TV news roundup: A Netflix cancellation saved, Wheel of Time, Stranger Things, The Stand, the Boys, Scream and much more

Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up, where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, and pick-ups. This week we have the news over the past two weeks.

Renewed

Netflix has renewed its comedic time loop series Russian Doll for a second season.

Sweet (birthday baby) news: #RussianDoll has been renewed for a second season! pic.twitter.com/6DxqqcVOMa

— See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) June 11, 2019

Spectrum has renewed its Bad Boys TV spin-off L.A.’s Finest, starring Bad Boys II’s Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba (Sin City), for a second season.

FX has renewed its 1980s New York City-set LGBT drama Pose, about a transgender woman competing in underground “ball” competitions, for a third season. The series comes from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals (American Horror Story).

The Paramount Network has renewed Kevin Costner (Man of Steel) led modern western Yellowstone for a third season. Josh Holloway (Lost) will join the cast in the new season. Season 2 is currently airing.

Netflix has renewed its Danish Original Series set in a post-apocalyptic world with killer rain, titled Rain, for a third and final season.

Survival Squad: We’ll see you in 2020 for the third and final season. 🌧🌧🌧 pic.twitter.com/7U14Yd8GD9

— The Rain (@TheRainNetflix) June 19, 2019

CBS has renewed its treasure hunt adventure series Blood & Treasure for a second season!

For the first time ever a streaming service series has been saved by a cable channel! Netflix cancelled comedy series One Day At A Time recently, but now it has been revealed that CBS owned cable channel Pop has saved it by ordering a 13-episode fourth season! This has never happened before and proves that a series cancelled at a streaming service can be saved.

Cancelled

Netflix has put a quick end to Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction) led series Chambers, cancelling the organ transplant horror after one season of 10 episodes.

Picked up

Netflix has given a series order to comedy series The Healing Powers of Dude from Erica Spates and Sam Littenberg-Weisberg (Victorious), about an 11-year-old boy with a social anxiety disorder who finds comfort in his dog Dude when he goes to middle school. The series stars Tom Everett Scott (13 Reasons Why), Larisa Oleynik (Mad Men), Mauricio Lara (Teachers), Laurel Emory (Heartstrings), newcomers Sophie Jaewon Kim and Jace Chapman, and Dude the Dog as himself.

British channel Channel 5 and American public broadcaster PBS are rebooting James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, about the humorous adventures of a young country veterinarian. The first series would be six episodes and a Christmas Special. In 2011 the BBC aired a three-part prequel called Young James Herriot about his time as a student, with Herriot played by Iain De Caestecker (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Before that the BBC also aired a series called All Creatures Great and Small that aired for seven series and 90 episodes between 1978 and 1980, and 1988 and 1990. There were also the movies All Creatures Great and Small in 1975 and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet in 1976.

Fox is going to adapt Australian miniseries A Moody Christmas. The six-part comedy series sees Dan Moody return home for Christmas where all kinds of family secrets will be revealed. Here is a trailer for the Australian original…

Other developments

Syfy seems to be happy with Warner Bros. Horizons and DC’s Superman prequel series Krypton. With the second season currently airing and introducing Emmett J. Scanlan (The Fall) as space bounty hunter Lobo, a spinoff series for that character is currently in the works.

At the Annecy International Animated Film Festival Sony has announced that their animated series The Boondocks will return as a reboot. According to Variety the reboot series “chronicles the battles of the Freeman family against the evil local government tyrant Uncle Ruckus, who rules fictional Woodcrest County, Maryland, with an iron fist.” The Boondocks originally aired for four seasons between 2005 and 2014 on Adult Swim.

MTV’s animated series Daria was to receive a spinoff called Daria & Jodie. Now however it is revealed the series will just be called Jodie and will, therefore, focus on that character, but other Lawndale High are set to appear. Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish, Mixed-ish) will voice the character.

Tatiana Maslany well narrate a series of audio dramas from Serial Box that will continue BBC America’s sci-fi clone series, Orphan Black. The first season, called “The Next Chapter”, will have 10 episodes and are written by Heli Kennedy, Madeline Ashby, Lindsay Smith, E.C. Myers, Mishell Baker and Malka Older.

Talking to producer Dick Wolf at Monte Carlo TV Festival, Variety has learned that he is planning a cross-network crossover between NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit or Chicago P.D. and CBS’s FBI or upcoming spinoff FBI: Most Wanted. Which one will be paired up with which will depend on the story, according to Wolf. This would put all of Dick Wolf’s currently airing, and a host of finished series, all in the same universe. Cross-network crossovers are an extremely rare thing, but from time to time they happen. It is also Law & Order character Detective John Munch, played by Richard Belzer, who turned up in numerous non-NBC series, like Fox’s The X-Files and HBO’s The Wire.

Haley Atwell (Marvel’s Agent Carter) and David Tennant (Good Omens, Marvel’s Jessica Jones) will star in Netflix’s upcoming international interrogation drama Criminal.

