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Peter Capaldi Reveals How He Learned the Next Doctor Would Be a Woman

You’d think an all-knowing Time Lord would be pretty in the loop when it comes to all things Doctor Who. But as it turns out, due to the intense secrecy behind the BBC series, not even Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi knew the big news about who his successor would be. Via io9, Capaldi talked about finding out that the Thirteenth Doctor would be Jodie Whittaker, the first ever female actor to take on the character.

Capaldi stumbled upon the reveal while appearing at his New York Comic Con spotlight panel. Apparently, a visit to his tailor at Paul Smiths in London was enough to spill the closely guarded secret. “Everybody knows me in there,” he said. “And they said, ‘We just got a call…from the Doctor Who office saying, ‘Can we have a pair of [Peter’s] trousers, but with a waist size thirty?’”

After hearing that, Capaldi said he knew it: “That can’t really be a man with a thirty-inch waist. That must be a lady then!”

Capaldi went on to say that Whittaker moved to Cardiff in a place that was very close to his, but she was initially forced to avoid him because it would have meant revealing that she was his successor. Capaldi was officially informed about the news a few days before it was announced, and he learned about Whittaker’s new place when he called her.

Assuming that Doctor Who is still going strong five years from now, which is a very safe assumption, we may actually see Capaldi and Whittaker onscreen together as the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors for the Doctor Who 60th anniversary special. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait that long to see Whittaker in action, as the 11th season of Doctor Who will arrive on BBC and BBC America in 2018.

What did you think about Capaldi’s trousers story? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: BBC

Breaking Down Harrison Ford Actually Laughing

Headline: Grumpy Old Man Caught on Tape Laughing! Not that big of a story you say? It is when that grumpy old man is world famous curmudgeon Harrison Ford. That’s why on today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we tried to make sense of his unprecedented display of joy, along with discussing the latest on Stranger Things and Thor: Ragnarok.

Host Jessica Chobot was joined today by managing editor Alicia Lutes, producer Jason Nguyen, and Director of Development Brendon Shulze, to help make sense of this strange new world where Harrison Ford laughs and smiles like a normal person. They broke down the hilarious interview where the unthinkable happened (not just the laughing, but the part where Harrison Ford was actually engaged in a conversation), and asked Brendon how we can get interviewer Alison Hammond her own show her at Nerdist and Alpha. (Miss Hammond! Call us!)

From there things got Upside Down, as they went over the latest clip from Stranger Things season 2, featuring our first real look at new character Max. What do we think of the clips’ tone? And do we see anything wrong with Netflix raising its prices right before the new season drops this year, especially when we might also get a chance to spend some money on Stranger Things on Blu-ray?

EXCLUSIVE: new season two clip from the Stranger Things Game. pic.twitter.com/9rdk2B0FZ1

— stranger things (@bestofsthings) October 4, 2017

Finally, there’s more new footage from Thor: Ragnarok, which includes a different look at that already famous “hammer scene.” What does it mean? Is this a case of misdirection? And are we actually getting a little overwhelmed from all of the promotional material?

Remember Nerdist News Talks Back airs live every weekday at 1:00 p.m. PST on our YouTube and Alpha channels. Tune in with us so you can share your thoughts with us on the biggest pop culture topics of the day. If you don’t you might miss out on something unique, like today.

Because it’s not often we get to bask in the glow of a smiling Harrison Ford. In fact, today was the first time. What a strange new world we live in!

We still want to hear your thoughts on today’s topics though, so share yours in the comments below.

Featured Image: New Line

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First HAPPY! Trailer Introduces Us to Our New Best (Imaginary) Friend

If you’ve ever read Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson’s comic book series, Happy!, then you probably know why it isn’t the easiest story to adapt for television. It’s a dark and brutal tale before the introduction of an animated blue horse takes the insanity to a brand new level. This December, Syfy is not only bringing Happy! to TV, it’s actually going far beyond than the comic. And it all starts in the back of an ambulance, when Christopher Meloni‘s Nick Sax comes face-to-face with Happy, an overly positive imaginary friend voiced by Patton Oswalt.

