The Ringer-Verse - The Spring Hype Top 10 Roadmap | House of R

Episode Date: February 25, 2022

Mal and Joanna are here to break down the most hype releases of the spring and bring you everything you need to know on your fandom radar. First they look back on how they did for their hype top 10 of the fall (10:53) before they kick off their new top 10 for the spring (16:41). Then they reveal what surprises snuck into their top five most anticipated releases (56:03). Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal https://open.spotify.com/show/3z9QIZzDR4o34uBBbsxb0z Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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limited time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango, Yuzoo, chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great, sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sales signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. And welcome into the Ringerverse here on the Ringer podcast Network. I'm Mallory Ruben and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only back into the multiverse, but also to join us on

the Ringer's Nexus podcast feed. For all things, band them joining me today to fire up the spring height meter now that we've brought her in front of a mysterious tribunal it's my house of our co-host joanna robinson oh hi mallory i missed you a lot i missed you i missed you we didn't pot together last week i longed for you i yearned for you Hind. I perished. Yeah, I know. Oh, my goodness. It's so wonderful to be back here on Zoom with you. We have a fun one today. But a few quick programming reminders before we dive into the hype, it is almost time for the Batman and we at the Ring Reverse are in the Batmobile, in full Batman mode. Earlier this week, the Midnight Boys, Poo! Pew, Poo! debuted Batman Bingo. And this is a immersive.

shared experience. So you can hit up the ringer versus social feeds to share your predictions and potentially earn a spot on the official bingo card for next week. Speaking of next week, we, the House of Our, will be with you on Wednesday instead of our usual Friday slot. And we will be coming to you from the Batcave as well with a build the best Batman movie draft. We're going to have a couple of our fellow Ringer Batman enthusiasts joining us for that. There will be categories, rules, a totally normal level of competitive spirit. It should be a blast. And then, of course, it's going to be time to cover the new movie.

The Midnight Boys will be with you next Friday, March 4th, to share their instant reaction to the film. And then Joe and I will be with you the following Monday, March 7th, for our House of Our deep dive into the Batman. We are very hyped for the Batman here at the Ring orverse. but it's also one of many things that we are hyped for this spring. And so it is time, as it is on the eve of every new season, to fire up ye old house of our hype meter, to count down our most anticipated new releases of the spring season.

We're going to run through some rules before we dive into our list. We're also going to take a very quick glimpse back at our fall height meter list to see how that panned out just for, you know, shits and giggles and to ponder the fleeting nature of joy and certitude. I'm sorry, did you just dash off the fleeting nature of joy? You know, I'm in an existential mood today. Well, yeah. The Batman is already upon you. Rules. rules for the spring height meter.

All right. We're going to run through these. And to be very clear, these are not real rules. They exist in our mind and we made them up for the purposes of this exercise. We shared it. They're a little different than they were last time. They'll probably be different next time. That's part of the fun.

Okay? But it's also why we feel compelled to share them with you right here at the top. It's our house, our house of our rules. Here we go. First, what counts as spring? purposes of today's podcast. Now, you might be alarmed to hear that question. You might think that is clear and not something that warrants explanation, but you would be incorrect in thinking such. The first decision that we made, Joanna, was that there's so much happening this spring that summer titles, not eligible. We'll hit summer hype separately, probably, maybe. So mark your calendars for that possibility. Mark your calendars. Some nebulous date that may or may not have to. But mark it.

Exactly. Exactly. Speaking of calendars, the end point for today's eligible time frame is, in fact, the actual final day of spring. Summer begins June 21st, 2022. That is the end point for eligible titles. Okay. However, the beginning point is not the first day of spring.

Because the first day of spring is March 20th. And we are simply not. not inclined to wait that long. We wanted to include the Batman in this exercise. That was part of the reason we're doing this. And maybe another release or two that comes before March 20th. So for the purposes of today's podcast, spring begins today. And it ends what it actually is.

Happy spring, Mallory. The podcasts are blooming. The folio just blooming. My allergies are active, though. As we know, that's true year round. So to sum up. Rule number one, anything dropping between today, February 25th, when you were listening to this podcast and June 20th slash 21st can be selected. Next rule.

Yeah. This is a big one. We have what we are calling a wild card spot. What, you might be wondering, if an impending release does not have a confirmed definitive spring date, but might possibly, potentially maybe could be coming this spring? to account for that very circumstance. And to continue the proud tradition that we began by selecting the Sandman for our fall 2021 height meter, even though nothing, and we mean nothing,

indicated that the Sandman would be coming out in fall 2021. The word soon, I think, is what got you excited. That was not true. Soon has to be soon, right? No. Words mean nothing. No, no. Words are wind, Joe. We are each allowed to make one wildcard selection inside of our top 10.

That means we can use one of our 10 spots and only one of our 10 spots for a title that does not have a confirmed spring date, but is at least within the bounds of possibility, the bounds of reason that somewhere in the multiverse it might wind up coming out this spring. All other nine picks on our respective lists must have a confirmed spring date at least at the time of this recording. Next rule, we're counting down. That's how we're running through our top 10. We're counting down from 10 to 1, with one being our most anticipated release of the spring. We're building to that point.

Share discussion is our next rule. If a title appears on both of our lists, we will be discussing it at the higher of the two spots. So if, for example, you, Joanna Robinson, yeah, yeah, me. Have the Batman, let's just say, at number 5. On your list. But sure, yeah.

And I have it at number two on my list. We would discuss it when we got to number two. Correct. Next rule. Secret list. Because to be clear, I don't know if you have the Batman at number five. You don't know if I have the Batman at number two because we kept our list secret from each other. This is going to be surprised for us as well as everybody listening.

I'm a sneaking suspicion that we will end up with the same number one despite this clandestine prep, but we do not know for sure. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe not. Oh. Oh, the way he said maybe now has me unsure. So much awaits, including some honorable mentions at the end. You know, we can't get to everything in our top tens.

And because we are, I would say, just like, constitutionally incapable, collectively of limiting ourselves to the prescribed number of things that are part of any exercise countdown draft or other rubric, we will be tossing in some honorable mentions at the end. If we forgot anything, if any other member of the House of our family has another title that they want to throw out, you know, we'll hear later from Jones. from Steve from Arjuna jumping in with the thing that they are most excited for this spring. For all of that, of course, bear in mind our friendly neighborhood spoiler warning for anything that might come up today. We cannot give a precise one because we're going to be talking about a lot of different

stories, a lot of different franchises. No leak talk. Anything that preceded a title. Right. Anything that preceded a title that is coming out, we could talk about the canon around it. Right. We could talk about other Batman things, right? But we're not going to like tell you the plot of the Batman or something like that. I don't know the plot of the Black Batman, but if we did, we would not be talking about it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Joe, before we look ahead, let's look back, a little fall rewind. How you feel? This is my idea. This is my suggestion, and that was before I saw our lists again, and I was like, oh, no. But this is something I used to do my old gig is every year we would do way in advance, like right after the Oscar ceremony. We would try

to predict the Oscars of the next year. And then a year later, we would listen to what we said. and it's like, it's hilarious a year out because there are movies that, like, aren't even out yet or whatever, whatever the case may be. So it's always fun to look back on your efforts. And this, I'm so glad we're doing this sort of seasonally because did you, were you like an entertainment an entertainment weekly reader growing up, right? Oh my God, religiously. And like the fall movie preview and the TV previews.

Like those up, those issues were so exciting because you just get like so hyped up. Yeah. So, and recently EW announced that they are no longer going to be. putting out print issues, sad day. So I'm going to call this, like the Eritory Weekly Memorial, like quasi-demi, semi-amnual, maybe four quarterly, House of Our Hype List. It's a working title. I'm working on it. I'll refine it.

I love a working title. I love working title. When you look back at your fall slash winter, we had a little winter energy in their list. What feels right? What feels like, oh, boy, wish I had to do over there. And what just feels like the nature of the passage of time? What fulfills me? Fills me with existential dread. Okay, let me do just like a quick run through down my top 10. Okay. So it was number 10, cowboy bebop. Number nine, the witcher, number eight, Sandman, number seven, the Kingsman. Number six, Matrix, number five, Eternals. Number four, Book of Boba Fett. Number three, Hawkeye, number two,

do, number one, no way home. I'm feeling really good about my top three. That's what I'll say. I feel good about the top of my list. Cowboy Bebop, I really wanted to be better than it was. That was like sort of a late entry. And I was sort of like poking around. I asked some people on Netflix, is like, is this going to be good guys? Like, should I, you know, and they were like, yeah.

And then I don't know. But I enjoyed our time with it. The Sandman's still not out. It's not on my list. A spoiler alert is not on my list today because I have no faith that it's coming out even this spring. That feels like a sort of spooky Halloween release, maybe. And the Kingsman. Part of why I thought it would come out last one.

The Kingsman, my number seven, that I've seen the Kingsman. I don't know if you have. Confounding pile of decisions is what the Kingsman wound up being. So yeah, feeling good about my top. A lot of question marks in the middle. Eternal's, I don't know. Boba, I had every reason to hope. So there you go.

How do you feel? Wow. I had every reason to hope is just a great log line for this recurring recurring franchise here on the House of R. I love this. My top 10, which was a, boy, it just, just is a journey to revisit this. I had 10 DC fandom, specifically because of the Batman trailer. Nine Disney Plus Day. Wow. They let you down on that one. Oh, boy. What a sweet summer child, you know? Yeah. Eight, the Wheel of Time. time. Seven, the Matrix Resurrection. Six, the Sandman. Five, Eternals. Four, Hawkeye. Three, Dune. Two, the Book of Boba Fett. One, Spider-Man, no way home. Ever heard of it? You know what? I feel fine about most of that. Obviously, there are some do-overs. Sure. Would I move Dune into the number two slot? I would. Yes, I would. I would. I would. Listen, decisions were made. Yeah. The hope was pure at the time.

