Den of Geek Magazine Issue 10 - Epic Summer Preview!

'90s Cartoons

NOSTALGIC FAVES FROM BATMAN TO BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD

Strange New Worlds

THE NEW STAR TREK SEASON IS MUCH MORE THAN PLAYING THE HITS

Diablo 4

THE KING OF ACTION RPGS IS BACK

FEATURING

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, ELEMENTAL, LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, THE BOOGEYMAN, AND MORE…

PG. 38

Summer is here and with it the finest blockbuster season we have had in years! Check out our massive 20-page preview for a guide to the hottest movies coming to a cinema near you!

Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One PG. 34

STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman tells us what to expect for season three, including hints at a crossover episode. PG. 14

ERIC ANDRE

The king of prank comedy on his favorite gags and guests and what’s next for the Eric Andre Show. Plus, check out our exclusive photo shoot. PG. 52

DIABLO 4

The fourth installment of one of the most important video game franchises ever is on the way. Associate Game Director Zaven Haroutunian tells all. PG. 56

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts PG. 46

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny PG. 30

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

MAGAZINE

Mike Cecchini

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HISTORY REPEATING

Can summer 2023 channel the halcyon days of 1989’s blockbuster season? The return of Keaton’s Caped Crusader brings us hope.

AT THE RISK OF DATING MYSELF, the first time I became aware that “summer movie season” was a thing was the fabled summer of 1989. It had never really occurred to me before that point that I saw more movies in the summer than at any other time of year, if for no other reason than by kid logic standards, the simplest explanation was also the correct one: no school meant more time to beat the heat in the air-conditioned splendor of the local multiplex. And while I was a dorky, precocious little pain-in-theass (some might say I haven’t changed all that much), I wasn’t looking at box-office numbers or paying any particular attention to critics.

But even I could tell that something different was happening in the summer of 1989. First and foremost,

I had never seen anything like the marketing machine for Tim Burton’s Batman, which felt like it had kicked off a full six months ahead of its June release. My friends (there weren’t many) and I were awash in Batman t-shirts, caps, trading cards, candy, action figures, towels, and more, long before that June 23 opening day, a date that had been circled on our calendars and treated with the kind of reverence that adults seemed to reserve for impenetrable celebrations like “anniversaries” or tedious obligations like weddings. Never mind the fact that when June 23 rolled around, I was grounded for some infraction or another, and the most effective way my parents could think of to show me the error of my ways was to deny me an opening night

screening of the film that had become, to the disapproving eyes of teachers and other assorted authority figures, an obsession. They weren’t wrong.

And yet Batman was only one piece of a summer that also brought massive franchise heavy hitters such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Licence to Kill, The Karate Kid Part III, and even perfectly–engineered-fora-sixth-grader’s-brain weirdness like “Weird Al” Yankovic’s UHF

Sure, that last one doesn’t really fit the “heavy hitters” theme, but it was a hell of a summer for movies, is what I’m saying.

And it looks like we’re in for another one of those. Michael Keaton is back as Batman. Harrison Ford

dusts off Indy’s fedora. The Transformers, Mission: Impossible, and Fast & Furious franchises are dropping their seventh, seventh, and tenth installments, respectively. There’s a sequel to a bona fide modern animated classic with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and what looks like a joyous return to the big screen for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There’s even the unlikely Barbie and Oppenheimer box office horse race, which is somehow the subject of intense debate and scrutiny.

We’re devoting a big chunk of this issue to a summer movie preview to help you navigate the wildest blockbuster schedule in recent memory. But mostly, we just want you to take a break from the heat, hit up your local theater, and lose yourself in adventure with a crowd of friends or strangers, just like you used to.

Mike Cecchini, Editor-in-Chief

BY EXPERTS. FOR FANS.

ON THE COVER

The sun’s come out (a bit) and with it a new sense of hope for a bright and bold blockbuster season. We wanted our cover to reflect that, so we’ve opted for warm, bright colors and hand-drawn fonts by our own Chloe Lewis. On the cover you can spot Michael Keaton’s Batman who will be showing his cowl in The Flash, Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, as well as the stars of Barbie, Spider-Man: Across the

Spider-Verse, and more. Also don’t miss our features on Diablo 4, ’90s cartoons, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Eric Andre. There’s a lot to get excited about. We hope you enjoy the issue!

COVER PHOTO CREDIT: HANDLETTING BY CHLOE LEWIS IMAGE CREDITS: DISNEY, WARNER BROS., PARAMOUNT PICTURES, PARAMOUNT+, SONY PICTURES, BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, UNIVERSAL PICTURES

ISSUE 10 | SUMMER 2023

Michael Keaton dons the cape and cowl in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman

Support Your Local Comic Shop!

The magazine you’re holding in your hands right now is available at these fine comic book stores nationwide.

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CHEERS FOR COMICS

Atomic City Comics thrives by knowing exactly what the neighborhood wants.

BY JIM DANDENEAU

ASK MICHAEL YATES WHAT THE

secret to his success as a comic shop owner is, and after fifteen uninterrupted minutes of old stories, several things become crystal clear. First, Yates has seen some stuff. He’s been a fan all his life, but he’s been selling comics since 1987. Back when Batman ’89 was coming out, everyone on South Street (Philly’s Greenwich Village equivalent, at the time) was selling bootleg Batman shirts except for Yates’ shop. “I couldn’t do that because we had artist friends,” Yates tells us. After Warner Bros. and Philly PD did a sweep of all the bootleg materials, the people from WB came back to his shop. “We’ve been looking at all the shops in Philadelphia, and

you guys seem kind of different,” they said to Yates. “Do you want to host the sneak peek premiere for the Batman movie?”

This leads to the second thing that talking to Yates makes clear: there is historical and institutional knowledge behind the counter at Atomic City Comics that is tough to find in any business, let alone comics sales. Atomic City is the oldest Black-owned comic shop in Philadelphia, and very few shops have 35 years of experience behind the counter. Our conversation starts with pre-Batman ’89 sales; it goes through Dave Sim’s Cerebus and the birth of the graphic novel; the death and return of Superman; manga; romance comics; the current wave of

new publishers; and con culture through the years.

Which brings us to the third thing Yates shows people in conversations about his success and the success of Atomic City: he pays attention. “My joke is we run the shop like a bar,” Yates says. “We know your name; we know your drink. And if something comes out that is kind of like your drink, we recommend it for you.”

Running comic shops for 35 years, Yates has been there for the ups and the downs. But “be like a good bartender to your customers” is probably the closest thing to a first principle you can pull out of talking with Yates. His goal is to ensure that everyone feels welcome in the shop,

Atomic City Comics aims to be a store where everybody (well, the staff at least) knows your name.

that they have a relationship with the folks who sell them their books, and that the store is responsive to the world around it. They stock what people are going to want to read and try to figure out what that is both for individual customers (“Every shop needs a guy that goes, ‘Hey, you, you’re not just leaving that Doom Patrol #1 on the table, are you?’”) and what’s on trend.

To this day, South Street, where Atomic City is located, has an eclectic vibe that is tough to find in many big cities. There are trendy sandwich shops next to old Greek restaurants next to sex shops next to comic stores surrounded by apartments. The whole neighborhood is vibrant and lived in, with a punk character that feels older than the individual stores. According to Yates, this tracks: South Street used to be a haven for punks

and goths. “The Friday [The Crow opened, it was sold out everywhere. And we kept having goth kids walk in and see this bookshelf full of Crow trades, and they’re like, “Can I borrow [the store] phone a second?”

It’s fair to expect that Yates’ first principles will carry Atomic City into the future. “There’s an audience out there,” he tells us. “They’re coming in. I’m seeing them all the time. You have to engage with people and say ‘Hey, this is really cool.’” And hopefully, if the engagement can stay, so, too, will Atomic City.

Atomic City Comics is located at 638 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19147. If your shop does something fun and unexpected tweet us @denofgeekus.

”WE RUN THE SHOP LIKE A BAR. WE KNOW YOUR DRINK. IF SOMETHING COMES OUT THAT’S LIKE YOUR DRINK, WE RECOMMEND IT.

MCU

STRANGER TREKS

Akiva Goldsman, the mastermind of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, talks about

BY RYAN BRITT

FOR FANS WHO LOVED Strange

New Worlds season one, there’s some good news: the second season isn’t trying to reinvent the show. In fact, in some ways, Strange New Worlds season two might feel even more like what the first season promised to be.

Debuting just two months after the conclusion of one of the most tightly serialized Star Trek seasons ever, Picard season three, Strange New Worlds returns with the same goal it had in its first season: to tell throwback, self-contained stories with a different tone, every single week.

But that doesn’t mean the scope is the same. In 2022, Strange New Worlds left two unresolved cliffhangers dangling—the departure of La’an (Christina Chong) and the arrest of Una (Rebecca Romijn) while also hinting at the idea that we will see way more of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) in 2259, well before he takes command of the Enterprise in 2265. More than any other ongoing Trek show, Strange New Worlds is playing with a lot of Star Trek toys at the same time, and within the first few episodes, fans will see a lot of familiar things, not just from The Original Series but the larger canon, too. For co-creator and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, the goal of Strange New Worlds isn’t just about doing cool Star Trek stuff, but instead, trying to use a more traditional Trek format to tell brave and interesting stories about our

culture now. Den of Geek caught up with Goldsman to get a sense of the next ten episodes and the overall future of the series, including the tantalizing idea that this show could eventually “overlap” with the continuity of The Original Series.

“Season one was, if you really think about it, kind of an experiment,” Goldsman says. “Not for us, but you know, for the audience. We believed that hewing closely to that genrehopping thing that is very consistent

in The Original Series, but also Star Trek in general, were good ideas. But there was some pushback when we were developing it. ‘What, they’re suddenly in a children’s story?’ Things like that. This type of TV isn’t exactly what people are doing today. So, because we got such a great response from people out there in the world, our brief for season two became: let’s do season one but bigger and better.”

Just like seasons of TOS in the ’60s or The Next Generation in the ’90s, the second season of Strange New Worlds

will feel familiar, albeit with some surprising new characters and situations. For Goldsman, it’s within these self-contained morality tales that Star Trek continues to be unique. And, again, right off the bat, the new Strange New Worlds season tackles contemporary problems like war profiteering, performance-enhancing drugs, and biological discrimination.

“One thing we try to do is to use science fiction as a lens on a modern dilemma,” Goldsman says. “And in the ’60s, Star Trek was the first among equals to really do that well. But it owed a great deal to The Twilight Zone in that respect, creating these kinds of

“screwing” with canon and why season two will feel so much bigger.

ONE THING WE TRY TO DO

IS TO USE SCIENCE FICTION AS A LENS ON A MODERN DILEMMA.”

O. Henry-style stories for science fiction. I think the original Star Trek owes a small debt to Rod Serling, and all the Trek series after that owe a debt to both.”

Unlike the vast majority of new prestige TV, and the majority of the rest of the Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds season two will continue to feel like a throwback, at least in terms of the format. In theory, a casual viewer could watch a random episode of Strange New Worlds season two, which isn’t even true of the kidfriendly series Prodigy. So, does that mean fans should expect Strange New Worlds to be totally disconnected from

canon concerns? Well, no. This is still a modern Trek show, and in the first episode, two very familiar alien enemies are either seen outright or referenced. By episode three, a few more familiar names are mentioned while some very old canon questions are addressed. In fact, Goldsman tells us that several kinds of crossover episodes are always on the table when new seasons begin brainstorming.

“At the beginning of each season, we blue-sky the hell out of it,” Goldsman says. “And we always leave so many episodes on the table, and many of them are [crossovers]. I mean, there are different ways, depending on

the species or technology, that folks from Enterprise [the prequel series] could still be around. Obviously, we could time-travel into the future. What if we brought back John de Lancie as Q… or as Trelane? We think about those crossovers all the time. And, as you know, this season, one of those episodes is coming.”

Here, Goldsman is referring to the much-talked-about crossover episode with Lower Decks directed by Jonathan Frakes, which will be partly animated, and partly live-action. Back in 2022, Frakes told Den of Geek he considered the crossover episode to be “proof of concept” that Star Trek could do a

Ethan Peck as Spock, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga, Jess Bush as Chapel, and Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura in episode 201 “The Broken Circle”

NEW RELEASES

live-action sitcom. But within the first few episodes, the show is taking other risks, too.

Strange New Worlds is already greenlit for a third season, but how much longer can the series go on? The canon of The Original Series is getting closer and closer, and certain elements of continuity may not entirely match up. Goldsman points out that Spock’s journey is a big part of Strange New Worlds, and the existence of “smiling Spock” in the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” has been a gift to the writers.

Essentially, before the character of Spock was fully formed by Gene Roddenberry and Leonard Nimoy, and before Star Trek found its footing, Spock was not meant to be as coldly logical as he became. As a result, Spock’s smile in “The Cage” and his general emotionalism have become a canonical mystery. Starting with Short Treks in 2019, it’s a mystery that Strange New Worlds is still

untangling. Goldsman says “something happened between ‘The Cage’ and ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before,’” in terms of Spock’s demeanor. Part of season two does begin to acknowledge very openly just how different the Spock of this series is right now from what most fans know. While the show isn’t ignoring the differences between Ethan Peck’s Spock and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, it isn’t going for a quick fix retcon, either. In fact, Goldsman thinks that if the show were able to run for a decent amount of time, something even more interesting than a retcon could occur.

