Millions of people have visited San Diego for their yearly pop culture event that has delighted fans since 1970 when they began in a small venue featuring comic books.
Just completing it’s fifty-fifth year subsequent to this events in 2025, without a doubt people who have attended love the comic books, games, artwork, and panels for television and film productions.
Sometimes overlooked by admirers of the entertainment industry are the people Behind The Scenes (BTS) that make the television series and films come to life before our eyes. While actors and directors are often recognized by admirers, the “real” people listed in the credits of each film or television series deserve our attention because without their extraordinary efforts, the entertainment products would not become a reality.
Each of these talented individuals are creative genius’ who revealed what motivated them to produced outstanding entertainment. The five creators shared details of their journey to bring top notch products to our screens during their interviews.
Julie Ann Crommett is the CEO of Collective Moxie that helps brands and creators engage audiences in meaningful ways to build sustained success.
Formerly with Disney/Google as an equity changemaker, Julie is well known for her work on one of our favorite movies, the Marvel Studios blockbuster Black Panther.
Julie has also produced several other productions including the hit series Launchpad (2021-2023) where filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds were selected and provided with the opportunity to share their perspectives and creative visions that will show audiences what it means to be seen.
Image courtesy Pilar Flynn
Pilar Flynn is the incredible Showrunner for Marvel’s hit television series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur which completed their second season earlier in March 2025.
Pilar is well known for her work as a producer for the hit film Astro Boy (2009) where she worked with Nicholas Cage and Kristen Bell.
In Astro Boy, Pilar was also featured as a voice actor in this fun film about an android replica of a boy who is rejected by his aggrieved creator. The boy goes off to find his own identity in an adventure that would make him the greatest hero of his time.
Image courtesy Jorge R.Gutiérrez
Jorge R.Gutiérrez is an Emmy Award and Annie Award winning director/writer/actor well known for his many accomplishments over the past quarter century.
Jorge’s work includes Directing The Book of Life (2014), Maya and the Three (2021) and directing the 2024 opening title of the fan favorite famous hit series The Simpsons! Jorge has also acted in twenty-five films and series during his successful career in the entertainment industry.
Image courtesy Sydney Bright
Sydney Bright is the head of Global Animation at the renowned Wattpad Webtoon Studios where you can grow in a whole new way with Wattpad’s Story School featuring creators and experts from Wattpad HQ where you will not a beat with fresh updates, news, and resources for writers, delivered straight to your inbox .
Sydney is also well known for her production work on eleven episodes of Bob’s Burgers, thirty episodes of Brickleberry as well as four episodes of The Awesomes!
Al’s comedic talent brings humor and jovial joy to anyone who has witnessed his fine work on forty-eight films and television productions.
We hope that you enjoyed our interviews with the “Real People (with) Real Stories” that have enlightened our lives and brought enjoyment to our lives.
We will be back soon with two additional Press Room interviews that we covered during our time at San Diego Comic-Con this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future and as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WormholeRiders on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
On Thursday July 24, 2025 WormholeRiders News Agency had the honor of attending the Unexpected Treasures Press Room for interviews conducted during San Diego Comic-Con 2025. Unexpected Treasures is brand new science fiction film with comedic flair featuring Direction by John Paul Ungaretti (Outer Banks) and co-written by and Ungaretti and Christina Heller who also served as the films executive producer.
Unexpected Treasures writers Christina Heller and John Paul Ungaretti recently shared their feelings with admirers about this superb film that:
“We are thrilled to share this film with audiences around the world., We believe Unexpected Treasures has the makings of a cult classic for fans of campy fun, supernatural adventures, and nostalgic 90s-style popcorn movies.”
Unexpected Treasures is wonderful science fiction film about an alien adventure that restores a local resident’s faith in humanity as they scrape by in Joshua Tree, located in the Mojave desert of California. Hartley’s world is thrown into chaos when she meets Sam, a mysterious alien on the run. As they navigate the vast Mojave Desert, Hartley must rely on local legends and an eccentric group of allies to survive!
Image by Kenn of #TeamWHR
Unexpected Treasures is a comedic, heartfelt science fiction adventure about survival, trust, and the unexpected connections that transform both human and alien lives. Following the successful premiere at Comic-Con, we are very excited about the Unexpected Treasures science fiction film that is scheduled for broadcast release September 19, 2025 on streaming services Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV!. For your enjoyment, we include our “We Are A Galactic Community” featurette and the recently released extended trailer.
We will be back soon with additional Press Room interviews and Panels that we covered during our time at San Diego Comic-Con this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future and as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WormholeRiders on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
What we have all waited five years for has finally come to pass! It is the year 2120, two years before the events in Alien (1979) and fifty-nine years before the events of Aliens (1986). Although drifting from canon, fans should consider that it is likely the events in Alien: Earth may have led to the findings of the Nostromo as delineated in the first and expanded in then second films of the franchise.
NOTE: What is rather odd about this brand new broadcast science fiction series is that after Alien fans have been waiting over five years for it, the three major Social Media associated accounts on X (Hulu, Disney Plus and FX Networks) have failed to regularly post or even interact with Alien: Earth fans. Nor do they post anything promoting the series each week. Critically, FX Networks has not even posted since the Shogun on November 02, 2023!
Image courtesy FX Networks
Everyone in the entertainment industry, including FX Networks owner Disney Studios knows that X is without doubt the most important social media entertainment platform in the world as indicated by their use of X to promote other movie and television franchise products. Fans we have questioned want to know why Alien: Earth is being virtually ignored on X?
Before you proceed with my analysis, we suggest reading Lori’s detailed analysis of the first two episodes that clearly highlights the good and non canon aspects concerning Alien: Earth. The good news is that FX Networks has elected to broadcast the full episodes that are over an hour in in length so that important elements are not left on the cutting room floor for commercials.
This time around we are once again on a ship owned by the corrupt Weyland-Yutani Corporation that has been seeking extra terrestrial life forms for several decades (at least). Named the USCSS Maginot, the ship was on a 65 year mission returning to Earth with several alien specimens that will manifest into disastrous results.
Image courtesy 20th Century Studios
What all this means is that the Xenomorph Egg proto specimens may have been on the Alien: Earth Maginot ship from as early as the year 2093.
This is well before the evil corporate android David (Michael Fassbender) created the Xenomorphs in the year 2104 during Alien: Covenant (2017).
All this happened after the events that occurred subsequent to the events in the year 2093 onboard the ship in the film Prometheus (2012) some twenty-two years before Alien: Romulus in the year 2142.
Viewers will recall that this was when a ship full of Xenomorph’s, with the help of a sickening synthetic humanoid android named Rook (Ian Holm), planned to take over and infect all the passengers on the ship portrayed in Romulus, then ultimately bring the Xenomorph’s to Earth for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation!
Fortunately two survive Romulus in cryogenic stasis and escape on a cargo ship named Corbelan before the main ship named the Renaissance is destroyed by impact with the rings of planet LV-410 apparently killing the hideous Xenomorphs. All of this says nothing about the events of Alien Resurrection set some 261 years after Alien: Earth!
Confused yet Alien: Earth admirers? Most Alien franchise fans are justifiably perplexed. Especially since series creator Noah Hawley stated in an interview before the release of Alien: Earth that he was going to largely ignore references made in the outstanding Alien prequel movies Prometheus and Covenant. Many Alien franchise fans agree that not referencing the prequels makes no sense!
