News Shotgun 5/24/23
Here’s all the movie and TV news you need to know from the past week, it’s the News Shotgun.
The Wheel of Time canceled at Prime Video: Amazon has chosen not to move forward with another season of their adaptation of The Wheel of Time, canceling the series after three seasons. The series starred Rosamund Pike and was based on the fantasy book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Ratings for the series had been slipping after a strong debut for its first season in 2021, and the amount of viewership didn’t warrant the cost of producing the series any further.
Alex Garland directing an Elden Ring movie: Following up on Warfare and writing 28 Years Later, Alex Garland has signed on to direct an adaptation of Elden Ring for A24. Garland is writing and directing the movie, which George R.R. Martin, who helped write the story the game is based on, is producing.
Next two Avengers movies delayed: In not too shocking news, Marvel has pushed back the release dates of their two upcoming Avengers movies. Avengers: Doomsday will now release on December 18th, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars has moved to December 17th, 2027. Both films were initially set to release in May of their respective years. Marvel shuffled around and dropped several other projects off their release schedule. Spider Man: Brand New Day is out in July next year. Marvel has Fantastic Four: First Steps in July this year as their last big theatrical release for 2025.
New Evil Dead movie adds cast members: The latest entry in the Evil Dead franchise has found several main cast members. Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, and Tandi Wright are signed on to the new movie, which is currently untitled. Sébastien Vaniček, who recently directed the spider horror movie Infested, is directing the film with Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi producing.
New Robert Langdon series ordered by Netflix: Netflix is taking a shot at a TV series based on Dan Brown’s popular symbologist Robert Langdon with a new TV series. The series is based on an upcoming entry in Brown’s series, The Secret of Secrets, which will be released on September 9th this year. Carlton Cuse, who has worked on Lost, Jack Ryan, and Locke & Key, is the creator and showrunner of the series. Peacock developed a Robert Langdon series based on the book The Lost Symbol, which ran for one season on the streaming platform, and there have been three films starring Tom Hanks.
Street Fighter movie starts to assemble cast: The new live-action Street Fighter movie from Legendary has begun to fill out its roster with Andrew Koji, Jason Momoa, Noah Centineo, and Roman Reigns in talks to star. Kitao Sakurai, who directed the movie Bad Trip, is directing the movie. Plot and character details are being kept under wraps. Legendary is developing the film with Capcom, the developer and publisher of the Street Fighter series since 1987.
Yellowjackets renewed for Season 4: Yellowjackets will return for another season as Paramount+ with Showtime has renewed the series for a fourth season. The show follows a team of female high school soccer players whose plane crashes in the remote wilderness, forcing them to go to extremes to survive. The show jumps between the high school time period and 25 years later, when the adult survivors have to reckon with the past. Season 3 was the show’s most-watched season, indicating that word of mouth and strong critical reception have increased the audience.
RIP George Wendt: Beloved character actor George Wendt passed away this past week at age 76. Wendt was best known as barfly Norm Peterson on Cheers, for which he earned six Emmy nominations. He was also a regular guest on SNL and appeared in films like Fletch, Gung Ho, Spice World, House, and The Climb.
