Q:Congratulations on getting a role on the Punisher! That is awesome-sauce.
JM: Thank you so much.
Q:The character you’re playing, Curtis Hoyle, he has a longstanding history in the comic books.
JM: Yes he does, he’s definitely an established character in the comic books, which made it easy for my research.
Q:So you did do some research into the comics?
JM: Yes I did do some research into the comics, and I would say that even though they deviate a little bit from what’s in the comics, its in a very creative way. The show-runners seem to have taken a liking to this version of the character.
Q:Can you expound a bit upon how they deviated from the char as it is in the comics, or is that a spoiler?
JM: One major fact is that y’know, the character in the comics is white, and I’m black, so that’s one deviation.
Q:Hopefully in this day and age, that won’t matter!
JM: I don’t think it will matter either. Curtis Hoyle and Frank Castle are really good buddies, they’re both like ex-special forces, and they’re both trying to make their way in normal society. In terms of deviation I can’t reveal more because that really would be spoilers – we really want you guys to watch it and enjoy it.
Q: We are all very much anticipating watching the show! So without spoilers, what can fans of the Punisher expect to see from Curtis Hoyle in the first season? Do you know if Curtis is going to be in the second season, or is that also a spoiler? ‘Cuz you know Punisher is going to have to have a second season.
JM: Well, I sure hope so! It’d be great for the show to continue. I think the show is good and it’s gonna be here real soon. But what you would see first from Curtis, you’d see a guy who is trying to help others. I would say the show is tackling a major task, addressing how we as soldiers re-acclimate back into society. And dealing with PTSD, trying to help other soldiers do that, and just become functional citizens in society. That’s what you’ll be seeing from Curtis.
Q:That actually leads into my next question – you play a veteran support group leader in some pretty heavy scenes on the show, did you consult any military counselors, therapists, or actual veterans with PTSD in real life to kind of prepare for the role?
JM: Marvel Studios was really generous with helping us do the research, providing us with people I could really speak to. Talking with people who were soldiers, people who suffer from PTSD, and here’s the great thing, the thing you might not know – the people in those scenes are all from the military, one way or another, in real life. Army, Navy, real Military, actual Vets, here on set. All I need to do is ask them. They helped me out a lot, in terms of psychology of the soldier, and trying to understand all forms of PTSD, they really helped me in that capacity. We talk about these issues and we celebrate the Vets, on this show, a lot.
Q:That’s fantastic. Your character Curtis Hoyle could be interpreted as kind of Jiminy Cricket to Frank Castle, as it were. But in other scenes you’re kind of a devils advocate, how interesting was it for you to take on that kind of dual role?
JM: It’s good. As an actor, that’s the kind of stuff you want to do. You want to play complex characters, characters that have conflict, even within themselves, any kind of conflict is so important, because that’s what people bite into. That’s when you can really tell, the writer and the creators did some extra work. And so, working with Jon (Bernthal), it was a tremendous pleasure. I always tell him, he has great leadership qualities and he doesn’t even know it. (laughs) He’s not even aware of it, but he does. Our characters’ relationship is very dynamic. He’s like one of Curtis’ great friends, and we also butt heads. Which good friends do, good friends butt heads and have good times, laugh and do all that stuff together too.
Q:You butt heads, you make up, you maybe go out and have a beer and the occasional fistfight, y’know, what friends do!
JM: Absolutely. So look for some of that conflict in there, with Curtis and Frank, there should be enough of that.
Q: So Curtis Hoyle was in the service with Frank Castle, and they met during the Vietnam war. At least, in the comic books.
JM: We’re not that old, so that’s another one of the deviations from the comic books.
Q: Makes sense. It would actually take some mad skills on Curtis’ part to be able to impress The Punisher and y’know, make friends with him, especially around and during whatever war they happened to meet at. Do we actually get to see Curtis use any kind of physical fighting skills, for the first season, does he kick some ass somewhere? Does he have to?
