There was plenty of showbiz news in the holiday-shortened week, and we round it up here.

Prime Video has released a video (see below) promoting its launch of the new The Lord of the Rings series on September 2, 2022.  The title has been revealed for the first time; new series is titled The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.  Amazon is dribbling out the info; the launch date and a picture were released last August (see "’LOTR’ Photo, Date").

Matt Fraction will exec produce and is co-creating a new series set in Legendary’s Monsterverse alongside Chris Black (Star Trek: Enterprise), who will serve as showrunner, for Apple TV+, the streamer announced.  After a battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco, the storyline will follow one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.

Prime Video also released a trailer (trailer below) for The Boys Presents: Diabolical, its new adult animated anthology series (see "’The Boys’ Animated Series") tied to the live action series and the graphic novels.  All eight episodes, running 12-14 minutes each, will drop March 4.

Paramount+ has released a new trailer for Picard S2, which includes an appearance by Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan, the character she played in Star Trek: Next Generation (trailer below).  Production on S2 and S3 was shut down temporarily earlier this month due to over 50 positive COVID-19 tests among cast and crew (see "’Covid’ Tests Shut Down ‘Picard’").  S2 premieres on the streamer on March 3.

And speaking of Star Trek, Paramount+ has announced release dates and renewals for the shows in what it has now logo-ized as the Star Trek Universe.  After the premiere of Picard S2, new episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays.  Star Trek Discovery S4 returns with new episodes on Thursday, February 10; it’s been renewed for a fifth season.  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will premiere on Thursday, May 5, with new episodes following weekly (see "’Star Trek: Strange New worlds’ Featurette").  It’s been renewed for a second season.  Star Trek: Lower Decks will return the summer with 10 new episodes; a fourth season has been ordered.  And the second half of Star Trek: Prodigy S1 will premiere later this year; the first half of the season is airing now.

The next two Mission Impossible films, the seventh and eighth in the series, are being delayed due to the impact of the pandemic on production, according to Variety.  Mission Impossible 7 has been delayed from September 30, 2022 to July 14, 2023 (see "Geek Movie Calendar – 2023"), and Mission Impossible 8 has been delayed from July 7, 2023 to June 28, 2024. Mission Impossible 7 was just moved to the September 30 date a few months ago (see "Coronavirus Movie Shuffle").