The Ringer-Verse - The June Content Draft, Plus Jake Castorena of 'X-Men '97' | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

The very merry month of content is coming, and the Midnight Boys are here to do a draft of all the best things they are covering. From 'Star Wars' to 'Game of Thrones,' everything will be here on the Ringer-Verse (06:46). Later, the boys are joined by 'X-Men '97' director and producer Jake Castorena to talk about the secrets and facts behind the latest revelatory season of the show (64:13). Be sure to check out tickets for the Ringer Residency in Los Angeles this summer!Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Guest: Jake Castorena Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Did you know I've had my podcast for 15 years? Do you know that it is the most downloaded sports podcast of all time? Did you know I have guests from the sports world, from the culture world, people who work for the ringer, people outside the ringer, celebrities, experts, you name it. It's on my podcast three times a week. Late Sunday night, late Tuesday night, late Thursday night, the Bill Simmons podcast. Check it out on Spotify. 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 trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severe. 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 a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor

about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more, or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech 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 WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer.

You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Into the Ringiverse. This is, of course, the Ringer's Nexus podcast fee for all things. We are. Jumby to explain our dinner on. He's got questions. He's got answers.

We are. Steve, the architect, almond, the builder, and tinker of things. We are old man, van. He of the receding resurgent hairline. We are. Coke, baby Chuck, the 24-carat closer, aka the brunch high together. We are known as a midnight, boys. I believe.

Also, socials, insta, Twitter, Facebook. TikTok for now. Save Jomi's job. Jomi. Anything new? Oh, man, you know me. Frioles, boyo. Me, me, me gustav French toast.

Freeholes? Whoa, wait, guys, I don't see... Have you seen the rest of the Sterling K. Brown videos with J.Lo? I think it might be a thing. I think he's... I think he's messing with him. I think he does not like her at all. No.

You guys, so we had the first ever Meat Night Boys grilling experience Sunday night. No, we're not doing meat night boys. We're not. It's meat night boys. Oh, it's meat night boys now.

It's meat night. Oh, Steve. You don't get to discuss whether or not it's meat night boys or not. Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, stand down.

Okay. Okay. So you don't get to, oh, it's meat night boys. No, no. You know what? I want to shout out to the fourth of meat night

boy, Isaiah. Isaiah came through. The Midnight boys are this group. The Meant Night Boys are Van Chuck, Jomey, and Isaiah. That's it. We tried with you Steve. Nick came through.

Nick would not want to be a meatnight boy. Just so much it. Nick is a Hader, right? Nick is a Mavit, like, dog. Nick was on Johnny the entire day. I'm so glad. glad you met your match. Shout out to Nick May.

My partner is Six Feet Over Productions. The Oscar winner himself, Nick May. I'm so glad Charles met his match. Charles met a hater that was more dedicated to the game than him. Oh, I had to walk away. I'm like, bro. Come on, bro. Wow. He made you yield.

Oh, no, there's no arguing with Nick. It's just, I'm like, all right, you got this one, bro. Charles, he keeps you on the back foot. Nick keeps the aggression, whatever you do. Like, it's so funny. Jomey is, Joe me is grueling. So you guys, I've got to say something real quick. Jomi is amazing.

Oh, no, Chef Joe, like it's a thing, bro. It's like, Chef Flayy showed up. Jambi Jemes play in the kitchen. Nothing missing. Three different types of chicken. Three different types of chicken. All marinated. All marinated, made a cinnamon cake, made Joloff rice.

Jolmi came through. Oh, and here's the thing, Kerm, the Joloff is, it's on now. because we got to... The Joe off was slamming. It was Jomey's mom's recipe. It was Kermh, I don't know. Kerm, I don't know, man. Karem got his joke. Kaleika was going crazy.

Kali was like, oh, that rice. It got a little kick to it. Got a little kick. Got a little spice, yeah. But, you know, Jomi's on the grill and doing this whole thing. And Nick is like, hey, don't put this on the grill with this. And we're like, what?

He's like, yo, you contaminate the grill. everything Jomey did. Everything Jomey did. Hey, bro, just do it like this, man, do it like that. I'm like, and normally I'll be like, Nick, but I love it. I love when Nick getting this shit, Nick was getting to Jomi Flee. Jomi Flay at Jomi shut down after the short point. You got to tune it out.

This is how I know Nick's a hater. Because like, Nick would eat a little bit of the Joloff rice and he get quiet. I need to be like, yo, Jomey, Jomi, what's the recipe? What's the recipe? What's the recipe? I'm like, motherfucker, you can't be asking for the recipe and they're hating all day, bro. Like, go on. No, no, no.

Jomey, look, Nick, I'll tell you something about Nick. All just aside. Nick is the most supportive. Like, Nick is the kind of guy that Jomey'll get a call in like four days. And it'll be like, yeah, man, J.J. Abrams want to taste the Joloff rice. You come over to J.J. Abrams house? Did you imagine Jomey serving? J. J. J. Jolavreis?

No. No, can you imagine it? Wait, why would, whoa, Steve? Can you imagine it? Why is Joe me serving J.J. Abrams? Yeah, can you imagine? Steve, he's not serving him. Steve, can you imagine it? I don't think you can imagine it. Yes, Steve.

Where are you? The one that didn't even, could you imagine it, Steve? We love you. And anything we do, you're with us. We know that you had some place. I was in San Diego from Memorial Day weekend. That's why I was not there. Using San Diego with the Frueholes, I'm a goose. Oh, damn.

Damn. No. No. No. Stop. Two, bro. All right. Let's get to the show, bro.

We can't have fun no more. Get to the programming reminders. Ruined. Ruined. Root. Oh, that's staying in him, bro. That's staying in him, bro. Oh, God's day.

On Friday, another episode of Readerverse Recommends. A Reverse recommends. With the top recommendations for this Readerverse crew. Also on Friday, our House of Arr gives you their must-a-weighted. Paul Atreides' Hall of Fame episode for real this time. Chuck, tell them what we got on the show today. On today's show, we bring you all the greatness for the month ahead with the summer mega draft, plus a chat with X-Men 97 director Jake Castorana.

All right, guys, let's begin. This summer will be one of the most packed and important seasons in ringerverse history through June and July. We'll be covering House of the Dragon, Deadpool and Wolverine, the Acklein, the Ackleit, and the Boys. So in honor of this cornucopia of content, we're bringing you our first summer mega draft. and the rules are simple. We each get five picks. The categories are Star Wars, Game of Thrones, X-Men, the Boys, and Wild Card.

Any character from each franchise is open and available to be picked. Once the character is picked, they are off the board. As always, we go in snake draft order. Steve, let's see who's going first, second, third, and fourth. All right. Charles pick a number between one and four. I will take three. Okay, Van.

I'm going to go two. Okay, that is going to be Jomey, Charles, Van, me. Nice. All right. Let's go.

I'm good for it. Yeah. Let's go. Okay, so I think if I got the first pick, I am going to have to go value here. right so which

like if all the properties which character do I pick that like you know is worth the most in terms of you know um cashed the god damn pick

what like what are you like bro pick the goddamn thing you got the first pick a draft and then Joe Mek has his first pick I don't know we don't want to hear pick the goddamn character but you you seem like you're him and then hon like you're him and then haunt

you don't know what you want to do. I know, I know, I know, I know, I don't know what you want to do, Jomey. I'm going to go, I'm thinking from the boys, go with Homelander. Okay, good. That's a good, that's a good pick. It's great. And you're going with Homelander because why? Go with Homelander, because when I think of the boys, he's the first character I think of.

And while I do appreciate everybody's part on the boys, I feel like Homelander is the character. Right. Can I ask you a question? Can I ask why you picked from the boys first when you have all of these properties to pick from? Again, as I explained it before, value, right? There's a lot of picks to go. There's a lot of characters in these other properties.

This one is the main one. But from the boys, the pickings of slay. I got you. Exactly. Narrow bench. All right. So I'm going in the complete opposite direction. Then Jomi, I think there's, if we had to make an argument,

I think there's two characters that we could make an argument that are, no, maybe three, that are the most iconic, probably in all of nerd fandom. I'm going Star Wars. I feel like you've got to get Vader off the board easy. Like Darth Vader. It would have been my first pick. It's just like, because it's close. There's a couple people on this list that I feel like they're right at Vader's heels,

but it's still Darth Vader, I would say, is probably top three most important nerd characters of all time. So we got Vader. Yeah. It would have been my pick too. Vader would have been my first pick too. Um, okay, well then, and that's the, if that's the case, if we're bringing out, if that's the case, we're bringing out the big guns, I'm going X-Men, I'm going Wolverine, I'm getting Wolverine.

I'm getting Wolverine off the road. I knew it. I knew it. Why wouldn't he do that? What do you mean? No, it's the only pick. It's the only pick, but I thought you were going to get a little bit freakyer with it. I didn't think you were just going to like do it for just.

I need, I need a franchise builder. I need claws. I need six claws. Snit, snit, snit, snit, snit is what I need. like I got to get them off the board because if not, you know, I don't have somebody to compete with a homelander or a vater, got to get Wolverine. So, right. Charles, we have to have a question later on about whether or not that a homelander pick first overall was to Jordan LaForge. We're going to like, we're going to like, I don't want to say it.

I see the vision. I see it. I do, I do see the vision. I do see the vision because it's, it's almost like maybe you're drafting the only worthwhile boys character. but, that's the only, all right, man, let's not do that.

Let's not do that, bro. We go see. We go see. All right. Steve. All right. So I'm up with a hot corner. You got two picks.

Don't let us down. Two picks. I'm going to X-Men and the boys for both of these picks. I'm taking Magneto off the board for my X-Men pick. Again, like, I'll say right now, that's your best initial draft pick in the history of any draft we've done.

And it's not. even that strong. It's just more like I just, I just knew that you were going to draft puck or like to someone. I thought you were going to do

like Madeline Pryor and I'd be like, all right man, come on, bro. No, it's more fast. Madeline Pryor is my pick.

So, uh, no. Uh, and then for the boys, I'm going to actually butcher because I, I actually think that's the more,

uh, possibly compelling character. But again, that's a bit of a toss up because Homelander's pretty like, wait, butcher's the more compelling character than homeowner. I have a great time with Boucher. I don't know what you're talking about.

