TV news round-up for Week 35 of 2018

Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, and pick-ups.

HBO has released a trailer for True Detective Season 3. The finally returning crime drama is set for release coming January and stars Mahershala Ali (Marvel’s Luke Cage, Moonlight) as state police detective from Northwest Arkansas Wayne Hays. According to HBO this season will “tell the story of a macabre crime in the heart of the Ozarks, and a mystery that deepens over decades.”

Netflix has announced that their 10 episode adaption of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 gothic horror novel The Haunting of Hill House will be released on Friday 12 October. The story follows a group of siblings who have grown up in the most famous haunted house in the US. Years later they return there to face the ghosts of their past and their childhood home after a tragedy brings them together again. Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Gerald’s Game, and the upcoming The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep) created, directs and executive produces the series. The cast will include Michiel Huisman (Treme, Game of Thrones), Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game, Watchmen), and Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, Leverage, and the upcoming Jack Ryan Amazon Prime Video series) among others.

The name of the much talked about OTT (over the top) Disney streaming service has finally been revealed! Via Variety we have learned that the name will be Disney Play. That’s not exactly a surprising name, considering the company already has smaller services of the same kind called DisneyNOW and DisneyLife. The as of yet US only service will offer material from Disney’s massive library and we can assume 20th Century Fox’s (at some point). Original productions will include a big budget Star Wars live-action series, the revival of 3D animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a live-action adaption of Lady and the Tramp, new High School Musical, a Monsters Inc. series, a new Marvel Cinematic Universe based series, and undoubtedly many more to come.

NBC has released the first nine minutes of their new upcoming mystery series Manifest to YouTube. The Josh Dalles (Once Upon A Time, Thor) starring series tells the tale of the people on board of Montego Air Flight 828. The flight disappeared in 2013 but has now mysteriously returned without any time passing for the people on board. Director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Cast Away) and producer Jack Rapke (Cast Away, Flight) are executive producers. In the US the series will premiere Monday 24 September at 10/9c on NBC.

Netflix has struck a five-year exclusive deal with international bestselling crime author Harlan Coben. The deal will involve the adaption of 14 existing and future projects, including his upcoming novel Run Away. Previous projects based on Coben’s works are 2017’s Safe starring Michael C. Hall, 2016’s The Five, and 2015’s French adaption Une chance de trop or No Second Chance. The deal will not include the Myron Bolitar series.

Former NCIS actors Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo are developing drama series MIA for CBS. The series will follows a fresh homicide detective who gets partnered with a by-the-book detective in the Miami Police Department. However, the relations from her previous undercover assignment are still there and might endanger her future. At this point it does not look like Weatherly and de Pablo will star in the series, but they will be executive producers. Executive producer of Riverdale Shepard Boucher will also executive produce this series and is working on its script.

Hulu has ordered two eight episode seasons of animated sci-fi comedy Solar Opposites. The series follows aliens who have taken refudge in middle-America and comes from Rick & Morty executive producer and co-creator Justin Roiland and executive producer Mike McMahan via 20th Century Fox Television. The series is slated for a 2020 release.

More from Hulu, as they have released the first full trailer for their sci-fi drama The First. Sean Penn leads a cast telling the story of the first manned mission to Mars and how this affects everyone involved. The first season of eight episodes will be released in full on Hulu on Friday 14 September in the US.

Netflix has released a trailer for their animated comedy Big Mouth. The series will again follow the characters’ quest through adolescence. With the voice talents of Nick Kroll (Parks and Recreation, Sausage Party), John Mulaney (Saturday Night Live), Jessi Klein (Inside Amy Schumer), Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and Jenny Slate (Parks and Recreation), among others in the series. The trailer also gives us a return date, Friday 5 October.

USA’s Mr. Robot will come to an end with Season 4, we have learned via The Hollywood Reporter. To soften the pain the final season has gotten additional episodes, going from eight to twelve. Mr. Robot has been a critical darling, but has not been well watched according to the ratings. Season 1 started with about three million US viewers, but at the end of Season 3 this has decreased to just about one million.

American cable channel Epix has ordered a 10 episode first season of drama series Our Lady, LTD. The series slated for 2019 will tell the story of the young grifter James as he tries to prey on Pastor Byron Brown (Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley), but this man of the cloth is more dangerous than James assumed.

DC Entertainment has announced that their comics library/streaming service DC Universe will be launched on Batman Day, Saturday 15 September. Their first original series, the much talked about Titans, will premiere its first season of 12 episodes on Friday 12 October. Until then subscribers can already read a “curated selection” of DC comics and watch a host of DC movies and TV series both live action and animated, like The Dark Knight, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Batman: The Animated Series. Subscription to the service is US only at the moment, at a monthly price of $7.99 or $74.99 annually. Finally, another clip for the upcoming third season of the revived Young Justice cartoon has been made available.

That’s it for this week, but join us next week when we round-up the TV news of that week.

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