Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
– The Guardians of the Galaxy cast is calling for writer/director James Gunn to be reinstated, after being unceremoniously fired from the film and franchise earlier this month. The cast released an open letter, via their social media accounts, advocating for the director. Gunn was fired by Disney after some old tweets of his containing pedophilia and rape jokes were resurfaced by alt-right social media personalities, in response to his outspoken criticisms of President Trump.
– Dan McDaid (“Judge Dredd,” “King’s Quest”) announced on Twitter that he’s drawing issue #12 of “Doom Patrol.” It’s unclear if he’s taking over permanently, but with regular artist Nick Derington joining Brian Michael Bendis on the Walmart “Batman 100-page Giant” series it’s probably a safe bet. “Doom Patrol” #12 was originally scheduled for December of last year but was cancelled and has yet to be re-solicited.
– Orange is the New Black actress Diane Guerrero has been cast as Crazy Jane in DC Universe’s live-action Doom Patrol series. The 13-episode series begins production sometime this year for a premiere in 2019.
– In other casting news, Priyanka Chopra (Quantico) is in talks to join the film adaptation of AJ Lieberman and Riley Rossmo’s “Cowboy Ninja Viking.” She would join main star Chris Pratt in an unspecified role. Cowboy Ninja Viking is scheduled for release on June 18, 2019.
– Lion Forge has brought on frequent contributor Andrew E.C. Gaska as senior development editor, a new position for the company “responsible for the creation and development of new intellectual properties,” as well as joining the licensing team.
– Colorist Rico Renzi (“Spider-Gwen,” “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl”) is transitioning to full-time comics work. He previously served as creative director at Charlotte area retailer Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find and HeroesCon while freelancing.
– Zack Kaplan and Giovanni Timpano’s Top Cow series “Eclipse” has been optioned for television by Skybound Entertainment. The comic, which began in 2016, is set in a world where a solar flare has irradiated the Earth’s surface, and forced humanity to live underground. Workers in protective suits monitor the surface, and a murder mystery ensues when the protagonist, David Baxter, discovers someone was left outside to burn to death.
– Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque a.k.a. Zunar, a political cartoonist in Malaysia, has had charges of sedition dropped after the regime he had frequently criticized was booted from power. Ulhaque was charged with a record-setting nine counts of sedition back in 2015, after criticizing the jailing of then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Twitter.
– It was revealed that the upcoming second season of Iron Fist is only going to be 10-episodes after the show’s social media accounts released all of the episode titles over the last few days. With the exception of The Defenders, all of the Marvel Netflix show seasons have been 13 episodes.
– Warren Ellis has confirmed in his newsletter that the previously announced reboots of WildStorm titles “Wildc.a.t.s.” and “Zealot” are still happening, but are facing scheduling challenges. The third and fourth planned titles of the new WildStorm universe were announced back in October of 2016.
