It's just Julian and Daniel in the Tower this week as they discuss the latest in geek news. As seems to be the new norm, a few major trailers dropped since the last episode and are always worth discussing. Including Bladerunner 2049, Star Trek: Discovery and much more. In movie news, Sony surprised everyone by revealing that Tom Hardy has been cast as Eddie Brock in their standalone Venom movie, plus rumours swirl about who might take over as director of the much maligned Flash picture. On the TV side of things, it was a pretty big week, with most of the major networks announcing their fall lineups for their returning shows and some exciting news about some entirely new series. In the gaming world, Dan reviews Injustice 2, the second instalment of the DC themed fighter from the creators of Mortal Kombat. To wrap things up the guys briefly review "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2" and Julian praises the brilliance of "Handmaids Tale". All this and so much more in this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

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Show Notes

Trailers

Blade Runner 2049
Star Trek: Discovery
Destiny 2
The Gifted

Movies

According to Variety, Robert Zemeckis, Matthew Vaughn and Sam Raimi are up to helm the much maligned Flash film.
Aquaman director James Wan shows off a new image of Amber Heard as Mira from the set.
Early buzz from critics who’ve seen Wonder Woman have hit the twittersphere and so far the reactions are very positive.
The great Wonder Woman DC animated movie is getting a commemorative edition Blu Ray.
Tom Hardy cast as Eddie Brock/Venom in Sony’s standalone Venom movie and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) is set to direct.
The New Mutants movie will feature Game of Thrones actress Massie Williams as Wolfsbane.
Logan director James Mangold has apparently had conversations with Fox about the potential return of Daphne Keen to future X-Men movies. Basically saying that he and them are both open to it after such an amazing job she did.
Hellboy is getting a reboot with a new director. According to comic creator Mike Mignola the reboot will be rated R and will be directed by Neil Marshall and star David Harbour (Stranger Things).
Suicide Squad director David Ayer is apparently in talks to direct a Scarface remake/reboot/reimagining.
Edge of Tomorrow is officially getting a sequel with Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt and director Doug Liman all returning. The sequel is called “Live Die Repeat and Repeat”.

TV

FXX has ordered a, as of yet untitled, Deadpool “adult action-comedy” animated series that aims to air in 2018. It’s first season would be 10 episodes and is executive produced by Donald Glover and Stephen Glover who will also be the showrunners.
All The CW’s DC shows wrap up this week and along with that the CW has also released it’s 2017-2018 schedule that shakes things up a bit. Arrow is moving to 9 pm ET on Thursday nights. Next season will see Supergirl stay on Mondays, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow back to back on Tuesdays and Riverdale on Wednesdays.
CW also gave us our first look at their new Black Lightning show that will air mid season with it’s first trailer. The show won’t be a part of the DCW universe.
ABC has announced that Marvel’s Inhumans will premier on Friday nights at 9 pm ET this fall for 8 episodes. Once Inhumans is wrapped up, Agents of SHIELD will take its place on Friday nights returning for it’s 5th season and full 22 episode run.
The Superman prequel show "Krypton" has been ordered to series by Syfy.
Fox announced that Gotham will return for a 4th season and is moving to Thursdays at 8 pm ET.
Fox also announced that their new Bryan Singer X-Men spinoff “The Gifted” will air Mondays at 9 pm ET.
Starz has picked up American Gods for a second season.
Judge Dredd is getting a tv series. In the works at IM Global Television, the series will be called "Judge Dredd: Mega-City One” and is still super early in development.
For those who have been watching 12 Monkeys on Syfy, the entirety of season 3 aired over 3 consecutive nights this past weekend.
Netflix is developing a Witcher series with the help of the author Andrzej Sapkowski, the man who created “The Witcher” but doesn’t profit from the games. The series will be based off a series of books called “The Witcher Saga”.
Netflix announced that Arrested Development season 5 will officially be coming sometime in 2018 and will feature the entire cast and creator Mitchell Hurwitz.

Games

Injustice 2 review
EA is putting the Mass Effect series “on-hold” and transitioning Bioware Montreal, the team behind Mass Effect: Andromeda, into a “support studio", whose sole role is to help other EA teams on their projects.
We got some big Destiny news along with a cinematic trailer AND a gameplay trailer.
Ubisoft revealed it’s plans for their next fiscal year. At their year end earnings call they announced that Assassin's Creed, Farcry and the Crew would all be making a return within a year from now.
- After seemingly never ending delays, they also announced that South Park: Fractured But Whole has a new release date: Oct 17 for PS4, XBONE and PC.
The Switch was the best selling console in the US in April according to the NPD group
The exact number is close to 280,000 units for the calendar month and is the second month in a row that the Switch has taken top spot in sales.
- Mario Kart 8 Delux was also the best selling game of the month, which is saying something because only it’s first 2 days on sale qualified for the April numbers.

