In the world of Hollywood, there’s apparently no better workout regiment than being in a Marvel movie. Silicon Valley and The Big Sick star Kumail Nanjiani knows this all too well, evidently. The actor recently shared two full-body photos of his new physique he’ll be showing off in Marvel’s The Eternals in late 2020.
Source: Kumail Nanjiani on Instagram
Google announced that it will no longer issue Google Mobile Services licenses for phones intended for the Turkish market. This includes not only local manufacturers but all Android makers. Note that this has nothing to do with the US-China trade war, this is over the choice of default search engine on phones. Existing models - phones that people have already bought and those still in stores - will continue to work. However, it seems that Google is also suspending OS updates, which may be an issue. This started when Russia's Yandex filed a complaint, saying that Google changed its...
The Samuel L. Jackon-voiced version of Amazon’s Alexa assistant is now available for purchase and download – and, yes, it has an explicit version.
The Hollywood legend’s dulcet and often harsh tones can be nabbed simply by saying “Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson” and then choosing whether you’d like to enable the explicit language or not. The Skill can be manually downloaded here.
The 99¢ download (it’ll be $4.99 following an introductory period) enables owners of Alexa-enabled devices to ask Jackson for music, the weather and questions like:
“Alexa, ask Samuel L. Jackson where he is from.”
“Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7am.”
“Alexa, ask Sam Jackson to sing happy birthday.”
Amazon says the Pulp Fiction and Star Wars actor can help with setting timers, telling jokes and will even sing to you. You can also ask him about his interests and career. However, he can’t do your shopping lists, set reminders or help you download Skills.
Related: Which is the best Amazon Echo speaker to buy?
In fact, if you ask Sam to remind you of something, he’ll respond with “I ain’t reminding you of s**t!” according to the video Amazon has published alongside the app.
While the actor has conducted a pretty hefty recording session with the Echo-maker, the new voice also relies on Amazon’s neural text-to-speech model, which effectively does an impression of Jackson’s voice in order to fill in some of the gaps.
As for the sweary mode, it probably isn’t going to be suitable for all occasions, especially if the family is popping over this festive season. You can easily toggle between clean and explicit mode in the Alexa app, motherf*****s!
The actor’s voice arrives on Alexa-enabled devices after the Google Assistant brought John Legend on board earlier this year. Back in October, the company added the actor and comedian Issa Rae to the mix.
The post Sweary Samuel L. Jackson now available on Amazon Echo, motherlovers! appeared first on Trusted Reviews.
How William Gibson keeps his science fiction real
Joshua Rothman,
The New Yorker
While a lot of sci-fi is obsessed with the distant future, one of the best authors of the genre takes a different approach. The New Yorker explains how William Gibson...
It might soon be decidedly easier for Americans to manage diabetes -- the FDA has approved the sale of an interoperable, automated insulin pump for the first time. Tandem Diabetes Care's updated t:slim X2 can pair with a Dexcom G6 glucose monitor to...
This is, by far, the biggest crossover the Arrow-verse has ever pulled off. Five hours of TV, an unfathomable number of DC Comics superheroes making appearances, and an entire multiverse facing destruction. Warning: The following contains spoilers for the first three hours of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. If you haven't watched and don't want to be spoiled, look away now.
The first three hours alone are littered with Easter eggs and references to not only newly-discovered corners of the Arrow-verse, but old DC TV shows and movies, as well as nods to the comics that are responsible for all of these properties. There are so many, it would be easy to miss a handful of them. Luckily, you don't have to worry about that.
We've paid very close attention to all three hours of the crossover so far, documenting all of the Easter eggs for you. Take a look at them all below while you prepare for the final two episodes when they air January 14 on The CW.
The first thing we see in Crisis is a glimpse at Gotham City on Earth-89, otherwise known as the Gotham that Tim Burton's Batman films exist in. Batman was released in 1989. Get it? It's hard to see the date on this newspaper, but given that Joker (Jack Nicholson) died in the 1989 film, either this is the next day or that Gotham is being hassled by a successor to the original Joker. Either way, we want to know more. Interestingly, the Gotham City Gazette is not the newspaper featured in Batman (1989). In that film, it was the Gotham Globe.
And who better to serve as an introduction to this version of Gotham than Alexander Knox, the journalist played by Robert Wuhl in that Batman film.
After jumping to another Earth, we are greeted by Hawk (Alan Ritchson) from the DC Universe original series, Titans. His appearance wraps that show's continuity into the larger Arrow-verse, even if we only see him briefly.
We also see a brief glimpse of Jason Todd (Curran Walters) in his Robin gear, as he and Hawk face down the destruction of their Earth.
We also catch a glimpse of The Ray (Russell Tovey), who was first introduced as a hero in the 2017 Arrow-verse crossover, Crisis on Earth-X.
We knew this cameo appearance was coming, given that it was teased at Comic-Con. Still, seeing Burt Ward--the original live-action Robin--appearing in the Arrow-verse is a special treat. He even has a typically outlandish Robin line, exclaiming, "Holy crimson skies of death!"
Look, kids. It's Wil Wheaton. The former Star Trek: The Next Generation star has done voice work in a number of DC animated shows and movies, but this is his first live-action appearance on a DC project. What's more, the sign he's carrying is a replica of one that appears in Superman II.
Our first glimpse as Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) as a Superdad is a funny one, in which he takes care of a super dirty diaper. Not only is this a nod to Superman being a dad in the comics, but it's also a look at what the potential Superman and Lois Lane spin-off that's being developed could be like.
Yes, the quantum towers are pulled from the comics. They were constructed by the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) to slow down the progress of the quantum wave destroying the multiverse.
We know that Arrow is coming to an end and a female-centric spin-off is in the works. It looks like when all is said and done, Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) will be the next Green Arrow, based on the costume her dad had made for her.
Tom Cavanagh rarely plays the same version of Harrison Wells for more than a season. This time, though, even that's been cut down. His latest incarnation--Nash--has now become Pariah. In addition to the new name and fancy costume, this character--which also appeared in the Crisis comics--can travel between Earths to collect heroes.
Sure, Oliver's only "kind of dead" when all is said and done, but the death of the Green Arrow is another story twist pulled from the pages of the Crisis comic book. In the miniseries, Earth-2's Green Arrow--the Golden Age version of the hero--died during Crisis.
On Batwoman, Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) is essentially Kate Kane's (Ruby Rose) nerdy Alfred. He's portrayed a bit differently in the comics. On Earth-99, though, Luke resembles the version comics fans should recognize, as the nerdy persona is nowhere to be seen.
While we see Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) in an exosuit that definitely conjures images of the character's appearance in Kingdom Come, that's not who this particular Batman is. Instead, this Bruce takes a cue from The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman has turned cold and killed off several of his enemies.
This quick glimpse at a TV recreates imagery from the Death of Superman comic. Thankfully, the Arrow-verse's primary Superman is fine.
Yes, John Constantine is a regular character on Legends of Tomorrow. However, he's also a character that ties yet another DC show--the defunct Constantine on NBC--into the Arrow-verse.
Talk about a blast from the past. Tom Welling reprising his role of Clark Kent from Smallville was a special moment. Even more interesting was learning he gave up his powers to live a normal life with his wife Lois (Erica Durance) and their kids.
The Smallville-set scene also provided an appearance by Durance as Lois Lane.
Hey, he looks familiar. Not only does Brandon Routh star on Legends of Tomorrow, but he also played the Man of Steel once upon a time in Superman Returns. Thanks to Crisis, he gets to suit up as Clark Kent once more, but this time a different take on the character.
Naturally, Bruce Wayne keeps trophies of the enemies he's killed. The first we see is a Joker card. At long last, the Clown Prince of Crime finally got what was coming to him.
We then see a shot of Riddler's cane and what looks like Mr. Freeze's snow globe, meaning Batman has definitely killed them both off.
We also see Clark Kent's glasses as it's revealed that Batman actually killed Superman on this Earth.
Back on the Earth of Routh's Clark Kent--which resembles the Kingdom Come storyline from the comics--we see all those the Man of Steel has lost, including Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and his wife, Lois Lane.
Clark reveals that it was a psychopath from Gotham that played a "prank" on the Daily Planet because they weren't writing about him enough.
At that point, this Clark puts on his Superman costume, revealing the iconic Kingdom Come design that was previously teased.
It's not Batman v Superman. It's actually better as Routh's Superman, under Lex Luthor's control, attempts to destroy Hoechlin's Superman.
