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What’s going on in the TV world?

The Powerpuff Girls have now officially changed from a trio to a quartet. The new member is here and she’s beautiful! Can’t wait to see all of the cosplay.

AMC is adding a new show to their roster. Makeready, Brad Weston’s new production company, brought the rights to New York Times bestseller and Editors choice They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice by Wesley Lowery.  LaToya Morgan, writer for Into the Badlands and Turn: Washington’s Spies will write for the series. You can check out our interview with Morgan here.

In the midst of the controversy surrounding their future Confederate show, HBO announced that they would be adapting Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death into a series. George R.R. Martin, author of the wildly successful Game of Thrones is producing it. This week, we finally have the name of the writer. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds will write the pilot and serve as an executive producer. Okorafor will work as a consultant on the project.

Amazon is adapting Good Omens, the novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Michael Sheen and David Tennant are already attached to the projects. This week several more cast members were announced including Better Call Saul’s Michael McKean as Shadwell, Emerald City‘s Adria Arjona as Anathema, W1A‘s Nina Sosanya as Sister Mary Loquacious, Peaky Blinders‘s Ned Dennehy as Duke of Hell Hastur and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’s Ariyon Bakare as Duke of Hell Ligur.

If you’re still feeling at a lost after the abrupt cancellation of Dark Matter, read Art Imitates Life: Dark Matter Fans, Cast, & Crew Battle the Corporations. BGN staffer CRS discusses how the fandom and the showrunner are handling an ending that no one saw coming.

Issa Rae, the amazing writer of Insecure, is going to be the new face of Cover Girl! In the caption of her Instagram announcement she wrote:

“I remember being an awkward black girl in high school, reading the pages of my favorite magazines, casually flipping through @COVERGIRL ads, singing their slogan in my head. Never EVER in my life did I imagine I’d be one. I am SO honored and SO excited for what’s to come.

 

Finally, last night’s Emmy Awards was filled with the occasional stale joke, a tearful in memoriam, unsurprising wins (looking at you Veep) and a few historic moments. It was nice to see that their speeches about diversity and inclusion weren’t complete lip service.

Donald Glover also won for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Atlanta. Aziz Ansari & Lena Waithe won for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None. Waithe is the first black woman to be nominated for and win this award. “The things that makes us different; those are our superpowers,” she said in her moving acceptance speech.

Riz Ahmed won Best Actor in a Limited Series or a Television Movie for The Night Of. He made history as the first actor of Asian descent to win an Emmy for acting. “I want to say it is always strange reaping the rewards of a story based on real-world suffering, but if this show has shown a light on some of the prejudice in our societies, some of the injustice in our justice system, then maybe that is something,” he said in his acceptance speech. He also gave shout outs to South Asian Youth Action and The Innocence Project.

Sterling K. Brown won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for This is Us. He is the first black actor to win it since Andre Braugher in 1998. Thankfully Brown was able to give his full speech backstage. You can read the entire thing at HR.

The full list of winners:

Best Drama: “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
Best Limited Series: “Big Little Lies” (HBO)
Best Actress, Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” (HBO)
Best Actor, Comedy: Donald Glover, “Atlanta” (FX)
Best Actress, Drama: Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
Best Actor, Drama: Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us” (NBC)
Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie: Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)
Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Riz Ahmed, “The Night Of” (HBO)
Television Movie: “Black Mirror: San Junipero” (Netflix)
Supporting Actor, Drama: John Lithgow, “The Crown” (Netflix)
Supporting Actress, Drama: Ann Dowd, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
Supporting Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Supporting Actress, Comedy: Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie: Alexander Skarsgard, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)
Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a Movie: Laura Dern, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)
Variety Sketch Series: “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Directing for a Comedy Series: Donald Glover, “Atlanta” (“B.A.N.”) (FX)
Variety Talk Series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)
Reality Competition Program: “The Voice” (NBC)
Writing for a Comedy Series: Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe, “Master of None” (“Thanksgiving”) (Netflix)
Writing for a Drama Series: Bruce Miller, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (“Offred (Pilot)”) (Hulu)
Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama: Charlie Brooker, “Black Mirror: San Junipero” (Netflix)
Directing for a Drama Series: Reed Morano, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (“Offred (Pilot)”) (Hulu)
Directing For a Limited Series: Jean-Marc Vallée, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)
Directing for a Variety Series: Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live” (“Host: Jimmy Fallon”)
Writing for a Variety Series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)
Structured Reality Program: “Shark Tank” (ABC)
Unstructured Reality Program: “United Shades of America With W. Kamau Bell” (CNN)
Guest Actress, Drama: Alexis Bledel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
Guest Actor, Drama: Gerald McRaney, “This Is Us” (NBC)
Guest Actress, Comedy: Melissa McCarthy, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Guest Actor, Comedy: Dave Chappelle, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Animated Program: “Bob’s Burgers” (FOX)
Reality Host: RuPaul Charles (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”)

 

In Movie News…

Have you been checking out our TIFF coverage? We have a new interview with Idris Elba, red carpet interviews, and several film reviews. A pull quote of BGN’s review of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women was used in their advertisements! If you haven’t read the review yet, check it out here.

Angela Robinson, writer, and director of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, already has a new project lined up.  She is teaming up with Terry Moore to adapt his comic book series Strangers in Paradise. Of the series, Robinson said:

“I’ve been wanting to adapt Strangers in Paradise for over a decade, since the first time I read it and couldn’t put it down. Terry Moore writes real female characters with such breathtaking sensitivity. With Strangers in Paradise, he pulls off the nearly impossible — a sexy, stylish crime story with tons of heart. I look forward to our collaboration!”

Credit: Twitter/Terry Moore

This is the second week with major Star Wars news. Last week, we announced that Colin Trevorrow will no longer be the director of Star Wars: Episode 9. They didn’t wait long to announce his replacement. JJ Abrams is their choice. Abrams ushered in this new age of Star Wars films with Episode 7: The Force Awakens. It may not be quite the choice some were hoping for. Many wanted Lucasfilm to finally turn to a woman or person of color. This is the safe choice and mostly likely the natural choice, to have the person who started the series be the one to end it.

Last week we reported on Ed Skrein leaving the Hellboy reboot, citing that he didn’t want to play a whitewashed character. Now we have his replacement – Daniel Dae Kim. Kim was in Lost and made news earlier this year for leaving Hawaii 5-0 over a contract dispute. I’m glad to see he’s received an even better role. This casting has also opened up interesting conversations on social media about whether or not it counts as progress to have a Korean actor playing a Japanese character.

The sequel to John Wick ended dramatically. If you’re dying to know how the titular character fared, you still have a little bit of a wait. The third installment is set to release May 17, 2019. Yes, it’s a little over a year but at least we know he will be alive for it.

Photo credit: 2016 Summit Entertainment

Finally, this has been a good week for Hiroyuki Sanada. Recently, Sanada was in TNT’s The Last Ship. Not only will he have a major recurring role in season 2 of HBO’s Westworld, he is also joining the cast of Avengers: Infinity War. The question remains, who isn’t in Infinity War? I’m still waiting for my call, Marvel.

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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