Two-time Tony Award winner and Emmy nominee Patti LuPone (“American Horror Story,” “Life Goes On”) has signed on as a recurring guest star for the second season of the hit Showtime drama series “Penny Dreadful.” Lupone will play a mysterious character of great importance in Vanessa’s (Eva Green) past. In addition, award-winning British actors Helen McCrory (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, As You Like It), and Simon Russell Beale (“MI:5,” Uncle Vanya) have been upped to series regulars. McCrory returns as Evelyn Poole (a.k.a. Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist who will pose a unique threat to our protagonists this season, along with Beale, who is back as eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle.
The regular cast of “Penny Dreadful” includes Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights) and Eva Green (Casino Royale, 300: Rise of an Empire). Reeve Carney (“Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark,” The Tempest), Rory Kinnear (Skyfall, Othello), Billie Piper (“Doctor Who”), Danny Sapani (Trance) and Harry Treadaway (The Lone Ranger) also star.
In addition to LuPone, guest stars for the second season include Tony Award winner Douglas Hodge (La Cages aux Folles, Robin Hood), who signs on as Bartholomew Rusk, an intense Scotland Yard investigator on the hunt to discover who is responsible for the terrible murders that have been plaguing London. Sarah Greene (The Guard, “Vikings”) will play Hecate, Poole’s powerful daughter and Jonny Beauchamp (How To Make It In America, Stonewall) will portray a young man with a singular past.
“Penny Dreadful” offers a psychological thriller created, written and executive produced by three-time Oscar nominee John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator) and executive produced by Logan’s Desert Wolf Productions, along with Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) and Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, “Call The Midwife”), both of Neal Street.
Production on the second season’s 10 episodes, written by Logan, will begin in September in Dublin, Ireland for a 2015 debut on the network.
