Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 13

Jennifer Holland on Playing 2 Harcourts in PEACEMAKER Season 2

Emilia Harcourt has had quite a journey so far on Peacemaker this season. Despite saving the world in season one, this second betrayal of Amanda Waller has got her blacklisted from any government agency that would take her. This despite a history with not only A.R.G.U.S., but the CIA., the NSA, and other agencies. Now lost, she’s been self-harming in rather unique ways, all while trying to deny her emotions.

In the most recent episode, we find out Emilia Harcourt and Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) were in a relationship, and she considered him her best friend. Since Christopher Smith/Peacemaker killed Flag, it explains why she’s been so conflicted when it comes to her feelings for him. We spoke with Jennifer Holland about her character’s season two journey, including her alternate universe counterpart.

HBO Max/DC Studios

Nerdist: The barfight scene for Harcourt in episode one was brutal, and also amazing. Obviously, she holds her own, but ultimately it’s a numbers game, and she gets her butt kicked. Reading the script, how did you feel knowing it would end with Emelia tossed out on the sidewalk and not victorious?

Jennifer Holland: I loved it. I love the journey that she goes through. In one sense, that’s what she’s kind of hoping for. Harcourt is putting herself purposefully into situations where she will be hurt. She’s a masochist. I mean, it’s kind of like being a cutter or something like that, and that’s how she’s dealing with her sort of numbness in her life, and not being able to feel. So she’s going out and doing these awful, harmful things to herself. And it’s also a little bit of the control that you feel that you can have over your life.

HBO Max/DC Studios

A lot of people who have some sort of harmful habit in their life, they’re doing it because they like the control that it gives them over their own life. And so that’s the way I view what she’s doing. And so I loved the journey. I love the fact that this isn’t just a fight scene. It’s not just, “Oh, Harcourt gets to kick some ass, and then she gets her ass kicked.” She is going through an emotional journey, and just as much as Chris having an orgy, what she does is in response to the emotional turmoil that she’s going through. She’s doing the same thing as Chris with putting herself into that.

His way of coping is actually a bit healthier than hers, in the final analysis.

Holland: Oh yeah, he’s totally healthier than Harcourt. That’s what’s interesting about it.

HBO Max/DC Studios

In this season, we learn that Emilia has a history in her line of business going back 18 years. Which is wild, as she’s still young. Did James give you a full backstory for your character based on the comics, or is your version of the character one who has a totally different backstory?

Holland: We talked a little bit about her upbringing, where she came from. I always hold it a little bit close,  because I don’t know if James [Gunn] will stick to this, if he ever decides to sort of go down that path in the future. Unraveling what her set of circumstances was when she was growing up. But we talk in season one about how she got her first Glock when she was 12, or something like that. And so we know that it has something to do with her father. And I think James kind of knows who her father is. But she’s the kind of kid who, as soon as she was able to aim, someone was putting a gun into her hands.

HBO Max/DC Studios

You get to play an alt universe version of Emilia this season, who’s a little more “girly girl.” She’s almost a completely different person, and seems happier. What parts of her do you think are fulfilled in her that the “real” Harcourt doesn’t have, and vice versa?

Holland: Well, I think that they both have their sort of certain issues that are unhealthy. And I think Harcourt in the second universe, she has an unhealthy attachment to men. An unhealthy attachment to all that gives her some sort of self-worth, I think. And so I think in that sense, I think Harcourt from our dimension is more self-actualized. She’s just so incredibly incapable of allowing people in and being vulnerable. And so in some ways, I think that Harcourt in the second dimension is just much healthier emotionally.

She’s able to talk about her feelings. She’s just more open. She says, “I’m hurt, you hurt me. I don’t like that.” And that’s not something Harcourt’s capable of doing. She doesn’t talk about things like that. She goes, “Whatever, I don’t want to talk about it. Just let’s not talk about it.” So I don’t know. I don’t think that Harcourt in the second dimension is for better or for worse. But she’s definitely more emotionally put together than Harcourt from our dimension.

Emilia is a lot more vulnerable and closer with her friends this season, even if she still keeps Chris at arm’s length. We know he’s clearly in love with her, but do you think Emilia is even capable of loving him back, even under the best circumstances?

