The Reel Rejects - OH MY!! James Gunn Addresses Superman Drama, Batman Struggles, & X-Men Movie CONFIRMED!!

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

SO MUCH TO BREAK DOWN!! James Gunn finally speaks out on the Superman drama, addressing everything from box office projections and power scaling to that now-infamous VFX shot and why he intentionally made Superman vulnerable. In this week’s Reel Rejects Podcast, Greg & the gang break down Gunn’s candid remarks about Marvel’s content struggles, Disney mandates, and his current Batman dilemma — including the future of the Matt Reeves / Robert Pattinson Batman, potential crossover, and why getting Batman right in the DCU is so difficult. We also cover 28 Years Later box office projections, fan reactions, and whether its darker tone and cliffhanger could hurt the sequel’s future. Plus, F1's insane $200M–$300M budget, box office break-even targets, and the Tom Cruise hype engine. We talk Fantastic Four’s confirmed lead-in to Avengers, concern over Marvel’s Ironheart marketing (or lack of it), and the Saw rights returning to James Wan & Leigh Whannell — is a Blumhouse reboot on the way? Then the biggest news drops: Marvel Studios officially announces the director for the upcoming X-Men movie in the MCU! Upcoming DCU projects confirmed by DC Studios include: Superman (2025), Creature Commandos (animated), Waller (Viola Davis-led series), The Authority, Booster Gold, Lanterns (featuring Hal Jordan and John Stewart), Paradise Lost (Themyscira prequel series), The Brave and the Bold (new Batman & Damian Wayne movie), Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Swamp Thing, and more unannounced Elseworlds films (The Batman Part II, Joker: Folie à Deux).Confirmed MCU projects include: Deadpool & Wolverine (2025), Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Blade, Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (retitled Avengers: Doomsday), Avengers: Secret Wars, X-Men (TBA), Spider-Man 4, Ironheart, Daredevil: Born Again, Agatha All Along, Wonder Man, Armor Wars, Marvel Zombies, Spider-Man: Freshman Year, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. #Superman #JamesGunn #Xmen #Marvel #MCU #FantasticFour #Fantastic4 #BradPitt #28YearsLater #28DaysLater #Batman #TheBatman #Spiderman #Thunderbolts #Daredevil #BLumhouse #Jigsaw #Saw #Podcast #Review #Movie #moviereview Follow Coy Jandreau:  Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coyjandreau?l... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coyjandreau/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CoyJandreau YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYH2szDTuU9ImFZ9gBRH8w Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, hello there. Reject Nation. This is going to be a thick one today. Thick one, we're going to have to be efficient, concentrate, connect. It's going to be vibrant. We got a lot to go through. So here's a little taste. There's chapters you can hop around through. James Gunman talking a lot about Superman. He's getting very candid about some of the controversy, some of the Batman difficulties. There are so many quotes we got to go through. This is slowly becoming the second DC Studios podcast. Superman box office projections currently F1 28 years later a lot of you guys been asking about that what we do is we put out a Patreon post and community posts so you guys really guide this some saw rights fantastic for Tom Cruise chapters if you guys want to hop around and John got us to count this is episode 21 that we are filming and we have said that the average podcast has not make it past 22 episodes so for episode 20, Next week, normally we upload these 8 a.m. Fridays. Yep.

Next week's going to be Friday, 12 p.m. Because I'm going to answer a question here from Rick Alt 05. I'm curious as if to see this Real Rejects podcast is essentially replacing the weekly live streams you used to do because it's pretty much the same premise, only differences you could talk directly to us into live streams. Actually, there's a variable of differences that we can go through. Well, the first thing I want to say is that for episode 22, we're going to do a live stream. This is going to be live. Multicam live. We're going to be at a new studio. Hopefully it all goes according to plan. Our live streams tend to not. They tend to be chaotic. That's awesome back and forth there in the comments. We get two very different feelings when doing a live, doing this. In a live stream, we get such a large amount of questions. The structures all over the place. We are also feeling a sense like we got to rush through everything that we are talking about because there's another question. We're another question. And we appreciate it.

love the superchats, but it's like, it comes about this. And a lot of repetition comes in. And we enjoy them. We enjoy the chaos of it. But this allows us to do something a little bit more formal, take our time, dive deeper. So the conversation that we have is very different than the conversation we have during the live stream. At least the three of us feel that very much so, right? I think you would agree with that? I think the live stream is the opposite show. I think this show is very methodical and emotionally driven. I think that by the nature of sharing it with thousands of people becomes what is the thing, what is the next thing, what is the next thing? And like inevitably, and it's not because of rejectionation, but there is inevitably one or two awful people in the chat

that antagonize other good people. And that becomes like a through line. Oh yeah. We get folk, it is easy to fix it on like some shit comments are coming in here. Yeah, like one person can ruin it for everybody, whereas this is a place of tranquility. Yeah, it's very different vibes. We get two different feelings from it. And we like the live streams and we want to do more of them now that we're going to have our own space. But we thought to celebrate the fact that we are. We made it past the Made it past the average. That's what we're celebrating. Beating the average.

Yeah, we're now an above average podcast. So keep a lookout for that. Thanks, Rick, all for addressing that. And before we go into the other news, because of what we talked about at the beginning of last week, Gakolav 6241 is saying, I'm honestly enjoying the mental health chats. That's really kind.

Mental health is such an important topic. And normalizing discussion and taking care is something that needs to be discussed more. Well, I can't wait to show you guys that. Pack collaborative podcast. Once we're able to launch it, we're getting like a bunch shot right now. John and I is that if that's your cup of tea, you're really going to enjoy it. But last week I was opening up about a secret addiction that I had formed to create him, which apparently is very dangerous. I sort of looking it up after a lot. Yeah. What did that make it worse or better? It solidified my choice. Okay. So I had my meeting with my therapist. And before we filmed last week, I actually

dumped it. And I was like, I'm going to go. I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit. And I was seeing, like, let's pay attention to my body. The first couple days, it was a little hard. I couldn't sleep. My heart rate was through the roof and headaches. But after that, I don't know. I kind of credited it to the fact that I'm already very healthy. Sure.

You can go through stuff way better when your body's wanting to expand the bed. Yeah, I sweat a lot. I drink a lot of water already. And after that, I can officially say it's been one week exactly that I have not touched any cratim. And I was taking it like every single day for all this year. So, yeah, and I was looking up a lot of, I won't go into the details of a lot of the affects that it had. But yeah, when I was looking at videos, like, yeah, I'm dealing with all this shit. Yeah, so.

But a week's a good, like that's a good, like that's a good, you know, that's like a week and then a month and then, like it's just the process. Now I do cocaine. Well, yeah, you said you want to replace a vice with a vice. I feel like I'm way more engaged. That's why we can do a two hour live and one next week. Yeah. Because it's cocaine. Just I need to swing my chair around for a bit every 30 minutes and then swing back around.

Sometimes you got to go skiing, a little drive right on through. Greg's allergies are going crazy this week. So sniffly. How are you doing today, though? How are you feeling? Good. It is, we're filming on a federal holiday, and I had a bunch of errands to run,

and they kept getting affected by federal holidays. Because, like, we don't work normal hours or schedules, so I forget the world is different, like, because our job. So I had, like, a meeting, and then I did, like, pre-production on another show, and then I had a haircut, and then I needed to go to the post office, and like everything has been like, and it's just so funny that other people have time off and that time off is causing my day on to be like stressful.

I'm like, good for you. And I'm like standing outside the post office 100 degrees. Like, I needed to get this out. So I just kind of had a manic day of kind of having to pivot my whole week. I have at the present seven jobs. And when one thing goes wrong, it affects all of them. So with just the act of missing a mailing, I have like to change tomorrow and then Saturday.

And then I've got to cover a lot of stuff through the weekend. So I'm excited for all. August 12th, which is my next day off. Congratulations. That's a long time from now. You're not wrong. I'm going to try to take three days off in August. We talked about that.

And then I, my grandpa's 80th birthdays in September, I think I'm going to go surprise him. I kind of want to, I've never done a thing where it's like the family surprise. Now he knows. Poppy, I'm sorry. I want to surprise you. That's our main demographic, 75 and up. You know, big fan. But yeah, I haven't, I've never done that cool family thing to like surprise someone or I've never selfishly bought a flight.

I've only like traveled to see family or like done something of my fiance. I've never spent my money on me and I've been coming into that like my mental health is like I have a lot of money trauma and a lot of trauma about like taking time off. So I want to try to put those together and be like I want to take a trip for me and I want to surprise my grandpa because he means a lot to me. Oh yeah, that'd be great. I want to see how my brain does that. Yeah.

I want to see how I feel to like choose me. Yeah. So I'm going to try to that in September. I think that would be good. All right, Coyne. Well, I'm happy to hear that. John, John's great. John never has any problems.

John had a birthday. and he didn't like do a thing and I'm so narcissistic that I'm still confused how I didn't get an invitation unless he did something and didn't invite me in which I'm insulted.

No, it's actually the opposite scenario. I'm like, I would be so racked with guilt if I forget anyone that I'm just like, it's too much to process. If anybody wants to find me and celebrate, I'll happily do so. That's probably healthier.

Coy doesn't do anything for him but he's also a narcissist. The irony. It's a struggle. It's a struggle living this life. It's a conflict. Very conflicting. All right. Well, no smooth transitions here. We don't operate that way.

