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  • Kang’s Time Chair Is The Key To the MCU’s Next Endgame

    Kang’s Time Chair Is The Key To the MCU’s Next Endgame

    Marvel’s Phase 5 will kick off in earnest with a Kang variant going to war with the two Ant-Men, the two Wasps, and the 6th Young Avenger to join Earth 616 in Stinger/Stature when Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters next month. Paul Rudd‘s Lang trying to balance his newfound fame with reconnecting with his now-almost-grown-up daughter who has grown up without him over the last five years are stakes made for drama, but it is the role Jonathan Majors‘s Kang plays in these proceedings that is really what impacts the overarching multiversal war coming down the pike. However, judging by the new trailer, war is not what the Conqueror starts out aiming to do, as it is a deal made with Scott Lang gone awry that prompts Kang to beat the everliving ants out of Lang. What is this deal that Scott alludes to? We believe it has to do with the image Empire released recently, with a Conqueror sitting on his throne.

    The throne this Kang is sitting on in said image is actually what is known as the Time Chair, and it is an incredibly important piece of tech with ties to those two big Avengers movies we are barreling towards at warp speed. The Time Chair is the device Kang uses to travel anywhere in time that he pleases, and it could stand to reason that we are about to begin to find out that this Kang (before he was trapped in the Quantum Realm) had used the Time Chair to directly impact various points in and out of the MCU. During one of Kang’s initial appearances in the comics, he uses the Time Chair to go back in time to when Steve Rogers’s Captain America perished into the ice. After seeing Cap go into the ice, Kang uses the Time Chair to teleport the Avengers to a future Earth in ruins, with Captain America being his scapegoat for the destruction. Going down the rabbit hole, it is possible that Kang wants to use the Time Chair to do exactly this because Cap didn’t prune all the branches when he went back, but that is for another article. Even more important than how the Chair is connected to the Avengers and their past is how it might be connected to their future.

    The Chair itself, in the comics, is powered by the same giant rings that power Kang’s forcefield: you see the giant rings in the latest trailer, which ironically have the same markings as the bangle Kamala Khan got from her grandmother and the Ten Rings Shang-Chi got from his father. The last we saw of the rings, they were acting as a beacon, for something or someone, and it is possible that they are acting as a signal to the Time Chair and its owner. Looking back at the comics for a potential roadmap, Iron Lad (a future Iron Man) is a descendant of Kang, and it is Earth 616’s Iron Man who ultimately disables the Time Chair. Upon disabling the Chair, Iron Man tells Kang that he was able to do this because the chair’s design is actually based off 21st Century Stark Technology tech. If we are to believe that Phase 5 is dealing with the theme of legacy (we have legacy heroes being swapped out for the next generation), then it could stand to reason that it will be the next generation of Avengers who fight Kang first, before potentially giving way
    to a multiversal group brought together to bring the fight. Thus, it would also stand to reason that Kang’s power comes from artifacts spread throughout the multiverse that have been passed down to the next generation of protectors. What, then, does this have to do with the finale in the Ant-Man trilogy?

    Kang needs Ant-Man to help him find something, and it needs to be something really important if he would offer him the chance to regain some time (the one thing this Kang has dominion over) with his daughter. Now, yes, villains lie, but the more compelling villains actually don’t lie: they manipulate and bend the truth, but they don’t outright lie, and Kang may be no different. He will plan to work with Ant-Man and, upon seeing him with Janet Van Dyne, who is responsible for him being stuck in the Quantum Realm, he chooses to renege. Janet could be the one who disables the Time Chair during her time in the Quantum Realm, and who ultimately hides the piece missing in another reality: there is a line in the Ant-Man and The Wasp where she tells Scott to not fall into any tunnels while in the Quantum Realm, and we are guessing she knows not to do this from experience. What Kang needs found, we think, could be the movie’s MacGuffin, and it could be one of the rings that powers his Time Chair: without it to power his chair, he cannot escape.

    You know, one of the rings that make up Kamala’s bangle, and one of the rings that make up
    the Ten Rings Shang-Chi has. And, maybe, He Who Remains had a role to play in the
    disbursement of the Conqueror’s power years ago.

