Floods, Frankensteins and Foundation: another week in genre land (scifi news roundup).
Apple TV+, never one to miss an opportunity to tell us how “visually stunning” their shows are (probably while standing in front of a wall of Macs), has renewed Foundation for a fourth season. Jared Harris, Lee Pace and Lou Llobell will keep saving the galaxy with their cheekbones, while Cherry Jones and Troy Kotsur join the fun. Production starts in 2026, which gives you plenty of time to reread the books and wonder how Asimov managed it all without streaming royalties.
Meanwhile, Prime Video is dusting off its blood-spattered halls for Gen V Season 2. Hamish Linklater arrives as Dean Cipher (a name that screams “sinister crossword enthusiast”), while the late Chance Perdomo’s role will not be recast—a classy move in a world where CGI has already resurrected half of Hollywood. Expect weekly drops from 17th September 2025, right through to late October, because binging is apparently old-fashioned now.
On the film front, Korea’s answer to Noah’s Ark comes in the form of The Great Flood. Picture this: Earth’s last day, skyscrapers under water, rockets on standby, and babies in tubes like some Fisher-Price dystopia. It’s heading to Busan Film Festival before flooding onto Netflix in December.
October 2025, meanwhile, has more horror than a British train fare. We’ve got Keeper (Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland in a cabin—what could possibly go wrong?), Bone Lake (saucy couples plus murder), Good Boy (a supernatural doggo adventure), V/H/S/Halloween (anthology shorts about spooky traditions), Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (Christoph Waltz chasing Jacob Elordi’s mopey Monster), and Predator: Badlands—which dares to ask, “What if a Predator just wanted a friend?”
If that’s not enough, Jordana Stott’s Forgive Us All features a biotech virus turning people into cannibals. Lily Sullivan has to decide whether to stay in her cabin or venture out. Reader, we’d stay in the cabin.
In horror business news, A24 is circling the Texas Chain Saw Massacre rights like a hungry Leatherface. Competitors include Jordan Peele and Taylor Sheridan. Whoever wins, we all lose, in the nicest possible way. ID Channel is also doing its part for your sleepless nights with The Real Murders on Elm Street and The Friday the 13th Murders, streaming after broadcast on Max. If Freddy and Jason don’t get royalties for this, someone needs a stern word.
Netflix is serving up Ryan Murphy’s next Monster entry: The Ed Gein Story. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Laurie Metcalf and Tom Hollander, it explores the serial killer who inspired Norman Bates and Leatherface. Halloween season viewing sorted, then.
In the book world, Legendary Films has paid a jaw-dropping $3 million for the rights to Alchemised, SenLinYu’s dark fantasy novel that doesn’t even come out until 23rd September. It’s based on a Harry Potter fanfic (Manacled) scrubbed of its wands and house scarves, which means we may have officially entered the age where fanfiction makes you rich enough to buy your own wizarding school.
Other September 2025 releases include Elizabeth Bear’s Angel Maker, Paul Cornell’s finale Gnomes of Lychford (spoiler: there are gnomes), Ren Hutchings’s heist caper An Unbreakable World, and John Scalzi’s The Shattering Peace, in which aliens civil war all over the Colonial Union. And yes, you’ll also find vampire revenge tales, art-horror, and even trans body-horror—something for every palate, provided your palate enjoys being horrified.
Finally, the Hugos have spoken. Robert Jackson Bennett took Best Novel for The Tainted Cup, Ray Nayler won Best Novella, and Rebecca Roanhorse nabbed Best Series. Dune: Part Two walked off with Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), while Star Trek: Lower Decks won both Best Graphic Story and Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form). Somewhere, Asimov and Herbert are raising spectral eyebrows at the idea of comedy Trek winning Hugos.
Here at SFcrowsnest, we tip our slightly battered space helmets to all winners and survivors of this week’s genre maelstrom.
