Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Finn Wittrock as Guy Gardner

The Green Lantern series coming to HBO Max has cast Finn Wittrock as Guy Gardner, describing him as "a hulking mass of masculinity and, as rendered in the comics, an embodiment of 1980s hyper-patriotism, and yet, Guy is somehow likable."

That sounds like they get the character. I don't know Wittrock, so I don't know about his acting capabilities. However, he looks like he could be a solid pick based on just his appearance.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Updates

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever = Good title. I still have NO idea what the hell they're going to do with this plot without, you know, T'challa...the Black Panther.

The Marvels = Uh.....I don't like it.

Some of the footage was neat. The hype trailer in general just saying "movies are coming back, dude" was nice in general, since I miss movies.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Officially No Longer MCU Canon

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Runaways and all those shows that were "part of the MCU" a few years ago are definitely no longer considered canon. They've been moved to the Legacy subcategory on Disney+, meaning Marvel is treating them as being just as extraneous as Ben Affleck's Daredevil film, the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, every version of Fantastic 4 we've seen on film, and so on.

This is a good thing, though. The shows weren't really meshing well with the MCU as it was. You can still enjoy them and try to force the head canon, but you're not beholden to them. That means if they want to bring the Inhumans into the MCU, they can do that without having to keep up the continuity of the terrible show.

Like established before, we can get a Daredevil played by Charlie Cox, but it can just be a "new" Daredevil that hasn't gone through the same stuff as the previous one. Just like J. Jonah Jameson being played by J.K. Simmons again doesn't mean it has to be the same guy from Maguire's films and the worlds merging together.

There were some good things in AOS. There were also a lot of bad things. For instance, I like their design for the Darkhold much better, but I didn't like Ghost Rider. I really liked Fitz-Simmons, Mack, and Melina May. Grant was cool, but once he became a literal octopus alien, nah. I'd like to see Mockingbird brought back, and Madame Hydra, and so on.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Deathstroke's Kills in The Batman

Apparently, had the original Batman film with Deathstroke happened, Slade Wilson would have killed some "regular characters" off. No confirmation, but it seems like it would have been at least Commissioner Gordon, if not also Alfred and maybe others.

While there were some amazing things with Zack Snyder's universe, there were a lot of horrendous mistakes, too. This would have been one of them. I have no idea what this fascination was to kill off Dick Grayson instead of Jason Todd, have Jimmy Olsen be replaced by another character fulfilling even less of a purpose and then being killed off like nothing, etc.

Sometimes, it feels like Snyder's decisions were made purely on "shaking things up" rather than the best narrative. It also felt like he and many others want to always skip to the end of a lot of things and never want to go down the journey. That's why we see Batman go from starting off his career to retiring all the time.

The Flash Logo

Generic. Bland. Meh. It's fine.

Vin Diesel for Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots

We knew it was a matter of time before this was adapted into a movie, and I'm not opposed to it. It's going to be ridiculous, as it should be.

Vin Diesel will supposedly be the main human character who befriends a robot, along with his son. Sounds like the most generic way to approach it, but I'm genuinely curious what they try to do with it.

Son of Sun and Knight of Night

Chris Terrio tossed out those titles as potential other options for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

It's a little too poetic for my tastes (says the guy who thinks Quantum of Solace is one of the best James Bond titles) but I dig it. I think as a movie, it doesn't work, but as a story, it's great.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Trailer

FINALLY got a look at this film...and...meh. The action looks like it will probably be cool, but I definitely need more substance than just that, and the characters are nothing for me at the moment.

Why do I get the feeling Awkwafina's character is going to annoy me, rather than be someone I find charming?

I'm sure it'll be better than I'm feeling right now. Well, I'm not SURE, but I'm fairly confident. After all, I've been wrong in the past, thinking Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man would be awful. But I've also been wrong on the other side, thinking WandaVision would be better than what it boiled down to.

I'll see it as soon as it comes out, for sure. I'll probably enjoy it quite a bit. But for right now, I'm not feeling amped.

How I Met Your Father

Hilary Duff is going to star in a rehash of How I Met Your Mother.

Didn't they already do this? Wasn't there a spin-off that failed miserably?

I'm not a fan of even trying this. You know why? Because I absolutely ADORED the original show. Up until the final few moments of the last episode, it was one of my favorite television shows of all time. That finale really docked it a ton of points, but I still think it's 99.9% wonderful. And it served its purpose.

You can't just do the same idea and think it's going to capture the same magic. What made the show was that it was slightly different from what we had seen before and the cast had amazing synergy. Just throwing Duff in there, replacing Mother with Father and calling it a day is nothing.

Pass.

Disney and Sony Reach a Deal for Spider-Man to Come to Disney+

One more step. I love this. Can Disney just buy out Sony already?

M.O.D.O.K. Trailer

Nope. I didn't laugh or even chuckle at any of it. I hate the animation style. This is a solid thumbs down for me.

Russell Crowe is Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder

You know what? Not only can I see it, I think it might be perfect!

93rd Academy Awards

Rather than doing the normal breakdown of the Oscars that I usually put a lot of time and effort into, this discussion is something we've done on the Patreon as a Bonus Feature podcast. Subscribe to that tier and check out what myself and Rob have to say about this year's list!

