Below are all the important dates leading up to the US release of Captain America: Civil War.  Check back often as we will be updating when new appearances by the cast are announced.  And if you hear anything, let us know in the comments! -Christina

April 7th: Movie screened for New York press.

​April 8th: Movie to be screened for LA press with a social media embargo being lifted at 11PM PST/1AM EST.

April 9th-April 12th: Press junket will be taking place in LA.

April 10th: Chris Evans to present an exclusive clip from the film at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards, which airs at 8PM/7PMc. 

April 11th: Jimmy Kimmel kicks off a special Marvel themed week with #TeamCap (Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, and Paul Rudd. 

April 12th: World premiere at 7PM PST at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.  Also on Jimmy Kimmel, Benedict Cumberbatch will present the first trailer for Doctor Strange.

April 13th: #TeamIronMan appears on Kimmel (Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Emily Van Camp, Chadwick Boseman, and Paul Bettany).  The embargo on reviews is being lifted at 2PM PST.  Film will also be screened at CinemaCon.

April 14th: Chris Hemsworth appears on Kimmel.

April 18th: Paris premiere at the Grand Rex Theater.

April 19th: #TeamCap (Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and Anthony Mackie) and the Russo brothers will be attending the Beijing premiere.

April 21st: Berlin premiere at the Sony Center with Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Bosman, Daniel Brühl, and Emily VamCamp attending.  #TeamCap (Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and Anthony Mackie) along with director Joe Russo will be doing press in Singapore.

April 27th: The film is released in Belgium, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Sweden, Vietnam, and South Africa.

April 28th: The film is released in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Cambodia, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.

April 29th: The film is released in Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, UK, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, and Norway.

May 2nd: Chadwick Boseman appears on Late Night With Seth Meyers and Live With Kelly and Michael.  Chris Evans and Elizabeth Olsen appear on The Ellen Degeneres Show.

May 3rd: Chris Evans appears on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.  Sebastian Stan appears on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.  Elizabeth Olsen appears on Late Night With Seth Meyers.  Chadwick Boseman appears on The View.

May 4th: The film is released in Italy.  Jeremy Renner appears on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and Live With Kelly and Michael.  Anthony Mackie appears on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

May 5th: The film is released in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.  Robert Downey Jr. appears on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and Live With Kelly and Michael.  Sebastian Stan appears on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

​May 6th: The film is released in Canada, China, India, Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Turkey, and the US.  Expect a spoiler free review here at ALNM that night with a spoiler filled episode coming the following week.  Emily Van Camp appears on The Talk.  Anthony Mackie appears on Live With Kelly and Michael.

2016 is shaping up to be a major year at the theater.  So save up those Fandango gift cards you got for Christmas now.  We here at ALNM are providing you a guide to all the major films coming out the next twelve months.

Attention: Here there be spoilers.  So so many spoilers.

Before we dive right into this, watch the trailer below and bask in the feels.

We could spend all day basking in the pure beauty of the fact that we finally have this trailer (which appears to be at least slightly different than the one lucky fans saw at the D23 Expo in August).  But where's the fun in that?  Fandom is all about diving in, picking things apart, and trying to put it all together in a way that makes sense.  So what are the top things we here at ALNM picked up on?

We here at ALNM take full advantage of our DVRs.  Weekends are often spent catching up on our favorite shows as we slowly recover from a long work week.  But there are those certain shows we find ourselves chugging a warm latte in order to stay awake for each night.  Are you trying to decide what to spend your precious nights watching?  Here are our choices:

Sunday
Christina: Madam Secretary.  This show seems to take place in some near future where the next president hasn’t resolved many of the issues we are currently facing.  Or maybe this is supposed to be the next president?  Regardless, this show never fails to entertain me with its mix of drama and comedy.  If you are looking for in depth political analysis or a successor to The West Wing, this isn’t it.  But if you are looking to escape to a world with a politician you can trust to do the right ethical thing regardless of poll numbers, spend your nights with Secretary McCord.

​Kelly: Once Upon A Time.  This show is perfect for the Disney nerd in all of us.  Currently in it’s fifth season, OUAT is quickly becoming a fandom staple.  Not only does it have some of the most enthusiastic shippers in fandom (SwanQueen, Captain Swan, and Outlaw Queen, just to name a few), it also has a real life fairytale behind the scenes when Ginnifer Goodwin (who plays Snow White) and Josh Dallas (who plays Prince Charming) met, fell in love, and started a family, all within the last five years.  OUAT has brought us to so many places from Disney and literary tales like Arendelle, Camelot, and Neverland.  This is a show that I never miss on a Sunday night and each season just seems to be getting better and better.

