On this episode of Collider TV Talk (June, 6 2016) Josh Macuga, David Griffin, Sinéad de Vries and John Rocha discuss the following:

Showtime orders 20 episodes of Purity starring Daniel Craig

HBO orders Bill Hader vehicle Barry to series

Julie Andrews & Netflix team up with Jim Henson Company for Julie’s Greenroom

Starz has ordered two more seasons of Outlander

Voltron interview with showrunners

Superhero Rundown

Highlights and Lowlights

Pilot review: Feed the Beast

spectre-daniel-craig-5 — Image via EON/MGM/Sony

Last week Showtime announced they’d be ordering 20 episodes of the limited series Purity, starring Bond himself, Daniel Craig, in what executives are calling a prestige package. This news could be the final nail in the coffin for Craig as James Bond. Purity, an adaptation of the Jonathan Franzen novel of the same name, will have In the Bedroom and Little Children filmmaker Todd Field writing and executive producing, and directing every episode while Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, David Hare, and Franzen himself will be executive producers on the series. Franzen and Hare will also be pitching in as writers. Purity is described a morally complex story of youthful idealism, extreme loyalty and cold-blooded murder. From STASI offspring to Oakland anarchists and landscapes as varied as East Berlin, the Bolivian jungle, East Harlem walk-ups, and the California Redwoods. Purity is at once supremely ambitious in scope and intensely intimate in its treatment of character – a decades-spanning tragicomedy that builds to a contemporary climax.

trainwreck-image-bill-hader — Image via Universal Pictures

In series order news, HBO ordered the Bill Hader vehicle, Barry to series. Barry, played by Hader, is an ex-marine turned hitman who goes to Los Angeles for a job and gets in with a local theatre troupe and we’re guessing hi-jinks ensues, in what producers are calling Grosse Pointe Blank meets Waiting for Guffman. On the other side of the premium fence, Julie Andrews and Netflix are teaming up with the Jim Henson Company to make Julie’s Greenroom, the most ambitious bit of children’s programming on the streaming service. Andrews will teach puppets who are fresh into the theatre scene. Known as ‘Greenies,’ over the course of the season Andrews and the Greenies will produce a stage play with improv, music and much more!

In cancellation and renewal news, Showtime has delayed production on Homeland, but will debut the newest season sometime in winter of 2017 with a report from The Hollywood Reporter saying negotiations for two more seasons are in the works. Starz has ordered 2 more seasons of Outlander, which is RARE for the premium channel and UN-real for something on a lifeline. The series has already been upped for a 3rd season before season 2 even airs.

VOLTRON INTERVIEW

SUPERHERO RUNDOWN

Thanks to a Variety report this morning, it’s official, Superman will join Supergirl in season 2 now on The CW. In a statement from Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg on behalf of the production team, he said everyone is beyond thrilled to welcome Clark Kent and his slightly-more-famous alter ego to the world of Supergirl. Superman will be appearing in the first two episodes of the new season and we cannot wait to see who next dons the red cape!”

More news from FX’s Legion, it appears the show may not exist ‘exactly’ in the X-Men movie universe. Coming from an interview with HitFix, showrunner Noah Hawley spoke about Charles Xavier’s son, saying it’s a little more of a fable in his mind with the recent X-Men movies, starting with First Class, rooted in a time period and a world that Legion won't really touch.

In a report from TV Line, it appears Arrow is heading back to its gritty dark roots and introducing a season 5 villain modeled after The Wire’s Stringer Bell, infamously played by Idris Elba. The new antagonist, tentatively named Anton Church (who doesn’t exist in the DC Comics database, for the moment), is described as “a ruthless crime lord” who will fill the power vacuum left by the dearly departed Damien Darhk and duplicitous Mayor Ruvé Adams. The casting description for the role called the character an “apex predator” who “cuts his way through the shadows” by taking down “the biggest threat first.”

HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS