The Ringer-Verse - The Fall Hype Top 10 Road Map | House of R
Episode Date: October 15, 2021Mal and Joanna are here to break down all the things in the world of fandom they are most looking forward to this fall with a top-10 hype road map (07:12). They discuss the Sandman, Cowboy Bebop, DC F...anDome, and much more to whet the appetite of the Ringer-Verse. Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producers: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: TD St. Matthew-Daniel and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The press box is here to catch you up on the latest media stories.
Hosted by Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker,
these guys have the insight on the biggest stories you care about.
Check out the press box on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms,
every choice matters.
Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start.
Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks.
followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks.
If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphia, proper training is required.
Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease
and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.
Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them,
and liver problems may occur.
Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis.
Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need of a disease.
vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiaraadio.com.
The playoffs are here and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul
predict the spread, total points and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by
Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-witrable
Spire seven days after receipt.
Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors.
Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool.
Restrictions apply.
See terms at fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms.
Tonight we would achieve what no one was even attempted.
We will summon and imprison death.
Can I trust you with something?
I've been having dreams.
When in battle, I've had dreams that were just dreams.
Dreams make good stories.
Everything important happens when we're awake.
The truth is the world is ruled by corruption.
Now are you supposed to be?
I'm vengeance.
Should we be worried?
No, no, it's nothing.
I'll be able for Christmas.
This is going to be fun.
And welcome into the Ringerverse here on the Ringer Podcast Network.
I'm Mallory Rubin.
It is my absolute pleasure on the heels of that astounding Steve Allman,
engineered intro custom for this episode to invite you not only back to New York for this podcast
and this holiday season, but to join us on the Ringers Nexus podcast feed for all things
fandom. Joining me today. Joining me always for the rest of time. Now that she's finished securing
her opening night tickets to Rogers the musical, it's Ringer senior staff writer Joanna Robinson.
I have never had such incredible walk-on music as what Steve just crafted for us there.
I'm thrilled. Beyond thrills. Got me, this is a hype episode and I am now appropriately
hype for what we're going to talk about. Yes. We got a hype track for the hype episode.
This is incredible. Great work, Steve. Thank you, Steve. Oh, my heart is pounding. Can't tell
if it's from that or all of the caffeine. We have so much to get to today. A few
programming reminders and notes quickly before we, before we dive in.
The schedule for the ringer verse will be a touch different the next two weeks.
The Midnight Boys, Dana Charles, will be back with you on Monday next week with a DC
fandom reaction podcast.
And then they will be with you next Friday for their Dune Instant Reaction Pod.
So no Wednesday Midnight Boys show next week and no house.
of our working title. We'll get back to you on the
TK. On the official title soon.
TK. For the Friday show,
but double house of our
working title, TK. The following week, because we will be with you on
Monday, October 25th, for a
dune deep dive. And we're talking like all caps for the deep dive
on that one, for about a few hours for us.
We're going to a raucas.
I have packed my still suit,
which means I can just go all day.
No water break.
The commitment is admirable and disturbing all at once.
I cannot wait.
And then we will be back to our regular Wednesday, Friday schedule from there.
How can you follow all of that?
You might be wondering, we're so glad you asked.
Because you can follow it by following the ringerverse on Spotify,
wherever you get your podcast.
You can follow all of that activity on our various social feeds,
the ringerverse.
is on Twitter. The Ringerverse is on Instagram. The Ringerverse has a Facebook group. Check it all
out. Okay. Spoiler warning. Friendly neighborhood spoiler warning for today's podcast. It's a little bit
difficult to specify because it would apply to literally dozens of properties today. Honestly,
maybe even more. This is more of maybe a speculation warning because this is a preview episode.
This is a look ahead episode. But in the process of looking ahead, of course, we'll be talking
about stories that have come before.
So just general friendly neighborhood spoiler
slash speculation warning here.
Proceed with caution.
We will say the thing that we're about to talk about
right before we talk about it.
We'll do our best throughout.
And we're not here to spoil the thing.
No leaks or anything about the thing to come.
No, no, no.
But if we're talking about an MCU movie or show,
we will, of course, mention things from MCU pass.
So consider the spoiler warning of that fashion for today.
Or something based on a very long-running comic
that we've, you know.
maybe read all of something like that, you know.
Indeed.
Okay.
Here's what we're doing today.
What are we doing, Mal?
We are leaning in to the hype because there is so much coming, Joanna.
There are so much coming the rest of this calendar year that we have decided on the eve of
Dune, on the eve of Hawkeye, on the eve of so many other films and shows that we are
anticipating so fully.
We're going to break out the hype meter here, here at the Ring ofverse.
We are doing a fall roadmap and fall we're putting in quotation marks, okay, because we're going in a little bit beyond fall.
The whole calendar year is eligible.
Rest of the year.
Yes.
Hight meter roadmap.
We're going to count down our respective top tens.
We've got a lot of overlap, but some different positionings.
And then we each have a few items on our list that the other person did not have.
We're making our way toward number one.
And there's just so much excitement, so many things to look forward to.
I'm hyped. Are you hyped?
I'm beyond hyped. And putting together the nose for today got me even more excited.
I get so excited, especially for how many things are coming that are based on a book or a comic or something where we can go all the way into the lore.
It's lore time for geeks. And I'm really, I'm really thrilled to be here to get this opportunity.
to talk to you about what we're excited about.
I'm excited for our overlaps,
but I'm also really excited and curious
about the ways in which we differ.
So we'll be talking about it.
And we won't be here for three hours, right, Mal?
Right?
We're going to try to keep our runtime
a little bit below that today
and then get back, I think,
around that two hour mark
for some subsequent movie pods.
But truly, though,
one of the things that's exciting
about this chat today
is that everything we're talking about today
we're going to revisit eventually.
So this is really just the beginning.
beginning. This is like the teaser. An amuse boosh? Ooh. My boosh is so amused to talk to you about
all of this. I'm ready. Oh boy. Okay. Before we start with number 10, yeah, just want to say this.
There's a lot of stuff that didn't make the top 10. And that doesn't mean we're not excited about it.
There's so much afoot. We have a few honorable mentions. And
there's more even beyond just this handful of honorable mentions. Like, for example, I'm very,
I'm very interested in the impending foundation finale. Speaking of Apple TV, curious about invasion.
I personally am extraordinarily behind on the expanse, but the expanse is a final season
coming up, which is obviously a source of great anticipation and joy for a lot of people.
There's a new flash season coming up. We've got a Doctor Who season coming up.
Guardians of the Galaxy video game on and on the list goes. So if a specific thing didn't
make the top 10. That doesn't mean we're not hyped about it. We look forward to talking about it,
possibly in some capacity in the future. There's just so much. No, it's true. And like,
we want to be able to go fathoms deep on what we cover. So that may mean we don't cover every single
thing. We want, we want to be here for you covering as much as we can. There's just so much,
as you know, as you know at home trying to consume all of this. There's a lot. There's a lot going on.
So, yeah. Okay. Let's kick things off with number 10 on.
our respective list. What do you get?
All right. So my number 10 is like a number 10 with a question mark, but I really wanted to put it
on here. And this is Netflix's live action adaptation of the classic iconic anime series Cowboy Bebop.
And this has been a long, long, long, long, long time coming and in gestation. And this is
written by Christopher Yost, who's a writer that I'm really interested in. He's done some Marvel stuff.
He did a great Mandalorian episode.
Like, he's a writer I'm really interested in.
That's got me really excited.
But obviously, what's got me most excited is John Cho in the lead here as Spiegel.
And this is about a group of, it's such a, Calais B.Bop is such an interesting vibe.
It's so hard to capture exactly what is going on here with like, but, you know, if you, if you love Firefly, like, there's a few, you know, Western in space sort of outlaws.
etc.
All that sort of stuff is in the mix.
I think there's been a lot of questions around this adaptation
in terms of like,
can you even do a live action adaptation of any anime
given how like stylistic,
like gloriously stylistic anime is?
So can you do something like that?
I don't know.
But I know that this like,
Cowboy Bebop was such a huge moment for anime
reaching Western American audiences.
and so it holds this really special places
like so many people's first foray into anime.
And so expectations are sky high.
We haven't seen any of it.
We've seen the opening credits that they did
in a few promo photos,
but it's coming out really soon
and we haven't seen like a trailer.
The production was a little troubled.
There was an injury that's at them back about eight months.
There's the COVID of it all.
There's all these questions.
But like, there's just a part of me
that hopes this is extraordinary.
so that's why Cowboy Vubop is here for me.
Is this on your...
I know it's not on your list.
Is it on your radar at all now?
It is on my radar.
This is a very exciting pick.
So a couple weeks ago after Star Wars Visions,
which I absolutely adored and thought it was just like sublime,
I chatted with the sound only guys, Charity and Micah,
about their anime recommendations, what they would recommend to people like me who
watched Visions, loved it and were interested in exploring.
more anime. And, you know, this is one of the many things coming out of that conversation that is
on my list to catch up on and get ready for. So I, uh, I expect by mid-November to be right there
with you. I can't wait. Please, please let me know when you plan on binging all of cowboy
B-Bop. I'm excited. I'm excited for this for you. I will keep you posted. How about you?
What's in your 10 position? Number 10 for me is on the immediate
Horizon. We are recording this on Friday morning, October 15th. And I'm about to mention something
that's coming on Saturday morning, October 16th. The hype is close. DC fandom is tomorrow,
is October 16th. If you're interested in hearing more of a DC fandom preview,
check out the Midnight Boys episode for this week. There is a lot about this streaming event
that I'm really eager to see. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific.
goes for a few hours.
I will be watching.
I'm really eager for updates and sneak peeks
of various DC projects,
film, TV, animated, comic, gaming, etc.
Like, we're going to get a ton and ton,
of DC updates here.
The Flash, Black Adam, Aquaman, Shazam,
Harley Quinn, Backgirl, Peacemaker,
Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Arrowverse updates.
I know Jomey's excited for the Young Justice update,
etc. So there's a ton coming.
DC fandom
moment that I am anticipating the most fully, and I am absolutely certain I am not alone here,
is the new trailer for Matt Reeves' The Batman.
I love trailers, as you know.
I do.
I love Batman movies, and I cannot wait for this movie.