Monday
Christina: Minority Report.  Continuing with my trend of liking shows on the bubble of renewal, I have to say I like this show despite its flaws.  It hasn’t yet reached the philosophical quality of the films regarding the future and whether or not we can change our destiny, but it does have an engaging cast that shows effortless chemistry.  Stark Sands’ and Nick Zano’s performances as the twin precogs stood out in early episodes and Meagan Good seems to be finding her footing as police officer Lara Vega.  The visuals are fun without being overwhelming, but I fear people passing it off as “another cop show” could be its downfall.  Hopefully it will catch up to its potential and stray away from the case of the week format by season’s end.

Kelly: Switched at Birth. Stop laughing.  I started watching this show when it first aired because it starred Lucas Grabeel of Disney Channel fame and I have a weird sort of love for him.  While it starts out being a little on the strange side, this show (which is done partly in American Sign Language) has tackled topics like child abuse, discrimination, date rape, and so many other things in its four year run.  While the show can be cheesy at times, I have found that the characters really begin to grow on you and you want to see them succeed.  Most recently, the show has taken on the stigma that is attached to children with Down’s Syndrome.  If you need one more reason to watch it, current America’s Next Top Model contestant Nyle DiMarco has had a semi-recurring role this season.  While it ends the fourth season this Monday, I’m hoping it will return for a fifth season come this January.

Tuesday
Christina: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Admittedly Tuesday nights are pretty sparse TV watching for me.  This is the most likely night to see me call it an early one after walking my dog.  I am invested in this show however to see how the Marvel Cinematic Universe will progress to next year’s Civil War.  That’s enough to keep me hanging on in the hopes I’ll get drawn in by the storyline again.

Kelly: The Flash. This is basically the only show I watch on Tuesday nights now that I’ve fallen so far behind on Christina’s Tuesday choice.  As a fan of Arrow and Grant Gustin from his brief stint on Glee, I knew that I had to give this show a try last season.  With stars like Grant Gustin and Jesse L. Martin on the cast and guest stars like Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, and Mark Hamill, it was pretty much a safe bet that I would get roped into this show.  The crossover episodes with Arrow have made it even more successful and I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of that when Legends of Tomorrow begins on The CW.  Catch up while you can because this exciting show is definitely one of my favorites right now.

Wednesday
Christina: Expedition Unknown.  I loved Josh Gates’ old show on SyFy Channel (Destination Unknown).  This one is a little more grounded in terms of what they investigate, and being on Travel Channel you know you’ll get to see some pretty interesting locations.  Even when there’s little evidence to be found they’re good at providing an entertaining and educational hour of television.  If you have time you should definitely track down an episode searching for something you’re already interested in as a gateway to the show.

Kelly: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. What season is this show in?  Who cares!  SVU is an awesome show.  I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been watching this.  My sister and I have a joke that even when they show marathons on USA Network, it is rare that we haven’t seen this episode.  Currently in its 17th (!) season, this procedural drama is the only spinoff of the Law & Order franchise that is left and there’s a good reason why.  Every week, the detectives take on a new case that’s usually been seen on the recent news; “ripped from the headlines”, as they put it.  Though detectives have come and gone in the past 17 years, Ice-T and Mariska Hargitay have held on this whole time and their characters have continued to grow.  SVU is not only the perfect show to binge watch, but it’s the perfect show to unwind with on a Wednesday night.

Thursday
Christina: Sleepy Hollow.  The show seems to be quickly finding its footing after last season’s finale, which was built to act as a series finale due to grumblings that FOX would not be picking it up for the Fall 2015 season.  I also can’t think of many shows on TV today where four of the five leads are women.  The Pandora storyline was strange at first but is now weaving itself smoothly into the narrative of the show.  Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison have as much chemistry as ever (and adorable new haircuts!).  They are a delight to watch.  And I can’t wait to see how the crossover with Bones turns out.

Kelly: The Vampire Diaries.  I don’t know who doesn’t make fun of me for being obsessed with this show.  While I’ve never really gotten into the shipping and fandom aspect of TVD, the show that started out like “Your Weekly Dose of Twilight” has become one of my favorite shows.  Though they lost their star Nina Dobrev last season, I have high hopes for the show’s seventh season.  It’ll be like when Chad Michael Murray finally left One Tree Hill and the show actually got better.  This season, the focus is back on the two Salvatore brothers Stefan and Damon (played by Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder) and that was always the root of the show.  Though it is based on a book series by L.J. Smith, the showrunners have really taken the characters she created and run with them, making them into strong, independent men and women who know what they’re fighting for and that’s one of the reasons why I love this show so much.

