The CW’s Comic-Con@home panel for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow provided fans a look at what’s in store for the remaining season six episodes. Nick Zano, Tala Ashe, Jes Macallan, Olivia Swann, Adam Tsekhman, Shayan Sobhian, Lisseth Chavez, and Matt Ryan joined executive producers/co-showrunners Keto Shimizu and Phil Klemmer for the panel which included a trailer for the second half of season six as well as new info on Matt Ryan and Amy Louise Pemberton’s characters.
During the 2021 virtual San Diego Comic-Con panel, Phil Klemmer broke the news about Matt Ryan’s season seven involvement in the series. “While John Constantine’s arc on the show is coming to an end in season six, Matt Ryan’s journey with the Legends is not over,” teased Klemmer. Ryan is confirmed to return as a series regular, however, he’ll be playing a new original role: Dr. Gwyn Davies. Dr. Davies is described as “an eccentric scientist from the early 20th century who might be the team’s only hope next season.”
“As everyone who loves him knows, in the end, John Constantine will walk his path alone,” said Ryan. “The time has come for John to part ways with the Legends, and for me to part ways with John. I’m really excited to be creating this new role on the show and having some fun with it — discovering how this new character fits in and causes some trouble for the Legends.”
It was also confirmed Amy Louise Pemberton will have a larger physical presence in season seven. Pemberton has spent six seasons voicing Gideon but in season seven she’ll be involved as an actual flesh-and-blood version of Gideon.
In addition, the panel dropped the news a 21-track DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Mixtape (Songs from the Original Television Soundtrack) is set to be released on August 20, 2021. Among the songs included are season six’s David Bowie–inspired “Space Girl” and season five’s “Mr. Parker’s Cul-De-Sac” from Brandon Routh.
Season six of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on Sundays at 8pm ET/PT.
Netflix’s Comic-Con@home Lucifer panel with series star Tom Ellis, executive producer Joe Henderson, and Ildy Modrovich broke the news the sixth and final season will premiere on September 10, 2021. Netflix resurrected the popular series for what some assumed would be its fourth and final season after Fox pulled the plug after season three. The streaming service gave Lucifans three additional seasons to wrap up storylines, with the upcoming sixth season possibly seeing Lucifer take over for his dad.
Joining Ellis for the series’ final season are Lauren German as Detective Chloe Decker, D.B. Woodside as Amenadiel, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Maze, Aimee Garcia as Ella Lopez, and Rachael Harris as Dr. Linda Martin.
The streaming service released the following description of Lucifer‘s sixth season:
“This is it, the final season of Lucifer. For real this time. The devil himself has become God… almost. Why is he hesitating? And as the world starts to unravel without a God, what will he do in response? Join us as we say a bittersweet goodbye to Lucifer, Chloe, Amenadiel, Maze, Linda, Ella and Dan. Bring tissues.”
The description includes a mention of Dan who went out in a blaze of glory in season five – a season everyone assumed was going to be the end of Lucifer‘s run. After Netflix picked the series up for season six, Henderson and Modrovich asked Kevin Alejandro back. “So they found a gentle way to bring me back — not the way people are going to expect him to come back, and maybe not as a huge part of the show, but I got to be there for the end in some capacity,” explained Alejandro in an interview with TVLine. “And that felt wonderful, to be able to finish out a full journey.”
The stars of The CW’s Roswell, New Mexico participated in a panel during the virtual version of the San Diego Comic-Con to share some insight into the upcoming third season. Jeanine Mason, Nathan Dean, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Tyler Blackburn, Heather Hemmens, and Michael Trevino joined executive producer Christopher Hollier to discuss the new season while keeping things as spoiler-free as possible.
Season two ended with Jeanine Mason’s Liz taking off to LA to start a brand new job. When season three premieres on July 26, 2021, Liz will be knee-deep in work far from her Roswell friends and family.
“I think Liz more than anything is into saving Maria and into her science, per usual,” said Mason. “So, she’s pretty head deep in that and I think she hasn’t quite taken the moment to realize that her life is actually really great in LA. She’s got a great job; she’s got access to equipment and to work colleagues that can really help her do this logistically. And she’s got support which she was feeling she didn’t have in Roswell and that she didn’t have in Max at the end of the season.
