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Worth remembering a lost golden era of tech optimism, when titans of Silicon Valley were not yet generally recognized as flopsweating deathlords of monetized tyranny. Black Mirror debuted on Channel 4 in the U.K. in 2011, when it was still possible to imagine a hyper-connected utopia of social media and smartphones and whatever FourSquare was. Charlie Brooker’s techno-satire was good news for people who love bad news, arguing that any cheerful thing about modern technology would drive everything crazy.

The first three episodes of Charlie Brooker’s techno-satire have not lost their urgency. In “The National Anthem,” “Fifteen Million Merits,” and “The Entire History of You,” the humor is sharp enough to slice your head off, and the science-fiction tragedy is factual enough to blow your decapitated mind.

The anthology trends glossier in its Netflix phase. The three episodes launching Wednesday juggle tones and genres. They’re all better than Bandersnatch. They’re experimental, and long. And they’re also a bit sentimental. Even the bleakest feels programmed with hopeful pathos. I worry that’s a collective failing, evidence that big budgets and a prime streaming venue are nudging Brooker towards an optimism few viewers are feeling. Then again, he was pessimistic before it was cool. Maybe he’s onto something? Here are reviews of the new episodes, with some plot spoilers.

“Striking Vipers”

Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul Mateen II play best bros Danny and Karl. They used to spend long nights playing their favorite videogame, a Tekken-ish fighter called Striking Vipers. Now Danny is frowningly married in the suburbs, while Karl is a downtown lothario dating women too young for Dennis Rodman references.

Karl gets Danny a birthday present: A new edition of Striking Vipers, souped up into virtual reality. Within the game, Danny looks like Pom Klementieff and Karl looks like Ludi Lin. The fact that all four performers have starred in superhero movies could be stuntcasting — or maybe it’s increasingly impossible to cast a name performer who hasn’t played comic book action.

In the game, Danny and Karl start off fighting — and wind up kissing. More than kissing: Striking Vipers is, apparently, an omni-sensual game experience. Danny’s having an affair with his best friend. It’s a nifty idea, a riff on the whole idea of the “bromance” that ever-so-slightly suggests there’s something more going on when you’re online role-playing with massive multiplayers.

One thing that sets Black Mirror apart from recent anthological imitators, I think, is its attention to atmospheric detail. The near-future dishwasher has a hazard warning when the knives are blades up. Danny agonizes over whether to include a suggestively kiss-y “x” in a text message to his friend-lover. And the game Striking Vipers resembles a fully realized Street Fighter knockoff: battle stages with ancient-futuristic backgrounds, neon-dojo costumes.

Mackie and Mateen are funny, sweet, extremely confused. I especially love how Mackie looks torn between repressed lust and bemusement, like he can’t even figure out if he’s cheating on his wife. It all goes on a bit too long, and wraps on a twist that doesn’t feel fully supported by the complicated emotions that lead there. As Danny’s wife, Nicole Beharie gets locked out of the action — especially when potentially explosive marital drama gets timejumped into the void. This one’s in the history books, though, for one line: “I f—ed a polar bear, and I still couldn’t get you out of my mind.” B

“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”

There’s one very cool idea in this goofy caper: “Foulmouthed Robo-Doll with the Voice of Miley Cyrus.” Cyrus plays Ashley O, a purple-haired pop star preaching an empowerment vibe. Her positivity appeals to lonely teen Rachel (Angourie Rice) — and infuriates Rachel’s sister Jack (Madison Davenport), who’s more about the Pixies.

The story initially splits. Ashley withstands her controlling aunt-manager (Susan Pourfar), who’s anxious about Ashley’s new interest in black eyeshadow. Meanwhile, Rachel receives a very special birthday present: Ashley Too, an adorable little talkbot programmed with the pop star’s brainscans.

The real Ashley winds up comatose, but her manager still gets a new album out of her, ripping music and lyrics straight from her brain. Since I love the phrase “spiritual sequel,” I feel required to point out that this episode continues a saga begun in the classic South Park episode “Britney’s New Look,” wherein a suffering Britney Spears has to record new music with half her head missing.

That episode ended with a dark premonition for a then-upcoming starlet named Miley Cyrus. Cyrus has defeated that prophesy, and maybe one problem with “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” is that the usually savvy Brooker settles for some rather archaic ideas about popular music. Like, Ashley’s handlers are nervous about her ruining her squeaky-clean image. Surely “ruining the squeaky-clean image” is an essential media narrative for all modern pop stars!

I really love the Ashley Too doll, though. I want one! Am I watching this wrong? I don’t think so — for all the maliciousness surrounding Ashley, this episode comes out strong in support of imprinting celebrity brains into purchasable friend alternatives. And the plot stops making sense as soon as there’s a plot. The sisters drive to Ashley’s house in Malibu, where a wacky bodyguard lets in anyone with a convincing story about rat traps. Oh, also, the sisters’ dad has a brainscan laboratory where he’s developing new extermination technology. The vibe suggests a made-for-Disney-channel telefilm, with more swears. Jaunty and forgettable. C+

“Smithereens”

Andrew Scott, recently great on Fleabag, is great again here as Chris, a mysterious rideshare driver stalking the London headquarters of a major social media company (whose user interface looks a lot like Twitter). He kidnaps a man (Damson Idris) who looks like an executive: Young, handsome, well-dressed in a suit.

First big whoops: The dude’s just an intern. Which leads Chris to a darkly funny freakout about tech workplace ethics: “How is anyone supposed to have a sense of the hierarchy?” Chris doesn’t have much of a plan. His kidnapping goes comically wrong. He winds up in a standoff, overseen by policemen. The squad’s commander is played by Monica Dolan, a wonderful performer best known in my household as Tracey from the behind-the-scenes Britcom W1A. It’s possible I like “Smithereens” best because it’s the most British in the current batch, and the smallest-scale — the most like a classic Black Mirror, come to think of it.

The scope expands. Chris demands to speak with Billy Bauer (Topher Grace), some Silicon founder on a disconnected retreat to Furnace Valley, Utah. Getting to Bauer requires a jangly transcontinental collaboration between sectors public and private. “Smithereens” has no real science-fiction, so Brooker’s observational points feel uncomfortably true-life. The Smithereen brain trust in Los Gatos has access to more information than the United States or the United Kingdom — and there’s something very Mount Olympus about the company’s role here, these twentysomething executives in sun-dappled glass offices sending info-bolts of data lightning from eight timezones away.

Grace’s performance is remarkable, and trickier than parody. Bauer looks to me like a pretty clear Jack Dorsey analogue, and “Smithereens” captures the strains of DIY spirituality and egomania that define our conception of the modern tech CEO. But Bauer has his own confession to make. Smithereen, he explains, “was one thing when I started it and then…it just became this whole other f—ing thing!” He compares his great creation to a crack pipe, or a Vegas casino, starts ranting about dopamine targets. “There’s nothing I can do to f—ing stop it!”

Here again, there’s an unconvincing dash of faithful techno-optimism. Chris’ insane gambit works, and the wonders of telecoms connect him to one of the most powerful men in the world. (Like, does Charlie Brooker think Netflix CEO Reed Hastings would take that phone call? Could Brooker ask him? Is that the problem?) And the ambiguous ending depends on a contrivance I don’t quite believe. Still, this is the one new Black Mirror where you feel Brooker’s unique mix of empathic humanity and comic despair. Thanks to modern technology, representatives of America, Great Britain, and one of the world’s most powerful tech companies are all invisibly present in a field in England. And nobody can really see what’s happening. And nothing turns out well for anyone. A-

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Here’s a bit of sad news for fans of THE GOOD PLACE: the show’s upcoming fourth season will be its last. Fortunately, NBC hasn’t cancelled the show, but the creator, Mike Schur, has made the announcement that the final season will begin airing this fall. In a letter posted on the show’s official Twitter account […]

Check out our spoiler-free review of Lucifer Season 4 here. 

Back in May, Lucifer was canceled by Fox after just three seasons on the air. Thankfully, to the delight of Lucifans everywhere, Netflix swooped in to save the fallen angel with a 10-episode Season 4 order. However, it appears that the streaming giant is parting ways with the supernatural procedural.

Netflix has renewed Lucifer for a fifth and final season, according to a post from the show's official Twitter page. In the video, you can see an enthusiastic Tom Ellis (Lucifer) screaming for joy. Before the video ends, Ellis says, "see you in Hell."

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Netflix is about to add yet another original series based on a critically acclaimed comic book. Following in the footsteps of Umbrella Academy and Mark Millar's Millarworld imprint, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's Locke & Key is coming to Netflix in the near future. Finally, an adaptation that's been trapped in development hell for the past decade will see the light of day.

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Immigrants from war-torn homelands. An increasingly intolerant society. People from different walks of life struggle to coexist. Take away the Victorian setting and the presence of faeries and fauns, and the description for Amazon’s Carnival Row almost reads like a docuseries.

The first teaser for the fantasy drama series shows stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne back to back, moodily eyeing the camera as they seem to steel themselves for a coming struggle. “Time is running out,” Bloom intones. “Something inhuman approaches.” “We must all come together,” Delevingne adds.

Carnival Row is set in a fantasy world where mythological creatures have fled their homelands, which have been invaded by human empires, and struggle to coexist with mankind. Bloom stars as Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate, a human detective who rekindles a dangerous affair with Vignette Stonemoss (Delevingne), a refugee faerie. As tensions rise between the human and mythical creature populations, Philo investigates a series of murders that threaten to disrupt the uneasy peace.

Carnival Row also stars David Gyasi, Karla Crome, Tamzin Merchant, and Game of Thrones‘ Indira Varma. The series debuts on Amazon Prime Video August 30. You can watch the full teaser above.

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Neil Gaiman is back at the Chateau Marmont. It’s been almost 30 years since he and Terry Pratchett were first flown to Los Angeles and put up at the hotel to discuss a potential screenplay based on their then-new novel, Good Omens. The book, first published in 1990, is a sprawling end-of-the-world epic, following angels, demons, witches, witchfinders, children, dogs, and a preteen Antichrist, as an apocalyptic battle looms on the horizon. That early trip to Los Angeles was one of Gaiman and Pratchett’s first attempts to see the story brought to the screen — the first of many.

Now, three decades later, Gaiman is once again at the Chateau, this time alone but with Good Omens finally within reach. He’s here talking to journalists a few days before the show’s debut, having written all six episodes and served as showrunner. It was his idea to meet at the Chateau Marmont — although, he says with a laugh, when he and Pratchett were first here, the hotel “was not the fancy-schmancy Marmont of today. It was pretty grungy.” Being here now, with the show finally in the can, he’s not sure how to feel.

He finally settles on: “Weird. So weird.” He pauses. “So happy.”

With all six episodes of Good Omens now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, it marks the end of a years-long journey filled with false starts, shelved scripts, and one bittersweet last request. On one hand, the book seemed like an obvious choice for an adaptation: A book-loving angel named Aziraphale (played in the show by Michael Sheen) and a slippery demon named Crowley (David Tennant) form an unlikely alliance and team up to stop the biblical apocalypse. The pair have lived on Earth since the Garden of Eden, growing rather accustomed to their terrestrial lifestyles. Despite orders from their bosses above and below, they’d rather not see the world end in fire and flame.

The book became a cult hit, but despite Pratchett and Gaiman’s attempts, a Good Omens adaptation never got off the ground. That early attempt to pitch a screenplay was met with resistance. As Gaiman puts it: “ trying to explain to the studio that actually it wasn’t a romance between Julia Roberts as Anathema — who they kept pronouncing Atha-neema — and Tom Cruise as a witchfinder, with a sort of 18-year-old Adam who’s, like, hot for the witch but respects the witchfinder.”

Terry Gilliam was later attached to direct a film version in 2002, with Robin Williams and Johnny Depp reportedly set to play Aziraphale and Crowley, but that fell apart. Almost a decade later, Gilliam’s Monty Python cohort Terry Jones signed on to turn Good Omens into a TV show, but that stalled too. Things dragged on for so long that Pratchett and Gaiman joked about whether a movie would ever happen, writing in a “frequently asked questions” section published at the back of the book: “Neil likes to think that one day maybe there will, and Terry is certain that it will never happen. In either case, neither of them will believe it until they’re actually eating popcorn at the premiere. And even then, probably not.”

“We’d approached some of the best writers in the business,” Gaiman says. “And they’d all said very, very politely and respectfully, ‘I don’t know how you would do this make it as TV. It’s too weird, it’s too shapeless, I’m not really sure what the plot is.’ And one person, one eminent and award-winning writer had a go and had done an outline for us, and Terry and I read it and were both like, ‘No, that’s completely wrong. Everything about that is wrong.’”

Finally, in 2014, Pratchett wrote Gaiman a letter. He’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2007, and as his condition worsened, he asked his longtime friend and writing partner if he would make the show himself. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it, he told Gaiman, and he knew Gaiman would make a show he would actually want to watch. Gaiman agreed and set to work on a six-episode outline. He began writing the first script shortly after Pratchett died in 2015, with the goal of creating a show for one: “an audience of Terry.”

“I come home from the funeral and I start writing the first episode,” Gaiman explains. “So for me, it’s a sort of strange process of coming to terms with my friend’s death, being around him and channeling him and dealing with .”

Gaiman’s solo writing has been adapted for film and TV before, from Coraline and How to Talk to Girls at Parties to Stardust and American Gods. But although he’d largely taken a hands-off approach with those, he threw himself into Good Omens, hiring Doctor Who alum Douglas Mackinnon to direct and serving as showrunner himself. He also says he found himself being far more militant about changes to Good Omens, pushing back on suggestions of what to cut or rework. If Pratchett couldn’t be here to advocate for himself, he decided, he’d have to do the advocating on his behalf.

“There was a lot of, ‘No, we’re not cutting all the Agnes Nutter stuff because that was Terry’s scene, and he wrote that, and I wrote it to honor Terry, so f— off!’” Gaiman says with a laugh. “That kind of thing, which I would never do in reality. I’m sweet!”

“He was always very clear it was a very personal project,” Tennant adds. “He was doing it to honor Terry Pratchett’s dying wish. And this was not something that Neil Gaiman, best-selling novelist, needs to necessarily do with his time. He could’ve probably written four novels in the time he devoted to getting this on screen. So it was very special to have him there.”

Still, the nature of adaptation meant changing and adding things. When Gaiman first sat down with the book, he divided it into six parts, placing Post-It notes to mark a new episode every 60-ish pages. When the third section didn’t have any scenes with Crowley or Aziraphale, he wrote new ones, tracing the pair’s friendship from the Garden of Eden and Noah’s ark to the French Revolution and the London Blitz. Sometimes he incorporated ideas from an unwritten sequel he and Pratchett had kicked around, and he expanded some characters who were barely mentioned in the book (like the handsome and irritatingly righteous archangel Gabriel, played by Jon Hamm).

“It would’ve been quite a very different experience and quite a scary experience to try and adapt a book that is so loved and so perfectly realized without Neil at the heart of every choice,” Sheen says. “Every decision would’ve been very scary. Because inevitably things have to change, and the confidence and boldness that Neil did that with inspires everyone in it. You feel like, well, the person who’s in control of this ship knows what he’s doing knows these seas very well.”

Now, almost 30 years after he and Pratchett wrote the book, Gaiman has steered that ship into harbor. And at the show’s U.K. premiere this week, he left a seat for Pratchett’s hat, scarf, and a bag of popcorn.

“This wasn’t done to fill six hours of television,” Gaiman says. “This was done because we wanted this thing to exist and it wouldn’t exist if we didn’t make it. So we made it. The last thing in Good Omens is one final black screen that says, ‘For Terry,’ and that’s who we made it for.”

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Disney’s upcoming film The Lion King brings the classic animated feature into the realm of live-action. Not an easy task, what with all the singing and dancing animals. At the helm of this tricky endeavor is director Jon Favreau, who cut his teeth on the animated-to-real life game with 2016’s The Jungle Book. I visited the set of Lion King with a small group of press to witness Favreau’s filmmaking process and was intrigued to see the entire thing was essentially shot in an intricate virtual reality video game.

Explaining Favreau’s Vision

But before we get to the technical particulars, it’s relevant to hear why Favreau felt the need to take the lead on this movie in the first place. After all, many deem the original to be a masterpiece as-is, so why mess with perfection? Favreau pointed to the celebrated Lion King stage show as a worthy adaptation of the animated original -- and to his point, it has earned over $1 billion to become the highest grossing Broadway production of all time -- and his goal is to create a third take on the beloved tale that tells The Lion King’s timeless story with what he described as the spectacle of a BBC wildlife documentary.

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Warning: This post contains spoilers from the season 5 finale on The Flash, which aired Tuesday night. Read at your own risk!

In its series premiere, The Flash introduced a newspaper from the year 2024 that featured a headline about the Scarlet Speedster (Grant Gustin) vanishing in a “crisis.” Tuesday night, the superhero drama revealed how that newspaper relates to the Arrowverse’s next crossover, the ominously titled “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

In the season 5 finale of The Flash, Team Flash destroys Cicada’s dagger in the present, which has the unfortunate consequence of freeing Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh), in the future, as the dagger was being used to suppress his powers while he was awaiting his execution. Once he’s freed, he faces off against Barry and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy), and in the middle of the battle he giddily tells Nora that her efforts to stop her father from disappearing will always fail.

“You can’t save him, Nora, no matter what you do,” he says. “No matter what you try, the Flash will always vanish. That is his legacy.” (This line is a clever nod to DC Comics mythology, because the Flash is usually a casualty whenever the multiverse goes through a crisis.)

Unfortunately, destroying the dagger has another unintended consequence: It leads to the creation of another timeline. Not only is Nora erased from existence as a result, but the date on the aforementioned future newspaper changes from 2024 to 2019. In other words, Barry will disappear in the titular crisis of the forthcoming crossover, which is due later this year.

The fact that the newspaper’s headline refers to the crossover is not surprising because the crossover shares a title with one of DC Comics’ most iconic comic books, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Conceived of and executed by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, this 1985 maxiseries followed DC’s heroes as they fought to save Earth from the destruction of the multiverse. Unfortunately, Barry Allen/the Flash perished/disappeared in the battle.

Whether or not the Arrowverse’s adaption sticks to the source material in this regard remains to be seen. There’s reason to hope to Gustin’s speedster will make it out of the crisis alive, if only because his show was renewed for a full sixth season.

The Flash wasn’t the only show that used its finale to setup the next crossover, though. In the Arrow finale, the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) recruited Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) to help him save the multiverse and revealed that he would perish in the forthcoming crisis. For more on that, head over here.

The Flash will return in fall 2019.

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Last week on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we got a lot of new characters and concepts thrown in our face, as usual for a new season. This week, thankfully, we get to dig in a little bit and learn more about everyone’s perceptions of the chessboard.

Let’s start on Earth, since the episode splits its time between there and a spaceship. Sarge and his team — Snowflake, Jaco, and Pax, who you can read about here — are in need of supplies, so their first stop is a bodega. (As a New Yorker, I totally understand this impulse.) We learn a little more about what kind of world these characters come from when they react with delighted surprise to the sweet taste of a slushie, and with condescension toward the “combustion”-powered shotgun behind the register. They use lasers, remember? Which makes them think it’ll be easy to get what they want on this world.

There’s one supply they can’t find at the bodega, though: Something called PEGs. We don’t learn what that acronym means right away, but apparently Sarge’s team think they can find it in a jewelry store. So they go in for a robbery. Sarge gives the jeweler an anti-pep talk similar to the one he gave the bodega clerk: “People fantasize about doing something heroic at times like these.” It’s an interesting twist. While Coulson was excellent at helping people bring out their inner heroism, Sarge is all about downplaying that and keeping people’s heroism beneath the surface.

May leads a team of agents in pursuit, but they don’t reach the store until Sarge and his team are locked behind the vault. Just as he dismissed this world’s combustion weapons, Sarge laughs at how much “you people” care about “junk” like diamonds. Desperate to find something else, Jaco explains to the teller that PEGs are rocks that can generate an electrical charge via applied mechanical pressure. Dana realizes they’re talking about crystals, and directs them to a drawer full of topaz and quartz.

This, as it turns out, is exactly what they’re looking for, and they use the loot to create a portal back to their Mad Max truck. But they’ve underestimated Melinda May. Knowing that “no version of Coulson would go in there without an exit strategy,” May retraces Sarge’s steps back to the junkyard and finds their invisible truck just as they open the portal. She manages to take down Pax, Jaco, and Snow because, well, she’s Melinda May and she’s still got it. But once she comes face to face with Sarge, she freezes — long enough for them to kick her through the portal into the jeweler’s vault and seal it behind her.

Afterward, Benson shows Mack what he’s learned from examining a “biological hard drive” on the body of Sarge’s team member who got fused with concrete. It’s a video showing Sarge and Jaco on an alternate Earth where the sky is collapsing.

“Wherever these people come from,” Benson ominously explains, “I think they destroyed it.”

Meanwhile, in space! Luckily, it turns out Fitz hasn’t actually been brainwashed or turned into an alien puppet. He’s just been disguising himself with a device that changes his eye color, and he speaks the alien language because Enoch taught him how to. Unfortunately, all this subterfuge is lost once Fitz expresses disgust at an alien delicacy and claims to be from an irradiated wasteland. But hey, on the plus side, at least Enoch’s back! I’ve missed having him around.

Fitz’s subterfuge doesn’t go over well with the spaceship’s xenophobic captain, who wants to have him thrown out the airlock. Fitz bargains for his life by explaining his mechanical genius and the various ways he can improve the spaceship and make the captain’s operation more profitable, but that only goes so far. When the captain decides his other engineers must be superfluous and tries to throw them out the airlock, Fitz steps in again.

This captain is a hard guy to bargain with, and decides to throw Fitz out the airlock along with the others, just to prove a point. That’s when the tables turn. Enoch opens the spaceship doors. Fitz and the others are safe within their airlock, but the captain and his minions are jettisoned into space (Enoch holds on for dear life). Afterward, Fitz decides to change course for a nearby planet so the surviving crew won’t be executed as mutineers upon arrival. He decides to put off his cryo-sleep for now, because he won’t be able to look Simmons in the eye unless he saves these people. Little does he know that Simmons and Daisy’s ship materializes right behind them as they depart, like two ships passing in the night.

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In this season finale of The Blacklist, the entire Task Force manages to escape detainment under the eye of the Justice Department within their own super-secure Post Office facility, including briefly being locked inside their patented titanium gold alloy box; they stop an assignation on the president that was ordered… by the president; then they find out he was actually planning to assassinate his wife; and in approximately a one-minute transition, they expose said president for said attempted murder and force him to resign…

And those are like, the chilliest things that happen in this episode.

Because, as we could have expected, in the last two minutes, the entire episode got flipped on its head with a tiny nugget of intel on the saga of Fraymond Freddington, resulting in a world-altering reveal that we’ll just have to sit and wonder about until season 7. Don’t get me wrong, it’s insane that we just (probably, maybe) met a very much alive Katarina Rostova, and that she stabbed Raymond Reddington with a syringe, threw him in a car, and went on about her business. It’s just that everything else before that was so fun, I was almost a little annoyed to suddenly have to recalibrate my mind to weaving together tiny 30-year-old clues to make sense of what was happening, instead of just, y’know… watching things explode.

Of course, it’s not technically fun that a powerful man tried to have his honest wife murdered and got a couple dozen people sworn to protect him killed in the process. But I was not expecting the season 6 finale to be so light on its feet given the wealth of Blacklist mythos we’ve been called upon to retain over and over again this season. Ultimately though, the season 6 finale turned out to be quite the romp — and everyone was down to risk their lives and careers for the sake of our entertainment (oh, and to protect the super skeevy president of the United States, I guess).

ROBERT DIAZ, NO. 15

The episode opens right where we left off last week, with Anna McMahon taking the entire Task Force into custody for a conspiring to assassinate the president of the United States — a conspiracy that she has in fact cooked up with the POTUS himself, and the Post Office has uncovered through a network television season’s worth of hard work.

McMahon reports to President Diaz that she has everyone in custody except Reddington and Keen, and pinning the assassination attempt scheduled for later that day should be no problem. “The question is: Do you want this?” McMahon asks him. Diaz says that they’ve talked about this already, and it’s “what has to be done.” He tells McMahon that he’s ordering a kill shot, as painless as possible. Once they’re off the phone, the First Lady approaches Diaz and he tells her, “What you’ve wanted me to do, I’m going to take care of it tomorrow at the debate.” She looks so pleased: “I’m relieved to hear you say that.” He tells her it will shock the crowd, and she says that she doesn’t care about the crowd: “I know you’re conflicted, but this is the right thing to do.”

Now, this isn’t exactly my first time watching TV — I noticed that they were being quite vague about the topic at hand, and therefore, were most likely not talking about the topic we were supposed to think they were talking about. And yet…

The idea that the president was conspiring to have himself assassinated, and that his wife was not only on board with that plan, but proud of him for it was a nut I was so eager to crack, I just let it slide.

Plus, I was a little distracted by ol’ Lizzie McClane darting around the Post Office, not to get the dossier on the Diaz plot back as I had originally assumed, but instead to bust her beloved colleagues out of this popsicle stand. And it will just require two of Reddington’s most entertaining associates to do so: little Tadashi Ito, who has to miss half his prom to help Liz override all the locks and security systems in the Post Office, and Maxwell Rudiger, who brings in a notorious bank-robbing crew to rig some explosives.

And for once, everything goes exactly as planned. It’s awesome! While McMahon licks her chops about finally pulling one over on Reddington, Aram, Ressler, and Cooper just waltz right out of their cells and through one locked door after another, as Tadashi coaches Liz on how to unlock them from the server room. Eventually, McMahon’s team figures this out and corners the trio, but that’s exactly what Liz wanted…

McMahon puts them in the Box, Liz overrides the security feed until just the right moment to reveal Rudiger’s men constructing an elaborate bomb, sending all of the guards straight there, and creating a window for Red and Liz to scoot into the Box room, unlock the Box with the code Aram created (“SAMAR,” be still my heart), bada-bing, bada-boom — they’re all seated to a catered breakfast in no time.

Not really one to relax, Ressler wonders if they shouldn’t get back to trying to figure out how to stop the assassination on the president (by the president) happening at tonight’s debate. But not only does Red have French toast kebabs, he also already has a plan: infiltrate the protestors outside the debate, start a riot, pose Liz and Ressler as law enforcement to quell the insurrection, slip inside during the commotion, have Aram hack into the facility’s surveillance feeds, and — guys, I’m not kidding you — bada-bing, bada-boom, find the shooter before he kills the president.

Well, it mostly goes like that. Vontae (!!!) gathers a crew to start the riot, Liz and Ressler get inside in SWAT gear, Aram identifies a camera that’s offline that must be where the shooter will be stationed, and they race off in that direction. Just as the debate finishes and the First Lady joins Diaz on stage, asking him why he didn’t do “the right thing” like he said he would, Sanquist takes position with a sniper rifle aimed right at Diaz. Just then, Liz and Ressler burst in and Sanquist shoots, hitting the First Lady right in the chest. Other Secret Service agents, some of whom we know are in on the plot, enter the room just as Sanquist has released the gun, and naturally, he’s all: It was these guys, these guys did it!

