After a long, WGA strike-mandated wait, the second season of 2022 Netflix hit Wednesday starring Jenna Ortega in the lead role is finally nigh, and this time the Addams Family are taking a step forward. Not only is Wednesday’s younger brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) joining Nevermore Academy this semester, but parents Morticia and Gomez (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán) will also have “an increased presence on campus” according to the show’s creators. Tango instructors for this year’s annual Rave’N Dance, perhaps? The new trailer shows Pugsley in Nevermore uniform, using some new-found magical powers he appears to have inherited from his electricity-zapping Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen). We also see Morticia and Gomez trot out a few of their famous dance steps, and are given a glimpse of new characters Hester Frump (aka Grandmama) played by Joanna Lumley, and Principal Dort, played by Steve Buscemi. Take a look at the teaser trailer: It’s another two-batch delivery from Netflix, which is straddling the season’s release over two consecutive months. The first set of episodes will arrive on the streamer on Wednesday August 6, followed by the rest on Wednesday September 3. Pugsley’s debut at Nevermore won’t be a smooth one, according to creator Tim Burton, who says he feels for “Poor Pugsley” and describes him as “an outcast among outcasts.” Add to that the “rare new form of torture” that comes in the form of his and Wednesday’s parents’ presence at the school. Addams kids usually like torture, don’t they? Not a great deal is yet known about Joanna Lumley’s new character Grandmama, aka Hester Frump, seen here looking just as glamorously tailored and put together as her daughter (in the long and varied history of the Addams family cartoons and TV series, Grandmama has variously been Gomez and Morticia’s blood relative, which seems fitting for this messed-up Gothic family). Described as “Wednesday’s closest ally”, she’ll likely be providing the third kind of heat in the Wednesday/Morticia mother-daughter relationship central to the series. Even less is known about Steve Buscemi’s new school head, who was brought in to replace Gwendoline Christie’s sadly departed season one Principal Weems. Buscemi told Netflix “Barry Dort is a bit of a mysterious figure. Something about him is not right, but he loves the school and he has real outcast pride.” There’s no sign as yet of Lady Gaga’s previously announced guest turn in the series, nor any indication as to which character she’ll be playing. A new teacher, or parent, or – as many fans are crossing their fingers and hoping for – another addition to the Addams family in the form of Morticia’s upbeat blonde sister Ophelia, perhaps? Elsewhere, we see the returns of fan-favourite character Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) with a new ‘do and a creepy doll lookalike complete with human hair, plus love interest Tyler (Hunter Doohan), frenemy Bianca (Joy Sunday), plus of course, Thing (Victor Dorobantu) – the disembodied hand/BFF no girl should be without. Wednesday season two part one streams on Netflix from August 6. Season two part two follows on September 3. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

After 113 years, Titanic is still a source of innovation. Dives to the wreck have provided glimpses into its tragic story, but now technology unveils the full picture with Titanic: The Digital Resurrection, a groundbreaking special from award-winning Atlantic Productions and National Geographic, which shows how we can preserve the past and protect the future. Using exclusive access to cutting-edge underwater scanning, the special, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, reveals the most accurate digital twin of the Titanic ever created– built from over two years of research, 715,000 images and 16 terabytes of data painstakingly pieced together.  But this 90-minute special is about so much more than the Titanic.  Parks Stephenson, a featured Titanic analyst, hopes audiences will go in not only hoping to learn more about that fateful night in 1912, but also observe how we can engage with history going forward, using it as an avenue for education.   “[The 3D model] is a baseline from which all future work is going to be done,” Stephenson says. “We’ve got to understand the depths before we go charting in and exploit it,”  The special follows a team of leading historians, engineers and forensic experts, including Stephenson, metallurgist Jennifer Hooper and master mariner Captain Chris Hearn, as they explore the twin, constructed by the deep-sea mapping company Magellan.  Experts Jennifer Hooper, Chris Hearn, and Parks Stephenson look at the Titanic digital twin in the virtual studio. (Credit: Atlantic Productions) Stephenson, Hooper and Hearn stand in awe of the digital twin, projected on a massive, curved LED volume stage that renders the ship at full scale in breathtaking detail. With the wreckage preserved exactly as it lay in 2022, the team is able to walk through the model and use the reconstruction to challenge long-held myths. They examine the jagged break of the hull, which is evidence that the ship didn’t split cleanly in two, but was violently torn apart, shredding through first-class cabins where passengers like J.J. Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim may have taken shelter. A single open valve in the boiler room confirms that crew members stayed at their post after impact, keeping electricity running and sending out distress calls. Even the position of a lifeboat davit, frozen mid-motion, provides evidence to exonerate First Officer William Murdoch, accused of desertion.  Those details, preserved on the ocean floor, are now accessible without going near the wreck. The seafloor is not a renewable surface, and digging or drilling through it can cause irreversible harm. Stephenson believes technology like the digital twin can revolutionize the way we study the ocean, without disturbing it. A naval analyst, historian and expert in maritime forensics, Stephenson has long been at the forefront of history and technology. After retiring from the Navy, where he served as both a submariner and a flight officer, he went on to advise filmmakers, historians and deep-sea expeditions. He stresses that as tools for underwater expeditions grow more advanced, so does the need for ethical boundaries.  “If we’re going to understand the sea, we need to know how to study it properly,” Stephenson says. “And this technology is going to be the way of the future of ocean exploration. Not just of shipwrecks, but geological formations– basically the way things look down there –we’re gonna be able to bring it up and be able to study it in full detail.” Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Stephenson is also the executive director of the nonprofit USS KIDD Veterans Museum, where he helps preserve the WWII-era destroyer USS KIDD (DD-661). At the museum, he inspires younger generations with the excitement of learning about a historic warship, while also imparting important teachings about character.  There are many lessons to take away from the Titanic. One of the most abiding is the selflessness shown by many of the men on board, who gave up their chances of survival so women and children could escape first. Through the nonprofit, Stephenson hopes to educate future generations on the virtues of service, sacrifice and citizenship, rather than just on the ship itself.  “There are elements from our history we can use if we educate the coming generations properly,” Stephenson says. “We won’t lose some of our best customs, and maybe we’ll get rid of some of our worst customs.”   Stephenson’s work with the nonprofit will be his final job as he prepares for retirement. By preserving the KIDD, he wants to keep the vital lessons of history alive and use them to help guide future generations. Working with young people and caring for a historic warship has brought a new meaning to his career.  “Now, I am responsible for a very tangible piece of our history, and it’s my job to preserve it,” Stephenson says. “All of this led me to something that I finally feel has given me real purpose in life; being a steward of history.”

Early in Captain America: Brave New World, Sam Wilson takes his pal Joaquin Torres to get some training. At first Joaquin scoffs at the trainer chosen by Sam, a physically imposing, but decidedly older man. But when Sam tells Joaquin the trainer’s name, Joaquin is overcome with awe. After all, the man is Isaiah Bradley, the lost Captain America, who gained powers when the Super-Soldier serum was forced upon him. As we learned in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Isaiah went on several missions for the U.S. government in the 1950s, only to be captured by Hydra and disavowed by the military, left to rot in prison. When Sam took on the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers, he made it his mission to get Isaiah the respect he deserves, as the great, lost Captain America. Does that respect mean that we’ll see Isaiah finally suited up, joining the Avengers in a Captain America costume? Isaiah’s actor Carl Lumbly isn’t too sure. “I’m not sure if you remember M.A.N.T.I.S.,” Lumbly responds when Den of Geek asks about his hopes to play in-costume Captain America in an upcoming Avengers film. “That was my first experience with spandex. And I can say I’ve been happy to live without spandex.” Lumbly starred as Dr. Miles Hawkins in M.A.N.T.I.S., a superhero series created by none other than Sam Raimi and Batman (1989) screenwriter Sam Hamm, which ran for one season on the Fox Network in 1994-1995. In his masked persona, Hawkins wore armor as much he did spandex, but that was enough for Lumbly. “The materials now are probably more forgiving, but no,” he laughs. To be sure, Lumbly has earned the right to pass on putting on a costume. He is a bonafide legend in the world of genre fiction. His credits include playing John Parker in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, voicing the Martian Manhunter in Justice League Unlimited, and appearing as C. Auguste Dupin in Mike Flanagan‘s The Fall of the House of Usher. Although his superhero bonafides cannot be disputed now, Lumbly admits he was slow to the genre. “I was not allowed to read comic books when I was young,” he says. “I was told that they were not acceptable forms of literature and I love reading and I love books. So when I came to comic books to do J’onn J’onzz the Martial Manhunter in the DC world, I became aware of the depth of these stories that I that dismissed as romps.” “These characters are saying things to one another inside these stories that you probably couldn’t get away with in some of the other literature that I was more familiar with, because people would say it’s so didactic or on the nose. But the fact that comic book stories all start with an image without words gives them a power that allows the words to reach even further. “It hits people in the spot before they realize the shot’s been fired.” It’s that power to slip hard truths past resisting audiences that drew Lumbly to the MCU in the first place. Lumbly describes Isaiah Bradley as “a witness” and wanted to play the character because of the “story that he told about himself as a young man, going through what he went through during the war and his perspectives on where things are now.” “I just felt that it was a beautifully written, shared life experience, and I wanted to take a shot at it. And I took that shot. It was very affecting for me,” he says. “I felt very close to what he was saying, not my circumstances, not my experience, but certainly similar to many stories that I’ve heard about. Stories about people who have sacrificed, people who have been betrayed, and people who keep going.” Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The truth of that story helps Lumbly stay true to the character, even through the spectacle that is the MCU. “It’s not my responsibility,” he says of the larger task of keeping up with Isaiah’s place in the ever-expanding shared universe. “I literally just lived with the character and the characters relationship to the other characters laid out in a Marvel universe, which is different from the universe that I thought was the universe.” “I think my responsibility is to put myself fully in the world that has been laid out in the text and be as truthful inside it as possible. I felt that was my one edict, that Isaiah’s story was truth.” That’s a great word to use to describe Isaiah, who made his debut in the 2002 comic miniseries Truth: Red, White & Black, written by Robert Morales and illustrated by Kyle Baker. Drawing inspiration from the real-world Tuskegee Experiments, Truth connected the Captain America story to the country’s history of violence against Black people. Troubling as it is, Lumbly sees hope in Isaiah’s story. “He’s simply talking about what happened, what he saw. And I think that is something that a lot of people can relate to.” “It takes a lot to go through terrible things, talk about how terrible they were, and still be present to move forward beyond what was terrible into the dream that we all have the New Jerusalem, a place where everyone has recognition for the simple fact of being alive and human” However, Lumbly admits that he didn’t initially see genre movies as the way to imagine that better world. “When Buckaroo Banzai came out in 1984, it seemed like a universe, but people weren’t sure it was a universe they wanted to be part of. It talks about things like eighth dimensions, electrodes, and accelerator machines. It just seemed so incredibly wild that there wasn’t initially an audience.” “But time has moved on and now it’s got quite a following. It was out there on the fringes and we live in the fringes now. What happens in the Marvel and DC world is mainstream to what was going on in the ’80s.” Lumbly certainly sees value in that change. “I think it allows for a greater play of imagination. And I think as people become more used to truth inside fantasy and spectacle,” he observes. “We can represent things that people might not otherwise be able to hear. In a time where literacy is under assault, I say whatever you can do to communicate, grab that tool and use it.” That tool metaphor speaks not just to the power of genre stories to tell the truth, but to Lumbly’s approach as an actor, which helps him keep from getting overwhelmed by the vast worlds in which he plays. “It’s all text,” he explains. “That’s the instruction manual.” “I don’t know if you’ve ever put together an IKEA project, but sometimes you find that that spacer is missing or something from the instructions is missing. But you still have to make that piece of furniture functional.” “To me, that’s my work. I think of myself as a workman. I believe that the work is never over, so if we’re in the middle of shooting, I’m still going over the text, trying to unearth as much as possible and then feed it into myself in a way that I can forget it when it’s time to shoot.” It’s work that Carl Lumbly has been doing for decades, and we genre fans are fortunate to have him do it, even if he doesn’t want to do it in Captain America spandex. Captain America: Brave New World is now available on digital streaming services.

This article contains spoilers for Andor season 2 episodes 1-3. The first three episodes of Andor season 2 introduce another rebel cell operating out in the galaxy known as the Maya Pei Brigade. Cassian (Diego Luna) stumbles across a group of survivors marooned on Yavin 4 when he arrives to drop off the TIE Avenger he stole at the behest of Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård). The brigade take him hostage, believing that he’s an Imperial test pilot and not really listening to any arguments otherwise. But despite the fact that they try to keep their identity a secret, Cassian soon learns who they are and tries to use that to his advantage. After his guard tells them that they are in fact a part of the Maya Pei Brigade, Cassian tries to argue that they’re all on the same team. He tells them that his friend (Luthen) has been supplying their efforts, that they’re all part of the same rebellion, but they can’t see past their own infighting to realize that Cassian is telling the truth. While we don’t actually see Maya Pei herself – some of the Brigade believe that she died in the battle they fled, others believe she’s still alive – this isn’t the first time we’ve heard her name mentioned. In season 1 of Andor, we hear her name come up both from Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) during her investigation into Ferrix and from Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) while talking with Luthen about other rebel cells. Saw doesn’t really care for Maya, calling her a “Neo-Republican” and admonishing her methods. In Legends canon, Maya Pei served on Senator Bail Organa’s security team during the Clone Wars, and later joined the Alderaanian Resistance. She was part of a team sent by Organa to steal cargo that would strategically weaken the Empire. While we don’t know much about Maya in standard canon, aside from the fact that this version of her is also leading a rebel cell, it seems like she’s pretty badass. However, when we meet the Maya Pei Brigade, it seems like they are on their last legs. They have clearly fled from an intense battle of some sort. Gerdis’ (Ben Norris) brother left them all on Yavin 4 claiming to go back for more survivors from the Brigade. However, not all of the survivors believe that he’ll come back for them. Some of them believe that Gerdis’ brother abandoned them, and they’re on their own now. Between infighting amongst the group and the deadly beasts that roam the jungle, the odds that the Brigade survived after Cassian left aren’t very high, but they also aren’t zero. We know that the Rebel Alliance eventually decides to call Yavin 4 home a bit more permanently. Maybe what’s left of the Brigade will help the moon become more habitable. Or maybe Maya Pei does survive and finally finds herself reunited with her crew.  Whatever happens, this group is a great look at how separate the rebel cells were before the Alliance as we know it was formed. The Maya Pei Brigade is a reminder that there were so many in the galaxy during this time fighting the Empire in their own ways. Even though we don’t meet Maya Pei herself, her Brigade is still an important piece at play during this time in Star Wars history. The first three episodes of Andor season 2 premiere are available to stream on Disney+ now. Three new episodes debut per week on Tuesday nights, culminating with the finale on May 13.

“Number One, you have the helm.” The fact that Captain Picard speaks those words on a regular basis in Star Trek: The Next Generation shouldn’t undermine the importance of the chain of command. Within the world of Star Trek, the first officer isn’t just the person who supports the captain and takes over when needed. The first officer must connect the captain and the crew, making sure that the former’s orders get carried out and that the latter’s concerns are heard. As such, the first officer must act like something of an audience surrogate, allowing the captain to be an ideal. In short, the first officer (or executive officer or XO, depending on which term you prefer) is one of the most complicated parts on Star Trek. But that complexity also means that the first officer is usually one of the best characters in any Trek series, making these eight the best of the best. 8. Commander Chakotay (Voyager) No character suffered from Voyager‘s slow evolution more than Chakotay. Not only does the series largely disregard the plot development that would have given him good stories, the conflict between the Starfleet personnel and Maquis rebels aboard the ship, but he’s also pushed to the background when Seven of Nine joins the cast. Worse yet are the behind the scenes problems that hobbled the character, including a non-Native scam artist that Voyager producers hired to serve as Native American consultant. Too many Chakotay stories involved pan flute and the bones of his ancestors, making him more of a cartoon than a representation of any real people. It’s easy to understand why Chakotay actor Robert Beltran would completely check out from his job from season three onward. Just look at the wonderful job Beltran does when Chakotay returns for a great arc in Prodigy. 7. Commander Jack Ransom (Lower Decks) Lower Decks may have started out as a parody of classic Star Trek, but by the time it finished its five seasons, its leads had moved from types to fully-developed characters in their own rights. All except Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell. Ransom began the show as an exaggeration of Riker’s sexy, masculine XO and that’s how he ended the series, as demonstrated by the phrase he adopts as Captain: “Engage the Core.” Okay, that’s not entirely true. Over the series’ lifetime, Ransom revealed himself to be a good leader and teacher, because of, and not in spite of, his gym bro attitude. And yet, Ransom’s best moments rarely go beyond punchline. He never gets the full development of his forerunner Riker, and thus has to land near the bottom of this list. 6. Commander Saru (Discovery) Discovery was a messy series, and that lack of clear direction reflected in its command structure. Several people were Commanding Officers at one time or another in Discovery, including Michael Burnham herself. Yet, the most prominent of them is Saru, one of the best characters in the uneven show, brought to life through fantastic special effects work and the always amazing physical acting of the legendary Doug Jones. Saru is a Kelpien, a new race designed for Discovery, and the first of his kind to join Starfleet. In particular, the Kelpiens stayed away from exploration due to their timid nature, a biological instinct that warned them of encroaching danger. Of course, that meant Saru’s warnings went off constantly especially around Burnham. Yet, he stayed loyal to the mission, a decision that felt believable thanks to Jones’ warm screen presence. 5. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Strange New Worlds) A role created by none other Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek pilot “The Cage,” Commander Una Chin-Riley is the original Number One. When Rebecca Romijn took over the part in season two of Discovery, she followed Barrett’s lead to reveal more of Number One’s bravery, competency, and even her sense of humor. Chin-Riley can handle anything Strange New Worlds throws at her, whether it’s battling rabid Gorn or singing a duet with La’an. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! That said, the short seasons of Strange New Worlds, which still hasn’t produced as many episodes of a single pre-Discovery season, means that we haven’t had the same look at Number One as we have othered on this list. Still she’s taken full advantage of the chances she’s been given, as seen in the season two standout episode “Ad Astra Per Aspera.” Revealed to be an Illyrian, a race that uses augments despite Federation on the practice, Number One must defend her position in Starfleet. And defend it she does, capturing in a single speech the sense of bravery and aspiration that makes Star Trek so great. 4. Sub-Commander T’Pol (Enterprise) No one on this list has it easy, but no first officer quite faced the same challenges as T’Pol, the Vulcan first officer assigned to aid/stall humanity’s first steps into deep space aboard the Enterprise NX-01. Even beyond the fact that she had to serve under Captain Archer, a man whose mix of belligerence and incompetence set a model that Starfleet Admirals would follow for generations, T’Pol also had to deal with a duplicitous Vulcan high command. That no-win situation only made T’Pol stand out more. Jolene Blalock perfectly embodied a true believer Vulcan who slowly gets won over by the humans. Her ability to convey the frustration of her position without expressing emotions makes Blaylock one of the best Vulcan performances in Trek history. That’s especially true in Enterprise‘s much stronger third and fourth seasons, in which T’Pol’s friendship with the crew becomes the foundation of the Federation. 3. Major Kira Nerys (Deep Space Nine) Voyager‘s fumbling of Chakotay is made all the more frustrating by the fact that its predecessor nailed a similar dynamic. Major Kira Nerys of the Bajoran resistance came to Federation Starbase Deep Space Nine after spending her adult life waging war against Cardassian occupiers. Now, she not only has to transition to peace time, but must also work with Starfleet, which prioritizes peace with the Cardassians over full reparations to the Bajorans. Rather than run from the conflict, Deep Space Nine embraced it and rested it largely on the soldiers of Kira, played fantastically by Nana Visitor. As early as season one’s excellent “Duet,” Kira revealed herself as not just an incredibly competent commanding officer to work with Sisko, but also a full person with complicated feelings. Kira’s ability to fight through those feelings, to do her job and do it well, makes her one of Trek‘s best first officers and one of the best characters in the entire franchise. 2. Commander Spock (TOS) Were it not for Spock, you would not be reading this article because Star Trek would have died as a weird but interesting sci-fi show from the ’60s and never become the massive ongoing story it is today. Where William Shatner embodied the show’s sense of adventure and where DeForest Kelley embodied the show’s old-timey Western roots, Leonard Nimoy was truly alien as Spock. Through Spock, the series perfectly combined its sci-fi tropes and its ambitions to tell philosophical stories. Moreover, Spock set the standard for Star Trek first officers. He had his own role on the ship and, with it, his own often great stories (“Spock’s Brain” isn’t that bad). But when he clashed with the captain, he provided a necessary counter to his human leader, providing valuable insight to help Kirk realize his full potential. It’s no wonder that Spock became the breakout character of the series and that he and Kirk’s relationship inspired a whole genre of fan fiction. 1. Commander William Riker (The Next Generation) Need evidence of Will Riker’s greatness? First, watch Jonathan Frakes perform the Riker maneuver. Then, watch his forerunner Will Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Sure, the character gained more of an adventurous side during the transition from Decker to Riker, changing from wet-blanket to Kirk surrogate. But where Decker felt cold and ineffective even in his romance scenes with Ilia, Riker felt competent and kind, even away from Troi. It’s that warm competence that makes Riker the ideal Star Trek first officer. At a moment’s notice, Riker could take the helm and even fire torpedos at his compromised captain. But he could also flash a big goofy grin while playing cards with the rest of bridge crew and show compassion for a struggling ensign. Even before he explained himself to Jellico in “Chain of Command,” we already understood why Riker didn’t want to graduate to captain. He was happy in the space between solitary leader and member of the crew community, a job he performed at the highest level of excellence.

