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Co-written with Edward Hong What do you do when you’re born with a superpower but it’s really not that super? Especially if it’s a power that can accurately pinpoint the success or failure of any romantic relationship? Gifted, which is currently playing at the Sacred Fools till February 29, explores this question in a world […]

(image: The CW)

The finale of Arrow left us with a lot of hints of things to come in a lot of the characters’ potential futures. We already know that The CW is working on a spinoff with Green Arow and the Canaries, but there is another major person on the Arrow team who might be getting their own spinoff, and that is John Diggle, a.k.a. the people’s champion.

**Spoilers for Arrow’s series finale.**

(image: The CW)

For a long time, people have speculated that John Diggle could be the Green Lantern because he shares so much similar background with Green Lantern John Stewart. Plus, his relationship with Oliver emulates the Green Arrow/Lantern friendship that has existed in the comics. It was elevated even more so when it was revealed that John’s stepfather was named Roy Stewart. Hence, he is (in a way) John Stewart.

During the finale, we have a scene of Diggle moving to Metropolis and a meteor crashing nearby. He goes to investigate and finds a box that emanates green light when he opens it. ♫Dun dun dun.♫

In an interview with TV Guide, actor David Ramsey explained that the reason they have been so vague is because there are restrictions that DC Entertainment has asked for, since the company is working on a Green Lantern series for HBO Max. Can’t muddy the waters, even though the CW shows are the most successful out of everything DC has created for the screen recently, sans Watchmen.

“We did have some restrictions from DC, so we had to kind of play within that. But it wouldn’t be Arrow if there wasn’t some question even after that opened-ended tease,” Ramsey said. “And it’s a huge tease, and obviously, your mind goes to only one thing—there being a ring and him becoming this wonderful character and joining this galactic police group—but it’s still open-ended, and that’s the way we wanted to leave it. It was great to have some sort of answer, but we’re left with some questions.”

Even as someone who left the Arrow part of the Arrowverse before the show’s end, John Diggle was one of my favorite characters when I was watching. I appreciated how important he felt to the story without being the “Black Best Friend,” and I was one of the people who was waiting for him to get his Green Lantern ring. Yet, the fact that it could be happening post-Arrow makes me sad.

During Crisis, one of the things that sort of made my eyebrows tweak was the weird lineup of the “Paragons.” While I understood it from a “this is an Arrowverse Crossover” perspective, it was just odd that White Canary and Batwoman were there and Diggle, the unofficial Green Lantern expy, was absent—same with Black Lightning, although I do get it for filming reasons. I would have liked for Diggle to have had this power and presence on the actual show, especially if the Green Lantern series doesn’t get picked up or doesn’t do well. He was such an important character, and while it’s cool that our last image of him is full of potential, I would have preferred to see the Green Arrow and Green Lantern team up properly.

“No matter what level you are, we are actors who work. And it begins on the page, so whether it’s John Diggle or John Diggle Stewart or however that works, of course, I would be open to that,” Ramsey said in the interview. “Greg Berlanti, however—it’s almost without a question. I think he’s prolific. Anything he wants to talk to me about, I’m happy to hear it.”

We shall see.

(via io9)

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Whenever there’s a real life health epidemic, we often collectively turn to fictional narratives as a way of understanding them – or maybe just coping . Back in the ’90s, when the Ebola virus terrorized worldwide populations with an extinction-level plague, audiences flocked to theaters to watch Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo fight a fake version of the virus in Outbreak. Of course, more recently the The Hot Zone mini-series focused on the actual Ebola virus and the repercussions of it spreading.

But the current health epidemic currently panicking everyone is the Coronavirus. After first identifying it in China late last year, doctors have recorded 6,171 confirmed cases of the virus, leading to 132 deaths. Meanwhile, only three known cases were identified in the United States as of right now. And as populations steel themselves for another epidemic, they once again turn to fiction for ways to identify, comprehend, and maybe be entertained by a simulation of that impending danger. According to The Hollywood Reporter (via Slashfilm), Steven Soderbergh‘s 2011 film Contagion entered the top 10 on the iTunes movie rental chart on Tuesday January 8th at the number 10 spot, alongside recent hits like Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Parasite.

