Once Upon a Time producers Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis didn’t just tease Once Upon a Time Season 6 at today’s Comic-Con panel discussion in San Diego. They actually provided a look at the first three minutes of the season premiere! The footage focuses on two characters new to the ABC series, but very familiar to Disney viewers. The first is Aladdin, who will be played by Deniz Akdeniz and who appears to be in pretty terrible shape when we first meet him. The second is Jafar, who will be played by Oded Fehr and who appears to have gotten the best of Aladdin (to this point) in the Once Upon a Time version of these characters. Jafar is taunting the famous “savior” below, mocking his status as a hero and saying things never turn out well for heroes. They never get their “happily ever after,” which, of course, is a theme throughout Once Upon a Time. The reveal of Aladdin and Jafar arrives on the heels of a string of other Season 6 castings, such as: Giles Matthey (24: Live Another Day) as Morpheus. Craig Horner (Hindsight) as the Count of Monte Cristo. There will also be the returns of Cinderella/Ashley (portrayed by Jessy Schram) and Dr. Archie Hopper (Raphael Sbarge). You can watch Once Upon a Time online via our friends at TV Fanatic and you can check out the first three minutes of the Season 6 opener below. It will premiere on Sunday, September 25 at 8/7c.
Note to fans of The CW: Be sure to savor every last bite of The Vampire Diaries this fall, winter and spring. Because the beloved series is coming to an end. View Slideshow: 15 Best Shows in CW History: Ranked! Creator Julie Plec made this semi-surprising announcing to kick off the show’s panel discussion at Comic-Con in San Diego today, alerting fans in attendance that the popular show will wrap up after Season 8. This really isn’t a shock to those that have been paying close attention, however. First, Kat Graham confirmed several weeks ago that she would be departing the drama following Season 8. Then, Ian Somerhalder said in April that the team behind the show had decided to produce “one last season.” He later tried to walk these words back, but the proverbial writing has been on the wall for some time now. Moreover, The CW moved The Vampire Diaries (once its highest-rated program) to the television graveyard of Friday nights after a handful disappointing Thursday night performances last year. Simply put, ratings have been on an extreme downswing. There’s simply no story left to tell here. Early on, The Vampire Diaries established itself as a legitimately interesting and suspenseful series. This was not Twilight. Not by a long shot. The first couple seasons managed to shock viewers with twists and turns on a nearly weekly basis, making major stars out of Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev. But Dobrev left after Season 6 and viewership has been shrinking for years now. Plec said at Comic-Con that producers wanted to make this announcement early on, giving them a chance to write out the ending they want to tell with plenty of notice. How do you feel about The Vampire Diaries coming to an end? It’s about time, isn’t it? Will Dobrev return as Elena for the series finale? She has hinted in the past that she’d be open to this arrangement. For now, you can go watch The Vampire Diaries online via our friends at TV Fanatic and you can help us raise a glass to one of The CW’s most enjoyabe shows. Watch the cast say goodbye here: The Vampire Diaries Says Farewell THE FINAL SEASON KICKS OFF ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 AT 8/7C ON THE CW.
Note to fans of The CW: Be sure to savor every last bite of The Vampire Diaries this fall, winter and spring. Because the beloved series is coming to an end. View Slideshow: 15 Best Shows in CW History: Ranked! Creator Julie Plec made this semi-surprising announcing to kick off the show’s panel discussion at Comic-Con in San Diego today, alerting fans in attendance that the popular show will wrap up after Season 8. This really isn’t a shock to those that have been paying close attention, however. First, Kat Graham confirmed several weeks ago that she would be departing the drama following Season 8. Then, Ian Somerhalder said in April that the team behind the show had decided to produce “one last season.” He later tried to walk these words back, but the proverbial writing has been on the wall for some time now. Moreover, The CW moved The Vampire Diaries (once its highest-rated program) to the television graveyard of Friday nights after a handful disappointing Thursday night performances last year. Simply put, ratings have been on an extreme downswing. There’s simply no story left to tell here. Early on, The Vampire Diaries established itself as a legitimately interesting and suspenseful series. This was not Twilight. Not by a long shot. The first couple seasons managed to shock viewers with twists and turns on a nearly weekly basis, making major stars out of Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev. But Dobrev left after Season 6 and viewership has been shrinking for years now. Plec said at Comic-Con that producers wanted to make this announcement early on, giving them a chance to write out the ending they want to tell with plenty of notice. How do you feel about The Vampire Diaries coming to an end? It’s about time, isn’t it? Will Dobrev return as Elena for the series finale? She has hinted in the past that she’d be open to this arrangement. For now, you can go watch The Vampire Diaries online via our friends at TV Fanatic and you can help us raise a glass to one of The CW’s most enjoyabe shows. Watch the cast say goodbye here: The Vampire Diaries Says Farewell THE FINAL SEASON KICKS OFF ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 AT 8/7C ON THE CW.
