Marvel and Disney have greenlit a second season of ‘Wonder Man’.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley will return to star.
Show overseers Andrew Guest and Destin Daniel Cretton are also back.
Given that it was seemingly unceremoniously released in one batch on Disney+ back in January and didn’t seem to spur that much pop cultural awareness despite strong reviews, Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ series has scored a welcome second season renewal.
The show, which stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley and took a very different approach to superhero storytelling (more on that below), becomes one of the few Marvel Cinematic Universe series to land a second season, following the likes of ‘Loki’ and ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
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Showrunner Andrew Guest and director/fellow executive producer Destin Daniel Cretton will both also return to guide the new run of episodes.
The show follows aspiring Hollywood actor Simon Williams (Abdul-Mateen), who is struggling to get his career off the ground. During a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery (Kingsley), an actor whose biggest roles may be well behind him, Simon learns legendary director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić) is remaking the superhero film ‘Wonder Man.’
These two actors at opposite ends of their careers doggedly pursue life-changing roles in this film as audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ has just returned to Disney+ for its second season, and fellow small-screen entry ‘Vision Quest’ (or whatever it ends up being titled) is due at some point this year.
‘Loki’s Michael Waldron will write the script for Marvel’s ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’.
He previously wrote ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ for the studio.
Destin Daniel Cretton recently dropped out of directing ‘The Kang Dynasty’.
Michael Waldron is quickly becoming a go-to writer for Marvel. Which isn’t too surprising, since he launched and ran (alongside director Kate Herron) the first season of ‘Loki’, which became one of the most successful Marvel/Disney+ series to hit small screens.
For his latest assignment, he’s going to write the script for the company’s ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ (assuming it keeps that title; more on that below).
That, in turn led to the company hiring Waldron to write ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’, which is following ‘The Kang Dynasty’.
In addition to his MCU duties, he’s also set up a wealth of other projects (all being kept quiet for now) via a big deal between Marvel/20th Television and his production company, Anomaly Pictures.
At San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige announced a swath of new Marvel movies and shows, outlining much of Phases 5 and 6 for his company.
With ‘Loki’s first season dropping the first breadcrumbs about the multiverse-spanning villain Kang (played by Jonathan Majors in the show and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’), the plan was to build him up as the next big bad to follow Thanos.
That whole connected storyline was to have concluded in ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ in 2025 and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ in 2026.
It wasn’t long after that that Destin Daniel Cretton was announced as director for ‘The Kang Dynasty’ as part of his big overall Disney/Marvel deal in the wake of ‘Shang-Chi’ doing well.
Now, though, after some release date shifts for both ‘The Kang Dynasty’ (to 2026) and’ Secret Wars’ (moving to 2027), Cretton has stepped away from the director’s chair for the former movie.
Cretton will focus on other projects in the pipeline, including an in-the-works ‘Wonder Man’ TV series for Marvel and Disney+ and a potential ‘Shang-Chi’ sequel.
Marvel has been wrangling over how to deal with the Jonathan Majors situation. With the actor involved in a thorny legal issue, he’s not exactly someone the company’s parent Disney is looking to be in business with.
Jeff Loveness, who had been on board to write ‘Kang Dynasty’ was reportedly let go from the company at some point before Cretton left the movie.
Thanks to the multiverse idea, there is scope for the studio to pivot away from him, while there are plenty of other villains who could conceivably threaten the group of heroes. And with Waldron aboard, it appears that Kevin Feige and co. are looking for consistency between the two giant movies that wrap up Phase 6.
When Will ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ Be in Theaters?
Currently ‘The Kang Dynasty’ is set for release on May 1, 2026, with ‘Secret Wars’ due on May 7, 2027.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Secret Wars.’
Other Movies Similar to ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty:’
‘Loki’s second season scored huge viewership on Disney+ upon its return last week.
Only ‘The Mandalorian’s Season 3 premiere this last March had higher initial viewership.
The show sees the return of Tom Hiddleston’s Marvel character, whose original season debuted in 2021.
After some less than thrilling reviews and audience figures for recent Marvel series such as ‘Secret Invasion’, Disney must be breathing a sigh of relief and offering up blessings to the God of Mischief.
