Actor Shaun Sipos (The Vampire Diaries and Melrose Place) has landed a series regular role on the upcoming Syfy Superman prequel Krypton that is set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet. The show follows Superman’s grandfather (British actor Cameron Cuffe), whose House of El was ostracized and shamed, as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos. Sipos will play Adam Strange, a world-weary human, who finds himself stranded on Krypton as the unlikely mentor to Seg-El, Superman’s grandfather. (Deadline)
Actor Jacob Artist (Glee) has landed a recurring role on the second season of The Arrangement on E! He will play Wes Blaker, a charming young man with a sharp sense of humor and a dark side. (Deadline)
Actor Garret Dillahunt (Raising Hope) will have a recurring role on the upcoming FOX drama The Gifted, playing Roderick Campbell, a mutant researcher contracted by the Sentinel Services. (Deadline)
Actor Riley Smith (Frequency) has landed a recurring role in the upcoming drama Life Sentence that will air on The CW. The series centers on Stella (Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars), a young woman diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she finds out that she’s not dying after all, she has to learn to live with the choices she made when she decided to “live like she was dying. Smith will play Dr. Will Grant, a rough-around-the-edges oncologist with a secret soft spot for his patients. (Deadline)
Actor-Director Chad Lowe will guest-star in an episode of Supergirl, playing Thomas Coville, the charismatic religious leader of a group that worships the Girl of Steel. (Entertainment Weekly and TV Line)
RENEWALS/CANCELLATIONS
The History Channel has renewed their series Vikings for a sixth season ahead of the show’s upcoming fifth season premiere. (Variety)
Sadly, Freeform has cancelled the sci-fi drama Stitchers after three seasons, leaving the fans with a great big cliffhanger. (The Hollywood Reporter)
The young version of Kara and Alex on Supergirl will now be played by different actresses. Izabela Vidovic (The Fosters) has taken over the young Kara role from Malina Weissman, who now stars on the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events while Olivia Nikkanen (The Americans) will take over young Alex. (Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide)
Film star Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in the second season of the National Geographic series Genius. (Variety)
Actresses Kristina Reyes (Shades of Blue) and Tori Anderson (No Tomorrow) will both have recurring roles on Blindspot. Reyes will play Avery, a socialite with a complicated past who crosses paths with Weller (series lead Stapleton Sullivan), while Anderson will play a potential love interest for Roman (series regular Luke Mitchell). (Entertainment Weekly and TV Line)
Veteran actress Bonnie Bedelia will have a recurring role in the second season of Designated Survivor, playing Eva Booker, the President’s (series lead Kiefer Sutherland) mother-in-law. (Deadline and The Futon Critic)
Actor Nick Blood will reprise his role of Lance Hunter in the upcoming 5th season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Deadline and Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Meegan Warner (TURN) will guest star in Once Upon a time as a new version of Rapunzel. (Deadline and TV Line)
Twin Peaks alum Sherilyn Fenn will have a recurring role on the upcoming new adaptation of S.W.A.T. playing Karen, Karen, the imprisoned mother (doing time for the murder of her abusive husband) of Alex Russell’s character, Jim Street. (TV Line and The Futon Critic)
Actress Tina Majorino (Veronica Mars) will recur on the CBS drama Scorpion, playing Florence, a chemist who moves in next door to the team. (TV Line and The Futon Critic)
Actress Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights and Jane the Virgin) and actor Alan Ritchson (Blood Drive) have joined the cast of the upcoming live-action series Titans, which is set to premiere in 2018. Kelly will play Dove, aka Dawn Granger, one half of the crime-fighting, vigilante duo and romantic couple Dove and Hawk. Ritchson will play Hank Hall, aka Hawk. (TV Line and Deadline)
CANCELLATIONS
TNT has cancelled the period piece drama Will after only one season. (Variety)
Amazon has canceled the Matt Bomer series The Last Tycoon after only one season. (Variety)
Syfy has canceled the gore-fest series Blood Drive after one season. (Deadline)
The Doctor Who spin-off Class has also been canceled after one season. (TV Line)
