Media Sandwich

During a particularly slow week at the box office, a secret Looney Tunes movie sneaks into theaters despite Warner Bros Discovery trying their best to wipe the beloved cartoons from existence for tax purposes. Meanwhile the Power Rangers might get Disney Plussed, and Assassin's Creed: Shadows meets expectations. Finally, a new 'weird western' comic book preview from a noted TV writer, and is Batman fighting a sentient tenement building now?

Disney fumbles the press tour for Snow White and then stumbles over a Tiana animated series. Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth series for FX gets a spaceship housecat perspective in its latest teaser, and literally every Stephen King work is being adapted over again. Niantic, the developer of Pokemon Go, has been acquired for billions of dollars, and Microsoft takes the Xbox brand mobile with a new PC gaming handheld. News of a new Thunderbolts* comic to coincide with the movie as well.

After a quick post-mortem of the Oscars (and the dead-on-arrival stream of the ceremony on Hulu), take a wild guess what Hasbro property is finally--finally--being made into a movie after decades of false starts. Then, a rare look at footage from a CW pilot so bad that it never even aired. More nostalgia cropped up when Tony Hawk announced the remaster of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4, and the wildly expensive and various versions of that remaster. Finally, a quick couple of comic book recommendations from this last week's new books, and a Batman announcement that will really grab you...if you happened to have warm and fuzzy feelings for Batman comics exactly from 2002-2003.

Is Kathleen Kennedy actually retiring? Maybe. Is there going to be another Shrek sequel fifteen years after the last one? Absolutely. Did Kyle remember to talk about Pokemon Presents? Signs point to yes. There's also a huge list of guest stars for the upcoming season 2 of Poker Face on Peacock, a first image of HBO's Lanterns, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Shadows woes, and an intriguing new digital comic book platform arrives at a time when most others are shuttering.

Take a good hard look at Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and engage in some casting speculation. Then mourn the conscious decoupling of the Broccoli family from the James Bond franchise (who will now be handled completely by Amazon...yipes). SNL50 has a ratings success last week, and there's an update on a possible Scrubs reboot. Marvel Rivals is the biggest video game in the world right now, so naturally they fired a bunch of people for that achievement. Finally, some good old fashioned "Whatcha reading lately?" wherein Kyle talks Green Lantern Corps #1 and the return of The Bad Batch to Star Wars in comic book form.

For Valentine's Day, enjoy a sandwich made for two. First off, a round-robin look at a bunch of new movie trailers and teasers followed by some deeply concerning TV casting news. A quick rundown of some of the more interesting previews in Sony's State of Play event, then a look at the Eisner Awards judges panel for excellence in comic books throughout the year. And, as a final chocolate in this box of sweet headlines, a return of Marvel's big power couple teaming up for a miniseries. 

It's Super Bowl week, and that means lots and lots of overblown advertisements, with some occasional genuine entertainment mixed in for flavor. Trailers for Fantastic Four: First Steps and Jurassic World: Rebirth capture everyone's imaginations, while Kyle updates you on his Academy Awards homework. A brief rundown of some of the biggest Super Bowl commercials precedes the very big television news: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is set to return on Hulu! Elsewhere, the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 has its release date leaked, Marvel Rivals gets a mundane patch, and Dark Horse Comics has both good news and bad news going into 2025.

Captain America: Brave New World is on the way, and that means Anthony Mackie is tripping over himself on the promotional tour and Chris Evans is shooting down rumors that he's coming back to the MCU. Meanwhile, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man lands on Disney+ and George R.R. Martin takes a break from not writing to give his seal of approval to the latest Game of Thrones spinoff. Kyle gives a rundown of today's video game release, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, and dives into two different news stories about Nintendo copyright infringement. Then, the comic book world formally divorces itself from Neil Gaiman with an announcement from Dark Horse Comics.

Back from hibernation! The only entertainment news that's fit to put in your ears! The Sandwich is back, baby! Kicking off 2025 with some talk of the Academy Award nominations and how many of them Kyle just plain hasn't heard of or seen, because he's an uncultured swine. Elsewhere, a casting rumor for a Star Wars show and legal drama surrounding a foul-mouthed cartoon show that you'd swear went off the air years ago. Microsoft held their Developer Direct teasing the triumphant return of the Ninja Gaiden and Doom franchises, and some hearsay regarding Nintendo's new Switch 2. Finally, the Star Wars comic books from Marvel finally delve into the 30 years of New Republic adventures before the Force went and awakened.

Hogwarts Legacy is finally releasing this week, and only IGN has  bothered to review it. How controversial, how brave of them. But that  means we can read through their review and draw our own conclusions  about the game...without any intention of playing it. This is not a game  journalism podcast. Elsewhere, the Avatar sequels are shaping up to be a  saga worthy of The Godfather...in spaaaace! Also, James Gunn is  actually driving up the sales of classic comic books with his DCU slate  announcements, and thanks to the guy who gave us the Yellowstone  Expanded Universe of high-priced spinoff shows, Showtime can eschew  fresh new material for bizarre new desperate squeezings of Dexter and  Billions.

Music: "Sweeter Vermouth" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/