SMALL SCREEN BIGNEWS
Kristen Bell is busy with “projects until the end of time” (including comedy The Good Place, 2016-current and 2019 animated film Frozen 2), but she’s still planning to revive her detective character Veronica Mars (2004-2007) for a limited series. “It will happen! If I have to do it as ‘Murder She Wrote at 80’, we’re going to do it!” Rena Sofer loves playing villain Quinn on soap Bold & Beautiful (1987-current; see more on p26 to 29), but something she doesn’t love anymore is playing tennis. “The best game of my life and I break my ankle!” she posted on her social media pages. And she’s not the only actress getting a painful break – Eileen Davidson, Kristen on Days (1965-current; see p30) broke her toe camping and had to wear “a horrible spaceman boot to work,” she laughed.
Cult action movie franchise Bad Boys (1995-current) is moving to TV with a spin- off series. But don’t hold your breath hoping for Martin Lawrence and Will Smith to star as detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. Instead, the untitled show will focus on Gabrielle Union’s character Syd from the Bad Boys 2 movie, which makes sense since Gabrielle’s hit drama Being Mary Jane (2013- current) is ending early in 2018.
Austin Amelio may be praying that his character Dwight gets killed off in season 8 of horror show The Walking Dead (2010current; see more on p39). “When I shot Daryl in season 7, fans threatened to burn down my house,” says the actor. “I’m Austin and Dwight is Dwight. It [the threats] took some getting used to, but then I realised that it was probably 13-year-olds sitting in their basements.”
A season 2 teaser trailer for drama series 13 Reasons Why (2017-current) claims that “their story isn’t over yet”. The show made headlines for allegedly glorifying suicide and while no further info has been released, it’s assumed that Selena Gomez will return as exec producer in mid 2018.
Despite the horror show that was Marvel’s InHumans (2017 (the eight-episode series was cancelled after one episode), the marriage between comic books and TV is still going strong and 2018’s line-up is packed full of them! Marvel Runways is expected in early 2018 on on-demand service Hulu, Black Lightning will join The Flash (2014-current) and Arrow (2012-current) on The CW’s schedule and Deadpool will be brought to life as an adult-themed animated series.
And last but not least, Jon Cryer (Alan Harper in Two & A Half Men, 2003-2015) is ready to return to TV after two minor cameos in the last four years. He’s developing a family- orientated comedy called Dads And Daughters that “centres on two very different fathers who move in together to keep their daughters (who’re stepsisters) together after their shared ex-wife is sent to prison,” says Jon.