I know the answer to that, and I think that’s because of the fact that’s what we sort of explore throughout this season. This question of “Is she capable of this, or is her wall too thick that it just can’t be penetrated?” And is her hatred towards Chris because of what he did to Rick Flag Jr. going to be something that she can ever get past? In that sort of intimate way, I think you see that she can sort of let her walls down a little bit with friendships. And I think you get the feeling that maybe she started to let her walls down a little bit too much, and she’s pulling back. It’s scaring her. And so I can’t tell you what the answer is to that, but I can tell you that you will get an answer throughout this season.

HBO Max/DC Studios

We learn that Emilia suffers from toxic masculinity this season. And she has a pretty colorful response to the doctor evaluating her who’s giving her that diagnosis. As the person portraying Harcourt, do you concur with that diagnosis, or do you think he’s full of it?

Holland: I think that, despite as much nuance as I think the character has, and as much empathy as I have for her, because I know her so deeply…yeah. I think that diagnosis is real. I think it’s true because she’s toxically masculine. It’s very real. It’s Something she needs to take a look at [laughs]

Everyone has a story about shooting the opening credits. All I’ll ask you is was it harder to get through it without cracking up this year, or less difficult?

Holland: I think it was definitely harder for the people who were new in the group to keep a straight face. They’d never done it before. The rest of us who had done it the first season, we all kind of knew what to expect, and we had some practice keeping our straight faces and all of that. Of course, you still break out into laughter every once in a while. It is such a ridiculous situation. You’re standing up on stage with John Cena, Danielle Brooks, and Frank Grillo. And I mean, Tim Meadows! The list goes on of all of these incredibly famous, successful, serious actors, and they’re all doing this ridiculous dance, and it’s some of the best moments of my whole life. Getting to do that with those people is really amazing.

Season two of Peacemaker debuts new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max.

The post Jennifer Holland on Playing 2 Harcourts in PEACEMAKER Season 2 appeared first on Nerdist.

Bryan Fuller Wrote DUST BUNNY Role SPECIFICALLY for Mads Mikkelsen

Fannibals rejoice! Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller and star Mads Mikkelsen have re-teamed for Fuller’s charming genre-defying feature film directorial debut Dust Bunny, which had its world premiere last night as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section. Bryan Fuller

Fuller’s Dust Bunny follows a young girl named Aurora (newcomer Sophie Sloan) who hires the mysterious man living across the hall (Mikkelsen) to kill the monster that lives under her bed after it eats her parents. Although the film is a whimsical and macabre fairytale, with shades of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children, and even the John Wick franchise, at the end of his introduction Fuller reminded viewers that sometimes “the monsters are under the same roof as you,” alluding to his rocky relationship with his own father.

Aurora’s parents might “get got” by the big bad bunny under her bed early on in the film, but she finds a surrogate in Mikkelsen, whose character is referred to only as “Resident 5B.” The two form a chosen family while doing normal things, like eating bunny-shaped dim sum, and less normal things like packing up a dead body into panda bear suitcases, adding a tender undercurrent to the film’s more gruesome elements.  

Roadside Attractions

During a conversation with Nerdist the following day, Fuller shared that he wrote the Dust Bunny role specifically for his friend Mikkelsen, sharing that several scenes in the film allow the Danish actor to show his “playful and rambunctious” side, adding that Mikkelsen is the kind of person that when they go bowling steals people’s shoes, “just to get them to chase him down the street.” (Yes, Fuller revealed Mikkelsen had actually done this on an outing.)

Of their collaboration on Dust Bunny, Fuller explained of Mikkelsen:

He’s such a playful, boyish man. This movie, I couldn’t have done with any other actor. He kept stepping up every point of the production in a way that was so touching, and if I talk too much about it, I’ll cry. He just kept having my back in a way that an actor that I hadn’t worked with before wouldn’t be able to do. There’s a fight in the hallway with a guy who has a Wednesday Adams – the Christina Ricci version – style wallpaper outfit. We were frustrated with what we were seeing from the stunt team. Mads has more stunt experience than anybody, and so we choreographed it with my phone and two Bruce Lee action figures in a mock-up of the set. We went through the sequence like boys, doing little boy things as we worked out where we’d put the feet for the feet sequence and the unscrewing of the sconce and those types of details. We did that in an afternoon in the hotel. Then we filmed it with him acting it out with me doing the camera. Then we gave that to the stunt team. He’s been around a while and has this rock star energy about him, but he’s so warm and caring. I loved working with him on Hannibal, but we reached a new level of intimacy and support on this movie that I was surprised and delighted by.