  • The Last of Us: Apocalypse 101 – Rule #88, Don’t Be A Martyr

    The Last of Us: Apocalypse 101 – Rule #88, Don’t Be A Martyr

    PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

    Rule #1, Cities Are Bad

    Rules #13-17, When You Kill Them Make Sure They’re Dead

    Rule #27, Only Carry What You Need (And Weapons!)

    Rule #49, Learn Not To Feel

    Rule #58, People Aren’t Better Than Monsters

    Rule #73, Look For The Light

    ????, 2033

    -Iggy Bigby

    I don’t know what day it is. I spent 20 years of the apocalypse keeping track. Funny I would die not knowing.

    Let’s just get it out of the way – this is probably my final journal entry. I thought I could talk to people, help them understand what the world needed to heal. Make them see the light.

    I was wrong.

    We raided a Hunter settlement. Tried to bring them into our fold. We severely underestimated how many of them there were. They killed everyone in my mission, and now I’m in a cage on the way to sacrifice. Well, execution really. Being “thrown to the beasts“, an example for anyone else who might dare oppose them. Sacrifice just sounds better in my head. Doing it for the cause, and all.

    I haven’t slept in… a while? So, I apologize if any of this sounds delusional. It’s hard to sleep when you know you only have a little time left. They took all of my things, but one of the guards left me my journal. Maybe he’s just curious what I’ll write. Like an insane social experiment. Obviously, he doesn’t know what I’ve got in here. The second half of my life. A series of events you clearly shouldn’t replicate.

    If this is the last hurrah, though, I guess I’d better make it count.

    I started this survival guide when I was only 22 years old. So much hadn’t happened yet. I didn’t know how humanity would change, or what might happen on a planet filled with monsters. I was just scared, and alone. I told myself I didn’t care if I died, that I wasn’t afraid of death. But that was bullshit. A lie to make myself feel better, while I listened to gunshots every night. Never sure if they were aimed at people or the infected. Never sure when they’d be aimed at me.

    Now, they are. Metaphorically, of course. Literally, I’m being fed to a herd of Clickers. I’ll try to fight back – of course I will – but like I’ve said before, that fungus ain’t just for looks. It’ll hurt, I’m not looking forward to that, but maybe I’ll manage to get one last laugh in before I go. Of all the ways I thought this world might take me, gladiatorial combat against the undead was NOT on the list. It’s sorta hilarious if you’ve got a morbid sense of humor like mine. If you don’t, I suppose it may come across as tragic.

    Either way, I’m trying to keep my spirits up. I think I had a pretty good run, all things considered. And, if you’ve somehow found even just a handful of my rules, I’d like to think I saved a life or two during the ride. Based on what I’ve heard, I should have just enough time to get one more lesson down on paper, and I’m not really doing anything else at the moment, so why not?

    It’s an obvious one, keeping the circumstances in mind. However, now that I’m old (in apocalypse years), I’m gonna try to throw a little wisdom in there as well. Really flesh out the topic. It’s the antithesis of my current situation, the solution to the mistake that finally did me in. I believed in something, and for the first time, I wasn’t afraid of dying for it. I knew it could get me, but somehow I never really thought it would. So, please, if you’d like to avoid becoming plant bait, do the following –

    Rule #88, Don’t Be A Martyr

    What I’ve come to learn is that people aren’t designed to be satisfied. Survival is not based around ideals. Its foundation is simply the next thought, the next need that must be met. That’s where this country has landed, and that’s where it will likely stay. Honestly, there’s a good chance it was always headed towards this – whether a fungus took us there or not.

    Humanity will always run towards perfection, just to throw it away. We get bored. Salvation is too easy. We make our own problems because deep down, we love the chaos. We love the sensation of hating something from the bottom of our stomachs. It makes us feel better to think everything else is terrible because then we don’t feel as bad about ourselves. It’s sickening, but it’s just how things are. I thought I could fight against that, change it even, and instead I learned the world has become exactly what it was meant to be.

