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ABC gave viewers a 30-second peek at the new Marvel television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Sunday night, but it pales in comparison to the first full-length trailer released today.

The new show has been green-lit for the upcoming fall season, and co-stars Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and Stargate Universe‘s Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May.

May is a pilot and martial artist, and we get our first good look at the character in action in this trailer. Enjoy!

Brett Dalton also stars as Agent Ward, along with Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, and Chloe Bennet as Skye — “team” members all introduced in the trailer.

The show is produced by Joss Whedon (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse, Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), along with Jeffrey Bell (Angel, Alias) and Jeph Loeb.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air Tuesdays at 8/7c this fall on ABC. It’s part of a strategy to revamp the network’s approach to one of TV’s most competitive nights, putting the fall’s hottest new show (based on a multi-billion-dollar film franchise) up against TV’s highest-rated drama — CBS’s NCIS.

Stick with GateWorld and our sister site, SciFi Stream, for more!

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No surprises here: Syfy Channel announced today that it has given its new scripted sci-fi drama Defiance a second season.

The series has performed well in its four episodes aired so far, opening with 2.73 million viewers (Live + Same Day) for the 2-hour pilot last month. Normal post-hype erosion has brought the series down to 2.15 million viewers for Monday’s episode.

But Defiance certainly does its job in the key demographic of adults 18 to 49.  The network said that, with DVR-delayed numbers in, the premiere was the second largest series premiere among that demo in network history. (The highest, if memory serves, would still be 2004′s bow of Stargate Atlantis.)

The companion video game has seen more than 1 million registered accounts to date.

Syfy has ordered another 13-episode season of Defiance, to air in 2014.  Production begins in Toronto in August.

The show stars Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, Graham Greene, and Mia Kirshner in a story set in the near future on a radically terraformed Earth.

Kevin Murphy will continue to serve as executive producer and showrunner, with Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin (Smallville) returning as executive producers. Michael Taylor will serve as a consulting producer.

The cable channel definitely needs a win here: It has reportedly invested tens of millions of dollars in the venture, not only to produce the television show but to help developer Trion Worlds get the MMO-RPG up and running.  If ratings stay even passable, expect Syfy to try and amortize that investment over several

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Ming-Na Wen is Melinda May!

ABC has just announced its official pick-up of the highly anticipated Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., set in the Marvel cinematic universe and developed by Joss Whedon (Firefly).

The series will co-star the former SGU actress, who played Camille Wray for two years on the Syfy Channel series.  Wen plays Agent Melinda May, a pilot and martial artist who works for the peace-keeping force S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division).

Click on the image for a closer look at the new team.

Set in the same universe as the Iron Man, Avengers, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America feature films, the television show will follow the heroic exploits of the non-superpowered agents who must keep the world safe when the marquee heroes are not around.

Says the show’s description (via Deadline):

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).

Whedon directed the pilot and will executive produce the show, along with

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ABC has just picked up its family fantasy hit Once Upon A Time for a third season, Deadline reports.

The show co-stars Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin / Mr. Gold, everyone’s favorite sympathetic villain.  Carlyle played Dr. Nicholas Rush for two seasons on Stargate Universe.

Also frequently seen in a recurring role is Stargate SG-1‘s Tony Amendola (“Bra’tac”), who plays Gepetto.

The season finale of Once Upon A Time airs this Sunday night at 8/7c on ABC.  Season Three will kick off in the fall, with former SGU cast member Ming-Na Wen also joining the ABC schedule in the genre show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (story).

ABC’s full media upfront presentation for the 2013-2014 broadcast season will take place next Tuesday afternoon.

Darren created GateWorld in 1999, and today is the owner and managing editor. He lives in Scotland with his wife and two children. (More)
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Stargate SG-1′s Teryl Rothery is headed back to series television, joining the cast of the new Hallmark Channel original series Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove.

It’s the cable network’s first primetime original scripted series, based on the Cedar Cove series of novels by best-selling author Debbie Macomber.  The television series stars Andie MacDowell (Jane By Design, Groundhog Day) as Olivia Lockhart, a judge at the small-town Cedar Cove Municipal Court.

