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With Floriana Lima not returning to Supergirl as a series regular, the fate of the Alex-Maggie romance has been in question during the long hiatus, but now we have some definitive news.

“Maggie does not die,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg tells EW. “I’m sure a lot of people are afraid of that. Maggie will continue to exist in the world and we hope that if the opportunity presents itself for her, that she’ll come back from time to time.”

Lima joined the Greg Berlanti superhero drama in season 2 as Detective Maggie Sawyer, who struck up a romantic relationship with Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) for an emotional coming out story that culminated in Alex proposing to Maggie in the finale. However, the actress will only recur in season 3.

“Unfortunately, Floriana decided to move on, which left us with, how do we write her out as a regular while still honoring these two women who were deeply in love with each other?” Kreisberg says. “Taking a page out of some of our own personal dating history, we’ve come up with a story that we really feel like honors what’s come before them, and honors how much they love each other, how much they mean to each other, and how much they’ve changed each other’s lives. It’s some of the most emotional stuff we’ve ever done, and Floriana has been so good in these first five episodes. Episode 3 is all about Maggie and her dad, played by Carlos Bernard, and it’s some of the most heartbreaking stuff I’ve ever done on anything I’ve ever done.”

While the future may sound murky for the Sanvers relationship, fellow executive producer Greg Berlanti recently said the show is still committed to exploring Alex’s romantic life moving forward.

Supergirl will return Monday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

This post contains spoilers from the Game of Thrones season 7 finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf” … 

So. Emilia Clarke. How do you think Daenerys Targaryen is going to react in the final season of Game of Thrones to the rather stunning news that her lover Jon Snow is also her nephew?

We asked the Game of Thrones star this question while she sat on folding chair amid the ancient Roman ruins of Italica outside Seville, Spain last fall. The production used the historical location for King’s Landing’s famed Dragonpit in Sunday’s emotional finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf.”

Clarke paused, considering. Then she loudly cried: “Ewwwww!” and laughed. “I think that’s how it’s going to go. I get the toothbrush–” she pretended to frantically brush her tongue.

It was a hilarious reaction that underscores the rather seriously emotional game-changing revelation that threatens to shake up the final season of Game of Thrones.

I pointed out that Daenerys has presumably long assumed she’ll avoid her family’s long predilection for incest. “Exactly!” Clarke says. “And then I walked back into it.”

And what about the fact that Jon Snow — er, Aegon Targaryen — has a better claim to the Iron Throne than she does?

“I’ve worked so hard, I don’t want to share that throne,” she replied. “No. The throne’s big enough for one dragon bum, and that’s mine. That’s it!”

For costar Kit Harington, his main concern was figuring out how to ramp up their romance in a realistic fashion with each of their pivotal scenes across four episodes — which led to some amusing behind the scenes debate.

“Usually you go into a movie and meet for the first time and you develop that chemistry over that time,” Harington says. “But if you’ve known somebody for seven years and shared this incredible journey in your own lives together … we’re both kind of freaking out about it. I would be like, ‘What’s the sexual tension in this scene?’ and she’s like, ‘Stop talking about sexual tension!’ It’s a unique experience to be in as an actor and you know the world is watching.”

Concurs Clarke: “Yeah , ‘Would you just stop? Just give me some sexy eyes, don’t keep talking about sexual chemistry all the time,'” and added about the scene itself: “I love that when we get to the saucy stuff it’s a beautiful acceptance of a wordless … yep.”

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The turning point for Daenerys, Clarke notes, was when Jon left her to journey beyond The Wall to capture the wight.

“She’s just like: Why don’t I want you do go? Why don’t I want you — doooooon’t fall for him. Don’t do it! There’s a battle going in on herself.”

As for Harington’s reaction to his character’s parentage news next season, the actor would only say, “I said to Emilia it’s going to be a really cool scene when they find out.”

And how will the reveal impact their relationship?

“That part of it, I can’t predict,” he says. “It could be them walking off into the sunset. It could be them killing each other.”

More “The Dragon and the Wolf ” coverage: 
— Deep-dive recap
— Game of Thrones actor on his shocking season 7 finale death
— How that Jon Snow twist changes everything
— Our Game of Thrones finale podcast (coming Monday)

This post contains plot revelations from the Game of Thrones season seven finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf” … 

Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish. The master of chaos, a climber of the ladders of power who finally reached for one rung too many. In trying to play Sansa and Arya Stark against one another (just as he once played their aunt Lysa against their mother Catelyn), the tactical manipulator laid bare his own villainy — especially with Bran Stark having access to all of space and time to probe his past. Littlefinger once aspired to reach the Iron Throne with Sansa at his side. Now, like so many others who sought to rule, his life has been cut short — and by a woman he might have even truly loved.

Below we spoke to Irish actor Aidan Gillen (The Wire, The Dark Knight Rises) about leaving the hit series after seven seasons of delivering a mesmerizing performance that humanized a character drawn with few redeeming qualities. The quiet, soft-spoken actor (I remember once finding him sitting quietly off by himself on the GoT set reading a David Foster Wallace book) doesn’t give interviews very often — Gillen generally prefers to let his performance speak for itself. And even during our chat, he was reluctant to say too much about his riveting final scene in Winterfell’s Great Hall lest his thoughts take something away from its impact. It’s perhaps the only trait Gillen shares with his nefarious character — he plays his cards close to his vest.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you get the infamous call?AIDAN GILLEN: The infamous call. It’s so obvious what it is. never ring you up — maybe once in six years. I learned about that call from when he told me about his call and he talked about how it made him feel. And I thought if I get that call — or rather when as this has got to happen sooner or later to a character like Littlefinger — I wondered how it would make me feel. Because the show is such a part of your life for so many years, you start to think, ‘What will your life will be like outside of it?’ It’s a potent loss.

So how did it make you feel?You’re left a little bereft — for your character and for your experience. It also immediately makes you quantify the hugeness of what that experience has been over the last seven years, which has been massive.

Did the showrunners joke around at all, or were they straightforward?No joke. They just promised me a “river of blood.” Well, it wasn’t really a river of blood, but they promised me more than poor Michael got. It’s better to go out at the end of with a good arc then at the start of episode 2. Even if I’m only in a few episodes — like last season I probably had less than any season — once your character is established as part of the world people feel like you’re there all the time. So it’s not really an issue for me how many scenes I’m in as long as the scenes are good, and they’re well put together, and your contribution is good. Then people feel like you’re there al the time. I’m glad I had a good story to finish with.

Littlefinger’s strategy in playing Arya against Sansa seemed really risky from the outset.With carefully laid plans there’s always a bit of risk involved. He’s put himself in a situation that could backfire on him. I think he likes it. are never fail safe. But he puts himself on the line like a good gambler.

What was your reaction to the finale script?Obviously, I was expecting it.

But you didn’t know exactly how Littlefinger would go out, I assume.Well, I did an interview with a publication and they asked me how I thought I would go. I said I thought Arya would deliver the blow. So it was as promised. And even within the scene, as soon as he walks in that room and Arya produces the dagger he knows the game is up. He at least suspected the game was up back in episode four when Bran told him, “Chaos is a ladder.” For Bran to come up with that is beyond coincidental. That’s when the ground started to shift beneath my feet. At that point, I knew the things I’ve done in private are not necessarily private.

I haven’t seen your final scene but I’ve heard you’re fantastic in it, and that Littlefinger reveals some emotions that we haven’t really seen from him before.
I don’t want to say too much about that. I don’t want to lay my cards on the table. I want to preserve that. There were more feelings for Sansa than I’ve let on the in the past. It becomes obvious. It’s an emotional farewell. And it’s a humiliating position to be in. He’s back in the sort of humiliating position that has been a driver for him: The rejection of Catelyn Stark, the humiliation by Brandon Stark — back when he cut him from navel to collarbone and didn’t kill him . He’s put back in that position again.

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What was your last day like?My last day on the set wasn’t that scene. was the second scene I shot. I quite enjoyed doing things that way — shooting and then shooting what comes before. When you know what’s coming you relax a little in the way you interact with the others. There’s something else that seeps into your performance — a kind of serenity. But yeah, I did find it quite emotional . And I don’t necessarily mean that I was sad, but it’s an emotional moment for the character so I felt what he was feeling. For the real last day at work Dan and David weren’t there but Bryan Cogman called people in and said a few words and my son was there with me. That was quite something. And I got my mockingbird pin. I had already let them know I wanted it, and I cleverly worked it so I got two. There’s one from my cloak and one from my tunic. So I got the large and the small size — one for me and one for my son.

