Marvel finally put the MCU X-Men cast on stage at D23, and Adam Driver as Mister Sinister might not even be the most interesting name on the list. Frank and Thomas break down the new Avengers: Doomsday trailer, the full X-Men lineup, the X-Men '97 season 2 finale, and the Lanterns premiere on HBO.

The Doomsday conversation starts where most fan reactions did, with Robert Downey Jr.'s voice under the Doom mask, and moves into power scaling against Thor, the Reed and Victor history the trailer is quietly setting up, and which legacy characters are unlikely to survive December 18. From there it's the casting reveals: Christopher Abbott as a much younger Professor X, a Magneto without the Holocaust backstory, Inde Navarrette stepping into a role Lenore Zann has owned for three decades, and Maya Boyd going from Broadway to Storm with no screen credits at all. The back half turns critical. X-Men '97 season 2 lands an 8 out of 10 from both hosts, with a long argument about why the resurrection plotting undercut Nightcrawler's sacrifice and why the middle stretch never matched the Egypt episodes. Then it's full spoilers on Lanterns, including the ending, the Watchmen and True Detective fingerprints all over it, and predictions about the 2016 timeline and where Guy Gardner fits.

• 0:00 December 18 plans, Dune vs. Avengers Doomsday
• 2:20 Avengers Doomsday trailer, Doom's voice and power scaling
• 9:15 The MCU X-Men cast reveal from D23
• 22:50 Vision Quest first look and the case for bringing Ultron back
• 26:23 Star Wars Starfighter and the rest of the D23 slate
• 27:55 X-Men '97 season 2 finale review and grades
• 38:41 Lanterns series premiere, full spoilers
• 55:33 Weekly recommendations

Key takeaways

• The Doomsday trailer sold Doom as a real successor to Thanos, largely on the strength of one shot stopping Stormbreaker and throwing Thor back.
• Marvel is casting the X-Men young on purpose. Magneto reportedly loses the Holocaust background entirely because of it, which Thomas calls pivotal enough to worry about.
• Inde Navarrette reads as an early, guarded Rogue rather than the fully powered version from the comics or X-Men '97, and the real question is how she sounds next to Lenore Zann's voice.
• Adam Driver as Mister Sinister lines up with the gene manipulation groundwork already laid in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
• X-Men '97 season 2 gets an 8 from both hosts. The voice work, especially A.J. LoCascio's shift once Gambit takes back control, holds up even where the pacing does not.
• Lanterns plays like prestige HBO rather than DCU house style, and its best material is the pilot's first five minutes and the jailhouse interrogation, not the constructs.

Quotes

• "How many times can you kill Patrick Stewart?" (Thomas, on the Doomsday casualty list)
• "This one felt like, oh, all hands on deck." (Thomas, on the Doomsday trailer)
• "The idea of resurrecting somebody needs to feel impossible to you." (Frank, on X-Men '97 season 2)
• "There's this cognitive dissonance for me with this season." (Thomas, on grading X-Men '97)
• "Both these men are living false perspectives of what it means to be a hero." (Frank, on Hal and John in Lanterns)

All news covered on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, including the full D23 announcement roundup and the footage that never got an official release.

If this one was worth your commute, follow the show wherever you listen, leave a rating and a review, and send it to the friend who is still arguing that Adam Driver was wasted as Kylo Ren.

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Got a question, a counterargument, or a topic you want covered? Send it in. Who do you think dies first in Doomsday, and does Lanterns hold the landing after that ending? Questions and reactions get read on air.

House of the Dragon Season 3 ended with Sunfyre back from the dead and Rhaenyra executing the High Septon inside his own sept, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day gave the MCU its darkest Jean Grey yet. Frank, Thomas, and Jonathan break down both, plus the Marvel Hall H panel from San Diego Comic-Con and why Ghost Rider got announced with nothing behind it.

On the House of the Dragon side: the Episode 7 resurrection that flipped the board, Helaena's tapestry and what it was quietly spoiling all along, where the show splits from Fire and Blood on her death, why Rhaenyra was never built to sit on a throne in the first place, and a final score for the season from each of them. Then a full spoiler conversation on Spider-Man: Brand New Day covering Sadie Sink's Jean Grey and the road to Dark Phoenix, the Hulk and the Punisher as mirrors for where Peter Parker could end up, the ending that made a handshake hit harder than a kiss, and whether Marvel has its footing back going into Doomsday, Secret Wars, and X-Men. Network news and picks of the week close it out.