And then she’s got this new work partner, Heath, played by the very lovely Stephen Krueger who joined us for the year. God bless that man because we’re all in this deep, but he just came in and dealt with us – and by us, I mean me. He dealt with me and helped me try to be funny and romantic and find joy for Liz when she’s still…her whole heart is still in Roswell. And as much as she is someone who wanted to really do something that she felt was too complicated for her life – make a very clear decision to take care of herself – she loves the complication. She’s a hero through and through. These are her people and if it’s complicated taking care of them then she’s going to be there. She’s going to be back in Roswell being all sorts of complicated.”
Fans want to know what’s going on between Lily Cowles’ Isobel and Blair the bartender from Planet 7, and Cowles admits she doesn’t think Blair and Isobel are necessarily endgame. “Blair and Isobel, I think, have a really wonderful relationship. I think there’s a lot of exploration. I think there’s a lot of catching up to do that Isobel has. You know, she got married real young to a guy who wound up being a terrible alien. That was really sort of a drag for her. I feel like Isobel was kicking up her heels and having a really good time, and Blair was like this really open, badass, cool chick who was just bringing her into the fold.”
Cowles added, “In my mind I didn’t get to do a lot more with Blair on screen (but) off off screen there was a lot that happened there. There was a long fruitful relationship there and I don’t think Isobel and Blair are ultimately… You know it’s like the first person that Isobel got to explore after her marriage, so I think it was necessary for her to explore other things, too. But Blair I think will always hold a really special place in her heart because she was the first woman that Isobel got to be intimate with in that way and I think it was really a magical moment.”
Asked if there’s any hope for #Malex shippers, Michael Vlamis replied, “Personally, coming from Michael Vlamis, I believe in Malex. I’m hopeful for it. I think Guerin, even though he’s a guy who doesn’t necessarily believe in hope, has evolved a little bit past that point. I think he’s even hopeful. I think that’s how you kind of see him ending season two with Isobel in the bar. I think it is a glimmer of hope. You know, it’s a somber moment for him but it is hopeful. I think the fans can be as hopeful as Michael Guerin, who’s usually never hopeful, seems to be right now.”
Nathan Dean’s going to be pulling double-duty for at least part of season three. Season two’s finale introduced an alien who looks exactly like Max, and the trailers indicate that character will be around for a while in the new season. During the Comic-Con@home panel it was also revealed Max learned a new skill – mechanical bull riding!
“I was very excited about it at first,” said Dean, discussing that particular scene. “I’m like, ‘Finally! This is awesome!’ But then around like take 15 it starts to get pretty tired. And there’s also spinning where the camera is. As you’re spinning around you have to sort of like throw your lines. So you’re looking over your shoulder while you’re being bucked over (a different way). And then it spins you back around and you’re still trying to make eye contact over here.
I will say I did fall off the bull once, I think – maybe twice by the end of the morning. It was a new challenge for me.”
Meanwhile, Heather Hemmens is happy Maria DeLuca gets her own story and isn’t just part of everyone else’s. “She gets some happiness and a little bit more romance,” said Hemmens. “She starts to develop her psychic abilities where a few things happen that make her think, ‘Oh, maybe I can control my visions.’ She goes on her own quest to figure out what triggers these visions and how she can then use it to figure out the mysteries of the future that she’s seeing.”
In season three, Michael Trevino’s Kyle will continue to be the guy they turn to for advice. “Me personally from the performance side of things, I love it because I’m able to be in each of everybody on this panel’s storylines. And so, for me it’s fun because I’m working with different people every day,” said Trevino. “But as far as from Kyle’s perspective, that man is exhausted putting out the fires all the time. And he’s getting sucked into these situations and brought into them because these are like his family. These are his friends. Again, this is a community that they’ve grown up with each other and have known each other for a very long time. He gets pulled into all these scenarios again and again, and he’s there to help and try and figure a way out, right, to whatever problem exists.”
Tyler Blackburn dropped some hints about the status of Alex and Forrest, played by Christian Antidormi. “Him and Forrest – they definitely are dating. I think it’s important for Alex to kind of have that. I think his relationship with Guerin has just been intense in a good way, intense in a bad way,” explained Blackburn. “I think that they just need space and kind of find themselves. Alex is doing that, and I think Forrest kind of gave him permission to really be himself and that drove him to even perform that song in the bar and kiss him at the end. It gave Alex permission to be bold. And so, Forrest has a really good influence on Alex. Even his clothing style changes a bit – more like high school Alex but older, obviously.”
