Ken Jeong & Carl Weathers to guest star in Magnum P.I. reboot
According to Entertainment Weekly, Crazy Rich Asians star Ken Jeong and Rocky‘s Carl Weathers are set to join in CBS’s upcoming crime drama reboot Magnum P.I. Jeong and Weathers are scheduled to appear in the show’s first season for guest-starring roles.
Jeong will portray the character of Lee Ji-Won, a local private investigator who plays poker with Magnum while Weathers is set to play Dan, an old-school Marine who enlists the help of Magnum in order to find his stolen 350-pound tuna which is worth $350,000.
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The original series, which ran from 1980 to 1988, starred Tom Selleck, John Hillerman, Roger E. Mosley and Larry Manetti, and centered on the laid-back former Navy SEAL as he runs a PI firm out of the guest house of a gorgeous Hawaiian beachfront estate owned by the reclusive author Robin Masters. Created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson, Magnum P.I. famously cost Selleck the role of Indiana Jones due to his series commitment, though it won him an Emmy in 1984 and made him an ’80s icon. ABC tried a sequel-style reboot of the show in 2016, which was produced by Eva Longoria and John Rogers (Leverage).
Magnum P.I reboot stars Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights, Bad Moms, Suicide Squad) as Magnum, Zachary Knighton (Happy Endings, Santa Clarita Diet, Little Bitches) as Rick Wright, Stephen Hill as Theodore Calvin and Perdita Weeks (Ready Player One) as Juliet Higgins.
Peter Lenkov and Eric Guggenheim will be on writing and executive producing duties. The two are already working together on the modern Hawaii Five-0, which is also on CBS. John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment will also serve as executive producers alongside Danielle Woodrow. Justin Lin is directing the pilot and getting executive producing credit. CBS Television Studios and Universal Television are co-producing the show.
Jeong is known for his comedic roles in the sitcom the Community as Ben Chang and in The Hangover film series as Leslie Chow. Weathers is best known for his role in the Rocky film series as Apollo Creed, who is Rocky Balboa’s boxing rival.
Magnum P.I will premiere on September 24 at CBS.