The 2024 Hype Draft
02:05:53 Share

Did Don Draper really buy the world a Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? Were those guys really in hell the whole time, or was that just the audience? The finales of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy.

From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Each episode, a guest and I will choose a celebrated series from history, from the 70s to the streaming era and beyond, and do a deep dive on its very last episode. Was it all a dream? Did it turn into a nightmare? And most importantly, what can we learn about tomorrow's new shows from the way yesterday's ended?

TV is a journey. I hope you'll enjoy this podcast about the destination. Starting January 17th, find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the Prestige TV feed, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll love Apple Card. It's everything a credit card should be and more. Earn up to 3% daily cash back on every purchase, which can automatically earn interest when you open a high-yield savings account through Apple Card. Apply for Apple Card in the Wallet app.

Subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Apple Card and savings by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Member FDIC. Terms and more at applecard.com. This episode is brought to you by Experian. I don't know if you've ever looked in your subscriptions on your phone and noticed that you had like four or five subscriptions. Maybe you didn't realize you were still paying for, or maybe you got some email for something and you're like, I thought I canceled that. Well,

This is what happens. These days, anyone could be missing out on savings from subscriptions they've totally forgotten about. It's not just the ones you forgot to get rid of, it's the ones that they have better deals. And that's where Experian comes in. It's like a personal assistant for your subscriptions. It can cancel over 200 plus subscriptions in categories like streaming services, meal kits, entertainment apps, and more. You could save an average of $270 per year

Plus, they'll even let you know if your provider offers you a better deal to stick around. Find out how much you could save by downloading the Experian app today. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed, $207 a year average. Estimated savings with one plus cancellation. Paid membership with connected payment accounts required. See Experian.com for details. This is a form of power that our world has not yet seen.

Greetings, and welcome to House of R.

The Ringerverse Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin, and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only to our newish House of R podcast feed, but also to our second annual House of R Hype Draft. As always, joining me today, letting me know that our fellow drafters were in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died. It's my House of R.

Permanent title. Permanent title. Co-host, New York Times bestselling author of MCU, The Reign of Marvel Studios.

Joanna Robinson. Okay, I promise I'll stop now. I had to get one more in. I thought our New Year's resolution was we weren't doing that anymore. I just can't help it. It brings me joy. Brings me joy. Secondarily, how dare you spoil my number one draft choice of Madam Web? I know. We try not to tip the picks. I can't believe you would put my web agenda out there. Just tweet it out. Sometimes it's impossible. Wow. Okay. Joe? Yeah.

The 2024, the house of our hype draft is the second annual. And because we love tradition, we love friendship. We love ocean vistas. I'm not sure if the third is applicable today, but the first two definitely are. We're getting last year's hype draft band back together. My sons never show mercy. It is.

button mash host Ben Lindbergh and big picture host and ringer draft daddy Sean Fennessey. What's up you fucking clowns? What's going on? Thrilled to be back. When you want pure unrestrained hype, just sheer unbridled off the charts energy, you've got to call Ben Lindbergh and Sean Fennessey. That's right.

We're just, we're the best barometers of hype because we embody hype in everything we do. Yes. Oozing with Riz. That's what they say about both of us. You're like the Pat McAfee of culture podcasts. That's why you always podcast sleeveless with weights held out in front of you.

Bro, you have no idea. Wow. This is why this should be a video pod. Sean just splashed a bicep for us and all of you fuckers missed it. I get the gun show. Sorry to the rest of you. Nobody else bought tickets. Just you three. Did you learn what Riz meant on The Golden Bachelor? Is that where you heard that word for the first time?

And your wife explained it to you? It means being a wacky podcast host, right? That's what it means. Exactly. That's how it was explained to me in my dotage. Yeah, you're all caught up on the vernacular of the youth. Okay. Did you say in your dotage? Yeah. I love you, Sean. This is going to be a very normal podcast. I can tell already. I can tell already. We're going to run through the rules for the hype draft exercise shortly. But before we do, some very quick rapid fire programming reminders.

Ben, you're going to be back with a button mash on Monday. What would you like to preview for us there? Tell us what's coming. We've got a couple games to cover. We're going to be talking about Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown. I know you're all hyped for that. I'm sorry if I'm stealing that from your draft boards here, but we will be talking about Prince of Persia, probably the first big game of the year, and also The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Yeah, there's another version of The Last of Us Part II coming out. So if you haven't yet played it, you want to get a sneak peek of Season 2, which we will not be drafting today as it is not coming out in 2024. But this remaster is, so we'll be talking about that and some casting news. Exciting. Love it. How many Prince of Persia games have there been?

countless but there has not been one for more than a decade actually it's exciting not since Jake Gyllenhaal put his stamp on the character memorable film killed the franchise for several years but did that kill the game franchise as well I don't know that that was why I don't know that we can hang that on Jake but it couldn't have helped

Poor Jake. I love him. My precious Mysterio. Yeah, he's great. He is great. Sean, you're sort of the Mysterio of the Ringer Podcast Network.

What would you, our very own Quentin Beck, like to tease for us today in big picture land? It's just the podcast. It comes out twice a week. It's getting increasingly chaotic and weird, but we're doing our best to just keep making them. Unlike you. No, I mean, it's Oscar season, right? So we'll be covering whatever's going on with the cool people at the Academy and how they vote for things. And...

So cool. So normal. Yeah. Just very chill, exciting movies to hype up like the zone of interest, you know, just like classic IP like that film. So yeah, things are normal over there. Thanks for inviting me here to for a little change of pace. I appreciate it. Yeah. Sean had the, I think, sincere pleasure of in our first planning meeting of the new year, sitting across the Zoom screen from me, watching me read off of the notes app on my phone where I had chronicled all

all of the thoughts I had from the movies I caught up on over the holidays that I wanted to share with him. It was lovely. What was your favorite? Can you share with your house of our audience? Oh, past lives. I thought that was extraordinary. Just absolutely exquisite. What have we texted? Number two, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They am a fucking amazing movie. What have we, what have we texted? Joanna and I traded a number of texts about past lives and also Margaret. No. A lot of texts about Margaret. What's the most important text exchange? Well, we've been texting, I,

I'm not sure if the public is ready for our salt burn commentary. No, they don't need to know what we've been talking about. Certainly salt burn. Salt burn has been an important part of our friendship. You've always been a bit of a bathtub mommy as I think about it now. So that movie has incredible Mallory energy, like insane off the charts Mallory energy. I know. I enjoyed my viewing experience. I actually think Poor Things has more Mallory energy, but she hasn't seen it yet. Oh, okay. Okay.

I really need to get on top of it. I can't wait. I'll make sure you're both on the Zoom with me when I read you my notes, app thoughts on poor things. Great. Ben, you're welcome to join too. Please. Thank you. Here in the House of R, we will be back with you on Friday for our latest deep dive into a television show that we are sincerely loving, Percy Jackson. We will be potting about episodes five and six this week. If you're not watching Percy yet,

Treat yourself. Catch up. Join us for the pod. It has been a blast. Genuinely great. Fantastic. Way better than it needs to be. Just genuinely. Aries spinoff when? I need it. So good. Okay.

The last programming reminder is always the spoiler warning. It's hard to do that today. We're obviously not going to spoil any plot particulars from the impending releases that we select today because we don't know anything that's going to happen in any of these releases. But we might mention germane aspects of a given fictional universe or franchise from a prior installment, if that's relevant. So, you know, spoiler warning for previous content in the Ringiverse universe. I think that's sort of all we need to say today in blanket fashion. Okay.

We're going to go through the draft rules now. They're going to be familiar to anybody who, wow, look at this appearance from Bug. You guys, you see Joanna's cat right behind her? Just ignore it. That was wonderful. Bug is ready to draft. Don't support her. Everybody listening will be familiar with the rules and as well as Bug. Bug is familiar with the rules because they're the exact same rules as last year. We loved it. We had a blast. We're keeping the formula. We are drafting as a quartet. It's the four of us.

We're going snake draft style. At some point in this podcast, who can say at what minute mark, Carlos will establish the draft order in real time. None of us know when we are picking. We will find out together. Chaos will ensue. The five categories are the same as last year. They are TV show, movie, animated, sequel, wild card. Five categories, four drafters, 20 total picks. What will get left off the board? I don't know. We'll find out together.

If you're wondering, yes, once again, a subsequent season of a television show is eligible in sequel. That was a rule we set last year. We're sticking with it. A number of possible selections will be eligible across categories. Part of the fun is deciding where you want to pick a thing. What is eligible for selection? This is going to be a little bit trickier this year than last year, I think. Time frame. Anything that is confirmed for a 2024 release or...

This might be the most operative sentence of the entire pod. Reasonably expected to come out in 2024 is eligible for today. What does reasonably expected to come out in 2024 mean when so many things got pushed and we're all trying to figure out the release schedule for the year in real time together? Who knows? You can pick something that you think is coming out this year. Your fellow drafters reserve the right to challenge you. We're going to have to kind of feel that out in real time.

I think one of my guesses is we're going to have a little more leeway here than we did last year because a lot of this is unknown. But if something is like decidedly 2025, there are reports saying it has been pushed to next year and you try to pick it for this year, you will be vetoed by your fellow drafters. Any nerd culture property is eligible. Genre fair.

Sci-fi, fantasy, superhero stories. If it is something that we could potentially podcast about in the ringerverse orbit, you can draft it onto your hype squad. And also any type of media is eligible. So there's going to be a lot of television, a lot of film. But Ben picked two video games last year. You can pick video games. You can pick a comic. You can pick a novel. Pick whatever you want. It's going out this year and you're excited about it. Feel free to pick it. When you make a pick, specify the release title and the category in which you are selecting it.

Any questions about eligibility categories, anything like that? No.

I have one, but if I by asking it, I'm revealing an interest. Ask it. Ask it when you make your move. Yeah. I think someone at some point, maybe all of us at one point, maybe some of us more than once will pick something that we have to talk through whether it's eligible and that'll be OK. That'll be part of the exercise today. Sean, if you want to tip your hand now and ask now, go for it.

No, I don't. I don't. In fact, maybe I don't even want that thing. So forget I said anything. Moving on. Will you reveal at the end of the podcast after nobody selected it what you were talking about?

I will. I promise that. Okay. We won't have to live forever in the mystery and suspense. That's a relief. What's the goal today, my beloved colleagues and pals? The goal is to have fun. The goal is to celebrate what awaits us on the content calendar. We are each seeking to assemble a hype-tastic roster of impending releases. The things that we're excited about, the things that we're anticipating. Maybe the things that are going to wind up being really good and really acclaimed, but this is not...

an attempt to predict eventual success or quality, which is an important distinction. Ideally, everything we talk about will wind up being good. But it's really about what hype means to you and what we are anticipating now, what we are collectively or individually really looking forward to finally watching, reading, talking about together. You only live in the hype while it's here. And then you have to actually deal with whether the thing sucked or not. So let's enjoy the hype while we have it. It's just then I find determining a winner so hard.

She says is one of last year's losers. But like, like, like if it's just about hype and not about the actual quality of the thing, then what are we voting for? Yeah. If you maintain that, that the quality is immaterial, then if there's huge hype and it ends up being massively disappointing. I don't think quality is immaterial, but I think there's a distinction between saying this is like a full on prediction of what stories at the end of the year will like stand the test of time. Part of,

presumably is that you think something is going to be good and meaningful, right? Like how often are you excited for something that you think is going to be dog shit? So it's not like completely irrelevant. Mally just doesn't want to be held to the fact that Mando season three was her first round pick last year. I feel pretty good about my overall roster last year. Your roster last year is good. It held up okay. It held up okay. Your roster is fine. Mando as your first round pick is just the most glaring. We didn't know.

We didn't know. Yeah. We're just, we're holding up our fingers to the cultural winds. We're assessing the zeitgeist, just how the culture is feeling currently. We can't predict how it will be feeling months down the road, right? What's in your heart. I think it does when we look back. I don't know how much you've gone back and studied your picks from last year to guide your strategy this year. I've done a lot of tape review on our performances from last year. What would you like to say about it? I did great.

First of all, and I'm shocked that Sean showed up again. Got a lot of nerve. Wow. After what you pulled. Who among us has seen the film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom? Because I have. I was there. I showed up to my local AMC and I watched the film to support James Wan and his creativity. Support your hype draft? I enjoyed the film. Yes. I supported my team. I supported the filmmakers I admire. I supported Patrick Wilson, whom I love.