Wendy Williams is notorious for her brash and often rude comments regarding the world of celebrities, which is applauded by some as just mindless celebrity gossip. However, today the daytime talk show host may have just dug herself a verbal hole that will be very hard to escape from. During this morning’s show while […]
The summer television season is officially in full swing and one of the most anticipated new shows of the season makes its debut on the OWN Network tonight. Greenleaf has all the makings of a show that will have you addicted in no time, thanks to a star-studded cast and a highly entertaining script. Before […]
As longtime Game of Thrones fans know, the penultimate episode of any season can usually be counted on to deliver in the dramatic fireworks department, and Sunday night's installment promises to be no different. In fact, after two weeks of what often felt like place-setting episodes, the alliances are set, the sides have been chose, and “Battle of the Bastards” is poised to hit us with what sure to be one of the show's most epic and game-changing clashes to date. As usual, supposed spoilers abound in all corners of the Internet, but no one really knows what will happen when Jon Snow attempts to take back Winterfell from the demented Ramsay Bolton. So here's a quick rundown of what we can expect based on the books, the information released by HBO thus far, and the personal histories of two very different motherless warriors. (As always, you can watch Game of Thrones online at TV Fanatic if you need to get caught up.) We'll start with the chief combatants: 1. Jon Snow The Bastard of Winterfell, the former Lord Commandor of the Night’s Watch, the Dashing Undead. His ex used to tell him he knew nothing, but after surviving battles like the ones we saw in “The Watchers on the Wall” and Hardhome” this revenant knows everything about waging war … especially on his home turf. 2. Ramsay Bolton The Bastard of Bolton, the Flayer of Men, the Eater of Suggestive Sausages. Ramsay may not know Winterfell as well as Jon and Sansa (who grew up there), but he’s a proven military leader, and he certainly has the edge in the sadism department. 3. What Are the Odds? There’s no way both bastards are getting out of this thing alive. Vegas bookmakers are giving 1/3 odds that Ramsay will bite the dust. Jon, the clear favorite, is at 9/1. After all, this season started off with Jon as a corpse. They’re not gonna kill him off again THAT quickly. 4. How Big Are the Armies? Ramsay has over 5,000 men, while Jon (with help from Sansa and Ser Davos) managed to round up a rag-tag bunch of just 2,000. But hey, we hear those 62 from Bear Island can fight like ten men! 5. What Happens if the Starks Win? They recapture Winterfell, unseat Ramsay as Warden of the North and probably kill him. They free Rickon Stark and set set up shop in the castle Jon and Sansa grew up in as their new base of operations. We learned last week that Arya is also headed home to Winterfell, and you can that would be one tearjerker of a family reunion. 6. What’s at Stake? Winterfeeeeeell! The Stark family home where Robert Baratheon asked Ned Stark to be the Hand of the King, and Jaime Lannister pushed Bran from a window so many years ago. Add to that the fact that Ramsay raped and tormented Sansa during their brief marriage and the fact that the Boltons are partially responsible for the Red Wedding, and you can see what sort of emotions are involved. In a way, the show has building to the Starks’ return to Winterfell ever since, so there’s definitely more than just a castle in play here. View Slideshow
Domestic abuse can happen to anyone. The celebs below suffered domestic violence at the hands of someone close to them. 1. Rihanna Rihanna was beaten by former boyfriend Chris Brown, resulting in physical injuries that required her to be hospitalized. 2. Tina Turner Ike Turner notoriously beat wife and singer Tina Turner throughout their marriage. The abuse was depicted in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It. 3. Charlize Theron The actress grew up with an abusive father. Theron’s mother wound up shooting him in self-defense after he came home drunk and angry one fateful night. 4. Halle Berry Halle Berry admitted to being physically abused by a former boyfriend. She claims he hit her so hard her eardrum was punctured and she lost 80 percent of her hearing in that ear. 5. Amber Heard Amber Heard accused Johnny Depp of physical assaults against her during their short marriage, citing alcoholism and drug abuse as instigators. 6. Madonna When Madonna was married to Sean Penn in the 80s, he allegedly struck her with a baseball bat, tied her up and beat her. However, in 2015 the material girl dismissed the claims as false. Madonna was raped on a rooftop when she was 19 by an unknown attacker. View Slideshow