• 00:00 Intro: Three Weeks Off, Alaska, and Missing Comic-Con
• 03:11 San Diego Comic-Con and the Marvel Hall H Fallout
• 05:53 Project Hail Mary Is the Movie of the Year
• 07:02 House of the Dragon Season 3: Rhaenyra's Turn and the Finale
• 18:53 Sunfyre, Helaena's Tapestry, and Book vs Show Changes
• 25:02 Season 3 Final Thoughts and Scores
• 28:00 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Spoiler Talk
• 33:00 Sadie Sink's Jean Grey and the Road to Dark Phoenix
• 41:02 What It Means for the MCU: Doomsday, Secret Wars, and X-Men
• 50:16 Network News and Picks of the Week

All news discussed comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a five star review if this one hit. Share it with someone still arguing about the House of the Dragon finale and tag us with #GeekFreaksPodcast.

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Got a take on the finale, a theory about what Jean Grey becomes next, or a show you want covered? Send it in. We read listener questions and topic suggestions on air.

Key Takeaways

• Rhaenyra spent three seasons trying to be her father and the finale is the moment she stops. Frank frames it as her Anakin-to-Vader turn, right down to killing the realm's holy man and walking back out to claim she is the savior.
• Episode 7 and the return of Sunfyre lands as the season's biggest swing. Jonathan calls it a genuine plot twist with no setup, and it resets who is actually holding power going into Season 4.
• Helaena's knitting was spoiling the show in plain sight. Her tapestry lays out everything she has seen, and nobody in the story looks at it until it is too late.
• Both Frank and Jonathan score Season 3 an eight, with the caveat that Episodes 4 through 6 drag badly. Thomas, who bailed on the season early, gets talked into going back and finishing it.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day works as a character study more than a clean three-act movie. The guys argue it is structurally strange on purpose, closer to picking up a random issue mid-run than a typical MCU installment.
• Jean Grey's power set is used in a much more specific and much darker way than expected, which the guys read as deliberate setup for Professor X's mental blocks and the eventual Dark Phoenix story.

Quotes

• "She's now in her Darth Vader era." (Frank)
• "She was never meant to actually sit on the Iron Throne. She was always meant to capture it." (Frank)
• "The dragon fire ripping through a city is going to kill the good and the bad alike. It's not justice. It's just suffering." (Jonathan)
• "So many parts of this shouldn't work. But it does." (Thomas, on Spider-Man: Brand New Day)
• "I can't believe how much relief I suddenly felt from a damn handshake." (Frank)

Apple Podcast Tags

House of the Dragon, House of the Dragon Season 3, House of the Dragon finale, Game of Thrones, HBO, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Sunfyre, Helaena Targaryen, Targaryen, Fire and Blood, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Brand New Day, Marvel, MCU, Tom Holland, Jean Grey, Sadie Sink, Dark Phoenix, X-Men, Punisher, Jon Bernthal, Avengers Doomsday, Secret Wars, San Diego Comic-Con, Hall H, Ghost Rider, Ryan Gosling, Project Hail Mary, The Long Walk, comic books, movie review, TV review, pop culture, geek culture

Frank and Jonathan are on vacation, so they dumped out a jar of ten random prompts and let the conversation run wherever it wanted. The result is a loose, funny grab-bag that swings from tabletop confessions to actual streaming news. They open by asking whether their D&D characters could survive a single day in the real world, which turns into a live rescue plan for Jonathan's volatile, faith-questioning gunslinger and a great story about the priest who quietly let a party member die.