Rothery will play Grace, the lead character’s best friend.  In addition to her years on Stargate she has also appeared on Caprica, Kyle XY, The Killing, and numerous other series.

Also starring is actor Dylan Neal, who Stargate fans may recognize as John Sheppard’s brother, Dave (“Outcast”).  He also played the lead on the attempted Babylon 5 spin-off Legend of the Rangers, and had recurring roles on such series as Dawson’s Creek, JAG, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

Also watch for other familiar faces from the Vancouver film and television community, including (according to IMDb) former Stargate guest stars Garry Chalk (“Colonel Chekov”), Barclay Hope (“Lionel Pendergast”), Andrew Airlie (“Kalan,” “Dr. Carmichael”), Sarah Smyth (“Annie Balic”), and Ian Tracey (“Smith” in “Prometheus”).

Cedar Cove premieres July 20, and will air Saturday nights at 8/7c.  Visit the official show site at HallmarkChannel.com to watch the trailer and learn more about the show.

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A Johnny Mnemonic television series is in the works, with some Stargate writing talent attached.

That’s the announcement today from Seven Arts Entertainment, an independent production company that will produce and distribute the series as a joint venture with Prodigy Pictures.  Prodigy is the studio behind Lost Girl, which airs on Syfy Channel in the U.S.

Johnny Mnemonic is based on the 1995 movie starring Keanu Reeves and Dolph Lundgren, adapted from a short story by sci-fi author William Gibson (who also wrote the film’s screenplay).  Set in a dystopic future, the story follows a “data courier” with a cybernetic brain implant, who must deliver a package that is too big for his head to contain — before it kills him.

It’s one of three new TV and mini-series to be produced by the joint venture.  Also on the list are Storyville, a period piece set in New Orleans during the rise of jazz (and legal prostitution); and Romeo Spy, a mini-series based on the true story of a a British police officer who was recruited by the KGB.

The studio did not name the former Stargate writers currently attached to Johnny Mnemonic.

“We are delighted to expand our relationship with Prodigy Pictures, which has had stellar successes in television and mini-series production,” Seven Arts’ CEO Peter Hoffman said. “Jay [Firestone, Prodigy Pictures] has been prominent in the area of international television production for over 20 years with a wide array of important relationships. Jay shares our enthusiasm for all three projects. He has already attached well-known television writers who

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While many actors may call Los Angeles home, the city of Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia has become almost a second home for many of them — and you can count Stargate SG-1 veteran Tony Amendola, who played “Bra’tac” on the series in a recurring fashion for the entirety of its run, among them. After SG-1 wrapped six years ago, the actor kept busy with many other projects but is now making his Vancouver presence known again in full force as he juggles concurrent gigs on two very different genre series.

GateWorld had the pleasure of catching up with Tony Amendola a couple times in recent months, most notably when he was a guest at Creation Entertainment‘s Official Stargate Convention. In our latest chat with Amendola, he discusses how busy his life has gotten, how his casting as “Gepetto” in ABC’s Once Upon A Time came about, the political parallels that mirror his other current series Continuum, and more!

GateWorld: For GateWorld.net, I’m Chad Colvin and I’m speaking today with Tony Amendola, who was so kind as to take time out of a very busy schedule to talk with us. How are you, Tony?

Tony Amendola: I’m very well, Chad, and it’s a pleasure to talk to you.

GW: How has life been in general? It’s been a couple of years since I had the chance to talk with you on-the-record.

TA: You know, life has been … I almost hesitate to say this, but life has been amazingly good! I’ve been busy with Once Upon A Time where I’ve had a recurring role, and I’ve also been busy with Continuum. It’s just been busy, and I’m very

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Syfy Channel’s long-awaited “trans-media event” made a big splash with its 2-hour series premiere yesterday. Defiance brought the cable network its biggest premiere since 2009, and the biggest audience in a couple of key demographics since 2006.

