Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
Moving Out Moondogie
What if one of your favorite shows got canceled unexpectedly? Join us on this thrilling episode of Multiverse Tonight as we unpack the unfortunate cancellation of "Dead Boy Detectives" and its tumultuous journey across streaming platforms. From Netflix's decision to axe the series to the buzz around "Superman and Lois" premiering early on October 7th, you'll find out why Monday nights just got a whole lot more exciting! DC fanatics, get ready for more good news with the release date of "Creature Commandos" coming up on December 5th on Max. Plus, we celebrate Star Trek Day and dive deep into the "Take the Chair, Make an Impact" campaign, an initiative that promises to make a real difference while giving back 25% of Star Trek product sales to non-profits this September.
Switch gears with us as we explore a campaign to honor Star Trek's Chief Miles O'Brien with a statue in Killarney, Ireland, and catch up on the latest Marvel and Wizarding World updates. Marvel enthusiasts will be thrilled to hear about Todd Stashwick joining the WandaVision spin-off series, and Harry Potter fans can't miss Imelda Staunton reprising her role as the menacing Dolores Umbridge at Universal Orlando Resort. We also bring you updates on Netflix's animated "Midnight Sun," the sixth season of "What We Do in the Shadows," and fresh casting news for the live-action "Masters of the Universe" movie. Finally, we pay homage to the iconic careers of James Darren and James Earl Jones, whose legacies continue to inspire. Don't miss out on this episode packed with the latest geek culture news and heartfelt tributes!
Thanks for listening! Come visit the podcast at https://www.multiversetonight.com/
tonight. Dead boy detectives are dead, todd stashwick beams up the marvel, the creative arts emmys, and we remember james darren and james earl jones. All that and more in 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 your host, thomas Townley. Well, hello everyone, and welcome to episode 223 of Multiverse Tonight.
Speaker 1:I'm, of course, your host, thomas Townley, and well, if you might notice, if you're watching the video version of this, if you look behind me, you'll notice that there's not a lot of stuff back there. You know, it's not a redecorating scheme. We're moving. We're probably going to be moving within the next week or so from now. We're still waiting for a bathroom to be finished up, basically, but then we'll be moving. So, basically, all the autographs have come down. See, mr Shatner, there behind my head I'll see a Spuds McKenzie thing right there boxes. So hopefully the next episode will be in our news studio, but until then, we do have some news. So let's get right on with the DC Comics News, and we begin DC News with Dead Boy Detectives, which has been cancelled at Netflix. The series aired its one and only season at the streamer on April 25th thus ends the show's twisty path to the screen. It originally got pilot order at max in 2021 and then a series order at the streamer in 2022, before it was sold to Netflix in 2023. Now it's been reported at the time that the sale took place because the show, which is based on the characters created by DC by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, did not fit the new direction for Max DC content being spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Saffron At Netflix. It was part of the Sandman universe as the dead boy detectives were first introduced in an issue of the Sandman comic book. Netflix currently airs the Sandman TV series and a second season is on the way.
Speaker 1:The final season of Superman and Lois is coming to television just a little earlier than expected, and on New nights as well. According to TVLine, the season 4 premiere of Superman and Lois is now set to premiere on Monday, october 7th, at 8pm Eastern, with a two-episode debut. The series will then follow with new episodes on Monday nights at the same time. Going forward, superman and Lois will be followed by the Monday night by an eight-part docu-series, the Wranglers, beginning October 14th. Superman and Lois had previously been scheduled for a season four premiere on Thursday, october 17th.
Speaker 1:Creature Commandos will be coming to your streaming devices just in time for the holiday season. Peter Safran and James Gunn, the co-CEOs, announced that the new lineup of the DC Universe may have surprised fans to learn that the very first project wasn't going to be Superman. Instead, that distinction went to the adult anime series, creature Commandos, starring the cast of lesser-known DC characters. Creature Commandos is similar to the Suicide Squad, as Amanda Waller sends the team of misfits out on missions too dangerous for human beings. So fans can now mark that date on their calendar.
Speaker 1:Creature Commandos makes its debut on Max on Thursday, december 5th, followed by one episode weekly until the finale on January 16th. The official DC account on Twitter also shared the news alongside a poster featuring the Creature Commandos cast Quote. On December 5th, everything will be declassified. The new Max original series from DC Studios hashtag Creature Commandos premieres exclusively on at Streaming on Max. More intel soon. The post read. So you know that's very interesting. You know I've really never read creaturecommandos, but you know anything from James Gunn, you know pretty much has my blessing, you know.
