Comic-Con 2016 - Highlights

In the past I've done more individual trailers and stuff for some of the panels but this year I decided to do more of a rundown of stuff we've learned from various shows and movies over the last few days at Comic Con. Without further ado ....

Castings Alert

- Rihanna has been cast as Marion Crane for the fifth and final season of Bates Motel.
- Once Upon A Time's sixth season will be adding Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz), Jasmine (Karen David), Jafar (Oded Fehr replacing Naveen Andrews), Morpheus (Giles Matthay) and the Count of Monte Cristo (Craig Horner)
- Kristin Chenowith has been cast as Easter for American Gods.
- Agents Of SHIELD have added Ghost Rider into the mix with Gabriel Luna taking on the role, Lili Birdsell will also recur in the new season.
- Neil Jackson has joined the cast of The Originals while Nathalie Kelly will be playing evil herself in The Vampire Diaries.
- Brie Larson has been cast as Captain Marvel.

Time To Say Goodbye And Hello

- Over the weekend, it was confirmed that the upcoming seasons of Bates Motel, The Vampire Diaries and Teen Wolf will be their final seasons.
- Game Of Thrones seventh season will only be seven episodes and will air in Summer 2017. I assume then it's inevitable eighth season will only be six episodes then.
- Legion will be coming next year for US viewers as will BBCAmerica's version of Dirk Gently with Samuel Barnett and Elijah Wood.
- Viewers will be meeting Penny's mother and brother in the tenth season of The Big Bang Theory as played by Katey Sagal and Jack McBrayer respectively.
- Colton Haynes will be playing a mysterious role in the second season of Scream Queens.
- David Tennant will also be playing the Doctor again, this time on Family Guy during a spoof.

Star Trek: Discovery

With Star Trek Beyond currently in the cinemas, here is a stark reminder that next year we will have a television series once again. While Bryan Fuller sadly didn't confirm the cast at Comic Con (something of an oversight there), he did confirm the proper title for the show and you know what? I like it! We also got an image of the ship as well, which looks okay so far. It's also been confirmed that UK viewers will be able to see the series on Netflix next year.

Sherlock: Series 4 Trailer

Between Benedict Cumberbatch appearing at San Diego as part of the promotion for Doctor Strange (still not too fussed on that to be honest), a trailer for the fourth series of Sherlock was also released and it certainly piqued interest. It looked dark and brooding and even contained the delightful moment where Mrs Hudson likened Mycroft to a reptile. We're also been teased as to whether or not Moriarty (Andrew Scott) is still alive, seeing Mary (Amanda Abbington) in gun toting action and getting a nice look at Toby Jones playing the baddie too. Overall, it looks like a promising season ahead. You can have a look at it here ,... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlcWFoNqZHc

That's a round up wrap for this year's Comic Con. This time next year, yeah?

Teen Wolf - The Slash Debate

Warning: This article might specify one show but it's a commentary on the nature of slash in general. It's just that this show in particular has fired up my need to write an article.

The show of course being Teen Wolf. The MTV supernatural series, loosely based on that Michael J. Fox movie by the same name which has been running for three seasons so far since it's debut in June 2011 might not be a show I've ever really covered here (I've seen the odd episode, but never got round to watching it all properly) but it's certainly a show I am aware of. More to the point I am also aware that it has something of an intense fanbase and one of their key components seems to be the favouring of a slash pairing named Sterek - aka the characters of Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale, as played by Dylan O'Brien and Tyler Hoechlin. Recently, lead actor Tyler Posey, who plays werewolf Scott McCall on the series made some less than flattering comments about the popular slash pairing and needless to say, some of the internet wasn't best pleased with him - putting it mildly of course.

The thing is though that while Posey's choice of words ("bizarre", "twisted") were pretty poor, I can't help but think that perhaps he raised something of a point though. 'Sterek' from what I've seen are two heterosexual male characters who seem to have more of an antagonistic rapport with each other rather than something that has become far more romanticized and exaggerated with great effect within the Teen Wolf fandom. This is hardly the only show to have this type of situation as fans of Once Upon A Time, Supernatural, Glee and Sherlock can attest to similar slash (and it's female equivalent) pairings almost being obsessively favoured over the more established relationships on the actual shows themselves.

To be honest - Posey seemed more frustrated than bigoted with his remarks and I have to admit, I do find it a tad bizarre myself (as a gay man) that there seems to be more of a fixation on two straight male characters being shipped than the actual gay couple that we have on the show at the moment. A couple that comprises of the rather sweet but slightly clueless, Danny Mahealani (Keahu Kahuanui) and Alpha twin Ethan (Charlie Carver). Granted, it's a relationship that hasn't been given as much screen time compared to the other couples on the show but surely, it's also a relationship that's more deserving of attention from these type of fans than the one they seem to have imagined with Stiles and Derek.

I'm not against slash pairings at all though - it can be rather amusing and harmless but I do find it somewhat annoying when fans try and project it onto the creators and cast of a show and then virtually lose the plot when either cast or crew member doesn't share their enthusiasm. Going from past interviews, it seems that Posey himself has mentioned liking the idea of Scott being either bisexual or paired up with fellow character Isaac Lahey (Daniel Sharman) and perhaps his dislike of Sterek stems from the actual onscreen relationship with the characters in question. If fans are free to slash and ship whoever they want, then I think cast members are certainly free to have their own opinion on the matter too. I definitely Tyler could've worded his comments better but I do think he was onto something though. While there are better written gay characters on other shows, Teen Wolf at least actually has some interesting enough gay characters (and they're adding another one soon with Mason) and personally, I'd rather focus my energy on them rather than a pairing that is largely fan imagined and not so literal.

Slash Fans Vs. Tyler Posey: http://www.thebacklot.com/the-shipping-news-slash-fans-sterek-tyler-posey/02/2014/

Teen Wolf's third season continues to air on MTV, Mondays at 10pm. A UK broadcaster has yet to be confirmed.