Wil Wheaton gets his own show starting Tuesday, May 27, in which the uber-nerd best known for his portrayal of Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gordie in Stand By Me gets to wax rhapsodic about his favorite subject: geek culture.
Wheaton is no stranger to celebrity nor the science fiction genre, calling himself one of the Star Wars generation. “Science Fiction had the ability to be meaningful and socially relevant,” he says in a video interview on SyFy, “but in a way that flew under the radar of people not looking for that sort of commentary.”
His new show will have Wheaton in his fully nerd-hero persona, talking about what fantasy, science fiction, and horror genre movies, TV shows, and culture gets right (and ranting about what it gets wrong).
Here’s a teaser trailer to whet your appetite, below.
Science fiction began as a written literary genre as far back as Jonathan Swift, with HG Wells and Isaac Asimov popularizing the style of fiction that deals with futuristic settings, science and technology. The concepts exploded onto the big screen with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and George Lucas’ Star Wars in the late 1960s and 1970s, further cementing the genre’s hold on popular culture. These days, of course, fantasy, horror, and comic book movies and television shows are everywhere.
Nerding out over these things is no longer something to hide in your mom’s basement with, but a source of pride to millions of fans worldwide.
“You couldn’t make Revenge of the Nerds right now,” says Wheaton, “because we won.”
Wheaton has made a name for his nerd-positive message on his heavily-trafficked blog, wilwheaton.net, as well as his guest appearances on nerdtastic TV show The Big Bang Theory and geek-favorite Felicia Day’s web-show, The Guild, a celebration of video gaming nerd fandom.
The Wil Wheaton Project will air Tuesday nights on SyFy on basic cable at 10 pm Eastern time, 9 Central.
Via: John Scalzi
