Moonhaven’s cast continues to grow. Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams are working on an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Fledgling for HBO. Plus, new pictures from Day of the Dead and Legends of Tomorrow’s return, and what’s next for American Horror Stories. Spoilers get!
Haunted Mansion
THR reports Tiffany Haddish and LaKeith Stanfield are now in talks to star in Disney’s Haunted Mansion movie from director Juston Simien. Stanfield will play “a widower who once believed in the supernatural but is now a rather lifeless tour guide in New Orleans’ French Quarter” while Haddish has been cast as “a psychic hired to commune with the dead.”
Evil Dead Rises
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bruce Campbell re-iterated that he does not appear in Evil Dead Rises but went on to hype the upcoming Evil Dead video game.
I won’t be appearing in it, no. I will be in the upcoming Evil Dead game, which I think is due for February 2022. I just finished the voice for that. The nice thing is, your voice doesn’t age as much as your body, so I can milk that for a few more years. I’ve got to say, I’m pleasantly surprised by the game. When you have merchandising and stuff that comes from your movies, you want it to be good, you don’t want it to be garbage. In this case, it got delayed and delayed and delayed, like several years, but what happened is, they were trying to do it right. They got basically all the characters from the universe, from the movies, the TV show, it’s impressive who they’re bringing back. I’ve seen the gameplay and it’s finally like any great game that’s out there. The Evil Dead, we’ve had three, four or so games in the past. They were okay, they were a little clunky, but I think they’re now up swinging with the big boys. Everything in it is exactly what gamers expect as far as quality. It’s really cool and they have young, medium, and old Ash, which makes sense if you’re going to cover the whole Evil Dead. Some people I think probably want to play the crabby, older, trash-talking Ash. I think most gamers will go, yeah, this was worth the wait.
The Suicide Squad
In conversation with Comic Book, Peter Capaldi stated he “stuck to” James Gunn’s script for his interpretation of the Thinker after finding it “quite difficult to pin down” the character from his “various” and “confusing” depictions in the comics.
My introduction was the script. I just read the script. James asked me to do it and then sent me the script, and I thought the script was great. And that’s really where I took it from. I dug into some of the comics, which is an archeological dig to have a look at his various in comics. It was quite difficult to pin down exactly who he was because he changes so much. And also, he seems to be quite old and then he disappears, and then he comes back again. And I thought it was quite confusing. I thought I’d be better just to cleave to the script. Stick with the script and try and conjure up that Thinker, as opposed to making a connection with the comics. The first thing when you go on the internet and call him up, you get a little drawing of him in the orange jumpsuit, which kind of is iconic for him and did, I think, influence James and our Thinker. But yeah, no, I just tried to do what the script tells me to do. It’s quite tricky. I mean, James is brilliant, I think, but it’s a very heightened sort of world that you have to try and exist in and be funny and scary at the same time.
James Gunn himself also shared a new Suicide Squad poster on Twitter.
Untitled James Gunn DC Projects
On the same subject, Gunn revealed he’s spoken to Warner Bros. about future DC projects following the Peacemaker TV series.
Moonhaven
Joe Manganiello has joined the cast of AMC’s Moonhaven as Tomm Schultz, “an ex-military” personnel “with a philosophical bent” who serves as “the right hand of the lead Earth diplomat to the moon.” Shultz will “find his ambitions changed when he’s injected with a mind-altering moon drug.” [Deadline]
From
According to Deadline, Shaun Majumder, Avery Konrad, Hannah Cheramy, Simon Webster, Ricky He, Chloe Van Landschoot and Pegah Ghafoori have joined the cast of From, a “contemporary sci-fi/horror series” about “a nightmarish town in Middle America that traps all those who enter.” Cheramy will play Julie Matthews, “the daughter of Jim (Eion Bailey) and Tabitha Matthews (Sandino Moreno)“ and sister of Webster’s character, Ethan. He will play Kenny, “Sheriff Boyd’s deputy” while Van Landschoot plays Kristi, a student “trapped in town during her 3rd year of med school.” “Majumder will play the mysterious Father Khatri while Ghafoori is Fatima, “a resident of Colony House and an Iranian immigrant to the US.” Konrad rounds out the cast as Sara, “a true wildcard among the town’s residents: some think her mind was simply fractured by the nightmare of the town; others wonder if, in her madness, Sara is closer to the secrets of this place than anyone else.”
Fledgling
Deadline also reports HBO is adapting Octavia Butler’s vampire novel, Fledgling, into a TV series from Issa Rae, J.J. Abrams, and Lovecraft Country’s Sonya Winton-Odamtten and Jonathan I. Kidd. The story follows “an apparently amnesiac young girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted — and still wants — to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.”
Stargirl
At a recent press event covered by Comic Book, Geoff Johns stated John Wesley-Shipp’s upcoming appearance as Jay Garrick “opens up the door” for future Flash crossovers on Stargirl.
I grew up watching The Flash TV show, he was my favorite superhero when I was a kid and I was blown away by John Wesley Shipp when he played The Flash and then was lucky enough to work with him on The Flash. And when he started playing Jay Garrick and we introduce our version of the Justice Society and we’re on earth-2 like the comics, we’re on our own Earth separate from the rest of these shows, but to have John play Jay Garrick The Flash in Stargirl, it connects our universe directly with the other shows and also shows that we’re part of a grander universe. And it opens up the door to opportunities for us to eventually interact with those characters. And that was important, just like the comics, and when we do do it, we’ll do it in a hopefully very special Stargirl way.
Legends of Tomorrow
Comic Book has photos from “The Final Frame,” the August 8 return episode of Legends of Tomorrow. More at the link.
Superman & Lois
Comic Book also has photos from “The Eradicator,” the August 10 episode of Superman & Lois. Click through for more.
Day of the Dead
Elsewhere, Bloody-Disgusting has photos from the premiere episode of Day of the Dead.
Roswell, New Mexico
KSiteTV has new portraits of Roswell, New Mexico’s third season cast. See the others at the link.
Riverdale
KSiteTV also has a new poster for the upcoming episodes of Riverdale.
American Horror Stories
Santa Claus curses a group of social media influencers who livestream a man’s suicide in the trailer for “The Naughty List”—next week’s episode of American Horror Stories.
Motherland: Fort Salem
Finally, Raelle wakes up three times in the trailer for “Irrevocable,” next week’s episode of Motherland: Fort Salem.
Banner art by Jim Cook