Stranger Things fans are worried about the ultimate fate of main character Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, and even some think the teen might not make it out alive at the end of the series.Eleven has been an integral part of the Duffer Brothers’ smash hit Netflix series since it first hit streaming in the summer of 2016.Viewers immediately gravitated toward the show for its spooky atmosphere and mystery-centered plot, nostalgic ’80s vibes and lovable cast of Goonies-esque teen characters.Fans have loved Eleven ever since she made her first appearance in Season 1, Episode 1, “The Vanishing of Will Byers,” and they've watched the unsure, traumatized and quiet young girl transform into a confident, spunky teen with powerful telekinetic abilities over the course of four seasons.Now though, with the series’ fifth and final season set to air later this year, longtime fans are worried about what the end of the show might spell for Eleven, now also known as Jane Hopper.Does Eleven Die in Stranger Things?Nothing about the fate of the core Stranger Things characters is known for sure at this time. However, that hasn’t stopped viewers from theorizing and speculating.During an appearance on U.K. talk show The Jonathan Ross Show in March 2024, Millie Bobby Brown may have inadvertently hinted that her character dies at the end of the show thanks to some questionable phrasing.While discussing the final season, the actress hinted, “I know how she ...” before catching herself and correcting, “I know what happens to my character.”The initial wording of “I know how she” sparked fans’ ears, many of whom thought the actress almost blurted out, “I know how she dies.”Brown also worried fans during a 2024 interview with Capital Radio, when she admitted she discovered her character’s fate after “kind of [forcing] myself into the writers’ room.”“I saw my ending and thought, ‘Oh,’ and then I walked away very slowly,” she cryptically teased.For years fans have speculated about the ending of Stranger Things, particularly about which of the core group might not make it out alive.Some fan theories suggest that Eleven is ultimately doomed, and might be forced to lock herself in the Upside Down forever to close the gate between the Upside Down and the real world, or will die heroically closing the gate and saving her friends and loved ones.Others believe Will Byers, who was the first to venture into the Upside Down and appears to still be connected to it as well as the series’ villain Vecna, will ultimately die in the finale.Of course, these are just fan theories. Hopefully, all the kids end up just fine and there's a big, happy ending!Stranger Things Season 5 will pick up after the epic events of Season 4, in which the kids learned about the evil Vecna, who ended the season by opening a hellish portal between the town of Hawkins and the Upside Down.The fifth season will be released in three parts: The first four episodes will hit Netflix on Nov. 26, three episodes will begin streaming on Dec. 25 and the series finale will air on Dec. 31.Sitcom Moments That Were Surprisingly DarkSitcoms such as The Simpsons and The Golden Girls are often seen as light-hearted comedies, but these darker TV moments offer a different, deeper perspective.Gallery Credit: Ryan ReichardGet our free mobile appREAD MORE: TV Shows Everyone Loves That Are Actually BadChild Stars Who Quit ActingStacker compiled this list of 25 child actors who quit show business, pulling from historical news coverage to include everyone from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to Carrie Henn, who played the little girl in Aliens.Gallery Credit: Sophia June

In 2018 Korean animator and illustrator Han Ji-won created a commercial for jewelry brand Stonehenge that follows a girl who dreams of going to space, just like her astronaut grandmother. The brief, beautiful animation caught the attention of Korean production company Climax Studios, who saw potential for a much bigger story about the human connections astronauts carry with them into space.  Seven years later, the Netflix animated film Lost in Starlight expands that near-future world into a story of two star-crossed lovers who fall in love on the neon-lit rooftops of a futuristic Seoul only to be separated by 140 million miles when one of them embarks on an expedition to Mars.  “While I was developing the script [for Lost in Starlight], a lot of things changed,” writer-director Han says In fleshing out the story, she was inspired by the individuality of Miyazaki, the edgy sentimentality of Cowboy Bebop, and the near-future worldbuilding of Her. “But, still, there were the same keywords: space, female lead, music, childhood, and love.”  Lost in Starlight centers a slice-of-life love story between astro botanist Nan-young (voiced by The Handmaiden’s Kim Tae-ri in Korean and Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in English) and musician Jay (voiced by Weak Hero’s Hong Kyung in Korean, and Umbrella Academy’s Justin H. Min in English). For Nan-young, who hopes to find life on the planet, Mars is personal. Her mother was part of a doomed, 2026 mission to the Red Planet. Twenty-five years later, Nan-young dreams of continuing in her mother’s footsteps, and helping the Adonis amurensis flower thrive on the alien planet.  “My character is kind of stubborn at times,” says Ramakrishnan, with a laugh. “She’s a girl boss, but she needs to take a breath.” That breath comes in the form of a return to Seoul from Houston, following low psychological exam scores that have Nan-young bumped from an upcoming Martian expedition. The driven scientist doesn’t give up on her goal, continuing her development of a Life Form Detector to try to earn a spot on the trip, but she also finds time to devote to fixing her late mother’s busted record player. When Nan-young literally bumps into Jay with the 2023 Crozby in her arms, he becomes determined to fix it for her.  “I would describe Jay as someone who doesn’t really believe in himself,” Min says of the character who is working in a vintage electronics repair shop after turning away from his passion for composing and performing music. “I think he is more concerned about the practicalities of life and just kind of getting by. I think he has a lot of dreams, but he doesn’t quite know how to act on them and fulfill them.” While Jay may be hesitant in his music, he is determined when it comes to pursuing the brilliant Nan-young. By the time he has fixed her record player, the two have fallen for one another… but can their budding relationship survive the distance between Earth and Mars? Like the short animation it stems from, Lost in Starlight is far more interested in the emotional dimensions of space travel than the logistical ones. The Martian, this is not—nor does it want to be, instead curious about the work of human connection in a sometimes unforgiving but never hopeless universe. The film’s space-scapes are vividly animated, and especially powerful in the abstract. In one climactic, hallucinatory moment, Nan-young’s vision explodes with the yellow blossoms of the flower that connects her work to her mother’s, across time and mortality. She imagines the galaxy as a spinning record, the vinyl representing connections to her mother and to Jay, as well as the natural forces that move us all along.  The story is strongest, however, in its most mundane, Earth-bound moments, and in the ways Han’s animation is able to connect the familiar with the fantastic so seamlessly. Like anime auteurs Hideko Miyazai and Makoto Shinkai before her, Han is incredibly detailed in her realization of interior spaces, bringing a sense of realism to the animated format that casts the same warm, human touch to the mise-en-scene of a Martian research facility as it does Jay’s sunlit, stickered Euljiro apartment. In 2051 Seoul, massive holographic jellyfish float through the twilight sky, but Nan-young’s aging father still sticks struggling plants in an old mug emblazoned with a heart-shaped photo of his family from decades previous. And when Nan-young takes a self-driving car home after a long day, Han focuses not on the technology but our weary protagonist toeing off her work heels. This balance between the futuristic and the familiar is further buoyed by the film’s soundtrack, which features work from Korean artists such as CIFIKA, Meego, and Wave to Earth’s Kim Daniel. “I am a little bit greedy about having really good soundtracks,” says Han. “I wanted it to be futuristic but not apocalyptic, a little bit edgy but soft at the same time.” Han chose synth-pop as the main sound, pairing the electronic sounds of the genre with subdued, dreamy beats. Korean voice actors Kim and Hong contributed some of the lyrics for the tender, lulling songs Jay writes and performs in the film. Korean media has become known internationally for its love stories, most famously depicted in the K-drama format. While Lost in Starlight borrows some of the same narrative DNA that makes those romances tick, it represents something startlingly original within a Korean animation industry that has more often been known internationally for its outsourcing work and preschool TV programs than feature films for adults. “While we still have those companies in Korea doing a lot of outsourcing work, we also have new aspiring companies that come into the picture,” says Han of the state of the Korean animation industry.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Han, who became the youngest Korean animator to direct a theatrically released feature film in 2015 with anthology Clearer Than You Think, comes from an indie background, but worked with a commercial production company to make Lost in Starlight. “We have these great artists who have a lot of potential in terms of their creativity and storytelling, and then we have these companies who are now willing to do both the pre and main production works,” says Han. “I think we need a lot of love and interest and support from a lot of different players, and I hope that it could be consistent, so that we can keep on working on our projects. If that happens, then I think we’re going to bloom like flowers.” Lost in Starlight is available to stream on Netflix starting May 30.

poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 I was listening to Brian Shea's Zelda series recap podcast and thought dang, I really like this. I remember the split timeline being a big point of contention when Nintendo first announced it. And the second split into a THIRD timeline was also fun to witness. It makes sense to me that Ocarina was such a pivotal moment in time that it could spawn multiple possible realities. Shea said something like is there a timeline where a simple bokoblin killed Link? Probably! I'd love to see that timeline. I hope they make it even more crazy. I haven't seen where Echoes of Wisdom lives, but I hope it's super weird. Also! Apparently the Ganon at the end of Wind Waker is gone-gone. What a cool way to go. Probably my favorite ending of any Zelda game. Anyway I sure would like to read y'alls thoughts on whether the split timelines are good or not, and of course thoughts on the timelines themselves  blueredandgold Member Oct 25, 2017 8,679 Quick question off the top - that image was only ever sighted at PAX Aus correct?   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 blueredandgold said: Quick question off the top - that image was only ever sighted at PAX Aus correct? Click to expand... Click to shrink... As far as I know, yeah. I'm not sure if it's official official.   Stencil Mailing His Own Damn Business Member Oct 30, 2017 13,549 USA There was ONE brief moment where I sort of bothered to think about it -- hard enough to mentally map each game I'd played into it -- and it amounted to an entire "Huh, that's kind of neat" and I immediately moved on and never thought about it again. I don't think Nintendo even really cares that much about it, therefore it's not a topic of discussion I ever engage in. I feel like it's such an obvious afterthought. If the creators don't care why would I?  StephenNotStrange Member Jan 16, 2019 784 blueredandgold said: Quick question off the top - that image was only ever sighted at PAX Aus correct? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, but a very similar one which show where BotW and TotK is already on the Zelda's JP website long ago.  Sandstar Member Oct 28, 2017 8,165 I guess the part I don't like is that the original legend of zelda is from the "bad" timeline.   Walpurgisnacht Member May 7, 2020 1,724 I think the only people that get super passionate and heated and can never shut up about it are timeline-haters. Aside from that it's fine. It's something Miyamoto and Aonuma have been alluding to in interviews since the 90's.  Cheesy Member Oct 30, 2017 2,565 I feel like it doesn't really add anything and I honestly forget it exists most of the time.   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 Has anyone read the manga series? Does it go into timeline split shenanigans?   RagnarokX Member Oct 26, 2017 17,710 I wouldn't call it convoluted. Before BotW only like 3 games didn't fit nicely. I never got why people act like you have to put effort to understand it and got so heated at anyone discussing it. What we had before is certainly preferable to the irreverent JJ Abrams mystery box style they're going for now with BotW where they can't even keep things coherent between direct sequels.   EllipsisBreak One Winged Slayer Member Aug 6, 2019 2,274 poptire said: Has anyone read the manga series? Does it go into timeline split shenanigans? Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'm no expert, but I've seen some images of the Twilight Princess one and it's definitely a factor there.   Zyrokai Member Nov 1, 2017 5,214 Columbus, Ohio I love it.   PAFenix Unshakable Resolve Member Nov 21, 2019 20,137 I love it! poptire said: Has anyone read the manga series? Does it go into timeline split shenanigans? Click to expand... Click to shrink... The bits I read of the old manga kinda goes into each game as it's own separate one-off or story. But most of those were, at the most, 2 volumes. Dunno about the Twilight Princess manga, since that actually goes up to ELEVEN. I wouldn't be surprised if it does make hints towards it, because of the Hero Shade.  Tom Nook Says... Member Jan 15, 2019 7,406 The fact that Nintendo themselves don't care a whole lot about it is what makes it fun. The holes and loose connections are where the theorizing happens. If it was overly-detailed and concrete there wouldn't be much to talk about.   The Adder Member Oct 25, 2017 20,609 It's legitimately fun to talk about and piece together. Especially when you think of it from the perspective that Nintendo themselves don't make games based on where they want to fill in the timeline, but make the game they want and then figure out what to do about placement. That makes theorizing so much more fun because it could still be liquid even after release.   Angst Member Oct 27, 2017 4,306 I think it sucks and choose to ignore it.   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 EllipsisBreak said: I'm no expert, but I've seen some images of the Twilight Princess one and it's definitely a factor there. Click to expand... Click to shrink... PAFenix said: I love it! The bits I read of the old manga kinda goes into each game as it's own separate one-off or story. But most of those were, at the most, 2 volumes. Dunno about the Twilight Princess manga, since that actually goes up to ELEVEN. I wouldn't be surprised if it does make hints towards it, because of the Hero Shade. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The Hero Shade stuff is super interesting to me. That's Adult Link from OoT, right? Except he's all messed up and battle scarred. I'd like to see that story   Rockodile Member Dec 7, 2018 1,256 I think it's pretty fun, and it's easy to ignore if you don't care. Don't understand why some people get so pissed off about it.   SupersonicHypertonic Member Apr 20, 2022 3,530 Yeah I really like it in theory but over the years it's it's kinda just there and Nintendo didn't utilise it properly. There's 3 lines but in practice there's very little actual reasons to games within the same line. MM and TP are in the same line but there's very little convergence for them, the hero shade was never confirmed in game to be the hero time and even after it was in Historia it still doesn't explain what happened to Link after MM. For all we know he had another adventure in Disney world in between lol. In the downfall line a lot of the games repeat the same story of Ganon being resurrected in the same as if no one learns the lesson to fully kill him for good. I wish games had stronger connections to one another without needing direct sequels. My biggest peeve is Nintendo tried to be clever with the creation of downfall timeline but they fucked everything up instead. If a time like can be created because Link dies then literally EVERY SINGLE GAME has at least 2 endings - Link lives and saves the world continuing the same line or Link dies and Ganon wins or someone else seals him which creates a 2nd parallel line. Now with BOTW and TOTK it seems it's a reboot which basically creates a multiverse now. Or knowing Nintendo they'll somehow fit in a really awkward way.  Aiqops Uncle Works at Nintendo Member Aug 3, 2021 19,387 Couldn't care less about trying to find connections between the games. To me they are all standalone.   EllipsisBreak One Winged Slayer Member Aug 6, 2019 2,274 poptire said: The Hero Shade stuff is super interesting to me. That's Adult Link from OoT, right? Except he's all messed up and battle scarred. I'd like to see that story Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't have all the context, but... yeah. This is a thing.   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 SupersonicHypertonic said: Yeah I really like it in theory but over the years it's it's kinda just there and Nintendo didn't utilise it properly. There's 3 lines but in practice there's very little actual reasons to games within the same line. MM and TP are in the same line but there's very little convergence for them, the hero shade was never confirmed in game to be the hero time and even after it was in Historia it still doesn't explain what happened to Link after MM. For all we know he had another adventure in Disney world in between lol. In the downfall line a lot of the games repeat the same story of Ganon being resurrected in the same as if no one learns the lesson to fully kill him for good. I wish games had stronger connections to one another without needing direct sequels. My biggest peeve is Nintendo tried to be clever with the creation of downfall timeline but they fucked everything up instead. If a time like can be created because Link dies then literally EVERY SINGLE GAME has at least 2 endings - Link lives and saves the world continuing the same line or Link dies and Ganon wins or someone else seals him which creates a 2nd parallel line. Now with BOTW and TOTK it seems it's a reboot which basically creates a multiverse now. Or knowing Nintendo they'll somehow fit in a really awkward way. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I completely understand the frustration. I like to believe the OoT split happened because that singular moment in time was special. Like how Doc Brown believes there's something about November 5, 1955 that makes it cosmically important.   Richietto One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 26,072 North Carolina I love the Zelda timeline and talking about it and fuck the haters. There IS a timeline no matter how much you don't like it it's fun and I like fun. Same reason I fuckin love Kingdom Hearts. There's just so much to talk about when a new game hits.   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 EllipsisBreak said: I don't have all the context, but... yeah. This is a thing. Click to expand... Click to shrink... That rules regardless of the context   Ashes of Dreams Fallen Guardian of Unshakable Resolve Member May 22, 2020 19,693 I used to be VERY into the Zelda timeline and lore talk. This was mostly pre-Historia though, where the only evidence we had were from the games themselves and a few random interviews and developer comments. Like we'd known since way back that the ending of OoT depicted a split timeline and they confirmed on Twilight Princess' release that it was on the timeline opposite of Wind Waker. But how it all connected was more up in the air and the games often had hints like suggesting how the Temple of Time was over time overgrown and fallen apart in TP, suggesting an in-between state of OoT and ALttP. Hyrule Historia changed things. I thought it was a bit of a cop-out to shove all the old games without much story into a new third timeline. It clearly wasn't the intention when those games were made. But it was still mostly fine. I was still into it because it at least meant that they were going to open themselves up to interacting with the timeline more in the future. Now that it was set in stone, we could play with it... And then they just threw it all away one game later. I cannot stand the whole "well, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are their own thing" angle. Especially when those games are FILLED with references and call-backs to prior games. They want to have their cake and eat it too with this stuff but in my view it's completely undermined any legitimacy the timeline could have had. They clearly don't care. So, I'm kinda out now. Which hurts to say because this stuff really mattered to me when I was younger. But the series has just gone in a direction away from me in so many ways nowadays.  Soapbox Member Oct 28, 2017 33,865 I adore it and have wild thoughts and ideas about all the different options, mainly how Skyward Sword has at least 3 time line splints unto itself. The robots from another timeline with the time shift stones are probably from the future and not the past. Also they make another timeline when they defeat The Imprisoned in the future then go back in time and defeat Demise.  J_ToSaveTheDay "This guy are sick" and Corrupted by Vengeance Avenger Oct 25, 2017 22,546 USA It's a fun and weird thing for Nintendo to put together and to think about as a fan, but it's not a point of importance to my personal enjoyment of the franchise.   Chemo Member Oct 28, 2017 1,283 No.   