We're doing great over here on my team. What would you like to say about Secret Evasion? Anything? Haven't seen it. Couldn't say.

Might have been great for Alshon Nose. I don't know. Oh, man. The ball is in the air. I like that Ben drew first blood because Joanna was making fun of me pre-record because I often make a declaration in this vein. But I really do. First of all, I think the nature of the hype draft is a communal celebration. So I think by the standard of a typical House of R Hype draft, this will be very chill.

celebratory. But personally, I am committed to just having fun, having a good time. You're going to see a different me today. This is my literally only resolution for 2000. No, actually, I have two resolutions for 2024.

Behave. Not on all drafts. Behave on the 2024 House of R Hype draft. Oh, just the one. And make a few doctor's appointments. Like get my eyes examined and things like that. That's it for the year. I'm so excited. Other than that, we'll see how it goes. Let's look at optometrists together. Okay, great. Yeah. Yeah, we're looking for some way to fill our time when we're together in a few days.

It sounds like we just figured it out. Great stuff. I love it. What else would we talk about if not optometry appointments? That's great. I'm so excited for you, Mallory. I don't know why you set yourself. I actually know what I support you. I believe you. And this is going to be true today. I am so excited. I was prepping for this. I'm like, you know what? Here's just a lot of stuff I'm excited to see. I know. You know what? It's like when I stay up late and I tell myself that's tomorrow Ben's problem, right? When he wakes up exhausted. When you stay up late. Well, yeah.

Later than usual. Sean and I have known you for more than a decade and you have

Two things are true. You have never not exercised at 3 a.m. And as a result, you have never been awake to respond to a message in the 9 to 10 a.m. window. That is true. Yes. When I stay up early, let's put it that way. There we go. Okay. I put it off as future me's problem. And I feel like that's what happens here with you. There's pre-draft mal and there's draft mal. And pre-draft mal can say that draft mal is going to behave, but then draft mal shows up and all bets are off. Yeah.

Yeah, usually I don't believe her, but I've decided to believe her today because it's a new year. It could be a new year. If not now, when? You know? And when I make a selection in a given doomed franchise and say, I believe in the capacity to change, I need to apply that in a meta sense. So I'm committed to that today. I stand by your dial of destiny pick last year. Great movie. I don't know what anyone else was seeing. Anyway. I think that we are aligned. Don't.

That movie ruled and I don't know what the hell is wrong with everyone. But in studying our draft boards last year, I noticed that nine out of our 20 collective picks were Marvel or Star Wars. How many would you guess we're going to be picking from those franchises this time? Because things are wide open, not only because of the strikes and the delays, but also because the two titans of last year's drafts, they're taking 2024 off, relatively speaking.

Yeah, this is one of the things I was excited to talk to you guys about. Without everybody tipping what's on their board, it does feel fair to say it's just going to be much more open and the picks will be distributed across streamers and IPs and franchises or non-franchises worldwide.

more widely than last year. That feels safe. And I think as a result, maybe less consensus heading in and like what the top 10, 15, 20 is. Right. Does that feel likely? Can I ask a qualifying question? Please. The TV show has to be new. Yes. Can we put sequels in the movie category?

Or does it have to go in the sequel category? Sequels can be... You can pick a movie in movie, sequel, wildcard. Wait, the TV series needs to be not the next season of a TV series? It can be.

Like my, yeah, my sequel pick last year. Oh, it can. So you're just saying, you're just saying, blah, blah, blah, season four can go in sequel. Yeah, my sequel pick last year was Loki season two, which I could have picked in TV, but I already picked Mando, so I put it in sequel. Okay, got it, got it, got it. I misunderstood the TV part and I got really worried because literally everything coming out next year is sequel. So I was like, what are we going to do? Yes, you could bleed across categories for sure. For sure, yes. I think last year, I,

I came to the show trying to operate in the spirit of the show. And so even though I had more or less realized that the Marvel investment that I had made as a human, me as a standalone person, had ceased to matter, that I was out,

I still drafted three Marvel things, one of which was great. Guardians 3, that movie rocks. So I have no regrets about that. The other two, like I said, didn't see Secret Invasion. Sounds like it wasn't very good. X-Men 97 was not released, unfortunately for me, even though I took it second overall. Which may or may not have been a mistake. Two of the top five picks last year did not come out last year. It happens. Yes, it was a chaotic year. See how supportive I'm being?

But I'm trying to figure out, like, when we sat down to do it last year, I didn't know that, like, John Wick 4 was eligible until you... Mal, you drafted, right? Yeah, you drafted. And when you drafted, I was like, is that allowed? Like, so... That was questionable at the time. We debated it. We talked about it, but I think we all agreed there's a healing factor at play. And a super soldier suit. But I'm just trying to figure out for myself, should I just go deeper into...

Yeah. House of R ringer verse, or should I be like trying to bend the rules a little bit? I think you should, I think you should, I think you should bend the rules. Cause this is actually like, this is the, this is the, the, the shit Lord year for, for,

for genre stuff. Like this is the time, like this is my time. Like the movies that are on the board, these are like, these are my comic book movies that I care about. We weren't going to invite you back until we realized that. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for seeing me. Sean, you're always invited. Every moment you're here with us is a joy. It's an honor to have you in the house of R. I love being picked on on all the pods that I do now. That's just my job is to just get picked on by all my colleagues. Yeah.

I remember us being very anxious about animation last year too. And that category turned out to be so stacked. I mean, that was the year of animation. Chris Ryan was watching animation in 2023. So we had no reason to be nervous whatsoever. I feel like that was more the product of it felt like there was such a clear leader in

in that category with Spider-Verse. Yeah, it was like, shit, if you don't get Spider-Verse, and less a reflection of the overall depth of the category, but it's an interesting observation, Ben, and I do wonder if the strength of the animated slate last year will have a bearing on how things shake out this year. Anything on the 2024-2025 timeline question that, or

Or just general release slate clarity or lack thereof that you want to talk through before we start? Obviously, some stuff has dates and then a lot of stuff is a very loose. We're expecting to see this this year. Is there anything anyone wants to discuss there or throw out on how that might impact? I think we should just I think you should take it case by case. I have a couple. They're kind of deep in my rotation, though, so it's not going to be a problem until it's a problem. Is everything back on the board?

Yes. Yes. Sadly, no carryover picks from last year. I pleaded to carry over Dune Part 2, but I was denied. Outrageous suggestion. Absolutely outrageous. Great pick by me. I got a full year of hype out of Dune Part 2. The hype is undiminished. Your year of hype might help someone else's roster this year. It's true. It happened.

Okay. Anything else looking ahead that anybody wants to flag? Any themes or patterns that anybody feels they could safely identify without tipping their hands? Or should we set the draft order? No. It was funny because I run trial by content. We did the big movie bet of the year, trying to pick the movie. And just genuinely, the sequel mania this year, more than any other year, as far as I can tell. So...

Let's do it. I'm going to say, I took two video games in last year's Hype Drafts. I'm going to limit myself to at most one this time. I couldn't help it. Wow. I stole Spider-Man 2 and Tears of the Kingdom. Your two picks last year were amazing, though. Yeah, it was a great gaming year. And you all have tied your hands behind your backs, the hands that you could be using to play these great video games. And...

I was well within my rights. I still would be, but it just seems unsporting somehow. So I've got games in my back pocket here. Maybe a wildcard pick at the end. We'll see how the draft goes. But we also now have a video game podcast on the Ringiverse. So I feel like I can get my hype out there. We already did our 2024 Hype Pod on Button Mash. If this is a strategic plug for Button Mash, I respect it. But if it's just that you're afraid to be you, Ben, you are in a safe space with people who love you. Follow your passions.

Pick whatever the fuck you want. Disagree. I'm going to dunk on you if you take more than one. Oh, man. All right. Should we set the draft order? Is it time? Let's do it. Carlos. Carlos, are you ready to set and reveal the order of the 2024 House of R Hype Draft? I am. It has been randomly generated, so I will be taking no complaints. Okay.

All right. So the first pick is going to be Joanna. The second pick will be Ben. The third pick, Mal. And the fourth pick, Sean. I had the third pick last year. Why does this keep happening? Wow. I will say. Do you remember how I was first pick last time and you remember how I just like did not make the most of that opportunity? So don't even like...

Okay. When you're first, you can take one wonderful thing off the board and then you just have to sit on your hands for like an hour. So I will say, and maybe again, maybe we don't all agree and that'll be part of the, the, what we discover very early here, but,

Not to make excuses early, I'll just say I feel there is like a clear top two. Then there's like, you can go a number of directions from there, but I would love to have a top two pick this year. There are a couple things I would really love to have. I also think there's a clear top two. But maybe not. I agree with you. We'll see. Okay, so it's Joanna with the number one pick. Ben with the number two pick. I have three. Sean has four. So, Sean, you'll be picking on the turn, and then we'll go back the other direction.

Everybody good? Everybody ready to roll? Yes. Joanna, take it away. I agree with Mallory. There's two clear, for our brand, two clear top two choices. And I will admit to being partially motivated by spite in terms of which one I'm picking. And so I will be taking Dune Part 2 off the board. Okay.

With love, all the love in the world to Ben, but also a little bit of fun. Brutal for Ben, who actually had a chance to get Dune back. He had a chance to get Dune back, and he can't have it. It's mine. I took great care of it for a year. It's yours now. Thank you. It's also my pick for the biggest movie ever on Trial by Content. So just brand strong across the board.

amassing the hype behind dune and something that ben said in slack and i completely agree with him is that the the delay has only allowed the hype to build further and of course timothy's wonderful performance in wanka um additionally only i just said that was for sean um was just terrible film a wonderful film everyone agrees except for sean um yeah

Are you taking this in movie or sequel? Oh, no. Great question. Let's just do movie. I'll put it in movie. A great question asked with respect and a gentle demeanor. I completely agree. Okay.

after already pointing out that there's a clear top two. And so if things happen to go south for you in this draft, it is a function of the draft order. No, I'll be very excited. I will be very excited about when I select it. Three. There's a lot of, I think there's a loaded field here. I just, you know, I think Joe said that there's like a, there's a house of our aspects. Yeah. Though I do honestly think that extends to the top three, that, that in particular, we'll get there when we get there. All right, Ben. Okay. You're going to take, take it.

Well, I agree that there is a clear top two this year. I think the choice comes down to Rebel Moon Part 2, The Scargiver. Yes, that's what we had in mind. And Rebel Moon Part 1, A Child of Fire, The Director's Cut. I've been torn between these two, but I've decided to leave them on the board for the rest of you. And I will be taking...

House of the Dragon season two. Yeah. And I'm sorry to do it to you. It's okay. I look forward to your incredible coverage of the show as I reap the rewards of having drafted it in my hype draft. I am despondent. You know what, though? I'm happy for both of you because I love you both and I love House of the Dragon and I love Dune. And here's the spin.

Not only do I get to select something at three, I don't even know if Ben was finished. I just started talking. Well, he hasn't said, but Ben, which category are you picking it in? Oh, great question. I think I will take it in sequel. Okay. Interesting. So you can draft the second season of a television series in sequel. You can. Yes, you can. Okay. What kind of a,

What kind of a chop shop are you running here, Mel? I don't understand this at all. Is it because you don't intend to select a television show even somehow inside of the television show category and you're outraged that we're giving people more ways to pick TV instead of movies? Is that what this is about? I'm contemplating that. I have some ideas. I have some ideas. But I don't really... As much as I really admire Joanna, I don't really support television in general.

Why am I the like rep for television on this show? You two podcast about television together? Yeah, you're a multi-TV podcast host. What's the one podcast where you don't get dunked on by your colleagues? It's the Prestige TV feed. It's honestly true. Where we talk about television. I will podcast with you for the rest of the time because your goal is not to humiliate me and I appreciate that. Correct. Oh boy. Okay.

I know what I'm going to pick. Despite longing for one of those top two, I actually think the number three is also pretty clear for me. And I have been spared the anguish of having to select between Dune and Hot D. I actually don't know what I would have done if I had gotten the number one pick. I think I would have been torn apart and just disintegrated in real time. It would have been like when Riptide goes through a monster on Percy. It just would have turned into confetti and that would have been that. So here I am intact and whole and ready to make my third pick. And I would like to do so in song.

