Joe Manganiello Causes Glenn Howerton Great Distress in A.P. Bio Season 4

Here at Den of Geek we believe in a diversity of the geek diaspora. Some of us are soft-bodied boys who, let’s say hypothetically, washed out of their high school baseball tryouts because they couldn’t run too well. Other geeks, however, are pure beefcakes. And that’s great!

One such physically adept geek, Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast Joe Manganiello, will be lending his talents to a little-watched (but really good) Peacock comedy A.P. Bio this fall when the show returns for its fourth season on Sept. 2. Manganiello will play the whimsically named Malachi, who is described as “a big and intimidating personality who unexpectedly steps into Jack’s life, causing Jack great distress and insecurity in his personal relationships.” Check out a trailer for season 4 with Jack and Malachi below.

Now, it’s not unlike disgraced Harvard professor-turned A.P. Biology teaching charlatan Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton) to develop a nemesis. Having nemeses is kind of Jack’s whole thing. Though Jack has evolved and developed over A.P. Bio’s first three seasons (two of which aired on NBC and the third on Peacock), he’s still fundamentally an embarrassed intellectual who can only frame his personal worth by who opposes him.

With that in mind, Malachi is sure to be one stellar nemesis. The line “providing Jack great distress and insecurity in his personal relationships” suggests that Jack might not respond too well to the presence of a very handsome man in his Toledo orbit alongside his new girlfriend Lynette (Elizabeth Alderfer).

Manganiello has a lively history on television of playing handsome interlopers in main characters’ romantic lives. The Pittsburgh-born and raised actor first came to prominence playing werewolf Alcide Herveaux on True Blood, operating as a Jacob to Bill Compton’s Edward. Manganiello played a similar relationship-threatening role in How I Met Your Mother and has also portrayed Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and Slade Wilson in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Also: who could forget Joe as “Big Dick Richie” in Magic Mike? 

While Joe Manganiello represents a walking relationship test on television, A.P. Bio season 4 won’t be all romantic strife – there’s some room for daddy issues as well. It was previously reported that Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell will be guesting this season as Jack’s long lost father, John. And if that won’t be Jack Griffin’s ultimate nemesis, we don’t know who would be. 

A.P. Bio season 4 will premiere all eight of its episodes Thursday, September 2 on Peacock.