Months before Jeff Daniels steps out of Atticus Finch’s shoes, the Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird has already found the man to replace him. Ed Harris, recently seen wreaking havoc in the technological countryside of Westworld, will play the small-town Southern lawyer onstage starting November 5, according to the New York Times, though the production itself its not confirming the report. Aaron Sorkin adapted Harper Lee’s novel for the stage, and the production was recently nominated for nine Tony Awards, including one nomination for Jeff Daniels’s performance, though Mockingbird was not nominated for Best Play. Despite all those nods, the show’s only Tony win this Sunday came for Celia Keenan-Bolger’s performance as Scout Finch.
Still, the production has had significant financial success, recouping its capitalization costs and announcing a national tour that will start in August 2020 with Richard Thomas playing Atticus. Harris was last on Broadway in 1996’s Taking Sides, and he earned a Tony nomination in 1986 for Precious Sons. If the producers are also looking for a replacement Scout, why not go make it a Westworld reunion and cast Evan Rachel Wood? (She may be busy with that mysterious rebooted season three, but we can dream.)