I actually did a Best of Batman, like Batman Hall of Fame episode with Sean Fennacy,
a few months ago, just because like a new picture of the bat suit came out and it's just like,
any excuse. Any excuse.
Let's just rewatch every Batman movie and talk about everything in Batman because of that.
I've done a couple of Batman rankings in the last two years. So I'm curious, like,
what's your number one Batman? Who's your number one Batman and what's your number one Batman like
thing? Well, so we went like category by category. We did it all. We did like best Batman,
best Batman movie, best Batmobile, like on and on and on. Best Bateman suit.
There were some bat nipple talk.
Great.
I'll not shock you to hear it was the two-hour pod.
Here's what I'll say.
Let's carve out some time to revisit this together in the future because I have so many thoughts.
Like, I mean, Dark Night is my favorite Batman movie.
I'm actually really partial to Pan-Aflex from Bruce Wayne.
And that comment requires a lot of context that I shared on that past podcast.
and we'll share again in the future.
But I actually, like, independent, actually,
of my thoughts on the Snyderverse.
I like his version of the character.
But in general, I'm so hyped for the Patinson version.
This is going to be based on everything we understand,
a year two Batman story and heavily anchored in that detective noir,
Batman energy, which I'm really excited about.
Reeves gave an interview to the Hollywood reporters Leslie Goldberg back in 2019. And this quote was
really exhilarating in terms of what to anticipate from the movie. Quote, it's very much a point of
view-driven noir Batman tale. It's told very squarely on his shoulders. And I hope it's going to be
a story that will be thrilling, but also emotional. It's more Batman in his detective mode than we've
seen in the films. The comics have a history of that as well. He's supposed to be the world's
greatest detective. And that's not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. So I'm really
eager for that energy. I'm excited to see this new trailer and to see what sort of noir vibes are
present in this trailer. We're getting an incredible cast in this movie. Obviously, Patinson, Zoe
Cravitz as Selena Kyle, Paul Dano as the Ridler, Colin Farrell, as Penguin, Jeffrey Wright,
as Commissioner Gordon, Andy Circus, as Alfred. Even the teasers for the trailer have me excited.
Like we got a little six or seven or eight second teaser from the Batman Twitter account this week in which we saw, you know, the red and black bat signal, the color palette for this particular film and heard Pattinson saying it's not just a signal. It's a warning. And then Reeves shared a still shot of his Batman looking out over his Gotham.
on Twitter and like there's just so much hype for a trailer which is meant to build hype.
Layers of hype here.
I really cannot wait.
Okay.
So I'll say this.
This is not your only like sort of like fan hype event that you have on your list.
And I sort of cheated because I knew you were going to put them on the list that I left them off my list.
But overall I would say I like hype events.
But I do get like a little wary of like overhyping myself or something.
Do you mean that's something that I get a little nervous about with like a DC fandom or something like that?
I am very excited for this movie.
I think it's going to be great.
The Batman.
I'm really excited.
I will say that so my favorite Batman.
Are you a Keatonhead?
Well, I was going to say my favorite Batman movie is Batman Returns, actually.
I love that.
I'm a big Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman fan.
But it's hard to argue with Christian Big.
as well.
So that's sort of like all in the mix.
But also Batman the anime.
I think my thing with Christian Bail is I think he's the best Bruce Wayne.
Yes.
Yes.
I think it's really important to distinguish who's the best Bruce Wayne versus who's the best Batman.
Yeah, exactly.
Clunes is at the bottom of all the lists, but that's okay.
Wasn't his fault.
Wasn't his fault.
The Batman the Animated series, though, is like really, really near and dear to my heart.
And when they released the first, I think it was the first photo of Pattinson and the Cowell.
And like something that I never, you don't necessarily.
notice about Pattinson when his like luxurious hair is out and not covered by a cowl is like
the diamond cut angle of his jaw, which is so bad.
You have to have it.
You have to have it.
Yeah, it's Batman the enemy's jaw on the chin.
Yeah.
So he's got it.
He's got the jaw in a way that I didn't really realize until they sort of encased him in rubber.
So, yeah, I'm really excited for this stuff.
Me too.
And of course we should say like this movie, this Batman movie has been decouple.
from the DCEU.
This is like the DC Multiverse, right?
This is set on Earth 2, not Earth 1.
So I'm just interested in that as well
and how the DC film universe
is continuing to evolve and expand right now.
I love how you kind of cheated and put a March 2020 thing
on your list by putting it under the fandom umbrella.
Yes, the movie comes out next year.
That is true.
Very tricksy.
But I have never once allowed myself to be bound
by the rules of the exercise on a podcast.
And damn it, I won't begin today.
I love a rule breaker.
Should you go to number nine?
Let's do it.
What's number nine for you?
Okay, for me, it is The Witcher season two,
which drops December 17th on Netflix.
I don't know what your journey
through the Witcher season one was.
But like, here's what happened.
The Witcher comes out at the end of 2019,
the first season.
When I am still running on fumes
from the end of Thrones,
and it's a show that came out with already a lot of books and video games and like a deep edge of fandom and a lot of lore.
And I was like, I was pre-exhausted.
I was like, I can't go back again.
It's too soon for me to like read all these books and get all the way in and stuff like that.
And I wasn't even going to watch it.
And then everyone loved it so much.
It was such a thing.
And I was like, well, it would be silly of me to not even watch this.
So I watched it.
And without, broke my own.
rule, like without reading the book or whatever.
I just watched it.
And I had so much fun.
The Witcher, the first season was such an interesting mix because at times it felt
like the show was trying to take itself very seriously.
And at times it felt like it leaned into the camp.
And I think people really responded to it most when it was like in that camp space.
And when it was in there, and especially like how much Henry Cavill, who is like the world's
number one most handsome as dork, like got so excited.
to be in the Witcher.
And I talked to him about it
sort of a little bit after I saw it.
And he was like, I don't know if you've heard
these stories about how intense he was about this.
Like, there's the Witcher voice.
You know, speaking of Patton's Batman voice,
there's the Witcher voice he did.
But also, like, he has to wear these contacts.
And he wanted to have them in all the time.
And they were like, these are damaging.
Like, he got grit behind them.
He damaged his eyeballs wearing these, like, girls to, like,
contacts, but he was like so, he, they had to like force him to take them out because he was like,
no, I need them in for the character, this whole thing. So there's something about me that just
admires how like balls to the wall he is about this project. There's this dumb, fun element
of it. I love the character of Yenifer and her whole thing. It's very exciting. So leading into,
going into season two, the question is, like Netflix is all in on this. Witcher was huge for them.
They're expanding the universe. They're doing prequels. They're doing anime movies.
They're doing a live action series starring Michelle Y'all.
Like, they're doing this whole thing.
But it feels like, we haven't seen a ton about season two, but it feels like they're leaning
into that camp vibe that people responded to.
The big clip that they showed at their like, Tadam Netflix preview event involved our guy,
Christopher Haview, Torman Giant Spain himself, as this like pig person.
I don't know how to describe exactly, but he's like in full prosthetics.
It's like this whole thing.
And I'm just like, this is, this lighter tone, this is what I want for the whole thing, personally.
So I'm really excited.
Where's your hype for The Witcher Season 2?
Here's the thing.
You didn't watch season one.
Haven't seen a second of it or read a word of it.
So this is all new for me.
But seeing your joy and your enthusiasm.
Infectious, infectious.
The hype, it's just porting over through Zoom.
Now I know that I need to check it out so that I can share in this with you and all of the
other people who are excited.
I'll add it to the list to the ever-growing list right after.
No, put it in front of Cowboy Bebop and then like we'll talk about it.
But it's so interesting because like are you aware, though, about Henry Cavill and his
extreme dorcitude that this man like generally, yes, I had not heard the contact lens story,
which is alarming and distressing.
It is bizarre.
But like this is a man who like builds his own.
gaming computers and stuff like that.
Like that's who Henry Cavill is.
It's ridiculous.
Anyway, how about you?
What's your number nine on the list?
So as you, as you teased, as you indicated, this is another hype event that I'm picking,
which is really just a way yet again to cheat inside of the exercise and talk about a dozen,
maybe two dozen other things that I'm excited for that are not actually necessarily coming
out within the time frame of the parameters.
the parameters of this exercise allow for.
Disney Plus Day, November 12th.
Last year's Disney Investor Day, December 2020,
it was just this like treasure trove of insight
and previews and look-aheads
and show reveal and movie reveal information.
Now, this is different.
This is the inaugural Disney Plus Day.
But I'm expecting a similar bounty of insight,
and sneak peeks.
So we know.
Can I ask you really quickly?
Have you ever been to a D23, like a Disney?
I haven't been to D23.
It's such a wild experience.
Sorry, to interject.
It's just like, this I imagine is going to be much closer to that than the investor call.
I don't know if you were on the investor day the whole time last year as I was,
where I was like on vacation but still on my laptop.
And a friend at one point brought me a sandwich because it went on way longer than we
expected it to.
Yeah.
But it was like, it was such a interesting combination of like investor business talk.
And then here's a teaser.
Yes.
That this will be much closer to D23.
But it'll be really interesting to see D23 over the internet because so much of D23 is like the hype of the room.
But anyway, sorry, go ahead.
What would we expect?
That's an interesting point because obviously the feeling inside of a like convention hall is is not a thing that can really replicate outside of that.
but like the fact that more people can tune into this is, you know, the other side of it.
And I think that that's like exciting to be able to share the hype with so many other
Marvel and Star Wars and Pixar and, you know, just Disney fans in general.
Like we know definitively from the press release that we're getting a special celebrating the origins and legacy of Star Wars legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett.
That's on the press release.
Okay, we know that.
And then we know we're getting a special celebrating the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney Plus with an exciting look toward the future.
Now, those don't really tell us anything, right?
But what will be contained inside of that?
And then what else is coming?
Because, you know, the breaking news first look, teaser, clip element was also teased.
I'm basically excited for every impending Star Wars and Marvel project.
We will not talk about all of them because we will not talk about all of them because we're.
we don't have time to do so today.
But the promise of some sort of trailer clip update on not only Boba,
which, you know, given that that's coming out this year is a given, but Andor,
the Obi-1 Canobi show, Asoko, which is probably like, I mean,
it's really tough for me to decide whether Asoka or Canobie is top of my list.
