‘The Big Cigar’: Marc Menchaca Joins Apple TV+ Series as a Regular!!

Apple TV+’s The Big Cigar isn’t letting its momentum burn out. According to Deadline, the production revealed that they’ve tapped Ozark’s Marc Menchaca to join an all-star lineup that currently includes André Holland, Don Cheadle, Alessandro Nivola, and Tiffany Boone. For Menchaca, the new series comes as a follow-up to his time on Netflix’s Emmy-winning crime-drama, Ozark.

In the series, Menchaca portrayed recurring character Russ Langmore who appeared in the show’s first, second, and fourth seasons with varying amounts of screen time. The actor also appeared in another Jason Bateman led production, that being HBO’s supernatural series, The Outsider. Along with The Big Cigar, Menchaca has several other projects dropping soon. He’ll next appear in Season 3 of Prime Video’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, the Watergate scandal-based HBO miniseries The White House Plumbers, the John Hyams pandemic-centered thriller Sick, and Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi feature True Love.

The Big Cigar will be an adaptation of the Playboy magazine article of the same name penned by Joshuah Bearman (Argo) which centers around Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. The larger-than-life tale chronicles the true-story of Newton’s escape to Cuba in order to evade capture by the FBI. To stick the landing, Newton invests in the help of his best friend and the big-time Hollywood producer behind such classic hits as Easy Rider, Bert Schneider (Nivola). Menchaca will take on the regular role of Agent Sydney Clark. A no-nonsense lawyer turned undercover detective, Clark hails from Oklahoma and is a proud Vietnam War vet. A master of disguise, Clark’s latest target will make the agent transform himself into a pot-smoking hippie as he tries to nab the fleeing Newton who the FBI is hoping to bring in on charges of murdering a teenage sex worker.

The project found its showrunner in Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, The Kings of Napa) with Jim Hecht (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty) credited with penning the premiere episode. Along with starring, Cheadle will also lend his directorial talents to the first two episodes as well as serve as an executive producer. Joining the executive production team will be Barrois and Hecht with Epic’s Bearman, Joshua Davis, and Arthur Spector. Barrois and her company, Folding Chair Productions, are under an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television who will be backing the project.