A couple years ago director Yeon Sang-ho made a name for himself within the horror genre with his unexpected hit Train to Busan (2016). It’s a well-earned spot. Busan had the potential to be just another locked “house” style zombie film. Instead it took the genre and gave it a fantastic, brutal twist. This is the kind of film you watch alone first to get the shouting out of your system, then show it to friends while watching their reaction. Despite how odd it feels to call a movie with so much blood refreshing, Busan is so different from the zombie media released in the last few years, it really does put a little pep in my step just knowing there’s still new ways to tell the age-old apocalypse story.
In the beginning of August, several reports appeared stating that Sang-ho has begun early pre-production for a sequel to his zombie masterpiece. When I say early, I mean really early. Contracts are still being drafted. There is a script, and the vague filming date of sometime early in 2019. Oh, and a name: Bando (Peninsula).
Sang-ho has clarified a few things about the upcoming film. Keep in mind, this is a second-hand translation, so some details may be off. “It is an extension of Train to Busan, after the virus has spread throughout Korea, but the characters are not the same. It shares the same world view and is a zombie action film that deals with the aftermath on the peninsula of what happened in Train To Busan.”
Fans of the original knew that the old cast probably wouldn’t make a return, but hope springs eternal for some reporters, it seems. Hopefully whoever they do bring onboard to star in Bando has a similar magnetic energy as Busan‘s Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, and Jung Yu-mi.
We’ll keep you updated if this movie does indeed begin production next year. Want to watch Train to Busan? It is currently available to stream via Netflix.
A Sons of Anarchy Star is the Newest Addition to TWD by R. C. Murphy
Casting news from the Walking Dead camp comes at a whirlwind pace nowadays. Over the last month or so, we’ve learned that season nine will introduce yet another survivor group, the Whisperers. This crew is straight from the comics, with their reign as Grimes’ adversary coming after All Out War wrapped, just as it is planned on the show currently. What makes the Whisperers different from other foes Rick’s group has faced is their heavy-handed use of undead skins to blend in with the creatures. The show has already announced actors for the Whisperers’ leader Alpha and her daughter Lydia—Samantha Morton and Cassady McClinty.
At the end of August, they announced that another Whisperer has come onboard. Beta, Alpha’s second-in-command, will be brought to life by Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, Bates Motel). It’s not hard at all to imagine Hurst filling that all-too memorable walker skin mask. Matter of fact, just a day after the announcement, Hurst found himself in the makeup chair with his head covered in goop so the makeup magicians for the show can create said mask.
Fellow cast members wasted no time welcoming Hurst to the fold via social media. Some joked around a bit, possibly alluding to a gruesome plot line from the comics which may or may not happen; it depends on how much tweaking they have to do in order to not only make up for Carl’s absence, but also writing off two community leaders this season. However the Whisperers story line plays out, it’s bound to be incredible based on the casting news alone. There’s no way they’d squander this much talent.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 7th. Catch up on previous seasons via your favorite streaming service, or keep an eye out for one of the many mini-marathons AMC hosts at random.
Seems like just yesterday we sat down to discuss a new show from The CW that surprisingly brought the zombie genre into the rom-com fold with little fuss and quite a bit of laughter. Fast-forward five seasons, suddenly we’re counting down to the final days of cute brain foods and failed ‘ships for Liv.
Filming for iZombie‘s fifth and final season began the first week of August. Series stars Rahul Kohli and Rose McIver continue their longtime tradition of kinda live-tweeting their onset time together. There’s also the ongoing saga over whether Kohli’s new house is haunted or not, as witnessed by co-star/roommate Malcolm Goodwin. Either they’re working too many hours on the show and hallucinating, or someone didn’t ask for the property’s history before moving in and there’s a poltergeist waiting to yank Kohli into a glowing closet. Let’s hope it is more of the former than the latter.
So far it looks like Ravi will spend his usual amount of time dealing with dead bodies in and out of the morgue. Liv’s more human look is nowhere to be seen for this season so far. McIver’s from-set selfies are very much Classic Liv; the one who embraced her zombie features without apology even when the undead still lived under the radar. Which makes sense, Liv only donned the human disguise to perpetuate the Renegade myth easier. With Major installed as the head of the snake the team and Renegade’s people fought last season, there should be no need to sneak around curing sick people, right? Maybe the world will even grow to embrace the undead and not fear them. Though one can understand their hesitation thanks to the zombie army Fillmore-Graves amassed in Seattle.
