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  • Road To Training Camp: The New York Jets

    Road To Training Camp: The New York Jets

    Hope. A word that has become a paradox for Jets fans. In one aspect, at the beginning of every NFL team’s season we all have hope. However, unless you’ve been delusional or maybe even high, the Jets haven’t sniffed any real hope in almost a decade. The last 12 years of Jets fandom is like Andy Dufresne’s time in Shawshank. It’s not been good. Sure, maybe you’ve made some friends along the way, looking at you SunGawd, but really there hasn’t been much to love or hope for in the last 12 years. 

    I know I sound like Red, speaking of Shawshank, talking about how hope is a dangerous thing, but for the first time in a long time the Jets are giving people hope. Real hope. Let’s look at some of the things that have happened since Adam Gase was sent packing:

    THEY FINALLY CHANGED THE REPORTING STRUCTURE AND ARE ACTING LIKE AN NFL TEAM WITH A COACH REPORTING TO A GM AND NOT TO THE OWNER.

    To any fan of a well-functioning franchise this seems obvious, but it’s something that pre-Joe Douglas, fans did not have. I never understood how in spite of all the “LOLJets” takes and the Trey Wingo’s of the world cowardly making snarky jokes on Twitter, they always left out the weirdest Jetsiest Jet thing of them all. For the longest time, Woody Johnson had a coach report to him and a General Manager report to him separately. I’m not here to relitigate the past, but that is truly baffling and the first step in the right direction, the first step to HOPE, began here ending that ridiculous structure. 

    Joe Douglas hired the person that seems to be the right guy, at least in the present moment. Robert Saleh was a top assistant coach in the league last offseason. However, the Jets had hired top assistants before. Again, despite the narrative in the media, the Jets usually landed a top name on the coaching market. The pairings just never really worked, Bowels and Maccagnan were the most recent version of this. However, this time? This time feels different. Saleh and Douglas seem to work well together. The drafts seem fairly evident of that. In fact, the biggest contention between the two seems to fall on a player that was drafted before the Saleh era. There was an article that came out before the draft from (citation here, I honestly can’t find it) that detailed how the coaching staff and the front office including the scouting department got together and outlined what they wanted and needed in players. This is what well-functioning-and dare I say high functioning-franchises do!!

    That story alone was enough to light the embers of hope in any Jets fan’s soul. Listen, it’s basically been SEVEN years of no expectations for the Jets. The bar was so low, it was in hell. Jets Twitter as a whole was just asking not to get embarrassed week in and week out. There are realistic expectations this year. This could be and should be a FUN team to watch this year! Forget records, forget highlight plays, when was the last time this team was fun? 2011 Sanchez? Probably, yeah. For that reason alone, the fact that with LaFleur, Wilson, Hall, Moore, Davis, G. Wilson we think we can have fun? That alone is enough of a reason to feel that thing that has been missing from this fanbase for a long, long time: Hope. 

  • MCU Disney+ Series Ranked

    MCU Disney+ Series Ranked

    Now that Ms. Marvel has wrapped up its run, there are seven Marvel Studios Disney+ series that have all been released within the past year and a half. Not surprisingly, many want to compare them to each other, even though some exceed in vastly different ways than others. The legacy of series on the greater MCU is slowly becoming more apparent, and the introduction of major characters and plots in them is surely a sign that Marvel Studios plans to take them seriously going forward. More series are on their way, but this article ranks the current seven MCU series from best to worst.

    1. Ms. Marvel

    Ms. Marvel did what few MCU series could do, which is have a great story and a satisfying conclusion. On top of that feat, the story was excellent and managed both small-scale and large-scale aspects of Kamala’s life with charm, wit, heart, mystery and even darkness. The overall quality of Ms. Marvel from episode to episode barely wavered, and the cast and crew were top-notch all around. While the series was never the most hyped for various reasons, the show managed to exceed all expectations despite very polarizing decisions regarding the changes from her comic book origins.