And it's another thing. This is more qualitative than a live streamer's or one shot. 100%. And we're also like parallel. Like I don't see you guys. Like ever saw to be like Greg's there. Like it's not like this. A natural conversation. For sure. For sure. All right. Let's kick it off. Reviewer 04I says the Superman box office tracking just came out a few minutes ago. So this is your yesterday for you guys. Our today, it is now projected to earn a hundred $15 million during its domestic opening weekend. Batman v. Superman opened at 166.

Man of Steel open at 116. So this is at 135 in the middle there. Okay. Pretty solid. Yeah. I mean, if you had just Man of Steel for inflation, it's probably a little bit higher. But we're at a different period then, right?

I'm coping now. Yeah, I'm coping. Take the copium, Greg. Me, acknowledging reality is coping. Yeah, but back then it was different. Like the excitement of what could, be and there wasn't even a conversation about superhero fatigue at that point. It wasn't even a possibility then.

Yeah. And now it's such a like, can we sustain comic book industry? So I think this is actually a pretty good number. Also pre-pendemic, the movie theater, beyond even superhero movies. The movie theater has changed. A lot of people don't go to the movies in the same way. And like streaming has really ruined things. So I would say that's a solid number.

I mean, I wanted to make a billion dollars. That doesn't seem like that's a bad number to get to that lofty goal. like everybody says billion it's so casual now but very few movies have made a billion dollars there was a point where a billion dollars was like a rarity and a thing to be celebrated but then we had a bunch in a row and now it's back to being rare but i think people remember the bunch in a row yeah like somebody's like yeah it makes a billion dollars but like a billion is crazy like when the dark night reached a billion that was insane it was like the talk of the year uh so i think it still has the potential but i do think uh this tracks between like those two that seems fair and right yeah

yeah well also it's about the last legs right yeah i think second weekend's a bigger deal than it's ever been for most movies yeah so much of the time we put emphasis on the opening weekend but second weekends can be i love those stories more yeah they're like drop off's only 30 percent like that's crazy whereas like captain america opened big but then yeah thunderable same thing the one that emotionally affected me when i was younger the one that like stood out to me in my consciousness was elf elf like did not open well yeah but the word of mouth was so good that it eventually climbed to number one yeah and then it had long legs now it's a classic fight club bombed like fight club never did well in theaters and then found an audience

and own video like a lot of good movies don't do well but this one doing well opening hopefully it also has good word of mouth thousand percent i feel like it'll probably grow uh because this this seems to have that overall america appeal and worldwide appeal like you can see people in like different states that are smaller like michigan or some shit yeah but they're traveling you out michigan yeah Detroit uh they're also traveling the world with it like right now they're and I think Manila. Marketing's nuts. Yeah, dude.

I'm so excited about this summer of just like... The marketing looks more expensive than the movie. It looks a lot. Like, they're doing a lot. Yeah. Like, David cut his hair. He looks great, so handsome. Love the haircut.

Buzz cut, jealousy. Looks like I was working out the other day, fun story. I was working out. I was doing bench press. And I can't bench that heavy before anyone says any shit on my head. And then as I was like doing like a super setting, and then I see someone waiting for me. And I'm, and I'm like, are you waiting?

And then it's like, take your time. I'm like, that's fucking Sebastian Stan. He looks great with a musket. He's got his shaved head. And I was like, no, you can take it. You can take it. He's saying it was happening. Celebrity love, I'm leaving by.

Get, heck. Dude, strong. There's a rule at certain gyms, though, that you do not acknowledge famous, but like, Mr. Bees goes, I will never say hi to famous people at the gym. Never. It's kind of a unspoken rule that you will make people uncomfortable there. Smash and Dan, this is Peter. But I'm different.

I'm like, come talk to me. Please. Please know that I'm known. It happened at a screen we went to yesterday. Like, I'm so sorry to bother you did it. I'm like, don't say that. And I said to them, like, we're semi-internet popular. We need this.

We're not real fame. We don't make money. We make fame anecdotes. And anyone who's famous from the internet and is a douche about it, no respect for that. You're famous from the internet. Yeah, it's a little different. So I'll go ahead and say, I went to a party and a bunch of people at the party. Like the, you know, when you go to a party and you're like the elders and there's like 20-somethings and now you're like, I can feel the difference.

The 10 years really is different now. A bunch of the youths were big Rejects fans. And it was really cool to have to be like, oh my God, don't you do real rejects? And be like, this feels like when I'd be at a party and there'd be like an actor. Like when I came to Hollywood. So it was really special.

Oh, that's nice. We're going to stay on track today. Yeah, focused. Hey, what do you guys think about this box office? Does it sound like an epic failure? Can you spin it that way? Yeah, of course you can because it didn't make 200 million opening. So it's nothing.

Nothing. It's his weak sauce. James Guns weakening everything. Speaking of, James Gunn and controversy. He's getting kind of candid about some shit here. Have you seen any of Rolling Stone article? Yeah, I got some specific quotes.

Well, there's one quote here. Let's talk about this section because it, of course, created an unnecessary drama on the intersphere. And I'm cooler talking about it now. I know we've tied our back and forth about whether or not how much of this we should acknowledge. I'm cooler talking about it because James Gunn clearly pays attention to all of it to. So I'm like, well, if he's going to pay attention, I'm going to pay attention a little bit more, too. I wonder if he watches our show. Maybe.

That'd be nice. Maybe he watches your DC studio show. I know he watches that show. Yeah, he should. He has to. Well, okay, so there's a few things here. Superman vulnerability, the visual effect shot. He had said some things about Marvel and then some things about Batman.

We're going to have to go through a lot of this stuff. So the Superman vulnerability. Let's go through this one first. There's kind of a lot to read here. There are things that I know. I don't explain that I don't even want to say out loud, but I wanted Superman to be vulnerable. I see the online things. Who would beat whom? Homeland or Superman or fucking whatever, Adam Warlock or Brightburn. And I'm like, this is the fucking stupidest conversation.

So then whoever would win this fight means that they're the best, because I'll just go out and write Godman, who can destroy you with a wink, and I win. I win all the fights forever. But I didn't want a Superman who could punch planets. And also, we're creating a whole universe now. So what's a girl with wings going to do in the face of that? So he's a little less powerful. Green Lantern, a guy, Gardner's pretty effing powerful. They're all pretty powerful. Honestly, and talking to people, a lot of people are like,

I like Batman better because he can actually be beat. And I get that. So we have a Superman that can be beat. So in other news, he's making Superman a bitch. Yeah. Foulable? That's what he is. He's a bitch.

I don't want to relate to my characters. Super bitch. I want to look up to them and admire them from a farm. is not Ultraman a character? Okay, so Superman has had many iterations. Superman has been around for 80 years plus Superman is a character that, I mean, nearly 100, Superman is a very long-running character.

And depending on who's writing him, beyond just which decade you're reading from, it's going to have different a level of power. Depending on the arc, even within a writer's long, if they've got to run on Superman. I think the ones I personally connect to most are the ones where it's a character

that I can identify with in any way, because then you go, wow, this character that is stronger than us, which he inherently is, that is larger than life, is still relatable, and I can connect to them wanting to be good. If someone is so removed from you and they do something good or wholesome or for the betterment, but you don't identify with them, it doesn't really affect you. It doesn't really matter. When people that are very different than me make a choice, I don't go like, what would I do? Because I don't relate to them at all. So when you've got a character called Ultraman and you've got a character called Superman, they're not character. is called invincible because spoiler alert we got that guy so i think it's important to have

there be a plausible deniability while still being true to the character and that's the line in the sand is whether or not it's true to the character if they make clark kent um you know fragile and make superman even more fragile that's not superman but that's not what he's saying so i i i think this is more how i see the character i have not seen the film as of now uh and i think that it is a very tricky thing for James because both man of steel and his Superman are going to have people that argue this is Superman. And guess what? That's how opinions work because they're both right. That's the character. Yeah. And this is a conversation that we've been having for a while. That's why we like the two opening shots that he's done, which did create a controversy of Superman looking like

he's been beat and hurt. That makes you connect. You watch a guy rise from circumstances, that are beating him down. That's the only way you really feel inspired is overcoming challenges. And what I love to is the consideration of how he's speaking to the bigger part of the universe. You think about Justice League. And a lot of time, you're like, well, they have Superman.

Superman can take care of most of this. He's as fast as flash. He's as strong as Aquaman. Stronger than Aquaman and Wonder Woman? Do we really need that even in Zach Snyder's Justice League, Which I adore. What happens when they're finding Steppenwolf? Suddenly Superman shows up and he's there to just...

Taking care of all that. There's a reason they had to kill him and take him away for a long time. Yeah. Because that's the character. Because that leaves them feeling more vulnerable to Steppenwolf in that movie. Yeah. But when Superman's around, it's not as vulnerable of a situation because that is the Superman who could punch a planet and everything.

They had to invent kryptonite. Like, you know what I mean? Like kryptonite wasn't in the origin of Superman. It came later. Oh, I didn't know that, really? Yeah, it was part of the radio show. Cryptonite was invented to give their context to having some adversity in the radio show. So, like, that's a newer, not new, but like newer thing than Superman is because you need to have adversity.

I like the idea of vulnerability of it being kryptonite because that's the thing that brings them closer to home. And a lot of the times people with like trauma or weaknesses, it's the things that make you a little bit more closer to family. Like sometimes people, when they experience like a family trauma, they disassociate from all family because it's a reminder. So there's kind of like this cool metaphor. I was reading birthright. I started picking up on yeah Read Superman birthright holy crap. That's easily my favorite Superman comic I've read so far. I got to read the next one a Superman for all seasons. I can't ever remember this title for all seasons for all seasons. Yeah, I want to read that next. I'm going to try to power through it because I'm invited on a very special podcast that I can't announce yet Yeah, I'm gonna try to read it before him. But yeah, that I also couldn't fly in the beginning. Oh wow Superman could leap tall buildings in a single bounty. He couldn't fly yet. Yeah. So these are things that people are like, That's not Superman.

