Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Starz

  • Starz Sets ‘Heels’ Season 2 Premiere Date

    Starz Sets ‘Heels’ Season 2 Premiere Date

    It’s taken a bit longer than hoped, but Season 2 of Avengers: Secret Wars writer Michael Waldron’s excellent look into the world of professional wrestling is finally almost here! As part of a first look at Heels sophomore season, EW has revealed that the Spade brothers will be stepping back into the squared circle on July 28th. By the time the first episode airs, it’ll have been nearly two years since the Season 1 finale saw brothers Jack (Stephen Amell) and Ace Spade (Alexander Ludwig) have a major falling out over Jack’s admission that he’s been a real-life heel all along.

    Season 2 will pick up right where the Season 1 finale left off, according to showrunner Mike O’Malley, who also plays rival wrestling promoter, Charlie Gully. “We pick up exactly where we left off in the finale, where Ace walks out of the ring, walks out of that hallway and just gets in a car and is like, ,F— this shit,‘” explained O’Malley. “And then Jack’s journey is, how can I demonstrate my contrition in active ways to my wife, to my colleagues, to my mother, to my brother, to my son? These acts of contrition are profound, but they have to be profound.”

    As O’Malley describes it, Ludwig’s Ace will go on a journey of self-discovery and have to come to terms with some parts of who he is that he just does not like. “In season 2, Ace has to go on a journey to realize that he has just been seeking applause and fame and recognition and doing that has made him somebody that he doesn’t like,” explained O’Malley. He continued, “He doesn’t like that he needs the applause so much that he breaks down in tears. He doesn’t like that his entire life has been built about trying to be a professional football player, and he didn’t make it. He feels like his whole life is a failure.”

    According to O’Malley, it doesn’t sound like Ace and Jack will have much free time on their hands to make up as Gully still fully intends to put Jack’s wrestling league, the DWL, out of business. As the actor puts it, the Spade brothers really are their own worst enemy in the fight against Gully and rightfully points out that they brought this on themselves. “I [Gully] didn’t even know who you guys were until you started trashing me on podcasts. You have created this circumstance,” explaining Gully’s perspective. “Everything that Jack does is due to his own character flaws. If he did not lie to Ace, he wouldn’t be in the situation with Ace. If he did not decide to punch Charlie Gully in the face as a way to deal with his problems with him, he would not be in the situation that he’s in now,” said O’Malley. “This season, you can kind of can see Gully’s point. You’ll see, he’s just a dad, he’s celebrating that his daughter got into college. He’s just trying to run a business, and the Spade brothers are being ridiculous.“

    It sounds like Season 2 of the wrasslin’ drama will come out swinging when it debuts at 10 PM ET on July 28th.

    Source: EW

  • ‘John Wick’ Prequel Series Finds New Home in Peacock

    ‘John Wick’ Prequel Series Finds New Home in Peacock

    NBCUniversal is slated to add another potential stalwart series to its young streaming service in Peacock. The Continental, which serves as a prequel series to the John Wick film franchise, is set to move from Lionsgate’s Starz to the NBCU streamer.

    This serves as a highly unconventional move in the streaming age in a developing property outright switching to a different distributor. It certainly is a large win for Peacock, who recently also acquired the film rights for Keanu Reeves-led John Wick. Meanwhile, this move is in line with the restructuring Starz has been in the process of recently focusing more on targeting female-demographic audiences.

    In an official statement about the acquisition, Peacock’s president Kelly Campbell spoke about the excitement of having the new series under the NBCU banner.

    The John Wick films have become a global phenomenon, are among the most watched titles on Peacock and we are thrilled and honored to partner with Lionsgate to extend this incredible franchise. We understand the value of a global franchise and Val Boreland (EVP and Head of Content Acquisitions for NBCUniversal) and team knew that by bringing this special event series to Peacock and putting the full power of NBCUniversal behind it, the premiere of The Continental will be the streaming event of the year.

    Kelly Campbell

    In addition, Kevin Beggs, the Lionsgate Television Group Chair, equally shared excitement for the partnership between the two groups to expand the John Wick franchise.

    John Wick has become part of the cultural zeitgeist with a massive, passionately engaged fan base around the world. We’re delighted to partner with Peacock to continue expanding the John Wick Universe. This agreement reflects the collaboration of our Motion Picture Group, which has grown the franchise from the beginning and was excited by the opportunity to bring it to the next level, Jim Packer (President of Worldwide Television and Digital Distribution for Lionsgate) and his Worldwide Television Distribution team, which found the perfect home for The Continental, and the Lionsgate Television creative group, which created a brilliant and enduring property that is one of the most highly-anticipated streaming events of 2023.

    Kevin Beggs

    The Continental, which will follow the perspective of a young Winston Scott (played by Colin Woodell in the series, and previously portrayed by Ian McShane in the films) as he navigates the criminal-filled underbelly of 1970s New York City at the titular hotel. The series is slated to release in 2023. Meanwhile, the franchise’s next theatrical release John Wick: Chapter Four is scheduled to release in theaters in March of 2023.

