2021 treated us to a wave of hit Marvel titles on Disney+ Hotstar, though Netflix declared its dominant hold on the world’s popular culture with the phenomena of Squid Game, in addition to Lupin, the final season of Money Heist, among others, while rival streaming services Apple TV+ and HBO had their own acclaimed titles.
Disney+ Hotstar
While Marvel shows dominated the relatively new streaming service when it launched in Malaysia in the middle of last year, Star Wars – the other major property owned by Disney – will be all over Disney+ Hotstar.
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The Book of Boba Fett premiered in the last week of December and is the first new show set in the galaxy far, far away, since the conclusion of the second season of The Mandalorian at the end of 2020. There’s no word yet on when that show is returning, though if it does it would likely be at the end of 2022.
The other two Star Wars shows that will be released this year are Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The former features one of the characters from 2016’s Rogue One and will explore the foundation of the Rebel Alliance, hinting at a darker tone.
The latter will be the return of Ewan McGregor in the iconic role he portrayed in the Prequel Trilogy and will also feature Hayden Christensen reprising his performance as Darth Vader.
Much mystery surrounds Secret Invasion, which will likely have to do with the alien Skrulls. What is known is that it will star Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury – who has been missing in action for a few years – all around acting legend Olivia Colman, and Khalessi herself, Emelia Clarke.
Mark Ruffalo returns as Bruce Banner in She-Hulk, who is set to be played by Tatiana Maslany, in what has been described as a comedy legal drama. To the non-comic book reader, She-Hulk is not the Hulk’s love interest. She’s actually his cousin, Jennifer Walters, who because of a medical condition requires a blood transfusion from him. However, while she becomes big and green, she still has control of her mind. Much hijinks continue.
Ms Marvel will feature Marvel’s first Muslim superhero, Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Khan, a Captain Marvel superfan. Newcomer Iman Vellani will star, but not much else is known, though she will likely appear in 2023’s Marvels.
Finally, Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke will go head to head in Moon Knight, one of the more obscure characters to get a Disney+ show. However, with the star power and a hero that’s been described as Batman with multiple personality disorder, it promises to have a few interesting twists.
Netflix
A big part of Netflix’s strategy is its focus on volume – they spend hundreds of billions a year on either developing their own shows or purchasing the international rights to shows from all around the world. A lot of the time shows drop without warning, or a trailer is released just a month before the show’s premiere.
Shows that we know are for a fact returning include the final season of Ozark (end of January) – the last season of which came out early on during the pandemic, having been made in the before times. The dark, violent crime thriller is set in the world of drug cartels and money laundering.
Bridgerton, Netflix’s biggest hit of 2020, returns on March 25. The Regency-era set drama, with a twist, tells the romance story of Lord Anthony Bridgerton's quest for love. The first season was a surprise hit and managed to capture the hearts of genre lovers around the world.
November will see the premiere of the fifth season of The Crown. The generational drama of the British royal family resets its cast every two seasons as it moves forward in time. This storyline this season will be especially interesting, even to casual fans, as the show will cover the end of the marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles and other controversies of the early to mid-90s.
Attached to the end of season 2 of The Witcher was the trailer to the prequel, The Witcher: Blood Origin. Featuring Michelle Yeoh and set 1,200 years before the events of the main series, the show will detail how the world of humans and monsters first came together.
In a similar vein, 2022 will also have Netflix dropping series based on beloved geek properties Resident Evil and Magic: The Gathering. There has yet to be any footage released of either, though Resident Evil is so overdone you kind of know what to expect.
Acclaimed cult comic book The Sandman will see a live-action adaptation that will be sure to equally excite and divide fans. Different creative teams have attempted to make a show or movie in the last thirty years, and for good reason, the adaptation promises to be tricky.
HBO GO
Coming this month is Peacemaker, starring John Cena in a spin-off to last year’s The Suicide Squad. Like that film, this show promises to be an ultra-violent dark comedy with a “hero” who might be rethinking a career in killing for the US government.
From Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes comes The Gilded Age, which looks to be another show contrasting the haves and the have-nots in society, this time in 1880s New York. HBO isn’t afraid to throw its money around, so expect some top-level sets and costumes.
However, the most anticipated show in HBO’s arsenal is none other than House of the Dragon, the mega-budget prequel to the massive hit that was Game of Thrones. Set 200 years earlier, the show will document the fall of House Targaryen, the ash-blonde dragon riders who ruled the Seven Kingdoms. George R.R. Martin, the author behind the book series, recently saw a rough cut of the first episode and called it “dark” and “visceral”.
This March will see the release of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, created by Adam McKay – who most recently wrote and directed the Netflix hit Don’t Look Up – will follow the larger-than-life exploits of the 1980s LA Lakers.
There will also be returning shows like Westworld, Barry and Euphoria, among others. All these shows will be available in Malaysia on HBO GO. We might be past the time of lockdowns, but there seems to be no shortage of content for the couch-ridden amongst us. – The Vibes, January 2, 2021
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