MacGyver Reboot Update #201

The slow news cycle has ended – at least for some of the main MacGyver cast who provided us with news over the last few weeks.

Filming for The Abandons has started (via Kurt Sutter)

(For more material and to discuss your favourite topics, you can find me on Twitter and on the MacGyverOnline Forums.)

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The Abandons with Lucas Till
Filming for Netflix western series The Abandons started May 14 in Calgary. There hasn’t been much BtS material, so let’s check what we know so far (which isn’t much):

• Season 1 has 10 episodes.
• Lucas plays Garret Van Ness. Gillian Anderson plays Constance Van Ness, the matriarch of the wealthy Van Ness family. Aisling Franciosi plays Trisha Van Ness.
• The director of the pilot episode is Otto Bathurst.
• Filming for Season 1 will end mid-October; meaning they have about two weeks per episode.
• The series will premiere on Netflix in 2025.

Showrunner Kurt Sutter posted on Instagram on Day 1, but the font is probably not the one they will use for the promo material. As part of their Upfronts, Netflix scheduled a First Look Presentation event for May 23, but they will probably promote only material for the shows airing this year.

Official Still of Eric Dane and Levy Tran in Bad Boys: Ride or Die (via Streamr)

Bad Boys: Ride or Die with Levy Tran
In July 2023, Levy Tran did an episode of the Poddywood Podcast. The host joked that she’s mostly good for sequels; especially the 4th one in a franchise. They even mentioned “Bad Boys 4”. When I went to check it out, I couldn’t find any official news about it and there wasn’t anything to find when following up on it a few weeks later, so I forgot about it.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die will premiere on June 7 in the US. The movie was partially filmed in Georgia and Florida; and some of the crew and several stunt people also worked on the MacGyver Reboot. We got a first Official Still of Levy a few weeks ago. As far as I know, she didn’t make it into the trailer and she’s not listed on the IMDb entry yet.

Justin Hires during a StandUp show in April (via EP Image)

What are Cast and Crew up to?
Most of the Upfronts (where the networks present their upcoming Fall and Midseason Shows) are done. As far as I know, there haven’t been any official TV show casting news for the rest of the regular main cast.

On April 3, Levy Tran talked about her struggles with alcohol and her role of Desi on MacGyver on the Reel Rolling Podcast. She said that she has been auditioning a lot lately, but that it’s hard to book a job. It seems to have worked out, though: Levy was tagged twice in Instagram posts regarding action comedy Trouble Man, which was filmed in Atlanta last November.

She was a bit more active on social media too; posting about winning in her Jiu Jitsu category at the Atlanta Spring International Open or uploading a few photos of her visit at the Renaissance Fair.

Levy making Rank 1 at the Atlanta Spring International Open (via Levy Tran)

ICYMI: Episode 2×01 of The Wingfeather Saga with Henry Ian Cusick was released on April 5. So far, he’s listed for four episodes of Season 2. He was also in the two-parter series finale of NCIS: Hawaii.

Last November, Tristin Mays filed a trademark for her production company Black Sheep Productions in the UK. I recently noticed that the filing has been withdrawn. Interestingly, she changed the handle of the Instagram account to Black Magic Productions while the YouTube and TikTok accounts and also the website still have the old name.

First Poster for The Comic Shop (via IMDb)

A Wedding and a Baby for Lucas Till
While Lucas Till has been noticeably absent on social media, we did get little bits of information through Skyler Samuels:

• In June 2023, she flashed an engagement ring while doing promo for her first movie of the Aurora Teagarden Series.
• In March 2024, she referred to Lucas as her “now-husband” in Episode 43 for the Wizards of Waverly Place Podcast.
• In April 2024, director Jessica Harmon posted an Instagram Story of Skyler and an Aurora Teagarden co-star with the caption “Two new moms trying to make it to lunch”.
• In April 2024, Skyler was announced as the new brand ambassador for jewelry company Charles & Colvard. The first campaign video was released for Mother’s Day promo.

On April 21, Skyler posted photos of herself with the baby; dedicating the post to “all my fellow mamas out there”. People Magazine posted an online article about it.

Proud Mama Skyler and baby (via Charles & Colvard)

On May 8, Heavy released a new interview with Skyler. She talked about finding a rhythm between work and “mom life”:

Samuels also said that she and Till are figuring out a work-life balance as they go, joking that while she was filming the latest “Aurora” movies, her husband “was like Mr. Mom 24/7 while I was at work.” When her shoot was done, she took over full-time with the baby, she said, and he went to film a new series.

Heavy, May 8, 2024

She also did an interview with OK Magazine. There might be some more information when she has to do promo for her upcoming Aurora Teagarden movies.

