Hey All,
So, Comic Con 2014 came to an end on Sunday afternoon and I spend nearly all of Monday and part of today putting together the following list of news that includes trailers shown at Comic Con and so much more:
TELEVISION
Actress Lucy Lawless (Xena and Spartacus) and actor Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) will appear on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this fall. The character that Lawless will play is being kept under wraps while Diamond will play Hyrda villain Daniel Whitehall, the big bad of season two. (Chris Harnick at E! Online and Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)
Actress-singer Lea Michele (Glee) will guest star on an episode of Sons of Anarchy, playing Gertie, an empathetic truck stop waitress and single mother, who connects with Gemma during a difficult time. (Chris Harnick at E! Online)
Teen Wolf has been renewed by MTV for a 20 episode fifth season. Also, actor Dylan Sprayberry, who plays new werewolf Liam, will be a series regular for that new season. (Tierney Bricker at E! Online)
Actress Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones and 24: Live Another Day) will have a season-long arc on the returned ABC drama Resurrection this fall, playing Margaret Langston, the formidable matriarch of the Langston clan, the mother of Henry and Fred (Kurtwood Smith, Matt Craven), and dead for over three decades, she will reappear in Arcadia as one of the returned. (The Futon Critic)
Actress Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) will have a recurring role on The Blacklist this fall, recurring as a character named Naomi Highland, but no other details have been released. (Dominic Patten at Deadline)
Actors Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) and Alexander Siddig (Da Vinci’s Demons) have been added to the cast of Game of Thrones for the show’s upcoming season. Pryce will play the High Sparrow, a pious man whose fellow believers have swarmed King’s Landing, ministering to the lowest and decrying the corruption of the highest. Meanwhile, Siddig will play Doran Martell, Oberyn’s older brother. (Dominic Patten at Deadline and Dark Horizons)
Actor Michael Landes (The New Adventures of Lois & Clark) will star in the ABC straight-to-series drama Members Only (formerly The Club) that is an upstairs/downstairs drama set at a private country club. He will play Malcolm, an athletic, charming, recently-widowed pediatrician and father of two who has mixed feelings about the Club. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
Actress Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development) will have a recurring role on Scandal this fall, playing a role that is “top secret”. (The Deadline Team)
Actress Meaghan Rath (Being Human) will have a recurring role on the upcoming ABC mystery series Secrets & Lies that is based on the Australian series that will star Ryan Phillippe as a family man who finds the body of a young boy and quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. Rath will play Nicole, the younger but more mature sister of Jess (Natalie Martinez from Under the Dome). Also actress Melissa Gilbert will play Lisa Daly, a loving and hardworking mom taking care of her two sons on her own. (The Deadline Team and Lesley Goldberg at The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Anthony Hopkins and actress Evan Rachel Wood will play the leads in the new HBO drama Westworld that is inspired by Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi movie set at an amusement park that is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
Actress Elisabeth Rohm (Law & Order) has a landed a series regular role in the new CBS fall thriller Stalker that stars Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and Maggie Q (Nikita) as detectives from the Threat Assessment Unit who investigate cases of stalking. Rohm will play Amanda, a Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney who works with the Threat Assessment Unit and a mother to a 10-year-old boy, whose attempt at a new life in L.A. suddenly is derailed when she discovers her past has followed her cross-country. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
Actress Sonya Walger (Lost) and actor Zak Orth (Revolution) will both guest star in upcoming episodes of Elementary. Walger will play Angela White, an Assistant U.S. Attorney whose high-profile case is derailed when her defendant is murdered. Meanwhile, Orth will play Gabe Coleman, a distraught father whose family was torn apart by tragedy. (Natalie Abrams at TV Guide)
Syfy has announced casting for its new upcoming sci-fi drama called Killjoys. Actors Aaron Ashmore (Warehouse 13) and Luke Macfarlane (Brothers & Sisters) [as well as British stage actress Hannah John-Kamen] will play a trio of fun-loving and hard-living bounty hunters who chase warrants in outer space. (Tim Surette at TV Guide)
