Category: Television News

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Marvel Studios Hires ‘Orphan Black’ Star Tatiana Maslany To Play ‘She-Hulk’

Marvel Studios has reportedly hired Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany to play Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk in the upcoming Disney+ series according to Deadline.

The Canadian actress is coming off an Emmy win for her work on Orphan Black and most recently had a supporting role in the HBO series Perry Mason.

Jennifer Walters is the lawyer cousin of Avengers member Bruce Banner and during a blood transfusion is given her own set of powers becoming the heroine She-Hulk. The character has been part of the ranks of both The Avengers and The Fantastic Four.

Mark Ruffalo confirmed talks with Marvel about joining the series and reprising the Smart Hulk/Banner role but his deal has yet to be made official.

Kat Coiro (The Mick, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) is in talks to direct multiple episodes with Rick & Morty’s Jessica Gao set as the show’s head writer.

Filming may begin next year in Atlanta.

She had previously tested for lead roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi but didn’t land the parts.

Tatiana might end up being a supporting character in other feature films once her series is released.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Raised By Wolves’ Renewed For Season 2 – Hailed As Most Popular Original Programming On HBO Max

Raised By Wolves is officially getting a second season!

WarnerMedia and HBO Max has announced they have renewed the Ridley Scott produced science fiction series for a second season and has been revealed as the “top-performing” original programming on the platform, suggesting that it’s the most popular original they have currently on the streaming service.

Below is the announcement from the official press release.

After a striking debut on the streamer as the #1 performing Max original since the platform’s launch, HBO Max has ordered a second season of Raised by Wolves, a serialized sci-fi series from master storyteller and filmmaker Ridley Scott (The Martian, Gladiator, Alien), which has immersed fans into the rich, intricate world of Kepler 22-b. The series, which debuted with three episodes on Sept. 3, has continued to be a strong performer in its second week on the platform, growing its audience by nearly 50% week over week.

Raised by Wolves centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.

This is excellent news for fans like myself who had been curious if the show would get more than a single season. It’s worth noting that the cast are committed to multiple seasons of the show beyond Season 2, so there is the good chance we could get up to Season 4-5 given how the actor’s contracts are written.

Kind of a stroke of luck for HBO Max given that the series was originally going air on TNT.

SOURCE: WARNER MEDIA

Posted on in Television News

Our August Report That ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Will Be Delayed To 2021 Seemingly Confirmed By Disney+

In mid-August, The Ronin mentioned in an article updating on the status of the upcoming Marvel Studios series on Disney+ that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier was now expected to be pushed from a release in 2020 to sometime in 2021 after hearing from a source close to Marvel. 

First, it seems like WandaVision may indeed be finished enough to debut before the end of the year. We know that the series is still planning to do some pick-up shots or reshoots but it doesn’t seem like it will be enough to hinder a 2020 release.

However, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is expected to have been pushed back to 2021.

This coming after multiple delays to restart and finish the show’s principal photography due to the Coronavirus pandemic which has impacted global production in various degrees. 

Disney+ has all but confirmed our delay tidbit as they rolled out two social media posts outlining remaining 2020 content which included WandaVision for a release in December but failed to mention The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, the only conclusion is that our information was correct and the show will be delayed to 2021.

The series will explore the transition period between when Steve Rogers gives the shield to Sam Wilson (Mackie) to become the new Captain America along with the government taking ownership of the superhero legacy leading to Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent taking over the mantle instead as seen in set pictures and footage.

Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier seems to be along for the ride in the buddy-cop/superhero genre series.

We’ll see the return of characters such as Zemo and Sharon Carter alongside some brand new ones as well.

Filming had recently resumed in Atlanta, Georgia with Batroc actor George St-Pierre confirmed for a return after being spotted on the set. There is a strong expectation that the series could help to set up and introduce the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Thunderbolts, given the original incarnation was lead by Zemo.

Posted on in Television News

Disney+ Alludes To ‘WandaVision’ Airing In December

In two new social media posts from Disney+ on Twitter the streaming service has seemingly confirmed Marvel’s WandaVision will begin airing sometime in December.

A teaser video titled “Coming In 2020” was posted featuring WandaVision.

The series isn’t part of their fall lineup posted below which means it has been defaulted to a December debut.

WandaVision is a key project to future projects (along with Loki) as it’ll likely connect to stuff like Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, Captain Marvel 2, and Ant-Man 3. The series will introduce audiences to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cosmic counterpart S.W.O.R.D. along with the adult version of Captain Marvel’s Monica Rambeau played by Teyonah Parris, who becomes a superpowered heroine herself.

