Speaking with the Stars of Lifetime’s First All-Latino Holiday Film, ‘Merry Textmas’

Ariana Ron Pedrique and Rodrigo Massa star as Gaby Diaz and Alex Alvarado in Merry Textmas. The new holiday movie will premiere on Sunday, December 4 at 8/7c as part of Lifetime’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime.”

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Alex Livinalli on the Indigenous Story Within ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’

Talocan is coming for the surface world! After decades of stories on the printed page, Namor, Namora, and powerful behemoth Attuma are finally making their grand cinematic debuts in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this Friday! And we, at The Nerds of Color, were blessed to have gotten an opportunity to speak with the man behind Attuma, Alex Livinalli!

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Jenna Ortega on ‘Wednesday,’ Latina Representation, and More at NYCC

Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams in the new Netflix series, Wednesday, which is set to premiere on November 23. This year, at New York Comic Con, I had the privilege of speaking with the actress during a roundtable interview!

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Hard NOC Life 286: Y Tu Namor También

This week, Britney, Keith, and Dominic are joined by Friend of the NOC, Catrina Dennis to break down the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer, and marvel at Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal’s ascension up the Disney ranks with Andor and Werewolf By Night, respectively. They also geek out over Daredevil’s appearance in She-Hulk and share what’s nerd poppin’ from Star Trek: Picard to Hocus Pocus 2 and “Super” Black Adam rumors.

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Hard NOC Life 277: DC’s Crisis of Infinite Corporate Mergers

Keith is still out, so Britney and Dominic are once again joined by Vanessa Shark and Brother Nate Milton to pick up the pieces of the fallout from Warner Bros. Discovery’s cancellation of Batgirl and the future of DC and HBO Max.

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SDCC 2022: ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Explores the Consistency of Excellence

After Ryan Coogler and the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever brought the house down in Hall H, some of the film’s stars stopped by our spot on the press line and spoke to Ron from POC Culture about what the new film will mean to audiences, but especially to Black and Indigenous moviegoers.

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Carlos Pacheco Homages Superman in ‘La Borinqueña’ Variant Cover

Somos Arte just announced the third printing of La Borinqueña #2 will feature a variant cover illustrated by Carlos Pacheco — with colors by Emilio Lopez — that will be an homage to his iconic Superman #654 (2006) cover.

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Jon Huertas on the Series Finale of ‘This Is Us’

While covering the 2022 NBCUniversal Upfront Red Carpet, I had the chance to speak with Jon Huertas. The actor portrays Miguel in the award-winning and critically acclaimed drama, This Is Us, which has its series finale tonight at 9 PM ET on NBC.

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Shakira Discusses Her New Series, ‘Dancing with Myself’

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to cover the 2022 NBCUniversal Upfront Red Carpet and speak with Shakira! The multiple Grammy Award winner is teaming up with NBC to take the social media dance craze to a new level. She broke the Internet in 2021 with her own viral dance, “Girl Like Me,” and will now be a creator on Dancing with Myself, the ultimate family-friendly high-spirited competition that brings out the performer in all of us.

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NOC Review: ‘Moon Knight’ Raises the Bar for What the MCU Can Be

Many new viewers may ask themselves “Who the hell are Moon Knight and Marc Spector?” The protagonist of the titular Disney+ series, Steven Grant, grapples with the same question as he’s swept on a psychological and mythological ride across the globe.

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Boss Fight Announces ‘La Borinqueña’ Action Figures

In news we would normally have covered coming out of Toy Fair (which was canceled this year), Boss Fight Studio just announced a line of La Borinqueña action figures. This is just part of the first launch of action figures inspired by the team of superheroes created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, the Nitainos.

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‘La Borinqueña’ Tackles Climate Change

In 2016, Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist and philanthropist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez created La Borinqueña to drive conversations around the social, economic, and environmental crises affecting Puerto Rico. As a direct response to Hurricane Maria, he created our La Borinqueña Grants Program which has awarded $165,000 in grants to non-profit organizations across Puerto Rico.

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Stealing the Show with ‘Peacemaker’ Star Alison Araya

Hey nerds! Just when you thought we were done with Peacemaker… surprise! We have one more interview to share with you all. Hopefully, everyone has seen the first three episodes that premiered on Thursday. If not, you need to get on that immediately so you can check out Alison Araya’s scene stealing performance in Episode 2.

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Exploring the Extras of ‘Eternals’ on Digital

For anyone following my reviews, you’ve most likely read my thoughts on Eternals this past November. To summarize, overall, I think this is a perfectly lovely, and bold film that challenges the traditional convention for the Marvel Cinematic Universe template, taking more from Alan Moore’s Watchmen than Avengers. I realize it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine. But for me, Chloé Zhao brought something incredibly unique into this 27-film franchise that I find severely underrated and quite special in its own right.

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NOC Review: ‘Scream’ is a Worthy Return to Woodsboro

Radio Silence (Ready or Not) delivers an earnest homage to Wes Craven with Scream while reinventing its meta core for a new generation. The story from writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick reconnects the past with the present seamlessly, creating real reasons for the legacy cast members to return to shepherd a new core group of friends living a requel of the Woodsboro tragedy. Yes, a requel (reboot+sequel) which the film pokes fun at itself with true to the franchise’s signature smarts and proving that it’s smarter than ever. 

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The ‘Eternals’ Arrive on Blu-ray and 4K in February

As previously reported, Eternals is finally arriving to homes everywhere this January! And they’re bringing a whole slew of awesome special features and deleted scenes! Now, folks who weren’t able to make it to the theaters will finally get to see the ambitious and bold work of director Chloé Zhao, and her intergalactic, epic impact on the MCU!

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NOC Review: ‘West Side Story’ is a Beautiful Retelling Worth Seeing

Directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, West Side Story revives the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City. Now, fans of the Broadway show and original film might be wondering not only why it was remade, but if it’s worth going to see or if it does the story justice. With the stellar performances and amazing musical numbers, West Side Story has all the elements that make the story a classic and is definitely worth a trip to the movies.

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NOC Review: ‘Encanto’ is Mostly Enchanting

First of all, score one for Walt Disney Animation for putting out two releases in one year that celebrate different stories from different cultures! With the terrific Raya and the Last Dragon earlier this year, and now the charming Encanto, it’s refreshing to see that the House of Mouse has been more proactive in telling stories that aren’t just rooted in Western European fairy tales. I think Moana really opened the door for this, and as far as our site is concerned, we couldn’t be happier.

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‘Encanto’ Directors and Writers Find Magical Realism in Colombian Culture

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto is an animated musical that celebrates Lantine and Latinx culture, specifically everything Colombia offers. The film follows Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), the only child not blessed with a magical gift. As she struggles to find her place within her multigenerational enchanted family, she finds out that the magic that has helped them and the town is in danger of disappearing. So she sets off on an adventure to prevent that from happening.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Challenges of Songwriting in ‘Encanto’

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto tells a story about family and individuality through the Latin American lens, specifically a Colombian one. The film follows the Madrigal family, where every child was blessed with a magical power that they are to use to help the family and better the community. Well, every child except Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz), who has to face the frustration of being the only one without a blessing.

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Padma Lakshmi’s ‘Taste the Nation: Holiday Edition’ is Wonderful and Moving

We obviously look forward to the holidays for the food. Whether it’s for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Passover, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Diwali, Día De Los Muertos, Seollal (Korean New Year), Nowruz (Persian New Year), or some other holiday, we always enjoy diving into a scrumptious feast with our loved ones to commemorate these occasions. But how exactly did some of these food traditions develop here in the United States, and what were the specific contributions of Immigrant and Indigenous communities?

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