Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
It's not Max, It's HBO
Get ready to be blown away by what's cooking in the entertainment world! We talk about the shocking demise of Deadpool at the hands of the menacing Deathgrip and hint at a surprising return. In a tech twist, Cartoon Studios brings us an AI-assisted anime series of Winnie the Pooh airing on Prime Video in 2025. We also delve into HBO and Max's rebranding, Amazon MGM Studios' quirky zombie comedy "I Used to Eat Brains, Now I Eat Kale," and Boom Studios' new Firefly prequel. Lastly, we pay our respects to the incredible careers of Martin Mull and Bill Cobbs and Donald Sutherland honoring their legacies and unforgettable contributions to the entertainment world. This episode is brimming with news, surprises, and heartfelt tributes you won't want to miss!
Thanks for listening! Come visit the podcast at https://www.multiversetonight.com/
Tonight, lanterns Are Go, blade Is Not For All Ages, and a new take on Pooh Plus. Remember Martin Mull, donald Sutherland and Bill Cobbs. All then more on this edition of Multiverse Tonight Comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and more. If you're looking for a roundup of geeky news, you're in the right place. This is Multiverse Tonight. And here's our host, thomas Townley. Well, hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Multiverse Tonight. I believe this is 2.18?. Well, whatever it is of Multiverse tonight, I believe this is 2.18.
Speaker 1:Well, whatever it is, it's been a long day. My good wife and I got up early and went to the Sedgwick County Zoo, one of the country's premier zoos. If you're ever in Wichita, kansas, I suggest going there. It's a good time. We walked around, we went and saw exhibits that we didn't see before. It's been a while since we've gone to the zoo, and what's special is she's a member and if you have a membership you can go there an hour before they open up to the general public so you get to see kind of the animals in their. And if you have a membership, you can go there an hour before they open up to the general public so you get to see kind of the animals in their pre-show, a lot of feeding, you know a lot of just, you know getting up and around, but you know it was a good time. Other than that, you know it's all summer, summer it's hotter than blue blazes. So, you know, stay cool. And while you're staying cool, let's check out the star wars news, roger roger, and we begin star wars news with dis-owned Marvel Comics, which has exclusively published the Star Wars comics since 2015,. Has announced that Charles Soule's current comic run on the flagship Star Wars series and Greg Pak's ongoing Darth Vader comic are both ending with giant-sized final issues this September. Star Wars news.
Speaker 1:Let's go to DC Comics News, and we begin DC Comics News with Superman and Lois debuting its fourth and final season on Thursday, october 17th. The series will return from its long hiatus with a two-hour premiere airing both between 8 and 10 pm Eastern Time. Beginning the following week, Superman and Lois will air Thursday nights at 8, followed by new episodes of the adventure series the Librarians, the next chapter from executive producer Dean Devlin. The series will have a 10-episode order, although likely with breaks for sports and holidays, so it's hard to guess when the finale might air. With Superman and Lewis going off the air, cw will be without a DC adaptation for the first time in years.
Speaker 1:The Green Lantern's light is officially ready to shine again. Hbo has officially picked up Lanterns, the first live-action series created exclusively for DC Studios under co-chairmen co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. The series has been given an eight-episode straight-to-series order by HBO, with Chris Mundy serving as showrunner and executive producer, also on board Damon Lindelof and Tom King, who will serve as executive producers and co-write Lanterns with Mundy. Warner Bros TV is producing with DC Studios and HBO. The show is based, of course, on the Green Lantern. The series will follow Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart, two members of the Green Lantern Corps, and their galactic team charged with defending a specific realm of the cosmos from evil through the use of the rings that bestow a wide array of superhuman powers. So basically think police procedural in space.
Speaker 1:Now let's go on to the Marvel News, and we begin the Marvel News with Blade's journey from vampire hunter to vampire leader, continuing in a new series featuring a parental advisory. Blade has been a Midnight Sun and Avenger an anti-hero, but his latest evolution turned him to the darker side. In the Blood Hunt event series, readers haven't been given the full story as to why Blade has turned his back on humanity, but his vampire invasion has already turned Doctor Strange, black Panther and Miles Morales into creatures of the night. Marvel is already working on more stories with Blade post Blood Hunt, and they're going to be of the graphic nature. Blade Red Band is a five-issue miniseries by Brian Edward Hill and Marvel's Stormbreaker artist Sia Vila. The series marks Hill's return to the Daywalker after penning Blade's most recent solo series. What makes Blade Red Band unique is it's labeled with a parental advisory and polybagged to keep those of the weak of heart from experiencing its intensity. According to Marvel, each issue of Blood Hunt has published a Red Band edition with added graph content like blood and severed bodies. Nice Wade Wilson is meeting a grisly fate in the pages of Deadpool.
