This week, we’re checking out the fall premieres that have already been cancelled. So, as you get ready to carve the turkey, check out how Wicked City, Truth Be Told, Blood & Oil, The Bastard Executioner, Minority Report and The Player all wound up on the chopping block!

Stay up to date on what’s on (and off) the air with our Fall TV coverage!

This week in TV news, Kurt Sutter axes The Bastard Executioner, while ABC Family gets into the horror genre with Dead of Summer. Plus, Comedy Central announces dates for its winter series, and — speaking of winter — MAJOR Game of Thrones season six spoilers tip to “chilling” developments for one very popular character.

KURT SUTTER ANNOUNCES THE END OF THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER VIA AN AD IN THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

FX’s medieval epic The Bastard Executioner ended its series run this week, following Tuesday night’s season one finale. The news was spread by the show’s creator and showrunner, Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy, The Shield), who took out an ad in the Hollywood Reporter to explain why the series would not be continuing. “I would like to acknowledge The Bastard Executioner family for a once in a lifetime creative and personal experience,” Sutter’s statement said. “I have been awed by the talent and commitment of the TBX cast and crew. I thank my partners for their trust, support, and tireless effort as I slashed my way through 50 years of Catholic angst.” Sutter then thanked a slew of names and companies behind the project, including FX president John Landgraf for not firing him. “The audience has spoken, and unfortunately the word is ‘meh,'” Sutter concluded. “So with due respect, we bring our mythology to an epic and fiery close.” While the dark period drama about a morally conflicted executioner suffered sagging ratings throughout its run, Sutter is not discouraged and already has plans for his next FX series — a Sons of Anarchy spinoff about the Mayan biker club.

ABC FAMILY ORDERS A SUMMER CAMP HORROR SERIES FROM OUAT TEAM

Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, co-creators of ABC’s dramatic fairy tale hit Once Upon a Time, have received an order from ABC Family (soon to be known as “Freeform”) to make Dead of Summer, a horror series set at a summer camp; OUAT writer Ian Goldberg is attached as the showrunner. According to EW, Dead of Summer was pitched as a “‘John Hughes meets John Carpenter’ anthology series, with the first season set in 1989,” and will be ABC Family’s first foray into horror. EW also published the series logline: “Set in the late 1980s, school is out for the summer, and a sun-drenched season of firsts beckons the counselors at Camp Clearwater, a seemingly idyllic Midwestern summer camp, including first loves, first kisses – and first kills. Clearwater’s dark, ancient mythology awakens, and what was supposed to be a summer of fun soon turns into one of unforgettable scares and evil at every turn. Part coming-of-age story, part supernatural horror story, Dead of Summer is a bold, new series that mixes genres as it examines the light and dark of a summer like no other.” This will be the first new series for Horowitz and Kitsis since launching OUAT in 2011.

COMEDY CENTRAL SETS DATES FOR BROAD CITY AND OTHERS

Comedy Central unveiled its winter premiere schedule this week, announcing that season three of Broad City, starring Ilana Glazer and ‎Abbi Jacobson, returns on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 10 p.m. — and teasing their upcoming misadvertures, “including a trip to the DMV, a rat in the apartment, going clubbing, taking on new job responsibilities, visiting Abbi’s dad and new hook ups.” Also on the upcoming slate is season six of Workaholics (Thursday, Jan. 14 at 10 p.m.); season eight of Tosh.0 (Feb. 9 at 10 p.m.); season two of This Is Not Happening (Feb. 23 at 12:30 a.m.); season three of Adam Devine’s House Party (Mar. 3 at 12:30 a.m.); and the premieres of two new series. Idiotsitter, starring Charlotte Newhouse as an Ivy Leaguer hired to babysit an heiress under house arrest, premieres Jan. 14 at 10:30 p.m., and Not Safe w/ Nikki Glaser, hosted by the self-proclaimed “curious perv” who discusses sex and relationships with fellow comics, debuts Feb. 9 at 10:30 p.m.

GAME OF THRONES FAN SITE REVEALS SUPER-SPOILERY SEASON SIX INFO

This week at the movies, we’ve got a notorious mobster (Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch), teenage adventurers (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, starring Dylan O’Brien and Kaya Scodelario), and a desperate criminal (Captive, starring David Oyelowo and Kate Mara). What do the critics have to say?

