New X-Men Titles Due In June

Over the years, Marvel had revamped the X-Men franchise several times. At C2E2, the next X-Men revamp was announced, and it will be hitting shelves this summer.

House Of X, and Powers Of X will launch in June, and will both be written by Jonathan Hickman. The rest of the creative team will be Pepe Larraz, R.S. Silva, and Marte Garcia. It is important to note that the X in Powers Of X is the Roman Numeral 10, so its proper pronunciation is “Powers Of Ten”.

While the entire premise of these new titles was still under wraps, artwork teased at the panel showed several characters from X-Men past, present and future.

Just looking at that image, you can see Mr. Sinister, Wolverine as Weapon X, Wolverine in his 80s brown suit, Apocalypse, Emma Frost as Black Queen, Dazzler in her disco tights, and a ton of others.

Geekville Radio #225: Disney/Fox

It’s a mega-sized collection of news on this episode of Geekville Radio. Seth “Zandrax” Zillmann and “Crazy Train” Jonathan Bolick return to talk some of the major headlines

Disney/Fox Merger and The MCU (1:27)

This week, Disney’s merger/buyout of 21 Century Fox properties still has the world buzzing because it has finally become a reality. The effects that this could have on some of their franchises could be felt for years to come.

Perhaps the biggest news, possibly even bigger than the obvious Star Wars distribution rights, is the Fox owned Marvel properties that can now be incorporated into the MCU.

The most obvious addition would be that of The X-Men. One of fans’ biggest complaints about the MCU is it never incorporated Marvel’s famous mutants. Now, that plethora of of characters can be introduced in Phase Four.

The other Fox owned Marvel property is The Fantastic Four. While the three movies may not have been as successful as most MCU movies, two characters linked to that specific brand could easily become major players as villains in future films. Those are of course Doctor Doom and Galactus.

While many fans are understandably thrilled about this, it is very possible there may be some major changes in store for the franchise.

First off, it is not a given that the existing X-Men actors will carry over into The MCU. And yes, that includes Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Despite already having five films’ worth of Spider-Man films, Marvel still recast Tom Holland in the role.

There is also the possibility that, by using the same actors, continuity just would be less sensical. After all, if the X-Men movies are considered part of the MCU, why didn’t The Avengers assist with any of those world-threatening situations.

Deadpool may stay according to reports, though as Train points out, the studio change may legally be a recasting of the role to Ryan Reynolds, just under a new company.

Disney/Fox Merger and Star Wars (19:20)

Another fan friendly wish that may become a reality is the re-release of the Original Trilogy, aka “Non-Special Editions”, Star Wars films. As discussed before, Fox owned the distribution rights to Star Wars. Thus, any theater or home video release could only be through Fox, unless some deal was worked out with Disney. That of course is no longer an obstacle.

Disney Rehires James Gunn (32:10)

Disney announced the return of director James Gunn to Guardians Of The Galaxy vol. 3. Was the reaction to past controversial tweets overblown? Did Disney cave? Was it just trolls? Or did they have this planned all along? There is evidence for all of these possibilities.

Gunn will still be writing and directing Suicide Squad 2, so Guardians 3 will have to wait for that project to finish before it starts filming.

Arrow will end with Season 8 (40:40)

Actor Stephen Amell broke the news via Twitter that Arrow will be ending after a 10 episode season 8.

Oliver Queen himself revealing that Arrow is coming to an end


We already know that Crisis on Infinite Earths will be next years crossover. We also know they’ve been teasing Crisis since the pilot episode of Flash.

In the comics, Flash and Supergirl die during Crisis. Does this mean their respective TV shows will end as well?

Speaking of deaths, Oliver Queen did die in the DC Universe, but was brought back by Hal Jordan as Spectre. So it is very possible that Ollie may bite the big one, and be brought back in some capacity later on.

Bill And Ted 3 (52:40)

The last segment off the show is devoted to the long-awaited confirmation that a third Bill An Ted movie, now titled Bill And Ted Face The Music, has begun filming. Could a sequel to a 30 year old cult classic work in mainstream 2019?

As always, we welcome your thoughts on all these stories. Let us know in the comments section or on our social media

The Disney Acquisition Of Fox Is Complete

At midnight tonight, the merger between Disney and 20th Century Fox will be complete. This means Disney will officially own many of the biggest franchises in history.

Variety reports, as expected, that Disney shareholders are happy with the news. Meanwhile, Fox shareholders are less enthusiastic.

The good news is, of course, that movie distribution rights for previous Marvel and Star Wars properties are now all under one roof. This means that The X-Men can be formally introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Fox also had rights to Fantastic Four, which means A-Listers like Doctor Doom and Galactus could be part of the next MCU phases as well.

And, as classic trilogy fans have wanted for 20 years, it could conceivably mean that Disney could release “Non-Special Editions” of the original three Star Wars films. It also means the 3D releases, hyped a number of years ago before LucasFilm sold to Disney, could become a reality as well.

Conceivably, Disney could do crossovers with the properties. Could we see a Guardians Of The Galaxy crossover with Star Wars? Or The Deadpool Goofy Movie?

Like with many mergers, there is a downside. In this case, as many as 4,000 people could be laid off. No major business deal goes without losses.

Do you have any hopes for the new Disney/Fox era? Let us know in the comments.

Geekville Radio #213: 10/26/2018

This episode of Geekville Radio is dedicated to the memory of Gary Kurtz. Who, with the exception of George Lucas himself, may be the man most responsible for Star Wars getting made.

RIP Gary Kurtz

He will obviously best known for Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, but he did have other titles to his credit. He also produced George’s first big hit, 1973’s American Graffiti, along with 1989’s Slipstream starring Mark Hamill and the late great Bill Paxton.

RIP Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson is probably best known to the current generation as Hershel in The Walking Dead. He was a regular series cast member in the first couple seasons. He also voiced Hershel for video game releases, and Robot Chicken. Hs career dates back to the mid 1960’s, and his first credited role according to IMDB is the original In The Heat Of The Night

Both Iron Fist and Luke Cage have been canceled by Netlfix

While it may not be surprising just for Iron Fist, fans were a little shocked at the cancellation of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage by Netflix. Both shows were well received, with Iron Fist almost universally praised as being a huge improvement over the first season. Especially when it comes to Finn Jones and fight choreography.

The big question is “Why both shows?”. Seth and Train can really only speculate, but there are a few possible reasons. Could this mean a Heroes For Hire show? Or even a Daughters Of The Dragon? And if so would it be for Netflix or Disney? Is it in either Netflix’s or Disney’s best interests to keep shows on Netflix, and not move them to Disney’s streaming service? And if they are Disney bound, than theoretically they could cross over with Agents Of SHIELD, another show that is rumored to move to Disney either next year or the year after.

On a side note, Seth and Train point out how Luke Cage can be considered the ‘White Meat Babyface” of the Netflix Marvel programming.

Kathleen Kennedy’s contract with LucasFilm has been renewed

Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Kathleen Kennedy will remain the president of Lucasfilm for at least three more years. There were rumors on other podcasts that she was on the chopping block and Disney was scrambling to find a replacement. That looks to not have been the case.

The only Star Wars movie currently in production is Episode IX. It will be the final “Episode”, and it will be marketed as such. There will be the aforementioned films by Game Of Thrones creators. Plus the Rian Johnson trilogy is still in development. So there will be no shortage of Star Wars on the big screen, despite the reported dialing back on films

One title that is absent from this list is the rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi film. We had reported a few months back that the film was set to begin filming in Ireland after Episode IX had wrapped. Just because that movie wasn’t mentioned, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is dead in the water.

When you look at the past films under her watch, several films did have some bumps along the way.

  • Rogue One went through a direction change, with Tony Gilroy taking over to adjust what Gareth Edwards had done. However Edwards maintained Director credit.
  • Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were outright fired from Solo and Ron Howard was hired to almost completely re-shoot the film. When you factor that in, it’s amazing it still made its release deadline.
  • Colin Trevorrow left Episode IX and got replaced by JJ

It seems the only movies that DIDN’T have troubles were with Abrams and Johnson.

Jon Favreau’s Series

In other Star Wars news, Jon Favreau’s series The Mandalorian has begun filming. It of course will be one of the flagship shows on Disney’s upcoming streaming service, now called Disney Play.

While no cast or characters have been announced, the premise will be a few years after Return of The Jedi, but well before The Force Awakens. There will be no First Order as of yet.

Budget for the first season is rumored to be at $100 million dollars. However, no specific number of episodes have been confirmed. But for what it’s worth there is a picture confirming George Lucas himself visiting the set.

Kevin Feige will oversee X-Men movies

On the subject of Disney, Hollywood Reporter has also stated Kevin Feige will be overseeing future X-Men movies with the Disney purchase of Fox. Disney’s Bob Iger gave some key answers to questions about Fox-owned properties in the MCU

I think it only makes sense,” Iger said. “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.

When asked about talent

Very good question. We’re going to take the best people from both companies and that’s who’s gonna basically be on the playing field for us. Meaning, talent will prevail. Fox Searchlight is a great example. You look at FX, NatGeo. Yeah, you’re buying libraries and brands, but you’re also buying the people. I’m not gonna talk about specific people right now except to say that I’ve met with virtually the entire senior management team at Fox and I’m not only fully engaged with them on what the possibilities for them might be but I’m excited about the prospects.

It would stand to reason that many of the characters may get re-cast. As much as fans may want it, they probably shouldn’t hold their breath for an onscreen meeting between Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool.

The Next Spider-Man villain will be Mysterio

Jake Gyllenhaall was officially announced in the cast for Spider-Man Far From Home. He will be portraying Quentin Black, aka Mysterio. This will be the live-action film debut for the longtime Spider-Man villain. It’s also confirmed that Michael Keaton will be reprising the role of Adrian Toombs/Vulture. A leaked set photo shows Gyllenhaal in costume. Sadly, no “Fish Bowl Look”. At least not yet.

WB Crossover will be Elseworlds.

The annual CW “Flarrowverse” crossover will be titled Elseworlds. Entertainment Weekly reports that it will be a three part crossover, not the previous four part.

The Flash will kick it off on Sunday, which will be followed up by Arrow on Monday, and wrapped up with Supergirl  on Tuesday. This breaks the previous pattern of Supergirl having the first part in the last two years.

While there will be no regular involvement with the Legends Of Tomorrow cast, it has been revealed that Superman will join in, and Lois Lane will make her debut.

In an unexpected turn, an official internet poster showed Stephen Amell in the Flash costume, and Grant Gustin in the Green Arrow threads.

Also notable is the name Nora Fries in the cast of characters. Nora is of course the ill-fated wife of Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze. When you factor that this will also serve as the introduction to Batwoman, it may be an indicator to the premise of the Batwoman series.

Supergirl made a regular habit of taking lesser known villains from Superman lore, and adapting classic Superman stories to fit The Girl Of Steel. Could this mean we’ll see some Batman villains on the small screen for Batwoman? Time will tell.

Finally, Train talks the major news surrounding the release of the long anticipated Read Dead Redemption 2. IGN gave the game a perfect 10 score. An act that is incredibly rare.

Are you in the Halloween spirit yet? If you need anything to scratch your Halloween itch, check out the latest episode of Examining The Dead. Train reviews the movie Train To Busan, and talk the outcome of the Friday The 13th lawsuit. And of course, Dan Wilson talks his new horror themed production company One Good  Scare.

Crazy Train’s Halloween playlist is available on Spotify

Have any thoughts on these subjects? sound off below!

Disney/Fox Merger, San Diego Comic-Con Panels

One of the biggest stories in all of geekery finished another chapter. The merger of Disney with 20th Century Fox properties has been approved by stockholders. This brings us another step closer to Disney having control of Fox material. This has obvious effects on two major properties

Marvel

  • How would this affect the MCU?
  • Could we get Hugh Jackman back?
  • What could be airing on the upcoming Disney streaming service?