There are also rumors of the series potentially giving us members of the Young Avengers after twins Speed and Wiccan were confirmed in teaser footage, as babies.

SOURCE: DISNEY

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Marvel In Talks With Kat Coiro To Direct ‘She-Hulk’ Series Pilot and Multiple Episodes – Will Also Executive Produce

Deadline reports that Marvel Studios is in talks with Kat Coiro to produce and direct multiple episodes of their upcoming She-Hulk series with Kat expected to start with the pilot (first episode). Her credits include Shameless, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mick, Modern Family, It’s Always Sunny Philadelphia, and Dead To Me.

Jessica Gao from Rick & Morty is leading the group of writers working on the Marvel show.

Recent rumblings from both The Direct and The Illuminerdi are suggesting that filming could begin as early as February in Atlanta, Georgia. Which would suggest both had access to the same production grid, which may or may not be accurate given that’s five months from now and production dates aren’t terribly reliable these days given COVID-19 can ruin any sort of plans this far out.

Mark Rufflao is expected to reprise the role of Hulk/Smart Hulk in the series but has yet to be officially confirmed by Marvel Studios.

It has yet to be revealed who will be playing Bruce Banner’s cousin Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who becomes the female superhero known as She-Hulk.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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TRAILER: ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Will See Din Djarin Return The Child To The Jedi – Sasha Banks Confirmed For Role

After some hiccups from the fan community guessing when the new trailer for the second season of The Mandalorian would drop, Disney decided today was the day.

This is the way.

The new footage even looks a bit more slick than the last season and reveals that Din Djarin’s mission will be to return The Child aka Baby Yoda to the Jedi.

Wrestler Sasha Banks can also been seen in the trailer sporting some robes, but what her role is can’t be determined here. There had been rumors she had taken to part of Star Wars Rebels character Sabine, a fellow Mandalorian.

They’ve also confirmed the full directors list includes Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed, and Robert Rodriguez.

Season 3 is well into pre-production and as The Ronin has reported will see the return of production designer Andrew Jones with Jon Favreau expected to return to direct at least one episode.

The new series will begin airing on Disney+ starting on October 30th.

The Mandalorian and the Child continue their journey, facing enemies and rallying allies as they make their way through a dangerous galaxy in the tumultuous era after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. “The Mandalorian” stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers and Giancarlo Esposito. Directors for the new season include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez. Showrunner Jon Favreau serves as executive producer along with Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy and Colin Wilson, with Karen Gilchrist serving as co-executive producer.

SOURCE: DISNEY

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Batroc Officially Returns For ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ As George St-Pierre Spotted On Set In Atlanta

Back in March, there was a rumor making the rounds that Captain America: The Winter Soldier villain Batroc The Leaper would be returning for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it’s now confirmed.

Just Jared posted new set photos from Atlanta, Georgia feature Emily VanCamp and George St-Pierre. They also include the first look at the mysterious character being played by Desmond Chiam.

Batroc was hired secretly by Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and was in S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA custody. It’ll be interesting to see if Thunderbolt Ross is involved with him in a Thunderbolts situation or if he is back to his mercenary ways.

Filming had been delayed due to COVID-19 and is only just resuming now, I previously heard that it likely won’t be ready for a 2020 on Disney+ and given the extra that it will take to complete with Coronavirus precautions it seems like that is likely the case.

SOURCE: JUST JARED

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‘Kenobi’ Filming Start Bumped To Spring and Will Have A Single Season Confirms Ewan McGregor

Earlier in the year, Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor said on the red carpet of Birds of Prey that the Star Wars series unofficially referred to as Kenobi would begin shooting in January of 2021. 

Ewan recently spoke with Entertainment Tonight to promote Apple TV+’s Long Way Up, where he revealed that production on Kenobi has been pushed to the spring and is indeed being planned as a single standalone season. 

MCGREGOR: “Spring next year we start, I’m really excited about it. It’s gonna be great, I think. As I understand, it’s a standalone season. We’ll see. Who knows?” 

While speaking with ACE Universe back in June he confirmed that they would be implementing the StageCraft technology used on The Mandalorian. 

MCGREGOR: “[The prequels] were all blue screen and green screen and it was hard to imagine, but nowadays I think things have moved on so much, and I think a lot of what you see is gonna be what we see on the set. I don’t know if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes of The Mandalorian series, but they employ that incredible screen…it’s pretty amazing. It makes you feel like you’re in the place, it’s going to feel realer for us, as actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.”

