News Around the Net!
There have been a number of interesting trailers released recently (and I bet a bunch more are coming this weekend during the Super Bowl!) — let’s dive in!
Since my last news post, Marvel has released all four Avengers: Doomsday teasers. Here’s the fourth, with the Wakandans and Ben Grimm:
These trailers have been… fine. It’s fun to see these characters, but these are such tiny teases, they haven’t gotten by blood pumping the way a great trailer should. (Marvel has generally put our awesome trailers for their films. Remember this great trailer for Avengers: Infinity War? I’m looking for something like that! I know Doomsday is still a year away, but I’m hoping for a more substantive trailer soon that will get us all more excited.)
Here’s a full trailer for Christoper Nolan’s The Odyssey:
That looks huge. I have high hopes!
I am super duper pumped for the upcoming Darth Maul show!
The animated Clone Wars and Rebels series turned Maul from a lame nothing character to one of the most interesting and complex characters of the entire Star Wars saga!! It was one of the many great miracles of those two fantastic animated shows. I got super-excited by the tease of Maul as a crime-lord in Solo, and I was sad when that went nowhere. Until now!! Charting Maul’s journey in the eras between The Clone Wars and the OT is a fantastic idea. If done well, this could be great. That trailer is spectacular. Here’s hoping!!
For All Mankind is finally returning for season five! Here’s a teaser:
I can’t wait for this.
Here’s a trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two:
The first season was a wonderful surprise to me; I unexpectedly loved it. Can they do it again in season two? That trailer looks great. It’ll be fun if Kong and Godzilla really do wind up being more of a part of season two. And I’m thrilled both Wyatt & Kurt Russell are back for season two! (The way season one ended, they could have continued without those two big stars.) I am hoping not to be disappointed!
Here’s a great trailer for the Muppet Show special with Sabrina Carpenter:
Yes, this looks great! They’re doing what seems like so obviously the clear and correct thing to do with the Muppets, which is to return (finally!!!) to the classic Muppets Show format, of the gang putting on a song & dance & comedy show with a fun guest star. Why has it taken decades to get back to this idea?? Sabrina Carpenter seems like the perfect choice for host. I hope this is great and that it kicks off a new Muppet Show series.
here’s a trailer for Daredevil: Born Again season two:
Like the Doomsday trailer above, it looks… fine. I was a little let down by the first season of Born Again (especially the lame ending to the finale, which didn’t leave me as excited as I’d wanted to be for a second season). The elements are here to make a great Daredevil show, and I am beyond thrilled that Kristen Ritter is finally back as Jessica Jones!! That’s fantastic! I hope this is great.
Here’s a trailer for the Stranger Things animated spin-off, Tales From ’85:
That looks interesting, though I think I might be done with Stranger Things after the series finale. Also, it’s a bummer the actors from the original series aren’t involved and voicing their characters. (Though the voice-actors do sound pretty solid in that trailer.) We’ll see…
Huge news last month was that Kathleen Kennedy was stepping down as head of Lucasfilm (click here for an interesting “exit interview” with Ms. Kennedy), being replaced by Dave Filoni & Lynwen Brennan. That second name means nothing to me, but I’ve been a huge Dave Filoni fan for years. I hope he’s able to succeed and guide Star Wars into the future. He definitely understands the franchise and has storytelling chops. Kathleen Kennedy’s era gave us some fantastic highs. The Force Awakens was an exciting return to classic Star Wars (even though I have a ton of problems with the movie). Rogue One and Andor are some of the very best Star Wars stories ever told. The Mandalorian was a brilliant expansion of the franchise and showed that a Star Wars live-action TV show could be amazing. We got to see the cancelled animated Clone Wars series given a proper finale, wrapping up with four final episodes that stand tall as some of the best and most emotional Star Wars stories ever. Many of the recent Star Wars TV shows (such as The Acolyte and The Skeleton Crew) were amazing and under-appreciated. We got the spectacular Galaxy’s Edge theme park. Those are high highs! There have also been lows. The sequel trilogy petered out with the awful Rise of Skywalker, and the Star Wars movie franchise has been dead ever since. They’ve announced new movie after new movie, and none have actually gotten made. The TV shows have floundered, with some bad shows (the disappointing Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett both should have been great, but were instead big let-downs), and even some of the great recent shows have seemed to have been abandoned (The Acolyte was cancelled with its story unfinished; I’d have loved to have seen more of Skeleton Crew; etc…). I’m hopeful that the next few years will bring focus to the franchise and a return to strong, successful movies and TV shows!