“Look, when it comes to canon, we’re screwing with it a little bit,” Goldsman admits. “There was no indication that Uhura served on Pike’s Enterprise. We’ve invented that from whole cloth. We’ve retconned Spock and Chapel’s relationship. But I think it is our job to get there. The closer we get to that moment, just after ‘Where

No Man Has Gone Before,’ we have to acknowledge canon. And the closer we get, we have to start to resemble The Original Series.” Why after “Where No Man Has Gone Before?” Well, for Goldsman, The Original Series as we know it doesn’t really start until we get the core cast (including Dr. McCoy) and everybody else in their “correct” uniform colors, which wasn’t really the case until a few episodes into the show’s production run.

That said, Goldsman knows not everything can stay in this nebulous in-between stage forever, and firmly believes the series could safely continue for seven years before hitting real TOS problems.

“If we were so lucky as to continue, I think we could even overlap,” says Goldsman. “I think that would really be interesting to actually rub up against The Original Series.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season

Two debuts on Paramount+ on June 15.

IMAGE CREDITS: MICHAEL GIBSON/PARAMOUNT+

Christina Chong as La’an and Paul Wesley as Kirk in episode 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

SASHA CALLE

The Flash’s new Supergirl is ready to burst onto screens.

BY JIM DANDENEAU

1 Sasha Calle couldn’t prepare for the role of Supergirl when she was testing for it because she didn’t know she was up for it. “I actually had no idea, when I was getting the job, what character I was playing,” she says. The video of her finding out which part she got is floating around the internet, and it’s a beautiful sight.

2 You’d think a role like Kara Zor-El in a story based on one of the biggest comic-book arcs of the last 15 years (“Flashpoint”) would require background reading. Not so with The Flash, Calle tells us. “When I asked Andy [Muschietti, director] what he wanted me to read, he was like: ‘Nothing… I want you to do no research.’”

3 Unfortunately for Muschietti, the Boston native was already in pretty deep—Calle was already a fan of the CW shows based on her character. “[My little brother] is 16 right now, and he and I love superhero everything. So funnily enough, we did watch a lot of The Flash and Supergirl on the CW.”

4 Calle is no stranger to long-running characters. She won a Daytime Emmy for her portrayal of chef Lola Rosales on The Young and the Restless. To Calle, the beauty of Kara is how many different stories can be told with the character. “There are so many different versions of Supergirl,” she says, “and they’re all so badass and unique in their own ways.” So you can get musical theater Kara on TV, or you can get a hyperbadass that we’ll see in the movie.

5 Calle, the first Latina to play Supergirl on screen, is thrilled for people to see her work. “Doing Supergirl is an honor and a blessing,” she says. “I’ve had the most amazing time learning about her and being a part of her. I just think she’s really fucking cool.”

IMAGE CREDITS: ERIC RAY DAVIDSON

MAGIC WORLDS

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest and SHAZAM! are perfect entry points for comics fans of any stripe. Writer Mark Waid tells us all about them.

MARK WAID has been helping shape the DC Universe, on and off, for over three decades. While most famous for his work with Alex Ross on one of the most revered DC stories of all time, 1996’s Kingdom Come, DC fans have watched him guide everyone from the Justice League and Wally West to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and many more. But the writer appears to be having his most fun in years on Batman/Superman: World’s Finest and SHAZAM!, two series that allow Waid and artist Dan Mora to showcase the most iconic versions of everyone’s favorite heroes and villains, with as little baggage as possible. If you just want a tour of the DCU, either as a new or lapsed fan, this is the perfect place for you.

But these aren’t just “greatest hits” packages, as each title brings modern touches to its classic feel. World’s Finest, while set several years in the past, is still setting the stage for upcoming DC storylines, even as the book tells its own selfcontained stories.

“It’s not because I have an affinity for older comics…,” Waid says of the setting and tone. “Those comics exist; they have a place; this is not an attempt to recreate that stuff. But the beauty of being able to step back a few years is that we are not beholden to what is happening in the Superman or Batman books right this second. This gives us a chance to sort of form our own little pocket so that we can set things up that will spill over into the main DC Universe. It’s set in the past, but it’s connected. There are origins here for things that will be big in the DC Universe in 2023 and 2024.”

It’s a tricky line for a modern superhero comic to straddle, but

BY MIKE CECCHINI

Comic books Batman/ Superman: World’s Finest and SHAZAM!, both written by Mark Waid, showcase the most iconic versions of some of DC’s biggest heroes and villains in self-contained stories.

Mora’s art makes it look effortless. “One of my favorite things about Dan Mora, besides his storytelling, besides the fact that the pages are beautiful and impactful, is that I’ll often send him references on [older] costumes, characters, or whatever, and tell him, ‘Some of this stuff looks a little outdated, feel free to punch it up a little bit,’” Waid says. “And every time, it comes back just exactly the way it used to look, and yet it somehow has some sort of Dan Mora touch on it that makes it look contemporary. It’s amazing.”

Waid and Mora’s SHAZAM!, while set in the modern DCU, is a soft reboot for the character, returning more magic and whimsy to his adventures. And in what might be equally important to some fans, Waid found a solution to the fact that DC won’t use the character’s original name of Captain Marvel.

“I just was very uncomfortable with him being called Shazam because

then he can’t say his own name out loud,” Waid says. “And if he can, then you’ve set up a situation by which sometimes the word works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and to me, that takes all the magic out of the concept and out of the word. It’s not a magic word anymore. Obviously, his original name, Captain Marvel, is off the table. This was our compromise…. It’s like Doctor Who. He doesn’t call himself ‘Doctor Who;’ he’s just ‘The Doctor.’ [Shazam is] ‘The Captain’ now.”

While Waid is spending time with the Man of Steel in every issue of World’s Finest, he’s also going to tell a modern story in the upcoming Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor (with Bryan Hitch on art), which sees Supes trying to save the life of his biggest enemy. Waid has written Superman and Luthor stories before, notably in his take on their first meeting in 2003’s Superman: Birthright (with Leinil Francis Yu on art). The writer considers that book a tie for his favorite DC work, alongside Kingdom Come, and he’s hoping to revisit elements of it with this new story.

“It’s sort of a semi-sequel to Birthright,” he says. “You don’t need to have read one to read the other. It’s not necessarily a continuance of the story. But the interpretation of Luthor and Superman that you will see in Last Days of Lex Luthor, if you read Birthright, will be very familiar to you.”

Shazam and Batman/Superman: World’s Finest release new issues monthly. Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #1 arrives on July 25.

THERE ARE ORIGINS HERE FOR THINGS THAT WILL BE BIG IN THE DC UNIVERSE IN 2023 AND 2024.”

Listen to our full interview with MARK WAID on the DC Standom podcast.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 recently wrapped up the team’s big-screen exploits, they have been around for over 50 years in the comics. But it’s only very recently that they started to even remotely resemble the gang of freaks, misfits, and outcasts that you see in the MCU. With that in mind, there’s no better place to jump in than with 2017’s All-New Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Communication Breakdown by Gerry Duggan and Aaron Kuder, which feels like it takes place in between the movie adventures. It even comes complete with music recommendations.

THE FLASH

The Flash movie is loosely inspired by Flashpoint, by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert. But while that tale of parallel universes may have some bearing on what we’ll see in the movie, if you want the best pure entry point into the world of Barry Allen, you can’t go wrong with The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes

Twice by Joshua Williamson and Carmine di Giandomenico. For any fans only coming to the character via knowledge of the TV show or film, this book feels like a perfect extension of that world.

SCREEN TO PAGE

Can’t get enough of your favorite screen superheroes? Here are the best comics you can start with to continue their screen adventures.

BY MIKE CECCHINI

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Spider-Verse comics are a mixed (and confusing) bag. But really, you’re here for Miles Morales, right? And for our money, there’s no better starting point for Miles than Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garrón’s Miles Morales: SpiderMan Volume 1—Straight Out of Brooklyn. You already know his origin story, so this kicks off a series of Miles’ best adventures as Brooklyn’s Spidey. Want a little context for the Spider-Punk who has appeared prominently in the movie’s trailers (voiced by Daniel Kaluuya)? Cody Ziglar and Justin Mason’s recent Spider-Punk is a thoroughly delightful read and one that should send you hunting for some punk-rock playlists.

SECRET INVASION

This is a tricky one. The actual Secret Invasion comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu tells of the culmination of a long-running plot by the shapeshifting alien Skrulls to replace key Marvel heroes and villains and lead the way to a takeover of Earth. The problem is, it’s tied really heavily to deep Marvel Comics history, so it might not be the easiest place to start. But if it’s powered secret

agents running missions in the shadows of the Marvel Universe (which the trailers for the Secret Invasion TV series promise) you’re looking for, you might want to check out Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, and Stefano Casselli’s Secret Warriors Vol. 1: Nick Fury, Agent of Nothing instead.

BLUE BEETLE

For a character who hasn’t even been around for 20 years, there are plenty of easy starting points for the Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle. While his first series, by his actual creators Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner is a great read, you can’t go wrong with the recent Blue Beetle: Graduation Day by Josh Trujillo and Adrián Gutiérrez, which gets you right up to speed on the character while throwing him into a brand-new adventure.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

The original TMNT comics of the 1980s are classic, gritty reads in their own right (not to mention expensive collectors’ items). But for modern fans looking to dip their flippers into comics, a great choice would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1: Change is Constant,

which is perhaps the best, most comprehensive take on the Turtle mythos ever put to paper. We guarantee you’ll come back for future volumes.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM

We don’t know much about the Aquaman sequel at the moment, so it’s tough to point you to a specific volume. But the general vibe of the DCEU version of Aquaman took a few pages from Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’ work with the character, which kicked off with 1: The Trench. On the other hand, Ram V and Christian Ward’s

THE MARVELS

Where do you start with a movie that has three protagonists?

Carol Danvers has a complicated comics history, but you can’t go wrong with the book that first made her the character familiar to MCU fans, Captain Marvel by Kelly Sue DeConnick Omnibus, which features art by Dexter Soy, Emma Rios, and others. Kamala Khan’s early adventures are some of the most popular in recent Marvel Comics history, so just dive right in with Ms. Marvel Vol. 1:

Guardians of the Galaxy

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Secret Invasion

The Flash

Blue Beetle

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The Marvels

ARTIFACTS OR FICTION

The real life treasures that inspired some of Indiana Jones’ adventures.

I NAMED THE DOG INDIANA. And like my pup Indy, I have a lot of fond memories of Indiana Jones, professor of archaeology, expert of the occult, obtainer of rare antiquities, Nazi puncher.

Along with Harrison Ford’s iconic character’s of exploits cracking whips, globetrotting, wearing a fedora and leather jacket regardless of climate, and—I cannot emphasize this enough—punching Nazis, what made me a voracious fan of Indiana Jones is how the treasure hunter would pursue artifacts that belong in a museum (preferably a museum in the area whence the artifact originated).

AARON SAGERS

From a young age, I was inspired in no small part by Dr. Henry Jones Jr. to travel the world and learn about the potentially supernatural mysteries belonging to a rich tapestry of cultures. Before I possessed an actual passport, I would explore the far corners of the planet via National Geographic and the Mysteries of the Unknown Time-Life Books series, reading about Nazca Lines in Peru or the Turkdean barrow near Hazleton, UK.

What I love about Indiana Jones, as we approach Ford’s fifth and final film outing as the character in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is how the franchise tapped into real-world archaeological discoveries and mysterious artifacts.

Here are a few aspects of Indy’s (the man, not my dog) pursuits of fortune and glory that are part fact and part fiction.

ADVENTURING ARCHAEOLOGISTS

George Lucas’ creation is partially based on the sci-fi and adventure heroes from movie serials in the late 1930s/early 1940s, such as Buck Rogers and Zorro, but he is also indirectly modeled after famous early 20th century archaeologists and explorers. Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History was a naturalist who struck a pose much like Indy, trekked across the Gobi Desert, and dug up fossilized dinosaur eggs. British Lt. Colonel Percy Fawcett claimed to have encountered strange animals,

including a giant anaconda (it had to be snakes), before disappearing in 1925 while searching for the lost city of Z in Brazilian jungles. National Geographic’s first archaeological grantee, Hiram Bingham III, brought Machu Picchu, “The Lost City of the Incas,” to the attention of Western cultures. Sir Leonard Woolley excavated the Sumerian royal tombs in the city of Ur—which inspired Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia

CHACHAPOYAN FERTILITY IDOL

The golden idol Indy pursues in the

character’s unforgettable introduction in Raiders of the Lost Ark belonged to the Chachapoyan tribe, which did exist. These “Warriors of the Clouds” lived in dense Amazon forests of the Andes, in what is modern-day Peru, from the 9th century until they were wiped out by Incas in the 15th century. The Hovitos tribe manipulated by rival archaeologist Belloq are fictional and are not descendants of the Chachapoyans. The idol itself is directly inspired by a sculpture believed to be of the purifying and fertility Aztec goddess Tlazolteotl (on permanent display at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington DC).

Rather than gold, it’s carved from bluish-green stone with 19th century Mexican origins.

