Cinematic Universe

Cinematic Universe is a podcast all about superhero and comic book movies and TV. Each episode, we look at one movie or show and find out more about the comics behind the screen. Along the way we run through the latest news across the genre, recommend related reading to explore, and pitch our not-always-entirely-serious ideas for future superhero films. From Iron Man to The Dark Knight, from Scott Pilgrim to Spider-Man, from The Incredibles to Howard the Duck, everything across the entire cinematic universe is in our sights.

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20 episodes
every few months
Avg 2 hr 11 min
English

Episodes 20

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September 23 · 2 hr 24 min
Episode #182: Fight Club (1999)
James, Joe and Rhys return to take a look at David Fincher's 1999 classic, FIGHT CLUB: the satire, the masculinity debate, whether it accidentally empowered the wrong audience, and where it lands in Fincher's career.. But before that, we speedrun recent viewing: Lanterns, X-Men '97, Strange New Worlds' Muppet episode (and what's really wrong with Star Trek right now)., Reality Bites (for peak-90s Gen X vibes), D23 X-Men casting reactions (Professor X, Mister Sinister, and where this movie might be heading) and a quick Doomsday trailer take. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 24 · 2 hr 23 min
Episode #181: Materialists (2025)
Rhys, James and Joe are back, and shining the spotlist on Celine Song's 2025 rom-com (or maybe just rom-dram) movie, MATERIALISTS. But alongside that we've also got plenty of other chat, including BACKROOMS, DISCLOSURE DAY, WIDOW'S BAY, and more! We also take a look at the DIGGER trailer, and discuss leaked promo art of AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY because, true to form, nothing happened for four months and then a few days after we recorded an episode, they dropped the trailer. We'll get to it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
March 10 · 2 hr
Episode #180: My Dinner With Andre (1981)
James, Joe and Rhys take a look at Louis Malle's 1981 movie MY DINNER WITH ANDRE - as well as thoughts on the likes of The Secret Agent, the new Game of Thrones show, Iron Lung and Small Prophets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
January 27 · 2 hr 23 min
Episode #179: The Cuppies 2025
Joe, James and Rhys return for our annual look back over everything we covered (and watched more broadly) in 2025. Which of us somehow chose three horror movies as their top three of the year despite not being a horror fan? Will William Shakespeare make it into the Hall of Fame? And is anything this year actually enjoyably bad enough to award this year's Howard T. Duck? All that and more, plus (at the very end) our pick for next month's episode. See if you can guess what it's going to be! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 20, 2025 · 2 hr 11 min
Episode #178: Hamlet (1990)
Joe, James and Rhys take a look at Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 movie, HAMLET, based on the Shakespeare play of the same name and starring, er, Mel Gibson. ALSO: Pluribus, Murderbot, Radiohead (!?) and more! You can get this episode ad-free by signing up at http://patreon.com/cinematicuniverse NOTE: We recorded this before the shocking death of Rob Reiner. Suffice to say we're all horrified, and expect to talk about his work and our collective love of it on a future episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 15, 2025 · 2 hr
Episode #177: Near Dark (1987)
Rhys, James and Joe return to look at the latest movie news and catch up with Kathryn Bigelow's vampire western, Near Dark - is it the best vampire movie from 1987? We'll be back in a couple of weeks with our next movie (revealed in this episode, and let me tell you: it is an ODD shout even by Joe's standards) before we're back for our regular roundup of the year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 28, 2025 · 2 hr 3 min
Episode #176: Battle Royale (2000)
James, Rhys and Joe return to look at the genre-defining murder-game satire, BATTLE ROYALE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 13, 2025 · 2 hr 15 min
Episode #175: Night of the Living Dead (1968) & 28 Years Later (2025)
Joe, James & Rhys take a deep(ish) dive on both extreme ends of the zombie franchise - George A Romero's originator of the genre, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and Danny Boyle's post-Brexit zombie sequel, 28 YEARS LATER. All this, plus: Ironheart, The Phoenician Scheme, The Rehearsal, and more! Our next movie on the Patreon ( http://patreon.com/cinematicuniverse ) will be - of course - James Gunn's SUPERMAN, which we are expecting to record tomorrow, so you should hear it in just a few days. We'll also be doing FANTASTIC FOUR after that, and our next main episode is going to be BATTLE ROYALE. So plenty to look forward to! If you've seen Night of the Living Dead or 28 Years Later, let us know what you thought in the comments! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 22, 2025 · 1 hr 56 min
Episode #174: Sinners (2025)
Rhys, James and Joe take a look at Ryan Coogler's 2025 movie, SINNERS. As soon as we can agree who's hosing the episode. This is an all-Sinners episode because it was recorded soon after our Ghost Dog chat AND there's a lot in this movie to think about. That said, to be completely honest if you don't like talk about spitting I would probably skip this one. You can hear this and many other episodes ad-free on our Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 17, 2025 · 1 hr 35 min
