The Reel Rejects - Thunderbolts SOARS, Sinners SCREWS Media, The Last Of Us RISKS It All!!

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Thunderbolts Reactions, Sinners controversy, The Last Of Us Season 2 viewership in danger, Andor Season 2 matures up with big debates! Download PrizePicks today at https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/RE... & use code REJECTS to get $50 instantly when you play $5! In this episode of the Real Rejects podcast, Greg Alba, & Coy Jandreau dive into Sinners, breaking down the buzz around Ryan Coogler’s groundbreaking 25-year final cut deal and Michael B. Jordan’s passion project, while also reacting to how entertainment media is covering its success. We explore Thunderbolts early reactions and speculate what the movie needs to deliver, featuring stars like Florence Pugh (Yelena), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), and Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster). We also revisit key MCU plot threads leading to the film. Then we shift to The Last of Us Season 2, where Pedro Pascal (Fantastic Four: First Steps) returns as Joel alongside Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Kaitlyn Dever as Abby—discussing the emotional impact of pivotal moments and the show’s bold game-to-screen accuracy. Finally, we cover the current Star Wars state, including Jodie Comer and Mikey Madison reportedly passing on the new Ryan Gosling-led project, and the complex reactions to The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew, and a particularly intense moment involving Bix in Andor Season 2 Episode 3 that’s sparked deep online discussion. We unpack representation, character growth, and what fans truly want from these beloved franchises. PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects 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

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This week's video are sponsored by price picks the easy to use fantasy sports

betting app more on them in just a bit ladies and gentlemen we got so much to go into

today. Appreciate all the questions you guys added in our community post and Patreon. We want to talk about the sinners, the weird narrative that's been forming around its box office reception, and or some controversies around there, some Star Wars casting, Thunderbolts, early reactions. We got a good amount, and it's all driven by questions that you guys have submitted. Thank you so much. There's video chapters. If you'd like to hop around, especially when we go to last of us, too, There's going to be spoilers because of the big thing that happened in episode two. But before we do any of that, two things. Please leave a like on this video that would mean the world.

Your feedback throughout this entire video comments does help out. I'm not saying that only for, you know, the engagement to help the video out. It does help out. The feedback we do take into consideration because we like to have a conversation and grow. The other second thing, we've got to congratulate Koi, Jondra. coi officially has his own new show if you go to dc right now why am i saying it coy tell him what the show is dc high volume uh i'm doing a show on dc official and seeing my picture on dc's official youtube and dc.com is so insane uh it's like it's an honor of honors i'm already in the back of dc comics and now

this is like another level of wonderful um i love batman and if you like me as a comic fan have been like, why don't they just translate the comic directly? Like, we love these comics. What if they just made that? Well, they're doing that in DC High Volume, starting with Batman Year 1, going into Batman along Halloween, and further. We've got more after that. But

in DC High Volume, I am interviewing the talent that is, the voice actors, the sound designers, the composers, below the line, talking to writers like Jeff Loeb, who wrote the Long Halloween, talking to writers and artists that are hugely inspired by these stories, like hopefully Jim Lee, people that we're

responsible for shaping these characters in long form interview which is what I love to do and it is literally a sound stage that is historic and iconic it is long form

like hour long sit down show Lipton style which is my dream about Batman and it is on DC it's on their audio feeds everywhere you stream your pods it's on YouTube

and this first episode is up right now just dropped on Thursday sitting down with Batman himself and the person responsible the executive producer of DC high volume Mike Pilata really really proud of it. It's been like a lifelong fight to get something like this. I'm excited to watch

it. It premiered today. So I haven't checked it out yet, but I do know if you've seen Koi's interview skills, I've told it to you so many times that I think you're like the master at interviewing. And please support it. Please go watch it. Leave a comment on it. There's a link at the description box and pinned comment. And if you go support it, my hunches, I have no involvement in this show at all. My hunch is that if that grows and does well, then Koi could end up talking to guests, the big ones that you've more familiar with, the talent that you're more familiar with, directors and actors, the idea is to help grow it to that point. Like, I think that would be amazing. And if there's anyone who will be able to provide the most impactful,

substantial type of conversation with these artists and actors and whatever, it would be Coydandro. Thank you, man. There's a reason why they graduated to let him have this show. And I, I think it would be great if Reject Nation could go support, show your love in the comments, especially leave a comment and I feel like it would be awesome man congratulations thank you man it'd be really cool it'd be really cool now back to the real rejects your shitty other job dude the dream is to only be DC and real rejects coadjandro believe me I'm trying to downsize my life I love it here man I actually gave them our schedule and the hard time and place we filmed this is completely blocked out from anything DC every single week this is like even DC second to rejects

Just letting you know. All right. Well, let's kick this off. Let's kick this off. For Coney 1127, this was the top comment on the community post. So to honor our followers, let's go with the top comment here. And by top comment, that means is the one that got the most thumbs up, meaning this is what most people want to hear about. Discussion on sinners, your personal thoughts on the movie, and also the discourse on how the movie has been covered by entertainment news outlets.

It's supposedly downplanet's box office success, as well as the deal Ryan Cookeler made to retain Final Cut ownership in 25 years. Side note. John, I know you normally are like scouring to get these. I got them all already. So I have a screenshot and send them to our wonderful editor's prepper. Just as I had taken the screen shot. Don't worry. I've already got them all.

But now you can breathe. So don't you fret? I got it all here. Yeah. Well, Coy and I love the shit out of sinners. Yeah. We saw a prime experience. in 70 millimeter IMAX,

one of the real ones. One of the real ones, and that means the aspect ratio changes. We had Greg's favorite seats. Yeah, no, we got there early so we can get my favorite seats. And that is one of those experiences that you just kind of don't forget.

And John, thank you for taking the sacrifice. I'm being one of the people to opt out to react to it. I'll do Thunderbolts on channel. You'll lose sinners. So this is probably the one that burns the most That this is one of the weird things that I've been having lately is Oh, when I skip a movie to a movie that's not getting good feedback Not a problem

When it's like beloved, I'm like, oh, this is kind of hard Yeah That was like me with Minecraft I like literally thought I was helpful because I'm like This movie's doing huge I will take I will fall in the sword Because like this would be a thing I could talk about everywhere You're like, do you even care?

And I was like, Craig, I'm trying to do the thing I'm trying to do the Sinners Thunderbolt's thing Like let me help it is hard and it's like a factor of the job but uh with sinners man uh i i'm so i am so happy we did already a review for it that you guys can go check out i am so happy of how beloved this is in fact it's more beloved than i anticipated i was a little apprehensive not apprehensive i was a little concerned that it might have been a little too artsy because that first half of it without spoiling jack shit for john especially or anyone who hasn't seen it that first half of it

is so much more about other things that are not a vampire movie but still thematically will tie in to everything and it's so much more about music and it's it's so multi-genre and and while a wildly impressive film i thought maybe people might like get a little bored or check out or something like that then to see it got this like a cinema score yeah box office is doing really well 98 or something around tomato, something crazy? It was an example to me, too, of how reviews and audience score is effective. I have the AMCA list that I rarely use, but I'm glad to give them the money. And when the tickets were first released, empty seats.

After a cinema score and all that, I went to go check because I was like, I got to take my wife to go see this movie. Fucking sold out. Packed to the for the rim. I was even looking for like the screen. It's like, well, who's want to go to like 10 a.m.? Oh, my God. God. Everyone, I guess. Yeah, so it's exciting because it is an original film.

This is the mind of Ryan Coochler and Michael B. Jordan working in tandem, again, all their experiences. And it's not Creed, which is a Rocky movie franchise. It's not Black Panther, which is a Marvel franchise. It is their own original film with so much heart and soul. And to see that it is pulling in audiences for this is beautiful. what cinemas need, to the bigger point of what's happening, is that downplay that's going on. John, can you find that downplay, the one that got really popular, special after Ben Stiller quote tweeted it saying, like, why is this getting the reception about that?

You know what we're talking about, right, Coy? Yep, I got real mad. You got mad, too, when you saw it. I got specifically, yes, I'll talk about it, yes. Variety saying, Sinners has amassed 61 million in its global debut. It's a great result for an original R-rated horror film, yet the Warner Bros. release has a $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses.

Making... Oh, my goodness. Oh, I've lost it. Oh, I'm so sorry. It was going so smooth. Refresh page. Basically making profitability, like a doubtful, casting doubt on the profitability.

Mm-hmm. Well, thank you for getting that. And, Koi, what was your reaction when you, you saw that because I didn't get much of a reaction. I had to actually gather more context to understand why people were upset and eventually did dawn on me, but I admittedly I was a little naive to what the offense was. My immediate reaction was we finally have something original. We finally have doing well. We finally have an event movie that doesn't need to be tied to an IP. We finally have an entire event feel like an event that is born of creativity.

And then because negativity is celebrated more than positivity, they had to go, oh, and that's insane. Like, it ended with a negative for no reason. It literally, it made three, two-thirds of its budget already, weekend one. It's an original thing that is only getting good word of mouth, that is only getting good rotten tomatoes, that is only getting a good cinema score. They had nothing actually negative to say. So then they were like, but, you know, with marketing, I guess it's not doing Avengers numbers. Like, what an insane thing to pull when something's finally what you claim to root for. If you're a trade that celebrates movies and you're a trade that celebrates the entertainment industry when something unique in entertainment happens you have to still go uh yes but negativity is what's

going to give us clicks let's make sure we as variety go let's make sure that doesn't seem too positive because it's not going to click as much i hate that they sacrifice their own integrity as a movie publication to spin it negatively when it's inherently positive like that is such a good win for the cinema especially in 2025 especially for its original IP so to make it negative just for clicks is embarrassing that was my initial response to when we when we when we're being asked about it was like, oh, it must be because of the negative bait that you have to do, right? And like our titles often in here are a play on that, you know, to showcase like kind of what we're talking about, like the farce. So we intentionally will do these titles that ours like, oh,

is this going to be negative? Like saying like Marvel's future is going to be dark, even though what we're really saying is like the dark is good. But we know that people will respond a certain way. And yeah, sometimes it does like help to have that. This, though, the context of it, I would agree, is putting kind of a negative light on it. And this morning, I listened to Dan Merle's talk about it because I didn't know what this 25 years thing was. To it, it's incredible. His deal. Do you know his full deal now? I mean, elaborate. I know the basic, but elaborate. So there's, he got three things that are unheard of in the deal. The first is. The percentage deal. Up front. So not a back-end deal, an upfront deal.

So he gets a cut of the upfront money, which is unheard of. Meaning the movie doesn't need to make a profit. He'll get a cut right away. Right. He gets a percentage, not of the, oh, here's the leftovers. He gets the money. And then the second being the big one that's unprecedented is in 25 years, he gets the rights back to his own film.

