The streaming world is going to hard hard on some science fiction in the coming years, with the biggest of the genre projects coming next year in CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery. The year after that, fans of the classic '60s series Lost in Space will get to see a modernized reboot coming to Netflix. Currently in the pre-production stage, Lost in Space is keeping the casting train rolling, and now we know the quasi-villainous and problem-causing Dr. Smith will get a gender switch for new audiences, as actress Parker Posey has been cast.
Unfortunately, learning that Parker Posey will don futuristic duds for Netflix's Lost in Space doesn't give us much context on how close to Jonathan Harris' original Zachary Smith she will get, as Deadline had no other information to offer. In the initial series, created by Irwin Allen, the Robinson family is chosen to travel to a distant planet for colonization efforts, and Dr. Smith was a double agent who sabotaged their trip, getting trapped on board in the process. He got less evil as seasons passed, though he was still a nuisance throughout.
While I'll acknowledge that some people are always going to complain whenever a change like a gender swap is made, only good things can come from getting Parker Posey into the Lost in Space remake. She's superb and unique in pretty much everything she's done, whether it's a hilarious comedy or a gripping dramatic thriller. She can play the hardcore dominator or the distressed damsel. Having that kind of range should definitely help when it comes to playing Dr. Smith, whose new iteration will likely be just such a genre-crossing half-foe.
Audiences are getting as much of Parker Posey's work as ever, too, as the actress has been really busy in the past couple of years. On the small screen, she's appeared on episodes of Portlandia and Drunk History, and was a regular in the third season of the period drama Granite Flats. On the feature side of things, Posey was already a familiar face on Netflix with frequent collaborator Christopher Guest's latest comedy Mascots, as well as Woody Allen's latest film, Café Society. She'll later be seen in the star-studded heist comedy The Brits are Coming.
Re-created by Matt Sazama and Buck Sharpless, of Dracula Untold and Gods of Egypt fame, this new Lost in Space will hopefully keep the casting going strong in the near future. At this point, four of the Robinson family members have been cast, with Black Sails' Toby Stephens as John, House of Cards' Molly Parker as Maureen, Falling Skies' Taylor Russell as Judy and Sense8's Maxwell Jenkins as Will. As in "Danger, Will Robinson," which will surely be the catchphrase all the kids will be saying in a few years.
We are still a long way away from getting to see Lost in Space, which will see its 10-episode first season hit Netflix at some point in 2018. Lots of TV is coming before then, though, and you can find it all with our fall premiere schedule and our midseason premiere schedule.
