Disney jumps the Gunn and buys a Fox

Tonight, we look at some of the cool geek news that came out of San Diego Comic-Con plus Disney and Foxstare Holders vote, and we check in with the heads of DC Comics in this jam-packed episode of Multiverse Tonight. There are many universe out there. Welcome to the one with news about all the others. This is Multiverse Tonight. Here's your host, Thomas Cow. 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 is 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. Hello and welcome to this special episode 5 of Multiverse Tonight. Here we look at all your geeky universes. I'm your host, Thomas Townley. Rolling along to this long episode, I'm just gonna say at the outset here that this episode will go on for at least an hour. So I won't pad the opening here. I would like to announce that we do now have a Twitch channel, because we have to have all these social media bases covered. Right now I'm mostly using it to stream Star Trek Online on the weekends. And we got a few dollars from Prime Dave on our Amazon affiliate link. If you'd like to help me out, go to our website, multiverse tonight.com, and click on the link on the side of the front page. We also have a link link for mycomicshop.com, and I plan on having more associate links soon. I would also get like to give a shout out to Anne, who is my first contributor on my Kofi donation page. Thanks for the donation. I hope my other listeners also contribute. Just find us on Kofi or Patreon. You can also find those links on our website. Thank you. And let's get on with the news. Let's start with the entertainment side that DC Univer that the DC Universe showcased. We've got to see a lot of trailers from Aquaman, Shazam, Titans, the WBDC shows, Preacher, and more. But let's start out with what we saw from the Aquaman trailer. Very cool trailer, again, very visually interesting. So Arthur Curry, son of Lighthouse Keeper and Merwoman, Queen Mother, picked on as a kid, grows up to challenge Orm from the throne of Atlantis. But it will feature also feature Aquaman in a comic accurate costume at some point. That might actually be worth money to see. We did learn that Gallagher doesn't consider the film a sequel. Okay, then what in Hades is it? The films of the DCU now have an official title. You and I and everyone else has been calling them the DC Extended Universe or DC EU. Well, DC wants us to call them the worlds of DC instead. This is what DC Film Slate was called at the start of the Comic-Con 2018 panel. And while it may at first seem unwieldy, I guess it does make some sense, since DC is going to is going to on the multiverse route instead of having one singular filmed universe like Marvel. But the w biggest thing to drop from DC Films at the show was the trailer for Shazam, the Gomer Pyle story. Er no no wait. Okay, just Shazam, the movie. Which comes out next April. Looks pretty good. Uh not a love action in this first trailer, focused mainly on the humor, which might be a good thing for the company since the grim and gritty films of the DCE uh worlds of DC are very dark. I'm actually looking forward to this movie. My only complaint was that they don't call him Captain Marvel, but that's just minor. Hopefully it'll still refer to him as the Big Red Cheese. We also got some more info on the DC subscription service. They showed off a trailer for Titans. Only thing I can say for it was eh not for me. Too grim, too dark, dark. It might appeal to someone. DC has also confirmed that there will be an annual subscription to the service that'll cost, wait for it, $74.99, with a month-to-month subscription available for $7.99. The annual subscription is available to pre-order right now from DCUniverse.com, and you'll get a bonus of three free months for doing so. So the question is, do you have the money for another streaming service? Or will you just watch the show you want to watch and then shut it off until next year, like, oh CBS All Access? We also got word that DC DC Universe will also be the home of a new live-action Star Girl series. The new show, based on the high-flying adventures of young hero Courtney Whitmore, will feature her following in the shoes of her new stepfather, a former member of the JSA, after moving to the small town to a small town in Nebraska. It will also be produced by Greg Brillante, the man behind much of the Airverse, and Jeff Johns, the creator of Stirl, and DC Comics recently departed CCO. Johns being involved in the project is pretty big as Stirl was one of his babies. I hope this means we'll also see get to see Stripe as well. Come on, you can't have stars without Stripe. So let's do a quick speed round for the TV shows. Supergirl. Two months after reports emerged that Supergirl was casting a transgender character to appear in season four, today's Comic-Con International Panel at San Diego introduced fans to Na na to Nayanal, a transgender superhero known as Dreamer, who will be played by McCole Maines. Ancient Liberty will be the new big bad in season four. Supergirl's version of Ancient Liberty is described as, quote, the ruthless and terrifying