News Around the Net!

Let’s start with this terrific trailer for The Marvels:

I love the idea that this film will feature not just Captain Marvel, but also Ms. Marvel (coming off of the terrific Disney+ Ms. Marvel show) and also Monica Rambeau (who has been Captain Marvel in the comics, and who we got to know in WandaVision)! I like the funny tone of this trailer.  I thought the first Captain Marvel film was good but not great (and I don’t think it’s aged that well); but I’m excited for this sequel!

We’ve also gotten a new trailer for the next Marvel Disney+ show, Secret Invasion:

I love seeing Nick Fury front and center, and I like the spies-and-secrets vibe of the trailer.  It’s interesting that we still don’t know much of what this show is about yet.  I’m excited to see Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and the Skrulls again.  This show is almost another sequel to that first Captain Marvel film, it seems!

This is a fun new trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:

I adored the first film, and it’s been a long wait for the sequel!

I really enjoy listening to the SmartLess podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, and this documentary series about their recent live tour looks like fun:

A new season of True Detective, starring Jodie Foster?  Yes, please!

This is a pretty terrific new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  I am starting to maybe actually hope this film will be good… we’ll see…!

Here’s a trailer for the upcoming DC film, Blue Beetle:

That’s a fine trailer.  I don’t have much attachment to this character.  But I’m on board to check this out.

There’s been a LOT of Star Wars news recently.  Let’s start with this amazing trailer for Ahsoka, which I have already watched a LOT of times:

I am thrilled that this seems like a straight-up sequel to Star Wars: Rebels.  (That animated show is amazing; I encourage you to watch it if you haven’t done so.)  I was over the moon seeing Hera and Chopper and Sabine (and also Ezra, glimpsed in hologram) in live action!!!  And a Loth-Cat!!!  I loved seeing Ezra’s spire, and that great final scene from the Rebels series finale between Ahsoka and Sabine recreated in live action.  I cannot wait to see Grand Admiral Thrawn in live action.  (We get a quick shot of this blue-skinned Imperial mastermind villain, seen from behind, in the trailer.)  This show cannot get here soon enough.

Here’s a great new trailer for season two of Star Wars: Visions:

I enjoyed the first season, and I’m excited to see all these new animation studios participating.  In particular, I am beside myself with excitement to see Aardman Studios’s Star Wars short.  (They’re the studio behind Wallace and Gromit!)

I’m delighted that Lucasfilm has finally announced their plans for new Star Wars films.  I’m excited by all of these new plans.  I love the idea of three stand-alone films, each set in different time periods.  Let’s break free of the trilogy model, and let’s expand the Star Wars universe and timeline.  This all sounds great to me.

I’m happy to see the Star Wars timeline finally moving forward past The Rise of Skywalker, and I love the idea of Daisy Ridley’s returning as Rey in a film set 15 years later and detailing her attempt to start a new Jedi Academy.  That sounds great.

I’m intrigued by the idea of a prequel set 25,000 years in the past, giving an origin story of sorts for the Force and the Jedi.  That could be interesting.  James Mangold is attached to direct.  He directed the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — so I guess Lucasfilm is happy with how that turned out!  That bodes well for that Indy movie…!

Finally, I’m most excited that Dave Filoni (mastermind behind the animated Clone Wars and Rebels shows, and co-runner with Jon Favreau of The Mandalorian) will be directing a movie set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, that will bring together characters and storylines from the Disney+ TV shows, including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka.  That sounds very cool!!  I love the idea of those shows coming together in a big Avengers-style movie finale!  That sounds ambitious and exciting.  (So far on this season of The Mandalorian, Mr. Filoni seems like he’s been trying to fix some of the problems of The Force Awakens by explaining why, for example, the New Republic seemed like such a mess and why the Imperials were still such a strong presence in the time of The Force Awakens.  This film is described as depicting the conflict between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, which sounds like more of that, and perhaps an important missing link in explaining the status quo of the Sequel Trilogy.  I can’t wait to see what Mr. Filoni is crafting…)

Speaking of Dave Filoni, I’m thrilled that Tales of the Jedi will have a second season!  That all-too-brief first season (six interconnected shorts) was amazing, some of the best Star Wars stories in years.  I can’t wait for more.

I’m glad to read that The Bad Batch has been renewed for a season three, but I’m a little bummed that it will be its last.  I’ve enjoyed this show, but it’s never quite found itself.  I don’t love this the way I loved Clone Wars by the end, and the way I love Rebels.  With only one more season, it doesn’t look like this show is going to have much time to develop further.  That’s a shame.  (Click here for my recent review of The Bad Batch season two.)

That’s cool to read that they’re working on an update to Star Tours at Disneyworld/Disneyland, to add new planets from current and upcoming Star Wars movies/shows!

I’m happy to read that the opening crawl will be returning to the upcoming Star Wars films.  I think it was a mistake not to use the crawl in Solo and Rogue One.  (The idea that the crawl only belonged in “Skywalker Saga” films seemed silly to me.  The crawl = Star Wars.)

Speaking of classic Star Wars movies, Return of the Jedi will be returning to theaters for its 40th anniversary!!  Excellent!!

They’re working on a Stranger Things animated series?  Okay… I’m curious to learn more about that…

The rebranding of HBO Max as just Max seems dumb to me… as does the recently-announced plan to reboot the Harry Potter franchise as a TV show that will, again, adapt J.K. Rowling’s seven-novel series.  I don’t understand that at all; it smacks of desperation and a studio out of ideas.  The Harry Potter films were hugely successful, commercially and critically.  They were also incredibly iconic.  The look and feel of those films “is” Harry Potter for a whole generation.  There are huge sections of the Universal Studios theme parks that are based on the look of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and other locations from the films!  The John Williams theme music is inextricably linked with the series, as are the actors (especially the leads Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Eatson, and Rupert Grint) who played those roles.  So a starting-over reboot just seems crazy to me, and probably the worst way possible to try to win back the generation that grew up loving these books and movies but has been turned off in recent years by J.K. Rowling’s statements about trans people.  Oy.

Sad news that Al Jaffee passed away, at the incredible age of 102.  I grew up on Mad Magazine, and Mr. Jaffee’s incredible back-cover “fold-in”s were always an amazing highlight.  What an incredible artist he was.

I’ll wrap up with this: the incredible, brilliant, very funny Dungeons & Dragons movie ad featuring a Freaks and Geeks reunion!!!  This is the greatest thing I have seen in forever.  Just amazing.

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