According to Deadline, ABC’s Black-ish prequel series Mixed-ish has had a bit of a shake-up in the cast, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar stepping in to replace Anders Holm as the male lead. The show is set in the ‘80s and is about a young Rainbow Johnson—the character played by Tracee Ellis Ross in Black-ish Prime—as she and her mixed-race family have to face “constant dilemmas” about whether to “assimilate or stay true to themselves.” Gosselaar will be playing Bow’s father, Paul Johnson, alongside Southside With You’s Tika Sumpter as Bow’s mother (played by Anna Deavere Smith in the main show).
Holm played Paul Johnson in what was supposed to be the original backdoor pilot for Mixed-ish, which was intended to air as a regular Black-ish episode in the most recent season. After the spin-off got a series order in May, though, ABC decided to bump the backdoor pilot to the next season of Black-ish and recast the role with Gosselaar (since his Fox show The Passage got canceled around that same time). Mixed-ish, and therefore the Mixed-ish episode of Black-ish, will star Arica Himmel as young Bow Johnson.