Aquaman may not have the Rogues Gallery of some of his Justice League teammates like Batman, Superman, or the Flash. His baddies aren’t even on the level of Green Lantern’s or Wonder Woman’s, if we’re being honest. But that’s not to say they are all bargain basement baddies. The King of Atlantis has a few truly lethal and memorable villains who have plagued him over the decades, and these are the best of the best. Or should we say the worst of the worst?

7. The Scavenger (Peter Mortimer)

The villain known as the Scavenger was just as his name suggests—an underwater scavenger. First appearing in 1968’s Aquaman #37, Peter Mortimer wore a high-tech underwater diving suit, which he used to rummage through the ocean floor for lost treasure and powerful weapons. All of this, of course, brought him into conflict with Aquaman. Scavenger made a handful of appearances in the Silver and Bronze Age of comics. Eventually, he gained mystical powers, which made him a bigger threat. The New 52 reboot of the DC Universe brought him back to basics. Once again, he was a scavenger looting the ocean for ancient Atlantean artifacts. Only this time, he had a much cooler suit.

That much cooler suit helps him land a spot as one of Aquaman’s best baddies.

6. The Shark (Karshan)

The Shark is not to be confused with the Suicide Squad’s King Shark; that’s a totally different guy. No, the villain called the Shark actually originated as an antagonist for Green Lantern Hal Jordan, way back in Green Lantern #24 in 1963. His backstory was your basic Silver Age origin for a villain. A radioactive explosion went off in the ocean, transforming a basic tiger shark into a humanoid hybrid—one who only wanted to seek out prey and devour them. While he was mostly a Green Lantern adversary at first, as a water-based creature, it was inevitable he would wind up as an Aquaman villain. When he fought Arthur, he took on the Atlantean identity of Karshan. He wasn’t as menacing looking as later, similar villains like King Shark. At least not at first. But for some time there, he was a big thorn in Aquaman’s side.

5. The Fisherman

The Fisherman is one of those Silver Age Aquaman villains that just had that extra something creators and fans liked, so he kept coming back. His real name has never been revealed. He’s one of DC’s many pirates who use oceanic motifs as part of his schtick. Still, his look is slightly more memorable than the others. This is mainly because he literally used a giant titanium steel fishing rod as his main weapon. All while wearing a yellow fisherman’s cowl too. Oh, and with thigh-high boots. Because why not? He’s one of the few comic villains who made it into the ’60s Aquaman cartoon, which probably helped him, recognition-wise. DC eventually revealed his goofy fisherman’s hat was actually a parasitic entity that controlled his victims! That fact alone is so bizarre and off-the-wall, that it earns The Fisherman a place on this list.

4. Kordax

When writer Peter David created a whole history and lore for ancient Atlantis in his 1990 series The Atlantis Chronicles, one of the best additions was the villainous Kordax. He was born to an ancient Atlantean queen, but then abandoned after his birth because of his green-scaled body and (unusual for Atlanteans) blonde hair. But Kordax didn’t die when abandoned on the reef, because he had the power to telepathically communicate with sea life. And he learned to control them, and later, use them to do his bidding.

Kordax returned as an adult and tried to claim the Atlantean throne, but failed in his coup. Because of his unique hair color, blonde hair became a sign of evil to Atlanteans. And this was also why the Atlantean people abandoned his descendant Orin to die. Centuries later, he returned, and became a lethal enemy for his descendant Orin, now Aquaman, in the Sea King’s ’90s solo series written by his creator, Peter David. Aquaman ultimately killed him, but he made his mark in his short time as an Aquaman adversary. He will at least be referenced in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

3. Charybdis

Charybdis didn’t make a ton of appearances in many Aquaman comics. However, he inflicted the most pain on Arthur Curry than anyone other than Black Manta. Created by Peter David and Martin Egeland and first appearing in 1994’s Aquaman #1, Charybdis and his wife, Scylla were named for ancient monsters from Greek mythology. Both were high-profile terrorists who attempted to kill Aquaman for fame and money. But when Scylla was herself instead killed, Charybdis lost his mind with grief.

Similar to Marvel’s Rogue, Charybdis could absorb powers from others. He attempted to absorb Aquaman’s power, and then controlled a school of piranha to eat Aquaman’s hand, leaving nothing but bones. (He’d later replace that lost hand with a giant hook, which was pretty badass, we can’t lie). Charybdis couldn’t control Aquaman’s power, and he himself fell into a pool of piranha. But since this is comics, he didn’t really die. Instead, he melded with the creatures and absorbed their traits, and became Piranha Man. The name Piranha Man might sell more action figures, but we still like the name Charybdis better.

2. Ocean Master (Orm Marius)

Aquaman’s second most important villain is his own half-brother Orm, also known as Ocean Master. Orm has had several backstories over the years, but he’s always been Arthur Curry’s bitter sibling. First appearing in 1966’s Aquaman #29, he was originally a high-tech pirate. In the post-Crisis era, DC reinvented him as a sorcerer who wielded Atlantean magic, and the half-brother of Aquaman via his human father, Tom Curry. Peter David’s version was Aquaman’s half-brother via sharing the same father, this time the ancient Atlantean sorcerer Atlan.

In Geoff Johns’ New 52 era take on the character in 2011, he was an Atlantean royal, the other son of Queen Atlanna, who had a vendetta against the surface world for their pollution of the oceans, and who sought to destroy them. This was the version Patrick Wilson played that made it to live-action in the Aquaman film. Regardless of how he was related to Aquaman and by which parent, his role as the wildly jealous half-sibling was always constant. It always made the stakes between himself and his arch-enemy truly personal. Add to that a memorable design (that helmet is both goofy and cool), and he’ll always be one of Aquaman’s most famous bad guys.

1. Black Manta (David Hyde)

Over the decades, Aquaman faced off against many air-breathing undersea criminal types in diving suits. Many of which remain forgotten today. So why did Black Manta, who debuted in Aquaman #35 in 1967, rise to the top? And why is David Hyde the greatest of all Aquaman villains, even over his jealous half-brother Orm? Three reasons: His costume design is cool as hell. Never underestimate the power of a killer look in superhero comics. Second, he appeared in the Aquaman animated series, and later, on the Challenge of the Super-Friends. And finally, he committed the worst act ever done by a supervillain to their arch-enemy—he murdered Aquaman’s young son.

Ever since that seminal story back in the ‘70s, Black Manta became Arthur Curry’s most famous foe. The Joker to his Batman. Modern comics have given Black Manta more layers and backstory, including revealing his motivations against the King of Atlantis. One of those reasons is that he blamed Aquaman for the death of his father. Because of all of these things, Black Manta was not only a villain in the first Aquaman film, played by Yayah Abdul-Mateen II, but also in the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom as well. For all of these reasons, we highly doubt anyone will ever replace Black Manta as Aquaman’s most notorious enemy.

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The universe of Matt Reeves’ The Batman is expanding exponentially. Separate from the DCU involving the other DC heroes, Reeves’ world is hyper gritty, and focused solely on the world of Gotham City. And the first project of this new The Batman-verse is a Max (formerly HBO Max) series focusing on Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin.

Thanks to Max’s 2024 preview video, we have our first look at its action at the 1:20 mark. In it, Colin Farrell’s Penguin notes that “the world ain’t built for guys like us” as he tosses someone into the trunk of a car. We see his face and hear him say “you ain’t seen what I can do.” We have not, sir, but we are ready to see it when The Penguin hits Max in 2024.

According to Variety, Max’s The Batman spinoff will resume production shortly after Thanksgiving. Hopefully, that means we’ll be learning more about the show soon enough. For now, we have that short clip as well as this look at the upcoming series, courtesy of Empire.

Here’s everything we know so far about the upcoming The Penguin series centered on the so-called criminal King of Gotham, once again played by Colin Farrell.

Title

The title of the series is simply The Penguin.

The Penguin‘s Plot

Based on early statements, it seems the plot of the series focuses on Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot as he rises in the ranks of Gotham’s underworld, and becomes a power player. It will take place in the aftermath of the flooding of Gotham City, as seen in the final act of The Batman. Here’s what producer Matt Reeves had to say about the show’s premise:

Colin exploded off the screen as the Penguin in The Batman. Having the chance to thoroughly explore the inner life of that character on HBO Max is an absolute thrill. Dylan and I are so excited to work with Lauren in continuing Oz’s story as he grabs violently for power in Gotham.

The series will have eight episodes.

Behind the Scenes

Lauren LeFranc will write the script for the series and serve as showrunner. The Batman director Matt Reeves and producer Dylan Clark will serve as executive producers, along with star Colin Farrell. Reeves won’t be directing, at least not early on. Directing an early episode is Craig Zobel.

The Penguin‘s Cast

In the title role is the returning Colin Farrell. Also in the cast is Cristin Milioti as the female lead of the show, Sofia Falcone.

In addition, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Zegen, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Carmen Ejogo, François Chau, David H. Holmes, and Theo Rossi will also appear.

Most recently, we learned that Clancy Brown has joined the cast as Salvatore Maroni. Worth noting, in the comics, Maroni was responsible for throwing acid at Harvey Dent. This, of course, led Dent to become Two-Face. This could be an interesting way to bring the iconic villain into The Batman‘s world.

The Penguin‘s Release Date

The Penguin will officially come to Max sometime in 2024.

Originally published November 9, 2022.

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House of the Dragon’s first season flew in with all the drama, shocking moments, and, of course, dragons that fans expect from this universe. Season one took us back many decades before Daenerys Targaryen’s birth to show us the events leading to the decline of the mighty House Targaryen. Now, we are fully locked into the fury that Rhaenyra will rain upon her former BFF Alicent and her supporters after Jace’s death. What does the future hold for these warring factions? We shall see what happens in this upcoming season.

One thing we know is that everyone looks super intense yet hella fly in these first-look photos for season two.

Click To View Gallery

Here’s everything we know about House of the Dragon season two so far. 

House of the Dragon Season Two’s Plot 

The show is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, so book fans have a general sense of where this show will go. Of course, there will be some creative liberties taken, but the obvious “Dance of the Dragons” between Team Rhaenyra (the Black Queen) and Team Alicent will happen. Rhaenyra and her uncle-husband Daemon will wage war against Aegon II, Alicent’s son and the newly crowned king.

House Velaryon stands with the “Blacks” along with their massive navy. On the other side is the “Greens” with Alicent, her father Otto Hightower, Ser Criston Cole, and her son Aemond, the rider of Vhagar, the largest dragon in the world. There is no longer a chance at mediation as Rhaenyra’s rage takes over. 

The battle between the Greens and Blacks is further set up with these gorgeous posters featuring Alicent and Rhaenyra.

George R.R. Martin himself has seen the first two episodes and said on his blog that they were “very dark.” Now, we all know you literally can’t see things sometimes on this show. But we are sure he means the tone and action are not pleasant. He also said the episodes are “powerful, emotional, gut-wrenching, heart rending” and “may make you cry.” Let’s prepare out hearts for heartbreak.

Behind the Scenes 

House of the Dragon co-creator and executive producer Ryan Condal will continue on as a showrunner; however, his season one co-showunner Miguel Sapochnik will not return for season two. George R.R. Martin will continue his involvement as an executive producer. This time, fans will get eight episodes, which is two fewer than the first season.

House of the Dragon Season Two’s Cast

After many time jumps and casting changes in season one, House of the Dragon’s second season will stick with the faces we know now. And boy are there a lot of characters in this show. Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy will return as Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen. Olivia Cooke (Alicent), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Fabien Frankel (Ser Criston Cole), Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen), Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon Targaryen), Sonoya Mizuno (Mysaria), Matthew Needham (Larys Strong) and Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower) are also set to round out the main cast. 

Simon Russell Beale, Freddie Fox, Gayle Rankin, and Abubakar Salim have joined the series as well, according to Deadline. Beale plays Ser Simon Strong, Castellan of Harrenhal. Fox is Ser Gwayne Hightower. Rankin is Alys Rivers, and Salim is Alyn of Hull.

The series revealed new cast members at CCXP 2023, including Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew as Hugh, Tom Bennett as Ulf, Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark, and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne.

House of the Dragon Season Two’s Release Date 

There is currently no release date for House of the Dragon season two. However, the series is slated to release in the summer of 2024.

Originally published on May 8, 2023.

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It’s never easy to choose just one favorite character from among the many we meet in our travels through fictional worlds. Even when we narrow the scope to just one year of television, movies, and more, defining what makes for a favorite or “best” character seems like a herculean task. And though we say this every year, this year, we truly were spoiled for choice when it came to nerdy offerings that graced our screens. From fantastical realms to multiverse shenanigans to spectacular season twos, spinoffs, and original stories, we received a veritable buffet of characters to love (or to love hating) in 2023. And so, despite the difficulty, the Nerdist team has set out to narrow down the greatest of them all. Here are Nerdist‘s picks for the best characters of 2023.

Monkey D. Luffy From Netflix’s Live-Action One Piece

Selected by Rotem Rusak

I went into the live-action One Piece series as cold as possible for a franchise that’s been around for so long. And though I had no prior love or loyalty to the series, Iñaki Godoy’s Luffy immediately had me signing on to become a Straw Hat Pirate. How could anyone resist when Luffy just wants you to treasure your dreams and be the best you that you can be?

Having now watched some of the anime, I can confidently assess that Iñaki Godoy’s rendition captures all the hallmarks of the original Luffy: his unbounded joy, his intent enthusiasm, his determined love of his crew, and his sometimes overly excited tendencies. But above and beyond that, Godoy injects Luffy with a tremendous heart and warmth that is all his own, which deepens, rounds out, and evolves the character, taking him to new heights and pulling us all along for the ride. 

With Iñaki Godoy’s Luffy as captain, it makes total sense that everyone he meets falls in love with him and decides to follow him to the ends of the earth, fans included. And that makes live-action One Piece‘s Monkey D. Luffy one of our best characters of 2023. 

Egwene al’Vere From The Wheel of Time

Selected by Amy Ratcliffe

We had to wait a couple of years, but The Wheel of Time season two finally happened. The adaptation of Robert Jordan’s books of the same name leveled up in a number of ways from season one, including character development. Egwene al’Vere was one of the MVPs, standing out as one of the best characters not just in The Wheel of Time, but in all the television I watched this year. Performed by Madeleine Madden, Egwene found herself pulled out of the White Tower in the worst way possible: betrayed by a member of the Black Ajah and given to the Seanchan to take as damane. Collared and enslaved by the Seanchan, Egwene faced horrors unknown to most Aes Sedai. The Seanchan controlled Egwene’s ability to use the One Power and used her as a weapon. They broke her.

But Egwene, powerful in every way that matters, fought back. She made a difficult choice, one that will impact her for years to come. But she made it. No one decided her fate for her. In season two, Egwene rose above pain. She showed her mettle and protected her friends. It was a moving, terrible, important step on her journey.

M3GAN From M3GAN

Selected by Eric Diaz

True horror icons come two, maybe three for decade. In 2023, it came in the form of a killer robot doll with a judgmental glare—and who has no time for your crap—going by the name of M3GAN. From the moment we saw M3GAN’s pre-murderbot rampage dance in the trailer for her big-screen debut, she was poised for star status. When Gerard Johnstone’s film was finally released in January of 2023, she earned that status. Screenwriter Akela Cooper created a true icon in M3GAN, and not one of us will ever hear the song “Titanium” the same way again. M3GAN is definitely one of 2023’s best characters.

Marie Moreau From Gen V

Selected by Tai Gooden

A world full of superheroes seeped in debauchery, lies, and murder leads to a lot of blood. For Gen V’s Marie Moreau (played by the brilliant Jaz Sinclair), the constant spilling of this bodily fluid works to the advantage of her ever-expanding hemokinetic powers. Marie’s enthralling and tumultuous journey throughout season one spans from an orphan grieving her parents’ accidental demise to a self-assured young woman who confronts internal and external shaming and bravely redefines what it means to be a hero.

As she further steps into her personal power, her abilities expand and allow her to rewrite her destiny. Marie Moreau has heart, but she won’t completely sacrifice herself for the sake of others. She’s broken and resilient, passionate and terrified, and socially awkward yet keenly aware of her place and space within society on multiple levels as a Black woman. Watching her conjure blood from the soaked grassy quad and shoot it like daggers was perhaps the most empowering moment in this universe so far. She’s a true gem in a mine of new TV characters.

Roderick Usher From The Fall of the House of Usher

Selected by Mikey Walsh

The full depth of Bruce Greenwood’s incredible performance on The Fall of the House of Usher couldn’t be totally appreciated until it was over. Long before his final moments, we knew the pharmaceutical CEO was responsible for a massacre of untold millions. Roderick Usher’s body count had few equals in history. Worse, he amassed his empire by sacrificing his kids’ future to a supernatural entity. And yet, even knowing all of that, Greenwood made Roderick compelling by making it hard to fully hate him. Hadn’t Roderick started out with good intentions? Didn’t he want to end suffering rather than inflict more? And wasn’t his punishment more than anyone deserved? Didn’t his mistakes and remorse make his story a tragedy because he was a flawed person rather than a real monster?

No. His final confession wasn’t about the murders he’d committed or the deal he’d accepted. It was about the greatest lie he’d told. He’d always known exactly what Ligodone was and what it would do to the world. It was only then we knew the truth—he really was the Devil, and he had tricked us into thinking he’s not. That’s why Roderick Usher is among 2023’s best new characters.

Caine From John Wick: Chapter 4

Selected by Kyle Anderson

The John Wick series has always offered action movie fans a cadre of wild underworld characters and hardened assassins to go up against our favorite gun-fu fighter. John Wick: Chapter 4 is easily the best of the bunch in this field, and while offering a number of cool new characters, none were as great as Caine, played by Donnie Yen. The sightless assassin with a sword in his walking stick and a pocket full of sound grenades gives John his toughest battle yet, and the fact that Caine is a reluctant combatant, an anti-villain trapped in a tough spot, endears us to him all the more. And yes, he kicks the most amount of butt; it’s Donnie Yen! Why wouldn’t he?!

O.B. From Loki Season 2

Selected by Mikey Walsh

This year proved it doesn’t matter which multiverse you find yourself watching, Ke Huy Quan is an absolute joy in all of them. The recent Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar-winner joined Loki in season two and promptly stole all of his scenes. (No small feat considering his costars.) His brilliant, way-too-literal, wonderfully straightforward O.B. was a constant source of both humor and information. What really made Ouroboros one of 2023’s best new characters, though, was the way Quan was able to also convey the inherent sadness of the O.B.’s life, even if the engineer himself wasn’t fully aware of his plight. That gave the TVA employee a depth that easily could have been lost with a lesser performance. We wanted to hang out and listen to Ouroboros while also giving him a big hug. Just like we’d love to do with Ke Huy Quan himself in every universe everywhere.

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Anyone paying attention to the career of Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos might have assumed he was veering away from his weirder efforts—Dogtooth, Killing of a Sacred Deer—after his Oscar-winning “mainstream” outing, The Favourite. Had the surreal-leaning director lost his edge? I mean… no, of course not. Just watch his latest, Poor Things, an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name. The movie is a wickedly funny, supremely subversive look at gender roles and sexuality through the lens of Victorian horror. It’s good shit, is what I’m saying.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you know the movie has a pseudo Frankenstein vibe. Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a scientist who specializes in vivisection and splicing animal parts together, makes a woman he names Bella (Emma Stone). Though a fully grown adult, she begins the story with the mind of a child. Dr. Baxter aims to observe her and her ability to learn, employing a medical student (Ramy Youssef) to take notes for him. In the most unsubtle of touches, Bella calls Dr. Baxter “God,” and in keeping with that moniker, he’s withholding and fairly patrician.

As Bella learns—quite quickly it should be said—she discovers her own bodily functions and urges, and eventually a cad named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo in an outrageously funny and sad performance) whisks her away for a sex-fueled trip around the world. But Bella won’t be contained, and does what she wants, unmoored by the trappings of polite society. She reads philosophers and poetry and begins to learn who and what she is, all the while various men in her life seek to control her for their own selfish and rather petty reasons. It’s the Victorian era, let us not forget.

