Decades before Peter Jackson’s live-action The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi rendered the epic in striking animation. (Rotoscope is cool, eh?) Now, a new project from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. returns J.R.R. Tolkien’s sprawling story to animated form. And this time, they’re going the way of anime. This trip into Middle-earth will be The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, fostered by filmmaker Kenji Kamiyama. And now, we finally have our first-look images which show us what The War of Rohirrim will look like. In addition, the first voice cast for The Lord of the Rings anime has been revealed, alongside more story details, concept art from the film, and the movie’s release date. It has even been announced that the story will be narrated by Éowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan.

Here Is Our First Look at the Art of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

We finally know what The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will look like. Four first-look images of this anime-style The Lord of the Rings movie have been released. You can also check out our deep dive into the trailer, here.

In the images, we see main character Héra, antagonist Wulf, and the legendary king of Rohan Helm Hammerhand and his family, Héra, Haleth, and Hama.

Click To View Gallery

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Stars and Synopsis

Miranda Otto reprises her role as Éowyn in The War of the Rohirrim. She serves as the movie’s narrator as she tells the tale of Rohan’s history. Alongside Otto, Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, and Luke Pasqualino have been cast as the leads in the Lord of the Rings anime. Cox will voice the protagonist Helm Hammerhand. Wise will voice his daughter Hera. And Pasqualino will voice Wulf, the presumed antagonist.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Synopsis

A press release describes the new film as an exploration of “the untold story behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep.” The material adds that this feature will “delv[e] into the life and bloodsoaked times of one of Middle-earth’s most legendary figures; the mighty King of Rohan – Helm Hammerhand.” And new synopsis further shares that this Lord of the Rings anime will take place 183 before the events revealed in The Lord of the Rings movies.

The anime movie’s description notes, ” Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg— mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.”

More About The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Director Kamiyama shares of this The Lord of the Rings anime movie, “This is the story of the most powerful king in Rohan’s history, someone who defeated his enemies with his bare fists. Why did his lineage have to end with him? I think there is a lesson in hubris there and also for a need for responsibility and awareness in their power. We live in an age where, all over the world, we face the reality of war again. What, then, is power? What is the responsibility of those who possess it? It is something they need to think about by thinking together with those who don’t.” 

Of Helm’s daughter Hèra, producer Philippa Boyens notes, “In the appendices where the story is drawn from, we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named — and that was really interesting to me. We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her. We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”

Finally, who is the antagonist of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Wulf, who is “leading the armies of Dunlendings against Helm’s kingdom.” Boyens shares, “We have an exceptionally great antagonist in this story. He’s been one of my favorite antagonists to have written across all of the films I’ve worked on.”  Wulf is no wizard or powerful being, instead he’s just a human in The Lord of the Rings world. And Boyens reveals, “He speaks so directly to a lot of the crises that we’re facing today. He’s a really fascinating character and exciting too. You don’t know what he’s going to do, and some of the choices that he makes are just breathtaking in a good way.” 

Concept Art From The Lord of the Rings Anime Movie

The below concept art by Weta Workshop certainly hints at those blood-soaked times. That Oliphaunt doesn’t look like it’s there for a good cuddle.

Helm, the ninth king of Rohan, was famously defeated—but not killed—at the Crossings of Isen. However, he would survive for just another year, following a lengthy siege alongside his brother. Despite his defeat, Helm maintained a ferocious reputation; he was even thought to live on in some form following official decree of his death. You can check out the rest of The War of the Rohirrim‘s concept art below.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Director and Other Cast

The War of the Rohirrim‘s director, Kamiyama, has been imbuing the anime world with color and story since the 1980s. Among his most noteworthy credits, we find several Ghost in the Shell series, as well as the 2019 Ultraman show.

Additional cast for the movie include Lorraine Ashbourne, Yazdan Qafouri, Benjamin Wainwright, Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, Michael Wildman, Jude Akuwudike, Bilal Hasna, and Janine Duvitski.

Peter Jackson will serve as an executive producer of the film.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Release Date

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will debut in theaters on December 13, 2024. At present, Warner Bros. touts Rohirrim as a stand-alone story; as such, we shouldn’t necessarily expect a trilogy born of this project. But given that The Hobbit was originally only supposed to be one film, we might not wish to count anything out, either.

Originally published June 10, 2021 with reporting from M. Arbeiter.

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These times are uncertain for streaming services. Platforms that were once separate have merged. Various streaming services have increased prices and brought in ad tiers. Let’s not even get into various crackdowns on password sharing. But in a turn of events we could not have seen coming, Disney Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a new streaming bundle. This streaming bundle comes with Disney+, Hulu, and Max and is now available. What times we live in. Perhaps they are joining forces to fight Netflix.

A Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle obviously brings a lot of brands together. The release points out it encompasses ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, and Warner Bros. among others. Customers will be able to purchase the bundle on any of the three streaming platform’s websites and choose between ad-supported and ad-free plans. It’s not yet clear if subscribers will be able to access the bundle through a single interface or separate services. If it’s a single interface, we can’t wait to see that design and how they make it not overwhelming.

Joe Earley, President, Direct to Consumer, Disney Entertainment, said in a release:

On the heels of the very successful launch of Hulu on Disney+, this new bundle with Max will offer subscribers even more choice and value. This incredible new partnership puts subscribers first, giving them access to blockbuster films, originals, and three massive libraries featuring the very best brands and entertainment in streaming today.

During a Warner Bros. Discovery earning call, JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games shared that this bundle would be “priced very attractively for the consumer.” Additionally, Perrette revealed that Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery were unlikely to invite any other streamers beyond Disney+, Hulu, and Max into the bundle, noting, “We don’t feel like we need anybody else in that package to make it incredibly compelling.”

How Much Does the Disney+, Hulu, and Max Streaming Bundle Cost?

The Disney+, Hulu, and Max streaming bundle will be cost $16.99 a month with ads and $29.99 for the ad-free service. According to a Deadline report, that’s an overall 38% savings. Still, the continuous games of streaming baffle us. You can sign up here and get more information.

More Disney+ Bundles Could Be on the Way

Nami Patel, Disney’s senior vice president of strategy and business development recently shared that the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle strategy is “working really well” for the streamer. Specifically, Patel noted, the streaming bundle has seen “viewers spending more time on the platforms and has reduced subscriber churn.”

Based off this success, more streaming bundles might be just around the corner. Patel noted in conclusion, “Partnerships will always be a key benefit to consumers, and I think we’ll see more and more of that.” Bundling, she shares is a “great alternative” to going it alone.

Well, that’s not the first time the industry has come to that realization. But, it turns out, ultimately people didn’t like cable that much after a while. So we’ll have to wait and see where this goes.

Originally published on May 8, 2024.

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L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz got turned on its head with Gregory Maguire’s Wicked. The 1995 book put the spotlight on Elphaba and her life, often one full of hardship, until Dorothy kills her. Wicked became a Broadway musical in 2003 and has since become the fourth longest-running Broadway series. And this journey through Oz doesn’t stop with a musical: we’re getting a two-part film adaptation from director Jon M. Chu.

Wicked‘s New Release Date

Wicked was slated to be released on November 27, but it will now release a little earlier on November 22. Meanwhile, Wicked Part Two has also already moved its release date. It was meant to release on November 26, 2025. But Wicked Part Two‘s official release date is now November 21, 2025. This move could be thanks in part to avoiding a battle with Disney’s Zootopia 2, which releases on November 26.