So in 2050, he will own sinners, which does not ever happen. Which I feel like is really great, considering what the movie is actually talking about. And it's so interesting because it's a certain amount of time and stuff like that's really interesting considering the film. And to please don't forget that third point. And to also enhance a little bit where you're talking. Enhance. Zoom in. To elaborate a little bit more on that of like the specialty

of it, like James Cameron did not have the rights to Terminator for so long. That's what they were able to make a much of shitty Terminator films without him. Dogma, Kevin Smith couldn't even like play it without Harvey Weinstein getting money. See, yeah. So that is the importance of. He doesn't own it to the level of Kevin Smith sat on that movie for 10 years

and wouldn't play it, wouldn't distribute it, wouldn't put it on Blu-ray. Dogma didn't exist. until they finally got the rights back recently and now it's you know it's owned by not harvey winestein especially for this being an original film the idea that he doesn't get to own the narrative and they could like do sequel bullshit with it or whatever the hell they want like they could do it they could literally warner versus could do a sequel without marian cougler michael bjorn if they wanted to yeah probably probably they could find some way what was the third thing you want to say he got final cut on the film oh i didn't know that final cut on a studio feels that way yeah he got final cut

which doesn't happen now so that's not that's not a director's cut that's not that is the cut that you've seen is, is Ryan Coogler's movie. So what Dan Merle was posing of what he believes is the high probability of why they did the negative slant, because a lot of these bigger outlets... Other studios are going to be owned by the... Are you about to say, sorry? No, what were you going to say? I think you're on to it.

They're in the pocket of these other studios that are going to see this unprecedented deal and other directors are going to start asking for a little like Cougars. And I saw headlines like, Coogler's going to ruin the studio system. And it literally felt like I was watching The Studio where there's like this. thing is going to cause blah, blah, blah. It's like, well, yeah, maybe artists should own their art or get a stake in their art. Look at what the movie industry has become because of the exib industry having to keep up with insane costs and actors and writers and directors feeling like, how do we have a strike and ask for the bare minimum if people see us is already

rich and they're not. And then look at the music industry. Spotify has ruined music because no one's making money if I pay seven bucks a month and extreme infinite music. These bands have to tour and they have to charge $150,000 a ticket to make even. And most people don't realize stand-of-comedians, bands, all these things, they have to rent out these venues. So if you're Bill Burr and you're playing Red Rocks, you're going to be putting up $200,000 for that space, and then you're going to have to pay your crew. So you've got to clear like 350K before you start seeing money. So if you're not the biggest thing ever, you're never going to get to the point where you can do that. Same with bands. So bands don't make money on Spotify. They don't really

make money touring until they sell enough merch and fully sell out venues. The whole system is stacked against artists. Meanwhile, the people at the top that own all of this are making the actual money that the average person thinks the actors and musicians and all these things are making. It's only the top 5% that make the money that people think the top 50% make. And the whole thing is falling apart because of the greed of a certain amount of people and the aspiration of art from the rest. So to shit on something that's original by great artists, it's crazy how even these entertainment outlets because either's either side.

Let's play a little devil's advocate here for a second. What they're posing in that article, at least in that headline, I didn't actually read the whole article. Actually, for context, there is a headline from the New York Times as well. And that's what people have kind of jumped on because it's a quote from variety where they say basically profitability remains a ways away. What the New York Times ran with is a headline that says sinners is a box office success with a big asterisk in parentheses,

which is what a lot of people have been running with. So that's New York Times, and it says Ryan Cougler's original film is expected to sell a strong $46 million and tickets over the weekend enough for number one, but its profitability remains a long way off. So those are getting conflated, basically. You see, the thing, thank you.

It does help, actually. The thing is that there is some truth to that, though, right? Like, to actually make a profit off of how much this movie costs and knowing how much goes into it there there is a truth to that but that speaks a lot more to the larger issue at hand which is something we have talked a lot about that not everything's fucking box office opening what happened there's a there's one director that i not a not a big like film director or something but he's an active working director who's done a lot for a lot of huge tv shows and stuff and we were having a discussion about that again is like this the dangers of

like the opening box office and how that seems to affect everything what happened to films having a legacy or films being able to grow over time. And that's why I wanted to start by talking specifically about how there were no sales that were that big for sinners. That's why I was tracking a little low. But once this good word of mouth came out, it's going to have legs. Suddenly, bam, this came in. So if you're a part of this entertainment industry, you should be celebrating it. That way you help encourage the legs. That way help encourage it to have a longer run to show that's not all about box office opening weekends anymore and then talking about your next week of having a 70% dip the next week because then it's just a bunch of numbers and

boring algorithm analytic game when this is the story here of like how this thing managed to keep having these legs or like it makes me think of stuff like how pirates of the Caribbean came out it was it was number one for like six weeks in a row or elf did not debut at number one and then suddenly like two weeks or a week later it was number one at the box office the accountant got a sequel today i know right yeah like the account is a great example i can't believe i got to see accountant too because i thought the accountant was like this weird little movie that no one liked that i had in my little chest and then it got a sequel because of the legs yes that was a movie that ben afflick said the the number one thing he got was when people would approach and they'd say how

that much that meant something to them personally it wasn't like you know the biggest movie but it affected so many people personally and gavin o'connor made one of our favorite movies ever, Warrior. And I got the chance to talk to Gavin recently. And Gavin was saying he's like such a good luck, bad luck charm because people find his movies later. But he's not like box office gold. But there's such an impact because he sells such human stories. I think we need to look at that as well. Now, I get it's show business, but show comes first. We need to start letting that be part of the conversation again. Yeah, we need to drive good energy to this things. And these big outlets, I would believe that, that, uh, call it a conspiracy.

theory or likelihood, whatever we want to call it, about throwing a slant there because of the Ryan Cougler deal. I could absolutely believe that. I also believe the other thing that we mentioned that is could probably probably just a thing that they're doing and get some clicks. I think cynicism's profitable. I also think that if you're owned by one of the five companies that own everything in media, you are advantaged to screw over this deal. It's kind of crazy. That entertainment journalism used to not have to be called entertainment journalism. It was just journalism and to see what is going on with like these huge outlets I have a hard time trusting them personally what I'm struggling with with what I do is like so many like you know a decent

chunk of our comments are like yeah but Cole is working at DC so he doesn't have you know the the transparency or he can't be subjective he can't have an objective view on this and I'm here on real rejects which is the channel that is you and we have the first freedom where I can say whatever I want. And so it drives me insane where, like, I don't want to work at a major publication that kneecaps me of doing anything else. And I've made sure that I am able to say what I want about what I want places like this. So it's really hard when the major ones are doing the thing people are blaming me for doing,

but since they're major, people trust them because they're brand name. Like when you find out like, you know, Pepsi gives you cancer, then all of a sudden it's like, well, it's too late now. But if like a little company, it's just, it's really tricky because of the size of the thing. So I think it's really important that we acknowledge that a big network saying it is arguably more harmful and that you should try to find independent sources where you can that you do trust. If you don't trust me, that's fine. But I have nothing that I can't say. And that's why I want to be excited about stuff because I can talk about it.

Despite the odds, despite the odds are rated $90 million budget. Original. Original. It managed to pull off a great opening weekend. and it will only garner more success. I watch a lot of YouTube channels with people who often will fall a little bit negative or cynical that I love.

I'm not talking about people with nuanced opinions. And I'll shout out one right now. Cosmonaut Variety Hour gave this glowing 10 out of it. He never gives 10 out of 10. It's glowing 10 out of 10. And it's like, oh, this makes me so happy to see that. And I only, sinners is the kind of movie that two

will continue to grow in popularity over time. I think it's the biggest original since 2019. I think it's the highest cinema score for a horror movie. It's all of these things that I think should be headlines. Yes. Headline that, celebrate success and congratulations to everyone involved in sinners because you guys

are killing it right now. And the theaters need it. It's a big win for a bold swing. Also, they just shot this movie. Like this all happened, like the Q&A we saw. Everything we saw about how this movie got made i'm like this is in real time i mean it wrote it too fast and shot it's pretty fast too it's really really impressive whether or not you find the movie overhyped or didn't personally

love it yourself you cannot disregard that this is a phenomenal success in a lot of ways um all right so that's that leave your guys thoughts down below please springs here baseball's in full swing and if you're looking to make watching games even more exciting check out prize fix our go-to in the daily fantasy sports category the reason this household is so in a prize pick is because it's super easy to use. You just pick more or less on player staff projections like strikeouts, home runs, or hits, baseball terms, for your chance to win up to

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I love to hear your thoughts on early Thunderbolts reviews and to just add a little bit more to it. J. Jones 5-817 is saying what realistically this Thunderbolts need to accomplish as far as box office, general sentiment,

MCU plot progression, etc. And just to throw one to keep in the back of our minds. Paulo Burbeck 2126 says, should they remove post-credit scenes from critic and fan screen so avoid having them spoiled leak in advance. I'm going to say yes to that right away.

I would absolutely say yes to that because it's very hard enough with press screenings because people talk, people chit-chat. You've got scoopers who are like, hey, what do you got? Also, people say who's on the red carpet at the premiere and say, why? I'll never forgive. Yeah, so I think they should do that because this would allow too

for people to make the hype about the movie itself and not the post-credit scene. Also, I see it again with a regular audience anyway. So I'd be cool to see it with a crowd for the first time. But these Thunderbolt's early reviews, I'm going to shout out a couple of them. Friend of the channel, Mama's geeky, Tessa, says that heavy themes of mental health, it hit hard. Sean Chandler says it's overtly about depression, loneliness, and purpose. The whole point is there are reject characters.

And there's a lot of this. A lot of the early comments are basically talking about like it's a surprisingly more emotional, surprisingly deals a lot about mental health being at the forefront and people also say that it's a really funny movie and and the action scenes are incredible too the ensemble particularly Florence Pew is incredible. Louis Pullman also another actor who is getting highlighted massively by a ton of people and credits apparently are incredible the post credit scene is is an impactful one. And this is all coming from the fan screening.

And they're also saying it is one of the better MCU movies in a very long time. There are some people who are like, it's not as great as some people who are making out to me, but that's expected. And there might be a caveat that, yeah, because it is the fan screening, then of course people will like it, who knows. But it's been a while since this has been like, oh, almost everybody who saw this already is raving pretty crazy about it. it and the trailers have been awesome too. And a variety of different tones and nuances and

the marketing ramp up to this has been genius. So this is one of those cases where I see a lot of this specificity. Three C films is another one being very much highlighted as well. There's other people, Empire magazines loving the hell out of this. I believe that they're being honest is what I'm getting at. There's more than who I shouted out here. I'm just giving general consensus of what what it's been about and like the mental health side has been surprising to me you know uh i am we are friends with tessa and it was the first text i ever got to where i actually felt encouraged to do a reaction at home weirdly because i like there's going to be people who are going to watch it on the at the theaters do a review here you know so we're

going to do the best of both worlds here but uh tessa did message me of of actually can you mind if i just read it specifically because it actually meant a lot to me specifically about like what we are all about here lately and getting in team with our why. It was something I felt like I needed to hear. We have the Marvel version of the Real Rejects podcast. No one's ever messaged this to me ever, said, I feel like you should skip Thunderbolts and do the reaction solely because after conversations we have had,

I think you will heavily relate and be able to share some great commentary for your audience. That's all I will say about it. It's a beautiful sentiment, Tessa. It actually touched me because I agreed to be the one to, I mean, A, I can't go to the screening already. I'm not going to be available. And B, it was like, I feel like if there was one to skip out, I should be the one to take the lead on this one.

