Three Years and Still Kickin'

Tonight! A Darth Vader Villa in Texas, Lower Decks insights and we remember Love Boat Captain Gavin MacLeod. All that and more on the Sci-Fi Edition of Multiverse Tonight!

Welcome to Multiverse Tonight! I’m your host, Thomas Townley.

• Schedule change
• $20 dollar computer

Star Wars

A Texas House dubbed the Darth Vader house is up for sale in Houston Texas. This four-bedroom, 5 bathroom house has a facade that looks kinda like Darth Vader. The home was built by a surgeon back in the early ’90s and was modeled after the mask of the Star Wars Villian. The interior of the house is 7040 square feet of space with colored tube lighting, ample closets, and a four-car garage; it lists for 4.3 million dollars.

Star Wars The High Republic is getting a new Marvel Comics mini-series called Trail of Shadows this October. The new chapter in the High Republic story will be written by Daniel Jose Older with art by David Wachter and covers by David Lopez. The premise of the story is a noir-style mystery with two detectives type characters Sian Holt and Jedi Emerick Caphtor looking for a strange new threat that might upset the age of prosperity the Jedi And Republic have achieved the story will tie into the novel The Rising Story which is upcoming. Star Wars: The High Republic Trail of Shadows will be out in October.

Zack Snyder has confirmed he was working on a Star Wars movie. The story which was just a rumor until Snyder confirmed it to the Happy Sad Confused Podcast. He told them quote "Yeah... we talked about it but it never... you know. I've been working on it - just away from the Star Wars universe - just on my own, just as a sci-fi thing... It's still a sci-fi thing, it's the same story, just kind of now I let Star Wars be Star Wars and I'm just gonna... you know. The eleven-year-old me still wants to make that, now I just know how to - so maybe we'll see that someday." unquote Think will ever see it? Do you really want to see it?

Star Wars Andor has added Robert Emms from Chernobyl and His Dark materials to the cast. It’s unknown what role he will play, the twelve episode series will premiere on Disney Plus in 2022.

Star Trek

Paramount Plus will be launching a new ad supported plan this week. Viewers can sign up for the Essential plan which costs 4.99, will be supported by ads and will not have live CBS streams. The old plan, now called Premium, will run 9.99 with no ads and will have live stream access.

The Star Trek Section 31 series seems to have to be on the rocks, according to actor Shazad Latif, who played Ash Tyler aka Voq. The series, which is to star Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou, newly returned from the future to lead the semi-legal organization, was supposed to be in the pipeline. But according to Latif, when asked by digitalspy dot com, quote "It's just been slight yeses, slight questions, but I've no idea. I think it's down to people's schedules. "I spoke to Ethan Peck [who plays Spock] briefly the other day. He's started [filming] the other one [Star Trek: Strange New Worlds], and that's about it." unquote So will it come to be? Or Will it end up scrapped due to scheduling conflicts.

Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan gave an interview to Trek Movie and Screen Rant dropped some interesting tidbits for Season 2, First off, be sure to watch season one before season two as the first few episodes of the season will pick up where the show left off. Quote  “These last three episodes created this crescendo of, ‘Look, this is what the show is. Let’s go. And we keep that up. That’s what the beginning of Season 2 feels like. [It] is talking about those things. How does Mariner feel about Boimler taking off? How is Boimler doing on the Titan? What stories are we telling there? So, [we’re] still doing standalone, still episodes that feel episodic, but the characters don’t forget. We haven’t forgotten what we’ve said [in] Season 1.” unquote He told Screen rant about it quote We’ve got Rutherford’s memory issues, we’ve got Mariner and her mom working together, we’ve got the Pakleds being a real threat out in the world, we’ve got Tendi worried about her friends not remembering her from the first season and what does that mean for their friendship. And we’ve got Boimler on the Titan! That’s not the Cerritos. The Titan is a whole different beast and what does that mean for our Boimy Boims? You know, he’s not with Mariner or Rutherford or Tendi, and what is that new group like over there? How is he experiencing it and how are our other Lower Deckers experiencing him not being there? All that stuff is how we wrote season 2. It’s very funny. Unquote He also said that they are working on Season Three right now and says that they are quote exploring who they are and how they’re becoming the people they are, is really the most exciting thing about this show because it’s one of the few things we haven’t seen in Star Trek. unquote 

He also promised some more quote legacy cameos”. Any particular character you’d like to see again?

Executive Vice President and Paramount Plus head of programming Julie McNamara is leaving CBS and Viacom CBS after fifteen years. McNamara has been in charge of developing the service’s original content, including the new Star Trek shows. Tom Ryan, ViacomCBS’ President, and CEO said in a statement quote “Julie’s work and strong relationships with creators and talent led the way for the very first originals on CBS All Access, many of which are still top performers for Paramount +, including Star Trek: Discovery and the beloved The Good Fight,” Ryan said. “Julie and her team have continued to grow the slate of originals paving the way for what has evolved to be an incredible upcoming line-up for Paramount +. I’d like to express my sincere thanks for Julie’s contribution to our streaming strategy.” unquote No Successor has been named. 

Geek

A new Hellraiser reboot movie from Spyglass Media has been acquired by Hulu. The new movie comes from The Night House director David Bruckner and writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotraowski. Now the word for right now as to what the movie will be about, how much of the ten previous movies it will call back to, or if it will be a completely fresh take.

Christina Ricci has been added to the cast of Matrix Four according to Warner Bros.The film is set to debut on HBO Max and theaters this year. Production wrapped on the movie in November.

The Stephen King movie Firestarter remake from Blumhouse has cast American Horror Story and The Tomorrow War actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong in the role of Charlie. The young actress will be joined by Zac Efron and Michael Greyeyes. The story focuses on young Charlie who realizes that she has pyrokinetic powers. Zac Efron will play her father and Greyeyes will play John Rainbird, a hitman hired by the government to capture Charlie so they can study and use her powers.

