Rueben's Ramblings

Day Two of Wonder Con 2019 has now come to a close in Anaheim, California, featuring many, many panels among them the new AMC horror series NOS4A2, the soon-to-be-back Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the recently ended Syfy graphic novel adaptation of Deadly Class.

NOS4A2

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Joe Hill, NOS4A2 stars Heroes and Star Trek alum Zachary Quinto as Manx, a supernatural villain who feeds off the souls of children then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland – a twisted place of Manx’s imagnization where every day is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law. Enter Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings), a gifted young woman who discovers she has a supernatural ability to find lost things, who strives to defeat Manx and rescue his victims without losing her mind or falling victim to Manx himself.

The panel started with a screening of the debut episode followed by a panel discussion with cast members Zachary Quinto, Ashleigh Cummings, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jahkara Smith as well as showrunner and executive producer Jami O’Brien and executive producer (author) Joe Hill.

In the book the character of Vic is about 8 years old, but in the series she is much older. O’Brien explained, “I knew we were going to cast an adult actor, so we thought, let’s give ourselves a little leeway on Vic’s age and not miss out on all that juicy stuff in the story, including when she meets Manx.”

Asked about why he wanted to take the role of Manx, Quinto said that it felt like a good time for him to come back to TV. “A lot of it had to do with the people involved. I was a little resistant at first because I’ve gone down evil roads before…(but) I hadn’t done TV in a few years, and I know people like to see me do this kind of thing, so I thought it would be a good springboard for me to come back.” (Syfy Wire)

NOS4A2 will debut on AMC on June 2 at 10 PM.

Here is a trailer for NOS4A2.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The new challenge for Team SHIELD is coming to grips with the knowledge that bending the laws of space and time [as they did last season] may have saved the planet, but it couldn’t save Fitz or Coulson. (Vital Thrills)

But, it would seem *SPOILER ALERT* that Coulson just might not be dead [see the clip below]. The cast who participated in the panel included Clark Gregg, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Jeff Ward, along with executive producers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Jeff Bell and Jeph Loeb, but first the season premiere was screened, and then the cast returned to the stage for a brief Q&A.

Among the discussions were:

• Clark talking about getting a call from Marvel about “getting to have fun with the Avengers until you don’t” and then “seven years later… to grow so close and grow together and having that birthed from the connection that the fans have with a character that represents them.”

• Henry recalled his first day on set, “There were so many people, so many names… then I graduated to my first scene with Iain, which I absolutely loved…quite honestly, I can’t say one scene or one episode because it keeps getting better and better.”

• Jeff Ward shared, “(My first day)…was an amazing experience. We were filming a scene with Clark, Elizabeth, Chloe, me and Ming, and we kept laughing, and it was the first day, and we didn’t even know each other… when I got the call that they wanted me to be a regular, it was very surreal.”

• Jeff Bell and Elizabeth mentioned Bobbi and Hunter as characters they miss from the show, while Jed said that they missed Grant Ward as writers because they knew they could always get a reaction out of the fans by sticking him at the end of an episode. (CBR.com)

The season premiere of the 6th season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air on ABC on May 10 at 8 PM. The episode was directed by series lead Clark Gregg, and you can see a sneak peek below:

Deadly Class

The recently ended first season of the show, adapted from the comic book series by Rick Remender and Wesley Craig, featured cast members Benjamin Wadsworth, María Gabriela de Faría, Luke Tennie, Liam James, Taylor Hickson and executive producer/co-showrunner Miles Orion Feldsott on the stage to talk about the debut season.

Miles talked about the storytelling choices from the comics, sharing “we wanted to stick to the bones of the comic book… I’m coming to the show as a fan of the book originally.” Their goal was to flesh out things from the comic that maybe wasn’t explored as much, such as the dynamic between Petra and Billy.

About comic book adaptations, the cast described fan reactions to their version of the characters with Benjamin saying, “It was positive for the most part… we all really tried our best to what our characters did in the comics.” Maria was afraid of the responsibility of playing Maria, but Rick gave them all the confidence they needed. “All of them are affecting us as we’re writing,” said Miles. “Some of the story…is directly from the actors. Like with Benedict Wong, that story came from his energy on set, and how he’s playing his character that’s outside of the scope of the comic book.” (CBR.com)

Shazam!

During the Warner Bros. Pictures panel some of the cast of the upcoming Shazam! film took to the stage, in fact, closing out that panel. The panelists included director David F. Sandberg and stars Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer.

In addition to fielding questions from fans about everything including their favorite Shazam! powers and any on-set pranks, the cast and director shared over five minutes of footage from the upcoming DC superhero film. (LA Times)

Shazam! will open in theaters on April 5.

Here is a Shazam! panel picture courtesy of Don Kaye via Syfy Wire:

Here are just some of the cool cosplayers photographed at today’s event. The first two are courtesy of Jeff Gritchen for the Orange County Register/SCNG and the remainder are courtesy of IGN:

Next up are some pictures provided by our very own Roz, who is on the ground at Wonder Con, and will be reporting on some of the fun events she participated in over the weekend.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel, featuring Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Jeff Ward, along with executive producers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon and Jeff Bell

Deadly Class Press Room, featuring Benjamin Wadsworth, María Gabriela de Faría, Luke Tennie, Liam James, Taylor Hickson and executive producer/co-showrunner Miles Orion Feldsott

Cas Anvar from The Expanse with Roz

Cosplayers: Spider-Noir from Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Panel, featuring executive producer Noelle Stevenson, Aimee Carrero (Adora/She-Ra), AJ Michalka (Catra), Karen Fukuhara (Glimmer), Marcus Scribner (Bow), Lauren Ash (Scorpia) and Merit Leighton (Frosta)

Day Three (Final Day) of Wonder Con tomorrow…