TV news roundup: Disney+, New Marvel and Star Wars shows, Jeff Goldblum, Breaking Bad and much, 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
HBO has renewed family drama series Succession for a third season. Season 2 is currently airing on Sundays.
Cancelled
Coming as a bit of a surprise, Disney Channel’s second season of the animated series Star Wars: Resistance will also be its last. The series’ end was announced in the trailer below. Going with the trailer the second season will fill the gap between the movies Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. The final season will start on Sunday, October 6.
Syfy has decided to cancel Superman time travel sci-fi series Krypton after two seasons and 20 episodes. The in-development Lobo spin-off series has also been cancelled. Production company Warner Horizon is currently shopping both series to other outlets, but do not get your hopes up.
CBS has cancelled detective series Instinct, after two seasons and 21 episodes. Based upon James Patterson’s novel Murder Games (since republished as Instinct), it followed Alan Cumming (X-Men 2) as criminal behavioralist Dr Dylan Reinhart.
I’m very sad to relay the news that @instinctcbs won’t be renewed for a 3rd season. We will double up this Sunday and our season/series finale will be Aug 25. Endless thanks to @Alancumming & @bojnovak for making Dylan & Lizzie more everything than I could have ever hoped 1/2 pic.twitter.com/yyhyfOAIeJ
— Michael Rauch (@Michael_Rauch) August 16, 2019
HBO’s American football series Ballers, starring Dwayne Johnson (Fast & Furious), will come to an end with Season 5.
Picked up
At Disney’s D23 Expo there was a host of announcements. Here are the new pickups.
Marvel Studios announced three Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 TV series additions! This means that these characters will also show up in the movies. They are…
Marvel’s Ms Marvel will finally bring Pakistani superhero from New Jersey Kamala Khan to the MCU. In the comics, this Muslim teenage girl is a big fan of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. When she gets hit by the Terrigen Mists her Inhuman heritage is revealed and she gains polymorphic powers, which means that she can change size and shape. It also gives her a healing factor. What will be interesting is how the Inhuman angle of the character will be tackled. Up to this point, Inhumans have not yet been introduced to the cinematic part of the MCU.
Marvel’s Moon Knight brings another fan favourite to the MCU. In the comics Marc Spector is a mercenary who gets killed by his boss when he goes against his orders to raid an Ancient Egyptian archaeological site, He is revived by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, who tasks him with becoming the Moon Knight, the protector of nighttime travellers. However, is that what happened? Marc Spector is not exactly the poster boy of mental balance and has multiple personalities.
And then there is Marvel’s She-Hulk! In the comics, Jennifer Walters is a lawyer. And the cousin of one Bruce Banner! When she becomes seriously injured she needs an emergency blood transfusion. Only Bruce is a viable donor in close proximity. This transfusion makes Jennifer a Hulk as well. Although, she does not have the alternative personality her cousin has to deal with when transforming, given her more control over her actions. Jennifer keeps on being a lawyer and thanks to that often represents other heroes and often meets other superhero lawyers, like Matt Murdock. Who knows if this might be a way to bring Daredevil back!
Here is a video of Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige at the D23 Expo announcing the above series, but also talking about animated series What If…? which will present 23 different way the 23 movies in the MCU could have gone in 23 episodes. And yes, that is including the two Spider-Man movies, because Sony only has a movie license, nothing more.
Lucasfilm announced a third live-action series for Disney+, and it is something we have been waiting a long time for. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series, starring a returning Ewan McGregor, has been announced! According to Lucasfilm’s head honcho Kathleen Kennedy the scripts have been written and shooting will begin in 2020.
Also announced at D23 is an animated original movie sequel to Disney Channel and Disney XD cartoon Phineas and Ferb, called Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candance Against the Universe!
A surprise announcement at D23 for Disney+ is the revival of Disney Channel series, Lizzie McGuire. Hillary Duff will return in the titular role. This time the character has to navigate New York City instead of school.