JM: I’m not ruining anything for you. That is a spoiler question! He is a soldier, I will say that, that’s a big part of it.
Q:Is there anything you would like to allude to about the show, without giving actual spoilers? Maybe a teaser?
JM: I will say this – without spoiling anything, in terms of characters of The Punisher, I think more people have died in the first season of The Punisher than pretty much all the other shows combined. Cuz he’s The Punisher, so he has to do a lot of punishing.
Q:We all eagerly look forward to the show coming out on Netflix November 17, 2017!
JM: Not soon enough, I tell you! It’s two days before my birthday actually.
Q:Well, happy early birthday! You will definitely have to do something rocking to celebrate both your birthday and The Punisher coming out.
JM: I surely appreciate it, and will find something rocking to do.
Q: We all sincerely hope your character makes it to the highly anticipated second season of the Punisher. Any good “no sh*t there I was” stories from on the set of The Punisher?
JM: Plenty of those, but those moments are all full of spoilers! If I give you one thing, I’m telling you, it’s gonna ruin part of the experience for you! I really want people to get the full experience and the best value, from The Punisher.
Thank you so much for speaking with me!
With all the discourse surrounding the much anticipated Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, not
to mention Sarah Michelle Gellar’s and Alyson Hannigan’s joint interview on the Today show
discussing the show’s legacy! Many fans have revised their opinions on some of the
original show’s titular characters. One such character is Hannigan’s own, Willow Rosenberg. Once seen as the shy, lovable, nerdy sidekick, now her image is less than rosy. Manipulative? Petty? And maybe worst of all: a bad friend.
10. Easing us in with a somewhat annoying one. In Season 6, Episode 11, ‘Gone’, it is
morning in the Summers household. After throwing out most of Willow’s magical stash as
the fallen wiccan tries to go cold turkey with her magic addiction (more on that later). Buffy
is post-traumatic-resurrection trying to keep it all together after a night of hot,
passionate…fighting with a vampire. Willow appears to be living in the Summers’ home rent-free and is cooking Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) an apology omelette. She is making a
mess while cooking, as one does, but leaves her traumatised friend to clean up after her! Poor
Buffy (you’ll hear that a lot) was just lambasting herself for not noticing Willow’s self-
inflicted downfall. Buffy is literally chopping off her own hair in distress, and no one notices!
The audacity!
9. In Season 3, Episode 2, ‘Dead Man’s Party’, Buffy has returned to Sunnydale after her
secondment in LA. After a traumatic year, Buffy clearly just wants to hang out with her
friends like a regular teenager. Willow agrees to meet Buffy in town to re-bond over
shopping. Yes, Willow did say earlier in the episode that she had school work that she would
have to rearrange, which is fair enough, but at least cancel instead of leaving poor Buffy
(see?) sitting alone waiting for you!
8. Anya (Emma Caulfield), the ex-vengeance demon, was treated pretty coolly by the
Scoobies. Willow was clearly jealous of Anya’s relationship with Xander (Nicholas
Brendon), taking Xander’s attention from her. Throughout the final seasons, Willow treated
Anya like an annoyance at best and undermined her with cruel remarks at worst. In no
episode was this more obvious than Season 5, Episode 11, ‘Triangle’. Willow is brazenly
stealing spell ingredients from Anya’s and Giles’s (her friends) small business. Willow even
says herself she is not “stealing”, she is “…just taking things without paying for them. In what
twisted dictionary is that stealing?”.
Willow comes off as a bully throughout this episode, cruelly mimicking Anya and trying to
make Xander choose between his childhood best friend and his girlfriend. I want to mention
that not only is Willow gay, but has her own girlfriend at this point. So her possessiveness of
Xander comes off as particularly childish.
