ICYMI: The new Sabrina has been revealed and the final season of The Originals gets a premiere date!

Welcome to another edition of Fantasy After Dark!

In case you missed it, the news we’re still reeling from is that after months of speculation of who will be cast as the next Sabrina in the upcoming Netflix reprisal Sabrina, it was announced that it will be Kiernan Shipka.

The upcoming Sabrina series does not have a premiere date yet, but what does have a premiere date is the final season of The Originals! That’s right, the spinoff of the gone but never forgotten series, The Vampire Diaries, will premiere its final season on Friday, April 20th at 8/7c on The CW! As The Originals is the only part of TVD still currently airing,  fans are likely hoping the finale does the series justice similar to the end of the Mystic Falls bunch.

To catch up on more of what you missed in our last issue, you can catch up here!

Hot Topic: Info on the Game of Thrones spinoffs, Neil Gaiman to lead season 2 of American Gods, and a teaser released for the Harry Potter AR mobile game!

In case you’re a Game of Thrones fan that’s been hiding in Westeros and somehow missed this, there are five GoT prequel spinoffs in development at HBO that will explore different time periods in the universe. However, the president of HBO revealed that the spinoffs will not feature existing characters, but “familiar bloodlines.” What he did have to say was:

“Should we go forward and make a pilot and [then] a series, nothing would air on HBO until at least a year after Game of Thrones ends. We want the final season of Game of Thrones, being the special event that it is [to stand on its own]. We don’t want to use it to launch [a new series]. We want some separation there.”

Another major change in television in the past week is the news that Neil Gaiman, who is the author of the novel that American Gods is based on, will be leading the show in its second season. This shocked fans of the show around the world and the future of the show is now unclear. However, the CEO of Starz spoke about the show’s status. He ensured that while Gillian Anderson has left, Kristin Chenoweth is still committed to the show. He also said the former showrunners and creators of the series Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were not fired nor did they quit. Well then where are they? All we know is the network has a strong focus on the show and are hoping for many more seasons.

Next, if you have been following our Fantasy After Dark issues, we’ve been following the new Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery mobile AR game that lets you walk around like you’re at Hogwarts. Well, you’re in luck because the mobile game’s studio Jam City and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have released new details and the first teaser trailer for the game! It will launch this spring but will first be introduced to Harry Potter fans from January 26-28 at the upcoming “A Celebration of Harry Potter” event at Universal Studios in Orlando Florida. Will it be the next “Pokemon Go!” craze? We will soon find out but in the meantime, you can view the teaser for the game below!

Guess Who: Shadowhunters welcomes a new cast member for Season 3 and the complete cast for Krysten Ritter’s The Demons of Dorian Gunn revealed!

Attention Shadowhunters fans! Season 3 of Shadowhunters is coming soon, April 3rd to be exact, and Freeform has announced a new cast member for the third season! Chai Hansen will be joining the cast as fan-favorite from the books, Jordan Kyle! You may already know Chai from Illian on The CW’s The 100, But what better way to introduce him than to have your favorite Simon, Alberto Rosende do the honors. See the video of the reveal here!

Next, the new supernatural comedy pilot from Pop, The Demons of Dorian Gunn, has finalized its casting. The new comedy series is executive produced by Krysten Ritter and JAX Media who produces Younger. The series will star Jeffery Self of Search Party, Chrissie Fit of Pitch Perfect 2 and 3, H. Jon Benjamin of Archer, Lateefah Holder of Transparent, and Kyle Harris of Stitchers!

TVAD Writers Room: The Magicians Season 3 Episode 1 Roundtable and Review!

Finally, the third season of The Magicians is underway and we have a brand new review and roundtable from our talented writing staff!

You can read the first roundtable of Season 3 here and the final review of the first episode titled “Tale of the Seven Keys” here!