In 2021, the animated series Arcane, based on the popular video game League of Legends, debuted on Netflix, and fans and critics went wild. As is the case with many series that debuted on a streaming service, it was denied a physical media release. Until now, that is. The series will finally get a definitive, limited-run Collector’s Edition, 4K UHD, and a Standard Edition SteelBook Editions. There’s also a Blu-Ray Standard Edition, and on Digital Download-to-Own. All editions are currently available for preorder.

So what can Arcane fans expect? The limited-run Collector’s Edition is presented in a rigid clamshell box featuring original artwork. It contains all nine episodes presented in 4K resolution, mastered in Dolby Vision HDR. The edition also contains all episodes on standard Blu-ray discs. In addition to the full series, the set also has brand new exclusives to the Collector’s Edition.

This includes a double-sided poster featuring artwork from Piltover’s “Progress Day.” It features one side defaced by Jinx, six art cards with Powder’s illustrations, Caitlyn Kiramann’s map of Piltover, and an expansive dice set containing a Hexcore-inspired d20 die, seven liquid core resin dice inspired by Hex crystals, a protective pouch and decorative dice box. This set is limited to 6500 copies for North America.

The 4K UHD SteelBook features a stunning Jinx-themed outer package, containing the full nine-episode series presented across three 4K UHD discs. There’s also an additional Blu-ray disc containing over three hours of bonus features. The Standard SteelBook edition arrives in a Vi-themed outer package, containing the same nine-episode series and the same accompanying bonus features across three discs.

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The Standard Blu-ray edition presents the series and bonus features across three Blu-ray discs. Both versions of the SteelBook edition and the standard Blu-ray edition drop on October 8, 2024 from Shout! Studios. Bonus features on all physical editions include exclusive conversations with key creative talent and writers. Also, numerous scene breakdowns from the animation staff at studio Fortiche, “making-of” videos, and more. Arcane will be available in North America starting September 24, 2024 on digital download-to-own platforms.

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For some time, it was believed that voice-acting legend Kevin Conroy’s last performance as Batman was going to be the recent Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game. Luckily, before his passing in 2022, he recorded one more performance as the character that made him famous. This was for the animated film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three. The scene was only a minute or so long. But we got to see Conroy’s Dark Knight fight Mark Hamill’s Joker one last time. Conroy’s dialogue is eerily prescient, as if predicting it would be his last time ever playing the Caped Crusader. You can watch Conroy’s final Batman performance down below: Try not to get misty-eyed watching it.

The scene above is but one example in the film of the villainous Anti-Monitor’s anti-matter wave destroying universe after universe. This is a direct reference to the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths comics from 1985 that reshaped DC Comics continuity. An event that would continuously happen over the next forty years. This three-part adaptation of Crisis (the second after the Arrowverse adaptation in 2019) also features other notable cameos. Appearances from other famous animated DC universes from across the decades. We won’t spoil which ones for you, You’ll just have to watch.

A nice touch fans of the DC Animated Universe will notice is in orbit of the Earth right after the Batman scene is the Justice League Watchtower. The very same one from Justice League Unlimited. That’s because the Earth we see destroyed in the anti-matter wave is Earth-12. That’s the designated home to Bruce Timm’s various animated shows. These include Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, and Justice League Unlimited. This brief scene is a final farewell to an animated universe that remains beloved by DC Comics fans everywhere. Other new DC animated universe will no doubt appear, but Timm’s DCAU, and especially Conroy’s Batman, will forever be the blueprint.

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Just before season one of X-Men ’97 aired, Marvel announced that it had parted ways with Head Writer Beau DeMayo. While the circumstances of that firing remain vague, we have since learned that DeMayo wrote a substantial amount of X-Men ’97 season two, which Marvel Studios has noted will be honored in the animated series’ second season. But when it comes to X-Men ’97 season three, a new writer has reportedly been hired. Deadline reveals that Matthew Chauncey will replace Beau DeMayo in the role of X-Men ’97 writer for the third chapter of the show.

As writer, Chauncey will work with X-Men ’97’s director, Jake Castorena, who has been with the project since the beginning. Chauncey has written for Disney+’s Marvel series What If…? and also worked on the Ms. Marvel live-action series. We will have to wait and see what his vision is for X-Men ’97 season three. The third season of the show is currently in development.

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The Legend of Vox Machina has now delighted Critters for two glorious seasons. And happily, season three of the animated series will be heading to our screens soon. But that’s not all there is to get excited about. The Legend of Vox Machina is based on Critical Role‘s first roleplaying campaign, of course. And if there’s one thing that Dungeons & Dragons fans love, it’s getting to take a closer look at the details and nuances of a world. Roll for perception, please! The Legend of Vox Machina is getting a gorgeous “making of” art book, The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina. Anyone who has so much as glimpsed the show knows that this art-filled tome will be a pleasing treat for the eyes (and minds) of fans everywhere.

You can take a look at the cover art of The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina below.

This New The Legend of Vox Machina Art Book Celebrates the Creation of the Series

Dark Horse Books and Amazon MGM Studios are bringing The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina to life. This hardcover art book will delve deep into the making of seasons one and two of the animated show. For fans who want to truly immerse themselves in the world, it’s a must-have. The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina will take fans behind the scenes of the incredible animated television series and offer “never-before-seen concept art and commentary on the show’s creation.” This art book offers a brand-new way to explore Exandria and learn more about Vex’ahlia, Vax’ilda, Keyleth, Percy de Rolo, Scanlan Shorthalt, Pike Trickfoot, and Grog Strongjaw. We bet this The Legend of Vox Machina art book holds some tantalizing trivia about your favorite character in its pages.

The Art of the Legend of Vox Machina is written by Meredith Kecskemety (The Legend of Vox Machina, Midnight Gospel) and includes the work of various interior artists from Titmouse Animation. Additionally, The Art of the Legend of Vox Machina features cover art originally sketched by Sung Jin Ahn, characters by Phil Bourassa, background by Howard Chen, and colors by Arthur Loftis.

The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina Deluxe Edition Celebrates Shaun Gilmore

For the ultimate Critter, though, Dark Horse Books and Amazon MGM Studios have a special item waiting in their merchant shop. They’d like to invite you to stop by Gilmore’s Glorious Goods for something truly sumptuous. The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina will also be available in a deluxe edition, perfect for the member of your party with exceptionally discerning tastes.

The deluxe edition will have packaging inspired by Matthew Mercer’s fan-favorite NPC, Shaun Gilmore. It will feature a purple and gold color scheme with holographic foiling and ribbing on the spine. All of this will come together to make it feel like a fantasy tome plucked right from the world of The Legend of Vox Machina. The deluxe edition will also include a slipcase, a ribbon bookmark, and a lithograph print. Truly, The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina Deluxe Edition will be a glorious addition to any superfan’s collection.

You can check out concept art for the deluxe edition of The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina above.

The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina Release Date, Price, and Other Details

For those who are already preparing a space for The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina on their bookshelves, here’s some information you’ll want to know about the book and its release. Firstly, The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina and its deluxe edition will release in bookstores on December 10, 2024, and in comic shops on December 11, 2024. The art book is now available to pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, TFAW, and your local comic shop.

The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina will cost $49.99. Meanwhile, The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina Deluxe Edition will cost $99.99. Both versions of the book will be printed in hardcover and contain 192 pages. The dimensions of the book are 9.5×13”.

For more announcements and updates on The Art of The Legend of Vox Machina and other exciting titles, be sure to follow Dark Horse Comics on social media and check out its website, www.darkhorse.com.

And, of course, be sure to tune in when season three of The Legend of Vox Machina premieres on Prime Video on October 3.

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We officially have some updates about a couple highly-anticipated animated series from Marvel Studios, as well as an exciting new announcement to enjoy. At a preview screening for What If…? season two, Marvel also shared news about its other upcoming animated properties. Firstly, an already-announced Disney+ series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is now officially set to release in 2024. Additionally, Marvel revealed a new Black Panther animated series for its line-up titled Eyes of Wakanda.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is a show that was once known as Spider-Man: Freshman Year. Although Tom Holland won’t voice this Marvel Studios Spider-Man, Charlie Cox will return to give life to Matthew Murdock/Daredevil. This series will follow Peter Parker on his adventures before his time in the MCU and delve into his life as, well, a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. We look forward to seeing it sooner rather than later.

Additionally, Marvel Studios revealed a brand new animated Black Panther series. According to IGN, Eyes of Wakanda will focus “on warriors from Wakanda’s past traveling the world to recover dangerous vibranium artifacts.” The publication notes that the official description shares, “Throughout Wakandan history, brave warriors have been tasked to travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts. This is their story.”

Most recently, Marvel Studio’s Head of Television Brad Winderbaum gave an update on the series to Marvel’s Official Podcast, noting, “Eyes of Wakanda, more than any other show we’re doing in animation, ties directly into the MCU. This is a story about Wakandan history. It’s produced by Ryan Coogler and directed by Todd Harris who is one of our longtime storyboard artists who I first met when he designed the Hulk vs. Thor fight in Ragnarok.” Additionally, Winderbaum added, “It’s an awesome show. The action is insane and the storytelling is fantastic. It’s both about the history of Wakanda, but also expands into the greater MCU at different time periods. If you’re a fan of the movies, I think this show is going to be a real treat.”

Please note the above image is from season one of What If…? and not from the new Black Panther show. Marvel Studios has not yet shared any further cast, images, or plot details about Eyes of Wakanda. But we are super excited already. It sounds like it will be one epic adventure series.

Originally published on December 12, 2023.

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Jennifer Hale has enjoyed an incredible voice casting career for over three decades, with titles in her impressive resume ranging from games like Mass Effect and Halo, to animated shows like The Clone Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Her most recent high-profile role is taking over the part of Jean Grey for X-Men ’97. We had a chat with Jennifer Hale about returning to the role of the mutant telepath, a role she’s played in different iterations over several years, and guiding a newer generation of voice actors via SkillsHub.

Nerdist: You took over the role of Jean Grey from Catherine Disher, who played her in the classic X-Men show. But she is still part of this universe, because she plays Val Cooper. Did she give you any advice on playing Jean? Or did you guys even record together?

Jennifer Hale: We actually didn’t record together. But I took great inspiration from her original performance, and then was guided by the team as to exactly how they wanted to update all the different elements to bring the character to a modern audience.

A lot of the original X-Men cast returned, but both you and Ray Chase stepped in for Scott and Jean. Did you two bond at all at being the new kids, for lack of a better word?

Hale: Absolutely. It’s such an honor and a responsibility to step into a role like this. The great thing about Jean, and a lot of the Marvel universe, is I have great respect for all my peers, and one of the things about that is a lot of us share these roles. I’m not the only person to have played Jean. I’ve played other roles in the universe. I even played Rogue in various projects. And to be able to be Jean in this project really feels like winning the lottery. It’s kind of awesome.

This isn’t your first time at bat with Jean Grey. You played her in Wolverine and the X-Men, the X-Men anime, and in several different video games. Did you approach playing this Jean differently, or did you think of Jean as more or less the same across the Multiverse?

Hale: They’re all inspired by the same source material. The truth is, when I step into any role in any project, I am 1000% in service of the production and writing team. What does the team need? And one of the really, really cool things about the team on X-Men 97 is a huge number of them grew up watching the original show. They were fans, which is really exciting. And now they’re working on the show.

Of course, you didn’t just play Jean in X-Men ’97, you also played Madelyne Pryor. She might have started out as just a clone of Jean, but became her own person by the time we get to Genosha. Were there subtle differences in how you approached Maddie over Jean? Besides just getting to be almost a Disney villain when she was Goblin Queen?

Hale: Absolutely. There are distinct differences between Madelyne and Jean, and obviously, the Goblin Queen has her own lane. But yeah, very much. And that’s where I really rely on our voice director, Meredith Lane, and on the team, because having a good voice director on hand like Meredith allows me to just drop in and fully be in the moment, and not worry about whether I’m slowly migrating out of the lane that is Madeline back over into Jean. And I know she’ll guide me back in if I happen to step a little too far one way or the other.

The love triangle between Jean, Scott, and Logan has always been a huge factor in X-Men lore. And in this season, things got a little heated when Jean kissed Wolverine, in a moment when she and Scott were having problems. That’s further than the classic cartoon ever took things. How do you feel about finally giving the fans that moment?

Hale: Oh, I think it’s great. But I want to know how the fans feel about it. That’s what I want to know. I want to know what it meant to them, because that’s ultimately what we do it for, right?

Jean in the original series was almost a cliché, the way she was always fainting even though she was an Omega-level mutant. X-Men ’97 finally dropped weak Jean and showed her at full power. Were you happy that Jean finally got to let loose and show off in this series?

Hale: I was absolutely thrilled. I mean, come on. The general evolution of the way women are written now is so much better than it used to be. So much more fun. We actually get to be full human beings. We get to own our power, take our power, and quite often run things

X-Men ’97 teased the arrival of Phoenix for much of the first season, and in the finale she finally arrived. The comics have different interpretations of the Jean/Phoenix dynamic, but I’m wondering how you see things between them? Do you play it as the manifestation of Jean’s power, or an outside force that possesses her?

Hale: Jean is a channel for so many things. She’s kind of the voice of the heart of the people around her. She’s a channel for ultimate power to come through, and I think that is often my experience as a performer. So I think that’s the lens that it went through for me. Jean is a channel for the ultimate powers to move through her.

Of your many voice acting roles, which is one that is nearest and dearest to your heart?

Hale: Honestly, the thing that’s nearest and dearest to my heart is the diversity of characters. I’ve been able to play the sheer variety of roles, gives me so much.

Speaking of sheer variety of roles, you have this incredibly long resume of voice acting going back, what, 30 years, and that’s both cartoons and video games. You’ve taken a lot of those skills and you’re extending it to the next generation via something called SkillsHub. Can you explain what that is?

Hale: Yes. SkillsHub, it is a site where actors at any level can come and learn about voice acting, take the career they’ve got, and create real longevity and momentum. It started out with me just wanting help with auditions. I just needed 10 minutes with someone I trust. I didn’t need an hour of coaching, or a class. What I wanted was this calendaring system I had in my head to become a reality. And my sister said, “You need to meet my friend Bill, he’s amazing.” He built the site. He’s actually the guy who puts the stuff together, programs everything, and makes it happen. And the three of us run it.

It’s evolved into a site where it’s gone from me calling 20-something of my friends who are working actors, voice directors, and casting directors to help out people like me, other voice actors. We have a ton of free stuff. I personally, have written out these paths that are step-by-step career assembly instructions for a dozen different career paths through the voice work. And we have free stuff for members. We’ve got classes. Everything you need is right there. And now we have almost 90 coaches. We really have an incredible community.

All episodes of X-Men ’97 season one are now available on Disney+.

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Fans have been waiting for a first look at Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves, and J.J. Abrams’ new Batman animated series. Now, we finally have our first trailer for Batman: Caped Crusader, which debuts on Prime Video on August 10. The new series is a period piece, set in a version of 1940s Gotham City. They’ve reimagined all the familiar villains, with some harkening back to their Golden Age DC Comics roots. Our new Batman/Bruce Wayne is Hamish Linklater. You can check out the first trailer for Batman: Caped Crusader right here:

The trailer showcases the distinctive animation style of Bruce Timm, who of course was one of the men behind the iconic Batman: The Animated Series over thirty years ago. Batman’s look harkens back to his earliest comic book days, in black and grey, with larger pointed ears. He almost looks like he stepped off the cover of Detective Comics #27 from 1939, his first appearance. We also see Catwoman (Christina Ricci), wearing her old school costume, which was a purple dress with a green cape. The Batman: Caped Crusader trailer gives us flashes of several other famous Bat-villains, like Two-Face, Clayface, Firefly, and a totally reinvented Harley Quinn. You can even see the Penguin, briefly.

The trailer for Batman: Caped Crusader also gives a lot of screen time to police detective Renee Montoya, who will play a prominent role in the show. Interestingly enough, Montoya was first created for Batman: The Animated Series, similar to how Harley Quinn was. Refreshingly, there is a distinct lack of Joker in this trailer. Probably the creators involved feel he is too overexposed right now. But we can’t imagine we’ll never see the Clown Prince of Crime on this series though, or The Riddler. Batman fans are just going to have to be patient.

Batman: Caped Crusader drops all 10 episodes on August 1.

