TAGGED AS: DC Comics, Superheroes
This week in TV news, The CW is putting together a superhero team-up show. Plus, The Walking Dead is giving us an extra 50 percent, Kurt Sutter is giving us a new period drama, Seth MacFarlane is giving us Ed Begley Jr., and Inspector Gadget and DuckTales are giving us back our childhoods!
According to Deadline, The CW is developing a new DC Comics spinoff with fan-favorite characters from Arrow and The Flash. The untitled drama series, described as a “superhero team-up show,” could star Brandon Routh (Ray Palmer/The Atom)), Wentword Miller (Flash villain Captain Cold), Victor Garber (The Flash‘s Dr. Martin Stein), and Caity Lotz (Arrow‘s Canary — though her new role is unknown). Deadline writer Nellie Andreeva suspects that the superhero drama, which is not a part of The CW’s pilot slate, will go directly to series and most likely feature many other star players from The Flash–Arrow universe. Arrow creators Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Marc Guggenheim will produce.
AMC announced Wednesday that the season five finale of The Walking Dead, airing Sunday, Mar. 29 at 9 pm, will be an extended 90 minutes instead of the usual hour. According to AV Club, the finale will “feature Daryl in trouble on the run, and the other characters struggling to fit into their new community.” Not a whole lot to go on now, but there will be plenty to discuss afterwards on Talking Dead with Chris Hardwick, which will air at 10:30 pm that same night. In addition to breaking down the finale, Talking Dead will bid farewell to the many characters who bit it this season. Past Talking Dead guests include Conan O’Brien, Norman Reedus, Slash, and Yvette Nicole Brown. See reviews for the latest episode of Walking Dead, “The Distance,” here.
As a live-action reboot of Richie Rich hits Netflix this week, the streaming service announced five new children’s series, including reboots of old favorites Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse. Produced by Canadian television company DHX Media, Gadget has already aired on broadcast television in Europe, but will premiere exclusively in the US on Netflix in March. In other ’80s nostalgia news, a DuckTales remake will come to Disney XD in 2017, featuring characters Scrooge McDuck, and his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Donald Duck. A-woo-hoo.
Kurt Sutter may have hung up Sons of Anarchy forever, but he’s already back to work at FX with his new pilot The Bastard Executioner, a period drama about a warrior knight in King Edward I’s charge who, broken by the ravages of war, vows to lay down his sword. But, of course, the plan doesn’t exactly stick. Australian unknown Lee Jones will play the lead and be joined by a number of screen vets, including SOA‘s Katey Sagal and True Blood‘s Stephen Moyer. Sutter will also appear in the show as “The Dark Mute,” described by FX as the mate and guardian of Sagal’s character who “speaks rarely; no one’s ever seen his face.” Production for the Bastard Executioner begins Mar. 19 in Wales.
The Starz original series Blunt Talk has cast several recurring and guest roles for the first season of the half-hour scripted comedy series from Seth MacFarlane and starring Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, American Dad). Ed Begley Jr. (Arrested Development, Portlandia), Mary Holland (Silicon Valley), Karan Soni (Safety Not Guaranteed), and Romany Malco (Top Five) have been cast in recurring roles on the series. Additionally, musician and actor Moby will be making a guest star appearance. Set in Los Angeles, the story follows Walter Blunt, a British import intent on conquering the world of American cable news and the fallout from his well-intentioned, but mostly misguided decision-making, both on and off the air. The series will premiere on Starz in the summer of 2015.
