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Marvel Pushes Up Loki Premiere Date and Shares New Teaser Trailer: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-05T18:34:54+00:00“>May 5, 2021 | 2:34pm ET Disney has announced the latest Marvel series, Loki, will premiere on Disney+ two days early on June 9th. New episodes will also hit the streaming service on Wednesday, instead of the Friday release schedule used for WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The announcement was made by the God of Mischief himself, Tom Hiddleston, who glibly alluded to Loki being overlooked in the Marvel Cinematic Universe despite being “heroic, cunning, and charming.” He proceeded to dub Wednesday the “new Friday.” Earlier this week, Marvel fans received another preview of Loki with a short teaser trailer that aired during the NBA game between ...
Big Shot Scores While Relying on Familiar Sports Tropes: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-19T21:30:25+00:00“>April 19, 2021 | 5:30pm ET The Pitch: It’s The Mighty Ducks with high school girls’ basketball instead of hockey, as an hourlong TV show instead of a movie. Another Underdog Story: That pitch may seem reductive, but Big Shot really doesn’t have much on its mind — at least in the three episodes made available to critics — aside from being a redemption story with youth sports as the backdrop, as a plucky, young team turns its prospects around thanks to a new coach who doesn’t really want to be there. A major difference is in the ages of the students. Whereas the original Mighty Ducks were pre-teens, the players here are teenagers, thus enabling co-creator David E...
Our Hate-Love-Hate Relationship with the New Captain America
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-10T14:25:29+00:00“>April 10, 2021 | 10:25am ET Warning: Major spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He didn’t have to do anything for us to hate him. All John Walker (Wyatt Russell) had to do to earn our ill will was not be Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Falcon relinquished the shield Steve Rogers gave to him out of an abiding respect for his friend, a sense that what the original Captain America accomplished was unique and personal. Handing that symbol of Steve’s accomplishments over to the Smithsonian was a sign that Sam intended to honor his friend’s legacy without taking on his mantle. So, when some random new guy assumes that mantle, replete with the shield Falcon re...
What’s Streaming on Disney+ in April 2021
Disney+ is keeping steady in its Flying V for April. Now that Gordon Bombay has hit the ice, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers will really start heating up. Not to be outshined by the Minnesota Miracle Man, of course, is Marvel’s other spinoff series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which keeps getting better. Right behind those two juggernaut series are some Ewoks. Yes, the cuddliest creatures in the Star Wars galaxy are finally coming to Disney+ with both films (Caravan of Courage, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor) and two seasons of its animated series. Elsewhere, John Stamos is coaching a basketball team in new series Big Shot, the first two seasons of Daredevil are making the leap from Netflix, the first two Night at the Museum flicks will open their doors, and JTT will prove he’s sti...
Disney Announces Cast for Obi-Wan Kenobi Series
Disney has been working on an original solo adventure for Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi for nearly five years now. Today, we know exactly who will be part of that story, as Disney+ has unveiled the cast for the spinoff Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series — and it’s even more stacked than expected. As previously announced, Ewan McGregor will return as the legendary Jedi Master for the show set 10 years after the end of Revenge of the Sith. Meanwhile, fan-favorite Hayden Christensen will also return as Darth Vader, giving him the chance to fully embody the iconic villain after playing Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy. Joining them in the cast will be longtime Star Wars fan Kumail Nanjiani; Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse, returning to play Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru from the p...
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers Is Quacktastic: Review
The Pitch: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” as Harvey Dent said all those years ago. Well, the Mighty Ducks were never going to die, and they’ve since flipped the coin. Now, they’re the powerhouse team in the Twin Cities region, no different than Coach Reilly’s Hawks back in the early ’90s, and they’re in it to win it. That’s bad news for young Evan (Brady Noon), who’s cut from the Ducks for not being good enough. Seeing her son defeated and humiliated, Evan’s mother Alex (Lauren Graham) rallies around the kid to form a new team of underducks. Though, as we learned through three Mighty Ducks flicks, it takes more than skates and speeches to start flying together. Cobra Quack: It was only a matter of time before we’d see another franchise follo...