Dust Bunny, which also co-stars Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson, and Sheila Atim, will be in theaters on December 5th. Check back for our full conversation with Fuller about Dust Bunny in December. 

The post Bryan Fuller Wrote DUST BUNNY Role SPECIFICALLY for Mads Mikkelsen appeared first on Nerdist.

EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth Lounge Is Superb, But Is GEO-82’s Onion Martini Really a Disaster?

At some point you reach an age where you stop hiding or apologizing for the things you like no matter how nerdy, niche, or uncool they may seem. When it comes to EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth—the park’s signature attraction often called “the big ball”—I know exactly when I hit that age. I was four. I love Spaceship Earth. Always have, always will. And I am very happy to explain why that giant geodesic sphere and its cheesy tale of hope, awe, and dated animatronics is the best. I love it so much it actually pained me to even type “the big ball” because that’s not its name.

Needless to say, I was just a teensy bit excited when Walt Disney World announced GEO-82, Spaceship Earth’s very own adults-only lounge. It opened earlier this summer. However, my love for the attraction seemingly set me up for disappointment. The first photos and videos from guests looked nice, yet left me a little underwhelmed. Now that I’ve actually visited, I understand why reviews were (and remain) uniformly positive. You can’t fully appreciate GEO-82 without seeing and experiencing it in person.

Pictures can’t fully capture its elegance. Videos can’t accurately convey its atmosphere. It’s a beautiful lounge with a superb, elevated menu of high-end drinks and small plates served with precision by talented staff. And it does so while perfectly captures the spirit and aesthetics of Spaceship Earth. It’s the kind of sophisticated spot adults rarely encounter in a theme park.

If you call this iconic beauty a “big golf ball” we’re natural enemies

GEO-82 completely won this lifelong Spaceship Earth geek over immediately. Even then I still had zero hope for one part of the lounge. Its otherwise outstanding menu contains an item that has proven divisive (at best!) since opening day. Even those who otherwise love GEO-82 have called the $26 Caramelized Leek Martini cocktail “trash” and Walt Disney World’s “worst drink” ever.

…Yeah. Real harsh. Was the unusual, savory onion martini really that bad? I don’t love onion forward foods, but I do love trying weird stuff. So I was torn between desperately not wanting to try it and desperately needing to.

You can guess which side won out. But to find out what I thought of the Caramelized Leek Martini—a cocktail very much made with caramelized leeks—-you have to keep reading.

“A grand and miraculous” lounge

My first time visiting GEO-82 came during Walt Disney World’s Play ‘n’ Preview media event. As part of the presentation, I was among a small group of press members invited to a guided, private experience at the lounge. We arrived in the morning before it opened to guests.

Almost all of us were there for the first time and we all had the exact same reaction. “Now I get it.” GEO-82 looks so much better in person. It has a quiet elegance reflected in every detail. Everything is top notch, from the decor and staff, to the food and drinks, cutlery, menu, architecture, service, and ambience.

The drinks, consisting of both specialty cocktails and high-end spirits, come in custom glasses that celebrate Spaceship Earth’s iconic geodesic design. As does the space’s art, decorations, and walls. Cocktails also come with one of four types of ice. The cube branded with a Spaceship Earth logo in front of you is my favorite. Because of course it is.

GEO-82 combines elegance and geekiness, much like me

The lounge’s small bites are just as good. We got to try a half serving of the Truffled Ahi Tuna, served with Japanese whisky barrel-aged soy-truffle ponzu, citrus, scallion, tobiko, black sesame seeds. It’s light, tasty, refreshing. It’s good, though not quite a standout must-have every visit.

The very pretty Ahi Tuna at GEO-82

The Cannellini Hummus is a standout must-have every time. It’s a white bean hummus with pumpkin seed pistou, radish, preserved lemon, fresno peppers, and pappadam. It was so incredible I was torn between anger and awe while eating. It’s airy, delicious, and flavorful. I genuinely couldn’t believe how good it was and still can’t. It has basically ruined regular hummus for me.

