Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 390
January 16, 2024
YELLOWJACKETS Season 3 Sets 2025 Release Window, Juliette Lewis Open to Return
Yellowjackets season two left us at the edge of our seats. Natalie, of course, took center stage, making a splash in both timelines. In the wilderness era, Natalie seemingly took on the role of the Antler Queen, while in the future/adult timeline, she met her death. There was also a ramp of cannibalism, and a huge fire sprung up, destroying the team’s only shelter the snow. Phew! But it looks like it will be a while before we return to the wilderness. Yellowjackets season three has shared its release window, and the show won’t resurface until 2025. However, to tide us over, we also received a glut of comments about the upcoming season from the cast. And that includes Juliette Lewis leaving the door open for more from adult Nat in Yellowjackets season three and beyond.

According to Deadline, Yellowjackets season three will not release until 2025. The publication reveals, “Following the writers and actors strikes that delayed production for most scripted series, the writers room for the Showtime psychological thriller reopened in September. Pre-production for the series was shut down just one day after the WGA strike began last May.”
Although work on Yellowjackets quickly resumed, Deadline notes, “The third season of Yellowjackets will not be premiering until 2025.” No further specifics on the release are currently available.
Yellowjackets‘ Bonus Season Two EpisodeIn June of 2023, Yellowjackets‘ showrunner Ashely Lyle teased a bonus, secret episode that would take place between seasons two and three. At the time, Lyle indicated the episode would release closer to season three. Of course, that was before the height of the Hollywood strikes truly hit. Since this tease, we haven’t heard anything more about the release date of the secret episode. But we’ll certainly have our ears open.
Juliette Lewis on Returning as Adult Nat in Yellowjackets
Although we’ll have to wait a little longer for more Yellowjackets, comments from the cast and crew will hopefully sate our hunger until the series can return to our screens. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Juliette Lewis, who plays the now-dead Natalie, kept the door open for more from the chaotic character in adult form. The publication notes that “Lewis seemed open to the idea of her character returning in a flashback or some other way.” The actress further shared, “I don’t know anything, but I think that’s a good idea. We’ll see what happens.”
Yellowjackets is a show where the surreal happens every day, after all. If a man with no eyes can be running around causing trouble and Shauna can give a makeover to her frozen friend in ghostly form, then Natalie could certainly pop up in some form or another.
The Rest of the Cast Tease Yellowjackets Season ThreeBut Lewis wasn’t the only cast member to recently tease the future of Yellowjackets. Here’s what we gleaned from other cast members about the series’ future.
Samantha Hanratty Talks Misty’s Relationships
First up, Samantha Hanratty, who plays teen Misty, spoke to Entertainment Tonight and The Hollywood Reporter about Yellowjackets season three. She offered about Adult Natalie’s death, “Juliette Lewis is such a fantastic actress that [it] really breaks my heart. They’re such a big part of the show. I think that with that grief, it’s gonna bring out a lot of interesting levels of the other characters and I’m really excited to see that. Sophie Thatcher (teen Natalie) is gonna keep Natalie’s legacy living.”
And then, turning to the wilderness timeline, Hanratty shrewdly notes, “The first year is this chaotic mess. The second year was almost this creepy stillness of winter. And now, it’s like the defrosting; the meltdown… We might be entering into another season, I’m thinking possibly spring. The snow will melt and our messes will show. That’s what I’m thinking.” It is important to note that Hanratty has not yet seen a season three script, but her speculation is likely as informed as possible.

