Morbius, the 70s Marvel creation from Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, is about to get his very own feature film out of Sony, and the living vampire, set to be played by Jared Leto, will have a former Doctor along for the ride.

Variety reports that Matt Smith is in a last round of talks to join the Spider-Man spin-off movie, to be directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House). There are no details on who Smith will play in the film, but it is cited as being a “major role.”

Morbius is working off a script by Netflix’s Lost In Space co-creators, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

There’s been no word yet as to if (or when) Jared Leto will be reprising his role as The Joker after Suicide Squad didn’t go down too well, but there were still plans for him to take on a solo film for DC at Warner Bros after its release. WB is currently concentrating on its Birds Of Prey team-up movie, however, with Margot Robbie featuring again as Harley Quinn. Production is due to start on that imminently.

Meanwhile, Sony has perked up after the success of Venom and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, grabbing a release date for Venom 2, and reportedly considering its options when it comes to Spider-Verse spin-offs and sequels.

More as it arrives.

This review contains spoilers.

3.12 Pandemonium

“Time means nothing. Jeremy Bearimy, baby. We’re gonna get through this and then you and I can just chill out on the dot of the I forever.”

One of my earliest TV watching memories (yes, you have these when you’re a TV nerd turned TV critic) is asking my mom why the couples on all the sitcoms I watched were constantly breaking up. I don’t know what show I was referring to necessarily but bear in mind that I was around 7 or 8 years old during the peak Ross and Rachel Friends era. 

My mom calmly explained to me that the writers on these shows needed conflict to tell a story. And there was no conflict to be found in the story of a happy couple. Instead of taking this lesson to heart, abandoning the artifice of television, and I don’t know, learning math or some shit, I continued to watch these sitcoms and reveled in all that tried to buck this “will they or won’t they” trend.

Scrubs was probably the first show I remember succeeding. J.D. and Elliot had a will they or won’t they energy for three full seasons before they decided the answer was “won’t they.” Of course they got together in the show’s final season but it still deserves credit for featuring five full seasons in full-on “won’t they” mode. And Turk met his actual soul mate in the show’s pilot and would stay with her forever. 

Now on the modern television landscape, shows aren’t afraid to get couples together and keep them together. Shows like You’re the Worst, Catastrophe, and even This Is Us realise that while “will they or won’t they” is easy drama, “how will we continue on together forever?” is the real drama. It’s harder to articulate and pull off but it’s more worthwhile. It’s more real.

There is value to be had in breaking the shackles of sitcom writing. Having said that, there is also value to be had in succumbing to them for the right reasons.

The Good Place creator Michael Schur is a keen student of TV history. Ted Danson is on this show for a reason. The Good Place season two finale put Danson back behind the bar for heaven’s sakes! Schur, like my dear ol’ mum, knows that the sitcom is a science as much of an art. Press button; create pathos. Here he and his writers have dusted off the “separate a couple mid-series” gambit. They’re no different from the sitcom writers of yesteryears. They need conflict to tell a story. This time around, however, the conflict they’ve chosen is the eternal damnation of the entire human race.

Pandemonium continues The Good Place’s tradition of absolutely killer season finales. Each season closer has come along with a certain twist, paradigm shift, or revelation. This one, however, is the most straightforward, or as “straightforward” as this show can get. 

As expected, Eleanor has taken over Michael’s job as architect and one-woman Good Place introduction committee to the new arrivals in the experiment. Also as expected: she’s an absolute natural. “It’s like I became such a good person I forgot that I’m a world-class liar,” Eleanor tells Chidi after welcoming John into the neighbourhood. She’s not wrong. If I can’t be welcomed into heaven by Ted Danson then Kristen Bell is absolutely my second choice. 

All in all, the humans feel pretty good about how the experiment is coming along. The neighbourhood looks great as always. This week’s Megan Amram (who wrote this finale alongside Jen Statsky) food pun is the beer stand “Foot Lager.” John seems to be getting settled in well and not noticing that his peers are all Janet babies. He even learns that Drake and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were the most random celebrity couple on Earth.