Lanthimos creates a gorgeous, heightened world for Bella to inhabit, period appropriate but never realistic as such. The world needs to look strange and new and vibrant because Bella is seeing everything for the first time. The whole movie has a glorious artifice to it for most of the runtime. Each segment of Bella’s adventures has its own visual style and color scheme. God’s house is drab and cold, while Monte Carlo is bold and colorful like a painting.

Poor Things has a certain amount of cringe to it at the beginning with regard to how men leer at Bella, who has the mind of a child. It’s creepy. But that’s the point. As she begins to learn and question, she decides she needs sexual gratification but not the stigma or ownership men place on it. Duncan may think she’s his plaything but quickly he has to learn he’s actually hers. This does not sit well with him, even though the circumstances have hardly changed. One of the major themes of the movie is how men have traditionally commodified women and sexual conquest of them but always to the detriment of the women in question. Bella refuses to be exploited or controlled.

If I have one complaint about the movie it’s that I think it gilds the lily a bit toward the end. The final vignette, in which a brand new character appears who has ties to the overall plot but had never existed previously, shows up and throws a wrench in Bella’s works. It’s not a bad sequence, but I felt as though it didn’t ultimately change anything other than to provide one last horrible man for Bella to overcome. Far be it from me to say a movie is too long. I just felt like nothing truly new or revelatory came out of this part. Ultimately it just added 20 minutes.

That aside, Poor Things is one of my favorite movies of 2023. The world Lanthimos creates is so vivid and strange while the themes it explores are so universal. Anyone iffy about sex scenes should be aware Poor Things has a lot of them. As the movie is about destigmatizing sexuality, and specifically women’s sexuality, they’re integral to Bella’s journey. The shock wears off. People are both base and enlightened, carnal and intellectual. If you engage with the movie on those levels—and marvel at the weirdness—you’ll probably love it too.

Poor Things ⭐ (4 of 5)

Poor Things opens December 8.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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We’re about to reach the end of David Tennant’s brief but welcome return run as the Fourteenth Doctor. So, it’s time to start anticipating which villains the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, will be facing in his upcoming run. Returning showrunner Russell T. Davies has already confirmed that the Fifteenth Doctor won’t be facing off against Daleks or Cybermen. At least not in his first season, anyway. Davies says both of the Doctor’s classic enemies need a “good pause.” As a long-time Whovian, I’d probably add the Master to that pause list as well, as excited as I’d be to see either Michelle Gomez or Sacha Dhawan, or, bless my hearts, both come back. 

Ncuti’s debut season will introduce new enemies. I’m always stoked for new and interesting villains. However, there are Doctor Who villains, fiends, foes, and frenemies from the show’s past and other mediums who can make a long-awaited return or a first-time debut onscreen. “The Star Beast” did excellent work of adapting a classic Doctor Who comic story and the Celestial Toymaker is coming back for the first time in decades in the final anniversary special, so digging into the past seems like a good move. Here are a few baddies we’d love to see face off against Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in the near future.

The Rutans

One of the major bits of Doctor Who lore focuses on the Sontarans, a stout race of alien clones at constant war with their sworn enemies, the Rutans. We’ve seen the Sontarans make frequent returns to Doctor Who since their first appearance in 1973’s “The Time Warrior.” But the only time we’d ever seen a Rutan on TV was in 1977’s “The Horror of Fang Rock.” The Sontarans might not like to hear me say this, but it’s time for some more Rutans!

The Aggedor of Peladon

The Third Doctor serial “The Monster of Peladon” (1974) is one of the rare times we see the Doctor return to a planet to discover how its culture is progressing. (It takes place 50 years (in the series time, not ours) after the 1972 story “The Curse of Peladon.”) While the Aggedor wasn’t ultimately an antagonist, its role in the superstitions and reverence to the culture of Peladon would make a fun story. The show can revisit in perhaps another generation or two after we last saw them onscreen.

The Selachians

The Selachians are a frequent Big Finish audio antagonist. They are alien sharks who have been awkwardly shoved into big bulky battle-mech suits. They can roam outside the ocean and conquer the universe. I don’t know what else I have to say to convince you this would make an amazing monster to see on TV? You can call the episode “Shark Week.” Please make this Doctor Who villain come to life.

The Ravenous

We see a lot of the Doctor protecting others from their enemies, and we see the Master toy with the Doctor. But we rarely get a monster that exists as a direct threat to the Doctor. The Ravenous are Big Finish monsters and a total trigger warning for those with clown phobias. These killers are from a world inside the time vortex devour the regeneration energy of Time Lords. Given how few Time Lords are left in the universe after the Time War, the Ravenous hunting down Ncuti’s Doctor to feed on his energy could be a delightfully intense story.

Nobody No-One

Look, I like when Doctor Who gets weird. And you can’t get much weirder than this Big Finish foe who comes from an alternate universe where Word Lords exist instead of Time Lords. A being who travels in a CORDIS (Conveyance of Repeating Dialogue in Space-Time) and can manifest the spoken word into great power for himself is wild. Nobody No-One would make a great TV antagonist in this era of grand CGI budgets, and an excellent foe for a character whose primary trait is running his mouth. 

Gangers

One of the biggest themes of Doctor Who is having empathy and understanding the plight of others. But a lot of the villains we run into are fairly black and white as far as being “bad.” The Gangers, introduced in the Eleventh Doctor two-parter “The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People,” were synthetic avatars of humans created to do dangerous tasks. They gained sentience and then resisted the painful deaths they were often subjected to when seen as disposable.

When the Doctor left them, Gangers were starting to push for rights in society, but the episode did reveal that the technology for making them still existed centuries later in the future. Revisiting the Gangers at a later time when their ongoing fight for autonomy is still a struggle would be a great opportunity to show another antagonist with a morality that has to be addressed.

Raxacoricofallapatorians

This one is a stretch, but hear me out. The Slitheen, a family of criminals from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious (good luck, spell check!), appeared in three episodes of Christopher Eccleston’s first and only season in 2005. They were also in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They’re also one of the most quickly mocked aliens in Doctor Who, with good reason. They’re a fart joke… and not a particularly good one.

But they’re also a weird relic of the last time the show was brand new again and struggling to find its voice, tone, and footing. And when Davies brought one back for “Boom Town” towards the end of that season, he still managed to do it in a way that made even these cringey characters interesting and layered. I would love to see him tackle this alien again with his contemporary sensibilities. Perhaps he can take this past punchline and turn it into something amazing.

Other Time Lords

The Master and the Doctor are fun and all, but there are a whole host of antagonistic Time Lords from Doctor Who’s history that could make a welcome appearance. While they’ve shown up in comics and audio dramas, sometimes the continuity for them gets murky and could serve to be solidified a bit more by the TV show. The First and Second Doctor’s time lord antagonists the Monk and the War Chief would be a welcome sight, as well as The Rani who vexed the Sixth and Seventh. 

Big Finish audios feature an interesting take on a Time Lord antagonist with the Renegade, also known as “The Eleven.” This character suffers from a regenerative dissonance. This means all of their previous regenerations still exist as separate, active identities within their mind. Basically, imagine a multi-Doctor episode played by one actor.

And let’s not forget Rassilon himself, who has appeared twice since 2005 played by Timothy Dalton and Donald Sumpter. Even if Gallifrey is still a smoldering ruin, Sumpter’s Rassilon was exiled by the Doctor and could still be out roaming the universe. And maybe he is still a bit annoyed by it all.

There are lots of favorite monsters from the 60 years of this show that would be a welcome sight, will we see any of them, or will a new cadre of baddies make us hide behind the couch? Only time will tell.

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There have been many Spider-Man cartoons over the decades. The original 1967 is iconic thanks to that theme song, and many a Millennial Marvel fan loves the ’90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series. But one of the best Spidey toons of all time was the 2008 Spectacular Spider-Man series. It only ran for two seasons, but many view it as one of the best interpretations of Peter Parker outside of comics. Now, via The Direct, we’ve learned that after its Disney+ debut in October 2022, Spectacular Spider-Man is now mysteriously gone from the platform. Spidey didn’t even stick around long enough on Disney+ to make any new amazing friends.

So why is it gone, and where can fans watch it? As to why it’s no longer on Disney+, we can only guess. Sony produced the show, so it’s likely to do with some kind of licensing deal. Non-MCU Marvel properties tend to vanish and then reappear on the platform all the time. The many Fox X-Men films are a perfect example of this. As to where fans can now watch it? Well, it’s still not available on its previous home on Netflix. However, you can still buy individual episodes on Amazon Prime. And, of course, fans can always just buy the complete series set on Blu-ray. Physical media will never suddenly disappear without warning.

Hopefully, one of these days, they will sort out all the various licensing issues, and Disney+ can be the permanent home to all Marvel Comics-based media, especially Spider-Man. With the Spectacular Spider-Man version of Peter Parker appearing (briefly) in Across the Spider-Verse, more fans have become curious about him, and having it vanish from the platform now after a mere few months is rather unfortunate. Having said that, we have a feeling this is not the permanent end of the Spectacular Spider-Man on Disney+. The real question is “When will it return?”

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We continue unbidden into the age of digital streaming dominance in the entertainment industry. CEOs and studio heads, therefore, feel the need to clamp down even more on their beloved bottom lines. To that end, many of the majors have focused on combining their various streaming services into one. Take WBD, for example, which recently (and without anyone else wanting it) merged their HBO Max and Discovery+ services into Max. Not to be outdone (never to be outdone), Disney CEO Bob Iger announced something new in May. Hulu—which Disney acquired in the Fox deal—will find its content combining with Disney+. A beta test of a combined Disney and Hulu app is here and, according to Deadline, a full rollout is coming in March 2024.

As far as costs, subscriptions to for the Hulu and Disney+ duo start at $10 a month, $2 more than the basic tier of Disney+. Subscribers will see a “Hulu” button alongside those for Marvel, Pixar, Disney, Star Wars, and National Geographic. The apps will still offer standalone services, though.

Disney CEO Bob Iger shared the following on a recent earnings call:

“We are basically putting it in beta so that we can prepare parents, largely, to basically implement parental controls, because you’ll be able to access Hulu programming on the same app… We found that where we bundle, we lower churn.”

We should note, in countries, such as the United Kingdom, where Hulu never existed, the content of both platforms was always on Disney+.

At a time when the future of art as entertainment, and the viability of working in the entertainment industry, remains uncertain, one of the few things we can count on is enormous companies looking to make it easier for them to make billions of dollars. Consolidating Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ under one app won’t change too much for you, the consumer. But potentially making everything like old terrestrial cable packages might.

Originally published on May 10, 2023.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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There’s a lot of excitement about Deadpool 3 for many reasons. First, it marks the return of this raunchy yet loveable character to the big screen over five years after the last film. Then there’s the excitement of Deadpool officially joining the MCU. Finally, this film is the only Marvel movie coming in 2024. We obviously live in a world where leaks and spoilers pop up all the time, so it’s not shocking that there are unofficial snapshots of Deadpool 3 during filming. There are images on the internet to the chagrin of many who don’t wish to see unofficial photos that reveal possible plot points and new characters. One very important person who wants the Deadpool 3 photo leaks to stop is Ryan Reynolds, who released a statement about it on his Instagram page. 

Here is a reader-friendly version of the statement for all:

“Surprises are part of the magic of theatrical movies. It is important for us to shoot the new Deadpool film in real, natural environments, using practical effects as opposed to making the movie indoors and digitally. Telephoto lenses continue to spoil surprises and create a difficult situation for everyone. Here’s hoping some of the websites and social channels hold back showing images before they’re ready. The film is built for audience joy—and our highest hope is to preserve as much of that magic as possible for the finished film and the big screen. Part of the reason people post spoilers is because they’re excited. I realize these aren’t real world issues and it’s firmly in the ‘good problems’ bucket. I love making this movie.”

Joy is something we all need and it is nice to go into something with fresh eyes. Knowing nothing only amps up the energy. Basically, spoilers suck for a lot of fellow fans. Ryan Reynolds makes lots of good and heartfelt points in his statement about Deadpool 3 leaks, indeed. 

The actor did recently share a photo of him as Wade Wilson without that infamous mask. Yes, he still looks like an avocado or perhaps a n*tsack, depending on who you ask. The latter is even wilder with the dog licking the side of his face.

Deadpool 3 is coming our way on July 26, 2024. We know there will be plenty of wonderful clips, photos, and trailers coming in the near future. For now, this post will tell you everything you need to know about Deadpool 3.

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2023 is already at a close, and it’s time to look back on this momentous year for comic books. This year, fan-favorite heroes were killed off, horror comics continued to thrive, and DSTLRY launched a new approach to creator-owned comics. Without further ado, here are the very best comics that came out this year. 

MARVEL

The Incredible Hulk

The Hulk has been around since 1962, and it’s about time he starred in his own Southern Gothic body horror story. This year, The Incredible Hulk quite literally exploded his way to becoming one of Marvel’s strongest books. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Nic Klein delivered a haunting and lyrical tale of Bruce Banner and a spunky teenager named Charlie traveling through the American South. There’s creepy church songs, creatures exploding out of bodies, abandoned mining towns, and a brand new Ghost Rider – what more could you want? Horror comics are popular right now, but The Incredible Hulk has its own corner of the market because of its Southern Gothic specificity. Johnson and Klein are one of the finest creative teams at Marvel today, so don’t miss out. 

Immortal Thor

One of the most powerful things that can happen while reading a superhero book is being reminded of why you love, or loved, a character so much. Immortal Thor by Al Ewing and Martín Cóccolo presents this type of awakening. Al Ewing has stated that his favorite kind of Thor is a smiling Thor. And seeing the god of thunder smile in Immortal Thor #1 breaks down any sense of separation we might feel from this arguably unrelatable character. Thor is at his best when you can feel chummy with him, even if you don’t quite understand the life he lives. Under Ewing and Cóccolo’s stewardship, Thor feels like your best friend who also happens to be a god. He sparks enough joy to pass the Marie Kondo test. How lucky we are to have him. 

Star Wars: Dark Droids

If you are anything of a Star Wars fan yourself, run – don’t walk – to Marvel’s Star Wars comics. The ongoing Dark Droids event highlights the strength of the Star Wars line in its entirety, between the title series by Charles Soule and Madibek Musabekov, Bounty Hunters by Ethan Sacks and Davide Tinto, Doctor Aphra by Alyssa Wong and Mingkyu Jung, and Darth Vader by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco. Dark Droids poses the simple question of what would happen if all of the droids and cyborgs in the galaxy were corrupted by an evil virus. Considering how widespread droids are, it’s a genius question. Not even Vader is safe. 

The X-Cellent

As algorithms continue to sway the course of popular culture, the X-Statix have never felt more relevant. The X-Statix are an X-Men team created by Peter Milligan, Michael Allred, and Laura Allred. Unlike other X-Men teams, the X-Statix have always had a strong satirical bent, as they are reality stars more than honest superheroes. The X-Cellent by Milligan and the Allreds is their latest adventure, where Mr. Sensitive’s team battles their vomiting foe, Zeitgeist, once again (yes, you read that right). The X-Statix are just about the most dysfunctional superhero team around, and The X-Cellent highlights everything that makes them so refreshing.  

She-Hulk/The Sensational She-Hulk

The world is a better place when She-Hulk has an ongoing series. The Sensational She-Hulk is a continuation of Rainbow Rowell and Andrés Genolet’s She-Hulk series that wrapped up earlier this year. Rowell and Genolet’s love for the character shines through with their work, as it has more of a slice-of-life feel than most superhero stories. In a genre overcrowded by insanely high, universe-shattering stakes, The Sensational She-Hulk provides the rare opportunity to sit down on a comfortable couch and listen to characters have conversations with each other. She-Hulk is such a wonderful character that she makes every issue a gift. 

DC

Green Lantern

Jeremy Adams and Xermánico’s Green Lantern is the Top Gun: Maverick of Hal Jordan stories. It’s effortless, impeccably executed, heavy on “hang-out” time with the characters, and there’s a motorcycle or two. This isn’t your typical Hal Jordan story, as he’s living out of a trailer and his old flame, Carol Ferris, has moved on. Regardless of what your feelings about Hal Jordan are, Green Lantern will give you a reason to root for this guy. Additionally, Xermánico continues to prove that he is one of the most versatile artists working in comics today. He nails soft, bright, emotional scenes alongside pulse-pounding, gritty action sequences. The sky is the limit in Green Lantern.

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville is the female-led buddy comedy we’ve always needed. For those who aren’t familiar, Fire and Ice were on the Justice League back in the late 1980s and 1990s. Despite being one of DC’s best friendships, the two superheroines haven’t gotten their due. But now, thanks to Joanne Starer and Natacha Bustos, Fire and Ice shine as they set up their own hair salon in Smallville, Kansas. Each issue will make you fall in love with this dynamic duo even more, and there’s some hilarious cameos sprinkled throughout.

The Vigil

If you’re a fan of morally-grey superheroes, look no further than The Vigil by Ram V and Lalit Kumar Sharma. A brand new team composed of metahumans from India, The Vigil are built in a similar vein to the WildC.A.T.S. from the 1990s, except they’re even cooler. There’s a kid on the team named Castle who is so terrifyingly smart that The Vigil would rather have him on their team than risk the chance of someone else scooping him up. The evocative character designs by Sharma hint at the interesting backstories for each character, with Saya’s mask being an instantly iconic look. V and Sharma’s miniseries proves that The Vigil have immense potential in the DC Universe, so now is a good time to jump aboard! 

Peacemaker Tries Hard! 

If you’ve haven’t cried from laughter while reading a comic, you haven’t lived. Peacemaker Tries Hard! by Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh is one of the funniest books of the year. Kyle Starks launches one-liners like a potato gun, executed with precision by Steve Pugh’s gorgeous and expressive artwork. What makes Peacemaker such a delight is that he is not very good at being a superhero, and he lacks any sense of self-awareness. Coupled with the fact that he has an adorable puppy named Bruce Wayne, it doesn’t get much funnier than Peacemaker Tries Hard! 

Action Comics

2023 was the year that Action Comics became a book celebrating the entire Superman Family. With new costumes designed by artist Dan Mora, the Super-Family has never felt more central to the evolving DC mythos. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has consistently transformed a different Superman villain with every arc on Action Comics. Under the pen of artist Rafa Sandoval, Metallo reached new heights as a villain, with the story focusing on his chances for redemption. It’s the perfect model for Superman’s values in restorative justice, while also providing a counter to Action’s more clear-cut evildoers, like Mongul and Lex Luthor. 

INDIE PUBLISHERS

Phantom Road

Image Comics’ Phantom Road is written by one of the most distinctive voices in horror comics today, Jeff Lemire. Together with artist Gabriel H. Walta and colorist Jordie Bellaire, Lemire takes us on a highway to hell with haunting images we can never unsee. The story follows a trucker named Dom who stumbles across a stretch of highway where desiccated zombie-like creatures roam. What ensues is like if Resident Evil 2 met Kentucky Route Zero. Walta’s grimy artwork is not to be missed. 

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

Every once and a while, we are lucky enough to find a series that has us screaming, “WHAT IN TARNATION?!” at the end of the first issue. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees from IDW Publishing is one of those series. Written and drawn by Patrick Horvath, Beneath the Trees has an adorable aesthetic that doesn’t hide the grisly habits of its protagonist, a serial killer named Samantha. However, Samantha is a very cuddly-looking bear, living in a quaint town with other animals, not unlike your own island in Animal Crossing. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees has a gleefully macabre sense of humor and eye-popping visuals. Don’t miss it. 

Killadelphia 

If you haven’t read even a bit of Image Comics’ Killadelphia, you’re missing out on one of the greatest horror books of the past decade. Written by Rodney Barnes with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, Killadelphia explores the sins of America’s past and present through vampires. Only, these aren’t your typical vampires, they’re figures like Former President George Washington. Killadelphia continues to be a thought-provoking look at American history. Alexander’s art captures the violence at the center of it all with gritty excellence. Come for the vampire former Presidents, stay for the heartfelt meditations on family. 

Carmilla: The First Vampire 

Between Killadelphia and Carmilla: The First Vampire, vampires have never felt more fresh in comics. Amy Chu and Soo Lee’s graphic novel is set in 1996 in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Social worker Athena Loo is pulled into a web of mystery after a number of her clients are murdered. Chu’s writing beautifully captures the everyday culture of Manhattan Chinatown, seamlessly weaving the dangers of gentrification with the vampire metaphor. The title of the graphic novel comes from Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella of the same name, and it stays true to the original as a lesbian vampire story. But make no mistake, Carmilla: The First Vampire has its own unique story to tell. 

