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Geoff Johns Talks Stargirl’s Season 2 Villains at NYCC 2020

The first season of Stargirl ended with a bang as the JSA took down the majority of the Injustice Society, but the final moments of the season hinted at the villains we’ll see the team tangling with in future episodes. Showrunner and Stargirl creator Geoff Johns talked about those villains at at a New York Comic-Con 2020 virtual panel for the show to give us an idea of what’s to come. Spoilers for the end of Season 1 follow.

After Stargirl/Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) and her friends took down Icicle (Neil Jackson), Brainwave (Christopher James Baker), Dragon King (Nelson Lee) and left Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins), Tigress (Joy Osmanski), Solomon Grundy, and the Gambler (Eric Goins) in the wind, the Dragon King’s daughter Cindy was all that was left of the ISA at the end of season 1. But in the final moments, a shadowy figure appears in the ISA headquarters while Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy) digs an ominous-looking gem out of storage. These are Season 2’s big bads: The Shade and Eclipso. We don’t know much yet about how they’ll figure into future episodes, but Geoff Johns is excited to say the least.

“[Eclipso] is so terrifying; I’ve always loved the character and you guys probably did a little bit of research,” Johns said to the Stargirl cast members also attending the panel. “But he’s a very different antagonist or villain than the ISA.”

“We’re just starting to cast him,” Johns continued. “I’ve got these wonderful designs from [costume designer] LJ Shannon. You know what he’s gonna look like, but it’s such a different, darker, scarier threat. The threat of Cindy’s one thing, and she’s got the black diamond and we’re going to obviously explore that. The thing inside it, this entity that’s trapped–this ancient being that feeds off humanity’s own sins and grief and fear and darkness.”

Johns hinted at some of the conflicts that will arise from this character, explaining that he has a history with the original Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite, as well as the rest of the JSA, and that it will take the show’s characters to “a place that’s going to be tough for them to explore.”

The Shade is another threat altogether, and Johns said that he’ll be a main character in Season 2. The Shade is an immortal that’s been around for hundreds of years and keen-eyed viewers will have seen his glasses in the background of the ISA’s mural. We missed, though, that he also appeared in Stargirl’s pilot episode as an inky-black hand grabbing the original Dr. Mid-Nite and pulling him into darkness.

“[That shot from the pilot] is his power,” Johns explained “Pat (Luke Wilson) will tell Courtney at some point that he’s the most powerful of them all. And he’s very threatening because no one knows exactly what he wants.”

That makes villains like Brainwave and Icicle look like small fries by comparison. Stargirl Season 2 is currently early in production, but will be a CW exclusive for its second season, most likely sometime in 2021.

Here’s Why Netflix Cancels Shows So Quickly Now

When Netflix first started airing original series, the platform only had a handful to its name and there was actually a mild running joke about how the streaming giant didn’t cancel things. In fact, aside from Eli Roth’s Hemlock Grove, which still lasted three seasons, the site’s acclaimed shows House of Cards and Orange is the New Black both lasted six and seven seasons, respectively.

Things changed for the company a few years later when the heavily-hyped and massively-produced Marco Polo got an unceremonious axe after two seasons. Then the hammer fell on Bloodline, The Get Down, The OA, and many more – to the point now where, if you aren’t Stranger Things, which is Netflix’s biggest breakout hit of all time, you probably won’t go more than two or three seasons. Four, if you’re very lucky. Sure, the numbers are great for recent entries The Witcher and Umbrella Academy (which still hasn’t gotten a Season 3 renewal, by the way), but once those numbers start to decline or flatten, in the slightest, it could be curtains.

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In 2020, Netflix canceled Altered Carbon, I Am Not Ok With This, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, V Wars, Messiah, and many more while also announcing final seasons for Ozark, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (a huge initial hit), Dead to Me, and The Crown.

Obviously, there are a few logical reasons for why Netflix now seems to cut shows’ lives extremely short. One is that they have far more original series than any other studio so it stands to reason they’d have more cancellations. But Netflix – which barely promotes most of its shows as dozens land per month on the site with little to no heralding – also doesn’t seem to be at all invested in giving shows a chance to grow. A recent Wired article, however, digs a bit deeper into why the biggest streaming service in the game is now in the business of pulling the rug out from most of its shows after only a couple of seasons.

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Plainly put, the first reason a Netflix show gets canceled is a traditional one. It’s “based on a viewership versus cost of renewal review process, which determines whether the cost of producing another season of a show is proportionate to the number of viewers that the show receives.” This is like any other streaming service or network, really. But this is also where the audience, no matter how much we love a show, or recognize the fervor of the show’s fandom, have to take Netflix’s word for it because the company doesn’t release ratings numbers.

The second way Netflix decides if a show will continue is based on some viewership data points. Specifically, it “looks at two data points within the first seven days and first 28 days of a show being available on the service. The first is ‘Starters’, or households who watch just one episode of a series. The second data point is ‘Completers’, or subscribers who finish an entire season.”

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So the bulk of Netflix’s decision-making is based on data from the first month of the show season’s life. It’s crucial. The final metric is Watchers, which “is the total number of subscribers who watch a show.” Netflix, which employs a “cost-plus model, which means that it pays a show’s entire production costs, plus a 30 percent premium on top” is even more wary when it comes to possibly losing money – despite its reputation for throwing gobs of cash at the likes of Ryan Murphy ($300 million for five years), Adam Sandler (most recently $275 million for four more movies), and Chris Rock ($40 million for two specials).

