This week in TV news, American Gods has found its Shadow Moon, Harrison Ford will host a TV special about Disney’s Star Wars Land, Kit Harington knows nothing about Jon Snow, and more!
RICKY WHITTLE CAST AS SHADOW MOON IN STARZ’S AMERICAN GODS
Neil Gaiman’s beloved fantasy novel American Gods, which is being adapted for television by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green for Starz, has found it’s Shadow Moon! Ricky Whittle has been cast in the lead role, and Gaiman couldn’t be happier. In a statement to press he said, “I’m thrilled that Ricky has been cast as Shadow. His auditions were remarkable. The process of taking a world out of the pages of a book, and putting it onto the screen has begun. American Gods is, at its heart, a book about immigrants, and it seems perfectly appropriate that Shadow will, like so much else, be Coming to America. I’m delighted Ricky will get to embody Shadow. Now the fun starts.” The British-born actor is presently a series regular on CW’s drama, The 100, and also appeared on NCIS, Mistresses, and in the movie Austenland. Now it’s time to find Mr. Wednesday!
HARRISON FORD TO REVEAL PLANS FOR STAR WARS LAND THEME PARK EXTENSIONS ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY: DISNEYLAND 60
Harrison Ford will introduce the
Star Wars Land theme park expansions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World as part of
The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 special.
Dancing with the Stars champion Derek Hough will host the celebratory special which, aside from unveiling some of the
park plans, will also include such guests as actor Josh Gad, fellow
DWTS pro Witney Carson, and Elton John, who will be debuting a new song called “Wonderful Crazy Night.”
Also reported, Gad will present a tour of Walt Disney’s private apartment and the Disneyland Dream Suite, while Hough and Carson will perform dance tributes to music from key Disney titles. The special will air
Sunday, Feb. 21 on ABC.
AVA DUVERNAY’S NEW SERIES QUEEN SUGAR WILL HAVE ALL WOMEN DIRECTORS
After being ordered straight to series last year by Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, pre-production on
Selma director
Ava DuVernay’s first television series
Queen Sugar is moving forward. Last week
True Blood regular Rutina Wesley
was cast in the lead role, with
DuVernay announcing this week that the series will have an all-women directorial team. Although no names are attached yet, DuVernay did reveal many of the directors come from the “black independent film space.”
DuVernay also announced on Twitter that Omar Dorsey (
Battle Creek), (
Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and Kofi Siriboe (
Awkward) have also joined the cast.
Queen Sugar follows a woman who relocates with her teenage daughter from Los Angeles to Louisiana to claim an inheritance — an 800-acre sugarcane farm.
IN OTHER CASTING NEWS, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON‘S BREAKOUT STAR, COREY HAWKINS, WILL STAR IN FOX’S 24 REVIVAL SERIES; MILEY CYRUS AND WOODY ALLEN GET THEIR AMAZON ON
Corey Hawkins, whose Dr. Dre portrayal in
Straight Outta Compton has won him accolades,
has been cast in the leading role of Eric Carter in the new
24 revival series. This is
24: Legacy and will center on a new journey for military hero Carter who has returned home only to discover trouble has followed him back to the U.S. In order to save his life and to impede a possible terrorist attack on the US, Carter must enlist the help of our favorite behind the scenes heroes… the CTU, whose former head officer will be played by
Miranda Otto of
Lord of the Rings fame.
Also in casting news, Miley Cyrus has been cast alongside Elaine May as the stars of the new as-of-yet untitled Woody Allen TV series for Amazon. There is no drop date yet for the series, but be on the lookout for more on that front soon.
KIT HARINGTON ASSURES FANS THAT JON SNOW IS DEAD
In a recent interview with BBC News, Kit Harington suggested that
Game of Thrones fans shouldn’t get their hopes up, and
assured everyone that his beloved character, Jon Snow, “…is dead, I’m afraid.” But the internet seems to think that the young wolf doth protest too much. Paparazzi photos of Harrington on the set of
Game of Thrones have fueled the flames of Jon Snow’s much speculated survival. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Game of Thrones season six returns on April 24th.
