Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Wednesday, June 5, 2019
The latest and last of the X-Men films, according to promotional material, which conveniently ignores the whole New Mutants thing that should totally just go to Hulu and not attempt a theatrical run, will be Dark Phoenix, which premieres tomorrow.
I'll be having my Reviewpoint for it as soon as I can after watching it tomorrow night, but by all accounts, it seems like this is going to be a train wreck, and not just in the finale.
I've been wanting to pump out more content here for Fanboys Anonymous, and I figured now is the best time to debut one of the new segments I've been working on, dubbed Predicting the Plot.
How this works is pretty simple: I'll be taking an upcoming film and giving my fan theories on how I think the movie will go down, from start to finish, with as many details as I possibly can give, based entirely on the previews that I've seen and my predictions. I might be dead wrong, but I might get a lot of things correct, and I encourage you all to give your predictions just the same in the comments below.
So without further ado, let's kick things off by trying to figure out what is going to happen in Dark Phoenix.
The movie starts with Professor Xavier giving a monologue about human evolution and mutation, possibly tying it in with the celestial aspect of things. I'm expecting something like "Since the dawn of time, humans have looked to the stars for knowledge of the gods" along with an ominous message foreshadowing how Jean Grey is totally going to be possessed by this godly force of nature. Cut to the opening credits of the bitchin' X-Men theme that is the second best one out there, as the '90s animated theme is still the top dog.
This transitions to either everyone at the X-Mansion receiving word of the mission to save the astronauts, or possibly the problem with the astronauts themselves. The point is, some astronauts get messed up in space and the X-Men step in to help. Maybe there's a scene beforehand or in-between this that deals with the public perception of them as superheroes that explains why they would go on this mission (either to help convince people they're here to help, or because people already like them and they actively reach out to ask for help).
One way or another, within the first 20 minutes of the movie, the X-Men are in space and saving the astronauts. A solar flare puts everyone in danger and Jean absorbs it. Everyone's confused about what happened and how she was able to survive that.
She gets checked out by Hank McCoy and they find out that she's okay, but her power levels are spiking. They're off the charts! Whatever happened up there magnified her mutant abilities and she's in danger of going out of control. But nah, she's cool, she's Jean and she's our family. No need to worry.
Let's spend some time with Magneto on Genosha. He's got a sanctuary for mutants going on. Hopefully, this isn't a total repeat of the last film and we don't just see a bunch of these mutants get killed as a motivator for him to rejoin the action, but I think that will happen later.
Jean starts acting weird and everyone begins to notice and get skeptical about her losing control, as she starts talking to Jessica Chastain, who is this manifestation of the Phoenix Force in her mind that they can't see. Maybe Charles can see it. Maybe he can't connect with her because she's blocking him out.
By the 1/4 mark of the movie or so, Jean is back in her childhood home. That's where we see that she's causing a ruckus and the X-Men step in to try to stop her. POOF! Mystique is killed! Oh no!
Jean runs off and has that scene where she's crying in the alley, asking "Why did you make me do that? She was my friend." Chastain's character keeps feeding her b.s. about how the X-Men fear her power and so on.
Mourning for Mystique. Some are just sad, while some are angry and want to kill Jean in retaliation. Beast is one of the people who is against Jean. Scott is, naturally, on the side of "no, she's still Jean and she can be redeemed, because this wasn't her fault." If Magneto isn't already brought back into the mix yet, this is where he comes in, recruited by Beast and whoever else (Storm?) feels like they need Magneto's help to take her down.
We basically kill time for a while until the end battle. I'd be really surprised if there are any extra elements to this plot, like if Omega Red stops by to say hello, or if Mr. Sinister is part of this. I know that they've already tried to set up Essex, but I feel like that thread will just be ignored.
There must be some sort of grand scheme of Chastain's character. Maybe she just wants to destroy the entirety of Earth. Maybe she has no fight in this whole human/mutant thing. Maybe this ties into the Shi'ar Empire, but I doubt it. (Side note: remember when people thought she would be a Skrull?) Anyway, whatever her plan is, she's using Jean as a conduit and playing puppet-master to control her into doing her bidding.
There needs to be some sort of mooks for the X-Men to fight. I'm assuming an invading species of aliens that Chastain's character controls.
For the life of me, I don't know how this movie went from having an ending that took place in space to something that's now a train derailment. That seems like such a big departure. But I assume whatever the impetus for that is, the end result stays the same, in that Jean sacrifices herself to take out the alien threat (namely Chastain's character) and the movie ends with everyone mourning her and honoring her in some fashion.
If they're particularly ambitious, they'll do something like have Jean's consciousness enter the body of someone named Madelyne Pryor, similar to what they did with Xavier in The Last Stand, and/or they'll tease the Shi'ar Empire and the M'Kraan Crystal.
That's what I'm expecting to happen, but what do you think?
Give your predictions and thoughts on my guesses in the comments below!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Monday, June 3, 2019
It absolutely bugs the living hell out of me when I see franchises going down the same exact path over and over again with the philosophy in mind that it's "something different", as if different automatically means good by default, and that just because they failed to do it right the first time means they can keep trying until they do, and keep saying it's different.
This latest Terminator film has officially crossed over in my mind from "most likely going to suck" to "definitely going to suck" with leaks of the plot that seem to confirm exactly what I was suspicious of. More on that, later.
First, I want to vent about this trend that we've been seeing for the past decade or so.
Christopher Nolan's Batman films had the origin of Batman, then a Batman who gave up after 2 years or whatever, and then a retired "old Batman" in The Dark Knight Rises. The series completely skipped over Bruce Wayne being Batman, but whatever, it served the purpose of that trilogy.
Then, to follow that up, we had this birth of a new multi-film franchise with the Justice League, and yet, Zack Snyder decides he wants to START with "Old Batman" again? Why?? We got two films out of Batfleck before everything went to hell and now, the new Batman film—if it ever actually happens—thankfully is going with a younger Batman. Hopefully, they don't make the mistake of making him Old Batman by the second film.
Daniel Craig's James Bond followed the same pattern. The first film was his origin, the second film was a direct immediate follow-up, and then poof, he's Old James Bond for three films, because someone was super into the idea of asking the question "Wouldn't it be interesting if we had a 007 who was struggling with his age? We haven't seen that before" and pulled the trigger in the THIRD film in the series, rather than the fifth or so. Then, they had nothing to follow it up with but retreading that same pattern.
It seems there's a tendency to want to have Evil Superman on the big screen. He wasn't as good of a guy in Man of Steel, he was hated in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and a portion of Justice League revolved around Evil Superman (which would have been much bigger in the original idea). Apparently, Supergirl just did their version of the Red Son storyline, and Red Son is going to get an animated film adaptation soon, too. Two more variations of Evil Superman to go along with the Return of Superman animated film that addressed that idea and has been made twice.
