Law & Order: SVU fans recently bid farewell to Raúl Esparza's Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba -- though not necessarily for good -- but it did not take long for the actor to land his first official SVU follow-up gig. Esparza has been cast in the Hitchcockian thriller pilot Suspicion, which is currently in-development at his familiar former home at NBC.
Color us very excited for Suspicion's potential, as the pilot is being put together by The Path creator Jessica Goldberg, who knows quite a bit about bringing thrills to complex situations. 13 Reasons Why star Derek Luke heads Suspicion as Danny Goldman, a man struggling to do right by his family in a financial sense. Raúl Esparza is set to play Danny's extremely wealthy neighbor and new friend, Tom Canter, who supplies Danny with a sizable loan to help get back on track. Accepting the money will probably be one of the worst decisions of Danny's life.
As soon as the money goes through, Danny finds himself in the crosshairs of the FBI, who aren't of the belief that Tom's money is legit. According to TheWrap, Danny must become an FBI informant in order to back-peddle on his illegal loan, which means he'll head into a world of violence and corruption that he most certainly isn't used to. But considering Danny and Tom bond over fairly similar histories and upbringings, will we see Tom's influence over his neighbor keep growing, even though Danny is working with the FBI? We'll have to wait and see just how charismatic Tom is.
A man of both the screen and the theatrical stage, Raúl Esparza first signed on with Law & Order: SVU back in 2012 during Season 14, and soon became a series regular. During that stint, he took on a few other noteworthy TV roles, such as Dr. Frederick Chilton in Hannibal, and Princess Carolyn's mousey love interest Ralph Stilton in BoJack Horseman. He also joined Hulu's currently airing The Path Season 3 as the religion professor Jackson Neill, and his relationship there with Jessica Goldberg was apparently strong enough to land him this new gig.
The source material for Suspicion was written by Joseph Finder, with Jessica Goldberg adapting it for NBC. Both Finder and Goldberg will be executive producing, and Universal TV will be the studio behind the project.
At this point, Suspicion is still in the pilot-casting stages, so it's hard to know when we'll hear any follow-up announcements about its fate at NBC. In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see all the shows that will be debuting soon.
