What’s going on in the TV world?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSvnepZS26s&feature=youtu.be
Netflix gave us an intense peak into the second season of Jessica Jones. In this season we’ll be exploring Jessica’s origin story. The car crash that killed her family is featured in the beginning of the trailer. We find out that her powers are the result of experiments done on her. And of course, there’s still Killgrave’s memory to contend with. Jessica Jones season 2 premieres March 8, 2018.
Last month, Lifetime announced they would be making a film about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Now they have found their stars. Parisa Fitz-Henley (Marvel’s Luke Cage, Midnight, Texas) will star as Meghan Markle and newcomer Murray Fraser (The Loch) will star as Prince Harry. Entitled Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, the film will follow their lives under the global spotlight from their first meeting to courtship to engagement. Production has begun with an anticipated air date of May 18.
Brandon Micheal Hall, star of ABC’s late freshman comedy The Mayor, has found a new role. While The Mayor hasn’t officially been canceled, it has been pulled from the air leaving Hall free to pursue other roles. He will be heading over to CBS, this time for an hour-long procedural entitled God Friended Me. The series is from Alcatraz co-creators Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt who are also writers on the series, director Marcos Siega, Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. TV. It is described as “a humorous, uplifting series that explores questions of faith, existence and science. It centers on Miles (Hall), an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he is “friended” by God on Facebook. Unwittingly, he becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him.”
Survivor’s Remorse star Teyonah Parris is also making a move to a CBS. She will be starring in a pilot entitled Murder. It’s based on the BBC show of the same name. The series explores “crime through the unique and often conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family. Shot like a true crime documentary, the series invites the audience inside the emotional journey of an investigation, allowing them to discern the truth and judge the suspects’ guilt or innocence for themselves.” Parris will play an NYPD detective named Ayana Lake who is described as having a keen intellect and quick, analytic mind. She finds her personality clashing with her new partner Detective Jack Garrity. Lethal Weapon producer Amanda Green will write and executive produce.
Jaz Sinclair has just been cast as Rosalind Walker in Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. She will play the Sabrina’s best friend. She has made a name for herself with roles in The Vampire Diaries and Paper Towns. Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka was cast as Sabrina Spellman. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is based on Archie Comic and gives us a darker take on the character as she journeys to become a witch. It’s set to premiere sometime in this year.
16 years after the animated series debuted, a Kim Possible live action is being made for the Disney Channel. Kim Possible was a high school girl who fought villains in her spare time along with her sidekick Ron Stoppable and his naked mole-rat Rufus. There are no details on the plot or when it will air but we do know that casting is currently underway. From a script by show creators, Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley along with The Duff‘s Josh Cagan, the movie will be co-directed and co-produced by Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky.
Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff Station 19 are soon going to have a crossover episode. Jaina Lee Ortiz’s Andy Herrera will make the jump from Station 19 to Grey’s. The episode is described as “former surgeon Ben Warren (Jason George) and Andy visit Grey Sloan after rescuing two boys that have been injured in a house fire. With one of the boys’ lives literally in Andy’s hands, her skills are put to the test. Meanwhile, the Grey’s doctors are hard at work on their projects for the Grey Sloan Surgical Innovation Contest and Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) brings Tom Koracick (Greg Germann) in to consult on her and Alex’s (Justin Chambers) patient. The episode, entitled “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” will premiere March 1. That night will also see the crossover of fellow Shondaland shows Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder. You can check out the teaser below.
The cast of the What We Do in the Shadows pilot has grown with the addition of Doug Jones, Beanie Feldstein, Jake McDorman and Mark Proksch. Jones is perhaps the best known. He currently plays Saru in the CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery. He is also coming off playing the amphibian man in the Oscar-nominated The Shape of Water. Past roles include Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and Pan’s Labyrinth. Feldstein appeared in Oscar-nominated Lady Bird and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. McDorman also appeared in Lady Bird and was the star of CBS’ Limitless. Proksch played Daniel Wormald on AMC’s Better Call Saul and Nate on The Office.
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick) are teaming up with Alan Yang (Master of None) for a new half-hour anthology series that centers immigration stories. Entitled Little America, the new series will be part of Apple’s plan to develop original scripted content. The series will be written by Lee Eisenberg who will also serve as showrunner. It’s based on the true stories featured in Epic magazine. According to Deadline, the series “will go beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and unexpected lives of immigrants in America, at a time when their stories are more relevant than ever.”
It’s official, season 7 will be the last of the long-running ABC drama Once Upon a Time. Created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, the series transplanted fairy tale characters from their stories to the real world. Since it’s premiere in 2011, many of the original cast have left including Ginnifer Goodwin who played Snow White, Josh Dallas who played Prince Charming and Jennifer Morrison who played their daughter. Season 7 was supposed to be mini-reboot, following an adult Henry Mills played by Andrew J. West as he was trapped in a cursed Seattle neighborhood. Original stars Lana Parrilla (the Evil Queen) and Robert Carlyle (Rumplestiltskin) remained for the last season.
In Movie News…
The Star Wars cinematic universe continues to grow. This week it was announced that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would be joining the franchise as writers and producers of their own trilogy of films. These films will be separate from the Skywalker saga and from Rian Johnson’s future trilogy. No release dates have been set for either trilogy. “David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today. Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. It’s worth noting that once again the growing diversity on screen for Star Wars films has not carried off-screen. It better news, with Benioff and Weiss tied up in the Star Wars universe for the next few years, the future of HBO’s controversial show Confederate might be in jeopardy.
