Big Wins, Cool Blade

Tonight, we return from Wizard World Tulsa with a jam-packed show full of news. Will the alcohol flow with the Magic Kingdom? And will Wesley Snipes return to play on this edition of Multiverse Tonight. Welcome to the one with the news about the Multiverse Tonight. Hello and welcome to Multiverse Tonight and episode number eight. I'd like to start off by saying a big congratulations to Rick and Morty for their Emmy Win for Outstanding Animated Program, and Robot Chicken for outstanding short-form animated series. Both shows are very deserving. Also, congrats to Black Mirror, which won for the USS Calcer episode for outstanding television movie as well as outstanding single camera editing for a limited series or movie and outstanding sound editing for a limited series, movie, or special. And Star Trek picked up the Governor's Award as well. Congrats to you all! If you would like to see me win an award for Best Podcasts someday, please do me a favor and share me with your friends. I'd also like to give a big shout out to Wizard World Tulsa and the Best Western Plus in downtown Tulsa. This past weekend I went to the convention and while it was a great deal smaller than years past, it was still entertaining. I bought a Green Hornet trade paperback and talked to some people. I'll be putting up interviews in our YouTube channel. I'd also like to remind you that over on our Twitch channel, I've been playing Star Trek Online, and just to shake things up, also some of the Sims 4. Well, nearly never. Feel free to join me late Sunday and Monday nights. And if you're a player on Stowe, feel free to join me and join our fleet. Just search for Multiverse Tonight. And uh please, if you uh would like to also help us out, go to our affiliate link on Amazon. And we also have an affiliate link for mycomicbookshop.com or my excuse me, mycomicshop.com and riftracks.com. The links are in our sidebar on our homepage. Go there now. Help me. Well, help me. Also, if you'd like to contribute directly, go to either my Kofi or Patreon donation page. Find the links on the web find those links on our website. Now, thank you. And let's get on with the news. Now here we go! In a galaxy far, far away. To ramp up to the news of episode 9, which just keeps rolling along, we have some more casting news. Former Doctor Who, Matt Smith, will be crossing universes to join in on what's being called a key role. We don't know if he'll be on the side of good or bad, but he does join newcomers, Carrie Russell, Richard D. Grant, Dominic Monaghan, and Naomi Yaki, as well as the return to the franchise of Billy D. Williams, who is reprising the role of Lando Calryan. Now speaking of Billy D, the 81-year-old actor has been working out hard with his personal trainer, Greener Peterson. He released a short video on Twitter, and the man he works out with sunglasses on. Tell you that man is as cool as the other side of the pillow. Now, will Billy's workout mean that he's going to have some relatively heavy stunt work? Or maybe he's just wanting to look more into shape. Get in that costume, you know, don't want to be snug on ya. We don't know. Now, details about what is in the script for episode 9 are bigger secrets than what goes on in the White House these days. But if you torture General Hex actor Dominic Gleason, you might get something out of him. Saying speaking with the happy, sad, confused podcast, he teased them by saying, Quote, I made the terrible mistake of reading the script. I know everything. The nightmare is falling asleep on public transport. The nightmare is you wake up on a plane and someone's dictating. You wake up and your mouth is shaping words. You wake up and you're like, Skywalker did this. And then you realize you don't know how long you've been speaking, and there's a kid filming. There's somebody writing it down. And because you're in the air, you say, We need to have a talk before we land. I can access my bank account. So there you have it, folks. Hold him down. And you might just get all you need to know. Director Ryan Johnson has confirmed on Twitter that his new Star Wars trilogy is still on track for eventual production. When asked about it by a fan, he replied, quote, yep, with a fist emoji. This new trilogy, which will have no relation to the current nine part Skywalker saga, has still not been officially scheduled. Now, before we go on to our next uh news port of call, we have some news about the Star Wars Galaxy Edge theme park at Disneyland. Now, for decades, the one thing you have not been able to get at Disney theme park has been an alcoholic drink. However, what is the one thing Star Wars is known for? Cantinas. Bars. So, at the new Oga's Cantina that is part of the Galaxy Edge Park, alcohol will be served to the public. However, it looks like public drunkenness will most likely not be tolerated, as the