Jaden Smith to play Kenye West in Showtime TV series "Omniverse"

Jaden Smith has been cast to play a young version of Kanye West in a forthcoming Showtime anthology series titled Omniverse.

Showtime has ordered a script for the series, which follows a recent spate of extremely successful anthology series including Black Mirror and the Twilight Zone.

Kenye West is on board to executive produce on behalf of Westbrook Studios, while his former manager Scooter Braun will also serve as executive producer on behalf of SB Projects, his media company.

Omniverse is reported to be a limited half-hour anthology series that will explore the “many doors of perception,” with season one focusing on “exploring the ego” and depicting an alternative reality for West.

Writer Lee Sung Jin, whose credits include HBO’s Silicon Valley and Netflix’s new Tuca & Bertie, is also attached as writer and executive producer.

“I’m honored and thrilled to be collaborating with everyone involved to present an alternate world through the eyes of a young man somewhere in the multiverse who happens to also be a Kanye West,” said Lee. “Omniverse is not set in our world nor about our world’s Kanye West as we aim to add a new spin on alternate realities, consciousness, and push the limits of half hour narrative.”

Omniverse also marks West’s first major foray into television. The rapper previously executive-produced the Dame Dash film, Honor Up, back in 2018.

Smith has been outspoken about his admiration for West in the past. He cited The Life of Pablo as the inspiration for his debut album SYRE. “I look up to very, very few rappers in this industry, and Tyler [the Creator] and [A$AP] Rocky are some of them for sure. Kid Cudi, Kanye, Jay-Z. Those are just people that I look up to and admire,” he told Vanity Fair in 2017.

Smith’s acting credits including Life in a Year and Skate Kitchen. He also had a starring role on Netflix’s animated series Neo Yokio and Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down.