Tag: TV

‘Naomi’ Not Returning for a Second Season on the CW

The CW has canceled a slew of shows including the DC Comics adaptation Naomi.

After finishing its first season just two days ago, the CW has confirmed Naomi will not be returning for a second season. The news, while unfortunate, shouldn’t be too surprising. Despite having Ava DuVernay behind the project and plenty of critical acclaim, the series failed to find an audience like most of the network’s shows.

This marks the latest DC Comics television series to get the ax following the cancellations of Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman. Currently, renewal decisions have yet to be made for The Flash, which is rumored to end after Season 9, Stargirl, and Riverdale. Superman & Lois has already been renewed for a third season. A new DC Show, titled Gotham Knights, has filmed a pilot for the network; a decision regarding that title has not yet been made either although it is expected to be ordered to series.

While the CW has been notorious for its low ratings, it was recently announced that the network might soon be going up for sale. In the past, The CW benefited greatly from its Netflix deal, which was thought to bring in a fair amount of revenue while in place. Unfortunately, after that deal was not renewed with Warner Bros. looking to use its own streaming service instead, the CW shows suffered. It is currently thought that Nexstar is the frontrunner to purchase the CW, although it is unlikely a deal will be made in time for the network’s upfronts presentation next week.

Source: THR

May 12, 2022
CW Cancels ‘Charmed’ After 4 Seasons

For years, CW has been the network where shows seemingly managed to hold on for quite some time, especially if you think of shows like Arrow, The Flash, and Supernatural. Yet, they’ve been on a cancelation spree as of late. Just a few weeks ago, they’ve canceled Batwoman after it ran for three seasons even as the show managed to get more momentum in its second weekend. Still, as rumors are making the rounds that Warner Bros. Discovery is interested in selling the network, they are seemingly cleaning house.

Next in line for the chopping block is Charmed, which has now been canceled after running for four seasons on the network. Its viewership wasn’t strong as it was ranked 17th among all 19 currently airing dramas on the CW. So, it’s no surprise that it may have been up for cancelation as it lost viewers over the years. The reboot saw Madeline Mantock, Melonie Diaz, and Sarah Jeffery take on the roles of witches Macy, Mel, and Maggie. Together with their British mentor, Rupert Evans as the Whitelighter Harry, they faced many dangers.

the third season added one more member to the Charmed family, as Lucy Barrett joined Michaela. The series was an adaptation of the original Charmed that ran from 1998 until 2006 and included Alyssa Milano, Shannen Doherty, Rose McGowan, Holly Marie Combs, and Kaley Cuoco. It’s a shame the series was canceled and it seems that it’s not the only series on the chopping block as some newer additions are also facing a similar face.

Source: TVLine

May 12, 2022
‘Ms. Marvel’ Directors Reveal Surprising Influences on Disney+ Show

Many modern-day projects have a wide variety of influences that help inspire their visuals, storytelling approach, and core concepts. Sometimes there are some surprising additions that help make the project still stand out amongst many others. It looks like Disney+’s upcoming Ms. Marvel series has some rather curious inspirations. Director duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah talk about the many inspirations that helped them bring the project to life.

A big part of the adjustment for them was working outside of their “comfort zone” of R-ratings, as they “can’t go full Bad Boys” with a project that focuses on a younger audience. Still, they talked out the many influences that helped shape the film such as Spike Lee‘s iconic tracking shot, VFX influences taken from anime, and many teen classics, such as John Hughes films, Booksmart, Scott Pilgram vs. the World and Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.

It’ll be interesting to see how Anime has influenced some of the VFX effects, especially with how varied the designs are from one animation to another. Scott Pilgram‘s influences are pretty obvious with the animated think bubbles and some of the reactions in the initial trailer. Here’s hoping they also dive deep into some fun transitions, which made that film a standout back when it was released. Spike Lee is also such a curious choice, but them using his famous tracking shots could lead to some iconic visual designs to make the series pop in comparison to the rest.

