Geekville Radio #299: Triple Whammy 2021

Seth and Train end 2021 with a triple whammy of geek reviews! First up, Spider-Man: No Way Home followed by the season finale of Hawkeye. And finally, the series premiere of The Book of Boba Fett. 2021 may have been a lousy year but there were some great geek movies and programming.

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Geekville Radio #297: Spider-Man Trailer, Disney Plus Day, Hawkeye Review

Crazy Train has escaped the asylum and joins Seth via phone for a jam-packed edition of Geekville Radio!

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Marvel Studios Disney+ Day Report

Disney+ celebrated its second anniversary today with several short specials on what is coming down the pike in 2022. In the Marvel Studios edition, several updates were given for MCU projects, and a few surprise new shows were announced as well.

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Geekville Radio #293

Geekville Radio #293

Seth and Train are back to talk Free Comic Book Day Swag. Plus, rumors on the possible return of Agents Of SHIELD and reviews of Suicide Squad and Marvel’s “What If…?”

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Sony Casts Their Kraven

One of the more famous members of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery will be brought to the big screen in 2023. The Wrap reports that Aaron Taylor-Johnson will portray the title character in Kraven The Hunter. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because Taylor-Johnson portrayed Quicksilver in Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

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Marvel Releases Phase Four Trailer Narrated By Stan Lee

Stan “The Man” Lee may have left us in 2018 but his presence can still be felt in The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Marvel released a highlight reel of movie projects in preparation for their return to the big screen this summer. To give that highlight reel a special emotional touch, they include quotes from Stan himself that as a narration. The latter part of the reel serves as a trailer for the next several films in “Phase Four” of the MCU. The first three phases have been collectively called The Infinity Saga.

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Morbius Trailer

The first Morbius trailer

Sony released the first trailer for Morbius, the latest addition to their own little corner of Marvel properties. It gives the gist of the title character’s background. Renowned scientist Michael Morbius accidentally turns himself into a vampire by seeking a cure for his own blood disease.

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Geekville Radio #245: Mega Marvel Update!

It’s a huge week of news, especially for Marvel MCU fans. Subjects are tagged with timestamps if you want to get right to them

(1:55) Kevin Feige to produce a Star Wars film

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story last week that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige will develop a new Star Wars movie. It certainly could be in response to the Sequel Trilogy fan reception, especially The Last Jedi. And, of course, the underwhelming performance of Solo. Given Feige’s track record with the Marvel films, it seems like a natural pairing.

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Disney vs. Sony, Plus D23 News

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 expiredWhen 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.

Disney was asking for a larger cutUnder the old deal, Sony got the profits from the stand-alone Spider-Man movies, while Disney kept profits from any cross-over. The 50/50 deal proposed by Disney would see both companies sharing equally in cost and profits.

Sony has tried to control Spider-Man films beforeSam Raimi walked away from making Spider-Man films after clashing with Sony over Spider-Man 3. The reboot with Andrew Garfield also saw issues with Sony trying to guide the franchise away from how directors wanted it. If Sony and Disney do not agree to terms, it would mark the third time Sony would be guiding Spider-Man on their own.

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.

Marvel Movie Rights Infographic

(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?

While not a new series announcement, the character of John Walker (US Agent in the comics) will be introduced in Falcon & Winter Soldier.

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.

Spider-Man is OUT of The MCU

Some thought it was too good to be true, and that may have turned out to be the case. Sony and Disney/Marvel were unable to close a deal to keep Spider-Man in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Deadline reports that meetings between the two entertainment giants to co-finance and co-produce more Spider-Man films ended with no agreement. This takes Disney and Marvel’s Kevin Feige out of the picture when it comes to any future plans with Spidey.

The split comes at a very odd time. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame recently became the highest-grossing movie of all time, while Spider-Man: Far From Home became the highest-grossing Spider-Flick, as well as the highest-grossing Sony movie ever made.

According to Deadline, Disney proposed a 50/50 deal that would have seen both companies split the costs and earnings, and presumably would include movies involving Venom, Carnage, Miles Morales, and others. Sony refused and made a counter-offer that Disney turned down.

What this means for the future remains to be seen. But for the time being, everybody’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will be swinging solo unless immediate changes happen. The sequel to Venom is in production, and actor Tom Holland is attached to at least two additional films. It is only a matter of time before Venom and Spidey cross paths onscreen. Will Sony keep the billion-dollar income without the rest of the Marvel MCU attached? We may not have to wait too long to find out.