‘Night Agent’ Renewed for Season 2 at Netflix

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “The Last Kingdom” is ready for its last run. With the debut of the feature-length film “Seven Kings Must Die” on Netflix on April 14, the epic series is wrapping up, with the fifth and final season having aired on Netflix in March 2022. The film serves as a fitting send off to the series, which is based on the Bernard Cornwell novel series “The Saxon Stories.” Like the books, the show follows the fictional character Uhtred (played by Alexander Dreymon), a Saxon who was captured and raised by Danish invaders in England in the ninth century A.D. Uhtred is raised to live the life of a viking, but destiny puts him in the employ of the House of Wessex and King Alfred, who seeks to unite the disparate kingdoms into one country called England.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Amazon has officially renewed “A League of Their Own” for Season 2, which will also be the show’s last. The first season consisted of eight episodes, while the second season will consist of just four. “Making this show and seeing the impact it has had in the world has been an incredible joy,” said series creators Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson. “While obviously we were hoping for eleven seasons, we’re grateful to be able to continue to tell the story of these characters and this world.” The announcement comes about a month after it was initially reported that “A League of Their Own” would be coming to an end with an abbreviated second season.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Netflix has canceled the comedy series “Freeridge” after just one season, Variety has learned exclusively. The half-hour show was a spinoff of the Netflix YA comedy series “On My Block.” It was originally ordered to series back in September 2021 ahead of the fourth and final season of “On My Block.” “Freeridge” debuted its one and only eight-episode season at the streamer on Feb. 2. According to the “Freeridge” official logline, it “is a coming of age comedy following sibling rivals Gloria and Ines and their friends Demi and Cameron who have unleashed a curse bringing dark misfortune into their lives.”

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The upcoming Netflix animated comedy series “Mulligan” has set its full voice cast. The series regulars for the show include: Nat Faxon, Chrissy Teigen, Tina Fey, Sam Richardson, Phil Lamarr, and Dana Carvey. Kevin Michael Richardson, Ayo Edebiri, Daniel Radcliffe, Ronny Chieng have been cast in recurring guest star roles. Full character descriptions can be seen below. The series, which was originally ordered at Netflix in March 2020, hails from co-creators Robert Carlock and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” writer and executive producer Sam Means. Per the official logline, “After Earth is destroyed by an alien attack, a rag-tag band of survivors has to start society over from scratch. It’s an opportunity to learn from humanity’s past mistakes and get things right this time. Or make the same mistakes all over again. Probably the second one.”

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Netflix is continuing to build out the “Stranger Things” franchise, with the streaming giant ordering an animated series set within the world of the show. Nearly all details about the show are being kept under wraps, aside from the fact that it was developed by Eric Robles and Flying Bark Productions. Robles has previously created the animated shows “Random! Cartoons,” “Fanboy & Chum Chum,” and “Glitch Techs.” “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer brothers executive produce via Upside Down Pictures along with Robles of Flying Bark as well as Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps. Upside Down Pictures and 21 Laps are currently under overall deals at Netflix.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Sex/Life” has been canceled at Netflix after two seasons, Variety has learned. The second season of the drama series debuted on the streamer on March 2, while Season 1 debuted in June 2021. The series was inspired by the book “44 Chapters About 4 Men” by B.B. Easton and hailed from creator Stacy Rukeyser. Sarah Shahi starred as Billie Connelly who, exhausted from taking care of her two kids and feeling nostalgic for the free-spirited life she lived in New York with her best friend Sasha (Margaret Odette) before marrying loving and reliable Cooper (Mike Vogel), starts journaling and fantasizing about her exploits with an ex (Adam Demos).

Joe Otterson TV Reporter WWE’s WrestleMania 39 delivered the highest weekend usage ever on Peacock. The two-night event was up 29% in hours viewed and 32% in reach compared to last year’s WrestleMania, Peacock announced Tuesday. The NBCUniversal-owned streamer also claims that WrestleMania 39 generated the most hours-watched of any live event on Peacock with the exception of the Super Bowl. It should be noted that, like other streaming services, Peacock does not provide specific viewership information to back up these claims. On linear television, the episode of “Monday Night Raw” that aired on USA Network the day after the final night of WrestleMania saw a significant boost in the ratings. This week’s episode nabbed 997,000 viewers in the key adults 18-49 demographic, the highest demo audience for “Raw” since February 2020 and up 37% from last week. In total viewers, the episode averaged 2.26 million viewers, up 23% over last week.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter In a storyline worthy of the finest pro wrestling angles, the McMahon family’s nearly complete control of WWE is coming to an end after seven decades. That is not to say there will no one within the McMahon family at the helm of the sports entertainment juggernaut. With the announcement that Endeavor Group is purchasing WWE and combining it into a new company with the UFC, it was revealed that Vince McMahon will be executive chairman of the board of the new entity. In addition, Paul Levesque — known to fans as Triple H and also McMahon’s son-in-law — will stay on as chief content officer, a role he assumed in September 2022. But no longer will the WWE be the family-run business that WWE and its predecessors have been since McMahon’s father and grandfather began promoting professional wrestling in New York in 1953. As such, it marks the end of an era for TV’s dominant pro wrestling franchise.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Netflix has ordered its first ever pilot. The streaming giant, which has typically opted to order projects straight to series, has greenlit a pilot for the single-camera comedy “Little Sky,” Variety has confirmed. Samara Weaving is attached to star in the pilot, which hails from creator Rightor Doyle. According to an invidual with knowledge of the situation, Netflix does not plan to shift to the traditional broadcast model of ordering multiple pilots and comparing them for potential series orders. The “Little Sky” pilot is the only one planned at present. Nevertheless, the fact that Netflix is willing to order a pilot is significant. The streamer has heavily influenced broadcast networks and other outlets in recent years into using a script-to-series model and mini rooms, the latter of which are a sticking point in the current WGA negotiations. To that point, the number of pilots ordered at the major broadcast networks during the current traditional pilot season has reached an all-time low, with just 14 pilots ordered to date.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Netflix has found the main cast for the limited series adaptation of the Elin Hilderbrand novel “The Perfect Couple.” Variety has learned that Nicole Kidman has officially signed on to star in the series, as has Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, Billy Howle, Dakota Fanning, Meghann Fahy, Ishaan Khattar, Jack Reynor, Sam Nivola, Mia Issac, Donna Lynne Champlin, and Isabelle Adjani. The show originally received its six-episode order at Netflix in August 2022. The official logline states, “Amelia Sacks (Hewson) is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families on Nantucket. Her disapproving future mother-in-law, famous novelist Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman), has spared no expense in planning what promises to be the premiere wedding of the season — until a body turns up on the beach. As secrets come to light, the stage is set for a real-life investigation that feels plucked from the pages of one of Greer’s novels. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect.”

