Luke Evans joins Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy in Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers based on a book by Big Little Lies author

The cast of the series followup to Big Little Lies is shaping up to be quite the who’s-who.

Beauty And The Beast star Luke Evans has signed on to the upcoming Nine Perfect Strangers, a Hulu series based on the 2018 novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, Deadline reports.

Evans, 41, is joining previously announced cast members Melissa McCarthy, Nicole Kidman and The Good Place’s Manny Jacinto for the show, about nine stressed-out urbanites who escape to a wellness retreat run by Kidman’s character.

And as with Moriarty’s other novel adapted for the screen, what appears one way on the surface at the retreat is altogether different deep down.

The limited series is being produced by Endeavor Content along with David E. Kelley, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories and Kidman’s Blossom Films, which all helped bring the hit Big Little Lies to HBO in 2017.

Kidman, who won both a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe for her portrayal of battered wife Celeste in BLL, will lead the cast in Nine Perfect Strangers, as the mysterious retreat director named Masha.

While McCarthy will play one of the Strangers attending the retreat, a romance novelist named Francis, Evans’ role has not yet been specified – but he will also portray one of the nine people under Masha’s influence.

Bad Times At The El Royale actor Jacinto will play Yao, one of her dedicated employees.

Luke is well-known for his film roles, which include Gaston in the blockbuster live-action adaptation of Beauty And The Beast in 2017, as well as repeated appearances in the Hobbit films as well as the Fast And Furious franchise.

But Nine Perfect Strangers will not be the first high-profile television project for Evans – he portrayed John Moore opposite Dakota Fanning in last year’s TNT adaptation of The Alienist, and will reprise the role in the followup series to it, The Alienist: Angel Of Darkness, currently in pre-production.

Evans is also said to be reprising the role of egotistical buffoon Gaston in a television prequel to Beauty And The Beast for Disney+, opposite Josh Gad’s LeFou.

He also recently wrapped ITV’s The Pembrokeshire Murders, a three-part drama series, in which he plays lead role Steve Wilkins.