Cosmic Circus Podcasts

Cosmic Cafe host Ayla Ruby is at NYCC 2023! In this episode, she has an EXCLUSIVE interview with Helluva Boss creator Vivienne Medrano about her upcoming animated series in the same universe Hazbin Hotel. The series releases on Amazon's Prime Video in January 2024, and has a lot of fans excited.  Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:00 - How did you go from using Patreon and YouTube to finance your work to...

Cosmic Cafe host Ayla Ruby talks with Sy Islam and Gordon B. Schmidt about their book Leaders Assemble! Leadership in the MCU (Exploring Effective Leadership Practices through Popular Culture). (This book is available on Amazon and most places books are sold) The book covers what we can learn in the real world about leadership based on the characters, films, and shows within the MCU from Marvel St...

 The God of Mischief has returned, bringing his signature chaos with him in Loki Season 2! Tom Hiddleston picked up the not-quite-horned mantle again, returning as Loki Odinson this past week in an appropriately twisty sci-fi episode called "Ouroboros" written by Eric Martin. It's been two years since we left off on that dramatic scene with Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) from season 1, and this episod...

The first season of Ahsoka has reached its conclusion on Disney+, delivering a strong season from the Lucasfilm property. After eight episodes, the adventures of Rosario Dawson's Jedi and her compatriots have concluded with a bigger threat now looming on the sidelines. With huge ramifications and the excitement of what's to come for these characters, we had to hash it out in our Ahsoka season 1 fi...

Earlier this year, Keanu Reeves returned to the big screen as the titular assassin in John Wick: Chapter 4, arguably the most stylish and high-octane action franchise of our time. Directed by the talented Chad Stahelski and written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, the film sees our dog-avenging anti-hero facing off against the High Table in another thrilling installment. On this action-packed Joh...

Erik Henry has an impressive career as a VFX supervisor in creating stellar stories. Not only did he work on season 1 and 2 of Invasion but Henry has also helped bring titles like The Abyss (which we talk about in the interview!), Watchmen, Black Sails, Jack Ryan, and so much more to life. He has several Emmy awards for his work and tons of other accolades. If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ve probably...

As anyone can attest, representation of any kind is important in the media that we consume. With the makeup of our population being so diverse, between ethnicities, skin colors, genders, and sexualities, the characters and stories we see on screen and in books should represent that as well. While there's still a ton of work to be done for proper visibility for so many minorities, one that has a bi...

Jules, written by Gavin Steckler and directed by Marc Turtletaub, is a quirky indie sci-fi comedy about aging, aliens, and friendships. It's charming and endearing; this should be no surprise given the incredible actors that helped bring it to life, including Sir Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Zoë Winters, Jade Quon, and Jane Curtin. We had the great pleasure of sitting down over Zoom to cha...

While Ahsoka may have lived a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, you don't have to jump into your X-Wing and fly off to Tatooine to see what she's up to, because Ahsoka, the new Star Wars series has arrived on Disney+! The series stars Rosario Dawson as the ex-Jedi knight as she and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) search the galaxy for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Ezra Bridger (Em...

Xolo Maridueña stars as the scarab-tactic superhero Blue Beetle, which buzzed onto the big screen this past weekend. Blue Beetle, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is the first live-action comic book film with a Hispanic lead. The long-anticipated picture is the third DC Studios release this year after Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash. It's all about family...

Six weeks ago, Secret Invasion began its journey on Disney+. The first Marvel Studios series of 2023 has come and gone, and it has left quite an impression on fans of the MCU. Whether you've loved it or hated it, Secret Invasion has definitely left people talking. So with so many differing thoughts and opinions on this divisive show, The Cosmic Circus writers couldn't wait to get together on a Sec...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been serving up some chef’s kiss episodes that will surely be on “best of” lists for years to come. (And that’s not just because we see Captain Pike and Spock in the kitchen!) We recently had the chance to sit down over Zoom with director Jordan Canning, who helped bring the recent and hilarious season 2 episode “Charades” to the screen. Canning’s insights into th...

After months of buzz, the live-action Barbie movie finally hit theaters this weekend, and we're diving deep into this episode of the Cosmic Circle. The world's most famous doll has been brought to life by writer-director Greta Gerwig and her professional partner Noah Baumbach. After seeing the massively successful box office, it's safe to say we're in a Barbie world. On this episode of the Cosmic...

With Superman & Lois finishing its third season, My Adventures with Superman on Max now, and Superman: Legacy beginning to assemble its cast, now is the perfect time to reflect on the greatest hero of them all: SUPERMAN! Featuring in 85 years of comics, radio, TV, film, animation, and live action, no character has had a greater impact on comic book culture than the gentle giant Superman and th...

The year is already half over, and it has been a cosmically wild ride. It feels like just yesterday we were all warming up a cup of eggnog for our Hawkeye rewatch and gearing up for the new year. New films and television shows have been released at a breakneck pace in 2023, and it's been hard to keep up with all the good stuff. (We've tried! Our Letterboxd accounts are proof.) But fear not, dear r...

Outlander crackles with tension in the latest episode of the hit show “Death Be Not Proud,” as Fraser’s Ridge and Jamie, Claire, and Ian are put to the test. Hugh Ross and Sarah Collier, who play Mr. and Mrs. Bug in the time-traveling historical drama, sat down with Cosmic Cafe host Ayla Ruby over Zoom for an exclusive interview to discuss the episode and what the shocking events, including that b...

Can you believe we're already halfway through 2023? Time flies when there's so so many new films and television shows rolling out. There are so many standouts and quite a few upsets as well, that it almost seems impossible to keep up with everything that comes out in a year. Now that we're six months into the year, we here at The Cosmic Circus wanted to look back at some of the highlights from 202...

Secret Invasion has finally arrived on Disney+, ending our dry spell of Marvel Studios content on the streaming service. This six-episode series sees the return of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as you've never seen him before. The world has changed so much after the Snap, so much so that Fury doesn't know what to expect anymore. Secret Invasion has only dropped one episode, but already the excitem...

After a decade since it was first announced, The DCEU's The Flash has finally arrived in theaters. It's been a long journey to bring Barry Allen and his powers of lightning speed to the silver screen, but fans of the witty speedster are excited to finally see the final product. With the arrival of The Flash, the beginning of the end has begun for the DECU, with just two more films left to close ou...

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has finally arrived in theaters, continuing the adventures of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), and all our other favorite spider-people from Marvel Comics. Following the events of 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles steps out of his universe into a larger spider-web of the multiverse, where danger is around every corner....

Prehistoric Planet is a documentary series on Apple TV+ that combines state-of-the-art realistic animation with stunning cinematography to transport viewers back to the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago. The series features never-before-seen "footage" of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in their natural habitats. Sir David Attenborough, the legend of documentary series like Planet E...

After a long wait, the Guardians of the Galaxy are back. This past weekend, James Gunn delivered the third and perhaps most emotionally resonant entry in the cosmic saga, titled Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. Star-lord aka Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is still reeling from the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and the team is adjusting to their new place in the cosmos. After an attack on their celesti...

Watch out for spoilers from season 3 and the season finale of The Mandalorian! Season 3 of The Mandalorian concluded on Wednesday with Chapter 24: The Return. Expectations were high for the finale, which continued the story of The Mandalorian, aka Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder), and adorable found family, the Child, aka Grogu, as they worked with Bo Katan (Katee Sackhoff) a...

Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the first entries in the MCU to take fans to the stars, bringing the cosmos into the spotlight. With humble beginnings as a rag-tag team of A-holes thrust together by fate and bad luck, the group grew into a family full of love and harassment. The Guardians have faced some tough moments together, but have always come out closer than ever though perhaps a bit batt...

It's a great time to be a Star Wars fan! Not only has The Mandalorian returned to our screens over on Disney+, but this past weekend the biggest gathering in the galaxy happened in London, with the 2023 Star Wars Celebration. Across the four days, tons of announcements and trailers dropped for what's to come to a galaxy far, far, away. So of course some of the writers at The Cosmic Circus couldn't...