It is pilot season for networks like ABC. Doomsday is a new drama pilot set in the aftermath of 9/11, but it is more concerned with man-made disasters in general than acts of terror. Unlike Person of Interest, Doomsday‘s disasters are predictable not because of complex technology, but because they were created by a secret post 9/11 U.S. think tank, who must become responsible for the prevention of doomsday when their hypothetical disasters are stolen and put into action. The odd combination of group members, top in their fields of science and entertainment, will have to put their hypothetical creative solutions into action.
Dan Byrd was the first series regular to be cast in Doomsday according to Deadline Hollywood. Byrd will be taking his acting skills from Scandal and Cougar Town to play Nate Hensley: a wealthy analyst and founder of a website that predicts a variety of real-world event outcomes from politics to sports.
Earlier this month, Deadline Hollywood reported that Jack Davenport will be starring as Warren: creative storyteller and writer who understands the hypothetical enemy – perhaps a bit too much. More recently, Deadline reported casting of co-star Rachelle Lefevre (of Under the Dome and Off The Map) as Faye, a Deputy Director of Homeland Security. She is an intelligent and shrewd leader of the Doomsday team and will star alongside Davenport.
Today, Variety learned that Taye Diggs will also be joining the Doomsday cast. Last year Diggs joined Empire as Angelo Dubois, a recurring character in Season 3. In Empire Diggs plays a respectable and affluent city councilman who becomes Cookie’s love interest.
Diggs will play Dr. Davis Albright in Doomsday. Albright is another young, handsome, confident, and successful character for Diggs to play. He is an engineer, and architect, and reliably well-dressed.
This new drama pilot by ABC is written by Mark Bianculli and VJ Boy, who will executive produce along with Carol Mendelsohn and Julie Weitz. Besides Doomsday, ABC is also in the process of casting other new pilots: Raised by Wolves, a comedy centered on a single mother; The Good Doctor, another medical drama; and Deception, a show of magic, scandal, and even crime solving.
However ridiculous losing the plans to world destruction may seem, it is clear that in Doomsday the characters played by Byrd, Davenport, Lefevre, and Diggs will have to work to save the human race from possibly the greatest threat it will ever face: itself.