blog this info comes from says that the cantina, quote, will have a strict code of conduct that tries to keep its unruly patrons in check, unquote. So, no blasters. No blasters! This park is scheduled to open next year. Star Trek News. The Emmys are coming up. The Emmys are coming, the Emmys are coming. And the Academy has announced that Star Trek will receive the Governor's Award. The franchise is being given the award for its 50-plus year history of contributions to art and society. Governor's Award Committee Chair Mark Spatney said, quote, Star Trek is the first television program I can remember watching as a child, and has always been ahead of its time. Not only have all the franchises promoted inclusiveness and acceptance of all people, and inspired creative thought about space exploration and our future, but the technical innovations sparked by the franchise are incredibly significant to the evolution of television production, and also the to the communication and computer tools we use in our daily life. We are honored to present this award to a franchise that we are honored to present this award to a franchise that has made such a lasting contribution to both television and our society. The award was created back in 1978 and is decided on by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. And honors, quote, an individual and organization or organizational achievement in the television arts and sciences that is exceptional and universal in nature and goes beyond the scope of annual Emmy Awards recognition. The award will be presented at the Creative Emmy Awards, which will be telecast on FXX on September 15th. It would have been better if it would have been for the 50th anniversary a couple years ago, but at least they hit the 50th anniversary of season 3. By the way, for those of out there complaining about how many wards there are in the main Emmy telecast, take a gander at the amount of wards that are given out at the Creative Arts Emmys. I'll include a link to it in the show notes. It took them two nights to give out all those awards, which will be compressed into the telecast you'll see on FXX. So if you have any regrets about reading that list, then you can join Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, in a newly disclosed regret of his own. Bill has a new book out called Live Long and What I Might Have Learned Along the Way. In it, Shatner says, quote, I had a choice. I could accept the compromise, or refuse to direct the movie, I made a mistake. I accepted the compromise, which doomed the picture from the beginning. That picture that he's talking about, of course, is Star Trek V, which has long been the most unpopular of the Star Trek movies. With the Enterprise being hijacked by Spock's half-brother in search of God, the original story was quite a bit different, with Kirk and Crew finding Satan masquerading as God, with the crew sent to hell and Kirk having to rescue them. Although some of the actors considered working with Shatner as hell enough, in the book, he says that Gene Ronberry found his story too controversial, and Nemoy and Kelly objected to how their characters were portrayed in Shatner's original story. Now, I'll go out on a limb here and say this book is probably as embellished as his previous books, but we might never truly know the truth, as only Nichelle Nichols, George Sake, and Rolf Koenig remain to refute anything he claims, so read it with a grain of salt, folks. Dr. McCoy actor Carl Urban is pretty confident he'll be back at work in future Star Scoutings. He told the crowd at Trek Conderoga, quote, hopefully we get back for another movie or two of them. We are just sort of waiting on negotiations. I'm confident we will. The two he was referring to are of course Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, who walked away from negotiations with Paramount recently. Urban does suspect that deals will be made, quote, if Urban does it's an interesting one. The last film did pretty well. But still, for a movie that cost what it cost to make, the profit margins aren't that great. And so particularly Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pine subsequently have done big movies, and their quotes have gone up. And I'm pretty confident that Paramount and those guys will figure it out. Because I know Chris. We were all in touch recently, and everybody wants to do it and make it happen. So if Paramount is willing, there will be a way to make it happen. So fingers crossed. Unquote. Last episode, we talked about Will Wheaton finally hitting the escape button and leaving Twitter over the DeAciday protest. Now, Will has posted an essay to his website explaining his reason for leaving. He even says that he tried the microblogging network, Mastodon, but quote, I found the harsh reality that I am still trying to process. Thousands of people who don't know