ABC’s ‘Scandal’ season 5: Joe Morton (finally) promoted to series regular

This move in many ways was a long time coming for “Scandal” fans, but we’re glad to report that it is now official: Joe Morton is now a series regular on the ABC series.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Emmy winner said “Now I can cast some serious shade on a regular basis” in response to getting the promotion. He has been a part of the show ever since the second season, when it was confirmed that Rowan was actually Olivia Pope’s father. Since that time he’s been a huge component in B613, and he certainly has been one of the closest things the show has had to a pure villain.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for the Rowan character over time, at least for us, has been seeing how resilient this guy truly he. He’s a character who we assumed would be dead by now given all of the various people who have targeted him, but still he manages a way to emerge through it all and find a way to get power. Even him being arrested was not a permanent solution to the problem of him wrecking havoc throughout the world.

“Scandal” is now back with the second half of season 5, so if there is one thing we can say right now with confidence, it is this: You better believe that he’s going to cause some more chaos in this world. The promotion basically assures that he is not going to disappear for some time, like he did when Morton was briefly a part of another TV series in “Proof” over on TNT.

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