The Legends have plenty of experience with Jonah Hex, but not this version. Johnathon Schaech reprises his role in the Arrow-verse, playing another Earth's Hex.
We learn that Routh's Superman either has or had a son named Jason. This is a nod to Superman Returns, where it's hinted that the son of Lois Lane--Jason White--is actually Superman's child.
At long last, we meet the Monitor's arch-nemesis--the Anti-Monitor. It's a terrible name and, yes, it's pulled from the comics.
It may have only lasted 13 episodes, but it's exciting to see Ashley Scott reprise her Birds of Prey role as Huntress. Like most of the cameos, though, it ends quickly.
Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) is justified in being blown away by seeing all of these superheroes assembled. The All-Star Squadron he mentions, though, is an actual team of superheroes. They were introduced in a 1981 issue of Justice League of America and have included a long list of different heroes over the years.
Believe it or not, Ryan Choi is a character in DC Comics mythology. In fact, as in Crisis, he's a big fan of Ray Palmer in the comics. In addition to that, though, he also becomes the Atom in the comics.
Everyone's crossing over this year. Even Lucifer (Tom Ellis), from Netflix's Lucifer, made a quick appearance, pointing Constantine in the right direction to track down Oliver's soul.
John Wesley Shipp returned as the Flash from Earth-90--otherwise known as the Flash from the 1990 TV series. It's always fun to see that old suit.
For the first time, Black Lightning was officially acknowledged as part of the Arrow-verse. Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) arrived to help out the rest of the heroes and learned that his Earth was wiped out by the anti-matter wave.
Thankfully, this didn't turn into an actual fight. Still, seeing these two come face-to-face, ready to battle, was a special moment that hopefully gets explored in the future.
Ryan Choi was co-created by Gail Simone. With that in mind, it's nice to hear the prolific writer get a small nod with Choi's daughter being names Simone.
It's been promised since The Flash first premiered on The CW. In the end, though, it wasn't Earth-1's Barry that was destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Instead, it was Earth-90's.
Before his demise, though, Earth-90's Barry flashed back to a moment with the woman he loved, Tina (Amanda Pays), from the original Flash series.
While tracking down Oliver's soul in purgatory, Constantine and company happen upon Jim Corrigan (Stephen Lobo), the Spectre. He wants Oliver to become a Spectre, rather than being resurrected. It's interesting to note--which Constantine does--that this is not the Corrigan that John knows. On NBC's Constantine, the role was played by Emmett J. Scanlan.
The place where our heroes are sent to is pulled right from the comics. The Vanishing Point exists in a dimension outside of the time/space continuum.
This shot of Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and Superman (Routh) puts an interesting spin on the cover of the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics. On the cover, Superman is holding a dead Supergirl.
In 1981, a young Swede called Owe Bergsten strolled through Singapore to pass the time before his flight home. It had been something of a busman’s holiday - after a busy Christmas running his electronics shop, he and his business partners had travelled to the Far East, idly looking for the products they could import before the next Christmas. Passing a camera shop, he spotted a two-button LCD game called ‘Fire RC-04’ in the window. An acquaintance had told him not long before that LCD games were the future, far better than the simple LED handhelds people had been playing recently. Owe bought it on a whim.
Sitting down for the flight, he turned it on. Firemen holding a sheet blinked across the bottom of the display, catching figures falling from a burning building and bouncing them across to safety. Bergsten got hooked. He played Fire for the entirety of the return flight, playing pass-the-pad with his seat neighbour. When that flight was unexpectedly diverted due to fog, he played it on the 3 hour bus ride he was then forced to take back home to Gothenburg. As he travelled, always playing or waiting to play, he started to wonder who’d made this compulsive little rectangle, and if he could sell them too.
Keanu Reeves' renaissance will continue into the foreseeable future, as two of his major upcoming movies, The Matrix 4 and John Wick: Chapter 4, are both set to be released on May 21, 2021. Fans are dubbing this sublime future moment as "Keanu Day" and we're here for it.
The news broke Wednesday that WB had finally set The Matrix 4's release date, and fans quickly noticed this aligned directly with John Wick: Chapter 4. While it's unlikely both films will ultimately keep the same release date -- when film conflicts like this emerge, one studio tends to move its directly competing movie to a different date -- fans across the Internet will continue to dream about the impending Keanu Day, and the joy it could bring.
This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian episode 6, 'The Prisoner'. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our Mandalorian episode 5 review, find out when The Mandalorian episode 7 comes out with our release schedule, and if you're confused about The Mandalorian's timeline, here's when it takes place in the Star Wars canon.
Warner Bros. announced new release dates for two of their biggest projects: The Flash and The Matrix 4. While The Flash has shuffled around so much that it’s hard to accept this is legit, for now, Warners says the superhero film will open in 2022. As for the Matrix 4 release date, that’s set for 2021. And to make things extra interesting, the Matrix date is the same as the release date for another Keanu Reeves film: John Wick Chapter 4.
The Flash movie has not had the speediest path to the big screen. Phil Lord and Chris Miller worked on a story treatment at one point, but that fell through. Both Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa were named as potential directors, but they left due to creative differences. Then John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were tapped to co-direct. They, too, exited the project, and now, It filmmaker Andy Muschietti will direct, with Christina Hodson handling the script. And it looks like things might finally be on course, because Warner Bros. has now given the movie a release date: July 1, 2022. Of course, there’s always a chance that will change. Ezra Miller is expected to return as the main character, carrying over from his role in Justice League.
Meanwhile, another Warners project that seems more secure is The Matrix 4. Lana Wachowski is directing the film, which brings back original stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, along with new franchise additions Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jonathan Groff. While plot details are still under wraps, the sequel now has a release date: May 21, 2021.
May 21, 2021 is also the release date of John Wick Chapter 4, which will also star Keanu Reeves. So now the question arises: will one of these films vacate that date, or will they both stay put? If so, the weekend would belong entirely to Keanu Reeves, and honestly – would anyone complain about that? The more Keanu the better, I say.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lionsgate moves John Wick up a week just to get a jump on Matrix 4. But I’m crossing my fingers that both remain on that date so we can all have a big Keanu Reeves weekend blowout.
Meanwhile, just in case there was any doubt, Warner Bros. has moved their live-action Akira off the schedule entirely. The project has stalled out due to behind-the-scenes issues, and now it looks like WB is giving up on it for the foreseeable future.
The post ‘The Flash’ and ‘The Matrix 4’ Release Dates Announced appeared first on /Film.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Crisis on Infinite Earths!
The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover is already jam-packed with heroes both familiar and new, but another important new player entered the stage in Part 3: Stephen Lobo's Jim Corrigan, better known as the human host of the Spectre.
While he only appears briefly in Part 3, it's clear the Spectre will have a big part to play in the future of the Arrowverse. Not only that, Oliver Queen seems to be a key piece of that puzzle. Read on for a quick breakdown of who the Spectre is and why his fate is now entwined with that of the Green Arrow.
The love for Baby Yoda has spread far and wide across the galaxy, and it has now even reached the baby changing stations on the planet Batuu at Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland.
Spotted by Sam Carter on Twitter, the head of the baby on the sign that indicates a changing station at Galaxy's Edge has apparently been replaced with the head of none other than Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian.
Microsoft this week has finally retired Windows 10 mobile, ending support for its smartphone OS. However, in a quirk of differing lifecycle policies, the software giant will continue to support its Office apps for Windows 10 Mobile a bit longer – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote will get support until early 2021.
This past Patch Tuesday, December 10th, was the final update that Microsoft will deliver for the Windows 10 Mobile. This means that going forward, the company will not be providing any further security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options, or free online technical content updates for the OS. This applies to smartphones/phablets produced by Microsoft (under the Nokia Lumia brand), whereas other devices may have a different lifecycle policy and continue to get certain kind of support.
Microsoft will continue to support its Office apps for Windows 10 Mobile till January 21, 2021, which includes availability of install packages, technical support for issues, security fixes, and bug fixes.
Microsoft launched its Windows 10 Mobile OS in 2015 to succeed the poorly adopted Windows Phone 8.1, which was only used by a handful of manufacturers. Designed to resemble Windows 10 for PCs, the new OS didn't have much more success than its predecessor: the only well-known Windows 10 Mobile smartphones were Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia as well as HP’s Elite X3.
