In today’s edition of TV Bits:

  • Kevin James will star in a NASCAR-themed comedy at Netflix
  • Viola Davis will play former First Lady Michelle Obama in a new Showtime series
  • The Five People You Meet in Heaven is in development as a TV show
  • The Netflix series Grace and Frankie has an ending in sight
  • And more!

Let’s kick things off with the trailer for Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q, a follow-up to the groundbreaking original series. The first incarnation of the show wrapped up ten years ago, but the main players are back in this sequel series, which includes a bunch of new cast members as well. The eight-episode first season drops on December 8, 2019.

Bumbling everyman Kevin James has scored the lead gig on a new Netflix multi-camera comedy called The Crew, in which he’ll play a crew chief of a NASCAR team. Here’s the description from Variety:

“When the owner steps down and passes the team off to his daughter, James finds himself at odds with the tech reliant millennials she starts bringing in to modernize the team.”

Those wacky millennials strike again! How on Earth is James ever going to be able to function with those damn kids and their cell phones running around all the time?

Ewan McGregor - Ghost Writer

In a recent interview with Time, American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy laid out several of his upcoming projects under his $300 million development deal at Netflix. One of them is “a miniseries about the designer Halston, with Ewan McGregor playing the couturier.” You can read more about the real-life Halston in this exceptional interview with his friend, director Joel Schumacher (which is truly a wild read).

The Five People You Meet in Heaven cover

Author Mitch Albom is adapting his popular book The Five People You Meet in Heaven into a possible TV series at Fox, more than a decade after a miniseries version aired on ABC.

Using familiar characters from the book, the series will explore each one’s unique journey in this world and the next. In the novel, heaven is the place where people’s lives are explained to them by five people they touched; the storylines of interwoven characters will explore themes including love, hope, redemption and human connection.

Should be interesting to see if this material still resonates with people considering the world has gotten so much worse in the years since anyone last thought about Albom’s book. (Unfortunate, but true!)

Ant-Man and the Wasp - Laurence Fishburne

Laurence Fishburne, who co-starred in last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, is continuing his Marvel relationship by executive producing a new Disney Channel animated series involving an African American Marvel character. Fishburne is one of the creative forces behind Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which sounds like it will be a delightful show for the younger generation:

Based on Marvel’s comic book series, the show hails from from Disney Television Animation and follows the adventures of 13-year-old super-genius Lunella Lafayette and her ten-ton T-Rex, Devil Dinosaur. After Lunella accidentally brings Devil Dinosaur into present-day New York City via a time vortex, the duo works together to protect the city’s Lower East Side from danger.

mayans mc trailer

The second season of the Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans M.C. just premiered this week on FX, but if a third season gets the greenlight, co-creator Kurt Sutter is stepping down. “It’s time for the white man to leave the building,” he said, promising to hand the full responsibilities off to his co-showrunner Elgin James.

Grace and Frankie Season 3

Grace and Frankie isn’t exactly in my personal wheelhouse, but the Netflix comedy has received several Emmy nominations over its run so far, and a new announcement confirms that it will be the longest-running show in Netflix history when it comes to an end. The series was just renewed for a seventh and final season of 16 episodes, giving it 94 episodes when all is said and done. Season 6 doesn’t even premiere until January of 2020, so it’ll be a while before the final seasons officially wraps things up, but so long, Grace and Frankie – you did Netflix proud.

the suicide squad cast

And finally, powerhouse Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis is set to play Michelle Obama in First Ladies, Showtime’s one-hour White House drama which “is set in the East Wing of the White House, where many of history’s most impactful and world-changing decisions have been hidden from view, made by America’s charismatic, complex and dynamic first ladies. The series will peel back the curtain on the personal and political lives of our most enigmatic heroes, with Season 1 focusing on Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama.” Sounds like a cool idea, since first ladies’ contributions are often ignored or breezed over in history books. But who should play Eleanor and Betty?

The post TV Bits: Kevin James’ NASCAR Show, ‘Grace and Frankie’ to End with Season 7, Ewan McGregor Teams with Ryan Murphy, and More appeared first on /Film.