Eights new television series and films will be added to a multitude of streaming services this week. These being anywhere from animated films to comedy specials starring the famous actors known as Tom Middleditch and Ben Schwartz, who have either been in animated seres such as DuckTales and even the Captain Underpants film. The first of these movies is called The Willoughbuys, an animated film streaming to Netflix, about a family of children who are despised by their parents and set out on a journey to find a new family. Another film is one being directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of the Avengers, and stars Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Middleditch and Schwartz, which I mentioned before, is a comedy duet special streaming to Netflix as of right now. Thomas Middleditch is a very versatile actor, being in films such as The Campaign, Zombieland: Double Tap, and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Ben Schwartz has also been cast in several movies and series such as This Is Where I Leave You, DuckTales, Sonic The Hedgehog, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Randy Cunningham: 9th Grad Ninja. So naturally, these guys are quite the pair. I personally am very excited to see the special as I am a huge fan of Ben and Tom.

Good news, the news is about to become animated. In a parody of cable news show, this series will be released on April 7th and include many interesting stories. This series will be titled “Tooning Out the News.” According to Hollywoodreporter.com, The series will feature actual famous people including Dan Abrams, Alan Dershowitz, Donny Deutsch, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Olivia Nuzzi and Congress members Barbara Lee, Donna Shalala and Eric Swalwell. It will feature many interesting segments including “Big Hews,” “Inside the Hill”, “Hot Take,” “Virtue Signal,” and “Smart Talk Tonight,” according to the website Hollywoodreporter.com. Originallly, the series had planned for a mid-march release date, but due to current issues of COVID-19, it had been pushed back to April. The series will now premiere next Tuesday on CBS All Access.

A couple of days ago, it was the fifth anniversary for James Corden’s, The Late Late Show. Unfortunately, due to the current epidemic, he was unable to air it seeing as all late night shows are currently on hold. Though that didn’t stop Corden as he posted a video the night of his anniversary. According to him, “Today is the fifth anniversary our our Late Late Show first ever airing here on CBS. We had so many big plans for tonight for the show we were going to give to you, and for obvious reasons we can’t give you that show right now. I think back to it, I’m filled with nerves and excitement and a feeling  of when that curtain opened and I walked out for the first time. I didn’t know if I was going to fall flat on my face or if this was all going to be okay. I never thought that day that I’d be here today talking to you five years on. That first episode is also important to us because it makes me think of Tom Hanks, who was our first ever guest on the show. Thoughts go out to him and Rita [Wilson] in Australia right now. Our thoughts go out to all of you wherever you are.” He was thanking them for being the first guests on his show, who are now in Australia. This missed anniversary special is just another event that’s been cancelled due to this horrifying situation we find ourselves in. Hopefully soon, and very soon even, that all this blows over and we can continue our lives as if it never happened.

Saturday Night Live, or otherwise known as SNL, hosted a Love is Blind parody, tying in a theme of the coronavirus with their sketch. John Mulaney, star of many comedy specials and is responsible for voicing Andrew Goldberg from highly-acclaimed adult-animated series on Netflix known as Big Mouth, hosted the sketch. In this spoof, according to hollywoodreporter.com, “In isolated pods separated by a shared wall, couples — who are searching for ‘love… and a cure’ — share stories of how they became exposed to coronavirus. After hearing each other’s’ stories, the contestants quickly fall in love despite the short time they’ve been given to form a bond.” The spoof sketch parodies Love Is Blind, which was a three-week event that rolled out weekly on the streaming giant as a ten-part series. The couples on the show both expressed their love for each other, despite not being together for very long. It’s true that the coronavirus is an intensely serious issue, but I belie it’s good for the people of this country to see that despite its impact it can have, it’s, we can still find the humor in anything, even if it may define our very undoing. This segment may also raise more awareness to this spreading epidemic, even if it makes fun of it in some way. Unfortunately, the sketch was cut out in regard to the limited time they had on the air.

Great news for the fans of the hit 90’s sitcom “Friends.” HBO Max, HBO’s newest upcoming streaming service, will be releasing a reunion episode of all your favorite television buddies at some point within the next year, along with the entire television series to boot. According to broadcastingcable.com, “Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together — we are reuniting with David, Jennifer, Courtney, Matt, Lisa and Matthew for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire Friends library,” said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max and president, TBS, TNT and truTV. This is something fans have been waiting for, for more than two decades and finally, we are going to get it. We get to see what happens to all of the characters post-series finale. All the actors will return in this long-awaited reunion special episode, as explained in the quote. It’s unclear when exactly the special will be released and what the story will entail, however what we do now is that it’s definitely, one hundred percent confirmed that’s it will happen and it will be released on HBO Max. Ben Winston will direct the episode and will produce along with Friends producers David Crane, Marta Kauffman and Kevin Bright. Some of the actors will executively produce the special as well, according to broadcastingcable.com.