Image courtesy FX Networks
Too bad Mr. Hawley, TeamWHR has news for you! Alien franchise fans and WormholeRiders News Agency have done all the mathematics and figured out that what is about to happen is all tied together. Your job Mr. Hawley (Ethan Hunt – Mission Impossible pun intended) is to maintain the veracity and sanctity of the Alien canon, something that seems to have eluded yourself and franchise creator and Alien: Earth Executive Producer Ridley Scott to some extent so far.
This time around, we learn Weyland-Yutani Corporation has competition. In specific Prodigy Corporation is named that has created hybrid humans by implanting the consciousness of terminally ill young people into the synthetic human bodies. Utilizing the film classic Peter Pan, unfortunately pandering to Disney Studios in the process, by naming the main Alien: Earth characters Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and Peter Pan’s “Lost Boys”.
Image courtesy FX Networks
Nevertheless, although a bad move by the creators of Alien Earth in our humble opinion, the third episode titled Metamorphosis, returns to Alien canon for the most part to the sighs of relief from the viewers. This after a lackluster 590,000 viewers on FX Networks for the premiere episode and only 380,000 for the second episode. This is compared to 2.6 million viewers for the Nautilus science fiction series premiere that Disney cancelled prematurely. After producing and broadcasting the first season in the UK, fortunately for North American fans, this superb science fiction adventure series was sold to AMC-TV.
Additionally, as mentioned above, FX Networks, the creator of Alien: Earth, has not posted anything since November 2023 on X. Strangely, Hulu only recently began supporting the FX Networks flagship science fiction series on X with only three posts AND NONE on Disney Plus!
Many commenting on X hope that it turns out to be an accidental omission in this case up to now. However, even on Facebook, the official Alien: Earth posts are often liked by only a few hundred people, with only ~92,000 followers, not hundreds thousands of followers expected for a series with 9.2 million of viewers.
This third episode invests in character development while returning to it’s Alien roots with a decisive battle between an escaped Xenomorphic alien creature and Wendy. Written by Noah Hawley and Directed by Dana Gonzales, it is confirmed that Weyland-Yutani‘s Morrow (Babou Ceesay) is the only survivor of the Maginot. Morrow unsuccessfully attempts to make a deal with Kirsh (Timothy Olyphont) regarding the cargo he has crash landed on an Earth island named Neverland. It is another Peter Pan Disney Studios pander that leaves many viewers scratching their heads in puzzlement.
Image courtesy FX Networks
Morrow escapes and reports to his boss Yutani (Sandra Yi Sencindiver) who is the daughter of the original Yutani who was in charge at Weyland-Yutani before he left on the Maginot sixty-five years earlier.
Morrow is ordered back to base, but convinces Yutani that he has a plan to salvage the extraterrestrial creature cargo he brought back to Earth. No doubt Morrow plans to steal it from Prodigy Corporation on Neverland research island complex. This element is left for future episodes to explore.
Meanwhile, Wendy is searching frantically against the orders of Kirsh. When she finds her brother Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther), viewers witness that he has been trapped in Xenomorph goo, obviously being prepared for implantation by a Facehugger egg.
In the process Wendy is witnessed battling the escaped Xenomorph that grew to full size after everyone, except Morrow, on the Maginot was slaughtered.
Wendy does battle with the Xenomorph and thankfully succeeds in killing the creature in a classic fight to the death confrontation. During the confrontation Wendy is damaged.
Fortunately, Wendy who was injured in the process, is saved by minions of Kirsh who take her back to Boy Kavalier’s (Samuel Blenkin) laboratory to have her injuries repaired. Here with Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis), Wendy’s human “mother” standing bedside, we learn that Wendy, unless completely destroyed by Xenomorph acid blood, can be restored to full functionality. Mighty handy for the future of the series that apparently all the hybrids can be repaired,
While this is happening, Nibs (Lily Newmark) and hybrid Curly (Erana James) who also looks a lot like Sigourney Weaver, wonder why they couldn’t keep their human names. They accuse Boy Kavalier of Wendy being his favorite. Kavalier admits Wendy is, but only because she was the first hybrid to be created, but that she (Curly) is in the hunt for favorite hybrid status as they work in the laboratory with other extra terrestrial creatures including the Eye-Ball monster among other horrors.
Image courtesy FX Networks
We also learn that Wendy, after she escapes the laboratory hospital, can hear the alien creatures being resurrected in the laboratory. We witnessed Wendy hearing alien chittering language during the premiere, but viewers thought it was due to the proximity of the Xenomorph.
From the story arc in the third episode, it appears apparent that Wendy is currently the only hybrid who can hear these foul creatures thinking. No doubt this will become a focal point in future episodes.
Image courtesy FX Networks
In Metamorphosis, during the ending sequences, we witness Kirsh extracting what appears to be a tadpole from a Facehugger specimen. This tadpole, a baby Xenomorph, is being inserted into a human lung. This delineation establishes that the Xenomorph’s do not gestate in the intestines of their victims before literally bursting upon the world killing their hosts per Alien canon.
An interesting development, to say the least, is proof that both Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani corporations have long planned to develop the Xenomorph as a weapon of mass destruction despite the obvious threat to humanity. The real question to consider is if Prodigy in the process of making a Xenomorph queen? Our opinion is yes and this factor will be to investigated further in future episodes.
The fourth episode is directed by Ugla Hauksdóttir and was written by Noah Hawley. “Observation” creates an Alien canon pivot point regarding what happened subsequent to Wendy and Joe Hermit (her brother) in their life and death struggle with a fully formed Xenomorph that escaped the Maginot.
Fortunately Wendy successfully killed the creature in the previous episode much to the disappointment of Prodigy Corporation. However, Boy Kavalier’s Prodigy Corporation has plans to rectify that situation!
The episode opens with a scene of Wendy on a hospital like table being examined by Kirsh, Dame Sylvia, her scientist husband Arthur (David Rysdahl), and Boy Kavalier. Wendy relates she has experienced “hearing the Xenomorph’s thinking”.
This fits the episode description “An unexpected connection is formed while a covert plot puts everyone in danger”
When Wendy awakens, brother Joe Hermit arrives and is told that his damaged lung was replaced and that he will never guess what they did with his old lung.
Viewers will recall that Wendy saw Joe’s lung being experimented on and that Kirsh implanted a Facehugger tadpole in it. Although Wendy did not know at the time it was her brothers lung because Kirsh took her hearing “offline” so that Wendy cannot hear he and Boy Kavalier talking.
This is a disturbing development because it means that Boy Kavalier’s Prodigy Corporation has complete control over the hybrid human beings. Wendy later surmises it was her brothers lung when she learns her brother received an artificial lung from Kirsh in the Prodigy Corporation research laboratory.
Image courtesy FX Networks
After her hearing is restored, Wendy shares with Boy Kavalier and Kirsh confirming to them both that she can hear the Xenomorphs thinking and that she suspects a baby Xenomorph is in process of being born elsewhere in the Prodigy research laboratory complex. Do they know about this?.
Kirsh expresses concern that it could affect their plan to manipulate the extraterrestrial life forms. Boy Kavalier blithely states that everything and everyone on the island is his property!
