For the month of October, we at Geekville Radio are dedicating an episode from each of our shows to Halloween. Nostalgia Trip is no different, as we are paying tribute to a show that is near and dear to the hearts of people our age and maybe a little older. That, of course, is Scooby-Doo. He celebrated his 50th anniversary this past month, so doing a show for Halloween about Scooby just felt right
(3:35) Helstrom, the latest Marvel series, has begun filming. It is set for release sometime in 2020. Who is Helstrom and what could the series be like? With Marvel Studios taking over all TV projects, this could conceivably mean interaction with the rest of the MCU. Blade anybody?
November 1963 – The first episode of Doctor Who aired, beginning the legacy of a sci-fi epic that is still going strong 56 years later.
However, many fans do not know that the first episode was not the one originally produced. The original version did not go well with producer Sydney Newman, so it was tweaked and refilmed into the version that was seen by 10 million viewers.
A 12-episode animated series based on DC Comics’ popular mercenary Deathstroke is headed to CW Seed. Unlike the previous two series, Vixens, and The Ray, Deathstroke: Knights and Dragons does not appear to be part of the shared universe that other DC Shows have. The “Arrowverse”, as fans have called it, includes Arrow, The Flash, Legends Of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and the new Batwoman series. Standalone animated spinoffs have included Vixen, with guest voice roles by Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin as Green Arrow and The Flash respectively.
The official series synopsis paints a picture of redemption for the assassin.
Deadline reports Welling will appear in this winter’s Crisis On Infinite Earths with his Smallville character intact. He joins the list of three actors playing different incarnations of Clark Kent, aka Superman.
Geekville Radio #244: Q&A Clips from Wizard World Chicago
NOTE: The wrong episode was previously uploaded,
Wizard World Chicago took place on the last weekend of August, the same weekend as Disney’s D23 Expo. Several celebrities participated in panels and Q&A sessions for fans.
First up, Jeff Goldbum talks The MCU, Thor: Love and Thunder, tooth decay, and Buckaroo Banzai.
Kevin Conroy quotes about (what else?) voicing Batman, working with Mark Hamill, and getting in front of the camera again for Crisis On Infinite Earths.
Dean Cain answered questions about playing Superman and gives his opinion of Henry Cavill.
Teddy Sears tells about what he knew ahead of time when playing Jay Garrick in The Flash.
Geekville Radio #243: Disney vs. Sony plus D23 News
A ton of news to go over in this jam-packed episode! In the first segment, Seth and Crazy Train talk about the problems between Sony and Disney over Spider-Man. The second half is devoted to Star Wars and Marvel news coming out of D23.
(3:03) Sony vs Disney and Marvel
Unless you’ve been out in deep space for the last week, you’ve probably heard of the split between Disney and Sony over Marvel’s Spider-Man in The MCU. To fully comprehend what happened, we have to take a step back and look at how we got to this point in the first place.
Attempts at making a Spider-Man feature film date back to the 1980s. But over the years, the film companies set to make the picture would go under or were bought out. This made deciding the film rights a real nightmare. Eventually, Sony got the rights in the late 90s.
Around this time, Marvel opened their own film studio. Once Marvel Studios was created, Marvel no longer needed to shop around film rights. They could control their own properties when it came to the big screen. This is one of the reasons Marvel was able to make successful films that pleased fans and critics alike.
So here are the main talking points of the Disney vs. Sony fiasco.
The previous deal between the two had expired – When Sony and Disney agreed to share Spider-Man, it was for a certain number of films. Sony would produce the stand-alone films, with Marvel and Disney helming Avengers and other crossover films.
Sony was happy with the previous deal – It looks like Sony would have been happy with a continuation of that agreement. They weren’t necessarily looking for a bigger or better deal.
Sony has several Spider-Man related characters – Most, if not all of the Spider-Man rogues’ gallery, are within Sony’s rights. Sony is making Venom 2, and an Into The Spider-Verse sequel seems likely. Plus, there is the Morbius film, as well as other Spidey movies that would pave the way for a Sinister Six movie.
It’s not over yet– It is very possible that Disney and Sony may mend their fences and work out a deal. It is also possible that Sony may have learned their lesson when it comes to producing a Spider-Man story. This story will likely have a few more chapters before it’s over. Spider-Man is the last remaining property that Marvel Studios has yet to regain control of when it comes to feature films.
As discussed during the show, The Geek Twins have this handy chart which shows the characters Marvel has direct control over vs. Sony and Netflix. Sucks to be Rick Jones…
Please include attribution to TheGeekTwins.com with this graphic.
(36:30) D23 News
Disney held its annual D23 Expo where, as expected, future Star Wars projects were officially announced. Plus, new Marvel shows were also revealed.
(37:30) Untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi Series
Ewan McGregor confirms his return to Obi-Wan Kenob
The long-rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi series was confirmed at last, with Ewan McGregor reprising the role. No premise was given, but fans have assumed it would be about Kenobi’s time on Tatooine between the prequels and the classic trilogy. With it being set approximately 8-10 years after Revenge Of The Sith, it would be taking place at approximately the same time as Solo and Star Wars Rebels.
(39:34) The Mandalorian
The first official trailer for The Mandalorian
The highly anticipated series The Mandalorian finally got an official trailer. To say it felt like a Western would be an understatement. Ming-Na Wen, who played Agent May for all seven seasons of Agents Of SHIELD, has joined the cast.
Not only that, IG-88 saw some action almost 40 years after his debut in Empire Strikes Back. Could more bounty hunters be on the way? 4-LOM? Zuckuss? Dengar?
It’s also worth noting that Disney will be releasing one episode per week, rather than all of them at once.
(50:25) The Rise Of Skywalker
Of course, it would not be a true Star Wars event if it didn’t have footage from Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. We covered that in detail in our last show. Seth does make two bold, albeit unoriginal, predictions about the Skywalker Saga finale.
(55:45) Marvel
Black Panther 2 will hit theaters in May of 2020, making it right in line with the end of Phase Four. For The Eternals, Kit Harrington (Game Of Thrones) has signed on to play Black Knight
Not one, not two, but THREE more Marvel series will be added to the lineup. No casting or release dates were announced.
Moon Knight: Arguably the most fitting of the three shows. We had speculated before how Moon Knight would make for a perfect addition to a Netflix or TV lineup.
Ms. Marvel: The current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, will do double duty between her own show and appearances in films.
She-Hulk: Possible the biggest surprise was the announcement of She-Hulk. It will be interesting to see how she is handled for a TV show. Would it be ab actress? Or a CGI created character?
Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Clearly aimed at children, this show will be a comedic take on the classic 80s series Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends.
Finally, unrelated to Disney or Sony, Supergirl will don a new costume for her fifth season.
Supergirl’s new costume for Season 5
As stated in the show, Crazy Train has a new Playlist called “Chicks That Rock“. You can find it on Spotify.
It is a sad day for fans of Doctor Who and science-fiction. Terrance Dicks, a prolific writer who wrote several TV stories and novels, passed away at the age of 84.
Dicks broke into TV by writing episodes of The Avengers (the BBC show, not the Marvel superheroes). For Doctor Who, he and friend Malcolm Hulke wrote The War Games in 1969, a 10-part finale (?!?!?) to Patrick Troughton’s run as The Doctor.
Other Doctor Who TV stories to Dicks’ credit include the Tom Baker stories The Brain Of Morbius and The Horror Of Fang Rock. And of course, the 20th Anniversary story The Five Doctors.
In addition to writing stories, Dicks served as script editor for Doctor Who under showrunner Barry Letts. He was also frequently chosen to adapt TV stories to novels for Target Books.
Wizard World Chicago held an Arrowverse Panel this past August where actor Teddy Sears talked about his recurring role as Jay Garrick in Season Two of The Flash.
SPOILERS for fans who haven’t seen the second season of The Flash!
As fans of The CW show know, Season Two saw the addition of Jay Garrick to the cast of characters. Jay was, of course, the original Golden Age Flash in the comics dating back to 1941.
Season Two also introduced Zoom as the main villain. However, it wasn’t until the latter half of the season that fans saw that Jay and Zoom were one and the same.
So how much did Sears know ahead of time? Did he know he’d turn bad when he was cast?
“I knew that it was going to happen, yes,” answered Sears. “I was told before we started filming ‘here’s the idea for the season. You’re going to be this, and then you won’t be.’ And so what happened is I began to shoot all my stuff as Jay Garrick and I loved it. And I loved it so much that a lot of time went by, and I convinced myself that the writers had changed their minds because they hadn’t talked to me in a while.”
Sears continued, “I was going to be this character, as Jay, for the whole season. And then a few months went by, and I remember opening a script and seeing… [the reveal] is going to happen like they said. I was disappointed.
“But then when I began to play Zoom, I was very excited,” he added. “One, because it was so different than playing Jay. Jay is so much closer to me as a person, so that was easier for me to sort of do. And Zoom was so different for me, and it was very scary.”
Sears concluded by saying “So, it’s a long answer to say I knew it was coming. I was kind of hoping it wasn’t, but once it did, it was a great thrill. It was awesome.”
Conroy took part in several panels during Wizard World Chicago. One panel, which also featured Lois and Clark actor Dean Cain, asked the inevitable question about what this Bruce Wayne will be like.
“Well, I can’t tell you anything because I don’t know anything,” Conroy began “I just know that it’s an older version of Bruce Wayne. I haven’t seen the script. I haven’t seen any sketches, so I don’t know. But I am doing it.
“I think they [the producers] are nervous about actors releasing information,” he speculated.
“Who would you tell?” joked Cain, motioning to the audience.
“They won’t let us see scripts,” Conroy continued, “I honestly don’t know what it’s going to involve.”
One member of the audience asked what it was like to finally be playing Batman in a live-action project.
“I don’t know, it’s a little intimidating,” Conroy began. “I started out in theater in New York, you know. And then I did on-camera television work, and then I sort of stumbled into voice work. Batman was the first animated character I ever auditioned for, and that was in ’91.”
“How’d it go?” joked one audience member, which got a laugh from the crowd.
“But I haven’t done anything on camera… anything really since the late 90s. So a little intimidating. I don’t know what it’s going to be like, to be honest with you. I’ll just approach it like I do any other character. As an acting job.”
Later, when asked about Batman Beyond, in which he voiced an aging Bruce Wayne, Conroy did mention he suspects that he’ll be playing something similar to that version.
“Again, I don’t know because I haven’t seen the script, but I kind of suspect, from what they’re talking about me doing in this, it’s going to be very much like the older Bruce Wayne that I did in Batman Beyond. I think that’s the concept of what the character is going to be, but I don’t know.”
Crisis on Infinite Earths will air on The CW this winter, beginning with the December 8th episode of Supergirl.
