Kevin Dilmore and a Coke at the Galaxy's Edge

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Tonight, the Fantastic Four find the Prodigal Sun, a Death Star full of Star Wars news, and I interview author Kevin Dilmore on this edition of Multiverse Tonight. There are many universes out there. Welcome to the one with news about all the others. This is Multiverse Tonight. Now, here's your host, Thomas Townley. Hello everyone. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Thomas Townley, and uh we've come to the tail end of the TV season. You know, Discovery's done. Uh the Orville just has one episode left this week. Uh the Big Bang Theory only has a handful of episodes. Gotham's done. You know, Westworld only only has five episodes or not Westworld. Uh Game of Thrones only has five episodes. You know, it's the end. Time to go to the movies. You know, I'm sure you all have your Avengers Endgame tickets by now. Uh the Spider-Man uh movie Far From Home has been moved up. Uh there's a new X-Men movie, although frankly, I'm not that interested to see it. Uh there's It Chapter 2, you know, all sorts of great movies this summer. And uh, you know, have a good time at the movies and be sure to uh listen to our show while you're on your way to the theater. And be sure to check out multiverse tonight.com to see our show notes, affiliate links, the occasional original column, and much, much more. Now let's get on to some Marvel news. Writer Peter David and artist Francisco Mana are all set to introduce you to a brand new character in July in Fantastic Four, The Prodigal Sun. Sun spelled S-U-N. The story centers around a mysterious character named Prodigal in the savage land who is treated as a god by the barbarians there. However, when the barbarians decide to take over the world, the Fantastic Four step in to put a stop to it. Fantastic IV Prodigal Sun will be followed up by two one-shots, Guardians of the Galaxy, the Prodigal Sun, and Silver Surfer, the Prodigal Sun. Also in July will be a return of the Future Foundation in the backup story of Fantastic Four number twelve, as well as a solo series for the Invisible Woman. On April 11th, we got a look at Disney's brand new streaming service, Disney Plus. First off, the service will arrive this November and will cost just $6.99. Or for a full year, $69.99. This is called Cutting Netflix Off at the Knees. Disney Plus will have 25 original series in the first year and almost every film from the Disney vault, as well as 30 seasons of The Simpsons. The service will also have be the exclusive streaming home for all of Disney's movies going forward, including Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, and the new Star Wars movies. By the way, one of the movies not being released from the vault is Song of the South. Also, the original Dumbo will be included but will have an edit as well. Original series will include Star Wars The Mandalorian, an unnamed series based around the Cassie and Andor character from Rogue One, High School Musical, The Musical, The Series, Marvel's The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki, the poorly named Scarlet Witch Envision series, WandaVision, animated series like Pixar's Spark Shorts, The Monsters Inc. based series Monsters at Work, Star Wars Clone Wars, Marvel's What If, and Documentary unscripted and live specials like Encore, which comes from Executive Producer Kirsten Bell, an untitled Walt Disney Imagineering documentary series, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Marvel's 616, original films like Lady in the Tramp, The Phineas and Fur movie, Stirl, this is based on the New York Times best-selling young adult novel of the same name, not the DCU character, of course, and much, much more. One show that is not on that list, however, is a Team Thor show. But Chris Hemsworth would love to see one. You see, prior to the release of Thor Ragnarok, director Tika Watiti made a short mockumentary titled Team Thor while you were fighting, a Thor mockumentary, which followed Thor and his roommate Daryl. When asked when asked Chris about the possibility of such a TV series becoming a thing by MTV International, Hemsworth responded, quote, I'd love to do that. I'd love to see Daryl more. I'd love to do a mockumentary TV show of us living together and rooming together and our day-to-day adventures outside of the outside of uh saving the world. Just sort of the regular stuff. I thought that was a lot of fun to shoot, and also I think it'd be cool to have a TV show like