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 Ashes of Dreams said: I used to be VERY into the Zelda timeline and lore talk. This was mostly pre-Historia though, where the only evidence we had were from the games themselves and a few random interviews and developer comments. Like we'd known since way back that the ending of OoT depicted a split timeline and they confirmed on Twilight Princess' release that it was on the timeline opposite of Wind Waker. But how it all connected was more up in the air and the games often had hints like suggesting how the Temple of Time was over time overgrown and fallen apart in TP, suggesting an in-between state of OoT and ALttP. Hyrule Historia changed things. I thought it was a bit of a cop-out to shove all the old games without much story into a new third timeline. It clearly wasn't the intention when those games were made. But it was still mostly fine. I was still into it because it at least meant that they were going to open themselves up to interacting with the timeline more in the future. Now that it was set in stone, we could play with it... And then they just threw it all away one game later. I cannot stand the whole "well, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are their own thing" angle. Especially when those games are FILLED with references and call-backs to prior games. They want to have their cake and eat it too with this stuff but in my view it's completely undermined any legitimacy the timeline could have had. They clearly don't care. So, I'm kinda out now. Which hurts to say because this stuff really mattered to me when I was younger. But the series has just gone in a direction away from me in so many ways nowadays. Click to expand... Click to shrink... My hope is that either this movie (possible trilogy?) coming out they'll finally start to make a concrete timeline that, I PRAY, is still insane.   eamono Member Nov 17, 2020 341 honestly I always thought that the 3d games have a coherent timeline and they kinda mucked it up by jamming the 2d games in. I'm down for some timeline discussion but I think some of the games like zelda 2 or the capcom ones just kinda obviously werent made with the timeline in mind and its just kinda not fun to discuss. its very telling that the "hero fails" timeline off OOT is just filled with the games that dont actually fit in the 2 that make sense the 3d games for sure have an intended timeline though, and every question about how BOTW being at the end of both child and adult timelines could easily be fixed with a lore dump or a new game  JasperMyst Powered by Friendship™ Member Sep 25, 2023 805 If it means we get creative stuff like tears of the kingdom and majoras mask I'm all for it. Actually thanks for reminding me starting Majora's Mask for the vibes.  Giga Man One Winged Slayer Member Oct 27, 2017 23,197 I thought it was weird Nintendo would put one out in the first place, but nowadays, I don't really care. I thought Nintendo had abandoned it anyway.   Grunty Member Oct 28, 2017 10,029 Gruntilda’s Lair I LOVE the timeline and think it's mostly pretty straight forward. It's not really complicated. The one thing I look forward to anytime a new Zelda game is its timeline placement. I get so much more enjoyment out of the games thanks to it. Also, don't want to spoil Echoes of Wisdom for anyone, but its placement and how a portion of the story of that game answers something about the timeline that was never really being asked to begin with was really darn cool. Something new to think about now when playing the games, particularly Ocarina of Time.  Houtarou Oreki Member Dec 31, 2021 99 poptire said: I hope they make it even more crazy. I haven't seen where Echoes of Wisdom lives, but I hope it's super weird. Click to expand... Click to shrink... According to the official Zelda site, they put it in the Hero Defeated branch, just after Tri-Force Heroes and before the big gap leading to the original NES Zelda. HISTORY | Zelda Portal | Nintendo Introducing the history of Hyrule, the setting for The Legend of the Zelda series. www.nintendo.com   JasperMyst Powered by Friendship™ Member Sep 25, 2023 805 Giga Man said: I thought it was weird Nintendo would put one out in the first place, but nowadays, I don't really care. I thought Nintendo had abandoned it anyway. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They haven't which is quite hilarious but I'll take it 😂   Neutron Member Jun 2, 2022 3,531 Sandstar said: I guess the part I don't like is that the original legend of zelda is from the "bad" timeline. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I agree - although not so much about the idea of a "bad timeline", but just that it kinda makes it... non-canonical? Link could fail at any point, creating other failure timelines. So why is this one somehow a "real" timeline and not just a what-if like any other point of failure?  Sandstar Member Oct 28, 2017 8,165 Neutron said: I agree - although not so much about the idea of a "bad timeline", but just that it kinda makes it... non-canonical? Link could fail at any point, creating other failure timelines. So why is this one somehow a "real" timeline and not just a what-if like any other point of failure? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, i guess that's what I mean, it's non-canon. It just kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  SupersonicHypertonic Member Apr 20, 2022 3,530 poptire said: I completely understand the frustration. I like to believe the OoT split happened because that singular moment in time was special. Like how Doc Brown believes there's something about November 5, 1955 that makes it cosmically important. Click to expand... Click to shrink... That could be a solution why OoT creates a split but since there isn't a reason you could easily argue other games are special and could/should timelines. SS has stupid time travel at the end where Link destroys the present imprisoned (AKA Demise) using the Triforce but also goes back in time to destroy Demise.....so how can the present imprisoned exist? Surely that could create 2 timelines (or 3 if Link dies) especially as this Link is the first to use the Triforce and this Zelda is the direct reincarnation of Hylia so they should have special privileges. Zelda team needs a few people to say the very least get the skeleton of the timeline to make sense and not contradict itself at times.  Last edited: Yesterday at 10:03 PM StraySheep It's Pronounced "Aerith" Member Oct 26, 2017 9,157 Rockodile said: I think it's pretty fun, and it's easy to ignore if you don't care. Don't understand why some people get so pissed off about it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Same  OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 A good way to "fix" the timeline(s) is to say it's all based on in-continuity folklore and hearsay, so any errors or impossibilities it has are entirely man-made, as the citizens of Hyrule who are trying to figure it out also don't really know.   WhiteRabbitEXE Member Oct 25, 2017 15,094 Arizona Literally my only issue is the failed hero timeline. It's just so, so silly. But whatever, it's not a big deal lol   Jane Member Oct 17, 2018 1,626 The problem isn't the complexity. The problem is that Nintendo clearly didn't give a fuck about the lore being consistent or the stories connecting outside of direct sequels when they made the games, but they're now trying to pretend after the fact that it's all connected. The "doomed" timeline has never been hinted at and came out of nowhere.   Berordn One Winged Slayer Member Oct 26, 2017 10,711 NoVA poptire said: A good way to "fix" the timeline(s) is to say it's all based on in-continuity folklore and hearsay, so any errors or impossibilities it has are entirely man-made, as the citizens of Hyrule who are trying to figure it out also don't really know. Click to expand... Click to shrink... this has always been how i've viewed it the timelines existing is whatever, but the actual games are retellings and reinterpretations of legends and i think that's more fun than having a strictly true history to look at  Boopers Member Nov 1, 2020 4,358 Vermont usa I came in here to endorse Tingle, and the poll choices did not leave me disappointed. 🫡   OP OP poptire Avatar Wrecking Crew The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 15,552 Berordn said: this has always been how i've viewed it the timelines existing is whatever, but the actual games are retellings and reinterpretations of legends and i think that's more fun than having a strictly true history to look at Click to expand... Click to shrink... This kinda thing has always been enjoyable to me. And it can explain away literally any holes in any story. The magic bullet / infinite crutch of storytelling. George RR Martin should take notes. Boopers said: I came in here to endorse Tingle, and the poll choices did not leave me disappointed. 🫡 Click to expand... Click to shrink... Tingle Team represent  Servbot24 The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 47,579 It's fine. I don't really want a precise timeline of events. General allusions to a mystical history is better.   TheNormalMan Member Oct 27, 2017 149 Los Angeles, CA I love it and have always loved it. I never understood why people hated on it so much. You can just ignore it. When they revealed the downfall timeline in HH I thought it genius. It essentially established a way to justify any storyline moving forward. It also gave people more to talk about. And adjust their theories. There are still plenty of mysteries in the timeline—particularly in the BOTW/TotK area. I know they separated them but they can always add to it. Also, I know they never go into games with story in mind, but eventually the mechanics of a game might sync of pretty well with a specific area of the timeline. I love story heavy Zelda's. They don't all need to be that way but variety is the spice of life.  Hambulance Member Oct 30, 2017 2,296 I am ready for Into the Zeldaverse   Lump One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 18,210 It does nothing for me, but I do highly enjoy watching others try and piece together the timeline, it is like watching non-problematic flat earth discourse from afar.   Tathanen One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 7,176 WhiteRabbitEXE said: Literally my only issue is the failed hero timeline. It's just so, so silly. But whatever, it's not a big deal lol Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's weird and I'm not a huge fan, they had to contend with the fact that while there are multiple timelines the LTTP branch is a separate canon, not a timeline. So I can understand the logic of basing it on a What If scenario, particularly since OOT kinda straddles the two. In their shoes tho I'd have probably just called those games "old legends of Hyrule" or something and not tried to draw a line between them and the rest. To the thread question: yes the timeline is my life. 

As two distant galaxies trade blows in an ancient duel billions of years old, one belligerent has clearly proven itself more ruthless than the other.Each time the galaxies conclude their posturing and charge in for a clash, one of them impales its opponent with a powerful beam of radiation, crippling its ability to form new stars. In cosmic terms, it's the definition of a below the belt blow — and a massive one at that.This lopsided showdown was reported in a new study set to be published in the journal Nature, marking the first observation of a galaxy blasting its neighbor with radiation, and furthers our understanding of the huge galactic meat grinders known as quasars."We hence call this system the 'cosmic joust'," said study co-lead author Pasquier Noterdaeme, a researcher at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, in a statement about the work.The light we're seeing from this joust is over 11 billion years old, dating it to when the universe was less than one-fifth of its current age. Bloodsport, it seems, is a time-honored tradition.Using observations made with the Very Large Telescope and the ALMA telescope in Chile, the astronomers determined that the galaxies are veering towards each other at astounding speeds exceeding 311 miles per second. After crossing paths, they circle back, then wind up to hurtle towards each other yet again.One galaxy, it appears, is fairly typical. But the other is dominated by a quasar, a luminous region at the center of the galaxy where a supermassive black hole churns through billions of stars' worth of dust and gases. As the doomed material swirls into the black hole, they become so hot that they produce light capable of outshining entire galaxies, including the Milky Way."We discovered a quasar — likely triggered by the merging of two galaxies — that is actively transforming the gas structure in its companion galaxy," Noterdaeme told Gizmodo. "The idea that galaxy mergers give rise to quasars has long been proposed, mainly supported by statistical studies of host galaxy morphologies.""In our case,' Noterdaeme added, "we caught the two galaxies in the act."When they looked closer, the researchers found that when the quasar-powered galaxy skewered its opponent, the invading beam of radiation disrupted the clouds of gas and dust it penetrated, taking out stellar nurseries that are prime regions for forming stars.For the one wielding the weapon, this had an added effect. Like blood running down a blade, some of the gases from the impaled galaxy trickled back to the attacker, feeding even more material into the quasar's voracious black hole.It's not a spectacle for the faint of heart. But if you count yourself among the coliseum mob cheering on the gladiatorial carnage, there's good news. Noterdaeme said that the next generation of observatories, namely the under-construction Extremely Large Telescope, will allow astronomers to "better understand the evolution of quasars and their effect on host and nearby galaxies" — delivering you all the gory details in bouts like these.More on astronomy: Scientists Intrigued by Bridge of Dark Matter Inside Huge Galaxy ClusterShare This Article

