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.
Henry Cavill has had a rather wild couple of months with the announcement that he would be leaving The Witcher and donning the cape as Superman once again followed by this week’s news that we will in fact not be returning as the Man of Steel. But there is always an opportunity around the corner for mega-stars like Cavill and just yesterday Amazon announced that he will be jumping onboard their television adaptation of Warhammer 40,000. That miniature wargame takes place in a distant future where humans fight against aliens and supernatural creatures using war machines and other weapons. Cavill will star in the series and he also executive produce and help develop the property that Amazon plans to extend into a franchise which could include feature films. This is in the early stages of development at this point, and the series likely would not premiere until late 2023 or early 2024.
And yet another genre entry is in the works at Prime Video, and this one is also game-related. The streamer has given a series order to God of War based on the Playstation game of the same name. Deadline gives the following description of the project:
Written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man, Children of Men), with Rafe Judkins (The Wheel of Time) serving as showrunner, the series follows Kratos, the God of War, who, after exiling himself from his blood-soaked past in ancient Greece, hangs up his weapons forever in the Norse realm of Midgard. When his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak—his wife’s final wish. Kratos soon realizes the journey is an epic quest in disguise, one which will test the bonds between father and son, and force Kratos to battle new Gods and monsters for the fate of the world.
The series will likely join the streamer’s lineup of originals at some point in 2023.
Also in development, Peacock has placed an order for a western/horror series that will be executive produced by James Wan and based on the novel Stinger by Robert McCammon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “the series will follow a disparate group of people on a ranch who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat”. Ian McCulloch (Yellowstone) will be writing and E.L. Katz (The Haunting of Bly Manor) will direct the first episode.
And following a trend we have seen over the last couple of weeks, Amazon continues to add promising new genre entries while Netflix continues to cancel its originals. The latest show to fall to the Netflix Red Queen’s “Off With Their Heads!” verdict is the fan-favorite supernatural drama Warrior Nun. The second season of that show pulled decent viewership as it spent three weeks in the Netflix Top 10, but that was apparently not enough to earn it a third season. Series creator Simon Barry has indicated that they are looking into the possibility of finding the show a new home, and fans are fighting to save it. You can keep track of that at the Save Warrior Nun page at CancelledSciFi.com.
Also cancelled this past week was HBO’s steampunk series The Nevers. That show aired the first six episodes of its first season back in Spring 2021 then went on an extended hiatus due to COVID-related production delays. Its chances of getting a second-season renewal diminished when the cast and crew were released from their contracts, but fans were waiting to at least see the final six episodes of the show’s first season. Those will likely show up at some point in a FAST Channel space as HBO and HBO Max are purging other content like Westworld, Raised by Wolves, and The Time Travelers Wife and sending those to a free streaming platform.
In renewal news, NBC has given the greenlight to a second season of its Quantum Leap revival. That show has pulled decent same-day viewing numbers in the Fall and it has also performed well in digital and delayed viewing, performing particularly well on NBC’s Peacock streaming service where episodes are available the day after broadcast. That show made it to my list of Ten Sci Fi TV Show from 2022 Worth Checking Out and it returns with new episodes on January 2nd.
In ratings news, Netflix’s Wednesday has passed one billion hours of viewing after three weeks, making it one of the streamer’s most-watched originals. And word is that Netflix is in talks to renew the show for a second season. Most of us might think that is a no-brainer, but this is Netflix we are talking about and they seem to have a compulsion for cancellations these days. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
In scheduling news, The CW has announced that Superman & Lois Season 3 will have its premiere on March 14th, and new series Gotham Knights will be joining it that night as well. There are no premieres for genre shows set for next week unless one of the streamers drops one on us with no notice (always a possibility). But The Witcher: Blood Origin will arrive on Christmas day on Netflix and Mid-Season will kick off the first week of January. You can see all the premieres for January 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.