The Cannellini Hummus is so good it makes me mad

The culinary team at GEO-82 said they crafted each dish so it will pare well with any of the signature cocktails. Both small plates I had that morning went well with the drinks they served. That included the bar’s delightful Zero Proof mocktail, A Walk Through the Garden. It’s made with Seedlip Garden 108 non-alcoholic spirit, basil, fennel, lemon, Hella Cocktail Co. Orange Bitters, the bitter truth celery bitters, and bubbles.

I would have drank a bucket’s worth, but GEO-82 is far too classy for that sort of serving size. Which is good. I guess…

The Long Walk is perfect mocktail on a hot day

I was caught off guard by how much I enjoyed the perfectly-balanced Electron. It’s made with Siete Misterios Doba-Yej Mezcal, carrot, cinnamon, lime, Hella Cocktail Co. orange bitters, and pink peppercorn. Mezcal is not my favorite liquor, but I thought the Electron was excellent in part because it’s not too smoky. It’s a really nice, sophisticated drink with great depth of flavor.

Note the geodesic shape of The Electron’s glass

GEO-82’s Brown Butter Old-Fashioned definitely is my type of drink and it did not disappoint. It features Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Bourbon, brown butter, maple, Hella Cocktail Co. Mexican Chocolate Bitters. It’s a slightly sweeter variation of my favorite cocktail and I thought it was excellent. You can absolutely taste the butter, but it’s not overpowering.

I only wish I could have sat there for hours slowly sipping it. As though I have that kind of willpower.

Love when a bar makes a drink specifically for me

In the afternoon I came back as a regular guest after making a reservation on my own. I didn’t get any inside help making that reservation, either. GEO-82 reservations are hard to get, but if you pay attention on the Walt Disney World app, spots can open up during the day thanks to cancellations. Even though it’s always booked out weeks in advance, I also kept seeing openings become available the week before I arrived. Obviously the busier the parks they harder those are to nab.

The gorgeous bar at GEO-82, EPCOT's elegant new Spaceship Earth adults-only lounge

— Michael Walsh, Verified #1 Criston Cole Hater (@burgermike.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T14:26:23.017Z

I had asked the head chef earlier what food I should try when I returned and he said as a Maryland native he was partial to his Jumbo Lump Crab Gteau. It comes with smoked cheddar, pickled mustard seed-lemon vinaigrette, and Supreme Caviar. I wanted 700 of them. Forget Walt Disney World foods. GEO-82’s Jumbo Lump Crab Gteau is one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life period.

I haven’t stopped thinking or talking about it since I finished my last bite. It’s incredible, light, satisfying, and bursting with deep flavor.

“They should have sent a poet…”

In the morning I’d also heard guests love the Brûlée Banana Highball and wanted to see why. Featuring Toki Suntory Whisky, Lustau ‘Don Nuño’ Oloroso Sherry, banana, coffee, cacao, and bubbles, it’s a nice, sweet, very banana-y cocktail. It’s also a one-and-done for me. It was thin and drinkable, but sweeter than I want from a cocktail. I like my cocktails to bring the alcohol to the forefront. But I can definitely see why others enjoy it.

A little too sweet for me

Finally, after two wonderful trips full of opulence, elegance, first-rate service, and deliciousness, it was time. It was time.

I wasn’t even sure I was going to do it until the words, “Okay, let’s do it,” came out of my mouth. That only happened because my very friendly, very knowledgable bartender had finally convinced me. Just not in the way he meant.

He was the third employee at GEO-82 to tell me the same story about the Caramelized Leek Martini. I’d already discussed it with the manager on duty and with Stephanie Dold, Beverage Director at The Walt Disney Company. All three said the first time they drank the Caramalized Leek Martini they didn’t really love it, but that it grew on them. I didn’t think any of them were lying. I just wasn’t sure I totally believed them. The way they’d each said it made me think that they had come to tolerate the drink more than they’d come to like it. That’s not exactly an endorsement.

The view from EPCOT's new Spaceship Earth lounge, GEO-82.

