Dulé Hill (The West Wing, Psych) and Laura Kariuki (Black Lightning) have been added to the cast of The Wonder Years reboot at ABC, according to Variety. The two join Elisha Williams (Henry Danger), who will play main character Dean Williams, and Saycon Sengbloh (In the Dark, Scandal), who will play Lillian, mother of the Williams family.
Instead of the original non-specific suburb of the original series, the reboot is set in 1960s Montgomery, Alabama and centers on a Black middle-class family, who “made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too,” according to Deadline.
Hill is set to play Bill, father of the Williams family. He’s a music professor by day and a funk musician by night – described by Adult Dean as “The baddest guy I knew,” according to Deadline. Kariuki will play Kim, Dean’s popular older sister who is experiencing a rebellious phase in high school, saying things like “Bobby Seale and H. Rap Brown didn’t even finish college” to her parents.
The pilot is written by Saladin Patterson (Dave, Psych) and directed by Fred Savage, who starred as main character Kevin Arnold of the original series. Patterson and Savage also executive produce, alongside Empire co-creator Lee Daniels and Marc Velez of Lee Daniels Entertainment. Neal Marlens, creator of the original series, will serve as a consultant for the reboot.