Watch the Wicked Movie’s Trailer

There’s a fresh trailer for Wicked that really gives us a better look at Elphaba’s life, including a romance and some events leading up to her death.

The Wicked trailer shows off a beautifully cinematic version of Oz and the beginning of Elphaba and Glinda’s fateful and witchy friendship.

Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba and Ariana Grande plays Glinda. They meet as students at Shiz University and become close friends. Elphaba and Glinda could not have more different backgrounds. Those backgrounds definitely put a thorn in the side of the friendship. As Wicked‘s synopsis explains:

The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power, while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences on her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

We’re glad to see the Wicked movie trailer embrace its roots and even tease the movie’s version of the many iconic musical songs. We can’t wait to hear them in full.

You Can Also Check Out the Wicked Trailer in LEGO Form

In case the real version of Wicked‘s movie trailer left you wanting more, you can also check out a LEGO version. Who doesn’t love LEGO Oz?

Wicked Movie Featurette and First-Looks

Wicked is an epic and long story. Is it a story that needs two movies? Only time will tell. Happily, it does seem like the cast and crew of the movie are very passionate about it.

In addition to Erivo and Grande, the cast for Wicked includes: Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero; Ethan Slater as Boq; Marissa Bode as Nessarose; and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz. Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, and Keala Settle also star. Most recently we learned that Peter Dinklage would Dr. Dillamond, a goat with the ability to speak. You can see more first-looks from the movie, below.

We really love this Wicked featurette with Chu taking us into building the world of Oz.

Here Are Some New Looks at Wicked‘s Cast

Wicked arrives in theaters on November 22, 2024. Wicked Part Two will follow on November 26, 2025.

Originally published on February 12, 2024.

Featured Image: Universal

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A month into playing Disney Lorcana: Shimmering Skies, the latest release of the Disney-inspired trading card game, and I can’t get enough of how joyful it is. The new cards and the way they complement and contrast each other are a delight. It’s a time of celebration in the realm of Lorcana since Ursula was defeated. Everything feels lighter and freer. That theme continues in the Shimmering Skies Illumineer’s Trove. Ravensburger sent us a copy, along with new accessories for Disney Lorcana that show a big jump in quality.

Shimmering Skies Illumineer’s Trove

As ever, the Illumineer’s Trove remains a deal. It comes with eight booster packs, a lore counter, card dividers, six dice for marking damage, and a storage box. The retail price is $49.99. As ever, the Trove’s look changes to match the current story. With Shimmering Skies, the overall color palette is lighter on the ink divider cards and the lore counter. This set of dice is clear and sparkly with purple numbers. It’s true that my Illumineer’s Trove boxes are starting to stack up, but I’m in for the different dividers and the dice.

New Disney Lorcana Accessories

Where the Shimmering Skies release really shines is with new accessories. Instead of a gift set, Ravensburger released different accessories, including portfolios and card sleeves. I’m happy to say both items have come a long way in construction and durability since the first Disney Lorcana release.  The portfolios have nine pockets per page and 14 pages. That means they hold 252 cards each, which is well over a full set for one Lorcana release. The pages, cover, and elastic band are sturdy. I trust these portfolios to keep my cards safe, and I’d use them to transport cards I might want to trade during league play. Though the portfolio has a character design option, I’m so glad Ravensburger offered a portfolio with the Lorcana image from the backs of the cards.

Similarly, they have card sleeves with that same image, which I think of as the Lorcana logo. Sleeves with character designs are fun, but I love the logo art. The card sleeves are a huge step up from the past offerings, too. For example, the seams aren’t prone to ripping. The material is thicker and better, all around. I put enough faith in them to hold an Enchanted card I pulled from a separate booster pack—but only temporarily until I could dig out a Dragon Shield sleeve. Though the Lorcana sleeves have vastly improved, I don’t know if I’m ready for them to be my go-to card sleeves.

Disney Lorcana’s new accessories and the Shimmering Skies Illumineer’s Trove are available from your local game store and mass market retailers.

Featured Image: Ravensburger

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You never know what you’re going to get when LEGO and Star Wars click together. Actually, no. You do know you’ll get an entertaining story. The trailer for the upcoming special LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy certainly hints at one. In this story, the galaxy we know has fallen apart. The pieces are jumbled. Anything could happen—anything like Darth Jar Jar, for example. Only Sig Greebling can reassemble the galaxy, and in the below exclusive clip from LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, you can see him dodging the dark side with Yesi Scala and Jedi Bob.

Note to self: don’t call him Jedi Bob.

This LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy clip certainly has us at the edge of our seats. But, though the scene keeps us in fun suspense, we can still take the time to appreciate all the epic LEGO Star Wars building that takes place. As Jedi Bob (sorry, Bob!) would say, “There’s always another way to build.” And we see that on full display here, even in this short moment from the series. Our heroes use the Force to upgrade their LEGO starship mid-flight and then Force-build a land vehicle instead when the need arises. We have to say it, it’s just a really cool meeting of worlds.

Of course, we also must mention that the LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy animation is incredible. Watching it makes us feel like galactic LEGO bricks are really flying around us. Honestly, we wish we could use the Force to help us with our own LEGO builds in a galaxy a little closer to home. But we’ll settle for delightedly watching Jedi Bob do it instead.

The synopsis for LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is as follows:

In LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, the entire Star Wars Galaxy gets completely mixed up when an ordinary nerf-herder, Sig Greebling (Gaten Matarazzo), unearths a powerful artifact from a hidden Jedi temple. He finds himself thrust into adventure in a new, wondrously wild and twisted version of the galaxy where good guys are bad, bad guys are good, and the fate of all depends on Sig becoming the hero who can put all the pieces back together.

We cannot wait for all the hijinks that will ensue as this epic story gets pieced together.

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy releases on Disney+ on September 13.

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With Avengers: Secret Wars threatening to hit the reset button the MCU, will we ever get satisfying conclusions to these post-credits scenes?

Thank you to Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws for sponsoring today’s video! Available on Xbox X|S, PS5, and PC on August 30. Learn more: https://bit.ly/SWOutlaws

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Warner Bros. brought two DC Comics films to San Diego Comic-Con recently: Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Those two films arrive in theaters this year, so that felt right. But another movie believed to be on the calendar for this year wasn’t at Comic-Con: Batgirl. The film starring Leslie Grace was set to premiere exclusively on HBO Max. However, The Hollywood Reporter has shared that Warner Bros. will no longer release Batgirl. We first spotted this news at The Wrap. Warner Bros. has since confirmed that it will, indeed, not release the Batgirl movie in any capacity.

The company offered the following statement with regard to Batgirl‘s cancellation.

The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max. Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future.

On the heels of this cancellation, Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah also released an official statement expressing their sadness at the turn of events, but love of the movie and cast. Adil El Arbi even gave us a look at Michael Keaton as Batman on his Instagram stories.

Other cast and crew have also revealed their sadness at the canceled movie. Leslie Grace shared a moving message with her co-workers and fans. Meanwhile, others, like Jules Wallace, a martial artist and stunt combat performer who worked on Batgirl, have offered tidbits about what could have been. Most recently, we got our first look at the DC supervillain Killer Moth, who would have appeared in the movie.

One person who was not too personally disappointed by Batgirl‘s cancellation was Michael Keaton. Recently, he noted to GQ. “No, I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check,” GQ notes, “Keaton says, rubbing his fingers together in the universal gesture for ‘moolah.'”