No, Butcher is a good choice. That's how you feel. Home? Come on, bro. Let's be serious. What weird thoughts about about Homeland or action being able to kill Superman? Fuck out of. Homelander.

Homelander is a, no. Homeland is 30. I feel like it might be low-key truth. Stop. All right, Steve. Homelander is the DeAngelo and Russell's of Superman, bro. Like, I don't even think he could be

Omni-Man. I'm being real. He definitely can't beat Omni Man. No, he can't be an Omni Man. Homelander is like a... So listen, I give you an example. Remember in the first... In the first season, the plane? Right, yeah.

Superman saves that plane. Even after Holander fucks it up. No, Superman saves the people on that plane. We've seen them do it. Yeah. Like, we've seen them do it. Um, Homelander is Superman light. He's cool, but he's not fucking with Superman.

Right. You're thrown into the sun. So you rank it's Superman, Omni Man, Homelander. Homelander's not even in top three if we're talking just like Superman type motherfuckers. Like, because there's a thing, the boys is too realistic. So Homelander is powerful in a world where like the other superheroes don't really got it like that. But even in the Marvel universe, like, Homelander's not beating the Hulk. He's not even beating Thor.

If we're being real. Oh, I don't think Homelander is beating any of the Superman analogs in Marvel. I don't think he's beating Guardian. I don't think he's beating Hyperion. I don't think he's beating the Century. Yeah, he'll fuck over Invincible.

Yeah, okay. Invincible, we're not ready for the point. I need to get like some scale in there. Whoa, whoa, I don't know, man. I don't do mark like that. I don't know, man. We had to see how many bad do nothing. You're right.

Let me, let me do my mark, my mark pitch, right? So what we have to realize is, Homlander has never really been tested like that. Like Mark got his ass whooped by Omni Man. Like he's going up against, he's gone up against Viltramites. Like Mark has been through it. You know what I'm saying?

So even though his feats in his universe aren't that great in the fucking boys universe and Mark Grayson would literally chop off Homelander's head immediately. Right? Here's my only problem with Mark is they bring in a different off-brand motherfucker or the bloody Mark's face every episode.

I'm trying to wait. They bring in, it's like here, here's Grasshopper Man. He's from the planet Lanxes 5. Mark gets his ass fucking kicked by Grasshopper Man every single time. Oh, it's Matchstick Man. He's from the wooden planet of Iribro 6 in the Outer Galaxy.

All right. Keep this energy next season. Keep this energy, bro. Conquest is coming. Keep this energy. Fuck. out of Mark. Like, they bring in somebody different.

Every time they bring in somebody, they beat the shit out of Mark. I'm just saying. Just saying. What happened to the beast guy? He was kicking ass. What's his name? Battlebeast?

Battlebeast. Oh, battle, don't worry about Battlebeast. Don't worry about Battlebeast. Don't worry about Battlebeast. All right. Battlebeast was the man. Oh, he is still. Still is.

Still is. Oh, Battlebees is like that. Oh, Battlebeast is like that. Don't you worry. Battle Beast is coming for more. What question? When we get back to the draft? Battlebeast is as strong as a

Viltramite? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Because he was cut. Battlebeast is not just as strong as a Viltramite. Like he's top tier.

Like he's going against like the real deal. Okay. Shout out to Battlebees. All right. Shout out to see. Battlebees versus Homeland. The Battlebees, fuck over. It's not even.

It wouldn't even be a fight, man. Yeah, that's tough for. All right, Van. Wait a minute. Hold on for a second. Real quick, real quick, just before we move off this. I got to read this. Battlebeast is that crazy? Because I remember what Battlebees is.

I promised you he is. Dog, read the comments. Like read the comics, bro. It's like, it gets good. Okay, I'm read the comments. You guys, it's a lot of stuff to read, okay? I read, red fire and blood. I just finished Dune.

My fucking brain, I don't know if I can handle all of this. Okay, it's my draft pick. I'm drafting Star Wars. Okay? I'm going with Star Wars. And since you guys got Vader off, the board. I got to draft Luke Skywalker.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. I got to draft Luke Skywalker. Got to take him. Vader is off the board. Vader is, to me, the most badly hood guy and all of these

fandoms that you take. But if there is a Kobe to Vader's shack, we're talking about the early teams here. I'm talking about the early teams here. If there's a Kobe to Vader's shack, it's Luke, God, take Luke. Plucky White Boy, pluck, pluck, pluck.

and then turns into someone who force chokes people by the end of it, Luke Skywalker. Let's take that, put that in your fucking pipe and smoke it. All right, you know what? Just to get a little, I'm feeling like I'm going to go wild card. Yeah. Right now? I'm taking Obi-Wan Kenobi off the board. Interesting.

I was worried about that. Yeah, I was worried about that. I was worried about that. I'm going to go with Obi-Wan. I thought you was because very good. I thought he was going to get Obi-Wan over Luke. I would never take Obi-Wan over Luke. We've established this.

We have established that, yeah. We've established this. Wait, no, no, wait, wait, wait. Like, we did a Star Wars draft where Luke dropped so, he wasn't even the second. He didn't taste something right now. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the, to me, the greatest Jedi of all time. But if we're talking about their real estate and fandom,

Luke Skywalker is a bigger deal to Obi-Wan. They're right now. Why don't you go second overall in our Star Wars draft? I have no clue. Like Obi-Wan, maybe it was Obi-Wan recency bias, but the reality is that, like, oh, we've gotten more Obi-Wan. We've gotten more Obi-Wan recently, but Luke is the bigger deal to me. But I could see how people, you know, Luke versus Obi-Wan, I get it.

I get it. Steve, what do you think? You're white. Yes, that's true, man. I'd say, as far as ubiquity and fandom is concerned, I was rewerewis. watching some behind the scenes of of the Mandalorian when Luke came to train Grogu

and you only you only like CGI deep fake Mark Hamill's face on somebody if you're that guy and my thoughts and opinions on that aside it speaks to you know the cultural impact the Skywalker has because man

that's amazing. The actor looked just like him. He should have just been that actor. Maybe. Maybe I say recast it. Yeah, no, that's what I mean. Like the actor that doubled him and like they just planted his face over that guy. That guy looks just like Luke Skywalker.

And he's a good actor. You're right, Steve, but we ain't, we ain't re-caddened. Well, remember when the face technology was so bad that somebody went online and did it? And they fixed it and then they hired that guy. Yeah. We was in the trenches for a while, guys. We forget, boy. Hey, start.

All right, Jomey, you got two picks. I got two picks. I'm going to go Game of Thrones next. And, man, this is tough. I'm between two schools of mine here. I think I'm going to go with my gut on this one. And I'm going to draft the mother of dragons herself, Deneres Targary.

All right. Terrible. Man, terrible. Oh, hold on. All right, Joe, me. Hold on. Dog, you saw this is. I'm happy you did that, though.

because now we've got Game of Thrones into the chat and we can come back and I know I know that I'm getting at least one of my characters now. I know there's well how about this? How about I pull a Charles with my wild card?

I go with her nephew who she loves so much that he had to kill her. Go John Snow with my wild card. Okay. So you got two Game of Thrones. Thrones cared. Okay. I guess that makes sense. That's an interesting job.

The wild card there. I feel like here's a thing. John Snow isn't a bad pick. Like John Snow is definitely on my board. But I feel like you just went the John Snow route. That's my getting no, no, no. You fucked up with Danny. That's probably right. But here's the thing. I was, so I watched Game of Thrones

in a week, right? Like the first seven seasons Washington Week, I was, I was unemployed. I had to use that seven-day HBO go at the time, free trial watching a week. And Every time I left, I was like, John Snow is the most right motherfucker we've ever seen on TV in a long time. Every time he speaks, every time he's like, yo, don't do that thing. It's dumb as hell.

People go, nah, it's going to work out. Don't worry about it. And then guess what? It don't work out. And he was right consistently over and over again. And nobody believed him. Nobody trusting him. Right?

And I'm like, bro, this is like, why do we continue to do this? Right? And maybe it was just like my lack of sleep. But I was really hot, especially when they're going. going to Hard Home. He's like, yo, guys, I don't, you know what I'm saying? Be careful. Like, nah, nah, nah, it's cool.

And then guess what? They all get wiped out. And the Ice King, whatever, is like, yo, stop fucking with me, bro. That was a great scene. But y'all got to start, people have to start listening to John Snow. It didn't happen until it was too late. That's my goat. Jomey, I'm going to be honest with you right now, bro.

What's up? It just, it felt like you just glitched the fuck out. What the fuck are you talking about? Who are you talking to? You wasn't talking about nothing. he's like Jomey He's just saying stuff on podcast now

He's just saying shit to say shit now I haven't I haven't slept In too much Like Jome It's been nothing but meat for a whole weekend I haven't slept it too much Dog the meat It's like Joe me

It's not the meat It's not the meat. It's not the meat. It's not the meat. It's not the meat. Jomi works so hard. Jomi worked so hard on the thing Jomey just went into

a whole fucking, I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? It was a few state. Y'all, they was trying to play on my boy John Snow, man. Chuck, you up. All right, damn. All right, it's getting, let's see, let's see. It's getting real difficult. Hmm.

You know what? I think I'm, I know. I'm going to go X-Men. And you want to know what I think is a real problem with the Midnight Boys. and the problem with this draft right now, it's a meat factory, it's a sausage factory. And we need to give it up. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Oh, speak for y'all. Don't speak for me. All right. It's a meat factory and a Karen factory because you picked fucking Danny. So anyway, I'm picking the queen herself, Omega-Level mutant, their favorite mutant to nerve.

I'm going storm with X-Men. Okay. It's great big. You know, we have Jake, coming up, Jake Castorina, and we've already done the interview, but we should have asked. You sold. I thought you were going to ask, Van, I was a little bit like, I was a little bit like, no, no, no, no.

Because I feel like you would have put Jake in a weird position. Ask him about a duck woman. Jake is so great. Yo, Jake, what y'all got against the sisters? Huh? Jake, what y'all got against the sisters? Y'all turned storm? Anyway.