Joe, it really was. And without hope, what do we have? This is the nature of hype and why it can be like a good thing and a bad thing, right? Like, it's fun to look forward to something. It's someone to get excited about something. If you overhype yourself, you run into, you know, if someone said to me back in the fall, if I like called up someone at Lucasfilm and they actually gave me an honest answer, which they never would. But if they had, then like, listen, Book of BobaFet's going to be a few episodes of a middling show and then like a couple episodes of a freaking phenomenal show.

that's where I would have sat my ass. And then you have a different ride through it. A slow leisurely lied ride on a bantha. It's like a calm tour through the desert. But like if you get overhyped, then your expectations are, and then you know, then you get people saying like, well, this broke my heart. That it was, you know, it's just like, you know.

So I'm always cautiously hoping. But I'm really, I'm so happy that Doom lived up to what we wanted it to be. You and I had such a good time with Dune. And that no way home, like we were scared. We both had No Way Home at number one, but I was, I was faithless. Like, I put it there, but I was, and I was like whispering poison into all of your guys' ears. I was like, heard it's troubled. I heard it's not good.

I heard it's really dark. And then you guys all saw it and we're like, oh, it's great. And I was like, oh, it is great. So, you know, sometimes you can underhype something. But maybe the underhype is good because then you just, like, come out buoyed by an exceeding expectation. Yeah. I come, I tend to come at all of the stuff from, from two diametrically opposed mindsets, but to fervently end at once. I, I do like to try to manage my own expectations for how I'm going to feel about something so that, as you just noted, like, I don't feel let down by it.

However, you know, I'm like watching Elite 11 crunching the tape for the five star prospects when they're in high school. like I like to get excited early about something and then it's a part of my journey for eons to come. That's just how I'm wired. And how do those things inform each other? They don't really know. There's no wrong answers.

In the hype meter. It's not a game that we lost or anything like that. That being said, it's fun to think about the things that weren't even on our radar at all and what isn't on our radar now. Like I was thinking about arcane, which is something that like... Yes, that's what I was thinking about too. We just had no idea.

That Jome got us into and we just like it. we weren't even looking for it. That's a lot. And I just came through. And I tried to like scour into the corners this time because like it's easy to be like, well, these are going to be the Disney releases and these are going to be the like Warner's releases and like this is what Netflix is doing. I tried to scour the corners.

That sums up most of my top ten. I don't have a lot of, I don't have. I would say I have no obscure choices on here. So like did I look? Yes. Did I come up with anything? No. So, you know, some stuff's here.

But I'm always so excited. It's always nice when the when the true surprise just emerges. and just captures our imagination in real time. That's one of the true, true, true joys of doing this. So hashtag, listen to Jomi. Like, always. There you go. Want to support your gut health?

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as part of a balanced diet and healthy life. style may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Okay. Let's start with number 10, Joe. Okay. What do you got? This is actually inspired by, this is a late edition for me, and it was inspired by an

argument I got in with some friends at a bar this weekend. That sounds like a before times thing, but like I went out into an open-air bar that required vaccination proof and had an art. argument about pop culture. How did it feel? It felt really good. I felt alive. We were arguing about the new Star Trek shows on, well, now it's Paramount Plus, right?

But CBSL Access, et cetera. So like Star Trek Discovery, so Star Trek Disco, Picard, blah, blah, blah. And whether or not you like them, a friend of mine was arguing that it's not Star Trek. And that's, we had a long argument about that. I say it is Star Trek. Even if it's not your favorite Star Trek, it's still Star Trek. So that being said, because it was on my mind, Star Trek colon Strangely Worlds, which is premiering May 5th.

This is a spinoff of Star Trek. I'm sorry. Is this on your list, Valerie? It's not. Are you a Star Trek person in general? What are your feelings? I really like Star Trek. I don't, it's not as big of a part of my life as some other franchises, but I always enjoy it.

It's definitely something I want to follow a little. little more fully into. My husband loves it. It is a huge part of his life. And he watches all of the new, all of the new shows, any little, any little kernel that he can get. He soaks up. So I'm excited to spend more time with it this year. I'm really excited that this is on your list. Hit us. I grew up watching Next Generation and the original series, etc. So like, and our producer, Gina just weighed in with his love for Star Trek. So this is a Spinoff, it stars Anson Mount who plays Christopher Pike, who's a character that we've seen before in other Star Trek properties. He showed up in Discovery. He was very popular, along with

Rebecca Romaine's character and Ethan Peck, Gregory Peck's grandson, I believe, who played Young Spock in Star Trek Disco. So this is like a spinoff of Star Trek Discovery. It takes place 10 years before the original series took place. So Space 60s, so this is like early space, like late Spate's 50s, baby. And my hope for this series, I'm just kind of hoping that it's a slightly different flavor and just because I like different flavors of properties and looking at the promo photo that they sent out

of Anson Mount Rebecca Romaine and Ethan Peck, it just looks very like a little campier than what Disco and Picard have been doing. Like they're trying to capture some of the original series vibe. And I think that could be really fun to do like that kind of return to form for Star Trek. So it's 10 episodes. Paramount Plus,

which, you know, if you're a ringer, listener, you probably already have because of Yellowstone. So, uh, yeah,

make fun. Listen, there's a lot of Taylor shared and expanded universe stuff coming. Everyone's going to need Paramount Plus before long. This was not paid for by Paramount Plus,

but, thank you. An extraordinary. And I, I mean, extraordinary percentage of our texting is about Yellowstone, which is not really, like, bound in logic or reason, considering that is not something that we cover together professionally. But considering I haven't watched it at all. And my favorite thing is like a really good friend of mine is now starting Yellowstone. And he just texts me stuff about Yellowstone, again, that I have not seen.

And he's like, he's like, oh, the friend from Goodwill Hunting is in this. And I was like, Cole Housers in Yellowstone. He's like, yeah, Colhousers in Yellowstone. So more than in it. He's ripped. He's, he's, he's, he's the titular yellowstone. So, um, so yeah, Paramount Plus,

most TV, I suppose. What's, what's your number 10? My number 10 is saga's monthly installments. We're getting new saga. Oh, good one, Mallory. Every month right now. Is this on your list or can I, can I run through? No, I'm so jealous that you picked this.

Go for it. Hell yeah. Wow. We're getting a lot of like positive reinforcement from Steve and Arjuna right now. We just got all caps. Yeah, from Steve. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Saga, the Brian K. Vaughn, Fiona Staples,

classic is back. Now, technically, yes, saga returned in the winter. The long-awaited saga number 55 dropped on January 26th after a years-long hiatus. the seminal saga 54 had come out in July of 2018, July of 2018. And that's how long saga readers have been waiting. I had not been waiting quite that long. I read saga for the first time a couple years ago. Jay and I did a little run on it for binge mode weekly early in 2020. I read it ahead of that. But even so, it's been a couple years for me and the weight felt interminable, particularly given the just absolutely like a gutting conclusion of number 54.

Now it's back. We're in a new arc. We're in a new point in the story. It is going to be a source of wonder and joy and a monthly event all spring long. Now, by the time this pod publishes on Friday, February 25th, another issue will have come out. Saga 56 will have dropped on Wednesday, February 23rd. this. We're banking this a couple days early. But more goodness awaits this spring, Joe. This is so exciting. Number 57. I am dazzled by you picking the return of saga. I love it.

We got, we got issue 57 coming out March 23rd. We got 58 coming out April 27th, 59, coming out May 25th. That sounds like a spring full of saga to me. And that has me hyped. I just cannot wait every month to head to our rocket ship forest and Zoom to pick up the latest issue each month all spring long. Just fly through this new arc with Hazel and Alana and all of our other beloved friends. I just think this is such a beautiful, deeply immersive world and story that I really, really, really missed and I'm so, so delighted to be back in. And it is never too late to pick up saga for the first time.

Never too late to fall into the world. If you haven't checked it out, really would encourage you to. It's wonderful. Fiona Staples is just like, I mean, you know. A legend. Incredible. Okay. My number nine.

Yes. The Adam Project. Is this on your list? It's not, but it's on my, it's on honorable mentions. Okay. Good. Yeah, let's hit it here. Run us through it.

The Adam Project, March 11th. I saw a trailer for this when I went to go see Unchatted. Not a film I recommend you run to the theaters to see Uncharted. But, anyway. Anyway, the Adam Project, they're really hyping it. In the trailer, they're really hyping in as like, from the creator of Freakie. You know, like, so Sean Levy, who has a million credits to his name, including something that will probably show up later on this list for both of us.

But Sean Levy is director. Ryan Reynolds is a time travel. It's a time travel daddy issue story. And if anyone has heard me cover the D-Mashire lost, you know that this is like near and dear to my heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Ryan Reynolds travels back in time and encounters his younger self and is trying to fix something in his family. His dad's played by Mark Ruffalo.

His mom played by Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener's also here, Zoe Saldana. I just freaking, I love time travel. Same. I don't know what else to say. And like watching and, you know, in the trailer, it's about him like encountering his younger self. So watching an older, like the pie. possibilities of an older version of yourself and counter a younger version of yourself

in terms of like understanding who you are. There's a lot of rich possibility here. So I don't know a ton about this. But the trailer really got me. It's coming on Netflix March 11th. I'll be in theaters as well, I believe. And I'm, I'm really, I'm really excited. Very intriguing premise. It's a great pick. I love that. I'm very excited for this. I really hope it's good. And like an original property, right? Which is always exciting because we've got a ton of like adaptations and IP stuff to talk about. But like it's always fun when like a new, a new story enters the game here.