Actress Robin Givens (Riverdale and Head of the Class) will play Tiana’s (new series regular Mekia Cox) mother Eudora on Once Upon a Time. (Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Courtney Ford (Revenge and Supernatural) will appear in the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow as Eleanor, the daughter of Damien Darhk. [NOTE: She is the real-life wife of Legends of Tomorrow’s series regular Brandon Routh.] It would seem that the team will pay Eleanor a visit some years into the future, as they set out to fix the myriad anachronisms created in the May finale. (Entertainment Weekly and TV Line)
Actress Annabeth Gish (The X-Files) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a defense attorney. (TV Line)
Actress Dina Meyer (Birds of Prey) will recur in the 3rd season of the Syfy series The Magicians where she will play the Stone Queen, a no-nonsense woman who hails from a faraway land in Fillory and offers an interesting proposition for an alliance. (Deadline)
Actor Brenton Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) has landed the prime role of Dick Grayson in the straight-to-series drama Titans, hailing from uber-producer Greg Berlanti. The show will debut in 2018 on the DC Comics-branded digital platform, following a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe, revolving around Dick Grayson, who emerges from the shadows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes. (The Hollywood Reporter)
BOX OFFICE NEWS
Actor Keanu Reeves and actress Winona Ryder will star in the upcoming romantic comedy Destination Wedding that centers on two miserable and unpleasant wedding guests, both pariahs at this affair, who develop a mutual affection despite themselves. (Deadline)
CANCELLATION/RENEWAL NEWS
The Syfy channel delivered a blow to fans of the sci-fi series Dark Matter, cancelling it after its current, third season just came to an end (leaving viewers with cliffhangers) while giving their other sci-fi series Killjoys not only a fourth but also fifth and final season renewal. (The Hollywood Reporter and Variety)
NEW SERIES NEWS/TRAILER
Game of Thrones alum Kit Harrington will be seen in a new series called Gunpowder on the BBC (and most likely on BBC America at some point). The series will depict the story of the conspiracy to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605 in an attempt to assassinate King James I. (Variety)
Here is the teaser trailer for that new new series:
ONLINE CASTING NEWS
Actress Cara Delevingne (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) will co-star alongside Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings franchise) in the upcoming Amazon drama series Carnival Row, a fantasy-noir set in a neo-Victorian city where mythical creatures, fleeing their war-torn homeland, have gathered in the city and tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population. Delevingne will play Vignette Stonemoss, a faerish refugee who flees homeland to come to the Burgue, where she must contend not only with rampant human prejudice against her kind, but with the secrets that have followed her to this new place. (Variety)
Actor Terry O’Quinn (Lost) has joined the upcoming Hulu psychological-horror drama Castle Rock, playing Dale Lacy, a pillar of the Castle Rock community. (TV Line)
Actress Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will have a recurring role in The Flash, playing DC Comics villain Amunet Black, (aka Blacksmith), a steely and badass boss of an underground black market for supervillains. (Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Rachelle Lefevre (Under the Dome) will join the cast of the Lifetime series Mary Kills People for its second season, playing Olivia Bloom, a mysterious woman with ties to Mary’s (series lead Caroline Dhavernas) past. (Global Television Press Release)
Actress Ivana Milicevic (Banshee) will appear in The CW series The 100 in the recurring role of Charmaine Diyoza, one of the mysterious criminals aboard the prisoner ship that was seen in the season finale. (TV Line)
Actress Laura Vandervoort (Bitten) has joined the cast of the AT&T Audience Network series Ice where she will recur as Tessa Pryor, a legal eagle who arrives at court to represent veteran diamond dealer Freddy Green (series lead Jeremy Sisto). (TV Line)
Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse) has joined the cast of the Netflix streaming series The Punisher in the recurring role of Farah Madani, the mother of Dinah Madani, a skilled Homeland Security agent who’s vexed by the Punisher, a.k.a. Frank Castle (series lead Jon Bernthal). (Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Melina Kanakaredes (CSI: NY and Providence) has joined the cast of the new, upcoming FOX medical drama The Resident, which centers on a tough, brilliant senior resident who guides an idealistic young doctor through his first day, pulling back the curtain on what really happens, both good and bad, in modern-day medicine. Kanakaredes will play Dr. Lane Hunter, the top oncologist in the state of Georgia. The cast of The Resident includes Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls and The Good Wife) and Emily VanCamp (Revenge) [among others]. (Deadline)