The software giant started to wind down its smartphone efforts in July, 2014, by laying off 12,500 former Nokia employees. In mid-2015, the company took an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business, and fired another 7,800 former Nokia employees globally. In 2016, the company laid off nearly 2,000 people from its smartphone division and agreed to transfer another 4,500 to HMD Global. By late 2017, the company ceased development of its Windows 10 Mobile OS and essentially halted its efforts to build a competitive mobile platform.
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This week's episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+ takes Star Wars fans back to a planet that helped kick-off the Star Wars franchise back in 1977. The episode further expanded aspects of the bounty hunter guild and the still present seedy underbelly of the Outer Rim. Additionally, we were introduced to assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and spaceport operator/mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris).
As always, we'll be covering lots of the finer--and not so finer--details within this week's episode of The Mandalorian. If you want to avoid spoilers, it would be in your best interest to turn away for now.
Mando and Baby Yoda find themselves on one of the most recognizable planets in the outer rim, Tatooine. Mando needs money to fix his ship and hooks up with an inexperienced bounty hunter to hunt down a dangerous assassin. Meanwhile, Baby Yoda hangs out in a Mos Eisley spaceport, and continues to look adorable.
Take a look below at the best Easter eggs and references from "The Gunslinger" Then, if you've missed them, make sure to check out our Easter egg guides to Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4.
In the opening sequence, Mando and his ship, the Razorcrest, are being chased by bounty hunter Riot Mar in space. While we couldn't pinpoint what ship Mar was using, it does look old. It has elements of ships like the A-wing, Delta-7, and X-wing with its wings down, incorporated into its design.
When Mando, Baby Yoda, and the Razorcrest land in Mos Eisley, we see a few DUM-series pit droids. The first time we saw these droids was in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace at Mos Espa where they worked at Watto's shop and on podracers.
The woman that runs this spaceport dock on Mos Eisley is Peli Motto, but the actress that plays her is none other than Amy Sedaris. This comedic actress is best known for her role as Jerri Blank on Comedy Central's Strangers With Candy. Additionally, she's appeared on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and BoJack Horseman. Currently, she stars on the TruTv comedy At Home With Amy Sedaris. See what we did there with the title of this slide?
It's already been established in continuity that after the Battle of Endor, the Empire had fallen, and we've seen the shot above in many trailers for the show. However, it's important to note that even though Tatooine is on the Outer Rim--far from the Empire's stranglehold--it still had a massive Empire presence. If you watch A New Hope, there are Stormtroopers everywhere. And considering how beaten up these helmets look, there was obviously an uprising in Mos Eisley.
This makes you wonder about the relationship between the Empire and the Hutt Cartel, since Jabba ran things in that area but allowed Stormtroopers on what was essentially his planet--even if his family's cartel was losing power during the Galactic Civil War. Or maybe I'm just getting way too off on a tangent.
While Mando is off doing his bounty hunter thing, Peli and the DUM droids are playing a game of Sabacc. This widely-popular game was first mentioned in Empire Strikes Back, but it also appeared in Rebels, The Force Awakens, and was heavily-featured in Solo.
Briefly seen before Mando enters the cantina, there is a WED-15-77 droid--also known as a Treadwell--hanging out, talking to a human. It first appeared in a deleted scene for A New Hope and later made an appearance in Attack of the Clones.
When Mando walks into the cantina (officially known as Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina), there is something written above the door, and the first symbol looks close to a "b" in Aurebesh. However, the second two letters didn't match anything in that alphabet. This isn't Huttese either.
It probably says "bar" or "pub," as long as the characters directly match the English language--because Aurebesh does, so why wouldn't others?
As mentioned earlier, its official name is Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, but it's the most famous--and at times, infamous--watering hole in the Star Wars universe. As far as live-action appearances go, we've only seen it in A New Hope. However, this pub did also appear on the animated series The Clone Wars a few times as well.
We've seen these gigantic beasts in Star Wars many times before. Banthas are the preferred mode of transportation for Tusken Raiders.The native Raiders ride these Banthas in single-file lines in order to hide their numbers.
Before this episode of Mandalorian, Tusken Raiders were generally seen as ruthless nomads, taking shots at podracers, killing Darth Vader's mother, and generally causing havoc to people on Tatooine who ventured away from spaceports.
Here, however, they're shown in a much kinder light. As Mando explains, Tuskens view everyone else as outsiders, as the Sand People and Jawas are the only native species to the planet. As a person of tradition and ritual, Mando respects the Tuskens by asking for passage, instead of just barging through.
Additionally, while Tuskens speak… well… Tusken, we also they can communicate through sign language. They're not as barbaric and savage as we originally thought.
Before Mando leaves Toro to grab a Dewback, he tells the new bounty hunter that "She's no good to us dead." In Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett has a whooping four lines, and one of them is "He's no good to me dead." He says this to Darth Vader on Bespin after they capture Han Solo.
Infamous assassin Fennec Shand (played by Ming-Na Wen) may be introduced for the first--and probably last--time in this episode of The Mandalorian, but it's possible that another member of her family has already appeared in another Star Wars movie. In The Force Awakens, we briefly meet Kanjiklub, a criminal organization that Han Solo was in debt to. One of the members of this group was Crokind Shand.
Considering Fennec once worked for the Hutt Cartel and Kanjiklub's members are comprised of former Hutt slaves, it's a safe bet to say these two are related. Crokind could be Fennec's son, considering there is a 25-year difference between this episode of The Mandalorian and The Force Awakens.
Throughout its six-year run as Sony's core platform, the PlayStation 4 continually proved to be a stellar console. Possessing some truly game-changing upgrades for online and social gaming when it launched in 2013, the PS4 ended up amassing a killer library of first-party games like Uncharted 4, Marvel's Spiderman, and God of War. The PS4 was an all-around success for Sony, which has gotten us and the larger PlayStation audience excited for what's coming next. With 2020 seeing the launch of the hotly anticipated PlayStation 5, next year will mark the end of the current console's time at the forefront.
Though considerable attention is on the PlayStation 4's successor, the current console still has plenty of games lined up for next year and beyond. In addition to Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part II, the PS4 will have no shortage of games as it enters its twilight years. With this in mind, we wanted to single out some of the biggest games coming to PS4 in 2020 and the years ahead.
In this roundup, we've pulled together games that are confirmed to release on the PS4. In addition to first-party games like Ghost of Tsushima, we also included major third-party releases. The gallery starts off with the games that have release dates, then highlights games that have a confirmed launch window, and then lists games that are still some time out. So with that, here are the biggest and most exciting games to look forward to on PS4 in 2020 and beyond.
Which upcoming PlayStation 4 games are you looking forward to next year? Give us a shout in the comments section below and let us know what you want to play the most in 2020.
More Games Of 2020 & Beyond To Look Forward To:
It's also that time of year for when GameSpot rolls out the Game of the Year awards. 2019 had a number of stellar games, and we're excited about sharing our thoughts on what games really impressed us this year, including the game that stood out among the rest. If you are at all curious about what our process is like in deciding what the best content of this year is, check out our explainer video detailing our verdict process.
It's hard to imagine that the once-fabled Final Fantasy VII Remake is almost upon us. Ever since the PS3 tech demo showing off a potential remake, many fans have hoped for a return to the world of FFVII, and they finally got their wish at E3 2015 with the reveal of the reimagining of the classic PS1 JRPG. What's especially interesting about the Final Fantasy VII Remake is that it's not a one-to-one remake of the original, but rather, a reimagining. As the first part of a series of installments, the launch of Final Fantasy VII: Remake will begin the long road of revitalizing the entire story of the original game.
While many of the essential story beats, locations, and iconic battles in the opening location of Midgar seem to be intact, everything has a more modern flair to it. In addition to real-time combat, you'll be able to actively level up different attributes of your party's weapons and Materia loadouts, opening up new avenues for customization. Also, the remake will feature new characters and events not seen in the original, introducing new subplots to the established story. Despite its more modern approach to FFVII, the game will also feature several options to emulate the feel of the original, which includes the choice to switch to traditional turn-based combat. We got a chance to play FFVII Remake at E3 2019, and we were very impressed with how it managed to rebuild the original game from the ground up, and we're excited to see much more of it once we get our hands on the game in 2020.
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Team Ninja is taking another shot at the Soulsborne formula with Nioh 2. The original proved to be a fantastic debut into the genre for the tenured action game developer. And with the sequel, Team Ninja is expanding the formula further.