Additionally, Hanratty hopes that Misty will find some sort of closure after killing her friend Crystal in the woods. And she’s excited to see where the fascinating character’s relationship with Coach Ben will go should he have been the one to burn down the team’s cabin. She notes, “Finding out that he did that [possibly burning down the cabin] after she saved him, I feel like she has something in store for him. It would be fun to see that.” We hope Coach Ben is ready.
Steven Krueger Envisions Blood on the HorizonSpeaking of Coach Ben, the actor who plays the sole adult in the wilderness, Steven Krueger, believes there’s lots of blood on the Yellowjackets season three horizon. He revealed, “I think season 3 will probably be the wildest, bloodiest season that we have. Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair. Granted, we don’t know anything to be fair. I’m just guessing that’s where it’s going.”
The Yellowjackets Are Buzzing for Season Three
The rest of the team also echoed these sentiments. Courtney Eaton, who plays teen Lottie, shared, “I feel like we’re going downhill for the characters. I don’t think there’s much light or happiness going on.” Meanwhile, teen Shauna’s actress, Sophie Nélisse, concluded, “We’re going definitely very feral. Like it’s getting feral.”
Given all that, we feel hungry for Yellowjackets season three all over again—2025 can’t come soon enough.
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Diego Luna Says He’s Almost Done Filming ANDOR Season 2
Andor‘s second season will pose an interesting dilemma for fans. It will be the show’s last, as it will lead directly into the events of Rogue One and the conclusion of Cassian’s story. That’s problem one: we don’t want it to end. It’s not just one of the best Star Wars shows ever made, it’s one of television’s best period. But while we don’t want it to be over, we also have a problem waiting for it to return. The writers and actors strikes delayed filming on the show. That’s why it’s not on our list of upcoming 2024 Lucasfilm releases. But Diego Luna gave a surprising update about the show’s production. He said he only has a week of shooting left which hopefully means it won’t be too long before Andor season two hits our screens.
Diego Luna says he has seven days left of shooting #Andor: “The good thing about ‘Andor’ is we know it has an ending. It’s nice to work knowing there’s an ending. You can aim for something.” https://t.co/FbYy7454ds pic.twitter.com/l4ZqkOesiS
— Variety (@Variety) January 16, 2024
Luna offered Variety an update on Andor while walking the red carpet at this year’s Emmy Awards. During the interview (which we first learned about at Comicbook.com), Luna said he was flying back to London the next morning. There he has just seven days of shooting left on Andor.
That doesn’t guarantee all filming on the show will conclude in seven days. Even if it does, though, there’s obviously a whole lot of post-production work that will remain. With a whole galaxy far, far away worth of VFX to create, that could take a long time. But if you’re holding out hope Andor‘s second season will actually debut in 2024 like it was supposed to, we advise you to manage your expectations. Again, there’s still a lot of work and an entire process that must happen after primary filming is done. Let’s set our hearts on Andor season two coming in 2025, for now.

We’re in no rush to see Andor end, but we are in a huge rush to see it return. It’s a real dilemma.
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ECHO Is the MCU Story That X-Men Fans Have Always Wanted
Movie and television adaptations of X-Men comics have been a mixed bag. For every winner like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Logan, there are duds like The New Mutants and X-Men: The Last Stand. (They were 20th Century Fox’s attempts to adapt the Demon Bear Saga and the Dark Phoenix Saga, respectively). That said, the MCU’s newest release, Echo on Disney+, has quietly alluded to a cornerstone force in X-Men lore. Echo reveals that Maya Lopez’s abilities in the MCU are very reminiscent of the Phoenix Force. In the future, we may discover that her power is indeed this.

What we do see is similar to a lesser known aspect about one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful entities. In a sense, Echo gives X-Men fans a well-rounded look at the Phoenix Force, without trying to adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga again.
For better or for worse, the Phoenix Force is a staple in X-Men comics. It is a primordial entity that exists beyond time and space. The Phoenix Force draws its power from the life force of future generations. It is tied to the mutant Jean Grey, the first X-Men character to be the Phoenix Force’s host, debuting in Uncanny X-Men #101 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and Frank Chiaramonte. Bonding with the Phoenix Force enhanced Jean’s telepathic and telekinetic abilities, and allowed her to travel across space.
However, the power of the Phoenix Force made Jean volatile. In order to sate the Phoenix, she consumed the energy of a star. By doing this, Jean accidentally killed billions of people in a faraway galaxy. In this form, Jean became the “Dark Phoenix.” The X-Men’s battle against her is crystallized in the now-iconic Dark Phoenix Saga spanning Uncanny X-Men #129-138.

That said, the Phoenix Force is much more than the impetus for Jean Grey’s downfall. It has continued to impact X-Men comics in the years since the Dark Phoenix Saga. Jean Grey’s own daughter, Rachel Summers, became a host of the Phoenix for some time. The White Hot Room, the home of the Phoenix Force, is currently where thousands of mutants are taking refuge. (This is in Immortal X-Men #16 by Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck.) The Phoenix’s most dramatic and widely-known story is a cautionary tale about power. However, the Phoenix itself hasn’t been defined in Marvel Comics by the events of the Dark Phoenix Saga.
X-Men films have not kept up with the diversity of the Phoenix Force’s uses, however. The Dark Phoenix Saga has been adapted, to use the word generously, twice now in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). Narrative shortcomings aside, both The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix provide incomplete looks at the Phoenix Force. Both films focus on the spectacle of power’s corruption and less on the expansiveness that the Phoenix actually possesses.
And this is what brings us to Echo. In the miniseries, Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) gets brand new superpowers that are based in the power of her maternal ancestors. She possesses superhuman strength, and can heal physical and emotional injuries. When she uses these powers, her hands glow orange. The most crucial aspect of Maya’s powers is that she can transcend time and space with her powers, accessing not only her own memories, but the memories of others, too.