The CW’s new The 4400 Reboot series has released a synopsis for the series.  Quote "Over the last century at least, four thousand four hundred people who were overlooked, undervalued, or otherwise marginalized vanished without a trace off the face of the planet. Last night, inexplicably, they were all returned in an instant to Detroit, MI, having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them. As the government races to understand the phenomenon, analyze the potential threat, and contain the story, an empathetic social worker (Joseph David-Jones, “Arrow”) and hardened community corrections officer (Ireon Roach, “Candyman”) are among the civil servants called upon to deal with the uncanny refugees.

The new partners clash in ideology and approach, but gradually find they have more in common than they thought as they become familiar with those under their care, including: a lawyer and resilient young mother from the early aughts (Brittany Adebumola, “Grand Army”), whose unexpected reunion with her estranged husband (Cory Jeacoma, “Jersey Boys”) and suddenly teenaged daughter is immediately rocky; a WWI Army surgeon fresh from the Harlem Renaissance (TL Thompson, Broadway’s “Straight White Men”); an influential hidden figure from the Mississippi civil rights movement (Jaye Ladymore, “Empire”); a black sheep reverend-scion born to a notable televangelist family in 1990s Chicago (Derrick A. King, “Call Your Mother”); a seemingly shallow but misunderstood D-list reality TV star (newcomer Khailah Johnson) from Miami, circa 2015; and two wildly different unaccompanied teens, a vibrant girl (newcomer Autumn Best) whose bell bottoms give away her 1970s upbringing, and an introspective, prescient boy (Amarr Wooten, “Liv and Maddie”) whose origin remains a mystery.

These unwilling time travelers, collectively the 4400, must grapple with their impossible new reality, the fact that they’ve been returned with a few…upgrades, and the increasing likelihood that they were brought back now for a reason they’re only beginning to understand. Based on the original TV series created by Scott Peters and Renee Echevarria, 4400 is from CBS Studios and is executive produced by Ariana Jackson, who wrote the pilot, Sunil Nayar, and Anna Fricke and Laura Terry of Pursued By a Bear." unquote 

Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi movie Moonfall will be released on February fourth. The movie will star Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, Eme Ikwuakor, Carolina Bartczak, and Donald Sutherland. In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Wilson), and conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (Bradley) believe her. The unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space only to find out that our moon is not what we think it is. The movie will be released by Lionsgate in North America and Centropolis, AGC, and CAA in the rest of the world.

Amazon has cut a deal to acquire MGM Studios for 8.5 billion dollars. MGM is home to such franchisees and Intellectual Property as James Bond and Stargate. The deal would be Amazon’s second-biggest deal since it bought Whole Foods. However, this deal faces some major scrutiny, with Senator Amy Klobuchar pushing the Department of Justice into an Investigation of the deal. However, this looks like the swan song for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who will be stepping down as Amazon’s CEO on July Fifth. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services will take Bezose’s role while Bezos will stay on as executive chairman.

Film and TV actor Lisa Banes is in critical condition after being struck by a motorized scooter in New York City on Saturday.  The 65-year-old actress who has been in such movies as Cocktail, Gone Girl, and Young Guns and has guest-starred on shows like Nashville, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and in upcoming episodes of The Orville, was on the way to meet her wife for a dinner party near Lincoln Center when she was struck crossing in the crosswalk by a red and black scooter according to NYC Police. The scooter blew through a red light before the accident and the driver fled the scene and is now being sought by the police. According to police Banes did have the right of way. She is in critical condition in the ICU at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital with a traumatic brain injury according to her wife Kathryn Kranhold. Well, I’m sending her well wishes and hope for a speedy recovery.

Actor Clarence Williams III has died. The star of ABC’s The Mod Squad and the Prince Movie Purple Rain was born in 1939. After a stint in the army, he started a career in acting; he got his break on Broadway in the play The Long Dream in 1960.  He acted on the stage for years until he got his big break in the TV series The Mod Squad in 1968 as Linc Hays. Over his long career  he acted in episodes of Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice ,The Cosby Show, Twin Peaks, Star Trek Deep Space nine, and Everybody Hates Chris and roles in movies like, Purple Rain, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka Sugar Hill, Tales from the Hood, Half Baked, Life and The Butler. He was married to actress Gloria Foster in 1967, but they divorced in 1984 and had no children. She preceded him in death in 2001. Clarence Williams III passed away in Los Angeles on June fourth from colon cancer, he was 81 years old.

Actor Gavin MacLeod has passed away. Gavin might be best known for the role of Captain Merrill Stubing on nine seasons of The Love Boat.  He also starred on McHale’s Navy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show as well as having guest spots on Peter Gunn, The Untouchables, Peter Mason, My Favorite Martian, Hogan’s Heroes, Murder She Wrote, and That 70’s show. He passed away at his home in Palm Desert California on May 29th, Gavin MacLeod was 90 years old.

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

Now be sure to check us out on social media, we’re at Twitter @multiverseTom also on Facebook and Instagram as well. 

*Ko-Fi button*

And If you’d like to contribute some money, check out the show notes, visit our Teepublic store, and much more over at the brand new MultiverseTonight dot com *Show Ender*

If you’re a subscriber, be sure to share with your friends and if you’re brand new to the show, please be sure to subscribe. And leave us some feedback and let us know how we’re doing.

Special thanks to Shane Ivers for our intro music and Lobo Loco for our outro music theme music.

Thanks for watching the SciFi edition of Multiverse Tonight. We will be back in two days with a new comic book edition and two weeks with a new SciFi edition. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good Night!  

Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved.