Links and Updates

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED since my last Links and Updates post. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get into it...

First of all, we are on the brink of The Wheel of Time season three premiere and I am pumped. While watching the second season, I was continually surprised at how involved and invested I was becoming, which is a worry since there are about ten million books and a fourth season hasn’t been commissioned yet. Why do I get my hopes up when I’ve been burned so, so many times in the past?

Along with a new trailer, Prime released the opening eleven minutes of the third season’s first episode, and I’m blown away all over again by the sheer number of women in this thing. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Not only that, but the way Alanna’s warders approach her in the hallway, having not just been waiting for her, but clearly ready to take her direction on how to proceed. I’m so fascinated by their brief interaction – the way they peel themselves off the wall, their deferential body language with her, the quiet hand touch between the men… I’ve honestly watched this clip about a dozen times. Not since Xena strolled into a tavern like she owned the place have I seen such a subtle yet pronounced gender role-reversal.

After so long a wait, we finally have the Andor trailer! Damn, I’m looking forward to this one! I’ve no idea why it took so long to drop, and (like many others) I find the song choice a little questionable, but this is by far the best thing to come out of Disney-owned Star Wars and you can just tell it’s going to be good:

People seem to be mostly excited about the large crowds gathered in the stadium-like structure, as the theory is that this is the lead-up to the Ghorman Massacre, an incident that has been part of Star Wars canon since the very early days of the franchise, and a pivotal moment in the founding of the Alliance.

Krennic and K2S0 are back as promised, and it looks as though Mon Mothma really is going to go through with marrying off her daughter to that mobster’s son (but also that celebrations are interrupted at some point). I have to say, it all looks a little more slick than I’d expected, especially after the more moody and ambiguous trailer for the first season, but bring it on.

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Sarah Michelle Gellar has become the latest actress to hitch herself to a legacyquel, returning of course to the show that made her a household name: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I am hopeful, but also deeply ambivalent about the whole thing. There’s certainly a lot of potential for a catchup with the forty-something year old Buffy, and I’d love to know what she’s been up to since the show closed on her smiling face at the end of “Chosen.” (Yes, I know there are comics and novelizations, but I’m never quite sure if I accept them as canon).

Since the end of the show concluded with Buffy activating every potential Slayer in the world, the continuation has automatically been handed a strong basis for a standalone story. All these years later, I imagine that Giles, Xander, Willow and Buffy have reestablished the Watchers’ Council as something more positive (and less patriarchal) to help the multitude of superpowered girls in their midst. And what if Buffy has to come out of semi-retirement in order to help these girls with a threat they can’t handle on their own?

However, I felt a deep sense of weariness on reading Sarah’s comments on the subject and her assertion that she’ll be doing it: “for the fans.” NEVER do things for the fans. Fans are awful! And yes, I do realize that it’s probably just a generic comment, but she does realize that the “fans” would demand this entire project revolve around Spike, right?  

Is it too much to ask that the Buffy continuation be about Buffy, and not round #57484 of the turgid, repetitive, toxic Spike drama that sidelined every single other character on the show, including Buffy herself? I’m hoping that the twenty-year gap eliminates James Marsden and David Boreanaz from making a return appearance in whatever goes forward, since immortal vampires aren’t supposed to age.

And then of course, what felt like less than a week after this news was announced, we learned that Michelle Trachtenberg had died. This is horrific on several levels, not least the fact that she was only thirty-nine, but because of all the established characters that could potentially be involved in a Buffy revival, Dawn seemed the most likely to reappear. If they go forward with the project without her, will they address her passing? Surely not, as it would be far too depressing for Dawn to have died given everything Buffy went through to save her in season five. If it comes up, it’ll probably be to say she’s off at school somewhere.

But already there’s a component of whatever this legacyquel would or could have been that will now no longer exist.

As I’ve said frequently in my recaps (which I will get back to any day now) the show – for me – was first and foremost about the dynamic between Buffy and her inner circle of most trusted friends: Willow, Xander and Giles. And yes, I realize that Nicholas Brendon has had extremely serious health problems for the past few years, which puts his involvement in doubt as well.