Speaker 1:This summer, ahead of the theatrical release of Deadpool and Wolverine, marvel Comics recently launched a new volume of Deadpool from writer Cody Ziegler and artist Roger Antonio. Along with seeing the return of Deadpool's daughter, fans also witnessed the debut of a new villain named Deathgrip, who's obsessed with well death. Deadpool and Deathgrip's rivalry will meet with a surprising climax in September's Deadpool 6, with Marvel outright announcing that Deadpool will be killed. Marvel released teaser art for Deadpool 6, featuring Deathgrip punching a hole through Deadpool's chest. Cody Ziegler and Roger Antonio's Deadpool run launches reaches its starting turn turning point this September with the death of Wade Wilson. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for an announcement about an all new era of the series kicking off in Deadpool number 6. On the cover art is also an editor's note that states this is the first issue of a new era, and killing Deadpool now would be an insane thing to do, which is exactly why we're doing it.
Speaker 1:Now let's go on to the geek news, and we begin geek news with cartoon. That's Cartoon with a K. We'll launch a new AI-assisted anime series based on the AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh in 2025. The series, along with a number of holiday specials, will air on Prime Video starting on December 25, 2025, and will mark the first major animated Pooh project created since Walt Disney Animation Studios got the rights to Pooh in 1953. The character earned a public domain back in 2022, and since then there have been two Winnie the Pooh, blood and Honey movies, and some are uses of the character in the public domain. Amazon will premiere an animated holiday movie, five holiday specials and 104 episodes of the series rolled out over four years, according to the deal reported to Deadlinecom.
Speaker 1:Quote. Capitalizing on the enormous equity inherent in AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh, the unique designs and storytelling, as well as the production efficiency of harnessing AI, cartoon Studios' new iteration of the timeless brand will have an exceptional array of attributes that we believe we can lead to extraordinary profitability for the company, said Cartoon Studios chairman and CEO, andy Hayward, in a statement. A unique design is key not only to using poo it has to be visually distinct from the Disney series, after all but also to be able to trademark your version for selling merchandise. But also to be able to trademark your version for selling merchandise, something Cartoon is already planning to do with a partnership with retail distributor Alliance Entertainment. This Pooh will be a yellow bear naked, except for a blue scarf.
Speaker 1:Hbo and Max content CEO Casey Bloys is changing the boundary between what's an HBO show and what's a Max show. Most of Max's upcoming Big Pool tentpole series are going to be under the HBO umbrella. That means the upcoming Harry Potter TV show, as well as the it prequel series, welcome to Derry and Lanterns will now be branded as HBO originals. Quote. We felt like we had to delineate between an HBO show and a Mac show. He said, of that initial distinction, the idea of using Warner Brothers IP as a delineation for Macs felt right. At least that gives you a clear line. But as we started producing these shows, we were using the same methods, the same kind of thinking as how we would approach HBO shows In a lot of cases, the same talent that has worked on HBO shows. The change officially takes place with shows launching in 2025. That means the Penguin and Dune Prophecy. Both, which are set to premiere this year, are expected to still be called Max Originals. Those shows have already been sold overseas with the Max label and even last week HBO sent out a Penguin teaser that still had the Max branding. So in other words, because they've already sold those shows as Max shows overseas, they can't just switch brands now. As Max shows overseas, they can't just switch brands now. So come 2025, you know it's not Max, it's HBO.
Speaker 1:Amazon, mgm Studios has landed I Used to Eat Brains, now I Eat Kale, a zombie feature based on the same name adventure comedy short story from Adam and Daniel Cooper, aka the Cooper Twins. The story is set in a post-post-apocalyptic world where former zombies struggle to reintegrate. Ryan Gosling and Jesse Henderson will produce the film under their first look deal with the studio through recently launched banner General Admission. Fireflies' Captain Maxwell Reynolds is finally getting an origin story. Boom Studios has announced Firefly Malcolm Reynolds Year One, a new Firefly prequel series that tells of Mal's earliest adventures. Sam Humphreys, writer of the Firefly the Fall Guys miniseries, is writing the new prequel. Rs Giovanni Fabiano is making their comic debut on the series, colored by Gloria Martinelli, who also worked on the Firefly the Fall Guys. Here's the series description provided by Boom via press release Quote Despite starting from an unlikely place, malcolm Reynolds has always been a troublemaker.