that. Yeah. Surfing, fishing, we got we got a pub, it'd be a good fun. Team tamed Asgard and got to explore that world. Maybe Chris ought to propose it to Disney Plus? You never know. They're always looking for content. As we discussed in the last episode, a lot of people got dusted by the snap. One of the survivors was Bruce Banner. However, it could have been different. While promoting Avengers Endgame, the normally loose-lipped Mark Ruffalo told Yahoo that he really didn't know that he would survive until he saw the movie. Quote For one take, I did disappear, and then the other one I didn't. I was pretty sure it was going to gonna be me. It's like Survivor. It's like who's gonna get kicked off the island? And I probably should have it's like Project Runway for leakers. So did they shoot the scene so that Mark wouldn't know which was the real one? And that they make sure to film several variants of key scenes so Ruffalo couldn't leak the endgame. Captain Marvel has passed the billion dollar mark in the worldwide box office, and no one could be happier about it than the film star Bree Larson. Bree reacted to the news that at the Women in the World Conference with quote, I'm very grateful to have broken this glass ceiling of normalizing the concept that women can also make a billion dollars. I don't know why that was so hard to comprehend in the first place. It's just like we're human, whatever. If people needed this to be be another reminder this decade that minority groups can make can open movies and make a billion dollars, then great, I'm here. I did it. This Easter weekend, Captain Marvel did receive a bump jumping up from number four, number six to number four at the box office. Its international box office grows currently is at 1,089,526,133. The Fox Mutant series, the Gifted, has been gifted with the X, as the Fox Network has cancelled the series. Fox the Studio and Fox the Network are no longer under one umbrella, and this could possibly be the reason for the cancellation. Now the possibility does exist that the series could find a home on, say, Hulu or Disney ⁇ , or one of the many cable networks that Disney will have now that that it needs to put content on. If the gifted is gifted with resurrection, we'll let you know. Now, let's go on to some DC news. Shazam is doing great at the box office. It's the Feated Hellboy, which came in third after the comedy Little. In its first 17 days of release, the marvelous movie has brought in 322 million worldwide. And Shazam star Zachary Levy Levi is doing good off the screen as well. A mother named Christina Gianelli wrote on social media quote, My son just got back from seeing hashtag Shazam, Gianelli wrote she wrote on Twitter. Seeing him so happy makes me want to cry. It's been a rough year for him. He's homeschooling after being bullied. He's in therapy now, and being able to tell him this superhero at Zachary Levi Levi has also been and struggled is huge. Thank you. Zach was touched by the tweet and tweeted back, quote, My heart is bursting with love right now for your little man. I was bullied a lot when I was a kid and wish homeschool was an option for me at many points along the way. Tell him I'm standing with him and to remember that bullies are just hurt and confused in their own life. Christina then tweeted back that her son was crying after she read Zack's response to him and that Mr Levi quote made his year, unquote. We move from Shazam to Birds of Prey. Lucky Chap Entertainment, which is Margot Robbie's production company, has announced that it has officially rapped on the Birds of Prey film. Margot is not only producing the movie, but will reprise her Harlequin character for the movie, which also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Durain Smollett Bell as Black Canary, Ella J. Bosco as Cassandra Kane, Ewan McGregor as the villain Black Mask, Chris Messina as Victor Zazaz, and Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya. Birds of Prey will hit the theater screens on february seventh, twenty twenty. Sean Gunn is, of course, James Gunn's brother. Not really news, and has been has been on many of his brothers' projects, including the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as Craglin. That said, Sean isn't so sure he'll make any kind of appearance in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad movie. Sean told comicbook.com I am always willing to do anything James needs me to do. I'm also very, very respectful of the creative process, from the point of view of the