Actors Michael Irby (Taken) and Jay Hayden (The Catch) and actress Alona Tal (Hand of God and Supernatural) have landed recurring roles in the new, upcoming CBS military drama SEAL Team that stars David Boreanaz (Bones and Angel) and Max Thieriot (Bates Motel). The series follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high stakes missions our country can ask of them. Irby will play Adam, a senior among the Green Team instructors and a once-legendary who oversees the Green Team’s drills. Hayden will portray Brian, a Green Team trainee while Tal will play Stella, a grad student who meets Clay (Thieriot) in a bar where SEALs tend to hang out. (Deadline)
Actress Anna Diop (24: Legacy) has landed a lead role in the new live-action series Titans that will follows a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe. She will play the role of Starfire, an alien princess from a warrior planet who seeks asylum on Earth. (Deadline)
British actor Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey) and Aussie actress Teresa Palmer (Hacksaw Ridge) will star in the lead roles of Matthew and Diana in the small screen adaptation of the best-selling novel “A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness. The story follows Diana Bishop, a science historian who also just happens to be a witch with a troubling past that has led her to suppress her magical tendencies. When her research leads her to uncover a mysterious missing manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, she sets in motion a series of events that will lead her on an adventure across time and continents to discover the secrets of her past and the truth about the origin of magical beings (which includes witches, vampires, and daemons). Along the way, Diana also encounters and falls in love with Matthew Clairmont, a scientist and vampire with a murky past of his own. An official home for the series in the U.S. has yet to be announced. (Entertainment Weekly)
Actor Common (Hell on Wheels) will play the lead role in the new Starz series based on the “Black Samurai” books that follow Robert Sand, a highly-trained American Army Ranger whose life is transformed when he meets a legendary Japanese master who invites him to train as a samurai. After his beloved sensei and samurai brothers are killed by mercenaries, Sand is thrust on a worldwide journey of both revenge and self-discovery. (Variety)
Actor Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings franchise) will play the lead role in the upcoming Amazon drama series Carnival Row that takes place in a neo-Victorian city in which mythical creatures, fleeing their war-torn homeland, have gathered. Tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population. Bloom will play Rycroft Philostrate, a police inspector investigating the murder of a faerie showgirl on Carnival Row. The show has been ordered for an eight-episode first season. (Variety)
Actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Dracula and Emerald City) has joined the cast of The Haunting Of Hill House, the Netflix modern re-imagining of Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 novel. The cast already includes Timothy Hutton (Leverage), Carla Gugino (Wayward Pines), Michel Huisman (Game of Thrones), and Elizabeth Reaser (the Twilight franchise) [among others]. The 10-episode straight-to-series drama will draw from the original classic ghost story while expanding on the mythology of the Crane family. No character information is being revealed at this time. (Deadline)
MOVIE NEWS
It looks like Warner Bros. is developing an untitled tent-pole movie to star Jared Leto and Margot Robbie as Joke and Harley Quinn respectively, reprising their roles from Suicide Squad. (Variety)
Young actress Sophie Nelisse (The Book Thief), Eoin Macken (The Night Shift and Merlin) and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) will star with Noomi Rapace in the action thriller Close that will loosely be based on the experiences of Jacqui Davis, one of the world’s leading female bodyguards. The film will center on Sam (Rapace) a close protection officer used to battlefield conditions, who is hired to protect Zoe (Nélisse), a rebellious heiress to a billion-dollar company. When a violent kidnapping attempt forces them to go on the run, the women form an unlikely bond, and with the help of Sam’s ex-partner Conall (Macken) work together to clear their names and uncover their enemies. Varma will Zoe’s stepmother. (Deadline)
