EXCLUSIVE: Kingston Vernes (The Survivor) has been cast in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, which has a pilot order at Hulu. He will be a guest star in the pilot, with the character envisioned as a major recurring if the project goes to series.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong stars as the new slayer — an introverted high-school student named Nova — in the untitled Buffyverse offshoot, which Gellar executive produces in addition to reprising her signature role as Buffy Summers.
Vernes will plat Carson, a Junior Olympian and popular student at New Sunnydale Academy who is the object of Nova’s (Armstrong) crush and stars noticing her after a life-changing event.
In addition to Armstrong and Gellar, Vernes joins previously cast series regulars Faly Rakotohavana, Ava Jean, Sarah Bock, Daniel Di Tomasso and Jack Cutmore-Scott.
Oscar winner Chloé Zhao is directing the pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman. No additional information has been provided about the project, referred to as the next chapter in the Buffyverse, which comes from 20th Television and Searchlight TV.
In a promising sign, a writers room is opening to work on additional scripts, with a March start eyed if the pilot is picked up to series, I hear.
Vernes was most recently seen in HBO Films’ The Survivor, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Danny DeVito, Ben Foster, and Peter Sarsgaard. He previously played young Mank in David Fincher’s Netflix film Mank and also appeared in Paul Schoulberg’s So Cold the River. Vernes is repped by IAG, LBI, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Kritzman.
