Sci-Fi Storm

I am so sorry for the lack of updates lately. The last few weeks has been CRAZY. My oldest daughter graduated high school, and my youngest had her middle school play – we are heavily involved in the drama programs with both kids, and I emcee the annual high school drama banquet, which was a few weeks ago as well. And that’s on top of “normal life” – so it’s been tough trying to follow all the news – we’re very behind in all our RV shows as well, and I owe a friend a book review as well…but anyways, here is a rapid recap of the last week or so…

HBO has given a pilot order for one of five the potential Game Of Thrones spinoffs, this one for a prequel series set in the “golden age of Heroes”, which “descends into its darkest hour”, where we will learn about the white walkers, the Starks of legend, and more. Given it was just announced, there is no director, cast, etc. yet but it comes from Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Kingsman) and George R.R. Martin, with Goldman acting as showrunner. Martin said on his blog he currently prefers the title “The Long Night”, but that isn’t definite yet. Martin also said that one of the other four ideas for spinoffs has been shelved, but the other three are still possible.

As for that other fantasy mega-franchise, Amazon appears to be banking on its deal for the Lord of the Rings franchise, having cleared a lots of its shows off the slate. The head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke said in a Deadline interview that they aren’t going to try and compete at the volume level with Netflix, adding, “You can’t go big and go irrelevant.” While there is little to go on, they are currently only working on one series – “one big series,” and that while it isn’t remaking the movies, it will involve “it’ll be characters you love.”

Speaking of Salke and Amazon, she also addressed the idea of Amazon Studios picking up the canceled Lucifer. “I know that international, especially the UK group, was really bullish on that show, I haven’t checked in on that today (Thursday), but I heard conversations were ongoing on that yesterday.” So, keep heart, fans. Amazon recently rescued The Expanse after Syfy canceled the show, just as it was heading into the next phase of the story.

As for Amazon’s cross-net rivals, Netflix has given a 10-episode order for Away, about an international crew on a treacherous year-long mission to Mars, from Andrew Hinderaker (Penny Dreadful), Jason Katims (Parenthood) and Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). It centers on an American astronaut who leaves behind a husband and daughter to lead the crew in a story of hope and humanity.

The upcoming BBC series His Dark Materials based on the novels of Philip Pullman has some cast…James McAvoy (the X-Men franchise) will play Lord Asriel, the father of the primary character Lyra (Dafne Keen, Logan), who discovers a way to parallel worlds. Clarke Peters (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) plays the master who raises Lyra. Ruth Wilson (The Affair) will play Marisa Coulter, Asrael’s former lover and appears to want Lyra for a mysterious purpose. Earlier this year, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Mary Poppins Returns) was announced to play Lee Scoresby, an “aeronaut” who helps Lyra. Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) will direct.

I haven’t mentioned Marvel at all yet, have I? Well, Avengers: Infinity War became just the fourth movie to cross the $2 billion international box office mark, after Avatar, Titanic and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And it is still holding strong at the box office. On Marvel’s small screen, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger became Freeform’s biggest new series in two years, with an L+3 of 1.64 million, which also put it as the most watched telecast on the network in nearly a year.

And finally, we don’t talk much about MTV, but while the network might not be returning to its real roots in music, it may return to its past – a live action version of Aeon Flux, the sci-fi series that started as a series of shorts on the network’s Liquid Television block of trippy animated series. THe show was previously turned into a live action feature starring Charlize Theron as the tightly-clad assassin n 2005, but the movie flopped. Jeff Davis (Teen Wolf) and Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) are set to produce, with Davis writing.

Sadly, the word has come down on the future of The Librarians, and it wasn’t good. From producer Dean Devlin:

Sad news. After multiple negotiations at several different networks, we’ve been unsuccessful at moving #TheLibrarians to a new home. Unfortunately that means season 4 was our last season.

— Dean Devlin (@Dean_Devlin) June 6, 2018

The official Facebook page was a bit more hopeful of it continuing in another form at least:

Freeform has decided not to renew Shadowhunters for another season, but has elected to order two more 1-hour episodes to allow for a proper conclusion.

The show, based on [asin=1481444433]The Mortal Instruments series of novels[/asin] from Cassandra Clare, has covered the existing novels so far, with Season 3 covering books 4 and 5. The two extra episodes will cover the final book, and not end the show on a cliffhanger as the remaining Season 3 episodes, part of a 10-episodes back half order and not expected to air until next Spring, were already in the can.

According to a statement from the network, “We are very proud of Shadowhunters, a series that broke new ground in the genre world and became a fan favorite. However, along with our partners at Constantin, we reached the very difficult decision not to renew the show for a fourth season. But as big supporters and fans ourselves, Freeform insisted on and championed the filming of a special two-part finale that would give devoted fans a proper ending. The twelve episodes will air in spring of 2019. We want to thank our talented creators, producers, cast and crew along with our colleagues at Constantin for their hard work and dedication and to Cassie Clare for her incredible book series. We look forward to the final chapter of this breakthrough drama.”

