Colonel Sanders
In January 2017, Billy Zane began appearing as a Gold Colonel Sanders to promote a new Georgia Gold flavor chicken. In April 2017, KFC released a campaign featuring Rob Lowe as astronaut Colonel Sanders giving a JFK speech spoof/homage about launching the Zinger chicken sandwich into space. This commercial also featured Wink Martindale. Lowe released a statement saying that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to meet Harland Sanders. In 2018, a "Value Colonel" was introduced, portrayed by Christopher Boyer, an intentionally obscure background character actor who was among those who auditioned for the part in 2015; Boyer's first commercial also featured a cameo from Wayne Knight as another celebrity Colonel. In January 2018, country music singer Reba McEntire was selected to be KFC's first female Colonel Sanders. In August 2018, former "Seinfeld" star Jason Alexander was named the new Colonel Sanders. Alexander had previously appeared in commercials for KFC in the early 2000s. Actor Craig Fleming portrays the Colonel in the 2018 ad featuring Mrs. Butterworth. In 2019, actor Peter Weller reprised his role of RoboCop in the guise of Colonel Sanders.