Jurassic World was just a worse version of Jurassic Park, and the sequel was a thinly-veiled copy/paste of The Lost World in a lot of ways.
And here we are, getting ready for Terminator: Dark Fate and they're killing off John Connor again.
This is an idea that Hollywood has been trying to do for a LONG time, and they've already just about done it twice before, but that wasn't enough.
At first, it was Terminator Salvation, with the original plot being that John was killed and Marcus took up the mantle. Bait and switch. We got you! John wasn't really the savior of humanity like you thought, because he was just an inspiration and a name that people needed to get behind and this other dude could wear his skin or whatever and fulfill that role! Aren't we clever?
Thankfully, they were talked out of that, and the film went down the way it did.
But then, Terminator Genisys happened, and surprise surprise, John's evil in this and totally not the savior we all thought he was! Let's kill him off!
And now, Dark Fate is going to have a plot where Skynet is renamed Legion and they kill John, just so we could have a NEW SAVIOR who is just "female John Connor...wouldn't that be a neat twist?"
 |
| You might as well name her Joan Connor... |
No. It isn't original, as you've done it before. It isn't different, as it's happened twice. It didn't work the previous two times and it won't work this time. You're just rehashing the same exact plot, but throwing away the entire purpose of the only two films in this franchise people actually care about and consider to be good, all at the fan service of your own idea that you are valuing over everything else.
You want to know the reason Star Wars is in shambles now compared to what it was before The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi came out? Because this new regime has 1) repeated everything from the original trilogy, and 2) spat in the face of the films before it in order to replace those characters with their own versions.
Yes, there are misogynist idiots out there who don't like Rey strictly because she's a woman and any female protagonist, no matter how great she would be written, would bother them. But there are more people like myself who hate how she is a poorly written protagonist who happens to be female, and who is prioritized over the previous characters. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Luke, Leia, Han, Lando and everyone did everything they did in order to WIN, only for it all to be thrown away because "REY has to be the one who really wins, and if you think we did a bad job with our crappy writing and our preferential treatment to our own characters, we'll call you sexist, because clearly, your problem was that she was a woman, even though that's not what you're complaining about."
Here is my issue with this new Terminator plot. I have no problem at all that the heroic Terminator is a woman. In fact, that's pretty awesome, and I'm glad they're doing that, as it not only provides a positive role model for the young girls watching the film, it's also a subversion of expectations and something we haven't seen before outside of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which was so underrated). Until I'm given a reason to believe otherwise, I'm 100% down with the new Hero Terminator.
My issue is that they're killing the main character - the savior of humanity - in order to replace him with a new one, because "wouldn't that be interesting to do the same thing as before, but this time, it's a girl?"
This new girl, the new savior of humanity, if you wanted me to get on board with her as the driving point going forward, THIS is how you properly introduce that plot point:
- The year is 2019. Judgment Day never happened as it was supposed to.
- John became a senator, like the other ending of Terminator 2. He had a daughter, like in that ending, who had asked Sarah to help tie her shoes.
- Sarah has never stopped being paranoid that Judgment Day will happen, but despite her hysterical tendencies, John has never put her in a psychiatric ward, because he knows his mom is not insane. This has led to lots of criticism with everyone, including at times, his wife, Kate.
- Why not tie that name in, and if you want to up the diversity factor, make Kate of some sort of Hispanic ethnicity. It seems they're going in that direction with a focal point anyway, it helps broaden the range of casting, it's 2019 and if you have a problem with John marrying someone who isn't a blonde haired white girl, then you've got bigger problems than this movie, etc. Anyway, just a random note.
- John's relationship with his daughter (let's name her Tara, after Tara Holden) is strained. She doesn't believe in all this doomsday talk and doesn't understand why her father has spent his life fighting bills that are proposing AI and weapons manufacturing and whatnot.
- Then, it happens. A new Terminator shows up, targeting not just John, but Tara, too.
- The female Hero Terminator helps save the day and we get the backstory of why this is happening. Judgment Day was stopped, but a New Judgment Day has been created in a parallel timeline that is bleeding over into ours. You see, they DID stop Judgment Day, but they only stopped this reality's Judgment Day, and the original timeline worked out a little differently elsewhere.
- Skynet figured out time travel in the original film. What would be the next logical step if they had succeeded? They would see other realities as a threat and would advance their science to learning how to cross dimensions.
- Now, you've got a built-in excuse to have multiple different Terminator offshoot films and projects, where you're dealing with other stories and possibilities that you can fold in on itself from time to time.
- John from this timeline is considered the apex of it all. He's the one who stopped a Judgment Day from happening, and he's the biggest threat, but at this point, he's already gone ahead and done the worst thing in the world for Skynet, which is that he had his daughter.
- You see, in the grand scheme of things, Sarah was immensely important because she was fated to give birth to John, who won the war for humanity. And the next step for John wasn't death, but to be an inspiration. He's already done that with the people who follow his career (and in the other scenario, those who were inspired by his fighting in the war), and there's nobody who will look up to him as much as his future daughter, who takes on his teachings and follows in the family legacy.
- In this parallel universe timeline, John stopped the original Judgment Day, and Tara stopped the invasion from the other universe and figured out a way to keep that fight going, so they need to kill everyone before that happens and blah blah blah.
Look at that. You've got a female protagonist with an actual purpose that is new, but still fits the theme of the franchise and makes it so John isn't a failure who was kept alive just to die and be replaced. You have a female Hero Terminator because why not? You have Sarah fighting alongside John and Tara to keep the family unit strong. You can even work in Arnold in some way, but this isn't supposed to be a super in-depth fan fiction post and it's already gone on longer in that direction than I had intended, as I'm on a roll with this rant.
Killing John isn't interesting. It just shows that you have ONE idea and you keep going back to that well, and that one idea is "let's undo what the other films did." That's what has hurt this new Star Wars series. Old Batman not being able to be Batman isn't interesting anymore. Evil Superman not being able to be SUPERMAN - the embodiment of what is good - is not as impactful anymore. A James Bond who isn't able to perform has been done.
THINK OF SOME NEW IDEAS THAT DON'T REQUIRE FLIPPING THE SCRIPT. If you can't take the lore of something and build upon it in a natural way, and your only answer is to either repeat what has already been done with your new versions of the same characters (Rey is Luke, Finn is Han, Poe is Leia) or you have to throw out the entire purpose of what preceded it (Anakin is the chosen one who restores balance to The Force and Luke and company save the galaxy, only for The Force to not be in balance and The Empire to basically reform again)...then, I had to inform you, but you're a terrible writer.
