Tag: star trek

Doomsday Runaways

Posted on by Courtney

Week of the Geek 9/30/2017

Welcome to Week of the Geek! If you’re new, this is where we cover the latest geek news in television, movies, and more. If you’re a fan of pop culture, this is the newsletter for you! There’s definitely some cool stuff to cover this week, so let’s get going…

Television




While Netflix has been king of Marvel television shows so far, Hulu is looking to get a piece of the action with its upcoming adaptation of Runaways. The streaming service announced the collaboration with Marvel, and it’s looking like the series will in fact be an official part of the MCU. This week, we got our first look at some of the characters. Check out those images above!

Star Trek Discovery premiered this week to mixed reviews, but a large portion of the fanbase seems to be willing to give the show a chance. The biggest complaint so far is that it is only available on CBS’s new streaming service, meaning many people are paying a monthly fee just so they can watch this one show. The big news this week is that, according to executive producer Alex Kurtzman, if the new show is renewed for a second season, it won’t air until early 2019 at the earliest.

Movies

Fans have been begging for a sequel to Hocus Pocus for decades now, and for a brief, shining moment this week, it appeared we would get our wish, but then reality set in. The Disney Channel is making a new Hocus Pocus movie, but instead of a sequel, it’s a remake, with a new writer, director, and most importantly, a new cast. The announcement has sent the internet into an uproar, which was a surprise to no one except, presumably, the Disney Channel.

Anime film Your Name broke records last year, making it the highest grossing film in Japan and sweeping around the world in popularity. Now it’s been announced that the film is getting a live-action remake helmed by J.J. Abrams. Fans seem concerned about the remake, given the recent American adaptations of Japanese works like Ghost in the Shell and Deathnote, but some are cautiously optimistic. Of course, we’re all looking forward to plenty of lens flares.

While the upcoming Ant-Man sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, might otherwise have been a blip on the overall MCU, it’s placement between the two Avengers Infinity War movies has made it a piece of some interest. It’s now looking like the movie may in fact be in chronological order with the Avengers movies — as suggested by the fact that Wasp will not be in the first Infinity Wars movie, but is supposed to be in the second. This week, we got our first full look at the Wasp costume as worn by Evangeline Lilly. The suit has obviously undergone some upgrades since Janet’s gold-toned suit, putting Hope’s more in line with the modern-day Ant-Man suit.

Other

Anyone following DC Comics likely knows about the upcoming comic by Geoff Johns, Doomsday Clock, where the long-separated worlds of DC heroes and Watchmen will finally collide. DC released a preview of that comic in the video they released this week (above), along with some answers to questions fans have been wondering about. The comic is available for pre-order now, and will be available starting November 22nd. Take this opportunity to support your local comic shops with a pre-order!

Last week Critical Role released its first comic book, Vox Machina Origins, which quickly became one of the bestselling comics on Comixology. The comic, which follows twins Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia and introduces the druid Keyleth, is only available in digital form for now, on Comixology, Dark Horse Digital, iBooks, Amazon Kindle, and Google Play.

My recommend this week is OrcPub’s new facelifted site, OrcPub2. This site is hugely helpful for both DMs and players of Dungeons and Dragons, as it guides you seamlessly through the process of creating characters and monsters. I’ve been working on an upcoming game and it’s been invaluable!

That’s all we’ve got for this week of the geek. See you next week!

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The Shape of Potter

Posted on by Courtney

Week of the Geek — 9/16/17

Hi guys! Welcome to this Week of the Geek. It’s been kind of a slow week for geek news, but there’s a few cool things to look at. Let’s dive in with…

Movies

A new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming movie The Shape of Water has dropped, and has spread across social media like wildfire. Del Toro is known for his signature dark atmosphere and realistic monsters though in this case who the “monster” is might be debatable. The movie comes out this December.

Television

Any Star Trek fan knows that the music is integral to the series, with each one (okay, with the exception of Enterprise) having an easily recognizable orchestrated theme song. With Star Trek: Discovery’s premiere date sneaking up on us, CBS released a featurette where you can hear the opening music for the series. It is an original work that blends in some elements of the original series’ theme song.

If you’re suffering from Game of Throne withdrawals, don’t worry — HBO is here to make it a little easier with an animated history of the Targaryans. This is just the first part of a series of animations that will be included with the physical release of season 7 in December.

In other Game of Thrones news, HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys told an audience in Pennsylvania that the crew would be filming multiple endings to the final season so that no one will know which is the true ending. After the struggle against hackers releasing episodes early this past season, it’s really no surprise there are protective measures being taken.

Other Stuff

For those of us who never got our letters to Hogwarts but want to live out our wizarding world dreams anyway, Pottery Barn has made that a little easier. The store has released a line of Harry Potter-themed decor, including bedding, lamps, mirrors, and throw pillows. Unfortunately, many of the items are pretty pricey, but they certainly open up some beautiful decorating options.

This week my ‘recommend’ is a little different — I’d like to encourage you to go check out this fundraiser from My Angel with Paws. MAWP is a charity based in Deland, Florida that breeds and trains service dogs to those who need a little assistance in their everyday lives. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Irma came through, their training facility was heavily damaged by floodwaters. Any donation amount or a share on social media can help them get back to training these important dogs!

That’s all we’ve got for this Week of the Geek! Thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next week!

Week of the Geek: Special SDCC Edition!

Posted on by Courtney

Week of the Geek: 7/24/17

Welcome to Week of the Geek! You may have noticed this is a couple days late — I decided that with SDCC going on and geek news coming out of there like a tidal wave, it made more sense to wait until it was all out before posting. Here’s my breakdown of the biggest news to come out of the past week.

Television

Following the huge announcement last week from the BBC that the next Doctor is going to be Jodie Whittaker, the first female Doctor in the series, during the Doctor Who panel the trailer for the next special was aired, then released to the public soon after. The special will star the Twelfth and First Doctors (the latter played by David Bradley), and will also have an appearance by Bill, the Twelfth Doctor’s companion. The special will, as per tradition, air on Christmas of this year.

A new trailer premiered during the convention for Star Trek: Discovery, the new series coming to CBS. The trailer gives us a much longer look at the characters we’ll be dealing with, as well as our first look at the Klingons, who look a little different from earlier incarnations.

Those who were able to make it to the Marvel panel got to see the full first episode of The Defenders, Netflix’s teamup of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Daredevil. For those of us looking in from the outside, we have a new trailer — and the assurance that those who saw the episode loved it.

Next in the growing list of anime live-action adaptations is One Piece. The announcement was made this week as part of the series’ 20-year anniversary that the anime and manga would be going Hollywood, with a live-action television series. It will be an American production and will be produced by the same company as Prison Break.

A new Stargate series is incoming, though the manner in which it is coming has some fans a little uneasy. Stargate Origins will be a ten-episode series following lead character Catherine Langford, whose father unearthed the first Stargate in 1928. It is yet unclear where in the timeline this series will take place, and whether or not it will retcon Stargate as we know it. What has some fans giving this new series some serious side-eye is that it will only be available on a new online home for Stargate — Stargate Command. Little is known about this new service other than that it will of course require a subscription, and we presume it will be the home to all previous Stargate shows as well.

Movies

During the Marvel panel, the studio released three posters that link up into one big poster for Avengers: Infinity War. Most notably, Cap has a beard, Natasha is blonde, and Vision and Wanda seem to be VERY close! Okay, maybe that last one is only notable to me. Either way, a trailer was also shown at the panel, but unfortunately that has not been released to the public yet. Some low-quality recorded copies have made their way around the internet, but they are being yanked pretty quickly. For now, we have these posters to enjoy, so click on the image above to be taken to the full size!

