Bit of a slow news day around these parts as the TV business braces for Sunday’s Emmys and the start of the fall season in a few weeks, but I’m always happy to get a piece of “Chuck” news when it happens.
We learned at Comic-Con that Schwartz, Fedak and company had hooked a big fish in Linda Hamilton to play Chuck and Ellie’s mom, and now that storyline has added another ’80s pop culture icon (of sorts): ex-James Bond actor Timothy Dalton.
Per NBC’s release, Dalton “will be playing a mysterious stranger who has a history with Chuck’s mom.” This is also his first appearance on an American TV series since a 1979 episode of “Charlie’s Angels,” though he’s done some British guest spots in between (most recently as a “Doctor Who” villain).
Dalton played Bond for only two movies – 1987’s “The Living Daylights” and 1989’s “Licence to Kill” – and was hamstrung both by some terrible scripts (“Licence to Kill” was a desperate attempt to turn the franchise into “Miami Vice,” a few years after people had stopped caring about “Miami Vice”) and by the perception that he was a consolation prize after Pierce Brosnan wasn’t available. But though the movies were lousy, I always found Dalton to be an underrated Bond (in particular, he has some great moments in “The Living Daylights”) and a fine actor all around, and it’ll be very cool to have a genuine 007 be involved in an Operation Bartowski mission.
Dalton joins a “Chuck” season four guest star roster that also includes Hamilton, Dolph Lundgren, Olivia Munn, Old Spice pitchman Isaiah Mustafa and Stacy Keibler.