In 2020 Disney+ will launch a short form unscripted Muppet series called Muppets Now.
Coming exclusively to #DisneyPlus in 2020, @TheMuppets proudly present MUPPETS NOW, a new short-form unscripted series! I’d love to tell you more, but Joe The Legal Weasel is right behind me. Gulp! pic.twitter.com/UCXdaopQJR
— Kermit the Frog (@KermitTheFrog) August 24, 2019
Netflix has announced animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation! Coming from Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob Reboot) the series will pick up from the 1980s cartoon and tells the story of what may be the final battle between He-Man and Skeletor.
The war for Eternia begins again! Superstar director Kevin Smith continues the original series’ story right where it left off in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a new series telling the epic tale of what may be He-Man and Skeletor’s final battle. pic.twitter.com/41rOXjZLtO
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) August 18, 2019
Also in the animation department, Netflix has ordered Agent King. Coming from Sony Animation and Priscilla Presley and John Eddie is an adult animated comedy series that sees Elvis Presley as a superspy for the United States government. Mike Arnold (Archer) will serve as showrunner.
Thrilled to partner with @netflix on adult action/comedy series Agent King, in which Elvis Presley is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to battle the forces that threaten the country he loves – all while holding down his day job as the King of Rock and Roll! pic.twitter.com/7r7zaONooz
— Sony Pictures Animation (@SonyAnimation) August 16, 2019
Other developments
At Disney’s D23 Expo and before it we received a lot of information of the upcoming streaming service. The service will launch in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands first on Tuesday, November 12. The next week, on Thursday, November 19, Disney+ will also launch in Australia and New Zealand. The service cost $6.99 a month or $69.99 annually in the US, $8.99CAD per month/$89.99 per year in Canada, and €6.99 per month/€69.99 per year in the Netherlands, which might be a good indicator for future European countries. You will be able to download everything on the service for offline playback only limited by the storage of your device of choice and up to 10 separate devices. Regarding the details on the audio and visual side, Disney+ will support up to 4K image quality in Dolby Vision or HDR10 and will have audio quality up to Dolby Atmos.
Probably taking note of Disney+’s November 12 launch date, Apple has also a November launch date in mind for its streaming platform Apple TV+, according to Bloomberg. It would have a $9.99 monthly price tag.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) is slated to star in Other People’s Houses. For the Fox series, she will team up again with Ringer creators Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder. Based on Abbi Waxman’s 2018 novel of the same name, the series would follow nine people living in a Los Angeles, California neighbourhood and their emotional ups and downs through the lens of social media.
At Disney’s D23 Expo the premiere month for the revival of 3D animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been revealed as February 2020.
On the Marvel Cinematic Universe front, it was announced at D23 that Disney+’s WandaVision will also see the return of Kat Denning’s Thor character Darcy Lewis and Ant-Man and The Wasp character Jimmy Woo, again played by Randall Park. Kathryn Hahn (Transparent) will also joint he cast as the neighbor of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany’s Vision. For The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, it was officially revealed that Emily VanCamp will reprise her Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War role of Sharon Carter/Agent 13, and that Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49) will join the series as John Walker/U.S.Agent, in the comics a Captain America replacement.
NBC and Miramax TV have a TV adaption in development of Peter Chelsom’s 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity, which starred John Cusack (Utopia) and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) as two people who keep bumping into each other. Here is a trailer of the original movie…
Showtime, Fremantle, Toby Whithouse (Doctor Who), Neil Gaiman (Good Omens) and Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek) are developing an adaption of late British author Mervyn Peake’s fantasy series Gormenghast. The story follows the life of Titus, the last heir to the throne of the House of Groan, and other inhabitants of humongous but decaying Gormenghast Castle. In 2000 the BBC and PBS attempted an adaption of the first two novels in the series, Titus Groan and Gormenghast. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Vikings) and Sir Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings), the four-part series was beholden by the technical limitations of the time.
