Fringe's John Noble Lands A Role In Fox's Sleepy Hollow

If you caught and loved the first episode of Sleepy Hollow this week or if you were a fan of Fringe when it aired, there is good news on the horizon. John Noble, who formerly starred in Fringe, has now signed a deal to appear in the first season of Sleepy Hollow. We’re not talking a memorable guest role, like the one the actor accomplished in last year’s The Good Wife, we’re talking a major storyline and a recurring role.

Noble is set to play Henry Parrish, a character who will pop up later in the season, should Sleepy Hollow make it all the way to “later in the season.” If this week’s largely positive reviews and high ratings are any indication, people are going to continue to tune in. This means we should get to meet Parrish, a man who is described in a press release form Fox as “kind and reclusive.” He also seems as if he will be one of the good guys, possessing supernatural abilities that could help Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison).

Sleepy Hollow premiered this past Monday and 10.1 million total viewers tuned in to catch the introduction to the story, which follows a man from the 1700s waking up, alive, in the present day and being tasked with taking down a headless horseman and saving a quaint town called Sleepy Hollow. He’s helped in these endeavors by 42 actress Nicole Beharie, whose character, Abbie Mills, brings charm and ease to her partnership with Crane. Ratings frequently go down after a show's first episode, but hopefully Sleepy Hollow will continue to pique the interest of viewers in the coming months.

Noble’s gig on Sleepy Hollow won’t be his first big role on Fox. Fringe also aired on the network, and prior to that gig, Noble also appeared in another Fox fan-favorite drama, 24. I was a pretty big fan of Noble’s scientist character Walter Bishop on Fox's sci fi drama, and I was really hoping he’d nab another regular role during pilot season, but as it stands, I guess we’ll just have to get excited about the Sleepy Hollow performance, which seems like it could be fairly substantial.

If you happened to miss the pilot, you can stream it over at Fox’s site. Additionally, the network has been trying to attract as many eyeballs as possible to the new series by airing reruns, and you’ll be able to catch the pilot episode tonight at 9 p.m. ET. If you are already ready to catch a new episode, Sleepy Hollow airs on Fox on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET and you can catch a preview for episode 2, below.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.