Was your favorite scene that one where Littlefinger gives a speech threatening Ros? You’ve mentioned that one a few times before.It’s one of my favorite scenes. It was a good establishing moment in season 2 and we learn more about him in that. There were others I’ve enjoyed as much — probably the scene with Sansa in the courtyard where I kissed her while talking about her mother; that’s where we start to see how this is all mixed up in his head. I’ve continued to try to bring a bit of warmth and affability to a character who is shadowy, villainous and even treacherous. I thought it was my job to try to make people like him.

Ultimately one could say it’s better to be the climactic death of the season 7 finale than potentially one of several major events within the final season, right?
You know, I did pretty well. The character did pretty well. They need to hone down. That’s not an issue, really. The end is when it happens. I don’t think beyond that.

More “The Dragon and the Wolf ” coverage: 

— Deep-dive recap
— Game of Thrones stars react to that huge Jon Snow reveal 
— How that Jon Snow twist changes everything
— Game of Thrones showrunners on that actor’s exit (Monday)
— Finale podcast (coming Monday)

After a series of reported delays and developmental challenges, Fitbit is finally ready to unveil its first smartwatch. The timing is appropriate, given that this is the tenth anniversary of the company's first tracker. The Ionic is Fitbit's most mod...

Pancreatic cancer has a very low survival rate, with just nine percent of patients surviving past five years. A major contributor to this rate is the fact that once those with pancreatic cancer start to show symptoms, the disease is usually already q...

Uncharted has long been a series built on duos. Whether it’s Nathan Drake and Sully, Nate and Elena, or Nate and Sam, each pairing has its own unique dynamic adding layers and complexity to the narrative while revealing new sides of these respective characters. These duos are usually explored in respectful and complex ways, but there has long been a very specific one missing.

Until now.

Warning! Spoilers for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Ahead.

While driving through the lush valley of India’s Western Ghats, Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross often engage in small talk. These moments are largely innocuous exposition, but one moment in particular stands out. While discussing their history with the Drake brothers and the adventuring business, Chloe casually comments, “It’s nice to be with a woman for a change.”

Continue reading…

Black Mirror is coming back to depress us all, and Netflix has revealed the cast and directors for season four's episodes. If you thought the last season was perhaps a little too happy-go-lucky, the teaser below might reassure you that showrunner Cha...

Either Westeros shrank in the past season, or there’s something funny going on with the Game of Thrones timeline. And “Beyond the Wall” director Alan Taylor admits as much.

The sixth episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones featured some implausible travel by foot and by raven, in which Gendry runs to Eastwatch from Jon Snow’s little suicide squad battling White Walkers beyond the Wall, and is able to send a raven to Daenerys in Dragonstone on the other side of the country in less than a day.

For /Film’s own Ben Pearson, “Beyond the Wall” was the moment that Game of Thrones jumped the shark. Its disregard for geography could be brushed off as nitpicking, but considering the geography was such an essential part of the earlier seasons (season 2 had Arya traveling from King’s Landing to the Riverlands for a whopping 10 episodes, and she never even made it!), it feels disingenuous for the series to completely throw that out the window now.

The distance covered by Gendry (on foot) and a messenger raven (by air) in “Beyond the Wall” would have been roughly 1,500-2,000 miles according to journalists and internet sleuths. If Gendry could run at the speed of Usain Bolt and the raven flies at 40mph, it would still take about four days for the message to be delivered to Daenerys in Dragonstone and for her to fly beyond the wall and save the day. But the episode gave viewers the impression that this all took place in one night, not four days. And with the limited resources and freezing cold conditions that Jon and co. were facing on their rock, they would not likely have survived that wait.

Taylor is aware of the criticisms, telling Variety:

“We were aware that timing was getting a little hazy. We’ve got Gendry running back, ravens flying a certain distance, dragons having to fly back a certain distance…In terms of the emotional experience, [Jon and company] sort of spent one dark night on the island in terms of storytelling moments. We tried to hedge it a little bit with the eternal twilight up there north of The Wall. I think there was some effort to fudge the timeline a little bit by not declaring exactly how long we were there. I think that worked for some people, for other people it didn’t. They seemed to be very concerned about how fast a raven can fly but there’s a thing called plausible impossibilities, which is what you try to achieve, rather than impossible plausibilities. So I think we were straining plausibility a little bit, but I hope the story’s momentum carries over some of that stuff.”

Narrative momentum is important to be sure, but there’s a point where you’re sacrificing realism for spectacle, as /Film’s Jacob Hall wrote in his review of “Beyond the Wall.” Both Jacob and Ben previously wrote about season 7’s increased pacing, but this seems to have been the breaking point for many fans.

Indeed, this wasn’t just a problem in “Beyond the Wall” — though it was the most noticeable — but something that recurred throughout the season. Davos fetching Gendry in King’s Landing and taking him to Dragonstone where he joined Jon’s group to reach the Wall all happened in the space of one episode! It’s like every character gained Littlefinger’s mysterious kingdom-hopping abilities (aka a jetpack) from earlier seasons.

Yes, I’m aware how all of this talk can sound like that unladen swallow scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But Taylor is a Game of Thrones veteran who has been working with the series since season 2, when the characters abided by geographical rules. And if we’re going to talk about “narrative momentum” let’s not even go into Arya and Sansa’s inexplicable animosity (maybe if Game of Thrones hired some female writers we wouldn’t have this mess).

The Game of Thrones season 7 finale premieres on August 27 on HBO.

The post ‘Game of Thrones’ Director Admits the ‘Beyond the Wall’ Timeline Wasn’t Realistic appeared first on /Film.

Spoilers for the end of The Defenders follow.

Matt Murdock will likely be the one who walks out the most changed from The Defenders miniseries that just dropped on Netflix this weekend. The climactic team-up series revolved around the Hand, a common foe for Matt since the first season of Daredevil, and Elektra, his tragic, star-crossed killer ex.

So how will Matt Murdock come out of Defenders into Daredevil season 3, set to hit Netflix in 2018? Not great, if star Charlie Cox‘s hints at the third season’s storylines come to fruition.

The final shot of The Defenders slowly panned on Matt’s broken and bandaged body under the care of nuns. It was an image that echoed a panel from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil “Born Again” arc  — hinting at what the third season of Daredevil would entail.

Now star Charlie Cox is joining in on the “Born Again” hints, telling The Hollywood Reporter cryptically, “That’s such an amazing story. Everyone who loves Daredevil loves Born Again.”

Cox responded to THR’s question about whether Daredevil season 3 would adapt the Man Without Fear’s most famous comic book arc, with:

“You can’t not. And if that’s the case, then the implications of that would be very exciting to me. That would be great.”

The important question, however, is whether this will be a straight adaptation of the 1986 series, because many of Miller’s stories — though famous and ground-breaking at the time — have not aged well, particularly in their treatment of female characters. Cox seems to be of the opinion that Daredevil season 3 will only adapt elements from Born Again, rather than the full story:

“Having said that, I know we don’t tend to follow any story blueprints too closely, because if you do, then you become a foregone conclusion. There may be elements from Born Again, but I’m sure there will be elements that are unfamiliar and surprising and different in order for the show to be compelling to fans who know the comics very well. If we start making Born Again page-for-page, then the people who have read it and loved it — the hardcore fans — they won’t have too much drama.”

For those unfamiliar with the story, “Born Again” is kicked off after a heroin-addicted porn actress Karen Page (yeah you read that right) becomes desperate for a fix and sells Daredevil’s secret identity to her dealer. The secret makes its way to Wilson Fisk, AKA the Kingpin, who does everything to effectively destroy Matt’s life — freezing his bank accounts, foreclosing his home, getting him disbarred from practicing law. Matt is driven to paranoia and insanity until he’s saved by Sister Maggie, who turns out to be his mother, Maggie Murdock. Meanwhile, Ben Urich investigates his friend’s misfortunes and finds that it all leads to Kingpin.

The heroin-addicted porn-actress Karen Page is the part that is very Frank Miller and that the series will likely nix, especially considering Deborah Woll‘s fantastic job at making Karen a likable and strong character (though the writing for her in Defenders was pretty horrendous). The fact that Ben Urich is also out of the picture, now essentially replaced by Page herself, also indicates that she will be treated better than she has in the comics — and get more to do!

The Defenders readily sets up Born Again to avoid a lot of those “edgy” plot twists too. With the disappearance of Matt Murdock and Daredevil at the same time, it’s likely that someone will make the connection — perhaps in the police department where Misty Knight works — and sell that information to Wilson Fisk, who is still ruling over his kingdom in prison. It would be an exciting return for Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Fisk, who is easily one of the best villains in the Marvel Netflix shows, if not the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Just keep drugs and a cheap betrayal by Karen Page out of this.

