Actress Portia de Rossi, best known for her role on Fox and Netflix’s Arrested Development, is the first person to join Scandal season 4.
De Rossi’s wife Ellen DeGeneres tweeted the announcement Wednesday morning:
So annoying when people brag on twitter & that's why I'm not tweeting that Portia just signed on to do a top secret arc on "Scandal". Oops.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) July 23, 2014
As you can tell by the tweet, details surrounding de Rossi’s role are currently unknown. Series creator Shonda Rhimes loves keeping news about upcoming episodes hidden from public view, so there’s a good chance we won’t learn anything about her arc until she appears on the show.
Since she has been cast so early, one could assume that she will be appearing in the early episodes of Scandal season 4.
In a recent wide-ranging interview, Rhimes teased what’s to come in the new episodes now that Kerry Washington has had her (real life) baby. “As we’re telling stories, the stories really do seem to be more focused on our core people,” the showrunner said of the new episodes. “By necessity, in a weird way, last season we had to expand our universe. We had a lead actress who for reasons that are private was moving slower and could work less. So we had to hold things in front of her and tone it down a lot more.”
Though best known for Arrested Development in the comedic role of Lindsay, you may recognize De Rossi from other television series like Better Off Ted and Nip/Tuck.
Scandal season 4 will premiere Thursday, September 25 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on ABC.