There's been a lot of news on geek TV in recent days, and we round it up here.
The third AMC series based on The Walking Dead has cast three lead roles, according to Variety: Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, and Hal Cumpston. Roles were not revealed. AMC has ordered a 10-episode first seasons of the new series.
The first image for the upcoming CBS All Access series Picard has been released, and it surprisingly depicts Picard with a pet, a dog. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon recently became showrunner for the series (see "Chabon Showrunning ‘Picard’").
Netflix and King Features will produce The Cuphead Show!, a new series based on the popular video game Cuphead. The animation style will be based on the style of the 1930s Fleischer cartoons. Cuphead has sold over four million units worldwide. McFarlane Toys is releasing figures based on Cuphead this year (see "Preview: McFarlane Toys 2019, Part 2").
Nickelodeon will televise SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout, a mixed live-action and animated special in honor of the show’s 20th anniversary, the company announced. The special will first air today, July 12. A theatrical movie, The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge, is planned for Summer 2020. A spin-off TV series, Kamp Koral, with the characters as kids, is in production (see "’Spongebob’ Spinoff Series").
Marvel turned down Neil Gaiman pitch to make a 1602 TV series last year, he Tweeted recently. Gaiman wrote 1602 for Marvel beginning in 2003 (see "’1602’ Unveiled—Marvel Heroes in Tights of a Different Sort"). The series placed pre-1968 Marvel characters in the year 1602.