Geek Freaks

James Gunn and Peter Safran are out as the heads of DC Studios, and Frank and Squeaks process the news minutes after it broke. Frank calls it a firing, ties it to Skydance taking over Warner Bros., and walks through what he knows about incoming boss Jeremy Latcham, the former Marvel producer behind Iron Man, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Squeaks is angry about losing a plan he thought was working after Superman and Lanterns, and both wonder what happens to Batman and The Brave and the Bold.

Frank spends the rest of Headlines hunting for silver linings in Skydance's 30-movies-a-year mandate, including Francis Galluppi's new Constantine movie, Danny McBride directing Bradley Cooper as Duke in G.I. Joe, and the 1955 Stranger Things prequel Other Worlds. Then Squeaks reviews the new Ocarina of Time and Frank reviews World of Warcraft Forever as an undead paladin.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Network Updates
• 1:56 James Gunn and Peter Safran Out at DC Studios
• 13:28 Francis Galluppi's New Constantine Movie
• 15:24 Danny McBride's G.I. Joe and Skydance's Movie Plan
• 19:45 Stranger Things Prequel Other Worlds and Welcome to Derry
• 24:35 Squeaks Reviews Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• 34:40 Frank Reviews World of Warcraft Forever
• 43:26 Network Roundup and Picks of the Week

Key takeaways

• Deadline reported in October that David Ellison met with Gunn and Safran and planned to keep them in charge after the merger. Frank reads the reversal as a new owner with a different vision, and thinks it is a bad call this early in phase one.
• Gunn is still finishing Man of Tomorrow with Safran producing. The rest of the slate is a question mark, including Dynamic Duo and its unusual animation style.
• Frank expects safer, cheaper, faster DC movies under the new regime, which he thinks brings Hal Jordan back to life and gets a Flash on screen sooner. Squeaks hopes Latcham keeps Gunn's plan and only tweaks it.
• For G.I. Joe, Frank predicts a solid mid-budget action movie in the vein of The A-Team, worth a matinee and not much riskier than that.
• Squeaks gives Ocarina of Time 10 out of 10 rupees. The combat is unchanged, Link can jump on his own now, dungeons are color coded and easier to read, and Princess Ruto finally stays where you put her in Jabu-Jabu's Belly.
• Frank gives WoW Forever 9 out of 10 Doomhammers. Combat is slower, you can play without a build guide open, and strangers keep grouping up for quests. He docks a point for no Looking for Group and weak dungeon XP, which Blizzard buffed that morning.

Quotes

• "James Gunn and Peter Safran just got fired. I'm using the term fired because there's no way it wasn't fired." (Frank)

• "We got to build something to get to that Infinity War, Endgame. Like, come on, man." (Squeaks)

• "Killing off Hal Jordan in the show was very risky. And that's not what you do to make money." (Frank)

• "I think this is how a game honors a legendary game from the past." (Squeaks)

• "That's how devoted you are to your religion, is that you'll embrace the pain to cure the wounds caused by Arthas." (Frank)

Source

All news discussed in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Listener questions

Who should play Constantine now that a new movie is in the works? Are you leveling in WoW Forever or still lost in Hyrule? Send your questions, reactions, and topic ideas to [email protected] and we may read them on a future episode.

Frank remembers Patrick Stewart, who died October 28 at 86, from Professor X and Captain Picard to Avery Bullock on American Dad, a show Frank falls asleep to. Thomas reports back from LA Comic Con, where Hayden Christensen told the crowd about a burglar who recognized him as Anakin mid-robbery, handed back his stuff, and got offered a train ticket home.

Bethesda has finally named The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel, and Frank is hoping Hammerfell brings dwarven lore and co-op with friends. James Gunn says the DCU's Batman isn't cast yet and that he'd bend over backwards to keep Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, while Dynamic Duo locks in Mason Thames and Logan Kim as Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. Then Frank sits down with Jose to introduce Hobby Quest, the newest Geek Freaks Network show, and the episode closes with a portion of its first installment, as Volt breaks down how to build a better D&D boss battle.