Then the other shoe…or “foot lager” drops because it always must. Another thing that mama taught this lad about television is that as long as the episode guide doesn’t say “Series Finale,” there is no room for a happy ending. Tahani uncovers that John is an asshole. This isn’t a surprise because the Bad Place was allowed to accept humans for this experiment. The problem is that John is a very specific kind of asshole. 

John wrote for a blog called “The Gossip Toilet” – a site known for pioneering the countdown clock to the Olsen twins 18th birthday and for making life living hell for Tahani. While Tahani is known for bouts of extreme solipsism, this time her paranoia is correct: The Bad Place didn’t select the worst people, they selected the people that would be worst for Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason. Tahani’s fears are confirmed when the next human arrives and it’s….CHIDI’S EX-GIRLFRIEND SIMONE!

This is Pandemonium’s “this is the Bad Place” twist moment. It doesn’t have the universe up-ending implications of the show’s previous twists but my stomach literally dropped all the same. Simone was such a great character and Kirby Howell-Baptiste such a perfect fit for the show that it always felt strange that we just had to leave her back on Earth as Team Cockroach went on to bigger, more celestial adventures. Still, I never imagined the show would bring her back and certainly not in this fashion.

The Judge rules that The Bad Place’s gambit falls within the rules but Michael will be allowed to wipe Simone’s memory. Chidi, however, knows that that’s not a solution. Chidi is a very awkward individual and he knows it. It’s not a crime to be awkward and in fact it’s probably one of the things that attracted Eleanor to him. In this situation, however, that awkwardness could have brutal implications. 

“If I’m awkward around my ex, everyone gets tortured forever,” Chidi tells Michael and Eleanor. There is only one solution here, only one way to preserve the integrity of the experiment and save humanity’s collective soul. Michael has to erase Chidi’s memory. He must erase everything from Australia onward. He has to erase Eleanor.

In practice Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship hasn’t always been the most compelling onscreen part of The Good Place. Bell and William Jackson Harper have good chemistry but we’ve just seen them interact mostly on a friend level save for their time in Reboot 119 and the last few episodes. Plus, the other onscreen romance in the show is between a break-dancing Jacksonville doofus and an omniscient being of the universe – so that will take presence.

Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship has always been important for what it represents though. They represent the insatiable human need for love, itself. Remember, Eleanor and Chidi have spent over 800 timelines not in love and just two in love. That just makes it feel all the more special though. 

The Good Place is about finding the answer to the long sought after question: what makes a good person? What even is “good?” But just like all the other great works of art, The Good Place already knows what the real answer is. It’s love, stupid. Chidi and Eleanor’s relationship symbolises that even if you experience love only two out of 800-plus lifetimes, those two times make this whole “existence” thing a success.

That’s why it’s so powerful for The Good Place season three finale to go back to this relationship-severing sitcom trope. It’s using one of television’s laziest tropes for a profound examination of what really matters.

After a lovely video presentation from Michael, Chidi’s memory is erased and Eleanor in her new role as architect is struggling get composed for what comes next. She summons Janet.

“Hello Janet. Can you just like tell me the answer? The answer to everything,” she commands. 

There is no answer obviously, and Janet says as much. The point of the universe isn’t to find the answer but to merely experience it. In all this Pandemonium, Eleanor found Chidi, which is simply impossible. It’s impossible in the grand scale of the universe, this Milton-ian pit of hell, to find anything worthwhile. But Eleanor did it. Then she did it again. And if I know anything about television, she’ll do it once more. 

Once the characters break up in sitcoms, they eventually get back together in the end. When its series wrap time and there are loose ends to be tied, you tie them. Perfect little student of TV history that it is, The Good Place will find a way to get Chidi and Eleanor back together. When they do it, however, it won’t be because the show has to, it’s because Eleanor and Chidi have to. That’s what people do – they charge through the pandemonium to find that which seems impossible to find… over and over again.

Read Alec’s review of the previous episode, Chidi Sees The Time-Knife, here.

This review contains spoilers.

2.2 New Eden

It’s time for another away mission, y’all! We’ve been waiting for this moment since last season’s Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, the only other Star Trek: Discovery episode so far to feature that old Trek episode structure standby that sees a group of Federation crew members heading down to a planet for some shenanigans.

