HBO Max’s scrapped DC animated projects Batman: Caped Crusader, Merry-Little Batman, and Bat-Family have been acquired by Amazon. The Crown season 6 releases official first-look photos of Kate Middleton and Prince William played by Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy. Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, and Connie Britton have joined Netflix’s Robert De Niro thriller Zero Day. Ballet drama Étoile is in the works from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino. Plus, trailers for The Witcher season 3, Black Mirror season 6, and more of the past week’s biggest news in TV and streaming.
TOP STORY
Prime Video Acquires Batman: Caped Crusader and Two More DC Animated Projects Passed Over by Warner Bros. Discovery
Batman: Caped Crusader (Photo by Warner Bros. Animation/DC Entertainment)
Three new animated Batman projects that were passed over by Warner Bros. Discovery are coming to Prime Video. The original animated film Merry Little Batman and spin-off series Bat-Family will hit the streamer, along with a two-season order for Batman: Caped Crusader, from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves.
Batman: Caped Crusader is a reimagining of the Batman mythology that will utilize state-of-the-art animation techniques to help to, once again, reinvent DC’s famous character and his iconic rogue’s gallery. Sophisticated storytelling, nuanced characters, and intense action sequences, all set within a visually striking world, are to be expected of the new project.
Merry Little Batman (Photo by Prime Video)
The family friendly original animated film Merry Little Batman is an action comedy that follows young Damian Wayne who finds himself alone in Wayne Manor on Christmas Eve. He must transform into “Little Batman” in order to defend his home and Gotham City from the crooks and supervillains intent on destroying the holidays. Spinoff series Bat-Family will continue these adventures, and follow Batman, Alfred, and young Damian Wayne — who has now taken on the mantle of Little Batman — alongside a few newcomers to Wayne Manor, as they navigate the fun and frustrations of life as a super family.
“Batman: The Animated Series helped pioneer in the evolution of superhero storytelling and defined the Dark Knight for a generation,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television, Amazon and MGM Studios. “Batman: Caped Crusader will no doubt continue that tradition and, alongside Merry Little Batman and Bat-Family, we’re thrilled to collaborate with Warner Bros. Animation to offer a variety of takes of the Batman mythos to our global Prime Video customers.”
The Crown Season 6 First Look at Prince William and Kate Middleton: the College Years
Meg Bellamy and Ed McVey as Kate Middleton and Prince William in The Crown season 6 (Photo by Netflix)
To add further hype to the sixth and final season of The Crown, Netflix dropped some first-look images that officially debut newcomers Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy as Prince William and Kate Middleton. The sweeping drama, which is inspired by the real political and personal events that shaped Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, will finally step into the 21st century.
Meg Bellamy as Kate Middleton in The Crown season 6 (Photo by Netflix)
A new decade brings new possibilities for young Prince William, as he ventures off to lead a normal-ish life at University in St. Andrews. That same year, Kate Middleton from Berkshire also begins her education at the institution, leading to the couple’s first face-to-face encounter on campus. And as we all know, their romance blossomed, setting the stage for a new future for The Crown.
Ed McVey as Prince William in The Crown season 6 (Photo by Netflix)
McVey steps into the iconic shoes of Prince William in the later episodes of season 6, marking the 23-year-old actor’s professional TV debut. Another newcomer to television, Bellamy was cast as Kate Middleton after she submitted a self-tape audition following a casting call posted on social media.
The Crown season 6 premieres in late 2023 on Netflix.
New Trailers: Henry Cavill Discovers Fear in Final Outing As The Witcher
“Now, for the first time, I understand real fear,” Henry Cavill’s Geralt states, in all his gravelly voiced glory.
The wait is nearly over as The Witcher season 3 is set to return to Netflix this summer. This third installment focuses on the storyline from Time of Contempt, the second book in Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series. And by the sound of things, we’ll finally see our monster-killing hero actually deal with some (gasp!) feelings.
Not much is revealed by the first teaser; however, it’s apparent that Ciri, who carries the elder blood, is still being hunted. She’s marked and Geralt knows this. So into hiding they go (along with Yennefer, of course) with Geralt focused on protecting his newly-reunited family against all who threaten to destroy it. Monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent, be warned!
The Witcher season 3: Volume 1 will premieres on June 29 on Netflix, with Volume 2 dropping a month later on July 27.
