In brief: ‘Harry Potter’ TV series to start filming summer 2025 and more
The next chapter of the Wizarding World will begin shooting this summer, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Thursday. The upcoming Harry Potter TV series, which will reboot the franchise, starts filming in Leavesden, England, in summer 2025. Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod revealed during a presentation on Thursday that 32,000 children have auditioned for the lead roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and that the casting team is reviewing 500 to 1,000 audition tapes per day to find the perfect trio …
Actors and married partners Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood are going to play a fictional couple in the new TV seres Duo, a drama that’s being developed for NBC, Deadline reports. Wood wrote the project, which has found Rina Mimoun to serve as showrunner. The show follows a blue-collar worker who crosses paths with a magnetic performer and begins a partnership that changes them forever …
Julie Bowen has found her next TV show. The Modern Family actress and Emmy winner is set to star in the new half-hour comedy Taste for NBC and Universal Television, according to Deadline. The show follows employees at a food magazine in the Bay Area who encounter changes when the publication is bought by a Silicon Valley tech mogul …
When The Last of Us returns to HBO for season 2 in April, it’ll pick up five years after the events of season 1.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, its showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin opened up about how the second season feels different from the first, including the introduction of new a character named Abby.
Little has been said about the character, though she’s described as “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved” in press material from HBO. Kaitlyn Dever portrays her, and Druckmann says it’s due to her incredible talent.
“The reason we cast Kaitlyn is because she’s an incredible actor. You look at her body of work and the way she throws herself at that stuff… We value performance over anything else,” Druckmann said.
While fans of the video game may notice that Dever’s physique differs from that of Abby’s in the game — the digital character is a towering, muscled woman while Dever’s Abby closely resembles star Bella Ramsey‘s Ellie — Druckmann says that the show has different priorities than the game.
“There’s not as much violent action moment to moment,” he says. “It’s more about the drama. I’m not saying there’s no action here. It’s just, again, different priorities and how you approach it.”
Going further, Druckmann said Dever has “the spirit of the game in her.”
“For every heroic act, there’s someone who suffers on the other side who may see you reasonably as a villain,” Druckmann said. “When you look at Kaitlyn, there’s just something in her eyes where, even no matter what she’s experiencing, you connect. It was important that we found somebody that we could connect to the way we connect to Bella.”
The 82nd Golden Globe Awards aired live Sunday from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. Comedian Nikki Glaser hosted the awards show, which honored the best in film and television over the past year. Here are some of the show’s highlights:
Shōgun, The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez win big It was a big night for the FX and Hulu series Shōgun, which won all four of the Golden Globes it was nominated for: best TV series (drama), best performance by a male actor in a TV series (drama) for Hiroyuki Sanada, best performance by a male actor in a supporting role on TV for Tadanobu Asano and best performance by a female actor in a TV series (drama) for Anna Sawai.
The Brutalist picked up three wins, including best motion picture (drama), best director for Brady Corbet and best performance by a male actor in a motion picture for Adrien Brody. In his speech, Brody said the film’s story is similar to his mother’s and his ancestors’. “I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice, and although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced, and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice,” Brody said.
Emilia Pérez came away from the evening with wins for best motion picture (musical or comedy), best performance by a female actor in a supporting role in a motion picture for Zoe Saldaña, best motion picture (non-English language) and best original song. Saldaña celebrated her win, the first of the night and her first-ever Golden Globe, by saying her heart was full of gratitude. “I know this is competition, but all that I have witnessed tonight is us showing up for each other, and it’s just so beautiful,” she said.
Nikki Glaser brings big laughs, roasts The evening’s host, Nikki Glaser, began her monologue by welcoming everyone to “Ozempic’s biggest night.” After mentioning the viral holding space meme from Wicked‘s press tour, Glaser told Zendaya she was incredible in Dune: Part 2, before saying her film Challengers “was more sexually charged than Diddy‘s credit card.” She also made sure to roast Timothée Chalamet‘s facial hair, after telling him he gave a great performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. “You have the most gorgeous eyelashes on your upper lip,” Glaser said.
Cute couples, family plus-ones hit red carpet Was that Blair Waldorf with Seth Cohen? Yes, yes it was. Nominee Adam Brody brought his wife, Leighton Meester, as his date to the awards ceremony. Timothée Chalamet also brought a famous plus-one — his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, who sat next to him during the live broadcast. Ariana Grande was accompanied by her mother, Joan Grande, as her date for the evening, while GlenPowell brought both his parents, Glen Powell Sr. and Cyndy Powell, whom he posed with on the red carpet.
Demi Moore wins her first Golden Globe The Substance actress Demi Moore won her first Golden Globe for her leading role in the horror film. She gave a powerful speech while accepting the trophy for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture (musical or comedy). “I’ve been doing this a long time, like, over 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor,” Moore said. “Thirty years ago I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn actress,’ and at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something I was allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful and made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that.”
Clean Slate is officially on Prime Video, a new series chronicling the reunion of an old-school car wash owner named Harry and his child, who returns home a proud trans woman named Desiree after more than 23 years away.
Laverne Cox stars as Desiree, and serves as creator and executive producer of the show, and she tells ABC Audio her experience was both triggering and therapeutic.
“As we were developing the stories, before we started shooting — the multiple years that we were working on this show before we got picked up. That was fun. Like, I’m pitching story ideas with Dan [Ewen] and George [Wallace],” she says. “And then when it came time to play it and to relive it, I was triggered every day, if I’m honest. But sometimes that’s what is required to be an artist.”
“Desiree is definitely in a different time in her life,” she continues, noting she herself started therapy at about 30 years old. Though she says she’s past “dealing with my childhood trauma,” “every day I was that, like, 30-year- old Laverne, angry at my mom/dad here and lashing out and acting out.”
“It was triggering every day,” she adds. “But sometimes that’s the job.”
While there were similarities between her and Desiree, co-star George says that like his character, Harry, he’s also pretty receptive.
“I love everyone. I love people,” he says. “Isn’t it great to just be able to live and let live? And I travel all over the world so I can learn [from] other people how they live. And I learn a lot. I just love to learn the lesson. Life and love does just great.”