Robert Aramayo Joins LORD OF THE RINGS

Robert Aramayo

With Amazon Prime Video currently at work on its hugely anticipated Lord of the Rings TV series, the show was recently dealt a blow by Will Poulter having to drop out of the small screen offering due to a scheduling conflict. Now though, Poulter’s replacement has been found.

Via Deadline, Will Poulter’s lead role of Beldor has been given to Robert Aramayo. For you Game of Thrones fans out there, you’ll instantly recognise Aramayo as the show’s younger version of Ned Stark.

In this to-be-titled Lord of the Rings series, Robert Aramayo will be joining Maxim Baldry, Joseph Mawle, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, and Morfydd Clark. The majority of the cast’s roles are being kept hush-hush right now – although we do know that Clark will be playing a young Galadriel.

From what we know about the show at this early stage, it will be set in the Second Age and thus will be a precursor to what we’ve seen on the silver screen in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Production is due to get underway on this series later this year, and filming will actually take place in the same New Zealand locations used in Jackson’s movies.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s J.A. Bayona is on board to direct the first two episodes of this Lord of the Rings show, with Star Trek: Beyond writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay serving as showrunners.

All being well, expect to see this Lord of the Rings offering land on Amazon Prime Video at some point in 2021.

Early Renewals for The CW’s Arrowverse Shows

Supergirl Season 5

Arrow may be coming to an end later this month, but The CW has moved to give early renewals for several other Arrowverse offerings.

Courtesy of Variety, the network has confirmed a seventh season for The Flash, sixth seasons for both Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and a second year for Batwoman. Likewise, the Netflix-housed Black Lightning has also been renewed for a third season.

The announcement of all of this saw renewals similarly confirmed for Riverdale, Roswell, Charmed, Nancy Drew, New Mexico, and Legacies.

Interestingly, The CW made no mention of the Superman and Lois series that will be starring Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch. But don’t worry, that show is definitely happening – for we’ve heard that straight from the mouth of Tyler.

2020 and into 2021 should be an interesting time for The CW, as the network will be losing two major his in the form of Arrow and Supernatural. Still, there’s certainly enough promising genre content still to come.

LUCIFER Adds Dennis Haysbert as God

Dennis Haysbert

As Lucifer gears up for its fifth and final season, the Tom Ellis-starrer has found its God.

Via EW, 24’s Dennis Haysbert has been brought in to play the big man upstairs. According to showrunner Joe Henderson, the Golden Globe nominee headed up a long list of names as the show’s top pick to play this most unique of roles.

It’s not been officially announced as of yet when Lucifer’s fifth season will premiere on Netflix, although the show is expected to return this summer.

After FOX decided to cancel Lucifer following its third season, Netflix swooped in to pick up the series for a fourth and now fifth year. Said Season 5 will consist of 16 episodes as Lucifer Morningstar’s story comes to a close.

Christian Bale in Talks for THOR 4

Christian Bale

With Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder starting to amass its core cast, the film is in talks with an Academy Award-winning actor.

Via Collider, Christian Bale is being lined up for a role in the picture. There’s no word just yet on which role Bale is in negotiations for, but this obviously wouldn’t be the actor’s first foray into the world of superheroes – Bale famously playing Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy.

To date, all that we know about Thor: Love and Thunder is that is that Chris Hemsworth’s Thunder God will be joined by Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. Not just that, but Portman’s Jane will end up wielding Mjolnir and taking on the mantle of Thor.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently booked in for a November 2021 release.

George Takei Selects Trek on Horror Channel in January

takei horror

Horror Channel always brings the best in cult entertainment and in January they will be dedicating Saturday 25th to a special selection of Star Trek episodes chosen and introduced by Sulu himself, George Takei.

Kicking off at 3pm, there’s the brilliant fan-favourite episode The Naked Time. Shore Leave follows at 4.05pm, then The Return of the Archons at 5.10pm. The marathon closes at 6.15pm with the alternate reality episode Mirror, Mirror.

George Takei Selects Star Trek on Saturday January 25th from 3pm on Horror Channel. For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/. Tune in via Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

THE CLONE WARS Confirmed for February Return

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Ever since it was first announced as returning, fans have been eagerly anticipating just when the seventh (and final!) season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will premiere on Disney+.

Now, the House of Mouse has confirmed that The Clone Wars’ new season will land on the on-demand streaming service on February 17th. It’s yet to be confirmed whether that February date will see all episodes of Season 7 arrive at once, or whether individual episodes will be dropped on to Disney+ on a weekly basis.

The Clone Wars began life back in 2008, with George Lucas creating the animated series as a way to showcase established characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, while simultaneously introducing new, soon-to-be fan favourite characters like Ashoka Tano and Captain Rex.

