We’re more than two months separated from Rise of Skywalker, and the finale of The Mandalorian season 1, and so it’s time to speculate and dream. I want to tell you all my personal pitch for the next Star Wars trilogy. If Lucasfilm happens upon this post, I am available to hire for either screenwriting or directing responsibilities.
Let’s go back to Revenge of the Sith, in that film Anakin kills the younglings who have been training to be Jedi. It’s a sad moment, and it does a pretty good job at showing just how far toward the Dark Side Anakin is heading. Now, the idea is kills all the youngling who are there on Coruscant, but certainly Jedi would always be picking up little force users throughout the galaxy, right?
The first film tells the story of Jedi Knight Sharhor Kii, who has had little to no interactions with Anakin by the time of the youngling slaughter. Sharhor is traveling from an Outer Rim planet with a young boy, Kar Weil, whom he plans to present to the council. He hasn’t transmitted in about the his hopeful new apprentice, because why would he. But the Council sends out the news of Anakin’s betrayal, and Sharhor returns to the Out Rim planet, and begins training in secrecy, waiting for any word that it is safe to return. We see the youngling grow up in training to the point of a teenager (through montage), and eventually Sharhor, aware that Darth Vader is hunting down Jedi, decides to leave his apprentice in hiding, since there is not record of him in the Jedi temples or the remnants of the council, and he goes off to face Vader, never to return. We follow Kar as he continues his training, and goes off looking for Sharhor. Along the way, he falls in love with Cera, the pilot that he’s hired for transport, and marrying her.
The second film, Kar and his wife have three children, all of whom Kar is now training in the ways of the force. They do not consider themselves Jedi, but they all wield lightsabers, none the traditional Jedi colors. Kar has a yellow lightsaber, his two daughters Pik and Ana wield orange, and his son Lon wields a turquoise blade. The Weil family’s presence on their home planet becomes unsafe especially when the four force users are together, and they split up with the intention of rendezvousing when they can. For the majority of this film, we split between Kar and Cera traveling to different Jedi temples, trying to uncover ruins, Lon trying to hitchhike off to join the rebellion, and Pik and Ana going to planets where slavery and injustice are the norms, and helping to free those people. At the end of the film, we learn that the second Death Star has been destroyed, Lon sending the message to his parents and his sisters.
The third film, Kar and Cera are now fully into the Jedi historian process, trying to learn and preserve as much as possible, trying to rebuild. They’re still mostly remote from the population of the galaxy, and while they know that the Empire has fallen, they haven’t desired to return to it. Pik and Ana also still have their fight, because the slavery and injustice existed before the Empire, and the fall of the Empire meant little in their fight. Lon now with war-worn A-wing, goes off to find his parents and his sisters, hoping to reunite them all finally. By the third act, the sisters have pissed off a mob-boss with his own hired gun army, and Lon who is with his parents go to help them escape. The four force users, and their pilot mother/wife manage to take down the majority of the army before Lon is killed, and his father loses his dominant arm. His father driven by grief and rage uses the force at a level he’s never done before and lays waste to the remnants of the small army.
I don’t have all of the set-pieces or specific act structures for these three films, just a very brief outline, as you can see. But I want this to be a family story, something that shows just how life somewhat carried on during the time of the Rebellion and the Empire. The idea that a force user could slip under the radar due to clerical error, and kick off this whole separate legacy. I would call this trilogy, The Force Kin Trilogy.
Let me know in the comments below what you think of the idea!
I recently had the opportunity to be a guest on the excellent CANTANKEROUS PODCAST, hosted by hilarious comedians Danny Kelly and Brian Glowacki! It was a blast and the episode is fantastic! Danny and Brian are both very funny and very talented comedians who’ve both worked with some of the biggest names is stand up. Back in the day when he lived in Los Angelos, Danny was a regular at the world famous Comedy Store, where so many legends of stand up have cur their teeth. Coming up as a comedian in L.A., Danny became buddies with guys like Chris Rock and Joe Rogan, while learning from killer comedians like Martin Lawrence and Andrew Dice Clay! Danny and Brian are both local guys, each growing up in the Boston area. Danny met Brian after watching one of his standup gigs in Nantucket. After the show Danny introduce himself, told Brian how much he enjoyed the show, and how he thought Brian was a very talented and funny guy. They’ve been good friends ever since. I felt like one of the guys when I sat down for an interview on their show, they couldn’t have made me feel more welcome. I just hope I have the chance to get to get the guys on The World’s Best Podcast again and hopefully I can make another appearance on CANTANKEROUS, as well!