Actress Lorraine Toussaint (Rosewood) has landed a series regular role in the third season of Into the Badlands. She will play Cressida, a self-styled Prophetess and mentor to Pilgrim. She is his spiritual guide, political counsel and chief military strategist. (Deadline)
Actress Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars) will star opposite actor Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) and actress Elizabeth Lail (Once Upon a Time) in the upcoming Lifetime psychological thriller You that is based on the book by Caroline Kepnes. It is a 21st century love story about an obsessive, yet brilliant twentysomething (Badgley) who uses the hyper-connectivity of today’s technology to make the woman of his dreams (Lail) fall in love with him. Mitchell will play Peach Salinger, the controlling queen bee of Beck’s (Lail) inner circle of privileged friends. She has her sights set on Joe (Badgley) in a way that feels oddly adversarial with Beck. (Deadline)
Veteran actress Barbara Hershey will have a recurring role in the 11th season of The X-Files, playing Erika Price, a powerful figure who represents a mysterious organization. Also, Robbie Amell (The Flash) and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) will reprise their roles as Agents Miller and Einstein in the series as well. (Deadline and TV Line)
Actor Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) has joined the cast of Hulu’s new original series Marvel’s Runaways that tells the story of six diverse teenagers who can barely stand one another but who must unite against a common foe: their parents. McMahon will play Jonah, a pivotal player in the Runaways’ rebellion against their parents. (Deadline)
Actor Russell Tovey will return as series regular on the third season of Quantico. (Deadline)
Actor Kirk Acevedo (Fringe and 12 Monkeys) will have a season-long recurring role on Arrow, playing Ricardo Diaz, based on the Richard Dragon character. In the comics, Ricardo is one of the identities Richard Dragon takes on. A hardened ex-con recently released from prison for crimes he didn’t commit, Ricardo Diaz is bent on taking over Star City’s criminal underworld. A master in hand to hand combat, honed by years of life on the street, Diaz has yet to meet a foe he can’t take down. (Deadline)
Actress Moon Bloodgood (Falling Skies) has been promoted to series regular on Code Black where she plays tough-as-nails L.A. paramedic Rox Valenzuela. (TV Line)
British actress Frances O’Connor has landed the lead role in Hulu’s adaptation of Locke and Key based on the beloved comic series, which is a horror/fantasy series revolving around three siblings who, after the gruesome murder of their father, moves to their ancestral home in Maine only to find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers. O’Connor will play Nina Locke, the mother to the three siblings. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Bruce McGill (Rizzoli & Isles) will have a pivotal recurring role in season three of Shades of Blue, playing Jordan Ramsey, a ruthless and resourceful man who runs a unit out of the Intelligence Division. (Deadline)
Young actress Lola Flanery (the young version of the Seelie Queen on Shadowhunters) will take over the recurring role of Madi [originally played by Imogen Tear]. Madi has been Clarke’s ward for five years and for all intents and purposes they have bonded the way a mother and daughter would. (TV Line)
Actress Susie Abromeit (Marvel’s Jessica Jones) will guest star as Ray Palmer’s mother on the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Brandon Routh, who plays Ray Palmer in the series, will also play Ray’s bother Sydney. (TV Line)
Actor Torrance Coombs (Reign and Still Star-Crossed) will appear in the 5th and final season of The Originals, playing Declan, the flirty Irish chef with whom Hayley (series regular Phoebe Tonkin) will be involved. Also, actor Jedidiah Goodacre (the Descendants made-for-TV movies) will play Roman, the charming vampire who meets grown-up Hope (now played by Danielle Rose Russell) at school and takes an interest in her family. (TV Line and Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Marina Benedict (the Prison Break revival) and actor Benjamin Stockham (About a Boy) will both appear in season 4 of Gotham. Benedict will recur as Cherry, the owner of a fight club in The Narrows aka Gotham’s most dangerous neighborhood. Stockham will guest star as Alex Winthrop, the bookish grandson of a museum curator whom Bruce Wayne comes in contact with when tracking a mysterious artifact. (TV Line)
RENEWALS/PICK-UPS
Netflix has renewed Ozark for a second season. (Variety)
