Lin-Manuel Miranda has revealed the cast for his upcoming adaptation of Octet, and it’s a star-studded bunch that he’s assembled. Amanda Seyfried and Rachel Zegler will lead the cast, which also includes Sheryl Lee Ralph, Phillipa Soo, Gaten Matarazzo, Jonathan Groff and Tramell Tillman. Damn.
Octet is based on Dave Malloy’s off-Broadway acapella musical about eight Internet addicts who meet as a support group in a church basement. There, they lock away their phones and discuss their problems with digital dependence.
Miranda will direct from a screenplay written by Mallloy. This will be Miranda’s sophomore effort as a director, following 2021’s tick, tick… BOOM! starring Andrew Garfield. Production is expected to begin this month.
Seyfried is arguably more in demand than she’s ever been, following the hit thriller The Housemaid, and critical acclaim for her performance in The Testament of Ann Lee.
Zegler, on the other hand, could use a rebound after the controversial flop Snow White, and the unsuccessful comedy Y2K. Throw in Shazam: Fury of the Gods and things haven’t been going well for her for a while.
The multi-talented Ralph is a stage goddess who is currently killing it on the sitcom Abbott Elementary. Matarazzo is coming off the conclusion of Netflix’s Stranger Things. Soo was an original cast member in Miranda’s Hamilton, and most recently starred in the short-lived series, Doctor Odyssey. Groff was also part of the Hamilton cast, and of course, he voices Kristoff in the Frozen movies. Tillman recently won the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy Award for his performance in Severance, becoming the first Black, openly gay actor to do so.
