Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the news items for this past week:

POTENTIAL RESURRECTION

NBC has restarted talks with Warner Bros. Television about a possible season 4 for Manifest, which was recently cancelled. Additionally, it appears that Netflix is also taking part in the renewal talks. (TV Line)

RENEWALS

Paramount+ has given a 6th season renewal to The Good Fight. (TV Line)

GREENLIGHT ORDER

Netflix has given a greenlight order to the political conspiracy thriller The Night Agent inspired by the New York Times best-seller by author Matthew Quirk. The series will center on a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Josh Segarra (Arrow) has joined the cast of Disney+ series She-Hulk which stars Orphan Black alum Tatiana Maslany in the title role. (Deadline)

A Different World alum Kadeem Hardison has joined the cast of the AMC drama Moonhaven, which already includes cast members Dominic Monaghan and Ayelet Zurer. Hardison will play Arlo, partner to detective Paul Serno (Monaghan). (Deadline)

Actress Madeleine Mantock has departed the reboot of Charmed; meaning she will not be back for the show’s upcoming 4th season. (TV Line)

The upcoming HBO limited series Irma Vep will star Alica Vikander as Mira, an American movie star disillusioned by her career and a recent breakup, who goes to France to star in a remake of a French silent film classic. Adria Arjona will also star in the film, playing Laurie, Mira’s ex-assistant and girlfriend. (Variety)

Omar Metwally has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming 2nd season of the ABC drama Big Sky where he recurred as U.S. Marshal Mark Lindor. (TV Line)

Alfre Woodard will star in and executive produce the BET+ and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) series The Porter, playing Fay, who runs the local brothel in St. Antoine. (TV, Eh?)

Matt Ryan won’t be playing John Constantine in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow any longer, but that doesn’t mean he is leaving the show. In fact, he will be back, but he’ll be playing a different character. His new role will be Dr. Gwyn Davies, an eccentric scientist from the early 20th century who might be the team’s only hope next season. (TV Line)

Tammy Townsend (K.C. Undercover) has joined the cast of Queen Sugar for its upcoming 6th season. She will play Billie, the daughter of beloved Bordelon family friend Prosper Denton. Also, Paula Jai Parker (A House Divided) will play Celine, a single mother who Aunt Violet takes under her wing; Marquis Rodriguez (When They See Us) will play Isaiah, a college student who befriends Micah West; and McKinley Freeman (Hit the Floor) will play Dominic, a cultural anthropologist who captures Nova’s attention. (TV Line)

New cast members have been added to the much anticipated, upcoming second season of the PBS period piece Sanditon (loosely based on the final, unfinished novel by Jane Austen). Among them are Ben Lloyd-Hughes (the Divergent franchise) who will play Alexander Colbourne, a mysterious resident with a complex family history; Tom Weston-Jones (Copper), who will play self-assured war hero Colonel Francis Lennox. Both men will be rival’s for the affections of Charlotte Heywood (series lead Rose Williams). Rosie Graham (who played the doomed daughter of Aunt Jo on Outlander) will play Charlotte’s spirited younger sister Alison while Alexander Vlahos (Versailles and who who will also be seen in the upcoming season 6 of Outlander) will play flamboyant Charles Lockhart, a Byronic artist who arrives to paint portraits of Sanditon’s fashionable and wealthy residents. (PBS)

Chicago Med is promoting Steven Weber to series regular. He has been recurring as Dr. Dean Archer, the interim chief of the ED. Also, new cast members are being added, including Guy Lockard (The Village) and Kristen Hager (the US version of Being Human). Lockard will play Dr. Dylan Scott, who left a career as a Chicago police officer to become a doctor; while Hager will play Dr. Stevie Hammer, a brilliant and scrappy emergency room attending physician. (Deadline)

Sofia Hasmik, who has recurred as Chrissy Beppo, the small-town intrepid reporter in Smallville on Superman & Lois has been promoted to series regular for season 2. (TV Line)

America Ferrera (Ugly Betty and Superstore) will star opposite Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto in the upcoming Apple TV+ limited series WeCrashed that is based on the podcast of the same name that explores the greed-filled rise and inevitable fall of WeWork, one of the world’s most valuable startups, and the narcissists whose chaotic love made it all possible. Ferrera will play Elishia Kennedy, a brilliant young entrepreneur seduced into joining WeWork whose life is turned upside down as a result. (TV Line)

Victoria Cartagena has joined the cast of the third season of Batwoman as a new series regular, playing DC hero Renee Montoya, a former GCPD officer who left the force when she could no longer stomach the corruption inside the department. Cartagena previously played Renee Montoya on FOX’s Gotham, though the universes are not connected. (Deadline)

Anthony Ippolito (the Netflix drama Grand Army) will play Al Pacino in the Paramount+ upcoming limited series The Offer, where he will star opposite Miles Teller and Matthew Goode, which is based on two-time Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s (Teller) experience of making the iconic 1972 film The Godfather. (Deadline)

Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) will star in Three Women, the upcoming hour-long Showtime series based on the non-fiction best-seller by Lisa Taddeo. The series is an intimate, haunting portrayal of American female desire, focusing on three women who are on a crash course toward radically overturning their lives. Woodley will play Gia, a writer grieving the loss of her family, who persuades each of these three women to tell her their stories. (Deadline)

Anna Torv (Fringe) has joined the cast of the HBO adaptation of the PlayStation phenom The Last of Us, playing the recurring role of Tess, a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world. The series will be set two decades after the implosion of current-day society, following Joel (Pedro Pascal from The Mandalorian), a tough survivor, who is hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl named Ellie out of an “oppressive” quarantine zone. Other cast members will include Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, His Dark Materials), Gabriel Luna (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Merle Dandridge (Greenleaf) [among others]. (TV Line)

Michelle Monaghan (Netflix’s Messiah) will appear in the upcoming Netflix limited series Echoes, playing identical twins, Leni and Gina, who share a dangerous secret. Since they were children, Leni and Gina have secretly swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults: they share two homes, two husbands, and a child but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing. (The Hollywood Reporter)

FILM NEWS

Anthony Mackie, David Harbour and Jahi Di’Allo Winston (Queen & Slim) will star in the upcoming Netflix family adventure We Have a Ghost, which is being adapted from the short story Ernest by Geoff Managuh, which is about a young man named Kevin (Winston) whose family finds a ghost named Ernest (Harbour) haunting their new home. Discovering Ernest turns Kevin’s family into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA. (Variety)

Tony winner Ali Stroker (who also appeared in Glee) will star in the upcoming film adaptation Being Heumann, based on the memoir by Judith Heumann, a disability activist, championing the rights of the disabled community from a young age. Heumann started using a wheelchair after contracting polio at the age of 5, when she was also deemed a fire hazard and told she had to stay at home. (Deadline and Digital Spy)

Danielle Deadwyler (The Haves and the Have Nots) will star alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the upcoming film Till, which is about Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight for justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Louis Till. Deadwyler will portray Mamie Till-Mobley, while Goldberg will play Till’s grandmother, Alma Carthan. (Variety)

Leslie Grace (In the Heights) has been tapped to play Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, in the box office movie Batgirl. Plot details are, of course, being kept under wraps. (Deadline)

Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You) has joined the ensemble cast of the upcoming sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; but, of course, character details have not been released. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »