It's been hot minute since the ToB Crew gathered to discuss the latest in film and TV news, but it’s been worth the wait because there are some gigantuan stories that need to be covered, and some of them will have lasting effects for years to come. Firstly, AT&T is done with WarnerMedia, who will be merging with Discovery to become an even bigger player in the streaming wars. Speaking of streaming, Amazon is making their own moves in that space as they look to acquire MGM. On the more creative side of things, news of a new Batman animated series made waves with the announcement that animation legend Bruce Timm would be executive producing. Plus Marvel dropped a sizzle reel and a trailer for Shang Chi. So there's plenty to cover! Join Julian, Jeremy and Dan as they discuss all these stories, plus much more, on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

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Show Notes

Movies

NBC News - AT&T announced that WarnerMedia and Discovery are merging to become a new company.
Variety - Amazon is weeks into negotiations on a deal to acquire MGM for about $9 billion.
WB is looking to develop a black Superman movie. Barry Jenkins, Steven Caple Jr, JD Dillard, Regina King, and Shaka King are all being considered to direct.
Lucy Liu has been cast as the villain Kalypso in ‘Shazam: Fury of the Gods’
‘Kong Skull Island’ director, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, is teaming up with the studio from ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ to make a live action ‘Gundam’ movie.
John Williams revealed that he recorded 226 minutes of music for ‘Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker’.
Mads Mikkelsen joins the cast of ‘Indiana Jones 5’
Trailers:
- Snake Eyes
- The Green Knight

Marvel

Marvel sizzle reel
- Shang Chi - September 2021
- Black Widow - July 9
- Wakanda Forever - July 8, 2022
- The Marvels - November 11, 2022
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Feb 17, 2023
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 - May 5 2023
- Fantastic Four tease… again
Captain America 4
Russel Crow to play Zeus in Thor Love and Thunder
Olivia Colman and Emilia Clarke cast in ‘Secret Invasion’
Venom 2

Agree of DIsagree

IGN - Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke said that the reason they paid so much for Lord of the Rings was that it was mostly due to the madness of the market. Noting that Netflix paid $469 for two sequels to Knives Out.

But she also revealed Amazon's lofty expectations for the forthcoming prequel. "As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen," Salke said.

TV

Variety - A new Batman animated series has been ordered at HBO Max and Cartoon Network, with “Batman: The Animated Series” co-creator Bruce Timm attached as an executive producer, called ’Batman: Caped Crusader’. It will be executive produced by Timm along with J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves.
CBS News - NBC will not televise the Golden Globes in 2022.
The Amazon original animated series ‘Invincible’ has been renewed for 2 more seasons.
‘Ted Lasso’ season 2 is coming July 23 to Apple TV+.

Comics/Misc

Kathryn Hahn and Dave Bautista have been cast in Knives Out 2.
Margot Robbie has apparently been “pestering” WB to bring Poison Ivy into the DCEU.
Rambo and John Mclain have been added as operators/skins in CoD Warzone.
The date for Loki has changed to June 9th and will air on Wednesday’s.
Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige revealed that they originally had Dr Strange appear in the finale to ‘WandaVision’ but the character was written out to better serve the show.
Taika Waititi will play Blackbeard in a comedy pirate show for HBO Max called ‘Our Flag Means Death’.
Knuckles is confirmed for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’
Disney reveals their “real” lightsaber.
The Oscars hit a record low in viewership. Down 58% from last year.

What We’ve Been Watching/Playing

The Oceans series
The Bad Batch
Love Death and Robots S2
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Resident Evil 4 VR

Nov 28, 2025

Bonus Episode - ToB Film Club - Dark City (1998)

The term often used to describe the 1998 Alex Proyas film, 'Dark City' is "Proto-Matrix" given the many similarities between the two movies. Fair or not, they do have a lot in common but I think the comparison does a disservice to what is still a very clever and well made genre-film that largely holds up today (minus some questionable early CG effects). The 4K re-release gives it a fresh coat of paint, looking extremely sharp on modern televisions, accentuating the mostly dark and moody imagery of this sci-fi film noir, and given it's title this is all very fitting. Alex Proyas has some bid ideas here; what is the human soul? Are we the sum of our memories? Can memories be distilled into chemistry? Is love transcendent? Many of these themes are explored with depth, with answers to many of the films mysteries being laid bare in mostly satisfying way. Performances are strong, with everyone seemingly understanding the assignment, though there isn't much for the female characters to do here. Which is unfortunate as what we do get from Jennifer Connelly is intriguing, if lacking depth. On the whole, despite being pretty weird, this is still a very fun movie, if a bit silly at times, that was unfortunately overshadowed by the phenomenon that was 'The Matrix' dropping the following year.

Nov 17, 2025

Episode 201 - Bond Turmoil and Goldeneye Retrospective

Julian and Matt start getting into the swing of thigs as they tackle the latest in film and TV news, with the hot story being about the turmoil surrounding the new Bond film. Fortunately, 'Goldeneye' turns 30, providing a positive 007 topic to dig into in an effort to balance things out. A new 'The Mummy' starring Brendan Fraser is in the works with Rachel Weis also set to return. To Matt's chagrin, more 'Jurassic World' is on the way as well with the 5th film in the franchise in development with Gareth Edwards looking to return to direct (say what you will but 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' was pretty fun). Lastly, the guys dive into what they've been watching, including 'Predator: Badlands', 'One Battle After Another', 'Pluribus' and for some reason, 'Dexter'. All that and so much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

Oct 19, 2025

Bonus Episode - ToB Film Club - Kingpin (1996)

Before Matt officially joined the show as a co-host he was invited on as guest to talk about one of his favourite movies of all time, ‘Swingers’. Now returning in an official capacity to the ToB Film Club, he brings with him another film from his top-3, another comedy, ‘Kingpin’. A Farrelly brothers film that followed up their smash hit breakout, ‘Dumb and Dumber’, and you can see the through lines. Like ‘Dumb and Dumber’ we follow two guys who are down on their luck as they head out on the road where chaos and hilarity ensue. Unfortunately it wasn’t the hit they hoped despite a killer cast, including legends Bill Murray, Randy Quaid and Woody Harrelson and as a result it didn't leave as large of a cultural footprint as some of the other Farrelly brothers films from this era. It's been nearly 30 years so now seems as good a time as any to revisit this sleeper and see what everyone was missing back then.

Oct 9, 2025

Episode 200 - Meet Matt!

After an extended hiatus, ToB returns with a fresh voice on the second chair. Julian is joined by long-time friend of the show, Matt Tworek. We spend this first episode of the "new" ToB getting to know him and setting up what else is to come.

Episode 165 - Tectonic Shifts in Streaming