Sci Fi TV Top 5: Covering the top sci fi and fantasy TV stories of interest from the past week. You can keep up with the sci fi and fantasy TV news headlines throughout the week at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
1. Live-Action Jurassic World TV Series in the Works
According to JurassicOutpost.com, a live-action television series that will act as an extension of the Jurassic World franchise is currently in development. Not much is known about the series other than the fact that it will take place in the same continuity as the films and will tie into the upcoming third movie in that franchise Jurassic World: Dominion. Veterans of the property Colin Trevorrow and Steven Spielberg will be onboard is executive producers and they will be joined by Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. No network has been attached at this point, but the series will likely garner plenty of interest. An animated series titled Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous was ordered by Netflix last year and will also act as an extension to the films.
2. A Tron TV Series that You Didn’t Know About Is Not Happening
A recent article from The Hollywood Reporter mentioned that a television series based on the Tron films originally set for either the Disney+ streaming service or ABC has been scrapped. The thing about that, though, is the fact that it was never widely announced in the first place. Apparently it was a deep development project that Disney had kept closely under wraps. Oscar winner John Ridley was helming the development, but there is no word on what it would have been about or if it was planned as live-action or animated. This was part of an overall development deal that Ridley currently has with ABC, but he has now turned his attention to other projects. The first Tron film debuted in 1982 and became a cult favorite. A sequel–Tron: Legacy–was released in 2010 and was followed in 2012 by the animated series Tron: Uprising which ran for one season on Disney XD. There were talks of a third movie with Jared Leto rumored to star, but nothing has come from that yet.
3. Disney Has a Non-Marvel Superhero Series in the Works
Disney Channel is developing the live-action superhero series Ultra Violet & Blue Demon. Deadline Hollywood gives the following description for the project:
Ultra Violet & Blue Demon centers on 13-year-old Violet, who is stunned when a magical luchador mask “chooses” her to be the successor to her uncle, the famed luchador Blue Demon Jr. (Demon Jr., playing a version of himself) who is actually a secret superhero. Violet will now begin her own secret superhero training, all while having to navigate the universal ups and downs of coming-of-age while keeping her new alter-ego a secret.
The series comes from Pokémon Detective Pikachu writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit and Juan Alfonso has been cast in the role of Sebastian Rodriquez. The series will likely debut later this year or early 2021.
4. Cancellation Watch: Lost in Space Has Been Renewed for a Third and Final Season, Impulse Has Been Cancelled
Netflix has given a third season renewal to its reboot of Lost in Space, but the streamer has also announced that the show will be ending at that point. YouTube has cancelled its paranormal series Impulse after two seasons according to showrunner Lauren LeFranc. That streamer has shifted its focus for scripted originals away from more expensive dramas. Keep up with the latest ratings results and the status of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Weekly Roundup posts.
5. Casting News: Mark Ruffalo Joins She-Hulk Series
Mark Ruffalo has signed on for the upcoming live-action She-Hulk series that will run on the Disney+ streaming service. The actress who will play the title character has not been cast yet. Goran Višnjić has been cast in the role of Dracula in ABC’s pilot The Brides and he will be joined by Erin Richards who will play one of the vampire’s three wives. The other two brides were previously announced as Gina Torres and Katherine Reis. Richard E. Grant has been cast in the upcoming Disney+ Loki series, though the part he is playing has not been announced yet.
THE SCHED: The Plot Against America Debuts on HBO
Three more sci fi and fantasy shows join the Mid-Season schedule this week with another returning from hiatus. On Monday, HBO’s alternate-history mini-series The Plot Against America, based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name, has its debut. Also on that evening, The CW’s Roswell New Mexico returns for its second season. Then on Wednesday, Freeform’s new supernatural drama Motherland Fort Salem has its series debut. You can see the full schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows at this link and you can keep up with the weekly listings at this link.
More from CancelledSciFi.com
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Check out our Sci Fi TV Schedule for debut and season finale dates and follow our Weekly Listings for a rundown of the shows airing in the current week.
Check back each Saturday for Sci Fi TV Retrospectives: A look back at cancelled, classic, forgotten, and more genre shows from the past.
I’m so happy that there will finally be live-action Jurassic World series. I so hope that these series will take place between Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World, The Lost World and Jurassic Park III, and between Jurassic World and Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom or even after, where some stories could be inspired by comics like Jurassic Park Dangerous Game IDW, video games like Jurassic Park Trespasser; introduce deleted scenes: the mosasaur attacking and destroying the whaling ships and killing the crew, the Tyrannosaurus Buck from The Lost World Jurassic Park passing his head through the window of Benjamin’s room and frightening his parents, how the paw baby t-rex was broken, how Ajay Sidhu died, what attacked the boat Dino-Soar and killed the 2 mens in the mist at the start of Jurassic Park III (Spinosaurus,…?), what did Ben Hildebrand die for, how Eric Kirby survived for 8 weeks on Isla Sorna from landing on the tree with Ben until he met Alan Grant, how Eric got T-rex’s urine, how Billy Brennan survived pteranodon attacks until he was rescued; which caused the other scars located on the right side of the T-rex Roberta (since Jurassic World) since it doesn’t was not injured on this side at the end of Jurassic Park except for the neck and lower jaw, which means that she had them after her final fight against the 2 raptors in Jurassic Park and before the events of Jurassic World.
-I would like there to be, in these series: the Suchomimus, feathered Pyroraptor, Deinonychus, Utahraptor, Teratophoneus, Tarbosaurus, Deinosuchus, Sarcosuchus, Ornithocheirus (of a span of 12 meters), but especially not of tyrannosaurs dying and no T-rex killed.
-The return of these characters from the Jurassic Park trilogy with those of Jurassic World: Allan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Tim and Alex Murphy, Ian Malcom, Kelly Malcom, Sarah Harding, Nick Van Owen, Billy Brennan, Eric Kirby, and Barry Sembène;
-these music: Journey to the island, main theme The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 3 Udesky, Nash and Cooper, Dinosaur Fly-By .
-I wish there was this extended scene too: the T-rex Buck terrorizing and chasing people, also wreaking havoc in San Diego until he smelled his offspring; and unseen scenes where the tyrannosaurus Buck wakes up and kills the crew of the S.S. Venture ship until arriving at the port of San Diego, where the T-rex Roberta with the other dinosaurs escape from the basements Lockwood mansion before she kills Eli Mills.