News Around the Net

Welcome back! You’ve perhaps heard that Marvel has announced the cast for Avengers: Doomsday…?

That’s an interesting group! I’m happy to see a few OG Avengers back in the mix, like Chris Hemsworth.  I’m happy that Paul Rudd is back.  (I’m a defender of Quantumania!)  I’m thrilled Shang-Chi is in there.  (Why hasn’t Shang-Chi popped up in any other Marvel films after his strong movie from back in 2021??)  (My kids really hope Awkwafina will be returning as well.)  I’m not surprised that the Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four casts are all included in this.  (In terms of Phase Four characters, I’m still hoping we’ll see some characters from The Eternals return.)  I’m happy that Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Winston Duke (M’Baku) from the Black Panther films are included.  I’m surprised to see Tom Hiddleston back as Loki!!  I was quite content with the end given to his character in Loki season two, but I love Mr. Hiddleston as Loki, so I’m not complaining about seeing him again.  It’s interesting that none of the Guardians of the Galaxy characters are included.  Nor is Tom Holland as Spider-Man.  (Maybe they’re holding those characters until Secret Wars?)  It seems crazy to me that there are so few women in this cast.  And I’m also surprised that so few characters from the last several years worth of Marvel TV shows are included.  Where’s Mrs. Marvel??  Where’s She-Hulk??  Where’s Kate Bishop??  These are all characters I really hope to see again soon.  Also: Wong!!  He’d started off as the Nick Fury of Phase Four, but we haven’t seen him recently… what’s up with that?  The biggest surprise was seeing so many actors from the Fox X-Men movies included!!  Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer (I’m happy he’s back after popping up in The Marvels), and Alan Cumming, returning as Nightcrawler for the first time since X2!!  Wow!!  Are all those X-Men characters gonna get killed off in the movie’s opening scene, demonstrating the universe-destroying threat of an “incursion”??  (That’s when universes smash into one another, from Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars comic book series in 2015, and mentioned back in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.)  I’m excited to find out (and hoping that some of the other characters I want to see are just being kept secret for now)…

There’s a lot of cool stuff in this extended sneak peek at James Gunn’s Superman:

I love what I’m seeing.  I really, really, really want this to be good!!

Same goes for the next (final?) Mission: Impossible movie:

Forget all the crazy stunts — this movie features Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), AND Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman)???  I’m in!

So they’re really, truly making a third Tron movie, huh?

I’ve gotta admit, that trailer looks pretty great.  I love the idea of seeing Tron tech in the real world.  But with Jared Leto as the star, I must confess, my hopes are low…

YES — after Dave Filoni’s magnificent two mini-series of Star Wars shorts, Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire, a new group of shorts has been announced: Tales of the Underworld:

I’m thrilled to see Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane are the two main characters!  Ventress was a great villain in the animated Clone Wars show, which left her fate tantalizingly unfinished.  I was thrilled when she returned in the Bad Batch show, and I’m eager to see more about what happens to her next.  Bane, meanwhile, was another fun Clone Wars villain.  I was delighted they brought him into live-action in The Book of Boba Fett, and then pissed off that they killed him off so quickly.  I’m happy they’re revisiting the character to give us more of his story.  I can’t wait for this.

A few years ago, Dan Trachtenberg wrote and directed the incredible Predator film Prey, which was the best Predator film since… well, since the original back in 1987!  I knew he was working on a new Predator film… but I had no idea he was ALSO working on an animated Predator film, which is apparently an anthology of stories set in different time-periods. This actually looks like it might be cool…!

I’m delighted that a new Naked Gun movie is in the works, and I think Liam Neeson is terrific casting for the lead.  But this first trailer went down like a lead balloon for me.  I didn’t laugh at all.  What do y’all think?

OK, so Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall) is working on FOUR Beatles movies, each one spotlighting one of the four Beatles… and apparently they’re all going to come out in April 2028???  Wow… just, wow.  That’s such an ambitious plan.  I’m not sure how releasing all four films at once makes any sense… wouldn’t they want to give each film some space to find an audience and make money?  The binge-movie model doesn’t seem to have worked so well for Kevin Costner’s four planned Horizon films.  Still, I cannot wait to see these films.  Why are they still so many years away??

I’m thrilled that Tom King and Elsa Charretier’s wonderful and weird comic book series Love Everlasting is being made into a movie!  And Jane Goldman (writer of Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Stardust, X-Men: First Class, and more) is writing the script?  Excellent!

I was very sad to read of the passing of Val Kilmer, who was so great in so many movies.  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is probably my favorite… I need to find time to rewatch that again immediately.  If you haven’t seen the terrific documentary Val from a few years ago, I highly recommend it.)

Sad news also that Clive Revill has passed away.  Mr. Revill was the original voice of the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back (in the currently available versions of that film, Mr. Revill has been replaced by Ian McDiarmid, who played the Emperor in Return of the Jedi and all subsequent Star Wars film).

Following Amazon’s full acquisition of the James Bond rights, they’ve tapped two big-name producers, Amy Pascal and David Heyman, to produce the new Bond film(s).  I’m dubious, but I’d love it if they could create a great new Bond film… we’ll see…

I’m excited that Dune 3 is officially in the works, and writer/director Denis Villeneuve is apparently finishing the script… bring it on!  The spice must flow.

I’m also thrilled that, after so many years, Kevin Smith has gotten back the rights to Dogma — one of my favorite of his films — and is bringing it back to theaters for its 25th anniversary (and then will also apparently be releasing the film on disc)!! Excellent news all around!

So Spider-Man 4 is finally inching towards production, and it has a title: Brand New Day.  That works for me!  I’m excited for a new Spider-Man movie.  I’m also thrilled that the next animated Spider-Verse movie, Beyond the Spider-Verse, finally has a release date, though it’s a long way off: June 4, 2027.  That’s four long years after the cliffhanger ending of Across the Spider-Verse, which is annoying.  I hope they can stick the landing.

I’m happy to have gotten a small snippet of news about the in-the-works new animated Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, by the original creators.  Looks like it’ll be called The Legend Of Aang: The Last Airbender, and it’ll be coming out in January, 2026.  I can’t wait!

I’m interested in Lionsgate’s in-process movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Long Walk.  I hope it’s good.

I knew that a third Now You See Me movie was coming… apparently a fourth film is in the works as well!  I thought the first two films were OK — they were fun, and with a terrific cast, but neither was quite as good as I’d wanted it to me.  I wanted more real cool magic stuff and less Hollywood silliness.  But I’m curious what they’re cooking up after such a long break…

I’m excited that Nathan Fillion is playing Guy Gardner in James Gunn’s new Superman movie… and I’m so happy that Mr. Fillion will apparently be returning to the role for the in-the-works Lanterns TV show!  Great!!

Wow: Fox has renewed The Simpsons for FOUR MORE seasons!!  (They also ordered four more years of Family Guy, and American Dad! is returning to Fox after a decade away.  Wild!)  It’s incredible that The Simpsons is still around.  It’s been many years since I watched regularly, after growing up as a huge Simpsons fan.  Maybe it’s time to dip back into the show…?