Tom Hanks Cast As Mr. Rogers In ‘You Are My Friend’

Tom Hanks has been cast as Mr. Rogers in the upcoming film You Are My Friend.

TOM HANKS TO PLAY MR. ROGERS IN BIOPIC

The movie is loosely based on a 1998 Esquire article written by Tom Junod, which traced his meeting of the family-friendly legend and the friendship that formed between them. Marielle Heller, who helmed coming-of-age story Diary of a Teenage Girl, will direct the piece.

Fans of both Hanks and Rogers were excited about the casting, which will take many back to their childhoods full of puppet characters and zippy singalong songs. “Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers is like my childhood coming back to sprinkle fairy dust on all my open, bleeding adult wounds. 😭,” wrote on Twitter user. “Tom Hanks is going to play Mr. Rogers because of course he is! Who else to better portray a national treasure than another national treasure!” said another.

Hanks is often given as an example of a celebrity who is also a good person, and who never has controversy surrounding him. “Another entry in the Tom Hanks Decent Man Cinematic Universe,” joked Atlantic editor David Sims on Twitter.

The feature film biopic is set to start production in September. Fred Rogers was a TV personality who was the star of the long-running children’s series Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. He passed away in 2003 from cancer.