If you recall the days of VHS tapes, you’ll also probably remember the scary FBI warnings at the beginning of movies that cautioned against piracy. Although a little heavy-handed, it always acted as a staunch warning: You own the tape, but you don’t own the content. Today these types of warnings still exist with piracy laws protecting copyrighted work across movies, TV, books, and art. By definition, piracy involves the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work. However, when it comes to the gray area of AI, piracy and copyright laws tend to lose all their power. That certainly seems to be the case with Meta’s latest alleged book raid. According to recently redacted court filings, the technology conglomerate headed by founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly used Library Genesis (better known as LibGen) and other digital piracy “shadow libraries” to train LLaMa 3, the company’s latest and supposedly greatest AI large language model (LLM), to better interface with future users. And yes, if true, this means in a stunning show of bravado, Meta essentially pirated books that were already pirated in order to better train a pet AI. What adds greater frustration about this latest development is authors have been fighting the good fight against LibGen and its ilk for years. So many were understandably outraged when learning that Meta may have also stolen their work. The main difference here (if it even matters) is that LibGen remains a controversial yet free service. In contrast, Meta uses the intellectual property of others to help fuel its billions in profits. Not everyone can be Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. Most authors make very little off their books. Few can live off royalties, and even fewer get substantial advances. A billion-dollar company stealing anyone’s work (including publishing heavyhitters) feels like a giant slap in the face. With the U.S. lacking AI laws and regulations on the federal and state levels, it gets even trickier for creatives to protect their IP and receive fair compensation. AI Presents Unique Challenges for Class Action Lawsuits As reported by The Authors Guild, legal action was taken against Meta in 2023, and all authors affected by Meta’s LLaMa 3 training have automatically been included in the Kadrey v. Meta class action in northern California. However, the case is still ongoing and hangs on one important fact: is Meta in violation of direct copyright infringement?  With AI being what it is, copyright gets complicated, especially when combined with Meta’s fair use defense. Essentially, fair use allows you to bypass getting permission from the copyright holder for purposes like criticism, teaching, reporting, and research. In most cases, the work is “transformative,” meaning it adds something new to the original material. And due to Meta’s LLM ingesting, digesting, and spitting out a Frankensteinian text generator, the fair use argument unfortunately has some legs. However, as Dan Pontefract pointed out in a Forbes article, “fair use arguments were meant for education, commentary, and criticism, not corporate exploitation for commercial profit at scale.” Whether direct copyright infringement holds weight or not, Meta’s raid of LibGen, which houses more than 7.5 million pirated books, raises ethical concerns and spotlights the need for more AI laws and regulations. Tech Raids Prove AI Laws Are Necessary AI isn’t going anywhere. To toss out another Frankenstein metaphor, we created a monster that can’t just be abandoned. For many, AI offers unmatched efficiency, task automation, and a new way of delegating mundane tasks with better accuracy. Certain fields undoubtedly benefit from AI, but Meta proves books and other creative media aren’t among them. Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as new ideas.” It’s an argument frequently used in pro-generative AI circles. If everyone is recycling ideas, how is AI any different? However, generative AI isn’t just coded; it’s trained on the published works of artists and writers. Their inspiration may have come from the creations of old, but they still sat, thought, and created something new with human talents and flaws. Agatha Christie had to plot out her mystery novels. She couldn’t just plop them into ChatGPT and type, “Write me an ending.” But thanks to her efforts, now anyone can use generative AI to cook up a locked room whodunit mystery with likely a familiar conclusion. This leads to a host of issues, like who actually owns the work if it’s created from a compilation of many copyright holders? Currently, the U.S. has no federal legislation regulating AI development or use (White & Case). On the state level, there are a few laws pertaining to generative AI. For example, Colorado and Utah have laws stating that agencies must disclose generative AI use to their users. Tennessee likewise updated its right of publicity law to include a clause relating to the unauthorized use of an individual’s photograph, voice, or likeness in algorithms, software, or other technology. California also requires websites to post the data used to train their generative AI systems, including whether it stems from work protected by copyright, trademark, or patent.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! While these various laws outline potential solutions to protecting copyright holders and consumers, it’s just a start. Until then, those pursuing legal action against companies like Meta will have to rely on pre-existing piracy and copyright laws that leave a lot of wiggle room in AI matters. Kadrey v. Meta could very well end in Meta’s favor. As it stands, the court has thrown out most of the claims besides direct copyright infringement. That might not have been the case if regulations about how companies train their AI models had already been in place.  Famed Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli ran into similar issues with OpenAI last month. With OpenAI’s 40 image generation tool (an offshoot of ChatGPT’s paid model), users everywhere were able to create images they claimed were in Studio Ghibli’s signature style. Those unfamiliar with Ghibli can look to hits like Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies for a taste of the studio’s richly detailed, hand-drawn animation. Films like those or The Boy and the Heron are as much labors of love as they are lines and colors. And they’re no easy feat to create. As Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki told EW, it can take one month to draw one minute of animation. With OpenAI’s 40 image generation tool creating allegedly Studio Ghibli-like images with the press of a button, OpenAI’s newest feature has thus stirred up controversy of its own.  While “style” cannot be copyrighted, this brings into question how OpenAI trained its AI model. Fan art? Similar images? Sure, maybe. But if OpenAI used official Studio Ghibli art for training without permission, we’re right back in copyright infringement and piracy territory (currently the Japanese company has announced no plans to pursue legal action). The same applies to Google’s AI summary feature, which compiles information from articles in the search results to deliver a quick, and sometimes wildly inaccurate, answer. As for literature, Meta had the chance to shape this AI hellscape by seeking permission from authors and publishers, and/or paying for the use of their intellectual property. However, with no federal laws regulating generative AI, the tech company allegedly frolicked in the ungoverned Wild West of artificial intelligence and torrented millions of books in the process. While Meta claims to care about building “the future of human connection,” its actions suggest there’s nothing human about it.

This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Andor season 2 Yavin 4, more commonly known simply as Yavin, is a jungle moon orbiting the gas giant Yavin Prime. In Star Wars canon, Yavin serves as the homebase for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. It’s such an important place in the Star Wars universe that the timeline is centered around the battle against the Empire that takes place here. Things either happen Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) or After the Battle of Yavin (ABY).  Up until this point, we’ve only really seen Yavin on screen as a rebel base, not what it was like before the rebels chose to make it their home. But now thanks to Andor, we know that the moon was still pretty feral and wild before the rebels fully settled in. In the first two episodes of Andor season 2, Cassian (Diego Luna) lands on the moon with the stolen TIE Avenger, hoping to send the ship off with his contact Porko as planned. But Cassian quickly discovers that he’s not alone in the jungle and that his own ship has been seemingly torn apart. Stranded rebels from the Maya Pei Brigade confront Cassian, believing that he really is an Imperial Pilot, despite his arguments otherwise. He tries to convince them that they’re on the same side, and that Luthen has been helping to fund them. But they won’t hear it. Soon infighting among the Brigade begins as they’re all desperate to find a way off the planet. Just as they’re about to come to a potential truce, they’re all attacked by giant beasts that call the planet home. Cassian uses the chaos to escape in the TIE Avenger and we see the familiar pyramids of Yavin 4 as he heads off into space. Before this moment, we don’t know that all of this is taking place on Yavin, but it makes sense that the moon began as a waypoint for various rebels. Both Luthen and the May Pei Brigade seemed to believe that Yavin was abandoned enough to use without drawing Imperial attention. Though it clearly would have helped for them to communicate that fact with each other.  However, the Rebel Alliance is still very much in its infancy at this point. It’s a collection of small cells rather than the more organized armada we see in A New Hope and Rogue One. The less each cell knows about each other, the better. If one cell goes down, the others don’t have to worry about being ratted out to the Empire. It’s kind of cool that Andor has given us a peek at what Yavin was like before the Rebels turned the moon into their home. Just like much of the rest of the galaxy under the Empire’s rule, the moon is harsh and unforgiving in its own way. But that will inevitably work to the Rebels’ advantage whenever they decide to set up shop full time. It’s not like Yavin 4 is some kind of hot vacation destination. It doesn’t seem like anyone would go to Yavin 4 without a reason. Hopefully we get to see more of Yavin 4’s progression as Andor goes on. This moon is an important part of Star Wars history and it’s fun to see how Yavin got its start as a Rebel hideout.

Sean Connery quit the role of James Bond in 1967 during the production of You Only Live Twice. Burned out by the pace of production (five films in five years), his abrupt rise to superstardom in the series and the endless press scrutiny that came with it—not to mention Connery’s increasing suspicion that he wasn’t getting paid his due—the actor walked away, leaving the massively successful franchise in doubt. It also opened up what became one of the most coveted characters in show business. According to Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films, some 400 actors were considered to replace Connery, who many felt was irreplaceable. Among the names thrown around in the offices of producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s Eon Productions were One Million Years B.C. star John Richardson, Camelot cast member Anthony Rogers, Dutch actor Hans de Vries, British bad boys Oliver Reed and Terence Stamp, and even then-Batman star Adam West. Future 007 Roger Moore was also approached for the first time but was committed to his TV series The Saint at this moment. Interestingly, the book also notes that Connery apparently had a change of heart at one point in early 1968 and was willing to come back under certain financial terms. But Broccoli and Saltzman, disappointed in their leading man’s public dismissal of the role for much of the year prior, were ready to move on and take a gamble with a new Bond. “We have to find a new approach,” Saltzman said at the time, adding that they also wanted to pivot away from the series’ increasing reliance on spectacle. With that in mind, and with all the names above and more in contention for the “biggest star search in history,” Broccoli and Saltzman declared that the second actor to play James Bond in the official film series was… someone named George Lazenby. Wait… who?! A Blind Date and a Thrown Punch Led to Lazenby Born in Australia in 1939, George Lazenby was a high school dropout who followed a woman to London and ended up becoming a successful male model for a string of print and TV ad campaigns. Acting wasn’t on his mind, and certainly not stepping into the role of the world’s greatest spy, when he went on a last-minute blind date with an agent. She called him a few days later and suggested that he might be right for a top-secret part she’d heard about. When Lazenby found out the role was James Bond, he didn’t concern himself with his thin (or rather, nonexistent) acting resume. He was, however, worried about his look, which featured the long hair and sideburns quite prevalent in Swinging ‘Sixties’60s London. But he didn’t just go to any barber: he went to Sean Connery’s very own barber and got the same cut as the Scottish actor. Then he went to Connery’s tailor, who just happened to have a suit on hand that the former 007 star hadn’t claimed and which fit Lazenby perfectly. It was almost as if it was fate. Lazenby talked his way into the office of Saltzman, too, and spun some tall tales about his work as an actor in Australia. (Oh, to apply for jobs in a pre-internet world!) Told to come back the next day to meet with director Peter Hunt, Lazenby asked his neighbor, an acting coach, for a quick lesson or two that evening. But when he met with Hunt, he confessed that he had no acting experience. Hunt was still impressed that he managed to fool the tough, no-nonsense Saltzman. “Stick to your story and I’ll make you the next James Bond,” he told the Australian upstart. The producers screen-tested Lazenby in secret to stop word from getting out that they were looking seriously at a model to take on the role of Bond. They also observed him swimming, riding horses, playing baccarat, and allegedly even having sex—a production assistant was assigned to bring women to Lazenby’s apartment and observe discreetly how he performed to determine that he was not gay. His final test was a mock fight with a stuntman so that the producers could see whether he would look convincing in hand-to-hand personal combat. But Lazenby, who had no experience in staged fisticuffs but had participated in his share of real-life brawls, punched the stuntman for real, bloodying his nose and sending him to the floor. “That’s when Harry stepped over him, grabbed me, and says, ‘We’re going with you,’” Lazenby recalled for Some Kind of Hero. Lazenby was announced as the new James Bond on Oct. 7, 1968, and would make his debut in the role the following year in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The sixth official 007 film was based on Ian Fleming’s 10th Bond novel, widely considered one of the author’s best. It was also perhaps the most emotional and character-driven book in the series up to that point—and the film’s producers had just picked a non-actor to handle it. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! One and Done Saltzman, Broccoli, Hunt, and screenwriter Richard Maibaum all concurred that the 007 films had to dial down the jetpacks, rockets, and volcano lairs and get back to the grittier spirit of the books. As a consequence, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service remaining to this day perhaps the most faithful of the movies adapted from a Fleming novel. Like the book, the movie follows Bond as he tries to stop arch-nemesis Blofeld (Telly Savalas) from launching a biological weapon in a global blackmail scheme. At the same time, 007 meets and falls in love with a wealthy yet troubled countess named Tracy (Diana Rigg), and eventually decides to quit the Secret Service and marry her. Alas, Tracy is shortly thereafter gunned down in a devastating final scene by a vengeful Blofeld. At the time of its release, reviews of OHMSS were mixed to negative, with many critics suggesting the series was running on fumes and targeting Lazenby for his lack of acting ability… or for simply not being Sean Connery. Noted critic Gene Siskel wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Lazenby “doesn’t fill Sean Connery’s shoes, Aston-Martin, or stretch pants. The new 007 is more boyish and consequently less of a man.” The box office also reflected what many surmised to be the franchise’s sagging fortunes. While You Only Live Twice hadn’t performed as well as either Thunderball or Goldfinger—the peak of Connery and arguably Bond’s popularity—OHMSS fared worse. It grossed just $82 million worldwide, a roughly 30 percent drop from YOLT, and did only half that film’s business in the U.S. To make matter worse, Lazenby listened to some rather poor advice from a self-styled “guru” named Ronan O’Rahilly and came to believe that 007 was on the way out culturally. So he told Broccoli and Saltzman that he would not return for a sequel. The producers were shocked. Even though OHMSS did not perform as well at the box office as previous outings, it was still profitable, and they were prepared to offer Lazenby a contract for six additional films. But instead the second 007, who even showed up at the film’s premiere with a perhaps dismissive long hair and a beard, walked away. OHMSS Is Forever Bond producers Broccoli and Saltzman took a considerable risk—perhaps the biggest of the Bond series to date—when they hired unknown non-actor George Lazenby to follow in Sean Connery’s footsteps. So it’s no surprise that the producers and distributor United Artists both felt burned when Lazenby quit after one movie. To recast again would have been an absolute publicity crisis. So it perhaps was no surprise they decided to seriously open up hte check book and convince Connery to return for one more film, the farcical and now often ridiculed Diamonds Are Forever. They followed that with a series of increasingly lighthearted entries headlined by trusted international star Roger Moore. What would have happened if Lazenby hadn’t listened to O’Rahilly and stuck around? Well, for one thing, the series’ always shaky continuity might have at least made a little more sense. Yes, Bond is hunting for Blofeld at the beginning of Diamonds Are Forever, but Tracy’s death is never mentioned and the fact that it’s a jaunty Connery on the job—instead of a potentially grief-stricken, vengeance-driven Lazenby—made any emotional connection to the previous film moot. It’s as if the producers wanted to erase OHMSS entirely from the canon. And in a way, they succeeded: the film was not shown on network TV for years and was almost forgotten. We’ll never know if Lazenby’s box office fortunes or acting abilities as Bond would have improved with another couple of movies; he languished in obscurity for years, acting here and there, until shifting to real estate in Los Angeles and doing quite well for himself. But at the same time, something began to happen in the ensuing decades: OHMSS was rediscovered by critics, filmmakers, and newer 007 fans, with the movie being reappraised as one of the very best in the franchise. Even heavyweight directors like Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh call it their favorite Bond movie. And the truth is, it deserves those accolades: OHMSS stands alone in the Bond canon with outstanding action sequences, a fantastic villain and love interest, and a genuine character arc for 007 that Lazenby, to his credit, ably manages to sell. Most importantly, it proved that, although they didn’t live to see it, Broccoli and Saltzman’s gamble paid off. It just took years for audiences to recognize it. And it also proved that the Bond franchise was durable enough to occasionally take big swings, whether it was altering the tone of the series, adjusting to the mood of the times, or even changing the star himself. No matter what risks the franchise may take, one thing is certain… James Bond will always return.

Warning: contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season six episode five “Janine”. Of course New Bethlehem was a lie. The Sons of Jacob have a good thing going in Gilead: unchecked power, privilege and pussy – who’s going to give all that up in the name of international relations?  In episode five, Lawrence learned the truth. The High Commanders are only paying lip service to New Bethlehem while they fill up on Mercedes and Rolexes, and it fills up with credulous marks like Rita. The plan is to give it a few years, and then turn wolf on those sheep, put Lawrence on the wall, and carry out coup number two. New Bethlehem and its offshoots will become old-school Gilead. Lawrence, Nick and Serena’s assurances about the repatriates’ safety will be dust in the wind. And the Sons of Jacob will celebrate with scotch and blowjobs. Unless Mayday’s bombing plan comes off and turns that frat-bro cabal into dog food, which is better than they deserve.  Imagine being considered a misogynist jerk even by other Gilead commanders; the extent of Bell’s hideousness is almost an achievement. You’d like to think that his boorish cruelty would only be tolerated in The Handmaid’s Tale, but in our world, Bell probably have a hit YouTube channel and millions of followers on Instagram. Hell, he’d probably be president.  In just one of this episode’s moments of Shakespearean drama, Lawrence learned about the plot against him through eavesdropping. Now his goals and those of Mayday have come into unexpected alignment: to save New Bethlehem and salve his conscience, he also needs the Penthouse commanders gone. Does that mean he’ll work to get the Mayday plan back on track with the two freedom fighters currently hiding in the trunk of his car? As June predicted, it didn’t take long for Mayday’s plan to go awry. A lone Guardian, emboldened by his country to treat women as property, saw an opportunity and went for it. Unluckily for him, he’s the latest in a line of assholes June and Moira have beaten their way free of and it was into the incinerator he went.  There was nothing celebratory about the violence this time; director Natalia Leite didn’t include a shot of Elisabeth Moss or Samira Wiley staring into the camera post-kill and splattered with the blood of their attacker, because this murder wasn’t a watershed character moment for either of them, it was just another damn day in Gilead.  The important character moment happened before the Guardian entered, when Moira and June reached an instructive conclusion about not forgetting who the real enemy is in the fight for gender equality. “If we start comparing our suffering then those fuckers have won,” said Moira in a line from screenwriter Ubah Mohamed that feels like a verdict this show wants to broadcast: rather than in-fight and play misery one-upwomanship with each other, let’s unite against the thing hurting us all.  June said it right when she told Moira that she would never understand what she’d been through (though she left unvoiced the extra part about her being a straight white woman talking to a Black lesbian, which, granted, might have turned the scene into a stagey educational video instead of a real-feeling confrontation between friends). Speaking of real feelings, the shift of tone from intensity to ironic humour in that exchange felt particularly well-observed. Nobody can joke about degradation like abuse survivors can.  On the subject of surviving degradation, Janine – who gave her name to this episode despite not being its main concern – remains a wonder. Instinctively heroic and somehow still capable of both hope and love, she refused to save herself before the others. Madeline Brewer has always been a thousand-watt bulb in this show, and she continues to burn bright. Speaking of lighting, should we take it as foreshadowing doom that Commander Wharton’s proposal to Serena took place in this show’s traditional spotlit-evil-commander-dinge instead of, say, the sparkling New England sunshine of her meeting with Aunt Lydia? Probably. Wharton is saying all the right things, but his apparent progressiveness just doesn’t tally with his status as a Gilead high commander. Can he be another Lawrence, responsible for atrocities but, next to men like Bell, comparatively… good?  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Wharton didn’t seem friendly in the scene in which he warned Nick about the Guardian shooting, the whole plot thread of which was freighted with dramatic irony. Like a Shakespeare villain, Nick was repeatedly told of his great honour while we knew he was the one who’d pulled the trigger. Young Toby’s confused mumblings about his dog almost bought him a pass, but ultimately, safety-seeking Nick knew the risk was too great to let him live.  Nick, Wharton and Lawrence make three commanders at once on this show with complex inner lives. A rarity. The question is, in what direction will each of them turn now? The Handmaid’s Tale season six streams on Tuesdays on Hulu in the US, and will begin on Saturday May 3 on Channel 4 in the UK. 