7. Willow’s irresponsibility with magic becomes a large feature of the series. Even her most
ardent fans can’t explain what she was thinking in Season 5, Episode 17, ‘Forever’ when she
draws Dawn’s attention to a dark spell book. This book encourages 15-year-old Dawn to raise
her mother from the dead. Culminating in what is, in my opinion, one of the creepiest scenes
in Buffy: the shadow of zombie Joyce walking past Summer’s curtained window, returning
home. Presumably, Willow knew the dangers but was fine with a child dabbling in dark
magic.
6. Back to Season 3, Episode 2 ‘Dead Man’s Party’. After not being satisfied standing Buffy
up, she also wants to rant at a clearly distressed Buffy that Willow’s now got a boyfriend and is
practicing witchcraft, AND had no one to talk to about it when Buffy ran away. Bear in mind
that Buffy had to stab her boyfriend through the heart and send him to Hell after months of
his evil alter ego psychologically torturing her. But Willow needs her gal pal.
Very similar to Season 7, Episode 19 ‘Empty Places’ when Willow joined the group pile on,
blaming poor Buffy (and again) for everything that’s gone wrong. And then throwing Buffy
out of her own house (you know the one she pays for?)! In the words of one Buffy fan ‘Y’all
hate her so much, why did you resurrect her?’
5. Going to my personal favourite season, Season 6 (I’m not arguing about it), Episode 10
‘Wrecked’. Willow is caught in the throes of magic addiction. Within the Buffy universe,
magic was a metaphor for lesbian sex, but the metaphor changes in Season 6 to substance
abuse. Willow takes Dawn to what is essentially a magical drug den and leaves her waiting
there for over an hour. Then, high on magic, he proceeds to not take Dawn home, instead
offering to teleport her back home. Willow then gets behind the wheel of a car with Dawn
while high and crashes the car.
Buffy was known to tackle social issues, and its handling of substance abuse was surprisingly
Realistic, mainly due to Alyson Hannigan’s amazing acting!
4. In Season 4, Episode 6, ‘Wild at Heart,’ we get to see the true darkness that appears to live
inside Willow. After being cheated on by her long-time boyfriend Oz (Seth Green), Willow
takes it upon herself to hex both Oz and his cheating partner, Veruca. She casts ‘in the name
of Hell’ wanting to break both their hearts and find no peace or solace…harsh. To be fair to
her, she does stop herself, but Willow, I appreciate you got cheated on, but we can’t just go
about hexing people.
3. And now to one of the best episodes ever! Season 6, Episode 8 ‘Tabula Rasa’ delivers
some serious comic gold, but the premise of the episode is rather disturbing. Despite
promising Tara (Amber Benson), her long-term partner, that she would give up magic for a
week, Willow casts a spell. Tara is understandably upset that the woman she loves cast a
memory spell on her to make her forget their arguments. Willow’s answer to this is to cast yet
another memory spell to make Tara forget the first memory spell (stay with me). Willow also tries to cast a spell on Buffy (you know her friend suffering from depression) to make her forget being in Heaven. As is a staple in the Buffy universe, the spell goes awry, making the whole gang forget who they are, leading to hilarious hijinks.
Yes, it’s one of the funniest Buffy episodes, but if the spell hadn’t accidentally been broken, then they all could have been stuck like that.
2. For such a trailblazing relationship, Willow and Tara have a lot of problems when
scrutinised. Almost everything stems from Willow’s overuse of magic. The relationship
gets darker the more you examine it. As Tara said in ‘Tabula Rasa’, Willow violated her
mind. Some fans have pointed out; not only was the flower Willow used to cast the forgetting
spell (Season 6, Episode 6) is in an oddly convenient place in their bedroom. This begs the
question: how many times has Willow cast these spells? Fans have also pointed out that if
Tara had sex with Willow after any spell was cast on her, she wouldn’t be consenting.
1. As a surprise to literally no one, the number one time Willow was a bad friend on top of
being completely irresponsible, resurrecting one Miss Buffy Summers. Now, many may
argue that after the finale of Season 5, ‘The Gift’, it would be understandable that Willow
would think Buffy was trapped in some Hell dimension.
