With the long-awaited Y: The Last Man series set to hit FX on Hulu sometime later this year, another upcoming Brian K. Vaughan adaptation has now taken a big step forward. Amazon has just revealed some major casting for its adaptation of Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s acclaimed comic Paper Girls.
Deadline broke the news that the four main characters have been cast, playing the titular newspaper-delivery girls who get caught up in time-travel hijinks on the fateful Halloween of 1988. None of the young actors are making their show-biz debuts here, but they’re also not household names — yet. The Deadline piece does flesh out their characters a bit along with the casting.
Sofia Rosinsky plays Mac Coyle. A working-class Catholic girl, Mac is the first paper boy in Stony Stream who isn’t a boy. Mac inherited the paper route from her older brother, someone for whom she has undying loyalty and love… which might be the wrong place to put it. Mac’s toughness however is no act, she has a sharp tongue and quicker fists. Like most bullies however, Mac is perhaps masking a deep well of insecurity. Usually a loner by choice, events conspire to cast Mac as the unlikely leader of our Paper Girls on Hell Day 1988.
Camryn Jones portrays Tiffany Quilkin. The only child of success-oriented, mixed race parents, Tiffany has big plans for her future and no intention of seeing them derailed. While she is at times willing to improve on the truth when in a tight spot, there is no denying that Tiffany is crazy smart. She boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, a love of gadgets and technology. She has been delivering papers for a little over a year.
Riley Lai Nelet is Erin Tieng. A dutiful daughter, sister, and yes, newly-minted newspaper employee, Erin often feels caught between worlds. On the one hand, she’s a dual-language immigrant with deep Chinese roots, on the other, she’s an All-American kid on the verge of her teenage years who desperately wants the TV-perfect life she often sees depicted in the Western culture all around her.
Fina Strazza plays KJ Brandman. KJ is one of the only Jewish girls in Stony Stream and comes from the wealthiest family in town, two things nobody will let her forget. It is perhaps only when playing field hockey that she feels truly seen — an image that conflicts starkly with her mother’s desires for her. KJ is guarded, sensitive and underneath her veneer, emotionally roiling. She doesn’t need the paper-delivery job, but it makes her feel free.
Paper Girls will start filming in Chicago this year, which means the series — executive produced by Stephany Folsom, Christopher Cantwell, and Christopher C. Rogers, and co-showrun by Folsom and Rogers — likely won’t be arriving until next year sometime. There’ll surely be more casting and news to come, so we’ll be bringing that to you as and when we learn it.