Peace will be hard to come by, that we know for sure. To help the political side of the city’s plight play out, the production team is finally bringing the city council into the equation. Playing zombie city council member Zed is legendary NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Zed is one of just two council members who remained in Seattle after Fillmore-Graves triggered the outbreak which prompted a quarantine of the city. The second council member is a human and the differing opinions, plus the murder of the mayor, puts even more pressure on Peyton as she fights for all of Seattle’s residents equally.
It’ll be quite some time before we get an airdate for iZombie‘s final season premiere, but we’ll be here to bring you the news as soon as The CW makes its announcement.
There hasn’t been a wealth of information coming from the Z Nation camp while they film this summer. We got a peek at season five when the cast and producers took a break from the set for their SDCC panel, but as always, they kept the juicy bits close to their vest.
Until now, that is.
Looks like the post-apocalyptic world is expanding yet again. We’re finally getting names and faces for the long-teased NewMerica settlement. First up is someone you may recognize from another popular zombie show, Katy O’Brian. After her short stint on AMC’s The Walking Dead, finding footing in a slightly different version of the apocalypse should be a piece of cake. The big difference is, O’Brian is making the leap from an unnamed Savior character to what’s being billed as the hero of this newly found settlement.
O’Brian’s character Georgia (a.k.a George) St. Clair went from starting her first year of college to leading a group of student and teachers from her school all the way to NewMerica in the eight year span of the zom-poc so far. Using that trust, she’s shifted from survival mode to planning mode and is one of the political heads in the settlement who wants to form a new country. Unfortunately, that also puts her on the frontlines while dealing with the new breed of highly intelligent zombies.
I’m not sure what’s worse, dealing with the politics between Alexandria and the Saviors or being the one everyone looks to in order to fight an enemy with far more deadly potential than anything they’ve faced before.
Given how long both shows have been on the air, it’s only a matter of time before more actors like O’Brian make the jump to the SyFy series in order to expand their genre resume. And, hey, we’ll welcome them with open arms.
That’s about it for Z Nation news, save for a few from-set snapshots the cast posted late in August on Instagram. While there are rumors for a season five premiere date, I’ve found nothing official to confirm it just yet, so don’t believe everything you read when googling. That doesn’t mean you can’t hop on one of many streaming services to watch the previous seasons in a glorious, blood-drenched marathon, though.
We’ll be back with more Z Nation news as soon as they drop the premiere date for season five.
Earlier this summer we dropped some news about Jonathan Maberry‘s expansive franchise, V-Wars making the jump to the small screen. Netflix wasted no time getting the cast together to film up in Canada.
Which means it should come as no surprise that the air date for this show seems just as hasty.
Reports coming from, of all places, CatCon, say that the show’s star Ian Somerhalder suggested a premiere date as soon as March or April 2019. The franchise’s author repeated the statement when asked about the premiere on Twitter early in August. So there you have it, the newest man-eating nightmare will descend upon the living in no time at all, barring any production glitches or differing news from Netflix itself.
Speaking of glitches . . . . If you’re a fan who enjoys watching behind-the-scenes footage while the scenes are still being shot, some of the stars, like Adrian Holmes, have taken to Instagram to document their time on set. Which is how we got my favorite bit of news so far: Someone accidentally locked the keys in one of the show’s cop cars. No worries, they found someone to unlock the door and save the day without calling the actual police. Other from-the-set news includes the first look at Somerhalder’s character, Dr. Luther Swann. For anyone who wasn’t a The Vampire Diaries fan, you won’t understand why it’s a little weird to see Somerhalder in a on-set photo looking, well, like a regular human. He hit everyone’s radar on the flat side of the heartbeat, so it’s interesting to see him representing the living in his new series.
In a recent interview with PopSugar, the show’s star revealed why he just couldn’t stay away from the potential he sees in V-Wars. “[V-Wars] has a message. I loved my experience and my family on The Vampire Diaries, but [with V-Wars] we get to tackle real, social issues without bludgeoning people over the head.” Somerhalder went on to add, “There’s no rating on the show, so it’s actually a lot more realistic. The way things happen in life, you can show. The social issues that you’re not able to address in network television, you can intertwine them into a fictional narrative that actually is not that far away from the truth. It is a genre show, but the performances are so grounded in truth that they’re hair-raising. We’re working very, very hard, and I hope you guys like it.”