The Future of Week in Geek

I wanted to make the #150 edition of Week in Geek a special one, but I couldn't think of any topics worthwhile of elaborating on to make it something awesome. This, along with how many weeks have no more than a few topics worth mentioning, has me thinking that I might be changing Week in Geek in some fashion going forward. Maybe it would be better if it's released as a monthly thing, breaking down the particular weeks and having more content per post? Maybe it needs to end entirely? What do you think? Give me your thoughts on what you'd like to see with this and I'll heavily factor in whatever input you have!

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Ghostbusters Clip

A clip was released for the new Ghostbusters movie (that we should've already seen by now if the pandemic wouldn't have botched that) which shows mini Stay Puft marshmallow men.

I want them. They're adorable. It's also good to see that there seems to be a true reverence for the original film going on, rather than someone trying to shake up the formula for the sake of "Wouldn't it be interesting if I put my own spin on it?"

Deadpool R-Rated Animated Series

Remember how there was supposed to be an animated Deadpool show helmed by Donald Glover and then, it disappeared? It seems that might be back in the mix, but possibly now with Ryan Reynolds spearheading it.

I would have loved to see Donald Glover's take, but I'm also down for more Reynolds.

Lucy Liu for Shazam

Lucy Liu has been cast as Kalypso in the sequel to Shazam.

I'm not at all familiar with the character, so I can't weigh in on whether or not I think that's a great casting choice. It seems she'll be the sister of Helen Mirren's Hespera, but that doesn't do much to inform me on anything beyond that text.

Liu's a good actress, though. I guess we'll see what the direction of this story is before we can judge whether she's being wasted here or not.

Cobb Vanth and Others for The Book of Boba Fett

Slow news week, so I'll end things off with this. It's being reported that we can expect Cobb Vanth, Migs Mayfield, Greef Karga and Din Djarin to all appear in the Book of Boba Fett series.

This was expected, for the most part—at least, by me. I assumed there would be some of the characters to lead in to this while introducing new characters (who will inevitably show up on The Mandalorian and elsewhere, down the line, too).

This is all happening at the same time in the same universe, so why wouldn't they interact? Smart move.

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Welcome to another edition of MOUNT RUSHMORE, where we will be taking on the task of picking four people to best represent the pillars of a specific corner of geek culture.

This time around, our focus will be surrounding the theme of Batman's rogues gallery. The Dark Knight has some of the most amazing enemies in the history of media, but who are the four best Batman villains of all time?

The panelists for the Fanboys Anonymous podcast will present their own lists and their reasons why they chose their options to be the representational figureheads of this topic, with the goal being to reach a consensus to make up the definitive list.

Make sure to subscribe/follow on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the videos or this post, share this with your friends and geek out with us!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

New Gods and The Trench Shelved

Based on DC's track record and the fact that New Gods and The Trench were spin-offs, I knew there was no chance they were actually going to get made. Lo and behold, I was right.

Sadly, I would have been interested in seeing them. I don't think The Trench makes for a film unless you just want to do a generic monster film that happens to be called a DC property of sorts, but maybe James Wan had a pretty cool idea I'm unaware of. New Gods is something I think works better in theory than in execution, but Ava DuVernay might have done a great job with that, too.

Add it to the list of something like 30 films that have been announced, only to be taken off the schedule. Warner Bros has to stop tossing things out there and then backing down. Make a plan and stick to it where adjustments are the exception, not the rule.

The Batman = Earth 2

More hints that the Snyderverse is coming back is that Warner Bros have said Robert Pattinson's version is definitively on "Earth 2" (which doesn't make a lot of sense, considering Earth 2 is supposed to be a separate thing, but whatever, Marvel keeps having multiple 616 universes, so...)

This means it's a distinct continuity away from everything else, similar to how Joker isn't tied in with the others.

I'm 100% down for this. Warner Bros have shown that they can't pull off the MCU method of having everything planned out and connected, for whatever reason (lack of planning, foresight, etc) so if that's the case, just do separate stories and tie them in together if you can, when you can, but don't put embargos on characters anymore like you used to. Let's have multiple Batman versions at the same time and if audiences are confused, they can Google it and figure it out. It's not THAT complicated.

Olga Kurylenko in Black Widow

Only just now, it's coming out that Olga Kurylenko has a part in Black Widow. Rumor has it, she's playing Natasha's mother. Frankly, I can't see the resemblance, but if that's the case, I'm cool with it regardless. Kurylenko strikes me as someone who would be better off playing a different part in a different movie, though, and this might end up being a bit of a waste when she could do more of an action role.

Space Jam 2 Trailer

Well that...wasn't good. Then again, I wasn't expecting much more. It's not like the original is actually a great film. Take off the nostalgia goggles. It was fun when we were kids, but it's not actually "good" by any means. Hopefully, kids enjoy this. That's what is most important.

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Mission report December 16, 1991. Baron Zemo is back! The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to celebrate Helmut Zemo finally getting his trademark purple sock mask over his head, Fanboys Anonymous is partnering up with Fun.com to give out a special Baron Zemo Funko Pop! figure of the character!

Whether he's toppling governments or causing a rift in The Avengers (or possibly setting up the Thunderbolts...theory for another time), this cute little guy is the perfect addition to your collection.

There are lots of ways to win (some you can do daily) so get your entries in while you can!

HOW TO WIN

One winner will be chosen at random based on the Gleam competition module below. Enter as many times as you can for more chances to win. However, any falsified entries will be grounds for total dismissal from the entire contest, voiding all entries for that particular person.