In Soderbergh’s film, Gwyneth Paltrow plays an American who develops aggressive flu-like symptoms after a business trip to Hong Kong. But she and the rest of the world quickly discover that it’s some kind of super virus, as it spreads like wildfire across the country. By the end of the film, some 2.5 million North Americans die before scientists can develop a vaccine. Soderbergh conceived the movie with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Report)  in the wake of 2000s epidemic scares like SARS and the Bird Flu. Paltrow leads an all-star cast featuring Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet. Unlike her Marvel films, Paltrow probably remembers making this one, since (spoiler alert) she not only dies but gets graphically dissected during an autopsy.

The original report indicates that “Google searches regarding Contagion’s availability via streaming began spiking late last week. By Monday, it rested at No. 13 on the iTunes chart before landing at No. 10 the next day.” I don’t know about you, but if I were truly scared about deadly viruses, the last thing on Earth I would watch is a Doomsday scenario movie about an extinction-level health crisis. But perhaps living vicariously through characters in a fictional scenario — especially one heavily researched and broadly fact-driven as the events in Soderbergh’s film — might offer some insights into how best to prevent or avoid catching something in real life. (Some of its presented stats, such as the number of times we touch our faces per day, are not only based in truth but genuinely surprising.)

But as realistic as Contagion may seem, it’s best to remember that its story is a work of fiction, and should not be used as a guidebook for protecting oneself from a true epidemic like the Coronavirus. Of course, why people would look to that movie — or any Hollywood virus movie — for tips in an outbreak remains baffling. But even if pure, morbid curiosity drives the recent increase in the film’s rentals, watching widespread disease and death portrayed on a global scale, there’s something reassuring about keeping those health risks quarantined in the realm of the imagination.

Featured Image: Warner Brothers 

The post CONTAGION Rentals Spike After Coronavirus Scare appeared first on Nerdist.

Weeks after Disney issued cease and desist orders for dozens of pieces of unlicensed merchandise inspired by The Mandalorian’s adorable breakout character “The Child,” Sideshow Collectibles premiered a life-size version for pre-sale on Wednesday, promptly crashing the company’s website as orders flowed in. Sideshow restored its site to functionality shortly thereafter, offering squeeing fans the opportunity to obtain their own photorealistic version of Baby Yoda for the very first time.

Despite showrunners’ insistence that The Child absolutely is not an infant version of the Star Wars saga’s oldest, wisest and perhaps most grammatically-challenged Jedi, “Baby Yoda” instantly captured the hearts of fans after premiering in Chapter 2 of Lucasfilm’s flagship series for Disney+. He became a fan favorite overnight whose exploits social media users pored over, deconstructed and of course memed immediately into oblivion as the story of The Mandalorian Season One evolved.

Merchandising titan Disney failed to develop a series of toys and collectibles available for immediate consumption upon the character’s arrival, an inexplicable choice except possibly as some sort of deep-cut homage to the absence of action figures when George Lucas released the original Star Wars in 1977. Sideshow’s figure follows a handful of plush toys and other lightweight trinkets with a complicated and detailed replica of the animatronic puppet used by filmmakers to bring the character to life.

Sideshow assembled the 16.5” figure from fabric, plastic and resin, creating not only The Child’s trademark tan coat and diminutive frame, but the irresistible swell of his eyes and nuanced hues of green that pigment his skin. We’re not sure if the fact that he’s life-sized is adorable or creepy, but at best he’ll be the most unique garden gnome in your front yard, and at worst stare at you every night from a dusty shelf while you rewatch him in action on The Mandalorian. The retail price for The Child is $350.

The Mandalorian‘s release kicked off the launch of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, not only with exclusive Star Wars content fans couldn’t find elsewhere, but a glossy, highly-polished adventure that felt authentic to the worlds created in the films. Disney felt so confident about its success that the company announced plans for a second season at the same time as the premiere of its predecessor.

Critics and fans loved analyzing the various influences, inspirations and Easter eggs in Season One’s eight episodes, but Baby Yoda became such a phenomenon so quickly that discussion of the character’s future became a dominant topic of conversation during press coverage for J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, which took place decades after the events of The Mandalorian and had almost nothing to do with the show.

Disney premiered a plush version of The Child on the company’s website in late 2019 which predictably sold out almost immediately. Disney currently also sells several other Baby Yoda-branded items like espadrilles, tote bags and iPhone cases – a first wave of products before the company’s storied merchandising undoubtedly goes into overdrive. In which case, if a photorealistic version of this character isn’t your collectible of choice, what Baby Yoda item would you most like to acquire? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Photos courtesy Sideshow Collectibles.

The post Life-Size BABY YODA Debuts From Sideshow Collectibles appeared first on Nerdist.