Can’t wait to see the cast or Jonathan Maberry’s words in action? You might want to take a look at the program for New York Comic Con closer to the event’s starting date. Maberry announced his attendance at the event earlier this month and suggested that the show’s cast may also be there that weekend. In what capacity, I’m not sure. None are on the official guest list as of this moment and it’s too far out for the panel schedule to be released. NYCC takes place in NYC at the Javits Center on October 4-7.
We’ll be back with more V-Wars news when it happens. Hopefully there’s some real promo shots in the near future. The Instagram snapshots are fun, but I don’t think we’ve gotten a real look at these characters just yet.
Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
With the official countdown to the season 9 premiere underway, it was only a matter of time before we got more casting news from The Walking Dead. They’re hard at work, wrapping up Rick and Maggie’s final season with as much energy as possible. Which is probably why the production team brought in one of the comic series’ most talked about foes to be the newest bump in the survivors’ path to their long-promised utopia. Everything I hear about this group sets my hair on end. Who on earth goes around wearing zombie skin all the time? There’s not enough soap on earth to make that okay.
Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
The show’s producers dropped Samantha Morton’s name during the 2018 SDCC panel, announcing her role as Alpha and officially presenting what will likely be the Big Bad for the season, the Whisperers. Alpha is their leader. She has a daughter in the comics, Lydia. That character will make the jump from page to screen, brought to life by Cassady McClincy (Love,Simon).
Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
That’s about where the assumptions about Lydia start and stop. Her comic storyline centered on a relationship with Carl which makes her switch teams. With him out of the picture, it’ll be interesting to see if they simply shift her plot onto another character or if Lydia will find a completely different secondary life outside the comics, much like Morgan’s story changed as he kept returning to the show. Will she be a monkey wrench in the plan to build a modern society or shift loyalty to help further distance the living from walkers, whereas her mother clings to the dead like a security blanket? The potential for Lydia is endless without Carl there.
Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Cooper Andrews as Jerry – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC
In other news from the set, AMC released a handful of images from season 9. For the most part they cover the process of reclaiming old technology, as the cast and producers discussed earlier this summer. There’s also some clues about how the time jump has affected some of our favorite characters. And, boy, can I hear some ‘ships sinking as I type. Looks like Carol and Ezekiel have moved past the awkward kinda flirting stage at last. This photo set also answers questions about how long Jadis/Anna and the Saviors would actually stick around to help. To be honest, I thought Jadis would fall back to a minor character, but there she is, on a salvage mission with the other community leaders.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on Sunday, October 7th. Keep an eye out here for updates as we get closer to the premiere.
Fear the Walking Dead Crawls Back to AMC by R.C. Murphy
Over the course of the fourth season for Fear the Walking Dead, the production team flipped the show on its head. And the season isn’t even halfway finished. Gone is the linear timeline—with no promises from the showrunners to return to the storytelling style from before. Fans were treated to a whole new set of characters and their ever-evolving problems. A strong love story came in, highlighting the need for happiness in the show to keep it feeling fresh. Happiness that wasn’t yet another temporary, overly dramatic, possibly ill-considered relationship for Alicia. Then came the biggest turn in the show’s history: The family is no more. In order to move in a new direction, they cut most of the ties to the past via Madison doing what she did best, right to the very end. Not only was it a shock to the fans, but the cast, as well. Coleman Domingo spoke in an interview about the dual departures, going into how hard it was to lose coworkers who’d been there since day one. What did it take to translate that emotion to the screen? “It required intense amounts of grace, and patience, and frustration, and being honest about your feelings,” Domingo said.
I’ll be honest, I lost track of this show again, despite the appeal of Morgan’s crossover—the character is amazing and I kinda wanted to keep in touch with his story. When the Madison/Nick news dropped, I regretted lagging behind and seriously considered a quick season four catch-up. Other things the cast and production team said during their 2018 San Diego Comic-Con panel made it even more apparent that the deeply problematic show I left behind is not the show that’s on air now.
