The Nerds of Color – Pop Culture With a Different Perspective

The Nerds of Color joined a group of journalists at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California, for an early look at Hexed, where directors Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand, co-director Josie Trinidad, producers Roy Conli and Yvett Merino, and writers Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller pulled back the curtain to reveal a few of the tricks behind the magic of the film’s story, characters, and creative process.

Animation Reviews

October 11, 2026 Swara Ahmed

NOCs of the Roundtable Review the First Three Episodes of ‘Avatar: Seven Havens’

Lauren, Swara, and special guest Neebz of the Salaam Nerds Podcast give a full on SPOILER review for the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens, diving into everything great about the series so far, the mysteries it’s setting up, its broadening of Asian cultural incorporation, and much more.

Animation Movies Reviews

October 10, 2026 Mike Manalo

NOC Review: ‘Ray Gunn’ is a Brad Bird Blast

Ray Gunn is Brad Bird’s first film since 2018’s Incredibles 2. So does it soar to the same heights as his classics? Let’s just say in a movie that features flying cars and jet packs, you better believe it!

Television Horror Interview

October 9, 2026 Mike Manalo

The Cast of ‘Carrie’ on the Bloody Truth About Bullying

The Nerds of Color sat down with the ensemble cast of Mike Flanagan’s Carrie — Amber Midthunder, Matthew Lillard, Alison Thornton, Josie Totah, Joel Oulette, and Arthur Conti — to talk about bullying, kindness, and why Stephen King’s story is still as relevant as ever.

Conventions Fandom

October 9, 2026 Josephine Chang

CatCon 2026 is Coming To Pasadena Right Meow on October 10-11

If you’re a cat lover in the Los Angeles area, you’re going to love CatCon as it is the world’s largest event dedicated solely to the intersection of cats and pop culture!

Streaming Recaps Sci Fi

October 9, 2026 Keith Chow

NOC Recaps ‘Dark Matter’ S2, E7: Running

The latest episode of Apple TV’s Dark Matter starts to pick up some of the dangling plot threads from earlier

Television Interview Sci Fi

October 8, 2026 Keith Chow

Amanda Brugel Discusses Her Journey Through ‘Dark Matter’ Season 2

Amanda Brugel, who plays Blair in Dark Matter Season 2, on hiding in the retro world, the pull of identity across universes, and her pitch for Season 3.

Horror Interview Television

October 7, 2026 Mike Manalo

Mike Flanagan, Summer H. Howell, and Samantha Sloyan Reinvent ‘Carrie’

Mike Flanagan, Summer H. Howell, and Samantha Sloyan on reinventing Stephen King’s most beloved horror story for Prime Video’s new adaptation.

Reviews Movies

October 6, 2026 Edward Hong

‘Once Upon a Time in the Middle East’ is China’s Anti-Imperialist Answer to the Iraq War Film

What immediately sets Once Upon A Time in the Middle East apart from a plethora of war dramas that deal with Southwest Asian conflicts is that not only is this from the Chinese perspective but that the villains are not the “jihadist terrorists” the western media had us fearing for decades. Instead, the villains are the U.S. military itself and with it, the ever-present claws of U.S. imperialism.

Movies Opinion

October 5, 2026 Lauren Lola

How Eric Draven of ‘The Crow’ is an Advocate for Girls and Women

It’s seeing these conversations play out, feeling the warranted anger towards every perpetrator involved in this case, that I find myself thinking about a fictional male character who is a major advocate for girls and women: Eric Draven from the 1994 film, The Crow.

Daniela sits on a bed in a rustic cabin bedroom, looking out the window.

Streaming Recaps Sci Fi

October 2, 2026 Keith Chow

NOC Recaps ‘Dark Matter’ S2, E6: Waiting for Stevie

We pair “Present Tense” and “Waiting for Stevie” with Dark Matter’s latest hour, as Daniela searches for herself at a cabin, Jason starts chasing a life he never had, and Blair and Leighton dig up something big underground.

William Shatner, Vincent Martella, David Errigo Jr., and other attendees gather on the red carpet in front of a step-and-repeat for The Sixty-Year Mission premiere.