However, he did add a softer note to his response, offering, “I like those boys. They’re nice guys.” (Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah) “I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad. Me?… I’m good.”

The news of Batgirl‘s cancellation is surprising for many reasons. Mostly because Batgirl already completed shooting and was in post-production. That means the bulk of the money has already been spent. It seems odd that they wouldn’t finish the $90 million movie and release it on HBO Max. That budget is already lower than many DC Comics movies, so spending a little extra doesn’t seem unreasonable. Especially when you consider how much the company spent on reshoots for a cut of another film last year.

Batgirl featured Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. The movie also featured J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Keaton as Batman as mentioned above, and Brendan Fraser as the villain Firefly. Additionally, Ivory Aquino played Alysia Yeoh, Batgirl’s best friend.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. is shelving Batgirl because of a change in leadership. New Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is reportedly prioritizing theatrical films instead of projects directly for streaming. And this move doesn’t only affect Batgirl. Warner Bros. is also shelving Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, an animated feature.

Originally published on August 2.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Editor-in-Chief for Nerdist and the author of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, The Jedi Mind, and more. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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Making a high fantasy series means designing and constructing otherworldly sets, carefully shaping a set to become, for example, the throne room of Númenor. It also means outfitting hundreds of orcs with prosthetics and maintaining an ear library. Many of those orcs were resting around the edges of a battle scene when Nerdist and a small group of reporters visited the set of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in 2023. The series was filming at Buttersteep Rise in Windsor Great Park, and we planted our wellies-covered feet carefully through thick mud and around performers pulling their orc prosthetics out of the way to drink smoothies through straws.

Even orcs like a smoothie.

In our day on set, we spoke with The Rings of Power showrunners, some of the cast, production design, the prosthetics department, props, and more. Here are seven details we learned about The Rings of Power season two.

1. Filming in the UK

Season one of The Rings of Power filmed in New Zealand, but the series moved to the United Kingdom for season two. Executive producer Lindsey Weber noted the decision came from Amazon, because they wanted to centralize their hub in the UK. But, she noted, it’s one of the best places to shoot. She said, “There’s a wonderful crew, actor, and filmmaking base. It does feel like there are new pools of talent here that we hadn’t used in season one. And certainly, we’re in all these locations that Tolkien wrote about.”

Supervising art director Martin Foley joked that when they first showed the showrunners Windsor Great Park and its 900-year-old trees, JD Payne and Patrick McKay literally hugged the trees.

2. Speaking of New Zealand…

The show did have a lot built for season one in New Zealand, and the production team had a lot of things shipped over—as in 70 containers full of items for not only the art department. Production designer Kristian Milsted said, it wasn’t so much full sets as smaller pieces like doors, windows, and detailed panels. Foley said, “Things took a long time to make and were expensive, and they were packed up carefully. We got these lovely notes. You’d open the containers, and they’d be like, ‘Please look after this. It took me months.’ It was quite sweet considering how abruptly that ended. You weren’t sure what you’re going to get, and then in terms of their messages, but they’re all really positive and really nice.”

3. The Voice of Sauron

Leith McPherson is The Ring of Power‘s supervising dialect coach; she worked on dialect for The Hobbit trilogy, too. She had the challenge of working with Charlie Vickers to turn his Halbrand accent into something different for season two.

McPherson said, “When I work for the actors, I work in the accent that the actors are working in. So Halbrand, it’s that northern kind of quality. He [Charlie Vickers] and I spoke like that for 18 months together and then it was, ‘Okay. So now you’re a different character kind of. Are you? I don’t know.’ Then we were speaking to each other in a new accent. Because this is an evolving, changing character where you are always thinking about the communication that that character is trying to have with others—what impression is he trying to make and what is he trying to achieve? So we talk about that vocally. How that manifests is an interesting thing.”

4. The Rings in The Rings of Power

Season two brings more rings to Middle-earth. Celebrimbor forged the three Elven rings at the end of season one, and set decorator Tina Jones and her team remade those Elven rings for season two. To come up with the designs for the new rings, the team went to different museums, including the British Museum to gather research and take photos. They also referenced design concepts from John Howe, a Tolkien artist. The camera would pick up any small imperfection in a manmade stone, so they used real stones for macro shots.

5. Orcs Everywhere

Season two has 1,500 actors in orc makeup. The prosthetics are a four-part application process including a cowl, a forehead, a chin, and a face. These can be mixed and matched to create unique looks. It takes two people two and a half hours to apply each set of prosthetics, and no, I am not doing that math. When we stopped by the prosthetics department to talk with Sarah Gower, she and her team were working on outfitting the second wave of orcs for the day.

6. Action and Stunts

If I could pick a theme for season two just from visiting the set, it’s more. More locations, more orcs, and more action. More everything. Supervising stunt coordinator Ben Cooke told us Galadriel and Elrond both see a lot more action, specifically on horseback. Cooke and his team worked for eight months on season two stunts that include wirework, high falls, and fires. Rehearsals started three to four months before filming. Part of Cooke’s work includes choreographing different action to match the styles of the Elves, orcs, Dwarves, etc.

7. Dwarven Beards

Hair and makeup designer Flora Moody walked us through a number of wigs. As she so aptly put it, “There’s a lot of hair.” Indeed when you think about the number of flowing locks in The Rings of Power, you realize how much effort it must take to maintain so many wigs. There are hero wigs, scale wigs, stunt double wigs, and sometimes picture double wigs. It adds up to, as Moody says, “an organizational feat.”

The wigs are all made from human hair when possible, but Dwarven beards, those are yak hair. The department uses two different types of yak hair. Tail of yak makes for a coarser hair. For a softer beard, it’s yak belly hair.

The makeup and hair department can make subtle changes that speak to character growth. For example, they gave Trystan Gravelle’s Pharazôn a 300-style beard to speak to his character becoming a bit more powerful.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two premieres on Prime Video on August 29.

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Not all is well in Númenor. Season one of The Rings of Power saw Queen Regent Míriel lead Númenóreans to Middle-earth at Galadriel’s request. The expedition ended in war and many Númenórean lives lost. As you can imagine, Míriel’s choice, along with the passing of her father the King, causes any rifts existing in Númenor society to expand. And her cousin and advisor Pharazôn is all too ready to take advantage of those rifts.

While visiting the set of The Rings of Power season two with a small group of journalists, we talked with actor Trystan Gravelle about Númenor needing a zhuzh and Pharazôn’s scheming. Don’t worry, we won’t get into Second Age spoilers.

We know where Pharazôn ends up and we saw him starting to head that direction in season one. Where do things pick up in season two?

Trystan Gravelle: In season two there’s a bit of rebuilding of image. They’ve gone into a war that initially he didn’t want to go into. I think there was a bit of a rude awakening for everybody, that I guess they’ve always been touted as a thalassocracy, Númenor has. The whole place has become slightly sclerotic maybe, with rot kicking in. I think there needs to be a little bit of a zhuzh-up in the kingdom there. This is where Pharazôn comes into it. Not only have they lost the war that they went over with their expeditionary force to win, but they’ve been embarrassed as well in that the Queen Regent has lost her sight.

So, Númenor doesn’t look good with regards to whoever else might be out there. Because we’ve been so insular, maybe it’s time to maybe get on the front foot with things. That’s where he is at the moment, or where his mind is. He’s not the king of Númenor, but that’s where his mind is. He has to put pieces in play.

