It may be Labor Day, but Hollywood news is still working overtime into the first full week of September 2022. Time for a round-up!
HBO Max's House of the Dragon episode 2 passed 10 million viewers on August 28, 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This exceeds the episode 1 viewership, which came in just shy of 10 million (see "'House of the Dragon' Draws 9.99 Big"), by about 2%. Viewership of the premiere episode neared 25 million by the end of its first week of availability. Despite this record-breaking success and the show's S2 renewal, Miguel Sapochnik has stepped down as a co-showrunner for this series, according to Variety, as he has entered a first-look deal with HBO to develop new projects. Ryan Condal will be House of the Dragon's sole showrunner going forward.
Also on the HBO Max front, the Harley Quinn animated series was renewed for Season 4, the streamer announced, although the upcoming Season 4 will see the exit of co-creators Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker as Sarah Peters moves up to become the executive producer and showrunner. Halpern and Schumacker clearly pushed the limits of heroes in this series, even to the point where DC had to step in nix a scene (see "DC Nixed"). Ben Kingsley will return to the MCU in the upcoming Wonder Man series for Disney+, according to Variety. He will reprise the role of Trevor Slattery, a failed actor, which first appeared in the MCU in Iron Man 3 (see "Ben Kingsley in 'Iron Man 3'").
Dewayne Perkins will write and exec produce Fox’s Clue animated series, according to Deadline. Perkins has a primarily comedic background, with writing stints for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Amber Ruffin Show, and The Break with Michelle Wolf. The series, from Hasbro’s Entertainment One Vox’s Bento Box Entertainment was first announced early last year (see "’Clue’ Animated Series in Development").
Nippon TV has licensed Netflix to stream 13 anime titles non-exclusively worldwide, the company announced. The first three series, which have already dropped in the U.S. are HUNTER X HUNTER, Ouran High School Host Club, and Claymore. Additional series, in the order in which Netflix will be streaming them, are DEATH Note, DEATH NOTE: Relight 1, DEATH NOTE: Relight 2, From Me to You, From Me to You 2nd Season, BERSERK, Parasyte – the maxim, NANA, Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!, and MONSTER.