Weird Mind News Room Episode 105: Feb 24th - Mar 2nd

 *music for the can can*

Hello again to you wonderful people once again to the weekly series that I have for you all with the 105th episode of my weekly series of Weird Mind News Room which means we have crossed the 2nd anniversary of these blogs and I thank those for checking them out over these last 24 month, but we can save the thank you for later as we have quite a variety of things to talk on for this week with new releases, trailers and a few news stories as well on top (and there is stuff for all of them this week) so lets not waste time on this and lets get to talking all things media for this week.

Releases in vast difference to one another

Movies

The last Show girl

So the first of the 2 new releases that we have for this week is with the film that could've been seen as a big award contender and was for a few different events but seems to have been a more sleeper nomination as we have a film about what life brings for someone when what they had as a career for years comes to an end as Pamela Anderson gives us an all new performance and perspective with her leading film of The Last Showgirl. The story will tell the tale of a middle aged Las Vegas Showgirl named Shelly Gardner who is about to be faced with an uncertain future of what is to come when she learns that the revue that she has performed in for three decades has been scheduled to close and must learn to find what to do after it all. Reception on this film has been very well recieved with praise to its story, its themes and the lead performances, particularly of Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis and if you are up for a film with a deep story and bring with some deep questions, then you can check this new film out now in cinemas. 

Video Games

Monster Hunter Wilds

As for the other new release for this week is a big one and one of the first new games for this week and of the year to wrap up February as it is about time to gear up, gather your crew and set out in the deep vast wilderness to take down some legendary creatures as it is time to return to this massive series once again with the newest entry of the long running monster series with Monster Hunter Wilds. The game will have you create your own custom hunter and soon see you head out into the Forbidden Lands, an unpopulated land mass filled with monsters, in order to locate a missing expedition party. Reception on this new title like previous entries has recieved critical acclaim with praise to the narrative, gameplay, visuals and designs and so far has been labelled as one of the best games of 2025 and if you are up for a monster slaying adventure then you can play this new title now on PS5, Xbox series X/S and PC.

Trailers that bring you on a journey

Andor Season 2

The first of the trailers for the week is seeing us all take on a journey into a galaxy far far away for a return to a story that has been long overdue and many have been waiting to see wrap up the story leading to the film they were first introduced to as after a 3 year wait, we have finally gotten the first trailer for the 2nd and final season to the Star Wars series of Andor. This upcoming season will carry on the story of Cassian Andor and the emerging Rebel Alliance as it tells this season over the course of its next 4 years leading up to the discovery of the super Weapon of the Death Star and the events of Rogue One. So in the realm where it is seen that the series of Star Wars has had a bit of a rough slump period, it was the case the shows that were a shining beacon was the first 2 ish season of Mandalorian and then this one (I think Ashoka may be on that list now as well) and Andor felt like a fresh feeling series for the series of Jedis and Troopers and seeing it have a personality and an engaging story was all I need and after a really great 1st, I am very excited for this stories wrap up. While the trailers music is a bit weird for the footage shown it still looks great and I am sure it was just a little personal choice and through it all I am excited to check it out and its not too far away as the season will be starting on Dinsey+ from April 22nd.

A Minecraft Movie

The 2nd trailer for this week is bringing everyone soon to an all new world where it may seem normal but will soon be wondering that through it all, it could be hip to be square, as we are heading into the world built one cube shaped piece at a time as we have the final trailer for the upcoming adaptation of A Minecraft movie. The film follows four misfits of Garett "Garbage Man" Garrison, Henry, Natalie and Dawn, 4 different people struggling with ordinary problems, all get suddenly sucked through a mysterious portal to The Overworld: a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. In order to get back home they will have to master this world (and save it from evil) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter named Steve. So it is a case that as time has gone on and I have seen more of this film in trailers and other forms, I think that it has slowly but surely come around on the design and the concept of the film and I feel it may have something that has the appeal and love of the game in a film format (even if some of the designs of the characters in live action form can look a bit unsettling or of the uncanny valley, but I feel if I can look past it I have a feeling this could be a decently good fun time and I will see how it will all come about real soon as the film releases in about a months time on April 4th.

