Amazon’s A League of Their Own TV show, which takes its inspiration from the 1992 Tom Hanks movie of the same name, has expanded its cast with six new members joining Abbi Jacobson in recurring roles. Deadline reported that Nat Faxon, Kevin Dunn, Marquise Vils&ón, Marinda Anderson, Don Fanelli and Nancy Lenehan will be part of a new roster of characters who will be part of a new take on the story of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball Team, who will bring the dream to a whole new generation.
Amazon announced early on in development that “The show takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the league and outside of it.”
The six A League of Their Own cast members will play a whole new set of characters in the series. Faxon will play Marshall, the Rockford Peaches team manager who works for league owner Morris Baker and believes in the Peaches to succeed. Dunn’s Morris Baker is owner of the league who has invested quite a lot of money into the league and is nervous that having women ball players in a men’s sport will turn out to be a huge financial loss. Vils&ón plays Red Wright. A showman and a former Negro Leagues pitcher, who is the celebrity coach for the Red Wright All Stars. Anderson is Leah, the beautiful pastor’s wife, who is visiting Rockford for the occasion of the church revival and who Toni is eager to impress at her salon. Fanelli will play Alan Baker, the nephew of team owner Baker, who tries to fill his uncle’s shoes, taking on PR for the team. Lenehan will play Vivenne Hughes, a cosmetics entrepreneur who has been hired by Baker to try and make the team more appealing and “feminize” them.
The idea for the series was first pitched by Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham in 2017, which they mentioned when making a statement on the green-lighting of the series in 2020. “Three years ago, we approached Sony with the idea of telling a new, still overlooked set of those stories. With the help of an enormously talented team of collaborators, an amazing cast, and the devoted support of Amazon to this project, we feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life. It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities.”
The Amazon Prime series is expected to have 10 episodes, although this has yet to be confirmed, but it is known that each episode will have an hour runtime. While the series is inspired by Penny Marshall’s movie, it will not just be telling the story of one team struggling to make it to the top against the odds, but will see stories from a whole generation of female professional baseball players who are impacted by social issues that affect their lives both on and off the pitch. There is currently no release date known for the series. This news was first reported by Deadline.
Source: movieweb.com