Welcome to The Rundown with Nerd Union for the weekend of August 6th, 2021.
MOVIES
Official Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings posters have arrived one month ahead of the film’s September 3rd release date, which will be showing solely in theaters for a 45 day theatrical window, according to Collider. These stunning promo images feature: Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Martial artist Andy Le as the villain Death Dealer, and Tony Leung as Mandarin. Kevin Feige recently confirmed that this upcoming Phase 4 MCU film is bringing things full circle to Phase 1! In a new featurette for Shang-Chi, Feige notes: “We’re going back to the very beginning of the MCU. We have a keystone event, and that event is Tony Stark becoming Iron Man. He’s forced to build these weapons for an organization, and that organization was the Ten Rings.” Now we’ll finally meet the REAL Mandarin, instead of Ben Kingsley’s scene-stealing, red herring role.
Twitter is abuzz over photos from the Malibu set of Thor: Love and Thunder, since they revealed Christian Bale in costume as Gorr the God Butcher. User handle @lovethundernews noted that the photos were most likely for reshoots, since principal photography wrapped back in June, but the IMDb page for the film has been gaining listings for crew members overseeing additional photography.
Amazon Studios has released the full trailer for its new take on Cinderella. According to the caption, the film is musically-driven “with covers of songs written by some of the top-selling musical artists of all time” and viewers get a taste of this with a reinterpretation of the song Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson featured. Camilla Cabello stars as Ella, “an ambitious young woman whose dreams are bigger than the world will allow, but with the help of her Fab G (Billy Porter), she is able to persevere and make her dreams come true.” The trailer highlights that Ella is not easily swept off her glass-slippered feet and is committed to realizing her entrepreneurial dream of opening a shop to sell dresses she has designed herself – viewing the ball through the perspective of a business networking opportunity.
Godzilla Vs. Kong is slated to stream on HBO Max once more, dropping on August 17th, according to Comicbook.com. The monster brawl was originally streaming for just 30 days and it has now been 3 months since it was pulled after initial release. It will be interesting to see how quickly the turn around will be for movies coming back to HBO Max as the company releases them simultaneously in theaters and for 30-day streaming.
SHOWS & SERIES
Loki season 2 is in pre-production and apparently Disney+ has been circulating a user opinion survey to get feedback on what characters to feature in both future shows and movies, according to The Cosmic Circus. Examples of the questions are: “How interested are you in seeing each of these characters from Loki in future shows/movies from Marvel Studios?” and “Thinking specifically about the following characters featured in the first season of Loki, what do you hope will happen to them in season 2 of Loki?” Character options included: Miss Minutes, Kid Loki, Ravonna, Sylvie, Mobius, He Who Remains, and of course Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. I must note that characters who were specifically NOT named are some of my personal favs! Alligator Loki, Classic Loki, and TVA office worker Casey were absent from the offered choices.
BUT all is not lost for my favorite Lokis! According to MovieWeb, Richard E. Grant would love a spin-off following the adventures of Classic Loki and Alligator Loki, saying: “Alligator Loki was fantastic because in reality, he was three stuffed sofa cushions that had been sewn roughly together to react to. The fact that I was the only person that could understand what he was saying was just fantastic. I think it’s the perfect segue into having Classic Old Loki and Alligator Loki as a sub-series to go to next.” Someone give this man and his alligator variant a TV series, STAT!
As the MCU Multiverse explodes, Michael Waldron (who is the head writer for Loki as well as on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) recently revealed in an interview on The Playlist Podcast that he’s been in constant communication with Spider-Man: No Way Home writers Chris McKenna and Eric Summers. MurphysMultiverse.com relayed that Waldron was actually McKenna and Summers’ PA on season 5 of Community, so he has them on speed dial to make sure to not ruin anything they are putting into motion in the 3rd installment of Spider-Man.