EPIX has given a 10-episode limited series order to a murder thriller based on the 2012 novel The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair that will star Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy), Damon Wayans, Jr. (New Girl) and Virginia Madsen (Designed Survivor). Dempsey will star as the title character, a literary icon who is indicted for murder after a teenage girl’s body is found buried on his property in Maine. Wayans will play the detective investigating the case while Madsen will play the owner of a local diner who discovers a secret about Quebert. (Variety)
USA Network is moving ahead with the potential Suits spin-off that will star Gina Torres. The backdoor pilot will air as the season seven finale of Suits that will reunite Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) and Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) with their old friend Jessica Pearson (Torres) as she adjusts to her new life in the Windy City. When she is forced to enter the dirty world of Chicago politics, Pearson must rely on her legal wits and valiant relationships from Pearson Specter Litt to navigate this unknown territory. (The Hollywood Reporter)
OWN has renewed Greenleaf for a third season. (Variety)
The USA Network renewed Queen of the South for a third season. (Variety)
The Netflix streaming series Glow has been given a second season renewal. (Variety)
CASTING NEWS
Actor Peter Krause (The Catch and Parenthood) has landed the male lead role, alongside Angela Bassett, in 9-1-1, the upcoming FOX drama from Ryan Murphy. The procedural drama will explore the high-pressure experiences of police, paramedics and firefighters who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives. 9-1-1 received a 13-episode straight-to-series order by Fox in May. (Variety)
Actor Philip Winchester will reprise his role of Peter Stone from Chicago Justice in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He was the Assistant State’s Attorney in Chicago and will now be ADA in New York City. He will first appear around the midpoint of the show’s upcoming 19th season. (Deadline)
Actress Elena Satine (Revenge) will appear in the second episode of the new FOX drama The Gifted, playing dreamer, a mutant with the ability to add or subtract memories. (TV Line)
Actor Alexander Calvert (Scream, The Returned [on AMC] and Arrow) has joined the cast of Supernatural, taking on the role of Jack, the son of Lucifer, who was introduced [albeit briefly] in the show’s season finale in May. (TV Line and Entertainment Weekly)
Actor James Carpinello (Gotham and the box office film The Punisher – he is also married to actress Amy Acker of Person of Interest and Angle fame) will return as a recurring character on The Blacklist, reprising his role of Henry Prescott, the handsome, charming, and cool ‘fixer’ who calmly solves problems for powerful and elite clients. (Deadline)
Actress Brooke Shields has landed a major recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The character she will be playing will be kept under wraps, but who she will play will shake up Benson’s (series lead Mariska Hargitay) world. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Jake Weber (Medium) and actresses Brenda Strong (Supergirl) and Meredith Monroe (Criminal Minds) have landed roles in the second season of 13 Reasons Why. Weber will play Barry Walker, father of Bryce (Justin Prentice), a successful hedge fund manager and pillar of the community; Strong will play Nora Walker, Barry’s husband and Bryce’s mother and Monroe will play Carolyn, Alex Standall’s mother, a hardworking nurse and devoted mother. (Deadline)
Actor Graham Phillips (The Good Wife) will appear in the second season of Riverdale where he will play Nick St. Clair, an old classmate and ex-boyfriend of Veronica Lodge from her days in New York City. (Entertainment Weekly and TV Line)
Actor Jay Harrington (Better Off Ted and Private Practice) will show up in two upcoming episodes of Suits where he will play Mark Meadows, an ex-boyfriend of Donna (series regular Sarah Rafferty). (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)
MOVIES NEWS
Actress Milla Jovovich (the Resident Evil franchise) will appear in the reboot of Hellboy, which will find Stranger Things actor David Harbour taking on the title character. She will play the Blood Queen while Ian McShane (American Gods) will play Professor Broom. (Deadline)
Actress Nia Long (Empire and Big Momma’s House) will be joining season 9 of NCIS: Los Angeles in a role created specifically for her. She will play Shay Mosley, a former Secret Service Agent now working for NCIS. (TV Fanatic)
Film star Sylvester Stallone will appear in season two of This Is us, who will co-star in the new film for which Kevin (series regular Justin Hartley) will be starring in within the series. (Variety)
