The League Comes Together in New JUSTICE LEAGUE Trailer

Heads up, everyone...Zack Snyder has returned with his filter fetish in play once again.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released a new trailer for Justice League, the upcoming DC Extended Universe movie based on the DC Comics superteam directed by Zack Snyder. The two minute, thirty second trailer shows the various league members coming together...only without the recently-deceased Superman (Henry Cavill).

The trailer opens with Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) heading north on horseback as he speaks in a voiceover.  "We have to be ready," he begins.  "You, me, the others.  There's an attack coming...from far away."

"Not coming, Bruce," replies Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot).  "It's already here."

We then see Dr. Silas Stone (Joe Morton), Cyborg's father, at home as a strange container hidden beind Silas' son's sports trophies behind to glow and shake with building energy.  A Parademon suddenly looms behind Silas as he watches the container.

Diana asks Bruce, "The others...Where are they?"

As the thumping sound of the White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to Button" begins to play, we see Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) carrying a rescued guy into a bar full of fishermen and dropping him onto a table.  Grabbing a bottle of whiskey, Aquaman quips "It's on him" and turns to leave.

Next, we see Cyborg/Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) in action as Diana remarks in a voiceover "Organic and biomechatronic body parts.  He's a cyborg."  Cyborg rescues a cop from a tank on fire tumbling over and over, remarking, "You should probably move."

Then, we see The Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) finding Bruce Wayne waiting for him in his secret superhero lair filled with dozens of monitors and books.  "Whoever you're looking for," Barry tells him, "it's not me."  Bruce throws a small Batarang past Barry, who plucks it from mid-air.  "You're the Batman?" asks Barry.

A cover of the Beatles' classic "Come Together" starts playing as we hear Diana say, "They said the Age of Heroes would never come again."  "It has to," replies Bruce.

We see some quick images of the League members in action, including Aquaman fighting some Parademons, before cutting to a scene of Barry sitting in a car with Bruce.  "What are your superpowers again?" he asks.

"I'm rich," Bruce responds in his best Tony Stark impression.

We then see some fleeting glimpses of various supporting characters Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Mera (Amber Heard), Barry's father, Henry Allen (Billy Crudup), and the Amazons, who are shown in a major battle with Steppenwolf's troops.

Next, we see Commissioner Gordon (J.K. Simmons) meeting with Batman and telling him "It's good to see you playing well with others again" as Aquaman emerges from the water.  

"Just like a bat," quips Aquaman as he sees Bruce in costume.  "I dig it."

"May be temporary," Batman tells Gordon.

Lastly, we see Aquaman riding the roof of the Batmobile as he and Batman charge into battle.  Aquaman shouts "Yeah!" in glee just before leaping high into the air after a pair of flying Parademons.

If you'd like to check out the new trailer, you can view it below thanks to the official Warner Bros. account on YouTube...



Justice League is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 17, 2017.

THE FANDOM ZONE 096: "Snow Gives Way" is Up!

"What's your purpose?"
"To protect K'un-Lun from all oppression.  Honor the sacrifice of Shou-Lao the Undying."
"Well, okay then.  Just remember to have fun along the way."
– Big Al and Danny Rand, Iron Fist: "Snow Gives Way"

That's right, Karen Lindsay and I are finally back with another HUGE episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast!  So huge, in fact, we're splitting it into two parts!

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

The Walking Dead 7x13: "Bury Me Here"

The Flash 3x16: "Into the Speed Force"

Legends of Tomorrow 2x14: "Moonshot"

Arrow 5x16: "Checkmate"

Legion 1x05: "Chapter 5"

Legion 1x06: "Chapter 6"

Iron Fist 1x01: "Snow Gives Way"  (Series Premiere)

This time, we talk about things like Victor Garber singing "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)", Karen's soundboard blowin' up real good, Carol being indirectly responsible for Benjamin's death, Morgan going back to Crazy Town, the speedsters playing musical chairs, wondering why a speedster has to replace a speedster if they leave the Speed Force, why casting Abra Kadabra doesn't kill my "H.R. Wells is Abra Kadabra" theory, Legends of Tomorrow lifting from Doctor Who again, wondering where the Reverse-Flash was in Ron Howard's Apollo 13 movie, The Atom geeking out on the moon, Talia working with Prometheus, Curtis calling out Felicity for hacking the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of a hacker group she doesn't really know, Ken from Chicago needing to dial back his Fandom Zone live-tweeting, Syd and David finally being able to touch one another in the White Room, David channeling Kermit from The Muppet Movie, Aubrey Plaza deserving all the Emmys, David and Syd trying to enjoy a slice of cherry pie, the Devil with Yellow Eyes as Lenny treating David's memories as a big playground, the critics totally getting it wrong with Iron Fist, the controversy of wanting Iron Fist to be another Asian stereotype, Ward being a total dick to Danny as kids, differences with the comic book origin of Iron Fist, some feedback from Justina, a shoutout to Phil Perich's memes, and more!

