Hawkman cast for Black Adam: After DC Fandome revealed that Black Adam would be interacting with the Justice Society, the first member was revealed as Noah Centineo playing Atom Smasher. This week we found out Aldis Hodge, seen most recently in The Invisible Man, will be playing Hawkman. It’s not clear which version of Hawkman Hodge is playing from the character’s convoluted history. Doctor Fate and Cyclone still need to be cast.
Nick Fury Disney+ series in development: Disney+ added another big MCU series to its upcoming slate with a Nick Fury series starring Samuel L. Jackson. The last time we saw Fury, it was in Spider-Man: Far From Home but he was actually Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, a friendly Skrull ally of Fury while the real Fury was out in space on a Skrull ship so could this series be some sort of crazy Star Trekesque adventure with Fury exploring planets with his Skrull crew or will he return to Earth?
The Knick may be coming back: Along with The Americans, one of the best but under-watched shows of the last decade or so has been Cinemax’s The Knick, which ran for two seasons with Steven Soderbergh at the helm and followed the personnel at the Knickerbocker Hospital in 1900s New York. Some sort of reboot or continuation may be in the works with co-star Andre Holland and director Barry Jenkins. A pilot script for this new version of The Knick is apparently written and, if it happens, it will most likely not be on Cinemax, which shifted after The Knick’s cancellation to more action-focused original shows.
Rashomon series in development: HBO Max is developing a TV series based on Akira Kurosawa’s epic classic Rashomon, famous for its multiple perspectives on the same event. The show will not be a direct adaptation, so no samurai or feudal Japan but it instead will focus on a grisly sexual assault and murder in the present day told from multiple perspectives. Billy Ray, who most recently wrote Overlord, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Gemini Man, is writing the series.
The Boys getting a spin-off: The world of The Boys is expanding at Amazon as a new spin-off series was announced this week. The new show will be set at a college exclusively for “supes” that is run by Vought, who evaluates all the students and assigns them based on talent to different cities around the country. Season 2 of the main show, despite its shift to a weekly format that angered some, has doubled the viewership of the first season and it has been the most-watched Prime Original in the service’s history. Boys Executive Producer Craig Rosenberg is writing the pilot for the spin-off and it’s being fast-tracked at Amazon to a series.
New Yakuza movie in development: Sega is developing a new live-action film based on their beloved Yakuza series. The series actually already had an adaptation by director Takashi Miike in 2007 called Like a Dragon that loosely adapted the first game. It’s believed this new movie will be based on the first game as well but there are currently very few details besides that it’s in development.
West Side Story and Black Widow delayed until 2021: Disney has moved a number of films that were scheduled (and re-scheduled) as the Covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of being resolved in any meaningful way for the rest of the year. Black Widow has been pushed back to May 7 next year while West Side Story is pushed back all the way to December 10th of next year. Death on the Nile has been moved to December 18th of this year. Soul, from Pixar, is the only major Disney/Fox release to keep its release date of November 20th.
Suicide Squad series featuring Peacemaker coming to HBO Max: Along with the release of the James Gunn directed Suicide Squad movie, HBO Max is getting a Peacemaker spin-off series starring John Cena reprising his film character. The show will follow the origins of Peacemaker and James Gunn and producer Peter Safran will serve as executive producers of the series, with Cena as co-executive producer.
Supergirl ending next season: The Arrowverse is getting smaller after the upcoming wave of seasons as Supergirl will end with the upcoming sixth season. It’s not clear if the showrunner and star Melissa Benoist decided to end the series or if it was The CW’s decision but Benoist posted a message online after the news broke. The final season will be 20 episodes, as opposed to the abbreviated final season of Arrow that was only 10 episodes, and The CW will still have a Kryptonian presence with the upcoming Superman & Lois series. All the Arrowverse shows are looking to debut new seasons in the spring of next year after most of them got cut-off early due to COVID with their last seasons.
Quibi may be looking to sell itself: In a move that should shock no one, Quibi is not doing that great and is apparently looking to possibly sell itself. The service is on track to sign up less than 2 million subscribers and it lost around 50% of the initial batch of users who got a 90-day free trial but did not convert to a paid plan. It did win some Emmys at last weekend’s ceremony in the short-form category and continues to launch new shows. Other options besides a sale are raising more funding (it started with $1.75 billion from major studios and investors) or launching an IPO through a SPAC or Special Purpose Acquisition Company.
Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance canceled: Despite its Emmy win this past weekend for Outstanding Children’s Program, Netflix has canceled Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance after 1 season. The series was a prequel to Jim Henson’s original film and followed a group of Gelflings who try to unite the various Golfing clans against the evil Skeksis. The show ended on a cliffhanger that will now probably never be resolved and it is probably unlikely to show up on another platform due to the cost and length of production required due to its state of the art puppetry.