Season one had some of the politicking side of Númenor. Can we expect more high court drama in season two?

Gravelle: You’ll definitely see some from Pharazôn, because there’s such a difference between Míriel and Elendil. With Pharazôn, he knows that you have to indulge in the dark arts. He’s a great believer in maybe the ends justifies the means. And being a sea captain himself, or an ex-sea captain, I mean, he would probably have been there, done it, got the T-shirt, and is going like, “Well, actually sometimes you do need to get your hands dirty. And it’s not just about honor and stuff.”

I read a brilliant book by David Frye called Walls. It is about people who lived inside walls in the civilizations that they built, and then the so-called barbarians on the outside that didn’t need to build walls. And there’s definitely a difference of perspective in how they see the world. When you build these walls, you can become your reputation, or what you have inside those, counts for nothing in the outside world. So, it’s up to you to build that again. Then there comes a fear, I think, and there’s a lot to lose because you become more cognizant of this civilization that you’ve built where it’s not just about survival and move on. A part of your consciousness now is in these stones, is in this set place that you’ve built for yourselves. And so the height that you fall from is greater.

I went off on a tangent there. Yes, [there will be more politicking] and a lot of image building.

You mentioned Queen Regent Míriel. What can you tell us a little bit about her and Pharazôn’s relationship? Especially in the wake of what happened in Middle-earth.

Gravelle: With all families, I think there’s always a bit of healthy competition, as well as love and everything. Even with whatever schadenfreude you may feel sometimes. If you see somebody trip up, there’s always a greater thing of who you are as a person and why did you feel that. And Pharazôn, I don’t think, is some psychopath or anything. His perspective is different, and that’s what’s apparent here, is that Tar-Palantir or Ar-Inziladun were part of the faithful. I think that’s about appeasing old traditions, and I think it’s holding Númenor back. So, there’s a frustration there and a clash of ideals.

I guess you’re a swan on the surface, but underneath there’s the scheming, there’s the paddling, and all the ugly stuff going on underneath. That’s on both sides as well. There’s always going to be a level of insecurity and mistrust after what’s happened. Because there is, it’s embarrassing that we’ve come back with a tail between the legs, this great empire, so we thought.

Míriel trusted the Elves, trusted Galadriel. Is this a further wedge between the Númenoreans and the Elves?

Gravelle: I think it’s a huge thing, that you led your people into a war where they got embarrassed. I know you’re still Queen, but you need help. You’re dependent on people. And also as well, if that gets out, that there’s this great empire that’s not what everybody thought they were, I mean, what does that mean? Are we going to have ships sailing by our shores? And there’s all these questions, the geopolitics comes up again. So yes, it’s definitely a cause for concern.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two premieres with three episodes on Prime Video on August 29.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Trystan Gravelle on Political Theory and Pharazôn’s Rise appeared first on Nerdist.

Queen Regent Mìriel chose to follow Galadriel across the sea to Middle-earth in season one of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She led her people from Númenor to the Southlands, right into a war. Things did not go in their favor, and especially not in Mìriel’s favor. When Nerdist visited The Rings of Power season two set with a small group of reporters, we talked with Cynthia Addai-Robinson about what’s ahead for Mìriel and her kingdom.

When season two begins, how is Mìriel processing everything that happened?

Cynthia Addai-Robinson: Where do I even begin? At the end of season one, we find Mìriel in a very vulnerable position. Not only has she lost her sight, she has been defeated in battle. Many Númenórean lives were lost. Her father, the king, has passed. That’s a lot to end on. So really, season two, specifically to Mìriel and Númenor, is trying to find strength in loss. There are a lot of implications for how people feel around her taking Númenóreans into battle.

In season one, we were already starting to see divisions in [Númenórean] society. There’s a deepening of that as we continue into season two—so lots of very dramatic things. And on top of that, in season one we see Queen Regent Mìriel. It stands to reason that with the king’s passing there would be a progression of things.

What are the challenges of building and playing a character when you and the audience know the journey?

Addai-Robinson: Obviously, the meatiest roles allow you to demonstrate vulnerability and strength simultaneously. You welcome the challenge and obviously you want to give it something that feels relatable. Here we are in this fantastical Middle-earth, but a lot of the things that Mìriel is navigating, or any character in a giant genre story navigates, are things that are understandable. The passing of a loved one, civil strife—things that I think are particularly resonant right now.

It’s also a place to think on these things for myself, just as a human being. It’s a place to put those feelings. Certainly when I first started on this journey as the character of Mìriel in the midst of lockdown and an ever-changing world, it was a place that felt safe for me because I just had a swirling storm of thoughts and feelings on any given day. But what I really appreciate and love about Mìriel is that sense of integrity and strength. She’s a moral compass for her people. At the end of the day, the decisions that she’s navigating are bigger than her. It’s really about guiding her people and trying to make the best decisions and choices for society, not just for herself.

Was there anything you learned from season one that you wanted to carry with you into season two?

Addai-Robinson: Once you’ve got a first season of a series under your belt, you’ve had a lot of intensive time spent with a character, spent in a world, spent with your fellow characters and castmates. You want to approach a season two and beyond trusting in all of those things. We put a lot of work and thought and heart into making sure that we were representing this story in the most honest way that we could. A lot of us have ownership over these characters. We feel a sense of protecting them and shepherding them, not just through the story, but just out there in the world.

Mìriel developed what seemed like a friendship with Elendil in season one. What can you share about their relationship in season two?

Addai-Robinson: You’re going to see a continuation of this dynamic of two people who have both experienced profound loss and are now trying to really have that sense of, “Let us not have this loss be in vain.” It’s really an exploration of, I would say, their worldview within Middle-earth. As they’re returning to Númenor with those divisions in society and those differing worldviews, you’re going to see how the second season navigates that.

For the two of them specifically, it’s a dynamic that my lovely dear Lloyd Owen and I have enjoyed exploring. We really wanted to make sure that with these two characters, that their relationship from where it starts in season one, very unsuspectingly, and how it continues to progress through the second season, that there really is a change. These people are forever changed by their circumstances.

How did Mìriel losing her sight affect the physicality of your performance in season two?

Addai-Robinson: I was told early on that this would be something that happens to Mìriel. And in fact, I started my first day with one of the scenes where I was already blind. So it was an interesting way of working where I had to start with some of those scenes, then I jumped back to the beginning, and then jumped back to working with the blind element. The difference now is she has acclimated to this situation. There’s this sense of not wanting to have this be something that people can perceive as a weakness in her ability to lead, that there is an awareness as a leader that there’s a perception of conveying strength and representing that for your people, for society.

At the end of season one, you see Elendil and Mìriel and he’s still going to be at her side. Ultimately it’s an exploration of working with someone where it isn’t about depending on them, but they both need each other in this moment to help each other see figuratively and literally. That’s a really interesting and beautiful thing that we get to further explore as the season goes on.

But in terms of the physicality of it and returning to that place, I was mindful of, at this point, she has made it her mission to learn to move through the world in a new way. So, it isn’t about struggling through that so much as acclimating to it, if you know what I mean. That was probably true for me as well.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two premieres with three episodes on Prime Video on August 29.

