Craig Robinson is the ‘Mr. Robot’ Season 2 Casting We Never Knew We Needed

Given how great a surprise the whole first season of USA’s Mr. Robot turned out to be, it stands to reason each Season 2 announcement proves more unexpected than the last. Following some recent additions, The Office star and Hot Tub time-traveler Craig Robinson has joined Mr. Robot Season 2 in a surprising new role.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the new season beginning production next week will feature Robinson in the recurring role of Ray, a neighborhood local who reaches out to Elliot in his time of need. Other Season 2 additions include Grace Gummer as Dominique (Dom) DiPierro, a young FBI field agent investigating the Evil Corp Hack, Chris Conroy as Derek, the new man in Joanna’s life, and rapper Joey Bada$$ as Leon, a new close friend of Elliot’s.

Additionally, both Michael Cristofer and Stephanie Corneliussen have joined the cast full time, the former in his role as Evil Corp CEO Phillip Price, and the latter as Tyrell Wellick’s increasingly-frightful spouse Joanna. Ben Rappaport and Tom Riis Farrell will also return as Ollie and Bill.

Set to direct all ten episodes himself, creator Sam Esmail previously teased of Season 2 a few aspects of the first season were less real than anyone might have realized, also confirming a reason behind the absence of Elliot’s sister Darlene (Carley Chaikin) from a Times Square hallucination of his family. The series is currently eyeing a summer Season 2 premiere on USA.

For those unaware, Mr. Robot centers around Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), a young cybersecurity engineer struggling with social anxiety and clinical depression, who moonlights as a cyber-vigilante hacker. He is recruited by a mysterious anarchist known as “Mr. Robot” (Christian Slater), and joins his “fsociety” group in order to wipe out sinister international conglomerate E[vil] Corp. The series also stars Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Martin Wallström and House of Cards alum Michel Gill.

More details will likely emerge in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for the latest on Mr. Robot Season 2.