Spin-offs rule September with our social media and site users choosing The Continental, GenV, Castlevania: Nocturne, and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon among the top TV and streaming series they’re looking forward to in the month.
Disagree with the results? Have your say in the comments.
No. 1 (tie)
63%
The Continental: From the World of John Wick: Limited Series
(2023)
(Peacock)
#1 on Rotten Tomatoes’ poll (tied with The Wheel of Time), #2 on Facebook and YouTube, #3 on Instagram, #4 on X (formerly known as Twitter)
Premieres: Friday, September 22
This prequel miniseries takes place is set in the 1970s in the John Wick universe. The man himself does not show up, but the series follows the younger versions of fan-favorite characters Winston Scott (Colin Woodell) and Charon (Ayomide Adegun) as they come up in The Continental hotel management, which includes clashing with reigning proprietor Cormac (Mel Gibson).
How to Watch: by subscription on Peacock
86%
The Wheel of Time: Season 2
(2023)
(Prime Video)
#1 on Instagram and Rotten Tomatoes’ poll (tied with The Continental), #2 on X (formerly known as Twitter), #4 on Facebook and YouTube
Premiered: Friday, September 1
The second season of Prime Video’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy novels finds Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) cut off from the One Power and struggling with her role among the magical Aes Sedai. The Twin Rivers’ five are scattered and on different paths, including Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), who discovered in season 1 that he is the Dragon Reborn, a powerful figure destined to either save or break their world. With episode 1 of season 2 released on Friday, the title is among the most popular TV and streaming shows on Rotten Tomatoes.
How to Watch: by subscription on Prime Video
No. 2
97%
Gen V: Season 1
(2023)
(Prime Video)
#1 on YouTube and X (formerly known as Twitter), #2 on Rotten Tomatoes’ poll (tied with The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), #5 on Facebook and Instagram
Premieres: Friday, September 29
Prime Video’s spin off of raunchy superhero series The Boys takes place in an institute of higher education for powered individuals. Godolkin University is run by Vought International to train the next generation of supes. Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) stars as “blood manipulator” Marie Moreau, and Lizze Broadway stars as shrinking YouTuber Emma Shaw.
How to Watch: by subscription on Prime Video
No. 3
96%
Castlevania: Nocturne: Season 1
(2023)
(Netflix)
#1 on Facebook, #2 on Instagram, #3 on YouTube
Premieres: Friday, September 22
In this animated sequel to Netflix’s original series, the legacy of the Belmont family of vampire hunters rests with the last of their line: Richter Belmont (voiced by Edward Bluemel). A vampire messiah conspires with nobility to put down the French Revolution.
How to Watch: by subscription on Netflix
No. 4
70%
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: Season 1
(2023)
(AMC)
#2 on Rotten Tomatoes’ poll (tied with Gen V), #4 on Instagram, #5 on YouTube (tied with Star Trek: Lower Decks)
Premieres: Sunday, September 10
Catch up with The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), as he washes up on the shores of France and fights walkers and angry men toward a way back home.
How to Watch: with your cable subscription on AMC and streaming by subscription on AMC+
No. 5
88%
Sex Education: Season 4
(2023)
(Netflix)
#3 on Rotten Tomatoes’ poll and X (formerly known as Twitter)
Premieres: Thursday, September 21
Amateur sex therapist Otis (Asa Butterfield) and the gang must acclimate to a new secondary school in the final season of the Netflix comedy. Gillian Anderson, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, and Connor Swindells also return for the new season.
How to Watch: by subscription on Netflix
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Excited fans took to the floor of the Jacob Javits Convention Center to celebrate their favorite TV shows and highly-anticipated new films at New York Comic Con over the weekend. While attendees buzzed over exclusive items, collectibles, and freebies on the show floor, a curated selection of programming rooms, stage panels, and Q&A events provided news reveals that echoed beyond the convention halls.
Here are the top highlights as they were presented at NYCC:
His Dark Materials season 3 finally has a trailer, and a premiere date
“The Amber Spyglass,” the final book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series gets the adaptation treatment in the third and final season of HBO and BBC’s landmark fantasy series. Get ready for elephants on wheels, a whole load of angels, tiny folks who ride insects to and fro, and of course, hell.
84%
His Dark Materials
season 3 premieres on Dec. 5 on HBO Max.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer boasts an all-star cast
It’s been three decades since the notoriously cheesy ’90s live-action adaptation of Nintendo’s massively popular video game franchise hit theaters. Illumination Animation and Universal finally unleashed the first trailer for their highly-anticipated The Super Mario Bros. Movie at New York Comic Con and its cast is superb. Chris Pratt plays Mario, Charlie Day is Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach, Jack Black goes full villain as Bowser, Seth Rogen is Donkey Kong and Keegan-Michael Key plays Toad.
59%
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
premieres on April 7, 2023, nationwide in theaters.
Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches continues the author’s legacy on AMC
In its continued effort to expand the Anne Rice story universe on television, AMC+ is gearing up to bring The Mayfair Witches to the small screen. The official trailer for the series dropped before the show’s NYCC panel, and ensures the author’s enduring legacy is firmly in-tact.
Stars Alexandra Daddario (Dr. Rowan Fielding), Harry Hamlin (Cortland Mayfair), Tongayi Chirisa (Ciprien Grieve) and Jack Huston (Lasher) joined executive producers Esta Spalding, Mark Johnson and Michelle Ashford on stage after the clip came to an end. How will this series differ from the witch stories that came before it? According to Ashford, the idea of telling a story of witches — aka, healers who were demonized by society — felt absolutely relevant to present day.
Anne Rice’s The Mayfair Witches premieres Thursday, January 5, 2023, on AMC+.
Mindy Kaling’s Scooby Doo spinoff Velma is an adult animated series without Scooby
In the vein of raucous animated programs like Rick and Morty and Harley Quinn, Warner Bros. Animation’ Velma digs into the high school origin story of the orange-turtleneck wearing, be-spectacled Velma Dinkley. Gone is the family friendly vibe of previous Scooby Doo installments, making way for some blood-spattered horror goodness and thought-provoking adult themes to take shape.
During the NYCC panel, showrunner Charlie Grandy explained the omission of everyone’s favorite burger-loving Great Dane.
“What made Scooby-Doo a kid show is Scooby-Doo,” Grandy said. “We couldn’t have a take on it, like, How can we do this in a fun and modern way?”
It turns out, their efforts to keep Scoob out of things lined up with Warner Bros. Animation saying they couldn’t use him anyway. Without Scooby, the series is able to differentiate itself, fully leaning into its adult tone.
It’s still a high school series, though. Mindy Kaling, who doesn’t just voice Velma, but also executive produces the series, tapped into her knack for bringing high school stories to life, here. The Never Have I Ever show creator revealed her love of exploring “people from different social strata find[ing] something in common.”
With a uniquely diverse cast, and various themes of identity being explored, Kaling assured the crowd that this series is completely in her wheelhouse: “We get to see all the high school events and dances in addition to it being a murder mystery.”
Joining Kaling in the series is Constance Wu, who plays Daphne, Sam Richardson’s Norville (who will also go by “Shaggy), and Glenn Howerton’s Fred.
Velma will premiere in 2023 on HBO Max.
The Legend of Vox Machina drops trailer for season 2, and exciting season 3 news
Ahead of the second season of Prime Video’s hit animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, the cast announced to the NYCC crowd the exciting news that a third season is now in the cards. The series is based on the characters and adventures as originally featured in Critical Role, the web series phenomenon that follows a cast of voice actors as they play through various Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
As the official season 2 synopsis states: “After saving the realm from evil and destruction at the hands of the most terrifying power couple in Exandria, Vox Machina is faced with saving the world once again — this time, from a sinister group of dragons known as the Chroma Conclave.”