And I didn't know anything about this other stuff. So I'm excited to share that experience. But Coy, that's me rambling and trying to get all this information out there. What are your initial response to, because I also don't want to get too detailed because Corey and I both don't like here. We're being very big. What are you feeling about Thunder? I stopped watching footage, as I do always with TV spots.

I don't watch TV spots. We actually did a fun little reaction to a thing I hadn't seen because I was already done with Thunderbolts in prep for the little social thing we just did. This was already more anticipated for me than even Fantastic Four. And so this has already been like, my Marvel movie of the year has been Thunderbolts. I am so excited to hear that it doesn't sound like it's just going to be for me. sometimes you see a trailer and you're like, oh, I'm excited, but I'm afraid that's going to tell the box office the wrong message. Like the studio. When I watch the studio, I'm like, who's this for but me? And then I'm worried it'll only do a certain amount of numbers and they won't make it ever again.

Like I was afraid Thunderbolts was like it's a little more dower. It looks like it's more black humor. It looks like it's more like somber and it's artsy and all the things. And I'm like, what if this only makes $200 million? And then they don't make any more of it. So the whole time I've been like, I'm really excited with a, little dash, I have a little Thunderbolt asterix of like, hope it's good for other people. And now to hear this gives me so much hope that we can take more chances. I've said from the jump, the thing that makes Marvel Comics great is that you can read one line and then also read another and then enjoy a team up. And the thing that makes DC Comics great is you've got characters like Batman that work as a Batman comic, but also do World's Finest to Superman and also does Justice League.

And those feel like different characters, but clearly are one character, like the multifaceted nature of it. I feel like that's how Marvel cinematic universe started. I felt like when Marvel started, it was man, how crazy is it that the cat movie feels so different than the Thor movie, feel so different than the Iron Man movie, and then somehow Guardians feels

possible in that universe, and then they make something like Infinity War and you're like, how did they find a tone that fit all of this? That was the magic of the Avengers movies. It wasn't just like, yay, shiny toys. It was like all these disparate tones. The first time I saw the first Avengers film, and Iron Man's like, does Mother know you weareth,

her drapes. I was like, we're acknowledging the different tones in a way that suits Tony and Thor while Cap is in the middle. I was like blown away. I was like, you guys turned comics into a movie. I feel like that is what I have been wanting back, where it doesn't feel like one tone. What I didn't like about Cap 4, which I liked more than some people, but not as much as others, is it didn't feel like it had a thing to say. It didn't feel like it had a tone. It didn't feel like it was specific. It felt like it got neutered by the world. And so the things I liked were like the things that were surface level. This to me feels like it's got something to say. It feels like it's got

a director's vision. It feels like it's got a writer's vision. It feels like the actors in this all know their characters and are saying something through them in the lens of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's what this should do. You should use your power. With great box office power should come great responsibility to tell good stories.

Like they have a responsibility to keep the stories interesting and compelling enough to warrant that beautiful red and white banner. And this feels like that again. And that's what I haven't felt in lead up for a little bit. Now, it's hit or miss. Like, I, I was excited going into some of the movies that haven't landed as well for me and vice versa. But I feel like phase one, two, three had their ups and downs. But I feel like the feeling of excitement hasn't felt like this in a bit.

Especially for one that I can't imagine was some of people's most anticipated because it's Spider-Man. It wasn't tracking very well, um, box office wise. I imagine this will give a bit of an uptick. It could be the first one in a long time that has like surprising legs. Maybe they'll do another article again like oh it didn't perform that well but then it ends up staying uh kicking around longer what i am so happy for people to be experiencing and and for the characters here is a lot of these characters are coming off of things that were not really beloved yeah you know like yelena inch was like a liked character but that black widow movie was not beloved generally right it wasn't like terrible i put it way over captain america four red guardian too red guardian in there and then

the falcon winter soldier more love has been coming around for it but it was It was sandwiched between WandaVision and Loki. So at the time when there were three shows back to back, Pelican Winter Soldier was often the forgotten one that seemed to have a less than a glowing reception, especially after the finale episode of how that went down for people. But John Walker gets to be in it and really gets to shine. Ghost. Ghost from Ant Man and the Wasp. Exactly. Taskmaster, too, who was probably going to die. but you know we have at man in the i haven't read a leak i'm just everyone's theory and it's so the only

chair it's the only chair we already thought it completely lines up and another thing another thing too is some of these characters were like television characters you know like a john walker to be coming in here i'm thrilled it's also that intrigue i feel like you haven't a lot of intrigue in a little bit with marvel movies like definitely think about quantumania it was like hey there's a movie it's the trailer and then like cap forking about it's like hey want to see the the third act. We got a whole cherry blossoms. This is like the title has an asterisk. Like, they call out the fact that they're all just super soldiers in one of the trailers. All the, it feels like this is the first one in a bit where the audience is in on the joke,

and it's not a joke of a movie. I also hear it's pretty violent, too. Yeah, it looks. I think it was the first PG-13 Marvel movie to get a strong violence in the actual rating. I mean, they literally like Pompeii people. Yeah, it looks awesome. So I think there's a lot that it will probably have going for it, and I'm glad people are excited, especially for it not being like a typical MCU movie to do something different to take characters from properties that were not exactly beloved properties. You know, liked, I would say, I would say generally really liked, but certainly not raved about. So this is really good for Marvel. I want to give it one more thing of flowers. I also think it's doing something that is similar to what James Gunn did with Guardians,

where it's rag tag team of characters you don't care about yet. We do know them, but we don't care about them yet, but also using music as a character. This trailer series, I've cared about the music for the first time in a long time since a James Gun Joint, where like the toadies are, people are listening to Toadies. Like John and I do, but like I don't know any like day-to-day person that's like, oh yeah, I love that album. It's playing with like 90s alt rock, which feels like the characters. And I think it's, that to me is a testament to how much the movie knows what it is. Yeah. And to also go back to Jay Jones's question about box office, general sentiment, MCU plot regression. I mean, box office, I feel like it'll be fine

ultimately in the end. General sentiment looks like it's going to be fine. That's the other part here. Plot progression. One of the highlights about it is the actual film itself, most people are come out going like, this film's great. This is a blast. Some are saying, like, the second half is a little more typical Marvel, but that first half is very different than anything Marvel's done and somehow feels like, it's also very human. But MCU plot progression, that's where that post credit scene, whatever the hell it is, legit have not. heard a single thing of what's actually in it. It is going to factor into the bigger picture

of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is the opposite of how Deadpool and Wolverine felt. Deadpool and Wolverine, while a box office juggernaut, no pun intended, well, box office hit, it was didn't feel like the overall thing to give us an insight into the future of the MCU.

It felt like really its own thing that they did, and we're back to formula. We're back to normal thing. Back to formula. So it's back to formula. This on the other hand is actually going to be something that can get people excited about more MCU to come. Deadpool and Wolverine didn't do that. This actually could do that.

I also think it is a big impact on near things. Like, I think it's going to impact the greater MCU, but I also think there's a reason it's so close to Fantastic Four. I don't know anything. But I think that, like, they bought Avengers Tower. Yeah. This feels like it's going to be the Dark Avengers. It feels like that's going to impact.

You know what I mean? Like, so all of that's exciting because, like, we're about to have an event moment that there's a before and after of. And I feel like we haven't had that in a little bit. Like Quantumania, again, was very self-contained. We wanted Kang to be a thing, but it didn't work out. We, Deadpool-Milverine felt like it was ending the Fox universe more than it was influencing going forward.

I love Deadpool-Milberine. But as you just said, it's, it's, that's its thing. I'm bringing my fiance. This is the first screening I'm bringing my fiance to, of a Marvel movie that I feel like she needs to have other, seen other things. But at the same time, I'm like, that's kind of exciting. Like, I get to have that event experience with her for the first time. And we're seeing it at a venue I love.

Do you know Vidiots? Vidiots? Do you know Vidiots, John? I have not been to the new space, but I was at the old space. It's awesome, the new space. It is a giant 300-person renovated 1920s movie theater as its main hub, the Eagle Theater. Its entire other half is a 1990s renovated video store. You can rent movies from Vidiots, and then you can watch movies in the theater, and they play first-run movies, and then during the day they play old movies like Planet of the Apes and stuff.

So it's this incredible space, and they're doing. doing a huge Marvel screening at it, which feels so toadies. It feels like they're doing a 90s alt-rock screening of this thing. So, like, I'm excited to go to the premiere. I always love premieres because that audience is celebrating, not writing with their little quills, but I'm also excited to see this in like a weird 90s home video store. I'd never imagine Marvel would let anything like vidiates play this movie, but it feels like the movie. So bringing my fiance to something that feels Marvel, but feels like they're immersing themselves in tone. I'm so excited about the event feel. Absolutely. I'm very excited for the success of Thunderbolts, man. I'm

I think it'll be a very big success, and hopefully this sentiment carries on as reviews trickle in. That's all we can say now, and hopefully it's a positive cinema score. I will have seen it by the time we do next episode. Oh, yeah, baby. I mean, yeah, it comes out next week. My God. That's that for Thunderbolts. What are you guys most looking forward to in it?

Leave a thoughts down below, hey? All right, Coy, we've got two dark stories to go through here. Last of Us, too, or Star Wars? Let's save Star Wars. Oh, okay. Cool. Let's go Last of Us. Last of us, season two, spoilers here.

So you can skip this if you'd like. This is a video. Oh, then we should actually do. We should do the other one then. Star Wars will do. Star Wars. So there's a couple of stories here. Let me see here.

Let me get my glasses back on here. I'm on a monocle. You did just say, see? I heard the 1920s come out of you. I've been watching the classic universal monster movies online. Oh, that's fun. I'm on the, with Olivia. That's our.

thing that we're doing together. I'm on the fifth one right now. It's finished Bride of Frankenstein. Dude, I can't wait for the trailer for you guys to watch the bride trailer. I keep bragging about this trailer and Olivia's going to love it. I hope so, man. That was great. Those movies are so good. Maggie Gyllenhaal made a punk rock insane starring Christian Bales Frankenstein like The Bride. It looks. Christian Bale? Christian Bale's Frankenstein. I thought it was Scars Guard. No? Really. I know for a fact. The trailer is insane. You know who's supposed to play Frankenstein originally? Bella Legosi?

Really? The makeup wasn't working. Fun fact. Have you seen Invisible Man, the original John? Yes. Mike got so good. The guy's a fucking psychopath. Yeah.