This is for Joanna. Past eyes of pale fire, black sand for my bed. I trade all I've known for the hype draft with joy in my heart. I will.

This is a stunning pick, obviously, but it's very loyal to our podcast. And I appreciate that. I will be selecting the Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power season two, which is as House of our core as it gets. I'm going to select this in sequel. I'm going to select this in sequel. I'm going to I'm going to keep TV show open for later. They say the great philosophers of our time that alone, it's just a journey.

Now, adventures, they must be shared. And this is something that Joanna and I got to experience and live in real time together with season one. And so looking ahead to season two coming at some point later this year on Amazon, I'm assuming fall, possibly early winter, we had such a joyous time covering season one together. So not only am I excited for the next stage in the story, hot Sauron,

Mordor, Belching, Smoke, you know, the three elven rings have been formed. We've got to look forward to time with the stranger, our beloved Harfoots. What's going on with our guy, Isildur? The source of so many bits, as Carlos is reminding us, avion of it, lad. The rings of power will be back with our gal gal. I not only can't wait to see what's next in this world and to continue to see how they take these kernels away

of appendix canon and build an entire fully realized, rich, gorgeous, beautifully portrayed and rendered universe. So to look forward to that, to look forward to something that Joanna and I love covering together and that the house of our heads, the bad babies really love sharing with us. How could this not be my pick here? I dazzled. This is, this is, this is like one of the most like generous to our little show, um,

our little indie podcast that we put together and just a few people listen to, um, that you could be because yeah, this is house of our course, not necessarily broadly. Well, at least the beginning of it, but yeah,

I'm really excited for Rings of Power. At the end of the day, the listeners of this podcast will be the ones voting and I'm banking on that a little bit. Good job. Clever girl, as they say. I watched Rings of Power season one, liked it, looking forward to season two. I don't think this is my top Tolkien property on my draft board for this year. Just put that little tease out there. That's category dependent though, you know? I see what you're saying. I'll just say that wasn't on my board just

Just not something I was going to, I'll be checking out. No offense, Joanna. Again, I know, I know this is very important to you and I support House of R's coverage of that series, but we'll not be watching it. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. You know, for me, fitness has always been about finding that groove, whether it's hitting the pavement outside, which I've been allowed of, or dialing up a sweat session indoors.

Whatever it is, summer just amplifies that drive. It's the prime time season to level up your fitness routine. Peloton gets that. They've got programs that cater to every runner out there. Seriously, 457,000 members have worked out with their running programs. And especially in the summer, if it's super hot, you don't want to work out outside, stay indoors, hit the Peloton. So whether you're training for a marathon or just looking to improve your pace, they've got you covered with everything on the Peloton Tread, Tread Plus, or

or the Peloton app. It's like having your own personal coach with you or right at home in your living room. Call yourself a runner with Peloton at onepeloton.com slash running. This episode is brought to you by Experian. I don't know if you've ever looked in your subscriptions on your phone and noticed that you had like four or five subscriptions. Maybe you didn't realize you were still paying for, or maybe you got some email for something and you're like, I thought I canceled that. Well,

This is what happens. These days, anyone could be missing out on savings from subscriptions they've totally forgotten about. It's not just the ones you forgot to get rid of, it's the ones that they have better deals. And that's where Experian comes in. It's like a personal assistant for your subscriptions. It can cancel over 200 plus subscriptions in categories like streaming services, meal kits, entertainment apps, and more. You could save an average of $270 per year

Plus, they'll even let you know if your provider offers you a better deal to stick around. Find out how much you could save by downloading the Experian app today. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed. $270 a year average.

Estimated savings of one plus cancellation. Paid membership with connected payment accounts required. See Experian.com for details. This episode is brought to you by Alien Romulus, the scariest movie of the summer. Alien Romulus is now playing in theaters everywhere, including IMAX. This movie looks terrifying.

and I cannot wait to see it. Alien Romulus comes from Fede Alvarez, the director of intense horror movies like Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, and it is produced by the legendary Ridley Scott, the mastermind behind iconic films like Blade Runner and the original Alien. Can't wait for this one. Alien Romulus, rated R, now playing only in theaters. Get your tickets now.

Last year, Sean, you made a spite pick. You took Ahsoka solely to upset Mallory. Will you be bringing that energy to today's draft? No. I had already selected a Star Wars series, and so I was not going to take Ahsoka. No. I'm bringing...

I'm bringing a masculine energy to this podcast. That's, that's what I want you guys to know that hopefully all of my picks show the true 360 degree vision of me as a man. Um, my first pick will be Furiosa Mad Max saga, which is one of my Joe here. Yeah. Most anticipated movies of the year. Um,

I, of course, love all the Mad Max films. George Miller at the ripe old age of 114 directed this film. Australian legend that he is. This is the fifth Mad Max film and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth. It's a prequel to Fury Road. Some concern about the trailer. I'd just like to say to the listeners of House of R,

Relax. You watched a trailer on your phone. Just relax. It's going to be okay. The film will look magnificent. This is one of the great film artists of our time. I'm taking this film in sequel. I was going to ask if prequels slash spinoffs are eligible for sequel. Yeah, of course they are. Yeah. Okay. All right.

It's still a loose sequel to the Mad Max saga. Yeah. Who knows what's going on in the timeline of that saga? We don't actually know. Yeah, we don't actually know at this point because we don't even have Tom Hardy playing Max. No Max this time. Interesting that three of the top four picks were sequel picks given Joe's observation that it is an incredibly deep sequel field. Fascinating. Yeah, I have mostly sequels on my mind.

Yeah, that's what's on the board this year. Sean, can I ask you a quick question based on the only good part of Ocean's 13, which is like, do you think the nose plays on Hemsworth? How's that nose working for you? TBD, TBD. I think, I'm not sure about the state of Hemsworth in general. Like, where's he at as a performer? Yeah, what's going on? You can be extraction Hemsworth,

Or you can be Thor Hemsworth. Or you can be Disney Plus Nature Documentary Series Hemsworth. Or you can be Black Hat Hemsworth. So, like, which one of that quartet is he going for? He can do it all. I hope it's Lady Ghostbusters Hemsworth. That's my... You think that's what he's going to be playing in...

Yeah. Don't you think the tones match perfectly? Yeah. No, I think he's going to be Gonzo Hensworth. I'm really excited for this for him. I am too. It feels closest to Thor to me. So we shall see. I'm excited about that. Like to Ragnarok. Yes, to Ragnarok. To Ragnarok, yeah. No, to Love and Thunder, the best Thor film, obviously. Oh, Dark World. Bring that Dark World energy. Everyone loves that. Number one Dark World fan here on the pod, as I recall. Underrated film. Yeah.

Unfairly maligned. What's the, uh, what's the MacGuffin in Dark World? The Aether. Yeah. I hope you heard how it was spelled the way I said it. Um, anyway.

quality film. Okay. So for my second pick, I am taking a film that's going to be released on my birthday. This will be my 42nd birthday and I'll be celebrating as all 42 year old should, which is by watching the comic action stylings of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool three. Um, yeah, I'm selecting this for my movie. This is my movie pick. Um, I think that,

this is weirdly, and we've said this about every single Marvel release for the last 28 months, but this is the most make or break movie in Marvel history. It is though. It really is. Uh, if this movie is not good or fails to connect with box office fans, it's a huge problem. Um,

But you know what? I'm an avowed fan of the Deadpool franchise, despite kind of hating Ryan Reynolds. So this is a paradox of paradoxes. And I'm very much looking forward to this movie and also very curious to see if this is where they start a proper reset. It feels like they are now going to start a proper reset with this movie. What do you guys think? I don't know about proper reset, but I do know that they are...

leaning heavy on the nostalgia pedal. They're trying to recapture the No Way Home energy with this. And I think it's going to work. I think this is going to make them a ton of... I think if this fails, it's a disaster for Marvel. But I think even if it makes a gajillion dollars, sort of similar to Guardians 3, it's not necessarily a...

oh, the ship is steady again, you know, because this is a carryover property, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. It's kind of like Guardians 3, right? Where we said, oh, even if this is good, it's not really that reassuring for Marvel. But I think it's going to be big. And I think it's a good pick because we've kind of cleared off the blockbusters, right? The nerd culture movie blockbusters. That category is looking a little tattered right now, at least on my board.

No respect for Craven. Sad. Wow. Dismaying. Sean, I think it's a great pick. I would have taken it just now if you hadn't. So I have no notes on the selection. What a wonderful film franchise. I can't wait for this movie. I miss Deadpool movies. It's been too long. The Merc with a Mouth. That's also what we call Sean.

Sean's known for his direct-to-camera address. He loves to look right down the Zoom camera. Break the fourth wall. Yeah, exactly. And his enthusiasm for spandex. It's true. It's true. Okay. Number of ways that I could go here. I am going to be the first person to test the timeframe question. Let's just do it now. Let's do it now. Why not? We might as well have a shared experience on the calendar front together early. Okay.

Because I will be selecting my second round pick here on the turn, my television show. A small Netflix property just trying to see if people are interested in these little kids in Hawkins. Absolutely not.

They haven't started shooting it. Yes, they have. They put a photo up like that. The cast is advertising that they're in production. They have not shot it. No, they released season four in volumes, right? In chunks.

It is completely in the bounds of possibility that volume one of season five of Stranger Things is just one or two movie length installments. You don't think they could do that in 11 months? They've been working on these scripts for literal years. And there's an energy of anxiety around the time frame when you when you when you're reading quotes from everybody involved. They're like, we really got to get we really got to do this. We really got to get this out. I think they're going to push to make it happen.

What do you think? I don't. I think there are so many digital effects that they have to put on. Like the Vecna digital effects are going to take them forever. Like, no. It's a prosthetic suit. It's a prosthetic suit. It's ready from last time.

Yeah, I got to go against you here. I don't think it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt that it will come out in 2024, but I think it needs to be at least like preponderance of the evidence. And I think this is just such a big deal. There's the stakes, the hype. I mean, would be a great pick for you hype-wise. Yeah. People love straight-to-the-point games.

Finn Wolfhard said before the strikes, I think, that early 20s... He doesn't know. Even less than we're putting stock in Matt Smith's release date announcement for House of the Dragon. The actors don't always know the timelines. Finn Wolfhard does not know when Stranger Things Season 5 is coming out. Here's to the way. Hellfire Club math for you, okay? Now, granted...

pandemic, et cetera. Yeah. But season four. Pandemic math is like a whole nother, we can't go off that. Sure. Season four went into production in February, 2020. And the first episode aired May, 2022. Because they couldn't film because of the pandemic. That's not the same thing. For part of it.

for part of it. But pandemic delays did not delay other things that long. So I veto this. I love you. I veto this. I had to try. Like I said, I gave the preamble that I was expecting it to be a contentious discussion. Had to try. There's literally no downside to trying to pick one of these things that's not eligible. And if you had gotten away with it, it would have been a great pick.

Yeah, exactly. Had to be bold. Had to try. Okay. Stranger Things. Sean did not comment. I presume that Sean has not seen the last few seasons of Stranger Things and is not interested in discussing it. What is Stranger Things? Can you guys tell me what it is? Remember Barb? When she said little kids, she meant seven foot tall, fully grown adults. Well, I was going to say, like, is part of the reason the production is going to be so long is because they're using the Irishman de-aging technology on all the 48-year-olds in the cast? I think exactly. That was part of

my case for why they're in a hurry it's like they don't want what are they gonna do when they bring everybody for the premiere just double up and film the 20 anniversary special at the same time for like the hawkins crew you know they have to make sure all of joe curie's fargo hair is grown out uh for stranger things season five there's a lot of hair there we with some mousse and some spray we can get to we can get to steve harrington volume quickly is matthew modine still a part of the series

Yeah. Ish. Yes. Ish. Because I, you know, I watched the film Oppenheimer again recently and I was observing him and I was like, even he looks too old to be in Stranger Things anymore. Like in Oppenheimer, he looks like he's 75. That's not the character he's playing. Am I right? I would recommend Stranger Things, Sean. It's a great program. It's basically movies now, too. It's movie length. You might like that. That's even worse. One episode is 98 minutes. That makes me want to throw myself off a bridge. Terrible. Yeah.