leader of the Children of Liberty, unquote, a human first hate group. The character is described as a brilliant orator in the guise of a family man, who can easily convince people that he's right. Linda Carter is also set to return this season as President Marsden. Now on to Arrow. Episode 702's title will be pretty familiar a pretty familiar one to longtime Green Arrow comic readers, The Longbow Hunters. Stephen Amel revealed that Oliver does something bad in the season premiere, quote. There's nothing about him that is heroic at all in the episode, unquote. So I guess he does F Batman 2. Flash. The Flash star Daniel Panabaker, who plays Caitlin Snow, aka Killer Frost, on the CW's DC Comics adaptation, recently announced that she'll be making her directoral debut with an episode of the show's fifth season. She'll direct episode 18 of the season. Alright. This one is not exactly Flash related, but close enough. Kevin Smith revealed that the Flash stars Grant Gustin, who plays Barry Allen, The Flash, Tom Kavanaugh, Harrison Wells, and Carlos Valdez, who plays Carlos Ramon slash Vibe, will be appearing in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It's unclear what the role the trio of actors will play in the film, which reportedly begins filming this November. The Flash showrunners also revealed a younger version of the Rogues and a Gorilla Garod King Shark team up. Also, at some point, the Flash will get his famous Flash Ring, which, in the comic books, holds his costume. Flash's hundredth episode will be directed by series star Tom Kavanaugh, but that but the milestone episode will also be the mid-season finale, which will be episode eight. It was also revealed that Chris Klein, who's been in American Pie Election, and Oz, has been cast as the DC comic supervillain supervillain, David Hirsch slash Cicada. The character is described as, quote, a grizzled blue-collar everyman whose family was torn apart by metahumans. Cicada now seeks to exterminate the epidemic, one metahuman at a time. Unquote. Kinda sounds inefficient. The teaser for the Aeroverse also teased the arrival of a brand new hero, Kate Kane slash Batwoman. Though the role is not currently cast, the teaser did a pretty good job of setting the tone for Batwoman's arrival through some comic panels and the many, many existing Aeroverse references to Gotham and other members of the Bat family. She is expected to be the focus of this year's Aerovirse crossover event, although our next show will not be a part of it. Legends of Tomorrow. It has been confirmed that Rip Hunter will not be back for season 4. The show EP also revealed that Booster Gold will also not be in season 4, but Bebo will return. Legends of Tomorrow has cast Ramona Young in its upcoming fourth season. Young will play will be playing Alaska Yu, a character who does not have a clear DC comics counterpart. Tom Wilson, the comedian and actor best known for playing Biff Tannen and his ancestors and descendants in the Back to the Future trilogy, has been cast as Nate Haywood's father on the show. Wilson will recur as Nate's father, Hank Haywood. With a lifetime in the military and Department of Defense, Hank is part of a long line of Haywoods to serve the country. Charming and charismatic, he's left big shoes for Nate to fill, and it doesn't help that Nate can't tell him he's secretly a legend. Now let's cover Krypton. Season 2 will start with a bit of a time jump, starring about five months after the season finale. Also, Lobo, the Intergalactic Space Bounty Hunter, will be the big bad for season two. Friggin' fantastic. It was also revealed that the Kryptonian superheroes, Nightwing and Flame Bird, will play some sort of role within season two. In the comics, Nightwing and Flame Bird are a duo of Kryptonian gods who reincarnate through history and are destined to find each other and be betrayed by a friend in each lifetime. They might be best known for the legend Superman tells young Dick Grayson of Kryptonian gods by those names, inspiring him to adopt the Nightwing name for himself when he abandons the Robin identity. Now, let's cover some of what Marvel has brought to the table. Alright. There was no Hall H panel for Marvel at SDCC. They like to have their own announcements for D-23, plus the Cinemac Universe is on pause until Captain Marvel. But the biggest news that dropped during Comic-Con Weekend was the firing of James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, over a series of tweets dating back to between 2008 and 2012. These came forward after being dug up by right-winger Mike Cernovich, who rose to fame trumpeting Pizzagate conspiracy theories, and has set his focus on journalists and other members of the quote liberal media. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the firing came after conservative political commentators, most prominent Cernovich, dug up some old tweets that joked about pedophilia and child rape. In the statement, emailed to CNET.com, Disney chairman Alex Horn wrote, quote, The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter are indefensible and inconsistent with our sits with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him. Unquote. In the days following the firing, several people have come to his aid, most notably Dave Batista, who stars his Drax in Gunn's Guardians movies. On Twitter, he said, quote, I will have more to say, but for right now, all I will say is this. At James Gunn is one of the most loving, caring, good-natured people I've ever met. He's gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He's made mistakes. We all have. I'm not okay with what's happening to him. Zoe Seldana, Chris Pratt, and Karen Gillian also sent tweets of support. Gunn apologized via Twitter for the past hurtful statements before deleting his Twitter account. And in a statement sent to ABC News, Gunn wrote, quote, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself. Then, all I can say, all I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 was supposed to start shooting next year and was scheduled for release in 2020. But it's possible Gun's departure may impact that. Now, in the days since the news dropped, an online petition has been launched asking Disney to reconsider. It currently has over 28,000 signatures and rising, and the Toxic Adventure director, Lloyd Kaufman, has called for fans to picket Disney over James Gunn's firing. In the show of Solidarity, actor Bobcat Goldthwaite has asked for his voice over his voiceover to be removed from the Disney theme park use. Disney was in Hercules, and is his voice is part of a new attraction called World of Color, Villainous. Now, Roseanne Barr, who herself was fired for something she said on Twitter, went on Twitter again late last Monday night to blast the support James Gunn has received after being dropped by Disney. Quote, I am disgusted to read all the support for James Gunn's pedophile pedophile jokes, as the same people support blacklisting me for a joke they didn't even understand, she said. We've also had Ryan Johnson deleting tweets and Michael Roker delete his Twitter. So this event is currently unfolding. And just today, um a an open letter has been sent to Disney by the actors of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie asking that James Gunn be reinstated. You know, we'll keep following this. I have my own opinion, but I'm not gonna put it here in the middle of the show. So here's what I'm gonna do. After the end jingle, I'm going to put my opinion of the whole deal. Uh if you don't want to hear what I have to say, you don't have to. Just end the podcast, walk away until until the next episode. Gotcha? Good. Now, I will say this though. Warner Brothers, if you're listening, I'd grab gun up right now while the getting is good. This would be your opportunity to get A-less talent for, I don't know, Plastic Man. Or the new gods, maybe. Come on! Strike while the iron is hot. Now, 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 is 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. Let's uh look at some Star Trek news that came out of the con. We've learned that Captain Pike will be taking on Discovery, the Discovery on get it, a search for Spock. Ah I can't make this up. Spock has disappeared investigating some strange phenomena, and Pike commandeers the ship so he can use a spore drive to figure it all out. We've also got confirmation from Alex Kurtzman that we will see Spock this season. No word on who has been cast in the role. And on top of that, Rebecca Romain, f recently of the now cancelled The Librarian series, has been cast as Pike's first officer number one. We have also found out that before season two debuts next year, we'll get four shorts called short tracks that last between ten and fifteen minutes that will spotlight different crew members. The characters featured include Sylvia Tilley, very wiseman, Ceru, played by Doug Jones, Harry Mudd, played by Rain Wilson, and a new character named Kraft, played by Aldus Hodge. Wilson will also direct the episode about Harry Mud. Nice try, CBS, but I'm still not giving you my money until the last few episodes of the show are up, and I only have to pay once to watch the entire season. We also have confirmation that Wilson Cruz will be backed as Dr. Culber. How the now dead character will be back has not been released. Will it be Dream Sequence? Maybe Mirror Universe Culber? He just springs up out of the mushrooms. I guess we'll have to wait and see. We also have been promised some connections to how Discovery fits in the Star Trek canon. Alex Kurtzman said, quote, you will get those answers next season, guaranteed. You're not just you're not going to get them the way you expect them. Fine, okay. If you want to make it fit in the canon for me, you can just erase season one and start over fresh. And please, explain those clay ons, will you? It's ridiculous that they go from bumpy head, the smooth head, the bumpyhead, the smooth, the bumpy. You're writers, explain this. Don't just give me the that's how they are, that's how we're gonna do them excuse. Anyway. Um let's have another quick round quick lightning round of miscellaneous news. Now, uh you Green Lantern will be relaunched