Welcome to The Rundown report (as gathered by Taryn Belle) with Nerd Union for the weekend of July 9th, 2021.
MOVIES
So we know movies and merchandise are intricately interwoven into our capitalistic society, but lately Disney’s merch releases have been giving away a lot of details for upcoming releases. A new Spidey suit was spoiled by Marvel.com announcing action figures and toys through Hasbro, Lego, and Funko Pop.
Over on the Star Wars front, Lego.com is the first to confirm that Disney is completely dropping the name “Slave I” from the ship Boba Fett inherited from Jango Fett, instead opting for “Boba Fett’s StarshipTM” as the official title going forward.
This next Star Wars merch reveal is not a spoiler, but an exciting update to the Rogue One prequel novel Star Wars: Guardians of the Willis which Viz Media is turning into a manga! This story “revisits Baze and Chirrut before they meet the rebellion members who turn the tide in the fight against the Empire in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Writer Jon Tsuei and manga artist Subaru bring the origin story of this fan-favorite duo to life in a new manga adaptation based on the novel by Greg Rucka.” I’m excited! And stay tuned throughout this report for more merch news – including some Loki spoilers, so be warned!
Deadline reports that Taika Waititi is executive producing the film Frybread Face and Me which is a semi-autobiographical movie written and directed by Billy Luther that “focuses on a 12-year old city kid who is sent under protest to live on his grandmother’s ranch. The experience on the Navajo reservation opens young Benny’s eyes to his own family and history, as well as that of his Indigenous culture.” MorningStar Angeline (known from Paramount’s series Yellowstone) will play Benny’s aunt Ann, while Martin Sensmeier (who was in HBO’s Westworld) is portraying Benny’s uncle Marvin. The feature has committed to the entire cast being Indigenous and will begin shooting in New Mexico later this month.
As per usual, Knives Out 2 just keeps adding more cast members! A Madelyn Cline fan club account on Twitter posted photos taken during shooting of Ethan Hawke confronting Madelyn and Dave Bautista with an item that appears to be some sort of gun.
Meanwhile, over on Instagram, actor Noah Segan posted a photo he took that appears to be of director Rian Johnson while adding the caption, “it’s a real mystery folks” – hinting that their long time career collaboration is continuing into this sequel film, since Segan portrayed a member of the team trying to solve the mystery in the first film.
Former The Good Place co-stars Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste are teaming up again for the upcoming film Queenpins, according to DigitalSpy. The movie is inspired by real events and the plot focuses on “a bored and frustrated suburban homemaker, Connie (portrayed by Bell) and her best pal JoJo (Howell-Baptiste), a vlogger with dreams, who turn a hobby into a multi-million dollar counterfeit coupon ring. After firing off a letter to the conglomerate behind a box of cereal gone stale, and receiving an apology along with dozens of freebies, the duo hatch an illegal coupon club scheme that scams millions from mega-corporations and delivers deals to legions of fellow coupon clippers.” Comedic actors Joel McHale, Vince Vaughn, and Paul Walter Hauser will also co-star.
SHOWS & SERIES
Netflix has confirmed that Michelle Yeoh will play one of the leads in the upcoming six-episode prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin. Her character Scían “is the very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. No one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart. When a chance presents itself to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means, she launches herself into a deadly quest that will change the outcome of the Continent.”
Meanwhile, WitcherCon is happening this weekend and the teaser trailer for The Witcher season 2 dropped with the official release date noted as December 17, 2021! Keep an eye on WitcherCon’s Youtube and Twitch for more exclusive content being rolled out.
Another piece of Lego merch, another sneak peek at Disney storylines. The upcoming animated series What If…? has an episode focused on Captain Peggy Carter taking the super serum and the Red Skull has been sighted in the Lego set titled “Captain Carter & the Hydra Stomper” – with Steve Rogers operating the Iron Man-like Hydra Stomper. Marvel Entertainment has finally confirmed the release date of Wednesday August 11th for the What If…? series, which includes the final voice performance of Chadwick Boseman as a Starlord T’Challa.
Peacock has ordered a Regency-style courting series titled Pride & Prejudice: An Experiment In Romance as noted by Variety. So basically, The Bachelorette but themed to use the terms “heroine” and “duke” while sporting carriage rides. I’m a huge Jane Austen fan and have been virtually group reading/acting Pride & Prejudice out with a group of friends during the pandemic and this show sorta feels like it flies in the face of Austen’s acute critique of the societal construct of romance. Reality dating may have finally found a way to tempt me into hate watching …
ACTORS
On Instagram, Emma Corrin (most recently seen as Princess Diana in The Crown) has updated their pronouns to “she/they” and made a post describing their journey in proper binding, while advocating for safe binding practices – like the products offered from the LGBT+ owned and operated company gc2b. Just a reminder that Queer Pride exists all year long, not only in June!
PLATFORMS
Instagram is testing out a new Sticker that will allow any user to share links in the Stories function. Until now, linking in Stories has been limited to verified accounts or those who have a minimum of 10,000 followers. TheVerge spoke with Instagram’s head of product, Vishal Shah, who relates that “the test is small … it’s mostly to learn how people might take advantage of links…watching for the types of links people post while keeping a particular eye on misinformation and spam.”
Zoom has acquired a German start-up company known as KITES GmbH which is “dedicated to developing real-time Machine Translation (MT) solutions.” The goal is to move past language barriers and offer seamless interactions across limitations that arise for people who speak different languages from each other.
THEME PARKS
Walt Disney World has updated its standard “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls” fireworks intro to: “Good evening, Dreamers of all ages.” According to WDWnt.com Tokyo Disney actually implemented similar changes earlier in 2021. These align with the Company’s recent 5th key of Inclusion in addition to the established 4 Keys of Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. Of course, people being loud on the internet about this change going too far are attempting to prove why we can’t have nice things.
CONS
Deadline has exclusively revealed that Disney’s Marvel Studios and WarnerBros.’ DC Films will be skipping this year’s virtual San Diego Comic-Con@Home. Disney has been using it’s Investor Days for big reveals while Warner Bros. has turned its focus to their DC FanDome event. However, Warner Bros. TV will have panels during San Diego Comic-Con@Home which takes place July 23rd-25th. The in-person/live San Diego Comic-Con is slated to be held November 26th-28th, so we’ll see how that shakes out.
MERCH
Apparently I am a sucker for smol, adorable, green anthropomorphic characters on Disney+ when it comes to merch. The Nerdist exclusively announced that Insight Editions is releasing Star Wars: The Tiny Book of Grogu on October 19, 2021: “Measuring 1.34 inches by 1.73 inches, this book is truly tiny [and] will fit in your hand.” It’s sooooo smol!!!
And my new favorite “he is green, isn’t he?” Alligator Loki will be having some dedicated merch coming out soon, including his own Funko Pop with his jaunty Loki horns! Take a gander at this variant alligator over at Marvel.com.
**CONTENT WARNING** for predatory purity culture:
TLC has canceled Counting On, the most recent show about the Duggar family, acting as a reboot of the show 19 Kids and Counting “which ran from 2008 to 2015. The spinoff was created amid the molestation controversy surrounding Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s eldest son, Josh Duggar.” As someone who has escaped the indoctrination of Purity Culture which pushes courtship as the way to achieve the perfect romantic pairing, I’m beyond enraged at the lengths people are going to vindicate a predator and the parents who raised him. If you want to be righteously angry with me (Taryn), here is the link to this shady underbelly of puritanical values.
[Avoiding photos of the Duggars, but here’s a video with some real talk on how Purity Culture created this situation]
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