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Disney announced a big and necessary change for its parks in 2020: an update for Splash Mountain. The log flume ride in Florida’s Magic Kingdom and California’s Disneyland was based on 1946’s problematic Song of the South. The announced update would bring Tiana from 2009’s The Princess and the Frog into the spotlight. Four years after the announcement, the makeover is complete. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is on the cusp of opening at Magic Kingdom, bringing jazz, spice, and New Orleans flavor to Frontierland.

During a media event in advance of the ride’s opening, Executive Creative Producer Charita Carter explained why they chose to focus on Princess Tiana. “Tiana was our inspiration because Tiana is everybody’s princess. She comes from a real place in America. She wasn’t born into royalty. She has a working mom, she has military ties, and there’s so much about her life that is relatable. Everyone can find a part of Tiana’s story in their own story, and so many people are inspired by her. And you know, Tiana is a dreamer and a doer.”

A real-life dreamer and doer, Leah Chase, inspires Tiana’s story. Her and her husband ran Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans. Before The Princess and the Frog, Disney Animation visited the city and Chef Chase to learn more about them. And Walt Disney Imagineering went back to New Orleans as they developed Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. There, they talked with the current generations of the Chase family, through whom Leah and Dooky’s legacy lives on.

The restaurant Tiana started in the animated film has thrived. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Executive Creative Director Ted Robledo said, takes place about a year after the events in the film. “A lot has changed since then. One of the most exciting parts of the attractions in seeing where Princess Tiana’s life has taken her after that,” Robledo noted. “Following the successful opening of her restaurant, Tiana’s Palace, there next to the beautiful Mississippi River in New Orleans, she’s continued to grow her business, but this time she’s included members of the community and built a new beloved brand called Tiana’s Foods.”

Tiana’s Foods and Tiana’s Palace are prominent in the ride’s queue through newspaper articles about both businesses. What you hear in the queue helps set the stage for the ride’s story: Mardi Gras season is here and Tiana has a lot to do for a big party.

Robledo explained, “After we board our boats, then we pass through this beautiful, lush lagoon filled with trees, plants, and flowers of the bayou, of course we’re going to join Tiana and the jazz loving alligator trumpet player, Louis, on an adventure down the river. And we’re going to be searching for that essential missing ingredient, which you know is musicians. So along the way we’re going to meet bands of critters, this sharing all of the diverse and rich sounds of New Orleans playing their own renditions of these Tiana songs. And with the help of Mama Odie and her special magic.”

To bring authenticity to the setting of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Disney sought out artisans local to the city. They collaborated with them on the attraction. Additionally, legendary musician Terence Blanchard, born in New Orleans, returned to the world of The Princess and the Frog to record a new song for the ride with Anika Noni Rose. Rose, of course, voiced Tiana in the animated film, and Blanchard played Louis’ trumpet parts in the movie. PJ Morton wrote “Special Spice” specifically for the ride. All of these elements contribute to the attraction being what the Imagineers call a love letter to New Orleans.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens at Magic Kingdom on June 28. It’s expected to open at Disneyland later this year.

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The new animated series Batman: Caped Crusader sounds more and more interesting with each new reveal. The 1940s-set noir superhero show comes to us from the all-star creative team of Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves, and J.J. Abrams. Now, we finally have a voice cast revealed. Via The Hollywood Reporter, we’ve learned that Midnight Mass star Hamish Linklater is our new Batman/Bruce Wayne, and iconic Wednesday and Yellowjackets star Christina Ricci will portray Catwoman/Selina Kyle in Batman: Caped Crusader. The series, set to debut on Prime Video later this summer, has also dropped a voice-cast announcement video. You can check out that video right here:

They have also announced several other actors for the show’s period accurate first season. Among them is Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch) voicing a new take on Harley Quinn/Dr. Harleen Quinzel. She is now a character introduced independently of the Joker. She’ll also have a romantic relationship with detective Rene Montoya in the series. Meanwhile, Diedrich Bader will voice Gotham D.A. Harvey Dent, and eventually, the villainous Two-Face. This is a role reversal for Bader, who voiced Bruce Wayne in Batman: Brave and the Bold, and other animated projects.

Other voice actors cast in currently unknown roles include Minnie Driver, John DiMaggio, McKenna Grace, Jason Watkins, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, David Krumholtz, Haley Joel Osment, and Toby Stephens. Among the villains revealed for season one thus far are Clayface, the Gentlemen Ghost, Natalia Knight/Nocturna, and Onomotapia. No word yet on iconic Gotham baddies like Joker, Riddler, and Penguin. Below is the official series description for Batman: Caped Crusader from Prime Video:

Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the Batman. His one-man crusade attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications.

The entire 10-episode season of Batman: Caped Crusader will drop on Prime Video on August 10, so we will hear Hamish Linklater and Christina Ricci soon.

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Last year, the Blue Beetle live-action movie premiered to critical acclaim, but low box office. Luckily, under James Gunn, DC Studios is not abandoning the character of Jaime Reyes. Via Deadline, we’ve learned that Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios are working on a Blue Beetle animated series. Miguel Puga (The Casagrandes) will serve as series showrunner and director, with Cristian Martinez on board as writer. The live-action Blue Beetle‘s director and writer, Angel Manuel Soto and Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, will executive produce. Blue Beetle centers on young Mexican-American El Paso native Jamie Reyes, who bonds with an alien scarab and becomes the heroic Blue Beetle.

The new Blue Beetle series will build upon the movie, but tell its own story. It seems they’ve approached cast members from the film to reprise their roles. There’s no official word yet though if star Xolo Maridueña is returning as the titular hero. However, DC Studios head James Gunn has said recently that Xolo’s version of Blue Beetle would be a part of his DCU. Could he be talking about the animated series? Gunn has said that much of the future DC animated output would tie into the live-action films and TV shows. This was something DC was often negligent about in the past.

The live-action Blue Beetle movie was created for the Max streaming service, but then bumped up to theatrical after positive test screenings. Apparently, Blue Beetle performed well enough on streaming that Warner Bros. still sees potential in the franchise. The first film left many dangling plot threads, so maybe a cartoon is as good a venue as any to wrap those up. Blue Beetle has appeared in animated form several times already. He first showed up in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, then Young Justice, Justice League Action, and several Teen Titans animated films. So we concur that it’s about time he got an animated show of his own.

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Of all the projects announced for James Gunn’s new DCU, the one that was already in production was the animated Creature Commandos series for HBO Max. And now, James Gunn has announced the voice cast for this series about a squad of monster soldiers based on the cult DC Comics title from the early ’80s. Gunn has filled it with quite a few names you’ll recognize, including some making the jump from the MCU. Here’s the full line-up of the DC voice cast for the upcoming Creature Commandos and a little bit more about what we can expect from the project and when we might see it release.

Creature Commandos Voice Cast

Creature Commandos will showcase the voice talents of the MCU’s former Crossbones, Frank Grillo, who will portray Rick Flag Sr. Another MCU alum joining the Creature Commandos cast is David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein. Speaking of Frankenstein, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Indira Varma will be playing The Bride. Also in the cast are Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, and Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus. Sean Gunn is reprising his role as Weasel and also playing G.I. Robot. Finally, Steve Agee will reprise his role as John Economos from the Peacemaker series. Already announced for this series is Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, who’s giving the Commandos their marching orders.

Additionally, The Witcher‘s Anya Chalotra has joined the DCU as the voice of Circe. James Gunn confirmed the news, though he indicated the role may be a more minor part of the series. Circe is a Wonder Woman villain and power sorceress/goddess in the world of DC. And we couldn’t think of someone better to give life to the role than Anya Chalotra.

James Gunn mentioned in his DCU announcement that actors who voiced characters in animation would also portray them in live-action. So this voice-cast announcement for DC’s Creature Commandos means we’re likely to see David Harbour as Frankenstein and the rest of the squad in a live-action project—probably even a project DC has already announced. If we were to guess, it’s likely to be the Amanda Waller series. Of course, they could all turn up in a future second season of Peacemaker. However, that’s now a long way off.

Creature Commandos Will Integrate Animated and Live-Action DCU Worlds

At the Annecy Animation Festival, more was revealed about the DCU’s Creature Commandos. Variety reports that, continuity is a key aspect of Creature Commandos. The publication notes that at the Warner Bros. panel it was revealed that Creature Commandos narrative would be “both narrative and stylistic, with the animated series playing as a direct follow-up to Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker,” while the creatures designed for animation will keep their same looks once they turn up in upcoming live-action offerings like the Gunn directed “Superman” reboot and the Viola Davis-led “Waller” spinoff.”

Gunn noted specifically about this DCU continuity, “What this means in practical terms is that our characters can move in and out of animation or jump into a game or onto the big screen, but they will remain consistent throughout: same character, same history, same actor.”

Integrating animation and live-action offerings will certainly be a fascinating play by the DCU if it is successfully executed. It could also open doors for exploring unified adventures in ways not possible with live-action outings alone.

More About Creature Commandos

Warner Bros. also revealed the following brief from James Gunn about Creature Commandos, initially written in 2022. The memo notes that Creature Commandos is “dark, humorous but never goofy and unsentimental, [an] adult-themed show with political storylines.”

Additionally, Gunn revealed, “The new series picks up directly after our Peacemaker season one finale, which leaves Waller with her hands tied operationally, meaning that she’s no longer able to get away with putting human lives on the line to carry out her clandestine morally questionable mission. Instead, she recruits a ragtag band of misfits, not unlike the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.”

What Is the Release Date for Creature Commandos?

There’s no specific date given for when Creature Commandos is set to premiere, so we’ll have to wait to see this cast in action. However, we now know that Creature Commandos will release on Max in December. Currently, Gunn notes, “Animatics and all recording done. Waiting on the first animated cuts.”

We did have a feeling it would be among the first DCU projects to make it to our screens. Hopefully, we’ll see a more specific release date emerge soon.

Originally published on April 12, 2023.

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In her big screen debut, Moana showed how far she’d go to help an ancient goddess. Now she’ll show how far she’ll go to unite all of her people. The first trailer for Walt Disney Animation’s Moana 2 brings back Auli‘i Cravalho’s young heroine for an all-new adventure on the sea, one that will bind her to her ancient ancestors even more. And once again she’ll have some help navigating both the waves and her enemies. Dwyane Johnson’s muscle-bound demigod Maui is coming back for another journey.

Disney’s teaser trailer for Moana 2 looks…uh…a lot like the first Moana. I haven’t seen the original in a couple of years, and if not for the fact Moana looks older here I wouldn’t know if the first 80% of this promo is simply reused footage from that movie. But like Maui, I know she didn’t bring a pig with her on the raft before, so we’re definitely getting a new tale this time around. What exactly is going on, though? Here’s the film’s official synopsis from Disney:

Moana 2 reunites Moana and Maui three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.

Additionally, Moana 2‘s directors recently revealed, via Variety, “This story finds Moana and her crew in search of the lost island of Motufetu, which once connected the ocean, now hidden by a jealous God of Storms.” And added, “We begin our story with Moana, three years after the first film. She’s exploring the seas, searching for new islands, mapping the ocean, hoping to find other people. As the people of Motunui have not seen anyone for generations, Moana knows that the ocean connects us. But to whom? Where are they? She’s looking for proof that others are out there. She’s curious why she hasn’t found anyone.” Why, indeed.

Moana 2 also has some newcomers behind the scenes. The film comes from directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller. Meanwhile, the original movie’s Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i are back as songwriters and composers, but Lin-Manuel Miranda is not. Instead Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear will contribute songs to the movie.

Moana 2 will sail into theaters this fall on November 27, 2024, just in time for Thanksgiving. The live-action Moana will follow it onto big screens in 2026. That’s a long way to go for our favorite sea-faring voyager, but we know she’s up for it.

Originally published on May 29, 2024.

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Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is still widely considered the greatest graphic novel ever written. In the years since its 1986 publication, the deconstructionist superhero drama has sold millions of copies, and spawned a big-screen adaptation from Zack Snyder in 2009, and a television sequel on HBO in 2019. Oh, and a few comic book sequels, including Doomsday Clock, where Dr. Manhattan takes on Superman. Now, a new animated adaptation of Watchmen is on its way from Warner Bros. Animation, done in two parts. They’ve released the trailer for Watchmen Chapter I, which you can check out right here:

From the look of things, this seems an extremely faithful adaptation of the source material, with images lifted straight from the comic book page. Then again, Snyder’s Watchmen was exactly the same in this regard, with scenes lifted directly from the book as if they were storyboards. We suppose the big difference here is there will be slightly more comics-accurate costumes for characters like Nite Owl and Silk Spectre. Perhaps this animated adaptation will use the original ending, which involved a giant telepathic squid killing millions in Manhattan. The animation style looks almost exactly like the 2D/3D blending of Marvel’s What If…? series.

As for why this animated Watchmen movie is in two parts, the answer is simple. These animated DC Comics features from Warner Bros. Animation are always budgeted to be 80 minutes long at most. And that is simply not enough time to adapt such a sprawling story. This is why Batman: The Long Halloween is two parts, and before that, The Dark Knight Returns. The latter ended up being a pretty great adaptation, and remains severely underrated. We’ll see if Watchmen can follow suit. One thing’s for sure — Alan Moore’s name won’t be on it, and he probably wishes this wasn’t happening. And he doesn’t want you to ever ask him about it. So don’t.

Watchmen Chapter I releases later in 2024.

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Zack Snyder might have never directed an MCU movie starring any Asgardian gods; however, his latest project for Netflix definitely deals with stories and heroes from Norse mythology. Twilight of the Gods is Snyder’s latest offering, an animated series offering bombastic and bloody battles. All playing out on a mythological scale. If you’ve seen 300, you know Snyder loves some epic sweeping battle scenes. Netflix has announced a September release date for Twilight of the Gods, as well as a brief teaser for it, which you can watch right here:

In addition to the teaser trailer, the synopsis for Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods shares:

In a mythical world of great battles, great deeds, and great despair, Leif (Stuart Martin), a mortal king, is saved on the battlefield by Sigrid (Sylvia Hoeks), an iron-willed warrior with whom he falls in love. On their wedding night, Sigrid and Leif survive a wrath of terror from Thor (Pilou Asbæk), which sets them — and a crew of crusaders — on a merciless mission for vengeance, against all odds. This heroic story of love, loss, and revenge, is a journey to hell and beyond … across fantastical lands, battlefields fierce and bloody, and wars waged against deities and demons.

The series features the voices of Sylvia Hoeks, Stuart Martin, Kristopher Hivju, Pilou Asbaek, and John Noble. Also in the cast are Paterson Joseph, Rahul Kohli, Jamie Clayton, Peter Stormare, Jamie Chung, Lauren Cohan, and Corey Stoll. The term “Twilight of the Gods” is another name, of course, for Ragnarok. We can see why Snyder chose to not call his series that. Marvel’s Thor kind of owns that one for now.

In recent years, after the end of his DCEU, Zack Snyder has found a supportive home on Netflix. They financed and released his Army of the Dead, as well as both chapters of Rebel Moon. Those were movies, and Twilight of the Gods is his first series for the streaming giant. We’ll see if it’s the first of many, or just a one off.

Twilight of the Gods drops on Netflix on September 19.

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Imaginary friends are in. Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski’s recent movie, IF, was all about them. And now, they’re back in a whole new way, gorgeously animated and full of heart. Netflix recently released a trailer for The Imaginary, a gorgeously animated movie from Studio Ponoc. Hailed as a Studio Ghibli equivalent, Studio Ponoc really has outdone itself with The Imaginary. The hand-drawn animation could not be more beautiful, nor could it more powerfully convey the animated movie’s themes of love, loss, fear, and freedom. Even from just this short trailer, we feel completely riveted by The Imaginary. Take a look below to experience the Studio Ponoc adventure for yourself.

Watch The Imaginary Trailer

No imaginary friend wants to believe their human will forget them. But could it be true that the only thing more powerful than imagination is reality? The villain of The Imaginary sure does want you to believe that as he brings shadows to the beautiful dreamworld in this trailer. And It sure does seem that way sometimes, in real life. But we bet The Imaginary will have us believing in our dreams more powerfully than ever.

