Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hey there. Welcome to the first episode of The Cosmic Circle, the official podcast for thecosmicscircus.com where the site's writers get together and chat about comic books, Sci-Fi and fantasy films and TV shows. This week we'll be talking about DC FanDome. After the successful online convention debuted last year, it seems like Warner Brothers wants to make this an annual event. We'll be chatting about the reveals and first looks that we saw and speculating about what's going down in the DCEU in 2022 and beyond. I'm Uday Kataria, writer for the cosmic circus. And joining me today are my fellow writers julia, Drew and Anthony How are you doing today, guys?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: I'm Julia. And I'm good.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: I am Drew. I'm doing pretty good.
[00:00:47] Speaker D: Hey, it's Anthony. I'm doing excellent down here.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: All right, so what did you all think of DC Fandom overall?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: I thought it was very scaled down compared to last year. And I mean, obviously it was, but I think some of the things they did this year were better and some of the things were worse, and I'm going to leave it there for now. I want to hear what everyone else thought.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it was scaled down a little bit this year. I don't think they did panels as long as they should have. They kind of just like especially with the Flash, they just brought in as Ezra Miller for a couple of minutes and then they showed a teaser. I don't really feel like they focused on their big movies as like they spent a lot of time on animated shows and other things, like the black Adam and the flash panels were really short, and I feel like they probably should have spent a little bit more time on that. Besides, just, like, a teaser and a couple minutes from dwayne Johnson and Ezra Miller. I feel like they could have done a little bit more. Like, I like what they did with the Batman at the end. They kind of focused a little bit on that. And they brought on Pattinson and Kravitz and Matt Reeves, and they actually talked for a little bit, which felt nice. It felt more of like a panel instead of just something really, I think I think next year they should learn from that and do a little bit more. The panels need to be a little bit more organized next year.
[00:01:58] Speaker D: I would say I really enjoyed it. I just felt it was probably a lot longer than it needed to be. I think they put a little bit of fluff throughout but thought the Superman announcement change was cool.
And the video game announcements, although really nothing new on that.
As the one that likes to play games here, I was hoping they'd show something rather than another trailer.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I think what they probably should have done is I don't think it needed to be quite as long as it was this time because I know there was a bit of filler, but not as much as last time. Think they needed to do like last time and said when each panel would be and even just maybe just have like okay, now we're going to do the CW stuff, now we're going to do video games. Now it's going to be this movie around this time because people were stuck there watching for 3 hours and I guess that was the point. It was like a three hour infomercial but people were like tuning it. Like I know I tuned out after a certain point because I'm like, well, I know that Batman's going to be at the end, obviously, and I know there's going to be other stuff like Pepper throw and it'll just hit the internet right after. So I think they needed to keep it a little more organized. But I am glad it was shorter than last year's because last year had a lot, a lot of filler.
[00:03:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I think last year's structure was good, but last year was way too long. I just didn't like how they didn't have a schedule this year. There was no schedule released before Fandom and I think that was a big mistake because you really didn't know when anything was coming. So they really made you watch the whole thing. You couldn't really take a break because Black Adam kind of just came out of nowhere at the beginning and then The Flash kind of came out of nowhere.
They kind of give you a warning when it was coming, but at the same time you didn't really know a specific time when things were going to come on and they happened at really strange times throughout the show. It just felt really unorganized to me. But I mean, I still enjoyed it. It just felt kind of put together last minute when they had so much more time to organize everything.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I definitely agree with everything you guys are saying. I was just in shock at how fast they were rushing through their movie panels and then they would slow down and spend so much time on everything and yeah, like for The Flash, I doubt it'll be at Fandom next year. I mean, it could be if Fandom happens like in the summer. But I was really surprised that they didn't bring on Andy Muschetti and everything to talk a little bit about the movie and they were just like here's a teaser, like let's move on.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: I imagine they would if they are keeping the current date, which I don't know if they will. I think they should move it to October, the Flash, because the Marvels is in November as well. Or unless they should move like it's the week one's, the week after the other. I don't remember which one's which. But yeah, that's kind of ridiculous. And I mean, same with Aquaman because that's the same day as Avatar too. But that's another thing. But yeah, I think they are going to talk about the Flash next year. I think they'll talk about Aquaman as well. And Shazam, obviously.
Yeah. Really? It's just Black Adam and the Batman between now and then in terms of the movies. But I was going to say that I think they were trying to copy the structure of the wildly successful Disney shareholders meeting which happened last December. But I don't think they quite had, I guess, partly the clout and partly the material for that. And I think what they had last year was better for them and I think this year was not as well and it did not do as well, I don't think. I don't see as much hype for the stuff as what they presented for last year.
[00:05:13] Speaker D: Yeah, one thing, they didn't announce a whole lot of new stuff.
