Summary
- American Sports Story, Ryan Murphy’s new anthology series, will explore controversial figures in American sports, starting with Aaron Hernandez.
- Josh Andrés Rivera, known for his role in The Hunger Games prequel, will lead the cast of Murphy’s show.
- The show will delve into Hernandez’s entire life, including his time in football, as well as his crimes, providing a different focus than Murphy’s previous exploration of O.J. Simpson.
American Sports Story, Ryan Murphy‘s upcoming anthology series for FX, casts The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star Josh Andrés Rivera as Aaron Hernandez.
The anthological universe of the creator is expanding once again after the success achieved with American Horror Story, its spinoff American Horror Stories, and American Crime Story with a new project that explores some of the most controversial figures in American sports history.
The first season of American Sports Story is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from The Boston Globe and Wondery, and will focus on the life of former NFL star and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Josh Andrés Rivera, who plays Sejanus Plinth in The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has been tapped to lead the cast of Murphy’s new show.
Hernandez began his career in the NFL when he was selected by the New England Patriots in the 2010 draft, the only team in which he would play as a tight end. In 2013, he was arrested for his connection with the murder of player Odin Lloyd, Hernandez’s fiancee’s sister’s boyfriend. Despite also being investigated for other acts of violence and his alleged connection with other murders, in 2015 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for Lloyd’s crime. In 2017, Hernandez committed suicide in his cell.
Murphy previously explored the crimes of another sports star, O.J. Simpson, but focusing much more on the trial than on the life of the former NFL player himself. American Sports Story will surely focus on Hernandez’s entire life and his time in the world of football, in addition to delving into his crime.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez will premiere on FX in 2024.
Josh Andrés Herrera’s Bright Future
Josh Andrés Rivera made his debut as a film actor just two years ago, being part of the cast of the recent adaptation West Side Story directed by Steven Spielberg. Before that, he had performed exclusively in stage plays, being part of the original company for the first national tour of Hamilton.
In West Side Story, the actor played Chino, one of the villains of the story. This year he was part of the cast of Cat Person, Susanna Fogel’s latest film. The story centers on the twisted romance between a college student who works at an independent movie theater and a frequent customer, an older man.
However, there is no doubt that Rivera’s big break will come with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which opens in theaters this month. In the film directed by Francis Lawrence, the actor plays one of the closest friends of Tom Blyth’s Coriolanus Snow, Sejanus Plinth, who must be a mentor to one of the Tributes in the tenth edition of The Hunger Games, but is against the celebration of the deadly event. This means he’s one of the few people from the Capitol that puts the ethical conflict that the Hunger Games represent.
