'Poker Face' showrunners say guest stars like Joseph Gordon-Levitt 'raised their hand' to appear on the show: 'Everybody wants to work with Rian Johnson'

• "Poker Face," which premiered on Peacock Thursday, is filled with guest appearances from star actors.
• The showrunners told Insider that these stars wanted to work with Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne.
• The showrunners added that the guest roles allowed these actors to do something "outside the box."

"Poker Face" showrunners credit Rian Johnson's involvement in the series for their star-studded guest-star list.

Johnson is the director and writer for the new mystery anthology series starring Natasha Lyonne as a human lie detector who tries to solve murders that she comes across. Throughout the series, there are numerous appearances from celebrity guest stars including Adrien Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Stephanie Hsu, Jameela Jamil, Ron Perlman, Clea DuVall, and, of course, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In a junket interview ahead of the series premiere, the series' showrunners Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman told Insider that many of these stars "raised their hand" to be in the series.

"We were very fortunate that so many people raised their hand and said, 'Deal me in,'" Lilla said. "I think everybody wants to work with Rian, everybody wants to work with Natasha. We got incredibly lucky with the sheer amount of talent."

Lilla also said that the anthology series itself drew actors in since it would mean they wouldn't have to commit to the show for years.

"I think also another big draw was, 'Hey, you wanna come be on a television show for one week or two weeks and you can play like a diabolical murderer, or you can play the victim of some gruesome crime, or you can play the sidekick to Charlie Cale and vibe with Natasha Lyonne?' I think that we were able to offer them a chance to play against type and do something a little outside the box."

Nora added that the lineup is "mindblowing."

"We feel really lucky that we assembled the cast that we did, and our casting people are amazing," she said. "It's really unusual for a show to move this much cast through episode to episode. So it was no easy job, but it all came together."

"Poker Face" is the second murder-mystery project Johnson has taken on since his highly successful "Knives Out" movies. Lilla told Insider that she welcomes fan comparisons between the new Peacock series and Johnson's two whodunit films. 

"I really hope that everybody dips a toe into 'Poker Face' because they're 'Knives Out' fans," Lilla said. "If you are a fan of 'Knives Out,' if you're a fan of 'Glass Onion,' I think you're gonna love 'Poker Face.'"

She added: "Because we are a how-to-catch-'em instead of a whodunit, they're gonna find something fresh with us, but they're gonna still enjoy all of the wacky characters, all of the loopy humor and all of these intricate crimes that are being committed."

"Poker Face" is now streaming on Peacock.