From there it is physical media versus streaming (with a Netflix boycott and a terabyte of movies packed for a cruise), the most toxic fandom corners (Pokemon card scalping, weighed packs, and Star Wars media literacy), the games everyone owns but never finishes, retro comebacks worth reviving, and the classics they think are a little overrated. The back half gets newsier with Good Mythical Morning heading to Netflix as a daily show, a debate about Emmy legitimacy versus chasing a new algorithm, and a closing round on which fictional universe would actually be miserable to live in.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Intro and Vacation Filler Setup
• 00:24 Would Your D&D Character Survive Real Life?
• 07:03 Physical Media vs. Streaming
• 10:32 The Most Toxic Fandom Corners
• 17:11 Games You Own but Never Finished, Plus Retro Comebacks
• 22:05 Overrated Classics and Villain Redemption Arcs
• 27:07 Casting the D&D Campaign
• 29:11 Good Mythical Morning Heads to Netflix
• 34:36 The Fictional Universe That Would Actually Suck

Key Takeaways

• Instead of retiring a chaotic character, Frank pitches turning Jonathan's crisis-of-faith gunslinger into someone actively fighting a chaos god, a reminder that a table can repair a character rather than shelve it.
• The physical media conversation lands on owning your favorites, fueled by climbing Netflix prices, Christmas movies that vanish from streaming, and a stack of downloads big enough to survive a stranded cruise ship.
• Pokemon card culture gets named the most toxic fandom corner, from pack-weighing and resale fights to Target reportedly cutting boxes open to kill the scalper market.
• Media literacy is the throughline for the Star Wars and Dungeon Crawler Carl "too woke" complaints, since both were anti-fascist and anti-capitalist from the start.
• Gaming talk hits the Oblivion remaster, cautious hope for Elder Scrolls VI amid Xbox layoffs and Bethesda leaning on proven IP, and one very honest Elden Ring skill check.
• Good Mythical Morning moving to Netflix drives the biggest debate: fresh cash and Emmy legitimacy on one side, the risk of chasing a new algorithm and turning away from YouTube on the other.

Quotes

• "If you think it's too woke, it's been that way from the beginning."
• "We have to make our point with our wallet."
• "I return and tell him he was already dead."
• "I got my ass handed to me so hard I returned it within two hours."
• "Don't turn your back on YouTube after you literally built your success."

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Links and Resources

All news discussed on the show comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com. Head there for the full write-ups on everything covered in this episode.

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Listener Questions

Got a hot take, a reaction, or a topic you want us to draw next time? Send us your questions, arguments, and future episode ideas. We read them, and the best ones make it onto the show.

The Batman fans, brace yourselves: Part II just slid all the way to February 2028, and the guys have thoughts on whether it should even happen. Before Frank ships out for a two-week cruise, he and Jonathan clear the week's biggest geek headlines, from a live-action Princess Tiana penned by Colman Domingo, to a major God of War series recast, to Steve Buscemi joining the Far Cry show and a quick DC and Marvel roundup covering Blue Beetle, Supergirl, and Nova.

Then the episode shifts gears for a standout interview with writer and director Stephanie Hubbard, the creative force behind the new fantasy comedy A Fairy Tale. She breaks down her leap from hairstylist to filmmaker, how Pure Magic Pictures built a fully connected nine-film universe on indie budgets, the real trading card game (Dino Guru) her cast learned to play on set, and why a thriving Discord community beats chasing Netflix. It is a genuinely fun look at building fandom from the ground up.

Timestamps and Topics

• 0:00 Intro and Frank's Vacation Catch-Up
• 1:01 Colman Domingo's Live-Action Princess Tiana
• 6:08 God of War Series Recasts Kratos
• 10:27 Far Cry Series Adds Steve Buscemi
• 16:05 The Batman Part II Delayed to 2028
• 23:18 DC and Marvel Roundup: Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Nova
• 33:11 Guest Interview: Stephanie Hubbard on "A Fairy Tale"
• 1:07:46 Weekly Picks and Wrap-Up

Key Takeaways

• The Batman Part II is delayed to February 18, 2028, and the hosts debate whether the six-year gap makes the sequel worth finishing at all, especially with a separate DCU Batman on the way.
• The God of War series is recasting Kratos after actor Ryan Hurst suffered a torn bicep. With two seasons filming back to back, four already-shot episodes will need a full reshoot.
• Colman Domingo is writing a live-action Princess Tiana that tells a new New Orleans story rather than remaking The Princess and the Frog, which the guys see as a smarter path than the recent one-for-one remakes.
• Noah Hawley and Rob McElhenney's Far Cry series lands its first big villain casting in Steve Buscemi, with the hosts riffing on possible settings and story angles.
• Stephanie Hubbard's A Fairy Tale is the ninth feature in Pure Magic Pictures' fully connected cinematic universe, premiering July 23 at 7:30 PM Eastern, with the studio on track for four films in 2026.
• Pure Magic built real fan infrastructure around the movies: an actual trading card game (Dino Guru) the cast learned on set, a Discord community that names things like their coffee blend, and a heavy convention presence.

