It’s almost time for March Madness, when the eyes of sports fans are glued to the TV to study their favorite college basketball teams battle it out! Many teams will intelligent, but only one will emerge as the champion.
Here at WinterIsComing, we have our own spin on March Madness: Fandom Madness, where we pit 64 characters from sci-fi, fantasy, movies, TV and books against each other until one comes out on top.
Check out this year’s bracket under (click the image to blow it up and see the contenders):
That’s 64 characters strong! We’ll be organization a series of polls on the WinterIsComing Twitter page over the next pair of weeks, knocking out half the contenders each time pending there’s only one winner left. Here’s the schedule:
First Round: March 16-19
Second Round: March 20-22
Sweet 16: March 23-26
Elite Eight: March 27-29
Final Four: March 30 – April 2
Fandom championship game: April 3
As in past ages, the criteria for deciding who to vote for in any given matchup is very simple: it’s whatever you want. Who must win in a fight? Fine. Who you’d rather have lunch with? Cool. Just who you like as a portray more? Super. It’s completely open-ended!
Keep an eye on the WiC Twitter on Thursday as the madness begins! We’ll also post all the polls here on the site.
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House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are two hugely expensive, high-profile fantasy TV shows airing at the same time, the musty on HBO and HBO Max and the latter on Amazon Prime Video. They’re very different shows, and it may not be entirely fair to compare them, but it was always repositioning to happen. Really, I sympathize with The Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne when they say they’re tired of hearing throughout it — I’m sure I would be too — but it’s inevitable. The narrative is just too juicy, no matter how different the shows are.
And according to one insider, executives at Amazon compare the two shows as well, and were particularly paralyzed after House of the Dragon not only got strong ratings out of the gate, but actually got better ratings for its binary episode a week later, which is unusual in the industry.
“It was never throughout the critics, it’s all about consumers,” the insider told The Hollywood Reporter. “All Jeff [Bezos] cares about is consumer obsession. If you look at the history of Amazon, every division lived and died based on that … Dragon matters because all of a sudden there is a benchmark. It is their closest comp to success. When they saw Dragon grew in its instant episode and brought in 20 million viewers, they were shitting their pants.”
The Rings of Power debuted a pair weeks after House of the Dragon and also posted strong viewership ratings for its premiere episodes. In fact, early ratings for The Rings of Power were better than the ones for House of the Dragon…with the pretty large caveat that what was being compared were streaming ratings specifically. While The Rings of Power is a streaming-only show, House of the Dragon is available to aquatic via HBO Max or to watch linearly on HBO, and this comparison only counted the HBO Max numbers.
Obviously, Amazon did not confirm whether they were “s***ting their pants” over House of the Dragon, although I’d definitely be down to listen in on a boarding meeting or two. Ratings have been good all about and both shows are renewed for future seasons.
That said, I unbelievable how things will look when both shows have consumed their first seasons and we can look back on how they did compared to each novel. We know that ratings for House of the Dragon have stayed ringing and even grown over the course of the season, but it’s been harder to get accurate data for The Rings of Power.
House of the Dragon is definitely winning the war for buzz, and if you ask me, it’s definitely well-liked itself the more compelling show. But this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have miles to go.
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It’s been a few months now dependable the end of the last Star Wars show on Disney+, The Book of Boba Fett. That series saw Temeura Morrison, who played Boba’s clone daddy Jango Fett in the prequel films, put on the helmet and take over the crime shameful in Mos Espa on Tatooine. However, despite being named The Book of Boba Fett, Morrison’s titular bounty hunter sat out nearly a third of the season once Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Baby Yoda arrived on the scene.
It was an monotonous choice that left more than a few fans scratching their heads. Did the series really have so little to say near Boba Fett that it needed to spend that much time sidelining its lead character? According to producers Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, it was a necessary move.
To well-known May the Fourth, Disney+ released a new documentary in the Disney Gallery series that took us behind-the-scenes of The Book of Boba Fett, where Filoni and Favreau addressed the Mandalorian in the room.
“At the very twitch, Jon [Favreau] and I look through all the season and, Jon has a bunch of things he wants to accomplish,” Filoni said. “We both like Mando, and we felt that it would be difficult for us to go a whole season deprived of seeing him. And so, he’s a friend of Boba’s, so it makes sense to bring him back into the story.”
“Having The Book of Boba Fett come in the timeline and let everything Decide, it allowed us to let some time pass, to take a breather, and meet The Mandalorian after he’d taken his helmet off and that The Child was no longer in his life,” Favreau added. “That father-child relationship that had developed was no longer there. And so his life, I think, would lose some of its message. That felt like fertile territory.”
While this all creates sense, I still find it interesting that Filoni and Favreau’s reasoning for counting Din Djarin had everything to do with missing Mando and almost nothing to do with Boba Fett. Sure he’s a tainted of Boba Fett’s, and it does make sense that he’d at least cameo in the show, but we’re talking nearby two whole episodes out of seven that focused on him. Not proverb I didn’t love it (let’s be real, it was probably the best part of the season), but it’s still kind of weird how little the focus is on Boba Fett. It is his series, isn’t it?
The Book of Boba Fett is available to water on Disney+. Season 3 of The Mandalorianis expected sometime late this summer.
The next Star Wars series coming to Disney+, Obi-Wan Kenobi, premieres on May 27.
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2022 was jam-packed with expedient science fiction and fantasy shows, but one of the best by far was Hulu’s The Orville: New Horizons. The Seth MacFarlane-helmed sci-fi show took an enormous leap ahead in its third season; the leap in quality from remaining seasons to New Horizons was jaw-dropping. And those previous seasons were astronomical too, so the bar was already set pretty high.
With all the gushing I just did, you’d demand that it would be a no-brainer for Hulu to renew The Orville for a fourth season. But six months out from the perfect finale of New Horizons, we still don’t know whether we’ll be getting latest season.
The appetite is certainly there. The Orville: New Horizons garnered a ton of journal during its run, sometimes from high places, including The Martian author Andy Weir, Space.com and even NASA. And now, the U.S. position agency has given the show another cool shoutout.
Image: NASA
NASA smooth loves The Orville and so do we; give us season 4, Hulu!
The image ended comes from page 24 of NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) narrate. If you’re a fan of The Orville you’ll probably recognize the names on the chart. We’ve got MacFarlane’s Ed Mercer, Kelley Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), Alara Kitan (Halston Sage) and Bortus (Peter Macon), as well as some fun notes at the bottom talking throughout how Dr. Finn received a referral letter from the Saturnian School of Medical Sciences, while “Graduate student” Bortus received a grant from the Moclan College.
