Next month, the streaming service known as CBS All Access will become Paramount+, because it wanted to blend in with the likes of Disney+ and Apple TV+, I guess. You know the first rule of marketing: make sure its easy to confuse your product with your competitor’s.
Anyway, Paramount+ shared a bunch of information about the content it will offer. Several shows that started on CBS All Access will continue on Paramount+, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Unfortunately, others won’t, as Jordan Peele’s reboot of The Twilight Zone has been cancelled.
There’s also plenty of new genre content on the way, including another pair of Star Trek shows: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the kid-focused Star Trek: Prodigy. We’ll also get a new adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and new stuff from Nickelodeon’s Avatar Studios, which will produce shows and movies set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Paramount+ will also be the place to watch movies like A Quiet Place: Part II and Mission: Impossible 7 after they finish their “short” theatrical runs.
#ParamountPlus will take you even further into the final frontier. 🖖💫 @StarTrekOnPPlus producer @Alex_Kurtzman is bringing fans more series, more storylines, & more mind-blowing visual effects. Plus all the classic #StarTrek shows and films you can binge. pic.twitter.com/m1UltlRZGj
— Paramount+ (@paramountplus) February 24, 2021
Halo series jumps ship from Showtime to Paramount+
Maybe the most interesting news from the release is that the live-action Halo series based on Microsoft’s video game franchise is moving from its original home on Showtime to Paramount+. “Halo’s epic universe and cast of characters come to life in this new original drama series,” reads the release. “In the new television adaptation, Halo will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.”
Orange Is The New Black alum Pablo Schreiber will play the lead role of Master Chief on the show. I guess I’m not that surprised that Halo is making the jump to streaming. Streaming services are where the action is right now, and it was almost quaint when the series was announced for a plain ol’ cable network.
We’ve focused on the sci-fi/fantasy/genre stuff in this article, but of course Paramount+ will have other programming. How about a spin-off of the popular Kevin Costner show Yellowstone? A revival of Frasier with Kelsey Grammar back in the lead role? And there are lots of older comedies, dramas, sports and news stuff on the platform as well.
Is there room in the streaming market for another service like this? We’ll see how Paramount+ does when it officially launches (or changes over from CBS All Access, technically) on March 4.
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