From tragic deaths to huge announcements, 2014 had it all. It’s time to look back at the year that was.
These are the fandom stories that defined 2014, broken down month by month. If you notice a big pop culture story missing, it’s only because it’s not in our wheelhouse of coverage. These are the stories we covered here on Hypable. If there’s a story you want to discuss that we didn’t share here, feel free to tell us in the comments!
January
HBO announced that Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom was renewed for a third – and final – season, which wrapped in December. Unfortunately, the show went off air with a good deal of controversy.
After a year of rumors, Universal finally pulled the cloak off their plans for the first expansion to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The park opened later in the year.
February
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died after an overdose in his New York City apartment. He left behind three children. Hoffman had yet to finish filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, but director Francis Lawrence said in later interviews that the beloved actor shot enough for them to work with. Later in the year fans saw his work on screen in A Most Wanted Man and Mockingjay, Part 1.
Summit announced that Robert Schwentke would replace Neil Burger as the director of the Divergent sequel Insurgent, which paved a new path for the book-to-film adaptation’s franchise.
Jed Whedon revealed that a sequel to Dr. Horrible is going to happen – some how, some way.
J.K. Rowling shocked the world when she began to reconsider Ron and Hermione’s relationship in the Harry Potter series. Additional comments from the author published a few days later helped clear up her feelings, but the whole event had sent the fandom into a panic.
March
The book to film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent opened in theaters, and its box office success led Summit to commit to turning the remaining two books into three movies. Hypable visited the film’s Chicago set and published a report just before the film hit theaters.
A New York Times report on Warner Bros.’ future revealed that the studio and J.K. Rowling planned to create a trilogy of Fantastic Beasts films, marking the first time the fandom realized that this would be a longterm project. Later in the year WB confirmed that the series will be “at least” a trilogy, suggesting that Rowling may have more to tell in Newt’s tale beyond three films.
Disney announced that sequels to Cars and The Incredibles were in the works. While no one was too excited to hear about Cars 3, many were thrilled by the news of an Incredibles sequel because it’s one of the most-requested follow-ups in the Pixar fandom.
John Travolta came clean about his now-infamous Oscar flub in which he accidentally called Idina Menzel “Adele Dazeem.” The mistake was very obvious to all viewers. Travolta will never live it down.
April
Following months of rumors, Disney and J.J. Abrams announced the cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The line up: John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker.
Summit announced that they would be splitting the final book in the Divergent series, Allegiant, into two films. Later in the year we learned that Insurgent director Robert Schwentke would be returning for Allegiant, Part 1, but the studio declined to answer whether or not he’ll be back for the last movie (which is odd).
David Letterman and Craig Ferguson announced that they would be stepping down as hosts of The Late Show and The Late Late Show, respectively, in separate announcements. Ferguson’s announcement followed Letterman’s, suggesting that he wanted to depart the network after not being offered The Late Show gig. Stephen Colbert was announced as Letterman’s replacement. He stepped down from The Colbert Report in mid December.
The rights to a film adaptation of Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park were picked up by Dreamworks, and the author has been working on the screenplay since. The project hasn’t been greenlit yet.
How I Met Your Mother came to a close, but not without controversy. There was so much disappointment amongst viewers about the finale that the show’s creators announced that an alternate ending would be available on the DVD.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened in theaters and was quick to be considered one of the best Marvel movies to date.
May
Marvel fans were shocked when Edgar Wright left his long-gestating Ant-Man. After spending eight years developing the idea, the possibility of anyone but Wright directing the film for Marvel seemed impossible. Nonetheless, it happened, but Ant-Man is still set for its July 17, 2015 release with new director Peyton Reed.
Disney announced that the first Star Wars spinoff film would be directed by Gareth Edwards. Later we learned that Josh Trank would direct the second spinoff film.
June
The Fault in Our Stars opened in theaters and was a huge success for 20th Century Fox. Hypable visited the set and published our set report near its release. The film was beloved by fans thanks to its loyalty to the book, a great cast, and author John Green’s strong support.
After being canceled by NBC, Yahoo! announced that they would bring back Community for a sixth season. A premiere date is still unknown. Also unknown is whether or not that movie is going to happen.
Disney announced that Rian Johnson will direct the follow up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which can only be referred to right now as Episode VIII). Critics applauded Disney’s decision to put a lesser-known-but-excellent director in the Star Wars driver’s seat.
Netflix revealed that they would be resurrecting the beloved children’s series The Magic School Bus with all-new episodes in a modern world.
J.K. Rowling published her third post-Potter book The Silkworm. It is the second installment in the Cormoran Strike series. While promoting the novel she revealed that she has plans for several more Strike books.
Universal Orlando opened The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley, the first expansion to the theme park’s majorly successful land. Hypable had very positive feelings about Diagon Alley.
July
BBC One confirmed that a new series of Sherlock, plus a special, would shoot in 2015. An air date for the new series hasn’t been set, but it’s expected in late December 2015 or early January 2016.