You can now check out episodes of The Fandom Zone using...

Google Play Music -- HERE 

iTunes -- HERE

Direct Download MP3s/Libsyn -- HERE

The Fandom Zone on Facebook -- HERE

The Fandom Zone on Twitter -- @FandomZoneCast

And if that isn't enough for you, you can also check us out on YouTube, Libsyn, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and the official Southgate Media Group website!  Oh, and if you're interested in an officially official Fandom Zone Podcast t-shirt that all the cool kids are wearing, you can get those on TeePublic HERE as well!  Feel free to post a picture on our Facebook page of you or some other cool person you know wearing the shirt!

Be sure to come back next week, as Karen and I review Episode 2 of Iron Fist, along with new episodes of The Walking Dead, Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, and Legion, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!

First Trailer for Netflix's MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Gives Us Movie Sign

Worried about the MST3K revival?  You should really just relax.

Netflix has released the first trailer for their revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the classic sci-fi comedy series that originally aired on KTMA in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1988 before being picked up by The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central and later The Sci-Fi Channel.  Starring Joel Hodgson and later Michael J. Nelson, the series ran for ten seasons of 197 episodes, and included the feature film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie before ending in 1997.

The first 40-second trailer brings back the cheesy production value goodness from the original series and introduces us to Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston, Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester (daughter of original mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester) and Patton Oswalt as TV's Son of TV's Frank.

We see Kinga Forrester and TV's Son of TV's Frank luring Jonah Heston's ship to Moonbase 13 under the pretense of needing help.  As Jonah lands and starts wondering what's going on when he sees the text "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST THE PICTURE. WE ARE CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION" (a nod to the classic sci-fi TV series The Outer Limits), Kinga's voice chimes in.

"You speak to I, Kinga Forrester," she proclaims, "commander of the Moon 13 Research Station.  I am reopening my family's most legendary experiment, Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Next we see a hazmat suited figure call out "Movie in the hole!" as a vat of something with a movie poster of the 1961 movie Reptilicus is emptied out.  Jonah is dropped into the theater with our old friends Crow T. Robot (voiced by Hampton Yount) and Tom Servo (voiced by Baron Vaughn).

We see fleeting images of Jonah and the 'Bots partying with bubbles, a giant female robot shooting lasers from her breasts, and Tom Servo hovering next to the mouth of a naked woman in dark sunglasses standing behind two conveniently placed screens.  Finally, we hear a bit of Crow's new voice as he tells Jonah, "You are not my real father, mister!"

If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can view it below thanks to Netflix US and Canada's official YouTube account...



Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be released Friday, April 14th on Netflix.

New AMERICAN GODS Trailer Teases Old Gods and New

So, is the kid not Mr. World's son?

STARZ has released a new trailer for American Gods, the upcoming television adaptation of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed fantasy novel.  The 8-episode first season will debut with "The Bone Orchard", written by showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, and directed by David Slade.

When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.

The new one minute, five second trailer opens with Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) asking "What's a god?" in a voiceover, before telling Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) "They're real if you believe in them."

"So, who are you?" asks Shadow.

"You wouldn't believe in me if I told you," replies Mr. Wednesday.

The next scene features Mr. Wednesday introducing Shadow as his man to Vulcan (Corbin Bersen), a new character created by Gaiman for the series.

"He does not know our world," remarks Zorya Vechernyaya (Cloris Leachman) as we see a quick glimpse of Shadow standing in an orchard of bones.

"I'm easing him in," replies Mr. Wednesday.

Next, we see Shadow's dead wife Laura Moon telling him "You've gotten yourself mixed up in some really weird shit."

We then see Mr. Wednesday talking to Easter (Kristin Chenoweth).  He remarks, "You're as forgotten and unloved as any of us."

"I'm doing just fine," smiles Easter to someone off-camera, presumably Shadow.

Someone asks Mr. Wednesday if he's trying to start a war and he responds, "We're at war already...and we're losing."

Shadow asks someone off-camera "Who's after you?", just before we see a figure lighting up floor tiles as he walks like Michael Jackson in his "Billie Jean" video, who turns out to be Crispin Glover as Mr. World.

