WIRE Buzz: Godzilla anime series stomps to Netflix; Star Wars' ESB anthology reveals new POVs; more

Something big is happening on the small screen.

Netflix has given the green light to Godzilla: Singular Point, a new original anime series starring the King of the Monsters that is rising up from the deep to debut worldwide on the streaming service in 2021.

Not much is known about the plot, but the 'toon will feature hand drawn animation and CGI and is being produced by Bones and Orange, the Japanese anime houses that brought you My Hero Academia and Beastars, respectively. The new anime will be directed by Atsushi Takahashi (Blue Exorcist) with a new Godzilla design courtesy of Studio Gibli animator Eiji Yamamori (Spirited Away), along with characters created by Kazue Kato (Exorcist).

Memo to Godzilla fans: Singular Point is not to be confused with several previous animated films focusing on the legendary kaiju that Netflix offers, including Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017), Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018), and Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018).

But it will no doubt be a welcome addition to the Godzilla canon.

Star Wars publisher Del Rey revealed today the 40 authors in their latest Star Wars anthology, From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. The 400-page book includes 40 short stories in the Star Wars universe, written from the point of view of side characters from the film The Empire Strikes Back.

The author list includes several Star Wars veterans, including Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S. Dawson, Gary Whitta, and Daniel José Older. Other notable SFF authors include Hank Green (The Carls Series), Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries), Catherynne M. Valente (Space Opera), and Charles Yu (How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe). You can find a complete list of the authors on the cover reveal here, and check out the Twitter hashtag #FromaCertainPOVStrikesBack to glean details on specific stories. 

Some of the Empire Strikes Back characters that get their deserved day as a protagonist include a couple of bounty hunters chasing Han Solo (“No Time for Poetry” by Austin Walker), Wedge Antilles (“Rendevous Point” by Jason Fry), and Lando’s chef who prepares a meal for special guest, Darth Vader (“But What Does He Eat?” by S. A. Chakraborty).

From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back comes out Nov. 10, 2020.

Finally, Amazon just announced they have a new sci-fi series in the works with not one, but two Orlandos on board: writer Dominic Orlando (The OA) and executive producer Orlando Bloom (Carnival Row). According to Deadline, the show is called The Cleaners and is based on a short story written by Ken Liu, who has several other short stories published, as well as an epic fantasy series called The Dandelion Dynasty.

Per Deadline, the show is set in the near future, where “inanimate objects carry the memories of people’s experiences, and a certain number of the population have the ability to relive those memories by touch.” So-called cleaners in this world are individuals who clear the objects of their memories, and the show will focus on one young man who inherits his family’s cleaning business.

Not much else is known yet about the show, although Liu’s short story is apparently based on The Princess and the Pea and will be published by Amazon Original Stories in the collection Faraway, a set of retold fairy tales that comes out on Dec. 15.

The Cleaners will be the second series that Orlando Bloom is developing with Amazon through his production company, Amazing Owl (the first is around a real-life lawyer called The Extractor, who frees political prisoners). Liu, Orlando, and Bloom are all executive producers along with Bloom’s business partner Adam Karasick. No news yet on when the show will air or whether Bloom will be starring in it.