Gather ’round, This Is Us fans, because we have some amazing casting news that will leave you pumped for the show’s return on Tuesday, Jan. 15. It was confirmed on Tuesday via Entertainment Weekly that TV heavyweight Phylicia Rashad will join This Is Us and she’ll be playing what we think will be a very important character, especially when it comes to understanding one of our faves on the show, Beth Pearson.

EW’s report notes that Rashad will play Beth’s mother Carol on This Is Us and that she will be seen first in an episode that focuses solely on Beth’s backstory. There’s no information on the storyline of the Beth-focused episode nor do we even have any teases about the kind of mother Carol is. This is only getting us more intrigued about what we can expect from the episode when it airs, which will be sometime in the second half of season three.

The news of Rashad’s casting is exciting for two reasons. The first is that she’ll figure into a Beth-centric episode which, as This Is Us fans may attest, we are in sore need of because we still know very little about Beth and her personal history after three seasons when compared to other This Is Us characters. The second reason? Well, it’s just nice to see Rashad, who is best known for playing beloved mom Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show, still going strong as a TV performer. In addition to her This Is Us gig, Rashad’s been kicking around on Empire over on Fox and was also seen on the short-lived series Jean-Claude Van Johnson on Amazon.

Shortly after the casting news was announced, show creator Dan Fogelman did the lightest of teasing about Rashad’s casting and what fans could expect on the show, tweeting, “Get ready everyone. We’ve shot this already and…just get ready.”

Ack! Fogelman, what does that even mean? The suspense is killing us!

Meanwhile, Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth, reacted to the news by retweeting EW’s report and adding a sweet and simple, “THIS!” with a purple heart emoji to show her excitement over the news.

We may not know exactly when Rashad’s episode of This Is Us airs or what to expect from her character, but that doesn’t mean we’re not hyped about this news and what a character like Carol could do for Beth’s season three story arc.

Source: Read Full Article