Friday
Christina: Hawaii Five-0.  Let’s be real for a minute here.  The best character on the show is Hawaii itself.  It gives the show a look unlike any other on television, especially since they film on location and it’s not another place acting as a double.  I’m looking at you half of the shows that take place in New York.  The rest of the cast is also fantastic enough to make it stand out from a lot of the other crime dramas you could spend your time watching.  It is also one of the rare crime dramas I find myself binge watching old episodes of on Netflix.  Fans of Lost and Heroes might also enjoy seeing some familiar faces.

Kelly: Reign. I have to admit, I binge-watched the first two seasons on Netflix this summer and became obsessed with this show.  While I was disappointed that Teen Wolf lost Adelaide Kane to this show, she is perfect as Mary, Queen of Scots.  Let’s get one thing straight: this show is definitely historical fiction, so if you’re a history buff looking for a show that follows what you know, don’t watch this show.  It takes many liberties with the historical timeline.  One of my friends described it as Gossip Girl with a historical element to it.  The costumes and scenery of this show are so beautiful, a strong point of the show.  If you’re looking to get swept away by stories involving kings, queens, love, and politics in 16th century Europe, this is the show you shouldn’t be missing.

Saturday
Christina: Doctor Who.  I used to love Doctor Who.  I used to seriously be obsessed with Doctor Who.  I haven’t enjoyed the writing and the character development nearly as much since the departure of Russell T Davies left, and the Christmas special that saw the departure of Matt Smith was an exceptionally low point for me as a fan.  But I can say I am a big fan of Peter Capaldi’s work as The Doctor.  He uses the right balance of wisdom and whimsy in the role, and you know he understands the weight of playing The Doctor having been a fan since he was a child.  There was a moment last week that at the time made my jaw drop, but it also reminded me how much of the history of the show has been largely ignored in recent years.  I’m curious to see how they will deal with the departure of Jenna Coleman and am willing to hold out hope for an upward trend in quality in the future.

Kelly: Saturday Night Live.  I have to be honest, I don’t really have a show that I love to watch on Saturday nights, but over the years, SNL has had so many great comedians.  From Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, SNL is comedic genius.  With so many great sketches and segments, my favorites in the recent years have been Andy Samberg’s Digital Shorts and, of course, Weekend Update.  This show is an entertainment staple.  It’s currently in its 41st season and has ushered some of the most famous comedians to the forefront of pop culture.  Current cast members like Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Colin Jost, Michael Che, and Pete Davidson are already huge names in comedy after only one season on the show.  We all know that this show will continue on for years to come and we look forward to seeing more comedians get their starts on SNL.

​Special mentions: Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, Empire, How To Get Away With Murder, The Last Kingdom, Grey's Anatomy, Jane the Virgin, Arrow, Chicago P.D.

Welcome, everyone, to our first installment of Teen Wolf Wednesdays with our special correspondent Ryan.  You may all remember him from Episode 30 of the podcast entitled "Help Me, ALNM!  You're My Only Hope!" and now Ryan will be writing a regular column all about Teen Wolf episodes this season.  He and his wife, Maria, worked tirelessly to catch up on all FOUR seasons of the show in order to participate in ALNM's love of Teen Wolf (despite having two adorable kids who undoubtedly keep them on their toes).  And so, we present to you, Teen Wolf Wednesday!

The Dread Doctors!!  Another Kanima!!!!  I’ll admit…I’m very excited about the first three episodes of Season 5.  Apparently the new villains in town are known as The Dread Doctors.  These guys use a mix of science and the supernatural for an evil purpose; they can make Werewolves and Kanimas from what show creator, Jeff Davis has shown us.  Personally, I dig the creepy villains.  I’m still haunted by the Nogitsune from Season 3.  This new season starts out with Senior Year and Stiles (Dylan O’ Brien) is having a hard time thinking of graduation and leaving his friends.  Some mutant werewolf with blue translucent claws is on the hunt for Scott and it seems that Lydia is locked away at Eichen House with episode one beginning and ending with scenes of her at the mental facility saying that all her friends are going to die.  Scott has an old friend from 4th grade named Theo show up to Beacon Hills looking for a pack with an Alpha like Scott.  Turns out that Theo is a werewolf too.  Theo helps Scott defeat the mutant werewolf who ends up running away and returning to some creepy building where we get our first look at the Dread Doctors.  