I just can't wait for this.
The Ackleite, Lando, Rangers of the New Republic.
Will we get any Mando season three updates?
It's like it even a glimpse of my darling Grogu.
A Rogue Squadron update?
I'm not going to do the whole
when we get an X-Men announcement thing here.
But will we get some sort of X-Men?
We might.
We could.
It's possible.
Reasonable to assume that we'll get some sort of fantastic four update.
And then obviously, you know,
everything else on the phase four slate.
I mean, Spider-Man, No Way Home,
which we're going to talk about.
Spoiler in today's episode is coming out this December.
I think we'll...
we're going to talk about Spider-Man, pretty much non-stop between now and then.
What will we see for Hawkeye update?
It's Marvel update.
Moon Night, She-Hawks, Secret Invasion, Ironheart Armoursport, the Wakanda series, Loki Season 2.
There's just so much.
On the Pixar front, Lightyear, there's just so much coming.
I want updates and all of it.
All of it.
I don't know how I'm going to survive November 12th.
I love this for you.
I would love you for you to tell the listeners who's on your shirt today.
I'm wearing a boba shirt.
I got a Boba Fett shirt on.
Boba's on the shirt.
Pretty hyped about Boba.
Another spoiler for the rest of my list here.
I'm excited.
We're going to talk about this,
but that's another case of like enthusiasm
sort of bleeding through because like Boba,
Book of Boba Fett is on my list.
It's higher on my list because of you.
But we'll get to that.
Oh?
Yeah, it's true. It's true.
This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business,
Fast, reliable internet
means everything
for your business
and even this podcast.
That's why I trust
Spectrum Business
to keep companies of all
sizes connected with
internet, advanced
Wi-Fi, phone, TV,
mobile services,
plus 24-7
U.S.-based support.
Millions of business owners
already trust
Spectrum Business.
So visit Spectrum.com
slash business to learn more.
Restrictions apply.
Services not available
in all areas.
My number eight
is something
we're not even, speaking of cheating, we're not even sure this is coming out this year.
I was talking to Impala Mike who works for Netflix and I asked her, I was like, would we look
dumb if we put the Sandman on our rest of 2021 list, crickets, no response.
So they wouldn't even like open the kimono on that front.
So we don't, I really kind of doubt it's coming in 2021.
We're going to talk about it a little later on the list.
Spoiler alert.
But I'm just going to flag that Sandman's my number eight.
We'll get to more on that front.
Yes.
The way we're doing this is if one of us has a certain entry higher, we'll talk about it together
at the higher ranking slot.
And I have that just a touch higher.
So we will circle back in a moment.
Yeah.
How about you?
What's your number eight, Mel?
My number eight.
The Wheel of Time.
Here's why I'm excited about the Wheel of Time, which is coming to Amazon Prime,
on November 19th.
season one is supposed to be eight episodes,
the now standard Amazon release strategy
of the initial binge drop of three episodes
and then weekly from there.
Personally not a fan of that model
because then I watch three in a row
and want the whole season.
I can't do this hybrid approach.
I need it weekly or I need it as a binge.
Anyway, I have not read
the Wheel of Time books.
The Robert Jordan books
the Brandon Sanderson continuation of the books.
I have not read any of them.
And I consider this like a pretty big
in the interest of full disclosure
and candor here today.
I consider this a pretty big hole
in my personal fantasy literary education.
Though I also believe that that education is ongoing
and that's part of the fun of it, right?
So I'm excited to see what this is all about
because I know people who love these books
who adore this story.
who consider it their favorite of all time.
And I actually always really enjoy
when an impending release,
be it a show or a film,
gives me that nudge
to check something out at last.
Now, am I going to be able to read 14 novels
plus a prequel novel in the next month
while watching Witcher Season 1 and Cowboy Vipop?
unlikely, I think.
But it's like that little extra nudge to finally start,
finally dip in.
I'm really eager to check out the world.
And, you know, the show, which I have not seen yet,
I have not seen screeners of, just watch the trailer.
I found the trailer to be intense, but quite intriguing.
Rosamond Pike in the lead.
Are Guy Rousse Bolton making a trailer?
trailer appearance, a little, just a fun little pop culture nugget here.
Former survivor contestant, Rafe Judkins is the showrunner for this.
Wild. Wild. Wow. Wow. Unbelievable. Maybe that'll spark a Ringer podcast network crossover event
with the Ringerverse and the pod has spoken at some point. But, you know, this is part of,
obviously, Amazon's, like, larger foray and continued push into fantasy. Obviously, the impending
Lord of the Rings show is top of the list there,
but The Boys, Invincible, The Expans, Good Omas, etc., etc., etc.
I'm just really eager to watch the show and see how it is,
but more broadly, to fall into the world of the wheel of time at last.
I am so curious to see how this lands,
because I know that the readership is so passionate.
They've been waiting for this for so long.
I know a lot of them were really excited about some of the early looks that have come out,
images, the trailer, etc.
I've seen a little bit more than you have that has thrown some cold water on my enthusiasm,
but I don't want to let that throw cold water in other people's enthusiasm.
And I want to see, like you, I am not a book reader on this one.
And I don't know if that has put me in a position where I'm not, I don't know if that
put me on the back foot in terms of what I've seen of this series.
And I'll be very curious to see if the folks who love
love the books, feel like this is a solid, the solid adaptation that they've been looking for.
It was a thrill to see Michael McClinton, Ruse Bolton himself, show up in a very, very different
role, very, very different father figure that he's playing in this show. And there are some,
like, really fantastic. Any leeches? Any word on whether they're open leech? Neri a leech. Nerea
Leach for House Bolton. But, uh, and not a of a.
vampire either, just in case you had those theories. You know that, like, that's one of my favorite fan
theories of all time. Ruth Bolton is a vampire. I love it. It's right behind Varus is a merman.
It's a merman, yeah. Yeah. So the younger folks that they've cast for like sort of the main
clutch of heroes in this show, I'm interested, particularly in one of them, very interested.
And it's the kind of thing where, like, it's the kind of thing that could launch these
young actors who haven't done a ton before this into, you know, the stratosphere.
So that'll be interesting to watch.
But yeah, I'm just very curious to see what book readers think and maybe what context I might
be missing in my early reception of the show.
That makes sense.
So it does indeed.
Hype time.
Hype time.
All right.
Number seven.
Right on time for when we said we were going to get to number seven.
I'm honestly forward right now.
So proud.
It's going to be at number seven at the 30 minute mark, and you just said number seven in tandem with Steve saying 30 minutes.
It's never happened before.
It'll never happen again, but we did it today, damn it.
You know, I mean, I believed in us the whole time.
All right.
So my number seven here is what you'll see, a pattern of me is that when something has a troubled production, that's not enough to let me, like, to dampen my enthusiasm.
I get very, the contrary, maybe.
You're more protective.
I get very protective of this, and I really want to give it a chance.
So coming out after a long delay on December 22nd is the Kingsman, the third installment
in the Kingsman franchise.
This is a prequel movie.
So my beloved Terran Edgerton and Colin Firth will probably not be showing up unless they're
here in like cameo bookends or something like that.
This takes place earlier in the history is about sort of the foundation of this.
Secret Society. I am a massive Kingsman fan. Where are you on the Kingsman love train? Okay.
Wonderful. This is an absolutely outstanding inclusion on the list. I'm so glad you put this on here.
This is a great one. This is a great one.
The incredible suits alone, the tremendous action, I just, I love this series so much.
We've got an all-star cast in my, in my heart.
All-stars in my heart line up for this film.
We've got Ray Fines and M himself here.
Gemma Arterton, who is like,
Gemma is such an interesting actress who, like,
almost was so many different times.
And she's someone who I always enjoy when she shows up.
Risa Fons is playing Rasputin, which is just like,
yes, Matthew Good, Daniel Broll,
Zimo himself, Jamon Honsu, Charles Dance.
Not the last time we'll talk about Charles Dance on this podcast.
And Stanley Tucci at Touch of the Tuch.
Stanley Tucci is one of those actors who you're like,
how is he not already in this franchise?
The premise is as a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds
gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man,
and its protege must race against time to stop them.
Let's be clear, this premiere date has been moved long,
before COVID was on the scene.
It was already getting moved around.
And so it's always my hope when one of those things gets delayed.
And it's rarely the case.
There's always my hope where I'm like, maybe they'll fix it.
Maybe they'll fix whatever.
It's making them nervous.
And this will just be tremendous.
So that is my hope, my hype hope for the Kingsman December 22nd.
I love it.
Let me just say this.
Yeah.
The franchise overall across the films.
Two of my, I think,
all-time top five Colin Firth and Ray Fines.
I mean, same.
Hard same.
No surprise.
Yeah.
Not shocked at all.
And this was like, Kingsman was such a lovely moment because like I feel like Colin
Firth is one of those actors who has had like so many like renaissance
despite never going away.
You know what I mean?
And it's sort of like he showed up and Bridget Jones and people were like, oh,
Colin Firth again.
And you're like, Colin Firth didn't go away.
And he shows up in a single man and people are like, oh, call him Firth again.
Then he gets the Oscar.
But still, like, people get surprised.
And then he shows up in the first Kingswood movie and does, there's that incredible,
traumatic church gunfight scene that is like one of my top film moments of all time.
So, yeah, I'm a big fan of this franchise.
Thank you for coming with me on this very stylish, very violent journey as we go into the Kingsman.
I can't wait to continue this journey with you.
I'm not sure I'll have the fashion for it, but the passion, I can promise.
Passion.
I'll take passion over fashion any day in the week.
My number seven is, I believe, your number six.
And so we can't actually chat about this together here now.
Let's do it.
Matrix Resurrections.
So excited.
Tell me, tell me why it is here for you, number seven.
This is coming out in December, December 22nd.
This will be a theatrical release and an HBO Max.
Same day as Kingsman.
Double feature.
That's what I say.
There is so much coming out in December.
Yeah.
We're going to need to, I don't know.
I feel a lot of certainty that we'll have many spreadsheets,
color-coded ones in our future.
Currently embarking on a Matrix rewatch,
My husband and I began our rewatch a couple weeks ago.