EVP of Programming Development Karey Burke added later that the decision was “purely economic”. The network has been shifting to shorter orders of shows, and that apparently triggered a clause that ended the deal between Netflix and Costantin Films, the production partner for the show, making it harder to justify the costs.

Hooray! Amazon boss Jeff Bezos announced last night at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles that Amazon would pick up The Expanse after the show ends its current third season on SYFY, after that network announced it would not pick it up again earlier this month.

The Expanse team was on hand, and Cas Anvar even recorded it…

I'll just let him say it…#TheExpanse#RocinanteIsSafe#BreakingNews

Thank you @JeffBezos pic.twitter.com/wxHN31zgJs

— Cas Anvar (@Casanvar) May 26, 2018

Now that you’ve seen the Season 1 finale of Krypton, check out the first teaser for Season 2!

SYFY today announced a second season pickup of Krypton, the untold Superman story based on DC characters from Warner Horizon Scripted Television. Krypton, which has averaged 1.8 million viewers L3 per week to date, is SYFY’s most-watched debut season among total viewers for an original series since Ascension in 2014, and the most-watched season for any scripted series on the network since Defiance in 2015. With the can’t-miss Season 1 finale airing this Wednesday, May 23 at 10/9c, Krypton’s second season is expected to return in 2019.

Krypton is set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s home planet. The series follows Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), the legendary Man of Steel’s grandfather, as a young man who is faced with a life and death conflict – save his home planet or let it be destroyed to restore the fate of his future grandson. In Season 1, with Krypton’s leadership in disarray and the House of El ostracized, Seg found himself in a difficult position: redeem his family’s honor and protect the ones he loves, while being challenged by familiar DC characters Brainiac and Earthly time-traveler Adam Strange.

With this pickup, Krypton joins an upcoming SYFY lineup that includes returning originals Happy! starring Christopher Meloni and Patton Oswalt and returning for a second season in 2019; the hit fantasy series The Magicians, which was greenlit for a fourth season for 2019; the acclaimed 12 Monkeys series, set to air its fourth season story conclusion this June; and the Channel Zero horror anthology series, which is set to air its fourth installment this fall. Upcoming new originals include the Fall 2018 space thriller Nightflyers, based on author George R.R. Martin’s novella, and Deadly Class, based on the critically acclaimed Image Comics graphic novel of the same name.

Based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Krypton is from Warner Horizon Scripted Television and is executive produced by David S. Goyer (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) through his Phantom Four banner, alongside Cameron Welsh, who serves as showrunner.

Viewers can catch up on Krypton at SYFY On Demand, which includes SYFY.com and the SYFY App.

Premium cable network EPIX® announced today a straight-to-series greenlight of the DC origin story Pennyworth, from Warner Horizon Scripted Television, executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (Gotham, The Mentalist, Rome) and executive producer/director Danny Cannon (Gotham, CSI series).

The ten-episode, one-hour drama series is based on DC characters created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger. It follows Bruce Wayne’s legendary butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a former British SAS soldier who forms a security company and goes to work with Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s billionaire father, in 1960’s London. Production will begin later this year, with a series premiere slated for 2019.

Said Michael Wright, President, EPIX, “As genuine fans of these classic DC characters, as well as the incredibly talented Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, we couldn’t be more excited to make EPIX the home of this series. We can’t wait to work with Bruno and Danny – along with Peter Roth, Susan Rovner, Brett Paul and the team at Warner Horizon – on this fantastic origin story.”

Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon said, “Michael and his colleagues have created the perfect venue for original storytelling, and all of us working on Pennyworth are thrilled to be on the EPIX slate.”

Pennyworth comes on the heels of EPIX’s recent pick up of ABC Signature Studios’ drama series Godfather of Harlem, starring and executive produced by Oscar® winner Forest Whitaker, with Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein (Narcos) serving as showrunners. Both series are part of a growing slate of EPIX originals, which includes the upcoming season two premiere of the critically-acclaimed dark comedy Get Shorty, from MGM Television, this summer.

Catch the trailers here for the two upcoming new series on SYFY, Deadly Class and Nightflyers!

With all the cancellation news recently, here’s a bright spot – Netflix has renewed Lost In Space for a second season! The show premiered to 3.16 million viewers on its first day, placing it only behind Stranger Things 2 and Bright for the biggest debut in the last year.

It’s time for the networks to clean house, and aside from the overnight announcement of SYFY canceling The Expanse, Fox made their announcements, giving the axe to both The Exorcist and Lucifer. And the cast and crew of Lucifer are not happy, taking to social media…