Parks and Recreation‘s Ron Swanson aka Nick Offerman has joined the cast of Amazon’s upcoming A League of Their Own live-action series. The beloved actor has signed on to play a version of Jimmy Dugan, who was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 1992 film.
The series comes from Will Graham and Broad City co-creator Abbi Jacobson and will focus on the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with Offerman taking on the key role of Casey “Dove” Porter – the team’s coach.
According to the synopsis, Dove is described as a former Cubs pitcher who is brought in to coach the Rockford Peaches. The character is most famous because his forkball killed a dove in mid-air in the middle of a game. Inspiring and charismatic, Dove was thought to be the next big Major League Baseball star, but blew his arm out after three years. Now he’s looking to make his comeback by making the Peaches into champions.
Jacobson will also star in the production which will use Penny Marshall’s acclaimed film as the foundation from which to delved deeper into the topics of race and sexuality that resonate with modern audiences.
Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado also star in the series, which features recurring guest stars Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant and Melanie Field.
Marshall passed away in December 2018, but Graham and Jacobson were able to reach out to her before her death to get her blessing for the project, which is now shooting in Pittsburgh. The two producers also consulted with Geena Davis, one of the stars of the original film, to get her blessing also.
Offerman played Ron Swanson – the government-hating, steak, whiskey and breakfast food-loving director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department – for the show’s entire seven-season run. Following the show’s conclusion, Offerman went on to host the reality competition series, Making It, with his Parks co-star Amy Poehler (who, incidentally, was the executive producer of Broad City).
He also appeared in the second season of Fargo and has lent his voice talents to The Lego Movie, Hotel Transylvania 2, Sing, Ice Age: Collision Course, and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
He will next be seen in Netflix’s upcoming Colin in Black & White – Ava DuVernay’s series that explores the life of athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick. Offerman plays Rick Kaepernick, Colin’s adoptive father who must navigate the challenges of raising a Black son in a white family and community.
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