    Source: Deadline 

  • Hulu Ending ‘Love, Victor’ With Season 3

    Hulu Ending ‘Love, Victor’ With Season 3

    Sadly, it looks like the YA Hulu series Love, Victor will be ending with its upcoming third and final season, which will premiere on June 15th. It seems that the announcement was initially done at the Television Critics Association. The series was initially planned as part of Disney+’s launch line-up, but was surprisingly deemed “too adult” for the family-focused streaming service and moved to the Disney-owned Hulu. No word has been shared on why it was decided to end the series with its upcoming third season.

    The project was a spinoff of Love, Simon that focused on a new student to Creekwood High, Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino). It follows the same core narrative, as our protagonist uncovers his sexuality and trying to embrace who he truly is. The titular Simon (Nick Robinson) from the original series also had a recurring role as Victor’s mentor throughout the series. Of course, college on the horizon adds that additional pressure.

    The writers of the original film, Isaac Aptaker, and Elizabeth Berger, took on the role of executive producers and got developed by 20th Television, as it became part of Disney Television Studios. It’s a shame that the heartfelt series is ending after only three seasons, but it seems that they may manage to end it on their own terms without building up a season 4 only to get the axe. It may even open the possibility of more spinoffs focusing on other characters moving forward. Perhaps Victor may grow into someone else’s mentor.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ Heading to Starz “Over the Next 6 Months”

    ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’ Heading to Starz “Over the Next 6 Months”

    Spider-Man: No Way Home has just dominated the international box office, and eyes are already on when it might find its way into our homes. It turns out, the big winner might end up being Starz, as Deadline unveils in an interview with its CEO Jeffrey Hirsch that it’ll release on the service sometime “over the next six months.” So, we can expect its release sooner rather than later, as they aim to utilize big-name projects to grow their original offerings as well by creating strong viewership retention.

    Ours is a retention game, not an acquisition game. Lining up content week to week, 52 weeks a year. Seeking to move our core audience from one show to the next.

    Jeffrey Hirsch

    It’s a smart strategy, which Netflix has also utilized when offering their originals based on existing IPs. Their plan makes sense, as it focuses on finding crossover between their target audiences between projects, and no project had a wide acceptance like Spider-Man: No Way Home. So, it’s one of the biggest films to get your hands on right now, especially with those interested in watching it again once it’s available at home. It would be interesting to see how big the film will be once it gets a home release, especially with the promise of over 100 minutes of additional content.

    Source: Deadline

  • John Wick Prequel ‘The Continental’ Adds 3 to Cast

    John Wick Prequel ‘The Continental’ Adds 3 to Cast

    The John Wick series has been a critical and commercial success, with a collective haul of $587 million and critics raving about the action and star Keanu Reeves‘ performance. As is the case in Hollywood, if a title is popular, it often leads to spinoffs and sequels. Not only is John Wick 4 happening, but the John Wick series is also getting a spinoff on the small screen.

    A spinoff focusing on the Continental, the famous Hotel for Assassins, was announced in 2018. Since then, news on the project has been rather sparse until last month when it was revealed Mel Gibson would star in the three-episode miniseries. Gibson will play a character named Cormac, who is notably not the younger Winston Scott (Ian McShane‘s character in the films) that the miniseries will follow. While we await the casting of our protagonist, we do have news today of three new roles that have been filled. 

    Thanks to Variety, we have learned that Peter Greene, Ayomide Adegun and Jeremy Bobb have joined the cast with the aforementioned Gibson. Greene will play Uncle Charlie, who is the younger version of the character as played David Patrick Kelley in the films. He’s a cleaner and a body man, as fans of the films know.

    Adegun will play the younger version of Lance Reddick‘s character Charon, who is the concierge of the Continental Hotel in the films. While Jeremy Bobb is joining the series as an original character named Mayhew. The 40 year old actor is best known for playing Herman Barrow in The Knick.

    The cast is starting to shape up, as we await news on who is filling the shoes of a young Ian McShane. We’ll have more as we learn more.

    Source: Variety

  • Review: ‘Heels’ Season One

    Review: ‘Heels’ Season One

    On Christmas Eve 2012, Michael Waldron wrote the first pages of his wrestling show, Heels. Last night, the final episode aired on Starz, wrapping up what was one of the best TV series of 2021. And while the episode revolved around the DWL and its crew of wrestlers performing on their biggest stage ever, the South Georgia State Fair, and the climax of the episode and of season 1 took place in the squared circle, Episode 8, “Double Turn”, wasn’t about wrestling…and neither is Heels.

    Waldron and showrunner Mike O’Malley (who also plays Charlie Gully, the founder of the rival FWD wresting league) have created a show that pulls back the curtain on the world or wrestling. The audience is immersed in the language and trade secrets of professional wrestling right off the bat in Episode 1, “Kayfabe”, and throughout the series. But the series is as much “about wrestling” as The Walking Dead is “about zombies.” Heels is about people: good ones, bad ones and ones who don’t know for themselves which side of that coin they fall on. Heels is about characters-and great ones, too. Heels is about family, dreams and refusing to accept setbacks as permanent failures. Heels isn’t a wrestling show: it’s a show about the human beings and wrestling is simply the vehicle through which their stories are told.