The sixth season of Game of Thrones may be the show’s most eventful to date, but with the possible exception of the death of Hodor (a fairly minor, albeit beloved character), it has yet to hit us with a stunner on par with the Red Wedding or the execution of Ned Stark. That didn’t change with “No One,” but the stage is certainly set for a bloody and jaw-dropping conclusion. Appropriately, the season’s eighth installment opened with a reenactment of one of the most memorable deaths in the recent history of Westeros – that of His Douchiness, Prince Joffrey. As the show’s been wont to do this season, it answered any questions left over from the previous week’s cliffhanger right off the bat: Arya is alive, and the actress she was once tasked with assassinating is both a badass with a history of violence and a remarkably solicitous mother figure. Perhaps the clearest way that this season has stood out from the five that preceded it (aside from the aforementioned breakneck pacing and the fact that the plot has progressed beyond the end point of George R.R. Martin’s books) is its humor. The scene in which the Hound quickly dispatches several members of the Brotherhood Without Banners may have been grim, but it also featured some one-liners worthy of a top-notch ’80s Die Hard knockoff (“You’re sh-t at dying, you know that?”) Speaking of badass revenants (Thank you, Leo, for teaching us that word.), we learn that Daenerys has become a messiah figure thanks to fervent preaching from yet another red priestess. We also get the long awaited return of Tyrion and Varys, both absent in the previous two episodes. Sadly, however, it seems that Stewie-and-Brian-esque partnership is at least temporarily at an end as Varys bids adieu to Meereen. He plans to return, but the hint of sadness in Tyrion’s voice reminds us that these two may be parting ways for good. From there, it’s back to Kings Landing, where Cersei, still butting heads with the increasingly powerful High Sparrow and hi Faith Militant, protects herself with the otherworldly badassery of the other Clegane brother. View Slideshow: Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 8 Photos: Tyrion Looks Troubled There’s more humor in the form of Bronn’s reunion with Pod. (Remember when they were both Tyrion’s buddies? Yeah, we barely do, too!) Meanwhile, in the tent (where they’re not having sex, thank you very much), Jaime and Brienne engage in more diplomatic, maneuvering, and the pieces begin to fall into place for the wars to come. Brienne wants to talk the Blackfish into surrendering Riverrun in exchange for safe passage north for a f-ckton of troops. Jaime has his doubts, but he agrees to the deal, possibly out of lingering affection for his former traveling partner/captor, Brienne. Lesser shows would have Brienne melt Brynden Tully’s heart and triumph against the odds, but on GoT, she’s shot down just as Jaime predicted. From there, we see Cersei victimized by a betrayal worthy of … well, her , as Tommen sets a date for her trial – and outlaws trial by combat, thus negating her big, brutish ace in the hole, the Mountain. Tyrion waxes poetic about booze some more (Note how the show has been grouping scenes featuring the Lannisters together.) and continues his efforts to get Missandei and Grey Worm to loosen up and see things his way. Side note: How long until the Imp’s Delight wine hits shelves? We imagine a dry pinot noir. We’re bummed that we didn’t get to hear the punchline to Tyrion’s booze-jackass-honeycomb, but his attempts at getting his cohorts to lighten up actually appear to be working – at least until the masters sail into port with war flags flying. Jaime visits Edmure Tully whose imprisonment is reminiscent of his own in Season 2. (No accident, we’re sure.) Edmure’s sorry state and the return of Brienne combine to make Jaime reflect on his previous interactions with the Tullys, which in turn cause him to realize the similarities between Cersei and Catelynn But as his threat to launch Edmure’s kid into the river reminds us, that doesn’t mean he’s gone soft. Jaime effectively persuades Edmure to enter the castle (He is the lord of Riverrun, after all.) and order Brynden’s troops to stand down. The Blackfish meets his demise nobly, Brienne and Pod escape with a wistful wave goodbye from Jaime, and like that, the weird tangential Riverrun storyline comes to an end. At least the Starks got more troops for their raid on Winterfell? With her peeps at Meereen under siege, Daenerys makes the most hardcore entry in history. (It’s tough to beat travel by dragon in terms of awesomeness.) But will it be enough to fend off the masters? Yeah, most likely. The big reunion episode continues as the Hound comes face-to-face with the Brotherhood members who nearly killed him, and drops a reference to his famous chicken dinner with Arya. (Oh, and kills the dicks who murdered Al Swearengen.) “Lots of horrible sh-t in this world gets done for something larger than ourselves,” the Hound says in a sadly topical refutation to the Brotherhood’s arguments. Despite his initial resistance, however, it looks as though appealing to the Hound’s newfound morality may have won the Hound over to their side. After that, we’re back to Arya (Weiss and Benioff are clearly intent on reminding us of how all these far-flung storylines are related.), who gives new meaning to blood orange while tumbling through a farmer’s market to evade the Waif. Though we can’t help but feel that we were deprived of a badass fight scene, it’s nice to see Arya make short work of the Waif and reclaim her name. With Arya’s stand against Jaqen (She lets him live as a thanks for saving her life so long ago.), another piece falls into place for what fans believe will be the most epic pair of episodes in the show’s six-season run. Watch Game of Thrones online to get caught up in time. View Slideshow: 8 Best Game of Thrones Season 6 Fan Theories!
