THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE Cancelled!

THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE

With several genre shows having already been cancelled over the past few weeks and months for various reasons, now comes word on another huge favourite being sadly axed.

As initially reported by io9, Netflix has pulled the plug on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance after just one solitary season.

Despite receiving massive fan and critical acclaim in spotlighting the Gelfling and Skeksis war, that sadly wasn’t enough right now to convince Netflix to give the A-OK for a second year for Age of Resistance.

On this news, producer Lisa Henson said, “We can confirm that there will not be an additional season of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. We know fans are eager to learn how this chapter of The Dark Crystal saga concludes. And we’ll look for ways to tell that story in the future. Our company has a legacy of creating rich and complex worlds that require technical innovation, artistic excellence, and masterful storytelling. Our history also includes productions that are enduring, often finding and growing their audience over time and proving again and again that fantasy and science fiction genres reflect eternal messages and truths that are always relevant”

Serving as a prequel to Jim Henson’s iconic 1982 movie, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was a true thing of beauty, from its story, to its characters, to its world design, to its ridiculously talented voice cast, and to the creative minds behind the series. It’s just a huge shame that Age of Resistance only got ten episodes and went out on a cliffhanger.

A huge thanks to all involved in putting The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance together – and here’s hoping that somehow, somewhere we get further Dark Crystal adventures down the line.

Starburst Hero Award Launched

octocon 2020

Starburst Magazine is pleased to announce a new award, The Starburst Hero Award For Literature. The new award will be given to a member of the genre literature community who has gone above and beyond to serve the genre literature community.

This year’s award has been created by professional prop-maker Jez Hunt, who has made armour and props for shows such as Cursed and the movie Tolkien. This year’s award will be a specially designed shield, a fitting award for a hero.

The award will be announced as part of a ceremony at Octocon 2020, The National Irish Science Fiction Convention. The same ceremony will also announce the winner of Starburst Magazine’s prestigious Brave New Words Award.

The shortlist for the Brave New Words Award (which is an award for works considered Brave and New), is below.

Evan Winter – Rage of Dragons (Orbit Books)
Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar – This is How You Lose the Time War (Jo Fletcher Books)

Tyler Hayes – The Imaginary Corpse (Angry Robot)

Sady Doyle – Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers (MHP Books)
Nisi Shawl – New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color (Rebellion)
Tamsyn Muir – Gideon the Ninth (Tor)

The ceremony will include a panel from the Brave New Words Award judges and the actual award announcements will be made by top comedian John Robertson, who is best known for his hit video game themed comedy show The Dark Room.

For more information on Octocon 2020, which is free and online this year, go here.

HBO Developing Hip Hop Vampire Show THIRST

HBO

While one vampiric TV offering was recently axed in NOS4A2, now comes word on a new vampire series on the way.

Courtesy of Variety, HBO is developing a new vamp-driven show titled Thirst. From Marco Television Studios, the early word on Thirst has it pegged as a “hip hop vampire drama” from writers Leah Benavides and Carlito Rodriguez.

Thirst will centre on a great but cocky Atlanta rapper who seems destined for the top after linking up with hip hop’s hottest new group. The only problem is that this group is actually a family of goddamn, shit-sucking vampires!

Expect more on Thirst as we get it.

HARLEY QUINN Renewed for a Third Season

It’s the news that fans have been waiting weeks, nay months for. Yes, as the title suggests, more Harley Quinn is on the way!

Via The Hollywood Reporter, the animated Harley Quinn has been renewed for a third season. Like certain other DC Comics-driven shows, though, Harley Quinn’s third year will be available on the HBO Max streaming service rather than on DC Universe.

The current plan is to move all new video content away from DC Universe, with that service to be rebranded in January as DC Universe Infinite – with the emphasis to be more on comic books and digital exclusives.

At this stage, details on Harley Quinn’s third season have yet to be made available in terms of plot of premiere date, but expect more on the third year of this genre favourite offering as we get it.