Observation Rocket Report: SpaceX’s expansion at Vandenberg; India’s PSLV fails in flight China's diversity in rockets was evident this week, with four types of launchers in action. Stephen Clark – May 23, 2025 7:00 am | 7 Dawn Aerospace's Mk-II Aurora airplane in flight over New Zealand last year. Credit: Dawn Aerospace Dawn Aerospace's Mk-II Aurora airplane in flight over New Zealand last year. Credit: Dawn Aerospace Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Welcome to Edition 7.45 of the Rocket Report! Let's talk about spaceplanes. Since the Space Shuttle, spaceplanes have, at best, been a niche part of the space transportation business. The US Air Force's uncrewed X-37B and a similar vehicle operated by China's military are the only spaceplanes to reach orbit since the last shuttle flight in 2011, and both require a lift from a conventional rocket. Virgin Galactic's suborbital space tourism platform is also a spaceplane of sorts. A generation or two ago, one of the chief arguments in favor of spaceplanes was that they were easier to recover and reuse. Today, SpaceX routinely reuses capsules and rockets that look much more like conventional space vehicles than the winged designs of yesteryear. Spaceplanes are undeniably alluring in appearance, but they have the drawback of carrying extra weight (wings) into space that won't be used until the final minutes of a mission. So, do they have a future? As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. One of China's commercial rockets returns to flight. The Kinetica-1 rocket launched Wednesday for the first time since a failure doomed its previous attempt to reach orbit in December, according to the vehicle's developer and operator, CAS Space. The Kinetica-1 is one of several small Chinese solid-fueled launch vehicles managed by a commercial company, although with strict government oversight and support. CAS Space, a spinoff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said its Kinetica-1 rocket deployed multiple payloads with "excellent orbit insertion accuracy." This was the seventh flight of a Kinetica-1 rocket since its debut in 2022. Back in action ... "Kinetica-1 is back!" CAS Space posted on X. "Mission Y7 has just successfully sent six satellites into designated orbits, making a total of 63 satellites or 6 tons of payloads since its debut. Lots of missions are planned for the coming months. 2025 is going to be awesome." The Kinetica-1 is designed to place up to 2 metric tons of payload into low-Earth orbit. A larger liquid-fueled rocket, Kinetica-2, is scheduled to debut later this year. The Ars Technica Rocket Report The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's and Stephen Clark's reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We'll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox. Sign Me Up! French government backs a spaceplane startup. French spaceplane startup AndroMach announced May 15 that it received a contract from CNES, the French space agency, to begin testing an early prototype of its Banger v1 rocket engine, European Spaceflight reports. Founded in 2023, AndroMach is developing a pair of spaceplanes that will be used to perform suborbital and orbital missions to space. A suborbital spaceplane will utilize turbojet engines for horizontal takeoff and landing, and a pressure-fed biopropane/liquid oxygen rocket engine to reach space. Test flights of this smaller vehicle will begin in early 2027. A risky proposition ... A larger ÉTOILE "orbital shuttle" is designed to be launched by various small launch vehicles and will be capable of carrying payloads of up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds). According to the company, initial test flights of ÉTOILE are expected to begin at the beginning of the next decade. It's unclear how much CNES is committing to AndroMach through this contract, but the company says the funding will support testing of an early demonstrator for its propane-fueled engine, with a focus on evaluating its thermodynamic performance. It's good to see European governments supporting developments in commercial space, but the path to a small commercial orbital spaceplane is rife with risk. (submitted by EllPeaTea) Dawn Aerospace is taking orders. Another spaceplane company in a more advanced stage of development says it is now taking customer orders for flights to the edge of space. New Zealand-based Dawn Aerospace said it is beginning to take orders for its remotely piloted, rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane, known as Aurora, with first deliveries expected in 2027, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. "This marks a historic milestone: the first time a space-capable vehicle—designed to fly beyond the Kármán line (100 kilometers or 328,000 feet)—has been offered for direct sale to customers," Dawn Aerospace said in a statement. While it hasn't yet reached space, Dawn's Aurora spaceplane flew to supersonic speed for the first time last year and climbed to an altitude of 82,500 feet (25.1 kilometers), setting a record for the fastest climb from a runway to 20 kilometers. Further along ... Aurora is small in stature, measuring just 15.7 feet (4.8 meters) long. It's designed to loft a payload of up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms) above the Kármán line for up to three minutes of microgravity, before returning to a runway landing. Eventually, Dawn wants to reduce the turnaround time between Aurora flights to less than four hours. "Aurora is set to become the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a conventional runway, blending the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability and operational simplicity of traditional aviation," Dawn said. The company's business model is akin to commercial airlines, where operators can purchase an aircraft directly from a manufacturer and manage their own operations. (submitted by EllPeaTea) India's workhorse rocket falls short of orbit. In a rare setback, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) launch vehicle PSLV-C61 malfunctioned and failed to place a surveillance satellite into the intended orbit last weekend, the Times of India reported. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off from a launch pad on the southeastern coast of India early Sunday, local time, with a radar reconnaissance satellite named EOS-09, or RISAT-1B. The satellite was likely intended to gather intelligence for the Indian military. "The country's military space capabilities, already hindered by developmental challenges, have suffered another setback with the loss of a potential strategic asset," the Times of India wrote. What happened? ... V. Narayanan, ISRO's chairman, later said that the rocket’s performance was normal until the third stage. The PSLV's third stage, powered by a solid rocket motor, suffered a "fall in chamber pressure" and the mission could not be accomplished, Narayanan said. Investigators are probing the root cause of the failure. Telemetry data indicated the rocket deviated from its planned flight path around six minutes after launch, when it was traveling more than 12,600 mph (5.66 kilometers per second), well short of the speed it needed to reach orbital velocity. The rocket and its payload fell into the Indian Ocean south of the launch site. This was the first PSLV launch failure in eight years, ending a streak of 21 consecutive successful flights. (submitted by EllPeaTea) SES makes a booking with Impulse Space. SES, owner of the world's largest fleet of geostationary satellites, plans to use Impulse Space’s Helios kick stage to take advantage of lower-cost, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) launch vehicles and get its satellites quickly into higher orbits, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. SES hopes the combination will break a traditional launch conundrum for operators of medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). These operators often must make a trade-off between a lower-cost launch that puts them farther from their satellite's final orbit, or a more expensive launch that can expedite their satellite's entry into service. A matter of hours ... On Thursday, SES and Impulse Space announced a multi-launch agreement to use the methane-fueled Helios kick stage. "The first mission, currently planned for 2027, will feature a dedicated deployment from a medium-lift launcher in LEO, followed by Helios transferring the 4-ton-class payload directly to GEO within eight hours of launch," Impulse said in a statement. Typically, this transit to GEO takes several weeks to several months, depending on the satellite's propulsion system. "Today, we’re not only partnering with Impulse to bring our satellites faster to orbit, but this will also allow us to extend their lifetime and accelerate service delivery to our customers," said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES. "We're proud to become Helios' first dedicated commercial mission." Unpacking China's spaceflight patches. There's a fascinating set of new patches Chinese officials released for a series of launches with top-secret satellites over the last two months, Ars reports. These four patches depict Buddhist gods with a sense of artistry and sharp colors that stand apart from China's previous spaceflight emblems, and perhaps—or perhaps not—they can tell us something about the nature of the missions they represent. The missions launched so-called TJS satellites toward geostationary orbit, where they most likely will perform missions in surveillance, signals intelligence, or missile warning.  Making connections ... It's not difficult to start making connections between the Four Heavenly Gods and the missions that China's TJS satellites likely carry out in space. A protector with an umbrella? An all-seeing entity? This sounds like a possible link to spy craft or missile warning, but there's a chance Chinese officials approved the patches to misdirect outside observers, or there's no connection at all. China aims for an asteroid. China is set to launch its second Tianwen deep space exploration mission late May, targeting both a near-Earth asteroid and a main belt comet, Space News reports. The robotic Tianwen-2 spacecraft is being integrated with a Long March 3B rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, the country's top state-owned aerospace contractor said. Airspace closure notices indicate a four-hour-long launch window opening at noon EDT (16:00–20:00 UTC) on May 28. Backup launch windows are scheduled for May 29 and 30. New frontiers ... Tianwen-2's first goal is to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid designated 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, or 2016 HO3, and return them to Earth in late 2027 with a reentry module. The Tianwen-2 mothership will then set a course toward a comet for a secondary mission. This will be China's first sample return mission from beyond the Moon. The asteroid selected as the target for Tianwen-2 is believed by scientists to be less than 100 meters, or 330 feet, in diameter, and may be made of material thrown off the Moon some time in its ancient past. Results from Tianwen-2 may confirm that hypothesis. (submitted by EllPeaTea) Upgraded methalox rocket flies from Jiuquan. Another one of China's privately funded launch companies achieved a milestone this week. Landspace launched an upgraded version of its Zhuque-2E rocket Saturday from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China, Space News reports. The rocket delivered six satellites to orbit for a range of remote sensing, Earth observation, and technology demonstration missions. The Zhuque-2E is an improved version of the Zhuque-2, which became the first liquid methane-fueled rocket in the world to reach orbit in 2023. Larger envelope ... This was the second flight of the Zhuque-2E rocket design, but the first to utilize a wider payload fairing to provide more volume for satellites on their ride into space. The Zhuque-2E is a stepping stone toward a much larger rocket Landspace is developing called the Zhuque-3, a stainless steel launcher with a reusable first stage booster that, at least outwardly, bears some similarities to SpaceX's Falcon 9. (submitted by EllPeaTea) FAA clears SpaceX for Starship Flight 9. The Federal Aviation Administration gave the green light Thursday for SpaceX to launch the next test flight of its Starship mega-rocket as soon as next week, following two consecutive failures earlier this year, Ars reports. The failures set back SpaceX's Starship program by several months. The company aims to get the rocket's development back on track with the upcoming launch, Starship's ninth full-scale test flight since its debut in