Nioh 2 takes place 50+ years before the first game, which means you're no longer playing as foreign samurai William Adams. Instead, you'll create your own custom character to embark on a journey across Japan in the middle of the Sengoku era. But what makes your protagonist more intriguing than the last is the fact that they're the offspring of a human and a yokai, which gives you access to an array of supernatural attacks and abilities.
Other notable features include the ability to traverse the yokai realm, two extra weapon classes, and up to three-player cooperative play across new multiplayer modes. What Nioh 2 aims to add doesn't sound like it'll reinvent the wheel, but we're hoping the new focus on yokai powers will at least improve the shortcomings of the first game while elevating what made it so special.
Release Date: March 13, 2020
Just when you thought Doom couldn’t get any more wild and vicious, id Software shows up with Doom Eternal. The 2016 reboot caught many of us by surprise with its fast-paced and fluid combat scenarios and unapologetic attitude. So what could a new Doom do differently while maintaining its core conceit? It’s the little things that matter.
Having played preview demos of Doom Eternal, its new traversal mechanics almost immediately set it apart from the previous game. You’ll be navigating Hell and derelict space stations with new climbing abilities and hooks to latch onto and swing to distant platforms, which provides you more options in your combat approach than before. Enemies now have damage models for parts of their body, which adds another layer to firefights. This is all on top of the flow of chainsaw and glory kills to keep your ammo and health replenished in the midst of the chaos.
Doom Eternal is also trying to do something new for multiplayer with its asymmetrical modes--Battle mode pits players as demons to face off against one doom slayer and incorporates MOBA elements, while Invasion lets players invade others' single-player campaign in certain instances. The developers at id Software appear to be doing their darndest to separate Doom Eternal from 2016 while delivering what fans love most: ripping and tearing demons.
Release Date: March 20, 2020
The reason why we should be anticipating Persona 5 Royal is that it’s a whole lot more than a reissue of Persona 5. Like the series’ past, a revamped version of the base game follows a few years after its release (Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 Golden), but by all accounts, developer Atlus is going the extra mile in terms of reimagining the original RPG.
New characters bolster the game’s already-eclectic cast, particularly the new party member Kasumi Yoshizawa. She’s going to be a central piece to the overall story in P5R, changing the dynamics of the original narrative. Along with Kasumi comes a new palace, which are the dungeons that make up the bulk of Persona 5’s RPG combat and exploration. Existing palaces will also have new areas to discover and items to collect, and combat will be streamlined with an improved baton pass system and gun functions. Several mechanics and features are layered on top of its new story elements. You’ll have additional areas to hang out in, like Kichijoji which is home to extra shops and hangout spots, along with new social scenes and an extra semester in the school year--meaning more time to hangout with friends and new story threads to uncover.
Overhauling the main story might be the biggest draw, and with all the additional elements surrounding P5R, it seems to be reason enough for you to either revisit the journey of the Phantom Thieves or experience the wonderful RPG for the first time.
Release Date: March 31, 2020 (out now in Japan)
CD Projekt Red's follow up to The Witcher 3 seems prepared to be just as huge and involved as the developer's beloved fantasy series, but potentially a lot grittier. We've slowly gotten more and more information about what to expect from Cyberpunk 2077, and what we've seen lately suggests a game that will be as similar to games such as Deus Ex, Thief, or Dishonored as it will be to CD Projekt's past RPGs. The most recent look at the game at E3 2019 puts emphasis on the ability to find a variety of ways through different situations depending on the character you develop, the choices you make along the way, and your particular play style.
It's the story elements that are most intriguing at this point, though. E3 also saw the announcement that Keanu Reeves will play Johnny Silverhand, an essential character in the story who mostly exists in the player character's head as a "digital ghost." Your relationship with Johnny apparently will pervade the game, and while he'll be in your head most of the time, he won't necessarily always be on your side. It sounds like a thematic encapsulation of what we can expect from Cyberpunk 2077--an ambiguous relationship you'll guide through your choices, with a lot of gray morality mixed in.
Release Date: April 16, 2020
If you loved Square-made SNES RPGs during the mid-90s, you likely know the pain of having never gotten the third Mana game, Trials of Mana. Fortunately, Square Enix released an officially translated version via the Collection of Mana in June 2019. While this proved an exciting opportunity to play the long-forgotten classic, it was confirmed a full-on remake was also in the works.
The upcoming Trials of Mana remake reconstructs the original as a third-person action-RPG. Early footage of the game in action looks to capture the series' exciting real-time battles with a more streamlined combat system. The SNES original's beautiful pixel art has also been converted into gorgeous 3D visuals. Despite the addition of new dialogue scenes, it seems Trials of Mana's story will mostly remain faithful to the original, once again allowing you to alter how events play out based on the main character you choose and those you allow to join your party.
Release Date: April 24, 2020
After a bit of a rocky announcement at E3 2019, during which it wasn't exactly clear what kind of game Marvel's Avengers is, we've now got a much better handle on what Eidos and Crystal Dynamics are making. Avengers is an action brawler similar to something like God of War, and through the course of its story campaign, you'll play as all the core members of the Avengers. But it's also a live game, with a multiplayer offering similar to something like Destiny. You'll customize your specific Avengers with a variety of different skills and cosmetics, and then take them out into missions with other players, creating your own superhero team.
We spent some hands-on time with Marvel's Avengers at Gamescom 2019, where we got a better sense of how it plays. Wielding Mjolnir or firing away with repulsor blasts is a pretty satisfying experience, even if the portion we played was more on-rails than the rest of the game purports to be. While we're still waiting to see what the story campaign will be like or how the cooperative portions will play, the moment-to-moment gameplay in early demos invokes the best of action games, with the ability to make combos using various superpowers, and to wail on enemies with a bunch of distinct abilities, bringing a lot of fun to the experience.
Release Date: May 15, 2020
inXile Entertainment's Wasteland series is one of the highlights of Brian Fargo's career, the studio founder who is also chiefly responsible for The Bard's Tale series. In 2014, Wasteland 2 was one of the few high-profile crowdfunding successes, and it looks like Wasteland 3 is shaping up to repeat that success when it releases on May 19, 2020. inXile promises to deliver a more advanced version of tactical turn-based systems at the heart of Wasteland 2. It's also shifting its setting to snowbound Colorado, which will play hand-in-hand with a suite of survival mechanics.
One of the most enticing aspects is the story-driven multiplayer campaign, with a new dialogue system courtesy of the writing staff from Torment: Tides of Numenara. The E3 2019 trailer makes Wasteland 3 look slightly more comical than previous outings, so it will be very interesting to see how this meshes with the Torment team's talents for dark fantasy writing.
Release Date: May 19, 2020
Naughty Dog's follow-up to its post-apocalyptic survival title advances the story a few years and takes a different approach to its predecessor. Where the first game was about the bond between player character Joel and his young charge Ellie, The Last of Us Part II puts all its focus on Ellie as she journeys across the country on a quest for vengeance. Now a few years older, Ellie has become a capable survivor and fighter in her own right, and after something vicious happens to her friend and would-be love interest, Dina, she sets out to find and destroy the people responsible.
We've played a few hours of The Last of Us Part II, which expands on the original in just about every way. It adds new stealth mechanics, gives Ellie a bunch of new contextual combat tools, and adds new breeds of the frightening, feral infected that inhabit the game's world. But the most interesting part of The Last of Us is its exploration of its characters, and we got a brief sense of how Ellie will deal with the game's unforgiving world and come to terms with what it takes for her to survive. The Last of Us famously ended on an ambiguous note in the relationship between Joel and Ellie, and the portion we previewed ended with a big reveal that suggests Joel will rejoin Ellie partway through the game, giving players a chance to see how their relationship has continued to evolve.
Release Date: May 29, 2020
The original Dying Light from Techland was a spectacular blend of parkour-based traversal and hack-and-slash gameplay wrapped up within the drama of the zombie apocalypse. It was essentially a more realized version of the developer's previous efforts with Dead Island, and it succeeded with showcasing an ambitious sense of scope and brutality while barreling through the ruined streets of Harran. Dying Light 2 continues with many of the original's key strengths for free-form traversal, melee combat, and overwhelming encounters with the undead.
