TV news roundup for Week 42 of 2018
Welcome to the weekly TV news round-up where we go into the latest TV news regarding renewals, cancellations, and pick-ups. This week again sad Marvel TV news and a bunch of casting news and trailers.
Renewed
Mystery Science Theater 3000 will debut six new episodes on Netflix on Thursday, November 22. That is also the 30th anniversary of the cult favorite. The new series will feature the voice talent ofFelicia Day (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Patton Oswalt (Happy!), and Rebecca Hanson among others.
Netflix has renewed its Spanish teen series Elite about an exclusive school for a second season of eight episodes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpCP0z2lFM6/?taken-by=elitenetflix
Cancelled
“Cancelled” is a bit harsh but Netflix’s Orange is the New Black will end with Season 7 in 2019, as announced via Twitter…
Warning: This may make you cry. The Final Season, 2019. #OITNB pic.twitter.com/bUp2yY0aoK
— Orange Is the New… (@OITNB) October 17, 2018
Well, one week after Marvel’s Iron Fist was cancelled after two seasons we have again sad news. Netflix has also cancelled Marvel’s Luke Cage after two seasons, according to Deadline. We have been long waiting for news on Luke Cage’s potential Season 3, but now we know. Apparently, the writers’ room was hard at work on scripts for Season 3, but now behind-the-scenes “creative differences” have caused the end of the series. We are disappointed by this, as the end of Iron Fist Season 2 heavily hinted at characters from that cancelled series finding a home in Luke Cage Season 3.
Netflix also cancelled All About the Washingtons. Starring Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons & Justine Simmons the comedy series ran for two seasons as a biographical inspired take on their hip-hop lives.
Picked up
Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Sherlock) and Daisy Haggard (Episodes) will star in US cable network FX and UK broadcaster Sky’s upcoming comedy series Breeders. The series will follow the couple when raising their child. Freeman also has conceived together with Simon Blackwell and Chris Addison (Veep). The first season of ten episodes will debut in 2020.
Netflix has entered into a co-production with BBC One. They will produce Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’s (Sherlock) new project Dracula. Not much is known about the series next to that it will be based on Bram Stoker’s iconic novel and set in its Victorian timeframe. It, however, is announced that the first series will be three episodes of 90 minutes each, just like their Sherlock series.
UK broadcaster ITV confirmed that Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation) will star in new police series Wild Bill set in Boston, Lincolnshire. The “murder capital” of the UK. Lowe will play “Bill Hixon” an American metropolitan police chief with a doctorate in Statistical Mapping and a Masters in Psychopathology. He is attracted to the UK’s East Lincolnshire Police Force where he will soon discover a bit of a culture clash.
Mark Ruffalo (Avengers: Infinity War) is going to star as twin brothers in HBO’s upcoming miniseries I Know This Much Is True. It will be an adaption of Wally Lamb’s 1998 novel of the same name. The story tells of twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. Dominick has a troubled personal life, but things take a turn for the worse when Thomas, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, makes a sacrificial protest in a public library. It is currently unknown when the Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines) written and directed six-part miniseries will air.
Other developments
While Bruno Heller’s Batman series Gotham is ending with its fifth season in 2019 he has another, unconnected one, coming focussing on a young Alfred Pennyworth and Thomas Wayne for US cable network Epix. It is now revealed who will play the characters in the 1960s, London set Pennyworth. Jack Bannon (The Imitation Game, Endeavour) will play Alfred Pennyworth. Ben Aldridge has been cast as Thomas Wayne. It is also revealed that British popstar Paloma Faith will play “Bet Sykes,” a sadistic, spirited, sharp-tongued villain. We could not find a DC Comics character named “Bet Sykes,” but if you have a suggestion, leave a comment. An premiere date for the first season of ten episodes has not yet been given, but somewhere in 2019 is a good guess.
HBO’s TV series adaption of iconic DC comic Watchmen, coming from Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers, Tomorrowland), has release its first bit of official footage! With the unclear nature of what kind of adaption this series will be, it’s hard to say if this is a new or established character.