April 2023. Starship is central to SpaceX's long-held ambition to send humans to Mars and is the vehicle NASA has selected to land astronauts on the Moon under the umbrella of the government's Artemis program. Targeting Tuesday, for now ... In a statement Thursday, the FAA said SpaceX is authorized to launch the next Starship test flight, known as Flight 9, after finding the company "meets all of the rigorous safety, environmental and other licensing requirements." SpaceX has not confirmed a target launch date for the next launch of Starship, but warning notices for pilots and mariners to steer clear of hazard areas in the Gulf of Mexico suggest the flight might happen as soon as the evening of Tuesday, May 27. The rocket will lift off from Starbase, Texas, SpaceX's privately owned spaceport near the US-Mexico border. The FAA's approval comes with some stipulations, including that the launch must occur during "non-peak" times for air traffic and a larger closure of airspace downrange from Starbase. Space Force is fed up with Vulcan delays. In recent written testimony to a US House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the military, the senior official responsible for purchasing launches for national security missions blistered one of the country's two primary rocket providers, Ars reports. The remarks from Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, concerned United Launch Alliance and its long-delayed development of the large Vulcan rocket. "The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year," Purdy said in written testimony during a May 14 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. This portion of his testimony did not come up during the hearing, and it has not been reported publicly to date. Repairing trust ... "Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions," Purdy wrote. "Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives." It has widely been known in the space community that military officials, who supported Vulcan with development contracts for the rocket and its engines that exceeded $1 billion, have been unhappy with the pace of the rocket's development. It was originally due to launch in 2020. At the end of his written testimony, Purdy emphasized that he expected ULA to do better. As part of his job as the Service Acquisition Executive for Space (SAE), Purdy noted that he has been tasked to transform space acquisition and to become more innovative. "For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to the SAE that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule." SpaceX's growth on the West Coast. SpaceX is moving ahead with expansion plans at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, that will double its West Coast launch cadence and enable Falcon Heavy rockets to fly from California, Spaceflight Now reports. Last week, the Department of the Air Force issued its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which considers proposed modifications from SpaceX to Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg. These modifications will include changes to support launches of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the construction of two new landing pads for Falcon boosters adjacent to SLC-6, the demolition of unneeded structures at SLC-6, and increasing SpaceX’s permitted launch cadence from Vandenberg from 50 launches to 100. Doubling the fun ... The transformation of SLC-6 would include quite a bit of overhaul. Its most recent tenant, United Launch Alliance, previously used it for Delta IV rockets from 2006 through its final launch in September 2022. The following year, the Space Force handed over the launch pad to SpaceX, which lacked a pad at Vandenberg capable of supporting Falcon Heavy missions. The estimated launch cadence between SpaceX’s existing Falcon 9 pad at Vandenberg, known as SLC-4E, and SLC-6 would be a 70-11 split for Falcon 9 rockets in 2026, with one Falcon Heavy at SLC-6, for a total of 82 launches. That would increase to a 70-25 Falcon 9 split in 2027 and 2028, with an estimated five Falcon Heavy launches in each of those years. (submitted by EllPeaTea) Next three launches May 23: Falcon 9 | Starlink 11-16 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 20:36 UTC May 24: Falcon 9 | Starlink 12-22 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 17:19 UTC May 27: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-1 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 16:14 UTC Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet. 7 Comments

2026 may still be more than seven months away, but it’s already shaping up as the year of consumer AI hardware. Or at least the year of a flurry of high-stakes attempts to put generative AI at the heart of new kinds of devices—several of which were in the news this week. Let’s review. On Tuesday, at its I/O developer conference keynote, Google demonstrated smart glasses powered by its Android XR platform and announced that eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster would be selling products based on it. The next day, OpenAI unveiled its $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup IO, which will put the Apple design legend at the center of the ChatGPT maker’s quest to build devices around its AI. And on Thursday, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple hopes to release its own Siri-enhanced smart glasses. In theory, all these players may have products on the market by the end of next year. What I didn’t get from these developments was any new degree of confidence that anyone has figured out how to produce AI gadgets that vast numbers of real people will find indispensable. When and how that could happen remains murky—in certain respects, more than ever. To be fair, none of this week’s news involved products that are ready to be judged in full. Only Google has something ready to demonstrate in public at all: Here’s Janko Roettgers’s report on his I/O experience with prototype Android XR glasses built by Samsung. That the company has already made a fair amount of progress is only fitting given that Android XR scratches the same itch the company has had since it unveiled its ill-fated Google Glass a dozen years ago. It’s just that the available technologies—including Google’s Gemini LLM—have come a long, long way. Unlike the weird, downright alien-looking Glass, Google’s Android XR prototype resembles a slightly chunky pair of conventional glasses. It uses a conversational voice interface and a transparent mini-display that floats on your view of your surroundings. Google says that shipping products will have “all-day” battery life, a claim, vague though it is, that Glass could never make. But some of the usage scenarios that the company is showing off, such as real-time translation and mapping directions, are the same ones it once envisioned Glass enabling. The market’s rejection of Glass was so resounding that one of the few things people remember about the product is that its fans were seen as creepy, privacy-invading glassholes. Enough has happened since then—including the success of Meta’s smart Ray-Bans—that Android XR eyewear surely has a far better shot at acceptance. But as demoed at I/O, the floating screen came off as a roadblock between the user and the real world. Worst case, it might simply be a new, frictionless form of screen addiction that further distracts us from human contact. Meanwhile, the video announcement of OpenAI and IO’s merger was as polished as a Jony Ive-designed product—San Francisco has rarely looked so invitingly lustrous—but didn’t even try to offer details about their work in progress. Altman and Ive smothered each other in praise and talked about reinventing computing. Absent any specifics, Altman’s assessment of one of Ive’s prototypes (“The coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen”) sounded like runaway enthusiasm at best and Barnumesque puffery at worst. Reporting on an OpenAI staff meeting regarding the news, The Wall Street Journal’s Berber Jin provided some additional tidbits about the OpenAI device. Mostly, they involved what it isn’t—such as a phone or glasses. It might not even be a wearable, at least on a full-time basis: According to Jin, the product will be “able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk” and complement an iPhone and MacBook Pro without supplanting them. Whatever this thing is, Jin cites Altman predicting that it will sell 100 million units faster than any product before it. In 2007, by contrast, Apple forecast selling a more modest 10 million iPhones in the phone’s first full year on the market—a challenging goal at the time, though the company surpassed it. Now, discounting the possibility of something transformative emerging from OpenAI-IO would be foolish. Ive, after all, may have played a leading role in creating more landmark tech products than anyone else alive. Altman runs the company that gave us the most significant one of the past decade. But Ive rhapsodizing over their working relationship in the video isn’t any more promising a sign than him rhapsodizing over the $10,000 solid gold Apple Watch was in 2015. And Altman, the biggest investor in Humane’s doomed AI Pin, doesn’t seem to have learned one of the most obvious lessons of that fiasco: Until you have a product in the market, it’s better to tamp down expectations than stoke them. You can’t accuse Apple of hyping any smart glasses it might release in 2026. It hasn’t publicly acknowledged their existence, and won’t until their arrival is much closer. If anything, the company may be hypersensitive to the downsides of premature promotion. Almost a year ago, it began trumpeting a new AI-infused version of Siri—one it clearly didn’t have working at the time, and still hasn’t released. After that embarrassing mishap, silencing the skeptics will require shipping stuff, not previewing what might be ahead. Even companies that aren’t presently trying to earn back their AI cred should take note and avoid repeating Apple’s mistake. I do believe AI demands that we rethink how computers work from the ground up. I also hope the smartphone doesn’t turn out to be the last must-have device, because if it were, that would be awfully boring. Maybe the best metric of success is hitting Apple’s 10-million-units-per-year goal for the original iPhone—which, perhaps coincidentally, is the same one set by EssilorLuxottica, the manufacturer of Meta’s smart Ray-Bans. If anything released next year gets there, it might be the landmark AI gizmo we haven’t yet seen. And if nothing does, we can safely declare that 2026 wasn’t the year of consumer AI hardware after all. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company How Google is rethinking search in an AI-filled worldGoogle execs Liz Reid and Nick Fox explain how the company is rethinking everything from search results to advertising and personalization. Read More → Roku is doing more than ever, but focus is still its secret ingredientThe company that set out to make streaming simple has come a long way since 2008. Yet its current business all connects back to the original mission, says CEO Anthony Wood. Read More → Gen Z is willing to sell their personal data—for just $50 a monthA new app, Verb.AI, wants to pay the generation that’s most laissez-faire on digital privacy for their scrolling time. Read More → Forget return-to-office. Hybrid now means human plus AIAs AI evolves, businesses should use the technology to complement, not replace, human workers. Read More → It turns out TikTok’s viral clear phone is just plastic. Meet the ‘Methaphone’Millions were fooled by a clip of a see-through phone. Its creator says it’s not tech—it’s a tool to break phone addiction. Read More → 4 free Coursera courses to jump-start your AI journeySee what all the AI fuss is about without spending a dime. Read More →

