News Shotgun 3/1/25
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun.
Matthew Lillard joins Daredevil: Born Again Season 2: Daredevil: Born Again debuts this coming week on Disney+, but work is already underway on Season 2, with Matthew Lillard joining the cast. It wasn’t revealed who he is playing, but maybe we’ll have an idea by the end of this first season of the continuation/reboot of the Netflix Daredevil series.
Wonder Woman game dead at Warner Bros. Discovery: First revealed in a teaser at The Game Awards in 2021, the triple AAA Wonder Woman game being developed by Monolith Productions is dead along with the studio, which was shut down along with two other Warner Bros. Games studios. The game was going to be an open-world action adventure similar to Monolith’s Lord of the Rings games, the Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War. Along with the massive losses incurred due to the underperformance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Warner Bros. Games is shifting from big triple AAA games to free-to-play games as service titles and mobile games, where the cost is considerably less.
Rings of Power adds two new cast members: Amazon’s Rings of Power has added Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan. Bower will be a new series regular in the third season, while Marsan will have a recurring role. Neither actor’s character was revealed. The third season of the Lord of the Rings prequel series begins shooting in the spring.
RIP Gene Hackman: Legendary, Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman was found dead this week along with his wife and classical pianist Betsy Arakawa in their home in Santa Fe. Details are still evolving, but an investigation into the deaths is under way by local police. Initially, a theory was that the couple, along with one of their dogs, died of carbon monoxide poisoning, but that was proven negative, and more toxicology testing is underway. Hackman’s pacemaker recorded its last event on February 17th, and the couple is believed to have been dead for several days before being discovered. Hackman is considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and of all time and won two Oscars, one for The French Connection and one for Unforgiven and appeared in films like Crimson Tide, Young Frankenstein, The Firm, Absolute Power, Mississippi Burning and played Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve Superman series of films.
Paramount+ gets new Guy Ritchie crime series: Guy Ritchie is bringing his new crime series to Paramount+. MobLand was originally going to be a Showtime series, which would have meant it would have automatically been in the Paramount+ app but also aired for cable subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime. Now it will be a Paramount+ Original exclusive to the app. The show stars Pierce Brosnan, the head of a local crime syndicate fighting for power in a more significant, global organization. Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren, Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Lara Pulver, Anson Boon, Mandeep Dhillon, Jasmine Jobson, Geoff Bell, Daniel Betts, Lisa Dwan, and Emily Barber co-star. The show will debut on March 30th.
The Boys Gets Supernatural Reunion: In the upcoming final season of The Boys, the show will see a full Supernatural reunion as Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins will join Jensen Ackles, who plays Soldier Boy in the series. The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, created Supernatural. No details on Padalecki or Collins’ roles were revealed.
RIP Michelle Trachtenberg: Nickelodeon and Buffy star Michelle Trachtenberg died this past week at age 39. No cause of death was revealed, but the actress had just received a liver transplant. Trachtenberg started her career on All My Children and then jumped over to Nickelodeon to co-star on The Adventures of Pete & Pete and starred in Harriet the Spy. She co-starred as Dawn Summers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 2004 raunchy comedy Eurotrip. She also co-starred on Gossip Girl as Georgina Sparks.
RIP Roberto Orci: Writer and producer Roberto Orci passed away this week at age 51 due to kidney disease. Orci co-wrote Transformers in 2007 and Star Trek in 2009 with frequent collaborator Alex Kurtzman and produced Ender’s Game, Now You See Me, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Orci and Kurtzman also developed the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-0, and Orci created Fringe and Sleepy Hollow for Fox.
RIP George Armitage: Director Geroge Armitage died this week at 82, with no cause of death revealed yet. Armitage directed movies like Grosse Pointe Blank, Hit Man (1977), Miami Blues, Vigilante Force, The Big Bounce, and Hot Rod (1979).
The Beekeeper 2 confirmed: Jason Statham will be back as The Beekeeper as Miramax officially announced The Beekeeper 2 is in development. Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto, who has directed incredible action movies like The Night Comes for Us and The Shadow Strays, along with the segments “Safe Haven” from VHS 2 and “The Subject” from V/H/S/94, is directing the movie. Tjahjanto is also directing another action sequel, Nobody 2, the follow up to the Bob Odenkirk action from 2021.