Okay. Longer than 98 episodes or two hours. Yeah. Right. It was close last year. Yeah. It was bad. Come on, man. Get it together. Maybe the first time ever that we've had house of our podcasts that were shorter than the runtime of the thing in question. I'm not sure it's happened outside of that before or since. No. Okay. Uh, I appreciate you all engaging in that thoughtful discussion about the nature of time. Thank you. I will instead, uh,

be selecting my movie. And again, we discovered earlier when Sean was giving us the gun show that it's not a video pod, so nobody could see this. Otherwise, what I would do is I would put on really small little gym shorts in honor of the lead of this film, Paul Muskell, before selecting Gladiator 2. Let's go. I have to assume that this was on Sean's

I'm a man and we'll be picking manly movies. Is this nerd culture? I think this fits within myth-making, heroes rising. This is absolutely eligible in our universe. Come on. It's really borderline, but I will allow it. Covered fast in the Furious movies on Reverse Pods before this fits. I don't know.

I think this has to be eligible. This is complete nonsense. Honestly, what are you talking about? Gladiator is nerd culture? Gladiator is the opposite of nerd culture. It's a genre film and we dabble in all corners of the genre universe. And this is absolutely something that falls into the realm of studying how myths work.

are created and forged and then spread across our culture. And if that's not at the heart of the house of our experience, I don't know what is. Joanna nodded in agreement. She nodded hesitantly, I would say. I mean, I already, I can't, I can't, first of all, I can't like argue her down two in a row. And secondly, See, this is the master plan. I will pick stranger things.

The more she kicks off, the more she gets closer to picking something that I want to pick. You know what I mean? I don't want to pick Gladiator 2. So that we would veto and then we would feel bad about consecutive vetoes. No. This is the spot. This is Galaxy's brain. Speaking of Stranger Things, can you believe that Joe Quinn, Paul Mescal, and Pedro Pascal are going to be all in the same movie? And that Barry was almost in it. He's not in it. He's out.

Denzel I mean the cast of this movie is extraordinary and I cannot wait to experience this film in theaters November 22nd and then listen to coverage on the ringer podcast network I'm not gonna officially veto but like is Macbeth eligible like what else is on the board here

We talk about Shakespeare quite a bit. This is a big pod for the Bard. I would allow Macbeth. Sean, you said at the beginning that you wanted to test the waters of eligibility. I thought this would be right up your alley. Be the Mallory you want to see in the world, Sean. Just like, honestly, pick the most straightforward thing and make the argument. And I will probably support you.

I'm trying to think of what's a movie that's coming out this year that fits the bill there. I could just be like, I'm selecting the most straight down the middle drama and just making a case for it as you're not having genre elements. I'll figure one out. You can try. Can we draft Wolf's

Right. That's a great, great question. Yeah. The new George Clooney, Brad Pitt con man movie. Is that eligible? That's a genre. Well, it has wolves in it. And so does Game of Thrones. So there you go. Absolutely love a wolf. Sounds like we're allowing this. Is that where we landed? Yeah. I'm playing under protests. I mean, can I just say last night I was watching the Eagles Bucks game and

And there was a moment near the end of the game where the Eagles were lining up for a field goal and the Bucks went off sides. And as soon as they did it, I was like, they did that on purpose to kind of bully the Eagles into going for it on fourth and five. When they did go for it, they did not get it. That was you trying to take stranger things and then going for gladiator too. You just, as Ben pointed out, you just blink blinked us out.

Yeah, made us exasperated. Oh, yeah. Joanna is really nice and is your full-time pod partner, so can't start a war here. No, that is not our dynamic on drafts. No, no. Not at all. I really disagree. She would be the first to challenge me. It would be, it's the absolute reverse. She would have played Gladiator 2 and gone for Stranger Things 5. Stranger Things is way more hyped in the nerdverse than Gladiator 2.

Like, there's no way she would blow this gambit on Stranger Things and then pick up. It's not a gambit. It's just a selection of something I'm looking forward to. Me too. I love a myth. I don't think this is going to... I don't think people are as excited for Gladiator 2, and so I don't think it's something we need to worry about, is what I'm saying. Internet's boyfriend, you know? It's... Yeah, I'm not... I would say...

I would say that's the other thing with like the dearth of Marvel, Star Wars, Grogu's back, et cetera. I think last year I was like, what am I excited for? But also what do I think other people are excited for? Don't care this year. I'm like, what's on my heart? You know, I'm looking forward to Rings of Power. I am looking forward to Paul Pascal being in this film. And it's been, this movie has been in the works for, in some capacity, more than two decades. Yeah.

What a time in cinema to get together and watch Gladiator 2 together. I can't wait. No one's questioning the hype bona fides here. I'm hyped. Do you know what the original premise of the original Gladiator sequel was?

Tell me right now. It was written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, the musicians. And it was Maximus goes to hell and fights Satan. That was literally the idea. Now that sounds like a House of R film. I think this further cements that this is a property that is at home in our orbit. Thank you for that, Sean. You're welcome.

You are the ultimate arbiter of what's at home in the house of our orbit. But I will just say, as hyped as I am, this was not on my board. Maybe that's my failing. I should have freed my mind. Mallory, this means we get to cover Gladiator 2. Exactly. We can't wait to talk about it in November. You have to. It's great. I love this for us. Great news for us. If there is no House of R or Ringiverse coverage of Gladiator 2. Updating the planning doc right now. No, it's not. We went through this last year. This is not like...

Reggie Bush's Heisman. People retroactively lose their hype draft picks based on how something pans out. It is an in-the-moment exercise. If they did, Ben, you would have to forfeit your Last of Us pick. Exactly. Because we covered that on the Prestige TV podcast feed for some reason. Well, we did have an El Connery that dabbled on it here, so you might be able to help on. I hosted one, in fact. I think that qualifies. But Dune,

didn't come out last year. So you would barely have been able to bring yourself to show up today because of the shame of that. If that was how we approached it. I got a year's worth of hype out of that. Yellow Jackets was apparently a prestige show. Who's to say? Yes. But yeah, no, I think, I mean, look, you can take a John Wick. You can take a Fast and Furious. Those people are superheroes.

Maximus is not, right? I don't want to spoil the end of Gladiator 1 for anyone. Who's to know what's going to happen in Gladiator 2? It's a Lucius moment now. So we'll find out together. It's all about looking forward. Moving on. Ben, what are you picking? Lodging a protest with the commissioner. I am taking the boys.

A show that I'm confident will come out this year and it's a nerd culture show. I will be taking it in TV show because I already drafted my sequel. So I'm going to pair this with House of the Dragon, just a heavy hitters top two TV shows for me here.

And as everyone has pointed out, The Boys is now essentially what it started out satirizing, trying to be the counterculture. You wrote a great piece about this after the season two finale. Yeah. Yeah. The alternative programming to the Marvels and DCs of the world. The Boys is now as much of a heavy hitter as anything. It has spawned a franchise. It is an excellent, thriving, growing franchise. And having watched Gen V, I could not be more excited for The Boys to be back in town.

Are you worried about that, Ben?

That the thing that was originally designed to critique the nature of superhero franchise behemoths is increasingly, in fact, becoming that like on the on the heels of Diabolical and, of course, Gen V, like the crossover potential. Now, will we be entering this world where everything is connected? You don't know if you can watch a new season of The Boys if you haven't seen Gen V, etc. Or no, just pure, pure euphoria for the joint 2024 election and Victoria's

Victoria Newman Homelander experience. Seems really like a cheerful way to spend a few weeks. So excited for every election in 2024. But yeah, I am the

Thus far, just fully hyped and it's a pure level of enjoyment. But I think there is something to that, that it's tough to punch up when you're at the top, right? When you are a powerhouse and they now have to decide, how do we keep this going without falling prey to all of the superhero tropes, the superhero fatigue? Will we be talking about too much boys at the end of 2024? It's possible, but for now, nothing but greatness from this franchise thus far.

It's everyone else's excitement level for The Boys four seasons in. You as enthusiastic about it as you used to be? I haven't been watching Gen V. Is that something I should be spending my time on? I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Gen V the first season. I think the mileage varied a little bit across the team here, but I had fun. It's dark. I mean, shockingly dark. It's upsetting. It is upsetting. Okay. We're two...

Joe, on the turn here, Joanna, you've waited patiently. You now have two picks to make back-to-back. What do you got? I'm going to do a thing, and I love you all. Here's the thing I'm going to do. In sequel, I would like to pick a movie a lot of people are very excited about. It's not the one I was going to pick five minutes ago, but then I realized I could do a thing, so I'm going to do a thing. Also, I checked the poll on the movie bet that we did on Child By Content, and the movie I was going to pick

Ranked really low. So we're going to put that on the back burner. It is... I'm picking Kung Fu Panda 4 in sequel. Kung Fu Panda 4. People are very excited about this movie. They love the Kung Fu Panda. I enjoy a Kung Fu Panda movie. I'm a big fan. You said this is in sequel. In sequel. Okay. In animation, I'm taking...

The Lord of the Rings. The War of the Rohirrim. Ouch. Hell yeah. Love it. And now I would like to see what you guys do in animation. Oh, I think animation is loaded. We still got options. I have options. So that was just an attempted kneecapping of a category. A little bit. But also those were... I'm not worried. Those both were...

Those both were high on my... Those both were my one and two in animated. Great options on the board in that category. I had those. Agreed. Yeah. Not my one and two, I'll say that. I was going to take Court of the Rings in movie, actually, probably with my next pick, but I'm extremely excited for that movie. If I did not pick Rings of Power, Elsewhere in a Draft, I was going to try to select Rohirrim. I think that's a great pick. Yeah. I was thinking it might be available a little bit later, but not surprised that it went early given the group gathered today and the enthusiasm for all things Rohirrim.

Middle Earth. Kung Fu Panda 4. Interesting. Yeah. Can I ask a question about that? So, you know, we started taking my daughter to the movies. She's been loving it. We took her to see Wick. Well, she joined the pod.

The way she's been talking lately seems like sooner rather than later. She has a lot of opinions. Hard to believe with her dad. But anyway, we've seen Wish in theaters. We saw Migration in theaters and we saw Chicken Run 2 in theaters. So we were having a conversation about whether or not Kung Fu Panda 4 is a movie that she could go see in a movie theater. It's been a long time since I've seen a Kung Fu Panda movie, if I'm being honest. I don't know if that's...

She's only two and a half. Might be a little early for Kung Fu Panda. Yes. You're saying that it might be early for Kung Fu Panda to be selected where it was here or for Alice to see it or both? Column A, column B, you know. It's okay, Mel. That was like half math for you. Yeah, exactly. Um...

Why not run with Kung Fu Panda 1 at home and see how that goes? Yeah, I thought about that. Eileen and I were talking about that. That might be our move just to see if she clicks with it. But then if she does, then I have to spend $500 on panda-related content for the next six months, which is just the thing you don't realize is coming for you when they get interested in one animal. But that's okay. That would be fine, I guess. A thing about Kung Fu Panda 4 is I'm just trying to take the lesson of this last year and the way that people responded to things like,

Mario, etc. Last year was informative to me. Animation does really, really well and people get really, really excited for animation and IP animation.

Um, and which is not, which is what both of these movies are, but like War of the Rook Heroine just looks like absolutely gorgeous. Like it looks like it's going to be amazing. And I'm really, really, really excited for that. Kung Fu Panda, I think is not something that looks like artistically incredible to me, but I enjoy a Kung Fu Panda movie and people love them. So, you know, it's going on my list. Yeah.

It's been eight years since a Kung Fu Panda movie came out. It's a long time. Is that true? Yeah. Long time for the hype to build. My goodness. Not as long as we've been waiting for Gladiator 2. Oh, okay. What a fascinating strategy on the turn. I'm intrigued. This is interesting. We've got a fascinating board building here. Ben, we're back to you already.

Wow. Is it me already? It is. Okay. Interesting spot here. Kamala, you're doing such a good job, and I support you, and I love you so much, and it's also just, like, now starting to slightly unnerve me how nice you're being. Now I'm, like, scared. Just trying something new. If I finish last in the poll, it'll never happen again. Have you...

Have you heard that thing about like, if you, if you. You're giving Van more time to prep here. He's appreciative. He was not ready. If you hand a woman, if you, if you, if you act like you're going to hand a woman something and you have your fist closed, she's going to assume it's a bug.