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Rundown and WoW: Forever Guild
• 2:21 Thomas at LA Comic Con
• 4:00 Hayden Christensen's Panel Stories
• 12:49 Artist Alley and Cosplay
• 14:40 Remembering Patrick Stewart
• 16:20 The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel
• 19:59 James Gunn on Batman and Harley Quinn
• 24:03 Dynamic Duo Voice Cast
• 27:13 Hobby Quest Interview With Jose
• 39:06 Hobby Quest Episode 1: Boss Battles With Volt
• 51:09 Recommendations

Key takeaways

• George Lucas told Hayden Christensen that Anakin always believes he's right, which Thomas says reframes even the character's worst turns in the prequels.
• Christensen's return in Obi-Wan Kenobi hinged on the plan for the scene where Vader's mask gets cut in half.
• Asked which role he'd revisit outside Star Wars, Christensen lit up at Jumper, and Thomas would jump at a sequel.
• Thomas's hot take: LA Comic Con cosplay beats San Diego's.
• Frank doesn't want Sentinel to become another ESO, but he does want to bring a friend into a cave, a feature he thinks fits Bethesda's place at Xbox.
• Frank's Batman casting theory: Superman needs a performer who can disappear between two identities, while Batman needs a star you can recognize under the cowl. Gunn's focus on performance breaks from that.
• Jose names overpreparing as one of the first mistakes new DMs make, and Hobby Quest's customer polling shows players start feeling ignored at tables larger than eight.
• Volt builds boss battles from five tools (the boss, minions, secondary objectives, location, and hazards) and adjusts the monster on the fly if players threaten the moment.

Quotes

• "Superman, you get an excellent actor. Batman, you get the star." (Frank)

• "We use him as a claw machine." (Thomas, on trick-or-treating with his son)

• "I promise you, no matter how much you plan, they're going to mess up your plans." (Jose)

• "My monster is not a player. My monster exists so that I can get my players to that epic moment." (Volt)

Source

All news discussed in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

Support the show

Subscribe or follow, leave a rating or review, and send this one to the friend who is still waiting on a Jumper sequel. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Follow Hobby Quest

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hobby_quest_eg/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hobby_questing?lang=en

Listener questions

Who should play the DCU's Batman? Send your pick, plus any questions or topic ideas, to [email protected].

Thomas joins Frank to remember Eric Bauza, the modern voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and tells the story of meeting him at DreamHack San Diego and running into him again at WonderCon this year. Then the news: Jonathan Hickman is consulting on Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, and EA has shut down BioWare and canceled the next Mass Effect.

Thomas calls Hickman the Christopher Nolan of comics, pointing to House of X/Powers of X, while Frank goes back to the Council of Reeds in Hickman's Fantastic Four. Both want the Reed and Doom friendship at the center of the movie. On BioWare, Frank lays out Andromeda, Anthem, and Veilguard alongside the $55 billion buyout, and the two talk about the mid-budget games that disappeared and the indie studios filling the gap. Frank closes with his Clayface review: a small, dark DC movie with rough CGI late, a big turn from Tom Rhys Harries, and a villain you end up rooting for. Plus picks for Blade Runner 2099 and Prime's Carrie.

Chapters

• 0:00 Remembering Eric Bauza
• 5:30 LA Comic-Con Plans
• 8:45 Jonathan Hickman Joins Doomsday and Secret Wars
• 25:27 EA Shuts Down BioWare
• 32:19 Triple-A Risk vs. Indie Games
• 41:55 Clayface Review (Spoiler Free)
• 43:34 Clayface Spoiler Talk
• 51:29 Around the Geek Freaks Network
• 54:40 Thomas Recommends Blade Runner 2099
• 57:44 Frank Recommends Carrie

Key takeaways

• Thomas spent 20 to 30 minutes talking with Bauza before a WonderCon panel, and Bauza kept the conversation going from the stage as the room filled.
• Frank wants to see how Steve Rogers reacts when someone pulls him out of the life he finally got to live, and wonders if he still feels the same duty to this Earth.
• Frank's theory: Marvel is stretching the multiverse mess on purpose (two Caps, multiple Spider-Men) so the Secret Wars reset lands harder.
• A story-driven Triple-A game takes five to ten years, so one flop can sink a studio. BioWare had three in a row.
• Frank would rather spend ten dollars at a time on Marvel Rivals skins than $70 on a game he finishes in eight hours.
• Clayface's cop love interest could be cut without changing anything, and darker characters like Swamp Thing, Etrigan, and Constantine suit the same mid-budget approach.

