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Archive for the ‘WonderCon’ Category

Anniversary Celebration: Salute to 2019

Posted in Comic Con, Movies, News, Pictures, Television, Video, WonderCon on June 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Rueben’s Ramblings is celebrating its 10th Anniversary!!

In honor of that I decided to highlight some of the big events that took place during each year of the past 10 years.

Today’s salute is focused on 2019:

A couple of the more memorable shows that debuted during that year included:

* A Discovery of Witches – Based on the book by Deborah Harkness, this series starred Matthew Goode as a centuries-old vampire and Theresa Palmer as a historian (and reluctant witch) who fall in love despite the long-held distrust between witches and vampires.

* Whiskey Cavalier – This action series was a breath of fresh air and just so damn fun to watch during the spring of 2019. The chemistry between leads Scott Foley and Lauren Cohen was pretty terrific too. The most upsetting thing was the network cancelled the show after only 13 episodes, disappointing all of its fans and especially the cast.

* His Dark Materials – This HBO drama may not have pulled in the ratings as expected or even hoped – given that it took over the Game of Thrones time slot – but it certainly was grand in scope, had Lin-Manuel Miranda recurring – and a giant talking polar bear. There was much more to the show than that, but those were the stand-outs for me.

* The Witcher – The draw for this Netflix fantasy series was, of course, Henry Cavill (Superman himself), but I found myself captivated by the action, the magic and even the grunts and growls from Geralt. Despite less than positive critic response, this series became one of the most in demand original series on streaming platforms.

* Pennyworth – This EPIX series gave viewers a much different look at Alfred Pennyworth, the long-time butler to the Wayne family from Batman legend. Viewers got to see a young man looking to find his own place in the world while becoming a target for a conspiratorial group wanting to take over the British government.

* Batwoman – The most recent installment of the DC Universe was introduced in the fall of 2019, bringing Kate Kane, cousin to Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) to live in a Gotham City where the Caped Crusader has been MIA for the past three years. Sure, at the end of the debut season viewers were very surprised that Ruby Rose (series lead) left the show, making it necessary for the series to be revamped for its sophomore season.

Some of the big events that took place throughout the year included:

Jane the Virgin came to an end in 2019 and Gina Rodriguez had an impressive 7-minute monologue where she talked about her situation between the unexpected return of her late husband Michael (who had been believed to be dead for YEARS) and her relationship with Rafael. And, during the series finale of the show it was FINALLY revealed that the narrator of the series was actually a grown-up Mateo, Jane and Rafael’s son.

NOTE: Sadly the video of Jane’s monologue is not available online, but the video of the Mateo reveal is available, and you can see that below:

The final season of Game of Thrones was raked over the coals by fans for being hot-and-cold, disappointing a lot of fans; but one of the best events to take place in the final season was watching 5′ 1″ tall Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) kill the Night King, ending all of the White Walkers.

You can see that scene below (go to 4:48 in the video to see the BIG moment):

A big milestone that took place in 2019 was the 20th Anniversary of the TV series Angel with a reunion of the cast members on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Check out the cover photo for that issue:

[Photo Credit: Entertainment Weekly]

One of the final episodes of Supernatural (sure, the very last 7 episodes will air in 2021 because of the pandemic, but…) featured the return of John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). It was an emotional episode for the cast and the fans.

You can see the family picture below:

Five years after the box office movie was released, Veronica Mars FINALLY returned for a much anticipated fourth season, and the episodes were even released early as a way to not only appease the fans but also in celebration of lead star Kristin Bell’s birthday.

That being said, though, the fourth season brought about a major controversy [Spoiler Alert if you haven’t watched] that rocked the fandom to its core. Veronica and Logan got married BUT then Logan was killed – yes, killed – in the final episode shortly after they exchanged their vows.

Needless to say, fans were in an uproar over that unnecessary and unwelcome twist and what made it even worse was the fervor over how Kristin Bell and series creator Rob Thomas handled the fans ire over Logan’s death, and the resulting efforts to stop a season 5 from ever being made without Logan.

The top movie at the box office in 2019 was Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile some of the worst movies for the year were Stuber, Cats and the Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway film Serenity. Two movies that SHOULD have done well but turned out to be flops were Dark Phoenix and Terminator: Dark Fate.