You can also take a look at the official CANTANKEROUS website which features all of the episodes and info on the guys if you’re curious: http://cantankerous.libsyn.com
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!
Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to make a guest appearance on the CANTANKEROUS Podcast, Hosted by Danny Kelly and Brian Glowacki. Danny and Brian are both incredibly talented stand-up comedians with decades of experience. Their podcast, CANTANKEROUS, never fails to deliver hilarious content every episode. It’s easy to find too, CANTANKEROUS is available on all the major podcast apps! I’ve posted the links to their website and their podcast feeds for iTunes/Apple Podcasts & Spotify below, so you can give their show a listen. I’ll post my episode on my website and social media when it’s available, but I encourage you to check out the podcast whenever you can. Danny and Brian have fantastic chemistry and I find myself laughing my ass off whenever I listen to their show. It really was an honor to be a guest on the show, I had a blast and Danny and Brian are awesome guys. I hope I get a chance to make an appearance on CANTANKEROUS again!
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media.
I’m a huge fan of stand up comedy. So when I got the chance to sit down with the talented and hilarious comedian, Danny Kelly, I was thrilled. Over his nearly 3 decades as a professional comedian, Danny has racked up some amazing stories and experiences. He was kind enough to share some killer stuff when I sat down with him in the extremely cool “Cantankerous Podcast” mobile studio last week. FYI, the mobile studio is a large van that has been custom outfitted with leather chairs, tables, and recording equipment. With the mobile studio, Danny and his co-host Brian Glowacki, can take the show directly to guests. It’s one of the most interesting podcast set ups I’ve seen.
We discuss everything, beginning with his early days in the business in 1990’s L.A. to his current work on his fantastic podcast “Cantankerous” (available on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and anywhere you get your podcasts). During our conversation Danny offered up his insightful take on how the measure of success as a comedian has drastically changed over the last 30 years. This is a great peek behind the curtain for all you stand up fans out there! Throughout this hysterical episode, Danny regaled me with tales of his run-ins with some of the most famous people in entertainment, the time a crazed gun man was hiding out in the audience while he was doing a set, how the Boston comedy scene is different from L.A and New York, an incident involving accidentally eating a bowl of marbles in front of Christopher Walken, and much, much more! This was by far the most fun I’ve had recording a podcast in a long time! I’m sure you guys will enjoy listening to our conversation as much as had recording it. This is a cant miss episode, folks! Enjoy!
Cantankerous is available through all major podcast apps, such as iTunes, Spotify, etc. You can also go directly to the Cantankerous Podcast website at: http://cantankerous.libsyn.com/
On social media, check out their Facebook Page, Cantankerous Podcast. Danny’s on Twitter @DannyKelly70 and his co-host Brian Glowacki @BrianGlowacki
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!
I want to start off, by saying, this post has been written, and rewritten more than a half dozen times in my brain. I talked to Paul about it at the beginning of the summer, and for several weeks, it seemed as though every time I was ready to write it, something new would happen in the news that would make me take pause, and wait to see how things were going to settle in the end. As of this past week, I think they’re all settled—at least for long enough that I can comfortably write this post and publish it before it’s out-of-date. That being said, let’s dive in.
“I’m totally gonna fuck you tonight.”
“Oh My God! I have a vagina!”
