‘Magnum P.I.’ Revival Adds Ken Jeong and Carl Weathers as Guest Stars

The new Magnum P.I. revival series had added Ken Jeong and Carl Weathers as guest stars for its upcoming first season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the two stars will make appearances on the show, but it is unclear if they will appear in the same episode.

Jeong will be playing a character named Lee Ji-Won who is described as “a local old-school private investigator who plays poker with Magnum (Jay Hernandez). He’s said to be a fun-loving guy who doesn’t quite embody the best practice for being a private investigator.

Weathers will be appearing as Dan, “a man of integrity” and “an old-school Marine who’s struggling to pay his bills as a fisherman.” He reaches out to Magnum for help with locating a 350-pound tuna that he caught. He claims the fish was stolen and that it is worth about $350,000. Dan wants to get the fish back so that he can pay off his boat and give his workers some money.

Jeong is most notable from his role as Leslie Chow in the Hangover trilogy, and Weathers is recognizable as playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky films.

The new series stars the aforementioned Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum and Perdita Weeks as Juliet Higgins. It also features actors Zachary Knighton, Sung Kang, and Stephen Hill.

The revival series is helmed by Peter Lenkov, who also helped created the reboots of MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0. Interestingly, Magnum P.I. and Hawaii Five-0 will reportedly crossover with one another, though to what degree it is unclear.

In a 2016 interview with Slash Film, Lenkov opened up about what it was like to reboot classic series, and specifically spoke about the differences between the original MacGyver and the new series.

“That was more of a premise pilot. I felt personally I wanted to do what the original MacGyver did for me, which is I jumped right into a world,” he said. “I jumped right into a character that was already fully functioning in that environment and I wanted the audience to have the same experience.”

“I wanted to jump right in and this character exists and I didn’t want to have to spend 30 pages, 30 minutes of the show doing the premise of explaining how he becomes MacGyver,” Lenkov added. “I wanted this guy to already exist and for the most part, he already exists in people’s minds.”

“So it’s very hard to start with a premise pilot when people already have a preconceived idea of who the character is,” he continued. “So for me, the better version of the story was to just come right out and he’s MacGyver already.”

Fans can catch the new Magnum P.I. for themselves and compare how well it holds up next to the original when the show debuts on Monday, Sept. 24 on CBS.