In this case, the planet is Terralisia, a “surprisingly Earth-like” globe on the other side of the galaxy with a small human population that has been unknowingly sending the same distress message on repeat for the last 200 years. The group of Federation crew members is Burnham, Pike, and Lieutenant Owosekun, who finally gets to leave the bridge, but, sadly, is still in search of some actual character development.

The Discovery travels to the planet as part of their ongoing mission to figure out what the heck the red signals mean. Upon reaching Terralisia and chatting with some of the planet’s citizens (under the guise of being visitors from one of the settlements to the north, obviously), they learn that the people there were brought to the planet seemingly by one of the red signals—they saw the same angelic outline Michael did on the asteroid.

It’s the first time that I’ve really cared about the mystery of the red bursts. The mysterious signal transported the human ancestors of the people who now live on Terralisia from the ashes of Earth’s World War III to the other side of the galaxy. This happened more than 200 years ago, which broadens the mystery of the red signals not only across massive amounts of space, but across centuries of time. (Sure, Spock has apparently seen visions of the red bursts since he was a kid, but that’s nothing compared to centuries…)

The away mission to Terralisia is an opportunity for Discovery to explore one of its richest thematic dilemmas: The Prime Directive, known here as General Order One. General Order One is a non-interference directive that states members of the Federation cannot interfere with the normal development of any pre-warp civilisation and, throughout the history of Star Trek canon, has been used by the plot in various ways.

It often pits different characters against one another, and asks semi-explored questions about the Federation as a colonial force. Here, we see Michael on the opposite side from Pike. She sympathises with Jacob, a man on Terralisia who immediately suspects the away party is from Earth, which would mean that Earth wasn’t destroyed in World War III, as this planet suspects.

Michael wants to tell Jacob the truth, but Pike refuses. Even though these people are humans, they left Earth before warp was invented, which means they are technically pre-warp. Jacob begs for them to tell him the truth, but they do not… Not even Burnham. The away team returns to Discovery to help an injured Pike, no closer to discovering the truth of the red signal.

That is until Pike and Burnham have a heart-to-heart. Michael convinces Chris to make an exchange with Jacob: the truth (and a battery) for a camera that recorded the moment the Terralisan’s ancestors were rescued from Earth. It doesn’t give us much to go on, only showing that the ancestors saw an angel-like vision before the entire church they were in was transported to another planet. OK. Colour me intrigued.

While the away team is on the surface, the Discovery, under the command of Saru, is working to save the planet below from an apocalyptic event. They use their combined know-how, with a particularly helpful plan from Tilly, to save the day. Along with the away mission, this kind of collaborative teamwork that was mostly missing from the first season (especially on the bridge) felt very Trek-y.

In general, Saru was the kind of Federation captain Jean Luc Picard would be proud of. When Tilly injures herself taking a sample from the dark matter rock currently floating in one of the Discovery’s bays, Saru gives her a talking to. “Before we care for others, we must care for ourselves,” he tells her. “You’re important.” It was easily one of the best moments of the episode and, at least for me, this show. Petition to give Saru so much more screen time on this show.

Saru wasn’t the only person on the Discovery trying to remind Tilly of her immense worth. In New Eden, we meet someone who is seemingly a new crew member, but quickly is revealed to be someone else entirely. Taking the form of one of Tilly’s childhood friends (who is apparently deceased), this being spends the episode supporting Tilly, and telling her just how smart she is. She is like a delightful imaginary friend, though one that seemingly no one else can see. Is she the dark matter interface Tilly was hoping to find for Stamets? Perhaps.

While New Eden wasn’t without its clunky exposition, it was a delightfully traditional Trek that progressed this episodes major storylines in some fascinating ways. I’m always cautious to get too attached to any version of this show, given that it so often flits to a new focus, but if Discovery wanted to spend the entire season on away missions and Captain Saru pep talks, I would be there for it.

Read Kayti’s review of the previous episode, Brother, here.

This review contains spoilers.

