10 Now-Unemployed TV Actors We Need Back on Screen ASAP
While we wait for network execs to finish making their decisions for the 2023–2024 broadcast season, we’re already eager for actors from this season’s canceled and concluded TV shows to make triumphant returns.
Some actors from axed shows have landed on their feet: The Resident’s Matt Czuchry, for instance, will appear in the next season of American Horror Story, subtitled Delicate. New Amsterdam’s Ryan Eggold will star in the Prime Video thriller Cross. And The Goldberg’s Wendi McClendon-Covey and Nancy Drew’s Kennedy McMann still have TV pilots pending, NBC’s St. Denis Medical and ABC’s The Good Lawyer, respectively.
But others are waiting for their next big TV role. Here are 10 actors we hope to see on our screens again in short order.
Jensen Ackles
This Supernatural alum is doubly unemployed after the cancellations of Big Sky, on which he played Beau Arlen, and The Winchesters, which he narrated and executive-produced. But we wouldn’t be surprised if Ackles landed another job — and maybe a return appearance as The Boys’ Soldier Boy — very soon.
JoJo Fleites
Fleites made their screen debut in The Winchesters, playing Carlos Cervantez, and fans are already eager for their demon-hunter character to return in whatever Supernatural expansion comes next. “Queer representation is something The Winchesters [has] done well, particularly with JoJo’s character,” one fan tweeted.
Anna Friel
Whether she’s playing a resurrected love interest in Pushing Daisies, a tortured detective sergeant in Marcella, or a heir-apparent country singer in the now-canceled Monarch, Friel always commands our attention. We’ll watch whatever TV show she pops up in next on either side of the pond.
Grant Gustin
Gustin’s decade-long role as The Flash seems to have gone by in a… well, you know what. We’re sure the actor didn’t mind shimmying out of his skin-tight superhero suit for the last time, but we’re eager for him to zoom back onto the small screen sometime soon.
Olivia Liang
The cancellation of Kung Fu meant the cancellation of the first hour-long network drama with a predominantly Asian cast. But a consolation prize would be Liang fighting her way back onto television, a half-decade after getting noticed in an ABC Discovers talent showcase.
Grace Park
Park played Battlestar Galactica’s Boomer in her breakout role, and her career has only “boomed” since then, with long-running roles on Hawaii Five-0 and the now-finished A Million Little Things. And we have a million little reasons for wanting her back on television in some sort of role, terrestrial or otherwise.
Roselyn Sánchez
The dream is over for the Fantasy Island reboot, which means Sánchez — an alum of Without a Trace and Devious Maids — is back on the job market. In January, Deadline reported that Sanchez was executive-producing a Fox sitcom titled El Patio, but we haven’t heard anything about that project since then.
Hilary Swank
The Swank-iness of a two-time Oscar winner doesn’t always translate to small-screen success, but we hope Hilary tries again after the short-lived Away and the now-canceled Alaska Daily. (Third time’s the charm?) In the meantime, fans can see the actor on the big-screen in Ordinary Angels, due for release on October 13.
Milo Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia was the first of the main This Is Us cast members to headline a follow-up TV show, but it seems The Company You Keep wasn’t a TV show we could keep. Still, the actor has legions of fans dating back to his Gilmore Girls and Heroes days, so a comeback is all but guaranteed.
Amanda Warren
We’ve been following Warren ever since she played a pragmatic mayor on The Leftovers, and she finally got her own show this season with the now-canceled East New York, playing another civil servant, the head of a Brooklyn police precinct. And it would be criminal for her not to get another starring role.