I have maintained, for a long time now, that Mary Jane Watson and Ariel from The Little Mermaid, are the reason why myself, and many men of my generation have a special place in our hearts (I’m going with hearts, since I had crushes on both characters pre-puberty) for redheaded women. As I grew up, most of the time I saw redheaded women, I found them more attractive on average, than a similar looking woman with any other hair color. As I grew up, the characters that caught my attention on shows, became the women with red hair, i.e. Joan on Mad Men, and Ygritte on Game of Thrones.
Ok, one of two possible scenarios are at play here: 1. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man suit has some kind of built in plastic cup or shield around his crotch to keep his erections from bulging out of the skin tight spandex. 2. He DOES have an erection bulging out, but Zendaya’s leg is obstructing the view in this photo. Either way, you gotta respect the confidence to be filming in THAT position, in that suit, on an open set, and be willing to roll the dice.
When I learned that Zendaya’s character in the MCU/Sony Spider-Man films, was supposed to be MJ (although not Mary Jane) it didn’t bother me, but it did make me think. At first I started thinking about the impact that comic book MJ had on me, and I wondered if this may have the same effect on a younger generation toward black women. Of course, at some point in the past few months, Disney announced that they were casting Halle Bailey as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and the question repeated itself in my mind.
Now, at first I thought, “that would be great if these characters helped another generation to find the beauty in a group of people that they may other-wise have not thought about in that way,” but I don’t think I was right on that. First off, I think that so far with Zendaya’s MJ as opposed to comic book MJ, there is a significant amount less sexualization, and that’s probably a good thing. I don’t remember much about MJ as a character, other than her calling Peter ‘Tiger,’ and I remember pictures of her more than anything. Ariel is the same thing, I remember her character, and while it was problematic I always liked it, but at least half of my fascination was with the seashell bra. This year’s Aladdin, live-action remake, did a lot of work desexualizing Princess Jasmine, and I think Disney is likely to do the same with Ariel.
Peter would have asked if he could take MJ’s coat for her, but all the blood in his brain had just plunged into his dick.
The second reason, that I think my initial thought that perhaps this idea was a good one, is that while there was something innocent about it, I do think there ultimately ends up being a fetishization of these characters, and their physical characteristics within the original material. There are demographics, based on race and gender combinations that are more or less statistically attractive, and unfortunately, black women (along with asian men) tend to be statistically disadvantaged in this way. I had heard and read that enough times that it supported my original idea that maybe lifting black women up in this was a good thing, and I will say this, if Ariel is bad-ass, and inspires black girls to be bad-ass, or if MJ challenges the stereotypes of women, that’s great, and so far I do think Disney is doing a great job with that. They’re doing better than I would have, based on my own warped logic going into this. I had to realize that there is a huge difference between fetishizing, and raising up. Disney is raising up, and I was thinking indirectly, “hey wouldn’t it be cool if a bunch of kids ended up with a black woman fetish.” It wasn’t my intention, but it was essentially what I was thinking. Hell, it was initially what I was pitching to Paul.
So, now that I have that out of the way, now that I’ve talked about the two characters who really shaped much of my physical attraction, I want to shift gears slightly, and talk about a bit of news that came out the day that I was first ‘ready’ to write this. In the next James Bond film, 007 will be played by a black woman. There has been speculation for years about who would be Daniel Craig’s replacement in the James Bond cufflinks, with a lot of speculation going to Idris Elba (who I think would be awesome if he’s still young enough when the mantel gets passed). Trying, I think to do two thing, test the waters, but also stir up some hype in the form of controversy, it was announced that there would be a new 007, and that it would be Lashana Lynch.
I think they were testing the waters, because they announced that she would be the new 007, and waited until speculation and feedback came in, before announcing, that in the plot of the new film, Bond has retired, and is replaced in his title of 007, and then he is pulled back in while in retirement. It was a soft way of testing things out, to see if perhaps we’re more into 007 or James Bond. It’s similar to what Mission Impossible did with Jeremy Renner a few years ago. It’s not a bad plan, and we will see how it plays out in that way, but it also kind of plays into my general topic.
I won’t lie, if I was going to have sex with a guy… Idris Elba is at leastin my top 3!
