TV news roundup for Week 40 of 2018
Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, pick-ups, and other developments. This week we have lots of news from the New York Comic-Con!
Renewed
US cable channel FX has renewed its Sons of Anarchy spinoff Mayans M.C. for a second season. The series starts 2.5 years after the end of Sons of Anarchy and follows the further exploits of their rivals-turned-allies the Mayans Motorcycle Club.
Streaming service DC Universe has announced at the New York Comic-Con that their first original series Titans has already been renewed for a second season. The first season will soon premiere on Friday, October 12. With the news a new trailer was released.
And the news about Titans does not stop there. It has now been announced that Netflix will stream the series outside of the US. And they too have a trailer. We are going to assume that this will mean DC Universe will not go international soon, and that their other series will also come to Netflix. At least Titans spinoff Doom Patrol, surely?
AMC has renewed Lodge 49 for a Season 2 of again 10 episodes. The comedic drama series follows Sean “Dud” Dudley, a young ex-surfer who in an effort to pick up his life after his father’s death joins a fraternal lodge.
Netflix has renewed animated fantasy series The Dragon Prince, by the people behind Avatar: The Last Airbender, for a second season in 2019.
— aaron ehasz (@aaronehasz) October 5, 2018
Cancelled
American premium cable channel Showtime has cancelled I’m Dying Up Here. For two seasons the comedic drama followed the 1970s stand-up comedy scene of Los Angeles and starred Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as a comedy club owner.
Cinemax has cancelled possession horror series Outcast after two seasons, we have learned from The Hollywood Reporter. The series was based upon Robert Kirkman’s other horror comic next to The Walking Dead. The cancellation does not really come as a surprise, as Cinemax waited no less than 15 months between airings of Season 1 and Season 2. Meanwhile it had long since aired on international Fox channels. The comic meanwhile is still ongoing.
Picked up
Amazon Prime Video has now officially ordered an adaption of the epic fantasy novel series The Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan. Set in a fantasy world were magic exists but can only be used by women, we follow Moiraine, a member of the shadowy and influential all-female organization called the ‘Aes Sedai’ as she embarks on a quest with a group of five young men and women. Amazon will have enough material to mine from, as the novel series has 14 main series novels, a prequel novel, and two companion novels.
Also ordered by Amazon according to Deadline is an as of yet untitled #MeToo-movement college comedy. The half-hour series comes from Whitney Cummings (2 Broke Girls) and Lee Daniels (Empire) and will be about the ombudsman’s office of a college navigating PC culture and the #MeToo climate.
HBO has ordered Righteous Gemstones, a satirical comedy by Danny McBride (Vice Principals) and starring him. The half-hour series will follow a “world famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed, and charitable work, all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Next to McBride the series will star John Goodman (The Conners, Black Earth Rising), Edi Patterson (Vice Principals), and Adam Devine (Workaholics).
Other developments
According to Bloomberg Black Mirror will be one of a number of Netflix series that will feature an interactive episode. Netflix has toyed with this idea before with an episode of animated Shrek spinoff series Puss in Boots. We will keep following this with interest.
Netflix has announced a multi-year deal with The C.S. Lewis Company to develop new movies and TV series based on Lewis’s seven The Chronicles of Narnia novels. This will be the fifth time the fantasy novels of C.S. Lewis will be adapted to film (there are also radio and stage adaptions). Previously there was a ten-part ITV serial in 1967 and a CBS 1979 animated TV film by Sesame Workshop of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Another TV serial was made by the BBC between 1988 and 1990 adapting The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. And there are of course the theatrical adaptations by Walden Media of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Walden had been planning a fourth movie based upon The Silver Chair, but this Netflix deal will definitely be the end of that.
The behind-the-scenes problems of Fox and Warner Bros.’s Lethal Weapon TV series have not halted with Season 3. Talking to EURweb Damon Wayans, who plays Murtaugh, stated he will be leaving the series come December when shooting of the 13 episode season has finished. This plunges the series again in a limbo, as Fox and WB will again have to go back to the drawing table to see how to continue.
Some years ago The CW aired The L.A. Complex, a two season Canadian CTV series about actors living together in the same Los Angeles building trying to make it big in Hollywood. Now The CW is eyeing a reboot of the series with original series creators Martin Gero and Brendan Gall (Blindspot) attached.
Producers Shonda Rhimes and Matt Reeves are developing an adaptation of the upcoming novel Recursion by Blake Crouch for Netflix. Its story is about a brilliant scientist who creates technology that reactivates your most visceral memories, but also allows you to change them.