Yes, they did a few things, but a lot of what we saw this year was also stuff we saw last year.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they did a lot of panels for the new stuff. They did a panel for Batgirl and they did a panel for Blue Beetle, which was nice. And I think it was nice to see concept art from those films kind of first looks, especially the Blue Beetle. I thought the Blue Beetle suit looked really good and kind of gave a nice teaser for the film. I think that was really the only kind of surprise of the day. I mean, everything else just kind of felt like what we expected. And I think people look for surprises from stuff like fandom. And I think last year getting a Batman trailer was a huge surprise because the film was so far out. I think this year it wasn't as much of a surprise just because we kind of knew the trailer was coming and the movie's a lot closer, so that was a lot more expected. And with the Flash trailer, I think they kind of left a lot to be desired. With the Flash trailer, they didn't really show a ton. I mean, I wasn't a fan of how they didn't show was. I didn't think there was any reason for them not to, especially with there being so many other surprises in the movie. I think Keaton could have been a nice selling point for fandom in general and I think they kind of missed the mark on that. They didn't really show anything from Black Adam. They didn't show the suits. No, they barely even showed the Black Adam suit. So I think in some areas they missed the mark. I think hopefully next year they will.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Learn from that black Adam I was expecting a lot more from because it is happening next year and this could have been a really good time. I mean, it was the first reveal, but they could have been a lot don't know. I don't know why they didn't show more of that. But again, like you said, people really expect announcements from this stuff or big surprises. And if you're not going to announce something, you need to show a lot, a lot of remember, I know the Marvel side of Disney Investor Day last year. I don't think there were any new announcements. Oh, wait, no, there was a couple casting ones, but they had like a ton of footage. They had footage from with these. The Flash is filming right now, like Ms. Marvel was filming. Then they showed Ms. Marvel over a year in. So like DC didn't really have any excuse here not to show more. So that was disappointing.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And at the very least, even stuff like Batgirl and Blue Beetle. I definitely expected official logos for them because we've seen low quality logos in HBO Max reels. And then stuff like Black Canary and Zatanna. Zatanna has an Oscar winning writer attached to it. And you weren't even going to officially announce it with a logo and release window, even just saying like 2023. And then for Black Canary, Misha Green has talked about it, so it's pretty official. So I'm really shocked that they didn't take the time to even just do basically what they did with Patty Jenkins where they bring in the person to confirm that they're working on the movie.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah, those are the two projects I'm most excited about right now, actually. Black Canary slipped my mind yesterday for some reason and I was talking about it with people, but I'm definitely excited for that. And Zetana, I'm scared Zetana is going to get pulled like New Gods did. But I'm pretty sure Black Canary is going to happen. So I'm like, why didn't they announce that? That was very disappointing for me and I wasn't even expecting to see stuff from it, just an announcement.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: So I guess that this is a good segue into our next topic. So what were you guys favorite panels at Fandom this year?
[00:08:35] Speaker C: See, that's mean. I think the Batman is kind of an obvious one, especially because they spent a good amount of time on they. We saw that virtual Batcave, which I thought was really cool. And then we got to see last year, I think I wanted to see Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz and Matt Reeves together. And I think we just saw Reeves together or just Reeves last year. I kind of wanted to see them all together last year. And so it was nice to see them together and actually talking about the movie and talking about their experience on the film. Not only that, besides a trailer, we got a whole behind the scenes featurette, which is really nice, like getting a behind the scenes look and then a trailer. So I think as cliche as it is, I think I would say the Batman was my favorite one just because of how much new stuff we saw in the trailer and some nice behind the scenes stuff, which I always enjoy. So I think that was mine. I think I would have liked the Flash if they would have shown a little bit more and they would have done a little bit more of a panel besides just Ezra Miller saying a couple things and then showing a minute teaser. I think that was a little underwhelming and I would have liked to see a little bit more from them.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the thing this year is the panels didn't feel like panels because there weren't really scheduled. It's just like, okay, now we're going to talk about this for like five minutes, or whatever it was just like, yeah, remember this thing we were going to do? We're doing it, and then maybe here's like a tiny little clip of it. But yeah, the Batman was good. I like that we saw some catwoman, like Zoe Kravitz's catwoman. I'm excited for that.
I liked that we saw a little bit of black Adam. I would have liked to see more. And then, yeah, those were kind of the highlights for me.
[00:10:16] Speaker D: I like the Wonder Woman panel, actually. I really like Linda Carter and it was cool to see a little bit, but minus the fact that all they really effectively said was, yeah, Wonder Woman Three, I don't know. But I really enjoyed Shazam. I think that was my highlight, apart from obviously the Batman and the Flash, but then at the very end had to remember that it's 2023, so my excitement went down a little bit. So I think I'll stick with Shazam, though. Helen Mirren and Lucy Lou looked really cool in that video.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: The Shazam stuff has been so weird because we've known it's coming out in 2023 for a long time, yet they had a whole panel on it last year, even though it was three years away at the time. And then last year they made this weird announcement that Sinbad was going to be in it and it wasn't clear if it was real or not, and they had to come out and say it wasn't real because of that memes going around. And then this year they kind of talked about it, but only they didn't do much because, again, it's two years away. I don't know. I don't know. It's very strange why they're talking about that movie and yet they didn't talk about some stuff that's probably coming a little bit sooner. Like I heard Batgirl might be coming next year. You can cut that out if it's not true. I don't know. So it's just very weird.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree with that. And going back to what Anthony said about Wonder Woman, we all know that Wonder Woman Three is probably a 2024, 2025 movie at the earliest because of everything Patty Jenkins is doing. So I didn't really expect anything for that. But again, you're making an Amazon's movie, too. I know you're not directing it, but you're producing it. How about an update on that? We haven't heard anything about that for like a year. And on the topic of Shazam, I did not love the first Shazam movie. I think it's a very good movie. It's just not really my thing. So I was so impressed with the behind the scenes look that probably was my favorite panel after the Batman that yeah, I got sad when it said 2023 at the end, and that really shocked me because I just don't care about the first movie that much. But I'm really excited for the sequel.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I was pretty impressed by Shazam, to be honest, because I'm kind of in the same boat as Uday. I thought Shazam one was pretty good. I didn't love it the way some people did. I thought it was really good, and I really did like the way that they brought in the Shazam family. I think that really brought the movie up a notch, and I think at least for the third act, I think if the third act was just Shazam and the character Mark Strong played, I think that would have been a little bit lackluster. I think bringing in the Shazam family against the Seven Deadly Sins, I think that definitely made the third act a lot more interesting. So I'm hoping to see more of the Shazam family in the second movie. I think they have a really nice dynamic going on between that whole thing, and I think it being a family movie really fits when they bring the Shazam family together, and I hope they continue that and I hope that they're in the movie for a decent amount.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: I agree. I think the Shazam family kind of made the first one for me because I don't really like Zachary Levi as the main character in Shazam because he acts too much like a kid, even compared to the kid.
