Page 2 - In Development: The Top 10 Shows You're Going To Want To Look Out For

The Strain

Guillermo del Toro will make his TV debut after the success of blockbuster Pacific Rim.

Boasting the TV debut from esteemed horror director Guillermo del Toro, the show is based on a series of novels co-authored by del Toro and The Town writer Chuck Hogan. Despite the general consensus that the vampire bubble had burst in Hollywood, del Toro offers a new angle to the well-trodden subject. Airing on FX in the US, the show will focus on a coming vampire apocalypse and those who are trying their best to stop its spread. House Of Cards actor Corey Stoll has picked up the main roll and other parts have been dished out to such actors as Sean Astin, Mia Maestro, Kevin Durand and Jonathan Hyde. With the novels themselves being well regarded and given del Toro’s success in creating cinema that is hugely unsettling and eerie, The Strain looks set to re-establish vampire as creatures of terror rather than the Twilight and True Blood style of romanticism. Expect plenty teeth-on-flesh action.

More: FX signs on for Del Toro's 'The Strain'

Tyrant

Adam Rayner will play the son of a fictional Middle-Eastern dictator.

From the creator of Prisoner Of War, the Israeli TV series which inspired Homeland, comes Tyrant, the tale of the self-exiled son of a middle-eastern dictator who returns to his homeland for the first time in twenty years with his American family in tow. With the turbulent and clandestine world of Middle-Eastern politics as its backdrop, the FX-commissioned series engages with hugely contemporary themes that exist outside of the paranoid terrorist spectacles of 24. Harry Potter director David Yates has picked up the reigns from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, who had to drop out of the project due to scheduling conflict and he assembles a promising cast of up-and-coming actors including Israeli Arab actor Berhom and British actor Adam Rayner, who takes the lead role. Expect a tumultuous culture clash and plenty of shady politics coming to your televisions later this year.

Looking

Russell Tovey will star in the San Fransisco-based comedy drama.

Homosexualism in America have long been both underrepresented and stereotyped in America, both in cinema and on TV and since the demise of Queer As Folk, accurate representation of gay life has been hard to come by. Looking, brought to the attention of the public by the exceptional programming service HBO, is a half-hour comedy drama that centres around the lives of gay men in San Francisco. Glee and Frozen star Jonathan Groff will take the lead role along with an assorted cast that includes the likes of Russell Tovey, who British audiences will recognise from the touching sitcoms of Him & Her and Being Human. The series will certainly address a niche that hasn’t been filled for some time and it opens the door towards a greater representation of minorities to be portrayed in positive lights on US TV. We’ll have to wait and see whether Looking can garner a mainstream audience to the extent as Queer As Folk or whether the show will be relegate to a peripheral concern.

Tooken

Tina Fey has co-written the new sitcom with fellow 30 Rock writer Robert Carlock.

Despite her persona in the much loved 30 Rock as a sofa loving spinster, Tina Fey has busied herself by penning not one, but three new programmes including a workplace comedy for NBC and a college-set sitcom for FOX. It is Tooken, however, that offers the most intriguing premise. Ellie Kemper, who has gained acclaim through roles in the US version of The Office and hit comedy Bridesmaids, will take the lead role as a woman who escapes from the clutches of a doomsday cult and tries to re-start her life in New York City. Details still remain sketchy, but with Fey and fellow 30 Rock writer and producer Robert Carlock also involved, it seems the show is shaping up to be a rip-roaring affair.

Various Marvel Series'

Actor Charlie Cox will play Daredevil in the upcoming Netflix series.

In a ground-breaking move for Netflix and Marvel it has been announced that the streaming giant will be simultaneously producing five series featuring Marvel’s assorted heroes, whose plotlines and action sequences will also interconnect. With Marvel playing host to an ever-expanding array of huge-grossing comic-book franchise films, many of which have either straddled of by-passed the hallowed billion dollar grossing figure. For the TV series, there will be a programme dedicated to Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage (formerly known as Power Man) and Iron Fist, as well as a fifth series where these heroes will team up into an elite crime-fighting unit. The sheer scale of this endeavour is both inspiring and intimidating and it marks a bold move by the minds behind the audacious plan. It will be interesting to see how successful such an endeavour will turn out to be, especially considering the huge time investment required by fans but there is huge potential here to open new pathways in the way in which series are made and enjoyed. The way of the future? We’ll have to wait and see.