Week of the Geek: Special SDCC Edition!

Posted on July 24, 2017July 24, 2017 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!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Labyrinth

Posted on July 1, 2017July 1, 2017 by Courtney

Welcome to this Week of the Geek! Lots of scool stuff to get to, so let’s dive right in.

Movies

The first trailer of the Jumanji sequel, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came out this week, and was received a lot better than a lot of people (myself included, I’ll admit) expected. The movie follows four teenagers that are sucked into a video game, leading to some pretty amusing body-switching antics.

Netflix released the first trailer for its highly anticipated Death Note movie this week. The reception to the trailer has been mixed — hardcore fans of the original manga in general aren’t excited with the more action-based premise that the movie seems to promise, but the argument has also been made that after multiple Japanese animated and live-action adaptations of the franchise, Netflix needed to do something with this one.

Hey All. Thanks for the excitement but that wasn't a confirmation. Just talking about ideas and hopes. But still excited and hopeful 😉 #WW2 https://t.co/oaFZcPrRWl

— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) June 30, 2017

Slight correction to a story from last week: in contrast to what multiple outlets were reporting, a sequel to Wonder Woman has not been confirmed. However, at this point, as successful as the movie was, we’re pretty hopeful.

Television

Marvel’s Inhumans premiered its first trailer this week, announcing that the television show will debut on Imax screens around the country on September 1st before settling on its home at ABC television on September 29th. While we’ve seen glimpses of the Inhumans on Mavel’s Agents of Shield, this trailer is our first time seeing the royal family, featuring Anson Mount and Iwan Rheon as contentious brothers.

If you live in or around Washington DC, and you love Game of Thrones, you might want to check out the Westeros-themed pop-up bar. The bar is huge, featuring multiple regions from the fictional world as well as themed drinks.

Other

Scott Patterson of Gilmore Girls fame is working on establishing his own coffee brand, in an oddly parallel move to his character’s career choices. The actor has been working on developing the brand, Scotty P’s Big Mug Coffee, in his time off from acting.

Remember the awesome Gene Hoyle, who gave Week of the Geek a fantastic interview a couple months ago? He’s back, with the crowdfunding kickoff for the Labyrinth of Bones, which we were given a preview of with his interview! Check out Labyrinth of Bones on Indiegogo to learn how you can support a fantastic indie comic author and get yourself a copy of his up and coming publication. Look below for another look at the preview we got to see with Gene’s interview.

Recommends

If you miss being a kid and enjoying the cool tones of LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow, this podcast is perfect for you. LeVar Burton Reads is a 30- to 60-minute podcast featuring the actor reading short stories from a variety of genres. Check out the preview above!

Jurassic World: Dream Daddy

Posted on June 24, 2017 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!

Wonder Woman on the Orient Express

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Courtney

It’s time for Week of the Geek! Despite missing last week for MomoCon, this week’s newsletter is surprisingly short, as it’s been a quiet couple of weeks. Stick with me ’til the end for some great pics from the convention!

Television

Our first real look at the upcoming animated Castlevania series came in the form of a brief trailer last week. The animation is smooth and the art style has some fans feeling nostalgic for the anime of past years. It, so far, appears beautiful and perhaps a bit overdramatic, so right on par with the rest of the Castlevania series. The series drops on Netflix on July 7th.

Fans of the Netflix series Sense8 are up in arms after it was announced this week that it would not have a third season. Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger (of course) and fans are somewhat baffled, as the series had great ratings and relatively high viewership. The series had been lauded as groundbreaking in terms of representation, so Netflix is taking some extra heat for cancelling the series on the first day of Pride month.

Movies

The first trailer for Murder on the Orient Express came out this week, showcasing it’s impressive cast, including Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr., Dam Judi Dench, and Kenneth Brannaugh — and that’s not even half of the star-studded cast list. The frankly huge number of big-name stars combined with the unexpected music choices for the timeless novel’s adaptation has gained the movie some immediate popularity. The movie comes out November 10^th of this year.

Wonder Woman came out this weekend to pretty much unanimous rave reviews. Box office numbers aren’t available yet, but there isn’t any doubt it’ll come out on top.

Other

While Square Enix representatives at MomoCon told fans last weekend that they could expect a Kingdom Hearts 3 trailing to come out of upcoming E3, fans of the video game company received other, less exciting news this past week. Based on the company’s financial briefing, it would appear that neither Kingdom Hearts 3 or the long-awaited Final Fantasy 7 remake should be expected anytime soon; neither has a hard release date, and the company only plans on them happening “in the next three years”.

While J.R.R. Tolkien sadly died in 1973, his writings were so prolific that we still get a new book every few years. The most recent came out this past week, Beren and Luthien. While a version of this story was initially published in The Silmarillion, this is the original, unedited text. The book can be found for purchase here, but I also encourage you to purchase from local booksellers if possible!

Thanks for tuning in for this Week of the Geek! As an apology for missing last week, enjoy some of these pictures of the fabulous cosplayers and guests at MomoCon: