In just over a month, Netflix’s adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth returns for its second season—and the first teaser shows that things aren’t exactly going to get easier for the deer-boy Gus (Christian Convery) and his fellow hybrids, who may or may not hold the cure for the awful Sick.
Molly Templeton
Everything Everywhere All at Once Duo Daniels Turn Their Googly Eyes to Star Wars
When you’ve already created a series of dazzling multiverses, maybe a galaxy far, far away is your rational next stop. Brand-new Oscar winners Daniels, who wrote and directed Everything Everywhere All at Once, are the latest recruits to the Star Wars universe: According to a report from One Take News, they’ve directed an episode of the upcoming Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Or possibly more than one.
A New Faces of Death Will Star Actors from Stranger Things and Euphoria
Screenshot: Netflix
In the latest reboot/remake/update news, the cult film Faces of Death is getting a do-over thanks to Legendary. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the new version will star Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery (above) and Euphoria‘s Barbie Ferreira.
Wait, Maybe Willow Isn’t Canceled?
Credit: Lucasfilm
Two days ago, news came that we’d seen the last of Willow, the sequel series on Disney+. But those reports may have been a bit hasty. Co-showrunner Jonathan Kasdan took to Twitter with a three-part statement that says Willow Volume II is “developed and written.”
Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows Might Get Its Own Series
Image: Netflix
Today, the second season of Shadow and Bone, adapted from Leigh Bardugo’s novels, premieres on Netflix. The series wraps in characters and storylines from both her Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series, though leans into the main plot from the former—the fold in Ravka, the Darkling, the special powers of Sun Summoner Alina.
Those of us who hoped that season two might go a bit in the other direction—and perhaps include the ice court heist from Six of Crows—were disappointed when showrunner Eric Heisserer said they would not be using that story this time around. Though what he said was tantalizing: “That is a beefy and robust story that requires its own lane.”
And by “its own lane,” what he maybe meant was “its own show.” Heisserer has now told Entertainment Weekly that he’s been working on a Six of Crows spinoff—which would absolutely include the elaborate heist from the duology’s first book.
Reading in a Fallow Month
Art by George Henry Boughton (c. 1900)
In January, I made a new stack of books. It was comfort food, in part—fantasy, YA series, novels by friends and acquaintances, the lightest stories I could find in my to-be-read stacks. It was what I thought I’d be up for in the next month, books pulled off the shelves ahead of time because after a specific date in early February, I wasn’t going to want to wrangle books out of teetering piles or try to find things on shelves. I was going to be recovering, recuperating, resting—endlessly resting, a privilege that should be a right, after having surgery.
I read almost none of those books. Physically, I was in unfamiliar territory. And it turned out that my reading mind wanted to be there too.
A Gattaca Series Is in the Works at Showtime
In 1997, Andrew Niccol made his directorial debut with a beautiful, stylish movie full of beautiful, stylish people that failed to make much of a mark at the box office. But in the modern world, a high-concept film that didn’t do that well can transform into something else entirely: intellectual property waiting to be mined.
Which is to say, Niccol’s Gattaca might become a series.
Of Course James Gunn Will Direct the New Superman Movie
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
Having said in December that he will write the new Superman movie himself, James Gunn has confirmed that, yes, he will direct the new Superman movie himself as well. How a person has time to (co-)run a whole studio and direct flagship property films is beyond the understanding of mere mortals, but clearly Gunn has a plan, and that plan includes Superman: Legacy, which sounds like a wrap-up film but is instead yet another reboot of the classic franchise.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein May Star An Incredible Trio of Actors
Screenshot: Marvel Studios
Guillermo del Toro could take a minute right now, if he wanted—a victory lap after his latest Oscar win for Pinocchio. But no: According to Deadline, he’s in talks with an impressive lineup of actors who may star in a live-action Frankenstein, which del Toro will write and direct for Netflix.
Who? Well, a horror icon, a Spider-Man, and Moon Knight walk into a bar…
A Doctor Who Spinoff Will Focus on UNIT
Screenshot: BBC
The Whoniverse is coming, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. With previous showrunner Russell T. Davies returning to head up Doctor Who—and with a bigger budget and a Disney+ distribution deal—the era of spinoffs has returned.
Which could (speaking as a great lover of Torchwood here—we don’t count that last season) be a good thing. But the first details we’re getting are a little odd. According to Deadline, BBC sources have confirmed that “One of those spin-offs will be based on military research organization UNIT and will star [Jemma] Redgrave as Kate Stewart.”
Kate Stewart is the best. But a military Who spinoff feels weird.
It’s Betty Gilpin vs. the Algorithm in Peacock’s Cheerily Wacky Trailer for Mrs. Davis
It’s hard to pick a standout moment from the trailer for Mrs. Davis, Peacock’s new nun-vs.-the-algorithm series, which hails from writer/executive producer Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and writer/showrunner Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory). But I’m going to have to go with the guy who gets really mad when someone refers to the all-knowing AI as Mrs. Davis: “No one calls Facebook ‘Doug’!”
Mrs. Davis wants to talk to Simone (Betty Gilpin, of American Gods and GLOW), who also happens to be a nun. Mrs. Davis knows Simone is coming for her. It? Her? Depends on how you want to talk about a very bossy algorithm.
Also, there’s a grail quest. Like, the holy one.
Leigh Bardugo Signs a Massive New Deal With Macmillan
Photo: Christina Guerra
In two days, the series adaptation of Shadow and Bone returns to Netflix—but Leigh Bardugo has even more huge news. Macmillan just announced that the bestselling author has signed an eight-figure, multi-million-dollar deal “for a slate of new projects to be published across multiple divisions of the company, in a variety of formats, age categories, and genres.”
The deal includes work to be published with Flatiron Books, Nightfire, Roaring Brook Press, and First Second Books—four imprints which encompass adult novels, horror, children’s and YA books, and graphic novels for young readers.
The New Daredevil Series Has Quietly Recast at Least One Key Role
Screenshot: Netflix
Daredevil: Born Again is taking its sweet time making it to Disney+. The slow, slow buildup includes Charlie Cox showing up as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk, and Vincent D’Onofrio appearing as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in Hawkeye, and little bits of casting news here and there, including the recent announcement that Jon Bernthal, too, will return as Frank Castle, otherwise known as the Punisher.
What of Foggy and Karen, you ask? No one knows. But slipped into a recent piece about Michael Cuesta directing the premiere episode was a small but important tidbit: the love of Wilson Fisk’s life, Vanessa, will be back—but she won’t be played by Ayelet Zurer.
Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega May Reunite for Beetlejuice 2
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
It’s been years and years and years since Michael Keaton told MTV News that a Beetlejuice sequel was in the works. Ten years, to be exact. But with director Tim Burton back in the pop culture spotlight with Wednesday—another story prominently featuring a teenager dressed all in black—perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that this curséd concept is once again in the news.
The latest detail about the continuation of the Deetz family’s story is directly related to Wednesday. “Multiple sources” tell The Hollywood Reporter that star Jenna Ortega is “circling” a role in Burton’s Beetlejuice 2.
The Wilderness Is Waiting in the Latest Yellowjackets Trailer
Is it a Yellowjackets trailer, or is it a creepy short video for Florence + the Machine’s cover of No Doubt’s “Just a Girl”? Honestly, it works either way. Showtime’s drama about teen girls stranded in the wilderness—and their adult selves, still haunted by the experience—returns later this month, and now we get a tiny bit more of a peek at what season two has in store.