Terminator 2 is my favorite movie of all time and has been since I was a child, and with each passing film, they keep trying to ruin that. And you know what? They're succeeding.
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Sunday, June 2, 2019
Welcome to the first of what I'm hoping will be an ongoing series here at Fanboys Anonymous, dubbed Ending the Marvel Universe, wherein I'll be giving you my ideas of how I feel particular characters from Marvel Comics should wrap up their stories.
Before getting into anything, let's establish some ground rules for this first edition.
What I'm attempting to do here is approach each character from a "grand scheme of things" overall perspective, rather than any particular version of the character. For instance, the version of Peter Parker from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is different from Superior Spider-Man, which is different from the 90s animated series and so on. However, I feel like there are some fundamental tropes that should stay a constant, and I like to keep all of those in mind while thinking of these scenarios.
Also, as much as I like playing around with What If scenarios, I also want to make sure this doesn't feel like a Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe type setup. This isn't "some dystopian world where wouldn't it be interesting if XYZ happened?" Rather, this is my idea of "if I had the ability to script the beginning, middle and end of this character's arc, how would I conclude their story with the very last piece of the puzzle?"
On top of that, since we're dealing with more than one particular character at a time, we need to rope in their supporting cast. If I am doing an Ending the DC Universe story for Batman, I want to tell you how I think Alfred Pennyworth's story ends and so on.
So with all of that out of the way, let's start with someone who is very much at the forefront of this type of idea at the moment, after Avengers: Endgame - Iron Man.
HOW TO CONCLUDE THE IRON MAN STORY
My idea of Tony Stark is very much what we got in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's a playboy, a total jerk with a massive ego, very quick-witted and funny, who happens to have a heart of gold (and some metal fragments) that fundamentally drives him to be a superhero, rather than a supervillain, as he could have very easily gone the opposite direction and become someone like Dr. Doom or Dr. Octopus.
Stark isn't someone I think needs to die a sacrificial death. In the MCU, it made sense, given Robert Downey Jr.'s contract and such, but in the comics and other media, you aren't constricted by that type of environment. Instead, I think Stark's death is a prolonged one.
In my mind, the Marvel Universe works in such a way that the Scientist Supreme idea is pretty neat, but that title should go to Reed Richards. To me, he is THE smartest out of the typical characters (obviously excluding folks like The Living Tribunal), but there are others who are insanely intelligent in their own right. Shuri, Peter Parker, The Tinkerer, Amadeus Cho (maybe my #2 or #3 if you count Doom as #2), etc.
Bruce Banner's specialty is biology and gamma radiation. Hank Pym's is molecular physics and he just so happened to have developed an affinity for ants out of necessity. Beast is brilliant. High Evolutionary is absurdly intelligent. Mr. Sinister is and so on.
Tony Stark is THE guy when it comes to mechanical engineering. That is where his expertise lie and where he presents the biggest contribution to the Marvel Universe. Basically, if you want something to be built, he's your guy. He's responsible for quinjets and the Avengers headquarters in all incarnations. He's the guy to build Ultron or find a way to destroy it, not Pym. Stark's empire is weaponry made out of technology and his legacy should be technology that isn't necessarily all weaponry.
Tony lives a long life. He does everything in his power to keep his vitals going well into advanced age. He's not a biologist, so he's not able to cure death or anything crazy, but he's able to slowly keep replacing body parts of his with mechanical organs to keep himself going longer and longer.
Eventually, Pepper Potts, who is in control of Stark Industries/Enterprises, passes away from natural causes. She isn't driven by the same type of motivations as Tony and doesn't want to become more robotic and all, and she's also more at peace with death. Tony makes sure she's comfortable, and they have a great life together.
They have children. Possibly a boy and a girl, named Anthony Howard Stark and let's say Morgan Pepper Stark. I'm not sold on the names 100%, but that doesn't matter as much. More on them, later.
Happy Hogan retires from any kind of labor and dies a normal death, probably from hypertension or heart failure or whatever due to his weight. That sounds sad, but it's just the way most people go, and of course, he's missed.
Rhodey retires from active service and becomes the head of the weapons division of Stark Industries. After all, they're still going to create weapons, right? They're just more responsible about it all. Eventually, when Rhodes passes away, he is given many honors for his military contributions and his role as an Avenger.
Kenjiro Fujikawa takes over for Pepper Potts as CEO in control of Stark Industries when she leaves. Eventually, the business is divided between Rumiko Fujikawa and Tony Jr and Morgan. Let's even go so far as to say that Rumiko and Tony shack up and have a daughter they eventually name Kiri if we want to tie in that comic or something.
What's Riri Williams doing with all this? Well, she's the person who takes up the mantle of Ironheart when Tony stops being Iron Man and before his kids can get involved in that side of things. Riri is a prodigy and someone who is bankrolled by him. Let's say Harley Keener is, too, if we want to bring him into the mix. He could be Iron Lad. I don't know. The point is, Ironheart is out there as the superhero aspect and she names herself that in honor of Tony's impetus for being Iron Man.
But that's not all, as I love the Iron Legion concept and the Guardsmen, so more than anything, Tony Stark doesn't want one singular Iron Man or Iron Woman, he wants robots to be able to do the work for them so nobody is actually getting hurt. Who controls those, as well as most of the production side of the company? A triumvirate of J.A.R.V.I.S., Friday and H.O.M.E.R.
And that is where we wrap things up. How does Tony Stark's story end?
Eventually, he's basically a brain in a jar, having become more machine than man, and he not only realizes this, but he realizes that his time is up when there is something like an inoperable brain tumor or whatever (possibly a tie-in to Ultimate Iron Man). So he does the one last thing he can do, which is to download his consciousness into an artificial intelligence so he'll always be with his kids.
Tony becomes the new J.A.R.V.I.S. and he may even be silly enough to give himself a name similar to that, like S.T.A.R.K. being Sentient Tactical Autonomous Robotic Kompanion or Synthetic Thought Analysis Resource of Knowledge or whatever.
Tony's consciousness is downloaded into all the computers and he's going to live forever, theoretically speaking, so he can continue to watch over the world and contribute in that way long after his body has given up on him.
And just before he passes away and the uplink is complete, he sees Ho Yinsen giving him peace that he didn't waste his life, as well as his mom and dad who are proud of him, his best friends Rhodey and Happy, and his wife, Pepper, all welcoming him from the great beyond.
That is how I would end Iron Man's story.