people who are writing and coming up with the story. I've been in the business long enough to know that story is king. In order for the movie to be good, the story has to be great, and it's hard to make a great story if you're thinking, hmm, I have to work this person in there somewhere. If he doesn't make an appearance in the movie, he'll probably just be a part of Guardians 3. The Suicide Squad comes out on August 6th, 2021. Titans will finally get his Batman for season 2. Deadline.com reports that Ian Glenn, who played Senator Jorah Mormont on Game or Sir Jorah Mormont on Game of Thrones, will play the role. The Scottish born actor is 57 years old, which shows us that this Batman will be an older version of the character. The official character description reads as follows After decades of fighting crime as Batman, billionaire Bruce Wayne is just as driven to protect Gotham from evil as he was in his prime. Needing to reconcile his relationship with Dick Grayson, the duo hope to forge a new dynamic as Bruce tries to help his former sidekick and the Titans achieve success. It's unclear if he will if he will be in the cowl for the series or just portray Bruce Wayne, who has given up the cowl to fight with his money instead. Lucifer Season 4 is just days away, and Netflix has released a new trailer for the Rescued Series. Season four drops on May 8th. CW boss Mark Pedowitz sat down with the Hollywood reporter. As you know, the next season will see both Supernatural and Arrow ending. So what direction does Mr. Pedowitz want to take the network's genre offerings? Quote, We know we who we are and it's pretty set forth in the development. The next arrow spin-off, Batwoman, will help extend the franchises and the Aeroverse. We think Lost Boys, a reimagining of the 80s movie, fits a lot with what the CW is, and you have the Jane the Novella, a Jane the Virgin spinoff, which is a very interesting twist on Jane now being an author. Glamorous will push the boundaries in a lot of ways, and it's a show for Gen Z because of its ability to speak to nonconforming genders and particularly gender fluidity. We're happy with Nancy Drew, which will have a supernatural twist to it, as well as the Riverdale spin-off, Katie Keen, which I believe was creator showrunner, Roberto Aguares Satcha Sakasa, and his team will make a huge difference to us, and hopefully it captures that gossip girl feel a decade later. Yeah, I think the CW will be just fine. The LA Times reports that in July, DC Comics will be putting a spotlight on Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in two new twelve issue maxi series. Lois Lane will be written by Greg Rucca and artist Mike Perkins, and Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen, will come from the pen of Matt Friction and art by Steven Lieber by Steve Lieber. Lois Lane will see Lois investigate threats and conspiracies in a story that DC hopes will show what makes Lois very remarkable. In an email from Rucka quoted by the LA Times, quote, Lois Lane is the best investigative reporter in the DC universe. This is our truth, and this is what the book is about. Friction and leavers Jimmy Olsen, according to the team, will be both ridiculous and sublime. In a phone interview with the Times Fraction said, quote, Jimmy's videos are basically the only thing keeping the lights on at the planet anymore. They have to let him keep doing his thing because it's the only thing that pays the bills, but it's also really expensive, because they keep having to rebuild Metropolis after any messes he causes. So Jimmy will hit the road to show and explore various settings in the DCU. Both Loth Lane and Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen, will have short stories by their respective creative teams in the upcoming one-shot Superman Leviathan Rising special on May 29th ahead of their first issues, which are due out in July. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Swamp Thing has been reduced from 13 episodes to 10, apparently after creative differences between Warner Bros. The studio and the DC Universe streaming platform. The series will still premiere on May 31st. This comes on the heels of word that the parent company, Warner Media, is pursuing its own streaming service to be overseen by former NBC President Bob Greenblatt and Turner's Kevin Riley. Warner Media has yet to reveal anything about the platform, but it probably would will have it ready before the end of 2020. Could it possibly possibly possibly be that Warner Media might want to keep some DC Comics content for the news service as well? FX's Why The Last Man appears to be dead. The series, which would have been an adaptation of the Vertigo comic series of the same name, got some bad news from the network. Showrunners Michael Green and Ada Mashka Kroll confirmed the news in a joint statement on Twitter. As Y fans ourselves, we hope the future allows just that. Given that FX is now owned by Disney, not Fox anymore, I personally don't see this project going forward. However, a spokesman for FX told Friday that the network's network is still planning to move forward with the series with its current cast, so I guess we'll just have to stay tuned. Now, let's uh see some Star Wars news. Star Wars news coming out of Star Wars Celebration was hot and heavy. For a personal look at the con, sci-fi for me, Salacious Crumbs, cover had coverage of the con. They covered the con live for all four days, and you can watch it over on their YouTube channel. Now let's start off with some comics news that came out of Celebration. A new Darth Vader miniseries was announced, Target Vader, is a six issue miniseries with no release date. At Celebration, Assistant Editor Tom Grundman said, quote, Target Vader, six issues starring a character that we've recently reintroduced named Valence. He originally appeared in Marvel Star Wars number sixteen as a cyborg bounty hunter with a vendetta against Vader. It's all about Valence and his crew playing an impossible mission hunting down Dark Lords of the Sith. The series features the talents of Robbie Thompson and Mark Laming, with covers from Nick Klein. We also got news on the follow-up to Star Wars Age of Republic, which was a series of one-shots, with a new series of one-shots called Star Wars The Age of Rebellion, and Star Wars The Age of Resistance. First up will be Finn number one. This will come from writer Tom Taylor and artist Ramon Rosanos with covers from Phil Noto. According to assistant editor Tom Gronman, he said, quote, the Finn story takes place in his earlier days when he was a stormtrooper on Starkiller Base, unquote. Lucasfilm store story group Matt Martin added, quote, We also get to see Finn Janitor Finn. That's the main selling point. Next up is Poe number one. Assistant editor, Tom Gronman, all said, quote, Maybe there was a pit stop for Ray and Chewy on the way to seeing Luke. Let's say he's got an unexpected mentor from his past that we're going to meet in this issue. Tom Taylor and artist Leonard Kirk are working on a Captain Phasma one shot, and Gronman said that this will show that that uh what makes phasmatic. Gronman also announced a special issue on Admiral Holdo featuring the talents of G. Willow Wilson, Tom Taylor, Chris Ilopulos, and Lisa Chartier. Also, Gronman said, quote, So we've got our main story following Holdo, Maz, and BB8. Willow knew exactly where to take Holdo in the story. This explores her earlier days a bit, and you're going to see the that inciting incident for her that for what makes her so unbelievably uneffective as a leader. It all starts here in this book, unquote. There will also be a one-shot featuring Hux and another one featuring Ray. Greg Pack also could weighed in on the upcoming Age of Rebellion one-shots, saying, quote, this is one of the eight one-shots that I'm doing, unquote. He also said that the stories are in continuity and explore little moments that have never been seen before in an effort to capture what makes the characters so fun. I have a special affection for the Boba Fett one, and the artist is by Mark Laming, and we did it as a straight Western. It's like a badass Bonnie Hunter Western story, Boba Fett. I think he says three words during the whole thing. Everyone's got a different idea of his motivations. There was also plenty of coverage, and I'll have links to it in the show notes. Also announced was a mini-series, Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, that will explore a shop in the park that will that contains rare items. Writer Ethan Sachs said, quote, there's a criminal gang that is out to play heist for a specific object there, unquote. Now, while we're on the subject of Galaxy's Edge, at the pan at the panel for the new attraction, Disney, Imagineer Chris Beatty, hosted a hinted that Yoda will be featured in some capacity. Well, he also revealed that Frank Oz recorded some new lines for Yoda. He joins Jim Cummings as Hondo and Paul Rubens as DJ R3X. And of course, if you're going to be walking around the park, you're probably