That's a good pick. That's a good pick. It's a great pick. Question. Because I feel like the first X-Men that are going to be off the board are going to be Wolverine and Magneto. I don't know why. What? After that, because they are off the board.

So here's the thing. I'm going to be honest. I didn't go with my heart for this pick. I went with Storm just because I think she just kind of fits my team a little bit better. But there's another one left on the board that I, I think people should take. It's like real deal. Okay, so let's not talk it over until after then, since the pick is on the board.

Okay, it's my turn now. So I'm going back to the Game of Thrones. Right. I'm going back to Thrones and I'm going Tyrion and Lannister. Yeah. Tyrion and Lannister. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, got to have them.

Got to have them. Got to have them. I feel like of the Lannisters, the only two that you could draft if you're going to draft first it. of Game of Thrones, there are three characters that are in the running. Well, actually, I would say, if I was talking Game of Thrones, that Danny wouldn't be one of the three characters that I would draft first. At all. I don't even know she'd be top five at this point. Again, I think this is a season eight and seven bias here because, like, you win.

You could be right. Tyrion was high on my list, but it's like, the last season really dings. But that's for everybody, though. You'd have to take every, like, you would have to Everybody. Yeah, everybody takes it down. No, but Tyrion is a thing. What do people remember about that last episode? The Bells.

That last Tyrion monologue was rough. Who has a better story? To me, to me, he's the main character of the show. But I will say this. I'll say this. The top three Game of Thrones characters to me are Tyrion, John, and Circe. Man, don't even get me started on Searcy. Bottom five alive.

I hate As a character? I hate Searcy, bro. Sercy sucks. That's what makes her a good character. Good villain. Terrible villain.

She's not smart. She's not intelligent at all. She gets foiled at every opportunity, except I'll give her the Septa Baylor. Right? Deceptive Baylor, that's her coming down to three one. That's a good move. She can have that one.

Other than that, all I see is failure after failure after misstep after misstep. All right, before Jomey's eyes roll back into his head. Let's be honest about, Cersie. Sersie. It's a bubble chip. She,

you know what I'm saying? That's up. Except the Baylor, that seemed more like a one-off. That seemed more like a one-off than it do. Oh, she's calculating. She's smart.

She puts things together, right? Let's be honest about her. She's not all that. She's terrible. I don't know. I disagree. All right.

Who's like, like, who's up? It's Steve, right? Steve with the back-to-back picks. Back-to-back picks. I guess I'll take my Game of Thrones. Clear to last. lot on the board here.

Probably controversial, but I'll go Jamie Lannister. A compelling character. All right. He brought it around. He brought it around. Like, he has a long arc, a good arc. I feel like, Jesus Christ. You say that arc long and good?

God, damn, Steve. Oh, my Lord, Steve said he got that long. Jamie Lannister got that long good art. arc, huh? You are, you aren't that art to just flood your whole apartment.

God. Like, except for Baylor, man. Yeah, get that to get that long, good arc.

That's the new. That's new. Put that down. That long, good arc. We love a character on a long, good arc.

Well, got a long, that long, good arc, that fulfilling arc. You feel, like Jamie is the next one up, Steve?

This is not quite a majority, but it is, it's not quite a joy. It's a fuck to a pick, though. And you were doing so well.

Good moments. A lot of good moments. Good character moments. I don't want to fuck the draft, though, but can you think about all the other characters? So you would draft Jamie over Searcy? Probably. I definitely would. I definitely would.

She's out of my words. She's not on my board, man. It's not of my board. I don't rate her. I would draft, I would draft Arias Stark over. I would draft Ramsey Bolton. I would draft, I would draft Ramsey Bowden. I would draft like there's

Ramsey Ramsey definitely drive now now we got to let us that became a Thrones drag

because you know I would definitely draft Ramsey Bolton was Ramsey Bolton was a much better character than Jamie Lanister was

man I don't know about Ramsey dog I don't know I'll be honest what a real piece of shit all right

Steve what's a piece of just in terms of the character whatever fuck y'all yeah Steve what's your next big

give me Star Wars yeah And I will take off the board and take Han Solo. It's good. Yeah. Okay. I'm not mad at this.

We're not doing Yoda. You never thought of Yoda? No, I didn't really think of Yoda. I actually, for the 25th anniversary, I spun back a little bit of Phantom Menace. Man, what a, what a dumbass Yoda was. There's a lot of, I don't know. There's a lot going on over there.

Steve, I don't know if you're in the right position to be talking shit about Yoda like that, bro. Why am I not in the right position to be talking about Yoda like this? Let's just get to it. Steve, we had one of the most momentous days in the history of the midnight boys. We grilled out for hours. We changed propane tanks. We watched Atlas.

We watched Atlas. Oh, you watched Atlas? Oh, fuck. Atlas was scaring the hose. Territory, bro. Ballfuckers was leaving. People literally be like, yo, it's time to go. Alice, Atlas ended the night.

Alice ended up. Atlas will end any night. The vibe. The vibe was terrible. Just completely rancacked, ruined the entire thing. Here's the thing. I stand by putting on Atlas because I was enjoying it. I was like, this. What? We were having fun all day, just the four of us.

And then Amanda came. Shout out to Amanda. Disaster Girls podcast. Shout out. And then Kalika came. And once Kalika got there, we really were back in the party again. Kalika just decided she couldn't do it the whole day. And so, and so.

And then we put on Atlas. The Atlas and the cinnamon pie got us out there. Because when the cinnamon pie came out, nigga had the I. This nigga was ready to go to sleep after the cinnamon pie. Oh, bro. I had the cinnamon pie. Cinnamon pie was amazing.

Johnny killed that shit. But I was getting sleepy. And also, I could tell Van was just like, turn his wax shit on. He said there multiple times. He's like, yo, turn. I was like, can we stop looking at this? Atlas sucks so bad.

Now, what I want is a fan edit of putting Jennifer Lopez in Evangelion. Just put her in one of those mecks. Oh, it would be great. Jaylo, getting the robot. 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. They 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. 100 free events. 6,000 kids, one mission. Clinic Kids is using sports and evidence-based wellness coaching

to help kids build confidence, resilience, and the tools they need for life's challenges and opportunities. Up through August 2026, they're running 100 free sessions for school and community-based organizations near you. Learn more at clinickkids.com slash 100KK. That's Clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is registered 5.151.1.1.C3 nonprofit. 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 trumphia, 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 a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiator Radio.com. Who's drafting next? Ben, you're up. Is me?

Yeah. So this is tough. All right. I have to give value out of the boys show right now. We've only had one character drafted from the boys the entire time. Or no, wait, have we had one? Do we have two? Two.

Two. Butcher. Butcher and Homelander. Butcher and Homelander. Okay. So if Butcher and Homelander are gone to me, the only other person with respect to everybody else, the only other person you can draft is Huey.

So I got to take Huey. Yeah, I got to take Huey. Oh, no, no, no, no. Really? I don't, no, I don't cook. Let them cook. Hughie? I got to take Huey.

Let me tell you why. Huey to me, so you have the big bads gone. The big bad motherfucker's gone. You have Homelander off the board. You have butcher off the board. You have a lot of soups left, and you have other members of the boys left. However, they're all. I mean, Eminem is one of my favorite character.

Shout out to my man, Las Alonzo. But Huey represents such a big part of the show. Huey, the show is about humanity's relationship with these overlords, these supernatural people. And Huey is that. He's that character. He's the character that you see the humanities lens through. He's the one that has to compromise himself. He's the one that has to ask himself if he's willing to push himself to the next.

he's the one you're always afraid is going to get caught up in something and die. He seems like he's the most vulnerable and he's the one that has to adapt the most. He's the character that we see ourselves through. So if there's another boy's character to draft, it would have to be Huey. Even though they're cooler characters,

there's not one that's more important. After Homelander and after Butcher. A very strong case. Yeah, so after Homelander and after Butcher. I think Huey's the weakest, is the weakest link of the show at this point. If I'm really real. No.

That's not true at all. Like in, terms of like what's most captivating, what I'm interested in the show. That's something against Huey. He's just like, all right, cool. All right. I mean, Hugh is pulling a lot of different ways. I like it. I like it. All right, that's fine. I'm not going to shit on the pick. That's cool. All right. For me, I'm going Game of Thrones. I think there's two characters left. One of them's House of Dragon. One of them is OG series. And you know what? I, I got to go with the motherfucker on the board who I think has the most heart, had the most heartened.

in terms of the entire series, I feel like you got to go with Aria, you know, when no one else could get it done, argue, that's cool fucking done. You know what I mean? Like, even John Snow, that motherfucker was complaining about the Night King

the whole time. And he couldn't even, I was just like, bro, what you doing? Like, this was supposed to be your matchup. So I'm going to- Did Arya have the last great moment

in the Game of Thrones when she murdered the Ice King? Probably. I think so. I think that was probably when the- What was that, was that the last peak of Game of Thrones?

I keep calling him the Ice King. It's the Night King. Or Night King, excuse me, Night King. It was a great moment. It's definitely a great moment. I mean, I think so, but it was tough for a second. Remember? Because everybody was complaining about the episode, oh, you can't see it, all that, all that nonsense. I guess, yeah. It's me. I got back-to-back picks.

Back to back. To wrap it up. I'm going to go with Yoda and Star Wars. and then I'm going to finish up with our guy with the optic blast Cyclops X-Man. I was waiting for Cyclops to get picked. Cyclops, look, Cyclops, man,

you know, so you guys, Van and Charles especially, you guys are like old X-Man heads. You've been reading the comics forever. Cyclops was always cool, cooler in the comics, right? I come in watching the movies. He was a loser in the movies. I'm like, yo, he was yeah

I'm like yo why am I here with this dude I'm really like I'm team Wolverine you know all that this was I mean I've watched like evolution Wolverine the X-Man and like there are varying degrees of like all right cool cyclops kind of tight X-Men 97 was the first time

I was like oh no this is this is the guy right here bro this is this is the dude that they've been telling me about I never seen him right but this is the guy that people said he could be. I was like, I got respect for Cyclops now, man.

Can I be real, though? I feel like we're really harsh on Cyclops in the movie. James Marsden is good casting. They just didn't let him cook. I'm like, if you like James Marsden now, do Cyclops, I feel like he'd do a much better job.

