In mixed company, if you mention the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog you could judge pretty quickly who you could talk to and who might not be on your nerd level. Based on an announcement made during the “Joss Whedon: Dark Horse” panel at San Diego Comic Con on Friday, that’s all about to change: Dr. Horrible will be released to the public via the CW television network this Fall. While that may mean little to fans who have been watching and re-watching the three act series for the last four years, there was other news that made the whole announcement worthwhile: the Dr. Horrible Sequel is on the way!
The Sequel Moves Forward…
According to ScienceFiction.com, Whedon announced:
We’ve been working on it for about two years. We have a bunch of songs; we know exactly where we’re going. I can’t wait to tell you more about it … That’s gonna start happening hopefully soon … some of the actors in it are kind of successful!
He’s not kidding, with Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day,Dr. Horrible features an all-star cast that is sure to draw in a new audience seeing these actors in very different roles they may be accustomed to.
But Will The Sequel Air On Television?
When asked on Saturday afternoon at Zachary Levi’s charity Nerd HQ panel how the sequel would be released, that’s when CW left the discussion. Whedon explained that he and the team behind Dr. Horrible - Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Zack Whedon - “want to keep the ethos of what they did before,” so while they don’t know, for sure how the sequel will ultimately be released, their “first instinct is to create it on the same terms and deliver it in the same fashion. That’s how [they're] building it in [their] minds.” During this stage of the process he said they are striving to keep the production “budget agnostic.” He reminded the crowd that the original Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog was a creation born of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Guild strike ”to show we could still work without the giant corporations that were trying to squeeze the unions out of existence.” He said, “we are still firm about all that meant besides the entertainment.” (To read more about the initial introduction of Dr. Horrible for free online, see the Doctor Horrible Official Fan Site.)
Get Ready For The Fall
In whatever media the sequel ultimately reaches its fans, it won’t do so until that fan base grows. There has been no official release date announced, as of yet, for Dr. Horrible’s debut on television screens besides “this Fall,” so keep your eyes peeked for the big date. I’m sure we’ll let you know here at Word of the Nerd. For you fans-to-be wondering what this fan favorite is all about, here’s the blurb from its iTunes page:
From Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, comes Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, an aspiring super-villain, whose attempts at villainy are constantly thwarted by his nemesis, the heroic Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). He must take his efforts to the next level in order to get into the Evil League of Evil while also mustering the courage to talk to Penny (Felicia Day), the girl at the laundromat. And it’s a musical.
It’s fun, it’s hilarious and, yes, you read right: it’s a musical. Here at Word of the Nerd we are always talking about bringing out the inner nerd in everyone, this Fall I think there’s going to be a whole new legion who just needed a television to show them the way!
Your Opinion Counts!
How do you think the Dr. Horrible sequel should be released? Do you think it should follow the airing of the series on the CW? Do you think it should be online for free, for a limited time (as the original miniseries) before heading off to iTunes? Or do you have another option? Sound off in the comments about what you think should be done next.
About Nicole Rivera
After 12 years of teaching high school math, Nicole put down her calculator and embraced her MacBook. She's finally accepted that her owl from Hogwarts will never show, but checks every night to see if the Doctor in his big blue box has come to whisk her away. While she waits she reads whatever she can get her hands on, works on her novel and watches more movies and TV than is probably healthy. You can always find Nicole on her blog, Rivera Runs Through It.
