Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki, no stranger to video entertainment that leaves its viewer in a permanently worsened state, will be joining the cast of Paramount’s upcoming second sequel to The Ring. The new film, the popular Japanese franchise’s first American outing since the critically derided The Ring Two, has been titled Rings, and is set to be directed by relative newcomer F. Javier Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez will be working from a script that was most recently rewritten by the prolific Akiva Goldsman, lately of Insurgent and Winter’s Tale.
Galecki has been cast as Gabriel, “a handsome, pleasure-seeking professor” who assists protagonists Holt and Julia (Alex Roe and Matilda Lutz, respectively) with overcoming the terrible supernatural curse of having “Holt” as a first name. (He’ll also be involved in resolving the menace of the haunted Vine video or whatever that’s at the center of all the film’s spooky capers.) Eerily, Galecki’s casting was foreshadowed by the tagline for Gore Verbinski’s original U.S. Ring film, which, readers will remember, solemnly informed them, “Before you die, BAZINGA!”