Hulu Announces Premiere Dates and Series Pickups at Television Critics Association Winter Tour

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During this year’s Television Critics Association, Hulu announced several new series that have been picked up to order as well as premiere dates for returning shows and more.

What’s happening:

  • At this year’s Television Critics Association winter press tour, Hulu announced the premiere dates for new and returning shows including:
    • The Handmaid’s Tale
    • Catch-22
    • Shrill
    • The Act
    • Ramy
  • Additionally, the streamer announced a new partnership with Marvel Television to present four new animated adult series.

What they’re saying:

  • Hulu’s Senior Vice President of Originals, Craig Erwich: “Hulu is taking big swings on bold and brand-defining stories that reflect the culture and inspire conversation. The series and films we’re presenting today come from many of the biggest storytellers and fresh new voices in entertainment, and reflect why Hulu is a home for creators to do their very best work.”

Hulu New Series Orders for Reprisal and The Great:

  • Hulu has announced it’s expanding its originals slate with series orders for Reprisal and The Great.
  • Production will begin later this year with Reprisal premiering in 2019 and The Great in 2020.

Reprisal:

  • A hyper-kinetic revenge tale following a relentless femme fatale (Abigail Spencer) who, after being left for dead, leads a vengeful campaign against a bombastic gang of gear heads.
  • The drama series stars:
    • Abigail Spencer
    • Rodrigo Santoro
    • Mena Massoud
    • Madison Davenport
    • Rhys Wakefield
    • David Dastmalchian
    • W. Earl Brown
    • Gilbert Owuor

The Great:

  • A genre bending, anti-historical ride through 18th Century Russia following the wildly comic rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great.
  • The series stars:
    • Elle Fanning as Catherine
    • Nicholas Hoult
    • Phoebe Fox
    • Adam Godley
    • Gwilym Lee
    • Charity Wakefield
    • Douglas Hodge
    • Sacha Dhawan
  • Both shows will join Hulu’s upcoming slate of bold, relevant stories alongside:
    • Veronica Mars
    • Four Weddings and a Funeral from Mindy Kaling
    • Wu-Tang: An American Saga from Brian Grazer
    • The RZA
    • Little Fires Everywhere from Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

 

New Partnership with Marvel Television:

  • Hulu has partnered with Marvel Television, to bring to life four new Hulu original adult animation series based on popular Marvel Television characters.
  • These new shows will focus on:
  • Finally, similar to what Netflix did with The Defenders, Hulu’s new cast of characters will come together in for the animated special, Marvel’s The Offenders.

Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. 

  • This series will center around an egomaniacal supervillain with a really big head and a really little body, who struggles to maintain control of his evil organization and his demanding family.
  • Writers Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt will also executive produce along with Jeph Loeb.

Marvel’s Hit-Monkey

  • Tells the tale of a wronged Japanese snow monkey, mentored by the ghost of an American assassin, as he cuts a wide swath through the Tokyo underworld in this darkly cinematic and brutally funny revenge saga.
  • Writers Josh Gordon and Will Speck will executive produce along with Jeph Loeb.

Marvel’s Tigra & Dazzler Show

  • A story about two woke superheroes and best friends, Tigra and Dazzler, as they fight for recognition among powered people who make up the eight million stories in Los Angeles.
  • Writers Erica Rivinoja and Chelsea Handler serve as executive producers along with Jeph Loeb.

Marvel’s Howard The Duck

  • Howard is trapped in a world he never made, but America’s favorite fighting fowl hopes to return home with the help of his unstoppable gal pal Beverly before the evil Dr. Bong can turn him the crispiest dish on the menu.
  • Writers Kevin Smith and Dave Willis will also executive produce along with Jeph Loeb.

Marvel’s The Offenders:

  • A story in which nobody asked them to — and we’d be better off if they didn’t — but MODOK, Dazzler, Tigra, Hit Monkey and Howard the Duck are all forced to team up in order to save the world and certain parts of the Universe.
  • Jeph Loeb will executive produce.

Premiere Dates for Upcoming 2019 Originals

Into the Dark:

  • Hulu’s Into The Dark horror event series will debut two new installments:
    • April Fools’ Day-themed I’m Just F*cking With You on Friday, April 5
    • Mother’s Day-themed All That We Destroy on Friday, May 3.
  • From prolific, award-winning producer Jason Blum’s independent TV studio, the Into the Dark series includes 12 feature-length episodes, released each month and inspired by a holiday, featuring Blumhouse’s signature genre/thriller spin on the story.

I’m Just F*cking With You

  • An upcoming SXSW Narrative Spotlight feature, tells the story of a man and his sister on the way to a family wedding, who endure a night of increasingly frightening practical jokes during a one-night stay at a secluded motel.
  • The installment stars:
    • Keir O’Donnell
    • Hayes MacArthur
    • Jessica McNamee
  • Written by Gregg Zehenter & Scott Barkan and directed by Adam Mason.
  • Deftones’ Chino Moreno will serve as a composer for the episode.

