The Week in Geek: Arrowverse ends, Captain Marvel arrives, and winter is coming

Hey. Psst. Over here. You, uh... you looking to score some end of the week news round-ups? We got some trailers, we got some castings, we got some shows ending. Also, Captain Marvel is here. Lots of stuff. Also it's the end of the week. Congratulations, you made it.

Here they are, kids: the five biggest stories from... The Week in Geek!

ARROWVERSE WILL BE SANS ARROW AFTER EIGHT SEASONS

The CW, back when she was the good ship WB, didn't exactly have a lot of success franchising her DC characters. Smallville lasted from 2001 to 2011, but despite its longevity, Smallville never really spun itself off successfully. Birds of Prey didn't make it past one season and all the other potential characters (including their own take on Oliver Queen) never inspired enough network confidence to get more shows within a shared universe off the ground.

However, a year after Smallville ended, The CW tried again. This time they had Stephen Amell in the role of the Green Arrow, and, lo, it was good. Or, at the very least, it was good enough to beget The Flash. Which was good enough to begat Legends of Tomorrow. Also, Supergirl eventually made its way from CBS to The CW. All of which worked in tandem to create some manner of Arrowverse. Not too shabby.

This week, though, Amell reached out to fans on social media to reveal that, after a ten-episode eighth season this fall, Arrow will be concluding. Amell admitted that a lot of that decision comes down to his desire to move on. You build a family and start living less for yourself and more for them and, yeah, sometimes that means moving on. Amell thanked his cast and crew. He cried. We get it! Eight seasons is a long time! It's no Supernatural, but it's a while! And the impact Arrow has had on the TV superhero landscape is pretty massive.

Arrow's ending also feeds some of the fires for rumors on other Arrowverse shows. We've heard that Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanaugh might be leaving The Flash after its current season. Supergirl has also had some cancellation rumors. After eight years of Arrowverse, it's pretty likely that the world those characters inhabit is set for a significant ground shift. Arrow's ending is probably only the first part of that.

GAMES OF THRONES HERE! GET YOUR GAME OF THRONES HERE!

It snowed a bunch in New York this week, but gosh if people aren't still somehow obsessed with Winter Coming anyway. Yes, after two-second snippets here and posters there, the first real trailer for Game of Thrones's final season has finally seen daylight. Season 8. That's a weird coincidence.

Anyway, there's a lot packed into the trailer, most (if not all) of it focused on the first three of the final six episodes. Arya's running from something. Probably the Night King. Jon Snow is talking about something. Probably the Night King. We get a glimpse of the Golden Company, there's Bran and Sam getting ready to spill some Targaryen beans, Cersei is also there looking smug as she does.

Also, y'know, dragons are present. HBO figured they'd get people into peak last minute binging/watching shape by releasing a video of Samuel L Jackson trying to sum up the show so far. It's very cute! Anyway, Dragons & Incest: The Show will return on April 14. Hopefully, real-life winter will be over by then.

Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

IDRIS ELBA TO REPLACE WILL SMITH IN SUICIDE SQUAD SEQUEL

Hey, you remember that time we found out Will Smith couldn't fit playing Deadshot again into his tight schedule of being a blue genie and whatnot? Well, I admit, I thought that meant we would be going Deadshot-free in the James Gunn Suicide Squad sequel.

Guess not!

This week we found out that Idris Elba is in negotiations to take up the Deadshot mantle. That's a pretty cool get. Apparently, Elba is the "first and only" choice Gunn and Warner Bros. has to take over for Smith. Fair.

And the rumors are already starting to avalanche over which new characters we'll be seeing even though Suicide Squad: This Time With Not Trailer Editing won't be out until August 6, 2021. We got King Shark (who was just on The Flash this week), Ratcatcher, Polka-Dot Man (amazing), and Peacemaker, who, rumor has it, might be played by Dave Bautista.

Anyway, yeah. The DCEU is really starting to come together now. Nice.

Credit: Marvel Studios

THERE'S A CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE OUT NOW

It's been over a decade since Robert Downey Jr declared that he was, in fact, Iron Man. That's eleven, solid years of people wondering, "okay, but when is Marvel going to make a movie in which there's a woman protagonist?" The DCEU beat Marvel to the punch when they released Wonder Woman back in 2017, but, yes, Carol Danvers has finally arrived.

I'll tell you, though — not unlike the Protector in Galaxy Quest, she's carrying mines. To say that the conversation over this film has been explosive is maybe the understatement of my career. Personally, my favorite so far is this one from Alyssa Rosenberg from The Washington Post talking about the time the movie is set and the struggle of leaving Carol outside of the historical touchstones happening in the military during the '90s.

I don't want to surprise anyone, but it turns out that Captain Marvel is another MCU movie that is neither the beginning nor the end of any movements. There's a lot that could be said about what works and what doesn't in Captain Marvel but, really, more than anything, it would be nice if we could skip to the part where we all acknowledge that Captain Marvel is a movie made by a large corporation whose goal is to make money and that's mostly it. Enjoy it. Don't. See it. Don't. For the sake of my Twitter feed and maybe the sum entirety of human civilization, let's try to just let a superhero punch some bad guys for two hours.

LUKE PERRY HAS PASSED AWAY

There is no amount of time, no number of articles you write as a professional that makes talking about the passing of a legendary actor and presence in the world easier. Luke Perry, who suffered a stroke last week, did not recover from the incident. He passed Monday morning at Burbank's St. Joseph's Hospital. He was 52.

Perry's Riverdale castmates have opened up about their experience working with him. Joss Whedon, who seldom talks about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, acknowledged how essential Perry was in making that film the best it could be. Colin Hanks told a story about how Perry helped soothe two stressed-out kids on an airplane with nothing more than a couple of balloons.

Perry, who most of us middle-aged folks became aware of on 90210 beginning in 1990, has been a huge part of our cultural landscape. And for those of us in the genre world it isn't just Riverdale or Buffy, but Mortal Kombat and The Incredible Hulk, too. Perry was prolific in a way that so few Tigerbeat-esque heartthrobs think about being.

And that's all. Your Week in Geek is over. Sorry to go out on a bummer. Anyway, those were the stories that grabbed us, how about you? What stories struck your fancy this week? Let us know and we'll meet back here again next week.