Season 2 of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has added seven new cast members. The streamer announced on Thursday that Gabriel Akuwudike (Hanna), Yasen “Zates” Atour (The Witcher), Ben Daniels (The Crown), Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle (Persuasion), and Nicholas Woodeson (Rome) have all joined the series for Season 2. As of now, it’s unknown which roles they’ll be playing. Also joining the cast for Season 2 is Sam Hazeldine (Peaky Blinders) who will take over the role of Adar from Joseph Mawle this season.
In a statement to the press, Vernon Sanders, head of global television for Amazon Studios, noted the success of Rings of Power and what is still yet to come in Season 2. “Since its premiere, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ has been bringing audiences together to experience the magic and wonder of J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnificent Middle-earth,” he said. “To date, season one is the top Original series for Prime Video in every region and has been viewed by over 100 million people worldwide, a truly global hit that speaks to the universal nature of powerful storytelling. We welcome these wonderful actors to our ‘fellowship’ and look forward to telling more incredible Second Age stories in season two.”
Production on Season 2 of The Rings of Power is currently underway. The Rings of Power currently stars Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Ismael Cruz Cordova as Arondir, Nazanin Boniadi as Bronwyn, Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, Tyroe Muhafidin as Theo, and Markella Kavenagh as Nori Brandyfoot.
Daredevil: Born Again is preparing to head into production in February and amid rumors of street-level heroes such as White Tiger appearing in the show, comes a very interesting addition to the cast. According to insider Daniel RPK, Michael Gandolfini has landed a role in the streaming series.
The 23-year-old Gandolfini made a name for himself by playing a young Tony Soprano, a role previously held by his later father, James, in HBO’s The Many Saints of Newark. Gandolfini doesn’t have many credits to his name as his acting career only began in earnest following his father’s death in 2013. He recently had a role in the Jodie Turner-Smith and John Cena film The Independent and will next be seen in the Joaquin Phoenix film, Disappointment Blvd.
Gandolfini’s role in Daredevil: Born Again has not been revealed but we can add that his character is described as an ambitious and earnest risk-taker with a very Staten Island-esque persona. Given that description, it’s possible Gandolfini is playing an up-and-coming mafioso, given the island’s ongoing reputation as a home for organized crime. Should that be the case, one intriguing possibility for the role could be Richard Fisk, the son of Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin. Richard has often been a thorn in his father’s side and has often tried to take his place atop organized crime.
This afternoon at 2:30 PM ET, Disney will begin a 3-hour and 20-minute long panel at CCXP ’22 in Brazil where it is expected to show off a significant amount of its 2023 slate from across its major brands. 20th Century Studios, Disney, Disney Animation, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and Pixar are all expected to have a presence during the panel. Here’s an idea of what to expect.
20th Century Studios
The only question here is if Fox will show off anything other than Avatar: The Way of Water. The film is just 2 weeks away from release and press screenings begin early next week. Star Zoë Saldaña and producer Jon Landau are scheduled to be at the event and are likely to show off some footage from the film.
Thanks to Collider, we know that Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid will be front and center during their portion of the studio’s portion of the panel. The film, headed to theaters on May 26, 2023, stars Halle Bailey as Ariel and looked to be a visual spectacle when a teaser trailer of it was shown at D23. Given the May release, it’s possible a new trailer might be unveiled at CCXP.
Disney Animation
As of publication, not much about the animation panel has trickled out. It’s possible, however, that the animation studio might show off the upcoming Disney Plus film, Iwájú, and its next theatrical release, Wish.
Lucasfilm
It looks like Lucasfilm will be showing off at least 3 projects from its slate: Willow, which just launched this week on Disney Plus, The Mandalorian Season 3 and Indiana Jones 5. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are set to join the panel virtually and discuss Mando S3, which is reportedly streaming in February. A trailer for the third season was unveiled about 2 months ago, so it’s possible a new trailer, complete with an expected release date, might emerge from CCXP. As exciting as that will be, expect Indy 5 to take up a big chunk of Lucasfilm’s time. A trailer for the new film, complete with the title, has been cut and is waiting to roll out. Is today the day?
