Mad Men‘s January Jones has reportedly been cast in the new futuristic Fox television comedy The Last Man on Earth. But that’s all we know.
The producers have been extremely hush-hush about any information about the upcoming show including casting details. Jones will be playing a “strong independent” character named “Melissa.” She joins Kristen Schaal (The Daily Show) as “Carol,” Mel Rodriguez (Community) as an optimistic character named “Todd,” and Cleopatra Coleman (Step Up Revolution) as “Erica.”
The single-camera half-hour show follows Phil Miller, played by Saturday Night Live’s‘s Will Forte, who searches 2022 America for other signs of human life after an unknown event wipes out the entire population of Earth. Speculation is that the other actors will appear in flashbacks.
As well as starring in Last Man, Forte also created and wrote the series. The pilot is being directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street).
In addition to Last Man, Jones will also return to Mad Men as Betty Draper for the final seven episodes in 2015. She began her career with supporting roles in films such as Anger Management, Love Actually, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, and the love interest of Paul Finch and Steve Stifler in American Wedding.
Jones hosted Saturday Night Live in 2009 while Will Forte was a cast member. Her performance was met with negative reviews mostly due to the fact that she started her first sketch audibly asking, “Which camera?” However, the rest of the show didn’t go well, either.
Perhaps it was just difficult to live up to naturally funny Jon Hamm (Mad Men) who first hosted SNL in 2008.
But the SNL failure hasn’t seemed to hurt Jones’ career too badly. She recently sold her 2,200 square foot California home for $1.37 million.
The Last Man on Earth will premiere on March 1, 2015 at 9:00 p.m. with back-to-back episodes. The regular time slot will be Sundays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.