Former “The Young and the Restless” star Hunter King (ex-Summer Newman) is set to appear in the Season 7 finale of CBS’ “The Neighborhood,” which is being set up as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff series.
According to Deadline, King, along with actors Justin Long, Kara Royster and Angelique Cabral, have cast options where they’ll become series regulars on the planted spinoff should it get picked up by the network for the 2025-2026 season.
The proposed series will star Marcel Spears and Sheaun McKinney, who play Marty Butler and Malcolm Butler, respectively, on “The Neighborhood.” The two will segue to the offshoot if picked up.
The spinoff is set as a reverse concept of the mothership series, where Marty (Spears) and Malcolm (McKinney) Butler embark on new adventures, finally leaving their family home to start the next chapters in their lives, including acquainting themselves as newcomers in a neighborhood both close by but yet worlds apart: Venice Beach.
Monty Brinton/CBS
King will play the role of “Bellamy,” a dark and sardonic individual who is often under the influence of edibles. For work, she handles content generation for the coolest cannabis boutique in SoCal. Despite her jaded outlook, she’s also hilarious, fun and a fiercely loyal friend. With secret dreams of doing something bigger, for now, she’s content in her carefully curated world of detachment and irony.
Long will play Bruce, a tech millionaire who is a mix of unjustified confidence and social ineptitude.
Royster will play Matisse, a child of privilege, who is Malcolm’s new neighbor and a would-be influencer, and Cabral will play Lisa, a fast-talking book agent who seems genuinely passionate about Malcolm’s writing talent and hopes to represent him and take him to the top of the literary world.
On Instagram, King said of her casting, “Crying, screaming, throwing up thank you to @kaplanaaron and @cbstv for this amazing opportunity! This cast is unbelievable and I feel so lucky to get to act along side of them. AHHH someone pinch me!”
“The Neighborhood” premiered in the fall of 2018, holding down the fort on Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, and follows the story of the Butlers’ unlikely friendship with their new(ish) neighbor, perpetual nice-guy Dave Johnson (Max Greenfield), his wife, Gemma (Beth Behrs), and their now-teenage son, Grover. After seven years of sharing a front yard, the Johnsons have gone from neighborhood newcomers to full-on denizens, really becoming the best of friends with the Butlers (though Calvin [Cedric the Entertainer] won’t admit it). The two families, who couldn’t be more different, have realized they have much more in common than they ever thought they would. Tichina Arnold plays Tina, Calvin’s wife and the mother of both Marty and Malcolm.
Produced by CBS Studios, “The Neighborhood” is a multi-camera comedy taped in Los Angeles in front of a live studio audience. Executive producers include Bill Martin, Mike Schiff, Aaron Kaplan, Wendi Trilling, Cedric the Entertainer and Eric Rhone.
Throughout much of 2012-2022, Hunter King played the role of Summer Newman on the CBS daytime drama series “The Young and the Restless.” After exiting the series, she has appeared in several original movies for Hallmark Channel, including “Two Scoops of Italy,” “The Santa Summit” and more recently “Holiday Touchdown: A Chief’s Love Story.”
From 2015-2019, King co-starred in the CBS single-camera comedy, “Life in Pieces,” playing the role of Clementine Hughes. The series also starred Colin Hanks, Thomas Sadoski, Dianne West, James Brolin and Betsy Brandt, among others.
