Dec. 14, 2020

That's No Moon, It's A News Station.

That's No Moon, It's A News Station.

On the sci-fi edition, Disney Investor Day didn't disappoint for news! Plus David Cronenberg upgrades to recurring guest star and we remember Tommy "Tiny" Lister.
 All That and More on the scifi edition of Multiverse Tonight!


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Transcript

Tonight! Our news cup runneth over with news from Disney, plus David Cronenberg sticks around Discovery and we remember Tiny Lister. All that and more on this edition of Multiverse Tonight!


Hello and welcome to episode 106…...


Star Wars creator George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company back i 2012 now he’s explaining why in a new book, The Star Wars Archives Episodes I - III 1999-2005, the new book, isn't out yet, but author Pal Duncan released an excerpt from the book on Twitter


https://twitter.com/kershed/status/1334515036820271111/photo/1


So there you have it, it was either Star Wars or his daughter and he chose his daughter. I can understand that, the guy with greasy hair in his basement? Who knows the name of every character? Probably can’t.


Speaking of Lucasfilm, 2021 marks the production company's fiftieth year. And they plan to celebrate its history with special edition product releases. IN a statement Lucasfilm Senior Vice President of Licensing and Franchise said quote “Consumer products have always been an integral part of the Star Wars fan experience, and they remain a constant force in pop-culture today,” “To commemorate Lucasfilm’s 50 years of storytelling, we look forward to honoring this consumer products legacy and bringing to life brand-new products, games and publishing offerings that celebrate our future with Lucasfilm’s exciting feature films and Disney+ series ahead.” unquote Lucas film has won 29 Emmy Awards, 38 Academy Awards, 32 Sci-Tech Awards, 18 Webby Awards, and 12 awards for ILMxLAB’s groundbreaking work. As to what they’re going to release? I guess we will just have to stay tuned. 


The second wave of releases in the Star Wars THe High Republic book series is getting ready for release next year. Lucasfilm has announced the first book in the wave, called Star Wars The High Republic THe Rising Storm by Cavan Scott will be released in July of 2021. The book will continue the storyline started in the first adult novel, Light of the Jedi and will have the Jedi dealing with the growing anarchistic threat of the Nihil. Scott told Star Wars dot com quote 

“The Rising Storm sees the Nihil taking their reign of terror to the next level, building on their appearances in Light of the Jedi and beyond,” “Standing in their way this time are newly elevated Jedi Council member Stellan Gios, along with Padawan Bell Zettifar and an intriguing new character, the saber-for-hire Ty Yorrick who I’ve had a blast creating.” Yorrick is described as being a Force-sensitive monster hunter with a mysterious past. Look for the book on July sixth, 2021.


The old school game Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords will be coming to mobile devices. Lucasfilm announced that the port of the game will launch for iPhone, IPad, and Android devices on December eighteenth. The port comes via Aspyr and the company is saying that the game has been optimized for mobile devices. Elizabeth Howard Vice President of publishing at Aspyr said in a press release quote "Fans have been asking for a mobile version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II for so long, and we're thrilled to finally bring it to them," "We're proud to continue working with Lucasfilm to bring classic titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II to modern platforms." The game originally came out in December of 2004.


At Disney Investor Day announcements for both Marvel and Star Wars came out hot and heavy, I’ll cover the Star Wars news now and the Marvel news in the comic book edition.


First off, we have the Mandalorian Spinoff series Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka. Not much is known about the Rangers series other than a title card, but Rosario Dawson will be back in the role of former Jedi Ashoka  and it will be developed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni


There was also a brief look at the Casian Andor series Andor which will be out in 2022. Diego Luna will be reprising the role from Rogue One and will be joined by Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.


It was revealed that Hayden Christensen will be returning as Darth Vader in Star Wars Obi Wan Kenobi, the new show is set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith.


Lucasfilm Animation is teaming up with Industrial Light and Magic to make the Disney Plus film A Droid Story, the movie will introduce a new hero guided by R2D2 and C3Po.


A new animated series The Bad Batch will be spinning out of the final season of the Clone Wars and will debut in 2021. According to the press release quote "The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army -- each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose." unquote


Also animated is the new original series of animated short films called Star Wars Visions 

The series will show us the Star Wars universe through the lens of the world’s best Japanese anime creators, it comes in 2021.


Surprisingly, They announced a series starring the coolest man in the galaxy, Lando Calrisian, Star Wars Lando will be coming from Dear White People creator Justin Simien, no announcement as to who will be playing Lando yet.


From Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland comes Star Wars THe Acolyte, the series will be set in the final days of the High Republic, that’s the time period from the new novels.


Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins will be making a brand new movie called Star Wars Rogue Squadron, nothing released on the story, but it will be in theaters in December of 2023.



Star Trek

The Star Trek Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind could be getting a spinoff according to producer David Zappone. Zappone speaking with Trek Movie dot com on their Shuttle Pod Podcast said that they’re looking at expanding the writers room part into a new project. Zappone said quote “We’re working on it now. It’s the writers’ room and it will also include some of the interviews and things we shot that couldn’t make it into What We Left Behind.” He implied that there was quite a bit of footage available, adding, “I think we can be doing What We Left Behind sequels for the next ten years.” unquote However this is really just in the staging phase at the moment and not something concrete.  


However you won’t have long to wait for a new Star Trek doc, in the same interview he said that the Star Trek Voyager Documentary will be released in 2021. They had taped a reunion of virtually the whole Voyager cast on Star Trek The Cruise this past March, he told the podcast quote “We filmed for an entire week and got just about everybody, including offshore excursions,” “Talk about amazing timing, and no one got sick. We were on the last cruise until at least 2022, and virtually the whole Voyager cast reunited.” unquote. He promised that the documentary will be a definitive look at the show and that he and his team have been hard at work filming new interviews.


Star Trek Lower Decks Creator Mike Mcmahan has signed a two year overall deal with CBS Studios. Under the new agreement CBS will have exclusive rights to all tv content and that is created and developed by Mcmahan. McMahan also has Solar Opposites over at Hulu which was just given an order for a third season back in June.


Director David Cronenberg’s cameo on Star Trek Discovery us turning into an extended guest star role. Cronenberg’s mysterious Kovich first appeared in the third episode of this season and another in this past week's episode. Now in an exclusive interview with Variety, the director of The Fly, Dead Ringers and A History of Violence. Cronenberg described his character as quote “...an interrogator who’s also kind of an academic historian,”  “He plays his cards pretty close to his vest, as does the Emperor. And as he tries to pry open some secrets from her, she actually is doing the same to him.” unquote He also revealed that Kovich will return in season four. His interview is interesting, I’ll include a link to it in the show notes. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/david-cronenberg-star-trek-discovery-1234850680/




Geek, 

The Orville Fans Rejoice, the show is back in production on the third season. The show's official twitter account should an Orville clapboard dated December fourth with Seth MacFarlane’s name on it as the episode's director and the caption And We’re back! Season 3 filming has officially started. This season will be the first since the series moved to Hulu.


HBO is in early development on  a reboot of True Blood, Variety has confirmed thatRoberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Jami O’Brien are attached to write the script and executive produce, with original series creator and showrunner Alan Ball also attached to executive produce. At this time, none of the show’s original cast is attached to return. True Blood is based on The Southern Vampire Mystery series of novels by Charlaine Harris. The original series  debuted on HBO in 2008 and ran for seven seasons until 2014.


Disney and African based entertainment company Kugali are teaming up  to make the animated sci fi series Iwaju. According to Disney, the series will be based in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria and according to Kugali co-founder Hamid Ibrahim, Iwaju means the future in the Yoruba language. The series will air on Disney Plus in 2022.







Tonight we remember actor and wrestler Tommy Tiny Lister, who passed away on December tenth suddenly.


Tiny as he was known was a character actor and occasional professional wrestler, best known for roles as Deebo in Ice Cube’s Friday and Next Friday, the President in The Fifth Element, The Dark Knight, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Human Centipede 3, Little Nicky, Jackie Brown, Zootopia and Zeus in the arm wrestling movie No Holds Barred. He even played the first Klingon to make contact with humans in the first episode of Star Trek Enterprise.

 According to his manager Cindy Cowan, he died from a possible Covid 19 infection. 

She told CNN that he started feeling sick about a week ago but then his symptoms got bad in a hurry. She said that he couldn’t breath and felt very weak. Cowan sent her assistance to check on him on Wednesday to check in on him after he canceled a Zoom appearance for a tv festival and his family couldn’t get a hold of him on Wednesday Night. He was discovered Thursday after a concerned friend called police for a welfare check, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The LA County Sheriff’s Department told CNN in a statement quote Mr. Lister’s death appears to be of natural causes but will ultimately be determined by the Office of Medical Examiner-Coroner,”

Tommy Tiny Lister was 62 years old.



And that brings us to the end of the scifi news. *Show Ender*

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Thanks for watching the SciFi edition of Multiverse Tonight,  we will be taking a break for new years and I’ll be back with a new episode on January twelfth, unless some news breaks that deserves an episode. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good Night!  Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2020  All Rights Reserved.