But, as Tom Harrington, an analyst at Enders Analysis, states, shows on Netflix “are more expensive after season two and even more expensive after season three, with the premiums going up each season.”

“They have to give [a show] more money per series, and if they decide to recommission it, it becomes more expensive for them to make,” he says. “Because of that, so many more shows are cancelled after two series [seasons] because it costs them more.”

Now here’s one more thing to consider, and it’s totally tethered to the subscription streaming model. As Deadline explains, “if a show hasn’t grown significantly in popularity over seasons two or three, then Netflix thinks that it’s unlikely to gain any new viewers.” So when a show stops growing, in viewers and/or pulling in new subscribers — and that doesn’t necessarily mean dropping, it can just mean plateauing — then Netflix doesn’t see a reason to keep it. So a show could be acceptably popular, and hold a large fanbase, but if it’s lost its initial swell, and doesn’t bring in new eyes, it’ll be gone.

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Note: This story has been updated to include a video version.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Gal Gadot Playing Queen of Egypt in Cleopatra Movie

With Wonder Woman 1984 now, still tentatively, scheduled to be released in December, star Gal Gadot has signed on to play the lead in Cleopatra, which will once again team her with the director of both Wonder Woman films, Patty Jenkins.

After some squabbling over the rights (reportedly between Apple, Universal, Warner Bros. and Netflix), the project landed at Paramount and, per Variety, will star Gadot as the legendary queen of Egypt. Gadot will follow in the steps of Oscar-winners Claudette Colbert and Elizabeth Taylor, who both once played big screen versions of the role.

Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Alita: Battle Angel) will write the screenplay.

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Meanwhile, all the delays to Wonder Woman 1984, which was supposed to release last June, have fans even more curious about the story, which features villains Maxwell Lord and Cheetah. If you’re looking for more info on Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal, head here. And likewise if you need a brush up on Cheetah, played by Kristen Wiig, you can check that out here.

Plus, check out our explainer on how Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor is back for this movie after dying in the first Wonder Woman film.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Daily Deals: Early Walmart Discounts Live Ahead of Prime Day Event

It seems Walmart was not content to wait for the Prime Day event to try listing their own sales and instead has started putting up some great deals ahead of time. Beats Headphones, Samsung TVs and more are already listed and ready for purchase at their discounted price, with more products to come. Of course, we have more than just that today to offer, as Amazon has a sweeping sale on Nintendo Switch games and Dell continues to impress with their lineup of RTX 3000 equipped PCs.

Deals for October 11

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Video Game Deals

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Early Amazon Prime Day Deals

For more details, check our What to Expect for Amazon Prime Day 2020 article.

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Hulu’s Animaniacs Pay Homage To Jurassic Park In New NYCC 2020 Clip

Animaniacs was such a singular thing during its first run that it’s hard not to worry about the upcoming reboot, which is coming to Hulu on November 20. But if the first clip, shown at this year’s virtual New York Comic-Con event, is anything to go by, we’re in for a good time.

This first clip picks up right where the show left off and, appropriately, parodies something from the ’90s that’s in the middle of a revival, Jurassic Park. Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler gape in awe at the re-animated Animaniacs, commenting on the siblings’ vectored lines while Stephen Spielberg explains that he re-animated the Warner Brothers (And the Warner Sister).

Spielberg was apparently quite involved in getting the remake going. The cast discussed the casting decisions during the panel, explaining that Spielberg said, “If we do this, it’s with Tress, Jess, Maurice and Rob,” and not with Peter Dinklage as the Brain and Russel Brand as Pinky or something like that. Spielberg went to every pitch himself, they explained. If anything should inspire confidence that Animaniacs is more than just a cash-grab rehash, that might be it.

Animaniacs re-animates on Hulu on November 20.

Monster Hunter Featurette Compares Movie’s Monsters To Game’s

The upcoming Monster Hunter movie has drawn some worried looks from fans for not appearing to have much in common with its source material, but in a new featurette, director Paul W.S. Anderson sat down with the games’ creators to show them how the film is striving for accuracy. This includes pulling a few monsters directly out of the games.

Game director Kaname Fujioka and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto were both involved in the process, and Anderson said the Diablos monster was one of the first they started dialing in. As you can see in the comparison shots, the design is very similar to the one in Monster Hunter World, with the same tusks on either side of the mouth and enormous teeth in the middle. The horns have been somewhat straightened out, but it’s a relatively minor difference.

The Rathalos was given a similar treatment, and it looks like it will serve as one of the biggest enemies Milla Jovovich’s character faces in the movie. Despite an early teaser focusing heavily on machine guns, the movie will feature traditional Monster Hunter weapons, too. Jovovich will be using dual blades to match what she uses when she plays the game, and Tony Jaa’s character uses an enormous sword and a bow.

The husband-and-wife team of Anderson and Jovovich have been collaborating for nearly two decades, having worked together on the live-action Resident Evil films, as well.

Monster Hunter is currently planned to release in theaters this December. The game franchise isn’t slowing down, either, with both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2 coming to Nintendo Switch in 2021.

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