Source: Empire Magazine via Twitter

May 12, 2022
‘Ms. Marvel’s Head Writer on the Khan Family’s Importance

Family is everything, especially when it comes to teenage superheroes. They are their moral support and help them ease into any challenge that they might face. In the Ms. Marvel comics, Kamala Khan’s family played that role as they also help center her as she navigated the challenging life of being a Pakistani-American. Keeping that alive and also bringing in personal experiences to make them feel like our own family. Head Writer Bisha K. Ali had set out to ensure that remains the same in Ms. Marvel‘s Disney+ series, especially as she wanted to ensure that the Khans are a “realistic, non-stereotypical, Muslim family“.

We know [what] we don’ want to see because we live it. So the intention is always to come from a place of like, ‘Oh, what’s aspirational and beautiful? What don’t people get to see about us?”
Bisha K. Ali

If there’s one place that truly represents us as people, it’s our family and how we interact with them. Being able to show the beauty and aspects that others don’t get to witness, or those with similar backgrounds get to relive is important to convey in a series like this. The Khans were an important aspect of Kamala’s story in the comics and it’s great that the Disney+ Ms. Marvel series will also stick to that. The last trailer highlighted her relationship with her mother and we’ll see how the rest of her family may influence her evolution as a hero throughout the six-episode series.

Source: Empire Magazine via Twitter

May 12, 2022
Peacock Developing a ‘Reality Bites’ Series With Original Screenwriter

Reality Bites is getting an update from Peacock. The NBCUniversal-backed streamer is looking to develop what is being called a “reframing” of the 1994 film of the same name. Helen Childress, who wrote the original film, is on board to write the remake which will follow the driven and idealistic Lelaina Pierce and her three best friends as they leave college and learn to be adults in the 90s all while trying to hold onto who they are, as well as each other.

This is the second attempt at trying to adapt Reality Bites for television by NBCUniversal. Back in 2013, NBC partnered with Ben Stiller, who directed the original film, to develop a scripted comedy adaptation. That project was also penned by Childress with Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg also on board as producers. Unfortunately, that project ultimately fell apart and Stiller is not currently attached to this latest attempt.

Reality Bites, which was released by Universal in ’94, earned approximately $33.3 million at the worldwide box office on a $11.5 million budget. It starred Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Steve Zahn, Janeane Garofalo and Stiller.

Childress will serve as an executive producer alongside Jenna Bans as well as Shamberg, Sher, and Danny DeVito all of whom helped to produce the movie. They’ll also be joined by Casey Kyber (What She Said). This marks the latest Universal film to get the small-screen treatment following the likes of Pitch Perfect and Ted. As of this writing, no cast is attached to this project.

Source: THR

May 12, 2022
Matt Lintz Gives Some Insight into Bruno Carrelli’s Role in ‘Ms. Marvel’

Matt Lintz was one of the first actors to join the cast of Ms. Marvel, following Iman Vellani’s casting in the Fall of 2020. Lintz, who will portray Kamala Khan’s best friend, Bruno Carrelli, has made a name for himself with key roles in The Alienist and The Walking Dead, where played Kingdom resident Henry over 4 seasons. Now he’ll be stepping into an even larger role as one of the most important characters in Kamala Khan’s circle and one of the first of her friends to become aware of her secret identity as the costumed hero Ms. Marvel. In an interview with Empire, Lentz gave fans a little insight into the character.

He really cares for Kamala. If you look at the comics, he has that sidekick feel. He’s the Q, the Alfred.

In the comics, Bruno and Kamala shared a very complicated friendship. While both of them certainly had romantic feelings for one another, they awkwardly danced around those feelings for quite some time. Instead, their relationship became a bit more focused on her superheroing, where Bruno, who has a genius-level IQ, helped not only to protect her secret identity-especially from her parents-but used his expertise in chemical engineering to develop a polymer he called “super snot” that helped Kamala’s Ms. Marvel costume stretch and grow with her embiggening powers.

With Rish Shah’s Kamran set to capture Kamala’s eye in the upcoming series, it’s likely that Lentz’s Bruno will find himself going through some of those same awkward moments his character experienced in the comics. What’ll be more interesting to see, however, is how his character applies his genius to Kamala’s new power set, which has been greatly adapted for the MCU.

Ms. Marvel begins streaming on Disney Plus on June 8th.