His name is my mind right now, but I think the kid who played Billy Batson as a kid did a really good job, and I like the rest of the family, and I like that now. The oldest girl and again, I forgot her name, is playing the adult version of herself in the sequel because I think that just makes more sense. And yeah, I'm excited for Rachel Ziegler is going to be in it. She's going to be in West Side Story. She's going to be a big star soon, so I'm excited for her to be in the movie. I think it's going to be an improvement over the first, which I thought was good, but people were really, really hyping. That one so high, and I'm like, I don't think it was good. It wasn't as good as some of you guys were saying, but it's good.
[00:13:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I didn't see anybody mention peacemaker at all.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: I don't like that character. I'm hoping they make me like him in this series. But yeah, right now, I'm not feeling that character.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Okay, hang on, I have a couple more thoughts on Shazam and then we can move to peacemaker. Sorry, but yeah, I have not heard anyone else say that they don't like Zachary Levi as Shazam, but I am 100% in that boat as well. And yes, I understand that Billy is a kid, but when Billy is a kid, he's all tortured and angry. So it doesn't make any sense why he's so jokey and happy when he's Shazam. I never really liked that. And I like Zachary Levi as a person. I really love it when he does all this press stuff, but I just didn't love him as the character. But everything in the sequel just looks like it's taken to a next level that I'm really excited about. Like, all the suits look like masterpieces. I hated the suits in the first movie. Again, I'm also glad that Grace Fulton is now playing the grown up version of, like, Mary Marvel or whatever her name is, because I didn't think it made sense that a college age person would become like, a 40 year old woman when everyone else is becoming a 20 year old. So that was superhero Mary.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I think what people say when I make that argument about Zach, really, it's like, Billy Batson is excited to be a superhero, but I'm like, is he really going to act like that much like a kid when he's it's a little over the top for me, but yeah, I'm still really excited for the sequel. Hopefully they'll find a happy medium, I think. But yeah, the kid who's playing Billy Batson, I always forget his oh, Asher Angel. Yeah, he's killing it, so hopefully he kills it again. I'm sure he will.
[00:15:26] Speaker D: I'm just happy to see Lizzie's confirm on the wizard coming back. That was cool.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm really interested to see how they do that. Yeah, I definitely am interested to see how they do that. Also, I have to say, I feel really bad for Helen Mirren having to be squeezed into that. Like, she looks awesome, but I just would never picture when I first saw the set pictures of Helen Mirren in that suit, I was like, I don't know how they got her to sign on to do that because it looks really cool, but it also looks a little bit ridiculous for Helen Mirren. And it's just like, you kind of thought she would be a little bit above that. So I'm really interested to see what they do with her character and if it's like, Shazam kind of has like a jokey vibe to it. So I'm kind of hoping wasn't she.
[00:16:13] Speaker D: In Fast and Furious recently, though?
[00:16:15] Speaker C: Yeah, she was, but her character was a little bit more it was a little more proper, you know what I'm saying? She kind of had, like the she was a more mature character. I think she'll probably be somewhat similar to that in this movie. I'm just really interested to see what they do with her and Lucy Liu and Rachel Ziegler. I feel like they can really own the movie if their characters are done well. So I guess we'll have to see even though it's 2023, which is a really long time away. Yeah.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: I get what you're saying about Helen Mirren. Yeah, she wasn't fast and furious, but she was like their mom who was in prison and had two scenes. I never would have taken her as one of those older, prestigious actors that would, like you're saying, squeeze into a tight superhero costume and go out and be like a villain. Cate Blanchett did that as HeLa, and that's something I totally expected from her. But when they said that Helen Mirren would be playing like an evil goddess in this movie, I was like, that must be a really good role for her to sign on for that.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Yeah, and to get her to get into that, like, they must have paid her a lot because that suit does not look super comfortable. And not only that, they're filming out in Atlanta. They were filming in Atlanta in the summer. It must have been really hot. Who knows?
[00:17:31] Speaker A: They look incredible, though. I love the costume design for Shazam, too. It makes me so happy, all the mythology, all of that stuff. Again, I've seen other people on Twitter say this, but that was something I really missed in Wonder Woman 1984. And I'm really happy that Shazam is bringing some of that in. And I actually really hope that they connect it to Wonder Woman because I'm really going to dislike it if they have Greek and Roman mythology in this movie and it's not even connected in any way at all, even like a reference to the Wonder Woman mythology.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: I guess we should also talk about peacemaker, which I'm interested to see how they handle that because I came out of Suicide Squad really not liking him. He was easily my least favorite quote unquote hero in the movie. And I get he's supposed to be kind of evil. I was like, you should have seen me when I found out at the post credit scene that it was him who was alive, because I thought this was going to be a prequel. But I'm okay with him being alive if there's a good reason for it. But they need to make him likable somehow. Otherwise there's going to be like a really annoying series for me. What do you guys think?
[00:18:31] Speaker C: Yeah, they're definitely going to it's definitely going to be one of those series where the evil guy kind of becomes good. Like, you even saw it in the trailer a little bit. You saw how they were like, you can be good if you want to be. So I think that's kind of what they're going towards is I think the stuff with his dad. I think visiting the stuff with his dad, I think that'll kind of make him become a better person and not want him to be super evil anymore. And being with that team, I think by the end of the series, I think he'll be more of a likable character and a better guy. I just think that's what they're going for.