He evolves. No, no. I think having a little bit of, because he still looks insanely powerful in the trailers. He's incredibly powerful, but you need a way to root for him as opposed to, you won't feel stakes if he's not vulnerable at all. And if it's only he needs kryptonite, then he becomes like repetitive. And I've always loved that Superman's, to me, biggest week is that he's trying to be everywhere at once.

And that still sounds like this is part of it. Like when Superman is knowing he's trying to be all these things, I think James is going to bring that to it. Yeah. Okay. And then the next thing, he's talking about the. visual effects shot, the one that when we launched this podcast when there was a bunch of shooting and wide, yep, people getting mad. So I don't exactly know what the exact question

was here, but I got the quote. No, I didn't think it was so much. It was a TV commercial and it wasn't a finished visual effects shot. So the part of him flying, it was a photograph of his face and him flying. It was a photograph of a drone flying in front of an actual background. So all the pieces were real, but it was incorporated in kind of a funky way. I didn't love the shot. So it's not even the shot that's in the movie. Sometimes I'm pretty strict about when I'm going through a trailer and looking at each of the shots. And sometimes the commercials, I forget to look at this closely. So that one kind of got by me. Coy, I'll ask you your thoughts. I have thoughts, but what are your thoughts? I'm of two minds. One, you know, it is tricky to put out as much

marketing is bowing down to the haters. That's my first. That was my second. I was going to go. No, but like when you're doing as much marketing as this film has to, it is tricky when that's like your first look and that is a hard position to be in of like I'm making this movie. I'm overseeing this universe. I'm writing this thing. I'm working on Peacemaker. But that's the job right now. Like he's overseeing a universe while working on a bunch of projects himself. And we were talking about how that's like a very daunting volume of like Kevin Feigy doesn't direct. Kevin Feigy doesn't write. Like he's just the producer and that's already too much. So, you know, this does sound like something that slipped. And I'm sure that affects him. Like I'm sure he's not thrilled that a commercial. came out and he's like oh that's our first look but at the same time i i'm very that my other thought is to me it was so clearly a wide angle lens that when i think of like anything in movies like when you've got an anthropomorphic or anything that like alters a visual it clearly like david isn't cross-eyed so like to me i was just like well yeah they're not done yet so like i wasn't affected by it and that's i remember us talking about it i was like oh yeah not done and so this kind of tracks with what i thought happened it's just great to have it confirmed like

I think it's smart to say so. There's probably part of them that's like, I don't want to say I didn't see the shot, but the other part's like, it wasn't done. Yeah. So I get it. Yeah, because I remember when we were talking about it that I was playing more of the opposite angle of that opinion of like, well, if you're going to put out this first look, I mean, it's really important to you nail this shit down.

And I can understand why people were kind of who are not being forgiving or giving those kind of caveats that you were just talking about. What I appreciate about this is he's acknowledging the oversight that he had. so much of the time now directors kind of this seems to be like a war with like F the audience sometimes sometimes things get interpreted that way too like F the fans and that they don't really

care to acknowledge and this is the problem with woke Hollywood that they don't listen to things what do the people want we're the ticket buyers yeah yeah exactly and with this this to me is him you know if you're a leader in a position like this and you can acknowledge

I don't want to call it like a mistake, but definitely an oversight, that is super, that stands out to me as an integral part of someone leading a company. You've got to be able to acknowledge, like, yeah, I kind of drop the ball there. So let me, I'll do better next time. If someone's able to say that and say it publicly too, but also in a way that doesn't feel like, you know, the weight of the world is weighing him down just because of this one thing that went wrong. I've been thinking about that for 15 months. Yeah, yeah. I think that is a good. good sign of leadership honestly because yeah I didn't think the shot

I was at the camp like the shot does look a little funky even though I agree with what you were saying that I'm like yeah I see that but it did look funky the fact that he's able to acknowledge that maybe that wasn't the right call I still agree it shouldn't have been the first shot but I like knowing why yeah yeah it's confirmed it's weird it's shot

shot so popular it's not even going to be in the movie yeah I mean that's if that's not the vision I like when a director can not like keep it for the sake of its imagery like it's good that it's like I didn't like it we don't have it Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Actually, we saw it 28 years later, and I noticed that, too. There was a really famous shot in the first trailer that is not in the movie, actually.

Yeah, I loved that movie, but I definitely were like, when it ended, I was like, wait a second, there was a beat. Yeah, yeah, we won't say what it is. But, okay, that's a fun one. That's a fun one. Thanks, James Gunn for that. Do you think Superman's bitch? Leave your thoughts in the comments. Let us know.

Do you think Superman's a little pansy? Where's his underwear on the outside? Stalling for time. That's this page is loaded. Here we go. Eight, a little 10. he said Gunn's recent comments about Marvel

and his ideal version of Batman hope you guys are doing well thank you so which one you want to do first Marvel quotes or Batman you call let's do Batman let's say Super Ben Batman

okay so there's two seconds to the Batman side here DCU Batman Matt Reeves Batman let's break it down Batman's my biggest issue in all of DC right now personally and it's not

I'm not writing Batman but I'm currently working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it Right, because he's incredibly important to D.C. as is Wonder Woman. Batman has to have a reason for existing, right? So Batman can't just be, oh, we're making a Batman movie because Batman's the biggest character in all of Warner Brothers, which he is. But because there's a need for him in the DCU and a need that he's not exactly the same as Matt Reeves as Batman. Yet, he's not a campy Batman.

I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it's. but I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality. What do you thoughts, Corey? This is what I've been saying for a year. It's not going to be Matt Reeves, Batman.

It's going to be Matt Reeves universe with the penguin and all that world building, and then a Batman where it makes sense that he could coexist with crypto. I don't want to undermine all of the world building in the penguin and the Batman by having things that are so larger than life. That's the cool thing about the character is you can pick up Detective Comics and have a tone. You can pick up Batman, have a tone. You can pick up Batman Dark Patterns and have a tone. You can pick up Batman's Superman World's Finest Navitone.

And these are just four of the eight books that are Batman right now. He is the most popular character. So you can do versions of him. But I think at the same time, making like a Neil Adams gray and blue suit and make it a member of the Justice League and make him someone that could bend reality a bit by having him around these large and life characters doesn't inherently make him like Batman 66. I think a lot of people think it's either like Nolan and Pattinson. and that tone or bat shark repellent like there's a lot between so i would love if it's closer to you know our reality without being farce like i don't want to see a spoof of batman but i don't think it should be the same exact david finchery matt reeves tone i think it should

find a way to be something that is plausible deniability of the world's greatest detective that is so smart and so focused on this this vengeance that is so focused on being the perfect human specimen he can keep up with these meta-humans. And I don't think I would buy Robert Pattinson's detective take, which is my favorite, one of my favorite superhero movies of all time. I wouldn't necessarily buy him in a world where, you know, hawk girl flies by. So I think this is the best answer. And I think that him acknowledging it's not going to be full camp is great and a relief.

I never thought it was going to be. But I don't think we should put those two worlds together personally. And I think his way in is going to be making sure there's a big enough difference to rationalize two Batman's, but without sacrificing the vision of the DCU. And I love that he's not coming from a place of, okay, he's popular. We need to make this. It's coming from a place of what in universe, what in story that I'm telling in this giant tapestry of characters makes this character the most important right now.

And you need the Holy Trinity. You need Batman Superman and Wonder Woman, but you need them to come from a place of the story, not from your wallet. I hear what you're saying, but not. But he wants to make that money. Come on, man. No, I like what he's saying. It does pose an interesting thought process, though.

And as you were talking, it's the thought that I actually didn't dawn on me until right now, how if you have two running Batman, one of the DCU and the Matt Reeves one, and then in my mind, I'm thinking the DCU Batman should be a little bit more akin to like the Batman, the animated series Batman or the Arkham Games Batman, one that's a little bit more high and more martial arts-e. like just basically Robert Pattinson but heightened more you know it seems like it would be a really easy thing to go well this is definitely the very real world now let's do the fantastical world but we can't go campy so I imagine it's a very hard line that they have to find because whoever they put then as Batman for the DCU automatically lends itself to a comparison to the other running Batman at that time it could very much well be like if you have a Batman that is like an Arkham Knight one there could be audiences that are going, well, this Batman can clearly kick Robert Pattinson's ass. I'm not as interested in the Robert Pattinson one. Or it could be the flip. You do go more fantastical or whatever. And then you have a Batman who's really, you have a Batman who's like, you know, technically cooler, but maybe not as appealing to audiences. People don't enjoy the performance as much. And they're like, why they do this? We have Robert Pattinson's right here. They should have just used Robert Pattinson. So the struggle I feel is what he's talking about, of trying to crack the right code of the

middle ground this could take a very very long time like i don't even know what the solution like we have ideas of right they could do i'm going yeah race more of like the arkham video game side that would probably be your easiest bet but then will that diminish the reception though of the other running batman elsewhere like for us it wouldn't but for audiences would it and i'm going to segue us into like what he talked about here when he was asked about the matt reeves part he said it would be a We'd have to think about it. We have to think about it. It is not like we've never disgusted. I would never say zero, but you just never know, but it's not likely. It's not likely at all. And it's not canceled. We don't have a script. Matt's slow. Let him take his time. Let him do what Matt's slow. It's such a it. What a flippant. I'm just going to say it. It's like, is that a passive aggressive way of being like, hurry your shit up. As his boss, I'm going to put this in right. Damn. People are blaming me for what is this now. Let me take his time. Let him do what he's doing.

