As we’ve reported previously, The Magicians, a series of books about a narcissistic douche who happens to be able to do magic, is being turned into a television series by Syfy. Since it’s going to be airing on the network equivalent of a see-saw, this show could either be rich and fascinating or a train wreck. Either way, production on the series began this week, and there‘s been a fairly significant change in the cast: One of the female leads has been replaced.
Previously, we had announced Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kyra Sedgwick and therefore one degree away from Kevin Bacon, would be playing Alice, an “intensely shy and delicately lovely young woman.” Now, it seems the purveyor of said shyness and loveliness will be Olivia Taylor Dudley, who starred in The Chernobyl Diaries, a.k.a. the film that is supposed to be horror but weirdly functions as a really appealing tourism ad for a nuclear fallout site. The series will still revolve around Jason Ralph’s character Quentin, a young man “chosen to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic.”
The series also announced some recurring cast members, including Rick Worthy (Rudy on The Vampire Diaries) and Anne Dudek (who you’ve seen basically everywhere, including Mad Men, House, How I Met Your Mother, and any other show that’s had a guest star in the past five years). They’re playing faculty at Brakebills, meaning they will probably get to wave their hands and say “Expelliarmus” or something silly like that, while a CGI keyboard turns into a salamander, or whatever. You know, magic stuff.