ARK OF THE COVENANT

First appearing in the Book of Exodus, the Ark’s assembly instructions— more detailed than most IKEA furniture—were dictated by God to Moses, and intended to hold the Ten Commandments tablets, manna, and the Rod of Aaron. Within the Bible, it was last seen by King Hezekiah of Judah around the 7th century BCE.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) carry the fabled Ark of the Covenant.

There are countless stories of the Ark being moved around and ending up in various locations such as Ethiopia, Rome, Ireland, and Tanis, Egypt, where Nazis were searching for it in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Whether or not it existed remains a debate, but it seems plausible. One historian, Tudor Parfitt, theorized the Lemba people of Zimbabwe obtained it and used it as a superweapon (which makes it all the more fun to think of this “Voice of God” melting Nazi faces—which is even better than punching them).

SANKARA STONES

In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the Sankara Stones were given to the priest Sankara atop Mount Kalisa to battle evil. These resemble lingam stones, representations of the deity Shiva in the Hindu faith, and Mount Kailash is believed to be the abode of that god. Mola Ram’s Thuggee Cult might have truly existed; a criminal organization, from where we get the word “thug,” they may have also worshiped the goddess Kali, though postcolonial scholars question earlier historians.

THE HOLY GRAIL

The Grail in Last Crusade is the cup Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper and into which his blood spilled during the crucifixion. It first appeared in literature in the 12th century and came to be connected with Arthurian legends and the real-life and mysterious Knights Templar, who— like the fictional Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword—served as protectors of the Grail. Likely falling under the category of pseudo-history, enough people have embarked on quests for the Grail to make its existence, like the Ark, seem plausible. A chapel in Chwarszczany, western Poland, with its potential hidden tunnels, is a strong contender for its resting place. Yes, face-punch worthy Nazis did have an interest in finding the Grail; specifically occultist Heinrich Himmler and medievalist Otto Rahn.

CRYSTAL SKULLS

Say what you will about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; the film’s MacGuffins are real, sort of. There are 13 said to exist around the world, including at the British Museum

and Smithsonian Institution.

Believers say they originated with Mesoamerican civilizations tens of thousands of years ago; there are stories connecting them to the Aztecs, Atlantis, ancient aliens, and possessing healing properties. Science doesn’t back this up; the ones examined by electron microscope were crafted as recently as the mid-to-late 1800s, reports National Geographic

DIAL OF DESTINY

Though we have to wait and see the latest Indiana Jones installment to know what the titular Dial of Destiny is, it’s possibly inspired by the Antikythera mechanism, aka “The First Computer,” used by the ancient Greeks to calculate astronomical paths. Discovered in 1901 in a shipwreck after 2,000 years under the sea, the bronze gear of the mechanism looks like a “dial,” and it has figured into ancient alien theories. From the trailer, it seems the Nazis are interested in it. Perhaps it’s a way to harness the power of stars or reverse time to win World War II—and avoid well-deserved face punches.

SAY WHAT?

Quotes of the month from Den of Geek exclusive interviews.

—

CELEBS RECOMMEND

Latest TV To Bi n ge Watch

JAY HERNANDEZ

I just saw The Peripheral, which I thought was pretty fun. The Last of Us was so good too. I feel like there’s so much good television right now, I can’t even keep up.

DENNIS QUAID

I’ve really been into 1883. I actually quit watching series that are streaming and go for a second season because it’s just too much. I wanna see something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

ANNA KENDRICK

I just finished season two of The White Lotus and everybody’s like, “Yeah, I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to obsessively sit and talk about The White Lotus season two with you because we all did that six months ago, you loser.”

BRITTANY SNOW

Yellowjackets. Yes. Oh my gosh. It really was [great]. That damn soundtrack, I even think about it every now and then… all the children are exasperated and fearful….

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, AND FEATURES.

“The more you love a person, the more you do for that person… Love is a learned language. I’m divorced, I can say this! I know what love isn’t!”

— If You Were the Last star Anthony Mackie on romance.

“I did do molly at the wedding. It was not with the bride. It was a mistake.”

Leah McKendrick on an experience that wound up in her directorial debut, the comedy Scrambled.

“We were all like, we can’t do this without him; these films are his identity. It’s his sense of humor; it’s his taste in music; it’s his writing. It’s him.”

— Karen Gillan on learning James Gunn was off Guardians 3

— Marvin? star Cameron Tharma on working opposite a poodle named Tina.

“So metimes peop le ge t pig e onholed a certai n wa y , a nd I kne w the y c o ul d s h owcase t hese inna te t hin gs re a lly well.”

“ E VERY COUNTRY WE STAY AT, WE WANT TO STAY AT THE MOST HAUNTED [HOTEL].”

— Brittany Snow on casting friends including Dave Bautista, Gina Rodriguez, Scott Mescudi, and Joel McHale against type in Parachute

— Danny and Michael Philippou, directors of new A24 horror Talk to Me

T he hardest thing for me in acting is not the dramatic stuff. It’s usually one word. Or they’ll say, ‘and then she laughs,’ and I’ll be like, ‘do I know how to laugh?’

— Swarm actress Dominique Fishback on starring in the dark Prime Video series.

“YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT LEGENDS. DON’T EVER MEET YOUR HEROES.”

Barbie comes to the big screen starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. PG. 41

Spide-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Miles Morales meets the Spider Society. PG. 38

Blockbuster season is here , and for the first time in ages the big-screen lineup is absolutely packed. We’ve rounded up the hottest titles coming to a theater near you in our summer movie extravaganza!

FEATURING:

Mission: ImpossibleDead Reckoning Part One

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

The Flash, Elemental, The Little Mermaid, The Equalizer 3

Last Voyage of the Demeter, Asteroid City, Haunted Mansion

The Boogeyman, The Nun II, Oppenheimer and much more...

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Indy is back! We chat with director James Mangold. PG. 30

→

Indiana Jones

and the Dial of Destiny

Director James Mangold shares what it’s like riding beside Indiana Jones and other heroes… all the way home.

BY DAVID CROW

JAMES MANGOLD DID NOT say no, exactly, to Indiana Jones when the man in the fedora came knocking. But he didn’t open the door at first either. Instead, during those precious few months before a pandemic changed the world, Mangold experienced the surreal sensation of having his filmmaking idols Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and Kathleen Kennedy approach him about directing the fifth Indiana Jones film—and essentially turning them down.

“There seemed like a lot of danger on a project like this,” Mangold recalls about that early discussion, “a lot of Mount Rushmore heads of greatness around me and a kind of pressure that I’m used to, but the point for me is

always ‘why are we making this movie? What does it have to say?’ Like, I know why a corporation might want to make the movie, but what is the creative endeavor?” For Mangold, the sticking point became Lucasfilm wanting Indiana Jones 5 to shoot about six months after that sitdown if it was going to meet a 2021 release date. And Mangold needed a delay.

“The script wasn’t there, and I felt like I wasn’t there,” the director says. “I needed to find a way in. I needed to

in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He had time.

Time and its effect, even on legends like Dr. Jones, figures prominently in the fifth and definitely final Indy film. After Mangold came aboard with his Ford v Ferrari co-writers, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, their goal was to lean into the idea that this was a hero at sunset and that Ford and his onscreen alter ego have aged about 40 years since Raiders of the Lost Ark.

When we catch up with Mangold over Zoom—and only weeks before Dial of Destiny’s Cannes Film Festival premiere—we note it’s a theme he appears to have an affinity for after crafting Wolverine’s elegiac swan song in Logan. He recognizes the parallels, too, but sees Indy as a fundamentally different character.

somehow own something like this if I was going to do it. It’s not a gig you jump on.” At that moment, it seemed as if he might have to let the project go, as a delay would throw Disney off its timetable. But as it turned out, the whole world would soon be on pause, and Mangold would have that precious resource that would come to haunt Ford’s eponymous character

“It isn’t that this story uniquely appeals to me,” Mangold considers, “it’s that the opposite thing doesn’t. To me, making a movie about a handsome guy in his prime without vulnerability of any kind is its own bag of problems. I’ve seen many movies, even in our modern franchise context, fail. A whole bunch of studs in outfits running around blowing things away and saving the world can get pretty numbing.” For the director, embracing Indy’s age and vulnerability is the appeal.

“My actor is 79 years old, and we got to be real. I know everyone wants to pretend all the time, but there’s only one man who’s going to play Indiana Jones, and he happens to be 79 years old. I’m making a movie about that

eta : JUNE 30

Nazi Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) hunts for the Dial of Destiny, backed by Colonel Weber (Thomas Kretschmann).

“THERE SEEMED LIKE A LOT OF DANGER ON A PROJECT LIKE THIS, [WITH] A LOT OF MOUNT RUSHMORE HEADS OF GREATNESS AROUND ME.”

guy, not the guy who’s 79 pretending he’s 52 because that’s not real.”

However, lest you fret, Indy 5 is not going to be a dirge. Again, this character isn’t Logan, and the tenor of the new film is nothing if not joyful, albeit wistful, as an older and wearier Indy finds himself in 1969 and at the end of his career. He’s finally retiring from university and lives in a world where he’s become his own relic. As Mangold notes: “Astronauts are our heroes, and people are now voyaging to new worlds outside our planet; it dwarfs Indy’s digging in the earth.”

Yet when his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) shows up one day with a clue to an ancient artifact that eluded Indy back during World War II (and an opening sequence that utilizes much talked-about de-aging technology), Dr. Jones finds himself back in the saddle for one more ride.

The director confides to us that when developing the story, a primary concern was figuring out why the last Indy movie struggled. But as it turned out, the best solution was less about focusing on the pitfalls of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and instead looking at what worked in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“[Raiders] is this unique nexus, not unlike what happened with Star Wars, where it’s classic movie serials, Golden Age plotting, and optimism with clear senses of good and evil,” Mangold says. He compares Ford to Humphrey Bogart in that movie and John Williams’ score to the work of classic Hollywood composers like Erich Wolfgang Korngold. “There’s an aesthetic unity to the film; even though it’s a mash-up of modern technology, Steven is still a classical filmmaker. It’s on steroids, but his whole language and vernacular are built off classic Hollywood cinema.”

Mangold intends to channel that in Dial of Destiny while aiming to make it appear like a jarring anachronism. In an era where the culture has become more jaded, and Golden Age escapades are replaced by the likes of Easy Rider

—or astronauts reaching the moon on rockets built by men who fought on the other side in WWII—Indy’s values are out of step. “Guys in a hat with a whip at their side are not running around Manhattan in 1969 and flying off to an Egyptian site,” says Mangold. “It’s not happening anymore.” Until it does.

When that sense of adventure returns, it’s also a chance for Mangold to embrace his preference for classic filmmaking over current Hollywood trends. Unsurprisingly, the filmmaker who shaped a superhero film around the influences of George Stevens’ Shane has old-school tastes; Mangold even likens Spielberg and himself as being among a brotherhood of directors with long memories.

“I’m not into the shaky-cam, fucking 75 cameras pointed in every direction insanity,” he says. “I don’t like flying the camera through a keyhole and then out the ass of a gnat, and I find the endless pursuit of one-er [takes] to be another kind of athletic stupidity that has gotten to be an arms race of ‘I’ll out one-er you.’ What about storytelling? That’s what Steven’s work teaches us. I love the cut, the power of the cut, the power of the move, and the move that meets the cut.”

Mangold grew up reading about those things, and Spielberg and

George Lucas, in Cinefix magazine while listening to Williams’ scores on vinyl. Now all three are collaborators on Dial of Destiny. “That was the greatest attraction of this film, the idea that I would have almost a middle-aged film school for myself in which I get a chance to try to walk in the shoes of my heroes and literally play on their ballfield with them.”

But if Mangold feels like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, then the star player he’s been waiting for

Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) is Voller’s nefarious right-hand man.

to come out of the cornfield must be Ford. The legendary actor first recommended Mangold for the job after almost appearing in Ford v Ferrari, and on the first day of filming, when Ford emerged from wardrobe in full regalia, everyone on the set was grinning ear-to-ear while staring at Indiana Jones in the flesh—at least until Ford looked around and shouted, “What? WHAT?!” But the actor is more than just a whip and hat.

“Harrison is always looking to

undermine his own good looks and seeming invincibility,” says Mangold. “He is not an actor who’s going ‘make me look good’ all the time. He wants to look sloppy, bad, real… He wants to be full of jealousies, anguishes, petty grudges, anger, and miscalculations.”

Mangold believes this is a major reason the character has endured for nearly half a century: Ford makes Indy a bit fussy and whiny, and audiences love seeing that messy obliviousness. He can have a classroom full of

students lusting after him (in a different era), but he only sees the chalkboard and its charted course for adventure. Those qualities are also why Mangold and company put so much thought into who would be the right companion for Indy at sunset.

“I know Harrison pretty well, and he’s a handful in a wonderful way,” Mangold says. “He likes to argue; he likes to push back and pull on the scenes. He’s extremely demanding of himself and everyone around him, so I wanted somebody who would present him with challenges every day.”

In some ways, though, it always comes back down to Raiders, and in this case, how certain Indy sequels failed to find an energy as tenacious and effervescent as Karen Allen. Mangold thinks he might have found a spiritual successor of sorts in Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a polymath talent he admits he wrote the role of Helena for. It probably didn’t hurt that the director was watching Fleabag season two while developing the script.