The Defenders is now streaming on Netflix. Daredevil season 3 is not yet in production, but is set to premiere sometime in 2018.

The post ‘Daredevil’ Season 3 Will Adapt the ‘Born Again’ Storyline, Charlie Cox Says appeared first on /Film.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a fantastic horror comedy. Eli Craig‘s directorial debut is a sweet, bloody as hell and consistently funny film with two standout performances. Craig has reunited with the star of his first movie, Tyler Labine, for his second feature, Little Evil. The Netflix comedy stars Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) and Evangeline Lilly (Ant-Man) as a newly wed couple. They’re happily married, but there’s one problem: the child (Owen Atlas) they’re raising is the antichrist.

Below, watch the Little Evil trailer.

Little Evil looks as funny as it sounds. There’s a lot of great lines and gags in the trailer, including a bit with a burnt clown and a reference to a Kevin Costner classic. Bridget Everett (Patti Cake$), in particular, looks like she could steal the movie. In addition to Scott and Lilly, Craig’s new movie co-stars Donald Faison (Scrubs), comedian Chris D’Elia (Undateable), and Clancy Brown (Carnival). It’s definitely a group of people who I want to see wrangle or encourage the little antichrist.

Scott quickly backing away from the child and his goat puppet? Lilly’s heartfelt delivery of “so creative”?  There’s a lot to enjoy in this trailer. The straight-faced, reactionary role can sometimes be dull in comedies, but it’s something Scott does well with. Not everyone can star in a comedy surrounded by big, comedic personalities and be just as funny as they are. It takes skill, which Scott and the rest of this cast have plenty of to make Little Evil a fun time. After watching the trailer, I have high hopes for this one.

It’s been too long since Craig’s last film, which came out in 2010 and quickly found an appreciative fanbase. Since then, Craig has directed an episode of Brothers and Sisters and Amazon’s Zombieland pilot. However, Amazon decided against ordering more of that series, which was based on the hit zombie comedy.

Craig has been working on Little Evil for a few years now. In 2013, Universal bought the project for seven figures. Four years later, the movie is finally coming out and will be available to stream very soon:

Meet Gary. He just married Samantha, the woman of his dreams. There’s one problem, his stepson is the antichrist. Adam Scott and Evangeline Lilly star in the Netflix horror comedy from the director of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Coming to Netflix September 1.

Little Evil will be available to stream November 1, 2017.

The post ‘Little Evil’ Trailer: Adam Scott and Evangeline Lilly Raise the Antichrist appeared first on /Film.

 

There’s no question that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 will rock the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it, but it won’t be until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits our theaters sometime in 2020 that the MCU will be forever changed.

Director James Gunn has hinted that the third film in his Guardians of the Galaxy series will kick off the cosmic universe in the MCU, expanding the films that follow will go beyond just battling aliens on Earth. But this won’t just be a short stint on the other side of the galaxy — the cosmic universe may take up the next 10 to 20 years of the MCU. That’s the equivalent of all first three “Phases” of the MCU!

In a Facebook Live (via Collider) session, Gunn responded to a question about the possibility of Nova film starring Richard Rider, a human member of the Nova Corps, the group that we were first introduced to in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn hinted that Nova may appear not only in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 but in separate cosmic films following the film.

“Yes, definitely. Nova comes up occasionally as someone we might use. One of the things I’m doing with creating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it will take place after the next two Avengers movies and it will help to set up the next 10, 20 years of Marvel movies. It’s going to really expand the cosmic universe. We’re going to be setting up new characters. It will be the last movie of this version of Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Could Gunn be hinting that Nova will join the Guardians of the Galaxy, which may take after its Earth counterpart (the Avengers) and start a revolving membership? Possibly.

But the big news here is that the comic universe could encompass 10 or 20 years of the MCU — a wide gap, and an even wider range when you consider that Phase 1 of the MCU lasted from 2008 to 2012. The following phases were even shorter, with Phase 2 taking place between 2013 to 2015, and Phase 3 from 2016 to 2019 with Avengers 4.

Now Gunn may be spitballing about the time that the cosmic universe will take over the MCU, though he has hinted before that the cosmic universe will take over the next 10 years of the MCU after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But 10 — not to mention 20 — years is a long time to spend in space. The power of the MCU heroes is their relatability and complexity, which may be hard to depict if every film is a trippy space opera. But then again, Gunn did assure that the cosmic films will be nothing like Guardians of the Galaxy films and will follow their own template.

Of course, even in deep space, there are huge humanizing moments or quirks — like Peter Quill’s famous Awesome Mix that provided the emotional core and throbbing soundtrack to the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films. While his mom Meredith’s collection has run out, there will still be plenty of songs in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 from his surrogate dad: Yondu. Gunn in Facebook Live hinted at the kind of songs that Yondu would compile for Peter:

“Volume 1 and Volume 2 have been Meredith’s song choices, her communication to Peter. In Volume 3, the song choices will be Yondu communicating to Peter.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is currently out on Blu-ray and DVD.

The post ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Vol. 3 Will Set Up Next 20 Years of Marvel; Next Awesome Mix Will Be All Yondu appeared first on /Film.

Game of Thrones season 7 spoilers begin immediately.

The conversation surrounding “Beyond the Wall,” the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season 7, has generally revolved around that big final battle. I found Jon Snow and his ragtag band’s stand against the Night King’s forces to be as entertaining as it was frustrating. Others thought it shattered the show’s internal logic beyond repair. Since Sunday, we’ve talked about how far ravens can fly, how fast bastard blacksmiths can run, and just how long our heroes hung out on that rock before Daenerys flew to the rescue.

What we haven’t talked about as much are those scenes between Sansa Stark and Arya Stark back at Winterfell. Scenes that I’m now convinced that we all misunderstood. By design. Much like how Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish has been seemingly playing the Stark sisters, I think Game of Thrones has been playing us, hiding some crafty maneuvering in the middle of an episode otherwise focused on spectacle.

A special note before we continue: Game of Thrones season 7 has proven to be as leaky as Yara Greyjoy’s fleet and spoilers are out there. I’ve managed to avoid them and can assure you that nothing I write here was influenced by knowledge of what’s coming. However, if potential spoilers remain a concern and you just want to keep your head down until Sunday’s feature-length finale, consider this another spoiler warning – just in case this all does come to pass.

Okay, So This Looks Bad

Before we dive into what may actually be going on, let’s run through a quick recap of what appears to be going on. Just as Littlefinger intended, Arya Stark found the years-old message from Sansa Stark, imploring then-alive Robb Stark to bend the knee to then-alive King Joffrey in the wake of then-alive Eddard Stark’s “treason.” And just as Littlefinger intended, this seemed to drive a wedge between the two sisters.

After all, they’ve been separated from one another for years and didn’t get along well when they did share a roof. Of course Arya isn’t going to immediately trust Sansa after her violent, difficult, and spirit-sapping road trip across Westeros and Essos, right? It’s entirely reasonable for her to think her pretty, pretty princess of an older sister could have betrayed her family, right? After spending time with the likes of the Hound and the Faceless Men (with one of the latter sticking a dagger in her gut), trust is probably not something Arya comes by easily.

And then there’s the sisters’ second encounter in “Beyond the Wall,” where Sansa investigates Arya’s room and finds her bag of dead men’s faces. It’s a creepy scene, made all the creepier by Arya’s threatening words and even more threatening gestures. Sure, she doesn’t actually do anything with that Valyrian steel dagger, but we know what she can do when she picks it up. The Stark sisters have gone from being wary of one another to seemingly threatening violence. Wedge effectively driven. Point for Littlefinger. Clearly.

Or maybe not. The problem with this scene as depicted is that it makes two of the smartest characters on Game of Thrones look awfully dumb. Sure, we can chalk this up to Stark characters generally making poor decisions (Jon, Ned, and Robb, for all of their bravery, were/are dummies), but Arya and Sansa have weathered the game that killed so many members of their House. Arya literally went to foreign assassin school after road tripping with a vicious killer. Sansa endured two marriages to members of enemy families and has grown a hide thick enough to stop an arrow. They’ve learned how to play the game and they’ve learned the hard way.

And that’s why I think these ladies are playing their cards close to the vest. And why Littlefinger is in trouble.

The Game of Faces

“Back in Braavos, before I got my first face, there was a game I used to play. The game of faces. It’s simple. I ask you a question about yourself and you try to make lies sound like the truth. If you fool me, you win. If I catch a lie, you lose. Let’s play.”

