Television

Will a Wonder Woman TV series ever get off the ground? The CW isn’t giving up yet. The network had been developing a pilot called “Amazon” about teenaged Diana (think “Smallville’s” pre-Superman Clark Kent), but the series was passed over for the CW’s fall lineup. When asked Thursday if the warrior princess could still come to the CW, network President Mark Pedowitz said, “Oh God, yes! “It is being redeveloped,” he said. “We’re waiting for the script to come in. We have not seen it yet. We are preparing to pilot it off-cycle should the script be what we want it to be.” Pedowitz said that although “the basics” were all there, the execution was lacking. “We do not want to do something that doesn’t work for that particular character,” he said. “It’s the trickiest of all the DC characters […]

Coulson lives! After nearly a year of rumors and anticipation among Marvel fans, ABC officially ordered a first season of the new television series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” last week, sending Marvel fans all aflutter. “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is set in the same world as last summer’s blockbuster smash “The Avengers,” which united Marvel’s muscled superheroes Iron Man, Captain American, Thor, the Hulk and others, and featured the international law enforcement and espionage organization. Clark Gregg, who played S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in “The Avengers” and previous Marvel films, is reprising the role for the TV series, donning his suit and sunglasses once more to lead a team of crime-fighting agents: Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage; Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), expert pilot and martial artist; Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), brilliant engineer; Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), […]

A new ad from Audi pits classic Spock against new Spock, capitalizing on the hype surrounding “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which opens in theaters May 16. The car commercial features Leonard Nimoy, who played the pointy-eared Vulcan for two decades in the original series as well as in half a dozen movies (not including his 2009 cameo in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek”), and newcomer Zachary Quinto, who took the reins in the reboot. In the ad (watch it above), Nimoy schools Quinto on a game of chess, and Quinto challenges the victor to a round of golf and a race to the country club. “Whoever gets to the club last buys lunch,” Quinto says. “Stand by to have your wallet emptied by a tractor beam,” Nimoy retorts. During the car ride, Nimoy treats fans of “The Lord of the Rings” […]

The final season of the fantasy adventure series “Merlin” resumes on Syfy Friday evening after several weeks hiatus and the new episode, “With All My Heart,” focuses on Queen Guinevere. “Merlin” has been massively popular in the U.K., where it rivaled “Doctor Who” in ratings, wrapping up last Christmas with a tragic, two-part season finale. In the U.S., the fifth and final season is airing on Syfy. In the show, Gwen, played by Angel Coulby, is in many ways the moral compass of Camelot, influencing the decisions of her husband King Arthur Pendragon (Bradley James) and the secret sorcerer Merlin (Colin Morgan). She began as a maidservant to Morgana, now an evil sorceress, and now rules Camelot alongside Arthur. Hero Complex caught up with Coulby to talk about Gwen’s journey and the success of “Merlin.” Warning: Spoilers lie ahead. HC: […]

Season 3 of “The Walking Dead” concluded last night with one explosive finale that set an interesting stage for the characters left standing after the epic showdown with David Morrissey’s Governor. (Click through the gallery above to see scenes from the episode.) All in all, it’s been a bristling, brutal season for Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and his band of survivors — a number of whom, well, failed to survive. The executive producer of the hit AMC series, Gale Anne Hurd, is not spending a lot of time feeling overly sentimental about the characters who have departed, however. Rather, she’s looking ahead to Season 4, which will see Scott Gimple replace Glen Mazzara at the helm of the show. Late last month, Hurd took time out to speak to Hero Complex about what audiences can expect to see when “The Walking […]

Matt Smith’s Doctor will cross paths with David Tennant’s Doctor in an upcoming 50th anniversary special of “Doctor Who.” Tennant, whose vivacious performance as the time-and-space-traveling alien helped catapult the long-running British television series into the mainstream of popular culture, has joined the cast, along with Billie Piper, who played his traveling companion and love interest, Rose Tyler, the BBC confirmed Saturday morning. The show is rumored to include all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. The BBC also announced that John Hurt (“Alien,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) will be guest starring in the special, which is written by Steven Moffat and begins filming in Britain this week. (“Merlin” fans will note that Hurt voiced the Great Dragon in that recently wrapped-up fantasy series.) GRAPHIC: Meet the 11 Doctors When Tennant and Piper appear alongside Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman (who plays new companion Clara […]

The chilly breeze blowing through a restaurant patio sent “Game of Thrones” actress Michelle Fairley reaching for her blazer and her television daughters, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, reaching for the ominous tagline that’s become so associated with HBO’s big-budget fantasy series. “Winter is coming,” chimed the teenagers in their lilting English voices, the trio laughing at the notion that a bracing March wind would attend a reunion of the women of House Stark, even on a seasonably pleasant Los Angeles spring day. In the world of Westeros, seasons can last for years, making the approach of a bleak and bitter winter a fierce proposition indeed. But even in the sunniest of days, the fantasy realm first created by author George R.R. Martin in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels can be an unforgiving place where acts of […]

“Doctor Who” returns Saturday with “The Bells of St. John,” starring Jenna-Louise Coleman as mysterious new companion Clara opposite Matt Smith’s Doctor. It’s an auspicious year for “Doctor Who” as the sci-fi series turns 50. Whovians are celebrating the anniversary with commemorative postage stamps, an audio drama, a three-day event in London and two TV movies — one about the filming of the first “Who” episode and the second an adventure rumored to feature all 11 incarnations of the Doctor. “In Britain, you can practically define yourself, your generation by which actor played the Doctor when you were a kid,” executive producer Steven Moffat told Hero Complex. To celebrate 50 years of “Who,” Hero Complex takes a look at the many faces of the time-traveling Doctor, as well as the monsters he fought and the friends who traveled with him, in […]

Want to hear what Marvel Studios guru Kevin Feige has to say about “Iron Man 3″? Or Damon Lindelof’s take on why he’s like a covert agent in Hollywood, guarding some of the most exciting “Star Trek Into Darkness” secrets? Or how about director Joseph Kosinski talking about the aesthetics of spaceship design for his upcoming Tom Cruise-starrer “Oblivion”? Then check out the spring issue of the Hero Complex magazine, available for free at Meltdown Comics in L.A. or any of the three Midtown Comics locations in New York. In addition to stories about highly anticipated films, you’ll also find details on “The Walking Dead”; a preview of the game that hopes to bring new dimension to the survival horror genre, “The Last of Us”; and a thoughtful examination of the legacy of “X-Men” writing talent Chris Claremont. The cover […]

PERSPECTIVE In the annals of space, time and television, there is nothing quite like “Doctor Who,” the British sci-fi series that this year is celebrating a 50th anniversary, in your Earth years. Only “Star Trek” comes close for persistence of a franchise, and it does not come close. What sets “Doctor Who” apart is that, notwithstanding the distance from its paint-and-cardboard, spaceship-on-a-string early episodes to the beautifully realized, seamlessly fantastic creation it is today, the current series is the same one that began on the BBC in 1963 — neither a sequel nor a re-conception, but the identical show. It has centered on the same character: an extraterrestrial Time Lord who travels all of creation in what looks like an old London police box and who has been played by 11 actors, each new Doctor a “regeneration” of the last, […]