Speaker 1:So anyway, let's go on to the star trek news. Star trek day just came and went, commemorating the first day that star trek tos premiered on tv screens on september 8th 1966, 10 years before I was born. This year, the franchise partnered with codeorg, which teaches computing to grade school students, dosomethingorg, which promotes youth social activism, and Outright International, an LBTIQ inclusion and global exclusivity initiative Global qualities, I should say, to launch the campaign. Take the chair, make an impact. It will be a global campaign encouraging fans to embrace the optimistic vision of a brighter future and to give back to the inclusive community of fans that Star Trek has fostered over the years. Now, the main theme of this year's digital experience event had fans take a seat of the captain's chair of the US Enterprise and ask the profound question what would I do if I were setting the course to the future? All fans were able to engage in that topic digitally on StarTrekcom, and during September, 25% of all Star Trek product sales in the US will be donated to those three non-profits mentioned earlier. Star Trek Day 2024 also offered various pop-up activations that fans could literally be able to take snap foes in the captain's chair, obtain a personalized admission and receive a limited edition enamel pin.
Speaker 1:More than 600 signatures have been collected to erect a statue of a Star Trek character in Killarney, ireland. Star Trek character in Killarney, ireland. Trekkies have organized a petition to have Chief Miles O'Brien immortalized with a statue in the Kerry town that is his fictional birthplace of Chief Miles Edward O'Brien, who is played by Irish actor Colm Meaney in Star Trek the Next Generation and Star Trek Deep Space Nine. You know, if there's anyone deserving of a statue, it's Miles O'Brien. He literally held that ship and that space station together. He is Scotty level of an engineer. So you know I support this let's. You know, hopefully they can have that. Hopefully they can have the same statue that's in that episode of Lurtex. That would be fantastic.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's go on to the Marvel news, and Marvel news begins with Todd Stashwick, who you remember from Star Trek Picard, who has joined Paul Bettany and James Spader in Marvel's upcoming Vision-centered WandaVision spin-off series on Disney+. According to sources to Deadlinecom, terry Metallus, who worked with Stashwick on Star Trek Picard, will serve as showrunner of the yet-untitled series, which is looking to start production in 2025. Bettany, who appeared in three Marvel films and WandaVision, will be reprising his role as the character Vision, this time the White Vision. Spader is reprising his MCU role as Ultron. Details of the new series have, of course, not been revealed, but, as previously reported, the Marvel Vision series has been in development at Disney Plus since 2022 and it's believed to be started on the Vision trying to regain his memory and humanity After he was killed by Thanos in 2018's Avengers Infinity War and resurrected in 2021's WandaVision.
Speaker 1:And now let's go on to the geek news. Sorry, no Star Trek news. Today. It's been more than 14 years since fans last saw Dolores Umbridge and Harry Parr in the Deathly Hallows Part 1, but now Imelda Staunton is back to reprise her role as the villain's character in Universal Epic Universe's new Wizarding World of Harry Potter Mystery of Magic attraction, set to open at the Universal Orlando Resort next year. Staunton's return to the role was announced in a new promotional video for the attraction, which gave fans a look at the new ride as well as a behind-the-scenes look at Stanton bringing the villain back to life. According to the official information about the attraction, by deadline visitors will quote travel by metro flu from Paris to the British Ministry of Magic where Dolores Umbridge is about to stand trial. Board a lift and join Harry Ron and Hermione as you journey deep inside the ministry's many departments.
Speaker 1:Thrilling adventure the animated series based on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight novel Midnight Sun has been given a straight-to-series order at Netflix, according to Variety. Netflix according to Variety, the project was first reported to be in early development back in April of 2023 at Liongate's television. Michael Byrne, vice chairman of Lionsgate, confirmed in 2024 that it would be an animated series, and now Netflix is developing the project. Midnight Sun was originally released in 2020 and serves as the first retelling of the first Twilight book from the perspective of Edward Cullen rather than Bella Swan. Suneed Daly will serve as writer and executive producer on the series. Daly's past credits include Tell Me Lies at Hulu, the Walking Dead World Beyond at AMC, raised by Wolves at Max and the Get Down at Netflix. Myers will serve as executive producer on the series alongside Megan Hibbett for Fickle Fish Film with Waiweke Garak, barry Pohl, executive producer for Temple Hill Entertainment, with Temple Hill, having produced the Twilight films, and so what do you think of a new Twilight project?
Speaker 1:Anyway, what we Do in the Shadows? Season 6 is coming out on October 21st. Quote After a very brief stint as a full-blown vampire, guillermo is revaluing his life. Who is he, if not familiar? Who will do anything to please his master in hopes of one day being turned into a vampire. Meanwhile, the vampires are revaluing too. When their former roommate appears after a 50-year nap, they realize how little they've done in half a century. Not one goal accomplished, not one dream pursued, not one part of the new world conquered, except for their street and part of Ashley Street. So yeah, I'm sad to see what we do in the shadows ending, but I'm sure they'll end it on a good note.