Mount Holly, Blue PrinceThis year’s surprise hit Blue Prince is a proper video game wonder. It’s an architectural puzzler in which you explore a transforming mansion left to you by an eccentric relative. The place is filled with secrets, and whenever you reach a door you get to pick the room on the other side from a handful of options. The whole game is a rumination on houses and how we live in them. Nostalgic and melancholic, it feels designed to make us look harder at what surrounds us.The Edison mansion, Maniac Mansion Photograph: Lucasfilm GamesThis Addams’-style Queen Anne with clapboard facades and dark windows is a classic haunted house, reportedly inspired by the Skywalker Ranch. The great twist of this early LucasArts adventure is that all kinds of spooky things are happening, but the fiends and monsters you meet are often surprisingly charming – the odd hamster-in-a-microwave incident aside. Maybe not a great place to live, but these guys would make memorable neighbours.Spencer mansion, Resident Evil Photograph: CapcomNestled amid the foreboding Arklay mountains outside Raccoon City, the Spencer mansion is what would have happened if the murderer from the Saw movies had become an architect. This vast country pile in the Second Empire style is lusciously adorned with oil paintings, antique furniture and hidden rooms. However, any potential buyers should know it’s essentially a vast trap, filled with puzzles and monsters, designed to kill anyone wanting to investigate the massive bio-research facility beneath it.Finch house, What Remains of Edith Finch Photograph: Giant SparrowBased on Goose Creek Tower in Alaska, Finch house is a monument to the doomed family who once lived there, which explains why the bedrooms are sealed off like museum exhibits. Floors are piled up haphazardly and navigating the interior can feel like moving through the transformations of a pop-up book. Living here would be fascinating, but you’d need good joints, what with all the stairs. On the plus side, the bookcases are filled with works such as Gravity’s Rainbow, Slaughterhouse-Five and House of Leaves, so you’d get to catch up on your postmodernist reading.The mansion, Jet Set Willy Photograph: YouTubeOne of the great video-game homes, this strange mansion is left in disarray after an almighty booze-up. The rooms feel very much like a lurid hangover, incorporating stomping boots, chomping toilet seats and at one point, an entire tree. What makes this classic platformer so haunting is the juxtaposition of domesticity and surreal horror. The bedroom is out of bounds and the refrigerator threatens to extend for miles. Oh, and there’s an entrance to Hades on the floorplan.Island cottage, Animal Crossing: New Horizons Photograph: NintendoNintendo’s dreamy deconstruction of capitalism is so close to being a doll’s house for adults that it makes sense that you get your own home to decorate. Beyond choosing the wallpaper and adding just the right indoor plants, you also have an option to fill the air with recordings of music performed by a local dog. This sounds childlike, but the compulsion to refine layouts feels like a very middle-aged kind of obsession, and in one of many brutal lunges at realism, you don’t even get to enter your house without first being handcuffed to a gigantic mortgage.Snowpeak ruins, Zelda: Twilight Princess Photograph: NintendoWhat’s your favourite Zelda dungeon? Allow us to make the case for Snowpeak ruins, from the slightly under-loved Twilight Princess. There have been better puzzles in Zelda, and better rewards for beating a boss, but this cosy getaway high in the mountains is easily the most warmly domestic space in the entire series. It’s not just down to the warmth radiating from the many hearths or the juxtaposition to the icy chill outside. It’s the presence of two gentle Yetis, wandering around despite your dramatic arrival, tending to bubbling pots of stew.Croft Manor, Tomb Raider Photograph: Square EnixLara Croft’s country house may have started as a place for the games to tuck away a tutorial section, but the Manor quickly evolved into a vital part of the series’ appeal. Croft isn’t just gymnastic and deadly, she’s absolutely minted. Her house is filled with the strangely proportioned rooms you often got when PS1 games ventured indoors, and there’s often a hedge maze alongside a gymnasium. Croft has a room just for her harpsichord! And she has a butler who’s happy to wearily plod along behind her and endure an eternity locked in the freezer.Luigi’s Mansion Photograph: NintendoLuigi’s Mansion was the first game to give either one of Nintendo’s plumbers much in the way of a personality. It’s tempting to argue that’s because Luigi’s thrown in among ordinary domestic clutter here, rather than being let loose to jump and dance through worlds of colourful whimsy. The mansion in question may be filled with ghosts, but it’s also filled with bookshelves, hallway carpeting, light fixtures and a decent-sized kitchen. It’s the perfect place for the ever-roving Marioverse to settle down for a moment and offer a sustained depiction of a single place.The lighthouse, Beyond Good and Evil Photograph: MobygamesJade is a photojournalist rather than a soldier, exploring a fantasy world that’s based on Europe rather than the US or Japan. No wonder, then, that instead of a mansion or hi-tech HQ, she gets to live in a lighthouse on the misty shores of a quiet water world. The lighthouse doubles as a refuge and orphanage, and it’s a delight to spot the little details the designers have included, whether it’s the chummy mess in the living spaces, or the crayon drawings on the woodwork.Botany Manor Photograph: Whitethorn GamesPlayers are drawn to Botany Manor by the puzzles, which revolve around uncovering the conditions required to allow a series of flowers to grow and thrive. But the space itself is arguably the thing that draws everyone back until the game is complete. Here is a version of early 20th-century English elegance pitched somewhere between the worlds of Jeeves and Flora Poste. The colours and sense of expectant stillness, meanwhile, could come from a piece of Clarice Cliff Bizarre Ware pottery.The Carnovasch Estate, Phantasmagoria Photograph: SierraWhen novelist Adrienne Delaney moves into this remote New England property seeking inspiration, she loves the giant fireplaces, labyrinthine corridors and authentic gothic chapel but isn’t so keen on the presence of a wife-murdering demon intent on decapitating, stabbing or squashing residents to death. Heavily inspired by The Shining and the works of Edgar Allen Poe, adventure designer Roberta Williams built this mansion to be the ultimate gore-splattered horror house. Viewing recommended.

May 21, 202510 min readWhy Some Experts Call Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Shield a Dangerous FantasyThe White House’s $175-billion plan to protect the U.S. from nuclear annihilation will probably cost much more—and deliver far less—than has been claimed, says nuclear arms expert Jeffrey LewisBy Lee Billings U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on May 20, 2025, during a briefing announcing his administration’s plan for the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty ImagesDuring a briefing from the Oval Office this week, President Donald Trump revealed his administration’s plan for “Golden Dome”—an ambitious high-tech system meant to shield the U.S. from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile attacks launched by foreign adversaries. Flanked by senior officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the project’s newly selected leader, Gen. Michael Guetlein of the U.S. Space Force, Trump announced that Golden Dome will be completed within three years at a cost of $175 billion.The program, which was among Trump’s campaign promises, derives its name from the Iron Dome missile defense system of Israel—a nation that’s geographically 400 times smaller than the U.S. Protecting the vastness of the U.S. demands very different capabilities than those of Iron Dome, which has successfully shot down rockets and missiles using ground-based interceptors. Most notably, Trump’s Golden Dome would need to expand into space—making it a successor to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) pursued by the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Better known by the mocking nickname “Star Wars,” SDI sought to neutralize the threat from the Soviet Union’s nuclear-warhead-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles by using space-based interceptors that could shoot them down midflight. But fearsome technical challenges kept SDI from getting anywhere close to that goal, despite tens of billions of dollars of federal expenditures.“We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland,” Trump said during the briefing. Although the announcement was short on technical details, Trump also said Golden Dome “will deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.” The program, which Guetlein has compared to the scale of the Manhattan Project in past remarks, has been allotted $25 billion in a Republican spending bill that has yet to pass in Congress. But Golden Dome may ultimately cost much more than Trump’s staggering $175-billion sum. An independent assessment by the Congressional Budget Office estimates its price tag could be as high as $542 billion, and the program has drawn domestic and international outcries that it risks sparking a new, globe-destabilizing arms race and weaponizing Earth’s fragile orbital environment.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.To get a better sense of what’s at stake—and whether Golden Dome has a better chance of success than its failed forebears—Scientific American spoke with Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on the geopolitics of nuclear weaponry at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]It’s been a while, but when last I checked, most experts considered this sort of plan a nonstarter because the U.S. is simply too big of a target. Has something changed?Well, yes and no. The killer argument against space-based interceptors in the 1980s was that it would take thousands of them, and there was just no way to put up that many satellites. Today that’s no longer true. SpaceX alone has put up more than 7,000 Starlink satellites. Launch costs are much cheaper now, and there are more launch vehicles available. So, for the first time, you can say, “Oh, well, I could have a 7,000-satellite constellation. Do I want to do that?” Whereas, when the Reagan administration was talking about this, it was just la-la land.But let’s be clear: this does not solve all the other problems with the general idea—or the Golden Dome version in particular.What are some of those other problems?Just talking about space-based interceptors, there are a couple [of issues that] my colleagues and I have pointed out. We ran some numbers using the old SDI-era calculation from [SDI physicists] Ed Teller and Greg Canavan—so we couldn’t be accused of using some hippie version of the calculation, right? And what this and other independent assessments show is that the number of interceptors you need is super-duper sensitive to lots of things. For instance, it’s not like this is a “one satellite to one missile” situation—because the physics demands that these satellites ... have to be in low-Earth orbit, and that means they’re going to be constantly moving over different parts of the planet.So if you want to defend against just one missile, you still need a whole constellation. And if you want to defend against two missiles, then you basically need twice as many interceptors, and so on.You probably have to shoot down missiles during the boost phase, when the warheads are still attached. For SDI, the U.S. was dealing with Soviet liquid-fueled missiles that would boost, or burn, for about four minutes. Well, modern ones burn for less than three—that’s a whole minute that you no longer have. This is actually much worse than it sounds because you’re probably unable to shoot for the first minute or so. Even with modern detectors [that are] much better than [those] we had in the 1980s, you may not see the missile until it rises above the clouds. And once it does, your sensors, your computers, still have to say, “Aha! That is a missile!” And then you have to ensure that you’re not shooting down some ordinary space launch—so the system says, “I see a missile. May I shoot at it, please?” And someone or something has to give the go-ahead. So let’s just say you’ll have a good minute to shoot it down; this means your space-based interceptor has to be right there, ready to go, right? But by the time you’re getting permission to shoot, the satellite that was overhead to do that is now too far away, and so the next satellite has to be coming there. This scales up really, really fast.Presumably artificial intelligence and other technologies could be leveraged to make that sort of command and control more agile and responsive. But clearly there are still limits here—AI can’t be some sort of panacea.Sure, that’s right. But technological progress overall hasn’t made the threat environment better. Instead it’s gotten much worse.Let’s get back to the sheer physics-induced numbers for a moment, which AI can’t really do much about. That daunting scaling I mentioned also depends on the quality of your interceptors, your kill vehicles—which, by the way, are still going to be grotesquely expensive even if launch costs are low. If your interceptors can rapidly accelerate to eight or 10 kilometers per second (km/s), your constellation can be smaller. If they only reach 4 km/s, your constellation has to be huge.The point is: any claim that you can do this with relatively low numbers—let’s say 2,000 interceptors—assumes a series of improbable miracles occurring in quick succession to deliver the very best outcome that could possibly happen. So it’s not going to happen that way, even if, in principle, it could.So you’re telling me there’s a chance! No, seriously, I see what you mean. The arguments in favor of this working seem rather contrived. No system is perfect, and just one missile getting through