“She made a massive impression on me as a powerful creative force, and also a comedian and actress, and we needed something very fresh to put up against Harrison,” Mangold says. As it turned out, Ford was also a fan after recently bingeing Fleabag. “We both just said to Kathy Kennedy, ‘Get her.’”

Fortunately, Waller-Bridge liked the script (or the two-thirds of it that were finished) when she met with Mangold, and the result is a performance he compares to Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck: “You want to fall in love with her, but you know she’s going to destroy you. It’s this wonderful combination of mess and art.”

Once again, Mangold seems determined to unite Indy with his cinematic heritage. If what Spielberg did on Raiders (and Jaws and Close Encounters, and…) is akin to Mozart in Mangold’s mind, then the younger filmmaker knows he can only offer his own interpretation of that after a lifetime of watching and learning. Still, Dial of Destiny, at last, gives him “permission to indulge all of it.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens on June 30.

Boat captain Renaldo (Antonio Banderas), an old friend of Indy’s, is called on for help.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) goes adventuring with his goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge).

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part One

BY CHRIS FARNELL

→AFTER 27 YEARS, the Mission: Impossible movies are coming to a gigantic, explosive, two-part conclusion featuring bigger stunts and, presumably, more rubber masks than you have ever seen before. Hayley Atwell tells us about introducing a mysterious new character to the saga and how to pull off those terrifying stunts without self-destructing in five seconds…

From what we’ve read so far, everyone’s been a bit cagey about Grace, the character you’re playing. Why is that?

When I came into this franchise, the screen test involved lots of

physical tests to see how I would naturally respond to the fight choreography.

I was also given about eight pages of dialogue to see how I read with Tom [Cruise], and after half an hour

of that, we kind of threw the script out and said, let’s try some different things together.

They said they were looking for an actress who understood the way Mission is built, which is that you follow what the frame wants rather than shooting the actual script.

You try out lots of different things and trust that it will be edited in such a way that finds the natural progression of the character as we go along.

So there is a lot of trying different versions of her through physical

New to the franchise, Marvel star Hayley Atwell introduces us to the enigmatic Grace.

behavior and different line readings to see what the natural chemistry between my character and Ethan would be and what naturally came out of our circumstances, environment, or action.

What ends up being the case is this is a consistently inconsistent character, which I’m delighted about because I wanted to elevate her. I wanted her to be more than a femme fatale, or an ingénue, or an ice queen. I wanted her to have nuance.

The release of the first Mission: Impossible film is almost as far away from today as it was from Dr. No when it came out. In that length of time, Bond went from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan, but Mission: Impossible has had a lot of the same team and cast in place that whole time. What’s it like coming onto that set?

[Director, Christopher McQuarrie] and Tom are such students of film, and I think that’s why you see such a progression in the Mission franchise. What Tom learns about Mission 1, he carries on to the next one, and he’s always looking to elevate it and push forward to delight and surprise the audience while delivering what he knows they want.

So coming into this, I felt in very good hands knowing McQuarrie and Tom’s symbiotic relationship meant that we would work together in this triangle of power to find out how we can satisfy the beats this kind of spy action-adventure movie needs, but in that have the freedom for me to try something different.

What was the process of filming the stunts?

Tom has this mantra, “Don’t be careful, be competent.” “Careful,” for me, implies fearfulness. It’s saying don’t do something if you’re scared of it, don’t try something potentially dangerous, but everything’s potentially dangerous, so the word almost doesn’t have meaning anymore.

“Competent” was a really useful word because it was active. It suggests

that if you train properly with the experts involved in any given stunt, you can create a dynamic physicality with mobility and injury prevention in place, so you could not only do the stunt but do it multiple times from multiple angles and at any given moment take a note on the performance.

We trained for about five months with Wade Eastwood, his stunt team, and his wife, Sam Eastwood.

So when we get out onto the set, and it’s Venice and a night shoot and you’re backflipping off a bridge, or falling backward off a moving train as we did in the Norway sequence, we’ve done so much prep, you can just let go and know that work has meant you are safe.

So how do you combine that sense of having the stunt where you practice it and plan it and it has to go the same way every time with giving a performance where you make it up as you go along?

I’m used to having a script and making loads of notes and having a clearer arc over the whole script of the character’s emotional journey.

But with [Mission: Impossible], you can’t trust that. That freedom meant in each scene and stunt I had to make it make sense to me psychologically. It’s clear what the objective is, getting away from something or getting to something.

How was Mission: Impossible different from the MCU films you’ve been involved with? Well, there’s no CGI, no muscle suits—that’s all Tom. That really is him.

The characters are wildly different. Peggy Carter is very much in control with a deep sense of fairness and a moral core driven by her emotional and romantic agenda and her connection to Captain America. Grace is a lone wolf, she’s unpredictable; she’ll hope for the best and throw herself into something. In terms of character, they are very different, but my approach was very much the same.

“I WANTED GRACE TO BE MORE THAN A FEMME FATALE, AN INGÉNUE OR AN ICE QUEEN. I WANTED HER TO HAVE NUANCE.”

Talk To Me

ETA: JULY 28

Teenagers doing dumb things is a rite of passage in adolescence. Teens doing dumber things in horror movies is an expectation. Yet few things feel dumber than filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou’s ingeniously twisted idea for a chiller: Kids using demonic possession to get high. Talk to Me took Sundance by storm and was acquired by the tastemakers at A24 and now looks set to get under your skin and follow you home like an unforgiving hangover. — DC

Gran Turismo

ETA: AUG. 11

Haunted Mansion

ETA: JULY 28

A reboot of a much derided movie based on a Disney theme park ride doesn’t exactly sound like gold. But add in the talent behind this new version, which sees a single mum hire a priest, a tour guide, a psychic and a historian to exorcise her new home, and all bets are off. Dear White People director Justin Simien is at the helm with a packed cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson and Jamie Lee Curtis. Could be scarily good.— RF

Director Rob Marshall on singing underwater, transformations, and firsts.

BY NATALIE ZUTTER

Talk about wish fulfillment. Not just another movie based on a video game, Neill Blomkamp’s latest is actually inspired by the true story of Jann Mardenborough, an avid Gran Turismo player who won a competition when he was just 19 to drive with Nissan in the Dubai 24 Hour. Yep, that’s an actual real-life motor race. Archie Madekwe (Midsommar) plays Jann, who ends up training with David Harbour’s hard-ass retired driver Jack Salter to become a professional race car driver. Rounding out the cast is Orlando Bloom as a marketing exec based on GT Academy founder Darren Cox and Djimon Hounsou and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell as Jann’s parents. — RF

IF YOU WANT TO SEE

a musical adapted from stage to screen and adapted well, Rob Marshall is your dream director. For Chicago, he went high-concept, recontextualizing the Broadway songs as vaudeville numbers from the mind of Roxie Hart. With Into the Woods, every prince, witch, and baker’s wife got a show-stopping number that justified why movie audiences should care about them. Marshall is aware that, while theater is a heightened space in which it’s completely natural for characters to belt out their “I want” songs, onscreen, it’s a tougher sell.

“You have to earn a song, especially in a movie,” he tells Den of Geek. “It has to feel seamless coming from story and character.” For his live-action

Mermaid princess Ariel (Halle Bailey) comes to the rescue of Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King).

Little Mermaid

adaptation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, that meant establishing rules about moving between land (more realistic) and sea (the fantasy realm), reintroducing the cherished songs once the story moves underwater and not a moment before. To wit, Marshall moved the original first song (“Fathoms Below”) to later in the film, turned it into a sea shanty, and has the liveaction movie open with Ariel (Halle Bailey) singing “Part of Your World.”

Marshall and Disney go way back; in 1999, he directed The Wonderful World of Disney’s televised Annie (with Kathy Bates); he also choreographed the Brandy and Whitney Houston version of Cinderella in 1997. Directing The Little Mermaid offered the unique challenge of the source material being an animated movie, requiring exhaustive previsualization, filming against a blue screen, separate rigs and stunt teams for every single actor, and digitalizing the bold world that exists “Under the Sea.”

“It was a chance to reimagine something so beloved,” Marshall says, adding that he also revisited Hans Christian Andersen’s story and discovered modern themes “about someone who feels that they don’t belong, that they belong somewhere

else, that it’s not where everyone around them feels they should be, but where they feel they should be.”

Embodying that journey of finding her place is Bailey, who Marshall praises for bringing to the role a mix of wisdom and naïveté, strength and vulnerability, wonder and a strong sense of self. “As a director, you pray

reprise of “Part of Your World.” Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and seagull Scuttle (Awkwafina) get first-time solos, too: “Wild Uncharted Waters” and “The Scuttlebutt,” respectively.

If you can believe it, Ariel only had one (iconic) song in the animated film. So the songwriters gave voice to her transformation from mermaid to human with “For the First Time,” a musical montage that Marshall says encompasses all of her “firsts” on land: “the experience of how scary it is, how awkward it is, how wonderful it is.”

someone will claim the role so you don’t have to even make a decision,” he says. “I saw her become a star in front of me, literally.”

The Oscar-winning music got a refresh, too. Returning composer Alan Menken collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda (with whom Marshall had worked on Mary Poppins Returns) to produce three-and-a-half new songs —the half being a more somber

The song occurs after Ariel has given up her voice to sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), so the singing is all internal. It’s an unexpected homage to musical theater classics like Barbra Streisand’s Yentl, which used the internal song to great effect. Marshall teases that there’s “a little surprise that happens toward the end of it, which is a really cool thing that happens.”

Marshall has been so immersed with The Little Mermaid for the past five years that he feels like (his pun) he’s only just coming up for air. Now, he must get his bearings for his next journey. “I’ve never done a movie like another movie,” he says. “God knows what [my next project] will be. I don’t know; go to the Moon or something!”

“YOU HAVE TO EARN A SONG; IT HAS TO FEEL SEAMLESS COMING FROM STORY AND CHARACTER.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

BY KIRSTEN HOWARD

→SONY SPUN A GOLDEN web in 2018 with the smash-hit animated Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and this summer’s sequel is set to up the ante with another visually groundbreaking Miles Morales adventure.

In Spider-Man: Across the SpiderVerse, Miles is flung into a wild multiverse where he meets a whole team of Spider-People who protect it. They’re called the Spider Society, and they’re led by a Spider-Man from the year 2099 called Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac).

While this might sound like a recipe for a wholesome team-up, Miles soon finds himself at odds with the Society in the middle of some multiversal chaos.

“Philosophically speaking, Miles holds our multiverse together,” Kemp Powers, one of the movie’s three directors, tells Den of Geek. “He’s so different from the other Spider-People because he’s not so alone. He’s close to his friends and family and never hides anything from them.”

Many Spider-People have lost their close family and look to a team for that connection instead, so when Miles enters the frame as something of an outlier with a family but no team, it offers him a unique perspective when meeting O’Hara and the gang, who seem to have lost their way.

“There’s an antagonistic relationship between Miles and the Spider Society,” director Joaquim Dos Santos says. “As you get older, you realize where the disconnect is

between an idea and the enforcement of an idea. The Spider Society is riding a fine line.”

Surprisingly, O’Hara and the Spider Society are also a way for the filmmakers to have a conversation with fans about the “preciousness” of comic books and canon. “They’re a proxy that allows us to talk to the

The directors of the groundbreaking animated film tell us all about Miles Morales’ new Marvel adventure.

fandom about what you can and can’t do in the world of comics,” reveals Powers.

Created in 2015 and making his cinematic debut in Across the Spider-Verse is “Spider-Punk” Hobart Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), who Dos Santos says is a light in the darkness, exposing what that conversation

means. “He’s a rebel in this crazy tapestry of Spiders, and he sticks out like a sore thumb, pointing at the rules everyone has set for themselves and eager to tear it all down.”

“Hobie sees elements of the totalitarian world he comes from and he knows it’s a slippery slope,” adds Powers. “He’s part of the Spider Society but he’s not drinking the Kool-Aid.”

While the Spider Society are antagonists in Across the Spider-Verse, the upcoming film also features The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a villain whose body is covered in portals that allow him to travel through different universes. The team chose to include The Spot early on in the process of making the movie, describing him as an overlooked character on the edge of the Spider-Verse in whom they found real potential.

“The Spot sees himself as more capable than people think and sets out to prove it to the world,” says director Justin K. Thompson. “It parallels Miles’ journey to write his own story in a surprising way.”

“Gwen Stacy is an emotionally fraught teenager with problems that she doesn’t know how to deal with,” Thompson explains. “Her comics have an illustrative style that almost feels like watercolors, so her world is like a moving mood ring that responds to her emotional state. If she’s angry, the world turns red. If she’s sad, it turns blue. With every world we have developed, there are things that have never been done before.”

“We’re essentially making six different films in one,” says Dos Santos, and the trio admits there was a certain amount of anxiety about how audiences would react to so many animation styles in one movie. But

The film’s story takes place across six different universes, each with its own animation style. The directors say that Sony’s visual effects and animation studio Imageworks worked hard to develop innovative new tools to create those worlds, and they often reflect the internal universes of their central characters.

after the first teaser trailer for the film was released, they realized it wasn’t going to be an issue. “They leaned in,” Powers recalls. “That was a pivotal moment for us.”