Because the first episode of Season 2 for ‘Loki’, starring Tom Hiddleston, has racked up some healthy viewing figures.
What were the viewing figures for the premiere of ‘Loki’ Season 2?
The premiere of the new season, which dropped on Thursday, October 5th, has garnered 10.9 million views globally within three days of becoming available for streaming, at least according to Disney’s own calculations.
And the Marvel series was not just popular with viewers, but also critics. Season two of ‘Loki’ holds an 88% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it certified “fresh”. That goes along with a stellar 94% audience score on the site.
So clearly, people are happy to see the return of Loki and the Time Variance Agency. And we also enjoyed the latest episode.
In fact, the only series that has scored higher than ‘Loki’ is the third season of ‘The Mandalorian’, which landed on Disney+ this past March. Mando’s triumph is not really a surprise since there was plenty of pent-up demand for the return of the ‘Star Wars’ series.
‘Loki’ similarly benefitted from fan anticipation since Season 1 landed all the way in 2021.
The new season picks up immediately in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority.
Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Returning from Season 1 is Eugene Codero as Casey, a low-ranking TVA worker who was shown as a Hunter in a parallel timeline at the end of that first season but will be back in his original role to help Loki and co. Jonathan Majors, meanwhile, is once more playing another Kang variant, this time a 19th century professor named Victor Timely (first glimpsed in an end credits scene of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’) who has a strong connection to the organization.
Premiering on Disney+ beginning October 5th is the six-episode second season of the popular Marvel series ‘Loki.’
What is the plot of ‘Loki’ Season 2?
Following the events of ‘Loki’ season 1, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Producer and Marvel Creative Executive Kevin Wright about his work on ‘Loki’ season 2, the show’s time-jumping, if Loki is truly a hero or a villain, Loki and Mobius’ relationship, Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s on screen chemistry, introducing Victor Timely, and setting up Kang’s variants for other MCU projects.
‘Loki’ Season 2 producer and Marvel Creative Executive Kevin Wright.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, season 2 of ‘Loki’ deals with the concept of time and you also play with time within the story. Can you talk about plotting the second season and the challenges of playing with time?
Kevin Wright: They are immense. We thought, “Hey, we made a show about timelines and multiverse in season one. We’re going to make it even harder on ourselves this season by doing time loops.” It was something we decided really early on, Eric Martin, our head writer, and myself. It was really appealing. Eric had said jokingly early on, but also seriously, “We can land this. It’s going to be messy for a while because we’ve got to take apart the engine and plant flags in various places, but we can get there. It’s just going to take a lot of refinement and fine-tuning.” It was an exciting proposition because we didn’t want to come back and just repeat season one. We knew we couldn’t come back and play the hits, and we knew that the audience was on board for the weird timey stuff in season one, and that if we are smart about it and we make it digestible, they’ll be on board for this too. The trick was just always make it as serviceable as possible so that we can tell our character story. If it doesn’t get in the way of that, if it ever starts feeling like homework, or it’s confusing and not intriguing, we’ve got to recalibrate. So that was always the baseline for us.
MF: One of the questions season 2 asks is: Is Loki truly a hero or a villain at his core? What is your personal opinion?
KW: I think to ever be the best version of yourself, you have to embrace all aspects of your past. Loki has a lot of things in his past that I’m sure would be seen as villainous. He’s been an anti-hero. He’s played completely in that gray. He’s had redemptive arcs. I think what we liked was putting him on the path to heroism and seeing if this character could get there or if it becomes too hard, if he backslides, or if he’s going to make the right choices. Because heroism gets very tough if you’re put in a position where maybe you have nothing to gain from it. So to me, it was about, could this character ever be the best version of himself because we all see the promise, and it feels like the audience is always rooting for him to get there. That was fun to build into the narrative itself.
MF: Can you talk about Loki and Mobius’ relationship in season 2 and Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s on screen chemistry together?