Episode #173: Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)
Rhys, James and Joe take a look at Jim Jarmusch's 1999 fusion of crime & samurai genres, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 26, 2025 · 2 hr 19 min
Episode #172: Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country (1991)
James, Rhys & Joe return with one of James's favourite movies, Star Trek VI. But what did the others make of it? We also cover Daredevil: Born Again (a little - recording a catch-up of eps 3-6 at the weekend), Severance S2, Dogman, Common Side Effects, Mickey 17 AND the latest Bond news. Enjoy! Catch on Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/cinematicuniverse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 8, 2025 · 2 hr 12 min
Episode #171: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Joe, James & Rhys look at the 2013 Coen Brothers movie starring Oscar Isaac: Inside Llewyn Davis. We also talk Companion (mild spoilers though nothing that isn't in the trailer), Severance S2, and much more! We'll be back in a few weeks with James's movie choice: Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 20, 2025 · 2 hr 5 min
Episode 170: The Cuppies 2024
Rhys, James and Joe are back with our customary look back over the previous year, in which we re-litigate our favourite picks, award our best (and worst) accolades, and ask the serious question: isn't Alien going to clean up all of these? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 24, 2024 · 2 hr 34 min
Episode 169: Gladiator (2000)
Rhys, James and Joe are back! Well, technically we never went away but it's all been happening over on the Patreon where we've covered Agatha All Along, The Penguin, Joker: Folie a Deux and Kraven - but we're finally back on the free feed to discuss Ridley Scott's 2000 movie, GLADIATOR. There's also the usual news and what's good sections but if you're only interested in the movie you can find that at 1h 30m. We'll be back on the free feed soon with our usual end-of-year show, and we'll be back in January for Joe's pick: INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 24, 2024 · 2 hr 26 min
Episode 168: Dazed & Confused (1993)
James, Rhys & Joe discussed Richard Linklater's influential gen-x coming of age movie, Dazed & Confused - but also: the Venom trailer, the Minecraft Trailer, and the Timestalkers trailer, as well as much more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 18, 2024 · 2 hr 6 min
Episode 167: Alien (1979)
Joe, James and Rhys take a look at Ridley Scott's ALIEN (1979) starring Sigourney Weaver (and a giant nightmare creature from beyond the stars). The hit that spawned a franchise, does it hold up? (Yes, it does). We also cover the Olympics (really), My Neighbour Totoro, Mars Express, the Spider-Man rereleases, some movies of 1986, Trap, and a bunch of news out of D23. (Apologies for Rhys's audio quality towards the end - he didn't get hit in the mouth and start lisping, his recording quality just glitched out.) Remember, you can hear our Deadpool & Wolverine episode on Patreon now, as well as a follow up episode to this one where we discuss our thoughts on the rest of the Alien franchise. Subscribe now at http://patreon.com/cinematicuniverse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 26, 2024 · 2 hr 10 min
Episode 166: The Bikeriders (2023)
Rhys, James and Joe take a look at Tom Hardy, Jody Comer and Austin Butler in Jeff Nichols' THE BIKERIDERS, as well as weighing in on the Captain America trailer and talking about TV and movies they've enjoyed since the last episode. NOTE: Fans of Deadpool & Wolverine can find the episode on our Patreon soon at http://patreon.com/cinematicuniverse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 12, 2024 · 2 hr 12 min
Episode 165: Kamikaze Girls (2004)
James, Rhys and Joe take a look at Tetsuya Nakashima's 2004 movie, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, but before any of that, there's chat about movies and TV we've been enjoying (such as X-Men '97) and not enjoying (in the case of both Star Trek Discovery and The Acolyte.) There's also a deep(ish) dive on, er, the Venom 3 trailer! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 3, 2024 · 2 hr 20 min
Episode 164: Design for Living (1933)
Joe, James and Rhys take a look at Ernst Lubitsch's 1933 polyamory romcom, Design for Living, based (very loosely) on a Noel Coward play. And for those who prefer stuff released this century, we also have a big old chat about Fallout and the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 10, 2024 · 2 hr 14 min
Episode 163: Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021)
Joe, James and Rhys welcome Caroline Siede to discuss her selection, Lin Manuel Miranda's 2021 Netflix movie, TICK, TICK... BOOM! - an adaptation of the stage show based on Jonathan Larson's Rock Monologue. PLUS: talk about Hadestown, Late Night with the Devil, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Three Body Problem, Perfect Days, Blackberry, Dumb Money, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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