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Professional wrestling’s long history includes many famous clans who made the sport a family affair. Fans know all about the Harts, the McMahons, the Anoa’i, the Funks, the Guerreros, and the Rhodes. Lots of famous households strapped up their boots and got in the squared circle together. They then taught the family business to new generations of stars. But while fans can debate the best, most talented, most important pro wrestling families ever, there’s no question over the industry’s most tragic. The name Von Erich is as synonymous with talent as it is with grief. Now the legendary Texas clan’s sad story is coming to the big screen in A24’s The Iron Claw, and we are getting a glimpse at the behind the scenes action of it all.

We never thought we’d see Zac Efron portray a wrestler but he, along with co-stars Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickerson, put the work in. It looks like they built a great friendship along the way. The film’s trailer gives us a great look at The Iron Claw‘s story, which has a depth of heartbreak that’s hard to believe even though we know it’s true.

The Iron Claw is the pro wrestling movie that needed to be made. But it will be hard for those who don’t already know about the Von Erichs to believe what happened to the family. Even the official synopsis for The Iron Claw, which released alongside the trailer, only hints at the fate of a family who made a lasting mark both in the ring and out of it.

From A24:

The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports. 

Unfortunately, pro wrestling is no different than life: immortality doesn’t always come the way you hope.

Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) both wrote and directed this movie. The Iron Claw stars Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Stanley Simons, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, and Lily James. It climbs into the ring later this year when it premieres in theaters on December 22, 2023.

Originally published on October 11, 2023.

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We’ve known that a Blade movie is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019. Who can forget with the film’s star—Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali—put on a hat that said “BLADE!” and caused an excited uproar in San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H?! Though there have been some ups and downs with this movie, hopefully, we’ll only see smooth sailing for our favorite vampire from here on out.

Thankfully, Ali says things are still moving forward to some degree in a direction that he approves. “We’re working on it. That’s the best I could tell you,” he said in an Entertainment Weekly interview. “I’m really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we’ll be back at it relatively soon.”

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming Blade movie.

Title

The title of this movie is simple: Blade.

Blade‘s Plot

Right now, we don’t have any plot details for Blade. But, we can imagine the film will borrow from the character’s comic origins. Blade debuted in the tenth issue of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula comic back in 1973, from writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan. He quickly became a supremely popular character, a half-vampire killer of vampires and other occult baddies. Blade first made it to the big screen in 1998 starring Wesley Snipes. Two sequels followed—one of them good—but eventually, that franchise sort of fell by the wayside.

We do know that Blade will be rated R; the rating was recently confirmed by the movie’s director Yann Demange. Blade marks the second MCU movie to receive an R-rating, although we bet that it will be a very different R-rated experience than Deadpool 3. The rating opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the MCU movie and we can’t wait to see what how they will manifest.

Behind the Scenes

Playwright Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen) wrote an early draft of the script. In 2021, Bassam Tariq confirmed he will direct the film via The Playlist podcast. However, Tariq has since left the project.

The director offered a brief statement about his experience with Blade.

Now Lovecraft Country‘s Yann Demange has come aboard as Blade‘s new director. In addition, Michael Starrbury wrote a new script for the vampiric movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has recently joined the project to work off of Starrbury’s script.

Blade‘s Cast

As mentioned above, two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali will play the daywalking half-vampire badass in the upcoming Blade movie. Meanwhile, Delroy Lindo is joining Ali in film. While we don’t formally know who Lindo is playing, we think he could be Jamal Afari, who in the comics raised Blade and taught him all about vampire slaying. As we saw (or rather, heard) at the end of Eternals, Kit Harington will cross paths with Blade, reprising his role as Dane Whitman.

Krypton actor Aaron Pierre has joined the cast of Blade in another undisclosed character. Unlike Lindo, however, this role will seemingly have bigger implications on the Marvel Cinematic Universe than just this one film. And Deadline has also reported that X and Pearl star Mia Goth will join the cast in an unspecified role.

Blade‘s Release Date

The Blade Marvel movie will arrive in theaters on November 7, 2025.

Originally published on July 20, 2019.

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The world of The Boys continues to expand. After the first live-action spinoff series Gen V arrived to much fan and critical acclaim, now yet another spinoff is on the way from Amazon. Only this will be a Spanish language series, set in Mexico City. According to Deadline, The Boys: Mexico will be written by Blue Beetle’s Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, and produced by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, who may both take on minor acting roles in the series.

In a Variety interview, Banal confirmed the series as well as his involvement. He couldn’t go into details, obviously, but did offer a brief statement saying, “I’m very excited about what we can do, because we can do something very interesting in Latin America.” Flagship series creators Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg will executive produce for Sony/Prime Video.

So what would The Boys: Mexico even be about? Right now, we don’t have details. We’re not even sure that title is sticking. The name “The Boys” is about the underground group trying to bring down Vought and The Seven. Unless Mexico has its own set of Vought heroes and its own underground group of “boys,” would that title even make sense? So much of the adaptation of the Garth Ennis comic book series parodies famous tropes from Marvel and DC Comics. But both universes have superhero groups all over the world. Groups like DC’s Global Guardians and Marvel’s Canadian heroes, Alpha Flight. We may see a more unhinged version of this concept for this new show.

Gen V tied directly into the events of the previous season of The Boys, even though it was very much its own show. We even had an appearance by Homelander himself at the end. It will be interesting to see how many of the cast of the main series will appear, as they will shoot in Latin America. The show is only in development as of right now, and has not landed a greenlight yet. But given how hugely popular The Boys is, we expect this one to go through.

Originally published on November 28, 2023.

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Disney Lorcana isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The Disney animation-themed trading card game from Ravensburger just saw the release of its second set, Rise of the Floodborn. Even though we know the gaming company is releasing new cards quarterly, it’s still hard to believe it’s already time to learn about Disney Lorcana‘s third set. Yet here we are. The third installment is called Disney Lorcana: Into the Inklands. The 200+ card set introduces a new type of card, new Disney characters, Lorcana lore, and more.

I love the adventurous look of the Into the Inklands logo. The name is a clue to the new type of cards, too: location cards. These will feature Disney story settings and offer players special abilities and interactions. Settings include Motonui from Moana and the Jolly Roger from Peter Pan. Some locations give bonuses when characters visit them, while other location cards provide benefits just by being in play.

Additionally, Lorcana‘s third set will debut new in-game mini-stories and expand featured characters. This comes through narrative on the cards as stories unfold through quotes and descriptive text. Ravensburger says this will allow players to discover even more links between cards.

As for those new characters, Into the Inklands will have several. The installment brings Pluto, Perdita from 101 Dalmatians, Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales, Kit Cloudkicker from TaleSpin, and Jim Hawkins and the RLS Legacy crew from Treasure Planet. That’s a hefty dose of ’90s Disney nostalgia, and we’re here for it.

The Lorcana lore continues in Into the Inklands, too. A synopsis states:

The Disney Lorcana TCG set Into the Inklands continues the story of the Illumineers who were mysteriously transported to the realm of Lorcana (The First Chapter). After accidentally unleashing a flood of mixed ink (Rise of the Floodborn) that scattered precious lore throughout the realm, Illumineers are now tasked with finding the lore and returning it to the Hall of Lorcana. However, their quest may be more treacherous than they realize, as an ominous shadow storm has been spotted gathering at the edges of Lorcana, adding urgency and mystery to the path ahead.

The Into the Inklands release will include the following items:

• Amber and Emerald Starter Deck ($16.99)
• Sapphire and Ruby Starter Deck ($16.99)
• Booster packs ($5.99)
• Illumineers Trove ($49.99)
• Gift Set ($29.99)
• Play accessories: Card Sleeves, Deck Boxes, Card Portfolios, and Playmats

Disney Lorcana: Into the Inklands will first release at local game stores on February 23, 2024. Mass market retailers will get the third set on March 8, 2024. Hopefully the inventory issues that have plagued Lorcana so far will smooth out with Into the Inklands.

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The pandemic prevented or delayed the theatrical release of many movies. More than one studio leveraged the closure of theaters to boost their streaming services, including Disney+. Disney made the baffling decision to premiere three Pixar movies directly on Disney+: Soul, Luca, and Turning Red. The latter was especially confusing, as it released in March 2022. Theaters had been open again for months. But now, whatever decisions were made in the past, these three Pixar movies are coming to theaters nationwide. We can finally see Soul, Luca, and Turning Red in the format they (and all the people who worked on them) deserve.

That trailer is a brief reminder of how excellent each of these movies is. Rewatching them on Disney+ hasn’t been the same. Plus, now that Pixar movies will be in theaters, they each get the traditional animated short film airing ahead of them. Even though the shorts aren’t new, it’s comforting to see these films following form.

Here’s the release schedule:

• Soul with “Burrow” – January 12
• Turning Red with “Kitbull” – February 9
• Luca with “For the Birds” – March 22

We can’t wait to go see our friends on the big screen.

Featured Image: Pixar

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I believe movie fans will come to remember 2023 as a truly great year for cinema. I have zero doubt which two films will come to define these past 12 months of movies. Barbie and Oppenheimer both arrived in theaters on the same day. Despite being about as different as two films can be, they’re forever connected. The two global blockbusters combined to give us “Barbenheimer,” an unofficial double feature created organically by fans. If, like so many others, you’re one of them, you can now appreciate both movies in a whole new way. Their respective stars, Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy, sat down to interview each other in the latest episode of Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” web-series.

Their delightful conversation provided tons of great tidbits and insights into the making of each film. It’s a conversation so good it should be an extra on both Barbie‘s and Oppenheimer‘s Blu-rays.

This fun, informative, entertaining chat between two of 2023’s most notable stars has too many amazing moments to mention all of them. Robbie and Murphy touched on a wide range of subjects covering almost every aspect of their movies, from pre-production through the overwhelming success of both. They also discussed everything and anything about their directors, Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan, from their approach to filmmaking to each directors’ wardrobe choices on set. The two also talked about developing their characters, how they research their roles, finding the right accent, and what it was like to carry such a heavy burden as their films’ stars. If you love learning how the Hollywood sausage is made, this is a must-watch.

That’s also true if you also like listening to two talented, charming people enjoying each other’s work. That’s how you’ll learn which one ends up talking to themself in a basement before filming starts. Or which one loves wearing masks to see their own films while the other can’t stand to see themself on-screen. And it’s how you’ll learn they both love writing letters to people they hope to work with someday, how much they know about memes, and what they’re okay with people screaming at them on the street.

Peaky Binders fans will also be thrilled to know Robbie got to ask Murphy about the show. Meanwhile, he asked her about a possible Barbie sequel. And you definitely won’t expect which one of them used David Bowie as a reference in developing their character. (Seriously. It wasn’t Robbie. Seriously!)

Barbenheimer already made 2023 a great year for movie lovers. Turns out that phenomenon had even more to give us.

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Despite some of the bigger franchises in Hollywood having less-than-stellar years, 2023 has been outstanding for films. From arthouse hits to horror triumphs, you don’t need DC, Marvel, or Star Wars to have some fun at the movies. Below is a list of Nerdist‘s top 10 movies of the year, as decided upon by our great staff. This doesn’t represent anyone’s individual list, nor does it represent every good movie that came out this year. But it does have two movies based on Marvel properties. It’s still a geek website after all. Let’s start the countdown!

10. Evil Dead Rise

I have to admit, when I first saw Evil Dead Rise, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. It was a completely new take on the material, moving the action from a cabin in the woods to a dilapidated apartment building. Instead of hot teens out for some action, the curse of the Book of the Dead befalls a family just trying to get by. But at its heart, this new installment keeps much of the blood-soaked hallmarks of the original Sam Raimi movies, especially the hallowed Evil Dead 2. I’ve watched it several times since and I think it kinda rips.

9. Asteroid City

Another one that slow-burned its way onto this list. For a filmmaker already obsessed with artifice, Wes Anderson really outdid himself in Asteroid City. A story within a story within a story, layers and layers of separation between reality and fiction, and yet it’s entirely compelling from start to finish. The cast is outstanding, as per, and it might have the best use of Bryan Cranston since Breaking Bad. Anderson hides the real story under layers and layers of artifice and distance to give us a treatise on the American Theatre, UFO culture, and mid-century emotional stunting. It’s also super goofy and plays like a greatest hits of previous Anderson films. It’s a bafflement, but I can’t not applaud it for that.

8. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1

What a world we live in. Any other year, this latest installment in the unbelievably good Mission: Impossible series should have made a billion dollars, easy. But in 2023, it underperformed. That is by no means a reflection of quality. While it didn’t work quite as well for me as either Rogue Nation or Fallout, it’s still a tremendously enjoyable, exciting action adventure. The car chase through Rome with Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell handcuffed together would be enough to make it a good movie. Then we get to the end where they have to climb through a train that is simultaneously falling off a cliff. Just an incredible action sequence. These movies rule.

7. Talk to Me

2023 was actually a pretty amazing year for horror movies. The aforementioned Evil Dead Rise is but one. Possibly the best of the bunch is the indie Talk to Me, written and directed by Australian YouTubers-turned-filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou. A take on teenage drug use as a form of coping, replacing demonic possession for narcotics, the main character’s slow descent feels like you’re watching a movie about addiction more than a horror movie. And that’s what makes it all the scarier. I said it before, but it’s like Euphoria but with seances, in the best way.

6. Poor Things

A dark horse addition to the list, Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest is a dark fairytale-esque look at women’s sexuality through the guise of a Frankenstein story. Emma Stone plays a newly revived experiment who quickly learns the wonders of life and lust only for “proper Victorian values” (which feel oddly accurate to today) try to keep her down. Mark Ruffalo gives a tremendously funny performance as the dandyish would-be lothario. It’s a very weird movie, as you’d expect from Lanthimos, but thoroughly engaging from start to finish.

5. Barbie

Surely you’ve heard of this one. It was only the biggest thing in the world this summer. It’s delightful, it’s gorgeous, it’s funny and touching. No one expected a movie based on a doll would be the year’s biggest success story, but here we are. The suits will takeaway that the public wants more Mattel movies, or more toy movies. The real lesson is give Greta Gerwig a budget and people will flock to the cinema in record numbers.

4. Oppenheimer

The other half of the one-two punch of the summer, Christopher Nolan’s surprisingly taut exploration of the man behind the atomic bomb is maybe the most engaging and resonant biopic we’ve seen in forever. A cast the size of the universe, and filmmaking prowess for miles, Oppenheimer proved Nolan’s more than gimmickry and tricksy narratives. If Cillian Murphy doesn’t win an Oscar, there’s a problem with the Academy. (Spoiler: there already is one.)

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Look, we’re not going to mince words. Most of the recent Marvel Studios offerings have been lacking a bit of lustre. We were really hoping James Gunn would bring his trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy movies home in a satisfying way, especially since he’s moving on to run DC. We needn’t have worried. The third installment is maybe not as raucous or expansive as the previous two, but it focuses on the characters and gives everyone a satisfying conclusion. Plus it has a good villain in the High Evolutionary. Plus plus, that corridor fight sequence in faux-one take is truly masterful.

2. John Wick: Chapter 4

While I appreciated the action prowess of the second and third John Wick movies, neither held a candle to the first in terms of compelling narrative. That all changed with Chapter 4, which goes full spaghetti western-meets-samurai-showdown. Donnie Yen’s blind swordsman, Shamier Anderson’s nameless gunfighter, and Skarsgård’s repugnant aristocrat make for some superb additions to the saga’s underworld. But at the heart, it’s John Wick trying to survive an onslaught of millions and that makes it work. No hyperbole, it’s one of the best action movies ever made. The entire third act in Paris—a riff on Walter Hill’s The Warriors—is perfect. If John never appears again, he got a fitting (and bloody) send-off.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Look. I also didn’t think they’d ever match the glory of Into the Spider-Verse. How do you improve on perfection? You can’t. But you can do something different also perfectly. Expanding the roster of Spider-People by about 90 million and putting Gwen Stacy in the protagonist role changed things up in just the right way. Miles gets to be the catalyst for everything, and prove why uniqueness is good, while Miguel O’Hara shines as the de-facto antagonist. We cannot wait to see how the story concludes, but there’s enough in this entry to make it outstanding and rewatchable on its own forever. Also Spider-Punk is our new deity.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

The post Nerdist’s Top 10 Movies of 2023 appeared first on Nerdist.

Over the last 15 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has flourished on both the big and small screens. Not to mention the X-Men movie universe at Fox, and the Spider-Man universe at Sony. From all indications, it seems as if almost no Marvel Comics hero is too small or obscure for the live-action treatment. Between the MCU, the former Fox X-Men films, and the Sony Spider-verse, just about everyone of importance has had their big screen debut.

In just the last couple of years alone, they have introduced Marvel Comics fans in quick succession to the likes of She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Namor, Ironheart, and in cameo form, Hercules and Starfox, to name but a few. Wonder Man is even getting a series soon. And yet, there still are a handful of important Marvel Comics characters long overdue for the live-action treatment. So without further ado, here are our picks for the top 10 Marvel superheroes that still need to make it to MCU live-action film and television.

10. Beta Ray Bill

In the MCU, we’ve only seen two other heroes worthy of lifting Thor’s hammer Mjölnir, — the Vision, and Steve Rogers. However, in the comics there was another who was worthy, a horse-faced alien from the planet Korbin. Beta Ray Bill was the champion of the Korbinites, given powers by his near-extinct alien race. Thanks to some classic comic book misunderstanding, Beta Ray Bill met Thor in battle when approaching Earth, and he actually defeated the God of Thunder. Not only defeat him, but he was able to wield Mjölnir, one of the few who could.

Impressed with Beta Ray Bill’s fortitude, Thor’s dad, Odin All-Father gifted the Krobinite with his very own enchanted hammer, Stormbreaker, which he now used as a hero and ally to Thor. Beta Ray Bill has almost made it to the MCU before. We’ve seen his statue on the planet Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, and his hammer Stormbreaker has also appeared in Infinity War and Endgame. We think Bill is long overdue for an MCU appearance. It just might be time for Thor to hand over Stormbreaker to its rightful owner.

9. Tigra (Greer Nelson)

Greer Nelson, originally known as “The Cat,” was one of the first female heroes to receive her own Marvel comic. A runway model, Greer fought crime with cat-themed gadgets and a skin-tight cat costume. The Claws of the Cat only lasted four issues, and truthfully, seemed like a knockoff of DC Comics’ Catwoman—only with a neon yellow costume instead. Years later, the heroine Hellcat would use that costume with far more success.

But Marvel tried again with Greer a couple of years later. They gave her the powers of a magical lost race of Cat People, and suddenly Greer was a ferocious cat/human hybrid named Tigra. This version was far more popular, and served with the Avengers for years. A cat-person in a bikini might be hard to pull off in live-action, but we trust Marvel Studios to make the right changes. They mentioned someone named Greer in Hawkeye. Could it be? We hope to see her, tail and all, in the MCU one day.

8. Ka-Zar of the Savage Land (Kevin Plunder)

On the surface, Ka-Zar just seems like a Tarzan rip-off. He’s the son of a British Lord who finds himself stranded in an exotic jungle location as a child. After his father dies, locals take him in. He no longer goes by the name Lord Kevin Plunder, but becomes Ka-Zar. Sound familiar? So how is this more than a dime-store Tarzan? Well, instead of a real-world location like Africa, Ka-Zar lives in the Savage Land, a secret primordial world in the Antarctic.

The Savage Land is filled with dinosaurs, humanoid mutates, and Ka-Zar’s trusty sabretooth tiger Zabu. In the comics, it became the prime location for many Uncanny X-Men stories. It even became the home base of Magneto for a time. Anyone who grew up with X-Men: The Animated Series will remember several episodes set in this location. To be fair, the location of the Savage Land world is much cooler than Ka-Zar himself, but he could be used to anchor a very cool Savage Land series or movie.