Image courtesy FX Networks
In a particularly vivid scene, viewers learn that this includes Kirsh using the Eye- Ball monster to take over a sheep, an innocent life form.
Despite objections expressed by Arthur as expressed to his wife Dame Sylvia, It is at this point viewers learn that Prodigy Corporation in general and Boy Kavalier in specific have no ethical objections to utilizing anyone or anything to achieve their nefarious goals.
Meanwhile Morrow recruits Aarush Singh renamed to hybrid human Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) to infiltrate Kirsh’s laboratory. Although reluctant, Slightly is convinced when Morrow blackmails him with implied threats to his family. Unknown to Morrow and Slightly, Kirsh is observed monitoring their entire conversation!
Image courtesy FX Networks
The episode continues with brother Joe Hermit also being blackmailed. Unless he cooperates with Prodigy Corporation and helps keep an eye on Wendy, he will be sent off the island, never see his sister again, and a hefty bill for his lung replacement will be forthcoming.
To make matter worse for the hapless hyvrids, Nibs confesses to Dame Sylvia that she believes she is pregnant. The result is Dame Sylvia Nibs is to be locked in her room. Will Nibs survive what Boy Kavalier and Prodigy Corporation have in store for her?
Image courtesy FX Networks
The episode comes to an ending with Wendy back in the research laboratory where the sounds she has heard are coming from. Kirsh observing Wendy without her knowledge. Wendy, while looking at lung that is the source of the Xenomorph thinking she hears witnesses a baby creature erupt from the lung taken from her brother.
Amazingly, Wendy, with a smug smile on her face, is not afraid and actually pets the hideous baby Xenomorph who does not attack Wendy! The only conclusion we can draw is that Wendy is in communication with the baby monster, Is this what Kirsh and Boy Kavalier planned or is it a surprise they didn’t know was coming? Tune in for future episodes to find out!
We will be back with more on Alien: Earth after we complete our reports about the Press Room interviews and Panels we covered during our time at San Diego Comic-Con this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WormholeRiders on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
A superb science fiction comedy drama with a large diverse cast, Upload on Prime explores the concepts surrounding a primary character named Nathan, after his untimely premature death.
When Nathan’s consciousness is uploaded into a virtual world, the awesome adventure begins. As Nathan gets comfortable with his surroundings, questions about his death arise subsequent to a self-driving car crash that unfortunately cut his young life short. Nathan explores this new reality with his pals Luke.
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
Nathan finds himself uploaded to a place known as Lakeview which turns out to be his girlfriend’s family digital after-life. During his time in Lakeview, Nathan meets his Upload customer service representative Nora, with often surprising results in the real world that include his desire to return to Ingrid.
Under the guidance of Executive Producer and Writer Maxwell Theodore Vivian, during the course of the first three seasons, Nathan alternatively attends his own funeral, has his memories restored, and is downloaded into a synthetic body.
All the while poor Nathan is seeking answers to what has happened that placed his on this unusual journey. Hoping for a solution to his predicament, Nathan learns many things about life and it’s consequences.
Ultimately Nathan’s struggle leads to a decisive battle with evil to defeat corporate and societal influences that are attempting to manipulate the dangerous technological advances related to the Upload / Download process!
Upload on Prime is an American television science fiction comedy drama series created by Greg Daniels for Amazon Prime Video. The first season premiered on May 1, 2020, and consists of ten episodes. In May 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on March 11, 2022, and consists of seven episodes. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on October 20, 2023, and consists of eight episodes.
In March 2024, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season to the worldwide acclaim of fans and admirers alike.
To avoid spoilers, we strongly suggest fans of Upload re-watch Upload on Prime seasons one to three before season four of this superb science fiction series begins it’s final run.
The season four premiere starts soon, only a week from Monday this coming August 25, 2025!
We also suggest visiting the Upload on Prime X account to increase your excitement regarding Nathan and his friends adventures in the digital realm and in real life!
The fourth fabulous season will consist of four exciting episodes that will conclude this outstanding science fiction series. We include the season four trailer below for your enjoyment.
We look forward to sharing more about the Press Rooms and Panels we covered during our time at San Diego Comic-Con this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WormholeRiders on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
One of our most favorite things in life are the musical genius composers who bring life to movie, television and theater programs that virtually everyone I know enjoys. The melodies are so hypnotic and enjoyable to our entertainment experiences that most people simply forget that they are there.
In fact, that is exactly the intent of the composers we all enjoy; To make the music they compose so seamless to the programs that we are often unaware they are even there.
Each of these talented individuals were delightful to interview with each sharing their exciting experiences in composing the music for the iconic entertainment programs mentioned above as well as many other series and films we have all enjoyed over the years!
Emmy Award-winning composer Brandon Roberts’ music can be heard all over the scoring world today. From the Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, co-composed with Marco Beltrami, to the pulsing action of World War Z and Logan, to the surreal reimagining of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone and the horror of Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving. Upon graduating from the USC Scoring for Motion Pictures & Television program, Brandon Roberts began working under Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning composer Marco Beltrami. They later went on to co-compose a wide range of films and television. Projects include such large-scale feature films as A Quiet Place (I and II), Logan, Chaos Walking, and World War Z. Roberts’ other recent scores include Paramount Pictures’ Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, and Eli Craig’s summer slasher Clown in a Cornfield. Roberts was most recently Emmy-nominated for his original score for Andor Season 2.
About Simon Franglen:
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
Simon Franglen is a multi-award-winning composer and producer of film, classical, and contemporary music. Well-known for his long-time collaboration with his friend, James Horner, he was the lead arranger and producer on films including The Amazing Spider-Man, Titanic, and Avatar. For his critically acclaimed score for Avatar: The Way of Water, he was awarded the World Soundtrack Awards’ ‘Discovery of the Year,’ the Hollywood Music in Media Award, the ASCAP Award winner for the top score, and was nominated for the Ivor Novello award. This year, Franglen follows up his 3-hour epic score from Avatar: The Way of Water with Avatar: Fire and Ash, which releases in December 2025. Franglen’s credits also include three of the four top-grossing films of all time and six of the top-selling albums. His accolades include a Golden Globe nomination for his work on ‘Avatar’ and a Grammy as a producer for ‘My Heart Will Go On’ for ‘Record of the Year’. He has collaborated with singers and musicians from across the world, including the South Pacific Islands, Mongolia, Maori, Tunisian Malouf, Rajasthan, and Eritrea. His music credits range from The Weeknd, Celine Dion, and Toni Braxton to producing UK grime acts. Franglen is also known for his cutting-edge work in immersive audio, and is a consultant to several multi-national companies on the intersection of music and immersive audio. He has major art and commercial installations running around the world.
About Mick Giacchino:
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
Mick Giacchino is a composer for film and television in both live-action and animated mediums. His recent work includes the HBO/DC original series The Penguin, Skeleton Crew from Lucasfilm, Disney’s The Muppets Mayhem and AMC+’s That Dirty Black Bag. Since his debut with Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow in 2015,
Mick has contributed to projects such as Disney’s Zootopia+, Netflix’s animated feature Extinct, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, and additional music for Matt Reeves’ The Batman. In 2021, he released his first instrumental EP, “Perseverance.”
