Omar Epps Has the Juice in The Returned

More casting news is coming in for the ABC pilot “The Returned” as Omar Epps has signed on to the project to play a man with a lot on his mind. You know, the whole people who were long thought dead coming back thing can be stressful.

More specifically, in the pilot Epps will portray Martin Bellamy, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He’s a former cop who joined ICE when he got involved with a case involving the trafficking of children. He’s empathetic with a soft spot for kids — despite not having a family of his own — and is fascinated by Jacob (newcomer Landon Gimenez), a mysterious boy who popped up from nowhere in the middle of rural China.

He joins the recently announced Samaire Armstrong (“The Mentalist”), Nicholas Gonzalez, and British actor Sam Hazeldine (The Raven).

The show, brought to us by Brillstein Entertainment, Brad Pitt’s Plan B, and ABC Studios, is written by Aaron Zelman and directed by Charles McDougall. The project chronicles how the lives of the people in Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones return.

More on this one soon.