It was just like, they didn't give him enough. He was casted perfectly. Yeah, he was casted perfectly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, beyond Hallie Berry, the movie was casted perfectly. We grew into I mean, we grew into Hallie's portrayal.

Yeah. Come on. I mean, Hallie Berry is a fucking mega star. I was like, Hallie Barry's Storm, this is great. And then you rewatch those films, you like. Hell no. But like, didn't that casting of her at least make sense for the era of Star that she was at the time?

Like, nobody would blink twice. It's like, oh, yeah, Hallie Barry. She rules the 90s right now. Like, of course she's Storm. Did you, did y'all ever read that story about how Michael Jackson was trying to be Professor X? Yeah, that was crazy. I did see that.

Which would have been the greatest thing ever. That would have been crazy. So what you're saying, so Steve, what you're saying is it would have been the greatest thing ever to put Michael Jackson in charge of a school. Cool. Way to go. Ricky asked me to stay the ass to the side. Wow. He's a fair.

He a fan. He's a fan. He a fan. Way to go, Steve. It's fans. It's, I don't think that's great casting at all. I think the movie goes and it. different direction. All right.

It's my last big, the boys. I'm surprised that she's still left on the board. I think the relationship between Kimiko and Frenchi is really like the heart of this show. Like I think. It is beautiful. That is why I'm still honestly watching it at this point. Kimiko is like my girl seeing her growth. That's why you're still watching because of the relationship between Frenchy and Kimiko.

I don't care about anyone else. I feel like if we're being, this is my hot. You're a weird ass nigga, bro. Of all the reasons why you're still watching the boys, you're still watching the boys because of a relationship. Yeah. Can I defend my, can I defend my tape? All right.

First, at this point, I don't know if I could do a whole other season of, we can't beat Homelander and then Homelander being in the room of motherfuckers and could have decapitated them and them having to make some excuse. I'm like, I'm done. Like, I've been done kind of with the Homelander shit. I think the Huey story at this. point, I'm like, bro, how many times can I see Huey cry and be like, I quit the boys, butcher is being mean to me.

And then by the end of the season, he's right back in the fold. I'm just like, there's just, I feel like, Charles. Charles, you have a way of describing these shows that I know you've seen that, that like makes me wonder if you watch them at all. We talked about this on the last episode of Mint Edition. Yeah, yeah, spinning the wheels allegations. Wait, whoa, so you guys, am I wrong? It's been a little spinning the wheels.

You're not wrong. No, you're not completely wrong. I think there needs to be a conversation like, all right, cool, because they got to defeat Homeland or some point. But that would end the show, right? That would, we would all, that we all go home, everybody's happy, right? So how do you continue to stay innovative, stay fresh, without taking away the main conflict is the question, right?

And so, again, you can go. go listen to it. Hey, little, little mid edition plug real quick. But we talked about that. So, like, I'm interested to see what you guys think. How can the show like keep Homelander alive, but also beat the Spitting the Wheels allegations? Well, I think the way

that they're trying to do that is by introducing the fact that like, oh, we're going to have mini-holander now, which is going to give Homelander more shit to do because he's a father who is now essentially raising Superboy. But I also think that probably the weakest narrative

of boys in general is kind of the kid where it's like they kind of forget that the kid is part of the show and then they bring him back and I'm like, I don't know, man.

I'm cool off that. Well, because here's the thing, Van, if we're being honest, you're the last motherfucker you should be talking because she was like Furiosa. You was watching Furiosa like, damn, I don't know if we needed a little Furiosa for 45 minutes.

Like the pluck allegations are getting a little crazy with all these shows. I mean? I'll be honest with you. Fair point. I'm getting the pluck out of here. I'm here. I'm here.

Hold on. It wasn't. She wasn't plucky. She was so early on there was some pluck, right? Like she's, you know, she's like, she was like a little Navy seal and all of that shit.

I'm not, you know, I'm not into that shit. Like, I'm not into kids doing shit like that. No, I'm into kids doing? Being competent and awesome. What is? bring me the remote bring me the remote bring me the remote

like go down the corner go to the store for me what I did when I was a kid I'm here in this hotel in Miami and there's one pool down there that's 21 and up bro I literally did a fucking backflip so you can tell me

I can go to that pool right now get the little Miami Vice chill after I'm done working and I don't have to hear mommy mommy blow up my like get these kids out of Miami okay

take them somewhere take them up the road take them up the road take them to Orlando take them to Orlando right there bro you said take that kids to the NASCAR track

we have to show you get these kids out of Miami bro like every time I come here is for work they work you you gotta go around you do a whole bunch of stuff and then afterwards you just want to sit and drink

and just enjoy Miami And say, hey, jump in the pool, splash water on you. Nah, the plug, I'm not with it. You're right. You're not wrong. That's all I'm saying. Let me see. Okay.

It's me. Yeah. So I'm, I'm caught in a tailspin right now. Not a tailspin. I'm caught between two methods of thinking because it's for Wild Card. Yeah. This is where I'm looking at. it. I have all white people on my team, which I don't like. Okay. I would like to get some

type. All white, no sisters, no black people. It's, it's, it's rough. It's like the Australian wasteland out there. It is tough. Hey, definitely is. Okay. There are three characters that I'm thinking about drafting in the wild car situation. One is from House of the Dragon. One is is from the MCU. It's tough. Wait, who's from the MCU? Not from the MCU, from Marvel. Oh, from the, no, from the MCU, from the MCU.

Okay. The biggest, oh, wait, I can't even draft him because he's not part of the X-Men. No. Oh, this is easy. I'm going with Damon Targary. Damn it!

Like, I'm going, like, this is easy. I don't know why I was thinking that we could draft. I was thinking Black Panther and Blade, but shit, they ain't got no niggas. Why are you thinking Black Panthers and Blade, bro? I don't know, bro. I don't apologize. You're like a good midnight sun's there, but no.

There, you good. I apologize. Nah, not really, Doc. I have to work and then run back to do this. There's all these kids in Miami. It's too many kids in Miami, bro. Kids was down there. Last night, kid tried to spill something on my boots.

I'm like, hey, man, take these kids to Orlando. But I'm drafting them and talking. Darian then. Yeah, I, like, I'm fucking with him. Look, he is the man in this realm. He is the what of the house of the dragon era? Who would you call him?

He's the... He's the... He's the... He's the... He's the way more fun, Tyrion, though. Like, way more fun. Less intelligent than Tyrion. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, but a bad a motherfucker, though. But a bad of a motherfucker. But he's still... But here's the thing. Strategically, I think he's maybe one ring under Tyrion,

but he gets busy unlike, he'll go out there and be like, motherfucker, I'll handle all this shit myself, give me the dragon, you know? He's about it. I like him. He's a villain, but a hero,

perfect anti-hero. He's also the father that stepped up. You know, like, I give all credit to him. He also killed his wife, so. Yeah. Well, he stepped up in one, look. He stepped out in one way. stepped up in another.

You know, yeah. Wait, do we think it's an indictment that we're doing this and we have not picked, we've only picked one house of the dragon character because Damon was on my board.

I was just like, but to me, is Damon cooler than are you yet? I think he is. I don't think so. I mean, if we look at this whole board, Charles,

I got to give you credit for drafting multiple women. You got three women on the team. If we look at this whole board, this board is some, waspy white man bullshit

I'm about to finish it off with mine Noah we got no Osoka Azoka could get no fucking love you know what I'm saying like

Gene Grease sucks I'll say this I'll say I'll say Yoda drafted over Asoka is fucking nuts like I will say that What?

Yoda if yeah man Yoda Yoda drafted over Leah Yoda Yoda drafted over Leah and Asoka

Joe Nah I can't give you that, because here's a thing, if we're just talking about average. You may tell me that Leah? You mean to tell me that Leah and Osoka aren't bigger deals in Star Wars lore than Yoda? Well, let me finish. All I'm going to be real, baby Leah in Obi-Wan drove Leah or gone to stockway down and the Asoka show kind of, it didn't do what it needs to do. See, Charles, you're manipulative. Because you knew that once you brought up that unadulterated, unabashed, unrepented pluck,

that I would have no choice but to agree with you. You knew. See, this is what Charles does. You knew I'm talking about some of the most devious and disgusting pluck that we've seen. Like just, just unabashed, egregious pluck. I think people check that out of the show after that. Can we do a plug draft?

Oh, a pluck draft? Oh, it's over. A pluck draft. Can we do a plug draft? Because we already did a plug draft. We did the teenage superhero draft. No, no, no, no. I get what I can be saying. It kind of was a plug draft.

But if we draft like basically strict on pure pluck? Pure pluck. She's number one overall. Wait, where's home girl from Last of Us? Because she's plucky. Like she's plucky.

She was plucky. Ellie from last. Ellie is real plucky. In the video game, she wasn't plucky. but in the show they plug. Because she was just like, look, I found a comic book.

Let me play this video game. Joe, you're not my dad. Like you're. Plug boys. Cape Bishop from Hawkeyes up there. Plucky. Oh, yeah. Pluck.

Where does Spuddy come in? Where does Pete? Oh, wow. Oh, crazy pluck. Oh, no. Only Tom Holland, though. Only Tom Holland. Of course, yeah.

No, like Tony McQuire was a puck. Tom. Tom Holland from Civil War. Jesus. He gets less plucky. Generational numbers. Tom. He gets less plucky.

By the time he is in the last one, he kind of gets hard at the end of it. He gets what? He gets hard. Wait, guys, guys, let me, this is the most controversial pluck that I would have to say in the first one. not in the second. Paul in like the first half,

Dune is a little plucky. In the first Dune? In the first half. I don't have to go back and watch. I think it's just more naive. I think he's like running around and being like, when he sees what's his face, Jason Mamoa, like come on.

That's some plucky ass like little brother shit. And then his whole thing gets right. That's his buddy. You know. He was a little plug. Pluck. Pluck, pluck, pluck ruin phantom menace.

I was but wait. Hold on. Would you say that, I mean, you would obviously say that Anakin in the first, infatimenezus plucky.

