The second season of Elsbeth got off to a thrilling start in the 2024 TV schedule with a premiere featuring none other than Nathan Lane as the killer. While the most buzzworthy bit of news about the hit CBS drama was previously the cliffhanger reveal of a The Good Wife and The Good Fight character, fans may be even more excited about what has come out of the show's panel at New York Comic Con.
None other than Lost and Evil star Michael Emerson – a.k.a. Carrie Preston's real-life husband – has joined the cast for Season 2, and I'm reminded of what showrunner Jonathan Tolins told us about casting guest stars.
How Michael Emerson Is Joining Season 2
The Emmy Award winner is coming to Elsbeth before the end of the year as a special guest star, and he'll play Judge Milton Crawford as a foil to Elsbeth Tascioni. That's not to say that he's going to be one of the bad guys, though, and Michael Emerson actually previously pitched the idea of coming to Elsbeth as long as he's not playing a villain. Judge Crawford comes from an old family of New England public servants and considers himself born into the elite of the nation.
Fans will see Michael Emerson as Judge Milton Crawford first in the new episode that airs on Thursday, December 12 on CBS, but that won't be his only appearance in Season 2. Crawford isn't a one-and-done character, and Emerson is set to recur from that point onward. The casting news puts a fun spin on what Carrie Preston recently told CinemaBlend about characters who will "show up more than just one episode that are going to stir up some conflict."
Of course, Carrie Preston named Michael Emerson as one of her dream guest stars when I spoke with her back ahead of the emotional Season 1 finale in the spring, so perhaps the casting was inevitable once Evil came to an end earlier this year and ended Emerson's four-season run as Dr. Leland Townsend.
What The Showrunner Told Us About Casting Guest Stars
The first season of Elsbeth may have only run for ten episodes, but those ten episodes packed in some pretty big names as guest stars. The series premiere delivered a True Blood reunion for Carrie Preston with Stephen Moyer as the show's very first bad guy, and more stars would follow including Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Retta, Gina Gershon, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti, and Andre de Shields, to name just some.
Throw in Nathan Lane in the Season 2 premiere, and I had to observe to showrunner Jonathan Tolins in an interview ahead of Elsbeth's return that the show has featured some great Broadway talents. He explained why theater actors often make for great TV actors and how he knew that certain stars would be the right fits for Elsbeth, saying:
We're in New York, and [with] the New York acting pool, part of the reason they're here usually is because they love doing theater as well. Certainly our supporting roles are just loaded with theater people. But also there are people that I've worked with before. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, I knew pretty well. I actually wrote my play Buyer & Cellar for him… Jane Krakowski, I'd worked with before on Schmigadoon. I'd also worked with Keegan-Michael Key before on Schmigadoon. Laura Benanti, I had worked with on something at HBO that didn't end up happening, but I knew her.
Considering that the main cast of Elsbeth is comprised of three people – Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, and Carra Patterson – solid guest stars are necessary for episodes to work, and Tolins had the connections to some of them to already know what they were capable of. He went on:
We love theater actors, because our show is pretty theatrical and we have long dialogue scenes, and we do very well with people who have experience being able to do that. It's the actors I love the most. [laughs] In fact, Pamela Adlon, who is going to be a guest star in [Episode] 205, plays a chef. I knew her from when she was in a play that I wrote about 26 years ago at the Pasadena Playhouse. We've known each other since then.
Carrie Preston is of course the person on the Elsbeth team with the connection to Michael Emerson, and the two actors have been married since 1998. While he's undoubtedly best known for his roles in shows like Lost, Person of Interest, and Evil, he comes from a theater background as well with stage roles going back to the '80s.
Unfortunately, it'll be a bit of a wait before we seen him working opposite his real-life wife, as Michael Emerson's first episode of Elsbeth won't air until December 12. In the meantime, though, you can keep checking out new episodes of Season 2 on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, directly following Matlock. You can also find both Elsbeth and Evil streaming with a Paramount+ subscription now.