Echo never explicitly confirms that Maya has the Phoenix Force. However, there is a comic book basis that makes the case for why and how Echo could have introduced the Phoenix Force into the MCU. In Jason Aaron and Javier Garrón’s Avengers run, Echo became the host of the Phoenix Force. During the Phoenix Song: Echo miniseries by Rebecca Roanhorse and Luca Maresca, Echo used her Phoenix powers to travel back in time to save generations of her ancestors from a villain who was targeting them.
The fact that Maya can traverse time and space with her powers on Echo recalls a side of the Phoenix Force that hasn’t been in a movie or television adaptation. The Phoenix Force is based in the power of life from the past, present, and future in the universe. Therefore, its abilities can challenge the stability of the present for its hosts. This parallels Maya’s experiences in Echo, where she suddenly encounters visions of women from different places and time periods, who she later learns are her ancestors. As such, Maya’s power isn’t entirely based in the present, but also the past.
Representing the spirit of the Phoenix Force in Maya’s powers on Echo provides a satisfying vision of the entity, divorced from past adaptations. Part of the appeal of X-Men comics is the diversity of their stories, and the malleability of concepts like the Phoenix Force. Whether or not the Phoenix Force is explicitly present in Echo, the miniseries provides a compelling model for how the Phoenix could be used in future MCU stories.

Rather than leading with a spectacle of power, Echo leads with the emotional journey of its protagonist. Her powers mark her acceptance of her lineage. Maya’s powers on Echo are born from the specificities of her Choctaw heritage. And their application follow in service of her lineage. This is the same ethos that guides her journey in Phoenix Song: Echo.
Echo is vastly different from other projects in the MCU. Its deviation from franchise norms is a valiant effort to tell a unique story for Maya Lopez. The Phoenix Force has long suffered from misunderstandings and misapplications onscreen. Now, Echo is the perfect opportunity for rebirth. Let’s hope that we see much more of Maya and her mysterious powers in the future.
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BETTER CALL SAUL’s 53 Emmy Losses Sets Record for Most Ever
The 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards felt less like a competition and more like a coronation. Three shows—Succession, The Bear, and Beef—dominated the evening by winning almost every category they could. But it was a different TV series that set a record during the ceremony. Only, it’s a record it wish it didn’t own. Better Call Saul now holds the title for most Emmy losses ever with 53.

Over its five seasons Breaking Bad earned 58 Emmy Award nominations. Few expected its spinoff series, Better Call Saul, to come close to matching that number. But that’s because few imagined a prequel about Walter White’s slimy, amoral lawyer would also take its place among television’s best. That’s exactly what the Bob Odenkirk led series did, though. His Jimmy McGill proved to be as compelling as any meth dealer, as Better Call Saul garnered 53 Emmy nominations over six seasons. That include six nominations for Best Actor in a Drama series for its star.
Despite all that recognition over the years, the 75th Emmy Awards was the show’s final chance to actually hear its title read from an envelope. It was up in four categories total. Sadly for fans, cast, and crew, Succession won almost every drama category; Better Call Saul was denied again. As a result the AMC series set the mark for most losses ever in Emmy history.

While it seems almost impossible the show never won for any award, especially when Rhea Seehorn was also incredible every season, those 53 losses also tell an accurate story about Better Call Saul. It was unquestionably one of television’s best shows while it aired. (And arguably the greatest spinoff ever.) Yet, it was often overlooked by those who never believed in it. Could a show about the unsavory attorney from Breaking Bad really be any good?
No, actually. It wasn’t good. It was great. You can’t set the record for most Emmy losses ever if you’re not.
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January 12, 2024
The New MEAN GIRLS Musical Movie Can’t Make Fetch Happen
One of the most cherished, highly quotable comedies of the 21st century, Mark Waters and Tina Fey’s Mean Girls has stood the test of time as the teen comedy to end all teen comedies. Taking a page out of the recently released The Color Purple’s book, Mean Girls (2024) adapts the 2017 musical back into a film, once again bringing Cady, Regina, Karen, and the rest of North Shore High back to movie theatres.

