Josh Andrés Rivera will go from the Academy in the capitol of Panem to the bright lights of the NFL for his next role. The rising Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star has been tapped to lead Ryan Murphy‘s sports anthology series American Sports Story as troubled New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez opposite Patrick Schwarzenegger who will play former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. Production finally began on the latest entry into Murphy‘s American Story franchise earlier this year after its original announcement in 2021, though the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike currently has everything on hold.
Like Murphy‘s other anthology series, American Sports Story is planned as a scripted limited series centered on prominent figures and events from throughout sports history. Each entry will provide multiple perspectives on the respective subjects based on everything that is known today. Season 1 will take viewers through the rise and fall of Hernandez, a star tight end for the Patriots who went from catching passes from Tom Brady to being sentenced to life in prison and eventually taking his own life after he was convicted of first-degree murder. Tebow is an important figure in Hernandez’s story as one of his close friends, looking out for him as they played together on the 2008 SEC and BCS champion University of Florida football team. The account of Hernandez’s tumultuous life of legal troubles and path to football stardom is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from the Boston Globe and Wondery.
Rivera is enjoying a meteoric rise at the moment thanks to his breakout role in Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story followed by his turn as Sejanus Plinth in the theater-bound Hunger Games prequel later this month. For Schwarzenegger, this will be his second stint on a Murphy production as he previously made an appearance in Scream Queens. Lately, however, The Boys fans will be aware of him as one of the suped-up attendees of Godolkin University in the recent spinoff Gen V.
‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Helped Rivera Join ‘American Sports Story’
According to IndieWire, Rivera‘s upcoming Songbirds and Snakes role helped his odds for American Sports Story as Nina Jacobson, who is an executive producer on the latest Murphy anthology, is a producer for the prequel film. Jacobson credited him for spurring his girlfriend and fellow West Side Story breakout Rachel Zegler to reconsider the film and ultimately take on a starring role as Lucy Gray Baird. While they were on set, she passed him a script for Sports Story and got his name in front of Murphy‘s eyes. It was no competition as she described his audition to play Hernandez, saying:
“I wanted Ryan [Murphy] to have a discovery process. So I was just, ‘Yeah, this guy’s good. Check him out.’ And we just threw him in the mix. And he stole the part, just like he did Ballad. Especially having watched him on set, he is a grounded, likable, natural, and compelling presence, super-prepared. I was thrilled once they brought in a bunch of people, and let Josh rise to the top, which I knew he would. And we had him all tatted out. He was trained to be huge and muscular; he loved lifting weights.”
Stu Zicherman writes for American Sports Story and executive produces alongside Murphy, Jacobson, Brad Falchuk, and Brad Simpson with Alexis Martin Woodall, Wondery’s Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy, and The Boston Globe’s Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello. Beyond the established anthologies, one other new series is coming from Murphy and his team with American Love Story.
Stay tuned here at Collider for more on American Love Story when it gets back underway. In the meantime, read our guide to Murphy’s next anthology installment, Feud: Capote’s Women, here for everything you need to know.
via Collider