Quotes

• "I stand by he's kind of the Christopher Nolan of comic books." (Thomas)

• "That story is so big and yet that question is so small." (Frank)

• "Not everything has to be $200 million." (Frank)

• "He's a man who's lost his identity. He's gaining a new one. He's desperately trying to reach the old one. And when he finally accepts the new one, he's Clayface." (Frank)

• "My peak of high school and social media together was figuring out your top eight in Myspace." (Frank)

Source

All news discussed in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Follow Geek Freaks on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, leave a five-star review, and send this one to the friend still waiting on another Knights of the Old Republic. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Listener questions

Which BioWare game are you going to miss most? Send that, plus questions and topic ideas, to [email protected].

Survivor 51 castaway Danny "Kilby" Kilby joins Frank to talk about Noodle Goose Games, the Canadian studio he co-founded with Karen to make games for autistic youth and now games for everyone. He breaks down why a good video game should be fun as a board game first, how Balatro found its audience through a Big Brother streamer, and why he thinks the current wave of industry layoffs opens a door for indie developers.

The studio started over a bowl of noodles and a three-day sprint to incorporate before a funding deadline. From there, Kilby explains how Noodle Goose funds development with profits from live events instead of loans, why social deduction games like Among Us and Mafia help teach kids to spot a scam, and what he learned at game developer conferences about getting people to care. He and Frank also swap notes on Switch 2 versus PlayStation Vita loyalty, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's long road to a publisher, and the studio's next release, a Scribblenauts-inspired word puzzle game headed to Kickstarter.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Danny "Kilby" Kilby
• 0:57 How Noodle Goose Games Started Over Noodles
• 5:36 Designing Games for Autistic Youth
• 10:40 Growing the Team and Funding Games Without Loans
• 13:47 Why Indie Devs Have to Market First
• 19:07 Is It Fun on Paper? Playtesting with Balatro and Breath of the Wild
• 26:45 Switch 2, the PlayStation Vita, and Where Indies Sell
• 33:00 Discoverability Tips for New Developers
• 43:29 Layoffs, A24, and Why Now Is a Good Time for Indies
• 55:55 What's Next for Noodle Goose Games

Key Takeaways

• Noodle Goose Games went from a dinner conversation to a fully incorporated studio in about a week so Kilby and Karen could make a funding deadline.
• Their first game was a crisis-skills escape room for autistic youth, and its life-balance point system now forms the base of a coming-of-age time travel game in development.
• The studio funds games with profits from large live events, like a boat party, plus government grants, so a game that sold zero copies would not sink the company.
• Kilby's playtest rule: strip out the art, sound, and animation, and if the core loop still works as a board game, the game is worth building.
• Indie hits often grow from small, devoted audiences. Balatro took off after its creator kept sending it to Big Brother legend Dan Gheesling, who played it on stream.
• Kilby sees layoffs and big publishers abandoning mid-size games as an opening, since players still want games and fewer studios are serving them.

Quotes

• "If you don't book it, it don't happen." (Danny "Kilby" Kilby)

• "We are funding a game with our profits, rather than hoping the game is the only profit." (Danny "Kilby" Kilby)

• "If the game would make a good board game, it'll make a good game." (Danny "Kilby" Kilby)

• "You can make the best game of all time, and if no one knows about it, no one's gonna buy it." (Danny "Kilby" Kilby)

• "The minute someone stops appealing to a market, that's when you jump in on that market." (Danny "Kilby" Kilby)

Links and Resources

GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source of all news discussed on Geek Freaks.

• Noodle Goose Games, including the playable prototype of its upcoming word puzzle game
• Arcade Pizza, Kilby's video game podcast
• Watch Kilby on Survivor 51, Wednesdays on CBS

Support the Show

If this one got you thinking about your own game idea, subscribe so you catch the next interview, and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then send this episode to the friend who has been "about to start" their indie game for three years. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Send Us Your Questions

Got a question for a future guest, a reaction to Kilby's "fun on paper" rule, or an indie game you think deserves a spotlight? Send it our way at [email protected] or drop it in the comments, and it might make it onto a future episode.

Phil from Distance NERDing saw the new Street Fighter movie and thinks the critics got it wrong. He makes the case that it plays like a fighting game's story mode, and that the people calling it disjointed are mostly the ones who stopped playing after Street Fighter II.

Episode Summary

After the spoiler warning, Phil breaks down the Ryu and Ken rivalry, Akuma's pull on Ryu through the Satsui no Hado, David Dastmalchian's unhinged Bison, and the one thing he can't forgive: Cody Rhodes' Guile fights Vega off screen. Frank, who hasn't seen it yet, pushes on whether the camp works for casual viewers and lines it up next to James Gunn's Superman.

