"Wheel of Time" renewed / "National Treasure" teaser / "Justified" set shut down / "Doctor Who" on Disney+

Plus the weekend calendar, Gellar joins "Wolf Pack," Hulu ad allegations, "Copenhagen Cowboy," and more

Inside.com Part of   Network July 22, 2022

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"Wheel of Time" Season 2 Amazon renewed the epic fantasy drama series "Wheel of Time" for a third season. The company made the announcement during a panel at this week's San Diego Comic-Con. More: Season 3 will be based on "The Shadow Rising," the fourth book in author Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" saga. Season 1 of "Wheel of Time" concluded in December 2021; no release date has been announced for Season 2. Amazon also released a behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of Season 2 during the Comic-Con session. TV LINE

A brief teaser which premiered at Comic-Con offers viewers a first look at Lisette Olivera in the "National Treasure" spin-off series "Edge of History." Olivera stars in the series as Jess Morales, a 20-year-old searching for a long-lost Pan-American treasure, along with secrets from her own family's past. More: Original "National Treasure" writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley executive produced the new series, and appeared on the Comic-Con panel. Both Harvey Keitel and Justin Bartha will reprise their roles from the "National Treasure" films for the series; according to the Wibberleys, they approached original star Nicolas Cage as well but "he is very busy." The series co-stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Zuri Reed, Jordan Rodrigues, Antonio Cipriano, and Lyndon Smith. No release date has yet been set for "National Treasure: Edge of History." A third film in the "National Treasure" franchise is also reportedly in the early stages of development. VARIETY

A message from FIREWORK Gen Z CAC is high key guap, no cap. When it comes to Gen Z, the traditional rules around engagement, content, selling, and advertising don’t apply. Brands and marketers need to learn a new language. But it’s more than that. To feel authentic, they need to nail the dialect, too.  That’s why Firework has rolled out Gen Z Labs, a brand new initiative that taps into that unique subculture and help marketers and brands connect with this next generation of consumers. Gen Z: Makes up 30% of the population Is rapidly entering the workforce Accounts for almost $400bn in spending power and counting In partnership with leading Gen Z brands like Grande Cosmetics and That’s It, Firework has created an interactive experience for marketers of all stripes to help their brand find relevance with Zoomers. Start Here

WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, JULY 22 THE GRAY MAN: Action thriller film starring Ryan Gosling as a CIA operative who accidentally learns some dark agency secrets, putting him in the crosshairs of a psychotic former colleague (Chris Evans). Ana de Armas, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Alfre Woodard, and Regé-Jean Page co-star; "Avengers: Endgame" vets Joe and Anthony Russo directed. [Netflix] BLOWN AWAY: The glassblowing competition series returns for a third season on Friday with 10 new artists facing even tougher and more intricate challenges. YouTube science vlogger and "America's Got Talent" vet Nick Uhas hosts; Katherine Gray serves as Glass Master and Resident Evaluator. [Netflix] TRYING: The British sitcom follows Nikki and Jason (Esther Smith and Rafe Spall) as they manage the various complexities and challenges of the adoption process. Season 3, which hits Apple TV+ in the US today, opens with Nikki and Jason now as new parents, getting to know their two kids while trying to maintain their sanity. [Apple TV+] BEST FOOT FORWARD: Debut family comedy series, based on the book "Just Don't Fall" by Paralympic skier Josh Sundquist. Logan Marmino stars as a 12-year-old with a prosthetic leg who's eager to join his classmates in junior high after years of being homeschooled. [Apple TV+] ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE: This coming-of-age romantic comedy feature is the directorial debut of actor Billy Porter. Eva Reign stars as Kelsa, a confident trans girl navigating the challenges of her senior year of high school. Abubakr Ali, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Simone Joy Jones, and Kelly Lamor Wilson co-star. [Amazon] PRIZEFIGHTER: THE LIFE OF JEM BELCHER: Biopic starring Matt Hookings as English bare-knuckle prize-fighter James "Jem" Belcher, who became the youngest-ever world champion at age 19 in May of 1800 and ultimately died in 1811 at age 30. Ray Winstone, Russell Crowe, and Marton Csokas co-star; Hookings also wrote the screenplay and produced. [Amazon] ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME: 2021 comedy horror film from the UK, starring Tom Stourton as a man celebrating his 31st birthday with friends who starts developing paranoid suspicions that they're all plotting against him, or planning to replace him in the group. Stourton co-wrote the film with Tom Palmer; Andrew Gaynord ("Stath Lets Flats") directed. [Hulu] SECRET CELEBRITY RENOVATION: CBS reality series in which stars from the world of sports, music, and entertainment surprise important people from their formative years with new home renovations. Season 2 debuts Friday night on CBS and Paramount+, and features guests Utkarsh Ambudkar, Annaleigh Ashford, Devin Booker, Kandi Burruss, Debbie Gibson, Shaquille O'Neal, and others; Nischelle Turner hosts. [Paramount+] SATURDAY, JULY 23 WALKER: The CW crime drama series -- a reboot of "Walker, Texas Ranger" -- stars Jared Padalecki as Cordell Walker, a legendary lawman who returns home after a lengthy stint spent undercover. Season 2 comes to HBO Max today. [HBO Max] SUNDAY, JULY 24 90 DAY FIANCÉ UK: Debut British spinoff of the TLC reality series, in which newcomers arrive in the UK and spend 90 days with their long-distance partners before deciding whether or not to take the plunge and get married. [Discovery+] TOPSIDE: Indie drama film, shot documentary-style and related from the perspective of a five-year-old girl (Zhaila Farmer) living with her mother (Celine Held) in the abandoned subway tunnels underneath New York City. [Hulu]

