Tag Archive: Disney


Trailer Park–The “New Look at Genre” Edition

Filed under: Con Culture, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
April 10, 2021

Jupiter's Legacy banner

April has seen several new trailers for forthcoming Hollywood projects we haven’t discussed yet at borg, all having in common a new look at a past genre property.  From Ghostbusters, it’s a new teaser for Ghostbusters: Afterlife featuring star Paul Rudd and a familiar face (and music) from the past.  From Mark Millar it’s a live-action version of his Jupiter’s Legacy comics coming to Netflix as a series.  From DC Comics it’s an animated adaptation of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s popular Batman: The Long Halloween graphic novel.  And from Star Trek, it’s a new season of the animated Lower Decks, and a look at some new costumes in the trailer for the fourth season of Discovery.

ghostbusters-afterlife-paul-rudd-stay-puft

Enjoy these trailers:

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Kung Fu kicks into high gear with action and fun in first episode

Filed under: Fantasy Realms, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
April 8, 2021

Kung Fu pic

Review by C.J. Bunce

Put away what you remember (if anything) about the 1970s Kung Fu television series.  You didn’t really watch the series for David Carradine, did you?  If you were like most of the viewers, you probably showed up for the martial arts.  CW Network’s new reboot of Kung Fu is for that same audience, but it also casts a wider net.  Wednesday night Olivia Liang showed up to take the new series, CW’s Kung Fu, by storm.  You can compare it to the similar-vibed, live-action Mulan, some of your favorite recent martial arts series that have the same dramatic beats like Wu Assassins, or you can compare it to series like Charmed, Smallville, Stargirl, or Riverdale.  Fans of all these shows will get a kick out of the ease at which the CW has brought a young Chinese-American hero into our must-watch DVR queue with college student-turned-Shaolin warrior Nicky Shen.  She’s a completely modern, updated Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she brings with her an interesting supporting cast while pulling some intrigue into the story via elements of classic Chinese mythology and history.  It’s fantasy, and its supernatural, and there’s swinging kicks and swordplay you’re not going to want to miss.

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Loki–Another Wilson brother arrives to help create this year’s superhero main event

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April 7, 2021

Loki Mobius

Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is likely the most popular villain in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  He’s also one of the best, staying true not only to the comics, but the spirit of the Norse mythology they pulled him from.  So a Loki series, coming soon to pay streaming provider Disney+, is almost guaranteed to be the big winner of 2021, right?  That seems to be confirmed in the latest trailer for the six-episode event series.  Is there a superhero series or movie this year you’re more anxious to watch than Loki?

As demonstrated by Luke Wilson’s appearance as co-star of Stargirl, you get the feeling the Wilson brothers are going to be the secret weapon for another sure-fire superhero series (even if it is about a super-villain).  This time it’s Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius, who is going to introduce Loki–and the audience–to a new universe tangent to the Marvel world we know about.  Mobius M. Mobius is a character with some true comics street cred, originating from the mind of writer/artist Walt Simonson.  And Mobius has a past in the comics pages connecting him with Fantastic Four and She-Hulk–will Wilson’s character be the new glue to connect the integration of the FF from Fox to Disney, and pull Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk into the MCU in her own series, due to arrive next year?

Loki cat

And does this furry friend know Goose from Captain Marvel?  Other actors in the series include Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku, and Richard E. Grant, who played Marvel character Dr. Rice, the mad scientist in Logan, from the other Marvel studio–Is this another opportunity to pull in the Fox Marvel stories?

Check out the latest trailer for Loki:

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Tarkin returns as villain of the hour in Disney/Lucasfilm’s The Bad Batch

Filed under: Sci-Fi Café, TV — 1 Comment
March 31, 2021

Tarkin

The Clones Wars have ended.  You can either adapt and survive, or die with the past.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a new animated series spinning out of characters featured in last year’s seventh season of The Clone Wars.  It’s about that motley band of clone troopers we discussed in our review here at borg.  This week we have a new trailer, and it reveals the return of Grand Moff Tarkin, now merely Admiral Tarkin, the villain played by Peter Cushing who saw his end in the original Star Wars, resurrected thanks to CGI for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  His backstory was fleshed out in recent tie-in novels, and now we’ll see him early on just after the Clone Wars.  Get ready to meet “again for the first time” Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand (The Mandalorian) and the return of Saw Gerrera (The Clone Wars, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), too.

Check out the new trailer for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an original animated series launching exclusively on Disney+ in May:

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Best Star Wars news this year? Sung Kang joins that galaxy far, far away

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March 30, 2021

Kenobi cast

He already established himself going lightspeed as a guy named Han in the Fast & Furious movie series.  He’s Sung Kang, an actor from Georgia who brings an extra dose of cool to every TV or movie project he’s a part of.  Thanks to Disney and Lucasfilm, he’s now going to be a part of the Star Wars universe.  He and a host of other actors were announced this week as Disney revealed the key cast of the six-part event series Obi-Wan Kenobi, which begins filming soon.  Ewan McGregor has been tied to the project for years, finally to reprise his role from the Star Wars prequels as an older Jedi Master.  Joining him from the prequels is Hayden Christensen as Anakin or Darth Vader, along with Joel Edgerton as Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen Lars and Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru.  The real question the cast announcement raises in light of last year’s appearance of a de-aged Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian is: How could Lucasfilm not give Hamill an appearance in this series, too?  Sure, he’d be a kid whining about spare parts at Tosche Station, but why not?

