John Malkovich Joins Jude Law In 'The Young Pope' Follow-Up 'The New Pope'

John Malkovich is the latest actor to get the blessing of HBO to join its upcoming series The New Pope. In a heavenly piece of casting, Malkovich will be co-starring alongside Jude Law in HBO's follow-up to The Young Pope.The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Malkovich has been cast in The New Pope, HBO's forthcoming second season of The Young Pope. The two-time Oscar nominee will star alongside Law, the lead of The Young Pope.

Details for The New Pope and Malkovich's character are being kept under wraps, THR reports. The script for The New Pope is being penned by The Young Pope's Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello, and Stefano Bises.

The new series will be a follow-up to the events of The Young Pope, which featured Law as a provocative American pope who is hell-bent on disrupting the Vatican. The 10-episode series aired on HBO in 2016 and was met with critical acclaim (after first being met with incredulous jokes and memes). Law went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a miniseries for his role in The Young Pope. Here is the synopsis for The Young Pope:

Young and charming, newly elected Pius XIII, aka Lenny Belardo, is the first American Pope in history. His ascension appears to be the result of a simple, effective media strategy implemented by the College of Cardinals. In the Vatican, however, the prevailing wisdom is the church's leaders have chosen a mysterious figure as their guiding force. And Pius XIII proves to be the most mysterious and contradictory of them all. As Belardo begins his reign, he is stubbornly resistant to the Vatican stewards, instead relying on Sister Mary to serve as his chief adviser. While she urges him to focus on leading his billion followers, the young pope shows little interest in making himself known, either to the College of Cardinals or to the masses.

While we know very little about The New Pope, we can hope that the steamy combination of Law and Malkovich will result in more amazing memes (though I'm not sure if The Young Pope ever did live up to its "Hot Young Pope Who Fucks" jokes).

Production on The New Pope begins in November in Italy.