So it’s struck me lately, since I started writing this blog thing, that any specific blog post is sort of based in a particular period of time and, as such, can get out of date.   There’ve been a few updates lately on things that I’ve talked about, so I figured it might be worth taking a look at some of them…

Star Wars addresses the Leia problem…

It’s now been announced that Leia will not be appearing in the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode Nine, so we can presumably rule out recasting or any sort of digital resurrection of Carrie Fisher.    They’ve not, as yet, explained anything about how they might handle her absence.    I don’t entirely know how to feel about that – it’s hard to imagine how they could just drop the character entirely – but, to be honest, there really wasn’t a good solution to this one.

Really, DC?

So, in my original post, I expressed a degree of concern that those in charge of the DC cinematic output may not have a particularly well-drawn up plan in mind right now.   Central to this concern was the sheer number of movies that they appear to have in the pipeline; I drew up a tally of those that appear to be in active development and it came to a rather staggering sixteen films aiming to come out in the next four or five years.   I felt that it might be something of a wise move to settle down a bit, narrow their focus and address the problems that they’ve had so far.

So they’ve announced another couple of movies, both of them featuring supporting characters from the Batman mythos.   The first is Nightwing, with Dick Grayson, the original Robin, as the lead character – after years as sidekick, he eventually chooses to strike out on his own and adopts the name Nightwing.   The second focuses on Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara who takes up the cape to fight as a vigilante in her own right – Joss Whedon is reportedly taking on the movie, and it certainly seems like his sort of territory.

Honestly, I don’t know how many of these movies will ultimately make it to the screen.   Likely most of them will and, hopefully, some of them will be good.   But I’m still not encouraged that DC appear to be spending a lot of time focusing on quantity, when, right now, quality might do them more good.

Split / Unbreakable sequel announced…

M Night Shyamalan’s latest movie was, for me, a pleasant surprise, both in itself and in its last-minute surprise tie-in to one of his earliest movies, Unbreakable.   Since then, Shyamalan has now announced that his next movie, to be titled Glass, will be the third movie set in that universe, with Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy all reprising their roles.    Scheduled for release in January 2019.    And I’m actually looking forward to it…