TV

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: […]

The Hound is alive and well in the North. At least for now. Rory McCann, known to fans of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, strolls into the parking lot of a popular climbers’ haunt in the heart of town. The large Scotsman looks every bit the rugged outdoorsman coming in from a Highland winter, dressed in layers of wool, goose down and tweed. Yet his demeanor warms when he smiles, explaining the morning’s adventure in his native Scottish brogue. “My car won’t start. I had to park it back there on a hill so I can get it going on the roll,” he said. “I may need a push.” Born and raised in Glasgow, McCann, 44, is home in the northern Scottish Highlands, even mooring his sailboat in a region known as Wester Ross — almost […]

Fans of HBO’s lavish fantasy series “Games of Thrones” all seem to love plucky Arya Stark for her fearlessness and her brash, outspoken ways. But Maisie Williams, the 16-year-old British actress who plays the youngest daughter of House Stark, says she thinks that if her screen alter ego really wanted to survive the brutal world of Westeros and make it back safely to her family home of Winterfell, she perhaps should be just a bit more strategic about her behavior. “Her ability to tell people what she thinks gets her into trouble a lot, and it’s kind of unnecessary, but it’s the way she is,” Williams said in an interview last month. “That’s one of the things I don’t like about her. Her ability to just tell people what she thinks, it makes her a likable character but it doesn’t mean […]

“Smallville” concluded its television run on the CW with a series finale in May 2011 that saw Tom Welling’s Superman finally take to the skies, but the emotional moment didn’t exactly signal the end of the show. Almost a full year later, the show’s 11th season kicked off via a digital comic penned by former “Smallville” writer Bryan Q. Miller, and last week the first four issues were released as a single print graphic novel with cover art by Cat Staggs and interiors by Pere Perez. Set six months after the events of the finale, “Smallville Vol. 1: Guardian” sees Lex Luthor launch his “Guardian Defense Platforms” to ward off alien invaders after the scare of Apokolips — but he obviously has other, more nefarious plans in mind. Hero Complex caught up with Miller to ask about the creative impetus […]

It’s an auspicious occasion for the Man of Steel. Exactly 75 years ago today, Superman made his debut in “Action Comics” No. 1. Superman is celebrating his 75th birthday with a new comic book by DC Comics all-stars Jim Lee and Scott Snyder and an ambitious new film directed by Zack Snyder and co-written and -produced by Christopher Nolan, of “Dark Knight” trilogy fame. Part of Superman’s success is owed to his unique origin story as an infant refugee from the planet Krypton. Superman, known as Kal-El on Krypton, was a baby when his parents sent him to Earth to escape Krypton’s destruction. He landed on a farm in fictional Smallville, Kansas, and was raised by a farmer and his wife, Jonathan and Martha Kent. As young Clark Kent grew up, he discovered he had special abilities, and he dedicated […]

Leave it to comedy genius Patton Oswalt to figure out a way to bring Tony Stark into the “Star Wars” universe. The actor is set for a guest-star spot on the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation” this week, playing a character who appears at a Pawnee City Council meeting to filibuster a vote. Oswalt apparently launched into an eight-minute improvisational speech about his ideas for the upcoming “Star Wars: Episode VII,” and they are appropriately cosmic in scope. His vision begins with Brian DePalma being tapped to write the introductory credit scroll (as he did for “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope,” Oswalt points out) and in minutes, he’s managed to resurrect Boba Fett and rope in some prominent Marvel characters. By no means is that an easy feat. It’s a grand masterpiece of a tapestry Oswalt’s woven […]

Revenge is more of a driving force on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” than romance but Marvel Entertainment, having joined with the Disney-ABC Television Group, is releasing a graphic novel that tells more of the story of how the Evil Queen took the Huntsman’s heart — literally — and used it to control him. Marvel and Disney on Monday released the cover (drawn by Nimit Malavia) for the graphic novel “Once Upon a Time: Shadow of the Queen,” which shows the Evil Queen flaunting her hold on a reluctant Huntsman, flanked by images of Red Riding Hood and Snow White. The story picks up after the events of the Season 1 episode “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter,” in which the Huntsman lets Snow White go after tracking her, and centers around another of Regina’s plots to capture her stepdaughter. She […]

Jaime Lannister’s fortunes changed forever in Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones.” Readers familiar with the events in George R.R. Martin’s “A Storm of Swords,” the third novel in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga, thought it quite likely that Jaime would be, well, transformed, this season, but it was still shocking to see the act itself. (And, spoiler warning, if you missed the episode, this would be a good time to stop reading.) But the moment in the narrative when the Kingslayer loses his sword hand is the moment where his evolution as a character truly begins, a fact that “Game of Thrones” show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss made sure to note even when they were casting Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau to play the role. “One of the challenges was this was a character who in the first […]

Harrison Ford is out on the promotion trail, talking up his role in the new Jackie Robinson baseball movie “42.” But what everyone really wants to discuss is his possible return as Han Solo in the new “Star Wars” movie. Everyone except Harrison Ford, that is. The star, who’s reportedly set to reprise his landmark role as the heroic cad, either doesn’t know much about his participation in “Episode VII” at this early date or he’s not allowed to share details. In any case, he’s opted to deflect “Star Wars” questions not with polite demurrals or stone-faced silence, but rather a grandfatherly sense of befuddlement. Witness how Ford handled David Letterman on Wednesday. Letterman, who uses confusion himself in order to draw answers out of his guests, met his match in Ford when the subject of “Star Wars” was raised. […]

PERSPECTIVE When the CW’s breakout hit series “Arrow” returns with new episodes on April 24, viewers can expect more soapy drama mixed with dark action thrills involving Stephen Amell as the handsome playboy-turned-vigilante Oliver Queen. Though the series makes plenty of concessions for non-comic book readers (an emphasis on Queen’s dating life, for instance), there’s still plenty of comic book history on display. Characters and concepts from Green Arrow’s 70 years of history pop up, but grounded in a gritty, realistic style (a la Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batman universe). The success of “Arrow” and its accessible take on comic canon is a reminder of how far we’ve come with superheroes on television from the days when TV producers seemed to try as hard as they could to make superheroes non-super. Consider, if you will, “Shazam!” In 1939, Bill Parker […]