Actually, when the trailer came out, yes, which was in September.
Trailer was exhilarating.
First of all, I love a trailer with a cat, as you know.
Great to get a little cat cameo right away.
Sure.
That Neo Trinity moment in the trailer, I just got a chill, like a full body, fine, tingling chill.
The White Rabbit, needle drop, all of it.
The cast for the movie is sensational.
The process of beginning the rewatch,
where I'm only,
we're only one movie in so far.
I think actually maybe we'll,
maybe we'll watch the second one this weekend.
Though I have some,
some Dune viewing to spend time on this weekend.
Another upcoming item on the list.
Spoiler!
But it's just really fun.
Honestly, it's just really fun to dive back into the Matrix canon
and to think about what still feels
so revelatory
and all of the other
stories that sprung
from the Matrix
archetype,
how many different things
the Matrix has informed
since.
And then it's also
really interesting to think about
what I don't want to say
doesn't feel as fresh or revelatory,
but just what feels,
and again, it's connected,
actually, to how many things
the Matrix has influenced,
like totally inextricable
from what so much of
modern day pop culture and storytelling is and is interested in examining. And I'm always just really
fascinated by that. The idea of rebooting the franchise now, when so many things are releasing all
the time that the Matrix in some way informed is a really cool chance to think about the past and
the present and the future of sci-fi and fantasy. I'm so hyped. I think it's really interesting. I think the
timing is so good for, you know, whatever, however anyone felt about reloaded in Revolutions,
the second and third film, you know, revolutions came out 2003.
It's been, it's been a minute.
And speaking of sort of renaissance in their career, the way we think about Keanu is so different
than the way we thought about Keanu back there.
Yes.
You know, and he means this.
This is John Wick Keanu now.
Long hair and all.
Opposed John Wick Keanu.
So the big thing for me for The Matrix.
I mean, I was excited for The Matrix.
They were filming here in the Bay Area.
So, like, I have seen some Matrix-y stuff happen around the town.
They're also doing the world premiere here in San Francisco.
Do you want to come up here and go to the world premiere of Matrix in San Francisco with me?
Think about it.
That honestly sounds great.
Think about it.
But the trailer dropped right when I was finishing up, as you know, this long-lost rewatch that I was doing.
and if folks have revisited the final season of Lost at any point,
you will know that this trailer is the most final season of Lost thing you could possibly see.
For me, that's a positive.
I put that on Twitter.
Some people were like, that's a negative for me,
but I just think they haven't rewatch Lost in a while.
The Final Season of Lost is so good,
but it's this like alternate universe sort of soulmate finding,
reconnecting with your love, all this sort of stuff,
which White Rabbit, huge part of Lost, like mirror universe, all this sort of stuff is exactly what's in the stew.
And of course, Lost itself was inspired in part by The Matrix.
Like, it's all this feedback loop, as you were alluding to.
But it's all connected.
I mean, there's so many people I know who watch that trailer were like, am I, is this another episode of Lost?
What am I watching?
And it's, and that excites me.
Let me tell you what I would love.
Another episode of Lost.
Same.
Big Same.
The fact that Carriam Moss is bad.
back makes me so excited because there is that like more perturbing trend i'm looking at you like top
gun even though i'm really excited for top gun but like that trend of like let's bring back the same guy
but like obviously we have to get a new woman because like you know time is past and you know but like
kerry moss is here and that just makes it feel like we know these people we've been here with
these people we want to spend more time with them we care we're invested in in the neo and trinity
of it all uh so all of that's
great. Jonathan Groff is here. I'm never mad about that.
I shouted, Groff!
We popped up at the end of the trailer.
Love, love Graff.
Literally shouted aloud.
There's a mystery theorizing element to all of this.
It's been really fun and exciting as we try to figure out what this is even about, where are we?
What's happening? Because maybe you should go rewatch the trilogy if you don't know why we're
confused that maybe Neo and Trinity are here.
here, you know, except, et cetera. And we should say this is, this is not a Wachowski sibling joint.
This is just Lana making this film on her own. So like, what was it about the story?
That Lana was like, not only am I compelled to tell this story, but like, I'm going to even do it without my
sister, my creative partner that has been with me through all of this. Like, that has to be an
extra strong pull. And so I'm very curious to see this creative who has worked in tandem for career
were on her own and what this is that she wanted to explore.
So, yeah, I am really excited for The Matrix.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm really glad you mentioned the theorizing
because that is definitely one of the things
that has me most hyped,
just speculating with other fans
and trying to figure out what might be a foot here.
And, like, some of it is even, like, already unfolding
with, you know,
Yaya Abdulmatine is playing Morpheus, but it's like, well, okay, what exactly is going on with this
Morpheus? And even just like, I'm already like parsing every interview and every quote to try to glean
clues. So like he, there's a recent EW. Nick Romano piece in which Yaya said, quote, I think what
the script provided was a new narrative and some new opportunities that did make room within the
Matrix universe for a new morphias.
What does that mean?
I'm so excited.
I don't know.
What's real?
We don't know.
We don't know what's real.
What are we looking at?
Is Trinity real?
Is Neo real?
Like, what's happening?
So was all of it was, is there like an extra layer of artifice to everything we've
ever seen before?
I was this informed the movies we thought we already understood like all that sort of stuff.
So yeah, maybe we can find time.
Yes.
Great point.
In our very clear and unbusy schedule to like.
go down the rabbit hole of theorizing about the Matrix before we finally, you know,
before we see it and we know what it's about. That is fun to like pour over every detail for me.
Yeah. Once again, it brings you back to-
I feel like you're presenting me right now with a blue pill and a red pill. Yes. Yes. Come with me down
the rabbit hole. What is your number six now? The sandban. The sandban. Talk about it.
Sandman hype. All right. So there's a couple of reasons why it's a little lower on the list for me.
One is we don't actually know if this is coming out this year.
Okay, so let me say on that front, you're completely right.
And it's very possible that misusing a space here because this will not be fall or even 2021.
Here's why I'm allowing myself to believe it might be.
The coming soon, the coming soon label in the teaser trailer that recently came out,
I'm just like, why not say in 2022 like in the Stranger Things trailer, if it's going to
2020. Now that's not a really strong reason to think that it's actually going to be this year,
but I don't know, coming soon. At what point is 2022, not soon? Yeah, I don't know. How am I not myself?
It's a good question. It's a good question. But let's talk about Sandman in general. And let me talk
about some of my other reservations, right? So Sandman is comic as written by Neil Gaiman.
as created by Neil and Sam Keith and Mike Dangenberg is iconic, iconic comic book, legendary, etc.
It is the comic book that got me, finally got me into comic books.
This and actually another one that we're going to talk about because I was resistant to the media for a really long time, the medium for a really long time.
I just had a hard time getting into the story and I just wasn't used to, I didn't read them as kids,
So I wasn't used to, like, the way in which you absorb the story.
And everyone in my life who loved comics books was just pressing a Sandman on me because
they're like, you love Neil Gaiman.
Like, you already love Neil Gaiman.
You love mythology and lore.
You're going to love this comic.
Then we'll finally get you.
And then you'll read all this other stuff.
And I was like, okay.
And then I finally, like, really sat down and read it.
And then I just got sucked in.
And I can physically, like, remember where.
I was when I got sucked into the Sandman.
I can just remember just like sitting there.
And I read,
and I actually read them digitally,
which is not usually my preferred way to absorb anything,
but there's something about the digital platform for comics that actually works really
well for me.
And I just like,
and because I enjoy the guided view,
the Zoom game guided view.
Yeah.
Also,
the Sandman collections are,
which I have down in the lower,
in the corner,
gigantic.
Gigantic.
You need a lot of like wrist strength.
It's true.
And so like I had them all.
there on this tiny device and I just like chewed through the whole thing and it's so complex.
It's just got that really fun game and thing that he does where he just makes even like
mythology you've heard elsewhere before feel like new and special to him.
It's something that I love and everything that he does.
So that has me all excited.
I'm so excited for it, in fact, that I've started listening to this other podcast called Endless
podcast host by Lennie Diane Rich, Lisa Quitney.
and they're doing like an issue by issue read of the comic.
Elisa worked on the Sandman Comics.
So she has all this insider knowledge.
Lonnie Dian Rich is like a storyteller, an analyzer that I love.
Great stuff.
Neil Gaiman approved this podcast.
It's like it's got it all.
So they're only on like, I think issue number 14 if you want to hop in and listen to
folks listening at home to prepare yourself for this read-along.
However, as much as I love Neil Gaiman, I feel like there have been consistent difficulties in bringing what he does so well on the page to the screen.
This is how I felt about American gods.
This is even how I felt about Good Omens is my favorite book of all time.
Oh my God.
I didn't know that.
A Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett combo.
I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan.
So like the two of them together, I think it's the perfect marriage of like Neil's gothic shit and Terry Pratch's life like goofy.
thing and it all works together in a way it shouldn't.
I was so excited for good omens.
I thought the casting of, you know, Michael Sheen and David Taney was amazing.
And then it just felt like mixed to me.
And I loved the stuff with them, but everything else around it felt a little mixed to me.
So even my favorite thing with Neil Gaiman actively involved and ideal casting for
our two leads and it still didn't land as well as I wanted it to.
So that has me like, fool me once,
full me twice, fool me thrice.
I'm going to be a little bit nervous about the Sandman.
That being said, incredible cast.
I'm not wholly sold in Tom Sturge,
even though he looks like Morpheus.
I haven't really found him to be
like tremendously compelling as an actor.
He looks incredible.
But elsewhere, Gwendoly Christie, Charles Danz.
So many of our throne's face.
You know, all sorts of favorites.
So that's sort of where.
That's my very mixed feelings about Sandman.
Tell me how you're feeling.
That's all completely reasonable.
I'm really excited because it is such a rich world and story to explore.
And I, like you, love Neil Gaiman and I'm always interested when there's a new adaptation afoot.
I was really excited when that first look dropped a few weeks ago.
and every character poster,
like every little kernel,
every little reveal.
I'm just having kind of like
a reflexive, excited response.
I'm really eager to see how this comes to life.
And, you know,
we're kind of in like a broader
Sandman moment that I find exciting.