This quote from Arya may be the key to what’s really going on here. It’s practically how she greets Sansa after the discovery of the satchel full of faces, but it’s never really brought up again. It only sets the stage for the threats and accusations that follow. But what if it doesn’t just set the stage? What if it is the stage?

Let’s back up to the events of “Eastwatch,” where Arya spied on Littlefinger and noted that he has at least one Winterfell servant in his employ (and since this is Littlefinger, there are surely plenty more where that came from). Walls have ears when Petyr Baelish is around. This is something that has been long-established. The cleverest characters on Game of Thrones know where and when to speak and how to choose their words carefully. Especially when Littlefinger is in the vicinity.

So, how does one clever Stark woman let the other clever Stark woman know that they’re being watched and listened to and everything that happens to them has the potential of being sent right back to a man who would sell his own mother to advance one rung of his patented chaos ladder? Simple: you play the game of faces. Even if Sansa doesn’t quite get it yet (that may be a question for next week’s finale), Arya lets her know the rules of their conversation before it begins. They will tell lies and try to make them sound like truths. She will threaten her sister, suggest a murder and a coup…because she means quite the opposite. After all, under what other context would Arya, the tomboy-turned-assassin, talk about wanting to wear Sansa’s “pretty dresses”? Because she’s lying. And by lying, she’s communicating her actual truth.

That Valyrian steel dagger, which once almost took Bran’s life, may be another key. Anya’s flipping it around and handing it, hilt-first, to Sansa, feels like a very clear gesture if they’re playing the game of faces. I’m not going to kill you, that gesture indicates, but maybe it’s time for you to get your own hands bloody.

What’s not clear is if this is something Arya knew from the start or if it’s something Arya pieced together during her first conversation with Sansa on the platform overlooking Winterfell’s courtyard. That first conversation doesn’t quite support this line of thinking – their words are more brittle and less enigmatic, seemingly coming from actual pain instead of a clever game. However, if Arya knew that Littlefinger’s spies could be close, this would be the perfect place to test the waters. To plant the seed. To let Baelish think he was winning.

“Sometimes fear makes them do unfortunate things,” Arya says. “I’ll go with anger.” It’s time for Sansa to stop fearing what Littlefinger could do to House Stark and start getting angry with what he’s actually done.

Away With Brienne

This is admittedly a little wacky – when I first floated the idea to my /Film colleagues, Ben Pearson (who has been less kind to this season than me) responded with an immediate “Ugh.” However, I’m inclined to think it’s potentially a clever bit of misdirection, provided that the show sticks the landing in the finale. So often, characters on Game of Thrones talk about being clever, of talk about how clever other people are, but this would be a way for us to see actual, honest-to-R’hllor intrigue occurring under our very noses! Those sneaky Stark kids, taking a page from the Lannister playbook!

There are other moments to consider as well, but they don’t fit as cleanly into the puzzle (at least not yet). First, there’s Littlefinger taking his game a little further – he showers Sansa with compliments because she’s doing so well ruling the North in Jon’s absence before reminding her that Brienne of Tarth is obliged to “intercede” should Arya try any funny business. The message is clear: Brienne could take care of that little sister problem you’ve got. Don’t thank me. I’m just your best friend. This is just what I do.

But only a few scenes later, Sansa sends Brienne to King’s Landing to be her representative during the armistice talks with Daenerys and Cersei Lannister. Sansa’s explanation makes sense (why the hell would she want to go back to that place?), but the timing is peculiar. She’s sending away her most loyal bodyguard, against the advice of her most powerful advisor, at a time when she may be in danger? “I have work to do here,” Sansa explains…as she burns a stack of mysterious papers. She doesn’t “need to be watched over or minded or cared for.”

What if (and let’s pretend I got super-tacky and bolded, italicized and underlined that “if”) Sansa sent Brienne away because she would be watching the Stark sisters too closely to let them do what needed to be done? What if Brienne was too honorable to let them pull off a Lannister move and get their hands dirty?

Of course, the big issue here is that this scene takes place before the game of faces, so it’s not clear how much Sansa knows or if she’s even clued into Arya’s potential game of lies-as-truths thing. But we’re just spitballing for now, right?

What Could This Mean For Littlefinger?

Arya shares a story with Sansa during their first conversation in “Beyond the Wall.” It’s a nice story. A warm and fuzzy story. One that helps make the ensuing clash of wills sting all the more. Arya recalls finding Bran’s bow abandoned in the courtyard years ago, picking it up, and firing an arrow over and over again, knowing it was against the rules. And then she heard clapping – her father was watching from above, pleased to see her hit a bullseye. Even Eddard Stark, the most unfortunately noble and unbendable guy in the Seven Kingdoms, knew you sometimes had to go off the beaten path. Some systems, some codes, need to be broken. Arya had done wrong, but she was rewarded for it.

We’ve watched the Starks follow their code, their own set of rules, for seven seasons now. And for seven seasons, they’ve been murdered, betrayed, deceived, and brutalized. Something has to change. Someone in House Stark need to say enough is enough, pick up that bow, and fire the bullseye. Littlefinger represents everything that House Stark abhors, and to defeat him, this parasite who has made himself inseparable from those who have every reason to hate him the most, they may have to play like him. Sansa and Arya may have to lie in earshot of their spies. They may have to send away a knight so noble that she wouldn’t let them do what has to be done. They may have to murder Petyr Baelish and let Arya step into his shoes as a Faceless Man, ruling the Vale in his stead and maintaining their vital alliance.

“The world doesn’t let girls decide what they’re going to be,” Arya says, “I can become someone else.” And she may have to become Littlefinger. Plus, there’s this line, spoken from Sansa, that we heard in the trailer but haven’t heard on the show yet: “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” That certainly sounds like the kind of thing the leader of a united house would say to the lone operator working in her midst…right before she kills him.

Of course, now I just have to sit back and wait for this Sunday’s season finale to prove me wrong.

The post Did We Misread a Key Scene in This Week’s ‘Game of Thrones’? appeared first on /Film.

Not long ago, we learned that Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s petulant villain Kylo Ren will have a new ride in the upcoming film in the form of a ship called the TIE Silencer. Today, we’ve learned about two more brand new vehicles that will appear in writer/director Rian Johnson‘s upcoming sequel – and they’ll both be utilized by The First Order. That’s bad news for our trusty band of galactic heroes. Take a look at these new Star Wars The Last Jedi vehicles below.

On today’s episode of The Star Wars Show, Lucasfilm’s officially-produced web series, the hosts announced two new vehicles that will appear in The Last Jedi. You can watch the full video below, but I’ll break down the relevant parts for you underneath:

Again, that is coming from an official source, so you can consider that information canonical. Let’s dive into everything we know about these new vehicles.

AT-M6

First up is the AT-M6 walker, which stands for “All-Terrain Megacaliber Six.” The Megacaliber Six name comes from the laser cannon of that designation that’s on its back. The hosts describe it as “way bigger than a standard AT-AT.” Sharp-eyed fans will know that we’ve actually seen these already in some footage from The Last Jedi: these are the what Finn and his team are flying toward on the new planet of Crait.

Back in April, we’d heard that these machines were called “First Order Assault Walkers” and that they were massive – much taller than traditional AT-ATs and maybe even double the width. Initial reports indicated that they would have reinforced legs (the better to protect against ropes from clever pilots who might weave underneath them), and the design was described as being similar to “pissed off gorillas.” That aligns with the host’s description of the vehicle’s “simian-like gait” – notice how this thing almost has feet when compared to the stiffer, straighter legs of the AT-AT.

Next up is the First Order Dreadnought, “a mandatory four-class warship” equipped with two huge orbital auto cannons underneath it for heavy battle situations.

And the image above isn’t joking when they say it’s “really big” – this thing 7,669.72 meters long. Compare that to the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, which is only 1,600 meters long, and you’ll see that The First Order has gotten some much-needed upgrades. And we still don’t know the specs of the rumored Mega Star Destroyer, which may be even bigger than that. (Update: Our own Ethan Anderton just floated the theory to me that the First Order Dreadnought may actually be the Mega Star Destroyer, so that’s also a possibility.) We better wish Finn, Poe, Rose, Rey, and the rest of our heroes good luck, because it sounds like they’ll need it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, 2017.

The post Two New ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Vehicles Unveiled, and The First Order Gets More Firepower appeared first on /Film.

J.K. Rowling has a magic touch when it comes to getting her work adapted to film or TV — even if it wasn’t under her name.