The second half moves to Vision Quest episodes 1 and 2. Frank and Phil talk about the Jarvis moment, James Spader's return as Ultron, Tommy's two sets of memories, and who could be paying Paladin. They close on Marvel scaling back Disney+ budgets, what's coming up for Distance NERDing and its D&D actual play, and a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign recommendation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Phil from Distance NERDing Joins, Is Vision Quest Rebuilding Marvel Hype?
• 1:30 Street Fighter Spoiler-Free Review: Better Than the Reviews Say
• 3:57 Street Fighter Spoilers: The 1993 Setting, Ryu, Ken, and Akuma
• 15:35 Chun-Li, Bison, Guile, and the Game-Accurate Moves
• 22:34 Embracing Camp: Street Fighter, Gunn's Superman, and Adaptations as New Runs
• 26:12 Street Fighter Verdict: Theaters or Streaming?
• 28:28 Vision Quest Episodes 1 and 2: Jarvis and James Spader's Ultron
• 41:03 Paladin, Tommy, and Who's Pulling the Strings
• 55:13 Is Marvel Pulling Back on Disney+?
• 57:45 What's Next for Distance NERDing
• 1:00:14 Recommendations: Modern Warfare 4 Campaign and a WoW Guild

Key Takeaways

• Phil argues Street Fighter is built like arcade story mode, with separate character arcs that converge on one fight. Viewers who don't know that format read it as disjointed.
• The movie pulls deep from post-Street Fighter V lore: Gouken and Gouki, Ryu and the Satsui no Hado, and Bison draining fighters to fuel his Psycho Power.
• Phil's two gripes are Guile's off-screen fight with Vega and Ken never landing the flaming Shoryuken.
• His verdict is theaters, with a crowd. Moviegoers with no attachment to the games are the most likely to bounce off it.
• Frank found Vision Quest episode 1 slow and episode 2 the payoff, while Phil was hooked from the start. Both rank James Spader's Ultron as the best thing in the show so far.
• Both hosts read Marvel's TV slowdown as a budget decision, since big-budget series didn't pull in enough new Disney+ subscribers. Frank sees Zodiac as a test run for cheaper, Arrow-style shows.

Quotes

• "The way that they did this entire movie was almost the same way that you play a fighting game." (Phil)

• "Every single character in this movie performs something that they're known for in the game." (Phil)

• "If you want the blood and gore, Mortal Kombat. If you want the dude beating up a car in the middle of the street while people cheer, Street Fighter." (Frank)

• "Could it be anybody else but Jarvis? He's just been with us since the beginning." (Frank)

• "I can listen to that dude read the dictionary." (Phil, on James Spader)

Sources

GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source for all news discussed on the show.

Support the Show

Subscribe wherever you listen and leave a rating or review, since it helps new listeners find us. If you have a friend who skipped Street Fighter because of the reviews, send them this one, and if you disagree with Phil, go tell Distance NERDing. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Send Us Your Questions

Did Street Fighter work for you, or did it land as disjointed? Who do you think hired Paladin? Send your reactions, questions, and topic ideas to [email protected] or drop them in the comments, and we may read them on a future episode.

Episode Summary

Vision Quest premieres today, and we're getting you ready with a full primer on Vision's MCU story, from Age of Ultron and his death at the hands of Thanos to the White Vision who flew off at the end of WandaVision. Then Thomas and Frank sit down with Chris DeMoulin, CEO of LA Comic Con, to talk about how the biggest convention in Los Angeles gets built every year.

Squeaks and Thomas join Frank to break down what the Vision Quest trailers have already given away, why Ultron living in the "basement" of Vision's mind could drive the whole season, whether Billy and Tommy are being set up for a Young Avengers team, and one wild theory connecting Wanda to Doctor Doom's three witches. In Headlines, the crew reacts to the NYCC announcements for Marvel Zodiac and DC's Absolute Justice, Avatar: Seven Havens getting renewed through Book Four, a comedy series about a young Avatar Kuruk, and Xbox launching its own film and TV studio. Chris shares why he put the LA Comic Con main stage in the middle of the show floor, what it took to land first-time convention guests like Bob Odenkirk, and why 350 fans now own a piece of the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Catch-Up
• 1:37 Vision's MCU Story So Far
• 9:03 Vision Quest Hype Check and Predictions
• 17:36 Wild Theory: Wanda, Doom, and the Three Witches
• 19:28 Headlines: Marvel Zodiac, Absolute Justice, Avatar, and Xbox's New Studio
• 34:32 Interview: LA Comic Con CEO Chris DeMoulin
• 48:07 Network Roundup and Patreon Shout-Out
• 50:14 Picks of the Week