Quotes

• "Not all fairies are good at their job." (Stephanie Hubbard, on the premise of A Fairy Tale)
• "When I try to be someone's savior, it doesn't go very well. I'm just a person." (Stephanie Hubbard, on the film's message)
• "No excuses. The cavalry isn't coming." (Stephanie Hubbard, on the Robert Rodriguez mindset that pushed her into filmmaking)
• "We make movies, but we're truly artists first, and this is our art." (Stephanie Hubbard, on community and creating)
• "Maybe in 30 years, we will make Time Pit." (Stephanie Hubbard, on the running in-universe reference in every Pure Magic film)

Call to Action

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Links and Resources

• GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source for all the news discussed in this episode
• A Fairy Tale premieres July 23 at 7:30 PM Eastern through the Pure Magic Pictures season pass

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Listener Questions

Got a hot take on The Batman getting pushed to 2028, a dream Far Cry setting, or a question for a future guest? Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas. We love working listener picks into upcoming episodes.

Geek culture, pop culture podcast, movie news, comic book news, The Batman, God of War, DC Universe, Marvel, Princess Tiana, Colman Domingo, indie film, filmmaking, Pure Magic Pictures, Stephanie Hubbard, A Fairy Tale, trading card games, Far Cry, Steve Buscemi, Robert Pattinson, Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Nova, nerd podcast, fandom

Dune Part Three just dropped its IMAX trailer, Naruto is finally getting a big-budget live-action movie, and Freddy Krueger is coming back in a full Nightmare on Elm Street reboot. Frank and Squeaks break down a stacked week of trailers, teasers, and franchise news to figure out which of these actually have a shot.

Along the way they react to the Shrek 5 trailer and its new animation style, size up the Crystal Lake teaser and its Pamela Voorhees focus, get hyped for the canon 1994 Ghostbusters animated series with Dan Aykroyd and Jack Quaid attached, and debate whether DC's Mr. Terrific series proves James Gunn is playing the long game after Supergirl. Plus a spoiler-friendly Dungeon Crawler Carl book club check-in and this week's recommendations, from Death Stranding 2 to the Predator Badlands comic mini-series. And the question of the week: if the X-Men ran the government, who gets the White House?

Timestamps and Topics

• 0:00 Intro and Question of the Week: Which X-Men Should Run the Government?
• 5:18 Dune Part Three IMAX Trailer Reaction
• 12:36 Shrek 5 Trailer and the New Animation Style
• 16:16 Crystal Lake Teaser: The Friday the 13th Prequel Series
• 19:35 Naruto Live-Action Movie News and Casting
• 24:46 Nightmare on Elm Street Reboot at Paramount
• 28:49 Ghostbusters Animated Series Coming to Netflix
• 32:06 DC News: Mr. Terrific Series, Supergirl Thoughts, and Lobo's Future
• 41:49 Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Club Corner
• 50:04 Network Updates and Recommendations of the Week

Key Takeaways

• The Dune Part Three trailer suggests the movie is expanding small moments from the book, like the worm heist, into major action set pieces, and it may be the biggest departure from the source material yet.
• Naruto's live-action movie has real momentum: director Destin Daniel Cretton is attached, creator Masashi Kishimoto has given his blessing, and a global casting search is underway for Team 7.
• The Nightmare on Elm Street reboot lands at Paramount with the Wes Craven estate involved and the team behind Barbarian and Weapons attached, and the premise holds up better in a modern setting than most 80s slashers.
• The new Ghostbusters animated series is set in 1994 New York, is canon, and has Dan Aykroyd producing, with Jack Quaid in the voice cast.
• DC greenlighting a Mr. Terrific series after Supergirl's soft box office signals James Gunn is prioritizing long-term world building over chasing safe bets.
• The Crystal Lake teaser centers Pamela Voorhees, played by Linda Cardellini, raising the question of whether a Friday the 13th story can work with Jason mostly offscreen.