Despite the fact that Mean Girls adapts not one but two successful projects of the same name, this new reimagining of the movie-turned-musical is a haphazard dud, doing a disservice to the stage production’s musical numbers and lacking the outlandish ferocity of the original film’s humor. Though the mixed-bag of an ensemble cast (led by a fearsome Reneé Rapp) give their best, Mean Girls fails as both a musical and an homage to the original—soulless and utterly plastic.
Mean Girls follows Cady Heron (Angourie Rice), a sheltered teenager whose life flips when her mother (Jenna Fischer) decides to uproot their family, moving from Kenya to Chicago. Clueless as to American teen culture and desperate to fit in, Cady initially bonds with misfits Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) but quickly enters the thrall of the plastics, a group of uber-popular mean girls led by the unflappable Regina George (Rapp).
In terms of its script, Mean Girls is an interesting case. It’s an adaption of a musical adapted from a movie, adapted from a book—all of which (save the novel) from writer by Tina Fey, who also serves as a producer and reprises her role as Mrs. Norbury. Returning to write yet another reimaging of Mean Girls gives Fey the opportunity to punch-up jokes from the original, though the 2024 script remains clearly reverent of the 2004 original.

The 2024 script of Mean Girls still contains all the lines fans know and love (Glen Coco, “Fetch”, on Wednesdays we wear pink, etc) but makes a few changes to accommodate a more modern setting. Mostly this pertains to the lines from the original that haven’t aged particularly gracefully—cracks about “unfriendly Black hotties” and so-called “cool Asians.” Tossing around racial slurs are nowhere to be found.
Mean Girls’ most curious changes, though, come with regard to Janis’ backstory with Regina. In the original film, Regina casts her out by lying and telling everyone in school she’s a lesbian, while in the updated version, she outed Janis, who actually was a lesbian. It’s a strange, not particularly effective change that’s indicative of how Mean Girls treats the original like gospel, cashing in on as many recognizable moments as possible and not meaningfully engaging with the changes it dares to make.
Speaking of changes, the 2024 Mean Girls has no such reverence regarding the songs written for the 2017 musical. While Fey’s book is gospel, the original Broadway arrangements (composed by Jeff Richmonds) meet decimation. Instead, we find monotonous synth-pop which transforms even the musical’s strongest numbers into forgettable sludge.
While Mean Girls on Broadway may not have boasted an original script or a cast with names like Amanda Seyfried, Lindsay Lohan, and Rachel McAdams, what it did have was a cheeky, self-aware sense of humor that embraced the ridiculous grandiosity of musical theatre. Numbers like “Where Do You Belong”, “Sexy”, and “Stop” aren’t lyrically dense, but feature stereotypically Broadway-esque choreography and have a charming, tongue-in-cheek vibe that made the musical breezy and entertaining, if not quite a sharp as the original.

In attempting to translate Richmond’s songs (with lyrics by Nell Benjamin), Mean Girls razes its songbook of any personality, humor, or referentiality. Certainly, it’s understandable why producers might opt to cut a tap number in a film full of TikTok references and Shein clothes, but even some of the musical’s tamer numbers like “Stupid With Love” are sanitized into near unrecognizability.
Yes, the arrangements are somewhat salvageable when seasoned performers like Rapp, Cravalho, or Bebe Wood (Gretchen) lend their vocal prowess. Wood’s sweetly vulnerable “What’s Wrong With Me” is a breath of fresh air and a rare moment of genuine emotionality. In that same breath, though, poor arrangements become all the more noticeable whenever Angourie Rice’s Cady attempts to warble her way through one of them, which is a shame, because she’s the lead.
Rice is certainly a formidable actress and comedienne (she gives a particularly memorable turn opposite Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys) but her Cady is bone dry and utterly lacking in personality, not to mention vocal talent. Clearly, co-directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. recognize Rice’s voice isn’t of broadway caliber. Countless Cady songs go to other characters or cut entirely and the efforts they go to to keep Cady from singing makes one wonder why they didn’t simply cast an actress who could sing the part.

As for the rest of the cast, it’s difficult to wholeheartedly identify any comedic standouts. Even the bits that do land are marginally unfunnier rehashes of jokes from 20 years ago. All the pieces are on the board, sure, but Mean Girls rests on its laurels, thinking that simply regurgitating all the right aesthetic trappings and quotable moments is enough to cobble together a cohesive reimagining of this iconic chick flick.
Between the inconsistent vocals, bizarre musical arrangements, and misguided script updates, Mean Girls (2024) is a letdown, whether you’re a fan of the 2004 film or the 2017 musical. Though co-directors Jayne and Perez Jr make some interesting and ambitious choices with cinematography and staging, a few experimental stylistic flares and an admirable effort from Rapp aren’t enough to save this high school comedy from musical ruin.
Mean Girls (2024) ⭐ (1.5 of 5)
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RDJ Recites Taylor Swift, OPPENHEIMER Heads to Streaming, Lost DUNE Script Uncovered, and More News Odds & Ends
From Harrison Ford posing with an anime chair, to Robert Downey Jr. doing a dramatic reading of Taylor Swift, to Oppenheimer finally heading to streaming, here are some of our favorite pop-culture news odds & ends from recent history.


Oppenheimer is finally heading to your streaming screens. If you didn’t catch the movie in theaters over the summer, you can find it streaming on Peacock beginning on February 16.
You can check out what we thought of the film, below.
OPPENHEIMER Is a Harrowing, Chaotic MasterpieceMadame Web Suit First-Look Comes From an Unlikely Source
First full look at the Madame Web suit pic.twitter.com/IEeAEs0A7r
— Spider-Man News (@SpiderMan_Newz) January 9, 2024
Sometimes our first looks at movies come from trailers, magazines, or dramatic social media drops. But we were treated to our first look at Madame Web‘s supersuit from the most unlikely of sources, a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Absolutely iconic.
Here’s everything we know about the movie so far.
Everything We Know About MADAME WEBLost David Lynch Dune 2 Script Uncovered

As we prepare to experience Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two this summer, another Dune 2 has emerged. This extra Dune comes in the form of a recently uncovered script for David Lynch’s Dune 2, Dune Messiah. The script was thought to be lost, but we can finally dive deep into its contents. You can take a look at what adventures the half-finished script holds over at Wired. Spoilers: It involves “a shape-shifting ‘face dancer.’” Yikes.
In the meantime, here’s everything we know about Dune: Part Two.
Everything We Know About DUNE: PART TWOPatrick Stewart Says a Picard Movie Script Is in the Works

Hold onto your hats because a Picard movie could be coming our way. Patrick Stewart shared with the Happy Sad Confused podcast that a script had been written for him in the role. He notes, via Gizmodo, “I heard only last night about a [movie] script that is being written, but written specifically with the actor, Patrick [Stewart], to play in it… And I’ve been told to expect to receive it within a week or so. I’m so excited because it sounds like the kind of project where the experimentation that I want to do will be essential for this kind of material. It’s good at 83.”
This podcast filmed quite a while ago, so, chances are, Patrick Stewart has already seen a version of the possible Picard movie.
It’s a good thing too, because a Picard movie is exactly the story Patrick Stewart has been hoping for.
Patrick Stewart Reveals Original STAR TREK: PICARD Ending and Hopes for a PICARD MovieIncredibly Long Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Godzilla RC Figure Has Landed

How often can you say a figure is longer than it is tall? Well, this Godzilla RC figure from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire certainly takes the prize for one of the longest figures we’ve seen. It’s got its pink on, it’s ready to blow some heat-ray breath, and it’s 25 inches long. (And only 12.5 inches tall.)

You can also take a look at the first trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to see Godzilla in action.
First GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE Trailer Touts New Threat, Heroic UpgradesRobert Downey Jr. Dramatically Recites a Taylor Swift Song

Who doesn’t need to hear Iron Man dramatically recite a Taylor Swift song? We’re obsessed. At the start of his interview with W Magazine, Robert Downey Jr. took a little time to give us a dramatic reading of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space.” We want for nothing.
Unfortunately, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark will stay dead in the MCU and won’t be able to catch the latest hits from Taylor Swift.
Iron Man’s Heroic Death Will Not Be Undone in the MCUHarrison Ford Strikes a Pose with Suzume‘s Chair!Souta

Another meeting of strange bedfellows included Harrison Ford and… a chair. Yes, Ford struck a pose with Suzume‘s iconic chair at the Golden Globes. This chair, of course, is also one of Suzume‘s main characters, Souta, transformed. We don’t know who is luckier to meet who. But we are seated should they ever want to make a movie together.
We thought Suzume was an absolutely iconic movie.
Make SUZUME Your Last Movie of 2023Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Promises to Preserve Kevin Conroy’s Final Batman Performance

