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Even though Hollywood (and everywhere else) is still on lockdown, plans for the Cassian Andor series are still underway. The Disney+ series follows The Mandalorian as the second live-action series set in the Star Wars universe. The still untitled series is a prequel that follows the adventures of Diego Luna’s character five years before the events of Rogue One: a Star Wars Story.

Now, it’s been announced that Rogue One screenwriter Tony Gilroy will be taking over showrunning duties for Stephen Schiff (The Americans). Gilroy wrote the screenplays for the first four Bourne films, as well as writing and directing Michael Clayton. Gilroy will also be directing the pilot episode of the series.

In addition, Genevieve O’Reilly and Denise Gough (The Kid Who Would Be King) have joined the prequel series. O’Reilly will reprise her role as Mon Mothma, while Gough’s role is still under wraps. They joined previously announced cast members Stellan Skarsgard and Kyle Soller. There’s no word yet on whether or not K-2SO will be joining the show, although my Alan Tudyk-loving self hopes he will.

There’s no word yet on when we can expect the Cassian Andor series, but add it to the list of things to look forward to post-quarantine.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

• Congrats to Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger, who are expecting their first child together. (via EW)
• Here are ten story-driven video games to check out while quarantining. (via Gizmodo)
• Here’s a list of queer comfort reads during this trying time. (via Autostraddle)
• J. August Richards (Angel, Agents of SHIELD) has come out as a proud gay man. Congrats J. August!

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“I knew that I could not portray this gay man honestly without letting you all know that I am a gay man myself.”

A post shared by J. August Richards (@jaugustrichards) on Apr 20, 2020 at 9:18am PDT

• Who can we expect to see in season 2 of The Witcher? (via CBR)
• Let’s delve into Netflix’s Ghost in the Shell:SAC_2045. (via Polygon)
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge took home everyone’s favorite Fleabag set piece. (via AVClub)
• Randy Rainbow does it again!

🎶Just a spoonful of Clorox makes your temperature go down…🎶 🌂👨🏼‍⚕️🌈 #ASpoonfulOfClorox #TrumpDisinfectant pic.twitter.com/sQ7VOoyNWk

— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) April 25, 2020

Hope you’re having a safe and sweet Saturday, Sue Believers!

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Source: Getty / Getty

It looks like Niecy Nash and Sherri Shepherd are trading places. Back in the day, it was Niecy who set Shepherd up with her ex-husband Lamar Sally during a matchmaking event at her home.

Now that Nash has divorced her husband Jay Tucker, Shepherd has her own ideas about who should be the next man in Nash’s life.

The two friends had a conversation with one another on Nash’s Instagram Live.  While there, Shepherd said that Niecy is “ready to mingle.”

“I want you to be with someone, like real cultured. And real, like, about the world. Right now, in my mind, is, like big actors. I would love for you to be with Rob De Niro. And he like chocolate sisters. I just think that such a good look. Now he might be a little tired at night time. You might have to put his teeth on the counter. But, in the day time…”

Sherri is right. Robert De Niro does have a thang for the sistas. All three of his wives, Diahnne Abbott, Toukie Smith, and Grace Hightower are all Black women.

But Niecy made need some convincing on that front.

“Sherri, let me tell you something. Shawty want a thug, bottles in the club.”

Oh.

You can watch these two discuss Nash’s romantic prospects in the video below.

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A Very Sherri Conversation @sherrieshepherd

A post shared by Niecy Nash (@niecynash1) on Apr 24, 2020 at 12:17pm PDT

Writer: Kieron Gillen / Artist: Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain / Boom! Studios

There is something intrinsically appealing about a retelling or reinterpretation of a familiar myth. The stories we often learned in our childhood imprint on us and become a benchmark, a standard, a constant reference. Putting aside for just a moment the Eurocentric nature of my middle school and high school curriculum, I do have a fondness for Arthurian legend: King Arthur and the Round Table, the exploits and endeavors of brave knights fighting for their liege. Which is why I was so interested when I heard about Kieron Gillen providing his own iteration of the story with Once & Future.

Once & Future checks a lot of boxes when it comes to a story that I’m willing to invest in immediately: dark subversion of familiar tale, an examination of legacy within a familial context, and a predominantly fantasy facade with accents of horror. The opening of the volume has a sort of classic film vibe, where a merchant shows his wares to an interested customer, only to find that the said customer will not be paying in the conventional way and that said customer is almost certainly a bad person.

Gillen, alongside Mora’s illustration and Bonvillain’s colors, set the dark tone of the series right out of the gate. Then he immediately pivots to a much calmer scene: a nursing home featuring one of two protagonists, Bridgette. Bridgette is listening to the news with the rest of the residents before she hears a series of buzzwords that immediately catch her attention. She proceeds to ditch the orderly to go do something about it, which leads us to another scene shift to the other principle character: her grandson, Duncan.