me, who have never interacted with me, who internalized a series of lies about me, who were never willing to give me a chance. He said about his brief experience with Mastodon. He went on to say, I was harassed from the minute I made my account. And though I expected the shut up Wesleys and go peep yourselves to taper off after a day or so, it never did. And even though I broke I never broke any rules on the server, I joined. Mastodon Mastodon, by the way, is individual instances, which is like a server, and it which connects to a federal timeline, which is other servers. One of the admins told me that they were suspending my account because they got 60 reports overnight about my account, and they didn't want to deal with the drama. So now he's decided to be unsocial and leave it all behind, saying that he quote, doesn't deserve to be treated so terribly by so many random people, so I'm not gonna put myself in a place where I am subjected to it all day long. Please, do your best to be kind and make an effort to make the world less terrible. Now, since Will is no longer on social media, I'm gonna say it right here. Will, you're famous. You'll get haters. Just man up and deal with it. Be a grown-up. If you don't want the burden that comes from being famous, you can move to the other side of the world where no one knows you. Get off the internet, period. You could have made the Shut Up Wesley thing into your own personal brand, but instead you just didn't want to deal with it. So next time you sign up to be at a convention, be gracious. Act like you care. Joke about this. Make this something, you know, get people on your side. It's being standoffish, but that hurts. Anyway, in other Star Trek news, Canada's Space Channel hosted an STD panel at Fan Expo Canada. I'll say on hand were Senequa Martin Green, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Shazad Latif, and Anson Mount. Now, a lot of the details that were there were covered in previous cons, but a few new nuggets slipped loose. When answering a question about how she felt about her character's connection to Spock, Senequa said, quote, It's incredible. I think it is genius to have us set where we are, ten years before TOS, and to have Burnham be connected to that institution, which is the family Ceric and Amanda and Spock. I am just so appreciative of it. It is so full, it is wrought with everything. I end up being two degrees separate from Captain Pike, and it is really interesting to be able to have that sort of connection to the canon. I really love that. One of the things we're doing on Star Trek Discovery is being our own thing, but also keeping that connection with the canon and having that connective tissue. So I really appreciate it, and it is juicy, unquote. To which Doug Jones, Anson Mount, and th Anthony Rapp chimed in, calling Ethan Peck Spock as Hot Spock. Anson Mount described how he was trying to make his version of Captain Pike his own. Quote, I'm a big thief. I love stealing. I steal from Nicholson all the time. Maybe I've stolen from Shatner in the past, but for this one, I felt it was important to make a character that is already established, not just a replica of a previous performance. Mad respect for Jeffrey Hunter, but I need to come at it from my own way. It's hard to establish a character in the second season. I was being a dan uh it was being a dance between me and the writers figuring it out. I feel I just got to the groove of this character this last week. Mary Wiseman talked about her character's arc from season one to two, saying that it was, quote, a continuation of her journey, and that her arc will continue with a little more badass Tilly. She also wants to make Tilly more complex and three-dimensional. Rap, Anthony Rapp, also talked about his character's arc with the spore drive and the loss of Dr. Culver. And how he deals with the aftermath of that loss, and what does what to do now with the spore drive if it's not going to continue as it is. Quote, I think that's really interesting. Human experience for people who experience loss, that is what they go through. I'm grateful for the writers for giving time and space to grieve, and what growth can come from it, and what is possible. Now, speaking of Discovery, they're in a bit of controversy. Anis Abden, the creator of a 2014 indie game called Tardigrades. Tardigrade, sound familiar? Let's go on. He is currently suing Discovery for infringing on his creative property. Anis' claims revolve around the show supposedly stealing the idea that an alien tardigrade is the key to interstellar transport, and humans are exploring this through a scientific breakthrough. He also claims the relationship between Stamets and Culber is similar to the one explored in his video game, and the character of Stamitz itself bears a striking resemblance to a character from the game. He is currently