‘We had all hoped for this’: Murder In A Small Town EP shares role originally intended for Donald Sutherland before his death

Murder in a small town has arrived on the 2024 TV schedule as a murder mystery procedural starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk. Although Sutherland had many television credits before making his Fox debut as Police Chief Karl Alberg, this show is his first starring role on a television network in the United States. According to executive producer Jeff Wachtel, the original plan was for the star to work alongside his father, the late Donald Sutherland. Sadly, the film and television legend passed away before he could do so, but the EP shed light on what could have been.

I spoke with Jeff Wachtel for last week’s Season 1 finale. Murder in a small townincluding hopes for Season 2 in the 2025 TV show and a sticky situation writing for Kristin Kreuk’s Cassandra. I noted in the EP that I wasn’t very familiar with Rossif Sutherland before the Fox series thanks to most of his previous shows airing in Canada, and I was impressed with his work as Alberg. Wachtel responded with a story about the “delicious coincidence” that Donald Sutherland had been attached to an adaptation before his son:

That’s so nice of you to say that. I wasn’t (very familiar) either. It was the network’s idea, and I was the network so it’s nice when I can give them credit. It was their casting department that said, “You should really look at this guy.” And then there was, of course, a delightful coincidence: when the script was first developed, Donald Sutherland was determined to make it into a film thirty years ago.

It turns out that Rossif Sutherland’s father was originally attached to a film based on LR Wright’s books, decades before this TV show incarnation could even be imagined. The revelation that the network had pitched Rossif as a potential role also adds more context to what the star told us about his approach to playing Alberg.

The film version of LR Wright’s story never happened, but Donald Sutherland’s son would eventually get the chance to bring Karl Alberg to life on the small screen years later. And if his health had allowed it, Donald Sutherland would have appeared against Rossif, as Jeff Wachtel continues:

When I first learned about it a few years ago, Donald was supposed to play George Wilcox in the first episode. We had all hoped for it. His health did not allow it. When Rossif was cast in the lead role, it made him want to do more. They were very close, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. But it was fun, at least honoring Donald’s presence in the project.

It turns out that Donald Sutherland would have played George Wilcox, the key character in the oversized series premiere that Alberg and Cassandra had to investigate. (You can now stream the premiere with a Hulu subscription.) James Cromwell would ultimately play Wilcox, and the Murder in a small team went the extra mile to honor Sutherland in this first episode by showing this card at the very end:

(Image credit: Fox)

We’ll never know what Donald Sutherland would have brought to the role of George Wilcox if he had been able to play the character as intended, but James Cromwell was a great name and talented actor to play the role in his place. I’m glad that Murder in a small town was, however, able to include this dedication in honor of the roles Sutherland and Rossif Sutherland might have played in the loss of his father. The show premiered a few months after the elder Sutherland died at the age of 88.

To learn more about Donald Sutherland, you can check out our list of his best movies and how to watch them. As for his son, you can find the entire first season of Rossif Sutherland’s series. Murder in a small town streaming on Hulu now.