Not only that, much like the cast from the sister show, those who were onstage for the FtWD SDCC panel appeared happier. More relaxed. The jokes and banter were actually funny. At one point, everyone in the hall wished Alycia Debnam-Carey a happy birthday. More than the renewed joy, even the concepts they spoke about morphed from discussions which highlighted the cringe-worthy, racist nature of the previous seasons’ plots, to pointing out how the incoming storm teased in the trailer is, essentially, a visual representation of Alicia’s grief. It’s a massive difference and makes the show more inviting to new audiences.
And let’s not forget the drastic uptick in poo jokes thanks to Lennie James and the showrunners, Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg. Believe it or not, it’s completely relevant to the show. Let’s just say they’re bringing in a whole new level of realism to Morgan’s story line and leave it at that.
The second half of season four will find Morgan struggling to figure out if he belongs with these people, or where he belongs if not with them. Alicia’s forced to mourn her family while enduring a storm chalk full of airborne undead. She’ll even have her own character-centric episode at last. Strand grasps for comforts from the days before hell came to Earth and seeks shelter in a mansion, complete with wine cellar. Everyone else from the stadium will use the remaining episodes to find their purpose and place in a world suddenly devoid of their leader. Chambliss told Syfy Wire, “The back half of this season has all of our characters asking themselves . . . ‘What do we do to move forward? Who are we to each other? How can we come back from all these really dark things we did?’ We really view this as an ensemble show, and we’re going to be telling stories throughout the back half of the season that will focus on different characters grappling with those existential questions in different ways.”
On top of the already introduced new characters for season four like Jenna Elfman’s multiple-named character, Maggie Grace’s Althea, and Garret Dillahunt’s John Dorie, there are even more new faces coming onboard to flesh out the ensemble. Aaron Stanford, who just wrapped the astounding Syfy series 12 Monkeys, makes his way over to FtWD for even more genre weirdness. Parks and Recreation‘s Mo Collins has the potential to bring a whole new vibe to the cast with her vast comedic career. Tonya Pinkins, who played Ethel Peabody on Gotham, is also slated to make her appearance soon. Daryl Mitchell, better known for his comedic roles in Galaxy Quest and 10 Things I Hate About You, will bring something different to the franchise—a disabled character played by a disabled actor. It’s about dang time the genre got better about disabled representation, and Mitchell’s on-screen energy makes the casting choice just that much better. Stephen Henderson (Fences) rounds out the new FtWD cast that’s been announced so far. It’s an insanely talented group coming onto the show at a time when everything is in flux.
Oh. Oh, man. So this is what it’s like to be actually excited about the show again. Never thought that sensation would ever return.
Speaking of returns, Fear the Walking Dead returned to AMC on August 12th, so there’s no need to wait any longer. Jump into season four. Go ahead. I think it might actually be worth the time.
The summer of 2018 has been quite transformative for the cast and crew for AMC’s smash hit series The Walking Dead. Right off the bat during the San Diego Comic-Con panel we know something’s changed. There’s a serious difference in the energy onstage. It’s not just Yvette Nicole Brown’s infectious enthusiasm, either. For heaven’s sake, even Andrew Lincoln has an earnest smile on his face throughout the entire thing instead of just looking as tired as he should be after filming. Let’s be honest, working on the show is hard. We’ve all heard the stories about the heat and ticks. Usually everyone’s rough around the edges and thankful they’re in an air-conditioned building. Not this year. This year they vibrated with excitement. Too much excitement, sometimes. New showrunner Angela Kang let fly an f-bomb during a mutual respect fest with Jeffrey Dean Morgan at one point. Most everyone took a minute to sing Kang’s praises, in return. This was a level of affection between the production team and the cast we’ve yet to see, honestly. Even amongst the production team, too!
Promoting Kang seems to be the Thing. That Thing some fans have waited for to turn the tide. Dare we hope things are actually changing for the better? Keep in mind, Kang is responsible for the heart-wrenching episode where the gang says goodbye to Dale. You know, the one with that amazing speech? Including this too-fitting gem: “If we do this, we’re saying there is no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization.” Color me a little excited to see a return to that style of drama on the show.
The SDCC panelists for 2018 were: Angela Kang, Scott Gimple, Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Greg Nicotero, Gale Anne Hurd, Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Norman Reedus.