NOTE: Regardless of how poorly those two movies performed at the box office, our photographer Dom got some great shots of cast members at Wonder Con and San Diego Comic Con.

Check out Dom’s pictures at the links below:

Dark Phoenix at Wonder Con

Terminator: Dark Fate at San Diego Comic Con

Following in the tradition, I had started a number of years earlier, I selected a group of interesting people as part of my faces of the year and new faces to be on the look out for in the new year.

Some of the people I picked for 2019 included: Cynthia Erivo, Marsai Martin, Kaitlyn Dever, Simone Missick, Andrew Scott, Samara Weaving and Beanie Feldstein.

The Faces of 2019

The New Faces of 2020

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Anniversary Celebration: Salute to 2018

Posted in Comic Con, Convention/Event, Movies, News, Pictures, Television, WonderCon on June 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Rueben’s Ramblings is celebrating its 10th Anniversary!!

In honor of that I decided to highlight some of the big events that took place during each year of the past 10 years.

Today’s salute is focused on 2018:

A couple of the more memorable shows that debuted during that year included:

* Altered Carbon – This cyberpunk series was created by Laeta Kalogridis based on the 2002 novel of the same name by author Richard K. Morgan. In a world where consciousness can be transferred to different bodies, Takeshi Kovacs (Will Yun Lee and Joel Kinnaman), a former soldier turned investigator, must solve a murder. Hamilton alum Renée Elise Goldsberry was also one of the cast members.

* Good Omens – From the minds of Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett, based on their 1990 novel, the mini-series aired on Amazon Prime. The series followed demon Crowley (Doctor Who alum David Tennant) and the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), longtime friends who, having grown accustomed to life on Earth as representatives of Heaven and Hell, seek to prevent the coming of the Antichrist and with it Armageddon, the final battle between Heaven and Hell.

* Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Right on time for Halloween, the first half of the first season of this much-darker look at Sabrina (the teenage witch from the creator of Riverdale) debuted on Netflix, starring Mad Men alum Kiernan Shipka in the title role.

Two shows that came to an end that year included:

*12 Monkeys – The final 11 episodes of this post-apocalyptic, time-traveling series aired on Syfy during the summer of 2018, finally connecting the mysteries and bringing the war and the virus to an end (or at least it seemed that way); and in a twist, James and Cassie were reunited.

* Nashville – The show moved from ABC where it aired for 4 seasons to CMT for its final two seasons in which Rayna James (lead star Connie Britton) died due to injuries sustained in a car accident and the show ended with Deacon (lead star Charles Esten) performing on stage then the show broke the fourth wall with every previous cast member from the show joining him on stage to sing.

Some big events that took place throughout 2018 included:

[Photo Credit: Presidential Election Historical Center]

The Me Too and Time’s Up movements were top headlines for the year.

Jodie Whitaker became the 13th Doctor on Doctor Who, the first woman to play the character in the series. She made her official debut in the 2017 Christmas special, and then began her time as Doctor Who in the latter part of 2018.

Brandon Victor Dixon performed to rave reviews in the live televised event of Jesus Christ Superstar on NBC that aired on Easter Sunday (April 1).

You can see him in action in this clip from the live special:

We all mourned the loss in November of the one and only, the legendary Stan Lee.

Actress Nicole Maines debuted on Supergirl, playing the character Nia Nal. She soon became the first transgender superhero on TV.

[Photo Credit: Dominick Dusseault]

Among the great pictures from this year that were captured by our photographer Dom included the Felicity Reunion at the ATX Festival, Johnny Depp appearing in character and a Dr. Horrible Reunion both at San Diego Comic Con.

And, our very own Roz had the fantastic opportunity to get a photo with the one and only Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura from the original Star Trek) at Wonder Con.

Nichelle Nichols and Roz

The top movie at the box office in 2018 was Black Panther and it should also be mentioned that the overnight sensation was Crazy Rich Asians. It was also this year that Shazam! and Aquaman hit the screens. Meanwhile some of the worst movies for the year were Holmes & Watson, The Happytime Murders and Gotti.

Following in the tradition, I had started a number of years earlier, I selected a group of interesting people as part of my faces of the year and new faces to be on the look out for in the new year.

Some of the people I picked for 2018 included: Noah Centineo, Letita Wright, Kelly Marie Tran, Timothee Chalamet, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Tiffany Haddish, Indya Moore, Kiki Layne and Henry Golding.

