Riele Downs, who for six years starred on the popular Nickelodeon series “Henry Danger,” is all grown up now and is headlining the supernatural teen comedy “Darby and the Dead.” She plays a teenager who can see dead people and who, feeling a responsibility for their well-being, counsels those with unfinished business on earth. When the most popular girl at school dies in a freak hair-straightening accident, her ghost and Darby form an unlikely alliance. The film, written by Becca Greene (“Good Vibes”) and directed by Silas Howard (“Dickinson”), will also star queer actress Auli’I Cravalho (“Moana”), Derek Luke (“13 Reasons Why”) and TV legend Tony Danza. We love that trans filmmakers like Howard are finally getting shots at non-trans-themed material like this after so much time in the world of queer indie projects, so we’ll be watching when “Darby” hits Hulu on December 2.
Tig Notaro and Murray Bartlett are sportsing for charity
If you’re still confused about the sudden popularity of pickleball, or if you’re still confused about what even is pickleball, then you should know that it’s played indoors or outdoors using rackets or paddles with two or sometimes four players and the ball is perforated and – OK, we give up. Anyway, pickleball is a big enough deal now that, in the absence of the late, great “Battle of the Network Stars,” the one-off special “Pickled” hosted by Stephen Colbert featured queer sports-doers: lesbian stand-up comic Tig Notaro, who is seemingly everywhere at once these days, and Murray Bartlett, the “Looking” alum who most recently co-starred in “The White Lotus” and “Physical.” Who else? Aisha Tyler, Daniel Dae Kim, Dierks Bentley, Emma Watson, Kelly Rowland, and many others. It’s all for Comic Relief, so you can make-ahead some holiday sides while you watch and try to figure it out.
Joe Locke joins a ‘Coven’
It’s been quite a news cycle lately for “Heartstopper” stars. Kit Connor got pressured into coming out as queer by some of his most terrible fans, and, in sunnier news, Connor’s co-star Joe Locke has been cast as a principal character opposite Kathryn Hahn in the upcoming Marvel series “Agatha: Coven of Chaos.” If you’ve been keeping up with the MCU on your television, you may have watched “WandaVision” and learned to love the series’ breakout character, Agatha, played by Hahn. Now Hahn will star in her own spinoff with Locke’s character, reported to be a gay teenager with a dark sensibility. That’s all we know right now because these sorts of Marvel projects are always shrouded in secrecy, but we do love that the comedy-villain is going to get her chance to shine without pesky superheroes getting in her way. When it’s ready it’ll drop on Disney+ and you won’t be able to ignore it.
The Siegfried and Roy story is truly ‘Wild’
John Hoffman, co-creator of “Only Murders in the Building,” is planning to make magic with the story of Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn. The German magicians — who were romantically involved for at least part of their life together as Las Vegas entertainment royalty — are no longer with us, but their legacy of performing with white tigers will live on with both the Apple original podcast “Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy,” and now with Hoffman’s series based on it. The pair were the kind of performers known as “flamboyant” in an era when Las Vegas entertainment was tidily swept into the closet, and the series will cover their career together, as well as the on-stage tiger attack that changed both their lives. Currently in development with no casting announcements yet, this one is going to liven up AppleTV+ when it finally drops.