‘Mom’ Alum Kristen Johnston Lands Role on Big HBO Series

Mom alum Kristen Johnston is making a big return to TV after landing a role on a hit HBO series. Variety reports that Johnson has joined the cast of The Righteous Gemstones for Season 3 of the outlandish televangelist comedy, joining fellow recently-announced series newcomer Steve Zahn. Johnston will reportedly be playing May-May Montgomery, a new character who has a history with the Gemstones. No other details about the character have been shared at this time.

The Righteous Gemstones debuted back in 2019 and stars Danny McBride, John Goodman, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine as a family of televangelists leading the Gemstone Salvation Center in South Carolina. The family faces outside forces that would see their religious empire brought down, while also dealing with perpetual in-fighting that could be just as detrimental to their status. McBride created the show, and has written or co-written all current 18 episodes. Additional cast members of the series include Cassidy Freeman, Tony Cavalero, Tim Baltz, Skyler Gisondo, Gregalan Williams, and Walton Goggins. Other big stars have turned up on the show in recurring roles, such as Dermot Mulroney, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Roberts, Eric André, and country music star Jennifer Nettles.

In a previous interview with Newsweek, McBride opened up about the future of The Righteous Gemstones, beyond Season 2, telling the outlet, “I love working with these people and I like writing this show, so as long as we can carry that on, I’m up for it.” He later spoke about his approach to each TV season he writes, saying, “Any season of a show I’ve made, I always approach it as if it’s the last one because you never know what’s gonna happen. I don’t want the audience to feel like they’re left in the lurch if the show doesn’t come back.”

He continued, “I want there to be a sense of completion every season so that if the Gemstones doesn’t come back again, you can still go back and watch it. It doesn’t feel like you’re watching something that wasn’t completed. So I’ll continue to approach every season that way.”

Season 2 of debuted in January and concluded in February. The season finale certainly ended with enough closure, so it will be very interesting to see what direction Season 3 takes. Seasons 1 and 2 of The Righteous Gemstones are currently available to watch on HBO Max, for subscribers of the streaming service.