Annette Bening joins FX's 'Katrina: American Crime Story'

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Annette Bening has been cast in FX's upcoming second installment of its American Crime series that takes place in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Bening will portray the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, during the turbulent time, Variety reported.

The actress is so far the only star officially cast in the drama titled Katrina: American Crime Story from executive producers Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

Murphy stated before that Sarah Paulson would be returning to American Crime Story following her turn as Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson.

"You will have the famous people and also the people who weren't famous," Simpson said.

Announced in August, Katrina is expected to air in 2018 and will be followed by a third season of American Crime Story which explores the 1997 murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace starring Lady Gaga as Donatella Versace and then a future installment that follows the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"We wanted to do something that would still have the epic quality and the thing you remember from Katrina is everybody sitting in their bedrooms and watching these people on their roofs going, 'How can we not help them? How is this happening?'" Simpson previously said of Katrina.

"And what we want to do is go behind the scenes of that and explain this is the reason [officials] weren't prepared to help them."