Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.
Franchise Expansion: The latest episode of The Walking Dead was a major milestone for the show with the highly publicized departure of Rick Grimes. And following that, AMC has announced future plans for the show that call for three television movies and more according to series executive producer Scott Gimple:
Right now, we’re working on three [movies] but there’s flexibility in that. … Over the next several years, we’re going to be doing specials, new series are quite a possibility, high-quality digital content and then some content that defies description at the moment. We’re going to dig into the past and see old characters. We’re going to introduce new characters and new situations.
As for the expansion plans beyond the movies, these could go back to earlier points in the show’s timeline and focus on fan-favorite characters that are no longer on the show. Whether this would be an anthology series (the direction I believe they should go), web series, or one-off movies has not been determined yet.
WARNING! This paragraph contains MAJOR SPOILERS if you have not seen Rick Grimes’ final episode. The three movies will bring Andrew Hudson back to the TWD universe and continue the story of Rick Grimes (who survived at the end of the latest episode). The actor had decided to bow out as the show’s lead a while back because he wanted to spend more time with his family back in England. The movies will require that he is only available for a couple of months per year for filming as opposed to the nine month commitment for the series. The first of the three is in the works, and I would expect that it will debut at some point in 2019.
Screaming for Release: The third season of the horror series Scream (based on the Movie franchise of the same name) finished shooting early this year and originally was planned for a March 2018 debut. But when The Weinstein Company (which produced the show) filed for bankruptcy, the show’s fate became uncertain. Since then, Lantern Capital has acquired the rights to the show and they are in the process of finding a new venue to air it. The first two seasons aired on MTV, but that network appears to be out of the picture now after the Weinstein troubles. There is still no firm debut date for the third season (which features an all-new cast and was supposed to reboot the series), but with Lantern acquiring it we may hear something soon.
The Fall season is in full swing now with close to fifty new and returning sci fi and fantasy television shows. You can see the rundown of the Fall season at this link. And be sure to stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site throughout the season for the latest ratings results and status updates for your favorite shows.
