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https://nerdist.com/article/horror-director-oz-perkins-role-legally-blonde-dorky-david-kidney/
When it comes to pretty much any career, everyone has to start somewhere. And sometimes where they start is far different from where they end up. For example, we knew that Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key were comedy geniuses thanks to their show Key & Peele. But did anyone see Peele being a horror directing legend in the making or Key being brilliant in musicals? Probably not. In a similar vein to Peele, horror auteur Oz Perkins—known for directing films like Longlegs and The Monkey—got his start as an actor. In fact, one of Oz Perkins earliest roles was in the beloved 2001 comedy film Legally Blonde.
In the film, Perkins famously played Dorky David Kidney, a student at Harvard alongside Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods. For those who are somehow not familiar with Legally Blonde, Elle Woods is a rich California sorority girl who works hard to earn a spot at Harvard Law School to prove to her ex-boyfriend that she can be “serious enough.” She comes to the school and is very much a fish-out-of-water among her classmates, many whom judge her unfairly because of her trendy clothes and bubbly personality. She essentially discovers that she actually wants to be there, makes a few friends, wins a big case, and succeeds without her ex being her motivation.
As Dorky David’s name suggests, he is very socially awkward and doesn’t quite fit in with his peers. However, he forms a connection with Elle, who doesn’t treat him in the way that you’d expect the average popular girl to do. The tall and sweet David is a fave character among fans of the film. Oz is very believable in the role and uses his 6’4 frame to really sell David’s discomfort with highly visible due to his height, which only heightens his anxiety at times. I especially love this moment where Elle steps in to give David an assist and make him look like a cool dude:
Perkins continued to act in several small parts before writing his first film, Removal, in 2010. His profile as a writer and director truly began to rise with his feature directorial debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, in 2015. Even as the child of Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho, Perkins still had to prove himself in the industry and genre and certainly has cemented his own legacy.
But, no matter how far his career goes, he will always have a special spot in Legally Blonde fans’ hearts as Dorky David.
The post Horror Director Oz Perkins’ Role as LEGALLY BLONDE’s Dorky David Will Always Have a Place in Our Hearts appeared first on Nerdist.
When it comes to pretty much any career, everyone has to start somewhere. And sometimes where they start is far different from where they end up. For example, we knew that Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key were comedy geniuses thanks to their show Key & Peele. But did anyone see Peele being a horror directing legend in the making or Key being brilliant in musicals? Probably not. In a similar vein to Peele, horror auteur Oz Perkins—known for directing films like Longlegs and The Monkey—got his start as an actor. In fact, one of Oz Perkins earliest roles was in the beloved 2001 comedy film Legally Blonde.
In the film, Perkins famously played Dorky David Kidney, a student at Harvard alongside Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods. For those who are somehow not familiar with Legally Blonde, Elle Woods is a rich California sorority girl who works hard to earn a spot at Harvard Law School to prove to her ex-boyfriend that she can be “serious enough.” She comes to the school and is very much a fish-out-of-water among her classmates, many whom judge her unfairly because of her trendy clothes and bubbly personality. She essentially discovers that she actually wants to be there, makes a few friends, wins a big case, and succeeds without her ex being her motivation.
As Dorky David’s name suggests, he is very socially awkward and doesn’t quite fit in with his peers. However, he forms a connection with Elle, who doesn’t treat him in the way that you’d expect the average popular girl to do. The tall and sweet David is a fave character among fans of the film. Oz is very believable in the role and uses his 6’4 frame to really sell David’s discomfort with highly visible due to his height, which only heightens his anxiety at times. I especially love this moment where Elle steps in to give David an assist and make him look like a cool dude:
Perkins continued to act in several small parts before writing his first film, Removal, in 2010. His profile as a writer and director truly began to rise with his feature directorial debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, in 2015. Even as the child of Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho, Perkins still had to prove himself in the industry and genre and certainly has cemented his own legacy.
But, no matter how far his career goes, he will always have a special spot in Legally Blonde fans’ hearts as Dorky David.
The post Horror Director Oz Perkins’ Role as LEGALLY BLONDE’s Dorky David Will Always Have a Place in Our Hearts appeared first on Nerdist.