Death of a Unicorn

The last of the trailers for this week is bringing the concept of the realm of fantasy of things that may have been part of our world many eons ago but has been long a fable, but this one will see the creature make a presence in the present day and may be a lot more of a danger then a blessing as we have recieved another trailer for the A24 creature feature of Death of a Unicorn. The film will see a father and daughter find themselves in a bit of a pickle when they accidentally hit and kill a unicorn with their car on the way to the Dad's Bosses mountain retreat and soon the boss tries to use and exploit the creatures magical powers and curative properties, but also bring some more horrific results when another magical creature appears to take their revenge. SO it is always a case when it comes to films and ideas from the studio of A24 that they may have some more serious films and some that have some unique and creative ideas mixed in there as well and I think from what is seen in this film from the idea, cast and some sense of horror, it could be a well worth watch and we finally now have a release date for this movie and it is not too long away as we will be seeing these creatures hit the big screen in about a months time on April 4th.

A lot of news but make it messy

WB has a plan for heroes but it also seems to be against gamers

So the first story for the week is in the focus of a discussion about some news coming to us from the realm of a studio whos choices and decisions are often a very divisive one and that comes to us from the massive group of Warner Bros as this week with have a discussion about 2 areas of the company with a focus in the area of film, specifically their superhero content and in the basis of Video games as well where one has more hope then another but lets get into talking what they are all about.

So let us start off with the one that has a bit more of an optimistic tone and that is with the film side of DC studios as this week we got quite an array of point to talk on for the concept and ideals they have in mind for the company and while there is a lot that was announced, I am going to keep it brief and list off all that was announced to better explain and then give an overall opinion of it all at the end. SO what was announced this week was as such:

-They have a 7 project plan where they want to release 7 DC related projects a year that consist of 2 Live Action and Animated films each, 1 Live action Sow and 2 Animated.

-James Gunn confirmed that Robert Pattinson's Batman will not be the DCU's Batman and they have a different version of the character in mind for that

-In terms of new announcements, they have confirmed a creation of 3 new shows with an animated series focus on Starfire, another one called super powers of heroes in a school learning to control them and a spin off on My adventures with Superman all about Green Lantern with its focused character being Jessica Cruz

-Speaking of Lanterns, we got a first look at the series that has entered production that is just the lead 2 actors and we can see that Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan is wearing the first look at the actual lantern ring.

-Gunn officially confirmed the announced Teen Titans film from a year ago is real and will be entering development with Supergirl writer Ana Nogueira penning the script for that one as well

-There is a few development issues for some projects from finding a good concept or story or creative head and they have been for the series on Amanda Waller, Booster Gold and the Authority as well as Swamp Thing.

-Calyface will begin its production this summer for a September 2026 release, a 2nd season of creature Commandos is being fast tracked and an animated film of Dynamic Duo is being developed and A Blue Beetle animated series is deep in development too.

Overall I think there is a lot of hope and some good potential with this new take on DC after a bit of trying to find its footing a good chunk of the time in the DCEU but I am also a little skeptical and will be keeping the anticipation for the moment at a reasonable level as while they all sound exciting, it could be doing an issue that people have with Marvel of overdoing it and feeling a strong sense of Fatigue for so much to try and get through at once, but I feel Gunn and Safran know what they are doing and will give them the effort in this case to work it out. If only Warner could see it for the other side of this story

And this is to do with the news of the gaming side as also this week it was announced that Warner has pulled the plug on a planned game based on Wonder Woman that was developed by Shadow of Mordor developers of Monolith studio and also closed the studio down. Now there is some theories as to why this may be but some point to the big gaming misstep that I feel was not the game studios fault but Warners and that was with the Suicide Squad kill the justice league game as Warner does not see the issue that most people don't want a Live Service game, yet they keep saying its the future of gaming (add to the list of games that Live service killed that had potential I guess). Now I was excited for a prospect of a Wonder Woman game as if it is anything like the Batman games then I was all for it and would probably have used the studios patented Nemesis system for it as well but I guess it will not be the case. The real stinger about it all is that because of the studios closure, the likes of accessing the Nemesis system is going to difficult as it is locked to a patent that is not free for use until 2036. This probably explains why Warner mentioned that Rocksteady is making another Batman game to distract us from this news but it just feels so messy. Now I do hope that all of those that worked at that studio will fall back on their feet again real quick and continue to work for the industry and even the case this Wonder Woman game will see the light of day but Warner really need to get a better idea that their decisions for most of their games or in general are not that great and they wonder why they lose a lot of money.

