Quote:The CW Renews 7 Series: ‘The Flash’, ‘Kung Fu’, ‘All American’, ‘Nancy Drew’, ‘Superman & Lois’, ‘Walker’ & ‘Riverdale’
By Peter White
Television Editor

@peterzwhite

March 22, 2022 1:45pm


The FlashKatie Yu/CW
The CW has handed early renewals to a large portion of its scripted schedule including The Flash. 
The network also has renewed All American, The Flash, Kung Fu, Nancy Drew, Riverdale, Superman & Lois and Walker.
Traditionally, the youth-skewing network hands out early renewals, sometimes as early as January, to the majority of its slate – a boon for its owners CBS and Warner Bros.
Cancellations/Renewals Scorecard: TV Shows Ended Or Continuing In 2021-22 Season
However, this year, the broadcaster’s future is up in the air with local affiliate group Nexstar circling, and Deadline understands that a new majority owner likely would have a say in some of its renewal decisions. The network also needs to take into account elements such as streaming rights to shows and other variables that will determine a pickup.
The renewal of flagship series The Flash for a ninth season — making it the network’s longest-running Arrowverse series, taking over that mantle from Arrow, which ended after eight seasons — was paved earlier this year with the news that star Grant Gustin was in talks for a new deal. There’s no word from The CW yet as to whether Season 9 will be The Flash’s swan song.
Some of the other renewals were more of a given that others. All American was expected to return for Season 5, and Superman & Lois and Walker were good for their third seasons.
Riverdale also was expected to return for its seventh season, but similarly there’s no word as to whether this will be its final season.
Kung Fu only launched its second season earlier this month but is now coming back for a third.
Nancy Drew, however, was thought to be slightly more on the bubble and will return for a fourth season. That comes as spinoff series Tom Swift also has yet to launch on the network.
2022 The CW Pilots & Series Orders
There are two other tranches of shows that the network still has to make renewal decisions on – and these are expected to come over the next month or so ahead of the upfronts in May.
4400, which launched in October, Naomi, which premiered in January, and All American: Homecoming, which started last month, will all be hoping for second seasons.
There also are question marks about the future of Legends of Tomorrow, which is in its seventh season; Dynasty, which is in its fifth; Charmed and Legacies, which are in their fourth seasons; and Batwoman, which is in its third.
Stargirl’s third season and In the Dark’s fourth season have yet to premiere, while Roswell, New Mexico was picked up for a fourth season ahead of its third season.
The scripted renewals follow a batch of unscripted renewals including Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Masters of Illusion, which are both returning for their ninth season, and World’s Funniest Animals, which is heading into Season 3.
Mark Pedowitz, Chairman and CEO of the CW Network, said: “As we prepare for the 2022-23 season, these scripted series, along with the alternative series we renewed earlier, will serve as the start of a solid foundation utilizing some of our most-watched series for us to build on for next year and beyond. These dramas are also important to our overall digital strategy, as they are some of our most-streamed and socially engaged programming, and we look forward to adding more new and returning series to help strengthen and expand our multiplatform footprint.”

Quote:Kung Fu star Olivia Liang responds to cancellation of show
"I am so so so proud of the work we did."
By George LewisPUBLISHED: 12 MAY 2023



[i]Kung Fu [/i]star Olivia Liang has responded to the news of the show’s cancellation. 
The martial-arts series, which served as a remake of the 1972 television show, was cancelled by The CW yesterday (May 11), with the network citing a need to “reimagine” their content. 
The actress, who played Nicky Shen for all three seasons, posted on Instagram in response to the developments, thanking the crew and audience for their work and support. 
Vivien Killilea//Getty Images
[b]Related: [/b][b]Kung Fu star Jon Prasida on queer Asian American representation[/b]
“It has been the honour of my f****** life to work with this group of humans,” she began. “We made a historic three seasons of a show. first predominantly Asian cast in a one hour network drama. first Asian American female showrunner. 
“I don’t have enough words (or room in this carousel) to express my gratitude to my show-runners, my writers, my cast, my stunt team, my f****** crew… I love you all. I truly won the lottery. they are all the kindest, smartest, funniest, most hard working people in the biz. 
“I am so so so proud of the work we did. thank you to everyone who invited us into your homes and watched our little show that could. cheers to [i]Kung Fu[/i], the show that changed my life forever. i love you Nicky Shen,” she concluded. 
[i]Kung Fu [/i]was cancelled alongside [i]Supernatural [/i]prequel [i]The Winchesters[/i], with The CW saying in a statement: “As we reimagine the new CW, we had to make some tough programming decisions. We thank our partners at Warner Bros. and the casts and creative teams of [i]Kung Fu[/i] and [i]The Winchesters[/i] for all their hard work, creativity and dedication.”
[i]Kung Fu[/i], which also starred Kheng Hua Tan, Tzi Ma, and Eddie Liu, followed Liang’s Nicky as she used her skills in martial arts to protect her community, with the Harvard dropout becoming a vigilante of sorts.

Quote:The largely mysterious path of the 2024 movie schedule is ready to lead audiences to what could become their new favorites. Nobody knows if something that’s already locked and loaded on the calendar could become one of the best action movies, or the brightest among any genre for that matter. While it’s still uncertain when Universal’s cinematic reboot of David Carradine’s Kung Fu series is slated for release, it’s just cast a perfect lead in John Wick: Chapter 4 star Donnie Yen.

What makes this scenario reported by Deadline even more perfect is the fact that production company 87North is still behind the project, with Kung Fucreator Ed Spielman on board as an executive producer. Furthermore, the action star from such films as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the Ip Mansaga is also potentially teaming up with another John Wick vet, who may be operating behind the camera.
Among those previously attached when the Kung Fu reboot was first announced in 2020 is director David Leitch, who slated this cinematic reboot as his Hobbs and Shaw follow-up. The current reporting states that The Fall Guy director is “eying” the director’s chair at the moment, but to be fair, the eventual “follow-up” to Leitch's Fast and Furious spin-off happened to be the box office smash Bullet Train. So at this moment, it’s uncertain who’ll be helming, but one can hope that the intended director gets to work with Donnie Yen on this new variant of Caine’s saga.