going to get thirsty. You can always have a nice tall glass of Bantha blue Bantham milk. But why? Why not have a Coke? Yes. A Coke. A partnership was revealed at the celebration that Coke will have specially packaged Coke products. The balls resemble thermal detonators, and the packaging will look scuffed up and be rendered an airbosh an airbash as to not spoil the immersion. Here's the ad. What was that? So I guess you can have a coke, but just don't smile, the stormtroopers will probably shoot you. The park opens on May 31st at Disneyland and on August 29th at Disney World. Also, seen at Star Wars Celebration was Star Wars Fallen Order, the action adventure video game from Lucasfilm and EA's Respawn Entertainment. Respawn head Vince Zampella told the crowd quet quote that quote, This is a Jedi Fantasy story game. This is a story game. No multiplayer, no microtransactions. The game director's Stig Atmoson added that, quote, So you play as a Jedi on the run in training with a lightsaber and force powers. We made sure that the combat was something that was easy to pick up. Combat is key for us. We call it thoughtful combat, he explained. The game all will follow a character named Cal. Cal? The time will take place during the time during the point that Order 66 was activated. Cal must avoid the Jedi hunting inquisitors that are searching for force users that have escaped the original order. One of these inquisitors, named Second Sister, first appeared in the Darth Vader comic. Gotham's Cameron Monahan will play the character of Cal, who they said was a young Clint East has a young Clinton Eastwood quality about him. Monahan not only provided his voice, but did motion capture for the game as well. The game will be released on November 15th on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Sorry, Mac. Now, let's go on to some Star Trek news. We start Star Trek News with the Picard Show. You know, they really do need to get an a real name for this show soon. Or it's gonna be called Star Trek Picard no matter what they finally call it. Anyway. Jonathan Frakes is in an interview with Trekmovie.com said that he has been booked to work on episodes three and four. He also said that he's read the first couple of episodes and said that it's like a ten-episode movie. He called it, quote, a very ambitious approach to television in the first season. The st the show is still adding cast members. A few days ago we got word from Alison Pill, who has appeared in Snowpiercer, American Horror Story Cult, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. Harry Treadway Treadway has been in the Netflix series The Crown, Disney's The Lone Ranger, and three seasons on Penny Dreadful as Daughter Dr. Frankenstein, that's Frankenstein. And Issa Brionis is a role-the newcomer, having just wrapped the first national touring company of Hamilton. He has a role on American Crime Story Versace, and they joined the previously announced cast members of Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Heard, and even Eva Gora. Turning to Discovery, the season is over, and so is Anson Mount's time as Captain Pike. While the storyline this season has had has had issues at times, Anson Mount's Pike was one of the truly bright spots of the season. There has been such an outpouring of love for Mount's betrayal that a change.org petition calling for a Captain Pike series has over eleven thousand signatures. Mount has responded to this petition on his Facebook page, commenting, quote, I am humbled and deeply touched by this amount of love. I have never received such gratitude. Please know that my gratitude at having been given the opportunity to walk in Captain Pike's boots is equaled only by the by that which I feel for the Trek family's devotion. Seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Could CBS listen and make a pike series? Doubtful. But maybe Dayton Ward and Kevin Dillmore could write some pike novels, and Anson could do the audio version. Come on, CBS Interactive. Do it. Do it, do it, do it. What we left behind, looking back at Star Trek Deep Space Nine, is almost here. The film is done, it's been handed over to Shout Studios, and the early backer stream of the film will debut worldwide this Thursday, April 25th, starting at 9.09 p.m. Eastern time. Full and restricted access will be made available after the theatrical release on May 13th. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Michelle Yo has been cast as scientist Dr. Karina Moog in James Cameron's new avatar sequels. In the statement, writer-director James Cameron said, quote, Throughout her career, Michelle has always created unique and memorable characters. I look forward to working with Michelle to do the same thing on the Avatar sequels. The Avatar sequels are due for release on December 2020 and 2021. They will also star Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslett, Vin Diesel, and Sigorney Weaver. Now, before we go to Geek News, let's take a moment and uh hear from our friends at Radio Public. I'd like to thank you for listening to this edition of Multiverse Tonight. You know, one way you can support this show is to listen to it through the Radio Public App. Every episode of Multiverse Tonight that is heard through the Radio Public App, for iPhone or Android, means that you can get this podcast, and we get a couple of cents in our can. Find the Radio Public App in Google and iTunes app stores, and give it a try today. Thank you. And uh Geek News always, you know, is one of my favorite parts of the show. I was like putting this together. And uh we're starting off today with season two of the Orville, which is almost over. And what a season it has been. It's even contention for an Emmy Award. The deadline spoke with Seth McFarlane at the at their c The Contenders Emmy Confab on the Paramount Lot. Seth talked about how the change in the series tone from a comedy tone to a little more drama made him nervous about how the audience would take it. Quote I've been this big sci-fi fan since I was a kid. I think secretly that was the show I wanted to do, but I figured there's no way in hell anyone would swallow that from me. With an hour-long show, in order to sustain it, you have to have real stakes. That was my fear at the beginning. If people aren't with us on that side of it, we're probably not going to last very long. But they were, so we really leaned into that. Now, speaking of the obvious influence of Star Trek on the show, Mr. McFarlane said, quote, Star Trek was the first franchise to bring it to a point that reached the mainstream in such a massive way. In many ways, it does have ownership on this side of a captain on the bridge of his starship instead of a sailing ship. But it's become the convention. You can't help but go there if you're doing this type of show. You just have to start by learning from what your predecessors have figured out and then take it off in its own direction. Now, speaking of Seth, he will be honored with a star on Hollywood's walk of fame today. Congratulations, Seth. You've more than earned it. Just two weeks before it was scheduled to go into production, Fox's new daddy, Disney, has cancelled the Mouse Guard movie. The movie, which would have been made b uh which would have been based on Arachia Boom Studios comic of the same name, Mouse Guard, is a two-time M. Eisner-winning comic and graphic novel by David Peterson, and has been called Game of Thrones with Mice. The movie would have been CGI with Weta providing the visual effects. Based on Now, sources have told the Hollywood Reporter that the producers are being allowed to shop the project around other studios. Now, maybe this studio would like to pick it up. Warner Brothers is looking to expand its studio space by buying the Burbank Studios to use as additional office space and also for its eight sound stages. This would include the two Frank Geary designed office buildings that are next to its Burbank Media District. The deal is expected to be finalized later this year. The European Union has passed a new copyright directive that will change how copyright law will be enforced online. Under the new law, Google has other platform and other platforms like Facebook will have to sign licensing agreements with copyright holders like musicians, performers, authors, news organizations, and journalists to use their work online. The laws passed but was passed by nineteen countries, but was opposed by Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden. The new copyright directive now goes to the various countries of the EU to be written into their national laws. Game of Thrones is back and it drew huge ratings. According to HBO, episode 1 of season 8 drew 17.4 million viewers across all the digital and cable platforms on Sunday alone. 11.8 of those from cable itself. That number is expected to go up in the days following. The final season is only six episodes long, so buy some Game of Thrones Oreos and tune in. Archer, season ten, is just a little over a month away. Let's watch the trailer.

