John Malkovich Joins Bad Monkey Season 2 As Crime Boss

Bad Monkey is stocking up on bananas. John Malkovich - yes, that John Malkovich from In the Line of Fire, Opus, and Con Air - is joining Vince Vaughn in season 2 as a series regular. Production is gearing up, and Malkovich will play Spencer, the boss of a major South Florida crime outfit. So, expect the chaos level to spike.

Who Malkovich is playing

Malkovich is stepping in as Spencer, the head of a prominent criminal organization operating in South Florida. He is not a cameo. He is a full-time player in season 2.

Season 2 is a new story

The first season adapted Carl Hiaasen's novel. The second season is not pulling from an existing book - it is an original storyline for the show. That is a notable shift, and it likely changes which characters return.

Quick refresher on Hiaasen's book

Season 1 centered on Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), a former Miami cop on thin ice with the Monroe County sheriff's office who ends up with a human arm in his freezer. He is convinced the official 'boating mishap meets shark buffet' story is nonsense, and if he can prove it was murder, he might claw his way out of a grim health inspector assignment. Because it is Hiaasen, the investigation veers through a parade of wild personalities: an ex he can not quit who is also a fugitive from Kansas, a jittery widow tied to that frozen arm, a pair of overly optimistic real estate hustlers, a Bahamian voodoo queen called the Dragon Queen whose admirers literally get blinded, a new love interest who happens to be a delightfully unorthodox coroner, and, of course, the title's badly behaved monkey.

Season 1 cast roll call

• Series stars: Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, with L. Scott Caldwell, Rob Delaney, Meredith Hagner, Natalie Martinez, Alex Moffat, Michelle Monaghan, Ronald Peet, and Jodie Turner-Smith.
• Special guest star: John Ortiz.
• Guest stars: Zach Braff, Ashley Nicole Black, Scott Glenn, and Charlotte Lawrence.

For season 2, it is not clear yet who from that lineup is coming back.

Malkovich stays busy

On top of Bad Monkey, Malkovich has a stacked slate. One highlight: In the Hand of Dante, a crime drama from director Julian Schnabel about a handwritten manuscript of Dante's The Divine Comedy that moves from a priest to a New York mob boss. Writer Nick Tosches gets pulled in to authenticate it and ends up taking possession. The cast is absurdly loaded: Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Gal Gadot, Oscar Isaac, and Malkovich.

Long story short: Malkovich as a South Florida crime kingpin opposite Vaughn sounds like exactly the kind of energy this show thrives on. I am in. Are you?