    Society was too complicated for us to handle. It was overstimulating. We were always supposed to live in tribes, hunting for basic needs. That’s what we have now. No borders, no government, no money. Just animals, roaming the land. Anyone who allows themselves to think higher thoughts, or commit to something bigger, has already written their future on the wall. People, as we know them, will never change.

    I remember when we were still concerned about “Global Warming.” Someone told me it was narcissistic to think we would kill the Earth. That it was more likely the Earth would kill us, like the parasites we are. And, they said, that it was most likely a meteor would take us all out before any of that happened. The universe would hit the reset button, the only true method of bringing about peace.

    Maybe a meteor is what we need. We’re too full of hate and greed to let anything else in the door. So many stories end with people being too stubborn to let their feelings go. To do what’s right in the name of the bigger picture. But you have to let go if you ever hope to move forward. Move forward, or you’ll die with the past. Don’t be a martyr. Just hold your loved ones close and keep yourselves alive.

    I wasn’t able to do any of that. I let my emotions get in the way. I thought too much. Now the universe has cut my rope short. Thankfully, I have my writings. A legacy. Something for you to remember me by. In a weird way, my life has become devoted to you. The ones who can still make it. If I have to be a martyr, I’m hoping it’s worth something. That I can make you among the last of a drowning breed – those who decipher between good and evil, and know when to use both.

    So, if you’ve found this journal, use it well. Enter this world knowing how it works, and learn to survive. I’ll see you sooner or later. Let me know how it goes.

  • ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Heading to Netflix Later This Month

    ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Heading to Netflix Later This Month

    Fans of the hit series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba will be able to revisit the iconic series’ second season quite soon, as a new listing on Netflix has it set for a release on January 21st. There are no details on what is included in this second season, as the Mugen Train Arc was available as a standalone film, but was also redone in a seven-episode arc for the series. There’s a chance that they’ll simply include that arc with the Entertainment District Arc, the actual second season of the anime.

    Kimetsu no Yaiba was a popular manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotoug, which was first published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016. The series ran until May 2020 and follows the story follows the journey of a Tanjiro, whose life is changed forever when his family is killed by demons. With his sister infected, he sets out to find a cure and save what is left of his family.

    The series saw a massive increase in popularity after the release of its anime adaptation. It offered a beautiful showcase of what animation is capable of, and the colorful cast of characters added a lot to get viewers hooked on its surprisingly dark premise. The series is currently set up for the next season, which will adapt the Swordsmith Village Arc from the manga series.

    Source: Netflix via Anime News Network

  • Marvel Studios President Teases Kang’s Motivations In ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

    Marvel Studios President Teases Kang’s Motivations In ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

    Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania continues to ramp up its marketing campaign with new stills from the movie. Not jus that, they are also giving the fans a few more hints at the plotlines of the film. Speaking with Empire Magazine, Kevin Feige teased Kang the Conqueror’s role in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, and revealed more about his goal in the movie. He alludes to the fact that Kang is seemingly stranded with a device that could do so much more.

    He has a ship and a device that would allow him to go anywhere, and any when he wants if he can get it online. If only he had access to genius scientists with Pym Particles.

    Kevin Feige

    While we don’t know what his ship looks like, the “device” here seemingly refers to the Time Chair, a device of much significance in the comics. We know from the trailer played during last year’s San Diego Comic-Con that Kang made a “deal” with Scott Lang and that he was holding his family hostage until Ant-Man completed his part of the deal.

    While Kang’s objectives have been teased multiple times, all of which have pointed toward the cliché multiverse-domination goal, this quote makes him look less like Thanos and more like a guy who just needs the right people at the right time. This definitely makes Cassie Lang’s mistake with the device she created seem less of an accident and more of a perfect flaw, which Kang was just waiting for.

    Source: Empire Magazine

  • ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ Looks to Have Found Marvel Studios Hulkling

    ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ Looks to Have Found Marvel Studios Hulkling

    Production on Marvel Studios’ first project of the new year, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, kicks off next week in Atlanta and after months of unofficial announcements, the studio worked with THR to unveil the talent working on the streaming series. Tucked away in that announcement may have been one of the studio’s most important new castings in relative newcomer Miles Gutierrez-Riley. As the slow march toward a Young Avengers project continues, Gutierrez-Riley may be filling the role of one of the last remaining original members of the team.