Marvel Studios
Kevin Feige does not do panels unless he can bring something special to the mix. He’ll be on stage in Brazil and will be joined by Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd,Evangeline Lilly and Jonathan Majors, whose Kang the Conqueror, a major piece of the Multiverse Saga plans, will be introduced in the film. The film comes out in just over two months on February 17, 2023, and a new trailer for it was just screened at an event in Singapore. Feige is bringing it with him and the only question is whether or not it’ll leave the screens at CCXP or be exclusive to the event. It’s very likely it’ll be playing in front of Avatar: The Way of Water, so even if it doesn’t get into the wild today, we’ll all see it soon.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will also get some attention at the panel, especially with Saldaña already in Brazil. Like Quantumania, new footage of it was shown in Singapore, so a trailer or some footage will be shown. The public has yet to see anything from the film, which is now just 6 months away from its May 5, 2023 release. While Marvel’s marketing window has been shorter recently, the same logic from above applies: they probably want this trailer in theaters with Avatar: The Way of Water.
Loki Season 2 was also part of the panel in Singpore and the footage shown there featured Majors’ Kang the Conqueror. Fortunately, Majors is already there, so expect him to give an update on Loki and perhaps introduce a new trailer. The series comes out after Quantumania, sometime in the Summer of 2023, so its unlikely an exact release date will be given.
Marvel Studios is also likely to at least talk about Secret Invasion and The Marvels, both of which are set for 2023 releases. At this point, it doesn’t seem likely that any major new announcements should be expected but rather just a showcase of 2023’s projects.
Pixar
Pixar will absolutely be showing off Elemental, the Peter Sohn-helmed film which is slated for a June 16, 2023 release. Here’s the official synopsis from Disney.com:
Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.
Of course, there could always be surprises rolled out during such a long panel and Murphy’s Multiverse will be doing out best to share everything with you as it happens!
If you’ve ever wondered just how ambitious the plans are of James Cameron, he recently revealed that he could make up to six sequels of the 2009 box office breakout. Yet, that isn’t all as we’re also getting a graphic novel by Sherri L. Smith that’ll be published by Dark Horse Comics. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, they sat down with James Cameron to talk about his ambitious plans and the discussion of a potential streaming series. In it, he reveals that he’s open to the idea of exploring Pandora in a series, but it’ll take at least ten years to get to that point.
The problem with these CG characters is that they’re so cost- and labor-intensive that it really doesn’t work for TV. Now, come back in 10 years, with a lot of machine deep learning. Insert it into our pipeline, which we hope to do, over time. We might be able to get to a TV schedule, but it doesn’t interest me right now
James Cameron
It makes sense that it’ll take quite a bit of time for these types of CG characters in a fully digital world to be able to work in a live-action series. Eeven as impressive as She-Hulk was with their work, the budget for a series of the scale of an entire species being digitally rendered would push any show beyond its budget. Even Avatar: The Way of Water reportedly has a budget upwards of $400M. So, it’ll already take quite a bit to make this film get its money back and that’s already a big undertaking for a more lucrative business model that isn’t dependent on subscriber growth.
Of course, there’s always alternatives that could be taken. Avatar as an animated series would offer a way for him to tell more stories without the restraints of fully rendered CG in live-action. Though, it also depends on if James Cameron is a fan of his project being showcased in that format. No matter what direction an Avatar series might go, it’ll very likely make its home on Disney+ given these films are now under Disney’s watchful eye since the 20th Century Fox purchase. For now, we’ll have to wait another decade before we might truly find out.
She promises that this story “has never been done before” as it’ll be focused on a Sith rather than the usual Jedi, or even a member of the Resistance/Rebels. As such, it’ll likely be one of the franchise’s darkest stories, as we get to explore a time 100 years before the prequel movies.