While the sequel aims to go bigger, featuring a map that greatly dwarfs the original's, the most significant change coming is its approach to narrative. In Dying Light 2, your actions can irreparably alter the course of the larger story, and even change the layout of the world itself. Taking more cues from role-playing games, Techland brought famed RPG writer Chris Avellone on board as a narrative designer, whose past works include Fallout: New Vegas, Planescape: Torment, and Divinity: Original Sin 2. By bringing together the free-form traversal and combat with an RPG-style narrative, Dying Light 2 is already shaping up to be a massive step up from the original that will ensure your actions leave a significant impression on the world.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Since the release of Demon's Souls in 2009, developer From Software has significantly redefined itself, moving away from niche status to a real AAA force within the games industry. Their signature high-risk, high-reward gameplay has seen many imitators over the years. Debuting at E3 2019, the cryptic trailer for Elden Ring showed off a world in conflict. While not unfamiliar with the visuals and plot of the Dark Souls trilogy, the scale of Elden Ring is significantly larger and moves more towards the iconography of Norse mythology. Elden Ring brings in many of the familiar elements of a Souls game, but with an increased focus on worldbuilding. As it turns out, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin--which became the HBO series Game of Thrones--has collaborated with From Software on the overarching narrative of the game. With an open-world setting realized by Martin's writing, designed around From Software's Souls gameplay, Elden Ring could be yet another big step forward for the developer, and potentially for the infamous sub-genre as well.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Developer Sucker Punch has been surprisingly silent about their next game, Ghost of Tsushima. Over the years, the developer has evolved from making kid-friendly platformers with the Sly Cooper series to the more mature inFamous franchise--which showcased superhero antics and the resulting conflict that comes from it. But with Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch is putting together a period piece set in 13th century Japan, focusing on the conflict between an invading Mongol army and one Samurai's mission to free his land.
While we've seen the lengthy E3 2018 gameplay demo of Ghost of Tsushima in action, we're still in the dark about what to expect from the full game. We do know that it's an open-world Samurai action game focusing on tactical combat and stealth gameplay, which lets you come up with tactics and strategies on how you get the jump on your enemies. After seeing the gameplay trailer and demo, we can say that Ghost of Tsushima shows a lot of promise, which has made the extended silence tough to endure. Whether this game will appear on PS4 or if it's been moved on to the PlayStation 5 remains to be seen, but regardless, we can't wait to dive in and see just what Sucker Punch's next big game has to offer.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Ubisoft's new open-world game, Gods & Monsters, is of a notably different flavor compared to the developer's other trips into expansive locales with Assasin's Creed Odyssey and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. It certainly shares ties to Greek mythology along with Odyssey, yet Gods and Monsters is more about exploring a vast world and during your best to survive in it. According to the developers at Ubisoft, it's been influenced by games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, particularly its emphasis on character and resource management, and a free-form approach to world exploration.
We got to see a brief look at the game during E3 2019 and came away intrigued by its colorful and bright world full of mythological beasts and vast landscapes. Ubisoft hasn't shared much about the game following its debut, yet we're still excited to see what kind of world you'll explore, and what other sights we'll while surviving against the odds in a more stylized and colorful take on Ancient Greece.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Arc System Works has been coming out with hit after hit in the 2D-fighting-game space with its two core franchises, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, even branching off into licensed brands to great effect with the likes of Dragon Ball FighterZ. In 2020, it'll bring back Guilty Gear with drastically overhauled graphics and hyper-stylized action.
Guilty Gear Strive was first revealed at Evo 2019 then made playable at the ArcRevo tournament this year along with a few trailers in between. Returning characters like Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske, May, Potemkin, Faust, and more make up the roster, but it's especially great to see them in Strive's smoother flashy art style. Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator (and Rev 2) introduced ArcSys' unique 2D/3D crossover artstyle, and the developer is kicking it up a notch with stage transitions and even smoother animation. We had a chance to play the early build, which you can see in action here.
Release Date: Late 2020
There have been numerous Lego Star Wars games over the years, but now that The Skywalker Saga will officially come to a close once Rise Of Skywalker opens in theaters this December, it's the perfect time for developer Traveler's Tales to take one more pass at the numerous iconic series. This time, rather than pick and choose a single movie or a specific trilogy, TT is crafting an open-world game that encompasses every mainline film in the Star Wars saga. Ok, so it's not technically the first time the team has tried something like this, but 2007's Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was made before Disney came along, and obviously a lot has changed for Star Wars since the 2012 acquisition.
To further differentiate it from The Complete Saga, TT is designing The Skywalker Saga as an open-world experience, and surprisingly enough, you can tackle storylines in any order you wish. Each movie will have its own hub world and a selection of relevant planets to explore. It sounds like a massive outing for the Lego series, but one that will surely keep the Skywalker spirit alive in 2020.
Release Date: TBD 2020
In 2004, Troika Games delivered a fascinating if flawed RPG in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. When viewed through rose-tinted lenses, its writing and freedom of choice stuck out as defining qualities and reasons worth preserving its legacy. It's been well over a decade since its release, so it was pretty surprising when Paradox Interactive announced it was bringing the series back for Bloodlines 2, which is now scheduled to ship some time in 2020 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Paradox has put Hardsuit Labs to the task of making a modern Vampire RPG, and while the team only opened its doors in 2015, the team is mostly comprised of ex-Zombie Studios developers with plenty of years and games under their belts. They have set Bloodlines 2 in their hometown, Seattle, during an unfortunate Christmas season where separatist vampires neglect their clans' code--not to attack humans in public--in a massive invasion that throws the natural and supernatural worlds into chaos. As a newly infected, you will have to navigate the complex world of vampire factions while fighting tooth and nail for your survival. As a sequel to a cult classic, there are high expectations that Bloodlines 2 will fulfill the promise that the first game struggled to achieve, and for that, it's definitely one of the more interesting games to look forward to in the year ahead.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Following the light-hearted tone of Watch Dogs 2, which focused on young hackers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Watch Dogs Legion fully embraces the series' wacky side. It skips across the globe to a fictional version of London, which is notorious for its far-reaching surveillance systems and is now overrun with killer robots. Of course, anywhere tech resides is prime hunting grounds for the hackers at the heart of Watch Dogs' stories. Legion leans into this, ditching the concept of a single protagonist in favor of a large, diverse cast of playable characters.
And based on the E3 2019 trailer, Ubisoft is going to make the most of London's populace. Numerous people out and about in London are able to be recruited to the DedSec hacker group, and it seems like everyone has something to offer the resistance--who can forget the kindly old woman in the trailer, who's actually a deadly retired assassin? While we haven't seen the full extent of the personalities in the game, it's safe to say that Legion is being designed with a tongue-in-cheek approach meant to inspire fun above all else. Legion doesn't have a firm release date, but we could see it arrive in the latter half of 2020 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and later in the year on PS5 and Microsoft's next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Scarlett.
Release Date: Fiscal year 2021 (April 2020 - March 2021)
The Yakuza series from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, especially outside of Japan. But if there's one thing even fans will concede, it's that only a few things outside of the plot change from game to game. That couldn't be further from the truth in the upcoming Yakuza: Like A Dragon, the canonical seventh game in the series. It stars a brand-new protagonist and boasts a turn-based combat system that was initially pitched to fans as an April fool's joke.
If you're familiar with Yakuza's beat-'em-up DNA, this surprising shift is either going to scare you or play right into your appreciation for the series' irreverent side. Unsurprisingly, the developers are leaning into their comedic roots, injecting traditional RPG mechanics with the sort of silliness that balances out the extremely melodramatic stories that have traditionally thrust you through Japan's urban playgrounds. It's a new era for the Yakuza series, but it's very exciting to see the studio take a risk with new ideas.
Release Date: TBD 2020
Probably the biggest announcement of Blizzard's annual BlizzCon convention in 2019 was Diablo IV. It's been seven years since the last proper entry into Blizzard's action-RPG franchise, and the developer announced the game with a dark, gory trailer that gave at least some sense of what to expect from the next title. Blizzard is taking a darker, more horror-oriented approach with Diablo IV, pulling a lot of inspiration from fan-favorite Diablo II--which includes bringing back old classes like the Druid. It's also maintaining aspects of Diablo III, including seasonal content and some take on Adventure mode.
The biggest change is Blizzard's focus on making Diablo IV feel a bit more like a live-service game. Its overworld will be public, and you can expect to run into other characters as you wander the wilds and engage enemies. There will even be public events and world bosses to defeat with the help of strangers. Dungeons will still be instanced for you and your party, but the inclusion of other players in the short demo we tried at BlizzCon made Sanctuary feel more like a living world beset by evil than in past titles. The only trouble is, we have no idea when Blizzard means to release Diablo IV--and by all accounts, it doesn't sound like it'll be in players' hands anytime soon.