Baron Zemo Giveaway

If any aspect of the above widget does not function, please leave a comment below to call attention to the matter at hand and go here for the direct link.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Black Widow Release Date Update, Again

Black Widow has been once again pushed back. Instead of May 7, it's July 9. However, it seems like this time, they're going to stick to it, after well over a year of delays.

That's because it's going to be released with the Disney+ Premier Access at the same time, like what happened with Mulan. It seems as though Disney finally said "enough is enough, we have to get this movie out in some fashion" but still felt like they wanted to wait a few more months to maximize in-theater revenue.

With WandaVision being a disappointment overall for me, and the fact that so much time has gone by, I've honestly lost a lot of interest in Black Widow. I hope they blow me away.

Echo Spin-off

While everything is being held off and delayed further and further, we're still getting news about things to come. One of those is a spin-off of the Hawkeye show, which we have no idea when we'll see. This will revolve around Echo.

I'm not familiar enough with Echo to get excited about a show dedicated to the character. Frankly, I think it's probably an instance of stretching things a little too thin. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

How Much Slow Mo?

IGN calculated that around 10% of Zack Snyder's Justice League is in slow motion. 24 minutes and 7 seconds of slow motion footage for a 4-hour movie. That's pretty crazy, and I do think that some of those shots didn't need to be slow motion, as it wasn't essential or artistic enough from my perspective to make it a necessity.

Still, great film. That's just one of the nitpicks.

Ron Livingston Replaces Billy Crudup

Since Billy Crudup is out of The Flash as Henry Allen, he's been replaced by Ron Livingston.

While I like Livingston, I don't see this being quite as good. Crudup looked far more like he could be Ezra Miller's father. I have no problem with Livingston being able to pull off the role if I can get past that, though.

Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren has been cast as one of the villains in the Shazam sequel. I know nothing about Hespera, but I do know Mirren is great. Going with a new villain isn't normally something I'm super fond of, considering how many characters the comics can pull from. I still think Black Adam shouldn't be a solo film, for instance. Speaking of that, though...

Pierce Brosnan Cast as Doctor Fate in Black Adam

I never would have seen this coming if you gave me a thousand guesses. I like the idea of Brosnan being involved, though. He's not only my second-favorite James Bond, he's also someone I think shoudl have had a bigger career than what he did. There are probably a lot of people who could play Kent Nelson well, but I'm even more curious about this now that he's been cast, rather than if someone else would have.

Trailer for The Suicide Squad

A trailer for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad has finally been released. I was still hoping there would be some cooler heads prevailing who would change the name of this film at the last minute to something other than the same exact title from before, but with "The" in front of it. Even "Suicide Squad 2" or "Some Kind of Suicide Squad" or "Suicide Squad: Task Force X" or "Suicide Squad: Back in Action" or anything would have been better than "The Suicide Squad".

Anyway. Let's talk about the trailer. We already knew the cast looked amazing. It's also been clear from the start that Gunn is exactly the type of guy who could pull off something with the right level of quirkiness without being obnoxious and annoying like what happened with Birds of Prey. I still don't know if I'd go into this film expecting it to be good so much as fun but holy shit, we have King Shark and Starro. That's worth something. And how long before "Hand?" is a meme?

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Academy Awards Nominees

Like 10 movies came out in 2020. Nobody saw any of them. Unfortunately, the options are to either go with another Oscars ceremony with "whatever" or to just not do it, and too much money is at stake to be lost by not having a ceremony at all.

For over 15 years, I've always done predictions for the Academy Awards, watched the show and tried to see as many of the films as I could.

That's not happening this year after seeing the list of nominees. In my mind, this year doesn't even really count.

Also, it's interesting that despite having almost literally no competition whatsoever, Tenet still couldn't get even nominated as Best Picture. I guess the academy had the same feelings I did.

RIP Yaphet Kotto

Actor Yaphet Kotto, best known in many circles for his roles in Alien and Live and Let Die, has passed away at age 81.

There's a weird bit of synchronicity going on with the A Review to a Kill series wherein the starting week, Tanya Roberts passed away. The week we recorded Moonraker, Nikki van der Zyl passed away. And now, the week Live and Let Die is released (we record them in advance), Yaphet Kotto is gone.

He's great as Kananga and one of the standouts of Alien, too. I think he was criminally underutilized in the industry and had he come around in the current era, he would have made an amazing MCU villain of some kind, too.

NoobMaster69

Aaron from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Apple Store employee played by D.C. Pierson, has been revealed as NoobMaster69 from Avengers: Endgame, in an Xbox commercial.

This is the kind of stuff I love that the MCU does. Sometimes, it's a bit hard to believe, such as the Peter Parker Iron Man 2 bit, but the fact that they don't forget about these things and repeatedly go back to enrich the other films makes it so good.

I think at this point, you can't even argue that this is the best overall series of all time with the highest success record both financially and critically. They're just in an entirely different league.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier First Impressions

I'll probably record a podcast on the Bonus Features of the Patreon diving into this. Stay tuned!

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Deadpool Taking Over Stan Lee's Cameos

There's a rumor going around that Ryan Reynolds is going to replace Stan Lee as the perpetual cameos in the MCU films going forward, reprising his role as Deadpool here and there.

If that's true...which I take with a big grain of salt...then I absolutely, absolutely love that idea. I think that's a magnificent way to take things into a new generation, break the fourth wall, pay tribute to Stan Lee and work some humor into all the films.

