Esai Morales has landed an out-of-this-world role…
The 54-year-old Puerto Rican actor has joined the cast for season two of National Geographic global sci-fi series Mars, from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment and Radical Media.
Shooting began this week in Budapest on the six-episode series, which is slated to premiere in spring 2018.
The second season’s six-part arc jumps ahead several years into the future after the Daedalus astronauts have built a full-fledged colony called Olympus Town. Having established humankind as an interplanetary species, Mars examines the impact that humans have on the Red Planet and the consequences the planet has on us.
Morales will play Roland St. John, CEO of private enterprise Lukrum Corporation.
Reprising their roles from Season 1 are JiHAE (Mortal Engines) as Hanna Seung, a mission pilot and twin sister of Joon Seung, capsule communicator of mission control; Sammi Rotibi (The Darkest Minds) as Robert Foucault, a Nigerian mechanical engineer and roboticist; Alberto Ammann (Narcos) as Javier Delgado, a hydrologist and geochemist; Clémentine Poidatz (Marie Antoinette) as Amelie Durand, French mission physician and biochemist; Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) as Marta Kamen, a Russian exobiologist and geologist; and Cosima Shaw (The Danish Girl) as Leslie Richardson, a British nuclear physicist.
“This season takes us literally into new territory,” said showrunner Dee Johnson. “With no laws, no government and no safety nets of any kind, what is it like to be among the first settlers of Mars? Not only do we explore dangers and mysteries of this brand-new world, but we also explore what it means to be human in a place where so few exist.”
Morales, a presidential candidate for SAG-AFTRA, most recently starred on Ozark. His other credits include How To Get Away With Murder, Chicago P.D. and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
