Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate are joining the Venom movie, which is getting a new draft from the Fifty Shades of Grey screenwriter. We spit some hot takes on what it all means on today’s Nerdist News Talks Back, along with the latest on Pacific Rim: Uprising, and a roundup from Star Wars.

Joining guest host Amy Vorpahl today was editor-in-chief Rachel Heine, associate editor Kyle Anderson, and Mothership producer Derek Johnson. They started with their expectations for Sony’s solo Venom movie, including what they think Michelle Williams and the very funny Jenny Slate might bring to the table, as well as whether hiring Fifty Shades of Grey screenwriter Kelly Marcel for a rewrite indicates a genre change, and if the whole thing can even be successful without Spider-Man. Can Sony really pull off their own Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) when they don’t have the rights to most of the characters in the MCU?

From there it was time to battle some Kaiju and discuss the latest “Jaegar bombs” that were dropped about Pacific Rim: Uprising. Are we looking forward to it? Does the return of Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori to stop the apocalypse once more make us more excited to see it, or do we need to see more characters came back, too? And what do we make of John Boyega’s backstory/familial connection to Idris Elba‘s Pentecost from the original? Does that plot point make sense with the promotional materials we’ve seen?

Finally it was time to hit the hyperdrive to roundup all of the Star Wars news floating around the galaxy, like how it turns out Yoda wanted to train Leia and not Luke, that Han Solo’s death needed to go through Disney CEO Bob Iger, and some powers Snoke might still have to teach Kylo Ren to complete his training.

Just like it is every weekday, Nerdist News Talks Back was live at 1:00 p.m. PST on our YouTube and Alpha channels. Tune in during the show so you can discuss the day’s biggest pop culture news with us. Not having you there is like having Venom without Spider-Man. Yeah, it can work, but it’s more fun to do it together.

We still want to hear what you had to think about today’s show, so talk back to us in the comments below.

Images: Marvel, Lucasfilm

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