What is the status of Andre Braugher's final TV project? Possibilities explored after actor's passing

Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andre Braugher, who is widely known for his role as Captain Raymond Holt in the NBC sitcom, recently passed away after suffering from a short illness, at the age of 61 on Monday, December 11, 2023. Braugher's passing away was confirmed by his publicist, Jennifer Allen.

At the time of his death, Andre Braugher was involved in a new project, Shondaland’s comedic murder mystery The Residence. Sadly, the project remains unfinished due to the shutdown sparked by the WGA strike months ago.

Following the lifting of the strike, the series was gearing up to resume production. But Braugher’s sudden and unforeseen death this Tuesday raises significant questions regarding the Netflix series’ future.

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What is The Residence about?

Coming from executive producer/showrunner Paul William Davies and executive producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, The Residence follows detective Cordelia Cupp (played by Uzo Aduba), who is a consulting detective for the Metropolitan Police Department and described as:

“an astute observer of human behavior, with a distinctive and — to some, unsettling — conversational style.”

The series is based on Kate Andersen Brower's book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. The Netflix series is described as:

“a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion."

After the discovery of a dead body, an exceptional but eccentric detective, portrayed by Uzo Aduba, is called on to take over the case and conduct an investigation involving 157 potential suspects who were present at a State Dinner. But her investigations are interrupted by interpersonal conflicts between the massive residence staff that begin to unfold.

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What was Andre Braugher's role in the series?

Andre Braugher joined the series in February, starring alongside Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us), Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl), Ken Marino (Party Down), Edwina Findley (If Loving You Is Wrong, The Wire), Molly Griggs (Servant), Al Mitchell (Stranger Things, Ozark), Dan Perrault (American Vandal), Bronson Pinchot (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Your Honor) and Mary Wiseman (Star Trek: Discovery).

The Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor was cast to play White House usher A.B. Wynter. He was listed second, only after Aduba, in the streamer’s casting release for The Residence.

Only four out of eight episodes were shot during the early days of production before the writers' strike halted everything more than six months ago. The series is slated to resume shooting on January 2, 2024, but the future remains unclear as producers must now figure out how to proceed with the production without Braugher.

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About Andre Braugher

Andre Braugher is a critically acclaimed television actor who made his film debut in 1989 in Glory, alongside Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.

He has been working in television for decades, beginning with his role in Homicide: Life on the Street, for which he was nominated twice for an Emmy Award for lead actor in a drama series, winning in 1998. He has also starred in Gideon’s Crossing, Hack, and the miniseries Thief, for which he won his second Emmy Award.

He was also nominated for an Emmy twice for Men of a Certain Age and four more times for his comedic role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His final film role was in 2022, in the movie She Said, based on the New York Times’ expose of Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual abuse against women in Hollywood.

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Watch this space for more updates on The Residence.