Black Mass (2015) 73%

Black Mass isn’t the first feature film about brutal gangster-turned-slippery fugitive Whitey Bulger — he’s the subject of a critically-acclaimed documentary and the loose inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed. Critics say Black Mass explores well-trodden crime movie territory as well, but the film is elevated by Johnny Depp’s mesmerizing lead performance — and excellent work from a solid supporting cast. The movie follows Bulger’s rise from petty hood to violent mob boss; Whitey’s rise in Boston’s demimonde is assisted by FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who enlists him as a confidential informant, and his politician brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), who uses his office  to protect him. The pundits say Black Mass often feels familiar, but it’s still a well-crafted film that finds Depp giving his best performance in years.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) 48%

As dystopian sci-fi adventure films based on young adult novels go, The Maze Runner was pretty solid, if decidedly a cut below The Hunger Games series. Unfortunately, critics say its sequel, The Scorch Trials, is mostly a run-of-the-mill action yarn with a few decent set pieces and little-to-no character development. This time out, our heroes, led by Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), have left the maze behind; instead, they must navigate harsh landscapes and avoid not just the evil WCKD but also hoards of zombies. The pundits say Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is briskly paced and occasionally exciting, but its overabundance of  plotting makes for limited emotional involvement.

Captive (2015) 27%

Based on an astonishing true story, Captive recounts the tale of an escaped criminal (David Oyelowo) who takes a hostage (Kate Mara) and eventually surrenders after she encourages him to read the Christian self-help book The Purpose-Driven Life. Critics say Captive is enlivened by its excellent leads, but it never quite generates a necessary sense of tension.

What’s Hot on TV

You're the Worst: Season 2 (2015) 97%

Expertly balancing character growth against edgy humor, You’re the Worst elevates the show’s excellent writing and talented cast to a new level.

Project Greenlight: Season 4 (2015) 88%

Project Greenlight makes a welcome return, retaining many of the qualities that helped make it a reality TV favorite.

The Bastard Executioner: Season 1 (2015) 46%

Kurt Sutter’s The Bastard Executioner doesn’t want for dark thrills, but it unfortunately has more enthusiasm for brutality and gore than necessary narrative focus.

Also Opening This Week In Limited Release

• Peace Officer (2015) , a documentary about the increase in military weapons and tactics among police officers, is at 100 percent.
• Sicario (2015) , starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro in a thriller about a straight-arrow FBI agent whose mission to bring down a drug cartel kingpin is compromised by her allies’ opaque motives, is at 91 percent.
• The New Girlfriend (2014) , a psychological dramedy about a man whose gender fluidity comes to light after the death of his wife, is at 82 percent.
• Prophet's Prey (2015) , a documentary about the abuses of power by the leader of a breakaway Mormon sect, is at 80 percent.
• () , starring Chow Yun-Fat in a musical satire of the modern workplace, is at 80 percent.
• Pawn Sacrifice (2014) , starring Tobey Maguire and Peter Sarsgaard in a fictional retelling of the famous showdown between chess masters Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, is at 76 percent.
• Everest (2015) , starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke in an adventure film based on the true story of a group of climbers who were trapped in a blizzard while ascending the world’s tallest mountain, is at 71 percent.
• Being Canadian (2015) , a documentary about the quirks and characteristics that define our neighbors to the North, is at 60 percent.
• The Man Who Saved the World (2014) , a documentary about the Soviet Army colonel whose calm under pressure likely averted a nuclear war, is at 60 percent.
• Some Kind of Hate (2015) , a horror film about a bullied teen who is protected by a vengeful ghost, is at 50 percent.
• The Cut (2014) , a drama about a man who goes searching for his missing daughters after fighting in World War I, is at 40 percent.
• Cooties (2014) , starring Elijah Wood and Rainn Wilson in a horror comedy about a group of teachers who fight to survive a plague of grade-school zombies, is at 37 percent.
• Hellions (2015) , a horror film about a pregnant teenager bedeviled by malevolent trick-or-treaters, is at 31 percent.

Right after concluding his epic biker series Sons of Anarchy, creator Kurt Sutter is back on FX with an epic medieval series. The Bastard Executioner is a period piece in which an Edwardian soldier experiences the divine calling to give up his violent life. However, he’s led into a new life equally violent — that of an executioner.

