According to the Hollywood Reporter, Michael K. Williams has been added to the cast Lovecraft Country alongside Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Jonathan Majors, Wunmi Mosaku, Courtney B. Vance, Aunjanue Ellis, Jamie Harris, and Elizabeth Debicki. The HBO-produced drama is nearing the production phase under the direction of Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams.
The show will portray a dystopian view of 1950s America as depicted in a 2016 novel written by Matt Ruff, in the tradition of an old H. P. Lovecraft paperback. Michael K. Williams will play the father of a character named Atticus Freeman, whose friend and uncle embark on a search and rescue mission across America, spanning a period in which the Jim Crow laws were still in effect.
Michael K. Williams's fatherly character will be more conservative than many of the roles he's willingly accepted in the past. The character will be hard-headed, strict and completely unyielding to the fantasy World constructed by his child. Williams is often celebrated as one of the greatest actors plying his trade today. Many of his iconic roles were cast for HBO television projects, the likes of which include Omar on The Wire, Freddy Knight on The Night Of, and Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire, and now Atticus' father on Lovecraft Country.