SFX April 2021

hailing frequencies open!

CONFUSED VISION Rob Graham, email The final episodes of Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD seem to have slipped under the radar in the UK due to the hype for WandaVision. WandaVision is good fun, very different and unique and a great tribute to classic American sitcoms, with Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany on excellent form. Agents Of SHIELD is, however, getting a good send-off in a very enjoyable final season as one of Marvel’s more underrated shows. I’ve never really bought the whole “It’s all connected” line from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with movies being referenced in the TV shows but TV shows ignored in the movies, and if it is all changing starting with WandaVision then that means the TV shows were never part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to begin…

rants & raves

RAVES → See my editor’s letter for appreciation of Godzilla vs. Kong, Raya And The Last Dragon and Creepshow. Visual serotonin. → I cried when they announced plans for Halloween Horror Nights to go ahead this September. Probably because I still won’t be able to get there at this rate. RANTS → The Stand had some great moments, but didn’t grab me in the way I hoped it would. IAN BERRIMAN DEPUTY EDITOR RAVES → Back in 2005 we tried to get Blue Peter competition creation Sad Tony written into Doctor Who canon. Finally, he’s been brought to life! (bit.ly/sadtony) → Looking forward to hearing RTD’s “lost” Sixth Doctor script “Mind Of The Hodiac”, via Big Finish. → BBC Sounds discovery of the month: The Events At Black Tor, a six-part devil-worship drama by Last Of The Summer Wine’s…

captain’s log

This issue has been unexpectedly emotional for me. The announcement that Little Marvin’s new horror anthology series Them is to stream in April meant that I had to mentally travel back in time – not just to the 1950s, when it’s set, but also back to January 2020 when I flew to Los Angeles to watch filming and speak with the cast and crew. It was a fairly big trip; while I was there I also interviewed the director and cast of Wonder Woman 1984, went round The Walking Dead Attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood many, many times (yes, I screamed) and nerded out on the new Jurassic World ride. Then I nipped across to Canada to visit the set of Star Trek: Discovery. As you do. It was to be my…

american duty

SCI-FACT! In comics, Baron Zemo is one of Captain America’s greatest WW2 foes, but he never appeared in the original 1940s stories. NOW STREAMING ON DISNEY+, THE FALCON And The Winter Soldier sees Marvel’s Phase Four kick into political thriller mode. Red Alert speaks to writer Malcolm Spellman, director Kari Skogland and stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan about superhero fantasy in a fractured America… What was the biggest responsibility when you began writing this show? Malcolm Spellman: It starts with the last scene in Endgame and that’s a traumatising thing to step into. Like, “Hey, Mac, it all amounts to this one moment, go ahead, pick it up from here!” It took me a second to shake off the jitters about that. You walk into the Marvel offices and there are statues…

digital witch

WHISPER IT QUIETLY LEST traditional Japanese animation fans get wind, but Ghibli, the Tokyo-based studio behind such acclaimed hand-drawn classics as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle, is going digital. Earwig And The Witch is its first completely CGI movie, and while some purists consider this the biggest cultural betrayal since acoustic folkster Bob Dylan strapped on an electric guitar, for others the question is not so much “Why?” as “Why has it taken so long?” Director Goro Miyazaki, son of the studio’s legendary creator Hayao Miyazaki, is all too aware of Earwig’s status as a significant, if controversial, stepping stone for the studio. “I actually worked on a TV series with a different studio – Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter. That was [Ghibli producer] Toshio Suzuki’s suggestion. He…

aerial assault

SCI-FI TV ROUND UP → Altogether ooky! Tim Burton directing and producing live-action Wednesday Addams series for Netflix. → HBO Max developing young John Constantine show. → Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors in the frame for Gordon Hemingway And The Realm Of Cthulhu at Netflix. → The Terminator to be reborn as an anime series, showrun by The Batman writer Mattson Tomlin. → Theo James and Rose Leslie star in Steven Moffat’s adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife. → Amazon developing GI Joe spin-off on Lady Jaye. → Halle Berry starring in SF adventure The Mothership for Netflix. → The Powerpuff Girls gets a liveaction sequel at The CW, which is also rebooting The 4400. → Animated action-comedy Transformers heading to Nickelodeon. → Chiwetel Ejiofor inheriting the Bowie role in The Man Who Fell To Earth for Paramount+. → Ron Moore creating…