Even if you've never handed her a bug in your life, it's just leftover trauma from childhood. And that's how I sort of feel about Mallory Rubin right now, that she is like, has her fist extended to me and I'm like, is there a bug in there? I don't know. What sort of bug do you think I might be holding? Like a beautiful...

A ladybug or like a butterfly that has just emerged from its cocoon ready to live a new and vibrant life? Something like that? Sure. Or like absolutely terrifying millipede. Something like that. Something Indiana Jones found in the Temple of Doom. That's what I'm thinking. Oh, man.

Something that is both creepy and crawly. Well, thank you for vamping and buying me time. You're welcome. I did not need it because I knew exactly where I was going to go with this pick. Despite Joanna's attempts to corner the market on the animation category, I will be selecting with my pick Arcane Season 2.

I'm pandering to Jomie and the person who is controlling the social around this episode, but I respect it. But I'm with him. He's got great taste with this, at least. I have not seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I can either confirm or deny. But Arcane, great show. It kind of came out of nowhere, season one. It was really at the vanguard of the video game adaptations are good now movement. So

So I have not selected a video game in this draft, but I'm taking a video game adaptation. So that's on brand for me. This is an Emmy-winning show. This was incredibly well-received. It didn't really depend heavily on the source material. It kind of did its own thing, and it did it beautifully, just lushly animated, just high production values, just depth of feeling and emotion and character development. And I could not be excited enough

more than I am for this. In fact, did this come up in our draft? Did someone mention whether Arkane would be eligible when we drafted last year? I feel like maybe it was mentioned and we overruled because it was too soon.

But it is, in fact, coming out this year. It is a part of November. Yeah. Yes. Gotten a couple little tiny morsel-sized tastes in the teaser form. Yeah. So always a bit of a risk when you're taking something that's slated to be released toward the end of the year. But on the other hand, you just rack up hype all those months that you're waiting for it to come out.

Assuming it does come out, the cumulative hype of something that comes out in November or December, like Lord of the Rings movie, which comes out mid-December. Could that slip? Yes. But if not, then you get 11 and a half months worth of hype. I don't know if anyone's thinking of it this way. I wanted to quantify the hype somehow, that being my background, but...

I mean, this is an obvious statement, but something I love about doing these episodes, like we did this last year and like with the movie bed episodes we do for trial by content, is then when you look back at the previous year and the thing that you just did not see coming, that's the most fun. Like what's the massive thing that's lurking that we're not paying attention to? Like the fact that

Blue-Eyed Samurai, which is one of my favorite things that I consume full stop, or Scavenger's Reign, which I know you guys really love, was not on anyone's radar this time last year. That's the beauty of the experiment. Okay, a little bit of an animation run here. I was going to say I play in a lot of fantasy sports leagues. That's not true. As you all know, as my close friends, I'm no longer invited to participate in

fantasy football leagues with my friends, which is a sad but true thing. But one thing that I have learned and deeply internalized is you never want to be like chasing a run. So I, while I'm tempted to get in on the animated fun here, I'm not going to allow the last three picks to compel me to select something here that I would otherwise wait a little bit on. And instead I,

I am going to pick something that I had at number six overall on my board. And to be clear, that included Stranger Things, which is not eligible. And one other thing that I now won't bother attempting to pick because if I couldn't get Stranger Things, I'm not going to be able to get that by. Which means, like, really, in essence, I had this in the mix to select it for. So I'm excited. I am excited to be able to pick this here.

I'm happily selecting as my television show, The Acolyte. I think this is something we are all genuinely looking for. I'm surprised. I thought, because I know how much, Sean, I don't know what your feelings on The Acolyte are, but I know how excited Ben and Joe both are for this. So I genuinely wasn't sure it would make it to the past, like the middle of the second round. This is the Leslie Hedlund Star Wars series, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'm in for Leslie Hedlund. That's it. That's all I need to know. I'm so excited. I'm so excited for this show. Guys, even Sean is in on a big Disney Plus IP thing. What more do we need? I should just stop talking. Not a lot of Star Wars as we chronicled earlier, but I think safe to say this is like

among the most anticipated things, both in the Star Wars-verse and also the wider nerd-verse. You just mentioned the titanic creative force behind the project, the cast for the show. This was one of the themes that emerged as I was getting into the top things that were drawing me in the most and building the hype. There were just so many dynamite casts awaiting us in the releases this year. But I think the thing that I'm most excited about

And I think it's fair to say the thing that many, many, many, maybe all Star Wars fans, certainly most Star Wars fans are excited about, is we're entering a new time period in this story. We are going to the High Republic era. We are going a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. Now, if you've been dabbling in the High Republic story releases on the novel and comic front, you might be having a blast here already. In terms of the television screen...

live action. This is our first time playing in this particular sandbox. That's really thrilling. Like we need to open up beyond the time parameters of where we have been spending so much of the past few years, more than a few years in Star Wars. So that's really something that is like energizing for us as fans, right? This also is definitely one of those properties that's falling into the, I mean, mileage may vary on if anybody puts stock in this, but

This is one of those, like, you talk to anyone who has seen a second of this or knows anything about it, and they're like, this is going to be good. This is going to be good. Which is always fun, right? There was a lot of buzz. This is a long time ago already, but the little, like, the teases at Star Wars Celebration back at the beginning of last year already. I can't believe how much time has passed since then. So there's a lot of, like, positive scuttlebutt building around the project, which is thrilling. And...

We're focusing on the rise of a dark power, like a Sith story in a new time period. I still think about that. Leslie Hedlund. I remember reading it in a variety write up of Star Wars Celebration that it's frozen meets Kill Bill logline. And I'm kind of like, I don't really need to know more than that. This just sounds incredible. I can't wait for their show. I think we all really want this to be good and believe it will be.

I haven't seen any, but I have a friend who has seen some, and she said that I'm not emotionally prepared for Manny Jacinto as a four-season. I don't know how you'll survive, Joanna. I simply don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how you will make it through, honestly. Yeah.

I'm excited not just to break out of the prequel, sequel, original trilogy time prison, but also I don't want to saddle the acolyte with Andor comps because that's just unfair. But it has a little bit of that feeling of this is not your standard Star Wars. I'm refusing to say it quite yet just because it feels like such a daunting thing to put on it. It does.

I apologize. However, yeah, it's a little bit of a mystery thriller detective type show, which is something a little different from, you know, other than Detective Obi-Wan from time to time. But it's really leaning in that direction. Also, there's a writer's room composed of people who approach Star Wars from different directions. Yeah, this is not just Favs and Filoni following their muses, which sometimes takes us great places and sometimes not so much.

This is people who have different tastes, different interests in Star Wars, different backgrounds in Star Wars fandom or non-fandom. I'm really excited for this show. Can I do a quick pause to let you guys know that someone just texted me to alert me to the fact that Walton Goggins has joined White Lotus Season 3? Hell yeah. Wow. I just needed everyone to know that. Exactly.

Excuse me? Sean's had to endure my casting update White Lotus texts. But they keep casting all of my crushes around the world, including Boyd. You know, this is incredible. This is great stuff. I was hoping that Ben would pick Fallout at some point today just so we could talk about Gaggins. But here it is. It's happening anyway. And he has presumably his nose in White Lotus Season 3. Yeah.

Was the thing that you were going to attempt to draft White Lotus season three before thinking better of it? Nerd culture. It's a franchise. It was not Ben. Thank you for that question. Asshole. No, it wasn't. I still have TV show open, so maybe I can take a shot at it. Give it a go. See what happens.

typically a murder mystery of some kind. It's hard genre. That genre. It's clearly valuable IP for HBO. I don't know. They're doing some sort of spiritual examination as part of mysticism in season three. Isn't Natasha Rothwell returning to the cast, you know, like a beloved character, like the Han Solo of The White Lotus is returning? Oh, yeah.

Come on. Did you mean Han Solo or Han Solo? Like, are we Fast and Furious or are we Star Wars? Han Solo. I would support this if you wanted to do this in next year's hype draft since this is a 2025 show, I believe. So, file this away. Get ready. Get ready to pick White Lotus number

number one overall next year. Can I draft White Lotus casting news for TV? I mean, we would have to start over because that would be the number one pick. Nothing more exciting is happening in the world of pop culture than the White Lotus season three casting announcement. This is incredible. There's been some really great and exciting stuff, but I gotta say, Michelle Monaghan is the one that's going under the radar that is a little bit unnoticed. Like, that is, that's really, that's my marriage queen. I just rewatched all of True Detective season one, so did not

Go unnoticed by me. I'm in the one hand space. Okay. So I've got two picks here. I've got two films right now. Furiosa and Deadpool three. I see across the board. Everyone has their, it looks like everyone has their sequel thus far. There are two animations on off the board thus far. There are three sequels off four sequels off the board. Yeah. Okay. Two TV shows, three movies, three animated for a sequel.

Interesting. Okay. Any number of directions still very complicated. This is where the draft gets tricky. This part. Yeah, but also exciting. I'm pursuing a very specific energy for my roster.

So... Okay. Masculine, as we established. That's why, yeah. That's why I was surprised you weren't more supportive. You've said you want to pursue a masculine energy, a movie-centric energy, and that you're going to test the bounds of eligibility, and yet you did not stand in my corner in the arena when I selected Gladiator 2. Shocking. Which should tell you something about the eligibility of that film. Or he's just so consumed by jealousy that he didn't get to make the pick. No. Could be that. I...

I'm envisioning every single thing that I draft. I'm envisioning watching it whilst holding a tall boy of Pabst Blue Ribbon. That's what I'm going for. So far so good. This sounds like a great way to spend a day, honestly. So for my next... With Chris Ryan in particular. I'll be drafting a TV show and I'll be selecting season one of the television show The Penguin starring Colin Farrell. Nice. Yeah.

I like this. Which in its way is kind of a movie because it is spun off specifically from Matt Reeves' The Batman, which I loved, which I thought was awesome. Yes, The Batman's great. Great movie. Is this eight-episode HBO Max prestige TV show kind of a movie, though? It's a movie spinoff. It's a movie spinoff. It's a television show. So it's in the realm of movie.

Do I wish it was a movie? I do wish it was a two-hour movie starring Colin Farrell as the Penguin, but we're not getting that. I also don't really know who else is in this show besides Kristen Milati, who I love from Palm Springs fame, among other things, and 30 Rock Genius fame. I don't know if this is going to be good. I don't know if it's even part of James Gunn's plan. This is probably a one-and-done kind of situation, but Colin Farrell in...

That makeup doing that voice sold. I agree. Yeah. Good pick. Sort of stole the movie. I'm excited for the show. Denigrate our pets. Okay. Penguin is off the board. I've got animated and I've got wild card. Yeah. So you could still take two more movies or shows that you wish were movies. I can. I can. Well, I can only really see one animated movie left on the board that makes sense for me. Maybe I'm not aware of something.

And so I don't think I'm going to take, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I'm going to take my wild card right now. Okay. Gosh, I've got so many potential options for movies and wild card.

I'm just going to be myself and take Venom 3. Venom 3 is... This is an incredible Sean performance. I love this. Co-written by Tom Hardy and his best friend Kelly Marcel. This is Kelly Marcel's directorial debut. What could go wrong?

They have fully wrestled control of the franchise away from the studio and are making whatever they want. The last Venom film was directed by who? Can anyone remember? Andy Serkis. Andy Serkis. That's right. He made a film called Venom colon Let There Be Carnage. Insane movie. It was an amazing time with the movies. It was like 86 minutes of insane CGI and Woody Harrelson. Michelle Williams is somehow...

somehow Michelle Williams is involved. She still is cashing $3 million checks to sit on stoops and say, I'm sorry about Venom. Yeah. Honestly, one of the truly good film franchises that we have left. Just let psychotic actors cook in superhero movies. That's all I'm asking.

I'm just pumped for Venom 3, which has dominated the box office every time it's come around. So I expect nothing less this time. Just a remarkable moment on the pod. I'm speechless. This is stunning. Such a premeditated pick, too. He had so many options. He was looking down the field. I have Venom 3 on my board and I'm not ashamed to say it. All of his open receivers. I do think he has the most coherent pick.