I can tease that it’s a prequel! No, I mean, as you know, it’s set 100 years before the prequel movies, and it’s kind of an explanation of how the Sith infiltrated the Jedi. It’s a Sith-led story, which has never been done before. It’s been really fun to film – the cast is amazing, and the director and crew are just lovely. The whole experience is wonderful, and I’m already excited for people to see it.
Dafne Keen
There’s a lot of potential on taking a look at how the Sith got to where they were in the prequels, especially if this isn’t going to take the usual redemption route. Even in Obi-Wan Kenobi we saw how the Sith operate during the Empire’s reign but that was from the perspective of Reva, who’s not fully pictured as a villain. Of course, this story could still be about a Sith finding their way back to the light, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the direction they are going. Whatever it may be, it could become one of Disney+’s next highly anticipated series.
It’s been quite the dry period since Tudum gave us table scraps on what the future has in store with Netflix and Tomorrow Studios’ live-action adaptation of One Piece. We did get a tease of the impressive practical sets during Geeked Week, it has calmed down quite a bit. Luckily, there are still some castings that manage to find their way online, such as the first member of the Red-Haired Shanks’ crew being revealed, the iconic Lucky Roux.
As first shared by @OP_Netflix_Fan on twitter, actor Ntlanhla Kutu has shared on his CV that he is set to play Lucky Roux in Project Panda, the name the production had for quite some time during its time filming in South Africa. He’s included as “Support” without any further details on how many episodes he’ll be a part of or even which director he worked with.
Roux has a very small role in One Piece, as while he’s an important member of Shank’s crew, he doesn’t appear often throughout the story. To be fair, that is the case for everyone in Shanks’s crew and even their captain. So, we may only get a short appearance early on in the series’ flashback to Luffy’s youth. Maybe the series will give us a glimpse of his dynamic withYellowjackets Peter Gadiot, who will play the man who will give Luffy his iconic Strawhat, and the rest of the crew. He also played an important part on showcasing just how dangerous pirates can be if they are underestimated, and hopefully Kutu gets his time to shine in the role.
Under the ruthless eye of David Zaslav, Warner Bros. recently went through a massive change internally. Projects were canceled without hesitation, departments were dismantled, and the future seemed bleak for the legacy company. One of the departments that got the shaft was animation. DC, in particular, saw the axing of the Bruce Timm-led animated series Batman: Caped Crusader in the HBO Max slate.
Succeeding reports pointed to Warner Bros. being open to selling the animated series to other services but until now, there hasn’t been any clear plan as to what the show’s fate was. CEO of the TV division at Warner Bros., Channing Dungey, revealed that the company is close to striking a deal with Amazon for all future animated DC content.
Unless this deal magically goes awry in the next few weeks, it seems evident that the home for all animated DC properties moving forward will be on Amazon Prime. Fans are intensely anticipating the new Batman show not only for Timm and Matt Reeves‘ vision but also for what might be the final performance of the legendary Kevin Conroy. Amazon Prime being the new home for DC cartoons is a hopeful sign of what’s to come.
Based on a new announcement from Netflix, the new series Wednesday has quickly become another smash hit for the streaming service. It was revealed today via a tweet that the Jenna Ortega-led program has been viewed for 341.2 hours within one week. This is enough to give it the record for most hours viewed within a single week for an English-language series on the streaming platform. The series as well is rated #1 in 83 different countries, which ties the specific record with fellow 2022 release, Stranger Things 4.
Wednesday now holds the record for most hours viewed in a week for an English-language series on Netflix, with 341.2 MILLION HOURS!
The series — starring Jenna Ortega from EPs Tim Burton, Al Gough & Miles Millar — is #1 in 83 countries, tying the record set by Stranger Things 4 pic.twitter.com/o8yhS2EmXF
This is certainly a major win for Netflix, which has had a generally spastic year with successes and obstacles. While hitting its first decline in subscriber count and potentially facing what might be a wall in terms of subscribers, the platform has released some of its most successful programs in Stranger Things 4, Dahmer – Monster, and now Wednesday. This then is also followed by the seemingly successful one-week theatrical run of Glass Onion before it arrives on Netflix next month (though an argument could be made for it being even more of a successful financial venture if the company allowed it to remain in theaters for a longer period of time).