Returning to the mainland after a week cruising the Galápagos Islands feels like crashing back to earth from an otherworldly voyage. There’s no need to kiss the ground upon arrival, though. By the end of your trip to the archipelago located 560 miles west of Ecuador, nobody wants to leave the geological wonder that draws visitors from around the planet for a once-in-a-lifetime journey. Or twice in a lifetime. Remarked one enthusiastic tourist, who returned to the islands after 30 years to share her love of penguins with her young grandson: “This is the last item to cross off on the bucket list of my entire life.”  National Geographic’s latest documentary series, Secrets of the Penguins, offers a glimpse into why the Galápagos Islands elicit such strong reactions from its visitors.  Each of the 13 major islands and six minor islands, the majority completely uninhabited, feature a magical combination of colorful habitats, from black basalt lava cliffs, to red sand beaches and one of the world’s most active volcanos, on Fernandina Island, towering almost 5,000 feet. The headliner for visitors, though, often weighs less than five pounds, and its elusivity in some ways is the main attraction.  The Galápagos penguin is one of the rarest penguins in the world, which according to National Geographic’s May issue, are considered vulnerable or endangered along with more than half of all penguin species. Though these majestic creatures are negatively impacted across the globe by threats like pollution, warming climates, and overfishing, the blueprint on how humanity can affect positive change through conversation are found in the Galápagos. Secrets of the Penguins, which is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, is led by director of photography, producer, and National Geographer explorer Bertie Gregory. He started filming the series in Galápagos, and joked that the cold water acclimatization “spoiled me,” as he hung out in the tropics with the sea turtles. Soon after he was traveling to colder climates like Antarctica to follow emperor penguins in often treacherous and potentially dangerous conditions. However as the production packed up for various locales, the efforts of the Ecuadorian people and natives of Galápagos stuck with Gregory.  “[Galápagos] is set up with this ethos and this mantra that wildlife has value both intrinsically and of course economically It’s an amazing model for how we should be treating nature.”  We got to see it firsthand as Den of Geek was invited to experience the islands through National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions on an expedition cruise that toured islands like San Cristobal, where Charles Darwin famously first landed in Galápagos, and the seahorse shaped Isabela, the largest island formed by the fusion of six shield volcanoes. It was off Isabela where I caught my only peek at those elusive Galápagos penguins during a deep sea-snorkeling excursion. After adjusting my snorkeling mask above water, I dunked down only to lock eyes with a sea turtle, then whipped my head around underwater and two penguins darted past me like torpedoes. I failed to spot another penguin the rest of the trip, though my subpar deep-sea swimming skills could be to blame.  Being flanked underwater by those penguins was fleeting but unforgettable. When we spoke with Gregory on the vessel via Zoom, after watching a special premiere of the docuseries’ three episodes, he was in awe that we spotted penguins after mere days, when it took their crew weeks to corral suitable footage for the show. For our group of press and general public aboard the expedition, a major part of what made the journey special was the expertise on board that not only helped us spot wildlife, but contextualize their relationship to breathtaking habitats that surrounded them, from land iguanas of various sizes, textures, and colors at Urbina Bay to the flush forest of the highlands on Puerto Ayora, where great giant tortoises roam.  Lindblad Expeditions relationship to the island dates back to 1967, when the company’s founder, Lars-Eric Lindblad, led the first voyage to the islanders for international travelers. Through their partnership with National Geographic, the expertise only deepened. Aboard the ship, National Geographic certified photo instructors helped arm guests with the best practices to capture shots of the blue-footed boobies or sea lions flopping around the beaches. The naturalists, almost exclusively from Ecuador or Galápagos, made themselves readily available day or night to answer questions pertaining to the wildlife, environment, or conservation. They have immense pride in the creatures on these islands and take seriously the efforts to protect them. When you disembark the expedition vessel on zodiac boats, all groups of no more than 16 people must have at least one naturalist with them at all times. So limited are the number of visitors and ships around these islands, you’re constantly required to keep the vessel moving every 12 hours. It leaves you in awe of the pristine playground wildlife like penguins have. And you walk away with a new or renewed interest in community efforts around conversation.  “The challenge is never with the wildlife,” Gregory says. “My hope is that this series kind of gets people to sit up and think about penguins a bit more and realize that their success is intertwined with our success. If more places around the world were like the Galapagos, the world would definitely be a better place.” Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Andor is finally returning for its second and final season on Disney+. When we last saw Cassian (Diego Luna), he had just started to help Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and the burgeoning rebellion, more so out of necessity and survival than a real desire to make change. But as we speed through the next several years of Cassian’s life, we’ll see him become the dedicated rebel we see in Rogue One. While we’re very excited to see the show return, Star Wars recently announced the full episode release schedule for season 2, and it’s a little different than what you might expect. Here’s what you need to know about when and where to watch Andor season 2. When Will Season 2 of Andor Be Available to Watch on Disney+? Typically, new episodes of Star Wars series will release 1-3 episodes for the premiere and then one episode weekly after that. Season 1 of Andor released the first three episodes at once, and then one episode weekly for the rest of the season. But with season 2, Andor is trying something different. Three new episodes will drop every week starting April 22. Each set of three episodes will represent a year of Cassian’s life leading up to the events of Rogue One. The release schedule is as follows: Episodes 1-3 will be available to watch on Tuesday April 22 at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET Episodes 4-6 will be available to watch on Tuesday April 29 at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET Episodes 7-9 will be available to watch on Tuesday May 6 at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET Episodes 10-12 will be available to watch on Tuesday May 13 at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET Andor Season 1 Recap There’s a lot that happens over the course of Andor’s first season. Here’s everything you need to remember before watching season 2. Morlana One In 5 BBY, Cassian Andor is looking for his missing sister on the planet Morlana One. During an altercation with a pair of officers, he accidentally kills one and murders the other to cover his tracks. He flees the planet and tries to hide out on Ferrix, asking his adoptive mother Maarva (Fiona Shaw), and his friends Bix (Adria Arjona) and Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) to help cover for him if anyone comes asking. Morlana One’s security force Pre-Mor investigates, but the Chief Inspector wants to cover up the incident so that they don’t raise any flags with the Empire. Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), a deputy inspector, becomes obsessed with solving the case despite his supervisor’s wishes. He tracks Cassian’s ship to Ferrix and puts out a warrant for his arrest. When Karn and other officers arrive to arrest him, Cassian is able to escape with the help of Luthen Rael, who convinces Cassian to join his rebel network. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The Aldhani Rebellion After fleeing Ferrix, Luthen takes Cassian to the planet Aldhani where a small group is planning to steal credits from an Imperial supply hub on the planet. Despite some mistrust in the group and a few casualties, the heist is ultimately successful. Vel (Faye Marsay) and Cassian are the only survivors, and Cassian flees with his cut after it’s all over. He stops by Ferrix to try and convince Maarva to escape with him, but she insists on staying and resisting the increasing Imperial occupation. Escaping Narkina 5 Leaving Maarva and his life on Ferrix behind, for now, Cassian hides out on the tropical planet Niamos. He’s living a fairly comfy life until he accidentally gets caught up in a group running from Stormtroopers and is unjustly arrested. Cassian is sentenced to six years on Narkina 5, a prison labor camp that we later discover is building parts for the Death Star. Cassian and the other prisoners soon discover that the Empire is extending sentences and forcing people to stay and work even after they’ve served their time. Not wanting to die in this prison, they work together to break out. Riot on Ferrix Cassian and Bix’s contact with Luthen unintentionally draws the attention of ISB agent Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and her division. She is eager to take down the rebel cell known as Axis, and believes that Cassian is the key. Imperial officers kidnap and torture Bix to try and find his location. When that doesn’t work, they use Maarva’s death as a lure to try and pull him out. Luthen, Vel, and Cinta (Varada Sethu) also hope to use the funeral as cover to assassinate Cassian so that he can’t give up Luthen’s identity.  At the funeral, a recording of Maarva’s last words encourages the people to stand up to the Empire and fight back. Heeding her words, the people of Ferrix fight back and a riot breaks out in the streets. Cassian is able to use the chaos to free Bix, urging Brasso to take her somewhere safe off world. He then approaches Luthen, telling him that he can kill him if he wants, or he can take him into his operation. Luthen replies with a smile and Cassian officially joins the fold.

This review of Andor season 2 contains no spoilers. A show like Andor in times like these feels like such a breath of fresh air. It’s a soul-stirring story about love, loss, and fighting against impossible odds. It’s what Star Wars should be about above all else, not nostalgic cash grabs for the sake of nostalgia. Easter eggs and callbacks can be fun in a world as vast and expansive as the Star Wars galaxy, but if a casual viewer can’t hop in and still take something valuable away from it, then what’s the point? The second season of Andor is certainly ambitious, covering four years in twelve episodes as the story gets closer and closer to Rogue One. Those who thought that season 1 was a bit too slow will be pleasantly surprised by the pace of this season. But despite an increase in momentum and speed, the series still manages to hit a lot of important emotional beats. Cassian (Diego Luna), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), and the planet Ghorman serve as the main pillars of this season, but they are supported with equal strength by all of the characters and the world around them. Adria Arjona handles Bix’s struggles with PTSD with a strength and vulnerability that makes it easy to see why Cassian loves her so much. Denise Gough and Kyle Soller bring new layers to Dedra Meero and Syril Karn’s partnership this season that remind us that they aren’t mustache-twirling villains, but rather also people with something to lose in this world. Ben Mendelsohn expertly threads Orson Krennic’s deviousness and thirst for power into the story, the perfect avatar for the cruelness of the Empire in the absence of the Emperor himself. All of this to say that the performances this season are exceptional. The score by Nicholas Britell is also impeccable this season. All of the emotional beats are perfectly amplified by the music choices, from hopeful crescendos to catchy dance tunes to powerful rally cries. There are tunes that have stayed in my head for days after watching the episodes and probably won’t leave anytime soon. Music has always been an important part of Star Wars, and with this season, Britell joins John Williams as one of the best composers this franchise has. It’s hard to talk about the planet Ghorman and its role in the story without giving away the season’s entire plot, but weaving this planet and its tragic history into the show was a masterful choice on the writers’ part. It’s the perfect way to show both the brutal indifference the Empire feels toward its people and the resilience of those who fight against it. Episode 8 is truly one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen, and if it doesn’t light some kind of emotional fire within you, I don’t know what will. There are times when I wish Andor had more time to let some of the heavier moments breathe. This season occasionally moves a bit too fast for its own good. By only giving us a snapshot of a year three episodes at a time, we lose some characters and plot threads that would benefit from a little extra attention.  Not because the series should have to spoon feed us everything, but because everyone in this series is so good and their characters are so compelling that it’s hard not to want to know more about them and what makes them tick. We don’t get to see much of the everyday people in the galaxy in other projects, and that’s part of what makes Andor stand out. This version of the galaxy feels so lived-in and real. There may be aliens and planets far, far away, but the story is human above all else. For all of the tragedy we see in season 2, there is still hope in equal measure. Rebellions are built on hope, after all, and that’s something Andor doesn’t let us forget. Hope and heart are the lifeblood of Andor and fuel the action-packed season ahead. Cassian struggles this season with his place in all of this, as does Mon Mothma, which is something I think a lot of us can relate to right now. It’s hard to feel like what you’re doing is enough when the powers that be continue to commit atrocities in the name of law and order. But hope for a better future is what keeps them fighting another day, and I think it would do us all some good to remember that. Andor season 2 is even more timely than series creator Tony Gilroy and the other writers likely intended. When the season was filmed, not many could have predicted that the United States would be where it is today. But despite the horrors that may persist in the real world, this season of Andor reminds us that hope isn’t silly or trivial, it’s the force that keeps us going no matter the odds. The first three episodes of Andor season 2 premiere Tuesday, April 22 at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+. Three new episodes debut per week, culminating with the finale on May 13. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Learn more about Den of Geek’s review process and why you can trust our recommendations here.

This article contains SINNERS SPOILERS. Black representation within horror movies, specifically of the supernatural variety, is becoming increasingly extensive these days. No, not in that way where we are the first to die in slashers. I’m talking about ones where we are the protagonists or supporting characters with supernatural abilities.  Many might attribute this to the cultural impact left by filmmaker Jordan Peele. And sure, that’s played a role, but truth be told, we made our mark in the genre eons ago, beginning at the height of the Blaxploitation movement with William Crain’s Blacula starring William Marshall. Ever since Blacula pioneered the subgenre,  whenever we star in horror films as the monsters, it’s usually as vampires. It’s widely known that Black don’t crack, so of course we shine as the undead.  Ryan Coogler reminded folks of that fact over this weekend with Sinners, and in honor of that fresh blood we’re looking at all the Black vampire characters who have been influential in the subgenre. Blacula – Blacula (1972) Blacula is the grandaddy of all Black vampires. During the peak of the Blaxploitation era, when you had all your action heroes like Shaft and Cleopatra Jones, Blacula was the first with fangs. William Marshall starred as African prince Mamuwalde, who is bitten by a racist Count Dracula after he refused to let him buy his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee) as a slave. Cursed and put into a deep slumber, Mamuwalde wakes up in ‘70s LA. Much like the now commonplace vampire tropes, he falls for his reincarnated form of the woman he once lost. Blacula’s defines camp, which is fitting for the Blakxploitation era and befitting the subgenre’s pantheon. Without him, the remaining entries on this list wouldn’t exist.  Ganja and Hess – Ganja and Hess (1973) The year after Blacula released, writer/director Bill Gunn offered a more unique, sophisticated, and romantic take on Black vampirism.  Oh, to be in the ‘70s and eating with two Black vampire movies! In Ganja and Hess, Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones) and Ganja (Marlene Clark) are united in grief over the passing of Green’s assistant and Ganja’s husband, George (Gunn). Together they find renewal and love with each other. It also happens that Hess sucked the blood out of George (Gunn) after he was stabbed with an ancient blood-sucking African tribe’s dagger, right before George off’d himself. Oh, and that same dagger turned him into a vampire. No biggie. Ganja is soon turned into a vampire too after learning the truth, and it’s insanely romantic. Green and Ganja offered a profoundly rich and experimental depiction of Black love. They are true vampire couple goals. Screw Edward and Bella! Katrina – Vamp (1986) In a time when R-rated sex comedies were the rage, Vamp was a neon-drenched Gothic alternative that leaned harder in its horror than comedy. But British musician and dancer Grace Jones was worth the movie’s price of admission. She was such an icon during the ‘80s that it was the whole marketing angle for Vamp! Hell, she was the reason why Vamp is relatively watchable now. As Katrina, this relatively silent but deadly vampire masked in mosaic makeup done by the late Keith Haring, gives some unfunny frat boys oh, so much hell in the span of a single unfortunate night. Whenever she’s onscreen, Katrina invokes so much menace, which matches the Gothic ‘80s aesthetic and makes for a valiant foe who is mesmerizing in every frame. Hell, she should’ve won in the end. I’m starting a new petition. Let’s get it going #JusticeforKatrina.  Maximillian  – Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) If Blacula was a vampire navigating the West Coast as an undead in LA, Eddie Murphy’s Maximillian offered a counterpoint by sinking his teeth into the east. Hailing straight from the Caribbean and landing in Brooklyn, this thick-accented, friendly bloodsucker is full of quips and ready to get hitched. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! His sights are keen on Detective Rita (Angela Bassett), who grows to learn that she’s already half-vampire in the blood.  There’s not much to say about this oddball Wes Craven/Eddie Murphy mashup, for it exists as a blip in both beloved talents’ filmographies. With that said, Vampire in Brooklyn isn’t without its charm, as Murphy explored the horror genre with a fun, spirited performance as three separate characters. If anything, it just goes to show Black vampires can simply be funny.  Blade – Blade (1998) You better not be a vampire trying to ice-skate uphill, ‘cause Blade will cut you down. Be honest: when you think of Black vampires, chances are you first think of Wesley Snipes’ sword-wielding, short afro-styled daywalking antihero. Who can blame you? Blade invented cool with his chic sunglasses, leather getup, and badass vampiric action moves. He was also the first Black Marvel superhero in cinematic history, sporting three movies—of varying degrees of quality—that were emblematic of the radical Y2K era of action films. While the wait for his MCU reboot might be extensive, at least we have the one and only Wesley Snipes’ Blade to save the day on disc, just the way Y2K intended.  Akasha –  Queen of the Damned (2002) Following the remarkable R&B singer’s tragic passing in 2001, Queen of the Damned exists as both only her second and final performance in a feature film. And to this day it reminds everyone that she was a unique talent through a remarkable performance. In the film, Aaliyah portrays Akasha as the first vampire in Anne Rice’s universe. Akasha is cunning, seductive, beautiful, and powerful. Frankly, the textbook definition, if not the blueprint, of a vampire.  When Akasha is awakened, this undead royalty and a Goth rock star Lestat de Lioncourt (Stuart Townsend) have a toxic and love affair where she plans on world domination, and he is seduced under her control As a film, director Michael Rymer’s Queen of the Damned is what you get when you send an Anne Rice fan to Hot Topic in 2002. SEriously, Lestat takes over a nu metal band during the heyday of Korn! You can’t get more Hot Topic than that! Much like many horrors of the early 2000s, Scooby-Doo included, it is a film of questionable quality that birthed many bisexual goth awakenings.  Laurent –  Twilight (2007) Say what you will about Twilight, but I had always thought Laurent had such a cool look. A French Black vampire with red-eyes and dreaded hair just oozes swagger. His appearance in Twilight and New Moon was menacing, but this member of James’ Coven had such a distinct style and elegance that I still remember going “nooooo!” when Jacob and his wolf pack took him down to protect Bella. The [Mr.] terrific Edi Gathegi gave his all as Laurent and while evil and gone too soon, he was one of the coolest modern vampires I’ve ever seen put to film. And it feels only right to honor the latest fangers in the pantheon via Coogler’s Sinners, all of whom fall beneath the evil power of an Irish vampire after Jack O’Connell walks into a Mississippi juke joint. Unfortunately for Stack (Michael B. Jordan), Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller),  and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), this leads to them turning into fanged bloodsucking vampires. Once they cross over though, they elicit such a menacing and frightening presence. Influenced by Remmick, all they want is to spread their vampiric cult and add more to his community’s liberation from American racism.  The three characters’ vampiric forms and antagonism to the surviving joint’s revelers add layers to the religious and individualistic themes writer/director Ryan Coogler tackles within the film. 