— Michael Walsh, Verified #1 Criston Cole Hater (@burgermike.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T14:27:19.276Z

So what gave me that last nudge? My bartender said it tasted like French Onion Soup, the only onion-forward dish I do love. That got me to order the Caramalized Leek Martini, made with Fords Gin, Dolin Dry Vermouth de Chambéry, caramelized leek, and pickled onion.

Forget not being excited. I was prepared to have a truly awful culinary experience.

Then it arrived and it looked…..awesome. It’s a gorgeous drink in a gorgeous glass. You’d take a sip without even knowing what it is. (You’d also assume the tiny onion was simply a grape, so, you know, books and covers an whatnot.)

GEO-82’s instantly infamous Caramelized Leek Martini in all its onion-flavored glory

I was so positive I wouldn’t like this drink I didn’t record myself trying it. I wish I had because it’s….it’s good. Yeah, I know. I know. I’m still stunned.

The first sip was definitely weird and unexpected despite three different people telling me exactly what to expect. But even without those warnings, there’s no way I would have considered it “trash” or gross. It’s just unusual. It really does taste like a rich French onion soup made with gin. They key is that it has almost no viscosity. It’s one of the thinnest cocktails I have ever tried. If it had any thickness at all it would be like drinking gin onion soup and no one wants that. Instead it was like drinking onion-infused gin with a hint of sweetness that cuts through into the savory flavor profile.

I can’t say it’s my favorite cocktail ever, but I absolutely enjoyed it. The more I drank it the more I liked it, too. I would also absolutely get it again. It’s different and good. The more accustomed I got to its unlikely combination of flavors the easier it got to appreciate it. It’s definitely not for everyone, and no matter how many times some people try it that will never change. A savory cocktail, regardless of how elevated it might be, is not going to appeal to everyone anymore than a super sweet one does. (Though you might like the aroma if you’re ever there when they caramelize the leeks. The bar’s manager Chris told me you always know the second you walk in when it’s onion day because it smells amazing.)

Even the cutlery at GEO-82 has style

Just listen to this one warning: do not bite the onion. I was told biting the onion and taking a sip creates a a very different experience. That is 100% true in the way that jumping into lava is a very different experience than jumping into water. :understatement like you have never seen before: I did not enjoy that. I’m still working on a new word to describe how much I did not enjoy it. Check back in a few years/decades. But once that pickled onion taste washed away I went back to enjoying the martini.

Was my first experience helped by the fact I tried it with both negative expectations and the detailed, informed expertise of staff who prepared me for its unlikely flavors? Of course. But neither of those could have made me like something I didn’t.

Even if I didn’t like it I’d be shocked by how divisive and controversial the onion martini has proven. I totally understand why some people don’t like it. It’s not like it was designed for “everyone.” But pure hatred seems extreme. There’s a big difference between, “Nope, this definitely isn’t for me,” and essentially yelling, “Abomination!” I don’t think there’s anything abominable about this. …Unless you bite the onion.

I love GEO-82. It’s gorgeous, elegant, and the overall experience justifies its prices. It might be expensive, but it doesn’t shortchange you in anyway from the moment you enter to the moment you leave. But while I’m not surprised a lounge inspired by EPCOT’s iconic attraction won me over, I am surprised I sincerely enjoyed the Caramelized Leek Martini.

Just like Spaceship Earth, I don’t care who knows that.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He’s thinking about GEO’82’s crab cake right now. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth Lounge Is Superb, But Is GEO-82’s Onion Martini Really a Disaster? appeared first on Nerdist.

There’s One DC Hero Alan Ritchson Refuses to Play

One of the most fun aspects of a new cinematic universe is the prospect of what actors will play which iconic hero or villain. The DCU already has a great deal of characters with only a couple of productions, but fans won’t be satisfied until they have the entire Justice League (et al). We recently told you that Alan Ritchson, for many the fan-fave to play Batman, would not indeed play the Dark Knight. He was, however, very open to playing other DC characters. Like whom? Well the Reacher star is ruling out another member of the JLA. He refuses to play Aquaman.Lionsgate

Now, before you all lose your cool, he doesn’t have a problem with Aquaman. Ritchson is not saying he won’t play Arthur Curry because fish are slimy and gross. He just doesn’t want to step on Jason Momoa’s toes.