    In October of 2022, a pair of casting calls for Agatha: Coven of Chaos seemed to indicate that Marvel Studios was set to introduce two founding members of the Young Avengers: Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman. While the casting of Joe Locke as the “witty”, “astute fanboy” momentarily made absolute nobody Nicholas Scratch everyone’s favorite character, it’s much more widely accepted now that he’s playing Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan. The case for Locke as Wiccan is significantly strengthened by the presence of a pair of casting calls for Jewish parents, a description matching Billy’s parents from the comics and accepting Locke as Wiccan goes a long way toward making the case for Gutierrez-Riley as Hulkling, assuming he’s been cast in the other role revealed in October.

    That role called for a gay actor 18-20, described as “a kind soul” with a “great sense of humor” who is totally in love with his boyfriend and has an athletic build. While Gutierrez-Riley doesn’t hit the age range (he graduated from Fordham University in 2020), the age ranges have always served as guidelines and Marvel Studios has routinely reached outside of them when they find the right fit. To that end, Gutierrez-Riley, who was a Denzel Washington Scholarship Recipient at Fordham before landing role in Amazon’s The Wilds and director Sanaa Lathan’s On the Come Up, certainly could fit the bill.

    Whether or not that role is Teddy Altman/Hulkling, of course, is a different matter entirely as is the nature of that character in the MCU. In the comics, Hulkling is a Kree/Skrull hybrid with a powerful heritage on both sides. As the grandson of Skrull Emperor Dorrek VII, Teddy (Dorrek VIII) is heir to the Skrull empire; as the son of Kree hero Mar-Vell, Teddy carries on a legacy valued greatly by the people of Hala. Marvel Studios has made a series of choices, however, that all but eliminate any of that background. Dorreks don’t exist yet in the MCU and Mar-Vell had no super powers nor was she a revered hero of Hala, so short of creating an entirely new backstory for Teddy, it seems that being Wiccan’s boyfriend (and likely being able to shape-shift) is the role for the time being. Of course, with Secret Invasion and The Marvels coming in 2023, there’s still time to add a little more depth to the Kree-Skrull War and give Teddy something more to do.

    Agatha: Coven of Chaos is currently slated to stream on Disney Plus in late 2023 or early 2024.

  • REVIEW: ‘Velma’ is Too Cynical and Meta for its Own Good

    REVIEW: ‘Velma’ is Too Cynical and Meta for its Own Good

    Scooby-Doo is back with an animated series that explores Mystery Inc. before they united to take on mysteries across the United States. Yet, this time around, the series will not include the iconic cartoon dog and also takes some cues from popular R-rated series. Velma is trying to be the most unique take of a classic franchise, but somehow loses its way in trying way too hard and also overcompensates with its meta-humor.

    There’s one thing worth praising about Velma and that is the animation. The character designs are surprisingly detailed and the hallucination sequences are actually quite impressive visually. Once they add some shading, the animation suddenly pushes the series to shine beyond just being Scooby-Doo meets Family Guy. There are also some surprisingly creative shot composition that make this series visually stand out from others.

    Yet, not even some of its most visually stunning moments can’t cover the series’ general issue of just trying too hard. The series opens with a sequence of supposedly 15-year-olds naked in the showers talking about clichéd plotlines. Theere’s no subtlety in this series that seems quite desperate on showcasing that it’s subverting expectations by repeating some we’ve seen with other shows.

    Many compare it to Harley Quinn, but that series has the advantage of feeling like a DC Comics adaptation first and a meta-commentary second. In the case of Velma, it feels like the series was written to subvert the storylines and expectations of these characters before looking at its characters. There’s an overarching mystery but it feels like the series is more interested in making fun of TV storylines rather than telling an actual story.