You know, obviously this live action show
and adaptation,
but there's also the audible adaptation
of the story unfolding.
And then, you know,
were only a couple years removed from the Sandman universe launch at DC, 30 years after the
initial release with new stories, new Sandman IP.
So it's just a fun moment for people who are already invested in or interested in Sandman,
and then for more people to, you know, maybe you've read Good Omens or American Gods or
Star Dust or other gaming and you want to try more.
Maybe you haven't and think, okay, this is going to be my first.
dip my first foray, so many different entry points here. And I just can't wait. So I'm hoping that
coming soon is in fact soon. But hey, you know what? There's a lot this calendar year. So if it's
2022, that's also completely fine. I thought I would join you in showing your Neil Gaiman
Bonafi's to show you that I just like literally have Neil Gaiman's smoking mirrors sitting right
in front of me for some reason. I guess I was just like reading a story the other day. But I was like,
oh, there's a Neil Gaiman right in front of me. But I completely agree. And I'm glad you
to Stardust, because Stardust is actually a big exception for me, but Stardis is also so different
from the book.
Like, it is a massively changed adaptation, but that movie works really well.
I love that movie.
Coraline's a great adaptation, but that's like, that's a much slimmer piece of fiction
that they're adapting there.
So I don't know.
It's, it's this ongoing frustration I have because I want every single Neil Gaiman adaptation
to be incredible.
And so nothing would throw me more
than if Sandman were everything.
I dream it might be.
This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech.
Everyone knows winter is the MVP
and making a mess.
You don't need Weather Tech floor liners in the summer
unless you hit the beach or go camping.
Then you'd want a cargo liner.
Or a road trip goes sideways,
ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.
Yeah, you'd be pretty happy
about those Weather Tech seat protectors.
So just to be clear as the mud,
You're inevitably going to step into the summer.
You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer.
Visit weathertech.com today.
This episode is brought to by the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo.
That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in.
Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it big or small.
So whether it's buying tickets to the game and grabbing a coffee,
it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases.
Say it with me, the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo,
Be a 2%er.
Learn more at Wells Fargo.com
forward slash active cash terms of play.
All right.
Time to do number five.
Yes.
This is a shared item.
A shared item here.
Eternal.
Yes.
Eternals.
Eternally.
It's funny because it's funny
that we have it this far down
because Marvel itself is so hyped
for this movie.
Why is this not number one on your list?
Maybe that's a negative framing of it.
No, no.
It's a fair question.
I think part of it is just because it's such a loaded field.
You know, like there are three, three of my top five items are Marvel,
our MCU stories.
So, and four of the five are Disney stories.
So I think that's part of it, right?
It's just like there's a lot coming out in phase four,
and I'm excited about all of it.
I will, when we get to the other item,
that are MCU, phase four installments that I have ahead of it.
I'll explain why.
I think some of it has to do with, listen, it's not a spoiler at this point in the podcast
to say Spider-Man is one of those things.
And I think some of it has to do with just the fact that that feels like not only a movie,
but an event, right?
So that's just like a different caliber of hype at this point.
And then I don't know how much of this is 2021 TV versus movie.
like pull and appeal for me because I'm still like not, you know, going out that often or like to the movie theater that often.
And part of also just like launching the ringerverse and talking about a weekly show together, you know, week after week is a really like thrilling part of my professional and personal life right now that I look forward to a lot.
So I think that gives the television shows a little bit of an edge.
Though, of course, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about the movies.
I mean, I'm very hyped for Eternals.
I think for this one, you know, and again, I'll just say top five.
That's a good slot.
Oh, it's really.
I can't wait.
I can't wait for Eternals.
Very high on the hype list.
It is coming on November 5th that at one point felt like a long time in the future.
And now it's just mere weeks away.
We're on the eve of Eternals.
I really was torn on the four or five order with Eternals and Hawkeye.
That was probably the single toughest order of the list for me to lock in and set.
This will be a theatrical.
release only, right? Not streaming. Incredible cast that I think we'll talk about together here
as we go. But before we dive into cast, the directing, the scoring, and all of those elements,
which are exhilarating, in a more like macro sense, I am excited for Eternals because I'm excited to
meet all of these new characters, all of these new heroes, new villains, learn more about
this lore inside of the MCU, but even more broadly.
I am fascinated to see how the Eternals canon exists inside of and relates to the rest of the
MCU phase four.
I was really interested in this heading into Shang Chi as well because on the one hand, so much
of phase four to this point has been this like bridge storytelling where we're simultaneously
looking back at the end of the infinity saga, the characters we spent so much time with
so that we can then move ahead with new characters.
but we're also getting origin stories, right?
Shang Chi and Eternals are origin stories
where we're meeting new characters
and learning about new magic and new power sets.
There's obviously, as is always the case,
you know, tons of comics canon
that anybody can dive into to learn more about
celestials, the deviant.
I'm curious for your thoughts on this particular thing.
I was really interested in,
and it's very possible I'm reading too much into this.
the distinction in approach
in the first and second
Eternal's trailer
because the first trailer
was like gorgeous
and stunning
and then you go on Twitter
and there's a lot of like
wait where were these people
during everything that happened
with Thanos
and then the second trailer was like
here's an answer to that question
but you have to do your kit impression
kid asking the question
where were you and
where were you with Thanos
and everything else
and the answer is we were instructed
not to interfere in any human conflicts unless deviants are involved.
We also have a moment in the second trailer that tells us that the sudden return of the population
provided the necessary energy for the emergence to begin.
So there will be clear, overt connections to Thanos, to the snap, to, I'm still saying
snap.
Team snap over here.
Team snap forever.
F the blip, man.
Yeah.
But there's going to be so much to establish right away.
How much room is there?
even for that connective tissue.
So I'm really interested.
Will there be multiversal elements now that we're in the multiversal phase of the MCU?
I have so many questions.
There's so much I'm excited to see.
Can I tell you my favorite theory?
Please.
There's some things that I know about the Eternals, and I will not be talking about any of those things.
Except to say, I want to say, I think this is a really fun thing.
And we can cut it out if you think it's not fun.
But here's what I'll say.
Based on what I know about the Eternals that other people don't know.
I think the song choice in the first trailer is super interesting.
So I would suggest like, I think when people watch them, they're going to go back to that trailer and they're going to be like, huh.
Anyway.
Oh, interesting.
Okay.
I love when the music is a clue.
That's fun.
I think it is.
I think it is.
I'll be revisiting that right after we finish recording.
How intriguing.
But, I mean, on the hype meter.
You know, they've been talking for a long time about, like, having an Oscar winning director of Chloe Ja, direct this.
and how her style is so incredible and all and sorts of like that.
She's amazing.
But also, Fikey has been saying dropping gems like this.
The impact that the Eternals will have on the MCU will be nothing less than redefining the cinematic universe.
And there's like a couple, there's a couple questions around that.
Number one is to your point about the fact that they've been here since the beginning of civilization.
7,000 years, you know.
It has a real Agatha all along vibe of like the Eternals will hear in the background of, like,
the eternals will hear in the background of everything this whole time.
So that's a way to redefine everything, like, re-skew it through this.
What does it mean that these extremely hot, very powerful people were here in the background
this whole time?
But here's a theory I like, and this is not based on anything I know.
This is just based on like a fun theory that I've seen floating around, which is like some
people are hoping, and this is the eternal hope, that this will be the launch of the X-Gene
of mutations in the universe,
that somehow whatever the Celestials do
or have been doing or whatever
or whatever the Eternals might
up doing will activate
perhaps a dormant X gene
and this will be the start of mutants
in the MCU. And that's what
Fike's hinting at.
So when you were like
maybe we'll get an XTs
at Disney Day, I'm like
I mean, maybe, you know what I mean?
Like if this comes, you know,
maybe.
So I like that.
And speaking of like source material,
and we were just talking about Neil Gaiman,
the Neil Gaiman Eternals run from 2006
is sort of my real hook
into this universe and something that I think is really compelling.
And so if I were to recommend one thing for people to read
if they've never read an Eternals comic,
I might suggest the Game and Run.
How about you?
I think the Game and Run and, of course,
some Jack Kirby Eternals,
classic, pretty,
Pretty good prep work right there for the film.
You know, we have, we've mentioned a couple times today,
some Thrones actors returning to our screens.
Obviously, Kit and Richard Madden are in this part of an incredible ensemble cast.
And not only that, but we have another Thrones connection here, don't we, Joanna?
The score.
Rameen Javadi!
I can't fucking wait.
I love Rameen.
I love Rameen so much.
I'm so excited.
When I saw that he was scoring this, I got really excited.
We both did.
Yeah, it's wild that Kit and Richard, John Snow, and Rob Stark are both here.
Like, what a wild casting decision on Marvel's part to put them both here and sort of
in an interesting position to each other.
But yeah, and Richard, I mean, I love Richard Madden.
He's, like, top tier Thrones alum for me.
and I've been really excited to see him in the last few years get his own momentum going.
Like it felt like it was a little quiet for a while.
Jomey has chimed in the chat to make sure that we also mentioned that there's a character named Circe
as played by Jem Chans spelled differently, but same sounds the same.
Love it.
Yeah.
And I mean, like, yeah, an incredible cast.
Brian Tyree Henry, Selma Hayek's here.
Camille Nunjani's here.
I'm excited.
But I don't know.
I will say to your point.
about the trailers. Well, here's what I think is true. Based on what I know, once again,
I don't think I'm spoiling anything to say this. Based on what I know, I think there is a lot
that they are keeping hidden from the trailer. And that makes it really hard for us to know what the
tone of the movie is. I think there, I think the plot. I'm good with that, though. I want to be
surprised, you know, showcase the visual aesthetic and the vibe and then, but I think
discover it all.
I think the vibe has been a little hard to nail down for people, if that makes sense.
You know what I mean?
I don't think they know.
There are some quips in the trailer, but it's not like zippy, quippy, like some of Marvel stuff
is before.
And it's not exactly like slow and languid the way that a lot of Chloe Ja's stuff has been.
So it's some hybrid that I am sure will be great.
But anyway, I can't stop talking about this movie before I mentioned, like, one of my
number one hero is.
Barry Keone is in this movie, and I'm so excited.
