Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone reboot adds Kumail Nanjiani to cast

The Twilight Zone has snagged another, this time taking Kumail Nanjiani to another dimension.

According to Deadline on Thursday, Nanjiani is set to star in an episode of the Jordan Peele-led reboot of The Twilight Zone. Nanjiani joins previously announced cast members Sanaa Lathan and Adam Scott.

While there’s not much known about what Nanjiani’s episode will entail, Deadline is reporting that the episode will be written by Alex Rubens (who also wrote for Key and Peele).

Nanjiani is perhaps best known for his role as Dinesh on Silicon Valley. He also starred in the movie The Big Sick, for which he and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, were nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Kumail Nanjiana – CBS All Access

The new series, headlined by executive producer and narrator, Peele, was announced last year and is set to premiere some time in 2019. The new era of The Twilight Zone will be on the streaming service CBS All Access and is produced by CBS Television Studios, Monkeypaw Productions and Genre Films.

The original version of The Twilight Zone premiered in 1959 with suspense master Rod Serling leading the way. It ran for 80 episode over its five-season run.

Multiple attempts have been made over the last 60 years to reboot the series. This includes tv series in 1985 (CBS, 110 episodes) and 2002 (UPN, 43 episodes), and the movie in 1983.

None, so far, have measured up to the original. Black Mirror has been called the Twilight Zone of this generation, or the techie version of The Twilight Zone. It perhaps comes the closest to measuring up to the lofty standards set by Serling.

Peele and his fellow producers will have to deal with expectations set by Black Mirror as well as the original The Twilight Zone series.

Producers currently signed on include Peele, Simon Kinberg, Win Rosenfeld, Audrey Chon, Rick Berg, Greg Yaitanes and Carol Serling.