SPEAKER_03 33:33

In space, no one can hear you.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Everybody's ready for initial thrust and three. Whoa, damn! Last bottle of bitter We are not going off in some Wild Coast Chase Hospital.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

You got us into this mess.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Let's not point fingers, especially yours. Lana, those things are like cricket bats.

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Seriously, and that's gonna help you now.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

All of this is necessary. Actually, let's see where it is. I only have another seven, eight steps in this. Well, in space, the sun is all step on my life. Bring it first! We're stuck inside a space nautilus between its colon and its cloaca. What's a cloaca? It's an organ that's used for excretion and also intercourse. Smart.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Archer 1999.

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The all-new season premieres Wednesday, May 29th on FXX.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Archer 99 is the third series, or season, excuse me. That takes place during Archer's coma after he was shot at the end of season seven. And it looks like we're gonna be getting a lot of sci-fi jokes and tropes thrown in. The new season will see Archer, Lana, and the crew aboard the MV Sheamus salvage ship. That looks good. I especially like to see I especially like the rock monster there. Rock monster Pam. Anyway, uh Lena Waith has joined HBO's Westworld for season three. Lena is an Emmy Award winner for outstanding writing in the comedy series for Master of None, and is the creator of Showtime's The Chi. While her role is currently under wraps, she will be joined also by newcomer to this to the series Aaron Paul, best known for Breaking Bad. Season three is currently in production and will likely premiere on HBO in 2020. From the We Needed This Why file, comes an exclusive to the Hollywood reporter that Paramount Pictures Division, Paramount Players, alongside Temple Hill and Picture Start, has put into development a prequel to the musical Grease called Summer Lovin'. The script is being written by John August, who has written the scripts for Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The story will reportedly show the first meeting of Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsen that was recounted in the song Summer Nights. Now, let's go on to the interview with Kevin Dilmore. I'm here, Planet Comic-Con 2019 for Multiverse Tonight. Here on the last day, I'm here with uh Mr. Kevin Dilmore, author extraordinaire. I gotta give you this I gotta give you the same mop mock-up as Dayton, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

If you said it about him, then you that's kind of you to say it about me. And so uh give a give us uh kind of a dust jacket cover of your career. Wow, okay. Well, I uh started off in journalism. I uh worked for a newspaper for 15 years, also worked for magazines, uh, moved into fiction writing about 20 years ago. So I think my first uh um fiction was in uh 1999 or 2000, I'm trying to remember which. Um I continued doing that uh until uh I'm still writing fiction, but I also moved over from my newspaper job into a creative writing job at Hallmark Arts here in Kansas City, and I've been at Hallmark for almost 14 years.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

And what do you do at Hallmark?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Uh well as a senior writer, I write about anything that they put in front of me. If they want me to work on greeting cards, I work on those. Uh gift books for readers of uh kids' age as well as a double. Uh I work on uh scripts for video presentations, I've written marketing materials, uh tournament club um uh uh uh articles and uh um and yeah, just about everything that they uh that they need me to do, I'll have a hand in. Oh, great. And uh so uh what are you working on right now? Uh well it depends on uh on on my uh uh homework side is where I'm putting a lot of my work right now. Um doing some projects for Team Stake Ornaments. I've got uh some internal video projects I'm working on. I'm also working as an approver for the Rainbow Bright comic book. A lot of people don't know that uh Rainbow Bright, um, when she debuted in 1983 was a creation of Hallmark cards, and we retain those property rights, and anything that uh shows up with Rainbow Bright, we have a hand in. Uh, Dynamite Comics started publishing a Rainbow Bright monthly series in October of 2018, and so I've been helping approve the scripts by Jeremy Whitley, the art by Britney Williams, or Xenia, uh depending on which issue you look at. Uh Paulina Gamacho's cover uh artist, and uh Valentina Pinto is our colorist, and Taylor Esposito is our letterer. So anything that they do, uh I get a chance to look at and give a thumbs up or a needs more work, which it rare trust me, it rarely needs more work.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Oh, I'm sure. Now, uh, you've written you've written a lot of Star Trek books, of course.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

And uh have you watched uh the Discover? Discovery? Oh, absolutely. No, I'm a big fan of what's happening with Discovery. So I'm uh I'm I mean, no spoilers, because I'm a little bit uh I'm I'm a I'm a couple episodes behind uh with uh you know just being busy. That's one of the uh saving graces of CBS Hall Access, is that I get the opportunity to watch it when I like. Okay, but no, I'm very happy with it. I'm great.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

And uh so they're coming out with uh more Star Treking up card series and then animated series. If if they if they came to you and said, hey, would you like would you write for this?