I don't know how big of a role he played, but I will just say I was at the D23 when they
brought the Eternals cast down on stage, and everyone was just like, hello, I'm Ingelina Jaliyah,
I'm here.
You know, Barry Keone is like, looked like he wandered in from, like, Planet Mars.
I love that guy.
He's got such a weird energy, and I'm really excited.
He's here, so.
Again, the cast is just tremendous, and I'm really eager to see what the balance is and how, like,
the time spent unfolds because it is so much.
many new characters to establish. But I also, it's always one of my favorite things in a Marvel
movie to see how that balance unfolds because like in something like Infinity War, which is obviously
completely different because we know those characters so well at that point, but you get those
pairings and the balance, like you're fully invested when you are with Thor and the guardians say
that you're not thinking about who you're not with. And then as soon as you're with those other characters,
then it feels right and you're all in on them and fully like laser focused on whoever you're with
at a moment of time. It's a lot to have to establish like an Avengers-sized cast in an origin
story. That's usually what you build toward. So I'm fascinated, but I really, I really can't wait.
All right. Our number four entry is kind of funny because we can't talk about either of them
really in depth right now because they will pull higher for both of us. So for me,
number four is the book of Boba Fett. We will obviously be talking about that more. What is,
What is your number four?
For me, number four is Hawkeye.
But I have Boba higher on my list and you have Hawkeye higher on your list.
Here we go.
Number three for me is Hawkeye.
Let's talk about it.
Where do you stand?
I mean, I kind of know this, but I'm just going to ask you anyway.
Like, where do you stand with the Hawkeye character in general in the MCU?
In the MCU?
Yeah.
Not on the page.
As played by one Jeremy Renner.
Yeah. I think that Hawkeye serves a crucial role inside of the Avengers and inside of the MCU,
and it's important to have the, you know, in essence, regular person surrounded by these gods and superpowered beings.
I think that, you know, one of the things I really enjoyed talking with Andy Greenwald about when we broke down the Hawkeye trailer on Ring Reverse a few weeks ago was like the distinctions between the Hawkeye from the page.
particularly from the fraction AHA run
that I think we are both
incredibly fond of and connected to, right?
That's not really the same character,
but it looks like, based on what we've seen
from the show so far, in the trailers that we've seen,
and what we understand about the focus of the show
and the influence that that comic arc has on it,
we will be getting more of that comic arc energy
and emphasis ported over onto the screen.
And I'm very excited about
that yes okay so i'm i'm not as like down on clint old clint and hawkeye as some people are
in the mccule i like him a lot uh in like the avengers and and some of the things there's of course
the whole like snarled naughty what happened in age of ultron where it was like joss joss wanted
to do the farm and the family the studio didn't necessarily want to do that it was a whole big fight
you can read all about that if you want to but perhaps in a book i'm writing
But that being said, it puts them in a sticky position to do this story because they want to do the fraction run of Hawkeye, which is an incredible.
Like I mentioned there was another, like this is another comic book that this got me into Marvel is this comic book run.
And like it's an incredible, incredible, incredible, incredible, fun, funny, emotional.
Like, it's just never.
And it's very filmic.
It's very cinematic.
It feels like a TV show reading that comic.
I think I've described it as like an FX TV show.
That's what it felt like to me, like a mid-a-a-a-auts, like FX show.
But Clint being a family man, put them in a top position because Clint is very much like the single guy in the city, sort of, five here.
So they have wrangled a plot that divorce is not divorced literally, but separates Clint from his fam.
For our thoughts on divorce, check out the prestige TV podcast episode on Scenes from Amaris.
scenes from a podcast.
But they have separated Clint from his fam.
He's lost in New York.
No, he's in New York City.
It's Christmas.
And this is where he meets Kate Bishop characters, played by Haley Steinfeld.
And we can see fans of the comics based on like set photos, but even just the trailer, we'll see so many indications.
There are frames of the show that are frames from this comic.
More than any other Marvel Disney Plus show that they've done, this is a one-to-one with a specific comic run.
And for that, I am thrilled.
I'm thrilled because we're going to get to do an entire run, month plus run of podcasts in which we say, bro, like 9,000 times.
And track suit mafios here.
And talk about pizza dog.
Yes, my darling lucky.
I can't wait.
It was such a thrill to see Lucky in the.
trailer. I can't wait to see Lucky in the show. If anyone is on the fence, you're like,
oh, these comics, I know people love them. I'm interested, but I can't, I can't decide should I,
should I dive in? There's an entire issue told from the perspective of Lucky, the Pizza Dog,
cannot recommend it highly enough. It is actually brilliant. It's incredibly inventive and
just genius. The logline for the comics is literally this quote. This is what he does.
when he's not being an Avenger.
And that street-level, regular person vibe,
you know, we see the ice packs and the bandages in the trailer.
Like, man, there's a lot of, this is this hard work.
He's just a guy.
He's just a hot guy.
I love all of that.
Obviously, the Clint Barton, Kate Bishop Bond
at the center of the comic arc is just wonderful.
And I'm really, really,
excited to see that in the show. I already mentioned the track suit mafia, the clown, the swordsman,
Echo, the kingpin possibilities. This is obviously like a ripe area for fans, speculation,
and intrigue. There's just so much in that arc and that slice of the comics canon to port over.
And what I think we could just assume will be incredibly satisfying and fulfilling television
fashion. Obviously, the Christmas energy is very appealing. Can't wait to see all the
glimpses of Rogers the musical. I love when we get a show within a show, you know,
feel like I'm back with, with Aria and bravos. I just can't wait for that. And again,
if we kind of like pan out beyond even just how fun it will be, hopefully to watch this every week
and, you know, the two, two episodes are dropping in week one, so two right away. I am interested
again in that like past future phase four MCU bridge element because is this about saying goodbye?
to Clint, I think almost whatever the answer to that question is, it could be yes, no,
somewhere in between. We can safely assume that, I mean, we know, obviously, this is bringing
Kate Bishop into the MCU, but this is, I have to assume, a key, key, key component of the
ongoing building installment after installment. We get character after character, young Avengers
on ramp, right, which I'm very excited about. It's one of the things that Jomey and I have
spent the most time talking about since Ringerverse launch, cannot wait for Young Avengers
around here. How big of a role will Yelena play? You know, we know Yelena is part of Hawkeye. What exactly
will that look like? Like, there's actually, like, so much that we know and can expect based on
the comics and casting information, et cetera, and then so much that remains untold. I can't wait to
share this together. Yeah. And then, like, that bridge aspect that you mentioned, like,
we talked about, we talked about Black Widow, I think. You were talking about,
how so much of this phase of the MCU is about like mourning what was lost or the ramifications.
And like, so Eternals, as we already mentioned, is like inspired, like kicked off by the snap and the
energy of everyone returning to Earth.
That's, that's a, this is a fallout from that.
And this, you know, in its own way, is going to be a celebration of Nat.
I don't know how much it will be.
but the fact that Yelena and the character that is most closely identified with Nat Clint,
who was there when she died.
And that's a, you know, that is still a big controversial sticking point for people.
What happened on War Mere, you know, et cetera.
So that is really going to be interesting to watch.
And like the fact that, and we see in the trailer, so it's not a spoiler to say,
like Clint has hearing aids in.
And this is, we assume, part of the fallout of bomb that exploded.
And like the Avengers HQ exploding around him, this is a physical ramification of war,
of PTSD, of all this sort of stuff.
So that's all stuff that we're going to be dealing in around this really fun story.
Like, it's all in the mix.
Great cast, launching to the Echo Spinoff series that they're going to do, all this sort of stuff.
So I'm just, I'm so excited.
But it's really funny.
I got a text from someone like literally last night that reads this.
I can't figure out if Hawkeye's going to be delightful or pure garbage.
And like, I'm so firmly in the delightful category.
But like, I get people's reservations.
People who don't like Hawkeye don't really want to spend six episodes with him.
And I get that.
But I have to think that this is all part of like that big, foggy fixing things.
Like if Hawkeye didn't work for you before, he's going to aggressively make sure Hawkeye works for you now.
That's how I feel about Hawkeye.
Yeah.
It's a great point.
And I think I'm just, I'm so firmly.
in the delighted camp, not only because of, you know, my, my affection for the Hawkeye Comic Run,
but because I've just so enjoyed the Disney Plus MCU shows and the opportunity they afford
us to talk about the story week after week. Like, I just, I don't know, I just love that.
So I'm really really looking forward to that. And, you know, there are a couple, a couple movies
come in here in my in my top three but that week to week shared show experience where we're
not only like breaking down what we just watched together but then theorizing and speculating
and looking ahead for an entire week building toward that hopefully very satisfying shared experience
of watching an excellent finale together you know let's keep the the loki finale vibes going obviously
that had like the level of stake that will be tough to replicate but i'm all in i'm hyped
my number three is
Dune
That's my number two
So let's talk about it
Okay
Dune
Dune
I don't even know where to begin here
Really
I
Considered putting Dune number one
On my list
I guess I'll begin there
Because
And I
You know what
I actually like
I want to keep this pretty brief
Because this is going to be
the next pod that we do together
When we talk about
The actual movie
And I think in the process
of doing that
we will share a lot about what Dune means to us.
But I will just say as a teaser, that Dune is, for me, as I think it is for many people,
like a seminal science fiction story and text.
It is a huge, huge, formative part of my own fandom.
And like a very important book in my life, a story that my dad gave me and encouraged me to read.
And it's just really meaningful to me.
And I cannot wait to see this movie coming out.
Technically, October 22nd,
but we learned this week that it's going to be available a few hours earlier on October 21st on HBO Max.
Obviously out in the theaters.
It's not hard to find some headlines about how the people who made Dune would like you to see Dune in theaters.
But you do have the option to watch it at home.
Yeah.
I love the source text.
I love Villeneuve's films.
And I love this cast.
And I just can't wait to go to the desert planet together.
I can't wait.
I'm so excited.
Yeah, I agree with you that we should reserve, like, the majority of our discussion of this
for the actual mega tune podcast that we're going to do.
Sam-Hirm size podcast coming your way.
I have seen this already.
I saw it two days ago.
I loved it.
