Lisa Kudrow will play the lead in Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits series

Terry Gilliam’s 1981 comic odyssey Time Bandits is a cult favorite. It’s about a group of dwarves who steal a map from “the Supreme Being” that allows them to travel through time. Hello, Ian Holm as Napoleon. Hello, John Cleese as Robin Hood. It’s weird and wild and fun, and now Taika Waititi is turning it into a TV series for Apple TV+.

Per The A.V. Club, the new series is “a comedic journey through time and space with a ragtag group of thieves and their newest recruit: an 11-year-old history nerd.” The 11-year-old history nerd is Kevin, and he’ll be played on the show by Kal-El Tuck. Meanwhile, Charlene Yi will appear as “Judy,” Tadhg Murphy as “Alto,” Roger Jean Nsengiyumva as “Widgit,” Rune Temte as “Bittelig,” Kiera Thompson as “Saffron,” and Rachel House as “Fianna.”

And now, Lisa Kudrow has been cast as a character named “Penolope,” who will apparently be the lead, or one of them. As the funniest actor on Friends (I said what I said), Kudrow is an old hand at pretty much all kinds of comedy, so she should fit right in (if you’ve never seen her hysterical performance on HBO’s The Comeback, consider binging sometime).

Meanwhile, Taika Waititi is building himself a comedy TV empire with shows like What We Do In The Shadows, Reservation Dogs, and Our Flag Means Death. He’ll cowrite the Time Bandits show and direct the first two episodes. There’s no release date yet, but with the cast coming together, things must be rolling along.

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