Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, and Science Fact (ICYMI April 6, 2024)
“In Case You Missed It” is a roundup of the news and stories in faith, culture, and entertainment over the past week that you might have missed, with some context that we hope you’ll find thought-provoking or interesting.
Welcome to the second edition of ICYMI, covering the week ending April 6, 2024! This one is packed full of science fiction and science fact, so let’s get to it:
In this case, we missed it. The Hugo Awards, which are given by the World Science Fiction Society to honor outstanding works of science fiction, released their slate of 2024 nominations right after press time for the last issue of ICYMI. Notable nominees include a comic book adaptation of Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the breathtaking Miles Morales animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It also features a very crowded TV category, a cage match with two episodes of Doctor Who (“The Giggle” and “Wild Blue Yonder”), two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody,” and the Lower Decks crossover “Those Old Scientists”), the finale of Loki (“Glorious Purpose”), and “Long, Long Time,” the episode of The Last of Us which features Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett’s post-apocalyptic romance.
Star Trek: Discovery kicked off its final season on Thursday, with episodes 1 & 2 of season five hitting Paramount+ and episode 1 making its way to YouTube to watch for free in the United States—but only for a week.
With Discovery Season 5 showing up, an impressive pair of Hugo nominations, Sweden being welcomed to NATO with the First Contact theme song, and “First Contact Day” on Friday, it’s been a pretty big week for Trek.
The Galaxy Far, Far Away gets a little bit darker next month. Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee find your lack of faith disturbing. Probably.
The Matrix 5 has a story, a writer, and a director; and none of them have the last name Wachowski. There’s also still no news as to whether the cast of the 1999 genre-bending blockbuster or its three sequels are interested. Drew Goddard (The Martian and The Cabin in the Woods) is currently attached to write and direct.
While a fifth Matrix film was the big news, a whole raft of sequel and adaptation headlines hit this week—a trailer for the upcoming adaptation of John Green’s Turtles All The Way Down was released, Sam Raimi denied rumors that a Spider-Man 4 film was in the works (though he’s into it if Tobey Maguire is), Denis Villeneueve is reportedly already signed on to do Dune 3 because of course he is, and Legally Blonde is getting a spinoff series at Amazon MGM with Reese Witherspoon’s involvement.
Emmy award winning Julia Garner, best known for Ozark, will join Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Silver Surfer in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four, which is helmed by WandaVision director Matt Shakman and slated for July of 2025.
She’ll be playing the role of the Silver Surfer, which immediately got the word “woke” flying around. But she’s not portraying a gender-swapped version of Norrin Radd; rather, she’s portraying Shalla-Bal, a character introduced to the comics in 1968.
Marvel also launched a bit of a treasure hunt on Thursday (4/4, yes, that’s very clever) which ended in a free Fantastic Four comics bundle that may shed some light on the direction the upcoming film will be going.
And if you want more Marvel, check out Madeleine Roux’s novel What If…Loki Was Worthy?, which also came out this week.
If you hadn’t heard, there’s an eclipse coming up! This coming Monday afternoon (April 8), an eclipse will sweep across the United States from Texas to Maine. Some people have cooked up a bit of a conspiracy theory about it, though; so, as a theology fan and an astronomy fan, I took some time to debunk the worries.
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Enjoy the eclipse! Don’t forget to protect your eyes!
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