Wednesday was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar with acclaimed director Tim Burton also serving as an executive producer for the series. Serving as the most recent adaptation of The Addams Family, Jenna Ortega stars as the titular Wednesday and is surrounded by an all-star cast including the likes of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, and Fred Armisen. The eight-episode series is currently streaming on Netflix.
In an unprecedented move for an actor under contract with Marvel Studios, star Kathryn Hahn refused to reveal any information about the upcoming WandaVision spinoff, Agatha: Coven of Chaos. While promoting her new film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Hahn broke the silence around the mysterious upcoming project by talking about absolutely nothing, bucking a long-standing trend of Marvel Studios’ actors spilling the entire plot of their projects during interviews.
When asked by Kimmel if Hahn knew anything about Agatha: Coven of Chaos, which is expected to introduce Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan, to the MCU when it streams on Disney Plus in late 2023 or early 2024, the actress responded by saying, “I know everything about it.” Hahn then went on to divulge absolutely nothing about the series.
Though Hahn shockingly refused to let the cat out of the bag, she did reveal that the spinoff was not something that was planned ahead of the release of WandaVision, telling Kimmel that she “did not know I was going to be doing it [Coven of Chaos]” when filming on WandaVision was underway. Given the information from Hahn, it seems as though Agatha: Coven of Chaos was green-lit as a response to her stellar performance in WandaVision. According to Hahn, she was as surprised and excited as anyone to find out she’d get to come back as Agatha in her own series.
I guess nobody really knew that a centuries-old witch was gonna have any sort of long shelf life. So everybody was very, myself included, mostly, I would say was the most excited to know that there’s going to be another show happening.
Kathryn Hahn
Given where Hahn’s character’s arc left off in WandaVision, it seemed clear that the character would return in the future but the idea that the studio had no concrete plans at the time is interesting. The Agatha-centric spinoff was announced to be in the works just about 7 months after WandaVision completed its run on Disney Plus and about 4.5 months after Jac Schaeffer, who was the head writer on WandaVision and is writing Agatha: Coven of Chaos, signed her 3-year deal with Marvel Studios. The evidence would seem to suggest that Schaeffer likely pitched the show and has been the driving force behind it.
Legacy sequels are all the rage in Hollywood. While there’s no shortage of new IPs heading to theaters or streaming networks, audiences are delighting in nostalgic projects such as Top Gun: Maverick, Cobra Kai and Scream (2022). Not every legacy project, has landed with fans, however, and what often seems to be the tipping point is finding a balance between what made fans fall in love with the property in the first place and moving the story along in an unpredictable direction. For Jon Kasdan, the executive producer and writer of the upcoming Disney Plus streaming series, Willow, finding that sweet spot wasn’t necessarily easy.
“You know, that… it’s the challenge,” said Kasdan of balancing the fantastical nature of the 1988 film with an updated, contemporary tone. According to Kasdan, that became the key challenge of putting together the series, “With every episode you’re sort of walking the line between, between making it familiar and satisfying what fans expect from the brand ‘Willow,’ and then trying to push it forward and tell a story that’s surprising and unexpected.”
And you know, the great weapon we had with us was Warwick, who just lent the whole universe of ‘Willow’ credibility, and the moment you see him on screen, you suddenly believe these six other foolish kids could somehow fit into that world, and really inhabit it. And they did so so beautifully and with such gusto and enthusiasm. And authenticity, that it was sort of an amazing thing to watch all these things come together, and become something that feels like a progression from the movie as much as a love letter to it.
Jon Kasdan
Fans will have a chance to judge just how well-balanced the series is when Willow begins streaming on Disney Plus tomorrow!
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