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The Olympics captivated the world in July with incredible feats from talented athletes. Team USA had an impressive showing, including the US Women’s Rugby Team winning a bronze medal in rugby sevens—the first-ever medal for the US in rugby sevens. After the victory, the Instagram algorithm brought me several joyful videos from the new Olympic medalists. Those videos included one of Sammy Sullivan passionately talking about LEGO in an interview. I don’t know if I have ever related to an Olympian on this level. Or at all. I talked to Sammy about what got her hooked on building LEGO sets, how LEGO helps her unwind, and more.

Nerdist: Congratulations on the medal! I feel weird being like, you won an Olympic medal, let’s talk about LEGO!

Sammy Sullivan: Thank you! And no, this is great.

Tell me about what first got you into LEGO and what your first LEGO set was.

Sullivan: My very first set, OG was elementary, middle school time. It was the big SpongeBob where you open it, and it’s Plankton or whoever controlling him. That was my first set that I can remember. But my twin brother, Jackson and my dad were always super into Star Wars LEGO, and being boy and girl twins, I feel like he would always get the LEGO sets for birthdays and Christmas and I would get whatever else. So growing up, unless I bought it for myself with spending money, I didn’t get LEGO.

But my first adult experience with LEGO was early 2023, my second year with the rugby team. I was not in the best place mentally, just struggling with sophomore year blues. A lot of the times when people have really successful rookie seasons, their second season can feel like a lot. And my second season being the Olympic year, I was really struggling with coming home, worrying about practices, worrying about rosters, and everything.

My happy place growing up was walking around Barnes and Noble. So, I went to Barnes and Noble one day after practice to smell the books, read the backs of books, the whole vibe, and there’s a whole section of adult LEGO sets. And so I’m looking at these sets, and I was like, you know what? Maybe instead of spiraling when I get home, maybe it would be good to do something with my hands. Something tangible with a gorgeous end product. So, my first adult set was the Hocus Pocus house.

Really, from there, it was an instant obsession with the building process and collecting.

Building sets can be such a mindful activity. Has it continued to be a go-to for unwinding and calming your mind?

Sullivan: Yeah. It is so soothing. It almost takes you back to a childlike mind because ultimately LEGOs are toys in a sense—obviously some are meant for adults—but it takes you back to a simpler time where you come home from school and have something fun to do outside of homework. I put on a good podcast or a good YouTube video game playthrough in the background and have that disconnection from adult life. It’s definitely a bit of escapism from the every day. I mean, at certain times it definitely becomes maybe a little unhealthy when I’m not looking at the clock and I look up and it’s two in the morning and I’m on bag 13 of whatever…

That is very relatable. Do you collect certain types of LEGO sets or is just vibes?

Sullivan: It’s mostly vibes, but I typically go for structure sets: the treehouses, houses, huts. I’ve really been liking the medieval sets recently. I just got done with the Lion Knight’s Castle. I built the blacksmith set with the beautiful blue roof and the Viking village. I’m looking to get my next one, the medieval village that complements the Lion Knight’s set. Oh, and the big treehouse that’s safari-like with the two tree houses connected with the drawbridge—that one is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorites.

But I think my next venture into LEGO will definitely be the Technic sets. It looks really complicated, but in a fun, challenging way. So yeah, definitely looking to get my hands on some Technic sets moving forward, but structures for sure are my favorite.

What LEGO set will you be building next?

Sullivan: The Dayton Brick Shop in Ohio was kind enough to send me the Eiffel Tower set after they saw my plea to LEGO after the Olympics. It’s currently sitting with my neighbors, but as soon as I get home—, I already told Josh, my husband, don’t talk to me for at least four days because that’s all I’m going to be doing. This is my plan. I’m going to decompress.

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Get ready to welcome your favorite blue alien back to the screen. As we learned in 2018, Disney is making a live-action version of its 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch. The story follows the alien Stitch as he crashes on Earth and befriends Lilo, an orphan. It’s the kind of movie that makes you laugh out loud before making you cry. This is why it’s perfect that Disney has hired Marcel the Shell with Shoes On director Dean Fleischer-Camp to helm the live-action Lilo & Stitch. The movie has also found its lead in newcomer Maia Kealoha. Kealoha will star as Lilo in the movie. Disney has also shared our first look at live-action Stitch. Take a look below.

In addition, Sydney Elizabeth Agudong has been cast as Nani, Courtney B. Vance has been cast as Cobra Bubbles, and Kaipot Dudoit will play David Kawena. A couple of new characters will also appear in the movie. Billy Magnussen and Zach Galifianakis have also come aboard the film. Finally, it seems likely that Chris Sanders, the original voice of Stitch, will also return for the live-action movie.

Nerdist confirmed only the directorial news in an interview with Fleischer-Camp. Fleischer-Camp couldn’t share any further details about the upcoming live-action Lilo & Stitch movie, but he did confirm his involvement. He noted, “I’ve been pitching it on it for months. I love that movie so much. I will work my ass off to get it right and to make a great live-action movie out of it.”

Fleischer-Camp told me how much he loves Stitch’s line at the end of the movie, “This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but still good.” He calls it, “One of the most profound, moving lines in the history of cinema.” Earlier reports connected Jon M. Chu to the project, but the reports never panned out.

Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois wrote and directed the animated movie about six-year-old Lilo, her teenage sister Nani, and the blue alien Lilo named Stitch. We hope to see all of our favorite characters in the film. I especially can’t wait to see who they cast as Cobra Bubbles.

And if you’d like to see why Fleischer-Camp is the perfect choice for live-action Lilo & Stitch, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is now available to watch.

Originally published on July 14, 2022.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Editor-in-Chief for Nerdist and the author of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, The Jedi Mind, and more Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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Disney+’s adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians brought Rick Riordan’s books to life with joy, adventure, and magic. Perfect casting and creative storytelling made for an entertaining take on the first Percy Jackson book. Percy figured out who stole Zeus’ Master Bolt, but that’s far from the last quest the demigod goes on. And luckily, we’ll get to see at least one more. Disney+ has renewed Percy Jackson and the Olympians for season two. This makes sense, as Disney reports the show has over 110 million hours streamed to date. And now, we know season two has officially begun production. At D23, Disney released a Percy Jackson season two teaser trailer to celebrate the milestone.

The second season of Percy Jackson will adapt the second book in Riordan’s series, The Sea of Monsters. In it, mythological monsters threaten Camp Half-Blood. Percy must act to save the special haven for demigods, along with Annabeth and Grover. And the Sea of Monsters? That’s the Bermuda Triangle. It’s all going to be fine, we’re sure.

Speaking about the renewed series, Riordan said in a statement, “I can’t wait to bring the next season of Percy Jackson to Disney+! Raise anchors. Hoist the mainsail. All hands on deck, demigods. We’re heading for the Sea of Monsters!”

Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri will of course return as the main trio in the Riordan and Jon Steinberg-created series. We’re bound to see many familiar faces from season one, along with plenty of new ones. You never know which gods and creatures Percy Jackson will run into.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians season one is now streaming on Disney+. Percy Jackson and the Olympians season two will release on Disney+ in 2025.

The post PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS Season 2 Teaser Trailer Celebrates Production Start appeared first on Nerdist.

Ravensburger debuted Disney Lorcana just about a year ago. The trading card game featuring Disney animated films has expanded hugely since then. Shimmering Skies is the game’s fifth release, bringing up the total number of available cards to over 1,000. It’s so many cards to choose from to build your 60-card deck—so many that the only solution is to craft more than one deck. Based on the cards we’ve seen from the next set, your choices are going to get harder. Ravensburger sent us Shimmering Skies Starter Decks, which combine Emerald & Steel and Amethyst & Ruby inks. This set has joyful vibes since the realm of Lorcana is celebrating the defeat of Ursula. Here are some highlights from the Shimmering Skies Starter Decks.