    2. WandaVision

    WandaVision is still the highlight of MCU creativity. It took the boldest creative leaps in terms of its narrative structure and style, and it remains wildly unique from everything else in the MCU. While it aired, fans were clamoring week-to-week for the next episode. Granted, it was also the first lesson for MCU fans in (mostly fan-induced) Phase 4 disappointment and rushed finales. The fact that myriads of extreme fan theories did not happen should not be a metric when evaluating any story.

    3. Loki

    Loki also took a bold route in its design and execution, but overall it was fairly inconsistent episode to episode. Some episodes were a bit dry and bland, while some came out of nowhere in the best of ways. Certain sequences could be dazzling, and the finale could practically do the legwork for the entire first season. But it was met with plenty of criticism on how Loki’s character was developed, and the Loki-Sylvie dynamic was certainly polarizing.

    4. Hawkeye

    Hawkeye was good old-fashioned MCU comfort pulled off well. It was nothing spectacular, and its big Kingpin reveal was ultimately underwhelming. But overall it had a satisfying story and ending—a rarity—that was sweet and simple. Kate Bishop was introduced but we also got to follow an original and Avenger post-Avengers: Endgame for the first time, and it gave the last of the six his first “solo” treatment. At the same time, it also felt like a constant tool for introducing new or spin-off-type projects like Echo rather than investing in its own story.

    5. Moon Knight

    Had the finale gone differently, Moon Knight may have been much higher on this list. Oscar Isaac’s performance alone was phenomenal and drove the show, while Egyptian mythology provided a new source of interest for MCU audiences. While the show could be stellar—Episode 5 is one of the best of the MCU—the overarching story was ultimately incredibly generic and a letdown to the potential that the rest of the series built up. 

    6. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

    No one is surprised The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would be low on this list. It honestly, though, is not bad. It is maybe the best example of a comfort project in the MCU other than Hawkeye. We followed known (side) characters in a context and style that felt incredibly consistent with the Captain America franchise they came from. But it was generally lackluster and not worthy of too much praise in terms of the storyline and villains. It did touch on important topics, mostly regarding race and the notion that people would never accept a Black man as their Captain America. But alas, it could come across as dull and unoriginal most of the time.

    7. What If…?

    It feels too easy to put the only animated series at the bottom of the list, but What If… ? just belongs here. The animated style detaches it from the MCU fans want to engage in, and its anthology multiverse structure makes it feel like there are no stakes. It is a collection of interesting mini-ideas. Some could be brilliant, and the Doctor Strange episode is arguably the best episode of any MCU series. But as a whole, What If…? just isn’t on the same playing field as the rest. 

  • Joe Russo Talks Marvel Studios ‘Secret Wars’

    Joe Russo Talks Marvel Studios ‘Secret Wars’

    It’s no secret that the directing duo of Joe and Anthony Russo have a dream project that could tempt them to return to Marvel Studios where they helmed four films together, including the two-part culmination to the Infinity Saga. Even as they did press for Avengers: Endgame in 2019, the brothers spoke openly about how one project might get them back behind the cameras for Marvel Studios: Secret Wars.

    At the premiere of their new movie, The Gray Man, the Russos were asked, once again, what would bring them back to the Marvel Studios fold. And it was no surprise that Joe Russo gave what at this point is a pretty canned response to the question. This time, however, Joe may have given a little more away than usual.

    Our love for Marvel is based on the books we read as kids and the books that we fell in love with. The one series that we adored growing up was Secret Wars. It’s incredibly ambitious. It would be bigger than Infinity War and Endgame, but it’s a massive undertaking and those two movies were very hard to make. Trying to imagine making another two movies even bigger than those two…we’re going to have to sleep on it.

    Joe Russo

    It sounds like Joe and Anthony may have done more than sleep on the decision to return to co-direct Marvel Studios Secret Wars. In fact, it sounds like they are far enough down the road that they’ve outlined what they believe the story should be and have determined that it would take two films to tell the story the way they see fit.

