The cast of The CW’s original made-for-TV movie The Waltons’ Homecoming has been completed. Ben Lawson (Firefly Lane) plays patriarch John Walton Sr., with previously revealed Bellamy Young (Scandal) as his wife Olivia, Logan Shroyer (This is Us) as John Boy, and Richard Thomas, who appeared as John Boy Walton in The Waltons series, as “The Narrator.”

Marcelle Le Blanc (Mary Ellen), Christian Finlayson (Jason), Tatum Matthew (Erin), Samuel Goergen (Jim Bob), Callaway Corrick (Elizabeth), Rebecca Coon (Grandma Walton), Alpha Trivette (Grandpa Walton), Marilyn McCoo (Sister Harriet), and Billy Davis Jr. are among the new cast members (Brother William).

The return of the Waltons commemorates the 50th anniversary of the television movie Coming Home: A Christmas Story, which debuted on December 19, 1971, and began the long-running series The Waltons, created by Earl Hamner.

It is set in the 1933 Depression Era and told through the eyes of John Boy (Shroyer), the 17-year-old eldest child of John (Lawson) and Olivia Walton (Young). His mother expects John Boy to help her raise his sisters and brothers, and his father expects him to follow in his footsteps to help support the family, but secretly, John Boy wants to be a writer. Times are hard enough in 1933, but to make matters worse, it looked to be the Waltons’ first Christmas without John Sr. When Olivia receives a letter that John Sr. is planning to make it home for Christmas after all, the family is thrilled and races to prepare for his homecoming. But when a storm threatens his arrival on Christmas Eve, and John Sr. is nowhere to be found, Olivia sends John Boy out into the night to find his daddy – a journey that will change John Boy’s life forever.

The popularity of the program spawned the “Waltons” spinoff series, which was developed by Earl Hamner Jr. and aired on CBS for nine seasons. Six spinoff films aired on CBS and NBC after the program.

Magnolia Hill Productions, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Television, is producing “The Waltons’ Homecoming.” Sam Haskell is an executive producer on the film, along with writer and co-executive producer Jim Strain. Lev L. Spiro is in charge of the direction.

Background

Ben Lawson was born on February 6, 1980 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He is an actor, known for No Strings Attached (2011), Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 (2012) and Designated Survivor (2016).

According to a recent Sydney Morning Herald article, he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Kensington, New South Wales, after being “kicked out” of the University of Southern Queensland. Lawson, like many of his fellow Australian actors, got his start in the soap opera Neighbours, where he played Frazer Yeats for almost 200 episodes from 2006 to 2008. He’d previously appeared in many other Australian projects, including the sci-fi series Time Trax and a spinoff of the very Australian-sounding Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Maggie Friedman, the showrunner of Firefly Lane, recently revealed why she changed Johnny’s character to incorporate Lawson’s genuine accent (can you blame her?). “Ben was cool with doing either an American or his Australian accent. I sort of felt like, man, that Australian accent just gives him another layer of mystery and coolness that I felt just really fit with the character. I love the accent,” she told Entertainment Weekly.