Key Takeaways

• Vision Quest's first episode is titled "No Strings," a nod to Ultron's song from Age of Ultron, and Ultron appears to be locked deep inside Vision's mind, setting up a power struggle for control of the body.
• Frank thinks the moment Vision does something irrational to protect Tommy will be the moment his inherited memories finally connect to real emotion.
• Marvel Zodiac looks like a grounded spy series with Secret Warriors roots, and the Scorpio connection could bring in Nick Fury's brother as a future successor to Samuel L. Jackson's Fury.
• Absolute Justice brings DC's Absolute universe together in five issues starting April 2027, written by Jason Aaron, with no tie-ins required.
• Xbox's new studio will handle the Call of Duty movie, a Diablo series, and Fallout Season 3, and Squeaks sees it growing into a fan event in the style of BlizzCon.
• Chris DeMoulin starts booking talent up to two years ahead, works from yearly fan surveys, and keeps adding panelists right up until the week of the show.

Pull Quotes

• "Just slap Spider-Man up somewhere. You don't need to show me. We're gonna go see it." (Squeaks, on trailers that give away too much)

• "I think he's a brutally underappreciated villain that I would argue is just below Doctor Doom in importance." (Frank, on Ultron)

• "If this Vision dies, then all of Ultron dies." (Thomas, on why Ultron might protect Vision)

• "A fan show has to be about the fans." (Chris DeMoulin, CEO of LA Comic Con)

• "We want you to come and be a fan, but we also want you to feel like it's your show." (Chris DeMoulin, on the 350 fans who invested in LA Comic Con)

Sources

All news discussed on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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The full Chris DeMoulin interview is available now on YouTube and on the GFI (Geek Freaks Interviews) feed wherever you get podcasts.

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Listener Questions

What's your Vision Quest prediction? Tell us whether you think Wanda shows up, who the end-of-season cameo will be, or which Xbox franchise deserves a movie next. Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas on any of our socials, and we might read them on a future episode.

Frank and Thomas break down the full first season of HBO's Lanterns the night after the finale, from John Stewart's new oath to Hal Jordan's "I love you, Junior" goodbye. Frank had the season sitting at a six until the last episode pulled it up to a strong eight.

The conversation keeps splitting along one line: how the show plays for a comic reader versus someone who only knows the DCU on screen. That split shapes the read on John embracing fear, the lantern that looked more yellow than green, his choice to let Noah live, and a villain lineup that gave Sinestro too little screen time and Antaan almost nothing to do. The back half looks ahead to Man of Tomorrow, what a second season should be about, and the questions about Hal and Sheriff Kerry Kane the finale left open. Full spoilers start at 11:12.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Housekeeping and the John Stewart Patreon Statue
• 01:53 Finale Gut Reactions and Season Scores
• 11:12 John Stewart as the Cowboy Green Lantern (Full Spoilers)
• 17:22 The Yellow Lantern Tease and the Noah Decision
• 26:23 John's Family and the Hal Jordan Goodbye
• 39:53 Where the Villains Fell Short
• 46:29 Lanterns in Man of Tomorrow and Season 2
• 49:57 Final Thoughts
• 55:44 Side Quest and Patreon Shout-Out

Key Takeaways

• The finale changed Frank's score for the whole season. Knowing where the story lands made earlier weak spots, like the limited Sinestro time, play as setup.
• John's new oath includes "I embrace fear." To a comic reader that sounds like Parallax. Taken on its own, it gives the Green Lanterns the thing Frank and Thomas said they were missing back in their episode one review: admitting fear exists and overcoming it.
• Frank compares the repaired lantern to kintsugi, the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery with gold, as a way to read the yellow in it as a flaw being honored.
• Sparing Noah is the choice that sells John as a superhero. He takes on the risk of a young Manhunter and commits to becoming strong enough to stop him if it comes to that.
• The villains were the weakest part of the season. Zoe is gone by the midpoint, Antaan's crew never returns, and Ulrich Thomsen's Sinestro needed more scenes.
• For Man of Tomorrow, Frank wants John in a role as active as Mister Terrific's in Superman, plus a clear signal of what Lanterns season two is about.

