EW’s Michael Ausiello has some casting news that’ll shake the foundations of TV all the way back to the Fortress of Solitude. Okay, maybe not that far, but Chuck has landed Krypton’s finest – i.e. Brandon Routh – for a multiple-episode guest stint. Routh will play Shaw, a mysterious new spy who takes control as the new leader of Operation
Bartowski, becoming a mentor to Chuck and a rival in his affections for
Sarah. He first appears in this season’s fourth episode.
It’s kind of a downer to think that Routh will probably end up as the George Lazenby of the Superman movies, as that franchise is either dead, buried, or dead and buried, depending on whom you ask. However, I did like him in the role and at least he seems to be getting back out there after a curious post-Superman Returns lull. He has several projects in the works, the least of which isn’t Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World in 2010. Chuck is set to return in March of 2010 for a 13-episode season, which I’m hoping won’t be its last.