The Faces of 2018

The New Faces of 2019

COMING SOON: Salute to 2019

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Anniversary Celebration: Salute to 2011

Posted in Comic Con, Movies, News, Paley Center, Pictures, Television, Video, WonderCon on June 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

A couple days ago, Rueben’s Ramblings celebrated its 10th Anniversary, and it’s my plan to highlight just some of the big events that took place during each year of the past 10 years.

Today’s salute is focused on 2011:

Some memorable shows that debuted in 2011 included:

* Revenge – The complex ABC drama debuted in the fall, starring Emily Van Camp (formerly of Everwood) as Emily Thorne (nee Amanda Clarke), a troubled young woman who descended upon the Hamptons to exact revenge against the people who wronged her father. Die-hard Roswell (the original show) fans were SO excited to see Nick Wechsler back on their small screens and Gabriel Mann as the one and only Nolan Ross;

* Teen Wolf – Unlike the comedy box office film of the same name that starred Back to the Future and Family Ties favorite Michael J. Fox, this MTV small screen thriller was not what viewers were expecting, but it certainly packed a bunch. Starring relative unknowns in every role (except the adults), this series made stars out of its lead cast Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent in Supergirl) and especially Dylan O’Brien;

* Once Upon a Time – In a time when people did not expect to be taken with fairytales, this ABC series took everyone by surprise, making the lives of Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin, The Evil Queen and so many other classic fairytales come to live; and the costumes were quite something to behold as well. Fans of the first season will also remember Jamie Dornan (who went on to become Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades franchise) as the Sheriff (aka The Huntsman);

* Grimm – NBC wasn’t going to let ABC have all the “fun” with fairytales, as they also introduced the world to the world of make-believe by introducing the world to Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoil, who has gone on to star in ABC’s A Million Little Things), a homicide detective who could see the true faces of fairytale creatures, who were hiding in plain sight;

* Downton Abbey – The international hit was just getting its start on the small screen in January of 2011 with an incredible ensemble of characters (and actors), portraying the lives of the British aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early 20th century;

* Game of Thrones – Also not to be undone was the HBO adaptation of the George R.R. Martin book series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ that brought the world Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Jason Momoa, Sophia Turner, Richard Madden, Maisie Williams, Gwendoline Christie, Nathalie Emmanuel and countless others; and,

* Suits – In the summer of 2011, the USA Network debuted this legal drama about brilliant college dropout Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) who found himself working alongside one of the best New York City lawyers, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). What viewers didn’t know at the time was that one of the cast members – a certain actress named Meghan Markle – would later go on to become the Duchess of Sussex by marrying Prince Harry himself.

(Photo Credit: Rueben)

The fuzzy picture was taken by me at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills in 2013 when the cast of Suits appeared for a moderated panel. I remember Meghan joking during the panel that it was surreal for her, as she used to work at Paper Source, a high-end paper and greeting card store right in the heart of Beverly Hills, which was located only a couple blocks from the Paley Center.

(Photo Credit: Dominick Dusseault)

The other picture was taken by our very own Dominick Dusseault in Austin, Texas in 2015 at that year’s ATX Festival.

Before the world was introduced to Gal Gadot as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman, David E. Kelley, the prolific writer/creator behind TV shows such as The Practice, Boston Public and Boston Law [just to name a few], decided to take on the impossible: a new small screen version of Wonder Woman.

Taking on the insurmountable task (at the time) of playing the title character was Adrianne Palicki, who at the time was best known for her role of Tyra Collette in Friday Night Lights and also as Sam’s doomed girlfriend Jessica in Supernatural.

Here is a trailer for that much-maligned failed pilot (and check out who was to be in the cast too!):

That same year, another big production was just getting underway: the casting of Clark Kent aka Superman for the 2013 movie Man of Steel. The actor cast in the lead role was Henry Cavill, who at the time was best known for his recurring role in the TV series The Tudors and was the lead in that year’s movie Immortals. Eagle eye viewers would also recognize him as Albert Mondego, the teen son of Edmond Dantes and his lover Mercedès Iguanada in the 2002 remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. It was only a few months later that the casting of Lois Lane was made with Amy Adams landing that plum role.

