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WIRE Buzz: Geena Davis boards She-Ra; Spielberg heads to Galaxy's Edge; more
WIRE Buzz: Weekend Edition! Many of us may be kicking back in the period between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening, but that doesn't mean the world of genre comes to a screeching halt.
In this latest roundup of genre-based news, we've got tidbits on Season 3 of Netflix's animated She-Ra series, Disney Parks' Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and Warner Bros./Legendary Entertainment's Detective Pikachu!
The Fly and Thelma & Louise star Geena Davis has boarded the third season of Netflix's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, SYFY Wire has confirmed. According to the official press release, Davis will be voicing Huntara, "the imposing de facto leader of the Crimson Waste who reluctantly helps Adora, Glimmer and Bow on a quest."
Catch a glimpse of this new character going head-to-head (literally) with Aimee Carrero's Adora below:
Created by Noelle Stevenson, the animated series also features the voices of AJ Michalka, Karen Fukuhara, Lauren Ash, Marcus Scribner, Lorraine Toussaint, Vella Lovell, Reshma Shetty, Sandra Oh, Christine Woods, Jordan Fisher, Merit Leighton, Adam Ray, and Krystal Joy Brown.
Season 3 of She-Ra debuts on Netflix Friday, August 2.
Before it opens at Disneyland later this month, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge played host to a few very high-profile visitors this weekend: Bob Iger, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and Kathleen Kennedy. Iger (Disney's CEO) showed his Hollywood friends around the park, posting pictures on Twitter with the following caption:
"Best way to impress your friends...give them a personal tour of @starwars Galaxy's Edge! #stevenspielberg, #jjabrams, Kathy Kennedy with Imagineer & Galaxy's Edge creator, Scott Trowbridge."
Kennedy is president of Lucasfilm and Abrams is helming Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (out Dec. 20). As a directorial legend, Spielberg is just the icing on the cake. He's never directed a Star Wars movie, but his close friendship with George Lucas and longstanding collaborations with ILM (founded for the making of A New Hope in the late '70s) make him an honorary member of the galaxy far, far away.
Galaxy's Edge opens its doors at Disneyland in Anaheim, California Friday, May 31. The one at Disney World in Orlando, Florida won't be ready until Thursday, August 29. Slots for the Disneyland location went on sale May 2 and (per Gizmodo) sold out within two hours of going live.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu hit theaters this weekend (nabbing second place at the domestic box office) and gave fans a glimpse into a colorful and seedy world where Pocket Monsters are very much real. There is no doubt that the CGI creatures were beautifully-realized by director Rob Letterman and his special effects crew, but The Pokémon Company wasn't entirely sure about certain scenes.
For instance, the company didn't love the moment near the start of the film where Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), on a train to Ryme City, gets "kissed" by a stray Lickitung.
"We built that tongue in reality with a big chunk of latex. It’s completely gross, but we had to have something to wipe Justice Smith’s face with," head VFX supervisor Erik Nordby told Time Magazine. "I wouldn’t say that [the scene] was the Pokémon Company’s favorite scene in the movie. That’s one where we got right up to the edge of what they would be comfortable with."
When it came to using Mr. Mime as a useful informant down at the Ryme City docks, the film's production asked The Pokémon Company for advice on what he is. Their answer was rather unexpected.
"When Rob suggested using Mr. Mime, we asked the Pokémon Company, 'What is he?' They went: 'We don’t know.' They were actually trying to dissuade us from using him, because they weren’t sure what he was or whether he’d work well on screen. That was a bit of a strange one," said art director Ravi Bansal in the Time interview.
A month after a number of horror trailers accidentally frightened some children at a U.K.-based movie theater, a theater in the U.S. erroneously screened The Curse of La Llorono instead of Detective Pikachu. This was documented by ScreenRant's Ryan George in a collection of humorous tweets that underscored the big mistake.
Luckily, the theater's employees realized what was going on and shut off the Conjuring-Verse movie, eventually moving everyone to a new theater for the Pokémon experience they paid for. Watch the drama unfold in all of George's tweets below:
