In Brief: Marvel Comics legend John Romita Sr. dies, and more

Stephen Colbert has extended his contract as host of CBS’ The Late Show through 2026, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The extension will take Colbert into his 11th year as host of the The Late Show, which he took over from David Letterman back in 2015. It has been the most watched late night talk show for the past several seasons. Prior to the writers strike, it was averaging 2.14 million same-day viewers per week, excluding repeats, per the outlet…

Netflix has acquired the rights to writer David Gauvey Herbert’s 2021 Esquire magazine article “Daddy Ball,” which will be adapted into an eight-episode dark comedy series directed by and starring Jason Bateman, according to Deadline. The series, which will have a different title, will follow two fathers of the Long Island Inferno youth baseball team who became embroiled in an epic battle…

Hotel Transylvania and Samurai Jack director Genndy Tartakovsky on Tuesday announced the voice cast for his first R-rated animated comedy feature Fixed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Pitch Perfect star Adam Devine will play Bull, a pooch who learns his owners are about to get him snipped. His already-fixed buddies, Rocco, Fetch and Lucky — voiced respectively by Idris Elba, Fred Armisen and Bobby Moynihan — decide to take him out for a night on the town as a last hurrah before the dreaded act takes place, per THR. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse actor Kathryn Hahn plays Bull’s neighbor and love interest, “the glamorous show dog Honey who has an appealingly raunchy side.” A release date has not been set…

Comic book artist John Romita Sr., legendary for his work on characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine, has died at age 93. His son, John Romita Jr. confirmed the news on Twitter with “a heavy heart.” The artist “passed away peacefully in his sleep,” according to his son, who followed in his dad’s artistic footsteps. Tributes sprung up immediately on social media, with Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy writer-director and now DC Films co-CEO James Gunn posting a frame of one of Romita’s depictions of Spidey. “My brother & I wrote Mr. Romita when we were young kids & sent him drawings of superheroes we were working on,” Gunn said. “He wrote us back, telling us what he liked about the drawings! A truly memorable experience in my life, making me feel like the magic of comic books, which seemed so otherworldly, wasn’t actually that far away.”…

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