Peter Dinklage swears he really does want to have the new Poker Face
Dinklage has doubled down on his commitment to taking over the series—if Rian Johnson can find the show a new home.
Screenshot: Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube; Photo: Ralph Bavaro/PEACOCK
Rian Johnson’s plans to revive his recently cancelled, also recently-lost-its-star Columbo throwback Poker Face, by swapping in Peter Dinklage for the outgoing Natasha Lyonne, has always felt a bit Quixotic. Partly it’s just that streamer swaps—which the show would have to pull off, given that Peacock has announced it doesn’t want a third season of Charlie Cale’s crime-solving misadventures—are tricky prospects in any case. But also, the “Well, why not Peter Dinklage of it all?” has always felt like a bit of an intentional swerve. It’s not that Dinklage couldn’t be amazing as a drifting lie-detecting detective—we’d watch that show in a heartbeat—but that Lyonne’s weathered vibes were such an integral part of the show’s texture. It’s not “Poker Face with Peter Dinklage” that throws us, so much as “Poker Face without Lyonne.”