Marvel’s Black Widow Getting Same Day Release on Disney+ and in Theaters
After more than a year’s delay due to the pandemic, Marvel has finally decided to release Black Widow day-and-date on Disney+ and in theaters on July 9th. The movie will be available as a Premier Access stream, which means Disney+ users will have to pay an additional fee to watch. What’s more, Emma Stone’s live-action 101 Dalmatians prequel Cruella will follow the same distribution plan, coming to Premier Access Disney+ and cinemas on May 28th. Meanwhile, Pixar’s Luca will take the release path laid out by the Oscar-nominated Soul, going directly to streaming at no extra cost to subscribers on June 19th. Disney’s decision to make Black Widow and Cruella available as Premier Access movies comes after what a press statement calls “the successful release” of Raya and The Last Dragon...
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Stumbles Slightly on Takeoff: Review
The Pitch: In the wake of the blip and the events of Avengers: Endgame, Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), has settled into a modest life of crimefighting with his signature wingsuit. Why isn’t he the new Captain America?, eagle-eyed Endgame viewers might be asking; after all, Old Cap handed him the signature star-spangled shield the last time we saw him. Well, Sam feels uncomfortable with the weight and responsibility of the title — it feels “like someone else’s.” Meanwhile, former Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is wrestling with his own post-terrorist trauma, struggling to reintegrate into society after ninety years of cryogenically-frozen evildoing. But the two might get drawn back into each other’s orbits with the arrival of a mysterious flash mob...
Understanding Trauma, Grief, and Resilience In WandaVision
It’s a tale as old as time: young woman is traumatized, radicalized, and experimented upon; A.I. takes physical form as a robot before evolving into something more traditionally, distinctly human. Woman and humanoid robot fall in love before humanoid robot is killed and woman, in her grief, semi-accidentally takes an entire town of people hostage. Explaining the concept of WandaVision to anyone not familiar with the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe presents a bit of a challenge. Perhaps the even bigger challenge is then trying to communicate the way that the show so effectively becomes a truly emotional story. Over the course of nine episodes, WandaVision shares more about the two titular characters than the five movies that featured Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff or the seven in whi...
WandaVision Dusts Off the Comics to Tease Vision’s Future
The following editorial is heavy on spoilers… “Previously On”, this week’s eighth episode of Disney+’s WandaVision, is enlightening in many ways. It explores the details of Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) tormented past, re-writes the origin of her powers, and yet also tells the backstory of the villainous Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn). By far the most interesting reveal, however, is the resurrected, colorless version of Vision (Paul Bettany), which is unveiled during the post-credits scene. Not only does this suggest an emotional series finale, it also has some interesting links to the comics that could hint at Vision’s future within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Vision being drained of all color is an unsettling sight, not just because of his cold appearance, but because it speaks to t...
What’s Streaming on Disney+ in March 2021
Disney+ is bringing back a few familiar faces in March. With WandaVision wrapping up, Marvel Studios will pivot to their next highly anticipated spinoff series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. As the title suggests, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan return as — you guessed it — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Right behind those Marvel heroes is everyone’s favorite hockey coach Gordon Bombay. Yes, Emilio Estevez will return to the ice with The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, which should give Mouse House their own Cobra Kai if there’s enough Zamboni power. Beyond those two blockbusters, National Geographic will unveil new documentary Own the Room, MCU fans in need of a refresher can tune into Marvel Studios: Legends, and for $30 extra bucks will get you Raya and the Last Dragon. Elsewhere...
Gina Carano Fired From The Mandalorian Following “Abhorrent” Social Media Posts
Lucasfilm has cut ties with The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano following a series of “abhorrent and unacceptable” social media postings. Carano had portrayed former Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune in the first two seasons of the widely popular Disney Plus series. She had emerged as a fan-favorite on the show, and Lucasfim had even considered a spinoff series starring Carano’s character, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, in recent months Carano courted controversy for social media posts in which she spread misinformation about voter fraud and mask wearing. She also mocked individuals who used preferred pronouns on social media by listing “beep/bop/boop” in her Twitter bio. More recently, she came under fire for an Instagram post comparing being a ...