All right. What's your number nine? I was just thinking how like, you know, you love baseball. You love sports. And, you know, when you see like a heat map for a home run hitter. Yeah. Like where in the zone are they making them? contact. I know. I know again.

That exit Velo, you know, driving the ball. Of course. The premise of this, that's your, that's the darkest red on your, on your heat map right there. That's a meatball down the middle for you. You love it. It's great. Classic meatball down the middle for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Number nine. Yeah. Lego Star Wars, the Skywalker saga. Game. Wow. Tell me. Tell me all about it. Okay. So, this is set to release.

on April 5th, and it combines a number of my passions. Star Wars? Legos. Lego Star Wars. Lego versions of

just IP that I love. Shout out the Lego Batman movie now and always. Never miss a chance to say how much I love that. And you know, I would be remiss if I didn't mention. Another thing near and dear to my heart,

Finding ways to spend time with my husband, who will be playing this game for hours and hours and hours upon end. It's your very own out of project. Exactly. It is indeed. It is indeed. And, you know, he asked if I would be interested playing it with him. I thought that was very sweet. We actually played Jedi Fallen Order together. That was my last Star Wars video game experience. It was a lot of fun. And I just think this game looks so cool. The trailer was awesome. You can play through all nine episodes in the Skywalker Socket. You can play through the primary movies. Pair the gameplay with a rewatch and get that added immersive boost of exploring the world. According to the Star Wars.com breakdown of the game in the trailer, there are 300 characters and 20 planets you can unlock.

This is pretty vast and in scope. I genuinely cannot wait to be. play this and then buy even more Star Wars Legos than I already have. And I should, in the interest of full disclosure, note to you that I seriously consider selecting the next release of the Star Wars Lego helmets for my top 10, but restrained myself and went with this instead. Can play as Lego Grogo confirmed. What more do you need to know? Why is it so low on your list is my questions? Probably because I fear how I will lose myself to it, you know? It sounds like a, I don't need a flex. Some jargon that I know, but sounds like a real meatball down the middle for you.

Oh, my God. This is incredible. All right. Okay. Number eight. My term, number eight? Yeah. Okay.

I'm going to be quick with this one because I'm pretty sure it's higher on your list. This is another entry into the Sean Levyverse. This is Stranger Things Season 4, Part 1, May 27th is higher on your list, right now? It is higher on my list. Yeah. All right. But only just. We'll be coming back to it soon.

We'll be coming back to it soon. Okay, so that means I'm up again. Though, I think what I'm about to pick, there's a chance at least it's higher on your list. We'll see. Maybe we're not going to talk about anything here. Lightyear. It's not on my list.

It's on my... On your honorable mentions? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Lightyear makes it into the spring hype meter, most anticipated releases countdown just under the wire with a June 17th release date. I mean, we barely, barely got this in here.

Why is this on my list? First, I always love a Pixar movie, and it's a big year for Pixar. We're getting turning red, which, spoiler warning is on my honorable mentions list. That comes out March 11th, Pixar's 25th movie. Lightyear is the first of the next 25. Film number 26 for Pixar, that's like a milestone. It's just a big moment. in Pixar movie history, and I'm excited for this movie specifically for a few reasons,

which I will run through quickly. Wait, wait, can I say really quickly? Can I answer a quick question? Please. This is not me raining on your high parade. But here's a challenge. Can you, in a sentence, explain to me the premise of this movie and how it relates to Toy Story? I'm really glad you asked.

Because, well, I can, but I think maybe also. can't, and that's actually weirdly, like, part of why I'm so excited about this. So, first of all, I love the Toy Story franchise and am eager to see it spin off and continue to exist and be in our lives and, like, new and potentially very surprising ways, depending on exactly how the story plays out to get to the question you just asked. Two, great cast. I mean, Chris Evans, just thrilling, right? Thrilling. Three. The trailers have introduced, and I can't stress this enough, a robot cat named Sox. Wonderful.

You love so much that when we saw the second trailer, you were like, it was like you were greeting an old friend. I got very little engagement with these slacks and text messages from the Ring of Roche family. Let me just say that. And it was noted. Not a character you've only seen fleetingly in trailers. No, you were like, it's my old friend. Yeah, I mean, look, the Sox says in the trailer, you know, I am Sox, your personal companion robot. Personal companion.

It's wrong right there for us. Joe, four, we have a Michael Diakino's score. Love it. Delightful. And then, and this is the key. This is number five on my reasons I'm excited list, but really, this is number one, if we're being honest. And it's the question you just asked about. the mass confusion around the premise of the movie

initially spawned by the now-fabled Chris Evans' tweet. This was in the wake of the Disney Vesterday announcement about the movie December 2020, and Evans tweeted, quote, and just to be clear, this isn't Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human buzz light year

that the toy is based on. It's baffling. Now, if you are utterly confounded by that, you are certainly not alone. And in fact, you are the entire internet. We will refer you to, Joe was the first person to send me this piece, actually. And it's just sensational. We will refer you to at the Map Hatchez's Polygon piece. That is a recounting of the Polygon gang's Slack Exchange trying to decode what is going on here.

the headline is, and I just love this so much, quote, is Lightyear about the real Buzz Lightyear or a Buzz Light Year who is real? Okay, if Buzz Light Year is a real astronaut on whom, a real space ranger, on whom they based this toy, that means there are aliens in the world that Andy occupies. Halevsky's. If Buzz Lightyear is a, like a TV character that has a tie-in toy, it makes a little more sense, but why would Chris Evans call him real then? Yes. Yes. The recurring appearance of the word, like, real, real life, human, etc. Just chasing my tail on this one. I don't know what's so. Very complex. Now, I think like this is a

classic, two things can be true at once. One of those things is that there does actually seem to a clearly stated answer and explanation from the people making the movie. Director Angus McLean has said definitively that he pitched making a movie about the story that Andy saw in the Pixar universe. This is from Andrew Webster's piece on The Verge earlier this February. Quote, in a statement, they have to make statements about this. In a statement, director Angus McLean tried to clear things up. Quote, in Toy Story, there seemed to be this incredible backstory to him, being a space ranger

that's only touched upon. And I always wanted to explore that further. So my lightyear pitch was, what was the movie that Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear toy? I wanted to see that movie. And now I'm lucky enough to get to make it. So there's our answer. But the other thing that is true is that it does not seem to have really like permeated the

mainstream. There is just a lot of confusion around what the premise and intent of the, movie is. And I love that. I think the debate and discussion around it is just genuinely really weird and fun and going to make it fun and energizing to go see the movie and then talk about it. To infinite confusion. All right. So that's light year. Yeah. I'm excited for you. I'm excited. I'm excited for you to get a plushy of this robot cat. Yeah. It's a lock. There will be merch. Is it like a plushy that you want or is it like a do you want a Lego set or like what would be your preferred way? Oh, boy.

You know, with like plush cats, I'm always intrigued by how Halo interacts with them. There was some, you know, some not safe for work, Halo meeting plush crookshank's activity way back in the day. So, I don't know. We'll have to see. I'll see what the merch offerings are and then make a informed and responsible decisions. This changes my perception of Halo entirely. my dear. All right.

It's frisky. Yeah. All right. What's your number seven? Number seven of my list is my wild card slot. Ooh. Feels early. Feels early to go wildcard, but here's, here we are.

And I told Mallory before we started, I changed my wild card choice like multiple times. Will you tell us everything you considered or is that not to be revealed in a public space? I'll put that. I'll put that an honorable mention. Yeah. It is. And I feel, I feel kind of sure this is coming soon. whatever soon means.

Like Sandman coming soon or like actually coming soon? Like soon or Sandman soon? These are two different ideas. This is the Umbrella Academy season three. Okay. Great one. And the reason I think maybe it's coming soon is they release like character posters. And Netflix doesn't usually do a ton of promo like long lead promo.

So they released season three sort of teaser posters. And this is just a show that I really love. And I love spending time. in this world. It's shaggy, like a lot of Netflix shows are. Like, could it be tighter episode-wise? Absolutely. Do I remember most of what happened in season two?

No, I'm probably going to have to re-watch, honestly, as is the way with a lot of Netflix binges. But season two, which took place in the six, largely in the 60s, like, it's such a vibe. It's such a hang show for me, despite, like, some truly dark stuff happening. It's very stylish, violence, like, and some great performances. I'm really interested to see what they do with Elliot Page's character. I am never sad to spend time with Klaus, number four, played by Robert Sheen.

Just like incredible, incredible time. And it ended in a spot that I'm very curious to see what they do with season three. So are you an Umbrella Academy fan? I have never seen this show. I have seen some of it because Adam watches it. And so I've, like, caught certain scenes or sequences. I'm going to catch out before season three. This is like, this is on my list of things to be current on by the time the new season comes out.

Because I feel like it's going to be a fun thing for us to talk about. And pretty much everybody who I trust really likes it, usually a good sign. You know, there are like some shows that are just a vibe and you're like, it's just a vibe show. I'm not really, but like. I love a vibe. This is my vibe. Like, this is it for me. Incredible soundtrack.

Just really good stuff. Incredible special effects, too. There's like a special effect on a monkey character that is just like incredibly good. So, yeah, I'm here. I'm probably Academy season three. Possibly potentially coming soon. So, okay, and you'll hit us with your other wild card considerations later. Okay.

