It’s been a big week for geek TV news, which we round up here.
The ratings are in from the season finale of The Walking Dead, and although they’re up from other episodes in the season, the episode had the lowest ratings of any season finale since the beginning of the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Around 5.02 million viewers watched the finale; the previous low was just under 6 million, for the season finale of Season 1. While the season ratings were down a whopping 37% in viewers from the previous season, the series remains the most popular show on cable, with more than twice the viewers of the second most popular show, VH1’s Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.
Netflix’s Umbrella Academy has been renewed for a 10-episode second season, Dark Horse Comics announced. Steve Blackman will continue as showrunner, and Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Justin Min will return to the cast. The first season has been driving graphic novel sales to an unprecedented extent (see "February 2019 BookScan – Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels").
Warner Bros. has signed a big new deal with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who’s Chief Creative Officer of Archie and showrunner for WBTV series Riverdale and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. He’s also co-developer and writer on Katy Keene, a Riverdale spinoff (see "Katy Keene on the CW"). Aguirre-Sacasa will continue his work on all three shows under the new deal. His new deal is for five years and high eight figures, according to the report.
Casting has been announced for the animated adaptation of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Batman Hush, due out this summer (see "Animated ‘Batman Hush’"). According to IGN, Jason O’Mara will play Batman, Jennifer Morrison plays Selina Kyle, Jerry O’Connell plays Superman, Rebecca Romijn is Lois Lane, Rainn Wilson is Lex Luthor, Sean Maher is Nightwing, Bruce Thomas is Jim Gordon, Stuart Allan is Damian Wayne, James Garrett is Alfred, Maury Sterling is Thomas Elliot, Geoffrey Arend is Riddler, Vanessa Williams is Amanda Waller, Jason Spisak is Joker, Adam Gifford is Bane, Peyton List is Poison Ivy, Dachie Alessio is Lady Shiva, Peyton List is Batgirl, and Tara Strong voices Reporter.
CBS All Access has released a full trailer for Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone (below). Teasers for two of the episodes were released last week (see "’Twilight Zone’ Trailers").