Bradley Cooper had a surprise guest starring role in the Season 4 premiere of The Righteous Gemstones on Sunday, setting the tone for the final season of HBO's hit comedy.
"The Gemstones' Genesis begins with Bradley Cooper, in a special guest appearance for the S4 premiere episode," the show posted on Instagram.
In the episode, titled "Prelude," the 10-time Academy Award nominee plays Elijah Gemstone -- a crooked ancestor of the televangelist family living in Virginia in 1862.
The entire episode follows Elijah, who kills a pastor to steal his gold Bible, assumes his identity, and is recruited into the Confederate army to minister to the troops.
"You know, it felt like a fitting way to start the last season, going back and showing maybe how this how this empire began," Danny McBride, the creator and lead actor on the series, told Decider.
McBride said that, when he wrote the episode, he did not have a particular actor in mind but when it came time to cast the role, he wanted someone who wouldn't leave the audience disappointed.
"I was like, 'This is a very tall order, none of the cast is in this. It's a period piece and a different tone. Who could possibly step in here and people wouldn't be disappointed?'" he said.
"I just like threw off the cuff like, '[We need] somebody awesome like Bradley Cooper.' And then, my producing partners were like, 'Well, why don't we just ask Bradley Cooper?'"
Speaking in a panel discussion at a premiere screening of the show, McBride said that the standalone episode needed an actor who was "more beautiful than all of us."
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The Righteous Gemstones is dark comedy series satirizing megachurch culture, televangelism, and family dysfunction. The show follows the Gemstone family, a wealthy and corrupt dynasty of televangelists who run a massive megachurch empire built on greed, power and hypocrisy.
Eli Gemstone, played by John Goodman, struggles to maintain control over his empire while dealing with his adult children: Jesse (McBride), an arrogant heir apparent; Judy (Edi Patterson), the attention-starved daughter; and Kelvin (Adam DeVine), the youngest son desperate to prove his worth.