Source: Empire via Twitter

May 12, 2022
How Kevin Feige was Convinced to Produce ‘Moon Knight’ Series

In a recent interview, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater brought up how the series was pitched to Kevin Feige in order for Marvel Studios to green-light and produce the project. The writer discussed the challenges with the character often being compared to Batman and a lack of originality that may come from producing a series like Moon Knight if done inadequately.

That’s always been a little bit of a Moon Knight problem is, in the wrong hands, he’s just a sort of Batman clone with a pallet swap and Batman’s got an 80-year head start on us. It’s very easy to do something that would just feel super derivative.
Jeremy Slater

With that in mind, it was certainly important for Jeremy Slater to track down what original elements would best thrive when developing this series. When discussing Moon Knight with other people working within Marvel Studios, they provided insight into what specific factors to focus on when Slater would pitch the project to Feige.

They gave us this and they’re like, ‘Look, he loves the mental health aspect. He loves the dissociative identity disorder and he’s really drawn to the Egyptology. He likes the Jeff Lemire run, the idea that you could be on the bus and look out the window and see an Egyptian god standing on the street corner.’ That was something Kevin [Feige] sort of identified early-on of like, ‘Okay, well, that’s interesting. That’s unique.’ That’s kind of all the information I had going in.
Jeremy Slater

All of the factors that were presented in the pitch were critical in making Moon Knight stand out as an original series. The influence of Jeff Lemire’s notable run with the character is very noticeable in the blend of the normal world with grandiose Egyptian mythology. As well, the series spending time in dealing with the Dissociative Identity Disorder of the protagonist helped prevent the show from being labeled as derivative of any Batman adaptations. Overall, it provides an insight into Marvel Studios’ focus into producing original stories within the field of the superhero genre.

Source: Comicbook.com

May 12, 2022
‘Somebody Feed Phil’ Gets a Season 6 Renewal, Was Filmed Back-to-Back

If you’ve ever needed a show to just make you smile, Somebody Feed Phil might be the show for you. The culinary travels of Phil Rosenthal are about to premiere its fifth season which consists of five episodes, but it turns out that they actually filmed a sixth season back-to-back. In an interview with Variety, Rosenthal confirmed that an additional season is on the horizon, as well as confirmed that they had to postpone one location due to the pandemic.

We filmed 10 episodes in the sweet spot between Delta and Omicron. Remember that? So from August to January, we pretty much filmed everything. We only had to postpone one location because of Omicron, but we swapped in another one in the United States for that. And we’ll go back to [that other location eventually.
Phil Rosenthal

The upcoming fifth season will include locations from Oaxaca, Portland (Maine), Portland (Oregon), Madrid, and Helsinki. So, there’s a good variety of Portland and other international locations that Rosenthal got to visit. Sadly, they wouldn’t confirm what the other five locations are going to be for the sixth location but it’s good to know that there’s more Somebody Feed Phil on the horizon no matter what. With a title like that though, you’d think the poor guy is starving.

Source: Variety

May 12, 2022
Jeremy Slater Tried Referencing Popular Dracula Meme in ‘Moon Knight’

Before Moon Knight debuted on Disney+, the majority of internet users probably knew the character best from memes rather than comics. A few years ago, it became a trend for online jokesters to take obscure comic panels and alter the dialogue to have Moon Knight shouting explicit, shocking, NSFW statements at other Marvel characters. One of these altered images became a viral sensation. It featured Marc Spector’s Moon Knight screaming at the vampire lord Dracula, demanding that the “big f—-ing nerd” give him his money.