However, Blackburn added, “I think there’s still hope for Malex. Right, Vlamis?”
“100%,” replied Michael Vlamis with a smile.
Watch the full video embedded above for more of what’s in store for Roswell, New Mexico season three.
AMC’s Comic-Con@home panel for Fear the Walking Dead revealed the series’ seventh season will premiere on Sunday, October 17, 2021 at 9pm ET/PT. Cast members Alycia Debnam-Carey, Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Jenna Elfman, Karen David, Mo Collins, and Christine Evangelista joined The Walking Dead Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple and showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg for the packed panel promoting the upcoming seventh season.
Season six added an additional apocalypse to the existing zombie apocalypse with the launch of a nuclear missile. “We were looking for a way to reinvent the show and we’re gonna, I think, kind of reset everyone in terms of apocalypse survival. Everyone’s kind of going back to zero, having to learn how to do it all over again,” explained Andrew Chambliss.
“We’re dealing with multiple nuclear warheads that have detonated across the landscape. It’s going to change everything. It’s going to change the walkers; it’ll change how our characters navigate the world outside where a lot of cases the air is not breathable unless through a gas mask. Resources are going to be more scarce. We’ll also see that it’s going to, as with any apocalypse, bring about a whole new brand of human adversary that will challenge our group.” said Ian Goldberg. “It’s a whole new world in a lot of ways.”
The panel included the reveal that Alycia Debnam-Carey will be directing a season seven episode, something she’s wanted to do for a few years. “Just before season seven started I was like, ‘I just have to throw my hat in the ring and see if Ian and Andrew will let me do it.’ Everyone was just so supportive and encouraging. They were like, ‘Of course, that would be amazing and we would love for you to do that.'”
“I’d seen Lennie and Colman do it and how it had changed their perspectives as an actor, as someone in the film and TV industry. It was another creative layer that I wanted to explore for a long time,” explained Debnam-Carey.
As for her character, Alicia, last we saw her she was being held captive by Teddy (John Glover) and declaring she won’t help him shape the world the way he wants it.
“She’s this pawn in his game and I think Alicia’s so against being forced to do anything that isn’t authentically her or herself. And here’s this madman, essentially, who’s betting on her being able to lead a group of people in a situation that never intended for herself to be in.
I think what really is becoming a defining trait of Alicia is that she’s a reluctant leader,” explained Debnam-Carey. “I think she’s never wanted to be in that position. I don’t think she’s ever really seen herself as a leader. I think she’s fiercely protective of the people she’s with and an amazing warrior as well. But she doesn’t see herself in that position so it’s sort of a defiant proclamation of ‘I’m not going to do what you want me to do’ because she doesn’t believe that that’s the person she is.”
Colman Domingo as Victor Strand and Omid Abtahi as Howard in ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ season 6 episode 16 (Photo Credit: Ryan Green/AMC)
Colman Domingo believes the end of season six set up that it’s time for Victor Strand to double down on his instincts and to accept that everything he’s done to this point has let him continue to survive against all odds. “At some point, he’s like, ‘Okay, maybe I wasn’t wrong.’ Everyone keeps telling me I’m wrong. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t do that or you’re too harsh or too pragmatic.’ And he’s like, ‘F that! It’s time for me to double down on Strand and see what that journey is,'” said Domingo.
He added, “That’s what I think is exciting about this next chapter for Victor Strand because we haven’t seen Victor Strand double down on fully being Victor Strand. We’ve seen him always challenged with his moral compass. And now I think he’s going to see what the world is like when he rebuilds the world that he believes it can be – not falling into anyone’s ideology. That’s what I think is exciting about the characters, especially after six seasons.”
On of the questions on the minds of TWD and FTWD fans is whether the timelines will ever meet up. Scott M. Gimple answered a fan’s question, saying, “They’re pretty far away from each other right now. We’ve talked about things on this show and we’ve talked about things on other shows… You know, I’ll give you one of those standard ‘it’s possible.’ (Laughing) I know that’s super satisfying.”
Watch the full panel embedded above for more on what’s in store Fear the Walking Dead season seven.