Kevin Conroy’s final performance as Batman can be found in the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game. Since this is a live-service game, fans worried that if service to the game were ever to be stopped, the performance would be lost. But, as we saw via Comicbook.com, Rocksteady Production has promised to launch an offline version of the game to preserve the performance.
Rocksteady Production Manager Jack Hackett shared, “I completely understand that concern. To be clear, we’ve really heard that, and I understand the concern. Obviously, in the short term, that’s not any kind of risk, but I’m happy to tell you that we will support, post-launch, an offline mode where you can play through the story of this game in perpetuity. We hope to deliver that in 2024. That’s our goal. I won’t promise that under all circumstances. But, I totally get that kind of archival concern about a game like this.”
You can watch a moving tribute to Kevin Conroy’s Batman, here:
Watch a Tribute to Kevin Conroy From the BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM 4K ReleaseTekken 8 Meets Succession‘s Brian Cox in Hilarious Collaboration
What could you need more in your life than Succession’s Brian Cox explaining the Tekken universe to you? Very little. We particularly love Cox’s emphasis on how the franchise loves fathers that throw their sons off cliffs. It’s poetic. And also informative. Tekken 8 will release on January 26, 2024, so you have a lot of time to review the franchise’s history with Cox.

For more video game fun, check out Dave Bautista recreating a nostalgic Mortal Kombat ad to celebrate Mortal Kombat 1.
MORTAL KOMBAT 1 Trailer Homages Iconic 1993 TV Commerical
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ECHO Writer Amy Rardin Talks Maya’s Relationship with Kingpin and Creating a Powerful Woman Antihero
The MCU is full of virtuous heroes. But the time has come for us to explore a complicated female antihero like Echo’s Maya Lopez. Played by Alaqua Cox, Maya Lopez is the protagonist of the new five-part miniseries, Echo, on Disney+. The show follows Maya, who first debuted in 2021’s Hawkeye miniseries, as she travels back to her home in Tahama, Oklahoma, to reconnect with her Choctaw family and culture. In Marvel Comics, Maya is also known as the vigilante Echo, a Deaf Native American woman with the ability to copy any movement she observes. Echo brought together a team of Native and/or women writers and producers to create what is perhaps the MCU’s strongest television show yet in the Disney+ era. We spoke to Echo executive producer and writer of episode 5 (“Maya”), Amy Rardin, about the process of making this show, collaborating with the Choctaw Nation, and the elements that first attracted her to Maya’s character.
[image error]One of the unique parts about Echo is its focus on rage, evident in Maya’s relationship with the series villain. Longtime fans of the MCU and the Daredevil show will feel pleased to see that Vincent D’Onofrio reprises his role as Wilson Fisk, the crime lord also known as Kingpin. Fisk was a surrogate father figure to Maya after he murdered her father, crafting her into the rage-filled, martial arts expert that we meet in the beginning of the miniseries.

For Rardin, Maya’s relationship with Fisk was partly what drew her into the character. “Probably the thing that I gravitated toward the most, in terms of emotional storytelling, was her relationship with Kingpin, and what that must have been like to have been co-raised by someone like him,” Rardin said. “Fisk is probably one of my favorite characters I’ve ever written. He is so complicated and Vincent D’Onofrio obviously is a master of playing this character. And I think that what is interesting to me is to get to tell a side of him as a ‘father,’ which I think we haven’t really seen before. He’s a surrogate father and had such a monstrous childhood.” This, of course, refers to Fisk’s abusive father, whom he killed with a hammer when he was still a child.

For Rardin, the compelling point of difference between Maya and Fisk was how they reconciled with their childhood trauma as adults, and how they still had familial love for each other, despite Fisk’s villainous tendencies. “I think Fisk, in his own twisted way, has the capacity to love,” Rardin began. “It may be really messed up, the way he loves people, and that is what Maya realizes. But I think in her own way, she also loves him somewhat.” Rardin points to the moment in the series finale when Maya uses her powers as a healer to try to mend Fisk’s childhood trauma. “I think that moment in the 4-H barn is so pivotal to their relationship because she’s trying to give him the chance to change. And she feels that maybe somewhere in there can be the person that she loves, and he just can’t do it.”
This moment of compassion, intercut with a powwow happening outside, was deeply moving. It showed off the totality of Maya’s new superpowers, which Marvel created specifically for the Echo show. Rardin explained that the Echo team built Maya’s powers out of her emotional journey as a character.

