Hungry for an appetizer of Lost scoop as you impatiently starve for the start of season 5, which bows in early ’09? Then feast on this: Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof tell EW they’ve just completed casting of two major new characters joining their saga next year. Last week, Michael Ausiello reported the addition of New Amsterdam alum Zuleikha Robinson. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Saïd Taghmaoui, a French thesp most recently seen in the Don Cheadle thriller Traitor. He’ll play Caesar, a mystery man who…um…well, that’s all we got. But the producers say the actor’s skill set fits the part. “He has an innate intelligence, intensity, and danger we really responded to,” says Lindelof, who declined to specify whether Caesar is good or bad. However, Cuse teases that the character will be playing “an important part of the setup for the final act of the show in season 6.” He also confirms that Robinson’s Ilana is associated with Caesar, and likens her to Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. “There was something very unsettling about the way the Joker kept telling different stories about his background — something very similar to what we had planned for Ilana,” he says.
Look for a delayed introduction for the duo, beginning with an intriguing setup followed by a gradual increase in screen time that won’t detract from established faves, much like how season 4’s newbies, the Freighter Folk (Jeremy Davies, Rebecca Mader, Ken Leung, Jeff Fahey), were worked into the mix. (The producers say we’ll be seeing more of the FF next year, too — even Fahey, last seen escaping the Island with the Oceanic 6).
FYI: Zuleikha rhymes with You-Like-A, while Saïd sounds just like Lost’s own Sayid. In fact, Taghmaoui also played — get this — the Iraqi soldier who tortured Mark Wahlberg in Three Kings. Should theorists be looking for hidden meaning in this seemingly coincidental linkage? “No,” says Lindelof. “Just…no.” Oh, okay. But how about the theory that Smokey is…[Click] Hello? Hello?!
Look for a delayed introduction for the duo, beginning with an intriguing setup followed by a gradual increase in screen time that won't detract from established faves, much like how season 4’s newbies, the Freighter Folk (Jeremy Davies, Rebecca Mader, Ken Leung, Jeff Fahey), were worked into the mix. (The producers say we’ll be seeing more of the FF next year, too — even Fahey, last seen escaping the Island with the Oceanic 6).
FYI: Zuleikha rhymes with You-Like-A, while Saïd sounds just like Lost’s own Sayid. In fact, Taghmaoui also played — get this — the Iraqi soldier who tortured Mark Wahlberg in Three Kings. Should theorists be looking for hidden meaning in this seemingly coincidental linkage? “No,” says Lindelof. “Just...no.” Oh, okay. But how about the theory that Smokey is...[Click] Hello? Hello?!
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Oh, giggity,
He looks creepy good.
I’d rather have more answers than more mysteries.
I’d rather have more mysteries then answers
cant wait for lost
Come on 2009!!
I can’t wait for Lost to come back on the air…TV is SOOOO boring without it…
He was awesome in Three Kings. Nice casting.
Yes! Fahey is back next season, best news yet
He looks sort of like Jack
Fringe was pretty lame last night. Made me miss Lost even more!!
“But how about the theory that Smokey is…[Click] Hello? Hello?!”
TOO FUNNY!!!
“But how about the theory that Smokey is…[Click] Hello? Hello?!”
TOO FUNNY!!!
Please I need LOST back!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sawyer dies this season… I’m calling it from now.
Aw, Doc, we missed you. More theories please!
Excellent article! btw, Fringe was VERY well done, i really enjoyed last nights first episode.
I wanna find out if Desmond is in the show anymore!. I am gonna be freaking pissed if he isn’t. The end of Season 4 made it seem like that was the last time we’d see him. The only way he is still connected to the show is through his girlfriend’s father.
Desmond is definitely back at some point, because Ben is going after Charles Widmore’s daughter….Penny, who will be either killed and Desmond will go insane, or saved by Desmond somehow.
OMG I CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER I NEEEEED LOST!!!!!!!! But this caesar guy looks pretty creepy in a cool way. Yeah Fringe last night made me miss LOST it was good but not even nearly as good as LOST. JACK IS SEXY!!!!!!!!
Wow, the more mysterious this show gets, the more it baffles me as to what will happen to the cast of “Lost” this new season! Wish it could start even earlier too!
Every year I think “ok where can they possibly go with this show now??” and EVERY single time they knock it out of the park!!!! It’s wicked and addictive, it’s the only thing i watch with ZERO distractions, no moving once its started LOL just STARE AT TV heheheh and don’t even get me started on Matthew Fox SWOOOOOON he was robbed of an Emmy nod, he was fantastic this year!!!
I yearn for Lost to come back too!! I liked Fringe but they copied the creepy Lost music. I don’t want anymore characters, it gets too confusing for me. I just want to find out what happens to the original cast members.
Dude, he was great in Vantage Point (along with Foxy!) Check him out in La Haine… Plus he’s going to be in the G.I. Joe movie coming out… I’m SO excited!
How in the dickens they are going to juggle all these new folks and still keep the original cast interesting is beyond me, but I’m so THERE for the whole ride until the end…
I’d rather have mysterious answers and be “done” with it.
I conisder myself a LOST LIFER, and that I’ve been watching LOST since day one September 22, 2004-NEVER missed an episode. Heck the place I work in looks like a LOST hatch ‘ true ‘
An-Other LOST creeper ! Bring em on because this is LOST so the more the merrier.
I’ve been thinking about Desmond> after Penny is found and assasinated -Desmond loses it. Poor Des left alone on Penny’s boat will probably crash on anOther island overrun by weirdo others dragged by someone or some it thing then ends up in anOther hatch pushen buttons. Sorry, I got carried away, been/Ben Dx with LOSTitis thanks to the brilliance of the LOST writers producers directors cast. I’m lost in LOST and proud of it.
Steph aka LOSTeph
WOW!! FIRST, ANA LUCIA IS COMING BACK AND NOW THIS CREEPY FRENCH GUY…..HOW BAD ASS IS THAT?!? SO AWESOME!!! I MISS YOU LOST…PLEASE COME BACK SOOOOOON!!!’-(
WOW!! FIRST, ANA LUCIA IS COMING BACK AND NOW THIS CREEPY FRENCH GUY…..HOW BAD ASS IS THAT?!? SO AWESOME!!! I MISS YOU LOST…PLEASE COME BACK SOOOOOON!!!’-(
Thanks for this.
Cuse and Lindelof redeemed themselves from that Nikki and Paulo fiasco with the Freighter Folk and Abaddon. Here’s hoping it continues with the new additions.
This guy is such an awesome actor, I so hope this gets people to look at his earlier work.