One month after the second “Knives Out” film premieres on Netflix, Rian Johnson is bringing his brand of whodunnit to television. The director’s upcoming series “Poker Face” is set to premiere January 26, 2023, on Peacock, the streamer announced Wednesday.
The mystery-of-the-week series stars “Russian Doll” Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a private investigator in the vein of James Garner in “The Rockford Files.” With a powerful ability to determine when someone is lying, no matter how airtight their alibi is, Charlie travels across America in her yellow ‘69 Plymouth Barracuda, stumbling upon bizarre crimes to solve along the way.
“I only know if something is a lie,” Lyonne tells guest star Adrian Brody in the teaser for the series, which can be watched below. “The real trick of it is to figure out why.”
Lyonne is the only series regular on the show, but she’s accompanied by a smorgasbord of big names in guest spots as the suspects and victims she encounters in every case. Along with Brody, expect to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cherry Jones, Tim Meadows, Nick Nolte, Rhea Perlman, Ron Perlman, Jameela Jamil, Judith Light, Chloë Sevigny, Hong Chau, Lil Rey Howey, Stephanie Hsu, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Melton, Coltan Ryan, Luis Guzmán, Ellen Barkin, Clea DuVall, Benjamin Bratt, S. Epatha Merkerson, Danielle MacDonald, Rowan Blanchard, Simon Helberg, Brandon Michael Hall, Reed Birney, Angel Desai, Audrey Corsa, Chelsea Frei, Dascha Polanco, Jasmine Aiyana Garvin, Leslie Silva, Megan Suri, Niall Cunningham, Nicholas Cirillo, and Shane Paul McGhie.
Lyonne executive produces “Poker Face” via her Animal Pictures production company, which also produces Netflix’s “Russian Doll” and Apple TV+’s “Loot.” Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens from Animal Pictures co-executive produce. Johnson will write and direct several episodes of the series, and executive produces via his T-Street production banner. Additional executive producers include Ram Bergman, Nora Zuckerman, Lila Zuckerman, Nena Rodrigue, and Iain B. Macdonald. MRC Television also serves as one of the production companies behind the series.
The first season of “Poker Face” premieres with four episodes January 26, followed by weekly drops of new episodes on Thursdays.