The premiere drew 2.7 million total viewers, according to a Syfy press release.  That’s the network’s biggest audience since the July 2009 premiere of Warehouse 13 (3.5 million).

In the key demographic of Adults 18 to 49, the 1.3 million viewers for Defiance is Syfy’s best scripted series premiere since Eureka bowed in 2006.  The demo of Adults 18 to 35 (479,000 viewers) was also the best since Eureka.

The 2-hour premiere averaged a 2.0 household rating, with more viewers still to be counted when the DVR-delayed numbers come in a few weeks down the road.

It’s also the first premiere of an original Syfy Channel scripted drama series since 2011′s Being Human — itself a remake of the U.K. series.  Other recent newcomers to the network, including Lost Girl and Continuum, were acquired by Syfy from other countries.  The network has focused almost exclusively on reality series in recent years, but earlier this month announced an ambitious new development slate for scripted series (story).

Defiance isn’t just Syfy’s first new original scripted drama in years — it’s also the network’s first return to what many viewers will regard as a more “pure science fiction,” contrasted with the “real life with a fantastic twist” type of shows that have flourished on the network, including Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Haven.

Defiance tells the story of a dramatically altered Earth after ships filled with various

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Two years after the door closed on Stargate: Extinction, Joseph Mallozzi has revealed more about the story that the Atlantis movie (and possible sixth season opener) would have told.

When it became clear in 2011 that the movie wouldn’t be produced, the former SGA writer and executive producer gave a description of the opening scenes that set up the story (see here and here).  Mallozzi co-wrote the script with Paul Mullie, but it was shelved (along with the SG-1 movie Stargate: Revolution) when the bottom fell out of the DVD market and MGM seemed to be on a path to inevitable bankruptcy.

Knowing that this exciting story won’t be told, today it makes for bittersweet (but definitely fun) reading.

To recap what we already know: Atlantis ended its final season on Earth, cloaked off the coast of San Francisco.  When the movie opens, the city has been relocated to the much more secret-friendly location of Earth’s Moon.  Earth’s leaders are debating what to do with the powerful Ancient city ship, but things become clear when a self-destruct alarm is triggered.  The team must reunite and get Atlantis back to the Pegasus Galaxy before the clock runs out, or … boom.

Mallozzi revealed more on his blog at the end of March.  He called the movie’s not getting made his one great regret in 11 years on Stargate.

“The plan is to use the wormhole drive to execute a series of jumps to Pegasus — however, the drive burns out partway through their journey, stranding them in the Triangulum Galaxy, some 300,000 light years from home,” Mallozzi said. “They manage

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For those hungering for quality, scripted science fiction, Syfy Channel’s annual media upfront presentation has been decidedly the place NOT to be for the last few years.  Though the network has announced a small handful of concepts, next to none have made it out of the tenuous development phase — until now.

The cable channel’s 2013 presentation took place yesterday in New York, with several new scripted projects announced or confirmed.  There’s still no Stargate on the horizon, unfortunately — but the line-up does bring a much-needed return to outer space, a new show from Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald D. Moore, and a mini-series adaptation of a couple of sci-fi classics.

Not every series that enters the development process will exit as a fully-grown television show, of course.  In fact, Syfy’s record seems to show that most announced shows will not make it to air.  See also: the Quantum Leap revival, Farscape webisodes, Damian Kindler and Amanda Tapping’s “Robin Hood in space” idea, Three Inches (its 2-hour pilot was burned off as a move-of-the-week), BSG: Blood Chrome (same fate), a prematurely announced H.G. Wells spin-off of Warehouse 13 (story), and countless others.

So if it hasn’t been announced as picked up to series, take it as an idea that Syfy is currently kicking around.

We’ve divided up the shows into three categories: New series that have been picked up and are officially headed to the airwaves, mini-series also picked up, and series on the development slate that may or may not end up shooting a pilot or ever see the light of day.

NEW SERIES

Helix.  Produced by Ronald D. Moore, with Steven Maeda (LOST, CSI: Miami) as showrunner, Helix is a 13-episode thriller set at

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