Lee Jones plays the bastard executioner, Wilkin Brattle, in 14th-century Wales. A new face to us, let alone the lead of an FX series, Jones met us at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. His costar Stephen Moyer (you know him as Bill Compton from True Blood), joined the interview midway and simply sat down and introduced himself as Steve. Moyer, who plays the baron’s advisor Milus Corbett, spoke with Jones about the action, politics, and spirituality of The Bastard Executioner, which premieres tonight on FX.

Fred Topel for Rotten Tomatoes: Lee, this is the first that many of us are seeing you. What was your journey to becoming the lead of a big FX series?

Lee Jones: It was crazy. Crazy last-minute and fast is what it was. When I heard about the project, I thought, “That sounds like the dream job.” Then I put down a tape here in L.A., found out that night they were going to fly me to London. You want a job, book a holiday, right? So I was traveling. Had to turn around, fly to London and pretty much booked it the next day. They were down the line and I think it found me in a way.

Rotten Tomatoes: Were you a theater actor in London?

Jones: Not in London, I’m from Australia. They flew me to London from L.A. I’ve been working in Australia mainly in theater. That’s my background. I went to drama school for three years and that was predominantly theater training.

Rotten Tomatoes: Stephen, were you looking to get into another show?                                  

Stephen Moyer: No, I wasn’t. There were a couple of things around that I was looking at, that I’d been offered. I did actually get very close to doing something else and then I kind of just pulled away because I wasn’t ready to do TV yet. Literally, three weeks later I said yes to this because I was just blown away by it. I really wanted to work with Kurt and at some time had hoped I would. I loved Sons and then suddenly this opportunity came along and it just felt totally right. It was a big decision because I’ve got four kids so it was about trying to work out what we were going to do. Literally, Anna [Paquin] and our babies have all transplanted to Wales and we’re all living in Wales.

Rotten Tomatoes: Once you accepted the role, did you delve deep into medieval history?

Moyer: Luckily, our school system is very different from yours, but when you’re in English school between 16 and 18, you pick three subjects and you only do those three subjects. I did history and English literature, and sociology. It just so happened that English literature those two years was all the medieval plays by Shakespeare and my history level was medieval history. My period that I studied was King John to Henry V. So, I actually know quite a lot about Edward I and II.

Rotten Tomatoes: It really did come calling you.

Moyer: Well, it’s funny but it’s weird. I did terribly in those exams. I was f—ing terrible and yet all through my career, when I first went to the Royal Shakespeare Company, that was the period we were doing. It keeps coming back to it. It’s bizarre.

Jones: Yeah, I keep finding dark stuff like this of this period. I did as much as I could in the time that I had. I got cast so quickly, so last-minute, that I chip away when I can. I find there is so much in the script, I just take it scene by scene. That feeds me.

Rotten Tomatoes: Did the two hour pilot feel like a movie?

Jones: Absolutely. It was so epic — so, so epic which is great. We also mainly shot in sequence, so that really allowed me to find the character and feel the arc of the character which is very filmic.

Rotten Tomatoes: How long did you have to film the big battle?

Jones: We did that over two days.

Rotten Tomatoes: That’s it?

Jones: Yeah, and predominantly, it was done on one. We just had to do pickups on the second day. I, when I got the role, went straight into training, sword-fighting, horseriding — so that stuff we’d been working hard on. So then it was really about learning the fights, but also we were fighting on such tricky terrain that a lot of mistakes were happening. We’re falling everywhere and just had to go with it, which is a good lesson to learn early on. Mistakes kind of look good because it’s like a real fight.

Rotten Tomatoes: A movie gets three or four months to train. How long did you have?

Jones: Two weeks. Not fair, is it? No, but it’s good. It was just an intense way of doing it.

Rotten Tomatoes: How heavy are those swords?

Jones: The “allees” get pretty heavy. We use a combination of aluminum and there are some bamboo swords as well, so we have some lighter options to play with.

Rotten Tomatoes: Bamboo painted to look like swords?

Jones: Painted to look like a sword, yeah.

Rotten Tomatoes: When you do a whole fight scene in a single day, are you just totally exhausted at the end?

Jones: Totally exhausted. I did one just the other week that was two fight sequences back to back, and we shot it as one continuous scene because of the way the drama was happening in the story at that point. That, I was throwing myself on the floor at the end of each day. Also, because the motivation behind the fight at that point was so emotionally charged, it took my exhaustion to a whole new level.

