PRIME VIDEO:  At age 76 Sylvester Stallone is still kicking butts and taking names.  This time he’s a superhero-in-hiding, thought long dead, who is needed once more.  And while Samaritan was originally going to be released in theaters, the trailer shows us a film with very familiar story beats and limited scope.  Which is probably why it’s been relegated to streaming.  But that being said; while it may not be a blockbuster, it still looks pretty darn good.  Dropping on Prime August 26th…

STAR TREK:  You know you’re a big deal when you consider leaving your job as a supporting character on a TV Show and Dr. Martin Luther King asks you to stay. Because, as the iconic Lt. Uhura, a Star Fleet Bridge Officer, it was one of the first times a Black woman was cast in a position of power on TV. And as such, back in the 1960’s, Dr. King knew that during the dark on-going struggle for racial equality that was ‘The Civil Rights Movement’, Nachelle Nichols’ Uhura represented a brighter future. And Star Trek was the only TV show he let his own kids watch.

So because of King’s charge, she subsequently stuck with Trek through all three seasons, the animated series, and six subsequent feature films. And when asked about her conversation with King in a 2014 interview on CNN she had this to say… “I stayed and I never regretted it.”

I met Nachelle Nichols a few times over the years, and she was always gracious, intelligent, and caring.  But hailing frequencies have now closed. Nichelle Nichols died of natural causes last night at 89… Beam her up Scotty. It was a job well done.

WARNER BROS: Well the bats out of the bag.  Ben Affleck and  Jason Momoa were spotted filming scenes for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom by a Warner Bros. behind-the-scenes studio tour. So Momoa posted pix to double-down on the cameo that was probably meant to be a surprise.  And while I doubt that Affleck will appear as Batman, it’s nice to see the continuity.

Though I find it interesting, that with all the talk about the studio dumping the Snyder-verse, Ben Affleck is set to appear in Aquaman 2 and next summer’s Flash film.  And that Affleck’s Batman and Ezra Miller’s Flash are in the latest Shazam 2 trailer.   Curiouser and Curiouser…

MARVEL STUDIOS/DISNEY+:  There have been rumors going around for years about She-Hulk making the leap from comic book to Live-action for over a decade, and it is finally happening… She-Hulk: Attorney At Law looks to be the Superhero/Ally McBeal mash-up you didn’t know you needed, but are glad you got…

NETFLIX: This is an all NEW version of Pinocchio! Not to be confused with the Disney+ live-action Pinocchio remake with Ton Hanks. And while the Netflix version appears to be more ‘wooden’, pun intended, it actually may have more heart than the Disney+ Re-do. As it adds a grieving father to the mix, and that seems to be unique to this version of the tale…

Here’s the Netflix say-so…

“Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reinvents the classic tale of the wooden marionette who is magically brought to life in order to mend the heart of a grieving woodcarver named Geppetto. This whimsical, stop-motion film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson follows the mischievous and disobedient adventures of Pinocchio in his pursuit of a place in the world.”

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON has come and gone, and there was no bird, no plane, and no Superman… And once again, all my hopes and dreams were dashed, faster than a speeding bullet.  Because although  The Man Of Steel is the feather in DC’s cap, once again he has been totally side-lined by Warner Bros. No mention of Henry Cavill coming back as Superman, or the roll being recast.  No mention of Michael B. Jordan’s Superman project, or JJ Abram’s Superman project.  I mean, Superman & Lois didn’t even have a panel. And there were posters of the CW series all over the Gaslamp District and Convention hall.  What up with that?!! I guess when it comes to getting another Superman movie, Warner Bros is saying… NOPE.

Also Missing-In-Action (MIA):  Where was ‘Aquaman 2‘?  Principle photography for that film was completed a while ago, giving them amble time to pull together a few surprises.  And it would have been a great way to undercut Marvel’s Prince Namor reveal.  Because DC’s Aquaman did the King-Of-The-Sea thing first, making over a billion dollars… But I guess when it comes to promoting its heavy hitters, Warner Bros is saying…NOPE!

And DC/Warner Bros wasn’t the only company to come up short at San Diego Comic-Con.  Netflix could have wowed us with an Avatar: The Last Airbender 1st look.  Again, principle photography has already wrapped… But NOPE!  And speaking of Avatars, where was James Cameron’s epic Avatar: The Way Of Water? The sequel that took 12+ years to make wasn’t in San Diego. Were there no flights from Pandora?

But at lest we know why The Flash film didn’t make the trip to Comic-Con.  Its star, Ezra Miller, is such a PR nightmare, the film’s release date moved from this Summer to next Summer.  So Warner kBros’ strategy is the out-of-sight-out-of-mind gambit, as they hope we’ll all forget about Miller’s bad behavior if enough time has past.   And again I say… NOPE.

Can you imagine what the Warner Bros Panel would have been like with Shazam 2, Batgirl, The Rock’s Black Adam, Mamoa’s Aquaman 2, The Flash’s Michael Keaton showing up as Batman, and a Henry Cavill video from The Witcher set wearing his Superman cape?  I mean, all six thousand people in Hall H would have lost their collective minds.  But NOPE, that was not meant to be.  And my question to Warner Bros is… Why not?

#henrycavillsuperman

MARVEL:  James Gunn announced that Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is the end of the trilogy… Gasp!  But he was quick to add that this news does NOT mean that everyone dies. Or that there will not be additional films in the franchise.  But what it does mean is that the story for THIS group of Guardians is ending.  But who leaves, and who continues the journey, won’t be revealed just yet.  And then Gunn dropped a Comic-con exclusive trailer that wowed us all, and gave us our first look at Adam Warlock… And if you think Baby Yoda (Grogu) is cute, wait till you see Baby Rocket… Then the High Evolutionary came out to walk amongst, and threaten the panel attendees… It was the appropriate end to an emotional panel.

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON:  The Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever part of the Marvel Panel was an impressive tribute; beginning with a tribal musical number with soul-stirring vocals and an impressive drums/percussions accompaniment , that really set the tone for the epic Africa-based superhero saga.

Then director/writer Ryan Coogler gave an emotional talk about his time with Chadwick Boseman that hit the six-thousand attendees right in the feels.   And if that wasn’t enough, the actual teaser-trailer continued the emotional journey….

NETFLIX:  I Don’t know anything about The Sandman, but after seeing the Comic-Con panel, I’m interested….

PARAMOUNT+: Picard shows off his crew, AND Lower Decks will somehow have a live-action Strange New Worlds crossover… How is that going to work?  Stay tuned…