7. Captain Britain (Brian Braddock)

Captain Britain has been a part of the Marvel Universe since the mid-’70s. But he first appeared only in the Marvel UK line of comics. Captain Britain Weekly #1 featured his canonical first appearance. In the comics, Brian Braddock was the nerdy heir of an old aristocratic British family. He received a bad injury in a lab accident and nearly died. Soon after, the wizard Merlyn appeared to him, and offered Brian the chance to become the United Kingdom’s mystically strong champion. And thus, Captain Britain is born.

In the UK, Captain Britain had his own comic for years, and teamed up with Spidey and Captain America in North American Comics. He eventually led the British X-Men spinoff team, Excalibur. His sister is Betsy Braddock, who fans know best as the prominent ’90s X-Man named Psylocke. All of these aspects of his character could prove interesting story material, as Marvel Studios seeds mutants into the MCU. Fans have been clamoring for Superman Henry Cavill to play Captain Britain. And we can’t say that we don’t approve of that choice.

6. Darkhawk (Christopher Powell/Connor Young)

Darkhawk is one of the lesser-known Marvel heroes on this list, but in the ’90s, he was fairly popular. He even carried his own series for some 50 issues. Christopher Powell was a teenager from Queens, New York, just like Peter Parker. He came upon an amulet that allowed him to switch places with a powerful alien android body possessing huge metal wings, one that his mind could control. (And he had a Wolverine-like claw. As we said, quite popular in the ’90s.

Darkhawk joined the New Warriors, and briefly, the Avengers. Recently, Marvel Comics launched a new Darkhawk series, with a new teenage hero at its center. Connor Young was a star athlete, recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As he struggles with his new medical reality, he also has to become a superhero when he discovers the amulet. The original comic series wasn’t all that memorable, but the ingredients for this new Darkhawk — the origin, the costume, the powers — are perfect for a live-action adaptation.

5. Moondragon (Heather Douglas)

Moondragon is one of those oddball Marvel heroes. But this martial artist with psychic powers has ties to several prominent MCU characters. Namely, Drax the Destroyer and Thanos. In the comics, young Heather Douglas was driving through the desert with her family when they caught Thanos landing on Earth, totally by chance. The Mad Titan promptly killed her entire family, but Heather escaped.

Her father’s soul bonded to Drax, essentially making Drax her dad. And Mentor, Thanos’ own father, instructed her in the use of her powers. She joined the Avengers, and later, teams like the Defenders and the Guardians of the Galaxy. For the MCU, Moondragon’s origins could be simplified. She could be the literal daughter of Drax now. Perhaps the daughter he thought he lost to Thanos? And if Thanos’ father trained her, that would create a lot of conflict for this family. She’s also a bisexual character, and we know the MCU could use some more canonically LGBTQ heroes.

4. Quasar (Wendell Vaughn)

They have introduced many of the most prominent Avengers into the MCU at this point. But one fairly major Avenger from the ‘90s has yet to show up, and that’s Wendell Vaughn, also known as Quasar. An Avenger during the early ‘90s, at which time he carried his own solo title for sixty issues, Vaughn was a SHIELD scientist who came across the cosmic weapons called the Quantum Bands. They bestowed on him incredible power, as the owner of the bands was the chosen Protector of the Universe, a title given by the cosmic entity Eon.

With the Quantum Bands now introduced into the MCU thanks to The Marvels, it would be interesting to see them wind up in the hands of a new hero like Quasar. After all, neither Kamala Khan nor Carol Danvers need the bands to activate their powers. They should go to someone else who can use them to do good. In Thor: Love and Thunder, we saw a representation of the cosmic entity Eon, so maybe he’ll appear to give the Quasar the Protector of the Universe title. Everything lately feels like it’s setting it up. With the MCU needing more spacefaring heroes, Quasar seems like a perfect choice.

3. Nova (Richard Rider/Sam Alexander)

Although the Nova Corps, Marvel’s interstellar police force (and answer to DC’s Green Lantern Corps) has already been introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the Nova I’m talking about is Richard Rider. He had his own series in the late ’70s, The Man Called Nova, and then regularly appeared as a cast member of New Warriors. Rider was a working-class teen in the Peter Parker mold; he inherited the title and cosmic powers from a dying member of the Nova Corps. (We told you he was Marvel’s answer to Green Lantern).

The character has had a comeback in the last few years. Mainly because of Marvel Comics doubling down on their cosmic heroes with events like Annihilation. A new teenager named Sam Alexander recently took on the mantle of Nova, but either he or Richard Rider would make for ideal candidates for a TV series or a movie. Perhaps tying his origin to the offscreen destruction of the Nova homeworld of Xandar (referenced in Avengers: Infinity War) might be a good way to make this tie into the MCU.

2. Doctor Voodoo (Jericho Drumm)

Jericho Drumm was created way back in 1973, and for five issues was the lead character in Strange Tales, the anthology that introduced Doctor Strange. Created by a group of Marvel legends, which included Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, and Len Wein, the character originally went by the name Brother Voodoo. A psychologist originally from Haiti, Drumm returned home to discover his voodoo practitioner brother was dying. He sought out his brother’s mentor, Papa Jambo, who taught him mastery over voodoo practices and powerful sorcery, and Drumm assumed the title of Brother Voodoo.

Although his lead series was short-lived, Brother Voodoo continued to appear in various Marvel comics over the succeeding decades as a guest star, and hero and ally to many. He eventually became the Sorcerer Supreme, replacing Stephen Strange in the role. It was during this time he officially took the name Doctor Voodoo. He’s since served on over three different iterations of the Avengers. Although he was heavily rumored for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, he never appeared. But the MCU needs some more magically powered heroes besides Strange, and we can’t think of a better one than Jericho Drumm.

1. Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)

Despite what her name might suggest, Jessica Drew is anything but a female carbon copy of Spider-Man. Created in the ‘70s, Spider-Woman headlined her own ongoing series for over 50 issues, and even had a short-lived cartoon series on Saturday morning TV. In the comics, Jessica Drew’s parents were scientists who accidentally gave her arachnid-based powers as a child. The powers were a side effect of their trying to cure a lethal childhood disease. They have tweaked her origin story a few times over the past few decades, but the character always has ties to both SHIELD and HYDRA in any version.

Marvel put her on the shelf for nearly two decades years for inexplicable reasons. It was Brian Michael Bendis who brought Jessica as Spider-Woman back in 2004 in the pages of New Avengers. She’s remained a Marvel mainstay ever since. With her ties to both SHIELD and the Avengers, she’s an obvious choice for the MCU either on film or TV. She has appeared recently in animation, in Across the Spider-Verse. But we still await her live-action debut. Sony announced a Spider-Woman movie years ago with Olivia Wilde at the helm. But nothing ever came of it. The Madame Web movie will feature various Spider-Women, but not Jessica. We hope that Sony and Marvel Studios can find a way to work together and bring Jessica into the MCU where she belongs.

Originally published on April 23, 2017.

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After many false starts and canceled projects, Star Wars is finally ready to return to theaters. Lucasfilm announced three new upcoming standalone movies during the opening of Star Wars Celebration 2023. These new Star Wars movies include a story about the founding of the Jedi, a movie that will serve as the finale to this era of interconnected Disney+ shows, and the return of Daisy Ridley’s Rey.

Speaking of the upcoming Rey movie, there is now a reported filming date in play. According to Productionlist.com, which tracks production updates for the Film & Television Industry Alliance, the Rey movie will start shooting on April 7, 2024 in London. Hopefully, that means we will get casting news soon.

And with that, the galaxy far, far away is finally going back to the big screen. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Ahsoka), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel, Saving Face) have all been tapped to direct these new Star Wars movies.

While Lucasfilm shared few official details about the films, the little they tell us says a lot. Here’s what we know about these new Star Wars movies so far.

James Mangold’s New Star Wars Movie Tells the Story of the Force

James Mangold’s “will go back to the dawn of the Jedi,” a time set tens of thousands of years earlier than anything we’ve ever seen on screen before. That might mean we’ll meet the figure known as Prime Jedi. That’s the person who founded the Order on Ahch-To sometime around 25,000 years before the events of A New Hope. Fans already know Ahch-To well. They first saw it in The Last Jedi when it served as Luke Skywalker’s hideaway. A release additionally shares, “James Mangold will take audiences deep into the past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”

Mangold further noted to Empire that his new Star Wars movie “takes place 25,000 years before Episode IV, and it’s about the discovery of the Force.” He further shares, “I told Kathy [Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm] I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars – kind of a Cecil B DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea.”

James Mangold’s New Star Wars Movie Connects with Rey’s Next Appearance

Kennedy also recently shared that this movie will help inform the new Star Wars movie featuring the return of Rey. She noted to Total Film, “I think it’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing with moving into the future with Rey, and then understanding a bit more of where this all came from,” she explains. “Because it will be at the heart of creating the new Jedi Order, so to get a real sense of where that might have began with the dawn of the Jedi could be pretty cool.” 

According to a new official Star Wars eras list revealed by LucasFilm, this movie will most likely take place in the “Dawn of the Jedi” era, but could even take place earlier than that.

Dave Filoni’s Film Will Bring Together Many Current Disney+ Series

The next new Star Wars movie will come from franchise veteran Dave Filoni. His film “will focus on the New Republic and close out the interconnected stories told in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and other Disney+ series.” That’s huge news for both the television and movie side of Lucasfilm. When we get a release date for Filoni’s film, we’ll know just how many more seasons of The Mandalorian we might see. Clearly, there’s already an end in sight to Din Djarin and Grogu’s story. Although, we suppose they could continue on beyond a culminating movie. A release further shares, “Dave Filoni will orchestrate the escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic.”

Rey Will Return in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars Movie

The third and final new Star Wars movie announced will focus on the future. Obaid-Chinoy’s movie will take place after The Rise of Skywalker. It will mark the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey. Set 15 years after the ultimate defeat of the Sith, she will be trying to build a new Jedi Order. Hopefully, that goes a lot better than her mentor Luke Skywalker’s attempts. According to the new list of Star Wars eras, it seems like this movie will take place in the “New Jedi Order” era.

Kathleen Kennedy shared more about the movie with Variety. She noted:

Well, we’re 15 years out from ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ so we’re post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray. There’s a lot of discussion around, ‘Who are the Jedi? What are they doing? What’s the state of the galaxy?’ She’s attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, based on the books, based on what she promised Luke, so that’s where we’re going.”

Speaking to Empire, Kennedy added, “The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos – there’s even a question of how many exist anymore – and Rey’s building the New Jedi Order, based on the text that she was given and that Luke imparted on her.” She also offers, “Rey has made a promise to Luke, and that’s really the core of where we’re going and what this story will be. And I think it offers just tremendous opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something fresh, because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating, and now we take all of that and move it to the next chapter.” 

On the topic of a possible Luke Skywalker presence in the new Star Wars movie, Kennedy said: “I don’t know if we’ll spend a lot of time in flashbacks or [on] Force ghosts or things like that, but certainly, the spirit of what he represents to her is going to be significant.”

Recently, Daisy Ridley herself gave her first comments on her new Star Wars movie. While her comments remain vague, she noted to Collider, “I’m very excited. The story is really cool. I’m waiting to read a script because, obviously, I don’t have any other updates. It’s not what I expected, but I’m very excited.” And additionally told the The Hollywood Reporter, ” I’m genuinely really excited about the next one [Star Wars movie]. I haven’t read anything, but I know the story. It’s really worth telling, worth exploring, and I think people will be excited.”

Something tells us it won’t be smooth sailing for Rey, though. The dark side of the Force has a way of always creating shadows over the galaxy far, far away, especially in theaters.

As previously noted, this movie is expected to start shooting in April 2024.

Originally published on April 7, 2023.

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No one can be Tony Stark or Iron Man. But with LEGO’s new Avengers Tower set, you can pretend. The massive set replicates the Avengers Tower we know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not really the Tower, formerly known as Stark Tower, at any fixed point in time, but more a showpiece of a key MCU location and the Avengers who have made it their base. That’s the best way to look at it—it’s a highlights reel of the Avengers throughout the Infinity Saga in towering LEGO form. Seriously, you don’t realize how tall Avengers Tower is until you assemble it. LEGO sent Nerdist a copy to unbox and snap together, piece by piece. It’s a mostly satisfying build that dwarfs anything else in my LEGO collection.

LEGO Avengers Tower Specs

The LEGO Avengers Tower comes with a whopping 5,201 pieces. (The pieces come in 39 bags!) It’s 10 inches deep, 14 inches wide, and 36 inches tall. That makes it LEGO’s tallest brick-built skyscraper. And so yes, it’s taller than the Daily Bugle set. (For what it’s worth, it’s also a far more interesting design than the Daily Bugle.) The set comes with 31 minifigures, the most ever included in a single LEGO set.

You can get the LEGO Avengers Tower for $499.99.

Building the LEGO Avengers Tower

Build Time

This is a set that will keep you occupied. I put around 13 hours into the build, most of it on my own. A little repetition comes with constructing a tall building with LEGO bricks. I felt that with the windows, of which the set has many. So many. In fact, it has the most windows in a single LEGO set. But watching it all come together to form the elegant outline of the skyscraper made it worth it.

Overall Design

If you have any LEGO City buildings, the Avengers Tower will bring a drastic change to your cityscape. It adds plenty of height and it brings another style of building to put alongside your shops. Adding it to a LEGO City street also means you can scatter some of the minifigs through town. The Kevin Feige minifig should, for example, be guzzling coffee at a café. Instead of attaching a Chitauri Leviathan to the tower, it could be casually invading your LEGO City. You have a lot of posing possibilities.

The options are dang near endless if you construct the tower as a standalone piece, too. You can dangle Hulk and Chitauri warriors off the side or remove the front of the building to showcase scenes from the history of the MCU Avengers. Though one quick note: if you’re used to LEGO City buildings with multiple floors, you are accustomed to the modular way of LEGO life. The Avengers Tower is not modular. Once you get a floor into place, it remains there.

Overall, it’s an architecturally sharp design. I wouldn’t have pegged LEGO as the best medium to bring the Avengers Tower and its curvy building to life, but it’s beautiful. The building’s construction and the storytelling present throughout come together as a tribute to the Marvel superhero team. Once you complete assembly, you’ll see every part of the building has things happening. It’s literally covered in content.

As mentioned earlier, the set comes with 31 minifigs, which is a lot. I would not have chosen the same 31 minifigs. Multiple Tony Stark figures come with the set, but no Bruce Banner. Meanwhile some other minifigs have no direct connection to Avengers Tower, nor are they part of the Avengers.

Surprises

This actually isn’t a surprise, because LEGO always delivers when it comes to detail, but the design goes above and beyond with discovery. It comes with a Captain Marvel beeper to put behind the building. A LEGO shawarma is by the dumpster. Maybe you’ve seen lots of photos or videos of the Avengers Tower set online. Even if you have, discovering and building the Easter eggs and all the MCU scenes is a delight. The set has two Captain America minifigs just to recreate the America’s a*s scene from Endgame. One of the upper floors has a Quinjet launchpad that has room for the ship to roll in and out of place. Those are only a few of the little touches in the set, and they really make it.

Click To View Gallery

In summary, the LEGO Avengers Tower is a beast of a build that shows off the best of the Avengers. The designers are clearly giant MCU nerds, and we appreciate them for it. If you love the MCU and have a passion for LEGO, this is a set to save for.

The post You Are Not Prepared for How Big the LEGO Avengers Tower Is appeared first on Nerdist.

As we know, there are so, so many Spideys out in the world. It was a delight to see a few of them together in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, including Spider-Man Noir. The older and frankly worn out monochromatic hero from the 1930s is certainly an interesting take on the character. Now, Spider-Man Noir is getting his own live-action series at Prime Video. It could be yet another win for Amazon’s streaming service.

As Variety reports, Steve Lightfoot will be the co-showrunner alongside creator/writer Oren Uziel. Lightfoot is no stranger to the Marvel Universe, as he was the showrunner for The Punisher Netflix series starring Jon Bernthal.

The show will be set in its own universe and will not center around Peter Parker. The show will, however, take place in the 1930s and will presumably stick with the character’s black and white format. We can’t wait to see how a Spider-Man Noir series plays out. Right now, there’s no casting news nor a release window because things are in the very early stages. It will likely take a while before we learn anything else about this venture, but in the meantime fans can begin all the speculation. 

Originally published on February 9, 2023.

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Rockstar Games announced a trailer reveal event for Grand Theft Auto VI, the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, for December 5. However, someone on X leaked it a day early. Given that, Rockstar let go of its December 5 launch. The game publisher officially released the GTA VI trailer a day early, saying simply, “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube.” The GTA VI trailer confirms two important things. Grand Theft Auto will return to Vice City, and GTA VI will arrive in 2025. Watch the sun-soaked, alligator-filled action here:

Vice City appeared back in the fourth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. Based on Miami, that story followed a mobster and how he gained power with a criminal empire. GTA VI‘s main character is Lucia. It’s the game series’ first female protagonist in its 20+ year history. The trailer starts with Lucia in prison, but later she’s out and doing crime. It seems she’s pulling someone else into her crimes, saying they need to be a team and stick together.

“Grand Theft Auto VI continues our efforts to push the limits of what’s possible in highly immersive, story-driven open-world experiences,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games said in a release. “We’re thrilled to be able to share this new vision with players everywhere.”

We’re sure it’s going to work out fine. We won’t worry about it too much. Instead, we’ll just be excited that new Grand Theft Auto is finally on the way after a 10-year break.

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney Parks is one of the most immersive theme park lands in history. When you set foot inside, it truly is like you’re on another world in the galaxy far, far away. But that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. The great John Williams did record a new theme for the land. However, you never hear a hint of any classic Star Wars music while you’re wandering Black Spire Outpost. Well, in 2024, that will change at the location in Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort.

According to Disneyland, 2024 will see the return of Season of the Force at Disneyland. This will include a new Star Tours adventure featuring Ahsoka Tano. Also, the event will feature the Hyperspace Mountain re-theme of Space Mountain and something new. The official announcement says “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will provide a fresh perspective on the fireworks above Disneyland Park, with galactic music sweeping through the spires.” Although obviously not 100% confirmed, we imagine “galactic music” is actual music from the many Star Wars films and Disney+ series.

Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland is uniquely positioned for such a show. One can clearly see the fireworks above the peaks of the planet Batuu. But if you’re in Galaxy’s Edge, you don’t hear any music to go with the fireworks. It’s the perfect opportunity to create a totally separate musical score for the fireworks that only those visiting Galaxy’s Edge can hear. We’re already excited at the prospect of hearing Williams’ main theme, or “Duel of the Fates,” “Battle of the Heroes,” and “Imperial March,” all while fireworks explode above. The lack of classic Star Wars music has always been an issue with Galaxy’s Edge, and this would go a long way in correcting that mistake. Here’s hoping it stays past the allotted limited time. 

Season of the Force is celebrated at Disneyland Park from April 5-June 2, 2024.

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The next few years are going to bring about many exciting Star Wars series to Disney+, including Ahsoka and further adventures for The Mandalorian and Andor. But one, in particular, announced in 2020, is The Acolyte. Here’s everything we know about this mysterious new live-action Star Wars series, set a century before the events of the Skywalker Saga. Here’s everything we know about The Acolyte.

Title

The official title for the upcoming Lucasfilm Star Wars series is The Acolyte. Its official title may or may not wind up as Star Wars: The Acolyte.

The Acolyte’s Plot

When Disney officially announced the series back in December 2020, we got this official synopsis:

The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated. 

Since that time, we’ve learned that the drama unfolds about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace, during a time when the Sith were still in hiding, getting ready to make their move to take over the galaxy. Aside from canon novels, the High Republic is an era totally unexplored in any live-action or animated Star Wars projects.

Behind the Scenes

Leslye Headland is on board as writer and producer.

The Acolyte’s Cast

The Acolyte‘s cast is turning out better than we could have imagined. Playing the lead role in the show is Amandla Stenberg, recently seen in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Joining Stenberg are Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, Carrie-Anne Moss, Margarita Levieva, and Joonas Suotamo. Suotamo is playing a Wookiee and Henderson will portray Vernestra Rwoh. This High Republic character was one of the youngest ever to become Jedi Knight. Of course, we’ll see her much older in this Star Wars series.

The Acolyte‘s Release Date

There is no release date yet for The Acolyte, but Disney+ has confirmed that the series will release in 2024.