I really hope this is true, and I really hope the very first one of these is Deadpool calling out that he's the new Stan Lee in honor of him.

Avatar Beats Avengers: Endgame

Due to its re-releases, Avatar is now back above Avengers: Endgame for the highest-grossing film of all time. 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Release Endgame some more, then. Let it reclaim its proper title!

That's pretty cheap to be released over and over again in order to rack up the dollars. Avatar doesn't deserve it.

Kiersey Clemons Back as Iris West / Billy Crudup Out

Kiersen Clemons was cast as Iris West for Justice League, with the assumption she'd be in The Flash. Since that film has taken forever to get off the ground, she eventually had to drop out. Now, it seems she's back, which is great. I thought she had potential to be a great Iris West.

Unfortunately, the same set of circumstances has led to Billy Crudup dropping out, so he'll be recast as Barry's father. I'm disappointed about that, for sure. I thought they had some pretty great casting with that idea and I'm hoping the scheduling conflicts get resolved.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

San Diego Comic-Con

Due to COVID still being a raging problem, SDCC is going to be a virtual event again this year, taking place July 23-25.

Look. That sucks. But it's not only the safest thing to do, it's also the most cost-efficient. Less and less big companies were doing things at SDCC and these events are becoming more about just autograph signings, merch stands and a hub for people to cosplay. While that's great for people who want to go specifically for those reasons (and doing a virtual thing is, of course, bad for those people/vendors), these types of shows are sadly dying out. It's not as feasible anymore to rent out such a huge space unless you're going to make your money back and with COVID being the way it is, that's just not possible, so why risk everyone's health in the process, too?

T.I. Gone from Ant-Man 3

The Hollywood Reporter claims Marvel's cutting dies with T.I. and not having him return for Ant-Man 3 due to apparently 11 alleged victims claiming sexual abuse and other things.

The allegations are another discussion, but in the context of the film itself (since this is a site about movies and such, rather than legal issues), I don't think this is a big deal. Sure, I'd always rather keep as many characters as possible, but I honestly couldn't even tell you his character's name. Luis is the real standout in that group with David Dastmalchian's character (can't tell you his name, either) as the #2. I don't think anyone will really feel like T.I.'s absence from the film will hinder it much.

Hera Syndulla for Rangers of the New Republic

Since Cara Dune isn't going to be a thing anymore (because instead of just recasting the part and keeping the plans, they're just going to kill off Gina Carano's character...shame to sacrifice the story for that), that rules out the potential main character of the Rangers of the New Republic series.

But if one rumor is true, it seems like they might replace her with Hera Syndulla. If that's the case, talk about an upgrade!

Zack Snyder's Justice League Chapters

There will be six chapters for the film, which are:

1. Don't Count on it, Batman
2. The Age of Heroes
3. Beloved Mother, Beloved Son
4. Change Machine
5. All the King's Horses
6. Something Darker

Neat. I like it. I'm really loving the idea that this will feel like more of an event than just a recut.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is Totally Going to Move Dates

The next Fast and Furious movie changed its date to the same day as Venom 2, which hasn't released a trailer yet. I think the next stage of this is pretty obvious. Venom will be announced to move to another date further down the line, likely closer to October. It'll want to stay away from battling a box office juggernaut during a pandemic time frame where theaters might still just not be open at all.

And so, everything else gets pushed even further back to 2022...2023...2024....

At least A Quiet Place Part II moved up from September to Memorial Day. That's something. I just want to watch these movies and I get that everyone is hoping theaters will open up the way they were before and billions of dollars will just flood in, but I don't think that's happening for another whole year, if not just because people like myself will still be cautious even if the option is there.

Lola Bunny

Lola Bunny has been redesigned for Space Jam: A New Legacy, and people on both sides of chiming in about this make no sense to me.

If you're wickedly upset...why are you so into a cartoon bunny needing to be super sexualized? You're weird.

But if you're so upset that Lola Bunny was drawn like that, to the point that you felt like you needed to undo that, you're also weird and you need to get your priorities in line if that's a big deal that you think you're fixing the world by changing.

It's a cartoon rabbit, people. There's a pandemic going on. Jeez.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Mena Massoud for Ezra Bridger?

Rumor has it, and I like that rumor. He looks the part to me and I thought he was good enough in Aladdin. I could totally buy it.

Jennifer Lawrence as Sue Storm?

This...not as much. Lawrence doesn't strike me as the type of person who would want to sign on to be a tentpole character for the franchise in the way they need. The Fantastic 4, particularly without Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, AND Black Panther, are going to need to hold down the fort for a good portion of the MCU going forward. I want people who are invested in being in the franchise for a long time, like some of the others that have come our way in this series.

Also, there's nothing that strikes me that she's the right person for the part. There are hundreds of women, blonde or not (hair dye exists, but people forget about that when they're fan casting) who could do the part service just as well, if not better, and likely for a cheaper cost, too.

To me, you run the risk of having Lawrence decide she's over it, take lots of money to do the part, and everyone just looks at her as Jennifer Lawrence rather than Sue Storm.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Why did they need to make all these films follow the "home" name? Homecoming made sense. Far from Home...unnecessary. No Way Home, we'll see if it's a stretch or if it is worth it. But I'm confused as hell about this movie. How are they cramming in "Peter on the run" and the multiverse?

Bad Batch and Loki Release Dates

The Bad Batch is premiering on May the 4th, which is a perfect date for that.