God, people are mean. Let him do his thing, man. I don't know what it actually sounded like when he said it. Just reading it. God, people are mean. Let him do his job. He just sounds exhausted. Wouldn't you be answering the same question for like months?

And people are jerks about it. And they keep saying, you know, people already blame him for so much of the stuff like the Snyder world not happening and all that, blah, blah, blah. And then now they're, I think they're passing judgment on to why the bat, Matt Reeves' Batman universe is taking so long to develop. But it seems like when I read stuff like that, it seemed like there was a point where there was never a consideration. And it seemed more of a flitment.

Never say never. But now it seems as if the vibe I'm getting is that there's a bit of a consideration. Because it could, it would make things easier ultimately for everyone. All the conflict you just said is real. Like all the levels to play. I just, I think it would sacrifice both a little.

Unfortunately, right? Like, it makes the meshing of the universes work better. Yeah. It makes it easier to follow for audiences. But then you got the MCU problem where you're making everything work. You're cramming it all together. Where, like, Elseworld is like strength of DC comics. And if they're building out an Elseworld, if they're calling, if they're developing the idea of else worlds, let a strong one that's already started to go being an else world.

Yeah. Because as soon as you're like, oh, it's got to fold into here, then all of a sudden every movie you make should. And that's Marvel's problem. How do you feel about that last? That's comments like kind of tripping me out. He really seems like he's getting defensive here. I just think that like, you know, he's a very candid dude. And I think that he's just so sick.

I mean, I'm sick of hearing this question answered. I can't imagine being so sick of answering it. Like every time we talk about Matt Reeves Batman, everybody's like, oh, it's going to happen. And like, that'd be, this is his job. He has to answer that question every day. There's probably people in DC studios like, why don't we just do it? Yeah. Like, I don't know that.

But I assume that if everyone's saying it, it'd be frustrating. He's all, and part of what he's been doing as a, the thing is, he has a plan as a leader for this company, but, you know, a lot of times when things are growing and shifting, it's like, that's why the studio is such a good show. Yeah. Because I could see him running into situations like that where, oh, shit, you know, I put out some messages, but the reality is I have to make a couple of sacrifices going against what I originally said I would do. He's also a creative that he's still like, he write directs and does his own thing. So now he's like overseeing and, like, that's a lot of. of pressure. Yeah, he puts out a lot of ideas, um, but ideas aren't cemented things that they're going to be doing. And as a creative, you kind of bob and weave throughout the entire process.

Yeah. So it's because it's a, it's a weird position to guys. It's really, I don't envy it. I do not envy it. Um, to the Marvel points of what he was talking about. Over at Marvel, they've been pretty open about the fact that they realize what's going wrong over the past few years. They put out too much stuff. And, uh, long time Marvel exec producer, Luis, Esposito said that privately to me. Ooh, I don't even know if it's really their fault. They were under a corporate mandate that wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and it killed them. We don't have that mandate at D.C. to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year.

Not yet, James. So we're going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We're obviously going to do some good things and some not good things intentionally. We want to do bad projects. Hopefully, on average. Everything will be as high quality as possible. Nothing goes before there's a screenplay that I am happy with. And then, of course, complaints, complaints,

because James Gunn moved his lips up and down. To be clear, and as is clear in the context of this interview, I didn't say it killed them like they're over, but they were screwed by the situation. They had no control over. They're on the other side of that now, which is good. The sacrifice of everything for streaming crazy, killed many good things by forcing a demand for content

that could have possibly been met, putting movies on TV before they had a proper. theatrical run and much more. The insanity has died down, balanced out everywhere. Thank God. Leave me the fuck alone. You didn't say that.

Last sentence. As someone who is very streaming averse, I think this is kind of the... I think Marvel represents because of how big they are, the macro to a very, very big problem. Like, sorry, the micro to a very big, big problem.

Like, you can zoom in on Marvel and see a lot of the issues with the entertainment industry, because they're the big thing. Yeah. So I think streaming is often content, not art. I think that you need to make sure if you are a studio making art, your art should be art and not fodder.

And so when you've got mandates, when you've got certain expectations, you're already going to have all that in the nature of show business. By the nature of making a movie or a show, there will be mandates. There will be certain expectations and dates and budgets to hit. But when you then go, okay, triple your output and you don't get the resources to really do it,

When you have two movies coming out that start shooting a year apart that are at least two weeks apart, I worry about the CGI of the one that started shooting a year later. Like Fantastic Four literally is coming out two weeks after the Superman movie, and it didn't start shooting until Superman was almost wrapped. That's crazy for those visual effects artists, but there's a certain expectation of output. So I think Marvel is learning. I think they have learned.

I think they're pivoting. I think Thunderbolts is great. I hope that we get a great Fantastic Four and going forward. but I think when they were trying to do characters that weren't as well known because they were trusting in their brand to such a level that it caused some recklessness I think when the volume was that high

I think when they didn't have showrunners I think a lot of the things that like other companies have too but the other companies aren't as big like they don't get as much press and notice because everyone compares to Marvel so I don't disagree with the statements and I think that it's a really good opportunity for the DC universe to learn from the mistakes

that were made in a post everything has to go to streaming world and selfishly as a movie theater guy, I'm glad we're noticing because it's been bad. Well, something that came out today that I totally forgot to put down in the show notes because you said Thunderbolts.

I was like, oh, yeah. July 1st. Is that Jake Schaefer is officially confirmed as it today to be directing the X-Men movie. What? Yeah, it's officially confirmed today. At least that's what I typed in

and it's like deadline. That's huge. Comicbook.com. And apparently after 2028, they might go back to four movies a year. Jack Schaefer doing X-Men is huge. Right? That's the, wait, you see the one in the Thunderbolts? She.

She? Jack Schaefer did Wanda Vizier. My God damn. Who's doing it? Who's Jake Shrier is the one doing it? It's a man's face. I don't know anyone. Jack Schaefer, WandaVision, Jake Shrier, Thunderbolts.

Those are remarkably similar. You're not wrong. Oh my God. I just because I heard Jake Shrier was doing it. There's a woman named Jake Shryor. I heard Jack, Jake was doing it. And then when you just said Jack, I was like, that rewrites my entire theory of everything. Jake Shriar of Thunderbolts is a fantastic director, very different tone.

Wandavision obviously led to Agatha. And that I would have been like, okay, a different team done. And they're moving on with other stuff. Like they're still working at Marvel. But Jake, I think, is a great choice. He was rumored for a long time. He, I think, have you seen Thunderbolt yet? No, it's coming on digital next week.

Okay, well then in vague terms, the team dynamic and the idea of trauma is very important to the X-Men. So I think as directors go, there is a very linear line here of like this makes sense for this director. What's cool to me, as we've been talking about James Gunn, is this kind of reminds me of James Gunn because the suicide squad did not do well at the box office, I mean, for a variety of reasons. And part of me is thinking, too, that honestly, I am wondering, even if it got only a theatrical release, let's say there was no COVID. I do wonder if it would have really succeeded at the box office because of what happened with Suicide Squad 1, not as well-known characters in the next one. Part of me does wonder that, even though it seems like it's love, but it's not really talked about, even though it's like my favorite of that era of D.C. But then he got brought on to do the bigger parts for D.C. Yeah.

And same thing with Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts did not break even. It did it. But it's got reputation and that is better for long-term success. And they still tapped him to do this. Rewarding the art, not the business. Exactly. That's what reminds me of the James Gunn situation of what they're paying attention to.

So if anything, there's kind of a big learning lesson from that. The fact that the movie Thunderbolts, yeah, sure, it didn't break even, but people loved it. And that's what we need as a director who can work with this terrain. Yeah. A lot of times it's easy to go. This movie made a lot of money. give that director it that's not what they're paying attention to. So to your point of like James Gunn talking about how that mandate affected everything and how Marvel's learning, this is a sign that they are

learning to me, even without having seen Thunderbolts. I totally agree. And I think it's an interesting sign timing wise of they know X-Men is the biggest brand they have right now. They're trusting in a director even without the finances backing it. That's a really good sign of like, we know your art also means he had a great pitch, means he has a vision, right? Because you don't go like, hey, your movie was good and it might have lost money. You're going to stay with the company. But here's our biggest franchise ever. It's like, okay, now also what is your idea? Because you're in the house. Like we were taking these meetings. So I think that's a great sign for whatever Jake wants to do. Also really, really nerdy, articulate guy about the art. Like, I talked to him at

the, I was the, I reported at the red carpet for the hard reporter. And he and I had a really good conversation about comics. And he casually dropped like issue number references. And I was like, that is rare, even amongst like nerds. Like, that's a really impressive thing. Like, you clearly love it in a way. So at the same time, you know, like there's a difference to me when Russo brothers did Winter Soldier versus working on an Avengers movie. You have a lot more bigger vision and other heads to

appease in a moment like that with all the structuring and I feel like he's kind of running into, he might run into a similar situation with that. Like Thunderbolt sounds like to me he was able to fulfill a vision he had and I think X-Men I'm wondering if he will be allowed to fulfill as much a vision as he

wants. I mean, Marvel can't even seem to get blade done you know, so I'm wondering. Insane. Will this be the vision? That is my like skeptic side of it. Like I see why attaching him to do it makes perfect sense to me, but when you're dealing with X-Men and they

have to incorporate that and it changes the world whether it would be a meshing of multiverses, whatever the hell they're planning on doing. There's a lot more different strings he has to work with now of whatever that secret board meeting that Kevin Feige has in the woods or whatever. It's also like being a showrunner because like you're shaping

a universe that's going to expand in multiple movies. Like you're not just doing X-Men. You're doing X-Men. Is that going to be X-Men 1 of 3? and then X Factor X-Force Generation X, like what else? Because they're not going to do one X-Men line that's going to spread. So what tone are you setting

in this new leg of the entire company? Also the one that Kevin Faggy's most personally invested in. Also the one that has the most brand awareness of arguably any new character. Also the one that is probably going to have the most other things tying to it from Secret Wars. Like, you've got the hardest job right now.

