According to Variety, Nathan Lane has joined the cast of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful sequel series City Of Angels, with him appearing alongside Johnathan Nieves, Jessica Garza, and the recently cast Natalie Dormer. Unlike Dormer, though, who is playing a charismatic shapeshifting demon, Lane’s role is significantly more straightforward—or it would be, if it were being played by pretty much anyone other than Nathan Lane. The Variety story says he’ll be Lewis Michener, a veteran LAPD officer who is “wise to the ways of the world and ruthless in pursuit of his goals,” which basically just means that Nathan Lane will playing a grizzled cop hanging around with some demons and monsters in 1930s Los Angeles (which is where the new series will be set). That’s probably a surprising move for anyone who mostly knows Lane from The Lion King or The Birdcage, but it’s hard to deny that it sounds like it’ll be a fun character.
The show will also feature Here And Now’s Daniel Zovatto as another cop, with him investigating a mysterious murder that Lane’s character will also presumably be involved with.