KW: It’s unreal what the two of those have captured. Look, I think the exciting thing was, people really liked them in season one, and it makes it very easy then to continue on to not only the detective work but the further exploration of these two characters. The great thing in season one was, Mobius disarms Loki in that first episode in the time theater by saying, “I see what you are. I’m not judging you. Let’s have a conversation.” He was very accepting in a way that I don’t think Loki ever had, and it allowed us to kind of get this version of Loki that we hadn’t seen before. So it just felt natural that we could continue to do it this season. But also that Loki hopefully could start disarming Mobius so we could learn more about him and what makes him tick. So for those guys, I’m sure every one of our writers would say it’s a joy to write for them. So it’s about giving them meaty things to dig into because they’re going to bring so much of their own to it, not just in performance, but character, dialogue, and everything. They take it and run with it.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges of introducing He Who Remains last season, as well as Victor Timely this season, and setting up the different variants of Kang for other future Marvel projects?
KW: I think for us, it wasn’t a challenge. I think the fun thing was, we knew we wanted to do Victor. Victor was an idea that we were trying to get into season one, and it was just never going to be able to fit because there’s too much story. But it was exciting because the last thing we’re hearing is that war’s coming. All of these terrible things are happening, and then the most unexpected version of this guy pops up, and he pops up in the past. That was exciting. He was going to be an eccentric. I think for us, we were like, “Are we going to be allowed to do this? Do we have to go further and do the scary version?” It was nothing but embraced because I think it just allows for that much more dynamic storytelling going forward that this guy can be anyone. He can pop up in any form. That’s what gets exciting about it.
Launching on Disney+ on October 5th (with one episode), the second season of Marvel’s ‘Loki’ is a welcome return for one of the better shows to be produced by the company and maintains a lot of what worked the first time around.
And new additions to the story, such as Ke Huy Quan (who knows a thing two about acting in a multiversal story after ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once), add to the entertainment value.
The new season picks up immediately in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority.
Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophie Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
The ensemble for the new season also features (as mentioned) Ke Huy Quan, plus other new recruits Rafael Casal, Kate Dickie and Liz Carr.
Returning from Season 1 is Eugene Codero as Casey, a low-ranking TVA worker who was shown as a Hunter in a parallel timeline at the end of that first season but will be back in his original role to help Loki and co. Jonathan Majors, meanwhile, is once more playing another Kang variant, this time a 19th century professor named Victor Timely (first glimpsed in an end credits scene of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’) who has a strong connection to the organization.
Even without show creator Michael Waldron (who remains peripherally involved as an executive producer) and director Kate Heron, who was responsible for so much of the style and tone of the first season, it’s pleasing to report that ‘Loki’ continues to be a fantastically fun watch.
With Eric Martin, who was a key part of the team for the first season, taking over running the show here and the likes of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (‘The Endless’ and ‘Synchronic’ in theaters and already part of the MCU thanks to their work on ‘Moon Knight‘) inheriting directorial duties, ‘Loki’s second run happily maintains the quality and pulp fiction of the first.
Shouldering the heavy load of continuing the story after that universe-hopping cliffhanger, the new episodes (press were given the first four), throw us straight back into chaos and confusion of the Time Variance Authority as Loki (Hiddleston remains perfect in the role, switching between confident and frazzled on a whim), Mobius (Wilson, still a great counterpart for him) and others try to figure out what is really going.
There are several solid cast additions, but we have to single out Ke Huy Quan, who continues to enjoy a remarkable yet well-earned career renaissance. Off the back of his Oscar win for ‘Everything Everywhere’, he’s superb as genius technical whizz Ouroboros (“OB” for short) who maintains all the technology of the TVA from his cluttered basement lair. Quan fits in perfectly into the show’s world, able to make the humor work and delivering exposition without having you scratch your head or reach for the fast-forward button.
This is a show that knows how to use its ensemble and while the focus is usually on Loki, Mobius or the ever-snarky Sylvie (Di Martino continues to impress), the character love is shared, with some of the supporting roles (Quan and Casal’s Hunter X-5) given their own convincing stories.
Reason to celebrate the show and its title character’s return, then –– which has not always been the case for recent Marvel TV work (looking at you, ‘Secret Invasion’).
The problems with the second season are relatively minor –– though, again, we were only sent the first four episodes, so it remains to be seen if it sticks the landing, and whether it opts for the frustration of another cliffhanger.
