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The Rock Confirms SHAZAM, First Look at ANT-MAN, and No More Origin Stories for Marvel!

Who’s ready for a super-powered, action-packed installment of Nerdist News?! You are, jabronis!

On today’s episode, Jessica Chobot‘s breaking down the long-awaited confirmation that The Rock will take a role in DC’s Shazam, the first official photo from the set of Ant-Man, and Marvel‘s shocking (but very smart) news that they will no longer make origin stories! A superhero movie without a drawn-out expository section where they gain and learn to harness their powers? Is that even possible?!

Enjoy today’s show, come back for another heapin’ helping tomorrow, and let us know in the comments below if you’re onboard the “no more origin stories” train.

Want even more Nerdist News goodness? Check out Malik’s new episode of Nerdist: Play and see what happened to Jessica in the Catacombs of Paris during the As Above/ So Below interview!

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Comments

  1. Tim says:

    Guys you misheard The Rock, hes not playing Shazam, he is replacing Shaq as Kazam

  2. I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear anything over the hotness of Chobot.

  3. coren says:

    So you’re saying the Rock…knows his role?

  4. Joshua says:

    In regards to the doing away with origin stories, Spider Man is one thing as we have seen multiple tv and movie renditions of spider mans start and a majority of the people who know about superheroes or know any superhero probably know Spider Mans story. However Doctor Strange is another matter, while he is a super awesome and mystical character he is not nearly as well known as the hulk, spider man, or iron man in terms of origin. If any film needs an origin story it would be Doctor Strange. The whole point of an origin story is to show how far a hero has come from where they used to be before become super powered beings to where they are now as the Sorcer Supreme or genius with a suit of armour. 

    • Adam Baum says:

      As I can kind of see your point (and others below) with more obscure characters, as Chobot said in the video, Guardians did it quite well without origins really. We get a very brief flashback or just a few lines of dialogue to catch the audience up at appropriate times in the movie and I think that is just fine too and not as boring as the first 30 minutes of each movie leading us to the the character(s) we paid to really see.

      • RB says:

        Totally disagree. Darth Vadar, Lara Croft. Master Chief. Wolverine. James Bond. These all are creative properties that didn’t have prequels for decades and yet look how long before the finally produced origin stories. James Bond being the oldest (52 years) of the IP’s on the list I just gave you. As long as there’s a great story with great acting, you don’t need an origin story right away. 

    • leonid says:

      agree

  5. Rudy Bellg says:

    I’ve always thought origin stories were over-rated. If you look at Alien, LOTR, Star Wars, James Bond (Casino Royale-Daniel Craig version). These are all great examples of characters that started further along in the story mythos and later (in some cases much later) offered the prequel. I actually like the prequels better now that I’ve spent so much time watching a character(s) grow. There are great examples in other creative mediums like gaming: Halo, Batman Arkham Asylum/City, Tomb Raider. Comics: Wolverine, who have offered basically the same experience like the movies I just suggested. The “discovery” storyline thus far is formulaic and overdone. I’m so ready for an update to the growing superhero franchise. I think this is a very smart move.

  6. Chris says:

    I think for characters not as well-known as Spider-man (like Dr. Strange, if you ask me) we still need the origin stories. 

  7. Chris Zak says:

    Johnson should definitely play Black Adam because he’s simply the better character…in fact, why not just make it a Black Adam movie? Screw the kids crap.

  8. Andy says:

    I think it would be pretty cool to see some origin stories for the villains as well, or maybe that’s a huge can of worms that doesn’t need to be opened for the time being.

  9. Aron says:

    I think it depends on which movie they would be making on whether or not they should do away with origin stories. Now with the Rock I think he should play Black Atom