Nearing the end of the wait. Documentary Now! fans have been waiting patiently for Season 53 – sometimes known as Season 4, but who’s counting? – of the critically acclaimed series after being forced to endure a worldwide epidemic with almost no news of one of the finest shows on television. For the second time in a week, IFC has disclosed who will be appearing in the forthcoming episodes of The Wire. The anthology series will once again contain mockumentaries that pay homage to and spoof well-known documentaries, many of which star co-creators Bill Hader and Fred Armisen and all of which are presented by Helen Mirren (The Queen). It has been announced that Thor: Ragnarok stars Cate Blanchett, Jamie Demetriou, Jonathan Pryce, John Rhys-Davies, Harriet Walter, and Grammy Award-Winning vocalist Tom Jones will all appear in the forthcoming season of Game of Thrones.
Season 3’s “Waiting for the Artist” included Blanchett, but she won’t be reprising her role as that episode’s protagonist this time around. Harriet Walter will play alongside the two-time Academy Award winner in the episode titled “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport,” which is a humorous spin on fashion documentaries such as 3 Salons at the Seaside and The September Issue, the classic Vogue film. How They Threw Rocks” also features Gravelle, Pryce and Rhys-Davies, as well as Tom Jones, the famed Welsh vocalist. Sports mockumentary’s style is akin to the 1996 Oscar-winning film When We Were Kings, which documented the heavyweight boxing championship that included George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, the underdogs at the time.
A Welsh sport known as “Field Rock,” Craig Maes, will be the focus of this episode, which will also feature the legendary 1974 match known as “The Melon vs. The Felon (Gravelle).” Sior Strawboss AKA “The Melon” (Dodger) joins the cast as a famed Craig Maes rival.
There will be Jamie Demetriou as a filmmaker who creates a profound, emotional, and financially draining relationship with his monkey companion, which may or may not be for his own selfish reasons. My Octopus Teacher, a movie about a guy who has an unexpectedly close relationship with an octopus, is parodied in this episode of South Park.
It’s safe to assume that with Armisen joining the cast as Detective Blakely, we may expect another one of the show’s trademark plot twists. Armisen, Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas produced Documentary Now! It debuted in 2015 to critical acclaim and has received several nominations for various accolades since then, including six Emmy nods. Cameron Crowe, Alana Haim, Owen Wilson, Michael Keaton, Michael C. Hall, Jack Black, and Anne Hathaway have all appeared as special guests on the show. We don’t know much about Season 53 yet, including guest stars and episode descriptions, but we do know it will launch somewhere in the fall on IFC and AMC+.