Synopsis, Cast, and More

Alongside the trailer, you can check out Netflix’s official synopsis of The Imaginary below:

Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary portrays the depths of humanity and creativity through the eyes of young Amanda and her imaginary companion, Rudger, a boy no one can see imagined by Amanda to share her thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger, suddenly alone, arrives at The Town of Imaginaries, where forgotten Imaginaries live and find work, he faces a mysterious threat. Directed by renowned animator Yoshiyuki Momose (Spirited Away), The Imaginary is an unforgettable adventure of love, loss, and the healing power of imagination.

That hits us right in the feelings. The Spirited Away connection hits loud and clear. Personally, that’s one of my all-time favorite animated movies. So, I love to see the legacy of it continued in The Imaginary‘s trailer. It also doesn’t hurt that Studio Ponoc’s lovely animation combines itself with an incredible voice cast that includes Hayley Atwell as Lizzie, Kal Penn as Zinzan, and LeVar Burton as The Old Dog.  Louie Rudge-Buchanan (Rudger), Evie Kiszel (Amanda), Sky Katz (Emily), Jeremy Swift (Mr Bunting), Jane Singer (Granny Downbeat), Ruby Barnhill (Aurora), Roger Craig Smith (Snowflake), Courtenay Taylor (Cruncher-of-Bones), and Miles Nibbe (John) also star.

A release reveals that “The groundbreaking hand-drawn animation of The Imaginary is heightened by first-of-their-kind techniques of light and shadow.” We can’t wait to turn a closer eye on this groundbreaking movie.

When Will Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary Release?

The Imaginary will release on July 5, 2024. It will stream on Netflix.

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Inside Out 2 is a movie at conflict with itself, both literally and figuratively. The plot of the film features emotions battling for control of Riley, in a story full of beautiful ideas about what it means to grow up and establish our own identities. It’s a coming-of-age tale about the struggles we face building the personal belief system that will both guide and define us. It also has some genuinely funny scenes and characters. That provides the balance of heart and comedy you expect from a Pixar movie.

But Inside Out 2 has too many ideas without the time or space to explore most with enough depth. It’s also so desperate to be clever it’s often groan-inducing. But what really holds it back are its new emotions. The film introduces feelings that say they’re complex, but are really (at best) derivative, or (much worse) downright confusing. That includes the film’s villain, Anxiety (Maya Hawke), a character that makes Inside Out 2 downright terrifying for kids.

With both so much going for it and so many fundamental issues, it definitely evokes one strong emotion: “meh.”

Inside Out 2 reunites us with its young star who recently turned 13. Riley is an almost perfect child to an annoying degree. That’s intentional and has a meaningful payoff by the end of the film. But it’s still less interesting than if she were obviously flawed to start. How perfect is she? Riley is a better hockey player than Wayne Gretzky. That sounds like hyperbole but is laughably not.

Riley’s problems begin when puberty hits the same exciting day she gets news that would devastate any teenager. That’s the worst possible time because she doesn’t know how to handle so many big moments at once. Puberty means her brain gets all new, unexpected emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment.

The result is a film with a clear villain. Anxiety banishes the old emotions, including head emotion honcho Joy (Amy Poehler), from Riley’s control panel. She then begins to remake Riley in her own nervous image. Only, Anxiety also seems to be wholly responsible for Riley’s ambition, which is weird. Anxiety is also responsible for any sense of planning and forethought, which is also weird. But Anxiety is also full of fear, even though the literal emotion Fear is still around. Meanwhile, Envy and Embarrassment also overlap with Sadness and Disgust, who also overlaps with Ennui. It’s not exactly clear plot-wise or thematically why all these similar emotions exist. They seem to only exist so the movie can. That’s a big and consistent problem that detracts from the film.

We’re told these emotions are “more complex,” but it doesn’t make sense when the first film wonderfully established that feeling different emotions at the same time is complex. Why have individual, well-defined emotions at all if some convey the same feelings? And why is Anxiety—presented as a troubling emotion that is hard to control and capable of ruining your life—also responsible for things that seem good? For a film focused on what it means to have a “sense of self,” Inside Out 2 also doesn’t seem to understand itself.

Anxiety’s issues are not just for adults. The emotion’s total dominance and fear-mongering makes this a tough viewing for young kids. Some will be old enough to understand the film’s broad ideas but not old enough to get all the nuance. The result might very well be them dreading getting older. I mean, fair, but not exactly fun.

It is also is very, very, very hit-or-miss with its humor. The film features some surprise characters and concepts that are as good as anything in the original film. (Minus Bing Bong, the greatest character ever). Please try to avoid spoilers for those characters hidden away in Riley’s mind. They’re the movie’s best surprises and how they’re handled are among the film’s best moments. The problem is Inside Out 2 also has some gags, and “clever” ideas that are absolute duds and worse. There are moments so painfully unfunny, Dread might as well have been a new emotion.

Despite its rushed plot and confusing characters, Inside Out 2 sticks the landing both emotionally and thematically. Everything ultimately comes together exactly how you think it will. Being predictable doesn’t stop the ending from being effective. Like its beloved predecessor, it captures the complexity of being a living, emotional, flawed, creature full of contradictions.

The uneven journey of highs and lows on the way to that ending, though, is why Inside Out 2 left me feeling underwhelmed. That’s better than feeling anxious, but that’s not nearly as good as feeling joy.

⭐ (2.5 of 5)

Inside Out 2, directed by Kelsey Mann, stars: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah, Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Paul Walter Hauser and Yvette Nicole Brown. It comes to theaters on June 13, 2024.

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Lovers of Adventure Time may have a big reason to rejoice. An Adventure Time movie is in the works. According to a release from Warner Bros. Discovery, The Adventure Time Movie is officially a go. While we don’t have many details yet, The Adventure Time Movie includes animation talent like Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar, Over the Garden Wall creator Patrick McHale, and Adventure Time showrunner Adam Muto. All of these creative talents have worked on Adventure Time before.

The Adventure Time Movie Description

As mentioned, we don’t know too much about what this Adventure Time movie will include, but a release notes that its current description is as follows: “Jake and Finn embark on their greatest adventure yet.” We can’t wait to see what that will mean.

Other Adventure Time Spinoff Series in the Works

In addition to an Adventure Time movie, two spinoff series are also said to be in development. First up is Adventure Time: Side Quests, which will take viewers back to when Finn was a daydreaming child who went on fantasy adventures with his best friend, Jake the Dog. This Adventure Time series will have standalone episodes “starring early versions of fan-favorite characters, including the sometime-villain The Ice King.” In addition, Adventure Time: Heyo BMO will be a series aimed toward younger children featuring BMO.

You can check out the full information we have about them so far below:

Adventure Time: Side Quests (Kids series, Cartoon Network)

• Description: Adventure Time: Side Quests takes the Adventure Time franchise back to the early days when Finn was just a kid, excited to fight monsters and go on epic quests with his best buddy Jake. In stand-alone episodes, our heroes take on classic Adventure Time villains like The Ice King and re-connect with stand-out side characters from the original series.
• Creative Talent: Nate Cash
• Studio: Cartoon Network Studios

Adventure Time: Heyo BMO (Preschool series, Cartoon Network)

• Description: In the fantastical Land of Ooo, the little robot BMO is on a new adventure! Now settled in a new neighborhood with new friends, BMO approaches each challenge he faces with his unique brand of enthusiasm and curiosity in a quest to learn and fill his database.
• Creative Talent: Adam Muto, Ashlyn Anstee
• Studio: Cartoon Network Studios

We’ll be excited to hear more about all of these upcoming Adventure Time offerings.

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Actress Lenore Zann has been providing the distinctive Southern belle voice of Rogue since the first episode of X-Men: The Animated Series in 1992. Now, 25 years since the last episode aired, she reprised the role for the Disney+ continuation, X-Men ’97. The show took everyone by surprise by just how excellent the writing and acting were, eclipsing the classic series. And a large part of why it was so good was Rogue’s unexpected character journey, which in many ways was the main emotional thread of the series. And it was all played brilliantly by Zann, without missing a beat. We chatted with Zann about returning to Rogue after all this time, and what the future holds for the sassiest X-Man at Xavier’s School.

Nerdist: So many old TV shows have had revivals recently after decades away, usually to mixed results. Did you ever think X-Men ’97 might end up as something that didn’t live up to the original ’90s series?

Lenore Zann: No. I really thought it would be a huge hit. Judging from the fans that we’ve been meeting over the last five years at Comic Cons, who just loved the original show and couldn’t wait to see more episodes of a new show. And we had no idea that a new show was going to be happening until about three years ago, I guess 2021. But as soon as I got the scripts, I knew they were going to be good. I knew it was going to be good, because really that’s what it was the first time around. The scripts were so damn good. The writing was excellent. It’s the same this time, too. Without a script, you don’t have anything. And the scripts were amazing.

Rouge kind of had the most iconic moments of the season, from throwing Captain America’s shield to going full rampage on the military base. You could see she had the biggest character arc of the season. Which of all of the moments was the most fun for you to play?

Zann: Well, of course I loved the meeting with Captain America and throwing his shield.
“Well, if your hands are tied, I guess you won’t be needing this.” So that was a lot of fun. But to be honest, also the emotional scenes with both Remy and Magneto in episode five. And then of course, the sad, tragic loss of my loved one, my soulmate Gambit. That was a gift for an actor to be able to play those beats and those emotions and be able to use my own personal emotions and experience to channel them into my character.

It had literally been 25 years since you played Rogue in the original X-Men series. Was it like riding a bike, or did you have to learn to be that character again?

Zann: I liken it to putting on a pair of well-worn, very fine, very comfortable gloves. You just put them on. You haven’t had them on for many years, and they just fit, and they feel good. For me, that’s how it is with Rogue. She is a part of me, and there’s a lot of me in her. So yeah, it was just a joy to come back to Rogue again.

For the entire original series, Rogue’s only romantic interest was Gambit. But for X-Men ’97, you got to have a romantic storyline with Magneto. What was it like for you to play a totally different romantic dynamic with someone else in the series?

Zann: Well, it was great. Again, for an actor, any of these scenarios are fun to play. But I did wonder if the public, if our fans would be upset because there are so many Gambit fans. and Rogue and Gambit, “Romy,” as they call them, fans. But it was fun. And I also knew where Rogue was coming from, that she really wanted to touch somebody and to be able to have that physical connection.

So in the scene in episode five, where she kisses Magneto, she comes down out of the ceiling, which is a great entrance. And then they dance very seductively, and touch palms like Romeo and Juliet almost. And then they kiss. But then she pulls away from that kiss and she says, “Thanks for the dance, sugar.” And then there was another line there, and I don’t remember what it was, but I said to [former X-Men ’97 showrunner] Beau DeMayo, who was there directing me, and I said, “Would it be okay if I said something else instead? Can I try something?”

He said, “Sure, try it.” And I said, “Thanks for the dance, sugar. But Remy was right. Some things are deeper than skin.” He had already said that earlier in the episode, and I just thought that that would be the button that was needed to let people know, love, true love, is deeper than skin. And on another level, it doesn’t matter what you look like. It doesn’t matter what skin color. Love, it transcends everything. And it’s the same for the LGBTQ community. So I thought it would really sing, and they kept it in. So I’m really happy about that.

You just mentioned the LGBTQ community, which I’m a part of. We have a huge connection to the X-Men. I think more than any other major nerd property actually. Do you have any stories of queer people coming up to you, talking about what Rogue and the X-Men have meant to them?

Zann: Absolutely. I was really pleased and honored to be able to be in the West Hollywood Pride Parade. And I went with my friend Morph, JP Karliak, and we had a convertible and we had a bunch of X-Men cosplayers, about 30 walking with us. And I thought that it was so important to be able to be there and make the statement that, “Hey, we are allies. We are yours. We belong to this community, too. And that we support you.”

So yeah, actually even since that parade, I’ve had two different young men come to me. I was in the Apple store, and I was having dinner somewhere else in Hollywood. And two different people said, “I saw you in the parade. I’m in the LGBTQ community. Thank you so much for being there. It meant a lot to us. And you made my childhood. You made us feel safe. Your show was a safe place for us to go. I could relate to Rogue. I’ve always loved Rogue.” It was really heartwarming. And this is what we hear over and over again.

Episode 5 was the turning point for the series. It’s when X-Men ’97 went from being just a nostalgic exercise, taking things to another level. And it had Rogue’s most heartbreaking moment, when she cradles Gambit’s dead body and says “I can’t feel you.” This asked you to go places as an actor the classic show never did. How did it feel getting to play the same character in a more grown-up and emotionally real setting?

Zann: No, because I’ve always been an extremely emotional actor. I have no problem going to the depths of my emotions and channeling them into a performance. And I’ve been known for doing a number of very strong performances, particularly in theater. When I was 19, I was discovered to play the role of Marilyn Monroe, in a rock opera about her life. And I was only 19 when I got it, and it was called Hey, Marilyn. I had to play her from the age of 16, all the way through her Hollywood years as Marilyn Monroe, to her final denouement at 36 when she died. And I had to do it all on a song on stage with 2000 people. So that was what kickstarted my career. If I can do that, then I can do anything.

You know a show has struck a nerve when it’s got plenty of memes, and the meme game for X-Men ’97 was wild. One of them had Rogue replicating the Kill Bill poster, saying “Kill Ya’ll” after Gambit died. What was it like seeing the reactions week to week, with the fandom so engaged? 

Zann: It was very funny. AJ LoCascio, who plays Gambit, and Matthew Waterson, who plays Magneto, we all get along really well. And we’ve all got a really good sense of humor. So we were sending each other these memes. But also, they were making memes about stuff we were doing in real life. Like when we went to a dinner with a whole bunch of people. And suddenly all the people were in one end of the room, and AJ was sitting by himself at one of the tables, and I was sitting with Matthew. I said, “Let’s do a photograph with AJ, showing him in his Gambit crop top by himself, over there at the table, and we’ll just gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes.” And then they shared that on social media, and then that became a meme. It was hilarious. It was a lot of fun.

After Genosha and Gambit’s death, Rogue chooses to go and join Magneto. Did that twist surprise you when you read it in the script, or was it something they told you Rogue was going to do from the get-go?

Zann: No, they didn’t tell me from the beginning. Again, I just found out as I got each script what was going to be happening, which I like it that way, so that I’m surprised as well. And then I can delve into it. But Rogue started off as a villain. And in these comic books, sometimes the heroes become the villains, back and forth, for various reasons. So I found that I thought it was very interesting.

And I thought, in a way, it made sense for Rogue at that point to find out that A: Magneto didn’t die. And B: that she’s starting to think that he could be right. As they say, “Magneto was right.” Which I think shows that Rogue, she wants to get vengeance. She wants to get justice for Remy, and also for all of the people that were killed in that genocide. And so she does what she does for a reason. But I am glad she came back by the end.

Are the any plotlines from the original series you wanted to see followed up on in X-Men ’97 that weren’t? I was a bit surprised the Rogue and her mother Mystique never had a moment.

Zann: I think it would be fun at some point to have some scenes again with Mystique. I’m not sure when it will come. We didn’t have any in this particular season. But I’m always interested in her relationship with Mystique because it’s definitely fraught with a lot of emotions. And anybody who’s ever had any mother issues can relate. But I was glad to see Nightcrawler playing a large role, and that was really lovely. The scenes between Rogue and Nightcrawler, Mystique’s son and her adoptive brother. I love it.

It was great that X-Men ’97 was a true ensemble show and not just the Wolverine show. Having said that, you and Cal Dodd didn’t have a ton of moments together. Can we hope to see some more Rogue and Logan moments in season two?

Zann: I can’t say. But there were a lot more Rogue and Storm moments in the original show as well. And in this show, they played up Jean and Storm being really close friends. Storm is one of my favorite characters, I just love her. And I think the way Alison Sealy-Smith plays her, with her incredible voice. She is like a goddess. And she’s done so much theater in Stratford and things like this. She’s perfect for the role. So I hope I get to do some more stuff with Storm in the future as well. And of course, Cal and Alison and I, and George Buza as Beast, we’re all good friends. And it’s always great to see them at Comic Cons when we have these various reunions.

Yeah. So where are you guys now with season two? Not in terms of what it’s going to be about, but have you guys recorded your lines? Where are you guys at?

Zann: I’ve recorded all my scenes for the whole season. A lot of people have, but a lot of people still need to be recorded. But the animation is what takes a long time. So they usually start with our voices, it’s called pre-lay. And then they do the animation to the voices. And then we come back for cleanups or pickups or line changes and things like that. Yeah, I’m excited and I can’t wait for season two to air, and I hope people really like it like they liked the first season.

