TV News Wrap Up April 29: 'The Punisher' and 'The Wheel of Time'

Today in television news, Netflix has officially ordered a TV series based on The Punisher, according to Entertainment Weekly. A spinoff of the second season of Daredevil, the show comes from executive producer Steve Lightfoot (Hannibal). Jon Bernthal will reprise his role as the vigilante who uses dangerous means to punish those who have done him wrong. This will be the sixth collaboration between Marvel and Netflix following Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders.

With Game of Thrones coming to the end in a few years, its spiritual successor may be on the way. Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time will be receiving a television adaptation, according to Jordan's widow Harriet McDougal. We don't yet know which network it might land on, but McDougal said to expect an official announcement soon. Released between 1990 and 2013, The Wheel of Time comprises 14 books; the final three were written by Brandon Sanderson, who took over for Jordan after his death in 2007. Needless to say, although Game of Thrones ran into some issues when the writers ran out of book material, The Wheel of Time offers an overwhelming amount of content to work with.

Reporters in Washington, D.C. were treated to an impromptu West Wing reboot today. On Friday, Allison Janney, who portrayed White House press secretary C.J. Cregg on the NBC show, opened the daily briefing by filling in for actual White House press secretary Josh Earnest. She told reporters, "Josh is out today. He has, I believe it’s a root canal," a reference to an episode of the series. Earnest entered moments later, telling Janney, "This is not your show anymore!" Janney was at the White House to draw attention to the opioid epidemic, as she currently stars as a recovery drug addict on CBS' Mom.

The director of 10 Cloverfield Lane is headed to television. According to Deadline, Dan Trachtenberg will direct an episode of Black Mirror's third season, which will air exclusively on Netflix. He's in good company, as the science-fiction anthology will also feature episodes from Owen Harris (Kill Your Friends), Joe Wright (Pan) and Jakob Verbruggen (House of Cards). The season includes a cast of Bryce Dallas Howard, Alice Eve, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis. Originating on BBC, Black Mirror has been compared to The Twilight Zone, as every episode is unrelated but each tells a deeply unsettling science-fiction story. The first two seasons are currently available on Netflix.

Hannibal lead Mads Mikkelsen teased fans in a new interview about the possibility of the show's return. He told Express that the story could easily be continued a few years down the line. "We all know that we can easily pick this up in two or three years, there are breaks in the stories," he said. "We could pick it up, say, four years later. If [executive producer] Bryan [Fuller] is up for it, we will all go for it."

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