This review contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 2. The Last of Us is no stranger to throwing emotional gut-punches. Even for those of us familiar with the games who may have seen this episode’s big twist coming, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann continue to keep us on our toes. This episode strays from the game in not insignificant ways, but every change is arguably for the better and makes the final moments of the episode all the more devastating. Jackson faces the perfect storm of threats in this episode. Unbeknownst to them, they have Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew posting up in a lodge on the outskirts, plotting their revenge against Joel (Pedro Pascal). The town is preparing for a potential infected attack that ends up coming to pass in a massive way. And to top it all off a literal snow storm rolls in reducing visibility and making communication with patrols virtually impossible. Despite their coldness toward each other in the previous episode, Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) seem to have made amends, or at least their version of amends, at the start of the episode. When Jesse (Young Manzino) comes to retrieve her for patrol, Ellie surprisingly asks to head out with Joel, insisting that they’re better now. Jesse tells her that unfortunately Joel already left with Dina (Isabela Merced). He wanted to go on patrol with Ellie, but thought it best to let her sleep in after the night’s festivities. Just like in the previous episode, we learn a lot about Joel and Ellie’s relationship through Ramsey’s performance. She’s clearly still mad at Joel, but trying her best not to be and is tired of everyone asking about it. In one of the biggest changes from the game, we see Tommy (Gabriel Luna) speaking to the town while Jesse and Ellie are preparing for patrol. He’s getting them ready for a potential attack on Jackson from infected after reports of growing numbers being spotted outside the gates. This moment, and the attack that comes not long after Jesse and Ellie have left, do a phenomenal job of showing just how much Tommy has become a true leader of this town. He and Maria (Rutina Wesley) both put themselves on the line for Jackson and rally the town to victory. But their victory isn’t without loss, both within the town and outside of it. Because while Tommy, Maria, and the Jacksonites are fighting off an insanely large horde of infected, Abby is still dead set on revenge. Thanks to the horde of infected and the snow storm, Abby inadvertently runs right into Joel and Dina’s patrol. Joel saves her life and in return she offers them shelter in the lodge with her friends to wait out the storm. Realizing that this is her chance, Abby orders Mel (Ariela Barer) to knock out Dina, which she hesitantly does. Abby then gets to work on Joel, telling him that he doesn’t get to rush this moment for her. It’s not easy to watch by any means. Even her friends start to show visible discomfort at her actions. But Dever is so powerful in this scene. She may not have the physicality that game Abby does, but she still embodies the full breadth of the characters’ grief and rage, especially in this moment.  When Ellie finally arrives, it’s heartbreaking to watch her realize what’s happening. She stands in for the audience, in a way, screaming out to Joel to get up as he lays there bloodied and broken. We know this is it, but we try to hold on to hope that he’ll somehow rally and make it through, until Abby takes the handle of the broken golf club and lands the final blow.  Ellie’s cries and screams as she crawls over toward Joel are haunting. We’re watching Abby do to Ellie what Joel did to her, only even more violently. When she threatens to kill Abby and her crew, we know that she means it. Because Abby may have finally gotten the revenge she’s been so desperately craving, but she doesn’t know that she just unlocked the same drive within Ellie. This episode is thrilling, haunting, and truly feels like an emotional punch (or golf club) to the gut. The action-packed infected attack on Jackson juxtaposed with the tense search for Joel and Dina out in the storm does wonders for building tension throughout the episode. Even if you knew Joel’s death was imminent, seeing how it comes to pass in the series vs. the game is different enough that it almost feels like we’re seeing it happen again for the first time.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! There are so many moments that make you want to scream and cry and yell at your TV (in a good way). If the visceral, emotional impact of this episode is any indication, this is a damn good episode of TV. This season is clearly not pulling any punches, and no one is safe from the violence of this unforgiving world, even in a place as idyllic as Jackson. New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, culminating with the finale on May 25, 2025. Learn more about Den of Geek’s review process and why you can trust our recommendations here.

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 2. The Last of Us just delivered one of its most brutal and tear-jerking episodes yet. Those who are familiar with The Last of Us Part II’s story may have seen this big twist coming, but nothing could have prepared us for just how hard it was going to be to experience this scene with Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Kaitlyn Dever giving it their all. If the sequence of events leading to Joel’s death wasn’t haunting and heart-wrenching enough on its own, the episode throws in an easter egg at the end that just twists the broken golf club in deeper. The song that plays over the end of the episode, as Jackson starts to pull itself back together and Jesse (Young Mazino), Dina (Isabela Merced), and Ellie make the slow trek of dragging Joel’s body back to town, is a cover of Shawn James’ “Through the Valley.” If the voice singing the cover sounds familiar, that’s because Ashley Johnson, the original voice and performance actor for Ellie in The Last of Us Part I and Part II, lent her voice to the song. Johnson first covered this song for the Playstation Experience 2016 Reveal Trailer for The Last of Us Part II. It was the first official glimpse at the game, and features a look at potential locations before showing Ellie picking up a guitar while bloodied and bruised and playing this song. Joel then steps into the abandoned house she’s playing in and asks “What are you doing, kiddo? You really gonna go through with this?” To which Ellie replies “I’m gonna find and I’m gonna kill every last one of them.” Using Ashely Johnson’s cover of this song again in the series is more than just a clever easter egg for hardcore fans to find. It adds emotional depth to the scene. Her mournful yet melodic voice singing these words makes it feel as though Johnson’s version of Ellie is also saying goodbye to Joel all over again, in a way. Johnson also made a cameo last season as Ellie’s mom, Anna, so this is another way to still include her in Ellie’s journey this season. The song in the context of how it was first used in The Last of Us lore via the announcement trailer is also impeccable stealth foreshadowing for the series. We already know that the show version of Ellie has her sights set on revenge, she threatens as much when she’s forced to watch Abby kill Joel. But this nod to one of the first ever looks at The Last of Us Part II and its story lets us know that the violence and bloodshed are only just beginning. This callback shows how much Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann care for and appreciate this story and all of its layers. It’s not just an easter egg for the sake of an easter egg. This cover of “Through the Valley” is an important part of The Last of Us history and is the perfect soundtrack to end this heavy episode. New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, culminating with the finale on May 25, 2025.

With a wrestling show, the opening match can be nearly as important as the main event. While the main event is about finishing the show in a climactic fashion and leaving a lasting impression, you also need to get the audience into the proceedings with a killer start. Get the blood pumping and jumpstart all the energy to carry the next few hours. With WrestleMania being WWE’s biggest show of the year, those opening minutes can sometimes bring us some fantastic matches to get the ball rolling. Here are the openers that truly started the show off right. For the sake of ground rules, we’re counting matches on the official show itself, so no pre-shows or dark matches. The Rockers vs. Haku and The Barbarian (WrestleMania VII) WrestleMania VII was a solid WrestleMania show with an extra hour or so of nothing matches topped on for the sake of getting everyone a paycheck. This opener worked to that advantage, as there was zero story between The Rockers and Bobby Heenan’s goons going in, but they ended up pulling off exactly the kind of match the show needed. It helped that this was the last real gasp of tag team wrestling actually mattering in WWF and just having two teams go out there and put on a solid performance was a regular thing. It also helped that it had a great dynamic that any new viewer could pick up on: the lumbering and powerful heels up against the plucky faces who were smaller but could run rings around them. Lots of fun tag tropes and teamwork thrown in from The Rockers made this work and showed that even before he broke out as a solo star, Shawn Michaels was earning his reputation as Mr. WrestleMania. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WrestleMania X) Bret Hart had an eventful time at Royal Rumble 1994. In the undercard, he and his brother Owen lost when challenging for the tag team titles, causing Owen to snap and brutalize Bret’s hurt leg. Bret then pulled himself together to compete in the Royal Rumble match that night, becoming co-winners with Lex Luger due to falling to the floor at the same time. It was decided that Bret would face Owen at WrestleMania in an exhibition, as he’d then go on to face the winner of Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna in the main event. Owen was already mad about how reluctant Bret was to face him, only now he was madder that Bret was technically looking past him, as he was going to compete for the title, win or lose. On the same night that gave us the legendary ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon, the event peaked early with this battle between brothers. The two put on an excellent show full of amazing ringwork and reversals. That it ended with Owen cleanly getting an upset win was the icing on the cake. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero (WrestleMania 21) Awesome as this one is, it’s also a bittersweet middle to a thematic trilogy between the two competitors. At the previous WrestleMania, Eddie Guerrero successfully defended the WWE Championship and stood tall in the PPV’s final shot. In the months that followed, Eddie fell down the card and ended up as tag champ with Rey Mysterio. To open WrestleMania 21, the two partners had a singles match against each other, trying to stand on the legacy of their classic from Halloween Havoc 1997. While the two didn’t quite reach those heights, they still killed it and showed that they still had that chemistry. Despite Eddie’s best efforts, he couldn’t keep Mysterio down for three and ended up losing to a flash pin, setting the stage for a heel turn and ridiculous storyline centered around the custody of a young Dominik Mysterio. Sadly, this would be Eddie’s final WrestleMania due to a sudden death from heart issues. In the follow-up, Rey Mysterio would win the 2006 Royal Rumble match to make his way to WrestleMania 22, where he would win the World Heavyweight Championship. All the while, it was used as a tribute to his former tag partner and one of his greatest opponents. Money in the Bank (WrestleMania 23) The Money in the Bank concept was introduced at WrestleMania 21 and ended up being a huge success. It wasn’t until its third installment at WrestleMania 23 that they decided to lead with it, and they went full ham by making it an eight-man match. A great set of talent here with initial winner Edge being joined by CM Punk, Randy Orton, King Booker, Finlay, Mr. Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, and Matt Hardy. Then you get Sharmell and Hornswoggle showing up, making this one of the more chaotic takes on the match. There was rarely a bad Money in the Bank match, especially early on, and this one’s no different. They do get silly, like having Booker pull out a tiny ladder in the heat of the moment and the later bit where he could win the match, but Matt Hardy threatens Sharmell with a Twist of Fate unless he steps down. Then you get the crazy spots, like when Edge is laying on a ladder acting as a bridge and Jeff Hardy jumps off another ladder and into Edge. Or the time when Mr. Kennedy does the Green Bay Plunge on Hornswoggle off a ladder. Kennedy himself would end up winning this one, though his aftermath as the briefcase holder was entirely cursed. Finlay vs. JBL (WrestleMania XXIV) Mercifully, WWE was finally putting an end to one of their most grueling ongoing stories about Hornswoggle being Vince McMahon’s illegitimate son. Only it turns out Vince wasn’t the father, as it was really Finlay. Sure. This was all revealed after JBL beat the leprechaun half to death, setting up this “Belfast Brawl,” which is quite a sentence I just typed. After months and months of awful McMahon sketches and segments, we were at least going to get a cool hardcore match out of it. We’ll take our wins where we can get them. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! It’s rare for WrestleMania to start off with a plunder match, but this one really gets the crowd going thanks to it being two stiff workers who can take it as much as they can dish it out. This also gives us the fantastic moment where JBL is in the ring with a trash can, sees Hornswoggle scrambling around on the outside, and just whips the can at him at lightning speed. JBL winning might have been seen as a downer, but putting this whole angle out of its misery was something to be celebrated. Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H (WrestleMania XXX) The road to WrestleMania XXX was like somebody falling down the stairs, somehow landing on their feet, and insisting that they meant to do that. Daniel Bryan was meant to be swept under the rug as a top guy, but between CM Punk’s abrupt exodus from the company, the fanbase’s complete rejection of Batista as the top face, and an utterly disastrous Royal Rumble, they ended up being bullied into a fantastic main event storyline centering around Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton and Batista. But that wasn’t his only match of the night. In order to earn his spot in the main event, he had to face evil boss Triple H at the start of the show. It was their one and only match together, which made it more of a novelty to see so early on. The two jibed perfectly and we got one of the last truly great matches in Triple H’s career. Even though this was Bryan’s match to win, Triple H’s tendency to use his real life backstage sway mixed with how many times Bryan’s fans had been burned threw in a non-zero chance that the hero wasn’t going to pull it off. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. The Miz (WrestleMania 34) When done right, a triple threat match can really complement what the talent brings to the table. Seth Rollins and Finn Balor once had a great match to crown the first ever Universal Champion. Here, they were fighting for Miz’s Intercontinental Championship and by throwing the extra guy in there, it just allowed for a fast-paced match full of inventive spots and the ability to trade out a wrestler to rest up before jumping back into the fray. Even with Miz being the weakest of the three wrestlers, he still adds a fantastic dynamic of being the one who takes advantage of the situation. Lots of moments of him trying to be an opportunist, including a wonderful spot where Rollins just barely escapes a roll-up pin from Balor, and is so distraught and distracted by making sure the ref only counted to two that it leaves him open for a sudden Skull-Crushing Finale. The extra man keeps spoiling the pinfalls until it’s time for Rollins to flatten both opponents one after another with his Curb Stomp. Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar (WrestleMania 35) Brock Lesnar was at one point the ultimate threat in WWE. At the same time, Seth Rollins was being built up as a top face and was challenging him for the Universal Championship. Despite the high-profile nature of this bout, the narrative, according to Paul Heyman, was that Brock was pissed about not being the main event. If he wasn’t going to be the main event, he would open the show so he could be done with things early and skip town. Brock was so furious that he jumped Rollins during the entrance and unfairly destroyed him before the bell could even ring. Rollins insisted on going through with the match and turned things around with an illegal punch to the balls. It was cheating, but it was justified. Rollins then spammed his Curb Stomp three times in a row to keep Brock down, winning the title in just a couple of minutes. Rollins would eventually beat Brock fair and square to give him that major rub (immediately undone by his Fiend feud), but this quick and impactful win was definitely a great start to the PPV. Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley (WrestleMania 37) WrestleMania 37 Night 1 had a very unique situation going on at the start. For one, this was the first major WWE show since the pandemic that had a full crowd. By default, this crowd starting off WrestleMania would be off the wall pumped. The problem was that there was a nasty storm that caused a major delay, and by the time they were ready to do the actual wrestling, the crowd was wet and defused. It wasn’t instantaneous, but Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley going at it eventually woke them up. Two big, meaty men slapping meat will do that sometimes. A great pairing who played off each other well, they did a good job making both of them seem like irresistible forces and immovable objects at the same time. It did involve a screwy finish, but Lashley being able to knock out Drew with the Hurt Lock really put a bow on how dominating the Almighty could be. Definitely better than the following night’s goofball Randy Orton vs. Fiend match and its “box-like structure” bullshit. Becky Lynch vs. Rhea Ripley (WrestleMania XL) Fun fact, it wasn’t until WrestleMania 36 that a women’s match started off one of these shows. Even then, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. The Kabuki Warriors had no crowd to win over thanks to that pesky COVID thing that just made a mess of the world. We wouldn’t see any women fight it out at the beginning until the 40th WrestleMania in what was arguably the biggest potential match that WWE could put together with that division. On one side, it was Rhea Ripley, who had an incredibly lengthy and popular run as WWE Women’s World Champion. On the other side, it was Becky Lynch, the woman who once won the main event of WrestleMania and was fresh off releasing her autobiography. It was a hard-hitting passing of the torch that’s way more impressive when you realize that Becky was also battling through strep throat that week. Even with that handicap, the two started the show off with a bang.

This article contains Sinners spoilers. In a movie suffused with otherworldly musical sequences and phantasmagorical imagery, it is easily the weirdest thing we see. Jack O’Connell’s presumably thousand-year-old Remmick is performing a Celtic jig from his homeland, and freshly turned vampires like poor disfigured Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller), lonely Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), and even rebellious Stack (Michael B. Jordan) are prancing right along with him in the river dance. Only a handful moments earlier in the film, these same people, all Black or of mixed heritage, were communing with a different kind of spirit when they thrived and writhed to the sound of a blues guitar so true that it connected them with their ancestors and descendants. For a glorious moment, the past, present, and future coexisted, with the sounds of rhythmic drums, electric guitars, and propulsive spoken verse melding together into a harmony that is the African American and larger diaspora experience. But that was their party and their fleeting moment of escape. Before the night is out, it’s been rendered as illusory as Stack and twin brother Smoke’s ownership of this slaughterhouse-turned-juke joint. Now many of those same souls have been “seduced”—or forcibly attacked—by a smiling white devil who offers pledges of comity and fraternity. And those forced to buy into that lie repeat it like an unconvincing PSA that would one day be placed before the grandkids they’ll now never be allowed to have. Among the first to be turned, Cornbread bemoans to Smoke “why can’t we all just get along” and be “polite” to one another? He pleads this even as his new employer angles to literally rip Smoke’s throat out and watch him bleed out on the slaughterhouse floor. For all the imagery of vampire fangs and crimson-red eyes, the story of Sinners is one that’s as old as the cotton fields it’s set in. It’s an American tragedy. “The film for me personally was a reclamation of a time period and a place that my family doesn’t talk about much,” Ryan Coogler previously told us during a preview of Sinners’ trailer back in January. The director was referring specifically to Mississippi where his maternal grandfather grew up, as did a beloved uncle who would only speak of the land of cotton while blues records played. “It’s a lot of feelings associated with our history. We go there, showing these people in their full… humanity.’” Coogler refers to the generation on the screen at the juke joint as his grandparents’ era. And they’re depicted as just as wild and free-wheeling as the generations who preferred rock ’n roll or rap over the blues and jazz. That is demonstrable in the sequence where the guitar and voice of Miles Caton’s Sammie conjures ghosts. But it is also the story of how each generation must face levers of control and coercion—of white faces promising equality and unity, even while they have a literal klansman among their ranks. Indeed, the first time we meet the film’s vampiric villain he has mysteriously escaped Indigenous vampire hunters who surely have a tale to tell of their own while chasing this revenant across the hills. He is spared, however, by faces who trust a white man first, much to their sorrow soon thereafter. Before Remmick turns this dirt poor couple attempting to muddle through the Great Depression into undead lackeys, the vampire clocks the husband as a klansman after spotting a hood in the house. Later we learn from the same ghoul that by drinking this shit-kicker’s blood, Remmick realized the Klan never intended to let Smoke and Stack keep the land they bought with their own hard-won money. The plan apparently was to slaughter as many Black men and women as possible to make a lesson for any other entrepreneurial men of color in the area. The vampires just got there first. It’s as sickening as it is unsurprising, and it belies the real-world insidiousness of Remmick’s offer of immortality. He claims that he does not see race or religion among his flock. But if you join him, even as free a spirit as Stack is consigned to dance to the vampire’s drum; to play the white man’s music; and to have his own individuality and heritage sapped away and appropriated. So this is also, of course, the story of Mississippi and the larger American South that birthed the blues. It’s no accident that Coogler captures the rolling fields of cotton in wide, painterly IMAX lenses. This is the coveted cash crop that so many Black Americans’ ancestors were torn from their homeland to pick, toil, and die over. It is also the same crop that similarly enslaves in all but name the neighbors of Stack, Smoke, and Sammie throughout Clarksdale, Mississippi. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Sammie’s father, a preacher at the nearby plantation, laments his son’s secular, heathen music. However, he himself like his father before him is trapped on the same plantation that perhaps two generations prior was tended by literally enslaved people. After the Civil War and emancipation, though, white Southern fears of William Tecumseh Sherman’s promises of 40 acres for every freed Black man proved unfounded. President Andrew Johnson returned most plantation land to its previous white owners, and to make up for the loss of Black slaves, the remnants of the planter class trapped newly freedmen into Faustian sharecropping bargains. Black farmers were “paid” with a share of crop they could sell, but it would never be enough to make up for the land and tools rented and leased to them. They would be caught in a cycle of debt and poverty that would become generational. Sharecropping was still the law of the land in the Jim Crow South of 1932 when Sinners is set, and many Black men who believed they could beat the rigged game were terrorized or worse by the Klan and its institutionalized ilk. Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) tells the story in the film of a bandmate who dreamed of using a tiny fortune they made to open his own store. He was lynched before he reached a train out of town. And a few years earlier, and a few states over from where Sinners is set, white neighbors grew so indignant of an emerging Black upper-middle class in Tulsa, Oklahoma that in 1921 they murdered nearly a thousand of them, including by dropping bombs from the sky in World War I era airplanes. Remmick seems to offer a theoretically less cruel sense of conquest, even if it’s by drinking actual life blood. But it’s really not that different than the white record producers of Carter family who might pay Lesley Riddle for writing a song, but never gave him copyright credit. They never let him truly own his own music. Certainly Elvis Presley got a lot richer singing “Hound Dog” than Big Mama Thornton. Sinners contextualizes how much of this was Smoke and Stack’s past while relying on the audience to fill in the gaps we know from their future. The vampire getting Black converts to insist on the need of politeness and community might even be viewed as a cynical wariness to those who yearn for a “post-racial” America when 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, Southern states are still attempting to whitewash the horrors of slavery out of our history books and classrooms. Encourage future generations to go back to the plantation. Hence why the real catharsis of Sinners is not Smoke staking the fanciful monster that claims to date back to the days of St. Patrick. It’s Smoke slaying a much more tangible creature by emptying a tommy gun clip into the local grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He doesn’t really defeat the system, of course. In fact, Smoke dies from a bullet wound he picks up during his fire fight with the lynch mob. The American system is rigged, and the dream of his and Stack’s juke joint could never be long-lasting. But for a brief and beautiful moment, it’s real. And in the here and now, that white old bastard is still worm meat. It’s a momentary victory like that night at the party, or any other where Sammie grows into blues legend Buddy Guy. And it can be savored by sinners and saints alike.