I’m not really sure what the plan here was as far as two of the people who have been accused of conspiring to assassinate the president entering the room where the weapon to assassinate the president resides, when they know the people behind the assassination are the Secret Service and, uh, the president…

But luckily there’s a backup plan to the Task Force once again being taken into the federal custody of the Department of Justice under Anna McMahon.

Which is, while the Secret Service transports Aram, Ressler, and Liz to a “federal facility” (death in a field, never to be heard from again), Red just stone-cold rams his car into the van carrying them the moment the back door is opened. There is a truly violent shootout where people are grabbing for guns and ducking behind cars, and where absolutely everyone works for the government and should not be shooting at each other. Sanquist finally throws a flash grenade at the van pouring out gasoline, and the Task Force team has to run for cover before it explodes.

And the second the fire clears, Ressler shoots the hell out of Sanquist.

Suddenly, Anna McMahon appears out of whatever safety she’d been hiding in, and puts a gun to Reddington’s head, but she’s also got five trained right back on her. Ressler tells her if she shoots him, he’ll shoot her. It’s not really a great equation if you’re Reddington, but then — BOOM! McMahon is shot through the head from behind…

BY DEMBE! He’s back, baby. And Red wants to know if this means he’s forgiven him. “The Townsend Directive,” Dembe replies: “Our friend in Miami says it’s in play, he says it’s very important.” Red agrees that it’s critical, “But not as critical as knowing why you’re here.” Dembe finally answers that he left because he needed to follow his own path: “It led me back to you.” You guys.

Oddly, this is not the only man to express his unconditional love for Raymond Reddington in this finale. Red is absent for much of the manual labor of taking down the people trying to take down the president (except the actual president, but we’re still getting there) because he’s looking into the fact that Ressler was contacted by what appeared to be the KGB when he got too close to Katarina Rostova’s trail. Reddinton meets with a man we’ve never met before, but he’s played by Brett Cullen, so he must be important.

He also must be important because he and Red express their mutual adoration and trust with one another. Who is this man??? This man who knows who Red really is, who tells him that Masha was bound to find out he wasn’t really who he said he was, who thinks that Dom “shouldn’t have told her that story,” who was childhood friends with Red (or whoever Red used to be) and has only ever let him down once when he wouldn’t share his truck!!!

Either way, he agrees to do something for Red, something that Red wants done before Agnes comes home to Elizabeth’s house.

Also before that can happen, the Task Force still has to take care of the one single person they haven’t killed that’s involved in this plot against the president: the president. I’ll skip the part where they can’t figure out — I mean, it takes them some serious time — that the shot fired at the First Lady was intended for the First Lady all along. Because it is quite fun to watch Donald Ressler set up a little salt-and-pepper-shaker recreation of the debate layout and have his eureka moment. But once they do figure out that there’s no way Sanquist missed, there’s only one thing left to do…

Ask the First Lady why her husband would have tried to have her killed and framed it as a failed attempt on his own life. And they can because, though it’s explained in great detail that Sanquist is a master marksmen, he does not manage to kill the First Lady with his shot to her chest. Indeed, she looks rather spritely when Panabaker begrudgingly escorts Cooper and Reddington into her hospital room, and though she’s upset about recently almost being murdered by her husband, she’s more than willing to give up the deets on the jerk. Apparently, a few months before the primaries that eventually saw Diaz elected president, they were on vacation, Diaz got behind the wheel after drinking too much and hit a woman and her son. Instead of going to the police, they paid a fixer to cover it up.

The money Diaz took from Constantin Rostov, that Red blackmailed him with years ago, wasn’t to swing his election, but to save his reputation. But covering up murder never sat well with the First Lady, and she began begging her husband to do the right thing and come forward with the truth. Apparently that’s what he was promising her he’d do at the debate where he was, in fact, planning to have her killed in a plot he had long been arranging with Anna McMahon and his own Secret Service agents.

And, apparently, once you have some dirt on the president, it’s not too hard to get him out of office. Uh, in The Blacklist world, that is. This story line gets all wrapped up with Panabaker and Cooper standing in the White House looking disapprovingly at Diaz as news stories play about the president resigning in the wake of reports that he made an attempt on the First Lady’s life in order to cover up his own homicide. Cooper informs him that the FBI will be opening up a criminal investigation, and Diaz — a murderer — whines, “Reddington dis this. “You did this to yourself,” Panabaker, my forever fav, spits back.

“How does a fugitive bring down a president?” Diaz asks, presumably rhetorically. Buckle up for comeback of the century from Coops: “With pleasure.”

And what of that president-slaying fugitive? Well, his best friend we never knew about who meets up with him solely on waterfront benches brings him to a waterfront bench to tell Red he has the info he was looking for: “I found her — Paris.” Red asks if he’s sure, and he shows her a photo that we don’t get to see. “It’s her, I’m telling you, Raymond,” the man says, asking if Red is sure about this. He’s sure…

On a street in Paris, Red walks behind an elegant woman and calls out, “Katarina.” The woman stops in her tracks, turns around and says, “Raymond.” And then she KISSES HIM. “Are they watching?” she asks. Red tells her it’s not safe and she kisses him again… and then stabs him with a syringe. Red keels over and a car zooms over, two men hop out, load him up, and drive away. Katarina picks up Raymond Reddington’s fedora and keeps walking.

A FEW LOOSE ENDS

Do you mean to tell me that was Katarina Rostova, famous Russian spy, former lover of Raymond Reddington, former something to Fraymond Freddington, and she is alive? And she incapacitated Red the moment she saw him, with a car just ready and waiting to whisk him away???

So was that an example of the malice Liz has long feared in her mother? The potential danger that made her keep Agnes away — Agnes, who she just brought back home because Red assured her Katarina was no threat.

And who is this childhood friend of Freddington’s who he loves and trusts completely that we’re just now meeting??? It must be said that Brett Cullen’s doesn’t not look like he could be an older Ilya/Gabriel Mann. But that theory held a little more water in my head before the reveal that Katarina is 100 percent (probably, maybe) not the imposter who assumed Raymond Reddinton’s identity. So, do we finally put that theory to rest now? This ending clearly raises more questions than I answers.

So what did you think of the season 6 finale?! Is Katarina Rostova really still alive? Is she a good spy or a bad spy? Who are these people that drive bodies for her at the drop of a hat (literally) in the middle of the night? Who is Raymond’s friend? Did Ilya ever exist at all, or was he only a figment of Dom’s imagination? Sound off in the comments!

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Warning: This article contains spoilers about the season 6 finale of The Blacklist. Read at your own risk!

Liz’s family is all together again with one major returning member she’s not even aware of!

In the season 6 finale of The Blacklist, the task force defeats Anna McMahon — thanks to Dembe — and discovers what the assassination plot is actually about. With the President alive — and tendering his resignation — Liz (Megan Boone) goes home to finally be reunited with her daughter Agnes.

It’s a happy day at the Keen household, but Reddington (James Spader) is up to his usual secretive maneuvering. With the help of a mysterious old friend of his, Reddington finds the elusive Katarina Rostova in France. She kisses him, sticks him with a needle, and her guys appear out of nowhere, collecting his body and tossing him in a van. Executive producers Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath break down the Katarina of it all and tease how long Liz’s happiness will last.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with Katarina. Why bring her back into the story in the flesh and what is it going to be like after everything’s she been through? That was quite the introduction!JON BOKENKAMP: Katarina is a character that is very much part of the DNA of the show. We met her a number of other times, played by Lotte Verbeek, as this very crafty, sort of dangerous spy and we have also been talking about her a lot this season. We’ve sort of been platforming this moment, building to it. Liz wanting to know what really happened to her mother. Hearing Dom’s story about how Katarina walked out of the water and did not die at Cape May as we had previously believed. And so, we’ve been talking about Katarina a lot this season. The characters have been sort of circling her, they’ve all been in her orbit and it just felt like a great moment, an unexpected moment really, especially after Red has just told Liz that Katerina is not a danger to Agnes.

So, I think it’s finally time for us to meet, in the flesh, the present-day version of Katarina Rostova and I think she’s an enigma. I think she’s a very mysterious, powerful, formidable person as seen in just a very brief moment that we saw her in at the end of season 6. So, that’s a promise of what is to come for season 7 and I think there’s a great momentum going into next season.

Katarina has Red! How concerned should we be about his safety?JOHN EISENDRATH: It’s always fun to see how Red sort of tries to wiggle himself out of these dangerous situations and this will be a seismic one. However, I think just the mere fact that Katarina is there and has betrayed him and what she represents, I think is probably far more dangerous than the physical peril that Red’s in at the end of season 6.

Speaking of Liz’s family, Agnes is back. Are we going to see more of Liz as a mother? Or will Katarina or something else she’s unaware of ruin their time together?EISENDRATH: Katarina’s presence will definitely impact Liz and Liz’s family life. In terms of how it impacts them going forward, we have yet to completely figure out, to be completely honest.

The Blacklist is a show at its core about a parent-child relationship. That’s Red relationship to Liz and now Katarina’s relationship to Liz and Liz’s relationship with her own child. Ultimately the decisions Liz makes regarding her own family are definitely going to be colored by the experience she has with both Red and Katarina.