suing CBS and Netflix, CBS for the domestic release and Netflix for International. Uh neither has responded to the suit. You can judge for yourself. There'll be a link to it in our show notes. And here's some news that just broke yesterday. CBS CEO and chairman, Les Moonvez, has been forced out at CBS over sexual misconduct allegations. As part of his exit deal, National Amusements, the paracompany of both CBS and Viacom, has agreed not to propose a merger between the two companies for at least two years. It would also it would also show, quote, give good faith consideration, unquote, to other transactions with other companies. So how should you read this? Read this like like this. The Star Trek license, both movie and TV, might be merging again, whole, sometime after the year 2020. And at last in Trek News, DS9 documentary, What We Le Left Behind is going full steam ahead with several announcements. First off, veterans uh Star Trek composers Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kinner have signed on to score the documentary and an animated season 8 animated story brief. Story break. Also, the remastering plan has been expanded. Originally, they were going to remaster just 5 minutes of the show to a beautiful crisp, HD. But looking at it, they've decided to add an additional 15 minutes. That's 20 minutes for us to look at what an HD remaster of the series would look like. If you'd like to lend a hand, you can financially do so at ds9dock.backerkit.com. We'll have a link to that in our show notes. You can donate as little as a dollar, and if you donate $50 or more, you'll get a special challenge coin. They also announced that the premiere of the dock will be in October in London, LA, and New York, with backer streaming later this year and DV and DVD and Blu-ray releases soon after that. Now, let's take a word. I'd like to thank you for listening to this edition of Multiverse Tonight. You know, one way to support the show is to listen with Radio Public. Every episode of Multiverse Tonight that's heard through the Radio Public app for iPhone and Android means that we make money so this show can grow. There's a link to our show in the episode notes. Give it a try today. Now back with some DC news. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has been two iconic comic book characters, Negan on The Walking Dead, and starred as the comedian in The Watchmen, now wants to be another iconic character from DC, Lobo, the toughest bast in the galaxy. He talked about it, who he wanted to play at Walker Stalker Con. And after mulling over Reed Richards, he said, quote, The only one I want to play is at DC is DC and Lobo. He's a badass. He added, Marvel, I don't know. Everyone that's in it is pretty good. I feel like all the greatest characters are working. Lobo would be very cool. I don't think that I'm as b as big as Lobo is, but it could transplant Mickey Rourke's body. On my head, that would be just great. Unquote. You know, I think that he might do a good job as the gruff bounty hunter that killed his own race so that he could be the last one. Veteran, comic writer and artist, Dan Jurgens, thinks that Guy Gardner should have his own solo comic book series again. He col told comic book ser comicbook.com, quote, I can't understand why Guy Gardner doesn't have a series. He should have some kind of a series. He's a great fun character. Killowog is a great fun character to play around with. There are certainly some other very intriguing possibilities that are out there in the world of the Green Lantern Corps. Now, unquote. Fans will remember that he did have a series of his own in the 90s. So, do you agree with Dan? Do you think there should be a new Guy Gardner series? Perhaps a team up book with, say, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Who knows? Podcasting Giant and occasional actor, Mark Maron, will reportedly play a role in a Joker movie, Joaquin Phoenix 1. But according to that hashtag show, Marin will play the producer of talk show of Robert De Niro's character. The movie is being directed by Todd Phillips and will star De Niro, Marin, and Zazzy Beats, and it will be released in October of 2019. The film is currently looking for an actor to replace Alec Baldwin, who they hoped would play Thomas Wayne, but left shortly after the news became public. And speaking of DC Casting News, the Doom Patrol has signed on two more members. First off, is in the villain role is Mr. Nobody, Alan and to play that role, Alan Tudek. He's no stranger to the genre scene, as he's voiced everything from the chicken heh he in Moana to voicing a gruff droid in Rogue One. And to lead the ex-Met Doom Patrol is Timothy Dalton. Big props there. He's been James Bond, as well as the Baron and Fran and Flash Gordon movies, and he's also made an appearance as Racelon in Doctor Who. Now the hashtag show has also