A gunfight unrelated to the production shut down the Chicago set of FX's "Justified" spin-off series "City Primeval" on Wednesday. Occupants of two cars were engaged in a gun battle near the city's Douglass Park, ultimately smashing through barricades and entering the show's production area. More: The set was shut down following the incident and has yet to reopen; production is expected to resume on Monday. The cast and crew reportedly hit the ground and took cover during the incident; no injuries were reported. The eight-episode series is inspired by the Elmore Leonard novel "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit," and features the return of actor Timothy Olyphant as US Marshal Raylan Givens. DEADLINE

A message from BOXABL Imagine if houses were built like cars, with one home coming off the assembly line every 60 seconds...wouldn’t that change the world? Cutting-edge housing manufacturer Boxabl plans to do just that, by setting up the world's largest and most advanced housing factory. Why Boxabl? Setting up a 170,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in less than one year  Raising over $100M from over 15,000 investors  Elon Musk shouted out the Las Vegas-based company calling Boxabl a “cool product.”   Achieving LEED certification and hurricane wind ratings on all houses  Strategic partnership and investment from the largest home builder in the USA, D.R. Horton Inc.  Over 50 patent filings due to considerable innovations in building technology  Factory 2 is now under construction  Customer waitlist of over 100,000 pre-orders, indicating potential demand worth billions of dollars  Guided by Volkswagen Group's Porsche Consulting Inc. for the design and implementation of Boxabl’s new factory Shipping houses every day Invest Now

According to Bloomberg, Disney is in early talks with the BBC about acquiring the streaming rights for the upcoming season of "Doctor Who." The full collection of "Doctor Who" episodes -- dating back to the modern-day revival's 2015 debut -- are currently available to stream on HBO Max. More: "Sex Education" vet Ncuti Gatwa will take over as the Fourteenth incarnation of The Doctor for the show's upcoming 14th Season, which makes its TV debut next year. Gatwa takes over for Jodie Whittaker, who starred as the Thirteenth Doctor for three seasons. The final Whittaker season -- subtitled "Flux" -- arrived on HBO Max in the US just last month. IGN

