I had no expectations going for this year’s Amazon Prime panel at SDCC. I tend to not pay attention to new shows and movies until they’re already out and making waves. This year did not look to change my mind. Even so, this panel has piqued my interest. The potential we have with these five upcoming projects is much larger than I had initially anticipated. I’m not familiar with any of the highlighted franchises, but I kept an open mind going into the panel. The result? A pleasant surprise at the variety on display, and cautious anticipation moving forward.
First up is the interview with the showrunner of the upcoming Wheel of Time adaptation, Rafe Judkins. This interview is pretty light on details. Rafe spends the majority of his time talking about his excitement and passion for the project, and how qualified and confident he and his team are to bring forward a quality product. He goes on to talk about lead actress Rosamund Pike’s love for the franchise and the character she plays. To cap it off we got a first look at the poster for Season 1, which will adapt the first book in the series, The Eye of the World. For a non-fan, nothing stands out, but I’m holding out hope for something really flashy coming soon. I have never read the Wheel of Time, so with this upcoming show biting my heels, the motivation is finally there to start.
Next up is the franchise I have had in my backlog for almost a decade now, Evangelion. Apparently, the upcoming film is gonna be the franchise’s grand finale which has been built up towards for a quarter of a century, especially with the last three films. This upcoming movie is a revision of the original, a remake 16 years in the making of the fourth chapter of the story. The upgrades will be technical in quality, so it will not affect the story. Anno explains here that the revised scenes are ones that needed more time in the oven. They will continue to be work on them up to and even though the deadline is given the opportunity. Hopefully, this manic work, will not lead to overcooking of the final product. Even so, the prospect of another finale to Evangelion is exciting, and something that the team making it is eager to show fans.
Third in line is Leverage: Redemption. Fans of leverage got some real content today, with this detailed interview which also includes a clip from the upcoming project. Beth and Noah are absolute creative monsters here, not only sharing duties for writing and directing but serving as acting leads as well. The clip we saw was brief but has the same comedic tone as the original show, and even teases a guest role with Geordie LaForge himself, Lavarr Burton. Fans of Leverage will be pleased to know that the spirit and passion for the project continue to be alive and well into the present, and in its current hands are sure to please.
Fourth in the show is S.O.Z., aka Soldados O Zombies (soldiers or zombies) written and directed by Nico Entel. This is a brand new eight-episode miniseries about a new kind of zombie. If you picture Days Gone’s freakier variant mixed with a bit of the 28 Days Later rage monster and give it a bit more intelligence, you’d be somewhere in the same ballpark. The trailer shown here shows a promising premise. After a notorious drug cartel leader escapes prison, the spec ops team chasing him comes across an escaped American science project as the source of the smarter-than-the-average zombies. Of course, blood, gore, and hijinks ensue. It’s also entirely in Spanish, which keeps the whole project authentic. Self-described as the craziest thing ever made in Mexico, and designed to kill the Narco genre wholesale for at least a decade, we have a project here that has the potential to be one of the best things to happen for the zombie genre for a long time.
Lastly, we have our final sneak peek with Sara Goodman and her new project I Know What You Did Last Summer, a direct adaptation of the original novel, and seemingly not connected to the original movie from 1986. With eight episodes, the show will have a lot of time to focus on the characters as well as the stalking, the horror, and the blood. Goodman also reassured fans that the miniseries will be chock full of Easter eggs for longtime fans, but will also be just as accessible for newcomers like myself.
With these five sneak peeks, Amazon has given us a heads up on some of their highest priority projects, and honestly, they all l have tons of potential, but so far, that’s really it. With only one poster and one trailer to show for it, the panel suffered from a lack of content to feed its fans. Even so, as someone who was completely unaware of the upcoming projects, I’m happy to report that despite the lack of visual flair and even concrete details, it’s just enough to pique interest and excite the fans. It was enough for me at least, to decide that I should at least keep an eye out for them, because hey, I’m sure to be in for some good TV.
