Ryan Murphy’s “The Shards” Has Found Its New Leading Men
Ryan Murphy has a reliable habit of turning unknown actors into overnight obsessions, and Instinct reports his next target is The Shards, premiering on FX and Hulu on August 5.
The series, created by Murphy and writer Bret Easton Ellis, adapts Ellis’s own semi-autobiographical novel about his final year at an elite Los Angeles private school in 1981. At DNA, we’re already bracing for the fallout, because a Murphy show is rarely just about the plot.
The story follows a 17-year-old version of Ellis as his tight friend group at the Buckley School unravels after the arrival of a magnetic new student named Robert Mallory.
A serial killer known only as The Trawler haunts the edges of the story, giving the series its psychological edge alongside the usual Murphy style.
Igby Rigney takes the lead role of teenage Ellis. The 26 year old has built a steady resume since his 2018 debut on Blue Bloods, including parts in The Fall of the House of Usher, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, F9 and Mike Flanagan’s The Midnight Club. Rigney has already shown he can play characters with a dark edge, which should suit a show built around creeping dread.
Homer Gere, the son of Richard Gere, takes on Robert Mallory, the new student whose arrival tips the group’s world into chaos. Gere is also part of the current season of Euphoria, and he has spoken about learning from his father’s career while building his own path through auditions and smaller roles first.
Robert Mallory carries much of the show’s mystery, which makes Gere’s casting one of the bigger bets here.
Graham Campbell, a Juilliard graduate, plays Thom Wright. He made his professional stage debut in the 2023 Broadway production of Appropriate alongside Sarah Paulson, and he is set to appear opposite Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee in Late Fame later this year.
Between that and The Shards, Campbell is having the kind of year most young actors only dream about.
The trio is joined by Kaia Gerber, Wes Bentley, Evan Rachel Wood, Hayes Warner, Jordan Roth and Owen Painter when The Shards premieres on FX and Hulu on August 5.
Whether the show ends up remembered for its mystery or its cast, Murphy has picked three actors worth watching well beyond this one series.