Ok, let’s stay with that logic. Willow is aware that resurrection spells are extremely volatile,
presumably why the Scoobies have been planning it for weeks. Xander voices it perfectly, in
Season 6, Episode 1 ‘Bargaining Pt 1’, Buffy may try to “eat our brains”. Willow even
comments (Season 6, Episode 3) on how messed up Angel was when he came back from Hell.
Willow could have caused an emotional and physical catastrophe for them all by bringing
back a ‘wrong’ Buffy who still possesses super-strength and super-speed. Spike (James
Marsters) declares in the same episode that he shut down any idea Willow had about bringing
Buffy, back in case it went so badly, they would have to “get rid of what came back”. It’s bad
when the soulless vampire is more mature than you, isn’t it?
Willow Rosenberg is indeed a very complex character played expertly by Alyson Hannigan. Willow has her flaws, but it is those flaws that make her such a compelling character. I, for one, am very interested to see what they do with the character in the reboot.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is a stylish and brutal addition to the ever-expanding John Wick universe. Set between the explosive events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Chapter 4, the film seamlessly slots into the timeline without feeling like a stopgap. Instead, it builds something fresh, introducing a new protagonist on a vengeful journey of her own.
Ana de Armas delivers a fierce and emotionally layered performance as Eve Macarro, a ballerina-trained assassin seeking justice for her family. While her motivations mirror Wick’s, the film avoids repetition by diving deeper into the Ruska Roma and High Table lore. It’s a testament to the world-building that this spin-off doesn’t just feel justified—it feels essential.
As expected, the fight choreography is at its peak—gritty, inventive, and ruthlessly beautiful. Every action set-piece hits with a kinetic energy that’s both thrilling and brutal. This franchise continues to prove that when it comes to stunt work and direction, it’s in a league of its own. Can the John Wick series really disappoint? So far, no.
The story is tight, the pacing brisk, and each supporting performance, especially the cameos from familiar faces, adds weight and continuity to the narrative. Ballerina proves that this universe is more than just one man’s war; it’s a whole underworld waiting to be explored.
With compelling characters, rich mythology, and jaw-dropping action, Ballerina is a strong 9/10—one of the best spin-offs in recent memory.
Few directors in the modern cinematic landscape have reshaped genre filmmaking quite like James Gunn. Known for blending irreverent humor with profound emotional depth, Gunn has left an indelible mark on both indie horror and superhero franchises. As he transitions into leading DC Studios, it’s the perfect time to revisit his five finest works—each a statement of his unique voice in an often formulaic industry.
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Rating: 9.5/10
A rare sequel that deepens its characters rather than merely expanding its universe, Vol. 2 is Gunn at his most personal. The film wrestles with the pain of abandonment, the search for belonging, and the complexity of father-son dynamics—cloaked in vibrant visuals and a killer soundtrack. Yondu’s “He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy” line alone secures its legacy.
2. The Suicide Squad (2021)
Rating: 9/10
Chaotic, gory, and gleefully anarchic, The Suicide Squad is a wild remix of the superhero genre. Gunn injects pathos into misfits like Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man, proving his unmatched talent for humanizing the bizarre. It’s a subversive spectacle that doubles as an anti-war allegory—with a giant alien starfish to boot.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Rating: 8.8/10
The film that redefined Marvel’s creative boundaries, Guardians took a gang of obscure comic-book characters and turned them into pop culture icons. With its perfect balance of humor, heart, and ‘70s mixtape vibes, it’s the origin story of Gunn’s mainstream rise and one of the MCU’s most beloved entries.
4. Slither (2006)
Rating: 8/10
Before superheroes and intergalactic misfits, Gunn gave us Slither—a grotesque and hilarious horror-comedy with serious B-movie charm. This film showcases his roots: practical effects, quotable dialogue, and an affection for the genre’s oddballs. It’s disgusting, delightful, and distinctly Gunn.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Rating: 8/10
An emotionally charged finale to the Guardians trilogy, *Vol
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