Welcome to The Rundown report (as gathered by Taryn Belle) with Nerd Union for May 21st, 2021.
MOVIES
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has officially revealed it’s synopsis, according to Screenrant, which confirms “the arrival of the Chaos Emerald and Knuckles the Echidna and his partnership with Dr. Robotnik, aka Dr. Eggman. The film series is based on SEGA’s video game franchise of the same name that began with the eponymous 1991 title. The film sequel will see the returns of Ben Schwartz as the titular hero alongside Jim Carrey as Robotnik, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter.”
Screenrant has also reported that, while a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show, Jason Momoa himself has confirmed Aquaman 2 begins production soon: “The actor also revealed that he had a hand in writing the story for the upcoming sequel …‘After we ended the first one I went in with my writing partner and we dreamed up the second one and we went in and pitched the idea … And so, we did the first treatment and then James and our original writer David finished it off. And all of our hearts are in it. Instead of just like getting a script and doing that, you are 100% being encouraged by your director and co-writers. So that’s exciting for me and I’m excited to go over there. I leave in July and we start filming.’”
Over at Vulture, “Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the duo behind 2020’s most successful movie Bad Boys for Life, have signed on to the long-developing Batgirl.” Batgirl was originally announced in 2017 for HBO Max and has been passed around several times since Joss Whedon left in 2018.
Collider notes that Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation have released a trailer for Wish Dragon, which drops on June 11: “Wish Dragon follows Din (voiced by Jimmy Wong), who comes across Long (voiced by John Cho), a dragon who will grant Din three wishes. Wish Dragon is the first film written and directed by Chris Appelhans [who previously had various design roles on Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox,The Princess and the Frog]. In addition to being produced by Aron Warner (Shrek), and Chris Bremble, Wish Dragon is also produced by Jackie Chan.”
Yahoo!Entertainment has featured the first look at Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington in Netflix’s fantasy School for Good and Evil. “The film, which is based on the fantasy novels of the same name by Soman Chainani, is set in the fictional widespread location of Endless Woods. The first trilogy follows the adventures of best friends Sophie and Agatha at the School for Good and Evil where children are trained to become either fairytale heroes or villains.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is following The Mandalorian’s lead by using virtual sets to film scenes. CBR.com has revealed that “Peyton Reed posted the first set photo from the third Ant-Man film to Twitter, offering a unique perspective of the StageCraft set the film will be utilizing. Reed is, of course, familiar with the technology as he directed a Season 2 episode of The Mandalorian. ”
SHOWS & SERIES
Coming off her recent appearance as Margaret Thatcher on The Crown, Gillian Anderson will make two appearances on Hulu’s The Great as Catherine’s mother, according to EW.
Indiewire has announced that Netflix is officially working on Enola Holmes 2: “The followup to Netflix’s smash hit film about the sister of the world’s greatest detective is being developed and produced by Legendary in partnership with the streamer. Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill will return to their roles of Enola and Sherlock Holmes from the original.”
IGN reports that the R.L. Stine book series Fear Street will be released as a movie trilogy frighteningly soon: “Netflix has revealed that scary season will arrive a little earlier this year as the streaming service will be playing host to ‘an epic summer movie event’ comprising three Fear Street movies. The first of the trilogy, Fear Street Part 1: 1994, will drop on Friday, July 2, with Fear Street Part 2: 1978 coming just one week later on July 9, and the final installment, Fear Street Part 3: 1666, on July 16.”
Comicbook.com has highlighted James Gunn’s recent Instagram Story replies to fan’s question, specifically answering, “When can we expect the show?” in regards to HBO Max’s Peacemaker. Gunn replied with, “January 2022.”
Engadget notes the nostalgia for the 1995 Batman: The Animated Series before revealing: “Now, J.J. Abrams is aiming to recreate that magic by teaming up with Timm and Matt Reeves (director of the upcoming film, The Batman) for a new HBO Max series. Dubbed Batman: The Caped Crusader, it’s meant to be a return to the character’s noir roots, where the trio hopes to explore the psychology of Batman’s cavalry of characters.”