What are your hopes for the future of Rogue going forward into, not just season two, but maybe season three and four, if we get that?

Zann: I am happy to do whatever the writers choose to do. I’m an actor at the end of the day. I take writers’ words and I try to make them live and breathe. And I’m up for anything really. I love her journey so far. I love her journey in season two. And I’m just looking forward to seeing where she goes from here. But at the end of the day, it is, we are a team and we have an amazing team. The artists, the writers, the music, the composers, the Newton brothers, the entire cast, the producers, the directors. It’s like lightning in a bottle. The way Larry Houston, our original director, likes to call it. He said, “We had lightning in a bottle the first time around, and we’ve had lightning in a bottle a second time,” which is just amazing.

When we first met the original writers again, Eric and Julia Lewold and Larry Houston. for the very first time, it was five years ago at a Comic Con in Texas where we were all invited to come. Cal Dodd, me, the rest of them, and the writers and the director. We had never met before, because back in the ’90s, we were performing in a studio in Toronto. And they, of course, were all in Los Angeles. And there were no cell phones then. There was no internet.

So we would record together in a group with a circle of microphones in the studio, and then they’d send the tapes to Los Angeles. I think they FedExed them or something. So when we finally met, we got along so well. And we all went out for a dinner one night at the end of this Comic Con five years ago, and I said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody bought the rights to the X-Men, and decided to reboot the animated series and brought us all back again?” And we said, “Let’s toast to that, and let’s put it out there to the universe to manifest.” I’d like to have seven seasons and an animated film. And then a spin-off with Gambit and Rogue. I’d like to do that, too.

All episodes of X-Men ’97 are now available to stream on Disney+.

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It’s time for Piltovans and Zaunites alike to finally say hello again to Arcane on Netflix after three years of waiting for another chapter. But it’s also time to start getting ready to say goodbye, too. The streamer and Riot Games have announced Arcane‘s second season will also be its final one. Don’t start mourning just yet, though. There’s reason to celebrate today today. They also shared this news with official images and an intense new teaser trailer from Arcane that promises an explosive finale.

Arcane Season Two Teaser Trailer and New Images

The second and final season of Arcane will put Piltover and Zaun on a collision path. The season’s official synopsis says, “In this final chapter, Jinx’s attack on the Council sets the stage for a dire escalation of the conflict between Piltover and Zaun.”

Click To View Gallery

When Will the Final Season of Arcane Release?

While fans will be disappointed to learn that Arcane is ending with season two, at least they know it will offer a real ending. That conclusion will arrive on Netflix this November, giving fans plenty of time to both get excited to say hello to Arcane again and prepare to say goodbye.

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Last year, the heroes in half shell returned with a vengeance in the excellent animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The movie was maybe the best interpretation of the Ninja Turtles in years, and fans immediately wanted more. And now, we have the trailer for the first spinoff from this iteration of the Turtles. The boys are returning for a new 2D animated series from Nickelodeon Animation for Paramount+. You can check out the trailer for the new Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right here:

Like last summer’s feature film, this series comes from Nickelodeon Animation and Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures. The spinoff series will debut this summer as a Paramount+ exclusive. Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takes place in the same continuity as Mutant Mayhem, and this 2D animated show “explores the adventures of everyone’s favorite pizza-loving heroes as they emerge from the sewers onto the streets of NYC. Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey are faced with new threats and team up with old allies to survive both teenage life and villains lurking in the shadows of the Big Apple.”

Reprising their roles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem are Micah Abbey (Cousins for Life) as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. (THE CHI) as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) as Leonardo, Brady Noon (Family Switch) as Raphael, and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) as April O’Neil. Paramount will announce more cast members soon. Among the creatives on this series is Chris Yost, writer of Thor: Ragnarok and The Mandalorian, not to mention comic books like X-Force and several animated Marvel shows. Also on board is Alan Wan, of Blue Eyed Samurai fame. Both have also written extensively for previous TMNT series.

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premieres on Paramount+ this summer.

Originally published February 8, 2024.

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“Teamwork and betrayal…in space!” That’s how Innersloth and CBS Studios describe their upcoming animated adaptation of Among Us. But we’d also add in “adorable” and “funny” after seeing the show’s first trailer. It promises a delightful take on the popular video game. But the one thing this promo doesn’t reveal it just how good its cast is.

Both fun and danger lurk around every corner in this title trailer for the new Among Us series. While this dialogue-free look at the show is more than enough to get gamers excited, it doesn’t let us hear from its immensely talented voice cast. The show will feature:

• Ashley Johnson as Purple, Chief of Security
• Elijah Wood as Green, Unpaid Intern
• Randall Park as Red, Captain of The Skeld
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Orange, HR
• Dan Stevens as Blue, Doctor
• Liv Hewson as Black, Geologist
• Kimiko Glenn as Cyan, Gemologist

The cast will also include Patton Oswalt Debra Winger, Wayne Knight, and Phil Lamarr.

Forget betrayal. That team is one we can’t wait to hear work together when the show debuts “soon.”

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Fans of The Legend of Vox Machina can officially start making plans for their next watch party. The animated Critical Role series announced it will return to Prime Video for season three this fall. But you don’t have to wait that long to see the show’s new opening title sequence because it’s already here.

Everyone’s favorite Dungeons & Dragons mercenaries will soon return to streaming. The Prime Video animated series will debut its third season on October 3. What can fans expect when the show rolls out its new season? Here’s the official synopsis from Amazon:

Everything is at stake in the long-awaited Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina. The Chroma Conclave’s path of destruction spreads like wildfire while the Cinder King hunts down Vox Machina. Our lovable band of misfits must rise above inner (and outer) demons to try and save their loved ones, Tal’Dorei, and all of Exandria.

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Ahead of the 40th anniversary of Joe Dante’s Gremlins, Max has announced a second season of its hit animated prequel series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. In a fun nod to the movie’s sequel, 1990’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the show now has the subtitle The Wild Batch. Returning cast members include Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, BD Wong, Izaac Wang, AJ LoCascio, and Gabrielle Nevaeh.

While the above teaser is all we have so far, Max did provide a logline for Gremlins: The Wild Batch.

The Wild Batch follows Gizmo, Sam, and Elle as they travel from their home in Shanghai to San Francisco, bringing even more magic, mystery and Mogwai mayhem. Hot on the trail of a new brood of evil Mogwai, our heroes journey deep into the American West, coming up against new supernatural creatures and picking up a few mysterious characters along the way.

No release date for Gremlins: The Wild Batch yet. However, you can catch up on season one, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai now.

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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Arcane season two will release in November 2024. And that means it will have been three years since the first season was released in November 2021. That’s a pretty long time for fans to wait. But this League of Legends-based show is so beautifully animated and skillfully voiced that we aren’t surprised viewers have been willing to wait as long as it takes for more. To help tide everyone over Netflix has released a few first-look clips teasing the Arcane season two adventures to come. The early teaser trailers for the show don’t seem to reveal too much, but one actually validates a popular fan theory. Hopefully, this will give fans something to buzz about until Arcane season two actually arrives, or at the very least, we get a full trailer.

Take a look at the Arcane season two first looks below.

Our Latest Look at Arcane Season 2

Our latest look at Arcane season 2 offers a glimpse of the upcoming action to come and the series continued beautiful animation. The reminder that this series stars Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell gets us even more excited. You can check it out below. The teaser is short, but it does tease Vi becoming an enforcer in Season 2. And it might possibly tease a time jump… pending the exact identity of a red-headed character we see in the clip.

Arcane Season 2 First-Look Teaser Trailer Contains Important Revelations

This teaser trailer focuses on Singed. The highly gifted but incredibly callous scientist seems to be getting a blood transfusion of sorts. He looks patient enough, but it seems like something is about to happen. Above him, suspended by chains hangs a giant monster. For those who don’t want any spoilers, look away now… Because this little bit of scene has sparked a huge response among Arcane‘s fans, hinting as it does at two popular fan theories.

Vander Is the League of Legends Monster Warwick

Firstly, throughout season one, fans wondered if the popular character Vander was actually part of greater League of Legends lore. And it seems like this trailer has helped validate that opinion.

Arcane season two appears to tease that Vander is actually the monster Warwick. In League of Legends, Warwick was “transformed by agonizing experiments, his body is fused with an intricate system of chambers and pumps, machinery filling his veins with alchemical rage.”

Agonizing experiments certainly seem to be happening in this Arcane season two trailer. Or, as Netflix shares, we’re looking at “a nightmarish augmentation.” We’ll have to wait to see how this impacts the series and the rest of the characters.

Singed’s Daughter May Become Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork

Singed is holding a locket in this first look at season two of Arcane. And when he glances down at it, we hear a clock-like ticking sound. Fans suspect that this locket holds the image of his daughter. In season one, it is strongly implied that Singed’s daughter passed away, perhaps because Singed subjected her to his experiments. Likely, his daughter’s fate drove Signed to become the monstrous kind of man we see on the show.

But what good is being a mad scientist if you can’t even bring your daughter back from the grave? Between the visuals and the ticking sound, it looks like Arcane season two is already pointing at Singed’s daughter becoming Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork.

Per the official League of Legends website, “Once a curious girl of flesh and blood, Orianna is now a technological marvel comprised entirely of clockwork. She became gravely ill after an accident in the lower districts of Zaun, and her failing body had to be replaced with exquisite artifice, piece by piece.”

Singed strikes us as the kind of person who knows exactly how to replace a human body with “exquisite artifice.” Perhaps more than one nightmarish augmentation is at play.

Arcane‘s Synopsis

Arcane season two does not yet have a specific synopsis. But here’s what Netflix shares about the show:

Arcane tells the origin story of two iconic League of Legends champions, who just so happen to be sisters. Jinx (Ella Purnell) — also known as Powder — and Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) find themselves on rival sides of a brewing war between the utopian city Piltover and its oppressed underbelly Zaun. Powder and Vi are completely transformed by the end of the first season, as Powder becomes the mischievous Jinx and Vi proves she’s one champion you don’t want to mess with. 

We can’t wait to learn more about what season two specifically has in store.

When Will Arcane Season 2 Release?

Arcane season two also does not have a specific release date yet. However we know that the second season of the series will release in November 2024.

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Netflix is making a bigger push into animation than ever before. We’ve learned, via Deadline, that following Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget last year, Aardman Studios is bringing back Wallace & Gromit for a new feature film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, it will show Gromit worried that Wallace is now too dependent on his inventions. Wallace then invents a “smart” gnome that has a mind of its own. As often happens with this pair, things go awry, and then Gromit must fight evil forces and save Wallace. The release date is this winter 2025 on Netflix, with the film hitting the BBC first on Christmas.

Netflix and Aardman have announced the voiceover cast for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. It includes Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh, Muzz Khan, and Lenny Henry. You can see the new teaser trailer for the Aardman Studios film above. The new Wallace & Gromit adventure will have a 70-minute runtime, and will see the unwelcome return of the supervillain Feathers McGraw. Feathers has returned to take his sweet revenge following his appearance in the Oscar-winning 1993 short The Wrong Trousers. Here’s what Nick Park had to say about the returning bad guy:

I’d had the idea of a film about garden gnomes turning bad for more than a decade, but I could never work out what made them bad. It occurred to me that the single most asked question I get when I meet fans is, will the penguin Feathers McGraw, Wallace and Gromit’s original antagonist from The Wrong Trousers 30 years ago, ever return? We’ve had fun bringing him back in cameo capacities but now, three decades on, it felt like the right time. Then it hit me: What if Feathers was involved with these gnomes?

We’ll find out what happens when Feathers McGraw returns when Vengeance Most Fowl hits Netflix next winter.

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Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is coming our way soon! The animated Netflix adventure starring Hayley Atwell gave us a new trailer and a release date of October 10. We also finally get to hear Atwell in the role. Check out everything we know about Netflix’s upcoming Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft below.

We Finally Get to Hear Hayley Atwell Voice Lara Croft

The latest tease for Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft finally gave us something we’ve all been waiting for, a taste of what Hayley Atwell will sound like as Lara Croft. It’s just as delightfully fierce and slightly snarky as we’d hoped. The trailer also hints at some deliciously dangerous adventures to come for Lara and co. You can take a look at the sneak peak at the :40 mark of the below video.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Teaser Trailer and Date Announcement

Netflix’s gorgeous Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft and its gorgeous teaser trailer have us absolutely buzzing. Recently, during Geeked Week, we also got a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at this new adventure. It’s been a long time since we have seen this famous adventurer swing into action, and it looks like we are in for quite the quest.

The clip reveals exactly what it should to viewers. In this Tomb Raider trailer, We get a glimpse of Lara Croft as she dives into a mysterious abyss and shoots an arrow at the camera. There’s also some intrigue as she looks at a photo of herself with a group of people, presumably friends.

Lara Croft’s video game and film history gives her a few different backstories, including everything from being an aristocrat who chooses a life of adventure following an accident to a daughter seeking answers about her mother’s disappearance. Of course, many fans are familiar with Angelina Jolie’s take on the character. She discovers the truth behind her father’s demise while also being a total badass. It remains to be seen what Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will do with her story, but the Netflix trailer does show how aesthetically pleasing this show will be. 

The Making of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

This Tomb Raider series is produced by Legendary Television and video game development company Crystal Dynamics, with animation by Powerhouse Animation Studios. Powerhouse is the same studio behind the 2017 Castlevania TV series as well as video games like Mortal Kombat X. 

As part of its Geeked Week, Netflix showcased the creation of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft and offered us a behind-the-scenes look at how the look of the character and series came together. Joy Hua, a character design supervisor on the series, shared that one of the main aims of the series is to bridge the Lara Croft fans know from the newer Survivor games and have her grow into the Lara Craft we fans know from the classic games. Hua also promises there will be many video game Easter eggs in the outfits and props fans see on screen, but that the series will also go to new and unexplored places.

Sounds like it will be an excellent adventure to us.

What Is Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft’s Release Date? 

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will hit Netflix on October 10.

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

Originally published on September 27, 2023.

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I recently turned 40. That is a particularly weird thing to say considering, you know, the way I dress and behave the things I enjoy. But time goes on and numbers don’t lie. Case in point, The Lion King, which came out when I was 10 years old, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Isn’t it fun how that works? To celebrate—and to hope against hope people will go back and spend money on tickets—Disney will re-release the classic animated film to cinemas July 12.

While The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are beloved and made tons of money, it’s hard to argue the cultural phenomenon that was The Lion King. It made a worldwide gross of $763 million in its initial run, making it the highest-grossing movie of 1994, and the second highest all-time behind only Jurassic Park. The soundtrack, with songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice, sold nearly 5 million copies in ’94 alone, and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won an Oscar for best song and John a Grammy for best male vocal performance.

The Lion King also spawned sequels, a successful Broadway show, a television spinoff, and merchandise of all kind. With the state of the box office at an all-time summer low, it makes sense for Disney to want to grab some of that sweet moolah with a reissue. That said, The Lion King is available readily on Disney+ and on physical media, so will people venture out for a movie they’ve seen a million times? Maybe people will say “Hakuna Matata” and hit the cinemas.

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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Gee, thanks, Disney Pixar! Way to remind us that growing up is hard to do. But it turns out that it is, even for animated children becoming animated teenagers. The latest trailer for the much-anticipated sequel to Inside Out, aptly named Inside Out 2, spotlights Anxiety, Envy, Ennui (boredom/angst), and Embarrassment. These are all very frequent emotions for teenagers, obviously. Everyone, please make Anxiety and friends feel very welcome…

It happens to us all. Demolition day and BAM. Anxiety, boredom, and jealousy have moved in. We have to say that Inside Out 2‘s trailer has captured the spirit of anxiety very well… Too well… We honestly can’t look this trailer directly in the eye. Anxiety is perfectly voiced by Maya Hawke (a.k.a. Robin Buckley from Stranger Things), And she’s already apologizing for not getting it right. Nooooo! And even worse, she’s not the only one to arrive. Inside Out 2 also features Embarrassment (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Envy (Paul Walter Hauser). This movie does not look like it intends to slow its roll. And we can’t forget Nostalgia, of course, kindly, but here to make you feel a little too much.

