Detective Pikachu has found its non-Pikachu star. Edward James Olmos teases the surprising humour of The Predator. Gotham is setting up another major arc for Jerome’s return. Plus, new pictures from The Flash‘s new encounter with its big bad of the season, and Reign makes her debut on Supergirl. Spoilers get!
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Rumours have been swirling about a series of major cameos in the movie – including Tom Hardy, British pop star Gary Barlow, and even royal Princes Harry and William – for months. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, details on when they will show up in the movie have been revealed… and they’re all actually in a single scene together (one that hasn’t been cut, as John Boyega had previously believed). The site states that Hardy, Barlow and the Princes will all be playing First Order Stormtroopers, guarding Finn in an elevator, presumably after his infiltration of the organisation is exposed as we’ve seen in the trailers.
Meanwhile, Benicio Del Toro offered the most nebulous description of his character, mysterious hacker DJ, to Scifinow magazine (via Screenrant):
Maybe you could find him in a Bob Dylan song or a Tom Waits song. Or maybe in a Dostoyevsky novel. You’ll find DJ in one of those stories. You don’t know what he is. But that’s the idea… You don’t know if he’s good or bad.
Detective Pikachu
Variety reports Justice Smith has joined the cast (opposite Pikachu, naturally) in the film’s lead human role – presumably, as it’s based on the game of the same name, this character is Tim, a young boy looking for his missing father when he teams up with the Detective Pikachu to solve Pokecrimes.
Danger Girl
A film adaptation of the ’90s comic book series Danger Girl is in development from the producers of the Resident Evil franchise. [THR]
The Predator
Edwards James Olmos warned Cinema Blend the latest Predator movie is going to be unexpectedly funny.
Oh, my goodness. That’s an interesting story. I haven’t seen any of it, but it’s gonna be funny. The kids in the thing. Yeah, the humour. Huge. Huge. I mean I was in shock, because, you know this is a really intense franchise, and it still is. Don’t get me wrong. You’re gonna be inside of it. But the characters are… what he did – Shane is an incredibly gifted writer, and he’s a great director, and so he ended up getting an incredible ensemble, and when I reached it they had already been filming for three months so they were a unit. So I jump in as the General and there were some moments where I just had to laugh in the scene and I couldn’t be laughing in the scene. ‘I’m sorry guys. Really, I’m sorry.’
Olmos went on to discuss the film’s premise – which involves a convoy of PTSD survivors running afoul of the titular aliens.
Because Keegan (Michael Key) and Thomas Jane, they make… they’re paired off in groups of three groups. Six guys. The way they work, they were all post-traumatic stress disorder guys who were inside of an insane asylum. A mental hospital. Then they put the lead character in there to kind of make them disappear, because they want them kind of out of the picture. And so he gets involved and then boom, the world goes crazy and these kids are released. But out of a freaky incident with some of the Predators. It’s crazy. It’s so crazy. I’m excited for it, and I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I got a good feeling about it. I mean if it’s really funny, and yet deadly like Predator is.
iZombie
Actress Izabela Vidovic revealed she’s playing a “tricky” character named Isobel in an interview with Monsters & Critics.
Well, my character’s name is Isobel and I unfortunately can’t really reveal too much because it’s going to ruin the whole storyline. It’s a tricky character, however I’m very excited to be a part of it. I did work with the creator, Rob Thomas, on a pilot a few years ago so this is fun to be working again with him and Dan Etheridge as well.
You’re going to see her with Rose and with Ravi a lot but I can’t say to what capacity.
Mercury 13
Amazon is developing a miniseries based on Martha Ackerman’s book, The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight, from producers Bradley Whitford and Amy Pascal. [Coming Soon]
Black Lightning
Black Lightning debuts in the U Tuesday, January 16, after The Flash, according to TV Guide.
Gotham
Executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt teases Jerome’s arc in the latest season:
We feel like, where The Killing Joke was so obviously and intentionally a touchstone in the last run, there is nothing of that kind of ilk for this. Now, there’s always things that will make you go, ‘Oh it’s a little bit like this or it’s a little bit I see the inspiration there. I see the inspiration here.’ But this is a very original kind of take on this story and we’re really excited about it because his reintroduction into the Gotham world is going to have him crossing with characters we’ve not yet seen him with. Which is really kind of a theme we’ve been playing with this whole season and something we challenged ourselves over designing this season.
Supergirl
The Reign subplot finally comes to a boil in the synopsis for episode nine, “Reign”.
Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) investigates a mysterious symbol popping up all over National City, tracing its origins back to an ancient prophecy and the mark of the World Killer, Reign (Odetee Annable). Meanwhile, the tension between Lena (Katie McGrath) and Morgan Edge (guest star Adrian Pasdar) continues to build, causing James to step in and offer up some protection, and possibly igniting a spark in the process.
The Flash
Katee Sackoff returns as Amunet in the synopsis for episode nine, “Don’t Run”.
Amunet (guest star Katie Sackhoff) kidnaps Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) and puts meta-dampener handcuffs on her to keep her from turning into Killer Frost. Amunet tells Caitlin she needs her to perform a tricky medical task and if Caitlin fails, Amunet will kill her. Meanwhile, The Thinker (guest star Neil Sandilands) traps The Flash (Grant Gustin) in a speedster-proof prison. With the clock ticking, The Team doesn’t have the time or resources to track both Caitlin and Barry so Iris (Candice Patton) is forced to choose who to save.
Meanwhile, the CW has released promotional photos from next week’s Devoe-centric episode, “Therefore I Am”. More available at Coming Soon.
Agents of SHIELD
Finally, Coming Soon has a new poster for season five, Agents of SHIELD… In Spaaaace!
Banner art by Jim Cooke.