On a happier note, Dembe’s (Hisham Tawfiq) back! He says his journey during his time away brought him back to Red, but will their relationship be the same moving forward?EISENDRATH: Dembe this season explored more than he has in any previous seasons. The conflict that he has between his love and admiration of Reddington and his concern and disagreement about the secrets that he has kept from Liz. It only works that he’s come back if he’s made some genuine decisions about the fact that he can accept some of the choices that Red has made, but that does not mean that going forward he won’t be equally adamant that Red act in a way that is true to the better angels of his nature. And Dembe is always going to appeal to the better angels of Red.

This season saw the exit of Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò). Should we be expecting some new faces on the Task Force next season?BOKENKAMP: We’ve talked about that and are talking about it. It obviously changes the dynamic of the task force with Samar being gone. We’ve seen Aram sort of step into a role that he had wanted actually, to be field-trained and to be a bit more active. So, I would suspect we might see a little more of Aram in a more physical sort of role, maybe get out from behind the keyboard a little bit.

But, also, yes we’re totally open to and have talked about other characters, both with the task force and with Red. You can see with Red one of the things we like to do is to bring in and introduce new and different and unusual people and I think the task force is no different. And so that is, I think, definitely something worth talking about.

Is there anything you can tease about the next chapter of The Blacklist?BOKENKAMP: Our show is often two things at once: a procedural and a serialized show. We’re juggling lots of different kinds of stories. The story with Red is in incredible jeopardy now and there is going to be a great story behind where he is, the jeopardy he’s in, and how he’s going to get out of it. Yet, at the same time, we have introduced Katarina, a character that we’ve talked about for years on the show and she is obviously incredibly formidable. And with her, I believe, will come more answers and an endgame will snap into focus even more. I think in the relationships between Reddington and Katarina and Elizabeth Keane, all of that, there is a really interesting story and mythology to unpack as we look ahead in season 7.

The Blacklist will return this fall on NBC.

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Warning: The following contains spoilers from the season 4 finale of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which aired Monday. Read at your own risk! 

So far, every Arrowverse season finale has included some tease for the next crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” — and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow wasn’t an exception. However, the idiosyncratic superhero drama’s season 4 finale teased the five-hour event in the most Legends way possible (read: hilariously and irreverently).

In the finale, titled “Hey, World!” the Legends opened Heyworld, the whimsical theme park Hank (Tom Wilson) was building before he died, to the public in an effort to counter the fear of magical creatures that NeRay (Brandon Routh) was sowing in 2019. Donning their costumes for what feels like the first time all season, Sara (Caity Lotz) and Nate (Nick Zano) performed a superhero-themed morality play that was meant to teach attendees that all of the stories about monsters they’d read weren’t necessarily true. The audience paid to see superheroes fight a big monster, so this was the last thing they wanted.

As the crowd turned on the Legends, the Monitor — LaMonica Garrett’s multiverse observer who was introduced in “Elseworlds” and appeared in the most recent Arrow and Supergirl finales — simply stood in the back of the big top and shook his head. Not only that, but he then grabbed a box of popcorn and watched as the situation spiraled even further out of control once Godmother and fully grown dragon started causing all kinds of chaos. In terms of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” teases, this is the chillest and least serious one yet, which, again, feels on-brand for Legends, a show that spent its fourth season avoiding your standard superheroics.

An impending multiverse crisis isn’t the only thing the Legends will have to worry about when they return to television though. Defeating NeRay altered the timeline so that Zari’s dystopian future never happened, which means her brother ended up joining the team instead of her. Meanwhile, in hell, Astra unleashed the souls of several historical villains (Genghis Khan, Charles Manson, etc.) on the mortal world.

Below, EW chats with showrunner Phil Klemmer about the Monitor’s irreverent appearance, season 1 big bad Vandal Savage’s (Casper Crump) surprise cameo in hell, and what this ending means for the show’s fifth season, which won’t air until midseason after the crossover.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So the Legends will be fighting these escaped historical baddies in season 5? 
PHIL KLEMMER: Yeah, we’re sort of back to the world of history. Out of the world of magical creatures and back to where we started — getting back to real life villains. We do have our mythology figured out for next season. It’s super cool, it’s super exciting, and we’re putting the world of magic behind us. So, I think it’s going to feel, hopefully, very fresh.

This finale did have that very surprising Vandal Savage cameo. Can we expect him to be one of those historical baddies?
If it were up to me, for sure. I can’t get enough Vandal Savage. You know, these are talented people. The problem with Legends is there’s never enough time, there’s never enough story, there’s never enough money. The wish list, it’s always long. If it were up to me, yeah, there’d definitely be Vandal, but I can’t promise anybody that.

Last week during upfronts, it was revealed that season 5 would also deal with the original guardians of the timeline. Can you tease what we can expect from that?
What we would like to explore is the consequences. If you think back to season 1 or maybe season 2, we were once very, very concerned about what could be changed and what couldn’t be changed . Then gradually over like the past two or three seasons, we sort of gained a little bit of an arrogance. Like going back to Helen of Troy, “What if we don’t return her to Troy? What if we put her on Themyscira?” All of our impulses have been totally pure and awesome, but perhaps the Legends have gotten in the business of playing god, and the Legends certainly don’t have the authority to be god.

The question is: What would happen if they sort of bump up against, whatever, the original authors of human history? The Legends are obviously writing their own story. It’s funny, we took them from the Losers History Didn’t Need to these people who rewrote Zari’s future. We never want the Legends to get too big for their britches, so yeah, we need some kind of a reckoning for the past four seasons.

That was an idea you guys were playing with in the penultimate episode of the season, too.
Yeah, with Gary. I mean, they certainly learned that lesson.

The season ends with Zari being replaced with her brother. I’m guessing that can’t be the only change that’s happened to the Legends. What else is in store for the team?
You have to imagine: If this were happening in the actual world and Ray Palmer were, say, Elon Musk, what the world saw at Heyworld was an internet tycoon doing really abhorrent evil stuff. I think if the Time Bureau were real, it would be in a lot of hot water because it allowed itself to be ruled by a fairy godmother and Gary . Part of the fun of every season is just again: for every triumph the Legends have, you have to find a way to kind of bring them back to square one. Because I kind of feel like that’s where they’re at their best. They’re essentially underdogs, and I love the idea that they never really get credit for their good work. The finale states, “They’re not franchise superheroes.” They’re not the kind of people who are recognized by children on the street, who are wearing the same T-shirt. They have earned it the hard way and even then, they’re probably never going to be thanked properly for it. To me, that’s why they’re the best superheroes ever, because they toil in obscurity and they’re constantly out-shined by people who probably work a lot less hard than they do.

The Monitor had the most Legends-like cameo in the finale: just eating popcorn as everything went down. Was the directive that every show had to tease the next crossover and you went that irreverent route? Also, after sitting out on “Elseworlds,” are you glad to be back in the mix for “Crisis”?
If this were high school, I think Legends would be the kind of stoner outcast, the kid who’s heading to art school. Definitely not the grade grubber. Definitely not the valedictorian captain of the football team. I feel like the fact that we pretended like we didn’t want to be in the crossover probably made the rest of the DC clique want us in it, maybe? That’s the problem with being cool is that you can’t act like you want it. Now that they want the stoner art school kid, it’s like, “Yeah, I guess we’ll do it.” Of course, we’re thrilled. We can’t act like we’re thrilled though because if we do that we’re not going to be cool anymore. It’s a funny thing. At the time , we had Nate saying hard pass and we realized that we probably don’t want to bite the hand that feeds us, because if we miss the biggest crossover ever, we’d feel like we missed out on something special. So yeah, we’re thrilled to join up with everybody this year.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will return midseason on The CW. The next crossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will span all five Arrowverse shows and air in the winter.

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NASA has awarded space technology company Maxar a $375 million contract to develop the first Lunar Gateway segment that's flying to space. Maxar, which (according to Ars Technica) now has bragging rights for being the initiative's first commercial pa...

When it comes to the anti-abortion “heartbeat” bills popping up in multiple states across the country, Hollywood could hold a unique sway on the matter. Film and TV productions account for a hefty economic boost to local economies, and members of the entertainment industry are already taking a stand against the controversial government actions.

The Power: A new series from Amazon Studios became the first from the TV space to leave Georgia, thanks to Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale). The Emmy-winning director planned to location scout in the state but canceled plans when Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill that effectively bans abortion as early as six weeks.

“We had no problem stopping the entire process instantly,” Morano told TIME. “There is no way we would ever bring our money to that state by shooting there.”

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar: The team behind Kristen Wiig’s upcoming comedy, a film she co-wrote with Annie Mumolo, was similarly in the planning stages for location scouting in Georgia when production company Gloria Sanchez Productions decided not to shoot in the state, EW has learned. Wiig’s publicists declined to comment on the matter and Lionsgate has not made any formal statement on the matter.

There are other projects not necessarily pulling production out of heartbeat bill states but taking a different kind of stand.

Lovecraft Country: J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele are planning to shoot the upcoming HBO drama in Georgia, but vowed to “donate 100 percent of our respective episodic fees for this season to two organizations leading the charge against this draconian law: the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia,” according to a joint statement.

