The news of Ray Liotta’s passing has left fans shocked and saddened. While in the Dominican Republic to work on his next movie, Dangerous Waters, Liotta reportedly passed away in his sleep at the age of 67. It’s unclear how much footage he had shot for that movie or what the plan had been for his role.

Because Liotta had been working so frequently, however, he will be posthumously appearing in multiple upcoming projects. This includes the Apple TV+ series Black Bird which debuts on the streaming service in July. Marking one of Liotta’s final performances, the series stars the actor as James “Big Jim” Keene, a role that was specifically written with the Goodfellas star in mind. Black Bird showrunner Dennis Lehane explained as much in a statement released after Liotta’s passing.

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“It was, quite literally, the culmination of a lifelong dream to work with Ray Liotta," Lehane stated, per Variety. “From the moment I saw him blow out the screen, his co-stars, and the back of the theater in Something Wild, I found him the most electric American actor of his generation. At the heart of a Ray Liotta performance was a duality that he couldn’t quite control; I suspect it wasn’t conscious. It felt, instead, like something that was locked in his DNA. When his character was threatening and dangerous, he still couldn’t fully hide the sweet little boy inside. When the character was charming, even loving, you could still feel something volatile roiling underneath.”

He added, “I had no other actor in mind and was floored — humbled, honored, fist-pump elated — when he leapt at playing the part less than 24 hours after we sent him the scripts. And the performance he gave? It was a master class. He wholly embodied a man who realizes that his lifetime of cutting corners and flitting along the edges of corruption have hung an albatross of very bleak options around the neck of his own son. But as deeply flawed and compromised as the character is, Ray found the nobility in a man who would run into a burning building for that same son and never break his stride. It was that duality I counted on to carry the emotional heart of our show from beginning to end.”

Ray Liotta Can Be Seen in Black Bird in July

     Warner Bros.

In Black Bird, a drug dealer (Taron Egerton) is sentenced to serve ten years in prison. In exchange for an early release, he agrees to be transferred to a prison for the criminally insane where he befriends a serial killer (Paul Walter Hauser). Liotta plays a police officer who’s the father of the incarcerated drug dealer. Greg Kinnear and Sepideh Moafi also star. The series is based on a true story, inspired by James Keene’s autobiographical novel In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption.

Black Bird will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 8, 2022.