Friday Night Lights
News (Page 2)

Football players are suddenly trading in their cleats for acting shoes.

First, Jerry Rice appeared on One Tree Hill this season. Then, it was confirmed that NFL Hall of Famer John Riggins has landed a recurring role on the same CW hit.

Now, we can report that Oakland Raiders Pro Bowl corner Nnamdi Asomugha will make a cameo in an upcoming episode of Friday Night Lights.

The star player will try to appeal to Vince, a troubled member of Eric Taylor's new team. The character is played by Michael B. Jordan and this great series returns to DIRECTV on Octobeer 28.

When Friday Night Lights returns for a fourth season, Tyra will be in college.

While actress Adrianne Palicki might make a mid-season return, she'll have her hands full with Supernatural events in the meantime.

But, don't worry Landry fans, your man won't just sit around and pine for her. The character will be involved in a love triangle when the series kicks off on DirecTV on October 28.

According to TV Guide Magazine, Landry will fight over the same girl with African-American teammate Vince (played by Michael B. Jordan). The female in question? Jess (Jurnee Smollett), who works with her dad at a local hangout.

“It’s good to see mixed couples on TV,” Jesse Plemons said. “The last girl I dated [in real life] was mixed race. Texas has come a long way, but there’s still racism.”

While NBC viewers will need to wait until the summer of 2010 to watch season four of Friday Night Lights, DirecTV subscribers will be privy to new episodes starting on October 28.

For the second year in a row, that network's channel 101 will show new episodes of the acclaimed drama, commercial-free, on Wednesday nights.

Following the events of the third season finale, during which coach Eric Taylor took a job at East Dillon high school, fans will meet new members of his school and his team.

“This season opener is practically a pilot in itself. It puts Coach Taylor at the center of the action in a new school, with a new team, and many new challenges,” said executive producer Jason Katims. “In addition to the returning cast, we are introducing a host of new characters who will become integral to the fourth and fifth season of the show.”

Get to know a few of these characters below...

• Vince (Michael B. Jordan): Great speed, undisciplined skills and unpredictable temper.
• Luke (Matt Lauria): Running back, former Dillon Panter, now a member of the Easy Dillon Lions due to new redistricting lines.
• Jess (Jurnee Smollett): Daughter of a former NFL hopeful.
• Becky (Madison Burge): Fifteen-year-old beauty queen, very popular at school.

Have we seen the end of Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights?

Yes and no. Minka Kelly is finished as a series regular, with her character having completed high school in Dillon and moving on with the next phase of life.

But producers are talking to Minka about a two-episode return as Lyla halfway through the season - coincidentally, around when things heat up with Riggins.

Tim will be making a move on Dillon’s resident Lolita, Becky (new guest star Madison Burge). That will make for some interesting scenes between he and Lyla.

Then again, it's Riggins. Are you surprised?

Kim Dickens absolutely killed as Shelby last season on Friday Night Lights, as that show's tremendous guest stars (and regular cast members) seem to always do.

Friday Night Lights moles say that Dickens will be back for at least some of Zach Gilford’s final seven episodes on Friday Night Lights' fourth season this fall/winter.

She's said to be appearing on at least two episodes. She was certainly a terrific part of the third season, and we can't wait to see what Kim has in store for us next.

Kim Dickens will reprise her role as Matt's mom on Friday Night Lights.

Meanwhile, Janine Turner is not being used as a cast member in the fourth season of Friday Night Lights. Turner was introduced last season as Katie McCoy, but “so far we don’t have her in any stories,” executive producer Jason Katims says.

But the actors who play Katie’s husband Joe (D.W. Moffett) and quarterback son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter) will play heavily in the new season: “Joe has basically replaced Buddy Garrity as the presence at West Dillon High,” says Katims.

In addition, the show-runner says: “There will also be huge tension between Joe and Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) over a new player named Luke (Lipstick Jungle’s Matt Lauria).”

What do you think of this Friday Night Lights scoop?

