YouTube star Sailor J cast in AMC’s Joe Hill series NOS4A2

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This is some unexpected news: the first role to be cast in the AMC television series adaptation of Joe Hill's novel NOS4A2 isn't one of the leads, it's a recurring character, and that character is going to be played by a first-time actor who has an established following from her YouTube channel.

YouTube star Jahkara Smith, a.k.a. Sailor J, will be playing Maggie Leigh, "Iowa's bubbly, purple-haired librarian with a Scrabble Bag portal to the universe."

If you are unaware of Sailor J's videos, as I was, Deadline provides the information that she "became a sensation on YouTube for her mixture of social commentary, DIY makeup tutorials and How-To vids, with her views on feminism, racial inequality, social justice, and other topical issues." Smith is a former member of the US Armed Services and is currently writing her first novel, which seems fitting for someone playing a librarian in an adaptation of a novel.

Hill's NOS4A2 told the story of 

Vic McQueen, a young, working class artist who discovers she has a supernatural ability to track the seemingly immortal Charlie Manx. Manx feeds off the souls of children, then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland – a twisted Christmas Village of Manx’s imagination where every day is Christmas day and unhappiness is against the law. Vic must strive to defeat Manx and rescue his victims – without losing her mind or falling victim to him herself.

AMC Studios is producing the TV show in association with Michael Eisner's Tornante Television. Jami O'Brien developed the series and will be serving as showrunner. O'Brien is also executive producer alongside Hill and Tornante Television's Lauren Corrao.

NOS4A2 will debut on AMC sometime in 2019.