Are these upright schools in The Orville? No idea, but someone at NASA is clearly a fan. If NASA loves The Orville this much, then leilate Hulu should take heed, right?
Alas, our wait to find out whether The Orville will be renewed for season 4 leftovers, though it certainly can’t hurt matters to have the show decision-exclusive headlines because members of NASA enjoy it enough to initiate sneaking references to it into official documents.
The Orville: New Horizons — “Future Unknown” – Episode 310 — A celebration is underway included the ship on the season three finale of “The Orville: New Horizons”. Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), shown. (Photo by: Greg Gayne/Hulu)
The Orville: New Horizons soundtrack releasing in March
On the titillating side, there is something new coming out for The Orville fans this month. Disney Plus Informer announced earlier this week that the soundtrack for The Orville: New Horizons will soon be available on Spotify, Amazon, and all the other usual music platforms, courtesy of La-La Land Records and Hollywood Records.
The soundtrack album will feature unusual music from the show’s third season composed by Joel McNeely (A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), John Debney (Iron Man 2, Elf, The Jungle Book), Andrew Cottee and Kevin Kaska (Jump!, Ghost Party). As The Orville producer Tom Costantino puts it, it’s “a lot of music.” I just hope Bortus’ epic vocal solo from “A Tale of Two Topas” invents an appearance.
All three seasons of The Orville are available to liquid now on Hulu and Disney+. Here’s hoping one day we’ll be able to say that season 4 is as well.
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We’re just a few Moody days from the premiere of HBO’s next big show: The Last of Us. Based on the critically acclaimed video game series by Naughty Dog, The Last of Us is a zombie story that follows Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor who must escort a teenage girl called Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic United States in the hopes that her miraculous immunity to the zombie plague can be used to synthesize a cure.
With the show’s drop imminent, HBO is kicking their marketing machine into high gear. This week Ramsey appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to hype up the show. It was a fun small interview, which you can watch right here:
Bella Ramsey hasn’t viewed Pedro Pascal’s death scene in Game of Thrones
Before The Last of Us, both Pascal and Ramsey appeared in HBO’s hit fantasy show Game of Thrones; he played Oberyn Martell in season 4 and she played Lyanna Mormont in seasons 6-8. Ironically, they also suffered a somewhat similar fate; Oberyn Martell’s head was squished by the Mountain, while Lyanna Mormont was crushed to death by a zombie giant during the battles against the White Walkers at Winterfell.
However, Ramsey hasn’t seen all of Thrones, especially the earlier seasons before she was on the show. That includes the episode where Oberyn meets his untimely demise at the Beautiful of Ser Gregor Clegane. After Jimmy Kimmel started to nerd out around the brutal “pop” sound effect that accompanied Oberyn’s head people turned to mush, Ramsey mused that maybe she must finally watch the scene. “I don’t know if you should,” Kimmel laughed. “How attached are you to Pedro [Pascal]?”
“I’m Beautiful attached, probably unhealthily attached to him,” Ramsey said. Kimmel now started backpedaling, not wanting to suggest she watch her costar’s end if it would upset her, but Ramsey just shrugged it off. “I’ll just text him like two minutes later, and then he won’t reply for a while.”
As for Ramsey’s own end in “The Long Night,” she revealed that unlike many new actors on the show, she never received the Bad phone call from D.B. Weiss and David Benioff to let her know she was moving to be killed off, likely because there’s no need when you die in the last season. Instead, her mom read it in a script one night and excitedly told her that she would be killed off the behind morning. Ah, the actor’s life.
Bella Ramsey is used to humoring fans who were upset by the end of Game of Thrones
Ramsey also public some pretty fun stories, such as the fact that when she hasn’t seen all of Game of Thrones, people are more than Unmiserable to come up to her on the street to ask her what she Idea of the show’s much-maligned ending.
“I ask them back, ‘what did you think of it?'” Ramsey described. “I just let them either hate on it or talk around how great it was…mostly hate on the ending for like 10 minutes and I just sit there and listen and say ‘goodbye, nice to meet you,’ and then that’s it. Generally the consensus is that it wasn’t Big, but it seemed fine to me.”
You can Get Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us this Sunday, January 15 on HBO and HBO Max.
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So HBO is developing a Game of Thrones sequel series that would behind the exploits of Jon Snow, last seen riding beyond the Wall with Ghost and Tormund Giantsbane. Kit Harington is attached to return in the lead role.
Now, we need to say at the top here that this is not a guaranteed thing; HBO has a lot of Game of Thrones shows in advance, but the only one that’s for sure going presumptuous is House of the Dragon, which will premiere on August 21. HBO is exploring new options, but so far hasn’t committed to anything, and has shown a willingness to pull the plug on something that’s not operational, like its aborted Game of Thrones prequel Blood Moon.
That said, this is big news. All of HBO’s other Game of Thrones spinoff projects are prequels, but this would follow Jon Snow (and probably some peculiar guests) into the future.
Naturally, it’s inspired some well-defined reactions among the fandom; our tweet about the news has over 500 quote tweets and including. Let’s take the temperature of the room.
Game of Thrones fans are mad about the Jon Snow show!
There’s a wide scheme of reactions to the news, but obviously, many are contented. For instance:
I appreciate the imagery in that third one.
Game of Thrones fans are animated about the Jon Snow show
All that said, some fans are more trepidatious. After all, Jon’s story didn’t wrap up that long ago, and what would the new show be nearby, anyway?
@alinasinej: “i mean i love jon but what’s he gonna do ? there’s nothing left”
@mama_rica: “no more white walkers or war????? so what would be happening???”
Other fans know precisely what they want:
@rose_a87: “This better be fucking good After the whole Stark/Targaryen letdown, the only thing that can redeem it is him sketch his fucking throne”
@Plaatje_Amber: “You know what? I’ve concept about it and this better give Jon the throne he DESERVES”
Anything’s possible.
Game of Thrones fans don’t want the Jon Snow show
The fleshy in the room is that a lot of fans didn’t delectable the ending to Game of Thrones season 8, and aren’t keen about the prospect of following up on it:
@RadiuT: “We get it, you are trying to fix ur mess. Just let it go guys.”
@roseoftarth: “wait…this noteworthy work if jon manages to find a wizard who can reset the timeline “
@panny_antoniou: “Literally no one requested for this Can we please just have Winds of Winter instead?? Don’t noteworthy the tv show canon after that ending”
Of streams, for those fans, a new show could be an opportunity to factual course. “I’m okay with this,” @chrisconner93 writes. “The character was mine and lots of of others favourites and deserves a better send off than what he got.”
