Episode Fourteen
Show Title: A Puffy Yoda
We take a look at all the news from Star Wars, Star Trek, DC and Marvel and more including Disney’s pricey new saber, Nichols Meyer gives his thoughts about his Kahn mini series and other Trek, wher you can watch Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman world tour,news of Daredevil’s cancelation, Zombieland 2 and much much more.
DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stan Lee, Comic books,Disney, Yoda, Ireland, Star Trek Fleet Command,Fallout 76,Nicholas Meyer, Wrath of Kahn, Michael Dorn, Jason Mamoa, Aquaman, Blue Beetle, Denny O’neil,SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg, SciFi4Me, Jason Hunt,Federal trade Commission, video game loot boxes, Nintendo
*Pre Show*
Tonight! Disney wants to build a primo lightsaber for you, A surprising hero might be coming to a theater near you and a site close to my heart comes back on this edition of Multiverse Tonight!
*Title Card*
Welcome to Episode Fourteen of Multiverse Tonight, I’m your host, Thomas Townley.This episode was recorded on December 4th, 2018. Thank you to all of you who listen. Please share us with others.By the way, I am now streaming the live recording of the show on Twitch. I usually record the show between 1 PM and 2 PM Central time on Tuesday afternoon. By the way, if you really want to help me out like my good friend Ann, you can tip me via Ko-fi, Patreon and now directly from the Radio Public app and Buzzsprout player.
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Check out MultiverseTonight.com to see show notes, affiliate links, the occasional original column and much much more. Now let’s get on with the show.
Star Wars
Nick Maley, the special effects artist best known for his work on Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back thinks that updating Yoda in the prequels may have been a mistake.
Nick, promoting For the Love of Sci-fi convention told The Express quote “They built a puppet for Episode I: The Phantom Menace but made the mistake of trying to update Yoda. “They re-sculptured him and made him out of a different material which was heavier. “Then, because he was transparent instead of opaque, it meant light didn’t hit him the same way so his colour wasn’t the same.” “They also needed to put a stronger mechanism in so the result was a Yoda that looked quite different and generated a lot of criticism.“Ultimately you can’t redesign grandma: grandma is grandma.“She might be old-fashioned but that’s grandma.“You need to save your new stuff for your new characters.” Unquote
Yeah, Yoda did look kinda puffy and off colored in the prequels.
And also out of the UK, According to former UK Foreign secretary Boris Johnson speaking at the DUP conference let slip that that George Lucas hopes to shoot an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie in Northern Ireland. Quote “Which was the biggest grossing movie last year? “Star Wars and where does George Lucas propose to make a follow up about Obi-Wan Kenobi? Northern Ireland.” unquote Now an Obi Wan one off movie has been rumored to be in the works for awhile now. But can we believe Boris Johnson? The one offs are believed to be shelved after Solo’s poor performance. Could an Obi Wan film be in the works for Disney Plus? Or could the former mayor of London be full of it? I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out. To be continued I guess.
Speaking of Rumors could Padme show up in Episode Nine? The rumor going around is that Kylo will see Padme’s funeral on Naboo as well as the moment where Anakin chokes her using the World between worlds seen in Star Wars Rebels. Now there are is absolutely no evidence of this so this rumor would best be put in the disbelief category. However, it would be intriguing.
Meanwhile, over on the other side of the pond, Disney has revealed a first look at two of the rides opening at Star Wars land next year. Let’s take a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssgGCjpFP4Q#action=share
So the first one there was the MIllenium Falcon Smugglers run, while will put visitors in the role of one of three members of the Falcon flight crew. The second is Star Wars Rise of the Resistance which puts you in a virtual battle between the resistance and the first order with a face off with Kylo Ren. Do you win if you make him cry?
A report from Walt Disney World News today says that Disney has is working on a patent for the most realistic Lightsaber yet.
According to the report quote “The new technology exemplified in this patent application is used to build a lightsaber hilt that works like a motorized tape measure. At the press of a button, the tapes will extend to a total length several times that of the hilt itself. The tapes will also have some kind of LED lighting inside, such that the lightsaber can light up similar to the way they appear in the films.” unquote IN simpler terms , the saber is self extending and self lighting. They went on to say that this will likely be pretty pricey and will probably sold as a collectors item. Sounds kinda cool. I’m gonna bet the cost will be around five hundred dollars, any other bets?