It actually bumped it higher on the list after I saw it, though it's, like, kind of
illegal to put it on a hype list when I've already seen it. But listen, Mallory's breaking
rules. I'm breaking rules. So here it is on the list. I'm a big Dune fan myself. And I was nervous.
There's been some mixed reviews. And like, everyone at my old gig, like, except for one person,
everyone at my old gig had seen it before I left and they all had negative things to say.
That just helps me understand with much love to them that I am like more firmly at home here.
but like a lot of the responses I got were like this was boring.
And it's like, so I'll just say this.
Denisville is a very slow unfurling of a story kind of director.
This is only the first.
I love his movies.
I do too.
Like a door.
Big arrival fan.
Loved his Blade Runner.
Me too.
Sicario.
Yeah.
Let's just channel our inner Chris Ryan for a second.
Sicario.
I love enemy.
Are you an enemy fan?
I am an enemy fan.
Yeah, exactly.
So like.
So love to be of Lovnev.
He loves this book.
Like I, so at the screening that I went to, he was there and he was just talking about like how much he loved this book, how this was like his lifelong like dream to finally see.
Not just him to do it, but he's like, I just wanted someone to do it.
You know, and he said really nice things about David Lynch, who is an incredible director.
But like Lynch's Dune was sort of wrestled away from him in a way.
that Lynch himself doesn't really own that final thing.
There's Jodorovsky's doing, all this sort of stuff.
It's been a really tough road.
But Denisville-Nive only did the first half of the book.
So here's what I'll say.
If you're racing to read the book, you only have to read the first half, technically, if you
want to, first of all.
Secondly, in terms of in theaters, I really do want people to only do what's safe for them.
But I do want to take this last opportunity before our doom pod.
We won't be on air again to say this.
If you feel safe, I really do encourage you see this in the theaters because I think because of the way that not only are the visuals dazzling, not only does Dini Villeneuve and his team have like endless ideas about what spaceships might look like.
The most inventive spaceships you've ever seen you will see in Deney Villeneuve's.
I mean, I think that's true also a Blade Runner and of arrival, right?
And so like all of that stuff is just incredibly dazzling.
But I think that's slow burn style that he has, it's so much better if you feel safe to go to a theater where you won't be distracted.
And you can really just sit down and lose yourself in this world.
So again, I'm not advocating for people to do things that they don't feel safe doing.
I'm very, very, very pro people feeling safe.
But if you can feel safe, this is a thing to do.
All right, Mal, what is your number two?
Let your shirt speak for you, Mallory Rubin.
It's number two on your list.
Number two on my list is the book of Boba Fett coming to Disney Plus, December 29th, but already since the moment that we saw that stinger at the end of Mando's season two embedded firmly in my heart.
I'm so excited.
Can I just say this?
The book of Boba Fett, I don't have it as high as you do.
I have it down at number four.
But I will say it is higher than it would have been.
Were it not for you because your boundless enthusiasm for the book of Boba Fed and for Boba himself has like moved up the list for me because I'm like, I'm so excited how excited you are for this.
And it's not that I like am not excited.
I just, they have been still.
The lid is so tight on this project.
We don't even know who's in this.
No.
Besides two actors.
You know what I mean?
It's unbelievable.
I went scouring around the like dirtiest corners of Reddit last night to try to get more information.
Nothing's out there, man.
They got it on lock.
So, you know, they're, they've hinted at some fun surprises, but like it is wild how little we know about this show.
And so like for me that's rare.
That's why I don't haven't like allowed myself to get super hype because you haven't told me like Timothy Olifon's definitely going to be in this or whatever.
And you know that if you were, I would be hyper.
But I'm so excited that you're excited. So tell me why you're so excited.
I don't even really honestly know where to begin other than I love Star Wars, which do you?
It's probably not a new insight at this point. But I do love Star Wars. And the last few years, you know, I've always loved Star Wars from the
moment before the prequels came out when my dad took me to the theater to see the re-release of the
original films. Like, I've always loved Star Wars. But in the last few years, it's been a weird
experience where I've had, and we don't need to talk about Rats of Skywalker now. We really don't.
But where in tandem with like the disappointment around that, I was also just falling so deeply
because of Binge Mode Star Wars so, so deeply into my own Star Wars fandom.
And I've just like, I think of all the things that I've loved watching and rewatching
over the last few years.
You know, Mando and every moment I've spent with Deer Grogo, it's certainly top of the list.
But Clone Wars, rebels, also pretty firmly embedded atop my personal power rankings.
Like Asoka has really become one of the most.
important characters across stories to me in the last few years. And so in general, the Philoni
verse is one of my favorite things in fiction right now. Anything that is central to it, anything that is
tangentially connected to it. This is a favs, Faloni, Robert Rodriguez joint, and this and the
impending Asoka show are set in the Mando time.
line. You mentioned that we know quite literally nothing about the cast outside from, of course,
what we were introduced to in the reveal in the singer with Boba and Fenwick, this Tatooine
underworld setting. I've always been a Boba head. I'm more invested in the Fenwick part of this
on the heels of the bad batch
because I was blown away
by what we got from Fenwick,
which is set much earlier in the timeline,
but blown away.
Like, at Cadbane, I actually believe,
is the number one bounty hunter
in terms of just ability ahead of Boba.
I once in Jason and I once debated this.
And to see Fenwick
absolutely dominate Cadbane.
I was just like,
holy shit, this is amazing.
So I'm really excited about all that.
I've been, you know, I'm obviously like rereading,
doing right now and doing a lot of rereading and rewatching,
but one of the things that I've been chipping away at is a Clone Wars rewatch,
which has been a joy.
I love Clone Wars.
Everything that we get in Clone Wars from Young Boba and Young Boba's arc,
I'm just like looking at more closely,
knowing that this show is coming.
And, you know, beyond even just this specific story,
I'm interested in the Disney Plus programming element,
Star Wars moving to Wednesdays.
Obviously, Visions came out on Wednesdays,
but we know that Boba's going to be a Wednesday show, too.
You know, I thought for a while we were going to have like the Marvel Wednesday,
Star Wars Friday kind of flow of the week.
But no, this is just a, you know, Tuesday midnight.
We're old for us now.
And, you know, I'm sad that we're not getting Mando season three this year,
but I am really quite overjoyed that we are getting Boba
and just to be back with live action.
Star Wars TV and really just Star Wars TV because I love all the animated shows so much too.
I just love Star Wars TV. It's like my favorite thing in Star Wars right now. I can't wait.
It'll be really interesting to see. I also love Star Wars. I am not, I'm excited to do this with
you because I think your enthusiasm will pull me through some of my more skeptical moments.
And I will just say that like, I'm curious to see what this all looks like outside of Mando because
Mando was such a like smash all a hit for people, but also like so much of that had to do with
Grogu.
Like the the memeification of Grogu, how that got so many people into this, they're like
the way in which a puppet, a great puppet just really like sold an entire TV audience on a story.
Thank you for bringing Grogu.
Got my little guys here.
I have a boba
Lego helmet that I built
but it's in another room
so Grogo and Mini Boba here
we'll have to do
Carry on
So freaking cute
Anyway
I'm curious like in a non-Grogu
setting how much will people
Val you're so cute
How much will people
Like you know
love all this
I have a lot of
I have a lot of questions
I can't do
I can't do this
I can't
What if I just recording
every pod this way from now on with Grogu in my arms.
I will be speechless.
It's just the most, you just are holding him so lovingly.
I adore him.
A gentle stroke with a head.
There are some questions like, will we see Grogu in this?
Will we see Luke Skywalker again?
Will we see Theron, who like obviously we have to get eventually, right?
Like all these.
My prediction is we'll get Thron in Asoka.
I mean, Thron, Thron definitely, absolutely in a Soka.
Not until one is my guess.
But who knows?
But maybe a little Throne tease.
Maybe just like a blue hand.
That's all we see.
Who knows?
A red eye.
We'll see.
And then we're headed into like a real, as you mentioned before, a real like
glut of Star Wars Disney Plus stuff, all of which might have something to do with why we may
not get a lot of Marvel TV shows in 2022.
question is, is Disney Plus still a place where they feel like they can only do one
billboard show at a time? You know what I mean? So that's, that's like the old HBO
Mondays and nothing else. It's like Disney Plus Wednesdays and like, yeah, they have some other
programming, but like not the main programming. So I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, Boba,
I'm excited to just dine out on your excitement for that. And I'm a huge fetish chain.
I mean, Ming-on-Wen is incredible.
I'm a huge.
Fenne fan as well.
So there we go.
That brings us to number one.
Number one.
We have the same number one, pal.
Hopefully folks have guessed what it is
since we haven't talked to it yet.
What if we just left Spider-Man No Way Home off the list?
What if it was not number one but just wasn't on the list?
No, of course it's Spider-Man, No-Way-Home.
How could it not be?
Spider-Who?
Spider-W-W-W-W-W?
Spider-W-W-W-W?
Spider-Bing.
Spider-Bing?
Um, here we go.
Our, our goop slinging web slinging guy, uh, spider boy himself, Tom Holland and perhaps some other spider people.
We don't know.
That's right.
That's right.
Coming out December 17th, there's, there was an interesting interview with, I mean,
we'll get to many of the reasons why you're excited for No Way home.
And you've got some great thoughts here.
But like really interesting, intriguingly this week, Tom Holland gave an interview, I think,
to Devin Coggin and Entertainment Weekly,
where he was talking about how they were kind of treating this
as the end of the franchise.
And I believe Holland's contract is up after this.
And so, like, if him saying, like...
And the Sony Disney Agreement.
Right.
Which only extends through this film, though.
Who knows how much stock to ever put in that?
I mean, that the threat of divorce that we already got was quite traumatic.
But if you decided not to get stressed about that,
and just ride the wave of it.
You got the outcome you wanted anyway.
So here we are.
Better to Commerbatch, you know, all of Spider-Man's films,
all of Tom Holland's Spider-Man films are about, like,
daddy issues to one extent or another.
And it was like, whether it's Tony Stark or Jake Gillen Hall or bedded a camera match,
Dr. Stephen Strange himself.
But yeah, I mean, like the idea, the fact that like Zendaya, Jacob Adelon,
and Tom Holland were all crying when they finish rapping tells me that like they're probably all out.
and don't want to do this anymore.
