ABC's straight to series political drama announced that it has gained new cast members and named the five new faces who will form part of Kiefer Sutherland's Tom Kirkman. The new cast members are Adan Canto, Kal Penn, Natascha McElhone, Maggie Q and Italia Ricci.
Interestingly, Kal Penn is not just any actor who will only play alongside Sutherland as Kirkman's speech writer in The White House. Penn has actually worked there as the Associate Director for Public Engagement under the Obama Administration, so it makes sense that he is also serving as a consultant for the new series.
With the exception of McElhone who will play as Kirkman's wife, the other four actors will play characters who are directly engaged in the work of the unexpected president. Ricci will be the president's Chief of Staff while Canto will serve as the aggressive deputy Chief of Staff. Maggie Q of "Nikita" fame play the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent who is in charge of investigating the incident which wiped out the leaders of the United States (U.S.) and caused Kirman, the designated survivor, to assume his place as the new president of the U.S.
"Designated Survivor" is actually a drama created after the actual concept of designating a lower level cabinet member and keeping him or her safe during an important political event, such as the State of the Union Address, where all high ranking politicians congregate. In the event of an attack which could wipe out the high ranking officials of the country, the designated survivor will assume the position of the President of the U.S. under the Presidential Succession Act.
The series is created and written by David Guggenheim, who is also the executive producer alongside Simon Kinberg.
It would be interesting to see how ABC and Guggenheim's "Designated Survivor" will fare against the FOX project of the same concept and title, which is executively produced by Johnny Depp's company, Infinitum Nihil. We will all just have to wait and see which "Designated Survivor" will actually survive the critics and viewers' ratings.