Disney has announced a new series of kid friendly animated shorts called Galaxy of Adventures that will recreate classic star wars moments. The first six are available now on a new website as well as the Star Wars kids Youtube channel. The series is aimed at three to five year olds. James Waugh, Lucasfilms vice president for franchise content and strategy, told StarWars.com that this initiative is designed to be a “kid-friendly” introduction to the franchise. Quote “Over the years, I’ve had so many of my friends who are parents tell me how much they wanted to introduce their kids to Star Wars but didn’t feel that their kids were quite ready for the movies yet,” unquote The trailer features a repurpose of some of the dialogue and scenes from the original films but uses an animation style filled with wild, exaggerated motion and action to better entice younger viewers. Waugh also noted that the bite-sized shorts will quote “really drill into moments, to tell simple stories, unencumbered by the needs of a traditional narrative structure.” unquote This sounds really cool. Why doesn’t CBS try something similar with Star Trek instead of going dark?
Star Trek News
We start Trek News this edition with a new Star Trek mobile game, Star Trek Fleet Command is a mobile strategy game that takes place in the Kelvin Timeline from the JJ Verse movies.
Writer for the game Mike Johnson on a q&a on the Fleet COmmand Facebook page said that the game will showcase a post Star trek Beyond story.
Quote “The game is indeed set in the Kelvin universe,”. “It starts just before Star Trek Beyond. Our story will encompass the events of Beyond, and then we’ll go… beyond Beyond.”
If Mike Johnson sounds familiar, it’s because he was the writer for Star Trek Boldly Go, the comic that continued the Kelvin timeline story. The series was canceled after 18 issues. The game will give Mike the chance to continue working with the characters.
The game will let players fight for the Federation, Klingon or Romulans. Fans have noted the use of a D’deridex warbird in the trailer, which wasn’t introduced in the prime timeline until the 24th century. Mike has an answer for this quote “In the Kelvin timeline, after the destruction of Vulcan and with tensions rising, the Romulans accelerated their R & D,” “We will see Kelvin versions of many Prime timeline ships we haven’t seen in the films. Is there a favorite ship you’d like to see?” The game is now in the Google and apple app store.
The new game Fallout 76 planted in a reference to the Star Trek TNG episode Darmok in the game. The Easter Egg can be found in Tanagra town, which is itself a reference to the episode. When exploring the town some wll graffiti reads Darmok plus Jalad ergo at one point Darmok and Jalad in Tanagra. Neat.
Nicholas Meyer, who directed Star Trek II, Star Trek VI and worked on Star Trek IV is disappointed with how Star Trek Into Darkness mangled it’s uses of elements from The Wrath of Kahn. Speaking with Tom Connors on the Midnight’s Edge Youtube channel, Mr. Meyer said quote “In my sort of artistic worldview, if you’re going to do an homage, you have to add something. You have to put another layer on it, and they didn’t. Just by putting the same words in different characters’ mouths didn’t add up to anything, and if you have someone dying in one scene and sort of being resurrected immediately after there’s no real drama going on. It just becomes a gimmick or gimmicky, and that’s what I found it to be ultimately.” And I couldn’t agree more.
In the same interview Meyer revealed that the Kahn related series that he was working on was titled Ceti Alpha V and was planned as a three night event. Meyers again, quote
“I was commissioned to write a 3-hour or 3-night event, and that’s what I did,” Meyer says. “It’s called Ceti Alpha V and I don’t know the current status. It’s been up in the air. Partially, there was a lot of confusion between CBS, and there were big upheavals at CBS and while they sort of didn’t know who was in charge, they also didn’t know what they were going to do with Ceti Alpha V. I’m not exactly sure what’s happened, I haven’t heard from them in some time.” Given our next story, I’m kind doubtful we’ll see this…unless they have nothing better to make…
When season two of Discovery comes out, you might notice one name not attached Nicholas Meyer. That’s because he wasn’t invited back. Speaking again with Midnight’s edge, he said, quote “I was involved with it for the first year, and I worked on it, I wrote things on it, and then I was not invited for the second year. I don’t know why,” “I was brought on to it by Bryan Fuller, who was the original showrunner. I had never worked on a television series before and thought that would be an interesting thing to do, as indeed it was. What my contributions to it were hard to determine, because television is a group effort and there is so much overlap that I can’t either claim or refute credit for the end result because the difference between what is written and gets filmed and what was talked about in conference before things are written is very, very hard to determine with what you would call meaningful or objective precision.” This may have been apart of the creative team deathmatch that seems to have occured during and after season one. Currently the sole surviving showrunner is Alex Kurtzman.