What did you think of these ideas? Which character would you like me to focus on for the next edition? How would YOU end the Iron Man saga?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Saturday, June 1, 2019
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:
Zoe Saldana Was Almost Cast as Lois Lane in Man of Steel
I've always thought Amy Adams wasn't a good choice for the part, and I feel like Zoe Saldana might have been better. However, if she did that, she might not have done Guardians of the Galaxy, so we got the better end of that deal. Who knows who would have been Gamora in this other universe?
Rey's Father is Han Solo...Maybe...No?
A rumor going around is that it will be revealed that Han Solo had Rey with another woman, not Leia, during a short time when they were separated, and that's why Ben is so pissed at him. Not only would this be a pointless change, it's also a stupid means of doing something that doesn't solve the real problem. The issue many have with Rey is that she's absurdly powerful for no reason other than "bad writing, fuck you if you disagree, that must mean you hate women." If she were a Skywalker, that would explain why she's so powerful, because it's in her blood. But in order for that to happen, she needs to be the offspring of Luke or Leia, NOT Han Solo.
At this point, I'm hoping if they aren't going to say that she's Ben's sister as a byproduct of Han and Leia, that they make her Ben's lover and she ends up having Ben's kid and THAT kid is the subject of the future of protecting The Force, and they use "Skywalker" as a new name instead of "Jedi" or something. But to be honest, I have no faith in any of the Star Wars movies anymore.
However, it's supposedly already been debunked by Pablo Hidalgo by the math of it all, which, of course, we knew (but only through books, because these movies can't explain anything anymore and require tons of books and comics to explain what everything is).
Matthew Vaughn's Idea for Superman Trilogy
The entire first film being Krypton and Superman growing up there as an adult before coming to Earth? Bad idea. That flies directly in opposition of one of the absolute core aspects of his character, and whenever people do that, it makes me wonder why they think they should be making these stories. If your intent is to do something different for the sake of different, but you're presenting it as anything other than "What if..." or whatever, then you're just wrong. That's why you'll never hear me pitch the idea of a Spider-Man series where Peter Parker grew up with Uncle Ben being perfectly alive, or a Batman pitch where Alfred is some car mechanic named Big Al....stupid...
Idris Elba's Rumored Suicide Squad Character
There had been talk before that he was taking over the Deadshot role, which went away. Then, rumors of Deathstroke or Sportsmaster. But now, what I believe to be the most credible, is that he could be Bronze Tiger.
That makes SO much more sense to me, and I say bring it on.
Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer Leaks
The Manfredi mob? Silvio Manfredi? Very cool!
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?
LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, May 31, 2019
On the latest edition of the Fanboys Anonymous REVIEWPOINT podcast, host Tony Mango breaks down the hits and misses of Godzilla: King of the Monsters by discussing what worked, what didn't, and whether you should see it or skip it.
GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019):
DIRECTED BY
Michael Dougherty
WRITTEN BY
Michael Dougherty (screenplay and story), Max Borenstein (story) and Zach Shields (screenplay and story)
STARRING:
Kyle Chandler (Mark Russell), Vera Farmiga (Dr. Emma Russell), Millie Bobby Brown (Madison Russell), Ziyi Zhang (Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling), Bradley Whitford (Dr. Rick Stanton), Sally Hawkins (Dr. Vivienne Graham) and Ken Watanabe (Dr. Ishiro Serizawa)
Members of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species-thought to be mere myths-rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity's very existence hanging in the balance.
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!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Monday, May 27, 2019
Even if the show's quality dipped down from time to time, The Big Bang Theory was on the air for 12 seasons, so the finale had a lot to live up to.
After having watched the last episode, I felt mostly satisfied with the conclusion of nearly everybody, but very disappointed with how Raj's story wrapped up. Or, rather, didn't.
Raj's character arc throughout the show went from a guy who couldn't speak to women to someone who could and was searching for love to no avail. He needed to end with some sort of happy finish that showed that his efforts wouldn't be in vain.
Instead, his finish was a throwaway joke that he was on a date with Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is married (to Freddie Prinze Jr.). There's no hint that the future will be different for him than any other episode of any other season. He's still alone, he still has no prospects, nothing.
And I feel like this would have been SUCH an easy thing to fix, which bugs me so much that I felt the need to write this up, as it's still in my mind this long after that last episode aired.
How do you fix it? You just change Gellar to a completely random woman.
Raj sits next to someone on the plane that he has maybe two bits of dialogue with. One little exchange. There's a bit of flirtation, wherein he mentions that the last time he was going to get on a plane, he was going to propose to someone he wouldn't have wanted to spend his life wife, and that Howard showed him how he needs the romance he's always been hoping for.
There could be a connection with this random woman, wherein he'd feel a romantic spark with the idea in mind that he could have met the love of his life on the plane ride to the Nobel ceremony...and she'd somehow be presented in a way that the audience would get it.
Then, she's the one who is his date at the ceremony, and there could be a throwaway joke about how Sheldon thanks her in his speech even though he doesn't know her name yet or whatever.
That way, it's hinted that Raj has a future with this woman and that they'll forever have a story to tell about how they met and how romantic it was.
Now was that so hard?
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Saturday, May 25, 2019
On the latest edition of the Fanboys Anonymous REVIEWPOINT podcast, hosts Tony Mango and Caroline Oliveira breaks down the hits and misses of Brightburn by discussing what worked, what didn't, and whether you should see it or skip it.
BRIGHTBURN (2019):
DIRECTED BY
David Yarovesky
WRITTEN BY
Brian and Mark Gunn
STARRING:
Elizabeth Banks (Tori Breyer), David Denman (Kyle Breyer), Jackson A. Dunn (Brandon Breyer), Matt Jones (Noah McNichol), Meredith Hagner (Merilee McNichol), Becky Wahlstrom (Erica), and Gregory Alan Williams (Sheriff Deever)
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.
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!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, May 24, 2019
On the latest edition of the Fanboys Anonymous REVIEWPOINT podcast, host Tony Mango breaks down the hits and misses of Aladdin by discussing what worked, what didn't, and whether you should see it or skip it.
ALADDIN (2019):
DIRECTED BY
Guy Ritchie
WRITTEN BY
John August and Guy Ritchie
STARRING:
Mena Massoud (Aladdin), Naomi Scott (Princess Jasmine), Will Smith (Genie), Marwan Kenzari (Jafar), Navid Negahban (The Sultan), Nasim Pedrad (Dalia), Billy Magnussen (Prince Anders), Numan Acar (Hakim), Robby Haynes (Razoul), with Frank Welker (Abu, Cave of Wonders) and Alan Tudyk (Iago)
Young Aladdin embarks on a magical adventure after finding a lamp that releases a wisecracking genie.