uncovered three new casting position descriptions for the show. First off is John Powers, a male in his 30s who works Ground Crew and sees the accent that causes the creation of the Negative Man. Next up is Cheryl Trainer, a lady in her 30s. She looks to be the negative man's wife, which is interesting considering that the character is unmarried in the comic book. And last we have von Fuchst, a 40 to 60-year-old ex-Nazi, who keeps up appearances as Paraguay's village cobbler, but in secret conducts scientific experiments. I think the Doom Patrol holds the award holds the award for DC Universe Show that's holding my interest the most. Now, one of the best parts of Wonder Woman was Robin Wright's performance as the kickbutt, General Antiop. Word has come down to the website Porter, who recently did a profile on the actor actress, that she is going to Spain to shoot a sequence with Connie Nielsen's Hippolyta. So I guess this is gonna be a flashback sequence? Remember, the character died in the first Wonder Woman movie, unless she's only mostly dead. Now, let's look at some Marvel news. The next movie in the Spider-Man series is called Far From Home. Right now, they truly are Far From Home, as the movie is filming in the Czech Republic. This month they will be in Prague and Liberic. Apparently, there will also be a carnival scene somewhere in the movie, as a casting call from the extra film agency has popped up looking for extras to portray jugglers, cool hoop dancers, and folk dancers. Little is known about this movie other than that Kevin Kevin Feige has said that this movie will be a palette cleanser after Avengers 4. Now, Marvel might or might not be going ahead with Guardians Volume 3, but they might have to do it without Drax, Dave Batista, as the former wrestler has cast has cast doubt on whether he'll return following James Gunn's ouster. He told the Jonathan Ross show that, quote, it's a bitter, bitter conversation because I'm not really happy with what they've done with James Gunn, Batista said. They're putting the movie off. It's on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you, I don't know if I want to work for Disney. Unquote. So, you know, it seems to me that in order to fix this, you have Drax kill Thanos, and Drax dying in the process. Easy, peasy, simple. You're welcome, Disney. You can send me a check anytime. Now, uh, Wesley Snipes has recently confirmed that they are that there are talks between him and Marvel about possible Blade projects. Snipes told Vice that there is a lot of potential interest in reviving Blade and his world. He noted that there are two projects that would fit perfectly. Quote, there are a lot of conversations going around right now, and we're very blessed to have the enthusiasm and interest in something coming from that world again, Snipe said. We've created two projects that fit perfectly into this world, and when people see them, I think they're only going to have a problem with deciding which one of them they love the most. Speculation is that this movie might feature Blade's daughter, Fallon Gray, from the Blade the Hunter comic book series. What do you think? Would you like to see Blade back in the uh Marvel cinematic universe? Now, we'll close out Marvel News with a couple of obituaries. Spider Woman, co-creator Marie Severin, died at the age of 89. She broke into the industry in the early 50s when her brother, comic book artist John Severin, asked her to color one of his stories for EC Comics. She would then become a regular at EC Comics before working for Marvel precursor Atlas Comics, before leaving the business hall entirely to work for the Federal Reserve. She would come back to Comics a few years later, to Atlas, right before it turns into Marvel. By the end of the 60s, she was the main colorist to Marvel. When Hall gained his own series, Seven penciled the first five issues. Her likeness work was so great that she became the artist for Marvel's parody series, not Brand Eck. In 1976, she co-created Spider Woman, designing her iconic costume, and in the 80s, she saw work on a lot of licensed comics for Marvel due to her incredible ability to create likenesses. Following Marvel's bankruptcy, however, in the 90s, she was let go. She continued to work as an artist until the mid-2000s. We also say goodbye to Gary Friedrich, co-creator of Ghost Writer and Son of Satan, who passed away at the age of 75. He worked for Carleton Comics in the 60s after his childhood friend Roy Thomas began working for Marvel. Thomas would later give Friedrich a number of assignments, including a regular gig on Sergeant Fury and the Howling Commandos. He worked on that book from 1967 to 1971. In 1973, Marvel Spotlight No. 5, he co-created Ghostwriter and later would write an ongoing series that spun out of that issue. Around this time, he also co-created Damien Hellstrong, the son