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CW reboots 1970s Kung Fu, with a new warrior battling crime on the streets of San Francisco

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March 26, 2021

Kung fu 2

When you can take the affidavit from my hand, you are ready.

Not everything gets done right the first time.  Take the 1970s television series Kung Fu.  Based at least in part on an idea from martial arts legend Bruce Lee, the series was the #1 show in the U.S. in 1973.  But casting David Carradine over Lee seems nothing short of lunacy in hindsight.  While Lee’s heirs later continued his vision in Cinemax’s The Warrior, the series that became Kung Fu is getting a reboot, a re-imagining, or a redo next month as Olivia Liang takes the lead role as Nicky Shen in CW’s Kung Fu.  Well-timed to follow the success of the similar-vibed live-action Mulan and some of our favorite recent martial arts series like Wu Assassins, the series follows a Chinese American college student who travels to China and is taken under the wing of a Shaolin master.  She returns to San Francisco with a new purpose.  Nicky looks like a superheroine in the first trailers for the series, which makes the CW network of Arrowverse fame a good place to air the series.  The new series also seems to have the slow-motion martial arts effects the original Kung Fu was known for (the same later used in the Six Million Dollar Man).

Check out some great first trailers for the series below.  Continue reading →

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The Rise of Skywalker–IDW completes its run of Star Wars film adaptations with Episode IX graphic novel

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March 3, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last year it seemed like the idea of a graphic novel adaptation of the ninth and final Skywalker saga movie, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, may not actually make it to print because of ongoing industry delays.  But IDW Publishing got it done and is winding up its complete run of adaptations of the Star Wars franchise movies this week, which has already included the adaptations of The Prequels, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo, all in continuity with a consistent look and approach.  IDW’s take on the last movie lands with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation, arriving in comic shops today.  The result continues the IDW series’ more animated look at the films, reminiscent of the cartoon artwork of the original Clone Wars episodes.

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Marvel Comics dives into newly-acquired Alien franchise with monthly series and superhero crossover covers

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February 28, 2021

 

As previewed in the superhero crossover Marvel vs. Aliens covers, a new Alien series begins next month under the Marvel Comics label, and it’s going to arrive with a first issue full of variant editions.  The best news?  You’ll meet a new Jonesy-inspired cat aboard the ship, this time a black cat, likely to blend in the shadows.  So let’s see Marvel’s take on the franchise–below check out an inside look at the new franchise cat, a dozen Alien series covers, and a shiny tie-in comic storage box available at comic shops.  And in case you missed the Marvel vs. Aliens covers, we’ve included the 22 covers Marvel is rolling out, too.

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Preview–First behind-the-scenes chronicle of the entire third trilogy arrives in Star Wars: Age of Resistance

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
February 25, 2021

   

You may have thought Age of Resistance was only the subtitle of The Dark Crystal television series, but no.  It’s a new identifier for the third Star Wars trilogy, and those films are part of a new behind-the-scenes book arriving in two weeks.  Star Wars: Age of Resistance–The Official Collector’s Edition, available in hardcover and trade paperback editions, the book for the first time chronicles all three films in the final Star Wars trilogy: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.  Beginning with a 17-page timeline of the entire nine-film Star Wars Skywalker saga, the book showcases photographs and behind the scenes concept artwork, schematics, costume designs, and close-up images of props.  Executive producer and director J.J. Abrams, key production personnel, art and effects department creators, and stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Joonas Suotamo–and more–dig into their characters, discussing key scenes, and the importance of each film to the entire Skywalker family story.

Here’s a first look inside the book, plus three variant edition covers, courtesy of publisher Titan:

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Trailer Park–The “Marvel’s Future Past Deja Vu Reprise Here We Go Again” Edition

Filed under: Comics & Books, Con Culture, Movies, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
February 12, 2021

It was only a year ago here at borg we were discussing some of the projects expected to arrive in 2020.  That didn’t happen, but a pandemic later and some juggling by the execs at Disney and we seem to have a realistic schedule for the projects we’ll see in 2021.  So let’s gather some excitement for Marvel superheroes heading our way, at least from the first looks at these shows we’ve seen via their movie and series trailers.  What does it look like we’re going to actually see in 2021 via streaming Disney+ or Vudu streaming?  As Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues with the final episodes of WandaVision on Disney+, next up will be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier starting on Disney+ March 19.  Probably the most eagerly awaited of all Marvel projects since Spider-Man: Far from Home is Black Widow, delayed and delayed some more, now expected to arrive May 7, probably for a theater run and a pay version via Disney+.  Which leaves the six episode mini-series Loki, also expected to arrive in May, via Disney+.  The common link?  All of these feature characters and storylines still heavily anchored to Phase III of the MCU, and all are an opportunity to tweak the past via time travel or a changed past to allow for new characters and new storylines.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is expected to arrive in theaters June 25, and Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings has a July 9 premiere date, but Disney hasn’t issued a trailer for either yet.  As a bonus we’ll throw in the trailer below for the animated series What… If? which doesn’t have anything but a 2021 projected Disney+ series launch date, and the trailer for Morbius, a Sony production tying into the MCU–at least via a cameo by Michael Keaton as Vulture, the villain from Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.  It’s now slated for a January 2022 theatrical premiere.  Although an Eternals movie is expected around Thanskgiving and another Spider-Man movie could slip in around Christmas, all the other Phase IV projects have been pushed out beyond 2021–the next movies featuring Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Fantastic Four, and TV series featuring a new Hawkeye, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy (a special), Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, and a Wakanda series.

Check out these trailers:

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