Actors Tyler Jacob Moore (Shameless and GCG) and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings franchise) will both be appearing in Once Upon a Time this fall. Moore will play Hans (from Frozen), the one-time suitor of Anna while Rhys-Davies will provide the voice of “grandpa” rock troll Pabbie. (E! Online)
Actress Regina King (Southland) has joined the cast of the upcoming ABC mid-season drama American Crime in a recurring role. The series centers on a racially charged murder and the subsequent trial, which are examined through the personal lives of the players involved. Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Timothy Hutton (Leverage), Benito Martinez (Sons of Anarchy) and Penelope Ann Miller (Mistresses) star. King will appear in at least seven episodes as the devoutly religious sister of a murder suspect. (Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Actress Sarah Lancaster (Chuck) will have a recurring role in Witches of East End, playing Raven Moreau, who arrives in East End as part of a life-long “secret mission,” though she quickly develops a physical attraction to one of the Gardiner boys. (Andy Swift at TV Line)
Actress Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and True Blood) will have a recurring role on Covert Affairs, playing a Russian agent named Olga Akarova, who will continuously cross paths with Annie (series lead Piper Perabo). (Michael Slezak at TV Line)
Actor Joseph Fiennes (American Horror Story and FlashForward) will appear in an hour-long drama called Nostradamus that will follow the well-known clairvoyant on a quest for vengeance after his family is murdered. (Samantha Highfill at Entertainment Weekly)
TV TRAILERS
Starz’s Outlander Opening Credits
Trailers for Vikings – The Originals – The Knick – Bones
Sneak Peek at FOX’s Sleepy Hollow
FUN COMIC CON VIDEO
Tricia Helfer and Zachary Levi Recreate The Princess Bride and Talk Comic Con
MINI-SERIES NEWS
Actor Peter Sarsgaard and actress Mary-Louise Parker will star in the NBC 8-hour mini-series The Slap that is based on the 2011 Australia series of the same name that looks at how one small incident: when a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child. Sarsgaard will play Hector, a husband and father who loves his wife and family but shows signs of weakness when he finds himself succumbing to the advances of his wife’s teenaged receptionist during his own party. Parker will play Anouk, a close friend of Hector’s who’s the head writer on a TV show and is now dating the younger leading man. (Nellie Andreeva at Deadline)
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
AMC has ordered the pilot White City, which follows Western diplomats and journalists in Afghanistan. (Sadie Gennis at TV Guide)
The USA Network is developing a pilot called Colony (that includes Carlton Cuse of Lost and Bates Motel fame as one of its executive producers. The series looks at a family torn by opposing forces and making difficult choices as they balance staying together with surviving the struggle of the human race. Set in the near future, the story takes place in Los Angeles, which exists in a state of occupation by a force of outside intruders. Some collaborate with the authorities and benefit from the new order, while others rebel and suffer the consequences. (The Futon Critic)
TV SERIES TO COMIC BOOK NEWS
ONLINE SERIES NEWS
Actress Blair Brown (Fringe) will appear in the third season of Orange Is the New Black, but details about who she will be playing are being kept under wraps. (Chris Harnick at E! Online)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Aaron Tveit (Graceland) will star in the rom-com Stereotypically You, playing Charlie, who goes on a hallucination-fueled post-breakup quest in New York City to find new love — and himself. (Jen Yamato at Deadline)
Actor Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) has joined the cast of the upcoming box office film called Sicario. He will star alongside Benecio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, playing Steve Forsing, a no-nonsense DEA Agent who engages in an all-out firefight at the Juarez border while transferring a prisoner. (Jen Yamato at Deadline)
Here are the top 10 box office movies from last weekend courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. Lucy – 43.9 million
2. Hercules – 29.8 million
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – 16.8 million
4. The Purge: Anarchy – 10.5 million
5. Planes: Fire & Rescue – 9.5 million
6. Sex Tap- 6.1 million
7. Transformers: Age of Extinction – 4.7 million
8. And So It Goes – 4.6 million
9. Tammy – 3.5 million
10. A Most Wanted Man – 2.7 million
BOX OFFICE TRAILERS
Q&A SECTION (with Natalie Abrams at TV Guide and Michael Ausiello and Matt Mitovich at TV Line)
Question: Is Harrison really going to die on Scandal? — Pamela
Natalie: Sorry to break it to you, Pamela, but executive producer Shonda Rhimes confirmed that he is. All the Gladiators will be deeply affected by Harrison’s death, Rhimes says, but especially Abby. “It’ll be devastating for Abby, but in a surprising way,” she says. “I think you’ll see how she’s coping with it in a very different way than you would expect.”
