TV News Roundup for Week 7 of 2019

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 massive Marvel news, renewals, cancellations, streaming news, and of course trailers.

Renewed

After renewing animated comedy series The Simpsons last week, American broadcast network Fox has renewed its other animated comedies. Family Guy is renewed for an 18th season, while Bob’s Burgers returns for a tenth season.

History has renewed its sci-fi drama series Project Blue Book, based on the real-life US Air Force 1950/1960s project, for a second season. The series, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future), stars Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) as astrophysicist and UFO sceptic J. Allen Hynek who leads the project.

Comedy Central has renewed The Other Two for a second season. The comedy series follows Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (former Saturday Night Live head writers) as a brother and sister duo whose lives change when their younger brother suddenly becomes a pop music sensation.

Talking at the Television Critics Association winter press tour Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, revealed that next to the upcoming second season there will also be a third season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski (The Office (US)).

Cancelled

Before the second half of its third season has begun airing AMC has cancelled material arts drama Into the Badlands. The now final episodes start airing on Sunday, March 24.

US premium cable channel Starz has cancelled the J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) starring parallel universe sci-fi spy drama Counterpart after two seasons. The studio behind the series, MRC, is already been said to be shopping it to other outlets, but that is hardly ever successful.

Hey #counterpart fans, a bit of sad news… Starz has decided not to pick up our show for a 3rd season…

— Justin Marks (@Justin_Marks_) February 11, 2019

Picked up

Huge Marvel news coming from US streaming service Hulu. While we are still waiting on them renewing Marvel’s Runaways for a third season, they have picked up what can only be called a universe of animated Marvel shows.
– M.O.D.O.K. (Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) centres around the egomaniacal supervillain created by AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) with a really big head and a really little body, who struggles to maintain control of his evil organization and his demanding family. The series is written by Jordan Blum (American Dad!) and Patton Oswalt (MADtv), who will also be executive producers. Oswalt will also be voicing the titular character.
– Hit-Monkey is a wronged Japanese snow monkey who is mentored by the ghost of an American assassin. He cuts a wide swath through the Tokyo underworld in this dark and brutally funny revenge saga. Writers are Josh Gordon and Will Speck (Office Christmas Party, Blades of Glory), who also be will executive producers.
– The Tigra & Dazzler Show will team up the Avenger and X-Men characters, as they fight for recognition among powered people in Los Angeles. Writers Erica Rivinoja (Trolls) and Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Lately), who also be executive producers. We would like to note the inclusion of an X-Men character is not a result of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox divisions by Disney, as Marvel always had the rights to animated X-Men characters.
– Howard the Duck is trapped in a world he never made, but the duckman hopes to return home with the help of his gal pal Beverly before the evil Dr Bong (called so because he has a bell for a head) can turn him the crispiest dish on the menu. Writers are Kevin Smith (Clerks) and Dave Willis (Aqua Teen Hunger Force), who also be executive producers.
These four series will then accumulate into a crossover special called Marvel’s The Offenders.

Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K is coming soon, only on @hulu. #MarvelsMODOK pic.twitter.com/JfCfG7ZK2o

— M.O.D.O.K. (@MarvelsMODOK) February 11, 2019

Hulu also picked up revenge drama Reprisal, starring Abigail Spencer (Timeless), and comedic historical drama The Great, starring Elle Fanning (Maleficent) as Catherine the Great and Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road).

The American cable channel USA has ordered a new Psych TV movie, Psych: The Movie 2! Fake psychic Shawn (James Roday) and his mate Gus (Dulé Hill) will return to Santa Barbara to come to the aid of Police Chief Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson). The TV movie is expected to air later this year.

Other developments

Netflix has announced their cast for their TV series adaption of Mark Millar’s Jupiter’s Legacy comics. The series will tell the story of the children of a 1930s generation of superheroes dealing with their parents legacy. Cast are Josh Duhamel (Transformers) as Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian, Ben Daniels (Rogue One) as Walter Sampson/Brain-Wave, Leslie Bibb (Iron Man, Tag) as Grace Sampson/Lady Liberty, Matt Lanter (Timeless) as George Hutchence/Skyfox, Elena Kampouris (American Odyssey) as Chloe Sampson, Andrew Horton as Brandon Sampson, and Mike Wade (For the People) as Fitz Small/The Flare. The series will be Steven S. DeKnight (Marvel’s Daredevil) as its showrunner and he will also be directing the first episode.

American broadcast network ABC is considering spinning off another comedy series off of Black-ish. While the first spin-off, Grown-ish, is set concurrent with the (literal) parent show, the new one would be a 1980s set prequel and set around a 12-year-old Rainbow “Bow” Johnson, played by Tracee Ellis Ross in the parent series.

Talking to reporters at the Television Critics Association winter press tour WarnerMedia chief creative officer Kevin Reilly expressed the desire to pull Warner Bros. TV shows and movies from the likes of Netflix in favour of their own in development streaming service. The currently unnamed service is currently set for a late 2019 or 2020 launch and would feature original programming next to their library of shows including those from HBO. It is not known if the service is only for the United States or if an international rollout is planned. Shows that could disappear from the likes of Netflix are all DC comics-based series (Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, etc.), The Big Bang Theory, Riverdale, and Friends. More on this when we heard it.

Some more news has been released about the upcoming Breaking Bad TV movie. The movie will star Aaron Paul and will follow his character after he escaped from the white supremacist compound in Season 5. Furthermore, next to AMC the movie will also be distributed via Netflix.

There has been some talk about a second animated Star Trek series next to the upcoming Star Trek: Lower Decks. Now Variety tells us that CBS Television Studios is in negotiations with Nickelodeon to air the series there. This would automatically mean that this series would be catering more for kids. Having said that, series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Nickelodeon’s own Avatar series have proven that this does not need to mean it will not be enjoyable for adults too. More on this when we hear it.

Trailers

National Geographic Channel has released a trailer for their upcoming Ebola drama The Hot Zone, starring Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife). The series premieres on Monday, May 27.

History released a trailer for their second season of historical Knights Templar series Knightfall. This season will add Mark Hamill to its cast and premiere on Monday, March 25.

Hulu released a trailer and release date, Friday, May 17, of their dark WWII comedy Catch-22, based on Joseph Heller 1953 novel. George Clooney produces, directs and stars alongside Kyle Chandler (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) and Hugh Laurie (Blackadder).

Netflix has released a teaser trailer for animated sci-fi anthology series Love Death + Robots, presented by Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher (Mindhunter).

Netflix also dropped new footage for the Santa Clarita Diet Season 3. Which is to premiere on Friday, March 29.

Amazon Prime Video and the BBC have released the opening sequence of their upcoming Neil Gaiman adaption of Good Omens. The series premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, May 31, with an unknown airdate on the BBC. But we expect it will also be around that time.

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