    We have a murder mystery at its core, but it seems more like an afterthought. There’s no real hint at who might actually be the murderer. So, you as a viewer have no incentive to get invested and just wait for the reveal. Plus, we have a mystery built around her mother going missing that also doesn’t really feel relevant. Velma’s big character struggle is she feels guilt over her mother leaving in the form of hallucinations when she solves “mysteries.”

    Yet, it also changes the rules of when and how they appear; something pointed out in the series. Telling the audience that a clichéd plotline is the way it is while still doing it takes away from the experience. It falls flat as a joke and the subversion isn’t as poignant as it may have seemed at first. The running gag built around Glenn Howerton‘s take on Fred Jones goes on for too long and overstays its welcome; once again taking away any commentary it was trying to make. It’s stumbling something that Be Cool, Scooby-Doo managed better back in 2015.

    Mindy Kaling gives a decent performance as Velma Dinkley, who is constantly sarcastic and not a very likable character most of the time. Her dynamic with Constanze Wu‘s Daphne is the most interesting part of the show, but they also try so hard to subvert expectations that they end up repeating old cliches, such as with Norville’s attempts to woo him. The fact they are desperately trying to avoid the character’s well-established name showcases how it takes away elements we’ve come to love without honoring them along the way.

    The diverse cast is great and could’ve been used for great effect to further explore these characters. Making good use of their backgrounds to establish what they have in common and how they differ to create a strong bond for the future members of Mystery Inc. It’s not even original in this attempt, as even the film SCOOB! that released in 2020 when Gina Rodriguez voiced the character, which added elements to the character from her new cultural background.

    Meta humor can be funny, but if used reasonably. The risk of using this kind of humor is that it comes at the cost of an interesting story arc or an abundance of cynicism. Most of the cast is extremely one-note and besides the before-mentioned duo, there’s not much development here. They took very specific character traits from the original and blew them up in a way that loses what made these characters so memorable.

    Subsequently, the humor doesn’t truly land because most of it is trying to be clever. Norville making a comment he doesn’t like drugs isn’t funny, because the whole running gag was never alluded to in the first place. Hell, the original live-action Scooby-Doo movie made a better joke around that jokey assumption back in 2002. That same film was built around the idea of subverting the clichés that developed around the series. So, the show’s core premise isn’t as original as it’s trying to be.

    It tried too hard to be clever while doing a schtick we’ve come to expect once “meta-humor” is alluded to even for a second. Outside of its animation, the series sadly falls flat even if it could’ve been so much more. There’s nothing wrong with a more adult take on Scooby-Doo and it could’ve worked with this cast of characters. Yet, the show’s cynical take on subversion is overshadowing any of that potential leaving us with an uninteresting mystery to watch.

  • Paramount+’s ‘Frasier’ Sequel Series Adds Nicholas Lyndhurst

    Paramount+’s ‘Frasier’ Sequel Series Adds Nicholas Lyndhurst

    Paramount+ is moving forward with the Frasier sequel series, as they have no cast Nicholas Lyndhurst to star opposite Kelsey Grammar. As such, he’s the firs tone to join the new production, but it’s not the first time these two actors have worked together. They both worked at the English National Opera in Man of La Mancha, so it’ll be a fun reunion for the two actors.

    Lyndhurst is set to play the character of Alan Cornwall, who was Frasier’s old college friend who now is a professor himself. He is described as: “british, boozy and larger than life, Alan has an intellect on par with Frasier’s—if only he ever felt like using it. Alan’s mischievous streak might be just what Frasier could use to shake up his routine, while Frasier’s thoughtful guidance might help Alan find some of the direction he’s been missing in his own life.”

    So far, not much is known about the series’ overall plot, but the following logline has been released on the series: “Frasier is off to a different city with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge, and an old dream or two to finally fulfill. Frasier has re-entered the building.” Taking the character out of his familiar environment makes for a great set-up and gives the writers of the project some freedom on how to approach the sequel series.

