Genre TV Veteran Mitch Pileggi Cast As Jared Padalecki’s Dad In ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Reboot
The CW is keeping it in the family with the new rebooted ‘Walker, Texas Ranger‘ series, as Mitch Pileggi lands the role of father to Jared Padalecki’s lead character.
Starring one half of ‘Supernatural’s Winchester brothers, Jared Padalecki, the “reimagining” of the 90s action series follows Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a man finding his way back to his family while investigating crime in the state’s most elite unit. The broken widower and father of two returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years for a high profile case, only to discover that there’s even more work to be done at home.
In this new version, Walker has a female partner, Micki, one of the only women in Texas Rangers’ history. She is played by Lindsey Morgan, who is probably best known for her role as Raven Reyes in ‘The 100’. Together, they are described as “the modern-day heroes our world needs, following their own moral code to fight for what’s right, regardless of the rules.”
Pileggi is set to play Bonham Walker, father to Cordell. He is sturdy, conservative and tough as nails but a family man through and through. A third-generation Texas rancher, he’s most comfortable taking care of business on the ranch – in the bullpen, supervising cowboys, training horses. Bonham is a man who speaks his mind. He’s not about to mince words when it comes to talking to his kids.
This isn’t the first time Pileggi and Padalecki have played family on-screen as Mitch previously popped up in ‘Supernatural’ as the Winchester boy’s maternal grandfather. He is probably best known for his role as Agent Skinner on ‘The X-Files’, but Pileggi has also popped up in ‘Stargate Atlantis’, ‘American Horror Story: 1984’. and most recently ‘Supergirl’. Additionally, he previously appeared in the brilliant ‘Sons of Anarchy‘, and voiced Commissioner Gordon in ‘The Batman’ animated series.
Also joining the ‘Walker’ family is ‘Pretty Little Liars’ star Keegan Allen as Liam, Cordell’s younger brother. Liam is gay, conservative, and has recently has been promoted to assistant DA.
The drama is written by Anna Fricke (‘Wayward Pines’, ‘Being Human’, ‘Valor’) with Fricke, Padalecki, and Dan Lin (‘Lethal Weapon’) exec producing.
The original ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’, created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, ran from 1993 to 2001, and starred the legendary Chuck Norris in the title role. The new version is a straight reboot, in the vein of ‘Magnum’, ‘Macgyver’ etc… rather than some continuation of the original show.
There is no UK broadcaster yet for ‘Walker‘, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
