Diarra Kilpatrick Reveals Role She Wrote for Colman Domingo in ‘Diarra From Detroit’

Diarra Kilpatrick made her late-night debut on July 21 during Colman Domingo‘s guest-hosting stint on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and she revealed in their interview about Diarra From Detroit that she wrote a role for Domingo in Season 2 of the mystery-comedy. Domingo had said Diarra From Detroit is his favorite TV show and that he wants to be on it. Kilpatrick says they wanted to have him on, but the budget didn’t allow for it. But she told TV Insider what the role was.

“There’s a character who’s in the past that I imagined was Colman Domingo the whole time I was writing,” Kilpatrick said ahead of the Season 2 premiere. “The first time you see this character is in Episode 3, and it’s in a picture. We shot it with a green screen, and I was thinking, ‘That’s going to be Colman Domingo. Don’t worry, everyone.’ And as I said on [Jimmy Kimmel Live!], we could not afford him by the time we got to Episode 7, but that is who I was thinking about, this Prohibition-era gangster. So, we would have to come up with something different for Season 3, if he were to appear, but I do have a couple of ideas.”

Kilpatrick is the creator, writer, executive producer, and star of Diarra From Detroit. Season 2 premiered with its first two episodes on Wednesday, July 29, on Paramount+, with one episode coming out weekly through September 9. There are eight episodes total.

Kilpatrick is a lover of mysteries such as Columbo, Nancy Drew, and Perry Mason (she was in the HBO remake). The Detroit native pulled from the city’s history to craft her mysteries in the series.

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'Diarra From Detroit' Season 2 Trailer Reveals Action-Packed Treasure Hunt

Season 1 was a missing persons drama with lots of comedy blended in. Season 2 continues that story while adding new twists, including a treasure hunt. Kilpatrick has said that she wanted Season 2 to have an Indiana Jones feel. The new episodes feature flashbacks to decades before, and the character she wrote for Domingo existed in those flashbacks.

While they couldn’t afford to have Domingo in Season 2 (on Kimmel, the Emmy winner said he’d happily work for a lower rate), Kilpatrick told us that they “have some great folks that came to play with us.”

It’s true. Season 2 has Phylicia Rashad and Morris Chestnut returning, with an all-star lineup of guest stars, including Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Glynn Turman, Bokeem Woodbine, Amber Riley, Lil Rel Howery, Lovie Simone, Shoniqua Shandai, Nicco Annan, Skilla Baby, Icewear Vezzo, Chris “CP” Powell, and Jude Demorest.

BET / Paramount+

The season is set during the summer, a few months after the events of Season 1. In Season 2, Diarra Brickland (Kilpatrick) is determined to leave the chaos behind and finally enjoy a little peace.

Instead, a routine furniture recovery mission lands her in the middle of a grisly new crime, setting off another wildly unpredictable adventure through Detroit’s criminal underworld. As the mystery deepens, she’ll go undercover with a secret society, chase buried treasure, and navigate a love life that’s every bit as complicated as the case itself.

Diarra From Detroit Season 2 stars Kilpatrick, DomiNque Perry, Bryan Terrell Clark, and Jon Chaffin alongside Shannon Wallace, Phylicia Rashad, and Harry Lennix.

Diarra From Detroit, Wednesdays, Paramount+