Is ‘the magic of the multiverse’ the key to a Black Panther recast?

Hey, it’s a Friday edition of Popculturology. There’s a lot of heavy stuff going on in the world, but we do have a few bits of lighter pop culture to chat about this week. Just gotta place an order for a few spare Blu-ray players first ...

“We’re going to be in so much trouble”

I hadn’t expected Skeleton Crew to turn into one of the best Star Wars projects we’ve gotten since Disney purchased Lucasfilm, but here we are. Unless the only kids you want to see in Star Wars are younglings being slaughtered by Darth Vader, I don’t know how anyone could hate Skeleton Crew.

There’s just one episode left to go for Skeleton Crew, with the penultimate installment ending on a pretty big cliffhanger as Jude Law’s Jod/Silvio ignites his lightsaber against the show’s kids and their parents.

Law has been such a gift to Star Wars. No offense to Skeleton Crew’s child actors, but Law is the star of this show. He’s given us a villain who is charming, warm, funny — and also brutally lethal.

“What exactly are you going to do?” Law’s Jod snarled at the kids in this episode, reminding them (and us) that he’s an adult with a weapon and they’re just children. I don’t expect to see a redemption arc for Jod in the finale.

• Seeecrettttsssss: OK, so we know that At Attin is an Old Republic Mint, but what exactly do the planet’s citizens know? In the video they broadcast out, the kids were told by their parents that they would’ve found out about At Attin’s role when they graduated. Does that mean at least a few people on the planet know that the Old Republic is gone? What have they been doing all this time? (At Attin is absolutely going to explain where the First Order got its funding, isn’t it?)
• The maelstrom: Loved how Skeleton Crew portrayed the maelstrom that hid At Attin.

An unlikely pair

I wrapped up two books this week that I’d recommend adding to your reading lists for the new year: Character Limit from Kate Conger and Ryan Mac and Tusks of Extinction from Ray Nayler.

The two books couldn’t be more different — a nonfiction chronicle of Elon Musk’s destruction of Twitter and a new science-fiction novella from the author of The Mountain in the Sea — but I was struck by one passage from Tusks of Extinction that weirdly tied the duo together for me.

No — it was power. Power was the ability to destroy without needing to. To do it not out of necessity, but as an act of pure excess. To do something to someone else simply because you could. And this was perhaps the greatest power of all: to kill something that no one else could kill.

Anyway, happy Friday!

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

Will Secret Wars lead to a Black Panther recast?

Chadwick Boseman’s death four years ago was a massive loss on so many levels. As a husband. As a human being. As a role model.

The MCU also lost their T’Challa with Boseman’s death. After Boseman portrayed the character, who carried the mantle of Black Panther and king of Wakanda, in Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, his passing left the franchise scrambling to find a path forward with the character.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and Black Panther writer/director Ryan Coogler made the choice to not recast T’Challa, instead having the MCU work through that loss via the death of T’Challa. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a reflection of that loss.

Part of that decision meant that Letitia Wright’s Shuri would now carry the mantle of the Black Panther in the MCU. But is that about to change?