Quotes

• "This John Stewart is a superhero. He's not a cop." (Frank)

• "Before that finale, I had the season sitting closer to a six. With that, I have it at a strong eight." (Frank)

• "Antaan. What a waste of a character." (Frank)

• "They've left us wanting a little bit more than they should have." (Frank)

• "If it wasn't for this ending, it would have been an unsatisfactory show, no doubt." (Frank)

Links and Resources

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Call to Action

Follow or subscribe to Geek Freaks wherever you listen, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so more DC fans can find the show. If you have a friend who was sure that lantern was turning yellow, send them this episode and tag your reaction with #GeekFreaksPodcast.

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Listener Questions

Did you watch Lanterns without reading a single Green Lantern comic? Frank and Thomas want to know how the season played for you, since neither of them can watch it that way. Send your take, your season two theories, or a topic you want covered on a future episode.

Episode Summary

Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters with a new ending, and it puts Loki on Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter's doorstep as the MCU's answer to Doctor Doom. Frank breaks down the leaked Encore Edition scenes, then sits down with Keith Arem and Chris Yates, the writers behind Danny Trejo's cursed-conquistador comic Year of the Devil.

The Encore leaks include a TVA post-credit scene where incursions multiply into the thousands and a visit from Doom to Bruce Banner's underground lab, and Frank lays out what they mean for Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. In the interview, Keith explains how Danny stopped a recording session to pitch a book they could make together, and the pair talk about building Diego de Rojas from Danny's tattoos, his grindhouse roles, and his love of history. In Headlines, Mark Hamill replaces Jim Cummings as Darkwing Duck, Paramount settles with 12 state attorneys general over its Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Daredevil: Born Again ends with season 3, Alan Ritchson is in talks to replace Jason Momoa in Helldivers, and Brad Pitt returns for World War Z 2. Frank closes with a personal message for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:10 Avengers: Endgame Encore Leaks and the Road to Doomsday
• 07:58 Interview: Keith Arem and Chris Yates on Danny Trejo's Year of the Devil
• 19:55 Headlines: Mark Hamill Is the New Darkwing Duck
• 24:38 Paramount's Settlement Terms for the Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
• 30:02 Daredevil: Born Again Ends With Season 3
• 35:01 Helldivers Recasting and World War Z 2
• 39:01 Network Updates
• 40:40 Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Key Takeaways

• The leaked Encore ending positions Loki, now the god of stories, as the counterweight to Doctor Doom heading into Doomsday.
• The TVA post-credit scene shows incursions spreading from one to thousands, which Frank reads as the setup for Secret Wars.
• Year of the Devil follows Diego de Rojas, a conquistador who frees the devil from a prison beneath Chichén Itzá and is cursed to hunt the Four Horsemen across 500 years. It's a five-issue prestige series from PCB Entertainment launching September 29.
• Frank thinks Mark Hamill brings clout to the Darkwing Duck reboot, but a younger lead would have given the series a longer runway.
• Paramount's settlement requires 30 theatrical films a year, a $1.5 billion investment in California productions, and keeping both historic studio lots open. Frank opposes the merger but calls these terms the best-case version of it.
• With Born Again ending, Frank pitches three ways forward for Charlie Cox's Daredevil: a Daredevil: Yellow adaptation, a Defenders-style series with a rotating street-level cast, or a yearly special presentation.

Memorable Quotes

• "Loki vs. Doctor Doom, which is a sentence that just screams awesome comic book to me." (Frank Lourence)

• "We felt like it had to have some dirt under the fingernails." (Chris Yates, on Year of the Devil)

• "He just kind of literally stopped in the middle of a session and he was like, I want to do a book with you." (Keith Arem, on Danny Trejo)

• "Number one is jobs. Number two is creativity." (Frank Lourence, on the Paramount and WBD merger)

• "It's not about blowing up aliens and fighting for democracy. It is about the satire of that." (Frank Lourence, on the Helldivers movie)

Sources

All news discussed on this episode is sourced from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Listener Questions

Is Loki the right hero to stand against Doom, and what should Marvel do with Daredevil after Born Again? Send your answers, questions, and topic ideas to [email protected] or DM us on any of the socials above.

BlizzCon 2026 handed out a StarCraft open world shooter that does not land until 2030, a Diablo 5 release window in spring 2029, and a plan to turn World of Warcraft Classic into something called World of Warcraft Forever. Frank and Squeaks were both on the floor for all of it, and they came back with announcement reactions, three hour lines, a Todd McFarlane signature, and Matt Mercer running an Overwatch tabletop game in front of 8,000 people.