This feels I'll just say like a responsible and sound place on the list. to use your wild card pick, given that we don't know if the wild card picks are coming out this spring. I will say that I was not capable of doing the same thing. The wild card that I had before this one

that I changed back to this one, I had much higher. And I think it's the same as your wild card. And I was confident we would talk about it. So I decided to go with something else so we could talk about something else. I'm sorry, I love it. I love it.

I am one thing that you can always count on is that I'm incredibly predictable. So that's, no, it's just you and I'm helpful. You and I think similarly, but I like how different our lists are so far. All right. What's your number seven? My number seven is Stranger Things, which you had at number eight. So we can talk about it here.

You want to tell us why you had it at eight? No, well, tell me why you, because when we talked about this a little while ago, you were like, I love Stranger Things. This is like in a ring of verse text exchange. And we were kind of, the thing we were talking about that tempered our enthusiasm slightly is just sort of like how long it feels like it's been and how long the series is kind of dragging out, and especially since the series, thanks so much on that, like, Amblin 80s, childlike summer adventure wonder. And so the older the kids get,

the further way we get from, the genre that I like to call kids on bikes, like the further way we get from that genre. And so that's the question is, like, how old are we supposed to believe these kids are? How old are these kids? Like, what's happening here? That being said,

obviously, Stranger Things is a huge, huge, like a huge cultural phenomenon in a way that makes me excited for everyone to be watching the same thing at once, which is harder and harder to get nowadays. But I do feel like that when a stranger thing season drops, like everyone drops what they're doing to watch it. So how do you feel? What are your thoughts and feelings? That's one of the reasons that I'm so excited for it. It just feels like, I think, you know, a recurring through line of discussion across the nerd culture space and pop culture space at large is like, what is monoculture anymore? Or is there such a thing? Can anything even approximate that? And as you noted, like, Stranger Things is a, I think, genuine shared experience when we get a new installment. And I love that. Like, I have a really, like, genuine fond memory of when season three came out. And, you know, getting to chat about it with Chris on the watch and for a ringer video and, like, embarrassing him and myself by crying while talking about, like, childhood memories and going to the ball with your friends and talking.

talking about stories you love in the basement, and then, you know, an even fond of memory, if I'm being honest, of landing the Stranger Things Nike Tail One Drop. Those are sneakers that I love. Someday we're going to do a ring of our episode. It's just like a tour through your favorite genre merch. Oh, boy. It's, you know, recently my...

A 10-part series. Our cherished colleague, Ben Glickson, asked me on a recent call, how many, like, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter and Marvel and Star Wars t-shirts I thought I had, and I just lost in silence. Yeah. Just attempting to tally them in my head. Anyway, at long last, Stranger Things is set to return. We got very recently, just last week, some key confirmations.

Season 4 is dropping in two parts. So part one is spring. May 27th, five episodes. I will say, as excited as I am for Stranger Things, I do wish strongly that it was not debuting the same week as Obi-1 Canobi. That's a thing. It's a challenging. Part two is coming in July, July 1st, and that will be four episodes.

The Duffer Brothers said in a letter that they put out to fans that this season is, quote, nearly twice the length of any previous season. Now, seasons one and three were eight episodes, season two is nine episodes, so it's not double length in terms of chunky boy episodes.

Yeah, I think we're getting a long, meaty, meaty, meaty episodes. And then they also announced that season five will be the final season. When season four part one drops, volume one. And we're getting that in 2030, by the way, when Mully Bobby Brown's schedule clears up. Yeah.

No kidding. It will have been nearly three years since season three, which was July 4th weekend, 2019. That is astounding. Three years. I mean, talk about something that I'm excited to go rewatch and try to like freshen up on again because it has really been quite a while. I loved, loved, loved. season one. I liked season two, I think maybe more than some. And season three, I just really enjoyed.

I thought the end was like just devastating and really moving. We have episode titles already, which is always fun to parse. Here's some of the other stuff that we know. Six months are supposed to have passed since the Battle of StarCourt, like in the fictional timeline of the show. Six months. Now, as mentioned, mere moments ago here on this very public. It will have been nearly three years between seasons of the show. It's going to be interesting because the kids have aged, you know, literal years since filming. They originally started filming this back in February 2020, but of course, as was the case with, you know, almost every production had to halt because of COVID. I think it's just going to be interesting to kind of, you know, we can get a feel for it already from the trailers.

They're in high school now. Just like, how does all of that feel? And then also I'm just fascinated by some of the choices that they've made in terms of what they're they've revealed in the trailers, like, and just general kind of promotional information about the season. Like, we know that Hopper is back. We know that he's trapped in Russia. They did not make us wait to find that out.

It's been confirmed in teaser, trailers, posters, official season synopsis, David Harper's Instagram everywhere. Everywhere you could possibly look, you can find that out. We've seen these other kind of intriguing glimpses of new things, like Creel House in one of the trailers, our guy Sam from Ozark. Can't wait to see Sam here in, uh, in Stranger Things. We know that Hopper's not the only one who's not in Hawkins anymore because one of the trailers,

the one that's centered on 11 and Will has them out in California. But we also know for that same trailer that it seems like they'll all be reconvening in Hawkins for spring break. And, you know, we've also kind of learned for the Duffer Brothers. So it seems like they're really intent on making stories in this universe even after this particular story concludes. So, like, I'm eager to kind of see how the world expands. but I'm mostly, and excited for future spinoffs and installments, but I'm mostly just really invested in how this particular story, which I have loved so much over, you know, seven years at this point.

I'm really eager to see how it concludes. And, you know, as they've said, this is the beginning of the end, right? And it does feel that way. Like, I just am, I'm just really ready to be with these characters again. I think that the story taps into not only like adventure and imagination, but the passage of time lost the way that we changed together. I just love it. I really hope it's good.

I really hope it's good. I was surprised it wasn't higher on my list, honestly. I thought it would be. My main question around all this, and I put this in our text chain about this, is like, Finn Welfard is 19 now, is approximately nine feet tall.

Yeah. This is the, the Brand Stark is suddenly like a power forward in the NBA. Yeah, but brand was spinning down most of the time, at least, you know what I mean? Like, um, so, uh,

yeah, so we will, we will see what they're going to be. to do with Finn. I don't know if they're going to make him go on his knees or like make everyone else down on Apple boxes or just like say that he's the tallest freshman that ever was. Maybe that can all happen. But yeah, we'll see. I'm intrigued. I haven't parsed the trailers the way that you have. I love your enthusiasm as always. And I'm excited to see what we see. All right. Number six on my list. Six. Let me adopt a strange accent. This is mine too. This is also my number six. As I talk about number six. debuting on March 30th. It's Moon Night. Yes, it is.

Oscar Isaac's curiously accented foray into the world of one of the more intriguing, stickily problematic Marvel comic book characters. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I think on this podcast, I've been sort of digging through some of the old Moonnight storylines is I've got some pals who are really, really into Moon Night as a character.

And it's been really interesting. There's a lot of potential there. There's a lot of, like, really, really interesting, um, stuff that they could do.

And then there are ways in which it could go terribly wrong. So, I mean, it sounds like a messy ride. The Disney plus Marvel shows have been, you know, up here,

there up and down. So we don't, we don't know that it's going to be like the best, best thing we've ever seen. But I think Six feels like a really good place. I'm, I'm like,

I'm very curious. And it could potentially be amazing. I mean, Ethan Hawk entering the world of Marvel has me very excited. Remarkable. What a time to be alive. And I want to say that like Oscar Isaac can do no wrong, but you saw apocalypse. I saw apocalypse. Like it can happen.

So like, you know, you never know. But I hope that this is it for him. I hope it goes really well. And I hope we get to see him play versions of this character for years to come. I'm not surprised that they're trying to like hold a lot back in the promo that we've seen so far. And we don't have to wait that much longer before we will know more. Why is it the number six on your list now?

March 30th. Just right around the corner. Just a week. We trip in the Lory away. If anyone has not read, our Ringerverse co-host, Charles Holmes, is accent breakdown on the ringer.com. It's a work of scholarship and you should check it out. Why am I excited for Moon Night?

For the reasons that you mentioned, you know, we got the full trailer during the NFL playoffs, Rams Cardinals, and it was riveting. I'm just fascinated by the story and so interested to see how it feels and what level of connectivity it has to the wider Marvel universe. I don't know nearly as much about Moon Knight's comics history or Moon Knight as a character as I do

about a lot of other Marvel characters. And often I find that, like, daunting and it fills me with anxiety and stress. But here I actually find it exciting, both because, you know, like we talked about this with Wheel of Time. I like when something is coming out that gives me the push to explore the text. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that gives me the, the nudge to go dive into some of the comic arcs and get more, like, fully acquainted with the canon before the show drops.