Strategy. No, no. Like the vibe. The vibe is not a strategy decided. I'm building a team. I'm building a team. It's not, it's not, it's not a team that is literate or learned in any way, but it is a team. Oh man. Boy. Okay. Oh, I have a couple of things I really want to do here. I have to pick between two things that are pulling at me with great

ferocity and weight here. Will either of these make it back to me? Probably not. Oh, man. All right. Fuck. I'm so torn. I have two things I really want to take and I'm excited that they're both here and I...

Do you want me to vamp by talking a little bit more about Venom? Yeah, if you could talk about how you would relate to your symbiote for like 45 seconds, that would be great. There are two Nepo babies who have also joined the cast of White Lotus season three. It's Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nabola. From Gen V.

Sam Nivola, who I just have to assume is Alessandro Nivola's and Emily Mortimer's kid. He's fantastic in, which he's in about, oh, in White Noise. Really good in White Noise. Oh, he was really good in White Noise. All those kids were nepo babies in White Noise. Yeah. And then Amy Lou Wood, who's in Sex Education, who's wonderful, is also joined in White Lotus Season 3. This is a large cast. I've decided what I'm going to do. Thank you. You're welcome.

I really just had like such a conflict in my heart, which Joe's, you know, is the only thing. Yeah. Worth writing about. Yeah. Okay. I mean, guys, it was the number two overall pick last year and it's still here. I will be selecting X-Men 97 in animated and I will be doing so gladly. I feel like Sean was counting on this, making it back to him. I kind of can't allow it. With a straight face.

X-Men 97? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. People are hyped about this. The X-Men? Carlos, can we insert here the clip of Mallory and Ben dunking on Sean for picking this last year? Just because it didn't need to go number two overall. Not because I wasn't excited for X-Men 97. This was...

If I didn't get Deadpool, where you could bring some of the X-Men energy because of Wolverine, I really wanted to try to get X-Men 97. The revival of the beloved animated series from the 90s, back in our lives soon, is

This is, I think, an important... Some of what you were talking about earlier with Deadpool I think applies here too, even though this series is not going to be part of the MCU continuity in the way that Deadpool will. Let's have something in our lives that allows us to be excited about...

Marvel storytelling in particular, but superhero genre stories more broadly. Like, I'm looking forward to the specific release, but also that broader sensation being ignited once again. And then obviously there's just a fever pitch level of hunger for X-Men. We need a fix. We need a real fix. Enough of these teases that are dappled throughout other properties. Like, let's really do the thing. And some of our pals, beloved colleagues,

whose judgment I value and trust, got to see a tease for this at the screening for What If? and said it looked fucking dynamite. And that carries weight with me. So I am thrilled to select X-Men 97 in animated and also thrilled that I was able to do that without making it the number two overall, or in my case this year, number three overall pick of the draft. Here it is, round four. Great spot for it.

Love animation. Or picking it in a year when it was not released. Yes, or that. Ben is really hung up on the X-Men 97 Sean selection from last year. I had this as my number one rated animated pick for the year in a pretty loaded category. This was number one on the list for me, so I'm excited to be able to get it here. This is going to be a great show. What are we talking about? Yeah, sure. Thank you, Sean. I agree. Good pick. I agree. I'm not spoiled. Yeah. I'm...

my roster's coming together. This is good. X-Men 97. I can't believe I wound up with the Star Wars and Marvel property after all of that. But you know what? It's not the worst thing in the world. It's not the worst thing in the world. And I've got wild card left. We all do. All right, Ben, it's back to you. Are you going to take a video game? Not yet. No.

I'm going to take my movie, and I will say not a lot of movies left on my board here. I think there are some left that might garner me more votes, that might be more hyped. But I think this is a pick that when we all look back after a year and say, what should have been picked, then this will be there. I'm going to take a movie that I believe is Sean Fennessey's most anticipated movie of 2024.

Undrafted thus far. Maybe not masculine enough to be selected in this draft. But I will be hitting the bong and taking Mickey 17 with my movie pick. Okay, I have a question about this. This formally came off the slate. The release slate. I know it did. Last week. So...

What do we think? It's not like it didn't get moved to a different period of the year. It got taken off the slate. Right. Now, it was slated for a March release, right? So it would have to slip a lot to miss this year. Yeah.

So you think it's going to come out that you're just not prepared to say when yet, not this movie is moving to like 2026 or something. I read some speculation that they're just trying to position it for a bigger awards push, possibly. Maybe it's a sign of confidence in this film.

But apparently just because of the strikes and various others. I can't wait for this movie. Let me be clear. My feedback is simply about the date. I think the movie sounds fucking amazing. That's fair. Right. I mean, you've got our pets, Steven Yeun, et cetera. The cast. Mark Ruffalo in a non-Marvel movie. I think they're moving it to get it away from Dune.

That could be. That could be too, right? Yeah. But it is strange that they didn't announce it. What do you think, Sean? What's your expert read on the date thing? Do you think this is still coming out this year? I don't know if I have had a more active day of texting than when this news was announced. And I've got all form of feedback from friends, friends,

People who work at the studio, agents, like it was, I felt like I was like army archered circle, like 1992. Like I was really connected that day. And here are the things that I heard. I heard,

This is all rank speculation. So I am reporting nothing. This is just people gossiping. Yeah. Reddit won't take that for granted. No one has ever taken anything out of context said on a podcast after a preamble like that. So I'm sure it'll be fine. Aggregate me. Just merely weeks ago. Aggregate me to high heaven. Um...

I heard the most paranoid thing I heard was just that David Zaslav personally felt that the film was too weird and wanted to sell it as soon as possible. I'm more hyped than ever. I do not think that that is what happened, but you never know.

I also heard that they simply just felt like it would have a better launch off of a canned premiere where it would no doubt get huge press and that they would basically try to put into play the Killers of the Flower Moon playbook, which is to say big canned premiere, noisy celebration of Bong, then mothball the movie for five months once all that praise has come out and then roll it out in the fall for an awards run. I've also heard that post-production has been a little troubled, that this is a bigger film

for, for bong and that there's a lot more work that needs to go into it. And some of that was affected by the strikes. So I don't know. I'm not, I genuinely don't know. It is, it is my number one most anticipated movie of the year. This is like, you know, he really is in that kind of like top two or three favorite filmmakers look forward to everything he does. Um, I, it is clearly science fiction. I, I,

Bong's movies, though, you know, they don't like they fit inside of genre storytelling, but don't play by genre rules. So it's it's definitely eligible based on what you guys have said for the draft. Contemplative sci-fi, right? Yeah. Philosophical sci-fi. If you were having a Cannes premiere, that would be why they wouldn't be able to say a date.

Exactly. Exactly. But they just haven't landed on what they're going to do. Everyone's comfortable allowing it. Who knows? Or Joe, you want to push back on the time frame? No, I have just the mildest of discomfort, but I'm not going to push on it. It's great. Some slight reservation is fair. Yeah. I'd say it's more likely than not that it's actually going to come out this year released by Warner Brothers. Yes. Are you saying, do you think that you made a better pick than my Venom 3 pick? Just out of curiosity? I don't see how anyone could feel that anyone made a better pick today than Venom 3. Yeah.

In terms of hype, perhaps not. In terms of which movie might win an Oscar, I don't want to...

Ben, that's definitely a different podcast. Yes, but it's a podcast that Sean hosts, so he should appreciate that. But yeah, I mean, I'm betting on Bong here. I would liken this to when I took How Do You Live, which we know is the boy in the heron with a late round pick last year, just betting on Miyazaki's track record, right? So will the hype be as high as some other picks I might have made here? Perhaps not.

But I think just given the track record of the director involved and the cast in this case, it's got to be good. Just as the follow up to Parasite, hopefully that will help build the hype too. Yeah. And you have some other like IP behemoths here. You have some. One for them, one for me. Yeah. Great pick, Ben. This movie sounds amazing. I can't wait for it when it comes out in theaters.

Simply cannot wait. All right, Joe, we're back to you on the turn. These are your final two picks. I feel more certain than I've ever felt about anything in my life that I know one of your picks. I'll be astounded. I think so based on how we spent our last year, but maybe not. Maybe you're, maybe you're going with a strategy other than what is in your heart. I don't know. I don't know. Surprise me. What do you got? I don't,

I'm not playing with my heart this year. I played with my heart last year and I got screwed. So, though not playing with my heart, I'm not sure it's doing many favors for me anyway. Anyway, point being, movie? No, I already did movie. Wild card? I am playing... I was going to play this earlier. I'm going to play it now. I'm sorry. I actually am genuinely... I think this is going to be good. I'm playing Joker Folly Adieu.

This was also one of the things I assumed you would pick because you love a musical. I love a musical. Okay, so this is your wild card. Did not enjoy The Joker. This is similar to Sean saying he doesn't care for Ryan Reynolds, but he loves Deadpool. I didn't care for Joker, and I'm still extremely excited for Folly Adieu. Powering Todd Phillips movies, go. I don't know how to do that. I can't do it on the fly. Why is it number one? Hangover three, number two.

Are you mad that I took Folly on Jif from you? Was I going to round out your bro-tacular? I can't take it there, but it was between Venom 3 and Joker 2. I was considering it too. Musicals are back, baby. I know. We are in a musical moment. Listen to the Mint Edition episode on what should have been a musical if you haven't yet. What a time they had. I had a truly fun, fine time in the movies with the Mean Girls musical this weekend. It was good. It was good, right? It was good. I liked it.

I don't understand what people are talking about who didn't like that. The people who didn't like it, there are two categories I see. Number one is people who didn't know it was a musical in the first place, and I cannot blame them. And number two is, and if you want to hear more on that subject, Ben Lindbergh did a great episode of Today Explained or has a great piece on TheRinger.com. What a great website. What a great website. People who love the stage musical. I didn't know the stage musical that well, and so they cut a ton of songs and did a bunch of things that people are stressed about. Anyway, Rene Rapp, what a...

What a talent. Ali. Amazing. Okay. TV show. Down to your TV show and the thing you love most in the world is here. Yeah, but we both saw the Christmas special. That spooked me a little bit. Oh, I'm shocked right now. It's not going on. It's not going on. It's not happening. All right. Twist. I feel like I cannot...

I'll just say it because it's my last pick. I don't feel like I can double Dune. It feels illegal to double Dune. Does it not? You can. It's here. I could. Someone's probably going to take it. And if I don't double Dune, then I'm... Take it. Why not? Completely different time period.

Show, not a movie. You love Dune. It's a big Dune year. Dune on the mind. I know you're being supportive, but I'm scared you're tricking me. I will say I feel sure you're not interested in the thing that I'm considering. No. I feel confident. From a voting perspective, I guess you've already captured the Dune audience here, right? Yeah. But the Dune audience is a sizable one, you know? Yeah. But she already has their vote. Activate the army. Yeah.

ride that sandworm to victory. Or you could just take Doctor Who, a thing that you absolutely fucking love and adore. I'm just nervous. I'm nervous. After the Christmas special, which felt mixed buzz to me. Because I know the other two that I have, you guys don't care about. There's something else that is coming out that you've mentioned many times you're very excited about on the TV front. Yes, I know. But I don't think you care about it.

What do you mean? We might be talking about different things. Okay, I think we're talking about... All right, I'll do Dune. I'm doing Dune colon prophecy. Okay. Is this dated right now? It is as... It has a 2024 date on it.

And I think it's as sure as the Penguin coming out is. I think that's... That feels like the right read. It doesn't have a specific... You can absolutely count on sitting down this day, but, like, they're doing the, we didn't use the volume. All our sets were practical. Like, they... I think this is...

far enough along that it's happening, right? Jo, are you worried at all? This is something I'm also very much looking forward to. I think everyone is. Are you worried at all about the troubled production and all of the switches and swaps and everything that went on there? Or are you feeling like this is just the creative process to find where a show needs to be? There are companies where when I hear troubled production, I get scared. This is not yet in that realm. No.

Like Marvel no longer has my benefit of the doubt necessarily when I hear total production. I'm like, yeah, Dune, double Dune with some Joker and animation filling. That's my, that's my very weird slate that I put together here for you today. Ben, you're up your last pick. Wow. I'm a little worried. You're going to take the thing that I'm planning to take, but it's maybe not still have a chance to take star Wars and be true to this. You're curious. Yeah.