Speaking of Star Wars, after the premiere of the trailers for Solo: A Star Wars Story, promotion for the film has ramped up. Entertainment Weekly released a feature on the film this week that included new photos and insight into the film. “To me, this is a love story between Han and Chewie,” said Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the film. “Their relationship has always been my favorite part of the saga, and the fact that only Han understands what Chewie is saying, I find a very funny possibility for comedy.” We also get a look at Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian playing a game of sabacc. Lando loses the Millennium Falcon to Han in a game of sabacc. Could this be the game? Check out Donald Glover’s interview with Entertainment Weekly here.
Marvel Studios kicks off its yearlong 10th anniversary celebration with a behind the scenes look at the class photo featuring 79 actors and filmmakers from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. pic.twitter.com/YyYTxMnUrc
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) February 8, 2018
Also in the realm of Disney, Marvel Studios celebrated their 10th anniversary with a photo that included 79 actors and directors from every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man premiered May 2, 2008. From that single film, Marvel Studios has grown a franchise that through 3 phases included 17 films. Black Panther will be released next week and mark the end of phase 3. Avengers: Infinity War will be released in May with Ant-Man and the Wasp in June.
In a crossover between two Disney properties – Marvel and Star Wars – it was revealed this week that Donald and Stephen Glover gave Ryan Coogler notes on his Black Panther script. “Donald and Stephen actually came in and gave me notes on the draft,” said Coogler. “They took a day — they were really busy, but they took a day and read the draft right before we started shooting. They had some cool insight.” Some of that insight included developing Shuri and her relationship with her brother T’Challa. Black Panther was also featured in Time, Variety and British GQ. You can see all of our Black Panther coverage including our review here.
We had a couple of trailers for superhero films released this week. First up, Deadpool 2. The trailer for Deadpool 2 introduces us to a hardened Cable before Deadpool breaks the fourth wall in typical fashion to bring some levity. The trailer then goes into action-packed scenes of Deadpool, Domino and the rest of the cast of characters from the first film. Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams, Stefan Kapicic, Brianna Hildebrand, and Karan Soni are all returning for the sequel. Deadpool 2 premieres May 18.
The second trailer we saw this week was for Sony’s Venom. The film stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock who in the comic was a disgraced journalist that comes upon an alien symbiote that turns him into Venom. Unsurprisingly, this first trailer is light on details. Though we don’t get to see the titular character, we do see what looks like the symbiote outside of the body. Venom is set outside of the Marvel Cinematic universe so Spider-man won’t play a role in Brock becoming Venom. Venom will debut October 5.
Over on the DC side, production has begun on Shazam! Warner Bros also released the official synopsis of the film. It’s as follows: “We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) case, by shouting out one word—SHAZAM!—this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Zachary Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heart—inside a ripped, godlike body—Shazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he’ll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).” As of now, there’s no release date.
This March, the next generation will rise up to take back their world. #PacificRimUprising pic.twitter.com/85CoXv01ox
— Pacific Rim (@PacificRim) February 8, 2018
If you’re wondering about the jaegers protecting humanity against the kaiju incursion in Pacific Rim Uprising, the Pacific Rim twitter account gave us a new video introducing us to them. We have Gypsy Avenger piloted by Jake Pentecost and Amara. Fighting beside Avenger are Saber Athena, Bracer Phoenix, and Guardian Bravo. Pacific Rim Uprising is in theaters March 23.
Netflix purchased God Particle from Paramount and released it soon after as The Cloverfield Paradox, dropping it right after the Super Bowl with little fanfare. You can read our review of it here. Now Netflix has picked up Extinction from Universal. In Extinction Michael Peña (Ant-Man) and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) star as husband and wife during an alien invasion. Peña’s character’s nightmares of losing his family are close to coming true and he has to step up to protect them. Luke Cage‘s Mike Colter also stars in the film. There’s no release date yet but if it’s anything like The Cloverfield Paradox, it might be very soon. Netflix will also be streaming Annihilation internationally after purchasing the rights to it. The film will be released in North America on February 23.
The Hate U Give has recently seen some casting shakeups. The film stars Amandla Stenberg as 16-year-old Starr as she navigates between the poor world she grew up in and the rich prep school she attends. Her life is forever changed after she witnesses the police shooting of her unarmed best friend played by Algee Smith. Actor Kian Lawley who played Chris, Starr’s white boyfriend, was fired from the film after a video of him saying racial slurs surfaced. His role will be recast and his scenes reshot. The hashtag #AngieThomasAppreciationDay was created to defend the author of the book after fans of Lawley began attacking her.
.@JordanPeele is "seriously considering" a sequel to #GetOut: "There is more story to tell. I don't know what it is now, but there are some loose ends that feel like they want to be tied up." #NomineesNight pic.twitter.com/4MDEO77tDs
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 6, 2018
Finally, a sequel to Get Out might be possible. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Jordan Peele said that he’s seriously considering it. He feels that there is still more story to tell and loose ends to tie up. Poor Chris was put through the wringer. I can’t imagine inflicting more trauma on him, but we’ll see. Get Out has currently been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Lead Actor for Daniel Kaluuya at the Academy Awards.
If you have anything I missed, email me at mel@blackgirlnerds.com or tweet me at @jane_anon. Check back in next Monday for all the exciting news happening next week.
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