Streaming News Round-Up: March 29th, 2021

Trailer released for The Suicide Squad

Continuing their pattern of releasing new films on HBO Max the same day as in theaters, Warner Bros has set August 6th, 2021 as the release date for The Suicide Squad. The movie appears to be both a sequel and a soft reboot of the financially successful but critically panned 2016 film Suicide Squad (although I'm not sure how adding the word “the” to a film's title helps to differentiate it from the original).

As with the recent DC Comics film Birds of Prey, the film heavily features Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. This film will see a spin-off show featuring John Cena's character Peacemaker debut on HBO Max in early 2022. The cast is rounded out with Hollywood big wigs including Viola Davis, Idris Elba, and Sylvester Stallone as a giant talking man-shark. James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, directs.

Watch it here, but take note this is red band trailer for language and violence so you must be logged into a Youtube account.

George R.R. Martin Is Developing Various Game of Thrones Spin-Offs, Will Make Boatloads of Money

The author recently signed a deal to develop new projects for both HBO and HBO Max over a five-year period. This includes at least five different shows set within the GOT universe. His payout is reportedly worth EIGHT figures.

Interestedly enough, he has a separate non-GOT related project in the works at Peacock as well. Meanwhile, his fans just want him to just finish that damn book.

Star Wars Updates for Disney Plus

Disney's highly anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series will start filming in April, presumably with a release date sometime in 2022. The cast features Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader from the prequels along with recently announced cast members such as Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, and Kumail Nanjiani.

Sebastian Stan, long-rumored in be cast as a young Luke Skywalker in some kind of Disney Plus project has responded to the hypothetical casting, saying he would only play Luke if Mark Hamill personally asked him to do it.

Finally, Disney Plus will be releasing a gold mine of deep-cuts from the Star Wars Legends material in April including both of the made-for-television Ewoks movies, the Ewoks cartoon series, the original 2D animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series, and a cartoon segment from the 1970's that marked Boba Fett's on-screen debut pre-Empire.

Interestingly enough, this Boba Fett cartoon first appeared during the Star Wars Holiday Special. No word yet on whether we will get the full train wreck of a special this year in time for Life Day.

The Surprising Environmental Impact of Streaming Video

CNN's Project Planet has released a report on the way our streaming habits impact the planet. Ironically it is through a streaming video.

You can watch it here.