The Cormoran Strike series of novels, published under Rowling’s pen name Robert Galbraith, is coming to the small screen with an adaptation of the first book, The Cuckoo’s Calling. It’s about as far as you can get from Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter series, except for the fact that it looks achingly British.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a three-part miniseries written by Ben Richards and directed by Michael Keillor. It follows a classic eccentric private investigator in a long coat (seriously, how many cues did they take from Sherlock?) named Cormoran Strike, who’s “wounded both physically and psychologically,” and has “unique insight” thanks to “his background as a SIB Investigator … solving three complex cases which have eluded the police.” Tom Burke stars as Cormoran Strike — who admittedly has the best name — alongside The Borgias‘ Holliday Grainger as Strike’s assistant, Robin.

I haven’t read any of the Cormoran Strike books, though I know they were well received even before Galbraith was discovered to be Rowling’s pseudonym. It wasn’t necessarily the following of Harry Potter per se, but it was enough to spawn two more books, The Silkworm and Career of Evil, with one more on the way. If The Cuckoo’s Calling attracts reasonable ratings, those two novels could see adaptations as well under the Strike title. I’m not too passionate about Rowling’s “adult” novels after reading The Casual Vacancy, but I’m glad that she can branch out beyond writing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them tie-ins on Pottermore.

Here’s the synopsis for the novel The Cuckoo’s Calling below:

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

The Cuckoo’s Calling premieres in the U.K. on BBC One on August 27, 2017. The series will be aired in the U.S. on HBO or Cinemax on an unknown date.

The post ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ Trailer: J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike Series is Adapted to TV appeared first on /Film.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s surprising news that Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Entertainment were developing an origin movie for The Joker that would be directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover) and produced by Martin Scorsese, yet another project featuring The Clown Prince of Crime has been revealed, and this time he’s bringing his Clown Princess with him.

A new report says Warner Bros. has tapped Crazy Stupid Love filmmaking duo Glenn Ficarra & John Requa to direct and write a film focusing on the criminally insane romance between The Joker and Harley Quinn. Unlike yesterday’s Joker origin movie, this one will take place within the DC Extended Universe, as it will star Jared Leto and Margot Robbie reprising their Suicide Squad roles as The Joker and Harley Quinn respectively.

News of The Joker and Harley Quinn movie comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who says Ficarra and Requa are in final negotiations to board the project as writers and directors. However, it doesn’t sound like the movie will be coming all that quickly, because it’s meant to be released after a Suicide Squad sequel hits theaters. And since that movie doesn’t have a release date yet and is still trying to find a director, we’re not sure when that will be.

Despite the fact that The Joker and Harley Quinn movie won’t arrive until after Suicide Squad 2, supposedly both movies are on the fast track since the studio has to be wary of the holding agreements they have with Jared Leto and Margot Robbie to play these characters. A follow-up from Deadline initially said this was replacing the Gotham City Sirens movie in development, but they’ve since changed their story to indicate that they are two separate projects and each is still in the works, both with Jared Leto and Margot Robbie involved.

So what can we expect from The Joker and Harley Quinn movie? When last we saw The Joker and Harley Quinn, the former was busting the latter out of prison, and who knows what their next move was. Initially, I would have thought the criminal love story between the two Batman villains could have picked up from there, but since this will arrive after Suicide Squad 2, we have no idea what these two will be up to. For now, all we know is the movie is described as a “criminal love story,” and that likely means something akin to the comic book version of Bonnie and Clyde.

The existence of The Joker and Harley Quinn movie isn’t nearly as perplexing as The Joker origin movie, but what is strange is bringing directors and writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa to helm this feature. They’ve crafted odd romance before in the form of I Love You Philip Morris, but this is something different entirely. They must have made some kind of connection with Margot Robbie when they worked with the actress on both Focus and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

I suppose if Ficarra and Requa can bring the same kind of romantic charm from Crazy Stupid Love (or their successful NBC series This Is Us) and mix it with the twisted side of these two insane Batman villains, this could be a project worth seeing. They could even call it Crazy Stupid Love again. But as of now, I’m just baffled with what Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Entertainment are doing with all these properties. It’s like they’re throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Stay tuned for more.

The post The Joker and Harley Quinn Getting Their Own Movie from ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ Filmmakers appeared first on /Film.

Warning: Contains spoilers for all of Marvel's The Defenders. Do not read unless you've seen it or don't mind.

Marvel’s The Defenders released this past weekend, and it’s got some problems. I came away from the show with mixed opinions, but one of the things that really impressed me was its use of lighting and color to distinguish each character.

For the first half of the series has nearly all of Daredevil’s scenes tinted red, Jessica Jones in blue, Luke Cage in yellow, Iron Fist in a dark and brooding green, and Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra with a crisp white.

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To those who weren’t convinced there’s a sexy Jon Snow Halloween costume available to wear for Halloween, Yandy.com has three words: “You know nothing.”

Billed as a “Sexy Northern Queen” costume, the women’s specialty apparel retailer has released its Jon Snow-inspired costume.

Now, fans can bend the knee in this costume inspired by the King Queen of the North. For $149.95, the outfit includes a black romper that features gold stud accents and a cut-out bodice panel and a black cloak with “faux fur trim.”

According to the website, the costume — which allows “one to be ready for (Halloween) winter” — is currently on pre-order and will be ready to ship on or before Sept. 20.

Let us know how battling white-walkers in a cut-out bodice goes.

George R.R. Martin just returned home to New Mexico after traveling for a month to read some unexpected news: That the Game of Thrones author… doesn’t actually watch Game of Thrones.

That’s what several media outlets (such as the New York Post) are reporting Wednesday following a series of interviews the best-selling author recently gave at a fan convention in Russia. One headline literally read: “George R.R. Martin: ‘I don’t watch Game of Thrones.'”

Martin told EW via email he can’t recall saying he doesn’t watch the acclaimed HBO drama series and notes that perhaps something was mangled during translation. During his trip abroad he didn’t watch any television — and he’s behind on Thrones‘ current seventh season. So perhaps that was a source of confusion. But Martin does watch the series.

Regular readers of Martin’s blog know he posts HBO’s trailers, hosts screenings of GoT at his historic Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will praise the fantasy drama’s actors, producers, and crew during awards season. In general, however, Martin avoids discussing the show’s current storylines — which have extended beyond the narrative scope of his five A Song of Ice and Fire novels — deferring questions to showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

Martin is also heavily involved in HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel projects in development (of which four have been confirmed by the network). And of course, he’s also working on sixth ASOIAF novel, The Winds of Winter.

The 80-minute seventh season finale of Game of Thrones airs this Sunday. Check out HBO’s 9 photos from the final episode.

Scientists have borrowed a few tricks from Mother Nature in order to create a drone capable of landing flush against a wall. The Multimodal Autonomous Drone (S-MAD) looks like a small airplane and flies like a glider, but on approaching a flat surfac...

Ladies and gentleman, meet the SpaceX spacesuit. Elon Musk just came through with the first pic of the astronaut gear via his Instagram. And, even though it's not a full look at the suit, it offers plenty to pick apart. Like, why is the American flag...

Western Digital has unveiled the 20TB My Book Duo, its highest-capacity storage system yet, and it's a good example of the pluses and minuses of spinning hard disks compared to SSDs. The system works at either RAID 0, which offers the maximum speed b...

The Defenders has finally hit Netflix, serving as the culmination of everything Marvel has been building towards with shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. And with this series building on the foundation established by those shows and taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you'd better believe there are some fun Marvel references and callbacks to past adventures.

Check out our slideshow of all the coolest cameos and Easter eggs from The Defenders: Season 1, whether they involve nods to previous Netflix shows, teases for what's to come or amusing homages to other pop culture franchises.

We've been busy all weekend watching and reviewing The Defenders. Click here to see our individual reviews for all eight episodes of The Defenders and our full season review once it becomes available.

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Elektra (Elodie Yung) was never going to be just a weapon.

In the sixth episode of Marvel’s The Defenders, the resurrected Black Sky remembered her identity and literally stabbed the Hand leader Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) in the back, effectively ending Alexandra’s reign and taking control of the remaining Fingers for herself.

But Elektra never wanted to run the Hand. All she wanted was to be free, as showrunner Marco Ramirez put it, and to be free with Matt (Charlie Cox). By the end of the series, she accomplishes the latter as Midland Circle crumbles around her and Daredevil, presumably crushing both of them underneath — until it turns out Matt survived. So what’s next for the sai-wielding ex-girlfriend of the Man Without Fear? Below, EW spoke with the French actress to look back on her most memorable scenes.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, should we assume Elektra’s still alive? We don’t see a body, and Matt manages to make it out of the rubble, somehow.
ELODIE YUNG: Well, from my understanding, I’m still alive. You know, they gave me this potion to bring me back to life, so that’s my understanding of it, but really I have no clue. I’m just as confused as you, I don’t know what’s going on. I might still be in that building as I’m talking to you .