Yeah. X-Men movie's finally happening. That also is a big moment. But that's strange to me. It doesn't feel like it's taken off. piece of information. I didn't know it. I typed it in and it's like, yep, it's real. This should be like trending. That should be our headline. This should be. That should have been our community post questions and our Patreon questions where we put out and I didn't see anything in there, at least at the time of like pulling stuff. I think Marvel can get back to a good place. I don't

think any, Westerns never came back to scale. We like Westerns, but like I don't think they're that distant where like Westerns kind of died all the way and then came back. But I do think we have to look at the superhero phases as changing. And I do think we're entering a different age of comic stuff. I think they're an inevitable. They are a position where they probably have to do some type of soft reboot. I think X-Men is a new Avengers type team and I think that's smart. I also think those are brand-aware characters. And it's weird because it does seem like it's the exact thing James Gunn was talking about of that problem of that mandate that occurred because that is what changed everything for the genre and Marvel in a not positive way. And the DCU looking so

comicky and vibrant and big. I feel like it was changing things again. Yeah. All right. Well, damn. Crazy. Yes, I didn't put that down because we didn't get to ask any questions about it. But I was in a talk about. Wait a minute. There's a big story that I forgot about. So thanks for jogging my brain there. Jay Jones 51817. Is the lack of publicity and marketing for Ironheart concerning for Marvel's confidence in the project? Yes. No, normally we'd see the stars in late night and lots of commercials and promo, but it feels

like they did little with Echo, just dumping it without much fanfare while Fantastic Four continues his marketing push. Obviously, it's a holdover from the previous era, but it seems like we should be getting a bigger marketing push. Look, guys, no, they want you to forget about this as soon as possible. Dumping it in two chunks. Dumping it in two chunks. And there was reports too that, I mean, I had someone from Disney even tell me that it was supposed to be like three and then one-one-one. I heard it was three-three. You and I had a long talk. We looked it up. We found out it was three-one-one-one. And then I was like, what? So it was clearly like in flux and then

dumped. Yeah. But weirdly I mean they did try something which is they had Robert Downey Jr. The Good Morning America thing. Clearly Robert Downey Jr. did not do this of his own volition. It sounds to me that he was asked and he was like, yes. It says

Miss Thorne. In my trailer. I couldn't be happier than seeing you bring ReRee Williams to life. Iron Man loves Iron Heart. I don't know. It just sounds like a man that's like he was asked that he was being nice. It was a little. It was cute because it was an iron heart and it was like the millennial iron heart and then she did like whatever the gen z kids do and it was just funny to see the two generations and that felt like a legacy

moment between iron man and iron heart i thought it was a cute moment but it definitely was like the russes are like hey can you iron heart promo i think this will have a separate thing from echo though um i because echo people were showing up because i wanted to see kingpin and dare go oh yeah i don't think it'll do as well as echo which is unfortunate it won't but i think iron heart will be that random odd thing that I imagine we'll get a lot of flack and people probably might not love it, but then I think it can be that thing of like, you know what, that show deserved more appreciation. That show deserved a little bit. I could see it becoming a bit of that cult love.

Scrappy underdog. In Marvel, like eventually. I can't actually see it evolving somewhat into that. Maybe. I just feel for Alden, man, that's two for two with Disney. He's got some bad look. Like, I just feel for gag. Yeah, I don't know what we can or can't say about it, but we are.

into reacting to it watching it it's a show with episodes and characters and a story and visuals and sounds tune in on the 24th for our thoughts i mean we've talked we've talked extensively about that specific topic uh i did want to acknowledge it because then as you're talking about fantastic four in this in your comment jones kevin faggy did confirm the events of fantastic four will be directly into avengers dooms day see i think talks like this with With that, confirming that it's going to lead directly into Doomsday, the X-Men, I feel like the hype around this conversation Marvel kind of needs, and I don't really think it's happening. This is a big thing. It's obvious that it would, as we would know, that like the average person, Dr. Doom, of course.

Yes, it would. But if they're really, this, this makes it sound like this is essential viewing to watch the next Avengers movie. Like you have to watch this to watch the next Avengers film, the big one. And I think they should really be pushing that kind of information. The X-Men announcement, they should really be pushing that. Things like this should be kind of taken off. Even if it's obvious, it should be taken off. Things like this should be announced at Comic-Con.

To be, yeah. In a month? Like putting that out there would suddenly make it feel like there is an importance and an urgency to watch this as soon as possible. I don't know what level they're showing up at Comic-Con. I know that Fantastic Four is coming out the week of Comic-Con. They're not going to be there, right? They're not doing a Hall-Age panel as far as I know. I heard they weren't.

but I would save an announcement like this for like oh like I would do a casual like at another panel like maybe an artist and writer's panel I would announce it at comic on because everyone's scouring for news like it does seem like even if you're not going to have a whole panel but I would like this seems like a wasted opportunity because that's a huge announcement could be my algorithm and could be my current interest that are affecting it so I'll acknowledge that I don't feel like the fantastic for marketing has been as strong as it can be I the biggest thing I've seen in the the last month is a clothing thing they did. Like they unveiled the merch and they flew a bunch of craters to New York to like, they literally paid for people to go look at clothes. Yeah. And that's the biggest I've seen, but that's because when my friends went. I don't even know if I'd see that if it wasn't for my algorithm.

Yeah. Not to sound more like a DC shill, but screw it. Let's sound more like a DC shill for a movie I haven't seen yet. That's the brilliance of what James Gunn's been doing is he is selling audiences to on the future. He's selling audiences on a vision. for what's to come while promoting this one individual project.

And not doubling down on Batman or Wonder Woman yet, letting it be Superman's time, but acknowledging them. I think that's great. I mean, this morning, today, Friday, my interview with James Gunn has dropped on DC Studio Showcase. So if you'd like to see some more quotes with me and them. If you want to see a video of me, AI, you know, giving James Gunn, that will be. I'm sure chat, TBT can pull it up any second right now. Greg's only James account. I've only been doing it verbally this whole podcast, but I'd like a visual aid.

We got it. I mean, Grock can pull that up in 30 seconds. Oh, well, let's do it. I'm assuming. Let's do it. Can you guys make that? Someone now has. Our podcast fans.

In our future. Please make one of James Gunn making love with me. This is, he's just inspired too much madness. I'll let you know right now. If I was on their payroll, they would not let me say stuff like that. That's a fair point. Because I'm sitting here uncomfortable. James Gunn himself might find that funny honestly, knowing his sense of humor.

Here I am, just navigating this minefield. But anyway, yeah, there's something that has been feeling a bit lackluster about the Fantastic Four marketing to me. But again, it could very well just be my algorithm. I am in a tricky spot with Fantastic Four because of like I'm very excited for about half of it. And I don't feel like anything I've seen has assuaged to those concerns that they've deepened. And so I keep wanting there to be marketing that has me like, Like, yeah, Fantastic Four is out in a month. And instead, it feels like we get it.

Like, we get another superhero movie two weeks after Superman. I'm excited for Fantastic Four, but it feels kind of like a footnote. And maybe they'll double down in their marketing in the last two weeks after Superman comes out. But that feels a little late. I mean, their trailers have done really well in view count. Good. The tickets on sale one, got two million views. We didn't actually see that trailer.

We skipped the trailer. Oh, I skipped it. I skipped it. Generally, their trailer views tend to do pretty well. I hope the movie does well. I hope the movie makes so much money. Like, I want Marvel to have a win. I just don't feel it yet.

It needs to blow shit out the water. It cannot be, they can't have three movies in a row that don't break even. They can't do that, man. And I think this looks great, like the marketing, like the visuals, what Matt Schackman has done, but it needs to do better than great. Like, it has to do a lot. And they're also really pushing a couple of their Disney Plus shows. John and I were at the Grove yesterday when we saw 28 years later, and we were noticing. like the amount of agatha all along for your consideration and daredevil born again for charlie

cox invented an offer they were like it's like damn what is with the insane push around this entire shopping center for these two shows i'm like i don't feel like they're going to get nominated for anything um but it's cool to see that they have faith to try yeah i feel like fantastic four needs a level of push yeah and cammy co for is saying um let me really quick do you guys feel completely the opposite please tell us honestly like that's a really real question I'm asking because, yeah, I'm fully aware of the entrapment of an algorithm. And I also am aware that I'm at DC studios like often. So my, I literally probably have that in my rhythm like as part of my tracking.

Yeah. And I'm generally more interested in Superman. Right. So maybe the rest of you have like tons of fit as far. They might be like, I'd barely get Superman shit, but I get a ton of a fantastic for, you know. Not trolling, I would love to know. Like, please be a litmus test, not just your bias. Like, what are you more exposed to?