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!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Sunday, May 19, 2019
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the latest in the line of animated DC direct-to-video films. Is it worth the watch or it is something that should be skipped?
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Directed by Jake Castorena
Written by Marly Halpern-Graser
STARRING:
Troy Baker (Bruce Wayne / Batman, The Joker), Eric Bauza (Leonardo), Darren Criss (Raphael), Baron Vaughn (Donatello), Kyle Mooney (Michelangelo), Ben Giroux (Damian Wayne / Robin), Rachel Bloom (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl), Brian George (Alfred Pennyworth), Jim Meskimen (Commissioner James Gordon, Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow), Andrew Kishino (Oroku Saki / Shredder), Cas Anvar (Ra's al Ghul), Keith Ferguson (Baxter Stockman, Harvey Dent / Two-Face), Tom Kenny (Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin), Carlos Alazraqui (Bane), John DiMaggio (Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze) and Tara Strong (Harley Quinn, Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy)
WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW
Here are some specific thoughts that ran through my mind during the course of the film as a stream of consciousness:
- Gotham loves its blimps.
- In the context of this story, Barbara totally confused me as April O'Neil until they said the name.
- Why did they choose to give Batman the blue and gray outfit?
- Bruce drinks out of a Superman mug? What a surprisingly non-egotistical thing to do.
- I feel like the dynamics of this team-up should be that Batman gets along best with Leonardo, Barbara with Donatello, Dick Grayson with Mikey and Damian with Raph.
- The aesthetics of Penguin and his goons is very campy, but works.
- Wait a sec, is that one goon supposed to be Krang?
- YOOOO that Foot Soldier getting the ninja star to the head was not expected.
- Glad they didn't job Batman out to Shredder just so the turtles could be the only ones capable of taking him down.
- Full-on Baxter Stockman. I like it.
- Ubu rarely shows up. Nice to see him alongside Ra's al Ghul.
- So homeboy turned into a wolf. If they don't have another that turns into a snapping turtle, I'll be surprised.
- Donatello's head is weird.
- Love Damian being a violent jerk who is underestimated.
- A decapitation, too? Goddamn. Some violent deaths in this kids' movie.
- I want some road pizza.
- Troy Baker is the second best Joker voice behind Mark Hamill.
- Damian's voice is annoying. Too mousey.
- Pink Floyd reference...I don't know if I love it or hate it.
- Jason Todd's death is canon in this, which is very cool.
- Way too much sauce on that pizza if every bite causes them to have an entire mouth covered like that.
- Joker Shredder is wicked.
Most of these animated films are 90 minutes of very generic action and a thin plot. This was certainly that. But hey, it was fun to see Batman and the turtles team up. Childhood me from the 90s would have FREAKED to see this, and it probably would have been one of those films I would have watched nonstop. At least for nostalgia purposes, if you're into these characters, you should definitely check it out.
See It or Skip It = See It!
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FILM?
LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, May 17, 2019
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:
Charlize Theron Turned Down Hippolyta in Wonder Woman
Supposedly, Theron was offered the role and turned it down (seemingly out of a bit of offense that she would be Wonder Woman's mom as opposed to Wonder Woman). Frankly, I think it's for the best. She's a great actress that could do wonders (pun intended) in a lot of roles, but I don't think either of those would have been a good fit for her.
Connie Nielsen did the role justice. She's not an unknown, but she's not as recognizable of a face as Theron, and it would have been a bit distracting seeing Theron in the role.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Teaser
Yeaaaah....no.....
Black Mirror Season 5 Trailer
Black Mirror can pretty much do no wrong at this point, after so many episodes. I have no idea what's going on with these teasers, and I don't want to know. Just hook me up.
Batman: Hush Trailer
I'm down with just the name Batman in the trailer, let alone that it's Hush. The trailer didn't wow me, but there was nothing that kept me from still being excited.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Reboot
Why? Just because it's a named entity from the time frame people my age were kids? There's no need for this.
Chris Rock Rebooting Saw
Why? Wasn't there enough of these movies? Is it really that hard to think of a new series than to just slap the Saw logo on it and hope people see it?
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?
LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, May 10, 2019
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:
Avengers: Endgame Surpasses Titanic
The movie is now the #2 highest grossing film of all time worldwide and is approaching Avatar's record super fast.
Oddly, it still has a long way to go before it surpasses The Force Awakens for the domestic total, and we could see it become the worldwide top before it beats out the USA one. Strange.
I sincerely hope Endgame beats literally every possible record. Avatar doesn't deserve that top spot, nor does The Force Awakens, and the MCU really is the king of all franchises and should be the benchmark.
Who Was Katherine Langford in Avengers: Endgame?
Apparently, not Kate Bishop, but the older version of Morgan Stark, who would have appeared to Tony in a soul world vision (similar to how Gamora popped up and talked to Thanos). Morgan would have given Tony his blessing for sacrificing himself and it would have served as a means to tell him that everything will be okay.
I wish they would have included this! That would have been such a good parallel to compare his goal and that of Thanos, and their relationships with their daughters. That's a shame we didn't get to see it. But just because we didn't see it on screen doesn't mean it isn't still canon, as that could have been what Tony saw in a momentary flash before he had passed away.
Headcanon, quite literally in his head.
Spider-Man: Far From Home Trailer
VERY cool. I'll be honest, I still absolutely hate some things about this version of Spider-Man, like Michelle "MJ" Jones and Flash Thompson, and how they're missing Harry Osborn, and how...you know what, another rant for another time. This is about the positives.
Carrying on after Iron Man's death is a great story. Bringing Nick Fury and Maria Hill in is great. Having Mysterio be masquerading, I think, as someone from another world is a good idea, cause when he reveals that he's actually just a con artist, then that's even cooler.
Did I spot a Crusher Hogan poster? Very cool detail!
The overall feel of this and everything about it, for the most part, I really dig. Sign me up. Wait, I already bought my ticket, so I guess I'm already signed up.
Possible Role for Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker
Rumor has it they'll reveal that Snoke was possessed by Palpatine and Matt Smith's character will be the next vessel, before eventually going into Kylo Ren, who will convert to the light and reject Palpatine and restore himself as Ben Solo.
If they go this route, that's at least a method of TRYING to fix some of the problems, but it doesn't fix everything. It still means Anakin and Luke were failures. It still means they couldn't do a trilogy without just repeating the original trilogy. It doesn't help fix Rey's character. So on and so forth. But it's at least a start.
Disney's Film Slate Dates
There are a lot of interesting things to take away from this information of the upcoming 2020-2027 release schedule.
New Mutants has been moved AGAIN. I don't know why they don't just rename this to "Mutants" and put it on Hulu.
