Sci Fi TV Top 5: Covering the top sci fi and fantasy TV stories of interest from the past week. Note that this column takes the place of the prior Sci Fi TV News Brief series. You can keep up with the sci fi and fantasy TV news headlines at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
1. All-Female Arrow Spin-Off in the Works at The CW
The CW’s Arrow will be coming to an end this season, but the network has a spin-off in the works that will carry over several characters from the show. The series will focus on Mia Smoak/Green Arrow and the Canaries Laurel Lance and Dinah Drake. There are no specifics on the series yet, but an episode featuring the characters will air as a backdoor pilot during the upcoming season of Arrow, likely near the end of the season after the Crisis on Infinite Earths cross-over. The network will likely gauge viewership interest in that episode and then decide whether to add the show to its 2020-21 schedule. All of the network’s superhero entries will come together in the Crisis event that starts in December and that promises to have major consequences for the Arrow-verse (more on that at this link). This spin-off could lead out from those changes.
>See the full rundown of the new and returning Fall 2019 sci fi and fantasy television shows
2. Hulu Will Not Go Forward with the Live-Action Ghost Rider Series
Earlier this year, Hulu gave a direct-to-series order for a Ghost Rider series which would carry over the character introduced in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD series played by Gabriel Luna. But now the streaming service has decided not to move forward with that show. Allegedly the reason that Hulu has backed away from the show is due to “creative difference”, but word is that Kevin Feige has an interest in bringing the character into the Marvel Universe movies. There are also reports of a feud between Marvel Television and Marvel Studios (which produces the movies) with the latter currently coming out on top. The Hellstrom series that was announced at the same time as Ghost Rider is still moving forward at Hulu, and perhaps Robbie Reyes could cross-over on that (speculation only). And the adult-animated series previously anounced are still in the works which include Howard the Duck, MODOK, and Tigra & Dazzler Show. So Marvel Television still has a few shows on the slate (including Cloak & Dagger, Runaways, and the soon-to-end Agents of SHIELD), but it appears to have lost one of its characters to the films.
3. The Season 4 Premiere for The Expanse will Screen Early at New York Comic-Con
Amazon saved The Expanse from cancellation after Syfy axed the show back in 2018, and the long-awaited fourth season will have its debut on Prime Video on December 13th. But ahead of that, the Season 4 premiere will get an early screening at the New York Comic-Con. There will be a panel for the show on Saturday, October 5th at the Main Stage of the Javits Center which will unveil the season premiere. There will also be a question and answer session and the guest will include Steven Strait, Wes Chatham, Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Frankie Adams, and Showrunner Naren Shankar.
4. The Twilight Zone Heads to the Big Screen
In honor of its 60th anniversary, Rod Serling’s classic sci fi / fantasy anthology The Twilight Zone will get a limited engagement in theaters this Fall. Six famous episodes from the show–which have been digitally remastered–will play on the big screen on November 14th in an event to be titled The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration. The six episodes selected are: “Walking Distance”, “Time Enough at Last”, “The Invaders”, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, “Eye of the Beholder”, and “To Serve Man”. The TZ mini-marathon will screen in 600 theaters across the country and tickets went on sale today. You can find out which local theaters will be screening the event at this link.
5. The Ratings Continue to Slip for the Broadcast Networks
This is the first official week of the Fall season for the broadcast networks, and the early numbers suggest that the ratings are continuing their trend of year-over-year declines. All of the networka with new and returning shows are seeing lower numbers pretty much across the board, especially for scripted programming. On Tuesday, ABC’s sci fi / conspiracy series Emergence had its debut with a 0.8 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 4.1 million total viewers. That is below last season’s average for the network, but was about on par with the other ABC Tuesday shows. On Thursday, the supernatural drama Evil had its debut on CBS and pulled a 0.7 rating with with 4.6 million total viewers. That might put it on the low side, especially in the total viewers stat which older-skewing CBS pays more attention to. I will be looking at these shows in more detail as well as all of the sci fi shows that aired during the week in the upcoming Cancellation Watch Weekly Roundup post.
The Sched: Next Week Brings Premieres for The Walking Dead S10, Batwoman, and More
The week of September 30th brings more sci fi and fantasy TV premieres for the Fall season, with all of them clustered on Sunday night. October 6th will be busy with the following premieres: The Walking Dead Season 10 (AMC), Batwoman (CW), Supergirl Season 5 (CW), Mr. Robot Season 4 (USA), and Star Wars Resistance Season 2 (Disney). You can see the full schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows at this link and you can keep up with the weekly listings at this link.
More Sci Fi TV News of Note
AMC’s TWD franchise has received the official (and rather obvious) title of The Walking Dead Universe . . . John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome and Diana Silvers have been cast in Steve Carrell’s upcoming Netflix comedy Space Force . . . Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger will cross-over on Disney XD’s animated Spider-Man series . . . Blythe Danner has been cast as the Greek goddess Demeter in the upcoming third season of Starz’s American Gods . . . You can keep up with the sci fi and fantasy TV news headlines at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
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. And join the #CancelledSciFiArmy on Twitter to bolster our ranks and help us fight for the struggling and cancelled sci fi and fantasy shows.
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.
Look back at the classics of sci fi and fantasy television with Classics Sci Fi TV.
Hey! You included the picture from The Twilight Zone pinball game!