Tatiana Maslany will no longer star in Ryan Murphy’s new TV series Pose, with producers re-imagining her role for a different actress.
The Orphan Black star was initially cast to play a modern dance teacher, but Charlayne Woodard will now take on the part in the drama, which is set to air FX.
“(The role) has been re-conceived and rewritten to be a 50-year-old African–American woman,” a network representative tells Entertainment Weekly.
Pose, which is making history with the largest group of transgender actors as series regulars, stars Evan Peters, Kate Mara, and James Van Der Beek, alongside MJ Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar, Anjelica Ross, Billy Porter, and newcomers Ryan Jamall Swain and Dyllon Burnside.
The eight-episode series is set in the 1980s and “looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world”.
Production is slated to begin in February (18) in New York, with Murphy directing the first two episodes. It will hit TV screens in the summer.