100%
The Legend of Vox Machina
season 2 premieres in January on Prime Video.
Adult Animated Koala Man Adds Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, and Jarrad Wright with Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving set to make guest appearances
(Photo by Hulu)
Hulu paneled the upcoming original adult animated series Koala Man on Thursday and announced the casting of Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, and Jarrad Wright with Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving set to make guest appearances. Previously announced cast includes Hugh Jackman, Sarah Snook, Demi Lardner, and creator Michael Cusack. Koala Man follows middle-aged dad Kevin (Cusack) and his titular not-so-secret identity, whose only superpower is a passion for following rules and battling petty crime in the town of Dapto, an Australian suburb.
The Wheel of Time drops the highly-anticipated trailer for season 2
Season 2 of The Wheel of Time has been wrapped for some time and finally, during Friday’s panel for the series (which was partnered with Prime Video’s other fantasy juggernaut series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power), series creator Rafe Judkins offered fans a peek at what’s to come in the new episodes.
During the presentation, Judkins teased the inclusion of the Seanchan, a magical army of invaders who appear in Robert Jordan’s second Wheel Of Time book. The villainous entities with the long metal nails can be seen briefly in the trailer above. Gone from the series is Barney Harris, who played Mat Cauthon in season 1, with Dónal Finn taking over as the character. We may not have a premiere date yet, but by the looks of the season 2 trailer, the situation seems dire for Moiraine, Lan, Rand al’Thor, and the gang.
81%
The Wheel of Time: Season 1
(2021)
is now streaming on Prime Video.
The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power season finale trailer gives a first look at Sauron
Say hello to Sauron! Prime Video released a trailer teasing the epic season finale for Lord of the Rings prequel series, Rings of Power during the show’s panel. And by the looks of things, this upcoming week’s episode will finally bring Mordor’s big bad to the small-screen.
Some other noteworthy tidbits were released regarding the show’s future on the platform. Given the good news that the series was renewed for a second season, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay were absent from the NYCC panel. They’re in pre-production on the new episodes which will switch shooting locations from New Zealand to London. Not to mention, Felicia Day has been tapped to host an eight-episode companion podcast that will go live on October 14, just in time to talk about season 1’s end.
With a five-season plan in place, Prime Video seems to have plenty of confidence in the high-budget fantasy series. Just where things will go is anyone’s guess, but it sure will be pretty to look at once season 2 premieres.
84%
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1
(2022)
concludes on Friday, October 14 on Prime Video.
Good Omens season 2 gets a premiere date, and noteworthy additions to the cast
(Photo by Prime Video)
Neil Gaiman appeared to tease Good Omens’ anticipated summer 2023 return to Prime Video. While he was mostly tight-lipped about specific story details for the six new episodes, he did hint at a love story being in the cards. Whether that romance is between Michael Sheen’s angel Aziraphale and David Tennant’s demon Crowley is anyone’s guess.
During the New York Comic Con panel, some new casting details were released for season 2 and some familiar faces are returning to play new characters. Actresses Maggie Service and Nina Sosanya, who portrayed nuns in the first installment of the show, are returning to play new characters, aptly named Maggie and Nina.
(Photo by Prime Video)
“There were two characters in it,” Gaiman shared coyly, “and I wanted them played by Maggie and Nina. In order to make it clear to everyone reading the script that those characters were going to be played by Maggie and Nina, I called them Maggie and Nina.”
“I play Maggie,” Service added. “She runs a record shop, which is besides Aziraphale’s bookshop in SoHo. It’s a shop that’s been passed through the generations. My shop look looks across …”
“… another shop, which is a coffee shop” Sosanya added, explaining her character. “It’s called Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death. Nina is a bit mintier than I am. She runs this independent coffee shop in SoHo. She is good at dealing with people who come into a coffee shop in SoHo. She’s not afraid of dealing with people.”
(Photo by Prime Video)
A new addition to the cast is actress Quelin Sepulveda, who will be playing an angel named Muriel. She’s a completely new character in the Good Omens story canon. And, by all accounts, she’s just a friendly welcoming sort. Something that is a bit hard to come by in heaven, apparently.
“We realized that one thing we didn’t have in heaven was, apart from Aziraphale, any nice, well-meaning angels,” Gaiman continued. “All we had were bastards.”
(Photo by Prime Video)
“Muriel has spent about 6,000 years or more in the same office in heaven,” Gaiman added. “Just filing things and reading things, just hoping someone will come in and the day will get more interesting.”
Miranda Richardson is back in season 2, playing a demon named Shax who’s aiming to replace Crowley. And Shelley Conn takes over as Beelzebub in the new episodes.
(Photo by Prime Video)
(Photo by Prime Video)
86%
Good Omens
season 2 is expected to premiere in 2023 on Prime Video.
Teen Wolf: The Movie first look teases a very different Derek Hale
Paramount+ revealed a first look clip for the streamer’s upcoming Teen Wolf sequel movie, aptly titled Teen Wolf: The Movie. The film takes place 15 years after the end of the MTV series and checks in with Scott McCall, who, as star Tyler Posey revealed during the movie’s panel, “is not a teen wolf, anymore. He’s a 30-year-old wolf.” What does that mean, exactly? According to Posey, “It’s the first time we’ve seen him [try to be a normal human] since the pilot.” And, apparently, you can’t be a normal human without dealing with issues like, “depression, loneliness, and anxiety.”
As for the scene that was teased before the panel, Tyler Hoechlin (who reprises the role of Derek Hale) was unable to introduce the clip due to getting stuck in traffic. Writer Jeff Davis teased that Derek will also be shown “in a whole new light.” Being a father to Eli (Vince Mattis’ character) and taking on the role of mentor sure can change a wolf. Even though everyone has matured, the addition of Eli to the cast helps to “bring the teen back to Teen Wolf.”
32%
Teen Wolf: The Movie
(2023)
premieres January 26, 2023, on Paramount+.
Sarah Michelle Gellar trades vampires for werewolves in first trailer for Wolf Pack
Wolf Pack is technically a Teen Wolf spinoff series, in that, both stories take place in the same story world, but that’s where the connection ends. Boasting the genre TV return of Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, the series follows four teenagers brought together after a California wildfire sparks a werewolf attack.
Gellar plays arson investigator Kristin Ramsey, who also has some helpful supernatural insight. Joining her in the series is Rodrigo Santoro, Armani Jackson, Bella Shepard, Chloe Rose Robertson, and Tyler Lawrence Gray, all of whom appeared in front of the New York Comic Con crowd to promote the show.
Explaining why she chose to return to horror, Gellar said, “Utilizing the supernatural is how we explain the things we cannot really understand. The stories that we can’t really grasp, or the ones that would be too depressing in real life, and too upsetting. We use those to scare ourselves into understanding.”
44%
Wolf Pack
premieres January 26, 2023, on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5 trailer introduces new outlaws and a new Starfleet captain
Star Trek owned New York Comic Con in Saturday with Paramount+ presenting a gargantuan Star Trek Universe panel to the packed event, promoting Star Trek: Discovery season 5, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season.
Sonequa Martin-Green hit the NYCC stage to share this first look trailer for season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery. The teaser gives a peek at new characters Rayner (played by Callum Keith Rennie), a hardened Starfleet captain; Moll (played by Eve Harlow), a criminal who faces off with the Discovery crew; and her partner, L’ak (played by Elias Toufexis).
84%
Star Trek: Discovery
season 5 premiere date is to be announced.
Star Trek: Prodigy‘s midseason return adds a familiar Starfleet officer to the cast
Star Trek veteran Ronny Cox was announced as a new addition to the voice cast on Star Trek: Prodigy. Previously, Cox played the character of Edward Jellico in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, in the animated children’s series, he will reprise the role, who has moved up the ranks in Starfleet to Admiral status.
