The embarrassing mess that is Netflix's The Witcher (see below) has been given a welcome reprieve as production of season four (originally planned for September) is on hold until 2024. As RDI speculates, this is probably due to the writer and actor strikes, but it serves as a welcome pause which could allow Netflix to just let it die. No one is excited about the Netflix show anymore and with Cavill leaving, there's nothing to retain the casuals who have survived the incoherence to this point.
George R. R. Martin's HBO deal (2021) has been suspended. I think most of the projects proposed would never see the light of day anyway, but this suspension is unrelated to that and more about the strike. What I don't believe is that he's working on book six of Game of Thrones (cf on his general bullshitting on that account)--I've long thought Martin gave up on finishing the series, which he hopelessly complicated and derailed with the fourth and fifth books. He's allowed himself to become a fanboy of his own content, hopelessly lost in the imagined histories about events whose outcomes are already known.
Barbie and Oppenheimer have had soft drops for their second weekends, meaning they are both smash hits in terms of box office (helped, to be fair, by having almost no competition). Barbie will catch Guardians 3 for second place this year (I don't think it can reach Super Mario's number), while Oppenheimer could roll past Little Mermaid to 6th this year (yes, that's how dismal the box office has been). Oppenheimer's success doesn't mean much of anything beyond more blank cheques for Christopher Nolan. The Barbie result is more interesting to me, because (some) conservatives attempted to Bud Light the film because of how they saw its messaging, but 'won't someone think of the children!' has only ever had a Streisand Effect so I'm curious what lessons, if any, they learn from this (the same goes for the industry, which has been trying films and shows like this for years but with little to no success).
Angry Joe is about as milquetoast of a critic as you could get for film and TV (cf). However, he, like parts of the mainstream media, has either hit a breaking point or (more likely) seen enough backlash that he's finally put the breaks on praising all of it. Joe has dunked on Witcher season three as well as the unwatchable Secret Invasion. Your reaction might be, hey, they were just bad shows, but that doesn't normally stop Joe, as he went to bat for She-Hulk among other thing. This is only interesting as a barometer of a cultural shift I've been seeing for awhile--one that hasn't impacted what's being made, but is killing much of what is.
A little over a year ago there were rumours that Kamala Khan creator Sana Amanat was going to be quietly removed from Marvel due to MeToo allegations. That clearly has not happened, which suggests any consequences Amanat faced (if any) did not impact her career. I don't know if these accusations are true (they were never tried in court), but as with sexual assault it's uncommon for women to face the same kind of penalties as men (even when their victims are also women, ala Joey Soloman, cf, or the better known Amber Heard situation).
This article was written by Peter Levi
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