A thousand percent. A camico for And I want to know what you think, Koi Saying an untitled Marvel movie Has been slated to release on December 15, 2028. What do you think that is? That makes a less sense.

Why the fuck did I put that again? Right? That is so obvious. Like, Avengers After all the talking we just had, I'm like, why am I even asking you this question? it's obviously Avengers Avengers X-Men I think I think X-Men I think we get two Avengers movie than an X-Men movie because I think it'd be cool to have a team movie that we know

team movie that we know bring in the new team have Secret War set that up have it be a big winter release have a huge opening I think it's a thing I think it writes itself yeah pretty big slam that they mentioned that they have the untitled thing and then they announced the director they got a date Greg obviously X-Men oh my God it's also too big of a date it's obviously X-Men yeah I'd be shocked if it's not X-Men I think it's an Fist movie. Oh, Finn Jones.

Finn Jones is back and he gets a movie. I got John on Mike for that joke. Danny Win. Guys, Finn Jones is coming back in December. Let's do it,

baby. Well, there's also a nuked DC film, right? I mean, what did James Gunn set? My man, James Gunn,

mm-mm. Everybody wanted to make the movie. Greg's out here trying to clean James' his gun. Ready to go. Just kind of

clean that glass. Lockout. We got invited to... Unload that silencer. We did get invited to a thing that they said James Gun will be at like an intimate reception and I'm like, I'm praying God now.

I literally open this episode. Intimate are we talking? I open this episode. It's like, I hope James watches and I've regretted it every minute. I'm going to be that weird fan that just pulls up my phone and be like, hit play.

Hey, hey. What do you think, man? Um, everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit ready to go. The screenplay wasn't ready. I couldn't do a movie where the screenplay is not good. I mean,

it sounds to me that to talk about Sergeant Rock, because that seemed like it was good to go. And then now it's not. Sergeant Rock gay. There are elements of the story that could be gay. I don't think of the character as gay, but they're like, it's a, I just associate Luca Guadena.

It's going to be gay. Now it's gay. But like the character, I could see it going that way. It's not like part of the character that I have canon, but like he's got a team that I can easily sign out. It's probably way like fights Nazis because he's like, I got to get.

like this is the homosexual repression of that era i've always thought nazis were gay like i the leather and the the marching i always thought that was like a way for people that were repressed to like find a group of guys he's punching it down so this is the movie about him coming to terms no i'm saying i think i think more gay people join into those type of communities what communities like the like the Nazis you think wow what a statement you just made oh you mean people who don't accept that don't accept that they oh you mean like the the hardcore like asserted religious folk who are obviously like you know yeah i think that's what it is those are two ways to go it's a certain controversies in the news that get buried yeah because you know certainly not that and then they go

abomination yep and that leads to more yeah i think that we were saying you know and he could be the he could be the he could be the sergeant rock could be the ha ha ha ha rock are baby yeah i think i think sergeant's good i think i think sergeant rock would be james buns jones oh yeah what do you what was the joke i used to say what he called james guns glutes. So you call James Gunn when he's toning his glutes. Yeah. James once. Yeah. I used to have a job at DC Studio's showcase.

Anyway, yeah. But I think Sergeant Rock could lend itself to having a commentary on soldiers and that like environment because I think that it was like 20 years ago and we got Don't Ask, Don't Tell and all that stuff. It could be our broke back mountain, man. That's what I'm saying in the DC universe. It could

be. The Spartans used to... 20th anniversary of broke back this week. Yeah, that's what I mean. Spardons used to make love to each other. We disregarded that. in 300 entirely yeah i also think it's like part of a culture that like thrived the roman empire lasted way longer than american umpires one they needed to that makes you get that out develop the intimacy too would people to want to protect and connect yeah i think it should be a mandate in u.s armies remember you just bow i hope all people we met someone yesterday josh hey i do and josh who's uh who's from the navy john remember marine navy the marines marines marines

and uh yeah i would say like josh if you're watching you should be making a love to all your fellow officers Simper five well you know I mean certain armies of the olden days thought that you would fight harder for your buddy if you were as I'm saying about the Spartans yeah exactly there you go and sometimes I was listening to you on the

totally so it also means sometimes they fight harder yeah I think they should James you don't know what you're doing man you got to bring the Sergeant Rock movie back the movie we just wrote this idea that we don't know if that was the movie boy oh boy I was excited for that movie because like you remember we

covered creature commandos. And I was like, oh my God, it starts your dog. And you were like, I have no idea. And I was like, it's a character that could be really relevant. And I think it's a good way to do a more normal story that has crazy elements to show the range of what the DC can be. So the fact that it fell apart is shocking. I don't know if this is what the quote is about, but I'm very curious. I mean, the positive to me is that he is confirming. There's something kind of badass to me about. I mean, not this isn't a back girl thing where they, you know, they did a whole thing. And then they're like, You can never see it.

Yeah, this is different. They didn't even start shooting it or anything. How many movies get started without a script or not good? And he is a man of his word and he said he wouldn't do shit like this. And the fact that he's like saying, yeah, we didn't do it because of this reason. Yeah. That's a good sign about the stature of the DC universe. That's a great sign.

Side note, this is the most homerotic podcast we've done. And that's impressive considering three weeks ago, you were like, look at me naked or effectively. You were like, oh, I got a naked one. Do you? It's my wallpaper. And that's bold. It's my goal. My goal is sustain.

Your lock screen is just like you dialed down the center to unlock it. It's like, ooh. I don't have to reach higher. I just got to maintain this. This is it. Perfect. This is all it needs to be. Anyway, did you want a gay Sergeant Rock movie like us?

Leave your thoughts down below. Clayface. It's finally been cast, Koi. No one's really talking about it. I don't know this guy. Tom Reese Harris. He's got a very unique. look strong cheek he looks like he was made out of clay he looks like by the gods and brought to life

holy shit this guy's photo oh my god who is he what's he been in why did i do no research a dragon heart movie that's kind of crazy that we're actually getting a clay face movie man like keep saying walt flanagan mike flanagan wrote yeah what flanagan is the less successful brother it's a clerk's He's living in Mike's shadow this whole time. He's got like the string hair. He's balding. He just won't shave. Poor Walt, just doing his best.

Looks like the BTK killer. Anyway, yeah, I mean, I'm excited for him to be doing this. Mike Flanagan said that it was really inspired by the Batman the animated series episode, which played on the actor portrayal of Clayface. Yeah, and I think that's really fun for an actor that looks like such an actor. Like, I don't know anything about this dude, but it's like, oh, yeah, that's what an actor looks like. So I'm really curious to see. what like that level of supernatural blended with Mike Flanagan's very like he's his stuff so scary

but so like supernatural and grounded so I'm really curious what that's like with Clayface I wonder if they're going to use a blend of practicality and CGI I hope it's like the thing yeah exactly I mean if they go full CGI I it'll be hard to do Clayface without Cigy oh it'll need a ton I just hope it's like you know in a way that feels photo real not like too farcicle or too big yeah yeah that's that's kind of the odd part when you're an actor doing a role like this is when you're associated with not your actual face yeah but but a different thing entirely that you're embodying yeah yeah yeah I have no idea what this one's gonna be that's kind of crazy how quick this is coming along yeah because it

wasn't in the original announcement and James Gunn even said this wasn't something that they were planning and then the script was so good this is the opposite of whatever that other project was the script was so good we developed rapidly so you're saying if I write my gay sergeant rock movie could come together good enough screenplay James Gun might actually make a sergeant. Oh, baby, the one part we got a mute. We danced around a lot of words today. And he finally did it.

Whatever time it is. One hour, two minutes. All right. I just had to put it in there. Just like Sergeant Rock. PG-13. We were doing so good. Well, now I know how long we've been to.

It's an hour and two minutes. You can do gay face. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. It's in the air today. Why don't we get some like game? movies yeah come on more mainstream gay films challengers gay face would be great actually his identity

is super fluid yeah nicely done we should get more like gay movies are people so opposed to that are you trying to unpack never mind we've obviously talked a lot about this before you're kind of unpacked the human condition never mind never mind all right that's good on the clay face one Saying, I think Nazis are gay, wasn't enough for Greg. All right. One of our top comments came in. It was a really simple one from Beat Street. It says, 20 years later, an F1.

I was like, okay, what do I do with that? Come out soon. Well, 28 weeks later, I got a high recommendation from John and I. You have a high recommendation as well. I'm very curious to see if audiences will like it. The most divisive movie I've seen this year. I can totally imagine. And even on the, something to be mindful, the critic side is like,

even though it's got a high rating. when you open it if you look at the actual numbers yeah you're like oh it's a lot of it's more closer to like it's above mid but closer to mid for a lot of people that you'd expect yeah um so it's not as glowing as high glowing as you might think it is from initially opening like a 93 percent uh but for audiences in particular i'm like i think film buff audiences might really love this but i mean it's like 28 days later and 28 weeks later are so accessible still even though 28 days later is such a strange way to

capture a movie it was terrifying it was a talk and it was one of the first films at the time to like it's so real this doesn't feel like a movie so it's still very effective and this one is like a strange sensory surreal it's a nightmare trip it's a dream

it's like when you say a nightmare it doesn't mean just like a horror movie it's a dream sequence like a fever dream yeah I was definitely having moments of like I feel like mildly hallucinating like it's a lot of stimuli and like I loved it, but I like weird stuff. We walked out, a friend of the pod, Jasmine. I watched it with Jasmine and we literally like, we were leaving.