Comics

The four issue mini series "The Button" has concluded. The final issue Reintroduces Jay Garrick into canon and teased more Watchmen stuff to come in November with “Doomsday Clock”.
- “Doomsday Clock” will be completely standalone with no tie-ins and is being written by Geoff Johns.

What We've Been Watching/Playing

Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
Handmaid's Tale
Twin Peaks
Penny Dreadful S3
American Gods

Jun 5, 2025

SSSW - Tales of the Underworld

Lucasfilm Animation has been hard at work on their next major project, 'Maul: Shadow Lord', but they've found the time to deliver another installment in their "Tales of" anthology series. The first ones covering the Jedi and the Empire, they now turn their focus towards the Underworld. However, be warned, this is a bit of a misnomer. Don't expect any crime syndicates or really any large scale criminality here. These 2 mini-arcs instead focus on Asajj Ventress (I know, not the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the Underworld) as she assists a young Jedi on the run from the Empire, and the origin story of Cad Bane. Which admittedly is closer in line with the criminal underworld concept, but is really more interested in telling a western style revenge story instead. All in all, despite the always great visuals and sound/music design, and few interesting ideas, there's not enough meat on the bone here to satisfy most viewers. But most disappointing is its failure to capitalize on the potential of the Underworld concept.

May 22, 2025

SSSW/ToB Film Club - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It's hard to believe that 'Rogue One' premiered nearly a decade ago. At the time, it was fairly well received, considered to be a decent first step into the standalone Star Wars movies, if not a bit messy. As the years passed, we learned more about the production. Gareth Edwards, who retained sole directing credit, was assisted by Tony Gilroy to "fix" the project. Tony went so far as to call it a "corpse" when he came aboard for rewrites and reshoots. It was Tony's inclusion that brought us some of the movies most memorable moments, and ultimately led him to leading the charge on 'Andor', a prequel project that flew under the radar as hits like 'The Mandalorian' hogged the spotlight. With 'Andor' now complete, considered by many to be a masterpiece in storytelling, not just in Star Wars but on television in general, now is the most appropriate time to reexamine the movie that spawned the Cassian-centered prequel series with fresh eyes. 'Andor', which leads directly into the events of 'Rogue One' recontextualizes much of the film, creating a unique viewing experience that pays off a multitude of threads that are brilliantly laid over the two seasons of 'Andor'. It takes the movie, which was already pretty good, and makes it great. Now existing as part of a whole that weaves a cohesive narrative from the nascent moments of the Rebellion all the way through to the destruction of the Death Star in 1977 (the seed that begat ALL Star Wars, and what we appropriately align our Star Wars BBY calendars to). It all feels wholistic and considered when viewed from the broader perspective - an accomplishment that should set a shining example of what Star Wars can and should aspire to.

May 15, 2025

SSSW - Andor S2 Finale

After only 4 weeks - the blink of an eye - it's all over. The best Star Wars story since the Original Trilogy has graced our screens and left us in awe. These final three episodes weren't able to reach the emotional highs of last week's arc, but that wasn't the goal. Instead, it provides time to look back at what brought us here, and sets the stage for the climax of the story to take place not in this moment, but within the now recontextualized film that birthed all of this in the first place, 'Rogue One'. And while the show may carry Cassian's name on the title screen, it's been the cast of characters we've met along the way that truly elevated this experience. Not to pick favourites, but in particular, Luthen and Kleya, who get an episode all to themselves this week are the standouts. And what an episode it was, as their story which shepherded much of the series came to an end, as we all expected it would have to. Embracing those feelings of closure, in the final moments of the series, as Cassian flies off into 'Rogue One', we are treated to our last glimpses of our heroes and villains. From Dedra to Vel and even Perrin, we are left to consider their fates as the story marches with inevitability into what begat all of this way back in 1977. Will we ever see Kleya, Vel, Wilmon, or Bix again? One can only hope - and rebellions? Well, they're built on hope.

May 9, 2025

SSSW - Andor S2 E7 - 9

When dealing in the world of prequels, it’s impossible to escape the inevitable - Anakin will fall, Han will win the Falcon, Cassian will die on Scarif. Somehow, in the midst of some of the most thrilling episodes of television ever put to screen, Tony Gilroy and his team found a way to address that impending doom and weaponize it against the audience to induce some of the most gut wrenching and heart breaking moments we’ve yet to see on ‘Andor’ - “There’s some place he needs to be”. At a larger scale, the show continues to outdo itself on a weekly basis, proving that the Star Wars galaxy provides a colour pallet of some of the richest hues from which to paint bold and personal stories. Proving you can go beyond the larger than life stories of heroics and grandeur to human stories of loss and pain and everything in between. That’s without mentioning the deft touch in pulling in themes that resonates with the contemporary while remaining timeless - a feeling that is a staple of Star Wars. Every detail is considered, every character is deep and interesting. There isn’t much more that can be said about such a powerful piece of art, except that not even the audience can escape the inevitable - only one week remains of this masterpiece.

Episode 96 - Injustice 2