Avatar's sequels are being pushed back AGAIN too. I'm wondering if this means James Cameron is perpetually waiting for a new type of technology to be what sells these movies, just like how the first film only made as much money as it did because of the 3D gimmick. But if that's the case and these movies can't stand on their own and need some 4D or whatever type bonus thing to entice people to see them, then that's awful and they shouldn't make the movies, but do something new and different.
Gambit is RIP. Saw that one coming. That's a shame, though. Channing Tatum had a lot of potential for that.
Star Wars is taking some time off. Maybe that's to recalibrate what their plans are and actually, I don't know, plan something in advance? They should have done that from the beginning and didn't and now they're paying the price.
They're still advertising this March 27, 2020 Mulan movie, but I'm not seeing much in the headway of that. Curious.
Also curious how Jungle Cruise is going to be different from just being a combination of Jumanji and San Andreas or something.
Cruella is going to be stupid, I bet. December 23, 2020 is a good release date for it, though.
"Untitled Indiana Jones" for July 9, 2021. Interesting.
It: Chapter 2 Trailer
Creepy. Great casting. I'm curious what they've changed this time around.
Michael Rooker for King Shark?
Yes please!!! That would be awesome!
Lethal Weapon Cancelled
Why didn't they just cancel it after season 2 with the whole switch from Clayne Crawford? You can't have Lethal Weapon without Martin Riggs. He IS the Lethal Weapon. Stupid. If they had tried to recast him with Sean William Scott, it would have still been a problem, but maybe it would have worked. Replacing the character itself is a different story.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE TOPICS?
LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Thursday, May 9, 2019
On the latest edition of the Fanboys Anonymous REVIEWPOINT podcast, host Tony Mango breaks down the hits and misses of Pokémon Detective Pikachu by discussing what worked, what didn't, and whether you should see it or skip it.
POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019):
DIRECTED BY
Rob Letterman
WRITTEN BY
Atsuko Nishida (characters), Benji Samit (screenplay and story), Dan Hernandez (screenplay and story), Derek Connolly (screenplay), Haruka Utsui (original story), Nicole Perlman (story), Rob Letterman (screenplay), Tomokazu Ohara (original story)
STARRING:
Ryan Reynolds (Detective Pikachu), Justice Smith (Tim Goodman), Kathryn Newton (Lucy Stevens), Bill Nighy (Howard Clifford), Ken Watanabe (Lieutenant Hide Yoshida), Chris Geere (Roger Clifford), Suki Waterhouse (Ms. Norman), and Rita Ora (Dr. Ann Laurent)
Ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son, Tim, to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry's former Pokémon partner, wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth Pokémon Detective Pikachu. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to work together, as Tim is the only human who can talk with Pikachu, they join forces to unravel the tangled mystery.
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!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Lucifer is back with season 4, this time on Netflix! This means instead of having one episode per week, we get to have our dose of the show in binge form, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
As such, welcome to what I like to refer to as my running episode commentary breakdown, wherein I will be documenting my thoughts as I watch every episode. Throughout the season, I'll be adding notes as a stream of consciousness of sorts, giving you a feel of what's going on in my mind. Then, once it's over and the season has concluded, I'll wrap everything up with my overall thoughts.
I invite you to follow along as best you can and to leave your thoughts in the comments below just the same!
*WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW!*
Episode 1 - "Everything's Okay"
- They always have good choices in music on this show, and I love Creep. Great way to start things off.
- I'm glad they're not forgetting that Maze and Trixie didn't end in the best light.
- I like that they're acting like Chloe is okay with it, but we know that can't possibly be true. That's a better direction than having her go straight into hysteria.
- Two honey stands in the same farmer's market? No wonder there's a problem. Who the hell needs even one of them, let alone competition?
- Door knobs? If there was a serial killer with that gimmick, he would have to have catch phrases and slogans like saying "knock knock" to his victims.
- I immediately don't trust this "cop"
- BOB THE KNOB. LMAO.
- They should have Chloe be hesitant to let Trixie around anyone, like a good mom.
- Still don't trust the cop.
- "Horror? Disgust? Mild arousal?" haha
- Awww, poor Amenadiel needs to be needed.
- Stigmata, maybe?
- GREAT moment with Amenadiel helping Dan get some closure. Loved that.
- Chloe's going to be looking for a way to kill Lucifer, isn't she? Like a holy mission? That's a good angle. I like that.
- Very solid first episode here. It's the same as the show was, with no real differences except maybe some better production quality, possibly. That's perfect.
Episode 2 - "Somebody's Been Reading Dante's Inferno"
- That's awesome Lucifer's been on the radar of exorcists and such. Why wouldn't he be, you know?
- Cute little vial
- I'd probably like Judd on this reality show for being a complete asshat.
- It's weird that they still have commercial breaks without commercials. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there aren't commercials. It's just weird still.
- Gary Coleman's in hell?
- Ella's perpetually adorable.
- Rice and coconut, I'm fond of. Snails...I'll pass on that meal.
- Creepy Amenadiel is great.
- Well that "homeless" woman is going to Hell.
- Cool devils don't turn around when there are explosions behind them.
- So why is Lucifer's suit perfectly fine?
- Linda's pregnant, isn't she?
- Did Chloe leave the vial? I guess I'll find out by the end of the episode.
- Wow, they didn't wait any time at all for Linda to confront Amenadiel about that. I thought they would have at least dragged that out until the end of the next episode. They must be really using this 10-episode structure to its fullest. Curious why Eve hasn't shown up yet, though.
Episode 3 - "O, Ye of Little Faith, Father"
- "Your sex holes are never going back to normal" - Maze is a treasure.
- Trixie looks so much older, it's nuts. What is she, like, 42 now?
- End of Days is better than some of Arnold's movies, though. Did you see Collateral Damage?
- Kudos to Linda for recognizing that a proposal isn't the way to fix these fears about the baby. Far too many people do that.
- Ha. Apple. I get it.
- It's 7:45am and I haven't slept yet. It's time for me to get some rest. Big fan of this season, though, and I'm excited to keep this going.
Episode 4 - "All About Eve"
- "He was decapitated?!" - haha I love Ella
- Eve is hot, but that was a weird introduction
- Wait, so why was Eve in heaven instead of hell?
- Maze being so protective of Linda and her kid is cute
- I love how quirky Eve is.
- So the forbidden fruit is Lucifer's dick? LOL
- Sandy Bumford haha. That sucks.
- Linda is so much the heart of this show. I've loved her character from the very beginning.
- I just noticed Ella's taco shirt, "every now and then I fall apart". I love it.
- I do hate in shows how people just walk into someone's place to stumble across them doing something like kissing someone else and then have that whole drama. It's too fabricated.