Actor James Wolk (Zoo) will star alongside Billy Bob Thornton in the second season of the Amazon streaming series Goliath. He will play FBI Special Agent Jeff Clayton, who agrees to help Billy (Thornton) hunt down his prime suspect in the Marcos Pena murder, who was last seen in ICE custody. (Deadline)
Actress Marlee Matlin (Switched at Birth) has joined the cast of Quantico for its third season. She will play Jocelyn Turner, an ex-FBI agent who was known at one time as the best undercover agent in the field, until a bomb blew up near her and rendered her deaf. The FBI put her out to pasture, but now she’s being brought back to join a special unit with several other returning characters. (Deadline)
Actress Jes Macallan (Mistresses) will have a recurring role in the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, playing Special Agent Ava Sharpe, a hard working agent for a secret branch of the Federal Government (the Time Bureau) dedicated to the regulation of time-travel and the protection of history. (Deadline)
Australian actress Emma Booth (Underbelly and the box office film Gods of Egypt) has landed a major recurring role in the upcoming 7th season of Once Upon a Time; she will play “The Witch.” (Deadline)
Actress Abigail Spencer (Timeless) will take over the role of Megan Hunt from Bridget Regan (The Last Ship) on Grey’s Anatomy. Regan could not reprise her role because of the TNT series so Spencer will take over, as the presumed dead sister of Dr. Owen Hunt. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Carlos Bernard (24) will guest star in the third season of Supergirl, playing Oscar Rodas, the dad of Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima), who is also a cop. (TV Line)
Actor Gabriel Mann (Revenge) has landed a recurring role in the upcoming USA Network series Damnation, which is about the mythic conflict and bloody struggle between big money and the downtrodden, God and greed in America’s heartland circa the 1930s. He will play Martin Eggers Hyde, a witty, well-spoken intellectual and visionary. The series is slated to premiere in October. (The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line)
RENEWALS/SERIES PICK UPS
Freeform has renewed Famous in Love for a second season. (Variety)
Netflix has given a second season to the streaming series Anne (with an E). (The Hollywood Reporter)
YouTube Red has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to Cobra Kai, based on the original The Karate Kid that will star original actors Ralph Macchio and William Zabka in their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence. The series will pick up 30 years after Daniel topped Johnny in that karate tournament. They now run rival dojos. (The Hollywood Reporter)
MOVIE CASTING NEWS
Actress Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter) will star alongside actor Ewan McGregor in the Disney film Christopher Robin, a live-action spin on Robin (McGregor), the little boy from the Winnie the Pooh series, who is now all-grown-up and lost all sense of imagination. Pooh and his friends reenter Robin’s life to help him find it once again. Atwell will play Robin’s wife. (Variety)
Actress Britt Robertson (Girlboss, Life Unexpected and Tomorrowland) has taken over the lead role in the new, upcoming Shonda Rhimes drama For the People from Britne Oldford (Ravenswood and Hunters). Robertson will play Sandra, a sensible, fiercely intelligent and independent new public defender who was driven to the law because of an injustice perpetrated on her family when she was a child. (TV Fanatic)
It looks like True Detective will be getting a season 3, starring actor Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage and The 4400). (Entertainment Weekly)
Actress Maria Bello is coming back to the small screen, joining the cast of NCIS for its upcoming 15th season. She will play an NCIS agent who was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army and served two tours in Afghanistan. After joining NCIS, she built her reputation as the agency’s premier forensic psychologist. Unlike the other agents, she can second-guess and challenge Gibbs (series star Mark Harmon), so there will be friction but also mutual respect. She is a positive force, mischievous and at times acerbic. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actress Rachelle Lefevre (Under the Dome) and Missy Peregrym (Rookie Blue) will both appear in the fourth season finale of The Night Shift. Lefevre will play Major Natasha Anthony, a new military doctor coming into the San Antonio Memorial Hospital while Peregrym will play Reagan, a female Ranger who comes in as a paramedic and clashes with Drew (series regular Brendan Fehr). (The Hollywood Reporter and The Futon Critic)
Actor Wilson Cruz (My So-Called Life) has landed a role in Star Trek: Discovery, playing Dr. Hugh Culber, medical officer of the Starship Discovery. (CBS TV and The Futon Critic)