But I want to know your thoughts about the 2 pieces here, are you excited or worried about the propect of this DC plan and are you sad to see Monolith be shut down and do you see a Wonder Woman game ever being made? Let me know what you think down below and we can discuss it there.

A wizard is here, a mystery solver in hells kitchen (and a killer),supernatural heroes and a dinosaur

So the 2nd story for the week is with a discussion of some casting news and we have a bit of a follow up confirmation and a few new editions and projects being announced with some cast member, so lets not waste a lot of time and lets run through all that was confirmed for this weeks casting updates.

So this first one is just a quick follow up to a story from about 2 or 3 weeks ago but earlier this week we got the official confirmation from the man himself that John Lithgow will be playing Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series and I still think in all sense he is a good choice for the role and interested to see what he provides for the series, but its still a case I am a little mixed about needing a TV adaptation for this series when the films are still so popular and relevant to this day but I am sure I will give more thoughts and concerns once more of the cast is confirmed and we start seeing some set photos and stuff from the production when they start filming later this year but we'll see how it goes.

The next 3 cast discussion are all about the basis of superheroes and these first 2 relate to a series that is making its long awaited return next week with a discussion of a new cast member for the Daredevil Born Again series and while the new first season has not started yet, we already have a confirmation of a new cast addition for its confirmed 2nd season as Scream, Scooby-Doo and Five Nights at Freddy's star of Matthew Lillard has been cast in the next season. What character he is playing is unknown as of right now but there is some speculation that he may be playing the character of either The Coyote, The Jester or Mr Fear, but I am sure we will learn more as they plan to start filming the next batch of episodes of season 2 in New York from next week and we can delve into predicting who he will play as the series also starts from next week.

This is not in the sense of a casting confirmation as we already know that Jon Berenthal is returning as the Punisher in Daredevil Born again, but we do have a confirmation that his character is getting a special Presentation piece focused on his character sometime either later this year or next year before the release of the 2nd season and that he is also helping to write the script and I am all for it as I think he has played the character long enough and really fits the part well so I am all for his special to be made and I look forward to checking it out when it does release.

Now from the MCU to Amazon Prime as we have another addition to be adding to the upcoming final season of the Boys as while we have seen Jensen Ackles play the role of Soldier Boy since season 3, its not the only members of the previous show he is known for joining in on the action as it was announced that both Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins from Supernatural will also be joining the cast for the final season. Now similar to Lillard, we do not know who they will be playing but there was a discussion that a character that was initially mentioned in the season 4 finale before they were cut was Mr Marathon so maybe one of them will be cast as them but it is unknown as of right now and I am sure closer to the shows release we will get an idea as to who they will play and how they will factor into the dark final season.

and the final casting is one that the more I learn of this film and choices seem like a interesting and odd comes to the planned film from A24 about the big purple dinosaur of Barney. Now there has been discussion about this film for a few years now with the only name that many may know for this project is that Daniel Kaluuya is also involved with the project as a producer since the films announcement back in 2019 and now we have the possibly first cast announcement as it was discussed that Bear and Inside Out 2 star of Ayo Edebiri has been cast for the film and will also reportedly be writing the film as well which I do not have much of an issue with as she is a great actress and I am sure she can do well with the writing for the movie as well. As more and more of this film gets talked about just becomes stranger and stranger but there is a part of me that is curious as to see what will come of this project and whenever the film does get a release in the future.

But what are your thoughts about these casting news stories and which of these are you the most interested in checking out? Let me know what you think of it down below and let me know your predictions that some of the characters the actors may play.

End of an era for a head of a company and a bit more time for a cave dweller

The 3rd story for this week is a odd mix of topics from an announcement for a company and the other being a bit of a change for another project in the works but lets not waste time on the mentioning of them and better explain what those changes are.

