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.
There have been rumblings for a while that a new Stargate series is in the works at Amazon, and former franchise executive producer Joseph Mallozzi just recently polled fans on what they would like to see in a revival. But apparently Amazon is digging into the MGM vaults (it purchased that studio last year) for other IPs that it can relaunch as well. Among those is Robocop which they are considering for a TV series and film reboot. And another franchise that has been mentioned is Poltergeist. Nothing is officially set on these at this time, but all are under serious consideration for a revival on Prime Video with Stargate most likely leading the way. This story is still developing, so stay tuned for further updates.
HBO Max is officially changing its title to just Max and it is looking to max out the content from the streaming service. (As opposed to this past year when it was minimizing its content with multiple cancellations.) The previously announced Harry Potter reboot TV series has received a ten-year commitment and it will cover each of the books in detail with an all-new cast playing the well-known characters. J.K. Rowling will be directly involved with that, though that has sparked some controversy due to her anti-trans views. In addition, yet another Game of Thrones spin-off has been announced which will air on HBO but also on Max. The new series has the rather maxed-out title of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight and it will be based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas. Both shows will be moving into production this year and will likely be targeting 2024 premieres. Expect more development to follow as Warner Bros. Discovery tries to get the maximum number of subscribers to sign up for its service.
In casting news, The Expanse‘s Wes Chatham will be joining the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka. The role he will be playing has not been announced yet. And speaking of The Expanse, the BOOM! Studios comic book series The Expanse: Dragon’s Tooth, which picks up the story after the sixth season of the show, will release its first issue next week on April 19th.
Three renewals were announced this last week with Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi both getting extensions at the Star Wars Celebration. The upcoming third season of Bad Batch will be its last. Also, Syfy has handed out a second season renewal to its freshman series The Ark. The show has pulled only mediocre ratings and has not received glowing reviews from critics and viewers, but the network is apparently giving it a chance to see if it can improve in its second year.
In the streaming ratings, Star Trek: Picard entered the Nielsen Rankings for the week of March 13th to 19th which was the fifth week of its third season. Nielsen has only just recently started tracking that streamer, so this is the show’s first week on the charts. It was at the Number 9 slot with an estimated 310 million minutes of viewing. Also entering the charts that week was Netflix’s Shadow and Bone which opened at Number 2 with 1.1 billion minutes of viewing. You can keep up with the viewership numbers and the renewal/cancellation status of all the current sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings the premieres of Mrs. Davis on Peacock on Thursday and the second season of From on MGM+ on Sunday. Several shows will have their season finales next week as well including Star Trek: Picard, The Mandalorian, and The Ark. You can see the premieres for April 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.