Shimmering Skies Emerald & Steel Starter Deck

The Shimmering Skies Emerald & Steel Starter Deck is all about dealing damage and then using your opponent’s pain to your benefit. It’s balanced and opened my eyes to the potential of playing this ink combination across the various sets.

Combinations of cards win the day more than any single card. However, one of my favorite cards from this deck is the Robin Hood Timely Contestant. The card costs nine ink and is uninkable, but you can bring down that cost by deducting damage from opposing characters. It’s not as hard as you might think to get him into play. He quests for four lore. On top of that, this card has the Ward ability so other characters have to challenge him and he has six willpower and strength. I want to build a Robin Hood-themed deck just because of this card.

I also quite like the Tug-of-War action card. It either deals one damage to each opposing character without Evasive or three damage to each opposing character with Evasive. That can pack quite a punch. You can’t beat Steel cards for inflicting challenge-less damage.

Shimmering Skies Amethyst & Ruby Starter Deck

I’ve refined my Lorcana strategy over the various releases but at its core, that strategy is still the same as when I began playing: number go up. I want to quest and quest often. The more lore I can obtain in a single turn, the happier I am. The Shimmering Skies Amethyst & Ruby deck beautifully enabled this dream with its combination of characters with two or more lore and characters with the Evasive ability. Evasive characters make me feel invincible. That’s an incorrect feeling as there are always counters, but while I have those Evasive cards out unopposed, it’s the best. The Emerald & Steel Starter Deck did have foils to keep the Amethyst & Ruby combination from being undefeatable, but if I got lucky with my cards early in the game, I could make large leaps in lore.

This deck prominently features Wreck-It Ralph characters, including multiple versions of Taffyta Muttonfudge. Some lovely new Frozen characters join the fray as well. Like the Robin Hood card I mentioned above, this deck has a beast of an uninkable Olaf card. It costs nine ink, but you can reduce that cost depending on how many exerted characters your opponents have in play. Then he quests for three lore. This could be a prize of a card in a multiplayer match. I also adore Bruni Fire Salamander. He has Evasive, quests for two lore, and allows the player to draw a card when he’s banished.

Disney Lorcana: Shimmering Skies will arrive at local game stores, Disney Stores, and Disney Parks on August 9, 2024. Shimmering Skies will then hit mass market retailers and DisneyStore.com on August 23, 2024.

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The Legend of Vox Machina, based on Critical Role‘s first campaign, recently premiered its second season on Prime Video. The animated series already has season three in the works, too. And soon, more Critical Role content will join it. Amazon Studios announced today that it has entered a multiyear exclusive overall television and first-look film deal with Critical Role. The first project under this agreement is Mighty Nein. The animated series will adapt Critical Role‘s wildly popular second campaign. We finally got a sneak peek at Mighty Nein and it looks awesome.

A meet cute and accidental magic✨ Enjoy this exclusive sneak peek at the new animated series, Mighty Nein! pic.twitter.com/YFB2bkAM8e

— The Legend of Vox Machina (@LVMandM9onPrime) July 26, 2024

Mighty Nein features the Critical Role cast as a new group of adventurers. According to Amazon, it follows: “a group of criminals and misfits who are the only ones that can prevent the kingdom from plunging into chaos when an arcane artifact capable of reshaping reality falls into the wrong hands.”

In the campaign, the cast was as follows:

• Laura Bailey – Jester Lavorre
• Taliesin Jaffe – Mollymauk “Molly” Tealeaf
• Ashley Johnson – Yasha Nydoorin
• Liam O’Brien – Caleb Widogast
• Marisha Ray – Beauregard “Beau” Lionett
• Travis Willingham – Fjord
• Sam Riegel – Nott the Brave and Veth Brenatto

They’ll begin production soon and Mighty Nein will premiere on Prime Video. Executive producers include Tasha Huo, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham alongside Metapigeon and Amazon Studios. Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, and Ben Kalina at Titmouse will also executive produce.

As for the overall deal, it will see Critical Role develop original TV series, films, and content. Their production company, Metapigeon, will also work with creatives on new projects in and outside of the Critical Role universe, too.

Travis Willingham, co-founder and CEO of Critical Role said in a statement.

Critical Role‘s livestream campaigns are the spark that lit the flame for our worldwide audience. Seeing the stories and characters from our first campaign come to life in The Legend of Vox Machina was a dream realized, and we are absolutely buzzing with excitement to do it again with Mighty Nein. But with today’s announcement, we’re confident that the stories we tell will keep expanding into realms of entertainment beyond what we can even imagine.

Until we get Mighty Nein, catch The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime Video.

Originally published January 25, 2023.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Editor-in-Chief for Nerdist and the author of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, The Jedi Mind, and more. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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Nothing you can say will convince me that it’s easy to get into a trading card game. That was true until I played Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway. Ravensburger’s Disney Lorcana is the first trading card game that made me understand why folks enjoy these kinds of games. Other TCGs I tried seemed too complex, the communities too unwelcoming. It was the opposite with Lorcana. The theme of Disney animation didn’t hurt, either. While it’s easy enough to learn to play the game using starter decks, Disney Lorcana Gateway is an ideal introduction for beginners or those who have taken a break. It makes the game so simple to pick up.

Disney Lorcana Gateway is packaged in a game box that comes with a game board, two starting decks, four reward packs, damage counters, and all the instructions you need. What elevates this above picking up two starter decks, aside from the game box packaging, is that it’s a progressive experience. The gameplay is designed to help you learn. While the rules and mechanics are specific to Disney Lorcana, I could see the methods and lessons about strategy applying to other TCGs.

The starting decks are Amber and Amethyst and Ruby and Sapphire. The guidebooks that come with the game simplify the ink colors to yellow and purple and red and blue. Each of the starting decks has 30 cards—nowhere close to the standard 60 card deck. With these 30 cards, you follow the rules and get comfortable with the game. The first 30 cards even have a specific order to set you up for success. Then you have to check off certain tasks during your game to proceed to the second gate. After that you’ll open another small pack of cards. You repeat this until you open the fourth and final pack of cards.

Each pack cleverly adds new cards types and/or abilities to help you expand your knowledge of the game. You’ll get to know items, songs, the support ability, shifting characters, and more. Alas, the game does not include location cards. The slow progression makes you take the time to stop and get to know your cards. Even though I’ve played Lorcana for about a year, I found using the checklists a positive challenge. They stopped me from falling into my usual strategies. For example, I’m the worst about remembering to use characters instead of ink to sing songs. But with the requirement to use characters to sing songs in order to move on to the next gate, I had no choice but to try it.

While Disney Lorcana Gateway is suited for beginners to the game, you can have fun even if you’re a seasoned player. As a bonus for existing players, the game board is solid. I might consider using it instead of turning to a play mat.

Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway is available exclusively at Target now for $24.99. It will be available at mass retailers and local game stores beginning on August 9.

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The NeverEnding Story might not actually be never ending, but the movie’s reach continues with no signs of stopping 40 years after its release. Remember how excited people were about the Stranger Things season three homage to the film’s song? Tami Stronach’s portrayal of the Childlike Empress in particular stands out. And now, she’s returning to the screen again for Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps.

