While the news flow has been slower than ever (at least that’s what it feels like), we did get some exciting news regarding the main MacGyver cast.
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The Abandons with Lucas Till
Lucas has boarded Netflix’ western series The Abandons. Season 1 has ten episodes and is filmed in Calgary and Oregon. According to Deadline, Lucas’ character name is Garret Van Ness. Main star Gillian Anderson plays Constance Van Ness, the matriarch of the wealthy Van Ness family. Aisling Franciosi will play Trisha Van Ness; so possibly the sister or wife of Lucas’ character.
Filming was delayed for almost a year due to the SAG-Aftra strike. The filming dates for Calgary listed on the official IATSE Local 212 website says May 14 to October 15. In recent weeks, several of Lucas’ future cast mates uploaded Insta stories of “Cowboy Camp”; training for horse riding and bull catching. We don’t know if Lucas did a refresher course too (as he has done horse riding training for the role in Hannah Montana many years ago and did horse scenes for Season 2 of MacGyver).
Half Baked: Totally High with Justin Hires
Several years ago, Justin Hires wrote the first draft of a script for a sequel to stoner-movie Half Baked. They announced a straight-to-video-release for April 16, so there wasn’t any promo. You can also stream it on Tubi in the US. Justin has a cameo as a character named Curtis.
It’s not clear how much of his original script was changed in the rewrites. In a podcast episode last year, Justin hinted at wanting a producer credit the next time he sells a script because it would give him more creative control.
What are Cast and Crew up to?
Due to the SAG strike last year, the season orders for TV shows were much shorter this time. “Fall Season” (pushed to midseason) is almost over; and the studios have started ordering pilots for the next season. As far as I know, there haven’t been any official TV show casting news for the rest of the regular main cast.
On March 3, Levy Tran posted an Instagram Story about her reading a book. It looked like she was inside a trailer. She has been tagged twice in Instagram posts regarding action comedy Trouble Man, which was filmed in Atlanta last November. She’s not listed yet on IMDb, though.
A few months ago, I noticed that Levy had started following several AA accounts on Instagram. On April 3, she talked about her struggles with alcohol on the Reel Rolling Podcast.
She revealed that her audition scene for MacGyver was of Desi eating potato chips and that she was so nervous that the chips stuck in her dry mouth in a way that she couldn’t deliver the lines properly. The character was initially to be a guest-star role and she got offered a series regular role a few episodes in.
Levy stated that she has been auditioning a lot lately, but that it’s hard to book a job. Nevertheless, she seems happy; recently posting several photos with family, Carlos and boyfriend Mark celebrating her birthday.
We got a rare sighting of George Eads who visited a comedy show of Fortune Feimster (FUBAR).
Henry Ian Cusick has been working on several things. Episode 2×01 of The Wingfeather Saga was released on April 5. According to TV Insider, he will be in the Season 3 Finale turned Series Finale of NCIS: Hawaii (the first episode of the two-parter airing tomorrow). The show got cancelled this week, but maybe his character might pop up in one of the other NCIS shows still on air.
Tristin Mays continued streaming on Twitch every now and then; with the breaks in between getting longer. In one of her streams, Tristin revealed that she’s writing a TV series and working on projects she can’t talk about yet. She also started playing the guitar again.
ICYMI: Tristin has moved back to LA a few months ago. Her Atlanta residence had been listed as available to rent since February 15; with the price being reduced before the listing was removed on April 17. Justin Hires just sold his house in Atlanta.
Wedding and Baby News for Lucas Till?
Last June, Lucas Till‘s then-girlfriend Skyler Samuels flashed an engagement ring while doing promo for her new movie of the Aurora Teagarden Series. Due to the SAG strike, Skyler got out of having to do the promo circuit for “The Meg 2” and pretty much disappeared off social media. In a photo posted by her brother back in August, I had a hunch she might be pregnant (as her face looked a bit fuller than usually).
In Episode 43 for the Wizards of Waverly Place Podcast (uploaded on March 4), Skyler referred to Lucas as her “now-husband”. One of the podcast hosts stated she was “glowing”. Skyler recently filmed the next two installments of Aurora Teagarden on Vancouver Island. When director Jessica Harmon posted an Instagram Story of Skyler and a co-star on set with the caption “Two new moms trying to make it to lunch”, that already raised eyebrows.
Skyler was recently announced as the new brand ambassador for Charles & Colvard; a jewelry company that specializes in lab-grown diamonds. The first campaign video released for Mother’s Day promo has her interact with a baby; and the fact that the campaign was most likely filmed in their own farmhouse sent the fandom in a hubbubb of speculations, questions and excitement.
On April 21, Skyler posted photos of her with the baby; taken for the official photoshoot. Dedicating the post to “all my fellow mamas out there” was as good as confirmation that this wasn’t just the usual “stunt baby”. This week, People Magazine posted an online article about it. Charles & Colvard linked to this post on an Insta story, which was reposted by both Skyler and Skyler’s mom. Interestingly, Skyler chose a cover for “Isn’t She Lovely” as the underlying music. So maybe a baby girl?
Upcoming Projects for the main MacGyver Cast
Several main cast members of the MacGyver Reboot have movies in post-production or projects listed as completed:
- 1 Million Followers with Henry Ian Cusick: Has one distributor listed, but still no release date.
- Bang with Tristin Mays
- Fluxx with Henry Ian Cusick: The film was screened at the Mammoth Film Festival last month.
- For Cory with Levy Tran
- Short Film Hopeless Romantic with Tristin Mays
- Jamojaya with Henry Ian Cusick: Has been screened at several festivals, but never got an US release date.
- The Comic Shop with Tristin Mays
Other MacGyver-related News
Ende of March, Original MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson was at Paris Comic Con. You can find photos of his panel and photo sessions here. The weekend of April 20 and 21, he was at Comic Con Holland. You can find the panel video and photos of the photo and autograph sessions here.
David Dastmalchian has been busy. Recently been cast in Apple TV series Murderbot, he filmed a two-parter of ABC series The Rookie and a new commercial for Titan Casket. This week, he started the podcast Grave Conversations where he talks to his guests while both are in a coffin.
The release date for the exclusive BluRay box set of the Original MacGyver series in Germany was pushed back from March 28 to May 16. You can find all information here.
Other MacGyver-related news you might have missed:
- Richard Dean Anderson is scheduled to appear at some more conventions this year. The next ones are German Film and Comic Con (Dortmund, May 4 and May 5) and Basingstoke Comic Con (London, May 10 to 12). You can find his full schedule here.
- Henry Ian Cusick attended the 20th anniversary concert for LOST yesterday.
- The Collective with Lucas Till is available on several streaming services (e.g. Hulu and Paramount+ in the US); and the first official trailer by US distributor Quiver Distribution still gains views. It has almost 650’000 hits by now.
Dashboard On Fire 