James Bond is perhaps one of the most sexualized male characters in cinematic history, and the way in which going about that has been drastically different from how they’ve sexualized women. Is it possible, that we’re going to get a female version of that? Will this change how female sexuality plays out on screen? Also, we have a character who is very much the coolest person in the room, and definitely has shaped young men’s idea of what a man is, will a black female 007 do the same for young women?
I think he’d make an awesome Batman
In the past few years in cinema, there has been a lot of talk about representation, and for the most part I think that it has been a good thing, and honestly I’m not one of these people who get’s bent out of shape when they change a character I like, or even love. I understand that most of these things are constantly evolving, and I don’t personally want to see the same old thing over and over. But I really think that these three examples are interesting, because they’re a bit different than other roles. Nick Fury, changing from a white man to a black man, had little impact as far as I can see, because the character was always one of authority, and I never associated with him, and I never felt an attraction to him, or to be like him. I also have to consider what it means for other people, and I don’t know. On the one hand, I think of all the black women I think are cool, or bad-ass, or beautiful, and it’s not a short list, and I wonder if that’s blinding me to a problem that’s real? Perhaps these casting decisions will help to solve that. I don’t know, but I think it’s important to ask some of these questions of ourselves.
Article by Michael Cole
–Mike Cole is a published author, freelance writer, & filmmaker. He is a happily married father of one.
Editors Note: Photos and their subsequent captions were added by Paul Wright… So, you know, don’t blame Mike.
Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Prof. Paul Wright Sr. PhD. These are the names of some of the greatest scientific geniuses of all time. We may not be able to have Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein on the show, but we can get Paul Wright Sr.! We’ll certainly need him, because on this week’s show we’re tackling one of the world’s most compelling unexplained phenomena: U.F.O.s!
U.F.O.s or Unidentified Flying Objects, have been one of mankind’s great mysteries for as long as we’ve looked up at the sky and wondered, are we alone in the universe? As 2 of the foremost minds of our time, Paul Sr. and I (a scientific wunderkind) set out on a journey of discovery to answer that very question! We discuss some of the most incredible and dramatic UFO encounters on record. With more information on the subject being declassified by the U.S. government all the time, we barely hit the tip of the iceberg on this endlessly fascinating subject! So come join Paul Sr. and I (2 of the most celebrated thinkers of our respective generations) on this whirlwind adventure into the unknown!
This episode is a bit a change from our normal subject matter, so if you’d like to see us cover this kind of topic more often, comment below or on social media!
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!
On this week’s episode of The World’s Best Podcast, after this year’s EPIC San Diego Comic-Con, co-host Paul Sr. and I break down all of the coolest announcements, including the huge presentation from Marvel Studios revealing the movies and TV series that will be apart of MCU PHASE 4! The Eternals, Shang-Chi and The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Doctor Strange and The Multiverse Of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, & more! We also discuss this year’s massive Arrowverse crossover, Crisis On Infinite Earths! Finally, we review the new series from Amazon Prime, The Boys!
We also have some cool news we didn’t get a chance to cover in the podcast that we have posted below for you to check out.
DC’s Arrowverse panels had a lot of cool details and trailers from the upcoming seasons of each show. Perhaps more excitingly, we got some more info on their EPIC crossover: Crisis On Infinite Earths…
Considering this crossover will be dealing with The Multiverse and Parallel Realities, it comes as no surprise that we will be seeing different versions of characters we already know, but in different roles. In addition to hearing that Burt Ward will be making a cameo as Robin from another reality, we also learned that Brandon Routh who plays Ray Palmer on Legends Of Tomorrow will be taking on an exciting new role in the crossover. Routh famously played Superman in Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns, in the crossover he’ll also be playing Superman once again for Crisis On Infinite Earths, but not just any Superman, Kingdom Come Superman! It hasn’t been confirmed if Ray AKA The Atom and this version of Superman will actually meet face to face, but that would be pretty damn cool.