I don't think that they would make a HBO Max series specifically based on him if he was going to continue to be a bad guy. This, to me, seems more of like a redemption series, and I'm just expecting that by the end of the series, I'm expecting him to be good. And having formed this team of people, I feel like if it goes well, I feel like they could do a season two. But I guess we'll have to see when it comes out.
[00:19:26] Speaker D: Yeah. I'm still looking forward to this. I'm glad they gave an announcement date, too, of January, so at least for once, we know something coming really soon. Especially the inclusion of was. He was my favorite part of the trailer that we saw that and the Eagle.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: This is the next DCEU project coming out. It's not Black Adam and it's not the Batman, because Batman isn't DCEU. And I just realized it's like, oh, yeah, peacemaker is the next thing.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Yeah, it's the closest thing we got. The new characters, I think I'm looking forward to all of them, and especially the ones coming back.
The Eagle.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: I really liked Vigilante in the trailer as well. He seemed a lot more humorous than I was expecting from him. Although I guess I just have the Arrow version in my mind who's really dark and tortured and kind of annoying. But I like his suit as well. I really like the newbie in the trailer. I think her name was Adebeo. I think she brought a lot to the trailer. But, yeah, I agree with Julia. I hate Peacemaker as a character, and I get that he's supposed to be an unlikable character, but by the time I was done with the Suicide Squad, I was honestly just angry that out of all the characters, peacemaker is the one that's getting a spin off. And I still feel like that. And I don't want the show to redeem him or make me like him because I hate him and I don't think he deserves a show.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Where's Rack? Hatcher two's show. That's the show I want to see.
[00:20:49] Speaker D: I want javelin. But that happened.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: Yes. I wanted a javelin show too. I was crossing my fingers. I'm like, Flula borg is so good. It's such a waste to let that character die. I really hope they do something with him in the future. He just was so good. He's just so good. I really feel like he would do great in his own show. So I'm hoping, even if it's like a comedy or something, I hope that they do something with him eventually.
[00:21:13] Speaker D: He was easily the best part of the panel.
[00:21:17] Speaker C: Yeah, he was great. I think we know we saw Lizzie's exclusive. We know that a blood sport show could be coming. We don't know when, we don't have a date. And even though James Gun denied it, we're not sure what's going to happen with that show. But I'm definitely looking forward to a blood sport show or Rat Catcher Two show. I think those characters have a lot of potential and I hope that King Shark shows up somewhere in the future. I don't know where he could really show up, but I'm hoping that they can do something like, I mean, they could always do a Suicide Squad, too. I feel like they have a know, the four of them. Harley Quinn, blood sport, ratchet catcher and king shark. That's kind of like a know cast and you can surround that with supporting characters and stuff. And I feel like there's enough sea level Suicide Squad characters that you can bring in that you can use that. I feel like in the future they could do a Suicide Squad, too, if they wanted. Even though Gun kind of said that Peacemaker is a Suicide Squad Two esque kind of show, I guess I don't know if they would call it Suicide Squad Two when they do one or Suicide Squad Three.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: The thing is, I don't know if they're going to do another Suicide Squad per se, because the first two, I know for different reasons or whatever, one was not well received critically, the other was not well she'd financially. So maybe the brand's kind of tarnished. I hate to say it, but I do agree a bloodsports show would be cool, too. And I think him with Rat Catcher, too, as a duo, I think that would be an amazing show or movie. And of course, King Shark has to show up, so yeah, like Suicide Squad, but not by name, I guess. I don't know.
[00:22:45] Speaker D: I'd be okay if they just decided to do a movie and even throw it just on HBO. Max not everything has to be theatrical.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: That is true. I do think Suicide Squad could work on HBO. Max and also, I'm waiting for my next Harley Quinn project announcement because I loved Birds of Prey, but yeah, Birds of Prey and then the Suicide Squad was not a great run for that character at the box office. So I'm just really worried that she's not going to get something else.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I really want her to get something. She's my favorite. I don't know what, but like something I'm cool with almost anything.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: I think that they kind of don't really know what to do with her right now. I think it might be a couple of years before they decide what to do with Harley Quinn again. That seems to be the thing that always happens, is they go through a couple of ideas and nothing ever really pans out. I mean, we saw like the Gotham City Sirens was supposed. To happen know, I think it was Poison Ivy, and I think Margot Robbie still said she wants to do something like, you know, I think they just sometimes don't know what to do with Harley Quinn. I think sticking it's a controversial decision whether they want to stick Harley Quinn with the other characters from Suicide Squad or have her branch out again, because we already saw her branch out into her own movie and it didn't really do great. So I'm really curious to see, know, DC does with that character going forward.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: She's someone who can be with like I think they can kind of stick her kind of like sort of like they do with other Marvel characters. Like Dr. Strange is good was in Ragnarok and he's going to be in Spider Man. So, like, Harley Quinn can play like a supporting role in maybe someone else's movie. Like, not there the whole movie, but maybe part of it. Like, I could see her showing up in a Batman project. I don't know if it's like the multiversal Batman project or something else, but yeah, I think there's a lot they could do with her. Like, they could pair her with different people and it could be interesting. It just depends on how they do it, I guess. And I know there's various reasons those movies didn't do well financially. I mean, I like them both, but yeah, so there's definitely discussions to be had. But I definitely think she needs to come back somehow. She could potentially be in a movie that does well again, the first Suicide.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Squad, I don't care how it happens. I just kind of want to see Harley Quinn versus.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Harley admires Wonder Woman so much, though, at least in the comics, maybe they would change it. But yeah, I would love to see her be a fangirl of Wonder Woman. That would be funny.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: I think another team up movie is probably likely for her. I feel like they want to do something with her in Poison Ivy, but they just can't figure out what to do. And I don't know, I feel like that's a couple of years ahead of.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Like, last word on this topic. But they just need to do Gotham City sirens. I don't know how they did Birds of Prey before that, but they just need to do a movie with Harley Quinn. And how how do you take Batgirl's superhero team, give it to Harley Quinn before doing her own team with two iconic Batman villains?
