‘Virgin River’ Star Daniel Gillies (AKA Mark) Was Just Cast in a New Show—& It Sounds Really Good

Good news, Virgin River stans! We’ll be seeing more of 46-year-old actor, Daniel Gillies, who plays Mel’s deceased husband, Mark Monroe, on Netflix’s Virgin River. And while it’s likely he’ll remain in the cast for season 5 of the Netflix series, we have yet to find out just how they’ll feature Gillies in the upcoming season. As for now, we’ll be seeing some more work from the actor, thanks to Roku.

Gillies will join filming as a series regular for season 2 on Roku’s Australian drama series, The Newsreader. Created by Michael Lucas, whose work also includes the Peacock original series Five Bedrooms, The Newsreader transports viewers to Australia’s cutthroat nightly newsroom in the 1980s.

The show stars Anna Torv and Sam Reid, whose characters, newsreader Helen Norville and reporter Dave Jennings, have to navigate a tumultuous relationship. The Newsreader takes us through producers’ lives juggling the competitiveness of the industry while handling critical breaking news events from the Space Shuttle’s Challenger disaster to the Chernobyl disaster.

If you’re not already hooked by the plot, the cast addition for season two is sure to get you. All we know per Deadline’s scoop is that The Vampire Diaries alum will play Charlie, “a privileged first-born son of an aging newspaper mogul, desperate to make his own mark in the world.”

Season two is currently in production, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any hints from Gillies’ Instagram as to how the new season’s drama will unfold. Until then, we’ll be catching up on the first season of The Newsroom to prepare and bingeing Virgin River for our Mark-fill.
The fourth season of Virgin River may have only come out a few days ago, but if you’re like us, then you probably already binged the whole thing (and you might already be doing a rewatch). Now, after that major cliffhanger at the end of season 4, we’re left to wonder what’s in store for all of our favorite characters, specifically Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson) who encountered some roadblocks in their relationship this past season.

Luckily for us, Breckenridge sat down with The List to give her take on the future of Jack and Mel, saying, “It would be very weird if they did not end up together.”
She looked back to the moment when they broke up during season 3 and said, “It honestly didn’t ever feel natural that Jack broke up with Mel.” She added, “It didn’t really make a whole lot of sense.. .I was like, ‘Maybe Mel should break up with Jack.’ That makes more sense. Mel should break up with Jack. Mel should be like, ‘You know what? I was right in the first place. I can’t do this. No, all of this is too much for me, I can’t,’ but he broke up with her, and I can’t even remember why. It was so silly.” But according to The List, Breckenridge thinks that Mel and Jack should never break up again (and we feel the same way).

Thankfully, more Virgin River episodes are already being filmed, but unfortunately, we have no idea yet when season 5 will be released. Just a couple days ago, Henderson shared a behind-the-scenes photo from the set, writing, “Jack’s back ! Day 1 of shooting #virginriver Season 5—feels good to slip back into Jack’s boots.”