Question: I need something on Sleepy Hollow, STAT! — Dennis
Natalie: Henry will waste no time waging a psychological war when Season 2 returns. “He’s trying to break up the entire community of Sleepy Hollow to pave the way for the apocalypse,” Tom Mison tells me. “How best to do that? He masquerades as a lawyer. He becomes a respectable member of society and starts planting seeds of doubt.”
Question: Can you tell me who ran Castle off the road in last year’s Castle finale? — Diana
Natalie: Nope, but I can certainly tell you who didn’t. For fans convinced that last year’s fiery cliff-hanger was brought on by either existing nemeses Bracken and 3XK or even Castle’s own father, allow new showrunner David Amann to burst your bubble. “The mythology we’re getting into is going to go past all that into some new territory,” he says. “Those are all fair game, but it’s not going to be what the opening of the season is about.” What the new season is about is unearthing new secrets about Castle. But how will that impact the Castle-Beckett relationship? “Things that are going to come to light that are going to be unsettling for Beckett,” Amann teases. “But we’re committed to that relationship. I don’t think what happened to Castle is going to disrupt the trajectory of that relationship, at least not in the long term.”
Question: Do you have any Agent Coulson scoop for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? — Clark
Natalie: Don’t call him an agent anymore. Because there’s a small time jump going into Season 2, he’ll already be in the process of rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. as the new director — but that might not be so easy since the alien serum is affecting his brain. “As director, he’ll be faced with some tough decisions, harder decisions than he had to make as an agent,” executive producer Maurissa Tancharoen tells me. “We’ll see the emotional consequences of that and we’ll see the shifts in dynamics between the characters because of that.” (Also: Did you see this?)
Question: Thank you so much for the Arrow scoop, but there was not enough on Felicity! — Mark
Natalie: Let me fix that. The producers are planning a series of Felicity-centric flashbacks that they call “the secret origin of Felicity Smoak.” “We are absolutely going to get to know her,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells me. “We know that she went to MIT, we know that her mom was a cocktail waitress in Vegas and we’re going to meet that mom. And we also know that her dad is not in the picture.” Any theories on the identity of Dear Old Dad?
Question: What can you tell me about the new season of NCIS? — Katie
Natalie: Though the show seems to tease as much every season, DiNozzo is definitely getting a new love interest this year. “It’s going to happen early on, probably around Episode 4,” executive producer Gary Glasberg promises, noting that the pair will meet through a case Tony is working. And it sounds like he might finally be ready for a serious relationship post-Ziva. “I think he’s moved past being the wounded bird,” Michael Weatherly says. “[Last year,] we decided to whip that guy into shape and get him excited about the future and not holding on to the past. Tony is making choices that are not passive. He’s not content to sit on the side and cash his check until it’s time to retire. I think he’s going to have more fun than he’s ever had.”
Question: Any info on the crossover episodes of Flash and Arrow? — Leona
Natalie: I hear the shows’ overall narrative arcs will be somewhat related this season, enough so that the crossover will make sense. “Something will happen at the end of Episode 7 of Arrow that will send the Arrow team to Central City and they will discover it was a wider plot, which will drive them all back to Starling City,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg tells me.