Originally published on May 10, 2023.

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Lucasfilm revealed a new live-action Star Wars television series at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in spring 2022. The show from MCU Spider-Man trilogy director Jon Watts and writer Chris Ford sounds like a Goonies-style adventure set in a galaxy far, far away. Here’s what we know about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Title

The title of the upcoming Star Wars live-action TV series is Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s Plot

We know a few details about the plot of Skeleton Crew. The story will take place in the New Republic era. That’s the same timeline as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. It centers on a group of children lost in space.

A synopsis for the series shares:

“Skeleton Crew” follows the journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined. 

Behind the Scenes

Jon Watts directs Skeleton Crew and Chris Ford is writing on the series. The duo created the show. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau provide producing support. Skeleton Crew was production since at least September 2022, as the creatives shared an image from the set at D23 Expo during that time. The series is now done with production.

Directors include Watts, Ford, David Lowery, the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung. 

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s Cast

The first cast member Lucasfilm confirmed for Skeleton Crew was Jude Law. Joining Law on the journey are Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, and Kerry Condon. 

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s Release Date

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew doesn’t have a release date yet. However, Disney+ has confirmed that this Star Wars series will arrive in 2024.

Originally published on September 22, 2022.

The post Everything We Know About STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW appeared first on Nerdist.

There have been many rumors that the original roster of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will all return in Avengers: Secret Wars. And yes, that would presumably include Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man/Tony Stark. But via Variety, we’ve learned that in a recent story on Downey for Vanity Fair, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said there are no plans to bring Tony Stark back from the grave. Iron Man’s heroic death in Avengers: Endgame, in which he saved the universe from Thanos, was just too important to undo. Here’s what Feige had to say:

“We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.”

So it seems like the MCU creatives powers that be will never use magic or nanotech to revive Tony’s corpse for a future film. This is a choice which we all of course applaud. However, we must point out that Feige very carefully worded that response. It’s safe to say we can take Feige at his word, and the MCU won’t resurrect the Tony Stark we knew and loved in 11 films. Iron Man’s death will not change. But that does not mean we are never seeing Robert Downey, Jr. play him again.

Right now, we are in the middle of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga. And we would be genuinely shocked if we did not encounter a multiversal variant of Tony in Secret Wars. And for that matter, a variant of Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) too. With Secret Wars likely capping off twenty years of the MCU, it’s hard to imagine no Tony Stark involvement in that. Regardless of what Kevin Feige said, don’t count out seeing Iron Man again. He just won’t exactly be the one you remember. Because that guy is staying dead for sure.

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There’s only one sound to describe the current state of streaming. Ooof. And the latest news reveals that streaming shenanigans don’t stop at the traditional streaming platforms that first come to mind when we think of streaming our favorite shows. No, the most recent, unfortunate streaming news has to do with streaming via PlayStation. PlayStation users were recently informed that Discovery content they purchased via the PlayStation Store would no longer be accessible to users and would be removed from their libraries. To be clear, PlayStation and Sony are talking about TV shows that users spent money to specifically access and now that content will vanish. We see titles come and go on streaming all of the time, but usually, not titles that come from a store-based interface. PlayStation did not indicate that users would receive a refund for the lost content.

The message to users is short and not so sweet. Playstation/Sony notes, “As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library.”

You can find the full list of Discovery titles that PlayStation will remove from users’ accounts here. Among other titles, purchased versions of Cake Boss, Deadliest Catch, Dirtiest Jobs, Mythbusters, and more will vanish… Alongside the money users spent on purchasing them. Forbes notes that PlayStation will delete over 1,200 titles in total. As mentioned, there’s no discussion of a refund or a way to download Discovery content purchased for PlayStation.

There’s also no clear word on what exactly is driving this sudden removal. But, of course, Discovery recently merged with Warner Bros. and is no longer a stand-alone channel, so that could have something to do with the change in access. But regardless of the source, it doesn’t really matter. The takeaway that matters goes something like this. Not even streaming media that is specifically purchased is really “owned” anymore. We already knew that, of course. But we really know it now. At the same time, it’s becoming more and more difficult to purchase and play physical media versions of shows and movies. So consumers are truly in a pickle.

We say it every time, but we really and truly do not like this trend. Fingers crossed that PlayStation, Sony, and Warner Bros. Discovery can find some way to grant renewed access to titles, or, at the very least, reimburse users for their purchased TV shows.

The post PlayStation Will Delete Users’ Purchased TV Shows with No Refunds appeared first on Nerdist.

After years of speculating, in 2022, Marvel Studios confirmed that Deadpool would officially join the MCU for a third installment of the R-rated comic book franchise at the start of Phase Six. This would mark the first official character of the Fox X-Men universe joining the MCU (although Patrick Stewart as a variant Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness kinda counts too, we suppose).

Most recently, “Dogpool” shared a look at Ryan Reynold’s Wade Wilson without his mask in Deadpool 3. Of course, the true star of the show, Dogpool, is also present.

Here is everything we know so far about Deadpool 3.

Title

Right now, everyone is calling the film Deadpool 3. However, for superpowered mercenary Wade Wilson’s first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least the first official entry, we think they may choose to give it a more creative title.

Deadpool 3‘s Plot

The plot of Deadpool 3 remains a mystery. All we know is that Hugh Jackman is returning as Wolverine, and that it takes place before the feral X-Man’s death in Logan. In fact, Jackman has confirmed that time travel will be involved in the threequel in a big way.

As most folks know by now, Deadpool’s third solo film will reunite him with his X-Men Origins: Wolverine co-star. Deadpool and Wolverine will work together, although they have made it very clear that these two characters “hate each other.” It will not be a love-fest in this story. But the fact that Deadpool 3 is smack in the middle of the Multiverse Saga should give us all a clue as to what’s going to go down, and probable multiversal shenanigans will ensue.

Dogpool, of course, will also star.

Make sure to follow him on Instagram.

Deadpool 3‘s Cast

We know Hugh Jackman will return, along with the very obvious Ryan Reynolds. Here’s who else we know about: Karan Soni, cab driver Dopinder, Leslie Uggams, Emma Corrin, and Matthew Macfadyen. In exciting news, Morena Baccarin and Stefan Kapicic are reprising their roles as Vanessa and Colossus in Deadpool 3. So are Rob Delaney’s Peter, Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Shioli Kutsuna (Yukio). Jennifer Garner’s Elektra from the 2003 Daredevil Marvel Fox movie is also reported to reprise her role in this MCU film.

Behind the Scenes

Deadpool 3‘s director for this third outing will be Shawn Levy, most recently known for his work on Stranger Things. This would be a reunion for Levy and Reynolds, as the pair previously worked together on the movie Free Guy. Levy is also known for the time travel movie The Adam Project.

On the writing side of things are Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, writers for the popular animated series Bob’s Burgers. The writers for the first two Deadpool films, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are also contributing to the third film’s screenplay, as is Ryan Reynolds himself.

Deadpool 3 Release Date

Deadpool 3 will arrive on July 26, 2024.

Originally published on January 4, 2023.

The post Here’s Our First DEADPOOL 3 Look at Wade Wilson Without the Mask appeared first on Nerdist.

Barbie didn’t just make a lot of money for Warner Bros. Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster is the Warner Bros. highest grossing film in its 100 year history. Now, after a record-setting box office run, the movie is getting a new mojo dojo casa house. It’s coming to Max this month. And when Barbie hits Max for streaming on December 15 it will feature a more inclusive way for fans to watch thanks to an ASL version.

If you’re scheduled to beach on that release day, you might want to call in sick. Barbie will rollerblade its way to Max at 3AM ET for your streaming pleasure. Barbie‘s themes of inclusivity will truly shine with its ASL version, too. In a press release Warner Bros. and Max explained how it went about creating this new way to watch:

Grounded in research and feedback from the Deaf community, as well as counsel from community leaders, Barbie with ASL was produced for Max featuring ASL performer Leila Hanaumi (Deaf Austin Theatre’s “The Laramie Project,” ASL cover for Tove Lo in “True Romance” music video). Barbie with ASL will be displayed as a unique title in-app and can be identified by its key art with the sign language symbol

Star Margot Robbie will also join Hanaumi for a conversation at a “special community screening” of Barbie with ASL. The event is being held in conjunction with Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles on December 14.

“Max is the premiere destination for storytelling, so being able to share the biggest movie of the year in ASL, the first language for many, will make this story resonate in a more meaningful way,” said Casey Bloys Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content, in a statement. “By offering sign language interpretation, we will build upon the film’s empowering message of inclusiveness and offer a unique viewing experience for the Deaf community to enjoy with family and friends.”

Safe to say Barbie would approve of this version. Every Barbie.

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What if you were on the International Space Station and war broke out on Earth? That’s the general premise of Bleecker Street‘s space thriller I.S.S. We have the first trailer for the upcoming sci-fi film that tests astronaut’s alliances when the unthinkable happens. Floating untethered in space sure seems like it would magnify every possible emotion. The I.S.S. trailer leverages the heightened feelings of horror and shock with precision.

It’s a messy, dread-infused situation. The movie stars Ariana DeBose, John Gallagher Jr., Masha Mashkova, Pilou Asbæk, Costa Ronin, and Chris Messina. Gabriela Cowperthwaite directs the script from Nick Shafir. The official synopsis for I.S.S. states:

Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a worldwide conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling, the US and Russian astronauts aboard each receive orders from the ground; take control of the station by any means necessary. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite brings together a stellar cast including Academy Award-winner® Ariana DeBose in this high-stakes space thriller.

“Tensions flare” certainly seems like an understatement. All of those astronauts will have to make decisions that will affect the entire Space Station. Does it matter who’s in control if something breaks and threatens everyone?

I.S.S. premieres on January 19, 2024.

Featured Image: Bleecker Street

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Mad Max: Fury Road introduced us to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa in 2015. We haven’t stopped thinking about the inimitable character since. She blazed across the dusty Wasteland and into our souls. Fury Road writer and director George Miller hasn’t let go of her either. In 2019, he expressed interest in making two more Mad Max movies—one of them being a prequel story about Furiosa. Filming for that tale began in 2022. And now, finally, we have our first trailer and images for the film starring Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Furiosa. And we’ve even learned where in the franchise timeline the movie takes place. It was worth the wait because Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga looks amazing.

The trailer teases Furiosa’s origins and Taylor-Joy showing, even in a couple minutes, how much she is embracing the powerful role. She has a large shaved head to fill, but by all appearances, she’s doing just fine. Set 45 years after the Collapse, Furiosa must find her way home. And we know the world, so we know it won’t be easy. Knowing how her story continues makes watching her challenging odyssey somewhat easier. Only somewhat. And Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus? We’re already sold.

Click To View Gallery

Furiosa: A Mad Max’s Saga official synopsis is as follows:

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Director George Miller additionally clarified where Furiosa fits on the Mad Max franchise timeline. He shared, “This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it’s really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be… A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it’s new, which we haven’t seen before.”

Get us back to the Wasteland now, please and thank you. Miller wrote the script with Nico Lathouris and is back in the director’s role.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will arrive in theaters on May 24, 2024.

Originally published on November 30, 2023.

Featured Image: Warner Bros.

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It’s been 30 years since Jodie Foster won her second Oscar for playing young investigator Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Now, she’s playing a detective again in the fourth season of HBO’s True Detective alongside Kali Reis, completing the traditional True Detective duo. According to TVLine, True Detective: Night Country will premiere on January 14. We also finally have a full trailer for this season.

Jodie Foster is also an executive producer for this season and will play Detective Liz Danvers in the series. Kali Reis meanwhile, will play Detective Evangeline Navarro. The creative force behind this newest iteration of True Detective is writer and director Issa López. The trailer for True Detective: Night Country honestly looks amazing, eerie, and incredibly well-acted as it plunges us deep into the plot of the season. As always with True Detective, murder is happening, but there’s something deeper at play, and more themes to explore than your average true crime series. The trailer for True Detective: Night Country offers us something truly dense and has us at the edge of our seats.

The Series Official Synopsis and More

The Night Country trailer lays out the plot of this season for us pretty well. Scientists are being found frozen, but they were killed before the ice got to them. And there’s a greater darkness at work.

But, to help what we see make even more sense, you can read True Detective: Night Country‘s official description right here:

The series is centered around Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro who are looking to solve the case of six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanishing without a trace, when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska. The pair will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.

This already sounds spooky and intriguing—and in the vein of the celebrated first season of True Detective. While many big film actors transitioned to TV over the years, this marks the first time Foster has done television work since childhood. At least in front of the camera that is. In recent years, she directed episodes of Orange Is the New Black, Black Mirror, and Tales from the Loop.

Reis, meanwhile, recently debuted in Catch the Fair One, an indie movie whose story she also helped to develop. According to Deadline, she is the first Indigenous American female world champion in boxing, as well as an Indigenous rights advocate. She’ll soon appear in Black Flies alongside Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan.

True Detective: Night Country also stars Finn Bennett, Fiona Shaw, with Christopher Eccleston, Isabella Star LaBlanc, and John Hawkes.

True Detective: Night Country‘s Premiere Date

The last season of True Detective came in 2019 and, as stated previously, this new season will come our way on January 14, 2024. Here’s hoping that Foster can channel some of those Clarice Starling vibes, and give fans a new classic character in Night Country. We love Jodie Foster best when she’s the smartest sleuth in the room. And we can’t wait to see what she and Reis have in store for us.

Originally published on June 28, 2022.

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Doctor Who is back, y’all! The first of three 60th anniversary specials, “The Star Beast,” kicked off a set of adventures with Fourteen and Donna Noble. We had the pleasure of meeting Doctor Who comic and audio characters Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors. And, here at Nerdist, we also had the fun challenge of searching for Doctor Who Easter eggs, callbacks, and references to previous events in this episode. While some are expressly pointed out, others are not quite so obvious. Let’s take a look at what we have spotted so far.

Jump to: “The Star Beast” // “Wild Blue Yonder”

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “The Star Beast” Easter Eggs and References

Once Upon a Time Lord 

“The Star Beast” starts with the Doctor and Donna Noble addressing us directly. The Doctor begins his story about traveling with Donna, saying “once upon a Time Lord.” It’s more than just a clever phrase. It is the name of a recent Doctor Who graphic novel by writer Dan Slott and artist Christopher Jones starring the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. In this story, the Pyromeths capture Martha. She distracts them by telling epic tales of the Tenth Doctor facing off against foes like the Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, and more. 

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble’s Greatest Hits, Recapped

At this point, Donna can’t recall her travels with the Doctor. And, to be honest, some fans have forgotten them too. It has been 15 years, after all. (We can help you with remembering Donna’s ending.) Thankfully, Doctor Who uses her opening dialogue to take us down memory lane with plenty of flashbacks. We see several images from their journey, including the Empress (a.k.a. the arachnid lady) from when they first met in 2006’s “The Runaway Bride.” 

We also get glimpses of a Sontaran from “The Sontaran Stratagem,” a skull in a spacesuit from “Silence in the Library,” the evil wasp from “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” the Pyrovile villain from “The Fires of Pompeii,” and the Adipose spaceship from “Partners in Crime.” But that’s not all! We see the eye of a Dalek from “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End” and the planet Midnight from the episode of the same name. And of course we see a glimpse of the metacrisis event that led to the Tenth Doctor’s controversial decision to wipe Donna’s mind.

CyberDog 

The Doctor lands in the Camden Town section of London and begins to wander the streets. We see a place called CyberDog in the background. It doesn’t draw the attention of the Doctor but some fans would assume its an in-universe reference to the Cybermen. In actuality, CyberDog is a real clothing store in that area. As far as Easter eggs go, there’s a Doctor Who short story involving this store called “Dummy Massacre.” In it, a blogger was inside CyberDog in March 2005 when the Autons attacked. This is the same event we witnessed through Rose and the Ninth Doctor in “Rose.” The mysterious blogger took over the conspiracy theory website, Who Is Doctor Who?, from Clive Davis (RIP) and wrote about his harrowing experience.

Every Era Begins with a Rose… Sort Of

Rose Noble’s name is an obvious nod to Rose Tyler, the first companion of the modern era. We learn a lot about Rose in this episode, including why she chose that name and her connection to the Doctor. But, there’s more to this reference. We now have three different eras of Doctor Who: classic, modern, and the new Russell T Davies era that we are calling Bad Wolf for now. And each of those eras begin with a Rose… sort of.

The show’s first companion went by Susan Foreman; however, her real first name is apparently Arkytior, which means Rose in Gallifreyan. This is established in the 1994 Doctor Who short story “Roses.” (No, it did not inspire Rose Tyler’s name. Davies got that from his TV drama Bob & Rose.) Is it totally canon? Not really, considering it hasn’t come up on the show yet. But it’s fun anyway. Now, Rose Noble is ushering in yet another chapter in Doctor Who’s story. 

Donna Noble’s Theme Rises

As Donna and Rose leave the Doctor at the Camden Market, we can hear Donna’s theme music in the background. Remember when companions each had their own theme songs? It was truly an iconic time in Doctor Who history. 

Allons-y!

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard that catchphrase. The Doctor says it to Donna’s husband Shaun Temple as they prepare to drive off towards the spaceship crash landing site. 

Who the Hell Is Nerys?

While in the car with Shaun, the Doctor says he’s a friend of Donna’s old frenemy Nerys. We met her during “The Runaway Bride” as the jealous friend who tried to make a move on Donna’s then-fiancé Lance. We never learn a lot about her, but Donna and Nerys remained friends despite Nerys being shady. She is in attendance at Donna’s wedding to Shaun, which we witness from afar. But apparently things have gone south with their relationship. Later in “The Star Beast,” Donna calls Nerys a viper who can’t keep her mouth shut. We never see her in this episode, but we get the feeling she’s still lurking in the grass nearby. 

Donna and That Lottery Money

Despite Donna having her memories wiped by the Doctor, she ultimately ended up with a great life. In “The End of Time Part 2,” the Doctor left the Noble family a huge lottery ticket and she married the love of her life. However, we discover that Donna gave away all of her money because she was under the veil of memory suppression. Therefore, the “Doctory” parts of her pushed her to want to help the world versus helping herself. We appreciate the goodwill but girl, that was millions of pounds. 

Additional Doctor Who Easter egg: Shaun mentions that the ticket was a “triple rollover,” which references what Donna notes about the ticket when she receives it.

UNIT’s First Scientific Advisor 

During his investigation of the “crash” (technically landing) site, the Doctor encounters Shirley Anne Bingham. She certainly recognizes this version of him, even though he cleverly recalls when he was wearing a bowtie and, later on, a woman. The most interesting part of this is the Doctor saying he was UNIT’s first scientific advisor. This is a reference to the early days of the Third Doctor era when got into trouble with the Time Lords. They disabled his TARDIS and left him stuck on Earth. He took a job with UNIT and begrudgingly became their scientific advisor. 

Shirley Anne Honors Shirley Coward

Speaking of the fantastic Shirley Anne, her name itself is a fun Doctor Who Easter egg. It’s a nod to Shirley Coward, a vision mixer on the show during its first lead actor transition. The term/concept of regeneration wasn’t used on the show quite yet, but that’s exactly what happened when William Hartnell passed the torch to Second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton. Shirley expertly laid shots of both actors on top of each other and created a distortion effect that made this transition seamless, eerie, and iconic.

Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors

This episode’s monsters and big villain both come from ‘80s era Doctor Who comics. If you’d like to read up more on their history, check out this post. Basically, the show closely sticks to their origin story, honoring a part of Who that some fans didn’t know about until now. 

The Shadow Proclamation Is Still Alive and Well, We Guess

Fourteen is completely over the shenanigans between Beep and the Wrarth Warriors. So he brings them together in a dingy garage, invoking a few sections of the Shadow Proclamation to stop the ongoing violence. He particularly calls out section 15, which Rose Tyler clumsily (and incorrectly) used in “The Christmas Invasion.” She was trying to take on the role of the Doctor while Ten was recovering from regeneration, but her words did not scare the Sycorax. Gotta love a fun Doctor Who callback, right? This rule means that murder is not a rule of war. And what does Beep do shortly after? Murder. 

Binary. Binary. Binary. 

