TV News Wrap-Up: Milo Ventimiglia to Play Evel Knievel, Hulu Eyes Sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ and More
Living in the age of Peak TV is good, it means there’s a lot to look forward to. However, it also means that there’s some heartbreaking news too.
This week, there was no shortage of casting news and series renewals.
Take a look at some of the top stories from this week with our TV News wrap-up.
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Netflix announced it is renewing Grace and Frankie for a seventh and final season. The streamer announced that Grace and Frankie Season 6 would premiere in January 2020, and also broke the news that the show would get a swan song seventh season. Read more about this bittersweet news right here.
Hulu is eying a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. According to TV Line, the streamer and MGM TV are in talks with showrunner Bruce Miller to produce a series based on Margaret Atwood’s upcoming follow-up, The Testaments. The Testaments is a follow-up to Atwood’s original book and takes place some 15 years after the events in Gilead. News of the sequel series comes three weeks after The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 finale. The show has already been renewed for a fourth season.
Two Timeless vets have joined The Boys Season 2. Goran Visnjic and Claudia Doumit have boarded the second season of the comic book adaptation. This is the second time Visnjic and Doumit have worked together under Executive Producer Eric Kripke. They are joining several other Timeless vets including Malcolm Barrett. TV Line reports “Visnjic will take on the role of Alistair Adana, the charismatic and shadowy leader of a mysterious church. Doumit, meanwhile, will play wunderkind congresswoman Victoria Neuman.”
This Is Us‘s Milo Ventimiglia will portray daredevil Evel Knievel in a USA Network limited series. Knievel was a daredevil in the 1960s and 1970s. According to TV Line, the series, entitled Evel, has been described as “an exhilarating portrait of a complex man living the American dream, juggling meteoric celebrity and raising a family — and facing the very real probability that his next jump…will kill him.” Production on the series is set to begin in 2020.
13 Reasons Why Casts Gary Sinise as series regular ahead of the final season. Deadline reports that the veteran actor has been cast as Dr. Ellman, a therapist who has to help Clay battle depression, anxiety, and grief. The character is described as, “Formidable, intense, and deeply humane, Ellman is steadfast in guiding Clay to accept the help he needs so desperately, to come to terms with the trauma in his past, and begin the process of healing.” Sinese is exacted to appear in every episode of Season 4. 13 Reasons Why was renewed for a fourth and final season by Netflix last month, just weeks ahead of the Season 3 debut.
Grey’s Anatomy is doing the time warp for the Season 16 premiere. Showrunner Krista Vernoff told TV Line that the season premiere will pick up right where the Season 15 finale left off, but while some questions will be answered immediately, the clock will then begin to move quickly. The show is set to cover a long span time in its first episode, but Vernoff did not say how much, preferring to keep her cards close to her chest.
Darren Criss is set to star in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix’s series Hollywood. Variety reports that Criss first announced the news himself via Instagram. Criss wrote, “Honored to say that I’m heading back to the House of Murphy where I’ll be starring in but also executive producing HOLLYWOOD with Time’s King of Television.” Hollywood was previously described by Murphy as a love letter to Tinseltown with Patti Lupone and Holland Taylor also appearing in the series. The series received a straight-to-series order from Netflix and is expected to premiere in May 2020.
Amazon Prime has set a premiere date for Jack Ryan Season 2. The streamer will drop the new trailer for the series on November 1st, which will see the hero head to South America. Read more about the premiere of Jack Ryan Season 2 here.
The Detour canceled after four seasons by TBS. According to Deadline, the comedy network is transitioning from being just a comedy network to a more general network that airs both drama and comedy programming.
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What is your favorite, or most heartbreaking, piece of TV News from this week? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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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.