Episode 2 introduces us to Tracy who has hallucinations of the Dread Doctors.  She ends up being captured and injected with a serum that turns her into a werewolf or so we think.  Stiles, always being his suspicions self, is suspect of Theo’s true intentions. I have a feeling we are in store for a series of unforgettable events that will call upon Scott and his pack to face another fierce enemy.  Even Deaton is thrown off on what this villain could be.  Alas…episode 3 brought back the Kanima.  It turns out that Tracy is a Kanima not a werewolf and as all Kanima’s must do, she goes on a killing spree through Beacon Hills killing her father and psychiatrist.  Tracy attacks Scott, Stiles, Deaton and Malia at Deaton’s Pet hospital.  Due to the paralyzing nature of Kanima saliva everyone is paralyzed.  Malia is the only one that can overcome the paralysis the quickest and she goes after Tracy.  Kira finds her first and uses her Kitsune powers to cut off Tracy’s tale injuring her.  Tracy finds herself in the basement of the police station when out of nowhere the Doctors appear and kill Tracy.  Malia was left alive to witness the whole thing.  Who are the Dread Doctors?  Where did they come from?  How can we bring them down and where the hell is Derek?  Bring on Episode 4…   and as Jackson once said, who by the way might be coming back to the show, “Where do you get your juice?”

-- Ryan

On our last episode we mentioned that we here at A Little Nerd Music are going on a brief hiatus from recording our podcast.  We will be back up and running next month, but in the meantime here are a few things you can do to keep your overwhelming disappointment at bay.

1. Catch up on everything ALNM
We may not be recording right now, but alnmpodcast.com is still up and running!  We’ll be concluding our ship bracket at the end of the month, and every week we will still have Music Monday, Throwback Thursday, and Fandom Friday.  There will also be some original articles making an appearance here and there.  And be sure to look out for our Age of Ultron review on May 1st!

2. Prepare for Avengers: Age of Ultron
Speaking of Age of Ultron, why don’t you prepare yourself for the impending release?  Make sure you’re all caught up on the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe rewatch Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Of the movies in Phase II, it’s probably the one that had the biggest impact on MCU at large.  And there are always the hilarious cast interviews preceding the film’s American release.  But make sure you’re careful with your Google searches if you want to avoid spoilers.

3. Check out Daredevil on Netflix
It likely doesn’t have much of an impact on Age of Ultron, but the recently released Netflix original series is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy the superhero genre at all.  It’s darker than the MCU we’re used to and shows the long lasting negative impact those impressive fight sequences we’re all so fond of can have on the people left behind.  And this iteration of Matt Murdock will wipe that other Marvel movie out of your mind.

4. Clean up that DVR
I don’t know about you, but between work and day to day life I tend to fall behind on some of my favorite shows.  I’ve got a build up of Once Upon A Time and Gotham  that I need to start getting through.  What shows do you need to catch up on?

5. One show you should be catching up on: Lip Sync Battle
It just got renewed for a second season because it’s awesome.  You know that awesome running lip sync sketch Jimmy Fallon has on The Tonight Show?  Well, he made it into a series on Thursdays on Spike.  Trust me, you don’t know it, but you’ve been waiting your whole life to see The Rock lip sync to “Shake It Off” and Anne Hathaway to take on “Wrecking Ball.”

6. Read all the fic you’ve been meaning to get around to
During this hiatus, some of us are going to be laid up for a little while.  So how about doing something you’ve been putting off?  Like catching up on some fic on AO3 that you’ve never gotten around to?

7. Watch the NBA playoffs, cause there’s “Strength In Numbers”
Are sports more your thing?  Then how about taking some time to watch the NBA playoffs.  Watching Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors is always a thrill.  Sorry New Orleans fans, but this podcast host is and always will be very biased when it comes to her Bay Area sports teams.

8. Get some rest!
You hear me Kelly?  Take a load off!  You’re the heart and soul of this podcast and I don’t know what I’d be doing if you hadn’t gotten this whole ALNM thing off the ground.  Love you!

-Christina

by Christina

If you don’t know by now that Spider-Man will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then I am jealous of the untethered life you lead.  I imagine you’ve been spending the time lounging on a remote beach on your own private island in the Caribbean.  Meanwhile, here at ALNM, we've been keeping up on all the latest the Internet has to offer on recent developments.  We've gathered up the facts, the rumors, and our own ideas for you in one nifty little article below.

What we know so far
In the infamous Sony hacking scandal, e-mails leaked showing Sony and Marvel were in talks to have Spider-Man appear in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War.  It was said those talks fell through.  This caused everyone to be simultaneously excited and disappointed at the same time.  All anyone could do was wait for a supposed summit by Sony execs in January to discuss the future of the Spider-Man franchise.

On February 9th, 2015, everything changed.  Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that Spider-Man would be appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Sony would retain the rights to the character and still have final creative control over any future Spider-Man films.  A new Spider-Man solo film will be released on July 28th, 2017 and will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal.  This version of Spider-Man will make an earlier appearance in another MCU film.