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WIRE Buzz: Jensen Ackles joins The Boys Season 3; Wil Wheaton narrating Ready Player Two; Aquaman 2's horror
Jensen Ackles has found his post-Supernatural calling in Season 3 of Amazon's The Boys. The actor confirmed the casting on Instagram with a cheeky little video in which he tries to figure out what he'll do once the long-running CW series (ending after 15 seasons) is over. His dilemma is solved when someone tosses him a copy of The Boys comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
Per an official announcement, Ackles will be playing Soldier Boy, a Captain America-esque hero who fought in World War II and, as a result, became a massive celebrity in the United States.
“When I was a child, I had a crazy, impossible dream — to provide Jensen Ackles with gainful employment,” showrunner Eric Kripke said in a statement. “I’m happy to say that dream has come true. Jensen is an amazing actor, an even better person, smells like warm chocolate chip cookies, and I consider him a brother. As Soldier Boy, the very first superhero, he’ll bring so much humor, pathos and danger to the role. I can’t wait to be on set with him again, and bring a bit of Supernatural to The Boys."
Ackles' addition to the subversive superhero series marks a reunion between the actor and Kripke, who created Supernatural all those years ago. In early July, Kripke promised to give Jeffrey Dean Morgan (yet another Supernatural vet) a part in Season 3 if he's available to shoot it.
Amazon announced that it had renewed the show for a third season during Comic-Con@Home late last month. Ackles' post is the first official casting confirmation for the next season.
Season 2 is set to premiere on Amazon Prime on Sept. 4.
Actor Wil Wheaton has been tapped to narrate the audiobook version of Ernest Cline's highly anticipated Ready Player One sequel, Ready Player Two, Random House confirmed this morning.
Nothing is known about the book's plot at this time, but it'll be interesting to see where Cline takes the story after Wade Watts won total control of the OASIS.
Known for roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory, Wheaton previously narrated the first book, as well as Cline's sophomore novel, Armada. Steven Spielberg adapted Ready Player One into a 2018 feature film starring Tye Sheridan, Lena Waithe, Olivia Cooke, Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, and Simon Pegg. The movie brought in almost $600 million at the global box office, and we wouldn't be surprised if Warner Bros. has already scooped up the screen rights to the follow-up publication.
The hardcover, ebook, and audiobook of Ready Player Two all go on sale on Nov. 24.
The Lovecraftian fish people of the Trench Kingdom were just the tip of the horror iceberg in the burgeoning Aquaman franchise. In a snippet from DC FanDome, which kicks off this coming Saturday, director James Wan confirmed that the sequel would also contain some scares.
"Just like the first movie had a touch of my horror sensibility in it — in regards to the Trench sequence — I would say there will be a little bit of that in this next one," said the filmmaker, who made a name for himself with spine-tingling projects like Saw and The Conjuring. "I think it's something that's a big part of who I am and it just naturally comes out in these kind of films. And especially Aquaman, where the story takes place in these underwater worlds, that can very scary. Naturally, my love for the horror genre just means that I latch myself to these scenes and try to give them a little bit more of my scary sauce on them."
Aquaman did so well at the worldwide box office (more than $1 billion) that Warner Bros. is developing a horror-centric spinoff project centered on the Trench creatures. It's supposed to open before Aquaman 2 (slated to hit theaters in December 2022), but the timeline is sure to change as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis.
