Welcome to The Rundown report (as gathered by Taryn Belle) with Nerd Union for June 11th, 2021.
MOVIES
Shazam: Fury of the Gods has had a few wardrobe updates from eagle eye fans. On Instagram, David F. Sandberg held a Q&A, with the question, “If shazam is getting a new suit, does that mean the shazamily is getting upgrades, too?” getting his reply of: “Would be weird if they didn’t.” Meanwhile, over on a Rachel Zegler fan Instagram, footage of Rachel on set was recorded – showing her sporting an outfit that looks a lot like the standard Shazam ensemble … she did say that she’s a “key role in Shazam 2” back when news of her casting first broke.
Variety has reported that Dwayne Johnson and Beau Flynn will be joining star/executive producer Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Emmy winning “Watchmen” actor) in Emergency Contact – an action-thriller “set against the Austin, Texas underground music scene.” While plot details are scarce, the film was also described as “a high-concept, high-octane action film set in Austin.” Let’s “Keep Austin Weird” then!
Variety also reports that New Line Cinema has partnered with Warner Bros. Animation in fast-tracking an anime theatrical feature called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. It will be the backstory for Helm’s Deep, following Helm Hammerland, King of Rohan, who notoriously fought a drawn out war. “Veteran anime filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama, who helmed Netflix’s Ultraman anime series, will direct the film from a screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). Joseph Chou (the Blade Runner: Black Lotus TV series) is producing.
Black Widow has been specially formatted for IMAX, as announced on IMAX’s official Facebook page with a brand new exclusive poster of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha dressed in a white and black full bodysuit, surrounded by ominous red highlighting all the chaos around her. According to the post, “See up to 26% more picture when you experience it in IMAX theatres, July 9.”
While filming The Little Mermaid on the Italian island of Sardinia, photos were captured of Halle Bailey rescuing her prince, played by Jonah Hauer-King, as reported by the UKDailyMail. Halle’s mermaid tail is shown staying in contact with the shoreline, while she also sported a full wetsuit. The tail looks like it’s a placeholder to be CGI’d later, so it makes me wonder if the wetsuit top will stay as photographed or also be changed up in post-production.
For fans of Brie Larson’s Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, our 11 year plea for the inclusion of her vocals on the soundtrack has finally been realized! Consequence.net explains: “While it’s Larson’s vocals in the movie, it was Metric singer Emily Haines’ singing ‘Black Sheep’ on the original Scott Pilgrim soundtrack. Larson’s take was first made available back in March on the vinyl-only 10th anniversary Seven Evil Exes Edition of the OST. Now, ABKCO will release the digital Expanded Edition of the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack on July 9th.”
SHOWS & SERIES
As Pride month continues, Loki has officially been confirmed as “Gender: Fluid” – according to his TVA dossier. Featured in a short video on the show’s official Twitter as well as in the first episode, this is a wonderful revelation/confirmation for all the fans who have been hoping for Lady Loki to show up in the MCU.
Jameela Jamil has been confirmed by Variety to be playing the villain in Disney+’s upcoming She-Hulk show: “The series centers on lawyer Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), cousin of Bruce Banner, who inherits his Hulk powers after she receives a blood transfusion from him. Unlike Bruce, however, when she hulks out Jennifer is able to retain most of her personality, intelligence, and emotional control. Jamil will reportedly play Titania, a Marvel supervillain with incredible strength and a frequent rival of She-Hulk.”
Reddit is all over Andor developments on the StarWarsLeaks: Duncan Pow as Ruescott Melshi was spotted on location this past week while filming a scene with Diego Luna. Just on June 10th, a Swedish Redditor translated a podcast featuring Stellan Skarsgård, where the actor spoke about filming Andor – including mentioning “a juicy scene with Forrest Whittaker” AKA Saw Gerrara!