The fantasy film, coming to theaters July 28 and July 30 from Fathom Events, harkens back to The NeverEnding Story and other fantasy movies of the ‘80s. It tells the story of a reclusive witch who, for a cost, agrees to help a lonely goatherd overcome a curse from his birth. Stronach plays the witch, while her husband Greg Steinbruner takes on the role of the goatherd. They produce and write the movie, respectively We talked with Stronach about getting back into acting, witches, and what she hopes audiences will take from Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps.

Man and Witch marks your return to the big screen. What played into you making this decision?

Tami Stronach: I was acting in plays over the course of my 20s and 30s. I had a dance company and I was dancing in a variety of other companies, but I was also in a theater company for seven years. I kept jumping in and out of off Broadway plays in the downtown theater scene. And dance has a really limited shelf life. You do eventually have to give it up. So, I always had this secret plan to return to acting. It ctually makes no sense with the real world, hence going into fantasy, right? If you ask any Hollywood person, they’re like, well, strategizing about getting back into acting in your 50s as a woman…

This project was an opportunity to get back to acting on a broader scale than I had been doing. To do it on my own terms, to have a seat at the table, to be a producer, to make sure that I love the story, that the female characters felt interesting. For all of those reasons, it  felt like something I was willing to give four years of my life to. I could be behind the scenes, in front of the camera, working with my husband, including my daughter, acting, it has a giant dance number in it—I could braid it all together. And I’m a child of the ’80s. I love ’80s movies, and I was watching films with my daughter and we were like, “Why don’t they make movies like they used to anymore?” So, a big motivation was like, “Well, why don’t we try?”

You checked all the boxes! I’d love to hear more about your character. You play the titular witch. Did any other witches in pop culture inspire you?

Stronach: My goal was to take this witch and make the audience fall in love with her. She’s a flawed character. I wouldn’t say she’s really based on other witches. It’s more based on my desire as a middle-aged woman to put a story out in the world that’s about second chances. She’s really damaged at the beginning of the film. In some ways she has this very hard exterior, but inside she’s super soft. That was a really interesting role to play. She’s not what she appears to be and that you learn who she is through time. Having a role with this transformation felt really exciting. I was a little nervous how NeverEnding Story fans would react to my big moment back on screen being this haggard witch. But all of her light comes out towards the end of the film.

This movie doesn’t have CGI. What were some of the rewards, or challenges even, of that?

Stronach: I really love practical effects. This is going to maybe sound a little corny, but I do feel like you can feel the Qi of the puppeteer in the puppet. You’re taking the energy in your body and you’re putting it into that object to animate it. I think that’s magic. I don’t think that there’s never a place for CGI—sometimes CGI can be spectacular. You can suddenly get these enormous scenes, which you could never pay for otherwise, but we just didn’t have the budget for it. Rather than be upset about that, we’re like, well, how can we turn that into a positive? And the positive was to take everything that’s awesome about practical effects and celebrate that. We won’t have an epic battle scene, but instead we’ll do a giant dance number. We just tried to work within the scope of what we could.

Actually we have a really fun featurette that we made for Fathom Events. We made an eight-minute film that you can only see if you go to the theater about the puppets, working with The Jim Henson Company, why we did practical effects, how that all went down.

What do you hope audiences who see Man and Witch walk away feeling?

Stronach: I want their own imagination to be inspired. I want their own creativity to be ignited. Genuinely, I just want them to feel a little bit of joy and feeling a little bit more hopeful. I think we need that. The world’s really complicated right now, and part of what fantasy does so well is it tackles hard problems, but it never gives up hope. Without hope, we’re not going to solve anything.

Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps will play in theaters across the United States on July 28 and July 30. Get tickets now.

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Middle-earth is different in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two. Season one ended with an eruption, both the literal and figurative kinds. The Southlands became Mordor in a fiery instant. Galadriel learned she had a hand in helping Sauron return. Darkness is creeping in. That darkness and the looming of villains came up often during Nerdist’s visit to the set of The Rings of Power season two. Along with a group of reporters, we spoke with The Rings of Power showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay about season two. Here’s what we learned about Sauron, Galadriel, the Stranger, new locations, and more.

The Psychology of Sauron

Sauron walked Middle-earth and Númenor as Halbrand for nearly all of season one of The Rings of Power. But now Galadriel knows who he is and we, the audience, know. McKay said, “We saw in season one that Galadriel who, in our estimation is one of the great heroes of Middle-earth, her pride and her PTSD were a crack that he could get into and manipulate her to get everything he wanted. Now he’s going to do that with everybody. And the joy of season two is we know who he is. And so, instead of season one, where Sauron’s [identity is] in the dark, this is us about understanding his psychology, and how he works.”

Payne said of Galadriel, she thought, “I thought my compass pointed north. I was the most righteous certain Elf in all of Elvendom. And I literally was so upside down that I was helping the Dark Lord.”

But that’s Sauron’s specialty. He’s going to be influencing all the peoples of Middle-earth and beyond. “We know Númenor has big things to do with Sauron down the road,” noted McKay. “As do the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm and elsewhere. We know that the Southlanders who had a home in Mordor, that has been utterly devastated and destroyed, are now essentially refugees. How does that play into it? We know men are weak. We know men eventually take rings. And what is going to be happening over the course of season two is, every single one of these societies and heroes that we set up in season one, are now facing serious cracks in the foundation that Sauron can exploit.”

And really, it’s about the evil every individual must face as things change. McKay said, “There is good and evil in Tolkien. That’s really important, we feel. What side are you fighting for is something that everyone has to struggle with in Tolkien. And that to us, is like… Evil is not something over there that’s other, evil is in here.”

The Stranger’s Visit to Rhûn

When last we saw the Stranger, a currently nameless wizard, and Nori the Harfoot, they were starting a long journey to Rhûn. McKay said, “We’re really excited about that. We’ve never seen deserts on-screen, in Middle-earth. And we’re really excited to go there. We think deserts are beautiful and awesome, and we’re doing our own Tolkienian Lawrence of Arabia. And one of the things that’s been fun about that is, Rhûn is really a blank canvas.”

He continued, “There’s little hints. There’s talk about magic cults and talk about the stars being strange, and there’s rumors of wizards having adventures in Rhûn that may or may not have gone well. And we’re drawing on all of that, all those seeds, to hopefully continue to tell a story that feels worthy of the other canonical stories in here.”

McKay noted, that at the time of the set visit, they had just spent five weeks shooting in a far-flung location for spectacular vistas. As a viewer, he sees Nori and the Stranger and thinks about E.T. and Elliott or the Iron Giant as far as a similar sense of wonder in their journey. Payne added that going through the experience with the characters keeps the story grounded.

As for the Stranger’s identity, Payne explained, “The wizard doesn’t know who they are. If they did, then it might feel a little cheap. It would be like we were just withholding, just for the purpose of withholding, but the wizard is on a journey of self-discovery, and learned a couple key things about himself at the end of season one, learned that he’s an Istar, and learned that he has a destiny in the East. So now, we are on that journey of self-discovery with him, where he’s learning how to control his powers. For us, it’s really delicious to watch a character who could eventually become one of great power, not yet be there, and then have to figure out, ‘What are the mistakes they’re going to make along the way?’”