    Once considered a pipe dream, an MCU-set Secret Wars has become an inevitability at this point. The story was first teased during Loki and further teased in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness when John Krasinski’s Reed Richards introduced the idea of Incursions. The introduction of Incursions makes it more likely than not that the MCU’s Secret Wars will, at least in part, be based on Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 event series, though the Russos oft-professed love for the the original 1984 event almost certainly means that its influence will be felt as well.

    It’s hard to imagine that the brothers, who worked so hard to make sure the two-part conclusion of the Infinity Saga were more than parts 1 and 2, would be happy with a basic Hollywood two-parter. With Joe imagining Secret Wars as a two-part event, it’s safe to assume they have something along the lines of an Infinity War and Endgame split in mind for their next MCU gig, making sure each film can stand on its own spectacular feet.

    Source: Deadline

  • Morning After Huddle: July 14th, 2022

    Morning After Huddle: July 14th, 2022

    “Embiggen”, he whispers, when it’s time to get a capital letter to kick off the Morning After Huddle for the squad. We have a jam-packed article to get through, and there’s no time to waste, word to Zach Wilson’s mom’s best friend. Let’s start this out with another young QB finally getting some help.

    • The Chicago Bears traded a 2024 7th round pick to the New England Patriots for former first round pick N’Keal Harry. This marks the first real investment at WR the Bears have made since drafting Justin Fields. Bill Belicheck can’t draft, as evidenced by his drafting of Harry, and now gets another pick to blow. Harry, meanwhile, probably rises to the second spot on the Bears depth chart and will get alot of targets if he’s healthy.
    • Speaking of first round QBs, we now have two quarterback competitions where a former first round pick is competing, as Field Yates reported that Sam Darnold will compete with Baker Mayfield and Mitch Trubisky will compete with Kenny The Jet Pickett. This really should be Sam Darnold’s last hurrah, as he’s never been good, really, whereas Baker has some good tape on record. Meanwhile, Trubisky led the Bears to multiple winning seasons and a division title, and now gets to try his hand at being Ben Roethlisberger’s replacement. It is the final countdown for someone in Pittsburgh and Carolina.
    • There is no QB competition in Kansas City, but there is real concern that Patrick Mahomes won’t have his blindside protected. With the Friday deadline looming for franchise-tagged players, Orlando Brown still doesn’t have a new deal. Remember, Brown was traded from Baltimore to Kansas City because he wanted to play LT and get paid LT-money and, now, a year later he did the former but not the latter. It is going to be curious what the Chiefs do with such a viral part of this offense that is currently in transition.
    • Lastly, we end with Brown’s former team, as the Baltimore Ravens have brought back EDGE Justin Houston. The Ravens now look set at defense and, with every starter returning off injury it seems, are poised to make me look good for my Super Bowl prediction. And right in time for the 20 year anniversary of the Wire! Here’s hoping nobody is taking notes on a criminal conspiracy.
  • Murphy’s Team-Up Volume 23: Ms. Marvel’s a Mutant!

    Murphy’s Team-Up Volume 23: Ms. Marvel’s a Mutant!

    Torbjorn Frazier

    For starters, this was the biggest surprise to have happened in the Disney+ era of Marvel Studios. Both in terms of what this means for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in the viewing experience. Kamala Khan being revealed as the audience’s first mutant in the MCU opens the door for endless possibilities of speculation and theorizing on how some of the most-anticipated characters will enter future projects. For the character herself, Kamala Khan makes all the sense in the world to be a mutant (as she very likely would’ve been in the comics if the X-Men film rights weren’t elsewhere in 2013). And having the first mutant story be distinctly about a government that fears and discriminates against super-powered individuals highlights that Kevin Feige and co. are good hands to shepherd the X-Men back to the big screen. With both Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and now Ms. Marvel this year giving early glimpses into the concept of mutants (and with X-Men ‘97 slated for 2023), the radar for Marvel Studios potentially announcing a mutant-related project at San Diego Comic Con or D23 has certainly increased.

