‘Community’s’ Joel McHale Takes His Smug Charm to ‘Sons of Anarchy’ for a Multi-Episode Arc

Joel McHale, the lovable smarm-bag on Community, is set to take on yet another douchebag role, this time in Kurt Sutter’s fifth season of Sons of Anarchy. Katey Sagal broke the news (along with the image), and TVLine scooped up the scant details:

TVLine has learned that the Community star has booked a multi-episode arc in Sons of Anarchy‘s upcoming Season 5. McHale joins the gritty FX drama as Warren, a handsome con man who picks the wrong person to double-cross.

The only other detail of note is that his character will be working closely with Katey Sagal’s character, and my guess is that by the end of the season, he’ll get the crap kicked out of him or killed. That’s kind of McHale’s M.O. outside of Community and The Soup. He is well cast in the Ted McGinley/Craig Kilborn roles: Smarmy a$$holes angling to be knocked down a peg. He played that role most recently in Seth MacFarlane’s better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be Ted, and before that, the bird-watching flick, The Big Year.

McHale will join Jimmy Smits as well as Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) who has been cast as a prostitute in the fifth season. It’s what Sutter called “absurdist” casting in an interview with TVGuide last week.

I just love a little bit of the absurdist casting. We kind of did it for the first time with Stephen King. We did it last year with [David] Hasselhoff. I like to throw in one of those each season, and we had this opportunity for this high-priced escort whose whole hook is that she looks like a Disney girl. I thought, “Who better to play that role than a Disney girl?” I’ve known her family actually for a while, so she was very excited to do it. Not that I’m trying to tap into the iCarly crowd, but she was delightful.

At a Comic Con panel yesterday, Kurt Sutter also mentioned the possibility of a Sons of Anarchy prequel. According to Deadline, he gave no details other than to mention that he’d discussed it with the network.

Speaking of Sons of Anarchy, Charlie Hunnam and Ron Perlman also star in an indie flick coming out soon called 3, 2, 1 … Boom, which features Ron Perlman AS THE MOST TERRIFYING TRANSVESTITE YOU’VE EVER SEEN. Here’s a clip.

Sons of Anarchy returns to FX in September. Joel McHale will return to Community in the fall.

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