Here's an interesting Friday Night Lights casting note - an insider at TV Guide is reporting that the addition of pretty newcomer Madison Burge as Becky (a beauty pageant princess) will cause scandal in a story line involving Tami Taylor and Tim Riggins.

Interesting threesome. Sorry. But come on, it totally is.

Becky, 15, comes from a working-class background and is raised by a single mom.

She uses her looks to get what she wants. When that fails, she can always fall back on her charm and humor. In that sense she is very far from alone in high school.

One assumes Tami will be her principal. But what is she doing with Tim Riggins?

We don't even wanna know. Okay, we totally do. But we assume it means more trouble with Riggins. It seems to find the guy like a magnet. What else is new?

Friday Night Lights does not shooting until September, but the rumors, news (see Monday's note on some new recruits) and gossip surrounding the new season is heating up.

Here's what Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor) told E! about her vision for season four:

"I really hope there's a dance this season, because we've never actually had a real prom! I want a corsage. I want a dress. I want the family pictures. The whole shebang."

Who would be Julie's date? "Matt Saracen could take me." Obviously.

"They could still go to prom together, right? I would have to ask him though," Teegarden mused. "At least I think that's how it works when your date is not in high school."

As for whether Aimee Teegarden and other cast members have creative input, the star said, "Sometimes I talk to [executive producer] Jason Katims, and say, 'Julie needs to do this.'"

"Then the next thing you know it'll be written in. It's really funny."

Hopefully that means Matt and Julie break it down on the dance floor when Friday Night Lights returns to DirecTV in October. NBC will re-air the season in early 2010.

Up-and-coming actor Michael B. Jordan (no relation to the basketball legend) will be joining Friday Night Lights as Vince, East Dillon’s resident troublemaker.

The alum of All My Children and The Wire is joining will play the team's junior running back, a dangerous and menacing type with a crime-riddled upbringing.

He quickly finds himself at odds with the team’s new pretty boy Luke.

Speaking of Luke, he'll be played by Lipstick Jungle alum Matt Lauria!

In a departure from his previous role as Lindsay Price’s gay assistant on the late NBC soap, Lauria joining the Season 4 cast in the series regular role.

Luke is a charming yet cocky junior who reluctantly finds himself playing for Coach Taylor’s East Dillon squad, and one of four new characters being introduced to help fill the huge void left by departing Adrianne Palicki, Minka Kelly, and Zach Gilford.

Michael B. Jordan, left, and Matt Lauria have joined the acclaimed cast of Friday Night Lights, which begins its 13-episode fourth season run October 28 on DirecTV.

With the return of Friday Night Lights right around the corner, discussion has centered on how the critically acclaimed NBC and DirecTV series will wrap up the story lines of all the kids who graduated from Dillon High School and are now going to college.

Not even the actors know the answer to that.

Jesse Plemons (Landry Clarke) revealed that the cast isn't even shooting the new season until the beginning of September. Until then, all we can do is speculate.

"They kind of left everything up in the air," said Plemons. "I think Tyra's not going to be there the first season, but she might be there the second (of the two remaining)."

He joked, "Maybe we'll be texting back and forth, or I'll get an email from Tyra."

What does the future hold for Julie, Matt and Landry?

As for the show's storybook romance, Aimee Teegarden has high hopes for Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and her character, Julie in Season 4 of Friday Night Lights:

"I do [want to see them together]. There's something special and sweet about Julie and Matt's relationship that it has to stay together, or else I feel like we'll have a lot of upset fans."

"Hopefully Matt breaks up with Julie though, so fans can't blame me."

Are Matt and Julie's romantic days over, or at least numbered, on Friday Night Lights?

Not according to cast member Aimee Teegarden, who said that even Zach Gilford’s reduced role on Friday Night Lights this season can keep Matt and Julie apart.

“It’s all about Matt and Julie,” she professed, “it’s forever-after love.”

Swoon. Check out EW's interview with the talented teen post-jump ...

Continue Reading...