    Anthony Canton III

    Ms. Marvel’s finale followed through on its series mission by giving us Kamala Khan and her world. That world was on display as good as any Disney+ series has had to this point. With that being said, the reveal of Kamala being a mutant laced with the X-Men: The Animated Series theme was an all time moment for the new MCU.

    This reveal is symbolism that Iman Vellani is a major player and rightfully so. Kamala has the keys to the MCU and you can slot her anywhere and she has an impact. In terms of representation in actuality and in this universe these are the new stories that the fandom claims to want. Now we have them and more. While we have more questions to answer with Carol Danvers, this was Ms. Marvel’s moment. Standing ovation.

    Dalbin Osorio

    Ms. Marvel is no worse than the third best Disney+ show. It would take a lot to supplant the WandaVision/Loki duplex, and Ms. Marvel came close, but an underwhelming villain choice stops it from that top tier. HOWEVER… this isn’t about the show as it is about the fact that, baby, there be mutants in the MCU! That’s right: Ms. Marvel is the MCU’s first mutant (that we know of, but more on that in a sec), and what a glorious reveal it was. You have to hand it to Kevin Feige: he said that everything will be revealed and Marvel didn’t really deviate from the Phase 4 plan even when people criticized it for its “aimless” trajectory. I think this change really grounds her firmly in the MCU’s history (hello Eternals and X-Men ’97 theme music), present (this post-Endgame world that’s rapidly becoming populated by enhanced individuals), and future (Kang is coming). Making her a mutant also makes her powers easy to explain because a mutation is much easier to explain than a Terrigen Bomb going off somewhere on Earth-616 and us never hearing about it. It, also, sets the stage for there being other mutants out there who are populating the world now, and clearly Damage Control won’t be the only ones after them. All in all, a great choice.

    Joseph Aberl

    Did not see coming that Ms. Marvel would end up being the one to set up the mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios perfectly baited us with WandaVision and a cameo in Multiverse of Madness to make many think we’d not get any hints until after Fantastic Four. Yet, here they are using a familiar theme to slowly build up their arrival and also use it as a way to connect Kamala Khan to a bigger universe; without the sacrifice of her personal journey. Can’t wait to see where it goes.

    Charles Murphy


    Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. It’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if a man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.

    Stan Lee, Stan’s Soapbox, December 1968

    Someone had to be the first mutant and I couldn’t be happier that it is Kamala. As Torbjorn pointed out, it’s incredibly likely that had Marvel already owned the live-action rights to the X-Men, she’d have been one in the comics. Kamala fits what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby imagined the original mutants to be when they developed them in the early 1960s as a metaphor for the hate and social injustice America was facing at the time. I’ve said for years that Kamala Khan is one of the most important characters Marvel Comics has ever created and now, as the MCU’s first mutant, she’s one of the most important characters in the future of the franchise.

  • Theory Thursday: What That ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Mid-Credit Scene Might Mean for the Future of the MCU

    Theory Thursday: What That ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Mid-Credit Scene Might Mean for the Future of the MCU

    Thor becoming the first Avenger to get a 4th film in their own series is actually a good thing given that there are still a few adventures for Odinson to go on, and make no mistake: this one leaves him in a very different place than any of the other three before it. The events of Thor left him on Asgard away from Jane and mourning the death of Loki. Thor: The Dark World had him leaving Asgard to be with Jane while again mourning the death of his mother and Loki…a second time. Then along came Ragnarok where he lost his father and sister and home but managed to escape Surtur. I think it is safe to say that no hero in the MCU has lost as much as Thor, and this fourth entry adds even more loss after adventures with the Avengers that saw him lose Coulson and Heimdall and Loki (again!) right in front of him. It should come as no surprise then that Thor’s latest movie ends with someone dying right in front of him then. Tragedy, it would seem, is what propels the God of Thunder forward into different adventures. It’s not just putting the Asgardian at the center of tragedy, though, that usually leads into the next big Avenger’s threat.