About Alex Seaver:
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
Singer, songwriter, composer and Executive Music Producer Alex Seaver represents a strikingly new phenomenon in today’s music world. Whether he’s releasing studio albums for his own artist outfit Mako, collaborating with Riot Games, or writing and producing music for some of today’s biggest artists, Juilliard-trained Seaver has made a unique impact across the intersection of music, film, television and video games. Most recently, Seaver served as the Executive Music Producer and composer for the second season of Riot Games’ Emmy-winning Netflix animated series Arcane. Across both seasons, Arcane spent 15 weeks in Netflix’s global top 10 list, where Seaver earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the first season. He took on an expanded role for the second season, which features a 22-song soundtrack including tracks by global artists such as Twenty One Pilots, Linkin Park, Stromae, Stray Kids, Young Miko, Ashnikko and more. In addition to writing and producing songs across the album, he oversaw the creative guidance of its artists through the musical world of Arcane, composed the musical score with Alex Temple, and performed the song “What Have They Done To Us” under his artist moniker, Mako. Since its release, the soundtrack has garnered over 1.6 billion global streams.!
We look forward to sharing more about the Press Rooms and Panels we covered during our time at San Diego Comic-Con this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit WormholeRiders on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
Final bids for these exciting “Echoes From The Galaxy” auction will be conducted live from the Comic-Con Museum on Sunday July 27, 2024 beginning at 10:00 am. The auction will also be streamed live at the Julien’s Auctions website for those who are unable to attend in person. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Comic-Con Museum and The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabllia.
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
During our time at the Comic-Con Museum we were excited to learn about this fantastic auction and were pleased to see many items on display that are available to collectors!
We were also pleased to lean that the Comic-Con Museum Legends program has extended to 2025. So if you cannot attend this year, plan on next year to leverage your donation to this fabulous museum and pop culture convention.
We were ecstatic when the privilege of interviewing Katherine Williamson of Julien’s Auctions was offered. Katherine shared her detailed knowledge about the beloved items up for auction for purchasing a piece of Star Wars movie history! During San Diego Comic-Con, the Comic-Con Museum and Julien’s Auctions will be auctioning these incomparable items that include Yoda puppets, a Rancor model as seen in Return of the Jedi, and other authentic Star Wars movie memorabilia featuring screen used props such as Star Wars Light Sabers and much more!
We thank the terrific team at Comic-Con Museum and Katherine Williamson for superb, courteous and professional service. We include our revealing and insightful interview below for your enjoyment.
About Katherine Williamson and Echoes From The Galaxy:
Image by Kenn of WormholeRiders TeamWHR
Katherine Williamson works with Kody Frederick who is the Director of Marketing for Julien’s Auctions. Around the world, fans are preparing to enter the fantastic world of Turner Classic Movies and Julien’s Auctions in the fabulous auction collaboration “Echoes From The Galaxy” taking place through July 27, 2024!
This absolutely awesome auction is set to captivate Star Wars fans with some of the greatest collectable items that are superbly stunning sets of desirable pop culture treasures from Star Wars superheroes and villains such as only one of six Storm Trooper helmets in existence, all up for auction at this exclusive one of a kind event!
Rare artifacts and memorabilia relating to the cast and crew of the Star Wars franchise are hard to come by making this event a rare opportunity to own such artifacts yourself!
Not only do such items hold sentimental value to science fiction genre fans, they also serve as creative connections to the Star Wars films that have helped shape our lives over the past decades.
We ask that you simply imagine having the opportunity to acquire sensations Star Wars props from one of your favorite science fiction movie franchises that were in many cases used to create these iconic films. As mentioned above, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to The Saga Museum and the Comic Con Museum.
This auction is your chance to bring home a piece of Star Wars nostalgia, symbols of not only the first film “A New Hope” creativity, but the entire Star Wars franchise and a slice of the magic that makes entertainment so memorable and timeless. Kody Frederick and Katherine Williamson will be conducting the final bids for this awesome auction live beginning on Sunday July 27, 2024 at 10:00 am in the Comic-Con Museum theater!
Rita Vandergaw is the Director of the Comic-Con Museum, a division of San Diego Comic-Con International (SDCC) a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation.
Rita has worked tirelessly overseeing the renovations of the Comic-Con Museum. Organized for charitable purposes, and dedicated to creating the general public’s awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, the Comic-Con Museum upgrade is complete with the facility looking gorgeous!
Including participation in and support of public presentations, conventions, exhibits, museums, and other public outreach activities Rita helps us all celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture.
In closing we look forward to George Lucas being featured for the first time for a panel about the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and eagerly anticipate the Press Rooms and Panels that will be featured at San Diego Comic-Con this week. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!
As we prepare for San Diego Comic-Con 2025, and although we have shifted to streaming service science fiction series, TeamWHR is pleased to announce that broadcast television is returning to original series. This subsequent to no new cable or network series on broadcast television for two years.
Of interest, such series dominated broadcast television for three decades, many of which we have reported on since 2008 when this website was created to analyze and review over thirty television programs here and on our archived websites listed on the right sidebar.
Image courtesy San Diego Convention Center
Over and above the more than one hundred (103) entertainment conventions, and hundreds of interviews across over thirty websites, we also analyzed fictional dramas such as Mayans MC and Body of Proof because science fiction celebrities starred in them. We also analyzed many dozens of movies at our dedicated Movie Magic website until deciding to post films and TCM Film Festival movie analysis here to focus solely on conventions, scripted series and interviews for each of the same.
When the latest consolidation of the entertainment industry began in 2017 with the Comcast NBC Universal merger, we ceased opening dedicated websites for each new series and began moving popular series posts from thousands published over the past seventeen years to our main blog here.
The entertainment industry consolidation has continued unabated sometimes with less than desired results. Facing significant financial losses, particularly in California and Canada where many programs are produced, the top thirty firms in the industry have lost 540 billion in value resulting in tens of thousands of job losses that continued with the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike where 17,000 losses were reported in California. Additionally recent direct losses of over six (6) billion dollars on projects since the strike have been reported. This was caused by several factors including a failure to produce series acceptable to audiences, the labor strike, and a shift in audience viewing habits towards streaming services. All of these factors led to reduced broadcast television science fiction production levels.
Image courtesy The Wrap. Click to learn more
The good news is that the trend for science fiction scripted series on broadcast television is beginning a modest comeback this year with the renewal of The Ark for a third season, set to return to SYFY in 2026. 2025 dovetailed this news with new series that debuted this year. As a result of studios and networks rehiring creative talent instead of misguided executive’s dictating what programs and series will be created, more good news is expected with streaming services producing the lions share of scripted science fiction programs.
Best of all, as delineated below, of the three new broadcast network science fiction scripted series, one is featured in a fabulous panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that begins on July 25, 2025!
The prequel series takes place in the year 2120, two years before the events of the original film Alien film that took place in the year 2122. Alien: Earth is set some 22 years before Alien: Romulus (2024) which was set in 2142, 59 years before Aliens (1986) and 59 years before Alien 3 (1992) which took place in the year 2179.
Perhaps a disappointment to franchise admirers, it has been confirmed by Hawley that the events which took place in the prequel movies Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) will be ignored. This has raised questions about the Alien franchise canon when a spaceship crash lands on Earth in 2120 just prior to the events that transpired in the original Alien movie.
Nevertheless, we here at TeamWHR are excited about Alien: Earth as a series, and are eagerly looking forward to the panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, the special Alien Earth Wreckage exhibit at the convention, and the exiting series broadcast premiere August 12, 2025!