Release Date: TBD
Announced at E3 2018, Bethesda revealed The Elder Scrolls VI alongside Bethesda Game Studios' next big game, Starfield. While the space-traveling RPG will be the next game from the storied developer, people are looking further ahead to returning to the world of Elder Scrolls. The only look we had at The Elder Scrolls VI was a sweeping view of one of the lands in Tamriel, with that familiar, triumphant score building up in the background. Aside from that, we don't know much about the game. According to Bethesda Softworks VP Pete Hines, we won't be seeing the game again for sometime, making a sudden 2020 release unlikely. Still, we can't deny that we're anxiously anticipating the return to the world of Elder Scrolls. With the release of new hardware next year, it seems likely that the franchise will make its big return on new consoles, giving the series a more modern look.
Release Date: TBD
Bethesda Game Studios's first new IP in 25 years is coming... sometime. The developer didn't bring the game to E3 2019 and it still hasn't really given any details about what we can expect from the sci-fi title--or when it'll come out.
Starfield will likely make its way to next-generation consoles, including the PlayStation 5 and the as-yet-unnamed Xbox "Scarlett," but other than that, details are few and far between. And although Bethesda's last big game, Fallout 76, had a rough launch, fans of the developer's RPGs are still excited about what directions it might go in as it moves into a new setting and a whole new genre. Unfortunately, we don't know if we might finally find out more about Starfield in 2020.
Release Date: TBD
Warning: Full spoilers for the ending of The Mandalorian episode 5 follow.
Episode 5 of The Mandalorian, "The Gunslinger," may not have gifted us with endless Baby Yoda Drinking Soup memes, but it did give us a ton of New Hope-era Tatooine nods, as Mando found himself crash-landing on the famous sand planet while on the run from his fellow bounty hunters.
From the Mos Eisley cantina (now run by EV-9D9 droids) to Tusken Raiders to Beggar's Canyon to the famous "Maclunkey!" booth, Episode 5 was a celebration of all things Tatooine-y. Including, possibly, the return of the franchise's most famous bounty hunter!
Whether or not you love The Mandalorian, the appeal of Baby Yoda is undeniable. The character, who actor Werner Herzog described as "heartbreakingly beautiful," is the clear breakout star of the series, even if Disney has not yet figured out how to merchandise it. While there's still much we don't know about the baby, it's fair to say that it has captured our hearts--and it seems that's true of the people who got to work on the show as well.
Bryce Dallas Howard, who directed episode four of the series, has discussed the Baby Yoda (which she refers to as "Baby") in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. She reveals that her children, aged 6 and 11, were on the set with her, but were not able to talk about the Baby with their friends. "The thing I was most nervous about was that my kids had been on set quite a bit," she says. "So, they had seen Baby and interacted with Baby ... When the kids went back to school, every single day I would say, 'So, what are you not gonna talk about today?' And they would say, 'Baby!'"
Howard says that she would have to remind her kids every day that they could not talk about the baby, and it's "confusing" now for them that they can, after having to stay quiet about it for a year. "We’ve been having this routine for about a year now, and it’s fun; it’s really, really fun. Everyone is super pissed that there’s no merch....but I think they made a good choice in not focusing there and just focusing on the storytelling."
Elsewhere, Howard says that she had a lot of freedom to direct how the puppet moved, praising the effects team that created it and showrunner Jon Favreau for how everything is set up. "The Legacy operators said that each director would have a different way of directing Baby, and for me, what they would do is they would just look at me the whole time because I was just pulling faces. They were like, 'We would just copy the faces that you were making, Bryce.' I was obsessed with Baby and Baby’s internal journey."
The fifth episode of The Mandalorian premieres on Disney+ on December 6.
By the time the next Bond movie, No Time To Die, hits theaters, fans will have had the longest wait between 007 movies since Daniel Craig took over the role in 2006. Spectre was released in 2015, and since then, the follow-up has gone through the uncertainty of who will play Bond, a change of directors, multiple writers, and a delayed release date. But finally the movie arrives in April next year.
No Time To Die is the 25th movie in the long-running series which kicked off in 1962 with Dr. No. It's the fifth time that Craig has played the iconic British superspy, and for many younger fans, he IS James Bond, as it's now 17 years since previous Bond star Pierce Brosnan departed the role. While the more recent films in the series have followed much of the formula, they've also departed from it in numerous ways too. Craig's movies are more personal, with Bond's family history and tortured romantic life playing a bigger part in the storylines. There's more of a consistent narrative between the films than there was with previous Bonds, and much of the action is more grounded, with the Jason Bourne movies a clear influence on them. No invisible cars or jetpacks here!
But they're still Bond movies, with the girls, gadgets, and insane villains that fans have come to expect, and there's no reason to think that No Time To Die won't deliver on that front. When Danny Boyle was initially hired to direct, there were rumors that he would take the series in a more surprising direction. But his departure and the hiring of regular series writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (who have worked on every Bond movie since 1999’s The World Is Not Enough), suggests that it'll be business as usual. Nevertheless, with an exciting director in Cary Joji Fukunaga, additional script work from Killing Eve's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and the first female 00 agent, there's much to be hopeful for. So while we wait for Bond's next mission, here's everything we know to date about No Time To Die...
No Time To Die hits US theaters on April 8th 2020, with the UK release set for April 2.
While every Bond movie has a number of reoccuring characters, No Time To Die has more than most. Daniel Craig returns as Bond, and of course he's joined by his old MI6 colleagues Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), M (Ralph Fiennes), and Q (Ben Wishsaw). Rory Kinnear plays MI6 chief of staff Bill Tanner once more, while two characters from 2015's Spectre are also back--Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) and incarcerated criminal mastermind Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), whose return was first leaked earlier earlier this year. There's also the very welcome return of Jeffrey Wright as CIA agent Felix Leiter, who last appeared in 2008's Quantum of Solace.
No Time To Die features a number of high-profile new additions to the Bond universe. Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody and Mr. Robot star Rami Malek is the big villain this time around. His character is named Safin, and while we don't know too much about his evil plans, the trailer reveals that he's badly scarred and has some link to Madeleine Swann. In addition, producer Barbara Broccoli previously described the character as "the one that really gets under Bond's skin. He's a nasty piece of work."
The other two main characters are on Bond's side, although it sounds like relations with both might be strained. Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch plays a new "00" agent named Nomi, who has entered MI6 following Bond's retirement and is clearly keen to keep Bond out of her way. There's also Paloma, played by Blade Runner 2049's Ana de Armas, a CIA agent that the actor herself described as "very irresponsible."
No Time To Die is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. He's best known for directing the acclaimed first season of HBO's True Detective and last year's Netflix sci-fi show Maniac, as well as movies such as Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre, and Sin Nombre. Fukunaga was announced as the latest Bond director in September 2018, following the departure of Danny Boyle.
Not surprisingly, considering the rather convoluted history of this movie, No Time To Die has a number of writers. Veteran Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were first hired to work on the script back in early 2017, but when Danny Boyle came on board, he brought along his longtime collaborator John Hodge to write a completely different story. Boyle and Hodge's exit led to the return of Purvis and Wade; their script was then handed to Paul Haggis, who also worked on Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and then Bourne Ultimatum's Scott Z. Burns for further drafts. Finally, Fleabag and Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hired at Craig's request to reportedly write "sharper dialogue." It's not unusual for big Hollywood movies to go through multiple rewrites by numerous screenwriters, so let's hope the end product delivers the goods.
While many plot details are yet to be revealed, the initial synopsis and the recent trailer reveal the basics about the story. Bond has retired and is living in Jamaica, but, of course, he doesn't stay out of the spy game for long--especially when old friend and CIA agent Felix Leiter comes to visit. Soon Bond is back to doing what he does best, and there's a new threat in the villainous shape of the mysterious Safin. Bond's old flame Madeleine Swan is holding secrets that put her and Bond in some dangerous situations, and former Spectre boss Blofeld is in there too--behind bars but still handing out threats.
The first trailer for No Time To Die was released in early December. It features a mix of familiar faces from previous movies, new characters, and all the globe-trotting action and intrigue you'd expect from a new Bond movie. There are some spectacular locations--such as Italy, Jamaica, and Norway--and some amazing looking stunts, including some ridiculous stuff on a bike.