    It was Thor’s brother who arrived on Earth necessitating the Avengers to assemble initially, and it was the mind stone located inside Loki’s scepter that led to the creation of Ultron AND VIsion and the Scarlet Witch, which led to the Avengers reuniting. It was Thor sending Loki to light the eternal flame and unleash Surtur that also led to Loki stealing the Tesseract from Odin’s throne room, which drew Thanos to the refugee ship that the Asgardians were on. If you look back at the Infinity Saga, you can rightfully argue that Thor brought the Avengers face to face with their greatest villains (Loki, Ultron, and Thanos). The mid-credit scene of Thor: Love & Thunder hints at that continuing to be the case.

    Zeus, with a lightning-sized hole in his sternum, sends his son, Hercules, on a mission to knock the Odinson out of the sky, reclaiming glory meant for the gods instead of heroes. However, what if there’s more to this scene than meets the eye? What if what we are seeing play out isn’t really telling us everything? What if, to understand what’s really happening, we have to accept that someone else has paved the way?

    In the comics, one of Kang The Conqueror’s variants, Immortus, utilizes what are known as Space Phantoms to go after the Avengers by masquerading as famous heroes from different eras. This included heroes like Merlin, Goliath, and, yes, Hercules. This caused a team of villains led by Baron Zemo, who had enlisted Immortus’s help in defeating the Avengers, to go back in time to the moment where they accepted his help and, this time, refuse it. By introducing Hercules here, as an antagonist for Thor who arrives on Earth seeking the God Of Thunder out, it will undoubtedly bring the Olympian face to face with whoever the new group of Avengers is. What if the Hercules that arrives on Earth looking for Thor isn’t Zeus’s son, but a space phantom controlled by Immortus? Or, what if the Thor that Hercules finds isn’t the God of Thunder himself, but a space phantom?

    We are entering the world of secret invasions and variants. With Thor’s consistent connection to all of the Avengers-level villains, it stands to reason that we didn’t just see who Thor’s next antagonist would be, but that we just saw another piece of the puzzle being laid down by one of Kang’s variants. Hercules may be a son of Zeus, but he may also be a Space Phantom of Immortus.

  • What the ‘Ms.Marvel’ Finale Reveal Means for Inhumans in the MCU

    What the ‘Ms.Marvel’ Finale Reveal Means for Inhumans in the MCU

    The finale of Ms. Marvel gave fans more than they bargained for when it revealed Kamala Khan as the first mutant in the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe. For months, rumors, speculation and some spurious “leaks” all centered around Kamala being exposed to Terrigen Mist and learning of her Inhuman heritage during the finale. Instead, Marvel Studios chose to make Kamala a mutant, making her future in the MCU a complete unknown. It also seemed to spell the end of any hopes that the Inhumans would ever make their way into the stories of MCU’s Earth-616, but as it turns out, Kamala’s retcon isn’t quite the death knell for the Inhumans that it might first appear to be.

    In the comics, Kamala is a NuHuman: a branch of Inhumans created en masse when Black Bolt detonated a Terrigen Bomb, causing thousands of humans of Inhuman lineage to undergo Terrigenesis and developing their Inhuman gifts. The event, which occurred in the pages of 2013’s Infinity #4, came at a time when Marvel Comics was making push to elevate the Inhumans’ popularity and, seemingly, diminish the X-Men’s. At that time, Fox still owned the live-action rights to the X-Men and Marvel Studios was hard at work building the foundation their shared cinematic universe, still years away from being the self-sustaining juggernaut it’s since become.

    In hindsight, the NuHuman era was nothing short of a failure, with almost none of the characters created during that era now playing a major (or any) role within the Marvel Comics universe. In fact, the Inhumans have been rather absent from the comics in general for the past several years. Perhaps a little leave of absence will benefit the characters in the comics, allowing them to reenter the books at a later date and return to inhabit the very interesting niche they carved out after first appearing in the pages of Fantastic Four in 1965. And it’s this same niche that they could still find themselves inhabiting in the MCU, should Kevin Feige ever choose to introduce them to the 616-universe. And if that niche doesn’t quite work out, there’s another interesting option on the table as well.