Absolutely. He's just going to matter. It's just like, yeah. I was like this in like five hours. And some of the most like, you know, basic but impressive old Hollywood movie magic effects. I still like some of the Invisible Man stuff, like how did they do that then? Because I can't figure out how we do it now. Yeah.

I love, I've been loving it. Like, I look forward. It doesn't even feel like homework. Like, yeah, it is a perfect, because Olivia's favorite era is classic and one of my favorite genres is horror. And to be able to actually combine that world, like, ah, because usually sometimes watching a classic film requires like, turn, get your brain on, get your focus on, put yourself. And this is like, ah, I could easily get lost it. Anyway, Star Wars here. So a couple of things.

And I think in some way we will tie this both. is that Hasanali 2010 says Jody Comer and Mikey Madison and other actors declining the new

Star Wars starring Ryan Gosling. What hell is that one called again? Starfighter? Starfighter. And Captain Fernandez says maybe

discussed whether the Star Wars fandom knows what it wants given the seeming lack of interest in projects as different as Ackleite skeleton crew

and even critical fave and door. And one thing that i didn't want to touch on and not be super specific about the actual scene itself but the fact that star wars was willing to do it and we have to be really cautious of how we say this word uh or how we yeah certain words because youtube hears it and they're going to demonetize you said a word uh there's a s a scene and that occurs in and or uh with a certain character and then they flat out call out the actual R word in Andor, which was surprising as hell when I, John and I watched it a couple

weeks ago. And it was a whole thing because normally when we watch something and it's done, we move on. We're like, all right, prep the footage. Let's get going. And John and I just kept talking about like, I can't believe Star Wars did this. This is crazy. My wife was asleep and she was sleeping and she doesn't watch Andor. I was like, come on curb. You're not going to believe what I said. Star Wars just did. I can't believe, I can't believe they had this scene and they said the word. I would love to know her first thoughts on waking. I'm like, you're waking me up to talk about Star Wars. But even she was like, what?

They did that? It's surprising. I'm not making light of the subject. It was the impact of the fact that they were willing to do this on a season two of a Disney Plus show. Yeah. With very little, I mean, on the screeners, they didn't give a warning. So I don't know what the warning was when people actually watched it, but that is a highly sense. It is way more than anything Daredevil Born Again did.

Darenobornegan, sure, it's violent and gory, whatever, we're America. We handle that shit on our television. But this stuff, they don't even touch sex. They don't even show that. Andor season one implied that people were sleeping together. That was about as far as they went. They do not do sex. So the fact that they did this and when John and I were watching it, it was.

such an experience of okay yeah they're teasing but they're not going to do it as this it was like saying it in the reaction like they wouldn't go that far then you get to the next episode like oh my god they're really like going there with this and we had mixed opinions about the context of how it was done and which character

and like but the and of course it was super predictable that there would be certain outlets are like this is why Star Wars is dead and this is why because people were not happy and And I think that is part of a larger discussion to be had, though, of the Star Wars image that it is. Like, some people, we knew right away we're not going to be on board with it, of being able to do that.

True. Because of what Star Wars. People don't like bricks in Star Wars. I know. But there's something like this, though, I think Star Wars really is that kind of thing where it's all ages, all families could watch this. And that is the kind of thing where, in my personal opinion, I do think that it's, the parents should be given a heads up that this show will do that scene. I don't think it's something that you just turn on with the family like, oh, shit, now I've got to have a conversation with my kid about something.

That is my personal opinion of it. That does not mean that I do not believe that Star Wars should stray away from being able to talk about that. So before we go into more thoughts, John, what did Tony Gilroy say in the interview been talking about it? And replace the R, just the word something else. I will navigate it with as little garish silliness as I can. When asked about the Bix scene and or creator, Tony Gilroy, explained to the Hollywood reporter that when telling a story about war, shying away from assault didn't feel truthful.

Quote, I get one shot to tell everything I know or can discover or that I've learned about revolution, about battles with as many incidents and as many colors as I can get in there without having the story tip over. says Gilroy I mean let's be honest man the history of civilization there's a huge arterial component of it that's assault all of us who we are we are all the product of that kind of assault I mean armies and powers throughout history have committed it so to not touch on it in some way it just was organic and it felt right coming about as a coming about it as a power trip for this guy I was really trying to make a path for that would ultimately lead to clarity, but a difficult path to get back to clarity. Yes, and there's a lot of people, that is one of those subjects

that I know plenty of women that, if they're exposed to that, it can be very triggering for them considering how many women go through this, right? I also, though, very much agree with Tony Gilroy on that. Like, I talked to Michael Tesler, who is our Star Wars aficionado,

and he's like, oh, yeah, I actually wasn't, I mean, yeah, of course this would happen in the empire. They're like, they're Nazis. Yeah. So it worked. contextually wise. And we were talking last week about Disney, the future is dark. And this is mature. And I feel like the maturity is there. But I can see how people can feel like there's kind of a skewed voice here, though, when you have something like Andor, which is so mature and really

pushing the envelope on the maturity of what you can do. But then like a few weeks ago, we had skeleton crew, which is the total antithesis to this. And is this lining up more with the Star Wars visions of what they actually are aiming for because I don't think the movies approach this I personally feel like this I'm not saying like double down do more of this in Star Wars I'm saying the the fact that they're willing to do this and that Tony Gilroy said that Disney did not give any pushback

to him actually doing this he didn't have to fight at all to do it to me is a good sign about where Disney is willing to evolve to and if we can let Star Wars mature like that into its themes more that can also have a good effect on the other stuff like how we want stuff like marvel to go darker you know i think this is actually a bold thing and it's a very real thing especially if and or is the real world the star wars i i have no issue that they did that other than like yeah you probably give like a heads up that you will do shit like this in your show yeah i i haven't seen the regular release i don't know if there was like a disclaimer or warning

but I think it's really important that in a show that is as mature as Xandor is, it's not like a curveball. It's a mature show. I don't think people are going to make it, you know, season two, episode three into something that are immature, hopefully. Like, you know, I think it's important that in war, and it's called Star Wars, which is always the thing I try to stress to people is war is the most heinous thing human beings do to each other. We need to make sure it's clear that this heinous act is unacceptable. And so I think having a character as obviously evil doing something evil is part of the human condition. And I think these stories are meant to show us the worst of ourselves. So we reflect on it. I think you're supposed to get introspective about art. It's supposed to be bearing other people's souls. So your own soul feels akinhip to the horror of it. If you identify with the Nazis, the empire, then perhaps you should seek help.

So therefore, like, I think you're supposed to feel uncomfortable. You should feel horror. And I think that's a positive to feel horror. And I think that a great example you just gave a skeleton crew was a few weeks ago. If you like Kid Star Wars, you got a new one. If you like Star Wars to grow up, we're getting that right now. And Star Wars was invented in the 70s. So there are people that are in their 50s, 60s, 70s.

You know, if you watch that as an adult then and you're still alive, you're not young. And if you watched it when the prequels came out, you're not young. You know, we're of a certain maturity that I think that this is a. great example of franchises appealing to all ages, not all ages. There's a big difference between all ages and all ages. And I think that skeleton crew is for all ages. I think we need stuff to be more mature and to shine a light on the darkness of the human condition. I am really worried the first step to like tyranny is censorship. You know, like that's how you win. Uh, you, you, you, you, you, like, history is written by the victors. That's why they put Martin Luther

their king photos in black and white that were in color. Now, not all of them were in color, but by changing some to black and white, it gives us a distance from how recently in history that was. It puts a distance between the fact that that was our, in my case, my grandparents' generation. Some people's parents' generation, that's not long ago. And we need to have some stuff put in our faces again because of how much the evils of the world can hide themselves because of the history written by the victors. So I think it's important that art show horror at times to grow us up. And I think Star Wars is a huge

war that needs to be addressed. I think it's important. I appreciate when you said too about the empire. I appreciate that, that hey, we should remind people that the empire is not cool. Yeah. That's the point of it. And we have to kind of drive that back home.

Yeah, there was a lot of people who were you know, I mean, of course it's like Twitter, keyboard warriors and shit. And then what's that article Hollywood reporter right that actually that did that I believe it was this is like a THR article that were interviewing Tony Gilroy yeah where the headline is about this

so of course it was a and I think that's I think that's cool that they're willing to do that and I think for the future too I've imagined if the acolyte was willing to be R-rated the show about their Sith where they were able to not even do the sexual perversions the ugliness of that but do the violence

the violence of being Sith and make it bad because Darth Vader's cool as hell like you need to make sure the empire looks evil. But do the actual violence, you know, like if we can go down that path, like, sweet. Yeah. How awesome would that be? And I don't fault anyone, though, who does disagree with and or doing that, like turning

on a Star Wars show and then this shit happening. I don't fault anyone for feeling like this doesn't belong in Star Wars because you can't argue with the fact that Star Wars have been around for decades and they've never broached this. So they've never broached a lot of stuff Andrew's doing though. Yeah, exactly. They've never made a slow burn mature, you know, the prequels maybe is the closest because that was about trade war. But we haven't really had anything that felt so authentic about war.

But I think, Rogue One, which is what this is leading up. It's always been there, though, all these themes. Sure. This is the first time this is like a brand new theme. Understood. That they are doing. And I think that is the part where I feel like a lot of people are like, that just should not exist in here. I think going la, la, la, law about things that are bad.

puts us in a worse spot. Right, right. And I think the argument that people probably make is that this is supposed to be escapism. But I'm like, but this escapism was intentionally meant to be some type of alternate mirror. It's got war right there, escapism. I don't know. I don't know. When I want to escape, I don't go, you know, I'm going to put on saving private Ryan.

It's crazy. Just to add, I mean, we've done fun, escapist Star Wars almost every time. Right. Yeah. It's like a 90-10. It seems reasonable to variate. Yeah, I agree. And that's what, and I love that Tony Gilroy.

was at the ready with a very nuanced and very reasonable perspective on why. Like his quote is exactly what, you know, I would hope a creator that show. It wasn't like an edge lord choice. It wasn't handled poorly. It was an important conversation about something that does happen in war and does happen in society. And art is a reflection of society. So if you've got the keys to something that's going to be watched by more people by having

it being an IP, but if it's about war, I think, I think it's fair. I do hope there was some sort of trigger warning for people. I don't know, but I do hope there was, because I can't imagine being, one, I can't imagine being a woman. What the world is, you know, to women is terrifying to me just as a man that is trying to be aware of my surroundings and trying to be aware of the world. I can't imagine what that's like as a baseline. So I feel such great, you know, sympathy to anyone that has had anything on the shades of gray of that occur. If I stumbled across that, that would feel horrible. So I would absolutely hope there is something as a warning.

But at the same time, I do think there are things we warn in our openings that are much lesser than that. So I would also hope that is warned. Like, you know what I mean? Like sometimes there's like the slightest of violence and there's like a weird thing. And you're like, well, what was it? So this deserves it is what I'm saying. Yeah, absolutely. And to these other things about like Jody Comer and Mikey Madison, other actors, like there's been a good amount of actors declining to be in the New York.

Star Wars movie. I don't really read too much into that. I mean, it's a new Star Wars movie. There's a lot of contractual obligations. I don't really think it's about like, oh, no, I won't touch that. I mean, I do think there was a time where actors were like, absolutely, it's Star Wars. I'll do anything to be in it. Daniel Craig, I'll play a Storm Trooper.

Why know? I think there was a time where it would be that, and perhaps that enthusiasm is not there as much. I mean, definitely not. And what's cool to me is that we're just getting a new Star Wars movie with a guy who really loves Star Wars, and Ryan Gosson was the last person. I heard the rumors forever and it wasn't really like. Until he showed up at

celebration. I was like, there's no way. Yeah. It's a, it's a weird thing, but I feel like it would be fun. Perhaps like, I imagine this will be the total opposite of Band, or this is probably going to be a really simple. He's going to be roguish, man. I think he's going to be like Han Solo. I think we're going to have like a fun swashbuckling. This would be really fun. Yeah. And also like, I love that Ryan Gosling gets to dive into this Disney. Like he's such a Disney nerd. Like I'm, I'm excited for the man that is Ryan Gosling. So I don't really like if people, if people aren't as enthusiastic, why force them to do 10 years of something? Well, I think to the other

question about like the, does the Star Wars fandom know what it wants? I would say it's hard to generalize and make a summation of what everyone wants when it comes to Star Wars. Some people want Skeleton Crew, some people want Andor.

Some people want it to only be Skeleton Crew. Some people want it to only be Andor. And some people like us are like, we want them to do it all. I want an Andor. and I also want a Ryan Gosling Sean Levy movie, you know, like I do, I want it all, but I do think that there's still like a lack of focus because since Disney bought it, it's been a consistent mining of an IP that I do think out of any of the IPs and the stories of an IP being thwarted and a bit ruined.

Star Wars is the one that has had, it's still like the fandom's still strong, celebration is still huge, people still love the Lord and everything, even coverage, whether it be negative, tends to be pretty big. So, yeah, like, Star Wars fans are still there, and it's always going to be there. But I do think, like, oh, this is the biggest case of any of the projects where, man, they really, like, botched something here. I would agree with Star Wars. I also think it's a fandom that is so big that it doesn't know what it wants. So this is a great example for me of I hate the expression of, nobody asked for this.

Yeah, but, like, you're not making movies, so maybe shut up. Like, I don't think we should wait for what we asked for because then you get recycled studio garters. I think creators that have a vision should get to create. You know, like I don't think we should just wait for what not everything should be fan fiction is what I'm trying to say. I don't like when people are mad at bold swings. Yeah, and this is a bold swing that while a bit divisive, I don't know how I'm interested to see if it actually has affected the return for next week, you know, like will people actually walk away from this show now or something, you know. It is bold. What do you guys think?

Leave your thoughts in the comments, please. please please and our last main one today okay we're doing pretty good so long podcast right last of us two spoilers here spoilers spoilers the last bit of news all right good to give you a count down here three two one the spoiler zone the alley johnson show 218 the death from last of us season two so um people who didn't play the game finally got to experience it joel died ha ha ha ha ha ha ha welcome to the world of the last of us people this is very different than the game world because i'm not going to spoil what future stuff happens please don't well it's like they they take their liberties it's it's fairly accurate and then they do

there's, like, other expansions, like the whole attack in Jackson in the episode. That's not on the game. Oh, that was such a beautiful pairing, I thought. Yeah, it's not on the game. And when Joel dies, so in the game, you don't know why Abby's doing anything. Oh, wow. Like Abby's introduced, you just know briefly that I think she's after Joel. But when she kills him, there's none of this monologue.

There's none of that. You don't get any empathy for her. You get nothing. You only see her as a villain. And in the game, she's just like buff-ass woman. And the way, and it's colder in the game, too, much colder. Like, she beats him with a golf club on the head, smashes him, and then Ellie gets knocked out.

Like when Ellie gets kicked afterwards. First off, who plays. Isabel Merset? No, Manny, who plays. Danny Ramirez. Danny Ramirez. His character in the game spits on Joel's

dead body in the game. And then and then Ellie's knocked out and then it cuts to like a little bit later and Ellie's all bruised and at home. So it's different in the game.

There's a lot more emotion and it takes his time and she crawls over to his body and all this stuff. Now when you play a video game you have bought the video game you're not going to suddenly stop playing the video game.

I'm sure. there's some of people who did but you're like well shit i've already been playing for a few hours i'm mad i hated it when i first played it i hated it in the game i'm like what a manipulative i hate this so much it's all got fridged you know that's what it felt like and i loved it by the end but then the game challenges more the story's going to challenge tomorrow i'll just tell you that much and um this is different though with a show with a show i thought they were going to prolong it I thought they would push it at least like halfway through. Pedro Pascal is a superstar.

I assumed Joel died from the way the season one ended. So I thought he was going to die midseason. Just from story themes and narratives and arcs. Because it was a conflict season finale where you're supposed to be like he's going too far. I think you're supposed to feel like at what cost saving Ellie, but also we love Ellie. We love Joel. Like I thought that was supposed to be a conflict of like this hyperviolence isn't supposed to feel like vengeance. It's supposed to feel conflicting.

See, that's the thing in the show and the game where when you're playing saving Ellie in the game, you're so in Joel's perspective. That it's just one to one. You're not conflicted about it. I also think that's very American. Yeah. I think killing people in a video game or killing people when it's like a Stallone movie is supposed to feel like, yeah, they bad.

I good. Ha ha, ha, die. So when the show made it a little different that it felt conflicting to me, I was like, Joel doesn't make it through second season. Well, that's the thing is the show preps you more to, for Joel's death. They even prep you more for Abby, like that whole opening scene in the first episode, not in the game. They're really like, we got to like soften the blow here in some way so people still watch. Because it is never medium yet.

And I'm curious to know from you, though, as someone who doesn't know what's supposed to happen next, this and, you know, John also and John Terran Rocks have been doing the blind reactions here. So I'll be the blind take. Be the blind take. are you still looking forward to more last of us honestly honestly i am to be totally honest because it was so funny with my review i i saw i reviewing at my channel and it's the first time and you'll be happy i almost cried i actually had a rough voice like i was emotional in my review like i didn't have tears but i was in that space where like weld up enough that it causes you to be distorted and i was like wow this really affected me to the point where i sound different in my

review like i got it messed me up but it was so interesting where i was like i don't like dark content. I like dark humor and I like darkness when it feels like it is serving a purpose. And like Fincher is about as dark as I like. I love David Fincher. But there are times like I don't watch seven often. I can I can acknowledge it as a masterpiece. But I'm not like, you know, it's Saturday. I'm going to throw on what's in the box. Like it's just not my happy place. You know what I mean? So watching the last of us, I was I was very aware. I didn't enjoy watching it. It wasn't it wasn't cathartic. It wasn't. Uh, redemptive. It wasn't, you know, I get the world isn't all, you know, puppy dogs and rain, uh, rainbows, but that's why I like dark comedy. My favorite two comedies, people think aren't comedies. I consider imbrews and. I don't know what the second one is. Kiss kiss, kiss bang bang. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah. I consider those the two funniest movies of all time. I don't consider that a dark comedy. Most people don't. And gruge I would, but, uh, yeah. But like, to me, those are the, like, those are comedies to me. Like, perfect laugh over other jokes, comedies. Okay. So when I watch something like that, Like, those are dark stories. Like, a lot of people are hurt and wronged and you go through it. But there's a levity. Your diaphragm spasms the same way when you're crying as when you're laughing. So when I'm laughing and it's dark, there's something I get out of it that feels good.

So when The Last of Us ended, I was like, I don't think I want more of this feeling. And I don't think I'm going to get more joy out of this. Because where I think it goes next is it has to, from a narrative perspective, redeem Abby. So I think it's going to be Abby getting more backstory, us feeling for these new pseudo fireflies, and then Ellie's vengeance on her, because this is a dystopian world where vengeance is the only currency and we've had the impact of her world be destroyed. She felt alone. The last time she talked to Joel, it wasn't any sort of a real conversation. She's going to feel guilt about that. She's going to feel guilty about not being in the little tribe.

and then that tribe's messed up so she's not going to have an outlet so she's going to hunt Abby and I think the way they've set up the character is very like I have no problem suspension of disbelief and I have no problem with power scaling but the show opened with her fighting

a 220 pound guy and so that was supposed to be like look how much tougher she is I'm not really buying that from the actress so far I'm sorry I just I haven't felt Bella Ramsey feel five years older or that she could handle taking on a guy that much bigger I agree with you

so like as much as I like when you know female empowerment's important and making sure women learn self-defense. There is still a plausible deniability of like a certain size human being. And I do feel like they're making Ellie swear, which I assume she does in the game, but in the show it feels like she's edgy now. She swears a lot in the first season. So it felt real. To me, it feels like it's to make her feel tough. It doesn't feel like it doesn't feel naturalized. So adding all up those ingredients, I think by where we are in the story, it's going to be Ellie on a event. Tour, being edgy, being tough, being strong, hunting Abby.

So then as a narrative, you'd have to make Abby redemptive. So it's going to be us feeling conflicted about whether or not Ellie is in the right to hunt Abby. If Abby was in the right to kill Joel. And nothing of that sounds like a fun time. And not everything has to be fun, but I also like spending my hour in the world of darkness, not adding to it. Do you feel like beyond that dark feeling, are you interested enough in the characters to continue without Pedro Pascal. That's what I'm trying to get at, too.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's a very different question. I love the answer you gave, honestly. That's also very telling that I'm sure a lot of other people are feeling. I think Pedro Pascal is captivating enough to carry a show, as we've seen. I think that Caitlin Devere is also captivating enough to carry a show, but they haven't let this character be there yet, and it sounds like she was even left in the game. So they have done more.

I feel like three is really make her break for me. Um, like episode three is going to be whether or not I feel that not Caitlin Devere, but Abby is enough to carry a show. Because right now, I'm not as invested in this adolescent rage, um, Ellie. And I think Bella Ramsey is an incredible actress. I think first season, Bella Ramsey, I was like, man, she's like the next big thing. I don't know what kind of character she wants to play, but I think she's absolutely got it. It's ironic. The one thing I don't think she plays well is the way this character feels like it has to go narratively. Yeah. And I don't think that's her fault, but that makes me worried about the rest. It's conflicting for me. I think there are so many times Bella Ramsey sores so many times. Even in Joel's death scene.

Incredible. Absolutely. And then it's these other aspects where I'm like, I'm not really buying this side. All the stuff you were saying. Yeah, I agree with you. She swears like a white rapper. I think she. I think she kills it in the first season.

