Jason Ritter can’t wait for season 2 of Matlock to introduce more of Julian’s family — hopefully starting with his real-life brother.
While speaking to Us Weekly at CBS Fest on Wednesday, May 7, Jason, 45, shared his casting suggestion for Julian’s brother, saying, “The first one that comes to mind is my actual brother Tyler [Ritter]. I would love to see him there.”
Jason gushed about getting the idea of sharing the screen with his sibling, 40. “He’s just such a wonderful actor and I think he would fit right in,” he noted. “We also look a little bit alike. But there’s so many wonderful actors.”
The actor has previously suggested that the hit CBS series find a way to bring on wife, Melanie Lynskey, calling the chances that Lynskey, 47, gets cast in a guest role “pretty good.” “I don’t want to say 100 percent, but I think so,” he told Us in April. “The word has been put out and all of the higher-ups know.”
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Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman had a similar response. “It is kind of early. We’ve definitely gotten some people that are fans of the show,” she told Us about potential season 2 guest stars. “I want Jason’s wife, Melanie, to come on after she said she was a fan. That would be the best.”
Matlock, which premiered in September 2024, follows a wealthy retired lawyer named Madeline Kingston (Kathy Bates) who pretends to be a poor widower named Matty Matlock to get a job at a firm. As it turns out, Matty thinks someone at the company is complicit in the opioid epidemic that resulted in her daughter’s death.
Ritter plays Julian, who is a senior partner at Jacobson & Moore. He is married to Skye P. Marshall‘s character, Olympia, who filed for divorce from Julian prior to the events in the pilot.
Lynskey, 47, has previously shared her love for Matlock, writing via X in October 2024, “Jason is amazing on it, and Kathy Bates continues to be the pinnacle of greatness and everything I hope to be as an actor. Skye P. Marshall is a superstar. I would watch this even if it wasn’t my marital obligation.”
Before joining the cast of Matlock, Ritter shared the screen with Lynskey on multiple occasions. The couple met while filming The Big Ask in 2013 and later collaborated on projects such as We’ll Never Have Paris and The Intervention. Ritter also scored cameo roles in Lynskey’s shows, including Candy, The Last of Us and Yellowjackets.
“We’ve worked together a few times and it’s always been really fun, but I mean, I’ll do anything with him. He’s so talented,” Lynskey exclusively told Us in April 2023. “I love his face. I love looking at his face.”
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Season 2 of Matlock comes after the freshman show became an overnight success at CBS. During the season 1 finale, which aired in April, Julian was revealed to be the person who hid documents that Matty was searching for.
“We’re going to see a lot more of Julian and get to know not only him. We got to meet his mother, which was very exciting for me. We may meet more members of his family. Julian is not Junior. So I’m very excited to meet my brother,” Ritter explained to Us. “He has a completely different relationship with our dad than Julian does, which is also painful.”
Ritter said he was also excited for “more backstory,” adding, “Olympia talked a lot about his family, but we haven’t gotten to see a lot of it. It’s a really fun character to play. There’s so many different elements to him and it’s fun to be free of having to be one thing.”
Matlock returns to CBS in the fall and episodes are currently streaming on Paramount+.