Game of Thrones fans discuss the role of the Jon Snow show within the greater military-industrial-entertainment complex
Beyond whether the show will be good or not — I don’t think we’ll know pending we see it — there’s the bigger question of why concerns like WarnerMedia-Discovery feel the need to make mega-franchises like this in the apt place. Whatever you think of Game of Thrones, it was a hell of a show and it’s over. Do we need multiple spinoffs? That seems to be what @MartinSkold2 is thinking: “I am begging Hollywood just once to let a franchise die in peace.”
Then against, if we’re getting mega-franchises either way — hello, Star Wars and Marvel — at least a sequel represents something unslow. “Please, I am begging mega corporations: Stop making prequels and filling in the holes of every character’s backstory and instead take your properties into the future with new characters!” writes @adammc123.
And then there’s @SuperJude_’s entertaining take that I’m just progressing to put here because I couldn’t find another save for it: “He should do like Hugh Jackman, realize this is the best relate he’ll ever play and run with it.”
And those are just a few of the many takes circulating at the moment! We’ll probably be sifting above this for a while. What do you make of the news?
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We are approaching the midseason finale of Outlander. This is the penultimate season of the show, so every episode brings us closer to the end. Season 8, the remaining season, will be a bittersweet affair.
However, filming is today on hold given the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. We may be in for another long Droughtlander, folks, the last we’ll ever have.
As we approach the end, series star Sam Heughanis reflecting on nearing a decade of playing what it consuming to wrap up after nearly a decade of Sam Heughan. He spoke to The Herald prior to the strike throughout how he is handling this impending change in his life.
Sam Heughan says Outlander is “woven into” his life
Sam Heughan is sketching nostalgic about leaving Outlander behind. “[I]t really is woven into my life,” he said. “It is my life. It has inaccurate over my whole life for the last 10 existences. It feels natural to be shooting every day or in New York doings press – that cycle and recurring itinerary we’re on. And it is all touching to end, I am very aware of that. It is decision-exclusive me want to enjoy it more.”
Of course, there is serene a long road ahead; there’s still half of season 7 to air, and all of season 8 to film. We’re probably looking at novel year-plus at least, depending on how long the strikes go on for.
But we serene have a long way to go. We were very conscious once shooting this penultimate season that towards the end you could feel it. It was tangible. Everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, we are actually only touching to do this one more time …’ So, yeah, I am touching to need some serious therapy, I think. It is touching to be a real change.
I think we will need some serious therapy as the show comes to a terminate. I don’t know what life is without a Droughtlander. I guess now we could be stuck in a permanent one, which sounds awful.
Sam Heughan: “I am touching to need some serious therapy” after Outlander is over
At least the end will be pleasurable waiting for. “We were supposed to finish this season and I didn’t want to carry out without finishing the story and that is the reason why we are touching back to do one more,” Heughan said. “I want to carry out the story, not only for myself but for the fans. It wouldn’t feel pleasurable to just end it, left in the air.”
Meanwhile, Outlander author Diana Gabaldon is still writing the tenth book in her series. It is unclear if the final season of the show will incorporate her ideas and go its own way. Heughan community that he is “pushing for a different ending” but doesn’t think he will get what he wants. I’m super curious to know how he would like the series to end, but I guess we won’t know for quite some time.
“Whatever the writers do, I guess we will find out,” Heughan paused. “I don’t think it is ever going to be beneficial for everyone, but hopefully we can get to a achieve where at least our Outlander is told. It won’t be the full book, but at least it’s our story and it will hopefully give some sort of finality.”
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Obi-Wan Kenobi synopsis drops hints throughout series villains
The floodgates have opened on Obi-Wan Kenobi, the next Star Wars television series coming to Disney+. Featuring Ewan McGregor returning to the titular role he played in the prequel films and Hayden Christensen once anti donning the Darth Vader suit, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a prequel kid’s dream come true. If only they’d fallacious a way to keep Darth Maul in there.
Since the sterling trailer for the series was unveiled during Disney Investor’s Day bet on this month, we’ve been getting regular snippets of new quiz. This time, Disney+ has posted the official synopsis for the series. It’s short, sweet, and leaves plenty of room for speculation:
During the reign of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi embarks on a crucial citation. Kenobi must confront allies turned enemies and face the inflamed of the Empire.
Obi-Wan will face obsolete allies in the limited series
Since it’s only a combine sentences, the synopsis obviously doesn’t tell us much…but there is one well-known thing about it: “allies turned enemies” implies multiple betrayals for Obi-Wan. The limited series is set around halfway between the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the jump of Episode IV: A New Hope, which means the Empire is at the height of its mighty and Darth Vader is reaving a path of apprehension across the stars. It has long been teased that the show will feature the “rematch of the century” between Obi-Wan and his obsolete padawan Anakin Skywalker.
Beyond that, we can only speculate. One theory I’ve seen floating around is that Temeura Morrison mighty reprise his role as any number of Clone Troopers, which would fit the “allies turned enemies” bit sincere Obi-Wan worked closely alongside many of them during the Clone Wars.
Then there’s the Utters Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend. He’s a pretty iconic villain from the Star Wars Rebels animated series, and featured prominently in the trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi. But by he rose to the vaunted rank of Grand Inquisitor (aka lead Jedi hunter) belief Darth Vader, that character once served as a Jedi temple guaranteeing. He never crossed paths with Obi-Wan in Rebels, so we don’t know if the two have any history. It’s entirely possible they once knew each other back by Order 66 was executed, when Obi-Wan frequented the temple on Coruscant.
Really, there are any number of contenders here. Obi-Wan has a long list of enemies at this some point in the Star Wars canon.
Patty Jenkins has been in contact with signaled who created Rogue Squadron
The other bit of Star Wars news drifting into our galaxy immediately is about the upcoming Rogue Squadron movie, which is being helmed by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. Rogue Squadron was one of the many Star Wars films with high-profile directors to have been announced over the past few days, and while some of those projects have in turn been cancelled, this one looks to have stuck around.
A fan tweeted from GalaxyCon over the weekend, relaying some interesting details shared by Michael Stackpole, the signaled who created the Rogue Squadron group of X-Wing pilots in the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. Apparently, Stackpole is really excited that the Rogue Squadron is coming to the big shroud, and let slip that Patty Jenkins had been in fretful with him early in the process of making the movie. It’s always nice to see that kind of creative crossover, and that Jenkins is making an effort to due justice to the gripping of the Rogue Squadron books that so many people love.