But any deviation from having the core Scoobies as the focus of the show probably won’t spark much interest from me, unless we’re dealing with Buffy out on a mission of her own, maybe accompanied by a younger Slayer she’s providing mentorship to. Give us the old key dynamic or give us a brand-new one. Those are the options for me.

While we’re on the subject, I’ve never understood why nobody has realized that the best direction for this franchise is backwards. There have been thousands of Slayers across the centuries, and we learnt about virtually none of them across the course of the original show. Again, plenty of supplementary material has been published on the subject, but there’s so much potential here for some great stories.

How about an anthology series that focus on a Slayer in the Victorian Era, or Ancient Egypt, or medieval China? Maybe something structured like the Fear Street trilogy in which an underlying mystery gets solved across the course of several generations, with each Slayer unearthing different clues that assist the next girl in the line of succession? Something that explores the theme of the Slayer always being alone, which would provide a great contrast/compare with Buffy and how she insisted on a circle of friends to help her. Dang, the possibilities are endless.

Having said all that, the show hasn’t even been greenlit yet. If anything gets made, it’ll still be years away from release, and there’s no indication that anyone other than Sarah Michelle Gellar will be involved. For now, all we can do is wait.

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Speaking of beloved franchises about individuals with preternatural powers that are tasked with saving the world, we now have an announcement concerning a brand-new show set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Apparently called Seven Havens, it purports to be about the next Avatar, who will directly follow Korra in the cycle. We don’t know anything about this character beyond the fact they’ll be a female earthbender.

I’m excited that the protagonist will be a girl, but not just for the reason you think. Granted, it’s nice to have another female protagonist, but it also demonstrates that the Avatar cycle doesn’t adhere to a strict male/female/male/female sequence. Of course, we knew this already, as Aang primarily took guidance from his predecessor: Roku, another male.

But after that, stretching back as far as the audience has seen, it’s always been a male/female pattern (Yangchen, Kurik, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, Korra). Roku and Aang were obviously the anomaly in this sequence, and I remember a few commentators at the time being a little annoyed that the show went with the expected “older male mentors younger male,” when Roku could have just as easily been female.

But if the cycle didn’t change every now and then, we would be stuck in a holding pattern: two of the primary types of benders would always be male, and the other two would always be female. That’s how a two-in-four cycle naturally plays out. So at some point there would have to be a break in that pattern in order to feature male and female benders from each of the Four Nations.

Okay, now I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s discuss the synopsis, as it’s making people a bit nervous.

In a world shattered by a devastating cataclysm, a young earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra – but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its saviour. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.

There’s a lot to chew on here. The idea that people no longer look favourably on the Avatar as a result of something that Korra has done is a little concerning (likewise, the rumours that she died young) but at this early stage I’m willing to just sit back and see how it all plays out.

And there are plenty of things implied in this premise that I find interesting. It appears that the Avatar is a twin – does that mean her brother/sister will be a bender, or a non-bender? We’ve never heard of an Avatar with a sibling before, which means there could be some major sibling rivalry at work between the two of them. Or will this individual in fact be her greatest ally? If they’re identical, is there the opportunity for some twin-switching? Or since they’re “long-lost” siblings like Luke and Leia, will the crux of the story involve them having to learn to love and trust each other?

Also, we’ve moved past Korra’s era into something that sounds rather dystopian. I’m not sure how I feel about that, since surely we’ve had our fill of that particular genre, but hey – no judgment till it drops. Will there be modern technology? If Korra lived in a 1920s inspired era, will this one aim for the fifties or sixties?

And I like that there will apparently be a “spirit enemy” involved – could this mean Koh the Face Stealer will finally make a return appearance? After all, he did tell Aang: “we’ll meet again…”

Finally, because networks don’t commit to long-term storytelling anymore, it would appear we’re only getting 26 half-hour episodes spread across two seasons, which would make this the shortest Avatar show yet. Perhaps if it’s popular we’ll end up getting more – at the end of the day, I just want everything to be good, no matter how long or short.  Time to stop second-guessing and start looking forward to it.

