Nerd Alert! Marvel taps Ta-Nehisi Coates for Black Panther; Star Wars goes 360

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      Welcome to Nerd Alert!, your weekly round-up of news from the world of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, animation, and all things nerdy. It's a short one this week, kids, because time is tight. Let's go!

      IN A MOVE THAT seems designed to address criticism of the company's perceived lack of creative diversity—while also relaunching one of its arguably lesser-known but still iconic characters—Marvel announced this week that it has recruited Ta-Nehisi Coates to write a new Black Panther series.

      Coates is a correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of Between the World and Me. That work, a nominee for this year's National Book Award, is Coates's book-length letter to his son about the realities of being black in the United States. A lifelong fan of superhero comics, Coates interviewed Marvel's Sana Amanat—who helped create the character of Ms. Marvel, a teenaged Pakistani-American superhero—earlier this year on the topic of inclusiveness in the world of comics. (See video below.) This sparked an ongoing dialogue that led to Amanat connecting the writer with Marvel editor Will Moss and artist Brian Stelfreeze. The first issue of the Coates-penned Black Panther will hit shops next spring.

      The character of Black Panther was created in 1966 by Marvel titans (and notable white dudes) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In addition to his superheroic activities, the character, whose real name is T'Challa, is the hereditary chief and head of state of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. He will be portrayed by actor Chadwick Boseman in the upcoming film Captain America: Civil War, with a standalone Black Panther feature to follow.

      WHERE THE HELL is that full-length trailer for The Force Awakens? As a Star Wars fan, I'm dyin' over here. Well, this isn't quite the same, but it's still pretty neat. The SW folks have produced a short 360-degree interactive video that will take you on a speeder ride past that wrecked Super Star Destroyer on the planet Jakku that we've seen in the teaser trailers. You'll have to head over to Facebook to experience it. And I just hope you have a better Internet connection and/or a faster processor than I'm saddled with here at Nerd Alert HQ.

      IT'S EASY TO BE cynical about a movie like Angry Birds. After all, it's a transparent video-game tie-in that has "cash grab" written all over it. On the other hand, it also has Jason Sudeikis and Danny McBride! I'll reserve judgment until the movie actually comes out next May and I am inevitably forced to see it by my seven-year-old. Anyhow, here's the trailer.

      CASTING NEWS AND RUMOURS

      • British actor Tom Payne (Luck) will join the cast of The Walking Dead in Season 6 to play Jesus, a character already familiar to readers of the comics.
      • Patrick Heusinger (Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce) will star as the villain opposite Tom Cruise's titular hero in Ed Zwick's upcoming Jack Reacher sequel.
      • The CW series DC's Legends of Tomorrow has added Stephanie Corneliussen (Mr. Robot) to the cast; she'll play villainess Valentina Vostok.

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