Actor Desmond Harrington (Dexter) has landed a series regular role in the upcoming 6th season of Elementary. He will play Michael, a fellow addict in recovery, who once found the inspiration to stay sober in Sherlock’s words at N.A. meetings in the past. He now offers to return the favor and be an ongoing support to Sherlock. (Deadline)
Actress Breeda Wool (UnREAL) will guest star in an upcoming episode of Midnight, Texas. She will play Bowie, a regal, formidable angel warrior (described as a cross between Tilda Swinton and Game of Thrones’ Brienne of Tarth). (TV Line)
Actress Jessica Camacho (The Flash and Sleepy Hollow) has joined the cast of NBC’s Taken for the show’s upcoming 2nd season, which won’t air until mid-season due to massive cast changes and alterations to the show by its new showrunner. (TV Line)
RENEWALS
Lifetime has renewed UnREAL for a fourth season and Mary Kills People for a second season. (Variety)
Animal Kingdom was renewed for a third season by TNT. (Variety)
The Hallmark Channel has official renewed The Good Witch for a fourth season. (Deadline)
Hulu has given its streaming series Harlots a second season renewal. (Deadline)
PROGRAMMING UPDATES
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and actor Chris Pine (who played Steve Trevor) are re-teaming on the new TNT drama series One Day She’ll Darken that was given a straight-to-series, 6-episode order. The drama, inspired by the autobiography of Fauna Hodel, will tell the story of Hodel, who was given away by her teenage birth mother to a black restroom attendant in a Nevada casino in 1949. As Hodel begins to investigate the secrets to her past, she follows a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist, Dr. George Hodel, a man involved in the darkest Hollywood debauchery, the spider in the web around the legendary “Black Dahlia” murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles in 1947. Pine will play Jay Singletary, a former Marine-turned-hack reporter and paparazzo. Jay was disgraced over his story about Hodel years prior, but now he sees a glimmer of redemption. Jay sees an opportunity, but is also caught in a moral quandary. A release date is unknown at this time due to Pine and Jenkins current projects, however. (Variety)
Starz has given a series order to the drama thriller The Rook from author Stephenie Meyer (the Twilight franchise). The series will follow a young woman who wakes up in a London park suffering amnesia and surrounded by bodies, all wearing latex gloves. As she attempts to uncover her past and her role as head of Britain’s supernatural secret service, she discovers she has peculiar abilities, all while being pursued by paranormal adversaries. (Variety)
Here are the news items for the past week and a half, including lots and lots of videos featured at Comic Con 2017:
RENEWALS/PICK-UP ORDERS/CANCELLATIONS
Queen Sugar has been given a third season renewal by OWN. (Variety)
Amazon has given a 2-season order to the Julia Roberts-led drama Homecoming that will center on a caseworker at a secret government facility, her supervisor and a soldier. (Deadline and Variety)
The Originals will end after its upcoming fifth season on The CW. (Variety)
Netflix has renewed the Marvel series Iron Fist for Season 2. (Variety)
Stargate will be returning to TV as a streaming series called Stargate Origins. The 10-episode show will be available via MGM’s new streaming service called Stargate Command, which will be available this fall. The series will revolve around Catherine Langford, the daughter of archaeologist Paul Langford, who discovered the ancient, round Stargate. (Variety)
Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a third season by Syfy. (Variety)
A back-door pilot for the potential Supernatural spin-off Wayward Pines has been confirmed by the WB and the cast now includes Briana Buckmaster (who plays Donna Hanscum), Kathryn Newton (who plays Claire) and Katherine Ramdeen (who plays Alex). The spin-off will also feature a new character Patience Turner (Clark Backo from Designated Survivor), who is described as a high school over-achiever whose life is turned upside down when she discovers she’s a powerful psychic, a gift she inherited from her estranged grandmother, Missouri Moseley (who was played by Loretta Devine). (Entertainment Weekly)
CASTING NEWS
Actress Jaina Lee Ortiz (Rosewood) will star in the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off that center on a group of heroic firefighters from the captain down the ranks in their personal and professional lives. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actor Forest Whitaker (The Black Panther) has landed a recurring role in Empire in a multi-episode arc, playing Uncle Eddie, a charismatic music icon and bonafide hit maker, who gave an unknown Lucious (Terrence Howard) his first radio airplay years ago. (Variety)