India Today reports that a new aircraft inspired by Star Trek is the first plane with no moving parts and will create a quieter simpler aircraft with no combustion emissions. The aircraft is powered by ionic wind which is described in the report as quote “a silent but mighty flow of ions, which generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.”
The plane, currently called a Version 2 EAD Airframe or V2 weights 4.4 pound and has a wingspan of about 16.4 feet. It’s said to be completely silent and does not depend on fossil fuels to fly. Steven Barrett an MIT aerospace engineer says that they have a long way to perfect the design and he’s unsure if the aircraft will be practically useful and widely used, but he thinks it might have a promising future, perhaps being useful for drones. And perhaps someday we could use it for impulse engines in our Starships. Here’s hoping.
We still have no details about what or who or really any details about what will be in the Picard show, not even the title. However we do have some interesting tidbits.
Michael Dorn, who as you know played Worf on The Next Generation and DS9, speaking with Inverse, told them what it would take to get him back in Klingon makeup quote “I’m only interested in if it’s something really interesting; if the character was a major part of the franchise or whatever the show is,” he says. “He’s not just going to show up, beat somebody up, and then go home.” Unquote In other words, he just doesn’t wanna do a cameo or a guest spot, he wants to have a big meaty role. Maybe he can be Picards bodyguard? “Mister Worf! Kick that Bolians ass!”
Having trouble sleeping? You can try drugs, or eliminating caffeine or some white noise to block out sounds OR you can use the following video from youtube (play a few seconds of the video) https://youtu.be/ZPoqNeR3_UA That’s the ambient engine noise you’ve heard on just about every episode of Star Trek The NExt Generation. This video has that noise playing on a constant loop and has been listened to more than 3.4 million times. Video maker Spike Snell, who created the video told Mashable that he’s as surprised as anyone. Quote “I started obsessing a little bit on that deep rumbling noise as it felt like one of the key aspects of many sci-fi shows,” “I had never imagined at that point so many others would be interested in it or other similar sounds.” “I realized it was striking a heavy chord globally,” “Sometimes I print out the very best comments and put them on my fridge to remind myself that I’m not wasting all my time with this project.” I’ve never used the background noise of the enterprise to get to sleep, but that’s why I have an air purifier in my bedroom.
DC News
What better to think of during the Winter Holidays than Nuclear Winter. That’s what
DC Comics brings you in the DC Nuclear Winter Special. The one shot contains short stories of DC heroes living in a variety of future scenarios. Some of the characters featured in the special include older versions of Aquaman, Catwoman, and Green Arrow, legacy characters like Batman 666 and Superman One Million, and DC’s original post-apocalyptic hero, Kamandi. A preview of the issue of AVClub dot com features a Supergirl shirt that reveals Kara trying to save her daughter from a planet on the brink of total collapse. This story come from writer Tom Taylor and artists Tom Derenick and Yasmine Putri. The issue is out now.
In other DC Comics News, DC has postponed if not outright cancelled Batman and the Outsiders. The first issue was slated for release on December twelfth. DC does say that the series will be re-solicited but it’s unknown why it was pulled in the first place.
Jason Momoa, star of the upcoming Aquaman movie will be hosting Saturday Night Live on December 8th with musical guest Mumford and Sons. I’m gonna bet we’ll see a lot of DC jokes on this episode.
And while we’re on Aquaman James Wan, the director of the movie took to Twitter to confirm the Julie Andrews will be in the movie voicing Karathen, the most powerful creature on Earth. Karathen has been described as a giant undersea creature that hold the key to uniting Atlantis and the surface worlds. As for Andrews, producer
Peter Sarafan explained that quote “We wanted the Karathen to have the voice of a classic British actress, albeit somewhat digitally altered,” “And when we found out Julie was interested and available and excited to do it, casting her was a no-brainer.”
Interesting enough, Aquaman debuts just days before Mary Poppins Returns, the role that Julie Andrews made famous.
And while your waiting for Aquaman, why not watch Jason Momoa’s Aquaman Press Tour Youtube. Jason has launched a channel to vlog the long press tour for the movie, currently there’s a seven minute video showing the China leg of the tour. We’ll include a link in our show notes. https://youtu.be/kOAgHVUvA_k
Of course, we all know why we’re looking forward to this movie…
Now for a movie that will most likely never see the light of day. Justice League Dark. JLD has been in development for a few years not and has seen two directors come and go. The first one was oscar winning Guillermo del Toro who was also writing the script. Now we’ve learned from del Toro through a series of tweets that he did complete the script before he left. He also mentioned that he had also completed the script for Pacific Rim 2, which Universal than had written by others. Del Toro’s directorial successor Doug Liman who left in May of last year due to scheduling conflicts has said that he would like to return if Warner Bros ever wanted to do the movie. However, still doesn’t look likely. Maybe we could all convince DC to take the script and produce a graphic novel out of it? Just so we could see what Benicio was working on? How Bout it, DC and Warner Bros. Take my money, please.