Routh is wearing a T-Shirt with the Kingdom Come Superman symbol
Kingdom Come is a classic Justice League story written by Mark Waid with art by Alex Ross, about the twilight of the classic DC heroes and the new, violent generation of meta-humans who are trying to replace them. Featuring this older, world weary version of Superman into the crossover is very exciting. It’s also been confirmed that Tyler Hoechlin will be returning as Clark Kent/Superman and Jon Cryer will be returning as Lex Luthor.
We also got what may be our first look at THE BIG BAD of Crisis On Infinite Earths, The Anti-Monitor with this concept art that popped up during Comic-Con…
We also got these pictures of new looks for Diggle and Laurel on Arrow.
Finally, here’s a better look at Supergirl’s cool new uniform from her upcoming season…
THE MCU: PHASE 4 (Pictures and Concept Art)
Below we have some cool pieces of concept art and behind the scene pictures from Marvel’s Phase 4 projects. Take a look…
As this year’s San Diego Comic-Con continues, breaking news, trailers, announcements, and other cool reveals keep on blowing minds of fans everywhere! But it can be a pain in the ass trying to find all the SDCC news. So keep it HERE at World’s Best Media, where you can find all of the up to the minuet info, you want the most! We’ll be updating this page all weekend with the breaking news and content that can’t be missed from SDCC 2019!
WOW. We got some killer stuff today! At the Marvel Studios panel, Kevin Feige did not disappoint. He rolled out the next 2 years of Marvel’s PHASE 4 slate, which will consist of 10 projects. They include both theatrical releases and projects to be released on Disney +. Plus, Feige offers up some tantalizing hints on MCU projects coming after the slate of shows and films. It’s all pretty exciting, so I’m going to break it down for you right here…
MARVEL STUDIOS PHASE 4 (The Next 2 Years)
The Eternals – Release date 11/6/20
Dir. – Chloe Zhao
Staring – Angelina Jolie as Thena , Richard Madden as Ikaris. The cast also includes Selma Hayek.
The story of the film, broadly speaking, follows The Eternals, a race of aliens imbued with power and immortality by The Celestials (some of the most powerful beings in the existence of The Marvel Universe). The Eternals are charged with protecting Earth and humanity from The Deviants, an evil, monstrous mirror race of The Eternals. To use a poor analogy. Think of The Eternals and Angels and The Deviants as Demons.
The Flacon and The Winter Soldier Release Date – Fall 2020 on Disney +
Starring – Anthony Makie as The Falcon/Captain America, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier, and Daniel Bruhl returning as Baron Helmut Zemo ( This time he WILL be getting the classic Baron Zemo mask!)
As expected, this series will see Anthony Mackie don his really cool Captain America uniform which is a combination of The Falcon in Captain America’s classic look. So it seems like this series will be about Sam Wilson adjusting to this great weight on his shoulders and Bucky Barnes being with him along the way, like he was with Steve Rogers. All the while having to deal with Baron Zemo not much more than that is known at this time. But I can’t wait for this one, I think it’s going to be really cool.
Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings – Release Date 2/12/2021
Dir. Denton Daniel Cretton
Starring – Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as The REAL Mandarin
Not much is know about the story at this time. Shang-Chi is the greatest martial artist in the world. He’s a hero and adventurer. In the comics his father was the criminal mastermind Fu Manchu. I can see for racial reasons why Marvel wouldn’t want to use that character. So I strongly suspect that The Mandarin will be Shang-Chi’s father in this movie. A lot of the character drama from Shang-Chi’s story comes from the pain he feels being a hero who wants to do the right thing, when his father is one of the greatest villains in the world. Despite the fact that The Mandarin was smoke and mirrors in Iron Man 3, it’s been strongly suggested that a “real” Mandarin is out there. For several years, Marvel would release fun short films as an extra feature on the Blu-Rays for their movies. The last one Marvel produced was on the Blu-Ray for Thor: The Dark World and called “All Hail The King”. In that short film, it’s revealed that Aldrich Killian co-opted much of his bullshit Mandarin story from some real sources and it turns out that The Mandarin is a very real, very dangerous guy, who is very pissed that his name had been dragged through the mud in Iron Man 3. The film ends with one of The TRUE Mandarin’s disciples, breaking Trevor Slattery (played by Ben Kingsley) out of prison, the actor who played the fake Mandarin for Aldrich Killian, so he can face justice at the hands of the real Mandarin. So, we’ve known for a while that the real Mandarin was out there and it was only a matter of time before we see him somewhere in The MCU. This is the perfect project to use him in. It’s also worth pointing out that the terrorist group who originally kidnapped Tony Stark in the very first Iron Man movie was called The Ten Rings.