    Source: Variety

  • TNT No Longer Airing ‘Snowpiercer’s Final and Already Filmed Season

    TNT No Longer Airing ‘Snowpiercer’s Final and Already Filmed Season

    Warner Bros. Discovery is doing its thing again where they have a finished series or film and just decide not to make use of it in an attempt to save money. Snowpiercer is no longer set to air its final season on TNT, which is especially bizarre considering it was the network’s last remaining original series. Not all is lost though, as the series is set to find a new home on another network.

    A spokesperson shared the following statement in regard to this decision:

    TNT will not air season four of Snowpiercer,” a network spokesperson said in a statement. “This was a difficult decision, but our admiration for the talented writers, actors and crew who brought Snowpiercer’s extraordinary post-apocalyptic world to life remains strong. We have been working collaboratively with the producers since last year to help the series find a new home where fans can continue to enjoy the compelling story and exceptional visual experience. We look forward to working with them on future projects.

    The production behind the series was Tomorrow Studios, who also released a statement in regards to this move. They have purchased the rights to the entire series to ensure they can shop the full project with the final season. CEO Marty Adelstein and president Becky Clements shared the following:

    We love Snowpiercer and believe season four completes a story with incredible talent that will entertain viewers while exploring issues of climate change and class warfare. We are so passionate about this series that we have acquired the rights to control the franchise. We hope to find the perfect partner shortly and finish a great ride with the final season.

    Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements

    The final season was announced last year in June and highlighted as its last entry. Warner Bros.’ decision to pull another show that is fully filmed is very likely done for tax reasons. It’s been a recurring theme throughout the last few years, as the new leadership mainly focuses on saving money rather than making it to cover their debt.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ Names Trio of Directors, Announces Cast

    ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’ Names Trio of Directors, Announces Cast

    As production on Agatha: Coven of Chaos prepares to get going, the studio has revealed the talent in front of and behind the camera of the streaming series. Head writer and executive producer Jack Schaeffer will serve as one of three directors of the series joining Gandja Monteiro and Rachel Goldberg. Monteiro is coming off of her work on the hit series Wednesday while Goldberg worked on Netflix’s Resident Evil series and Peacock’s A Friend of the Family.

    It was also officially revealed that Joe Locke, who is expected to portray Billy Kaplan, Aubrey Plaza, Patti LuPone, and Sasheer Zamata joined the cast of the WandaVision spinoff along with Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Maria Dizzia. The newcomers join Debra Jo Rupp, Emma Caulfield, David Payton, David Lengel, Asif Ali, Amos Glick, Brian Brightman, and Kate Forbes, who were last seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in WandaVision.

    The spinoff is slowly turning into an ambitious project that will definitely offer a curious look into the MCU. With the return of the Westview cast, it does seem like we’ll either see more of them than initially expected or they’ll simply have a short role before Kathryn Hahn‘s Agatha ventures out into the titular coven. As production is already set off to release next week, we’ll see what the next Disney+ entry has to offer.

    Source: THR

  • Netflix Canceled Animated Series ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’

    Netflix Canceled Animated Series ‘Dead End: Paranormal Park’

    It looks like we have one more for the books, as Hamish Steele has revealed that the animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park is no longer moving forward at Netflix. The series recently had a second season released, but it seems it didn’t manage to pull in enough viewers or keep people watching long enough to get the coveted renewal.

    He revealed the series is no longer moving forward in an official statement on Twitter, but Steele is hopeful that they’ll be able to continue pushing forward with the project somewhere else. He also reveals that they are working on a third and final DeadEndia book that would’ve been the basis of the third season.

    https://twitter.com/hamishsteele/status/1613886933557727232

    It’s continuing to become a recurring theme over at Netflix, especially when it comes to their animated series. There have been quite a few cancelations as of late, especially going into 2023 with the sudden cancelation of Inside Job. That series especially seemed to have quite the fanbase and ranked quite high in their Top 10 ranks, but they still decided to not move forward anymore.

    Netlix has been very specific on what they expect with the series, the only true renewal we have seen recently was Wednesday. They have some big projects set to release this year like the live-action adaptations of One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender, which are high-investments series that will require a fittingly high viewing rate. Here’s hoping we see a stronger return for the year.

    Source: Twitter