And then also because, obviously, it's just, it's going to be new and fresh for me, and that's always fun. I think in a big picture sense, I'm excited because Moon Night feels like one of the types of shows, one of the types of explorations that Disney Plus can give us. You know, sometimes one of the opportunities that Disney Plus as a platform of Forge

is that we get to spend more time really getting to know characters who we have already been with in the films. Like we can just spend a lot more time with Sam or Wanda or Loki or Hawkeye, right? But it's also a great way to bring new characters more fully into our lives and into the Marvel mix for Phase 4 and Beyond without constantly having to deal with the log jam and glut of movie team ups. And then, you know, more specifically, as you noted, I'm just interested in the character, but also like the tone and the vibe. the show is definitely being marketed and presented as this darker, heavier examination. Kevin Feigy recently outlined this

when he spoke with Ben Travis for Empire. This is a quote from that. It's been fun to work with Disney Plus and see the boundary shifting on what we're able to do. There are moments in the series when Moon Night is wailing on another character and it is loud and brutal, and the knee-jerk reaction is,

we're going to pull back on this, right? No, we're not. pulling back. There's a tonal shift. This is a different thing. This is moon night. And it feels like from the trailer, that's true, but I'm kind of curious to see how true it is, right? Like how much of that is like a thing that somebody says when they're marketing a new project, how much of that is really true. I mean, I think overall, and we've talked about this before on the feed, we are kind of entering this, if not like, overt outright Marvel horror, though I think we are also entering a more overt, outright Marvel horror phase of Marvel stories. Definitely darker Marvel, Marvel tale.

I mean, and Dr. Strange certainly falls into that bucket. Blade is coming. The Black Knight is in the MCU now, Marvel Zombies, etc, etc., etc., etc. Wherewolf by Knights? Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And then, you know, you already mentioned the cast, but like, I'm sorry, when are we, are we ever going to not be excited about Ethan Hawk as the villain or Oscar Isaacs as the lead?

I think we'll always be hyped about that. And, you know, I'm really interested because Oscar is playing. a character who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. We've seen Stephen Grant and Mark Specter in the trailers. Obviously, we've seen Moon Night in the trailers. We haven't seen Jake,

one of his other identities from the comics yet. You know, we hear him saying the trailers, I can't tell the difference between life and dreams. I'm just fascinated to see how the show explores that. And then Ethan Hawk is playing Arthur Harrow, who, like, is, you know, often the MCU updates characters and combines them, as we've talked about many times. But, like, this is not, like, a major, major character from the comics canon.

So I'm really fascinated to see what this version of Harrow, like, is. And it's been, Daniel, Daniel Chan, our colleague wrote about this in his trailer breakdown. It's been interesting to hear Ethan Hawk talk about, like, the, you know, cult leaders that he's, like, model. Yeah. Roll off up, and we hear him say in the trailer embrace the chaos. So, you know, trailer looks great. Cass looks great.

Intriguing tone. Canon is fresh to mine. I always love a weekly MCU installment that we get to just talk about over a series of weeks. And it's a limited series. So there's just a lot of things that they can try. I'm really eager to see this. I'm excited. Well,

something you mentioned just now I want to start back on, which is like talking about Disney Plus is a great place to spend more time with characters we know and launch new characters. And so launching new characters you think about like Sylvie or Kate Bishop or like, but these were all new characters that were launched within the context of character we already know. This is the first time Disney Plus Marvel is giving us a character and a show that as far as we know has no major connected tissue to characters that we already know in the MCU. And as you say, that's like that can be really freeing for them. And it's hopefully it sounds like from what Fai'i said to Empire, like that it can result in a very different tone, not feeling like you have to match. Or maybe they're going to group all of this Marvel horror into sort of like its own strain of the universe.

verse. But I'm really excited for that. I love all the, I don't know any spoilers or leaks, but I love all that, like, I've heard that people are like, we think Ethan Hawk is playing Dracula. Like, maybe, like, I don't know. Who knows? All on the table. Who knows? Or another thing, like, an issue of Moon Night that I read that was one of the most popular Moon Knight runs, but also, um, there are some questionable things that happen in it. But in it, like, Moon Night, it's not the, it's not the moon night personalities. It's Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine

are all the various personalities in his head split out from him sort of taking the wheel at different points. And that's just a fun premise for Marvel fans to just like get to do this weird hang with Captain America

and Wolverine and Spider-Man. So like is it possible that they're going to bring in like some, I mean we got Kingpin at the end of you know, who knows what they have up their sleeve in terms of what they might bring in? And since connecting things is all the rage these days, I don't know. A lot of question marks, a lot of blank spots here that could be filled in. I'm really, really excited.

But it's number six because it could be a nose dive. Who knows? All right. Number five, you already mentioned it on your alternative list, but it is high up for me. It is turning red, the Pixar. film. This is the directorial debut from Domi Shee, who won an Oscar for her, like, amazing Pixar short bow that I absolutely loved when he came out a couple of years ago. Maybe my favorite Pixar short ever.

Super weird and super emotional and beautiful, and I absolutely loved it. And so the fact that they gave Domi this, like, this film that's about a young girl who turns into a giant red panda when she gets, like, anxious or stressed. and sort of the, I think the tagline is growing up as a beast, just sort of the potentiality there for, similar to inside out and exploration of, you know, the way that Pixar can do about what it's like to be young and emotional

and, like, trying to figure everything out. And Domishi has just shown, like, a real aptitude for that particular strain of very emotional. I wept like a baby when I watched Bao. And, like, you know, it's easy to say you cry during a Pixar thing, but, like, bow is so weird that the fact that I was crying as hard as I was,

I think really speaks to the potentiality of this creator. This is coming directly, the thing that makes me a little hesitant is this is coming directly to Disney Plus, March 11th. And when something, when a studio, I know COVID is a big factor here, obviously, but when a studio decides to give an at-home push

versus an in-theater push to something, it still carries a little, I have some questions around it. It might just be that this is like pitched towards much younger viewers and it makes sense to release it at home, you know, all that sort of stuff.

It may mean nothing, but that's just something that, you know, is pinged on my radar. But I'm really, I don't know, I'm excited for this. I know you love a giant red panda. I can't wait. This is so soon, too.

Yeah, March 11th. Yeah. This is a great book. I love it. A slightly less, sweet pick coming from your truly here at number five. Yeah. Perhaps the complete opposite end of the...

Yeah. The general spectrum. Yeah. The boys. It's higher for me. Okay. Oh, great. Okay.

Awesome. All right. So we'll wait to talk about it until we get to wherever it is on your list. I'm so... I'm intrigued. How wonderful. Okay. What's your number four?

All right. Get out your beard trimmer and your topiest robes. Wow. Does it feel low? Number four? I'm honestly shocked. I'm floored. I mean, there's so much good stuff. Oh, my God. No, this is great. I love this. A true surprise. Number four on my list, May 25th. It's your shocked it's so low. I thought for sure you'd have it higher. Remember earlier when we were talking about it every now and then there's just a real genuine surprise in life? This is one of them. I think if we hadn't just gone through what we went through with Boba, which is not all bad. Okay. Yeah.

But shook my confidence a little bit in Lucasfilm TV storytelling. This would be higher. Okay. Obviously, you and I love Obi-Wan. We love you in where we've been dying to spend more time with him. you and himself has been like years he'd been like if the right thing kind of the right you know and like the right thing came at the right time or whatever the right right numbers after the dollar sign came or whatever it was he's back we don't know a ton of what's we have only a teaser poster to go off of there are some whispers in the wind but we won't be talking about him and uh obi won't I mean I imagine we'll talk about it more since it's high for you yeah it's iron oilist we'll circle back I'm uh I will just say that talking about Obi-One with you every week is one of the things that I am just things,

not even, not just spring releases, just things in the world that I am looking forward to most this year. Genuinely. Number four, for me. Yeah. The Batman. Higher for me. Higher for you.

Okay. We hit the stretch room. We just don't talk about anything and just say numbers and words to each other. I love it. Here we go. We're back. We're back to the same. We can talk about number three on my list is the boys June 3rd.

Okay. All right. Why do you have it at three? This is great. I love it. Yeah. Well, I mean, partially I wanted to break up the sort of stranglehold that like the DC Marvel Star Wars properties have on our collective consciousness. And also the boys last like the boys is something that I really, really liked in season one.

It was like a big surprise for a lot of people. I like that people that ate like as much as we love the Marvel DC stuff. which we do, it's nice to have this property, which is poking holes in. Because I think it's always healthy to poke holes and tropes and constantly sort of be going back and forth

and things. So the fact that the boys is entertaining on its own and does such a good job of poking at these worlds that we love. It's sick and twisted and that there's just like a delightful pleasure

in that. And then I just thought season two really kicked it up into a higher gear. My girl, I cash, just like completely crushed season two. Houring. Houring stuff. Awful, great stuff.

Homelander, like, I think Homelander is one of the greatest characters of all times on television. I just, I, and the fact that... An absolutely indelible creation and performance. I mean, and the fact that Homelander is... like draws from Superman and Captain America like two of our purest pop culture icons to deliver us something so monstrous is like, you know, part of what makes the boys

so interesting. I think Eric Kripke is so thoughtful about the way that he does this and has promised some truly disgusting things for season three in ways that I'm just like really excited to see how far that they can push it. And then Jensen Eichols, like fan favorite Jensen Eichols is joining in season three. Soldier boy.

So I'm really excited for all of that. I'm a little less excited. Like they've got a lot of other spin-off things planned that are coming off of the boys. And I don't know that I want like all boys all the time. Like I like it as a sort of concentrated injection of depravity once a year sort of thing. I don't know that I need like all the spinoffs. But I'm really excited for season three. I am just, I'm with you every step of the way here.

You know, June 3rd, Amazon Prime, everybody in the viewing public can grab a bottle and fill it with breast milk and get ready to rejoin the seven together. That's what the boys asks of us. I was so thrilled to see it get nominated for an Emmy last year, got nominated for an Emmy, and that was amazing. But I am starting my Emmy for Anthony Star. campaign as a winner now. Like nomination. Maybe not win, but I, nomination. Okay, I cut you up.