94%
Star Trek: Prodigy: Season 1
(2021)
makes its mid-season return on October 27 to Paramount+.
Star Trek: Picard reunites the Next Generation cast in the trailer for its third and final season
The trailer for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard delivered some epic fan service during the show’s panel at New York Comic Con. Some core Next Generation cast members joined Patrick Stewart on stage to tease the final episodes, including Brent Spiner (who has appeared as multiple characters throughout the first two seasons of Picard), LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis.
Amanda Plummer was revealed as the vengeful alien Vadic, who seeks to destroy Jean-Luc Picard and his old crew. This time around, Spiner will be playing Lore, Data’s evil android brother, who appeared multiple times throughout the original TNG run. Daniel Davis, who played the hologram version of Professor James Moriarty in The Next Generation, is also returning to Picard.
Adding some cool connective tissue to the casting of the series is the addition of Mica Burton, LeVar’s daughter, who will be playing Ensign Alandra La Forge, Geordi La Forge’s youngest daughter.
89%
Star Trek: Picard
season 3 will premiere February 16, 2023, on Paramount+.
The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan tease Dead City spinoff
(Photo by AMC)
During the final New York Comic Con panel for AMC’s The Walking Dead, a first look peek was given to The Walking Dead: Dead City, the network’s upcoming spinoff series starring Lauren Cohan as Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. It’s a pretty fitting tease, considering the fact that the apocalyptic new show is set in the Big Apple.
“The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror,” AMC said in its original press release for the series in March, back when it was titled Isle of the Dead.
Check out the other first look images below:
(Photo by AMC)
(Photo by AMC)
(Photo by AMC)
(Photo by AMC)
(Photo by AMC)
(Photo by AMC)
The Walking Dead: Dead City will premiere in April 2023 on AMC and AMC+.
Wednesday unleashes Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester in new trailer
Saturday was the day for Wednesday. During the panel for Netflix’s highly-anticipated Adams Family spinoff series, a new trailer was released upon the world giving the first ever looks at Fred Armisen’s Uncle Fester, and the return of Christina Ricci — who played Wednesday Adams in both Adams Family movies — to Tim Burton’s story world.
The clip gave a deeper look at Wednesday’s high school experience at Nevermore Academy, where Ricci plays a professor named Miss Thornhill.
Armisen, who appeared as a surprise guest during the panel, confirmed he shaved his head to properly get in character. “I shaved my head because this was like a role [that] as soon as I heard about it, I was like, Oh, I gotta be Fester! I really wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it right and not have a bald cap or anything. So, I just shaved my head, and I was proud to do it.”
80%
Wednesday
will premiere on November 23 on Netflix.
Netflix’s Wendell & Wild drops full trailer to ring in the spooky season
During Saturday’s panel for Netflix’s highly-anticipated stop motion animated feature, director Henry Selick hit the stage to showcase the full trailer for the movie, and give some insight behind its humble humorous beginnings. And yes, this definitely links back to Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key’s groundbreaking sketch comedy series Key & Peele.
“I was so inspired by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and their range of subjects, characters,” Selick said. “By the third season I just said, I gotta reach out to those guys.”
Originally a seven-page story Selick wrote for his two sons, Peele joined the creative team and helped expand the story into the full-length movie.
80%
Wendell & Wild
(2022)
premieres on October 28 on Netflix.
Tom Welling joins CW’s Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters
Tom Welling, the actor best known for playing Clark Kent on Smallville, will be joining The Winchesters in the recurring role of Samuel Campbell, Mary’s (Meg Donnelly) dad. From the sound of things, the Winchester Family Business actually began with the Campbell family and Samuel here, as the announcement goes, taught Mary everything he knows. He will make his first appearance in the series in episode 7.
100%
The Winchesters
premieres on Tuesday, October 11 on The CW.
Doom Patrol touches down with a new season 4 trailer
After a year of waiting, NYCC fans got a peek at the upcoming fourth season of Doom Patrol and, if anything, the show looks like it hasn’t at all lost its bizarre luster. It’s unclear if season 4 is the final run of the DC series, but considering the new addition of Madeline Zima to the cast (she’s playing Space Case, a superhero who was a bit part of the Gerard Way/Nick Derington run of the books), all signs are pointing to another bonkers fun outing for the rag-tag group of heroes.
98%
Doom Patrol
season 4 part 1 premieres December 8 on HBO Max.
Titans season 4 part 1 trailer gets dark and bloody
DC’s Titans is gearing up to get culty in its fourth season. During DC’s Sunday panel for the series at New York Comic Con, a new teaser dropped to whet our appetites for the coming episodes and by the looks of things, the show is about to get very bloody. Could the Church of Blood (the cult ran by villain Brother Blood) play a big part of the new season? It’s very possible. We’ll get the answers we seek in November.
89%
Titans
season 4, part 1 premieres Thursday, November 3 on HBO Max.
FX’s Kindred adaptation finally gets a premiere date
(Photo by FX)
FX’s new drama series Kindred, based on Hugo Award-winner Octavia E. Butler’s novel of the same name, will premiere all eight episodes on Tuesday, December 13 exclusively to Hulu. The announcement came during the Kindred panel presentation at New York Comic Con on Sunday, the closing day of the event.
Per the network’s official press release, the series follows Dana James (Mallori Johnson), “a young Black woman and aspiring writer who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own. But, before she can settle into her new home, she finds herself being violently pulled back and forth in time. She emerges at a 19th-century plantation, a place remarkably and intimately linked with Dana and her family. An interracial romance threads through Dana’s past and present, and the clock is ticking as she struggles to confront secrets she never knew ran through her blood, in this genre-breaking exploration of the ties that bind.”
Starring alongside Johnson are Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, David Alexander Kaplan, Sophina Brown and Sheria Irving.
Kindred season 1 premieres Tuesday, December 13 on Hulu.
On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.
This Friday, the Wheel at long last turns for Amazon’s adaptation of The Wheel of Time. Based on the novels of Robert Jordan, it promises to be the next great fantasy TV saga. It has plenty of magic, beloved characters — and beloved relationships between them – and even the promise of alternate realities. And if you look at the trailers, it definitely feels like it is standing the ground Game of Thrones once did with some of that Witcher-style enthusiasm for magic.
But, then again, The Wheel of Time predates them both (more or less) as Jordan released the first novel, The Eye of the World, in 1990. In the subsequent 11 novels published in his lifetime, he built a universe so sprawling, writer Brandon Sanderson (who took over after the author’s death) needed to break the final novel into three books.
(Photo by Jan Thijs/© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.)
Like Thrones before it, much of the buzz surrounding The Wheel of Time comes from a passionate pre-existing fanbase anxious to see Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), Lan (Daniel Henney), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Rand (Josha Stradowski), Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), and Mat (Barney Harris) set off on their journey. Also like those Ice and Fire fans, the Wheel faithful look forward to seeing newcomers’ reactions to momentous events as they unfold. Indeed, those newcomers are important to making the series work.
Read Also: The Wheel of Time First Reviews: Amazon Created an ‘Inviting’ Big Budget Fantasy, Critics Say
As executive producer Rafe Judkins told Rotten Tomatoes, everyone is “welcome in the world of Wheel of Time too, even if you haven’t read the books.”
“That’s the thing that’s exciting: knowing that there’s something that 90 million people around the world have read and that it’s sitting there and all of this incredible stuff is waiting for you,” he continued. At the same time, he acknowledged many people came to the novel series at “an important time in their lives” and that “obviously that’s a huge burden that I have to bear.
“I will never be able to deliver on exactly what they see and feel in their own mind and heart. But what’s exciting is that hopefully if I can bring the core of what makes people love the books to screen,” he said. With that in mind, he also said the first season (the second is already filming) will feel more like “the whole series of the books” even as it dramatizes events from The Eye of the World.
