Kyle Chandler replaces George Clooney in Catch-22 lead role

Kyle Chandler is going from Coach to Colonel.

The Emmy-winning actor has been cast as the uber-serious Colonel Cathcart, a lead role in Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of Catch-22, EW has confirmed. The limited series is set to be produced and directed by George Clooney and his creative partner Grant Heslov; Clooney was originally slated to play Cathcart as well, but decided to step aside out of fear of spreading himself too thin, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Instead, he’ll play the supporting part of training commander Scheisskopf. He and Chandler will star opposite the previously-cast Christopher Abbott (James White) and Hugh Laurie (House).

Co-adapted by Luke Davies and David Michôd, the six-episode Catch-22 is based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name. It tells the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Abbott), a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.

Chandler, whose beloved Friday Night Lights turn won him the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series, most recently earned acclaim for his leading role in Netflix’s Bloodline. On the movie side, he stars in La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s next film, First Man, a biopic of Neil Armstrong.

Hulu has not yet announced a premiere date for Catch-22.