Nautilus creator James Dormer chose Village Roadshow Studios for filming the series in Oxenford, Queensland, Australia for AMC in the United States. The series is a prequel to the famous Walt Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The prequel is based on the 1869 novel by Jules Verne that explores the back story of the infamous Captain Nemo originally portrayed by acting legend James Mason.
The episodes are well produced with practical as well as computer generated special effects making the story quite enjoyable. The remote areas of Australia also adds to the realism of this origin story about Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine, the Nautilus.
In the series we learn that Captain Nemo is an Indian prince robbed of his family birthright who was made a prisoner of the infamous East India Company that has stolen his ideas, property and forced to build the Nautilus or face death.
Bent on revenge against the corrupt United Kingdom East India Company, young Captain Nemo escapes the prison, steals the Nautilus from the East India Company (EIC) and sets sail with a diverse crew on board.
The theft of the awesome first of it’s kind high technology submarine angers EIC Director Crawley and his aide who vow to hunt down Captain Nemo to take back the Nautilus.
Subsequent to escaping, Captain Nemo and his band of heroes adventures find our heroes battling the evil East India Company Dreadnought battleship while viewers revel in the discovery of fabulous underwater worlds!
The Librarians: The Next Chapter represents the third true scripted science fiction series to be released on broadcast television in 2025. Currently running on TNT Networks, the series is produced by Electric Entertainment which offers the series on their streaming service, available commercial free for paid subscribers.
Image courtesy TNT
This superb series is nearing the end of it’s first season twelve episode run representing a move by Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) that echoes their recent announcement to return creative control to content producers subsequent to the merger of the conglomerate now producing outstanding desirable results.
We here at WormholeRiders News Agency applaud WBD for making this move that has resulted in rehiring content creators in a bottoms up instead of top down management style. The Librarians: The Next Chapter is a continuation of The Librarians movies and television series that were originally broadcast on the now defunct television broadcast network The CW. Once the home of many science fiction and teen drama shows, CW is now a streaming service under the Nexstar Media Group jointly owned by WBD and Paramount Global.
The continuation series features time travel from a past Librarian. Returning to what used to be his castle, Vikram Chamberlain discovers it is now a a museum, which in turn causes him to accidentally unleash magic across the world. The Librarians: The Next Chapter is a popular series that we enjoy each week and we are pleased with the fact that this superb science series has already been renewed for a second season!
We had hoped all three series would be featured at SDCC, but due to studio tight budgets, that will not be the case. Nevertheless we look forward to Press Rooms and Panels that will be featured at San Diego Comic-Con in next week. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
The Last of Us series on HBO represents a masterpiece of conversion from video game to a scripted series that superbly brings the action of the game to viewers who may have never played the game. Our grade for the first two seasons is a solid A+ for converting game play action, drama, and sheer excitement to a superb science fiction series!
Created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, the HBO series is based on is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Entertainment for the Playstation gaming console. The Last of Us Part One sold over twenty million units on the Sony Playstation platform and more when the game was ported to the Windows 10 platform in 2023. Despite relatively poor sales on the Windows platform (the game was never allowed by Sony to be on the X-Box). With the release of The Last of Us Part Two game, a total of over thirty seven million units have been sold to date for the Playstation.
Image courtesy Sony Playstation
In the game Players control a primary character named Joel, an individual escorting a teenage girl named Ellie exactly like the series. Through the post-apocalyptic landscape of the United States that is devastated by a mutated fungus turning its victims into grotesque creatures from a real life fungal virus known as Cordyceps that mutates from an insect disease jumping to infect human hosts.
Season one cast courtesy HBO by Rodin Eckenroth of WireImage
The conversion of The Last of Us (TLOU) to a streaming series is an ongoing effort of bringing popular video games to streaming series and movies. Tracing gaming roots to computer video game success as in the 1990’s, two examples are Wing Commander (1999) and Doom (2005) both were released as movies subsequent to computer video game mania in the last decade of the twentieth century. Joined by Silo on Apple TV in 2023 based upon a trilogy of books, and Fallout on Prime Video in 2024 based on the wildly popular video game. TLOU represents a trend for streaming series enjoyed by the general public worldwide.
Season one of TLOU chronicles the journey of Ellie and Joel twenty years after the viral outbreak as they struggle to survive the Cordyceps infection that has decimated the world. Traveling from the ruins of Boston, then Kansas City, Joel is seeking his brother Tommy while protecting Ellie during their journey. Along the way viewers learned that Ellie is immune to the disease which leads to her being captured by a group of survivors known as Fireflies.
During the ending of TLOU season 1, Joel chooses to save Ellie from a Salt Lake City hospital where she is being held captive. Here the doctor, Abby’s father we learn later, planned to perform surgery on Ellie that would have killed her in order to create a cure for the Cordyceps infection sweeping the world. Joel kills everyone in the hospital to save Ellie who was unconscious during the massacre.
Image courtesy HBO
Unfortunately, Joel lies to Ellie about what happened at the Salt Lake City hospital, claiming that the Fireflies, a revolutionary militia group in the series that opposes the authoritarian government organization known as FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) stopped looking for a cure. FEDRA a takeoff on the real world FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).
After Joel tells Ellie after her rescue from the Fireflies that they had stopped looking for a cure, they leave Salt Lake City. This development sets up a destructive dynamic in the relationship between Ellie and Joel that will erupt with catastrophic consequences in season two.
The second successful season is based on the characters from season one with some changes to game character actions. However, the series emotional intimacy, the consequences of human moral ambiguity and life in a post-apocalyptic society are the foundation making TLOU an enjoyably, intense story.
Season two begins with episode one “Future Days” where we find the TLOU survivors five years later living near Jackson Hole Wyoming. Here the epidemic survivors have been able to effectively barricade the city of Jackson living somewhat normal lives amid the dystopian chaos. Here we find Joel’s brother, Tommy, as a member of the Jackson council. The mostly happy survivors not infected by the Cordyceps virus who have scavenged food supplies including copious amounts of whiskey and wine from the surrounding communities that lubricates their life in the city.
Referred to generally as the city of Jackson in the series, the inhabitants have created a mostly pleasant community replete with electricity, hunting, farming and family developments. The Jackson city council trains and deploys Jackson citizens to patrol the surrounding environment searching for other survivors as well killing any as infected Cordyceps victims that threaten their city. However, two things happen; First the city is attacked by the fungal monsters, and two; it is noticeable that Ellie is estranged and distant from Joel. In the process, Ellie befriends a woman named Dina who become best friends and lovers.
Meanwhile, unknown to Ellie and Joel, Abby has vowed to hunt down and kill Joel for the murder of her father. Abby and her gang find and lure Joel to a mountain lodge while he was on patrol outside Jackson in the third episode “The Path”. Despite being saved by Joel, Abby vows that when she finds and kills Joel, it will be as slowly as possible as punishment for her father’s murder.
Image courtesy HBO
Ellie is also captured by Abby and her minions, witnessing when Abby stabs Joel to death after whacking him with a golf club. In the TLOU2 game, Joel is also killed in The Last of Us Part Two by Abby. However, there is a major difference from the game story arc in that Tommy was the witness to Joel’s execution setting out to follow Abby to Seattle, not Ellie. In this series scene, Abby does not immediately connect Ellie as the person who is immune from the fungal epidemic that killed her father.