Question: Any new info on Arrow’s Ray Palmer would be appreciated! –Rida
Mitovich: Hmm, I do like to be appreciated. Playing the Arrow newcomer, onetime Superman Brandon Routh is (like onetime Lois Lane Teri Hatcher) “spectacular,” EP Marc Guggenheim tells TVLine. “He has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. And what’s fun about the way Brandon interacts with everyone is we wanted someone who would offer a bit of what Grant Gustin did — someone who’s a little more on Felicity’s end of the spectrum in terms of color, and at the same time is very different from Grant. And Brandon, he’s just this change agent that shakes up everybody.” That said, a guy’s gotta have his secrets. “You’re going to see that there’s a lot going on with him,” Guggenheim hints. “He’s not what he initially appears to be.”
Question: Any more Supernatural scoop coming out of press tour or Comic-Con? –Deb
Mitovich: If you’re a fan of the Men of Letters, count on seeing them again this season — just not right away. “One of the reasons for that,” EP Jeremy Carver explains, “is that the boys are on the road actually for a good portion of the first run of episodes. It takes them a while to get back to the Men of Letters.”
Question: I would love any scoop on Longmire’s remaining episodes, especially the finale. –Michelle
Mitovich: Just as a key discovery is made in the David Ridges case, Walt cannot deny that Branch’s erratic behavior is intensifying, making him a danger to himself and others. Meanwhile, as Vic’s marriage continues to unravel, she is forced to make an important decision about her future in Absaroka County.
Question: Are we going to get the backstory on how Abby and/or Ducky started with NCIS? Also, What is the title of Episode 1? –Barbara
Mitovich: I’ve got nada on Abs thus far, but showrunner Gary Glasberg says that Episode 3 is “a Ducky origin story, where people learn all kinds of things about his past and see a younger David McCallum, so we’re excited about that.” The Season 12 premiere, meanwhile, is titled, “20 Clicks.”
Question: Whatever happened to the ABC Family horror drama The Final Girls, with Jamie Lee Curtis, that was announced last September? –Vince
Mitovich: Still in development, I am hearing.
Question: Since Scott Michael Foster is now cast on Once Upon a Time, does that mean he is toast on Chasing Life? –Sarah
Mitovich: For one, I reckon that an ABC Family summer series has a very different, non-overlapping schedule with Once, which just started shooting Season 4. But then there’s this, from Chasing Life EP Patrick Sean Smith: “We don’t want to [kill Leo]. But every character has its purpose on the show.” That said, he notes, “We’re finding so many new opportunities in his relationship with April that we hadn’t considered before.”
Question: Any scoop on Castle’s Esplainie?–Marine
Mitovich: In a word from series creator Andrew W. Marlowe, “Yeah” – but I truly believe him, based on some body language I picked up on as he said. It. “We do have a couple of things that we’re working on, in that relationship,” he added. (To which I suggested: They should quickly make use of the wedding venue! He laughed: “If only we could go back there and afford the location fee!”)
Question: Will Wilke be coming back to Switched at Birth now that The Carrie Diaries is cancelled? –April
Mitovich: Exec producer Lizzy Weiss allows that, since Austin Butler is no longer busy as Ms. Bradshaw’s beau, such an encore could happen. “Like the fans, we love Wilke!” she effuses. “So yes, it’s entirely possible.”
Question: I am a fan of ABC Family’s Twisted — is it coming back? –Erin
Mitovich: “We love Twisted,” ABC Family president Tom Ascheim said when I asked about a possible Season 2, “but we’re going to announce pick-ups toward the end of the summer.”
Question: Will Homeland address the passing of James Rebhorn (Carrie’s father) this season? –Melinda
Mitovich: Remembering Rebhorn as “one of the kindest, most supportive and wonderful men to work with,” EP Alex Gansa was mum at TCA on how exactly the show will write in his absence. ”We want to honor him,” he said, “but how we actually go about doing that, I’d rather not say.”