The return of the animated X-Men in Season 2 of Disney+’s X-Men ’97 has fans speculating about the show’s potential direction. Among the most intriguing questions is whether the series will delve into Moira MacTaggert’s reincarnation powers, a game-changing revelation introduced in the comics during Jonathan Hickman’s House of X and Powers of X comic book run. Given the character’s demise in Season 1 of X-Men ’97, Season 2 has the perfect opportunity to explore Moira’s reincarnation powers.
For those who haven’t read the comics, Moira MacTaggert was portrayed as a brilliant geneticist and a long-time ally of Charles Xavier, and her role focused primarily on her scientific contributions in mutant research, including the development of a mutant research facility on Muir Island. Her relationship with Xavier and her occasional involvement in the X-Men’s battles added more depth to her character, and that is how she was portrayed in 1992’s X-Men: The Animated Series. However, those depictions were based on her pre-Hickman comic book iteration, where she was a human ally to mutants.
That all changed with the release of House of X and Power of X, which redefined Moira MacTaggert’s character by giving her mutant powers: reincarnation and the ability to reset her own timeline. Moira’s powers allow her to restart her life from birth each time she dies and retain all memories of her previous lives. By revealing Moira to be a mutant, she’s transformed from being a peripheral character into one of the key people who have shaped mutant history and played a pivotal role in establishing the mutant nation of Krakoa.
Now, the exact mechanics behind Moira’s powers are incredibly complex. Every time she dies, the universe around her is basically destroyed; her consciousness with perfect recall is sent back to the stage of fetal development, and she’s conscious the entire time she’s gestating in utero — and remembers all of her previous lives. She’s then born to the exact same parents every time since her consciousness can’t go back to a point before she existed. When these powers were introduced in the Power of X, it was revealed that she had actually lived nine lifetimes already.
She became one of the foremost researchers in mutant genetics during her third life, where she also learned that she would live only 10, perhaps 11, lives and that she wouldn’t reincarnate if she died before her powers manifested at the age of 13. This means that her portrayal in TAS could potentially be retconned to represent one of her lives after her third reincarnation — which ended with her being burned alive by Pyro and Destiny. All of this brings us to the current events of the X-Men ’97 series: Moira dies off-screen in Episode 5, titled “Remember It,” in a barrage of explosions.
Given how her powers work, reintroducing the character and her reincarnation powers following Moira’s death in X-Men ’97 isn’t without its challenges — most of which are related to series storytelling. Both 1992’s TAS and the new X-Men ’97 thrive on episodic storytelling with overarching narratives and themes; each of these stories is contained within one or two episodes, rarely three, as was the case with the Season 1 finale, “Tolerance Is Extinction,” which is a three-part story.
But each of these serves the overarching narrative. Moira’s reincarnation, on the other hand, is very complex and lends itself to serialized, layered narratives rather than episodic storytelling, so showrunners and writers would have to find a way to fit her backstory into the show’s already established tone and pacing. As we’ve seen in Season 1, Moira died, but the narrative hasn’t reverted to the beginning or to the period of her birth; instead, the story continued and concluded with the X-Men trapped in time and Apocalypse rummaging through the remnants of Genosha.
But Moira’s power resets the timeline back to the moment when she gained consciousness in utero without branching out or creating new timelines. This means that the timeline would follow its established chronology unless someone, somewhere, became or introduced a radical element that would change the course of history/the future. So, even with the timeline reset, the series can still resume its flow as if nothing had happened. However, this means that, while the current version of Moira died in an explosion, some other version of Moira took her place.
Her death in Episode 5 practically never happened because the time was reset, and given that she now knows how her life would end, she can prevent that from happening. From the perspective of the viewer, her re-introduction could be confusing, but to comic book fans, it could make perfect sense. Now, given that she died but now lives due to a timeline reset, Season 2 could introduce two or even three different versions of Moira.
One version could join Magneto after realizing that her and Charles’ dream of mutant and human coexistence is nothing but a dream; another version could be her replacement (clone) made through Shi’ar golem technology; or the third version, a villainous fully-merged human-machine hybrid, whose sole desire is the destruction of mutant-kind. Whatever the case may be, Moira’s role could shift from a supportive ally to a central figure whose choices shape mutant kind’s destiny.
The question is whether the series will embrace this game-changing aspect of her character and how it might redefine the team’s mission.
