WIRE Buzz: Lucifer casts God; Rick and Morty creator lands claymation show; Joker earns WGA nom

Lucifer may be heading down into the depths for the first half of its fifth and final season, but joining that handsome devil will be God himself. Well, an actor playing God, of course. 

Heading to the Netflix show is Dennis Haysbert (the president from 24 and the guy from the Allstate commercials) as the Almighty, according to EW, sure to poke a few holy holes in whatever Lucifer (Tom Ellis) has planned. Dads are like that. That means Neil Gaiman won’t be reprising his voice role of the deity when God hangs out with Lucifer and Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside).

“We did like the big crazy list of [possible actors for the part], and he was my top choice,” Lucifer co-showrunner Joe Henderson said. “We were lucky. It was our first and only offer.” Reuniting with his 24 co-star Woodside was one of the perks of Haysbert taking the role, which will see plenty of celestial drama.

Netflix will likely drop the first eight episodes of Lucifer sometime this year.

Next, a new Quibi show will give Rick and Morty fans a new kind of animated strangeness to revel in. The forthcoming shortform streaming service has hired the cult Adult Swim show’s creator to helm a new claymation project for them, and its name is fitting for fans of his other series.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Roiland and Robot Chicken executive producers John Harvatine IV and Eric Towner are bringing the stop-motion Gloop World to the streamer. Focused on roommates Bob Roundy and Funzy, the show will be a suburban sitcom featuring the central duo’s “absurd, strangely relatable adventures.”

"Gloop World has been a dream of mine to make for almost seven years,” said Roiland. “A tactile clay animation show with a mysterious, weird, and expansive world and really fun characters, fingerprints and all.” Mysterious and weird have defined many of the creator's comic projects, which have so far dabbled only in live-action and traditional animation.

But now is the time for clay — and Robot Chicken’s studio knows stop-motion like few others. "Ever since I first saw Gumby, I was fascinated with clay as a medium,” said Harvatine, who will also direct the series.

Quibi launches on April 6.

Finally, awards season is following up on the Golden Globes with the Writers Guild Awards nominations. 

After winning Best Score and Best Actor in a Drama at the Globes, Joker — the big genre awards contender this year — landed its writers (Todd Phillips & Scott Silver) a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Alongside Joker were The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Bong Joon-ho’s economic thriller Parasite (co-written by Han Jin Won), both of which earned nominations for their original scripts. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a documentary about the creepy machinations of Elizabeth Holmes and her former blood-testing company Theranos, earned its director Alex Gibney a nomination for Best Documentary Screenplay.

The WGA Awards will be announced on Feb. 1.