Hulu’s FX is steadily working on its upcoming adaptation of Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred, and has announced a handful of new cast members who will be joining the project: Micah Stock (The Right Stuff, Amazing Stories), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), Gayle Rankin (Perry Mason, Glow), Austin Smith (Russian Doll), Antoinette Crowe-Legacy (WeCrashed), and David Alexander Kaplan (Embattled, Creepshow).
FX announced that it had ordered a pilot for a potential series back in March, which would be written by MacArthur Fellow Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (HBO’s Watchmen), and later brought on Zola‘s Janicza Bravo to direct, along with newcomer Mallori Johnson to star as Dana Franklin.
According to Deadline, FX hasn’t revealed who those various cast members will be playing, but notes that Stock might be playing Dana’s husband Kevin, and that Kwanten might be playing Tom Weylin, a cruel slave owner in the past that Dana finds herself jumping back into.
Butler originally published her novel in 1979, which follows Dana as she finds herself moving back and forth in time between 1976 and the pre-Civil War era, where she meets some of her family’s ancestors.
The series isn’t guaranteed. A pilot is one step in the process, but Butler’s works are experiencing a bit of a renaissance at the moment: Amazon is working on a pair of adaptations—Wild Seed (being written by Africanfuturist writer Nnedi Okorafor) and Dawn (being developed by Ava DuVernay and Victoria Mahoney). Earlier this year, HBO ordered an adaption of her final novel Fledgling, while A24 has acquired the rights to adapt Parable of the Sower, with Time and Naomi Osaka director Garrett Bradley tapped to helm the project.
