TV News Wrap-Up: ‘Practical Magic’ Prequel Ordered by HBO Max, Stephen Amell Joins STARZ Wrestling Drama, ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Sequel Coming to Disney+, and More
We’re almost through summer, exactly a month away from new fall programming, and HBO and Disney+ are making it really hard for us to hold to our resolve not to subscribe to anymore streaming networks.
Check out the latest series orders, casting news, and more in this week’s TV News Wrap-Up.
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A Practical Magic prequel is among three HBO Max pilot orders. Variety reports that the series, entitled Rules of Magic will follow the lives of three siblings who will grow up to become the three aunts seen in Practical Magic. The series is based on the books by Alice Hoffman. HBO Max also ordered two other shows. Jessica Jones creator Melissa Rosenberg will write and executive produce the series. HBO Max has also ordered a half-hour dramedy called Generation and an hour-long drama entitled, Red Bird Lane.
Stephen Amell has booked his first post-Arrow role in STARZ wrestling drama, Heels. The 8-episode drama follows two brothers who run a wrestling promotions in a small Georgia town, but later face off for a stake in their late father’s legacy. Amell will play Jack, a wrestler who owns Duffy Wrestling Association and is working hard to keep it that way. Read more about Amell’s first post-Arrow role here.
Manifest Season 2 is getting a blast from the past. According to Deadline, the NBC show about a plane that disappeared for five years has added Yasha Jackson (Blue Bloods) as a blast from Ben’s past in the series’ sophomore outing, set to arrive in 2020. Jackson will play, Suzanne Martin, a Dean at Astoria University and Ben’s (Josh Dallas’) ex-girlfriend. The two will reconnect after running into each other on campus. Additionally, Manifest has cast Garret Waring (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists) is set to play TJ Morrison, another passenger on Montego Air Flight 828. Morrison is a college freshman who went to Jamaica for vacation and came back five years later alone in the world. Ben takes him under his wing.
Lizzie McGuire is getting a sequel series on Disney+. Deadline reports that series will depict Lizzie as a 30-year-old millenial trying to make a life for herself in New York City. Like the 2001 Disney Channel series, this series will also feature an animated version of the young Lizzie who offers witty commentary on her actions. Hillary Duff is set to return as Lizzie McGuire, but Younger fans don’t need to worry, because Disney and TV Land have worked out a deal which allows Duff to appear in both series. Lizzie McGuire creator Terri Minsky is on baord to produce the new series as well.
Showrunner Krista Vernoff is earmarking an episode of Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 for a particular cast member. In a TV Line exclusive, Vernoff said she’s giving Richard (James Pickens Jr.) a meaty storyline with an episode centered around his character. While most standalone episodes have had a different feel to them, Vernoff also said that we fans can expect Season 16’s character-centric episodes to feel less like standalone episodes and more like traditional grey’s anatomy episodes, citing Grey’s Anatomy Season 14 Episode 17, “One Day Like This,” as an example.
JAMES PICKENS JR.
HBO has renewed Succession for Season 3. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Succession only returned to the air two weeks ago, but solid audience retention and continued critical affection have helped make it one of HBO’s more high-profile originals in the post-Game of Thrones era. The first season is up for five awards at the 2019 Primetime Emmys, including outstanding drama series.”
photo: Peter Kramer/HBO
A Serendipity series is being eyed by NBC. Variety reports that a series adaptation of the 2001 rom-com starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack is in development with the peacock network having given the series a “script commitment.” The logline sounds much like the film, “Harry and Claire fall in love one fateful night, are separated by circumstance and then spend years trying to find one another again…with a little help from the universe.” The series will be produced by Miramax Television, whose film department produced the original film, and writer Jonny Umansky.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.