“In a few weeks we start shooting our new show, Lovecraft Country, and will do so standing shoulder to shoulder with the women of Georgia,” they said. “Governor Kemp’s ‘Fetal Heartbeat’ Abortion Law is an unconstitutional effort to further restrict women and their health providers from making private medical decisions on their terms. Make no mistake, this is an attack aimed squarely and purposely at women.”

Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Missouri are among the states with similar heartbeat bills, but Georgia is a second home for Hollywood. The industry generated $9.5 billion in “total economic impact” for the state in 2018, per AJC Radio & TV Talk.

On May 20, the West Hollywood City Council voted to suspend official travel to Georgia “and any other state which adopts similar legislation,” as well as look into cutting ties with Georgia-based businesses that work with the City of West Hollywood.

Blown Deadline Productions (from The Wire creator David Simon), Killer Films (behind films like Carol and Vox Lux), Duplass Brothers Productions (from the Duplass Brothers), and CounterNarrative Films (on behalf of producer Neal Dodson) also publicly condemned Georgia’s heartbeat bill. Though, none are known to have any projects slated to shoot in the state, according to The Wrap.

According to the Georgia government website, Warner Bros.’ The Conjuring 3, 20th Century Fox’s Fear Street, STX Entertainment’s Greeland, Focus Features’ Irresistible, and Netflix’s Holidate are among the feature films with productions in the state — some of which already started filming before the Georgia bill was signed, a factor that makes it more difficult to pull active productions from the state, given filming budgets, the continuity of the shots, and similar complications. As for television, shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead, OWN’s Greenleaf, and Netflix’s Insatiable and Ozark set up shop in Georgia.

Focus Features declined to comment, while reps for the other previously mentioned film studios and TV networks did not immediately respond to EW’s requests for comment.

This article will be updated as new developments come to light.  

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The ripple effect caused by the US-imposed trade clampdown is continuing to spread, this time affecting chip designer ARM. The UK-based firm has reportedly sent a memo to employees to cease "all active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements" with Huawei because of "US origin technology" in ARM's designs. ARM has officially stated only that it is "complying with all of the latest regulations set forth by the US government". Huawei also issued a comment on the situation, seen below. Update: Huawei has responded to the ARM ban. "We value our close relationships...

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” will truly be the Arrowverse’s biggest crossover yet.

EW has confirmed that the highly anticipated event will include Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman, the newest Arrowverse series. “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will be five hours long and air over two quarters, the CW announced at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York Thursday morning.

There have been questions about which shows would be involved in “Crisis” ever since it was announced in December because the most recent crossover, “Elseworlds” only included Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl, but not DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Concerns about Legends of Tomorrow‘s inclusion rose after the CW revealed that its fifth season was being held until midseason. Luckily, it seems as though that isn’t stopping Sara (Caity Lotz) and the rest of the gang from joining the crossover fun. Given the fact that “Crisis on Infinite Earths” shares its name with one of DC Comics’ biggest stories, it’s not entirely surprising that Greg Berlanti and company are making sure all of the Arrowverse’s superheroes are involved. 

Even though “Crisis” won’t air until later in the year, the Arrowverse has already started preparing for it. Both The Flash and Arrow‘s most recent season finale set up the event in major ways. The former finale revealed that Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen vanishes in a “crisis” in the year 2019, and the Arrow season 7 finale ended with the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) recruiting Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) to save the multiverse from, you guessed it, an impending crisis.

The Flash, Supergirl, Arrow, and Batwoman will air this fall on The CW.

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It’s been eight years since George R.R. Martin published A Dance With Dragons, the most recent novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series, and no release date has yet been set for the promised sequel, The Winds of Winter. But Martin hasn’t exactly been idle in that time. In addition to compiling the encyclopedic The World of Ice & Fire, the author also recently published Fire & Blood, a fictional history of the early years of Targaryen rule in Westeros.

Although it’s set hundreds of years before the events of Game of Thrones’ final season, Fire & Blood has a lot of powerful resonances with its events — some of which might even explain the unexpected actions taken by characters like Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). Here are some insights we can glean from the book.

Not all dragons are equally vulnerable

Why was Euron Greyjoy’s fleet of scorpions able to bring down the green dragon Rhaegal, only to prove utterly useless in the face of his brother Drogon? It’s a question that has probably confused viewers of Game of Thrones’ eighth season. While there is some whiplash in seeing the dragons’ power levels vary seemingly by the episode, this variance does have a corollary in Martin’s writing. Put simply, not all dragons are equally powerful — and therefore, not all of them are equally vulnerable.

Fire & Blood begins with Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros, a massive military campaign made possible by the simple fact that Aegon had three dragons, and his enemies had none. Even so, soldiers in Dorne (the only one of the Seven Kingdoms not to bend the knee to Aegon) were able to successfully bring down the dragon Meraxes with a well-placed scorpion bolt. Her rider, Aegon’s beloved sister-wife Rhaenys, died with her. As Martin writes, it’s all about chaos and contingency: “The Targaryen dragons, bred and trained to battle, had flown through storms of spears and arrows on many occasions, and suffered little harm. The scales of a full-grown dragon were harder than steel, and even those arrows that struck home seldom penetrated enough to do more than enrage the great beasts. But as Meraxes banked above the Hellholt, a defender atop the castle’s highest tower triggered a scorpion, and a yard-long iron bolt caught the queen’s dragon in the right eye. Meraxes did not die at once, but came crashing to earth in mortal agony.”

Aegon’s rage at the death of Rhaenys led to a period called the Dragon’s Wroth, when he and his surviving sister, Visenya, rode their dragons into Dorne again and again, bringing fire and blood until “the sands around the Hellholt were fused into glass in places, so hot was Balerion’s fiery breath.” When it comes to reactions to a dragon’s death, doesn’t that fiery rage sound… a little familiar?

Even so, the Dornish never again brought down a dragon. No one, in fact, ever managed to kill Balerion. The great black beast died of old age almost 100 years after Aegon’s Conquest… or did he? When Daenerys was first wandering the Red Waste and thinking of what to name her dragons, her bloodrider Aggo told her that Drogon was Balerion reborn. So far, Drogon has not yet reached Balerion’s massive size, but he is still only a few years old. Importantly, Drogon is the dragon ridden by Daenerys, the first Targaryen since Aegon seeking to completely conquer Westeros. Any comparison to Balerion is grounds enough to say that Drogon is significantly more powerful than his brothers ever were. Just as Balerion survived battles and weapons that brought down his sister, so too is it understandable that Drogon could incinerate the Iron Fleet that killed Rhaegal.

Female leaders are not welcomed in Westeros — even female Targaryens

Game of Thrones is populated with many strong, complicated, equipped, and eccentric female characters, all of whom share elements of the same tragedy — namely, that they live in a feudal patriarchy that systematically exploits and oppresses them. Even dragon-riding Targaryen royals have found it hard to escape this system.

The longest-reigning king in Fire & Blood was King Jaehaerys, who ruled for 55 years and oversaw an age of conciliation and prosperity in Westeros. A big factor in this golden age was Jaehaerys’ happy marriage to his sister Alysanne, which produced nine adult children. Known as “Good Queen Alysanne,” Jaeherys’ sister-wife wielded more influence in government than almost any other Targaryen consort (at least since Visenya and Rhaenys would occasionally sit the Iron Throne while their brother Aegon traveled). She was able to convince her husband to abolish the tradition of “first night,” whereby lords were entitled to sex with any woman getting married in their lands.

But even the Good Queen could only push things so far. When her eldest son (and Jaehaerys’ heir), Aemon, was suddenly killed in battle, Jaehaerys had a choice between naming his next-eldest son, Baelon, as heir, or giving the honor to Aemon’s daughter, Rhaenys. He chose Baelon, and Alysanne briefly left him as a result, saying, “If Your Grace truly believes that women lack the wit to rule, plainly you have no further need of me.”

The question of whether daughters had equal rights to succession as sons was settled for good with the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war that consumes the latter half of Fire & Blood. Jaehaerys’ grandson Viserys ultimately succeeded him on the Iron Throne, but Viserys had children by two wives before he died, making his succession a choice between his daughter Rhaenyra (his eldest child, and his designated heir) and his son Aegon (his eldest child by his second wife). After a long bloody conflict that killed many Targaryens and most of their dragons, the throne ultimately went to Rhaneyra’s son Aegon III. Yet it was worth noting that he was only able to ascend because the horrific Dance was ended by the actions of female leaders whose lordly husbands and fathers who had been killed in the fighting.

When it comes to the show’s final season, this explains why Daenerys is so undone by the revelation about Jon’s parentage. Jon himself thinks it’s fine as long as he doesn’t want the Iron Throne, but Daenerys knows differently. When there is a choice between a male claimant to the throne and a female one, the lords of Westeros have always opted for the former. It’s little wonder Daenerys comes to the conclusion that only a heavy dose of fire and blood can surmount that obstacle.

Wars get people killed — and not always the people you want or expect

Daenerys Targaryen’s sack of King’s Landing was upsetting for many reasons. Over the course of Game of Thrones, many viewers came to relate to the Mother of Dragons’ struggle for a better world. Of course, “a better world” has different meanings for the royals fighting for thrones and the common people who die in those fights, as Varys realized too late.

