CBS All Access declined to renew the anthology series Tell Me a Story after two seasons and DC Universe didn’t pick up a second season of Swamp Thing. However, we haven’t seen the last of either as The CW has just picked up the completed seasons of both shows to help bulk up their primetime lineup.
Tell Me a Story and Swamp Thing will make their network television debuts on The CW, but the premiere dates have not yet been announced. The network’s also picked up the dramatic series Coroner and the half-hour comedy Dead Pixels, both of which will be making their US network debuts. All four just-announced acquisitions will also ultimately be available on the network’s free streaming platforms.
Swamp Thing season one stars Crystal Reed, Virginia Madsen, Andy Bean, Henderson Wade, and Derek Mears. Maria Sten, Jeryl Prescott, Jennifer Beals, and Will Patton also star in the series based on DC characters created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. James Wan, Mark Verheiden, Gary Dauberman, Michael Clear, and Len Wiseman executive produced.
Swamp Thing followed “Dr. Abby Arcane (Reed) as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but when a mysterious creature emerges from the murky marsh, she finds herself facing the nightmares of a supernatural world where no one is safe.”
Tell Me a Story reimagines classic fairy tales, with season one incorporating themes from The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel. Season two retold the stories of Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella.
The season one ensemble includes James Wolk, Billy Magnussen, Dania Ramirez, Danielle Campbell, Dorian Missick, Michael Raymond-James, Davi Santos, Sam Jaeger, Zabryna Guevara, Paul Wesley, and Kim Cattrall. Wesley and Campbell returned in different roles for the second season.
Writer Kevin Williamson created the series and executive produced season one with Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor, and Liz Friedlander. Season two was executive produced by Williamson, Kaplan, Honor, and Michael Lohmann.
Coroner is a CBC original drama starring Serinda Swan, Roger Cross, Lovell Adams-Gray, Kiley May, Tamara Podemski, Eric Bruneau, and Ehren Kassam. The CW offered this series description:
“Coroner is a character-driven one-hour drama about Dr. Jenny Cooper (Swan), a recently widowed, newly appointed coroner who investigates any suspicious, unnatural or sudden deaths in Toronto. Each death brings Jenny into a new arena in the city and sparks buzzworthy themes… Jenny taps into her intuition, as much as her intellect and heart, as she solves cases along with the help of Homicide Detective Donovan ‘Mac’ McAvoy (Cross), a man who isn’t afraid of challenging the status quo; pathologist Dr. Dwayne Allen (Adams-Gray), his assistant River Baitz (May); and Alison Trent (Podemski), Jenny’s assistant who keeps it real.
And while Jenny solves mysterious deaths, she also deals with clinical anxiety, a teenage son, Ross (Kassam), who is still grieving the death of his father, and the prospect of starting a new relationship with the enigmatic Liam (Bruneau).”
Dead Pixels stars Alexa Davies, Will Merrick, and Sargon Yelda, with Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Phil Clarke, and series creator Jon Brown (Succession, Veep) executive producing.
The Dead Pixels Plot: “Dead Pixels follows Meg (Davies), Nicky (Merrick) and Usman (Yelda) who are obsessed with the online fantasy game ‘Kingdom Scrolls.’ Meg would happily cut a date short to go home and defend Castle Blackfinger. Nicky thinks the miscasting of Vince Vaughn as Tanadaal in the ‘Kingdom Scrolls’ movie is an international outrage. And Usman has made a plywood lid for his child’s playpen, so he can play the game in peace. Oh, and Nicky definitely isn’t into Meg. That would be a cliché.”
