The Kristian Harloff Show - Avatar 3 SMASHED $760M! HUGE Second Weekend Numbers!

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash continues its incredible box-office run, officially passing $760M worldwide and pushing the Avatar franchise past $6 billion overall. We break down the numbers, the impressive second-weekend hold, and what it means for the future of the series. Plus, Cameron reveals his surprising backup plan for the franchise if things ever go sideways. We're also talking SPIDER-MAN 5 rumors — including potential director details, updates on the Brand New Day trailer timeline, and what Sadie Sink's reported role might actually mean for the MCU and Sony's Spider-Man universe. And finally, the Duffer Brothers tease major developments for Stranger Things Season 5 Vol. 2, including a big reveal involving Will and what fans can expect from the finale of Netflix's flagship series. Join Kristian for breakdowns, reactions, and film industry insight — all right here on The Kristian Harloff Show. SPONSORS: RIDGE WALLET:  Take advantage of Ridge's Biggest Sale of the Year and GET UP TO 47% Off  by going to https://www.Ridge.com/KRISTIAN #Ridgepod  

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Please excuse the lighting issues going on here on the left-hand side of my frame. I'm trying out something new. I pulled up my 10-foot green screen, put it behind me, and I thought I'd light it, and I thought it would come off a little bit better than it is. This side seems okay. This side, not so much. Anyway, we're getting into a lot of stuff today. It's a Christian Harlov show. Hope you had a great Monday. It is a Roka solo show. Unfortunately, Christian will not be joining us, but it's going to be allowed to talk about.

Let's have some fun. You've come to hang out. You've come to talk about nerd stuff and stuff going on in the world of entertainment. And I'm here to guide you through the next couple of hours to talk about all that stuff here on the Christian Harlov channel. So let's not waste any time. Let's get going here right now. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Christian Harlov show here on a Monday morning.

I am John Roker, formerly known as the outlaw of John Roker, remember those days, but I am here to have a little fun with you all today to talk about things that are going on in the world of entertainment, including Avatar and its explosion at the box office. You shall not doubt James Kerman, for you shall lose if you doubt James Kerman. Also, James Cameron talking about what he's going to do if this film is not a Mondo success, which seems like impossible at this point. But we're also going to get into some Spider-Man brand-new day rumors and things that are going on here with Sadie Sink and what she's doing. And speaking of Sadie Sink, we're also going to get into some Stranger Things news as well.

And then some other selections from other locations that I want to talk about here on the show. I appreciate you all joining me. I hope you had a good weekend coming off of Christmas. We're heading into New Year's. But this is that kind of nebulous week, right, where you kind of don't know what to do here in between Christmas. at New Year's. I've seen some TikTok videos that say this is the week where you catch up on all the movies you missed. I'm certainly

going to see some films that I missed that weren't necessarily going to be part of the voting situation for both Critics' Choice and HCA. But I'm going to catch up on some of those movies and have some fun to watch them. You also have to watch apparently one season of a show that you've missed.

And I guess this week for me is going to be the pit because I know the pit season two is coming. I think next week or a few days after the star of January, season two is coming. And my brother, Shannon McLeod from The Geek Buddies, is a recurring character in season one of the pit. So it's about time that I watch that whole thing.

So I'll be spending my time doing that. I'm also going to catch up on Landman. So I've got two or three episodes to catch up on the most recent season. Actually, I do love that show. It's just a lot of stuff's been going on here for me and my life. How are you all? Are you doing well? Are you doing okay? How are you dealing with the holiday season?

Are you kind of making it through it and figuring things out as you go along? Are doors opening up for you? Are you looking forward to a very positive and happy and healthy 2026? I hope you're prepping for that. Maybe making your vision boards, maybe right now your goals for the year. These are important things to do. These are important things to do. Take it from me, a guy who went from a fan of this kind of stuff,

stumbled his way into this business, and then realized about five years into it when I got, when I had that situation happen at Collider. I've got to create goals every year because I can only rely on myself to accomplish these goals. And so it's really important to do that for yourself in your life. No matter what situation you're in, no matter what walk of life you're in, no matter what you're focusing on,

these are the things that you've got to go and do for yourself going into 2026. And don't be afraid to do it. And don't be afraid that you might not get to all your goals in 2026. It's just important to have a plan. It's important to have a vision. It's important to put things in action. and it's important to give yourself grace that you might not get there

100% with everything you try to do, but it's still important to try. That's part of living life and adulting, and I know a lot of us hate adulting, but it is part of life as we go through life and walk into a new year. Even with all the madness going on, no matter how you feel about it,

it's important to make goals because you never know what can happen once you put things in motion for sure. But listen, we got to stream lab, We got super chats that we would love to have you send in some stuff here as we go along throughout the whole show. You know, super, we set the bar with super chats. So I would love to hear from you all. What are your questions, thoughts, and comments about everything that's going on in the world of entertainment?

Did you see the X-Men leaked Avengers Doomsday trailer? What are your thoughts on that? Send me your super chats. I want to read them and talk about them. What are your thoughts on all the things that have been going on in the world of entertainment over the last few days? What are your thoughts on some of the things that you hear being leaked or some of the trailer that you've seen some of the have you gone to see some of the movies that you've been holding out on seeing did you see song sung blue sing song song blue song song blue yeah did you see songs song blue did you see marty supreme

did you see this other stuff that's out there uh sponge bob square pants utopia two did you finally get out to see that and did you see avatar fire and ash for the third time i want to hear from all you you as we go along so um all right let's let's get to it here let's get to the first uh story here this is the box office situation. So let me bring it up. We'll read it together here. The third avatar passes 760 million. Let me see where I'm at. Okay, so I should make this a little bit bigger. And if you can tell, I like to shop for sports clothes. So there you go. All right, here we go. All right. Third Avatar passes $760 million at the box office. James Cameron's third avatar film, Avatar Fire, and Ash will reach an estimated 760.4 million.

dollars global by the end of today, and I would think this was published yesterday, enough to push the overall franchise past the $6 billion mark of first. In its second weekend, the film is set to pull in $64 million for the three-day, Friday and the Sunday period, down just 28% from its debut in a far smaller drop than the 53% slide of Avatar the Way of Water in its sophomore run. That's certainly saying something that it's got a way smaller drop than the second film, which I would argue is better than this film, but clearly this one is speaking to audiences.

Internationally, the fall was even less grabbing a further 181.2 million overseas. The title dropped just 25%, and if you exclude China, just 15%. And by the end of Sunday, the film is up to $217.6 million domestically and $542.7 million internationally. In second place, we had Zootopia 2,

the Disney title, which scored 20 million in its fifth weekend up 30, up, up, up 35% from its fourth weekend hall. That is absolutely the Christmas bump as family audiences flocked to see it. Today's Utopia is at $321 million domestically and $1.42 billion worldwide, the top global release of 2025 and the highest grossing Hollywood animated movie of all time internationally. That's amazing. The highest grossing Hollywood, not Disney. Hollywood animated movie of all time internationally.

That is saying something. A-24's Marty Supreme opened in third place with a $17.5 million for the three-day and is up to $28.2 million by the end of Sunday because it had a limited release last weekend. It is A-24 second highest opening ever behind Civil War, which came out, I think, a year and a half ago, with $25.5 million. The film is getting a rollout release internationally next year. So we will see the numbers next year in 2026, probably next year. next week or later this week when it comes out internationally in some other markets.

But some pretty incredible numbers for Marty Supreme. The fourth was the second weekend of the Sydney-Sweeney's lead thriller The House Made, which I love how Amanda Seafried gets forgotten. She is the lead of the movie. Sydney Sweet, it's a two-hander for God's sake, which made 15.4 million dropping just 19% in its sophomore run and bringing its domestic total up to 46.4 million. I'm not ready to call that a hit yet because it's a $35 million dollar budget,

and it's made $46 million. So it made its budget back, but we all know two and a half times is basically the standard thing. We don't know what deals A-24 has with the theater, so how much are they taking? I'm like, where's the profit? But I do believe this thing needs to hit at least 70 or 80

to be considered a profitable movie and not necessarily a flop. Now, I wouldn't call it a flop, obviously, because it's made its budget back. But I don't know if this necessarily indicates that Sydney, Sweeney is now all of a sudden, you know, a success, so to speak. So we will see once the numbers come out.

I think the next two to three weeks will really show us the staying power of something like Housemade. The fifth was the debut, debut of Anaconda, which earned 14.6 million and a worldwide total of 43.7 million. Not bad for a film that wasn't received that well or reviewed that well. Song Song Blue opened an eighth place with $7.6 million, ending its first week with a $12 million dollar haul six and seven went to animated films david which is doing really well and the new sponge bob movie with 12.7 million and 11.2 million respectively david is up to almost 50 million dollars domestically

49.7 sponge bob is at 38 million but also opened an overseas market this week where it took an additional 22 million ahead of its release tuesday on video on demand wicked for good is closing out its run with a quick 5.3 million in ninth place bringing its total to 332 million demand and only 504 million worldwide. The first film closed its run at 759 million worldwide. So that should tell you, I know a lot of people love to say,

critics don't matter, critics don't matter, we don't matter. But if we go see Wicked, and it's not that well received, and the people follow suit who go to see the movie, because they hear what the critics have to say, there you go.

So we may not matter in the way that we mattered in the power. because there was people like Ebert and Siskel and other people who were way big, way bigger in the movie review game back in the 90s and early 2000s. But I think what we serve is as a reflection most of the time, not for every movie, but most of the time we serve as a reflection

for what the general society is going to feel about a movie. And I said, not every movie, so don't run off and think, you know, misconstruing what I'm saying. But I do think with a majority of the movies, the critic's reactions mirror the audience's reactions in terms of box office. Maybe not the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but I think with the audience reaction at the box office,

every once in a while, something overcomes that like Jurassic World did, rebirth. But usually we reflect back what the audience is going to feel about a movie and what the box office is going to be for that movie. So like I said, it doesn't have every time. But I think it does happen a lot of times. I think Wicked for Good is an example of it. A lot of critics went to see it and didn't like it.

And initially, some of the critics who did like it were bashing the critics who didn't like it. Initially, some of the fans, especially those Ariana Grandstands, where all of a sudden very, very quiet now, we're going crazy saying it's a bias and the critics are biased against it. The fans are going to tell you how great it is. The fans are going to lift this thing to a billion dollars. The fans are going to vote by going to see the movie. Well, the fans voted.

And it was $234 million less. than the first install. So, you know, certain things are truths, whether you like it or not, whether it fits your narrative or not, certain things are truths. And one of those truths is James Cameron and the power of the Avatar franchise.

I am absolutely shocked at how much it is made. Not that Cameron, obviously, I subscribe to the belief that you should never doubt Cameron. But the level to which this film is performing compared to the second film is truly shocking to me. Because as I said, I enjoyed the second film, even though I don't think it was as good as the first film, I enjoyed the second film much more than the third film. So to see how well the third film is doing is really surprising.

