‘LA Law’ Sequel Series, Jo Koy Comedy Pilot Not Moving Forward at ABC

EXCLUSIVE: Multi-hyphenate Jay Chandrasekhar (Easter Sunday) has signed with Cinetic Media for management across all media.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFX has commissioned a comedy pilot from Brian Jordan Alvarez.The pilot is called “English Teacher.” Alvarez will star as Evan, a gay high school English teacher in Austin, TX, and his fellow teachers trying to balance the competing demands of the students and their parents in a world where the rules seem to change every day. Alvarez is writing the pilot and will also executive produce in addition to starring.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Stranger Things” actor Brett Gelman is set to star in “Entitled,” a half-hour comedy series ordered at Showtime in the U.S. and Channel 4 in the U.K.Created by Matt Morgan (“Mister Winner,” “The Mimic”), the show follows Gabe (Gelman), an American widower who must get to know his British wife’s estranged family.

Disney+ released the first teaser trailer for Lucasfilm and Imagine Entertainment’s “Willow,” a new live-action fantasy adventure series that serves as a continuation of the classic 1988 feature film, at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim on Thursday. “There is a story of a child, destined to be an empress,” the voiceover on the trailer begins. “And the unlikely hero who would protect her.”The story began in the Ron Howard-directed film with an aspiring magician (Warwick Davis) from a Nelwyn village and an infant girl destined to unite the realms, who together helped destroy an evil queen and banish the forces of darkness. Now, in a magical world where brownies, sorcerers, trolls, and other mystical creatures flourish, the adventure continues, as an unlikely group of heroes set off on a dangerous quest to places far beyond their home, where they must face their inner demons and come together to save their world“There is a balance between all things: light and shadow, good and evil,” Davis, who will reprise his role as Willow Ufgood says.

EXCLUSIVE: Lex Medlin (Drop Dead Diva) and Ariana Guerra (Helstrom) are set as new series regulars, and Jay Lee, who recurred last season as CSI Chris Park, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming second season of CBS’ CSI: Vegas.

KJ Apa and Isabel May will NOT be starring as The Wonder Twins after all.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe planned “Wonder Twins” live-action movie at HBO Max is no longer going forward, Variety has learned.The news comes just over a month after it was announced that KJ Apa and Isabel May had been cast in the lead roles in the DC film as the titular twins. It also arrives in the wake of the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger and Discovery boss David Zaslav’s pledge to cut approximately $3 billion in costs at the newly merged company.

Ava DuVernay’s Wings of Fire, an animated series adaptation of the family fantasy books which had been in development at Netflix since 2021, is the latest victim of animation cuts at the streamer, sources close to the project confirm to Deadline. We hear several other projects are not moving forward as well.

EXCLUSIVE: The single-camera teen comedy Wild Life from Imagine Kids+Family has received a pilot order at HBO Max with rising star Izabella Alvarez (Euphoria, The Casagrandes) set as the show’s lead.

LA Law not moving at ABC was one of the surprises of this pilot season.

ABC has passed on its half-hour pilot Josep, starring comedian Jo Koy. While ABC is not proceeding with the existing pilot, the network brass want to get a comedy headlined by Koy on the air. The hope is to redevelop the idea, which is built around Koy playing a character loosely based on himself. It is too early to say whether that will happen and whether the current creative team will remain involved but the intent is to stay in business with Koy.

Ariel Winter‘s show is no longer happening.

NBC is not moving forward with Hungry.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC has opted not to move forward with its comedy pilot “Hungry,” which originally starred Demi Lovato who pulled out of the project and was replaced by “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter, Variety has learned.The multi-cam follows friends who belong to a food-issues group as they help each other look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better.Lovato had been attached to the Universal television-produced “Hungry” as executive producer and star for almost a year while it was in development at NBC, but exited for scheduling reasons just as the pilot was about to start shooting in March. She was quickly replaced by Winter.Along with Winter, the “Hungry” pilot also starred Valerie Bertinelli, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Ryan McPartlin, Alex Brightman and Ashley D.

Selome Hailu NBC’s comedy pilot “Lopez vs. Lopez,” created by George Lopez and his daughter Mayan Lopez, has been ordered to series.The multi-cam stars both Lopezes and is described as a working-class family comedy about dysfunction, reconnection and all the pain and joy in between. In April, Variety learned exclusively that Selenis Leyva, Brice Gonzalez and Matt Shively would also star, with Laci Mosley and Kiran Deol in recurring roles.

Life on Mars have confirmed a follow-up series is on the way.Screenwriter and creator Matthew Graham confirmed the news on social media via the account of his production company, saying he and collaborator Ashley Pharoah had finished the script for a pilot for the sequel called Lazarus.“So Ashley Pharoah and I have completed the pilot script for Lazarus. It contains the words – Hanging, Boogie, Creme Fraiche,” the tweet reads.So @AJPharoah and I have completed the pilot script for #Lazarus.