Quotes

• "You go to sleep, Freddy's in your mind. Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those stories that actually could work today just fine."
• "If I were a Naruto fan, these are all the stars lining up that I'd want to line up."
• "I think this is going to be the Clone Wars of Ghostbusters."
• "If you were to cut every part of Lobo out of this movie, you would not feel his absence in the slightest. That being said, Jason Momoa as Lobo nailed it."
• "Everything that's ever mentioned or anything that's put into his bag, you can assume will be used."

Call to Action

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Links and Resources

• GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source of all news discussed during the podcast
• New Fairy Tale interview with director Stephanie Hubbard, available now on Patreon

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Listener Questions

Which X-Men would you put in the White House? Send us your cabinet picks, reactions, and future topic ideas on social media or in the comments on Spotify. We read everything and your question might make it into a future episode.

X-Men '97 Season 2 is here, and Frank and Thomas break down the first three episodes with the kind of comic book receipts only a guy who has read nearly every 90s X-Men run can bring. From Mother Askani and the Summers family timeline chaos to Storm's god-tier power up, X-Force's return, and the Rise of Apocalypse, they dig into what the show nails, where episode two stumbles, and whether Kang is being set up as the season's secret villain.

Then Frank sits down with Bill Bernhardt, author of over 60 books, to talk about The Superman Wars, his narrative nonfiction account of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's decades-long fight with DC over the rights to Superman. Bill shares stories from his interviews with Siegel's daughter, the heartbreaking letters Jerry wrote in the 1950s, why Clark Kent is really just a taller Jerry, and hard-won advice for writers protecting their work today.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Intro and What's on This Episode
• 01:43 X-Men '97 Season 2 Review Begins: Episode 1, Days of Future Past
• 13:11 Episode 2: A Force to Be Reckoned With
• 23:13 Episode 3: Rise of Apocalypse Part One
• 24:57 Kang Theories and MCU Connections
• 34:31 Interview: Bill Bernhardt, Author of The Superman Wars
• 55:06 Rapid Fire Superman Questions with Bill
• 01:02:24 Wrap-Up, Network News, and What's Coming to Patreon

Key Takeaways

• X-Men '97 Season 2 juggles three timelines and decades of convoluted comic lore, yet keeps the emotional core clear, especially Jean's relationship with Nathan and the Summers family dynamic.
• Storm's solar-powered upgrade and the synergy-style team attacks are standout moments, with animation and editing that continue to elevate the series.
• The Kang-style technology in episode three hints at a bigger villain reveal, and the hosts suspect the season was written while Jonathan Majors was still central to the MCU's plans.
• Bill Bernhardt's The Superman Wars tells the true story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's fight for Superman, drawn from court records, family interviews, and a 100-page autobiographical fragment Siegel typed himself.
• DC removed Siegel and Shuster's credits from Superman stories after the 1947 lawsuit, and the 1975 pension deal was only the middle of a legal battle that stretched decades further.
• Bill's advice for new writers: build a community, get a second opinion before signing anything, and stay alert, because the predators that took advantage of Siegel still exist in new forms.

Quotes

• "Our old man bodies said no, but our heart said yes." – Thomas, on staying up for the premiere
• "The X-Men created Apocalypse. He's a leader because of the influence the X-Men put on him." – Frank
• "It's a taller, slender Jerry, but it's Jerry." – Bill Bernhardt, on Clark Kent
• "His origin story is basically Moses in outer space." – Bill Bernhardt, on Superman
• "Taking somebody's name off their work, that's immoral." – Bill Bernhardt

Call to Action

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Links and Resources

• GeekFreaksPodcast.com: the source of all news discussed during the podcast
• The Superman Wars by William Bernhardt: available at your local bookstore and all online retailers
• Check out the WriterCon Podcast
• Weekly X-Men '97 episode reviews on the Geek Freaks YouTube channel

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• Frank: @franklourence79
• Thomas: @thomascraigviii

Listener Questions

Got a hot take on X-Men '97 Season 2, a question for a future guest, or a topic you want us to cover? Send your questions, reactions, and ideas to [email protected] and we might feature them on a future episode.