(Photo by Jan Thijs/© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.)
Set in an Medieval-looking world where magic is the purview of the all-female Aes Sedai, the series begins as Moiraine and other members of that order set out to find the Dragon Reborn – the reincarnation of a legendary hero who will either save or destroy the world. Moiraine’s journey leads her to Two Rivers, a peaceful village where five of its young people may be the fulfillment of the prophecy. Of course, she cannot tell which one is truly the Dragon, which complicates matters as they all set out to learn the truth. Also making things difficult: the returning army of an ancient evil bent on recreating the universe to its own dark design and the various political tensions of the realms they must cross.
Starting from Moiraine’s visit to Two Rivers is one of the first departures as The Eye of the World opens with two prologue scenes set much earlier in the series’ history. But when we spoke to Pike, it was a change she felt was appropriate to get to Moiraine and Two Rivers as quickly as possible. “I was speaking to a friend recently who said they didn’t get beyond that either [prologue] because there’s such a lot of lore and mythology,” she said.
(Photo by Jan Thijs/© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.)
At the same time, a healthy amount of that lore is immediately present as well for those who wish to receive it.
“Anyone who’s a fan of fantasy understands that that’s hugely important to establish a solid fantasy book or series,” Henney said, who looked to the worldbuilding as one of the key attractions to The Wheel of Time both as a novel and television series. “The character development is [also] incredible.”
As viewers will see across the three episodes available on Friday, that initial character development in and near Two Rivers will lead almost immediately into the worldbuilding. Teasing some future events, Pike said “[It] just broadened and broadened and [Jordan’s] imagination gets bigger and bigger. And then, you suddenly get into the machinations of power and intrigue and factions build up and the main group splits. And there’s these forces of good and evil, and you don’t know where you stand with anybody. I think that one of the things that keeps you on your toes is that everybody has many, many layers and many different agendas.”
In the center stands Moiraine, who, as a member of the Aes Sedai, “always speaks the truth, but it may not always be the truth that you think you hear.”
“I was very drawn to this woman of mystery, this woman of tremendous power, but power that is counterbalanced by a kind of stillness,” she continued. “The world of The Wheel of Time is all about balance. I think balance comes into [Jordan’s] characters, too. So she’s obviously someone who can unleash mind-blowingly, staggering displays of power, but then that’s counterbalanced by someone who seems outwardly very calm.”
(Photo by Jan Thijs/© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.)
Always at her side is Lan, an orphaned heir of a fallen kingdom who trained to be a Warder — a male protector for a member of the Aes Sedai. “He’s haunted of what his past was,” Denney teased, although he was keen to avoid too many details as discovering elements of Lan’s past is one aspect of the journey viewers will take alongside him, Moiraine, and the Two Rivers crew. As any reader of the novels will tell you, it is a lot with surprising turns and revelations. For the moment, though, viewers new to The Wheel of Time will see him as Moiraine’s devoted guard.
The bond between Moiraine and Lan was another attraction for Pike.
“I’ve never put a relationship between a man and woman on screen like the Aes Sedai–Warder relationship,” she said. “[It] is intimate, fierce, loyal, committed, honorable, and non-sexual, and yet a deeply love thing. And I thought this was really cool. I think everybody’s going to watch season 1 and wish they had a Warder.”
Indeed, a quick glimpse at Twitter will reveal just how many fans are looking forward to seeing Lan and his bonds on screen. Also, Denney teased, “we’re going to see more of his romantic side” in subsequent episodes and seasons.
(Photo by Ondřej Ždichynec/©2020 Amazon Prime Video; photo by Ondřej Ždichynec)
Of course, Moraine and Lan represent just two of the many characters viewers new to Jordan’s world will meet and, it is hoped, bond with. Pike said she’s already received mail from fans discussing just how important these characters can be.
“These characters got them through dark days and they served as role models,” she said. “And I’ve had men write to me and say that Moiraine and Egwene and served as role models to them. I think Robert Jordan was clever in that respect; he didn’t just write women for women and men for men. I think people find characters to read themselves into and they change.”
As Pike also mentioned, the show will not shy away from magic, with some of those “staggering displays of power” happening early on. It is a sharp contrast from some earlier fantasy adaptations, which held back a lot of its magical content until viewers were hooked. Judkins said playing into that was a key aspect of adapting the novels.
“This is the world that these books exist in,” he explained, calling its universe’s magic system (known as “channeling” instead of magic) as one of its great world-building achievements; something viewers will get hints of in the first three episodes. “We’re going to try to stay as true to [the rules of channeling] as we can in the show so that we can, hopefully, continue to find those layers of depth.
“And I think it’s cool. So let’s make it cool,” he continued. “Seeing Rosamund chuck fireballs at Trollocs is something I can get behind. I think bringing that element of fun to the magic, but also the beauty and the danger of it, is something that’s really important in the show.”
(Photo by Jan Thijs/Amazon Studios)
Another important aspect of the show: terminology and pronunciation. With things like Trollocs — the horned and hoofed army of the antagonist – and names like “Egwene” and “Nynaeve,” getting those sounds right are as important as striking the right tone. According to Judkins, a lot of the pronunciations come from Jordan himself via audio recordings.
“A lot of mine were wrong,” he admitted. The production also employed a researcher who “read the books 30 times and has access to all of the audio recordings.” In the end, a guide was produced, although Judkins mentioned some of the sounds will shift on screen depending on the particular accent of a character or actor. “So certain things will sit differently,” he explained. “But everything goes back to how [Jordan] thought it should be.”
Pike added that familiarity with a word also changes the way it gets said.
“If you have a partner or you have children or good friends, but if it’s a name that you say all the time, you say it differently than if it’s a name that’s unfamiliar to you. There’s just a way it comes out,” she explained. “So whenever there’s a character that I’m interacting with closely, I’ll always say that name over and over because it comes out in a different way when it’s very familiar. And the same with any word that is something that your character says a lot. It has to become second nature. It has to become natural.”
Denney added: “There’s still some — like ‘Shadar Logoth’ was one of those that we were still kind of fifty-fifty on.”
(Photo by Jan Thijs/© 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.)
Another aspect Judkins wanted to lean into was the prevalence of songs and poems.
“You see songs a lot in the books, you see recitations of epic poems a lot in the books, it plays a really important role,” he explained. “So we thought it was important to find a way that we could do it that felt grounded to the show and piece it into the show. I think that we succeeded in doing that. And then it is in that world, like music was a way that you told stories and a way that you talked about things that had happened in the past, or fables that we should be mindful of moving forward. So we try to use it in the same way.”
That respect for the world-building should create a new wave of fans for the series even as established devotees of The Wheel of Time discover a new emerging reality in the transition to television.
81%
The Wheel of Time: Season 1
(2021)
debuts its first three episodes this Friday on Amazon Video.
On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.
The next fantasy book series to get the television treatment is Robert Jordan’s hugely popular The Wheel of Time, which premieres its first three episodes to Amazon Prime Video on Friday, November 19.
Following the lives of five villagers whose reality is changed forever when a powerful woman arrives, stating one of them is marked as the “Dragon Reborn,” a reincarnated essence who may follow through on a path to either bring darkness unto the world or save it. The balance between light and dark is tested, bringing forth an epic journey for all the characters involved. Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney play magical warrior Moiraine Damodred and her bodyguard Lan Mondragoran, respectively, and lead the ensemble cast that includes Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al’Vere, Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon , Josha Stradowsky as Rand al’Thor, and Zoë Robbins as Nynaeve al’Meara.
