Sci Fi TV News Briefs: The CW Picks Up Batwoman to Series; Netflix Signs a First Look Deal with Dark Horse, and More

Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.

Another Hero Arrives on The CW: Batwoman has been picked up to series by The CW as expected. The character was first introduced this past Fall in the Elseworlds cross-over event for the Arrow-verse shows, and preparations for a series followed that. Ruby Rose will star in the series playing Batwoman / Kate Kane (an openly gay character) who has taken over fighting crime in Gotham City after Batman has disappeared. Also picked up by The CW is the Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene as well as the mystery series Nancy Drew. Whether those will have much in the way of genre elements remains to be seen. I will be doing a full rundown of all the pilot pickups in a later post.

Genre Pilot Pickups from FOX and CBS: FOX has picked up the AI pilot neXT to series. That one comes from Manny Cotto (Odyssey 5, Star Trek: Enterprise) and stars John Slattery and Fernanda Andrade. Of interest to The Walking Dead fans, the non-genre procedural Prodigal Son has been picked up to series by FOX which stars Tom Payne. CBS has picked up the supernatural drama Evil which comes from Michelle and Robert King (BrainDead) and stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, and Michael Emerson. I will be doing a full rundown of all the pilot pickups in a later post.

Netflix Partners with Dark Horse: After The Umbrella Academy has proven to be a success for Netflix, the streaming service has signed a first look deal with comic book publisher Dark Horse. “The Netflix teams are already working in deep collaboration with Dark Horse to identify projects beyond the world of traditional superheroes — branching into horror, fantasy and family entertainment — that we think our members will love,” according to Netflix executive Cindy Holland. The streaming service has also worked with Dark Horse on Polar, which stars Mads Mikkelsen, and will be now be developing more from that company, though no specific properties have been mentioned yet.

More Details on the Picard Series: Production has begun on the new Jean-Luc Picard Trek series (still untitled) and that show is expected to arrive later this year or early 2020. Details remain scarce about the show, but Alex Kurtzman provided a little more information in a recent interview with the LA Times:

The mandate was to make it a more psychological show, a character study about this man in his emeritus years. There are so few shows that allow a significantly older protagonist to be the driver.
What happens when circumstances have conspired to not give him the happiest of endings? Hopefully, it’s a reinforcement of Roddenberry’s vision of optimism. He’s going to have to go through deep valleys to get back to the light.
It’ll be very different than Discovery. It’ll be slower, more meditative. It speaks to the rainbow of colors we’re playing with in all these different shows.

Co-starring with Patrick Stewart in the show are Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, Alison Pill, and Evan Evagora. Jonathan Frakes will also be onboard directing several episodes.