But it's also something that speaks to the audience, once again, saying, hey, I like these movies. I want to see these movies. And I'm going to go to a three hour and 14 minute movie to show you how much I love these movies. Now, I hope people put this in context. which is like people like, well, these movies are too long. Well, you're about to give a billion dollars to a three-hour and 14-minute film. So if you go see these movies that are long-ass movies,

you're telling the studio that you don't necessarily mind long-ass movies as long as they entertain you, right? So the idea of trying to make movies shorter, good luck when you're going to see these big movies that are way longer than the two-hour-and-15 movies you're complaining about, three hour and 15 minute movie, the fact that they're making this much money, I think is incredible. I still think it's, I still doubt that it will get to $2 billion. But at this point, a billion is certainly not even an issue.

A billion and a half is not even an issue. I just wonder if it's going to have enough staying power. Because this is again, this is the Christmas weekend. So the fact that it only dropped 28% is great for it. But that you could, you could attach that, I think, to the Christmas. bump of people going with their families, people going multiple times to see the movie, people wanting to get away from their families and disappear for three hours and 15 minutes or maybe almost four hours of even include trailers.

Or they want to take their family to go see it so they don't have to talk to their family for four hours, but still pretend that they're having family time. There's also an element of that when you look at this. But also, of course, a majority of it is people love James Cameron. People love this world of Avatar. People love the films that the films that come out. out, clearly, judging from the numbers. Whatever my issues are, and a lot of critics' issues are, and a lot of people's issues are,

I think, with some of the storyline, some of the cliche stuff, some of the repetitive beats from the second film, it's clear that there's a comfort level that people feel about Avatar and people feel about James Cameron. So they will go see his movies multiple times en masse and drive the box office for these movies into the billions of dollars, Stratosphere, which very few people get to. The overall franchise pushed past the $6 billion mark of first,

which I think is pretty amazing. I saw some people trying to come after, I think, Marvel or Star Wars for the amount of money Avatar makes. It's just not comparable. There's just different situations because Avatar is one director, one visionary, and that visionary had already built up a resume and a reputation with the fans after years of doing great work with iconic franchises

and iconic installments within those franchises. So that's a different situation in someone coming in like JJ Abrams or someone coming in like Travaro. It wasn't Travara, but like, you know, Ryan Johnson, it's a different situation. Or with Marvel, right? You didn't have like a James Cameron coming in to direct 10 Marvel movies in a row. So it's a different situation. But I think it absolutely deserves its flowers and deserves all the praise you can give it

for a crossing $6 billion as a franchise with only three movies in the fucking franchise. That is absolutely amazing and speaks to the power of James Cameron and what he can do when you let him cook in a situation like this. And I wonder what... I wonder what the end result is here now

because James came out and said, you know, like, You know, if you guys don't come to, and listen, that's another element that I think is really kind of interesting. James is like, well, you know, if you don't come see the movie, I guess we won't make four and five, right? And so he's almost a little bit kind of like playing to your guilt or playing to your feelings of love for the franchise by saying like, well, if you don't come to this one, you're not going to see more. Like that's a little bit of a playful thing. But then he also came out and said that if four, if this doesn't do well,

that he will hold a press conference telling you how four and five, which I think is very, very funny to think about his thoughts on that. So, but I don't want to get into it just yet. Like I know that's the next story we have on the rundown. But I'm pretty surprised by this box office situation for Avatar. I already spoke about Wicked. Zootopia, I think, is amazing. The fact that it's at $1.4.2 billion when the first one got to a billion,

took a way longer to get to a billion than this one did to get to $1.4 billion. So the fact that it's blowing past its previous one speaks volumes. And I like Zootopia, too. It's not as good as the first one. I think that's pretty much the universal feeling on this movie. There are some outliers who like the second or more than the first for sure. But I think overall that's the feeling. But it wasn't a bad installment.

It's a good installment, actually. I enjoyed it. Just not as good as the first one. But I think this is a great thing, especially for Khi Kwan, who I think since everything ever while at once hasn't necessarily made the best choices in some of the projects that he's been involved in, like the results, of those products haven't like Love Hurts wasn't that great of a movie and a couple of

other things that he's done. But this, this is great for him. And I like this for Fortune Femmster as well, who I thought was really great as the Beaver in the movie. So bringing in new voices to add on to what Jennifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman have done, I think is great. And I'm a big fan of Jared Bush, who directed the movie, a co-directed movie. And I'm a fan of his success for this movie. And I want him to keep going and making more stuff. Because I think, I think he understands, I mean, he's almost James Cameron Light. with Zootopia. Wouldn't you say, like, who saw Zootopia coming? And the fact that it's done so well with two installments, I think speaks volume. The fact that it's a, both of them are billion-dollar

installments. That is amazing to think about. And there are very, very few, very, very few animated directors who bring movies to the billion-dollar level in terms of animation. Very, very few. So I hope everybody involved with the production of both of these movies feels very vindicated and feels very humbled and blessed by the reaction of the fans to the Zootopia movies in the installments here. Marty Supreme, though, man, come on now. I love this movie. It's in my top three of 2025. I think Chalemae is a damn shoe in to win the Oscar. And I don't care how much people ridicule him. Like I saw an Australian podcast. podcast today on TikTok, these three girls making fun of him. And I'm like, you're so irrelevant to what he's doing. You're so irrelevant to what he's creating, but you're going to go up there. It's insulting what he's doing. It's so ridiculous what he's doing. The man is printing money.

The man is ruling Christmas. This is three Christmases now for his films like Wonka, which made, I think, $600 million globally and a complete unknown. The Bob Dylan film did well as well for him and got him nominated. So like, people hate a guy who tells his truth, a person, relevant of gender. People have an issue with someone who is this open about their goals and is this aware and positive about their work. You know, people don't like it. People like it, especially Australia, they really hate Raggedosio people. But I think this is a situation we look at like, Shalabay's got a right to speak how he feels about himself and how he feels about his work. And I know you get, oh, it's a white man talking, you know, that kind of nonsense to me.

I think you can, it's a case by case basis. And I don't think that applies when it comes to Shalameh, because I think amidst all the braggadocio stuff, there is a real artist at work. And I don't think you could have a driven, humble, vulnerable artist create the work he's creating if he was just an arrogant blowhard. I just don't think that's possible. You know, yeah, Shatner was a bit of an arrogant blowhard on Star Trek or whatever, but he's not winning Oscars with his work.

So there have been arrogant blowhards who have worked consistently in Hollywood, but to deliver the kind of performances that he's delivering, which are to me now, officially, he is in DeCaprio level. He is going to be moving into Daniel Day Lewis level at some point. I think that speaks volumes about the fact that he is a legitimate artist, and when he takes on these roles, he gives of himself completely in these roles and it comes through in the work he does on screen. I thought his Bob Dylan was fantastic in a complete unknown.

I thought his work on Wonka was very touching and sweet and unique. And you're not going to tell me that an arrogant blowhard can deliver what he delivered in Wonka so believably and movingly and somehow be someone who is just an utter prick about himself. No. And then you look at something like Marty Supreme, which has a lot of vulnerable. amidst his arrogance and his drive and his actions in the movie, which are very at times sociopathic in his desire to achieve success. I think, and I think you see a lot of vulnerability amidst all the stuff that's going on

in his relationship with Odessa Azeon and her, but the relationship with, with Gordeth Paltrow and his relationship with the guy who's helping the son of the guy who's helping him make the ping pong balls. Yes, does he screw them all over? throughout the movie 100%. But there are moments of vulnerability within those things because he's driven to achieve. I mean, don't get me started at Michael Jordan. I mean, you want to go and revisit the things he had to do in order to succeed and achieve success. And that's part of it. And I just think he, it's amazing. And clearly, the audiences are responding to his work. Whatever he says in those interviews, that's for like small podcasts or podcasts of any size, I guess.

I shouldn't just say small podcasts of any size to cry about to their audiences on microphones. the general audience love Chalemay and shows up for his movies, even something small like Marty Supreme from A24, he's breaking records because people like to see his work. Why? Because they respect his work.

And they know that when Shalamay is doing a movie or doing a role, they're going to get a good performance from Timothy Shalami. He has built goodwill and trust with the audience so much so that they will go and see these movies. And I think that's, all any actor can do, really.

And I know a lot of people want to see humility, and I respect that, I understand that. You want to see humbleness. Certainly at times I have felt that people can be too cocky or arrogant. But if you back it up, people shut the fuck up. And that's the truth. If you can back up your cockiness, back up your arrogance, with your work, with your performances, with your play on the field,

or anywhere else in life, then, like, you deserve respect. because you're able to get that across and people like it. So I think that's a good thing. Oh, yeah, an Anaconda, fine film, okay film, not that great. A quick hour and a half in the movie theater, but just not that interesting of a movie in the end. But enough to make $43 million. We'll see if it gets to $100.

I kind of doubt it, but we'll see if it gets to $100. And I'm happy for song some blue, even though it's not like blowing up the box office, it's a damn good movie, and I'm happy that it's getting a little bit of attention. And a lot of people are talking about Kate Hudson being nominated for best actress. I think she should absolutely be in consideration for it,

considering her performance in the movie. And I saw some people say, like, well, have we slept on Kate Hudson all these years? And it's like, no, this is how acting is. Okay? And too many people who are not actors talk about acting as if they know what they're talking. about and it gets a little frustrating to be honest with you because as actors you understand this

you know that as you grow as you experience things as you go through things through things in life it changes who you are as a person and so when you come back and do a role that takes advantage of that and touches on that and showcases that you're able to bring a realism to the role in your performances that you couldn't do in the past I think Kate Hudson has been properly rated at every stage of her career. You know, she was great and almost famous. But then she was a bit lightweight with some of her choices through the 2000s. And I guess, yeah, through the 2000s.

And so her coming in with a role that's much more grounded after she's, you know, had kids, had the experiences, had relationships, have been through the ups and downs of Hollywood. There's much more of a grounded, lived in presence here. And that's what she's getting praised for, right? The same thing with Gwyneth Poucher. A lot of people are like, wow, I didn't know Gwyneth could do this. It's great to see Gwyneth come back. Gwittith went away for a bit.

And now, and then the role popped up here, Marty Supreme, and she's really sank her teeth into it because of all the things that she's also gone through and experiences of her life. And yeah, you get ridicule Goup all you want, but she turned it into a multi-billion-dollar business. But she's taken hits. She's taking people reassessing her career, wondering if she was actually that good, just all of that. That comes into your work when you're playing.

an actress who's walked away from her career to hide out in a relationship with a millionaire who isn't really good to her necessarily. But she still needs the adulation. And so you get that through the realism of the performance. I was having a conversation with some friends of mine over the weekend about Landman. And my friends are text chain talking about Ali Larder. Is Ali Larder, is this her greatest role ever, Allison, on Landman.