Episode 5 - "Expire Erect"
- That sandwich doesn't look like the answer to me. I think I'd rather have pizza.
- Jeez Eve...O__O
- He got tired!!!!!!! I loved that pun.
- Good ol' Nameless You.
- I want a burger.
- Are they really thinking about hooking up Maze and Dan? It would pair everyone off except for Ella, but I don't know how they could pull that off.
- Look at Eve not being catty or bitchy or anything. Big fan of that.
- Heeeey Eve and Ella making out. Oh stop rolling your eyes. I'm a guy and I'm only human.
- Damn! Another great Amenadiel moment with the "No wonder your dad is so proud of you." How great must that be, to know from an actual angel that your dad is in heaven and that he's watching over you and all? I'd love to have that reassurance.
- So is Eve now going to be so afraid to lose Lucifer that she'll try to kill Chloe so that he isn't vulnerable ever again? That's my assumption. We have to do something to paint her in a negative portrait.
Episode 6 - "Orgy Pants to Work"
- Call me old fashioned, but that orgy doesn't seem like it would have been a fun time, no matter how hot Eve is.
- It just dawned on me that even though I'm not binging this straight through, this is SO much easier to binge than something like Iron Fist or Jessica Jones.
- But I'm confused about the sudden skip of "many months later" outside of how they clearly need to speed up the pregnancy.
- I'm thinking maybe the next episode is when we get Adam?
- "Fetch me the goat"
- Okay, family tree time. So Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel, Adam's first wife was Lilith, who is Maze's mom, and Eve shacked up with Lucifer, who is the son of God and The Goddess of Creation, who also had Amenadiel and other brothers and sisters, including this new chick who looks like a cross between Anna Akana and Lady Sif. Lucifer's totes going to be with Chloe, who is the mom of Trixie, and the ex-wife of Dan, who used to be with Lucifer's mom, kind of. Also, Amenadiel's got a baby on the way with Linda, who fucked Lucifer. Okay, I'm caught up, and poor Ella is not involved in any of this.
- Nudist Ella. This episode is a win from that alone.
- Oh damn, I didn't see that cop's death coming.
- Vigilante Lucifer makes sense. Vigilucifer.
Episode 7 - "Devil is as Devil Does"
- Oh wait, Lucifer didn't kill Julian?
- The Man with the Golden Gun! Huge James Bond fan, and that is one of my guilty pleasure favorites (C-tier level, meaning I know it's fundamentally not as good as an A-tier one like GoldenEye or Casino Royale, but it's totally a stupid fun ride)
- On this Tiernan dude looks like he could be the devil with just those eyebrows alone. Jesus.
- Maze is fucking with Linda.
- Told ya.
- Stop being a bitch, Remy.
- Nice going, Detective Douche. You almost got your daughter killed.
- Ella and Dan? Nope. Not a natural fit.
- Welp. Those are certainly some devil wings. Suuuuuuuuuuucks.
Episode 8 - "Super Bad Boyfriend"
- Godfather Lucifer. Ha.
- Super giddy Eve is fucking great. This actress nails it.
- Blonde girl is totally the villain. It's usually that first person, which is pretty predictable, so I hope I'm wrong.
- Why do I feel like Caleb is a goner the moment he and Amenadiel met?
- That's got to be Maze's stunt double, right?
- Cliche bad husband to Lucifer is to be a bro who likes fantasy sports and all hahahaha
- Addressing race issues with the police. Good decision to call some attention to.
- Well, I guess I'm not wrong about Lexi, unless that's the whole switch where it turns out there's another thing. There's still 15 minutes left.
- Knew it. There was no way Caleb was making it out of this episode alive.
- The real truth is that your hell is knowing that you were a bad person and having to learn to become a better person through the experience of all these humans, because each person's hell is their own self-hatred, right?
Episode 9 - "Save Lucifer"
- No shit someone must have stolen the thumb drive.
- Eve as Decker > Decker
- Not a good cover of Wonderwall.
- Lucifer never goes by Sam, does he?
- Charlie. Good name. But you should name him Charles and nickname him Charlie. Middle names...hm...maybe that's where Sam comes into play?
- I wonder how they would have dealt with this makeup if they were still on Fox. Did the budget go up? It might not have, which might be why Netflix picked them up in the first place.
Episode 10 - "Who's Da New King of Hell"
- The new king of Hell should be Tiernan. They still didn't fully take care of him.
- "I thought you were on my side." / "...I was." - textbook.
- That knife wouldn't have made that sound.
- Discount Sean Penn from Carlito's Way
- D.B. Woodside just said Charlotte instead of Charlie, I think.
- I don't think that lighter would heat up the milk that much.
- I can't help but feel like Chloe could die somehow. It makes more sense for Eve to, though.
- Amenadiel with the Rock Bottom (or Book End if you're more of a Booker T fan)
- Is this woman the T-1000 or something?
- If you could just tell everyone to go home like that, why didn't you do that from the start? That was easy.
- I guess they liked Eve enough to keep her alive in the hopes they bring her back for another season, if they're renewed. Maybe that's when we'll see Adam, too. And Maze's mom, Lilith?
- Proper angel wings. Nice touch. After all, he's supposed to be a legit angel and not a demon.
- Super fake looking CGI with that throne.
WRAP-UP THOUGHTS:
Absolutely fantastic season. Possibly the best one. I feel like this show really knows what the fans want and doesn't bully them around or toy with them.
In particular, I really liked this 10-episode season structure, where everything was kept tight. At times, I could see exactly where they would have stretched it, had they done double the episodes, and I don't think it would have been necessary.
For instance, Caleb would have been at least 3 to 5 episodes, if not longer. That whole subplot of the drugs would have gone on and on and reached the same conclusion. I'm guessing the first 10 episodes would have dragged out the idea of Linda's pregnancy. Those missing months would have been like 6 filler episodes of repeating the same lessons. Dan's story with Charlotte was already stretched pretty thin as it was. Ella probably would have had a whole episode dealing with a church group or something random just to hit that mark some more. So on and so forth.
But that wasn't necessary. We didn't need 3 episodes about Remiel just to get to the same point, especially because she was a weak addition to the cast.
More Eve being Eve would have been fun, but sometimes, less is more. Maybe it would have gotten annoying if it was another 8 or so episodes worth of that, you know?
I think they did a fantastic job with this season. They kept it the same show as before, rather than turning it into something it wasn't just because they had the option of trying something new for the pure sake of it, and they tightened everything up to be a better, more effective story arc for everyone involved.
