Sci Fi TV Top 5: Covering the top sci fi and fantasy TV stories of interest from the past week. You can keep up with the sci fi and fantasy TV news headlines throughout the week at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
1. Hulu Turns Away The Vampire Chronicles
The long-in-development TV adaptation Anne Rice’s of The Vampire Chronicles has run into production troubles again. Hulu has decided to pass on the series after having jumped onboard last year. There are no specifics on why the streaming service passed on the project, but the series will be shopped around to other venues. Since The Vampire Chronicles covers eleven books, it may be that Hulu was not willing to commit to an extended run for the series seeing as the streamers tend to cap off their shows around the third or fourth season. Rice is working closely with her son Christopher on the project and it should draw plenty of interest.
2. HBO Max Dives Into Snow Crash
The upcoming Warner Bros. streaming service HBO Max is adapting Neal Stephenson cyberpunk novel Snow Crash as a TV series. Goodreads gives the following description of the story:
Hiro Protagonist, who in reality delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.
The streaming service will likely target adding this to its list of originals at some point in 2020.
3. ABC Returns to the Disney Vault with Epic
ABC is developing a new fantasy series that comes from veterans of that network’s prior long-running series Once Upon A Time. Deadline Hollywood gives the following description for the project:
Epic is a romantic anthology series set in the fairytale universe of Disney. Taking place in a Disney-like Enchanted Forest, it will center on a whole new set of new heroes, villains, princes, princesses and all manner of magical beings. While it will pay homage to the classic signposts we’re all familiar with from the stories we grew up with, Epic will endeavor to create a whole new batch of characters as it explores love in all its forms.
The series was created by former Once Upon A Time writer Brigette Hales, and co-creators of the former ABC hit Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz will be onboard as showrunners and executive producers. The network will be considering this series for its Fall 2020 schedule.
4. Renewals and Cancellations: Star Trek Picard and Van Helsing Get Renewed, Daybreak Gets Cancelled
CBS All Access announced this week that its upcoming series Star Trek Picard has been renewed in advance for a second season. That comes as no surprise for the highly-anticipated series and allows production to ramp up quickly for the second year. Syfy’s low-rated vampire-pocalypse series Van Helsing has avoided cancellation again as the network will be bringing it back for a fifth year. But that will be the final season for the show. Netflix’s post-apocalyptic comedy Daybreak has been cancelled by the streamer after one season. That series received little promotion and did not seem to generate much buzz.
5. Production News: Billy Dee Williams May Star in Lando TV Series, Lord of the Rings Prequel finds its Galadriel, and More
From the rumor mill, there is talk that Billy Dee Williams could return to the role of Lando Calrissian in a Disney+ TV series. There is no offiical confirmation on that at this point, though. Will Poulter has exited from Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel series due to scheduling conflicts, while Morfydd Clark has joined the cast and will be playing a young Galadriel. Netflix has expanded the cast of its upcoming fantasy series Shadow and Bone, adding Zoë Wanamaker, Kevin Eldon, Julian Kostov, Luke Pasqualino, Jasmine Blackborow, and and Gabrielle Brooks.
THE SCHED: Lost in Space Returns for Its Second Season on Netflix
There is only one more sci fi TV premiere on the schedule for 2019, unless Netflix drops something on us without warning (as they are want to do). On Christmas Eve, Lost in Space has its second season debut on Netflix. All episodes will be available for streaming on that day. But Mid-Season will be here quickly starting with the Season 12 premiere of Doctor Who on January 1st. You can see the preliminary schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows at this link and you can keep up with the weekly listings at this link.
More from CancelledSciFi.com
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