Sorry. Please go ahead. Now, this is a, this is a, a banshee household. So you're well within your rights to interrupt and tell him at any point. I love the show. I cannot wait for the show to be back on. It sounds like the trailer is imminent. I mean, I guess it's even possible that it could be, it could release between the time that we've recorded this podcast and it has dropped.

It's definitely, it's possible. And, you know, you noted, like, this is just kind of a big moment for the boys expanded universe in general. The Boys Presents Diabolical, which is like an animated anthology show inside of the Boys universe. It's coming really soon, March 4th. Maybe we'll get a trailer for the Boys attached that or in some way around that. And just even more broadly beyond the Boys and the Boys universe, we're just in a big stretch here for Amazon's Nerdverse push. And I'm interested in it. I'm interested in seeing what, you know, grip and foothold they can carve out.

You know, the boys' rules, as we've just discussed, diabolical is coming. Invincible, something that we adore. Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power ever heard of it is coming this September. We'll have time just aired. The Expans just concluded, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The Boy season three continuing to up the quality is like a big part of that and such a different energy and like tonal installment than those other shows. And it's just been a minute. It's been a minute since we were with the boys crew. I mean, October 2020, I just, I can't wait to be back with Huey and Butcher and Homelander and the whole gang. And you mentioned, you know, Soldier Boy and the new characters. We have a lot of new characters coming, which is really exciting. I think the show does a really good job of incorporating new personas into the mix without like disrupting or making us feel like we're not getting as much. time with the characters that we're accustomed to being with.

And I've just, like you said, like, I've kind of missed that hard-ar cynicism, you know, as a point of contrast to the earnestness of much of the rest of the content out there. I'm really hyped. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has a return, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, in danger and a ruthless rival ranch

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Uh-huh. My number three, perhaps unsurprisingly, is my one. Wild card selection. Yeah. It is. House and the Dragon. This is exactly where I had it when I had it on my list. Number three. I absolutely agonized over the placement because here's the thing.

Truthfully, if we had a confirmed spring date for this, if we knew definitively this was coming out in the spring, I would have this as my number one. I would. That's so exciting to hear. You're ready to go back. I am. I am. We have to. But because it does not have a confirmed date.

and it's my wild car pick. I felt like three was like the highest on my list that I could really justify putting a title that doesn't have a confirmed spring date. If I wind up blowing up my list with the wildcar pick that doesn't come out in the spring, what better way to burn it all down than with Dragon Fire.

That's what I'm going with. Just despite everything, Joe, I'm going to keep this quick because we... hilarious. It's the funniest thing you want to say. Oh boy. I could just see you. the Jomey and Steve Irolls,

even though their cameras were not on on Zoom. I could still, I could feel them through the ether, through the digital abyss. We talked about this on our excitement for it and our intrigue. At length already, we did a trailer breakdown right here on the ringer. Right here on the ringer podcast network. So anyone who wants to hear more of our initial thoughts and more about our anticipation, check out that pod.

It's right there waiting for you in your podcast feed. quickly, just to kind of sum up. Very promising first trailer. A really rich stretch in the canon, you know, the Dance of the Dragons, the Targary and Civil War, that palace intrigue and familial strife that works so well in a Song of Vice and Fire adaptation. This is set broadly. We talked about this in our last chat. We have some, you know, questions about how much time frame adjusting there will be against the canon,

how many flashbacks we might get given some of the casting of certain characters across time spans, et cetera. But just broadly speaking, 129 AC to 131 AC is when the dance takes place. And there's just a lot to parse here. I cannot possibly be more excited for Matt Smith's Damon Targaryen. We're getting that increasingly book accurate Iron Throne. We're getting the seasnake, the Valerians. We're getting Valerian Steel.

Like, bring us Blackfire. Bring us Dark Sister. That cat's ball plate. I need it back in my life. George says he's seen it and loves it. I love that for him. I also love that for him. George's had a tough couple years, I think.

I'm choosing to put some stock of that and think that it's really encouraging. Who knows? But, you know, I don't know, I'm just starting to feel the itch again. Like, I feel like it's time to start my reread. it's time to dive back into fire and blood. I'm ready. I'm ready to go back to Westrose. I'm ready to go back to Kings Landing.

I'm ready to go back to Dragonstone. I'm ready. You know how you were like talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi weekend week out with me is something that you were like dearly looking forward to? I mean, you and I have spent so many hours of our lives independently talking about about Game of Thrones and together at like a couple of Con of Thrones. You know, like we've chatted about, but like this is this is the property that you and I have spent a lot of time of our lives on.

And it, you know, it didn't end the way that I think a lot of us hoped it would with the Thrones. But we'll see if House the Dragon takes off. I'm very curious. I'm very curious to see how it does. But above all else, I'm really excited to talk to you about it because... Same pal. Our brains are cooked with Dragon Fire, I think.

So, yeah, here we go. All right, you ready for my number two? Yes. My number two, I am confident is your number one. It is Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, May 6th. Is that your number one? Perhaps shockingly. It is not. It's my number two. Okay. It's my number two. Yeah. We can talk about it together. I think it's a high likelihood that I regret not putting it at number one. I came very, very close to putting it at number one. But I ended up going with number two. Run us through it. I mean, we've talked about it at length already on various episodes. By run us through it, I mean, direct people to the extensive trailer breakdown that you Van and Charles just did last week here on the Ringer podcast network. Yeah, that was a great time.

A great time was how by all. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what more there is to say. It should probably be number one because all evidence points to the fact that they're going to blow this out the way that they blew out, Noe A Home. You and I wound up looking really good, putting No Way Home as our joint number one last time. So maybe we should be smart and put it as our number one this time and, like, bank, you bet on Marvel, but it's my number two, but, you know, I'm, of course, hugely excited for it. I'm excited for us to talk about it.

I'm excited to hear what the Minow Boys say about it. It's a fun time to be a Marvel fan, May 6th. And I'm, like, really excited for the ongoing conversation around Wanda Maximoff. That's all I'll say. Like, I tweeted something about still being team Wanda. A lot of debate around what's going on with Wanda. But, like, I'm very curious to see how this all turns out. She seems like she's cutting a villainous figure in the trailer.

I have a lot of empathy for her coming off of Wanda Vision. So I'm curious to see how they bridge that in a way that feels like it's honoring the character and all of that. And I mean, just excited to watch Elizabeth Olson just chew it up because whatever you might say about Wanda Vision. And I loved it, but some people found the ending like, you know, the finale wasn't tremendous. But like the Penal's episode when we're like going through Wanda's mine, everything leading up to. to it. I mean, she's just like eating it all up. So I mean, you know, strange aside, like this is, for me, this is maybe Wanda Maximoff in the Multiverse of Badness is this movie. And I'm really excited. I like Strange too, but I love it. I'm here for Wanda. Yeah, I'm, I'm so excited for this

movie. Like, I honestly, my top two are really like 1A and 1B, truly. It was really hard to order them. I, I'm always excited for a new Marvel movie. I am always excited. I am I'm always excited for more Dr. Strange. I love Dr. Strange as a character. I love how Dr. Strange has been deployed across the MCU. I like the first Dr. Strange movie a lot. I really love how the character has been used in team-up movies and other installments. And this just feels, you know, you and Van and Charles did such a great job exploring this.

And everybody really should go check out that trailer breakdown if they haven't at the Super Bowl trailer pod. this just feels like so elemental to the MCM moving forward in so many different respects. The multiverse, the mystic arts, Wanda, and her chaos magic, everything that's going to happen with the introduction of America Chavez. And then, you know, Sam Ramey's back. We talked about those like horror vibes and everything that's going to happen with just like kind of the tonal, the expansion of the tonal palette. of what the MCU is. I personally, just to be clear, like don't like horror movies,

actual horror movies in general, but I do like Marvel horror. Michael Waldron penned the screenplay for this. Friend of the pod. A friend of the pod, our guy, Michael Waldron. I mean, you know,

his show, Loki was one of my favorite stories, not just Marvel stories, just stories of the past year. So I am so excited to see his version of Dr. Strange and his version of Wanda. and his continued exploration of the multiverse,

because that's obviously the multiverse and more broadly, just like, exploring complex characters, right? Whether that's strange or Wanda or anyone else, that is so central to how he explored Loki. You're ready for nightmare time? That strange supreme connection to what if? Mordo!

All of it. Something that I remember when I was interviewing Waldron about Loki, as you did as well on this feed. And I told him that I preferred Dr. Strange in Infinity War to Dr. Strange in his own movie because I really liked the dynamic of him like... Yeah, bouncing off of Tony. I thought he needed someone like Tony to bounce off of. And Waldron's answer was like...

What is he? Your Ward? Holder's answer was good. Yeah. Yes. And so I'm like, oh, that's very promising to me. And like the idea of like, you know, strange bouncing off of other strangers is, you know, kind of fun to think about. Yeah. There's like a wit and a zip to the dialogue that I just love and I'm really excited for.

And, you know, you all dove into some of the speculation and, you know, the theory corner of it all on the trailer breakdown. But there's a lot to get excited about there in terms of the possibilities, you know, is that Patrick Stewart's voice of the trailer? seems to be, what might that mean? Are we getting the Illuminati? Is that like mystery tribunal in the trailer? Are we getting the X-Men? I like the theory that Susanna Polo put forth on on Polygon that maybe the tribunal could just, I mean, it was a piece about the Illuminati, to be clear. But another possibility that was put forth was like, could this be a tribunal full of strange variants, a la Loki? You know, because that's a thing that the council of Ricks. Right. And of course, what else did Michael Waldron work on?