Disney began to develop Enchanted 2 with Amy Adams returning as the lead. In equally exciting news we learned that Tina Fey is producing a witch film for Disney (no, not Hocus Pocus 2).
August
Robin Williams was found dead after the beloved actor tragically committed suicide. He had battled numerous demons over the years. His death shocked the world because his characters were adored and he died young. Google said in December that his name was the most-searched term of 2014.
In much lighter news, the makers of Hello Kitty revealed that she is not a cat. She is a young girl.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s riskiest film since Iron Man, entered theaters and won over the hearts of viewers worldwide. Characters like Groot and Rocket Raccoon quickly became culture phenomenons, and fans were smitten by the film’s soundtrack and Dancing Groot. A sequel and an animated television series are now in the works.
After a showdown lasting several months, WB finally blinked and moved Batman v Superman off the same weekend that Marvel had scheduled Captain America: Civil War. The decision ended up being very smart, because Marvel announced later in the year that Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man would be joining the third Captain America film. There’s no competing with those two, even if it’s Batman and Superman.
Lionsgate hinted that they are working on Hunger Games theme park attractions. While we didn’t hear more details about these plans in 2014, we did learn that a Hunger Games exhibition and a stage play are coming soon.
September
AMC moved forward with their Walking Dead spinoff in light of the original show’s crazy successful ratings. The new series will be set in Los Angeles starring Cliff Curtis and Kim Dickens.
20th Century Fox decided to green light a sequel to The Maze Runner. Hypable visited the set of The Scorch Trials in November.
Disney announced that a Frozen short film will premiere in March 2015 in front of their live-action Cinderella. While we heard murmurs of a sequel, Disney didn’t announce one this year. We expect more Frozen spinoffs to be announced in 2015 (and yes, this is the obvious statement of the century).
October
Warner Bros. made several major announcements at a Time Warner event in New York City to let investors know they have big plans for the film side of their business. Chief among them: David Yates is directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Comments from Rowling at the same time of the announcement seem to indicate that he will be helming all three.
In addition, Warner Bros. caught the world off guard when they announced their entire Justice League slate through 2020 at the same event. Critics thought this was the wrong place to announce such gigantic news.
Less than two weeks after WB’s big reveal, Marvel hosted a fan-oriented event in Hollywood to unveil their Phase 3 slate. While several of the films had been rumored, there were many big surprises. For example, Marvel is developing a Captain Marvel movie, and the third Avengers film will be split into a two-part story.
At the aforementioned Time Warner event, HBO announced that their online streaming service would finally go cable-subscription-free in 2015. Recent reports indicate that HBO is planning to launch the standalone service with Game of Thrones season 5 in the spring.
Nearly a year after it failed at the box office, the production company behind The Mortal Instruments announced plans to turn Cassandra Clare’s book series into a television show. A network has yet to pick up the series because it’s still in the early development stages.
Rick Riordan closed his Percy Jackson series, and while it was an emotional turning point for readers, fans are looking forward to his future works from similar fantasy worlds.
November
Disney gave Star Wars fans the biggest gift in years when they unveiled the teaser trailer for The Force Awakens over Thanksgiving weekend. The trailer was warmly received because it is a true “teaser.” Later, we learned the names of the characters in the trailer.
Wonder Woman is one of the closest films on Warner Bros.’ Justice League slate, so it didn’t come as too big a surprise when we learned that they hired Michelle MacLaren to helm the film. She is the first woman to direct a modern super hero movie – significant news in and of itself.
Readers of A Series of Unfortunate Events were thrilled when we learned that Netflix is adapting the series for television.
Disney announced that they are working on a fourth Toy Story film which will hit theaters in 2017. The film is going to have a big romantic element to it, but other than that, no details are known. The news was greeted with a mixed reaction because people loved how perfectly Toy Story 3 ended.
December
A hack of Sony’s servers in late November snowballed into the most significant leak in Hollywood history. Personal information, private e-mails, film screeners, and hundreds of thousands of other documents were leaked by a hacker group who identified themselves as the GOP. The FBI later confirmed that North Korea was behind the attack. The country, under rule of Kim Jong-Un, appears to have hacked Sony to interfere with their plans to release The Interview, the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy in which Jong-Un is assassinated.
After threatening to attack movie theaters on Christmas Day (when the film is scheduled for release), theaters and Sony decided to pull the movie from theaters worldwide. This decision was met with criticism from even the President of the United States.
At the time of our Year in Review’s release, Sony is reportedly planning to release the film online, but the time frame as to when that will happen is unclear.
Following rumors that spanned the entire year, Marvel finally closed a deal with Benedict Cumberbatch to play Doctor Strange. The first movie in what is expected to be a series opens in 2016.
J.K. Rowling and the BBC announced that her Cormoran Strike series would be adapted for television. With Rowling saying earlier in the year that she has several more Strike books planned, the television series has the potential to run for some time.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies hit theaters, marking the last film in the trilogy and perhaps the final film to be adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. The movie had many problems according to diehards, but let’s face it: We have to like it on some level because it’s the end of an era. Until whatever’s next.