Big expectations are riding on the series, considering it’s based on 14 books. Does it live up to the hype? Here’s what critics are saying about The Wheel of Time season 1:
If you’re a fan of the genre and just want to partake in the spectacle of an imaginary world filled with Not Orcs and Kinda Witches, you’re probably in for a decent time. (And if you’re a fan of Robert Jordan’s books, hoping these beloved novels will inspire TV’s next great fantasy show… well, lower your expectations.) – Ben Travers, IndieWire
The books have been adapted for the screen by Rafe Judkins, a veteran writer of nerd-friendly shows like Chuck and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and a professed lifelong fan of the Wheel of Time series. Perhaps his approach will please fellow Robert Jordan obsessives, but as someone approaching the show as a total newcomer to the world (as I was to [Game of] Thrones), the appeal of the story — and, in particular, of the central characters — proved elusive. – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone
It’s tough, though, to know what the average TV viewer, used to the cynicism of Game of Thrones and sarcasm of the MCU, will make of such an earnest saga of friends embarking on a clear-cut quest to save the world. Amazon’s The Wheel of Time is the show that Robert Jordan fans want, but who else does? – Megan O’Keefe, Decider
When The Wheel of Time does fire on all cylinders, it’s proof that it might actually be possible to fit the book into a coherent TV show. – Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge
(Photo by Jan Thijs/©2020 Amazon Prime Video)
If this is an attempt to match what “Thrones” became in popular memory, Judkins and his team would be well-advised to recall that much of that drama’s first season was a high-stakes character drama, not a war with a new front opening each episode. This perversely gives the show a pinched and narrow-feeling universe, with its focus limited to what peril lies directly ahead. – Daniel D’Addario, Variety
This is a series that really could only be adapted by a studio with the ambitions and budget of Amazon, which is reportedly spending $10 million per episode to build and destroy elaborate sets and fuse CGI with practical effects to make its magic and monsters come to life. Every aspect of the production is lushly realized, from the intricate armors and costumes to the way Aes Sedai and their Warder guardians fight in concert with a beauty reminiscent of wuxia films. – Samantha Nelson, IGN Movies
That frenetic pacing and structuring of the story do make it somewhat difficult to follow at times — there were frequent scenes where a character might have a single line before moving onto the next, or ones that felt they were there just to dump exposition out. – Preeti Chhibber, Polygon
The show does generally look good, with sweeping shots of the lovely Czech landscapes, impressive costumes, and expensive-looking sets. The depiction of the primary form of magic (“channeling”), where characters are meant to be drawing in power from the world around them and weaving it into blasts of fire or bursts of air, is more hit or miss. Some scenes manage to portray it as powerful and compelling magic, while others consist of characters just standing around while white wisps of smoke fly around them. – Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge
The Wheel of Time novels have had the benefit of thousands of pages to explain the ins and outs of the fantasy world, but this series drops you in with minimal exposition. We are forced to quickly determine who the various factions are, their importance to the plot, and how magic impacts everything. – Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network
(Photo by Jan Thijs/©2020 Amazon Prime Video)
Pike’s sheer presence is often the most compelling thing in a given scene, and the show suffers even more during a stretch where Moiraine is sidelined by injury. – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone
Pike is an odd, absorbing centerpiece. Even when she sleeps through an episode (literally), the “Gone Girl” star gives just enough to keep you invested in Moiraine’s good health and grand plans. (The actor’s measured approach also helps keep the show from tipping overboard when select colleagues go way too big.) – Ben Travers, IndieWire
Pike is more than up to the task, embodying the agelessness and wisdom Jordan wrote of, but layering in a needed thread of humanity — even if her perfected tear-filled eyes do get to be a bit overused at times. – Preeti Chhibber, Polygon
(Photo by Jan Thijs/©2020 Amazon Prime Video)
The main cast perfectly embodies the characters who have been taking up space in my head for months, and showrunner Rafe Judkins cleverly juggles the show’s extensive lore. – Megan O’Keefe, Decider
The actors, aside from Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney, are forgettable and generic. The fact that Barney Harris departed at the end of season one to be recast by Donal Finn should be a testament to how interchangeable these characters are. – Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network
After a few episodes the young actors do start to come into their own, but there’s a lot about the performances that feels hesitant or even tropey. That’s not helped by the fact that we don’t really get to know any of them with any depth, even when they split off into pairs. – Allison Keene, Paste Magazine
Abdul Salis is a real stand-out with his role of the painfully reprehensible Whitecloak Questioner Eamon Valda, part of a group of zealots who arbitrarily designate people as Dark Friends and who hate and hunt the Aes Sedai. He’s terrifying and his first appearance calls to mind John Noble’s Denethor in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. – Preeti Chhibber, Polygon
Related: New The Wheel of Time Character Posters Debut
(Photo by Jan Thijs/©2020 Amazon Prime Video)
In its early episodes this big Wheel has enough sweep, mystique and momentum to suggest that it can keep on turning and give Amazon the global hit it dearly craves. – Ed Power, Daily Telegraph (UK)
The Wheel of Time is an interesting attempt at adapting Robert Jordan’s behemoth of a book series, but it’s also dragged down both by its unwieldy source material and its efforts to twist itself into a second coming of Game of Thrones. – Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge
We’ll have to see next year how effectively House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings have used their budgets, but the underwhelming Wheel of Time is a reminder that money alone does not make a fantasy world go around. – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone
The Wheel of Time can’t be the next Game of Thrones. It’s just not in the source material’s DNA. But Prime Video’s series has the chance to be the first true Wheel of Time, and that excites this all-too-earnest nerd to bits. – Megan O’Keefe, Decider
(Photo by ©2020 Amazon Prime Video)
The Wheel of Time is too accomplished to be a total wash but not nearly distinct enough to set itself apart from everything else on TV these days. – Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network
For all its intricate world building, “The Wheel of Time” tends to spin smoothest if you don’t examine its pieces too closely. – Ben Travers, IndieWire
The Wheel of Time has enough potential to ride past these initial frustrations thanks to a high budget and deep commitment from the actors to faithfully bring the magic of this story to life. – Jon Negroni, TV Line
“Wheel” seems able to satisfy new viewers and superfans alike, creating an inviting and rich world that isn’t too confusing to understand. – Kelly Lawler, USA Today
81%
The Wheel of Time: Season 1
(2021)
premieres Friday, November 19 on Amazon Prime Video.
On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.
We’ve got eight new posters to introduce you to the lead characters in Amazon Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time, the streaming adaptation of the acclaimed fantasy novels by Robert Jordan.
Series synopsis:
Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.
Executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins adapted the novels for television. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.
The series launches on November 19 on Amazon Prime Video.
Click images to open posters full sized in a new tab.
(Photo by Amazon Studios)
(Photo by Amazon Studios)
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(Photo by Amazon Studios)
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(Photo by Amazon Studios)
We want part of whatever sorcery that’s keeping Benedict Cumberbatch on the move — the Doctor Strange actor clearly can’t stop working. Plus, a casting flurry was announced for Netflix’s 3-Body Problem, led by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and The Terror: Infamy showrunner Alexander Woo. The Wheel of Time 360 trailer dazzles, a holiday film lineup from VH1, and more of the biggest TV and streaming news this week.
TOP STORY
(Photo by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Londongrad will find Benedict Cumberbatch playing KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive isotope polonium-210 in 2006 in England after defecting from Russia.
Litvinenko, who specialized in investigating organized crime, defected from Russia with his family in 2000 after being arrested for abusing his position, getting acquitted, but then being arrested again and acquitted again. In the U.K.. he worked as a writer, including two books that accused Vladimir Putin and his government of terrorism and assassinations, among other crimes.
Londongrad, based on author Alan Cowell’s 2008 book The Terminal Spy, will also be executive produced by Cumberbatch, while former The Man in the High Castle showrunner David Scarpa will serve as showrunner.
Such a fascinating true story, no surprise, has attracted more than one British TV fave: David Tennant already committed to the ITV series Litvinenko, in which he will play the doomed spy. Neither drama has a premiere date yet. (Variety).