Rhaenyra saw her side in the Dance of the Dragons as a battle for justice, to prove that a woman could sit the throne just as well as any man. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of innocents died in the resulting carnage. The closest analog to the sack of King’s Landing was the awful sack of Tumbleton, a town in the Reach that was prosperous until events put it on the receiving end of fire from not one, but three dragons.

See if Martin’s description of Tumbleton’s fate reminds you of anything: “The sack that followed was as savage as any in the history of Westeros. Tumbleton, that prosperous market town, was reduced to ash and embers. Thousands burned, and as many died by drowning as they tried to swim the river. Some would later say they were the fortunate ones, for no mercy was shown the survivors. Lord Footly’s men threw down their swords and yielded, only to be bound and beheaded. Such townswomen as survived the fires were raped repeatedly, even girls as young as eight and ten. Old men and boys were put to the sword, whilst the dragons fed on the twisted, smoking carcasses of their victims.”

Whether it’s Martin’s books or Benioff and Weiss’ show, depictions of war in Westeros never shy away from the brutal reality of vengeance. It’s hard to read and it’s hard to watch, and it should be. War is hard.

Dragons will drive you crazy

Dragons are awesome. On that point, surely, we all agree. Or maybe we don’t anymore, after seeing Drogon’s fire unleashed on common people who did nothing to deserve it. Dragons look majestic when they’re soaring across the sky, reflecting the sunlight off their glittering scales — but when they’re raining down fire from the sky, they resemble nothing so much as fighter drones or nuclear bombs.

Fire & Blood contains more dragons than all five books of A Song of Ice and Fire combined, and as such gives readers a more comprehensive view of what it would be like to live in a world with dragons. The answer: pretty maddening!

At first, dragons were the symbol of Targaryen supremacy in Westeros, since only members of the royal bloodline seemed able to ride them. But over the course of the Dance of the Dragons, Targaryen numbers started dwindling, leaving many powerful dragons without riders. In order to balance the scales against King Aegon II, Queen Rhaenyra’s son Jacaerys invited anyone in Westeros to try their hand at taming a dragon. Many died in the attempt, but some prevailed. Two bastards, Hugh the Hammer and Ulf White, proved themselves capable of mounting Vermithor and Silverwing, the great dragons that had once borne King Jaehaerys and Good Queen Alysanne.

At first, Ulf and Hugh were content to ride their dragons into battle alongside Jacaerys and Rhaenyra’s other forces, but after a time they started to want more. After all, they were riding dragons just as Aegon the Conqueror had; didn’t they deserve the same reward? Martin writes that Ulf “desired no less a seat than Highgarden,” while Hugh “began to dream of crowns.” When Rhaenyra refused to give them anything more than knighthood, they switched over to Aegon II’s side, and played a major role in the brutal sack of Tumbleton. Who can command your allegiance when you ride a dragon?

As the Dance progressed, dragons continued ravage Westeros, and eventually the people of King’s Landing had enough. Driven mad by the chaos, a mob of people fell in line behind a crazed preacher called the Shepherd, who warned them, “This is their city. If you would make it yours, first must you destroy them. If you would cleanse yourself of sin first must you bathe in dragon’s blood. For only blood can quench the fires of hell.” Sure enough, the Shepherd’s mob stormed the Dragonpit and killed all four dragons that lived there. And yet, when the Dance was over and a semblance of stability returned, young Rhaena Targaryen arrived in King’s Landing with her baby dragon Morning. As Martin writes, “the smallfolk of King’s Landing, who not a year before had slaughtered every dragon in the city, now became rapturous at the sight of one.”

Dragons: They’ll make you crazy! No wonder that, sitting on the back of a particularly fearsome one, Daenerys decided she was justified in unleashing fire and blood against her perceived enemies.

Whoever wins, the Master of Whisperers loses

We all know the stakes of the game of thrones by now: You win or you die. This puts the realm’s spymasters in an awkward position, because no matter how good they are at political machinations, they’re ultimately not fighting for themselves, and that makes them vulnerable.

One of the most enigmatic players in the Dance of the Dragons was Lord Larys Strong, nicknamed Clubfoot for his limp. He served as Master of Whisperers first to King Viserys, and then continued in the role for King Aegon II. He mysteriously disappeared when Rhaenyra and her forces took King’s Landing, only to re-emerge to aid Aegon’s restoration — but then played a major role in poisoning that same king and ending the Dance. For that last part, he paid dearly. Lord Cregan Stark had marched from Winterfell with a great Northern host to end Aegon’s reign; finding him dead upon arrival, Stark instead opted to punish the king’s treacherous killers. He served as Hand of the King to young Aegon III for one brief day, known to Westeros history as “the Hour of the Wolf” — the only time that a member of House Stark has reigned supreme in King’s Landing.

Larys’ primary co-conspirator, Lord Corlys “the Sea Snake” Velaryon of Driftmark, was ultimately spared from Stark’s judgement due to his powerful allies. But then, he had never been Master of Whisperers. As Martin writes, “Larys Strong had always been a man who went his own way, kept his own counsel, and changed allegiances as other men changed cloaks. Once condemned, he stood friendless; not a voice was raised in his defense.” Stark lopped off his head with the greatsword Ice the next day.

So it was with Varys (Conleth Hill), who apparently shared more similarities with Lord Larys than just their rhyming names. The eunuch served several kings as Master of Whisperers, always promising that his ultimate allegiance was to the realm and its people. When he felt that the realm’s interests were at odds with Daenerys’, she condemned him — and once more, not a voice was raised in his defense. Larys died by Ice, and Varys died by fire. So it goes.

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Because a chiming dashboard alert isn't enough to get teens to buckle up, Chevrolet introduced a new feature that prohibits drivers from shifting out of park until their seat belt is fastened. The "Buckle to Drive" system includes visible and audible...

For those eager to get the latest and greatest production build of Windows 10; good news. For those who would rather watch from the sidelines until the kinks are worked out; good news. Today Microsoft has officially launched the spring 2019 update for Windows 10, affectionately called the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. There’s a few new features under the hood, but the biggest change to Windows 10 this time is not a new feature you may or may not use, but instead a new approach to updates. And, after almost four years of users not being in control, Microsoft has put the control back in the hands of the people using their OS. Finally.

I’m not going to pine on about days gone past, but one of the biggest changes to Windows 10 when it launched was that the update system was going to be better. Improved. More reliable. Except it wasn’t. Some changes, such as the cumulative updates, have been a huge relief for people setting up new machines, since they no longer needed to update their computer for several days. An update comes every month which should have everything you need to get you to current in one batch. This was a win for end users. However, Windows 10 also brought about a new idea called feature updates, where occasionally, a new version of Windows would come down the same pipe as a normal update. Assuming everything was well tested, the update should install with little fanfare, but as we know that’s not been the case. Windows is on far too many machines to make any update easy, and Microsoft’s feedback mechanism for update issues was not being monitored as it needed to, which lead to multiple feature updates with enough major problems that even the last update from October is only now being pushed out to some machines.

So today we get Windows 10 1903, or the May 2019 Update, and home users will finally get an option to pause updates even if they are using Windows 10 Home. It’s a small step, but coupled with a very measured rollout, hopefully this will be the smooth update Microsoft has been craving for the last couple of years. For those looking for further transparency, Microsoft has a Windows release health dashboard, which shows the status of current known issues, letting you know ahead of time if you may have an incompatible piece of software or hardware.

There are of course new features as well, since this is in fact a feature update for Windows 10. There’s a new light theme, providing a refreshing look for Windows 10 which pairs nicely with the dark mode that arrived a couple of versions ago. Cortana is no longer part of the search bar, and now lives on its own app icon on the task bar. More default applications can now be removed.

There’s more complex features as well, such as Windows Sandbox, which allows you to run an application in a virtualized container for testing without it having access to the system files. Think of it like Hyper-V, but without the complexity. It’s not as powerful as Hyper-V, but it’s also much easier to set up and use.

There’s a few other features as well that we’ll go through in a more comprehensive article after we’ve had time to dig through some of the new abilities. That being said, updates are now offering fewer and fewer big changes, which makes sense due to the maturity of Windows 10 now. Plus, with the lack of stability, it makes sense to offer less user-facing features that are more stable, rather than continue to offer a multitude of new things that may or may not get used.

For those looking to get a jump-start on the upgrade process, Windows 10 May 2019 Update is currently rollout out via Windows Update where you can just check for updates, and you’ll receive it if your computer doesn’t have any blocking hardware or software. Microsoft is taking a very measured and cautious approach here, which is the right thing to do. For those that don’t want to wait for Windows Update, you can always check out the Windows 10 Download page to get the update right now.

Source: Windows Blog

EW can exclusively reveal that the much-anticipated The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance will launch on Netflix Aug. 30. The 10-episode show is a prequel to the beloved Jim Henson and Frank Oz-directed 1982 puppet fantasy-adventure film, The Dark Crystal.