Season four of Shudder’s horror anthology series Slasher created by Aaron Martin is set to premiere on August 12, 2021. Slasher: Flesh & Blood promises lots of innovative kills while focusing on a wealthy dysfunctional family forced to fight for their lives in a competition for the family’s fortune.
Shudder hosted a Comic-Con@home panel for the series featuring Martin, showrunner Ian Carpenter, and cast members David Cronenberg (director of Maps to the Stars, Eastern Promises), Rachael Crawford (In the Dark), and Paula Brancati (Workin’ Moms). In addition to dropping hints about Slasher‘s upcoming fourth season, the virtual panel included the release of Slasher: Flesh & Blood‘s trailer.
During the panel, series creator Aaron Martin confessed there are kills this season he had to physically look away from because they were so revolting (but in a good way). “Ian and I spent last summer during the pandemic on his front porch safely social distancing and coming up with ways to kill people. It was a very fun, weird summer.”
“There’s a lot of ‘I’ve always wanted to…’ – which is very strange when you’re walking on the street and you’re going to get a coffee and someone walks by – ‘…I’ve always wanted to pop someone’s head with a sledgehammer.’ Someone walks by going like, ‘What?!’ We’re just constantly looking for new things to do to bodies and new ways to hate people and express that. You’re pushing each other and often you’re going, ‘Oh, we can’t do that,’ and then you’re like, ‘Oh, well, we have to do that.’ There’s a lot of that this season,” said showrunner Carpenter.
Acclaimed filmmaker David Cronenberg plays the patriarch of the family who sets the deadly competition in motion. Explaining his approach to the role, Cronenberg said, “I approached it as being kind of King Lear – you know, Shakespeare’s King Lear – with a great tragic central character played by me. First time I’ve ever been offered a role like that. Actually, I tend to play dispassionate scientists and doctors and so on. In Viggo Mortensen’s film I was a proctologist; actually, I guess that was the height or maybe the depth of my acting career.
This was quite exciting for me because this character is not dispassionate. He’s very passionate. He’s very intense. He’s very emotional, and it required me to do some things as an actor that I – I guess I’ve been acting for 50 years – had never actually had to do before. So it was a wonderful challenge. The characters were complex, and the way they were interlinked and intermitted was complex. There are surprises. I can tell you when I was reading the scripts I was constantly being amazed and surprised. All and all, just an incredible amount of fun as well as being a challenge for me as an actor.”
Martin confirmed Flesh & Blood‘s characters are much more intertwined than characters in previous seasons. “It’s one (and) the people that surround that family. Like any family, they love each other, they hate each other, but in this case they get to kill each other,” said Martin.
Amazon Prime Video’s highly anticipated fantasy series The Wheel of Time doesn’t premiere until November, however fans of the critically acclaimed bestselling book series were provided hints at what’s in store during Amazon’s 2021 Comic-Con@home panel. During the panel, executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins confirmed he’s a longtime fan of the 14 book series and has already plotted out eight seasons.
“I feel like my danger will never be running out of books,” explained Judkins. “I think it’s more the challenge that we face is how do you tell this story the most cohesively and the most coherently in what is a reasonable number of seasons of television. So it’s something I really set out to, right from the beginning, I think you really need to know the end of your story when you start telling it. I think that’s true for television even though it’s serialized and goes many years. Like, I sat down and broke out what I thought eight seasons of the show might look like before I started writing the pilot because I felt like you have to build in this knowledge of where you’re going and how you’re getting there from the very beginning in order to tell the stories the best you can.”
Rafe Judkins read the books when he was younger and always felt they would make great television. His dream of being involved in a The Wheel of Time television series moved closer to reality when he came onto the project with Sony in 2017. Filming actually began on the series in the fall of 2019.
Judkins was asked during the panel how closely the series will stick to the books. “Obviously I want to stay as close to the books as we possibly can. You know these are really beloved books but they also…I love them, there’s a great story there, we want to tell it and we want to tell it in the way that’s best for television,” replied Judkins. “Like, this really is a true adaptation of the series so there will be a lot of things that are different from the books, certainly. But I think it always stays true to the heart of the books and the spine of the storytelling.”
Judkins believes The Wheel of Time to be the most diverse fantasy book of its time. He took that into consideration during the casting process.