In casting news for the small screen on The Vampire Diaries, the role of Klaus – the legendary vampire within that world who put fear into the dead hearts of all vampires – was also announced. British actor Joseph Morgan landed that crucial role, and while he was relatively unknown to American viewers – except those who might have watched the supernatural series Hex or had seen him in the British TV film Mansfield Park.

Actor Nathan Fillion had been a Geek God to sci-fi fans since he landed the lead role of Malcolm Reynolds aka Captain Tightpants in the short-lived but much-beloved series Firefly that aired during the 2002-2003 TV season. In 2011, he had been the lead in the ABC TV drama Castle for two seasons; and it was in March of that year that [finally] Nathan graced the cover of Entertainment Weekly as the Geek God we all knew and loved.

For convention goers – or more specifically those who attended San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) – the inaugural event of Nerd HQ – the organization masterminded by Chuck star Zachary Levi – took place alongside SDCC that year. That year’s event was small in comparison to its proceeding events, which eventually came to an end (unfortunately) in 2017.

(Photo Credit: Rueben)

On a more personal level, I had some of my first convention interview experiences in 2011, starting with an almost one-on-one interview (it was only me and one other reporter at our press table) with actress Anna Silk who played Bo in the Canadian series Lost Girl at San Diego Comic Con.

(Photo Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

And a few months earlier, I had the incredible experience of sitting at the same press table at Wonder Con with actor Henry Cavill (who had just recently been announced as the new Superman) and his Immortals co-stars Luke Evans (who has since been Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and the TV series The Alienist, among others) and Isabel Lucas (the Home and Away star who recurred for one season in the MacGyver reboot).

Here is my article from that interview: Venture Into the World of Immortals

In movie news for 2011, the #1 box office movie was Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which marked the end of that long-running and popular movie franchise. In fact, I wrote an article about The End of Harry Potter.

On the other spectrum, two of the worst movies for that year were Jack & Jill and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.

Just like in 2010, I chose actors who stood out in 2011 as well as actors to be on the look out for in 2012. Among those choices were Michael Fassbender, Sam Claflin, Hayley Atwell, Henry Cavill, Dylan O’Brien, Elizabeth Olson, Felicity Jones, Wilson Bethel, Lily Collins, Nicholas Hoult and Brit Marling.

Once again, I apologize for their pictures not appearing in the following links, but just like the previous year, I feel I was “spot on” in my choices:

The Faces of 2011

Faces to Watch in 2012

COMING SOON: Salute to 2012

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Wonder Con 2019: Day Three

Posted in Convention/Event, Pictures, Television, WonderCon on March 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The final day of Wonder Con 2019 came to an end today with plenty more panels, including those for the soon-to-return The 100 on The CW and this summer highly anticipated premiere of season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead.

The 100

Thanks are extended to the folks at Showbiz Junkies and Whedonopolis for the following video of cast members Eliza Taylor and Marie Avgeropoulos and actors Richard Harmon and Sachin Sahel as well as executive producer-creator Jason Rothenberg:

Eliza:

Marie:

Tasya:

Richard and Sachin:

Jason:

And here is the full panel courtesy of Demi Morris over at YouTube:

The Ladies of The 100:

Marie Avgeropoulos, Tasya Teles, and Eliza Taylor [Photo Credit: Getty Images/North America]

Here is new artwork for The 100:

The 100 will air its season premiere on The CW on April 30 at 9 PM.

Here is the extended trailer for The 100 season 6:

Fear the Walking Dead

It was a full panel for Fear the Walking Dead with cast members Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Danay Garcia, Garret Dillahunt, Maggie Grace, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson and new crossover character Austin Amelio all taking the stage along with surprise guest and returning cast member Ruben Blades. They were also joined by executive producers and showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, executive producer Scott M. Gimple and director Michael Satrazemis.

First a trailer for season five was screened, which announced the return of Ruben Blades as Daniel Salazar. The groups new mission was discussed with Lennie sharing Morgan is “surprised by people’s reluctance to receive help. [People in this world] know how to survive. We need to figure out what the next step is.”

EP Ian Goldberg shared “they will encounter walkers they’ve never seen before, and will probably be the most dangerous walkers they’ve ever faced.”

Colman Domingo will direct his second episode and the producers said they were so impressed with his first foray, they made sure his next challenge was “bigger and more emotional,”

Crossover cast member Austin was a bit hush-hush on his journey from Virginia to Texas but did say that filming in his hometown of Austin, Texas is a “dream come true.

