Executive producers Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship have taken the next big step toward making their Naomi series a reality. One month after getting a pilot order from The CW, the pair have cast four key roles for the project, including the title character. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that they’ve chosen Kaci Walfall to lead the series as Naomi McDuffie.
The CW Reveals Cast for New DC Comics Drama ‘Naomi’ https://t.co/mJmEJklvl0
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 18, 2021
At just 16 years old, Walfall (second from right) only has a handful of screen credits to her name. She appeared in several episodes of Lifetime’s Army Wives in 2013. More recently, she guest-starred on an episode of Starz’s Power. Walfall’s take on Naomi will be “an effortlessly cool and confident high school student who is the adopted daughter of doting parents. Popular with all the kids in her military town, Naomi is unafraid to embrace her AP-student, comic book–loving nerdiness.”
Additionally, Alexander Wraith (second from left) is playing Dee, who owns a local tattoo parlor. In DC’s comic universe, Dee is a vital character in Naomi’s orbit, and it sounds like he’s playing a similar role on the TV show. According to his description, he will come into a play after a “strange event” rocks their midwestern town. Once this happens, Dee “hints that he knows more than he is willing to tell.”
RELATED: Ava DuVernay is Bringing DC Comics’ Naomi To The CW
The pilot will also feature Cranston Johnson (far right) as Zumbado and Camila Moreno (far left) as Lourdes. In the comics, Zumbado is a superpowered being from Naomi’s birth world and believes she poses a threat to his superiority, so he sets out to destroy her. But on the TV show, he’ll appear as a used car lot owner who has a “tense encounter” with Naomi, who’s heard strange rumors about his past. Meanwhile, Lourdes is “a young woman with a sarcastic sense of humor who works in a vintage collectibles shop. She has an unrequited crush on Naomi, and she shares her obsession with classic comics. She is also happy to join in on Naomi’s schemes.”
Naomi is a relatively new addition to the DC Universe. Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell introduced the character in her own ongoing series in 2019. Born in a parallel dimension, she was sent to Prime Earth by her biological parents to protect her from Zumbado’s wrath.
What do you make of the casting choices for The CW’s Naomi pilot? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Naomi: Season One
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