"The times, they are a'changing," quips Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) as he blows smoke rings while sitting in the back of his limousine.

Next, we see Shadow fighting Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber) in a bar as Mr. Wednesday says in a voiceover "We need you to fight them, to show them who we are."

"They are gods, for god's sake!" shouts Easter as we see Czernobog (Peter Stormare) holding his bloody sledgehammer.

Someone asks Mr. Wednesday what the plan is and he replies "War."  We then hear a gospel song with the words "Deliver me" as a bloody battle takes place.  We see glimpses of Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones) as Shadow says in a voiceover, "None of this feels real.  It feels like a dream."

As we glimpse a minotaur with eyes of flame, Laura Moon bloody and carrying her severed arm as she walks down a suburban street, and an old ship on fire in the middle of the ocean, we hear Technical Boy saying, "And things are never going back to the way that they were."

"It will be glorious, win or lose," replies Mr. Wednesday.

If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can view it below thanks to the official STARZ account on YouTube...




American Gods premieres on STARZ on April 30, 2017.

GHOSTWOOD 003: "Fire Walk with Me" is Up!

"Do you think that if you were falling in space...that you would slow down after a while, or go faster and faster?"
"Faster and faster.  And for a long time, you wouldn't feel anything.  And then you'd burst into fire...forever...and the angels wouldn't help you, because they've all gone away."

-- Donna Heyward and Laura Palmer, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

It is happening again...my co-host with the most Xan Sprouse and I are back once again with a new episode of Ghostwood: The Twin Peaks Podcast!  This time, we review Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the 1992 cult film directed by David Lynch that served as a prequel to the television series!

LET'S ROCK!

In our third HUGE episode, Xan and I discuss things like remembering Warren Frost as Doc Heyward, Xan and I as the only two people that never watched Seinfeld regularly, Xan's recent trip to Snoqualmie and North Bend in Washington to see the real life Twin Peaks opening credits waterfall and the Double R Diner, why it's important to watch Fire Walk with Me after the original television series, Chris Isaak as Special Agent Chet Desmond, wondering about Carl Rodd being more than he seems, David Bowie as Phillip Jeffries, why the scene of Annie appearing in Laura's bedroom needed to be cut, Mike the One-Armed Man being a warning, BOB affecting Leland and Laura's relationship, Laura Palmer's tragic story being so fascinating, wanting a more satisfying ending to the original series than what we got, wanting to see Laura Palmer's redeemed spirit alongside Anakin and Yoda at the end of Return of the Jedi, the deleted scenes that provide a new ending to the original series, Khan Noonien Singh never meeting Chekov in the original Star Trek series, Xan crying when she sees the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me trailer, Twin Peaks music on vinyl, and more!

If you'd like to check out our latest episode, you can find us on...

iTunes -- RIGHT HERE

Direct MP3 downloads/Libsyn --  RIGHT HERE

YouTube -- RIGHT HERE

Google Play Music -- COMING SOON!

Ghostwood's Facebook page

Ghostwood's Twitter account

Be sure to come back next month as Xan and I review "Northwest Passage", a.k.a. the 1990 pilot episode of the original ABC television series Twin Peaks!  Look for more of Ghostwood: The Twin Peaks Podcast on iTunes, YouTube, Libsyn, and the official Southgate Media Group website!

THE MATRIX Rebooted...Possibly with Michael B. Jordan

Are you ready to see how deep the rabbit hole goes...again?

The Hollywood Reporter revealed yesterday that Warner Bros. is developing a relaunch of The Matrix, the 1999 science fiction action movie classic written and directed by the Wachowskis starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving.

According to the article, the project is in the early stages, with Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment and interest in Michael B. Jordan as the star.  Penn is a co-writer on the upcoming films Pacific Rim: Uprising and Ready Player One, and has written for the movies The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand, Elektra, and X2: X-Men United. Jordan is appearing in the upcoming movie Black Panther, and has appeared in the films Creed, Fantastic Four (2015), Fruitvale Station, Chronicle, and Red Tails.

The Matrix explored a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source.  A computer programmer named Neo discovers the truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from the Matrix.  The movie made over $463 million worldwide from a budget of $63 million.

The article also claims the Wachowskis, who also wrote and directed the two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, "are not involved and the nature of their potential engagement with a new version has not been determined."

Joel Silver, who produced the original trilogy, reportedly approached Warner Bros. about the idea of a potential new film based on The Matrix.  However, Silver sold his interest in all his movies to the studio in 2012 for about $30 million, according to THR's sources.  Warner Bros. is "leery of including him in any meaningful role, as he not only has a reputation for budget-control issues, but apparently has a strained relationship with the Wachowskis."

