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.
– Netflix has found their Sabrina Spellman for their yet untitled TV series based on the Archie Comic “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack. Kiernan Shipka, who appeared in Mad Men and Feud: Bette and Joan, was chosen to portray this darker, more macabre version of Sabrina in a dark coming-of-age story. Aguirre-Sacasa, Archie Chief Creative Officer and Riverdale showrunner, is writing this new one hour drama series about the empowered young Sabrina as she comes into her power and fights the forces of darkness.
– As Disney is poised to own both 20th Century Fox film and Fox Television studios by the end of the year, X-Men fans may finally have their wish to see the mutant characters intermingle with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In an interview on Rotten Tomatoes, Lauren Shuler Donner, who produced all the X-Men movies to date and is executive producer on Legion and The Gifted, implied she would have no problem with sharing the characters as well as talking about the Marvel related series currently in production at Fox and voicing stong support for the #MeToo movement in Hollywood.
– On that note, it was decided to remove Bryan Singer’s name as executive producer on Legion, which is set to return some time in April. It was also announced at the Television Critics Association that Iranian actor Navid Negahban (Homeland, Mistresses) will play the Shadow King on this season.
– The Malaysian cartoonist Zunar was back in court this week again fighting the government ban of his satirical strip “Sapuman: The Man of Steal,” which attacks the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak of corruption and graft (sapu meaning grab or snatch in Malaysian). Zunar, who has seen a number of attacks on his freedom of speech – including nine charges of sedition, which he is yet to be tried for – has been a vocal opponent of the Malaysian government and has managed to get the ban on two of his books lifted in the courts in 2014.
– The CW released its mid-season schedule that includes the fourth season for iZombie. The series, starring Rose McIver as Gwen Dylan and adapting Mike Allred and Chris Roberson’s comic series, will follow Legends of Tomorrow beginning Monday February 26th at 9pm/8c, sharing a time slot with Supergirl for the rest of the season.
– Spawn, according to creator Todd McFarlane, will not have a single line of dialogue in the upcoming Spawn movie reboot, becoming more of a presence in the film. Todd McFarlane revealed to azcentral that the movie still in pre-production focuses the story on the human characters, and treats Spawn akin to the shark in Jaws.
