Arrested Development's Tony Hale and Alia Shawkat reunite for Nicole Kidman's I Love Lucy movie

By Sam Barsanti | March 29, 2021 | 9:50pm

Film Features I Love Lucy

Arrested Development's Tony Hale and Alia Shawkat reunite for Nicole Kidman's I Love Lucy movie

Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The New Yorker

The main cast of Aaron Sorkin’s Amazon movie about the making of I Love Lucy—titled Being The Ricardos—continues to be baffling (Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz), but at least the supporting cast will give us an Arrested Development reunion! As announced today in a press release, Tony Hale and Alia Shawkat have joined the cast, with Hale playing I Love Lucy executive producer Jess Oppenheimer and Shawkat playing longtime writer Madelyn Pugh. Of course, Hale and Shawkat only ever spoke to each other one time during the canonical original run of Arrested Development, but at least we know they were on that show together.

J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda will also be there, playing William Frawley and Vivian Vance (I Love Lucy’s Fred and Ethel), and Jake Lacy (Plop from The Office) will be playing Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Pugh’s writing partner. Clark Gregg, Nelson Franklin, John Rubinstein, Linda Lavin, Robert Pine, and Christopher Denhal will also appear, but the press release about these casting announcements doesn’t say who they’ll be. Production on Being The Ricardos just started, so it might not be too far off, but the press release also doesn’t offer a potential release window.