Dead Pixels starts on The CW Aug. 18. It’s about Meg and Nicky, who are obsessed with an online fantasy game, Kingdom Scrolls, which at times gets in the way of their actual lives.
The show is created by Jon Brown and has Jesse Armstrong as an executive producer. Both are on the HBO smash Succession.
Brown called Kingdom Scrolls “maybe the third-best role-playing game around,” as gamers move on to more state-of-the-art stuff like Warcraft.
“There’s something that quite appealed to me about people that have an attachment to a world and are not quite ready to let it go,” he said.
Brown delved into a concept called sunk cost fallacy, which pertains to the tons of hours, and cash, that gamers may have invested in a game, which makes quitting it that much more difficult. “That’s something a lot of people can relate to, whether it’s a relationship or a job,” he said.
Dead Pixels has aired in the U.K. on E4. Brown said a summer 2020 release in the U.S. makes the series “accidentally timely.”
“In a way, it couldn’t be any more perfect,” he said. “We’re all living the lives of the characters — stuck inside, connected through virtual worlds.”
Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe premieres August 28 on Disney Plus. The animated series, about step brothers who take on grandiose projects, ran for four seasons on Disney Channel before wrapping in 2015. It is back with a movie.
Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, creators and executive producers, said the call came from Gary Marsh, president of Disney Channels Worldwide. “Would you like to dust these guys off?” the president asked. “Yes, we would,” said the producers.
The movie sees Phineas and Ferb set out across the galaxy to rescue sister Candace, who has been abducted by aliens.
“We had to think — we’d done 200 episodes, what have we not done?” said Povenmire. “Most have been about the boys building something. We never really put anybody in jeopardy. But Candace being abducted by aliens and the boys going to rescue her — we never really told that kind of story.”
What makes the movie right for summer 2020? Phineas and Ferb The Movie offers positive vibes. “Phineas and Ferb has always been a super-positive show,” Povenmire said. “It’s something we worked really hard on. The main characters weren’t jerks or idiots, which all the shows were when we were making Phineas and Ferb. That’s what’s needed right now.”
Might there be more Phineas and Ferb? “I wouldn’t say no to it,” said Povenmire.
Added Swampy, “I’m happy to have that discussion.”
