Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Son Cast As Controversial Football Icon
Chivalry might be dead, but nepotism is forever! Variety reports that the newest nepo baby on the block—Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of, well, the only other Schwarzenegger you’ve ever heard of—just snagged the role of infamous NFL star Tim Tebow in FX’s upcoming American Sports Story. Arnie’s little boy will join Josh Andres Rivera, who portrays the late Aaron Hernandez in the series. The show’s first season will be an adaptation of the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc from the Boston Globe and Wondery.
For anyone unfamiliar with the tragic story of Aaron Hernandez, he played as a tightened for the New England Patriots under the legendary Tom Brady until he was convicted of murder and sent to prison. Hernandez ultimately committed suicide while incarcerated in 2017. He was 27 years old.
As for Tim Tebow, the character being portrayed by Patrick Schwarzenegger, his claim to fame was dropping to his knees to say a quick prayer on the football field during gameplay. He drifted from team to team before ultimately ending up in a completely different sport—baseball.
Originally ordered by FX in August of 2021, American Sports Story started production earlier this year before being put on hold thanks to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. Both Rivera and Schwarzenegger were cast prior to the strike, but FX would neither confirm nor deny their casting until now. Rivera, who plays Hernandez, is best known for his role as Chino in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of West Side Story.
Rivera will reunite with his West Side Story castmate Rachel Zegler in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes later this year. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger is probably best known for having a father who’s the biggest action star of all time. Famous dad aside, Patrick is also a part of Amazon’s The Boy‘s spinoff Gen V.
Executive Producer Ryan Murphy is once again the driving force behind this latest entry in his “American Story” empire. Murphy shares Executive Producer duties on American Sports Story with Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson, as well as The Boston Globe’s Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello. According to IMDb, Carl Franklin and Paris Barclay are splitting directing duties while writer Stuart Zichermann seems to be handling all of the scripts.
The series isn’t expected to debut on FX until sometime next year. Also joining the American Story family at some point in the future is American Love Story, a scripted dramatization of the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
Despite obviously getting his initial break in Hollywood off of his name, Patrick Schwarzenegger has been proving that he has some real talent through his roles in Gen V and The Terminal List. It will be interesting to see how he does in American Sports Story opposite Josh Andres Rivera.