Is Ray Plucky in the first sequel move? Not really. Not really. Okay. I agree. What, would, wait,

would, would Boyega be a low plucky? He was a little bit. He was a little wide-eyed. But they have to, they have to do that with niggas in Hollywood because it's either you play like that

or you a gang member. Steve, so let's just think, If Steve liked it, Steve, Steve knows the truth. If they did, if John Boyega would have been too smooth, they had to make him do that. They always have to depower a black man like that. If John Boyega would have been too smooth.

Seriously, he got, then he got the gun. And he like, and, you know, they asked, she's asking him questions. And John Boyega, like, man, I went down with being with them niggas from the first order, man. The niggas is cap. Fuck that shit. Girl, come to the outer room with me. They didn't do that to Lando. They didn't do that to Lando in Empire.

Lando was one of the most niggerish niggas ever. You got to get any scientist, bro. Are you fucking nuts? So, so, so, so listen. So, bro, Lando, I can make an argument right now. Lando is the most niggers. So they come to Cloud City.

The first, the, the, he, they come to Cloud City. The first thing he tries to do is, fuck his homeboy's girl who is also a white woman. The first thing he does, when we see, when we see Lando, before we even see Lando, what does, what does, what does, what does Hans say about him?

Can't trust him. Can't definitely can't trust no niggas. So when, when, so when we see him, oh, that looks like a nigga, you can't trust. Good hair, handsome, tries to fuck his girl, literally sells out to the man within two days of knowing him and then gets treated like a weakling by the empire for the rest of it

till he comes around. Then he gets fucked up. He's literally the greatest magical Negro in the history of sci-fi. Points have been made. Also, he's like the only one. And the rest of Star Wars, like, they wasn't talking like that in a new hope. The minute Empire strikes back,

he's on that jive turkey show. I'm like, bro, come on, man. And you know who put me on this? My dad did. My dad was like, I tell you what, that Billy D. Williams, he a nigger in this. Look at him. Already trying to get that man, girl. He double dealing.

He, like, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, to be fair. Midnight boys, you can't answer, Steve. I know Jomey's answer already. If you're in Lando's position, though, you've seen Leia, are you shooting your shot? I'm shooting my shot. I'm not going to want. I'm shooting my shot.

I'm going to say what's up. The fact that the fact that Jomi is like, I'm going to say what I'm thinking about it. But your thing though, like if that's my boy, I would never put my boy in that spot. You feel me? If I, especially if I know, if I know. That's not me.

I'll put my boy in that's my age. Oh. If I know they together, Jomey, what you're saying is you would never, ever, ever try to talk to a girl that you knew that your home. boy was into. No, I wouldn't do that.

I wouldn't do that. Defense, defense. Exactly. Exactly. Defense. Defense. If my homie is lying to the group and say, no,

no, no, I don't got feelings like that. I don't got feelings like that. And I'm like, all right, I'm going to go holler at it. He's like, all right, cool, cool. And then y'all start being like, now that's foul. I'm like, no, I'm trying to get my man to be real with

himself. And then Jomey's like, well, I'm not afraid of competition. Boy, Charles. Like, this. There's some weird. You guys. Some shit happened at the meat night cookout. Some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some shit at the meat night cookouts.

And y'all have no idea how toxic Charles is. Like, I swear to God, bro. Charles is really one of them niggas. Like, I'm learning so much more about Charles. Charles is, Charles is a Mr. Steel your girl, watch your chick. Like, he, like, he is really one of them dickes for real. I'm like, nah, we don't do that around here. Oh, I wasn't going to do it.

But Jonny was lying. It sounded like he was going to do it. I'm not lying. Jomey was trying to act to cool. Like, Joe me's not right. Like, I don't got feelings like that. I gave you, I gave you specific instances. Excuses.

Not excuses, right? That's just who I am as a person. And that's how I get down. Why should I have to be out here wilding? Because that's what you do. That's not what I do. You behave like you want to behave. I'm going to behave like I don't want to behave.

How about that? It's facts. It's facts. Don't kill shit, Joe. What junk? Jomey, what, what picnic would you take layout? on. All right, man, we're going to the out of rim.

One second. We're going to out of rim. We're going to lay down. You know, a lot of slow, last little bank here. We're going to get ourselves. We're going to play some jizz whalers music out there, you know what I mean?

And, you know, we're just going to watch the sun rise and set over and over again on a nice little, nice little, nice little planet. It's going to be nice. That's going to be real nice. You're going to do the cooking? Oh, you already know. You already know. We're going to operate the whole thing.

Some blue milk. You know what I mean? What are those? They always eat. crazy shit. Snarf burger or something like, give me a snorff burger. I don't know what they eat.

Yeah, whatever they eat. There's always some weird shit. They ain't got no, like cut some, eat regular. Star Wars. Can we just get a regular meal? Eat regular?

They go to, they got a burger king out there. You know, you go by the drive-thru in space. Yo, let me get a galactic number two. I bet the ribs in Star Wars are crazy. That's why I never go to the tavern at Disneyland.

because they always take regular shit and try to make it look like other shit. It's like these are scarf hard ribs or whatever. I'm like, I don't want to think about... Scared of sausages. Yeah, just do the regular shit. I don't like... Bring this all the way back.

If we found out that there was a deleted scene from Empire Strikes Back, where Han meets Lando at like a space Popeyes, does that change how you feel about the entire thing? Are you just like, I can't support him? So, so, but how did Han, like, was Han like, hey, yo, man, your people make some good chicken. There you can't stand with him.

You can't stand with him there. But if they, like, can you think about, you think about it, Cloud City, like, like, Lando goes, Lando goes, Lando goes. Han, hon, before I show you to your quarters, I want to show you about this new, amazing, delectable thing that we have. And he brings them over there.

And he's inside there. It's like a big ass chicken. These are the chickens themselves. Curious animals. Ha ha. But when they are deep fried, it does something to your soul. They just show them.

And they just eating fried chicken the whole time. And the whole fucking galaxy turns because of this new delectable delight called fried chicken. And that's like one of the things, bro, this is the type of Star Wars movies I would be Green Lighten if I ran a studio. Stop.

Like, bro, the scroll will come up and it will be episode six. The chicken wars. Imagine Bays Window and Yoda on their lunch price. The 40J waste flame chicken wars. Fucking KFC, Popeyes. But the thing is, the chicken makes Mace Wendu

turn to the dark side. Oh, man. It's like, right before the emperor is right there with Mace Windu, the emperor goes, Mace, you want all the power,

you want all the thighs? And he pulled, pulls out the first leaf. And Mesa's like, no. No, I won't fall to it. And the emperor takes it by... He just eating it. And the emperor...

He grows hair. He's got the killmonger cut on top. Just grows the kilmonger cut. The emperor is actually like... There's like uncooked grease over there. And the emperor takes the force lightning and just fucking electricity. Yo! You've got to stop.

He drops a chicken. He drops a chicken in him. You must be stopped. The Mace just gets his eyes turn different. He gets the chicken eyes. That's how they got Finn. That's how they got Finn in the first order. They just like, bro.

We got unlimited fried chicken over here, bro. That's funny. It's like Finn, why are you in the first order in the first place? They give you all the fried chicken you could eat. That's your funny to me, dog. I don't get you fucking much out. That shit. That's so nice.

Y'all could be uncomfortable at laughter and stereotype. That shit funny to me, bro. That's funny. Right now, I swear, bro, I would do it. Everybody would be mad. I'd get protested. They wouldn't invite me to the NWACP Awards no more. I wouldn't get none of that.

Like, right now, if all the black characters have that had that weakness, like, I would be mad. I would protest too. But, like, when I was on the way home from the protests in Burbank, I'd be like, that's hilarious, bro. That's funny to get you something to go. bro and then Star Wars could have a Popeye's tie-in you know what I mean?

The Galactic bucket. The Galactic bucket? Galactic bucket is crazy. Bro, that shit is funny to me. I don't, I laugh at that. I'm against all of that, let you know. But I laugh at that shit all the time. Y'all I've never been in a situation

where something racist happened to you and it's funny. and you're like, well, did you just, did you do it for real? Like, because being black, you, there are always these perceived microaggressions, right? And they're not funny. But when there's someone comes right out and says it,

I'm like, oh, shit, that's hilarious. Like, you really look at it that. It's happened to me a bunch of times. Oh, it's all the time. Y'all never had that moment where it's like, like a white woman or someone who's like, just like touch your hair and you like, hey, yo.

You really just did? that. I was like you like I like I'm telling you like a couple of years ago I was like me and Kaleek

were out of the country we get in an elevator right and the woman stands to the back of the elevator and she moves her purse to the side

and and Kaleke is trying to tell me Vando or whatever and I'm like yeah I'm glad we in Greece well I've snatched

enough person so we could get here I don't have to rob man I love that type of shit bro, bro, I love it. That was so funny.

I was like, man, just don't. I'm like, yeah, man. I'm glad I don't have to hurt nobody else that I've paid for this Greek vacation. At the ATM, with people at the ATM, when they're looking over their shoulder,

they look like I'm about to rob them at the ATM. I got money, nigga. Like, it's so funny. It's, bro, it's hilarious. It's like, I'm about to rob you at the ATE. Like, really, for real? Right. That shit is hilarious to me.

I got an elevator story, bro. I was out the country, too. It was me, Isaiah, and another person of color in the elevator. And we get in first, and there's a couple behind us. And we're like, yo, come on in. Like, what's the thing? That was like, nah, y'all got it. And it closed.

And we looked at each other. We looked at each other. That was, that had to be racially motivated. That's funny. It's always funny. That's why if they ever did Star Wars, Chicken Wars, I would, obviously it would be wrong. We would do a segment on higher learning and the whole thing.

But on the way back from Chicken Wars protests and from the movie, I would be laughing. So can I, this is my last question on Chicken Wars? Is it going too far if, you know, Jar J.Jar Binks shows up with some jerk chicken? Are we just like, all right, it's not one of them. No, hell no. That's how the chicken wars get started. Yes. Senator Jar Jor Binks.

Bro, that's how the chicken wars get started. Senator Jar Jor Binks. Senator Jar Jar Binks is the one who initiates the chicken wars. If Jar Jar Jar is cooking up some jerk chicken, I'm like, all right, we would, nah, nah. Mesa think this chicken needs a little space. Yes. Misa jerk the chicken. You!