Read also: Everything We Know About The Witcher Season 3
More trailers and teasers released this week:
• XO, Kitty follows teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey (reprised by To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before star Anna Cathcart), who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line. Premieres May 18. (Netflix)
• Platonic follows a platonic pair of former best friends approaching midlife (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who reconnect after a long rift. The duo’s friendship becomes all consuming — and destabilizes their lives in a hilarious way. Premieres May 24. (Apple TV+)
• Twisted Metal is based on the classic PlayStation game series about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. He’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck. Premieres July 27. (Peacock)
• Mayans M.C., FX’s hit spinoff from Sons of Anarchy, follows the Mayans Motorcycle Club and the exploits of its outlaw leader Reyes. Gearing up for its final ride, season 5 finds Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes (J.D. Pardo) marked as “a dead man walking” as a war between his club, the Santo Padre M.C. Casualties, and rival gang, the Sons of Anarchy, becomes inevitable. Premieres May 24. (FX)
• Mulligan follows a rag-tag band of survivors as they start society over from scratch after Earth is destroyed by an alien attack. It’s an opportunity to learn from humanity’s past mistakes and get things right this time. Or make the same mistakes all over again. Probably the second one. Premieres May 12. (Netflix)
• Black Mirror season 6 is back after four years with a stacked cast of talent in what is sure to be another terrifying installment of the hit anthology series. You’ve been wondering. You’ve been waiting. You’ve been warned. The sixth season of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is back! Premieres June. (Netflix)
• Fear the Walking Dead season 8 finds Madison (Kim Dickens) and Morgan (Lennie James) trying to rescue his daughter from PADRE. The duo will be forced to choose between who they’ve become and who they want to be. Premieres May 14. (AMC)
• The Other Two season 3 finds Brooke and Cary (Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver) finally standing on their own two feet after comparing themselves for years to their much-younger pop star brother, Chase Dreams (Case Walker), who is now a full adult, and their talk show host mother (Molly Shannon), who’s now more powerful than she could have ever imagined. And yet, they somehow find themselves comparing themselves to new people once again? Premieres May 4. (HBO Max)
• Warrior season 3 picks up in the wake of the race riots that upended Chinatown in season 2. As Mai Ling uses her government connections to consolidate power, Ah Sahm and the Hop Wei must find new ways to survive. Premieres May 26. (Starz)
• Queer Eye season 7 finds the Fab Five heading to New Orleans to lend their expertise to a new crop of special heroes, including a group of down-on-their-luck fraternity brothers, a New Orleans Saints super fan, and a formerly incarcerated thrift store owner. Premieres May 12. (Netflix)
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Read also: Everything We Know About the Twisted Metal Series
Casting: Robert De Niro’s Zero Day Adds Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons to Cast
Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, and Connie Britton (Photo by Courtesy of Netflix)
Zero Day, Robert De Niro’s first ever TV series, has added some impressive talent to its cast. Netflix’s conspiracy thriller has tapped Lizzy Caplan to play Alexandra Mullen – a young Congresswoman who has sought to distance herself from her father’s political legacy; Jesse Plemons to portray Roger Carlson – former Mullen “body man” seeking a return to the national stage alongside Mullen; Joan Allen to play Sheila Mullen – former First Lady and nominee to the federal bench whose professional ambitions take a backseat to her husband’s political career; and Connie Britton to play Valerie Whitesell – a savvy, intelligent political operative who was Mullen’s former Chief of Staff.will have principal roles in Netflix’s conspiracy thriller.
De Niro stars as George Mullen – a massively popular (but complicated) former American President who is pulled from retirement to head a commission tasked with investigating a devastating global cyber-attack. The streamer ordered Zero Day back in March and according to the logline, it “asks the question on everyone’s mind – how do we find truth in a world in crisis, one seemingly being torn apart by forces outside our control? And in an era rife with conspiracy theory and subterfuge, how much of those forces are products of our own doing, perhaps even of our own imagining?”
Send a raven.
Simon Russell Beale, Freddie Fox, Gayle Rankin and Abubakar Salim have joined the cast of House of the Dragon Season 2. pic.twitter.com/dChVN9WJE9
— House of the Dragon (@HouseofDragon) April 24, 2023
House of the Dragon has added four new cast members for season 2. Gayle Rankin will play Alys Rivers, a character who’s featured in George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” as a witch who gains power within the Targaryen’s Green faction; Simon Russell Beale is Ser Simon Strong, the Castellan of Harrenhal and great-uncle to Lord Larys Strong; Freddie Fox will play Ser Gwayne Hightower, Otto Hightower’s (Rhys Ifans) son, the brother to Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and uncle to her children King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), and Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell); Abubakar Salim will play Alyn of Hull, a sailor in the Velaryon fleet who served in the Stepstones campaign. (Variety)
Kristen Bell’s untitled Netflix comedy series, which hails from creator Erin Foster and Executive Producer Steven Levitan, and centers on an unlikely relationship between an outspoken agnostic woman and an unconventional rabbi, has cast Adam Brody. Brody will play a charming rabbi named Noah who is stuck in his ways and used to playing things safe. When he meets Bell’s Joanne, his safe life plan gets upended.
Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk has joined the cast of The Bear for season 2. Details behind his role have yet to be released. (Variety)
The Wheel of Time has added Maja Simonsen, Ragga Ragnars, Jay Duffy, and Rima Te Wiata to season 2 in the recurring roles of Chiad, Bain, Dain Bornhal and Sheriam Bayanar, respectively. (Variety)
Barry alum Sarah Goldberg will recur in season 3 of Industry, alongside Kit Harington. She’ll play Petra Koenig, a portfolio manager at ethical investment fund FutureDawn. (Deadline)
Bruce Campbell has been cast in the recurring role of Chief Dandridge in Peacock’s Satanic Panic-themed series Hysteria!. His understanding of his community will be put to the test after a series of murders, disappearances, and unexplained phenomena impact his town. (Variety)
Taylor Sheridan’s western Bass Reeves, which has been renamed to Lawmen: Bass Reeves and will now exist as an anthology series, has cast Donald Sutherland as the imposing and commanding Judge Isaac Parker. (THR)
Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham will star in a holiday musical special, titled Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas, for Apple TV+. The event will be recorded live in front of an audience at the London Coliseum and feature performances and musical numbers from Waddingham and surprise guests. (Variety)
Ted Lasso alum Cristo Fernández will play an artist and community organizer in season 3 of Apple TV+’s Acapulco. He has also been cast in the Disney+ original film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which centers on 11-year-old Alexander Garcia (Thom Nemer), who thinks he has the worst luck in the world, as a cook named Chavo who befriends the Garcia family on a road trip to California. (Deadline)
Production & Development: Mrs. Maisel Creators Developing Ballet Drama Étoile at Amazon
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino (Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Hot on the heels of the fifth and final season of Emmy-winning comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are developing the ballet-themed drama Étoile at Prime Video. The streamer has ordered two seasons of the eight-episode original drama. Set in New York City and Paris, Étoile will star Luke Kirby, Camille Cottin, Simon Callow, Lou de Laâge, Gideon Glick, and David Alvarez, and follow the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, as they embark on an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars.
True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has reconfigured his Western series at Amazon into a reworking of his 2016 big screen adaptation of The Magnificent Seven. The program is to take inspiration from golden age of Westerns and will revolve around a ground of outlaws who unite to defend a settlement of immigrant homesteaders involved in an open range war in central Texas. (THR)
Fox has ordered action-packed drama Rescue: Hi-Surf from executive producer John Wells and executive producer/writer Matt Kester. The series follows the personal and professional lives of the heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu, known as the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Each episode is set to feature these dedicated and adrenaline-seeking first-responders saving lives in the often life-threatening conditions of Hawaii’s Seven Mile Miracle. Kester will write the first episode, and Wells will direct the first two episodes.
Ice Cube will star in and produce a yet-to-be-titled sports docuseries about his successful Big3 sports league. Described as Welcome to Wrexham meets Cheer, but with a basketball theme, the series will explore how Ice Cube’s Big3 defied the NBA to become one of the biggest sports leagues in the world. (Deadline)
Teton, an upstairs-downstairs drama set amongst the tight-knit mountain community of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and based on an original idea from Grammy-nominated country musician Cameron Duddy from the band Midland, is in the works at Amazon Studios from The Wilds showrunner Amy B. Harris, Jason Reilly, Duddy and Temple Hill Entertainment. (Deadline)
Primo creator Shea Serrano has signed an overall development deal with Amazon Studios, and a first-look podcast agreement with Amazon’s Wondery. Serrano, who recently hosted the rap album podcast “No Skips with Jinx and Shea” for Spotify and The Ringer, will develop original ongoing and limited podcast series for Amazon. (Deadline)
Beantown, a workplace comedy set amid the backdrop of the Boston Tea Party, is in development at CBS with Dan Kopelman writing and executive producing. The show is set in a Boston coffeehouse, where employees and patrons share their lives and experiences while also discussing the events of the day — which all happens to take place in the year 1773. (Deadline)
The Yards Between Us, the memoir from NFL vet R.K. Russell, is being developed into a half-hour comedy series at Sony Pictures TV. From Russell, Saeed Crumpler, and Gabrielle Union, the series will follow a professional football player who becomes famous for becoming the first player in the league to identify publicly as bisexual. (Deadline)
New York Times bestselling novel “Mad Honey,” written by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, has been optioned by Vancouver-based producer Thunderbird Entertainment. The story, which explores themes of young love, teen angst, and parental grief, interwoven with murder and high-intensity courtroom drama, follows a mother who moves home to New Hampshire to take over the family beekeeping business, only to discover her son is suspected of killing his girlfriend. (Deadline)
Suspense thriller Emperor of Ocean Park, based on Stephen L. Carter’s best-selling novel of the same name, is moving forward as a 10-episode series at MGM+. The story follows Ivy League law professor Talcott Garland whose quiet life is upended when his father, Judge Oliver Garland, dies of an alleged heart attack. But foul play, is soon suspected. (Deadline)
Before I Let Go, based on Kennedy Ryan’s bestselling novel, is in development at Peacock. The story centers on a divorced couple who are trying to move past their problems to continue co-parenting their two children. (Deadline)
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