WIRE Buzz: Marvel's Helstrom series fires up cast; Green Eggs and Ham fries up featurette; more

Hulu is no longer working on a live-action Ghost Rider project, but its Helstrom series is still alive and well. In fact, the Marvel Television effort now has a cast: Tom Austen (The Royals) and Sydney Lemmon (Fear the Walking Dead) are leading the show as Daimon and Ana Helstrom, the offspring of a famous serial killer who choose to use their trauma to track down the worst people (and entities) on the planet.

Per a release, Daimon is described as "a professor of ethics who moonlights as an exorcist, Daimon has no illusions about saving a world he has no patience for; he just hopes he can help a few of the people closest to him. In his battle against a hidden world, Daimon is determined to root out demons as they arise, and will not stop until they’re vanquished."

Ana, on the other hand, "runs a successful auction house and suffers no fools, but her true interest lies in hunting down those who hurt others. Traumatized by her father as a child, Ana is driven to rid the world of those like him, even as she secretly worries her father will return."

Both brother and sister won't be exact duplicates of their comic book counterparts, whose surname was written as "Hellstrom" with two L's. In the source material, they were both the spawn of Satan. Satana, the sister, was raised in Hell by her father, while brother Daimon grew up as an orphan on Earth. When he eventually took up the hero name of "Hellstorm," Daimon proved to be a supernatural ally to characters like Ghost Rider.

Credit: Marvel Comics

“We feel incredibly fortunate to have landed a cast loaded with this much talent,” said EP/showrunner Paul Zbyszewski. “From the beginning, we knew we’d need a group of actors who were multifaceted, who could play all the chords any great Marvel show promises to play, from dramatic thriller to comedy to action. It’s going to be really fun to watch them work.”

“Marvel Television is thrilled to have such an amazing cast that enriches Paul’s fantastic writing,” added Marvel TV president and fellow Helstrom EP Jeph Loeb. “The ensemble is the perfect way to bring our audience into our Adventure Into Fear franchise causing delicious nightmares of what’s to come!”

The rest of the players are as follows: 

Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland) plays Victoria Helstrom. "Plagued by demons both real and imagined, Victoria has been institutionalized for twenty years. While she struggles to be herself, she hopes to repair her relationship with her children."

Robert Wisdom (Watchmen) plays Caretaker, "a guardian of knowledge of the occult. He uses his knowledge and his relationship with Ana to help keep demonic forces at bay."

June Carryl (Mindhunter) as Dr. Louise Hastings, "a psychologist with a strong faith but an open mind, Hastings is head of the psychiatric hospital where Victoria is being monitored. She has watched over the Helstrom family for years, caring for them as best she can."

Ariana Guerra (Raising Dion) plays Gabriella Rosetti, "a woman balancing logic and faith, Gabriella arrives from the Vatican to help Daimon and Hastings uncover cases of demonic possession. She wants to save everyone she can, including Daimon."

Alain Uy (The Passage) plays Chris Yen, "Ana’s business partner and her closest friend — some would say surrogate brother. He carries out the bulk of the auction house’s responsibilities and assists Ana with whatever she needs."

(via Deadline)

Netflix's animation adaptation of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss finally has a premiere date of Friday, Nov. 8. This was announced via the special behind-the-scenes featurette below, where certain members of the voice cast (Michael Douglas, Adam DeVine, Ilana Glazer, Keegan-Michael Key, and Eddie Izzard) recite lines from the famous 1960 kids' book about a curmudgeon named Sam who doesn't want to eat the eponymous and bizarre-looking dish.

Produced by Ellen DeGeneres, the series follows Sam-Am-I (Douglas) and the green egg-serving Guy (DeVine) as they embark on a journey of self-discovery. Netflix describes the project as "a postmodern Plains, Trains and Automobiles through the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss." 

Diane Keaton (Michellee), Jeffrey Wright (McWinkle), Daveed Diggs (Mouse), Tracy Morgan (Fox), John Turturro (Goat), and Jillian Bell (Gluntz) also lend their voices to the family-friendly show.

Keegan-Michael Key serves as the narrator.

Toys "R" Us is back, baby! ... Well, sort of. More than a year after going out of business, the iconic toy retailer has launched a new website with one caveat: it's powered by Target. As Engadget discovered, all checkout purchases go through the latter company. The momentous partnership between both brands was confirmed by CNBC earlier today.

“We spoke to a lot of different folks as we went through this process. What inspired me about Target was their investment in the category," said Richard Barry, CEO of Tru Kids (parent company of Toys "R" Us). "We have completely reimagined [the website] ... to a site which is immersive and heavily content oriented. One of the things we have been working on with the initial launch is to make the site very relevant for consumers this holiday season ... with a big focus on the products we think will be magic this year."

Credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Barry's ambitious plan to resurrect the beloved franchise was revealed in June of this year.