With Donna’s permission, the Doctor unravels the failsafe and Donna regains her memories. She begins to say “binary” repeatedly, which was what she previously said when the Time Lord knowledge began to overwhelm her brain and cause her to stutter. 

Rose Noble’s Workshed and Villain Creatures

We discover that the metacrisis split itself between Donna and her daughter Rose. It was housed within Rose’s DNA all along. This explains why Rose chose her name along with the specific types of furry toys she made. The teen’s workshop shed door resembles the door of the TARDIS. And each of her creatures loosely resemble monsters that Ten and Donna encountered in the past. We see a stuffed Dalek, Judoon, Adipose, Cyberman, and Ood. There is a furry, brown doglike creature that could represent Cybershade, which were animal-like versions of Cybermen. Interestingly, the latter creature is from a Doctor-only story, “The Next Doctor.” Rose is basically a walking Doctor Who Easter egg and we love her.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “Wild Blue Yonder” Easter Eggs and References

The Doctor Meets Isaac Newton… Again 

At the beginning of “Wild Blue Yonder,” the TARDIS materializes and spins into an apple tree. It just so happens to be the tree that Isaac Newton is sitting under. No, he does not have the title “Sir” quite yet. The Doctor and Donna humorously introduces him to the word gravity, which he mishears as “mavity.” This interaction changes the future and we hear Fourteen and Donna use the word mavity instead. 

But this isn’t the first time that the Doctor has encountered Mr. Newton. In “The Pirate Planet,” the Fourth Doctor claimed that he dropped apples on Newton’s head and later explained gravity to him. 

The TARDIS Plays Wild Blue Yonder 

As the TARDIS arrives on that ill-fated spaceship, it plays a song called “Wild Blue Yonder.” This inspiration for the episode’s title is the colloquial title for the US Air Force’s theme song. As Donna notes in the episode, the song is actually a war cry, which means something wicked is coming their way. It’s a strange choice for a spaceship shaped like a British police box but the TARDIS is blue. 

HADS Saves the TARDIS

The Fourteenth Doctor explains why the TARDIS made a quick exit with his sonic screwdriver. He references the ship’s defense mechanism, known as the Hostile Action Displacement System (HADS). It is not the first time the series has referred to this system. HADS has been around since the Second Doctor’s era, although it didn’t use that specific name. In “The Krotons” the TARDIS exterior was under attack, so it dematerialized and rematerialized in a different (but nearby) location to remain safe. 

The HADS comes into play in “The Cold War” when the Eleventh Doctor enables it so the TARDIS can leave safely. It is supposed to land in a good spot at the North Pole but it goes to the South Pole instead. The Twelfth Doctor story “The Magician’s Apprentice” includes HADS activating to fool the Daleks into thinking the TARDIS was destroyed. Twelve rematerializes the ship with his sleek sonic shades. Interestingly, he calls it the Hostile Action Dispersal System, which is pretty much the same thing. 

The Fourteenth Doctor deactivated HADS after apparently getting stuck in orbit for three years. But Donna’s coffee spill and the Doctor’s fix activated the system once again. It is both useful and a pain in the butt, basically.

Licking Random Things to Discover the Truth

The Doctor tastes some weird goo to discover what it could be. This is very similar to how the Tenth Doctor tasted the pool of liquid (that was actually) blood in “The Christmas Invasion.”

Venom and Mass

After being chased by the not-thing versions of themselves, the Doctor and Donna try to figure out what’s going on. When they begin talking about the entities impossible mass, Donna makes a reference to how her husband complained about Venom getting much bigger than his human counterpart. He would wonder where the extra mass was coming from, which is a legit question. Of course, this refers to Tom Hardy’s Venom films.

The Flux Events Are Bothering the Doctor

Russell T Davies previously said that he would not change events of the past despite setting up his new era. He stood on this in “Wild Blue Yonder,” by referencing the events of the Flux. (Ahh the destruction of half the universe.) The (not real) Donna said she saw what happened in the Doctor’s last few years. And this is all the very recent past. Fourteen gets visibly upset by all of this, even punching a wall and screaming in frustration. The Doctor often runs forward and doesn’t look back too much, so it is interesting to see this character reconciling with the past. It’s not clear how the Flux could factor into the Fourteenth Doctor’s last foray nor if it will affect Fifteen in any way.

Salt Blocks Demons and Evil Entities 

The Doctor wasn’t just biding his time and trying to be funny when he said salt blocks demons, vamps, and other entities. Salt has been used to ward off evil spirits and negativity in many different religious practices for thousands of years. The episode suggests that it is all talk but many people swear by it. 

We Meet Again, Wilf

After 15 years, we finally see the Doctor and Wilf come together again. Wilf never gave up hope that he (and maybe Donna) would see the Doctor again. Why was Wilf randomly at that market by himself? Who knows. But the world is in complete disarray and Wilf is now in the TARDIS. Sadly, this is Bernard Cribbins last time on the show. He died in 2022 at the age of 93.

We can’t wait to see what other Doctor Who Easter eggs, references, and callbacks will come up in the next two specials. Happy 60th Anniversary to the greatest sci-fi series of all-time.

Originally published on November 25, 2023.

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Video game fans have been safely enjoying the excitement/terror of a post-nuclear wasteland since 1997. That’s when Fallout and its ’50s-era Cold War aesthetic first came to stores. Since then countless sequels and spinoffs have turned the game into one of genre’s most successful franchises. Now Fallout is ready to conquer another medium entirely. It’s getting its very own show from Amazon. What kind of story can gamers expect from the Prime Video Fallout adaptation? Who’s behind it, and who will star in it? And when will we get a chance to see it?

Recently, we got some answers to these questions when Prime Video released a trailer for the Fallout series. But most importantly, we learned a very key fact about this adaptation. There will be an adorable animal involved. In the Fallout games, a dog called Dogmeat exists as an NPC companion character that accompanies players on their adventures. According to a blog post from Amazon, the live-action Fallout series’ cute canine isn’t called Dogmeat, but instead is named CX404. But this pup, too, will serve “as a companion navigating the post-apocalyptic world.” Maybe this dog is Dogmeat’s distant cousin. After all, it would be pretty cool to see a Dogmeat Easter egg in the show. Regardless, we’re sure CX404 is a very good boy.

Interestingly enough, it looks like this Fallout dog belongs to Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul on the Prime Video series. That character is definitely shaping up to be our anti-hero, so giving The Ghoul the best relationship with Fallout‘s cutest creature will likely go some way to help balance out his more nefarious tendencies. We’re excited to see how the story unfolds for our new dog friend and all the other characters in Fallout.

Here’s everything we know about Prime Video’s Fallout series so far.

Title

Prime Video’s adaptation will share the same name as the original game, Fallout.

Fallout‘s Plot

We officially have our first full look at the Fallout series. Prime Video released the first trailer for the show and it teases a dangerous wasteland of a world. But it’s clear the show understands its dark humor as well.

Prime Video has shared an official Fallout series synopsis, setting us up for what’s to come. It reveals, “Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.“

Additionally, we know that the series is “set in the future post-apocalyptic Los Angeles.” It will also tell an “original story based on Fallout that will be part of the canon of the games.” 

The first image from the show featured a glimpse at the franchise’s all-new Vault 33. And more recent looks have revealed Fallout‘s main characters including Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul, Ella Purnell’s Lucy, Aaron Moten’s Maximus, and Kyle MacLachlan’s Overseer Hank.

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Behind the Scenes

Fallout comes from Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, and Kilter Films. The latter is the production company of executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, creators of HBO’s Westworld.

Writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner will also serve Fallout co-showrunners and executive producers. Nolan directs the first three episodes.

Fallout‘s Cast

The show stars: Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight), Aaron Moten (Emancipation), Moisés Arias (The King of Staten Island), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), Sarita Choudhury (Homeland), Michael Emerson (Person of Interest), Leslie Uggams (Deadpool), Frances Turner (The Boys), Dave Register (Heightened), Zach Cherry (Severance), Johnny Pemberton (Ant-Man), Rodrigo Luzzi (Dead Ringers), Annabel O’Hagan (Law & Order: SVU), and Xelia Mendes-Jones (The Wheel of Time). 

Fallout‘s Release Date

Prime Video celebrated the 26th “Fallout Day” by announcing when the series will premiere via a Pip-Boy-style message. The show begins its post-apocalyptic adventure on April 12, 2024.

That’s a lot closer than it sounds, which means we should start getting trailers and more information soon, too. When we do you’ll find everything you need to know about Prime Video’s Fallout right here.

Originally published on October 23, 2023.

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Believe it or not, the end of 2023 is almost here. This year kept the same energy as 2022 in terms of general chaos on Earth, a massive rock that we inexplicably pay to live on. But sometimes, keeping the same energy is a good thing. Such is the case when it comes to this year’s television lineup. New and returning shows kept us busy at Nerdist in the best way with a solid slate celebrating various arenas of the genre landscape. From wars across the stars to bloody superhero shenanigans, here are Nerdist’s picks for the best TV shows of 2023. 

Gen V Season 1 (Streaming on Prime Video)

The Boys universe expanded its reach to Godolkin University, which isn’t a safe space for superpowered students to thrive after all. Gen V takes all the elements that makes The Boys damn near perfect television and infuses them with all the angst, uncertainty, and insecurities that one would expect from burgeoning heroes. The show boasts a sublime ensemble cast, pitch perfect tonal shifts, compelling storytelling, peppy pacing, and all the blood and shocking moments one would expect from a spinoff. It has great connective tissue with the flagship series yet is wholly unique enough to stand on its own. We cannot wait to see what season two of Gen V holds. 

The Last of Us Season 1 (Streaming on Max)

Sometimes, video game adaptations don’t translate to television well. Thankfully, this isn’t the case with The Last of Us. The series starring Pedro Pascal as Joel, a grizzled post-apocalypse survivor tasked with guiding and protecting a young girl towards safety, kicked 2023 off in style. The Last of Us delivers heartbreak, adventure, intensity, and introspective moments in equal doses. Bella Ramsey brings glorious life to the ever-popular character Ellie for a story that, at times, will literally take your breath away. 

The Wheel of Time Season 2 (Streaming on Prime Video)

The Wheel of Time’s second season gave us peak fantasy entertainment in its second season. The show’s first season laid a solid foundation of world building that this season brilliantly expands on. Several character driven arcs pack an emotional wallop for fans with a brilliantly penned and engaging season that is worthy of a marathon watch. 

Ahsoka Season 1 (Streaming on Disney+)

Is it really a Nerdist “Best of TV” list without a Star Wars entry? Ahsoka took its titular ex-Jedi, played by Rosario Dawson, on a far, far away journey as she battles some serious iconic villains. The late, great Ray Stevenson’s stunning portrayal of Baylan Skoll, ample Easter eggs, and a bevy of new revelations made this adventure one worth following. It’s truly a live-action turn that is made for hardcore Star Wars fans.  

The Mandalorian Season 3 (Streaming on Disney+)

Was the third season of The Mandalorian a bit chaotic? Sure. But it was also supremely entertaining. The amazing Bo-Katan Kryze steps into the spotlight alongside Mando and Grogu on a quest that includes more Moff Gideon and galactic pirates, among many other things. This is the time when a series could begin to lose its steam. But The Mandalorian holds strong as it balances diving into Star Wars lore alongside pure adventurous fun with an unlikely dad-child duo. 

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 1 (Available on AMC/Streaming on AMC+)

The Walking Dead’s long-running TV franchise took an OG character on a quest full of adventure, snark, and discovery. Daryl Dixon unearths new layers to Carol’s crossbow-carrying best friend, setting him on a journey across France to usher a special child to safety. The juxtaposition of a man known for his belief in self versus a higher power alongside many people of faith makes for a thought-provoking and intriguing saga. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon takes the bones of original series and revitalizes them with a shift in tone and a cinematic scope for an enjoyable story.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 (Streaming on Paramount+)

Some of us here at Nerdist weren’t totally into the Paramount+ Star Trek universe until other members of this parish said that Strange New Worlds was worth a shot. And they were right. The first season is one of the best Trek offerings in a long time. It was just delightful, life-affirming, and thoughtful science fiction. Positive and upbeat, while not shying away from darker themes and adult stories. Season two continued that apace with explorations into Spock and Chapel’s relationship, La’an’s time travel escapades, and Number One’s court martial. The characters are also some of the best in the franchise. What other shows can have a musical episode followed by a gritty Gorn war episode? Boldly going, indeed.

American Born Chinese (Streaming on Disney+)

Gene Luen Yang’s popular graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006) got the live-action treatment in this comedic fantasy series. It’s a family-friendly series packed with life lessons, epic fight scenes, and all the heart one expects in a coming-of-age story. In a year full of big-time offerings, this show may have fallen under the radar for those who aren’t familiar with its source material. But it is not too late to dive in and make American Born Chinese your next big watch. From its incredible cast lineup featuring Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan to its many odes to Chinese mythology, this series stands in a unique space of its own.

Reservation Dogs Season 3 (Streaming on Hulu)

This series is a bit out our normal purview, but there’s a reason why it is among our picks the best TV shows of 2023. Reservation Dogs follows the lives of Indigenous teens living in a rural part of Oklahoma as they grapple with loss and the possibility of leaving their ancestral roots. The third and final season brings this story full circle by diving into their elders’ lives, uncovering choices and pivotal events that shaped this community. We love a completed arc.

Poker Face (Streaming on Peacock)

Natasha Lyonne starring as a human lie detector in a stylish Colombo-inspired crime dramedy? There was really no way this could go wrong. Poker Face isn’t your typical Nerdist-style series but who among us doesn’t love a mystery or five? Unraveling the twisted strings that each case-of-the-week tangles up through the eyes of Charlie Cale was one of the best—and most fun!—TV ventures of the 2023. 

The Fall of the House of Usher (Streaming on Netflix)

Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher was a huge hit at Nerdist this year. Mike Flanagan said prior to the release of the series, “My favorite way to describe it to people is like ‘Hill House’ is kind of a string quartet, and ‘Bly Manor’ is this delicate, kind of beautiful piece of classical piano music, and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is heavy metal. It’s rock ‘n’ roll.” And rock ‘n’ roll is exactly what it felt like. The Fall of the House of Usher hit hard from episode one and never stopped slamming on the strings.

The series was full of blood, tragedy, and trauma but always kept Flanagan’s gorgeous aesthetic sensibilities alive. And, more than ever, a dark humor was embedded into the bones of the show, giving a comedic slant to even its darkest moments in wholly clever ways. Of course, as a Poe adaptation, it crushed the assignment. The remix of stories came together to successfully weave one compelling show. Quoth the Raven, “Hell yeah!”

Loki Season 2 (Streaming on Disney+)

Marvel Studios Disney+ MCU series have been famously hit or miss. But Loki season two achieved the one thing more or less no other series so far has managed: character development. Although many multiversal shenanigans and time convolutions happened in Loki season two, they almost didn’t really matter in the face of exploring the relationships between the series’ main players. Loki season two let these friendships and deep intimacies breathe and deepened them, bringing together a motley crew that was easy to invest in.

And so, by the time Loki realized what his inevitable final sacrifice had to be, the tragedy really hurt because viewers could feel that he loved so hard those he was leaving behind and, indeed, was finally loved by them in return. It’s hard to stick the landing, but the ending of Loki season two was the natural conclusion of everything that had come before it. And so often, it just doesn’t happen like that. This year, the god of stories told one heck of a tale and ended up creating one of our best shows of 2023.

One Piece (Streaming on Netflix)

One Piece had a lot of weight on its shoulders. Not only was it trying to deliver a compelling live-action adaptation of an anime, it was trying to deliver a compelling live-action version of the anime. But happily, Netflix’s live-action One Piece blew it out of the water. The series strikes an almost impossible-seeming balance by keeping the fun and surreality of its original anime and manga series but grounding and evolving the characters and plot to better suit a live-action. Viewers can still feel the deep anime-ness of it, but at once, know they’re watching a show that very much stands on its own feet.

One Piece is ultimately an earnestly joyful series that has a deep heart. But it also doesn’t shy away from the idea that one can be earnestly joyful and still face darkness and pain. In fact, One Piece‘s greatest strength is its very resonant portrayal of how the positives and negatives within us and around us come together to help form who we are. And, of course, it reminds us, always, to dream. Not only is One Piece an exceptional adaptation, but it is truly one of the best TV series of 2023.

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In 2022 Paramount+ delivered the Halo adaptation fans of the video game franchise had long waited for. The war with the Covenant is far from over, though. The show is returning for a second season, and now we know exactly when it will arrive. The streaming site announced the Halo series will return with two episodes of season two on Thursday, February 8, 2024. And Paramount+ made that announcement in style during a panel at CCXP23 in São Paolo, Brazil. That’s where the streamer shared a brand new trailer that shows humanity is in more danger than ever before.

It won’t be hard to “remember” this trailer. It’s an intense and ominous tease at the horrors that await Earth’s fiercest warriors. What exactly is going on? Here’s Halo season two’s official synopsis:

In season two, Master Chief John-117 leads his team of elite Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. In the wake of a shocking event on a desolate planet, John cannot shake the feeling that his war is about to change and risks everything to prove what no one else will believe – that the Covenant are preparing to attack humanity’s greatest stronghold. With the galaxy on the brink, John embarks on a journey to find the key to humankind’s salvation, or its extinction — the Halo.

The new season will see the return of stars Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, Spartan-117, and Natascha McElhone as Dr. Halsey. Joining them once again are Jen Taylor as Cortana, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, and Danny Sapani.

Season two of Halo will also mark the debut of new cast members. Joseph Morgan (Vampire Diaries) will play James Ackerson. He’s “a formidable intelligence operative who has spent his career climbing the ranks of the UNSC’s secretive Office of Naval Intelligence.” Cristina Rodlo (No One Gets Out of Here Alive) will also join the show as Talia Perez. Talia is “a corporal specializing in linguistics for a UNSC Marine Corps communications unit and a relatively new recruit who has yet to see any real combat.” 

New episodes of season two will follow every week after the two-episode Halo premiere on February 8. Assuming humanity lasts that long.

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The Boys hit Prime Video back in 2019 and TV hasn’t been quite the same since. Over the past three seasons we’ve watched a band of morally corrupt supes maim, kill, and completely destroy lives without remorse. And, no matter how much the Boys try to mitigate the Seven’s impact, it seems that nothing can stop the worst of them all—Homelander—from becoming an increasing threat. So, what does the future hold for these characters? That remains to be fully seen next season. Here’s everything we know about The Boys season four so far. 

The Boys Season Four’s Plot 

Here’s a quick synopsis for The Boys season four:

In Season Four, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.

We also have our first trailer and it is very on brand. Homelander has some new friends and they are as twisted as he is.

Showrunner Eric Kripke’s previously told Deadline that the Gen V college spinoff would affect the events of The Boys season four. Now that Gen V has come to an end—after featuring multiple cameos from the original show—we have a better idea how it might. Gen V featured the creation of a deadly supe-killing virus which Victoria Neuman now possesses. The Boys know about it, though, and Billy Butcher personally inspected The Woods, the experimental Vought lab facility beneath Godolkin University. Homelander also locked up some truly heroic young supes, who might now be ready to take on Vought if they can escape from the company.

There are also these fun posters with Butcher and Homelander being their glorious selves. Kripke also notes that this season is the craziest one yet. That’s intriguing and also terrifying.

Read more about the connections between both shows and what they mean for The Boys’ fourth season.

• What Gen V’s Season 1 Finale Means For The Boys
• Here’s How The Boys Characters Showed Up On Gen V’s First Season
• Every New Gen V Hero And Their Powers On The Boys’ Spinoff

In the meantime, we have the title of episode one for The Boys upcoming fourth season.

Behind the Scenes 

Eric Kripke will continue to be the showrunner for The Boys season four. The season began filming in August 2022.

The Boys Season Four’s Cast

The titular crew is coming back for another round with Karl Urban (Billy Butcher), Jack Quaid (Hughie Campbell), Tomer Capone (Frenchie), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko), Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk), and Erin Moriarty (Starlight) reprising their roles. From the evil supes (and those who support them) side, Antony Starr (Homelander), Jessie T. Usher (A-Train), Chace Crawford (The Deep), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), and Claudia Doumit (Victoria Neuman) will return. Giancarlo Esposito will also make his way back onto the show. It’s not clear if Dominique McElligott will return as Queen Maeve. But we do know that Black Noir actor Nathan Mitchell will return as a new person in that infamous suit. 