And I don't really blame them for that.
And I don't know that I would want to see more of Tom Holland's character without
his guy in the chair and his MJ.
You know what I mean?
Like, that's how I feel.
So never say never, ever, but this could be the end.
So what might we expect from the beginning of the end of Tom Holland's Spider-Man?
For anyone interested in hearing more ring-a-verse thoughts on this,
Got a two plus hour breakdown of,
literally of a trailer.
Daniel Chin and I went frame by frame
and talked about the trailer for literally hours
and let me tell you something.
It was a blast.
I would do it again.
I think that, you know,
I love Tom Holland's Peter Parker.
I love this Spider-Man inside of the MCU.
I've loved both.
both of the solo Spider-Man movies inside of the MCU so far.
I've loved seeing Spider-Man in the ensemble films.
I've just really loved every minute of it.
So I don't want it to end.
But I'm prepared certainly for that possibility.
I have found the in general, like, IP character rights shares across the life and before
the life of the MCU, as we know it today.
You know, often, like, impenetrable.
And my approach to it is typically, I'll,
see how it shakes out and then I'll roll with it, right? And that's what I'm trying to do here.
Let me just issue like a more specific spoiler warning right here for like the next minute or so.
For anyone who was not seen Venom, the new Venom film, maybe just hit the 15 second forward
button a few times here. The Stinger and seeing Tom Hollins, Peter Parker, in the Venom Stinger,
was obviously a huge moment. I mean, I gasped aloud. I shouted. We broke this down on
a house of midnight pod a couple weeks ago.
What does it mean?
My hope is that you just scream grof whenever something surprises you.
Whenever something excites me now, I'm just going to shout groff.
But, you know, there's obviously just so much to parse there in terms of what it means for
the multiverse unfolding.
But also, if you want to look at the studio aspect of it, is it more about Sony moving
into the MCU?
Or is it about taking what's been in the MCU out and moving it back?
toward Sony because Sony is building out its Spider-Verse. Obviously, literally with the Spider-Verse movies, Venom,
we've got a Craven movie coming, like on and on the list goes, right? So if you watch the No Way Home trailer,
it's basically, I think, impossible when you see, you know, Doc Ok, and hear the Green Goblin's signature
cackle and get those little glimpses of, oh, Electro here, is it, say, a man there, to not say,
okay, the Sinister Six is going to be, you know, or a version of the Sinister Six
is going to be in this movie at some point, but also like, Sony wants to make Sinister
Six movie. So how is all of that going to work? I'm really interested in continuing to think
about that to talk about that, but I will say, and I mean this sincerely, this will sound like
bullshit. It's not. I'm not going to be thinking about that at all when I sit down to watch
that movie. I'm going to be thinking about how excited I am to see this movie, which feels like
the movie event, not only of the year, but like one of the biggest movies.
events of the last few years, you know, since Endgame. I mean, it has, because of the multiverse,
because of all the speculation already just based on one trailer of, okay, is that our Stephen Strange?
Would our Dr. Strange make that choice? Would he botched that spell? Would he do things that way?
Is it a variant? Is it strange supreme from what if? Like, there's so much to theorize about,
okay, we're seeing Alfred Molina's doc-cock from the Toby McGuire Spider-Man era of movies. Like,
all of these things coming together
into this ensemble event
is exhilarating.
Exilerating.
This is the Super Bowl.
For comic book movies.
I couldn't be more excited,
sincerely.
Allow me to be a cheer for a little rain cloud
and all this.
And I ask you this question,
even though it's number one on my list,
and even though I'm very excited,
even though I loved all of the Tom Holland Spider stuff,
big, big, big fan,
do you have any concerns
about overcrowding in this movie?
No, but I understand why people do.
Jomi feels this way, I know.
And we've been talking about it a little bit.
And I think that it's certainly a reasonable and frankly even compelling argument.
I think the reason I'm not worried about it is because, and this is just like, you know, mileage may vary on this.
This is just how I'm going in.
If Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire are in fact in the movie.
right? If they're Peter Parkers are in the movie, which no number of interviews saying that
they're not will convince me of, right? Of course, I just, hard as I love, I do love the press
door denials. It's great. I'm not expecting those characters to be the focal point or to have a lot
of screen time. Like, I'm expecting a series of cameos and just more broadly, I think I, I,
one of the things I'm always most impressed by inside of MCU movies, whether it's, you know,
Infinity War is always the one I cite, but just more broadly, like, you know,
ease the ability to balance out the screen time so that it all feels like
carefully and deliberately calibrated. So I'm, I trust in that, I think, and that has
diminished my concern. But I see why I see why it would be a worry. Are you worried about it?
I'm not that worried about it. I'm less worried about the Spider-Boys because they might show up
as just like the merest glimpses of cameos or just like swing in to like help with a fight or
something like that. Who knows? And I don't actually imagine that them all suited up
fighting together is going to be a large stretch of the movie because I think that would be really, you know, yes, there are differences in their suits, but I think that would be largely very confusing for people, given that their differences are not that different. And folks who don't know the details of a suit will just be like, there's the other red and blue guy. I don't know what I'm watching sort of thing. So I don't think that they're going to lean too hard on that. But there's still a lot of like, still a ton of villains. Like is, is Jamie Fox a cameo or is it a bigger thing? You know, how?
How much is Alfred Molina in this movie?
You know?
So I'm not letting it, like, get me down or whatever.
I just, I have question marks.
And I also have question marks about, like, you know, this theory that you floated that,
like, maybe the Stephen Strange we're seeing is the version from what if.
How much are they going to rely on people having seen what if in order for them to understand
what they're seeing in this film?
You know, like, that is the constant juggling act of these, like, billboard films
that they put out that they want to have appeal to even casual viewers.
Like my sister, love my sister, but she's not really deeply into any of this.
And like, she wanted to watch Spider-Man Homecoming because she likes Spider-Man.
And she was mad because Spider-Man had already showed up in Civil War and she hadn't seen Civil War.
So she was mad.
You know, and it's just sort of like this film I'm excited for, but it also needs to be able to stand on its own two feet as part of this
Trilogy. Yes, the two films previous in the trilogy can inform it, but will it stand on its own as part of that trilogy for people who just want to see Tom Holland in a Spider-Mov movie? Maybe yes, maybe no. It doesn't ding it on my hype list. It's still number one on my hype list. I just have like, you know, some questions, comments, concerns floating around it. I'm intrigued to see what we see here. I think it's a really good and important point, and it obviously applies beyond this film to just the MCU in mass right now.
because, and particularly in the Disney Plus TV show era,
where there's just so much happening all the time
and so much more time spent with characters
and in corners and nooks and crannies of the universe,
is that purely additive?
I mean, no, all of this stuff is going to connect
and inform what comes next
because that's the entwined nature of the MCU tapestry.
So, like, for me, that's thrilling
because I spent so much of my time watching this stuff,
but I can certainly see how for people who are maybe not current on everything, it's overwhelming.
And then, you know, again, that's like, we're talking about all of the characters from past installments,
whether it's MCU installments or Sony installments, who might surface here.
One of the things that I'm really excited about is who might be introduced into live action.
Are we going to meet live action Miles Morales here?
Like, I'd love it.
I'd love it.
I'd love it. So incredible.
I'd love it.
You know what I mean?
But like, yeah, and I'm with you.
Like, I'm obviously like in the trenches here with you sort of like devouring all the lore.
I love to feel like rewarded for the time that I've spent with these characters and all that.
But I also get delighted when something like Wanda Vision comes along.
WandaVision, I think, did a really good job of not relying too heavily on previous understanding.
And so it was very friendly to people in a way that I think Falcon and Winter Soldier and Loki weren't.
And that's okay.
But I think Wanda Vision because of its like bonkers premise, et cetera.
and it didn't require you to know,
because frankly, the films hadn't done a lot
to let us know about Wanda.
It introduced, I got really excited to see
all these people who never watched Marvel stuff
get really invested in this.
And I'm like, welcome, welcome to the party, pals.
Can I show you 10 to 12 movies?
Like, you know, what can we do?
Like, hang out with us.
So, yeah, I'm excited for us to talk about it more.
Of course we will, but I share your hype.
I just have a little.
a lot of questions too about what we'll see.
We need to do, you know, I mentioned that
best of Batman pod
from a few months ago.
We need to do our Spider-Man version of that.
Our Spider-Man movie Hall of Fame
around No Way Home.
I have some controversial opinions, actually.
Oh.
As they pertain to the Toby McGuire,
Sam Ramee films.
I don't think they hold up as well as
some people might hope that they would.
But we can talk
about that in the future.
But I've tried re-elaving them, and I have some questions, comments, concerns.
But none of those pertain to Alphamilinas.org, who I'm so thrilled to see back in the mix.
So, uh, let's go.
Peter Parker.
Let's do it.
Oh, I love it.
So much voice work to look forward to.
So many films and shows to look forward to.
So it's just a taste of what's to come.
Joanna and I are off now to find.
find some spice. So it is time to wrap today's episode. Before we do, thank you to our Eternals.
Steve Allman for producing this episode. Arjuna Ramgapal and TD St. Matthew Daniel for additional
production work on this episode and Jomi Adeneron for his work on the social for this episode.
Remember, follow the ringerverse on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Follow us across
our social feeds and head back into the ringerverse over the next couple weeks for all
of our Dune talk.
Until then, remember, it's not just a signal.
It's a podcast.
Gotta work on my R-Fats Batman voice.
What's the difference between butter
and butter made from real California dairy?
It's the real California farm families behind it.
Real people. Real care.
Real intention.
Why? Because real matters.
So whether you're pouring.
milk, melting of cheese, or just grabbing one more spoonful of yogurt.
Keep it real. Look for the seal.
Real California milk by Real California Farm Families.
Summer is here, and Ralph's is your destination for hot savings.
Find unique items at low prices with a wide assortment of products from our exclusive brands.
Fire up the grill with cookout classics like burgers and brats, and don't forget, delicious produce like fresh melons.
or beat the heat with frozen treats while chilling poolside.
Whatever your summer plans, Ralphs makes it easy to enjoy high-quality, fresh food at affordable prices.
Ralph's, serving SoCal for over 150 years.