The change of Ellie being the witness elevates Tommy to major character status when Ellie loses a vote in the Jackson council to establish a posse to hunt down Abby for killing Joel. Ellie and her best friend Dina set out to follow Abby and exact revenge. We learn later that Tommy and Jesse following them cross country to Seattle Washington.
Flashbacks are eloquently employed to fill what has happened between Joel and Ellie since they arrived in Jackson Wyoming not far from Jackson Hole in the real life Teton county area.
Significantly, the sixth episode “The Price” features Joel and Ellie celebrating her sixteenth birthday as a flashback. In the episode viewers flashback to a museum for astronauts located in Wyoming at the Museum of Science and History that is featured as a location featured in TLOU2 video game. In the series the abandoned museum is where Joel Miller takes Ellie as a surprise for her sixteenth birthday. The museum has been recreated for the series as the flashback Ellie recalls.
Image courtesy HBO
When Joel takes her to see an Apollo space craft that she sits in, the flashback features good times between the two main characters where Joel has restored a guitar that he made for Ellie before Ellie confronts Joel about what happened at the hospital in Salt Lake City. Eventually Joel breaks down in tears admitting to Ellie that he murdered Abby’s father in order to save Ellie from being butchered as an ingredient for the Cordyceps infection fungal virus cure. Ellie states that she will try to forgive Joel with tears again welling up in his eyes.
Subsequent to Ellie and Dina leaving Jackson to track down Abby, we later learn that Tommy and Jesse decided to follow and protect them. Viewers also learn that Dina is pregnant with Jesse’s child. Along the way viewers learn about a religious extremist group known as the Seraphites, a primitivism cult that lives on an island in the Seattle Washington area.
Living without technology, the Seraphites instead use knives, bows and arrows as weapons. The Seraphites group is filled with obsessed cultists led by priest perfectly portrayed by Maurice Dean Wint. The cult followers believe that Cordyceps is God’s retribution to humanity for their sins. The Seraphites are observed torturing and often murdering anyone that strays from what they deem as the proper path unless they swear allegiance to the Seraphite cause. Known as Scars, this is a reference to religious fanatics such as Islamic Terrorists that plague the real world today.
Image courtesy HBO
In the Seattle area during season two, viewers also meet The Washington Liberation Front (WLF) known as ‘Wolves’ in the Seattle area in episode four named “Day One”. The Wolves are sworn enemies of the Seraphite’s often hunting them down to protect their base located at Lumen Field, formerly known as Seahawks Stadium (2002–2004), Qwest Field (2004–2011), CenturyLink Field (2011–2020).
In the TLOU2 game once in Seattle, Ellie and Dina find a grisly trail of dead bodies that Tommy left in his wake, tortured and interrogated for information that reflected a dark side of Tommy’s character. In the series second season, Tommy and Jesse wisely decide to follow Ellie and Dina. This yields results that ultimately end up saving both the girls lives in the city overrun by the WLF and the sickening Seraphites.
In the TLOU season two series finale “Convergence” Ellie, Dina, Tommy and Jesse are reunited in Seattle. Internalizing the consequences of staying in Seattle, Tommy, Ellie, Jesse and Dina decide to return to Jackson Wyoming, but only after Ellie decides to kill Abby.
However, before they could do so, Abby caught Ellie, killed Jesse, and shot Tommy in the head on “Day Three” in Seattle during the seventh episode “Convergence”. Abby did not share Ellie and Tommy’s sentiments and has no intention of allowing Ellie to obtain her revenge for Joel’s death.
Image courtesy HBO
In TLOU2 game play, it is revealed that Tommy survived his head shot by Abby, but not without permanent scars both to his mental health and physical body. The final episode sequence depicts Jesse dead, Tommy shot with Abby firing on Ellie as the screen fades to black with a segue to “Day One” with Abby at the WLF Lumen Field encampment.
The WLF is featured again in the season finale, episode seven “Convergence” when Abby flashes back to “Day One” at Lumen Field.
Questions for TLOU season three to address will likely surround around the following items that need to be resolved:
Will Tommy survive just as he did just like in the TLOU2 game? Does Ellie survive Abby on Day Three is Seattle? We suspect the gunshot sound is Dina shooting Abby. We also suspect the sequence is homage to this famous scene in an ending that is similar to the “Who Shot JR” cliffhanger episode “Who Done It” from the famous Dallas television series circa November 21, 1980.
The answers to these questions and more will be determined in the already approved The Last of Us season three on HBO. See you then!
We look forward to The Last Of Us season three in the future and hope that panels and Press Rooms will be featured at San Diego Comic-Con in July later this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Have you survived the world mandated by your employer that may conflict with objectives in your private life at home? Do you “sever” the reality between those two parts of your life on a regular basis? So do many people to keep the chaos at a minimum level between private and work life? In this series viewers explore the enigma that everyone faces in their lives in the real world but with fascinating details accentuated only a superb science fiction series as created by Dan Erickson, and executive produced by Ben Stiller can do!
Viewers will recall that in season one we began with Mark being promoted at a fictional corporation named Lumon Industries. In a separate sequence we meet Helly who is on a boardroom style table after she was sent as a replacement for the work group now led by Mark who interviews Helly.
The first season ended in an episode aptly named “The We We Are” that sets up the second season when viewers learn about the consequences of the main characters actions including details about their family relationships and their jobs as “Macrodata Refinement” specialists.
Image courtesy Apple TV
Over the course of the first season we learned that our heroes are Lumon employees who voluntarily have undergone a “Severance” procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This is accomplished using a computer chip implanted in their brains.
This technology is not dissimilar to technology being developed and utilized in contemporary times to help handicapped individuals. However, in “Severance” the extent of the control of their memories goes far beyond what science is capable of today.
Image courtesy EOline
As delightfully described by the series creator and executive producers that include Dan Erickson, Ben Stiller, Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette, Severance is a “daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work … and of himself. In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.”
Image courtesy Apple TV
As season one winds down, Helly finds herself as the star of a high-profile Lumon corporation gala in the season finale “The We We Are”. It is here that viewers learn that Helly’s character is revealed to actually be Helena Eagan, daughter of Lumon’s Chief Executive Officer the Eagan dynasty. Season two further explores the conundrum of why Helly elected to become severed.
We include a video recap of Severance season one below, and above the creative work of excellent VFX Supervisior Eric Leven at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) courtesy of Accolade Publicity and Consulting. Included below are several video clips from season two videos below courtesy of Apple TV for your enjoyment of our Severance series analysis.
In season two, as the villainous Lumon corporation seeks something known as control of “Cold Harbor”, a “Macrodata Refinement” goal that is delineated in the final episode of season two episode. The season also focuses on Mark’s efforts to rescue his wife Gemma from the clutches of Lumon corporation, revealing significant developments at their headquarters.
The second season shows enjoyable but sometimes crazy sequences including a room full of mountain goats, fruit trays, balloons with Mark’s face and extracurricular field trips to places that in effect are attempts to bribe our heroes. Viewers are stunned to find out that Mark’s wife Gemma no longer exists in the outside world but is being held captive inside the evil Lumon corporation in the “Cold Harbor” room!
