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.
HBO Max’s long-in-development Green Lantern series is going through a shakeup. Out is Alan Scott and Guy Gardner (to have been played by Jeremy Irvine and Finn Wittrock respectively) and in is the John Stewart version of the character (actor to be announced). Also leaving is Seth Grahame-Smith who had already written multiple episodes for the series. Apparently, this is in part a cost-cutting measure as the scope of the show was originally intended to be rather epic, but now HBO Max will be tightening up the purse strings. Uber-producer Greg Berlanti is still attached, but these changes could move the premiere date to late-2023 or after.
In development news, a spin-off of a spin-off is in the works at Disney+. Paul Bettany will be reprising his role as Vision in the upcoming series Vision Quest, a spin-off from the Wandavision mini-series. No specifics on the show are currently available, but WandaVision‘s Jac Schaeffer will be leading the writing room. Expect this one to be targeting a late 2023 or early 2024 release.
Also in the works, Hulu has given a series order to Never Let Me Go, based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro, which will stream under the FX on Hulu banner. The Hollywood Reporter gives the following description of the series:
Viola Prettejohn will star as Thora, a rebellious teenage clone who escapes from the boarding school where she and her fellow clones are kept hidden from society. As she starts living undercover in the outside world, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will spark a revolution and test the boundaries of what it means to be human.
The property was previously adapted to the big screen in 2010 with Alex Garland (Devs) writing the script. Garland will be onboard as executive producer and Melissa Iqbal (The Nevers) will act as writer and showrunner. Expect this one to premiere at some point in 2023.
Doctor Who will be joining the House of Mouse. The upcoming fourteenth season (which introduces a new Doctor to be played by Ncuti Gatwa) will stream exclusively on Disney+ outside of Britain. Previously, the show aired on BBC America in the U.S. The BBC will retain editorial control over the series but Disney will also have a say in the show’s direction. Expect this to mean bigger budgets for the Doctor’s upcoming adventures and possibly an expansion of the Who-verse MCU style (the latter is just an assumption on my part).
The CW’s Nancy Drew, which offers a revival of the super sleuth character with a supernatural twist, will be coming to an end with its upcoming fourth season. That news comes as no surprise seeing that it has been one of the network’s lowest-rated shows, and many people wonder why it previously got renewed over fan-favorites (and higher-rated) Legends of Tomorrow, Legacies, and Charmed. Apparently, it fit in better with the “wholesome” programming that the network’s new owners prefer, but not enough to keep it around past its fourth year.
In digital ratings, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is still battling it out with HBO’s House of the Dragon for supremacy. The former was at Number 2 in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings for originals for the week of September 26th to October 2nd with an estimated 966 million minutes viewed. That latter was at Number 1 in the charts for acquired shows, but slightly behind in viewership at 907 million minutes. Both shows have been renewed for a second season. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings the long-awaited premiere of Manifest Season 4. That show was cancelled by NBC over a year ago but then picked up by Netflix after a raucous fan campaign. The first ten episodes of the fourth season will be available for streaming on Friday with the remaining ten to be released at some point next year. Also premiering next week is Titans Season 4 (HBO Max, Thursday) and The Dragon Prince Season 4 (Netflix, Thursday). You can see all the premieres for November and beyond at this link and you can see the Weekly Listings here.
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.