So the first of these little stories for this week is with a sudden shake up happening in a galaxy far far away as after being the head of the company of Lucasfilm since 2012 after it purchase by Disney, the president of Kathleen Kennedy has announced that she will be stepping down as the head of the company at the end of this year. Now her time at the company has seen a bit of a mixed opinion from fans and insiders but it cannot be denied that she at least made an effort to bring the franchise of Star Wars and even to Indiana Jones back to the Big Screen and even the small screen over the last decade to introduce the worlds to new younger fans and a sense of nostalgia to long term fans and I can commend her efforts over these last 13 years. Now as of writing it is unknown as to who will be taking over as the head of the company but it seems to be the case the rumoured top choices as of right now is going towards either Clone Wars creator of Dave Filoni or from Marvel Studio head of Kevin Feige and another name that has floated about as well is Mandalorian Creator of Jon Faverau, but as of now, nothing has been mentioned or has been set in stone since then but I am sure as we see this year continue we will get an idea as to who will take on that role of the new head of Lucasfilm and if anything does come up I will update in a later episode. 

As for the other story that I could not find a good spot to put in this episode, we have a discussion of an upcoming project from another massive franchise in the realm of fantasy that has had a bit of a shake up in its planned release as it was announced this week that the planned new Lord of the Rings film of the Hunt for Gollum has been delayed by a full year to December 2027 from its initial 2026 release. Now we did get some clarification as to why it was delayed as the director and star Andy Serkis was asked about the film at a fan fest this week with the reason being they have only started on the Writing process for the film and that they gave it a year delay to have plenty of time to write it, film and get it all made and I see that as completely understandable and in all sense of it, I hope that they take all the time they need to as well cause in all sense with Lord of the Rings, this franchise is beloved and giving the time to make it work well makes more sense then rushing it out but I guess we can see closer to the release and learn more about the project in due time as well before Christmas 2027.

But I would like to know your thoughts on these 2 stories, did you think that Kathleen Kennedy did well with Lucasfilm ad who do you see as the new president and are you excited for a new Middle earth film based on Gollum? Let me know what you think and choices down below.

These Ogres are looking a looking a bit different

So we have one final story that I am going to keep brief in this instance as we have a bit of a small discussion to talk about and it has been one that has had a lot of talk online since it dropped a few days ago and it involves a certain Green Ogre. Now as you may be aware, after 15 years of silence and the last film in the series, we have a new long awaited 5th film in the Shrek series coming out next Christmas and has seen the return of everyone's favourite Ogre and to commence the occasion, Universal and Dreamworks dropped a little teaser this week of showing the first look at the characters as well as the confirmation of some returning cast of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy with one new edition of Zendaya playing Shrek's Daughter of Felicia or one of the triplets. Now while the cast is fine and does not sound too bad, the main question and unappeal of people with this teaser is with the sudden new design changes as a lot of people are kind of against it, as the designs have gone from a more realism and detailed aesthetic, to being a bit too close of more rounded, smooth and cartoonish and kind of going against the aesthetic that Shrek initially was doing of going against the norm of the classic animation types. Now I am sure in a case that overtime I could get used to it but there is a feeling like this was not the vision Dreamworks had and this was more from the basis of the approach of the other animation studio owned by Universal of Illumination as it feels more like one of those animation style films in their designs.... and may also explain why they went with a portion of this short teaser acknowledging the massive meme culture and thirst traps for Shrek (and the case the film may be co-directed by the last Minions movie director and produced by the head of Illumination) and it just feels off or even to some feel it may be a bit of AI or a case of a possible marketing stunt before they actually show the classic models cause it was already seen they had them with the opening logo for Dreamworks now for Shrek, Fiona and Donkey and used similar ones in Puss in Boots 2. Now the internet has been a collective group that have gone against these designs and want it back to the classic design or the case of wanting it to get a "Sonic" treatment which is expected and whether they will do it is anyone's guess but I guess we will have to see as more of this film goes into development and we learn more about the plot and everything but for now, it seems the return of everyone's favourite Ogre is looking a little concerning.

But what do you think of this design change, do you like the new look and approach or do you want it to return to the classic style or do you see this as just a weird marketing approach before it will be revealed to be all a ruse and is staying as the classic look and art style? Let me know what you think down below in the comments.

And with all of that, that ends the 105th edition of Weird Mind News Room and I do hope that you have enjoyed the discussion of all forms of media for this week and I would like to also thank you for being a part pf this journey so far for the last 2 years in general and here is to many more in the future. Let me know your thoughts on everything discussed down below and as always I hope you all stay being wonderful people and have a great day everyday and I will see you all in the next episode. :)

Take care, keep being you, Signing off

Sam H :)