Mayans M.C. actress Emily Tosta and three other actors joined Freeform‘s Party of Five reboot, which will modernize the story and focus on immigration.
Tosta has appeared in six episodes of FX’s Sons of Anarchy spin-off as Leticia Cruz, the daughter of Johnny “Coco” Cuz (Richard Cabral).
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In the new Party of Five, Tosta will play Lucia Buendia, a straight-A student who hopes to go to college. Her dreams are crushed when her parents have trouble with immigration officials, and she begins questioning her straight-laced path. She eventually becomes politically radicalized and ignores her duties as the oldest sister.
Party of Five will also star 13 Reasons Why‘s Brandon Larracuente, The Goldbergs‘ Niko Guardado and newcomer Elle Paris Legaspi. In the new series, the four siblings’ lives are upended when their parents are deported by immigration officials.
Larracuente plays the oldest sibling, Emilio, an aspiring musician who was the reason why their parents moved to the U.S. with dreams of a better life. He is also the least responsible sibling and lived away from home until he learned what happened to his parents.
Guardado plays Beto, who stepped up after his parents’ status was threatened. He struggles in school, but finds a new role as the surprising head of the family. Legaspi plays 10-year-old Valentina, the youngest sister who is now forced to face adolescence without her parents.
Party of Five was created by Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser, and originally centered on a group of siblings surviving after the death of their parents. It ran on Fox from 1994 to 2000 and was distributed by Sony Pictures TV. Lippman and Keyser wrote the pilot for the new series with Castle‘s Michal Zebede. Nine Lives‘ Rodrigo Garcia was hired to direct.
“Twenty-five years ago, we imagined a story about five kids navigating the world after the untimely death of their parents,” Lippman and Keyser said in a statement last month, when Freeform greenlit the pilot. “Today, stories of families being separated, children having to raise themselves in the wake of their parents’ deportations, don’t require any imagination; they are everywhere. This new iteration of Party of Five isn’t a retread of the original; it’s a whole new look at kids trying to parent each other in the wake of circumstances beyond their control, yet learning a similar lesson: that families persist no matter how great the obstacles.”
The original series starred Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell and Lacey Chabert. Campbell has voiced support for the new show, endorsing the reimagined plot.
Freeform has not announced a premiere date for Party of Five.
Photo credit: FX / Prashant Gupta
