Update, November 22 at 7:20 p.m.: Get ready to worship. HBO has ordered The Idol to series and given us the names of some potential cult members. As a refresher, The Idol is a show about the music industry that The Weeknd co-created with his producing partner Reza Fahim and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. The Weeknd will star alongside Lily-Rose Depp in six episodes that follow a self-help guru/“modern-day cult leader†who develops a “complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop idol.†Per Deadline, Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), Steve Zissis (Togetherness), and Troye Sivan (Boy Erased) will also be appearing as series regulars. Joining them in recurring roles are Elizabeth Berkley Lauren (Saved By The Bell), Melanie Liburd (This Is Us), Anne Heche (Six Days Seven Nights), Nico Hiraga (Moxie), and Tunde Adebimpe (Spider-Man: Homecoming). Amy Seimetz (Atlanta, The Girlfriend Experience) is set to direct all six episodes, which will be shot in and around Los Angeles. There’s been no word on a release date yet, but we’ll be waiting to see if The Idol develops a cult following of its own.
Original story follows.
The Weeknd has found the titular idol for his upcoming HBO drama series, The Idol. Deadline reports that Lily-Rose Depp is now attached to Abel Tesfaye’s upcoming television project, in which she will star as “a female pop singer who starts a romance with an enigmatic L.A. club owner who is the leader of a secret cult.†Tesfaye will write and star in the series, presumably as the club owner–slash–cult leader. Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is co-executive-producing the series with Tesfaye. No comment has been made by HBO or Depp’s ex Timothée Chalamet.