The loss of Mark’s wife Gemma is what motivated him to seek “Severance” in the first place as a way to emotionally deal with the painful situation over the disappearance of his beloved Gemma. Along the way viewers learn significant additional details in episode nine “The We We Are” about why the main characters agreed to a computer chip implantation surgery procedure that segregates each employee’s brain into two entirely separate individuals.
The separate halves known as the “Innie” characters, people who spend their seemingly useless work days in the insane and overly controlling Lumon workplace with no memory of their own personal life. This is juxtaposed with each characters “Outie,” where the individuals experience no memory of the horrors the Innie characters. These characterizations are often analogs to what many people experience in real life with corporate and governmental secrets of their employment that cannot be revealed to anyone.
People in real life regularly execute such a mental division on a voluntary basis. This is quite is similar to what is portrayed in “Severance”. However in the streaming series, our Innie heroes Mark, Helly, Irving and Dylan decide during their “work day” to rebel because they suspect that the agreement they made with Lumon corporation is a poor decision. They work out a plan to uncover and reveal the truth about working at Lumon corporation which is run by openly sadistic supervisor’s led by Seth and Harmony that leads to a “Macrodata Uprising”.
Mark’s is in turmoil as he and his team determine they must lead to a “Macrodata Uprising” at Lumon corporation by activating a procedure known as the Overtime Contingency (OC) protocol. Dylan breaks into a Lumon security office depressing two levers simultaneously to activate the forbidden OC procedure. This allows Mark, Helly, and Irving’s to experience Innie consciousness in the outside world for the first time as Outies. Irving seeks out his love interest Burt in the Outie world.
Image courtesy Apple TV
As viewers know, Mark’s Outie agreed to the “Severance” procedure to compartmentalize his sorrow after years of all-consuming grief over the tragic loss of his wife, Gemma. Helly / Helena had voluntarily undergone severance to promote the Lumon technology but also rebelled when she learned that the technology was being used to manipulate the situation and the individuals involved who appear to have become victims of the circumstances.
During the exciting conclusion of season two Mark learns that “Cold Harbor” is a room where Innie Gemma is held captive. Designed to help her deal with trauma and sever from her pain, Mark seeks to free Gemma despite the efforts of Harmony referred to as Ms. Cobel in the show. Cobel Selvig is the former manager of the severed floor at Lumon and in an unexpected plot twist, viewers learn that she is likely Mark’s mother. How dystopian is that?
At the end of “Cold Harbor” we witness Mark’s Innie elect to stay with Helly at Lumon instead of leaving to be with his Outie’s wife Gemma. The adventures of our heroes are mixed with rewards provided by Lumon setting up the third season of this fabulous science fiction series. Severance creator Dan Erickson confirmed that it’s not Helena taking advantage of Mark, but rather Mark “claiming his own autonomy” with his decision to stay at Lumon corporation as an Innie.
We look forward to Severance season three in the future and hope that panels and Press Rooms will be featured at San Diego Comic-Con in July later this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
Season two episodes nine “The Safeguard” and episode ten “Into The Fire” exceeded our expectations. We give the series a straight “A” for season two. The rebellion in Silo Eighteen become manifest while events in Silo Seventeen reveal important details dovetailing the season two finale setting up excitement for season three!
Showrunner and series creator Graham Yost in recent interviews shared where his superb science fiction series adaptation of the novels is going in Silo season three: “There are a lot of mysteries about Silo 17. The chief one being that all those people went outside, they had an hour to get outside. They didn’t all die in three minutes. What the fuck happened out there? That’s gonna be part of Season 3. You’ll get the answers to all of that. And then there are other things you don’t find out until Season 4”
Viewers will recall that in a July 2013 interview with SFFWorld author Hugh Howey discussed on the meaning behind the title of his first book “Wool”. Howey also shared where we might be going in season four in another interview with SFFWorld conducted in September 2013 that discusses the final book in the series “Dust”: “There are quite a few meanings behind the title of the series. There’s the old phrase ‘Pull the wool over my eyes’ which is the question raised by the (Silo) wallscreens” (screen that viewers witness in the television series on Apple TV.
Image courtesy Amazon
“What is really out there? Who is being deceived? Or are they? There’s also the allusion to sheep, those metaphorical blind followers who just do what they’re told, go where they’re told to go, never question. A third meaning has to do with humans being compared to sheep when we are taken advantage of or ‘fleeced’.”
All of these interviews have contemporary parallels. Readers with the print editions might notice a hidden clue here and there. The cover of the first “Wool” is meant to highlight the multiple meanings. “I’ve only pointed this out to a few people (I prefer to let readers discover these things on their own), but if you look at the center of the cover, the two ‘O’s look like eyes staring out at the beautiful world beyond. Is the wool pulled down over what we see? Or do we see through it? I really hope the answer to this question bounces back and forth for the reader as they progress through the story.”
In the final two episodes viewers were provided answers to many of the questions posed in the novels including what is in “The Vault” of each Silo as well as a surprise ending in the season finale.
The Safeguard:
Image courtesy Apple TV
As we proceed to analyze the final two episodes of season two, it is Important to remember that other than Miscreant Mayor Holland (Tim Robbins) The Head of IT and their shadows Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash), and Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie), people who live in their respective Silo’s have no clue regarding the other network Silo bunkers that we learn number fifty-one in total.
Image courtesy Apple TV
Each Silo resident believes that they are the last remnants of humanity protected from an external polluted environment where no human being can survive. The extra Silo is likely where whoever or whatever controls the Artificial Intelligence (AI), is a central control hub monitoring the happenings in each Silo. We learn that the AI is referred to as “The Algorithm” takes lethal precautions (The Safeguard) in the event of Silo rebellions or other emergency events. Who or what is inside the fifty-first Silo is not revealed. is it a computer controlled AI or are there other human survivors controlling everything?
Image courtesy Apple TV
Written by Jessica Blaire and directed by Amber Templemore, episode nine sets the pivot point to the season two finale as Sheriff Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche), Hank (Billy Postlethwaite), and Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) father Dr. Pete Nichols (Iain Glen) begin to have serious doubts about Mayor Holland. Billings and his wife Kathleen (Caitlin Zoz) decide to join the rebellion group of Martha Walker (Harriet Walter) who is being blackmailed monitored by Holland to save her lover Carla McLain (Clare Perkins). This factor is unknown to the rest of the main rebellion members Knox (Shane McRae), and Shirley Campbell (Remmie Milner).
Image courtesy Apple TV
Meanwhile Lukas Kyle, who has broken the code of Salvador Quinn and “The Pact”, heads deep into Silo Eighteen where he learns about “The Safeguard”. As he ventures further into a tunnel, he find that it ends in a circular vault door. Unexpectedly, the AI voice demands answers from Lukas. “Lukas Kyle, why are you here?” The AI tells him that only three people have ever made it that far: Salvador Quinn (who we do not meet), Mary Meadows who was murdered by Holland, and George Wilkins (Ferdinand Kingsley) who was Juliette’s lover who was also murdered for knowing too much.
Image courtesy Apple TV
Back in Silo Seventeen, Juliette uncovers the truth about Solo’s past. Viewers learn about three characters teens that attacked Solo (Steve Zahn) and Juliette. The three are named Audrey (Georgina Sadler), Rick (Orlando Norman), and Hope (Sara Hazemi) nicknamed Eater who is treated like a slave. Each are children of the Silo Seventeen survivors of the initial rebellion who never went outside to perish as a result of “The Safeguard”. Audrey and Rick grew up in Silo Seventeen literally looking for scraps of food that keep them alive. They have two children together, one of whom is a baby. Their parents were killed by Solo which is why they seek retribution for their parents murder. In the previous episode. Audrey and Rick kidnapped Solo who is the only person who knows The Vault code where Solo has food.