The Hollywood Reporter knows the title of ABC’s The Middle spinoff to be Sue Sue in the City, based upon the lead character’s full name “Sue Sue Heck.” It is also revealed that Brock Ciarlelli character “Brad Bottig” will join Sue in the proposed Chicago based spinoff.
HBO has released a photo of Helen Mirren as Catherine the Great in their upcoming drama about the 18th century Empress of Russia. The series will be with us in 2019.
Showrunner Jon Favreau has announced the title and synopsis of the Disney Play streaming service live action Star Wars series. It will be called The Mandalorian and will feature a lone gunman-like, currently unnamed Mandalorian in the 30-year period between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. It’s rumored by the often well informed Making Star Wars that Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Narcos) will play the lead. Next that it is confirmed that the TV series will have some well-known directors onboard. Confirmed are Deborah Chow (Marvel’s Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), actress Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), and making the jump to live action Star Wars, Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels). The series is expected to premiere along with the Disney Play streaming service in the second half of 2019.
Syfy’s Krypton has announced that Emmett J. Scanlan (Constantine (TV), In The Flesh) will play interstellar bounty hunter and mercenary Lobo in Season 2, and a photo of what he will look like has been released.
Shown at the New York Comic-Con a schedule of upcoming DC Universe series has been release via Newsarama. This schedule includes the release windows for Titans Season 1 (October to December 2018), apparently part 1 of Young Justice Season 3 “Outsiders” (January to February 2019), Season 1 of Doom Patrol (February to June 2019), part 2 of Young Justice Season 3 (June to July 2019), Swamp Thing Season 1 (June to September 2019), Stargirl Season 1 (August to December 2019), and finally Harley Quinn Season 1 (October 2019 to February 2020). That last one ironically is the only one with released footage, next to Titans.
Trailers
US streaming service Hulu has released a trailer for Marvel’s Runaways Season 2. Having now actually ran away the group of teens will take refuge in a comic accurate accommodation to keep the fight against PRIDE going. Season 2 will pick up mere weeks after the end of Season 1 and will therefore be before the events of the movie Avengers: Infinity War. This is in line with all other Marvel TV series. It is teased that at the end of the second season we will get a hint towards the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. Season 2 drops in the US on Friday, December 21.
Netflix released a teaser for Season 3 of their animated comedy F is for Family, announcing Vince Vaugh (True Detective Season 2) joining the series.
At the New York Comic-Con streaming service DC Universe has shown the first bit of footage of their upcoming Harley Quinn animated series for 2019. They also announced that Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) will voice the character and that she will be joined by Alan Tudyk (Doom Patrol), Lake Bell (Bojack Horseman), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) among others.
On the New York Comic-Con American cable channel Freeform has release a trailer for the second season of their mermaid series Siren.
Also at New York Comic-Con Netflix has released the first full trailer for Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3. Set after Iron Fist Season 2, at least a year after The Defenders, but before the events of Avengers: Infinity War, Matt Murdock/Daredevil resurfaces in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. But he is not coming back alone… Season 3 will be released Friday, 19 October, and looks to be an adaption of the iconic “Born Again” story arc of the comics.
Released via the NYCC by Syfy is a sneak peak of their upcoming fourth season of The Magicians. The series based on the novel of the same name by Lev Grossman will return on Wednesday January 23, 2019.
While there might be behind-the-scenes problems Season 2 of premium cable channel Starz’ American Gods is still forthcoming. A trailer of the Neil Gaiman novel adaption has been released after being shown at, you guessed it, the New York Comic-Con. It will be with us in 2019.
Amazon Prime Video has released a first teaser for their comic book adaption The Boys at the NYCC. The Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson presents us a world in which all the superheroes are pricks. When they go too far a covert CIA team called “The Boys” steps in to take them down.
CBS All Access also released a new trailer on the NYCC. They presented a trailer for their upcoming fairytale inspired series Tell Me A Story, which is also a remake of the Mexican series Érase una vez. It will premiere on Halloween.
YouTube Premium has released a trailer for their upcoming sci-fi series Origin. The series stars Tom Felton (Harry Potter, The Flash Season 3) as one of many colonists who leave Earth for a new planet, with the promise of a clean slate. However, not all is well when he and group of others wake up during the journey. The 10-episode first season will be released on Wednesday, November 14.
Netflix has released the first full trailer for their Archie Horror comic adaption the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It looks like ideal Halloween viewing from Friday, October 26 forward.
Sky has released a trailer for their upcoming street race series Curfew, starring Sean Bean among others. It will air in the UK on Sky One starting somewhere in February 2019.
That’s it for this week, but join us next week when we round-up the TV news of that week.