Loki pops up June 11th. Very excited to see what they do with that show.

Anime Terminator Netflix Series

Does it have to be anime, though? I do think animated and/or a television series is a good direction to take this franchise (provided the plot isn't as dumb as T3 onward have been) but anime? I'm just not a fan of that media.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Zack Snyder's Justice League Official Trailer

In some ways, this feels like such a drastically different movie, which is insane. How could something as simple as setting up a Justice League film go so awry? Marvel did it before them, even, to show them the blueprint, and DC/Warner couldn't pull it off! It's nuts!

I'm very, very curious to see this. I'll binge the whole 4 hours like it's nothing (unless it's a terrible film, naturally). More than likely, what I'm going to do when this is out is watch the whole thing and then do a Reviewpoint and then possibly even a FanTracks to go along with it. Definitely very excited to see this "what if" scenario play out.

Transformers: Beast Alliance

Seems like they're finally going to the Beast Wars well for the Transformers movies. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long.

Unpopular opinion, but I don't think Bumblebee was all that great or impressive. I think it's literally the same film as the first movie but with less charm and taking less risks, just repackaged with a female lead with the "Wouldn't it be cool if this was in the 80s!?!?!!" element (which I'm so tired of as just an arbitrary selling point rather than an actual purpose of storytelling).

They would probably be better off just setting it in modern times, rather than in the 90s.

Tim Burton - Wednesday Addams

Tim Burton's making a live-action spin-off series on Netflix about Wednesday Addams that reads to me as 50% great idea and 50% CW drivel meant to be nothing but a means to market to the goth Hot Topic "edgy girl" audience.

She'll be at school, dealing with psychic powers and mysteries and monsters. So basically Buffy, Sabrina and The Craft all wrapped in one.

Look. That might sound harsh, particularly because I could totally see myself pitching this exact same thing. This screams to me a pitch I would suggest if I were working as a producer or something. In fact, I'll have a whole segment on here, eventually, revolving around how I think you can make television shows based on characters in this sort of fashion.

I just feel like they're going to need to sell me really hard with that first trailer or else I'll end up looking at it the way I looked at the first episode of Ratched: "Wow. This blows and I'm not watching any more of it and you just sullied the good name of the original."

Nintendo Direct

I looked through the announcements of the Nintendo Direct and there wasn't a single damn thing I found interesting except for how Smash seems to LOOOOOOOOOOVE these animated sword-wielding characters. Why are there like 50 of them in the game and characters I've never heard of, but they still don't have Toad, Dixie Kong/Funky Kong/Cranky Kong, Dr. Robotnik/Knuckles/Tails, Zero from Mega Man X, Bomberman, some more Street Fighter characters (Chun Li? Guile?), etc?

I get that they would have issues with some characters that are on the PlayStation side of things. I wouldn't expect Crash Bandicoot or Spyro or whatever (but they'd naturally be main characters people would love to see). But I see no reason why there are all these anime characters and not something like the little dudes from Bubble Bobble.

Cruella Trailer

Maleficent has some pros and cons. This feels like another attempt at that. But it doesn't at all give me the dalmatians vibe like this sets that up. Maybe that's a good thing. I really don't know what to make of it, but I'll check it out.

Mortal Kombat Trailer

.....admittedly....this looks like they did the best possible job they could have. Right?

My only question is why there's no Johnny Cage. Maybe this Cole character actually uses that stage name or something and they're just keeping that reveal.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with Jason Momoa?

The title of the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog will be...Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Why are people annoyed about this? It makes the most sense.

But in other news, Jason Momoa was reportedly offered the role of Knuckles in the film, which is wild. I never would have imagined that would be the casting decision they'd go with. However, as much as I can't picture it at all, it seems kind of awesome.

Clone High Revival

Say whaaaaat? They're bringing Clone High back and it's coming to HBO Max??? That's awesome!!! I loved that show so much.

Zack Snyder's Justice League's Intermission

Snyder said that if the film gets released in theaters, they have a 10-minute intermission "built into the movie" with "a beautiful suite of music" which I find very interesting and a damn good idea. So many people (not me) complain about sitting through 90 minutes without running to the bathroom. There's no way most people (myself not included, as I'm a damn camel) would see the full 4 hour long cut of this film and not have to make at least one stop.

Gina Carano

After some more controversial posts on social media, Disney (and her talent agency) have dropped Gina Carano going forward. That means no Cara Dune spin-off, which seemed like it was the purpose of that whole story of her character joining the New Republic.

Why not recast? You get to keep the same character arc and everything you've built, but you replace the actor you don't want to work with anymore. Is anyone REALLY going to care about the recasting other than the ones who are pro-Carano? I don't think this is like recasting Han Solo for Return of the Jedi or replacing Ewan McGregor halfway through filming Attack of the Clones or anything.

FACE/OFF Sequel

...they're going to do a sequel to Face/Off. Why? I can't imagine Cage and Travolta returning (especially given what happens in the film) which means this is likely a sequel in name-only and utterly pointless. It's not like there's a giant mythology to explore.

Face/Off 2: Some other people get their faces replaced and we redo the same plot as before with some tweaks.

Pass.

The Spot

Rumor has it the villain of the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be The Spot. He's not even a C-list villain in the Spider-Man rogues gallery, which may make it a perfect choice. The Spot is able to create portals, so maybe they'll get into that for the trippy visuals and the dimensional plotlines.

