Giant Freakin Robot

Despite the Internet’s best efforts, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will undoubtedly have a handful of really great surprises to give fans when it comes out at the end of the year. And now it’s being tossed around that one of those surprises may have something to do with a female Stormtrooper trooping around the universe. Could the male-leaning franchise actually be bringing in a woman for its iconic cloned army?

The rumorish news places newcomer actress/musician Amybeth Hargreaves as the first female Stormtrooper, and it comes from her resume on Spotlight UK, which had a 2014 listing for her role as a “Storm Trooper” for Disney and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars. That particular listing has since been removed, probably not long after fanboys first heard this highly intriguing factoid. Here’s a screenshot of the unaltered resume, thanks to JediNews.

World War Z was a movie that had a lot of problems during production, including scrapping the entire final act and reshooting it much later (by the end the budget ballooned to $200 million). The troubles were so pronounced that I was surprised by how well it turned out and how much I enjoyed it. (It still has some issues, but overall it isn’t a bad time.) A huge box office smash, a sequel was the obvious next step, and according to the writer, it sounds like they’re trying to get all the kinks worked out before hand.

Steven Knight had a solid year last year, writing and making his feature directing debut with the Tom-Hardy-in-a-car drama Locke, as well as continuing his old timey crime saga Peaky Blinders. Though he’s never really worked in horror before, the idea of him turning his eyes toward World War Z 2 is intriguing and exciting. Talking to Indiewire, the Eastern Promises scribe discussed writing the treatment and indicated that the follow up is something of a do-over.

As fans while away the hours until The Walking Dead returns to TV screens next month, they’ve had to satisfy themselves on bits and pieces of news from the popular zombie series. We’ve seen a couple promos and heard an interesting casting choice, but that’s about it. On the other hand, as the spinoff series, titled Cobalt, starts to take shape, we’re learning more and more about the project, including potential plot details and the possible return of a familiar face.

There may be spoilers for Cobalt beyond this point. You’ve been warned.

Zombies may be damn near omnipresent these days, but they’re far from unkillable. They’re being used to sell everything from candy to cars, and AMC’s The Walking Dead is the biggest show on cable, but your TV is going to be down at least one zombie drama as the BBC has officially cancelled In the Flesh.

In the Flesh won multiple BAFTA awards during its two-season run at the BBC, but due to budget constraints, and the transition of BBC Three to an all online format, the network decided not to move forward with a third season. In a statement they said, “BBC Three is very proud of the two award-winning series of In the Flesh. However, given there is only budget for one original drama series a year on the channel it won’t be returning.”

It’s a long-running joke that you “read Playboy for the articles,” but for decades the notorious nudie mag has also been a home to some of the best short fiction being published anywhere in the industry. This includes a good amount of science fiction, and was due in large part to the guidance of editor Alice K. Turner, who passed away yesterday due to pneumonia.

The list of genre authors published by Playboy reads like a who’s who of sci-fi, including Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. LeGuin, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick, just to name a few. Turner collected stories by these authors, and many other luminaries, into The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I’m a huge fan of Amazon Studios for both their original programming and their Pilot Seasons, where much of their content originates. This year’s crop includes the tense “boys will be awful boys” darkly comic thriller Mad Dogs from The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, as well as Carlton Cuse’s Civil War drama Point of Honor. But the only one that definitely, absolutely CANNOT be missed is The Man in the High Castle, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s influential novel of the same name, from ex-X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz. This isn’t your grandparents’ America.

Let’s get any negativity deflated by saying right away that yes, some of the novel has been changed in order to develop this alternate-history drama into a TV series. Characters have been combined and streamlined, and the written work that ties everything together has been replaced, oddly enough, with a set of newsreels. But rather than feeling like pointless alterations, everything comes across as smooth as Rufus Sewell’s forehead.