Sadly, for those of us unable to attend the convention, Marvel seems to be keeping mum about Black Panther to the outside world. However, those in attendance did a great job of taking notes. If you want to see what there is to know about this upcoming movie, go read this fantastic breakdown at Nerdist to hold you over until the next trailer. There’s certainly a lot to be excited about!

In yet more Marvel news, it was announced that Captain Marvel is going to be set in the 1990s, with the villains being the shapeshifting aliens, Skrulls. This has resulted in a lot of speculation about where Carol Danvers has been during the events of the MCU we’ve seen so far. Some concept art — seen above — was also released.

The newest trailer for Pacific Rim 2 was also released during ComicCon. The trailer gives us a great look at the jaegers, and we get to see John Boyega’s character speak for the first time. The movie comes out next year.

A new Justice League poster was revealed, with the strong poses and bright colors reflecting the well-known artwork of comic artist Alex Ross. Also: a new trailer!

Oh! And in case its success didn’t make it super obvious: Wonder Woman is officially getting a sequel! It’s worth noting, though, that Patty Jenkins is still not signed on to direct.

Whew…. That’s it for this week. I doubt we’ll see a lot more news this week after this glut of releases from SDCC, but I’ll be back Saturday with whatever news there is to share!

P.S. Hey! Hey you! This is your last chance to get in on grabbing a copy of Labyrinth of Bones. Only 4 days left!

Jurassic World: Dream Daddy

Posted on by Courtney

Welcome to this Week of the Geek! This one’s short and sweet, but there’s definitely some cool stuff to read about, and some super exciting stuff at the end.

Television

One of the most anticipated upcoming shows this year is Star Trek: Discovery. This week, Entertainment Weekly debuted some of the first photos from the series, including the one above featuring Jason Isaacs as Captain Lorca, after it was announced that the show will debut September 24th of this year. The showrunners also announced that they would be throwing out what is often called “Roddenberry’s Box”, a rule the series creator established that severely limited the amount of conflict that could be shown between characters, as he hoped we’d have moved beyond that in the future.

After years of begging by not only the fans but some of the actors involved, Supernatural has announced a spinoff focusing on some of the show’s key female characters. Wayward Sisters will star Kim Rhodes as Jody Mills, so there is much speculation that her fellow officer of the law Donna Hanscum, along with Jody’s two adopted daughters will feature heavily as well. Supernatural has attempted a spinoff before, but fans reacted poorly to the Bloodlines pilot and it was scrapped quickly. Wayward Sisters will feature a backdoor pilot during season 13 of Supernatural.

Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss, of Doctor Who and Sherlock fame, have announced they will be creating and writing a show based on Dracula. While no real details have been released about the plot or setting, we do know that the series will be in a similar format as Sherlock, which ran in miniseries-like runs with feature-length episodes.

Movies

The title for the next movie in the Jurassic Park series has been announced: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. With this announcement came the posted featured above. The movie is set to release June 22, 2018.

In a surprising news out of the Star Wars world, the director duo for the Han Solo spinoff were fired, and replaced almost immediately with Ron Howard. The original directors were fired due to creative differences with the production team — namely, they wanted to inject more humor and improvisation into the script. The move is particularly surprising considering that there is only three weeks of filming left, along with five weeks of reshoots, though it’s too early to tell if that schedule will be altered in any way.

In light of the first movie’s massive box office and critical success, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns, one of the leaders of the DC film universe, are already working on a sequel. According to Johns, work is already underway on a treatment for the followup movie, though no details were provided about plans for the plot.

Games

Social media was flooded with people clamoring for Game Grump’s first game — a dating simulator. Even better, a dating simulator featuring dads. Even better, a dating simulator where you play a dad, dating other dads. Perfection on a screen, basically. The game, Dream Daddy, comes out July 13th on Steam.