And of course, I'm always going to be partial to Varsity Blues because I thought she was great varsity Blues. Some of you may be partial to her work in heroes. But like, I think this is some of the best work she's ever done. I think it's the greatest work she's ever done. And the reason is because Ali had to kind of fall out of favor for a little bit, unfortunately. She did some not great films, some straight to streaming films, straight to DVD films as the term used to be. she's gone through the things that she's gone through in life and experiences, having kids and all of that. And so now she's back and she's able to bring a much more mature and powerful performance because she has changed as a person. And that's important to understand about actors.

Actors change. Actors experience life. They bring that into the work they do and it becomes instinctual. And the instinctual work feels organic and that's what connects to the audience is because we all go through that shit. We've all experienced that shit. We've all had ups and downs and loves and losses and wins, wins that turned into losses, successes that became failures, possibilities, potentials that got fulfilled,

and potentials and possibilities that didn't get fulfilled. And so when we see someone bring that through a character, and it's written well, we see that in a character, we gravitate to it and we love it. So I think those are the things you've got to look at when you're looking at some of the actresses who come back, or actors who come back, and the reasons they come back.

obviously Hollywood is tough on women and tough on actresses and you're not the flavor of the month and they move on to someone else who's a young pretty thing. I totally get that. You have to factor that into the situation as well. But in the end, you know, when someone writes a great role for you and you step up to the plate, you deserve all the praise you can get.

But it's also because all the shit you went through informs the performance of delivering when that comes along. Like Tom Hanks said it best. When I saw an interview with him years ago, if you want to become an actor, if you want to be an actor in Hollywood, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. And you have to understand that. And it's the ones who stick around, the ones who persevere are the ones who succeed. The ones who stick with it are the ones who succeed, right? It doesn't mean everybody who's tried to do it for 40 years succeeds, but the ones who do

succeed, succeed consistently because they stuck around long enough to be in position to succeed. So that's a big thing to look at when you look at not only acting but life, you know, so. All right. Well, thank you guys. Let's hit some. I guess we got one ad we got a hit. And then after that, we're going to get into some more camera and stuff. But we'll be right back right after this.

And listen, support all the, something you can be catching up on episodes from the past of the Christian Harlov show that we've done together. Or Roxy and Kalanowski or Chris Carr and Winston. even some old keeps and collars maybe with Winston and Coy, you see all the ads that come through. If you try this, make sure you use the code when you try the stuff out because it lets those advertisers know that they can keep coming back here and supporting the stuff we do on the show. That would be great of you all to do that for sure.

All right, we're only at six superchats. Come on, guys. We've got 400 of you joining us right now. Send in your superchats. I might be the only live show of the week. I don't know what they're going to do on Friday. They're going to Cape's and Cowles, but I'd like to hit at least 50 super chats today if we can.

Just to kind of put me in pole position possibly on a holiday week. Because I don't know if Christian has announced this yet, but from what he told me, the rest of the week is going to be best of. So like best of 25, 2025, this, best of 2025. That's going to be the rest of the week. I don't know if Friday is going to be a live show or not for Capes and Cowles. But what Christian told me, the rest of the week is going to be best. of stuff. So I am all your only live show this week right now. I don't, again, I don't know

what he's going to do on Friday. So send in your super chat, send in your questions, thoughts, and comments as we go along here so we can get to 50 at least. That would be great as a way to start off the holiday week, you know, and, you know, I'm got, Christian is preparing to fly to L.A. because he is going to attend the Critics Choice Awards. I personally stay away from big gatherings, especially now with the norovirus that's going around in L.A. My friend Shannon McClung recently just caught it.

I don't want anything to do with that. So I stay with my gatherings, so I don't try to go to big gatherings. And I certainly don't want to go to the Critics' Choice that wear a mask the whole time that would kind of for me ruin the experience. So I am not attending the Critics Choice Awards. But Kristen is going, and he's flying in

for it. and it's going to have a lot of fun. He's going to meet up with people. I don't know if we're going to meet up, but maybe, maybe, because I don't like to go to L.A. too often. But we'll see. But that's what he's doing,

which is why he's not on the show today. Him and his wife, Sadie, they had to kind of get things together, prep the kids, get everything squared away. And so he wanted some extra time to do that this morning. So he asked me to host the show solo today, which is why we're doing. All right.

So let's see here. Let's move on to the next story. it is also James Cameron related. This is talking about his update of what he's going to do here. Cameron on his backup avatar plan has been made clear the press for Disney's Avatar Farnasse. The new film is a turning point for the franchise. Not only does the film have to succeed,

but it has to succeed very, very well if the studio wishes to proceed with the next two entries that have to be either made or not at all. Cameron did shoot a small portion of the fourth film already. Scenes being shot involving the kid characters in the early scenes ahead of time jump, oh, sorry, ahead of a time jump of quite a few years in the story

at some point during the fourth film. I need to read that paragraph again. Cameron did shoot a small portion of the fourth film already. Scenes being shot involved, I think involved the kid characters in the early scenes ahead of a time jump of quite a few years in the story at some point during the fourth film's first act.

I would rewrite that whole sentence. Anyway, but that won't be shown if the film doesn't succeed. By the end of its first week, yesterday the film had reached $544 million worldwide, this very strong start. but the big question with these films is how small those subsequent weekend drop-offs will be. If a fourth film doesn't happen, though, Cameron tells Entertainment Weekly,

he'll spell out what his plans would have been in a big press event. I don't know if the saga goes beyond this point. I hope it does. But, you know, we prove that business case every time we go out. Here's what it is. If we don't get to make four and five for whatever reason, I'll hold a press conference and I'll tell you what we were going to do, how is that? Cameron also says he'd love to write the novelization of the films

because he can bring so much background detail, but adds that there's no market for. He said there's so much culture and backstory and lateral detail in these characters that's been worked out, I'd love to do something that's at that level of granular detail, but there's no business model for it anymore. People aren't reading, but anyway, it might be good to have the canonical record

of what it was all supposed to be. A recent study by both of Florida and London University has indicated that the number of Americans read for pleasure has dropped 40%. Oh my God! Should a fourth Avatar film happen, the earliest it will arrive in cinema is in 20th. 29. So look, I like the, I like him being playful about this, that he'll have a press conference to tell you, which also speaks to his grandiose self-importance, but it is Cameron that is just standard with Cameron. And he's earned it. He's earned it. So him having a press conference, I think is funny. The idea that he wants to write these things. You know, I was watching The Ringer the other day. Chris Ryan was talking about how much he thinks James Cameron has wasted his career on these movies, on these avatar movies, when we could have gotten other things.

and other stuff from James Cameron, that could have been amazing to witness, right? Which I totally understand, I totally get. But you look at the situation here, and first of all, the press conference is hilarious. It's very funny. I wouldn't be surprised if he did that. The second element of this, though,

that I think is kind of stunning to think about is the fact that he hesitates about writing novelizations of these because people are reading less and less. And from, I guess from a brand perspective, I get it, because you're like, well, if people don't read it and it's not successful, then that'll come on me and it'll look bad on my brand, that James Cameron wrote a book and nobody read it, right? But I look at what's happening in comics.

The ultimate Batman run, the ultimate run, is it absolute? Sorry, is it absolute Batman? I think it's absolute Batman. It is doing so well and breaking records all over the place, and people are reading that stuff. So although the reading for pleasure is down 40%, which I am not in that camp because I just bought a shit ton of new books for Christmas and I like to read stuff online, it is a shame that social media and TikTok and Instagram and all these things are dragging us away from reading because reading is important. Analytical skills are important. Being able to disseminate factual from false information is important.

And reading helps you do that. Developing your skills as a reader helps you do that. I don't know that visually you're going to develop the same skills analytically that you would reading. So it is a shame that it's down 40% if those estimates are to be believed. But books are still coming out. Books are still being successful. Books are still selling millions of copies. So to me, I don't know necessarily that James is 100% correct there. That being said, though, I would love to see him walk away for a bit from Avatar and do other things. And I don't think I'm the only person who feels this way. And I think some of you who, even some of you who deeply love Avatar,

secretly wish that Cameron could split into two people and make other films along with the Avatar films, right? Because he's been in this world since, what, 2009? That is 16 years. And before that, developing it probably for four years. And so maybe 20, you say 20 years. years possibly in the world of Avatar. And so you'd love to see him do something else. And the fact that he's already shot scenes for the fourth film lets you know that he's

already planning to make a fourth film. And as I just mentioned half an hour ago at looking at the box office, there's no indication that these films are slowing down. There's no indication that he's not going to be able to hit the heights that he needs to hit financially in order to make a fourth and fifth film. So I think that's going to be fascinating. fascinating to see what he ends up doing. I don't

buy that he's going to do a press conference. Let me just put that on the table. I don't buy that for a minute that he's going to do a press conference and just tell you what he was going to do with four and five. I think what he might do, although I don't think it's going to happen because the film's going to be successful, this film clearly,

is that he would put the four and five stories into a novelization. That's a way of kind of combining the two situations where he will tell you what four and five are, but they're going to be a novelization. And I think that would be impressive of James Cameron to write a book. And then the book is a massive success.

So all the things he said about, well, people aren't reading as much. Or as the statistics say they're reading for pleasure is down 40%. If James Cameron could release a book in that environment and it became a massive bestseller, that would enhance his brand even more. that James Cameron is so beloved by audiences, but they will actually dispute the statistics about people reading for pleasure by buying his book in massive numbers.

That would be an amazing way to kind of showcase the power of your brand as James Cameron as well. So, yeah, I mean, this is a fascinating situation when you look at it. We'll see if it comes to bear. But I think he's going to be just fine. film clearly looks like it's going to make its money and do just fine in the long run.

We will see them. Okay. So let's move on to another story here. Where are we at here? Oh, yeah, the Spider-Man story. So let's get into Spider-Man. There is a rumor here. Let's hear your thoughts on this, ladies and gentlemen.

There's a rumor. Spider-Man 5 director has been revealed, update on brand-new day trailer release, and Sadie Sinks role. So a lot of Spider-Man and Marvel shit here. So strap in. A rough cut of the first Spider-Man. and brand new day trailer leaked online before the holidays, prompting speculation that an official release would follow

that always seemed a tad unlikely, given that the spotlight is currently on Avengers Doomsday. However, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that the teaser might be paired with Anaconda on Christmas Day, but then it wasn't. Today, and when was this? So this was on Friday. Today we have an update from my time to shine.

