A little over a year after Will & Grace's well-received revival came to an end, star Sean Hayes has been keeping busy with the hilarious podcast Smartless opposite Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. He's also been developing the previously announced Netflix series Q-Force, which announced the rest of its core cast today, which includes stars from Stranger Things, The Conners and more, as well as NCIS' newest recruit.
Hailing from Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer/actor Gabe Liedman, with B99 co-creator Mike Schur's Fremulon as one of the studios backing the project, Q-Force stars Sean Hayes as secret agent Steve Maryweather, also known as Agent Mary, who was a highly decorated member of the American Intelligence Agency before he came out as gay. Since firing him would have been illegal at that point, the AIA sent him into West Hollywood to get him out of their hair. There, he put together his own unofficial upstart team of highly intelligent members of the LGBTQ community. As you might have imagined by now, the new group's name is Q-Force. Now to get into the casting news.
Joining Hayes in Q-Force are stand-up star and TV queen Wanda Sykes, who will be the expert mechanic Deb; Our Cartoon President's Matt Rogers, who will be the group's resident pro with costumes and drag; and Shrill's Patti Harrison as the hacker extraordinaire Stat. After taking the long road to proving themselves to the AIA, the Q-Force become active agents in the field, but with the caveat that they have to take on a new member. A straight member. (Double-entendre fully intended.)
David Harbour
Which brings us to Stranger Things star David Harbour, who will be playing the aforementioned hetero Q-Force recruit, Agent Buck. It doesn't sound like Buck and the rest of the squad are going to get along extremely well, at least not at first, but here's hoping their group dynamic can come close to matching that of Archer's ensemble, with Harbour playing a more affable douche. The actor showed off some of his voice-acting skills during the most recent season of The Simpsons, but will clearly have a lot more to do on that front for his next Netflix role as fans wait for Hopper's return.
Laurie Metcalf
As The Conners gears up for Season 4 on ABC, the always great Laurie Metcalf is as busy as ever, as the Big Bang Theory vet is filming the upcoming Hulu drama The Dropout as well as Ray Romano's feature directorial debut. Within Q-Force, Metcalf will voice V, the Deputy Director of the AIA and its highest-ranking female. It doesn't quite sound like she'll just be a version of James Bond's Q, though, considering she's partial to Agent Mary, and it sounds like she may have had something to do with the agency enveloping Q-Force into its arsenal.
Gary Cole
A scene-stealing actor perhaps best known for Office Space and Veep, Gary Cole is taking on another authoritative role within Q-Force as the AIA's Director Dick Chunley, a boss who sounds like he doesn't have much of a funny bone in him. And definitely not a euphemistic bone in him, as he is super-straight. It's another big new role for Cole, who is currently making headlines for landing a lead role in the upcoming season of CBS' NCIS, with the presumption that star Mark Harmon will only be around for a select number of episodes in Season 19.
Check out the first teaser trailer for Q-Force below.
Q-Force's ten-episode first season will debut on Netflix on Friday, September 2, but there are plenty of other 2021 Summer TV shows to look forward to in the meantime.