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A while back I posted on news of a new Robin Hood television adaptation for MGM, which sounded promising in its brief pitch. Now we’ve got some official casting: Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham being the biggest name among them. Villains quite often set the tone, and I can see him being quite serious about the character (not like Keith Allan’s bombastic pantomime take in the BBC’s 2006 to 2009 version – which astoundingly, was the last time Robin Hood appeared on television).

Connie Nielson has just been announced as Eleanor of Aquitaine, which puts this back during the Third Crusade (or thereabouts). I suppose this period has entrenched itself in the legends now, though talk of the Norman/Saxon conflict in the original pitch suggested it was going to be pushed back in time, either to Harald Godwinson’s reign, or one of the Edwards (as per the oldest ballads).

In fact, the synopsis say the story is set: “following the Norman invasion of England,” with drama derived from the fact that Robin is a dispossessed Saxon and Marian a Norman noblewoman. Er, when exactly does this show think that invasion took place? Because the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine definitely followed the Norman invasion… by over a hundred years. To say she followed it is like saying a medieval castle is “pre-Dickensian” – technically true, but so far apart as to be virtually meaningless in establishing a time period.

(Sir Walter Scott has a lot to answer for in making pop-culture believe the Norman/Saxon divide was still a thing by King Richard’s reign). 

Steven Waddington has also been confirmed, which made me laugh since he absolutely cannot get out of this time period, having played Ivanhoe in 1997 and King Richard in the BBC’s Robin Hood – heck, I initially assumed he was going to reprise that role, but the cast sheet puts him as Marian’s father.

Lauren McQueen and Jack Patton are our Robin and Marian this time around, and not only have I never seen them in anything before, but they look impossibly young to me. (That’s no doubt because I’m an old now. I saw the trailer to Alien: Romulus and my first thought was: “why are all these children in space? Where are their parents?”) There’s also a much younger take on Tuck, and Mark Fraser as Little John suggests either colourblind casting, or that the character will be conflated with the Saracen figure, as they did in 2018’s Robin Hood. Will Scarlett is listed as well, but as yet no mention of Much or Allan-a-Dale.

There’s also someone called Priscilla playing the Sheriff’s daughter. Hmm. Certain names conjure certain vibes, and Priscilla often strikes me as something you’d call a snooty poodle in a cartoon, or a ditzy mean girl in a high school comedy. Much like Tiffany, it feels like a modern name, though it’s been around since Roman times, and is even mentioned in the Bible, so the show isn’t being anachronistic – it’s just an interesting name choice. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.

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Christopher Nolan has announced his cast for The Odyssey and released a picture of Matt Damon as Odysseus, which… okay? He’s not who I would have picked, but he did disappear into The Last Duel, so I won’t be too bothered by his presence (I’ve seen some complain that he’s got too modern a face).

To be honest, I’m more interested in the rest of the cast. Any guesses for who’ll be playing who? I have Zendaya pegged as Calypso. Charlize Theron will be Penelope or Circe, which is funny as they embody two very different archetypes, but I can see her as either one. Elliot Page intrigues me as well – god or mortal? Will he play a straightforwardly male character like Telemachus, no questions asked, or will they lean a little into a potential theme regarding mutability of gender, by casting him as Hermes for example?

On the whole, I feel like Nolan has gone with people he likes working with (since most of them have appeared in his previous films) than absolute perfect casting, as only Jon Bernthal look like he actually belongs in Ancient Greece… but then, The Odyssey isn’t exactly sacred territory for me. I’m not going to spend the next few years hyper-analysing all this.

Speaking of The Odyssey, I have good news of a deeply specific nature which will probably thrill no one but myself. It takes some context, so strap in. Years ago, at the height of Merlin’s popularity, a GIF-set did the rounds on Tumblr featuring Angel Coulby as Calypso. She looked fab, but this wasn’t a film or television show she featured in; it was the dramatized portions of a documentary about The Odyssey – and I couldn’t find it anywhere.