I think she's great in the first season for a younger Ellie. I don't believe the age jump. Sure. And yeah, there's... And also, like, you know, and I've said this. I prefer Pedro by like an inch over the Joel in the game. That is not a popular opinion, I'll say. Because in the game, part of the veil that you're breaking,

is you're playing as like, you know, Texan, Caucasian man, good looking dude, Joel. Yeah, who has a death. And he's, um, hardened, you know, he's a hardened guy where I think Pedro plays him more broken, which I think is more real. It's more relatable. For an adaptation to do your live action for following a protagonist,

it makes more sense. In a game, yeah, you're playing as this, you're playing as Joel in the first game. Yeah. And, and, and so I, I think I just, like, like, like I connect more with the Pedro version because I'm like, I'd be more of that. The broken one, not the guy who somehow still seems confident and badass, you know, because I don't, I don't consider Pedro badass in the show at all.

I don't. And, and I like, I like that. And Abby, Last of Us 2 is, not Abby, Lest of Us 2 is my favorite video game of all time. Cool. Ellie in Last of Us 2 is my favorite character of all video games. and Pedro I really feel like is doing his own thing where I feel like Bella Ramsey is doing more of trying to capture the video game

that's kind of what I'm speaking having not played the game that's kind of what I'm speaking to do it doesn't feel like her take on the character it feels like it's been told to do yeah and there's like a lid though if you've played the game of the law the lid you'll never be able to catch up you know if if video game is at a 10 the highest Bella could ever really achieve is a nine if she's aiming to capture the game.

Granted, the show gives a lot of scenes that are not in the game at all for her to explore, or for them, I forget what their pronoun is, but to explore all these different areas. And so, yeah, I think there's like these other, there's aspects that I think Bella knocks it out of the park, but it's these other parts where I do go,

they've got a lot to prove right now that, you know, you got rid of Pedro, and you've really got to carry this whole show now on your shoulders. And granted, there's an ensemble of people. Like, I think they gave a lot of, all that Jackson stuff great brilliantly because Tommy in the game doesn't get no Gabriel Luna has already had way more screen time than Tommy and now we care about Gabriel Luna exactly like he's got way more screen time than Tommy does in the game

and that's important because they're elevating an ensemble I likened it sort of to the office of when Steve Carell did you see the office yeah yeah so when they got rid of Steve Correll Will Ferrell Will Ferrell they uh they elevated the the rest of the ensemble because they were losing their lead. Right. And I think that's what the approach they're sort of doing is like, let's make it more of an ensemble, not even solely like an Abby and Ellie show, but an ensemble piece. But I am, I'm like, this could be a downfall.

Because in a game, you're going to play. You're like, you're going to follow through. You're going to follow through. I hated it when it happened, but I followed through and I loved it by the end. And it's got me for one more, but I don't know, but I think there's a lot of people. And I can't speak on the next one. but let's just let's hope yeah and I'm curious

also it's a curiosity of whether I'm predicting it right that might keep me but also a lot of people like dark content that I that I don't so there's probably more people that are going to give it more like I didn't even like watching Game of Thrones like I watched some of Game of Thrones but overall like I didn't enjoy a show that felt like it wanted

to upset you like a lot of times they were like you know you love this guy yeah what about doing I got I got stuff to do like I don't need that so like to me that's part of it So there are people that like that kind of content and that kind of art. I'm not one of them. So maybe it is less jarring for those people.

We'll see. We'll see. It's my favorite game of all time. At the same time, like, I feel bad at saying it's because we're on a public forum. But yeah, I think Valoran has got a lot. And I'm going to give the chance. That's the thing. As a person who loves this game and I see the internet discourse around them, people are already ridden them off.

make like i hate the whole making fun of the physical appearance because i don't feel like you need to look a certain way it's more about how you carry yourself than it is how you physically look from a screenshot you know sure so we'll see we'll see how are you guys feeling about it though you cool you cool anyway there's a long one coy i'm not surprised you're like i'm gonna clock it i'm gonna make sure i gotta stop watch i'm like that means it's gonna run along i mean when you were doing multiple stories we had a lot today um but hey that's it that's it on the jennifer today There's one question that was really highlighted, so I want to honor it. Then we'll end it off here.

John, can you check these cards and make sure we're still recording on here, please? And we've also got Patreon questions at the end. Yeah, yeah, we've already included this at the end. But this one was one that I liked, and I want to hear some Koi Rex, too, is Yop Draza says, since Greg's been reading a lot of comics, I would love if you guys talked about comic books. What have you been reading your thought on recent comic book news and what books are looking forward to? I'll tell you, I can pull it up. Write the F word right now, people, because I have the Marvel Unlimited app here.

So I am reading, oh, God, I forget which artist this is of, I'm reading the Fantastic Four starting at, name some artist, boy, who are like the definitive ones. Some artists? I mean, yeah. From what company? Sorry, what? Fantastic Four issue number 53. Oh, from the original?

Yeah, yeah. I think that's still Jack Kirby. no not the original 2000 um 2012 i'm doing terrible job to answer this question 2002 2002 fantastic 4 number 53 let me look i'll look at the cover and i'll know what artist did the inside oh my gringo i love my gringo that one i'm also reading daredevil issue number 598 the mayor fist arc i've been also hopping into uh spider man brand new day uh as well continue me that i'll read more punisher closer to it i i am not Yeah, I'm going through the Mayor Fisk one. And then for D.C., I did All-Star Superman, which I really loved.

Reading Superman, Birthright, right? Nice, good. Mark Wade, yeah, that's a, I was like, I'm trying to find ones that might, like, prime me a little bit more. If you go on the DC Universe Infinite app on Superman Day, they gave me my own poll category. So I gave my top 10 and birthright's on there. Oh, really? I literally get my face holding up comics. Oh, sweet.

Yeah, I was really proud. Yeah, I've really been enjoying reading all these comics and hopping between and seeing, like, the, the way things parallel what is going on and the shows and the movies and such. And the birthright especially feels very cinematic. Dude, birthright's so good. I was surprised by that because it feels like cut to the frames and stuff. And the way the transitions are, it's a very cinematic portrayal. And I would say the same thing for the Daredevil run.

The thing is I suck to remember like artist names and writer's names and stuff. So the app really helps me out to keep track of where I'm at. And Fantastic Four is becoming a much more enjoyable read. Right now it's on this part where like the inhumans are in there. And Dr. Doom showing up is like, I would give liberty to the inhumans. That's a section. So I do want to get to a point where I'm reading like the Dr. Doom origins in everything.

But yeah. One World Under Doom is really awesome right now. And it's Doom. Basically he takes over the planet. And he goes like, you get free education. You get free. Like everyone is equal rights.

but I'm your leader and you have to follow me. And all the heroes are like, but you're a bad guy. Free education is not worth your tyranny. And then he's like, here's all this free stuff. And everybody's like, I think I'm on doom side. And they're like, but he's a villain. And it's really cool to see the conflict of like what, at what cost freedom? I think reading comics gets confusing when, because I was like trying to find the Fantastic Four ones.

And they're like, oh, in 2002 era, I started at issue number 53. And I'm like, what about issues number one through 50? Won't I be lost or confused? And it's difficult to wrap my brain around how like they do soft. reboots. They do re-number things and they also do legacy numbers. So sometimes the original number will come back. So like when you get to like 600, it might have just been 59 and then you're like, 600. It's confusing. It does get a little difficult to keep up with. 70 years of running. Like it's hard to. Damn, it is, it is really, it is really immersive. You put on like the

right music or something like that and you read along. Or listen to DC high volume Batman and read along while you listen to voice actors do it incredibly. I want to do that. I'm really curious what you think. Like genuinely. I'd love to know what you think of. Like, it's year one, which is one of the best Batman stories ever. It's one of my all-time favorite comics. Dude, the sound design this team did is so special. It sounds like when you're like, War of the World's 1920s, but 20-20s and it's Batman. It's top-notch sound design, incredible voice actors.

Every different character has their own score. So it's like this giant composition of this orchestra, while voice actors and sound design. It's so special. Yeah, I mentioned this to Aaron when we filmed. They would tell you what I thought they should do for Batman, year one, for if they adapted it into live action. Who? What?

Is if they cut out all the POV from Bruce Wayne and Batman. And if they only made it from like Gordon's perspective. So you could still have Bruce Wayne appear. Yeah. You still have Batman appear. But you never. Make a Gordon story. But you only keep it on Gordon's POV.

So it's like fun for the audience that like we know it's Batman and Bruce Wayne. Right. But, but the, but the camera never shows you that. That's fun. That's very noir. Yeah. I think that would be like a really cool way to do the adaptation. The way we adapted it on high volume was, uh, the voice actor for Batman,

Jason Spizak is a genius. and he actually played around with different voices in real time. So you'll hear Batman have different connotations and intonations for like when he's talking to Gordon versus when he's interrogating people versus. But also it's cool because when he's developing the Batman voice, you hear him developing it in his own head because how would Batman, Batman know what Batman sounds like? So how much intimidation versus how much.

So every Batman that's being developed, it finds the voice, literally. And you hear inside his head, which is really cool. Cool. What do you got, what do you want to recommend? All right. So I've been reading a ton. Every single week, I recommend comics on my page, by the way. So if you guys want weekly wrecks, I do do my top nine every week over on my page.

But I've been reading the new Absolute stuff over at DC. Loved Absolute Martian Manhunter. I think it's a really cool approachable way for people to discover a very dense, weird character. It's an issue one, all new continuity. You don't have to read any of those other numbers. It's literally a new world. So issue one has nothing behind it. It's a new one.

What's it called? Absolute Martian Manhunter. So all the absolute stuff, Absolute Batman, Superman. Yeah, I get the recommended a lot. All of them are brand new continuity. So it's not like a soft reboot. It's a new continuity altogether. It doesn't even relate to the old stuff.

So, for example, Absolute Batman, instead of being a billionaire, what if Absolute Batman was a blue-collar worker? He doesn't have the money. Darren Narnovsky's version. Yeah. And so Alfred's not his butler. He meets an MI6 agent Alfred and what that's like, that conflict. It's really interesting, dude. And then Superman's a refugee, like he's defending refugees that are being taken over by the, like, peacemaker type goons.

It's dope. So Martian Manager came out a couple weeks ago. loved issue one. Also really digging Hush 2 is back with Jeff Loeb and Jim Lee. They're the same creators are back on for a new hush. Department of Truth is one of my favorite comics of all time and it just came back in a big way. Imagine a world where if enough people believed in something, it became real. So the three of us are sitting in a room and we're talking to the audience and 30,000 people watch this video in like three days and we're like, yeah, Sasquatch. Like, obviously Sasquatch is real. Suddenly Sasquatches would start appearing. They'd manifest. They'd walk by

If enough people believe. So the Department of Truth is a government organization that is tasked with keeping the truth what they wanted to be. So it's how do we navigate? Literally controlling the narrative. It's fascinating. And then there's like a Russian propaganda arm and the conflict of belief. So dope. And all the art is very like hallucinogenic and terrifying.