WONDER WOMAN Origin Trailer Showcases Diana's Training

Princess Diana of Themyscira is about to become a legend.

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Wonder Woman, the upcoming film directed by Patty Jenkins starring Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor.  The two minute, thirty second traler showcases Diana's training on Themyscira and also hints at the truth behind her creation.

The trailer opens on the paradise island of Themyscira, as we hear Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) speaking to her young daughter Diana.  "The gods gave us many gifts," she begins as we see them and a group of Amazons riding to some form of temple.  "One day you'll know them all.  This is where we keep them."

The large doors swing open and Diana sees an impressive sword for the first time.  "It's beautiful," the girl remarks.  "Who would wield it?"

"Only the fiercest among us even could," replies Hippolyta.  "And that is not you, Diana."

Diana merely smiles, staring longingly at the sword.

As time passes, we see Diana growing up and training in the arts of combat with her fellow Amazons.  We hear Hippolyta in a voiceover, presumably speaking to her sister, General Antiope (Robin Wright).  "You will train her harder than any Amazon before her -- five times harder, ten times harder -- until she is better than even you..."

As Diana is pressured by Antiope to never let her guard down and not expect the battle to be fair, she crosses her armored bracelets in a defensive position, abruptly unleashing a powerful shockwave that surprises her and the other Amazons.

"....but she must never know the truth about what she is," continues Hippolyta ominously.

While looking out from a high cliff, Diana sees Steve Trevor fall into the sea nearby and dives off the cliff to rescue him.  Steve is brought before Hippolyta and the Amazons and asks Diana, "What is this place?  Who are you?"

"It is our sacred duty to defend the world," replies Diana.

"Right," Steve remarks as we cut to glimpses of German General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and Doctor Poison (Elena Anaya).  "Whoever you are, you're in more danger than you think."

Diana prepares to leave Themyscira with Steve Trevor, telling her mother, "If no one else will defend the world, then I must."  Arriving in London during World War I, Diana finds the city "hideous," while Steve replies, "Yeah, it's not for everybody."

Later confronted by an assassin, Steve attempts to protect Diana, telling her to stay back, until Diana shield's him from a bullet with her bracelet.

We then see various images of Diana on a battlefield and fighting German soldiers, and even upending a small truck at one point.  

"I am Diana of Themyscira," she says to General Ludendorff, "daughter of Hippolyta.  In the name of all that is good, your wrath upon this world is over."  We see a climactic shot of Wonder Woman crossing her armored bracelets once again, glowing with building energy.

In the trailer's last scene, we see Diana attempting to leave a hotel through a revolving door with her large sword.  "Yep, that's not gonna work," remarks Steve.  "Please put the sword down."

"It doesn't go with the outfit," quips Steve's secretary Etta Candy (Lucy Davis).

"At all," adds Steve.

If you'd like to see the full trailer, you can view it below thanks to Warner Bros.' official account on YouTube...




Wonder Woman is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 2, 2017.

DEADPOOL 2 Casts Zazie Beetz as Domino

The Merc with a Mouth is about to experience a Domino effect.

Yesterday on his official Twitter account, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds revealed that Zazie Beetz has been cast as Neena Thurman, better known to Marvel Comics fans as Domino in Deadpool 2, the sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool.  Here's Reynolds' post on Twitter, which (of course) used dominoes to spell out Beetz's name.

Domino Effect. pic.twitter.com/ILEnTcW7fY

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 9, 2017

In addition to Reynolds, Beetz joins returning Deadpool actors Brianna Hildebrand, T.J. Miller, Karan Soni, and Stefan Kapicic, each reprising their respective characters.

Beetz, 26, is a German-born actress best known as Vanessa on the FX television series Atlanta.  She's also appeared in the Netflix series Easy and the movie Applesauce.

Created in 1991 by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, Domino first appeared in The New Mutants (vol.1) #98, although that character was revealed to be the impostor Copycat and didn't appear as herself until X-Force (vol.1) #8 in 1992.

Neena Thurman is a mutant with the ability to subconsciously and psionically initiate random telekinetic acts that affect probability in her favor by making improbable (but not impossible) things occur within her line of sight, thus causing her to have "good luck" and her opponents to have "bad luck".  She was the result of a top-secret government breeding program intended to develop the perfect weapon. Domino was the only test subject to survive, but her "luck" power was deemed a failure at meeting the project's goals.  Her biological mother broke her out of the project and left her with Father Rudolpho Boschelli in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Chicago.