Rick and morning. Right in morning. So, counsel of Ricks is the first thing I thought of when I saw that. It felt very counsel of ricks to me. So excited for this. Yeah. Susanna is so good at what she does. Yeah. So that's Dr. Strange. That's my number two. 36. So your number one is Batman. Now I know what your number one is. So be one. My number one is Batman. And the reason why my number one might be. Might be the Batman is because might be, might be like a proximity excitement, right? Because I'm seeing the Batman in like 48 hours. So I'm really, I'm really excited for that. And I've been like working on a piece for the for the dot com about, you know, we're all in Batmania right now. And so I've been, I've been like head down in comics and animated and live action and all this sort of stuff.

So I've been like rewatching. So I'm just like swimming in like Gotham. city basically. So it's hard for me to not put this at the top of my expectation, anticipation, because, and I talked to, like, no, no spoilers at all, at all. I don't have them. I'm not giving them. But I did ask our colleague, Sean Fennessey, like, I was like, give me, give me the, like, no details. Did you like it? And he was like, yeah. And then he gave me, like, do you want more? I was like, but not much, but a little more. And he was like, you know, and he gave me like a one sentence and I was like, okay, all right, all right, all right. And if Sean likes it,

I'm probably going to like it is how I feel. So yeah, so that's why it's number one on my list. I think just because it's right around the corner and I'm just really, really excited to talk about it. And like the thing is, like, we spend so much time talking about, we have collectively on this feed spent so much time talking about Disney property stuff. And I feel bad that like, you know, you guys just did a lot of peacemaker coverage, you know, certainly covered like suicide squad and like other things as they've come up. But, you know, the equation feels unbalanced. And I didn't respond super well to the last iteration of Batman.

So it's exciting for me to be excited again about this character in this city and this rogue's gallery, which are all like characters that I, of course, like all of us grew up on in a way that feels more connected to my childhood than even Marvel does. So I'm really excited to see, you know, Catwoman and Penguin and Riddler and whoever else might be. Maybe on board here. Matt Reese's thrown everything at the wall and see what sticks. So it's three hours of my life, I guess. So here we go. Yeah.

Yeah, three hours. First, you know, record the first house of our movie Deep Dive Pod that's shorter than the film challenge. This is going to be a big. big moment for us. You know, you said it. I mean, we're mere days away from a new Batman movie. That's like a big deal. This is a thrilling thing to get a central DC installment and to get a new Batman. Like new DC continuity is also just broadly really interesting. You know, this is not set in the prime DCEU. We're on another Earth, right? Earth, too. The multiverse is all around us across stories right now and what that means for DC stories moving forward and where, most

most of these stories are going to be set and how they how much time they spend in the DCU and how much time they spend elsewhere. I'm really curious to find out. You know, just an incredibly, incredibly exciting cast. I mean, our pats is as Bruce Wayne. Have we talked about it enough?

I don't know if we can talk about it enough. What a time. Again, my greatest love, Zoe Kravitz, as Selena Gile, Catwoman, a gift. This is when we talk about, about gifts from the content gods. This is, this is what, this is what we mean.

You already said, like, the riddler, a penguin. Colin Farrell is a penguin. It feels like one of the movies, like, only, I mean, I think he'll be amazing, but, like, one of the only real sins in movie domen is covering Colin Farrell's face with, it's a dual sin. Because, like, here's what I want to say. Number one, crime to cover up Colin Farrell that way. Number two, also, you can just cast.

actors that look like that in these roles. If you want an actor that looks like that in these roles, this is a blanket statement in Hollywood, there are plenty of working actors who look like that. You don't have to like, you know, latex up a deeply handsome man in order to like do that. So, yeah. Taking food out of the mouths of the average looking working actor is what I have to say

to you, Colin Farrell. But I'm excited to see it anyway. Oh, God. We have Paul Dano as a. a definitely like new spin cinematically on the riddler, which I'm ready for. You know,

I'm ready. It's been a while. Like, when's the last time I saw Paul Dano in something? Once I'm forgetting something, it's been a little, it's been a minute for me.

I mean, I think about him almost every day because Sean quotes, there will be blood. So, so regularly, but he might not be that present in other people's lives.

Jeffrey Wright is James Gordon. Andy Circus is Alfred. Your guy Barry is in this movie. The mystery. Question work. That might be why. That might be why. it's number one for me.

It's like, what is Barry going to be doing? I'm really happy for you. I am. I'm excited for you and I'm happy for you. And just like the Matt Reeves of it all. Like the whole kind of sensibility in the movie has me hyped. This like long, dark tale, this gritty aesthetic. It's a year two Batman story, which I'm really, I'm really excited for because we will still

be early in Bruce's Batman career, but also hopefully not just like repeating the same origin story beats. I don't think we will. I think we will avoid that. which is good. You've mentioned this a few times recently in just our planning chats that R. Pats has invoked Mask of the Fantasm

on the press tour when he's talking about the movie and the kind of the Bruce and the general overall Batman early days kind of vibe that they're looking to strike, which is very promising because that, you know, 93 animated film is like just a classic and an absolute gem.

I love this mix of villains and anti-heroes. I love the way that Reeves has talked, you know, for years at this point now, about how he's really drawn to like the noir quality of a Batman story to that like detective tale. I just can't wait. Zoe is three hours of it. Zoe Kravitz also invoked Frank Miller's year one. And I asked Sean about that and he said, yeah, in like tone, he thinks that that's like a good,

a good comp as well. So yeah, not in plot necessarily. Classic arc. Yeah. So Batman. It felt weird for me to not have this in my top three. obviously my number three might not actually come out. And so then this could, this could, I guess, slide up. But, uh, you know, it's very high for both of us. I saw, I saw a great TikTok this

morning that, like, someone was analyzing the cowl they put on Robert Pattinson, which like, it's, compared to other cowl, cinematic cowls we've seen, it goes like really high up. Like, it's only, it cuts. Yes. Very intriguing bat suit in general. It cuts down at his cheekbones. You get to see like all of his jaw, essentially. And they compared to Christian Bales, which, like, I hadn't realized, but like, it essentially only opens up right around like the goatee, like the Dr. Strange goatee area. Like it's a very closed off mask, the bail mask. And I think, I don't know, I think, I think what it means is that hopefully we'll be able

to get a lot more of the human performance in the bat than even, even in, you know, other Batman films that I absolutely love. But, you know, that, like, that freedom and access to the actor's face, as opposed to Christian Bale, just like not being able to turn it. head and, you know, etc. Yeah, when you're playing Batman, you're playing two roles, you know, you're playing Bruce and you're playing the Cape Crusader. And it's definitely nice if something can help bridge that a bit.

Can't wait. So that brings us to my number one, Obi-1 Canobey, right? Is that right? Or is that all we have left? That's it. I think it is. I mean, I don't know. What else is there to say at this point?

This is just, I can't wait. May 25th, six episodes, Deborah Chow, Disney Plus, absolutely elite cast. including one of our great shared loves, Ewan McGregor, reprising his role of Obi-1 Canobi. We got Hayden back as Vader. The whole cast is just very, very, very exciting. Set 10 years after Sith, so that's nine years before New Hope.

I think this is a rich stretch of the timeline to explore. We have touchstones and data points, but also there's a lot that they can do that's new that will not be familiar to us. Joanna, like the poster that we got nearly killed me. I don't know how I will survive the trailer, let alone the series. This is one of the ones on the list. There are a lot of things here I'm excited about. And if they don't, if they don't meet the hype, I'll be like, okay. If this does not meet the hype, I will be despondent. Like, I really will. No, no, no, no, no. Let's go, let's go back. I will. Let's go back to our fall hype list because I

I need the Duchess Sedeen in a flashback. I remember you saying that you needed Boba Fett to be great. You needed it. That's, okay. You were like, I need, but like you feel okay. Boba Fett was fine. Yeah. And you're okay, right?

Two episodes of that were so good that it was enough to carry me. Yeah. Yeah. I have much, much higher expectations for one than I did for Boba. Much. The sandy desert breeze. like blowing through Ewan's beard

Well as the John William scores swells Jimmy Smith is here somewhere I mean that's newish information Since the last we talked about it Jimmy Smith's my My king is coming So you know it's

And we're all going to again marvel at how much better Bail Organa ages than Obi-1 Canobi etc you know it's all it's all happening Obi-1 I can't wait All right that's it So, hopeless. It's a great list. Delightful.

Full of dazzling and trees. Should we hear from the boys before we give our- Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Steve or Jomey, what's your number one most anticipated? You know, I wanted to sag. You know, I wanted to be different. But I'm not going to lie.

It's Dr. Strange. That's my number of one. Like, I'm not even going to, I can't hold you, you know, to see the MCU, like, really hit this multiverse thing. with Wanda, maybe she's the villain, you know, who we don't exactly know. And then America Chavez continues my Young Avengers agenda. So that's always good.

Like, I'm ready. And has the potential, you know, change the MCU irrefutably, you know, as it stands. And so I'm going to have dreams for weeks slitting up to the premiere. Like I'm just going to be like, oh man, this could happen. This could happen. Like, yeah, that's my number one.

Let me not even cap. Kevin Faggy. But will you have nightmares? Oh, Kevin Faggy send the check. I'm ready for Dr. Strange in the multiverse of madness. That's my number one hype for this spring. So something you were talking about earlier before you hopped on the call was that we were looking back at our fall hype list. And we were talking about the things that weren't on there that like, and both Mallory and I want to talk about, shout out our cane.

And shout out your influence for like, we didn't have it on a radar. The Jomey Arcane Agenda came through. You see it. Oh, the misery. Also, I want to shout out Young Justice. Young Justice is coming back this spring. And that's always going to be on my list as well.

