Jordan Peele has found the latest cast member to enter the fifth dimension.
CBS announced Friday that Adam Scott will star in an upcoming episode of Peele’s reboot of the classic science fiction series for CBS All Access. And judging by the episode’s title — “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” — it appears Scott will be starring in a reimagining of one of the most popular episodes of the original series’ run.
That episode, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” starred William Shatner as Bob Wilson, the only passenger on an airline flight to notice a hideous creature lurking outside the plane. Richard Donner was the episode’s director, which was based on a short story of the same name by “I Am Legend” author Richard Matheson. It aired on Oct. 11, 1963.
Scott becomes the second cast member to board Peele’s “Twilight Zone,” joining Sanaa Lathan who will star in the “Rewind” episode. Peele is executive producing and narrating, stepping into the role that Rod Serling made famous. You can get a taste of what Peele’s narration will sound like here.
The new series, which begins production in the fall for a 2019 debut, will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films. Peele and Kinberg serve as executive producers along with Win Rosenfeld, Audrey Chon, Carol Serling, Rick Berg and Greg Yaitanes.
Serling created the original series, which ran for 80 episodes from 1959 to 1964, and used socially-conscious storytelling to explore the human condition and culture of the times. There have been two prior revivals of the classic series. The first reboot aired for 110 episodes on CBS in 1985, and a second version, with Forest Whitaker in Serling’s role, ran for 43 episodes on UPN in the early 2000s.
Scott is most known for his role as Ben Wyatt on NBC’s “Parks & Recreation,” as well as Derek from the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy “Step Brothers.” He also starred on the short-lived Starz comedy “Party Down” and most recently appeared on NBC’s “The Good Place” as the demon, Trevor.