Yeah, just place my faith in Jude Law. That's what I thought Joe might pick. I thought she might pick Skeleton Cruise. Oh, no. Well, sorry. I have heard that that is not coming out this year. I don't think that's like a public reality, though, right? I think you certainly based on everything out there in the world. I mean, it was originally announced for last year. That's why I said heard with italicizing it. Heard. I've heard this. That would be a bummer if that didn't come out.

There's not enough. Don't let that dissuade you though. If you're, I hope for the best, but I, I don't know enough to place my faith in that show. Um,

Gosh, there are a lot of ways I could go here. I could just cast Meteor on your draft boards and select Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. You are going to pick a game, right? I don't think I am, you know, because I don't want to win that way. I don't want to win that way. I want to win. I want to be on your turf, on your territory.

And win playing by the same constraints that you all do. Could I take advantage of... Everyone is being so strange today. ...of an entire rich medium? This is one of the weirdest episodes of House of R we've ever done. I honestly feel that way. We talked at length about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Button Mesh. So I could go in that direction. I could...

But we're all allowed to put video games on here. I just, I feel like there's just a slight asterisk. I feel like I'm taking advantage of something that you've all sort of excluded for yourselves. Nobody else feels this way about it.

it. It does. Just to be clear. Granted, you took Gladiator, which I excluded from myself. However, I'm going to forego video games here. We have a whole podcast to cover those, and I will take with my wild card. It truly is a wild card. I'm taking the three body problem. God damn it, Ben! Fuck! You know what? I feel great about this pick now. I can't believe this lasted so long.

I'm shocked. Yeah, I mean... I knew you were going to take it here. Damn. I'm sorry. Look, it could go wrong. It could go horribly wrong. She was like, Joanna, pick Dune or Doctor Who. Ben, pick a video game. I knew something. I knew there was...

There's a bug in your hand. I knew there was a bug in your hand. I knew it. I did not think that Joe would pick this and I did not think that Sean would pick it, but I felt sure that Ben or I would pick it at some point today. And it was just a question of when. And sometimes you, you risk waiting and it doesn't work out. That's okay. Part of the draft experience. Yeah. I said, no, I'm putting all my chips on Weiss and Benny off. When have they ever let us down before? So you're putting your heart

in the same hands that once cradled it and then melted it like the Iron Throne. Yes. Tell us about it. Safely stewarded us for several strong seasons before that happened. So, yeah, D&D are adapting the famed series here. There are huge stakes. There are a lot of people at the ringer who are excited about

about this adaptation of Remembrance of Earth Past. This is going to be a big bet for Netflix.

I am hoping for the best. It looks good, I would say. I thought the last trailer looked great. Yeah, me too. That set some of my doubts to rest. So I still have some doubts and maybe we should say, you know, I'm not uncertain here, Billion style, when we're making a pick on the Ring of Draft board. But for my wild cards...

Guys, it is Paul Giamatti season. It is. Yeah. Making moves right now. Are you aware of the previous adaptation, the Chinese adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, which came out last year, I believe? And I have not seen it, but just reading up on it, there are 30 episodes in season one of that show. And these are like hour-long episodes adapting the first book.

I believe, which is not even the meatiest book in terms of source material. So if you miss, if you will lament the loss of long seasons and you want 22 episode seasons back, go check out the Chinese adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, which will give you more than you want. But I'm pretty excited for this one. High expectations. Also some doubts and some misgivings. But this is my wild card. I like it. I thought the most recent trailer looked awesome. Yeah. And it felt like there was...

an uptick in the

Collective enthusiasm? Yeah, and interest after that trailer, right? Like some trepidation heading in. Interesting to see the response to the resumption of the Benioff and Weiss press tour that has now begun in earnest. Obviously, it's been a minute since they've given any interviews at all. It was sort of interesting to see what the collective response was to the THR piece. And in general, just that'll be like a fascinating aspect of this to track. But yeah, like these, this is a...

Property that a lot of people care deeply about and certainly seems very hard to adapt this story. So that's always an interesting thing, right? Which is something people said about Game of Thrones, as we all remember. I think the thing that I'm worried about, in addition to Weiss and Benioff and the question mark above their heads, is this being a binge dump.

Like that is something I'm worried about. This is something that I feel like needs the air of a week to week building a momentum. And this is going to be a Netflix binge dump. And I'm just worried about something this dense.

Just sort of dropping on a weekend, you know? Yeah, it would help me for hype purposes if this would be a weekly release or at least even just in segments as Netflix has started to do. So that hurts a little bit. But yeah, I saw that D&D in the press tour, they said they have not seen House of the Dragons. So they would not be picking that on their hype draft. But they said they've been loving Scavenger's Reign, which I did not expect to see. So back in on D&D. Okay. Yeah.

Did you say press tour? Did you say the one interview they do with the one journalist they ever talked to? Press tour with James Edward. Yes. Yes. I hope the show's good. I hope that it's well and thoughtfully rendered and that people enjoy talking about it and that it doesn't just feel like it disappears from conversation and

Six days because it's a binge. It would be great to have this as a weekly release. I think we all feel that way. Sean, any thoughts? Over under how many three episodes, how many do I watch? Of three body problem? Yeah. One and a half. So I'll take the under then, yeah, on three. Yeah, I'm going to go with the under for you. I love hard literary sci-fi. That's this.

I know. I mean, I know about it, but Joanna's framing it as like, you're going to have to watch... These are all getting turned on all at once and there's no continuous discussion around it. It's actually like a genuine impediment for someone like me. That I would have much more fun...

reading recaps listening to pods about it on an ongoing basis and i know that this is an ongoing issue with netflix should be enjoyed yeah it is bad yeah for our benefit people podcasting about it yes it sounds like you will not be casting your vote for ben because you do not believe in television and within that you do not believe in binge drops got it

I, I, I, let me, let me go on the record. I actually do believe in television. I just think we need to get back to TV being TV. Just TV needs to, TV needs to just remember its role. It needs to be a little brother. Yeah. It needs to be the small screen. Get back in your cage. Um,

back in your cage TV. You want like 24 episode network seasons? And then you lost me when you tried to denigrate the medium that I know you enjoy. I do. I do enjoy it. I do. The way I enjoy ice cream, you know, ice cream is good. I like the taste of it. I like to end my week with a nice ice cream cone. But too much is too much. Too much is it ruins everything. As you know, I have to find some ice cream every day before bed. We wonder why I always have stomach aches.

We'll be looking at dentists too as well this Friday, Mallory. That would be helpful, actually. Listen, fewer shows in general, yes. Make them all week to week. Make TV TV again. That's what it should be. Jodie Foster, I'm excited for True Detective. I'm a big fan, covering it, prestige, very excited. Jodie Foster hit us with a six-hour movie line, and I was like, no. Jodie, no. TV is TV.

That's why it shouldn't be binged. It should be watched week to week. That's what I think. This is a great segue into my pick because I will be selecting another Netflix binge. I will be. I will be. I will be selecting the Netflix binge in question as my wild card. That is my one open category here. This was one...

Actually, a little bit similar to three body problem. I had them in kind of similar spots on my personal ranking where like, I won't be surprised if this goes in the second round. I won't be surprised if I selected in the final round and everybody else says it wasn't on their board because they're so nervous about it. But yeah,

This is the truest embodiment of the I am living in the moment with the hype while it is alive and desperately want this to be a thing that's good and that we can share together and love. Will it work out that way? Candidly, I have no idea, but that's what hype is all about. Avatar The Last Airbender, the Netflix live action adaptation, hitting your binge drop screen February 22nd. This is soon.

Okay. Obviously the nerves around this are high, right? The animated series is adored, including by us. The live action film adaptation is like a historic epic whiff. Reviled. Yes. As a result of that, desire to see a live action adaptation properly rendered is even more keenly felt.

And thus, when something like the original creators of the universe leaving the adaptation a couple years in happens, people get nervous. And I am not here to talk you out of that. I also felt quite dismayed when that happened. But I do not necessarily think sincerely that that precludes this being good. And...

The fact that we have these like dual arms now of Avatar storytelling, universe exploration and expansion is kind of a weird place to be in the fandom. But I am eager to dabble in both of those pools and see where the water is warm and welcome. And I honestly thought that the trailer for this rolled. Like I watched this trailer 50 times in a row and

And I cannot tell you the places that seeing Momo in this trailer sent me. I was like squealing on my couch at home, being back with uncle Iroh, all of our favorite pals. It's just an exciting prospect. And until they crush me, I will live in that ember of possibility and

There's a line in the trailer, felt deliberate, like a message to us. I'm choosing to view it as like a beacon of hope. Always remember who you are. If this Netflix adaptation remembers the soul and spirit and heart of the thing that we adore, it should be great. I really hope it is. I am in the excited, cautiously excited camp, not the living in fear and dread camp.

I don't know where all of you fall other than Joanna in that bucket, in that divide. No, I'm not in fear and dread. I'm in just sort of like when Brian and Mike are out, I'm out. Like, I'm just, you know, like, that's how I feel. I mean, I'll watch it and if I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised by it. But Brian and Mike leaving, I'm like, that's one of the worst signs I've ever had.

scene on it. And like, especially when it's something like this where we're just like, we're redoing a story we've already watched countless times in love. You know what I mean? That actually is like one of the reasons I'm excited for it though because the reach of Netflix, and this is...

I think it's completely fine, obviously, if nobody else agrees with this, but the reach of Netflix is at a point where it's like the supreme dominant driving force in culture and consumption, right? So it's exciting to me that like more people could discover the universe through the show and then go and spend their time with the animated series. Go watch Korra, read the novelizations, get their Momo and Appa and Pabu plushes, all of which, as you know, I...

proudly own and display in my home. And like, maybe this can be another entryway into the wider world for more people. And isn't that like a wonderful prospect? More people getting to celebrate this beautiful story and meet these characters.

Yeah, I think the expectations for this have changed considerably because I remember, I don't know if I mentioned it on last year's hype draft. I may have at the very end when we were mentioning things that we didn't draft but considered or it was on my board somewhere. But at the time, it was pretty toxic, right? Because it was like they had renounced it. Yeah. And also they were pretty polite. I will say Brian and Mike are always very polite. So they were like,

polite about it. They're just like, but also we're leaving. Right. Yeah. But now that some time has passed and we've gotten a look at it and it looks pretty good. And also there have been some examples, at least of live action adaptations that have gone well, you know, whereas people were thinking of like Cowboy Bebop maybe in the past. And now you're thinking of

let's say, you know, I guess there have been some more success. One Piece. People liked One Piece, but also One Piece felt so...

here today, gone tomorrow, right? Like, anyway, it doesn't matter. People liked it when it dropped, so that's true. So there's some precedent for this maybe not being bad. So, yeah. This is my, like, big swing at the end, right? When you try to hit a home run, sometimes you strike out. What will happen with this? I have no idea. I can't wait to find out. I just badly, badly, badly, badly want this to be good. I really hope it is. Sean, will you be watching this television program? Absolutely not. Yeah.

Under no circumstances. I am elder millennial, and so Avatar The Last Airbender doesn't mean anything to me and never will. Well, until you show it to your kid.

In which case I will fully invest. Sean, it's a beautiful story. You're going to like when, when she's old enough to watch it, you're going to have a great time watching it with her. Great. I look forward to that. I need to see the, some of these things through her eyes. Um, I have some things I would like her to see through my eyes as well. So I'd like to like the entire Fincher collection. That's, that's, that's on the list. Um,

Well, can I just, can I ask a question? I'm just going to ask a question. I'm not going to try to make a move. I'm not going to try to ram something through. You're the only person with a pick left. So go nuts, man. Can we, can we definitively say, can we definitively say that kingdom of the planet of the apes is not animated? Are you talking about degrees of CGI that qualify you for animation? Cause I would put, I would put like Favreau's Lion King on,

is animated to me is avatar if there's no humans the other the other avatar

Are there no humans in the other avatar? As I understand it, there is one human character in the new film. Okay, if there's one human character in this Apes film, I don't think it gets to go in animated. Is Who Framed Roger Rabbit animated? Great, great job. Great job, Sean. Is Ralph Bakshi's Cool World animated? Wow, you brought Brad Pitt into it. Okay, I see. Okay.

Think of it because it's not about the style of animation. Caesar is an animated character, digitally animated. Now, I tried this once before on a podcast many years ago. I tried to do with Paddington 2. I said, is Paddington 2 an animated film? I was thinking of making, if it got desperate, I was going to make an argument for Paddington 2 in Peru. I mean, it's too bold, but like, I don't.