The Wheel of Time, Amazon’s monster of an adaptation of the fantasy series from author Robert Jordan, already held a lot of promise for the devoted fans of the series, but Amazon surprised everyone with this 360-degree, interactive trailer. Stars Rosamund Pike. Premieres Nov. 19 on Amazon Prime Video.
More trailers and teasers released this week:
• The Witcher season 2 trailer shows a world at war, as monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia guards and trains young princess Ciri, and Yennifer tries to get back to her life. (Netflix)
• True Story is a limited series starring Kevin Hart as a world famous comedian who has a lost night in his Philadelphia hometown, with his brother (Wesley Snipes), and that homecoming could cost him everything. The thriller premieres Nov. 24. (Netflix)
• The Real Charlie Chaplin is a dynamite documentary about the life and career of the legendary film star and comedian. Premieres Dec. 11. (Showtime)
• Landscapers is a limited series about a mild-mannered British couple who kill the wife’s parents. Stars Olivia Colman and David Thewlis. Premieres Dec. 6. (HBO)
• The Unforgivable is a movie starring Sandra Bullock as a former convict who finds her only hope of starting a new life is to find the estranged sister she was forced to leave behind when she went to jail. Also stars Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Richard Thomas, and Viola Davis. Premieres Dec. 10. (Netflix)
• Cowboy Bebop is the much-anticipated series with Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) in a live-action adaptation of the beloved anime hit. Premieres Nov. 19. (Netflix)
• Monarch, a multi-generational musical drama about America’s first family of country music, stars Susan Sarandon, Anna Friel, and Trace Adkins. The series kicks off with a two-night event on Sunday, Jan. 30. (Fox)
• Dr. Brain is Apple TV+’s first Korean-language drama, a thriller about a scientist who tries brain-syncing with the dead to try to access clues about their deaths. Stars Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun. Premieres Nov. 4. (Apple TV+)
• In Tiger King 2, the saga that had us all riveted during the first month of the pandemic in 2020 continues, and reveals that some of those involved haven’t fared very well, while others are making “more money than God” off the series. Premieres Nov. 17. (Netflix)
• The Real World Homecoming: Los Angeles is the second season of the reunion series, bringing together the second-ever cast of The Real World: Beth Anthony, Beth Stolarczyk, David Edwards, Glen Naessens, Irene Berrera-Kearns, Jon Brennan, and Tami Roman, who will cohabitate in the same swanky Venice Beach house they lived in back in 1993. Let the drama begin! Premieres Nov. 24. (Paramount+)
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(Photo by courtesy of Netflix)
The MCU’s Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, Avengers: Endgame) and Tsai Chin (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Game of Thrones‘ Liam Cunningham and John Bradley — Ser Davos Seaworth and Samwell Tarly, respectively — have joined the next project of the HBO fantasy series’ creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss. Netflix series 3 Body Problem, co-created by Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy), is inspired by Chinese writer Liu Cixin’s renowned and epic book trilogy, which tells the story of what happens when humanity discovers we are not alone in the universe. The series announced 12 select castings this week:
• Jovan Adepo (Watchmen)
• John Bradley (Game of Thrones)
• Tsai Chin (Lucky Grandma)
• Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones)
• Eiza González (Baby Driver)
• Jess Hong (Inked)
• Marlo Kelly (Dare Me)
• Alex Sharp (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)
• Sea Shimooka (Pink Skies Ahead)
• Zine Tseng (her series debut)
• Saamer Usmani (The Mauritanian)
• Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange)
Jon Hamm will star in the Fox animated comedy Grimsburg, playing a detective named Marvin Flute, “who might be the greatest detective ever to catch a cannibal clown or correctly identify a mid-century modern armoire,” but more than anything wants to reconnect with the ex-wife and son he ignored. The Mad Men star is currently filming a big-screen sequel to the Chevy Chase classic Fletch.
Veep star (and recent Ted Lasso guest star) Sam Richardson has joined the cast of the Disney+ Hocus Pocus sequel movie. Original 1993 movie stars Better Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker are returning for Hocus Pocus 2, which will find the Sanderson sisters accidentally sent to modern-day Salem. The film is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ next year. (THR)
Another Veep star, Timothy Simons, has joined the cast of one of the dueling limited series about Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who killed her one-time friend and romantic rival with an ax. Simons will play Pat Montgomery, the husband of Candy (Jessica Biel) in the Hulu series Candy. HBO Max’s Love and Death covers the same subject with Elizabeth Olsen playing the 1980 ax murderer and Patrick Fugit playing her husband.
Starz’ Watergate limited series, Gaslit, has added guest cast. Joining Julia Roberts and Sean Penn as Martha and John Mitchell, the first whistleblower and her husband, Richard Nixon’s Attorney General and best friend, will be Nate Corddry as Michael Deaver, a Ronald Reagan campaign official; Amy Landecker as Lurleen Landry, a friend of Martha’s; Lauren E. Banks as Janelle Lewis, a JET Magazine journalist; Ahna O’Reilly as Gail Magruder, the wife of Watergate co-conspirator Jeb Magruder (Hamish Linklater); Beth Hall as Helen Thomas, the legendary UPI White House reporter; and Bill Duke as Charles Anderson, the Watergate night security manager.
(Photo by Mike Smith/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Octavia Spencer will star in and executive produce the FX drama The Bobby Love Story, a drama series about the true story of escaped convict Bobby Love, and his longtime wife, Cheryl, who never knew about his past. Kerry Washington and Jenni Konner (Girls) are also EPs on the upcoming project. The Loves also share their story in a new book, The Redemption of Bobby Love: A Story of Faith, Family, and Justice.
Konner has also joined Kumail Nanjiani’s Hulu limited series Immigrant as the co-showrunner with executive producer and co-showrunner Nanjiani, who stars as Somen “Steve” Banerjee, the Indian-American entrepreneur who started Chippendales. (Deadline)
Tisha Campbell, Marcia Gay Harden, and Tuc Watkins have joined the cast of the Neil Patrick Harris Netflix comedy Uncoupled, about Michael (Harris), who thinks his life is perfect until his husband (Watkins) of nearly two decades leaves him right before Michael’s 50th birthday. Campbell will play Suzanne, a successful real estate agent, and Michael’s BFF, while Harden will play Claire, a fellow Upper East Sider who’s going through a bitter divorce from her husband. Emerson Brooks and Brooks Ashmanskas also join the cast, as Michael’s TV weatherman friend Billy, and his art dealer friend, Stanley, respectively. (Deadline)
Tisha Campbell will also reunite with her Martin co-star Tichina Arnold to co-host the 2021 Soul Train Awards on BET and BET HER on Nov. 28.
The actors who will play George Lopez’s character’s children in the Amazon series Once Upon a Time in Aztlan – the comedian’s first drama – have been cast: Jesse Garcia (Narcos: Mexico) will play Arturo, an artist who has spent 13 years in prison and is ready to get out and make his mark on the world, and Annie Gonzalez (Gentefied) will play Lola, the youngest child of Gervasio (Lopez), who’s an entrepreneur and mom who runs a cabaret bar. (Deadline)
Peacock’s new comedy Killing It, starring Craig Robinson, has added new cast members, including Claudia O’Doherty, Rell Battle, Scott MacArthur, Stephanie Nogueras, Wyatt Walter, and Jet Miller. Dan Goor (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Luke Del Tredici are showrunners, and Robinson is also an executive producer on the series, which revolves around Craig (Robinson), “a man who will do anything to make his American Dream come true, even compete in a state-sponsored python hunt.”
