This Week’s MPN Podcast: Review for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and Recap of ‘Avatar’ on Disney+; Henry Cavill to Leave DC Cinematic Universe and ‘Witcher’ Netflix Series for ‘Warhammer 40k’ Series
December 28, 2022
On this week’s episode of the Media Play News podcast, hosts Charles Parkman and Charlie Showley lead with a review for Avatar: The Way of Water as well as a quick recap and comparison to the original Avatar (available to stream on Disney+).
In short: the sequel successfully builds on the story of the first movie but the true attraction is the stunning visual effects. In Charlie’s words: it’s as though a documentary shoot took place on an alien planet because the CGI is so seamless and the ecosystem is so vibrant the movie will effortlessly transport you back to Pandora. Charles was similarly impressed, expressing his disappointment with the original but applauding The Way of Water. Both hosts are looking forward to the next installment of the franchise. When it comes to box office performance, as of the time of recording the movie has broken $900 million worldwide and still easily taking the No. 1 spot domestically. It faces little to no competition in theaters until the next Marvel release, Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February.
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In streaming, it’s been a busy time for actor Henry Cavill. Production disagreements and friction between the showrunners/writers and Cavill on Netflix’s “The Witcher” have led to his departure from the series, to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth in the next season. Simultaneously, due to pivots in DC’s strategy (spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran), Cavill will also not reprise his role as Superman in upcoming movies, despite his character’s recent cameo in the Black Adam post-credits scene. But with a trick up his sleeve, Cavill has announced his new role as executive producer and lead in Amazon Prime Video’s “Warhammer 40k” series, a sci-fi property popular with tabletop role-playing gamers. Cavill himself is a huge fan of the IP and while little is known about Amazon’s plans there is universal positive buzz about his announcement.