The New Pope: John Malkovich joins Jude Law in The Young Pope sequel

Are we in for some kind of Pope-off between the two actors?

The Young Pope meet The New Pope.

Jude Law may be in for a Pope-off with John Malkovich, after Variety announced the actor was joining the sequel series to Paolo Sorrentino's The Young Pope.

HBO and Sky have clarified that their joint production, however, won't be a second season of The Young Pope, but an entirely separate limited series, still set in the world of the modern papacy.

Sorrentino, who won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014, will direct, alongside writing the series with Umberto Contarello and Stefano Bises.

Law has been confirmed to return, but whether that's as Pius XIII, AKA Lenny Belardo, the fictionalised first American pope in history, is yet to be seen. Malkovich himself has been rumoured to play an incoming pontiff.

Production on The New Pope is set to begin in Italy in November.

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