Shang-Chi
The Mandarin
WandaVision – Release Date Spring 2021 on Disney +
Starring – Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Teyonah Paris as adult Monica Rambeau (the daughter of Carol’s best friend in Captain Marvel)
For some reason people seem to be down on this project, but I think it has the potential to be something special. Kevin Feige he himself has said that this series is very strange. One of the more interesting things about Wanda maxim off is her exponentially growing power and her increased mental stability. Panel confirmed that this series takes place after endgame. Which makes me wonder, have a wonders abilities progressed to the point where she can resurrect vision, as she eventually has the power to do in the comics at great cost.
LOKI– Release Date Spring 2021 Disney +
Starring – Tom Hiddleston as Loki
As we saw in endgame, low-key managed to get away with the space stone. Apparently this show will be a trip through history and Loki is very long life. I’ve heard it described is almost something like quantum leap. It appears that it will involve low-key mixing it up at important historical events with famous historical figures. Which sounds like a whole Lotta fucking fun. I am in.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – Release Date 5/7/2021
Dir. Scott Derrickson
Starring – Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff
OK, this is the movie I’ve been fucking waiting for. According to director Scott Derrickson, this will be Marvel’s first “scary movie“. Which is about as close as you can get to saying you’re going to do a horror movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you don’t think that’s awesome, there’s something fucking wrong with you. Doctor Strange was a great origin movie and in Infinity War and Endgame, we got to see a lot of cool shit from Doctor Strange and what he’s capable of. I can’t wait to see how his powers have progressed. It’s important to note that this director knows how to do a really creepy, disquieting, fucked up movie. Hopefully Marvel will let him embrace that. It’s also really interesting to see Scarlet Witch in this movie, though not completely surprising, because in the comics it’s been suggested multiple times that her powers are magic-based. Maybe she will turn to Doctor Strange after something that happened in WandaVision? Who knows. But I can’t wait for this one! The more Doctor Strange the better!
Hawkeye– Release Date Fall 2021 on Disney +
Starring – Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
This looks like it may be more of a limited series than some of the other shows on Disney +, but it will apparently focus on Clint Barton training a new protégé, a girl named Kate Bishop, making her first MCU appearance. In the comic books, after years of training with Clint Barton and other superheroes, Kate is viewed more as a hero in her own right, rather than simply being Clint’s sidekick. In fact, both Cling and Kate both go by. I know it can be confusing, but hey that’s those crazy comics for, ya! The series will also explore Clint’s time as Ronin in the wake of Thanos’ decimation. This show looks like it’s heavily borrowing from the fantastic Hawkeye comic book run by writer Matt Fraction and Artist David Aja.
Thor: Love and Thunder – Release Date 11/5/2021
Dir. Taika Waititi
Starrring – Chris Hemsworth as Thor/Odinson, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster/Thor
So I love the direction they’re going in with this new movie. First of all, I was thrilled another Thor film was being made, and they were bringing back the same director: Taika Waititi, who gave us the fantastic Thor: Ragnarok. But it also seems like the story will be largely taking it’s cues from the recent and ongoing Thor comic book run by writer Jason Aaron. Which is a good thing, because it’s probably one of the best Thor stories that I’ve ever read.
