Nerd Legion

MonteCristo and DoA are on opposite sides of Spider-Noir, and the gap between them is wider than a Prohibition-era speakeasy. DoA loved it. MonteCristo thinks you should watch something else. Raycon: quality wireless earbuds with open-ear and noise-cancelling models for every listening style, with a 30-day guarantee and over 3 million happy customers. Use code NERDLEGIONOPEN at https://buyraycon.com/NERDLEGIONOPEN

Masters of the Universe cost $200 million and it's probably the best He-Man movie anyone could have made. That's a compliment to the filmmakers and a ceiling on the IP. MonteCristo and DoA break down why this is a genuinely fun popcorn flick, why Jared Leto's Skeletor is the single best thing in it, and why the movie exists because Barbie made a billion dollars and Mattel greenlit everything in the building, including an Uno movie. Raycon: Essential Open Earbuds wrap around your ear so you can hear your surroundings. 3 million customers, 30-day guarantee. Go to buyraycon.com/nerdlegionopen for 15% off.

We watched every episode of The Boys so you don't have to. The verdict on the series finale: it's worse than Game of Thrones Season 8, and unlike Game of Thrones, nobody will ever rewatch it. PrizePicks — Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/NERD and use code NERD and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!. Into the AM — men's apparel from tees to bombers to denim. Memorial Day sale up to 70% off, plus an additional 10% off using our link in the description. Free worldwide shipping. Head to https://www.intotheam.com/lfn

The decanonization rumors are back, Kathleen Kennedy is out, Dave Filoni is running Lucasfilm, and Galaxy's Edge is finally putting Darth Vader back in the theme park. MonteCristo and DoA catalogue the evidence that Disney is soft-erasing the sequel trilogy and debate whether Filoni is the right person to rebuild Star Wars. PrizePicks — Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/NERD and use code NERD and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Raycon — Essential Open Earbuds wrap around your ear so you can hear your surroundings. 30-day guarantee. Go to buyraycon.com/nerdlegionopen for 15% off.

We were fans of The Boys. Seasons one and two were genuinely great television: it was a cynical, funny deconstruction of corporate superhero culture that understood how Vought International would actually operate in a modern media landscape. That show is dead now. Three episodes into its final season, The Boys hasn't just jumped the shark; it's jumped about fifty of them, and the Deep is responsible for all of them. ExpressVPN: Your ISP, mobile network, and Wi-Fi admins can see everything you do online, even in incognito mode. ExpressVPN reroutes 100% of your traffic through secure encrypted servers. Plans start at just $3.49/month. Visit https://www.expressvpn.com/nerdlegion to get up to four extra months free.

Project Hail Mary is a massive box office hit, a visually stunning sci-fi spectacle, and genuinely well-crafted filmmaking, so why did one of its reviewers spend nearly three hours waiting for it to be over? DoA and MonteCristo land on opposite sides of a movie they both agree is good but can't agree on whether it matters. The result is one of Nerd Legion's most honest conversations about what separates a great sci-fi film from a really well-made popcorn flick. ExpressVPN — Protect your browsing data from your ISP and unlock streaming content across regions. Plans start at just $3.49/month. Go to https://expressvpn.com/nerdlegion to get up to four extra months.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms just wrapped its first season on HBO, and it might be the most important template for franchise storytelling in years. Six episodes. Thirty minutes each. No world-ending stakes. No required homework from other series. Just a tight, character-driven story set in the Game of Thrones universe that stands completely on its own. It's also a massive hit, averaging nearly 13 million viewers per episode and becoming HBO's third-biggest debut ever. Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://ExpressVPN.com/NERDLEGION Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code NERD at https://shopmando.com New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time, get unlimited premium wireless for just $15 per month. Switch now at https://MintMobile.com/NERD

Wonder Man is the rare MCU project that feels like it was written by people who actually understand character, comedy, and theme. It succeeds without leaning on CGI sludge, multiverse homework, or the usual “you must watch 14 other things first” burden. In this episode of Nerd Legion, we break down why Wonder Man works: it’s an acting-first show disguised as superhero IP, a behind-the-scenes Hollywood comedy-drama with sharp writing, real performances, and surprisingly thoughtful commentary on craft, ego, and the machine that manufactures “content.” We talk about how the series uses its Marvel connections sparingly (and intelligently), why Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery is the perfect meta-vehicle for the premise, and how Yahya Abdul-Mateen II pulls off the insanely difficult task of playing an actor who has to be convincingly bad at acting, while still being excellent.

