Luke Rollason stars in Disney+ superhero comedy Extraordinary
- The clown comic will appear in Disney+'s first UK comedy, the superhero sitcom Extraordinary
- Rollason plays the flatmate of the main character, Jen, the only person in the world without superpowers
- Derry Girls' Siobhán McSweeney and The Real McCoy's Robbie Gee also feature in the series from writer Emma Moran
Luke Rollason has landed his first television role, starring in Disney+'s superhero comedy Extraordinary.
The clown comedian plays the flatmate of the main character Jen (Máiréad Tyers) in the series, which is the streamer's first UK comedy commission, and also features Derry Girls' Siobhán McSweeney and The Real McCoy's Robbie Gee.
Jen is a young, painfully self-aware woman who lives in a world where everyone has a superpower, except her. Further details about Rollason's character have yet to be confirmed.
However, the absurdist physical comic, who trained at the Gaulier clown school in Paris, and performs solo, is also part of the funk-comedy double act Stepdads and in the Bright Buoy collective, whose 2019 show, Privates: A Sperm Oddysey, featured him playing a spermatozoon.
And from his character's name, which has yet to be confirmed by Disney, but which British Comedy Guide has been privvy to, it is believed that his superpowers are bodily centred and disgustingly fluid.
Earlier this year, Rollason voiced the web series animation The Green & Pleasant Guide with Lazy Susan's Celeste Dring and Amy Gledhill of The Delightful Sausage, which was created, written and produced by Will Noble and Joe Reaney. To date, he has only appeared in short films and online series, so Extraordinary represents a significant career break.
Production on the series, which is described as "a celebration of the anti-superhero, giving people permission to embrace their general okay-ness" is now underway in London.
Written by BBC Writersroom graduate Emma Moran, whose credits include Have I Got News For You, the 8-part comedy also stars Sofia Oxenham (Doc Martin) as Jen's best friend Carrie and relative newcomer Bilal Hasna as Carrie's boyfriend Kash. McSweeney and Gee's roles have yet to be revealed.
Speaking when Extraordinary was announced in April, Moran described her script as "somewhere between a sitcom and an existential crisis.
"This is young, female and fresh" she said. "It's a story about real life and real identity crises - it just happens to be set in a world where superpowers exist. This show is uniquely British but with universal themes: everyone can relate to the feeling that we don't quite measure up."
Extraordinary's directors are Toby MacDonald (The Duchess), Jennifer Sheridan (Lazy Susan) and Nadira Amrani (On The Edge: Mincemeat).
Sally Woodward Gentle, Lee Morris and Charles Dawson are the executive producers for Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve), with Charlie Palmer (Agatha Raisin) producing.
Liam Keelan, vice president of original productions and Johanna Devereaux, director of scripted for Disney+, commissioned the series.
Disney+ is also making the dark comedy Culprits in the UK, from writer-director J Blakeson (I Care A Lot) about the aftermath of a heist, where the crew have gone their separate ways but are being targeted by a killer one-by-one.
The streamer had a huge global hit in January with WandaVision, which transplanted Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Scarlet Witch and Vision into the suburban setting of various US sitcoms.
Meanwhile, former UK stand-up Bisha K Ali is currently in the US writing for the Disney+ series Ms Marvel, about the first Muslim superhero in the MCU. After working on Sex Education and the Four Weddings And A Funeral reboot, Ali has been hired as showrunner on the superhero series.