LAUREN COHAN AND JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN TO STAR IN NEW SERIES SET IN THE WALKING DEAD UNIVERSE, ISLE OF THE DEAD
 
Series Premiering in 2023 Will Follow Popular Maggie and Negan Characters to a Post-Apocalyptic Manhattan

NEW YORK – March 7, 2022 – AMC Networks today announced that it has greenlit a new series set in The Walking Dead Universe, starring Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  Isle of the Dead envisions the popular Maggie and Negan characters traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland.  The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.  Set to premiere on AMC+ and AMC in 2023, the first season will consist of six episodes.  Eli Jorné, who has been a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead for multiple seasons and has an overall deal with AMC Studios, will serve as showrunner and executive producer on the series, which is overseen by Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe.  Cohan and Morgan will also serve as executive producers.
 
“This is a very big day for the expanding universe we are building around The Walking Dead,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “It not only adds another compelling series to this collection, it extends our storytelling around two unforgettable characters fans have grown to love, hate or hate and then love in Maggie and Negan, brilliantly inhabited by Lauren and Jeffrey.  It also lets us explore a corner of this universe located on the island of Manhattan, with an iconic skyline that takes on a very different meaning when viewed through the lens of a zombie apocalypse.”

***The following interview contains spoilers for 6.01***

Outlander, based on the best-selling international book series by Diana Gabaldon’s, returned tonight for season six. At the start of the season, Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones), Jamie (Sam Heughan)’s old rival from Ardsmuir, arrives on the Fraser Ridge with his family and a group of fellow Protestants, much to Jamie’s dismay. Meanwhile, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) struggles to cope with her previous trauma.

After playing the characters for so many years, it’s natural that there may be some overlap, according to star Caitriona Balfe. “I think,” said Balfe to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision as part of a roundtable interview, “obviously, Sam and I were cast, because we have something within us that mirrors or speaks to these characters. So, I think if there is any overlap, that's probably just whatever [is] naturally within us.”

The actress also said that, however, as a period piece with science fiction elements, there isn’t a lot to bring into their everyday life.

***The following interview contains major spoilers for tonight's episode 11.11***

On tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) finally got his moment of happiness and was all in with his relationship with Stephanie (Chelle Ramos), even telling her he loved her, but everything fell apart when she disappeared. After spending all his energy looking for her, a bombshell was dropped with the reveal and Eugene’s realization that not only was Stephanie not really missing, but she was an imposter pretending to be the woman he talked to on the radio in order to get information on his community. A second shocker came when Max (Margot Bingham) told him that she was actually the one he talked to.

Last week, McDermitt talked to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview about the episode and what’s to come on the series.

According to McDermitt, Eugene had blinders on. “He was in love and was able to overlook things,” said the actor, adding that the decoy Stephanie did a great job at fooling him. “He just didn't see it. He got comfortable, and I think we've seen that it's very dangerous to be in this world and let your guard down, and he certainly did. I guess we're going to see coming up how catastrophic that decision was.”

***Note that this interview does contain slight spoilers, but they have already been revealed in promo videos. If you want to stay 100% spoiler-free please wait to read it until after the premiere airs!***

Tonight NBC premieres the second season of its medical drama Transplant. The season marks many changes for all of the characters at York Hospital. At the end of last season, Dr. Jed Bishop (John Hannah) suffered a stroke, and being out of commission really changes things at the hospital without the trauma team’s leader on duty. Him being gone is a scary thing for Dr. Bashir Hamed, according to the actor who plays him, Hamza Haq. “[T]his man who’s been a pillar in his stability in the hospital…he's also his lifesaver,” said Haq during a recent exclusive video interview with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision. “He's the one who protects him from all of the the politics and the bureaucracy of the reality of his life, which is that he doesn't have access to his medical transcripts, and if Bishop is no longer there to protect him and to help him through that and navigate the requirements that the Canadian medical system has, it's curtains for Bashir as well. There's this dependence on Bishop. He hired all of us…and everybody is affected by the potential of him not making it through this medical episode.”

Next Sunday, STARZ premieres it’s all-new horror comedy Shining Vale, which centers around a family that moves from the city to a house in a small town where terrible things have happened, but they are only seen by author Pat (Courtney Cox). Actress Mira Sorvino plays the role of Rosemary, a ghost in the house who died in the 50s.

The actress looked to film and television from that decade as inspiration. “I watched The Donna Reed Show [and also Ozzie and Harriet], and I was really sort of horrified by just the role of what motherhood and wifehood and womanhood was supposed to be like,” Sorvino told Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision during a recent roundtable interview. “It really rang so false to me. It didn't have any real humanity. It was all about being for show, having the best social schedule, going to five dinner parties a week and making the perfect casserole and just everything, you know, being in the gossip train. I said, ‘Oh my gosh, this doesn't relate; I don't relate to this way of life at all.’ But that is sort of what Rosemary was trying to fit into.

“Then…I think I rewatched The Postman Always Rings Twice, and just the grand beauty of the sultry screen heroines, and [I] watched a few more noir movies with these fabulous women in them, and I was like, ‘Okay, so she wants to be a little bit more fabulous, a little bit more dangerous.’ Even though she wants to be a success at the social calendar, she wants to throw the best parties. She wants to dance in the cotillion, but underneath it all, she's longing for something more, something real, something fulfilling and true and honoring and that she matters.

Tonight, Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber premieres on Showtime. This season, the anthology series explores how the creation of Uber, driven by CEO Travis Kalanick, changed the world.

In the series, many of the cast play characters based on real people. According to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who stars as Kalanick, playing a real person can in ways make the role easier. “[Y]ou just have so much to go on,” Gordon-Levitt told Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision during the recent TCA panel. “…You can go to this well of the real person and see if you can find some inspiration there.”

Uma Thurman, who plays Arianna Huffington, told the site that you have to have a bit of humility to play a real person. “[Y]ou are going to be wrong,” said Thurman, “and there might be some things that are right, and it's a creative process…I kind of felt like it was impossible to get it right, but I would play the writing and listen to the sound and hope for the best.”

The actress called it an “interpretation of interpretations.”

Abby Hernandez was just fourteen years old when she disappeared. Her abductor held her for nine months, subjecting her to sexual and psychological abuse before she returned home just as suddenly as she vanished. A decade after her return, Lifetime rounds out its February lineup with a new movie based on the teen’s harrowing ordeal. Girl in the Shed: The Kidnapping of Abby Hernandez is the true story of how Abby was abducted and held in a soundproof container. Despite daily abuse, she kept her cool and never lost hope that she would see her family again.

The film stars Lindsay Navarro (Life XP) as Abby, Erica Durance (Supergirl, Saving Hope) as her mother, Zenya, and Ben Savage (Girl Meets World) as kidnapper Nathaniel Kibby.

This is not just another drama ripped from the headlines; Abby Hernandez was an executive producer of the film. She told journalists that getting on board to tell her story was not a tough decision.

“It’s nothing new to me. It’s in here constantly,” she said, tapping her head, “has been in there since 2013. I’m almost numb to it, you know what I mean?” When Hernandez first returned home, she was reluctant to share the details of her captivity, even with police. “But we're in a day and age now where I think it’s encouraged to be honest about what's going on. I don't feel as scared anymore.”

At the end of the most recent episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Eugene (Josh McDermitt) came to Alexandria with Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) and some soldiers to sell them on the idea of the Commonwealth, although it wasn’t his decision. “I think Eugene definitely didn't want to share the location of his group, otherwise he would have done that up front,” said McDermitt to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision during a recent roundtable interview. “That's a valuable piece of information. It potentially puts lives at risk when you start sharing that, but he found himself in a pickle.”

McDermitt also said that he is still carrying the guilt of that and talked to the site about what it could mean. “There're all these things that are happening, and so in this extreme emotional state, he's questioning whether he's able to trust what he's doing and saying, and the people around him. So, to offer up that information, it's just touching on some of those things that he's already having anxiety about. It's like, ‘Oh, boy, I just did this because I had to, but is now more bad going to come from this?’ Because, as we see on this show, any decision has extreme consequences.”

Recenty Reacher, which is based on the book series by Lee Child and has already been renewed for a second season, came to Prime Video. Harvey Guillén, who plays the part of medical examiner Jasper, purposely did not read the books until after filming so that he could bring more of himself into the role. “I'm glad I didn't,” said Guillén. “I try not to do that with any of the projects that I do, just so I'm not persuaded to [do] what was written…because then you don't bring yourself into the character. You’ve got to find a little bit of yourself.”

Guillén related to the quiet nature of Jasper, who is quite unlike his character of Guillermo in What We Do in the Shadows. “With Jasper, I feel that he's a mama's boy,” said the actor. “He's very [much] wanting to stay home and whatnot…Growing up, it was just me and my mom for a while, and she was a single parent. So, it really kind of touched me, and I relate to him in that way, but also liking the idea of stability, but also not too much craziness…I think that, for Jasper, it was just nice to like a simple life and wanting that quietness that is just nice once in a while, just a peace and quiet. I remember really liking that.”

Reacher, which is based on the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Childs, recently premiered on Prime Video. The first season is based on Childs’ debut novel, Killing Floor. In the town of Margrave, Georgia, Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) is arrested for murder, but it soon becomes clear to Detective Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) that they need his help in solving the case. Joining the investigation is Officer Roscoe Conklin, played by Willa Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, who recently talked to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview, loved Roscoe from the beginning and was eager to see her journey unfold. “She is a spitfire,” said the actress. “She has such a clear opinion on situations and such a clear sense of self, and to get to play a character like that is just really fun, because they move through the world in such a different way. I was just compelled by her charisma and her kind of just kick-ass character, and I was excited to see where where that character went over the course of the season.”