Great news. Disney has struck gold with a multi-year television and film deal with the Nordic Entertainment Group. The films included in this deal include Jojo Rabbit, Ford v. Ferrari, The Favorite, Bohemian Rhapsody and Terminator: Dark Fate. Television series such as Greys Anatomy, Emergence and Good Trouble were included in this deal as well, bringing all these series and films to Sweden. The Nordic Entertainment Group is the largest entertainment company in Sweden and has subsidiaries such as Viaplay, Viaset, Splay Networks and NENT Studios AB which distribute the rights to stream television series and films in the country. In addition to the shows and films being acquired and having tha ability to be streamed in Sweden, they will also be able to stream Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD on Viasat in the Nordic region.

            Although it’s certainly unclear if the launch of Disney+ in the region will somehow affect how either companies operate, essentially due to the face that Viaplay offers more than 4,000 episodes of television, something called Fox+ and more than 600 documentaries from a National Geographic+ service. According to the NENT GCCO, “This agreement will extend our relationship with Disney to nearly 20 years and showcases both the popularity of their content with our viewers and the fantastic viewing experiences available on Viaplay and Viasat. We will now show even more of the world’s biggest films and series for years to come.” Also, Hans van Rijn and the Country Manager of the Nordic Walt Disney Company, added: “We are delighted to extend and expand our content partnership with NENT Group as we together look to bring Nordic audiences more original stories across more screens from the legendary 20th Century Studios. Furthermore, we are thrilled to continue to offer Viasat subscribers our full portfolio of the Disney TV channels.”

So, it’s very apparent that the two companies will be coinciding within the region, so it shouldn’t be an issue business-wise.

Disney Plus is rapidly growing to be one of the next great streaming services alongside Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many others. Along with all of it’s properties, it will be releasing Marvel TV series based in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the M.C.U. for short. These shows include, (in release order) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wandavision, Loki, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and A What If…? Series. All of the actors from the films will be reprising their roles in these new Disney Plus TV series. Disney’s plan is to have some films and some movies fill their next few phases of the M.C.U., rather than having just films. In case you didn’t know, Marvel’s films are categorized by phases. Phase 1 starts with Iron Man and ends with The Avengers. Phase two starts with Iron Man 3 and ends with Ant-Man, and finally, Phase 3 starts with Captain America: Civil War and ends with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Anyway, the first TV Series we’re going to see is The Falcon and Winter Soldier, with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their roles will take place following Avengers: Endgame and will be released this August. The next series is called WandaVision, with Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprising their roles and will take place after Endgame (we think). The third series will be about Loki, with Tom Hiddleston reprising his role. It’s intended to take place after the first Avengers film. In mid-2021, Hawkeye will also be getting his own series, with Jeremy Renner reprising his role. Following that, we will be getting a Ms. Marvel series. (Not to be confused with Captain Marvel). This “marvel” is a teenage Pakistani-American who has shapeshifting abilities. After that, we will be getting a Moon Knightseries, which is something fans have been waiting for, for a long time. There’s no news about who will be playing this character, but said character is one Marvel’s most popular character. The seventh series we will be getting is also coming out in 2021, titled She=Hulk, will follow Bruce Banner, better know as The Hulk, Jennifer Walters. The last show we know of is called Marvel What If…? It’s different than the others, being an animated series about events that could’ve gone differently the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Disney Plus Marvel TV shows: What to expect from the upcoming MCU series

In this article, titled “Freer Leaving Hulu as Disney Asserts Control” briefly points out that the Central Executive Officer for the streaming service, Hulu, will be leaving for their new proprietor, Disney, to take over the service and even allow people from other countries to further access it. The Walt Disney Corporation, as of recent, has placed themselves in the business of streaming along other sources such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the newly released Apple TV+ in the form of their streaming service titled, Disney Plus. Besides also recently acquiring 20th Century Fox, they also became the majority shareholders of the streaming service called Hulu. Why is this a good occurrence? The CEO of Hulu being let go? Well, paraphrasing from Freer himself, “With Disney Plus’s successful launch, we are now focusing on the benefits of growing our presence outside the states.” To boost their sales, they are attempting to move in on Hulu, and expand it to other countries, allowing more people to purchase their service and watch shows. This is important, and it truly benefits The Walt Disney Corporation by allowing to have not one, not two, but three streaming services (if you include ESPN+) which brings in more profits for them, which in turn, allows them to create and innovate even further than before. Freer stepping down allows Disney to move in, bring the service to other countries across the planet and boost their sales, which already builds upon the many other titles and companies they own, which include, Lucas Film, Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Pixar, ESPN, ABC, Studio Ghibli, and many others. Disney is rapidly becoming an incredibly large and booming corporation that owns at least half of the entertainment industry. Acquiring Hulu is more or less of a bonus when they purchased 20th Century Fox and received Fox’s 30% of the shares on top of the 30% of shares they already had possessed beforehand. This event mainly signifies Disney’s control of Hulu and the possibilities and possible downsides of what they decide to do with said control.

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/freer-leaving-hulu-as-disney-asserts-control

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.