    The Royal Family and The Universal Inhumans

    Should Feige and the Marvel Studios Parliament want to introduce the Inhumans to the MCU, the clearest path is to introduce them as the abandoned subject of Kree experimentation, as seen in the Marvel Comics. As the millena-long Kree-Skrull war raged on, the evolutionarily-stagnant Kree began experimenting on the native species of multiple plantes across the universe. In some cases, like on Earth, early life had already been experimented on by the Celestials and a latent gene that could spark the release of super powers was placed in their DNA. It’s this latent gene that eventually led to mutants on Earth and, after Kree experimentation, allowed for Terrigenesis to transform individuals. The Kree abandoned their projects across the universe following a prophecy that their experiments would produce a being that would end the Kree Empire, but not before successfully establishing metamorphic processes in place on 5 different planets: Earth, Centauri-IV, Lotlara, Kymellia and Wraithworld.

    Over time, the experiments on Earth produced an advanced race whose superiority to early man saw them demonized. Over time, they went into hiding in a secret city, Attilan, and then the Blue Area of the Moon. This line of Inhumans produced what is known in the comics as the Royal Family, which is typically presented as Black Bolt, his wife Medusa, her sister Crystal, Black Bolt’s brother Maximus, Gorgon, Triton and Karnak. Of these, it was Black Bolt, the Midnight King of the Inhumans, that the Kree believed to be the being of prophecy. On the other planets, four queens who ruled over their own Inhuman populations were fated to join the Midnight King in ending the reign of the Kree.

    It doesn’t take much to see that should Marvel Studios choose to pursue this path, there wouldn’t be much overlap with whatever Kamala Khan and the mutants get up to on Earth. Marvel Studios botched the Kree-Skrull War pretty badly in Captain Marvel and the history of early Earth pretty badly in Eternals. They could rectify both of those mistakes with an Inhumans D+ series that establishes a truer history of both and introduces the Inhuman Royal Family hidden away on the Moon. Rumors persist that the Universal Inhumans are set to make an appearance in The Marvels; if those rumors are true and Feige is introducing them to the MCU, the Royal Family should not be far behind. Make them as strange and Lee and Kirby intended them to be. Make them a hidden force in the universe. Make them what they once were before the NuHuman debacle. And should Marvel go this route, they could choose to adapt one of Marvel Comics’ best Cosmic events, War of Kings, down the road, making good on the prophecy.

    The Inhumans of Earth-X

    Marvel Comics has a long history of developing alternate universes where things are just a little different: let’s call this…the multiverse. One of the more dramatic reimaginings began in 1999 on Earth-9997, aka Earth X. Interestingly enough, the MCU has already dipped into Earth-X lore a bit for Eternals and they wouldn’t be wrong in wanting to further mine that territory for a different take on the Inhumans.

    During the 12-issue arc, Black Bolt released Terrigen Mists on Earth, mutating almost all of Earth’s population into Inhumans. The events of Earth-9997 are set in the future of a dystopian timeline, so this won’t quite work if the 616 timeline is going to keep moving ahed. However, setting up the Inhumans as the villains of a future project and having someone, perhaps the Fantastic Four, have to stop their plan would be a great way to separate the characters from Earth’s mutants. It’s worth noting that the Inhumans of Earth X were given major redesigns by Alex Ross and, if the MCU isn’t going to go the 616 route with the characters, the Earth X designs are the only other acceptable option and would really work well if Feige wanted to introduce them as villains.

    So while Ms. Marvel has all but put and end to any hopes that the NuHuman arc from the 2010s could ever work its way into the MCU, there’s still room for Black Bolt, Medusa and the rest to find a way there.

  • Paramount+ Officially Orders the ‘Criminal Minds’ Revival to Series

    Paramount+ Officially Orders the ‘Criminal Minds’ Revival to Series

    In February of this year, it was reported that Paramount+ was nearing deals with some of the core cast of Criminal Minds for the forthcoming revival. Now, the series has been given a formal pick-up order for the revival for a ten episode season. Six cast members have also been confirmed to return as Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler and Paget Brewster have signed on for the new series.

