Straw Dog's James Marsden Headed To 30 Rock For Six Episodes

NBC's 30 Rock isn't scheduled to return until the new year because of Tiny Fey's pregnancy but they have already started lining up the guest stars and possibly plot lines for the sixth season. Will Arnett already announced that he will be coming back to reprise his role as Devon Banks, Jack's 'Gay Shark' nemesis - despite being busy with a recent full season order of his sitcom Up All Night. We don't know if the new star set to appear on the series will go toe-to-toe with Jack but we do know that it's James Marsden.

The actor most famous for feature film roles will be stopping by 30 Rock for six episodes of the upcoming season according to The Hollywood Reporter. Although the exact details of the role are being kept under wraps, it might be safe to assume that a Liz Lemon love interest isn't out of the realm of possibility. That's a big chunk of season to guest star and if it comes late in the year, who knows if this could be just the beginning. Of course, I'm just totally speculating, but if I were a betting man or woman -person - I'd at least put my money on a Fey and Marsden romance.

The actor is probably best known for his role as Cyclops in Bryan Singer's X-Men films (oh, and briefly in that last one from Brett Ratner) but he's capable of showing quite a lot of range. He just starred as a man pushed too far in Rod Lurie's adaptation of Sam Peckipah's famously controversial Straw Dogs, while not too long ago he was mixing it up with a CGI talking bunny in the kid's comedy HOP. He's a talented guy who needs better roles like, say, a charming squatter in a great episode of the Emmy Award winning series Modern Family. So yeah I'm pretty interested to see what comes out of this guest role.

30 Rock returns to NBC Thursdays in early 2012. You can catch James Marsden in theaters in Straw Dogs (and read Eric's review here).