[00:25:28] Speaker B: I guess the pitch for Birds of Prey was better because I know there were like three movies in discussion, those two. So there's Birds of Prey, gotham City Sirens and a Joker Harley movie. And the Birds of Prey one went out, and I'm not sure why because they knew they wanted to sit with Harley. They just didn't know what. But yeah, the Gotham City Sirens makes more sense, I think, with three characters because if they keep the ones from the comics, it's Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. So it's three characters. You get more focus on each of them because like Birds of Prey, some of them you didn't get to see much of because they were kind of supporting roles. And I think it would be Harley Quinn, but not too much Harley Quinn for some people because I know some people it's kind of a turn off for some. But some people really love her. It's like I don't know. But yeah, I think that I'm surprised that didn't happen before Birds of Prey. And I would like to see it happen still in some form.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Moving on to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. I am really excited about the Antarctic location that they're going to be visiting. And I'm excited for Aquaman's new stealth suit, whatever. I think that's what Jason momoa was calling it. And that's about it because a lot like Shazam. I know a lot of people loved the first Aquaman movie, but it did absolutely nothing for me. It's one of the only superhero movies I've never felt like an ounce of hype for. And yeah, I'm feeling the same way about the sequel.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I had no real feelings towards the first Aquaman movie. I think it was too long. I like the scene in the trench. And then they announced they were going to do a trench movie which got canceled. But I'm like, what? Why were they even going to do like I don't know. But yeah, I mean, hopefully this new movie is good.
I can't believe this is like the highest grossing DC movie. I'm pretty sure it is. And I'm like, Why? What about it? I don't know. It's weird.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know. I think people just like but I mean, Aquaman was don't. I just didn't really see the appeal of the movie. I think they can learn from what they did wrong in the first movie and kind of perfect it in the second movie. I think some of the behind the scenes stuff we saw was really cool. I'm interested to see more of Black Mana because the actor who plays him is really good. I mean, he's going to play Morpheus in The Matrix. And I'm really excited for that. I think he's just a really good actor. I think I'm excited to see black man. I'm excited to see if Ocean Master and Aquaman kind of become like brothers or friends. I feel like they're kind of headed towards that. Especially some of the stuff we saw in the behind the scenes. We kind of saw a couple of scenes of them together. I feel like they could be headed that way. And I think that would kind of make an interesting know, I don't really care for the relationship know, Arthur and Mira. I think that's kind of just forced and I never really felt like I couldn't tell before the movie if they really knew each other or if they just barely knew each other. It kind of seemed like their relationship just kind of came out of nowhere. And I feel like they don't really have any kind of chemistry, really. And I'm excited to see if Arthur can kind of get some chemistry with other characters. And I'm definitely excited for the location. I think they're going to go to some really cool locations in the movie. I think that's something that will draw people to the movie for sure.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah. When they said in the behind the scenes, though, they were like, oh, we're going to turn it up to an eleven in this movie. And I'm like, where is there to go? Because I felt like the first Aquaman was turned up to an eleven, which I didn't really like. It was just breakneck, but it was too long and there was too much happening. And they went to all of these kingdoms. I didn't even have time to learn what kingdom we were in because we just raced through them so fast.
Everything about Aquaman was just too much and too overwhelming for me. And so if they're making it even more so in the like, that sounds like a threat to me, not a promise.
[00:29:04] Speaker C: I'm hoping that they can improve the CGI because man, there was some really rough CGI scenes in that movie.
I've always been a little bit critical of CGI, but there were some scenes in the movie that kind of took me out of the movie just because of how bad the CGI was. And that's just really not a good sign for a movie, at least for me. When I'm watching, I want to be focused on the movie. There was just a couple of scenes where I was like, whoa, that does not look good. And that kind of kind of took me out of the movie. And that just didn't do a lot for me. But I think there was a couple.
The stuff in the trench was really cool. Cool. I don't really get why they were going to do a trench movie. I think DC sometimes just likes to throw ideas at the wall and then hope that they stick. And not a lot of them do. But I thought the stuff in the trench was really cool. I thought some of the fights between Aquaman and Black Manta were pretty cool. So I think that's the thing that I'm most excited for for the second movie is for them to kind of expand upon what's going on with Black Manta and Aquaman and what is the Lost Kingdom, because that's the title. I feel like there's got to be some kind of they've got to be going somewhere. So I'm interested to see what the story is. But other than that, the first one didn't do much for me. So I'm hoping that they can kind of improve on some things that were lacking in the first movie.
[00:30:13] Speaker D: Yeah, I will see this one. I didn't watch the first one in theaters because it just didn't sound that exciting. But with the premise of there being a little bit of globetrotting and more adventure sure. Versus just kind of an origin story as always.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Moving on to the Flash, I was really impressed by the teaser that they showed because I don't really care about Ezra Miller as the Flash, but I was really liking the atmosphere. I wasn't expecting the movie to look that dark and moody. And so it does kind of remind me of like a Batman movie, which didn't help by the fact that the entire teaser was narrated by a Batman. But I'm just really excited. And then that shot of the two flashes and then Supergirl together was just really nice.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm really liking the way that the director shot the was. I really like the way Andy is it Muschietti.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: How do you pronounce his like muschietti?
