There’s been lots of past discussion about an Amazon series based on the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, which started with talk of that series (then a half-hour comedy, written by Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham) being “in the works” in March 2018. In August 2020, the project (still written by Graham and Jacobson, but now a hour-long drama series) was ordered to series following an earlier pilot. Now, the series has a big new casting name: Nick Offerman (seen above in 2018). Here’s more on that from Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter:
Parks and Recreation favorite Nick Offerman has joined the live-action series from creators Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham.
In the hourlong, live-action series that focuses on the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Offerman will take on the key role of Casey “Dove” Porter, the coach of the team at the center of the show.
Dove is described as a former Cubs pitcher who is brought in to coach the Rockford Peaches. The character is most famous because his forkball killed a dove in mid-air in the middle of a game. Inspiring and charismatic, Dove was thought to be the next big Major League Baseball star, but blew his arm out after three years. Now he’s looking to make his comeback by making the Peaches into champions.
Porter doesn’t exist in the movie (the Peaches’ manager there is Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks), so this fits with earlier discussions of this series telling “a new, still overlooked set of those stories” around the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. And Offerman has plenty of fans from his long TV work, which ranges from Parks and Recreation though Fargo, Making It, and current Fox animated comedy The Great North. It’s interesting to see a crucial role announced with the series already in production, though; here’s more on where it’s currently at from Goldberg.
The Amazon take, which stars Jacobson, will have the spirit of Marshall’s beloved movie while expanding its lens to explore race and sexuality as the series follows a new ensemble of women carving out their own paths in the league and outside of it. Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez and Priscilla Delgado star in the series, which features recurring guest stars Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant and Melanie Field. Jamie Babbit directed the pilot of the Sony Pictures TV series. Sources say that some surviving members of the AAGPBL served as consultants on the pilot and are expected to continue on with the series. The series is currently in production in Pittsburgh.
We’ll see when this series comes out and how it’s received, but it does have some impressive names attached to it.
[The Hollywood Reporter; photo from David Hubelbank/Montclair Film on Wikipedia]