The post Will ‘X-Men ’97’ Explore Moira MacTaggert’s Reincarnation Power? appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
The Last of Us ended its first season on HBO with Joel and Ellie returning to the commune in Colorado. Sure, Joel might have doomed all mankind to save one young girl, but at least they have a place nice to live. For now. Fans of Naughty Dog’s popular video game franchise know new terrors and sadness await the pair in the years to come, and we’ll see all of it come to life when the hit series begins adapting the sequel game in its second season, which will premiere April 13, 2025. What else can we expect from the show after a lengthy wait?
Check out some fresh images for The Last of Us season two:
Here’s everything we know about The Last of Us‘ second season so far.
The Last of Us Season 2 Plot
HBO has not yet shared an official synopsis for The Last of Us season two. We still have some idea what to expect. The franchise’s second video game will provide the source material for the TV series. Showrunner Craig Mazin has said the show will take more than one season to adapt the sequel game, but like with the television series’ first season they are not making a direct adaptation. Fans will once again see some major changes alongside some major moments and stories taken directly from the game. That might very well include a huge—though temporary—change for one character. (We won’t risk spoiling it for those who don’t know what that means.)
A recent trailer teasing upcoming Max releases in 2025 spotlighted The Last of Us season two. You can check out what this trailer chose to highlight at the 1:43 mark and then watch the full second season teaser below.
One thing that won’t change is the importance of The Last of Us Part II‘s Abby Anderson. She will debut during the second season and play a significant role in Ellie’s story. And like the video game sequel, the HBO series will also feature a time jump.
New footage from season two promises that it will definitely be explosive. Joel is tearful and Ellie is going through some sort of horrific challenges of her own. We also get a look at Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Wright in their new roles. It is not totally clear who Catherine is playing, but Jeffrey is reprising his role as the game character Isaac. According to Entertainment Weekly, he is “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy.”
These new images also have us super hype.
Behind the Scenes
The Last of Us‘ second season was in pre-production before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes put the show on hold. The first episode had already been written at the time. With both unions finally getting fair deals, the show is now expected to begin filming in Vancouver in early 2024.
Co-creators, writers, and executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are back for season two. Writers Halley Gross (The Last of Us Part II) and Bo Shim worked with Mazin and Druckmann on season two. Deadline additionally reports that The Last of Us season two has set its slate of directors, both new and old. These include four new directors: Succession‘s Mark Mylod, Perry Mason‘s Nina Lopez-Corrado, Watchmen‘s Stephen Williams, and Loki‘s Kate Herron. They join returning director Peter Hoar, who directed the incredible season one episode “Long, Long Time,” and the show’s creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
The series comes from Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, and Naughty Dog.
The Last of Us Season 2’s Cast
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return as Joel and Ellie. Also expected back is Gabriel Luna. He plays Joel’s younger brother, Tommy. As is Rutina Wesley. She plays Tommy’s wife Maria.
Regarding new casting news, The Last of Us season two has cast Kaitlyn Dever as Abby. Abby is an important character from The Last of Us Part II game. Additionally, Isabela Merced has joined the season as Dina, who also hails from the second The Last of Us game. Dina is described as “a free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.”
Most recently, Isabela Merced, who will play Dina on The Last of Us season two, shared, “I’m so excited for people to see my chemistry with Bella. Bella and I have so much chemistry. From the first day, it was there. There’s no work to be done. I really respect Bella. I just saw Catherine Called Birdy, and Bella has such range and just an honesty about their work. I’m learning so much. I’m very honored to be here.”
We’re glad to hear it because we can’t wait to see Dina and Ellie’s complicated romance come to life. Currently, The Last of Us season two describes Dina as “a free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.”
The Last of Us season two has also cast Beef‘s Young Mazino as Jess. Jess is described, per Variety, as “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at a terrible cost.” That sounds ominous. Generally speaking, from Jess’s role in The Last of Us Part II, we can assume he and Ellie will build a friendship.
Finally Danny Ramirez, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, and Spencer Lord have all come aboard the second season of The Last of US, they will all feature as characters from The Last of Us Part II.
Variety reveals:
Ramirez will play Manny, described as “a loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.” Barer will play Mel, said to be “a young doctor whose commitment to saving lives is challenged by the realities of war and tribalism.”
Gabrielle has been cast as Nora, “a military medic struggling to come to terms with the sins of her past.” And Lord will appear as Owen, “a gentle soul trapped in a warrior’s body, condemned to fight an enemy he refuses to hate.”
The Last of Us Season 2’s Release Date
The Last of Us‘ second season will premiere April 13, 2025. This reported in mid February via Variety.
Originally published on December 29, 2023.
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