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.
Before I get into this week’s news, just a note that I will be traveling next week so the Sci Fi TV Week in Review post will likely not go up on Saturday as usual. But I will catch up on any notable news the following week.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been shopping around its Supernatural spin-off The Winchesters since it was cancelled by The CW, but they have not been able to find a venue interested in picking it up. According to Deadline, “all possible avenues have been exhausted, and the search for a new home has come to an end”. But that is basically just corporate-speak for giving up. The show performed well in the ratings and the Supernatural franchise has e a huge following. The Winchesters has strong support from fans as evidenced by the show placing in the Top 5 in our season-end poll. And Warner Bros. Discovery owns Max (previously HBO Max), so they could have shifted the show to that venue if they really wanted. But this just proves that these companies look at television shows as completely dispensable and that they are not willing to put in too much effort to support them despite the millions they sink into the productions. I expect that fans of The Winchesters will continue to stump for the show, but the chances of a second season happening now that its studio has given up on it are slim.
Lockwood & Co. and Warrior Nun are two other shows that topped our season-end poll as fans have been working hard to save both of them. But fans of a cancelled sci fi entry from last season are still fighting for their show and just recently brought it some attention in the streets of New York City. Raised by Wolves was cancelled by HBO Max when that streamer went through some cost-cutting last year, but fans want a proper conclusion and have been campaigning for another venue to pick it up for a third season. They followed the lead of Warrior Nun fans and paid for a billboard in Times Square:
#RenewRaisedByWolves ON SCREEN IN TIMES SQUARE!!!🤩
Make NOISE for Raised by Wolves, this unique masterpiece must continue! Pls retweet and reply with our hashtag.@primevideo @peacock @appletv @starz @showtime @paramountplus @hulu @amcplus @netflix @JSalke @thomasryan @2Earley pic.twitter.com/gdKAlmwG1l— Save Raised By Wolves Official (@saveRBWofficial) May 18, 2023
There has been no word at this point on another venue taking interest in the show, but the continued fan efforts will bring it plenty of attention and could generate some energy around reviving it. You can follow the campaign at the Official Save Raised by Wolves Twitter Site. And fans of The Winchesters should take note and maybe start working on their own billboard.
The lost-plane series Manifest released the second half of its fourth season yesterday, which will act as a wrap-up for the show, but series creator Jeff Rake originally had a six-season plan for that one and series star Josh Dallas has suggested a possible sequel. NBC cancelled the show after its third season, but Netflix picked it up after a raucous fan campaign and after encore runs on the streaming service spent 18 straight weeks in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings (eleven at Number 1). The streamer only greenlighted one additional season of twenty episodes, though, which was short of what Rake had originally planned for the series. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dallas suggested that a sequel or spin-off series could carry the story on:
I think there’s major sequel or spinoff potential here. Maybe we go into the future and see Eden [his character’s daughter] at 21 or so as she’s navigating the world, or we follow the younger passengers. Maybe we go back to 2013 and deep dive into the investigation with [NSA director] Vance.
The first half of the fourth season continued to pull strong viewership for Netflix, so the streamer may be interested in continuing the franchise at some point, especially if the final ten episodes perform well (which they most likely will). But with the writers’ strike in full force, it will be a while before anything new happens with this property.
And speaking of the strike, two genre shows have wrapped up filming and should be able to proceed without any delays from that labor demonstration. The long-awaited TWD: Rick & Michonne spin-off has completed its filming and should be on target for its planned 2024 debut. And the WandaVision spin-off series Agatha: Agent of Chaos has also concluded filming and should be premiering in 2024 as well. It is possible that one or both of these could run into a snag if reshoots are needed because those likely will not be able to proceed during the strike. But beyond that, they should be moving forward to their planned premieres (specific dates have not been set, though).
If vampires and romantic comedies are your thing, then you may want to check out the Korean series Heartbeat which stars singer/actor Ok Taec-yeon along with Won Ji-an. Deadline gives the following description of the production:
[Ok Taec-yeon] plays a vampire who sleeps in a coffin for 100 years in the hope of experiencing true love, but is awakened one day early by a cold-blooded-yet-mesmerizing woman (Won), who has no time for romance.
It will start streaming on Prime Video on June 26th.
Next week brings no premieres for sci fi and fantasy shows, but the following week will see four notable entries hitting the schedule. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be back for its second season on Paramount+, the sixth season of Black Mirror will drop on Netflix, The Walking Dead: Dead City has its bow on AMC, and Outlander will be back on Starz with its seventh season. You can see all of the premieres for June 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.
