’ pic.twitter.com/UsMIitd8o7
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 19, 2022
Natalie Sitek contributed to this report.