It was so obscure it didn’t even appear on her IMDB page. But during one of my online searches, I discovered something even more astonishing – that the documentary was one of several about the Greek heroes, and the one which dealt with Jason and the Argonauts had none other than Anjali Jay credited as Medea. Two of my favourite actresses, from the two genre shows that I was obsessed with at the time, in two Greek myth documentaries filmed concurrently by the BBC... I was now frantic to find them – and that was over ten years ago.

Then, while digging around our library catalogue just a couple of weeks ago… there they were, as part of our Access Video collection. I couldn’t believe it. I’m finally getting to see the two of them at the very beginning of their careers as two iconic mythological figures. Stay tuned for this INSANELY exciting turn of events that is of no importance or interest to anyone but me and me alone. Whoo!

Hopefully I can pair them with Euripides’s Medea, a recording of which is also available on my trusty library catalogue. I’ve been underestimating it all these years!

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The Sandman has been cancelled – even without the accusations levelled against Neil Gaiman, this seems inevitable. Things ending after two seasons is just par for the course for Netflix these days, though I question the showrunner’s assurance that this will bring the story to its natural end. I haven’t read all the Sandman comics, but I have seen them at work, and I know that there are dozens and dozens of them. The idea that the show isn’t ending prematurely is rather laughable.

More sad news comes with the announcement that the Princess Tiana-inspired show has stopped production – a new record of getting cancelled before it’s even begun. Now look, this sort of thing happens all the time (remember Cartoon Saloon’s Winnie the Pooh? The animated series about The Aristocats? Pixar’s Gigantic?) but that they so widely promoted it, only to pull the plug is rather bad form – especially for the studio’s only Black princess. What the heck went wrong? I would have though a show about Tiana juggling her restaurant in New Orleans and becoming a princess in Maldonia would have been a rich premise to work with.

We have a new Inspector Lynley on his way, starring Leo Suter. These days he’s best known as Harald from Vikings: Valhalla, but he’ll always be Hot Builder from Sanditon to me. Joining him is Sofia Barclay as Havers, as they obviously didn’t get the message that the character is meant to be short and rather slovenly. Ah well. I will diligently watch it anyway, though I’d be interested in knowing whether they’re going to adapt the books (again) or write their own mysteries.

5 Worlds, an excellent five-book graphic novel series for children, is apparently being developed for television. This is a no-brainer to me, as the books are beautiful in every respect: the worlds, the characters, the message, the artwork – it’s glorious, and you should immediately track them down no matter how old you are. The only thing preventing me from getting super-excited is naturally the fact that five seasons (for each of the five books) is too much to hope for. And this story NEEDS five seasons, as each book takes place on a different planet with a very specific culture, eco-system and goal to achieve.

And apparently Philip Reeve’s Goblins is in the pipeline to be adapted by Laika?! What? How did that announcement get past me? Big The Boxtroll vibes with that one, though the linked announcement was made over ten years ago, so pinch of salt and all.

I am super-late to the party for this one, but apparently there’s been some casting news for the HBO Harry Potter series. John Lithgow as Dumbledore? Cillian Murphy as Voldemort? The craziest thing is that I’m not all that interested in the casting; my astonishment is based on the fact that this is apparently LIVE-ACTION? The hell? I wasn’t planning on watching it anyway, but you’re telling me it’s not even going to be animated? The only thing that could have possibly justified its existence as a remake of a film series that ended barely a decade ago? They’re not going for a different medium that could better capture the mutability and magic of the wizarding world, but just another live action thing?

Bloody hell, what on earth is the point of that? (Money of course, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if no one cared? I mean, streaming services certainly don’t care, so I’ve no idea why they’re committing to this one. Expecting seven seasons of ANYTHING is downright ludicrous these days).

Who else is coming back? Shrek, of course. After the surprising success of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a return for Shrek was inevitable, and this teaser… is fine. I’ve seen people complain about the new designs (honestly can’t see any difference beyond darker shades of green skin) and the meta-nature of the magic mirror displaying internet memes (hate to remind you, but the Shrek franchise has always done this) and the fact that Zendaya is voicing Felicia (have no strong opinions on that one) which is an impressive amount of complaining for a ten second teaser.