All That We Destroy

  • Follows a geneticist who fears that her son may be becoming a serial killer and creates a group of clones in an attempt to cure him of his psychopathic tendencies. Therefore allowing him to relive the murder of his first victim.
  • The show stars:
    • Samantha Mathis
    • Israel Broussard
    • Aurora Perrineau
    • Dora Madison
    • Frank Whaley
  • Written by Sean Keller and Jim Agnew and directed by Chelsea Peters.

Ramy:

  • Upcoming comedy Ramy will debut all 10 episodes on Friday, April 19.
  • Ramy Hassan (Ramy Youssef) is a first generation Egyptian-American who is on a spiritual journey in his politically-divided New Jersey neighborhood.
  • The series will bring a new perspective to the screen as it explores the challenges of what it’s like being caught between a Muslim community that thinks life is a moral test and a millennial generation that thinks life has no consequences.
  • The series stars:
    • Ramy Youssef
    • Mohammed Amer
    • Hiam Abbass
    • Amr Waked
    • May Calamawy
    • David Merheje
    • Laith Nakli
    • Steve Way
  • Written, executive produced, created by and starring Youssef, and executive produced by Jerrod Carmichael, A24’s Ravi Nandan, showrunner Bridget Bedard and co-creators Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, and produced by A24.

Ask Dr. Ruth:

  • This latest documentary to join Hulu’s slate will debut on Hulu on Friday, May 10 with a 20-plus market theatrical release on Friday, May 3.
  • Ask Dr. Ruth chronicles the incredible life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America’s most famous sex therapist.
  • With her diminutive frame, thick German accent and uninhibited approach to sex therapy and education, Dr. Ruth transformed the conversation around sexuality.
  • As she approaches her 90th birthday and shows no signs of slowing down, Dr. Ruth revisits her painful past and unlikely path to a career at the forefront of the sexual revolution.
  • Directed by Ryan White and produced by Rafael Marmor, White, Jessica Hargrave and Christopher Leggett.

Catch-22:

  • “Based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a US Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.”

  • The new series will debut with all six episodes on Friday, May 17.
  • The cast includes:
    • Christopher Abbott (Yossarian)
    • Kyle Chandler (Colonel Cathcart)
    • George Clooney (Scheisskopf)
    • Hugh Laurie (Major de Coverley)
    • Giancarlo Giannini (Marcello)
    • Daniel David Stewart (Milo)
    • Rafi Gavron (Aarfy)
    • Austin Stowell (Nately)
    • Graham Patrick Martin (Orr)
    • Gerran Howell (Kid Sampson)
    • Jon Rudnitsky (McWatt)
    • Kevin J. O’Connor (Korn)
    • Pico Alexander (Clevinger)
    • Tessa Ferrer (Nurse Duckett)
    • Lewis Pullman (Major Major)
    • Josh Bolt (Dunbar)
    • Jay Paulson (Chaplain)
    • Julie Ann Emery (Marion)
    • Grant Heslov (Doc Daneeka).
  • Catch-22 is executive produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, along with Richard Brown and Steve Golin.
  • Luke Davies and David Michôd are co-writers and executive producers for the series.

The Handmaid’s Tale:

  • The critically acclaimed show will return for season three on Wednesday, June 5 with three new episodes, and subsequent episodes released every Wednesday only on Hulu.
  • The 13-episode third season of The Handmaid’s Tale is driven by June’s resistance to the dystopian regime of Gilead and her struggle to strike back against overwhelming odds. Startling reunions, betrayals, and a journey to the terrifying heart of Gilead force all characters to take a stand, guided by one defiant prayer: “Blessed be the fight.”
  • The series stars:
    • Elisabeth Moss
    • Joseph Fiennes
    • Yvonne Strahovski
    • Alexis Bledel
    • Madeline Brewer
    • Ann Dowd
    • O-T Fagbenle
    • Max Minghella
    • Samira Wiley
    • Bradley Whitford

Shrill:

  • The new comedy series Shrill starring Aidy Bryant will debut all six episodes on Wednesday, March 15.
  • Shrill follows Annie (Bryant), a fat young woman who wants to change her life — but not her body. Annie is trying to start her career while juggling bad boyfriends, a sick parent and a perfectionist boss.
  • The series stars:
    • Aidy Bryant
    • Lolly Adefope
    • Luka Jones
    • Ian Owens
    • John Cameron Mitchell
  • Executive produced by Lorne Michaels, Elizabeth Banks, showrunner Ali Rushfield, Lindy West, Andrew Singer of Broadway Video and Max Handelman of Brownstone Productions.

https://youtu.be/JyUr_-jxWZA

The Act: