Joshua Jackson is going to be big again. I believe it, I really do. All you have to do is look at J.J. Abrams’ track record when casting the leads on his TV shows. Keri Russel broke out, though somewhat modestly, after Felicity. We all know what happened with Jennifer Garner and Alias. With Lost, Abrams put a number of unknown actors on the map (Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, Naveen Andrews, et al) and, thankfully, revived the career of a man named Matthew Fox. Now, Joshua Jackson (Pacey from Dawson’s Creek) has landed one of the lead roles in the J.J’s new sci-fi pilot Fringe. Jackson will play the son of the institutionalized scientist, who Jackson’s character will help break out of the mental hospital in the pilot episode.
I think we can best equate the casting of Joshua Jackson in Fringe with the casting of Matthew Fox in Lost. Both actors had once been leads in popular TV shows years before (Jackson in Dawson’s Creek, Fox in Party of Five) and both actors probably deserved more high-profile work in the years between their two TV series than they actually got. I, like many others, always thought that Jackson was the standout on Dawson’s Creek. He’s got a great comic presence, but he can also pull of a romantic lead. Hell, I’ve been a fan of Jackson since his Mighty Ducks days.
It’s still yet to be seen if this casting will impact the arc he was supposed to complete on Grey’s Anatomy. With the writers’ strike (supposedly) ending very soon, Grey’s Anatomy should get back into production by the end of the month. My hunch is that Jackson will be able to film his Grey’s episodes with no problems and then get ready to shoot the Fringe pilot this summer.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
(Image Courtesy of Yahoo)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