Rotten Tomatoes: Stephen, do you represent more of the political side of The Bastard Executioner?

Moyer: Yes. I think Milus is weighing up the opportunities that he’s found in his lap. He also has no reason, after the death of Ventris, for him to be kept on really, because Lady Love didn’t bring him in. He was Ventris’ man. So he’s trying to align himself and get himself into a situation where she will need him. He sees in this situation with Wilkin a possibility to use him because he senses something between Wilkin and Lady Love.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the character of Luca, who’s the little boy who becomes his son in this show. In my sort of backstory, I’ve built a sort of world in which my character was perhaps not unlike that little boy who witnessed some horrific stuff and was probably abused by his father and is doing everything he can to rise up and out of what he was and how he was brought up. So he is hanging onto the bootstraps of the people that will get him there — and he’s creating bootstraps where there weren’t any before.

Rotten Tomatoes: How is the spiritual side represented? Does Wilkin have some sort of vision every week?

Jones: He is so plagued with guilt that I guess his demons are coming to haunt him in a way. The spiritual side of it is very personal to Wilkin [who is] looking for the higher purpose that he’s trying to find in life. That’s what is forcing him to stay where he is in this situation of being the executioner. He has that divine intervention and he’s looking for a higher purpose. He’s really looking for a reason to turn his back on a violent life and he’s tortured by that. I think he’s really wrestling with justifying his faith and the life of violence that he leads.

Rotten Tomatoes: Did you get to see yourself become The Bastard Executioner through the costume fittings?

Jones: I did. It made me hold myself in a different way and that was a big help. The hair and everything was transformative for sure. Also, when you carry a sword, you hold yourself differently obviously.

Rotten Tomatoes: How do they grime up your hair and face?

Jones: Lots of special makeup dirt stuff that I don’t know what’s in it, but it just gets flicked on me every day. I was scrubbing my neck just last night and was still getting stuff off. We’re often in actual mud and it’s pouring with rain so we’re in it.

Rotten Tomatoes: It doesn’t smell as bad as it looks, does it?

Jones: [Laughs] No, it doesn’t.

The Bastard Executioner premieres September 15 at 10 p.m. on FX. Read reviews here.

Emmy nominations are out for last season, but it’s already time for a new one. Television continues to rival, and sometimes surpass, the quality and success of film industry releases, with more networks than we ever thought possible 20 years ago. And, with the growing number of cable networks, we witness the capability of catering to more adult-oriented content. This fall, we will continue to see television grow, for better and for worse. Which new shows will achieve Fresh, or even Certified Fresh, status? Which will quickly go Rotten? And which of your favorite returning shows made the cut this year? Here’s the list as we know it, and we’ll continue to update it as premiere dates continue to be broadcast.

August | September | October | November | Winter | Fall TBA 

 August

Monday, Aug. 3
Significant Mother series premiere, 9:30 p.m., CW

Tuesday, Aug. 4
Playing House season two premiere, 10 p.m., USA

Wednesday, Aug. 5
Difficult People series premiere, Hulu
Mr. Robinson series premiere, 9 p.m., NBC

Mr. Robinson

Friday, Aug. 7
Casanova series premiere, Amazon
Sneaky Pete series premiere, Amazon

Saturday, Aug. 8
Funny or Die Presents America’s Next Weatherman series premiere, 11 p.m., TBS

Wednesday, Aug. 12
Young & Hungry season two return, 8 p.m., ABC Family
Kevin from Work series premiere, 8:30 p.m., ABC Family

Sunday, Aug. 16
Show Me a Hero miniseries premiere, 9 p.m., HBO

Tuesday, Aug. 18
The Hotwives of Las Vegas series premiere, Hulu

Thursday, Aug. 20
Documentary Now! series premiere, 10 p.m., IFC

Saturday, Aug. 22
Blunt Talk series premiere, 9 p.m., Starz
Survivor’s Remorse season two premiere, 9:30 p.m., Starz

Sunday, Aug. 23
Fear the Walking Dead series premiere, 9 p.m., AMC
Vicious season two premiere, 10:30 p.m., PBS

Vicious

Monday, Sep. 28
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah series premiere, 10:30 p.m., Comedy Central