A little while back we got word that Warner Bros was working on a New Gods movie, now we have word via The Wrap that they’ve hired Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer to write a Blue Beetle movie, based on the Jamie Reyes version of the hero. A little character background, Jamie wields an alien scarab that can form armor and weapons over his body. The character is the third to hold the title of Blue Beetle, the first two being Dan Garrett and the more widely known Ted Kord. Jamie reyes would also be the first Latino character getting their own DC Superhero film. No other details have been forthcoming. Can we hope for a booster gold movie too?
Over on the TV side of things, a new poster has been released for Season 4 of Legends of Tomorrow and a surprising character is on it. Beebo, the fluffy blue god. The character is being held by Mick Rory. Also featured prominently is Nora Darhk, John Constantine, Ava Sharpe and Charlie. Earlier this year showrunner Phil Klemmer spoke to Comic Book dot com quote “I guess the whole founding principle of the show and what it means to be a legend,” “It’s kind of a punk rock ethos of, oddballs are not just welcome, oddballs are recommended. The straight over the plate superheroes wouldn’t function well with our other characters. I think that’s why people draw inspiration from the show, because a lot of people, myself included, feel like weirdos. Then the idea that you would find a kindred group who are weird in different ways, but they compliment each other in a really cool way [is appealing]. They tolerate each other as best they can. It’s not cuddly, feel good. Our guys are sarcastic with each other. They’re like a family who fights all the time but then would give their life without question for one another. I think that’s why we’re able to bring new people in because I feel like everybody’s a stray. Or certainly people who are searching for belonging and family. They find it unexpectedly on the Waverider.”
Comic Book Legend Denny O’neil is set to be honored for his lifetime of achievements in pursuing causes of peace and justice on December 7th and 8th at the Jimmy Carter presidential library in Atlanta during the Comic books and social justice weekend event being held in conjunction with the hero initiative charity for comic creators in need. . The writer and former editor at DC Comics will speak about bring change through comics. O’neill told newsarama quote “I have people come up to me and tell me that sometimes reading those stories did influence them,” “That’s good news, because I never intended to change people’s minds about things. I don’t think you can do that. But one thing I did want to do was get young people thinking about these things. Maybe if people start thinking about it young enough and grow up with the problems, they will have a better shot at coming up with answers.”
At his appearance, O’Neil will discuss his life and how his discharge from the navy led to his life’s work in newspapers and comic books. About accepting the invitation denny said quote “I accepted their invitation, because hell, Jimmy Carter, for my money, is our best ex-president. There’s much more in the article up at Newsarama, I’ll link to it in the show notes. https://www.newsarama.com/42831-denny-o-neil-to-be-honored-for-pursuing-causes-of-peace-justice-at-presidential-library.html
Marvel
We begin Marvel News with Stan Lee. As you remember Stan died a couple of weeks ago and the cause of his death has now been revealed. According to a copy of Stan’s death certificate obtained by TMZ, Stan’s death was caused by cardiac arrest with respiratory failure and congestive heart failure. It also listed that Stan suffered from aspiration pneumonia. Stan had been battling health problems all year and he lost his wife Joan in July of 2017. It may say he died of a heart attack, but we all know that it was from a broken heart.
After Stan’s death, the Arizona and Arizona State marching bands teamed up to do a special tribute to Stan Lee. The bands played the theme to Marvel’s The Avengers while doing a marching routine. The show can be seen on the University of Arizona marching band youtube page.https://youtu.be/E7CRzScvY3s
Thor Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, speaking with All 4’s The Last Leg, revealed the inspiration for Korg, the walking pile of rocks that he voiced in the movie. Quote “In New Zealand we have a lot of giant, hulking bouncers and that’s their accent, dudes with very delicate souls,” “It’s very intimidating when you try to get into a nightclub…and it’s hard to decide what to do in that situation. Do you pick a fight with them because the voice betrays who they are. They end up breaking a lot of legs.” And while he didnt appear in Infinity War, don’t worry Kevin Feige told Fandango that he still has plans for Korg.