Supergirl finally hits theaters and Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 lands on Netflix, so Frank and Jonathan break down whether either adaptation lives up to the source material. One earns real praise for protecting what makes its characters great, while the other leaves one of the best endings in modern comics on the cutting room floor.

The guys also react to PlayStation deleting 551 movies from UK libraries with no refunds and what that means for digital ownership, plus a stack of DC animation news including an Absolute Batman series, a Joker anime, and a Krypto show from the SpongeBob team. Jonathan checks in on his first read of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and Frank previews weekly X-Men '97 reviews coming to the Geek Freaks YouTube channel.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Intro and Jonathan's Dungeon Crawler Carl Check-In
• 03:05 PlayStation Deletes 551 Movies and the Digital Ownership Debate
• 08:00 DC Animation News: Absolute Batman, Joker Laugh Riot, and Krypto
• 14:45 Why Animation Is the Truest Form of Adaptation
• 18:42 Supergirl Movie Review and Comic Comparisons
• 32:27 Supergirl's Changed Ending and Final Ratings
• 37:04 Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Review
• 51:04 X-Men '97 Weekly Reviews and Recommendations

Key Takeaways

• PlayStation is removing 551 purchased movie titles from UK libraries with no refunds, reigniting the debate over whether you ever really own digital content.
• DC is going all in on animation with an Absolute Batman series, a Joker anime called Laugh Riot, a Krypto show from the SpongeBob team, and Tom King's Mister Miracle on the way.
• Supergirl works as a fun entry in the new DCU, but condensing Tom King's comic stripped out the character depth and swapped one of the best endings in modern comics for a simpler kill.
• Lobo is a blast on screen with real Beetlejuice energy, but he was not necessary to the plot and deserves his own standalone project, which Jason Momoa says he will only do rated R.
• Avatar Season 2 succeeds where Supergirl stumbles, condensing the story without cutting anything essential to the characters. Toph and Uncle Iroh stand out, and Ba Sing Se delivers.
• Final scores: Supergirl gets a 7 from Frank and a 10 from Jonathan, while Avatar Season 2 earns an 8 from Frank and a 9 from Jonathan.

Quotes

• "If you find a way to watch movies, I think you're preserving history. You're not stealing." - Frank
• "Animation is probably the truest form of adaptation nowadays." - Frank
• "You're not going to be the hero in every story." - Jonathan
• "Don't think that the loud voices are the voices, because they're not." - Jonathan
• "Toph feels like Toph now." - Frank

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Listener Questions

Got a hot take on Supergirl's ending, a favorite moment from Avatar Season 2, or a topic you want us to cover next? Send us your questions and reactions and we might feature them on a future episode.

Apple Podcast Tags

Supergirl, Supergirl movie review, Avatar The Last Airbender, Avatar Season 2, Netflix Avatar, DCU, DC animation, Absolute Batman, Joker Laugh Riot, Krypto, Lobo, Jason Momoa, Milly Alcock, Tom King, Woman of Tomorrow, Dungeon Crawler Carl, PlayStation, digital ownership, X-Men 97, Toph, Uncle Iroh, Ba Sing Se, comic book movies, geek culture, pop culture podcast

House of the Dragon Season 3 finally lands, and the Battle of the Gullet gives the premiere one of the strongest hours the show has produced, complete with a death that reshapes the war and a 9 out of 10 score. It is a solo Father's Day episode, so Frank carries the news himself before settling into a full spoiler breakdown of the Targaryen civil war.

Along the way Frank reacts to the first full Shrek 5 trailer and the cast joining Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, celebrates the official greenlight of the Dungeon Crawler Carl TV show at Peacock, and unpacks EA's new in-game advertising platform coming to Madden and College Football 26. The episode also brings back a roundtable from the previous week, where Phil and Thomas help untangle the messy, fast-moving Bricks and Minifigs consignment controversy and what it says about chasing clout in a legal dispute.