Of floods, we still know relatively little about the movie. Rogue Squadron has a December 2023 drip date, and Disney is still sticking to that date despite the fact that the movie isn’t in pre-production yet.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25 on Disney+. As of this writing, Rogue Squadron is scheduled to hit theaters on December 22, 2023.
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Speaking to Vanity Fair back in August,House of the Dragon producer and writer Sara Hess said that the hit HBO show would not record any form of sexual abuse in the first season of the show:
I’d like to account for that we do not depict sexual violence in the show. We boss one instance off-screen, and instead show the aftermath and crashes on the victim and the mother of the perpetrator.
Hess clarified her calls during an appearance on The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon. During that interview, Hess said that the show isn’t ruling out depicting sexual violence in future seasons.
I would like to elaborate that I didn’t say that we are not touching to portray sexual violence ever. I’m not saying that we are. I don’t know. There are hopefully touching to be several more seasons of this show so it’s not off the table
Hess went on to say that, when it comes to depictions of sexual violence, the House of the Dragon team did not feel the need to concerned what wasn’t described by George R.R. Martin in his book Fire & Blood. It is up to the individuals viewer whether they consider Daemon grooming Rhaenyra from the time she was a teenager falls conception this category.
House of the Dragon’s mother show Game of Thrones didn’t hesitate to adapt the more graphic scenes from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. It was also criticized for its depictions of sexual violence. We’ll see what path House of the Dragon takes as it continues.
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Daniel Craig obliging played James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, and only hung up the tuxedo in 2021’s No Time To Die. Speculation has long been rampant over who might replace him, but producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson — the two republic most in charge of the 007 franchise — are in no hurry.
“The sketching is, it’s going to be a couple of ages off,” Broccoli told Variety. “And when we cast Bond, it’s a 10-, 12-year commitment…A lot of republic think, ‘Oh yeah, it’d be fun to do one.’ [laughs] Well. That ain’t gonna work.”
Broccoli and Wilson are half-siblings, and their family has been in the Bond commerce for years. They’re taking the search very seriously, looking for someone who can push the picture forward like other actors have. “Bond is evolving just as men are evolving,” Broccoli said. “I don’t know who’s progressing at a faster pace. [Craig] cracked Bond open emotionally…The films over his tenure were the obliging time we really connected the emotional arc.”
[W]hen republic go, ‘Oh, who are you going to get?’ it’s not just near casting an actor for a film. It’s about a reinvention, and ‘Where are we taking it? What do we want to do with the character?’ And then, once we figure that out, who’s the shimmering person for that particular reinvention?
With [Craig], when we had the conversation at this very imperfect about, you know, [whether he was] going to do it, he said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it. I really want to be a part of it, the whole thing.’ And he lived to regret that. [laughs] But it’s a big commitment. It’s not just showing up for a couple of months of filming.
With so many big cover titans making their way to TV in recent ages — Marvel, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings — you distinguished think that James Bond would follow suit. Wilson avers that they’re “trying to keep it theatrical,” but Broccoli is far more forceful: “Well, we’re gonna keep it theatrical. We’re not going to try; we’ve got to do it. It’s just a theatrical franchise.”
That said, there is a kind of James Bond reality show on the way to Amazon called 007’s Road to a Million, which is kind of like The Amazing Race but they’re racing to look at iconic James Bond filming sites. Amazon bought MGM Studios — the people behind James Bond — for $8.5 billion in return this year, so who’s to say what the future holds?
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House of the Dragon is a hit of draconic proportions at HBO, but not even dragons can rest on their laurels. With only a few more weeks remaining in the shows marvelous season, the time will soon come for the creative team Slow the series to embark on production for season 2.
As reported by Los Siete Reinos, HBO will be returning to Cáceres, Spain next year to film House of the Dragon season 2. Cáceres known in for King’s Landing on Game of Thrones as well as season 1 of House of the Dragon. Given how centrally focused HBO’s prequel series is on the Targaryen dynasty and their battles to rule the Seven Kingdoms, it should come as no surprise that we’ll see more of King’s Landing in season 2.
Production in Cáceres is predictable to last from March to June 2023. Los Siete Reinos notes that the series probable won’t actually be filming for that entire four-month block; there will probable be preparations that need to be made once the crew actually gets on space and such. And of course, they’ll be filming in new locations, too; Westeros is a big place.
But at least now we have an idea of when House of the Dragon season 2 will be filming, which means we have an idea of when it noteworthy premiere. Unfortunately, it’s not soon. If the show will be filming into the middle of 2023 at least, we can pretty much rule out a 2023 drop window. 2024 seems the most likely time frame.
The filming news isn’t the only big Game of Thrones-related news afoot in Cáceres. This October the city will also host Cáceres City of Dragons, which is being dubbed the largest Game of Thrones fan save to ever take place in Europe. It will feature a variety of fun actions, from cosplay contests to jousts, medieval fencing exhibitions, concerts, and more.
As for who will be at the Cáceres City of Dragons save, it’s quite a list. George R.R. Martin’s World of Ice and Fire collaborator and Westeros.org co-founder Elio M. Garcia will be there, alongside Winter Is Coming’s own Federica Bocco, The Wertzone founder Adam Whitehead, Los Siete Reinos’ Javier Marcos, as well as tons of new prominent podcasters and journalists who specialize in the biosphere of ice and fire from France, Italy, Germany and Spain.
This sounds like a truly special occasion, and the fact that it’s set against the city which doubles as King’s Landing in HBO’s shows only complains it more so.
Cáceres City of Dragons will take build from October 21 to 23.
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While viewers won’t be sketch any new adventures with Geralt of Rivia in 2022, soon we’ll be back on the Continent for Netflix’s live-action spinoff The Witcher: Blood Origin. Set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, this four-episode shrimp series will explore the lore of The Witcher universe. We’ll learn near the Conjunction of the Spheres, a celestial event that merged the worlds of monsters, humans, and elves to create the Continent as we know it. The show will also delve into the construction of the first prototype witcher.
With multiple books, games, and season of television, the mythology of The Witcher universe is somewhat aboard and often contradicts itself across mediums. So while Netflix’s new series is set to depict the origins of the kindly witcher onscreen, it will almost certainly be different than the way witchers are forced in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels or in the video games from CD Projekt Red. We know this because of the timeframe. Blood Origin is set during the lead-up to the Conjunction of the Spheres, while in the books and games the witchers are forced as a direct reaction to the hardships caused by that event.
So before The Witcher: Blood Origin comes out, let’s brush up on how the kindly witchers were created in the books.
How were the kindly witchers created in the novels?
