TV News Wrap-Up: ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Renewed for Season 3, ‘Chicago Fire’ Pauses Production After Positive COVID-19 Tests, ‘Black Lightning’ Spinoff Sets Backdoor Pilot

As we settle into daylight savings time and the days get shorter and shorter, it feels like we’re turing to our streaming networks and television sets for more entertainment. 

Fortunately, many streaming services and even some broadcast shows are still developing content to come in 2021. 

Check out this week’s TV news wrap up for some casting annoucments, renewals, and more that you may have missed. 

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Netflix has renewed Space Force for Season 2.

• The streamer has given a second season to the workplace comedy based on President Donald Trump’s Space Force initiative.
• Deadline reports, that returning cast regulars include Steve Carell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome, Diana Silvers, and Jimmy O. Yang. Yang will also join the Season 2 writers room.
• Production on Space Force Season 2 is slated to begin in Vancouver in 2021.

Niecy Nash has joined the ABC limited series Women of the Movement. 

• Nash will co-star opposite Adrienne Warren.
• According to Deadline, Women of the Movement is a, “…six-episode limited series, set to premiere in 2021, centers on Mamie Till-Mobley (Warren), who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till,” and is inspired by Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement by Devery S. Anderson.
• Nash is set to play Alma, Emmett Till’s grandmother. She is described as, “… a young grandmother who had been like a second mother to Emmett, fought to protect her family in Chicago while her daughter Mamie traveled the country seeking justice in Emmett’s name. A force of nature, Alma was Mamie’s rock in the face of unbelievable tragedy.”

The CW has optioned a re-imagining of the works of Jane Austen entitled Modern Austen. 

• The series hails from writer Eleanor Burgess (Perry Mason), Stephanie Allain’s Homegrown Pictures, and Warner Bros TV, where Allain is under a deal.
• Deadline reports that Moden Austen, “…is a one-hour anthology series that reimagines Austen’s beloved novels as six modern stories, offering a kaleidoscopic look at love and family in our time of inequality and disconnection.”
• Each season will be a different novel with the first being Pride and Prejudice set in San Francisco.

Audra McDonald, and various Broadway stars, join Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age. 

• According to a Deadline exclusive, McDonald is joining the period drama series as a special guest star. 
• McDonald is also joined buy a series of Broadway guest stars including, “…The King and I’s Kelli O’Hara, Hello, Dolly!’s Donna Murphy, who is also in Starz’ Power, Fun Home’s Michael Cerveris, who also starred in Netflix’s Mindhunter, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’s Debra Monk, Promises Promises’ Katie Finneran, who was also in CBS All Access’ Why Women Kill, To Kill A Mockingbird’s Celia Keenan-Bolger, Gary’s Kristine Nielsen and King Lear’s John Douglas Thompson.”
• The Broadway actors join series regulars Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, Simon Jones, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin and guest star Jeanne Tripplehorn.
• The series is currently in production at HBO and Universal Television. 

Suicide Squad spin-off series Peacemaker annouces cast including Robert Patrick. 

• Robert Patrick, Jennifer Holland, and Chris Conrad have joined the series in addition to Orange is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks whose casting was announced earlier this week. 
• According to Deadline, “Patrick will play the role of Auggie Smith; Conrad will portray The Vigilante/Adrian Chase; and Holland will reprise her Suicide Squad character from the upcoming movie, NSA agent Emilia Harcourt, who works with A.R.G.U.S. to monitor the Suicide Squad.”
• Danielle Brooks will has been cast as Leota Adebayo. 
• They join John Cena who was previously cast in the title role. 
• The series is scheduled to begin production early next year. 

Emily in Paris has been renewed for Season 2. 

• Deadline reported that the renewal for a second outing of the Parisian adventure came in the form of a letter from Emily’s fictional boss. 
• “We are writing to regrettably inform you that Emily will need to remain in Paris for an extended amount of time,” the letter from Sylvie Grateau reads. “Despite her overconfident manner, and lack of prior experience in the world of luxury goods marketing, she has nonetheless managed to charm some of our hard-to-impress clients during her short time at Savoir. Call it bonne chance or American ingenuity — I’m leading towards the former — her results are impressive.” 

Adam Goldberg to join Queen Latifah in CBS’s reboot of The Equalizer. 

• According to Deadline, “The Equalizer stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.”
• Goldberg has been cast as Harry Keshegian who is described as, “Gruffly endearing, lovably annoying, eccentric and a collector of facts and artifacts, he’s paranoid — but for a reason. Unlike conspiracy theorists, because of his experience as a white-hat hacker, he actually knows what the real conspiracies are. He’s as loyal as they come and like a brother to McCall.”
• The series recently started production with a straight-to-series order from CBS. It also stars Chris Noth, Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Liza Lapira and Laya DeLeon Hayes.

Chicago Fire suspended production for two weeks following positive COVID-19 tests. 

• Dick Wolf’s firefighter drama has has hit pause on the ninth season after multiple COVID-19 tests came back positive.
• A Deadline exclusive reports that production paused on Sunday, November 8th. The positve tests triggered guidelines by the state and county as well as the NBCU Production Playbook, including contact tracing. 
• The affected individuals reportedly performed duties that required close proximity to other members of the cast and crew. As a result, Wolf Entertainment and Universal TV made the decision to pause production for 14 days. 
• This follows the production shut down of Chicago Med, a month earlier. 
• More production shutdowns are expected as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. 

Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller starring Jordan Calloway sets backdoor pilot at The CW.

• According to Deadline, “The planted pilot spinoff will air as the seventh episode of Black Lightning’s fourth season, which will premiere in February 2021.”
• The series will star Calloway reprising his eponymous role. 
• Black Lightening showrunner Salim Akil will write, produce, and direct. 
• “It marks the first pilot based on a DC Comics character for this broadcast development season and is the CW’s latest planted pilot development.”
• Painkiller will hail from Warner Bros Television. Berlanti Productions, which produces Black Lightning and all other DC Comics series, is not affiliated with the production.

Jonathan Silverman joins Good Girls Season 4 in a recurring role. 

• According to Deadline, “Silverman will play Dave, a pencil pusher for the Secret Service, who has found purpose again in the field. His irreverent manner hides his unwavering commitment to bringing down the Good Girls.”
• Silverman’s previous credits include No Good Nick and Salvation. 

Netflix renews The Umbrella Academy for Season 3. 

• Deadline reports that production on the third installment is set to begin in February in Toronto. 
• Series regulars set to return include: Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, and Colm Feore.
• Steve Blackman will also be returning as executive producer.
• The Umbrella Academy was Netflix’s most-watched series of 2019 and Season 2 led the Neilsen Streaming Top 10 when it was released on July 31st. 

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What is your favorite bit of TV news this week? Let us know in the comments below. 

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