by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp, and they promise no apocalypse ending storylines. Star Wars, the Clone Wars, will return for a new season to be on Disney's upcoming new streaming service. We also got a look at Fantastic Beast, The Crime of Grindel Grindelwald. The trailer looks awesome. Go to our site, multiverse tonight.com, and look at the trailer. It is awesome. I got chills. Uh we also got confirmation that Andrew Lincoln's last season of The Walking Dead will be season nine. We got footage from Sony for the Venom solo movie, showing off the Simeon's size as well as the dark his his dark width. And speaking of Venom, Venom comic writer Donny Coate, got Donny Cates, is spearheading a relaunch of the Marvel Knights imprint with a one-shot called MK20, number one. Marvel is also gonna be bringing back the uncanny X-Men, which will fill the void left by the end of X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue this September. We also got a look at the upcoming season seven of The Venture Brothers, as well as word from the creators that season eight will come a little quicker than season seven. Clark Greg will direct the season six premiere of Marvel's Agents of Shield, and congratulations to writer, actor, director, and fellow podcaster Kevin Smith, who was awarded an Inkpot Award for his contributions to pop culture. Now that's all from Comic-Con International. Now here's the news that followed the con. And we're gonna start back with some Star Trek news. Now, Simon Pegg is giving an update on Star Trek 4, speaking to Hey you guys, hey you guys sorry. Pegg said, quote, as far as I know, we are pushing ahead. We are in prep, I think, for it, but then there's so much to do before we start shooting, like making sure everybody is available. According to recent reports, Paramount Pictures is looking to begin shooting on the next Star Trek. Movie in January, and is considering London and Atlanta as possible filming locations. The production is rumored to be looking at Black Panther and Walking Dead Star Deniguria for one of the two new female characters for the film. And on the heels of the James T. Kirk Bourbon, we got the announcement of a new liquor from the Silver Screen bottling company, Ten Forward Vodka. Named after the famous Lounge on the Enterprise D, the bottle was designed by Star Trek's graphics designer Michael Okuda. A small batch of the vodka will be sent into the upper atmosphere. Afterwards, it will be retrieved and then combined with a larger batch to ensure, quote, that a portion of every bottle will contain vodka from space. The liquor is currently on pre-order for $30 per bottle and will launch in September. A new DLC pack for the VR game Star Trek Bridge Crew will take players to the next generation. The expansion is now available on PC for VR players with HTZ5, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality support. The DLC was previously released for PlayStation VR and PlayStation 4 for non-VR players. The expansion is playable cross-platform across all devices and is priced at $14.99. Earlier in the show, I told you about the Star Trek shorts that will proceed season 2 of Discovery. We now have word on one of these episodes. Calypso will be written by Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon. He posted the following on Instagram quote A few days a few weeks ago, I flew to Toronto to be on the set of hashtag Star Trek Discovery for the three-day shoot of a short film I wrote, one of four making up a new spin-off microseries called Short Tracks. Mine's entitled Calypso. It stars the blazingly talented Aldus Hodge and was directed by the brilliant Oltunde Osinonia. Olotunde Osinonia. And while all of that is very exciting, the most exciting part of it part of all, personally, was the moment you see here. In this photo, I did not say a head warp factor for Mr. Sugaloo or make it so, because after all, I was aboard the Discovery, not the Enterprise. But I thought both of those things, I thought them very hard. Unquote. The shorts will arrive in December. Spock Actory Spock Actor Zachary Quinto recently spoke to USA Today about his future with the franchise. He spoke about Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek project, quote, we're waiting on specifics. I'm thrilled that we might have the opportunity to work with Tarrantino and see what he would do with us in this universe. It's going to be an R-rated version of Star Trek, which would be the first in the movies, and that's exciting. I've been a fan of his for years, and I'm really inspired by his originality. Take that originality and mix up mix it with this world full of incredible ideal ideology and colorful characters, and the result could be pretty thrilling. Quinto also hinted that Tarantino's Star Trek film will be the last he plays the role of Spock. The only move on the move has been a script written by Mark L. Smith. No word on if Tarrantino will be able to direct or any other details have become available yet. And if Tarrantino happens to make the most Star Trek film ever, I'll be shocked. And very happy. Now let's take a look at