The Warcraft talk takes up most of the hour, and for good reason. World of Warcraft Forever adds new races, new zones, dungeons and raids to the Classic version of Azeroth, including undead paladins for the Horde, with a beta starting next Thursday ahead of a November 4 launch. Frank played the five man dungeon demo on the show floor and came out talking about how much real communication a slower pace forces back into a group, while Squeaks, who has never touched Classic, walked away planning a warlock. On the retail side, the Eclipse patch and the language Blizzard kept using about closing out twenty years of story push the two of them into a long argument about whether the next expansion ends World of Warcraft and starts World of Warcraft 2 on a modern engine. Elsewhere: Diablo 4 gets Hell's Legacy with Deckard Cain back as the storyteller, a Diablo animated series is coming to Netflix with Overwatch and Warcraft adaptations teased behind it, Overwatch introduces a vampire healer whose backstory and voice were built around the actor playing him, and Wrath of the Lich King Remix only got revealed if you sat through the deep dive panel. The crowd is the one sore spot, with Frank putting attendance near 75,000 against the 40,000 to 50,000 of past years and both hosts stuck in two and three hour lines for the store and the Darkmoon Faire.

• 0:00 Intro and BlizzCon 2026 First Impressions
• 3:36 Meeting Todd McFarlane and Watching Matt Mercer Run Overwatch
• 6:08 Oversold Crowds, Three Hour Lines, and a Dry BlizzCon
• 10:06 StarCraft Returns as an Open World Shooter
• 14:22 Diablo 5 in 2029, Hell's Legacy, and Deckard Cain
• 19:52 The Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
• 21:28 World of Warcraft Forever and the Classic Overhaul
• 29:07 Eclipse, the Titans, and the Case for World of Warcraft 2
• 38:12 Overwatch's Newest Hero and the Wrath Remix Reveal
• 41:31 Final Day Highlights, T-Pain, and the Arena Championship
• 48:37 Recommendations, the Patreon Statue Vote, and the Forever Guild

Key takeaways

• World of Warcraft Forever launches November 4 with a beta starting next Thursday, adding new races, zones, dungeons and raids to Classic, plus undead paladins for the Horde.
• StarCraft is back as an open world shooter set 100 years after StarCraft 2, but the 2030 date landed hard in the room, and both hosts worry about a Warhammer style game with no Protoss or Zerg to play.
• Diablo 5 arrives spring 2029, with Hell's Legacy bridging the gap in Diablo 4 and Deckard Cain returning to bring old bosses back for another fight.
• The Diablo animated series at Netflix is the adaptation Frank is most confident in, with Castlevania and Cyberpunk Edgerunners as the track record, and Overwatch and Warcraft projects teased after it.
• Blizzard's repeated framing about the culmination of twenty years has both hosts betting the next expansion closes the current story, with Frank arguing a true sequel is the only way past a 2004 engine.
• Attendance was the weekend's biggest problem, with two hour waits just to enter the convention center on Saturday and three hour waits for the store and the Darkmoon Faire.

"When they put that 2030 on the screen, the air went out of the room." - Frank

"I got to meet my dream comic book creator. I could be gone tomorrow and I would feel like life was fulfilled." - Squeaks, on meeting Todd McFarlane

"That kind of communication is peak Warcraft, and that stuff is not said in World of Warcraft today." - Frank, on the Forever dungeon demo

"We are reaching the limits of what this engine can do." - Frank, on why he thinks World of Warcraft 2 has to happen

"There is a blood knight in Diablo Immortal and I love the hell out of it. I named him Squeaks Belmont." - Squeaks

Every story covered in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source for all news discussed on the show.

If you have not subscribed yet, do it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next one shows up automatically, and leave a rating or review while you are there. Send this episode to the friend who quit World of Warcraft back in Cataclysm, because Forever is aimed directly at them. #GeekFreaksPodcast

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Got a BlizzCon take we missed, a WoW Forever class you are locking in, or a prediction about World of Warcraft 2? Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas, and we will get to them on a future episode. We are also forming a guild for World of Warcraft Forever in both Classic and retail, so reach out if you want in.

Dungeons & Dragons 2 has a finished script, and the studio that made the first one already passed on it. Avengers Doomsday is deep in edits, the Russo brothers just called their script a living organism, and everyone lost their minds about it.

