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John Mulaney Will Play Henry David Thoreau in Apple’s Increasingly Baffling Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is not known to have been in contact with Henry David Thoreau at any time, but that apparently isn’t enough to stop a series that has also cast Wiz Khalifa as…Death.

By Laura Bradley

September 16, 2019

Apple TV+ might be playing coy when it comes to most of its upcoming series, but we do have a lot of information on one upcoming comedy: the Hailee Steinfeld Emily Dickinson comedy, Dickinson. We’ve already gotten a bombastic teaser trailer, as well as several fascinating casting announcements. Most recently? Turns out John Mulaney will star as Henry David Thoreau. As the Wrap points out, there is no record of Emily Dickinson having any acquaintance with Henry David Thoreau, so it’ll be interesting to see what role this famous transcendentalist might play in the show’s proceedings.

At a Tribeca TV Festival panel over the weekend, Dickinson creator Alena Smith revealed that Mulaney will play Thoreau as a “total phony” whose “mom comes to his cabin and does his laundry.” Zosia Mamet, she said, will also appear as a parodic take on Little Women writer Louisa May Alcott, who visits Dickinson over Christmas. During the panel Smith explained the show’s decision to add characters with whom Dickinson is not known to have interacted: “One of the things that’s so fun about Dickinson’s world is that all of these, the most important writers in American history, they all lived down the street from each other, so it’s not to say that Emily did or did not actually meet these people, but they were a stone’s throw from her.” Should the series continue past its first season, she added, “I hope that we get to meet gay Walt Whitman and crazy Herman Melville. Why stop at Dickinson—let’s get it all!”

Mulaney has performed in plenty of scripted projects, including Big Mouth and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but Dickinson will be his first foray into the historical-fiction space. Perhaps his involvement stems from one joke in his 2015 stand-up special, The Comeback Kid—in which he riffed on the degree to which one’s opinion actually matters in college. “College is just your opinion,” Mulaney said. “Just you raising your hand and being like, ‘I think Emily Dickinson’s a lesbian.’ And they’re like, ‘Partial credit!’”

But Mulaney’s inclusion as a character Emily Dickinson has no record of actually knowing is just the tip of the weird iceberg when it comes to this oddball comedy. On Friday, Apple announced that Wiz Khalifa will also appear in the series as...Death itself—or, apparently, himself. It seems Death has some distinct sartorial taste—including a love of accessories like top hats and spectacles. (Who knew even supernatural beings like Death could have vision problems?) “As a reminder, death was a recurring theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems,” Apple’s release stated. In her own statement, Smith added: “It was a true gift to be able to cast Wiz in this series. We had a creative meeting of the minds in approaching the character, and his playful spirit fit in perfectly with the mischievous tone of the show.” We must admit: At this point, Dickinson definitely has our attention.