“I think when you’re adapting it to be on television today, we also need to do that in order to honor the books that are there and make this the most diverse fantasy TV show that’s been on television before,” explained Judkins. “I think that that’s something that’s been really important to me the whole way through the process. And bringing in all these people from these different parts of our world is letting us build the worlds within the show, too. It’s just exciting when you sit down to dinner with Alvaro Morte from Spain and Priyanka Bose from India and Rosamund (Pike). Everyone just comes together in Prague and makes this thing more than it would be without them.”
Watch the full video embedded above for more on The Wheel of Time cast and bringing the book series to life.
The Plot, Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video:
The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.
First teaser poster for ‘The Wheel of Time’ (Photo Courtesy of Amazon)
The CW’s The Outpost season four episode three will find Talon and Zed making a terrible discovery. Directed by Orsi Nagypál from a script by Rebecca Rosenberg, episode three airs on July 29, 2021.
The cast is led by Jessica Green as Talon and includes Jake Stormoen as Captain Garret Spears, Anand Desai-Barochia as Janzo, and Reece Ritchie as Zed. Izuka Hoyle is Wren, Jaye Griffiths is Yavalla, Georgia May Foote is Falista, Maeve Courtier-Lilly is Luna, Nikki Leigh Scott is Vorta, and Adam Johnson is Munt.
“The Gods Thank You” Plot: A GIFT FROM THE GODS – Garret (Stormoen) is set free but must serve a new ruler. Talon (Green) and Zed (Ritchie) return to save the Blackbloods but discover a tragedy. Falista (Foote) tries to make peace.
The Season 4 Plot:
After Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse) sacrificed herself to destroy Yavalla, the Outpost needs a new ruler. But while Talon and Garret try to establish new leadership, a sinister threat awakens, revealing the true origin of the mysterious kinjes. Talon and her kinj-bearing friends all share dark visions from god-like beings who are hell-bent on reclaiming the kinjes for themselves. A would-be assassin named Luna hunts Talon down to get vengeance for crimes of the past, but soon discovers that her own heritage is wrapped up in Talon’s fate.
Mourning the recent loss of her beloved Tobin (Aaron Fontaine), Falista is mentored by Two to dedicate herself to the new “gods” in exchange for a costly favor. But when the Lu Qiri go missing, Talon and Zed track them down to discover the greatest threat the Realm has ever faced… a new race of beings that will ultimately explain Talon’s own dark origins.
When Janzo and Wren are forced to unlock an ancient city beneath the Outpost, they struggle to uncover who their real allies and enemies will be, while a secret they share gives them new motivation to save the world.
As she and her friends are hunted down one by one, while diabolic forces are tearing her world apart, Talon endures the darkest challenge she has ever faced, as she struggles to embrace the heroes of her past and somehow survive the villains that only she has the power to destroy.
Reece Ritchie as Zed, Jessica Green as Talon, and Izuka Hoyle as Wren in ‘The Outpost’ season 4 episode 3 (Photo: Aleksandar Letic/NBCU International — 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment)Jake Stormoen as Garret Spears and Maeve Courtier-Lilly as Luna in season 4 episode 3 (Photo: Aleksandar Letic/NBCU International — 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment)Reece Ritchie as Zed in season 4 episode 3 (Photo: Aleksandar Letic/NBCU International — 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment)Aaron Fontaine as Tobin in season 4 episode 3 (Photo: Aleksandar Letic/NBCU International — 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment)Jake Stormoen as Garret Spears in season 4 episode 3 (Photo: Aleksandar Letic/NBCU International — 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment)
Aaron Pierre, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Gael García Bernal, and Vicky Krieps in ‘Old’ (Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)
What should be a perfect vacation for a family on the brink of separation turns into a deadly holiday in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old. Dating back to 1999 with the release of his big spooky hit film The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan has been writing and directing extremely creative, intense, and sometimes bizarre films. His latest, Old, is not exactly in the same category.
The film’s focus is on a family on the verge of a breakup. The parents, Guy and Prisca (played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps), take their two children Trent (Nolan River) and Maddox (Alexa Swinton) to a beautiful, exotic tropical resort. Once there they try to put on a happy face and get the kids to enjoy themselves. However, later that night the kids hear their parents arguing and yelling through the bedroom door. It’s clear from their reaction it’s happened all too often before.