[00:31:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's Andy Muschietti. Muschietti. But I really liked the first It movie. I really liked the way the first Date movie was shot. I'm kind of glad that he's sticking with that. With the Flash, I think it looks really nice. It looked really crisp. And I really like that. I mean, I don't really care for Ezra Miller.
I just don't think that he's a lead I don't think he's lead material. And I think that's why this movie is so overstuffed.
But I did really like the way the film was shot so far. I liked a lot of what I was seeing visually.
So I think that draws me into the film a little film. I think if the film didn't look as good to me and it wasn't kind of packed with characters that I like, I don't really think I would care for this movie. But I guess bringing back Keaton kind of intrigues me a little bit. I'm not sure that it's going to draw me into the movie a lot. I'm just interested to see Keaton back as Batman. I'm really interested to see Supergirl.
I don't know how to pronounce I think it's Sasha Cal. I'm not sure, but sasha kae. And I'm really interested to see who's Supergirl because I do like her. I think she's going to be really good. And I'm really interested to see who else they bring back for the movie. I know there's a lot of rumors about who's coming back. I mean, we know we've seen the set pictures. We've seen that Ben Affleck is back. We don't know how long he's in the movie for. But it's really going to be interesting to see. I don't think a lot of people notice, but we're going to get two movies. And in those two movies, we're going to see three Batman next year, all in 2022. And that's going to be a lot of Batman. A lot of batman material. So I'm really interested to see if there's kind of a fatigue for Batman after next year and how long they go before they do another Batman movie. But other than that, I thought the Flash teaser looked really good. I thought the Flash suit looked like average, didn't really intrigue me that much. And I don't really care for the whole good flash, bad Flash story. And I'm hoping that that's not too much of the movie, but it seems like it's going to be. But other than that, I really liked the way that the teaser looked. I liked the way that it looked visually, and I think that drew me into the movie the most.
[00:33:06] Speaker D: Yeah, I was impressed by how much progress they have seeing how the movie doesn't come out for another 13 months at this point. So they did give a fair warning saying this is what we do have for now, and that it's still in production. Which was confusing to me because the other day, I swear I thought it said that they wrapped filming, which I'm assuming would be just initial filming and not anything like reshoots, but between Supergirl coming in, Keaton obviously coming back, I was just really disappointed that they let us see the Batmobile. But we didn't see the Batmobile because I didn't expect that. That was really cool there at the end. But with this movie being kind of far out, I was impressed they showed so much. I mean, we're still out two trailers, so it was a little bit of a confusing choice to make. It so Keaton heavy in visuals and then audio, but then not actually show him.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: That was interesting. Yeah, I think that the fact that they've been able to show so much of the ones who that are more far out like this, and Shazam and I remember when Birds of Prey was being filmed, they showed footage from it within the first month of shooting. And I don't know anything that's in production. I hear Batgirls in production that could be wrong.
And they didn't show anything from that. There's no excuse, really, I feel like, because they've managed to for all this other stuff that is so far out. So I don't know.
[00:34:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I think Batgirls in pre production, I don't think that they actually shot any physical footage yet, but we did see, like, a concept art that was kind of vague. But I think for the Flash, with the amount of stuff that they're doing in this movie, I think it wouldn't have hurt them to show Keaton at least in the Batsuit and maybe the Bat.
A couple of months ago on Twitter, we even saw a leaked picture of the Batmobile from set. And we saw a picture of the Batcave. I know not everybody saw it, but it was leaked out there, that there was a picture of the Batcave and the Batmobile. And we've seen pictures of, you know, on the street. We saw Michael Keaton filming on the street as I think we've seen everything to kind of hide all that right now really let us down. I think they really needed it to bring the hype up on that movie. I really don't think it would have hurt the movie to show Keaton, especially because of everything else they're doing in that movie. Keaton is going to be a big part of that movie and it's not really a surprise that he's in it. So I just don't understand why they were holding back on that. Especially compared know, we saw the Batman last year. They showed a whole trailer for that that showed everything we saw, like Penguin, Catwoman, the Know, Commissioner Gordon, Batman. The only person we didn't see was just I feel like that really landed and that brought the hype up for that movie so much. I feel like showing a little bit more than they did would have brought the hype up for this movie a little bit more. As much as I really, really like the way that the movie looks, I think the teaser was a little bit of a letdown for me.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: The teaser was pretty much like exactly what I expected. I wasn't really surprised that they didn't show Keaton because it is still a teaser and I feel like between his narration and the Batcave and his giant, like, you know who he is. So it doesn't really matter that we didn't see his face, but I was disappointed that we didn't see more of Supergirl. Supergirl is like one of my favorite DC characters. I loved the TV show for a really long time. And I'm really excited for Sasha Kae, especially because it seems like she's not playing Cara Danvers or I mean, even if she is Kara Danvers, she's from the multiverse. And so I was really expecting her to get a clear shot in the trailer, not like a background of three people shot.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
I hope that they release a trailer a little bit farther out, like six to seven months. I think that would benefit this movie because as you've seen now, Marvel is kind of doing with this four month trend where they're only releasing trailers four months out instead of, know, six or seven months out.