Speaking to Liamlovesmovies (which we saw via ComicBook.com), Ritchson explained he’d never “take that” from Jason Momoa. He has too much respect for him, he says. Now, I’m not sure Ritchson is aware that Momoa practically begged to play Lobo in the new DCU, thus vacating his Aquaman role specifically, but there we go.

Alan Ritchson talks about joining James Gunn's DCU

(Via Liamlovesmovies) pic.twitter.com/vvQPdOzh0r

— DCU PRIME TV (@DCUPRIMETV) September 7, 2025

Luckily for Ritchson and for us, the DC universe has roughly 19 billion more towering beef castles for him to play. Seriously, look at the size of that guy. Huge.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post There’s One DC Hero Alan Ritchson Refuses to Play appeared first on Nerdist.

Watch: Capcom’s Full PAX West 2025 Panel

Another PAX West has come and gone. But if you were stuck at home this year, don’t worry. Much of the excitement is available for you to watch on streaming. Included in that is PAX West’s Capcom panel, which was widely seen as one of the event’s best by this year’s attendees. Capcom took the stage for OVER an hour, an impressively long time. And during their PAX West event, the popular video game company shared news and updates about Resident Evil, Pragmata, Onimusha, and Monster Hunter. If these titles are on your radar (as they should be), check out the full PAX West Capcom panel below.

If you’re looking to hear about a specific one of these titles, you can click on the time stamp links here: 10:57 for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection; 15:13 for Onimusha: Way of the Sword; 30:05 for Resident Evil: Requiem; and 39:06 for Pragmata.

Capcom

We have to say that we at Nerdist are especially interested to hear more about Pragmata. As with many other mediums of fiction, seeing a big company like Capcom take a swing at an original IP is always exciting. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t eagerly anticipating Resident Evil: Requiem. (And even more so after this preview.) The return of Onimusha also speaks to us because who doesn’t love a well-made samurai game? The combat and graphics shown at Capcom’s PAX West panel have us raring to play.

RELATED ARTICLE

STREET FIGHTER Live-Action Movie Sets Release Date & Confirms Cast of Legendary and Capcom Film

Overall, everything that Capcom showed us about these four games at PAX West looks, in a word, excellent. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Resident Evil: Requiem, and Pragmata are all coming our way in 2026. So far, only Resident Evil: Requiem has an official release date: February 27, 2026. Regardless of when exactly these games emerge, though, Capcom’s PAX West panel makes us feel like next year is going to be one good year of gaming.

The post Watch: Capcom’s Full PAX West 2025 Panel appeared first on Nerdist.

Russos Share Cryptic AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY Image to Make Us Go Nuts

Do you know Marvel Studios is bringing back the Russo brothers and Robert Downey Jr. for their next Avengers movie, Doomsday? Of course you do. Of. Course. You. Do. The MCU’s next big crossover event is doing everything it can to return the franchise to the heights it reached when the Russos directed the series’ last two epics, Infinity War and Endgame. With that kind of built-in hype Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t need to waste time with silly little games and cryptic teases. And yet that’s exactly what Joe and Anthony Russo have given us today with a blurry image from the film. It reveals nothing on its own. It will only reveal just how wild fans will get over literally anything connected to Doctor Doom’s arrival. You can check out the Russos’ cryptic Avengers: Doomsday tease of an image below.

That’s it. That’s what the Russos shared with the note “#DoomsdayIsComing.”

What can it mean? The most obvious possibility (to us) is the theory fans immediately latched onto as well. This Avengers: Doomsday image tease looks like it’s Reed Richards’ chalkboard, which appeared in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In the film, he not only worked out complicated math equations on his board, but he also addressed matters of the multiverse. That’s exactly where Doomsday will take place. Doctor Doom will pit parallel worlds against one another.

Okay, if that’s what this Avengers: Doomsday image is…..so what? It doesn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know. The Fantastic Four’s universe is going to be a big part of Doomsday. We saw Doom in that dimension in the film’s end-credits scene when he came to find the powerful Franklin Richards.

Marvel Studios

But what if it’s something entirely else? Again… so what? This very well might, intentionally, be totally indecipherable. In that case, it reveals nothing. Even if we eventually find out this is actually a chalkboard belonging to Eric Selvig, it doesn’t matter.

