From The White Lotus to the Arconia, Molly Shannon is headed to Only Murders in the Building for season 4.
On Tuesday, ET confirmed that the Emmy-nominated actress, 59, will bring her unique and physical comedy style to the Hulu series for the upcoming season, which is slated to take place in Los Angeles. Deadline was first to report the casting announcement.
According to the outlet, the Saturday Night Live alum will appear as a recurring character with a series-long arc, although the details of her character are currently unknown.
Shannon’s casting is the first major announcement to come out of the highly anticipated season 4, which has a high bar to meet after season 3’s guest stars included names like Meryl Streep, Jesse Williams, Paul Rudd, Ashley Park and Linda Emond.
Over the weekend, Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich confirmed that after three seasons set at the fictional Arconia building in New York City, the Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez-led comedy will head to the West Coast for a change of scenery.
Fans of the hit Hulu show will remember that season 3 left off with an interesting proposition from Williams’ character, Tobert, who asked Mabel Mora (Gomez) to go with him from the Big Apple to The City of Angels. While Mabel rejected the offer, it appears that decision may have been more of a comma and less of a period, if Erwich’s intel serves correctly.
Speaking with Deadline after appearing at a Television Critics Association (TCA) panel on Saturday, the Disney executive remarked that the early scripts he has read place the story in California.
“Well, I’m very excited to see Steve, Martin and Selena take a little break from the apartment building and come to Los Angeles,” Erwich said. “So in the same way that John Hoffman used the canvas of Broadway to tell what I think was one of the most unique seasons you’ve ever seen, the same unique Only Murders take will be applied to Los Angeles, which I’m really excited about.”
All signs at the end of season 3 appeared to point to California as the likely placement for the next season as Streep’s character, Loretta Durkin, was fielding acting offers all based in LA. Oliver Putnam (Short) ultimately tells Loretta that he cannot go with her full-time as he is staunchly a New Yorker who can only handle Los Angeles in small doses.
Their hesitancy against leaving New York may be assuaged by the final scenes from season 3 episode 10, in which yet another murder takes place in the building, this time the death being that of Jane Lynch’s character, Sazz, who is known in the story as being the stunt-double for Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) from his time on his hit show, Brazzos.
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