5.4 Ruin

It’s funny. Gotham can really be a series with absolutely no restraint. It’s a show that, at times, can’t seem to resist camp and excess, but at other times it can be a classy drama that allows viewers to truly experience poignancy. That’s how we begin things this week with the aftermath of the explosion that took down Jim Gordon’s Haven. The episode, appropriately titled Ruin, allows for each of our major players to have a reaction to the utter destruction of the only safe zone in Gotham City. We get to see Gordon’s response to the death of the young orphan he befriended, we get to see the same grieving man spring into action as a true leader, and we witness Barbara forgoing her revenge on Penguin to help the survivors of the blast. We even watch Penguin’s complete shock in the face of true evil. It’s like, for a brief moment, the excess and camp were blasted away when Haven went up in flames. For that same short instant, Gotham felt like a really effective episode of The Walking Dead. And that’s a good thing because it proves that through all the Theo Galavans, and magic seeds, and dead-end storylines, this series has made us care about its beloved icons.

And Gotham stays focused this week with three concurrent storylines. First we have the aftermath of the Haven attack. Gordon, Bullock, and Penguin all try to find the culprit that killed so many at haven. It looks like there’s a lead when our trio of unlikely allies and their men chase down a mystery man seen leaving the scene of the attack. That man is none other than the returning Victor Zsasz! Penguin instantly demands Zsasz’s head, because after all, Zsasz recently betrayed Penguin to Sofia Falcone, but Gordon wants evidence before he will condemn the scarred up gun for hire.

Which brings us to our second of three storylines; it’s been a week since we’ve seen Edward Nygma. Good ‘ol Ed is trying to find clues over what his other persona is doing when in control. This week, Nygma’s detective work leads him to a Blackgate inmate. Nygma goes to the GCPD and tries to steal the file. He runs into Lucius Fox, who promises to give Ed the file if the brilliant criminal will help him investigate the rocket attack. Now listen, just seeing Lucius and Ed together for 90 seconds makes me long for a police procedural starring these two Bat icons.

Nygma discovers that the explosion that took down parts of Haven was caused by an RPG and not a bomb, so it would be impossible for Zsasz to have perpetrated the attack. So now we have these two stories converging as Gordon stands up for Zsasz. Gordon does not want to see justice fall apart in the No Man’s Land that Gotham has become, so the Penguin/Gordon alliance is already fraying. Penguin demands a trial and we get a little Dark Knight Rises kangaroo courtroom action as Penguin finds Zsasz guilty. Gordon busts it up and frees Zsasz.

Now I get the whole justice thing, but yo, this is Victor freakin’ Zsasz, a dude who cuts scars into his own flesh every time he offs someone. Is it really wise to have this guy on the streets? Well, Zsasz does have a strange sense of honour, so maybe somewhere along the way Zsasz could help Gordon when the future commissioner least expects it? Until then Jim Gordon has released a serial killer into the wilds of a lawless Gotham filled with vulnerable people. Huh.

Whatever your feelings on Zsasz, the alliance Gordon made with Penguin has seemed to hit a major snag, but it looks like Jimmy boy might have reignited an old union, one that goes back to the very first episode of Gotham. Yes, Gordon and Barbara Kean are a thing again. This week the episode ends with a Barbara/ Jimbo lip lock. Now here’s a relationship that has been through some ish! Between Tabitha, Ra’s Al Ghul, Sofia Falcone, Leslie Thompkins, Valerie Vale, and so many more, there’s been some drama since Gordon and Kean ended their engagement. But No Man’s Land makes strange bedfellows and the alliance between the GCPD and the Sirens has now been sealed with a kiss.

But we’re not done, because despite the rekindling of romances, the betrayals, and the hooks ups, there were two huge unexpected twists during the fourth instalment of the final season of Gotham. First we learn who shot the RPG that took down Haven. Edward sees that there’s an old woman living across from the rooftop that the RPG was fired from. Edward confronts the wheelchair-using old lady and discovers it was Edward himself who fired the fateful rocket. Yep, when Ed’s other persona took over, he went on a murdering spree. Edward tosses the lady from a window (well, maybe Gotham got a little excessive this week) and now he must deal with the fact he has a monster living inside him. This should take us to some interesting places.