In that story, due to a complicated series of events, Thor is no longer worthy of wielding his mighty hammer; Mijonir. Meanwhile, Jane Foster has been fighting her own battles, against the cancer that has ravaged her body. In this story, a Parliament of World’s is formed. Like a U.N. for The Ten Realms, set up to keep the peace throughout the realms and it’s people. Jane is the representative from Midgard, so even though she and Thor are no longer dating, she spends quite a bit of time in new Asgard and has made some wonderful new friends in the process. The Parliament meets on New Asgard (a shadow of Asgard’s glory days) which resides on Earth’s Moon. As a sidenote, at this point Asgard has taken up residence on an area near what they called the “Blue Area” of the moon. It’s the only place on the moon that perfectly simulates Earth’s pressure, gravity, temperature , and most importantly, you can breathe there.
So, while on a walk through the blue area of the moon, contemplating her depressing situation, Jane Foster comes across Mijonir and attempts to lift Thor’s legendary hammer (after Thor has spent months attempting to lift it unsuccessfully) and as the inscription says, “whosoever holds this hammer, should they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor“ At which point Jane’s shocked to see herself turned into a beautiful, god-like, female version of Thor. She is unrecognizable as Jane Foster. Now I can already hear some of the assholes on the Internet complaining that a woman will be, in a way, playing Thor. First of all, in the comics, this is one of the best Thor stories they have done in years. A great story is simply a great story. Also, this isn’t just a story about Jane Foster. It’s also is a very profound story about Asgard and Thor himself.
So for you idiots thinking Thor is going to get kicked to the wayside because of some bullshit liberal agenda…relax. The movies going to be great. I am really thrilled to see Marvel is taking some interesting chances with their with their projects. I have a few guesses, but I can’t wait to see who the villain will be in this movie. Gorr The God Butcher, perhaps? We can only hope!
Black Widow – Release Date 5/1/2020
Dir. Cate Shortland
Starring – Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Rachel Weiss and David Harbour appearing in unknown rolls
This movie will be a prequel taking place before Captain America: Civil War. It will feature such classic Marvel bad guys as Taskmaster, who I’m very excited to see. Natasha also faces off against the “evil Black Widow”, Yelena, another product of The Red Room Program. This woman is Natasha if Hawkeye never showed her a better way to live and became here friend. Yelena is a vicious, manipulative killer, a mirror image of what Natasha could have become. This will be the next Marvel movie we have to look forward to. I think this is a long time coming. Black Widow is more than capable of carrying her own film. It will be really cool to see how they incorporate this into some other events in a MCU history.
Before things wrapped up, Kevin Feige had one more surprise for the crowd. After listing all of these projects, he brought out, the fantastic actor, Mahershala Ali, and announced Ali will be playing Blade in an upcoming movie, introduce The Day Walker to the MCU. No release date has been announced . That is pretty fucking cool nonetheless. Ali is a fantastic actor. He’s perfect for this role. There have been rumblings of Blade in the MCU for a few years now ( even some suggesting Wesley Snipes would return ) so it’s going to be really exciting to see what they do with the character.
Feige wrapped things up by explaining this is what they have in production that will be hitting theatres and screens over the next 2 years. Two years is a lot shorter than any of the previous phases of the MCU, which makes me think that this is just the first half of Phase 4 and more announcements will be made along the way. However, he closed things out by saying Guardians Vol.3, Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, and (FUCK YES) The Fantastic Four!!! will be coming soon after these projects. He had to drive the crowd wild by mentioning one more thing coming soon, one word:“Mutants.” So that was the Marvel Studios presentation this year. It certainly did not disappoint.
It’s that time of year again! SDCC 2019! The San Diego Comic Con begins this weekend! This is where we get our first look at some of the coolest upcoming movies, TV shows, and comics from Marvel, DC, Netflix, HBO, The CW, Warner Bros. and a lot more. All the biggest names in geek and genre entertainment will be there to show off their upcoming projects. In this episode of The World’s Best Podcast, I’m here give you the low down on all of the best stuff to keep your eye on at this year’s convention. Including some material that has already been released like the trailer’s for IT: Chapter 2 and The King’s Man, the 20th Anniversary of Batman Beyond, and the launch of the brand new X-Men comic book from Marvel, House of X #1 hitting shelves on July 24th! Listen here or subscribe on Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and iTunes: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/18587209
A few weeks ago, when the first trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Personally, I’m excited for the film, but what I want to talk about is some speculation into the film, but first let me give you a little background of my own star wars preferences, to help illustrate the point that I’m eventually hoping to make.