Richard Dean Anderson at German Film and Comic Con (via 20 Minuten)

Upcoming Projects for the main MacGyver Cast
Several main cast members of the MacGyver Reboot have movies waiting to be released, but there’s barely any news on most of them. Most of the smaller movies have been sitting in “post-production hell” with no distributors lined up yet. Some are inching towards a release date hopefully:

• Fluxx with Henry Ian Cusick will be screened at Malibu Film Festival on May 25.
• A first poster has been uploaded to IMDb for The Comic Shop with Tristin Mays.

Other MacGyver-related News
Original MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson attended German Film and Comic Con in Dortmund (May 4 and 5). You can find some photos of the event here. He also came to Basingstoke Comic Con (London, May 10 to 12) where he signed autographs until 1am because the organisation of the event was chaotic. You can finde photos here.

Amanda Tapping and Richard Dean Anderson at Basingstoke Comic Con (via Abby)

The exclusive BluRay box set of the Original MacGyver series in Germany was released on May 16. You can find all information here.

Other MacGyver-related news you might have missed:

• Half Baked: Totally High with Justin Hires was released on BluRay and Tubi on April 16.
• David Dastmalchian started the podcast Grave Conversations where he talks to his guests while both are in a coffin.
• The next conventions scheduled for Richard Dean Anderson are Washington Summer Con (June 22 and 23) and Metro Comic Con (Melbourne, July 13 and 14). You can find his full schedule here.
• Tate Donovan will attend Galaxy Con (Oklahoma City, May 24-26).
• The Collective with Lucas Till is still available on several streaming services (e.g. Hulu and Paramount+ in the US). The first official trailer by US distributor Quiver Distribution has almost 657’000 hits by now.

MacGyver Reboot Update #200

While the news flow has been slower than ever (at least that’s what it feels like), we did get some exciting news regarding the main MacGyver cast.

Welcome to Levy (via Levy Tran)

(For more material and to discuss your favourite topics, you can find me on Twitter and on the MacGyverOnline Forums.)

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The Abandons with Lucas Till
Lucas has boarded Netflix’ western series The Abandons. Season 1 has ten episodes and is filmed in Calgary and Oregon. According to Deadline, Lucas’ character name is Garret Van Ness. Main star Gillian Anderson plays Constance Van Ness, the matriarch of the wealthy Van Ness family. Aisling Franciosi will play Trisha Van Ness; so possibly the sister or wife of Lucas’ character.

Filming was delayed for almost a year due to the SAG-Aftra strike. The filming dates for Calgary listed on the official IATSE Local 212 website says May 14 to October 15. In recent weeks, several of Lucas’ future cast mates uploaded Insta stories of “Cowboy Camp”; training for horse riding and bull catching. We don’t know if Lucas did a refresher course too (as he has done horse riding training for the role in Hannah Montana many years ago and did horse scenes for Season 2 of MacGyver).

BtS photo of Justin Hires in Half Baked: Totally High (via Michael Tiddes)

Half Baked: Totally High with Justin Hires
Several years ago, Justin Hires wrote the first draft of a script for a sequel to stoner-movie Half Baked. They announced a straight-to-video-release for April 16, so there wasn’t any promo. You can also stream it on Tubi in the US. Justin has a cameo as a character named Curtis.

It’s not clear how much of his original script was changed in the rewrites. In a podcast episode last year, Justin hinted at wanting a producer credit the next time he sells a script because it would give him more creative control.

What are Cast and Crew up to?
Due to the SAG strike last year, the season orders for TV shows were much shorter this time. “Fall Season” (pushed to midseason) is almost over; and the studios have started ordering pilots for the next season. As far as I know, there haven’t been any official TV show casting news for the rest of the regular main cast.

Levy Tran taping an episode for the Reel Rolling Podcast (via Levy Tran)

On March 3, Levy Tran posted an Instagram Story about her reading a book. It looked like she was inside a trailer. She has been tagged twice in Instagram posts regarding action comedy Trouble Man, which was filmed in Atlanta last November. She’s not listed yet on IMDb, though.

A few months ago, I noticed that Levy had started following several AA accounts on Instagram. On April 3, she talked about her struggles with alcohol on the Reel Rolling Podcast.

She revealed that her audition scene for MacGyver was of Desi eating potato chips and that she was so nervous that the chips stuck in her dry mouth in a way that she couldn’t deliver the lines properly. The character was initially to be a guest-star role and she got offered a series regular role a few episodes in.

Levy stated that she has been auditioning a lot lately, but that it’s hard to book a job. Nevertheless, she seems happy; recently posting several photos with family, Carlos and boyfriend Mark celebrating her birthday.

