Pennyworth, about the early life of Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, started on Epix a few years back. The first season was mostly a grounded spy drama set in the ’60s, but the show has gotten progressively wilder over time, since they have to work up to Alfred being the butler for a man who fights ice men and plant women. According to a new synopsis, the upcoming third season will take place on the cusp of “a new age of Super Heroes and Supervillains,” so expect the show to lean even harder into the craziness.
Pennyworth didn’t do terribly well on Epix, because what even is Epix, and would probably have been cancelled if HBO Max hadn’t renewed it for a third season. Perhaps part of the problem was that people didn’t realize this show was tangentially related to Batman, which is a thing they like. Hence the new title for the show: Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler.
Ponder that as you watch the season 3 trailer:
Okay, so Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler. To me, that title says that HBO Max has absolutely no confidence in the ability of this series to stand on its own. But people like Batman, right? Shove him in there!
Anyway, the third season of Pennyworth: A Batman Story About a Guy Who Knows Batman will air on HBO Max in October.
Game of Thrones veteran Bella Ramsey in the trailer for Catherine, Called Birdy
As long as we’re talking about trailers, here’s a slightly less baffling one: Lena Dunham is making a movie based on the 1994 children’s book Catherine, Called Birdy, about a young girl growing up in medieval times who resists her father’s attempts to marry her off to a much older man. It’s kind of a thirteenth century Little Women…but funnier.
To play the title role, producers have tapped Bella Ramsey, who memorably played the powerful Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. She looks like she’s having the time of her life in the trailer, below:
Catherine, Called Birdy will be out on Amazon Prime Video on October 7, 2022. Beyond that, Ramsey will star alongside Pedro Pascal in HBO’s upcoming adaptation of The Last of Us, so she is tearing it up right now.
Watch the trailer for Rick and Morty season 6
Moving on, Adult Swim has released a trailer for the upcoming sixth season of Rick and Morty, its long-running animated sci-fi comedy. Check it out:
Rick and Morty season 6 premieres on Sunday, September 4.
Here’s one last trailer for you: Vesper, a very cool-looking sci-fi film about a girl making her way on Earth after the environment has gone to hell:
“Set after the collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem, Vesper follows the titular headstrong 13-year-old girl (Raffiella Chapman), who uses her survival skills to subsist in the remnants of a strange and dangerous world with her ailing father, Darius (Richard Brake),” reads the synopsis. “When Vesper finds a mysterious woman, Camellia (Rosy McEwen), alone and disoriented after an aerial crash, she agrees to help find her missing companion in exchange for safe passage to the Citadel—the dark central hub where oligarchs live in comfort thanks to state-of-the-art biotechnology. Vesper soon discovers that her brutal neighbor, Jonas (Eddie Marsan), is searching for Camellia, who is harboring a secret that could change all of their lives forever. Forced into a dangerous adventure, Vesper must rely on her wits and bio-hacking abilities to unlock the key to an alternate future.”
Richard Brake, by the way, played the original Night King in the fifth season of Game of Thrones, just so we get more of a GoT connection in there. Vesper is out in theaters and on VOD on September 30.
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