Upfronts: What’s Cancelled, Renewed, & Picked Up

I don’t do too much news here on the site for a few different reasons. One is that news is such a fast paced thing that one minute it’s news and the next minute it’s old hat. There’s plenty of other sites out there that have the ability to cover news as its happening in enough detail to get the whole story. For my part, I share as much news as possible (from official sources) on our Twitter feed. But this week there has been a whole lot of news about next year’s shows. Plenty of shows have been renewed and a few have been picked up and I thought I’d take a bit more of a look at the fate of all the shows we cover and will cover right here.

The Current Shows

In short, everything got renewed. There’s only a single show that we covered this year that hasn’t been renewed for a second season or beyond and that’s Constantine. Showrunner Daniel Cerone’s Twitter feed reveals that while NBC has decided that there isn’t any room in their line up for Constantine, they have been very supportive of the show and their fans and Warner Bros are right now trying to shop the show to other networks. There are a couple different possibilities where it could go. In the past, there has been rumors that SyFy had been interested in picking the show up. Even though the rumor was unfounded, it could still end up there for a few different reasons. One is that NBC is SyFy’s parent company and they have aired reruns of Constantine to decent ratings. The other possible option is the CW which currently airs three shows based on DC Comics properties: Flash, Arrow, and iZombie. But the CW only cancelled two shows: Hart of Dixie and the Messengers and have picked up two new shows so their slate is pretty full. While it has already garnered support from other CW stars Stephen Amell, Mark Sheppard, and Joseph Morgan, some of whom have said they would happily guest star if it gets picked up. I enjoyed the show quite a bit and while I would love it if it was able to continue, all of this hoopla feels like a carrot dangling just out of reach. If it does get picked up, I will be one of the first to tweet about it, but until then I think the show is dead in the water.

#SaveConstantine — Hey TV Networks / Netflix and the like… If you pick up the show, I'll guest star.

— Stephen Amell (@amellywood) May 9, 2015

Let's save a show. #SaveConstantine

— Mark Sheppard (@Mark_Sheppard) May 9, 2015

#Constantine Pick up the show and I'll guest star #SaveConstantine

— Joseph Morgan (@JosephMorgan) May 9, 2015

And just to make things perfectly clear, here’s a full list of the shows that have gotten renewed for another season including ones that have been announced previously.
ABC: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets a season 3 & Agent Carter gets a season 2.
CW: Flash & iZombie get a season 2 & Arrow gets a season 4.
FOX Gotham gets a season 2.
AMC The Walking Dead gets a season 6.
PSN Powers gets a season 2.
Netflix Daredevil gets a season 2.

New Shows

Aside from all of the renewals, there have been a ton of spinoffs and other shows that have been announced, and here’s a quick rundown of the ones that have moved past the pilot stage and have been officially picked up for a full season.

Supergirl: CBS has picked up the DC series Supergirl. It stars Melissa Benoist as Kara aka Supergirl. This is a curious choice for CBS as it has been said that a crossover with the CW’s Flash and Arrow is possible and that they will exist in the same universe. It also follows the Flash’s trend of honoring the previous series that have come before by giving former Superman Dean Cain a role in the pilot, it’s unclear at this point if he will be a recurring character similar to previous Flash John Wesley Shipp. It has also been announced that there will be a Superman and it won’t be Henry Cavill, since DC likes to keep their TV and cinematic universes separate. The pilot also stars Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, David Harewood, Laura Benanti, and Calista Flockhart.

Legends of Tomorrow: CW has picked up the Flash & Arrow Spinoff that finally gets an official name. There have been plenty of rumors of which heroes will show up in this spinoff and I haven’t been able to keep track of them all. From what I understand there will be one of the Black Canaries (the dead one), Brandon Routh’s Atom, Firestorm minus Robbie Amell, Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold though it’s unclear whether he will be an antihero or villain, and Ciara Renee’s Hawkgirl among others. Several of them will also show up in the season finale of the Flash. As there is already so much crossover between the other two CW DC shows, guest appearances aplenty will be likely for the entire run of the season. It’s been promised to be a whole lot of fun and I’m really curious to see what they are able to do with this one.

Lucifer: Fox has picked up yet another DC property to fit alongside the second season of Gotham with a comic from the Vertigo imprint. I honestly don’t know much about Lucifer aside from what little I’ve read about it just now. It’s basically about the lord of hell deciding to come up to Los Angeles to play a while. What exactly that entails, I have no idea. But the pilot was directed & executive produced by Len Wiseman who did a great job with Sleepy Hollow. It stars Tom Ellis in the lead role as well as Lauren German, Rachael Harris, DB Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Nicholas Gonzalez and Scarlett Estevez.

Fear the Walking Dead AMC has picked up not just one but two seasons of the Walking Dead spinoff Fear the Walking Dead. It takes place in Los Angeles and while the show starts before the events of the Walking Dead, it does have the possibility of a sped up timeline that can cross into the same time period as the Walking Dead, though it’s unlikely at this point to have any crossover because of the geographic distance between the two shows. It will star Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam, Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, and Elizabeth Rodriguez.

Still in Pilot

And to wrap things up for today, here’s a quick list of shows that haven’t officially gotten picked up but have been announced at some point.
Preacher at AMC: With Seth Rogen behind it it’s likely to get picked up but is currently still in pilot stage.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff at ABC: The one planned to feature Mockingbird and Hunter is currently a no go, though there’s another more secret project that may still happen at some point.
Krypton at SyFy: This was announced a while back and there hasn’t been any word on if this has even made it to the pilot stage.

I hope that’s everything. If anything else comes across my way I will come back and update this post. What show(s) are you looking forward to the most? And what are your thoughts on Constantine? Do you think it will rise from the grave, or return from whence it came?