And that’s the point. The Russos know this Avengers: Doomsday image is almost entirely pointless. Its release is simply meant to provoke fans into speculating about it. Since no one outside the movie can possibly know what it means, they have no choice but to keep thinking about it until someone tells them.

Don’t. Don’t do that. If you care about this photo, you didn’t need this photo. You were already plenty hyped for Avengers: Doomsday.

The post Russos Share Cryptic AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY Image to Make Us Go Nuts appeared first on Nerdist.

The ROCKY HORROR Cast Looks Back on 50 Years of Glitz ‘n Glam

This month, the ultimate cult movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, turns 50. But it’s not just fifty years old, it’s been running consecutively in theaters for all of five of those decades. Minus that blip of time we call the pandemic. But even then, hardcore fans found a way to show the movie. Even for an audience of one. This musical sci-fi horror parody that celebrates horniness in its many permutations continues to defy the odds. It recently got a 50th anniversary profile on CBS Sunday Morning featuring many of the original cast members and creators, which you can watch down below:

Rocky Horror began its life as a hit off-Broadway musical. The play lovingly parodied science fiction and horror movies of the ’50s, while celebrating early Rock ‘n Roll, sexual freedom, and open queerness. But what works as a musical show playing in big cities isn’t necessarily a surefire hit everywhere else. When Twentieth Century Fox released the film on September 26, 1975, they had no idea how to market it. In 1975, how do you sell a movie about a mad scientist named Dr. Frank N. Furter from the planet Transexual to middle America? The answer is they didn’t, and the movie flopped. But it quickly found new life as a midnight movie. It drew crowds of outcasts, goths, and party kids at midnight screenings worldwide.

Twentieth Century Studios

In the clip from CBS Sunday Morning, we see original cast members like Susan Sarandon (you might have heard of her), Barry Bostwick, and Tim Curry reminisce about five decades of this iconic film. Curry, who suffers from partial paralysis, gave a rare interview about the impact his free-spirited character has had on several generations. These days, almost all nonconforming forms of sexual identities are under attack. So the escapism and fun of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is perhaps more relevant than ever. May we all keep doing the “Time Warp” for another fifty years.

Twentieth Century Studios

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is still playing Saturday nights at midnight across the country. It arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc on October 7.

The post The ROCKY HORROR Cast Looks Back on 50 Years of Glitz ‘n Glam appeared first on Nerdist.

Head of Universal Regrets Sending FAST & FURIOUS Into Space

When any franchise runs long enough, it will hit a big wall of stupid. Not a single franchise is immune to this. Today we refer to this as “jumping the shark,” a reference to the moment on ’70s sitcom Happy Days when the Fonz jumped over a shark on waterskis. In 2021, the Fast and the Furious franchise gave us the modern equivalent. For the ninth movie, F9: The Fast Saga, they actually sent Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris into space. In a car. It was a moment so dumb, it broke the franchise for many. And via Variety, we’ve learned that head of Universal Pictures Donna Langley regrets that creative decision. Here’s what she told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival:

I’m sorry that we sent them into space. We can never get that genie back.

Universal Pictures

On the franchise overall, Langley later added, “We knew that we had to figure out how to grow it. We made a conscious decision to pivot to a sort of globe-trotting heist scenario.” Obviously, that was a smart move. When the franchise did that, and pivoted from simple car racing movies, its box office blew up across the globe. Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious each made over a billion globally, representing the peak of the franchise.

As the antics in the films starring Vin Diesel got wilder and wilder, fans online started to make jokes about the characters eventually going into space. Maybe Universal thought that’s where fans actually wanted things to go, instead of the opposite. But it’s a hard thing to walk back once you do it. The box office for each subsequent film in the series has been going down with the more recent installments. Although they still make a metric ton of money. Can the upcoming Fast XII get the franchise mojo back for one more race? We’ll have to wait and see. The eleventh film in the franchise is set to come out in 2026.

The post Head of Universal Regrets Sending FAST & FURIOUS Into Space appeared first on Nerdist.

