-Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart have broken up following two years of dating — for now.
-In happier Hollywood couple news, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix are engaged after being together for three years.
-So that was how this season of Big Little Lies wrapped, huh? Huh.
–Emma Thompson getting day-drunk with Hannah Gatsby and doing the robot for the paps is a mood.
-This was poetic: Avengers: Endgame passed Avatar to become the biggest movie in history at the same moment Marvel was on the Comic-Con stage presenting Phase 4. (Which sounds awesome, btw. So happy for Simu Liu from CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, and tickled that dudes are so upset about Natalie Portman playing Thor.)
-The movie side of Comic-Con felt really subdued, but there was a TON of TV news and trailers.
-I didn’t expect Comic-Con to make me emotional, but the panels for shows that are ending got to me. The Supernatural dudes teared up, Arrow’s Stephen Amell teared up, The Good Place’s Kristen Bell teared up. Dammit, feelings!
-The three Andrew Lincoln-led Walking Dead movies will no longer air on AMC; they’ll be released exclusively in theaters. Do people still like this franchise enough to spend movie money on it?!
-It’s odd that HBO thought it would be a good idea to have a Game of Thrones panel at Comic-Con. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss bailed, but lots of the cast showed up. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau got some boos from the audience when he said he thought it made sense for Jamie to die in the arms of Cersei.
–Rose Leslie is exiting The Good Fight, which makes sense because last season it was like she was on a completely different show.
-Oof, that Veronica Mars season. I loved it right up until until I didn’t. No spoilers but female characters don’t need to be tortured and miserable to be “strong” or worth rooting for. It’s straight out of the Joss Whedon handbook and we should have moved past this shit by now.
-Showrunner Rob Thomas is giving interviews about the big twist, and said “It is a gamble. If we never get to do Veronica Mars again because the fans turned on the show… then I placed a large bet and lost it.” It’s poses an interesting question, though. I don’t think creators owe fans anything (even if their work is fan-funded), but I also don’t think fans own creators their continued loyalty if they do something they know the fans will hate. This move just pissed off what is very likely their most vocal, fervent fans (the ones, I would argue, who were largely responsible for resurrecting the show). What will it look like if a lot of those fans wash their hands of it?
-Also, his defense is that it’s a “noir” show, which falls apart if you look at the tropes of noir.
-Good on Tina Majorino (who played Mac) for clarifying that she didn’t come back for the new Veronica Mars season not because of scheduling conflicts, but because of her character’s “diminished value.”
–Cate Blanchett showed up at a drag brunch in Toronto this weekend. Dammit, I’m going to that on Sunday. Just one week off!
-Here’s the first new trailer for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a movie about Mr. Rogers, played by Tom Hanks.