some Star Wars news. Earlier, we told you about James Gunn being fired after Right Wing Agitator brought up some old insensitive jokes Gunn made on Twitter. Since then, we have also learned that Ryan Johnson, the director of Episode 9, has deleted more than 20,000 tweets in an effort to keep them from being used against him in a similar way. Ryan isn't the only uh Star Wars social media casualty as of late. Disney Ridley left Twitter after being called a hypocrite for wishing for gun control while starring in a film series involving violence, and Kelly Marie Tran delete her social media channels after being subjected to racist and sexist comments about her character Rose from The Last Jedi. And we have also learned that actress Selma Blair has also left Twitter to show support for Mr. Gun. And, as I said, we'll keep you updated as more develops. Original Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew took to Twitter originally to tell fans that he recently underwent back surgery to improve his mobility. The 7'2-inch actor has had limited mobility in recent years and even has had to hand off most of the role of Chewy to Junas Suotomo for The Last Jedi and entirely in solo a Star Wars story. Here's hoping to see Mr. Maghew moving more comfortably soon. He is a very nice man. Now, last month we learned that Jar Jar Binks star actor, Ahmad Betz, almost commits suicide over the backlash of the large, funny, talking Star Wars character. Now Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the Kelvin Timeline movies, and who has also openly mocked Jar Jar in the past, admits he feels guilty for his part in the negativity. In a recent interview with Now This, Pegg told them, quote, I feel so ashamed of the fact that there was re actually a victim, a human victim in that. I think most people were regarding Jar Jar Binks like he was a real creature and wailing on him for being annoying, or whatever, or not liking him. But there was a person behind that, and I read that and just thought, Christ, I'm one of those people. It makes me feel awful. He also acknowledged that the toxicity within fandoms that has become problematic in the digital age, specifically knowing Calimarie Trans fleeting, fleeing from social media, quote, there's no diplomacy in that. There's no empathy. We're becoming very, very insular as human beings. We're becoming very self-driven, selfish. Our opinions, our needs, our wants. I feel sorry for Kalimarie Tran, because she was just in a film. An effing film. That's all it was. It's all it is. None of the none of it matters. None of it. I think it would be very nice if everyone just got on, you know, and stopped being so aggressive. Unquote. I couldn't agree more with you, Simon. Good on ya. Well, it was bound to happen. Wherever JJ Abrams goes, it's only a matter of time before Greg Grunberg is bound to appear. Now we've gotten a hint from the actor, quote, you know what? We'd better return, or else my wife is going to kill me for growing a beard, Grunberg said, referring to the facial hair he grew for Star Wars, The Force Awakens. I can't officially say anything, but this is getting itchy, and I'm getting itchy to go over there and do it. So I'd put good odds on Snap Wexley appearing in episode 9, which comes to theaters on December 20th, 2019. Rogue One, a Star Wars story, was the first film in the long-running franchise not to have an opening crawl. Originally, though, it did. Writer Gary Witta has now revealed the one that for one that he did write the standalone he did write one for the standalone movie, writing on Twitter, quote, I did write a crawl, and I remember thinking it was neat that it was the same number of words as the one in A New Hope Wither wrote. This was before the correct decision not to have an opening crawl for the standalones. I would just love to see what that opening crawls. So, Comic Con International's over. What's next? Wizard World has a convention coming up every month. Wizardworld guests this year will include across the US, The Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan, Jason Aquaman Momoa, Ray Cyborg Fisher, and Ezra the Flash Miller in the Justice League movie, Dave Batista and Pom Conteith from Guardians of the Galaxy, Natalie Dormer and Sean Bean from Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings actors Billy Boyd and Sean Aston, fan favorites like Michael Rosenbaum, Charisma Carpenter, Henry Winkler, and many more. Use our coupon code Multiverse at checkout for 20% off the cost of your tickets. The next show is Chicago, August 23rd through the 26th. Get your tickets today. Now let's uh we have some good news. Uh we now have an official cast list for episode 9. It includes a little surprise. Returning cast members include Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyga, Oscar Isaac, Lupiti Nyongo, Domin Hale Gleason, Kelly Marie Tran, Juno Sumsuatomo, and Billy Lord. Joining the cast are Naomi Aki, Richard E. Grant, and Carrie Russell, who will be joined by veteran Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Billy D. Williams, who will reprise his role as Lando Calvary. Leia Organa will once again be played by Carrie Fisher, using previously unreleased footage shot for Star Wars The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams said in the news release, quote, We desperately love desperately loved Carrie Fisher. Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter Billy, we have found a way to honor Carrie's legacy and role as Leia in Episode 9 by using unseen footage we shot together in episode 7. Musically, John Williams will be returning to score the movie. Star Wars, Episode 9, is set to begin filming at London's Pinewand Studios on August 1st, 2018, and hit theaters in December of 2019. And it will be the end of the Skywalker saga. I wonder if we'll continue the story with Ray and Finn or just start fresh with all new characters. Anyway, the crew of episode 9 is going old school in order to avoid any possible leaks. Victoria Mahoney, who is the second unit director on the movie, shared a photo of what appears to be an old Nokia cell phone with the hashtag old school. While she didn't detail the reasons for the old phone, she did confirm that it's connected to the movie with the additional hashtags crew and iX, or 9. So we can assume that the majority of the crew have also tread their smartphones for older phones to make sure that no photos escape the set. Now, if no details escape, they might have hit upon a good idea. Let's move over to the cosmic side of the force with some DC news. According to Shazam director David F. Sandberg, it's acceptable to classify the movie as a Christmas movie. Talking to comicbook.com during San Diego Comic Con, he said, quote, It feels like a Christmas movie to me. It's about family and finding your family. You have these orphans or foster kids, and Christmas is very much a family holiday. So it sort of ties it all together that way. Wonder Woman 1984 will shoot select sequences in IMAX. The first Wonder Woman and Justice League were both released in 3D IMAX, and those were convert but those were conversions, and not true IMAX. This means that select sequences will be shot in glorious 70mm. I hope that it's not just released in IMAX 3D. I would love to see these sequences for myself, and I just really don't do the 3D thing. Darn glasses. By the way, Gal Godot and director Patty Jenkins are offering fans a walk-on role in the movie. They've teamed up with Omaze to give one fan who will be flown out to the set of the movie. They then will be given an 80s makeover and an appearance in a scene with Godot. The Omaze campaign will be for ARK, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, which helps to improve the outcomes of former inmates. All you have to do is visit omaize.com slash Wonder Woman to donate. The more you donate, the better your odds of winning. The team over at Darth Blender have taken the vocal and music tracks from the new Aquaman trailer and combined them with the animated footage from the classic Super Friends cartoon, as well as footage from the Aquaman animated series that ran from 1967 to 1970. The whole thing is cute and kind of funny. We'll have a link to it in our show notes. HBO president Casey Blois, speaking recently at the Television Critics Association event, spoke with enthusiasm for Damon Lindelhoff's adaptation of Watchmen, revealing that he wants to get to it on TV as soon as possible. He told Variety that he has, quote, very high hopes, unquote, and that and then went on to praise the script and casting, saying he expects to see the pilot in the next week. HBO and Lindelhoff have been the target of criticism from fans of Watchmen and supporters of Alan Moore. Moore has continued to denounce any sort of adaptation or continuation of his of the work against his wishes. Lindelhoff has stated on his Instagram account saying that he has no plans to tell the same story as Moore because he would only fail at such a feat. Instead, he's been treating this as a remix. I guess we'll see if it holds up as a remix when the series premieres on HBO in the future. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, DC Comics publishers Jim Lee and Dan DeDio talked about what they expect from the company in the future. Dan spoke about the goal of the company being to reach as many people as possible with their work, whether they're coming to them through comic book stores or not. When asked about the Walmart exclusive line and if they're looking to build a graphic novel market for the audience, Mr. DeDio said they're not graphic novels, but periodicals. Quote, the goal is to build an alternate style of periodical, which acts as an entry point for new fans, with new material to excite existing fans as well. Our hope is to build that route right now. It's four books. If we can expand that up to eight, that's a big win for us. If we can secure ourselves not just not just in 3,000 stores we're in right now, but with a wider footprint within Walmart, that's an even bigger win. Unquote. Jim Lee told the Hollywood reporter that all the new initiatives are designed to grow their business into every possible channel, while building some new channels, saying that he