Hello, what's up, yo? How are you? You're awesome. who reports that the Spider-Man brand-new-day teaser trailer won't be released until 2026. This isn't hugely surprising, and there's chatter that mid to late January is the current plan. The insider is also reporting that Destin Daniel Cretton is expected to return for Spider-Man 5, which obviously doesn't bode well for him stepping in behind the camera for a Shang-chi

and the Legend of the Ten Ring sequel. The writing has been on the wall in that respect for some time, especially as we're already approaching half a decade since the movement. movies 2021 release. That is kind of crazy that it's been five years since Shang-chi. We also have another Sadie-Sink related rumor, sorry, from Daniel Rickman. What's up, R.BK? He claims that Spider-Man Brand New Day will feature an action sequence with the Stranger Thing star's character using mind control on Department of Damage Control guards. That brings us no closure to knowing who sync will play. Well, I think it does kind of,

if it's mind control, that's Gene Gray. Still, we have been able to piece together that the Punishers trying to protect her from the DODC as they continue to hunt down young superpowered individuals. Trent said, I'm so deeply grateful for the people who walked with me through the biggest most rewarding film I've been a part of. He sent on Instagram after shooting it wrapped

and Nikki Chapman for laughing through the insanity, carrying our entire family in your back to my kids for forcing me to put my phone down, get out of my head long enough to build a fort in the living room with couch cushions to our amazing cast for breathing so much life into these beloved characters and moving us every day to our unbelievable crew. who worked tirelessly with unmatched creativity and craftsmanship.

We're going to laugh. I love you all so much. You can't wait for the world to see your stunning work on the big screen. Of course, the Tom Holland for a kind, generous leadership on an off screen for your relentless work ethic, your fearless performances, and your friendship. That's a wrap on that. So, interesting stuff to consider. I think the trailer makes all the sense of the world coming out in 2026.

Considering the four trailers for Avengers Doomsday, they really want to focus on that. So I'm not surprised that you want to push. Spider-Man. The last thing you want to do is have Spider-Man lost amidst your Avengers Doomsday rollout, which they dropped the Thor trailer over the weekend. The X-Men trailer already leaked at least segments of it. People are going crazy about the Scott Summer shot with the optic blast. You know, so it's not surprised that they want to push this to the middle of 2026. And if I recall, oh, the middle of January of 2026. And if I recall correctly, Jeff said the same thing on the hot mic that he didn't anticipate the Spider-Man trailer coming

out this year, it would be coming out next year. So no surprise there on that end. Him continuing to do Spider-Man 5, that's not necessarily a shock either. Remember, John Watts did the first three films, and maybe they've pitched this to Destin Daniel Cretton as a trilogy, and they want him to do all three of these films. They're going to announce him like, you know, film by film. But I think that's essentially what you're going to have here. and I guess this is how you encourage Tom Holland to keep coming back is if he has a good relationship with Des and Daniel Cretton like yeah with John Watts,

well, he'll want to continue playing the role and we can explore more things within the role. So I'm not really surprised by that. The Shang Chi situation is interesting because I do think something went on behind the scenes there. Of course, my mind immediately goes to why are they sidelining this Asian character after it did so well,

it made so much money in the middle of COVID, or the first year of COVID, or second year, I guess, in 2021 of COVID, the fact that it was able to rise above and people were willing to risk this COVID and go see this movie and it did so well, it is utterly surprising that there has not been a sequel. There have been TV series, other movies, but you can't put together a sequel for Shang-Chi. And that tells me that I think they didn't anticipate

in being that successful and they had no plans for it. Or maybe they believe that an Asian-led movie won't do in this current environment, so they've kind of been on the fence about it, and now they're not rushing to do a sequel. An interesting comment from Simulhu right now, and by the way, Marvel should take note that his series, the Copenhagen test with Melissa Barrera, is already number one on Peacock.

Is the number one show on Peacock now after its debut just a couple of days ago? Or I think last night, actually, after the game, it's already number one in terms of the viewership numbers, which is pretty amazing. like take note. Simulhu is an actor that a lot of people like, that his work speaks volumes.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that Simul came out a few days ago and talked about Asian representation, now it's declining in our current environment. And I think it's a legitimate complaint to have and look at. I mean, I think it's always fascinating that the anti-woke people go,

why can't we put, why are white people being removed? Why are we race-swapping, blah, blah, blah. You're essentially saying the same things that Simul-Lew is saying, but you're stumping for the other side. So there's no difference.

So you can be mad at Similu, but you're doing the same fucking thing by crying for your representation of how you want to see things in entertainment. So there's no difference. There's literally the same fucking thing. So you look at the situation, you go, okay, it's clear to him

that he feels, I think, an element of why Marvel hasn't gone forward with this possibly, is because of the fact that it's an Asian show, Asian movie, Asian character, maybe they don't want to explore it too deeply, right? So I'm not saying that's true that that is the reason. I'm saying I could understand if people want to believe that or whatever.

It could also be that creatively they got caught with their pants down, didn't anticipate that people were going to like Shang Chi as much, and had no plans for a sequel, couldn't get it together, couldn't get a script written in time, couldn't get a director lined up. But Simulu said over the weekend that he would love to see Chloe Zhao come back and direct the sequel. to Shang Chi. That could be interesting, especially now coming out of Hamnet, which a lot of people think

Jesse Buckley is going to win that best actress, and Hamnet's going to possibly be nominated for Best Picture. Well, I think it will be. That to have her redemption, her feelings about the Eternals, maybe she's been redeemed to a degree. And I think that would be fascinating to see what she could do with it, you know, and what she would create with Shang Chi. But I don't think she'd run to do it, considering her experience on the Marvels. Even though she defends that film and loves that film, the reaction from the audience has not been positive.

As a side note, I watched the Komilna and Johnny stand-up last night. Good stand-up, not great, but his eternal stuff was very funny. We also watched the Robbie Hoffman stand-up on Netflix. She is funny. That is something that you all should be. watch it's like an hour and five minutes it's really good i've got to get to the chapel one the leslie jones one wasn't that strong i love her but that stand-up seemed a little underbaked so not as strong as i would like to see but i got to get to the chappelle one at some point in the next couple of

days but anyway i'm sidetracked anyway just um with her experience of the eternals maybe this is something that could be well well look here's another opportunity there's a lot of hardcore defenders of eternals maybe you could do something with shang chi and especially coming off a hamnet, that could be redentive, and that could get this franchise back on track, this branch of the Marvel franchise back on track. But that all depends on what's going to happen with Shang Chi in Secret Wars and Doomsday. Is he going to survive the battle?

Remember, this is going to be a culling. I think this is very clearly going to be a culling. They are going to kill a lot of people or kill off or remove or disappear. for lack of a better term, a lot of characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that they don't want going forward into the mutant saga. I think Shang Chi should absolutely make the cut and not be removed from the MCU because it's a great character that people love. So if you're going to go forward with him, I hope they're making plans to bring in someone like Chloe Zhao or Chloe Zhao level of talent to come in and do a sequel to Shang Chi that is way, way overdue. you know and i hopefully they think hopefully they're going to give him a big showcase in doomsday or secret wars with the 10 rings to show and his sister probably don't forget about a sister

to show that there is an audience for his stuff and maybe launch the taste for a sequel even more so in people's mouths going into the next couple of phases so i hopefully that's what happens there it would be great to see uh moving on to the stey sing part of this whole situation No surprise at all. She's absolutely, I think at this point, it's pretty clear she's playing Jean Grey. I had heard May Day Parker was a possibility from a pretty strong source. But of course, Jeff was the guy who broke the Jean Grey situation on the show and on the hot mic. Again, if you're not watching the hot mic every week, by the way, we're going live tomorrow,

probably 4 p.m. PT because Thursday is New Year, so we're not going to do it. Just like last week Christmas was Christmas, so we couldn't do it on Thursday. We're going to be live tomorrow at probably 4 p.m. p.t. on my channel, the John Rogan channel, the hot mic. So stay to look up for that. Jeff might have more news to break like he broke the trailers. Jeff broke the

trailers for Avengers Doomsday being X-Men this past week, right? And it was X-Men. That's what he had heard. No one else was saying X-Men. Jeff Snyder said X-Men and it was X-Men, right? Everyone else thought it was a Doom trailer, not a fucking Doom trailer.

He doesn't think we're going to see Doom until next year, or or the, which possibly the Super Bowl trailer, I think we're going to see him in the final trailer of this trailer of four cycles, but we'll see. But his next trailer, he claims, he said this last week on the hot mic, the next trailer will be the Wakanda Warriors

and the Fantastic Four together in the next trailer. So put that down in your minds as a possibility. We might not get a full Avengers Doomsday trailer until maybe the Super Bowl. So maybe these are the four trailers that kind of get us a taste of what's to come, and then they'll wait till the Super Bowl to release a full trailer, which if you release the Spider-Man 5 trailer in the middle of January, it gives you like a full month, month and a half

before you see the Avengers Doomsday trailer officially there. So possibilities. But I think it's pretty clear that she's playing Gene Gray. My theory is that she is going to be with Harris Dickinson, Scott Summers, whoever's playing the new Scott Summers. No, sorry, my theory. is that she is going to be the possible

new romance for Peter Parker is Gene Gray, even though that seems a little weird, or maybe they're just friends. And he is, and if the Punisher's defending her, protecting her,

it could be that Spider-Man also gets enlisted in this to protect her for whatever reasons. And then Harris Dickinson is probably MJ's new boyfriend. So Scott Summers would be MJ's new boyfriend.

And then for whatever reason, they meet up. And it's clear that Harrison and her aren't quite right for each other. But Harrison and Gene Gray spark a connection. And maybe as a gift to Peter, Gene unscrambles MJ's mind for her to remember Peter and they come back together by the end of Spider-Man 4. That's my prediction. Now, I could be way off base.

Maybe I've watched too many Hallmark Christmas movies. but like that's kind of in my head that Jean and Scott are going to connect in Spider-Man Brand New Day and that Gene is going to help MJ remember her memories of Peter as a gift to Peter for protecting her or defending her against the DoDC

and will give MJ back her memories and then Peter and MJ will be together again moving into the next few installments. And of course Harrison Dickinson is not confirmed it's just that they've been looking for a Harris Dickinson type person and who better than Harris Dickinson's to be a Harrison Harris Dickinson type person. Try saying that name three times. So that's my thoughts on all of this.

So we'll see. We'll see. It's a good question. Does Zendaya want to keep doing Spider-Man? I don't know when Zendaya wants to do. I don't know what she wants to do. But the possibilities are there. And remember, when they read the first script,

Holland said that both her and Zada were like jumping up and down and jumping on the bed and really excited. So yes, the script has been rewritten, but maybe those elements of the script are still there where MJ and Peter find their way back. And the way that they find their way back is through an iconic character like Jean Gray. As a nerd, as a

geek, as a fan of these comic books, as as Tom Holland and Zad Day have said they've been to find out that your character might be getting reconnected through Gene Gray. That's a massive thing. That's a great thing to be a part of.

So we'll see if that's true. We'll see if that's true or not. But I'm personally looking forward to it. Let's stop misreporting. No one's reporting anything, motherfucker. Calm down. I'm just saying that's what people are saying. That's what some of the reports are saying.

Calm the fuck down. No one is misreporting anything. People are just talking rumors. It's okay. You'll live. Don't be so sensitive, Sally. Like it's okay. We're just talking about it.