Domino eventually left the Church and became a mercenary.  One of her first jobs was to stop "Operation: Jericho," which was a remote-controlled warbot project.  Domino wrecked the robot, but in the process, fried the mind of the soldier controlling it.  She was then assigned to guard the genius Dr. Milo Thurman, whose analytical ability made him too dangerous for the government to let roam free.  Somehow, Domino and Thurman fell in love and were married.  Due to Thurman's love of Dante's Inferno, he called Domino "Beatrice." The two separated after a raid on the facility by AIM members, with Milo believing Domino had been killed during the altercation.

Domino helped found the mercenary band the Six Pack, which introduced her to the mutant time-traveler Cable.  Domino worked with the Six Pack for some time, taking on many missions for cash.  The Six Pack was very brutal in their adventures, often shooting down entire crowds of people who got in their way.  The team, also known as the Wild Pack, went on missions in Iran, and participated in a raid on a HYDRA base, which Domino participated in.  During her time with the Wild Pack, she had her first confrontations with Stryfe (Cable's evil clone) in Afghanistan and Uruguay.

When Cable became the leader of the New Mutants following their break from the X-Men, an imposter Domino (actually Copycat) joined him as his field leader and stayed with the team as they changed from the New Mutants to X-Force.  When it was revealed that the real Domino was actually a prisoner of the supervillain Tolliver for over a year, X-Force rejected the Domino imposter and, with Cable's reassurances, planned to rescue the real Domino and welcome her onto the team.  The real Domino learned of Tolliver's destruction of X-Force's Adirondack base and planned her escape.  Cable found her at Tolliver's Italian home, along with her apparently murdered double.  Domino was accidentally freed by Deadpool, whom she shot.  After Cable sent her to find X-Force, she escaped on Tolliver's helicopter and survived a fall from Tolliver's helicopter into the sea.  She found X-Force and joined the team.

Beetz will be the first actress to portray Domino in live action, although the character has appeared in the animated projects X-Men (voiced by Jennifer Dale) and Wolverine and the X-Men (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo).

Deadpool 2 is currently expected to arrive in theaters on March 2, 2018.

THE FANDOM ZONE 095: "Attack on Central City" is Up!

"Sometimes it seems like everyone else gets to have their love doughnut.  Where's my love doughnut?"
– Cisco "Vibe" Ramon, The Flash: "Attack on Central City"

That's right, Karen Lindsay and I are back with another big episode of The Fandom Zone Podcast!  

This week's reviews of comics on television include:

The Walking Dead 7x11: "Hostiles and Calamities"

Supergirl 2x14: "Homecoming"

The Flash 3x14: "Attack on Central City"

Arrow 5x15: "Fighting Fire with Fire"

Legion 1x04: "Chapter 4"

This time, we talk about things like my new Iron Fist Funko figure, my Next Stop Everywhere partner in time Jesse Jackson's cancer battle, Legion as a modern-day Twin Peaks, the classic Atari 2600 game Yars' Revenge, Eugene proving to Negan how useful he is, Eugene pretending to flip over to Negan's side, meeting Dean Cain and Margot Kidder in person, wondering why everyone at the DEO is so quick to trust Jeremiah, shooting a monitor to disable a computer mainframe, Mon-El waking up in Supergirl's bed, Jeremiah's exabyte flash drive, why it's cooler to have an army of gorillas in a human city than an army of humans in a gorilla city, Solovar being ready to kick Grodd's ass and eat bananas but being out of bananas, Barry proposing to Iris, the Infinity, Inc. villain superteam Helix, wondering if Adrian Chase has a twin, the missed opportunity with Prometheus' identity, Melanie's beat poet husband being on ice, wondering if everything in Legion Season 1 is all in David's mind, the first appearance of the Shadow King in X-Men (vol.1) #117, some feedback from Justina, and more!

You can now check out episodes of The Fandom Zone using...

Google Play Music -- HERE 

iTunes -- HERE

Direct Download MP3s/Libsyn -- HERE

The Fandom Zone on Facebook -- HERE

The Fandom Zone on Twitter -- @FandomZoneCast

And if that isn't enough for you, you can also check us out on YouTube, Libsyn, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and the official Southgate Media Group website!  Oh, and if you're interested in an officially official Fandom Zone Podcast t-shirt that all the cool kids are wearing, you can get those on TeePublic HERE as well!  Feel free to post a picture on our Facebook page of you or some other cool person you know wearing the shirt!

Be sure to come back next week, as Karen and I review new episodes of The Walking Dead, Supergirl, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Legion, right here on The Fandom Zone Podcast!

