Shortly before the ReelBlend hosts hopped on the line to record this week's episode, the Academy dropped a few bombshells. In addition to attempting to make its annual Oscars telecast shorter (three hours now), and to move the date of the show earlier (February 9 by 2020), the Academy announced a new category honoring Achievement in Popular Film. Wow. How will they define "Popular"? What exactly does "Achievement" mean? And doesn't this decision water down the eventual Best Picture winner?

Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton, and Kevin McCarthy try to answer these questions, as well as react to IMAX footage of Damien Chazelle's "First Man," their thoughts on "The Meg," and wrap things up with their favorite movie endings. #EndingBlend

Special thanks to @ShutUpKaleena for our awesome intro this week!

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend to play along with the #Blend game each week.

This week Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton, and Kevin McCarthy discuss more of the news regarding James Gunn's firing at Disney/Marvel, the first Star Wars: Episode IX image from J.J. Abrams, the new trailer for Venom, reactions to Christopher Robin (starring Ewan McGregor), and more. This week, and moving forward, we have decided to switch the rules for our weekly BlendGame in order to determine our favorites rather than what we consider is best. Who better to kick that off with than Philip Seymour Hoffman! Let us know your pick on Twitter using #HoffmanBlend.

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

We don't have guests on the ReelBlend podcast that often. And any time that we do invite a colleague to join us, it's because they're also a friend who loves movies and Hollywood as much as Sean O'Connell, Kevin McCarthy and Jake Hamilton do. It takes a special voice to keep our movie-junkie conversation flowing on a weekly basis, which is why we were thrilled to finally have longtime friend and all-around ace reporter Ash Crossan of Entertainment Tonight on the pod!

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton, and Kevin McCarthy are back at it this week reviewing The Equalizer 2, Mission: Impossible -- Fallout (without spoilers), and playing a wild new #Blend game that had enormous audience participation.

Before that happens, the guys start with news, where they discuss Skyscraper's disappointing box office debut. In trying to figure out what happened -- a third-place opening for any Dwayne Johnson movie has to be a shock to the A-lister's system -- the guys analyze Rock Fatigue, and wonder what it means for some of the action star's upcoming projects.

From there, they shift to the Aquaman poster that recently dropped, and use that as a springboard to talk Comic-Con, which Sean is flying to (coverage on CinemaBlend all week)! Aquaman, Shazam and Wonder Woman 1984 are expected to show out, as will Venom, Glass, Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse, Halloween and The Predator. What are you guys most excited to learn about?

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

Sean O'Connell and Jake Hamilton were without a key member of their ReelBlend family, as Kevin McCarthy was on a cruise -- but not a TOM Cruise -- this week. So our old friend and talented colleague Chris Van Vliet of Deco Drive in Miami filled in on the third chair, and was a fantastic contributor. The guys discussed the casting of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, the return of Billy Dee Williams to the Star Wars universe, Ant-Man and the Wasp Spoilers, and their interviews with Tom Cruise...in Paris!

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

Subscribe to Chris' YouTube channel here!

SFX by Framing_Noise

Marvel Studios is back in theaters this week, cleansing the palette after the epicness that was Avengers: Infinity War. Aiming for a different tone, Ant-Man and the Wasp delivers laughs and action, with smaller stakes. That requires a gigantic and spoiler-free chat about Peyton Reed's new film, and Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy are the perfect people to bring that to you.

Since it's the middle point of the year, the ReelBlend guys also take this moment to list their Top 3 movies of the year so far. We can tell you this much. Avengers: Infinity War lands on all three of their lists. But their choices, after that, are wildly different. And to round this week's show off, they debate Tim Burton's best film with #BurtonBlend.

Let us know your pick on twitter using #BurtonBlend, and play along with next week's show when we'll decide the best film about or set in Paris, France with #ParisBlend.

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

This week, Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton, and Kevin McCarthy breakdown Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, discuss recent movie news, and debate Arnold Schwarzenegger's best role and one-liner.

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

Is this the end of Star Wars as we know it? Right before this week's episode of ReelBlend kicked off, news leaked that Lucasfilm might be holding off on solo, standalone movies in the Star Wars universe, with Disney and Lucasfilm focusing solely on Star Wars: Episode IX, and figuring out which trilogy might come next. Jake Hamilton, Kevin McCarthy and Sean O'Connell kick off this week with a conversation on the future of Star Wars, and its impact on the past.

The ReelBlend guys can finally dive into a spoiler-filled conversation on Incredibles 2, which broke records at the box office over the weekend and gave Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille) another smashing success. Why was it such a hit? Should they hurry up and make an Incredibles 3? The guys break it all down.

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

Welcome to episode 25 of ReelBlend! This week, Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton, and Kevin McCarthy get into some recent news and photos for Wonder Woman 1984 (starring Gal Gadot, and apparently Chris Pine), discuss their recent trip to Hawaii for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard), and give spoiler reviews of Ocean's 8 (starring Sandra Bullock, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway) and Hereditary (starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, and Milly Shapiro).

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend

This week we unfortunately are missing one from our lovely trio of hosts, Jake Hamilton. But as he goes on assignment, and is sure to bring back some lovely stories to share with us next week, Sean O'Connell and Kevin McCarthy managed to hold down the fort. Tune in for their spoiler-free reactions to Hereditary (Starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolf, and Milly Shapiro) , breakdowns on this week's crazy amount of trailers, the news of Jared Leto's new Joker movie, and of course debated Alfred Hitchcock's best work with #HitchcockBlend.

Follow the show on Twitter @ReelBlend