The Man Who Fell to Earth. Labyrinth. The Prestige. These are the titles that usually come to mind when people think of David Bowie’s film career, and with good reason. Even when playing real-world scientist Nikola Tesla in The Prestige, each of these performances captured Bowie’s ethereal public persona. Bowie floated through the movies like a being from another world, immediately imbuing the story with mystery and danger. It’s somewhat fitting then that Bowie’s best film performance came in the most unexpected of places, a movie about the life of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Bowie had one short but powerful scene in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, using both his otherworldly nature and his natural warmth for a beguiling take on Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. A Unique Telling of the Greatest Story Of course The Last Temptation of Christ is hardly a standard Jesus movie. Directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, and based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, the 1988 film immediately courted controversy. Despite that fact that Scorsese and Schrader are both believers, the former a Catholic and the latter a Calvinist turned Episcopalian, Last Temptation drew the ire of those who took exception its portrayal of a very human Jesus (Willem Dafoe) full of doubts and fears. The Last Temptation certainly takes liberties with the usual Passion Play reading. Scorsese eschewed realism and historical accuracy, giving us Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot with a New York accent, musicians Michael Been of the Call and John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards as James and John, complete with The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner as their father Zebedee. But there’s an air of painful realism to Bowie’s scene late in the film, when the arrested Christ is brought before Pilate. As Governor over Judea, Pilate represented the Roman Empire to the people of the occupied land and considered petty disagreements between religious factions as beneath him. In Scorsese’s telling, when this Pilate even meets Christ, it is inside of the Roman governor’s stables. Pilate begins the scene with his back turned to the camera and to Jesus, paying more attention to the steed brought for his inspection. “So you are the King of the Jews,” he asks with disinterest, only turning around when Jesus responds, “King’s your word.” Even then there’s more than a little condescension when he asks Jesus to perform a miracle for him. When none is forthcoming, Pilate wearily decides that he’s “just another Jewish politician.” Pilate tries to provoke Jesus, pointing at him and calling him dangerous, but even that can’t elicit a desired reaction. When Jesus retells a prophecy from the book of Daniel, interpreting it as a story about how God will use him to topple Rome, Pilate cuts him off, clearly bored with another story about the occupied people destroying the occupier. For most of the two-and-a-half-minute scene, Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus emphasize Pilate’s distance from Jesus. The scene begins in a wide shot, showing the physical space between them. As the camera cuts to closer shots, Jesus and Pilate rarely appear in the same frame. At the end of the exchange, the camera stays on Pilate as he strides away, having fully measured Jesus up and deemed him as just one more rabble-rouser that the empire must clean up. A Tale of Two Kingdoms Bowie uses that distance from the camera, as well as his precise interlocution, to heighten Pilate’s unearthly qualities. That decision flies in the face of common sense. After all, he’s in a scene with Jesus, proclaimed as God in the form of human. Even in their conversation, Jesus explains that he represents a kingdom that, in his words, “isn’t here.” Shouldn’t Dafoe be playing the alien one here? Because Scorsese and Schrader are creating a grounded, human Christ, however, they want to achieve the exact opposite. Like Kazantzakis’ novel, The Last Temptation takes inspiration from the Gospel of John, which emphasizes Jesus as inaugurating a kingdom unlike any on Earth. So the human qualities and focalization through Jesus makes injection of an Earthly kingdom feel strange. In other words, to represent Rome, the ultimate unreal kingdom in John’s Gospel, Bowie must feel as alien as possible. Bowie expresses that perspective with his nonchalant attitude toward Jesus, all hand waves and arched eyebrows to look down on his charge. But the real testament to Bowie’s skill comes when the scene changes and Pilate sits next to Jesus. “It’s one thing to change how people live, but you want to change how people think, how they feel,” Pilate says, noting the difference between Jesus and the other rebels he’s sentenced. But when Jesus explains that change will happen with love instead of killing, Pilate cannot continue. He repeats that this kind of change is “against Rome, against the way the world is” and therefore is useless. “Killing or loving, it’s all the same. It simply doesn’t matter how you want to change things. We don’t want them changed.” Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! After that last line, something remarkable happens on Bowie’s face. Pilate’s still looking down at Jesus, still condescending to him like the powerful Roman official that he is. But when Jesus looks back and refuses to respond, Pilate’s face drops. The corners of his mouth turn downward. A sadness creeps into his eyes. Bowie’s expression suggests that Pilate wants Jesus to challenge him, to show him in fact that the world can be changed, changed even through love. And when Jesus doesn’t answer—either out of a refusal to speak, as is often the case in the Gospels, or out of the doubt that wracks Dafoe’s Jesus—Pilate cannot help but feel disappointed. He stands up and pronounces Jesus’s sentence with all the officious insincerity of Michael Palin’s crucifixion coordinator from The Life of Brian and walks off screen. In the World, Not Of the World Where does Pilate go? The answer is, of course, back to the safety of his Roman home and lifestyle. But within The Last Temptation of Christ, it feels like he moves completely out of Jesus’s existence, which underscores the themes. Despite the short contention they almost formed, a powerful and self-assured Roman cannot believe in the message of a self-doubting Jewish teacher. They belong to different worlds. It takes someone like Bowie who has always felt like a man who fell to Earth to underscore that difference. By casting Bowie as a member of the alien Roman Empire, Scorsese brings to life a Jesus who is of the Earth, a Jesus rarely seen on the movie screen.

Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who episode “Lux”. Picking up mere moments after “The Robot Revolution“, the Doctor and Belinda find themselves in 1950s America, where they face off against another member of the Pantheon in an energetic, inventive follow-up to last year’s “The Devil’s Chord“. Along the way, they encounter malevolent cartoons, banal human evil and, perhaps most terrifying of all, hardcore Doctor Who fans. Spoilers? Don’t make me laugh! For an episode packed with madcap, reality-warping thrills, “Lux” feels oddly familiar, as if this new era of the show has found its preferred mode. It’s very much a sequel to “The Devil’s Chord”, and not just because of the big theatrical villain – there’s the period setting, the aesthetics rooted in old-fashioned entertainment, the Doctor scrambling to keep up with the rules laid down by a capricious god-like entity. Even the picture house feels of a piece with the music studios in which most of “The Devil’s Chord” was set. These similarities are obviously deliberate, and they make sense. Lux Imperator, aka Mr Ring-a-Ding, is a member of the loosely-defined Pantheon of chaos gods, which also included the Toymaker, Maestro and (somewhat confusingly) Sutekh among its number. Sutekh is the outlier there, but Lux, the Toymaker and Maestro all operate along broadly similar lines. And while each brings their own set of ideas to the table, allowing for plenty of loopy visuals and reality-based rug-pulling, there is a risk at this point of diminishing returns setting in. There’s also a risk that the episode, being so of a piece with “The Devil’s Chord”, practically demands comparison. Mr Ring-A-Ding is certainly a visual delight, a spot-on evocation of classic Fleischer Studios cartoons, and it’s fun that when he starts becoming more ‘real’, his appearance accordingly becomes more grotesque and unsettling. But even voiced by the mighty Alan Cumming, an actor who never met a piece of scenery he wasn’t willing to heroically chow down upon, Lux just doesn’t quite have the juice of Jinkx Monsoon’s powerhouse Maestro. That said, it’s not entirely fair to ding the episode because the villain doesn’t rise to the heights of (in this writer’s opinion) one of the all-time great guest turns in Doctor Who. And Lux is certainly a distinct creation – it’s interesting that, unlike the other members of the Pantheon we’ve met so far, he doesn’t seem to be completely evil. The cutaway from Mr Pye dancing with his black and white celluloid wife (a quietly haunting image) is intriguing in that respect, as Lux seems to be earnestly moved by the sight. And his desire to find and harness the power of nuclear energy seems to be less about mass destruction, and more about reaching some sort of apotheosis – he is a creature of light, so he is naturally seeking out the brightest light he can. It’s fitting, then, that his death is less a death, and more the achievement of that apotheosis. Unlike Maestro, Lux isn’t dragged kicking and screaming into the Doctor’s terrible trap. The Doctor just gives him what he wants – “two billion times more energy than the biggest nuclear bomb on planet Earth” – and he floats off into the cosmos, his cartoon tears dissipating in space as he ascends to become “everything and nothing”. It’s strange, poetic and slightly unsettling, and feels consistent with the fantastical nature of the Pantheon. The episode is also clearly having a ball playing with the possibilities of its premise. The Doctor and Belinda becoming cartoons is delightful, as is watching them figure out how to escape Lux’s traps – acquiring physical dimensions by demonstrating emotional dimensions, speeding up the celluloid, pointing out continuity errors, and eventually climbing out of the screen itself for some meta-commentary on fandom, spoiler culture and the history of Doctor Who. The scene with the fans could have been too cute by half, but it manages to be enjoyably rather than obnoxiously knowing, partly because it’s funny, but also because the affection for the three Who fans is clearly genuine. There’s also something potent in the idea that even within Lux’s nesting reality traps, the Doctor still has power; that fake fans created to ensnare and destroy him instead harness their love of the show to achieve a measure of ‘realness’ and use their knowledge to help him escape. There’s undoubtedly an essay here about what this means for the ‘Doctor as Lord of the Land of Fiction’ theory, especially considering the fans’ return in the mid-credits scene  – I’m absolutely not the critic to write it, but I look forward to reading it when someone does. Not everything here works, admittedly. Composer Murray Gold manages to overdo it not once but twice – first during the diner scene with Tommy Lee’s mum, ladling on the syrup just in case we weren’t appropriately moved by a mother sitting alone in a diner at 5am desperate to talk to someone about her missing son, then again for Mr Pye’s dead wife story. The creepy echoing song is a much stronger, more specific choice, and it makes you wish they’d stuck to that. It could even be argued that Gold overdoes it a third time in the scene with the three fans. Bringing back an iconic past theme is a nice gift for loyal Whovians, both in-universe and IRL, but it also has the effect of taking a weird, existentially haunting idea – fake people sacrificing their brief chance at consciousness for the greater good – and turning it into something more conventionally, generically heart-warming. But then again, ‘The Sad Man With A Box’ does get me. So, jury’s out. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! I’m also (prepare yourselves for a crunchingly awkward segue) in two minds about the episode’s treatment of racism, though admittedly it’s hard to know what the right tack is here. It obviously wouldn’t fly to have a Doctor and companion both played by non-white actors travel to 1950s Miami and not encounter any racism. And the episode treating segregation as a horrible but banal fact of life feels appropriate. But as is often the case when Doctor Who tries to tackle real-world prejudice, there’s a point at which the nature of the show as fantasy adventure television bumps up against the horrific reality. Of course the Doctor isn’t going to drop into 1950s America and end racism the way he can topple a tyrannical government on Blargon 6. But while his declaration that, until our world sorts itself out, he will “live in it – and shine” feels consistent with his character, it can’t help but scrape awkwardly against our real-world knowledge. The moment with the policeman pointing a gun at the Doctor and Belinda might be the problem here. It’s an incredibly charged moment for viewers in 2025, as endless horrifying news reports have given us a visceral, unshakable awareness of how this dynamic often plays out in reality – even now, 70 years later after the scene is set. And it just doesn’t feel like the sort of thing the Doctor can imperiously swagger his way out of. It’s the curious tension of Doctor Who, in that it’s far easier to imagine a black Doctor thwarting an army of murderous Daleks than one white cop. Of course the episode manages to have its cake and eat it by revealing the cop to be another layer of Lux’s illusions, though I still struggled to shake the feeling that this imagery is more complex and upsetting than the story is equipped to deal with. But again, there may just not be a perfect way to go about it. And trying is preferable to ignoring. Elsewhere, while it is a bit of a shame that the juicy conflict between the Doctor and Belinda feels largely resolved by episode’s end, Gatwa and Sethu have lovely chemistry and already feel like a fun pairing, distinct from the Doctor and Ruby. Varada Sethu also has a real flair for dry, sarcastic line readings, particularly her “Well that sounds like an absolute epic” after the fans’ underwhelming description of “Blink”. It does seem inevitable that the tension between them will rear its head again,  though, and next week looks like a pretty stressful instalment. Oh, and needless to say – the Doctor and Belinda’s 50s’ fits? Sublime. One has to imagine that staying on the TARDIS is worth it for the wardrobe alone. Doctor Who series 15 continues with “The Well” on Saturday April 26 on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ around the world.

Friday, April 18th marks 87 years since Superman first showed up in comics pages, and DC is not going to let that slide without at least a little bit of a party.  With James Gunn’s Superman hitting theaters this summer, DC is ramping up for a big few months for Big Blue. We already talked about a bunch of their plans in comics pages – everything from the return of Lex Luthor to Dan Slott’s new Superman book to an all-ages book that I’m almost certainly buying for my kid. But today, on the big Supermanniversary, DC is really going over the top. If you’re in Burbank and you have some time on your hands, there is a sold out, very special, Superman-themed Warner Brothers Studio Tour that starts with a hang with some comic greats – Dustin Nguyen, Jon Bogdanove and Scott Koblish – and ends with a special screening of the classic Donner film, hosted by TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz.  If, however, you are not within spitting distance of southern California nor connected to the seedy underworld of studio tour ticket scalping, DC’s still got you covered. For the school aged among us, they’re running virtual tours of DC’s offices for school groups, with a focus on Superman and storytelling, something that likely pricks up most nerd parents’ ears. And for folks who are too old/cool for school but have a local comic shop available, DC’s got something too: new printings of comic classics.  There are special, Superman Day editions of All-Star Superman and Superman Unchained; and free copies of Superman for All Seasons #1 and All-Star Superman #1 in stores especially for the 18th.  Superman for All Seasons is a classic coming-of-age tale about Clark leaving Smallville, written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale at the peak of their Long Halloween-period. It’s widely regarded as one of the best Superman comics of all time – Sale’s art is phenomenal, especially. This story was the foundation of the Loeb-produced Smallville show, and apparently it’s an influence on the new movie. Superman Unchained was a New 52-era miniseries written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Jim Lee and it’s a very interesting, very well-made comic. It’s interesting because it came from a period in Snyder’s career where he hadn’t yet developed the bombast he would write with post-Metal, but he was also writing for Jim Lee. So, like any sane person, he made the biggest comic he could, and the result was fun and gorgeous.  All-Star Superman is arguably the greatest Superman story ever told. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely are perfect together and the story is everything right about the character.  Expect plenty more Superman celebrations as the summer goes on, and we’ll have all the news you’ll want to know about it. 

“We love getting to play with the incredible DC library of characters and stories,” declares DC Studios co-head Peter Safran. “And we really want to do justice for them.” Safran’s comments come as part of a new Superman clip focused on James Gunn‘s process of discovering the story and the actors’ passion for the characters in the director’s reinterpretation of the Kal-El mythos. The producer’s observation also shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following his and Gunn’s work in the DC Universe. After all, The Suicide Squad pitted Z-Listers like Javelin and Bloodsport against Starro the Conqueror. Meanwhile Peacemaker referenced Matter-Eater Lad of the Legion of Super-Heroes. So yes, Superman has some surprising pulls, including Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner. But the weirdest inclusion just got his first big reveal in the below sizzle reel… In Superman, Metamorpho the Element Man, played by Barry breakout Anthony Carrigan, is a whole new breed of strange. And while we’ve seen a glimpse of Metamorpho’s face in previous Superman teasers, this new Superman Day footage gives fans their first full-look at Carrigan’s Metamorpho in action, which somehow manages to be even weirder in live action than on the page. Of course Metamorpho was made to be weird. Originally the idea of DC editor George Kashdan, who wanted to see a science based hero, Metamorpho was developed by writer Bob Haney and pioneering illustrator Ramona Fradon. Fradon wanted to go beyond the traditional superhero look for the character, eschewing the full-body tights for skin of four different colors and textures, one for each of the four elements. Kashdan, Haney, and Fradon introduced Metamorpho to the world in 1965’s The Brave and the Bold #57. More swingin’ ’60s adventure than standard superhero tale, the story followed adventurer Rex Mason to Egypt where he sought the Orb of Ra for his employer Simon Stagg. On their boss’ orders, Stagg’s henchman Java, an unfrozen caveman, traps Rex in a pyramid and leaves him there for dead. However, a meteorite trapped within the pyramid emits cosmic rays which transform Stagg’s body, giving him the ability to assume the form of any element. Thus Metamorpho was born. Metamorpho’s initial adventures played like wacky takes on James Bond stories, complete with secret lairs, globetrotting capers, and a best girl in the form of Sapphire Stagg, Simon’s daughter. Eventually, Metamorpho moved more into the mainline superhero world of the DC Universe, most notably in the Outsiders, a team of misfits that Batman put together upon leaving the Justice League. Placing him alongside characters like Katana and Black Lightning, Outsiders writer Mike W. Barr and artist Jim Aparo made Metamorpho more of a crusty, blue-collar guy in the vein of the Thing of the Fantastic Four. He still had his beautiful girlfriend and her duplicitous father, but Metamorpho seemed more like a regular guy who had a stroke of bad luck compared to his teammates. That characterization has continued on since the mid-1980s in the pages of Justice League Europe, in the edgier reboot of the Outsiders in the 2000s (where he acquired the facial swirls used for Carrigan’s version), and especially in The Terrifics, a DC comics take on the Fantastic Four. Recently, writer Al Ewing and artist Steve Lieber have brought the character back to his ’60s mod roots with a delightful new ongoing about Metamorpho’s strange adventures. The black and white pants that Carrigan’s Metamorpho sports in Superman certainly recall his costume in The Terrifics, as do those worn by other side heroes in the movie, including Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, and, of course, Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific. Moreover, a scene featured heavily in the promotional material shows Gardner and Hawkgirl coming to confront Superman in a building with Stagg Enterprises signage. It seems likely, then, that Mr. Terrific, Gardner, and Hawkgirl all serve with Metamorpho on a variation of the Terrifics, one run by Mr. Terrific, but supported in some way by Simon Stagg. Then again, DC hasn’t announced an actor to play Stagg yet, and they have announced that Sean Gunn will appear as Maxwell Lord, a character who often finances the Justice League. Will Superman‘s Metamorpho be connected somehow to the major threats that Superman must face? Will he be a shagadelic adventurer? Will he be a blue-collar everyman? We can’t tell yet, but we can be sure of one thing. However Metamorpho appears in Superman, he will be weird. Superman flies into theaters on July 11, 2025. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