So, did you see Venom? Or were you like me and you missed the movie in theaters? Well no worry, the movie which was in theaters in October, will be out on Digital on December 11 and on Bluray, DVD and 4K on December 18. The bonus materials include Venom Mode, which shows you popups about the film as well as deleted and extended scenes a mini documentary and more. Remember when it used to take a year before a movie would get to DVD…those were the days.
We got some awards news here, Black Panther has been nominated in the Drama Feature Film category for the Humanitas prize. The awards look to honor film and tv projects which entertain and enrich audiences. Also nominated is the Incredibles 2 which will compete for the Family Feature Film award. The winners will be announced on February 8th.
Sony Pictures Animation has such good feelings about Spiderman Into the Spider-verse, according to the Hollywood Reporter, that they are already planning a sequel and an all female spin-off film. Sony has tapped Voltron legendary defenders showrunners Joaquim Dos Santos to head the sequel and Lauren Montgomery to handle the all female spinoff. That spinoff will reportedly feature Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, Madame Web, Spider-Girl, and Silk. I’m still not a fan of the animation style, but I think the movie sounds good.
Netflix has cancelled another of the marvel shows, Daredevil will not be getting a season four from the streaming service. Reportedly, this was not because Disney wanted the show back. Netflix just decided to cancel it. In a statement given to Deadline Netflix stated quote “Marvel’s Daredevil will not return for a fourth season on Netflix,” the streamer said in a statement tonight to Deadline. “We are tremendously proud of the show’s last and final season and although it’s painful for the fans, we feel it best to close this chapter on a high note.””We’re thankful to our partners at Marvel, showrunner Erik Oleson, the show’s writers, stellar crew and incredible cast including Charlie Cox as Daredevil himself, and we’re grateful to the fans who have supported the show over the years,” However don’t cry for Daredevil my friends, there’s a good chance that we will see him again on Disney’s upcoming streaming service Disney Plus. Now I guess we just have one more show to drop, the fate of Jessica Jones and the Punisher. I’ll bet The Punisher cancels Netflix first.
And just yesterday the trailer for Captain Marvel dropped,let’s watch.
We start off geek news with something a lot of people feel at Christmas time…horror. Details about Annabelle 3 have been released for the sequel which hits theaters next July 3rd. Here’s the synopsis: Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends. This is directed and written by gary Dauberman who wrote The Conjuring 2 and The Nun. I’m surprised that they didn’t rename it The Annabelle 3.
Continuing in the horror vein, the remake of Child’s Play has launched a new website with details on the killer doll, The site claims quote “Buddi comes equipped with a highly intricate cloud-backed voice recognition engine capable of identifying speech. Using sophisticated Kaslan algorithms, Buddi can comprehend inflection, tonality, and subtle variations in the human voice. Buddi learns both from human interaction via its 20 sensors and cameras which provide detailed real-time information about its environment. Buddi utilizes state of the art sensor designs which provide high-resolution image recognition and grip sensitivity. Buddi comes preloaded with the ability to fluently comprehend and converse in both English and Spanish with the option to expand via the Kaslan Language App.” Unquote I’m gonna guess we’re going killer robot trope instead of serial killer inhabiting doll body trope. Anyway look and judge for yourself the site is at bestbuddi.com and the movie hits screens on June 21st.
Again let’s go horror, but this time horror comedy, Zombieland 2 is bringing in Zoey Deutch into the movie to play Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus characters love interest. According to Deadline, “Through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, the Zombie slayers must face off against many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family.” They will be joined by Woody harrelson, emma stone and Abigail Breslin reprising their roles from the first one. Zombieland 2 runs into theaters on October 11th.
And now switching to something completely different. Doctor Who fans rejoice, More stories are forthcoming featuring Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler with a new audio series from Big Finish. Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon follows Rose as she jumps through dying parallel worlds in search of the only person who can save the multiverse the Doctor. The four episode audio series which brings Piper back into the role will also feature. Camille Coduri as Rose’s mother Jackie, Shaun Dingwall as Rose’s dad Pete, Mark Benton as alien investigator Clive Finch and Elli Garnett as Caroline Finch. In a statement from Big Finish Billie said “I love how normal Rose is, and yet really extraordinary,” “She lived a normal average life but she is incredibly curious and has an enormous capacity for love and empathy and is really spirited. She is extraordinary.” the idea fro the series came from former Doctor who showrunner Russell T Davies. Producer David Richardson said in the news release quote “I approached Russell T. Davies with the idea of Big Finish making a Rose Tyler spin-off,” Richardson says. “He was very enthusiastic – as always – and suggested we followed Rose’s journey that ultimately leads to her finding the Doctor in ‘The Stolen Earth.’ I found the proposal irresistible, and instantly script editor Matt Fitton and I were throwing around ideas. There is a whole multiverse of possibilities. Russell suggested including Jackie and Pete, and embraced my idea of including a parallel universe version of Clive – who of course was killed off in the TV series (in the 2005 episode ‘Rose’).“Russell guided us gently through the development – steering us towards ideas that worked brilliantly, ensuring things that needed improvement were fixed, and also throwing out the ideas that didn’t work. I’m absolutely delighted with what we have – a family drama about the end of worlds. It’s about love and loss and things that might have been – and our brilliant cast have embraced the emotional scripts.”
Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon goes on sale next September.
We now have word reported from Deadline dot come that Preacher has been renewed for season four with production set for early 2019 in Australia. AMC’s President Programming Entertainment Networks quote “A passionate base of fans found their way to Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy and have followed along with their adventures, at times indescribable adventures, for three seasons. We are thankful to our partners at Sony and to Seth, Evan and Sam for everything they have brought to this series, which we are pleased to renew for a fourth season. Like the superfans of Preacher, we can’t wait to see where this journey leads next.” Unquote Great News, I should really try to catch up sometime.
Nintendo has lifted some of it’s heavily restrictions on how Youtube creators can monetize gameplay and live stream content. Youtube creators who want to monetize their content no longer have to join Nintendo’s controversial partner program. Instead creators can work within Youtube’s Partner Program, which lets the company run ads on videos. On a statement on Nintendo’s website quote “As long as you follow some basic rules, we will not object to your use of gameplay footage and/or screenshots captured from games for which Nintendo owns the copyright in the content you create for appropriate video and image sharing sites,” The rules given include the right to provide unique commentary, so let’s play videos or live streams with original commentary from the players is A-Ok. However, it goes on to state that creators who quote “want to use the intellectual property of a third party, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary third-party permissions.” In other words, if you use third party music or anything else from somewhere other than Nintendo, you’d better get their permission. This decision comes in just in time for one of Nintendo’s biggest and longest awaited titles, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, which is being released this Friday, December seventh. My copy is on preorder.
The chairman of the Federal trade Commission Joseph Simons announced that he would investigate video game loot boxes to ensure that children are being protected and parents are educated on the matter. In the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security, Simons has asked about the issue by Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire who asked that he look into the boxes. Hassan believes the boxes are a problem because children purchase the boxes and get a reward without association of money with the boxes, creating a kind of gambling problem in the young. It seems to me that putting some sort of age verification system might be in order, something the kiddies can’t circumvent by changing their birthdate.
This next story is near and dear to me. Flaming Dog Media has announced the relaunch of the online multimedia magazine SciFi4Me dot com. SciFi4me will celebrate its tenth anniversary this March will return with more emphasis on video on Youtube Twitch Instagram and Facebook in order to bring enhanced coverage of SciFi, Fantasy and Horror news. According to Editor-in-chief and chief bottle washer Jason Hunt quote “With the success of the Fangoria reboot, and the decline in popularity for other genre sites that have taken political positions, it felt like the right move to make. Plus, with the tenth anniversary coming up, we couldn’t just sit on the sidelines anymore.” unquote Starting in January the lineup will include returning favorite The H2O Podcast with Mr. Hunt and Timothy Harvey, Salacious Crumbs, the Star Wars news show and a new show Good Morning Multiverse a news and discussion show airing on Saturdays on Youtube. This all starts on January fifth with the first episode of GMM and the 164th episode of H2O. I would also like to announce my return to SciFi4Me as a columnist, I’ll be bringing back The Longbox Hunter.
Finally we say goodbye to SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg who has passed away at the age of 57. According to Variety Hillenburg’s cause of death was ALS which he revealed that diagnosis back on March 2017. Hillenburg had gained notoriety while working as a director on the Nicktoon Rocko’s Modern Life, by the final season in 1995, Stephen was the show’s creative director. After that , Hillenberg wne ton to create SpongeBob Squarepants, one of the network’s most popular series which has run for an impressive 242 episodes, and just finished it’s eleventh season with a twelfth season coming next year.
That brings us to the end of another big show, I have a request of you, I’m planning a special show for the first one of 2019 and I would like you to tell me what geeky thing are you looking forward to in 2019, be it a show, movie, book or whatever. Record a message and send it to me or write and send it to feedback@multiversetonight.com.
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