I hope you make it out! At the beginning of the season, in episode 3, we saw how Elektra was resurrected and came back a feral, amnesiac version of herself. What do you remember about filming that? You were covered in fake blood, which looked absolutely gross.Oh, it was. I think what they use is corn syrup or the equivalent, so it’s very gooey, very sweet and sticky. I insisted on doing it, because to me, the resurrection, so I felt I needed to go through the pain and to be put in this coffin with blood. Luckily we did it in one take because honestly, this is not something you can do all day long.

It’s something, and I was quite scared. I had to put things in my ears and then just stay three or four seconds under the blood, and then someone knocked on the sarcophagus . And then we shot all night, so it was just being cold in this disgusting place. But that’s one of the joys of doing something like this! You don’t do this every day, and I’m down for this type of thing. It’s an experience, you know?

I’m glad you didn’t have to do it too often. It looked uncomfortable.It was. I can confirm that. But I think it was worth it, the scene looked great.

In those early episodes, you had to play a resurrected Elektra, who had no idea who she was. Did you approach playing her as a wholly new character compared to who you played in season 2 of Daredevil?Well, to me, I just as someone who got into an accident and completely forgot who she is, and then starting from there just gave me endless possibilities to approaching this new Elektra. I didn’t want the audience to actually know exactly when she would remember herself, but I wanted to give hints of the past, little moments where people would maybe question if she was playing Alexandra or if she was just completely not remembering anything, you know? So it was fun for me to play those moments, and it feels a bit like a brand new Elektra.

Also, in the beginning, with the bloodbath, I approached her like a foal, like an animal who just was born out of the mother’s womb. I wanted it to like an animal, really. You know those images of horses or deer when they give birth, and it’s just very disgusting, gooey, and violent? I wanted something like that. I wanted her to not be able to stand up immediately. The recovery is quite fast, and she learns specific skills quite quickly, but I wanted this progression of being an animal and then just transforming and learning skills and remembering who she was.

When did you first learn from the team that you would be the final villain, that it wasn’t Alexandra who would make it to the last battle? And how much pressure was there going in once you knew that?I just love that they always have surprises for the audience and for us as well. I knew the arc from the start, and I was quite excited by it because when I kill Alexandra, it comes a bit out of nowhere. I just got really excited by this idea that although you know that now she’s this weapon and she’s been trained, she doesn’t have a side. I like that she’s a free spirit and she’s just her own woman, her own self, and when it comes down to the love of her life, she still has this instinct where she wants to protect Matthew, and this is where it comes out.

So no pressure for me to be, you know, the baddie, the villain. I never see my characters or stories from that angle. I just thought she’s a woman who forgot who she was and then it kicks in and she remembers and instinct comes back and she has to find Matthew. That’s it, that’s her quest.

Before we talk about her and Matt, let’s dive into her and Alexandra a little more. How would you describe that relationship? Is it mother-daughter, mentor-mentee, or something else?I would describe it just as you did, and I think I would sprinkle on top something a bit weird or maybe sexual that comes from the obsession Alexandra has for her. She needs her. It’s built a bit like mother-daughter, definitely, and mentor-mentee, but she needs Elektra around.

Right, she starts breaking down when Elektra isn’t there. Was the scene where you kill her off the final scene the two of you filmed together? What was that like, and just because I’m curious, how much fake blood was there?It was so fun, Sigourney had so much fun doing it. And there was a lot of blood, a fair amount. We just rehearsed as we usually do and we got it in a few takes, and it was quite exhilarating and fun to have this twist. I don’t know, I just enjoyed it. I don’t have any other words to say “I enjoyed killing her,” but she enjoyed being killed too, so.

I have to ask, how did it feel to be the person on the show who gets to kill off Sigourney Weaver?Oh it’s a privilege, I felt blessed. It was a privilege to kill her, yeah. And I got really lucky throughout this show, to have most of my scenes with her, to be in very intimate scenes with Sigourney from day one. The first day we met, it was nighttime, and it’s the scene where she’s like, “Everything’s going to be all right,” and she strokes my cheek. I was like, “Huh! I’m glad, this is going to be five fun months for me.” So I learned a lot, just being with her. And she’s a wonderful, wonderful woman. I love her.

As for Elektra and Matt, what compelled her to keep fighting Matt and to be the new leader of the Hand even after killing Alexandra? Why didn’t she just live a life of her own and maybe take Matt with her?We’ve previously established Elektra as a sociopath, and I think deeply it is in her nature to be a very independent person and a sociopath who would use people as resources for her to attain her goal. I think when her consciousness comes back and she remembers who she is and says “I’m Elektra, and he is Matt Murdock,” in my understanding, I saw that as “She’s back and she’s gonna use them.” She’s not trying to be the head of the Hand or to control it. What she wants is to be reunited with her love. In her head, she’s like, “You guys are going to work for me, you’re going to help me get to Matthew.”

What she wants, in a very Shakespearean way, is to live forever with him. She wants to find him because she wants him to live forever the same way she lives forever. It has to be accomplished through death, but it’s a bit like, “See you on the other side.” That’s what I understood from it, that they’ll be together forever, and I don’t think she wants to control New York and all that.

She’s just a sociopath who thought she could be with the person she loves forever, in death.Exactly. In death or after death.

This season, you also got to fight in a new costume. Was it harder or easier to fight with such a long coat on?It’s never easy with all the costumes. The good thing is we have an incredible wardrobe team, and they made it very practical for us, so when you see one coat on screen, it’s actually five different coats, and depending on the choreography and what’s involved in it, we could have a shorter coat and there are tons of tricks inside the coat to strap it here and strap it there so it doesn’t get caught in whatever we have to do, and so it looks beautiful.

I think it adds to the drama and to the darkness of Elektra this year. She’s a mysterious shadow at the beginning, so I really liked that, and then we used it as a tool. Sometimes we used it as if I was a matador, playing with the shape of it, so we used it as a weapon as well.

I like that comparison to a matador. When she kills off Stick (Scott Glenn), she basically gores him with her sword like a bull would with its horns. But just to wrap up: After two seasons of playing her, how would you categorize her? Where does she go on the spectrum of a hero to a villain?If we had to categorize her now, I would say she’s an antihero. But her goal is not to fight the heroes , really, I think her goal has always been to try to be happy with Matt , which is quite sad because she’s got a lot of darkness in her, and he’s on the opposite side. The only motivation she has is the love she has for him, so I don’t know. I think more antihero.

Well for what it’s worth, Marco said that across The Defenders, Elektra’s story was about her finding freedom from the people who have tried to control her. That makes sense to you, right?Yes, it’s true, she does. And completely!

Marvel’s The Defenders is now streaming on Netflix.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the entire season of Marvel’s The Defenders. Read at your own risk!

Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) finally united to defend their city from the shadow organization that threatened to tear it apart. But the War for New York wasn’t an easy one to fight, and if you haven’t watched all eight episodes of Marvel’s The Defenders, you should stop reading before proceeding further. The post below is chock full of spoilers, so for those who don’t want to know what happened, this is the time to look away. Going once…

Going twice…

And that’s as much warning as we can give.

The team-up series ended with several tantalizing developments: The titular quartet managed to thwart the Hand’s plans to harvest the life-preserving substance in the dragon bones buried beneath New York, but when Elektra (Elodie Yung) refused to back down, Matt sacrificed himself to fight her and wound up crushed under the rubble of Midland Circle. Meanwhile, Jessica and Luke managed to emerge unscathed and even had a brief heart-to-heart — with a mention of grabbing coffee — before heading back to their respective neighborhoods. And Danny finally donned a version of the green and yellow tracksuit fans had been hoping to see him in since the start of his own series.

Oh, and it turned out Matt actually survived the chaos — and has been in the care of nuns, including one who cries out for a sister named “Maggie.” Fans of the comics know Maggie as Maggie Murdock, Matt’s elusive mother, so what does this mean for the previously announced Daredevil season 3? EW hopped on the phone to ask Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez — one half of the showrunning team behind Daredevil season 2 — that very question, along with a slew of other questions we had after binging the team-up series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It’s Aug. 18, and The Defenders is finally out. How are you feeling? No more keeping secrets!MARCO RAMIREZ: No more secrets! It’s been out for a few hours now so if people get mad reading spoilers, I guess we’ve already put it all out. It feels like I can finally go on Instagram and share my on-set photos and it’s like there’s no more secrecy around it, it’s out and it’s done.