George Eads and ex-wife Monika Casey enjoying a night out (via Fortune Feimster)

We got a rare sighting of George Eads who visited a comedy show of Fortune Feimster (FUBAR).

Henry Ian Cusick has been working on several things. Episode 2×01 of The Wingfeather Saga was released on April 5. According to TV Insider, he will be in the Season 3 Finale turned Series Finale of NCIS: Hawaii (the first episode of the two-parter airing tomorrow). The show got cancelled this week, but maybe his character might pop up in one of the other NCIS shows still on air.

Tristin Mays continued streaming on Twitch every now and then; with the breaks in between getting longer. In one of her streams, Tristin revealed that she’s writing a TV series and working on projects she can’t talk about yet. She also started playing the guitar again.

Video screenshot of Tristin Mays streaming on Twitch (March 13, 2024)

ICYMI: Tristin has moved back to LA a few months ago. Her Atlanta residence had been listed as available to rent since February 15; with the price being reduced before the listing was removed on April 17. Justin Hires just sold his house in Atlanta.

Wedding and Baby News for Lucas Till?
Last June, Lucas Till‘s then-girlfriend Skyler Samuels flashed an engagement ring while doing promo for her new movie of the Aurora Teagarden Series. Due to the SAG strike, Skyler got out of having to do the promo circuit for “The Meg 2” and pretty much disappeared off social media. In a photo posted by her brother back in August, I had a hunch she might be pregnant (as her face looked a bit fuller than usually).

In Episode 43 for the Wizards of Waverly Place Podcast (uploaded on March 4), Skyler referred to Lucas as her “now-husband”. One of the podcast hosts stated she was “glowing”. Skyler recently filmed the next two installments of Aurora Teagarden on Vancouver Island. When director Jessica Harmon posted an Instagram Story of Skyler and a co-star on set with the caption “Two new moms trying to make it to lunch”, that already raised eyebrows.

Proud Mama Skyler and baby (via Skyler Samuels)

Skyler was recently announced as the new brand ambassador for Charles & Colvard; a jewelry company that specializes in lab-grown diamonds. The first campaign video released for Mother’s Day promo has her interact with a baby; and the fact that the campaign was most likely filmed in their own farmhouse sent the fandom in a hubbubb of speculations, questions and excitement.

On April 21, Skyler posted photos of her with the baby; taken for the official photoshoot. Dedicating the post to “all my fellow mamas out there” was as good as confirmation that this wasn’t just the usual “stunt baby”. This week, People Magazine posted an online article about it. Charles & Colvard linked to this post on an Insta story, which was reposted by both Skyler and Skyler’s mom. Interestingly, Skyler chose a cover for “Isn’t She Lovely” as the underlying music. So maybe a baby girl?

Mama Skyler and baby (via Skyler Samuels)

Upcoming Projects for the main MacGyver Cast
Several main cast members of the MacGyver Reboot have movies in post-production or projects listed as completed:

• 1 Million Followers with Henry Ian Cusick: Has one distributor listed, but still no release date.
• Bang with Tristin Mays
• Fluxx with Henry Ian Cusick: The film was screened at the Mammoth Film Festival last month.
• For Cory with Levy Tran
• Short Film Hopeless Romantic with Tristin Mays
• Jamojaya with Henry Ian Cusick: Has been screened at several festivals, but never got an US release date.
• The Comic Shop with Tristin Mays

Other MacGyver-related News
Ende of March, Original MacGyver Richard Dean Anderson was at Paris Comic Con. You can find photos of his panel and photo sessions here. The weekend of April 20 and 21, he was at Comic Con Holland. You can find the panel video and photos of the photo and autograph sessions here.

Richard Dean Anderson at Paris Comic Con (via Roster Con)

David Dastmalchian has been busy. Recently been cast in Apple TV series Murderbot, he filmed a two-parter of ABC series The Rookie and a new commercial for Titan Casket. This week, he started the podcast Grave Conversations where he talks to his guests while both are in a coffin.

The release date for the exclusive BluRay box set of the Original MacGyver series in Germany was pushed back from March 28 to May 16. You can find all information here.

Other MacGyver-related news you might have missed:

• Richard Dean Anderson is scheduled to appear at some more conventions this year. The next ones are German Film and Comic Con (Dortmund, May 4 and May 5) and Basingstoke Comic Con (London, May 10 to 12). You can find his full schedule here.
• Henry Ian Cusick attended the 20th anniversary concert for LOST yesterday.
• The Collective with Lucas Till is available on several streaming services (e.g. Hulu and Paramount+ in the US); and the first official trailer by US distributor Quiver Distribution still gains views. It has almost 650’000 hits by now.