Hey, man. No, bro. Oh, my God, bro. I'm telling you, bro. Chicken war is telling you, bro. That shit. Steve? Steve can take your leg.

Yeah, so I picked a Renera Targaryen. Team Blacks all the way. You know. Team Blacks. Team what? Yeah. Greens versus the blacks. You said Team Blacks on.

I said that too quickly after that a little rip. Just after we talk about chicken? Right after that. It's kind of crazy. Kind of crazy. Renira. Is that what you call? Is that what you call this podcast when we're not in the room?

All right, I got to head over to the team blacks. Team black podcast? That's crazy. All right. Charles, read off the final teams or Jomi or somebody. All right, Jomey, we got Yoda, Danny, Cyclops, Homelander, John Snow. For me, I have Vader, Aria, Storm, Kimiko, Obi-Wan. Van, you have Luke, Tarian, Wolverine, Huey, and Damon,

Steve, Han Solo, Jamie Lannister, Magneto, Butcher, and Renira. Honestly, Van, you did really good on this one. I did do well. I do think these teams are pretty equal, though. I'm not going to lie. I do like the teams. I don't love my team.

I think. I'm not going to lie, bro. The Danny pick early on. I was just like, Jomi, you don't usually make mistakes like that. No. Yeah, it's, again, it's been a rough time, you know, for me. But at the end of the day, I came and had fun, you know, and we all had a good time. And that's why that matters.

I'm definitely going to finish last, but as long as, you know, me and my boys have some fun, then it was all worth it. All right, yo, guys, we have a special, y'all know we don't do a lot of interviews on this podcast, but we want to give y'all a special treat. We have Jake Castorana. He is the supervising,

the supervising editor and one of the head directors of X-Men 97. I thought the chat went well. He, like, went into depth. We get into me not liking the show. We ask about Morph's power. if Magneto and Rogue was having sex in the danger room. Don't spoil it for him.

Don't spoil it for them. Let them. We got to tease because a lot of people. We're not going to stick around for the interview. We got to tease them. We got some exclusives. We got to sprinkle that shit on the galactic chicken. Jake, how are you doing, man? Great. Thanks for having me, guys.

Yeah, I'm here to talk about exit. Let's not like it. Jake, are you feeling like the man right now? now? What is this like? What is it like to have everyone go crazy? Oh, geez. Honestly, the exact opposite, man, it's a team effort. It really is. You know, it's, it's, there is, look, you have to have a singular vision. You have to have, you know, we had, we had good scripts and we had a good Bible from Bowdo D' Mayo's vision. But at the end of the day, if you don't have a team that can execute that vision, you don't have anything. So, you know, it's, I am rejoicing.

alongside with the rest of my team. You know, there's a lot of relief. There's a lot of like, okay, cool. We can talk about it now. But to be quite frank, man, we're already in deep in season two, so there's no rest for the wicked. You know, my first question for you is,

typically when you're making something that people resonate with and they really enjoy, one of the strongest questions is the why. That's what grounds the story. when X-Men 97 was first announced, I think a lot of people didn't understand the why, being that we had already had the previous show that everyone loved.

To you, what was the why for X-Men 97? Oh, man, so that's a great question. So, one, the decision to bring the show back was made well before I was ever brought on board, which is awesome. One less thing to worry about. But, I mean, as far as the Y, man, look outside our window. you know, for better or for worse, all of the themes and the stories that the X-Men, look, to backtrack, X-Men is and always should be and always has to be about prejudice.

That's what it was, that's the allegory that it was for. The minute you take that away, it's no longer the X-Men. It's a different Marvel team. And so we've come so far as a people, right, as a society, but we have so much to go. We all still have blind spots. We could always be better. So why not now? It's more relevant than ever now, I feel.

You know, and under the guise of the 90s nostalgia, it's a way to get people on board. It's a way to get people to listen, you know, to watch something, maybe even see a different point of view that they've never seen before, right? But it's just still relevant, you know, for better or for worse, it's still relevant. And I think that's why, one, why it resonates with people so much. too, but, you know, why it's this show in particular coming back, because what Eric and Julia Leewell did along with Larry Houston, yeah, they were in like, you know, the package of a Saturday morning cartoon, but they never dumb stuff down. They never dumped it down and they never shed away from the themes, you know, of prejudice or any sort of repression or found family or,

you know, what have you. And so for us to be a revival, a spiritual successor, we got to carry that in our DNA too. And so, yeah, I just think it all, it just makes sense. It just makes sense right now, you know? You guys are a revival and a spiritual successor to the previous show, but in many ways, you're setting a standard

for the Disney's MCU X-Men Adventure, which drew a lot of consternation from fans. This is the first time we're seeing the X-Men in the MCU, was there any thought given to that? Like this, they've eaten around the edges of it, you know, giving us some hints at the theme song, giving us a little beast at the end of the Marvels.

But as far as us getting into the team, you guys are kind of setting the standard. How did you guys approach the creative from that aspect? Did you think about it? One, yeah, we are standing on the shoulders of X-Men 92. We would not be here if it wasn't, or, you know, Larry Houston, Eric, and Julia Leewald. But at the same time,

X-Men 92 was the MCU before the MCU became the MCU, right? So, you know, that's not to mention that every cameo in that show is illegal, is highly illegal. Thanks, Larry. But, you know, it opened up the sandbox to let you know that there was just a larger world that these X-Men are a part of. You know, there's a larger Marvel universe. So for us, we never really,

really worried, we don't have to worry or deal with what's going on in live action. They're their own team. We are our own team. So it's kind of cool like we both have our own tons and universes to play in. But that being said, you know, if they want to rope us in, if they'd love to have our team collaborate with their teams, you know, we're all, we're all down, man. You know, more X-Men, more candy, please. But I think today, you know, we got our animated universe. And that's plenty for us to work on. And, you know, think of a, out right now, let alone the live action stuff. But look, I love it. I love that it's in the zeitgeist of people's heads. Why not have all the X-Men? You know, so like let them have theirs. Let us have ours.

You know, it's all under the same bubble anyway. So, hey, we all win. So I have a very dumb question, but hey, X-Men 97. Seems like it's four adults or people I'm 31. I grew up on the original show and I think people want to know. Early on in the series, Rogue and Magneto seemed to be getting busy in the danger room. What were the conversations

happening around this time about the love triangle between Rogue, Magneto, and Gambit, and am I reading too much into it? Are the fans reading too much into that pivotal scene? It's exactly what it is. No, it is.

When you're asking, is there a Love Triangle? between, you know, Magneto and Rogue, yes. Exactly what it is. You know, it's... No, no, no, but true, but are you saying that Rogue and Magneto fucked in the Danger Room? I'm not saying or not... I'm not saying, or I'm saying they had a lot of time.

There's a lot of stuff in the danger room had multiple scenarios. I leave that into the minds I have... Multiple scenarios? You can have multiple scenarios and in the Danger Room, you know, maybe it was sexy dance fighting. I don't know. But at the end of the day, it was really Morph that was just driving that nail into the coffin, right? Just like, because if you notice there was a lot of, like, actual calendar, like, reservations between Magneto and Rogue.

But then at a certain point, Morphish, they just keep pushing buttons and it's not even there anymore. But it's the, it's the look back. And shout out to a board artist, Casey. She nailed that sequence so good. but you know we we it would be foolish to say that they're not but in the same time I don't know if they're doing it in the danger room or not but you know we'll leave that to the audience let you guys really really quick you brought up morph the midnight boys have been debating the morph of it all joe me it's your time give a really really important

morph question I'm so I'm Joe Mide Explaner I come out here I'm supposed to explain what's going on. And every week, they would look at me like, Jemmy, how do Morris Powell's work? And I was like, I don't know. I'm looking at it. Oh, this is how it is supposed to work. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. You're the expert. How do this Morris Powell's work? We had to have these same debates. I just call it us checking our nerd bat. That's all it is. It's like, okay, why can't Morp just do this all the time? Well, checks and balances. Checks and balances. And so what we determined was, one, shout out to Chase Conley because he had the cool idea of, look, we don't know what Sinister did like 100% to Morp.

Sinister could have tapped into more of Morph's abilities and, you know, like he did Gambit and a few other X-Men, just kind of elevating some of that power a little bit. But what we did was Morph can, let me say this as clearly as false. It's been a minute since I've had to explain. Morph can take on the abilities and physical attributes of mutants that they turn into. So, for example, one, I love this tip, but Morph is always naked. Just think about it. Okay, so that's not clothing that he's wearing.

It's his entire body. No, if you never notice it, it changes where. Morph is always naked. Morph is constantly regenerating that stuff. So, for example, if morph turns into Colossus, Morph has the, you know, the metal skin, the bullet, you know, proof, whatever, the, the, the, the muscle fibers and the strength comes from that, but Morph has to regenerate that constantly.

Morph has to concentrate. So that does have a timeline. There is a finite, you know, a bit to it. But when Morph turns into like juggernaut, Hulk, those muscle fibers are big. Those are really there. Those are attuned muscle fibers. So Morph can harness the physical attributes of the mutants,

but no abilities. So like, if Morph turned into Cyclops, morph doesn't gain Cyclops as optic glass. Morph would just look like cyclops. corpse. If morph turns into, you know, Silak like we see, morph can mimic and, you know, if the muscle fibers are there, morph can harness into that.

And if Morph has studied fighting styles or nose, right, on how to mimic the character. I mean, because that's what Morph was created. It was like what, a changeling and mimic? It was like two different characters originally. So that's just how we answer that. So, yeah, it keeps. So flyers, brutes, and even Quicksilver, who is fast, all that can be mimicked, but any other type of abilities.