Inside Out 2 Synopsis Dives Into Anxiety and Other New Emotions

Along with the trailer, Disney and Pixar revealed a lengthy new synopsis for Inside Out 2. It shares:

The little voices inside Riley’s head know her inside and out—but next summer, everything changes when Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 introduces a new Emotion: Anxiety. According to director Kelsey Mann, the new character promises to stir things up within headquarters. “Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, might be new to the crew, but she’s not really the type to take a back seat,” said Mann. “That makes a lot of sense if you think about it in terms of what goes on inside all our minds.” A trailer, poster and film stills are now available for what promises to be the feel-good (or feel-everything) film of Summer 2024.

Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. Maya Hawke lends her voice to Anxiety, alongside Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust.

Well, there you have it. Inside Out 2 arrives on June 14, 2024. We’re not quite sure it will make us feel “good” but we bet it will definitely hit hard.

Originally published November 9, 2023.

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The argument over the use of generative AI, in which a program aggregates from sources across the globe to create something like text, videos, images, etc., is hot these days. Should production companies use it to cut some corners? Is the product actually inferior? (Yes, it is.) And why do CEOs seem intent on using it, no matter what? Well the final question has been a big one, and producer Chris Miller has responded. Beyond the Spider-Verse will not employ any generative AI.

IndieWire reported on May 30 that Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra told investors that the studio was “looking at ways to produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily.” Obviously, this made people scared, especially for movies like the third Spider-Verse. Those movies, which have gorgeous visuals, are difficult to make. Would this mean Sony would push to use generative AI for “efficiency” sake? Chris Miller had something to say about this, which we first saw on Gamespot.

Miller responded on Twitter: “There is no generative AI in Beyond the Spider-Verse and there never will be. One of the main goals of the films is to create new visual styles that have never been seen in a studio CG film, not steal the generic plagiarized average of other artists’ work.”

It’s worth noting that the Spider-Verse movies have used AI programs, but not generative AI. They instead incorporated ethical and smart-use machine learning to eliminate repetitive tasks and help the artists better adhere to 3D geometry.

Per the effects supervisor Pav Grochola, “We determined that in order to speed up artists’ productivity over the course of the project, we would utilize machine learning to help our animators get an initial predicted result that would give them a reasonable first pass of creating ink lines on the characters.”

We’re not going to see an end to the AI debate in film and TV for some time. As a tool, machine learning can help artists achieve the desired result more quickly. But generative AI undermines the work of hundreds of real humans, not to mention all the people whose work the machine samples. And so far at least, people can tell the difference.

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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Pixar was at one time the pinnacle of theatrical filmmaking, animation or otherwise. Hits like Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and Inside Out won awards and made tons of money. And while not every movie, especially once all the sequels started, was a masterpiece, they still proved a major success. Like so many things, the pandemic threw that into disarray. Starting with Onward in 2020, several feature-length Pixar projects went straight to Disney+. Once theaters began opening up again, Pixar movies returned to the big screen, but would end up on Disney+ very quickly. Pixar president Jim Morris recognizes this and isn’t happy with it.

As reported by Bloomberg, which we saw at ComicBook.com, Morris recognizes the perceived downturn in box office of Pixar movies and shares that the Disney+ of it all has confused the marketplace. “I hope that we will not release another feature film on Disney+,” Morris said. “If we do more stuff for Disney+, it should be a series, and then that makes a clean demarcation between what we do for theaters and what we do for streaming.”

I think it’s incredibly important, in an age when streaming services just need as many movies as possible to bolster their catalogs, to give quality films their proper context. As Martin Scorsese once said, without that, they get lost amid garbage and risk being forgotten. Pixar shouldn’t just be an enticement method for Disney+ subscriptions. Series? Go for it.

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 loved X-Men ’97 pretty much from beginning to end. It’s the best X-Men thing, maybe ever. The three-part finale offered some intense action for our band of merry mutants. One such memorable moment came when Rogue—still raging about Gambit, et al—begins pummelling villain Bastion and punches him through the side of Asteroid M and into outer space. If that seemed familiar, that’s not a coincidence. Former showrunner Beau DeMayo explained in a Twitter post that the moment was a subconscious homage to 2013’s Man of Steel.

“The action is driven by emotion not plot,” DeMayo shared along with a video of his television. On it plays the scene from about the midpoint of Henry Cavill’s first Superman movie. As Zod threatens Martha (something we know is very touchy to people in this universe), Clark flies in, picks up Zod, and carries him across the cornfield and through a silo. It’s an example of wanton superhero destruction in the movie, but it’s also a great encapsulation of the moment of Superman’s first strike, as it were.

We’ll have to wait a very long time, likely, for a second season of the show. At least we can rest assured we’ll probably get a bevy of behind-the-scenes tidbits between now and then. We’re never mad to revisit such a great series.

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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Netflix is bringing another new animated show to its airwaves. Only unlike the streamer’s newly announced Minecraft series, this cartoon is meant for adults. Deadline reports Netflix has ordered The Undervale from Rick and Morty alum Matt Roller to series.

Netflix’s new (new) animated series comes from creator and showrunner Matt Roller (Archer, Rick and Morty). The Undervale will follow a single mother raising her two children while struggling to “run a haunted hotel with the help of her estranged brother.” And it truly is haunted. Her brother “is now one of the ghosts and thinks the other ghosts have some pretty good ideas.”

Rick and Morty co-creator and showrunner Dan Harmon will also serve as an executive producer on the series. As will Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s Chris McKenna Rick and Morty‘s Steve Levy. And if that’s not enough multiverse power, Rick and Morty‘s Erica Hayes will also serve as the animated show’s supervising director.

Obviously anyone with experience in an infinite universe knows something about working with ghosts.

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Netflix has decided on the building blocks of its next animated show: blocks. The streamer has announced it’s going to play with Mojang Studios in the world’s most successful sandbox video game to bring fans an original Minecraft series. You can take a look at a teaser for this new Netflix Minecraft series below.

The announcement video for Netflix’s Minecraft series is brief, but it’s all the streaming site needs to start building excitement. The animated show (which is different from the previously announced live-action movie) will bring to life the best-selling video game of all time.

While we don’t know much about the Minecraft animated series just yet, we trust Mojang Studios. It wouldn’t be onboard if it didn’t believe Netflix could help deliver the kind of show its loyal customers will want to see.

The fact this news also dropped on the game’s fifteenth anniversary is another sign of how important it is to the studio. But now the real Minecraft series fun starts: putting it together.

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The final post-credits tease of X-Men ’97 season one saw the ancient mutant Apocalypse among the ruins of Genosha, after the genocidal attack by Bastion. He was lamenting his dead mutant children, saying “So much pain. So much Death.” He says the words “death” holding Gambit’s charred playing card, suggesting that just as in the comics, En Sabah Nur will transform the deceased X-Man into his Horseman of Death. This role once belonged to another former X-Man, Archangel. But what about the three other Horseman? Which mutants will take those roles?

Where there is a Horseman of Death, there are always three other Horseman at the side of Apocalypse. They are War, Pestilence/Plague, and Famine. The question is, which dead mutants will the ancient Apocalypse raise from the grave to join Gambit? While it’s not necessarily a given that all four horsemen will be resurrected mutants, we have a feeling their master will want to make a statement—using dead mutants murdered by Sentinels against humanity. Here’s who we think will join Gambit as the other three Horsemen.

Dazzler/Horseman of War

Longtime X-Men fans were thrilled to see mutant pop star Alison Blaire, a.k.a. Dazzler, in X-Men ’97, partying it up in Genosha. She’s a major X-Men character who only appeared briefly in the ’90s X-Men: The Animated Series. Her return was short-lived, as when tragedy struck Genosha, we saw Ali among the dead after the Sentinel attack. If Apocalypse resurrects her as a Horseman, our guess is she’ll be the Horseman of War. Even though her powers of turning sound into light may appear goofy, it also means she can fire deadly lasers from her hands. This is something she did handily in the original 1989 X-Men pilot. It’s a pretty outwardly aggressive power if perverted by someone like Apocalypse.

Banshee/Horseman of Pestilence

Poor Sean Cassidy. The romantic partner of Moira MacTaggert of Muir Island, the mutant Banshee was a major X-Man for many years in the comics. He appeared a handful of times in the ’90s cartoon. We see the Irish mutant flying away from the destruction in Genosha in “Remember It,” when a Sentinel blast incinerated him, along with the mutant Marrow. However, since his mutant ability involves a highly powered sonic scream, given how an airborne disease travels, we think Banshee might be a prime candidate for the Horseman of Pestilence. In the comics, the Apocalypse Twins resurrected him from death as one of four Horseman of Death. We could see a twist on that in X-Men ’97 year two.

Madelyne Pryor/Horseman of Famine

Jean Grey’s clone Madelyne Pryor was one of the breakout stars of X-Men ’97 as the Goblin Queen. Sadly, her life ended tragically after briefly connecting with her son Cable moments before she died in Genosha. As an Omega Level mutant, since she’s Jean’s genetic double, Apocalypse would be wise to use her as a Horseman. With her vast mental powers, she could lay waste to the Earth as only the Horseman Famine could. We also think she’d be the first of Apocalypse’s Horseman to break free from his control, just as she broke free of Sinister’s control in the episode.

Many other mutants died in Genosha, so the possibilities for new undead Horsemen is endless. We’ll find out who makes the cut for Apocalypse when X-Men ’97 eventually returns to Disney+.

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While Marvel fans may be waiting a bit longer for the third (and final?) season of Marvel’s What If…?, the Watcher will return much sooner than we originally thought. Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive have revealed What If…? – An Immersive Story, the first-ever interactive Disney+ Original story. It arrives on Thursday, May 30, exclusively on Apple Vision Pro as a free app for a limited time. What If…? will be a mixed reality experience, allowing fans to become the lead of an hour-long, narrative-driven journey. It’s a Marvel adventure that allows you to meet variants from across the Multiverse, and make huge reality-defining choices. You can check out the trailer for Marvel Studios’ What If…? – An Immersive Story right here:

What If…? – An Immersive Story is directed by Dave Bushore at Marvel Studios, and produced by Shereif M. Fattouh at ILM Immersive. Here’s what executive producer Shereif M. Fattouh had to say about the upcoming launch:

This project touches upon the cornerstone of the desire that our studios share to constantly experiment and innovate, and thanks to the capabilities of Apple Vision Pro, we get to place you directly inside a Universe that means so much to us all. I can’t wait for fans to become the hero in this completely new way.

Marvel’s What If…? reimagines events from across the MCU in unexpected ways. Using the spatial computing capabilities of Apple Vision Pro, What If…? – An Immersive Story will deliver a technologically advanced experience to fans that completely transforms the space around them. Wong will be there to instruct you on casting spells, harnessing the power of the Infinity Stones, and fighting in Avengers-level battles. Among the variants you’ll meet in this What If…? Marvel adventure are Thanos, Hela, the Collector, Red Guardian, and more. Soon, you’ll be able to step into incredible environments, that cross between mixed and virtual reality, entering iconic MCU locations. 

What If…? – An Immersive Story will be released on Thursday, May 30, exclusively on Apple Vision Pro. For more details, click here.

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Not long ago, former X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo indicated on social media that Deadpool was an “off-limits” character for them to use on the series. Now, it seems that rule might not be a forever rule, and future seasons might include Wade Wilson in all his glory. While talking to Screen Rant, Marvel Animation’s Brad Winderbaum clarified the Deadpool situation regarding X-Men ’97, and hinted that we just might see him pop up in future seasons. Here’s what he had to say about everyone’s favorite Merc with the Mouth:

I don’t know that it was like a hard and fast rule that we couldn’t use Deadpool. We would have had to have an insanely compelling reason to bring Deadpool in. Because we’re also developing the feature simultaneously. So, unless it was something that really was an undeniable creative idea, it seemed like, ‘Why would we do it?’ But also, I’ll say, the season is so chock-full of big, giant, amazing fulfilling ideas that throwing Deadpool in there almost feels like arbitrary at a certain point. Is there a potential for Deadpool to come in? Absolutely, he was in the original series, briefly as we all know, and certainly we’re all fans, so we’ll see what happens.

Several years back, Marvel announced a Deadpool animated series for FX with Donald Glover in charge. However, they canceled it before airing a single episode. Maybe Ryan Reynolds didn’t want anyone else playing him on the regular. A guest appearance on an X-Men show may not be as hard to pull off though. If and when Deadpool shows up, it will likely have something to do with Wolverine’s Weapon X days. With Logan no longer having his adamantium skeleton, he might need help to get it back. Who better to enlist than another survivor of the same program like Wade?

We imagine any version of Deadpool on X-Men ’97 would be significantly more toned down than the big-screen iteration. After all, X-Men ’97 isn’t really a show where one drops f-bombs left and right. A “safe for kids” version appeared in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon back in 2013 on Disney XD. So there is precedent for this to happen.

Having said that, we wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan Reynolds played the role in X-Men ’97 when the time comes. This is not something we expect to see in the near future. In the meantime, we’ll have to be content with the live-action X-Men meeting Wade in Deadpool & Wolverine.

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It was just two wordless cameos in a pair of stacked episode, but fans of ‘90s Marvel animation jumped for joy at the X-Men ’97 episodes “Tolerance is Extinction” Parts I and III. During a crucial moment, when Magneto powers down all electrical devices across the globe, we cut to several cameos of Marvel characters. One of them is our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. It’s not just any Spidey spinning his webs, though. As fans of ‘90s Marvel cartoons know, the Spider-Man in the X-Men cartoon is the same one from the Spider-Man: The Animated Series, that ran concurrently on Fox Kids at the time. We then saw Peter Parker and MJ together in the season finale. Could this mean a Spidey spin-off is on the way, picking up from Spider-Man: The Animated Series? Here’s what Marvel Animation’s Brad Winderbaum said when asked by Screen Rant about the possibility:

There is always potential, right? We don’t want to close the door on anything. But I think that for now, for the foreseeable future, X-Men ’97 will own the ’90s, and how much we bring in guest stars or tell stories from other Marvel characters from that era is TBD, but it will be seen through that lens of the X-Men.

The ’90s X-Men and Spider-Man Animated Series Were Connected

Spider-Man appeared only as a hand shooting web fluid in X-Men: The Animated Series. The X-Men: TAS producers snuck the cameo in, as technically they didn’t have the rights to use Spidey. However, the full X-Men team from the ‘90s cartoon appeared in the two-part Spider-Man episodes “The Mutant Agenda” and “The Mutant’s Revenge” in 1995. All the X-Men: TAS voice actors returned, and their designs were identical to those on their own show. This was the first connection between two Marvel ‘90s animated shows, showing that at least the X-Men and Spider-Man existed within the same continuity. As for the other Marvel cartoons from the ’90s, that’s up for debate.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series Left Lingering Questions X-Men ’97 Could Resolve

So what does this mean for ‘90s Spidey in X-Men ’97? Former showrunner Beau Demayo confirmed on social media that this version of Spidey is the same one originally voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes in the classic show. As fans may recall, Spider-Man: TAS ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. After a long and convoluted adventure through the Spider-Verse, Madame Web appears to Peter Parker. She takes him to find Mary Jane Watson, who found herself lost in the multiverse earlier in the season. Viewers never found out if Peter and MJ actually reunited, much less if their planned nuptials ever occurred. It was a bit of a giant question mark. But X-Men ’97 answered that question in the season finale, which shows that Peter did indeed find MJ, and the pair were reunited. Beau DeMayo also confirmed this on social media.

Could X-Men ’97 Lead to a Spider-Man ’98 Spin-Off?

One big thing is likely keeping Spider-Man’s appearance from being a “backdoor pilot” to set up a spin-off show. That’s the upcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man animated series coming to Disney+ soon. This is the series formerly known as Spider-Man: Freshman Year. If anything, the upcoming new Spidey cartoon is probably the biggest obstacle in getting a full Spider-Man ’98 series. Would Marvel Animation have two competing Spider-Man cartoons concurrently? However, the massive success of X-Men ’97 may eventually cause them to rethink those plans. Spider-Man was just as beloved a cartoon hero for ‘90s kids as the X-Men.

Could Peter Parker Teach at Xavier’s School in Future X-Men ’97 Seasons?

Even if we don’t get a Spider-Man ’98 series, there is room for a continuation of that version of Peter Parker in future X-Men ’97 seasons. After all, in the comics, Peter Parker became a teacher at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters for a time (then renamed the Jean Grey School), in the series Spider-Man and the X-Men. Why not make the ’90s version of Spidey part of the supporting cast of X-Men ’97? Peter could teach several new mutants, teens discovering their powers during puberty as he once did. Original voice actor Christopher Daniel Barnes has not been contacted yet, but has said he’s into the idea.

