It’s Friday, and you know what that means? Yes, get a little handsy and let’s enjoy our time together.
First up, a few trailers:
I’m sure that all you fine folks know by now that I am a huge (HUUUUUUUGE!) fan of fantasy and magic. So the release of the trailers for these shows coming out in January made me a little weak in the knees, gave me some goose bumps, and I needed to spend some time alone. I wrote about the first look at the Shannara series we got a couple of months ago, but this trailer is a little more polished. This is also the first I have seen of The Magicians, but the last couple of shows that have been released on Syfy have been quite enjoyable so my expectations are rising for this show.
MF Batman animated universe. These movies are the epitome of what animated hero movies should be like, and I can’t wait to get my grubby man hands all over it.
To continue with Batman news, there were some details released that DC has granted overall permission for the upcoming “Killing Joke” movie to be Rated R. For those who are new to the world of animated hero movies, even the darkest of them make a PG-13 rating.
Finishing off DC news this week, it appears the the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow will be a 16-episode sprint to the finish. They are developing the show to open and close their storyline within the season. Preparing for there to be no second season. This is what how runner Phil Klemmer had to say when speaking with Collider:
“We’re not looking beyond these sixteen episodes and by the time we’re done with these sixteen episodes, we’re going to leave these characters in a place where we couldn’t repeat Season One if we wanted to…
This is much more like an anthology show where we’re like sprinting for a finish line and we don’t know where it’s going to end, but we’re pretty sure that it’s going to leave us in place that we can’t just start the race over next year. That’s really exciting because characters can die, they can get left behind, they can turn to the dark side, they can switch the other way.
We’re really doing this in a way in that we’re trying to make the best sixteen episodes that we can, as if there’s no tomorrow, no Season Two. It’s hugely liberating.”
This has me more excited for this show. I was mostly afraid that it would be a slow buildup with a big plot twist at the end hoping for a second season to clean up the mess. Given the primary villain they have chosen for the season, this should be pretty wicked.
Now on to Marvel News:
Firstly, we have some awesomesauce in the fact that Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk will be tagging along through Thor: Ragnarok. Given the fact that Thor is a heavy hitter already, needing big green around must mean we got a couple of really big bads coming into the story. In Norse mythology, Ragnarok is story about a universal apocalypse. Within the Marvel canon, Ragnarok is a clone of Thor created by Tony Stark and Hank Pym to help them win the fight against the Superhuman Registration Act. The movie will likely be a mix of both. The first inklings of the Ragnarok storyline are being released, indicating that there will be some universal travel with Thor and Hulk meeting some powerful female warriors. (Valkyrie and The Enchantress are heavy possibilities). One other thing to take note of: we do have 3 currently unnamed Marvel movies slated in for 2020. Given the universal travel in Ragnarok, could we be seeing the birth of Planet HULK?!?!
Two new Marvel TV shows are in pre-production on some new stations. Marvel is working with FX to develop Legion and FOX TV (yes, Fox) on Hellfire. Very little is known currently about the two shows, other than they will follow the original storylines fairly closely. Legion is a very powerful mutant, one of the few Alpha Level mutants on the planet in fact, capable of doing nearly everything and anything. Give his bio a read and I’m sure you will be pumped to see him brought to life.
The Hellfire Club is something that we have seen glimpses of in the X-Men universe already. A members-only club that caters to the rich and powerful, governed by some very powerful mutants.
We do not know how or if this show will tie into the X-Men movie universe, but we could see launches for characters like Mr. Sinister on Legion or a carry over for Storm/Jean Grey in Hellfire (as they were members of the club).
In some news that makes me both excited and monstrously nervous, Vin Diesel has been in talks with Warner Brothers to develop a reboot/rebirth of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise. Here is what he said about this:
“They have come to me in the past with something, and I guess I was too busy at the time. For me to do something like that, it would have to be so – I would be – they have to think really carefully, because it would have to be amazing. And the previous attempts of any kind of cinematic D&D film have failed and just haven’t been done right, and that’s hard to do with the typical studio type in Hollywood.
I have a friend named Flint Dille, who’s one of the writers for my company who, you know, will write something for Riddick, or he’ll write something for Hannibal. If you ever read that graphic novel 300 from Frank Miller, there’s a character that’s modeled after this guy Flint Dille, who’s named Flint Delius and he’s the orator, he’s the one telling you the whole 300 story.
In fact, when I was in one of my more intense pre-production phases of Hannibal, Frank Miller was at my house sketching out storyboards… but he said he was great friends with [D&D co-creator] Gary Gygax, and he said something that really, really shocked me, which was that Gary Gygax, before he passed away, said that he wanted me to tell his story. So whatever it would be in the world of D&D, it would have to be very sacred. And that’s how you get me.”
Lastly, big monster movies! Legendary and Warner have announced their plans for more of them. Following the 2014 Godzilla movie will be a new King Kong movie titled Skull Island, then a second Godzilla. The series will close with Godzilla Vs. Kong! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!
P.S. There was some Star Wars news this week, but I feel that an awakening will shiver my timbers on Monday, so I figure that we will be doing something then.
David Alberto is a Contributing Editor for aybonline.com. You can often find him making people cry in Counter-Strike. Roll percentile dice to see if his opinions change, your chances are slim.