Squeaks opens the show with a full report from the Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, where the Moscone Center got taken over by TCG, Pokémon Go, Unite, and the new Pokémon Champions app, and where buying a single piece of exclusive merch turned into a timed-entry website that crashed on everybody. Then Allen Dunford joins Frank to talk about The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer #1, the Comic Soup book he co-wrote with Kit Wallis that funded its previous record in a single day. Allen gets into the grindhouse and manga influences, why the story stays locked on two survivors instead of a community, and the Geek Freaks variant cover on the Kickstarter. Frank closes with the first News Quickfire, a tighter news segment built on listener feedback.

The news run covers D&D 2's script and where the project could land, Netflix developing a live action Ravenloft while Forgotten Realms gets canceled, HBO's Baldur's Gate series with Craig Mazin, the real reasons Honor Among Thieves underperformed, the Avengers Doomsday improv conversation, Jim Cummings losing Darkwing Duck to a recast, and a full status check on Gargoyles, Hey Arnold, Doug, and the 90s reboot slate.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro: Patreon Upgrades, SideQuest Relaunch, and Show Changes
• 1:34 Squeaks at Pokémon Worlds: Moscone Center, Pokémon XP, and the Tournaments
• 5:21 The Merch Problem: Pokémon Center Lines, Resellers, and Scalpers
• 10:12 Guest: Allen Dunford on The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer
• 21:37 Seven Years Indie, the Comic Soup Slate, and the Geek Freaks Variant
• 27:30 News Quickfire: D&D 2's Finished Script, Ravenloft, and Baldur's Gate
• 34:14 Avengers Doomsday, the Russos, and the Improv Panic
• 40:52 Darkwing Duck Recasts Jim Cummings, Plus the 90s Reboot Roundup
• 48:10 Wrap-Up and Listener Feedback

Key Takeaways

• Pokémon Worlds was an incredible event wrapped around a broken buying experience. The Pokémon Center on site required a timed booking through a site that crashed, the second merch area turned out to be reseller tables selling singles for hundreds, and Squeaks walked out having spent twenty dollars and bought his Worlds backpack online later at roughly four times the price.
• Next year's Worlds moves to Singapore, so US fans have no idea when it comes back.
• The Samurai Redneck Zombie Killer started as a title and a cover. Kit Wallis brought Allen the name and the first five pages, posted the cover to Instagram, and the response was so far outside his normal engagement that they fast tracked the whole book. It beat Comic Soup's previous best campaign total in a single day.
• Allen and Kit built the book around two people instead of a community, borrowing the Leon and Mathilda dynamic from The Professional, right down to naming the samurai Lee. The art uses a manga inspired color scheme with the first five pages in full color before shifting to black, white, and splashes of red.
• Paramount Skydance passed on Dungeons & Dragons 2 as financially unviable, but Hasbro is shopping it. Honor Among Thieves earned around $205 million on a roughly $150 million budget split with Hasbro's E1, opened four days before The Super Mario Bros. Movie, landed a month after the OGL boycott, and never told non fans it was a family comedy.
• The Avengers Doomsday improv worry is overblown. The Russos worked the same way on Infinity War and Endgame, their visual reference is Once Upon a Time in the West, and Robert Downey Jr. said he would not have come back without them. Improv on a movie this size gets spent on one on one character scenes, not on Sentinels and VFX plates.
• Jim Cummings and Terry McGovern are both being recast in the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Darkwing Duck reboot, seven years after Cummings recorded the pilot that got it greenlit. The 2017 DuckTales storyline he voiced was about an actor destroyed by a Darkwing Duck recast.
• Gargoyles' live action version is dead but the animated one is alive, Hey Arnold is in conversations, an adult Doug has concept art out, and King of the Hill is the template everyone is pointing to.

Quotes

• "Twenty bucks, because it was a horrible experience when it comes to purchasing anything." - Squeaks
• "It is a black mark on the Pokémon brand right now." - Frank
• "He had the title already. It does what it says on the label." - Allen Dunford
• "We're not focusing on a community. We're just focusing on two people trying to survive this thing." - Allen Dunford
• "In the indie sphere, you're not just the writer. The book doesn't stop at the script." - Allen Dunford
• "Improv works better when it's scaled down. It doesn't work super well when it scales up." - Frank

All news discussed on this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Frank asked for it directly on this one, so tell him how the shorter News Quickfire segment is landing. Send your questions, reactions, and topic ideas, and let us know what you want more of and less of going forward.