Image courtesy Apple TV
A major reveal in “The Safeguard” is that Juliette learns that Solo’s father was killed when he was a teenager just like Audrey and Rick who were the only other survivors of Silo Seventeen. As such Solo was actually the victim in all the Silo Seventeen events including the fact that his father was murdered by the Silo Seventeen Sheriff forcing Solo to hide inside The Vault at a young age. We learn that Solo’s fathers real name as the head of Information Technology of Silo Seventeen, was Russell Conroy (Nick Haverson). After locking himself in the vault, Solo, on his dad’s instructions to protect his own life does so. Since he grew up in isolation, this explains Solo’s immature behavior that we have observed.
Image courtesy Apple TV
As the episode winds down we witness Lukas exploring the tunnels in Silo Eighteen just as Juliette had when she went to the bottom of Silo Seventeen. Exactly what is “The Safeguard” and what or who is the overbearing AI who enforces the rules of the Silos? Will Lukas reveal what he has learned in the season finale to Robert Sims (Common) who warned Lucas he is being used by Mayor Holland and his wife Camille (Alexandria Riley)? And will Juliette succeed to head back to Silo Eighteen before the rebellion erupts there?
Into The Fire:
Image courtesy Apple TV
Written by Aric Avelino and directed by Amber Templemore wherein viewers will learn that Juliette and Lukas discovered the same thing when the ominous AI warns it will initiate “The Safeguard” (a release of poison gas) to be activated killing everyone in a given Silo in the process. This is precisely what was perpetrated in Silo Seventeen when the rebellion erupted there. The victims didn’t die from going outside, the all perished from the poison gas!
Image courtesy Apple TV
The episode focus is on the growing rebellion in Silo Eighteen of which Miscreant Mayor Holland has become aware. This apparently includes destroying the Silo Eighteen generator system at the lowest Mechanical level. Holland overhears this because he has a camera in Martha Walker’s room to blackmail her. Mayor Holland believes the rebellion meeting completely, sending his entire force to the generator level to disarm the explosives and arrest all the perpetrators.
Image courtesy Apple TV
What Mayor Holland does not know is that Martha Walker used sign language to communicate and warn Dr. Nichols. The good doctor moves to a level above the generator and detonates a suicide vest to destroy the stair case. The result is that all of Holland’s police force are trapped in the lower levels allowing the rebellion to take place.
Next we are in a meeting between Lukas and Miscreant Mayor Holland. Although we do not hear what is being said, we assume that it about “The Safeguard”. When Holland finds out his forces are trapped, he gets his own hazmat suit to escape the Silo before he can be captured by the rebellious residents.
Image courtesy Apple TV
However, before Holland can step outside through the airlock, Juliette enters Silo Eighteen after her journey from Silo Seventeen where she saved Solo after linking up with him again, promising him that she will return to Silo Seventeen if at all possible. Juliette shares with Holland that that they can still save their underground home if they work together, telling Holland about how “The Safeguard” can be stopped without revealing the details.
Image courtesy Apple TV
Unfortunately, before Holland and Juliette can finally work it out, they find themselves trapped inside Silo Eighteen’s airlock. The airlock’s decontamination flames automatically activate as Holland screams get down!
Image courtesy Apple TV
As Bernard and Juliette drop to the floor to save themselves, the scene does not reveal their ultimate fate. Nevertheless, since Juliette is the main character of the series, she will no doubt survive in season three and beyond.
We cannot say the same for the hated Miscreant Mayor Holland. Based on the books where the Holland character is burned to death.
Image courtesy Apple TV
We will have to wait and see if season three features the Mayor Holland character or not. Why? Because in a sequence prior to this, Judge Robert Sims heads to the Silo Eighteens Vault with his wife Camille and son after Lukas tells them to do so.
To his surprise, the AI voice in the Vault orders Robert and his son to leave, informing Camille that only she may stay. This suggests that the AI has been keeping a close eye on all the events that Camille has been exercising to enhance her political power. The question for viewers to ponder once again is “The Algorithm” AI voice a person or a super intelligent computer monitoring everything from Silo fifty-one? This question is not addressed, but it becomes obvious that Camille has been selected as the new mayor of Silo Eighteen IT to replace Holland. Is this Holland’s final episode in the series? Perhaps.
Image courtesy Apple TV
As we move to conclude this superb season, viewers must recall that earlier in season two, Mayor Holland revealed the Silos were built 352 years earlier. This suggests that it has been over three centuries since the apocalyptic event forced many human survivors to find shelter in the Silo underground structures. Based on the last known rebellion approximately 140 years earlier this and that it had been over 185 years prior to that since the beginning of the Silo’s, viewers can assume the final scenes in the season happened at least three hundred fifty-two years before the “current” events.
Image courtesy Apple TV
What is revealed in the final minutes is a scene that occurs well before the Silo’s future timeline in Washington DC. We meet a journalist named Helen (Jessica Henwick), who works for The Washington Post. Helen is meeting with an unnamed Congressman from Georgia’s fifteenth Congressional district. Helen is seeking to learn more about why the United States was victim of a radiological “dirty bomb” attack by Iran.
This is evidenced by the use of radiation detectors just prior to her meeting with the Congressman. Named in the book as Congressman Donald Keene, but not revealed in the episode, the Congressman incorrectly assumes that he is on a date with Helen. However, Helen asks him about the Iran “dirty bomb” attack.
Image courtesy Apple TV
This meeting with the Congressman can only be a reference for the government plan for dealing with a world war that predates humanities seeking protection in the Silo’s.
We do not learn more at this time since the Congressman keeps quiet and leaves the restaurant. The body language of the Congressman indicates that he obviously knows something Helen does not yet know.
is it about the history of the Silo’s? Likely this is the case based on what happens next.
Image courtesy Apple TV
In a cryptic sequence, the Congressman gives Helen a Pez dispenser. Viewers must then recall that In Silo season one, George Wilkins gifted the exact Pez dispenser to Juliette with a message describing what he had found in Silo Eighteens lower level tunnels. This is the information that ultimately cost him his life and motivated Juliette to seek answers.
Does this mean that Helen was one of George Wilkins’ ancestors in Silo Eighteen? Is the Pez dispenser a symbol of rebellion against the fifty-first Silo AI also known as “The Algorithm”? Is Helen the ancestor in Silo Eighteen who began the process of inquiring about the world humans currently exist in Silo? This exciting sequence of events will have to be explored in season three and perhaps into season four. Will these details about Helen be featured as the season three opener? TeamWHR believes the answer is yes, but all must tune in to Apple TV to find out!
We look forward to Silo season three in the future and hopefully at San Diego Comic-Con in July later this year. In the meantime, please feel free to share this article with your friends, co-workers and or your family!
We look forward to you visiting our dedicated review and analysis web site here in the future! Or as many of our readers and visitors often do, visit TeamWHR on X, or visit me on Twitter by clicking the text links or images avatars in this news story. I and TeamWHR look forward to Seeing You on The Other Side!“