Spider-Man is technically not a mutant of course. He got his powers as a teenager during a lab accident, as everyone knows. None of that stopped the comic book creators from giving him a teaching position at the school though. Of course, we’d love for him to have a revival series like X-Men ’97. But if the other Spidey series on Disney+ makes that unlikely, we’ll take option B. Whatever happens, Spidey is officially part of the X-Men ’97 world now. We highly doubt it’s the last time he swings through the New York skyline in this series.

Originally published on May 1, 2024.

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The thought of The Simpsons getting cancelled terrified me as a kid. Well, so much for that! The show is still going strong and will debut its 36th season later this year. When it does, it will still feature the same main cast members who have been there since day one. And they will seemingly always be there so long as the animated icon continues. Showrunner Matt Selman says that time and age does not mean that The Simpsons will recast its original stars.

In an interview with Cartoon Base (which we first learned about at CBR) Selman was asked “As time passes and the voice actors age, do you think of recasting them?” He gave a short, unambiguous answer. He said, “I do not.”

That means Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, and Nancy Cartwright aren’t going anywhere. (Unless they step down.) And the same seems true for Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. The Simpsons has recast some of the many parts its main cast members have played. But it’s never replacing them entirely.

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The season finale of X-Men ’97 had one emotional moment after another, leaving fans with several huge cliffhangers. Yet the scene on everyone’s mind is the seminal moment from X-Men #25, where Magneto pulls the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body. In “Tolerance is Extinction Part III,” Logan clings to life after that attack. He lies on a makeshift hospital bed, with his best buddy Morph by his side. The most heartfelt moment came when Morph takes Jean’s form, and confesses their love for Logan. And that wasn’t just Morph taking Jean’s form to keep him fighting for his life. This was Morph truly confessing their feelings for Wolverine.

In case there was any ambiguity about what Morph meant with that scene, former X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo confirmed on social media (via Comic Book Resources) that Morph transforming into Jean Grey and telling Logan they loved him was a true confession of their feelings for the iconic X-Man. DeMayo said “Yes, Morph was confessing romantic feelings for Logan. He later posted “You know when you’re secretly in love with a close friend, and you’re terrified to tell them? Wouldn’t it be nice to turn into someone you know THEY love, say the words to just finally say them and have them feel it, even if you haven’t fully accepted you feel them?”

Every queer person who ever had a crush on their straight friend in high school absolutely relates to this moment. We’ve all been there. In case there was any confusion, DeMayo explained further on social media, saying “Yep. Morph was giving the object of their desire the comfort of hearing those words from the woman he loves because Morph is in love with him.” Will Wolverine remember what Morph said when he eventually wakes up? We’ll have to wait for X-Men ’97 season two to see how this soap opera continues to unfold.

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In the season finale of X-Men ’97, we got several cliffhangers, and teases for what’s to come when the series returns. And we already have some well-reasoned guesses as to which classic comics will serve as inspiration for the new season. Here are the comic book stories we are confident will be the basis for the season two of X-Men ’97.

The Rise of Apocalypse

This 1996 mini-series goes back 5,000 years to ancient Egypt and the rise of En Sabah Nur. He was the very first mutant and the being who would one day take the name Apocalypse. Written by Terry Kavanagh and illustrated by Adam Pollina, The Rise of Apocalypse details how a former slave rose up against the Pharoah Rama-Tut. (He is a variant of Kang the Conqueror, should they wish to connect to the MCU.) Apocalypse then began his war on the weakest of the species, eventually recruiting his legendary Four Horsemen. The design for young En Sabah Nur in X-Men ’97 directly recalls his design from artist Adam Pollina. So we definitely see this having a big influence on season two.

The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994)

In 1991’s X-Factor #69, the tyrant Apocalypse infected Cyclops’ infant son Nathan with a techno-organic virus. The only way to save him was to send him thousands of years into the future. Cyclops was offered this choice by a warrior from the Clan Askani. We later found out the mercenary Cable, leader of X-Force, was Nathan as an adult. He’d been sent back to the present from that future.

In Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha’s 1994 mini-series The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, newlyweds Scott Summers and Jean Grey are sent into the far future. They emerge in a time period where Apocalypse rules, and they go by the names Slim and Redd. There, they meet their daughter Rachel Summers, now the ancient Mother Askani. She gives them the chance to raise young Nathan from childhood to his teen years. The arrival of Jean and Scott in the far future indicates we are definitely are going to see an adaptation of this series.

Generation X

After years of villainy as part of the Hellfire Club as its White Queen, Emma Frost’s students, the Hellions, all died in a Sentinel attack. She very nearly lost her life too, falling into a coma for months. When she finally awoke, the trauma of this loss caused her to change her ways (somewhat), and she began training a new generation of X-Men at the Massachusetts Academy, now an offshoot of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

Frost and co-headmaster Banshee taught a new group of students, nicknamed Generation X, which included Jubilee. Among the others were Synch, Chamber, Husk, Skin, and M. Writer Scott Lobdell’s Generation X series lasted 75 issues. With the school closed on X-Men ’97, and Emma narrowly surviving Genosha, she may wish to start her own school of X-Men to keep the dream alive. Maybe with Jubilee and Sunspot as students? Generation X might be a dated term now for a group of younger mutants today, but in 1997? They would have been the right age for a name Like “Gen X.”

X-Men: Blood of Apocalypse

Peter Milligan’s mid-2000s X-Men run isn’t one that gets referenced a lot. However, this comic run did contain one story that likely will inform season two of X-Men ’97. After the mutant decimation provoked by the Scarlet Witch, causing most mutants to lose their powers, Gambit was in a funk. Especially as his great love, Rogue, started a romantic relationship with another mutant with immunity to her powers. He actually volunteers to become the new Horseman of Death for Apocalypse, in a storyline that began in 2006’s X-Men #185. Gambit’s time as Death is brief, and by X-Men #200, Gambit returns to normal. This will at least partially serve as inspiration for X-Men ’97 season two.

Uncanny Avengers: The Apocalypse Twins

If Apocalypse brings back Gambit or other dead mutants as his Horsemen, it will be based on something his heirs did. This was actually something done by Uriel and Eimin, the Apocalypse Twins, in the pages of Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers. The Apocalypse Twins brought back to life dead characters like the Sentry, Banshee, Grim Reaper, and Daken, and turned them into their Four Horsemen of Death. If Gambit is coming back via this method, it begs the question, what other three dead mutants from Genosha are coming back too? Banshee, Sebastian Shaw, Madelyne Pryor, and Dazzler are all prime candidates for resurrection as Horsemen of Death.

Onslaught

Although Professor X didn’t wipe Magneto’s mind after he pulled the adamantium out of Logan’s body, as in X-Men #25, he did spend a lot of time in Magnus’ head. It was enough that Jean Grey worried that so much time mentally fused might break them both. While they both seem intact at the end of X-Men ’97 season one, we’re not totally buying it. We think at some point in season two (or perhaps season three) Onslaught will emerge. The entity Onslaught was born when Charles Xavier absorbed some of Magneto’s rage and hostility when he mind-wiped him, and it stayed dormant for years. We think he was in Magneto’s mind long enough on X-Men ’97 for this comic story to still happen in season two. It’s just a matter of time.

The post X-MEN ’97 Season 2 Will Likely Draw Inspiration From These Comics appeared first on Nerdist.

The last few episodes of X-Men ’97, “Tolerance is Extinction Part I-III,” were chock-full of Marvel Comics cameos. Some have never even appeared in the X-Men: The Animated Series universe before now. Let’s break down each of them, and what we think they mean for the future of the series.

Daredevil

Helping to control the chaos and looting on the streets of New York during the blackout after Magneto’s EMP wave is Daredevil, who appeared as part of this universe in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

Doctor Strange

With hospitals having no power, Doctor Stephen Strange appears, doing mystical surgery on a patient. Doctor Strange’s magic powers have the same look as they do in the MCU in this X-Men ’97 Marvel cameo, something not present in his original Spider-Man: The Animated Series appearances. The mystics of Kamar-Taj were mentioned by Beast in this series as well.

Iron Man and Captain America

Although most of the Avengers are off-world dealing with the Kree-Shi’ar war, we do see Iron Man (in his ’90s armor) and Captain America advising the government on what to do about Magneto. Sadly, Tony Stark didn’t have any speaking lines in his X-Men ’97 cameo. Maybe next season, Shellhead.

Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Polaris

Speaking of Magneto, when Charles Xavier is in his mind trying to reason with him, we see glimpses of Magnus’ children. We see the twins Wanda and Pietro (the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) as well as Lorna Dane, a,k.a. Polaris. Lorna appeared as a former X-Man and member of X-Factor on the classic show.

Black Panther

Marvel’s Black Panther also cameos in X-Men ’97, but he’s not who you think. It’s not Prince T’Challa in the role of the Panther. Instead, it’s his father, King T’Chaka. We’re not sure why Marvel went with this choice, except maybe thinking no one else should even voice act for T’Challa since Chadwick Boseman’s passing in 2020.

Cloak and Dagger

This is a deeper cut. The superhero duo Cloak and Dagger are seen on the streets of New York trying to control the chaos. In older Marvel lore, these purveyors of light and dark were mutants themselves. That has since been retconned. But back in the ’90s, they certainly thought they were mutants!

Psylocke, Alpha Flight, and Cecilia Reyes

On the ruins of Genosha, we see the mutant telepath Psylocke. She appeared a few times before, in the classic X-Men: The Animated Series. Alongside Psylocke is the Canadian mutant team Alpha Flight, including members Puck, Northstar, and Aurora. Also with them is Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a mutant and occasional X-Man.

Mister Fantastic

Morph transforms into Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, our first visual reference to a member of Marvel’s First Family. This wasn’t technically an X-Men ’97 cameo, but we were happy to see this Marvel character all the same.

Sauron

Morph also transforms into Sauron, the mutate from the Savage Land who is part human/part pterodactyl. Not to be confused with Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, although he was named for him.

The Hulk

This wasn’t technically an X-Men ’97 cameo, as it was shapeshifting Morph in disguise, but the Incredible Hulk smashed through Bastion’s forces in “Tolerance is Extinction Part II.” Still, it was amazing to see the Jade Giant in the world of the X-Men. Hopefully, the real Bruce Banner shows up before too long, and gets to battle his old nemesis Wolverine.

Rachel Summers

The most important Marvel cameo came early on in episode 8 of X-Men ’97. As Cable tells the X-Men the history of his future, he explains how Bastion’s plan resulted in his timeline. In one of the images we see, we witness how the surviving mutants in Bastion’s future are used as slaves to humanity. Among them is a telekinetic/telepathic young woman named Rachel Summers. She’s the (as yet) unborn daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey. Raised in the dystopian Days of Future Past timeline, she was one of the remaining mutants who were reconditioned by Sentinels to be mutant hunters called Hounds. The tattoos on her face are the signature of the Hound program.

In the comics, Rachel breaks free of her programming, goes back in time to our present, and becomes an X-Man. She even absorbs part of the Phoenix force, taking after her mother. Eventually, she goes thousands of years to the future, where she founds the Clan Askani. This is the same group that took in baby Nathan Summers. When Cable says a rebel from his time sent him back, we had a hunch he means his half-sister Rachel. This was confirmed in the final moments of season one, when we see Rachel as Mother Askani (voiced by Star Trek’s Gates McFadden) with Clan Askani in the far future.

Polaris (Lorna Dane)

Also in the same dystopian future is an older version of the magnetically-powered Polaris. She’s being used as slave labor by humans just like Rachel. In the X-Men: TAS continuity, Lorna Dane was a former member of the X-Men in the early years. She had a romantic relationship with Iceman/Bobby Drake. She is the daughter of Magneto, half-sibling of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, as noted in Magneto’s mind in the season finale.

William Stryker

One of the X-Men’s deadliest human enemies from Marvel Comics, Reverend William Stryker, appears in a “blink and ya miss him” X-Men ’97 cameo. We see him on a TV news show, predicting a war between humanity and mutants. In the comics, Stryker was an anti-mutant televangelist, who was the primary villain in the 1982 graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills.

That story was adapted into live-action in 2003’s X2: X-Men United. In that film, Stryker was reimagined as a military general, not a preacher. Actor Brian Cox portrayed him in the film. Stryker as a younger military man appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse played by Josh Helman.

Doctor Doom

Another big X-Men ’97 cameo is the first official appearance by Doctor Victor Von Doom in a Marvel Studios project. He appears on a monitor talking to Bastion, presumably from his castle in Latveria. He admits to his complicity in the Genoshan attack, however, the level of war crimes committed by Bastion disgusts him. Doom seems to regret allying himself with him, before cutting off the feed. To Victor Von Doom, someone like Bastion is quite beneath him.

Baron Helmut Zemo

Baron Helmut Zemo, sporting his classic comic book-accurate face mask, also pops up on one of the monitors talking to Bastion. He seems far less remorseful than Doom about what’s been happening. This minor X-Men ’97 cameo could be hinting that Zemo and his Masters of Evil, usually Captain America and Avengers villains in the Marvel Comics, might be fighting the X-Men in the future. Or maybe the Avengers and the X-Men team up against Zemo? Our heads are spinning at the thought.

The Silver Samurai

When Magneto unleashes his power and shifts the polarity of the Earth, we see electricity go out all over the world. In Japan, we get a quick look at a long-time Wolverine enemy. Looking out of a high-rise window is the mutant gang leader Silver Samurai, whose real name is Keniuchio Harada. Silver Samurai appeared in the classic X-Men: The Animated Series episode “The Lotus and the Steel.” Samurai appears again in the finale episode of season one.

Omega Red

In Russia, we see a government facility that looks like a nuclear power plant. As Magneto’s wave cuts the power across the world, we see that held in suspended animation in this scientific research base is the mutant operative Omega Red. With the power out, Omega Red awakens. Omega Red appeared in four X-Men: The Animated Series episodes over the course of five seasons. We later see him with the Russian Winter Guard, including Darkstar and Crimson Dynamo, in the season finale.

Spider-Man

Oh yeah, then there’s this guy. You might have heard of him. Yes, the amazing Spider-Man himself appears in a silent X-Men ’97 cameo as the power shuts down in New York City. Former X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau Demayo confirms via social media this is the very same wallcrawler who starred in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the ‘90s, which crossed over with X-Men: TAS. Could this be leading to a revival of that show too? We have our suspicions. In the season one finale, we see Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, and Flash Thompson on the streets of New York. Showrunner Beau DeMayo confirmed on social media that Peter and MJ were reunited after the events of Spider-Man: TAS, resolving that cliffhanger ending.

Originally published on May 1, 2024.

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At the end of season one of X-Men ’97, our team of mutant heroes are now lost in time, and presumed dead to the world. We see that Forge is planning to keep the dream of Charles Xavier alive however, and he has a corkboard of several known mutants he plans to recruit. While many of the X-Men are listed as “Presumed Dead,” or in the case of Scarlet With and Quicksilver, “Off World,” several others are prime candidates. Based on Forge’s board, here’s who we expect to become the all-new, all-different X-Men in season two.

Colossus (Piotr Rasputin)

Piotr Rasputin, the metal-skinned mutant powerhouse called Colossus, is a mainstay of the team in the comics. In the animated shows, the Russian-born mutant was just a guest star a few times, and never formally joined the team. He only appeared in two episodes, displaying an over-the-top Russian accent. His appearance on Forge’s board suggests next season, Colossus will finally step up and become a real X-Man at last.

Magik (Illyana Rasputin)

Colossus isn’t the only member of the Rasputin family on Forge’s board. Also seen is his sister Illyana, a.k.a. Magik. We saw the mutant teleporter as a child in the original series, but here we see her as a teenager. That’s not a continuity error either. In the comics, Illyana spent years in the Limbo dimension as a child, when it was just months here, returning as much older. As a mutant sorceress and owner of the Soul Sword, she’ll make for a formidable X-Man if Forge recruits her. Like her brother, Morph transformed into Magik in one episode of X-Men ’97.

Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde)

One of the most requested (and beloved) characters in X-Men history finally appears on Forge’s board. Katherine “Kitty” Pryde, born with the power to phase through solid objects, is finally confirmed as existing in the X-Men: The Animated Series universe. Despite appearing in the original pilot episode “Pryde of the X-Men,” she never appeared in the ’92-’97 series. This appears to be the older version of the character, using her Shadowcat codename and costume. So if she joins the team, it’s unlikely she will be the junior member she originally was.