The music world is recovering from a stunning tragedy this morning. On Friday night, The Voice alumna Christina Grimmie was killed in Orlando when a man approached her after a concert and simply opened fire. Grimmie was 22 years old. According to multiple outlets, Grimmie had just finished a show with pop rock band Before You Exit at the Plaza Live when she and the band’s members lined up for an autograph session. Soon afterward, a gunman with two weapons walked up and shot Grimmie. The artist’s brother quickly tackled the shooter, who turned a gun on himself and committed suicide. He is being hailed as a hero for saving other lives, but he could not save his sister: Grimmie was taken to a local hospital and died of her injuries early Saturday morning. In response to the tragedy, the official The Voice Twitter account sent the following message about the 2014 contestant: There are no words. We lost a beautiful soul with an amazing voice. Our hearts go out to the friends, fans and family of @TheRealGrimmie. Grimmie was signed to Island Records and was working on an album at the time of her death. The band tweeted early Sunday morning about Grimmie: “Christina was such a loving, caring, beautiful person with the biggest heart. She was an absolutely incredible musician and an even better friend.” The group referred to Grimmie as an “angel, sister and a beloved friend” and added: “We are so saddened by her passing and are completely heartbroken. Words fail to describe how much Christina means to all of us.” “She was always a constant beam of light and energy into the hearts of everyone around her. Christina Grimmie Auditions on The Voice “Her care-free spirit and her laughter constantly lit up every room she entered and she always had this glisten in her eyes which was evident in her faith. “While we know there is no sort of feeling that can replace the joy Christina brought into our lives, we know she is glistening from up in Heaven and shining down on all of us.” In conclusion, the band Tweeted: “Please join us in keeping Christina’s family as we know Jesus said, ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ “She and her talent will be missed by us all.” We send our heartfelt condolences to Christina’s family members, friends and loved ones. Added a rep for the young singer: It is with a heavy heart that we can confirm that Christina has passed and went home to be with the Lord. She was shot at her show in Orlando, and unfortunately didn’t survive the gun shot wounds. We ask at this time that you respect the privacy of her family and friends in their time of mourning. View Slideshow: 27 Musicians Who Died Too Young
We're officially in the homestretch for Game of Thrones Season 6, and if even one of the fan theories about the upcoming episodes is accurate, we should be in for quite the finale. Folks are predicting the deaths of hated villains, and unexpected returns for characters long thought dead . (Why not? We already had one of those on last week's episode !) Clearly, anything goes in this post-book world we're living in, so we'll limit our speculation to Sunday's episode, “No One.” Tyrion will return after a two week hiatus, and he'll look vaguely troubled about something. Call us psychic! Watch Game of Thrones online to get caught up in time for the beginning of what's sure to be thrilling end. 1. Troubled Tyrion Tyrion looks less than thrilled in this photo. And he’s one of the characters who’s actually managed to improve his situation this season! 2. Jaime in a Jam Looks like a bad week for the Lannisters. Jaime seems vaguely pissed too. Of course, he has to deal with the Freys and Brynden Tully, so we can’t really blame him. 3. Cersei and The Mountain Cersei has the undead Mountain as her protector. So she has reason to smile – just don’t expect her to do so. 4. Tommen on the Iron Throne Looks like we’re in for lots of Lannister angst this week. Sure, Tommen’s on the Iron Throne, but heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say. 5. It’s Lancel Lannister! Did we mention that this appears to be a Lannister-heavy episode? Sure, he’s “Brother Lancel” these days, but deep down, he’s still a Lannister. 6. Another Red Priestess! They’re everywhere these days! This one doesn’t have a name yet, but she’s played by actress Melanie Liburd. View Slideshow