The next day the resort’s manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) tells the family about a secluded, private, and beautiful beach that he only shares with guests he really likes. He offers to make arrangements for them to spend the day there and they agree. When they get into the resort’s shuttle, they find another family there who’ve also been invited by the manager; a doctor (Rufus Sewell), his trophy wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee), their six-year-old daughter, Kara (Kylie Begley), and the doctor’s elderly mother, Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant).
The two families make there way through a rocky cavern to find the breathtaking beach and at first are enjoying themselves. Another couple joins them a little later – a nurse named Jarin (Ken Leung) and his wife, Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird).
After six-year-old Trent starts to complain about his swim trunks being too tight and then finds a dead woman floating in the water, the paradise becomes torment for everyone on the beach. The dead woman had been with a famous rapper (Aaron Pierre) who’s in shock over her death and swears he had nothing to do with it.
Things go from bad to horrific when all three children seem to age in only a few hours (now played by Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, and Eliza Scanlen), becoming teenagers and outgrowing their suits. It’s revealed the minerals in the massive rock wall surrounding the beach are causing their cells to age rapidly, with a half hour equal to one year of their life.
They try to exit the beach through the passageway they entered, but that only leaves them dizzy and disoriented – and back out on the beach once more. Desperate to save themselves and not die within 24 hours, the unlikely group struggle, argue, and sometimes work together to try to find a way off the deadly beach with the minutes ticking away hours of their lives.
With a beautiful cinematic landscape, Old is a strange and bizarre film with a premise that feels like it belongs as an episode of The Twilight Zone rather than a full-length film. Old‘s a thriller/science fiction drama that’s heavy on the chaos and dysfunctional families but missing any real scares or suspense.
The film suffers due to its silly, unbelievable dialogue and the stilted and monotone performances by the two leads. Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps have zero chemistry together and when the true horror of their situation becomes evident, they never seem truly afraid or terrified for their children or themselves.
The best performance in the film is delivered by seasoned character actor Ken Leung as Jarin, the one character who seems to be able to figure out what’s happening to them and why. He also displays great concern when one member of their group starts to become a threat to everyone. Leung’s performance is the only one that seems genuine and not staged.
Another weakness is that M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t allow enough time in the beginning of the film to develop any of the main characters so the audience can connect and care about them the way he did so masterfully in Signs. Instead of having an invested interest, the audience is left to wonder who if any will make it off the beach alive but not necessarily care.
Missing any real tension and character development, Old is an empty thriller from a filmmaker who once knew how to shock, surprise, and emotionally move the audience.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for disturbing images, brief strong language, partial nudity, strong violence, and suggestive content
Paramount+’s Comic-Con@home panel for the upcoming adult animated comedy The Harper House debuted the official trailer for season one along with dropping the official poster. The trailer introduces a dysfunctional family who fall on hard times and wind up moving into a house with real skeletons in its closets.
The Comic-Con panel also included the announcement of a Thursday, September 16, 2021 season one premiere date. Paramount+ confirmed the first season’s made up of 10 episodes.
The voice cast includes Rhea Seehorn, Jason Lee, Tatiana Maslany, Ryan Flynn, Gabourey Sidibe, Gary Anthony Williams. Nyima Funk, VyVy Nguyen, and Lance Krall also lend their voices to the animated comedy.
The Harper House was created by Brad Neely. Neely and Katie Krentz executive produce the CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with 219 Productions series. Titmouse is the animation studio and Brian Sheesley is the supervising director.
Teaser art for the Paramount+ series ‘THE HARPER HOUSE’ (Photo Cr: CBS 2021 Paramount+, Inc)
The Plot and Characters, Courtesy of Paramount+:
The Harper House follows an overconfident female head of a household as she struggles to regain a higher status for herself and for her family of oddballs after losing her job and moving from the rich side to the poor side of a small town in Arkansas. To save money, they’ve moved into their inherited Victorian fixer-upper, the historic Harper House.
The Harpers:
Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) will voice Debbie Harper, the aforementioned breadwinner of the Harper household, who takes pride in being the queen of her home.