Star Trek Documentary Interview

October 1, 2026 Elijah Isaiah Johnson

On the Red Carpet for ‘The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World’

We hit the red carpet at the premiere of The Sixty-Year Mission to talk with William Shatner, Terry Farrell, Nana Visitor, John de Lancie, and more about six decades of Star Trek’s legacy — and why the franchise still matters.

Composer Nathan Matthew David poses with a group of local Filipino musicians and community elders in traditional dress inside a bamboo hut during his research trip to the Philippines

Animation Interview Movies Music

September 29, 2026 Mike Manalo

Feeling the Music of ‘Forgotten Island’ with Composer Nathan Matthew David

We sat down with composer Nathan Matthew David to talk about scoring Forgotten Island — and how he drew on his own Filipino heritage, and a research trip back to the Philippines, to blend traditional folk music with modern synth pop for the film’s soundtrack.

Key art for Forgotten Island: three animated characters -- one wearing a boombox headpiece, one making a peace sign, and a dog-like creature reaching toward the camera -- stand under a glowing sun against palm trees and ocean

Roundtable Animation Movies Reviews

September 28, 2026 Swara Ahmed

NOCs of the Roundtable Spoiler Review ‘Forgotten Island’

Lauren, Mike, Michael, and Swara review the latest film out now from DreamWorks, Forgotten Island, directed and written by Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford and starring H.E.R. and Liza Soberano

Wolverine locks claws with Lady Deathstrike amid a fiery battlefield in Marvel's Wolverine

Video Games Marvel Reviews

September 26, 2026 Dominic Mah

NOC Review: The ‘Wolverine’ Game is a Haunted Story of Love and Death

We spent a full playthrough of Insomniac’s Wolverine, and like the Spider-Man games before it, the takeaway is simple: they nailed the X-Men — a gore-heavy brawler anchored by a genuinely haunted love story about grief, loss, and finding a reason to keep coming back to life.

Newsletter

September 25, 2026 Keith Chow

NOC Week in Review #12: 9/19-25/2026

This week at the NOC: Brad Bird gets a two-part deep dive for Ray Gunn, LAIKA opens its doors for Wildwood, Mike and Lauren hit a historic red carpet for Forgotten Island, LEGO Pokémon lands in L.A., and the Dark Matter/Pearl Jam recaps continue.

Animation Interview Movies

September 25, 2026 Mike Manalo

A Historic Night at the ‘Forgotten Island’ World Premiere

We were there as Forgotten Island made history as the first film to world premiere at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — and as the first Hollywood animated film centered on Filipino culture. We bring you our red carpet conversations with the cast and crew, including Jo Koy, H.E.R., Harvey Guillén, and directors Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford.

Sci Fi Recaps Streaming

September 25, 2026 Keith Chow

NOC Recaps ‘Dark Matter’ S2, E5: Upper Hand

This week’s Dark Matter recap goes off-script in the best way, following an alternate Jason’s years-long detour through grief, family, and reluctant love — all set to Pearl Jam’s “Upper Hand.” We’re calling it one of the most moving episodes of genre TV we’ve seen all year.

Toys Fandom Tech

September 25, 2026 Laura Sirikul

LEGO Pokémon Brings Its ‘SMART Play’ Experience To Los Angeles This Weekend

Pokémon celebrates its 30th Anniversary, and The LEGO Group is celebrating by launching the LEGO Pokémon SMART Play Experience in Los Angeles.

Animation Interview

September 24, 2026 Michael Lee

Brad Bird and Michael Giacchino on the Long Road to ‘Ray Gunn’

Brad Bird and longtime collaborator Michael Giacchino open up about their decades-long creative partnership, the hand-drawn animation Bird still champions, and what it finally took to get Ray Gunn made.

Raymond Gunn (Sam Rockwell) and Eyera share a drink in Ray's private investigator office in Ray Gunn.

Animation Movies

September 23, 2026 Michael Lee

Inside the Making of ‘Ray Gunn’ and Brad Bird’s Vision of a Noir Future

Nearly 30 years in the making, Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn blends Buck Rogers pulp with Maltese Falcon-style noir, and we got an inside look at the character design, world-building, and cinematography behind it.