I'm very much anticipating a season 5 with Lilith as the head of all the demons who are trying to mess with people on Earth, as well as possibly some Adam and Eve shenanigans, and maybe even an appearance from Abel? Who else could we bring in from The Bible? I don't know. I never read the thing. Noah? Job? Some clarification on who actually helps all these football teams win the Super Bowl?
Great job on season 4. Many thanks to Netflix for saving the show, even if it's just for this one season, but hopefully, for many more!
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SEASON?
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Avengers: Endgame was advertised in both title and marketing as the culmination of many different stories for our beloved characters, and for all we know coming out of that movie, it seems to actually have delivered on that promise.
Several heroes and even some villains met their demise or were written out of the franchise with an ending of sorts, and while that may just be a wrap, I'm not entirely convinced of this.
In fact, there are some character we know for sure will be returning in some fashion, due to the pipeline of future projects in the works.
So how will those characters return and what are the options for how the Marvel Cinematic Universe could potentially bring back all of the characters who have been written off?
Here are my theories on where we go, now that they're gone.
SPOILER WARNING FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME!!
Vision
This is the easiest one. Shuri finishes working on repairing his brain like she was trying to do during Infinity War.
That's it. He's a computer. All you need is a new motherboard, a new hard drive, and whatever other parts are necessary to run his operating system, and then you just transfer the old files and you're good.
Maybe Scarlet Witch's connection to the Mind Stone and her powers can help be the jumper cables which are the missing element to the formula, and that's where WandaVision (hate that title) can pick up from.
Natasha Romanoff
Everyone has gone on record multiple times in saying that there is no way to bring Black Widow back. She's gone for good. Forever. Finito. The end. That's it.
I call bullshit on that.
If they returned the stones to the time they got them, does that not mean that Natasha's soul is lingering in something of a limbo status, kind of like what happened in some fashion with Gamora? (More on her later)
If you say she died so they could have Hulk do the snap, then who died for Tony Stark's snap? He didn't, as he died from the wounds of that action, not that he traded his soul. We're missing something there.
If you say that she died so they could take the stone, then when Captain America put it back on Vormir...somehow...that reverses the process, as it needed to be put back in exactly the same time that they took it, or else they've changed the past and created a different timeline, and if they've done that, then the entire purpose of the scene with The Ancient One was moot because they failed.
So how do they bring Natasha back? Well, I don't think it will happen in the Black Widow movie, as that will likely be a prequel, but if they ever decide to, they can just have her be un-snapped and living as an amnesiac.
Think of it somewhat like Bucky. She'll have faint glimpses of her past life, but no real memory of who or what she is, because she's gone through a reboot process of sorts and she's not quite all there yet.
Then, someone comes along to bonk her in the head or do some sort of magic and fix her, and voila.
But that brings me to...
Gamora
She's in a very similar position to Black Widow, but not quite. Nobody is replacing the stone to when Thanos took it. He took it, he used it, that's not being reversed.
But we have Gamora in the Soul World speaking to Thanos and asking him "Did you do it?" and "What did it cost?"—two things which denote consciousness, in some form.
We also have the 2014 Gamora, which makes absolutely no sense to me, but I'm almost giving up trying to wrap my mind around any of that continuity and mathematical balancing act that likely has no real answers.
So here's what I'm thinking. Adam Warlock was teased at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and it's doubtful they did that with no intention to follow through with him.
In the comics, Warlock is incredibly tied to the Soul Gem, and I think a variation of that is in store for Vol. 3 as a means to explain how he was "created" by Ayesha.
The Sovereign are surrounded by gold in every way, as well as literally being gold. Even the anulax batteries (I mean, harbulary batteries) are gold and super powerful.
What if the method in which The Sovereign are able to harness this insane power for the batteries, as well as create perfect beings, is to tap into the Soul World and access the energies of the Infinity Stones by proxy?
If so, Adam Warlock's connection to that could grant him the power to do a merging of the minds between Gamora's 2014 self and the consciousness that was thrown off the cliff by Thanos.
That way, the Gamora who is alive and well is not the same physical being that was killed by Thanos, but she's got the same memories and ends Vol. 3 remembering her love for Star-Lord and the rest of her family, as well as the events of Endgame.
Tony Stark
If you're looking for a means to bring Robert Downey Jr. back into the fold in any capacity, he can be the voice in the suit for Peter Parker's next costume, or a guiding JARVIS artificial intelligence that Morgan Stark can interact with.
Eventually, if they want to do Ironheart and make it Morgan instead of Riri Williams, then he can easily voice the essence of Tony Stark without having to worry about his age or being in shape or anything like that.
But if you're talking about how to bring Iron Man back as an actual person by undoing his death, I think you need to get wacky with the timeline again in some fashion with a character who has the ability to heal Tony and bring him back to life.
I don't think that's happening, though. I think the AI route is the one and only way they'll use him, save for maybe something like watching "old footage" of something and having Downey do a cameo in that fashion, but the character would still be dead.
Steve Rogers as Captain America
Technically, Steve Rogers isn't dead, he's just old and retired, having passed the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson.
All it takes to change that is to have someone de-age Steve, and all it takes for that is someone with the power or technology to de-age someone.
The super soldier serum inside him has kept him alive this long, and there's no telling how that would interact with some other kind of serum or someone's powers tapping into that and rejuvenating his cells or something.
Again, I don't think this will happen, but it's much easier to do that than to mess with the timeline some more, since he's still alive right now.
Heimdall, Loki and the Asgardians
They're not coming back, most likely, but if they did, I think it would be through some passage through Hel and/or Valhalla, winning their souls back, like has happened in the comics in the past.
The Villains
Thanos, Ebony Maw and company aren't coming back. There's no reason for them to. Thanos is the only one worth bringing back and his story is finished with no real possible other things to do.
This includes 2014 Nebula. She's dead. We don't need her. We have the heroic Nebula.
The Snap's Collateral Damage
It hasn't really been addressed how just because half the universe was wiped out from the snap itself doesn't mean those were the only deaths.
If the pilot of an airplane was snapped away, it's likely the whole airline crashed and everyone on board died. Plenty of people got into car accidents because of that. Parents died and left their infant children with nobody to take care of them. Doctors disappeared, making it harder to help cure the ill. People killed themselves because of losing their family members and friends.
Those people won't be brought up, most likely, because it's just too sad to keep mentioning for the rest of the MCU's existence and it's a hard concept to fully wrap your mind around when you're in a movie that will ultimately still boil down to superheroes punching villains.
—
For now, those are my thoughts on the possible ways to bring back the dead or "dead" characters, but my mind could change at any point with future films or new information.
How do you think the MCU would bring these people back? What other ideas do you have?
Tell me your thoughts and keep the discussion going in the comments below!