Screenwriter Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of The Sword, Army of The Dead) had been recently hired to do rewrites for the Star Wars series after there were reported delays due to script issues. 

It’s still set to be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian). 

While the Cassian Andor series has been hiring multiple actors for their cast, the Kenobi series has yet to have any names announced. The Mandalorian beings airing on Disney+ starting on October 30th and its third season is already in the pre-production stages.  

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

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‘RoboCop’ Co-Creator Ed Neumeier Developing Prequel Series Focused On OCP and Dick Jones For MGM

While the RoboCop direct sequel RoboCop Returns has been in some state of limbo since director Neill Blomkamp left the MGM film, it looks like co-creator Ed Neumeier is looking to get the ball rolling on an untitled prequel series set in that world. 

During an interview with Moviehole, Ed has revealed he is currently working with writers Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs to develop a new series that will explore the origins of OCP the corporation that created RoboCop and the original film’s villain Dick Jones. 

NEUMEIER: “I’m working at MGM on it. It has all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop. I’m working with these two writers, Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs, who bought this idea to a TV producer friend of mine, who then brought it to me. The first time I heard it I knew it was a cool idea because I could see a lot of things you could do with it. It’s such an interesting character.”

“There’s the idea of doing things about business and law enforcement in the city of Detroit a minute-and-a-half in the future, it would be a way to do all sorts of stories about business and tech, Silicon Valley, corporations, snakes in suits, cops, all that. It’s a wonderful rich tapestry.”

“So we’ve been talking about it and I think we have an interesting story. It’s fun to work with a younger version of the Dick Jones we meet in RoboCop. He’s an actualized corporate predator [in the movie] but nobody necessarily starts out being the bad guy. So it’s going to be about the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones, the story of OCP, and how the world moves into the future, how the corporate world behaves.”

However, as Ed points out MGM hasn’t officially signed off the project. 

NEUMEIER: “With any luck, if MGM is willing, if we can find the partners, if we can get this pilot made, if we can convince a bunch of people – it’s amazing how many people you have to convince – if that all works out maybe we’ll get a TV show up.”

At one point, Ed had teased a desire and development on a Starship Troopers sequel series with the original cast members, but there hasn’t been much in the way of updates on that recently. 

After MGM announced that Australian director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters) would be replacing Neill Blomkamp on RoboCop Returns we haven’t really got much in the way of any updates on the movie.

SOURCE: MOVIEHOLE 

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Mature Animated Series ‘The Venture Bros.’ Cancelled By Cartoon Network?

This isn’t exactly official, but someone from The Venture Bros. family has seemingly revealed on Twitter that the brilliant mature animated series may have been cancelled by Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. 

UPDATE: Show creator Jackson Publick has now made the cancellation official after making the following statement on Twitter. The show has now ended after 17 years.

Author Ken Plume quote tweeted a question about shows that were cancelled too soon and he stated “The Venture Bros.”, an official statement about the show ending hasn’t been made by the network at this point. 

When pushed to explain the tweet he responded with “I have no further comment”. 

Ken is the author of Go Team Venture!: The Art & Making of The Venture Bros. and seemingly has a relationship with the show’s creators. While this is only a rumor, Adult Swim hasn’t officially talked about moving forward with a Season 8 and the last episodes aired back in 2018. 

The comedic animated series has had a pretty large cult following after seven seasons that aired between 2004-2018 and is one of the longest-running shows on Adult Swim. I’m a huge fan of the show as it does some amazing parodies of classic Marvel Comics characters putting their own spin on them and other excellent pop culture references.

Venture Bros. has some of the best and elaborate design work of any cartoon series it would be a shame that if ends. I think if Cartoon Network has indeed decided against a Season 8 it might be a good idea for HBO Max to pick it up after the raunchy Harley Quinn series moved to the service from it’s original home at DC Universe. HBO Max taking over some stuff from Adult Swim wouldn’t be hard to imagine as it would build-up their animation portfolio.

The Venture Bros. chronicles the lives and adventures of the Venture family: well-meaning but incompetent teenagers Hank and Dean Venture; their loving but emotionally insecure, unethical, and underachieving super-scientist father Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture; the family’s bodyguard, secret agent Brock Samson, or his temporary replacement, the reformed villain and pederast Sergeant Hatred; and the family’s self-proclaimed archnemesis, The Monarch, a butterfly-themed supervillain. Initially conceived as a satire of boy adventurer and Space Age fiction prevalent in the early 1960s, it is considered to be an action/adventure series with comedy-drama elements.

SOURCE: KEN PLUME