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Casts Jason Isaacs as Captain Lorca

The Discovery finally has her captain.

CBS has revealed that the upcoming CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery has cast Jason Isaacs in the role of Captain Lorca, who will not be the show's lead character.  He will be the sixth Star Trek series captain, after William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula.

Isaacs joins Sonequa Martin-Green as lead character Lt. Commander Rainsford, Doug Jones as Lieutenant Saru, Mary Wiseman as Cadet Tilly, James Frain as Spock's father Sarek, Terry Serpico as Admiral Anderson, and Michelle Yeoh as the Captain of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

Isaacs, 53, is best known as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.  His films include A Cure for Wellness, Fury, Grindhouse, Elektra, Black Hawk Down, The Patriot, Armageddon, Event Horizon, Resident Evil, and Dragonheart.  He's appeared on episodes of Awake, Star Wars Rebels, Brotherhood, The West Wing, and Highlander: The Series.  Also, he has provided the voice of DC Comics characters Lex Luthor in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Sinestro in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights), and Ra's al Ghul in Batman: Under the Red Hood.  

Set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series, the series follows the crew of the USS Discovery as they discover new worlds and civilizations, while exploring the franchise's signature contemporary themes.  The season-long storyline will revolve around "an incident and an event in Star Trek history that's been talked about but never been explored."

Star Trek: Discovery is currently scheduled to debut on CBS sometime in Fall 2017, with the remainder of the episodes airing on CBS All Access.

THE FLASH Casts David Dastmalchian as Abra Kadabra

What, did you think H.R. Wells waving his drumstick around like a wand and bowing like he's on stage were just weird personality quirks?

DC Comics revealed late yesterday that The CW series The Flash has cast David Dastmalchian as DC Comics supervillain Abra Kadabra, the last of Barry Allen's major Silver Age villains to appear on the series.

According to DC, Abra Kadabra is described as "a criminal from a distant future whose advanced technological powers seem like magic, the time-traveling Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian) holds a secret the Flash will stop at nothing to uncover."

Dastmalchian, 32, has appeared in a number of comic book adaptations, including the movies The Dark Knight as Thomas Schiff and Ant-Man as Kurt, and the Fox TV series Gotham as Dwight Pollard.  He'll be appearing in the film Blade Runner 2049, and his previous television roles include episodes of MacGyver (2016), 12 Monkeys, CSI: Cyber, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Almost Human, Intruders, Ray Donovan, The League, and ER.

Created in 1962 by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Abra Kadabra first appeared in The Flash (vol.1) #128 as Citizen Abra, a man from the 64th century, a time when science has made stage magic obsolete.  Desiring a career as a performing magician, Kadabra stole a time machine and went back in time to find an audience to entertain, and soon clashed with the second Flash (Barry Allen).  He found that his magic was being overlooked, so decided to involve himself in important events.  When the Flash tried to stop a crime he was committing, he used a hypnotic device to make the Flash clap, enabling Kadabra to escape. He was able to send the Flash into space after challenging him to a fight at a theatre, but the Flash was able to change the course of the planetoid he was on so he could be sent back to Earth.  In a later battle, when the Flash passed a poster advertising Kadabra, he was turned into a puppet and used in the performance.  However, the Flash was able to restore himself slightly using the organic matter in his brain, which was not transformed, and then reversed Kadabra's ray so that he was restored completely before defeating Kadabra once again.

During the Underworld Unleashed storyline, Kadabra stopped using his technological implements and tricked five Rogues into selling their souls to Neron so he could gain genuine magical powers.  Abra Kadabra later kidnapped Linda Park, the girlfriend of the third Flash (Wally West), during their wedding and erased her from history, but was ultimately defeated with the help of Walter West, Wally's counterpart from an alternate dimension.

In the current DC Universe continuity, Kadabra confronted the Titans, first appearing as a bumbling and terrible party magician known as Mister Hocus Pocus.  When Lilith formed a psionic link with Wally West to try and uncover who or what removed 10 years of history from everyone's memories, she accidentally awakened Kadabra from within Mister Hocus Pocus.  Abra Kadabra revealed he was the one who made Wally disappear from the new timeline and vowed to destroy him.  Kadabra created younger puppet duplicates of the Titans to fight them, but when the puppet Lilith found Linda Park and told Kadabra of her importance to Wally, Kadabra realized that history was broken, knowing that Wally and Linda would not meet years from now.  