I hope DC doesn't follow that trend because I think you have a big chance. In the first official trailer, I mean, this was phrased as a teaser, so it makes sense that they didn't show a ton. I think in that first official trailer, you've got to show a lot of Supergirl, you've got to show a little bit of Keaton Batman. I think you've got to show a little bit of what this movie is going to be about. Set the tone for the movie the same way the Batman did. I mean, there wouldn't have been a hype for this Batman movie if they didn't release that trailer. That trailer was such a great trailer. I think they really have to nail the first trailer for this movie if they want to bring the hype up for this movie.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's funny you mentioned that Marvel's been doing this short promo window, and DC shouldn't copy that. And I agree because DC does not have the clout Marvel does. Like, Marvel doesn't really start kicking its promo into high gear on a project now until another project. I mean, I guess that's what they've always done, but the projects are so close together. Like it's like a month long thing or less, like a few weeks to really promote the thing out there because they're Marvel. But DC doesn't have that. And I think with this movie, unlike with Spider Man, where I think it's okay, they're hiding certain things because the hype's already around and the rumors, I think they need to show quite a bit in order for this movie to probably do well. And maybe that involves spoiling some stuff. But if they really want to get people there, I mean, they need to show Keaton at least they need to really focus on him. I think if they focus on him, they can get away with hiding more stuff, which I think is good. But yeah.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: So there's a lot that's going to be hidden for this lot. There's going to be a lot of stuff in this movie that people don't know about that I don't think people will know about until the movie comes out. So I don't think that it's going to hurt to show Keaton and Supergirl because some people might think that's a spoiler like these are the big characters in the movie. But there's a lot more to this movie than I think people know about. And I think it's not going to hurt them to show Keaton and Supergirl in depth just because of how much else is going on in this movie. So I think that first trailer that comes out, it's got to be Keaton and Supergirl heavy.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: So to wrap things up, what did you guys think of that main Batman trailer?
[00:38:58] Speaker B: I think it was pretty good. It delivered on what I wanted to see, which is more of the different characters. There's a lot of Catwoman in particular, I think, in this one, which we hadn't really seen before, which is cool. I just noticed on Twitter, it just says the trailer for the movie accumulated more than 31 million views in its 1st 24 hours. I don't know if that's really good or not. I don't know what the normal metric is, so I can't really comment on that. But, yeah, I think it was supposed to be the crown, Julie yesterday, like last year, the Batman was as well, and I think it pretty much delivered.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: Yeah. About trailer views, I know that this is an unfair comparison, but no Way Home is the most viewed trailer in 24 hours of all time, and it had over like 300 million. So 30 million in 24 hours does not seem great to me unless it's.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say I didn't want to make a big thing.
[00:39:48] Speaker C: But yeah, I have to look at the numbers because that seems like really low. Maybe it was just on Twitter. It could have been just, I don't know, maybe on YouTube. But I think it wasn't a specific YouTube or something that I think Noah accumulated 355,000,000 across all platforms.
I'm curious to see what the Batman's number was for that. But my thoughts on the trailer, I think it was a nice contrast compared to last year's trailer. I think if they kind of went with the same vibe, it would have been kind of redundant to do the same vibe as last year's trailer, which was kind of like New York Detective, really dark. Especially with the Nirvana song. It felt dark and kind of showed what the Riddler was going to be like. I think this year it really focused on the Batman and Catwoman, which was nice, and it showed a lot of the action. It was a nice contrast compared to last year.
Whether they showed too much remains to be seen. But I think that they showed a good amount in this trailer. I think they showed enough.
I think if they showed any more, it would have been a little bit too much. But I think they showed a good amount in this trailer. And I don't know if they're going to release another trailer for this. They might just wait until they start doing TV spots because I think this trailer did enough for everybody with the first trailer, this trailer combined, I think there's enough footage out there that putting anything else kind of would go into spoiler territory.
I don't know if they have enough to put more footage out, so but I think this trailer I think they did a good job. I think they showed a lot of the action off. I think they showed what kind of Batman this was going to be in combat. And I think it's a newer, fresh take. I've seen a couple of people comparing it to Nolan's trilogy, and I think it's really hard to make a Batman that feels like its own thing. And I think this is the closest we're going to get. This is more of a detective Batman.
I think Matt Reeves knows what he's doing, so I'm pretty confident in that. I thought the trailer was pretty good.
[00:41:45] Speaker D: Yeah, I really enjoyed the trailer. I've watched it four times now, at least. Like you said, it's got the detective feel, but it has that noir, that old feeling, like classic with Batman, kind of how things were before. I really like the scene where he's walking down and getting shot at, kind of Vader esque, a little bit like Rogue One.
That was awesome. Showing Matt Reeves is going to really showcase what Batman can take. Multiple times taking the shot, actually, I noticed, but not just that his brutality when it came to fight. This seems like this is a really damaged Bruce Wayne Batman compared to the other ones that were just really more ticked off. This one's actually got more emotions, past anger.
[00:42:26] Speaker C: I think that's probably what they're going to touch on a lot is I think this is more of a damaged Bruce Wayne. I think it's a darker Bruce Wayne. I think maybe we'll see a little bit of a darker backstory with his parents. Yeah, I just think this Bruce Wayne and this Batman seems a lot more damaged. And that kind of reflects on his combat skills. You saw when he was fighting, like, the gang members when he was electrocuting. That one gang member. That was pretty brutal. He just seems angry when he's fighting. And I think the Nolan Batman, the Bale Batman kind of was like that a little bit. But I think there's enough of a difference with this Batman than there is with the Think that I don't think there's going to be too many comparisons between that. I've seen a couple so far today on Twitter. I don't think that that's going to be a problem with the movie.
[00:43:19] Speaker D: Kind of like think back and Batman begins when he finally comes back and his parents killer is coming out of court, and he's got the gun and he doesn't do it. I feel like this Batman would this Bruce Wayne would actually follow through.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so too. I think absolutely.
