Kelso, Hyde and Fez are hanging out down the street again. Well, maybe it’s not the three That ’70s Show characters that are hanging out again, but their off-screen actors are. Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Wilmer Valderrama, who played Fez on the Fox comedy, will appear in three episodes of Danny Masterson (Hyde) and Ashton Kutcher’s (Kelso) Netflix comedy The Ranch.
Valderrama will play Umberto, a former ranch hand at Iron River Ranch and almost like a third Bennett brother because of his close relationship with Colt (Kutcher) and Rooster (Masterson). Umberto returns to the ranch after working in Montana the last few years.
The casting of Valderrama doesn’t come as a shock as the three actors are still close. Masterson even told Entertainment Weekly back in March that, on a scale of one to 70 on the likelihood that cast members from That ’70s Show would show up, he said “I’m going to say 71.”
In the same interview, he also said they hired an actor from the show for a recurring role, but couldn’t say who it was. “He’s a great actor, he’s done lots of shows, and he was on That ’70s Show a ton, and I don’t think we’re allowed to name names at this point or we’ll get in trouble,” Masterson said.
Looking back at the interview now, it’s clear that they were talking about Valderrama, who was a member of the cast during all eight seasons the show was on the air and since That ’70s Show ended in 2006, Valderrama has done a lot of guest acting on different shows.
Valderrama currently stars on NCIS as replacement for Michael Weatherly, who left at the end of the last season. He appeared on Grey’s Anatomy last season where he played Kyle Diaz, a musician with multiple sclerosis. He had a flirtatious relationship with Stephanie Edwards (Jerrika Hinton) that she cut off because it was interfering with her job. Similar to season two’s storyline with Denny Duquette, Kyle died in the finale, leaving Stephanie heartbroken. He was also in the short-lived Fox show Minority Report last season.
That ’70s Show aired on Fox for eight seasons and experienced high ratings for the first few seasons before viewership eventually tapered off towards the end of the show’s run. The show had a quasi-spinoff, That ’80s Show, that aired in 2002 and was canceled after one season.
The second half of the first season of The Ranch premieres Friday, Oct. 7. The show was renewed for its second season back in April.