Abra Kadabra revealed to Wally that he removed him from time and everyone's recollection because Wally always managed to thwart his plans.  Kidnapping Linda, he then attempted to force Wally into a position where Wally would run himself into the Speed Force, believing that Wally would be unable to return without Linda as his "lightning rod."  However, Wally was able to return by using the Titans as his own lightning rod after talking with a representation of his memories of Linda in the Speed Force, which assured him that he could still win Linda back.  Abra Kadabra was soon defeated and sent into the timestream.

This will be the first time the character will appear in live action, although he has appeared in various animated projects, including Justice League Unlimited as a background character, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice (both voiced by Jeff Bennett).

The Flash airs Tuesday nights on The CW at 8 p.m. EST.

DAMN Good Movies -- LOGAN

You guessed it, I'm back once again with another movie take, this time on the movie Logan, based on the classic Marvel Comics superhero Wolverine.  As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't want it spoiled for you, then please step back from your computer or whatever electronic device you're reading this on and stop reading now.  If, however, you're wise enough to know that movie reviews with spoilers are always more interesting than the ones without them...well, bub...SNIKT!

After director James Mangold's 2013 movie The Wolverine was mostly well-received (apart from the third act), 20th Century Fox entered negotiations for a third solo Wolverine film starring Hugh Jackman.  Scott Frank returned to assist Mangold on the screenplay, and the film was eventually revealed to be a very loose adaptation of "Old Man Logan", a Wolverine comic book story by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven that focused on an older Wolverine in a desolate, alternate future where supervillains had been victorious.

In 2015, Michael Green took over the screenwriting duties, and with the addition of Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor Charles Xavier, the story started focusing on the relationship between Wolverine and Professor X.  The movie almost included the return of Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, but the character ended up being cut from the final screenplay.  And with the eventual news that the film was going to be rated R, Wolverine fans began to hope that they might finally get to see the character cut loose.

The film opens in the year 2029, near the Texas/Mexico border, where an aged Logan is getting by as a limo driver who chauffeurs around drunk high schoolers going to prom and more drunk bachelorette parties.  In this future where mutants are on the brink of extinction due to a devastating virus, Logan lives a bleak existence with his mutant healing factor failing him, which allows his adamantium skeleton to poison his scarred and bushy-bearded body.  He hustles for prescription medication for a now-senile Charles Xavier, whom he takes care of with the help of another mutant, Caliban.  Xavier, we learn, is prone to seizures as a result of his failing mind, but very dangerous seizures that claimed the lives of several X-Men one year earlier.

Mangold makes the most of the film's setting, giving it a very Western feel without actually being a Western.  And Logan, as the film's old gunslinger, ends up being dragged back for one last ride.  One night, he's approached by Gabriela, a nurse for a genetic research corporation known as Transigen, who asks him to take her and a seemingly-mute 11-year-old girl named Laura to a place in North Dakota called Eden.  After being offered $25,000 as a down payment, Logan accepts the gig, only to find Gabriela murdered in her hotel room. The killers, Transigen's chief of security Donald Pierce and his gang of augmented cyborgs the Reavers, track Logan and Laura down at the abandoned smelting plant where Xavier is kept with Caliban, which leads to a thrilling escape as Logan, Laura and Xavier hit the road while poor Caliban is captured and force to use his powers to track them for Pierce and the Reavers.

As we head to Oklahoma City and dive into the film's Second Act, Logan learns through a phone video left behind by Gabriela that Laura was bred by Transigen using Logan's DNA sample, effectively making her his daughter and explaining her very Wolveriney attributes. He grows increasingly skeptical after seeing Eden and its coordinates in one of Laura's X-Men comic books, and Xavier ends up having another seizure after not taking his pills as instructed.  The Reavers track them down, but Xavier's seizure freezes everyone at the hotel in place, allowing Logan and Laura to take some of them off the board.

In scenes like this, Logan makes the most of its R rating, with Logan and Laura allowed to carve through bad guys like hot adamantium knives through butter.  The violence shown is brutal and powerful, as Wolverine is finally allowed to be depicted the way he always should have been in his solo films.  Jackman is more than up for the chance to cut loose at long last, but pint-sized Dafne Keen pretty much matches him step for step...and bloody cut for cut.

While the group takes refuge in a family's home, Xavier is mortally wounded by X-24, a Transigen clone of Logan in his prime, and ends up dying rather unceremoniously in the back of a pickup truck.  After Logan fights off X-24 so he and Laura can escape once again, he buries Xavier near the first lake he can find, and is soon forced to allow Laura to drive them the rest of the way to Eden.  He wakes up to find that Eden is a sanctuary run by the mutant Rictor and other young survivors of Transigen's breeding program.  