After seeing the first cut of Across the Spider-Verse, however, the directors soon realized it needed to be split into two films, as there was just too much story for one. Although this movie will stand on its own, a third movie, Beyond the Spider-Verse, is set to wrap things up next year.

“Miles is 15 now,” Thompson says. “He’s not a man, but he’s not a boy. He may be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in Brooklyn, but he doesn’t know how he measures up against the other capable SpiderPeople. Miles going from a novice to an expert was a big story to tell. In the first movie, we learned anyone can wear the mask, but in Across the Spider-Verse, Miles learns that it’s not just about putting on the mask; it’s how you wear it.”

“MILES LEARNS THAT IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT PUTTING ON THE MASK; IT’S HOW YOU WEAR IT.”

Miles and Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) take on villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman).

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is watched over by mom Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez) and dad Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry).

ETA: JULY 21

Who’d have thought one of the most hotly anticipated films of the summer would be a neon-soaked comedy about the iconic plastic doll? But this isn’t just any Barbie movie. This one is directed by Ladybird’s Greta Gerwig, co-written by The Squid and the Whale’s Noah Baumbach, and stars

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, alongside a huge ensemble cast of other Barbies and Kens. The marketing so far has been cheeky, with the first trailer aping the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey and a multi-poster campaign highlighting the interesting professions of the many Barbies. As the tagline goes: She’s everything… He’s just Ken. — RF

Pixar offers a love letter to the beauty and sacrifices of immigrant families.

BY BERNARD BOO

EMBER AND WADE, the odd couple at the center of Pixar’s Elemental, are visual effects confections unlike any other. Their bodies, made of pure fire and water, respectively, are in perpetual flux, which pushed the studio’s artists and technicians beyond their limits. Element City, the backdrop for the couple’s meet-cute, is an imaginative tapestry of intricate components that took thousands of hours of designing and tweaking to bring to the screen.

But all that VFX wizardry means nothing if it’s not serving a story that has something to say—and director Peter Sohn, a second-generation

Korean immigrant, had so much to say that the film’s development took an unexpectedly dark turn early on.

In the early stages of production, Sohn lost his father, one of the story’s main inspirations. “I wanted to capture [my parents’ experience of coming to the States] in the film, but I did it in a very dark way when my dad died,” Sohn tells Den of Geek. “I went off the rails. I [presented] a set of reels that were really dark, and no one on the team was connecting with it. That was a dark place for me.”

Tragically, Sohn lost his mother near the end of production, too. It shook him to his core. But by that time, the

ental

pays tribute to his parents’ sacrifices and the hard work they put into the Korean grocery store they opened in the Bronx, Sohn’s Fruits & Vegetables.

“My parents had come here from a foreign place to make a better life for [my siblings and I],” Sohn says. “They had gone through a war. They came to the country without knowing any English. There were a lot of obstacles for them.”

The unlikely romance between Ember and Wade is inspired by Sohn’s personal life, too, with the cultural clashes between the characters and their families reflecting his and his Italian-American wife’s experiences. “The toughest thing for me was that my parents and grandparents always said, ‘You have to marry a Korean,’”

Oppenheimer

ETA: JULY 21

Christopher Nolan’s latest stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” and focuses on his work as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II. Shot in IMAX, it’s got an impressive cast including Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, and more. With a $100 million budget, expect an epic. — RF

project was in a more hopeful place thanks to the support of his coworkers at Pixar, who reminded him that his original vision for the film didn’t come from a place of anger. “I started to find balance in the story to honor [my father’s] experience without the story being about that. I wanted the story to be about inclusion and love.”

The residents of Element City are composed of either fire, water, earth, or air. There’s societal friction between the fire and water folk, and with the city largely running on H2O, Ember’s parents bristle at the fact that the metropolis isn’t as welcoming to their kind. Xenophobia—and all that it encompasses—is directly addressed within the greater metaphor.

But as Sohn says, there’s much more to the story than that. Ember dreams of taking over the family convenience store, which serves as a cultural hub for the city’s fire community, and Sohn

Sohn recalls. “With this film, we’re trying to find specificity in cultures not mixing right away or when empathy hasn’t been opened just yet.”

On its surface, Elemental appears to be another family drama with cute characters and vibrant colors. But the film’s subject matter couldn’t be more grounded. In fact, Sohn had a difficult time being vulnerable enough to share some of the more personal aspects of his family’s story, but he says it was an absolute necessity. “The hunt to try to find something real in the work that we’re doing, it demands vulnerability,” he explains. “It’s very scary. But that’s just a part of making art.”

Asteroid City

ETA: JUNE 23

Master of whimsy Wes Anderson is back with this romantic comedy sci-fi set in 1955. It follows parents and their kids attending an annual Junior Stargazer’s convention, where worldchanging events are about to occur. The cast is huge, star-studded, and features a lot of Anderson regulars, including Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman, along with Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Steve Carell, and many, many more. — RF

“THE HUNT TO TRY TO FIND SOMETHING REAL IN THE WORK THAT WE’RE DOING DEMANDS VULNERABILITY.”

The

Boogeyman

when the cavemen were huddling around their fire. It had to feel kind of weathered and eternal, and there had to be something kind of recognizably human about it in a very fucked up, perverted, malformed kind of way.”

BY R O S I E FLETCHE R

BRITISH DIRECTOR Rob Savage captured lockdown perfectly in 2020 with his Zoom-based horror, Host. And now that we’re allowed out of the house again, he’s back to scare your pants off with The Boogeyman, an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1978 short story.

“I remember reading the short story when I was a kid, and it scared the fuck out of me,” says Savage. “And so when I got an email in my inbox that they were looking for somebody to work on an adaptation of it, that immediately made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because I thought there was something potentially brilliant there.”

The story sees a distressed man named Lester Billings arrive at the office of a psychiatrist with a tale of the deaths of his three children,

which he believes is at the hands of the terrifying “Boogeyman” stalking his family. Savage’s movie, based on an initial script by A Quiet Place writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, and honed by Black Swan writer Mark Heyman, expands the story beyond King’s tale.

The film focuses on the Harper girls who are grieving the loss of their mother, and their therapist father who isn’t dealing with it very well. He receives a visit from Billings with his terrifying tale and starts to suspect that the Boogeyman has taken up residence in his own house.

But what is the Boogeyman?

“The Boogeyman is just the name that a child in the dark gives it,” Savage explains. “I had this idea that this creature is almost elemental. It was the first thing lurking in the darkness

Savage is clear that this is a creature feature (and we will get to see the creature) but that it’s also a haunted house movie. He says his points of reference were classic gothic horror movies The Innocents and The Haunting, though his pitch “was Poltergeist meets Ordinary People.”

“It’s going to be a fun, scary-as-fuck horror movie where the drama scenes feel properly meaty, nuanced, and true to the experience of grieving,” Savage says. “It’s a movie that’s hopefully not afraid to dive into the darker aspects of the characters. It’s a fun 90-minute horror movie at its core, but it doesn’t skimp on the drama.”

Meanwhile, the director’s approach to the creature reveal had different inspirations. “You don’t actually see the creature as much as you think,” he says. “We took the same approach as Jaws or Alien. Every single cut of the movie, I was timing the amount

Based on a short story by Stephen King, Rob Savage’s horror promises to fill you with existential dread.

eta : JUNE 2

of screentime the creature got and comparing it to those movies because I felt like that was the perfect amount.”

The creature is a CG creation, but Savage explains that he 3-D printed a Boogeyman head that he would slather with K-Y Jelly, light, and shoot to give the VFX a reference point. It’s currently on his coffee table.

The Mindy Project mainstay Chris Messina plays Dr Harper, with The Suicide Squad’s David Dastmalchian as Billings, but Savage says it’s the daughters who have to do the seriously heavy lifting.

“[Yellowjackets’] Sophie Thatcher is in almost every single shot of this movie. I don’t think either of us realized how much she had to do day by day, how much she had to carry this film, and what an insane level she

No Hard Feelings

ETA: JUNE 23

Jennifer Lawrence has become as beloved a star off-screen as on it thanks to her hilariously meme-worthy sense of humor, so it’s surprising she’s waited this long to tackle a big, broad, R-rated comedy. In No Hard Feelings, Lawrence plays a down-on-her-luck Uber driver who answers a Craigslist ad from a couple seeking someone to date their awkward teenage son and bring him out of his shell. Chaos ensues. The film is directed and co-written by Good Boys’ Gene Stupnitsky, and features support from Brat Pack legend Matthew Broderick. — RICHARD JORDAN

has to be at constantly,” he says. “We’re talking Florence Pugh in Midsommar [levels]. She was the most committed actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Savage also describes Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi-Wan Kenobi), who was just 9 at the time of filming, as “one of the smartest, wisest, most talented people I’ve ever worked with.”

So could there be potential for a sequel? Savage isn’t ruling it out.

“You can’t leave the cinema feeling as though the evil has been vanquished because then you’re missing the point that the Boogeyman is representative of everything that your mind conjures when you stare into the dark corner of your room when you wake up at 3 a.m.,” he says. “The Boogeyman has always existed and always will.”

The Equalizer 3

ETA: SEPT. 1

Denzel Washington is back to equalize one last time in this third chapter in director Antoine Fuqua’s action-thriller trilogy. In his final runout as marine/ spy-turned-vigilante Robert McCall, Washington is joined by Dakota Fanning as his antihero travels to his Southern Italian hometown to escape his violent past. It’s not long before he’s up to his old tricks, though, helping to free his mates from the control of some vicious local crime bosses. Denzel vs. the Sicilian mafia? Sounds like the series will be closing with a bang. — RJ

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

ETA: AUG. 4

Every generation gets its own incarnation of TMNT, with the franchise having undergone many big- and small-screen reboots throughout its nearly 40-year history. But the latest, Mutant Mayhem, looks special, boasting a unique animation style and surrounding the newcomers playing the four ninjitsu-practicing reptiles with a star-studded voice cast including Ice Cube, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Rudd, and none other than the legendary Jackie Chan as Master Splinter. — MC

“I HAD THIS IDEA THAT THIS CREATURE IS ALMOST ELEMENTAL. IT WAS THE FIRST THING LURKING IN THE DARKNESS.”

The Flash

ETA: JUNE 16

After years of delays and false starts, The Flash movie will finally arrive this June. Directed by Andy Muschietti (Warner Bros.’ It films), the trailers for The Flash have promised a brightly colored, time-traveling yarn that features not one but two Batmen (Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck), Supergirl (Sasha Calle), the return of Man of Steel villain General Zod (Michael Shannon), and Ezra Miller as Barry Allen and… Barry Allen? Time travel, the multiverse, and more await as the DC movie universe, first established in 2013, races towards its conclusion or next evolution.— MIKE CECCHINI

Last Voyage of the Demeter

Director André Øvredal invites us aboard a Dracula movie like no other.

BY DAVID CROW

A WEARY CREW OF working-class stiffs, a mysterious last-minute change that sees them claim unknown cargo, and a beast beneath the boards that’s picking them off one by one. It sounds like the stuff of Ridley Scott’s Alien, but it could just as easily describe a brief and brutal section of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula.

The last voyage of the Demeter, a Russian sailing vessel intended to cross between 19th century Bulgaria and Victorian England, comprises a mere five pages in the book, but those pages leave an impression. Yet despite myriad adaptations, this chapter has never been extensively explored by an original film. Until now.

“That is what’s so fantastic about the script that Bragi Schut originally wrote,” Norwegian director André Øvredal tells us. “It’s basically Alien but on a ship out in the ocean. You’re lost at sea, and the crew doesn’t know what the hell is haunting them on the ship. It’s a beautiful take on the story.”

It’s also a fresh way of returning to a familiar nightmare. By expanding the tale into its own feature-length film, suddenly we have a nihilistic yarn about men and women unaware of what’s hidden within the 50 earthboxes they’ve been charged with delivering to London… and when they do discover what is lurking within that soil, there isn’t a trace of camp in the fate that awaits.

“Our idea, and it’s from that script, is that Dracula has a different personality in this movie than in any other movie that I’ve seen about Dracula,” Øvredal explains. “To have a more monstrous quality to him was what was intriguing as a take on the Dracula mythology. We don’t have the ordinary sophisticated aristocrat; we have a feral creature attacking a crew on a ship out on the ocean.”

Dracula certainly appears more bestial—resembling a cross between a giant bat and an outright demon—but when we press Øvredal if we might see Dracula take on a human form, he cryptically teases, “We do see him in other forms.” Stoker scholars will note that could include the mist, a wolf-like beast, or a swarm of rats.

Øvredal seems just as intent on expanding the undead count’s milieu (and menu) of fellow travelers. The book sequence consists of the captain’s log and that narrow perspective on members of his crew. In the film,

The Nun 2

ETA: SEPT. 8

The Conjuring cinematic universe continues to expand with this sequel to 2018’s The Nun. Directed by Michael Chavez and set four years after the first film, The Nun 2 once again stars Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene, struggling to defeat the demon entity Valak (Bonnie Aarons), who we first met in The Conjuring 2. But will good win out over evil? — RF

Blue Beetle

ETA: AUG. 18

though, a wide and international cast has been assembled to add dimension to the ship’s doomed route.

“It’s a crew on a ship traveling from one end of Europe to the other,” says the director, “so there is a very broad

There’s never been a DC movie like Blue Beetle. The coming of age adventure follows Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) who gains superpowers after being given a magical artifact known as the Scarab. The movie was originally meant for HBO Max, but is now headed to the big screen. It’s a choice that Maridueña says made the creative team “really swing for the fences.” — ROSIE

sense of who can be on this ship. It’s a vivid crew of many nationalities, and we devised a group of people who felt natural for the time and place, and also some characters who wouldn’t necessarily be obvious to have there.”

KNIGHT

Despite being a claustrophobic horror movie, Last Voyage of the Demeter is a colossal undertaking within its genre. Øvredal has made high-concept chillers before, including 2010’s cult classic Troll Hunter and the Guillermo del Toro co-written Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. However, Demeter included constructing a period vessel and commandeering

“MY HOPE

IS THAT IT IS THE SCARIEST DRACULA MOVIE EVER MADE.”

an enormous water tank in Malta— where the director was told it was the biggest ship ever used in that location. For Øvredal, it’s a chance to directly confront some of his greatest influences, from the paterfamilias of Dracula movies, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), to Alien, and other tales of dread and doom. Still, the goal of the film is to stand apart.

“My hope is that it is essentially the scariest Dracula movie ever made,” Øvredal says with a faint laugh. “That’s where I would love it to land if possible. If somebody says that, I’d be very happy.”

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

BY CHRIS FARNELL

STEVEN CAPLE JR. IS known for grounded, character-focused stories about the sort of people you might run into every day, without a giant robot fight in sight. Films including The Land and A Different Tree. Even his most recent movie, Creed II, only features fights on a decidedly human scale. But Paramount believed this made him the perfect name to take over the core Transformers franchise after Michael Bay’s departure.

“They wanted me to bring that grit and character from my dramas to

make people feel for these robots but keep the action and adrenaline high,” Caple recalls.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Caple was already a lifelong fan of the franchise, but unlike many fans, his love of Transformers began not with the toys but the animated 1986 movie.

“That was my first introduction to it. Watching a VHS tape at a friend’s house, and that got me hooked,” Caple remembers.

Caple fell into the perfect age group to enjoy both the original Transformers cartoon and, later, the Beast Wars series that came out in 1996, two years after Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is

Steven Caple Jr. might not have seemed like the obvious director for a Transformers movie, but there is more to him than meets the eye.

set. He relished the opportunity to expand the Transformers universe beyond humans, the Decepticons, and the Autobots.

“I thought it was time to step out

and build out into the universe. So that’s where the Maximals and Terrorcons and other factions come into play,” he says.

The Maximals, the robots that put the “Beasts” in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, were always particularly fascinating to Caple.

“You have a different relationship with vehicles,” he says. “With animals, even in the cartoon, there’s a sensitivity to it. We can relate to [Optimus] Primal [a gorilla], to apes, birds like Airazor, and cat breeds like Cheetor. There’s an emotional connection.”

Caple also offers a new perspective on familiar characters.

“I want to see a different [Optimus] Prime,” he says. “I want to see an Optimus Prime that doesn’t quite understand humans, doesn’t understand Earth, and only cares about Cybertron and his people, so it was kind of like an immigrant story.”

TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT

As well as making his audience connect with giant robot animals and cars, Caple also set out to connect his audience with different cultures. He’s proud of how little green screen is used in the movie and points out that Creed II used more to depict its boxing arena.

“If we show Machu Pichu, we’re going to Machu Pichu and shooting at Machu Pichu,” he says. “I wanted to speak Quechua; I wanted to dive into the culture.”

This meant going as far as hiring locals to put on a traditional local festival that, due to Covid, had been canceled the year Rise of the Beasts was filming.

“We could provide jobs and have people come out and create their floats and act as if we were actually doing the festival during a really tough time for the country, and that was tremendous to me,” Caple says.

There were also challenges; filming in jungles and at high altitudes where oxygen was thin was one thing. But while the locations were very real, as yet, there are no 30-foot-tall robots for actors to respond to. So Caple had to adapt to that as well.

“The first week we were on set, I thought I and my AD could speak into these big megaphones pretending to be Optimus Prime or Cheetor, and the cast could bounce off that, but we aren’t actors,” Caple says. “Even though the actors were amazing, I felt we needed to bring another layer of realism to it, so on our third or fourth day, we found it in our budget to cast actors and put earpieces in our actors’ ears, and I’d have five or six voice

actors off-camera. The actors would hear that while acting opposite a tennis ball on a stick, and it made a world of difference. I tried to cast people locally who could be similar to, say, Michelle Yeoh [who voices Airazor in the film] and have her regal elegance, which created a whole different experience.”

Caple is not signed on to direct another Transformers (yet), but he has no shortage of ideas for where to take the franchise next.

“I introduced Unicron. I was dying for Unicron to show up in a live-action movie, and to be honest, I’ll put it out there, I want him to be across the next two or three films, a really huge major villain,” he says.

Caple also wants to expand the Transformers universe in a far more literal sense.

“I feel like we spent a lot of time on Earth, and it’d be interesting to see what else is out there. There are different Transformers and different planets, and we just need the right vehicle and the right team to really do it,” he says. “I feel like this was the foundation of that, of something really special.”

“IT WAS TIME TO STEP OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE SO THAT’S WHERE THE MAXIMALS AND TERRORCONS COME IN.”

The BEST C A

The 1990s were 30 years ago. Let that sink in while you enjoy our list of animated childhood favorites.

BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD

One of MTV’s greatest creations initially stood out thanks to shock value and controversy. As time went on, the show’s quality increased, and it figured out how to relay the idiotic adventures of these two teenage losers in a way that was, at times, smarter than its protagonists. The commentary as they watched music videos hit that sweet spot where they were constantly stupid but in profound ways. That it has returned twice in this century is a testament to how these ’90s poster boys are truly timeless.

– Gavin Jasper

THE REN & STIMPY SHOW

Ren & Stimpy could be both smart and irreverent while also being really disgusting and occasionally a little bit harrowing. Following the adventures of Ren, the psychotic chihuahua, and Stimpy, the idiot cat, the pair go to space, re-enact classic tales, come up with mad inventions, and frequently break the fourth wall. Weird highlights included the time Stimpy gives birth to a fart, the Happy Happy Joy Joy machine, and the time Ren’s teeth fall out and he tries to attract the nerve endingfairy, who gifts a ball of lint instead of a $100 bill… – Rosie Fletcher

GRAVEDALE HIGH

There were only 13 episodes of this Hanna-Barbera cartoon, so it remains a perfect ’90s nugget. Rick Moranis stars as headteacher Schneider, the only human in a school populated by teen versions of classic movie monsters. Vinnie Stoker is the cool greaser vampire, Blanche is the Southern Belle Zombie, Reggie Moonshroud is the anxious werewolf, and Cleofatra is the plus-sized mummy voiced by Rikki Lake (yes, it hasn’t all dated that well). See also Galaxy High School from the late ’80s, created by Chris Columbus; all 13 episodes are worth a watch. – RF

of the RTOONS

PINKY AND THE BRAIN

featured many different segments, only Pinky and the Brain were able to reach such heights of popularity that they got a full-blown spinoff that lasted four seasons. The show took the fun of watching Wile E. Coyote’s fruitless attempts to catch the Roadrunner and evolved it into a bromance between a cockney idiot and a rodent Orson Welles built around plans for world domination. The duo’s constant failures fueled the show’s creativity and the endearing love/hate relationship between the protagonists. The Christmas special is a must, but skip the follow-up season where they live with Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures – GJ

ANIMANIACS

As Tiny Toon Adventures cast as the so-called future of Looney Toons, Animaniacs ran with the idea of retconning characters into WB’s past, both in the forms of the wacky Warner Siblings and the cranky and weathered Slappy the Squirrel. This witty variety show featured a big cast of characters where some worked better than others, but the main trio stood tall as an energetic and youthful take on what made Bugs Bunny and the Marx Brothers so popular in years past. Not to mention the many musical numbers, which were not only educational and entertaining but also incredibly impressive at times. – GJ

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

A classic for a reason and pretty much the gold standard of superhero cartoons, Batman: The Animated Series surpassed expectations of what an adventure cartoon could be. Each 30-minute episode (and the occasional two-parter) feels like a self-contained movie set in a surprisingly eerie Gotham City. Told in a style that recalls 1940s film noir in both presentation and style, showcasing all of the Dark Knight’s greatest villains, and featuring a stellar voice cast that includes definitive performances of Batman (the late, great Kevin Conroy) and Joker (Mark Hamill). Utterly timeless in its style and appeal, it’s not only a great cartoon but the best Batman adaptation ever made. – Mike

Cecchini

X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Even at the absolute peak of their popularity in the early ’90s, Marvel’s X-Men could be a tough sell for casual fans thanks to their sprawling history and often-confusing continuity. But along came X-Men: The Animated Series to not only distill everything that makes Marvel’s mutants great, down into a more easily digestible form, but to become the definitive version of the team for an entire generation. Lightly serialized, featuring hundreds of mutants throughout its run, and as colorful and weird as its source material, it’s still a compelling watch. – MC

POWERPUFF GIRLS

The Powerpuff Girls was able to lace its cutesy style and adorable flipper-handed heroes with edge, but not to the point that it overshadowed everything. Sure, there are a lot of adult jokes in there, including an episode based around how many times they could yell “Dick!” on a children’s cartoon, but the show remained earnest and kept its heart pure. It was engaging, clever, and not afraid to get twisted at times. Plus, while many superhero cartoons love to play the “villain team-up episode” card, few pulled it off better than the genius of “Meet the Beat-Alls.” – GJ

GARGOYLES

Disney simply did not need to go this hard, and yet here we are. A clan of gargoyle protectors from medieval times are cursed to become statues until a scheming billionaire genius frees them in the present. From there, the clan spends their nights fighting their many enemies while protecting the humans that fear them. For two seasons (we don’t talk about Goliath Chronicles), this was must-watch television. So many awesome storylines and badass characters. Where else could you watch King Arthur get in a fistfight with Shakespeare’s Macbeth? – GJ

RECESS

Through six seasons of storytelling from 1997 to 2001 (first on ABC and then on UPN), Recess depicts nothing less than the careful self-governance of fourth graders—right down to some deliberate Cold War-era motifs and themes. The show takes place during recess and as soon as the bell rings, the kids organize themselves into a society more complete than boring school could ever fit them into. Six lead characters, led by the plucky T.J. Detweiler, try to have some fun playing kickball, while navigating a hilariously complex class and legal system complete with a sixth-grade king (King Bob). Recess is a show about kids learning to figure out their place in society and the rest of us enduring the same struggle as well. – Alec Bojalad

THE CRITIC

The Critic was simply too beautiful for this world. The misadventures of pretentious film critic Jay Sherman, living as a bachelor in New York City, had a cup of coffee in primetime on ABC before being shipped off to Fox, where it quickly died, despite being the perfect evening follow-up to The Simpsons Jay’s world came with an outstanding supporting cast, from disgruntled makeup lady Doris, the manly-yetchildish boss Duke Phillips, and Jay’s cartoonishly goofy father, Franklin. The constant movie jokes were precursors to Family Guy’s cutaway gimmicks. At least Jay’s legacy lives on in “A Star is Burns,” one of the most quotable Simpsons episodes of all time. –GJ

DARKWING DUCK

Many beloved shows from the Disney Afternoon lineup would take random cartoon characters from Disney’s past and put them in genre-heavy adventures. That made Darkwing Duck seem extra fresh in comparison, as other than the inclusion of Launchpad McQuack from DuckTales, this action adventure about an egomaniac pulp hero felt incredibly original. Everything about the show felt fully realized with its memorable family of heroes and iconic collection of villains. More than anything, it gave Dan Castellaneta a vehicle to do that awesome “Krusty the Clown going through puberty” voice for Megavolt, and for that, we will forever be grateful. – GJ

DARIA

Sardonic high schooler Daria started out as a regular on Beavis and Butt-Head but arguably became the more compelling heroine when she got her own show. Daria was created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn, but B&B’s Mike Judge wasn’t actually involved in the series, which ran for five seasons from 1997–2002. Daria is clever, acerbic, downbeat, and a cynical observer of school and family life, while her relationship with her artsy best friend Jane brings warmth. It’s packed with identifiable cultural tropes, the typical make-up of jocks and cheerleaders, stoners and nerds, but the show is so sharply written that it feels fresh even now. – RF

HEY ARNOLD!

Hey Arnold! is simply about Arnold (last name never revealed in the series, but apparently “Shortman”): a fourth grader with a football-shaped head who lives in a big American city and likes to hang out with his P.S. 118 classmates. The secret to the show’s appeal is how richly drawn Arnold and his crew are, both metaphorically and literally. His idiosyncratic peers—from the paranoid Sid to the obsessive Helga —bring a lot to the table. And that’s not even to mention the adult characters that make up Arnold’s grandparents’ boarding house. – AB

DR. KATZ, PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist starred Jonathan Katz as a shrink whose many clients were stand-up comedians. Under the guise of a therapy session, said comedians would essentially do their act, accompanied by some very limited and squiggly animation. Otherwise, Katz would have his own mundane yet humorous storylines going on with his friends, loser son, and disinterested secretary. The unique animation style and improvised dialogue would lead to the cast coming together for the similar and equally watchable Home Movies. – GJ

ERIC ANDRE

BY CHRIS LONGO | PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK MORGULIS

Ever a man of extremes, Eric Andre, who buffed up into the best shape of his life as a bit for the new season of his late-night Adult Swim prank show, shows up to our interview in a bright green Newport Cigarettes tracksuit. “I’m polluting my body yet again,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a Newport in my life. [Laughs] I’m a fraud.”

