Geekly Roundup, April 5th: Casts on Casts on Casts Edition

On this week’s Geekly Roundup, Mark, Mike, and David have a Deadpool rating to discuss, as well as casting news for both Deadpool and the upcoming Arrow and Flash DC Television Universe spinoff. Then, a serious discussion of an offensively discriminatory joke in Pillars of Eternity turns into an excellent discussion on advancing geek culture and having civil discourse within our fandom. You won’t want to miss this episode!


 Ryan Reynolds fights to get Deadpool “R” rating

Ryan Reynolds wanted badly to get the Merc with a Mouth an R rating. He’ll have less mouth to watch after succeeding, which he announced in true Deadpool fashion on April Fool’s Day — only it wasn’t a joke. Additionally, Deadpool cast Brianna Hildebrand as the short-lived, precognitive Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

 Spinoff of Arrow and Flash casts Hawkgirl, adds Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter

News from the upcoming “Brave and the Bold”-styled DC Television Universe spinoff this week as Ciara Renée has been cast as the fiery sometimes-Thanagarian Hawkgirl; the show will include Brandon Routh, Wentworth Miller, and others — and, as has recently been revealed, Arthur Darvill, known most recently as Doctor Who’s Rory. Darvill is set to portray time patroller Rip Hunter, formerly of DC’s Linear Men.

 Transphobic joke in Pillars of Eternity raises concerns, is passive-aggressively removed by backer of game

Though there have been many good things to say about the new Pillars of Eternity game, evoking the Baldur’s Gate games of old in style and attitude, a furor swept the Internet this week at this discovery of a joke, submitted by one of the game’s crowdsourcing backers, in very poor, distinctly transmisogynistic taste. Obsidian Entertainment responded quickly to address the issue, contacting the backer in question and requesting an alteration of the material — and prompting this replacement, which while less offensive, seems thoroughly telling regarding its submitter.

 Mulan latest piece of Disney nostalgia to receive live-action film

If Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast wasn’t enough for you to bring on the waves of Disney-related nostalgia, try this on for size: The next live-action epic to be adapted from a movie from your childhood is Mulan. Fans are already clamoring for original Mulan voice actress and SHIELD favorite Ming-Na Wen to play the lead in the live-action movie; she even provided a response, visible here.

 WTF Generator: Nordic LARP

So you have a hankering for a distinctive, theme-addressing, modern-day take on live-action role-play from Scandinavia — but what kind? Though somewhat silly, this addition to the WTF series of absurdly random generators is a big hit.

 Fashion It So: A TNG review Tumblr (with sass)

Because your last Next Generation review just didn’t have enough commentary on Wesley’s Technicolor sweaters or Guinan’s draped fabric, here’s a new Tumblr that has a light-hearted look at outfits from the Enterprise-D.

Also Around the Internet:

U.S. Premiere of Mr. Holmes announced (Sir Ian McKellen/Facebook)

Steven Moffat speaks out about Sherlock series 4, fanfic (The Mary Sue)

James Mickens, the funniest person in Microsoft Research (Programming Is Terrible/Tumblr)

Trailer for HBO’s The Casual Vacancy (HBO/YouTube)

Cards Against Humanity releases expansion pack to fund scholarships (Daily Kos)

Adam West and Burt Ward to reprise roles in Batman 50th anniversary film (Consequence of Sound)

Akinnouye-Agbaje reportedly cast as Killer Croc (Comic Book Resource)

Eastwood, Olubowale reportedly cast as Steve Trevor, King Shark for Suicide Squad (Comic Book Resource)

Seven more stars announced for Con Man (The Nerdist)

Live-action Star Wars TV series rumored to be in development (Screenrant)

Stephen Amell tapped for Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (Variety)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer to be released alongside Avengers: Age of Ultron (Comicbook.com)

Marvel discusses animated Avengers Disassembled at Emerald City Comic-Con (Newsarama)

Find the perfect 3D-printable mini for your RPG (3D Print)

Kingdom Hearts 3 gets release date, reveals pieces of plot (Latin Times)

Check out the limited-edition Arkham Knight PlayStation 4 (Comicbook.com)

A woman may join Final Fantasy XV’s road-trip party (temporarily) (Kotaku)

New ARM-powered chip aims for decades of battery life (Ars Technica)

An app that detects cosmic rays, for the astrophysicist in all of us (NPR)

Suntory Whiskey 3D-prints incredible ice cubes (Ad Week)

Dying Light’s April Fool’s: The Aerodynamic Dead (Kotaku)

LOBO Co-creator Roger Slifer passes (Newsarama)

Lots of news to follow this week — have a look through everything going on, have a listen to the podcast, and we’ll see you again next time for another Geekly Roundup!

The Geekly Roundup is a weekly Ace of Geeks feature that brings together all the interesting things we've encountered across the Internet this week.  The Geekly Roundup podcast this week features Mark Foo, Mike Fatum, and David Losey.

Contributions for this week's Roundup were submitted by Sam, Raven, MalKontent, Jonathan, Alain, Ellie, and Ben.