Let’s start not at the beginning, where Jessica likes to begin her interrogations, but at the ending. Is this the definitive end to the Hand? What can you tell me about the status of everybody in the organization who didn’t get decapitated? That includes Gao, Murakami, and Elektra.Well, in the Marvel world — and as Jeph Loeb, the Marvel TV head, would say — in the comic-book world, you can always find a way. The story finds a way, so who knows? But we definitely felt like we wanted this to be the end of this specific show, so while I don’t know if it’s the end of the Hand forever — who knows what will happen in the future — it just felt like it’s the end of this story in the lore. Particularly for Iron Fist, we wanted to close that chapter . I don’t know what the future holds. That’s a Jeph Loeb question but for me and for the writers’ room, it felt right to end the story here.

That dragon skeleton — that wasn’t Shou-Lao the Undying’s, is it? It’s just a pile of bones implying that there had been dragons all over the world and one wound up buried under New York?Yeah, it’s the second one. The idea of that was that there had always been this kind of mystery that the Hand can bring people back from the dead, but we never knew exactly how, and it made sense to connect the life-force idea of the chi in the Iron Fist to the idea of the life force use for various purposes, so we’re just saying it’s dragon bone that they use, that that’s the substance. That felt like the cleanest way to tie everything in.

And it’s been set up since Daredevil season 1; Gao operates in the background of New York with drugs made from that ground into powder. It felt like we could make back alley drug deals in New York and dragon mythology all part of the same story, so that was my way of trying to tie them all in.

But then, do we know where the city of K’un-Lun went? A part of me thought that was Shou-Lao only because K’un-Lun disappeared, and New York did have a conveniently huge hole in the middle of it.That’s a question for the Iron Fist showrunner, not me. Honestly, I don’t know where they’re going with that.

That’s for Iron Fist season 2. Your goal, on the other hand, was to make sure whatever was in that hole had to connect to Gao and the Hand in New York.It’s like, we knew in season 1 of Daredevil that Nobu wanted a specific building in New York City, and that was why it was important for the Hand to get their hands on this one building, and then in season 2, we revealed that they weren’t building up, they were building down. What they were digging toward we didn’t know, so when we started on Defenders, we knew it would be Defenders versus the Hand, and we didn’t know what they were digging for, and we could come up with anything, you know? It’s kind of a fun thing that TV writers do. Like on Lost, the whole season is about the Hatch, but what’s in the Hatch? We’ll figure that out next season! That’s how these things happen.

So what you’re saying is that that dragon skeleton is your Desmond. Sure.

I’m running with it. Moving on to Matt’s near-death, why did he find it so important to stay behind to fight Elektra, knowing that he would probably not make it out alive?To me, Matt and Elektra always felt like Edward Norton’s character and Tyler Durden in Fight Club except with a more overt sexual dynamic. And so, in the end, it felt more like the end of Fight Club…  Emotionally, Matt knows and has to embrace the fact that she’s his burden to deal with, and though he’s fought for three episodes alongside Luke, Jessica, and Danny, Elektra is his problem, his cross to bear. That’s very Matt Murdock to say “Don’t worry about it, I’ll do this. I’m going to die for this.”

How exactly did he make it out alive in the end? Can you tell me?I can’t. I can’t say anything.

You’re back to keeping secrets!
I know, I know.

Well, can you confirm for me that the Maggie mentioned at the end of the series is Matt’s mom? I can’t confirm anything! I can say that visually that shot at the end of Daredevil’s story was definitely an homage, as were a couple of other scenes, to the comics. That’s one of my favorite Daredevil images, so regardless of who any of the characters are, I went to the production meeting saying this is the image we’re going for, we’re going to feel like this, and that came from that image that I purposely borrowed from the comics.

With that in mind, what can you tell me right now about where you are with breaking the story for Daredevil season 3?I can say nothing. We’re getting into the stuff I can’t talk about.

Fine. Let’s go back to The Defenders. Before the Midland Circle showdown, Elektra brutally murdered Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra, literally stabbing her in the back with her preferred sai. Why did you kill off who we thought was the Big Bad of the entire series at the end of episode 6?Well, part of it was just about giving the audience a little something unexpected. Audiences I think sometimes expect that a major storyline or major character is going to end in the ultimate or penultimate episode so they go, “Oh all right, something’s going to happen here at the end of the story,” so it just felt like a jolt, and it was exciting to write. The second part was really in a way we introduced Sigourney’s character a little bit to highlight Elektra’s story. I like to think that we wrote a really fun cool character for Sigourney but really it was also a way for us to say this is the journey that Elektra is going on.

When did you know Elektra would take such a prominent role in this series bringing all the Defenders together? Like, when you were casting for Elektra, did you know she would eventually be the Bigger Bad, or did the idea come about as you were working on season 2 of Daredevil and saw that she could become a standout character?I think it’s half one and half the other. I definitely think Jeph Loeb really wanted the idea of an Elektra resurrection storyline to be a part of her story, and I think that once we got to where we got organically by the end of season 2 of Daredevil, the idea was pretty clear that she’s coming back.

When Jeph and I made the phone call to Elodie before the came to her because she was getting killed, she was made aware . We were like, “Hey, we’re really sorry you get killed. Also, though, you come back from the dead.” She was kind of like, “So why are we having this phone call?” Which was funny, but I would say half of was because it felt like that’s the story to tell, and she’s a major figure in the comics, she’s really beloved by the audience, and her resurrection storyline is very iconic.

Did you have any other ideas for how you would kill off Sigourney Weaver?Honestly, it felt like of the four Defenders, none of them are particularly—

Murderous?Right, none of them would get to the place where they’re taking a life. They would really have to be pushed there… felt more in terms with this conceptual mother-daughter dynamic that we wanted to explore thoroughly. We wanted to build that so we could subvert it and have say “I’m taking over.” We wanted to show Sigourney as a regal maternal figure and a master, and for Elektra to basically say, “I have no master.” To me, it’s organic in the writing of Elektra, because Elektra has been told by many people in her life what she is, whether it was Stick or Matt, it had been them telling her who she is…. So when she kills Alexandra, it’s really her saying, “People need to stop telling me who I am. This is who I am.” And I think there’s something particularly interesting about that idea.

You mentioned Stick (Scott Glenn). The thinking behind that kill was similar to why she killed Alexandra, right?Absolutely. And he’s the one who had always been saying, “The war for New York is coming, the war for New York is coming,” so really, if there are going to be any casualties in the war for New York, it’s going to be the guy talking about it.

But yeah, that was very much a part of Elektra’s rejection of him as her paternal figure, and then her rejection of her maternal figure in her life, and then the rejection of the romantic figure in her life as well . She’s really saying, “I am making my own destiny,” and so Elektra’s ending to me is a bittersweet one, but I feel like at the end of episode 8 there is truth in what she’s saying, which is, “I’m leaving, I’m finally, completely free. Matt, you’re not going to try to tether me to anything, this is who I was born to be.”

I feel like maybe the same goes for Danny and for Luke and for Matt and for Jessica Jones, you know? The idea of rejecting the identity that the world is trying to put upon you, and having to embrace the identity you want, of “This is who I am.” 

On that note, the four Defenders were always fun to watch when they got to interact and banter. I noticed they tended to pick on Danny — was that at all a meta reaction to the reaction to Iron Fist?We were shooting the finale of The Defenders when Iron Fist season 1 was premiering, so by the nature of it, we couldn’t have reacted to it. Any interaction they have to Danny is all based on just the dynamics we wanted to build. It felt like, if somebody came in and said, “My fist glows with chi and I punched a dragon and turned into this,” there’s no way around the fact that Jessica Jones is going to say, “Bullsh–, you sound like a crazy person.” Even if the dragon were in the room with them, Jessica is going to be like, “I don’t believe that, what the f— are we talking about?”

So that’s the natural dynamic of what we wanted to build, because Matt and Luke and Jessica had already been introduced, and for comic-book shows, they’re all so grounded and so gritty, but like if a guy walks in to these rooms with a glowing fist saying, “My chi is expanding,” all of them will say “I don’t buy it.” That’s the natural thing for them to do.

Were there any pairings you wanted to explore but didn’t have the time for?Of course. Because of the nature of it, we built a Matt-and-Jessica story and a Danny-and-Luke one, and there are certainly versions of the opposite pairings that I would have loved to see. I would love to see Matt and Luke, and Jessica and Danny interact because we’ve now established these two sets of relationships. But we weren’t going to do it just for the sake of it.

