Sean Gadus

When the first season of Stranger Things was released in 2016, one of the strongest appeals of the show was its tight focus on its small group of characters and one major setting. Each subsequent season of Stranger Things has expanded the number of characters and settings in significant ways. With this in mind, has the overall narrative of Stranger Things gotten too big to fully develop and explore its characters in the same way that Season One did? The upcoming season four looks to have at least three different character groups in different settings including the town of Hawkins, a city in California, and a prison camp in Russia. An article could explore or trace which settings and characters are added to each season, and if they were properly utilized in the story/narrative.

On September 21st 2020, Microsoft purchase Bethesda Softworks and its parent company ZeniMax Media in a massive $7.5 billion dollar deal that has the potential to reshape the video game landscape. Due to the massive deal, Microsoft now owns acclaimed game studios like Arkane Studios (Dishonored), ID Software (Doom), Machine Games (Wolfenstein) and Bethesda Studios (Elder Scrolls and Fallout), all of which create multiplatform games that regularly release to critical and commercial acclaim. Microsoft and Xbox have been criticized for its lack of first party games (in comparison to its competitors Nintendo and Sony) but the purchase of Bethesda and its parent company could rewrite this narrative and push more consumers toward the Xbox platform. Will the massive purchase help Microsoft sell its new Xbox consoles this fall?

The Mandalorian Season 1 has been a huge critical success for Disney . One of the key factors for the series’s success was the lack of prior Star Wars knowledge that was necessary for viewers of the series. The series was largely accessible to new audiences who may have never watched Star Wars film before, though it still contained many references and connections for long time Star Wars fans. For season 2 (which debuts October 30th), there have been many rumor circulating that the series will include characters from other Star Wars books and animated series. Rumored among the cast include characters from The Clone Wars and Rebels like Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan and former Jed Ahsoka Tano. While these characters are popular among Star Wars fans, their appearances may required more complicated explanations/exposition for those who have only watched The Mandalorian. Should The Mandalorian remain largely separated from other Star Wars stories, or it should it integrate characters from the wide Star Wars universe, at the risk of losing some of what made the first season so refreshing and distinct?

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an ongoing, expanding film series, the original characters from Phase I remained key characters throughout the past ten years of film. In Avengers: Endgame, some of the major original characters completed their narrative arcs including Iron Man and Captain America. With the departure of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Chris Evan’s Steve Rogers, the MCU will need other characters to play a larger role in the overall narrative. Which new or existing characters will serve as the narrative focus for future phases of Marvel films? This article could discuss potential candidates for new corner stones of the MCU, as well as which characters have the most pressing character arcs that need to be resolved.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a huge public health topic that has affected many facets of human life this year. One of the entertainment industries most affected by the virus has been the video game industry, which is a global, interconnected industry. A variety of conferences (like E3 and GDC) have been cancelled or postponed, cancellations of major E-Sports events and even game delays (Virtuos Studios recently delayed the Switch Port of Outer Worlds) due to complications related to the virus. Other thoughts would be to explore how Coronavirus disease will impact the production release of Next Gen consoles that are currently on the horizon.

The 2017 film Justice League had a troubled production history, with the film undergoing major changes before and during production. This resulted in the theatrical release being very different from how the film had been envisioned by its original director Zack Snyder. For more than two years many fans (and some of the film’s stars) have campaigned for Snyder (using #ReleaseTheSnyderCut) to create a version of the film that more closely aligned with his original vision which include unused villains like Darkseid. In May 2020, HBO and Warner Bros. announced that "The "Snyder Cut" would be an exclusive to the new HBO Max streaming service and the project will launch sometime in 2021. This version will reportedly cost $20–30 million to complete with special effects, editing, and other revisions. Is the Snyder cut a positive thing, allowing a creator to finally realize his true vision in some way and an admittance that the studio made a mistake with the original. In contrast, could the Snyder Cut demonstrate that movie studios are listening too much to a vocal group of fans about a film that even with significant revisions may not fully satisfy its audience? Lastly, would Warner Bros. have allowed the Snyder Cut to be created in a time period where they didn’t have a massive streaming service (HBO Max) to promote/sell to consumers.

"Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)", was released on February 7th to generally favorable reviews, but the film has failed to fallen well short of its box office projections within its first week. The female lead and female directed D.C. films has been a long anticipated film and is one of the first comic book films to have an all female team (Harley Quinn, Huntress, Dinah Lance, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain). Despite the film’s similarities to a film like Deadpool (both films have an R-rating, with a narrator who is known for irreverent humor and fourth wall breaks), it is unlikely the film will even approach the box office success of that film or a more serious R-rated film like 2019’s Joker. Despite similarities and common links to other popular properties, why hasn’t "Bird of Prey" been more successful with audiences?

Disney launched earlier this week (11/12/19) and reportedly had 10 million subscribers in the first 24 hours of its availability. This number is expected to continue to grow over the next few weeks. How will the streaming landscape be affected by Disney ‘s release? What effect will Disney have on Netflix and the upcoming HBO Max? Will Disney push these companies out of the streaming business? Will Netflix and HBO Max be forced to adopt new strategies to entice customers? The article would speculate/analyze how Disney is changing the streaming landscape and business.