David Tennant & Hayley Atwell star in the UK-set episodes of “Criminal,” a new procedural comprised of 12 unique police interrogations set in 4 different countries (UK, France, Germany, and Spain) with all eps starring, written & directed by talent from their respective countries pic.twitter.com/9IYPkmWotf

— See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) June 17, 2019

One of Amazon Prime Video’s high fantasy adaptions, The Wheel of Time, has announced its first casting. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) will play the role of Moiraine “Alys” Damodred, a magic user in the novels by the late Robert Jordan.

Please welcome Rosamund Pike to the Wheel of Time family. Say hello to Moiraine. #WoTWednesday pic.twitter.com/577Hffwy6Y

— Wheel of Time Writers' Room (@WoTWritersRoom) June 19, 2019

CBS All Access is in the casting phase of their adaption of one of Stephen King’s more prolific works, The Stand. Set in a world devastated by a virus called “Captain Trips” that has eradicated almost all of humanity, two groups on either side of the American Rocky Mountains are formed. One led by the divinely touched Mother Abigail and another led by the evil The Dark Tower antagonist Randall Flagg. Whoopi Goldberg (Star Trek: The Next Generation) is said to be in talks for a role, which we assume will be Mother Abigail. Greg Kinnear (House of Cards) is rumoured to play impromptu spy for the good guys Glen Bateman. James Marsden (Westworld) would play immune military veteran Stu Redman, according to Deadline. Amber Heard (Aquaman) is said to portray “the devil’s bride” Nadine Cross. But again, no official word on any of these castings for Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) and Ben Cavell’s (SEAL Team) adaption.

Lena Heady (Game of Thrones) will play the lead and will be executive produce Showtime pilot Rita, about an unconventional teacher and single mother. The series is based on comedic Danish series Rita that aired for four seasons between 2012 and 2017. It is also not the first time the series was remade. A first American attempt starring Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) was not picked up in 2013, but in 2015 a Dutch remake starring Thekla Reuten (Red Sparrow) was made but failed and was cancelled. A French remake called Sam started in 2016 was more of a success and starred Mathilde Seigner and later Natacha Lindinger.

Cable channel USA has ordered a pilot for Masters of Doom, based upon the book by Tom Bissell (The Disaster Artist) who will also write the adaption and with James and Dave Franco attached as executive producers. The first season would about the development of the iconic first-person shooter video game Doom. Subsequent seasons would turn the series into an anthology series about other video game development stories.

According to Deadline CBS, All Access has promoted Star Trek: Picard writer and Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Chabon (Spider-Man 2, Star Trek: Short Treks “Calypso”) to showrunner.

CBS is planning to make a TV adaption of Michael Connelly’s 2005 novel The Lincoln Lawyer with producer David E. Kelley (Boston Legal). The novel was already adapted as a movie in 2011, starring Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Bryan Cranston, Michael Pena and others. Here is a trailer of the movie to get a taste of what the TV series could be…

Sony Pictures TV and production company Hivemind (The Expanse, The Witcher) are developing a live-action TV series set in the world of video game developer Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV. The series will tell an original story about a struggle between magic and technology set in the world of Eorzea in which the MMORPG is set. Video game character Cid has been confirmed to appear for the first time in live-action. Here is a trailer for the video game to get a taste of what the TV series could be…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tyuIh42_HU

Trailers

On Monday, July 1 HBO will start with the third season of Divorce. Here’s a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVaIZ0cLM_s

Netflix has released a final trailer for Stranger Things Season 3, which is released on Thursday, July 4. Possible spoilers ahead!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcnHOQ-cHa0

A surprise for the fans of slasher horror franchise Scream, as VH-1 has announced the third season of the TV adaption for the three consecutive nights of July 8, July 9 and July 10. Titled Scream: Resurrection six new episodes will air no less than three years after the second season finished on MTV. This should not be a problem, as the story is stand alone from the previous seasons or the movies.

Hulu has released a video giving us a trailer and a sneak peek to the new main theme of their Veronica Mars revival, which starts on Friday, July 26.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt0QuaQ0huk

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGk4mzKaIiA

Premiering on Friday, July 26, Amazon Prime Video has released a final trailer for its Garth Ennis extreme comic book adaption of The Boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06rueu_fh30

Epix has released a trailer for Batman prequel series Pennyworth, which starts on Sunday, July 28.

Netflix released a trailer for the third season of female wrestling series Glow, which premieres on Friday, August 9.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQaCxIJX0J0

AMC has put a trailer online for the second season of their now anthology horror series The Terror, with Season 2 being called The Terror: Infamy and premiering on Monday, August 12.

A teaser for the fifth season of The Affair has been released by Showtime. Season 5 starts on Sunday, August 25.

Epix has released another teaser for its crime drama Godfather of Harlem, which starts on Sunday, September 29.

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