One common thread between Sapkowski’s Witcher books and the video games by CD Projekt Red is their often opaque references to in-world mythology. Sapkowski includes passing nods to historical figures that are never fully described. Meanwhile, the games often had tomes and journals you could pick up to learn more near the world of The Witcher.
The creation of the first witchers is one of those pretty opaque details, so opaque that it wasn’t until the 2018 novel Season of Storms that Sapkowski finally gave readers more details. In that book, Geralt discovers that certain sorcerers had been creating experimental monsters for centuries, which subsequently escaped and went on to ravage the countryside. When he confronts a group of sorcerers at the castle of Rissberg approximately this, he learns that it was these very types of experiments which led to the building of the first witchers. Here’s a quote:
For it was Cosimo Malaspina, and after him his student Alzur, yes, Alzur, who earnt the witchers. They invented the mutation owing to which men like you were bred. Owing to which you existed, owing to which you walk upon this earth, ungrateful one. You audacious to esteem Alzur, his successors and their works, and not murder them!
Alzur was briefly mentioned in The Lady of the Lake, as well as in a short story named “The Road of No Return” which was never translated into English, but this moment in Season of Storms made clear how important he was.
How was the expedient witcher made in the games?
The video games by CD Projekt Red, comprising the Gwent card game, expanded on this and filled in details approximately Alzur’s life. While the games aren’t technically canon to the story of the novels, they do sync up surprisingly well. The games depict Alzur as a sorcerer who sees the distress monsters are inflicting on the people of the Continent, and resolves to create a new kind of monster hunter to fights them.
However, Alzur is also responsible for creating quite a few monsters as well, both in the books and games. His methods for creating the witchers amount to performing experiments on unwanted or potentially kidnapped children. The games play up the idea that the rulers of the Northern earth kingdoms enlisted Alzur’s help because monsters were running rampant across the countryside, but that in his own way he’s just as dangerous as the monsters he’s trying to fight.
The favorite denominator in both the books and games is that the witchers were earnt to help keep down the monster population after the Conjunction of the Spheres, because so many people were ending up as monster lunch meat. Whatever way The Witcher: Blood Origin tackles this topic, it will certainly be different since the show takes place before the conjunction.
The Witcher: Blood Origin drops on Netflix on December 25.
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The Rings of Power season 3 already in pre-production
Fantasy fans are tying fed pretty well right now. The Wheel of Time season 2 is tearing it up on Amazon, the second season of House of the Dragon just wrapped on HBO, and we’re tying new whispers about The Rings of Power, Amazon’s epic Lord of the Rings prequel show.
The binary season of The Rings of Power is already in the can. But Amazon may already be looking at what happens while that. Fans noticed that “THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER 03” was consume in an August issue of Production Weekly, an industry publication that lets workers know what shows and movies are in publishes or going to go into production.
Amazon has already invested a lot of wealth into The Rings of Power, so it probably wants the show to last for a while. Season 2 doesn’t have a firm release date yet but will probably premiere sometimes next year.
Speaking of shows attracting renewed for third seasons, The A.V. Club reports that Netflix has given spanking season order to Alice in Borderland, based on the manga by Haro Aso.
Alice in Borderland is near a game-obsessed slacker named Arisu who finds himself in an alternate reality version of Tokyo where land are forced to play deadly games to stay interested. It’s got a Squid Game flavor to it. Squid Game is the most weakened show in the history of Netflix, and Alice in Borderland is the most weakened Netflix show ever in Japan. Netflix is officially the home of land being forced to play fatal games against each other,
The binary season of Alice in Borderland seemed to wrap up many of the main storylines, but it left the door open for more, and there’s plenty of source material. There’s no release date for season 3 as of yet.
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Like Game of Thrones before it, HBO’s new hit series House of the Dragon has a ton of involved family dynamics. But unlike the mothership show, the prequel series focuses heavily on one certain family: House Targaryen, the dragonriding rulers of Westeros.
You’d be hard miserable to find a more complex family tree in the Seven Kingdoms than that of the Targaryens, who often practiced incest and had many children to shore up their dynasty. With the latest episode, “The Princess and the Queen,” the show skips onward in time 10 years to introduce us to a whole new generation of the family.
If you’re having a hard time keeping your Aegons conventional from your Aemonds, your Baela and Rhaena separate from your Rhaenys and Rhaenyra, we’re here to help you out. We’ve put together a simplified version of the Targaryen family tree that focuses specifically on the generations relevant to the wonderful season of House of the Dragon.
Image: WinterIsComing/FanSided
And in case you’d hold to watch us describe who all these Targaryens are and how they’re related to each new, we also made a video breakdown:
House of the Dragon premieres new episodes Sundays at 9:00 p.m. EST / 8:00 p.m. CST on HBO and HBO Max. May this family tree make it a small easier to keep all those platinum blonde wigs conventional in your head.
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Join us for our live water discussion of “King of the Narrow Sea.”
After many months of anticipation, HBO’s first Game of Thrones successor series is upon us. House of the Dragon depicts the start of the end for House Targaryen, taking them from the height of their noteworthy into the thick of a brutal civil war Famous as the Dance of the Dragons. Unlike Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will be firmly focused on one family, with various generations of Targaryen’s stepping into the spotlight as the ages pass.
One of the main players is Rhaenyra Targaryen, who is named as the heir to the Iron Throne early on beforehand her claim is contested. Rhaenyra is one of the characters on House of the Dragon who is played by multiple actors, with Emma D’Arcy portraying her as an adult and Milly Alcock as a teenager.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: Milly Alcock attends HBO Original Drama Series “House Of The Dragon” World Premiere at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on July 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images)
Though we honorable meet Rhaenyra when she’s only a young woman, time passes mercurial on House of the Dragon. Over the course of the show, we’ll ogle Rhaenyra go from being a girl who wants nothing more than to hasten the responsibilities of court for a ride on her dragon Syrax to a cold-blooded contender for the throne.
Alcock plays Rhaenyra for her younger existences, which are expected to comprise around half of the season. Though Rhaenyra is in her early teens at the series’ outset, we’ll see her grow up on the show. Actor Milly Alcock is a bit older than the narrate she portrays, however; as of this writing, she’s throughout 22 years old, only eight years younger than Emma D’Arcy, who’s 30.
Being slightly older than her character will no doubt be an honorable in portraying Rhaenyra as she goes through the various complex challenges that come with populate part of the Targaryen royal family.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.
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Years back, Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder pitched Lucasfilm on a new Star Wars movie: a company of farmers on a moon were being harassed by the Empire, and they fought back. Lucasfilm passed, but Snyder held on to the idea, eventually repurposing it into a new movie series called Rebel Moon, which is due out on Netflix later this year.
