Small Screen: Asian-Led Thriller Series ‘Jake Chang’ Coming To The CW; ‘Dark Winds’ Renewed For Season 2; Billy Porter Signs Deal With FX; Tim Meadows, Jameela Jamil Join Peacock’s ‘Poker Face’
Archie Comics
Broadcast: The CW is developing a new noir thriller teen drama set in the world of Archie Comics titled Jake Chang, based on a brand new character who will make his comic debut on July 27th in the Betty and Veronica story “Mystery of the Missing Mermaid”. Jake, a 16-year-old private investigator, is presumably a relation to the Archie Comics character Fu Chang, who was a private detective living in the Chinatown district of San Francisco during the 1940s. The show comes from writer Oanh Ly and writer-director Viet Nguyen and is being produced by Warner Brothers, Archie Studios, and Daniel Dad Kim’s 3AD, a production company committed to creating works that feature traditionally underrepresented characters and cultures.
Zahn Mclarnon - Rick Kern
Cable: AMC and AMC+’s Dark Winds have been renewed for a second season. The Western noir crime thriller starring Native American actor Zahn McClarnon garnered 2.2 million viewers for its premiere, the best launch of a series in AMC+ history. Based on a book series by Tony Hillerman, Dark Winds tells the story of Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Tribal Police (McClarnon) and his deputy Jim Chee (played by Kiowa Gordon) as they solve a series of crimes on a remote outpost of the Navajo Nation near Monument Valley in 1971. It was created by Graham Roland, who executive produces with McClarnon, actor Robert Redford, author George R.R. Martin, Hillerman’s daughter Anne, Chris Eyre, Vince Calandra, Vince Gerardis, and Tina Elmo. The production, which worked closely with the Navajo Nation and was granted special permission to film on tribal lands in New Mexico, has been commended for its portrayal of Native people and will return next year with another six-episode run.
NCIS: New Orleans’ Jason Alan Carvell will take over the role of Malcolm X for the third season of Godfather of Harlem, the Epix drama series that stars Forrest Whitaker as 1960’s crime boss Bumpy Johnson. Carvell is replacing Nigél Thatch, who not only plays Malcolm X in the show’s first two seasons but also in the 2014 film Selma. The third season will have Johnson battling the Cuban Mafia for control of Harlem with a cast that also includes Vincent D’Onofrio, Ilfenesh Hadera, Lucy Fry, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Broadway and television star Billy Porter has signed a first-look deal with FX production to develop content through his new production company Incognegro with producing partner D.J. Gugenheim. FX President of Original Programming Nick Grad describes Porter as “an incredibly accomplished artist” and says “we are excited to help him produce bold new stories that reflect his vision and unmatched style.” In his statement, the Pose star talked about how thankful he is to have reached the point in his life where his queerness is no longer a “liability” but instead “grounds” his work “in personal authenticity and power”. Porter called the team at FX “fearless” and says he “can’t wait to break new grounds together.”
Jameela Jamil - Rich Polk/E! Entertainment
Streaming: SNL alumni Tim Meadows and The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil are two of the new faces joining the cast of the Peacock series Poker Face, created by Knives Out writer/director Rian Johnson. They were announced along with Nicholas Cirillo (Outer Banks) Audrey Corsa (All Rise) and Niall Cunningham (And Just Like That) to be joining a cast that already boasts Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Benjamin Bratt, Stephanie Hsu, and David Castañeda among its numbers. Natasha Lyonne will executive produce and star in the show described as a crime procedural in which her character solves a murder each of its ten episodes. Maya Rudolph and Danielle Renfrew Behrens also executive produce with Lyonne under their Animal Pictures banner, along with Ram Bergman and Nena Rodrigue of T-Street, and Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (who are also a show-runner).
In other Peacock news, Killing It starring Craig Robinson has been renewed for a second season. The comedy, produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and created by co-showrunners/executive producers Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici, launched on NBC’s streaming service in April and tells the story of Craig (Robinson) who is pursuing the American Dream by attempting to compete in Florida’s annual python hunting contest. Erin Underhill, President, of Universal Television released a statement saying “this series is a compassionate and hilarious comedy that anyone who has ever been in pursuit of a dream can relate to; that’s what makes it so special.”
Boba Fett himself, Temuera Morrison, will star with Top of The Lake’s Robyn Malcolm in the New Zealand drama series Far North for Sundance Now. The fact-based series about a regular couple who stop an international crime ring in their small community was researched and created by director David White (This Town) and written by White, Suli Moa (Shortland Street), and Mingjian Cui (Inked). Production has already begun on the six-episode series which will film half of its fourteen-week shoot in Apihara, where the event took place in real life. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (The Panthers), Xana Tang (Mulan), Fei Li (Island of Yesterday), Gabriel Chao Ren (Power Rangers), Maaka Pohatu (Savage); and Fay Tofilau (26:29) will also appear in the show Sundance Now VP of Programming Shannon Cooper says “is an exact delivery on Sundance Now’s promise of providing our audiences with high-quality, thought-provoking, incredibly well-acted and captivating programming."
Last Comic Standing competitor Aida Rodriguez is set to make her directing debut with two comedy specials for the HBO Max series Entre Nos, one featuring comedian Ian Lara and another featuring Ralph Barbosa and Gwen La Roka, who are the two winners of the HBO & NYLFF Latino Stand-Up Comedy Competition. Rodriguez is a veteran of Entre Nos, having appeared on the series in 2018.
It was announced that Tiffany Boone will appear opposite Moonlight actor André Holland in an Apple limited series about Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton titled The Big Cigar. The show will be executive produced by Jim Hecht (creator of HBO’s Winning Time), Janine Sherman Barrios (showrunner of TNT’s Claws), actor Don Cheadle, and Epic’s Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector. The pilot episode is written by Hecht and will be directed by Cheadle.
Disney+’s National Treasure series is adding Jacob Vargas in a recurring role as a “rugged, treasure-obsessed, adventurous soul with a good sense of humor” in this expansion of the movie franchise. The new series, executive produced by the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub and writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, focuses on Jess, a young Latina in search of answers about her family and their connection to a lost Pan-American treasure.
Also on Disney+, the upcoming series Percy Jackson and the Olympians have added Dior Goodjohn and Charlie Bushnell to its cast. Goodjohn will play Clarisse LaRue, the strong-willed and competitive child of the Greek God of War Ares, while Bushnell is set to play Luke Castellan, head counselor at Hermes Cabin. They join Walker Scobell as Percy, Aryan Simhadri, and Leah Sava Jeffries as his friends Grover and Annabeth, as well as Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Timm Sharp, and Megan Mullally. The show is based on the best-selling book series by Rick Riordan and is being produced by 20th Television.
Hannibal Buress - Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Industry: Hannibal Buress of Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show and Comedy Central’s Broad City has signed with talent agency UTA. Best known for his stand-up comedy specials which include Comedy Camisado and Miami Nights, Buress also recently released an EP debuting under the name Eshu Tune and hosted the podcast Hannibal Buress: Handsome Rambler. Buress will still continue to be represented by Artists First, Melissa Fox at HJTH and Manoj Shah at Brand Counsel in addition to UTA.
Simon Lopez has been announced as the newly created head of strategy at BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand. Lopez previously led strategy and insight for BAI Communications, a global provider of 5G and connected infrastructure, and served as head of corporate finance and reporting for Hoyts Group prior to that. In this new role, Lopez will help define how investment is allocated across the portfolio, and support negotiations with key customers under SVP of Strategy and Research Dorota Tomas and BBC Studios ANZ General Manager Fiona Lang.