For over two decades, Josh Hartnett has been a presence on the big screen. Despite a long career in movies, however, Hartnett has only had a few television roles with his most notable stint happening on the beloved Penny Dreadful. That's all about to change, as the actor will soon take over television with a slew of new shows coming down the pipeline.
The most recent series Josh Hartnett has joined is HBO's Exterminate All The Brutes. Deadline reports this docu-series, which will talk about the brutal effects of European colonialism, will be broken up with archival footage and scripted scenes. Hartnett will star in the scripted portions of the four-part series that will be directed by Raoul Peck. Hartnett's role in the series is unspecified, but would presumably have some weight to it given his name being thrown out with the series announcement.
Around the same time as that announcement, news also broke that Josh Hartnett will have a part to play in an original series headed to Quibi. Die Hart, which stars Kevin Hart playing a fictionalized version of himself, will show Hartnett and Hart in the "world's greatest action star school," which is run by a "total lunatic." Hartnett's exact role in the comedy is unknown, though the press release mentioned him as an alumnus of this fictional school. It should be cool to see him in an action-packed series, even in a humorous light.
Josh Hartnett will also star in the upcoming Spectrum Originals series Paradise Lost. The actor will play Yates Forsythe, who returns home with his wife Frances (Bridget Regan) and exposes her to a "very old community." As mysteries about his community come to light, Yates will have to choose between his past and present going forward. This is a 10-episode series, and was made in partnership with Paramount Network.
It's quite a lineup for Josh Hartnett, especially considering the actor only has three television credits in his long career. Besides his more current role in Penny Dreadful, Harnett was also in the late 90s series Cracker where he played Michael Fitzgerald. Then he played Clark Gable in an episode of Drunk History, and that sums up all of what we've seen from Hartnett in television up to this point.
So why is Josh Hartnett suddenly stepping it up with television roles? The actor told Deadline back in 2019 that he was initially reluctant to jump into television due to his misunderstanding of the "open ended story." He has since bought in, which may be why audiences will expect to see much more of him going forward on the small screen.
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