Right. They can't do that. Yeah. Like, we cheated it a little bit with Quicksilver, but, you know, it's still kind of works. But, yeah, it's, and it's about longevity, too, like, how long can morph sustain. So. So the other thing that we were talking about because of the morph cameos is we get to see at some point we see magic, we see

Archangel, we see all of these people. And I think, Steve, you had a really great question just about the team. What was available? Steve, do you want to kind of throw to kind of just like, well, yeah, who's off limbs to and stuff? Yeah, wonderful. I was, I was very curious because, again, like, while

Morph also being a big contributing member to the team, it's also an interesting little toy box that you have to like spruce in whatever cameo that you may desire if anybody's not around. Like, there are so many times, where I just was like, oh my God, Lady Death Strikes here, but like, oh, wait, no, it's just morph. So in the conception of not only bringing morph to the screen,

but, like, bringing, say, a bunch of real-world cameos to the rest of the MCU, we see Spider-Man, we see Cloak and Dagger, were there any characters that may or may not have been either off-limits or something that you wanted to play with, but not necessarily could? Was there anything that, like, was explored, but not exactly brought to life?

I mean, Spidey is always a big one, Because, you know, with Spider-Man, we have the Sony of it all, too. So it gets really, you would think it's all-huh. It's all, it's all same. It's all good. It's very particular, very particular on when and how we can use Spidey, including Mary Jane and Peter Parker. So that was a fun tippet, but when we got the immediate, like, yeah, it's like, cool, we can do it. But only one.

Okay. Only one? Yeah, you only get one. Like, well, you know, but also, you know, you don't want to over. use things. You don't want to overdo it. So we try to, especially with Morp, we always try to keep it, um,

we always try to keep it like, uh, did we use this? Did we do this cameo already? Like, did, or if it's like, okay, so the character proper is showing up, that doesn't count if Morp has turned into them because now this is the character proper. I almost spoiled it what was happening in season two. Uh, but, uh, yeah, you guys, as far as cameos and characters, you know,

within the universe and, and just, the expansion of things, right? You're going to love it. You're not going to be. Was there, was there like a specific X-Men team or run that you love specifically, that you're just like, yo. Because there was once in the storm and Forge episode we saw X Factor. And I was just like, dog, why didn't they just put X-Factor?

I was like, dog, they need to put X-Factor. So X-Factor was the one you were putting your finger on the scale for. Well, so for me, as a kid, I got into X-Men like really backwards. Um, so obviously, so the show, and it wasn't even the initial broadcast that introduced me to the show. It was the VHS tapes from Pizza Hut, the promos that they had, uh, the night of the Sentinel's one and two, or you just got to watch Mark die over and over again. Uh, that was my introduction to the X-Men, the characters, that and the original Konami game. That was where my love for Storm, uh, started because she has just the best power, just wiping the whole map with the tornado. What the hell does Colossus even do? I don't, I don't get it.

What is that how? Oh, okay. But so from there, and then I got turned on. So I was always at the mercy of what my local library had growing up to. They had a lot of cool trades and people would donate comics and stuff. So I, from there, I got into the giant-sized X-Men, the Cockroom stuff. And then from there, I was around the same time that where the Jim Lee stuff was just coming out, right? But I also didn't have money to buy comics.

So I went from the giant-sized X-Men, got backwards into X-Fact. and then once I started getting like funds or like new to ask for like, you know, birthdays or gifts or whatever, I started getting into the gym lead run. So yeah, I kind of went weird. Like even going to X-Fact,

yeah, it's a little word, but I don't know. I like the, the X-Factor before, Havoc and like Wolfs-Bain and Strong guy, you know, how they became the second team.

I kind of like the first era of that stuff. That's where I kind of got introduced to the X-Men in the comic books. So it's weird. It's really weird. So look, a lot of people have enjoyed the show. The show has been a revelation. I'm sure that must be very rewarding to all of you guys. And you guys say that you're deep into season two of the show.

Now you guys are going to it now. But there's some consternation on the part of fans because a lot of people are wondering if you guys can recreate what was accomplished in season one without Bo. Now, we don't know obviously what happened. Everyone's been very mum on it. We're not going to get into that. But for people that are wondering,

without the creative voice and the direct involvement of a showrunner who's just been very, very vocal and involved with fans during the run of the show as well and endeared himself to fans as well, if you guys are going to be able to recapture the magic of season one without him, what would you say to people who are concerned about that? Don't be. Look, not to, not, you know, I'm never going to take away from what Bo gave us.

It's season one, you see it. You see the work. It's all there. But at the end of the day, look, it does take a singular vision to spearhead this, but at the end of the day, no one person gets this done on their own. This is a team. It's a huge team. and a lot of the team that made season one is still pushing hard in season two.

Sorry, one second. Hey, chill out. Our Oscars got some shit to say. No, we love Oscar. But what I would say is, look, we both still wrote a good chunk of season two. But at the end of the day, look, just going to be candid, man. That's what a supervising producer does. That's what our directors do, storyboards, animation, sound effect.

There's too many different. departments for one person to not have this work, if that makes sense. Not to, again, not mitigating the contributions, not mitigating the spearheading that Boe did. But we have a team. It's a team, you know, spearheading. The reality is, while Bo did spearhead a lot of stuff, there were individual leads, myself, handling that stuff. half the time

you know half the time Bo would would write stuff or we would have stuff and it would be my job to go all right

or let me give a good example so like Bo would say I want to do this but I here's this version of the script here's some like imagery or here's like some comic reference

that I'm pulling from and then it's like go make that work got it you know and then I go with the team we all work together to go cool

let's do this let's try this I have to have Beau's voice in the back of my head, I'm the person that helps him execute that stuff. You know, to be quite frank, I sit in the editing base with the team. I work with sound design on the regular. There isn't a facet of the show that I don't touch. You name it, I touch it. We all have leads and we have a specific, you know, we call them specialists, right? At the end of the day, like, as far as my job goes, I need to be able to do a little bit of everybody's

job. The one thing that I don't touch are scripts because we have a writer's room and they're They're fucking awesome. And I'm jazz with what they're coming out with. But at the end of the day, it's a visual medium. So, you know, we can't, we are not in the age, unfortunately, where we can put the beautiful words and a script on screen and let that satiate the audience. That's just a Kindle. You know, this stuff has to, the audience wants to hear the words.

They want to hear the X-Men. They want to feel those words, but they want to see the stuff, right? So it really is a team effort. And as much as Bose contributions will be missed, I don't think people need to worry. Need a worry at all. We have a damn good team on the show still. While we're in Controversial Question Corner,

I have one about first I want to say, shout out to the team, Cyclops representation. All right, finally, my man. I will say it's controversial corner. Just let you know, Jay, he hated the show. are, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's a strong word. It wasn't for me.

Like, Jake, I mean, I'll be honest with DJ. Wait, so he's being super nice to you right now. Exmond 97 wasn't for me. That's fine. He,

he hate, he hated the show. Yeah. That's the best part. No, I want, that's cool with me. Look,

look, I'll be, I'll be, I'm not offended. I'm not offended by that. Anyway, it's out to the world. It's for you guys now.

It's not in our hands anymore. So you take it however you want it. And with, with Kennedy, You see, I got that Rotten Tomato score to keep me, to keep me happy. Honestly, bro. Shut up, Charles.

Honestly, here's the thing, Jake, Jake, we're going to be honest. I got to be honest. And we're using Rotten Tomato scores, you know, right now. We got a couple articles on on them on tomato scores. Just, Charles, just, just in your mouth. That's what I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

That's one of the greatest. That's going to be called. Jake, you're an. honorary midnight. That's one of the greatest in your mouth moments ever. In your mouth. Chuck, in your mouth. Jake, can I get to my question? Wait a second. You can get to your question, but just admit that it's in your mouth right now. He's like, it's in your mouth. I do that on behalf of, and look, yeah, I want to start a little bit of shit just because it's fun. I like you guys. But at the end of the day, like I do that on behalf of the team. This team work really fucking hard. Oh, wait, wait, wait. On behalf of the whole team in your mouth. So,

I still stand on my shit. That's the art, though, right? It's in the eye of the beholder. Like, that's the best part about it. It's up for interpretation. It's up for that stuff. You're supposed to like it or not like it. That's the point.

So it's still, you know what I mean? It's still in his zeitgeist. We're still talking about it, right? Whether it's good or bad. But that's the point. It's something that didn't exist is now existing. And ideally, we have, have something to chew on for a while, you know?

I mean, also, X-Men fans are never happy. So, I'm being X-Men fans in it. We're all experts in it. And we all know how it should have done, right? All of us. So, I feel you on that. There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, I actually want to know what about it

that you didn't like. Oh, I mean, I think, and this actually, this is a different question than I had, but this is the question that I really want to know from you. I just think, like nostalgia, doesn't necessarily work for me. And I thought that while the original animated series,

I grew up on it and I loved it, I felt like this series was trying to tap into what I would have thought was cool maybe when I was like 7, 8, 9, 10, and necessarily did not meet me where I'm at in 30 in terms of like what the animation that I've seen, the different things in X-Men comics that I've seen, this almost felt like, and I said it on the show, a great palette cleanser for the X-Men,

giving us something very classic, very like the Claremont comics. And just after everything that happened with Fox, it felt more like this was targeted for, hey, we're giving the classic stuff. And where I'm at in my X-Men journey and my animation journey, I wanted something that was a little bit more,

you know, expansive. And I was just like, oh, I've never seen this before. So for you, when you guys were coming up with the show, what's the demographic? Are you trying to get new kids? Are you trying to get the people that watch the original show? Who are you targeting? Yes.

Yes. Yes. No, like, legit. Jake, Jake, before you answer, that sounds like some bullshit, don't it, Jake? How's that bullshit? How's that bullshit? Jake, keep it all the way real. Jake, you're on the midnight boys.

We don't fuck around. See, that sound like some little sound like some, sounds like some Airbrose bullshit, don't it, Jake. No, no, look, I appreciate that at that point of view. one, I want to joke and say, did you watch the same show as we did? But two, so the point, to your point that you brought up, ideally, the goal is to either, you know, if you join our show as a first time viewer, we got you.

If you come in as an X-Men fan, we got you. If you've never seen the OG show, we got you. If you want to watch the OG show, we got you. you know, ideally one helps the other. That's the whole point. They're supposed to be able to go together. So our goal was, yeah, we want to get new fans and old fans alike, but we want to just bring awareness to both shows, man, like, you know, appreciation for the IPs, what the characters

and the themes they stand for, you know, just bringing it about now. And, man, I lost my trying to thought because I was just thinking about how we don't talk about bullshit on this. That's funny. But yeah, like, so the goal was, like, anybody that's, that's been around that watched the OG show in its prime, right? We're of a certain generation of any of us that actually got to experience X-Men when it was around the show. That being said, we have grown up, the audience has grown up. We as a people and as an audience, as a culture, we have experienced anything, everything from 9-11 to fucking COVID.