LUCAS WARS Retells the Making of STAR WARS As a Graphic Novel

No single movie changed Hollywood more than Star Wars: A New Hope. Or, as we simply knew it back in 1977, just Star Wars. Sure, an argument can be made that Jaws deserves that honor, or even Gone with the Wind. But given the number of sequels, merchandise, and sheer inspiration to other films Star Wars spawned, the edge goes to George Lucas’ sci-fi classic. Nearly fifty years later, the making of the movie has become mythologized. Now, via The Hollywood Reporter, we’ve learned that a recent retelling of the making of the saga, the French graphic novel Lucas Wars, by Laurent Hopman and artist Renaud Roche, is getting an English translation this fall. You can check out several pages of the English version below:

Click To View Gallery Macmillan Publishing Group/ Renaud Roche Renaud Roche/Macmillan Publishing Group Macmillan Publishing Group/Renaud Roche Renaud Roche/Macmillan Publishing Group Macmillan Publishing Group/ Renaud Roche Renaud Roche/Macmillan Publishing Group Macmillan Publishing Group/ Renaud Roche Renaud Roche/Macmillan Publishing Group Macmillan Publishing Group/ Renaud Roche Renaud Roche/MacMillan Publishing Group

On Sept. 16, Macmillan imprint 23rd Street Books is releasing the English version of Lucas Wars in America. The French version of this graphic novel originally came out back in 2023. This 508-page graphic novel tells the story in full detail of how George Lucas survived a near-death experience as a teenager, only to become immersed in books about mythology and a love of film. From a multitude of various influences, one of the most celebrated stories of all time sprang forth. How accurate to real history is this graphic novel? Here’s what its author, Laurent Hopman, had to say about his graphic novel’s historical accuracy:

I didn’t want to take any kind of literary license. As a viewer, I find it extremely frustrating when a biopic plays fast and loose with history. Whether it’s a movie like the Freddie Mercury biopic or a series like The Offer about the making of The Godfather, I walk away disappointed when I realize facts were sacrificed just to crank up the drama. I understand why it’s done, obviously, but I truly believe there’s a way to respect reality while still crafting a script that’s gripping and intense. So I took the bare minimum of liberties. Every time a reader asks themselves, “Did this really happen?” the answer is yes.

Macmillan Publishing Group/Lucasfilm

The original Star Wars is like a game of Jenga. You take one vital piece out, and it all falls apart. What is Star Wars without the innovation of ILM, the production design of Ralph McQuarrie, the perfect cast, the music of John Williams? Telling the story of how it all came to be, and nearly didn’t, should make for a fascinating read. And possibly, an eventual film or streaming series of its own. Someone has to be thinking of a potential adaptation already, right?

The post LUCAS WARS Retells the Making of STAR WARS As a Graphic Novel appeared first on Nerdist.

Ryan Reynolds Finally Admits to Leaking Original DEADPOOL Footage

It has fallen into the realm of movie legend. 20th Century Fox was hesitant to greenlight an R-rated, more comic-accurate Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds given how poorly X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned out. In order to illustrate the tone and level of violence the makers were after, director Tim Miller produced a short bit of CG test footage for what would eventually be the iconic overpass/car fight. Reynolds provided the voice. That footage ended up online and became a fan-favorite. That excitement ultimately led to Fox greenlighting the movie. But what nobody knew is who was responsible for leaking the test footage. Now we know; it was Reynolds himself.

At the Toronto International Film Festival, Reynolds finally copped to leaking the Deadpool footage to get fans hyped, thus proving the idea had legs. From EW: “Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in,” Reynolds said in a conversation with moderator Anita Lee. “And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.”

“Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth,” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law! But the internet forced the studio to say, We’re gonna make this movie. And 24 hours later, that movie had a green light.”

20th Century Studios

The eventual 2016 movie, with a budget of a relatively small $58 million, made over $780 million worldwide. That’s a pretty darn good return on investment for anybody. Deadpool as played by Reynolds became one of the most popular of the cinematic superheroes and remains so. Deadpool 2 in 2018 made just over $785 million, though it had a $110 budget. But the real big winner was last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine which cost $200 million but raked in $1.338 billion. Who thought R-rated superhero movies wouldn’t work?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post Ryan Reynolds Finally Admits to Leaking Original DEADPOOL Footage appeared first on Nerdist.