It's a comic that's so good. It's given me panic attacks. Like I've been reading it and been like, what's reality? And like gotten in my own head. It's dope. And then another couple of quick ones. I personally am really enjoying Ultimate Spider-Man more than I have enjoyed Spider-Man in years

I think it's the best Spider-Man in probably 20 years I'd recommend you check it out with issue one The Deviant just finished It was a really hard to read book It was a It's a homosexual man Writing from the perspective of being curious About a man who was seemingly wrongly acquitted of murder

Who was homosexual in the 70s So it's whether or not that man was put in prison Because he actually murdered these young boys Or because he had pictures of young boys and therefore they were able to lump it. So was it bigotry? Was he actually a monster? And why is this man who's a writer so interested in it?

Because now there's a copycat killer and is the person you're reading from the perspective of murdering people? So you're reading this book and you're like, am I going to end and realize that I've been cheering on a murderer that's like torturing young boys? It makes you really look at your own like predispositions, notions, and beliefs. And then it actually stuck the landing where the ending felt justified and also also.

Like, it's one of the hardest comics I've ever gotten through and it's only nine issues. But it makes you go like, Ugh, I feel like I'm living in this thing, but is it me judging? Am I, it's insane. Gross. It's hard. So, yeah, some fun comics, but that also shows the range.

That's kind of like I wanted to tie it to Andor. Comics aren't just for kids. They're not all ages. They are all ages. And I think it's important to read your Spider-Man and to read your Batman, but also if you like things that are a bit more challenging and a bit more like, what is the world? Deviant goes there. Department of Truth goes there.

Saga goes there. And I think we should have a full spectrum of the human condition once we're mature enough to handle it. Amen to that. Well, because this was not a comic book-led podcast, this will be one of our lower performing ones, but definitely one of our longer ones. You know how it is?

30,000 is a bit ambitious. We'll see. The lowest you got was like 14K, I think. And that was because of the, you know, it wasn't a comic book. Yeah, we'll see how this one does. I mean, Thunderbolts will be in there, but, you know, I'd be surprised. I'd be happy. I'd be happy if this got 20,000.

I'd be happy with 10,000, honestly. I'm always proud of this show. I'm happy. I think like no matter what we enjoy doing this, and we love for the people who do keep returning. So thank you guys as we are growing, developing, and appreciate you. Appreciate you. Appreciate you. I appreciate you. Coy, thanks John for manning all this shit down. Thank you, Prepper, for the turnarounds on this. I know we've given you a lot to edit here. All right, guys, we're clocking out now. Enjoy these questions that we answer from patrons as we use to warm up. Take care. Welcome to the end of the video, which is our warm-up as Kua and I get our energy and rapport in play.

And we switch sides. We switch sides today, which we are saying at the end instead of the beginning of the video now. All right. So I pulled up a couple of Patreon questions, did the usual of what people, you know, and I chose a few. I got three solid, maybe four, but I want to make sure we are in a good time on this one. Okay. So Stephanie Horton asked a really good question I thought was great. She says, hey, guys, saw y'all's reaction to Thunderbolts drop in and loved it.

Not our reaction to the movie, but we did a social media thing with a limo driver and stuff. Really fun. What are some other ways you think marketing for the MCU could be done for the general public that hyped a movie without giving away the third act or any storyline at all? And how would that impact y'all's work? Oh, I didn't even read that last quarter. How would that impact y'all's work? Can I go first with what I think. Something very simple that I think would come to mind.

is I immediately when I read that question this morning flash two when I saw I am legend in IMAX with John I saw that in IMAX and there was no announcement about a dark night preview do you know what that preview was was the heath opening it was a whole Heath Ledger opening scene and it was a couple minutes in where I was like are we watching a dark night trailer and And it kept going. It's like, we're watching a whole scene. And it was the first time seeing the movie with the eye. It was, it was daunting, you know.

And now we're so used to that. I remembered when that first shot of the city, you could hear murmurs of people responding and going, like, whoa, it was scary. It's that thing in that Scorsese movie, Hugo, when they show the train and moving to the screen and people were like freaking out. That's how it was back then. And that's how people felt with that. And I love that it was a surprise. And so when I saw this, I thought, you know what tends to hook me personally, like my point of view?

I don't know what it would work for the general. It happened with Dark Night. I think that really helped the box office. I started watching suits because on Netflix, when they do the preview, it was a scene. And it was a scene from suits with the two main characters first meet. And I saw the first minute of it. And I was like, oh, that's intriguing. I didn't know what the show was or didn't know it was a phenomenon in the show.

Yeah. But that scene hooked me. And I think releasing a scene into theaters is the way to do it. Instead, like one scene, a few minutes, something that really, that gives you more of wanting to see it more than a trailers. Trailers are manipulative. We're kind of used to the formula, the beats, the editing, the structure. A scene actually gives you a good idea of what it's about.

And granted, no one creates these prologs that are made for marketing. So that's like one thing. but I think a good few minutes of an actual scene will do way more and not even telling the audience that like this is going to be there would probably be more effective for the theater part of it. That's my personal thought.

I got three. Oh, I'm sure there's a way more creative. No, no. The first one's just selfish. I've really got two, but one's a joke. It's not a joke though. Marvel, let me take your actor's comic book shopping. I think making the audience understand

the passion behind the actor. And I'm being dead serious by that aspect. I think showing the actor's passion is a huge element we're missing from marketing. I think in marketing we've got sound bites and we've got structure and we've got like little fun anecdotal stories but rarely does it feel like it ties back

into Marvel itself. And what you can do with things like comic book shopping or things that are in actual rhythm with the movie is it feels like marketing the movie not marketing like why are we showing? Like red carpets feel like you're showing off shirts. Like a lot of times I like there's a Getty image I'm like I'm worried about what outfit I'm wearing

and it's not like promoting the thing. The same thing with marketing. I would love if the actors actually get to in addition to doing like your hot ones and doing your like, you know, 10 things I can't live without and all the fun. I think marketing can be fun like those, but also do one that feels specific.

So something like a comic bookshop. And then two, I really think that what we have with trailers reveals too much of the third act. I think we should do more behind the scenes. I love when you've got vignettes that are like actors sitting in their chairs talking on set.

I love what it's people talking about working the director, people talking about the experience making the movie. Because you can get really in depth, but it doesn't ruin the actual movie. It just builds high. So I think more behind-the-scenes stuff like we used to get on Blu-ray commentaries. I think DVD and Blu-ray commentaries are a lost art in general, but audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes, all that stuff could be used in marketing in pre-production versus post-production in different ways. And then third, I would incorporate deleted scenes that are shot for the purpose of trailers like they did at endgame.

I think we should shoot more stuff that is tonally appropriate, that is fun, that many people can be misled so that a trailer can be like, oh, what a cool scene. but I'd love if it misled me instead of led me. So I would make more fake marketing stuff, which is why that lawsuit about like, oh, that wasn't in the movie, I think is bull. I think marketing should be allowed to be whatever it wants to be.

If it's not like a lot, like if someone's not in the movie, don't show them. But like if it's a scene that gets the, the judge, the energy of the movie, but then I'm not trying to piece together how that's in the third act.

I would make more marketing material solely for the purpose of marketing. So interactive media that ties into the movie, behind the scenes footage that is more immersive but not revealing. and then a scene shot for the purpose of marketing. We, at this point in time in the video, we would have talked about The Last of Us.

And for The Last of Us 2 video game, I was reminded of this from Neil Druckman on the podcast, is he did a, they did the trailer for Last of Us 2. It was a scene. Okay, at the end of Last of Us episode 2. Yes. The song that plays is the song that was in the trailer for the first trailer of the game.

That's special. And that scene is not in the game. Oh, that's special. It's not in the game at all. It's with Joel and Ellie, but it tells you, like, a tone and idea what it might happen, but it doesn't take place. Is Ashley one of the voices of the game?

Yeah, Ashley's Ellie. Ashley's Ellie. Oh. Yeah, thumbnail. Someone remember this. Dude, Ashley's, Ashley's delightful. I did no idea. I don't want to skim for an hour.

Yeah, there it is. I've only met her a few times through the critical role. She's like in the critical role community, and she's a delight. She's such a, and she sang the song. Yeah, and she's in what. women want. And as Mel's daughter, Magnum opus, what women totally looks like. That's lovely. I love, I love hearing people's success that are good people. Yeah, I agree with that. Those are my three. I agree with that a lot. That would be really fun. It's hard because, you know, social media marketing,

like things like Nova Kane were, I think Nova Kane was marketed brilliantly, but they didn't do as well as it ought to have done, you know. I think the audience is the problem. What I think with the fan screenings, the fan screenings are tough because it's really easy to walk out and go, of course people liked it. It's a fan screening. It's a fan. They're showing up who are already predisposed to want to like it so they're going to probably like it. I would think it would be cooler if they did surprise like where audiences are going. You know those like went on the certain theaters. The AMC surprise screening like where they just play a movie. But they play a movie. They pack it and they don't have to have a cast member or anything come out. Someone comes out but like, we're going to show you Thunderbolts today. Congratulations.

You're the first audience. Like, oh, cool. And then, like, if you're not caught up with the MCU, good look. But, yeah, I'm sure there's going to be a good amount of people who are moviegoers who are there for these, especially in the Los Angeles area. Yeah. I think that would be a better way. Major metropolitan surprise screenings is a great idea. Then you get like the out of the theater reactions. Like, did not know I was going to be watching the Underbolt today, when in blind or when and not knowing, have any anticipation.

I think getting that genuine, you delete all the ones that are negative and you only go with the general narrative. Control the marketing. It's not live. Control the market. It's not a lie. You just left out some pieces of information. Oh, mission. Climbled mission, baby.

That's how you do business. And then if it tanks Rotten Tomatoes Wise, you release those and play irony card and then do what you want with the marketing there. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite ironic marketing ever is, you know that movie, uh, legend with Tom Hardy, replays twins? They had all the four star reviews and like the, the people that made it.

So the poster was all four star reviews, but they snuck in a two star review between them. And it was literally a two star review, but it looks like it's another four star review between both top parties. Oh, really? So they literally advertised a two-star review. I think another thing they can do is go to states that are not as popular to go to. Because everything is primarily only like Los Angeles or New York City. But go to Colorado.

Go to Utah. You know, go to the cinema spots there. Like Boulder, Colorado is a pretty popular film. Atlanta, where they film is much of this. Atlanta. Yeah, go to other spots that aren't. So that way you are, if you want to do something like popular. up things, these special things that are, because you're tending to, like, one little thing in

LA. And you get a different tone of love. Like, I would argue, like, you know, we, all of the world sees Marvel movies. We need to make sure all of the world is represented in their appreciation. That's, that's what I would do. How would that impact our work? I don't know. We would make it more fun.

But thanks for that question. Great question. Let's see here. Aiding Kars Dauri says, how do you balance enjoying certain TV shows or movies for yourself and picking it for content? For example, do you ever look at a current TV show that's gaining popularity or getting massively recommended and think, I want to watch this on camera? Or do you often think, I wish I could watch this by myself or with my loved ones, is that often factor into who makes it into a group of reactors and who does not?