Star Wars

  • Will we get a Disney produced box set?
  • What about the 3D releases?
  • Will we finally get the original Unaltered Trilogy?

In other Star Wars news, Lucasfilm has officially announced that Carrie Fisher will be appearing in Episode IX via unused footage from The Force Awakens. Plus, two more names have been announced in Richard E Grant and Naomi Acke.

And of course, Episode IX looks to be the final Star Wars movie in the Skywalker saga. Does this mean the end of the “Episode Format”?

AMC has reinstated Chris Hardwick as the host of Talking Dead, after being suspended last month. Plus, Disney has fired director James Gunn from Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.

The second half of the show is devoted to panels from San Diego Comic-Con. Mainly the Arrowverse shows, but there’s a little bit of Wonder Woman and Shazam talk. The panels are linked below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpAaaZx4Ycw

Shazam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SCphPyHpL4

Aquaman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqiJ0TKF1vc

Wonder Woman

Arrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkDZ_kgUih4

The Flash

Supergirl

Legends of Tomorrow

Are there any panels that interested you at San Diego Comic-Con? Sound off below!

2018 Movie Preview, Black Panther Review

We’re dusting off the cobwebs for 2018 in the Geekville Radio studios with a JAM PACKED show with a ton of content. Join Seth and Crazy Train as they talk news, preview a TON of movies, and review Black Panther.

THIS WEEK IN GEEK NEWS

A small little indie film called Black Panther opened last weekend to record numbers. Now in it’s second week it still managed to land a $100 million dollar weekend, which is HIGHLY impressive. The film is now tapped to score $400 million dometically according to Box Office Mojo.

On the Star Wars front, rumors have surfaced as to the reason for Colin Trevorrow’s exit from Episode IX. Allegedly Trevorrow’s plans heavily involved Luke Skywalker.

Speaking of Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill is set to have a Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

2018 MOVIE PREVIEW

Our list comes from Movie Insider if you would like to follow along.

March – Death Wish, A Wrinkle In Time, Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and of course Ready Player One.

April – Rampage

May – Avengers: Infinity War, “Untitled Deadpool Sequel” (They should just keep that name), and Solo.

June – Packed with sequels, including Ocean’s 8, Incredibles 2, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

July – Ant-Man & The Wasp, Teen Titans GO To The Movies, and finally Mission Impossible: Fallout

August – Christopher Robin, Mile 22, and Scarface.

September – Untitled New Line Horror Film 2018, The Predator, and yet another Robin Hood remake

October – Venom, Mowgli, and the latest Halloween.

November – X-Men: Dark Phoenix, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Fantastic Beasts 2, Creed 2, and Wreck It Ralph 2

December – Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Mary Poppins Returns, and Bohemian Rhapsody

BLACK PANTHER REVIEW

The final segment of the show is devoted to a thorough (that means SPOILERS) review of Marvel’s latest blockbuster Black Panther. Everything from the acting to the accuracy to the comics are discussed. Does the movie live up to the hype? A must listen for Black Panther fans looking to fiind out more about the character.

All this and more in another fun-filled Geekville Radio.

Geekville Radio #180: San Diego Comic Con Coverage

 

Justice League Trailer

The Flash standalone movie will be an adaption of Flashpoint, which is funny because that was the gist of Season 3 of The Flash TV show. Could this mean we see Jeffrey Dean Morgan?

Also discussed during the show: A Green Lantern Corps. Movie, Justice League Dark, Shazam, and Aquaman.

Speaking of Aquaman, Seth reminisces about this scene from Justice League Unlimited, which Jason Momoa would absolutely kill it doing.

 

Over in the DC TV Realm, we got trailers for all the Flarrowverse titles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHZEeDEwRE0

Arrow Season 6 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYDdu_mC6cI

The Flash Season 4 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwGNep39atY

Legends Of Tomorrow Season 3 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaI6dcoRRQQ

Supergirl Season 3 Trailer

Also announced for TV, Young Justice Season 3: Outsiders. Which sadly will not star Scott Hall and Kevin Nash– Oh wait… wrong Outsiders.

And finally, some notes about the Black Lightning panel.