By the way, speaking of Galaxy’s Edge: Disney has finally decided to do something which I’ve thought for years they should do, which is bringing in aspects of the Original Trilogy timeline and characters to Galaxy’s Edge! I admired the ambition of the original idea to set Galaxy’s Edge in a specific place in the canonical Star Wars timeline (specifically during the Sequel era). But on the other hand, don’t we all want to see classic OT ships and characters when visiting Galaxy’s Edge? I know I do. This seems like a slam dunk idea.
This is an exciting surprise: Rifftrax and Shout! are working together to create four new episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000!! I’ve always loved MST3K, and I love the Rifftrax podcast with MST3K stalwarts Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett continuing to create MST3K-like riffs on new and old movies. To see the three of them back in official new MST3K episodes is exciting!!! You can back the Kickstarter here. (I just did!) The only downside is it seems that original MST3K creator and star Joel Hodgson’s reinvention of MST3K is dead. Mr. Hodgson did incredible work bringing the series back to life in recent years, using crowdfunding to create three incredible seasons (#s 11, 12, and 13) of new MST3K episodes!! I’d backed all of those projects and I LOVED all the new episodes they’d created. Unfortunately, Mr. Hodgson’s efforts to raise money for a fourth new season failed back in 2023 (I think the timing with the writers’ strike hobbled the campaign), and it’s been mostly radio silence since then. I’ve been hoping Mr. Hodgson & co. would be able to regroup and try again. I’m bummed that now doesn’t look like it’s happening. But if our consolation prize is new episodes with Mike, Kevin, and Bill, then I’m pretty happy!!!
On the other side of the emotional spectrum, I was stunned to read of the death at the too-young age of 71 of the magnificent Catherine O’Hara. Ms. O’Hara was a comedic genius who brought laughs to so many movies and TV projects. I think I will always love her best for her role in A Mighty Wind (which I just rewatched last month!!), but of course I’ve loved her in so many other projects: Beatlejuice, Schitt’s Creek, Home Alone, Where the Wld Things Are, Best in Show, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and so much more. She was so amazing just recently in The Studio!! It’s hard to fathom her not being a part of the second season of that show!! What a loss.
I was sad to read of the death of Roger Allers, who co-directed The Lion King and was a major player in the reinvention of Disney animation in the late eighties & nineties with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. (I also know of Mr. Allers from the documentary The Sweat Box, which chronicles the tumultuous making of the film that would become The Emperor’s New Groove. Mr. Allers was unfortunately railroaded off of the project mid-way, which has always seemed like a real shame to me. I love The Emperor’s New Groove, but I wish Mr. Allers had been able to complete the film he’d originally intended.)
Click here for a fascinating in-depth interview with George R. R. Martin. I remain flummoxed (as do fans worldwide) by his inability to complete the next Game of Thrones novel, so I find any peek into his life and work these days to be fascinating.
I got to see the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring in a movie theatre last month, and it was glorious!! (I wish I’d had time to also see The Two Towers and The Return of the King!) It’s awesome to hear this re-release made money. I wish the Hollywood studios would do more of this sort of thing. I also wish they’d allowed the LOTR movies to play for a longer time in theatres! I went to see Fellowship on one of the last days of this run, and the theatre I was in was almost completely sold out. I bet they’d have continued to make money if they’d let these films play for a few more weeks…!
I loved Judd Apatow & Mike Bonfiglio’s documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (Click here for my review!) Click here for a wonderful in-depth interview with Mr. Apatow about the project.
Jury Duty season two is coming in March!! I can’t wait!! I loved the first season and am excited to see if they can recapture the magic.
We’ve gotten our first look at the four main actors in character & costume/makeup as the Beatles in Sam Mendes’ mad-sounding four-film Beatles “Cinematic Event”. They look good. I am fascinated to see what these movies are going to be like.
Speaking of first looks, we’ve recently gotten to see our first look at Henry Cavill in the Highlander remake. I’m not sure I can dare to believe this will be good… but wouldn’t it be fun if it is??
I was worried that Shrinking, a show I dearly love, would be ending with this current third season. So I was thrilled to read that the show has been renewed for a fourth season!
But the best recent news is the announcement of some specific information, including photos, of Ted Lasso season four!! I’m so excited for this series to return. Will they be able to recapture? I don’t know, it’s risky. I know that it’s the hope that kills you. But I believe in belief.