After showing a ruthless comedic side on HBO’s Vice Principals, Walter Goggins will star on Showtime comedy Keeping It Real.
Walter Goggins recently parlayed a prolific acting career in the drama and action genre to the world of comedy opposite Danny McBride on HBO’s raucous series Vice Principals. While that series, which recently concluded inaugural season, will see Goggins return for a second season (per its initial designation), it seems that the actor will be moving on to another comedy vehicle over at Showtime on which will serve as the primary star.
According to Deadline, a reportedly high-profile Showtime comedy series called Keeping It Real has locked down Walter Goggins as its star for what is apparently a “significant commitment.” As far as tone is concerned, the show seems to share a notable attribute with Goggins’s comedic breakthrough Vice Principals, since Keeping It Real is being described as a dark comedy. Goggins plays a character described as a notoriety-amassing “narcissistic, but well intentioned movie star” who seems to regularly find himself the focus of chaotic international incidents.
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The new show was created and written by Charles Randolph, who won an Oscar as co-writer of the 2015 film The Big Short. Additionally, actors and Oscar-winning co-writers of 2011’s The Descendants Nat Faxon and Jim Rash are onboard to direct episodes. However, Goggins will also be working with some familiar creative personnel on Keeping It Real, since Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly are onboard as executive producers. The duo worked with Goggins on FX’s 2010-2015 action drama Justified on which he played what was arguably signature role as Boyd Crowder.
Goggins’s Vice Principals role as the caustic, catty, ruthless, line-crossing wannabe-principal Lee Russell has opened some intriguing doors for the veteran actor, who, besides his six-year run on FX’s The Shield, some may also remember from a plethora of appearances in films such as The Hateful Eight, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Django Unchained, Predators and The Bourne Identity.
Yet, news of Goggins joining Keeping It Real doesn't bode well for fans of Vice Principals. While the HBO comedy series was originally designed as two-season event, there were some who thought that the unapologetically base series about insanely-ambitious, over-the-top high-school administrators might manage to extend itself beyond initial designs. However, as anyone who watched Season 1 can tell you, the show's exceptionally insane circumstances don’t seem to lend itself well to long-term plans.
It will be interesting to see how Keeping It Real develops and whether or not it will pull Goggins permanently from Vice Principals.