    Season 1 revolved tightly around the Spade family and the fallout of Jack’s efforts not only to keep the DWL afloat but to elevate it to the heights his father, Tom, had dreamt of. Over the course of the season, Jack’s refusal to give up on the dream and his need to be in control of the DWL’s story have caused him to lose sight of the role that he’s playing in his own and in Episode 8 he comes face-to-face with what that’s cost him. The deconstruction of Jack Spade is one of Waldron’s greatest Season 1 accomplishments. Even though he’s the heel of the DWL, Jack is the patriarch and de facto “good guy” of his two families; however, as the season progresses, the same determination and perseverance that has kept the DWL alive becomes Jack’s weakness. By the time he decides to loosen his iron grip, he’s lost his family even as the DWL reaches new heights, literally and figuratively, at the conclusion of the episode’s wild-ass ladder match.

    And while Jack is the main character of this wrestling show, he’s surrounded by a dozen other colorful characters, each with almost the perfect amount of their own stories to make them matter just as much as they need to. This is, perhaps, one of the toughest balancing acts a creative team has and here it’s done incredibly well. The supporting cast around Jack do what a supporting cast should do: flesh out the main character. His relationships with Ace, his wife Staci (who quickly became one of the series’ best characters), Willie, Wild Bill and his father, Tom, define him; however, the relationships those characters have with other characters define them to the audience as well, making them, in most cases, fully-realized, multi-dimensional characters with interesting stories of their own. Waldron and O’Malley have said they have 5 seasons of the series mapped out and with characters like these, it’s easy to see how they have enough material to fill that out. As Episode 8 brings Season 1 to a close, it’s Crystal, a character not even mentioned above, one that was treated as disposable by almost everyone, who bails out Jack and the DWL just when everything looks to be crumbling down. Part of Crystal’s story is one that many folks are all to familiar with but Crystal refuses to let her circumstances be an excuse and dictate her reality. She’s progressed from the girl Ace banged when he was bored to the savior of the DWL and did so while being disrespected and denied at every turn. Great shows have great characters, something Heels has…in spades. And while these characters are wrestlers, they aren’t great because they’re great wrestlers; they’re great because Waldron and the writers’ room seem to deeply understand and connect with people and express that here in the way they curated these characters.

    Reflecting back on the first season of Heels, it’s clear that one it’s core themes is processing trauma. Nearly every single character has been traumatized at some point and most of their traumas revolve around or are connected to wrestling. And so while that puts wrestling at the center of the series, it does not make it a “wrestling show.” What Heels ultimately becomes is a mirror into which we should all take a look and reflect on how we process our traumas. Do we drink it away? Do we hurt those closest to us because we’ve been hurt? Do we run away from it? Or do we confront it head on, process it an grow? Heels is a deep and beautiful character study in how we are all shaped by trauma and how the ways we choose to deal with us can impact us and those around us. Heels explores the nature of what makes us good guys (faces) or bad guys (heels) and how life almost never allows a binary determination of those things: we’re often the good guys in our own stories while being the villain in someone else’s. If you want to watch a wrestling show, turn on Raw; if you want to watch a show that’s going to hit harder than a Scorpion Death Drop, check out Season 1 of Heels.

  • First Plot Details for ‘John Wick’ Spin-Off ‘The Continental’ Revealed

    First Plot Details for ‘John Wick’ Spin-Off ‘The Continental’ Revealed

    Keanu Reeves returned to cinemas in style when he took on the role of John Wick. The character became a household name, and the franchise continues to expand. Lionsgate is developing a spin-off series that will focus on the mercenary hotspot, The Continental. In 2019, Ian McShane confirmed that he’s not returning as Winston. He’s the owner of the hotel chain, which made it a curious reveal. It made many questions about which approach they’ll take. Well, it looks like Lionsgate TV chairman Kevin Beggs finally offered some insight as the spin-off is a prequel.

    What we’re exploring in The Continental is the young Winston and how it came to be that he and his team of confederates found their way into this hotel which we have met for the first time in the movie franchise 40 years later. That’s the arena. I won’t give away more than that, but Starz really leaned into this take also, and they have been great collaborators. And how we’ve approached this first season is as three essentially 90-minute events, which you could construe as a limited series or a limited event series.

    It seems they had a variety of pitches before they decided they wanted to explore a 1970s New York City. Beggs also revealed that Reeves won’t appear in the series, but he will join the project as an executive producer. The backdrop and origin story of the iconic hotel does offer a unique direction. It looks like it might not run for multiple seasons but rather be a limited series built up similarly to Sherlock. It’ll be interesting to see how they expand the Wick-verse moving forward.

    Source: SlashFilm (McShane), SlashFilm (Prequel)