Speaker 1:Becoming a brown coat was always meant to be. But what unexpected obstacles lie on that path to him becoming the captain that fans know and love, to him assembling and leading the crew of the spaceship Serenity? Those questions will seemingly be answered as Firefly Malcolm Reynolds Year One progresses. The series is set in the early days of the Unification War. The conflict with the Brown Coats fought a losing battle against the consolidated rule of the Alliance, previously touched upon in Boom's first Firefly series.
Speaker 1:Horror maestro Mike Flanagan's reimagined the Exorcist film will hit theaters on March 13, 2026. Now this is Universal's second run at trying to launch a new series of movies based on the horror property Blumhouse and Morgan Creek's plans for a trilogy of new Exorcist films was derailed with the poor and polarizing response to last year's the Exorcist Believer. Last month, the filmmakers and polarizing response to last year's the Exorcist Believer. Last month the filmmakers announced they were going to give the reins of the franchise over to Flanagan. Flanagan, whose credits include the Haunting of Hill House, midnight Mass, gerald's Game, doctor Sleep and the new the Fall of the House of Usher, has created an entirely new narrative based as nice sequel to any previous Exorcist film and that charts a new course for the film franchise. Good luck.
Speaker 1:The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that a sequel to Spaceballs is in early development by Amazon MGM Studios. Josh Gad and Mel Brooks are producing the project that has Gad attached to Star. Josh Greenbaum is helming the comedy from a script by Gad, benji Samet and Dan Hernandez. Plot details for the sequel to the Star Wars spoofing comedy feature have not been shared. Sony Pictures has announced a new movie based on the popular video game. Street Fighter will be released theatrically on March 20, 2026. The legendary film is co-developed and produced with Capcom. The company behind the series of games Also set to hit theaters that day is Amazon's MGM studio Project Hail Mary, the aerospace-focused thriller from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that stars Ryan Gosling as based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name.
Speaker 1:The Hollywood Walk of Fame is looking ahead as it prepares to honor the star-studded class of 2025. On Monday, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced next year's selections to receive a star on the Hollywood Boulevard's storied walk, including the likes of Jane Fonda, david Beckham, fran Drescher, alan Cumming and the late Prince David Beckham, fran Drescher, alan Cumming and the Late Prince. In addition to Fonda, the 2025 Motion Picture honorees include John Carpenter, jessica Chastain, bill Duke, robert England, milo Estevez, colin Farrell, nia Long, lisa Liu, glyn Thurman and Tony Vaz. The television honorees include Drescher, lauren Graham, bill Nye, molly Shannon, Sherry Shepard, courtney B Vance, chris Wallace and South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, to be honored in, of course, a double ceremony. Other recording artists to receive the honor include Fantasia, depeche Mode, los Bocas, the B-52s, green Day, the Isley Brothers, busta Rhymes, george Strait, keith Urban and War. Cumming and Misty Copeland have been selected as theater honorees, with Beckham and Oral Hirshheiser honored for sports and Adam Carolla receiving a radio honor. Chairman Peter Roth said Now, although the honorees have been chosen to receive a star, it's not guaranteed that they'll get the honor.
Speaker 1:Each honoree will have two years to schedule their ceremony before their selection expires. And this isn't cheap folks. You have to pay to get that star. This isn't like a free entitlement. You know this is you have. You know you're honored, pay us up, pay us. So that's why. That's why you know you have two years. You have two years to raise the cash to do this Kind of sucks, huh. And finally, tonight we honor three actors.
Speaker 1:First off, martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 70s, and Larry, a beloved guest star on sitcoms like Roseanne and Arrested Development, has died, according to his daughter. Mull's daughter, tv writer and comic artist, maggie Mull, said her father died at home this past Thursday after a valiant fight against a long illness. Mull, who is also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, mary Hartman and the starring role in its spin-off Fernwood Tonight Quote. He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing red roof in commercials. His daughter said in a post he would find that joke funny. It was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and co-workers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and the sign of a truly exceptional person, by many, many dogs unquote. Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache.
