We’d heard some time ago that BBC-America had in mind to adapt Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy creator Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency with controversial writer Max Landis, and now Dirk Gently has a first major star. Lord of the Rings and Wilfred alum Elijah Wood joins the production in a major Dirk Gently role, but not the one you’d think.

As per BBC-A’s official synopsis of the eight-episode fall premiere, Dirk Gently is “a comedic thriller that follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric ‘holistic’ detective Dirk Gently and his reluctant assistant Todd, as they wend their way through one big, seemingly insane mystery a season, crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and sometimes dangerous characters, each episode landing them a few random steps closer to uncovering the truth.”

Wood won’t play the title role, but rather Todd, as the release puts it:

He’s not a sidekick. Todd’s just flat out better than Dirk at a lot of things. He always attempts to solve matters with the fewest steps possible; despite being a compassionate, sweet, smarter-than-average man with biting wit, Todd often finds himself at the intersection of morally gray crossroads. Thus, his bad habits of lying and stealing have dire consequences that he can’t put off forever, even though he tries. Todd’s not a bad person. He’s not a good person yet, either, but he’ll get there.

As Todd describes himself to Dirk Gently: ‘I am not your Watson, asshole. I am not available for side-kicking on something I am not involved with. I am my own messed up person with my own messed up problems.’

In addition to Max Landis, executive producers include Ted Adams and David Ozer of IDW, along with Walking Dead familiars David Alpert and Rick Jacobs for Circle of Confusion, and Zainir Aminullah and Arvind Ethan David of Ideate Media.

Stay tuned for further Dirk Gently announcements on the road to its fall 2016 premiere.

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