Back when the series was still filming, Jeph Loeb had said this series could end with these characters telling each other they never want to see each other again. So to you, at the end of this season, what would you call the Defenders? Are they teammates? Friends? Acquaintances?I think of them mostly as like people who were on the same bus when it got in an accident, and then they all filled out paperwork together, and they all went to the hospital together, and now they’re going home. And it’s kind of like, “This was a great adventure to have with you, I’d be okay with seeing you again, I’d also be okay with never seeing you again.” It’s more like a bond that happens in a crisis. People are intimate now, but it’s not like you’ll be inviting them over for dinner every Tuesday. We designed it so they could go back to their individual worlds, but it’s not like they’re apart permanently in any way.

You did also spend some time giving a lot of fans what they really wanted out of secondary characters. I’ve never been happier to see an amputation happen than when Misty’s (Simone Missick) arm got cut off — now she can get that bionic one! — but there were some moments that didn’t make it, like a scene between Claire and Matt. And more importantly, why didn’t Luke get to say “sweet Christmas”?Well, “sweet Christmas” is something that I have to leave for Cheo . That’s something Cheo did in season 1 of Luke and I don’t want to take his greatest hits, you know? For other things, well, all of the writers were like, “Oh, this interaction didn’t happen, and this interaction didn’t happen,” but at the end of the day, we had limited real estate and we couldn’t slow down the forward-moving train of the story. Some of those interactions made it in. One of the scenes I’m most proud of is the stuff we got between Jessica and Luke outside of the Chinese restaurant, and those scenes between Misty and Colleen, and Foggy and Karen, that’s what we know fans want. Because there are so many combinations, there’s always going to be some stuff we didn’t’ get to do. There are many more episodes of these stories you can tell.

Speaking of which, will there be more episodes? Will The Defenders return for a season 2?That’s another Jeph Loeb question.

Guess I’ll have to grill him soon for all these answers.Please do! And then tell me what he says.

Marvel’s The Defenders is now streaming on Netflix.

When the things get rough, when the battle seems lost, when Black Sky prepares to crumble New York City to oblivion, or when Danny Rand gets carried away talking about his chi, you can always count on Jessica Jones to throw the largest eye roll the likes of which this world has ever seen.

Chalk it up to her morning cocktail of coffee and whiskey, but the strongwoman private investigator offers Marvel and Netflix’s The Defenders not only some much-needed muscle in the war against The Hand, but some deadpan humor to take these heroes’ egos down a few pegs — including “karate kid” Iron Fist.

The Defenders, which premiered on Netflix last week, at times became a superhero take on Everybody Hates Chris (but more like Everybody Hates Danny.). Everyone seemed to have a wisecrack to toss his way, including Daredevil’s martial arts mentor Stick, who said, “This one — the Immortal Iron Fist, Living Weapon, and protector of the ancient city — is still a thundering dumba–.”

So, the mystic warrior became an easy target for Jessica. Still, that wasn’t even some of her best stuff. Here’s a breakdown of some of her best one-liners — and, because this is the internet, we ranked them.

10. “Bullet proof, blind man, whatever it is you are…”/ “Classy.”

Never say the “H” word around Jessica. She doesn’t claim to be anybody’s hero. But she is.

9. “There’s nowhere to go. They’ll find me, they’ll hurt me.”/ “To be honest, if you hurt my friend, I’m gonna hurt you — worse.”

Nobody threatens Jessica’s friends, not even unhinged architects desperately trying to flee from The Hand.

8. “I have a soft spot for hopeless causes. That was a bad joke sorry.”/ “Barely.”

Jessica’s first encounter with Matt Murdock in lawyer form came in the third episode — and it did not disappoint.

7. “Let’s go, Iron Clad.”/ “It’s Iron Fist.”/ “I know.”

It was Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) in Parks and Recreation who taught us to purposefully call someone by the wrong name when they get too chummy. Here’s Jessica putting that to good use.

6. “Ugh, this is the dumbest.”

Insert this response into any possible situation.

5. “You look like an a–hole.”/ “It’s your scarf.”

The library is open and Jessica isn’t done reading Matt to the carpet.

4. “I’m the Immortal Iron Fist… Sworn protector of K’unn L’unn?/ “What are you on? Lithium?”

If you skipped watching Marvel’s Iron Fist before The Defenders, you’d probably have a similar reaction to Jessica hearing about chi energy and K’unn L’unn for the first time.

3. “Do you know what your problem is?”/ “Sentences that start like that.”

Jessica may not be physically faster than a speeding bullet, but she is when it comes to comebacks.

2. “If you grab me like that again, I’ll punch you so hard you’ll see.”

When Matt intercepts Jessica going into Midland Circle for the first time, he grabbed her once — and only once — before he realized she could take care of herself.

1. “You are the most full-of-sh– lawyer I’ve ever met, and I think we should stop and appreciate the magnitude of that statement.”

Sorry, Hogarth. This title belongs to Daredevil.

Marvel’s The Defenders is available on Netflix now.

The Arrowverse just got a little bit more dangerous, with the announcement that Katee Sackhoff is joining the cast of The Flash in a recurring capacity as DC villain Blacksmith.

As EW reports, she will make her debut in the fifth episode of The Flash's upcoming fourth season, titled "Girls Night Out," which will also feature a guest appearance from Arrow's Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards).

Katee Sackhoff in Battlestar Galactica

The comic book version of Blacksmith, whose real name is Amunet Black, is one of the Flash's Rogues from the pre-Flashpoint days, and has the power to fuse organic and inorganic material — most commonly using this power to bond metal to flesh.

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If you’re still feeling down about Orphan Black coming to an end this past weekend, let Tatiana Maslany and Tatiana Maslany and Tatiana Maslany (and the rest of the cast) brighten your spirits just a little bit.

BBC America has released a blooper reel for the show’s final season that includes laughs, bleeps, and clones galore.

The whole thing is worth watching, but a few highlights include Art (Kevin Hanchard) calling Alison by the wrong name (“You think you’d know at this point,” Maslany jokes), Siri interrupting a serious Felix-Adele scene, Rachel dancing in a very un-Rachel-like fashion (while sporting her bloody eye), and the line from Cosima: “Are you high? Because your eyes are like sausages.” (For the record, the line was saucers.)

Watch above for even more.

Game of Thrones‘ final season now has a production start date.

The HBO drama will resume shooting in October. The news was first revealed by GoT star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in an interview with Collider.

October is a later start date than usual for the series, which typically gets underway in mid-summer and shoots until the end of the year. Season 7 was an exception, filming its seven episodes from September to February and then premiering on HBO this summer instead of in the spring (the first time that’s happened during the show’s run).

Season 8 will consist of six episodes. There have been rumors the episodes could be supersized, but that hasn’t been confirmed by HBO or the show’s producers. But both season 6 and 7 set new “longest episode ever” records (the upcoming season 7 finale is more than 80 minutes), so it’s within reason to expect at least one episode in the final season to do the same.

And while the final stretch will be the show’s shortest in terms of number of episodes, it’s also a pretty safe bet that the production will spend at least as much time filming the final season — if not more — as they have previous editions, given how producers keep trying to raise the bar in terms of the show’s epic spectacle and production quality every year.

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As EW was the first to report, it’s possible season 8 might not air in 2019, though no date has yet been announced. Coster-Waldau noted the cast hasn’t yet received their final season scripts. Once they do and filming begins, one big question that remains is whether the production will be able to shield the last of its storytelling secrets.

Samuel L. Jackson is set to reprise his role as detective John Shaft in Son of Shaft.

Deadline reports Jackson is in talks to return for the upcoming Shaft sequel, which will begin filming this fall. Jackson starred in the 2000 reboot of the 1971 action classic, where he played the nephew of Richard Roundtree's original John Shaft. Roundtree is reportedly returning as well.

Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft

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Scotland is a stronghold for the red squirrel: its numbers in the UK were decimated by the introduction, around a century ago, of grey squirrels from North America.  Larger and more aggressive, the Americans soon took over most of the red squirrels’ habitat.  Yet in some parts of Scotland there are no squirrels at all – a result of land clearance – squirrels do not travel well when there is no tree cover.  So, Trees for Life have started the process of populating ten sites in the Scottish highlands with red squirrels using members of existing populations and moving them to their new home.  This fascinating short film by the Wild Media Foundation follows the journey of four red squirrels as they become pioneers for their species in a new habitat.