Once again, The Third Act proves a little troublesome for Mangold, but thankfully, nowhere near the level of The Wolverine.  The kids plan to make an eight-mile trek through the forest to the Canadian border, but of course, Pierce and the Reavers show up and capture them. Logan juices up on a serum to restore his strength and healing, which he uses to take out most of the Reavers in another brutal sequence.  The serum's effects wear off quickly, however, and the surviving Reavers bring him before Zander Rice, the head of Transigen. Rice reveals he was the one who engineered the virus that wiped out most of the mutants as revenge for Logan killing his father during his escape from the Weapon X program back in the day.  

Things gets a bit muddled, as Logan kills Rice and fights X-24 again, while Laura and the kids kill the remaining Reavers and take out Pierce.  Logan is fatally wounded by X-24, but Laura shoots him in the head with an adamantium bullet that Logan originally intended to use on himself.  Logan dies in Laura's arms, finally realizing what he really wanted was to be loved by family.  After burying Logan near a lake (apparently, lakes are necessary to bury someone), Laura turns his cross over so that it becomes an X, marking his passing as the last X-Man.  Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" sends us off, with no post-credits scene to reveal some silly twist that Logan isn't really dead.  The End.

Okay, time for some random thoughts about the various Logan characters:

WOLVERINE/JAMES "LOGAN" HOWLETT -- In his final (presumably) outing as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman gives his strongest performance yet.  He throws himself into his role as an older Logan, making him vulnerable and a far cry from the short-tempered X-Man in black leather we first met in 2000.  Jackman seems determined to give his favorite character the sendoff he deserves, which makes Wolverine's last ride even more powerful.

PROFESSOR X/CHARLES XAVIER -- Patrick Stewart, who may or may not be done with his character as well, reminds us once again of why he deserves to have the title "Sir" attached to his name.  As a senile Xavier in his '90s, Stewart is heartbreaking to watch as a feeble Professor X, but he still comes off as the dreamer he's always been while trying to convince Logan that Laura is an example of hope.

X-23/LAURA KINNEY -- Dafne Keen, holy shit, this kid.  Generally, you don't expect too much from child actors, apart from hoping they can at least delivery their lines well, so it's a welcome sight when those expectations are exceeded.  Keen's character Laura spends the first half of the film mostly scowling and raging, quite well in fact, until she suddenly turns into a Spanish-speaking motormouth that quickly shuts Logan down.  It's literally a killer performance, and makes Keen someone definitely to watch in future films.

DONALD PIERCE -- As the cyborg leader of the Reavers, Boyd Holbrook's Pierce with a Kentucky drawl is a big change from the aristocratic Hellfire Club member from the comics, but far more memorable.  He injects what could've been an unremarkable role with a true sense of menace, at least until his final scenes where he suddenly becomes someone the Transigen kids can gang up on and take out far too easily.

CALIBAN -- If you remember Tómas Lemarquis as Caliban in X-Men: Apocalypse (be honest, of course you don't remember him), you'll find Stephen Merchant's version much more interesting.  As an albino mutant allergic to sunlight, Caliban has a rather obviously vulnerability that Pierce easily exploits, but it's terrific to watch Merchant play Caliban as the snarky Alfred Pennyworth to Jackman's Batman.

ZANDER RICE -- After a brief flashback scene early in the film, Richard E. Grant doesn't turn up until the end of the film to explain why all the Transigen stuff went down.  With the motive simply being Rice wanting revenge for Wolverine killing his father, it feels almost merciful to the audience that Logan quickly shoots him in the head and moves on.

All in all, Logan is the Wolverine film we've always wanted.  Even better, it's the X-Men film we've always wanted.  It's been a long road since the first X-Men film in 2000, with a lot of ups and downs, but Logan raises the bar for superhero films to become something more than popcorn flicks that critics look down at with their snobbish noses.  To put it simply, this is Marvel's Dark Knight, another game changer that shouldn't be dismissed or easily overlooked come award season.

And for those who may be wondering, here's the updated list of my Top 20 Comic Book Films:

1. Superman (1978)
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. The Avengers (2012)

4. Batman Begins (2005)
5. Logan (2017)

6. Captain America: Civil War (2016)

7. Man of Steel (2013)

8. Doctor Strange (2016)

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

10. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
11. Spider-Man (2002)
12. Iron Man (2008)

13. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
14. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
15. Watchmen (2009)
16. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
17. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

18. X-Men: First Class (2011)
19. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

20. Deadpool (2016)