Maya’s powers are harnessed from the special abilities of her maternal ancestors, giving her physical strength, a strategic mind, and the ability to access other people’s memories to attempt to heal their emotional pain. “I think that, ultimately, what ended up on screen was very much tied into her emotional story with family, and being able to become a whole person when you learn about your whole self,” Rardin said. While changing a character’s powers can be controversial for some comic fans, Maya’s new abilities seamlessly fit into the core themes of family and self-actualization on Echo. Clearly, this was a decision that was not made lightly.
This level of care brought to Echo can also be seen in the role that the Choctaw Nation played in ensuring cultural accuracy and authenticity onscreen. Choctaw writer Steven Paul Judd was part of the show’s writers’ room, and Rardin described the Nation’s involvement on Echo as “incredible and invaluable.” Rardin recounted how members of the Choctaw Nation were “sitting next to me the whole time [on set] when we were in Atlanta. So if I had a question or a concern, or they had a question or concern, we would just fix it right there. And we had a kitchen set up in Atlanta on one of the sound stages where people from the Choctaw Nation were actually making the food that was shown on screen… And I feel like it allowed us to have a very authentic, specific story experience.”

Specificity was a crucial goal for Echo and was partly built from the experiences of the Native creators who worked on the series. Rardin pointed out how writers Bobby Wilson, Jason Gavin, and Rebecca Roanhorse, alongside directors Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie, could pull from “their own experience” in order to make the world of the show feel lived in. For Rardin, she could connect with the small-town feel of Tahama, Oklahoma with its roller skating rink, having grown up in a similar town herself. “I want to know all the drama that happens at the roller rink,” I admitted, to which Rardin responded, “Oh, you know there’s a lot of drama at that rink,” with a laugh.
Given all of this, Echo is unique among Marvel’s offerings. It feels more tangible than other projects, thanks to its attention to cultural detail and a family drama focus against the backdrop of a crime story. When asked about what she wanted fans to walk away from the show with, Rardin spoke to the importance of Maya Lopez as a complicated female antihero. For Rardin, Maya speaks to a question of “Are we defined by our past,” and by extension, our trauma? “I think there are a lot of people who have complicated lives, and complicated paths, and complicated childhoods,” Rardin noted.

There is something healing in watching a character like Maya find power, literally, in the complexities of her lineage. Maya’s journey in order to make peace with her trauma and family illustrates the small-scale impact that other Marvel projects could benefit from. Though Echo showed fans just a microcosm of stories within the MCU (seriously, where is Tuklo’s black-and-white one-hour special?), hopefully, it will inspire a more emotionally-intimate approach within one of pop culture’s biggest franchises.
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KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Moves Up Release Date, Shares Trailer
A new entry into the world of Planet of the Apes is coming our way. And it picks up generations after we left Caesar and his tribe living peacefully in War for the Planet of the Apes. Trouble, of course, is brewing, as it naturally does in order for franchises to continue. And we can sense an epic conflict coming our way. The first teaser trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes sets us up well for the “action-adventure spectacle” that awaits, promising ape tyrants, human friends, lots of danger, but also beauty. You can get your first look at what’s in store below.
The official logline for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes released with the trailer reveals more about its story; it notes:
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

That young ape, however, is not Cornelius, Caesar’s son, as initial imagined by many. Instead, it is a young ape called Noa. Kingdom of Planet of the Apes does not take place immediately after Ceaser’s death, but instead occurs nearly 300 years later, as revealed by Empire. But it seems Noa will still fight to be inspired by Ceaser’s legacy and ultimately, he will seek to understand it and keep it alive. But will he successfully bring peace to apes and humans alike in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? We’ll have to wait and see where his journey goes. But this trailer suggests it certainly won’t be an easy quest.