Like nerds talk about. shit in the basements of your friends's houses. That's all it is. I didn't say officially. I didn't say Marvel is confirming. I didn't say I'm hearing from the biggest sources. Like I didn't say that on this air is taking some thing. So relax. It's just speculation. We're having fun. We're talking about stuff. None of this could be fucking true. Okay. So nobody's reporting anything. Jesus. But it's just, it's just fun to talk about this stuff and speculate where it's all going and see where it goes. And I'm not one of these people that's like, if my predictions don't come true, then it's going to suck. It's more a matter of like,

I don't care if my predictions come true or not. I want to see if you're going to deliver a good movie or a good TV show. That's more important than anything else, right? I mean, I have no problem being off on a prediction or being off on a rumor or a source or whatever if it means the film is a better film, you know, or a TV show. I really don't care. Not tied up and all. But I kind of like my theory that Gene Gray is going to be the one that puts them together because it would make sense. Who else can help someone get their memory back than Gene Gray with her abilities, right? So that could be possible, very, very possible.

She could be powerful enough to turn back with Dr. Strange did. I wouldn't doubt it. We don't know what the powers of the mutants are when you look at the situation. So that's my theory. Listen, I have not read that anywhere. So don't anyone try to say I stole it from anybody or I took it from someone or I took it from someone or, you know, Oroca must have read this or watch this. I don't watch a lot of other people's content. I don't read a lot of other people's content because I'm too focused on making my stuff.

And I don't want it to be influenced by other people's content. And I like to be my own singular thoughts, my own thoughts on all these kind of stuff. Do I come up with something later like read stuff to see if elements of it, how it fits into what I'm thinking? Yes, but I do not, I have not read that anywhere. So that's something me, just looking at it, analyzing what might be a possibility here and thinking. that this is a way they could go down. This could be a surprise. I'm not breaking anything.

I haven't heard this from any sources. This is just me speculating, having fun, like I'm sitting in your basement and we're hanging out, shooting the shit, talking about what could be possible in the next Spider-Man movie. So I just want you to take it under that advisement. All right.

I'm taking a drink again. All right. Just making that clear. All right. So we'll see what happens with that. With that Spider-Man brand-new day stuff. so keep it in mind. All right, we're up to 14 superchats. Come on, people. Get me to 50 for God's sake. Get me to 50. Let's go to 50. Get me to 50. Send in your questions. We have 450 of you joining me

live. I appreciate it very, very much. You could be anywhere else this morning. And the fact that you're hanging out listening to me talk about this stuff and talking amongst yourselves in the chat, which is very lively today, I appreciate it very much. I'm sure Christian Harloff appreciates it very much. but super chats are a big, big part of the show. So please keep sending them in. Let's get to 50. I would appreciate it, especially with 450 of you joining us live. Please send in your love and your questions, thoughts and comments.

Because these go to Christian. They don't go to me. If you're not sending them in because I'm hosting the show, I'm telling you, you're doing Christian a disservice, not me. Because I'm going to keep hosting the show when he's not around. There's no way around that. So you're not sending the super chats to me. You're sending the superchats to Christian Harloff to the Christian

Harlov show. So I want to make that clear. So whatever your issues are with me, it should have nothing to do with sending in super chats to support the Christian Harlov show and the Christian Harlov channel, especially because I might be the only live show this week. As for some of you may be a little late coming on, Christian told me that he is going to do pre-recorded best of stuff over the next few days. I don't know if there'll be a live capes and cowls at this point. But at this point, I am the only one going live this week. So there i just let it go so all right uh let's move on to another story here oh boy let's get into it y'all it's stranger things time here we go

who season five volume two spoilers all right so if some of you haven't seen this uh maybe you want to turn it down uh maybe but uh the episodes have come out so let's talk about it with a quick strange thing season five volume two oh there's a nice pair of then season five volume two arrived on Netflix yesterday evening and confirmed that the upside down is really a wormhole that connects the real world to Vecna's abyss. That's a typo there. If exploded, it will collapse, given the show's Harrow's one last dangerous mission, meanwhile, 11s, Max finally wakes up in a world. Perhaps the biggest moment his latest episodes is Will when he comes out as gay to his friends and family, following his emotional confession. The teenager decides to return to the upside down

with 11 so that they can collapse the wormhole and put an end to Vecta's dastardly plans. Talking to the Hollywood reporter, the Duffer Brothers, discussed Will's big moment in the bridge. That's the name of the episode. I just know it took forever, Matt said, of writing the scene. Originally, it was just going to be him coming out to his mom,

and then we felt they needed to be more than that, and that it needed to involve his friends. We worked on that for a while with just Joyce, went out a writer, and it just never felt right. So once we involved the friends, it started to click a little bit more into place. I don't recall exactly how long it took. I just remember it taking quite a long time and then being nervous when we showed it to Noah

because so much of it is close to what he's been through, but also he knows Will so well. So it had to be truthful for him on two fronts. And so the fact that it resonated with him was great. And then we felt so much relief and the pressure kind of went on to Noah. Oh, nice, you put the pressure on the actor. As for how they're keeping the finale's biggest secrets under wraps, Matt said, well, we didn't shoot multiple endings. I don't know how anyone has the time to do something like that just to trick people.

But we had a really good security team and they did their best to keep the paparazzi away. The finale script was printed on red paper, but just the finale because it's annoying to get red scripts. While the stage has been set for some potential casualties in the last stand against Vecna, that doesn't want fans to worry too much about characters like Hopper and Steve. However, he's also not discounting some emotional farewells as this story finally reaches its end. It's not Game of Thrones. We're not Westrose. I love Game of Thrones, but it's just a very different type of show than that.

There's not going to be a red wedding situation. I think some things happen in the finale. They're very surprising. but we're not trying to shock or upset anyone. I hope by the time people get to the end of the finale that it just feels like there's something inevitable about what happens and that it doesn't feel painful but feels satisfied.

We'll see, but as for Steve's fate, I don't know, I can't say. It would be the next logical step. He keeps getting beaten up more and more. The only way we could take it further is death, Matt added with a laugh. Elsewhere in the interview, the duo discussed their eminent plans to leave Netflix for Paramount but reaffirm that they'll remain attached to the Stranger Things franchise.

A live action spinoff is in the early stages of development set in a different decade with different characters. It's a raw stuff for explains. It's an idea we've had for years and something we're just really excited and passionate about. We won't be show running that show, but we'll be heavily involved. So as the new year comes around, we're going to start spending more time on that. Hopefully it's something announced soon-ish. So there you go.

All right. So let's talk about it. I have to say that I've not been the biggest fan of the last three episodes. I felt that they were overly long, which I think is hard to avoid when you have now expanded the characters in the show to double digits almost arguably 20 characters that you're dealing with if you include the adults

when it comes to the show, and it's a lot. So I myself found the last three episodes to be a bit of a slog. Although I enjoyed some elements of the episodes and the scenes, I thought a little bit that they were so bogged down the Duffers were in trying to make sure

every storyline got its moment of closure to a degree before they get into the big finale that I think it weighed down the last three episodes. And I also think there's about an hour's worth of cuts you can make in all three of these episodes total,

like an hour total out of the three about an hour each episode, but an hour over the last three, that could have made this a much more leaner, meaner approach to the show. But indulgence nowadays for a lot of people who watch this stuff is not necessarily bad. Because Avatar, I think that movie is overlonged by like 45 minutes. Avatar, there's no reason it should be three hours and 14 minutes. But clearly for the box office, people don't give a shit. They want to live in that world for three hours and 14 minutes.

They are enjoying it for the most part. Stranger Things, I think there's a little bit of indulgence as well from the Duffer Brothers. Every episode this season so far has been either an hour or way over an hour that they've delivered. And so that also speaks to the fact that they feel that people want to stay in the world of Stranger Things for as long as possible. But yes, Professor says it well. A lot of explaining in season five. Yeah, there's a lot of moments to stop and explain for people. It almost feels like a Dateline episode.

For those of you who watch Dateline, they spent, what, 30 minutes of Dateline repeating what they just told you five minutes ago after the break. Like, it's so, like those Dateline episodes should be maybe 40 minutes long, but they're an hour and 15 or an hour and 20 or an hour and 30 sometimes. But it's because they're repeating the same facts over and over again. So you as the viewer are putting things in context constantly. and it felt that way in Stranger Things that they were going so far out

with some of these explanations that they felt they had to dumb down the explanations to get people to understand what's happening. And no greater example of that was Maya Hawks character doing the whole record in the sleeve into the cover, into the whole... Like that whole thing, I was just like, oh my God,

oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. But, you know, maybe they're doing that for the younger audience people or for the older people who maybe have trouble retaining some of that information. So I get the logic. It's just that I think that bogged down a lot of the last three episodes was a lot of explaining and all of that kind of stuff. So it was a little frustrating for me.

So let's get to the Will thing. I tweeted this out yesterday. And I don't know. I don't know. Should I bring up my tweet on this? Because I have thoughts on this. Some people have reacted strongly. Some people reacted angrily.

Okay, so yeah, I'm going to bring this up to show you what my thoughts on this will scene was. Let's see, is it big enough to be seen by you guys? Yeah, I'd make it a little bigger. All right. Here's what I said. The actual truth about this stranger thing scene is that it's actually a well-written scene. I've been laughing at a bunch of straight dudes criticizing the audience and saying they could have written a better coming out scene. I just think that was funny.

like what do straight dudes know about what gay people experiences they try to come out in the 1980s by the way. I do agree that it was not an effective scene, however, but for three different reasons. It wasn't built up to effectively enough by the duffers, which is on them.

They had to make us believe that the love the others have for will would have made them stop at this critical moment to give him space to come out to them. Now, a lot of people have criticized that the timing of the coming out scene is an issue

because things are about to fall apart and they're about to fight Vecna, why would you come out now? Now, let me tell you something. Coming out, you come out when you come out. The timing, what's going on, all that shit? When you want to come out, you come out. And Will, as a character, has shown us throughout five seasons that he will do what he wants to do in the moment that he does it, no matter how inopportune or the timing or how off the timing might be when he does. There have been multiple times throughout the five seasons that I've been frustrated at Will needing to have a conversation about something in that moment.

That's Will's character, right? So I didn't think necessarily the timing was off. It's more a matter of the way they built up to the timing of when they did this wasn't great. I thought the Duffer Brothers didn't do a well enough job in building up to the moment. Because we have to want to have Will have that moment. And I don't think they built up to it effectively enough. I think it doesn't matter. If you build up to something effectively enough,

the placement of it is irrelevant. Because if you've built it up well enough, the placement makes sense, right? Do you think the Brits were waiting for William Wallace to finish his fucking monologue to inspire the Scottish people before they attacked the fucking Scottish people? No, they didn't, okay?

So these are licenses, creative licenses you make in shows. But what did that film do that I don't think Stranger Things did well? Was build up to that moment where we as a viewer are, like we're enraptured by William Mollas showing up and doing this whole monologue because the Scottish people were leaving. The Warriors didn't want to stay.

