Sci-Fi Storm

We always love it when our friends are announced to appear on new shows!

Nerdist today announced in an exclusive that Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, etc.) will join the cast of The Magicians in the major role of Poppy. I won’t elaborate so as to avoid spoilers, but we’re excited about this.

Eddie McClintock posted a selfie with MacGyver actor George Eads, who plays Jack Dalton:

When one is lucky enough to work on @MacGyverCBS, one gets to hang out with #GeorgeEads. #JackDalton #MacGyver @CBS

Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/SpHJxzIZCQ

— Eddie McClintock (@EddieMcClintock) November 7, 2017

He didn’t elaborate on the role, but I’m sure we’ll hear soon.

Last but not least, Defiance alum Jesse Rath is joining Supergirl in the recurring role of Braniac 5, and will appear in episode 10 of the current season (we just watched episode 5), which is titled “Legion of Super-Heroes”, of which Brainiac 5 is a member – if that gives you any clue as to where the story is heading…

Got some new casting moves announced this week…first, Syfy’s live-action/animated blend Happy!, based on the graphic novel from Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, will get Saturday Night Live‘s Bobby Moynihan to voice the animated title character.

The show follows Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU), an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop turned hit man, who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit gone wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue winged unicorn named Happy, making for a strange buddy act.

Meanwhile Katie McGrath, currently playing Lena Luthor – the little sister to Lex Luthor – on Supergirl has been upped to a series regular on the show. McGrath previously starred in BBC’s Merlin and has been a recurring character on Frontier for Netflix. She also had a co-starring role in Jurassic World.

A few tidbits from the past few days…

Syfy’s The Magicians are pulling a bit of sophomore magic, with the Season 2 premiere getting double digit gains over the series premiere in the Live+3 ratings, netting a 25% overall increase and 33% higher in the 18-49 demo, and the highest for the channel since 2014. It seems that this show really has caught with audiences as the story has developed.

Jason Momoa’s Aquaman has found its villain…Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Get Down) has signed on to play foe Black Manta in the standalone film, scheduled for an October 2018 release.

Teri Hatcher is returning to the Kryptonian world of DC Comics…the former Lois Lane from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman will join the cast of Supergirl in an unspecified recurring role – but word on the street is that she will become the new Big Bad of the show.

Supergirl gets a little helping hand from her more-famous cousin (played by Tyler Hoechlin) in the Season 2 premiere of Supergirl, now on the CW…the premiere airs October 10th.

Interesting news coming through the grapevine…with Supergirl moving to the CW, it almost certainly would include budget cuts, likely with some concessions in the cast especially with the move of the production to Canada. One possibility is that Callista Flockhart, who plays CatCo head honcho Cat Grant, may be seen less, as apparently Ian Gomez (Cougar Town) has been signed to play Snapper Carr, who Cat hires to be the editor-in-chief at CatCo.

Meanwhile, the CW released a pic of Kid Flash/Wally West, who will debut with the third season of The Flash and played by Keiynan Lonsdale (Allegiant)…looks pretty slick…

If you need to get caught up with Supergirl now that Season 2 is a go with a move from CBS to the CW, here’s your chance – the CW will air all twenty first season episodes starting August 1st, with two episodes a week until the Season 2 debut on October 10th. So get caught up!

The Flash will lead off the CW’s parade of shows this fall, starting at 8/7c on Tuesday, October 4th. It’s sibling series The Arrow picks up the following night at the same time, followed by the series premiere of Frequency, based on the 2000 movie.

Supergirl makes it’s return the following Monday at 8/7c, and will feature the on-screen appearance of Kara’s cousin Superman (with Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Hoechlin as the Man of Steel). Then Legends of Tomorrow picks up the pieces on Thursday, October 13th, at 8/7c.

It’s a bit interesting that DC/Warner Bros have had the about face on allowing the CW to use Superman, as the triumvirate of Superman, Batman and Wonder Women were considered untouchable for TV properties while WB was working on spinning up a movie universe franchise.

Come on, you knew this was being planned as soon as they made the move official…now that Supergirl will join her sibling superhero shows on the CW in the Fall, she’ll also be part of the December crossover event between the shows.

Right before their upfronts, CW chief Mark Pedowitz said, “Just imagine what our superhero crossover episode is going to look like come December.” Then, during the upfront presentation he officially said that she’d be part of it, calling it “our biggest ever.”

There will now be four shows for the crossover…Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, with the latter two having spun off from the former, will get to play with their otherworldly sister. How will it happen? Well, it’s a long way off yet, but with it being established that Supergirl is on a different Earth from Flash (and not Earth-2 either – there were no metahumans on her Earth), it would seem likely that Kara will make the trip to their side this time…

It seems like today was deadline day on the pickups, and ABC swung the bat both ways. In my despondency over the loss of The Muppets and Castle, I was saved by the news that the network at least picked up Time After Time the series we’ve been reporting on based on the Karl Alexander novel and previously made into a 1979 feature film. We have high hopes for this one.

To no one’s surprise, ABC officially canceled Marvel’s Agent Carter after two seasons, given a nearly 50% drop in ratings and star Haley Atwell getting a new series pickup by ABC with Conviction.

Also on the plus side is that Supergirl will make the giant leap from CBS to sibling network The CW, rather than being sentenced to the Phantom Zone at least. There it will join three other Berlanti Productions-made superhero cousins: Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. It will also join them physically, with production officially relocating to Vancouver, as we expected would happen. This is a cost-cutting movie that Warner Bros TV was already planning regardless which network picked it up. We expect there may be some additional cuts as well before production picks up. How this could also affect planned storylines remains to be seen as well. The CW also picked up three new series: Riverdale, based on the Archie Comics characters; No Tomorrow, about a straight-laced distribution center manager and a freewheeling man knocking off items on their bucket list because they believe the apocalypse is coming; and Frequency, a series adaptation of the 2000 feature film, with a female police detective who discovers she can communicate with her deceased father in the past via a ham radio.

CBS has still been tight-lipped on the fate of Supergirl, and that could be due to negotiations between the network and the studio to reduce the costs of the show.

Deadline reports a new possibility from the various scenarios we’ve been hearing this week that production could actually move from Los Angeles to Vancouver as a cost-cutting measure – partly spurred by the denial of tax credits for the production from the California Film Commission.A move to Vancouver would also bring the show to the same area as Greg Berlanti’s two other DC Universe shows, Arrow and The Flash, the latter of which already did a crossover to Supergirl.

If CBS ultimately doesn’t bite, there are apparently various outlets that might take the show on. Our money is on it joining its cousins on the CW, which is co-owned between VBS and Warner Bros, which could lessen license fees. However, the budget in general for the show is probably too high for the CW to take as-is, and additional cost cutting might be needed, as it would also be likely for any other outlet beyond the Big Four networks. That would likely mean production cuts – which would likely be most scene in some loss of the cast.

It still remains to be scene where we go from here. We are still pretty confident that Supergirl will go on…somewhere.