Speaker 1:Alison Brie is the latest superstar to join the live-action Master of the Universe movie from Amazon, mgm Studios and Mattel Films. Brie has been cast as supervillain Evil Lynn, starring opposite Nicholas Galtstein's central hero, he-man, and Camila Mendes as Tila, captain of the Royal Guards and love interest of He-Man. Plot details are being kept under wraps. The film will be out on June 5th 2026, but the story centers on Prince Adam of Eternia, who transforms into the muscular He-Man with the help of his magical power sword. The hero is tasked with defending his home planet from the evil Skeletor. Evil in is Skeletor's second command and wields a magic wand topped with a crystal orb and some more Harry Potter. News Search is underway for a new trio to play the iconic roles of Harry Potter Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, an open casting call was officially launched yesterday for children from the UK and Ireland to audition for the leads in an upcoming HBO original series. The note possibly revealed a targeted start date of the series, as it stipulates that the young actors must be between the ages of 9 and 11 in April of 2025. Now, that's seven months from now, which is how long it took to find Daniel Radcliffe in 2000, when he was 11. His co-stars, emma Watson and Rupert Grint, were 10 and 12 respectively, and now you too feel old.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the Emmy Awards are coming up. So first they have the Creative Arts Emmys, which is basically all the awards that aren't, you know, top shelf, if you will, and there were some winners of geek shows. So let's go over those. Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie went to American Horror Story Delegate the auteur. American Horror Story, delegate the Auteur. Outstanding Fantasy Sci-Fi Costumes went to Ahsoka Part 8, the Jedi, the Witch and the Warlord from Disney+. Outstanding Music Supervision went to Fallout, the episode the End on Prime Video. Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance went to Big Mouth, the Ambition Gremlin, netflix. Outstanding Emerging Media Program went to the follow-up episode Vault 33 on Prime Video, and we'll see if there's any other winners when the main Emmys happen later this month.
Speaker 1:And now, as always, we come on with some sad news. First up actor and singer James Darin, the former teen idol who played Vic Fontaine in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, has passed away. He was 88 years old Now. The actor and musician, whose breakout role was as Moondoggy, the singing-surfing leading man in the Gidget movies, became a fairly household name when the song Goodbye Cruel World hit number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. The actor played a lounge singer across seven episodes of Deep Space Nine's final two seasons and became a fan favorite recurring character.
Speaker 1:Born James Wilson Ercolani on June 8, 1936 in Philadelphia, darren would take on his stage name in 1955 when he moved to Hollywood, reportedly naming himself after the Kaiser Darren sports car. He signed a deal with Columbia and played minor roles in several movies between 1956 and 1959, as well as appearing on the Donna Reed show. It was only a few years before he broke through in 1959's Gidget. He would do two sequels, gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome, before moving on from the role. Darren also worked in feature films almost exclusively in the 1960s, but embraced TV starting in the 1970s, leading the Time Tunnel and the sci-fi pilot the man from the 25th Century. In the 1970s, darren would appear as a guest star on TV shows like SWAT, charlie's Angels, the Love Boat and Fantasy Island, before taking on a series regular role on TJ Hooker, in which he would star alongside Star Trek legend William Shatner. Besides Deep Space Nine, his 90s acting roles included Silk Stockings, diagnosis, murder and Melrose Place included Silk Stockings, diagnosis, murder and Melrose Place.
Speaker 1:After Deep Space Nine, darren largely retired from acting, appearing only in a pair of feature films 2001's Random Acts and 2017's Lucky. In 1999, he released an album of the songs he had performed on Deep Space Nine and did only two more records during the last 20 years of his life, according to the Wrap. Darren's son, jim Moray, has told the media that his father had a scheduled heart surgery last week, but that the procedure was considered too high risk because Darren was so weak at the time. He was sent home, but returned to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center sometime after. Darren passed away there. Surrounded by family, darren is survived by his wife, actress and former Miss Denmark, evie Norland, and their two sons. He was 88 years old, and this one hits hard James Earl Jones, the commanding presence on screen, who nonetheless gained greater fame off camera as the deep voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, the benevolent leader and Lion King and the acting voice behind this Is CNN died yesterday at the age of 93.