Frankly, I was assuming the sequel would be based off time and focus more on Spider-Man 2099. Maybe it still can. The first one is great, so I'm sure this will be great, too.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Golden Globe Nominations

Normally, I go ahead and post the full list of nominees and winners in separate pages on this site. This year, with the pandemic being the way it's been, I figured it's not worth it. So instead, this is just a spot on Week in Geek. How the mighty have fallen.

So what stands out to me, if anything? Let's see...

I'm a fan of Jason Bateman, Laura Linney and Julia Garner nominated for Ozark. They're great and that show is great.

The Mandalorian is awesome. Give it wins. This is the way.

I haven't even heard of most of these films nominated for anything. That's sad.

Despite not seeing the other nominees, I'll just say Soul needs to win Best Animated Motion Picture because I liked it.

And...that's it? Really? That's all I have to say? That's terrible.

Super Bowl Ads

Falcon and Winter Soldier? I dig it. This gave me Black Panther vibes, actually. Not the story, obviously, but the music used made it seem like it's got that sort of "let's change things up from the formula with a different sort of attitude" flair to it by bringing in a more hip hop based inspiration for a series about a black lead. Totally down for it.

Old - Looks kind of interesting, but certainly not something to see in theaters.

F9 - I still haven't seen any of the Fast and Furious movies, but even so, this felt like the most underwhelming trailer of the bunch.

Nobody - Looks interesting.

Shazadam

Rumor has it Black Adam is going to go by the name SHAZADAM going forward. That's pretty awful. I can see where they're going, but yeah...no. Just give him a different name. Shame Black Lightning is already a thing, right? But if you've got Isis and Osiris and all, why not give him some sort of Egyptian-based name, instead? Baal is the Egyptian god of thunder. Do something with that. Just not Baalackadam.

Keanu Reeves as Kraven the Hunter?

If these rumors are true, Keanu has been offered the part of Kraven. I really hope that's not the case. He's not at all the right person for that role. Keanu should be in the proper MCU and could play a variety of characters, but I don't at all think Kraven is one of them. I see him more as a Silver Surfer or something more...other-worldly. Kraven should be a buff, more grizzled, bear of a person and not someone who is super nice and all.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Cloverfield Sequel in the Works

It took them long enough, right? At first, I thought it would be a mistake. The first film works well enough on its own. Then, I thought that a sequel should happen. However, they followed it up with 10 Cloverfield Lane and that felt like it wasn't at all a sequel and they would just go with Cloverfield being a universal name for a new Twilight Zone type thing.

10 isn't a wonderful film for a series like that. I think it works better as a standalone and ideally, without knowing if the aliens are real. But then, Paradox happened and that just sucked.

Now, a Cloverfield sequel in "proper" form, supposedly, will happen. It won't be found footage, which I think is a major mistake. That was the gimmick of the first film and if you're going to bother doing a follow-up, I want to know what happened to those characters and to see how someone found that camera. If they just do a generic action flick with the monster...meh.

WandaVision Episode 4

I haven't been loving the series so far. I'm not into old sitcoms, so when the episodes were pretty much just a pastiche of those with about 10 seconds of "maybe there's something more to this", I wasn't digging it. I felt like that's the type of material that would be charming if it were 20 minutes of a 2 hour film, rather than 60 minutes of a 9-episode show.

This most recent episode did a lot to undo that. I still felt like there were some issues, like how I'm not the biggest fan of Darcy Lewis, but getting a few answers to things and progressing the plot forward rather than continuing to live in the bubble any longer is a thumbs up for me.

I'm still assuming Nightmare or Mephisto is manipulating Wanda. I'm hoping Vision isn't still dead, as I'd like to see him brought back in the franchise in the white version like in the comics. I loved seeing The Blip in action. Jimmy Woo learning the card trick over the past few years was great.

All in all, the best episode so far.

Black Panther Wakanda Spin-off for Disney+

It was announced Ryan Coogler will be developing a series that dives more into Wakanda as a spin-off to Black Panther. Not much else was revealed.

In theory, this premise is great. However, without recasting T'challa, I feel like this could be much ado about nothing. The whole Black Panther series, in my opinion, hinges on T'challa, and if they just kill off his character for the third time and move on to a new person under the mask, I don't think I'll be as invested. I just don't think a series about Shuri holds the same weight as she's better as a supporting character. The same for M'Baku or Okoye or anyone else.

But maybe there's something to it. Without having much information, it's impossible to know. Had Chadwick Boseman not tragically passed away, I would be super into this idea. Without him and without the T'challa character, I'm hesitant to trust this is worth diving deeper into a side of these films that won't have the same weight to it. That would be like getting rid of Doctor Strange and focusing a whole spin-off on Wong, or wanting to do a deep dive on Luis from Ant-Man, or a show revolving around The Howling Commandos. Supporting characters support, most of the time, based on the strength of the lead. Without the lead...well, I guess we'll see.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Batman: The Animated Series Sequel?

Rumor has it HBO Max is looking to host a sequel to Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series.

GIVE. IT. TO. ME. The Timmverse has a few flaws, but it's few and far between (like how they screwed up Dick Grayson's future and had the whole Batgirl/Batman romance and skipped over Jason Todd). I'm ALL for this to happen if the right people are involved. Obviously, you need Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill and as many of the old cast as you can get. Sadly, not all of them are alive anymore, but they should try to go for as much of a replication as possible.

