Good news Happy Endings fans- Casey Wilson is returning to ABC!
Wilson will star in the new single- camera comedy pilot Hail Mary, Deadline reports in a special release of current ABC projects in development. Wilson will play Mary Wolf, a young small town mayor who must deal with her dysfunctional siblings, ailing father, the nearly bankrupt city, and also the mafia. The end of the logline reads “Only a miracle can help her. So she fakes one.” Hail Mary is based on the Austrian dark comedy Braunschlag, where the desperate (in this iteration, male) mayor fakes a divine event to save his town.
After cult comedy Happy Endings had its finale in 2013, Wilson’s career has been pretty fruitful. She’s starred in both Hulu spoof series The Hot Wives of Orlando and The Hot Wives of Las Vegas (as opposed to The House Wives of fill-in-the-blank ), had a surprising turn in David Fincher’s pitch black Gone Girl, and is set to appear in the March 17 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Wilson also starred in the recent NBC sitcom Marry Me, which was created by the father of both Happy Endings and Wilson’s child (the two are married) David Caspe.
Creator of the current Laurie Metcalf CBS family sitcom The McCarthys Brian Gallivan will write and executive produce the pilot, Entertainment Weekly reports. Other members of the creative team include Seth Gordon (The Goldbergs and Wilson’s own Mary Me) and prolific film and television director Julie Anne Robinson (The Last Song), who also directed a run of Grey’s Anatomy episodes.
The news of Hail Mary comes along pilot season where ABC is eyeing eleven other comedy projects, including the Justin Long project Dream Team and the multi- camera Gabriel Iglesias vehicle The Fluffy Shop.
Another ABC comedy in development? Pearl, the story of a cancer- stricken matriarch who tries to plan every last detail of her family’s lives before she dies (it’s a comedy I swear) which will star none other than fellow Happy Endings alum Zachary Knighton.
A lot of The Happy Endings cast is busy this pilot season. Adam Pally, who played fan favorite slob Max, is set to lead the Phil Lord and Chris Miller- produced Making History on Fox and Eliza Coupe will star in the Seth Rogen comedy Future Man on Hulu, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Great news for the Happy Endings cast, bittersweet news for the Happy Endings fans still pining for a reunion show.