And so it made sense that William would deliver the speech and all of this kind of stuff. So where you place the speech is, I think you've got to build up to it effectively enough, and then the placement makes sense. And I don't think they did that here, which is why the placement feels off. The setting was also not the best place for this moment to happen because it had the air of an AA meeting, Alcoholics Anatoos, Phyllis you're not familiar, which is not what you want. Right. You don't want the coming out to feel like a confession, right?

The coming, and I know why the coming is happening because Vecna is forcing this to happen and wanted to use Will to go after everybody, so Will's going to reveal this. Yes, you can argue the motivations of why this is happening is not necessarily the best way for someone to come out, almost forced to come out of the closet to agree. So I totally take that point. But the air of an A.A.N. It was such a, like it was such a, it's so yellow. and dank and that's not the place you want Will to come out, right? Also, and some of you all might hate me for saying this,

but Noah Snap was not a good enough actor to pull this monologue off, believably. I really believe that. It's legitimately, I was watched that model. I've watched it three or four times now to make sure I'm clear about my feelings on this monologue, and I just don't think he gets there. Yes, he experienced this. Yes, he's gone through this.

Yes, it has his shades of reality, blending into fiction and what have you. And he has been good in other spots before. But I just don't, I think this monologue was past him as an actor. It's a little too big. I said he has, he had to be good enough for us as viewers to forget about Vecna and cheer him on coming out in this moment. He has always been the weakest of the OG actors and giving him this monologue was just

a bridge too far for him, I believe. Just offering my honest analysis and opinion here and not trying to be me. I do think he has not been as consistently good as Finn Wolfhardt. or Millie Bobby Brown or Monorazzo or God, I forget the kid who plays Lucas. Like, I just, I don't think he's been there consistently enough, strongly enough. There have been moments where Noah has come through, but from a lot of people I've spoken to a lot of critics I talk to, who don't want to say this out loud,

they have felt that Noah isn't necessarily the strongest actor. Now, it doesn't mean that Noah can't go on and be a fantastically great actor. Don't get it wrong. This is still young in his career. A lot of people develop into greatness. Some people are already great, like Chalabay from the beginning, or DiCaprio from the beginning. But some young actors need a little bit more time to develop and grow and become great, right? Or become damn good.

And I think you've seen flashes of Noah being good throughout the five seasons. I just think this monologue was beyond it. And I do think it's well written. You can make every one of those lines work if you've put it in the hands of someone who's got a little bit more skill and technique and organic honesty in telling the truth. At times, it felt performative what he was doing, especially the I Don't Like Girls Line. Woof, that was putting five spotlights on something instead of underplaying it. And I think a better actor understands how to ride the waves and the beats and the builds of a monologue correctly. Why do you love great monologues in movies or TV shows?

It's because of the build. And you're taught that in acting school, how acting class, how to create builds effectively in a monologue so that you hit that. point and when you hit that point people are fucking going nuts for it great monologues are constructions and you have to act you have to construct your performance to match the construction of the monologue and i don't think that was necessarily uh done here by noah snap again i'm not saying he's a terrible actor and he should never work again i'm saying just this monologue i don't think he got there as effectively as good because i guarantee you if he delivered a banger of a performance in this monologue people wouldn't have given too much of a shit about the placement,

too much of a shit about the writing, or too much of a shit about all the friends being there who barely know Will, which I thought was a ridiculous reasoning, because they all know somebody who loves Will, so by connection, they are going to sit there and listen to Will come out out of respect. Plus Will just defeated Vecna like, what, an episode ago,

or at the end of the first four episodes. So they know Will's power. The whole sorcerer thing became a cheesy subplot at times. And so they know what Will it can do. So out of respect, they would sit there and listen to him doing this kind of thing. I said, yeah, there'd still be these inauthentic right-wing foe Christian Gryfters crying about Netflix inserting a glave plot line, which is so ridiculous. People saying that he's been gay since season one.

But they would have been drowned out by the near universal praise the scene would have gotten if all three of the other elements I mentioned had been effective. I always point to X-Men 97 as the example, Beau de Mayo's X-N-97. when you deliver a product that is top-notch, all the anti-woke grifters become white noise to the general public. And that's true. It doesn't mean that there isn't legitimate criticism

to be had here, as I just lobbied legitimate criticism at the situation. I just think if you're coming from a place of, they inserted a gay plot line, like if he hasn't been, there hasn't been, this hasn't been a running subplot through the entire five seasons.

You're being inauthentic with your offense or your anger or your frustration with a situation because it's not Netflix inserting a gay plot line that's so stupid, it is the fact that it wasn't done effectively enough so that people wouldn't care. If it was done effectively enough, people wouldn't care. People would be cheering will coming out.

Even if Vecna was outside the door, people would still be cheering for it because it was done effectively enough. And that's always important. And there's a lot of elements that are involved in how things are effective and not effective. You know, we've all written papers for school. we've all constructed some of you who are really intelligent,

have written thesis for your, to get your degrees there, your MBAs, what have you. It's construction of your paper, of a report, whatever. TV shows, films are the same way. The way you construct things to lead to beats, to lead to important moments are super important. And those moments live and die by your effectiveness. Now, I think if Noah had delivered a better performance, people would still have had issues,

but they would have been, yeah, but he really fucking killed it in that mall. So it sucks to me where it was placed, but damn, he killed it. So I didn't care as much, right? Those those things you need to have. So I think there was a lot of things that were against Noah and against will in the situation that didn't work out effectively enough. So, yeah, there is no one right way to come out what matters that the person. themselves is comfortable and safe enough to speak up. Yeah, exactly. But I think some people have

made some really interesting points, and that is about like in the 1980s. What would this be like in the 1980s? Would he really be able to come out to this many people and no one would have an issue with it? And I think that's a fair point. Honestly, I do think that's a fair point. Finding what, 20 people who would not have an issue with this, it's kind of believable though, because Murray's a bit of a weirdo. Maya Hawks character had already come out and her girlfriend was there with them. All the OG guys probably all suspected he was gay. And so I've always been supportive of him.

His mom is there. Hopper's certainly not going to have an issue with it. 11's not going to have an issue with it. Max isn't going to have an issue with it, you know, because she's just been through some traumatic shit. So I don't think that there's many people who were in that room. I don't think there's any people really who were in that room who would necessarily not be in that room or have an issue with it.

I understand people being upset about that, but I just don't think that argument holds as much water as some of the other arguments I've seen about the scene because, you know, you do that. You know, like, how can I say, like on a football team, there's, what, 48 people on a football team or 100s, 24, 40, whatever it is. Like one dude needing to speak to the whole team, not everybody has a connection to the one dude.

even if he's like the top running back quarterback, the fifth string or third string linebacker might not have the same connection, but he's going to sit in the room and listen and give respect because that person is a big part of the team just as well as a big part of the OGT. So it's just a way of looking at it. So yeah.

All right. What? Roka is saying weirdos support LGB. I didn't say what. Why do you say stupid shit like that? I don't know. Like, what do you get out of that? Like, I just don't understand. If you come in battery sometimes with some of the weirdest,

but I don't, is it the attention? Do you need the attention? I just, I'm just fascinated by that because I did not say that in any way, shape, or form. But I guess people need to shit on people for whatever reason to feel better about them. It's really weird. Erica really is the unsung MVP of the show. Yeah, yeah, and she barely got any time. The big sideline people are, what's your face?

Winona Ryder. Man, Winona Ryder is just collecting a paycheck this whole last season, right? They haven't given her much to do at all. It has one scene with her beating up, you know, who she beats up in that moment with the hockey stick or whatever it was or the rake, whatever it was there in the front. But there hasn't been much for her to do at all. So it's been a fascinating thing to see her essentially sideline through this entire season. We'll see what the finale does. So.

But yeah, kept it small and intimate, but I get that it's with the whole group. Well, I mean, like all the people is, it's a lot of people that had to be involved in all of it. So, you know, it's a situation. Cody said, Lady Hote says, even in the 90s, most kids didn't, quote, come out until after they graduated high school. You're right. You're right. I mean, I, listen, I grew up in the 80s. I grew up in the 80s.

I had friends who were gay, you know, being in theater, being in drama, you meet gay kids. Some were out. Some were very obviously gay and had no problem being gay. even in a small Virginia town that I grew up in, you know, some people were open about it, had no problem with it. Some people were,

I hit it and had to come out later, right? It's all a person by person, a case by case basis. And that's just how it is. And so I remember. And I know that I had two people come out to me when I was there in high school. And I'd already kind of suspected,

but they came out to me. And I was like, oh, okay, no big deal. Like whatever. I've never really cared about that shit. It's never been a problem for me. I'd never really cared about it. You know, it's like, we're all human beings.

We're all struggling with the things we're struggling. We all have things we have to go through. And we all have things we have to experience, you know, and I just never had an issue with it. So to me, I understand people's problems with the scene in terms of the placement of it. But I think everything was solved,

it would have been solved. If they had built to it better, if Noah had delivered a better performance, and the situations around it had been a little bit more fleshed out so that we would have gotten a much more powerful impact of that moment coming out, you know. So that's my two cents. Oh, Roka's saying is, no, I mean because, oh, okay, so let me clarify that.

I didn't say weirdos. I was saying because Murray has felt out of the mainstream. And gay people from my experience of numerous friends who are gay like Michael Vogel and on the geek buddies, like they feel out of the mainstream. They feel not normal. They're made to feel this way by society. And so for me, that's what I mean. Murray has been made to feel different.

So I maybe should have said that. Murray is a bit odd and he's been made to feel different from the mainstream. Therefore, he would understand Will is coming out because people who are gay are made to feel, for the most part, not everybody's the same, but for the most part, are made to feel out of the mainstream by society. So I think that's the thing I was trying to clarify. The thing trying to say. So thanks for giving me a chance to clarify that.

That's what I was getting. So, yeah, fair point to. I mean, you went, you could have done a little analysis and figured out that's where I was coming from, but fine, if he needed me to explain it to you, I understand it. So, Chris says,

I love it when people are criticizing someone, they're called a hater, and when someone's going to show what it's called criticism, she seems to care more about being a star than an act. Oh, Millie Bobby Brown? It's a young person. How many of you had shit figured out in your early fucking 20s or late teens?

and she's a new mom. There's just a lot to going on, man. We've got to create grace. For the younger people, you've got to create a little bit of grace. It may be frustrating. It may anger you, but you've got to create a little bit of grace.

We're all on our journeys. How many of you would look back now on your 20-year-old stuff and go, you're an idiot. You're an idiot for saying the things that you're saying or you're an idiot for doing the things that you're doing. This is life. It's life, you know, so.

Yeah, Maria had two lines. Exactly. All right. So, anyway, those are the stories for, today we're at 1024 so my time so we should get into the questions there is 21 of them again i would love to get to 50 i would love for you all to help me get to 50 but you know uh we'll see if we can do that uh someone asked where i got my shirt from this cobra shirt you're gonna be surprised where i got it from but it's coals i ordered it online they had a black friday sale uh and i got a lot of t-shirts

for 11 dollars each so i was like yeah i'll buy like eight eight t-shirts for 11 bucks each with the discounts using my Coles card. So don't sleep on Coles. You can go and find some really good stuff on Coles, not the stuff in the store. Their website has a shit ton of stuff, pages and pages of superhero t-shirts. And some of them are the same ones you'll see on Amazon,

but way cheaper on Coles. So that's what I would recommend to you. And which poster are you talking about? My Mandalorian poster? That's from my people. What? Oh, God, I always forget them. We follow each other.

on Twitter oh damn it I forget sometimes hold on oh god you know what sometimes my brain just goes dead and I can't remember

who it is I do stuff with or who it is I work with because my brain just gets old oh poster coasters poster company they do releases almost every day they do geek stuff

Fuck. It starts with a B. Can you guys help me? It's got like a green and black logo. I can't remember. Yeah, it's not red bubble. I don't know. Maybe some of you can help me in the, no, it's not Mondo. I can't remember what the name of the poster company is, but they send me stuff all the time. We follow each other on Twitter, but I can't remember their names right now. So that's on me. And I apologize. for that. Because I'd love to promote them because they always do great, great stuff. Yeah. And the Empire Strikes Back one that I got from them was also pretty fucking cool,

which I really enjoyed. Yeah, no, I don't see it. Oh, here, there it is, bottleneck. There it is, bottleneck gallery. That's the name of them. We follow each other on Twitter. They're really great. They have a lot of fucking awesome posters.

If you sign up for their email list, they'll send you like every time there's a new poster coming, they will give you a warning that it's coming and what time they're releasing the poster. And then you can try to buy it as soon as it, usually at 9 a.m. PT, my time, 12 p.m. ET. They release a new poster and you can order it ahead of time. And so the last three posters I've gotten, I've gotten from them. And they have some great artwork in terms of the posters. They have some great artists working who do some great stuff. So bottleneck gallery is the name of the place.

So absolutely go and take a look at them. And they have a bunch of stuff that you can have fun with for sure. But yeah, like I said, they'll send you poster stuff when they release it. So yeah, bottleneck gallery. Thanks for putting up with me as I figure this out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Shit ton of stuff.

So yeah, they have, yeah, the Crow, Scott Pilgrim, Looney Tunes. Day of the Dead. They have a lot of Star Wars stuff. They had the original trilogy posters on sale back in October for the Drew Sturzon situation, so you could have bought them, the original trilogy posters. The screen print was $85, but if you set it and had it all framed, $245. So it's not cheap, but it's really great quality. So I highly suggest those, how you suggest checking out a bottleneck gallery.

you want some great poster. So all right. That's it. Let's get to the questions here. Let's bring them up as we go along. Again, I'd love to get to 50. So we have 23 right now. We'll see if we do that before the 11 o'clock hour.

Michael, DA81, what says support. What's up, Michael? Love that smile, as I said the other day. Great stuff. Seattle, K.O. says, I watch Bagonia and Roofman over the weekend. And absolutely love both. I do hope they'll get more buzz now that they're on streaming. Yeah, probably Bagonia.

Maybe Roofman will get more people to see it on streaming. but I don't think awards possibilities are there for Roofman, but certainly for Bagonia. Julius Wyatt 88.95 says, Marty Supreme was awesome, top two of the year. Yeah, man, I have it in my top three. I'm not going to give the placement out because I still might do a video,

but it's in my top three for sure. Wiley OFC says, Roka, you got to admit Marty Supreme is like the color of money. It's like Vince Cruz got his own movie after the events of the color of money. Color of Money, best movie of all time. You're the best. Thank you, Wiley.

I know you're a big color of money. money fan. Yeah, I will admit there are elements of color of money in this, but he doesn't have a mentor. He doesn't have Fast Eddie to help him. He's doing this all on his own. He's driven to beat the Japanese champion in the film. There's no Gwyneth Poutro. There's no Kevin O'Leary in color of money. Unless you want to say Fast Eddie is Kevin O'Leary and Mary Elizabetha, Antonio is the Paltrow. But that's that's, that's, that's, seems like a stretch. But the fast-paced breakneck speed of this thing and the arrogant belief in himself, certainly the elements of Vince in the Timothy Shalamee character or Marty Supreme in that movie for

short. Joe for show, 24 says two billion cakewalk for firing cash. Let's go. I don't know of two billion. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know. I think a billion, sure, no problem. But too implies that through the entire month of January is still going to be stomping through the box office. And I don't know necessary that that's going to happen. But who knows? Those films have had incredible legs over the last two installments. So we'll see.

Kingsport Cowell says, do you remember Go? I love that film. Very nice. Yeah, of course I remember Go. Sarah Polly. And I think Katie Holmes and great Timothy Oliphant as the kind of slow drug dealer in that film. Isn't Jamie Kennedy in that one as well in Go?

And it was essentially like they saw Pulp Fiction and we're like, oh, we'll do our own version of Pulp Fiction with a little less blood, younger characters. And I thought it was fine. I can't remember who directed Go right now. I would fail that as a five-pointer. But I do remember that that was one of the best no-doubt songs was from the Go soundtrack.

The song was called Go. That was one of the best songs that they ever did. I remember that Gwen Stefani. I miss that Gwen Stefani. I do not like that Gwen Stefani that is around now. But that Gwen Stefani that was rebellious, thumbed her nose and authority, and would never be caught in a prayer circle.

That's the Gwen Stefani I miss. And that Go song was fucking excellent. Carver 94. Thank you for doing a fantastic job cover for Christian today. And I wish you a very happy New Year, John. Thank you, Carver. hope I did a serviceable job sitting in for the man, Christian Harloff, you know.

I have my channel. Some of you may want to come subscribe to that, my channel, YouTube.com slash John Roker says the John Roka channel. We will have a geek buddies episode later on today with me and Mike and Shannon reviewing Stranger Things a little more deeply, getting into the Pluribus finale, talking about the Avengers Doomsday stuff, and some other things that we want to talk about there on the show.

Then tomorrow night is the hot mic at 4 p.m. P.T. for now, 4 pm pt for now jeff and i going into the hot mic and doing that live i don't i think we might not do another spill of tequila in 2025 we'll probably do that starting next year wednesday will probably be just me going live uh on new year's eve uh earlier in the day uh new year's day i don't know if i'll do anything maybe it depends on how i feel but then friday we'll be back doing something whether it's geek buddies or me solo there'll be something there on friday maybe spill the tequila if winston has time we'll see but yeah please subscribe to my channel just crossed uh you know thousand a few weeks ago would love to get to 50,000 in 2026 would appreciate you all coming aboard

Carlton. Carlton Runders is London call it. What's up Carlton? Sending 11 support John and holding the fort in Christian Sapsons. Have a great New Year's celebration with the Lady Ella. Thank you, Carlton. I appreciate that madly. It's very kind of you, bud. There's always good to see you. Have a good time there in London. I think you celebrate New Year's eight hours before we do. Who show in 1980? Do I love that picture, bro? Make sense. Award shows. no some Cossus de Vuehitos. Yeah, of course.

You're right about that. Hitcho. You're right about that. I'm saying that way. Hitcho, Hitcho, 1980. Vato. Makes sense, man, award shows. No some cases de jihitos.

Oh,ms. Yeah, there you go. Ninja Cam says, Bears, 49ers games. It was. And I'm a moron. A moron for not starting Brock Purdy.

I made it to the final of the only league I was in this year. I usually do eight fantasy football leagues, but I was too busy. this season. So I committed to one with a bunch of my friends from Virginia. And I made it to the finale. And I picked up Trevor Lawrence thinking, well, he's been killing at the last five weeks. That Bears defense might slow down Brock Purdy, but I was a moron. Because Brock Purdy, I think had almost 40 points last night. And Trevor got 26 points, so it's

nothing to sneeze at. But still, I could have had 40 points. And now I'm behind three points going into tonight's game, my opponent has Nekua and I have Kairn Williams. So it's really a coin flip. If Nekua has a great game, then I'm dead. If Kyrin has a great game and Nukua has a decent game, then I might win. So it's a, it's a, it's maddening because I'd be way ahead right now a little more comfortably if I'd started Brock Purdy. But that being said, they look fantastic last night. The Bears look for real, for sure, give them everything they got in in San Francisco. So I think the bears are going to be a very tough out in the NFC. People need to be waking up to these bears because Caleb can throw a beautiful ball.

All the promise that he showed at USC, he is showing now in the second season with the Bears. And don't be surprised if the Bears find themselves in the NFC championship game. I would not be surprised. But I'm cheering for the 49ers because if Brock Purdy could win the Super Bowl, it would silence so many people. DeSals is 0978 says, happy New Year's, John. What a must-have 4K BlueRise that I have to own my collections coming along slowly but surely?

Oh, I don't... Oops. I don't want to hit the... I don't want to knock that over. Hold on a second. Let me take my Iron Man down. Let me take my Red Hulk down. Oh, there you go.

All right. What do you got here? Blade Runner in 4K? Absolutely you have to have that. What else have I got here in 4K? The Searchers in 4K, one of the great classic, the greatest Western

ever made this side of them. I would say that's a part of the elements that you have to have let's see what else of the got here uh oh yeah the new release of seven in 4k if you haven't got seven in 4k it is a beautiful transfer highly recommend knock down my whole what else should you have on 4k oh absolutely uh maybe one of the greatest films ever to have on 4k the matrix uh let's see what else i'm like that here oh Yeah, definitely this. I mean, this is arguably with Parasite, one of the greatest films ever made from the same year, 1917. While these lights are really bright, if the green screen, is it about a fade thing? Maybe it's about a setting. Hold on a second. Let's see. Where's the setting on the digital effects? Maybe I'm a little too faded. Is that better? Oh, no, no. You can see the green screen there. So let's find that middle ground. There, maybe there? What do you guys think? Is that better? Can I hold this up now without it? Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, it's still little issues there, right? Right underneath the shelves. So maybe not the best. But anyway, those are some of those who should have Shane. Certainly I have here for Sam Levine, glorious bastards. And pretty much all the criterions you can find that. I would highly recommend those.

So there you go. Those are ones that I recommend for sure. And Citizen Kane, if you're a big old school great films fan, Citizen Kane is one to half. Now my things are a minute. Anyway, all right, let's get to the next. one. Joshua Gonzalez says let's clone variations of Polly Shore to act in every movie from now on. No new actors.

