Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is getting political—with a side of zombie virus—in his latest acting gig on the CW’s iZombie.
The NBA star is joining the final season of iZombie as Zed, one of the few remaining city council members left in the post-apocalyptic zombified city of Seattle—continuing the network’s trend of casting awesome people as local, state, and national leaders (like with Supergirl).
In this case, Zed happens to be a zombie, putting him at odds with the only other council member left in the city, a human. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this means Peyton (Aly Michalka) will be the one actually running things.
In addition to his career as a basketball legend, Abdul-Jabbar has had an interesting acting career. He’s most remembered for being in Airplane!, but he was also featured in 1994's Stephen King The Stand mini-series, and guest-starred in one episode of Saved by the Bell: The New Class. That latter one isn’t exactly genre fiction, but it’s Saved by the Bell so I’m including it anyway.
iZombie’s fifth and final season debuts on the CW sometime next year.