What makes a good Jesus movie? That is admittedly a loaded question, but on weekends like this when the airwaves and streaming services are awash in biblical epics of every stripe—those appealing to followers of the New Testament and those favoring only the Old—it is a query that arises time and again in my mind. Whether you love or hate the Hollywood hokum of Cecil B. DeMille and King Vidor, there are many excellent films derived from the Torah. In the modern era as well, storytellers as eclectic as Darren Aronofsky and Ridley Scott return to those same tales to perhaps checkered results. Yet when it comes to the New Testament and the stories and teachings of Christ, the cinematic offerings always appear sparser and strangely limiting. To be sure, there have been many movies made about Jesus, perhaps more so than ever these days with indie distributors, speciality labels, and unified church groups producing faith-based programmers every Easter, including this one. They all tend to dutifully pull from the Gospels of Luke or Matthew or Mark, and sometimes sprinkle in a little Charles Dickens for good measure (no, really). But by and large, these films have the stilted delivery of a Sunday school recitation—they repeat the beats a congregation knows by heart while offering little of the awe or wonder, or self-reflection that the story is meant to provoke. Curiously, this is more or less the case as well with the much higher production valued versions made by Hollywood during the height of the biblical epic craze in the 1950s and ‘60s. There was a lot more pomp and splendor provided by Nicholas Ray’s resources on the original King of Kings movie in 1961, or George Stevens’ in The Greatest Story Ever Told circa ‘65, but the determination to not offend or upset any Christian ticket-buyer caused both films to have an airless tedium that time has made no less dire. Still there’s one exception from this same era that I think might come the closest to cracking the code of making a good movie about Christ that neither offends the devout—like otherwise two terrific films shrouded in doubt and self-examination, Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)—nor bores everyone else to tears. And the secret might be that while deliberately echoing the pageantry of DeMille, William Wyler’s Ben-Hur was not a movie about Jesus Christ the man; instead it thrillingly, and without existential complexity, reflects the values of Jesus Christ the teacher. There might be some who discount this nearly four-hour epic set as much in Rome and the Mediterranean as the Holy Lands as a Jesus movie. For most, it’s simply remembered for that spectacular chariot race filmed in glorious 65mm and just about the widest possible aspect ratio. But there’s a reason it was the second most successful film ever when released in 1959, and it’s the same as what caused the novel, written by Civil War veteran Lew Wallace, to become the most popular American fiction of the late 19th century. As its subtitle assures us, this is “A Tale of the Christ,” and the first scene of the movie is a silent, painterly recreation of the Christmas story—a feat bookended by a similarly hushed reenactment of the death and implicit resurrection on the other side of the picture. In between those two sequences, Christ is a figure felt throughout the film but never quite seen. His presence permeates though, elevating the film’s central narrative about one Hebrew prince named Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and his personal rivalry with childhood soulmate turned autocratic oppressor, the Roman tribute Messala (Stephen Boyd), into a reclamation project. Theirs is the classic revenger’s story extracted from its most adventurous and swashbuckling interpretations, a la Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Despite being best pals in their youth—if not something more according to one of the film’s screenwriter Gore Vidal—Messala cruelly betrays his kindred spirit for advancement in the Roman machine, and Judah is sentenced to die on a galley ship as a slave. Through luck (or providence), he is then spared from a shipwreck and watery grave. He escapes his fate, rises to an unlikely status of renown in the Roman world, and uses it to return home and challenge Messala to what amounts to a climactic chariot race to the death. It is a story of spurned fraternal love, and through it all the screenplay not so subtly expounds on the emptiness of revenge and how killing Messala will not restore to Judah a sister and mother who were condemned to a leper colony, nor will it fill the void in his soul. Meanwhile, constantly in the margins of his life, there is a strange carpenter with an ethereal draw. He is the empathetic man on the desert road who offers Judah the Slave water when his Roman masters seek only to bask in his dehydrated despair. The same man is there again on a mount outside of Jerusalem when Ben-Hur can only think of his petty personal problems, vacillating between being a wealthy Roman pawn or a penniless Jewish rebel. That figure is also finally at the end of the film in need of Judah’s own help while carrying a cross up a hill. So yes, it is a story of Christ, but one which has the restraint to only nod toward Christ’s affect on others as opposed to the special effects they might promise. Never once is Jesus’ face seen on the screen, but without doubt this is every American Sunday school’s vision of Jesus. The best religious scene in the movie has been parodied, including quite hilariously by the Coen Brothers, but there is a reason they were still thinking about it 60 years after the fact. In the scene where Jesus gives water to a dying man, the divinity of the Son of God is explicit despite being only inferred. We see simply a hand holding Judah’s face as he desperately sips from a wooden ladle of water, oblivious to the stranger’s palm cradling the makeshift cup and his head. Only after tasting life again does Ben-Hur look up and recognize something in this man. It’s something a scornful Roman centurion also sees when threatening to whip the carpenter before being startled into lowering his weapon and looking away in shame from Christ’s gaze. There is no doubt in this film that this is an assured and confident Son of God who lacks the doubt of Scorsese and Willem Dafoe’s far more complex and human interpretation of the figure. That confidence is also probably what most want in an Easter movie, and despite lacking Scorsese’s messy humanity, Wyler’s film is neither pedantic or preachy in its religiosity. It’s heavy-handed in intent—it is a Hollywood biblical epic!—but by refusing to show Jesus’ face or even one of those miracles for the first three hours, Ben-Hur is able to create some of the awe and ethereal majesty the gospels tell us occurred. A touch of grace goes a long way, and even in fleeting ellipses sprinkled throughout three and a half hours, they’re more than enough. They evoke the mystique and mystery folks go to church for, without feeling like you’re getting the long-winded sermon too. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! And by the end, Christ’s divinity is proven in one last miracle: Jesus’ dying hands touch Judah’s family, curing a sister and mother of leprosy like dirt that’s washed away by the falling rain. This is a full-blown Jesus movie that makes mountains out of a mount. When taking the project, Wyler was primarily known as a director of intimate dramas with often melodramatic and psychological underpinnings. He made what is still the only Wuthering Heights adaptation worth a damn (the 1939 one starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, of course) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Roman Holiday (1953). At the time, he claimed he wanted to make the thinking man’s biblical epic as well, which was clearly a shot fired at DeMille. He later expounded that it “took a Jew to make a good film about Christ” (Wyler was himself Jewish). These might be pithy one-liners from a director at the end of his life looking back on a film that won him an Oscar, but they also ring true. It took some distance from the Jesus story to make a worthwhile film out of it. To be clear, there have been other good, and arguably better, films about Christ. I am personally quite fond of Jesus Christ Superstar and Last Temptation, but one was dreamed up by a lyricist and atheist so struggling with his doubts that he made Judas his sympathetic point-of-view character; the other is directed by a true believing Catholic who also wanted to interrogate his doubt and, possibly, Christ’s own sense of despair and disbelief. In other words, it was a movie that caused zealots to burn down a movie theater in Paris. On the other side of the coin, is the forced piety and frankly menacing zealotry of Mel Gibson’s dreary passion play and all the incurious pablum made in its boffo wake. Then there is the thinking mind behind Ben-Hur. It tells its story with plain directness and vigilant, reassuring comfort; it also found a way to passionately demonstrate how Jesus’ teachings can cause a man to become better and forsake the sword… but not before having an amazing chariot sequence. We’re talking about one of the best scenes in movie history. Hallelujah, saints be praised.

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again. The season finale of Daredevil: Born Again features that most time-honored of comic book tropes, in which two heroes disagree but ultimately team up. However, because the “heroes” are Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), even the team-up is pretty messy. The scene climaxes with Daredevil and Punisher cutting their argument short when a grenade lands in the room, sending them both flying from the building and atop a car on the street below. As the two get up and brush themselves off, Daredevil gets in one last shot. “You’re an asshole, Frank.” “Yeah, I know,” Frank responds. The collaboration is a fun, vibrant moment, and not just because of the visceral action that has become Daredevil‘s trademark. Cox and Bernthal have genuine chemistry, making their banter feel like something out of an ’80s buddy cop movie. However, the pleasure of their interactions undercuts the serious philosophical differences between them and their dangerous connection, something that’s been explored in much greater details in the pages of Marvel Comics. Frank Castle Goes to Hell “I kill only those who deserve to die, Jackal! And Spider-Man deserves to die!” Those words introduced the Punisher to the world, in the pages of 1973’s Amazing Spider-Man #129. Written by Gerry Conway and penciled by Ross Andru, the issue follows the Punisher as he hunts Spider-Man, duped by the evil scientist known as the Jackal. Although presented as an extremist in the style of revenge thrillers from the era, such as Dirty Harry and Death Wish, the issue also portrayed the Punisher as a sympathetic if misguided man. That inherent sympathy, along with an evocative costume designed by John Romita Sr., made the Punisher a breakout hit. So much a hit, in fact, that Punisher got his first solo stories just two years later, in the pages of the mature-readers magazines Marvel Preview and Marvel Super Action. While Punisher regularly crossed paths with Marvel heroes, he didn’t meet the Man Without Fear until 1982’s Daredevil #183. Part of Frank Miller‘s legendary run on the book, Daredevil #183 saw the two lock horns when Daredevil prevented Punisher from killing a drug addict. That first conflict contains the seeds for all of the heroes’ confrontations that follow. Frank dismisses Matt’s methods as too weak for the criminal element. Matt insists that heroes don’t need to be so brutal (while also hurling a baton at Punisher’s face). Miller pairs the confrontation with a timer in the form of the drug additct’s stopping heart, portrayed on the page as a heart rate monitor, driving Matt to swear that he won’t let the Punisher take another life. Matt’s actions result in Frank getting arrested, setting off a grudge that continues to this day. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The Devil’s Choice Easily the most striking conflict between Daredevil and Punisher occurs in 2000’s Punisher #3, written by Garth Ennis and penciled by Steve Dillon. After Matt successfully defends brutal gangster Dino Gnucci against a mishandled arrest, Frank waits on a rooftop ready to execute him. That’s when Matt arrives, in Daredevil gear, and begins his usual argument. “I know these speeches of yours by heart,” Frank sneers, starting a fight that end when he uses ultrasonics to knock Matt unconscious. When he awakes, Matt finds himself chained to a post, only able to move his finger, which rests on a pistol pointed at Frank. “One bullet. One shot,” explains Frank. “One chance to stop me killing Dino Gnucci.” The moment gets adapted for the third episode of the Netflix series, with some changes. Here, Matt uses the gun to shoot the chains holding him, getting a chance to save Frank’s victim. He’s not successful on that end, but Frank’s actions draw the attention of a nearby street gang. The episode ends with a highlight of the Netflix series, with a bloody Daredevil fighting through waves of baddies in a hallway, firmly establishing him as a hero. Because it’s written by Garth Ennis, the cynic behind The Boys and Preacher, no heroism appears in the comic book version. The sequence plays across four tightly composed pages, with Matt’s face almost melting in his desperation, which Dillon contrasts to Frank’s stoic expression. Finally convinced that his pleas will go unanswered, Matt whispers, “God forgive me,” and pulls the trigger. There’s a click followed by a bang. The former comes from Matt’s gun. The latter comes from Franks. “No firing pin,” explains Frank. “You can leave the killing up to me.” Some have read this sequence as a take down against Daredevil, which is fair — he looks pathetic at the end and Ennis makes no secret of his hatred of superheroes. However, it doesn’t make Frank look better either. “The thought of Dino Gnucci living one more minute is enough to drive me insane,” Frank explains in the middle of their debate, underscoring the theme of Ennis’s work on the Punisher: Frank Castle is a broken, deranged man, but Daredevil’s goodness is a useless sham. Hope in Hell The season finale of Daredevil: Born Again litigates the debate again, even after Frank accepts Karen Page’s pleas and rescues Matt from an onslaught of Fisk’s killer cops. When Daredevil shields one of the cops from Frank’s shot, insisting that the man isn’t worth the cost of the kill, Frank shoots another attacker and asks, “What about him? Is he worth it?” It’s a bleak and funny joke, but not to Matt. It isn’t just that Matt abhors Frank’s disregard for life. It’s also that Born Again has been presenting Matt’s backslide into vigilantism as something tragic. When he loses faith in the law and dons the Daredevil costume once again, Matt becomes like Frank, an idea that haunts him. It will be interesting to see how Born Again‘s second season and the upcoming The Punisher MCU series will develop the character’s differing philosophies. Until then, we have Marvel Comics to remind us the depth of Daredevil and Punisher’s differences… and their similarities. Daredevil: Born Again season one is now streaming on Disney+.

In the first episode of #1 Happy Family USA, the animated Prime Video comedy created by Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, 12-year-old Rumi Hussein is given a precious gift: a hilariously oversized Chicago “Balls” jersey. “I think this jersey might be too big,” Rumi reports to his father Hussein Hussein (also Youssef). “Yes, Rumi, it will fit you forever. We didn’t come to this country to buy new clothes every year,” Hussein, who emigrated from Egypt to New Jersey, tells his son.The bootleg Chicago Bulls uniform discovered by Rumi’s Uncle Jamal through less-than-legal means is an important relic for the young sports fan and for #1 Happy Family USA itself. After all, the image of Rumi in his misspelled kit was the first bit of art released to promote the series. The jersey is also, it turns out, important to the show’s creator as well, who was gifted an enormous Michael Jordan jersey from his parents as a child. “It was so big that to this day I could still get into it,” Ramy Youssef tells Den of Geek. “When I started first grade I had on this thing that fit me like a dress. My parents’ whole plan was ‘Michael Jordan will be great forever, and this will fit you forever.'” It must be said that the Youssefs had a point. Michael Jordan was indeed great forever and it seems as though the jersey will fit forever. That childhood moment also served as the perfect entryway for #1 Happy Family USA‘s comedic but poignant depiction of a very specific time in American history. What specific time, exactly? Well, the series opens with a radio DJ happily anticipating the release of Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint” the following day. Now to just head over to Wikipedia and check the date The Blueprint was relea…oh. Oh no. That’s right: #1 Happy Family USA is a 9/11 period piece, a genre that, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains rare. Taking place just before and then just after the events of September 11, 2001, the Prime Video series follows the Muslim-American Hussein family as they adapt to scary new times and make great efforts to prove to their white neighbors that they’re as American as apple pie and baseball. This involves many song-and-dance numbers. While the specter of 9/11 looms large, the show is really more of a typical slice-of-life sitcom about an ironically oft-forgotten place and time: American youth at the turn of the millennium. “This is a show that I wish had been on at the time, to kind of reflect what was happening,” Youssef says. “And I think a lot of that is even reflected in the animation style we chose to hone in on.” That animation style is developed by the show’s executive producer, Mona Chalabi. A British data journalist of Iraqi descent, Chalabi has received many awards (including a Pulitzer in 2023) for her illustrations that help publications present complex data. Aside from some work in documentaries and various explainer pieces, Chalabi had little experience in scripted animation and was grateful to finally get the opportunity. “This was a whole other level. I think it’s a real testament to how Ramy works. He’s always taking a chance on people,” Chalabi says. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Chalabi’s distinct, lowkey style turned out to be the missing piece that Youssef and Brady were looking for to recapture the early 2000s more analog, less computer-generated vibe. After connecting via Instagram DM, Youssef and Chalabi were able to collaborate on an animation plan that allowed for the story’s characters to visually “code switch” depending on their environment. Chalabi also heavily utilized the Internet Wayback Machine to get a refresher on what the world even looked like in 2001. “I looked up visual references for what a halal cart looked like in 2001 (spoiler: it looks exactly like it does today). But also: what did the buildings look like back then? What would a mosque in Hackensack have looked like? What was the fashion back then? What phones were people using?” Chalabi says. “When [Rumi’s sister] Mona is giving away freebies as a political candidate, is it a Walkman or a Discman or an iPod? That kind of stuff really helps you to feel like you are actually in that era.” Of course, the chief cultural exports of the 9/11 era weren’t just Discmans or iPods but also fear and political suppression. While Chalabi and Youssef were in their pre-teens in 2001, Brady was an adult and an active participant in the entertainment industry’s response to the terrorist attacks, having been a writer on South Park during the show’s first post-9/11 episode, “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants.” She recalls the prevailing mood of the time and believes it applies well to young Rumi’s experiences. “[The show’s setting] is also a way to talk about the characters and what’s going on in the world now without being like ham fisted about it,” she says. “The word ‘fear’ kept coming up. What’s it like to be a 12 year old? The world’s kind of scary already. Your body’s changing and the world is treating you differently. So then let’s throw a globally-changing nightmare situation on top of that.” Younger viewers of #1 Happy Family USA might not fully understand the millennial-specific references but surely they’ll relate to its (again: comedic, we promise!) depiction of an era rife with paranoia, bigotry, and confusion. Even Rumi’s comedic “Balls” jersey has taken on an unfortunate new political context of late, with Fox News identifying the wearing of Chicago Bulls paraphernalia as grounds for extrajudicial rendition to El Salvador. “A lot of these conversations around surveillance and needing to overly prove your patriotism have proved to be of this era, just as much as they were of that era,” Youssef says. “That’s been the thing that we could have never expected.” All eight episodes of #1 Happy Family USA season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video now. The show has been renewed for a second season.

