In this edition of TV Bits:

  • Helena Bonham Carter did some…interesting research for her role in The Crown
  • The Walking Dead overseer suggests that ninjas could be involved going forward
  • Alex Trebek is staying realistic about his chances to continue hosting Jeopardy!
  • Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World gets a season 2 premiere date
  • And more!

Helena Bonham Carter The Crown

When Helena Bonham Carter was cast as Princess Margaret in The Crown, the actress says she reached out to Margaret (who died in 2002) via a psychic – and she claims she actually got some advice from her. According to The Guardian:

“She said, apparently, she was glad it was me. My main thing when you play someone who is real, you kind of want their blessing because you have a responsibility. So I asked her: ‘Are you OK with me playing you?’ and she said: ‘You’re better than the other actress’’ … that they were thinking of. They will not admit who it was. It was me and somebody else. That made me think maybe she is here, because that is a classic Margaret thing to say. She was really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time.

Then she said: ‘But you’re going to have to brush up and be more groomed and neater.’ Then she said: ‘Get the smoking right. I smoked in a very particular way. Remember that – this is a big note – the cigarette holder was as much a weapon for expression as it was for smoking.'”

We’ll see how effective that advice was when season 3 of The Crown debuts on Netflix in November.

The Orville

CinemaBlend was at a New York Comic Con panel for Seth MacFarlane‘s The Orville, where they learned that the third season – which is coming to Hulu in late 2020 – will consist of eleven episodes, and “they will be much longer on Hulu than they were on Fox.” We’re not sure how much longer the runtimes are expected to last, but that’s good news for patient fans who have an extra-long wait between seasons two and three.

The End of the F***ing World season 2 poster

Netflix has unveiled the key art for season 2 of The End of the F***ing World, which revealed the release date of November 5, 2019. I’m getting a real “the ending of The Graduate” vibe from this poster, but we’ll have to see how James and Alyssa’s relationship evolves over the course of this new season.

jeopardy streaming on hulu

In an interview with a Canadian television station, longtime Jeopardy! host (and national treasure) Alex Trebek gave an update about his chemotherapy treatments, saying that he’ll stay on the air “as long as [his] skills do not diminish.” But the treatment is causing sores in his mouth that’s causing him to slur some of his words, and he’s aware that his days may be numbered.

“I’m sure there are observant members of the television audience that notice also, but they’re forgiving,” he said. “But there will come a point when they (fans and producers) will no longer be able to say, ‘It’s okay.'”

He also said he wasn’t afraid of dying, and that he’s lived a good, full life. You can watch the full interview here if you’re interested.

The Walking Dead season 10 premiere

The Walking Dead put up some series low numbers during its season 10 premiere this past Sunday, but those numbers may not be as bad as they appear. As Deadline points out, AMC isn’t releasing hard viewership numbers for its AMC Premiere commercial-free service, which had the episode available a full week early. And with new episodes dropping 48 hours in advance on that service, it’s going to be tough to get a handle on the overall number of eyeballs that consume this show moving forward.

andrew lincolin leaving the walking dead

Speaking of The Walking Dead, franchise overseer Scott Gimple was asked at New York Comic Con if he could tease anything about the upcoming Rick Grimes-centric Walking Dead movie spin-offs, and Gimple said one word: “ninjas.” But don’t get too excited, because he later said that answer had been “terrible” – does that mean it wasn’t accurate, or it set expectations too high? In any case, he gave a more reserved answer:

“There are a lot of things that have been going on in The Walking Dead outside of these characters’ imaginations, of what they know. We will be exploring this through the movie, through Rick Grimes, and even beyond that, opening up the world of The Walking Dead.”

The post TV Bits: ‘The Crown,’ ‘Jeopardy!’, ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘The End of the F***ing World’, and More appeared first on /Film.