Starfleet Academy should have been an easy win for modern Star Trek: it's a smaller, character-driven series about young cadets learning what it means to serve in a post-scarcity utopia. Instead, it’s a massively expensive show that seems unsure who it’s even for. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code NERD at https://shopmando.com

SUBURBAN COMMANDO is one of the strangest artifacts of 1990s Hollywood: a kids’ movie starring Hulk Hogan as an intergalactic bounty hunter who crash-lands in suburbia, rents a converted toolshed, and solves neighborhood problems with raw strength and alien technology. Turn your expensive wireless present into a huge wireless savings future by switching to Mint Mobile! Shop Mint Unlimited Plans at https://MINT MOBILE.com/NERD. Raycon audio products are up to 20% off this holiday season! Go to https://buyraycon.com/NERDLEGIONOPEN to save on Raycon audio products sitewide.

Star Wars Visions Volume 3 is here and, unfortunately, it might be the weakest entry yet. In this episode of Nerd Legion, MonteCristo and DoA break down all nine anime shorts and ask the big question: Why does Star Wars keep returning to the same tired ideas? From endless Tatooine stories to recycled Jedi tropes, half-animated CGI ships, and baffling creative choices, Visions Vol. 3 shows just how far the brand’s stewardship has fallen. Even the anthology format, supposedly a space for experimentation, feels strangely safe and generic. But it’s not all bad. We highlight the one short that genuinely stands out (“Black”), why it succeeds aesthetically, and how the rest of the series fails to capture anything meaningful about the Star Wars universe. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with Mando and get 20% off + free shipping with promo code NERD at shopmando.com!

Predator: Badlands shouldn’t be this good. MonteCristo and DoA went in expecting another forgettable franchise sequel and came out calling it the best Predator film since 1987. In this episode of Nerd Legion, the hosts break down how Dan Trachtenberg turned a dormant IP into a bold, emotional, and surprisingly funny sci-fi blockbuster. They discuss the film’s unexpected focus on the Predator’s culture and honor code, Elle Fanning’s dual performance, and how the movie manages to feel both classic and completely new. From the inventive world-building to the subtitled alien language and practical effects, Predator: Badlands proves that simple stories told well still hit the hardest. The conversation also detours into Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, the curse of bloated superhero films, and why Hollywood keeps forgetting how to make tight, self-contained action movies.

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch might be the most unexpected comeback in gaming history: an animated Netflix series based on a franchise that’s been dormant for a decade. MonteCristo and DoA dive deep into Ubisoft’s strange revival of Sam Fisher, the stealth-action legend who’s now older, grizzled, and apparently stuck in an anime-style John Wick universe created by Derek Kolstad. In this episode, the hosts debate whether Deathwatch is a solid espionage thriller or just a messy prelude to Ubisoft’s upcoming Splinter Cell remake. They discuss the show’s surprising violence, chaotic hacking scenes, and the questionable logic of “chaos algorithms,” plus the performances of Liev Schreiber as Sam Fisher and the legacy of Michael Ironside’s voice. Follow our link and use code NERD to unlock 10% off your purchase at Manta Sleep! https://tinyurl.com/mume73e3 Black Friday is around the corner, and Raycon audio products are up to 30% off sitewide! Go to https://www.buyraycon.com/NERDLEGIONOPEN to save on Raycon audio products sitewide.