Jimmy Smits Joins Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix Musical ‘The Get Down’

Jimmy Smits has joined the cast of Baz Luhrmann’s debut Netflix series, The Get Down.

According to Deadline, Smits will play Francisco Cruz, aka “Papa Fuerte.” Papa Fuerte is a “South Bronx political boss who delivers services the City fails to provide – jobs, housing, healthcare, etc. A big man with brass, he navigates downtown politics the same way he handles his uptown turf – with ease and a touch of deception. Whether it’s his niece’s desire for disco stardom or a recent immigrant’s struggle to grab a hold of the American dream, if you want something in the neighborhood, you come to Papa Fuerte.”

Below is a description of the series, per Netflix:

The Get Down will focus on 1970s New York City – broken down and beaten up, violent, cash strapped – dying. Consigned to rubble, a rag-tag crew of South Bronx teenagers are nothings and nobodies with no one to shelter them – except each other, armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some magic markers and spray cans. From Bronx tenements, to the SoHo art scene; from CBGBs to Studio 54 and even the glass towers of the just-built World Trade Center, The Get Down is a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco – told through the lives and music of the South Bronx kids who changed the city, and the world…forever

The network previously announced  the show’s young leads: Herizen Guardiola,  Justice Smith (“Ezekiel”), Shameik Moore (“Shaolin Fantastic”), Skylan Brooks (“Ra Ra”) and Tremaine Brown, Jr. (“Boo Boo”).

The Get Down is set to debut on Netflix in 2016.

Photo Credit: Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

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