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Happy Memorial Day to our loyal and informed listenership.  we're keeping it simple for the holidays, citizens!  Check out the latest episode of Afronerd Radio's The Grindhouse airing tonight at 6 p.m. eastern on BTalk 100.  The topics to be put on our metaphysical grill this evening are:  another show from the Star Wars canonical universe debuted this weekend, simply titled, Obi-Wan Kenobi and we have our first impressions: And unsurprisingly there are even more streaming shows forthcoming, hence the trailer for Andor hit the cyberwebs this week as well:

We failed to address popular social media (anti)maven, B. Simone's divisive commentary concerning the alleged infidelities of Civil Rights icon, Dr. Martin Luther King

Well sometimes a 36-year wait can be worth it......the sequel to 1986's Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick opens to a huge box office take for a Tom Cruise film, a 260 million dollar global windfall and again, we will discuss; is athlete-activist, Colin Kaepernick really returning to football via the Las Vegas Raiders?; the upcoming video game, WB developers for Gotham Knights are accused of ableism due to a revamped backstory involving the once paraplegic Batgirl character;  thoughts about proposed changes to another backstory, this time involving Marvel's Prince Namor and his proposed debut in Wakanda Forever; and lastly, we will try to pick up some topics that we failed to address during last week's Mid-Week in Review show.       

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

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BGN interviews the team behind the Netflix project First Kill.

Featured in the interviews are: Sarah Catherine Hook (“Juliette Fairmont”), Imani Lewis (“Calliope Burns”), Creator, Writer & Executive Producer Victoria “V.E.” Schwab Showrunner & Writer & Executive Producer Felicia D. Henderson, and Elizabeth Mitchell (“Margot Fairmont”).

When it’s time for teenage vampire Juliette to make her first kill so she can take her place among a powerful vampire family, she sets her sights on a new girl in town named Calliope. But much to Juliette’s surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter, from a family of celebrated slayers. Both find that the other won’t be so easy to kill and, unfortunately, way too easy to fall for.

Interviewer: Catalina Combs

Video Editor: Jamie Broadnax

First Kill premieres globally on June 10, 2022 only on Netflix.

Netflix’s Geeked Week is returning once more. The event begins June 6. But it’s already looking like we’re in for a creepy and kooky ride. The streaming platform teased a preview of the upcoming Tim Burton series, Wednesday. The upcoming series follows the teenage Wednesday Addams. She’s thwarting a monster and trying to keep her psychic abilities in check. And before we get our actual tease, Netflix is giving us a little look at an important member of the Addams family: Thing.

Thing has clearly seen better days, as the scarred and stitched together appendage graces the screen.

Here’s the logline, per Netflix:

Wednesday is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting 16-year-old Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Season One will follow Wednesday as she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the murder mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago—all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.

Jenna Ortega plays the titular teen, while Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán play Morticia and Gomez. Rounding out the cast are Gwendoline Christie, Christina Ricci, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Joy Sunday, Emma Myers, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Georgie Farmer, Naomi Ogawa, and Moosa Mostafa.

It’s particularly exciting to see Ricci, our current Yellowjackets MVP, returning to the franchise. Will the former Wednesday Addams have a scene with Ortega? We’d love to see a Wednesday Addams team-up.

In addition to Burton, who serves as director and executive producer, the creative team includes Al Gough and Miles Millar as producers and showrunners. Gandja Monteiro and James Marshall direct two episodes in the latter half of the eight-episode season. Plus, Danny Elfman is teaming up with Burton, his frequent collaborator, to write the score alongside Chris Bacon.

The post Netflix Points the Finger Toward Wednesday Addams Series in First Tease appeared first on Nerdist.

I will start by saying that I stan Moses Ingram.  The moment I saw her in The Queen’s Gambit, I knew she was the one to watch. She graduated from the Yale School of Drama along with fellow student Jonathan Majors (Loki, The Harder They Fall) and is a force — pun intended — to be reckoned with. Ingram has also gone on to star with Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth. However, her latest project is her biggest yet , a role in the Star Wars universe.