(Photo by AVBS_Alan Peebles/Amazon Studios)
BBC One and Amazon have released the first-look photos and additional cast information for A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy as Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll; Paul Bettany as Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll; and Julia Davis as Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. Newly announced cast members include Amanda Drew, Richard McCabe, Phoebe Nicholls, Camilla Rutherford, Timothy Renouf, Sophia Myles, Sophie Ward, Tim Steed, Katherine Manners, Richard Goulding, Jonathan Aris, Oliver Chris, Nicholas Rowe, and Miles Jupp. The limited series will focus on the bitter divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, one of the most notorious, extraordinary, and brutal legal cases of the 20th century. The three, one-hour episodes will be available on Amazon Video in the U.S. in 2022.
The upcoming Apple TV+ Billy Crudup dramedy Hello Tomorrow!, which stars Crudup as Jack, an ambitious, extremely optimistic salesman whose vision of the future threatens his dreams, has added Hank Azaria to the cast, playing Eddie, a “slick salesman with a gambling problem.” (Deadline)
My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom is reuniting with her co-creator of that show on the Hulu comedy pilot Badass (And Her Sister), co-writing the series and playing twins. The story revolves around “an impossibly badass spy (Bloom) who tires of her life of sexy espionage and goes to live with her pushover twin sister (also Bloom) and, together, they learn what it means to actually be badass.” (Deadline)
Actor E.R. Fightmaster, playing non-binary Dr. Kai Bartley, has been added to the recurring cast of Grey’s Anatomy, expanding on the guest role they first played earlier in the season. Bartley works in the Minnesota hospital where Meredith has moved to work on a project to help find the cure for Parkinson’s Disease. Fightmaster is the first non-binary actor to play a doctor on the ABC series. (Variety)
Apple TV+’s Extrapolations, the anthology series about climate change, just added new cast members: Forest Whitaker, Tobey Maguire, Marion Cotillard, and Eilza Gonzalez. (Deadline)
ABC announced via Twitter that Michelle Obama will guest star on the final season of Black-ish.
(Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage)
VH1 has tapped talent including Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, and Nick Cannon, World of Wonder’s Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, and Kim Fields to produce films for its first “Naughty or Nice” holiday movie slate. The lineup kicks off on Monday, November 29 with Adventures in Christmasing, followed by The Bitch Who Stole Christmas, Hip Hop Family Christmas, Let’s Get Merried, and Miracles Across 125th Street.
In addition to his upcoming Amazon drama, George Lopez also has a pilot order at NBC for a comedy pilot for a series called Lopez vs. Lopez, with Lopez’s daughter Mayan to co-star and produce the series about a working-class family alongside her father.
They’re back: after 20 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E!, the Kardashian-Jenner brood is already filming on a new series that is part of their deal with Hulu. The new reality show is scheduled to premiere next year. (Variety)
Netflix is doing its first-ever “family roast” – featuring the Jonas Brothers – on Nov. 23. Emmy-winning Saturday Night Live host Kenan Thompson hosts, with guest stars Pete Davidson, Niall Horan, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, John Legend, Lilly Singh, and Jack Whitehall, and sketches, songs, and games, and of course, the roasting of Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas.
Peacock has given a straight-to-series to David E. Kelley’s crime drama The Missing, about an NYPD detective whose faith and belief in humanity may be shattered when a routine investigation goes askew. The eight-episode series, for which Kelley will be the showrunner, is based on author Dror A. Mishani’s book The Missing File.
IMDb TV has greenlit Primo, a comedy from bestselling author Shea Serrano and Michael Schur, based on Serrano’s childhood in San Antonio. The “coming-of-age comedy (is) about a teenager balancing college aspirations, societal expectations, and a hectic home life anchored by his single mom and five uncles.” Serrano will write and executive produce the half-hour.
(Photo by Paramount/Courtesy: Everett Collection)
The History Channel will celebrate Star Trek’s 55th anniversary with a 10-part celebration, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek. Premiering Nov. 5, the docuseries promises to share “rare, fascinating details of how Star Trek began, where it’s been, and how it’s boldly going where no television series has gone before.” The first four episodes will air on History on Fridays, and the last six will be available on the network’s subscription video service.
Producer Lawrence “LAW” Watford has optioned author Patrick Parr’s book The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age with the intention of adapting the story for a TV series. The 2018 tome told of King’s time as a student at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and his romance with a white woman, Betty Moitz, who was also the daughter of the school dietitian. (Deadline)
John Belushi’s widow Judith Belushi-Pisano and her son Lucas Pisano are teaming up with Utopia Originals to create a docuseries about the Blues Brothers, the Saturday Night Live sketches that became a 1980 movie and then a pop culture phenomenon, starring Belushi and SNL co-star and friend Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd will also be an executive producer on the project, that does not have a distributor yet. (THR)
Taye Diggs, Ne-Yo, and Eric Bellinger will co-host a pair of specials celebrating black performers in the style of the Rat Pack, with banter, humor, and music. The Black Pack: We Three Kings will premiere Nov. 29 on The CW, and will feature guests Jordin Sparks, Tank, Sevun Streeter and All American star Bre-Z, with comedy, music, and dancing. The Black Pack: Excellence is scheduled to air in 2022 and will mark Juneteenth with a similar lineup of music and guest stars.
Martin Lawrence is returning to TV in a dark comedy adapted from a popular Israeli series called Nehama. In his first television role in seven years, the Martin star will play a man who quits his job in tech to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian. But when his wife dies and he’s left to take care of his five children, he’s torn between focusing on them and continuing to chase his dream. The series is not set at any network or streaming service yet. (Variety)
(Photo by Daniel Smith / © Fox / Courtesy: Everett Collection)
Kiefer Sutherland, much of the main cast, and the creative team behind the classic Fox drama 24 will reunite on November 6 for a virtual fan convention to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary. Sutherland, as super heroic counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer, launched the show during a precarious political time, less than a month after the attacks of September 11. The Zoom fan event (with the speakers appearing split-screen style like on the show) will find the Emmy winner, as well as co-stars Leslie Hope, Sarah Clarke, Elisha Cuthbert, Xander Berkeley, Cherry Jones, Gregory Itzin, Mykelti Williamson, Chris Diamantopoulos, Louis Lombardi, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and creatives Howard Gordon, creators and executive producers Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow, directors Jon Cassar, Brad Turner, and Stephen Hopkins (who directed one of the truly great TV drama pilots), casting director Debi Manwiller, producer Michael Loceff, cinematographer Rodney Charters, and composer Sean Callery, talking about that and much more on the event’s panels. Passes for the convention cost $24, and a portion of the fee goes to the charity Operation Smile, which provides cleft lip and palate care to children.
(Photo by Terence Patrick/CBS via Getty Images)
Friends star Matthew Perry has announced he will release a memoir next year, including his own words about his time on the show and his famous battles with addiction. He’s the first member of the beloved cast to release an autobiography, and the deal with Flatiron Books is said to be worth seven figures.
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November is going to be a massive month for Amazon Prime Video and its sister streaming service IMDbTV, with 11 original series and movies debuting throughout the month. That includes the Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy-starring film The Electric Life of Louis Wain; Pete Buttigieg documentary Mayor Pete; plus the return of Judge Judy Sheindlin in Judy Justice; docuseries Tampa Baes and Always Jane; and the much-anticipated debut of sci-fi epic The Wheel of Time.
Keep reading to find out what else is new on Amazon Prime Video in November, with some highlights noted at the top.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
68%
Description: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is the extraordinary true story of eccentric British artist Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose playful, sometimes even psychedelic pictures helped to transform the public’s perception of cats forever. Moving from the late 1800s through to the 1930s, we follow the incredible adventures of this inspiring, unsung hero, as he seeks to unlock the “electrical” mysteries of the world and, in so doing, to better understand his own life and the profound love he shared with his wife Emily Richardson (Claire Foy).