Right off the bat, after everyone settled down, Kang confirmed that the long-awaited time-jump will happen leading into season nine. Maggie has the baby at last! Thus endeth the longest pregnancy on cable television. Kang alluded to the survivors building on the hope seeded in season eight, while simultaneously watching the infrastructure from the old world crumble around them to return to nature’s rule. Nicotero later expanded on this idea by pointing out how far-outdated (he says “ancient”) technology will have more value for the survivors than, for instance, guns with their finite amount of ammunition and supplies to continue making it. So they knock off a few museums and make off with the covered wagons, who cares? Now they’ve got the means to move without scrounging for fuel that isn’t there anymore. But all that forward progress has other kinds of consequences, as Gurira pointed out. Some people will want to do things their own way. We saw a group at the end of season eight who were very much not onboard with Rick’s “kill them with kindness” plan. That distrust doesn’t just vanish. Cohan talked super vaguely about how Maggie will deal with Negan’s continued survival in this better world she’s helping build—basically, she will deal with it, so just wait and see.
As Lincoln pointed out, there was a rather large elephant on the stage with them. For weeks the rumor mill churned out talk of his departure from TWD. Kirkman accidentally spilled the beans on the reality of the exit in his own panel before the TWD one in Hall H, so all Lincoln had to do was try not to cry while confirming his exit. He went on to pour his heart out, sharing the devotion he’s felt from the cast/crew and fans for the last decade. In an aside, he pointed out that his two of his all-time favorite episodes are coming up in season nine. Wonder if it’ll be easy to spot them. He later called the upcoming season, “Cowboys and zombies.” Which is more in-line with where some thought the show would go than where it ended up during “All Out War.”
Expect some new settings in the new season, specifically D.C. (at last!). Other new things include new styles of undead, according to Nicotero. Kirkman teased a “whispering zombie”, as seen in the trailer. There’s some new animals on the show, namely horses, which forced the production team to relearn the meaning of patient, it seems. Lastly, there’s a handful of new cast members joining the gang. Zack McGowan will play a Savior. Dan Fogler will be Luke. Samantha Morton was announced a little later as Alpha, the leader of—well, look at that—the Whisperers. Guess that explains the talking supposedly-dead person. There will be more cast announcements soon, no doubt.
The main panel portion rounded out with some funny stories from the cast. Gurira and Lincoln ribbed each other about their horse riding skills. Reedus gushed, yet again, about the forbidden wheelie he popped during filming while Lincoln clung to the back of the seat valiantly delivering his lines. There was even a prank war update, complete with a heated discussion as to the validity of Lincoln’s latest volley in the long-standing battle of wits. Brown passed question duty off to the fans for about nine minutes to end the panel.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 7th. There is a season nine preview special, hosted by Brown, on Sunday, August 5th at 9 PM.
The Z Nation Universe Expands with New Series Black Summer by R.C. Murphy
Not long before SDCC 2018, a few gossipy news bits flitted across social media alluding to huge news from the Z Nation team. Without any evidence behind the stories, it’s easily brushed off as the usual comic-con driven theories; best to opt to wait for actual news from the production team themselves. We didn’t have to wait long.
One of the first big genre news items out of SDCC this year was confirmation that Z Nation will indeed expand with an upcoming series on Netflix titled Black Summer. There’s some quibbling over the exact wording regarding this being a spin-off, though. It sounds like this is their answer to Fear the Walking Dead in a way, what with the trip back to the chaotic parts of the apocalypse. The new series is slated to be a ZN prequel of sorts, with totally new characters, in the early stages of the zombie apocalypse. Or as showrunner Karl Schaefer said during The Asylum’s panel, “Black Summer is before the apocalypse got weird and was just scary.” Joining Schaefer at the helm is fellow ZN producer John Haymes.
The series will have eight episodes. However, where BS differs from ZN is the season will be one giant story. None of the zombie-of-the-week or enemy-of-the-week type of gags, here, as with Z Nation‘s early seasons. I suspect the new show will be something to set aside a day and just binge-watch in order to fully appreciate the story. During the panel, the showrunners promised that Black Summer would be the more serious cousin in the universe, bringing old school zombie horror to the franchise. So maybe make it two days. These guys are getting good at gore. It may be a tad much to digest in one day.