I guess the most important thing you need to know, is that I think Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is the worst part of any Star Wars film (not counting the Holiday Special).I have been told most people think Jake Lloyd was worse, but at least he has the excuse of being a little kid, and many little kid actors aren’t good. Others have argued that Christensen’s not that bad, and I don’t even know what films they’re watching.
I will say this, I am not sure that I blame Hayden Christensen for the performances in his two Star Wars films. We’ve all seen that most of the performances in the prequel trilogy (and a decent amount of A New Hope) is cold, and the dialogue is not well written. Lucas couldn’t get a good performance out of nearly any of the better actors in the prequels (I know people will argue Ewan McGregor, but that was more a matter of an extremely good actor in a role that is intentionally cold and aloof, it’s the opposite of the Keanu Reeves in the Matrix effect, where he’s good despite his talent because of the role.
Alright, so now that I’ve explained that I think his performance is the worst, let me explain one other thing. He’s back in the new film. Now, I don’t know what capacity he’s going to be in the film, but the day after the trailer dropped, he had up on his Instagram page a picture of the new title card. Upon googling, it turns out he’s participating in the new film although all the specifics seem to be speculation. I assume he’s going to be appearing as a force ghost, that’s the most logical option, but whether it’s for a moment or scenes and dialogue, is anyone’s guess.
I think, his appearance in this film, could be the thing that redeems him, and the character of Anakin (I love Vader, but I don’t love Anakin) for me. You see, while I know that George Lucas has been involved in this film as a consultant (again to what extent is unknown) he isn’t writing the dialogue, and he isn’t directing the actors, and so now we have the opportunity to see what a director who is significantly better with both dialogue and actors can do. I think J.J. Abrams might be a little over hyped, but c’mon he’s better at those two things than George Lucas any day of the week.
Now, there is a chance Christensen’s appearance will be small enough that it doesn’t really affect his legacy in the role whatsoever, but I hope this isn’t the case. My hope is that we see one of two things, either one of which I think could make the film cool, and enhance Anakin as a character. We could see him as a force ghost trying to influence either Rey or Kylo, and this is the safer more likely bet, but it could definitely have some really cool scenes, further the story line, and help the dynamics between force using characters. This would be good.
Something that is much less likely, but would be awesome, and would kind of be crazy, and risky (after the Last Jedi, I think Disney proved they don’t do risk well, or maybe that they don’t commit to risk well). Paul kind of suggested this, and I think it’s an amazing idea. What if Anakin rises from the dead?
Like I said, this idea is a little out there, but I don’t think it’s totally out of the realm of possibility. So here’s a couple thing, one is that we know Anakin is the most powerful force user, essentially he’s the Jesus of Star Wars. Anakin is the Force’s immaculate conception. Then we see in Empire Strikes Back, Vader in his black egg thing. Well, I know it’s no longer canon, but the egg thing in the books was some kind of Force chamber, in the chamber, he’s trying to heal and rebuild his body with the force.
What if in dying and becoming a Force ghost, Anakin becomes “more powerful that you can possibly imagine,” and therefore finally powerful enough to use the force to rebuild his body.He is the chosen one, to bring balance to the force, and the Last Jedi, for all of it’s faults had one thing clear, there is something essentially broken with the black and whiteness of the Jedi/Sith mentalities. Both Luke and Kylo seem to have realized this, (even if Rey decides by the end she can be a hero or a villain, and not something else).
What if Anakin comes back, to show the way the force should be used, creating an order that isn’t as ’emotionless’ as Jedi, nor as ruled by emotion as Sith. Anakin, who wanted to be a Jedi, but also wanted to love, and was shunned by the Jedi for the latter, and manipulated by Palpatine for it, is the perfect person to show you can be a husband, a father, a son, and a powerful force user. Perhaps that is the balance?
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