While Paul Feig may not be a household name, his body of work is immediately recognizable. He got started as one of the head showrunners of Freaks and Geeks and is better known for directing Bridesmaids, The Heat and the upcoming film Spy (starring Melissa McCarthy) as well as the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters. Simply put, Feig is one of the hottest comedy titans around right now. Like his buddy Judd Apatow, Feig is well-known for reusing the same actors (see Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne) so we were pleasantly surprised to discover that his new Yahoo show Other Space will star Karan Soni as the lead.
According to The Wrap, “Other Space follows a young and inexperienced crew as they adventure into an unknown universe to face mysterious clouds, food and fuel shortages, robot rebellions, folds in time and the occasional alien attack.” Karan Soni will play the captain of the ship, though from the looks of it he’s no Captain Kirk yet.
Other Space is Yahoo’s first attempt in making a completely original scripted TV series (Community, which will be premiering its sixth season on Yahoo, ran for five seasons on NBC). But seeing as how many of the TV shows being nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes are coming from Netflix and Amazon, Other Space has a decent chance of taking off (pun unintentional, but necessary) and it may very well be Karan Soni’s big break.
Soni, who has mostly done commercials and guest appearances on TV shows, showed his comedic chops in the Sundance cult hit movie Safety Not Guaranteed. His co-stars from the movie Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson have all starred in movies and television shows since then. Now, it’s his turn and we here at Audrey Magazine are glad for it. We certainly know how rare it is to see an Asian actor play the lead.
Let’s hear it for more Asian guys on TV!
Other Space will premiere on Yahoo Screen on April 14 with eight 30-minute episodes.