In Marvel news, there was an Avengers Infinity War trailer shown, but it hasn’t been released to the public. Thus we are limited to knowledge on what was actually shown. How many faces were actually seen in the trailer? And who’s left to be seen?

Thor Ragnarok Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1qcP1tI9J4

Black Panther Trailer

It was revealed that the Captain Marvel movie will be set in the 1990’s with Skrulls as the villains.

Over in Marvel TV, we got a new Defenders Trailer, complete with a wonderfully evil Sigourney Weaver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_6J9BqgonU

Defenders Trailer

In Iron Fist news, Misty Knight is officially coming to Iron Fist Season 2. And as we’ve said before, this is integral to the Iron Fist story.

The Gifted trailer has revealed all the major players

The Gifted Trailer

As you can see from the trailer, Thunderbird, Polaris, Blink, Eclipse, Andy Strucker & Lauren Strucker are the main characters of the story.

Inhumans Comic-Con Trailer

In non-comic news, the Ready Player One trailer took the world by storm. Seth and Train loved the trailer, but hear some of the immediate differences noticed between the book and the movie

Ready Player One Trailer

Plus there was discussion about Blade Runner 2049, and the whole immersive experience given at the Con next to Hall H.

And we of course can’t forget the Pacific Rim: Uprising trailer, starring John Boyega.

Pacific Rim: Uprising

Is there anything that sparked your interest about Comic Con? Anything you want us to go over? Anything cool you want discussed in the future? Sound off below. Like and Share to get the word out!

Geekville Radio: Spider-Man Homecoming Preview, Inhumans Trailer, More Han Solo News

Happy 4th Of July and Happy Belated Canada Day everybody!

The first four minutes of Spider-Man Homecoming has been accidentally on purpose released. What are your initial reactions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmE8cujOcBo

Plus we get a trailer for the Inhumans TV series which will be both in theaters and on TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaaLbjZ3mj8

On top of that we have the trailer for The Orville, which nobody seems to care about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9sKeCE8V0

And in Star Wars new, we have more info on the Han Solo Movie on what it could have been vs. what it will probably be under Ron Howard. All this and more in another fun filled episode of Geekville Radio!

Geekville Radio: Ron Howard Directing Han Solo, Dazzler in Dark Phoenix, Spider-Man Homecoming Reviews

Following last week’s departure of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo standalone film, LucasFilm announced Ron Howard will be taking over the project. What changes could be in store for the film? And what does the Academy Award winning director bring to the table? Crazy Train returns to the show to discuss all things Han Solo and Ron Howard with host Seth.

In Marvel news, Dazzler will be the latest mutant to make a big screen debut when X-Men: Dark Phoenix is released. Are there other iconic X-Men stories that cold be brought to the big screen?

And finally, early reviews are overwhelmingly positive for Spider-Man Homecoming. Hear what some critics are tweeting about Tom Holland and Michael Keaton’s performances.

All this and more in another fun-filled Geekville Radio!

Geekville Radio: C2E2 Hangover

C2E2 is in the history books, and there’s plenty of news to talk about. Join Seth and Crazy Train as they talk the Marvel and DC announcements coming out of the event.

Marvel announced details of this summers Secret Empire crossover which pits the Marvel heroes against a Steve Rogers lead HYDRA. Also, Marvel talked the Ressurxion, which effectively rebrands the X-Men books into three separate titles” X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, and Astonishing X-Men. Plus hear details on Legacy, Generations, and Black Panther.

Not to be outdone, DC announced they are expanding their universe by adding all-new characters with Dark Matter. Get the gist on The Silencer, Sideways, The Immortal Men, Damage, and The Neew Challengers. This is not a separate universe, these are all new additions to the same DCU we know and love.

The second half of the show focuses on the Celebrity and Entertainment panels. No recording was allowed, so there unfortunately there are no clips. However, Seth did give some of the notable details from panels that include Stan Lee and Frank Miller, The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker, Agents Of SHIELD, Vincent D’onofrio, and the hilarious Twisted Toonz reading of Back To The Future.

All this and more in another fun filled Geekville Radio!