    The news comes courtesy of Deadline, with the outlet reporting that Erica Messer, the show’s longtime executive producer and showrunner, is also set to return. Her deal is said to have been closed months ago. It is said that the six cast members signing on to return was contingent on Messer signing a pact with ABC Signature where she is under an overall deal.

    Mantegna, who joined the original series during its third season, teased the revival’s pickup with a Tweet on Tuesday. “Just doing a little inspection today for an upcoming project,” he wrote on a photo of him on set.

    Criminal Minds ended its fifteen season run in 2020. Since then, rumors have continued to circulate suggesting a revival was in the works. However, the first real news of a revival didn’t come until early this year. Matthew Gray Gubler, who played Spencer Reid in the series, and Daniel Henney, who played Matt Simmons, are currently not expected to join the rest of the returning cast.

    Production on the Criminal Minds revival will kickoff on Aug. 21st in Los Angeles.

    Source: Deadline.

  • New ‘Scream 6’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Courteney Cox

    New ‘Scream 6’ Set Photos Offer First Look at Courteney Cox

    It was back in March when we learned that the Scream reboot is not only getting a sequel in 2023 but also that Courteney Cox is making her return to the horror franchise again. Wasn’t too surprising given that the Spyglass Media film pulled in $140M on a tiny budget and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were eager to tackle another entry. Early June, we got some set photos teasing that the sequel will take place in New York City, which is quite the departure from their usual home of Woodsboro, California. Now, a few new set photos have found their way online and they offer our first look at Courteney Cox‘s return. Twitter user @morebuttertv took to their account to share two new images offering a first look at the former Friends star on set.

    We still know very little about the production and how Cox‘s return will tie into the story. The next entry and return of Ghostface will be quite the departure from the previous entries, especially with Neve Campbell no longer involved with the sequel. The franchise built up an ensemble cast over the years, surprisingly if you consider it’s a slasher film, and there are many questions about how they may potentially build upon how the previous reboot ended.

    There’s also the curious question of how they’ll title it. Technically it is Scream 6 but the fifth entry was simply revealed as “Scream.” Now, they could take The Fast Saga route and just get creative with the name, or potentially they’ll go with a simple route by just tilting it Scream 2. Whatever it may end up being, we’re lucky to see this classic franchise make its return.

    Source: Twitter

  • Emerald Fennell Brought on to Rework Script for John Wick Spinoff ‘Ballerina’

    Emerald Fennell Brought on to Rework Script for John Wick Spinoff ‘Ballerina’

    Emerald Fennell, who wrote and directed Promising Young Woman, is sprucing up the John Wick spinoff, Ballerina. The news was revealed by the film’s star Ana de Armas during a recent interview for Elle magazine.

    The initial script for Ballerina was written by Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) and director Len Wiseman. However, upon being cast in Ballerina, de Armas sought to hire a female writer to tweak the script. “It was really important for me to hire a female writer, because to that point when I got involved in the project, it was only the director, Len Wiseman, and another guy. And I was like, ‘That’s not going to work.’ So I interviewed, like, five or six female writers. We hired Emerald Fennell, which I was so proud of,” the actress told Elle.

    For de Armas, it’s important that she’s closely involved behind the scenes during the process for Ballerina, which is why bringing in a female writer was vital. However, it remains to be seen whether or not Fennell will receive credit for her work on the script. As Variety states, that decision will ultimately be decided by the Writers Guild of America.

    Ballerina follows de Armas’ young female assassin as she seeks revenge against those that killed her family. As of this writing, further details regarding the film and its cast remain unknown. It is the second spinoff from the John Wick franchise, however, as Mel Gibson is set to star in the television series spinoff, The Continental, for Starz.

    Ballerina is yet another high-profile job for Fennell, who recently served as the showrunner on Killing Eve Season 2 and is set to pen a Zatanna film for DC and Warner Bros. – assuming that project is still in the works.

    Source: Variety