I was giddy because I spent the last like 20 minutes ago, I can't believe this movie. And then like everyone around me dead silent as we walked out. And there was a moment of like everyone looking at each other. And Jasmine just went, that was the most coy movie ever. I don't know if anyone else is going to like it. And I stand by her review because that was my experience of me being like, I don't know if people like this. Very much John's flavor too. Dude, it's so weird.

I mean, John text. John never texts. John is not a texter. It's just not who he is. I got a text from John, which is always alarming. Because I'm like, is everything okay. Okay, this is exciting. It's a good text.

But like, I've texted John 17 times in a row without response. And I hate texting. I got a text from John walking out of the movie going. That was so, what did you say? What's your quote? I said, bro, that movie was nuts. Because I ranted at you as vague as I could that like you were going to love it. I loved it.

Who else might? But like, to get a text from John, he was in. It's strange. People will walk in expecting it to be the part three to the trilogy, but really it's definitely a part one of a new trilogy. Oh, they've greenlit. Yeah. What's crazy? Do you know how they greenlit this?

I mean, they're almost done with two right now, right? And three happens if one and two do well. That's what I wanted to talk about. Yeah, that's what I want to talk about with F1 and 28 days later, because both are original films. I like, even though this is like an IP already and is a sequel, it's the way it is and the fact that Sony let Danny Boyle and Alex Carlin, like, Sure. Will a producer like very weird society movie that feels like a strange nightmare you had after the pandemic? Yeah, let's freaking do this.

I'm going to go through some numbers here. F1, you gave a high recommendation to me. Yes. Yeah. Even that's at 80% on Ryan's amazing. It was just surprising to me. I don't think it's as good as Top Gun Maverick. I don't think it's as rewatchable as Top Gun Maverick.

I think it feels the most like I've felt leaving a movie in that movie theater summer feeling since Top Gun Maverick. Okay. So here's, I'm going to break down. some numbers for you, okay? F-1, Brad Pitt movie, $200 million production budget, some reports claim $300, break-even point, roughly $4 to $500 million if it's $200 million, $600 to $900 million, if it's $300 million. Opening weekend projection at time of recording this is $30 to $40 million to mess $30 to $40? It's not high. It's missing a zero. The, but it's Apple.

They can lose money. Apple can lose. And Apple right now I think really cares about getting prestige quality around their, their streaming service. And Apple is, they're weird because if it's not something they think of a higher regard, they just put it on Apple. But if it is something they love for a movie,

they're like, let's put it in the theaters. I need to say something about Apple. I've been thinking about a lot. Yeah. You know how in every fictional narrative or daydream when people are like, you know, if I had a billion dollars, I would do things totally differently. And we always say, like, I can't believe,

I feel like Apple is that crazy billionaire that actually is just like, what if we just make art? I don't need money back, just make it. And this F1 feels the most like I've ever felt like Apple's just like, I don't know, let a pile of money on fire, we'll film it. And I'm okay with it because so many billionaires and so many rich people are stealing art and shelving art

and getting tax right out from ruining art. And Apple feels like they're like, yeah, got to see a cool movie. So like F1 is that. And I like that more than I like parts of F1. And I liked F1 a lot. This has to make so much money, though. It's not the, like it can't.

I don't think it'll break even. But like I said, there's a bigger, like we've been talking about, there's a bigger end game here that they have. Whereas with 28 days later, the production budget is reported to be between 60 to 75 million. So break even point is 150, 187 million. The opening weekend projection is currently between 288 to 45. million dollars. They both have equally steep hills to climb

because that's though that that's I mean I think legs wise F1 has the summer. Obviously Superman's going to dent it. Jurassic's going to dent it all those things but like it's going to be one of those movies that people want to see through the summer. 28 is very like a certain audience. That's an expensive horror movie

too. It's so weird. It's sort of sounds like a weird and strange. It's also very much a horror movie. A thousand percent I would not disregard that genre. Sometimes you walk into these horror movies and they're like like, okay, that was a, that was a drama about grief with some horrors, you know. This is a horror film. This is like a horror movie.

And so I think like what horror, and horror tends to be pretty big, but horror tends to not be made for this much money. This is a blockbuster horror. And like, I hope it has the audience because I think they deserve it. And I think the hopefully, what I'm hoping is that budget includes some of two. Yeah. I'm hoping they filmed like as Nia da Costa is doing the second one. And I'm a huge fan of her candy man. And it made decent money.

And I think maybe if that budget includes some of two, then they can look at the average. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, terrible producing skills. Our patron, Powell, Catch Marik, he did say, it seems like a lot of people are saying that 20 years later is a good film, just with quite a different vibe from the original and that it clearly sets up a bigger story. And you know, a cliffhanger, do you think it might hurt the box officer for the chance of the third movie getting financed? Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

I think that ending note was going to be very divisive for people. and that determines what you leave people feeling says a lot, you know. And the movie has you feeling a lot and up and down and up and down and left and right. You're like so stimulated and then it still pivots. Like the movie is already so like, oh, to have the end be that crazy, felt weird on top of the weird. And so. But I'm excited for two because of the ending. I don't want to say much.

But I mean, it's like it's a, it's a bit of a tonal cell too. Yeah. You know, that might have people, because one thing I was trying to forewarn people about is that some people might watch that movie and think, oh, man, what the hell? It's just a part one. It doesn't complete it. But it does complete character arcs. Yeah. So it does complete the journey of the specific story they're telling.

But it very clearly does something that's like, we're making a part two. And I like, I mean, they could have even done that as like a post credit if they wanted to, but like it's long and great and awesome and weird. But like it's, I like the swing. Yeah, man, I want to elaborate why it's good for the movie that they didn't make it a post-credit, but it would definitely be a spoiler if I said anything, so I'm not going to. Next Friday live, maybe if someone will ask. Yeah, yeah, do it, ask. Set us up. Do you guys think this will do well? This is like crazy stuff. I'm excited to see how it plays out. These are two crazy numbers in a crazy time for movies. Jesus Christ. But I waited personally, I waited to see both of them before I made my top 10 in the first half the year, because I'm,

I assumed they'd make my top 10, and they're both worthy of that. They're both great. Well, moving on, Hussinnell 2010. Well, I forget. Have you seen any of the Saw movies? One and two back when they came out. Well, Blumhouse. Lee Wan direct the new Blumhouse Saw movie,

now that he and James Wan have creative rights again, this excites me a lot. So James Wan and Lee Wan now to Powerhouse names right now in the directing field. They started off in the industry with the first Saw. movie. LeWanel's in it? LeWanel's the co-star and he wrote it and James Juan directed it and then it became a massive franchise. I don't think Lee Wunel stayed on, right, John, like for anything, I know James Juan left, but Lee Wynel didn't stay on either. He wrote the first three. Oh, he wrote the first three. Oh, I forgot that. Okay, so Lee

Wynel's, but Lee Wynel eventually found his way into directing. Yeah. He was mainly just a screenwriter slash actor for a long time and now he's a well-regarded director, even though Invisible Man was not the reception that people were hope, not invisible man, Wolfman was not the reception people were hoping for. I mean, he's done upgrade, Insidious three people liked Invisible Man. So I think he's done enough films to be like, no, he's a pretty great director. And I think his miss, like I liked Wolfman more than the average, but I think even Bill I didn't like it could see merit in it.

I think he does, yeah, I think it'd be a great choice. And what James Wan said is that Saw holds a special place in my heart coming back to this world with a fresh perspective is both thrilling and deeply personal for me. This will mark a significant creative return to the SAW franchise for the first time since the early days. And I'm very much looking forward to embracing the original spirit while pushing the legacy forward in bold unexpected ways. I mean, it's kind of sounds like a general statement that he didn't write. The PR team did great job telling him. Yeah, it's a good statement.

But that's the weird thing with the SAW franchise. And I think John might agree with me on this is that it seems like every SAW movie lately has been like, we're going to take a new direction. We're going to take a new direction. It's been like that three movies in a row. And then the last one was the first Saw movie to get great reviews. It got great reviews. It sets up a sequel.

Even though it's a prequel, it still sets up a sequel. And it's the, like I said, it was the first one was like, wow, this is kind of like loved by audiences and critics. This is unusual for Saw. And now it sounds like they're not going to follow through with that and they're going to start something different again. The divide that I have is that at the end of the day, what they do. did set up with the last one is a sequel to a prequel this sounds like they wouldn't be doing that shit so even though i'd be disappointed of them not falling up i'd rather i'm i'm excited with the oh gs the ones who actually created this that doesn't mean it'll be good doesn't always mean

it'll be good sometimes you get a weirdly scott wanting to make a bunch of random sequels and then you get a danny boyle wanting to make a weird like all right i'll show you got something new you know so I hope this is more of the Danny Boyle and less the Ridley Scott I like that parallel and I and I think we won't know until it's out because they're such bold filmmakers they could make a bold swing that doesn't work or they could make a bold swing and like have a brand new soft franchise and I think James Juan would love that like I think we could leave we might leave Tobin Bell even that's that's my point he's not I mean how do you do fellow kids is only going to last so long that man can only put on so many hats and try to be 20 and like James won you know he was doing

the Aquaman movies and in between that he did malignant yeah and and that was like such an experimental film of his as well. I think James won, especially after what happened with Aquaman, I think he's itching to do something that is like, that's his creative and weird, and he's got a good relationship with Blumhouse, and these two are like clearly best friends.