The first meeting between Nick and Happy is almost verbatim from the comic, which shouldn’t be too surprising since Morrison co-wrote the pilot episode with Brian Taylor. But they’ve added some other graphic touches, including Nick’s fantasy about shooting himself, and the scene where the mob threatens to remove a piece of his anatomy slice by slice.

In the backstory of the comic, Nick is a former cop turned hitman who finds himself on the run from the mob. After nearly dying in a botched hit, Nick encounters Happy, who has his own agenda. This appears to be intact for the show, as Happy claims to be the imaginary friend of a girl named Haley, who desperately needs Nick’s help. In the comic, there’s a very specific reason why Nick is the only person who can see Happy. Morrison and Taylor are also going to have to change the outcome of the story to keep this show going for additional seasons. But we think that it will be worth the ride.

Happy! will premiere on December 6, only on Syfy.

What did you think about the new trailer for this show? Share some imaginary responses in the comment section below!

Images: Syfy

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New STRANGER THINGS Scene Introduces Max to Season 2

Earlier this week, Stranger Things received its first-ever video game for mobile devices, and it was a fun callback to the 8-bit era of gaming. But fans who managed to play through the entire game discovered a surprise waiting for them: an advance clip from the upcoming second season. In this video, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will discover that the Ghostbusters aren’t quite as well known in 1984 as they are today. The kids also come face-to-face with Max, one of the new characters coming this season.

We spotted this video thanks to io9, and, judging by the way that Max (Sadie Sink) reacts to the boys once she takes off her Michael Myers mask, it seems pretty clear she’s met them before. Last month, a few script pages from the season premiere revealed how Max ended up on the kids’ collective radar. The short version is that she beat Dustin’s Dig Dug score, and they simply assumed that she was also a boy.

Although Max is somewhat antagonistic in the clip, we suspect she’ll find some common ground with the boys pretty quickly. Considering the season premiere is called “Madmax,” it seems likely that she’ll have a big role in that episode and throughout the season. One character we haven’t met yet is Max’s stepbrother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery), who is apparently a bit of a psycho in the mold of Henry Bowers from It. But where Max goes, Billy is probably not far behind.

What did you think about the new Stranger Things preview? And where do you stand on Three Musketeers? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

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Images: Netflix

Watch Larry David and Bernie Sanders Find Out They’re Related (Seriously)

For Larry David fans, what could possibly be better than the recent return of Curb Your Enthusiasm to HBO after a five-year hiatus? How about finding out that L.D. is  genetically related to his real-life doppelgänger, and Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders? Really, they’re cousins. No, really. Oh, you don’t believe us? Here’s proof!

The bombshell news, which comes via Digg, was dropped during the season four premiere of the PBS television series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. The show has become popular for linking celebrities to each other and other unexpected historical figures through mitochondrial, Y-chromosome, and autosomal DNA, This time the link was especially profound as David and Sanders have already been inexorably linked by a strong physical likeness, mutual mannerisms, and, of course, David’s impression of Sanders on Saturday Night Live.

In the above clip from the episode, we watch as Louis Gates Jr. unveils the news to both of the bald, bespectacled, slightly hunched men who, expectedly, have more or less the same reaction. “What the Hell?!” David exclaims after finding out that he’s related to Sanders rather than “a good athlete” as he originally hoped. “He does a better Bernie Sanders than I do,” Sanders notes.

Speaking of that incredible Bernie Sanders impression, if you haven’t seen “Bern Your Enthusiasm” on SNL, do yourself a favor and watch the clip of it below. It’s prettay prettay prettay amazing how well David’s persona fits Sanders’.

And here’s David and Sanders appearing in another SNL skit side by side. You may have to squint to tell the cousins apart.

What do you think about the fact that Larry David and Bernie Sanders are now confirmed to be related by blood? Would you vote for a Sanders-David ticket? Give us your thoughts in the comments below, why not? You’re not too good for the comments section!

Images: YouTube / Saturday Night Live

Is There a Secret RICK AND MORTY Season Finale Around the Corner?