Speaker 1:Jones burst into national prominence in 1970 with his powerful, oscar-dominated performance as America's first black heavyweight champion in the Great White Hope. He passed away at his home in Deserts County, new York, according to Independent Artist Group. The distinguished star made his big screen debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove or how I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964, and was in many other films as well, including Field of Dreams in 1989 as the reclusive author Terrence Mann, and the Sandlot as the intimidating neighborhood guy Mr Myrtle. For his work on the stage, jones earned two Best Actor Tony Awards for portraying the role of Jack Jefferson, who was based on real-life boxer Jack Johnson in 1968, and Howard Sackler's Great White Hope, and for playing the patriarch who struggles to provide for his family in a 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning production of August Wilson's Fences. Jones is also the recipient of an honorary Oscar at the 2011 Governor's Awards and a special Tony for a Lifetime Achievement in 2017, and was one of the handful of people to earn an EGOT Emmy, grammy, oscar and Tony, and the first actor to win two Emmys in one year.
Speaker 1:Jones' rise to becoming one of the most admired American actors at all time was remarkable, considering that he suffered from a debilitating stutter as a child. When an English teacher in high school encouraged Jones to read a poem for the class that he had written, he discovered that his stutter vanished whenever he spoke words that he had memorized. He won a public speaking contest as a senior and earned a full scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he studied medicine and discovered acting. He made his stage debut in a community theater production in Manistee, michigan, before he left to serve in the Korean War. After being discharged, jones moved to New York to pursue theater and made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Sunrise at Campanello, the Tony winner for Best Play that was written by Dori Suckery and starred Ralph Bellamy as polio-stricken president Franklin Roosevelt.
Speaker 1:Jones told the Hollywood Reporter in 2011 that his career was guided by words that his father, robert Earl Jones an actor who had been blacklisted from the industry by the House Un-American Activities Committee but appeared in the Sting told him when he was just getting started out. Quote If you want to do this business. You got to do it because you love it, not because it's going to make you rich or famous. That was the best advice he could give me, he said, unquote. Kubrick cast Jones as Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, a member of the B-52 bomber crew, and Dr Strangelove after spying him in a New York production of Shakespeare in the Park. His performance opposite future National Endowment for the Arts chairman Jane Alexander in the Great White Hope netted him the cover of Newsweek magazine in October of 1968, and for the film version, he would become only the second black man to score a Best Actor Oscar nomination after Sidney Poitier.
Speaker 1:When director George Lucas was searching for a bass voice for Darth Vader, he reportedly considered Orson Welles but felt his voice might be too recognizable, so he called Jones' agent and asked if the actor would like a day's work. Jones got a flat fee of $7,000 for the job and did not acknowledge that he was the voice of Darth Vader until the third film in the franchise. As for voicing his character in the Lion King, jones said in a 2011 interview that he still got a kick out of meeting kids who were devoted to the 94 Disney classic Quote. Their parents will say there's Mufasa, but I don't look like a lion, even if they're real little kids. They think they're being shafted or having the wool pull over their eyes and I cannot roar to prove it to them. But I can say in Mufasa's voice Simba, you have deliberately disobeyed me, end quote. Jones, of course, was also known as the voice of CNN Quote. I just emptied my mind and filled it with the thought of all the hundreds of stories tragic, violent, funny, touching that would be. Following my introduction, he said when asked about his motivation, and then I said this is CNN Unquote.
Speaker 1:He also guest starred on three episodes of the Simpsons, including a memorable 1990 Treehouse of Horror installment. He helped play Admiral Greer in three films based on the Tom Clancy novels the Hunt for October, patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and was King Jaffee Jaffer in the pair of Coming to America movies, including the 2021 sequel. Jones' two Emmys came in 1991 for playing a private detective who was wrongly imprisoned on the short-lived ABC drama Gabriel's Fire and as the owner of a shoe repair business in the TNT telefilm Heat Wave about the 1965 Los Angeles Watts riots. Among the myriad of roles he played on stage include Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the United States Supreme Court. Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, president Arthur Hochstetter in the Best man and chauffeur Huck Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy opposite Angela Lansbury. In 2022, the 110-year-old court theater in Broadway was renamed the James Earl Jones Theater in his honor. He married actress Julianne Marie in 1968 after meeting her during a production of Othello, but they divorced four years later, where he met his second wife, actress Celia Hart, while they were taping the CBS police drama Paris, in which he starred as a young police captain and she played a young cop. They were married in 1982, and had a son. Flynn Hart died in October 2016 of ovarian cancer at age 68. James Earl Jones was 93 years old, and that brings us to the end of this edition of the show.
Speaker 1:Now please be sure to check us out on social media. We're on blue sky and Twitter at multiverse, tom, but you're more likely to find me on the threads Facebook, 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 multiverstenightcom where you can find our Patreon and Ko-fi links. Check out our show notes, visit our TeePublic store, leave some feedback and so much more. And if this is the first time listening or watching, thank you and welcome. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button and share us 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 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.
