Leon Miller

4 days ago | thepopculturestudio.com | Leon Miller |Cultured Vultures |Panelx Panel

Let’s be honest: if today’s smart tech is in any way intelligent, it lives a truly cursed existence. Imagining constantly fielding our inane requests, weathering our abuse (admit it: you’ve chewed out a smart assistant before), and just generally dealing with how dumb, petty, and dismissive we are? It’s the stuff of nightmares – but for Murderbot Season 1’s titular cyborg security guard protagonist, it’s simply the way of the world.

4 days ago | thepopverse.com | Leon Miller

When Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits screens imminently, it’ll mark 29 years since Tom Cruise first portrayed franchise protagonist Ethan Hunt. As you’d expect, this near-three-decade history is something The Final Reckoning (like its immediate predecessor, 2023’s Dead Reckoning) leans into, hard — well, kinda. Sure, Ethan Hunt’s past is one of the primary drivers of the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible installments’ two-part story.

2 weeks ago | thepopculturestudio.com | Leon Miller |Cultured Vultures |Panelx Panel

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Thunderbolts* is not an A24 movie, no matter how much Marvel Studios’ marketing machine tries to say otherwise. On the contrary, a slightly darker tone and a few late-game creative flourishes notwithstanding, the Jake Schreier-helmed flick is very much your standard Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster.

3 weeks ago | thepopverse.com | Leon Miller

When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, it meant a major reset for Star Wars lore. Suddenly, only the first six movies and the Clone Wars cartoon were considered canon. Everything else in the Expanded Universe of licensed media was relegated to non-canonical ‘Legends’ status, including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo’s adventures after Return of the Jedi.

4 weeks ago | thepopverse.com | Leon Miller

Inside the aborted plans for the Star Wars: Underworld TV series, and to be everything George Lucas' Star Wars movies weren't. A dark, gritty take on Star Wars that trades clean-cut heroes and a sweeping good vs. evil backdrop for morally flexible protagonists operating on the murky, politically-charged margins — that could only be Disney+ series Andor, right? Wrong. Star Wars: Underworld also fits the bill.