We learned about consequences. We learned about real stuff. harsh reality. We grew up. We were told that we had to grow up just because the world around us was forcing us to grow up, right? Same thing with X-Men. That's where the nostalgia and the age of innocence, yeah, that that comes in, but our X-Men deal with stuff that they've never had to deal with before in the OG show, and that's real consequences. Sure, Morph died. Sure Wolverine got, you know, fucked up from Sabre Tooth, but he was bedridden for a while. Even Xavier got got got,

but like, you know, he's up with his bird girlfriend up in space getting healed, you know? So like there were there were consequences but not consequences. And that's something that is what's different about our show. Death, I mean, Remy dying, man. Like nobody died on the show. That was ingrained. I mean, I don't know. I saw that apocalypse Easter egg.

I know what's happening. But if we're talking about consequences. Do you? The midnight boys, the midnight boys, we had a very, very heated debate. Cyclops extends his hand to Bastion, you know? But Bastion, he gets a lot of mutants on Genosha. Now, in comic books, I believe it's like 14 million mutants on Genosha. So can you walk me through Cyclops' thought process on trying to become friends with, you know,

bashing who's destroyed all Genocia? I do, I love that question because that's the whole, yeah, that's why this stuff is put in there. you know, that was beautifully put in there from Bo in the writer's room. And, you know, Aunt Saletti, I believe even wrote on episode 10 for that, a bunch of that stuff too. But like, that stuff is beautifully crafted in there. But I propose a different way to look at it. Is it Scyclobs trying to befriend him or Cyclops just trying to coexist?

Because remember earlier, he said, we got to stop fighting the future. Cyclops says, we got to start living up to what we've been asking humanity to do for us. Stop fighting the future. and embrace them. The X-Men for the first time are find themselves looking in that mirror. That's what Bastion represents. They are being left behind by the future. They are now obsolete by what Bash, which is Bastion existing, right? The last Bashan himself, right?

So that's why, you know, I mean, we hear the whole season, you know, Magneto on coexistence, right? Coexistence is messy. Magneto says it in, in his original speech in episode two. That's where Cyclops is approaching it from. Cyclops is trying to be a leader. He's not trying to befriend him. He's trying to say, dude, this is an impossible force and an immovable object.

Why all die at that? Why not just coexist? Let's try that. We haven't tried that yet. But that's rough for Bashian. I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of humans on Janotia. I was looking sideways.

Yeah. No, look, I agree. When the world comes in, it puts like five episodes worth of hate and anger in Bastian's face. That one, I got to, that was me boarding on that one. Also, but shout out to Marvin Britt, our original board artists on that who gave me some really good stuff to work with. But like, I felt when I was boarding that for Roe, like, you know, the tears, all that stuff, that's all calculated. I wanted her. So, because like in the script, it was, you know, it was as written, like, Bastian gets to the, the, the, the gravity core. Rogue says, you know, his name is Gambit,

remember it she puts everything into him and in the script it was like an unaltered oneer as as she plows him through a bunch of walls you know and then out to the blue area of the moon i'm paraphrasing the script but that's about that that's what it was it was like yeah she it's a oneer and through a bunch of walls i'm like that's cool i understand what the the i understand the point of the script and what that means but uh as a director and as a storyteller myself we need to not we we just we need to see it we need to feel the We need to see the emotion. We've earned it as an audience.

Rogues earned it as a character. And also, just you can still cry and still be and still fight at the same time. You know, you can have emotion and still be at the same time. And Rogue is just case of point for that. And so I was like, yo, she should be having tears coming into that because that's everything coming out. And then also I just, I wanted to be like, you ever been so mad? you punched an MF or through the ground?

Jake, have you ever been mad enough? I haven't done it, but I mean, through Vance and Hollywood, yeah, fuck it. Yeah, we saw your violence come out right there, Jake. We got it. So a last question for you, man. You've been so generous with your, you've been so generous with your time.

The show is just ridiculously zeitgeisty. Everyone's talking about it. you guys have opened up two pretty robust can of worms. You guys have opened up the apocalypse can of worms. You know, you guys have opened up the onslaught can of worms. Not going to get too into where you guys are going to go because I want to watch.

Oh, you look like you wanted to say something. I don't know if I can yet. No, Joe, it's a midnight boy. Yeah, come on, bro. It's just us right here. Nobody else is listening. Yeah, you can. Yeah.

But what I will say is for season two, I probably wouldn't rely on the onslaught just yet. Just yet? Just yet. Mm-hmm. It's an operative yet. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. The things come to those who wait. And I'm loving where our season two story is. It's getting stronger like every week. Our animatics are looking awesome. We're getting animation back already for season two. Wow. Wow.

Wow. So when can win? So you guys are getting the animation all the way back. So two questions in closing. One, is there any whatsoever nervousness about the reception of season two being that you guys knocked out the park? So clearly with season one. And number two, when are we expecting season two to drop again?

Season two, expecting to drop, we'll let you know when we find out. The honest answer to that question is nobody wants a running cake, right? we got to bake the cake and when the cake is ready to be served, that's when we will serve it. And ideally, you know, we're going to have the Marvel and Disney backing with that. But it's also, we do want to get it out to fans because, you know, the hype is real. But at the same time, the reason why episode one, or season one works so well is because we baked the cake. You know, and I, yeah, I don't want to, just to be quite frank, we don't know when season two is supposed to be slated to come out. but there's no like mandate to get it out right now

it's we're making it work we're chewing on story we're making sure this is this the best possible path for this character is the best outcome for this story you know what's working what's not so we're in the weeds of it we're in the think of it will there be a new X team season two will we be seeing a new X team

we're going to have to watch and find out damn we are so happy that you took some time to hang out with us for a second We're so happy that the show exists. It was a lot of fun. And to be honest with you, it really put me a lifelong X-Men fan right back in the Claremont pages,

flipping them, getting into them. And it's a feeling that, quite honestly, I hadn't had with the X-Men in a while. So I really do appreciate you guys' work, man. So we'll be looking forward to season two. And whenever you want to pop in and hopping and talk to us on the midnight boys. Yeah.

Reach out anytime. Seriously. I love chatting with you guys. This is cool as hell. I appreciate it. I really do. Here, I'll give you guys a little tidbit. One, I didn't know if you guys know this,

but Larry Houston designed the external in the original show. Oh, wow. Yeah, so he designed it before Marvel publishing. They were like, we'll have a design in a few. And I just found this out like a couple weeks ago. They were going to have a design ready within like a month or two. And Larry's like, I need this due yesterday. So I'll just do something.

So that's Larry Houston's design. Oh, shoot. Regardless of whatever publishing went with. But yeah, so in the animated series, that's Larry Houston's design. Every cameo in the X-Men is illegal. But another tidbit, too, just to leave you guys with something to chew on. The Gambit Death Scene, we did three different versions of it. Yeah, we did three different versions.

One, so these are not the official code names by. any means, but these are ones that I lovingly dubbed. So we gave him, so there's always two things when you kill a character, right? It's what is the cause of death? What is the actual cause of death? And then how do we send them off? And so the cause of death always stayed the same. The puncture, you know, remember it, pulling that in, like that, that's always been the same. But we had three different endings. One was, I called it the Spike Spiegel ending. What is, what is Remi LeBos equivalent of Bay before he dies. And it's hayshare.

That could have been dope. Yeah. So it's, so there was, there was the, the Spike's people ending that we had. And then we did a, an ending nod to, uh, honor majesty secret service. Um, I don't know if you, y'all remember at the end. That's the only movie we're buying at the very end. It's one of my favorite ones. And then, uh, at the end, it's a really shitty ending.

But at the end, when they're in their honeymoon car driving away, one of the villains comes in does a drive-by and kills the, kills the bride. And one of the agents comes up after the, in the aftermath and bonds in the car, he's like, we can get help or whatever. And Bond's like, don't, don't worry, we have all the time in the world. It's okay as he's holding his dead lover. That's the same sort of approach that we did with, with, uh, uh, Road and, and, and Remy. It's okay, Kurt, you'll see him. He'll light up again soon. You'll see. She's like petting his hair. Yeah, we did some, we did some, we did some, um, And then the third one is what you guys ended up seeing, which is cool because I got to board both of those endings.

And then at the very end, the one that we ended up doing was a genuine collaboration of like my boards that I did, our director, Emmett Yonimura, and one of our revisionists, Amber Blay Jones. So the panels that you see at the very end is a genuine collaboration of the team working together to give you the screen. But at some point, I'm hoping we can show the world the alternate endings and stuff, just so you guys can see, like, how much we crafted and just this whole team. Just, you know, story matters and it's story over everything. It really is. So, but yeah, I just want to give you guys a little bit of tidbit, some to go away on. Hell yeah, bro.

Jake, man. Thank you, brother. We really appreciate that, man. Exclusives here on the Midnight Boys. We appreciate you joining us today, brother. awesome thanks for having you guys appreciate it have me back anytime please that's a wrap guys thank you for jake a very very fun interview we are looking forward to the second season of x-men 97 we're going to give you guys more interviews but only when they make a lot of sense

they don't want to balk the whole show down with interviews but it's a little throw you a curveball there great job by all of you guys and all your questions uh as a wrap for us on friday another episode of ring averse rep recommends releases with this most top recommendations I don't know if that works. With the top recommendations from the Ring of Verse crew, also on Friday, the House of Ardives, it gives you their much-awaited Paul Atrete's Hall of Fame episode.

For real, this time, it's coming to you. Credits, our producer of Steve, the Arctic Alman. Jomi, the explainer on the dineran is on socials. Hashtag, Meet Master Jomey. That's gonna stick. Meet Master Jome. Yeah. Additional production from Arjuna Ramcapal.

Chuck, take us out. Jake is the man. The Galaxy is a finger-licking. And if we've learned anything on this episode, Meza chocolate chicken B'bibu!