Yeah. Oh, Steve. I might side with Joanna here and say that my number one is the Batman. I'm just, I'm very, very excited for the choices. that this movie has the potential to make and the... It's a great way of putting it. Yeah, it is a great way of putting it.

And just like, I've expressed a fraction of this opinion publicly, but I think that, like, movies like this might put D.C. in a very good position going forward. We're not doing this on the podcast. No, no, no, no. We are doing it.

It's not that we're not doing it. Stop couching your stance. Say it. Don't be afraid. No one's here but us. No one else can hear you. Just us. Nobody's listening.

It's a safe space. It's a safe space. Van's not here, but I am. Exactly. I think the DC is in a fantastic position and could potentially be in a better position from the MCU going forward if this proves successful. It's a liar.

Listen, hope springs. Hope Springs, right? Hope Springs Eternal. I love you, I love you, Steve. You're so nice. You're such a nice human being. You see like the good and everything. I'm a cuddly Christmas bear.

You can't stop me. I love that. I love that for you. But I think Steve's point, which you, you and Jome were texting me about that this idea that because

D.C. is not burdened by the connective tissue that holds so much of Marvel right now. And, you know, but to Mallory's point earlier with what Figuigi said about Moon Night is possible that they're going to break off into these various strains and if that's the case. I mean, I just

I think everyone would agree that we don't want just the same thing from Marvel. And I wouldn't, I'm not one of the people who thinks that every Marvel movie feels the same, but certainly that there are plenty of people who don't feel like the Marvel movies feel different enough. The Marvel content doesn't feel different enough from other Marvel content to feel like if this is the predominant pop culture, which Marvel kind of is right now, like we would like more flavors than our popcorn bucket or something like that. And the idea that like DC can with like Aquaman being its own weird gonzo thing and

with this being an alternate Earth Batman, like DC has the opportunity to get even weirder, possibly, if it wants to. I love that. And to know that those characters don't necessarily need to run into each other five years from now. I think it's exciting. I mean, it's like the question that people had around this idea that, like, Sony wanted Tom Holland, Spider-Man to fight Tom Hardy's venom. And I saw a lot of negative reaction to that because there was like,

there were people saying, we don't want venom softened up so much so that, he seems like he belongs in the Tom Holland and we don't want Tom Holland toughened up enough that he seems like he belongs in the Venom universe. We refer to keep them separate. Do you, how do you feel, Mallory? About that.

I admire Steve's courage and it makes me think... No, I'm going to be... I'm serious. It makes me... I'm serious. I think it's really lovely that you're putting this much stock in home

and it makes me think... I'm hopeful for a very good year from D.C. I am. I'm taking a page out of your book. This is pure optimism. This is Mallory Rubin branded optimism. It's not pure optimism. And that's what I like about it.

It makes me think of, have you, Steve, have you seen first reformed? Oh. Another excellent Ethan Hawk performance. It makes me think of, of the way that Reverend Gawler talks about. I can't believe you're invoking first reformed right now. Because I love this, I love this quote. You know, wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind simultaneously.

Hope and despair. A life without despair is a life without hope. That's what I'm here in. from Steve. I think he's got a great, he's got a great point. You know, DC has the ability

to buck the trend to zig where Marvel is zagging and create its own niche in the superhero marketplace. I'm just saying, keep zagging, DC. Keep sagging.

Steve, have you ever put Pepto-Bismol in your whiskey? I can't believe you're bringing this up. Do you know that that was 84, right? 824 that year

sent me a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of peptobismal in the mail. Did you try to mix them? I did you give it a go? I did not. I don't want to put a hole in my stomach or liver and or liver. I think to help if you have one already. I might give it a go.

We'll see. I think Steve, where you lose me is the D.C. is in a better position than Marvel point. It's like saying the Sacramento Kings are in a better position than the Golden State Warriors. Well, only time proves the former. Like,

we already know that Marvel is in a good spot. I just not, I mean, I'm looking at them both right now. I'm looking at the box office projections, bro. Like, it's just not, it's not where it's supposed to be. Well, it just depends what you mean by better.

I don't mean to sound like too Nirmie about it, but like, if you mean better as in like more money, no, Marvel's in a better position to earn more money because of brand recognition. I'm only talking about the idea that DC has arguably a better bench of characters to pull from and the opportunity to tell amazingly different and diverse stories through different types of movies to be made.

And I think the fact that they're not locked down by a, long-standing, decades-long continuity now, they could pull a lot of different types of, like characters and talent off the bench to make different types of movies. Oh, for sure, Steve. If that's the point,

then why do we have our third Batman the last 10 years, Steve? Because he's Batman, and he's a, like, I don't know if you know this about Batman. He's a pretty popular character. I don't know, man. This is my, this is, I don't know what I'm going to tell my kids

who my Batman was, Steve. There's three of them. I don't know. I, I'm upset. that you don't know this because I feel like it's the core personality test. Oh, no, I have. I know. Who's your Batman?

My Batman's bail. It's, we don't have the time for it. It's, but it's bail. Right? My Batman's bail. And there's a Batman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah.

My pick honestly changes depending on my mood at a given moment. It really does. But obviously bail is like the... I've heard you say before that it's bail. So I'm holding you too much. But I am, I am partial to Batfleck as... I really am. Not to the movies, but the...

to his rendition. But bail is like, you know, central to my life. Steve, was your batman? It's, yeah, it's, it's Keaton for me. It's Keaton for me. Yeah. You're either a Keaton or a bail. That's how I really feel the world is sort of.

There's two types of people. Keatons and Bales. I put my two walls inside of them out there on the best of Batman pod that Sean and I did did multiple months ago and he was, um, he was distressed. Mallory, I'm going to tell you right now, it's a good take. It's a good take. It is not a commentary on the movies.

It's just simply that he captures an essence. He's the best part of Batman versus Superman clearly. Oh, boy. What a weird bar to set. The best part of Batman v. Hey, I didn't say it was a high bar. I didn't say it was high. He didn't like jump nine feet.

You know what I'm saying? This is an Olympic record. Batman be Superman is the music cue for Wonder Woman. Like that music cue. That's it. Are you telling me it's not, why did you just hire that name? Martha. Rapid fire.

Honorable mentions. Just roll run through lightning. What else? Morbius is kicking around down the bottom for me because like what if it's actually a trash repiece. It might be. You know what I mean? Sometimes Jared Leto does this.

shit and I'm like, you know what? I enjoyed it. So, possible. House of the Dragon is down there for me. Lightyear was down there for me. Jurassic World, because my expectations are very low, but my fondness for Laura Dern is very high.

So we shall see. And then the true alternate that I only bumped because I'm pretty sure it's going to be a Halloween release is the Midnight Club, which is the new show from Mike Flanagan for Netflix. And I just like really always love a Mike Flanagan joint.

And he had, he, it's like about psych ward, um, patients. It's based on, um, a YA book. Um, but he's got Heather Langenkamp, like the original final girl. Heather Langencamp is coming in to do,

uh, the Midnight Club with Mike Flanagan. And that has me really stoked. So, uh, uh, how about you? What's your, what's your, what are your alternates? We've hit most of them already. You mentioned a few Morbius is on my, honorable mentions. I already mentioned the boys presents diabolical, already mentioned turning red, you already mentioned the Adam Project. I also have Halo coming out March 24th, Paramount Plus, big one here in our household, because my husband loves Halo and has played that video game, those video games, including the new one, more than he has done anything else in the entire time.

I've known him that says he's very hyped and I'm just, I'm hyped for him. My notes say, Halo, parentheses, I'll let Mallory talk about this. You know, fun fact, Joe, when we adopted our cat, Halo, when we rescued him from the shelter, his name was already Halo. And it's because he has like a halo shaped pattern on his head. But Adam was like, oh, awesome. It's like the video game.

So there's that. Seems from a marriage. Amazing. What else? Outlander season six comes out very soon. I'm behind on Outlander, but I enjoy Outlander. And a lot of people really love Outlander who are current on it still, which again, I am not current on it. I need to catch up.

But I'm not to mention that as well. Do we consider Top Gun Maverick eligible for our universe? I mean, it's fantasy of a certain type. Certainly be on the list, if so. Top gun would be really high. Like, I, okay, I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but I cried when the first top gun, and I didn't expect to, because I had zero thoughts or feelings around this top gun reboot, except I did not want Miles Teller to be in it.

But the score started playing. Yeah. And I got emotional despite myself. So top gun would be on my list if I felt like it counted. That's just peak, peak, peak ringer core. Yeah. Any others on your honorable mentions? Those were mine. I feel like we, I feel like we effed did it.

And I'm excited to like read Saga and talk about space Jesus, Obi-Wan, and the Bat family and everything else is going to be really exciting. I mean, Batman is just around the corner. It is so exciting. I truly cannot wait to share it all with you and our listeners. All right. We did it. We did it. We did it. Every night we dream the same dream, the dream of content. And it's time to slumber again.

So that is a wrap on today's episode. Thank you to our master of the mystic arts, Steve Allman, for producing this episode. Jedi Knight, Arjuna Ram Gapal, for his additional production work on this episode. And Hawkins' finest, Jomea Denneron, for his work on the social for this episode. Be sure to head back into the ring. In mere days for all of that Batman content. Until we get to say, hello there. Goodbye there.

For now. Hello. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people. Real care. Real intention. Why? Because real matters. So whether you're pouring milk, melting cheese, or just grabbing one more spoonful of yogurt, keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California milk by Real California Farm Families.