Fans might feel a bit of deja-vu about this, but Daniel Craig has stated that this is his final outing as Bond. In November he told German website Express that "someone else needs to have a go." Of course, that's what he said shortly before Spectre was released in 2015, when he notoriously stated that he'd rather "slash my wrists" than play the character again--comments that were, unsurprisingly, subsequently retracted. But at 51, Craig is now the second oldest Bond in an "official" 007 movie so it seems likely this is indeed the final one. (Roger Moore was 58 when he finally bowed out).
When Stephen King thinks a Stephen King-based TV series is “the best adaptation” of his work, you pay attention.
HBO dropped a new trailer for The Outsider, based on King’s novel from 2018. (Seriously, Hollywood, that was fast!) Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) are dropped into a twisted tale involving what appears to be an open-and-shut case until it takes a few bizarre turns.
The dramatic, intense footage shows Mendelsohn as Ralph Anderson, a police detective investigating the killing of an 11-year-old in the Georgia woods. All signs point to local family man Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), who claims he didn’t do it. More puzzling is the fact that his prints are all over the crime scene, yet cameras place Terry 60 miles away from the incident when it happened. Curious.
Erivo comes in as Holly Gibney, the “unorthodox” private investigator Ralph taps to help explain the unexplainable. But will Ralph even consider what he deems to be impossible? “A human being cannot exist in two realities at the same time,” she says. But, also, can they?
“THE OUTSIDER is one of the best adaptations of my work. Hope you’ll watch it,” King tweeted when the trailer dropped.
THE OUTSIDER is one of the best adaptations of my work. Hope you'll watch it. https://t.co/CcCtdNVn7A
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 5, 2019
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Richard Price (The Wire, The Night Of) executive produces and writes this 10-episode series. The first two hourlong installments will premiere on HBO back-to-back on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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HBO’s first The Outsider trailer brings fresh horrors to Stephen King-based series Exclusive excerpt: Stephen King’s The Outsider gets a chilling first look Stephen King’s new novel The Outsider gets a chilling coverThe Arrowverse is about to kick off its biggest and most ambitious superhero crossover yet with Crisis on Infinite Earths. The fate of the entire multiverse is at stake, with heroes from many worlds and many past and present DC series joining forces to prevent the destruction of existence itself.
In between all the Crisis hype and huge casting announcements like Kevin Conroy, Burt Ward, and Tom Welling, it’s safe to say even those who don’t watch shows like Arrow and The Flash religiously are excited about this crossover.
But with Crisis building on the backbone of seven years and thousands of episodes of television, is it even possible to jump in now? We think so. Check out our video feature or read on as we break down all the important characters and plot points you should know before watching Crisis on Infinite Earths.
You probably bought something on Amazon this weekend; the online retailer had plenty of alluring Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals across technology, toys and home goods. So many people took advantage of the savings on Cyber Monday that, in terms o...
Naturally, there are spoilers here.
With every bounty hunter in the Guild gunning for both The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and the asset, this week’s episode, “Sanctuary,” sees the title character hitting the proverbial mattresses. The Mandalorian seeks out a small farming planet called Sorgan in order to lay low. It’s so small it doesn’t even have a spaceport. There, he meets a fellow fugitive and former rebel operative, Cara Dune (Gina Carano). After a misunderstanding and a glorious fistfight, the two decide to go their separate ways, but fate has something else in store for them.
A small krill farm in the outskirts has been ravaged by raiders and seek to hire the pair to protect them. The Mandalorian and ex-Rebel operative set up a plan, train the farmers for war, and take out the raiders, including their seemingly possessed AT-ST. They win the day, but the action is too much and the Mando seeks to leave. Foolishly, he thinks he can leave the asset behind with Omera (played by Julia Jones), a young widow on the farm with a past as mysterious as his. She tries her best to convince him to take his mask off and stay with them, but any choice he might have had in staying in such a peaceful life is destroyed when a bounty hunter with a tracking fob arrives to kill the youngling. The episode ends with the Mandalorian and his young charge heading once more to the stars in their bid to survive.
Star Wars has always borrowed heavily from the influence of Akira Kurosawa, and even more specifically his film Seven Samurai. It tells the story of a group of impoverished farmers who have the audacity to hire samurai to protect them from the bandits that will surely steal enough of their food that they will starve. They’ve adapted this essential story into Star Wars before (from comic books to Star Wars: The Clones Wars) and obliquely referenced it in live action before, but this is the first time the story has been borrowed from so heavily in a live action format. (I wrote about all of this over here). The story for this episode is set on a krill farm, rather than rice paddies, and it’s told from the perspective of the Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) character rather than that of the farmers.
This creates an interesting relationship with the expectation of the source material and actually allows us to imagine Kurosawa’s film in a new way. What would it have looked like if the opening act was told from Kambei’s view? What was he doing before he shaved his head and foiled that kidnapper? Where was he heading? Where had he come from? Seven Samurai addresses that in small ways, but we don’t really see it, and watching this episode of The Mandalorian kicked off my imagination for it.
When the Mando and Cara Dune train the farmers and create the barricades around the village, it’s right out of Seven Samurai, and Howard manages to get all of the geography correct and help us understand the plan. Forgetting to do that was one of the chief failings of the most recent big-screen remake of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven (2016), though that wasn’t the only level that film failed on.
So much of the editing and cinematography in this episode, as it came together as storytelling, felt pulled directly from Seven Samurai and projected it through a prism of Star Wars. It made me happy to see how well done it was.
This episode puts Bryce Dallas Howard in the director’s chair and she gives us the Mandalorian at his most talkative, showing us that in his solitude with the little one he’s letting his guard down. But there’s a naïveté to this as well. The Mandalorian isn’t as streetwise and worldly as we’d like to suspect based on some of his actions in this episode, whether it’s leaving the kid with the server at the bar or trying to leave the kid on Sorgan entirely. I hope this is part of his growth arc, so that by the end of the season he’s no longer so naive and can more easily see the obvious threats around him.
Howard also gives us the episode with by far the most female characters, including Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, who is a delight in this episode. Dune is a character that we’ve been waiting for and she didn’t disappoint; she’s just fun to watch every moment she’s on screen. Carano has an incredible presence that balances her femininity with her lethality, giving us a rich character added to the Star Wars mythos. My one complaint here is that it seems as though her appearance on the show is limited (at least for now.)
The character that steals every scene she’s in, however, is Julia Jones’s Omera. She creates a chemistry with Pedro Pascal’s masked Mando almost instantly and creates a tone that makes it so that it truly hurts that lone wolf and cub have to leave Sorgan. This has the same bitter-sweet tone as the ending of Seven Samurai, when Kambei and the surviving samurai look out over the village and see the farmers happy and singing as they plant their crop. It feels like a victory, but Kambei reminds us, “Again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us.”
There were a lot of cool things to spot in this episode of The Mandalorian, but my favorite might have been the Loth-cat. Loth-cats and tookas have been populating the Star Wars universe in the animated series and aside from the caged Loth-cat at Galaxy’s Edge, we’ve never seen one rendered in live-action before. The Loth-cat appears in a wonderful moment with the youngling that is incredibly well-designed. In Hidden Fortress, Kurosawa created a “worms-eye view” that set the POV to the lowliest characters in the story. This inspired George Lucas to make the droids the POV characters in A New Hope, but this moment with the Loth-cat shows us that Bryce Dallas Howard has taken this even more literally, hovering near the floor to show us the youngling’s point of view.
“Sanctuary” gives us another window into the version of Mandalorian culture that our title character adheres to. Though on the surface it might seem inconsistent with previous story installments featuring Mandalorians. The Mandalorian elaborates on the circumstances with which he is able to remove his helmet and it is only by himself. If he were to remove it in front of others, he would not be able to put it back on, giving up the life of a Mandalorian. He tells Omera that he’s been living like this since he was a boy after the Mandalorians took him in. Given the knowledge that one of the Vizsla clan is in the Mandalorian’s group, and that Pre Vizsla’s intention was to bring back the glory of Mandalore’s warrior past, it seems as though this is a much more martial and ancient belief of the Mando culture that they are living. Much more so than, say, Sabine Wren, who removed her helmet often. Some might say that this is in conflict with other Mandos we’ve seen in this way, but I would withhold judgment until we learn more about this particular sect. They’re clearly doling out the information slowly, and I suspect this will be one of the major revelations of the show.
