Despite being criminally underseen, WGN America’s series Underground, which debuted its first season last year and tracks a group of enslaved blacks as they attempt to use the Underground Railroad to navigate their way to freedom, has been met with great enthusiasm by those who have experienced it. Ever since the show was renewed for a second season and a host of new, high-profile stars were confirmed to appear (among them, True Blood’s Aisha Hinds and guest star John Legend will be playing celebrated abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, respectively), anticipation has been at a feverish high for Underground to see the light of day once more. The latest casting news, courtesy of TheWrap, only stokes the excitement further: Bokeem Woodbine of Fargo season two will be joining the project in a “recurring guest role.”
Woodbine, a prolific actor who has also appeared in films and TV series as varied as Michael Bay’s The Rock, the Total Recall remake, and TNT’s Saving Grace and Southland, will, per TheWrap, be playing a character named Daniel, “a skilled stonemason who [decides] to take freedom into his own hands.” Before Woodbine makes his way to antebellum America, he will be dropping by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which he will play the villain Shocker in the forthcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Underground was created and written by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski. The show’s second season, which will see the return of season one cast members Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Aldis Hodge, Christopher Meloni, Alano Miller and Jessica de Gouw, will be premiering on March 8 on WGN America.