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.
The Daredevil revival with Charlie Cox in the lead role is moving forward at Disney+ and the actor has revealed in a recent interview that shooting will begin in February 2023. It will continue throughout the year, as eighteen episodes have been ordered, so it is unclear at this point when it will premiere. Cox has said about the series: “This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?” Whether it will have no connection to the Netflix series is still unclear. But if Disney goes in that direction it will certainly be disappointing considering how well-regarded the original show is. Cox also indicated that the new series will not be as dark as the Netflix entry, and we already got a glimpse of that from Daredevil’s appearance on She-Hulk. Vincent D’Onofrio will be returning as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, and Michael Gandolfini, Sandrine Holt, and Margarita Levieva have been cast in the new series. There is still no word on whether Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson will return as Karen Page and Foggy Nelson.
HBO Max has been all about cancelling shows and pulling them from its streaming lineup of late, but one series just received some promising news. The fourth season of the animated Harley Quinn is moving forward and looks set for a 2023 premiere. A glimpse of that was included in the HBO Max 2023 Coming Soon teaser. The streamer may have felt a need to release that sizzle reel to assure people that it is still in the business of original programming and it also includes a look at The Last of Us (which will also air on HBO) and Velma (the adult-animated Scooby Doo spin-off).
But it is not all good news at HBO Max as that streamer is pulling more genre entries from the service. According to a WarnerMedia post on what’s coming to and leaving the service in January, the following five shows will be gone by the end of next month: Babylon 5, Person of Interest, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. B5 was the remastered version and once it is gone from HBO Max it will not be available for streaming at all. Presumably, all of these will be available on ad-supported services at some point which is the way Warner Bros. Discovery is going with many of the television shows in its catalog. But there is no word on where they will be available and you also have to wonder if there is much reason to keep your HBO Max subscription active much longer.
In streaming ratings, Netflix’s Wednesday continues to pile on viewership stats. It debuted in the Nielsen Streaming rankings for the week of November 21st to 27th and posted nearly six billion minutes of viewing over a five-day period. That marks the second-highest premiere on that chart after Stranger Things had 7.2 billion minutes the week of its fourth season premiere. Wednesday has also amassed 1.2 billion hours of viewing according to the Netflix charts over a four-week period. Maybe now would be a good time to renew that one for a second season? More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
In scheduling news, a premiere date has been announced for HBO Max’s adult-animated series Velma as that one will be arriving on the stream on January 12th. There are no premieres next week, but His Dark Materials will wrap up its three-season run on Monday. Then Mid-Season kicks off the next week, and you can see all the premieres for January and beyond at this link.
Be sure to keep up with the news during the week with This Week in Sci Fi TV and 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 of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