Like many gamers, I was apprehensive as Microsoft steadily acquired some of the biggest game studios in the world, including Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media. It was worrying to think this could lead to a renewed era of major titles trapped within the confines of platform exclusivity. These concerns were largely alleviated, however, in the months and years that followed with established multi-platform titles like Call of Duty and Doom remaining available day-and-date on PlayStation 5 in addition to the Xbox Series X|S. Still, what is really surprising is to see this trend now also extending to franchises not necessarily associated with multiplatform legacies. Look no further than the ZeniMax-published—and therefore Microsoft owned—title Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is now coming to PS5 just four months after its now vaunted launch on Xbox and PC in December. This push by Microsoft Games to make its first-party titles available beyond the Xbox and PC echoes a similar strategy from Sega as the Japanese company shifted from focusing on its consoles to multi-platform games more than 20 years ago. Like Sega before it, this shift also comes as the Xbox’s standing in the console industry began to noticeably and increasingly fall behind its competitors. Here’s how Sega survived in the gaming industry with its move to ditch producing its own consoles and console-exclusive games, and how Indiana Jones could signal a similar future for Microsoft. The Reinvention of Sega Following Nintendo’s complete revitalization of the video game industry in the ‘80s with the Nintendo Entertainment System, its first major competitor in the North American market became fellow Japanese gamemaker Sega. For nearly 20 years, Sega produced its own consoles, with first-party titles like Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage suggesting a slightly edgier ‘90s-friendly aesthetic in comparison to Nintendo. However, for a variety of reasons, Sega’s place in the industry eroded throughout that decade, with each subsequent console less successful in North America than the last. This culminated in Sega exiting the console industry in 2001 after lukewarm sales for the Sega Dreamcast. The company instead pivoted to focusing on producing games for platforms from their former competitors. This switch paid off quickly, reversing Sega’s diminishing fortunes, with the company posting its first profitable fiscal year in 2003 after a prolonged period of consistent losses. For me, after enduring the ‘90s console wars, the unthinkable happened when Sonic the Hedgehog games became available on the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance; I never thought I’d see the day. But in making established franchises, like Virtua Fighter, and new ones like Yakuza, available on other consoles, Sega not only lived to fight another day but thrived better than ever. Undiscovered Country for Microsoft After the success of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has been seeing similarly diminishing returns on its own console efforts starting with the subsequent Xbox One. This downward trend continued into the Xbox Series X|S era, with the console having sold 28.3 million units worldwide by June 2024, roughly half of the PS5’s total sales in relatively the same time period. Like Sega before it, Microsoft cannot rebuild its momentum compared directly to Nintendo or Sony, meaning it has to drastically rethink its strategy and place in the gaming industry. While Microsoft hasn’t announced any plans to pull out of the console industry or reduce its support of the Xbox Series X|S, it may want to strongly consider Sega’s own strategy. Microsoft Gaming has already leaned into expanding its ecosystem into the PC space, bringing it closer to Xbox with its GamePass program. In continuing to make games published by its subsidiaries to other consoles, like the PS5 and upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the biggest hint that Microsoft could alter its output to one prioritizing software over console hardware. In a 2023 court deposition, Microsoft executives tacitly admitted that they lost the console wars and that software exclusivity was not anti-competitive. Both are rare admissions that demonstrate Microsoft was aware of its long-term prospects and that its strategic future in console hardware and platform exclusivity was in doubt. To stay viable, Microsoft needs to lean into its strengths and right now that’s in software. Not console hardware. If Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first major Indiana Jones game released in 15 years and one of the biggest games published by ZeniMax since its acquisition, has received a multi-platform release, Indy could be leading the way for big changes to Microsoft Games. Just as it was unthinkable for me to see Sonic on Nintendo consoles, maybe Halo’s Master Chief could one day make a PlayStation appearance. In this industry, stranger things have happened… Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Four heroes, each with amazing powers. One with remarkable strength; another can turn herself invisible; the next has a body that can stretch in odd configurations; and the last leaves a trail of flames as he zooms by. Remarkable as these abilities certainly are, the quartet’s most important quality is the love they share for one another. Because, more than superheroes, these four are family. That description applies to Marvel‘s first family the Fantastic Four, whose shared affection (and occasional antagonism) is on full display in the latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, it also describes Disney‘s first superhero family, as seen in the Pixar film The Incredibles. Although some people might prefer the red-attired quartet over the group in blue, the similarities between the two superhero teams is a good thing. First Family? Voiced by Craig T. Nelson, Mr. Incredible introduced himself to the world in a teaser released in 2003. The two-minute clip opened with nostalgic shots of the hero in his glory days, inspirational images matched by a soaring score. We see Mr. Incredible suiting up, proudly pulling on his gloves and mask. But the tone changes abruptly when he gets to his belt, which no longer fits over his protruding gut. That short clip identifies the central emotional spine of the finished movie. Written and directed by Brad Bird, The Incredibles finds Bob Parr in the midst of a midlife crisis. Worried that his glory days are behind him and dissatisfied by his dull office job, Bob puts his own needs above those of his wife and children when an alluring stranger allows him to recapture his youth. Of course all of this suburban strife plays out less in the form of troubling self-medication and more as superhero adventurism, complete with discovering a volcano lair and a rampaging robot. Remembering that teaser and the focus on a midlife crisis does a lot to dissuade folks convinced that The Incredibles ripped off the Fantastic Four, despite having a family of superheroes, three quarters of whom share similar power sets. Bird claims the similarities between his team and the FF were entirely unintentional, stating that he drew more overtly from James Bond movies (thus the ’60s setting, the volcano lair, and Michael Giacchino’s jaunty Monty Norman-inspired score). In fact, the only comic book Bird acknowledges is Watchmen, which also has a plot about the government outlawing superheroes, and even then calls it a coincidence. That said, The Incredibles felt similar enough to the Fantastic Four that producers at 20th Century Fox were compelled to rework their 2005 take on the Marvel heroes. In particular, they found Bird’s depiction of Elasti-Girl’s (Holly Hunter) stretching powers so impressive that they needed to reimagine the way their Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) used his abilities. Obviously, it wasn’t enough as The Incredibles remains one of the greatest superhero movies of all time while 2005’s Fantastic Four is only defended by contrarians or victims of nostalgia. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter if Bird took direct inspiration from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or if he just happened on the same territory. What is important is how The Incredibles highlights the best parts of the Fantastic Four. Family First. Late in The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible snaps. A shadow covers his face and he grabs Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), the assistant of supervillain Syndrome (Jason Lee), and threatens to kill her. What accounts for this sudden change in tone? Simple. He just overheard a message from his wife Helen, stating that she and her children (Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox) were flying in a plane over Syndrome’s island, a plane that was just destroyed. Without his family, Mr. Incredible turned into a violent monster. Early in Jonathan Hickman’s influential run on Fantastic Four, Reed Richards uses a multiversal bridge to encounter the Council of Reeds, an organization filled with all of his variants. While the Reeds initially help one another to solve every problem, the main Reed soon gets unsettled by their utilitarian coldness. They reveal a willingness to sacrifice innocents in pursuit of their goals. Eventually, Reed realizes the difference between himself and these other selves; the thing that makes him caring and them as cruel as Doctor Doom. This Reed still has his Sue, still has his brother-in-law Johnny, and his best friend Ben. He has two children in Franklin and Valeria while the other Reeds considered their families a distraction from the real work. In Hickman’s hands—and indeed those of the great Fantastic Four creators, starting with Lee and Kirby—Reed’s family is the source of his heroism, not a distraction. It leads to a wonderful conclusion in which the mere existence of Franklin and Valeria allows Earth-616 Reed to succeed where the others failed. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! However, with the exception of the unreleased 1996 movie, none of the Fantastic Four movies that came before emphasized the family element. Neither Gruffudd nor co-star Jessica Alba had the chemistry to make Reed and Sue feel like a loving, supportive couple in 2005’s Fantastic Four or its 2007 sequel. Worse the 2015 movie leans hard into darkness, so that even brother and sister Johnny and Sue (Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara) feel like enemies. The Incredibles foregrounds heroes as family, setting a high bar that no Fantastic Four film to date has cleared. Family Forever The latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps features lots of intergalactic adventure, including our first look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer and Galactus’ foot, stomping through the city like he’s Godzilla. But the center of the trailer is on more mundane issues, namely the quartet’s excitement over Sue’s pregnancy. That combination of the mundane and the superheroic certainly exists in the comics. But it took The Incredibles to put the mixture on screen, opening the way for the Fantastic Four to take its next steps and become the legendary team they’re meant to be. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 25, 2025.

Surprises in wrestling can be hard to pull off. Sometimes things are so telegraphed that any fan could figure out every story beat weeks, or even months, in advance. A betrayal, a big return, or a major title change could be treated as surprising despite the narrative making it obvious to the viewer. At the same time, being truly unpredictable could backfire and ruin a storyline, making fans question the decision-making of the people in charge. With WrestleMania as WWE’s biggest annual show, there’s always an emphasis on making the moments feel larger than life and memorable. They occasionally need to throw in something out of left field to get people talking. Something unexpected to show how volatile this fictional battleground truly is. Here are some incidents in the decades of WrestleMania that genuinely felt surprising when they happened. Strike Force Explodes at WrestleMania V There had been several face turns at WrestleMania before this, like Brutus Beefcake at WrestleMania III, Bret Hart at WrestleMania IV, and even the main event of the first WrestleMania was the first step towards a Paul Orndorff turn. The first heel turn at WrestleMania came in the fifth installment with one-half of one of the biggest white meat babyface teams of the era. Strike Force was a fixture in the tag division, but Rick Martel was written off TV thanks to a beatdown from Demolition. That led to Tito Santana going solo for a while until his buddy could get healthy enough to return. At this show, they faced off against the Brainbusters. The two were doing great until a miscommunication led to Santana nailing Martel with a flying forearm. Santana valiantly fought for his life while Martel stood on the apron, fuming. When the time came for a tag, Martel decided he was going to do a solo run himself and left Santana high and dry. Then he got really into modeling, because that’s what you do in wrestling. Randy Savage and Elizabeth Reunited at WrestleMania VII The initial dynamic between Randy Savage and Elizabeth was that she was the heel wrestler’s face manager who gradually made him a better person, but then his paranoia and jealousy got the better of him and destroyed their relationship. The two of them had broken up in the lead-up to WrestleMania V and in that time, Savage had become increasingly unhinged as the Macho King. This culminated in a Career-Ending Match against The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII. Prior to the match, an emotional Elizabeth was pointed out as being in the audience. Once Savage lost the match, his manager Queen Sherri put the boots to him in anger, only for Elizabeth to jump the railing and save her former client. Despite his major loss and (temporary) retirement, Savage ended up standing tall at the end of the night, reunited with the manager he loved as he held Elizabeth over his shoulder. The Ultimate Warrior Returns at WrestleMania VIII The Ultimate Warrior made his final appearance for a time at SummerSlam 1991 thanks to some backstage disagreements about how much he was getting paid. Quietly phased out, Warrior sat at home while the main event scene in WWF became increasingly chaotic. What was initially set to be Hulk Hogan challenging against WWF Champion Ric Flair turned into a main event grudge match between Hogan and Sid Justice. Then the night of the show, voodoo practitioner Papa Shango randomly got involved in the storyline. The match ended in a disqualification and followed with Sid and Papa Shango working over Hogan. Suddenly, without warning, Warrior’s iconic music started playing and the facepainted psychopath came to his frenemy’s rescue. Hogan was about to leave the company for a bit, so Warrior was there to distract from that. As Warrior looked so physically different since his last appearance in terms of hair, paint, and musculature, this led to the widespread school recess rumors that the “original” Ultimate Warrior died in a car crash and was being replaced with a new guy. Hulk Hogan’s Impromptu Title Win at WrestleMania IX So… just because it was surprising doesn’t mean it was good. With Hogan gone for nearly a year, WWF jumpstarted the New Generation Era by having Bret Hart become WWF Champion. His run as a fighting champion was about to hit a wall as he took on rising monster heel Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX. Meanwhile, the undercard had Hogan return to team up with his sidekick Brutus Beefcake against Money Inc., where they failed to win the tag titles, but still celebrated for like ten minutes anyway. Elsewhere on the show, Hogan made a challenge to whoever won the main event. Yokozuna defeated Bret thanks to Mr. Fuji’s interference and cheating. Hogan ran out to raise a big stink about it, though he had no storyline connection to Bret. Speaking for Yokozuna, Fuji inexplicably laid down the challenge right then and there, putting the title on the line against Hogan. With Bret’s blessing, Hogan went in there, sidestepped some more cheating, and won the belt immediately. Any hope of this leading to Hogan vs. Bret at SummerSlam was dashed when Hogan dropped the belt back to Yokozuna and crept out the back door towards WCW. Owen Hart Gets the Better of His Brother at WrestleMania X Bret Hart and Lex Luger were co-winners at the 1994 Royal Rumble, having fallen out of the ring at the same time. As the company had yet to think of the simple concept of a triple threat match yet, they instead turned WrestleMania X into a mini tournament. Lex Luger would challenge Yokozuna for the title and the winner would face Bret Hart in the main event. To make things even, Bret would face his pissed off little brother Owen in the opening match. Win or lose, Bret would advance. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Bret and Owen proceeded to tear the place down with an awesome opener. About twenty minutes into it, Owen was able to land a major upset with a victory roll reversed into a pin. Bret made history as the man who lost WrestleMania’s opening match and won the title in the same show’s main event. This curveball created a perfect follow-up direction to the show where Owen, bitter over Bret’s win, was the rightful #1 contender. The Double-Turn at WrestleMania 13 The feud between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin spent months heating up. Bret returned from a lengthy hiatus, annoyed with Austin’s lack of honor. Over time, Bret was increasingly agitated by Austin’s behavior, the loud contingent of people cheering this jerk, and the fact that he was constantly getting screwed over. Bret was able to get the better of Austin by outwrestling him at Survivor Series, but it wasn’t enough. They were going to have a match that could only be won by submission. The two had possibly the greatest match in WrestleMania history, complete with the perfect ending. Bret locked the Sharpshooter on a bleeding Austin and couldn’t get him to submit. The defiant Austin tried to power out of it, but he finally collapsed, and lost by decision. This victory just wasn’t enough for Bret and he refused to break the hold as the crowd completely turned against him. He was completely fed up and it had driven him over the edge. Seeing a double-turn in wrestling is rare, but between Bret’s descent into bitter madness and Austin going out like a total badass, we got a result better than what anyone could have expected. Pete Rose is a Chicken, I Tell Ya, at WrestleMania XIV WrestleMania XIV had a bizarre segment where baseball non-Hall-of-Famer Pete Rose antagonized the crowd until newcomer Kane arrived for his own match and practically murdered him. A year later, the San Diego Chicken was doing schtick during WrestleMania, even though the show was in Philadelphia. Previous WrestleManias have featured the likes of Burt Reynolds and the “Where’s the beef?!” lady, so it’s not like having a guy in a famous sports mascot costume was too out of the ordinary. Then when Kane made his entrance, the San Diego Chicken jumped him. Kane easily overpowered him and tore the mask off to reveal a vengeful and sweaty Pete Ross. Nobody had that on their bingo card. Kane blew up the chicken man in Philly that night with a Tombstone, in what was only the second part of their WrestleMania trilogy. The following year would involve Pete Rose getting Rikishi’s ass shoved into his face, so I hope he got a good paycheck out of it all. Triple H Ends WrestleMania 2000 on a Sour Note Heels win all the time in wrestling, but at least WrestleMania always insisted on a happy ending. The final match for the first fifteen WrestleManias always had the face standing tall in celebration. Going into WrestleMania 2000, it seemed like we were getting another win for the good guys. Triple H was defending the WWF Championship in a four-way against The Rock, Mick Foley, and Big Show. While Foley and Big Show were superfluous additions to make it seem like a bigger deal, Rock was the real star of the storyline. Hell, he even hyped up the event by hosting Saturday Night Live, which was responsible for springboarding his acting career. Then, thanks to cornerman Vince McMahon betraying Rock, Triple H retained the title. They finally pulled the trigger on having a heel win the final match of the show. Yes, Rock did get a bit of revenge afterwards by beating up Stephanie McMahon, but it was still a downer ending. They instead saved Rock’s big victory for Backlash, which absolutely stuck the landing. Steve Austin Sells his Soul at WrestleMania X-Seven WrestleMania X-Seven was the ultimate victory lap for WWF. World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling just bit the dust, the Attitude Era was hitting its apex, and they celebrated by putting on one of the best shows in the promotion’s history. Fittingly, the main event was centered around the two biggest stars of the era, as The Rock defended the WWF Championship against Stone Cold Steve Austin. With both as mega-faces, this felt like possibly the biggest main event yet. At the very least, it gave us a legendary hype package with Limp Bizkit’s “My Way.” Curiously, right before the entrances, the match was announced as “no disqualification.” That laid the seeds for the finale, where Vince McMahon came to the ring to aid Austin. Austin, who then brutally destroyed The Rock with a chair until his body finally gave in. Austin, who, in the build to the match, claimed that he had to win and would do anything to make it happen. He and Vince shook hands, which probably would have gotten a bigger reaction if it was anywhere but Texas. Brock Lesnar Ends the Streak at WrestleMania XXX With a borderline monopoly on the wrestling industry, WWE didn’t really need to try as much in the decade-plus that followed. They played it pretty safe for those years, giving us Cena win after Cena win. This was also the time when The Undertaker’s Streak became more pronounced as something mythical instead of one big coincidence that came out of regularly booking him strong. After a while, people started to wonder if they would ever end the Streak. If you were going to do it, it would have to be with someone who could really launch their career with it, but putting that kind of responsibility on a younger wrestler would be such a gamble. When Brock Lesnar was Undertaker’s 22nd WrestleMania opponent, nobody really thought much of it. Brock came back hot from a lengthy sabbatical from wrestling, only to immediately lose to John Cena. Then he traded wins with Triple H and beat CM Punk one time, but otherwise he was a part-timer who had no real direction. Then the match happened and while it wasn’t anything to write home about (Undertaker got concussed early on and could barely perform), the shock of Brock hitting the third F5 and getting the pin was huge. Brock then ascended into being the ultimate threat in WWE, like a special video game boss you can only go up against if you don’t use any continues or something. Seth Rollins Cashes in at WrestleMania 31 After The Shield broke up, it was frustrating how much WWE wanted Roman Reigns to happen. At first, the fans seemed to be okay with it, but after he had to sit out several months due to health problems, they made it even more blatantly obvious that he was going to be the top star whether we liked it or not. It gave us a mess of a Royal Rumble, a Fastlane based around Daniel Bryan losing to him and holding his hand up in victory, and a build to WrestleMania that left a lot to be desired. Still, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar seemed to be on the way out, so everyone just accepted that Roman was going to get his big coronation at the event. The match did a good job making him likeable as an underdog who was eventually going to win the big one. Then, as Roman and Brock were both knocked out, they threw in a wrench as Seth Rollins’ theme kicked in and he was able to take advantage of the situation. There had been many Money in the Bank cash-ins before, but none at WrestleMania. Even with a heel winning, this scenario seemed to be the solution to everyone’s problems, as it at least allowed them to go back to the drawing board for Roman for another few months. Just WrestleMania 32 in General This was initially going to be an entry on Zack Ryder winning a multi-man ladder match to become Intercontinental Champion when he had zero going on beforehand and lost the belt on the next night of Raw, but really, all of WrestleMania 32 was one big fever dream. The fact that this was the first endlessly long WrestleMania didn’t help matters. So many strange choices from start to finish, giving us such a head-scratcher of a show. This is the show where The Rock randomly appeared, set his name on fire with a flamethrower, then defeated Erick Rowan in an impromptu match in six seconds. The New Day appeared out of a giant box of cereal while dressed as Dragonball Z characters. Then there’s the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where not only did Shaq and Tatanka show up out of nowhere, but the whole thing was won by NXT’s Baron Corbin, who was making his main roster debut. Undertaker Squashes John Cena at WrestleMania 34 Undertaker seemingly retired at the end of WrestleMania 33, which wasn’t the worst idea, as he looked incredibly rough during his match with Roman Reigns. Going into WrestleMania 34, they started setting up a massive match by having John Cena “go against orders” and constantly call Undertaker out. The match wasn’t made official, but they were making a huge deal about Cena going to the show and wanting Undertaker to meet him there for an epic battle between icons. Obviously, Undertaker was going to show. Obviously, the two of them were going to have a match. Hell, that could have been the main event. Cena and Undertaker had matches early in the former’s career, but so much had changed since then. Now it was more of a dream match. And so, the bout did happen. All two minutes and forty-five seconds of it. Undertaker just completely destroyed Cena and that was it. No follow-up or anything. Everyone just moved on like it was nothing. John Cena Enters the Firefly Funhouse at WrestleMania 36 Plans changed a lot going into WrestleMania 36. First it was going to be Roman Reigns challenging The Fiend for the WWE Universal Championship, building The Fiend up as some kind of invincible demon with an Achilles’ heel yet to be discovered. Then Vince McMahon decided, screw it, and had Bill Goldberg easily defeat The Fiend and win the belt, changing WrestleMania to Roman vs. Goldberg in a Battle of the Spears. Then COVID happened and the immunocompromised Roman ducked out, turning the title match into Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman. Intent on giving Bray Wyatt’s murder clown alter ego something to do, they threw together The Fiend vs. John Cena. Sure, why not? We’ve seen these two face off at WrestleMania six years earlier. Without a live audience, they decided to get weird with it. Very, very weird. This cinematic bout was less a wrestling match and more a short film where Cena was pulled into what can best be described as Wrestling Hell. After being sucked into Wyatt’s Firefly Funhouse TV show, Cena went on a journey through time and space, living out an artistic satire and criticism of his career. At the end of this nightmarish episode, The Fiend pinned Cena, teleported him into the void, and we were left wondering what the hell we just watched. Love it or hate it, it was definitely unexpected. Cody Rhodes’ Story Gets Derailed at WrestleMania 39 Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign just went on forever for the sake of having it go on forever. Eventually, he was starting to run out of viable contenders, especially ones who would believably get that big win and dethrone him. Sami Zayn, the lynchpin in Roman’s Bloodline storyline, was a popular choice for Elimination Chamber 2023, but he fell short. No, it seemed that Roman would finally be losing at WrestleMania 39 against Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes. The title run had run its course, and it was time to bring it home. Except… that wasn’t the case. Presumably, feeling that a potential Roman Reigns vs. Rock match was in the cards, it was decided that Cody would choke. Even through documentary footage, you could tell that this was a last-minute decision, as Cody and wife Brandi had the bummed looks of people just informed that no, Cody would not be “ending the story” after all. Then somebody threw a rubber chicken at him as he laid defeated in the ring, and we all had a laugh. They padded things out with another year of Roman occasionally defending his title, and we almost did get that Rock match, only for the fans to revolt so loudly that they used WrestleMania 40 as a mulligan to have Cody finally pin Roman and get that gold.

