John Ridley

If hours and hours of Twin Peaks or The Affair weren’t enough for you, Showtime has some major additional treats coming up. Not only do we have premiere dates for the Jim Carrey-produced standup comedy I’m Dying Up Here and John Ridley’s Idris Elba-starring miniseries Guerrilla, we’ve even got the first trailers.

ABC notably pumped Marvel’s brakes this past year, to decline additional Agent Carter, an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff or any other series, but the next could pick up in only a matter of weeks. ABC execs say they’ll meet with Marvel in a few weeks’ time to discuss their options toward a series “we all feel is as creatively strong as it can be.”

Lest you think Luther would prove the last of Idris Elba’s TV ventures, Showtime has a new Emmy frontrunner in the works. The cable network has officially greenlit a new six-part miniseries from Elba and American Crime boss John Ridley, following the infamous “Black Power Desk” of 1970s London.

The other day saw John Ridley confirming that his long-developing Marvel TV series was still in the mix, even as no one knows what, or when the project represents. And even as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gears up for a spinoff, it seems another live-action comedy behind Marvel’s Damage Control may be in contention for the ever-expanding universe.

As Marvel gears up to shoot the pilot of its Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff Most Wanted, there’s been significantly less movement around American Crime head John Ridley’s top-secret Marvel TV series. Ridley himself confirms that the series remains in development, though we’re no closer to learning what it actually is.

Back in April, we reported that in-demand screenwriter John Ridley had been caught in Marvel’s web of cross-promotion, inking a deal to develop a TV show that would spin off a key property from the already-popular Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. program. The specifics of that project still have yet to take shape (though we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that the M.O.D.O.K. solo show America so richly deserves will soon come to pass), but today brings news of a new endeavor for Ridley with no less social import. The Academy Award-winning scribe of 12 Years a Slave has announced that he will take the director’s chair once again to helm a feature about the notorious 1992 Los Angeles riots catalyzed by Rodney King’s savage beating at the hands of the LAPD.