Mandy Patinkin Joins ‘The Good Fight’ For Season 5

EXCLUSIVE: The Good Fight is getting a high-profile new cast addition for Season 5. Emmy and Tony winner Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) is joining the praised Paramount+ drama series as a series regular with a one-year deal.

Patinkin will play Hal Wackner, a layman with no legal training who spontaneously decides to open a court in the back of a copy shop. Against all odds, the court catches on, and the team at Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart find themselves contending with judgements that mean nothing legally, but are honored by much of the entertained public.

This marks Patinkin’s return to television following his eight-season run as CIA vet Saul Berenson on Showtime’s Homeland, which landed him a Golden Globe nomination and four out of his seven Emmy nominations. Patinkin won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS’ Chicago Hope.

Coincidentally, Patinkin and The Good Fight star Christine Baranski, who are both forces on screen and on stage, including musical theater, won their Emmys in 1995 in their first Emmy nomination for the first season of their shows, Chicago Hope and Cybill, respectively.

“We are the biggest fans of Mandy’s stage, screen, and now YouTube work, so we couldn’t be more excited for him to play Wackner,” said Robert and Michelle King, The Good Fight co-creators, showrunners and executive producers. “We only worry that he’ll have less time to do his fantastic work on YouTube.”

Patinkin has been spending the pandemic at his small, converted farmhouse in upstate New York, with his wife of forty years, writer-actress Kathryn Grody, and their dog, chronicling the experience in lighthearted videos on his YouTube channel. Tackling issues from email and wifi to plumbing to the election, the videos also sometimes showcase Patinkin’s musical prowess.

The Princess Bride fan favorite is the second new series regular addition to The Good Fight for Season 5, along with Charmaine Bingwa who joins Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart. The series is beefing up its ranks following the departures as series regulars of original cast members Cush Jumbo and Delroy Lindo at the end of Season 4.

The Good Fight‘s fourth season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic and ended up producing seven episodes instead of the intended 10, making for an abrupt end to the ongoing storylines, which will be resolved in Season 5.

Season four of The Good Fight found Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart navigating a very different landscape. After they lost their biggest client, Chumhum, and their founding partner’s name was tarnished, Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart was forced to accept an offer by a huge multi-national law firm, STR Laurie, to become a small subsidiary. Suddenly, all of their decisions would be second-guessed by the giant firm that was literally on top of them. While STR Laurie initially seemed like benevolent overlords, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and her colleagues found themselves chafing at their loss of independence while simultaneously investigating the emergence of a mysterious “Memo 618.”

Patinkin and Bingwa join a main cast that includes Baranski, Sarah Steele, Nyambi Nyambi, Michael Boatman, Zach Grenier, John Larroquette and Audra McDonald.

Robert and Michelle King serve as showrunners and executive producers of the series, which they co-created with Phil Alden Robinson. Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Brooke Kennedy, Liz Glotzer, William Finkelstein and Jonathan Tolins also serve as executive producers. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Scott Free Productions and King Size Productions.

This marks a reunion with CBS Studios for Patinkin, who headlined CBS drama Criminal Minds for the first two-seasons before exiting the show, co-produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios.

Patinkin is currently voicing the upcoming animated film The Magician’s Elephant for Netflix. His many films also include Wonder, Life Itself, Wish I Was Here, Daniel, Ragtime, Dick Tracy and Yentl; the latter landing him his first Golden Globe nomination. On stage, Patinkin’s turn as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita won him a Tony Award in 1980. He was also nominated in 1984 and 2000 for his roles in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George and in The Wild Party, respectively.

Patinkin is repped by ICM Partners, Echo Lake Entertainment and attorney Victoria Traube.