Links and Updates

Not a lot at the moment, but the 2022 season of television is kicking off and there’s plenty to look forward to: Inventing Anna, The Gilded Age, Pam and Tommy, Death Comes As The End, Vikings: Valhalla, The Dropout, Our Flag Means Death, Gaslit... not to mention the next lot of offerings from Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Marvel, which I’ll probably sit out but absorb through cultural osmosis regardless.

I haven’t been watching The Book of Boba Fett but I have been keeping an eye on the commentary that surrounds it and... oof. I don’t want to be a dickhead about it (well, not much of a dickhead) but it hasn’t exactly been met with rapturous applause, and is yet another example of how giving fandom what they THINK they want never ends well. Clearly no one learnt anything from The Rise of Skywalker.

Even before all the prequels and sequels and television shows, I never understood the appeal of Boba Fett. Watching as a child, I don’t think I even really discerned his existence. Ages ago I had someone explain it to me: Boba Fett had a cool aesthetic, talked back to Vader, and successfully got away with Han Solo in carbonite. He was a minor character who essentially “won” the movie. Yeah... I still don’t get it.

So when there was news of a Boba Fett movie, later changed to a limited series, I rolled my eyes. It was the worst kind of fan service, based on a character that most people don’t seem to realize is profoundly uninteresting.

Guys, when a character’s main appeal is cool armour and a sense of mystery, you really don’t have anything to work with – especially considering that basing a show on this guy will inevitably remove his sense of mystery. (And when you’ve already got another whole show revolving around an original character in that iconic armour, you’ve lost both your selling points).

It’s almost funny really, that Disney decided to go all-in on this character without grasping the paradox at the heart of his popularity: the less we see of him, the more enticing he is. Taking him from a ruthless bounty hunter to a crime lord with integrity and a desire to “rule with respect” is another baffling creative decision... wouldn’t his fans want to see more of him doing what he does best? And isn’t everyone sick of Tatooine by now??

Basically, the whole thing is Disney’s Star Wars in a nutshell. Letting fans run the show without grasping what they actually want. That the last two episodes have apparently been the first two episodes of The Mandalorian’s season three has just been the cherry on top (though hey, maybe they’ll pull it all together for the season finale).

I did however watch the clips of Ahsoka Tano interacting with deepfake Luke Skywalker and I have to admit... I felt a little something. Pity we don’t actually see them meeting or discussing anything of importance, and it’s unclear how Ahsoka even knew Luke existed... but here we are. It’s official: Ahsoka knows that Anakin had children and has met at least one of them.

Still, it inspired me to make this:

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I follow exactly two actresses through their careers, and Angel Coulby has two interesting projects on the horizon. One, I will sadly never get to see as it’s a stage-show called The Forest at Hampstead Theatre...

...but the other is a limited drama series called Suspicion, which looks pretty good (it might be a small role, but she’s all over the trailer):

Speaking of trailers, the final season of Killing Eve is on its way.

I think it’s safe to say the show lost itself a bit in seasons two and three without ever becoming unwatchable, but at the same time it’s never lived up to the heights of that first incredible season. We’re on our fourth showrunner after Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emerald Fennell and Suzanne Heathcote, so hopefully Laura Neal can steer the ship towards a decent ending. (That doesn’t necessarily mean a happy one).

I’m also looking forward to Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie, exotic local/time period, stacked cast – what’s not to like?) though the careful editing to remove Armie Hammer from the trailer is something to behold. I think the best thing for them to do is just hold their nose and release the film as-is – he’s pretty much over now, and I was never quite sure why Hollywood was so desperate to make him a thing in the first place.

It could also end up being one of the last times we see Letitia Wright (Black Panther 2 aside) if all those anti-vax rumours are true. Why are so many up-and-comers so desperate to sabotage their own careers?

Casting for the second season of Shadow and Bone has been announced and the general response has been overwhelming enthusiasm for Jack Wolfe as Wylan, ambivalence on Patrick Gibson as Nikolai, and polite nonchalance for Anna Leong Brophy and Lewis Tan as Tamar and Tolya respectively (to be fair, they’re not hugely interesting characters).

It’s an understandable reaction. Wylan captures that “cute little twink” vibe that fandom always goes apeshit over, which means there’s a chance for controversy when it comes to his canon characterization, which is far from the naïve and innocent child-like persona they’ve affixed to him, and Gibson looks like he can capture Nikolai’s glib snark but not his wry cunning.

To be blunt, he’s got quite a baby-face, when Nikolai should look sharper and slyer, like the fox he’s so often compared to in the text (or perhaps I just had my heart set on Wade Briggs). As for Tamar and Tolya, I’m always down for a girl with daggers, and Lewis Tan is surely one of the most handsome men I’ve ever seen in my life, so no complaints there. Time will tell.

We’ve got a TON of posters for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings (which should really be called The Silmarillion) and I have to admit – I’m intrigued. I’m not 100% sure what age this series is going to take place in, but these images certainly suggest that it’s going to cover a wide breadth of cultures and geography. We got elves in there, and a Rohan-esque sword, what looks like a Ringwraith, a few hobbitish hands, some interesting scrolls... having watched The Fellowship of the Ring so recently, my enthusiasm is piqued.

Netflix has put out a trailer for its upcoming 2022 movies and is anyone else incredibly impressed that they’ve got various actors breaking the fourth wall in what looks like the middle of shooting? It suggests that they had the gist of this trailer planned out well in advance, and shot these scenes in the midst of each project’s production period. Talk about foresight!

Of most interest to me are the Enola Holmes clips, which comes complete with Millie Bobby Brown lampshading the fact that everyone is doing “my thing” now. Cute. But the released synopsis suggests they are following the plot of the second book The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, what with a mention of Enola trying to track down a missing girl. No doubt they’ll change plenty of stuff (as they did in the first movie) but I’m looking forward to seeing Lady Cecily Townsend!

I loved this exchange of ideas in the comments section of a Polygon article. Truly, it deserves a slow clap.

On that note, here are three tweets from James Gunn’s Twitter that encompass everything I hate about fan/creator interaction: a fan trying to request a scene (cringe), another fan trying to spin the response into a conspiracy theory (wince) and a creator shutting things down by dismissing a fan’s idea (ouch).

I’m more sympathetic to Gunn’s response than I am to the prior tweets, because MAN it would be annoying getting input from random strangers on the internet, but at the same time fans are allowed to have their ideas and opinions. Shutting them down like this is unnecessary.

For the umpteenth time, I’m begging writers and creators of all stripes to get off social media. Nothing good can come of this.