Coming in as the star for the series is Jaime King (Sin City, My Bloody Valentine 3D). King’s character, on the surface, sounds a little like a Carol (TWD) type. She will portray a mother separated from her daughter during the worst summer of the zombie apocalypse and nothing, absolutely nothing, will get in her path while she searches for her. To make due, she pairs up with other survivors just to get through to tomorrow.
There’s no release date just yet. There’s not even official sites or an IMDB page for the project yet, let’s be honest here. They’re just getting started with production, so it may be a while before there’s any substantial news, but we’ll keep an eye out and pass on word.
Season Five News from Z Nation at SDCC by R.C. Murphy
With all the chaos they left us with after the season four finale, it’s a good thing Z Nation survived the Syfy off-season guillotine in order to wrap up the extreme intrigue planted in last season’s disjointed romp through Warren’s mental snap and the Black Rainbow mission. Not many specific questions regarding the finale were answered during the discussion segment of the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con panel, but that’s standard operating procedure for almost every show which isn’t screening an episode or premiere during the massive convention. Sometimes a few secrets leads to greater fun down the road.
There was, however, a five minute trailer to whet everyone’s appetite for the upcoming season. Or should I say wet, according to some initial reactions to the gory footage? The trailer is not currently available online, but keep an eye on Z Nation‘s social media pages for the online premiere sometime soon.
This year’s panel was attended by D.J. Qualls, Kellita Smith, Keith Allan, Anastasia Baranova, Russell Hodgkinson, showrunner Karl Schaefer, executive producer David Michael Latt, and series newcomer Lydia Hearst.
Panelists discussed where some of the outlying characters would be in the upcoming season, physically and emotionally. Qualls says Citizen Z will stay way up north with his crew. Baranova revealed a little of what long-lost Addy will be up to now that her world’s been upended even more, though she doesn’t know it yet. Addy’s comeback story line promises to take us deep into the world of a new zombie breed—deemed Talkers by the production team. These Talkers are coherent, intelligent undead, and they’re out to get our heroes. On the flip side, Addy feels a kinship with these evolved zombies, and that’s bound to cause ample problems for everyone down the road.
The producers wrapped the panel by showing the trailer for The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, since it’s the same production team and all. No, this does not mean there will be anymore crossover between the franchises than what’s already happened. Probably. Maybe?
Unfortunately, there’s no announcement about the Z Nation season five premiere date. Syfy has only confirmed that it will air sometime later in 2018. It’ll probably be late September or early October, but assume nothing until Syfy makes an official announcement in the upcoming months. To keep your memory fresh, all current seasons of the show are streaming on various platforms now.
A couple years ago director Yeon Sang-ho made a name for himself within the horror genre with his unexpected hit Train to Busan (2016). It’s a well-earned spot. Busan had the potential to be just another locked “house” style zombie film. Instead it took the genre and gave it a fantastic, brutal twist. This is the kind of film you watch alone first to get the shouting out of your system, then show it to friends while watching their reaction. Despite how odd it feels to call a movie with so much blood refreshing, Busan is so different from the zombie media released in the last few years, it really does put a little pep in my step just knowing there’s still new ways to tell the age-old apocalypse story.
Sang-ho has clarified a few things about the upcoming film. Keep in mind, this is a second-hand translation, so some details may be off. “It is an extension of Train to Busan, after the virus has spread throughout Korea, but the characters are not the same. It shares the same world view and is a zombie action film that deals with the aftermath on the peninsula of what happened in Train To Busan.”
At the end of August, they announced that another Whisperer has come onboard. Beta, Alpha’s second-in-command, will be brought to life by Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, Bates Motel). It’s not hard at all to imagine Hurst filling that all-too memorable walker skin mask. Matter of fact, just a day after the announcement, Hurst found himself in the makeup chair with his head covered in goop so the makeup magicians for the show can create said mask.
Filming for iZombie‘s fifth and final season began the first week of August. Series stars Rahul Kohli and Rose McIver continue their longtime tradition of kinda live-tweeting their onset time together. There’s also the ongoing saga over whether Kohli’s new house is haunted or not, as witnessed by co-star/roommate Malcolm Goodwin. Either they’re working too many hours on the show and hallucinating, or someone didn’t ask for the property’s history before moving in and there’s a poltergeist waiting to yank Kohli into a glowing closet. Let’s hope it is more of the former than the latter.