Movies Abandon Ship Again

Got excited that a movie was maybe finally coming out? Well, everything's leaving their 15th rescheduled dates and getting pushed back further to the fall.

Another year of nothing, basically. No Time to Die is in October now, Morbius goes from October to January, A Quiet Place Part II goes from April to September, Ghostbusters moves, The King's Man moves. Basically, if it hasn't come out yet, it's not coming out for a while unless it's an HBO Max thing.

I'm not risking going to theaters right now, but this is so disheartening to see. Just don't bother announcing a release date anymore. We know it's not going to stick.

Xbox Gold Subscriptions Price Increase

I'm not a gamer. I've established this much on this site. But when I hear that the price of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions has gone from $10 a month to $25, that's a MASSIVE spike.

Their reasoning? "Periodically, we assess the value and pricing of our services to reflect changes in regional marketplaces and to continue to invest in the Xbox community; we’ll be making price adjustments for Xbox Live Gold in select markets. In many markets, the price of Xbox Live Gold has not changed for years and in some markets, it hasn’t changed for over 10 years."

Translation: "We figured we want more money and we just assumed we could get away with it right now. Corporate speak corporate speak. But we haven't done this before, and we could have, so you should be happy we weren't greedier beforehand, rather than mad at us now."

Well, it seems like people complained enough that they've reversed this policy. They even started it with "We messed up today and you were right to let us know" as if they didn't know people would be upset.

Companies are insane. People are insane. Greed is just the worst and everyone acts like they don't understand how the game works. Everyone wants to get the most amount of money for the least amount of work/effort/output. EVERYONE. And in turn, everyone wants to spend the least amount of money for the most amount of return. EVERYONE. The end. Now can we all stop bullshitting each other and just be direct with the way we speak about things?

Godzilla vs Kong Trailer

They finally released a first look at Godzilla vs Kong and it looks just like I thought it would, which is great. This is dumb "monster vs monster with a thin plot" popcorn nonsense. I don't need it to be anything else. They're turning into the skid, it seems. Thumbs up. It's not as awe-inspiring as the King of the Monsters trailer was, but it hits the mark in a different way as an action commercial.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

GTA 6 Will Feature a Female Protagonist

And a male one. Relax. You'll still be able to play as a guy, too.

I like this. After all these games, they've never had a female playable character in a traditional sense. This feels like a no-brainer. Thumbs up.

No Time to Die Pushed Back....Again....

Every time I try to do something based on this film, it gets moved back to a further release date.

Well, screw it. We already recorded a few episodes of our retrospective podcast A REVIEW TO A KILL and I'm not going to sit on those for months. They'll be released and we'll continue to go through these movies, just at a more leisurely pace than originally intended.

So if you need your 007 fix, join us in watching the films and checking out our reviews.

Deadpool 3 Confirmed as Rated R

Kevin Feige can pretty much do no wrong. Of course he knows that this needed to happen and that it needed to be rated R. He's the man.

I'm really interested to see what they do. How are they going to play around with the MCU, now that it's open for business? This could be the best one of the series. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

WandaVision First Impressions

Check out the Bonus Features tier on the Patreon to hear my first impressions of episodes 1 and 2 of WandaVision.

Mortal Kombat Info

Lewis Tan is playing a new character named Cole Young. Why isn't he just playing Liu Kang or a character already established? It seems kind of weird that a franchise that has way too many characters as it is feels the need to introduce a brand new one to make it even more overcrowded.

One theory going around is that he's Johnny Cage and that he'll go by that as a stage name later in the film. I don't dislike that idea. However, I'm anticipating he's just Cole Young and they just want to create their own thing so that they can forever have this "I created that guy" thing about them and the next games can introduce him as a DLC.

Godzilla vs Kong Moved Up

We'll see Godzilla vs Kong earlier than expected (if you don't count how it should've been released last year) yet we still haven't seen a trailer. Odd. The movie will be coming out on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously on March 26th.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Michael Jai White's "Original Plans" for Gambol

Michael Jai White claims that the plan told to him at first was that Gambol wasn't going to die in The Dark Knight. Instead, he'd come back and try to take over Gotham City.

Why do I get the feeling he was told this just to sign on for the movie, play a bit part, and then disappear without any intentions of giving him another return? It seems like that happens in a lot of movies. God knows how many James Bond films have been pitched with the "maybe you'll also return in the next film" line for the Bond girl of that particular movie.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't buy for one minute that this was ever any real plan for Gambol.

Zack Snyder's Justice League Coming to Blu-Ray?

Supposedly, there will be a release of The Snyder Cut coming to 4k Blu-Ray release. Good. Some people aren't going to want to get HBO Max but would like to own the film itself. This presents another opportunity and avenue for those fans to watch the film in their preferred method.

Krysten Ritter Returning as Jessica Jones

As expected, rumors are going around that Jessica Jones will re-join the MCU with Krysten Ritter taking on the character once more. This follows everything that's happened with Daredevil coming to Spider-Man 3 and the deals of the Netflix shows ending, allowing more flexibility.

My guess is they might keep the actors for these shows while discarding the continuity. Since it wasn't directly tied into any of the movies, that way, they get to have their cake and eat it, too, essentially. People who liked Ritter as Jones won't be annoyed at a recasting, but they won't have to worry about factoring in the story elements we've already seen.