Upcoming streaming service HBO Max has ordered a bunch of pilots. The first is Rules of Magic, a TV series prequel from Melissa Rosenberg (Marvel’s Jessica Jones) to the Sandra Bullock (The Heat) and Nicole Kidman (Aquaman, His Dark Materials) starring movie Practical Magic. It will be set in the 1960s and focus on the witch aunts from the movie. Check out the trailer of the movie below. The second is Red Bird Lane, a psychological horror series from John Wells (ER, The West Wing) about eight strangers who come to an isolated house all for different reasons. And finally Generation, a dark comedy from Lena Dunham (Girls) about a group of high schoolers and the standard coming-of-age sexual issues that you may also know from other similar series.
Trailers
American streaming service DC Universe has released a new trailer for the second season of Titans, which starts on Friday, September 6. Internationally we assume the new season will be released on Netflix when DC Universe is done airing it.
Netflix released a trailer for the second season of Spanish Original Series Elite, which will be released on Friday, September 6.
Also released by Netflix was a trailer for The I-land, a seven-part mystery series that will be released on Thursday, September 12.
Netflix further released a trailer for “Part 7” of Ashton Kutcher starring comedy series The Ranch, which will be released on Friday, September 13.
Next to that Netflix also released a trailer for Ryan Murphy’s (American Horror Story) first series for the streaming service, The Politician. The series’ first season of the comedy is released on Friday, September 27.
Amazon Prime Video has released a trailer for the third season of crime series Goliath, starring Billy Bob Thornton (Bad Santa). The new season will be released on Friday, October 4.
USA Network has released a trailer for its fourth and final season of critical darling Mr. Robot. The final batch of episodes will start airing on Sunday, October 6.
On Friday, October 11 Netflix will release El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which is, of course, the movie sequel to the hit AMC crime series. The movie will also air on AMC at a later date.
HBO has released a teaser trailer for Silicon Valley’s sixth and final season. It will premiere on Sunday, October 27.
Finally, we have got a trailer for Disney+’s upcoming live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian at Disney’s D23 Expo! The first episode of the series will premiere along with the service on Tuesday, November 12.
Released at D23 was also a trailer for super metaseries High School Musical: The Series: The Musical, which also premieres with Disney+ on Tuesday, November 12.
Talking about high school musicals, Disney+ will have a series based on the December 2017 ABC special Encore! Hosted by Kristen Bell (Frozen) the reality series reunited high school musical cast members to re-create the performance of all those years ago. It launches with the service on Tuesday, November 12.
Hailing from the National Geographic side of Disney+ is The World According to Jeff Goldblum. The 12-part documentary series has Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Thor: Ragnarok) take us on a trip to see the world through his eyes, which should be quite the experience. It will also launch with Disney+ on Tuesday, November 12.
One Day at Disney is a documentary series about the people working at The Walt Disney Company, from Imagineering and Disneyland cast members to ABC’s Good Morning America. The series will start with a feature-length episode after which no less than 52 short length episodes will follow. It will launch on Tuesday, December 3.
Showtime has released a teaser trailer for the seventh season of crime series Ray Donovan, which will premiere on Sunday, November 17.
Amazon Prime Video has released a teaser trailer for the third season of period comedy series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which will be released on Friday, December 6.
At D23 there was also a teaser trailer for the seventh and final season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been released. No premiere date yet, but expect a Summer 2020 premiere.
Showtime has released a teaser trailer for their sequel series to The L Word, The L Word: Generation Q. The new series will start on Sunday, December 8.
Upcoming streaming platform Apple TV+ has released a trailer for their Original Series The Morning Show, which probably will launch its first of initially two 10-episode seasons together with the platform.
USA Network released a trailer for Briarpatch, and they are early with it, as the weird murder investigation series is slated for sometime in 2020.
That’s it for this week, but join us next time when we round-up the TV news of that week.
