'The Gilded Age' Continues to Employ Broadway for Season 3

The Gilded Age is staffing up again, but this time, it's being more selective about who it's bringing on board. Fans of the series are pretty aware of the show's sprawling (and we do mean sprawling) cast. Downton Abbey had a large ensemble for a period piece drama by the time it reached Season 6; The Gilded Age's first season took that cast size and doubled it. Season 2 then took the Season 1 cast size and redoubled it to create the most extensive ensemble cast on television in 2023. Thankfully, series creator Julian Fellowes has decided that he will not treble down for Season 3, adding a relatively modest four new stars for the latest set of episodes, most of whom are very clearly coming aboard to fill out a particular storyline.

However, one particular aspect of The Gilded Age's casting has not changed, and that's where Fellowes pulls his actors from. It's a running joke among the fandom that The Gilded Age exists as an employment program for the Boardway set in New York to ensure they have enough money to live on for the year in case they didn't make enough trending the boards. That was partly because the first season was filmed during the 2020 pandemic lockdown when Broadway was shuttered, and the entire White Way was out of work. Season 2's redoubling of the cast made it all the funnier, as now the actors were back to work and shuttling back and forth from stage to screen.

Season 3's cast additions are again all longtime Broadway vets, many of whom have theater credits as long as Manhattan Island, while some only have a handful of TV ones. But the headliner is known for her TV and stage work, with the great Phylicia Rashad (Diarra from Detroit) stepping into the 1890s to join the New York Black Bourgeois. She's be joined by Broadway vets Brian Stokes Mitchell (Elementary), Jordan Donica (Charmed), and Victoria Clark (Pose).