When we meet Andre, he’s a handful of days into a trip to Austin, Texas, promoting The Eric Andre Show at the SXSW Comedy Festival. The new season arrives at a time when Andre’s career continues to ascend. In 2021, his long-gestating prank film Bad Trip was released on Netflix, becoming a global hit for the streamer. And for the sixth season of his show, Andre and his producers have roped in an impressive caliber of guests: celebs such as Jon Hamm, Natasha Lyonne, Raven-Symoné, Diplo, and Cypress Hill are tormented like never before.

In honor of what is undoubtedly his sexiest season yet, Andre graciously let us shower him in rose petals (see the shoot on page 54) before we sat down to discuss more than a decade of man-on-the-street pranks, gross-out moments, and the evolution of the show’s physical comedy.

The question on everybody’s mind right now is: how did you do it? How did you get swole, jacked, goosed for season six?

Oh, it’s just food and exercise. It’s nothing crazy. I was looking into doing steroids. But I’m scared of cancer. So I just ate a ton of meat. I constantly snacked on meat.

Did you go the Kumail Nanjiani route and go for Marvel Cinematic Universe trainers?

No, I had trainers that I worked out with before. I tried to get jacked. So they really helped me, but it’s mostly just [eating] meat all day. It fucking sucks.

In season four, I tried to get as skinny as I could. I wasn’t good at it. Season five, I gained 40-45 pounds. But I wasn’t even good at that. My weight fluctuated throughout the shoot. Then this season, I lost 40 pounds and got my body fat down to like the best I’ve ever been since high school.

How did that feel?

It felt good, but I was hungry. It’s no quality of life. Because

The return of The Eric Andre Show sees its star undergo another physical transformation in the pursuit of late-night excellence. He walks us through the making of a season worth flexing about.

Photographed on location at the Den of Geek Studio at SXSW 2023 in Austin, Texas.

you can’t drink alcohol. You can’t go out to restaurants. The joys of life are taken away from you.

Seems like you’re taking it back with this [gestures to Andre’s Newport Cigarettes tracksuit]. Yeah, I’m polluting my body yet again. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Newport in my life [laughs]. I’m a poser. I’m a fraud.

In the clips of season six Adult Swim sent us in advance, there are moments where you try to get the guests to acknowledge that you got ripped, but they wouldn’t do it. Were there any guests that actually validated you?

I got completely naked in front of Jon Hamm. He complimented me, and he’s a handsome man, so it meant more. It felt good. He saw my whole cock. We had this gag where my clothes were attached to a fishing line. And right when I got up to greet him, our special effects team pulled all my clothes off. Cock out. And he was shocked. But he said I was in great shape.

You guys pulled some really good talent and guests on the show this season. Tell me a little bit about what your producers did to…

Our producers lie. They lie to every publicist and agent. We’re duping celebrities.

Is that the only way?

[Laughs] It’s the only way to get people on there. Nobody knows what they’re getting into. Some people think they know what they’re getting into. But a lot of people wouldn’t even tell them my name or the name of the show. And I’m meeting them for the first time on camera.

So they walk onto set, and then they realize they’ve been lured into The Eric Andre Show?

No, as long as the guest is over 35, they have no idea who I am. Daymond John from Shark Tank had no idea who I was. Meagan Good had no idea who I was.

Daymond has a moment where he looks directly into the camera lens like he’s questioning his entire life. He goes, “I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life, and I never will again.” And I was like, “That’s accurate.” He was really cool. At the end, he was like, “I gotta have your number, man. We got to hang out.” He was shook. He was in too deep. I think at the end of the day, people know I’m just joking around. There’s no malicious intent.

LATE NIGHT LEGENDS

The ultimate spoof of the celebrity talk show format, The Eric Andre Show is celebrated for its roster of celeb guests who have no idea what’s in store. Here are some of our favorites. - Nick Harley

For the people that don’t know that you’re joking around when you’re doing pranks in public, what do you do when they’re about to call the cops?

You don’t want them to call the cops because then the bit is over. So you gotta throw them off the scent and keep confusing them.

Or I’ll send a producer with a cell phone that’s out of frame, and they’ll go, “I’m calling the cops—don’t worry about it, you take care of him.” And then they’ll walk away just to keep the person on the hook. Or I’ll say to the person, “Don’t call the cops. The cops aren’t who they say they are.” Or I’ll say, “Don’t call 911. Call 912. Call the better cops.” Just to keep their brain scrambled.

The pacing of this season is noticeable. It just seems like you guys were packing a lot more into these episodes.

I think we’re yielding a higher result than the previous seasons. There was a lot of trial and error in the previous

Lauren Conrad During the reality TV star’s sit-down interview, Andre slips oatmeal into his mouth when she isn’t looking, then pretends to puke on his desk. Then Andre slurps his own “vomit,” and Conrad flees the set. Her publicist reportedly threatened to sue. How fun!

James Van Der Beek The Dawson’s Creek alum described his time on the show as a “fever dream.” Andre has lookalikes of himself, co-host Hannibal Buress, and Van Der Beek come on stage during their interview; Van Der Beek

is so thrown off he can’t focus.

GOT COMPLETELY NAKED IN FRONT OF JON HAMM.”

Did he bring his emotional baggage?

Yeah, he brings it everywhere he goes. He’s always bringing his suitcase. It was difficult, though. Our crew was very upset. He stole a motorcycle and almost knocked a bunch of light operators off their ladders.

Was that the craziest on-set guest interaction that you’ve had?

Yeah. It’s up there. Sometimes you do the show, and sometimes the show does you.

Now that you’ve had this experience, can you rank the members of the Hanks family?

I will put Tom at the top and Chet at the bottom. And Colin and Rita somewhere in the middle. I try not to pit the Hanks’ against each other.

Your new co-host this season is Felipe Esparza. What qualities do you look for in a new co-host?

He’s really fucking funny. Felipe has a little bit of something that Hannibal has where they’re completely unpredictable. They never try to be funny. They’re just naturally funny. They exist in their own space. Felipe is completely unpredictable. He reminds me of Benicio del Toro’s character in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He’s incredibly talented and funny and sweet and easy to work with. I just really enjoy his company. And he’s got crazy stories. He used to, like, speedball heroin and meth and stuff back in the day.

seasons, and now we kind of know what to do a bit better. So I think it’s more pound-for-pound quality per square inch.

Does that mean you’re doing more or leaving less on the cutting room floor?

I just think we’re going into production with a better sense of what’s going to work and what’s not. I think the trial and error of like, the previous ten years and the movie [Bad Trip] made us dialed in in a way that we never had been before. So, just add a bit more quality from top to bottom.

Do you feel pressure to top yourself?

I always feel a massive amount of pressure. There’s always pressure.

We heard you landed your dream interview this season: Chet Hanks.

Yeah, yeah. [Laughs] My dream interview. I don’t know if it was my dream. It was a nightmare. It was a wet nightmare.

Lance Reddick We recently lost brilliant actor Lance Reddick, but we can always enjoy his Eric Andre Show appearance. He was one of the select few interviewees who was let in on the joke, but Reddick still surprised Andre by aggressively punching a hole through his desk. The actor then went on to channel two distinct LeVar Burton characters while wishing he was the famous Reading Rainbow host. It’s deranged but funny stuff.

It seems like the whole group of producers who took the stage at your SXSW Comedy Festival event are really proud of the “Cold Episode” in season six. How did you come up with that?

We were trying to come up with like a holiday episode or a themed episode, and we kind of started giving up. Somebody in the writers’ room said, “Why don’t you do a cold episode?” I was like, “As related to winter or Christmas?” They’re like, “No, just purely like the idea of the temperature.”

The episode introduces a new character, The Fridge Keeper.

An instant hit. An instant classic.

Is the merchandise ready to go?

Tell that to Adult Swim. Get that budget going!

The sixth season of The Eric Andre Show premieres June 4 at midnight ET on Adult Swim.

Lizzo The singer-songwriter showed off her vivacious personality subbing in for Andre for the recurring man-on-thestreet bit, Bird Up! Donning the famous green suit and bird prop, Lizzo gave Andre a run for his money, messing with everyday people to hilarious effect.

“I

AmERICan Beauty: Eric Andre let us shower him with rose petals during our photo shoot at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2023.

By MATTHEW BYRD

VAMPIRE MONSTER FAMILY

CONCEPT ART

In the early ’90s, game designer David Brevik took the beloved but financially struggling computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre and stripped it for parts. No elaborate character backstories, no morality system, and no dice roll-based decision-making. In Brevik’s words, he wanted to make an RPG that let you “get in and start smashing things.”

It was a sacrilegious idea to those who saw traditional RPGs as the backbone of the computer gaming scene. Appropriately, Brevik called his idea, “Diablo.”

Released in 1997, Diablo was a true game-changer. It boiled the complex CRPG down to its purest form. Pick a class, unleash devastating attacks with the click of a mouse, collect random pieces of tiered loot, and don’t stop until you see the sun. A role-playing experience that used to take hours of setup and a small army of friends now offered instant gratification thrills to anyone at any time. Diablo even randomly generated new content so that no two playthroughs were ever the same.

Years before he became associate game director on Diablo 4, Zaven Haroutunian was one of many gamers who found themselves lost in the infinite dungeons of delights that Diablo offered. “Back then, I would just voraciously consume any game I could get my hands on,” Haroutunian recalls. “It was a mind-

video game franchises ever, but it has faced many struggles in recent years. Associate game director Zaven Haroutunian tells us how Diablo 4 will bring the series back to life.

blowing moment to realize there could be so many possibilities and so much replayability in a game. I hadn’t played anything like that before.”

While Diablo may have once been seen as a kind of anti-RPG, people soon discovered that the greatest trick Diablo ever pulled was making RPGs more accessible.

“I think a lot of experimentation came out of the fact that everything was so accessible,” Haroutunian says of the game’s role-playing credentials. “The challenge was: ‘Go to the bottom [of the dungeon] and good luck.’ Along the way, you can try different things… It’s very clear which parts of the game are interactive and which are not. You know immediately what something is going to do by simply trying it.”

Diablo shot to the top of many game of the year lists en route to eventually selling over 2.5 million copies. The industry was put on notice, but few responded to this emerging trend. For years, Diablo and its “Hellfire” expansion remained largely unrivaled.

That is until Diablo 2 was released in 2000. Considered to be one of the greatest games ever, Diablo 2 offered more than just “more.” It fully realized the potential of what was already a modern classic.

“When we make games, we are sometimes unintentionally making promises to people playing them,” Haroutunian says. “Diablo 2 fulfilled those promises made by the first game.”

CANNIBAL MONSTER FAMILY CONCEPT ART

still plays,” Haroutunian says. “You play it, and the bones of the game are still fun. If the bones are fun, then you can look past the older graphics.”

Diablo 2 quickly spawned massive fan communities and a small army of copycats. And yet, despite the increased competition, Diablo 2 remained the king of its genre. In fact, many fans said that the only thing that would pull them away from Diablo 2 was Diablo 3.

That’s where things took a turn. Even though Diablo 3 reportedly began development in 2001, developer Blizzard Entertainment didn’t release it until 2012. Expectations only grew during that time. Some still saw Diablo 2 as a perfect game. They could only imagine what 11 years would add to perfection.

GOATMEN MONSTER MODEL

However, Diablo 3’s release wasn’t perfect. Initial sales set a historic pace, but fans argued over the game’s many changes, divisive new features, and controversial “always online” requirements that led to numerous technical issues. The franchise that could do no wrong suddenly felt like a memory. Haroutunian, who joined Blizzard’s QA team in 2008 and worked on Diablo 3 as a designer, recalls that the team’s reactions to the game’s divided reception ran the gamut. Ultimately, though, they were united by an idea.

“Across the team, there was a drive,” Haroutunian recalls. “It’s like, ‘Okay, it’s out now.’ So now we can begin the work of making it better, right? It

Diablo 3 corner. With over 30 million copies sold, Diablo 3 is considered a success in every conventional way.

Yet, there was a splintering. Some longtime franchise fans felt that Diablo 3 had lost its identity through its attempts to reach an even wider audience. In the years following Diablo 3’s release, a new wave of competitors emerged. Some, like the wildly successful Path of Exile, were practically sold as the Diablo threequel hardcore fans had originally wanted.

It wasn’t just the direct competitors. Aspects of Diablo’s once-iconic formula became much more popular. Blockbuster franchises such as Destiny and Borderlands borrowed the game’s addictive loot system, while countless major releases incorporated the idea of adding roleplaying elements to action games. There was a time when Diablo and best game of its kind. But the mystique gradually started to fade.