Speaker 1:Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, penning the 1970-70 hit A Girl Named Johnny Cash for singer Jane Morgan. He would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s. In 1976, I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy in the Sunset Strip. When Norman Lear walked in and heard me, he cast me as the wife beater on Mary Hartman, mary Hartman. Four months later I was spun off into my own show. Mole said His time on the script was moralized in the 1973 country rock classic Lonesome LA Cowboy, where the writers of the Purple Sage gave him a shout-out alongside music luminaries Chris Christopherson and Rita Coolidge.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. On Fernwood Tonight he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a Midwestern town and twin to his Murray Hartman character, fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comic sensibilities played his sidekick. It was later revamped as America Tonight and set in Southern California. We get a real chance at the talk show as a substitute for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. As a substitute for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters, as he did as Terry Gross' boss and Michael Keaton's foe in 1983's Mr Mom. He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game Clue, which, like many things Mull has appeared in, has become a cult classic.
Speaker 1:The 1980s also brought what many thought to be his best work A History of White People in America, a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a 65-minute-style investigative reporter investigating all things milquetoast and mundane, with Willard as his co-star. He also wrote and starred in 1988's Rented Lips alongside Robert Downey Jr. His co-star, jennifer Tilly, said in an expo Friday that Mull was such a witty and charismatic and kind person. In the 1990s he was known for his recurring role on several seasons of Roseanne, in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character and an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020. Mull would later play private eye Jean Parmesan on Arrested Development a cult classic character on a cult classic show and would be nominated for an Emmy his first in 2016, for a guest run on Veep.
Speaker 1:Martin Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982. Yeah, you know it really hurts. He's one of those actors who's been in a lot of things, but you have to really think to know who it is. And another one of those type of characters was Bill Cobbs. The veteran character actor who became ubiquitous and sage screen presence as an older man has died. At the age of 90, cobbs died Tuesday at his home in the Inland Empire, california, surrounded by family and friends. His publicist, chuck I Jones, said Natural causes is the likely cause of death.
Speaker 1:A Cleveland native, cobbs acted in such films as the Hudsucker Proxy, the Bodyguard and Night at the Museum. He made his first big screen appearance in a fleeting role in 1974's the Taking of Bellham 1, 2, 3, and became a lifelong actor with some 200 film and TV credits. The lion's share of those came in his 50s, 60s and 70s. As filmmakers and TV producers that turned to him again and again to imbue small but pivotal parts with a wizened and worn soulfulness. Gobbs appeared on television shows including the Sopranos, the West Wing, sesame Street and Good Times and was Whitney Houston's bodyguard, whitney Houston's manager in the Bodyguard and the mystical clockman of the Coen brothers. Hudsucker Proxy and the doctor of John Sayles' Sunshine State, played the coach in Air Bud, the security guard in Night at the Museum and the father on the Gregor Hines show. Cobbs rarely got the kinds of major parts to stand out and win awards. Instead, cobbs was a familiar and memorable everyman who left an impression on audiences regardless of screen time. He won the Daytime Emmy Award for an outstanding limited performance in a daytime program for the series Dino Dana in 2020. Wendell Pierce, who acted alongside Cobbs in I'll Fly Away and the Gregor Hines Show, remembered Cobbs as a father figure at Griot, a iconic artist that mentored me. By the way, he led his life as an actor.
Speaker 1:Wilbur Francisco Cobbs, born June 16, 1934, served eight years in the US Air Force after graduating high school in Cleveland. In the years after his service, cobb sold cars. He began acting in a Cleveland theater and later moved to New York where he joined the Negro Ensemble Company acting alongside Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee. Bill Cobbs was 90 years old. And finally tonight, donald Sutherland, the tall, lean and long-faced Canadian actor who became a counterculture icon in such films as the Third Dozen, mash Clute and Don't Look Now, and who subsequently enjoyed a prolific and wide-ranging career in films including Ordinary People Without Limits and the Hunger Games films, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness. According to the management company he had, he was 88 years old.
Speaker 1:For over a half century, the Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor, who received an honorary Oscar in 2017, memorably played villains, antiheroes, romantic leads and mentor figures. His profile increased in the past decade with his supporting role as the evil President Snow in the Hunger Games franchise. Most recently, he appeared as Judge Parker on the series Lawman, bass, reeves and in the Swimming with Sharks series in 2022. His other recent recurring roles include the series Undoing and Trust and features at Astra and the Burnt Orange Heresy. Sutherland won a Supporting Actor Emmy for HBO's Citizen X in 1995, and was nominated in 2006 for a Lifetime miniseries Human Trafficking.
