Annette Bening Joins Katrina: American Crime Story

Annette Bening has joined the cast of Katrina: American: Crime Story, FX announced Monday.

The American Beauty star will play Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana at the time of Hurricane Katrina.

Season 2 of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning anthology series will focus on the devastating aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. Last month, FX boss John Landgraf announced that Katrina won't debut until 2018 in order to give producers more time to craft "material we're happy with," and because of production restraints in New Orleans. (Season 3, about the Versace murder, will premiere six months later.)

Katrina: American Crime Story pushed back to 2018

Bening is the first official cast member announced for Katrina, though executive producer Ryan Murphy has said he'd like to reassemble as much of the People v. O.J. Simpson cast as possible. "I'm talking to both [Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown] about being in Katrina and I know they're both very interested," Murphy told E! News in November. "We haven't gotten to the point where we've told the actors who they play on [Katrina], but that day is soon coming. I want to see, I think, Sterling and Sarah together. They are just tremendous together so, yes, I root for that as well."

Katrina will mark Bening's first regular series role. The four-time Oscar nominee, who can currently be seen in 20th Century Women, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination, received an Emmy nomination 11 years ago for her performance in the HBO movie Mrs. Harris.
Katrina: American Crime Story will premiere in 2018 on FX.