can still have catastrophic results. And we haven’t even talked about adversarial countermeasures yet.There’s a joke that’s sometimes made about this: “We play chess, and they don’t move their pieces.” That seems to be the operative assumption here: that other nations will sit idly by as we build a complex, vulnerable system to nullify any strategic nuclear capability they have. And of course, it’s not valid at all. Why do you think the Chinese are building massive fields of missile silos? It’s to counteract or overwhelm this sort of thing. Why do you think the Russians are making moves to put a nuclear weapon in orbit? It’s to mass kill any satellite constellation that would shoot down their missiles.Golden Dome proponents may say, “Oh, we’ll shoot that down, too, before it goes off.” Well, good luck. You put a high-yield nuclear weapon on a booster, and the split second it gets above the clouds, sure, you might see it—but now it sees you, too, before you can shoot. All it has to do at that point is detonate to blow a giant hole in your defenses, and that’s game over. And by the way, this rosy scenario assumes your adversaries don’t interfere with all your satellites passing over their territory in peacetime. We know that won’t be the case—they’ll light them up with sensor-dazzling lasers, at minimum!You’ve compared any feasible space-based system to Starlink and noted that, similar to Starlink, these interceptors will need to be in low-Earth orbit. That means their orbits will rapidly decay from atmospheric drag, so just like Starlink’s satellites, they’d need to be constantly replaced, too, right?Ha, yes, that’s right. With Starlink, you’re looking at a three-to-five-year life cycle, which means annually replacing one third to one fifth of a constellation.So let’s say Golden Dome is 10,000 satellites; this would mean the best-case scenario is that you’re replacing 2,000 per year. Now, let’s just go along with what the Trump administration is saying, that they can get these things really cheap. I’m going to guess a “really cheap” mass-produced kill vehicle would still run you $20 million a pop, easily. Just multiply $20 million by 2,000, and your answer is $40 billion. So under these assumptions, we’d be spending $40 billion per year just to maintain the constellation. That’s not even factoring in operations.And that’s not to mention associated indirect costs from potentially nasty effects on the upper atmosphere and the orbital environment from all the launches and reentries.That, yes—among many other costly things.I have to ask: If fundamental physics makes this extremely expensive idea blatantly incapable of delivering on its promises, what’s really going on when the U.S. president and the secretary of defense announce their intention to pump $175 billion into it for a three-year crash program? Some critics claim this kind of thing is really about transferring taxpayer dollars to a few big aerospace companies and other defense contractors.Well, I wouldn’t say it’s quite that simple.Ballistic missile defense is incredibly appealing to some people for reasons besides money. In technical terms, it’s an elegant solution to the problem of nuclear annihilation—even though it’s not really feasible. For some people, it’s just cool, right? And at a deeper level, many people just don’t like the concept of deterrence—mutual assured destruction and all that—because, remember, the status quo is this: If Russia launches 1,000 nuclear weapons at us—or 100 or 10 or even just one—then we are going to murder every single person in Russia with an immediate nuclear counterattack. That’s how deterrence works. We’re not going to wait for those missiles to land so we can count up our dead to calibrate a more nuanced response. That’s official U.S. policy, and I don’t think anyone wants it to be this way forever. But it’s arguably what’s prevented any nuclear exchange from occurring to date.But not everyone believes in the power of deterrence, and so they’re looking for some kind of technological escape. I don’t think this fantasy is that different from Elon Musk thinking he’s going to go live on Mars when climate change ruins Earth: In both cases, instead of doing the really hard things that seem necessary to actually make this planet better, we’re talking about people who think they can just buy their way out of the problem. A lot of people—a lot of men, especially—really hate vulnerability, and this idea that you can just tech your way out of it is very appealing to them. You know, “Oh, what vulnerability? Yeah, there’s an app for that.”You’re saying this isn’t about money?Well, I imagine this is going to be good for at least a couple of SpaceX Falcon Heavy or Starship launches per year for Elon Musk. And you don’t have to do too many of those launches for the value proposition to work out: You build and run Starlink, you put up another constellation of space-based missile defense interceptors, and suddenly you’ve got a viable business model for these fancy huge rockets that can also take you to Mars, right?Given your knowledge of science history—of how dispassionate physics keeps showing space-based ballistic missile defense is essentially unworkable, yet the idea just keeps coming back—how does this latest resurgence make you feel?When I was younger, I would have been frustrated, but now I just accept human beings don’t learn. We make the same mistakes over and over again. You have to laugh at human folly because I do think most of these people are sincere, you know. They’re trying to get rich, sure, but they’re also trying to protect the country, and they’re doing it through ways they think about the world—which admittedly are stupid. But, hey, they’re trying. It’s very disappointing, but if you just laugh at them, they’re quite amusing.I think most people would have trouble laughing about something as devastating as nuclear war—or about an ultraexpensive plan to protect against it that’s doomed to failure and could spark a new arms race.I guess if you’re looking for a hopeful thought, it’s that we’ve tried this before, and it didn’t really work, and that’s likely to happen again.So how do you think it will actually play out this time around?I think this will be a gigantic waste of money that collapses under its own weight.They’ll put up a couple of interceptors, and they’ll test those against a boosting ballistic missile, and they’ll eventually get a hit. And they’ll use that to justify putting up more, and they’ll probably even manage to make a thin constellation—with the downside, of course, being that the Russians and the Chinese and the North Koreans and everybody else will make corresponding investments in ways to kill this system.And then it will start to really feel expensive, in part because it will be complicating and compromising things like Starlink and other commercial satellite constellations—which, I’d like to point out, are almost certainly uninsured in orbit because you can’t insure against acts of war. So think about that: if the Russians or anyone else detonate a nuclear weapon in orbit because of something like Golden Dome, Elon Musk’s entire constellation is dead, and he’s probably just out the cash.The fact is: these days we rely on space-based assets much more than most people realize, yet Earth orbit is such a fragile environment that we could muck it up in many different ways that carry really nasty long-term consequences. I worry about that a lot. Space used to be a benign environment, even throughout the entire cold war, but having an arms race there will make it malign. So Golden Dome is probably going to make everyone’s life a little bit more dangerous—at least until we, hopefully, come to our senses and decide to try something different.

The end of Squid Game is coming to Netflix. The streamer’s biggest series ever in terms of worldwide viewership concludes its run with the upcoming third season, which is the far and away biggest title that is getting added by Netflix in June.Also coming to Netflix in June: The return of FUBAR, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s very fun action comedy series, as well as as a new Tyler Perry movie and a Justin Willman magic special. Plus there’s a trio of documentaries grouped under the name Trainwreck: One about the Astroworld tragedy, one about infamous Toronto major Rob Ford, and one about the so-called “Poop Cruise.” How much you want to bet the thing that’s called Poop Cruise goes to #1 on the Netflix top ten chart?Here’s the full list of what’s coming to Netflix in June 2025:Avail. 6/1/25The American Barbarian Bee Movie The Birds The Blues Brothers The Devil's Own Dune (1984) The Equalizer Family Plot Focus Frenzy The Great Outdoors Hitchcock Hop The Legend of Zorro The Man Who Knew Too Much Neighbors15. Now You See Me (2013)Summitloading...Now You See Me Now You See Me 2 The Nutty Professor Pokémon The Series: XY Pokémon The Series: XY: XY: Kalos Quest Pokémon The Series: XY: XYZ Rear Window The Theory of Everything The Town U-571 Us VertigoAvail. 6/3/25Sara - Woman in the Shadows -- NETFLIX SERIESThe suspicious death of her son pushes a former secret agent back into action, investigating a series of crimes that grows increasingly sinister.Avail. 6/4/25Criminal Code: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESAn elite Brazilian Federal Police unit takes on a ruthless criminal gang in a deadly game of wits.Eva Lasting: Season 3 -- NETFLIX SERIESAs the gang graduates, their newfound freedom brings Camilo a new set of drama — and yearning — for Eva. Can their dreams survive adulthood?NetflixNetflixloading...Power Moves with Shaquille O'Neal -- NETFLIX SERIES"Power Moves" follows Shaquille O’Neal as he takes on the role of President of Reebok Basketball, returning to the brand that gave him his first shot. Teaming up with Vice President Allen Iverson, Shaq is on a mission to revive the iconic brand and lead a bold comeback from Reebok’s Boston headquarters.Avail. 6/5/25Barracuda Queens: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESYearning for the thrill of their home burglaries, the queens set their sights on an even more lucrative target: the fine art galleries of Stockholm.Ginny & Georgia: Season 3 -- NETFLIX SERIESGeorgia has just been arrested for murder during her wedding - ruining her fairy tale ending and putting the spotlight on the Millers like never before. It's always been Ginny and Georgia against the world, but the world has never come for them quite like this. Now, Ginny needs to see where she stands when push comes to shove – Is the two of them against the world something Ginny really wants to sign up for?Tires: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESFueled by a surprise marketing victory, Will and Shane have steered the tire shop into the fast lane. But sudden success brings its own challenges.Avail. 6/6/25K.O. -- NETFLIX FILMA former fighter must find the missing son of an opponent he accidentally killed years ago, taking on a brutally violent crime gang in Marseille.NetflixNetflixloading...Mercy For None -- NETFLIX SERIESAfter severing ties with his gang, a former gangster returns to uncover the truth behind his brother's death — embarking on a relentless path of revenge.TYLER PERRY’S STRAW -- NETFLIX FILMWhat will be her last straw? A devastatingly bad day pushes a hardworking single mother to the breaking point — and into a shocking act of desperation.The Survivors -- NETFLIX SERIESFifteen years ago, the loss of three young people tore this sleepy seaside town apart. Now, the mysterious death of a young woman dredges up the past.Avail. 6/7/25Boys on the SidePiece by PieceAvail. 6/9/25The Creature Cases: Chapter 5 -- NETFLIX FAMILYIf there's an animal in need, agents Kit and Sam are ready to help! Join them as they tackle more mysteries and meet friendly new critters along the way.Avail. 6/10/25Families Like Ours -- NETFLIX SERIESA teenage girl must choose between her divorced parents and her boyfriend after a permanent evacuation of Denmark turns citizens into refugees.Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARYFeaturing exclusive interviews with survivors, paramedics and festival staff, this documentary examines the 2021 Astroworld tragedy and its aftermath.Avail. 6/11/25Aniela -- NETFLIX SERIESAfter her wealthy husband leaves her with nothing, a high-society Warsaw snob is forced to use the only survival skills she has left — her sharp wit.Cheers to Life -- NETFLIX FILMA pendant from the past sets Jéssica on a trip through Israel — where family twists, unexpected love and a search for meaning shape the ride of her life.Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY2013: four Frenchmen are arrested in Punta Cana with 700 kg of cocaine — none fit the trafficker profile. This documentary asks: who was behind the bust?Our Times -- NETFLIX FILMAfter years of research and companionship, two physicists from the 1960s unlock the secrets of wormhole theory and find themselves stranded in 2025.Titan: The OceanGate Disaster -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARYThis documentary explores the Titan submersible's doomed 2023 journey to the wreckage of the Titanic and the ambitious OceanGate CEO behind the endeavor.Avail. 