Janelle Monae to Replace Julia Roberts in Homecoming Season 2

Amazon'sHomecoming has found its new leading lady. Multi-hyphenate Janelle Monae will lead up the streaming drama's second season, starring as a woman who wakes up in a canoe with no memory of who she is or how she got there.

Monae will replace the series' outgoing lead actress, Julia Roberts, who starred as Heidi Bergman in the first season. It was Roberts' first major television series role.

Roberts' departure from Homecoming is no surprise -- she was only committed to star in the first season of the series, which was initially based upon Gimlet Media's Homecoming podcast. The actress will remain on board as an executive producer of Season 2, alongside showrunner Sam Esmail.

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In Season 1, Roberts' character was revealed to have dosed herself the same memory-wiping drugs that the Homecoming Transitional Support Center had been giving soldiers to erase their worst memories about war so that they could be shipped back to a battle zone. The season ended with Heidi tracking down soldier Walter Cruz (Stephan James), who had forgotten who she was, but she chose not to remind him of their experiences at Homecoming.

Esmail told TVLine that the first season's post-credits scene, featuring Audrey Temple (Hong Chau) using a calming serum on her wrists after a tiff with Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale), was "a hint of things to come," so perhaps Monae's mysterious character will help to shed more light on that serum in the new season.

No word yet on who, if any, of the other Season 1 stars will return to their roles in Season 2, but Esmail has also indicated that the second season of the Homecoming podcast won't have much bearing on the events ahead in the screen series.

Homecoming Season 1 is currently available for streaming on Amazon.