Jesus Christ, you imagine. Polly Short. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and they just came out with the Kill Bill volumes, one and two and four K. So I highly recommend those. That's my favorite Tarantino film, period. I wonder if you all got to see the whole bloody affair in theaters. I hope you did. No Opinion 88 says my YouTube recap should have been political channels,

but Roka, you were my number one visited channel in the geek entertainment YouTube. tooth here. Oh, thanks, man. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. We are small but mighty. And I appreciate you coming around to the channel, dude. And thanks for watching all our stuff that we do. And we hope we entertained you. I'm sure I frustrated you at times, but I hope I entertained you as well. Thank you. Carver 9-4s is, by the way, where did you get your shirt? I must have one. I just told you, Carver, at Coles. Go look at Coles. They have them. They have some really good shirts there. Good quality, too. So highly recommend y'all check that out. Blazing kid, Tess, Blazing kids, I don't know who

say that. Bays and Kit Tess. Hey, Rook, and now the House Made did good, Sweeney, Sidney, finally got a hit. Do you see James Gunn hiring her for Power Girl if they're doing the other universes like Earth One? I see a lot of promises being overlooked here. All right.

It's not a hit. It's only made its budget back plus $7 million. So it's not a hit yet. In fact, where is it at right now? Hold on. Where is it at the Housemade box office? Because I think it's only people call it a hit need to calm down yeah uh yeah 46 million worldwide yeah it's not a hit unless it makes

money this is got people understand that that's just because it has a big box office for a small film you always have to look at a budget budget's 35 million so far the box office is 46 so there's no hit here it's just that it's made 11 million dollars more than its budget but it could absolutely tank in the next two to three weeks and finish at 55 or 60 million? Is that a hit? I don't think so. Not for a $35 million movie. It hasn't made even twice its budget, which is what you, two and a half is the baseline, but you can be nice and lenient and go to two times, but we'll see. I just don't, it's not a hit to me, in my opinion. But it's done better than I expected because I didn't think that thing was even going to make $35 million. So, but yes, I've said this before. Power Girl is a very real

possibility for her in the DC universe, although I imagine, I don't know how much James Gunn wants to be in that business, but with her, but we'll see, we'll see. Because it's a lot of drama, you know, it's like a, oh, he's like putting Tim Tebow on your team. You got a lot of drama, you know, you're asking for it. Christopher A.O. 2 says, you think part of Daniels's agreement with Sony, he gets to put Shang Chi and Spider-Man 5? Oh, Daniel Destin-Cretton's agreement. Remember the Daniels, or a separate thing. They're a little confused there.

So Daniel Destin, Creighton's agreement with Sony, he gets to put Shang Chi and Spider-Man 5. In the comics, Pete loses his sense in Chong Chi trains. Very possible. Could be an end, could be a delete,

oh, sorry, a post-credit scene. Very, very possible. I'd be shocked that we haven't heard anything by now. I'd be shocked that there hasn't been a leak of that, but it doesn't mean it's not possible. Paul Hitchcock says, Roka, when is more spilled of tequila?

I don't know at this point. Winston's been traveling. That's why we didn't do last week or this past week. Yeah, last week because Winston was traveling to Texas. And the only other day I could do it was Friday and he didn't have time to do it on Friday. So we'll see what we do this week. I'll let you know. Carver 94 says, yo Joe, Cobra.

Absolutely, absolutely. 20 Vasco, hey John, finally finished up on the pit. Fantastic show about the absolute intense harrowing inside of the ER department and also speaks to the humanity and harsh complex nature of the healthcare industry. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm going to start watching it either tonight or tomorrow. I may spend the all day tomorrow watching the pit and catching up on that. So I'm looking forward to it. I like that you like it.

And did you catch Shannon McClung in there? Peter Stone High Sixth says Caleb McLaughlin is the best Stranger Things young actor in my opinion. There you go. A lot of people want Caleb to be in a horror. I saw people calling for him to be in a horror film with Ryan Cougler or Jordan Peel. And I think that would be great. I think Caleb Glockland is great as Lucas I love his chemistry with

with Sadie Sink and would like to see more from him down the road. We will see. Paul Hitchcock says, Koolog just drops some info on what Black Panther 2 was going to be before Chavik Bozman passed. Father and son's story mixed with Namor attacking Wuhan.

Oh, that would have been amazing. Oh, my God, that would have been amazing. No, I mean, I like, I think Black Panther 2 is fine. It's good. Fine. I would say fine. I wouldn't say good. But the idea of a father and son, son, Tachala and his son mixed with Namor, attacking, that would be amazing. I would be 100% on board with that. I would love to have seen that. I know Kugler would have brought out some really interesting stuff if he had done it that way.

Trey Porter says, it's Chalamey's third straight movie to kill at the box office during Christmas. Yes, I mentioned that in my breakdown of him. I'm thinking about calling him Mr. Christmas like he's Prime Will Smith on the July 4th weekend. I had the same thought, not Mr. Christmas, but the July 4th weekend, Will Smith situation, very similar to what Chalomey does at Christmas, for sure. So I 100% agree with that.

Zion, no, at 249 says, hope number one is falling. Oh, so hope no one is falling for these trailers being leaked. Well, they were all leaked. The Captain America trailer was leaked and looked exactly the same when you saw it again. the Thor trailer was leaked, looks exactly the same, and the X-Men trailer rumored to be leaked might look exactly the same. So there are some AI trailers that are out there.

No doubt, Zaya, you're not wrong on that, that people shouldn't fall for every leaked trailer that's out there, but there are ones that have been leaked, that Captain America was leaked, that one looked exactly like Captain America trailer, and Thor one, and the rumors are the Spider-Man one is absolutely the leaked version as well. Here's the thing.

if you see a DMCA notice take down, that means it's actual footage. And on Twitter, you've seen, or X, whatever you want to call it this year, you've seen some DMCA notices on the X-Men one. So that tells me that's a real trailer, at least elements of it were real. And so that's your usual indicator that certain things are real is when the DMCA notice comes through. Garvers says, geek buddy's the best, like warm cocoa in front of a geeky fire. That's a great description.

I love that. Yeah, it's just the three of us hanging out talking shit, three old friends who've been known to each other well over 20 years, talking shit about geeky stuff. You know, I pitch geek buddies all the time because it's a unique show in this space. And I don't mean that three guys talking about stuff is unique. It's more that Michael has been an executive,

was an executive producer for My Little Pony, animated side of things. The recent iterations and he works in a lot of animation. he's now working in a company developing video games. Shannon has been a writer. He's been in those writer's rooms. He's been in those rooms where people are talking about how to construct a season. And he's an actor.

And he's done voiceover. I'm a critic. I've been an actor. I've been a voiceover artist. So three of us who have extensive experience inside the business, as well as outside the business, analyzing the business. I think it's a unique perspective you get the three of us when we get together. I think it's a much more informed perspective than you would get from three guys who are sitting outside the business

who've never been in those rooms, never had those conversations, never dealt with executives, never dealt with writers and directors and actors and talent and all that stuff. I think that's why the geek buddy stands out in my opinion and why I wish it was bigger than it was because I think we offer a much more informed opinion to the viewer and to the listener than you might get from people who are outside the business and have never done anything in the business, you know, and they're, both Mike and Shannon are still currently working in the business. So it is on the ground, feet on the ground, informed experiences that you get. So the blazing goodness is yes, the T.S. Part is just my initials to my full name, but thanks for that street fighter movie. Your thoughts, will it beat more

to combat too? And why push it for October if the movie is completed already? it's a good question I think the street fighter movie will beat mortal combat too because it has a style to it that I think a lot of people liked from the trailer so I think it has a real shot at beating the mortal combat too

and I think that first mortal combat was just not good and I just don't anticipate that the same people coming back to make a mortal combat too are going to do a better job and the fact that they moved it multiple times that doesn't speak well of the movie, in my opinion. You know, and so I just think Street Fighter knows exactly what it's trying to be,

very tongue-in-cheek, very stylish, and I think people appreciate vision. And if they like the vision, they'll get on board with it. So that's why I think it's going to do a better job overall. All right, well, that's all the questions. We only got to 26. I was hoping we get to 50, but we only got to 26. So I'm going to wrap the show up here.

I want to get on with my day as well, and I have some plans. to hang out today. But as I said, later on, I'm going to drop the new episode of the Greek geek buddies recording it too, so it probably won't be out to four. So look for that dropping later on this afternoon here,

or there on the John Roka channel. So I'd appreciate you guys subscribing to the John Roker channel, YouTube.com slash John Roker says, get us to 50,000 subscribers. There is definitely plans in 2026 for more content, more reaction videos, more of this kind of stuff. So please head on over there. It's more bang for your buck.

I will be starting YouTube membership soon as well. which will probably be access to me going to these screenings ahead of time, giving you my thoughts a little bit bigger than just the two-minute out-of-theater reaction. You'll get those immediately. And some thoughts on, you know, things that are breaking and things of that nature. I'll have more of that happening. So I'll be starting that very soon on YouTube in January of 2026. So look for that there as well.

So please come subscribe, YouTube.com, as John Roker says. Also subscribe to this channel if you haven't subscribed already, leave us your thoughts on everything we talked about from Stranger Things to Spider-Man 5 to Gene Gray to James Cameron to Avatar to everything to Shalame and his greatness. Let us know all of it down in the comment section below.

I really appreciate the lively chat. Thanks for the well over 400 of you who are joining me for a majority of the show today. I appreciate you. You could be anywhere else, but you hung out with me today and that means a lot. Tony Vasco says, yes, I caught Shannon's brief but effective role there in the pit. That's awesome. I have two kind of fly cams. He said,

Keep buddy is live today. Not live today, bro. We're recording it not live we're recording it we'll be like maybe we'll go live on friday to start 2026 we'll see but i'll let you know on all of that but yes thank you all so much for hanging out today you guys are amazing appreciate you uh and uh look we're going into the new year as i said spend the next couple of days two or three days just coming up with some goals for the new year i think that's a positive it doesn't mean that you should use it to beat yourself up over them over not accomplishing them possibly in 2026 but i think it's good to have a positive approach to a new year come up with some some goals, some things you want, like come up with a crazy goal and then come up with some

other goals that you feel are achievable and see if you're, you'll be surprised at how much you start to shift your approach to the world in 2026 to try to achieve those goals and what it can lead to. So I'll throw that out for you guys to think about as we go in. So enjoy yourselves. Have a good, happy new year and be safe out there as well because we want you back in 2026. Thank you, Carver. Thank you, Carver. Appreciate it. Thank you, Carver. Again, you're the best. we got over 31 so thank you so much you guys are amazing take care of yourselves be well and i will talk to you next time with another brand new episode here on the christian harlof show and look for all the christian harlof stuff coming down the pike on the channel this week as he's at critics choice

but there's going to be content here on this channel so enjoy all of that and i'll talk to you next time in twenty 26 be well everybody take care love you man money smith here talking galpin for did you know right now uh championship level of offerings like employee pricing and a $500 gas card for purchases between May 22nd, all the way through May 25th. Yes, a Memorial Day celebration at a spot that's been doing business here since 1946, 80 years Galp and Ford asked for Mike Schwartz. Check out that massive thousand plus vehicle inventory at Galpinford.com.

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