- Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña is set to be the first Latinx-fronted DC superhero pic in HBO Max’s adaptation of Blue Beetle directed by Angel Manuel Soto, The news was confirmed this week at the premiere of The Suicide Squad.
I know my ancestors are smiling #chicanopower pic.twitter.com/EiXgtDTqOM
— Xolo Mariduena (@Xolo_Mariduena) August 3, 2021
- Speaking of Maridueña and Cobra Kai, the fourth season released a trailer for season 4 which is set to debut on Netflix in December.
- SYFY has given a straight-to-series order for the dramedy Reginald the Vampire (wt) with Spider-Man breakout Jacob Batalon set to play the titular vampire. Based on the Fat Vampire book series by Johnny B. Truant, Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks, Chucky) will serve as showrunner. The series is set in a world populated by beautiful, fit and vain vampires. Reginald Baskin tumbles into it as an unlikely hero who will have to navigate every kind of obstacle – the girl he loves but can’t be with, a bully manager at work and the vampire chieftain who wants him dead. Fortunately, Reginald discovers he has a few unrecognized powers of his own.
- Justin Simien has signed an overall deal at Paramount TV Studios. The news comes the same week Netflix dropped the first look at Simien’s Dear White People Vol. 4, a musical season that will debut on the streamer September 22. The logline for this season says “Set against the backdrop of senior year at Winchester as well as a not-so-distant, post-pandemic future, Dear White People Vol. 4 finds our characters looking back at the most formative (and theatrical) year of their lives. Both an Afro-futuristic and 90s-inspired musical event, Dear White People Vol. 4 is a can’t-miss, farewell experience with one pitch-perfect promise: sometimes the only way to move forward is to throw it back.”
- Luis Guzmán is set to join Jenna Ortega in the Netflix series Wednesday as Addams Family patriarch Gomez Addams.
- Kerry Washington is about to hang ten with the forthcoming Netflix film Rockaway. She will star and produce the feature adaptation of Diane Cardwell’s memoir, “Rockaway: Surfing Headlong Into a New Life”.
- Rutherford Falls creator Sierra Teller Ornelas has renewed her overall deal with Universal TV.
- Prentice Penny has moved his overall deal from HBO to Disney’s recently launched Onyx Collective, the Disney venture focused on underrepresented creatives overseen by Freeform president Tara Duncan.
- Genera+ion star Justice Smith has joined Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan in Apple Original Film and A24’s Sharper.
- Lil Rel Howery — who can currently be seen in Free Guy — is joining the comedic whodunnit Reunion alongside Billy Magnussen and Jillian Bell.
- Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, and Mustafa Shakir are joining joined Will Smith in the Antoine Fuqua-directed Emancipation at Apple Studios.
- Hamilton‘s Christopher Jackson and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel LeRoy McClain have joined the cast of HBO Max’s Sex and the City revival And Just Like That... in recurring roles.
- Code Black and Homeland actor Raza Jaffrey has boarded the Starz drama series The Serpent Queen in the role of Francois Guise.
- Luke Cage and Evil star Mike Colter is boarding the thriller The Plane at Lionsgate.
- Baby Driver actress Eiza González is set to star and produce a feature about the iconic Mexican film star Maria Felix.
- Laurence Fishburne is set to executive produce a series adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel Sag Harbor at HBO Max.
- Keegan-Michael Key is joining Johnny Knoxville to star in the Hulu comedy pilot Reboot from Modern Family‘s Steve Levitan.
- Dominic Fike, Demetrius ‘Lil Meech’ Flenory Jr. and Minka Kelly are joining Zendaya and Hunter Schafer in the second season of Euphoria.
- The Gotham Awards pushes progress forward with gender-neutral categories.
- The animated series Tuca & Bertie starring Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong has been renewed for a third season at Adult Swim.
- Hacks actress Poppy Liu is set to join Rachel Weisz in the upcoming Amazon series Dead Ringers.
- Will Packer Productions and Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Studios are developing an untitled project based on Evan Ratliff’s Bloomberg article, “The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master”.
- Good Trouble star Cierra Ramirez is set to star in the indie feature The Re-Education of Molly Singer.
- Ramón Rodríguez will star opposite Aubrey Plaza in Olga Dies Dreaming, Hulu’s one-hour drama pilot based on the novel by Xochitl Gonzalez.