talked about DC Universe, the new online streaming service, quote, so when we look at DC Universe, we're excited as publishers to have our comic book content set adjacent to the media content it's inspired. We're launching with thousands of books that will be curated and tied in to media content and show the origins of these characters from the print page. Then readers or viewers can compare how they were adapted. We're able to do the new Teen Titans comic book from the 80s, showcase Hawk and Dove from the 90s. There's all these different takes on the characters, and we're looking to showcase that on a subscription service. He also talked about the young adult material and they're taking characters, reinventing them, and telling very poignant stories and coming age stories, as well as touching on topics like refugees and LGBTQ themes. The interview went on to discuss the upcoming creator refresh on the core titles and the search for the next untapped market. It's a very interesting interview. I'll have a link to the full interview in the show notes. Now, let's take a look over at Marvel. The DC Fox merger took a huge leap forward with the approval of both Disney and Fox stockholders. Gerson Zafinovich, general counsel of 21st Century Fox, told Fox shareholders the merger is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019. And just for journalistic integrity, I own a share of Disney myself. Let's start off with a little dip into the rumor well. With the Disney Fox deal, almost a done deal, it's a a supposed trusted source on superhero hype forms, has since been cooperated by writers of Star WarsNew.com, says that Marvel is looking to bring Galactus and the Silver Surfer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you think about it, it would make an excellent Thanos level baddie for Phase 4. However, no sign of anything has been seen from any official studio in any capacity, so take this all with a huge grain of salt. New cover art revealed for Marvel Comics' next big X-Men event, Extermination, suggests the return of a character that's been gone for two years, Cyclops. The new teaser features the words set it right, as a figure, possibly Cyclops, holds the ruby red visor in their hands. The premise of extermination hinges on the length of time that the original five X-Men have stayed in the present, altering the timeline and having a devastating effect on their histories. So set it right could be referring to the timeline, or as comicbook.com points out, they could be referring just to Cyclops himself. Cyclops died during the death of X event of the Mpox virus. Extermination will be written by Ed Breeson and drawn by Pepe Larez, and will be set twenty years in the future as all mutant existence is on the brink of extinction. It's up to the original five to set things right. Extermination number one hits Shells on August 15. Let's do some geek news. There's a lot of shocking late break development. Apple is bringing the cult favorite movie, Time Bandans, to the small screen. The Terry Gilliam sci-fi flick is being turned into a TV series as part of Apple's quest to become a major player in the original content game. Nothing more than that has just been announced, as uh we don't we do know that the series is set to be a co-production between Anonymous Content, Paramount Television, and Media Rights Capital, MRC, according to a new report from Deadline. Terry Gilliam, who directed the movie, is set to be credited credited as a non-writing producer, so he won't have much direction on the project. Apple is said to be spending around a billion dollars on content this year in order to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. They recently closed a deal with Oprah to to create content for them. They've also had an amazing stories reboot in the works, and James Carden's Carpool karaoke series. Very interesting. So, Comic-Con International's over. What's next? WizardWorld has a convention coming up every month. Use our coupon code Multiverse at checkout for 20% off the cost of your tickets. The next show is Chicago, August 23rd through the 26th. Get your tickets today. 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 be please do so at Kofi.com slash multiverse and on Patreon as well. And if you're a subscriber, please 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. Copyright 2018. Alright. Okay. I uh promised my opinion here at the tail end of the podcast, so here it is. Um did Disney jump the gun on gun? Yes. Uh these tweets have been out there long enough that if Disney had actually cared, they wouldn't have hired him in the first place. If he had written these tweets yesterday, would they have been in the right? Yes. Uh Disney is worried about backlash to these tweets, only to get a bigger backlash by firing him. The outrage about the tweets was smaller than the outrage over his ouster. Disney should save face and rehire him. Disney, look here. As a fan, as a stockholder, minuscule as that may be, just quietly hire him back and say you're going to give him some sensitivity training. Thanks for listening. I'll see you in two weeks.