Queen Latifah Is Joining the Lee Daniels Circus As the Lead in His New Music Series

Queen Latifah is now attached as a lead in Lee Daniels’ untitled series about the Atlanta music industry that we’ll all be watching together.

Unlike Empire and its ensemble cast, this story follows the aspirations of a young girl group, à la TLC, who also originated in Atlanta. In addition to Latifah, three newbies (Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady) are also leading the cast after auditioning in a national casting call:

Deadline reports:

Created, co-written and directed by Daniels, the pilot follows three young women (Demorest, Destiny, O’Grady), who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the music industry, and the choices with which they’re faced along the way. Queen Latifah anchors the cast as Carlotta, the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon, with an amazing voice, who will become a surrogate mother to the three girls – even though she doesn’t approve of their musical dreams.

As an actress/rapper/singer/wizard fresh off starring in The Wiz Live!, Latifah is in her wheelhouse. The girl group characters on the show all have their own backgrounds to overcome: Demorest is Star, a foster child with big dreams, O’Grady plays her sister Simone, and Destiny plays Alexandra, a rich brat who wants to “make real, authentic music.”

Daniels is also working on an Empire spin-off about Cookie that reportedly just cast Amiyah Scott—the first transgender cast member in the Real Housewives franchise—in a role. Scott has yet to appear in the Real Housewives of Atlanta season that’s currently airing.