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South Park won Outstanding Animated Program at the Creative Arts Emmys for "Sermon on the 'Mount," its first win in that category since 2013. Two days later, Trey Parker and Matt Stone renamed the show South America.
The Emmy went to the season 27 premiere, the episode that put a cartoon Trump in bed with Satan and took shots at Paramount along the way. The show's accounts followed the win with an image of Trump holding the trophy and the line "You finally got your Emmy," a callback to The Apprentice going eight nominations without one. Tuesday brought the rebrand, with Parker and Stone crediting the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google after both map apps swapped Lake Ontario for Lake America. MapQuest did not swap, and its app went to number one.
Key takeaways:
"Two days after that, they went for another swing." - Frank
"By the way, MapQuest still keeps the old name and is now number one on the App Store." - Frank
"It's totally fitting with the narrative of the show." - Frank
Sources: the official South Park accounts, Comedy Central, CNBC, and Newsweek. Episode archive at GeekFreaksPodcast.com.
If the MapQuest line made you laugh, send this to the one person you know who still has that app installed. #GeekFreaksPodcast
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Does the South America branding survive past the September 16 premiere, or is it a one week gag? And did the Lake America maps change actually push you to a different navigation app?
Netflix is developing a live-action Dungeons and Dragons series called Ravenloft, built as an origin story for Strahd von Zarovich. Alfonso Cuarón is producing and John August is writing.
Strahd is the vampire Darklord at the center of D&D's gothic horror setting, and the show tracks how he became one of the game's most notorious villains rather than starting with him already there. Cuarón's credits include Gravity, Children of Men, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. August wrote Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and Frankenweenie. The series is being kept separate from the other D&D projects in development, so it will not tie into a shared multiverse.
Key takeaways:
"Strahd is the best person for this." - Frank
"We got a really good team on this one." - Frank
Sources: Deadline, GeekFreaksPodcast.com
If you have run a table through Curse of Strahd, send this to the players who survived it. Tag us with #GeekFreaksPodcast and tell us who you want cast as Strahd.
Follow along:
Who should play Strahd, and does an origin story work better than dropping us into Barovia with him already in power?
The Dungeons and Dragons 2 script is finished, and John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein wrote it. Paramount commissioned it under the old leadership, passed on it under the new one, and Hasbro is now shopping it to other studios.
Honor Among Thieves was the kind of mid-budget adventure movie that barely gets made anymore, which is why the sequel script sitting on a shelf stings. The passing was a financial call, not a creative one, and the rights are still with Hasbro. The pitch working in the sequel's favor is that the setup work is already paid for. The party is established, the cast is known, and the story can start at the next adventure instead of the introductions.
Key takeaways:
"This is a slam dunk. Somebody take it." - Frank
"I actually think Amazon is the right fit." - Frank
"It's the same party coming back to the table." - Frank
Sources: The Playlist, GeekFreaksPodcast.com
If you have been waiting on this sequel since 2023, send this to the friend who still quotes Holga. Tag us with #GeekFreaksPodcast and tell us which studio should write the check.
Follow along:
Which studio do you want picking up Dungeons and Dragons 2, and is Amazon actually the right home for it? And if the sequel happens, do you want the same party back or new players at the table?
Jim Cummings says Disney is recasting him as Darkwing Duck for the upcoming reboot, and that Launchpad McQuack is getting a new voice actor too. This lands two weeks after Cummings was passed over for Disney Legends at D23, and the Seth Rogen produced revival he recorded a pilot for is moving ahead without him.
I have a hard time squaring this one. Cummings has been Darkwing Duck, Winnie the Pooh, the Cheshire Cat, Shredder, and a few hundred other voices that basically built the 90s for a lot of us, and he recorded the pilot that got this whole revival greenlit in the first place. Now he is out of the lead role, Launchpad is being recast, and he did not sound thrilled about any of it. Pair that with the Disney Legends snub at D23 and the fact that he already got recast on the latest Winnie the Pooh in favor of a kid actor, and it starts to feel less like a scheduling problem and more like a guy being quietly pushed to the side. He is still working. He played Pete again in 2026 and he is running an active podcast. He is willing to do it. I still want the Darkwing series to land because it is a genuinely fun property for kids, but this part of it stinks.
Chapters
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"I hope they get everything they deserve."
"Jim Cummings is a voice of a generation."
"There's kind of this like mounting thing where it kind of feels like Jim's being shoved out a little bit."
"It's wild to me. It's just completely wild."
"Best of luck, Jim, and I hope that Dark Winged Duck series is successful still, because I think it's a really fun property for kids."
CTA
If you grew up with Darkwing Duck, tell me straight up whether you can accept a new voice in the cape. Share this one with the person you used to quote "let's get dangerous" with. #DarkwingDuck
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Listener Questions
Xbox is rolling out disc to digital, letting you drop an Xbox One or Series X disc into your console and unlock the digital version using the license baked into the game. Thousands of titles are supported at launch, older systems are on the roadmap, and I went straight to GameStop and grabbed six used games at two dollars each on a buy two get one free sale.