Havok (Alex Summers)

We know from this season that Scott Summers/Cyclops has a complicated family tree. This is a guy who has a cyborg son that’s older than he is, and a father who’s a space pirate. But he also has a powerful brother named Alex Summers a.k.a. Havok. A powerful energy manipulator, they separated Scott and Alex as children. When they met in the original series, Havok was a member of the team X-Factor, and they didn’t know they were brothers. As far as we know, they still don’t. It’s time to rectify that mistake next season with Forge officially recruiting Alex Summers into the X-Men.

Iceman (Bobby Drake)

Robert Drake, better known as Iceman, is a founding member of the team who only appeared once in the original X-Men: The Animated Series. He was front and center in the third season episode “Cold Comfort,” but we haven’t seen him since. This season, we kept seeing Bobby in the original X-Men class portrait in Xavier’s office, hinting there was more to come for him. The fact that he’s on Forge’s board suggests it’s finally time for this Omega Level mutant to rejoin the team. Besides, it’ll be nice to have such a prominent gay superhero on the X-Men.

Archangel (Warren Worthington III)

Another original X-Man on the board is Warren Worthington III, also known as the razor-winged Archangel. He’s listed as “Presumed Dead” on Forge’s board, although not because he was fighting with the X-Men on Asteroid M. We saw him flying around Genosha when the massacre happened. Yet given his upgrades from Apocalypse, who gave him his metal wings, it’s highly unlikely he died there. And if the X-Men’s “Big Bad” of season two is indeed Apocalypse, they’ll probably need his former Horseman of Death to fight him.

The White Queen (Emma Frost)

Emma Frost, the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club, made a brief appearance in season one of X-Men ’97. She was part of the ruling council on Genosha, before Bastion’s Sentinel massacre happened. Emma was presumed dead, but just as in the comics, she survived when her secondary mutation happened, emerging in her diamond form. She also took a romantic interest in Cyclops. But she’s still a telepath of the highest order, and Forge’s new team is going to need one of those, especially with Jean and Charles gone. Also, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde have a great love/hate dynamic we’d love to see in the show.

Dust (Sooraya Qadir)

This character is a more recent addition to Marvel Comics X-Men canon, first appearing in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men series in 2002. Dust, whose real name is Sooraya Qadir, is a young Muslim mutant who has the power to transform her body into a pliable cloud of sand. Originally from Afghanistan, the X-Men recruited Sooraya as a student of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. She’s quite powerful, and in her dust form is hard to detect telepathically. She would be an asset to any team that Forge forms.

Exodus (Bennet du Paris)

This one’s the wild card. On Forge’s board we see the image of Exodus, one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Comics pantheon. Bennet du Paris comes from the 12th century, where his telekinetic, telepathic, and teleporting abilities became augmented by Apocalypse. He’s served En Sabah Nur as well as Magneto in the modern age, even leading his Acolytes. We saw him on Genosha in episode 5, “Remember It,” partying it up. It looks like he survived the massacre. Exodus isn’t really a joiner, so it might be shocking to see him as an X-Man. But with Apocalypse in play next season as the main villain, anything is possible.

The post Did the X-MEN ’97 Finale Reveal a New Team? appeared first on Nerdist.

Getting people I know to care about Ultraman, the iconic Japanese superhero series that began in 1966, was once a herculean task. I love it, and I want to share it with other people! But the language barrier is real. The success of Shin Ultraman has made it much easier, and now that Netflix is set to debut the English-language animated film Ultraman: Rising, it’s even more so! The film comes to us from the multi-talented writer-director Shannon Tindle (Kubo and the Two Strings). He, like me, is a huge Ultraman fan, but he never set out to make a film with the giant silver kaiju-fighter. It’s a fascinating story.

I got to speak to Tindle about creating his version of Ultraman universe tied to a brand new trailer. Check out the trailer, then read my interview below.

Nerdist: I know you had this idea for years and years and years. At what point did it become clear, oh, I could actually do this idea with Ultraman? How did that whole process even come about?

Tindle: I developed the idea at another studio. The film went into turnarounds. They were very gracious about me taking it out. And when I came over to Netflix to pitch it, I came into a room with Melissa Cobb and Greg Taylor and a lot of other folks. I didn’t know there were going to be that many folks in the room. And Armi Kubian, who had just gotten back from a trip to Japan, he was living in Singapore at the time, and he said, hey, I met with Tsuburaya Productions and… there had been all these rights issues for years with the characters, and they finally got it cleared up in 2018, just as I was leaving Sony.

They’re like, how would you like to make this an Ultraman movie? And I said, well, as long as I can make this story that I wanted to tell. Because I didn’t want to make a superhero story, I wanted to make a story about family and about conflicts between parents and children. If Tsuburaya supports that, then let’s do it. I’ve met with Tsuburaya and they could not have been more kind, and they’ve been so incredibly supportive from day one, and I’ve become friends with them and they said, yeah, we want to tell the same story that you want to, and we’d love for it to be an Ultraman story. So, that’s how it came about. I keep saying like fan fiction became reality.

Man, that’s such a great story. Once Tsuburaya was on board, and it was an Ultraman movie, you got to dig through their toy box, so to speak, with all those kaiju and amazing sound effects. What was the process like of deciding what of theirs would fit into your story?

Tindle: I created, as the original Kaiju, Gigantron, before it was Ultraman and there was no reason to change her. She served purposes of the story and I did the design, so I was like, hey, I’m happy with this design and let’s do this. But I’ll never forget, the first time that we visited them was in October of 2018. And it was crazy because we got on the plane, it was when the Dodgers had that insane six hour game.

I remember getting on the plane with Melissa Cobb, who was running the division at that time, and we were about to take off and the Dodgers won. So that was like, oh my gosh, there’s this team that we’re actually featuring in the story and they’ve just won, that’s cool, and now we’re going to Japan. So, I pitched the story to Tsukagoshi-san, who’s the chairman, and CEO [of Tsuburaya] and Minamitani-san, who is kind of head of global there, and Onda-san, who is one of the creative directors there, the whole team.

They let me go through the binders of all of the Tsuburaya stuff. And that’s not just Ultraman, it was like Redman and all these other really cool characters. And I was just freaking out kind of going through it. I’m like, oh my gosh, now I’m going to take the script and I’m going to get to incorporate Ultraman into it. But really the goal was, preserve the story because everybody responded to the story. Let’s just work the mythology into the story in a way that supports the story we’re already telling. So, if we’re going to have our version of the science team—it’s what you kind of need to do when you do an Ultraman series—can we approach it in a different way?

And my point of view is like, let’s show them in a different light. Let’s show what happens if they’ve been kind of twisted from their original goals. But we wanted to have little tips of the hat to that. So, the orange costumes that KDF wear in our movie are actually inspired by the SSSP costumes in the first series. So, those were the things that, there’s the gift wrapping that you want to put on it and the frosting, but it always has to be in support of story that you’re trying to tell.

But ultimately, I wanted to make the film for people who don’t know anything about Ultraman. I wanted to get them excited by it, and as anybody who’s watched the Ultra series knows, they evolve constantly. Every couple of years, it’s a new Ultraman. So, it’s one of those characters that, because that’s traditionally what it’s been, there’s no locked-in canon. I mean, there’s some things that are kind of like afterthoughts, I think, but it allows for evolution and reimagining.

Talk about serendipity, because you were meeting with them in 2018. During the pandemic, I feel like is when people in the West really started to get—that’s when all the Blu-rays started coming out and everything like that. So, the knowledge of Ultraman in the West has really grown in the time that you’ve been making the movie.

Tindle: So, that I would say in terms of Ultraman, there’s just a… one could say serendipitous, one could say, I just waited around long enough for this whole thing.

I guess that’s true.

Tindle: But yeah, it’s been pretty incredible in that regard, that there are all these things that seem to be happening at the moment, but I still think that, although there could be a lot more awareness. When we have our test screenings, there’s still people that don’t know who Ultraman is, and they may not ever watch a superhero film. Just something they’re not interested in but they’re engaging with the film on the level that I want them to engage on, and that’s the personal emotional level.

I hope it draws people to see the film. Because I want as many people to see it as possible. But more importantly, I want them to be like, that reminds me of the arguments I’ve had with my dad, that reminds me of my little girl or my little boy. Those are the things I really want them to connect with.

On the tip of parent-children dynamics, specifically about the main character Ken Sato, there’s sort of the inherited trauma of the character, but also the inherited responsibility. He doesn’t want to be Ultraman, he doesn’t want to be a father. He just kind of wants to be this brash baseball player. What was it about that specific story that you thought a superhero movie would suit?

Tindle: Well, again, it was more about what one experiences when they go from just having to worry about themselves to having to worry about your family. So, I don’t think anybody is prepared to be a parent. I certainly wasn’t. I wanted to be a parent, I just didn’t know what that meant until I fully committed to being a parent and I had a daughter. So, I used to be able to go to a movie anytime I wanted to. I could go to the comic shop anytime I wanted to. I could go hang with friends anytime I wanted to. But when I had a daughter, I had to understand that she needed me and needed to… what I started to do, is I just got up earlier and earlier and earlier, so I could do the things that I’d like to do.

I had to find balance. And that’s what the story is about. As a parent finding balance, you’ve got so many things going on, and to me, that makes it a compelling character regardless of genre, whether it’s a superhero film or not. I just wanted to make a relatable character. Because I thought there were a lot of people who might be parents and might be young parents who go, oh my gosh, I know exactly what that feels like.

When you’re exhausted after a long day, maybe you had a tough day—in this instance, Ken is humiliated at work, but he’s still got a child to deal with when he’s at home, and he has to be patient, and he has to reserve some time for her. There are times with my daughter where I would be playing with her on the floor and I would fall asleep playing with her. And I can still remember I’m just fading out of consciousness.

But that’s what it’s like to be a parent, is there’s this imbalance at first because you’ve got this new life that’s been brought into your life and disrupts it, and then how do you find a way to make it all work? And that seemed like a compelling story to me, and something that wasn’t typical of a superhero story. I mean, you could look at The Incredibles, which is a beautiful example of that. And of course, if you look at Spider-Verse now, those films work because people connect with them in an emotional way. Not because they’re superhero stories, not because it’s a Spider-Man story, but because they told compelling stories about interesting people. And so, I hope we did the same with this film.

Before I let you go, what is your favorite of the Ultraman special moves that you got to put into the film?

Tindle: I had to have Ultra Slash in there. I think that’s unique with the buzzsaw. It’s such a unique weapon that Ultraman uses, and it had to be in the movie, but I wanted it to be in defense of a Kaiju rather than to attack a Kaiju. So again, to turn those things on their heads, where Ultraman is using his powers to help a creature rather than to hurt it. So, Ultra Slash is a big one that’s up there. And then the other big one, I think fans are going to be happy.

Ultraman: Rising debuts on Netflix June 14

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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As X-Men ’97 gears up for its season one finale, fans have some big questions about what’s going on with other Marvel heroes during the events of the series—especially as Magneto has essentially declared war on humanity. We know other Marvel heroes exist in this world, because we’ve seen them. Spider-Man has already swung in, however briefly, and Captain America had quite the confrontation with Rogue. So where exactly are the Avengers right now in X-Men ’97? Via IGN, we’ve learned that former X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo had some answers. He also gives a reason why we haven’t seen everyone’s favorite “Merc with the Mouth” Deadpool during X-Men ’97 season one.

On the subject of the Avengers, it seems Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are out in space, dealing with a matter of galactic importance. A fan asked if the Avengers were knee-deep in a version in their own Marvel crossover event “Operation: Galactic Storm.” This 1992 Avengers storyline was all about a Shi’ar war with the Kree, which we know is going on thanks to episode 7, “Lifedeath, Part II.” So that’s where Cap and company are, while Bastion activated the Prime Sentinels and Magneto retaliated. As for the Fantastic Four? Still no answer. They may be with the Avengers.

There are also many famous mutants unaccounted for. Not everyone was on Genosha when the attack happened in episode five. A fan online asked about Sabretooth, and DeMayo simply said he’s “lying low.” Victor Creed may not appear in season one, but we’re not counting him out for season two.

We’re actually more curious as to where Mystique is, although we suppose she could be hiding in plain sight. For some time we thought she was Valerie Cooper, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. When asked, DeMayo just played coy. We’re simply dying to know where Raven Darkholme is.

Finally, someone asked about good old Wade Wilson. Deadpool made a few silent cameos in the original X-Men: The Animated Series, so we know he exists in this universe. All DeMayo would say on the subject of Deadpool was that he was “off limits.” This was no doubt due to Deadpool & Wolverine, and Marvel Animation not wanting to step on their toes. Hopefully, in later seasons, Wade might show up. We actually think Ryan Reynolds wouldn’t be off the table to voice him either.

Hopefully, future seasons give fans not only Deadpool, but also a proper Avengers vs. X-Men fight. After all, the comic book storyline that followed “Fatal Attractions,” the story X-Men ’97 is currently adapting, was an Avengers/X-Men crossover called “Bloodties.” Here’s hoping that saga comes in later seasons.

The post Here’s Why X-MEN ’97 Doesn’t Have the Avengers and Deadpool appeared first on Nerdist.

X-Men ’97 has been killing it week to week, giving us an animated series that evokes the best of a certain era of Marvel Comics. Meanwhile, Batman: Caped Crusader, premiering this summer, looks to return to the Dark Knight’s roots in a 1940s noir detective world. Realizing this is a trend that may last, here are a few other comic book heroes that could translate perfectly to period-specific animated shows.

Blade (Set in the 1970s)

Marvel Comics originally introduced Blade in Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula series in 1973. The vampire hunter very quickly became the breakout character, headlining comics like Vampire Tales. Like Luke Cage, he was part of Marvel’s response to the ’70s blaxploitation craze with movies like Shaft and Superfly. Blade was much like those iconic ‘70s cinematic heroes, only instead of fighting criminals he was fighting some down-and-dirty vampires.

Everything about the original Blade aesthetic is very of its time, from the hair to the jacket to the catchphrases. We think a series featuring the Daywalker fighting the undead (and other supernatural creatures) in the groovy ‘70s would be incredibly fun. The ‘70s was an iconic time for the horror genre after all. It saw the emergence of Stephen King, alongside movies like The Exorcist and The Omen. Exploring the horror tropes of that era through the character of Blade could be a blast, especially as a bloody, sexy, R-rated animated series.

Wonder Woman (Set in the 1940s)

It’s difficult to convey now what a departure Wonder Woman was, not just for comics of the 1940s, but for culture in general. When William Moulton Marston created her in 1941, women had the vote in America for a mere two decades, still largely confined to roles as wives/mothers. Diana Prince showcased strength and power greater than men, representing an Amazon culture more advanced than the world of patriarchy. Wonder Woman was a feminist icon before the term became widely known.

For these reasons, we think a Wonder Woman animated series set in the ‘40s, perhaps evoking the fashion, aesthetic, and politics of the era, would be amazing. Especially if it really dealt with what it would mean for a woman like that to appear in the deeply puritanical and sexist America of the 1940s. Besides, that setting would ensure Diana Prince punching Nazis in World War II, which we all need to watch right now as cultural catharsis. James Gunn has hinted that a Wonder Woman animated series is long overdue. So why not a period piece set in her era of origin?

Spider-Man (Set in the 2010s)

We’re not sure that many other old superhero cartoons could pick up right where they left off like X-Men ’97. At least not at the same level of success. Yet there is one show that deserves similar treatment – the 1994-1998 Spider-Man: The Animated Series. We know that the same Spidey from that show exists in the X-Men ’97 universe, thanks to his recent cameo. But we would actually love for Christopher Daniel Barnes to return to the role of Peter Parker, and tell stories of a middle-aged wallcrawler years later.

An elder Spidey is how you differentiate this version from the teenage Spidey from the upcoming Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man show. Imagine the story 15 or more years later, with Peter now the father of teenage May “Mayday” Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Girl. It would be less “Spider-Man ‘98” and more “Spider-Man 2014,” but rooted firmly in the events of the ‘90s show. We could even finally have Spidey fight Sandman. He was the one classic villain the old show couldn’t use, as he was meant to appear in the never-made James Cameron Spider-Man movie.

