By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Spring is when a young person’s fancy turns to TV schedules – and if you’re into geek culture, 2017 promises to be a fancy year indeed.
A few genre shows have been canceled or reached their finales – NBC’s Powerless is a notable example – but most existing shows have been renewed. And they’re going to be joined by plenty more. Set your smart phone’s calendar for the following:
Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Grant Gustin stars as the Scarlet Speedster in The Flash, which The CW has renewed for a fourth season.
ALL ACROSS THE BERLANTIVERSE
The four shows based on DC Comics superheroes overseen by executive producer Greg Berlanti on The CW have all been awarded another season. For the record, that’s Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash and Supergirl – three of which haven’t even wrapped up their current seasons. (The Legends season finale was April 4.)
But four will soon become five. Various new outlets have confirmed that another show based on a DC Comics superhero is in the works. Black Lightning, created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden in 1977, is the story of Jefferson Pierce, a retired, electricity-based superhero dragged back into the game by his daughters. No release date has been set, but Black Lightning is expected to strike in late 2017 or early 2018.
Frank Ockenfels/FOX
Starring this fall in FOX’s The Gifted are (from left) Percy Hynes White, Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker and Natalie Alyn Lind.
TEENAGE WASTELAND
If you’re in the market for angsty super-teens, you’re in luck.
Fox has released its first trailer (but no release date) for this fall’s The Gifted. If you read between the quick cuts, it seems that parents played by Stephen Moyer (True Blood) and Amy Acker (Person of Interest) discover their kids are mutants, and have to go on the lam from the government. Set in the X-Men universe, the pilot goes out of the way to note that the usual suspects – Prof. X’s X-Men and Magneto’s Brotherhood – will not appear. Brian Singer, who has directed most of the X-movies, will direct the pilot episode.
This is not to be confused with New Mutants, a movie set more firmly in the X-Men universe, starring X-comics mutants Wolfsbane, a Scottish werewolf played by Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Magik, a part-demon, Russian magic-user played by Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch). Directed by Josh Boone, New Mutants is scheduled for April 13, 2018.
The Gifted should also not be confused with The Runaways, a Marvel Comics-based series about a group of teens who discover their parents are all supervillains. Some of the kids are mutants, some have other super-powers and some are more or less normal, but all of them will hang out together in a Hulu series coming in 2018.
More super-teens arrive in 2018 on Freeform, which used to be called ABC Family (among other things). The angsty ones will be Cloak and Dagger, featuring a white girl with light powers from an upscale background (Olivia Holt) and a black boy with shadow powers from the wrong side of the tracks (Aubrey Joseph) whose super-powers are somehow related – and who share a rocky romance as well as crimefighting.
Less angsty and more rodent-y are the New Warriors, a group of super-teens led by the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, a ridiculously upbeat girl with ridiculous squirrel powers who has nevertheless defeated Dr. Doom and other major supervillains. The joke is that she’s not a joke, although she seems like one. That show is probably 2018, also.
And while the gang in Riverdale don’t have super-powers, they are super-angsty – and this seems like a good place to mention the show has been renewed for a second season.
ZOMBIES AND DEVILS AND VAMPIRES, OH MY!
It is in the nature of zombies that they always come back – it’s sort of in the job description – so it should comes as no surprise that The CW has renewed iZombie for the fall, both Fear the Walking Dead (AMC) and Z Nation (Syfy) return June 4, and Starz has given Ash vs. Evil Dead a third season. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that The Walking Dead will shamble back for an eighth season, probably in October.
The Strain returns for its last season on July 16, as the vampire apocalypse reaches a climax. And the deservedly acclaimed Stranger Things will supply more strange things beginning on Halloween, Oct. 31. Other creepshows that have been renewed include American Gods (Starz), Lucifer (FOX), The Originals (The CW) and Van Helsing (Syfy).
HERE COME THE CAPES
Does Gotham count as a superhero show, when Batman hasn’t even shown up yet? Regardless, the world’s longest origin story has been renewed for a fourth season. (At least Bruce Wayne is finally in Tibet, where he might learn something.)
Defenders Season 1 drops Aug. 18 on Netflix, starring Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Iron Fist (Finn Jones), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter). Sigourney Weaver is villainess Alexandra, and it’s anybody’s guess whose side Elektra (Elodie Yung) will be on.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which just had its best season, will be back for a fifth. But it will be delayed by10 episodes of The Inhumans, air, which begin Sept. 1. Unlike the recently turned Inhumans on S.H.I.E.L.D., this will be the actual Royal Family from the comics, who have ruled a separate society of Inhumans for millennia. And, yes, Lockjaw – the huge teleporting dog – is said to be a member of the cast.
Finally, if you don’t know what “SPOOOOOOON!” means, you will when a new The Tick arrives Aug. 25 on Amazon.
HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD
Westworld won’t return until 2018, but Wynonna Earp returns to SyFy on June 9, and Preacher comes back to AMC on June 25. Those are sort-of Westerns, aren’t they?
Noah Schutz/FOX
Coming to FOX in the fall, The Orville stars (from left) Penny Johnson Jerald, Mark Jackson, Seth MacFarlane, Peter Macon, Scott Grimes, Adrianne Palicki and J. Lee and Halston Sage.
TO INFINITY AND BEYOND
The phenomenally talented Tatian Maslany returns for the fifth and final season of Orphan Black June 10 on BBC America. Game of Thrones returns for its penultimate season (with only seven episodes!) July 16 on HBO. Add to that the returns of 12 Monkeys (May 19, Syfy), Dark Matter (June 9, Syfy) and Twin Peaks (May 21, Showtime) and that should be sufficient sci-fi/fantasy.
But, of course, there’s more.
Salvation comes to CBS for 13 episodes on July 13, a thriller that takes place as an asteroid threatens to annihilate humanity in six months. One assumes there will only be one season.
For laughs, join comedian Seth MacFarlane July 13 on The Orville at CBS, as he and ex-wife Adrianne Palicki (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) mix marital dysfunction with the regular kind on perhaps the worst spaceship in a Star Trek-style universe. Even Victor Garber (Legends of Tomorrow) drops by to remind MacFarlane that that he’s “nobody’s first choice” to be captain.
It should be noted that Palicki played an ex-wife paired with her former husband on S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. If I were her, I’d get a new agent!
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Replies
Why all the teenagers? On the other hand I think I'd watch Riverdale if Sabrina showed up, and New Mutants looks interesting.
The demographic that all advertisers are chasing is Males aged 18-34, who (presumably) want stories about and featuring people their age. It's why some shows with good ratings get canceled--they aren't reaching that target demographic.
Mark S. Ogilvie said:
The other reason all advertisers chase Males aged 18-34 is their potential for being lifelong customers. Advertising is not aimed (primarily) at the people who already are lifelong customers.
As a group, Males aged 18-34 have a high amount of disposable income, the willingness to spend it, and little entrenched brand loyalty; they can be persuaded to try different products. People in other demographics might have one or two of those characteristics, but often not all three.