Gellar and Hoechlin at Comic-Con Sarah Michelle Gellar will star in the Paramount+ supernatural drama series "Wolf Pack," from the creator of MTV's "Teen Wolf" series. The news was announced at the "Teen Wolf" Comic-Con panel, which also saw the debut of a trailer for the sequel film, "Teen Wolf: The Movie." More: "Wolf Pack" is based on a book series by Edo Van Belkom, and centers on two young people (Armani Jackson and Bella Shepard) who encounter a terrifying supernatural creature after a string of California wildfires. Gellar will co-star as an arson investigator who's also on the trail of the creature. The series comes from "Teen Wolf" writer and producer Jeff Davis. The "Teen Wolf" sequel film brings back Crystal Reed, Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig and other stars from the series, and hits Paramount+ later on this year. The "Teen Wolf" series was originally inspired by the 1985 Michael J. Fox film of the same name. DEADLINE

Democratic New York congressional candidate Suraj Patel accused Hulu of demanding changes to his political ads before they would be allowed to stream on the platform. Specifically, Patel says he was asked to alter language relating to abortion rights, climate change, and gun laws. More: According to Patel, his campaign was contacted by a Hulu representative and told that the 30-second ad violated an "unwritten Hulu policy" regarding "sensitive content" in political ads. Some of the material to which Hulu apparently objected included footage from the January 6th attack on the US Capitol building and the phrase "climate change." On Twitter, Patel asked "How are... two of the biggest issues facing our country... too sensitive to talk about?" Hulu did not respond to a request for comment. Patel also sent an open letter to Hulu and Disney CEOs Joe Earley and Bob Chapek, demanding a change to Hulu's ad policies. THE VERGE

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive") announced the Netflix drama series "Copenhagen Cowboy," his first original Danish production in 15 years. The "thrill-inducing, neon-drenched noir series" stars Angela Bundalovic as a young woman navigating Copenhagen's criminal underworld. More: Production has wrapped on the six-episode series, which was filmed entirely in Denmark. The series will launch globally on Netflix later this year. In addition to films such as "Only God Forgives" and "The Neon Demon," Refn co-wrote and directed the 2019 Amazon crime drama series "Too Old to Die Young." DEADLINE

William Shatner signed on for a voice role in the upcoming Netflix animated series "Masters of the Universe: Revolution." The show continues the story from "Masters of the Universe: Revelation"; both shows come from creator and executive producer Kevin Smith. More: Shatner's specific role in the series has not yet been revealed. The iconic actor -- best known for the classic "Star Trek" series and its various film spinoffs -- surprised the audience at San Diego Comic-Con during the "Masters of the Universe" panel. He's also at Comic-Con to promote a new documentary feature about his life from production company Legion M. AV CLUB

QUICK HITS The right metrics make a difference. Read our fact sheet and learn what you should be measuring to prove marketing impact.* According to a new report from Puck's Matthew Belloni, filmmaker Spike Jonze is quietly working on a "lavish series at Netflix"; if true, this would be Jonze's first original scripted project since the 2013 film "Her." The Netflix action-comedy series "Obliterated" -- from "Cobra Kai" vets Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald -- added several new actors to its ensemble, including Alyson Gorske, C. Thomas Howell, Eugene Kim, and Terrence Terrell. At Comic-Con, Netflix dropped a trailer for the upcoming fourth season of the animated fantasy series "The Dragon Prince," which picks up the action after a two-year time jump. Peacock debuted the latest trailer for its "Vampire Academy" series at Comic-Con, about two young friends who embark on very different lives and vocations within vampire society; the series arrives on September 15. Kate McKinnon discussed her decision to exit "Saturday Night Live" after 11 seasons on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," explaining "my body was tired and I felt like it was time." Sarah Snook and Demi Lardner joined the cast of the Hulu animated comedy series "Koala Man," from producers Michael Cusack and Justin Roiland. Searchlight Pictures dropped the latest trailer for "Not Okay," starring Zoey Deutch stars as a wannabe influencer who fakes a trip to Paris in order to gain an online following, then risks exposure by falling for a guy (Dylan O'Brien) with a huge audience; the film hits Hulu on July 29. See how to make sense of the security industry’s infamous “alphabet soup” of acronyms and complex technical tools.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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