of Satan. He left comics in 1978, only returning briefly in the 90s to write Bombast for Topps Comics. In recent years, he sued Marvel, claiming that the rights to Ghost Rider had reverted back to him in 2001. In 2013, Friedrich and Marvel agreed to a settlement. Jerry Friedrich, Maurice Severin, I salute you. Rest in peace. Now, on to some geek news. In the nineties in the 1990s, the X-Viles were hot. So, of course, they got their own licensed Barbie and Ken dolls. Unfortunately, those Ken dolls look like Barbie and Ken wearing Mulder and Scully's clothes. Flash forward to today, the show is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and Mattel has made good with two new Barbie and Ken dolls, this time capturing the likenesses of David DeCovney and Gillian Anderson much, much better than the old ones did. If you want to buy them, they're on sale at Mattel's website for $40 apiece. Now, have you said to yourself, you know what we need? A new police academy movie. Well, looks like your wish is gonna be granted. Franchise veteran actor and 80s star Steve Gutenberg recently tweeted back to a fan who asked him why he was in London and if he was filming a new police academy movie. Quote, Adam, the next police academy is coming. No details yet, but it is in a gift bag being readied. Unquote. Now, there was word that New Line Cinemas was intending to relaunch the series way back in 2012, but nothing has been heard from since. So, are you ready for a new police academy? Would you like to see any of the uh ol any of the uh older actors come back? Or do you think they should have a brand new cast filled with today's uh younger stars? The Jim Henson Company has announced a new project. They're going to bring the Witchlands to television. The series is based on the set of novels by actor Susan Dinard, who would be on board as co-exec producer with Lisa Henson and Haley Stanford. The show is set in an alternate world ruled by three empires. In this realm, people born with the witchery have magical powers beyond the rest of the population. Two best friends, Safi, a truth witch, and Insult, a thread witch, find themselves at the forefront of a struggle that may shift the balance of power between the empires. There currently isn't a home for the series, but it is being shopped around to both streaming and cable networks. Now, Simpson creator, Matt Groening, has put an old legend to rest, finally confirming that Michael Jackson did voice the character of Leon Kampowski in the 1991 classic Simpsons episode, Stark Raiding Dad. The credit on the episode was credited to John J. Smith, which led to many a debate that it was done by an imposter. Matt told the Weekly, quote, We really did have him. He then went on to tell the Weekly that Jackson had called Graning up on the phone, hanging up on Legend, because, quote, because he has a voice that sounds like someone doing a Michael and Jackson bit. And he said that he loved Bart and wanted to be on the show. Now, the song, Happy Birthday Lisa, that was sung in the show was done by an actual impersonator named Kip Lennon. Matt Groening said, quote, He did do the show. He didn't want cr Jackson didn't want credit for it. It was some it was some kind of deal with this record company, or whatever. So when it came time to do the songs, we had a sound like Singer. And he stood there and watched the guy who was so nervous, who had the sound like Michael Jackson, and my and Jackson giggled. Unquote. Now, just for the record, I never had any doubt. And that is the news for tonight. Let's hear a word. Wizard World is closing 2018 out strong with cons in Austin, Texas, Sacramento, California, and Madison, Wisconsin. Wizard World guests this year have included The Winners of Soldier, Sebastian Stan, Jason Aquaman Momoa, Ray Cyborg Fisher, and Ezra the Flash Miller in the Justice League movie, Dave Batista and Palm Clemtief from Guardians of the Galaxy, Natalie Dormer and Sean Bean from Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings actors, Billy Boyd and Sean Austin, and fan favorites like Michael Rosenbaum, Jules Satidi, CharismaCarpenter, Henry Winkler, and many more. Use our coupon code Multiverse at checkout for 20% off the cost of your tickets. Get your tickets today. Thank you, me. Be sure to check out our social media, Twitter, at multiverse tom and on Facebook and Instagram. And if you'd like to contribute some money, please do so at co-fee.com slash multiverse or on Patreon as well. And if you're a subscriber, be sure to share us with your friends. And if you're brand new to the show, please be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment and let us know how we're doing. Special thanks to Lobo Loco for our theme music. Thanks for watching Multiverse Tonight. We'll be back in two weeks. Now, please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good night.