These are the showrunner news I've been looking for

[selenak]

A few months ago I did some Voyager rewatching on Amazon Prime (selected episodes more than seasons), and was reminded of something I'd almost forgotten, i.e. of how many of those had been written by one Bryan Fuller. He also wrote for DS9, but just two episodes, Empok Nor and The Darkness and the Light. It may amuse fans of his later work that both can be said to feature a serial killer (into mind games) on the lose plot, though it's more complicated than that in both cases.

Anyway, this makes me thrilled about the news he'll be in charge of the new ST tv series. Someone who actually loves Star Trek and wants to do Star Trek, not Star Wars, with working experience in the post TOS tv verse (i.e. not a "only Kirk/Spock/Bones were ever good about ST" fanboy): excellllllent. And of course, in the decades since, he's honed his quirky, morbid craft to an art.

Of course, I also thought "but aren't you supposed to run American Gods as well? But maybe the later will have more of a miniseries format? Anyway, he has to know whether he can do both.

Comments

[endeni]

Yay, this is excellent news!

[selenak]

Isn't it just? A good thing to wake up to.

[jesuswasbatman]

Yeah, I think American Gods will probably be quite short. And this does sound like good news.

[jesuswasbatman]

Also, I'm very curious about whether both American Gods and Preacher will be straight adaptations or very different stories based around the same characters. Just the list of major characters for Preacher seems to suggest that it will be much more set in a single community than the road movie original, and actually have Jesse being a preacher in a more-than-metaphorical sense for more than a brief set-up at the beginning.

[selenak]

I had heard early on (i.e. almost a year ago now) American Gods would have more of an anthology format, which sounded like "different stories based around the same characters", but otoh if it's a miniseries rather than a show, there's no reason why they shouldn't use the main plot from the book!

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, I think I saw something the other day about the "Technical Kid" having a much bigger role in the series than the book.

[lilacsigil]

I read an interview with him a while ago saying he'd love to do Star Trek (with Angela Bassett as the captain and Rosario Dawson as the first officer) but I didn't know he was actually in the running!

[selenak]

He said that? *crosses fingers for team Bassett/Dawson* Mind you, even if we'd get just one of these ladies it would be a fine thing...

[saturnofthemoon]

I was midly worried when I heard he was the new showrunner. I'm mainly familar with his work on Heroes and Hannibal, two shows I wish I could forget. Then I looked him up on IMBD and I'm delighted. Star Trek run by a true fan is everything I could ask for.

[selenak]

Yes, I think his ST work has faded in most people's collective memories. I associated him mainly with Dead Like Me, which I loved, before the casual rewatch reminded me how much ST he'd written.

I didn't like what I saw of Hannibal (eight episodes of the first season before I quit), either, but Heroes? As far as I recall, Fuller mainly wrote for the first season, and one of the best episodes (Company Man), with his leaving one of various factors contributing to the show going downhill.

[saturnofthemoon]

Yes, sometimes I forget the first two seasons were good because it's all jumbled up in my collective memory. Fuller actually returned in the back half of S3. The show improved, but two female characters died on his first episode back, hence the bad association in my memory. He didn't come back for S4, so the show went downhill again and was finally cancelled.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yay!

[wee_warrior]

My impression was that American Gods is a whole series, not a mini-series, but maybe that changed when Starz got the rights? I read that he's sharing creator duties on Star Trek with Alex Kurtzman, so maybe that'll ease his workload a bit. Either way, I'm pretty happy to have him for both shows. His visual storytelling is phenomenal, and he's mostly been a good writer in the work I've seen of him. (Also, that story of his brother and the Bird Of Prey is adorable.)