D&D Celebration Goes Live Today

Who would have thought that watching people play Dungeons and Dragons would be so much fun? Thousands of gaming fans will be watching some top D&D players explore the frost-covered land of Icewind Dale throughout this weekend, thanks to the Dungeons and Dragons Celebration event.

If you pop over to the Dungeons and Dragons Twitch Channel this weekend, you’ll be able to watch live games inspired by the new D&D book, Dungeons & Dragons Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Big name UK creators include Oxventure, High Rollers and How We Roll. Throughout the weekend panels discussing the finer points of the Dungeons and Dragons hobby will be aired live, and will include insight from the likes of Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins and Ray Winninger. The entire event will be hosted by Elle Osili-Wood.

The event begins at 16:00 BST with the excellent Oxventures, and will run from Friday the 18th all the way into the early hours of Monday 21st. A full schedule can be found here. The event organisers, Wizards of The Coast, have also teamed up with the charity Extra Life to create special apparel—with all Wizards of the Coast proceeds going directly to Extra Life/Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Those looking for a little more extra D&D in their lives will be pleased to learn that previews of the next D&D book, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything can be downloaded here as well as some IceWind Dale Themed resources.

The CW Orders Third Season of TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORIES

Two Sentence Horror Stories

The second season of the show has yet to even premiere, but The CW has already moved to renew Two Sentence Horror Stories for a third year.

Bloody-Disgusting broke the news, with this third season expected to premiere in early 2021 – even though a premiere date has yet to be officially set for the show’s Season Two.

For those yet to check out Two Sentence Horror Stories for themselves, the official blurb on the series reads:

Inspired by the viral fan fiction of two sentence horror stories, this anthology series taps into universal primal fears, filtered through the anxieties of the most connected and racially diverse generation.

Despite dizzying advancements in technology, inequality, social progress, and environmental degradation… the things that haunt us are still the same.

Two Sentence Horror Stories began life back in 2017 as a five-episode short-form offering from Best Friends’ Vera Miao. After being picked up by The CW, Miao has been joined by Creative Control’s Emily Wiedemann and Stories From the Felt’s Chazz Carfora to oversee the show.

RAISED BY WOLVES Renewed for Second Season

Raised by Wolves

Having debuted on the HBO Max streaming service earlier this month, it’s good news for fans of Raised by Wolves.

Via Deadline, HBO Max has moved to renew the Ridley Scott-developed series for a second season.

In a statement, Sarah Aubrey of HBO Max enthused, “When I think of Raised by Wolves, I think of artistry. Artistry in crafting a compelling storyline, artistry in the out-of-this-world production design, special effects and cinematography, artistry in our actor’s portrayals of these memorable characters, and artistry attached to the legendary work of Ridley Scott, Aaron Guzikowski and our phenomenal crew. This chart-topping series beautifully weaves together Ridley’s hallmarks of sci-fi and horror while offering fans one of the most original storylines they’ve seen in some time. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Season Two.”

Set in the 22nd century, Raised by Wolves features a desolate world ravaged by a war between atheists and a hardcore religious faction. From there, two androids head to the planet of Kepler-22b to attempt to restart human civilisation – but this is soon hindered by the arrival of human refugees.

At this stage, it’s yet to be announced just when and where Raised by Wolves will be available for UK fans eager to check out this sci-fi spectacle.

Tatiana Maslany to Headline Disney+’s SHE-HULK

Tatiana Maslany

It was only earlier this week that we heard how Brooklyn 99’s Kat Coiro was to direct the pilot offering of Disney+’s She-Hulk series – and now we know who’ll be headlining that show!

Via Variety, Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany has landed the role of Jennifer Walters, aka the titular She-Hulk.

Previous rumours suggested that GLOW star Alison Brie was in the running for the She-Hulk gig, with Marvel and Disney even reportedly looking for “an Alison Brie type” for the role. Instead, it’s Tatiana Maslany – most recently seen in Perry Mason – who will be spearheading the show.

While it’s obviously early stages right now, there is a belief that Mark Ruffalo may make an appearance or two in She-Hulk, although there are zero other details known about the series at this time.

For those not familiar with the She-Hulk character, Jennifer Walters is the lawyer cousin of Bruce Banner. After Jennifer is in need of a blood transfusion to save her life, the only option turns out to be Bruce – and thus, Walters has Banner’s gamma-infused blood put into her system in a move that results in her becoming She-Hulk.

Rick and Morty’s Jessica Goa is the showrunner for She-Hulk, with rumblings and rumours suggesting GLOW’s Alison Brie as the perfect choice to play Jennifer Walters. At present, the plan is for She-Hulk to premiere on Disney+ in 2022.

As ever, expect more on Disney+’s She-Hulk as we get it.

FrightFest Announce their October Event Line-up

frightfest october

The line-up for the Arrow Video FrightFest October event has been announced. The event will return to Cineworld in Leicester Sq London between October 22nd and 25th, 2020.

Joining the opening night film, Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, will be an array of world and UK premieres and eagerly-awaited moves.

The line-up includes the following:
Neil Marshall’s The Reckoning

Chris Smith’s The Banishing

Marc Price’s Dune Drifter (which you can read about in the latest issue of STARBURST, available now)

Adam Leader and Richard Oakes’ Hosts

Will Jewell’s Concrete Plans

Gavin Rothery’s Archive

Damian McCarthy’s Caveat

Natalie Erika’s Relic

Bryan Berino’s The Dark and the Wicked

Jud Cremata’s Let’s Scare Julie

Devereaux Milburn’s Honeydew

Julius Berg’s The Owners (starring Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham, and Maisie Williams)

Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen’s For the Sake of Vicious

Lodewijk Crijns’ Tailgate

Skylin3s, Liam O’Donnell’s third entry in the Skyline franchise

Don’t Look Back from Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick

Jill Gevargizian’s The Stylist, the feature-length version of her hit short

Elza Kephart’s Slaxx

Hayden J. Weal’s Dead

Andre Thomas Hurt’s Spare Parts

Takeshi Kushida’s Woman of the Photographs

Courtney Paige’s The Sinners

John Berardo’s Initiation

Teddy Grennan’s Ravage

Aaron B Koontz’s The Pale Door

Thomas Robert Lee’s Blood Harvest

Adrian Langley’s Butchers

Edward Drake’s Broil

FrightFest co-director Alan Jones said: “Thrilled as we were that our virtual event in August was so well received, applauded and reviewed, nothing beats the real FrightFest deal and our globally envied community interaction. So we have extended our usual one-day Halloween celebration to an action-packed four-day get-together in order to put our mutually inclusive world back on track and fill that missing summer gap”.

For more information on the line-up and ticket details as well as guidelines for the event, head over to https://frightfest.co.uk/tickets.html

There will also be a FrightFest Halloween Digital edition, expect more news on that soon!

Issue 474 – Out Now!

The latest issue of STARBURST is in stores now. It’s coming up to the horror fan’s Christmas, so we take a look at the 31 most terrifying moments in EVERYONE’S ENTITLED TO ONE GOOD SCARE.

We also look forward to the impending release of CANDYMAN and as DEATH ON THE NILE hits screens, we look into the real mystery Agatha Christie was involved with.

STARBURST heads onto the sets of two exciting upcoming properties: the Nick Frost/Simon Pegg series TRUTH SEEKERS and Tom Paton’s new sci-fi thriller G-LOC.

If that’s not all, we celebrate the 45th anniversary of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, chat to the director of JESUS SHOWS ME THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY and speak to Dan Brownlie about his documentary UK HAUNTERS, which gets to know the people who work hard to scare visitors to horror attractions.

INDEPENDENTS DAY also meets the directors of festival hit I SCREAM ON THE BEACH!

Plus all your favourite COLUMNS, NEWS, and REVIEWS from the worlds of SCI-FI, HORROR and FANTASY!