Juani Feliz may be equalizing her career soon…
The 36-year-old Dominican actress and Titus Welliver have been tapped as the two leads of CBS‘ potential spinoff from The Equalizer.
The Queen Latifah procedural will introduce the two new characters, which could anchor their own series, in Episode 516 this season.
Welliver will play Hudson Reed, a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robin McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor.
Feliz plays Samantha Reed who has been trained by her father to be a weapons expert, skilled martial artist and true chameleon all while hiding a mysterious past.
Both Welliver and Feliz have been cast as guest stars with series regular options for the potential spinoff.
Episode 516, written by Joseph C. Wilson who’ll serve as executive producer on the potential series, will air in the spring.
It’s not designated as a backdoor pilot. CBS has been taking a more informal approach with its lead offshoot characters in storylines integrated into regular episodes of the mothership series, something the network has done twice now on Fire Country, first with Morena Baccarin, whose offshoot was picked up to series, and more recently with Jared Padalecki.
A reimagining of the classic series, The Equalizer stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to help those with nowhere else to planted spinoff efforts, introducing potential turn.
If the offshoot goes forward, its two-hander format would be a departure from the original 1985 Equalizer series, the current CBS reboot as well as the film franchise, all of which had a single lead, male (first series and movies) and female (the Queen Latifah version).
The Season 5 cast also includes Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira, Laya DeLeon Hayes with Lorraine Toussaint.
From Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with CBS Studios, The Equalizer is executive produced by Joseph C. Wilson, Dana Owens (Queen Latifah), Debra Martin Chase, Shakim Compere, John Davis, John Fox, Loretha Jones and Rob Hanning.
The series airs on Sundays at 9:00 pm, moving to 10:00 pm on February 18.
Feliz recurs on Tracy Oliver’s Amazon television series Harlem, currently airing its third season.
Her credits also include series Fleishman Is In Trouble and DMZ and the upcoming A24 feature Civil War and AMC’s The Terror: Devil In Silver.