Rueben's Ramblings

Hey All,

Here are the entertainment news items for this past week:

RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS

Starz has announced that Power Book III: Raising Kanan will end with its upcoming 5th season. The show’s 4th season finale just aired, by the way. (Variety)

Netflix has given its popular period piece drama Bridgerton a 5th AND 6th season renewals. The Diplomat has also been renewed for a 4th season. The new series Forever has been given a 2nd season renewal and the young adult series My Life With the Walter Boys will get a third season. (TV Line)

Amazon Prime has given its sci-fi series Fallout a 3rd season renewal, but the streaming service has pulled the plug on the Kevin Bacon-led action horror series The Bondsman after only one season. (Variety and TV Line)

SERIES ORDERS/PICK UP NOTES

FOX has given a greenlight to the drama series Memory of a Killer, which will star former Grey’s Anatomy hunk Patrick Dempsey in the lead role. The show, inspired by a Belgian film, will be a dramatic thriller about a hitman (Dempsey) who develops early onset Alzheimer’s. The show is set for the 2025-2026 TV season. (Variety)

The CW has acquired the US broadcast rights to the first two season of the Canadian drama Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent as part of its 2025-2026 TV season line-up. The show follows the Specialized Criminal Investigations Unit’s detective duo, Detective Sergeants Henry Graff (Aden Young) and Frankie Bateman (Kathleen Munroe), as they investigate high-profile homicides in Canada’s largest metropolis. Their unique investigative skills are showcased through psychological tactics, with a heavy focus on the motives and actions of the criminals. These cases delve into the worlds of high finance, politics, real estate, media, and more. (Variety)

It seems like S.W.A.T. isn’t so dead after all. A spin-off series – S.W.A.T. EXILES (yep, it’s in all caps) – will find lead Shemar Moore back as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson, being pulled out of forced retirement to lead a last-chance experimental SWAT unit made up of untested, unpredictable young recruits. It should be noted, though, that this spin-off has not yet been attached to a Stateside network or streaming service. (TV Line)

BOX OFFICE MOVIE NEWS

Alias alum Jennifer Garner is set to appear in the sci-fi drama flick Zygote, which is the working title right now. The movie will center on Parisa (Garner), an elite crisis negotiator who is sent 254 miles from Earth as a response to hostages on the International Space Station. Due to the unexpected nature of the expedition, Parisa quickly realizes this could be her final mission, as she is forced to confront the limits of her life’s work alongside her own mortality. (Deadline)

Taylor Sheridan, the creator of the Yellowstone franchise, will be teaming up with 1923 star Brandon Sklenar for the big screen movie F.A.S.T., a crime thriller about a former special forces commando who is tapped by drug enforcement officials to lead a black op strike team against CIA-protected drug dealers. (Variety)

More casting news for the next The Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping movie have been announced. Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Elvis and Waves) will play Beetee (who was played by Jeffrey Wright in the mothership franchise). Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman) will play Wiress, who became the District 12 champion turned mentor. Ben Wang (the upcoming The Karate Kid: Legends star and the Disney+ short-lived series American Born Chinese) will play Wyatt Callow and Ralph Fiennes will play villainous President Coriolanus Snow. (Variety)

Luke Evans will star opposite Noomi Rapace in the action-thriller flick Traction that will be about a former U.S. soldier leading a humanitarian mission through war-torn Chechnya. Kate (Rapace), accompanied by her trusted Chechen ally Magomed, are forced to take on a cynical American war photographer (Evans), a schoolteacher and her injured student. Together, the group must navigate treacherous terrain and evade both Russian forces and guerrilla fighters. (Variety)

Kathryn Newton (Supernatural and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and Lana Condor (To All the Boys franchise) will star together in the upcoming survival thriller Devil’s Mouth that follows college friends who, while on a trip to get to Thailand, get trapped in an underwater cave system with a bull shark. Old tensions and power struggles resurface as they fight to survive. (Deadline)

TV CASTING NEWS

Minnie Driver is joining the 5th season of Emily in Paris, playing Princess Jane, a friend of Sylvie’s (series regular Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) who married into a royal family. (Variety)

Jude Law and Andrew Garfield will star in the Apple TV+ limited series that will focus on iconic magicians Siegfried & Roy with Law starring as Siegfried and Garfield as Roy. The series will focus on the wild ride relationship of two of the greatest showman-magicians in history who, along with their white tigers, are tasked with turning Sin City into a family-friendly destination. The duo push the concept of illusion versus reality to the extreme, personally and professionally, until tragedy reframes and opens a mystery surrounding their last fateful Las Vegas show. (Variety)

Amanda Arcuri (Watson) and Caroline Rhea (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) have joined the cast of the spin-off series Sheriff Country that will follow straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), the stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone (from the CBS series Fire Country) who investigates criminal activity as she patrols the streets of small-town Edgewater while contending with her ex-con father (W. Earl Brown) and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter. Arcuri will play Skye, the aforementioned daughter while Rhea will play Gina, Sheriff Mickey’s assistant and the face of the Edgewater County Sheriff’s Office. (Deadline)

Ernie Hudson has joined the cast of the Blue Bloods spin-off Boston Blue, starring Donnie Wahlberg and Soneque Martin-Green. He will play Reverend Peters, the grandfather of Det. Lena Silver (Martin-Green). (Deadline)

Kelli Giddish is returning to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on a full-time basis, reprising her role of Amanda Rollins. (TV Line and Deadline)

The new slayer has been chosen for the potential Hulu reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that will feature original series star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Star Wars: Skeleton crew cast member Ryan Kiera Armstrong has landed the coveted role. (Deadline and TV Line)

Krysten Ritter will reprise her role of Jessica Jones in the second season of Daredevil: Born Again over on Disney+. (TV Line)

STREAMING MOVIE NEWS

Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones will star in the Netflix heist film Here comes the Flood that will tell the story of a bank guard plotting with a master thief to steal. (Variety)

That’s it. Enjoy!