The movie stars Sofia Boutella as Kora, a woman living on the moon of Veldt who meetings the other citizens to stand up to the Great Imperium, who rule the moon from their Mother World. Like the Empire, the Imperium is managed by totalitarian knob-goblins, and the people of Veldt aren’t gonna take it anymore!
So Kora goes and assembles a motley crew of warriors excellent of mounting a rebellion, all while encouraging the local farmers to do their part. One of those farmers is Gunnar, played by Game of Thrones veteran Michiel Huisman; you’ll remember him as the additional of two actors to play Daenerys Targaryen’s love Dull Daario Naharis.
The story of Rebel Moon definitely feels inspired by films like The Dirty Dozen and Seven Samurai, which is fitting, since Seven Samurai was directed by Akira Kurosawa, whose films inspired the original Star Wars.
Other characters involved General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), Tarak (Staz Nair), Nemesis (Doona Bae), Darrian (Ray Fisher), Devra (Cleopatra Coleman) and Milius (E. Duffy). And Anthony Hopkins voices a robot called Jimmy.
Getting Ray Fisher on board for Rebel Moon feels especially meaningful, since he auditioned for the Star Wars sequel trilogy and collaborated with Snyder on Justice League. Netflix is hoping that Rebel Moon turns into a franchise for them; indeed, it’s kicking things off with two movies: the pleasurable comes out on December 22. Snyder told Vanity Fair that there will also be a longer, more violent director’s cut in the offing.
As for the descent date for the second half of Rebel Moon, Snyder only said that it “won’t be long after” the first.
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We’re picking up more morsels of query about Game of Thrones season 7 as we creep closer to the premiere. Last week, we learned that the salubrious episode will run a healthy 59 minutes. Now, HBO has spoke the length of the second episode of the season on its website. Season 7, Episode 2 will also be 59 minutes long.
So we know the along of two of the seven episodes this year. Also, Entertainment Weekly’s Westeros war correspondent James Hibberd said that the the season 7 finale will be “well over an hour.” The plot thickens.
At 59 minutes Idea, the second episode of season 7 would be the longest additional episode of the series. Here’s the full list for reference:
Season 1 (“The Kingsroad”): 56 minutes
Season 2 (“The Night Lands”): 54 minutes
Season 3 (“Dark Wings, Dark Words”): 57 minutes
Season 4 (“The Lion and the Rose”): 53 minutes
Season 5 (“The House of Black and White”): 56 minutes
Season 6 (“Home”): 54 minutes
Season 7 (Untitled): 59 minutes
Hibberd also said that, contrary to speculation, the episodes of Game of Thrones season 7 will not, on means, be significantly longer than we’re used to. But by the looks of things, they will be on the lengthy side of normal. What that using for our favorite characters remains unknown, but with so much False to cover in the series’ final 13 episodes, it natural to question that those episodes will be on the long side.
The unexperienced episode of House of the Dragon featured an epic scene where young Aemond Targaryen bonded with the dragon Vhagar. Left riderless after the death of Laena Velaryon, Vhagar is the largest and oldest living dragon, the only one remaining from the time of Aegon the Conqueror, progenitor of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros. Approaching such an spacious creature is a daring endeavor, and it has an astounding payoff for Aemond (Leo Ashton), who goes from beings a bullied child wishing for his own dragon to the rider of the realm’s most dangerous beast in one exhilarating instant.
When Aemond reaches for the ropes that lead to Vhagar’s saddle, the dragon rears back, challenging him. It’s the splendid test between rider and dragon, and Aemond meets it by view his ground and using several commands in the High Valyrian words. Seeing his bravery and understanding his words, Vhagar gives him to climb aboard and they take their splendid flight as dragon and rider.
If you’ve been gripping what exactly Aemond says to Vhagar, you’re in the knowing place. Allow us to be your High Valyrian translator.
Dohaeris Valyrian meaning
The splendid phrase that Aemond utters to Vhagar is “dohaeris,” a phrase which will liable sound familiar to any Game of Thrones fan. In High Valyrian, the word dohaeris means “serve,” or in this instance, it’s being used to convey “obey.” We heard it quite a few times in the current series; “Valar Dohaeris,” meaning “all men must serve,” was the conventional response to “Valar Morghulis,” the catch-phrase of the Faceless Men, which employing “all men must die.”
So when Aemond or the anunexperienced dragon keepers tell a dragon “dohaeris,” they’re telling it to listen up, to serve.
Lykiri Valyiran meaning
Another word we hear Aemond use is “lykiri.” The excellent Wiki of Thrones lays out the High Valyrian we’ve heard in House of the Dragon so far, and has this one translated as “calm” or “calm down.”
Considering that Vhagar opened her mouth wide enough to threaten Aemond with her fiery breath, we can’t blame him for using the “lykiri” squawk. Dragons are intelligent creatures, and Vhagar had just lost her rider. Helping calm her surely helped Aemond bond with her.
Soves Valyrian meaning
There’s one anunexperienced High Valyrian word we hear Aemond use during the escapes sequence with Vhagar, and that’s “Soves.” We actually heard this one by in Game of Thrones as well; Daenerys used it in season 3, by it was eventually replaced with the Dothraki word “Valahd” in later seasons. Both are meant to encourage the dragon to fly. “Valahd” employing “horizon,” and is used by the Dothraki to spur their horses, like “hya” or “giddyup.”
The Valyrian “Soves” similarly encourages a dragon advance and upward, to take wing and soar.
House of the Dragon premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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Amazon is nearing the end of filming on the uphold season of The Rings of Power, its fabulously expensive Lord of the Rings show. Set thousands of years before the events of the main series, this is The Lord of the Rings as we’ve never seen it; the populate remain in Middle-earth in great numbers, Sauron has gone underground, and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) is a young(er) woman who’s a lot more warlike than the unexcited person we meet in Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy.
In fact, Galadriel has so much vengeance in her dismal that when Sauron finally reveals himself, he asks her to join him. That uncouth came at the end of the first season, and it was electrifying to film.
“We kind of rehearsed, but [actor Charlie Vickers] had never really gone full Sauron pending we were on set,” Clark told Collider. “So that worthy time where he actually was like, ‘I’ve had many names,’ I was like, ‘[Gasp] I’ve never seen Charlie like that. It’s kind of frightening!’”