The biggest surprise from the panel was the return of Daniel Salazar. Ruben Blades made sure the fans in the room knew how much he appreciated their support. “You never know what’s going to happen with a show like this and characters like these. Thanks to all of you for helping to keep Daniel alive.” (Syfy Wire)

The fifth season of Fear the Walking Dead premieres June 2nd on AMC.

Cosplayers

The following are photos courtesy of Vital Thrills from Day Three of Wonder Con:

Disney Princesses

Deapool Tardis Crossover

Belle

Atlanna

Aladdin

Rapunzel

Until next year!

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Wonder Con 2019: Day Two

Posted in Convention/Event, Pictures, Television, WonderCon on March 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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…

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Wonder Con 2019: Day One Pictures

Posted in Convention/Event, Movies, Pictures, WonderCon on March 30, 2019| 1 Comment »

The first day of Wonder Con 2019 came to an end yesterday, and while there were many panels held throughout the day, the BIG event of the day was the panel for the much anticipated X-Men franchise movie Dark Phoenix which will be out in theatres on June 7.

Do not miss out on the following pictures taken by our very own Dominick Dusseault, who was there to snap some great shots of the panelists at the Anaheim Convention Center.

More pictures coming soon!

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Wonder Con 2019: Day One

Posted in Convention/Event, Movies, Television, WonderCon on March 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

It’s that time of year again with Wonder Con 2019 getting underway in Anaheim, California. Among the many panels that took place today the following were the TV shows and one big franchise film that were featured:

Dark Phoenix

The latest X-Men franchise film Dark Phoenix will open in theatres on June 7, but at today’s panel the audience got a sneak peek at 17 minutes of the movie.

Thanks to the folks at Syfy Wire, the two key scenes that were screened first found “the X-Men assemble and fly the Blackbird into the cosmos to rescue the crew of a space shuttle damaged by the Phoenix Force. At first all goes well, but Jean (Sophie Turner) accidentally gets left behind to absorb the Phoenix Force into her body.” And in the second sequence, “two teams of mutants — one led by Xavier and one by Magneto (Michael Fassbender) — assemble outside an apartment building on New York’s Central Park, where Jean Grey is holed up inside with the enigmatic alien character (Jessica Chastain).

Those on the panel include writer/director Simon Kinberg, producer Hutch Parker, and cast members Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Evan Peters (Quicksilver) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler)

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger

The panel for the Freeform series Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, which returns for its second season on April 4, included cast members Olivia Holt (Tandy/Dagger), Aubrey Joseph (Ty/Cloak) and Emma Lahana (Bridget/Mayhem) as well as showrunner Joe Pokaski.

Check out an exclusive clip for the show courtesy of Syfy Wire:

The audience got to see a sneak peek of the entire season premiere that basically focused on how the three characters (Tandy, Ty and Bridget – aka Mayhem) are adjusting to the events of the Season 1 finale.

Legion

A clip from the upcoming third and final season of Legion, which will air on FX in June, was screened for the audience with executive producers Noah Hawley, John Cameron, Lauren Shuler Donner and Jeph Loeb on stage alongside cast members Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Navid Negahban, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder and Lauren Tsai.

The following are excerpts from the folks at CBR.com:

Music plays an important role in the series. Hawley explained that for him, “so much of your experience actually happens through your ears. So much of this show is about setting your state of mind to understand the story.

Loeb shared, “every page of this show is a surprise. And we pride ourselves on making surprises. But Noah, as a filmmaker, is in a different league… what’s sort of remarkable is when you sit and talk with Noah… he’ll explain to you exactly what you’re going to see. It’s like someone trying to explain what a duck looks like if you’ve never seen a duck. And then you finally see it, and you go ‘oh, that’s it.’ This is kind of the end of this journey, and I’m hoping we can convince Noah to come back and do something else with Marvel.”

Discussing how David shifts and changes over the course of the series, Stevens said “We’re all sort of sharing in this wonderful experience, and I think that’s what this has been. An experience. It’s all about feeling the full experience. It’s not about focusing on one narrative or version of David, it’s about all of them fighting and living together.”