Teen Titans (Set in the 1980s)

X-Men ’97 has been perhaps the best iteration of Marvel’s mutants in any media outside comics. Part of the reason is that longform, serialized melodrama is perfect for X-Men in a way movies aren’t. But in the ‘80s, Uncanny X-Men had a true rival for “best superhero soap opera” in DC’s New Teen Titans. That series had as much interpersonal drama, plot twist reveals, and out-of-this-world adventures as X-Men, and sold almost as well as Uncanny X-Men too.

So far, Teen Titans has had two cartoons aimed very much at young kids, and a live-action show that was brutally violent and dropped f-bombs. Neither has really captured the tone of the comics. Although a recently announced movie might, an animated show set in the ‘80s, the team’s heyday, could finally do the Titans justice as a series. Besides, with the ‘80s setting, you could do things like Starfire as a fashion model, Beast Boy as a former sci-fi TV star, and other very ’80s conventions. Just as long as they don’t get too Stranger Things with it.

Black Widow (Set in the 1960s)

When Black Widow first appeared in 1964, she was a very different character than the one we know in the MCU, or even the one from modern Marvel Comics. She first appeared as an Iron Man villain in Tales of Suspense, as “Madame Natasha.” She didn’t even have a last name yet. Natasha was a Soviet femme fatale spy, in the style of a Bond girl. Natasha had short black hair, a cape, and fishnets. It wouldn’t be until 1970 that she’d get the iconic black catsuit and flowing red hair, and became a notable fighter, not just a sultry spy.

In those original ‘60s stories, Widow gets romantically involved with Tony Stark, Hawkeye, and later Daredevil. Eventually, she defects to the U.S. and trades super spy for superhero. Those early adventures always showcased her as an appendage to male characters, and were quite very sexist. But an animated series for Natasha Romanoff where the male heroes are in support of her and not the other way around? Now that could be incredible, especially with a James Bond-style, Cold War spy backdrop of the ‘60s.

Justice League (Set in the 1970s)

The Justice League of America first appeared in 1960, but those early DC comics were rather simplistic and intended for very young readers. Every hero acted largely the same with little deviation between the team in terms of character. Things started to change in the ‘70s for the JLA, when DC Comics started to get “Marvelized,” for lack of a better term. The League started to have interpersonal drama that evoked issues of the day and moved to a satellite HQ orbiting above the Earth.

In those ‘70s JLA comics, Hawkman was staunchly conservative, while Green Arrow was a “hippy liberal,” which caused all kinds of tension which found heroes like Green Lantern caught in the middle. Black Canary was a wave one feminist ass-kicker, while Zatanna evoked the ‘70s fascination with all things occult. Of course, the ‘70s is also when the concept of the JLA went mainstream mainly thanks to the Super Friends cartoon. This is something a modern animated series could touch on in a meta way. It’s been far too long since we’ve had a proper Justice League animated show. Setting it in period could be the key to making a new one work.

Fantastic Four (Set in the 1960s)

Current rumors hint that the MCU live-action Fantastic Four film is at least partially taking place in the 1960s. Why is this particular era so linked to Marvel’s First Family? Because Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 1961 origins for the series are very inspired by Atomic Age ideas. Things like the American/Soviet space race, and Johnny Storm being a teenage “hot rod” enthusiast were all cultural staples of the mid-century era. Even today, the Lee/Kirby 100-issue run of Fantastic Four from 1961-1970 remains the best run for the FF ever. Because of this, a ‘60s-set animated series seems like a no-brainer.

Similar to the way Mad Men used the time frame of 1960-1970 to reflect on the rapid changes in American society over that decade, an animated Fantastic Four set in this exact time period could do the same. This time, via a superhero/sci-fi storytelling lens. We know that both a 1960s Fantastic Four film and an animated series at the same time might be overkill. However, we can’t help feeling the series would be the superior product. Oh, and the most important reasons for a ’60s Fantastic Four series? The music! Who doesn’t want to see the Beatles pop up, and have the Fab Four meet the Fantastic Four?

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When Max, formerly HBO Max, the Warner Bros-owned streamer, decided to sell off its highly anticipated Batman animated series to Prime Video, we were shocked. Why would the people who own Batman not want to keep Batman? It’s yet another in a series of baffling moves from David Zaslav’s company. However, at the very least, we know the show is coming out. It won’t fall into the void that other unreleased (or even released) projects have. Batman: Caped Crusader will premiere on Prime with all 10 episodes on August 1 of this year, and we now have a solid look showcasing its 1940s vibe.

The animated series, from producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves, clearly takes inspiration from the original Golden Age comics of the ’40s. Batman’s costume, with its slightly convex ears and black hand gloves, is testament to that.

The other Batman: Caped Crusader images showcase Bruce Wayne, Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Commissioner Gordon, Clayface, and Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn. Definitely not directly from the comics, but certainly a completely unique take on everyone.

Click To View Gallery

Timm’s work on the 1991 Batman: The Animated Series was and is the hallmark of Batman’s look in animation. Here even more than that show, we get the influence of the Fleischer Brothers Superman shorts. We can’t wait to see a trailer to get an even better sense of the tone. But that Harley look is pretty terrifying. Batman: Caped Crusader has us very excited, to say the least.

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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One of the most controversial X-Men villains of all time was almost certainly born in the penultimate episode of X-Men ’97, “Tolerance is Extinction Part II.” Even if you didn’t see a new bad guy appear anywhere on screen, we were witness to his conception, so to speak. The villain in question is Onslaught, a psychic entity born of the animosity between Charles Xavier and Magneto. But who—or more precisely what—is Onslaught? Created by Mark Waid, Scott Lobdell, and Andy Kubert in 1996’s X-Men #53, this is the strange history of the beyond Omega-level mutant nemesis.

Bishop, the X-Men Traitor Mystery, and the First Hints of Onslaught

The roots of Onslaught go back to the introduction of another major X-Men character, Lucas Bishop. When Marvel first introduced Bishop in Uncanny X-Men #281 in 1991, he was a time-traveler from yet another dystopian future. In his timeline, the X-Men were betrayed by one of their own and destroyed from within. The identity of the so-called “X-traitor” was a mystery lost to time which Bishop hoped he could solve. He initially believed the traitor to be Gambit. Years later, Marvel finally revealed who the X-traitor was. That revelation led to the emergence of the entity Onslaught.

X-Men: Fatal Attractions Is the True Genesis of Onslaught

In 1993’s X-Men #25, during a pitched battle between the X-Men and Magneto’s forces, Magneto ripped the adamantium metal from Wolverine’s skeleton, nearly killing him despite his regenerative powers. In a moment of uncontrolled rage toward his former friend, Charles Xavier used his telepathic powers to shut down Magneto’s mind, leaving him in a catatonic state. However, during this intense psychic contact, all of Magneto’s negative traits, like his anger, sadness, and enormous god complex, entered into Xavier’s mind. It intertwined with all of Charles’ suppressed negative emotions, and in time became its own entity called Onslaught.

Onslaught remained dormant inside of Xavier’s mind for some time, but slowly started to emerge. He learned how to manifest his own body eventually. It was a gigantic and monstrous form, whose head looked like a version of Magneto’s helmet. The Onslaught entity still retained Charles Xavier’s dream of uniting humanity and mutants, only he would do so using fear. If humans and mutants were all terrified of the wrath of Onslaught, they would join together under his rule. Onslaught sought to recruit known mutants and others to his cause, like his brother Juggernaut and Jean Grey. All rejected him, and he wiped their memories of his true identity as Xavier. He then bided his time to make his move.

X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught Event Series Changes the Marvel Universe

Eventually, when a young mutant died on the grounds of Xavier’s School for the Gifted, Xavier’s mind finally broke. The years of failures caught up to him, and Onslaught took full control of his body and mind. He tried to recruit his students the X-Men to his cause but they all turned him down, and fought against their former teacher. Bishop realized that Xavier himself was the X-traitor he had read so much about as a child. Bishop managed to save his fellow X-Men, but now Onslaught was free and ready to wreak havoc.

In the event series X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught, the powerful entity tried to attain the vast psionic powers of Franklin Richards, the mutant child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. He hoped that Franklin’s powers, as well as those of the alternate universe version of Cable called X-Man, might be enough to turn humanity and mutants into a collective consciousness. He reprogrammed Sentinels to obey only him. The X-Men and the Avengers were able to separate Xavier from Onslaught. But without Xavier’s noble side as an anchor, Onslaught became even more dangerous than before.

Onslaught “Kills” the Avengers and the Fantastic Four

The non-mutant members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four realized they were going to have to be the ones to stop Onslaught. This was because the entity could more easily channel its energy into a mutant. They seemingly sacrificed their lives to stop him, dissipating his psychic energy into almost nothing. But the world blamed mutants for the death of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and anti-mutant hysteria reached a fever pitch. This allowed Bastion to get the backing of world governments to fund his Operation Zero Tolerance. X-Men ’97 seems to be doing these stories in reverse order.

Why Onslaught Remains a Polarizing X-Men Character

So why is Onslaught so controversial? Many fans felt that the character was merely used to get the Avengers and Fantastic Four characters “off the board,” and sent into their own separate universe. Even though the X-Men believed them dead, it turned out Franklin had merely sent them to a pocket dimension. In 1996, Image Comics’ Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld returned to Marvel where they were given carte blanche to reinvent those characters for the modern era. This year-long initiative, called “Heroes Reborn,” was not terribly popular. Many felt Onslaught was merely a vehicle to separate the Avengers and FF from the X-Men, thus splitting the Marvel universe. Because of this, the Onslaught character has only made sporadic returns since, although one was as recently as last year’s X-Men series.

The X-Men ’97 Future of Onslaught

In X-Men ’97, we saw Xavier reach deep into Magneto’s mind before his attack on Logan. And he was clearly in his head for an extended (and seemingly painful) period of time. This was the moment that created Onslaught in the comics, and we’re fairly certain he’s coming in the series too. While the character wasn’t that popular, X-Men ’97 has rehabilitated an equally unpopular villain in Bastion. We think the writers of X-Men ’97 can turn Onslaught into a fan-favorite too. We are not sure when or where he’ll appear, but the godlike child of Charles Xavier and Magneto will almost certainly appear in X-Men ’97 at some point. It’s just a matter of time until he rears his ugly helmet head.

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We are not ready for Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea—except that we’re totally ready for the new themed area. This addition to the theme park marks the biggest land expansion yet at Tokyo Disney Resort. Fantasy Springs brings four new attractions, a hotel, and food and shoppping options. We’ll discuss all four rides, but from photos, the showstopper appears to be Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival. The dark ride takes its inspiration from the animated movie Tangled. And you know what? It looks incredible. Look at these photos!

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My desire to go to Tokyo Disney Resort has grown by a factor of many just because of this ride. Here’s the description of Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival:

For the first time ever, be transported to where the glowing lanterns gleam on Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival over in Rapunzel’s Forest. This romantic gondola journey retells the tale of Disney Animation’s Tangled, from Rapunzel’s tower to the moment we’ve all been waiting for, watching the sky envelope with countless lanterns to the tune of “I See the Light.”

Fantasy Springs’ other rides include ones from Frozen and Peter Pan:

Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey
Set out on a voyage by boat on Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey located in Frozen Kingdom! This family-friendly attraction features the heartwarming tale of two sisters from childhood memories with Grand Pabbie to Anna turning to ice to save Elsa. The adventure is accompanied by songs from the film including, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” “For the First Time in Forever,” “Love Is an Open Door” and “Let It Go.”

Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure
An all-new adventure, this 3D escapade joins Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and the Lost Kids as they rescue John from Captain Hook and his band of pirates.

Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies
Shrink down to the size of a fairy and board a busy buggie to help Tinker Bell deliver packages throughout the changing seasons of Pixie Hollow. This attraction is perfect for those of all ages!

Fantasy Springs opens at Tokyo DisneySea on June 6.

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The Despicable Me franchise isn’t ending anytime soon …and I really love that for us. The journey of Gru, a former supervillain who is now against villany and for fatherhood, and his dedicated legion of Minions has been so delightful. We love yellow beings with big eyes who don’t talk yet say so much. Believe it or not, Gru is back for another film where he meets his biggest challenge of all: a kid who acts just like him. (As a parent, I deal with this challenge every day of my life. I feel ya pain, sir!) The trailer for Despicable Me 4 delivers Gru Jr. goodness, an actual new villain, and Minions mayhem.

Ooooh here HE comes! Who is he? It is Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell), who is out of prison and ready for revenge. This leads Gru (Steve Carrell), his lady Valentina (Sofia Vergara), and their three children to go on the run. While we previously met their daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan), there’s a new member of the family.

Gru Jr. is adorable and no one’s sweet child, which adds to the constant hijinks. And, of course, there’s plenty of Minion fun in this Despicable Me 4 trailer. I especially love the end when they explode pink, well, stuff into a vending machine with a Minion inside of it. Does it make sense? No. Is it cute? It is, indeed. People are loving this clip online and that’s not shocking. Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) was a huge hit, earning nearly $1 billion dollars worldwide. 

What Is the Release Date for Despicable Me 4?

It looks like Illumination is aiming for yet another blockbuster summer. Despicable Me 4 is hitting theaters on July 3 to make things just a little more despicable in the best way.

Originally published January 29, 2024.

The post DESPICABLE ME 4 Trailer Takes the Gru Family and Minions on the Run appeared first on Nerdist.

We only have two episodes of X-Men ’97 left in season one, and speculation about what might happen is running wild. Magneto is clearly back to his old ways, and Charles Xavier is finally back on Earth. This is going to lead to one hell of a confrontation. So far, the series has been remixing tons of lore from the comics, creating its own unique take on the X-Men. Former X-Men ’97 showrunner Beau DeMayo has been active on social media lately, dropping hints as to what takes place in the last few episodes, and what classic episodes fans should revisit. Here’s what he’s shared so far:

So what could these references to classic X-Men: The Animated Series episodes mean? We have some ideas.

“One Man’s Worth, Pt. I and II” X-Men: The Animated Series Season 4, Episodes 9-10

We know what one of these was hinting at already. The episode “One Man’s Worth” showed an alternate Wolverine and Storm heading to 1959 to prevent the assassination of a young Charles Xavier. In that episode we met a racist bully in the past, one we now know was infected by a future Nimrod Sentinel, and fathered Bastion. His mother appeared in that episode as well.

“Sanctuary Pt. I and II” X-Men: The Animated Series Season 4, Episodes 3 -4

“Sanctuary Pt. I and II” featured Magneto attempting to create a mutant-only nation in orbit around the world with Asteroid M. Might he attempt such a thing again? That was also a part of the comics, in the storyline “Fatal Attractions.” (More on that story in a moment). That story ended when Magneto ripped the adamantium off Logan’s bones.

“Descent” X-Men: The Animated Series Season 5, Episode 9

“Descent” focused on the backstory of Mister Sinister, focusing on his days as a 19th-century scientist named Nathaniel Essex. This suggests we’ll see more flashbacks to Sinister’s younger days before the season is over. Maybe the show will finally explain what Sinister’s ultimate goals are in working with Bastion, besides just doing experiments on more mutant DNA. Mister Sinister always has plans within plans.

“The Final Decision” X-Men: The Animated Series Season 1 Episode 13

“The Final Decision” was the season one finale of X-Men: The Animated Series. That episode featured the X-Men teaming up with Magneto to stop the Sentinel Master Mold from replacing the minds of world leaders with Sentinel-controlled brains. We could see a repeat of those events in X-Men ’97, only now with the threat of Bastion’s human-looking Prime Sentinels.

Uncanny X-Men #304, “…For What I Have Done”

We also have a comic book-related bit of homework. DeMayo shared the cover of 1993’s Uncanny X-Men #304, part of the “Fatal Attractions” storyline. In this issue, all of the X-Men and their adjacent teams gathered at the X-Mansion grounds for Illyana Rasputin’s funeral. Magneto crashed the funeral, declaring himself the new mutant savior. And he convinced Colossus, Illyana’s grieving brother, to abandon Xavier’s dream and join him. Colossus isn’t a regular member of the team in X-Men ’97, but this sure indicates that at least one stalwart X-Men is defecting to Magneto’s side before the season is over. Maybe even more than one.

We’ll discover what it all means when the last two episodes of X-Men ’97 season one, “Tolerance is Extinction” parts 2-3, drop on Disney+ on May 8 and May 15.

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