Multi-talented artist Janelle Monáe has been cast in season two of Amazon’s Homecoming. She’ll be taking on a lead role and is thought to be filling a character hole felt by the departure of Julia Roberts from the show. There is some belief that Roberts was recently snubbed by the Television Academy (the Emmys) for her lack of a nomination, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, Roberts only had a one season contract with the show. She will stay on as an executive producer for the show.
Monáe may be most known as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Her most recent album, Dirty Computer, was released last year. As an actress she has had major roles in Oscar-nominated films such as Hidden Figures and Moonlight. She can next be seen playing Peg the Pekingese in a live-action spinoff of Lady and the Tramp for the new streaming service Disney+. She will also be taking roles in two prominent biopics, one is a film on Harriet Tubman, aptly dubbed Harriet, and the other is on Gloria Steinem, titled The Glorias: A Life On The Road.
For the upcoming role on Homecoming, her character is described as, “a tenacious woman who finds herself floating in a canoe, with no memory of how she got there – or even who she is.” When Deadline released the news of her casting on social media, Monáe commented on Instagram and retweeted via Twitter that she was, “Excited and ready for this wild ride.”
Series creatives have said they expect to expand upon the final post-credits scene between Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale) and Audrey Temple (Hong Chau). Executive producer and showrunner Sam Esmail says this scene was, “a hint at things of things to come.” Homecoming season two is supposed to start production later this summer and is set to debut on Amazon in 2020.