A familiar face is heading to NBC's most weep-worthy drama. Elle reports that Sylvester Stallone will appear on This Is Us when the series returns for its sophomore season this fall, and will form a very special bond with one Pearson kid in the process.
The news comes from creator Dan Fogelman, who dropped the casting bomb on the audience at the Television Critics Association press tour on Thursday. According to Fogelman, Stallone — whom you may recognize from a little franchise called Rocky — will share the screen with Kevin (Justin Hartley), who himself is now the star of a Ron Howard movie. Stallone will, appropriately, play Kevin's co-star.
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Fans may remember that in the season 1 finale of This Is Us, Kevin was forced to choose between doing a major motion picture or staying with his ex-wife in New York City, and now that he has selected the former, he's going to need all the love advice he can get. Fortunately, Stallone's character is totally onboard for all of that: Fogelman states that Stallone will play a "father figure" of sorts to Kevin.
That makes sense, considering that Milo Ventimiglia — who plays Jack, Kevin's long-deceased dad on the family drama — is reportedly the one who encouraged Stallone to come aboard. Ventimiglia starred alongside Stallone in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa as the infamous boxer's only son. (Talk about things coming full circle.)
Perhaps Stallone's appearance on season 2 of the new series can crack open a window for more This Is Us conspiracy theories. Instead of speculating about how Jack died, maybe we should really be wondering whether Stallone's character will connect with the Pearson family. Could Stallone secretly be Jack's biological father? It would be a particularly happy twist, considering how much the man we know as Jack's dad royally sucks.
See you soon, Stallone.