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Would you? Well, I would absolutely jump in to uh try to tell a story in lower decks, the animated series. Uh that uh Mike McMahon uh uh I had an opportunity to meet him a few years ago when uh we had uh uh published uh um we both had uh Ed Schlesinger as a uh editor for Pocketbooks at the same time, and Ed introduced me. Um I've been able to keep in touch with Mike a little bit over the course of the ensuing years. Um I love his work on Rick and Morty. I think that he is a talented writer. Uh I'm very eager to see what his ideas are for lower decks. If he said, Hey Kevin, you got any ideas? Well, heck yeah. I mean, I'd be glad to to to try to tell, uh inject a little bit of uh of uh in the box humor for uh Star Trek. And he said, You want Rick and Morty, would you write for them? I don't know if I'm smart enough to write for Rick and Morty. Um, those scripts are tight and they are fun and they're multi-layered. I get a great deal of enjoyment out of uh watching Rick and Morty and reading the comic from Oni Press. Um, I uh yeah, I I I could probably try to stumble my way into into uh telling a story, but I would I would really have to uh draw deep to uh get uh uh you know the Rick Sanchez voice and uh and and Morty's voice, and uh, yeah, but uh no, it'd be it's it's wonderfully fun for me.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Okay, so if you could write for for anything, any franchise, anything out there, what would you want to write for?

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Uh well first first thing I'd want to write for is Power of the Duck. Um I've been a Power of the Duck fan since I can remember. Um I know it was uh it was Power of the Duck comics that started getting me collecting comics in the 70s. Um I yeah, the uh Kevin Smith is gonna be running the uh um animated series that they're going to uh be doing in in coming months and years. I'm very eager to see um what he does with that. I think it's uh it seems like a really great fit. But yeah, I mean if I was gonna gonna jump in and try to play with the character, I I like I mean, Star Trek is a great um adventure. It is uh certainly a great character study, but I also think that it is a uh uh a great social commentary. Those are the things that that I really liked about the original series, the things that I try to put in my stories, and I would love to do social commentary with Howard the Duck.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

And uh, if uh if you had a Hall of Fame of your work, what would be your best work?

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Wow, my best work? I I I don't I don't know if I want to say what my best work is. I can tell you what I still feel really proud of. Um I think we did some great work on the Vanguard series um and the follow-up book, Star Trek Seekers, but uh to take to work with uh Marco Palmieri and David Mack and of course Dayton, um, and the four of us kind of uh plotting out this whole rich corner of the Star Trek universe where uh we could kind of play with our own ideas and expand on those and tell a story that I think is still pretty compelling. I'm I'm really proud of Vanguard. Okay, last question. And uh if you were a bird, what kind of bird would you be? Wow, I'd be a metal arch because that's a Kansas State bird.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Well, Kevin Dilmore, thanks for uh joining me, and uh we'll see you again in the future. That sounds great. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate your time. Alright, thank you very much. We'll see you soon. Well, uh that was a great interview, and uh that was a great convention as well. I'm looking forward to SmallvilleCon in Hutch Hutchinson, Kansas. And uh it's not that far away from me in time or uh distance. One more thing before uh we wrap this up. I'd like to say congratulations to Dr. Steve Rupel, a Wisconsin chiropractor, who has broken the Guinness World Record after watching Captain Marvel 116 times since it opened in early March. Now, once this is ruled official, he'll be the record holder for most of them productions attending the attending the same film. Now, this is actually Dr. Rapel's fifth broken world record. He also had one where he ran a half marathon wearing 60 shirts over each other, so there's that. Now, uh I have to kinda wonder about Dr. Dr. Rapel. Uh apparently does either he has a lot of business so he can go to the movies a lot, or he has no business so he can go to the movies a lot. Anyway, it's a gr it's you know you know, anything the have have your name in a history book. Oh, that doesn't sound that sounds kind of snarky. Anyway, good good on him. Let's put it at and that brings us to the end of a another edition. Now, uh be sure to check us out on our social media. We're at Twitter at multiverse tom. Uh, we're also on Facebook and Instagram as well. And if you'd like to contribute some money, please go ahead and visit mtpodcast.com. And you can go and visit our co our coffee, our Patreon links as well. And be sure to visit multiverse tonight.com and check out the affiliate marketplace links, uh, the link to our Tea Public store, our show notes, and so much more. Now, uh 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 some feedback so we 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. Multiverse tonight is a production of half big genre productions. Copyright twenty nineteen. All right, reserve.