It’s out with Captain Kirk and in with Coach Faulkner for Paul Wesley.
Wesley (“The Vampire Diaries”) has joined the cast of Netflix’s “Icebreaker” series adaptation, TVLine has learned, playing the role of college hockey coach Neil Faulkner. The streamer has not released additional character details, but in Hannah Grace’s novel on which “Icebreaker” is based, Neil is a former NHL player whose career was ended by a drunk driver, resulting in his stern coaching persona.
“Icebreaker” follows ice skater Anastasia “Stassie” Allen (Daisy Jelley) and hockey player Nate Hawkins (Connor Simos), whose worlds collide after an accident forces their teams to share one rink. “Discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other,” the logline teases.
In addition to his years as “Vampire Diaries” heartthrob Stefan Salvatore, Wesley’s TV credits include “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (where he plays franchise icon James T. Kirk) and “Tell Me a Story.” He’ll also appear in Season 3 of Apple TV’s “The Buccaneers.”
In other casting news…
- MGM+ has greenlit “The American Heiress,” an eight-episode “romantic comedy of manners” starring Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”). Based on author and showrunner Daisy Goodwin’s novel of the same name, the 1893-set story follows the beautiful and vivacious Cora Cash, a “dollar princess” reluctantly brought to England by her mother, the formidable Isabella Cash (Margulies), in search of the “one thing she can’t buy at home: a title.” Production on the series begins this month in the United Kingdom.
- Wilson Bethel (“Hart of Dixie”) will recur in Apple TV’s untitled thriller series starring Dakota Fanning. The project follows an undercover Treasury agent (Fanning) in a multibillion-dollar international conglomerate, who becomes torn between her mission and the belief that her principal target is a good man who’s worthy of her love; details for Bethel’s character have not been released.
- Reality competition “The Circle” — which is moving from Netflix to Hulu for Season 8, with several new format changes — has announced the following celebrities as players for its upcoming cycle: Hannah Brown (“The Bachelorette”), Dominic “Chef Dom” DeAngelis (“Vanderpump Villa”), Sasha Farber (“Dancing With the Stars”), and Layla Taylor and Kate Racker (“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”). The new season begins Tuesday, November 17, at 9/8c, with episodes dropping weekly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at that time.
