‘This Is Us’ promotes (almost) all Pearson children to series regulars
Bring on the This Is Us flashbacks, (almost) all the child actors playing young Kate, Randall and Kevin have been promoted to series regulars.
More exciting news from the This Is Us offices: the NBC show has promoted seven additional cast members to series regulars for season 2. The teenage Pearsons — Hannah Zeile (Kate), Niles Fitch (Randall) and Logan Shroyer (Kevin) — and their even younger counterparts — Mackenzie Hancsicsak (Kate) and Parker Bates (Kevin) will be contractual regulars in the new season. Which hopefully means plenty more flashbacks, especially circa Jack’s death in the teen years.
Lonnie Chavis, who plays young Randall, will not be a contractual regular on account of his series regular commitment to Showtime’s White Famous, the Jamie Foxx – Jay Pharoah comedy. Chavis (and his scenes with Milo Ventimiglia — the dojo, the difference speech) was a delight in the first season, so hopefully this is just a technicality and young Randall will continue to be a big part of the show.
Faithe Herman and Eris Baker, who play Randall’s children Annie and Tess, were also promoted to series regular for season 2.
This comes on the heels of news that the actors playing Miguel (Jon Huertas) and Sophie (Alexandra Breckinridge) will be series regulars this season as well.
Of course, we can’t help but speculate wildly about what these bumps mean for season 2 of This Is Us. More flashbacks seems like an obvious guess, but the fact all the actors were upgraded suggests that there will still be some balance between their youth and the time surrounding Jack’s death. The teen actors could also mean we get some flashbacks of the fallout of Jack’s death as well. Huertas, who plays double duty like Mandy Moore in the present and past, could show up more in the flashbacks — particularly with the kids as we will (hopefully) discover how exactly he came to be married to Rebecca. Lastly, the promotion for Randall’s girls — in addition to the very exciting promise of more of Dad Randall, could also indicate their involvement in the adoption storyline.