American Crime Story Just Found The Best Actor To Play George W. Bush

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The second season of FX's American Crime Story is still a ways off from releasing any footage, but there have been a number of casting announcements that have made it easy to get excited about what's to come. Season 2 will focus on the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath back in 2005. Now, executive producer Ryan Murphy has officially landed a fantastic actor to play the part of President George W. Bush. Dennis Quaid will bring Bush to life for American Crime Story.

The handling of Hurricane Katrina is far from the brightest spot in George W. Bush's legacy. His decisions during and after the storm have been criticized for their humanitarian and environmental consequences. EW reports that Dennis Quaid will play Bush in Season 3, although it is not yet known how many episodes he'll appear in during the series.

The cast was already shaping up to be pretty fabulous even before Dennis Quaid signed on. Matthew Broderick is on board to play FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, who was given control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency by President Bush despite a lack of qualifications. Brown failed to rise to the occasion when the disaster of Katrina struck. Assuming Bush and Brown have some scenes together, it should be interesting to discover how Quaid and Broderick bounce off of one another.

Annette Bening will tackle a role as well. She's slated to portray Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. The season will likely also involve actors who have appeared in past installments of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology series. All things considered, Season 2 with its take on Hurricane Katrina sounds quite different from Season 1, which covered the legendary O.J. Simpson murder trial. Season 3 certainly sounds like it will go in a brand new direction as well.

Dennis Quaid is probably best known nowadays for his work on the big screen, with movies like A Dog's Purpose, The Day After Tomorrow, and Frequency under his belt. Still, he's had some memorable performances on the small screen as well. He starred in the CBS period drama Vegas for its first and only season back in 2012, and he played Samuel Brukner on both seasons of Crackle's The Art of More so far. Quaid also turned in some striking performances on Fortitude as Michael Lennox in Season 2. Interestingly, American Crime Story will be the second time that Quaid plays a modern U.S. president. He portrayed President Bill Clinton in HBO's 2010 movie The Special Relationship. We'll have to wait and see how his version of Bush differs from his version of Clinton.

American Crime Story Season 2 will hit the airwaves in 2018. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to select your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well. Our TV season finale schedule can give you all you need to know about your shows ending.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).