In August 2022, Variety revealed that Cameron Crovetti—who plays Ryan—will be upped to a series regular. Newcomers Valorie Curry and Susan Hayward will portray Firecracker and Sister Sage. They are not comic book characters, so fans will have to wait and see how they fit into the season’s puzzle. Jeffrey Dean Morgan will join the cast, too. We still don’t know anything about his character but he doesn’t seem to be a supe.

The Boys Season Four’s Release Date 

The Boys season four will hit Prime Video in 2024.

Originally published on October 10, 2022.

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The world of The Boys is on the cusp of all-out chaos. The show left us in a lurch at the end of season three with way too much s**t going on. Homelander’s supporters are straight-up worshipping him as he guides his son Ryan down a path of pure evil. Annie rejects being Starlight and joins The Boys collective. Butcher’s Compound V24 gives him a grim diagnosis. And Victoria Neuman’s Vice Presidential bid is the cherry on top of an impending disaster. Speaking of the latter, she popped up (pun intended) in Gen V, took a formula that kills supes, and is prepared to turn the world upside down. We see a glimpse of the diabolical action to come in the first trailer for The Boys season four, which premiered at CCXP. 

This The Boys season four teaser gives us a lot of love… and fear. We get to see a better glimpse of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s still-unnamed character, and it seems he will be working directly with Butcher. The teaser mentions several different parts of the world, so perhaps Morgan’s character is the leader of another Boys-like organization somewhere else. Or maybe he’s from a part of Butcher’s past that we aren’t quite familiar with. Either way, the man knows how to wear a suit.

We also see some new season four supes in play alongside Homelander in this The Boys trailer, including Susan Heyward’s scary Sister Sage and Valorie Curry’s Queen Maeve-coded Firecracker. MM’s T-shirt game is still amazing, the Starlight vs. Homelander dissension is destroying the streets, and there is a mention of a taint. The Boys season four trailer is very on-brand, indeed. 

In addition to the trailer, here’s a brief synopsis of this next season of The Boys to really get you prepared. 

In Season Four, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.

What Is the Release Date for The Boys Season Four?

We still don’t have a release date for The Boys season four, but it is coming sometime in 2024.

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“There is no war so hateful to the gods than a war between kin.” We’re not sure how much the gods will be involved in House of the Dragon‘s sophomore outing, but the new trailer for the show’s second season features a whole lot of hate and war. Rhaenyra Targaryen is coming for both vengeance and the Iron Throne. And everyone, on both sides, who splintered House Targaryen is now preparing for the blood that will surely follow all that fire. HBO has finally debuted its highly anticipated first trailer for House of the Dragon season two. It premiered at this year’s CCXP23 panel in São Paulo, Brazil. This promo more than delivers on the promise of rage and death teased during the first season’s final moments.

Rhaenyra’s son is gone and she’s determined to make those responsible for his death answer. They know what’s coming, too. This House of the Dragon season two trailer has an underlying sense of regret, as the members of House Hightower who stole Rhaenyra’s crown must face the grim reality of having succeeded. Death is coming for all involved. And with both sides having dragons it’s coming in the form of fire. Bad for them, but it should make for a great season of television for us.

The show also announced some new cast members. Some will end up playing major roles on the show. (We won’t spoil which ones for you.) The new stars include: Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew as Hugh, Tom Bennett as Ulf, Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark, and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne. Previously announced new season two cast includes Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull, Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers, Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower, and Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong.

The show will also feature a number of returning stars. Back for more chaos in the Realm are: Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.

What Is the Release Date for House of the Dragon Season 2?

The eight-episode second season debuts at HBO next summer in 2024.

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The battle of the Titans that was Godzilla vs. Kong ended in something of a draw, with the two putting their pheromones behind them to take on Mechagodzilla. After that, Godzilla went back to roaming, and Kong returned to take his place as king of the Hollow Earth. But nothing in the Monsterverse is as easy as that. At CCXP on Sunday, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures unveiled the first trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which sees our big boys team up again against a new foe… and get some new upgrades to boot.

The biggest (ha) thing to notice about the new trailer is Godzilla seems to have some kind of power-up. His scales and atomic breath are bright pink rather than cool blue. Not sure exactly what that indicates, but it’s an evolution for sure. This is not a new thing for the big lizard in previous Toho movies, but it’ll be a first for the Monsterverse. Additionally, Kong at one point seems to have a power glove. They must need to up their game against the evil, scary-looking ape.

Along with the trailer, we also got a glimpse of the new poster for the movie, which is pretty rad.

Adam Wingard, who directed Godzilla vs. Kong, returns for GxK, along with stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle. Joining them will be Dan Stevens who gets to experience the wild awe of the Hollow Earth for himself.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will hit theaters April 12, 2024.

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Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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After a very long wait, Dune hit theaters in the fall of 2021 to both rave reviews and big box office. This was despite bowing on HBO Max at the same time as its theatrical debut. But Dune was really just Dune: Part One. The first film only covered the first half of Frank Herbert’s epic 1965 novel. Luckily, the rest of the story is on the way. Dune: Part Two was officially announced on October 26, 2021. Recently revealed posters show off the sequel’s characters.

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Here’s everything else we know so far about Dune: Part Two.

Title

The official name of the movie is Dune: Part Two.

Dune: Part Two‘s Plot

The official plot synopsis from Warner Bros. and Legendary for Dune: Part Two reads as follows:

This follow-up film will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

If you’re a fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune, this all sounds like a pretty faithful adaptation of the second half of his novel. And unlike David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune, this packed second half will now have time to breathe. And who knows? Maybe we’ll see elements of the later Dune novels pop up a wee bit early.

For now, we can enjoy Dune: Part Two‘s first trailer, which highlight a crucial book scene: Paul riding on a sandworm.

The second trailer for the film shows more of Paul and Chani and the Fremen’s fight.

The chief takeaway is that Dune: Part Two is both a love story and a war movie, and we can expect both parts to shine.

Dune: Part Two‘s Cast

Almost the entire original cast from Dune is back for Dune: Part Two. At least if their character survived, that is. This includes Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, the “Kwisatz Haderach,” and Zendaya as his Fremen paramour Chani. Javier Bardem also returns as Chani’s father, Fremen leader Stilgar. Paul’s very pregnant mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) also returns for Dune: Part Two. Josh Brolin is back as Paul’s mentor Gurney Halleck, as is Stephen McKinley Henderson as Thufir Hawat, the loyal Mentat to House Atreides.

Stellan Skarsgård reprises his role as the sadistic Baron Harkonnen, as does Dave Bautista as the Baron’s loyal lackey and nephew Glossu Rabban. Charlotte Rampling’s character, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, is also slated to return. New cast members include Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan) Austin Butler (Feyd Rautha), and Christopher Walken (Emperor Shadddam IV). They are joined by Léa Seydoux (Lady Margot) and Souheila Yacoub as the Fremen warrior Shishakli.

Of course, certain major characters died in the first film, and are not scheduled to appear in Dune: Part Two. These include Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho and Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides. But there could be surprise flashbacks. So don’t count them all out just yet. We may yet see them on the sands of Arrakis. Most recently, Deadline reported Tim Blake Nelson joined the cast in an unknown role.

Behind the Scenes

Just as he was for Dune, director Denis Villeneuve is back behind the camera for Dune: Part Two. Jon Spaihts wrote the script for the second chapter of the story. Hans Zimmer also returned to score the sequel.

Dune: Part Two‘s Release Date

Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1, 2024. It will release in IMAX 70 mm as well as in IMAX and normal theatrical formats.

Originally published on August 1, 2022.

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The intergalactic journey of U.S.S. Discovery is coming to an end. Paramount+ has revealed that they are ending Star Trek: Discovery with the upcoming fifth season of the show. It is set to release in April 2024. At the fan convention CCXP, we saw a clip from the upcoming final season—a season that will see Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well … dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

Discovery‘s fifth season wasn’t necessarily meant to be the end. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, additional filming was set to help craft a conclusion for the series. Discovery was historic for many reasons. Debuting in 2017, it was the first streaming series in the franchise’s history. It was also the first Trek series since the cancellation of Enterprise some 12 years earlier.

Discovery launched a whole world of Trek in the streaming world, first on CBS All Access, then on its successor, Paramount+. This lead to Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and most recently, Strange New Worlds. Of course, it was also the first Star Trek series with an African-American woman in the lead, and the Trek series with its first regular trans character.

Discovery was unique in Trek canon for several reasons. It began as a prequel to the original series, set some ten years before the time of Kirk on the Enterprise. But at the end of season two, they propelled the starship Discovery over 900 years into the future. This allowed the show to explore a completely different era in the Star Trek timeline. It was also unique in that the lead character was not a Captain or Commander. But she eventually evolved into taking command of the ship by the end of the third season. It will be interesting to see if Star Trek remains in this time period for future series, or returns to the past.

The final season of Star Trek: Discovery will drop on Paramount+ in April 2024.

Originally published on March 2, 2023.

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The time has come for Lucy to leave Vault 33 and see what has transpired since an apocalypse left Los Angeles in tatters. While Vault Dwellers don’t live in the lap of luxury, they have enjoyed a sheltered existence compared to those who’ve tried to survive in the wasteland. We’ll see how the Vault Dweller Lucy does when she leaves her home in Prime Video’s Fallout TV series adaptation. We recently saw first-look images for Fallout, and now it’s time for the first trailer. It has plenty of nods to the video game and hints at the mutated dangers lurking around every corner. The footage even shows Walton Goggins’ face instead of his Ghoul form.

Prime Video shared the trailer at the fan and comic book convention CCXP. Series stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins appeared alongside executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan, executive producer and co-showrunner Graham Wagner and discussed the series. As the trailer demonstrates, the Fallout TV series is going to have the same tone as the game. That means things are a little tongue-in-cheek—like Dog snacking on flash. The music in the trailer is reminiscent of the game, too.

Fallout’s synopsis states:

Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

The Fallout TV series will premiere on Prime Video on April 12, 2024.

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Marvel Comics has finally made good on an idea that’s over 40 years old. In the recent X-Men Blue: Origins one shot, the true origin story of longtime X-Man Nightcrawler was revealed. And it’s what Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont intended decades ago, but Marvel Comics forbade him to do so. In X-Men Blue: Origins, writer Si Spurrier revealed Raven Darkholme, the shapeshifting mutant called Mystique, had morphed into a man and become Nightcrawler’s father. Her longtime lover Irene Adler, better known as the precognitive mutant Destiny, was the mother. This was always the plan. It just took four decades to get there.

Marvel Teased the Nightcrawler/Mystique Connection Since 1981

From his very first appearance in 1975’s Giant Size X-Men #1, there’s been an air of mystery surrounding the origins of Kurt Wagner, a.k.a. Nightcrawler. When the blue-skinned Nightcrawler first met the mutant villain Mystique in 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #142, he immediately noticed the similarities between the two of them. From that first meeting, Mystique teased Kurt with the knowledge that there was a deeper connection between them. Yet, Marvel kept that connection a mystery for decades.

Chris Claremont toyed with the idea of making the Doctor Strange villain Nightmare into Kurt’s dad. But he preferred his second option for Nightcrawler’s origin. His idea was that Mystique had shapeshifted into a man, and impregnated her longtime lover Destiny, making her Kurt’s mother. Although in the ’80s he was not allowed to explicitly say Mystique and Destiny were romantic partners, it was all but obvious to anyone who could read between the lines. Marvel editorial feared the still active Comics Code Authority censors would never allow it, so they scrapped the plan. Not wanting to replace the story he had in mind, Chris Claremont never touched the question of the Nightcrawler/Mystique connection again for the rest of his run on the title.

Mystique Revealed She Was Nightcrawler’s Mother in the ’90s

After Chris Claremont left the X-Men world in 1991, writer Scott Lobdell took over. In 1994’s X-Men Unlimited #4, by Scott Lobdell and Richard Bennett, Marvel finally had Mystique explain to Kurt that she was his mother. She told him the story of his birth. Mystique told Kurt she was once married to a German aristocrat, Baron Christian Wagner. He had no clue about her mutant powers, or that she married him for wealth and safety, not love. When she became pregnant, she gave birth to a blue infant with pointed ears and a tail.

This freaked out her husband, who accused her of having an affair. He could not have possibly imagined fathering a demonic baby. Later, the local townspeople found out Mystique was a mutant and chased her and her infant son out of the village with pitchforks, Frankenstein-style. Telling Kurt she was too weak to fight and run, she chose herself over her newborn child, coldly throwing the infant down a raging waterfall. She imitated a villager and escaped, and the child activated his teleporting powers for the first time and survived, eventually getting adopted.

Marvel Introduced Nightcrawler’s Demonic “Father” in the 2000s

Later, in the 2000s, writer Chuck Austen revealed Nightcrawler’s father was not the German Baron, but the demon Azazel, a being Mystique had an affair with. Azazel looked just like Nightcrawler, except he was red instead of blue. Nightcrawler had always been called a “demon,” thanks to his pointed ears and tail. Now we learned at least one parent of his was indeed just that. Later, Azazel’s demonic nature would come into question. Some writers have suggested he was a mutant posing as a demon lord. Up until recently, that’s been Nightcrawler’s in-canon origin story.

Nightcrawler’s True Origins Revealed at Last

But with the Comics Code Authority no longer being an issue, in X-Men Blue: Origins #1, writer Si Spurrier, artists Wilton Santos, Oren Junior, Marcus To, and Ceci De La Cruz actually made Claremont’s intended origin story for Kurt canon. They took into account all the reveals and changes over the years. Mystique tells Kurt she used her shapeshifting powers not to just change appearance, but also her sex, allowing her to impregnate Destiny. It was Destiny, posing as the German Baron’s maid, who gave birth to Nightcrawler nine months later. During Destiny’s pregnancy, Mystique used her shapeshifting abilities to fake her own pregnancy. This explains all the previous flashbacks of Mystique pregnant with Kurt.

So why does Azazel look so much like Kurt if he’s not the father? Well, it turns out Mystique can absorb some of the genetic code of those she touches when mimicking them. She used Azazel’s genetic code as the basis for her male form when impregnating Destiny—not only Azazel’s, but also some of Baron Christian Wagner’s as well. So why assume the form of Azazel at all when attempting to have a child with Destiny? Because the precognitive mutant had a vision of Azazel conquering the world. A vision showing that only his son could stop him (or someone he believed to be his son). So they concocted this elaborate ruse. But soon after, Destiny left Mystique, leaving her heartbroken.

Mystique and Destiny Are Officially Nightcrawler’s Parents

When they eventually reunited, Destiny asked Professor Charles Xavier to psychically remove the memories of giving birth to Kurt. This was so she and Mystique could move on and properly raise their adopted daughter Rogue. Meanwhile, Mystique refused to allow Xavier to remove the knowledge that she was Kurt’s parent. She said she did not want to forget the boy was her own. However, Xavier warned Mystique that tampering with her memories could alter her own perception of the past and it could lead to false memories—ones that were uglier than the truth. One of those false memories involved Mystique throwing her child over the waterfall, something she never truly did. In reality, she was heartbroken over the loss of her son. Xavier then deleted the memories of both women from his own mind as well, saying this was all a “private matter.”

With recent events in the X-Men line of comics removing Charles Xavier’s psychic tampering with Mystique’s mind, it revealed the truth to her. This knowledge caused a mental breakdown, but she eventually bonded with her son Kurt, whom she now acknowledges she never tried to kill to protect herself. Will these two characters finally form a parental bond that has always eluded them? And what will happen when Destiny inevitably comes back to life? The X-Men is an endless soap opera, and we can’t wait to see what happens to the Wagner/Darkholme family in the years ahead.

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Welcome back, Rick & Morty fans! This week’s adventure asks fans to open their minds in a Summer and Morty centric episode that sees the siblings come together closer than they’ve ever been, both figuratively and literally. Dan dives in to break it all down on today’s episode of Nerdist News!

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The villains turned “heroes” of DC Comics’ Suicide Squad are back, only this time, they’re getting an anime makeover. The folks at Warner Bros. Japan/WIT Studio have revealed the trailer, character art, main theme song, and voice cast for Suicide Squad ISEKAI. Directed by Eri Osada, with a screenplay by Tappei Nagatsuki, this is an all-new original anime series. Based on the classic DC characters, it includes icons like Harley Quinn, the Joker, and Peacemaker. You can check out the first full trailer for Suicide Squad ISEKAI, and read the official synopsis for the series, down below:

In the crime-ridden city of Gotham, Amanda Waller, the head of A.R.G.U.S., has assembled a group of notorious criminals for a mission: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark. These Super-Villains are sent into an otherworldly realm that’s connected to this world through a gate. It’s a world of swords and magic where orcs rampage and dragons rule the skies—an “ISEKAI”!

With lethal explosives planted in their necks, there’s no running or hiding, and failing the mission means a one-way ticket to the afterlife! Can Harley Quinn and her crew conquer this perilous ISEKAI realm?! Brace yourselves for the pulse-pounding saga of the elite task force known as the “Suicide Squad” as they embark on a jaw-dropping adventure!

The new anime series showcases favorites from the first Suicide Squad film, like Deadshot and the Joker. But also brings in characters used in James Gunn’s sequel, like our boy King Shark and Peacemaker. And then there are new additions to the team, like Clayface. Although there are several Batman characters in this series, and a Gotham City setting, no sign of the Dark Knight anywhere. But we have a feeling ol’ Bats will pop in somewhere. The voice cast includes Anna Nagase as Harley, Yuuichirou Umehara as the Joker, Reigo Yamaguchi as Deadshot, Takehito Koyasu as Peacemaker, Jun Fukuyama as Clayface, and Subaru Kimura as King Shark.

Suicide Squad ISEKAI is set for a global release in 2024.

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From tantalizing The Last of Us season two teases to incredibly orange Cheez-It nail polishes, here are some of our favorite pop-culture news odds & ends from this week.

• Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Reveals First-Look Images and Release Date
• Iman Vellani Reveals Kamala Khan Will Be “Frodo” of Marvel Zombies, Returns to Voice Character and Pen New Comic
• The Last of Us Season 2 Will Feature Content From Lost Levels
• Chris Pine Feels Confident a Dungeons & Dragons 2 Movie Will Happen
• Cheez-It Nail Polish Is coming!
• Hazbin Hotel Sets Release Date
• Twilight Director Would Cast Jenna Ortega and Jacob Elordi as Leads in Movie Today
• Margot Robbie Reveals No Barbie Sequel Is Heading Our Way
• You Can Now Watch the Halo Live-Action Series Free on YouTube

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Reveals First-Look Images and Release Date

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu has been brewing for a while. But we finally have our first looks at the movie and a release date. Nosferatu will officially release on December 25, 2024. That’s one delicious Christmas gift for goths. The vampiric tale stars Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, and Willem Dafoe.

Learn more about the influence of the original Nosferatu with our article, here.

Iman Vellani Reveals Kamala Khan Will Be “Frodo” of Marvel Zombies, Returns to Voice Character and Pen New Comic

Iman Vellani has emerged as one of the MCU’s truest heroes. So we couldn’t be more thrilled that she’ll soon be back to voice Ms. Marvel in the Disney+ series Marvel Zombies. In an interview with The Direct Vellani reveals, “We’ve done the whole thing. It was amazing. It was so much fun. And I love—there are a lot of cool characters in the ‘Marvel Zombies‘ show. And Kamala is kind of the center of the show. They described it to me, it’s like, ‘She’s basically the Frodo of the story.’ And I was like, ‘That’s amazing.'” It’s what Ms. Marvel deserves.

Vellani will also be back to pen another Ms. Marvel comic. She and co-writer Sabir Pirzada will write the Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace series, a follow-up to Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant. According to GamesRadar, the pair will be joined by artist Scott Godlewski. The series is set to release in March.

The Last of Us Season 2 Will Feature Content From “Lost Levels“

If you’re looking for hints about The Last of Us season two than look no further than the remastered “Lost Levels.” These Lost Levels are playable sequences that were cut from The Last of Us Part II. But they’ll be back in the remastered version of the game that is releasing on January 19, 2024. And Neil Druckmann is teasing that they hold some insights for the HBO series. He notes to Entertainment Weekly, “As a tease, I will say there is at least one element from a cut level that is planned [for] the show… I say that with the caveat that we haven’t started filming the show yet, and all things are subject to change based on what we ultimately feel will be best for the show.”