For its initial run – a run that saw the series nab several Emmy Awards – The Clone Wars received five full seasons. After that, a handful of follow-up episodes were released as a pseudo sixth season dubbed The Lost Missions.

In addition to Star Wars: The Clone Wars hitting Disney+, a sequel series to Star Wars: Rebels is also on the way at a to-be-confirmed date.

WANDAVISION Set for 2020 Premiere

WandaVision

Pretty quiet time of the year for genre news, right? It’s almost as if people have shutdown for the holiday period, no? Well, in a brief piece of news, it’s now been confirmed that WandaVision will be premiering in 2020.

While a set premiere date has yet to be set for the Disney+ series, the thing that makes this noteworthy is that the show originally wasn’t expected until 2021.

In WandaVision, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany will be headlining as Scarlet Witch and Vision, while they’ll be joined by Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis from the first two Thor movies and Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Teyonah Parris is to play Monica Rambeau, the adult version of Maria Rambeau’s young daughter seen in Captain Marvel.

2020 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will see Black Widow and The Eternals on the big screen, while WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be premiering on Disney+.

Expect more on WandaVision as we get it.

UNCHARTED Movie Has Lost its DIRECTOR… Again

Video Game movies already have a sullied reputation as it is due to the catalogue of poorly received attempts in the past – well, it now looks like a new stigma is soon to be attached to this genre as the Uncharted movie has once again lost its Director with Travis Knight (Bumblebee) leaving the project at Sony.

It has been revealed that due to scheduling conflicts with lead star Tom Holland (who is to portray Nathan Drake, the hero of the story) who is due to spend next Summer shooting the next Spider-Man movie with Marvel & Disney. Because of this issue, Sony has had to push the project even further from its intended release date and Travis Knight has become a fatality of this and has left the project.

Sony is now back to square one with finding a director to get this big-screen adaptation of the beloved PlayStation exclusive franchise off the ground. Tom Holland and co-star Mark Whalberg (who will play Drake’s mentor and friend Sully) are still set to star in the film that was written by Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man).

More updates on the production of the film as it develops.

DEADPOOL 3 is Happening at Marvel Studios

Once Upon a Deadpool

It kinda seemed a given to happen at some point in time, but Ryan Reynolds has now confirmed that Deadpool 3 is indeed on the way.

Reynolds himself had previously shared an image of himself at Marvel Studios, and a Live with Kelly and Ryan appearance from the star saw him confirm that he is, yes, working on Deadpool 3 with Marvel Studios.

As Reynolds put it, “We’re working on it right now with the whole team. We’re over at Marvel now, which is like the big leagues all of a sudden. It’s kinda crazy. So yeah, we’re working on it.”

Of course, Disney’s assimilation of 20th Century Fox saw the House of Mouse pick up the rights to Fox’s X-Men franchise – a franchise that includes a certain Merc with a Mouth.

Many have wondered just how a Deadpool 3 would play out under the Disney banner. Given the iconic company’s penchant for more kid-friendly content, the slicing ‘n’ swearing ways of Wade Wilson threw up plentiful questions as to how such a threequel would line up.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige have both explained how they very much plan to continue in an R-rated direction with Deadpool 3. If that becomes a reality, we’ll have to wait and see.

The two Deadpool pictures to date have proven extremely popular amongst fans and critics alike, and the impressive box office haul of both films always suggested a third would follow. To give some context, Deadpool took home $780 million from a $58 million budget, while Deadpool 2 brought in $785 million from a $110 million budget.

At present, Marvel Studios’ slate is full through until 2021 – meaning any Deadpool 3 would likely arrive in 2022 at the earliest.

FX Developing CARRIE TV Series

Carrie

Ready for another take on Stephen King’s Carrie? Tough, for one’s on the way regardless.

Via Collider, FX and MGM is developing a miniseries based on King’s iconic 1974 novel about troubled Carrie White and the telekinetic powers at her fingertips.

The only piece of information known about this new version of Carrie is that the lead role is likely to be played by either a trans performer or an actress of colour.

Famously, Sissy Spacek headlined Brian De Palma’s 1976 Carrie offering in a movie that featured some of the hottest rising stars in Hollywood at the time – such as Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, and John Travolta.

In subsequent years, 1999 served up the so-so (at best!) The Rage: Carrie 2, featuring Emily Bergl as Carrie White’s half-sister, Rachel. 2002 then delivered a TV movie do-over of Carrie headlined by Angela Bettis, and 2013 later saw Chloe Grace Moretz take the titular role in yet another new version of Carrie.

As ever, expect more on FX’s Carrie series as we get it.