‘Dead’ boss teases new narrative for season nine
‘Big’ sets season finale stars
LOS ANGELES, April 17, (RTRS): With Season 8 of “The Walking Dead” officially in the books, fans are now anticipating what Season 9 of the AMC series will look like under new showrunner Angela Kang.
Scott Gimple, formerly the “Walking Dead” showrunner and now the chief content officer of the “Walking Dead” universe, will still be involved with the show, but day-to-day operations will be under Kang’s purview. In the new season, he said Kang is taking the show to places it has not been before.
“The newness of the narrative is driven by her vision,” Gimple said. “She’s putting different things forward that we haven’t seen before. And she’s also been working on the show since Season 2, so she knows it inside and out. And even this year, when I was working on (‘Walking Dead’ Seasons 8 and 9, and ‘Fear the Walking Dead’), more and more responsibility went to her, so it’s not like she’s jumping into something she doesn’t know. She knows exactly where all the keys are. She’s completely equipped to do a great job.”
In the Season 8 finale, Rick finally triumphs over Negan and the Saviors, but stops short of killing the man who murdered so many of Rick’s friends. The finale serves as a point of closure for the show’s narrative up to this point, with Season 9 set to go in a new direction, according to Gimple.
“I’ll just say that the show evolves in a huge way,” he said. “They’ll be dealing with things we haven’t seen them deal with before and dealing with each other in ways we haven’t seen before. What they have planned is — it just feels new. It feels like an evolved show. This very much lived in the world that Rick began with. It was so informed by the pilot. It just takes this quantum leap forward in the stories that it tells.” Gimple could not say whether or not that means Season 9 will feature a time jump.
Negan also survives the war storyline in the comics. Gimple says the choice was made to keep him alive on the show partially due to the impact that the comics storyline had on him when he read it.
“When I read it in the book, it was shocking to me and it was something that resounded with me,” he said. “I really liked it when I read it because it was unexpected. It was the right thing for the character, it was the right thing for the world. For what Rick wants, for what Carl wanted before him, it really was the only way forward. The fact that it’s nice to see something like that in an age when everything seems so combative and so aggressive was just the frosting on the cake.”
This season’s finale also saw Maggie, played by Lauren Cohan, teasing a dark turn in the season ahead as she, Daryl, and Jesus plot to undermine Rick for allowing Negan to live. The storyline comes despite the fact that Cohan is still without a contract for Season 9 and has signed on to play the lead in the ABC drama pilot “Whiskey Cavalier.”
“The Big Bang Theory’s” season 11 finale will include a number of famous faces,
with a guest cast including Kathy Bates, John Ross Bowie, Mark Hamill, Courtney Henggeler, Lauren Lapkus, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O’Connell, Brian Posehn, Teller and Wil Wheaton. The episode will air May 10 at 8 pm on CBS.
Producers Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum have signed an overall scripted development deal with Lionsgate Television. The pair had spent the past eight years with CBS Television Studios. The Tannenbaum Co. banner at present is home to TBS’ “The Last O.G.” Past series for CBS include “Two and a Half Men” and the revival of “The Odd Couple.”
Netflix announced that “Dear White People” will return to the streaming service for season two on May 4. The show, which stars Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell and DeRon Horton, follows a group of diverse students as they navigate discrimination at a predominantly white college.
“A Little Help with Carol Burnett” will premiere on Netflix May 4, with 12 episodes of show including celebrity guests Lisa Kudrow, Julie Bowen, Billy Eichner, Taraji P. Henson, Wanda Sykes, DJ Khaled and Finn Wolfhard. In the series, co-hosted by
comedian Russell Peters, kids between the ages of 5 and 9 give advice to Burnett and guests about a problem in their lives.
National Geographic has released an exclusive first look from the premiere episode of “Genius: Picasso,” starring
Antonio Banderas, which premieres April 24. The second installment of Nat Geo’s narrative anthology series tells the personal story of the Spanish artist whose work is synonymous with 20th century masters. In the clip, Picasso’s associates encourage him to flee his homeland at the threat of the Nazi approach in World War II after he sparks outrage with one of his paintings.
ABC has given a series order to an untitled spinoff comedy that follows characters from “The Goldbergs.”
Slated for the 2018-19 season, the spinoff will be set in 1990s and follow the teachers from William Penn Academy — including Tim Meadows’ Principal Glascott, Bryan
Callen’s Coach Mellor and AJ Michalka’s
Lainey Lewis — who, despite their eccentricities and crazy personal lives, are heroes to their students. The series is based on a story by Marc
Firek and Adam F. Goldberg, with a teleplay by Firek. It hails from Sony Pictures Television and ABC Studios, with Goldberg, Doug Robinson and Firek serving as executive producers.
“The Goldbergs” was given a two-season renewal last May, following the end of its fourth season. Season five is currently airing on ABC. Based on the childhood of series creator Adam F. Goldberg, the series follows a young Adam as he and his eccentric family try to get by in the wonderland we know as the 1980s.
ABC News’ interview with former FBI Director James Comey did well in the Sunday overnight ratings but failed to nab the number one spot.
Airing at 10 pm after “American Idol,” Comey’s interview averaged 9.8 million viewers in the hour, with Comey discussing his time working under President Donald
Trump and Comey’s new book that is highly critical of the President. It averaged a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49 and a 2.4 in the key news demo of adults 25-54. While still a fine night for ABC News, by comparison, the “60 Minutes” interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels — who allegedly had an affair with Trump — netted 22 million viewers and a 5.3 rating in adults 25-54.