So far it looks like Ravi will spend his usual amount of time dealing with dead bodies in and out of the morgue. Liv’s more human look is nowhere to be seen for this season so far. McIver’s from-set selfies are very much Classic Liv; the one who embraced her zombie features without apology even when the undead still lived under the radar. Which makes sense, Liv only donned the human disguise to perpetuate the Renegade myth easier. With Major installed as the head of the snake the team and Renegade’s people fought last season, there should be no need to sneak around curing sick people, right? Maybe the world will even grow to embrace the undead and not fear them. Though one can understand their hesitation thanks to the zombie army Fillmore-Graves amassed in Seattle.
Peace will be hard to come by, that we know for sure. To help the political side of the city’s plight play out, the production team is finally bringing the city council into the equation. Playing zombie city council member Zed is legendary NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Zed is one of just two council members who remained in Seattle after Fillmore-Graves triggered the outbreak which prompted a quarantine of the city. The second council member is a human and the differing opinions, plus the murder of the mayor, puts even more pressure on Peyton as she fights for all of Seattle’s residents equally.
Looks like the post-apocalyptic world is expanding yet again. We’re finally getting names and faces for the long-teased NewMerica settlement. First up is someone you may recognize from another popular zombie show, Katy O’Brian. After her short stint on AMC’s The Walking Dead, finding footing in a slightly different version of the apocalypse should be a piece of cake. The big difference is, O’Brian is making the leap from an unnamed Savior character to what’s being billed as the hero of this newly found settlement.
That’s about it for Z Nation news, save for a few from-set snapshots the cast posted late in August on Instagram. While there are rumors for a season five premiere date, I’ve found nothing official to confirm it just yet, so don’t believe everything you read when googling. That doesn’t mean you can’t hop on one of many streaming services to watch the previous seasons in a glorious, blood-drenched marathon, though.
Reports coming from, of all places, CatCon, say that the show’s star Ian Somerhalder suggested a premiere date as soon as March or April 2019. The franchise’s author repeated the statement when asked about the premiere on Twitter early in August. So there you have it, the newest man-eating nightmare will descend upon the living in no time at all, barring any production glitches or differing news from Netflix itself.
Over the course of the fourth season for Fear the Walking Dead, the production team flipped the show on its head. And the season isn’t even halfway finished. Gone is the linear timeline—with no promises from the showrunners to return to the storytelling style from before. Fans were treated to a whole new set of characters and their ever-evolving problems. A strong love story came in, highlighting the need for happiness in the show to keep it feeling fresh. Happiness that wasn’t yet another temporary, overly dramatic, possibly ill-considered relationship for Alicia. Then came the biggest turn in the show’s history: The family is no more. In order to move in a new direction, they cut most of the ties to the past via Madison doing what she did best, right to the very end. Not only was it a shock to the fans, but the cast, as well. Coleman Domingo spoke in an interview about the dual departures, going into how hard it was to lose coworkers who’d been there since day one. What did it take to translate that emotion to the screen? “It required intense amounts of grace, and patience, and frustration, and being honest about your feelings,” Domingo said.
Not long before SDCC 2018, a few gossipy news bits flitted across social media alluding to huge news from the Z Nation team. Without any evidence behind the stories, it’s easily brushed off as the usual comic-con driven theories; best to opt to wait for actual news from the production team themselves. We didn’t have to wait long.
With all the chaos they left us with after the season four finale, it’s a good thing Z Nation survived the Syfy off-season guillotine in order to wrap up the extreme intrigue planted in last season’s disjointed romp through Warren’s mental snap and the Black Rainbow mission. Not many specific questions regarding the finale were answered during the discussion segment of the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con panel, but that’s standard operating procedure for almost every show which isn’t screening an episode or premiere during the massive convention. Sometimes a few secrets leads to greater fun down the road.
Panelists discussed where some of the outlying characters would be in the upcoming season, physically and emotionally. Qualls says Citizen Z will stay way up north with his crew. Baranova revealed a little of what long-lost Addy will be up to now that her world’s been upended even more, though she doesn’t know it yet. Addy’s comeback story line promises to take us deep into the world of a new zombie breed—deemed Talkers by the production team. These Talkers are coherent, intelligent undead, and they’re out to get our heroes. On the flip side, Addy feels a kinship with these evolved zombies, and that’s bound to cause ample problems for everyone down the road.