Julian, Daniel and Jeremy are back to discuss the latest in geek news. The most pressing stories being the firing of Colin Trevorrow from Star Wars Episode IX and his immediate replacement by JJ Abrams, the results from this years Emmy Awards and Batman: The Animated Series celebrating it's 25th anniversary. The guys also discuss the Star Trek: Discovery premiere, Linda Hamilton's return to the Terminator franchise, the latest on True Detective season 3 and much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

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Show Notes

Trailers

Tomb Raider
Marvel’s The Punisher
Star Wars Rebels final season

Miscellaneous News

Toys "R" Us has filed for bankruptcy protection. A sad day for toy lovers everywhere. Check out Julian's blog post discussing what might have gone wrong and where the toy market might go from here.
- http://towerofbabblepodcast.com/blog/2017/9/20/what-happened-to-toys-r-us

Movies

Director Colin Trevorrow was fired from Star Wars Episode IX to be replaced by JJ Abrams
Thor Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is now in talks to helm the live action remake of Akira.
Warner Brothers has now clarified the credits on Justice League. Joss Whedon will receive a writing credit and Zack Snyder will get the sole directing credit.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it looks like Warner Brothers is trying to use producer Martin Scorsese to lure Leonardo Decaprio into the role of the Joker.
Linda Hamilton will reprise her role as Sarah Connor for the next Terminator movie.
The bid for the distribution rights to James Bond has gotten a bit more complicated. Apple and Amazon have joined in along with Sony, Warner Brothers, Fox and Universal who were already heavily involved.

69th Emmy Awards

The big news out of this years Emmys was how well Handmaid's Tale performed. The Hulu original drama took home several major awards, most notably Best Drama Series and Elisabeth Moss for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
Other notable winners included Donald Glover who took home awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Director for Comedy Series and Aziz Ansari for Best Writing for a Comedy Series.
See all the winners here: https://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2017

Prediction Results:

Who We Want to Win:

Julian: 2 points (Best Drama Series and Best Actress in a Drama Series)
Daniel: 0 points
Jeremy: 0 points

Who Will Win

Julian: 1 point (Best Actress in a Drama Series)
Daniel: 1 point (Best Comedy Series)
Jeremy: 0 points

TV

Star Trek Discovery premiere
Batman: The Animated Series celebrated its 25th anniversary
BoJack Horseman has officially been renewed by Netflix for a 5th season.
According to the marketing-analytics firm Jumpshot, Marvel’s The Defenders had less Stin the first 30 days than ANY of the other Netflix Marvel series.
Damon Lindelof has officially been given the green light by HBO to produce a pilot for his Watchmen project.
More information on True Detective Season 3
- Will take place over 3 different time periods and will be set in Northwestern Arkansas
- Jeremy Saulnier has been confirmed as a director for the season, along with series creator Nic Pizzolatto.
According to HBO’s President of Programming Casey Bloys it looks like Game of Thrones will be filming multiple endings to the final season to throw off leakers

What We've Been Watching

BoJack Horseman Season 4
Rick and Morty Season 3
HBO’s The Deuce
Batman and Harley Quinn

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 102 - Handmaid's Emmy