“Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” alum Janelle Monae has been tapped to star in the second season of Amazon’s “Homecoming,” the studio announced on Tuesday.
Monae will succeed Julia Roberts in the Sam Esmail-created drama series, playing “a tenacious woman who finds herself floating in a canoe, with no memory of how she got there — or even who she is.”
An adaption of Gimlet Media’s podcast of the same name, “Homecoming” Season 1 centered on Roberts’ character, Heidi Bergman, a caseworker at a support center helping soldiers transition back to civilian life. Roberts, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her depicition, remains on board as an executive producer for Season 2.
Few plot details for Season 2 have been released thus far, but the show is expected to deviate further from its source material and introduce new characters.
The series is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Universal Content Productions. Esmail executive produces through his production company Esmail Corp along with “Mr. Robot” EP Chad Hamilton of Anonymous Content. The podcast’s Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg also executive produce, as do Chris Giliberti, Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber of Gimlet Media.
“Homecoming” marks the first lead television role for Monae, a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. On the film side, her previous credits include “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures.” She is next set to appear in Focus Feature’s Harriet Tubman biopic as well as Disney’s live-action reboot of “Lady and the Tramp.”
She is represented by WME, Wondaland Management, Ziffren Brittenham Law, and ID.