That’s all the geek news for today! Now for the exciting news: Fandom Finery is releasing a new product line! We’re going to be offering candles in almost all the scents we currently make soaps in. I’m currently working on packaging for shipping to protect the glass candleholders, so I need some guinea pigs! If you’d like to receive a FREE handmade candle, be one of the first three people to comment on this article down below. Good luck!

Where No Witcher Has Gone Before

Posted on by Courtney

Week of the Geek 5/20/17

Welcome to Week of the Geek! There are quite a few cool new releases, trailers, and announcements to look at this week, so let’s get to it!

Television

The first trailer for the upcoming television series Star Trek: Discovery was released this week. The trailer Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham disagreeing with her commanding officer on how to deal with the hostile Klingon. This series differs from its predecessors in that the main character is the First Officer of the ship, rather than the captain. Star Trek: Discovery will premiere this fall on CBS before moving to the station’s subscription service for the remainder of the season.

In an announcement that came seemingly out of nowhere, this week fans learned that The Witcher is getting a Netflix series. While most American fans are familiar with The Witcher as a series of fantastic video games, they are actually based on a Polish book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, who will also be serving as a creative consultant for the Netflix series. No release date has been set yet, and we’re also not sure if the series will be CGI or live-action.

As if we weren’t excited enough for the Ducktales reboot, this week we found out that Lin-Manuel Miranda will be joining the cast as Gizmoduck. Miranda said in a press release that the character is being tweaked to have Latin roots, something he always wished to see on television as a child. Miranda joins David Tennant, Danny Pudi, and Bobby Moynihan in the show’s cast. The show doesn’t premiere til this summer, but has already been picked up for a second season.

The Dark Crystal is returning as a Netflix series! Froud’s dark fantasy art came to life in the original movie thanks to Jim Henson, and the Henson Shop and Froud have teamed up with Netflix to make the magic again. The show will be called Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and will be a prequel to the original movie. No release date has been set yet, but fans seem to be excited, especially considering the teaser seems to show that Netflix intends to stay true to the puppetry showcased in the original.

Snowpiercer is getting a television adaptation thanks to TNT, and we learned this week that the post-apocalyptic series will star Daveed Diggs of Hamilton fame. Diggs will play Layton Well, who lives in poverty in the back of the train while the rich upper class controls the front. There is no release date for the series yet, but the talent on board is pretty impressive; in addition to Diggs, Scott Derrickson (director of Doctor Strange) is Executive Producer and Josh Friedman of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is showrunner.

Movies

Sony announced Saturday that Tom Hardy will be the star of their upcoming Marvel movie, Venom. The movie has been in development for almost ten years, and many fans seem skeptical about how Sony will pull off the Spiderman-related movie now that the rights to Spiderman himself have shifted to Disney and the MCU. However, having a name and a main character — Eddie Brock — means the movie must at the very least finally be shifting out of development hell.

Other

Destiny 2 premiered its first gameplay trailer, revealing some really impressive-looking interactions and showcasing the ever-snarky Nathan Fillion as Cayde-6. Bungie also announced plenty of other information, including changes in gameplay and carry-over options. The game is set to release on September 8th of this year, but Beta signups are already filling up for early access.

Big news, Doctor Who fans: Ten and Rose are back! Well, audibly. Remember last week, when Big Finish announced a new Torchwood drama? Turns out they’re also producing three new Doctor Who audio dramas starring David Tennant and Billie Piper. Sure, it’s not on-screen, but I’ll take what I can get! The three stories will be available in November.

One last thing! I have the pleasure of going to Momocon next weekend, which means Week of the Geek will likely be delayed until Sunday or Monday. Sorry! On that note — if you’re going to Momocon and are a Geek Maker who would like to be featured in a future Week of the Geek, shoot me a message in the comments below!

Thanks for joining me for this Week of the Geek! I don’t have a Geek Maker feature this week (though I highly recommend checking out last week’s with Wyrmwood Gaming if you missed it!) so I’ll leave you with this, in honor of that last story: the official Doctor Who Spotify account, including plenty of audio dramas!