Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.
Draining the Swamp? Production on the live-action Swamp Thing TV series for the DC Universe streaming service has shut down and will truncate that show’s episode order from thirteen to ten. The reason given for the shut down was “creative differences” though there was speculation that the future of the DCU streaming service might be in doubt with a new service on the way from WarnerMedia which will have expanded offerings from the WB catalog. SlashFilm has claimed that is not the case and that “potential issues with Swamp Thing‘s production do not reflect the health of the DC Universe service”. What this means for the future of the show featuring the murk monster remains to be seen, but the first season premiere is still set for May 31st.
Sci Fi Summer on The CW: The fifth place network has expanded its Summer schedule and among the new offerings are the sci fi series Pandora. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show “is set in the year 2199 and follows a young woman who has lost everything as she joins Earth’s Space Training Academy”. The debut date has not been set for that one yet but it will be joining the network’s Summer fantasy series The Outpost which is scheduled to return for its second season on July 11th. Also airing through the Summer months will be iZombie (Season 5 debuts May 2nd) and The 100 (Season 6 debuts April 30th).
Development Hell: The live-action adaptation of the Y: The Last Man comic, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, continues to run into troubles. It was originally planned as a big screen production but got shuffled around and eventually landed at FX with a pilot order. That network decided to pick it up to series, but the production has run into problems once again. Showrunners Michael Green (American Gods) and Aida Croal (Luke Cage) have departed over creative differences with the network. They put out a statement on Twitter saying that “FX has decided not to move forward with our series in its current form”. The network has reportedly not given up on the show, but these developments will certainly delay its arrival on the small screen.
Casting News: The upcoming Star Trek series that will center around TNG‘s Jean-Luc Picard has cast three new crew members. Alison Pill (American Horror Story, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful) and Isa Briones will be joining Patrick Stewart on the show, though there are no details at this point about their characters. Jonathan Frakes has also boarded the series, though his duties will be behind the camera as director. Ready Player One‘s Lena Waithe will be joining HBO’s Westworld in its third season which has been pushed back to a 2020 debut. Alden Ehrenreich (who played a young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story) has been cast in USA’s upcoming Brave New World and will play John the Savage.
Coming Soon: Amazon has released a trailer for its upcoming superhero series The Boys which is scheduled to debut on July 26th. Syfy has announced June 12th as the debut date for Krypton Season 2 and released a trailer that gives us our first look at Lobo in that series. Netflix has announced that its fantasy series The Witcher, based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, will be arriving in late 2019, though a specific debut date has not been given.
More from CancelledSciFi.com:
Keep up with the ratings developments and the status of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Weekly Roundup posts.
Check out our Sci Fi TV Schedule for debut and season finale dates and follow our Weekly Listings for a rundown of the shows airing in the current week.
A look back at forgotten magic and hidden treasures from the worlds of sci fi and fantasy TV with Sci Fi TV Genre Gems.
