TV Bits: ‘Atlanta’ Season 2 Delayed, ‘American Horror Story’ Renewed, ‘Archer’ Sets Premiere Date & More
It’s the TCAs this week, and that means we’ve gotlotsof big TV news coming our way right now. So let’s get them all taken care of right now, shall we? After the jump:
We’re bigStar Warsfans here at /Film, in case you’ve somehow failed to notice, but even we’re a little cranky with them for this one.FX confirmed todaythatDonald Glover’sAtlantawon’t return until 2018 — and it’s allStar Wars' fault. With Glover set to play Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo movie, he just won’t have time for another season ofAtlantauntil next year.
On the bright side, though, we can rest assured Glover won’t be leaving TV behind anytime soon. He’s just signed an exclusive overall production deal with FX Productions, so there could be more shows coming from him in the not-too-distant future.
While we’re at it,Atlantaisn’t the only FX series facing a delay.American Crime Story’s follow-up to its critically acclaimed first season,The People v. O.J. Simpson, has beenpushed back to 2018. “We have really high ambitions for this,” said FX presidentJohn Landgraf. “It’s about character and larger themes. It’s just taking time, frankly, to get material we’re happy with.” As previously announced, season 2 will center on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
Just a few months after FX announcedAmerican Horror Storyhad been renewed for season 7, they’ve gone and re-upped the show fortwomoreseasons. That means it’ll be on air at least through season 9, which will probably air around 2019. Presumably, one of them will be thatMurder House/Covencrossover seasonthat executive producerRyan Murphyhas been teasing. The news shouldn’t exactly shock anyone, seeing asAmerican Horror Storyremains one of the network’s biggest hits as well as a cornerstone of Murphy’s FX television empire.
Get ready forArcher: Dreamland. The animated comedy isset to returnfor its eighth season on Wednesday,April 5at 10 PM. It’ll be the show’s first season on its new home, FXX. The next season reimagines the world ofArcheras a 1940s noir mystery, with Archer setting out to learn who killed Woodhouse.
Also coming back this spring isThe Americans, which has just been set to debut Tuesday,March 7at 10 PM. Make sure to mark that down, because it’s a switch from the show’s usual Wednesday slot. The show is slated to end after season 6, so things should start getting even more explosive than usual.
Finally, FX’s next Ryan Murphy anthology series also has a due date.Feud: Bette and Joan, based on the famous rivalry between Hollywood icons Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon), will kick off Sunday,March 5. The show also starsAlfred Molina,Judy Davis,Stanley Tucci,Jackie Hoffman, andAllison Wright.
In typical Netflix fashion, it looks like they’ve gone ahead and given the greenlight to a second season ofA Series of Unfortunate Eventsbefore the first one has even landed. In an interview withEW, author/writer/producerDaniel Handler(a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) revealed he’s already started working on the next run of episodes:
I am deep in season 2. I’ve been working in my own dining room with a team of writers I’m really loving on the next season, and we hope to get the go-ahead to do season 3, which… given how quickly young actors age and change, we’re trying to film everything as quickly as possible. The second season is laid out to be 10 episodes for the next five books, so it ends onThe Carnivorous Carnival, and the third season would be the rest of it.
The first season lands on NetflixJanuary 13.
HBO has unleashed a new promo forBig Little Lies, its upcoming limited series based on the bestselling novel byLiane Moriarty. This promo looks a little less satirical than the other ones did, and mostly just uses its time to remind you that this show has areallygreat cast:Nicole Kidman,Reese Witherspoon,Shailene Woodley,Alexander Skarsgård,Laura Dern,Adam Scott, andZoë Kravitz.Big Little LiespremieresFebruary 19.
Actually,Big Little Liesseems like it could also be the title forRiverdale, a.k.a. the Sexy Archie show. In this take on the classic comic book property, everyone is hot and hormonal and the seemingly idylllic Riverdale is actually teeming with sex and danger and secrets.RiverdalepremieresJanuary 26on The CW.
Another year, another rash of halfhearted promises that a new season ofArrested Developmentis “close.” Really! For real this time, they swear! To be fair, wrangling a cast that big and impressive is much, much easier said than done, and at the TCAs executive producerBrian Glazerreiterated that that was the holdup. But he thinksArrested Developmentseason 5 might take a big step forward soon. “We are really close — I think within a couple of weeks at the most,“he said. “I think we found a way to create the compensation structure for all the actors and create a work matrix so they can still make movies and do other things and it will all integrate.”
Fox’sLethal WeaponTV reboot is getting its own version of Leo Getz, played byJoe PesciinLethal Weapons2through4. But of course, he won’t be played by Joe Pesci. Instead, the series has castThomas Lennonas the character Entertainment Weekly describes as an “ambulance-chasing lawyer who looks to squeeze every drop out of each petty crime.” Lennon is currently slated for just one episode — the one airingFebruary 15— but if it goes over well it’s not hard to imagineLethal Weaponfiguring out a way to bring him back.