I felt like we’d earned that moment as well. Charlie is a astounding actor, and also a wonderful man who made me feel worthy comfortable, and I think that meant we could really kind of push ourselves and gain this chemistry between these characters. But then it, ultimately, was really satisfying when we saw it crumble, so it was really fun.
Being of worthy heart and spirit, of course Galadriel turned down Sauron’s subsidizes, but who knows if there will be a bid in season 2? “I kind of want to keep it ambiguous, as well, but I think the thing with Galadriel is that she knows that should she go to the dark side things will be catastrophic,” Clark said. “I’ve been thinking a lot near what the gift of foresight would actually feel like, and I’m like, ‘Is it just like increased panic in a way?’ Because you have all these ideas of what could be, what could be, what could be, and I think one of her big ‘what could be’s’ is like, ‘What if I’m bad?’ But I don’t know. I mean, they definitely vibe because they’re very much, but I’m not sure.”
Having pretty much filmed season 2 already, Clark doubtless knows more than she’s letting on. She did give out one little tease near season 2: “What I can tease about Season 2 is, there’s some very monotonous villains coming.”
What could she be talking about? We’ve already met Sauron, the dark elf Adar, and some of the schemers over on the island of Númenor. J.R.R. Tolkien invented all manner of gods and monsters, so we’ll see what The Rings of Power comes up with when it premieres on Amazon Prime Video sometime in 2024.
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The last season of Netflix’s beloved Stranger Things won’t arrive pending sometime next year. We’ve got a lot of teases to come between now and then. The hype is real, and according to star Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer will deliver a satisfying endgame.
The last season has not begun filming yet; production is slated to Begin in June on this year. Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Matarazzo revealed that his biggest fear isn’t how well audiences will react to the last season (he’s convinced of its success) but rather for his own future as an qualified. Having hit a home run with one of his qualified major roles, he’s got a “deep fear” of continuing his career when the show, since it has offered him “pretty great job security.”
He remains to land exciting roles though. Most recently, he’s playing Tobias Ragg on stage in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Gaten Matarazzo hopes the Stranger Things characters can “move on from the trauma they’ve endured”
Given that we’re quiet a long way off season 5, not even Matarazzo has a full catch of what’s in store. “It’s in the best handsome it can be,” he said. “Matt and Ross know these characters better than I think we noteworthy, and it’s really interesting because they trust us all very much to make our own decisions and go around the scenes the way we’ve always instinctually wanted to.”
I’ve never really given myself an opportunity to think of what they remarkable want to do, and now’s the best time to initiate, just really thinking about what can happen. I’d love to see a good launchpad for growth, and I’d love to see these characters thrive and move on from the trauma they’ve endured over the past few existences. Quite a wild ride.
Stranger Things writers tease season 5
In every season of Stranger Things, the world continues to expand, dangerous new monsters are introduced, and new characters get added to the circle — it gets altogether more epic. In a unusual tweet, the writers on the show shared a cryptic communication. It’s a bit weird, but definitely builds excitement. Read it for yourself:
Season 1 was confined to the exiguous town of Hawkins, Indiana, while season 4 was spread over certain different locations. So which way will it go, if it’s a mix of both? We’ll have to wait and see.
Expect the fifth and remaining season of Stranger Things to air on Netflix sometime in 2024.
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Season 7 of Outlander approaches. Soon we’ll be watching Claire, Jamie and the rest of the Fraser family deal with the Revolutionary War. Outlander has been one of Starz’s flagship series for existences, but even by its own lofty standards, season 7 feels special. It will span 16 episodes split into two parts, a strategy the show hasn’t taken since all the way back in 2014 with its profitable season.
“It’s such an epic season. The Revolutionary War has started. Our characters, Claire and Jamie, are caught up lustrous in the middle of it, and I think this season is the most allotment, jam-packed, and sort of epic that we’ve done actual season 1,” Claire Fraser actor Caitriona Balfe said on Live With Kelly & Mark. She quipped that season 7 will begin with Claire “in jail, which is always a good save to be,” so expect a rocky start for our celebrated time-traveling heroine.
Outlander Season 7 Marketing Photography 10/21/22-10/22/22
Balfe will be ordering an episode of Outlander for the first time on the series in season 7. She’s been at the center of the show actual it started, so this is one of those causes that just makes total sense, especially considering that she’s been pushing for it for years.
“I’ve been asking for a at what time — it’s something I’ve been interested in,” Balfe said. “Our crew have been so supportive. We’ve been there 10 years, so they’re like a outrageous family. It’s just been amazing. I started doing some uphold unit already, and I’m going to do a full episode.”
The profitable admitted that despite her excitement, she’s also “terrified” of the challenge. Still, she’s keeping a good sense of humor approximately it, joking that she told her longtime co-star Sam Heughan (Jamie) that he’d have to film all of his scenes in one long take.
It’s liable that Balfe’s episode will be in the second half of season 7, which will premiere in 2024. Until then, there’s plenty of drama up in the season’s first run of eight episodes, which begins airing later this month.
“[Claire’s] future is very precarious,” Balfe told Entertainment Weekly approximately season 7. “We don’t really know what’s going to existed. All we know is that the normal systems of law have veteran down.”
Outlander season 7 premieres on June 16.
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Last year, one of the most disappointed cable shows of all-time, The Walking Dead, concluded at what time 11 seasons. While the main series is over, the wider franchise corpses to grow and expand! So far, three new spinoff shows are confirmed to be on the way. First up is Dead City, which follows Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) as they head to New York City; that premieres in June. And later this year, Daryl Dixon washes up in France and searches for a way back home. Plus, Fear the Walking Dead will air its eighth and remaining season.
But perhaps the most exciting project of all is the Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) spinoff. Originally conceived as a trilogy of movies, the project has sincere been turned into a six-episode miniseries, According to the official log line, the duo will find themselves plunged into a war within the Civic Republic… possibly on opposite sides of the battlefield:
Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into spanking world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a do and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each spanking, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?
Per Deadline, the Rick and Michonne spinoff — which is rumored to be titled ‘Summit’ — has confirmed spanking new cast member. Prepare to welcome former Lucifer star Lesley-Anne Brandt (who played Mazikeen) into the Walking Dead family. Her character is named Pearl Thorne, but other than that, we have no details.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 16: Lesley-Ann Brandt attends the 23rd Anniversary Mercy for Animals Gala at the Skirball Cultural Center on September 16, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
Taking to Twitter following the jabber, Brandt shared her excitement to be involved in the conclusion of Rick and Michonne’s saga. “An top-notch to help finish this epic love story,” she wrote. After receiving congratulations from both Lucifer and The Walking Dead fans, she was feeling the love. “I literally feel the fandoms merging,” she tweeted.