I walked through exactly how this works, because the comments on Threads had a lot of people convinced it was a trap. You put the disc in, it reads the license off the game, and the digital copy unlocks on your account. From that point you can play on another console, on PC through Play Anywhere, or on your phone, and you do not need the disc in the tray anymore. The disc is not consumed or damaged in the process, and if you lend it out, the license travels to whoever is playing it. Not every game qualifies for that level of access, so the supported list matters. I am a physical media guy with shelves of Blu rays and DVDs behind me, and none of this changes that. It just means my shelf now doubles as a digital library. All of this is landing while PlayStation takes heat over phasing out physical media by 2028, and the mood I picked up at GameStop was that Xbox is having a moment.
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"It registers the game using a license that's on the game itself, and it unlocks the digital version for you."
"I'm a physical library guy. There's a bunch of Blu rays and DVDs behind me."
"They said that there's going to be thousands of titles available at launch, and then more."
"All in all, I think this is a good move by Xbox. I think they're on the upswing right now."
"There's a vibe in the air that Xbox is doing really well."
If you have a question about which games qualify or how the license works, drop it in the comments and I will look it up for you. Share this one with the friend who still has a stack of Xbox One discs in a closet. #Xbox
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Listener questions:
Are you converting your disc library, or holding out on physical only?
What is the best used game deal you have found this year?
Dan Stevens is playing RoboCop in an eight episode series at Prime Video, moving from Downton Abbey and Legion into Alex Murphy's armor. I break down the supporting cast, the corporate villains, and the one thing the 2014 remake got wrong that this show cannot repeat.
I have been watching Dan Stevens work since Downton Abbey, and Legion is where he really showed the range this part needs, so hearing his name attached to RoboCop got my attention fast. Prime Video has eight episodes ordered and a solid team assembled, and the pieces we know about so far are the right ones, including Murphy's partner on the force and the corporate suits you are supposed to hate from the first frame. My worry is the same one I had in 2014, when the last movie sanded off the silver armor and treated the design like a costume problem instead of the whole identity. Kids do not run around the house in matte black. They run around in silver, pulling an imaginary gun out of their hip, and that image is the character. If Prime holds onto that and remembers RoboCop protects people and not corporations, this could be the version that finally lands.
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"Legion was kind of his next big one, and now he's bringing his talents over to Prime's RoboCop series." - Frank
"They got a pretty good team around it so far." - Frank
"They even joked about like, oh, the silver armor's too much. What are you doing? Silver armor is everything." - Frank
"Hopefully Prime doesn't mess this up and understand the point of RoboCop protecting people over corporations." - Frank
If you have opinions about the silver armor, send this to the friend who still defends the 2014 movie and let them argue with me. Follow the show so you get every RoboCop casting update as it drops. #RoboCop
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Listener Questions
House of the Dragon season four arrives in 2028 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season two is right behind it, but everything after that gets a lot less certain. I rank Aegon's Conquest, Nine Voyages, the Arya sequel, Ten Thousand Ships, and the Golden Empire from real production to a script sitting on somebody's desk.
I wanted to sort the entire Westeros slate by one question, which is whether the thing will actually exist. The two shows at the top are easy, and then it gets interesting fast. The Mad King is a stage play about Aerys and the events that kicked off Robert's Rebellion, and I am planning to be there when it hits the States. Aegon's Conquest is my big prediction, because Warner Bros. has a fantasy epic hole on the slate once Dune wraps with part three, and I think Aegon's story gets stretched across a trilogy to fill it. Nine Voyages excites me for a different reason, since Corlys Velaryon is the guy Westeros parents tell their kids about at bedtime and House of the Dragon barely touches those legends. Then the drop starts. The Arya sequel is the strongest of the long shots because HBO wants it, but it needs Maisie Williams and it needs to clear a bar the network keeps saying is extremely high. Ten Thousand Ships has been kicking around since 2021 with three writers in five years, which is Marvel's Blade territory, and it is a very expensive story built on names most viewers will not recognize. The Golden Empire is the one I am rooting for hardest, because a feudal China and Japan influenced corner of Essos with an HBO architecture budget is the only pitch here that would feel completely new.
Chapters
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"I'm gonna rank these from, like, actually going to happen to concept art on someone's desk."
"The way I like to look at Sea Snake is he's the character in Westeros that parents would tell their kids about at bedtime."
"It has, like Marvel's Blade stink all over it."
"I think HBO kind of wants to use Targaryen, Stark, or Lannister at the end of every name in any projects."
"This could be really different than anything else that they put out for Westeros, and 100% have my backing."
If you have a ranking of your own, send this to the friend who still argues about the Jon Snow show and tell me where I got it wrong. #GameOfThrones
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Which Game of Thrones project would you actually cancel to get the Golden Empire made faster?
Would you watch an Arya sequel if Maisie Williams passed and the role was recast?