Ingram plays Inquisitor Reva Sevander, also known as the Third Sister. She’s force-sensitive and serves the Galactic Empire as a member of the Inquisitorius. Her mission is crystal clear — to find and capture the Jedi Master Obi-Wan, who is now a fugitive on the run. As of this writing, Ingram has appeared in only two episodes of the 6-episode run of the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, in that time, the actor has received a ton of vitriol from toxic fans online and Ingram herself has posted screenshots from her Instagram account of some the racist backlash from fans.

She’s not letting it get her down and sent a message online:

In the meantime, please send love bombs and spread support for Moses Ingram because toxic fandom is a culture fostered by online hate empowered by social media platforms.  John Boyega went through this, Kelly Marie Tran went through this and now we’re seeing it happen all over again Moses.

Reva Savander so far in the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi offers a very significant plot device for Obi-Wan’s journey and currently is the perfect foil for his story.  At the beginning of the pilot episode, we see children under attack during Order 66 and one of those children is a Black girl. At this time, the girl is unidentified, but it is likely that this is a young Reva as a Jedi. Reva was attacked and abandoned. And while one Jedi was killed, it is possible that another got away.  That Jedi could likely have been Obi-Wan. 

Reva is rebellious against the orders of the Inquisitors and breaks the rules which reveals that her motivations are more for personal gain as opposed to a mission.  I’m also not alone in this theory and if this is in fact the case, since our third sister kills The Grand Inquisitor in a moment of defiance, this confirms that she’s not playing sides here.  The only side she’s on is most likely her own.

So what does this have to do with toxic fandom?

Here’s the answer: Reva Sevander’s autonomy. A character with her own agency, making executive decisions, and not some worker bee under the Galactic Empire is daunting to a predominantly white male fanbase. Historically the representation of Black women in the Star Wars universe have been lackluster at best.  And it could be a bit too soon to make any assumptions here since we’re only a couple of episodes in, but Reva could be the most fully fleshed out third-dimensional Black female character we will get for the first time in Star Wars.  If the story plays out correctly, and theories align properly, Reva could be the heart and soul of this show which could inevitably provide a rich story for the good vs bad component of storytelling in this narrative. These toxic fans may fear that the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi could turn out to be less about the titular character and Anakin Skywalker and more about Reva Sevander and quite possibly Leia Organa. And God forbid women inevitably turn out to be at the forefront of this series — “OH THE HORROR!”

While I don’t believe they would eclipse the attention from stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, I do believe that their characters will be far from the 2-dimensional roles we’ve seen played out in past franchises played by women.  And in Moses Ingram’s case, Black women specifically. I hope I’m not tooting my own horn here by praising this too much before seeing how this unfolds, because my theory could be wrong, but if IMDB has Moses Ingram listed to be in all six episodes, that gives me hope that at least Reva isn’t fridged in the first few episodes of season one. 

Star Wars is supposed to be a space for entertainment, a place to unwind and get away from reality, at least for a short while.  We’re not supposed to take the monstrosities of the real world into the fandoms we love.  In fact, that’s the whole point, we’re supposed to leave those things behind.  When we’re fighting with friends and family on Facebook about gun control laws and politics, we can all take a break and fire up Disney+ for a couple of hours and watch Obi-Wan Kenobi and escape from the realities of the terrible world we live in. 

Moses Ingram deserves to open up her Instagram app without seeing nasty messages from “alleged fans” harassing her for playing a FICTIONAL CHARACTER. It’s unreal that still today women of color actors of Star Wars are still dealing with online attacks from fans.

But if my theory proves correct, and Reva later becomes the patron saint of Obi-Wan, then the toxic fandom just exposed themselves for who they truly are.  They really do not want to see a Black woman making her own choices and creating her own narrative. A Black woman taking risks.  If she doesn’t abide by their rules, she’s seen as a threat, and that is what they are ultimately afraid of. I’m excited to see the trajectory of how Reva’s character unfolds and what direction the show Obi-Wan Kenobi goes in.

Obi-Wan Kenobi airs Wednesdays on Disney+