We meet Duncan in an almost sitcom like fashion, wide eyed and arms raised in frantic apology. And when he gets the literal call to adventure from his grandmother, he finds himself suddenly made aware of his previously unknown legacy and the strange task he has as an inheritance. In essence, the prototypical arc of the hero’s journey. But just because the start of the story resembles the classics doesn’t mean the rest of the story does.

For one thing, Gillen’s signature humor and sardonic wit bleeds through the page. The sharp tongue of Bridgette clashes wildly against the everyday everyman’s bewilderment of Duncan. This dynamic carries the opening sequences as the grander myth arcs that differentiate the story are put into motion. We know how this of the story goes, but by the time we get to the end of the first chapter and Gillen’s re-contextualizing of the Arthurian legend in a Brexit-riddled timeline, that’s when things go off the rail in the best way.

The name King Arthur has an distinctive aura surrounding the myth. Gillen cleverly reminds us, the readers, that the King Arthur didn’t just unite the Britons, he waged war against a European empire and crushed it. This is a tale where King Arthur and his followers are straight villainous, and I love it. Because it is true to how history and myths are made. We sanitize the unsavory parts of the story. It speaks to the complicated history of British expansion. And because, it kind of just tracks with how the rest of the world is going.

Much like Duncan has this vision of King Arthur, we too get a chance to unravel the foundations of the myth and explore the parts of the story that are glossed over. Duncan, under the mentorship of his grandmother, becomes an intriguing character and I’ll let his arc speak for itself when you find time to pick up a copy of the book. Plus, the kinship facet to the story is a also a crucial and endearing element that I don’t want to spoil too much on, but know that is there.

And that’s just from the textual standpoint. From a visual stand point, Once & Future looks incredible. Mora’s characters and monster design is incredible and Bonvillain’s colors are a perfect compliment to the tone of the story. Each page has distinctive visual cues that make it very easy to track the actions and the scenes changes, something that I appreciate as someone who can occasionally speed past pages in excitement. But the way each page is structured draws the eye and lets them linger and languish in the beautifully dark fantasy world.

Once & Future‘s first volume is an exhilarating read. It’s a story that reflects the strange timeline we currently reside in and also provides a new take on the Arthurian myth that feels…. warranted. It warrants a read for all of you fantasy comic fans out there. It really does.

9.2 “Knights of a Kingly Court” out of 10

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The post Once & Future, Vol. 1 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Writers: S.D Perry & Matthew K. Manning / Artist: Ming Doyle / Colorist: Scott Holladay / DC Comics

That Rona is in full effect causing the comics industry to freeze up for the time being. But don’t worry, BNP got you. Just because there aren’t any new comics coming out doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of incredible material you might have missed over the years.

One such book is Anatomy of a Metahuman. This book is a DC comics Encyclopedia that doubles as a medical journal on some of the universe’s most powerful beings. 

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, I loved those giant five-pound superhero encyclopedias that had an image and a paragraph or two about every single character within the universe in alphabetical order. I would spend hours rustling through the pages and learning about obscure heroes like Arm-Fall-Off Boy who has the ability to detach his limbs and use them as blunt weapons, or Condiment Man, who uses weapons to shoot condiments at people. I couldn’t get enough.

I might even use it as reference material for in-depth arguments with my friends. This was pre-internet, at least in the way that we know it now, so a book like this was the place I’d go to get all my information.

Anatomy of a Metahuman takes that idea and applies a tinge of creativity to it. Essentially, this book is made up of the stitched together notes that Batman has on some of the most powerful characters in the DC Universe. They’re like reference notes that he can either refer to or share with others in the event that one of these individuals ever becomes a problem. It mimics handwriting and everything.

In the 150-page book, we get massive deep dives into the likes of Cyborg, Martian Manhunter Doomsday, and The Cheetah to name a few.

There are notes on the pages along with anatomical breakdowns. But the aspect that really sells the book for me is that it shows us that Batman doesn’t have all the answers for everything like we might think he does. But it does show us how he uses deductive reasoning to appear like he’s always a few steps ahead. Within his very meticulous scribbles are indisputable facts about every individual, like how Cyborg is made up of promethium skin grafts and metal-ceramic alloys. But then he asks himself questions like “Does Cyborg’s exposed skin render those spots weak?” “Is that even skin or just Synthetic facsimile?” You can easily spend an afternoon poring over the pages. It’s a really in-depth dive into how Batman’s mind works as well as how these heroes work with their varying power sets and biological differences. 

If you want to learn about characters but in a way that injects a bit more into its experience than a Wikipedia summary would, this might be the type of book you need for your bookshelf. 

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The post BNP at Home Recommends: Anatomy of a Metahuman appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.