Through all of that, Diablo remained somewhat dormant. Diablo 3 continued to receive updates but was

MODELS

beginning to show its age. The release of microtransactionDiablo Immortal in 2022 only riled fans who felt the franchise had lost its way. was announced in 2019, it wasn’t quite the celebration some expected it to be. The world was different. Some of the magic was gone. How did Diablo fit into an industry that had learned and borrowed so much from it?

“The reality is that everyone has always done that,” Haroutunian explains, reflecting on the game’s imitators and influences. “I think there will always be a place for [Diablo] because the other games you’re referencing borrow Diablo systems, but they’re always taking a piece and adding it to some other thing. So if you’re looking for the missing pieces, you’re not going to find it over there… you’re gonna find it in games like Diablo.”

As for Diablo’s closest competitors… well, it turns out that the Diablo 4 team has been learning a few things from them as well.

“We love action RPGs, and we’re playing them right when they come out like anybody else,” Haroutunian says. “As Diablo evolves and action RPGs evolve, developers are looking for advancements and ideas elsewhere. It’s up to them to incorporate them in the right way into the game they’re making and decide if it’s the right fit.”

Gaming, especially role-playing, has always been better with Diablo in it. A recent beta version of Diablo 4 offered more than a chance to try the game; it offered a chance to meet up with that old friend you haven’t spoken to in years to relive the glory days of multiplayer dungeon crawling. Its dark tones, weighty combat, and punishing difficulty recall the early days of the franchise, yet Diablo 4 is no mere nostalgia trip. It incorporates modern game

concepts such as world bosses, community events, and expanded character customization in very Diabloappropriate ways. The goal isn’t to give you the Diablo that was but rather a modern version of how Diablo games should make you feel.

“People who only played Diablo 3, or only played Diablo 2, or never played Diablo got to feel like I felt in the ’90s when I opened that door and was immediately killed by a boss called the Butcher.” Haroutunian beams. “We were able to capture that, and they were able to experience it in Diablo 4.”

Over 25 years ago, Diablo shocked the gaming world with a bold take on roleplaying that nobody saw coming. A new generation of gamers who have never played a proper new Diablo title may soon be able to experience that same feeling. According to Haroutunian, even lifelong fans are in for a surprise.

“You have no idea what’s coming,” Haroutunian teases. “I don’t think they really know how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Diablo 4 releases on June 6 on

MARVEL TRADING CARDS

THROUGH THE YEARS

HIGHS, LOWS, AND HOLOFOILS.

BY JIM DANDENEAU

This story is part of an editorial series presented by eBay.

FOR ALMOST 35 YEARS,

Marvel lovers have had a different way of indulging their fandom than just voraciously reading the comics. In 1990, Impel released a set of licensed collectible cards featuring characters, battles, and key moments from throughout Marvel history (up to that point). Since then, not a year has gone by without more Marvel cards: some with exclusive art; some with special treatments like foiling, stamping, exclusive numbering, and holograms; and some with questionable art direction. But fans have always snapped them up. And now, with the

secondary market hotter than it has been in years, we present, in partnership with eBay, a brief history of some of the highest highs of Marvel collectible cards—both financially and artistically—and some of the lowest lows.

THE BEGINNING

Like with most collectibles, firsts matter. In the trading card space, the first big Marvel set was 1990’s Impel Marvel Universe cards. The cards were built to feel like sports card knockoffs—each one usually had great art on the front, showing a character as they were in the comics at the time, representing an early appearance,

or showing a team or a historic fight. And the backs inspired countless hours of schoolyard arguments: they had made-up statistics about the characters such as “Battles Fought,” “Win Percentage,” or “Wrinkles on Face” (poor Aunt May). Later sets would go even further, adding relative power levels, but because of limitations posed by the scale, characters like Hulk and Galactus would end up being presented as equally strong. Speaking as someone who was a preteen at the time, arguing about this stuff rocked.

And because this stuff rocked, these early sets—especially the Series 1 cards from 1990—have greatly increased in value. A gem mint Captain America Series 1

THE LOWS OF THE ’90s

card will set you back $100+, and it might actually be a steal. A few of these cards have gone for four figures at auction, and a mint Venom could fetch four times that. And the value of the hologram cards continues to soar. The set had 167 normal finish cards and five special holographic cards: Cosmic Spider-Man; Magneto; Silver Surfer; Peter Parker vs. Norman Osborn; and Wolverine. A hologram 7.0 grade Wolverine—decidedly not mint, though not too beat up—will still run you upwards of $65.

THE LOWS OF THE ’90S

Let’s be clear: at no point have these cards ever had an actual,

across-the-board downturn in quality. Marvel would frequently commission artwork from folks working on the comics to draw pinups that would be turned into these cards. So you would see Jim Lee’s X-Men team or Andy Kubert drawing Sabretooth.

You also had, for the first time, the Brothers Hildebrandt commissioned to paint artwork for the Marvel Masterpieces series of cards, and some of these cards are gorgeous.

However, cards were not immune to the excesses of ’90s comic culture. So the gimmicks came, and when they were bad, they were really bad.

Case in point: Spring Break 1995. Not the MTV Beach House celebrating the event. The X-Men

1

Gem Mint 1990 Impel Marvel Universe Series 1 Captain America #1

PSA 10 Gem Mint 1990 Marvel Universe #73 Venom

7.0 Grade 1990 Marvel Universe Series 1 Wolverine Hologram

1993 Impel X-Men (Blue Strike Force) #72

THE LOWS OF THE ’90s

THE FUTURE

cards celebrating the event. The Marvel Swimsuit Editions have been the subject of a deservedly large amount of ridicule over the years. And just as there is no logical reason for a book full of pinups of Gambit in a bikini bottom playing beach volleyball, there is also no reason for a card of Wolverine grilling sausages with his claws. Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising that you mostly can’t give these cards away. But they would certainly be amazing conversation pieces framed and on the wall—if you’re willing to go for it.

THE FUTURE

The ’90s were fun and silly for trading cards, but recent years have seen them get interesting. Cards can do a lot of the same things that comics can do artistically, but because they’re small and cardboard, and not flimsy, stapled pieces of paper, they can also try some interesting stuff—case in point: a ground-floor buy in Upper Deck’s 2021 Galactus card. With the Fantastic Four on their way into the MCU, it’s only a matter of time before Galactus the Devourer makes his way to the big screen, which should drive up the value of any and all memorabilia associated with him. But this card is great for a much different reason.

Galactus was created by the greatest comic artist ever to work:

1994 Fleer Marvel Universe Sabretooth #115

(Left) 1994 Marvel Masterpieces Gambit #41 CGC 9.5 (Middle) 1994 Marvel Masterpieces Spider-Man #115 CGC 8.5 (Right) 1994 Marvel Masterpieces Black Panther #8 CGC 8.5

Jack Kirby. He and Stan Lee introduced Galactus early in the Fantastic Four comics, and Kirby’s design was amazing. This giant was shimmering with power, Kirby crackle everywhere. Seeing him on page was intimidating and awe-inspiring. The foiling on this card feels like it was designed to give a similar effect—this is a being of immense cosmic power, and his look matches that.

The 2022 Upper Deck Kang card has a similar foiling effect for

an equally weird character. Kang still promises to be the main driver of this latest phase of MCU movies, so the prices here should go up significantly, but the foiling on this art does the character justice, so whether that price moves or not, it’s still great to look at.

While outside factors will determine which yet-to-be-released cards will spike in value, if you’re collecting to feed your fandom, what’s coming out now should keep you fat and happy for some time.

2021-22 Upper Deck Marvel Annual Kang #39

2021-22 Upper Deck Marvel Annual Galactus Blue Parallel #26

THE COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO MARVEL TRADING CARDS

VALUING CARDS

There are two ways of judging value when you’re starting your collection. “Rule number one,” Barrionuevo says, “if you love the card, it’s valuable to you.”

CGC’S FAUSTO BARRIONUEVO TALKS ABOUT THE INS, OUTS, AND JOYS OF COLLECTING MARVEL CARDS.

BY JIM DANDENEAU

FAUSTO BARRIONUEVO IS A GEEK. We say this with the utmost respect: we are a veritable Den of them, after all. He, like most of us, got his start in nerdery early. “I was seven, and I came across something Silver Surfer,” he tells us. “And I was like, ‘This character is really cool,’ and I very quickly got a 1992 or ’93 Marvel Universe card for the first time and read about the character. It [had] Ron Lim art on the front and the power ratings and bio on the back. The card taught me everything about the character.” From there, he set out to collect every Silver Surfer card made, and that eventually set him up in the position he’s in today—senior advisor and Marvel card expert for Certified Collectibles Group, the company that grades and preserves all sorts of collectibles, from trading cards to comics to stamps to pretty much anything one could collect. He is passionate about Marvel cards and collecting in general and was thrilled to share his knowledge and experience with new and old collectors alike.

There are cards that are objectively valuable. The Sketchagraph cards from 1998’s Skybox Marvel Creator’s Collection set are obscenely valuable, but there was one chase card that could only be found if someone collected a set of them and mailed them off to a redemption center. They would receive in return a Spider-Man card, sketched by beloved artist Mike Wieringo, with Wieringo and Stan Lee’s autographs on the back. Only about 30 of those exist in the wild now. “That card is super coveted,” Barrionuevo tells us, “because it’s impossible to get.”

But there are cards that are personally valuable, too. “[The point of collecting] is to have pieces in your collection that either have some sentimental value or to keep track of the history of the thing,” he says. So Marvel’s Sleepwalker isn’t going to light the collector’s market on fire, even if, for some ridiculous

LEFT: 1998 Creator’s Collection

Marvel Silver Age Sketchagraph

RIGHT: 1992 Impel Marvel Universe - Sleepwalker #3

IF YOU LOVE THE CARD, IT’S VALUABLE TO YOU.

FAUSTO BARRIONUEVO

reason, Marvel decides to make him the centerpiece of Phase 8 of the MCU. But if you’re someone who enjoys the character, loves his design, and loves the stories he’s in, then you should grab as many cards as you can with Sleepwalker on them because people should rep what they love.

PRIORITY TARGETS

That said, if you’re a new collector who’s trying to pick out new items with long-term value, there is some useful guidance available.

Card companies do recognize the collectibility of their products now, and they design pieces of their sets with collectors in mind. “A lot of cards right now [have] parallels and variants, and sometimes they’re hard numbered,” Barrionuevo says. “So if you’d like one particular card, you could kind of find that card and a very low number and hunt for that.”

There is also pop culture value. Sleepwalker isn’t likely to be in an MCU production, but if he ever is, expect a spike. Loki is one of Marvel’s oldest villains, the character who birthed the Avengers in-universe, and a mastermind behind several big event comics. But when it was announced that he got his own TV show, the value of relevant memorabilia (like those early Impel cards) skyrocketed and then stabilized at a fairly high level.

PROTECTING YOUR COLLECTION

There are also cards that are graded. Barrionuevo’s team at CGC looks at the condition of cards, assigns them a number grade based on how well taken care of they are, and then locks them up in a hard plastic case to protect them from wear and the elements.

And a good distinction between graded cards and other

TOP: 2022 Marvel Fleer Ultra Avengers Emerald Medallion Thor MIDDLE: 1990 Marvel Universe #54 Loki Trading Card CGC 9

BOTTOM: Gambit 1994 Marvel Universe Series V #100 CGC 9.5

memorabilia like comics is that graded cards are still usable. A graded comic is sealed away and can’t be used again—you need to have an extra copy if you want to read it. But a graded card can be displayed, and both front and back can still be seen.

ONE NEAT TRICK TO COLLECTING MARVEL CARDS

Ultimately, the most important thing you can do as a collector is to love what you’re collecting. There’s no special trick to it—if you’re in it for the money, there’s plenty of that to find, but it hollows out the experience. “These cards were designed by people who care about their jobs and want to do cool things,” he says. “When you’re a hobbyist, it’s about being part of the community.” It’s about sharing what you love with people who love the same things. That’s where the real value of collecting these cards comes from.

VISIT THE EBAY COLLECTIBLES INSTAGRAM

THE WORLD OF THE WITCHER

BY MICHAEL AHR

1. Production designer Andrew Laws says that the backlots can serve as any town or city in the world of The Witcher “It’s augmented occasionally with extensions that we’ve developed, digital assets that expand the environment depending on which place we’re thinking we are.”

2. The villainous Nilfgaard from the South have occupied the kingdom of Cintra since The Witcher began. “This is two worlds clashing. You’ll see the architecture of Cintra that we came to know really well in season one; this would be another part of Cintran castle but now clearly occupied.”

3. A famous law firm and detective agency makes its return in season three. “This is a return to an environment that we touched on in season two; we’re seeing a little bit more of Codringher and Fenn. It’s that wonderfully layered clutter that has a really storybook feel to it.”

4. The Northern Kingdoms are at war, and Redania is a central player. “Previously in Redania, we had been in the back rooms, the residence part of the castle. This is the banquet room, a really fun, exciting build. It leans a little bit more into the Slavic world, more classically medieval.”

The Witcher production designer Andrew Laws highlights some key locations in the kingdoms at war in season three.

THE WITCHER SEASON THREE PREMIERES ON NETFLIX ON JUNE 29, 2023.

WE NEED TO FORGET. YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO. EVERYTHING IS FINE.