What If …? Premieres this week on Wednesday August 11th, and head writer AC Bradley has confirmed the show is MCU canon, during an exclusive interview with IGN, clearly stating: “”The events of What If…? are canon. It’s part of the MCU multiverse. The multiverse is here. It is real, and it is absolutely fantastic, people.”” IGN also secured an exclusive interview with show executive producer Brad Winderbaum, during the series’ junket, and the late Chadwick Boseman’s voice acting for T’Challa was specifically discussed: “Unfortunately, he never was able to see the finished product, but he was very excited about taking part in it. He actually appears in four episodes of the series, playing different versions of the character, and each time, he was just so enthusiastic about finding a new spin on the character.” What an absolute legend!
As Disney+’s The Bad Batch heads into its season 1 finale , the official Star Wars Twitter announced that a second season will premiere in 2022. Looks like this Bad Batch is gearing up for some good stuff.
Over on Netflix, The Witcher season 2’s premiere episode will actually be an adaption of the short story Witcher Tale of A Grain of Truth featuring a slight spin that now includes Ciri and Geralt finding a father-daughter relationship in the midst of a Beauty and the Beast like situation. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich took over Netflix Geeked’s Twitter page with the exciting news through a video explanation.
During WitcherCon, Dark Horse revealed a new line of Witcher figures, including one based on Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer which is priced at $59.99 and releasing in January 2022. According to ComicBook.com: “Yennefer will stand at 8 inches tall and is wearing one of her most memorable attires from season 1. She’s holding a dagger in one hand while she extends the other one out a bit, appearing as if she’s conjuring a small spell or preparing to.”
CW’s Supergirl is wrapping up production and Nicole Maines took to Twitter with a video documenting her emotional goodbye to her character Nia Nal AKA Dreamer while still in superhero costume, saying: “It’s a wrap on Dreamer. Thanks for having me, it’s been a dream” and the caption “Sweet Dreams, Always.” Maines was the first transgendered actress to embody a transgender superhero on live-action TV and it definitely seems like a bittersweet parting moment. Sweet Dreams are made of this, indeed.
Meanwhile, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has seemingly been rescued by Roku, according to EW! Apparently, advanced negotiations are in motion for a two-hour TV movie on The Roku Channel, to premiere around the holidays – I guess as a nice little gift-wrapped wrap-up to all of us diehards. Maybe we’ll even get a series renewal out of it?
ACTORS & AWARDS
A Change.org petition has been making the rounds among The Suicide Squad to name a new building in Edmonton, Canada after the city’s most famous resident – Nathan Fillion! The petition wants to dub it The Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion. Warner Bros. Canada Twitter even released a promo video of the cast reacting and Nathan Fillion’s only quip comes at the end, noting: “They missed One-In-A-Million … think about it.”
The African American Film Critics Association Awards have announced the winners of their 3rd Annual TV Honors, ahead of their award ceremony on August 21st, which will be hosted by Yvette Nicole Brown while honoring COVID safety guidelines. The jury selection includes Lovecraft Country winning for best actor and best actress Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett, respectively, and The Underground Railroad claiming best limited series and best director for the Barry Jenkins helmed Amazon show. For a full list of winners, see The Hollywood Reporter article in our show notes!
THEME PARKS
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel was first announced during the 2017 D23 Expo in Anaheim and now 4 years later, we finally have a price list … that appears to be priced for budgets in a galaxy far, far, away. Inside the Magic reports the shocking price point for the Halcyon luxury starliner (emphasis on luxury) as: “Standard cabins start at $1,209 per Guest, per night, for two people per Standard Cabin, $889 per Guest for three people per Standard Cabin, and $749 per Guest for four people per Standard Cabin. Pricing will go up for more elaborate staterooms, Galaxy Class Suites and Grand Captain Suites, onboard the Corellian starship.” Inside the Magic also noted that these prices do include prized experiences “such as droid racing and rides on both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” and actually mirrors the cost of 3-night Disney Cruise Line packages.
Super Nintendo World premiered at Universal Studios Japan back in March 2021 and is officially coming to Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort. While Orlando is still in preparation mode due to Super Nintendo World being a part of their Epic Universe expansion, Hollywood has been making progress on construction. The official Instagram for Hollywood, Unistudios, is celebrating being the next park to open Super Nintendo World with limited edition, exclusive merchandise.
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