Last Sunday’s purported Rick and Morty finale was a pretty hilarious episode, but as far as a season-ender goes, it came up a little bit short. We were hoping for a more definitive ending to this year’s storylines—after all, recent developments on the show had us expecting a different President to come after the show’s titular duo. And to be perfectly frank, we don’t really consider the issue of Beth’s true nature to be settled at all, either. But what if the show’s creators have trolled us yet again? Today’s Nerdist News is investigating the theory that a true third season finale may be our early Christmas gift!

Join host, and the only woman brave enough to challenge the Citadel of Ricks, Jessica Chobot, as she walks us through an intriguing hypothesis about the show’s potential finale. Apparently, many fans believe that Mister Poopybutthole’s comments in the end credits scene were overt hints that at least one more episode is coming. He mentioned having a long white beard the next time we see him, which naturally has fans assuming that he means Santa Claus. That led to the notion that the real season finale will be a Christmas episode.

Now, we love that idea. And it would fit in Adult Swim’s wheelhouse to suddenly drop a new episode of Rick and Morty without warning. That April Fool’s Day stunt is still one of our favorites. But the reality is that fans may be reading too much into the throwaway comments of a minor character. Mister Poopybutthole also said that he might have grandchildren to go along with his long white beard, so the Santa Claus analogy doesn’t really hold up.

On top of everything else, series co-creator Dan Harmon has admitted that the episode we saw last Sunday wasn’t originally intended to be the season finale. Harmon and the rest of the team just realized that they couldn’t reach their target of 14 new episodes and settled for “finale-izing” Rick’s battle with the President. The team behind the show are probably working on new episodes as we speak, since it is one of Adult Swim’s biggest hits. But we would be very pleasantly surprised if the rumor of a secret season finale turned out to be true. We’re not expecting it to pan out, but we’d love to be wrong!

What do you think about about the secret Rick and Morty season finale theory? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

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Images: Adult Swim

New BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Comic Unites the Original Series and the Reboot

“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.” That quote from the 2003 Battlestar Galactica reboot series seemed like a meta reference to the original series from 1978. And there were other callbacks to the past over the course of the show, including the classic model Cylons, the main theme from the original series, and even Richard Hatch‘s return to the franchise as Tom Zarek. But now, the Battlestar Galactica comics will unite both series as the respective crews come into conflict with each other.

Dynamite has announced a new miniseries entitled BSG vs. BSG, which will be written by Peter David with an art team to be announced later. At this point, we only know a few details about the story, and they involve the creation of the Cylons. Humanity built the instruments of their destruction in the reboot series. However, the Cylons of the original series were created by a reptilian race. Kali, the last surviving member of that race, will play a major role in this crossover. However, it’s still unclear how the two timelines will intersect.

We have so many questions about this one. Will the original series Cylons also meet their counterparts? Will Baltar meet his even more over-the-top predecessor? Will the Starbucks buy each other a drink? And can somebody fraking explain why Tom Zarek looks just like an older Apollo from the previous timeline? Aside from the obvious real world explanation, of course.

Dynamite hasn’t announced when BSG vs. BSG #1 will be released, but a 2018 debut seems likely. Perhaps we will learn more at New York Comic Con later this week.

Are you excited to see the two Galactica crews face off against each other? Leave a comment below, so say we all!

Images: Dynamite Entertainment 

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R-Rated SPAWN Reboot Starts Production in Early 2018

Ever since the original Spawn movie came out in 1997 and underwhelmed everyone, creator Todd McFarlane has been talking up a new movie incarnation of his demonic superhero. So much so that after awhile, no one really believed there would ever be another Spawn movie again, and that it was all talk. But it finally seems that a proper reboot of Spawn is coming to theaters for real this time, and McFarlane himself will even be behind the director’s chair for this R-rated version of the iconic Image Comics flagship character.

While speaking at New York Comic Con (via Deadline), McFarlane said that Spawn will go into pre-production after the holiday season, with February the target for start of actual production. When talking about how dark it was going to be, McFarlane said “dark and R-rated,” emphasizing that he doesn’t mean “R-rated like Deadpool with a couple F-bombs and a couple bare asses.” He even made some metaphorical allusions to Jaws when taking about the Spawn reboot, saying “I will have a shark in black water, and if you’re swimming he will come and you’ll be gone and he will f*ck you up.”

