André Braugher is going from the squad room to the courtroom as a showman lawyer on “The Good Fight,” Paramount+ announced Wednesday.
The Emmy-winning actor has signed on for Season 6 of the legal drama as Ri’Chard Lane, an attorney forced on Audra McDonald’s Liz Lawrence as a new name partner. Lane is described as having a “wild mix of brilliance, geniality, religion and joyful hedonism.” Basically, he’s a “handful.”
“Our dream of an actor is always someone who can mix comedy and drama equally, and André Braugher is exactly that,” said Robert and Michelle King, series co-creators, showrunners and executive producers. “His work on ‘Men of a Certain Age,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ and ‘Homicide’ has been amazing and funny. We’re ecstatic that he finally has time in his schedule to come play.”
Braugher previously spent eight seasons on the Fox and later NBC comedy series “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” as Captain Ray Holt.
He also turned in Emmy-winning performances for his role as Nick Atwater in the FX miniseries “Thief,” and for playing brash detective Frank Pembleton on NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street.” In addition to television roles, Braugher has appeared in the films “Baytown Outlaws,” “Salt,” “Passengers,” “The Mist,” “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and “Poseidon,” just to name a few.
Braugher joins “The Good Fight” just as Diane Lockhart (played by Christine Baranski) finds herself struggling with an uneasy sense of déjà vu, with everything from Roe v. Wade to voting rights to Cold War aggression returning. Meanwhile, the lawyers of Reddick & Associates wonder if the violence that they see all around them points to a possible civil war.
Season 6 of “The Good Fight” is now in production. The series is set to return this summer on Paramount+.