Speaking with Comic Book, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater confirmed that he did, in fact, attempt to put a reference to this meme in the hit show. Unfortunately, the crudeness of the dialogue made it hard to fit organically into a relatively PG-13 series on Disney’s streaming service:

I tried so hard. The problem is you can’t say f-ck on Disney+. And so you have to do a really awkward bleep where something breaks right when they say it. But it also felt to have him sort of recreate any part of that meme, but not do the part that people liked the most, which is the sort of inappropriate cursing. It was just kind of shining a spotlight on the fact that we couldn’t curse.
Jeremy Slater

Luckily for fans, Slater doesn’t think this will be the last chance someone gets to bring the meme to life. Moon Knight leaves plenty of room for the character to return later on down the line, and the upcoming introduction of Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe could open the door for an actual confrontation between Moon Knight and Dracula to occur in live-action. The writer elaborates on the opportunity:

I still think there’s ways to get some of those memes in there. I’ve also said on the record that I would love to see Moon Knight going after Dracula at some point. And maybe Blade has that area staked out, no pun intended, but look, if Moon Knight goes after Dracula, I can assure you that someone will work that meme in there somewhere.
Jeremy Slater

Moon Knight is now streaming in it’s entirety on Disney+.

Source: Comic Book

May 12, 2022
‘Moon Knight’ Scribe On How Jake Lockley’s Absence, Relationship with Khonshu

Over the course of its 6-week run, Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Moon Knight introduced audiences to Steven Grant, Marc Spector, Moon Knight, Mr. Knight and Khonshu, all of whom co-existed within the fractured mind of one man. Each episode of the series also built in teases to another one of Spector’s alters, Jake Lockley, but held off on delivering on those teases until the post-credit scene of the finale. In an interview with The Direct, Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater explains why they held of on introducing Jake, his relationship to Khonshu, the potential future of the character and more.

As it turns out, Slater was aware right from the beginning that introducing Jake to the story would be too much to tackle in a short time:

My initial pitch to Marvel was that three alters, three personalities sort of clashing with each other over the space of six hours is going to be way too chaotic and hectic. That it’s possible to tell a story like this and build a really strong emotional bond between two people, between Marc [Spector] and Steven [Grant], and really make the audience care about that relationship. But once you introduce a third into the fray, it becomes impossible. Like, Steven’s sacrifice at the end of 105 wouldn’t have any sort of weight to it if he had Jake there to sort of console him.
Jeremy Slater

Slater went on to say that Jake’s presence would take the attention off of the series’ key relationship: the one between Steven and Marc:

So right from the beginning, I said [that] the first season could only concentrate on these two and we’ll find fun ways to tease the existence of Jake so that the fans recognize it. Marvel was really supportive of that approach right from the beginning. Then, in the course of our [writer’s] room, we started talking like, ‘what’s the best way to tease Jake? What’s going to really get the audience about a potential season two, or a movie, or another appearance down the line.
Jeremy Slater

In the comics, Jake has always been willing to do some dirty work, more so than Spector’s other alters. While that’s what we see of him here, Slater is quick to caution the fanbase from judging him too quickly on one act:

The idea of bringing in Jake [Lockley], and not having him be evil, because I don’t—I’ve seen people on Twitter unhappy that they think Jake is sort of falling into sort of the evil-alter trope that you see in movies like Split and things like that. From my perspective, we don’t know nearly enough about Jake to make a determination like that… ultimately, whoever takes over the reins of the story next gets to decide that, but [also] from my perspective, the interesting question about Jake is, what is his relationship with Khonshu? Why is he so willing to do these horrible things in service of Khonshu. Why is he the one guy who sort of believes in Khonshu’s mission? What does he know that our heroes don’t? I think there’s a lot of questions like that that haven’t necessarily been answered.
Jeremy Slater

Slater continued, arguing that “Jake is bad” would be the LEAST interesting thing that could be done with the alter:

I think that making Jake a generic evil guy would probably be the least exciting, or least interesting, direction to take that character in the future. So, I have no idea where Jake goes from here, and which writers and directors will bring him to life, but, I think there’s a lot of potentials. I think we’ve only teased the existence of this character at this point. We kind of still don’t know anything about him… I don’t think he’s evil. It’s Marvel’s decision, not mine, but I think calling him evil would be a mistake at this stage in the game.
Jeremy Slater

As Slater points out, and as is often the case with MCU writers, while he’s put a lot of thought into developing Jake, the next steps for the character are out of his hands. At this point, with Moon Knight’s next appearance still undetermined or unannounced, fans can’t even be sure they’ll see Jake again. Let’s hope if we do, whoever has taken over for Slater shows the same care for the character.

Source: The Direct

May 12, 2022