The Alienist: Brian Geraghty Replaces Sean Astin as Theodore Roosevelt

TNT’s television adaptation of Caleb Carr’s quasi-historical 1994 crime novel The Alienist continues to build an intriguingly impressive cast. With last fall’s procurement of its two high-profile primary stars in Daniel Bruhl and Luke Evans, the upcoming historically-themed crime series has another crucial role, specifically a reform-minded police overseer and would-be trust-busting, soft-speaking, big-stick-carrying, 26^th president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. However, that role has seen recent shake-up.

While TNT's New York City, 1896-set series The Alienist initially hired Sean Astin to play Theodore Roosevelt, it appears that the former The Lord of the Rings co-star and adolescent leader of The Goonies has exited the series due to, as a statement explains, "scheduling difficulties." However, it was also announced that Brian Geraghty will now play the rugged individualist former Rough Rider and eventual U.S. president. Geraghty just finished a run on NBC crime drama Chicago P.D. in 2016 in a role he played in shared-universe shows Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, having previously fielded runs on Ray Donovan and Boardwalk Empire and notably appeared in director Kathryn Bigelow's Oscars-dominating 2008 film The Hurt Locker.

Geraghty's Roosevelt appears on the series as a newly appointed commissioner of the NYPD, protecting the crime and corruption-filled, poverty-stricken, yet industrially-lucrative metropolis. However, an escalating murder spree aimed at boy prostitutes forces Roosevelt to turn to unconventional help in Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Bruhl), a criminal psychologist whose special focus on mental pathologies classifies him as an “alienist.” Kreizler teams with a New York Times reporter named John Moore (Evans), peeling back dark layers of clues leading to the elusive killer. Amidst their oil-and-water partnership, the Alienist and the Reporter will utilize nascent forensic techniques, charting new territory in criminal investigation.

The show's primary duo will be joined by Dakota Fanning, who plays Sara Howard, a police secretary with ambitions to one day become the NYPD’s first female detective.      

Daniel Bruhl comes off his role as Zemo in Captain America: Civil War, German drama Alone in Berlin and will appear in 2017 sci-fi film The God Particle. His co-star in former dragon slayer of The Hobbit Trilogy Luke Evans also has a full plate of projects, coming off the uber-lucrative Furious 7 and The Girl on the Train, soon to appear as legendary Disney douche Gaston in the live-action Beauty and the Beast and as Wonder Woman creator William Marston in the provocative historical biopic Professor Marston & the Wonder Women.

While the existence of The Alienist television adaptation first manifested last year with news that True Detective visionary Cary Fukunaga was tapped as director, he has since exited the project. However, stepping into that spot is Jakob Verbruggen, whose small screen episodic work was seen on the most recent season of celebrated anthology series Black Mirror along with entries for House of Cards, London Spy, The Bridge and The Fall.

The Alienist is slated for a premiere in late 2017 on TNT. Production is slated to begin "in early 2017" in Budapest.