Jones supposedly will pop up in She-Hulk. That's the BEST spot for her. Not only does she have super strength that will allow us to see her against Jennifer Walters, she's also a great source for Walters to use in the legal system.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

RIP Tanya Roberts

Unfortunately, Tanya Roberts has passed away at age 65.

For those who may not recognize the name outright, she was Stacey Sutton in the James Bond film A View to a Kill, played Donna's mom Midge Pinciotti in That '70s Show and arguably gained her initial notoriety from being on Charlie's Angels. Obviously, you might recognize her from other things as well, if you browse her IMDB page.

Obviously, there isn't too much to say other than to offer condolences.

Patriot in Falcon & Winter Soldier?

There's a report going around that Elijah Bradley has been added to The Falcon and The Winter Soldier to help set up Patriot as a member of the Young Avengers. This makes perfect sense. Not only is Falcon someone who could be a mentor to a young, black, Captain America based hero, it just also helps set up some of the past and future. If they make it so his grandfather was part of the super soldier serum experiments and passed that on, he's got a tie back to Steve Rogers. If they want to move on from Falcon (and USAgent, who I'm convinced will be in the Thunderbolts down the line) and set up a future Captain America type for 10+ years from now, Patriot could be that person. It could even tie into Project Patriot from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since they already did Jeffrey Mace.

I'm all for this.

Slow News Week

This wasn't a week packed with information across the things that I particularly follow. Maybe I missed some stuff, though. As always, if you have something you want to get my opinion about, drop it in the comments below and I'll chime in.

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Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

The Book of Boba Fett Confirmed as Spin-off

The tease at the end of the last episode of The Mandalorian of "The Book of Boba Fett" seemed like a spin-off, but it wasn't confirmed. After announcing so many new series at Investor Day, it seemed like maybe this would just be a subtitle to The Mandalorian or something, possibly.

Nope. Confirmed to be a spin-off. Very cool. I'm so down. The Mandalorian has been the best thing to happen to Star Wars since the Disney takeover.

MGM Looking to Sell

MGM wants to sell its studio and its library, which includes the James Bond franchise as well as Rocky, The Hobbit, RoboCop, Silence of the Lambs, etc. The market value is apparently 5.5 billion. Hefty price, but maybe they'd settle for something like 4 or so if a bidder plays the right cards and MGM is hurting enough.

Someone will buy it. Guaranteed.

Forgive me for not doing tons of research on the status of each company and how everything is interwoven and the stock market is blah blah blah, but here's how I see things (and if I'm dead wrong, let me know in the comments)...

Sony was spearheading the distribution up until Spectre. They were part of the bidders trying to renew their rights beforehand. Other companies that were trying to do that were Annapurna (what?), Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox.

Fox is inside Disney now. I can't imagine Disney will want to buy MGM, necessarily. They're spending a lot as it is, but unless they can get it for an absolute steal, it seems like it's too much money to shill out for something that clashes with its overall aesthetic. RoboCop's not going on Disney+, for instance.

I don't even know what Annapurna is. That's not happening.

I'd imagine this is going to go to a streaming platform that wants to branch out, like Apple, or that it goes to WarnerMedia, NBC/Universal, or ViacomCBS.

In some ways, Viacom makes the most sense. They have the rights to Terminator, if I'm correct. RoboCop and Bond and Rocky and all are on a more similar wavelength than the Disney brand.

If you're looking to put these franchises on your streaming services, though, where does it fit best? I can't see Apple buying it, cause they aren't in the mode yet to make films for regular distribution as even Netflix isn't too much into that. So again, we're back to those big 3. Does it go to HBO Max (Warner), Peacock (Universal) or Paramount+ (Viacom)?

I'd lean less in the direction of Peacock, but we all know Comcast makes enough money as it is that they can afford it.

HBO Max could be a great spot for it. They're really going to be hoping this year's worth of movies on that platform drives up subscribers. Maybe adding these franchises will be part of the plan.

Then again, maybe Paramount makes a play for it so they have some big guns for when they launch Paramount+.

Toss-up. Either one of those two, with a potential swoop-in from Sony. I highly, highly doubt it's anyone else's asset to acquire.

Wonder Woman 3 Confirmed

After the release of Wonder Woman 1984 (review here) they've confirmed a third Wonder Woman film is in the works with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins returning, naturally.

At this point, I think the first film is overrated and the second just isn't all that good, so I'm not having high hopes the third will be the most amazing film ever. It'll probably be fine.

What I'm hoping for, as far as the story goes, is that they don't bring back Steve Trevor. They'd have to figure out a convoluted way to do that and it just doesn't make sense after having just done that. Unfortunately, I don't know how they'd get around doing a film without a love interest of any kind, so maybe they introduce Trevor Barnes, Keith Griggs or Mike Bailey (characters I know nothing about, really).

As far as villains go, I feel like you need to stack it to get some of them in there that hadn't been done already. Admittedly, I'm unaware of most of her villains. I know nothing about the majority of them that have only been around the past decade or so, for instance, like Grail. What I think you need is Circe as the great manipulator and possibly combine her with Veronica Cale, use Giganta as the biggest physical threat and then maybe Silver Swan if you have room for a third villain. Medusa is too hard to pull off in any great context. Angle Man is ridiculous. Egg Fu.....no. I don't know if there's any way to cram in Doctor Psycho, but to be honest, the Harley Quinn cartoon kind of distorted my opinion on that character and now, he's just a funny little guy.

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