I mean, I feel like I ought to take the lead on this one. Yeah, it's tough, you know. Everything is constantly ebbing and decision making is changing on how to approach. approach things and a lot of times it is like especially if it's a big show I'm like at odds with it right now with dexter I want john and someone to cover dexter I love all of dexter I've seen the whole thing and I'm going I'm pretty sure the first season would do really well but then uh it might start dipping after a while uh but then we're locked in for like a few seasons that are not going to do well then if we stop then it's going to be another chucky situation I get a lot of shit for that

and uh and then I'm like all he care about his money and I'm like well now we all that you know all that work we did is not making any ready to break it even now now we're losing money and I want to do it for the experience though like experience first monetary stuff second is as how I'm trying to approach as much of this as possible because

truth be told I'm fucking miserable when it's only about money if it is if that is the first factor not one not the second or third factor or whatever when it is the first I I deteriorate I'm I feel like I erode from that so that's one spot but then

And, you know, sometimes you get confused. Like the studio seemed to me like it was going to be this phenomenon of a show. And apparently it's a huge show. But people who cover it on YouTube, it doesn't do well. And that's like my favorite show writing. My and or numbers are so much smaller than my accolate, which I did not expect. Andor is another example of that. You never really know.

And sometimes it is like this show's like Wednesday was taken off. And John and I were like the last people that do it did really well for us, though. So sometimes it is like this is going really well. this is really popular. Let's cover it. Other times we want to just cover it. We took a chance on havoc this week, which is a movie. Yeah, I'm curious. But that's like one thing. It's not like, hey, let's do this whole season to television. We're not committing to a lifestyle of watching it every week. So when it comes to the TV shows, what I'll say on a personal side is I think it's important that everyone here does have the show or shows that they do for themselves because I think

it's really, you can lose sight. One can lose sight of the true experience of why we love a show or why we love watching TV shows if we're not doing it in our personal life as well. And so having the studio for me, having Dexter for me, having better call Saul when other people are coming at Westworld. So I have, I've been back and forth on like, do I start severance on the channel or do I start severance on my own? That's another example of a show. That's my personal feeling is factoring that out. But the thing is the show is like anyone's willing to react to it here. It's not as much of a discussion of, of like who's going to skip the theater, you know, it's a show.

So we're all going to watch it at home. But I think it's important to have that, even though I know it would behoove us to do every show on camera. You have to remember what it's like to do in private because when the camera's rolling, there's so much about that is trying to let people in a sort of purview on how it is when the camera's not rolling. So if you never do it regularly, you'll forget how that muscle works.

Yeah, you'll forget the actual emotion and feeling that it becomes about only doing it for the camera and you lose side of that when it has to be a hybrid. Yeah. So that's me. But I know that there's all a decision on Greg. Let me ask something for Koi. Coy, Riley Peterson wants to know on the days when you're feeling completely burnt out and just don't want to do anything anymore.

What do you do or tell yourself to get up, get back up and do the next thing or go to the gym? That I'm dying and I'll appreciate that I did it because it might fend off death by a few hours. Like, just the constant awareness of mortality keeps me motivated that if I'm on my deathbed, I won't remember sitting on the couch and staring into the middle distance. I might remember something I'm proud of. And I'm not going to get closer to something I'm proud of without taking the small steps to get to that thing I'm proud of. I'm burnt out at all times. I'm pretty exhausted most of the time. I'm working on adding things. And I'm working on actually, Craig and I

literally just had this conversation. I'm working on being additive. For a long time, I was going, okay, I've got too much of my schedule. I need to take this away. I need to take this away. What can I quit? What can I leave? What can I not do? And it made me focus on feeling stressed. It made me focus on burnout. It made me focus because by the nature of trying to take things away. In my case, it was going, you have too much, you have too much. What can I rid yourself of? You're overwhelmed. You're overwhelmed. And that became the voice in my head. And so instead of focusing on the burnout, focusing on the overwhelm, I'm trying to go, okay, let's ironically and oxymoronically add things to your crazy schedule, but make sure you're adding things that

refuel you. And I'm trying to put those into a calendar and I'm trying to make that calendar visual. So I'm trying to make the things that are fueling me in green. When I started this two weeks ago, I had one green block in seven days. And I went, not healthy. Like, and I was like trying to, and then I caught myself trying to color change things. And I was like, well, that's kind of for me and kind of work. And I was like, that's literally defeating the purpose. And I'm trying to break my own systems. Then I realized I needed to, if I'm that broken that I'm doing 95% work, I really need to add more that is fueling me. So when I'm feeling down or burnt out, I'm trying to find something that I can squeak in that is purely for me and not for work.

And then working out, I fell off so hard with my traveling and with last year when I got sick, I got sicker than I realized. And like I had a blood brain barrier scare where they had to give me medicine that um was preventing me from getting meningitis and having um basically brain bleeds and like potential death but the medicine they gave me was so strong that i had to sign like a mental health waiver um that was basically like you will likely have subtle ideations and homicidal ideations like it was it was so aggressive they were like this isn't a maybe like is going to mess you up um because it was basically like napalming my entire stomach which we're learning more and more controls or emotions so the antibiotic and they give it to people got health side yeah uh

They give it to people exposed to anthrax. Like, it was a serious medicine because it was basically like, we need to save your life. This in your skull infection has gotten so bad. Like, you could die. It's worth the risk of these horrible side effects. And between the actual eardrum rupturing and all the sickness I got, but then also the mental health that messed me up, I just fell out of love with the gym for the first time ever. And it's so much harder to get back into the rhythm than to stay in the rhythm.

I've never fallen off as hard as I am now. So what I'm currently trying to do is look at all the barriers between what I actually love, things like the gym, and adding in positive to build my willpower back up. So I feel like I'm not only depleted by burnout, but my willpower is also depleted. So I'm not getting mad at myself for not going to the gym as much because I know that's not going to help me. What I'm trying to do is rebuild my willpower through positive things to get to the point where the gym is fun again. And then once the gym is fun again, add one more workout to the week and then another workout and then get back into the system. So I'm rebuilding from scratch and I'm actually going to try to get rid of barriers by like putting a gym in my backyard because I have a backyard for the first time. So like then I won't have the excuse of like I'm not driving to the gym.

Oh, I don't want to look for parking. It's in my backyard. So I'm trying to remove barriers of of obstacles of the positive and also rebuild my positivity in general and let myself have a break because of all the shit I went through last year. Smart. I'm trying to be scientific. Yeah. Yeah. The way your brain operates, it's, I think you're.

which your solution is would work specifically for you. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend everyone. I accept overwhelm more than most, and I accept, like, being burnt out more than most. It's not healthy. Like, you and I both end up in the hospital and end up, like, in bad physical health because we let our mental health run rampant. I would not recommend our systems, but if you were like us, might work. Huh, well, to me, I have my short answer is I, I, I,

If there's one thing I'm proud of myself in is I'm a person who handles his responsibilities despite how I'm feeling and despite whatever state I'm in, you know, and I, to me, it's like working out is a priority. It is a responsibility of mine that even if I don't feel like doing it, I, I'm aware that I will feel better if I do it. I'm a person who wakes up every day. My natural state is like zombie depressed. That's my natural like state when I wake up. and it's how it's been since before the channel and it's really changed and every day gets a little bit sometimes easier some days harder but i believe in the power being able to prime yourself to get ready for the day so i do like to do my i haven't meditated in like three days weirdly but i've found other ways of because it's like what is the goal of meditation to be able to achieve a little bit more observation and mindfulness right and i so i have other methods that i do so when it comes to this stuff about burnout the most important thing John and I were having a long conversation about the idea of affirmation versus incantation and I believe very much an affirmation

that you should affirmation so not bullshit affirmations like like lying to yourself and trying to convince yourself I am this I am this it's like be honest with yourself about that's why I ask people how they're feeling because if you're honest with yourself the phrases the truth will set you free and so I try to be honest that's the part of the that scares me about cancel cultures because I'm being very honest lately about how I feel in life generally. And I don't want to be held like, yeah, I said that because I'm, I'm saying that so I can be moving forward and changing and progressing. I'm not saying that so you can condemn me and crucify me or hold this against me like, so you said this. I'm like, yeah, I said

that because that is me admitting the truth so I can grow. And that's the only thing we really can do sometimes. And I think is in this in the world, the thing I'm getting more in tune with is I often get so caught up in my own personal hardships and struggles, and I make it all about me, and I forget that most people are struggling with something. And I'm not aware a lot of the time or think to think it. Like I was telling John the other day, I texted Andrew and Aaron, like,

please don't be late to the same. Please don't be late. They were late. I was pissed. And of course, Andrew shows up and he had some type of real physiological thing going on. I'm like, God damn it. I should have been like, hey, is everything okay first?

I caught up in like, you're delaying me for my already 12-hour workday. So I think the only thing you can really do sometimes, and it's the hardest thing for people to do is be honest with yourself. And that's probably you can find, there's different paths from that point on. Oh, I have one little tiny thing left. I'm working on adding things that are only, I'm the only variable. It kind of ties into what you're saying. Definitely. I'm trying not to have my happiness be like situational.

or hinged on anyone else. I don't have many hobbies or things I haven't monetized. So I'm trying to find things that are completely me that I can find Julian. And that's been helping. Yeah. I'm watching. And like without any other like I'm not waiting on my fiancee for a show. I got to find a show that I can watch without her.

I'm trying to like find food that I like cooking and then eating not like, oh, I'm making it for three. Like finding things that are so low that I don't have any waiting or looking for. That's the thing is like how I've been working out. And when I was first on this journey this year, now that I've been getting really good results, people are way more encouraging about what I've been doing. So we're thinking at the beginning.

The plateau is long, dude. But when you're first starting, it's like, just have a cookie. Yeah, like, do this, who cares? Then once you start getting results, people are like, what are you doing? How are you doing? And I'm noticing that, like,

more people, like, want to work out with me, go on this thing with me. And I'm finding that it's hard for me to say no to people at times. And I don't want to lie to people. sometimes I have because I'm like, I kind of just want to be alone. This is for me.

I'm like I need the alone time and I feel like I tap into my imagination better too when I want to create stuff and I come up with solutions on my own versus being caught up in a conversation. Sure. You know? So, yeah, that's true. Valium alone time.

Yeah. But I would like to go on, like, Andrew wants to go on a hike. We talked about going to hike and I would like to do that though. I think these are fun ways to bond. You're like, I like stretching with people.

Yeah. And well, endorphins are such a good bonding agent for your, brain much less with others stretching is really good too i did a whole hour long stretch yesterday and that really helped me out because there's so much tension and pain and repression that you hold in your body and beyond working out like this it helps release a lot so intense repression embodied i know you were fucking yeah and then you're like but this is getting me close you're looking like tom hardy that man is tense and repressed and very tired yeah his whole last three-year

career. Tired characters. Anyway, thanks for the questions, guys. Well, that's the end of the video. Appreciate you.