McFarlane is producing this film with Blumhouse Productions, the low budget horror production company that has turned huge profits off micro-budgeted films like  Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, and most recently, the hits Split and Get Out.  In the vein of those films, Spawn will also have a relatively minor budget – just $10 million dollars. McFarlane also promised that he would be posting daily Facebook updates during filming, a smart move in an age where social media drives everything.

Some fans have been somewhat nervous about McFarlane directing a feature film, having never done so before, and brought this up to the creator at NYCC. His response to that concern? “I didn’t use to draw comic books and I drew comic books and I won awards. I don’t know how to read music and I have a Grammy Award.” Here’s hoping that all of McFarlane’s confidence in this film pays off for him and for the fans with a decent movie that is worth the wait.

Are you excited about the prospect of Todd McFarlane helming the big screen return of his most famous creation? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Todd McFarlane /Image Comics

WONDER WOMAN and The Amazons Stand Proud in Gorgeous New Print

Wonder Woman was the biggest movie of the summer, and in many ways, it was more than a movie, it was a cultural event — especially for women and young girls. After years and years of female superheroes being totally absent from headlining their own movies, the original female superhero burst in and saved the day with a fantastic film from director Patty Jenkins.

And ever since the movie was released on home video, some of us who have been waiting our whole lives to see this movie might have played this movie to death already on our Blu-ray players. But now there’s a new way to show off your love for all things Wonder Woman, with this amazing new poster.

Earlier this year, the folks at Bottleneck Gallery created a  poster celebrating one of Wonder Woman’s key battle scene moments from the film, and now they are releasing yet another new print celebrating the movie, this time from artist Martin Ansin.

Ansin has created a Wonder Woman print featuring Gal Gadot and the other Amazons of Themyscira, including her mother Hippolyta, her aunt, Antiope, and in my favorite part of the poster, the little child version of Diana is even included. This poster is a timed edition that will be available from Wednesday, October 4 until Sunday, October 8. You can check out the new print above.

This stunning print measure 24×36 inches. The poster is a screen print with metallic inks, and is an open edition that will be determined by how many are sold on the website. This one goes for $50, and is currently on sale at the Bottleneck Gallery site  We can’t think of a better way to show off your love for Princess Diana and the Amazons.

Are you going to display this poster proudly and show off your admiration for all things Wonder Woman? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Bottleneck Gallery / Warner Brothers

DOCTOR WHO Christmas Special Heading to Cinemas

We’ve been reeling from a lot of Doctor Who-related things since the finale of Series 10 back in July. From dealing with with the idea of having to say goodbye to Peter Capaldi, to saying “Oh, Bill Potts, we hardly knew ye,” to wrapping our head around a Christmas special which will contain not only the Twelfth Doctor, but also the First Doctor (played by the inimitable David Bradley), AND our first glimpse of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s kind of a lot. Well now we’re going to get to take it all in on a massive screen, when the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special comes to cinemas.

Yet another in the line of cinema screenings brought to us by the BBC and Fathom Events, the screening of “Twice Upon a Time” will be a holiday treat for all, screening on December 27 at 7:00 pm local time. As usual for these things, it’s not merely the episode itself, but also some special featurettes and interviews to give you a full night out. This one will have a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the special, and a retrospective of both Peter Capaldi’s reign and that of showrunner Steven Moffat, who’s been the lead writer and executive producer since 2010!

As if having two Doctors (really three) wasn’t enough, the episode will have guest appearances by two longtime Doctor Who writers, Mark Gatiss–playing a central role–and Toby Whithouse (the creator of Being Human among other things). Oh, and did we mention Pearl Mackie will also return to say goodbye officially? I wouldn’t be surprised if other favorites showed up too at this rate. I mean, giddy-aunts, it’s gonna be a packed special, and perfect for the snowy season (if you live in that climate).

Tickets for Doctor Who: “Twice Upon a Time” will go on sale on October 20, and can be purchased at this link. Don’t worry, you can sign up for an email reminder as well. Because let’s face it. You’re going to want to share this with as many folks as possible, and big ol’ movie theater seems the perfect place.

Images: BBC

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor and the resident Whovian for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!

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