Grab your prosthetics and a blonde wig because Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision, Parks and Recreation, Knives Out 2) is playing Joan Rivers for a new limited series at Showtime. The project, which is currently in development, is called The Comeback Girl.
In addition to starring as the legendary comedian and TV personality, Hahn will also executive produce. Greg Berlanti will direct and exec produce, with Cosmo Carlton writing and exec producing. Carlton wrote The Comeback Girl as a spec script before bringing it to Berlanti and company. Sadly, Rivers passed away on September 4, 2014, days after she’d stopped breathing during a routine endoscopy on her throat. She was a titan among female comedians and served as a commanding presence in the stand-up scene for generations. Audiences fell in love with Rivers during a run of appearances on The Tonight Show in the mid-’60s. Eventually, she became Johnny Carson’s regular guest host on the show in the 1980s.
As it happens, Carson and Rivers had a falling out in 1986 after the blonde bombshell landed a talk show on the Fox network, called The Joan Rivers Show. The gig made her the first woman to host a late-night talk show. Carson took her Rivers’ migration to Fox personally at the time, saying he had to hear about it through the grapevine rather than Rivers herself.
The official logline for The Comeback Girl reads as follows:
“Trailblazer. Adored. Cruel. Diva. Joan Rivers had a life like no other. At age 54, she was a superstar comedienne…and then it all fell apart. The Comeback Girl is the awe-inspiring untold story of how Joan Rivers persevered through near suicide and professional abyss to rebuild herself and her career to become a global icon.”
Hahn was recently nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Agatha Harkness for Marvel Studios’ WandaVision, and can soon be found in Apple TV’s The Shrink Next Door. She’s also set to star alongside Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out 2. The anticipated sequel to Johnson’s whodunit also stars Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Dave Bautista, Ethan Hawke, Kate Hudson, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Janelle Monáe.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see Hahn’s transformation for this role. Both Hahn and Rivers are legends in their own right, and so it seems fitting that Hahn would represent Rivers in a tale inspired by her success.