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The Netflix anime series based on the “Scott Pilgrim” graphic novels is bringing back the entire main cast of the film “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” to voice their characters in the show. The show, which was first reported as being in development at Netflix in January 2022, has officially been ordered to series. The returning cast members are: Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ramona Flowers), Satya Bhabha (Matthew Patel), Kieran Culkin (Wallace Wells), Chris Evans (Lucas Lee), Anna Kendrick (Stacey Pilgrim), Brie Larson (Envy Adams), Alison Pill (Kim Pine), Aubrey Plaza (Julie Powers), Brandon Routh (Todd Ingram), Jason Schwartzman (Gideon Graves), Johnny Simmons (Young Neil), Mark Webber (Stephen Stills), Mae Whitman (Roxie), and Ellen Wong (Knives Chau). Additional cast members will be announced at a later date.

It’s official: “The Night Agent” is a hit and Netflix has renewed its new action-thriller series for a second season.

The Night Agent has earned a very quick renewal at Netflix!

This was quick — a day after Netflix unveiled record opening weekend viewership for The Night Agent, the streamer has picked up a second season of the political conspiracy thriller series from creator Shawn Ryan and Sony Pictures Television for a second season. This marks one of the fastest renewal decisions for Netflix, which typically waits for date on a series’ 28-day performance before pulling the trigger.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has been renewed for Season 3 while “Star Trek: Lower Decks” has been renewed for Season 5 at Paramount+. The new seasons of both shows will consist of 10 episodes. In addition, Season 2 of “Strange New Worlds” and Season 4 of “Lower Decks” will both debut this summer. “Strange New Worlds” Season 2 will premiere on June 15 on Paramount+ in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. New episodes will then drop weekly thereafter. “Lower Decks” will return in late summer, but an exact date has yet to be announced. Finally, Season 2 of the Nickelodeon animated series “Star Trek: Prodigy” is set to air this coming winter. Season 1 of that show originally launched in late 2021, with the second half of the season airing in late 2022.

BreAnna Bell “The Night Agent” overthrew “You” Season 4 for the No. 1 spot on the English TV List with 168.71 million hours viewed following its March 23 premiere date. The action-thriller is currently the streamer’s most viewed title this week. Created by Shawn Ryan and based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk, the series ranks third overall for premiere week of viewing across all Season 1 TV and appeared in the Top 10 in 93 countries. Last week, “You” Season 4 took the top spot among the list of English TV titles with 64.06 million hours viewed after releasing the second half of the season’s episodes on March 9. The series currently ranks third on the list. Most recently, Netflix renewed “You” for a fifth and final season.

The Night Agent snuck its way to the top of Netflix’s English-language TV charts for the week of March 20.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter A series adaptation of “Man on Fire” has been ordered straight-to-series at Netflix, Variety has confirmed. The series is based on the first two novels to feature the former French Foreign Legion soldier Creasy by A. J. Quinnell, specifically “Man on Fire” and “The Perfect Kill.” The first book was originally published in 1981, while the second was published in 1992. Netflix has given the show an eight-episode order. The logline states that the show “tells the story of John Creasy, a broken ex-mercenary on a mission to avenge the death of his only friend, while protecting his fallen comrade’s daughter from the forces that destroyed her family.”

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Lena Headey is set to star in Kurt Sutter’s upcoming Netflix series “The Abandons,” Variety has learned. The Western series was ordered at the streamer in October 2022. The official series description states: “As a group of diverse, outlier families pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, tries to force them out. These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law.” Headey will play Fiona, described as “a strong, devout matriarch who, unable to have her own children, took in four orphans to create her own family. Driven by a higher purpose – and a strong-willed Irish temper – her faith and love for her family trump all.”