War of the Planet of the Apes. I would not have suggested this for the first film in that series. But this new film, which I think is a prequel, is almost entirely apes. There are almost... I think the only human is like a...

prehistoric it's 300 years after oh post sorry this is after their reign after yeah right the humans have regressed right a feral woman a feral young woman a feral woman and a bunch of digital apes now if you say no nice try you know gladiator 2 absolutely this is totally house of our content but you know kingdom of the planet of the apes I'm open to this yeah

Ben, you seem the most opposed, maybe. What do you think? No, it's a slippery slope, but... We can always reign it in again next year, you know? Every year is a new experience. What's the non-Body Snatched version of Mallory shows up next year? I'm so nice today. I'm trying to leverage this moment of kindness. I'm more receptive to this than the Gladiator. I'm fine with it. Let's stretch the parameters. Let's do it. Why should he be rigidly boxed in?

I've got a backup. No, you can't play your backup because we're letting you do apes. You're letting me do apes? Yeah. So then I get to retain my movie, movie, movie, movie, movie, movie lineup.

The Penguin is a television show. You've got to accept an imbalance of the Penguin is a television show. You know, it's actually movie, movie, movie, cinema, movie, and Venom 3 is cinema. This is why the apes won. Because human beings cannot acknowledge the truth in front of them. Mallory, don't you feel like Furiosa is kind of a TV show? If you think about it. Get the fuck out of here.

Get out of here. Wow. I really know no one even brought this up, but I do actually want to draft Transformers 1. I don't know where the hype is on Transformers 1, but an animated movie from the guy who directed Toy Story 4 and wrote Inside Out with Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Like that is Scarlett Johansson is doing a voice in this film.

So take it. It's like a big, big $100 million animated movie. Steve Inside Out, is it weird that no one took Inside Out 2? I... That was going to be my question at the very beginning of the episode was, is Pixar House of R Territory? Yes, definitely. It is. But...

I'm surprised Inside Out 2 was not selected. I had that very high on my list. You know what the number one problem I have with it is? It doesn't fit with Sean's mood that he's cultivating. I'll say that. I will happily watch Inside Out 2 while holding a Pabst. My problem with it is that the movie is called Inside Out 2. We can do better than that. Let me get a colon or a dash. Inside Out colon Dawn of Anxiety. Out Inside. Some sort of play on the outside in. You should get Anxiety in the title.

There's a way to... We can be better than this. Inside Out colon teen turmoil. Inside Out 2 is just so desperate on Disney's part where they're like, please like me. We're having such a hard time right now. Yes, but I watched that trailer and it worked. I was like, this looks dynamite. I think it will be good. I think it will be good. Especially with the Pixar sequel stigma. You'd think that they would want to hide that. That's what I'm saying. Pixar's...

Pixar strategy to re-release all of its COVID films this year is like fascinating. Elemental has been on heavy rotation in my household. What is Pixar up to this year is the question. Sean, which of these three movies that you just talked about are you actually picking? He's doing Apes. Yeah, I'm doing Apes. I'm doing Apes. Apes is directed by Wes Ball, the director of the Maze Runner films. Do you guys know what Wes Ball is directing next?

What's that? He's doing a video game movie, right? Yeah. Legend of Zelda, Ben. That's right. Yes. I might select it in a future hype draft. This is his tune-up for Zelda. Yeah. That better be good. He better possess that up. Yeah. Geez. I'm very, very worried about that movie. You think you saw an angry Ben today with this. All right, we did it. That's the draft. Is everybody happy with their teams? How's everyone feeling about their hype rosters?

I'm really confused how I got here. What happened? Honestly. But here I am. Feeling good. Projecting confidence. And there were a few others I was surprised didn't get picked, I guess. Yeah, what are you most surprised not to see selected? Skeleton Crew is a shock to me that no one picked that. Yeah. It's too much of a cipher for me right now. But yeah.

I was sort of surprised Invincible didn't get picked. I remember you swooped in with Invincible last year, right? And I guess it's just that it's half a season, right? It's four episodes. I thought it would be selected too, but yeah, part two of season two may be a little bit less...

Yeah. Simulating for folks. No one picked Agatha. No Dark Old Diaries fans here. No. No Walking Dead heads excited for the return of Rick and Michonne? I thought you might pick Walking Dead, Ben. I thought you also might pick Bad Batch. Final Bad Batch season. For your animated. If you didn't pick Star Wars elsewhere. Yeah. I was really close to picking Interview with the Vampire season two. That was what I was just going to say. The fact that Joe did not pick

Dr. Who or Interview with a Vampire is astonishing to me because you adore those things so I'm very surprised by that I do I love Interview with a Vampire I would just like to apologize to my heart for not picking that but that was an amazing first season so good Ben thank you so good I'll meet you on the prestige fees for season two did you consider picking Halo season two in the first round Ben

I did not. No. I did not. I will be watching. Perhaps we will be covering on Button Mesh, but no. I was wondering whether anyone would take the plunge. I don't know if this is partly the troubled production specter or partly the release date uncertainty, but Severance Season 2, anyone think of going there? Well, oh, I mean, if I had it.

incredibly high on my list, but once everyone dunked on the Stranger Things time frame, there's simply no way you can make a case for severance. I just don't remember the show Severance. Did that ever exist? I'm not sure. It's been... You've been severed? No, I think... It's been the entirety of my time at The Ringer. There was that Apple tweet in January, just the tweet of Mark, and then Ben Stiller has been out there like, we're working on it. Yeah, I think it's more realistic than Stranger Things because they entered production, I think, pre-Strike, right? And then I think they resumed production, so...

You want to talk about troubled production? If people think that Severance is coming out this year and it was not selected, then it disqualifies the entire exercise. The only defense for not having it picked is that we don't think it's coming out this year. I think it is coming out based on what I've heard. I think it's coming out this year. I think it is. I just, I mean, all the behind-the-scenes stuff, which they have denied strenuously, but kind of concerning. Although there was behind-the-scenes stuff in season one, and season one was wonderful. So who knows? Sometimes...

Bronx Zoo Yankees, you know? One of my favorite finales ever. Yeah. That season one finale. Unbelievable. Thought about Fallout. Yeah, Ben, I'm surprised you really resisted the pull of the gaming properties in a number of respects. Got Arcane. You got Arcane. You got some League of Legends in there. Yeah. I thought about Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths because there are like three of them spaced out over the year. So you can't

get a triple dip with the hype. Thought about... No one picked the franchise. I thought someone would pick the franchise. Oh, I was thinking of picking the franchise. Yeah. I really was. I thought Sean might pick the franchise. Yeah, me too. I thought the franchise struck me as a Joe Sean possibility. As his TV show. Yeah. Yeah.

The franchise sounds wonderful. The Armando Iannucci show. Yeah, I guess I hadn't considered that. Also, Sean, it's a show about making a movie. Yeah, about, yeah, so there you go. About making a House of R movie. What could have been? Yeah. I thought about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

I'm looking forward to that. I'm also, I'm getting a little bit of, we're getting some interest in Spider-Man in my home too, which I'm kind of like, how do I support this? That's exciting. Spidey and friends, I don't really like that much. I find it to be kind of annoying. I don't know if you've dipped into that, Ben. Yeah, I've seen a little bit. This one could be better. I was a father of a daughter. You know what else I like is Creature Commandos. Let's just keep showing me weird

cast off DC projects that were greenlit six years ago, which I'm sure will be terrible, but I'm very interested in. Also, I really, I wish I could have shown some love for Alien Romulus. I was just going to mention that. Yeah, I thought that Alien Romulus had a real chance. I thought you might go for that or perhaps Nosferatu. Yeah. I just took that in the picture auction. Trailer drop today? Yeah.

Yeah. I've seen the film. I'm embargoed from sharing my thoughts on Space Man. Can't say whether we should be hyped. Constellation. Another Apple TV Plus sci-fi. What is quote unquote original space?

On here. Yeah, there's not. Because I was thinking Old Guard 2, Godzilla, X-Kong. No, I was just thinking like on our list. Ghostbusters. Mickey 17. I'll call it a three body problem just because it's an adaptation, but it's never been done before. Mickey's based off a book though, right? It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like these are adaptations that have not been like. Outside of a, yeah. Yeah. But everything else is a sequel or a second season or, you know, a spinoff of an existent thing.

Yeah, that's how Hollywood works these days. But we've got, yeah, there's another Witcher, Sirens of the Deep, Masters of the Universe. Anyone? You love Liam Hemsworth, right? So here we go. Good draft. Guys, there's a lot of stuff coming out. House of R has a lot to do this year. Is Beetlejuice 2 House of R?

I would say so. Could be. There's sandworms. If I can put Dune twice on my list, I can put Beetlejuice. You could have had an all sandworm slate. Oh. No Wicked Part 1? Oh, you know what I actually almost put on was Twisters because I'm actually genuinely excited for Twisters. Me too.

No Sonic the Hedgehog 3? I need more respect for Twisters from you, Mallory. Glenn Powell and Daisy Edgar Jones, Mallory. Most astonishingly of all, no one picked, even though it has no name, the impending third Empyrean book. Fourth Wing Hive. Iron Flame Hive. I mean, that's going to be one of the biggest books ever published when it comes out. You guys reminded me of the franchise. When is that coming out? Franchise? Does it have a date? I'm ready for that now.

I don't think it has an official date on it yet, but 2024 is what they have said. That is going to be fun. It's going to be really fun. That is going to be fun. Now, was Severance the thing you said was even more out there than Stranger Things and you weren't even going to try it? Or was there something else? I was at Severance and Squid Game on the time frame. Squid Game. Okay. Also remember Squid Game? I mean, that could definitely come out this year.

But it's just so hard to know. That's another prong of my Make TV TV again, which is put things out regularly in close succession from the previous season. Oh, boy. Final thoughts on anything that wasn't selected, on anything that you did select, how you're feeling about your own team, how you're feeling about content in 2024, how you're feeling about The Ringer, anything?

Thumbs up from Sean on IP and sequels and the guns are back. Sean has a thumbs up on one hand and a papsed in the other. Yeah, you can finally put those weights down, Sean. Podcast is over. You're one to talk, Ben. I think this is a very fun exercise and I'm delighted to be invited and I thought you guys were pretty ultimately kind to me despite the fact that I drafted a bunch of movies that could be absolutely fucking terrible. Yeah.

But Venom Venom 3 is just it's an iconic pic that I loved. Let Tom Hardy cook. Let him cook.

Describing that with a straight face was your finest performance yet. Even with a Disney lull, even with post-strike delays, I'm heartened by how much there was here that I am legitimately hyped about. If this is the worst case scenario, this is like, oh, the release slate is looking thin and look how much there was. So I hope we're all winners because all the content that comes out in 2024 is just great. Some high variance picks, but we had fun. This was definitely a weirder

pipe draft than last year. This was a very strange exercise, but that was part of the joy of it. I have to say, some really weird slates here. I can't wait to watch all of this. I'm just extremely disoriented by you keeping your promise, and I love you and happy new year. New year, new Mal.

Thank you. Now I'm going the other way. You lost your edge. You blew it. This is the behavior of a weakened mind. I promised Joe after our last draft that I would try really hard to be nice next time. And I lived up to that word and I am not bound by the promise in the future, but.

But it's true. Today I was. Maybe I have regrets. Maybe I have some. Maybe we need you. If you'd played harder, you could have had Venom 3. That's all you need to tell yourself. We need the heals. You know what I mean? Here's the thing at the end of the day. And this is the perfect end note. At the end of it, we all have Venom 3. And that is actually the beauty of the house of our hype draft. We all get to share all of this. That's a threat. That's a threat. All right.

That's a wrap. Remember, you can vote for your favorite hype draft, whatever that means to you. None of us were able to define what that should mean to you. Go with what's in your heart. You can find the polls on the Ringerverse Instagram and the Ringerverse Twitter.

Thank you to Sean and Ben for joining us today. Thank you to Carlos Chiriboga for producing this episode, Arjunaram Gopal for his additional production work on this episode, and Jomia Deneron for his work on the social for this episode. Joe and I will be back with you on Friday for our deep dive into Percy episodes five and six. Until then, this is Channel Dune. We will love you as long as we breathe. ♪