Fandom Pulse

Christopher Nolan, on his $250M adaptation of The Odyssey, to Stephen Colbert: "It's really for people who haven't read it and don't know anything about it." Rumored cast: trans man Elliot Page as Achilles. Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Medieval plate armor on Bronze Age giants. "Daddy" in the dialogue. American accents on ancient Greeks. Elon Musk: "Chris Nolan has lost his integrity." Homer survived 2,800 years without help being accessible. Nolan's solution was to make the film for the people who never tried. Does this describe a director who respects what he's adapting?

Peter Jackson says he's negotiating for the rights to some of JRR Tolkien's other works like The Silmarillion: “Combination of Warner’s and us have been talking to the younger Tolkien members about the possibility of actually licensing some of the rights to the other books” Christopher Tolkien opposed this and refused to even meet with Jackson after the filming of The Lord Of The Rings. Should he leave well enough alone?

Th official James Bond novel On His Majesty's Secret Service frames a room full of men with no diversity quotas as a sign of villainy, placing conservatives and anti-vaxxers among the villain's hired coup plotters. Is this the James Bond Ian Fleming created?

Marvel Comics announced the Midnight Universe this week: horror reimaginings of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, launching August through October 2026. Editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski cited the New Universe and Ultimate Universe as precedents. Both of those lines are dead. Is Midnight Universe a legitimate creative swing or a market share panic move after DC took the top spot?

The Boys is finally ending this week. Pop culture commentator Byl Holte on the show: "Homelander ordered troops into every sanctuary city. He signed an executive order banning abortion. He made breast-feeding mandatory. He outlawed nut milk. And he disbanded Congress. So I have to ask… how exactly is this guy the villain again?" Are people watching this show wrong?

Pedro Pascal, star of The Mandalorian and Grogu, on Trump's deportation policies: "I want people to be safe and to be protected, and I want very much to live on the right side of history. I am an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile. We fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the U.S. after asylum in Denmark. If it weren't for that, I don't know what would have happened to us. I stand by those protections always." Does a Star Wars hero's politics affect whether you buy a ticket?

Felicia Day's The Guild Movie Kickstarter prelaunch now has over 11,000 people signed up. Are you going to be backing this?

The Odyssey Christopher Nolan once refused to use his films to push political messages despite pressure from friends to do so: "I've had conversations with friends of mine and they all ask about why I don't make a film about the things I care about politically, and I always say, 'Well, because it doesn't work.' You can't use narrative to tell people what to think. It never works. People just react against it. You have to be neutral or objective in your approach. You can't tell people what to think, you can only invite them to feel something." What happened with The Odyssey?

Jordan Brewster calls for an all female Fast & Furious movie: "We could do a female spinoff for not that big of a budget. It could be down and dirty and fun. I think it would great." Why do women try to take action films and turn them feminist?

George R.R. Martin called out every screenwriter in Hollywood who thinks they can improve on the source material by name. "It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, J.R.R. Tolkien... No matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and 'improve' on it." Did GRRM write this about everyone in Hollywood or specifically about what HBO did to Game of Thrones?

Movie critic Jonathan Sim slams The Mandalorian And Grogu: "TheMandalorianAndGrogu is one of the weakest Star Wars movies. An emotionless, predictable experience that doesn't push Din Djarin anywhere interesting. Dull, unexciting fight scenes; just CGI monsters. Action figures mashed together. A long, colorless made-for-TV movie." Is this what you expect from the movie?

Peter Jackson says he's legally allowed to do whatever he wants with The Lord of the Rings: “We’re legally allowed to adapt anything from The Lord of the Rings books. Now, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has got these big appendices at the end. Fifty or 60 pages of Tolkien’s notes, background on characters and stuff that’s not in the actual novel but is tacked on at the end. Little side stories, embellishments, enlargements — and part of ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ is described in that. Gollum’s childhood and how he became what he was. Him trying to get to the Shire, and the Rangers tracking him down. He ends up being captured and taken to Mordor — it’s all in the appendices.” Should The Hunt For Gollum and a Stephen Colbert movie be done just because it's legal to do so?

Pedro Pascal, at the London premiere of Marvel's Thunderbolts in April 2025, weeks before calling JK Rowling a "heinous loser": Pascal skipped the formal red carpet dress code entirely, showing up in a baseball cap and a white T-shirt reading "Protect the Dolls," a pro-transgender slogan from designer Conner Ives whose proceeds go to Trans Lifeline. He wore the shirt. Then he called Rowling a heinous loser. Then he went back to work for Disney. Does Disney have a double standard on which political statements are acceptable from its stars?

It's George Lucas's 82nd Birthday. What do you think he's thinking about what they've done to Star Wars?

Detective Comics writer Ram V says he stands with readers who pirate comics over corporations squeezing profit: "So, my only real choice is do I give the benefit to a readership that may pirate but may also go on to support my work? Or an industry whose primary interest is to squeeze profit from it for itself?" "I'll pick a fellow reader over a company any day. Perhaps in solidarity with that little anarchic comic heart. Go ahead, read 'em where you can. Hopefully the stories stay with you. Hopefully, when you can, you'll own a copy. I'm good. I'm happy." Is this based?

Sci-fi writer Dan Simmons calls Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek "fascist": "Now, I’ve been known to say unkind things in public places about the Star Trek universe—calling Star Trek: The Next Generation the “Neutered Generation” in one guest of honor speech, for instance, or admitting in an interview that I saw Gene Roddenberry’s much-loved vision of the future as essentially fascist." Is the Federation fascist?

D&D Enthusiast Kevin Lamb calls out Star Wars: Andor for having the wrong tone: "I don't know who needs to hear this, but Andor's grim portrayal of homicidal rebels was dumb. Screw Luthen, Saw Gerrera, and Andor himself. Star Wars is a fairy tale. The good guys are good. Han in ANH and Lando in ESB is as gray as they get (which is to say, not very.) To say that the ends justify the means misses the entire point of Anakin's fall." Is he right about this show?

Streamer Pokemaine announces "it's my birthday" as she turns 30. How did she make it this far with a streaming career?

A fan stood up at Worldcon 2025 and publicly told George R.R. Martin to hand The Winds of Winter to Brandon Sanderson to his face, on a panel. Sanderson's response from the same panel: "Not me." The audience booed the question. Robin Hobb, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Ryan Cahill all defended Martin. Brandon Sanderson wanted no part of it. Martin left the stage. Why does the industry continue to sweep for him?

Peter Jackson says ‘THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM’ was inspired by Joaquin Phoenix's ‘JOKER.’ “The way that explored the Joker’s psychology while it was telling a story. We’ve got the story that’s in the appendices, and we’ll tell that story, but we’ll tell it from an internal Gollum perspective.” Was this a bad idea to even start to make this film?

Absolute Batman writer Scott Snyder admits Marvel and DC Comics sales are dying: "The comics economy today... really doesn't allow for making very long runs with slow development profitable at all." "I don't know if it's a consequence of streaming." If a comic can't even last 12 issues, how can these companies keep framing them as successes?