A release shares, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball (the “Maze Runner” trilogy) and stars Owen Teague (“IT”), Freya Allan (“The Witcher”), Kevin Durand (“Locke & Key”), Peter Macon (“Shameless”), and William H. Macy (“Fargo”).”
Since the release of the teaser trailer, the Planet of the Apes movie’s release date has moved up. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will now release in theaters on May 10, 2024.
Originally published on November 2, 2023.
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TWILIGHT Is ‘Such a Gay Movie,’ Says Kristen Stewart (And She’s Right)
Kristen Stewart is finally leading us into the conversation we’ve all been waiting to have. Twilight, she says, is a gay movie. And she could not be more correct about that. Queer folks have been saying Twilight is an icon of the gay oeuvre for ages. On the surface, Twilight might seem like a very heteronormative tale. But when you sink your teeth into it, the vampire franchise becomes something else altogether, especially in its cinematic renditions. Here’s what Stewart had to say about the queerness of the iconic vampire films.

Speaking to Variety, Stewart noted:
I can only see it [Twilight‘s queerness] now. I don’t think it necessarily started off that way, but I also think that the fact that I was there at all, it was percolating. It’s such a gay movie. I mean, Jesus Christ, Taylor [Lautner] and Rob and me, and it’s so hidden and not OK. I mean, a Mormon woman wrote this book. It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love.
Kristen Stewart is exactly right in her references. Although Twilight itself cannot be labeled as a horror movie, vampires as an institution have some very queer roots in the horror world. And many of the gothic, monstrous tales that have transformed into our universal horror monsters contain deep elements of queerness. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, especially, which set the tone for many a vampiric tale to come, offers us an undeniably queer tale. As Stewart notes, common queer aspects of vampire lore, such as the constant oppression, the desire for the forbidden, and the positioning of characters as “the Other,” flow all the way down into Twilight. In the end, how could Twilight be other than gay?

That’s, of course, not to even discuss the high-camp energy that the Twilight movies ended up serving us. Edward’s pained, over-dramatic expression as he moves into the sunlight only to… sparkle. Iconic. The strange speech patterns, the dramatization of the smallest moments, and did we mention, the sparkling, all come together to create the perfect storm of a queer-favorite film. And, as Kristen Stewart notes, her presence as Bella really does give off strong lesbian energy. (We won’t even get started about how queer Edward’s sister Alice reads.) And that makes the movie even better. A true must-watch for every queer person I know.
So thank you, Kristen Stewart, for saying it (out loud).
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Titanus Doug Will Have His Rightful Screentime in GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE
The two biggest and most popular Titans surely can’t stay dormant for long. Godzilla, the mighty lizard with atomic breath will clomp his way back to the movies soon. Along with him will be none other than Kong, the king of the hollow Earth. After 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong ended in something of a draw, a rematch of legendary proportions is very necessary. Luckily, a big screen follow-up is happening.

One thing fans will be excited to hear is that the beloved Godzilla vs. Kong titan, Titanus Doug, will have more screentime in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. IGN shares in an interview with director Adam Wingard, which we saw via Slash Film, “One fan-favorite creature, in particular, is given some rightfully earned screentime in the sequel film: Titanus Doug, a reptilian resident of Hollow Earth who appears in one shot of Godzilla vs. Kong, is making a splashy comeback.”
And Wingard adds, “He’s like a little bulldog sort of… It’s a character I think people have ownership of just because they kind of made him viral in a MonsterVerse sort of way.” We love a scene-stealing hero. Fans even helped to give Titanius Doug his name before he truly had one. And now it sounds like Titanius Doug will go for mere seconds on screen to something more substantial. And we love that for him.
Here’s everything we know about the Godzilla vs. Kong sequel.
Title
The Godzilla vs. Kong sequel is called Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s PlotThe official synopsis is as follows:
This latest entry follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.

Adam Wingard, who directed Godzilla vs. Kong, will return to direct this film. He’ll be the first director in Legendary’s Monsterverse series to helm a second film so far. He’s working from a script by Terry Rossio (Godzilla vs. Kong), Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight) and Simon Barrett (Wingard’s longtime collaborator on movies like You’re Next and The Guest). The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric Mcleod, Brian Rogers, Thomas Tull, and Jon Jashni, with executive producers Josh Grode, Adam Wingard, Jay Ashenfelter, Jen Conroy, Kenji Okuhira, and Yoshimitsu Banno.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s CastReturning cast members to the series include Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle. All three joined the franchise with Godzilla vs. Kong. New cast members include Dan Stevens, who starred in Wingard’s The Guest. Other new cast members include Fala Chen (Shang-Chi), Alex Ferns (The Batman), and Rachel House (Thor: Ragnarok).
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s Release Date
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will release on March 29, 2024. This is moved up two weeks from its planned release date.
Originally published on August 26, 2022.
Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks
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