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

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.

May 2, 2025

SSSW - Andor S2 E4 - 6

I'm sorry to tell you all, but we're already halfway through this final season of 'Andor'. Fortunately, the quality hasn't dipped one bit as we accelerate into the finish. Join Julian and Rachel as they savour every minute of this 3-episode arch that takes us to Ghorman for the first time on screen. Tony Gilroy and the team at Lucasfilm outdid themselves yet again in crafting every detail. The size of the set alone is impressive, but they take it a step further by developing a unique culture and even language different from anything we've seen in Star Wars before. It all fits seamlessly into this next chapter of the story that has a heavy emphasis on spycraft as the pressure ramps up for both the Rebellion and the Empire.

Apr 24, 2025

SSSW - Andor S2 Premiere

It's been a long time since Cassian Andor and his band of Rebel compatriots has graced our TV screens. A long hiatus, no doubt, but when you look into WHY this second season took so long the reason becomes clear - they were dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" (along with dealing with the writers and actors strikes, growing and harvesting ancient grains, hand stitching wedding dresses, the list goes on...) to make sure that this isn't just good Star Wars, but indeed the maybe the BEST Star Wars (I'm partially convinced that it may be the best we may ever get actually). Season 2 roars to life in it's first of four, 3-episode drops (essentially a movie a week for a month), not wasting any time picking up with our characters a year after the events of season 1. The sheer scale, scope, and commitment to its heavy themes is laudable, but when combined with the masterful set design, costuming, writing, and acting, you can't help but to stare, mouth agape, at this singular piece bold storytelling, that will likely go down as Tony Gilroy's largest contribution to popular culture, and deservedly so. Join Julian and Rachel as they unpack it all. It's going to be one hell of a ride!

Apr 2, 2025

Bonus Episode - ToB Film Club - Constantine (2005) + Special Announcement

Hard to believe that 'Constantine' came out 20 years ago. That being said, as the movie tells us, time stops when you're dead, so what IS 20 years anyway? And as long as we're asking questions, the biggest one related to this movie is "why was it a flop?". Julian and Jeremy try to answer that very question, as well as unpack this extremely dense film that makes no effort to hold the audience's hand. And despite some rocky elements, 'Constantine' holds up as a surprisingly comic accurate rendition of the titular character, even if we weren't aware of it when it first released. Keanu, despite missing some of the obvious character flourishes like the blond hair and a British accent, is still able to capture the essence of the character: an extremely talented magician/occultist, with tortured soul (literally), who's a bit of a dick, and loves a good smoke. All in all, it's a pretty fun ride, and an example of movies that just aren't really made anymore (despite rumours of a sequel) from a different era of Hollywood and comic book movie making.

Episode 96 - Injustice 2