There might be some checking their watches through the first episode, which somewhat has the burden of re-introducing the complex central conceit with all of its time branching, time-slipping and odd technology. Fortunately, later episodes pick up the pace and the story kicks into gear, though there is something of a whiff of familiarity occasionally as many of the plots involve a mission to find [insert name of object or person here] so as to avert [crisis X].
And in the annals of Obvious Product Placement, having Sylvie tracked down working at a McDonald’s must rank as quite the most ridiculous for a show as smart as this –– but then, Disney does love a good tie-in. What, no place for her at an Apple Store, with Loki-themed Apple Watches just waiting for eager consumers? Probably wouldn’t work with Loki’s retro futuristic aesthetic. But that’s a minor complaint.
More troubling is one aspect that ‘Loki’, even with all of its time-jumping couldn’t have predicted –– the more dubious (allegedly) aspects of Jonathan Majors’ personal life that complicate the experience of watching his work. His performance as Timely is good (it’s actually more entertaining in some ways than ‘Quantumania’s Kang), but it’s tough to separate what is going on legally from what is on screen.
Yet ‘Loki’s second season still represents one of the most inventive and entertaining examples of what Marvel’s team can do. Even with the connective tissue that is required to the rest of the MCU, this does a lot more than some more basic superhero stories and continues to proudly chart its own weird branch of the massive, linked universe.
Fans of Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, the rest of the ‘Loki’ gang (and multiverses in general), get ready to be happy. Because the Marvel Disney+ series about the character is back in just a few days’ time.
Yet Season 1 screened back in 2021, so what if you’ve forgotten some of the pertinent details and need a refresher? Never fear, we are here to help. Like the Time Variance Agency, we will make sure you are on the right track (and we won’t prune you out of existence, either).
Created and run by Michael Waldron (who would end up spending more time in parallel dimensions when he was hired to re-write Marvel movie sequel ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘Loki’ picks up the story of Tom Hiddleston’s title character back at a time when he was very much more a villain than the heroic character he has become in the likes of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
You’ll recall that Loki spotted a chance to escape custody at the end of ‘The Avengers’ when heroes such as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) travel back in time looking for the Tesseract. Instead of them getting it then, Loki grabs it and uses it to transport himself away.
But he is picked up by agents of the Time Variance Authority, where he has been deemed a dangerous “variant”, a chaotic version of himself that disrupts the timeline that the authority –– or so it claims –– is working to protect. A bureaucratic, retro-futuristic organization that exists outside of time and space, it gives Loki a choice: face being erased from existence due to being a or help fix the timeline and stop a greater threat.
Loki ends up in his own crime thriller, traveling through time hunting a female version of himself named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino).
Sylvie, as mentioned, is a female Loki Variant. Targeted for “pruning” (AKA removing from the timeline), she’s been fighting back across time and space, looking to discover the truth behind the TVA.
She’s causing chaos to attract the organization’s attention and ends up crossing paths with our Loki.
The two actually start to fall for each other, realizing their innate connection. But after figuring they could hide in apocalypses (as Sylvie has been doing), their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when they are brought before He Who Remains (but more on him later) and ends up killing him, shoving Loki into a portal.
She will be back for Season 2, so we’ll find out what happens between the two Lokis. Let’s be honest: “it’s complicated” barely begins to encompass this one.
One of the first faces that any arriving prisoner sees is Miss Minutes, an animated clock who cheerily greets people. Voiced by Tara Strong, this mascot provides information –– but she’s also got a hidden agenda.
The authority is overseen by the “Timekeepers”, mysterious creatures represented by statues in a hidden chamber that some at the TVA see as godlike. As it turns out, that’s a giant lie crafted by He Who Remains (again, more later).
The Timekeepers are androids created to control the TVA and its employees, who, it is revealed, were not specially created to work there, but were in fact all variants themselves, with their memories wiped.
Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson): An agent of the TVA who specializes in the investigations of particularly dangerous time criminals. He befriends Loki, and the two work the Sylvie case. But once he learns about his variant nature, he helps Loki and Sylvie battle his former employers.
Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw): A former TVA Hunter known as A-23, who rose from the ranks to become a respected judge; she oversees the Loki variant investigation. An ambitious, fervent believer in the TVA’s mission, she’s forced to face hard truths about the organization. And when they are revealed, she vanishes into a portal in search of free will.
Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku): A high ranking Hunter of the TVA determined to stop the variant that has been killing Minutemen troops. She’s among those who believe the Timekeepers are gods.
Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane): A TVA Hunter kidnapped and enchanted by Sylvie to reveal the location of the Timekeepers.
At one point, Loki is “pruned” and banished to an apocalyptic, ruined New York, and meets a host of other variants of himself, including Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) who wears a comic-accurate costume and has more extensive illusionary powers than Hiddleston’s version.
There are various others, including Kid Loki (Jack Veal), Boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei) and, of course, Alligator Loki (himself), who we can all agree is the best Loki.
That is being complicated for Marvel by the allegations surrounding Majors’ personal life, but he is back for Season 2, playing Victor Timely, yet another Kang variant. He has been somewhat downplayed in the promos for the new season, but we’ll see how much he appears in the show itself.
‘Loki’ will launch with its first episode (of a planned six) on October 6th. Will the producers announce a third season at the end of the second? Only time will tell…
The reaction to Marvel’s most recent TV offering, ‘Secret Invasion’ (in which Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury tackles an uprising by dissatisfied members of the alien Skrull race) has been, it’s fair to say, somewhat muted. The reviews were not kind and the viewing figures (at least as far as Disney+ allows them to be known) were lackluster.
Marvel Studios (and Disney at large), then, will be keeping their corporate fingers crossed for bigger and better things from the return of ‘Loki’ to screens. And with Tom Hiddleston back as the title character for more chaos, our hopes are that this will deliver more solid entertainment. From the looks of the first trailer, it’s certainly promising.
This new season picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Loki’s got more than just the TVA situation too, as following his trip to a parallel timeline, he’s now glitching in time and needs some help to sort that out. He and Mobius go to see mysterious new character OB, played by Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan.
‘Loki’ Season 2 will see with Loki and Mobius poking around into the past to learn more about Kang (Jonathan Majors), or the man who became He Who Remains, which hopefully brings a solution to the whole time-slipping situation too. Cue a trip to an old-timey fair, which seems to connect with the post-credits sting of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, with Majors turning up as ‘Victor Timely’. While Majors doesn’t appear much in the trailer, it does seem here that he will remain present in Season 2. Marvel is yet to comment on, or announce plans for, Majors’ ongoing role as Kang in the wake of his arrest and the abuse allegations against him.
With luck, the return of Di Martino’s Sylvie will also keep us guessing as to her real agenda (she’s pictured at one point in a McDonald’s uniform), while Miss Minutes is something of a bigger threat this time around –– literally.
‘Loki’ Season 2 will launch on Disney+ on October 6th. The streaming service has yet to announce how many episodes of the six-episode run will debut that day.
(L to R) Sadie Sink, Noah Schapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin in Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things.’
If you’re a TV fan, it has felt a little like “The Night Of The Long Knives” in the last day or so, as several popular shows announced their final seasons.
Fortunately, while disappointing that the likes of ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Atlanta’ and ‘The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel’ will be coming to an end, there’s a feeling that it represents the show’s various creators are all going out on their own terms.
For ‘Stranger Things’ – which, due to its complicated storylines, young cast and pandemic delays has been off screens since Season 3 finished in 2019.
Now, we finally know that Season 4 of the show is headed our way in two parts this year, with the first kicking off on Netflix on May 27 and the second on July 1.
Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 begins on on May 27th.
“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete arc for ‘Stranger Things’, said show creators Matt and Ross Duffer. “At the time, we predicted the story would be four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but – as you’ll soon see for yourselves – we are now hurtling towards our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season. Season 5 will be the last.”
Yes, that little bombshell at the end of the Season 4 statement comes like a stalking Demogorgon. But if you’re thinking that that’ll be the definitive end of the show then A) you’re clearly not used to how popular, zeitgeisty series like this work and B) there are major hints of something in the works beyond the fifth season in another note… “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of ‘Stranger Things’”. Plus, the Duffers mention “new adventures, new mysteries, new unexpected heroes”.
But that’s for (probably) next year. Here’s what we can expect in Season 4… “It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time –and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.”
Season 4 sees Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and some of the other characters relocated to California, but there’s plenty of drama to be found there, while we’re fairly sure it’ll all end up in Hawkins, Indiana where everything began.