Jason Lee (My Name is Earl) will voice Freddie Harper, a fretful, stay-at-home, helicopter dad. A neurotic control freak, Freddie runs the home while his wife makes the money, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) will voice Ollie Harper, the extroverted, free-spirited daughter. Recklessly optimistic and pretty gullible, Ollie usually has a completely different takeaway than her 11-year-old twin brother, Todd.
Newcomer Ryan Flynn (Stupidface) will voice Todd Harper, the smart-ass, intellectual son with a mean potty mouth. Where Ollie shines with people, Todd excels at school and generally only gets along with his family.
The Bradleys:
Gabourey Sidibe (Empire) will voice Shauna Bradley, the cunning and resourceful classmate of Ollie and Todd whose family lives across the street from the Harper House. Her confidence and savvy can even be intimidating to the adults in her life.
Nyima Funk (Key and Peele) will voice Katrina Bradley, the sarcastic co-owner, with her husband Gbenge, of Bradleys’ Bookshop. Constantly bewildered by her new neighbors, she grows to accept the Harpers and their unique contributions to the north side of town.
Gary Anthony Williams (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) will voice Gbenge Bradley, the proud patriarch of the Bradley family, who eventually warms to the Harper family and Freddie’s increasingly desperate attempts to be his friend.
Additional Characters:
VyVy Nguyen (Young Sheldon) and Lance Krall (Fameless) will voice mother-son duo Gwen and JimJoe Dang. Gwen owns the Vietnamese market and cafe that the Harpers frequent, while her son JimJoe attends school with the Harper children.
Roberta Colindrez (Vida) will voice Tonya Acosta, a carefree yet supportive friend of Debbie’s.
Tessa Skara (The Calling) and John “Spud” McConnell (Hap and Leonard) will voice Debbie’s perky Southern-belle sister Brenna and loving father Daddie Dan.
Chris Diamantopoulos (Silicon Valley) will voice, among others, Dr. Morocco, the principal at the Harper children’s school who exhibits a mysterious and odd demeanor that may lead one to believe he lives a potentially criminal private life.
Joanna Hausmann (Bill Nye Saves the World) will voice Ms. Gonzalez, a teacher at the Harper children’s school who is fresh out of grad school and eager to employ all of her new teaching methods.
Starz’s upcoming drama Heels will kick off its eight-episode first season on August 15, 2021. The new series is set in small-town Georgia and focuses on a family-owned wrestling organization, with brothers Jack (Stephen Amell, Arrow) and Ace (Alexander Ludwig, Vikings) at the heart of the story.
Starz hosted a Comic-Con@home panel for the new drama that included interviews with series stars Amell, Ludwig, Alison Luff, Mary McCormack, Kelli Berglund, Allen Maldonado, James Harrison, and Chris Bauer. Series creator/executive producer Michael Waldron and showrunner/executive producer Mike O’Malley also participated in the pre-recorded panel.
Stephen Amell’s fresh off an eight-year run playing the title role on The CW’s Arrow. That role required Amell to be in top physical shape, however Amell says playing a wrestler in Heels put him and the rest of the cast portraying wrestlers through real physical transformations.
James Harrison, who played professional football for more than a decade, agreed. “Training for the show has been actually fun for me,” said Harrison. “ I think the fans will be excited to see the wrestling – actual actors doing a lot of their own stunts.”
“After doing this for god knows how many months, there’s nothing fake about this,” said Ludwig, laughing.
“You’re going to see superplexes and people jumping off the ropes. There’s a giant fight in a car wash which is really exciting,” revealed Amell.
Discussing the training process, Amell said, “It’s not jumping off your couch onto cushions. It’s a wooden board and it gives a little bit in the middle and not so much at the edge. Ask my back.”
Series creator/executive producer Michael Waldron (also the creator of Disney+’s Loki) promises Heels will take viewers inside the world of wrestling in a way that’s never been done before. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that’s just as compelling as what you’re seeing there in that ring,” said Waldron.
Waldron explained the decision behind setting the show in a small-town wrestling league. “I think that even the big promotions like WWE ultimately had humble beginnings before it grew into an empire. It was a bunch of regional promotions that were ultimately unified under Vince McMahon. I was excited to explore…it seems impossible, the idea of building a modern wrestling empire now and because that seems impossible, I think that makes it an exciting kind of story to watch. That’s what Jack and what our characters are struggling up against is they’ve got big dreams that seem impossible, but they’re not daunted by those odds. And so really starting them at the bottom of the ladder and giving the audience the chance to climb that ladder is really fun.”