Timestamps and Topics

• 0:00 Intro and Father's Day Catch-Up
• 1:03 Shrek 5 Trailer Breakdown
• 5:18 Dungeon Crawler Carl TV Show Greenlit at Peacock
• 11:10 EA's New In-Game Ads Platform
• 16:23 Bricks and Minifigs Controversy with Phil and Thomas
• 36:21 House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 Review
• 55:53 Father's Day Send-Off

Key Takeaways

• The full Shrek 5 trailer eases a lot of the early animation backlash, introduces the next generation of characters voiced by Zendaya, Marcelo Hernandez, and Skyler Gisondo, and reunites the original trio under returning director Walt Dohrn and co-director Conrad Vernon.
• The Dungeon Crawler Carl series is officially greenlit at Peacock with Matt Dinniman confirming it, Seth MacFarlane executive producing through Fuzzy Door, and Chris Yost writing, plus a Princess Donut CGI test that won the creator over.
• EA is rolling out a proprietary in-game ad server built on the Frostbite engine to drop swappable, location-targeted brand placements across Madden, EA Sports FC, College Football 26, and NBA titles.
• The Bricks and Minifigs saga started as a local consignment dispute over a massive sealed Lego collection and spiraled into a national story involving Reckless Ben, Coffee Zilla, Patreon, and harassment of unrelated stores.
• The Battle of the Gullet leans into spectacle with two real ships built to collide and three dragons in the air, landing the death of Jace and setting Rhaenyra up to carry the blame.
• The premiere doubles down on its core theme of women like Rhaenyra, Alicent, and Rayna being boxed in by the men around them, earning a 9 dragon eggs out of 10 from Frank.

Quotes

• "House of the Dragon is about smashing two gigantic CGI dragons together and seeing who survives."
• "I'm going to give this a solid nine dragon eggs out of ten."
• "You kids nowadays, you don't know the joy of a DVD menu."
• "I don't believe there is good, I don't believe there is evil. I believe everybody has the capacity for both." (Phil)
• "When everything is said in clickbait titles instead of what is actually going on, suddenly everybody is a bad guy and everybody is a good guy."

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All news discussed on the show is sourced from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, including the full Bricks and Minifigs timeline. Visit https://geekfreakspodcast.com/

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• Host: Frank [@franklourence79]

Listener Questions

Got a hot take on the House of the Dragon premiere, a Dungeon Crawler Carl casting pick, or a topic you want covered next? Send your questions, reactions, and future episode ideas our way. We love reading them on the show.

Doctor Who isn't actually canceled, but its Christmas special is, and we break down what the Doctor Who cancellation news really means and which studio should take the franchise next. From there it's a full geek-news roundtable: DC's villain-driven universe, the real question hanging over Supergirl's box office, a new Transformers movie, and why X-Men '97 has everyone naming the childhood cartoons that deserve the same revival treatment.

Frank, Thomas, and Phil also get into the UK's plan to ban under-16s from social media, weighing mental health, parenting, and whether kids will just find the next workaround. The episode closes on a love letter to Dungeon Crawler Carl and weekly picks spanning House of the Dragon, Hacks, Spider-Noir, and Masters of the Universe. If you came for the Doctor Who news, stay for the DCU box office debate and the cartoon revival wishlist.

• Chapters:
  • 00:00 Intro and Question of the Week
  • 05:12 Is Doctor Who Really Canceled?
  • 12:19 Only Murders Heads to Britain
  • 15:26 DC Villains and the Box Office Test
  • 25:03 Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Siege
  • 31:50 The Under-16 Social Media Ban
  • 49:51 X-Men '97 and Cartoon Revivals
  • 1:00:37 Dungeon Crawler Carl and Picks
• Key Takeaways:
  • The canceled Doctor Who Christmas special is not the end of the show, and we make the case that Prime Video could be the right new home.
  • The bigger DC conversation is about redefining what success looks like, comparing projects to the right peers instead of measuring everything against Avengers money.
  • Transformers Siege on Netflix gets a strong endorsement as the best Transformers property since the original.
  • The under-16 social media debate lands on a hard truth: bans push kids toward less-regulated apps, so the conversation is less about restriction and more about mental health.
  • X-Men '97 reopens the floodgates on cartoon revivals, from Gargoyles and Recess to deep cuts like Gummi Bears and Mummies Alive.
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl is the runaway favorite of the episode, with dream casting and puppetry ideas ahead of the Peacock adaptation.

GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source of all news discussed on this episode.

Subscribe wherever you listen, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and share the episode with a fellow geek. Send us a screenshot of your review and we'll mail you a mug.

Got a hot take on the Doctor Who move, a cartoon you think deserves the X-Men '97 treatment, or a Dungeon Crawler Carl theory? Send us your questions, reactions, and future topic ideas. We read them on the show.

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The Masters of the Universe movie is finally here, and it lands a lot closer to Guardians of the Galaxy than anyone expected. This week we break down the live action He-Man swing in full, from Nicholas Galitzine's early Chris Pratt energy as Prince Adam to a Skeletor performance that turns into the most fun anyone has had hiding Jared Leto behind a mask, then we tear through the biggest gaming week of the year across three separate showcases.

We rank PlayStation State of Play, Summer Game Fest and the Xbox Games Showcase, and the order might surprise you. Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey carry the PlayStation side, Summer Game Fest leaves us cold outside of Guild Wars 3 and the Resident Evil Code Veronica remake, and Xbox makes the strongest argument for itself in years with Gears of War, a slicker Fable, Clockwork Revolution and Halo Campaign Evolved running on Unreal Engine. We close with the new Xbox exclusivity push, what AI showing up in Crazy Taxi could mean, and a Dungeon Crawler Carl recommendation worth your time.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Intro and Best of 2026 So Far
• 02:30 Masters of the Universe Movie Review
• 23:30 Final Grades for Masters of the Universe
• 25:23 PlayStation State of Play: Wolverine and God of War Laufey
• 36:41 Summer Game Fest Reactions
• 45:16 Xbox Games Showcase: Fable, Gears, Halo and More
• 1:01:26 Ranking All Three Showcases
• 1:05:08 Network Update and Weekly Recommendations

Key Takeaways

• Masters of the Universe leans fully into its cheesy 80s cartoon DNA, and that commitment is exactly why the one liners and over the top tone work instead of feeling forced.
• Skeletor is the surprise of the movie, with the bone effects and tuned voice landing as a cackling, failing upward villain, and the Evelyn dynamic adds a real layer to him.
• Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey were the PlayStation standouts, with Laufey's faster, more aerial combat and direct ties back to the 2018 God of War opening the door to new mythologies.
• Summer Game Fest underwhelmed overall, though Guild Wars 3 reads like a serious MMO contender with no subscription and no battle pass, and the Resident Evil Code Veronica remake got real excitement.
• Xbox made the loudest case for its own brand, leaning into true exclusives, with Gears of War, a more polished Fable delayed to February 2027, Clockwork Revolution, and Halo Campaign Evolved moving to Unreal Engine for a July 28 release.
• The new Xbox direction raises bigger questions, from undoing the Game Pass price increase to Crazy Taxi becoming an early test case for AI as a development tool.

Quotes

• "Idris Elba, eternally a badass. I just love that dude."
• On Skeletor: "almost like an evil drag queen laughing and cackling 80s cartoon Skeletor."
• "People say the gaming console wars is over. No, it's not, because that's what drives us, dammit."
• "Don't skip any Geek Freaks."
• On AI in Crazy Taxi: "If you laid off anybody for AI, then go screw yourself."

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Links and Resources

GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source of all news discussed in this episode. Everything covered across the PlayStation, Xbox and Summer Game Fest showcases is rounded up there.

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Listener Questions

Got a hot take on the Masters of the Universe movie, a showcase reveal we slept on, or a game you want us to cover next time? Send us your questions, reactions and future topic ideas. We read them on the show.

Apple Podcast Tags

Geek Freaks, Masters of the Universe, He-Man, Skeletor, Marvel's Wolverine, God of War Laufey, PlayStation State of Play, Summer Game Fest 2026, Xbox Games Showcase, Gears of War, Fable, Halo Campaign Evolved, Clockwork Revolution, Guild Wars 3, Resident Evil Code Veronica, gaming podcast, geek culture, movie review, video game news, pop culture