6/12/25The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish: Season 2NetflixNetflixloading...FUBAR: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESEager to return to action, Luke, Emma and the crew get more than they bargained for when a mysterious terrorist threatens to unleash worldwide chaos.PlaneAvail. 6/13/25Kings of Jo'Burg: Season 3 (ZA) -- NETFLIX SERIESVeronica Masire now bears the responsibility of the family curse, as she picks up where her brother left off — ruling Jo'Burg with legacy and power.Avail. 6/14/25Grey’s Anatomy: Season 21Avail. 6/16/25The Last Witch HunterAvail. 6/17/25Justin Willman: Magic Lover -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIALSleight-of-hand sorcery. Mischievous mind games. Mind-blowing illusions. Justin Willman conjures up laughs in a special where comedy and magic collide.Kaulitz & Kaulitz: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESThe show must go on! Tom and Bill Kaulitz are back to share their exciting lives, even as dark clouds gather in paradise.Scandal: Seasons 1-7NetflixNetflixloading...Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARYRob Ford scandalized Canadian politics as the brash yet beloved mayor of Toronto — until an infamous video of him smoking crack sparked his downfall.Avail. 6/18/25AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESA new batch of hopefuls face fierce competition, high expectations and even higher kicks as they vie for a spot with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.Rosario Tijeras (Mexico): Season 4 -- NETFLIX SERIESYears after Rosario's sacrifice, her legend haunts her daughter, Ruby. As the teen's life takes a dangerous turn, secrets from her past begin to unravel.Somebody Feed Phil: Season 8 -- NETFLIX SERIESFresh flavors and new friends await as globetrotting foodie Phil Rosenthal expands his culinary horizons to Amsterdam, Boston, Basque Country and more.YOLANTHE -- NETFLIX SERIESThis reality series follows Yolanthe Cabau in her glamorous new life in Los Angeles as she faces unexpected challenges and ghosts from her past.Avail. 6/19/25The Waterfront -- NETFLIX SERIESA prominent North Carolina fishing family wades into treacherous waters to keep their crumbling business empire afloat.Avail. 6/20/25KPop Demon Hunters -- NETFLIX FAMILYWhen K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey aren't selling out stadiums, they're using their secret powers to protect their fans from supernatural threats.Olympo -- NETFLIX SERIESThe Pyrenean High Performance Center: home to Spain's most promising athletes. The question is, how far will they go to reach the top — and stay there?Semi-Soeter -- NETFLIX FILMPower couple Jaci and JP find themselves in a bumpy predicament when a new work pitch for a baby brand forces them to play the perfect pretend parents.Avail. 6/22/25The InternAvail. 6/24/25Steph Tolev: Filth Queen -- NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIALBow down to the queen as fearlessly filthy Steph Tolev rules the stage with hilarious confessions, unfiltered dating stories and absurd observations.Trainwreck: Poop Cruise -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARYAn engine fire leaves 4,000 passengers stranded at sea without power and plumbing in this wild documentary about the infamous "poop cruise" of 2013.Avail. 6/25/25The Ultimatum: Queer Love: Season 2 -- NETFLIX SERIESSix couples put their love to the test by moving in with other partners. Are they ready for marriage — or is "the one" actually someone else?Avail. 6/27/25Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua Part 3 -- NETFLIX FAMILYWith their training complete, the three young adventurers embark on a new quest to learn more about Lucius and track down the rest of the Six Heroes.NetflixNetflixloading...Squid Game: Season 3 (KR) -- NETFLIX SERIESThe third and final season of Squid Game follows Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game. Gi-hun persists with his goal to put an end to the game, while the Front Man continues onto his next move and the surviving players' choices will lead to graver consequences with each round. The world eagerly awaits to see the grand finale written and directed by Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has vowed to bring the epic story to its deserved closure. Can we hope for humanity in the cruelest of realities?Get our free mobile appNetflix: Summer 2025 Movie PreviewEvery big movie coming to Netflix this summer...

Peter Molyneux on Masters of Albion progress and the influence of Fable on his new game GamesIndustry.biz catches up with the creator of Fable and Black & White at Nordic Game 2025 Image credit: 22cans Feature by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on May 22, 2025 Peter Molyneux was typically charming and emotional during his fireside chat at Nordic Game 2025 in Malmö this week, discussing his past work at the studios Bullfrog, Lionhead, and even the legendary doomed Kinect project Milo and Kate. Molyneux is a complicated figure for some (in games media circles, that's certainly the case), but the response in the room was incredibly warm. There is perhaps an understanding from the creator of Dungeon Keeper and Fable that the game has to do the talking this time. That said, as usual, Molyneux couldn't hide his excitement for what's coming next. Following last year's in-depth chat about upcoming god game Masters of Albion, as well as his negative experiences with the press, GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Molyneux about how development on the game is progressing ahead of his talk. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. How is Masters of Albion going? I've got to say this, but it's going to get me in trouble: every atom of my being believes we're making a great game. I bullied, persuaded, and blackmailed a lot of the old people that I worked with, like Russell Shaw, Mark Healey and Ian Wright, Kareem Ettouney, to come back and do one last gig. And it's incredible. There is a magic that we used to have, when we created Dungeon Keeper and Black and White and Fable, and that magic was completely intangible. It's not something you can produce. But it really feels that magic is back. And I'm not saying that to you to hype the game – I'm only saying so you get a perspective of how I'm feeling about the game. It should be impossible to make this game. It's all about player freedom, it's all about asking ourselves what a god game is, what it should be, and what it should stand for. But: it's f*cking working. It's coming together. If you can play the game, it is something that in my mind, feels – and again, these are words that play out in my mind, this is not me hyping the title – but it feels fresh, and different, and new, and it feels, above all, insanely brave. It's exactly what I wanted it to be: it's a marriage of Dungeon Keeper, and Black & White, and Fable, and it's all [of] that put together. And how the hell does that work? It's only now, really, in the last year, that I've dared to hope that this weird mixture of game mechanics can actually blend into something unique and different. When you're working again with all these previous collaborators, does it feel like it used to, or with time and experience, does the dynamic feel a little bit different? There is this trust. There is this overwhelming trust that you have. I'm not telling Mark [Healey] what to do; you don't tell Mark what to do, he is a genius. You just show him, and he does the rest. I don't say, 'we should have this type of music, or we should have these sound effects' with Russell Shaw; he just takes what I make and he adds his genius to it. And that dynamic, I didn't dare hope would work again, but it is working. We've got 24 people, because I love working with small teams. Then to work with other people on the team that I've worked with for ten years, to see them embrace this thing that we're creating, is just wonderful. I'm working harder now than I worked in my twenties. Every moment of every day is spent on the game, and thinking about it. But that sort of focus is what you need. Image credit: 22cans How does it feel to be in the weeds of designing a game now versus 20 or 30 years ago? It's funny you should ask that question, because there is this realisation that I had a while back. Journalists always ask me, 'you're working on an RTS one minute, you're working on a god game another minute, you're working on a roleplaying [game] another minute, where's the consistency?' I think I've realised that the consistency is the experience that the player has. What we're really trying to do is create an experience. And for me, that started back when we created a game called Magic Carpet, years and years ago. Let me give you an example of what I mean by an experience. At that time in the industry, Doom and Quake and Wolfenstein were around, and we had that tech to do an indoor shooter just like those. And we would've made a shitload of money, and maybe even created a franchise. But instead, my bastard and half-insane mind said, 'no. Let's not do that. Wouldn't it be fantastically cool to experience flying? Like, flying on a magic carpet? Okay, you shoot things, but [while] flying on a magic carpet.' That's when I first realised, I think, that for me as a designer, it's more about the player's experience than it is about the mechanics. Traditionally, if you're making an RTS game, the first thing you do as a designer is you write down all your units, work out your attack skills, and you have your design bible, and you give that to the programming team. That's not the way we approach it, and that's definitely not the way we approached it with Masters [of Albion], and we didn't approach it [that way] with Fable, or Black & White, or any of those games. So, the short answer to your question is, it feels so familiar to the way we used to work, and that is stumbling through the darkness looking for the daylight as you're developing the game. Trying things out, throwing things away, obsessing. Going, 'that's the heart of the game; no, actually that isn't the heart of the game, let's throw that away'. So in that sense it's incredibly familiar. It's very, very chaotic. Those people that we do employ who have worked elsewhere, after they've been working with us for a week, just look defeated. 'Tell me what to do, and I'll do it really well.' You miss the point: it's not what to do, it's how we embrace what [comes from that process]. You're launching the game in Early Access. How does the process of building a roadmap look for you, when you're very conscious of not overpromising? I think the real time for a roadmap is when you're in Early Access. I'm never going to lose this creative friction that happens, but if you've got a live product, and we have experience of this now, because we still have two live-service products [at 22cans] – Godus and Betrayal, which are both very successful. You can think creatively, and you absolutely should think creatively, but you've got to be a little bit more predictable, because you're no longer just throwing a schedule away, you're throwing away what people are anticipating. So I think the time for a roadmap, the time to be predictive about what we're releasing and share that with the community, that's soon coming up. The Dungeon Keeper and Black & White influences on Masters of Albion are really clear. Can you talk more about how the Fable influence manifests in the game? The way I think of it is like making a soup. I can put potatoes in, and I can put leeks in – and it's going to be a leek and potato soup. Then I can put strange other ingredients in, and it tastes like nothing I've ever tasted before. That's how I think about Masters of Albion. We have got bits from Dungeon Keeper; there's a core mechanic in the game that's absolutely inspired by Dungeon Keeper. We've got very visible things from Black & White, like the hand and reaching into the world, and this godlike feeling, caring for things and nurturing things, absolutely from Black & White. But Fable: that's where the main focus comes from, because the entire narrative, the entire world, the openness of the world, the freedom which Fable gave you as a player, absolutely is embraced [here fully]. We've just done some user tests – I shouldn't say any of this stuff – using a company over in America. And the first thing that came back is, 'oh my god, I'm playing Fable.' That was such a wonderful moment for me. That's what they said when they first started playing it. And then they said, 'no no, it doesn't remind me of Fable, it reminds me of Black & White.' It is a blend, but that blend, just like that soup analogy, is something new, fresh and different. GamesIndustry.biz is a media partner for Nordic Game 2025. Travel and accommodation were covered by the organisers.