‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Adds Merritt Wever as Carrie Coon’s Sister

HBO announced today that eight new actors would be joining the cast of The Gilded Age Season 3, including Emmy-winner Bill Camp as real life robber baron J.P. Morgan, Tony-winner Andrea Martin as a mystical medium who purports to talk to the dead, and two-time Emmy-winner Merritt Wever playing none other than Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) estranged sister. The new cast joins an already celebrated ensemble featuring Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector, Audra McDonald, and Cynthia Nixon.

The Gilded Age Season 2 ended with railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector) securing his beloved wife Bertha’s victory in the “Opera Wars,” a real life rivalry between old and new money families in Gilded Age New York that resulted in the creation of the Metropolitan Opera House. The ever-ambitious Bertha capped her success off by inviting the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) to her opera box, with the intention of securing the British nobleman as a match for her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga).

Elsewhere, Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) declared their love for each other, Peggy (Denée Benton) leaves her job as a writer for The Globe, and Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon) discovers she has inherited her kind, deceased husband’s secret cache of wealth.

The eight new characters joining The Gilded Age Season 2 — along with previously announced additions Phylicia Rashad, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Victoria Clark — are obviously poised to cause more drama for the Russelles, Van Rhijns, Scotts, and beyond…

• Bill Camp as J.P. Morgan, the real historic figure, whom HBO notes will “find himself at odds” with George Russell over “the future of the railroad industry.”
• Merritt Wever as Monica O’Brien, “Bertha Russell’s estranged sister who appears at a crucial time for the family.” (Can you imagine? Bertha’s Irish-coded sister popping up right when they’re trying to land an English duke??)
• Leslie Uggams as Mrs. Ernestine Brown, a member of the Black elite community in Newport and a friend of Rashad’s Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland.
• Lisagay Hamilton as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the historic Black suffragist will influence Peggy Scott in Season 3.
• Paul Alexander Nolan as Alfred Merrick, “a dashing, wealthy New York businessman, who has all the hallmarks of the old money set.”
• Hattie Morahan as Lady Sarah Vere, the Duke of Buckingham’s sister, who is not a fan of the Russells.
• Andrea Martin as Madame Dashkova, “a medium who claims to be able to commune with the dead.”
• Jessica Frances Dukes as Athena Trumbo, cousin to Dorothy Scott (Audra McDonald), who will host Peggy in Newport and support her writing career. 

The Gilded Age Season 3 is currently filming and is expected to premiere on HBO in 2025. The third season of the series is expected to follow Bertha’s quest to marry Gladys to the Duke, per real life Gilded Age heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt’s story, as well as the vibrant scene of Black elites in Newport.

The first two seasons of The Gilded Age are available to stream on Max.