The Last of Us Part II Remastered and its mysterious Lost Levels will be available to pre-order on December 5.

The Last of Us season two is already off to an ominous start.

Chris Pine Feels Confident a Dungeons & Dragons 2 Movie Will Happen

Although it was bad news for Star Trek 4, Chris Pine recently gave a positive update about the future of the Dungeons & Dragons movie franchise. He shared the following with GamesRadar about a potential Dungeons & Dragons 2, “I’ve heard some rumors about it… But I don’t know anything yet. But I feel pretty confident that it may happen.” He also added that he’d be “absolutely” happy to return to the universe. And we too would be absolutely happy to see it happen. Roll for Dungeons & Dragons 2.

Unfortunately, Chris Pine wasn’t so optimistic about Star Trek 4.

Cheez-It Nail Polish Is coming!

Enough said, no? Cheez-It and Nails Inc. Polish are collaborating on two cheesy colors, “Orange You Feelin’ the Cheeziest” and “Flexin’ in the Red Zone.” And who doesn’t want their nails to look like a little cheesy? This polish, perfect for mani/cheddiz, will be available for pre-order on Dec. 29 at CheezIt.com.

Hazbin Hotel Sets Release Date

Who doesn’t want an animated musical series about the princess of Hell trying to rehabilitate demons? Hazbin Hotel is created by Vivienne Medrano and is based on “her popular animated pilot released on YouTube in 2019.” Additionally a release shares, “The series blends adult humor, unforgettable characters, and catchy musical numbers creating a wholly original and unique world.” It certainly looks good in its preview. And now it has a release date. Hazbin Hotel will release on January 19, 2024. The series stars Erika Henningsen, Stephanie Beatriz, Alex Brightman, Keith David, Kimiko Glenn, Blake Roman, Amir Talai, Christian Borle, and Joel Perez. And it will feature exciting guest stars such as Darren Criss (Saint Peter), Jeremy Jordan (Lucifer Morningstar), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Carmilla Carmine), Patina Miller (Sera), and Jessica Vosk (Lute).

We can’t wait to check in to this hotel.

Twilight Director Would Cast Jenna Ortega and Jacob Elordi as Leads in Movie Today

Twilight just wouldn’t be Twilight without the incredible performances of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. But who doesn’t love a fan-cast for today’s day and age? Speaking to the Watch-a-long podcast, Twilight‘s director Catherine Hardwicke shared her picks for Bella and Edward, should a reboot of the series happen. Her selections? Jenna Ortega and Jacob Elordi. We accept these choices. Ortega could definitely help give Twilight a more horror-focused lean and Elordi really does give off strong vampire vibes.

There is a Twilight series brewing, after all…

Margot Robbie Reveals No Barbie Sequel Is Heading Our Way

Alas, it’s unlikely we’ll say “Hi, Barbie 2.” But that’s most likely for the best. Not everything needs a sequel. Of course, this could all change in a moment, especially since Barbie was so immensely popular. But for now, Margot Robbie shares, “I think we put everything into this one. We didn’t build it to be a trilogy or something… Greta put everything into this movie, so I can’t imagine what would be next.”

We bet Warner Bros. could… But we’ll cross our fingers Barbie gets to stand on her own.

Barbie is now available to stream at home.

You Can Now Watch the Halo Live-Action Series Free on YouTube

In case you’ve been waiting for a sign to watch the live-action adaptation of Halo, here it is. The Halo series is now available on YouTube in its entirety via Paramount+’s official channel. And it’s totally free. So now nothing is stopping you from watching Pablo Schreiber’s hunky Master Chief in all his sci-fi/action glory. We know we’re pressing play.

You can find the Halo playlist here.

We’re also getting a live-action series adaptation of Fallout.

The post NOSFERATU Shares Release Date, Chris Pine Optimistic About DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 2, and Other News Odds & Ends appeared first on Nerdist.

Sometimes, a character enters into a show, and it’s game over for all other characters. In Ahsoka‘s case, Sabine Wren’s Loth-cat totally stole everyone’s hearts. Even though the Star Wars series introduced other new adorable aliens, it was the Loth-cat that stayed with us. Sadly, Sabine’s pet didn’t get too much time to shine. We only saw our favorite Loth-cat for a few scenes in episodes one and two of Ahsoka. But even worse than that, we never learned what happened to our favorite creature after the rest of our heroes took off to galaxies unknown! The entire season fans were asking, is anyone watching Sabine’s Loth-cat? Is it okay? In the season finale of Ahsoka, we didn’t exactly get answers about the creature, but in a fashion, we learned the Loth-cat’s name and who is watching it. Plot twist, it’s you. We just hope the Star Wars universe remembers to bring the Loth-cat’s fate onto our screens sooner rather than later.

Sabine Wren’s Loth-cat Is Named Murley

In the Star Wars universe, Loth-cats came onto the scene in Star Wars Rebels. They’re a feline creature that’s native to the planet of Lothal. Star Wars’ official description shares that “while at times they can be friendly—and indeed, make affectionate pets when domesticated—Loth-cats are able hunters with sharp teeth and claws.” On Ahsoka, the first live-action appearance of a Loth-cat, we saw both aspects of the Star Wars species at play. Sabine’s Loth-cat was happy to snuggle and purr against her, but was the first to squawk at signs of trouble. And honestly, the Loth-cat crucially gave both Sabine Wren and Ahsoka an important heads-up when the enemy was near.

But one thing we did not get from Ahsoka, was the Loth-cat’s name. Happily, Star Wars‘ official accounts have arrived to fill in that blank for us. Sabine Wren’s Loth-cat is named Murley. There doesn’t seem to be any particular Star Wars Easter egg or reference embedded in the name, but we’ll take it.

Who Is Watching the Loth-cat During the Events of Ahsoka?

Although a Loth-cat can probably fend for itself to some degree, it shouldn’t have to! Over the course of Ahsoka‘s episodes, fans conveyed a great deal of worry about the fate of Sabine’s pet. We see Sabine feed the Loth-cat in Ahsoka‘s first episode, so Murely is probably used to food coming several times a day. Ultimately, Ahsoka never revisited the Loth-cat’s fate throughout the season, but we assume that Sabine asked someone to look after Murley at some juncture. Between Hera Syndulla and the people of Lothal, surely someone was around to check on the Loth-cat.

Recently, Dave Filoni shed some light on this important issue. He shared with Entertainment Weekly about what Sabine’s Loth-cat is getting up to. Filoni noted, “With the cat, obviously, there’s a couple things at play… First, I think Sabine would leave the door cracked open. Second of all, I think Murley’s smart enough to be able to move through the ventilation ducts and up and down that tower. I don’t think he needs to operate the elevator. I wouldn’t question if he could, but I think he can move up and down the ductwork to get out there to the ground level. Maybe there are other Loth-cats around. He’s not the only one.”

Additionally, Filoni does point out what we already mentioned, Ahsoka‘s Loth-cat is pretty capable. He adds, “I don’t think Murley is what I would call a domestic cat… I think it’s a wild cat that lives with Sabine, and she likes that fact and feeds it. Murley knows it’s a good situation, so it hangs out. Murley’s an opportunist and probably a bit of a pain in the butt.” That said, Filoni thinks, “There could be a whole documentary on what happens to the Loth-cat.” We totally agree.

Don’t Forget, Murley the Loth-Cat Has YOU

Of course, Star Wars reminds us, there’s you. You have always been a part of the Rebellion and now you’re a part of the Loth-cat sitter’s club. Congratulations. To drive the point home, the official Star Wars team created a LoFi video of the snoozing creature. You can watch Murley dream happy dreams for 11 hours straight and content yourself with the thought that you are watching the Loth-cat. And that the creature is both safe and happy, phew.

As for the future of Ahsoka‘s Loth-cat? Well, now that Ezra Bridger has returned to his home galaxy, he’ll probably also return to his home where Sabine Wren had been staying. We’d put a little money on the fact that he’ll discover a Loth-cat waiting for him when he enters into LothalNet comm tower E-272.

Ahsoka‘s Loth-cat Is an Animatronic, Just Like Grogu

For those who want to know more about how this cute creature came to life, Murley the Loth-cat is actually an animatronic from the Legacy Effects team. This very same team created Grogu. Before Murley’s Ahsoka debut, Loth-cats featured in The Mandalorian were purely CGI.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Sabine Wren, shared with Empire earlier in the year, “That was my little buddy!… That cat, the complexity of the design… I mean, it has a real skeleton under there, because that’s how they control such intense facial expressions and everything.” The actress also added, “Move over, Grogu!”

Star Wars‘ complex animatronic puppets continue to wow us and melt our hearts. So much so that for seven weeks fans have been asking after the health of this animatronic. We honestly hope Grogu doesn’t end up moving over, but that these paid of adorable puppets one day get to meet in the galaxy, far, far away.

Originally published on October 4, 2023.

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We’ve always known that the Stranger Things universe would expand in some way. In the next couple of years, we will get the show’s fifth and final season. But Netflix will certainly want to continue the universe of its biggest hit. And while we have our own Stranger Things spinoff ideas, including a ‘90s series, this isn’t quite what we had in mind. Stranger Things is heading to the stage for Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a live stage play at the Phoenix Theater in London’s West End. 

Stranger Things: The First Shadow Production Images

We now officially have our first looks at the Stranger Things play in full force. Netflix has released some images that reveal how the play will look when it’s being performed. The staging is pretty cool. And it looks like someone is fully dressing as a Demogorgon, which we have to applaud. Our least favorite creatures, the Demobats, are also flapping around. And at the center of it all is, of course, Henry Creel, a.k.a Vecna.

Check out all the teases of this play in action below, including images of Joyce, Hopper, Dr. Brenner, and ore, in action.

Click To View Gallery

Netflix has also revealed that the first act title of the Stranger Things play will be, “Chapter One: The Girl From Nowhere.” Very mysterious. Start your speculating now.

The Stranger Things Play Synopsis and First-Look Rehearsal Images

The Stranger Things play is based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne, and Kate Trefry (who wrote this play) and will hit the stage sometime in late 2023. Of course, Netflix will produce it alongside Sonia Friedman Productions, and fans will certainly show up to see what happens. Here’s the plot synopsis for Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage play: 

Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.

We also have our first look at rehearsals for Stranger Things: The First Shadow. In them, we prominently see Henry Creel glaring into space and also get our first tease of a young Joyce Byers (at the time Joyce Maldonado)

Additionally, a teaser for the Stranger Things play hints that it could also be crucial for understanding what’s to come in Stranger Things 5.

We have to admit that it is quite an interesting take on the series. Fans met Henry Creel and his family last season, and there’s certainly a lot to mine from his story. Sure, there were flashes of his childhood and backstory. But now we will get to see more about his life in the Stranger Things play. And, who isn’t curious about what a young Hopper, Joyce, and Bob were like, as well as the town itself? At this time, Jim and Joyce would have been between 17-19 years old, with the former getting ready to be drafted into the Vietnam War. So, they probably would have little to no interaction with Henry, who was middle school-aged in 1959. But hey, they could always play with timelines and bend the rules a bit.

Behind The Scenes of Stranger Things: The First Shadow

In honor of Stranger Things Day 2023, Netflix shared our long look at the play. Among other tidbits, Stranger Things: The First Shadow sounds like it will prominently feature a love story between the soon-to-be Vecna, Henry Creel, and Bob Newby’s sister, Patty Newby. Writer Kate Trefry shares that the main thrust of the story is Patty and her little budding romance with Henry. We admit we did not see that one coming.

Additionally, the featurette notes that the Stranger Things play is the origin story of how Henry Creel became Number 001 and of the Upside Down. Plus, there will be blood, guts, and Easter eggs.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow Cast and Ticket Information

The Stranger Things play cast is also set! Shane Attwooll and Christopher Buckley will portray Chief Hopper and Bob Newby, respectively. Oscar Lloyd will be James Hopper, Jr. and we can’t wait to learn more about him. Michael Jibson will take on the role of Victor Creel, Louis McCartney plays his son Henry Creel, and Lauren Ward will be Virginia Creel. Isabella Pappas will portray Joyce Maldonaldo, Ella Kaurna Williams is Patty Newby, and Patrick Vaill rounds out the cast as Dr. Brenner.

Tickets for the Stranger Things play went on sale March 30th. And tickets are now available for as low as £45 (USD $57.20). Additionally, fans can lottery to get “Shadow Seats” for the performances via the TodayTix app. These 11 pairs of seats will be available via lottery each week and cost £19.59 per seat, according to Variety.

The play itself will begin its run in November.

Originally published on March 1, 2023.

The post Netflix’s STRANGER THINGS Prequel Play Reveals Production Images of All Our Favorite Characters appeared first on Nerdist.

Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter is a new trading card game that gives us a fresh outlet to play with our favorite Disney characters and create epic crossovers. Would Maleficent and Cruella de Vil be friends or foes? Could Stitch endear himself to the likes of Captain Hook? And would Robin Hood and Elsa make a good team? Those are the six characters that make up the first set of Disney Lorcana trading cards. The game was announced at the D23 Expo, but it launched in August 2023, with new sets releasing four times a year. So far, the second set, Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn, has officially released. The second set of trading cards shows off more original Disney artwork than any other product, and from what we’ve seen so far, the cards are all beautiful. Additionally, for anyone in need, a reprint of Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter will also be released this December.

Here’s everything you need to know about the game, including details of its cards, app, rules, and more. You can also check out our review of Disney Lorcana for an in-depth look at the game from a player’s perspective.

Jump to: Disney Lorcana Cards // Disney Lorcana TCG Companion App // Disney Lorcana Story // Disney Lorcana Rules // Disney Lorcana Release Dates, Availability, and More

Disney Lorcana Character Cards

Disney Lorcana is a partnership with puzzle and game maker Ravensburger, who has lots of other great Disney content. Fans at last year’s D23 Expo were able to buy an exclusive first-edition pack of the cards. They also got their hands on an exclusive Mickey Mouse card called “Brave Little Tailor” that isn’t part of the set. The other characters have their own unique abilities. Captain Hook is listed as a forceful duelist and has a sword for a hand. Maleficent appears in her dragon form in the Disney Lorcana trading cards, while Cruella de Vil’s strongest quality is “miserable as usual.” I wonder how that presents itself in gameplay. There’s also Elsa the Snow Queen, Robin Hood, the unrivaled archer, and Stitch as a rock star.  Certainly an interesting lineup.

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More Disney Lorcana Cards: From Maleficent to Olaf

It seems like more or less every Disney character will find their way onto a Disney Lorcana card. Here are a few more looks at what’s to come. The “Dragon Fire” Lorcana card, for example, features Disney’s Maleficent in her dragon form, “breathing cursed green fire.” Use of this card will allow players to “banish [a] chosen character.”

We also glimpsed a new Disney Lorcana card that brings a cheerful face to the gaming table, Olaf. Warm hugs for all! Disney’s Jumba Jookiba and Princess Aurora joined the ranks of Disney Lorcana as well. And even accessories are coming onboard. A new type of card, an item card, features the “Magic Mirror.” Very mysterious.

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Recently, Nerdist went behind the scenes with Ravensburger creative director Shane Hartley, who shared more about how the game was conceived. And, of course, we got to see the magical art of four new Disney Lorcana cards.

Disney Lorcana Launches Trading Card Game Companion App

These cards are just a taste of what the full game will hold. Already, we’re a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount and artistry of all the Disney Lorcana cards that exist. But this trading card game wants keeping track of all its cards to be a breeze—and that includes both the ones you own and the ones you want. The official Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game Companion app is here to help all users keep magic high and chaos low.

A release shares:

The Disney Lorcana TCG Companion app features a complete card catalog, which can be used by players to keep track of cards in their collection as well as “wish list” cards they hope to add to their deck. TCG rookies and experts alike will also appreciate the app’s deckbuilding feature, which allows them to create and manage their own custom deck right from their phone. Other highlights of the app include easily accessible how-to-play information and videos, a lore points counter tool and the latest news updates from Disney Lorcana TCG.

The Disney Lorcna app is free to download and is available on the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

The TCG’s Story

Disney Lorcana recently released more about its lore. It’s official story shares:

Welcome to the Great Illuminary, the center of a magical realm called Lorcana… The Illuminary summoned you here because of your powerful imagination… Nearby, a unique tool catches your eye. It’s an inkcaster, and when you pick it up, it feels both exciting and familiar. Instinctively, you hold it high above the open book. Magical ink pulsing with energy flows through the mechanism and combines with the light from a story star on a page of the lorebook in front of you, creating an image of a Disney character. With the power of your inkcaster, the image rises off the page. This is a glimmer, a new version of the character that only exists in this world. As an Illumineer, you can create glimmers of characters and items to add to the lore of Lorcana—a treasure that must be preserved and protected at all costs. 

Soon, other Illumineers across the globe will be called to the aid of Lorcana. You’ll summon glimmers to quest with you as you search for missing lore in a race against time. Only together can you protect this wondrous realm from threats. 

Will you answer the call?

Disney Lorcana’s Rules

We finally have a better understanding of Disney Lorcana‘s rules and gameplay. According to a release, here’s how the trading card game works:

Players become “Illumineers” and wield magic ink to summon a team of Disney characters known as “glimmers,” who appear in both familiar and reimagined forms. In Disney Lorcana, players embark on a search for lost lore with their teams of glimmers. They’ll play characters, actions, and items from their hand and choose whether to “quest” for lore with their glimmers or challenge their opponents. The first player to collect 20 lore wins.

Additionally, Disney Lorcana‘s quick start rules note, “Disney Lorcana is a strategy card game where each player makes their own deck before the game starts, and the decks aren’t mixed together. You can play with one of the available ready-to-play decks, make changes to one of those decks, or build a deck that’s entirely your own! In a game like this, cards can allow you to do things that aren’t normally a part of every turn. If a card’s text ever contradicts the game rules, follow what the card says.”

That all sounds simple enough, but we have a feeling actually playing might get a bit more complicated. Thankfully, the game’s official website has a dedicated “How to Play” page with video guides to walk you through playing your most magical game. These will help you to understand how to generate ink, what different cards you can have in your deck, what abilities each has, and more. And hopefully, the game will leave you singing just a little bit.

Disney Lorcana‘s Release Date and More

Finally, all that Disney knowledge rattling around our brains will win us more than just trivia contests! Disney Lorcana launched “at local game stores” on August 18. And has now been released via mass retailers, as of September 1. To keep up with exceptionally high demand, more Disney Lorcana booster pack product will be sent to North American stores in October. Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter will also be reprinted and, according to Comicbook.com, will release on December 22, 2023 at 12 AM PT/3 AM ET on ShopDisney.com’s Disney Lorcana page.

The article shares that “It is expected to include most (if not all) of the products, including starter decks boosters, the gift set, and maybe even the The Illumneer’s Trove.” Meanwhile, certain products, such as Starter Decks and Booster, can be pre-ordered now at various retailers such as Hot Topic and BoxLunch.

Meanwhile, the second set of cards Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn released on November 17 in specialty/hobby stores and on December 1 for the mass market.

Country Availability and Language Options

The game originally released in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. And it comes in English, French, and German. But now, Disney Lorcana will also be released in an additional 10 countries: Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Mexico. This expansion will occur “with the release of the third set in early 2024.” The game will also come in Italian as of its third set release.

Decks and Other Merchandise

Players will be able to purchase starter decks of 60 cards in “two of the six ‘inks’ — Amber and Amethyst, Emerald and Ruby, or Steel and Sapphire.” These decks will come with two foil cards of the characters on their boxes and also include a booster pack (12 random cards, including one foil card and one card of varying rareness) and game tokens. More robust sets will also be available for purchase. Additionally, “themed playmats, card sleeves, deck boxes, and card portfolios featuring Disney Lorcana art will be available at launch.”

Ravensburger has many other licensed products from properties like Despicable Me and Minions. There are Star Wars puzzles and an Alien board game. Plus, some less obvious partnerships, like a card game for Taco Bell. 

Originally published on September 9, 2022. Original reporting by Melissa Miller.

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