News Shotgun 12/17/22

Blockbuster canceled at Netflix: Netflix has canceled their workplace comedy Blockbuster after one season.  The show starred Randall Park and Melissa Fumero as employees at the last Blockbuster video in the world.  The show did not perform particularly well on Netflix, never breaking into the Top 10 most-watched rankings, even on its debut week, and it was critically panned as well.

James Gunn writing new Superman movie, won’t involve Henry Cavill: James Gunn and Peter Safran continue to shake things up at DC Studios as it was announced this week that Gunn is writing a new Superman movie as part of their new plan for the future of the DC Universe and it was also confirmed that Henry Cavill is officially done as Superman.  Cavill appeared in the end credits scene of Black Adam and made a social media post announcing his return shortly after Black Adam debuted.  This, along with the passing on Wonder Woman 3, seems to continue to point to the fact that Gunn and Safran are potentially doing a clean break from anything that came before, sans Matt Reeves’ Batman, and starting fresh with new actors and a new universe for DC.

Henry Cavill starring in and producing Warhammer 40,000 show for Amazon: Despite leaving DC though, Henry Cavill has quickly signed on to another big project, this time starring in and executive producing a Prime Video series based on Warhammer 40K.  Cavill has expressed multiple times his love for the tabletop game and the universe.  Vertigo Entertainment would be co-producing the series, which could also include a movie at some point.

More cast members join Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Down:  More cast members joined Michael Keaton’s upcoming project, Knox Goes Down.  Keaton is starring and directing the movie and James Marsden, Marcia Gay Harden, Suzy Nakamura, Joanna Kulig, Ray McKinnon, John Hoogenakker, Lela Loren, and Al Pacino will co-star.  The movie is a noir thriller that follows Knox (Keaton), a hitman who is dealing with a fast-moving form of dementia and is attempting to save the life of his estranged son before he’s arrested by the authorities or succumbs to his disease.

Apple TV+ orders Mythic Quest spin-off: A spin-off to Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest has been ordered called Mere Mortals.  The series will be similar to the standalone entries of the main show, like Season 1’s “A Dark Quiet Death” and follow new characters.  Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris, and Katie McElhenney are writing the new series, which will have an 8-episode first season.

Death Stranding getting a movie: Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is the latest Sony video game to get an adaptation, with a movie in the works.  Alex Lebovici, who executive produced Barbarian this year, will EP Death Stranding along with Kojima and Kojima Productions.  The movie will be a new story set in the world of Death Stranding with new characters, although there is a chance characters like Norman Reedus’ Sam might appear.

Five Nights at Freddy’s movie gets stars: Blumhouse has cast its first two cast members for their upcoming adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s.  Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson will co-star in the movie, although their roles were not revealed. The movie is based on the popular video game horror series where players play a security guard who must survive against animatronic robots in a Chuck E. Cheese-style pizza place, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.

The Santa Clauses renewed for Season 2: Disney has renewed their Disney+ sequel series The Santa Clauses for a second season.  The show brought back Tim Allen as Santa, who is looking for a replacement as he decides to retire.  Allen will be back for Season 2 along with Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Mrs. Claus.

Raised By Wolves, Westworld, The Nevers and more are being removed from HBO Max: The reshuffling and corporate drama continue for Warner Bros. Discovery post-merger as it was revealed this week that multiple signature shows on HBO Max, including Raised by Wolves and Westworld, were going to be removed from the streaming service.  WBD is apparently looking to license these shows to third-party “FAST” services, like Tubi, PlutoTV, and FreeVee that offer free, ad-supported streaming and they are also looking to create their own FAST service in the future. The removal of the Joss Whedon show The Nevers also finally officially confirms that the series is canceled, as there had been no word either way after it aired “Part 1” of its first season back in 2021.

Gotham Knights and Superman & Lois get premiere dates: Two upcoming CW DC shows have premiere dates as both shows will debut on March 14th next year. Gotham Knights will air at 8 pm EST and Superman & Lois will air after at 9 pm EST.  Superman & Lois will be going into its third season.

God of War series officially greenlit at Amazon: Amazon has officially ordered a full season of their adaptation of God of War.  The TV series is based on the 2018 game, which was a soft reboot of the franchise and found the former Greek God of War, Kratos, living in the land of the Norse gods with his son Atreus.  Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are writing the series while Rafe Judkins, who worked on Prime Video’s Wheel of Time series, is showrunning God of War.

Norman Reedus joins Ballerina: Norman Reedus is coming to the world of John Wick by co-starring in the upcoming spin-off, Ballerina.  The spin-off will star Ana de Armas as an assassin/ballerina who was trained at the academy briefly scene in John Wick 3 run by Anjelica Huston.  Huston will return in Ballerina along with Ian McShane and Lance Reddick, with Keanu Reeves set to make some sort of cameo.  Catalina Sandino Moreno will co-star as well and Len Wiseman is directing the movie.

John Cena and Jason Momoa co-starring in the action-comedy Killer Vacation: John Cena and Jason Momoa are teaming up for Warner Bros Discovery for an upcoming action-comedy, Killer Vacation.  There are no plot details yet but the script is being written by Brian and Mark Gunn, James Gunn’s brothers who wrote Brightburn.  New DC Studios co-head, Peter Safran, is producing the movie and it was in development prior to him and James Gunn taking over DC.

Warrior Nun canceled at Netflix: Netflix has canceled their action series Warrior Nun after two seasons.  The show spent three weeks in the Top 10 most-watched chart after the second season debuted on November 10th but quickly dropped off and its performance/viewership didn’t warrant the cost to produce the show according to Netflix.

Quantum Leap renewed for season 2: NBC has renewed their rebootquel of Quantum Leap for a second series.  The show stars Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song, who is part of a team restarting the Quantum Leap project created 30 years earlier by Dr. Samuel Beckett but Song becomes trapped in the past like Beckett and leaps between people’s lives and changes history to try and return to his own time.  The show was the best debut ever for a drama series on Peacock and the second-best-rated new show of the 2022 TV season, drawing in 10.8 million viewers across linear, digital, and streaming.

Netflix developing live-action My Hero Academia movie: Netflix has gotten the rights to the popular anime series My Hero Academia and will be developing a live-action movie based on the property.  Legendary was looking to produce a movie based on the series since August of last year.  Shinsuke Sato, who directed Alice in Borderland, is directing the movie and Obi-Wan Kenobi writer Joby Harold to write the movie.

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock renewed for Season 2:  Apple TV+’s reboot of Fraggle Rock,  Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, has been renewed for a second season.  Daveed Diggs, Ariana Debose, Brett Goldstein, and Catherine O’Hara will guest star in the second season, with Diggs returning after recently guest starring on the Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Night of the Lights holiday special.