Actress Tracy Spiridakos (Revolution and MacGyver) has been promoted to series regular on Chicago P.D. for the show’s upcoming 5th season. Her character made her debut in the two of the last three episodes of the show’s 4th season when her character, a robbery/homicide detective, collaborated with Sgt. Hank Voight (series regular Jason Beghe) and the rest of Intelligence on a particularly tough case. (The Hollywood Reporter)
In the aftermath of Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim leaving Hawaii Five-0, new cast members have been announced, including Meaghan Rath (Being Human) and relative newcomer Beulah Koale (who will be seen in the upcoming movie that will star Miles Teller and Haley Bennett); and Ian Anthony Dale (currently starring in the summer series Salvation) has been promoted to series regular. Rath will play Tani Rey, who McGarrett (series lead Alex O’Loughlin) recruits after finding her working as a lifeguard at a hotel pool after she was kicked out of the Police Academy. Koale will play Junior Reigns, a former Navy SEAL who just returned from serving his country and asks McGarrett for a job in hopes to re-purpose his skills as a member of Five-0. (Variety)
Actress Eloise Mumford (Fifth Shades of Grey) will have a recurring role on Chicago Fire where she will play Hope Jacquinot, an old friend of paramedic Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer). (Variety)
Actor Tom Welling (Smallville) will appear in season 3 of Lucifer as Marcus Pierce, an accomplished police lieutenant; he’s reserved and well-respected, like Lucifer (series lead Tom Ellis), he’s charming, charismatic and handsome. So when Pierce starts developing a connection with Decker (series regular Lauren German), the devil comes out in Lucifer. (Variety)
Actor Michael Emerson (Person of Interest and Lost) will appear in the 6th season of Arrow in a recurring role of an as yet named mystery character. (Variety)
MOVIE CASTING NEWS
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer will play Janet van Dyne, the mother of Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and the wife of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in the upcoming movie Ant-Man and the Wasp. The movie will be in theatres in 2018. (Variety)
Actor J.J. Soria (Animal Kingdom and The Fosters) has joined the cast of the Crackle original one-hour drama series “The Oath,” which is set to debut in 2018. He will play Officer Pete Ramos, partner and friend of Officer Steve Hammond (True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten), and second-in-command of the Ravens cop gang. Ramos is streetwise with a nervous energy, and a family man who is driven by the need to prove himself worthy of his wife who comes from wealth and privilege. (Crackle Press Release)
Actress Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) has joined the cast of the upcoming NBC drama Good Girls, taking over the role originally set for actress Kathleen Rose Perkins (Colony), who has been recast. The show is about what happens when three suburban moms (played by Hendricks, Mae Whitman and Retta) get tired of trying to make ends meet, they decide it’s time to stick up for themselves by robbing the local supermarket at toy gunpoint. But when the manager catches a glimpse of one of them and the loot is far more than they expected, it doesn’t take long for the three best friends to realize the perfect getaway will be harder than they think. (Variety)
Actress Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse) has joined the cast of the A&E military drama Six where she will play Gina, a ruthless and smart CIA operative who rose from being a CIA shooter to a high-level operations officer. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Actress Milana Vayntrub (This Is Us) has landed the role of Squirrel Girl in Freeform’s new live-action comedy series Marvel’s New Warriors that will revolve around six young people who are learning to cope with their abilities in a world where bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates. (Deadline)
Actress Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch) has become the first-ever female doctor on Doctor Who, replacing Peter Capaldi. (Variety)
BOX OFFICE CASTING
Actress Lily James (Downton Abbey and Cinderella) will show off her singing chops in the movie musical Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, joining returning cast members Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and Christine Baranski. James will play the role of “Young Donna” to Streep’s present-day Donna as the film goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present. (Deadline)
Rueben's Ramblings 