News all across the spectrum this week, with developments in Star Trek, Marvel, Star Wars and many others. Too bad there’s not a lot that’s pic worthy.

• As always, we start with the Marvel news, because there’s usually just so much of it.
  • Agent Carter returns this Tuesday with “The Blitzkrieg Button.” If you need a refresher, the promo is on youtube here.
  • Agents of SHIELD, meanwhile, has been hyping their eventual return in 5 weeks with lots of teasing interviews about the future of the show and this season. I won’t mention the details for the sake of spoilers, but you can read the article here, provided you’re caught up on the show.
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor is possibly up for a role in Doctor Strange, making for possibly one of the oddest combination of headlining names ever seen on a movie poster. Sci-fi fans who aren’t familiar with him yet will get a chance to check out his work in Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Martian. There’s a lot of casting news out there this week, which I don’t typically find very interesting, but I’ve listed a few of the more intriguing ones.
• An update on the production of Star Trek 3 has Simon Pegg stepping in to help with the script. The rumor is that they’re supposed to start filming in mid-April, so I have a lot of reservations about the fact that they’re still bringing in new people on the script. Every piece of news about this movie worries me more and more… but at least we know Pegg is a real fan.
• Russell T. Davies, the man who revived Doctor Who, has stated that he wants to write a movie for the franchise. It’s an interesting prospect,  but unlikely to go anywhere. Which Doctor would it use, if it did?
• Star Wars keeps moving towards release, with Disney looking to do some casting for the spinoff movies. Currently, they’re said to be looking at Tatiana Maslany, Kate Mara, and Rooney Mara, among others. Tatiana Maslany has earned a lot of praise from sci-fi fans from her work on Orphan Black, so I’m sure there are more than a few people excited at the prospect of seeing her in Star Wars.
  • Related, George Lucas has come out and said that he had ideas for Episode VII in place before the sale to Disney. And, as it turns out, none of them have been used in the film that was shot, so he’s as in the dark as the rest of us. I’ll leave the decision of whether or not that’s a good thing as an exercise for the reader.
• A revised version of The Expanse trailer has been posted. Apparently the first one wasn’t properly color corrected, and thus didn’t reflect an accurate idea of what the show would look like. That’s a pretty huge oversight, but this version was rushed out as quickly as possible by the cinematographer, which goes a long way towards reassuring the audience that the people involved are passionate about the project. What do you think? Revised version change your opinion?
• The X-Files revival talk keeps on rolling, with most of the major players confirming their interest. Now it seems to be a matter of convincing Chris Carter to come back to it and lining up everyone’s schedules. It’s not even really clear to me how critical Carter’s presence is, and there have been so many rumors floating around that I was hesitant to even provide a specific link here. I’ll be sure to keep following this one, though.
• Spike TV is progressing on their planned Red Mars trilogy series, by placing J. Michael Straczynski at the helm. JMS is best known for Babylon 5 (and about a million different comic book projects), so that’s pretty powerful credentials to what was otherwise a shaky prospect, since Spike has little experience with dramatic programming. Who knows–maybe this might actually be good?
• I’ve seen a lot of positive reactions to the 12 Monkeys premiere on Syfy last Friday, so we’ll have to see if they hold up. Maybe this show is worth checking out after all?

I think that about wraps up the big news for the past week. Did I miss anything? Any news items that you’re particularly excited for? As always, you can message me on twitter @RetroPhaseShift or post in the comments. Until Monday…