The show is once again set on the world of Thra and concerns three Gelflings who discover the horrifying secret behind the Skeksis’ power and set out on an epic journey to ignite the fires of rebellion and save their world. The Gelflings are voiced by Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nathalie Emmanuel.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is directed by Louis Leterrier, whose credits include Now You See Me, Clash of the Titans, and The Incredible Hulk. The filmmaker tells EW he was determined to make the TV show look as similar as possible to the film, which meant fighting to use puppetry rather than CG to depict the characters. “I was not fighting against anyone, I was fighting against common sense and practicality,” he says with a laugh. “It’s so so complicated to build a puppet, hire puppeteers, all that stuff. We chose the long, hardest road and we’re very thankful . It looks absolutely stunning.”

The show’s huge voice cast also features Harvey Fierstein, Mark Hamill, Ralph Ineson, Jason Isaacs, Keegan-Michael Key, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Simon Pegg, Andy Samberg, Caitriona Balfe, Helena Bonham Carter, Harris Dickinson, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Izzard, Theo James, Toby Jones, Shazad Latif, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, Alicia Vikander, and Donna Kimball. The show’s executive producers are Leterrier, Halle Stanford, and Jim Henson’s daughter, Lisa Henson, who is CEO and President of The Jim Henson Company.

Exclusively see images from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance below.

For more on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance—and all of EW’s Summer TV Preview—pick up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday.

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George R.R. Martin broke his silence on the Game of Thrones finale by praising showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss and giving some hints on how his upcoming books will be different.

First, Martin’s post on his blog is called “An Ending,” which is telling, because it’s making it clear the GoT finale is not, in his mind, The Ending.

Martin thanks many people associated with the show, including, “David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Bryan Cogman (the third head of the dragon, as I said in the recent Vanity Fair piece about him), and of course the great team at HBO, headed by Richard Plepler. Any other network, and Game of Thrones would not have been what it became. Most other networks, this series never gets made at all.”

As for his upcoming books, he added, “The Winds of Winter is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself… but I will finish it, and then will come A Dream of Spring. How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show?  Different? Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them.”

Plus, Martin noted there are many minor characters he’s introduced over the years that were not in the show that still have roles to play in his novels: “If nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet.  And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…Book or show, which will be the ‘real’ ending? It’s a silly question…How about this? I’ll write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.”

Martin also ran down a rather extensive list of other projects he’s working on, including five shows in development at HBO (not all GoT related), two shows at Hulu, one at History Channel and a number of feature film projects. “There are these short films I am hoping to make, adaptations of classic stories by one of the most brilliant, quirky, and original writers our genre has ever produced.  I’ve consulted on a video game out of Japan.” Plus his popular immersive art experience Meow Wolf.

One of the great ironies of the show vs. books, is that Game of Thrones fans for the last two seasons have complained the show is moving way too fast (Martin himself had hoped for at least 10 seasons of the show). But at the same time, fans complain that Martin is writing much too slow — his last A Song of Ice and Fire novel was published in 2011, the year GoT debuted. For this intensely difficult-to-write saga, an ideal pace of creation seems difficult to obtain.

Read Martin’s full post here.

Exclusive coverage of the Game of Throne series finale:
— Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, producer on Game of Thrones‘finale’s shock twist
— Bran Stark speaks: Isaac Hempstead-Wright discusses the finale
— Game of Thrones series finale recap: This is the end 
— Sophie Turner on whether Sansa wanted the Iron Throne

The episode titles, trailers, and plot descriptions for Black Mirror season 5 are here — and they’re as dark and mysterious as fans of the Netflix anthology series have come to expect.

The three new episodes — titled “Smithereens,” “Rachel, Jack and Ashley, Too” and “Striking Vipers” — feature Sherlock star Andrew Scott, Topher Grace, Miley Cyrus, Anthony Mackie, Pom Klementieff, and more.

“There are quite a few worlds we haven’t been in before,” executive producer Annabel Jones tells EW of the new season. “Some of them are very socially relevant, but also with that great Black Mirror black-comedy sense of mischief and romp in them as well.”

Check out the trailers and loglines below.

Smithereens
A cab driver with an agenda becomes the center of attention on a day that rapidly spirals out of control.
Cast: Andrew Scott, Damson Idris, Topher Grace

Rachel, Jack and Ashley, Too
A lonely teenager yearns to connect with her favorite pop star — whose charmed existence isn’t quite as rosy it appears…
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Angourie Rice, Madison Davenport

Striking Vipers
Two estranged college friends reunite in later life, triggering a series of events that could alter their lives forever.
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Beharie, Pom Klementieff, Ludi Lin

Season 5 of Black Mirror arrives June 5 on Netflix.

For more on the next season of Black Mirror — including how Cyrus got cast — pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on newsstands Friday.

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In a new interview with EW Radio and Sirius XM’s Jessica Shaw, Julianna Margulies revealed why she turned down a request to guest star on this season of The Good Fight and how she was motivated by actresses who “don’t have the voice or the power” to speak up.

Margulies admitted that she finds it “crass” to talk about money but felt compelled to open up about an offer she received to do a three-episode arc opposite Christine Baranski (Diane Lockhart). The actress is currently doing press for National Geographic’s adaptation of The Hot Zone, the 1994 nonfiction best-seller about the race to contain the Ebola virus in a Virginia research facility.

“While I was shooting The Hot Zone, called me and said, ‘We think enough time’s gone by, the show’s got its own legs, we’d love to have Alicia come back,” Margulies recalls. “I said, ‘Oh my God sign me up, I’m so excited. I get to work with my friends. Great writing. I miss Alicia.'”

But when she learned the network’s studio arm, which produces The Good Fight for CBS All Access, would not pay her what she earned on The Good Wife, she ended up saying no to the temporary gig. “I wasn’t asking for $1 million. I wasn’t asking for $500,000 an episode. I was asking what I got paid on The Good Wife. So, a spin-off of my show, to play a character that created that show, was asking what she should get paid, and it wasn’t asking for the moon.” 

“I hate talking about money,” adds Margulies. “I find it crass but we live now in a world where equal pay is a very important platform for all of us women who do everything in high heels and backwards. I love men but it’s got to stop. I am in an enviable position in that I can walk away from a job. I know how lucky I am that I can say no to a job.”

The actress also admitted that she’s frequently asked by reporters about possibly guest-starring on The Good Fight. She used to come up with stories for why she wasn’t doing it — but not anymore. “I thought, Why am I protecting CBS? I said yes. They said no. And you know what? I need to pave the way for the next one coming up… I also know for a fact that any male star who is asked to come on a spin-off of their show would’ve been offered at least $500,000… I’m not angry, I just needed to speak my truth… If they were to ask me to go back on The Good Fight, paying me what my salary is, in a heartbeat.”

Listen to more of Margulies’ interview above. The Hot Zone premieres May 27 on National Geographic.

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Note: Spoilers for the final season of Game of Thrones.

Were you disappointed Arya Stark never confronted Cersei Lannister in the final season of Game of Thrones? Especially given that the scheming queen had been on Arya’s assassination hit list for so many years?

It turns out the actors felt similarly — at least at first.

When EW asked Maisie Williams what was her biggest regret for her character, the actress said it was not getting a season 8 scene with Cersei actress Lena Headey.

“I just wanted to be on set with Lena again, she’s good fun,” Williams explained. “And I wanted Arya to kill Cersei even if it means dies too. Even up to the point when Cersei’s with Jaime I thought , ‘He’s going to whip off his face ’ and they’re both going to die. I thought that’s what Arya’s drive has been.”

Then Williams began to think more about her character’s final season journey and embraced Arya’s different, more hopeful direction.

“The Hound says, ‘You want to be like me? You want to live your life like me?’” Williams said. “In my head, the answer was: ‘Yeah.’ But I guess sleeping with Gendry, seeing Jon again, realizing she’s not just fighting for herself anymore but also her family — it’s bringing up all these human emotions that Arya hasn’t felt for a long time. When The Hound asks her if she has another option, all of a sudden there are so many more things in life that she can live for, that she can do. It was a shock for me because that wasn’t how I envisioned her arc going this year. Then I realized there were other things I could play, bringing Arya back to being a 16-year-old again.”

“It’s not a Game of Thrones ending for Arya, it’s a happy ending,” she concludes. “It gave me a place to take Arya that I never thought I’d go with her again.”

Headey said she hoped she’d have a scene with Williams in the final season as well.

“I lived that fantasy until I read the script,” Headey said. “There were chunky scenes and it was nothing that I had dreamt about. It was a bit of come down and you have to accept that it wasn’t to be. There is something poetic about the way it all happens in the end with her and Jaime.”

As fans know, Cersei instead perished with Jaime Lannister during Daenerys’ firebomb attack on King’s Landing which collapsed portions of the Red Keep.

For Williams, the actress is now preparing for her post-GoT life, which includes the upcoming X-Men spin-off The New Mutants. 

“I’m nervous for what comes next and just want to prove myself as an actor and make the most of this series,” Williams says. “There are not as many opportunities where you get to do everything with one character and this season there’s a whole spectrum I get to do. So whatever happens afterward, I made this count.”

Exclusive coverage of the Game of Throne series finale:
— Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, producer on Game of Thrones‘finale’s shock twist
— Bran Stark speaks: Isaac Hempstead-Wright discusses the finale
— Game of Thrones series finale recap: This is the end 
— Sophie Turner on whether Sansa wanted the Iron Throne