This episode brought with it a lot of fun to the series, but also a much lighter touch that I found refreshing. The more talkative Mandalorian was a nice change of pace and his deepening relationship with the youngling is everything I want from this show. Their opening bit, where the child keeps pressing buttons was nothing short of gold. Bryce Dallas Howard gave us a wonderful look at a kind of world we haven’t really seen before in Star Wars and she did it with gusto. The design of the entire episode was beautiful and I wish we had more stories in this locale to tell.
My only major complaint was the music. I felt like this might have been composer Ludwig Göransson’s first near miss on the series. The music was serviceable, but the aesthetic of Seven Samurai felt as though it called for more Seven Samurai-like music. The score we got felt much more reminiscent of Peter Bernstein’s (excellent) score for the Ewok Adventures. I don’t bring that up as a negative, but that’s just the tone it felt like. Even the opening, pre-credits scene felt like the raid on Cindel’s family in The Battle for Endor. For someone who finds campy, nostalgic charm in the Ewok movies, this didn’t rub me the wrong way, in fact it brought a smile to my face. And if Star Wars isn’t bringing a smile to our faces (or emotive tears to our eyes) why are we here?
The post ‘The Mandalorian’ Goes Full ‘Seven Samurai’ With “Sanctuary” appeared first on /Film.
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There’s one major rule when you become a part of the Star Wars franchise: keep spoilers under lock and key at all costs. John Boyega, who plays Finn in the latest movie trilogy, had the scare of his career when he lost the script to Rise of Skywalker and it ended up on eBay. While appearing on Jimmy Fallon‘s The Tonight Show this week, the actor broke down how it all happened.
“I left the full script under my bed and then I was moving apartments the next morning and so I forgot the script under my bed,” Boyega told Fallon. “We weren’t shooting, by the way. We had wrapped up. It was all in the past and I just forgot about the script and then, yeah, someone sold it on eBay.”
The script, indeed, appeared on the consumer-to-consumer website with Boyega’s name watermarked on every page, according to the actor. While other Star Wars fans probably would’ve sold the script for thousands, if not millions of dollars, this person sold it for just over $80.
“I think they were basing the price on my name being on the pages, not on it being a Star Wars script, and I don’t think the person ever read the pages,” Boyega said. “They just thought that it was something cool, tried to sell it online to make a few bucks.”
He also remembered getting that bone-chilling call from his agent: “Mate, I’ve just received a call from Disney and all the big gods of the movie industry that you work for, that your livelihood comes from, saying that you lost the most powerful script in Hollywood right now.”
“Let’s just say they will never work with me again,” Boyega added with a laugh.
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The third chapter in the Star Wars series on Disney+, The Mandalorian, is here, and it was a phenomenal episode. We got a bit more into the culture of this particular Mandalorian clan, as well as where Mando's allegiances lie.
However, if you want to get a bit deeper into the world of Star Wars and Mandalore culture, there are plenty of references and Easter eggs hidden throughout the episode, and some of them weren't too subtle.
Looking through Episode 3 of The Mandalorian, we found some Easter eggs, references, and other interesting tidbits about the Star Wars universe that you may have missed. We compiled 15 of the most interesting ones for you to check out below.
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For more from the world of Mandalorian, check out our Easter eggs from Episode 1 and Episode 2, as well as a dive into where we think the Yoda Baby came from. And if you love Baby Yoda--we know it's not actually the infant version of Yoda, calm down--you may want to check out some merchandise coming soon.
In his review of Episode 3 of The Mandalorian, GameSpot's Chris E. Hayner said, ""The Sin" was directed by Deborah Chow, who is signed on to oversee the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. She brought a tone to this episode that fits the show well. While there was plenty of fun to be had--and some good humor care of Baby Yoda's antics--it never overshadowed the story being told--a story that was core to driving the series forward. Hopefully, The Mandalorian continues this trajectory in future episodes."
The outer rim is filled with various alien species. And Star Wars wouldn't be Star Wars without showing off at least one Twi'lek kicking around. The species is known for their two appendages that come out of their head, and some notable Twi-leks in Star Wars canon are Jabba the Hutt's servant Bib Fortuna, Jedi Knight Aayla Secura, and Rebel's pilot Hera Syndulla.
While we have seen Jawas on Tatooine and Arvala-7 (the planet from Episode 2 of The Mandalorian), the junk traders are scattered across the outer rim. What's interesting here is that the Jawas' cloaks are a different color and match their surroundings.
One thing we don't see a lot of in the Star Wars Universe is space suits. However, they do actually exist. For a brief moment, we see a creature in an Enviro-Suit walk through the town. There are numerous reasons this creature may need to wear one, from what it breathes to the toxicity of the air to air pressure.
Some have called this "The Tattletale droid" in the past. The first time we saw this weird droid was in Return of the Jedi at Jabba the Hutt's palace, and we saw it again in Episode 1 of The Mandalorian. It controls the door and can scan items or people, searching for weapons.
Very briefly, after Mando exits his meeting with "The Client," he walks through a market, and roasting on a spit is a Kowakian monkey-lizard. It's never fully in focus, but here's the best shot of it we could get. It also appeared in Episode 1. You may know this creature from Return of the Jedi. Jabba's court jester was Salacious B. Crumb, who was a Kowakian monkey-lizard. Apparently, people eat them.
Aside from the fact that Boba Fett isn't a Mandalorian and has no real connection to the warrior tribe, we do get another background glimpse at a Mandalorian in a green helmet, with the visor outlined in red, guarding the entrance to the secret Mandalorian hideaway. A green helmet means "duty," and the red on the visor means "honoring a parent." Considering these Mandalorians are foundlings--children whose parents were killed during the Imperial invasion of Mandalore--those two colors are probably pretty common for this group. (Two more Mandalorians with green helmets are also in this scene.)
We see this beefy Mandalorian a few times in the episode. He wears all blue armor, which means he's reliable. Who is he reliable to? The Mandalorian way of life. He's extremely loyal to his tribe and puts them above everyone else.
One last thing with Mandalorian colors. The blacksmith wears a gold helmet. This symbolizes "vengeance." Considering how loyal she is to the cause, it's probably vengeance against the Empire.
That other Mandalorian with whom Mando gets into a skirmish is named Paz Vizsla, and while the body double is listed in the credits as Tait Fletcher, the voice is not. And what's important about this character is that we've already seen a Mandalorian with the surname Vizsla before in the animated series The Clone Wars. Pre Vizsla was a member of Death Watch--a splintered Mandalorian group after pacificts took over the Mandalore government. This character was voiced by Jon Favreau, and considering these characters have the same last name, Paz sounds a lot like Favreau, and Favreau is The Mandalorian's showrunner and creator, this character could be Pre's son, and he might have been voiced by Favreau, though we haven't been able to confirm that yet.
Look at that fancy ice cream maker that Mando got from The Client, which he mentioned in Episode 1, calling it a camtono. During Empire Strikes Back, another infamous camtono made a brief appearance, grasped by Willrow Hood--a character who became famous because he was an extra running with an ice cream maker. Star Wars fandom is wonderful, sometimes.
Mandalorians are separated by clan. Some clans, like Clan Wren, have no problem taking off their helmets--like Sabine Wren in Rebels. Others, stick to a very traditional and older way of thinking, like Mando's group. There is a good chance that this Mandalorian clan is a splinter of Death Watch, as they are very traditionalist. They do not remove their helmets, ever. How do they eat? No clue. Regardless, this is the way.
While Mando's new armor is getting crafted, we see some flashbacks to when he was a child and his planet was under attack. Mandalore was thrust into the middle of a conflict as the Galactic Republic was hunting Darth Maul (yes, he's alive). After Order 66 had the clone troopers execute the Jedi, the Empire took over the planet, putting trusted Mandalorians in charge under the Empire's power. What we are most likely seeing here is the Empire--using droids--killing off insurgents.
Mando gets his new bounty from Greef, and we see a word in Aurebesh, the most-used language in the galaxy. So what does it say? Is it the bounty's name? Do they have a connection to someone else that we know? Nope. It simply says, "Wanted."
Greef mentions reporting the Empire loyalists to the New Republic. This show takes place roughly seven years after Return of the Jedi, so a new government is in place. However, we all know that the First Order will be coming soon, but it will take them 23 years to come to full power, as that's when Force Awakens begins.
While Zabraks are all over the galaxy, we don't see them very often. Darth Maul was a Dathomirian Zabrak--his mother was a Nightsister. And the only other Zabrak we've seen in the movies were Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar, members of the Jedi High Council during the Republic days. We haven't seen a bounty hunter Zabrak up until this point.
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