Netflix Nabs Ryan Murphy Series The Politician
Ryan Murphy, never one to be accused of having too few concurrent television projects, has procured a platform for yet another series. This time, Murphy’s work will manifest as an hour-long comedy, called The Politician, which has just landed a comfortable home for itself on Netflix.
The Politician, which had been the center of a weeklong bidding war amongst streaming outlets such as Amazon and Hulu, will ultimately make its arrival as a Netflix series, reports Deadline. Already the recipient of a two-season straight-to-series order, The Politician is a collaborative creation of Murphy and regular colleagues, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, providing a bit of satirical spin and social commentary through the story of a wealthy Santa Barba-residing, Californian, named Payton, chronicling the character’s burgeoning political aspirations.
Playing the role of the eponymous politician, Payton, will be Ben Platt, who took the Best Actor in a Musical Tony Award in 2017 for Dear Evan Hansen, also known from film roles in the first two Pitch Perfect films, Ricki and the Flash and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Here, Murphy and company have already mapped out a trajectory for Platt’s Payton, with each season set to focus on a different political race in the character’s perpetual climb of the political ladder.
Additionally, The Politician may just arrive with some star power, since those involved in the bidding war were reportedly enticed by the tease that Oscar-winning Hollywood heavies, Barbara Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow, are in talks to co-star on the series. For Paltrow, it would be the belated realization of prospects from a few years back in which she was in talks to star in one of Murphy’s myriad anthology series, One Hit Wonders, after having recurred on his signature series, Glee. Moreover, the prospective onscreen addition of music and movie icon, Barbara Streisand, comes with the possibility of her directing some of the episodes.
The Politician will arrive on Netflix as a production of Fox 21 TV Studios (from Murphy’s overall deal with 21st Century Fox), with repertory Murphy collaborator Dana Walden overseeing the project on behalf of the studio. The series will become the second Ryan Murphy project to land on Netflix, joining his developing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prequel series, Ratched. – No production or release dates have been announced.