Sci Fi TV Week in Review: Johnny Jay’s irreverent, snarky, and caffeine-fueled look back at the past week in sci fi TV in five minutes or less.
Batman is on the move, and Warner Bros. Discovery may be sorry they let him swing over to a streaming service they do not own. The animated series Batman: Caped Crusader–which comes from Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm–has been picked up by Amazon after the project was cancelled in development at HBO Max. That was originally referred to as a continuation of TAS, but now it is being called a “reimagining” of the Batman mythology, so it is unclear what direction the series will take. J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves are also attached to the show and it has received a two-season order in advance. Should it prove popular like the other animated Batman shows, Warner Bros. Discovery may regret letting this one get away. Meanwhile, Amazon continues full steam ahead with scripted originals for Prime Video.
And speaking of HBO Max, it looks like that service will be going through a name change. The powers that be have decided that a change is in order because “the HBO name turns off many potential subscribers”. And I can see that would be true among sci fi fans after the recent cancellations of genre entries as well as multiple titles being pulled from the service (such as Raised by Wolves, Westworld, The Nevers, and more). Currently, the name in consideration is Max, which should not be confused with Cinemax, and that cabler doesn’t have much say in the matter seeing as they are also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Max, or whatever it will be called, will also be adding thousands of hours of television programming, but the vast majority of that will be unscripted shows.
John Bernthal will be returning to the role of Frank Castle/The Punisher in the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again. The actor first appeared in the role in the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil series and that led to a spinoff show featuring the character that ran for two seasons. The new Daredevil series is being referred to as a “soft reboot”, so it is unclear what ties will exist to the Netflix show. Charlie Cox is returning as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio will be returning as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. But it appears that neither Deborah Ann Woll nor Elden Henson will be returning in their respective roles of Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. The new series will also be recasting Wilson Fisk’s wife with Sandrine Holt (The Expanse) taking over the role from Ayelet Zurer.
In other casting news, former Supergirl Melissa Benoist will be joining the voice cast of Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution and will be taking the role of Teela. That continuation of the ’80s animated series is expected to arrive at some point in 2024. In addition, Christopher Sean Cooper Jr. and Yonas Kibreab will be joining Netflix’s fantasy series Sweet Tooth as regulars in the show’s upcoming second season which will arrive later this year or early 2024.
In the streaming ratings, Neflix’s supernatural drama Lockwood & Co. held in the Nielsen Top 10 for originals for a third week, but it dropped to Number 7 with an estimated 273 million minutes viewed. That show already dropped out of the Netflix Top 10 after three weeks which is not a good sign because we have seen shows like The Midnight Club, The Imperfects, and Warrior Nun cancelled after a similar run. Keep up with the renewal/cancellation status of all the current sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
MGM+ has announced April 23rd as the premiere date for the second season of its sci fi/horror entry From and you can see the trailer for that at this link. Next week brings quite a number of premieres with Superman & Lois Season 3 arriving on The CW on Wednesday followed by the series premiere of Gotham Knights. The second season of Netflix’s fantasy series Shadow and Bone arrives on Thursday, and Friday brings the premiere of Apple TV+’s eco-sci fi series Extrapolations. The number of genre shows premiering will start to go down in the coming months, though, as I discuss at this link. You can see all the premieres for March and beyond at this link and you can keep up with the current schedule at this link.
Be sure to keep up with the news during the week at r/SciFiTV.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates on all the airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows for the current season with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