TVLine tells us that Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) is the latest actor to not return for Season 2 of American Gods. She states that Bryan Fuller’s (Hannibal) exit as showrunner is the reason. That does not mean her character of “Easter” will not return, as Gillian Anderson’s (The X-Files) “Media” is replaced by Kahyun Kim’s (Freaky Friday (2018, TV)) “New Media.”
US broadcaster Fox is eyeing a “modern Wild West” procedural called Deputy. The series would be set in present-day Los Angeles County and would follow “Deputy Bill Hollister” who has to become Sheriff when the previous one drops dead. Being good in kicking down doors but less so in meetings, Hollister now has to lead 10,000 deputies in policing a modern Wild West. No cast announcements have been made, but the series comes from Castle writer Will Beall. David Ayer (Training Day) and Chris Long (The Americans) are executive producers. While not yet picked up for a pilot episode Fox has made a script commitment. This means that Fox has to develop the series further or face a financial penalty, making it more likely this series will see the light of day.
The CW has started development on Dorian, a gender-swapped, comedic adaption of Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray. The series will come from Marisa Coughlan (Boston Legal), producer Len Goldstein (Hart of Dixie) and Warner Bros. TV.
ABC has ordered a pilot for an adaption of Liane Moriarty’s(Big Little Lies) novel The Hypnotist’s Love Story. The proposed series will star Heather Graham (Law & Order: True Crime) as a hypnotist who enters a new relationship after a series of failed ones. Her new boyfriend does have a stalker ex-girlfriend, though, but this seems to intrigue her more than anything else.
Also at ABC an as-of-yet untitled comedic drama from Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) has entered development via Warner Bros. TV. The series will be inspired by Chalke’s own life and follows two sisters who take over their parents’ adoption agency.
Even more news from ABC, as the US broadcast network, has ordered a pilot for an NYPD Blue revival. The police drama would now focus on “Theo,” the son of the original’s lead “Detective Andy Sipowicz” (Dennis Franz) who will not return. Original executive producers and writers Matt Olmstead and Nick Wootton will return, with the son of the late co-creator Steven Bochco Jesse Bochco will direct the pilot. Boncho’s widow Dayna Bochco will produce. The original NYPD Blue ran for 12 seasons between 1993 and 2005.
Fox is eying a comedy called It Takes Two, based on the memoirs of the same name by the reality series Property Brothers‘ titular brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott. Expect a lot of home construction if it’s picked up.
Also at Fox, a potential reboot of the originally CBS comedy Alice starring Linda Lavin (The Muppets Take Manhattan). The original follows a divorcee who started working at a roadside diner. The comedy originally ran for nine seasons between 1976 and 1985 and was in itself based on the 1974 movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
NBC apparently is not yet done with Grimm. The fairytale inspired series with a dark twist ended after six seasons in 2017. The spinoff would have a female lead and have characters of the original series return. Melissa Glenn (Zoo, Leverage) is set as writer, with Grimm co-creators and showrunners David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf returning as consulting producers.
After 49 years Caroll Spinney aka “Big Bird” and “Oscar the Grouch” in the original and American version of Sesame Street is retiring. Spinney was the puppeteer of both Muppets since the show’s start in 1969.
Trailers
US premium cable network Starz has released a trailer for the second season of J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) starring sci-fi series about parallel universes Counterpart. The new ten episode season will start Sunday, December 9.
A first teaser has been released of The Last Kingdom Series 3. The new ten-episode series based on the medieval set historical novel series The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell will be exclusive to Netflix. Netflix came in as co-producer for Series 2 with BBC Two when BBC America bowed out. Now BBC Two has also left. With the previous two series adapting two novels each, it is to be expected that Series 3 will adapt The Burning Land and Death of Kings. A release date has not yet been given, but we expect it to be soon.
Netflix has released a trailer for Narcos: Mexico. In the spinoff/sequel of the series based on the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar Narcos, we will be shown the start of the Mexican drug war. The ten-episode first season will be released on Friday, November 16 and stars Diego Luna (Rogue One) and Michael Peña (Ant-Man and The Wasp).
That’s it for this week, but join us next week when we round-up the TV news of that week.