[00:43:34] Speaker D: Especially with the eyeshadow makeup. There's a lot more going on. We're going to really delve into more of the psyche and mentality.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: It definitely feels more organic eye makeup. Yeah, it makes it very rugged. It just feels like I think they described Ben Affleck's Batman as a brawler, but I think this might be a little bit more of a brawler. I think he's a very rugged Batman. He says in the trailer he's like, I don't care what happens to me. I think he just is kind of like he just has this force to him that I think is going to be a lot different than a lot of the Batmans that we've seen in the past.
[00:44:16] Speaker D: I think this is going to be entirely different from all the Batmans we've seen. To be honest. I think this is going to be a complete branch off from what we've seen in the past. And I think we're going to walk out asking for more of it immediately.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: I was just going to say I liked the trailer as well. I was definitely expecting it to be a lot more like last year's trailer. So that was nice that my expectations were wrong.
And there was so much Selena Kyle in this trailer, which I really appreciated because I guess I just didn't really expect her to have as big of a role as it looks like she's going to have.
This trailer made her feel like she's, like, a very large presence throughout the entire movie, and I kind of figured that she'd just be small and then get bigger towards the end, but I figured it would be like, a lot more origin for her and not as much like teaming up with Batman stuff.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: Yeah, this does seem a little bit like it does seem very there was a couple of scenes where it looked like they were, know, fighting together, and I'm kind of curious to see how much we see of Batman on his own versus how much we see of Batman and Catwoman together. And I wonder if they know each other already in this movie or if you kind of see that relationship, you see that growth. So I'm definitely curious to see that, and I'm curious to see what the dynamic between them is going forward. How much are we going to see Batman on his own? How much are we going to see them together, teaming up together? That's definitely a question I have.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: All right. Does anyone have any other Batman thoughts?
[00:45:45] Speaker D: I was a little disappointed we didn't see anything on Cape Crusader. I was really excited about it. I used to watch the Animated Series every single Saturday growing up. So when they said that they're coming back into that and they're going to make just really do that again. Sign me up with JJ. Abrams and Matt Reeves on it. Sign me up twice. So glad that they mentioned it, that they're still working on it, but just that nothing to share on that. That was just unfortunate. That wasn't actually one. I was kind of hoping they'd mention anything.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: They've got to bring back Kevin Conroy for that. I think there is no Batman Animated Series without Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. So I'm hoping that they can bring those back. I was really hoping that they were going to announce that he was coming back, especially because Kevin Conroy did the voiceover for the beginning of DC Fandom. So I was like, maybe he's going to be involved. But they didn't announce anything. But I think having JJ. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Working on a Batman animated series is mean. That's huge. I think they really know what they're doing with this. And I think if they can get Kevin Conroy and maybe Mark Hamill to come back, I think that would bring in a lot of people. And I think a lot of people would be really interested in that, interested in seeing that. So I hope that they can get them to come back.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: So now that we've covered pretty much everything we wanted to talk about from DC Fandom 2021, what would you guys like to see them improve on for next year? If they are having another event, I.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Want them to do a panel schedule, which I think we. All agree on of when we can expect stuff to happen. I know it was like late last year they were running late, but at least it was gave people an idea.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: I think a panel schedule would help a lot. I mean, I think that they were trying to copy Investors Day a little bit this year and I just don't think that worked really well for them. I think they're going to realize that. I think next year there'll be a schedule, there'll be panels. I think you want to bring in the whole cast. I mean, they brought in the whole cast of Peacemaker and while that felt really long, I think it was nice to see the entire cast actually talk about the show rather than just a few sentences from one character. I think hopefully next year for all the movies that they have, they're going to do like an actual panel setting. I hope that we can see more of that. I hope next year that maybe they'll announce the second Batman movie, maybe with a casting announcement. I think next year, hopefully do something. They'll announce something live action, Superman, hopefully, but it doesn't seem like that's on the horizon. Hopefully next year we'll hear some stuff about Zatanna, you know, Batgirl, Black Canary. It just depends on when all these shows and movies come out. And I think we'll probably hear some more Suicide Squad related characters next year. I think that next year there'll be a lot more new shows to be announced. I just don't think that they were ready to announce stuff this year, so they went with everything that was already announced. And while that might have been a mistake, I'd rather them get a little bit more into the development stage than kind of announce a show that's going to get canned. Like kind of how New Gods and the Trenches was. And I hope that they can decide what they want to stick with and then announce did they did that with Blue Beetle and Back Girl, which I think was really good and I hope they can kind of replicate that next year with more shows that are coming out and more movies that are coming out.
[00:48:54] Speaker D: I hope next year instead of teaser trailers for the video games, they show some gameplay because on both ends last year and this year we got teaser trailers but no gameplay. I've yet to see gameplay on either game and yet we're looking at them releasing next year and then as well. I was a little disappointed how on my Adventures with Superman, the animated shows said new look and it was the exact same sneak peek we got earlier when they announced it. So hopefully they double check their work next year and then give us a little something more. And then like the other said, a schedule would not hurt.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Yes, next year I want a schedule, I want announcements and I want actual surprises. I feel like the hosts kept being like, oh, wow, look at that. Surprise. And I'm like, they're all, like, little things that, personally, I don't really care about.
I want there to be, like, a big surprise announcement next year to just steal the show. So that's what I'm hoping for, literally anything.
DC always has all these little things in development. Yeah, like, Static Shock has been floating around there for over a year now. So give me a logo. Give me a release here. Give me, like, Michael B. Jordan is the producer. That's what I want from stuff like Static Shock, Amazon's, Black Canary, Zatanna, like, literally just a little confirmation that they actually exist. So that's about it for our very first podcast. As a group. We hope that all of those listening enjoyed this and will follow us and join us again for our next one, which will be about eternals. In the meantime, look for more news and reviews from us on thecosmicscircus.com you can follow us for updates on Facebook and on Twitter at mycosmiccircus. Bye for now.