WrestleMania 41 is officially upon us. WWE is taking over Las Vegas — the city of sin, risk, and reinvention. Fitting, isn’t it? Because this year’s Mania isn’t just another page in WWE history—it’s a full-blown rewrite of the future. You’ve got legends clashing, factions crumbling, and betrayals turning friends into enemies. In Vegas the lights are brighter. The stakes are higher. The entrances are going to be longer than The Strip itself. WrestleMania 40 gave us a fairytale—Cody Rhodes, bloodied and broken, finally “finished the story.” But fairytales? They’re for bedtime. This is WrestleMania. And the dream has been corrupted. Because this year… John Cena snapped at Elimination Chamber. He gave his soul to The Rock. Low blowing Cody and pummeling him till he was bleeding. It was a moment that left many speechless.  John Cena is supposed to be the hero, not the villain. The man who was the moral compass of WWE, the embodiment of “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect,” has turned his back on it all. No more t-shirts. No more salutes. Just venom in his voice and destruction in his heart. And standing in his way? The golden son of Dusty, the man of the people—Cody Rhodes.  While the headliner will draw a ton of attention, WrestleMania 41’s two-night card is stacked. The drama is layered. And the streets of Vegas are ready to burn. Let’s get into our predictions. NIGHT ONE: Chad Gable has reinvented himself as “El Grande Americano,” a loud, overly patriotic parody that’s been mocking lucha libre and Rey Mysterio’s heritage with every promo. What started as comedic jabs turned personal quick, with Gable attacking Rey’s legacy, culture, and influence. Rey’s not just fighting for a win — he’s defending an entire tradition. Expect a fast-paced, high-flying masterclass with sneaky heel tactics from Gable. Prediction: Rey Mysterio overcomes the disrespect and gets a clean win to kick off the show with heart. Naomi vs. Jade Cargill What started as one of the most exciting alliances in recent women’s wrestling — Naomi, Bianca Belair, and Jade Cargill — quickly spiraled into betrayal. The trio was poised to dominate the women’s division, but envy simmered beneath the surface. Naomi, the seasoned vet, saw her spotlight dim under Jade’s rise. Frustration turned into violence when Naomi attacked Jade backstage, causing a storyline injury that sidelined Cargill for weeks. Jade returned with fury at Elimination Chamber, blindsiding Naomi with a brutal attack. Now, at WrestleMania 41, it’s personal. Jade isn’t just chasing a win—she’s hunting for closure and revenge. Prediction: Jade Cargill destroys Naomi. This is her coming-out party. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! WWE Tag Team Championships: War Raiders (c) vs. The New Day This is a battle of brute force vs. ruthless cunning. The War Raiders have dominated with power and brutality. But The New Day has dropped the fun and flipped the switch—now gritty, edgy, and willing to cheat to win. Prediction: The New Day steals a win using distraction and dirty tactics. A new reign begins. United States Championship: LA Knight (c) vs. Jacob Fatu Jacob Fatu arrived like a storm—unpredictable, violent, and completely unbothered by the rules. His debut came after annihilating Braun Strowman, and now he’s gunning for the charismatic LA Knight. Knight’s momentum is undeniable, but Fatu brings the kind of raw aggression WWE hasn’t seen in a while. Prediction: LA Knight squeaks by with a controversial win. The feud continues through the summer. WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Charlotte Flair Tiffany Stratton talks like she already owns the women’s division, but now she has to face the standard — Charlotte Flair. The promos have been personal, cutting deep into both women’s pasts, and the match will be even deeper. Tiff wants to prove she’s not just flash—but Charlotte’s legacy is cemented in gold and dominance. Prediction: Charlotte wins. Tiffany looks good in the loss, setting her up for long-term elevation. World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther (c) vs. Jey Uso Gunther’s reign has been defined by violence and discipline. He’s a machine. But Jey Uso has turned into one of the most beloved babyfaces in the company—a man who broke free from the Bloodline and carved out his own name. This match is a clash of styles and stories. Gunther represents order. Jey represents chaos, passion, and grit. Prediction: Jey Uso pulls the upset of the night and captures his first singles world title. NIGHT TWO: AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul Styles is the ring general. Logan Paul is the flashy outsider who’s proven he belongs—but now he’s facing a true veteran. Their feud escalated from Royal Rumble tension to social media flame wars. Prediction: AJ Styles wins. Logan gets yet another viral moment, but AJ gets the W. Sin City Street Fight: Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest This match is about respect, redemption, and violence. Priest cost Drew his WrestleMania moment last year, and ever since, it’s been personal with the car window spot and the sneak attacks. Drew’s had enough. Prediction: McIntyre wins in a war. This one’s going to be bloody. Women’s Tag Team Championships: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria A lowkey banger with emotional stakes. Liv and Raquel want to prove they’re not transitional champs. Bayley wants to bring Lyra to the big stage and rebuild her own legacy in the process. Prediction: Liv & Raquel retain. Clean win, great showing. Intercontinental Championship: Bron Breakker (c) vs. Penta vs. Finn Bálor vs. Dominik Mysterio This four-way is chaos on paper. Bron’s been dominant. Penta brings unpredictability. Finn’s the strategist. Dom’s the spoiled heat magnet who will do anything to win. Prediction: Bron retains. The young lion continues his reign of dominance. Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY (c) vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley Originally booked as Rhea vs. Bianca, the dynamic changed when Bianca cost Rhea a match, leading to IYO getting the win and inserting herself. Rhea then activated her rematch clause, creating a high-stakes triple threat. All three women are elite. All three have something to prove. Prediction: Bianca Belair wins. She reclaims her spot at the top. Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. John Cena WrestleMania 41 is everything WrestleMania should be—epic, dramatic, unpredictable. It’s about legacy, betrayal, and rebirth. From Cody vs Cena to Jade’s revenge, this weekend will define careers. Las Vegas might be known for its lights, but after WrestleMania 41, it’ll be remembered for the fire. The dream match became a nightmare. John Cena turned heel—fully. Influenced by The Rock, driven by bitterness, Cena is chasing his 17th world title with zero remorse. Cody, the ultimate babyface, is fighting not just to keep his title—but to save the soul of WWE from the man he once admired. Prediction: John Cena wins. Dirty finish. Cody’s story enters a new chapter — darker, more personal.

The women of WWE are at the forefront of sports entertainment like never before. And one of the newest history makers, Chelsea Green, is embracing that responsibility. The longtime heel recently broke new ground as the first-ever WWE Women’s United States Champion (and “longest-running” as she often jokes), stepping into a different kind of role and brave new era for the world’s biggest wrestling promotion.  Green’s reinvention represents a new chapter in the storied history of brilliant women in the WWE, from the promotion’s first female champion, The Fabulous Moolah, to Attitude era icons who became a household name during the ‘90s like Chyna, and ‘00s Ruthless Aggression stars like Lita and Trish Stratus. The 2010s were defined by the Divas Nikki Bella, AJ Lee, and their badass cohort. But in 2025 there are no more Divas, only Superstars like Green, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, and Becky Lynch. It’s a brave new world for women in wrestling and Green is ready for it. To commemorate WrestleMania weekend and the beginning of Den of Geek magazine’s 10th anniversary celebration, Chelsea Green is taking over: The United States Champion will serve as our first-ever digital cover star and guest editor with exclusive behind-the-scenes video live from WrestleMania on our Instagram feed. For our cover feature chat, Green gave us an in-depth look at her winding journey to wrestling stardom, why she feels more empowered than ever, and the hustle she is putting into our Hollywood aspirations beyond wrestling. Climbing to the Top of the Mountain Although it might seem like she was born to be in the ring, becoming a wrestler wasn’t always in the cards. “It’s funny because a lot of my coworkers, they grew up knowing this is it,” Green tells us. “My husband and my best friend came out of the womb knowing they wanted to be wrestlers. I wasn’t that way. I was just always an extrovert, always a performer, always a drama queen, always the center of attention at school. So I knew that would parlay into my career. I just didn’t know how that looked.”  That all changed in a single moment, one that reshaped her aspirations to be an actor and set her on course to become the WWE Superstar she is today. She stepped in the ring for the first time at Storm Wrestling Academy to train and knew “absolutely nothing” about what she was getting into. “I stepped in that ring and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what I was meant to do,'” she says.  Those lightning in a bottle moments have continued throughout her career keeping her focused on her journey as a professional athlete and eventually to becoming a WWE Superstar.  “Being called to TNA to do my first ever match on TV against Michin. And then fast forward a couple years after that, it was wrestling for All In as one of only four to five girls on the show. And then fast forward it was wrestling Pentagon for Lucha Underground. So there’s been so many moments that led up to WWE and the top of the mountain.” “I feel like I’m the most authentic version of myself now” Over the years, the way that women are represented and respected within WWE has shifted and changed. But with main card female wrestlers now commonplace and two WrestleMania main cards featuring female fighters—35 with Becky Lynch taking the Raw Women’s Championship from Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women’s Champion from Charlotte Flair, and 37 which featured Bianca Belair beating Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women’s Championship—it’s never been a more interesting time for women in the WWE.  That’s something that Green tells us she feels grateful for every single day, “It is very empowering. I feel extremely empowered when I walk into work. Not only with the characters, but for me as a wrestler, I feel like I’m the most authentic version of myself now.” Her current status in the promotion means she has a greater freedom of choice over just how she portrays herself in the ring. “In this run, WWE basically said, ‘Here you go. We are releasing the reins. You do what you think you need to do to succeed, whether it works or not, we don’t know, but we’re gonna hand it over to you and that has been the most empowering thing.”  That’s been a journey in its own right as Green juggles being funny, imposing, and empowered while still kicking ass and taking names every time she walks into the ring. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! “I find it very hard to be a funny woman in show business,” she explains. “I think that’s a really difficult thing to do and I’m trying to navigate that. I’m trying to figure out what the audience enjoys versus what is a little bit cringey versus what is possibly too much for them to handle right now in 2025, but that’s also been empowering for me. You know, it takes a special type of woman to make fun of herself and also still present herself as sexy and empowered and strong.”  “At the end of the day, I just want to be treated equally,” she says. ” I don’t need to be put on a pedestal. I don’t need to be given more time because I’m a woman. I don’t want to be given less time. I don’t want to be not able to be funny or not able to be strong, or not able to do the same moves as the men. That’s this interesting Tango that we’ve been doing in wrestling. And I think finally in 2024, 2025 women in sports are taking off in all aspects. So that’s been very cool.”  But according to Green that doesn’t mean the movement has already peaked. “Maybe if we talk in three years, I’ll be like, ‘What was I talking about? It’s so much better now.”   A Historic Moment This unique era represents an evolution for WWE and for Green herself who in 2024 defeated numerous Superstars, including Bianca Belair and her old foe Michin, to become the first WWE United States Women’s Champion. “That’s just a goal I didn’t even think was possible. Because, again, that’s a ceiling that I didn’t know we were ever going to shatter, bringing in an Intercontinental title, bringing in the United States Championship. So when Triple H revealed the championship, I really was set on it, this is my moment. I just knew it. I felt it in my heart. This is meant for me.”  Striving for greatness as a woman in sports can often be a lonely pursuit but in 2024 Green was inspired by women all over the world taking over. “Witnessing the WNBA pop off, Women’s soccer pop off, Ilona [Maher] in rugby. All of these amazing women in sports that were just thriving, I thought this is the perfect time. And not only is it the perfect time for us to introduce this championship, but I think it’s the perfect time for someone like me to win it. Someone who the fans have deemed possibly mid-card, or comedic relief, all these ridiculous terms. So when we unveiled this beautiful championship. I just knew that I needed to push for this moment.”  And push she did—ironically as a Canadian—taking that first U.S. Women’s belt. While representing the U.S. feels good, Green has been overwhelmed by just how many fans have connected with her story and journey to the championship. “I feel like I’m representing more than just the U.S., because since winning this championship, I’ve just had so many people tell me how much it means to them to have watched me grow over these 11 years. There’s a lot of people who tuned in and watched me as Laurel Van Ness, as the Impact Knockouts Champion, when I had no right winning a title just two years in and had no idea what I was doing. So it’s been really, really amazing to see people in the UK tell me how much it means to them. Hear people in India tell me how much it means to them. And then of course people in Canada.” That decade-plus journey from indie wrestling to the big leagues is one that Green clearly values deeply, despite the struggle that often accompanied it. “I had to kiss a lot of frogs to find my prince in WWE,” she laughs. “My family and friends had to watch me in front of five, 10, 15 people at tiny, little independent shows in Vancouver and Victoria, but at the end of the day that makes this moment so much sweeter.”  Coming in from the ground up also feels like something Green can uniquely share with her fans. “I feel like because of that journey, I really can relate to the fans in a different way than I think most of the women [in WWE] can. That indie journey, those fails. I heard so many nos. I tripped and fell on my face so many times, but everyone got to watch me pick myself back up, dust myself off, and just keep going. There’s something about that that people relate to. At the time, I didn’t know that that’s what would make my journey special, and it felt really frustrating to watch people race by me. And now I’m so grateful for it, because I don’t think that the people would be behind me the way that they are now without it.”  A Controversial Call As if defending her championship wasn’t enough of a battle when we spoke to Green it was just days after the shocking count out that had set the internet on fire and had WWE fans across the world talking. During her WWE Smackdown match against Zelina Vega, she was counted out by the referee for leaving the ring in a moment that wasn’t pre planned but still happened in front of thousands of fans live, meaning that Green had to react on the spot and change the trajectory of her character in mere seconds. It’s an impressive feat but one that the wrestler shares is common in the business.  “The interesting thing about wrestling is that no matter what if it’s in front of five people or 50,000 it’s live and shit happens,” Green chuckles. “And it’ll forever be that way. We will forever screw things up. We will get counted out. We will have to listen to the fans and change everything that we thought we were going to do. That’s the beauty of it. And then on top of that, we’re not just live but we’re on live television as well. So the show must go on.”  Green explains that it was a mix of her indie wrestling background and love of acting that really allowed her to shine under incredible pressure as she was counted out for the very first time.  “We always have to create those backstories before we press record, and I think that’s what’s helped me in this run of WWE. Every Friday, every Monday, every premium live event is a new shit show—we still have that same backstory to rely on. So when I went out there and I got counted out and in my head, I was in this moment, and I wasn’t listening to the referees, and I slid in, and I heard him count to 10. But the show must go on, so I think what would Chelsea Green the President do? What would Chelsea Green, the United States Champion do? What would Chelsea Green the narcissist do?”  The Female John Cena With the title now on her resume, Green is eager to think outside of the ring just as much as she fights in it. While she’s still clearly excited to wrestle at WWE, she also wants to make the transition to acting like John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson before her. Now that she has been booking roles including in the upcoming Dimension 20 campaign, it feels like a full circle moment as one of her first jobs was as a stunt double on the cult classic series Wynonna Earp, which shaped her as both an actor and an athlete.  “When I was hired to be a stunt double, I had no idea how incredible the journey would be and what would come after that,” Green shares. “I choreographed fight scenes with the stunt coordinator for Wynonna Earp that I had to perform in negative 20-degree weather with two or so feet of snow outside, bashing into trees and jumping off of roofs. It was just so exhilarating, so exciting, so painful, it was all the things, and that has kind of made wrestling so easy, because stunt work is the hardest work you can do. It’s not just like one skill set, true professional stunt women do everything from gymnastics to fighting to knowing how to drive cars and motorcycles to falling, just like we do in wrestling, except they’re doing it from a 10-story building.”  While her passion for stunt work is clear, Green is in acting classes, thinking about what comes after WWE. “Having won a singles championship at WWE. I really think that my goal is now outside of wrestling, because at the end of the day, we can only control so many things in wrestling. It is what it is. We have a whole team behind us that is deciding the fate of our character. I can only hope for the best, I can only show up with a good attitude.” As she builds up her credits and works on honing her craft in Orlando, Green has dreams of getting complex leading roles, more akin to characters who would show up in the works of M. Night Shyamalan or Patty Jenkins. “I want to be the female James McAvoy in Split. Ever since I became the hot mess in TNA, I have never been able to get these kind of characters out of my head: the split personality, the multiple personalities. I love diving into deep, deep character work instead of just playing someone that I am.”  With big dreams and what she’s already achieved, Green is a force to be reckoned with. And she’s still always looking for the next thing to be excited about and inspired by. Says Green, “I listened to Ed Sheeran, and he was saying ‘I just hope that there’s some kid somewhere that thinks that he’s just average and and he not that great at anything, and he listens to Ed Sheeran’s interview and he thinks, ‘Oh, well, I could do that if he did that.’ That’s how I feel. I didn’t grow up being the best athlete or the best actor. I didn’t do flips. I’ve never been the best wrestler, but at the end of the day, I figured out what makes me unique and then I’ve totally taken advantage of that. And it’s taken me 34 years, but when you find what makes you special, nobody can take that away from you. So hopefully that’s what people see.” 

He is coming. Synopses and first looks had long hinted that The Fantastic Four: First Steps would introduce an incredibly powerful character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, someone whose mere existence would have reverberations across realities. The latest trailer for First Steps doesn’t completely reveal this character, but we do see a harbinger announce his arrival and its effects on team leader Reed Richards a.k.a Mister Fantastic. What? No, the name isn’t Galan, better known as Galactus. Yes, the world-devourer does appear in the form of a shadow and a foot (not a cloud!), but the most powerful character teased in the trailer is Franklin, the oldest son of Reed and Sue Richards, a boy who can change reality with his imagination. The Arrival of Franklin Right from their first appearance in 1961, the Fantastic Four were a family first, scientists and superheroes second. So it was just a matter of time before creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had central couple Reed Richards and Sue Storm get married and welcome their first child Franklin Benjamin Richards, born in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6. A mind-bending, psychedelic journey into the Negative Zone, Fantastic Four Annual #6 follows Reed and teammates Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm as they seek the one thing that can save Sue, whose delivery is threatened by her exposure to cosmic rays. Lee and Kirby’s larger-than-life approach to family details mark Franklin’s odd life, as seen by Reed and Sue’s decision to hire the witch Agatha Harkness (originally a sage elderly woman in the comics, not snarky Kathryn Hahn) as a nanny. But Franklin’s life gets even weirder when he begins manifesting powers, even as a toddler. Initially, it seemed as if Franklin had psychic abilities that allowed him to disrupt the minds of others or even see the future, which led to him taking the name “Tattletale” and joining a team of kid superheroes called the Power Pack. However, upon closer inspection, Reed discovered that Franklin wasn’t seeing the future — he was creating it. Franklin had the ability to make and remake reality, powers so great that the occurred on a subconscious level. Moreover, Reed and Sue learned that Franklin’s powers came from what is known in the Marvel Universe as the X-Gene, making him officially a mutant in the manner of the X-Men. And so, Franklin Richards quickly changed from the baby child of two superheroes to someone with connections to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and who could remake the world according to his desires. This, obviously, let to some outrageous stories. Fantastic Franklin Late in the 2012 story “Forever,” the Fantastic Four stand at the edge of oblivion. Despite their remarkable powers, neither the Four nor their super-powered friends in the Avengers or the X-Men could stand up to the Mad Celestials, literal gods who have lost their minds and plan to undo reality. Amidst the chaos, Reed and Sue hear a familiar, if changed, voice shout, “Rise!” The voice belongs to the adult Franklin, who has come from the future to help his family face the Mad Celestials. “Rise! Rise!” Franklin repeats, until a gigantic figure arrives in the skyline, ready to face the Celestials. Upon seeing him, Franklin commands, “To me, my Galactus!” This scene from Fantastic Four #604, written by Jonathan Hickman and penciled by Steve Epting, stands as perhaps the best moment involving Franklin showing off his powers, but it is far from the only instance. Franklin regularly recreates reality, sometimes in small ways, by helping his godfather the Thing win a match against Yancey Street rivals, and sometimes on a galactic scale. Adult Franklin often shows up in time travel stories, including the beloved X-Men two-parter Days of Future Past (and more so in the less-effective sequel Days of Future Present) or as a new Galactus in the Earth X series by Alex Ross. Writers have also used Franklin as a tool to reboot continuity, most famously in the Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return debacle that followed Marvel’s company-wide Onslaught story. After the Fantastic Four and Avengers were killed by a new villain called Onslaught, Franklin remakes them in a new reality, one that just so happened to be written and drawn by flashy ’90s artists like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (yes, that’s where this image of Captain America comes from). When fans rejected the edgy reboots, Marvel published a story where Franklin reintegrates the FF and the Avengers into mainline reality and promptly lost his powers. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Of course, Franklin got his powers back again only to lose them later, something that would be annoying if the stories weren’t so good. Case in point, 2024’s Fantastic Four #14, written by Ryan North and penciled by Carlos Gómez, in which a formerly depowered Franklin wakes up with his abilities intact and explains that he’s stripped them away himself. His powers return once a year, in which he explores realities to end threats that his family and other Marvel heroes cannot stop, and then goes back to being a normal human kid. Just a Boy The decision to return himself to being a normal kid is central to Franklin’s appeal, and that of the entire Fantastic Four. No matter how amazing the adventures, the Fantastic Four must be a family first, regular people who love one another. Given the alternate 1960s where First Steps takes place, it’s hard not to believe that Franklin’s reality-warping powers might have something to do with integrating the team into the MCU’s Earth-616 — after all, the aforementioned Fantastic Four #604 comes in the lead-up to Secret Wars, the story that will become 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. However, the trailer’s focus on Johnny and Ben celebrating their uncle status and Reed and Sue fretting about being parents shows that First Steps is putting the family first, the most important part of any Franklin Richards story. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 24, 2025.