WIRE Buzz: The 355 pushed to 2022; Scrooge McDuck takes on Santa; legendary Imagineer retiring

The premiere of The 355, Universal's female-ensemble global spy thriller, has been pushed back 364 days. The movie was originally slated to release on Jan. 15, 2021 but will now premiere on Jan. 14, 2022.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision stems from the recent spike in COVID-19 cases worldwide, and the subsequent closing of movie theaters. Rather than pushing out a few weeks or months, however, Universal Pictures has decided to flash forward 12 months (perhaps something we all wish we could do) and debut The 355 at the same time next year, at the start of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend.

The movie’s plot follows a group of spies working around the globe to stave off World War III. It stars Jessica Chastain (IT: Chapter Two), Lupita Nyong'o (Black Panther), Penélope Cruz (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Diane Kruger (National Treasure: Book of Secrets), and Fan Bingbing (X-Men: Days of Future Past).

(SYFY WIRE and Universal Pictures are properties of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.)

It’s not Christmas without a new story about Scrooge. Scrooge McDuck in this case, voiced by David Tennant in a very special DuckTales holiday episode.

In anticipation of the yuletide event, Entertainment Weekly debuted a new trailer for the show today, which you can take a gander at here:

As the trailer makes clear, Scrooge McDuck has a long-standing hatred of jolly old Santa Claus (Hugh Bonneville), who also happens to be a polar bear. But this year, Santa has a proposition for the old duck — help him out with something, and he’ll never visit Scrooge manor again.

What Scrooge has to do to help Santa remains to be seen, though the EW article does reveal that the reason for the grudge between the two is that Scrooge and Santa used to be business partners, and that it was Scrooge(!) not Santa who invented Christmas.

Intrigued? You can check out the episode Monday, Nov. 30 on Disney XD and find out if the two make up.  

Joe Rohde, the Imagineer who was the lead designer for Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, including the new Avatar attraction, is retiring.

On his Instagram today, Rohde shared the news of his retirement after 40 years of working for The Mouse. “It has been 40 years since I stepped foot in the door at age 25, not knowing anything about theme parks, Disney, or what it meant to work for a big company,” he wrote. “Every day of my life since then has been a learning experience. I’m very glad to have had that opportunity, and proud of the work that has been done, not just by me, but by all my fellow Imagineers, and especially those who worked by my side over the decades.”

During his 40 years, Rohde started as a model designer at Epcot and also went on to be lead designer of Aulani, Disney’s resort in Hawaii.

In his Instagram post, Rohde went on to say that it made sense to him to step away while things are relatively quiet work-wise because of the pandemic. “If I wait, I will once again be in the middle of another huge project and by the time that is done, I would be truly old,” he shared. Rohde’s retirement will begin on Jan. 4, 2021, though the designer plans to continue developing creative projects.