When asked about how they decided to end the series, Hawley revealed “The show opened with him at his lowest point, he goes to the hospital and meets a girl and he’s happy. And then he goes off his meds and things get out of hand. So we could either [have David] go back to a happy place, or he can go off the bottom of the map. And we decided that’s where to end the story, otherwise we start the loop again… it’s bittersweet, but a story has no meaning without it’s ending. The old paradigm of television is that major corporations don’t do a mic drop. There’s something special about the… story determining the ending.”

Here are just some of the cool cosplayers photographed at today’s event courtesy of Jeff Gritchen for the Orange County Register/SCNG:

Batman (Frank Miguel) and Superman (Peter Rourlaris)

Cheshire Cat Mashup (Nikki Skelton)

Dude Vader, an Egyptian version of a steam-punk samurai Vader (Christopher Canole)

Reverse Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas called “Sal and Jackie” (Miguel and Lucy Capuchino)

Group Photo of X-Men Meet-Up

Group Photo of Marvel Characters

Two Captain Marvel Cosplayers (Kelsey Endter, left and Courtney Baze, right)

Day Two of Wonder Con tomorrow…

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WonderCon 2018 Day Three Mini-Report

Posted in Convention/Event, Geekdom, New Shows, Pictures, Television, WonderCon on March 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

The final day of WonderCon 2018 came to close this afternoon, and the day’s event included a Lucifer episode screening this morning that was to include a special video message from of the show’s stars while this afternoon some of the creative minds behind The CW’s new DC series Black Lightning discussed the hit new show after screening this Tuesday’s upcoming episode.

You can find out what was shared during the Black Lightning panel courtesy of Albert Ching at CBR here.

If you want to see some cool cosplayers who were at WonderCon 2018, check out the pictures taken by Jose Vasquez and posted at Temple of Geek as well as those pictures taken by the folks at ComingSoon.Net:

Day One

Day Two

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Until next year!

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Wonder Con 2018 Day Two in Pictures

Posted in Convention/Event, Movies, New Shows, Pictures, Television, WonderCon on March 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Matt Ryan in Constantine

The second day of WonderCon 2018 is now behind us and our very own Dominick Dusseault was, once again, there to snap some great pictures of some of the panels that were featured throughout the day at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Eline Powell, Series Lead in Siren

The network and streaming TV shows he was able to cover included the following:

Matt Ryan who was the star of the one-season live-action TV series Constantine who has returned to voice the character of John Constantine in the new animated series Constantine: City of Demons, which is now streaming on the CW Seed website.

Siren:

Siren is set in the picturesque town of Bristol Cove where lives are changed when mermaids come ashore, starting a war between man and mermaid. The series debuts on Freeform on March 29.

Panelists (Left to Right): Eric Wald (Writer), Rena Owen (Cast Member), Ian Verdun (Cast Member), Eline Powell (Series Lead), Alex Roe (Cast Member), Sibongile Mlambo (Cast Member), and Emily Whitesell (Creator).

Supermansion is the base for the League of Freedom, a superhero group, that is led by the aging superhero Titanium Rex and located in the fictional Storm City. Titanium Rex and his fellow superheroes Black Saturn, American Ranger, Jewbot/Robobot, Cooch, and Brad struggle to keep the team relevant even if it involves fighting an assortment of supervillains. The third season of Supermansion will premiere on Crackle on May 7.

Panelists (Left to Right): Heidi Gardner (Writer-Voice Actor), Breckin Meyer (Voice Actor), Yvette Nicole Brown (Voice Actor, Zeb Wells (Writer-Voice Actor) and Matthew Senreich (Writer-Voice Actor).

Panelists (Left to Right): Breckin Meyer and Yvette Nicole Brown

Timeless:

The NBC time-travel series Timeless was saved from an abrupt cancellation last year three days after the axe fell; and the seconds season got underway on March 11 with the next new episode set to air tonight, March 25.

Panelists (Left to Right): Jim Halterman (Moderator), Shawn Ryan (Creator), Paterson Joseph (Cast Member), Sakina Jaffrey (Cast Member), Goran Visnjic (Cast Member) and Malcolm Barrett (Series Lead).

Panelists (Left to Right): Sakina Jaffrey and Goran Visnjic.

Krypton:

The new Syfy series Krypton debuted on March 21. The series follows Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El, whose family, the House of El, has been ostracized and shamed. The next new episode will air on March 28.

Panelists (Left to Right): Damian Holbrook (Moderator), Cameron Welsh (Executive Producer), Wallis Day (Cast Member), Cameron Cuffe (Series Lead), Georgina Campbell (Cast Member), Shaun Sipos (Cast Member) and Dan Evans (DC Entertainment).

Panelists (Left to Right): Wallis Day, Cameron Cuffe and Georgina Campbell.

Impulse:

The YouTube Red series will follow 16-year-old Henrietta, aka Henry, who discovers she has the ability to teleport. The first time she realizes this, she is in a truck with her high school’s Golden Boy, who tries to rape her. She has a seizure and teleports, in the course of which she inadvertently crushes him, leaving him a paraplegic. The series will debut this summer.

Panelists (Left to Right): Doug Liman (Executive Producer), Gene Klein (Executive Producer), Lauren LeFranc (Showrunner), Missi Pyle (Series Lead), Maddie Hasson (Series Lead) and Daniel Maslany (Cast Member).

And, he covered one upcoming box office movie:

Bad Samaritan:

The film Bad Samaritan focuses on a poor restaurant valet who uses the cars entrusted to him by the restaurant clientele to break into their homes. One night, he finds more than he bargained for when breaking into one house only to discover a woman imprisoned there. Frightened of going to jail, he abandons her and calls the police, only to find himself in a game of cat-and-mouse with the psychotic home owner. The film will be released on May 4, 2018.

Panelists (Left to Right): Scott Mantz (Moderator), Dean Devlin (Director), Brandon Boyce (Writer), Jacqueline Byers (Cast Member), Carlito Olivero (Cast Member) and Kerry Condon (Cast Member).

COMING NEXT: Day Three of WonderCon 2018 report.

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WonderCon 2018: Day Two Report

Posted in Convention/Event, Pictures, Television, Video, WonderCon on March 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Day Two of WonderCon 2018 took place all day today at the Anaheim Convention Center with plenty of TV shows on tap. Among those show were the following:

Into the Badlands:

The first TV series on the schedule was the AMC action-adventure Into the Badlands. You can read up on what Dino-Ray Ramos at Deadline had to say about the panel here.

Here is a direct link for the official season 3 trailer that was shown for the AMC series, which will return on April 22:

Siren:

The brand new Freeform fantasy drama Siren will debut on March 29. Courtesy of Jenna Busch, reporting for ComingSoon.Net, you can learn about what was discussed during the panel as well as a new video for the series and some promo pictures.

Timeless:

You can check out a video of the Timeless panel that happened this afternoon, featuring several of the cast members – sans Matt and Abigail, though – courtesy of Kirsten Running:

Here is what our very own Roz had to share on Twitter during the Timeless panel:

“Watching #timeless next to @ShawnRyanTV at WonderCon 2018. What a great way to watch an episode about Hollywood.”

Roz also received a Twitter response from Shawn Ryan himself, joking “You didn’t say hi!” to which Roz remarked back on Twitter “But we talked in the press room. And it was dark.”

This is a perfect example of why Wonder Con is so much fun to attend!

Lost in Space:

The Netflix “remake” of Lost in Space, which will debut on April 13, took to the stage this afternoon, and you can learn what went down during the panel courtesy of David Griffin at IGN.

You can also check out the coverage provided by Dino-Ray Ramos at Deadline here.

Jenna Busch at ComingSoon.Net shared her insights into the panel as well as a new trailer for the streaming series and some cool promo pictures here.

Krypton:

The new Syfy series Krypton, which debuted on March 21, was one of the featured panels this afternoon.

Kaitlyn Booth at Bleeding Cool had this to say about what was said and shared during the panel, including some photos of the panelists.

James Comtois – from Syfy – had this to share about the Krypton panel.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:

Albert Ching from CBR gives a run-down of what took place during the Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel from this afternoon. You can read his piece here.

And, Dino-Ray Ramos from Deadline had this to share about how the panel differed from those in the past.

A new episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air on ABC this coming Friday, March 30.

Photo Credit: @GeekGirlPenPals

A Series of Unfortunate Events:

Thanks to the folks @GeekGirlPenPals, please check out the picture below of Nathan Fillion, as he introduces an episode from the second season of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which will air on Netflix on March 30. Nathan will play Jacques Snicket in season 2.

COMING NEXT: Photographs from Day Two of WonderCon 2018 from our very own Dominick Dusseault.

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