Asked which has more complicated storytelling – superhero content or professional wrestling – Waldron laughed and replied, “Just wait for the time travel. You don’t know there’s not time travel in this.”
Amell asked, “Is that coming up in season two? That’s exciting!”
Alexander Ludwig says what drew him to Heels was the richness of its characters. “It’s about people wanting more. The world is an incredible world but it’s all these complex characters living in small-town Georgia trying to make a life for themselves and dealing with the complexities that come with everyday life, just trying to make it work. All of these characters are so damn rich and all of these actors that are around me are so talented – I mean I’ve never been more excited for people to see a show.”
Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig in ‘Heels’ (Photo Courtesy of Starz)
According to the cast, it’s not necessary to be a fan of wrestling to get into Heels. “I was never a fan of wrestling,” said Mary McCormack. “But when I read the script and sort of met the world, I just was so taken with it in the way that I was taken with Friday Night Lights, similarly. It felt like wrestling was a way into this family drama and for me that was really exciting.”
“I certainly have no experience with the wrestling world and I’m in. I mean, I’m in on all these characters and their relationships and their struggles. And that’s just what good dramatic writing is like,” added McCormack.
“The biggest misconception I think I had going into it is just how much abuse these people take on a regular basis,” said Ludwig. “It was really important – I know Michael when we first talked and Mike and Stephen when Stephen and I talked – that we did this justice. The only thing that is predetermined is the storyline, but this is a full-on stunt performance. I mean when you hit the mat, you hit the mat. These guys use and abuse their bodies on a regular basis with no help from anyone else. They’re traveling carnies. It is insane what they put themselves through and it was so important to us that we did that justice. So much so to our detriment. There were some big injuries on this and I’m so proud of the way that this ended up turning out.”
Ludwig added, “You’re going to see some of our really, really incredible female characters also enter this world and deal with what it would be like to be a woman in such a male-dominated industry. I think that we kind of explore every single thing you could expect in this world and that’s why it’s so rich.”
Kelli Berglund says the most transformative experience for her was the physicality of it all. “There’s so many layers to the world of wrestling and my character, Crystal, dips her toe into it,” explained Berglund. “She cares so much about this league and all of the people in it and succeeding as a wrestler, she does what she can to get by even though she’s not probably given the opportunity that she should have right now. But just the training in general and a glimpse into that whole world of just fitness and challenging your body was such a new thing for me. I have so much respect for people that do this.”
Alison Luff’s character, Staci, has more of an outsider vantage point on the world of wrestling. She’s not involved in the industry but is married to Stephen Amell’s Jack. “I feel like all of the women in this world are kind of the underbelly of how this community and how these people in this industry work. You know without Staci, Jack wouldn’t be able to function on the level that he functions. Without Willie (played by McCormack), the DWL would not function. And without Crystal, Ace would have zero confidence. It just wouldn’t function in the same way. I’m drawn to the fact that all the women are kind of the unsung heroes a bit in this world and kind of the heroes that don’t wear the capes.”
When season one of Heels begins, the sibling relationship between Ace and Jack could be described as dysfunctional. “Jack is his brother’s keeper, straight up. He’s thrust into a situation that he didn’t necessarily ask for and he’s doing his best but he’s not necessarily wearing the hat perfectly. I like Jack because the way that he treats Ace leaves a little bit to be desired, but that’s just real. That’s how he feels like he has to do things. And working with Alexander and the chemistry that we were able to generate I think starting basically at a dinner at Musso and Frank’s in March of 2020 two days before the world shut down, everything since then it’s been great. Their relationship is interesting. It’s complex, it’s rich, it’s faulty, but that’s real life.”
“There is real love there, but they’re overshadowed by this immense trauma that they’ve experienced in their father’s death,” explained Ludwig. “They’re trying to work through it the best they can. I think it’s something that even members of our crew were telling me they’ve dealt with in some way. It’s just so fascinating to watch. You so badly want them to just hug it out as an audience member, but they’re just so stuck in their ways and so driven by external forces trying to mask what they really need to deal with with other things. Just watching that play out to me was so fascinating.
Stephen was so kind to invite me over so we could cuddle every night and just kind of create that bond.”
