Posted in: FX, Hulu, Preview, TV | Tagged: aaron hernandez, american sports story, fx networks, ryan murphy
American Sports Story Casts Josh Andrés Rivera as Aaron Hernandez
FX Networks & Ryan Murphy's American Sports Story has tapped Josh Andrés Rivera to play NFL player & convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez.
Article Summary
- FX Networks' American Sports Story cast Josh Andrés Rivera as New England Patriots tight end & convicted killer Aaron Hernandez.
- Ryan Murphy's anthology series will examine prominent sports events from various perspectives.
- The season is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from The Boston Globe and Wondery.
- Production initially got underway but was halted due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Back in August 2021, we learned that FX Networks was looking to expand Ryan Murphy's "American" franchise in a number of different ways. They included the limited series American Sports Story and American Love Story. In addition, it was announced that Studio 54: American Crime Story would be the subject of the award-winning anthology series' fourth season (more on that below). A little more than two years later, we have a major update to pass along – with Josh Andrés Rivera (West Side Story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) set to play Aaron Hernandez in American Sports Story.
The anthology series is set to focus on a prominent event involving a sports figure and then re-examine it through today's lens and from a number of perspectives. Written by Stu Zicherman (The Americans), the first season is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from The Boston Globe and Wondery. Charting the rise and fall of NFL superstar Hernandez, the limited series explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture. A tight end for the New England Patriots, Hernandez would be convicted on April 15, 2015, of the 2013 killing of semipro football player Odin Lloyd – with Hernandez taking his own life in prison in 2017.
Zicherman executive produces with Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, and Brad Falchuk. Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy of Wondery (Dr. Death) will also executive produce alongside The Boston Globe's Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello. Production on the first season of the new anthology initially got underway before being shuttered by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.