Sega's Golden Axe is back as a ten episode adult animated series, and all ten episodes land on Paramount Plus on September 16. Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks, Solar Opposites) and Joe Chandler (American Dad!) co-created it, with Matthew Rhys, Liam McIntyre, Lisa Gilroy, Danny Pudi and Carl Tart voicing the cast.
I care about this one because of the pedigree behind it. McMahan and Chandler are two names I trust in adult animation, and the premise sounds like it knows exactly what it is: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead reuniting to fight Death Adder again, stuck in a loop where the villain never stays dead. What breaks that loop is Hampton Squib, a brand new adventurer who is completely out of his depth, and I have questions about whether he is meant to read as DLC or as the player's stand in. The cast is stacked top to bottom, with Matthew Rhys as the angry dwarf Gilius Thunderhead, Liam McIntyre from Spartacus as Ax Battler, Lisa Gilroy as Tyris Flare, Danny Pudi as Hampton Squib, and Carl Tart as the panther warrior Chronos. Great creative team, great voice cast, a premise that plays with video game logic, and a binge drop instead of a weekly rollout. This one has a real shot.
Key Takeaways
"The reason I care about this is because the pedigree."
"So is he a DLC to the game or is he just the player's stand in?"
"It does feel like they kind of know they're in a video game, or at least in a repeat cycle."
"The cast is top notch too."
"Great creative team, great voice acting, interesting premise, and they're all dropping at once."
If you grew up feeding quarters into a Golden Axe cabinet, send this episode to the friend you played it with and tell me whether you are binging all ten on day one. #GoldenAxe
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Is Hampton Squib a player stand in, or is he DLC that got shoved into the party?
Which dormant Sega franchise should get the animated treatment next?
Robin Williams Is Back Online and It Is About AI
Robin Williams' Instagram posted for the first time in 12 years, and his kids Zak, Zelda and Cody also launched Facebook, TikTok and YouTube accounts in his name. Zelda framed it plainly on her own Instagram: this is the best tool the family has for fighting AI recreations of her father's likeness and voice.
I get why this feels strange, and I say so in the episode. But I walk through why it actually works. A dormant account does not rank in a Robin Williams search, so what fills that space is fan edits at best and AI slop at worst. An active family owned account gives people one verified place to check whether a photo or video is real, and it gives the family standing to file takedowns, which platforms only honor from accounts in good standing. The Stan Lee Instagram has been running this playbook for a while and it is worth a follow. This is still whack a mole and I am not pretending otherwise, but it is one of the few real levers anyone has right now. What gets me is that the people falling for these videos skew older, not younger, while the millennials who grew up on Robin are the ones watching his kids fight off replicas of their dead father. Have a heart. Let the man rest.
Chapters
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"A dormant account for 12 years is not going to rank in a Robin Williams search." (Frank)
"Everything posted from there is verified and real." (Frank)
"Now we have to be realistic here. This is whack a mole." (Frank)
"Have a heart guys. Let the man rest." (Frank)
"If we don't push back against stuff like this and the many other AI problems, we will not have a coexistence with AI that we actually want." (Frank)
Go follow the Robin Williams Instagram account, then send this episode to the person in your life who keeps sharing AI videos of dead celebrities without realizing it. #RobinWilliams
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Do you think reactivating a deceased person's account is the right call, or does it make the whole thing weirder?
Have you already been fooled by an AI video of someone who has passed away?
Sebastian Stan confirmed he is playing Harvey Dent in The Batman Part II during a French press interview about Avengers: Doomsday. Set photos showing Christmas decorations and wintry dressing have people asking whether Mr. Freeze is next.
I have been waiting on a straight answer about Harvey Dent for months and we finally got one from Sebastian Stan himself. He was doing press for a French outlet, mostly answering questions about Avengers: Doomsday, and he said he only receives the script in pieces and films it that way. Then he said the same thing is happening on The Batman Part II, where he plays Harvey Dent. That is the confirmation. No more rumor cycles, no more insider posts contradicting each other. On top of that, set photos are showing Christmas decorations, which points to the sequel taking place over the holidays, and the production has been posting wintry material that has me hoping for Mr. Freeze. He is one of the best villains in the rogues gallery and most casual fans still know him from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Batman: The Animated Series made him tragic and genuinely cold, and I want a whole new audience to see that version.
Key Takeaways
Quotes
"Finally confirmed, we got Sebastian Stan playing Harvey Dent for The Batman Part two."
"I really don't know anything. It's mostly in parts."
"by the way, on set we're seeing Christmas decorations. So it's going to be taking place during Christmas."
"Is that teasing towards Mr. Freeze? I sure hope so."
"I think he's one of the best villains in Batman's rogues gallery."
If you want Mr. Freeze in The Batman Part II, send this to the friend who still quotes the Schwarzenegger ice puns. Follow and leave a rating so more Gotham casting news finds you first. #TheBatman
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Listener Questions
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