‘Passengers’ Casts Michael Sheen as Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt’s Third Wheel
Passengers has taken a long road to development, with Keanu Reeves and Rachel McAdams attached to star at various points along the way. But with The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum at the helm and mega-stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt on board, the sci-fi romance is pushing full speed ahead. And it just invited another actor to join: Masters of Sex star Michael Sheen, who has been cast in the role of a robot.
You probably won’t even notice the wonderfully talented Sheen because you’ll be too busy gawking at Lawrence and Pratt, but Variety reports that the actor has indeed joined the cast of Passengers in the role of their robotic traveling companion, aka their third wheel.
Passengers centers on a spacecraft in the future, which is carrying thousands of passengers to a far away destination. One man wakes up from his deep cryogenic sleep 90 years early, and takes it upon himself to waken a sleeping woman so he’s not alone. Romance ensues, etc. Pratt will play the male lead opposite Lawrence, with Sony taking full advantage of the insane star power of both. It’s like a pop culture mashup — take the two most popular things right now and combine them to make something that’s even more awesome, hopefully.
Prometheus and Doctor Strange scribe Jon Spaihts wrote the screenplay for Passengers, which has been in development off and on since 2014.