The star of Netflix’s cancelled-too-soon The Punisher has found a juicy new role…

Jon Bernthal has been cast as the central character in Showtime’s American Gigolo reboot. Bernthal is no stranger to the small screen, having featured heavily in AMC’s longrunning zombie series, The Walking Dead, and having also led Netflix’s version of Marvel’s The Punisher, which was cancelled after the streaming service’s public split from Disney over the announcement that it was launching its own streaming platform.

David Hollander (Ray Donovan) will be the showrunner of American Gigolo, with Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman and KristieAnne Reed producing. Bruckheimer produced the original American Gigolo movie from 1980 that starred Richard Gere. According to THR, this reboot is “a present-day reimagining” of that film, with Bernthal as Julian Kaye, “who is introduced 18 years after he’s been arrested for murder and struggling to find his footing in the modern-day Los Angeles sex industry while seeking the truth about the setup that sent him to prison all those years ago and also hoping to reconnect with Michelle, his one true love.”

“American Gigolo comes with all the sizzle you’d expect, but it also offers a deep dive into the complicated waters of relationships and sexuality in 2020,” Showtime entertainment president Gary Levine said in a statement. “We’ve assembled an ‘A’ team to adapt this iconic movie into a Showtime series with the talent and magnetism of Jon Bernthal, the exquisite filmmaking and showrunning of David Hollander, the legendary Jerry Bruckheimer and our new sister studio, Paramount.”

The series has been in the works for around 6 years, and it’s rumoured that Bernthal will be paid handsomely to star in it, having been courted by several different networks after leaving The Punisher behind.