Hocus Pocus 2 is officially coming to Disney+ in 2022! Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy have all tweeted to confirm their participation, which Disney+ officially promoted on their social media. TVLine relays: “Hocus Pocus 2 will center on three young women who ‘accidentally bring the Sanderson sisters back to modern-day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on the world,’ according to the official description. Midler, Parker and Najimy will once again play witchy sisters Winifred, Sarah and Mary Sanderson. Anne Fletcher (The Proposal) will direct the live-action sequel, with Adam Shankman (Hairspray) serving as an executive producer.”
InsideTheMagic has confirmed that we’ll be seeing some animated Nick Fury soon: “Disney+ is adding a little something special to help get fans excited for non-stop Marvel content: Fury Files. Originally slated to air last year, the show was pushed due to the pandemic and is finally arriving on Disney+ starting Friday, May 21st. ‘Fury Files is a new informational program that will teach fans about their favorite Marvel heroes and villains using a combination of motion comic art and scenes cut from popular Marvel animated shows like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and X-Men: The Animated Series.’”
TheDirect has found us some bonus Loki mischief: “Disney confirmed that two upcoming Marvel Legends episodes will feature Loki and the Tesseract. These installments will premiere on Disney+ on Friday, June 4, 2021. ”
Gizmodo has featured Amazon Prime’s upcoming show Solos, which boasts an All-Star cast including: Anthony Mackie, Dame Helen Mirren, MOrgan Freeman, Dan Steves, Anne Hathaway, Constance Wu, and Udo Azuba. “‘Solos is a dramatic and thought-provoking seven-part anthology series that explores the deeper meaning of human connection, as explored through the lens of the individual. Solos will tell unique character-driven stories, each from a different perspective and moment in time, that illuminate that even during our most seemingly isolated moments, in the most disparate of circumstances, we are all connected through the human experience.’”
GAMING
The Nerdist has highlighted Wizards of the Coast’s recent announcement of “a summer-long celebration of all things Drizzt Do’Urden.” It kicks off with an animated short featuring the dark origins of Drizzt who will be voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch – big spooky rhyming vibes below!
Social PLATFORMS
Endgaget reports that Twitter is finally reopening the public verification checkmark: “The update marks the first time Twitter has allowed users to officially request verification since it ‘paused’ the feature in 2017 after verifying a white supremacist. Since then, the company’s continued to verify accounts, but there was no way for users to officially request it. The result was an opaque process that left many users confused, even when the company tried to fast-track verifications for health experts last year.”
Endgaget also revealed that Spotify is rolling out accessibility features, such as automatically creating transcripts for all podcasts and support for text resizing options for better readability.
Microsoft has officially announced an end to Internet Explore by June 15, 2022, according to Reuters: “Launched in 1995, Internet Explorer became the dominant browser for over a decade …The browser, however, started losing out to Google’s Chrome in the late 2000s and has become a subject of countless internet memes for its sluggishness in comparison to its rivals. To compete better, Microsoft launched the Edge browser in 2015 that runs on the same technology as the Google browser.”
Redbox has announced it’s becoming a publicly traded company. The CEO, Calen C. Smith, sent out an email to all of their subscribed customers with the details, which can be found in our show notes.
In frustrating “what’s the catch” news, ARSTechnica reports that ”Verizon and other Internet service providers are preventing some low-income customers from getting new $50-per-month government subsidies unless they switch to different plans that are sometimes more expensive … Verizon stands out among big ISPs in its use of the subsidy to ‘upsell’ customers to pricier plans, according to a story … by Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler … Instead of letting people enroll online, Verizon requires them to call a phone number to sign up and then ‘tells some customers the EBB can’t be used on ‘old’ data plans, so they’ll have to switch,’ the Post article said. Verizon is limiting the plans available on both mobile and home Internet service.”
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