(L to R) Brian Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and Donald Glover in FX and Hulu’s ‘Atlanta.’
And if you thought ‘Stranger Things’ fans had a wait, spare a thought for those who love ‘Atlanta.’ Donald Glover’s story of rappers, friends, weirdos, and partners has been away since the end of Season 2 in 2018. Yes, it’s been nearly four years, but the series returns for Season 3 on March 24 via FX and Hulu.
The new season sees Darius (Lakeith Stanfield), Earn (Glover), Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) and more headed on tour in Europe, with all the misunderstandings and comedy that ensues. Yet even here there was word that Glover is moving on – Seasons 3 and 4 were shot back-to-back and the fourth will arrive in the fall.
“Death is natural,” Glover said during FX’s portion of the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “I feel like when the conditions are right for something, they happen, and when the conditions aren’t right, they don’t happen. I don’t feel any longevity. Because then things start to get weird. The story was always supposed to be what it was. And the story, it really was us. Everybody in that writers’ room, everybody on set. It really was what we were going through and what we talked about. … I think it ends perfectly.”
Rachel Brosnahan in Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’
Finally, there’s ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ which has been charting the stand-up aspirations and family frustrations of Rachel Brosnahan’s Miriam “Midge” Maisel. Created by ‘Gilmore Girls’ veteran Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show has run for three seasons on Prime Video, and the fourth starts today.
The company announced that Season 5 will wrap up the story, and that it’s already shooting in New York.
Yet if you’re unhappy to see a favorite show ending, take heart: there is plenty still to watch, and a couple of series have announced new developments.
Kirsten Dunst in FX’s ‘Fargo’ season 2. Photo: Mathias Clamer/FX.
‘Fargo’, created for TV by Noah Hawley, is officially renewed by FX for Season 5, though there is no word on a premiere date yet. We do know it’ll be set in 2019 and offers the tantalizing tagline: “when is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?” Could it be hinting at hewing closer to the Coen brothers movie that originally inspired it?
Finally, news from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s TV arm, as ‘Loki’, which we already knew would return for a second season, has directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead on board to film most of its episodes. The duo, who made movies such as ‘Synchronic’ and ‘The Endless’, also worked on Marvel’s upcoming ‘Moon Knight’, which stars Oscar Isaac and debuts on Disney+ on March 30.
(L to R) Wunmi Mosaku, Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Owen Wilson in Disney+’s ‘Loki.’
The first look at Disney+’s planned “Loki” television series comes courtesy of an official photo released from the company’s April investor meeting.
During that meeting, Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed the logo and a piece of concept art from the show. In the photo, we can see that concept art, which shows Loki (who will be played by Tom Hiddleston) standing in the street in front of a theater marquee displaying the title “Jaws.”
Disney
Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie opened in 1975, so Loki could be causing mischief that year or the following (movies stayed in theaters for longer back then).
It could be that this Loki is an alternate timeline version created by the events of “Endgame. And after “Rick and Morty” writer Michael Waldron boarded the project, there was buzz that the series will follow the trickster as he “pops up throughout human history as unlikely influencer on historical events.” So, perhaps Alterna-Loki will turn into a time traveler who makes “Jaws” a hit, sits ringside for the Thrilla in Manilla, and gets involved with Bill Gates’ creation of Microsoft.
Tom Hiddleston will be reprising his role as the god of mischief in the show, which will be one of the first original series for Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+.
Waldon will write the pilot, act as show creator, and executive produce the series.
The series will reportedly follow Loki as he shapeshifts through human history and influences historical events. (So it will be his fault, probably that the Titanic sank. Or was it those guys in “Time Bandits?” Which is also supposedly being turned into a TV series.)
Besides writing and producing “Rick and Morty,” Waldron is developing “Florida Man” with Steven Soderbergh for Paramount TV.
Waldron also wrote “The Worst Guy of All Time (And the Girl Who Came to Kill Him),” a sci-fi rom-com feature spec script that earned him a spot on the 2018 Black List.
By the way, we can also expect Marvel series focusing on Vision and Scarlet Witch and one about Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Will the actors who’ve played them in the Marvel films reprise these roles? We’ll see.