Question: Got any juicy scoop about Homeland? I love Carrie and Quinn — what’s in store for them in Season 4? –Jane
Mitovich: Again, top secrecy. “We’re all very much invested in the Quinn character,” is all that EP Alexander Cary would say at TCA. But as a consolation prize, Jane, I offer this from Gansa: “I can say unequivocally that Dana Brody will not be back for Season 4.”
Question: Can you give any scoop on Sleepy Hollow? —Kate
Ausiello: Look for Jenny and Abbie’s relationship to “get deeper” in Season 2, per Nicole Beharie. “They’re a lot closer because they’ve faced the tribulations, and they’re learning more about their family — mom, dad, all that kind of stuff,” she explains. “But a few people step into the situation and put a wrench into it, and they end up butting heads.”
Question: I need something to survive the Supernatural hellatus! —Katherine
Ausiello: Here’s your scoop: Scottish actress Ruth Connell is joining the cast in the pivotal recurring role of Rowena, a mysterious old-school witch who, rumor has it, is looking to reclaim her power base.
Question: Do you have any scoop on Supernatural and Demon Dean? —Joanna
Ausiello: Wondering how Cas will handle his buddy’s new persona? Well, first he’ll have to find out about it. “He doesn’t know what happened to Dean,” executive producer Jeremy Carver tells TVLine. “You’ve got to remember, Sam put Dean down on the bed dead. [He] comes back in the room [and] Dean’s not there. So no one knows what happened.”
Question: Have you got any scoop on Season 12 of NCIS? —Tara
Ausiello: As showrunner Gary Glasberg previously told TVLine, coming off a season that 1) wrote out Ziva, 2) added Bishop, 3) planted the seed for a new spin-off and 4) accounted for Ralph Waite’s passing— and thus ended on a quiet, cliffhanger-free note — “the idea was to come out with a bang.” And the Sept. 23 premiere will do just that. “We’ve got a really significant season opener that brings Gibbs and McGee to Russia for a really big story. A crisis comes up and we immediately launch with a significant adversary who will pop up throughout the rest of the season,” played by Russian actor Alex Veadov.
Question: I’m still not over the death of Downton Abbey‘s Matthew. Please tell me we won’t be losing anyone else in Season 5! —Kate
Ausiello: You might want to sit down for this one, Kate. “No one’s safe,” executive producer Gareth Neame tells TVLine — rather bluntly — about the PBS drama’s fifth season, which premieres Stateside on Jan. 4. “We’ve lost so many key characters already. Although the show’s only been on for four years, we’ve actually covered 10 to 12 years, so it’s reasonable that within any family, there’d be deaths in that timeframe.” (In other words, have your funeral attire ready, just in case.)
Question: Any chance you have a scoop on The Blacklist? —Stephanie
Ausiello: Because it’s never too early to be talking about the NBC hit’s midseason time slot change, EP John Eisendrath told us that while the Super Bowl episode will pick up the fall finale’s cliffhanger (airing Nov. 10), that super-special Sunday showcase also needs to be accessible to noobs. “We need to have a reason for people to need to come back when we move to Thursdays [at 9/8c, starting Feb. 5],” he allows, “but… we hopefully design a story where if you’ve never watched the show, you still will be able to enjoy it.” Because unlike 2013’s post-Super Bowl show, Elementary — which, being on CBS, is less-serialized — “We have to be more judicious. That is the challenge.”
Question: Do you have any scoop on any DC heroes or villains coming to Arrow or The Flash? —Michael
Ausiello: I’ve got some explosive scoop on this one (you’ll see what I did there in a minute): Sgt. Bette Sans Souci – AKA Plastique – will make her way to The Flash this season. The series’ incarnation of the metahuman is a fetching young redhead who was a bomb specialist with the Army before she was injured by an IED in Iraq. Since being exposed to the Central City explosion, she can turn any object into a bomb with just a touch of her hand – not a bad comrade for The Flash to have on his team, eh?
That’s the end of a week’s worth of news. Enjoy!
Rueben's Ramblings 
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