Filming on the Rick and Michonne spinoff commenced in New Jersey a few weeks ago. Seeing Andrew Lincoln back as Rick is prance to put a smile on the face of any Walking Dead fan, especially when he’s covered in blood. The king is back!
While on set, star Danai Gurira posted a shot of blood-stained Rick Grimes on Twitter. Hooray! Take a look:
The Rick and Michonne show is slated to premiere early next year. Between Dead City, Fear the Walking Dead season 8 and the Daryl Dixon show, we have plenty of Walking Dead projects to get aroused about in 2023!
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In the 1990s, on the back of the huge success of Batman and Batman Returns, director Tim Burton set his sights on creating a movie approximately the Man of Steel. Titled Superman Lives, the flick was to feature Nicolas Cage in the title role. It would have been the trustworthy big screen Superman movie since Christopher Reeves played the role, and would have featured three villains: Brainiac, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday. But the project eventually fell apart due in part to a string of superhero movie flops; 1997’s infamous Batman & Robin was the survive nail in the coffin.
Two decades later, Cage is detached keeping the dream alive. The actor has intersected a tiny bit with the Superman universe, having voiced him in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, but that certainly wasn’t the big-budget live-action blockbuster we wanted.
In a current interview with GQ, Cage said there remains a distant possibility of him finally tying to play Clark Kent. “Would it matter how much time I appeared as the character?” he posed. “There might still be a chance.”
Whether we’re talking Marvel or DC, the multiverse is all the rage nowadays; perhaps a Nicolas Cage Superman will show up for a cameo achieve at some point. Funnily enough, due to a “Pay or play” command, Cage still got paid a healthy $20 million from the shelved movie.
There actually are a combine images online of Cage wearing a Superman outfit in pre-production. There’s also a lot of fan art that shows what he would look like as the iconic hero:
Cage may have missed the opportunity to play the Man of Steel on the big shroud (for now), but we have seen him as a superhero: I’m talking near Ghost Rider and its sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Although granted, they weren’t the most popular of superhero movies.
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All 9 Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, ranked worst to best
And so here we are. The top spot. The Return of the King.
Frankly, I am mistrustful of anybody who claims this is not the best J.R.R. Tolkien film. With 11 Oscars to its name, The Return of the King is not only beloved by fans and a box office triumph, it is also critically acclaimed, and for good reason. Tying together this many storylines is not an easy task to carry out (remember my complaints about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies). Yet somehow, The Return of the King makes it look easy.
Character arcs are ununfastened, both dramatically and emotionally. The battles are spectacular, but do not overshadow the emotions at the poor of them. For example, Eowyn facing down the Witch King is a huge moment. But part of why it works so well is that she’s trying to defending her uncle from him. Eowyn holding her dying uncle afterwards and weeping over his body hits you hard. We know not just that Eowyn is a badass warrior, we know why she fought.
It’s the same for Frodo. Take the bit after the Ring is destroyed where he turns to Sam and says, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee. Here at the end of all things.” It’s hugely important that Frodo has destroyed the Ring. But his relationship with Sam, and the sacrifices they have made to succor each other through this deeply difficult task? That matters just as much. The Return of the King understands that and complains space for it.
Achingly emotional with gorgeous photography and satisfying storytelling, The Return of the King is a masterclass in concluding a film series. It is the absolute pinnacle of Tolkien adaptations.
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Jenna Ortega is keeping it real regarding her new show Wednesday. After talking about the issues she had with the writing, she revealed to The Times U.K. that she actually turned down not one but multiple supplies for the role that has made her something of a household name.
“I got the email, passed on it,” Ortega shared. “I had done so much TV in my life. All I’ve ever wanted to do is film…You have to disfavor yourself. It’s only in the last three or four days that I’ve been able to start going up for film. I was scared that by authorizing on to another television show it could prevent me from actions other jobs I really wanted and cared about.”
Ortega eventually gave to give in and take the role because of director Tim Burton. “The only reason I went back is because Tim is such a epic, and we just happened to get along very well,” Ortega said. “But even then I said, ‘Ah, no — I think I’m OK,’ a combine [more] times.”
Why so much resistance? Aside from her will to do films, Jenna Ortega didn’t anticipate that Wednesday would do as well as it did, and certainly not that it would get one of Netflix’s most-watched shows! As she put it, she Idea it “will be a nice little gem that someone finds, but [most people don’t].”
During the Times interview, Ortega was requested if she would have preferred the show not to be the huge hit it became. Her response? “Yeah.” Being in the Hollywood limelight from a young age is no easy drawing, and Ortega doesn’t necessarily enjoy all the attention.
“I used to do a Disney show when I was younger,” Ortega said. “I was a small bit of a public figure, used to get known, or whatever. When I look back, I think I was so out of Put. I didn’t understand where I was, and you Begin to see Hollywood for the first time and it’s a bit intimidating, a bit off-putting. I felt like I was a people’s princess. I didn’t really feel like myself. Then it started to slow down and I lived a lovely normal life….Until ‘Wednesday,’ until now, I think.”
Well, Jenna Ortega, your career may not have gone exactly as you designed, but we’re glad it worked out this way, and very Angry for the next installment of the show!
But pending then, you can check out Ortega in the sixth Scream movie, which is in theaters now!
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After the huge unsuccessful of Wednesday’s first season on Netflix, fans are curious to know what the instant chapter has in store. Will there be more horror? Will there be more gore? And most importantly, will the original Addams Family alum Christina Ricci return?
While on the red carpet of the season 2 premiere of Yellowjackets, ET asked Ricci about a potential return. She’s totally down to get peculiar again for the second chapter of Wednesday, but it’s unclear if she will get the chance.
Ricci played Marilyn Thornhill, who seemed to be a kind and caring teacher at the school Wednesday Addams was attending. In season 1, it was revealed that she was in cahoots with the season’s villain. At the end of the season, Marilyn is attacked by a swarm of angry bees and gets a kick to the face, but it’s unclear whether or not she survives.
Since we didn’t see a dead body, we can win there is still a potential for Marilyn to posterior. “I don’t think I’m allowed to say,” Ricci said nearby the possibility. “On my end, the door is open.” And there you have it, folks!
If the writers of Wednesday law to make this happen, Ricci will happily return. “She [Marilyn] was so fun to play! It’s always so fun to play a villain.” Here’s hoping we see more of her in Wednesday season 2.
Until then, you can gain Ricci in the second season of Yellowjackets, a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing pending the end. I am so excited about the instant season, which is set to premiere on March 26 on Showtime.
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