Meanwhile, Ming-Na Wen revealed on her official Twitter that The Book of Boba Fett has wrapped – showing off some of the wrap gifts, which included a “Lazy Holder” neck contraption for anchoring a device in front of you (that looks a lot like a harmonica holder to this Blues dancer …) and a personalized card that said “The Book of Boba Fett S.1 <3 Fennec” surrounding line art of Fennec’s signature helmet and side-braid.
Stranger Things is having an exciting week. First, Variety announced new stars for season 4: “Amybeth McNulty (Anne with an E), Myles Truitt (Queen Sugar), Regina Ting Chen (Queen of the South), and Grace Van Dien (The Village). McNulty will play Vickie, a cool, fast-talking band nerd who catches the eye of one of our beloved heroes … Truitt will play Patrick, a Hawkins basketball star who has friends, talent, and a good life, until shocking events send his life spiraling out of control … Ting Chen will play Ms. Kelly, a popular guidance counselor who cares deeply for her students—especially those struggling the most … Van Dien will play Chrissy, Hawkins’ High lead cheerleader and the most popular girl in school. But beneath the seemingly perfect surface lies a dark secret.”
Additionally, Maya Hawke’s character Robin will be featured in a few companion pieces of media to the franchise: a podcast called Surviving Hawkins which accompanies a novel called Rebel Robin. According to AVClub, the podcast “sounds like [it] might dip into some of the ideas that Stranger Things tends to gloss over as barely-noticed subtext—most pointedly the way that small town life, and especially high school, can itself be the ‘Hawkins monster’ lurking in the weeds, waiting to devour the highly edible youth of rural Indiana.”
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist just finished airing season 2, only for negotiations to break down between NBC and streaming service Peacock – causing the studios to pass on renewing the show. However, executive producer Paul Feig took to Twitter to rally fans in vocalizing their support for the show, in hopes that it gets picked up by another network. His tweet stated: “We want nothing more than to keep this wonderful show going. I feel like it’s 21 years ago all over again when Freaks & Geeks got cancelled. Help us find a new home.”
Big oof, I feel bad for the guy having to go through this again.
GAMING
Polygon has noted that pre-orders start in July for Playdate, a handheld game console by Panic, Inc. The console is priced at $179 and includes “24 games released over its first 12-week season of content … [which] will be released two-at-a-time every week once the Playdate launches.” Check the link for the list of game titles announced!
https://www.polygon.com/22524418/playdate-release-date-preorders-price-games-first-season
Social PLATFORMS
So Amazon devices have created a path to digitally connect neighbors internet and not everyone is so keen on this new automated feature.
According to ABC7: “If you have an Amazon device in your home like an Echo, Alexa, or Ring doorbell or floodlight camera, Amazon wants to create a shared wireless network by using your internet. If you don’t take action, Amazon is about to share your internet with your neighbors. It’s called Amazon Sidewalk, and the company says it’s supposed to help devices work better. How it works is if one of your Amazon devices loses connectivity, your device would just switch to a neighbor’s internet signal so the service wouldn’t be disrupted. If you have an Amazon device, it will automatically be included in the Sidewalk network on June 8. You can opt-out, but you have to take action. You need to log into your Alexa or Ring app, go to settings, select account settings and turn off Amazon Sidewalk.”
To this I say: Hey, Alexa? Stop sharing things that aren’t yours!
MERCH
shopDisney is offering a pre-order for “Galactic Snackin’ Grogu” and I know what’s going on my Christmas wish list! The Force is strong with adorable animatronic, including features like: “Place any of the included entertainment-inspired accessories in his hand and he’ll react! When Grogu (the Child) wants to be picked up and held, he’ll reach up with both arms. And with Force activation, Galactic Snackin’ Grogu will perform a two-handed Force move.”
THIS IS THE WAY to my heart!!
Remember to subscribe to Nerd Union’s Twitch, Facebook, or YouTube channels for our live shows, news updates, and our upcoming video series on movies, games, and more nerd content.
Special shout out to our Nerd Union Patreon supporters, we appreciate your monthly contributions, which helps us put out content like this:
Doug Schumann
Vi Che
Shelby Johnson
Nelle Cherry
About Author
