Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for the past week:

TV NEWS

The Fosters has been cancelled except there are several twists to the bad news. The rest of the show’s fifth season will begin on Freeform on January 9, including the show’s 100 episode. The show will return for a three-episode limited event series this summer at which time the show will come to an end. Except, Freeform has ordered an unnamed 13-episode spinoff that will star The Fosters stars Maia Mitchell (who plays Callie) and Cierra Ramirez (who plays Marianna). The spin-off is supposed to follow Callie and Mariana as they move on from their high school lives living with moms Stef and Lena. (Variety)

The final season of Game of Thrones will return to HBO sometime in 2019. (Variety)

FOX has announced that they are planning a “new iteration” of Prison Break similar to what they did with 24 last season. It is expected that both Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller will return should the show come back for another installment. (Variety)

CASTING NEWS

Actor Stephen Dorff (the box office film Blade and the recent TV series Star) has joined the cast of the 3rd season of the HBO drama True Detective, playing Roland West, an Arkansas State Investigator who, along with his partner, has his life and career influenced over three decades by a baffling crime. (Variety)

U.K. actor Colin McFarlane (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) will appear in the 4th season of Outlander, playing Ulysses, the butler of the River Run plantation in North Carolina that is owned by Jocasta McKenzie Cameron (Jamie Fraser’s aunt and sister of the late Dougal and Colum McKenzie) [to be played by Maria Doyle Kennedy (Orphan Black).] (Entertainment Weekly)

Actress Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) has landed the lead role of Sabrina Spellman in the upcoming Netflix series based on the Archie Comics’ supernatural heroine Sabrina, an empowered young woman, half-human, half-witch, who is just beginning her dark education as a sorceress, even as she tries to maintain a normal life as a sophomore at Baxter High. The series was originally in development at The CW before moving to Netflix. (Variety)

Actress-singer Sara Bareilles will play Mary Magdalene in the upcoming live NBC production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which will feature singer John Legend in the lead role. The event series will air on Easter Sunday. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Actress Rosario Dawson (Daredevil) will be featured in multi-episodes of Jane the Virgin in an as yet announced role. (Deadline)

Actress Kate Beckinsale (the Underworld franchise) will star in the Amazon series The Widow, which is being compared to The Bourne Identity and The Legend of Tarzan. The 8-episode drama centers on a woman who left her previous life behind until the husband she thought was dead pops up in the news. Forced to face the world again, she embarks on a mission to uncover the truth about her past which leads her to the Congo where danger lurks in every corner. (Deadline and TV Guide)

RENEWAL/PICK-UP NEWS

Netflix has ordered a sequel to the Will Smith and Joel Edgerton film Bright. (Variety)

The Gifted has been renewed for a second season at FOX. (Variety)

Syfy has given a series order to Nightflyers, which is based on the George R.R. Martin novella that will follow eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system aboard The Nightflyer – a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain — in the hope of making contact with alien life. But when terrifying and violent events begin to take place they start to question each other. The cast will include Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire), Eoin Macken (The Night Shift), David Ajala (Falling Water) and Brian F. O’Bryne (The Magicians) [among others].  (The Futon Critic)

That’s it. Enjoy!