Star Trek: Discovery has cast its Spock! Ethan Peck will be joining the cast in the iconic role of the USS Enterprise‘s half-human, half-Vulcan science officer. Peck, the grandson of legendary actor Gregory Peck, has previously appeared in ABC Family’s series 10 Things I Hate About You and CW Seed’s I Ship It.
Saga Press announced today that it would publish The Deep, an Afrofuturist novel based on the song of the same name by rap group Clipping (often stylized as clipping.) which includes Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. Nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form, “The Deep” envisions an underwater culture of the descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slavers. Rivers Solomon, author of An Unkindness of Ghosts and a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, will write the novel, to be published in June 2019.
Famed comics and geek retailer Forbidden Planet is turning 40! On August 11, the iconic British comics shop and event space will celebrate the big day with a party featuring prizes, cake and more. Possibly even better? They’ve released a lovely treasure trove of photos from the store’s history, featuring special (adorable) appearances by a young Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Mark Hamill, Douglas Adams, and more!
When Shawn Speakman and Grim Oak Press released the first Unfettered anthology in 2013, the epic fantasy collection included “River of Souls,” a deleted scene from Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson’s A Memory of Light. However, “River of Souls” was one of two scenes left on the proverbial cutting room floor during the revisions process. “The second, I assumed, would never see the light of day,” Sanderson wrote on his official website today before announcing that the second deleted scene will appear in Unfettered III in early 2019.
Since 2002, author and translator Ken Liu has published over 100 science fiction and fantasy short stories. Now, at least some of them will form the basis for Pantheon, a new animated science fiction series in development at AMC.
Using its scripts-to-series model rather than going the traditional television route of shooting a pilot, the network creates a writers room to develop a series itself, then decides whether or not to pick up the series. According to Deadline, in addition to creating the writers room, AMC has also commissioned a five-minute animated presentation for consideration.
The rumored reboot of Star Trek: The Next Generation that was first hinted at in June has been confirmed as a brand-new Star Trek television series starring Sir Patrick Stewart, reprising his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Instead of rebooting TNG, the series will take place 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and will tell (according to a tweet from the official Star Trek account) “the story of the next chapter of Picard’s life.”
Starz has released the first trailer for Outlander season 4, which sees time traveling nurse Claire and her Highlander husband Jamie trying to start anew in the New World. But trouble follows these two—or perhaps they’re fated to run into all manner of conflict no matter what country or continent they step onto, from woods filled with thieves to a potential warning from… the future!
Shareholders have approved Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox. According to Deadline, “the whole procedure took maybe 10 minutes” with 99% of the shareholders for both companies approving the acquisition of Fox assets.
Maria Dahvana Headley took to reddit for a rollicking AMA full of monsters, women who are emphatically NOT monsters, and some terrific writing advice.
Check out the highlights below!
At the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) summer press tour, HBO president Casey Bloys provided an update on the Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works: The network has decided to move forward with a pilot from A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Stardust), while the other four pilots appear to be on hold indefinitely.
When the cover for Rebecca Roanhorse’s debut novel Trail of Lightning was first revealed, the Nebula Award-winning author emphasized how she hadn’t wanted Dinétah monster hunter Maggie Hoskie to be depicted in “the typical trappings non-Natives associate with Native Americans” such as feathers or braids. Yet she still wanted Maggie to be recognizably Navajo, which is why she wears traditional Navajo women’s moccasins alongside her leather jacket and knife.
A similar discussion came out of Roanhorse’s recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on r/fantasy, in which the author of the award-winning short story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” explained which aspects of Diné culture she incorporated as Easter eggs, and which were off-limits. It makes for fascinating insights into an already engaging novel that kicks off a new rural fantasy series.
Tor.com has existed on the internet for 10 years. And when you work in an office and you also work on the internet, where one day gives you a week’s worth of events to react to, you develop a lot of shorthands and rituals to get through the day.
Some of these rituals are straightforward, like our Friday/Monday morning watercooler-style breakdowns about the latest blockbuster, with everyone hashing out what they liked and didn’t like. (Chris hated Infinity War, for example, sparking off a Tor.com Infinity War War.) Some of these rituals are specific to the people here, like the weird voices we use to irritate/amuse one another when we’re feeling low on energy. And then there are the internet-specific rituals: Videos and in-jokes and events we keep coming back to time and again because…well, we’ve never figured out the “because”.
Here are some of our stress-fed emergent office rituals. Brace yourself. There are a lot of unicorns.
Iron Fist‘s San Diego Comic-Con panel opened with Jeph Loeb leading the crowd in a chant while brandishing a foam Iron Fist, before making a Mr. Miyagi reference that we’re in no mood to process. Jessica Henwick, who plays Colleen Wing, came out and took the Iron Fist away from him.
With that out of the way, the rest of the cast and new IF showrunner M. Raven Metzner came out and dropped some footage and some exciting teases for Season Two. Click through for highlights!
The new trailer for Nightflyers, Syfy’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s science fiction/horror novella, was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con! And it looks just as creepy as we were hoping.
Nightflyers follows a group of scientists who head off into space to make contact with aliens…but most likely make contact with UTTER HORROR instead.
Check out the trailer below!
The DC Universe streaming platform has revealed the first trailer for its ~dark and ~gritty series Titans, and it’s… basically the equivalent of a rebellious teenager acting out, against the backdrop of music that keeps repeating DARKNESS DARKNESS DARKNESS over and over. Or is that MADNESS? We can’t tell, because we can’t stop laughing watching it.