Premiere Date: November 5, 2021
Mayor Pete (2021)
71%
Description: Mayor Pete brings viewers inside Pete’s campaign to be the youngest U.S. President, providing an unprecedented intimacy with the candidate, his husband Chasten, and their ambitious team. From the earliest days of the campaign, to his unlikely, triumphant victory in Iowa and beyond. This film reveals what really goes on inside a campaign for the highest office in the land -and the myriad ways it changes the lives of those at its center. Recently appointed to U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg serves as the first openly LGBTQ Cabinet member in U.S. history.
Premiere Date: November 12, 2021
The Wheel of Time: Season 1 (2021)
81%
Description: Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, The Wheel of Time follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.
Premiere Date: November 19, 2021
80%
Description: The third season of Hanna continues the journey of an extraordinary young woman (Esmé Creed-Miles), who was created by the sinister organization Utrax and trained to be an assassin. Hanna is now secretly trying to destroy Utrax from the inside with the help of her previous nemesis, former CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Mireille Enos). The story crisscrosses Europe and builds to a dramatic climax when Hanna and Marissa discover the true, horrifying scope of the operation and who was ultimately behind it all.
Premiere Date: November 24, 2021
Related: The Best Shows on Amazon Prime Video
Movies
93%
50/50
(2011)
93%
Alien
(1979)
44%
Alien 3
(1992)
56%
Alien Resurrection
(1997)
21%
Alien vs. Predator
(2004)
54%
Alpha Dog
(2006)
34%
American Assassin
(2017)
84%
Born on the Fourth of July
(1989)
33%
Bringing Down the House
(2003)
42%
Casanova, Last Love
(2019)
88%
Cast Away
(2000)
92%
Children of Men
(2006)
80%
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
(2011)
65%
Dan in Real Life
(2007)
85%
Dead Poets Society
(1989)
14%
Dragonball: Evolution
(2009)
16%
Dude, Where's My Car?
(2000)
15%
Eragon
(2006)
93%
Fantastic Mr. Fox
(2009)
55%
Gnomeo & Juliet
(2011)
86%
Hope Springs Eternal
(2018)
15%
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
(2007)
36%
In Time
(2011)
59%
It's Complicated
(2009)
85%
Jane Eyre
(2011)
20%
Jingle All the Way
(1996)
- -
Jingle All the Way 2
(2014)
33%
Johnny English
(2003)
13%
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
(2002)
29%
Major Payne
(1995)
20%
Meet Dave
(2008)
70%
Mrs. Doubtfire
(1993)
36%
Predator 2
(1990)
90%
Rushmore
(1998)
24%
Sleeping With the Enemy
(1991)
74%
Snatch
(2000)
61%
Stuck on You
(2003)
41%
The Big Year
(2011)
31%
The Black Dahlia
(2006)
83%
The Constant Gardener
(2005)
21%
The Day the Earth Stood Still
(2008)
43%
The House Bunny
(2008)
63%
The Nutty Professor
(1996)
27%
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
(2000)
67%
Three Men and a Baby
(1987)
78%
Undercover Brother
(2002)
50%
Vanity Fair
(2004)
34%
Vantage Point
(2008)
96%
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
(1988)
14%
Wild Hogs
(2007)
61%
Wimbledon
(2004)
95%
12 Years a Slave
(2013)
(IMDbTV)
92%
48 HRS.
(1982)
(IMDbTV)
- -
A Belle for Christmas
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
19%
Another 48 Hrs.
(1990)
(IMDbTV)
94%
Die Hard
(1988)
(IMDbTV)
68%
Die Hard 2
(1990)
(IMDbTV)
41%
Divergent
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
93%
Drive
(2011)
(IMDbTV)
39%
Due Date
(2010)
(IMDbTV)
47%
Eurotrip
(2004)
(IMDbTV)
94%
Gone Baby Gone
(2007)
(IMDbTV)
90%
Good Morning, Vietnam
(1987)
(IMDbTV)
75%
Happy Christmas
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
86%
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
(2008)
(IMDbTV)
12%
Holy Man
(1998)
(IMDbTV)
51%
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
(1998)
(IMDbTV)
14%
I Love You, Beth Cooper
(2009)
(IMDbTV)
- -
In Search of Santa
(2004)
(IMDbTV)
- -
Jingle Bells
(1999)
(IMDbTV)
42%
Midway
(2019)
(IMDbTV)
- -
Monsters vs. Aliens
(2009)
(IMDbTV)
- -
My Adventures with Santa
(2019)
(IMDbTV)
- -
O Christmas Tree
(1994)
(IMDbTV)
52%
People Like Us
(2012)
(IMDbTV)
35%
Poetic Justice
(1993)
(IMDbTV)
65%
Predator
(1987)
(IMDbTV)
44%
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
(2003)
(IMDbTV)
81%
Sixteen Candles
(1984)
(IMDbTV)
92%
Slumdog Millionaire
(2008)
(IMDbTV)
59%
Southpaw
(2015)
(IMDbTV)
92%
Stan & Ollie
(2018)
(IMDbTV)
23%
That Awkward Moment
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
23%
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
(2009)
(IMDbTV)
11%
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
(2016)
(IMDbTV)
29%
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
(2015)
(IMDbTV)
56%
The Good Shepherd
(2006)
(IMDbTV)
86%
The Mask of Zorro
(1998)
(IMDbTV)
30%
The Monuments Men
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
26%
The Other Woman
(2014)
(IMDbTV)
73%
Tin Cup
(1996)
(IMDbTV)
56%
White Boy Rick
(2018)
(IMDbTV)
65%
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
(2008)
(IMDbTV)
Casper and Wendy’s Ghostly Adventures (2002) (IMDbTV)
Feliz Navidad (2006) (IMDbTV)
The Happy Elf (2005) (IMDbTV)
Series
83%
Baptiste on Masterpiece: Season 1
(2019)
(PBS Masterpiece)1
- -
Family Business: Season 1
(2019)
(Acorn TV)1
- -
Native America: Season 1
(2018)
(PBS Documentaries)1
- -
Power Book II: Ghost: Season 1
(2020)
(STARZ)1
88%
Rectify: Season 1
(2013)
(AMC+)1
67%
The Red Road: Season 1
(2014)
(AMC+)1
Baking with Julia: Season 1 (PBS Living)1
Courage the Cowardly Dog: Season 1 (Boomerang)1
Irresponsable: Season 1 (Topic)1
Ladies of the Law: Season 1 (ALLBLK)1
Magellan: Season 1 (MHz Choice)1
Mega Disasters: Season 1 (HISTORY Vault)1
Noggin Knows: Season 1 (Noggin)1
The Lucy Show: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)1
The Restaurant: Season 1 (Sundance Now)1
The Roy Rogers Show: Season 1 (Best TV Ever)1
Under Suspicion: Season 1 (PBS Masterpiece)1
Wheeler Dealers: Season 1 (MotorTrend)1
60%
Judy Justice: Season 1
(2021)
(IMDbTV)
- -
Tampa Baes: Season 1
(2021)
*
68%
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
(2021)
*
- -
Pete the Cat
(New Episodes)*
- -
Snowmance
(2017)
- -
The Spruces and the Pines
(2017)
78%
Goosebumps
(2015)
(IMDbTV)
71%
Mayor Pete
(2021)
*
53%
Finding You
(2020)
94%
Fruitvale Station
(2013)
(IMDbTV)
- -
Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You
(2017)
(IMDbTV)
86%
Beginners
(2010)
39%
Nine
(2009)
(IMDbTV)
81%
The Wheel of Time: Season 1
(2021)
*
- -
Everybody Loves Natti: Season 1
(2021)
*
42%
Here Comes the Boom
(2012)
80%
Hanna
Season 3*
Do, Re & Mi Holiday Special: Merry Nestivus – Amazon Original Special (2021)*
Anni da cane (Dog Years) – Amazon Original Movie (2021)*
Burning – Amazon Original Movie (2021)*
Thumbnail: Amazon Prime Video