Speaker 1:After what Sutherland called a meandering low career, calling roles in low-budget horror films like 1963's Castle of the Living Dead and 1965's Die, die my Darling, he landed a part as one of the bottom six in 1967's the Dirty Dozen. Sutherland told the Guardian in 2005 that he originally had one line in the film until Clint Walker refused to play a scene requiring him to impersonate a general. According to Sutherland, director Robert Aldrich, who didn't know his name, suddenly turned to him and said you with the big ears, you do it. The smart-alky role was a perfect fit for Sutherland, whose wolfish sideways smile and boyish charm caught the attention of producer Ego Preminger, who cast him as the anti-authoritarian surgeon Captain Hawkeye Pierce in the 1970 smash hit MASH MASH. Mash would turn Sutherland and co-star Elliot Gould into major stars, but the tradition-bound actors had trouble adjusting to the director Robert Altman's improvisational and often chaotic approach. According to Sutherland, altman tried to fire him during the shot, but Preminger held firm. Sutherland also co-starred with Gould in 1970s-inspired Alan Arkin helmed-backed black comedy Low Murders and again in director Ivan Kirshner's 1974 misfire Spies.
Speaker 1:In 1970, in the World War II actioneer Kelly's Heroes, sutherland joined Clint Eastwood portraying Sergeant Oddball, an absurdly connived but scene-stealing proto-hippie tank commander. Sutherland retuned with Eastwood in 2000's Space Cowboys, this time playing a former hotshot pilot. In 1971, he starred in Clute, a thriller character study directed by Alan J Pakula. Sutherland emerged as a credible romantic leading man, portraying a troubled detective who falls in love with a call girl who he's protecting from the sadistic killer. Fonda would later give Sutherland credit for his Oscar-winning Best Actress performance. The two were having a love affair at the time and the relationship stoked Sutherland's anti-war politics.
Speaker 1:At the high of his success, sutherland began to make eccentric career choices. He turned down John Borman for Deliverance and chose Paul Morserski's Alex in Wonderland over Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. He also acted with Fonda again in Steelyard Blues and played Christ in Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. Both fizzled at the box office. He also starred in Dave the Locust, feliz Casanova 1900, and had a memorable cameo in 1978's hit National Lampoon's Animal House, playing a professor who is discovered having an affair with a student. He took a small upfront fee for his work Instead of being offered a percentage of the profits. The actor estimated the cut choice cost him $14 million.
Speaker 1:Sutherland rebounded with 1970's Ordinary People, convincing director Robert Redford to cast him as the grieving father trying to hold his family together after his older son's accidental death. Other noteworthy roles include President Snow in the Hunker Games and sequels, a safecracker in the Italian Job, the father in Six Degrees of Separation, a stylish safecracker in the Great Train Robbery and the lead in Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Lead in Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Sutherland also appeared with his son, kiefer in 1996, a Time to Kill, but turned down an offer to play the father of Kiefer's character, jack Bauer, in 24, his son's successful TV series. Sutherland's TV work includes the Superlative 7 episode of the event of the 1967 Avengers, two episodes of the Saint in 1965 and 1966, and has Nathan Templeton in Commander-in-Chief in 2005. His TV miniseries work includes 2010's the Pillars of the Earth, based on the Ken Follett epic novel. Sutherland is survived by his wife, francine Rayshutt, his sons Rogue, roseph, angus and Kiefer, daughter Rachel and four grandchildren. And Kiefer. Sutherland was 88 years old, and that brings us to the end of the show for today.
Speaker 1:Please be sure to check us on social media. We're on Blue Sky and Twitter at Multiverse, tom Threads, facebook and Instagram at Multiverse Tonight, and if you've gotten some value out of the show and would like to pay it back, please head on over to multiverstonightcom. You can find our Patreon and Ko-fi links, check our show notes, visit our Teeplibook store and a lot more. You can also leave feedback as well. Now, if this is your first time listening, thank you and welcome. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button and share with us, with others. That's the important part. Give us some time with others. Special thanks to Shane Ivers for the intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music. Thanks for watching this edition of Multiverse Tonight. We'll be back in two weeks with more sci-fi and comic book news. Now, please exit the universe in an orderly fashion, good night. Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2024. All rights reserved. This podcast is part of the Pop Goes the Culture podcast network. Find out more of our other podcasts at popgoestheculturecom. Thank you.