Personally, I’m more interested in whether Puss in Boots (last seen sailing to Far Far Away) will be involved and where Shrek’s other two children are.

i09 just did a retrospective on the beauty of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Damn it, that cancellation is still a punch to the guts.

The creator of The Owl House has released a teaser trailer for her new show which looks very intriguing if nothing else. There’s not a lot to go on at the moment, but I hope it gets a chance to end on better terms than her previous show, whose conclusion had to be squished up into three long episodes. It’s a wonder writers even bother with new projects these days.

Some little trickles of information are coming out about Greta Gerwig’s take on The Chronicles of Narnia, particularly the rumour that she’s going to start with The Magician’s Nephew. I’m fine with this, despite the ongoing debates about the correct reading order of these books, since this title has never been adapted for the screen before. On that note, Daniel Craig is apparently in talks to sign up to the project. So... Frank the Cabby or Uncle Andrew? I can’t really see him as the spindly, poofy-haired Andrew of Pauline Haynes’ illustrations, but Frank seems like too small a role for an actor like him. As ever, we’re waiting and seeing...

The first image from the next Knives Out film, titled Wake Up Dead Man:

They’ve released some brand-new covers for Tamora Pierce’s Alanna: The Lioness books, which are incredible and make me wonder for the umpteenth time why the stories haven’t been adapted for television yet. Too expensive? Yet these covers demonstrate they would do great as an anime – just think of all those Stormwings and hurroks and spidrens done by the same people that did Moribito or Castlevania!

Speaking of new covers, these have been out for a while, but I love the new Artemis Fowl covers as well:

And The Dark is Rising ones (Greenwitch is particularly stunning):

And Alan Garner’s collection:

Dang, they’re all so gorgeous. We’ve reached the peak of re-publication cover art.

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Wolf King looks like a hilarious mashup of Brave, Game of Thrones and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and so I may well watch it at some point (though I no longer have Netflix, so we’ll see). I’ve never even heard of the books on which it’s based (and I’m a librarian!) so I’m rather stunned that it’s getting the adaptation treatment before Wings of Fire or those Erin Hunter Warriors books.

The name Belle Gibson may not be known to anyone outside of Australia and New Zealand, but I well remember the explosive fallout when the influencer and health-food guru who claimed to have cancer was exposed as a fraud. It’s actually a very grim tale, given that the woman in question obviously has very serious mental problems and that she was shilling a load of bollocks to truly desperate people facing serious illness. It doesn’t help that the real Belle Gibson is probably thrilled that a whole miniseries has been made about her.

(It’s tempting to contrast her to Tania Head, the woman who claimed to have been in one of the twin towers on 9/11 in what turned out to be a completely fabricated story – though Head had no monetary incentive, and ironically did some good for the survivor’s network – she was just in it for the attention and notoriety. Still a terrible person, but she didn’t indirectly kill anyone during her charade, as Gibson well may have done).

Still, I’m intrigued by Apple Cider Vinegar, since the sheer gall of people like this is difficult to look away from. How do they get away with it for as long as they do? How do they have the stomach to lie to such an elaborate extent? Maybe I’ll make it a triple event with Inventing Anna and The Dropout.

Finally, another amazing-looking indie game has been made available on Steam, complete with gorgeously rendered pixel art and concerning one of my favourite subjects: spiritualism in the wake of the first World War. As ever, the problem is finding the time to actually play it:

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March has definitely turned out to be Greek mythology month, which means that my plans to read and watch some Arthurian stuff has been deferred to April – but down in the southern hemisphere, that’s a good time for it, as the days start turning into autumn.

It does mean more one-season shows that were cancelled pretty much immediately (Cursed, Camelot, The Winter King) but I’ve also got Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword, a deconstruction of the legends, Alan Lee’s The Mabinogion, which I bought for my last birthday, and Christien de Troyes’ Perceval, which I have seriously been reading for over a year. If I get the timing right, I’ll finish it in April.

Whew, I think that’s everything. What are YOU looking forward to?