And now we must talk about the most unexpected twist of all. Last week Selina fought Ecco Harley and handcuffed Bruce, all so she can find and take down Jeremiah. This week that hunt comes to an end. Bruce is freed by Alfred, but by that time Selina is deep in Jeremiah’s territory. He is digging a tunnel under Gotham using labour drones provided by Ecco’s initiations. Selina infiltrates the group and we’re all expecting her to have an epic battle with Ecco, or Jeremiah, or both so Selina can get revenge for Jeremiah paralysing her. Now this is where I should tell you that I really enjoy the interactions between Ecco and Jeremiah, they are truly a, well, echo, of the classic Joker and Harley (and now I get the meaning of Ecco’s name—well played, Gotham). I should tell you that I’m looking forward to more of this twisted Bonnie and Clyde. But I can’t, because when Selina sees Jeremiah she just quickly and efficiently, stabs him to death. No prolonged battle, no soul searching over whether the killing would be just. Selina just shivs Jeremiah right in front of Bruce and Alfred. Well damn, that’s some empowerment right there. Now I know we’re in a show where death doesn’t mean much, but that would be a hell of a way to write Jeremiah out and also give the spotlight to Ecco.

So Jeremiah is dead, Edward Nygma is the biggest monster in No Man’s Land, Penguin is pissed, and Gordon and Barbara are a thing again. It’s easy to say that Gotham heated up in a big way this week to deliver another memorable episode.

Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, Penguin, Our Hero, here.

She-Ra, She-Ra! The Netflix reboot of the classic 80’s She-Ra series was a huge success and, with the universe left wide open at the end of the first season, fans were waiting for a second season. Well wait no longer, She-Ra fans!

We’ve learned straight from DreamWorks that season 2 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power will drop on April 26th, 2019! This information came alongside of video that sadly doesn’t have any new footage but does at least include the date. You can find that video below.

We don’t know how many episodes will be included in the second season. It’s likely it’ll be another thirteen episodes but Netflix has dropped as little as six episode drops from other DreamWorks animated series.

We’re extremly excited for this season. We can’t wait to see more from the characters, especially Netossa and Spineralla who are in a confirmed queer realationship. They only appeared at the very end of season one so hopefully they’ll play a much bigger role in season two. Of course we’re excited to see all of the other characters as well, with the growing divide between Adora and Catra being of particular interest.

As the show’s mythology and world building deepens we are sure She-Ra and the Princesses of Power will get better and better. The series has already been hinting at the world of He-Man so we can’t wait to see how She-Ra starts to incorporate more of the wider Masters of the Universe.

The Kingdom Hearts series may be a beloved success, with Kingdom Hearts 3 set to serve up the sequel we’ve all been waiting for, but there was a time when Square Enix had to convince Disney to let them work with so many beloved properties. While the pitch process was mostly smooth, Disney did place one major limitation on Mickey Mouse.

“Actually, due to contractual issues, we were only able to use him in one scene,” said Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura in the Kingdom Hearts Ultimania book. “Disney gave us permission for a role such as waving from the back of a crowd of people in town, but if we were going to use him, I thought we should use him in a single shot to leave the greatest impression.”

The shot that Nomura is referring to happens near the very end of Kingdom Hearts. It is then that we finally see Mickey Mouse (or at least the back of him) as he helps Sora close the door to Kingdom Hearts. We’d say that’s certainly better than seeing Mickey wave from the back of a crowd even if it isn’t quite the role many fans imagined for the iconic character when Kingdom Hearts was first announced.

What’s less clear is why Disney placed such a noticeable restriction on Mickey Mouse. The popular theory is that Mickey is essentially the company’s global icon at this point and that they have to be very careful about how that icon is used. 

It all worked out in the end, though. Not only was the use of Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts quite effective, but the success of the game led to Disney giving the Kingdom Hearts team the green light to feature Mickey more prominently in future titles. Mickey has arguably become one of the main characters at this point in the series. 

That’s not the only corporate hurdle that Square Enix has had to overcome. A full report on the nature of the Kingdom Hearts/Disney relationship reveals that Pixar’s involvement was reportedly delayed by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s bad relationship with Pixar. Fortunately, his resignation led to Disney loosening the creative restrictions on Pixar properties. 

Kingdom Hearts 3 is out now in Japan, with the rest of the world getting it on January 29th 2019.