This week, we’re feeling lucky at the box office — literally. The new heist film from Steven Soderbergh, Logan Lucky, hits all the right notes, offering heart, comedy, and an intriguing heist all anchored on killer performances from a loaded deck of stars, including Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, Hillary Swank — heck, even Seth MacFarlane shows up. If you liked Ocean’s Eleven, Soderbergh’s fun and flashy reboot of the Rat Pack hit, you’ll love this film, which adds a zany, Coen-esque twist to the heist formula for one of the funnest movies we’ve seen this summer.
However, beyond the current box office, the biggest thing on our collective, podcasting minds this week is a wise old Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Why, you may ask? Because early rumors suggest that Disney may indeed be looking at the Vader-training badass for the next installment of its Star Wars spinoff films. The fan favorite film makes sense — in fact, we’d say more sense than the young Han Solo film currently in production purgatory with replacement director Ron Howard. After all, not only is Obi-Wan one of the ripest characters for backstory fun, the role has already been embodied by capable (and at times fantastic) actor Ewan McGregor in the sequels. Not only is McGregor just the right age to take on the role once more, he’s also on the way back up after a killer turn in Fargo season 3 and a solid reprisal of his original role in the sequel to Trainspotting.
As usual, there’s plenty more to talk about this week in the world of entertainment, including a first teaser for The Punisher, just in time for the debut of Netflix/Marvel’s The Defenders. It’s no coincidence the two lined up, and there’s not much to see in the teaser beyond some still shots, but we’re still admittedly excited to get any tease from the new series we can. As fans of the comics since our tweens, this latest evolution of the violent vigilante just might finally bring us an on-screen version worthy of the Punisher name.
Also on this week’s show, we’ll discuss Daniel Craig’s confirmed final turn as Bond, an actual script for a second Gremlins sequel (seriously), a Jetsons live-action series from Robert Zemeckis, Louis C.K.’s surprise movie, and much more.
So tune in and hit us up live at 2 p.m. PT today, or take us along for the ride with our podcast version by following the links at the top.
