‘The Cape’ Casts Rapper Lil’ Romeo & Michael Irby as Villains

Add two more antagonists to NBC’s midseason superhero show. The Cape will feature Michael Irby and Lil’ Romeo in episodes later this year.

Irby is best known for his role on CBS’s thriller The Unit. He’s also had roles on 24, Chase and last year’s Dwayne Johnson vehicle Faster. Irby will be playing Pokerface, an underling of the series’ main villain Chess whose visage is permanently frozen in an “expression of glum murderousness.” So he’ll be something like The Joker without the comedy theme and sunny disposition.

Romeo Miller, A.K.A. Lil’ Romeo, will play his wise-cracking gangster accomplice Lil’ Z. (I wonder how long it took the NBC writers to come up with that one). Miller has had roles in Honey (2003) and self-referential show Romeo on Teen Nick. Pokerface and Lil’ Z will feature in the series’ ninth episode later this spring.

While it’s good to see that the series’ producers still have faith in The Cape, TV viewers may not be as enthusiastic. After a satisfactory debut two weeks ago, The Cape dropped 30% of its viewers Monday night (down to 6.2 million). While these aren’t terrible numbers, any further slide could spell doom for the fledgeling show.

Cancellation would certainly be a disappointment for NBC, and those interested in seeing original superheroes on TV, since the next few years are likely to see television adaptations of several Marvel and DC properties oversaturate the TV landscape across various networks.

The Cape is NBC’s next superhero effort since cancelling Heroes after four seasons in 2010. Screen Rant‘s Anthony Ocasio found it an enjoyable but campy experience in his review of the series premiere.

In case you’re not up to speed on the series, The Cape follows an ex-cop (David Lyons), accused of murder and left for dead, out to clear his name and clean up the streets of Palm City. He dons the identity of his son’s favorite comic book hero to fight the supervillian Chess (James Frain of True Blood). The Cape is aided by super-hacker Orwell, who mirrors another Batman fixture, Oracle. Orwell is played by Summer Glau of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Kieth David delivers an enjoyable performance as the carnival master/cat-burglar Max Malini.

The Cape airs Monday nights at 9:00 PM on NBC.

Source: TV Line, Zap2It

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