Yeah, I would... And Blumhouse could use a win of a new franchise. Like, they're killing it, but like how great would be if they have Saw and it takes off and there's 10 new ones? How great would it be if there's like a cinematic universe? Yeah, a shared universe of haunted dolls and saw. And we did like an animated movie about that puppet.

Yeah, we do a prequel and a sequel and a spinoff. call it ballerina oh i love that john wick prequel female sequels only women lady sawd dude ballerina is dope though all female victims the male bad guy yeah yeah because woke yeah a white buff guy yeah got the guy was playing clay face that's him yeah he's so handsome great cheap bones anyway are you guys excited for this tom cruise oscar cadden finch three three four three says tom cruise is officially getting some weird Oscar. They're giving him the honorary Oscar for his

commitment to our filmmaking community, theatrical experience, and to the stunts community. Can I say something first, Coy? Please. Conan O'Brien is returning to host. He's my hero. My hero. No one else in the industry, I would say, is my

hero. He's my hero. Tom Cruise and him once did a bit together. Did you ever see it where they're like driving around in a car? I did. I forgot about it. That is so funny. Yeah. And like people forget how funny Tom Cruise can be.

Yeah. Because he's so like a serious. He seems like such a serious crazy guy. Yeah. He brings the same intensity to comedy. Yeah. He's great at comedy. Great at comedy.

But what excites me about this is I feel like Conan would want to do some type of crazy bit with Tom Cruise. I would love to see Tom Cruise on the podcast, first of all. Conan Rob Ryan needs a friend. Oh, not our podcast. I mean, it'd be great to have him here. Sure. Tom. But Tim and Conan would be amazing.

I feel like this would give that opportunity and to do like bits together. That's a thing. But how do you feel about Tom Cruise getting this award? I think that the stunt Oscar is so overdue that it could easily start with Tom Cruise. That's so weird. Not actual stunt, man. I mean, he is like, let's go with Tom Cruise. But you know what I mean?

Like, I feel like this is the response to that is we're getting a stunt coordinator. Like we're getting a stunt award finally. And I feel like with Mission Impossible coming out, a lot of people be like, Tom Cruise, like he changed stunts. I think this is so that doesn't happen. I think we need to give an actual stunt. like team an Oscar. So this is a great way to have it be like that and Tom Cruise. And I think they're doing a stunt thing now.

That's what I'm saying is I would be afraid that with the Mission Impossible stunt aware it is, it would end up being Tom Cruise's. So it's good to give another one to Tom Cruise because he has, I mean, he's done the impossible. He's the movie star that is keeping theaters open. Like when you think Tom Cruise, you think stunts and his love of the theater and then his movies. So I think that the academy, which is about motion picture arts and sciences should honor

him like Angela Bassett got one the year after they didn't give her one for Black Panther so like Tom Cruz should get one after 40 years of them not giving him one he's been nominated he's never gotten one to my knowledge it's time I mean we were talking last week and extensively about how the way Tom Cruise has been truly the champion for cinema how that's influenced the way I see certain things because of the way Tom Cruise has gone about it and has made me realize more about community and film versus competition and film yeah and they're significance and the importance of that and how one success elevates the other to succeed and that's why he promotes other movie studios and other films that he has nothing to do with yeah because he

understands that it's so much more than just his movie succeeding it's about everyone succeeding and so yeah i think like the the key words here about our commitment to our filmmaking community if someone were to say who deserves that award right now i'm like tom cruise yeah undoubtedly tom So yeah, I think he's absolutely deserving of this. I mean, I find honorary Oscars a little bit funny. But hey, if you're going to do it, it's a good one to give. I want to shout this out really quick. YouTuber Chris Duckman, his movie's officially coming out. Shelby Oaks on October 3rd in theaters, Neon is distributing it. They've doubled the film's budget to add more gore and violence. This is one of the most inspirational things I've seen this man do. I've had the

pleasure of talking to him a couple of times not on camera off camera and he's an incredibly nice guy i i am so thrilled for the fact that he he changed his youtube channel so he can pursue the which which lets a lot of backlash for him um i don't know if you know about any of this i don't know about the backlash i i've met chris a few times and i'm so happy for him but i don't know about the backlash uh it was that he didn't want to do reviews anymore for films that he didn't like like he was very intentional about that like I do so now that he puts up now when he puts up a video it's like oh he must like this movie yeah yeah so that was part of it and he's had like a lot of big reviews that were like clearly about not liking stuff but that does so sometimes he just skips

reviewing stuff all together that's big because he didn't like it yeah but I think people missed that side of him but he did that because he knows he's going to be playing in the field with these people now and he cares more about that and like that's where his heart's at and so I get it Like, it'd be fucking awkward. Hey, good to see you. Oh, I was like, oh, I totally like to rip you apart, didn't. Also, I would play devil's advocate that like he's making film so he knows how hard it is. So it doesn't, I mean, I, I've been an actor.

I don't like critiquing actors. So, like, I'm never in a position of like I could do it better. I'd rather, like, not talk about it if I don't like it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's, like, different opinions when you start to really see how it's done or get involved yourself where that sense of entitlement of how things should be done. Making a movie's a miracle every time.

So once you start doing it, you realize then you don't want to talk crap about the ones that happen to exist. So I just want to say, congrats to Chris Stuckman. That's amazing. I would like to get an interview with him, actually. That'd be fun to have on. God damn it, Chris.

Tori Jerry. Perfect question for Koi. I've just now been starting to get into D.C. since the new Superman is coming out. I've seen a few movies, Wonder Woman, the Batman, but none more than that. What would you recommend I watch in order for preparation for Superman or to watch in general

as I begin my DC journey? Watch, I would say, that Chris Nolan Batman films are pretty exceptional. I would watch. I really like the Suicide Squad. If you want to watch stuff that is in Superman Tone, Superman the animated series is pretty slept on. I'm a big Smallville fan.

I know the rest of the cast has referenced Smallville as their inspirations as well. So I would say Smallville is probably tonally pretty similar. I think the best Lex Luthor we've ever had is Michael Rosenbaum, which is Smallville's. So if you've got time, Smallville's pretty dope. I'd read Superman for all seasons. I would read Superman Birthright.

I would read whatever happened in the man. of tomorrow. I would read All-Star Superman, which James Gunn has referenced in his imagery. And I would, one last black, one last wreck, something weird. I would read Animal Man. It's one of the best comics in modern comics. And it's so out there that it might lead you to other weird comics. So try one weird one, Animal Man, Grant Morrison. I'd recommend David Ayer's Suicide Squad, Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern. Catwoman, Hallibary. I would skip the first two Superman and hop right to Superman 3 and Superman 4 Quest for Peace. Okay.

Oh, Batman and Robin. I would work backwards. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah. It's much better that way. Batman and Robin. That way you're like watching prequels. Uh-huh.

Then I would read All Star Superman. Captain Merrick with the ears. I'll say on Superman birth, I was telling Koi is it is one of the few comics I've read that not at one point felt like homework. It was so, it felt very cinematic the entire time I was reading it. I kept, I did not want to put it down. It's such a, it's such a driven book.

It's pulse is awesome. Yeah, I, it would keep me up. Yeah. I really loved it a lot. And it's probably one of my favorite comics of all time. I misquoted the comic I was telling you about, by the way. It's Lex Luther and unauthorized biography. Got it.

That's the title. And that's the one with the big portrait on the cover. It's so good. That makes more sense. Last question of the day, Cody Enos. Greg has mentioned how difficult copyright claims on YouTube and how Patreon helps a lot. If it's okay, do you mind expanding on that? Like, if you're doing a franchisee, no-will-be-claim what makes you continue to do it,

is watching on Patreon help better than watching on YouTube. The support of the financial part on Patreon does really help a lot. That's the part that helps offset it because, yeah, those are like watch-alongs where you sync up. But with copyright claims and stuff, I mean, a lot of times it's just like a lot of fighting, a lot of battles. I don't really know how to explain it. Like, we do a lot where we do like several edits and then, you know, it's fine. Like, hey, it's good. And then we make it public.

And then they're like claiming, claiming, claiming a bunch of different claims. And then sometimes I hop right to copyright strike or blocks, which is a real pain in the ass. We're doing everything we can to like abide by the rules. And then YouTube change a lot of their ad systems, which has really affected the income part of it, which I don't feel super comfortable talking about because I will say on the smaller scale on my side. I've lost 68% of my income with the ad changes. So I'm a smaller channel. On my personal page, I'm down like three-fourths almost.

That's why we really appreciate the page. We always have, and Patreon saved us when it was even worse. It was what it was harder. And you guys have stuck around for so long. We really appreciate that. But yeah, like it doesn't go unnoticed. So I'm really grateful for that. I know what it's like when, you know,

Our main tier is $5, and I know what it's like when $5 is everything. And I will never forget a situation like that. So as much as $5, like, it's easy to disregard is like, it's just five bucks. You know, maybe that's an easier way to sell people on a Patreon, actually. It's a smarter business thing. But for those who do contribute, starting at that tier, thank you. That's what I want to say is thank you. We did it.

We did it. We did it. Disney animated length movie, done did it. That's a lot of different stories. 21 episodes. And on a live stream, this would take three hours. Oh, 100 seconds. We would not have gotten here.

Not in this length. But next week, we're going to do a live stream. Keep a lookout for that. We're aiming for 12 p.m. PST. And I hope to see you guys. Eric Coy. Thanks for being here. John, thanks for holding the fort down.

Neuricronic. Thanks for editing this. Peace out. People. Wow. Jim Carrier? Thank you.