Though the Stranger used a line from Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring in season one, that was not necessarily meant to be a hint. “Despite what some folks might think, we’re really not about a game, we’re really not about a puzzle,” McKay noted. “But we don’t want to take for granted where characters will end up. We want to see them grow and change along the way. And we hope that, in the end, you look back and it feels inevitable. But in the moment, hopefully… Yeah, I’m trying to say but not say.”

Payne added, “We also try to make it delightful that there are several possibilities what that could end up meaning. Could that mean that the stranger is Gandalf, and that, ‘He says that, then he says that later on?’ It could definitely mean that. Could that mean the stranger is Saruman? And that’s something that you’re going to realize that later on, Saruman said that to Gandalf, and then Gandalf said it. There are always ways you can pinball it from the legendarium to the story, and there could be delightful paths that could come out of either eventuality. We like to keep those doors open.”

Hope in a Time of Darkness

Though the stakes are large and very real in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, the story also has a sort of coziness. While season two is inherently darker, they’re trying to be aware of not going too far and only doing what makes sense for the story. McKay said, “Journeys have to go to darker places as they go forward. Every saga that we love, that’s sort of the classical structure. I think, when we think about Peak Bleak, it’s not necessarily about the level of the stakes or the scariness of it, or whether people could die. It’s more about, ‘Is there a…’”

“It’s the core ethos at the center of it. Is it nihilistic bleak…” Payne said.

“Or cynical,” McKay said.

“Or cynical where people are just screwing each other over for their own self-gain without any sense of redemptive quality at the center of it? And in Tolkien, even the villains often have something redemptive at the center of it. Even Sauron, in his own twisted way, thinks he’s healing Middle-earth. So I think that’s one ways, is that there’s always a core there, that isn’t just darkness for darkness’ sake,” Payne explained.

McKay added, “There’s an earnestness to Middle-earth and stories in Middle-earth, and we happily embrace that. It’s really hip to be cynical and roll your eyes, and be postmodern, and winky-winky, and we’re just not going to play that game.”

Releasing Seasons More Quickly

The Rings of Power‘s first season debuted in 2022. Season two is coming out in August 2024. The showrunners have mentioned a five-season plan and at the current pace, that finale would be far into the future. McKay said, “We took this insane ambitious project on because we had a story we wanted to tell, and we felt needed to be told, and we were willing to give our lives for a long time to tell it. The plan hasn’t changed. There’s opportunities all the time. When you meet an actor who inspires you, it gives you a new idea. There’s always room for that. But this was always the plan, was to continue telling this five-season story. And we’re now in the sixth inning of making—maybe the fifth inning of making, depending on how you count it—the second piece of it.”

McKay continued, “We have all kinds of ideas for the third and the fourth and the fifth [seasons]. But there’s a long road ahead, in terms of really developing them. In terms of the timeline…”

Payne jumped in, “Some things speed up in season two, because we’ve cast a lot of the show. So that process is a little further this time around. Some of the things have been designed in terms of costumes to the world. There’s a lot of new things that you’re going to do as well. Some of the machine, that’s time that you save there a little bit.”

McKay noted, “Which is the machine of production, how we actually physically make the show.”

They pointed out they didn’t have COVID in the middle of season two, so at the time of the interview, they thought it would take about as half as long to make as season one did. What that means for release dates for season three and beyond is not yet clear.

New Locations in The Rings of Power Season Two

Season one of the fantasy series traveled throughout Middle-earth and past that land’s borders. And season two will expand the show’s locations. McKay said, “We talked about Rhûn a little bit, that’s certainly a big opening up. The Southlanders are going to Pelargir, an old Númenórean colony. We know that’s a place that has a significant destiny in the legendarium, and how the colonies of Middle-earth relate back to the parent country, back in Númenor. So, that’s a story that’s kicking off. And we love the idea of an old Númenórean colony that had become now adapted to Southlander life, and what might that look like, and it’s quite rugged the way that that world tends to be, and really beautifully designed, I would say.”

Then there’s seeing more of locations we already know. Payne said, “The Dwarves are going to be digging deeper, and going to new parts of Khazad-dûm we haven’t seen before. There will also be journeys within lands that we know, but new parts of those lands, and seeing new creatures. There’s a lot of creatures this season.”

“There’s the Grey Havens in Lindon. That’s expanding that,” McKay recalled. “In Númenor, a lot of the story this season… It’s a really exciting Númenor story. We’re doing the old quarter of the capital city in Númenor, and really going into the ethos of the faithful and starting to set up what people who love the mythology know is a civil war, and a battle of ideologies, and what does their faith mean to them, and what did old Númenor mean to these people, versus what does it mean to the more Pharazôn-y folks? That’s all stuff we’re exploring. So hopefully that’s a whole new side of that world.”

Filming moved from New Zealand to the United Kingdom for season two, and they’ve been leaning into that. Payne said, “We’re shooting in some of the very forests and country sides that inspired Tolkien, and that really gave birth to Middle-earth. And so, we’re taking full advantage of that. We’re shooting in these forests that have thousand-year-old-plus trees. We’re able to bring to life the forest of Eriador in absolutely spectacular fashion, and see the strange wonder things that might be lurking therein.”

The Rings of Power season two premieres on Prime Video on August 29.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER Showrunners on Sauron, the Stranger, New Season 2 Locations, and More appeared first on Nerdist.

Círdan, most often known as Círdan the Shipwright, is the Master of the Grey Havens. He’s also one of the eldest of the elves. Skilled at building ships and ports, knowledge he shares with the Númenóreans, Círdan is a sort of intermediary between Middle-earth and Valinor. Eventually he goes on to inherit one of the Elvish Rings of Power. The elf will make his first appearance in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two. While visiting the set, Nerdist learned from showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne that Ben Daniels (Interview with the Vampire) will be playing Círdan the Shipwright. We have your first look at Daniels in character as Círdan.

McKay said of Daniels, “He’s a wonderfully classically trained British actor, and brings a lot of wisdom and gravitas to the role, and humor and warmth. We really fell in love with him in The Crown and wanted to work with him.”

Here’s Prime Video’s official description of the character:

Círdan the Shipwright is Master of the Grey Havens and a font of wisdom even among the High Elves. An expert ship-builder, Círdan is also the original bearer of Narya, one of the three Elven Rings of Power designed by Celebrimbor. In Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, he also serves as a mentor to Elrond.

During the set visit, we also learned from supervising art director Martin Foley that they built Círdan’s boathouse as one of their first sets. A miniature model of the boathouse was delicate and swooping. Foley said ancient Japanese craftmanship and artisans inspired the design. “We had an interior set on a stage, which was huge and beautiful. Then we had an exterior set on the back lot where, you can see on the model there, we had part of a bridge which linked it to other islands in the Grey Havens setting. Then we have a tower, a lighthouse tower with a huge bonsai tree wrapping around it. It’s nature coming into the architecture, because the Elves are all about the nature,” Foley said.

We look forward to visiting the Grey Havens and meeting Círdan. He’s a somewhat enigmatic figure in J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings, so we’re eager to learn more. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two premieres on Prime Video on August 29.

The post Ben Daniels Will Play Círdan the Shipwright in THE RINGS OF POWER appeared first on Nerdist.

Ravensburger is no stranger to Disney. The games publisher has made a mark on the world of trading card games with Disney Lorcana, which first launched in August of last year. Before that, there was Disney Villainous. This time, the game company is combining Disney with RPG-style gameplay in Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition). The tabletop game will feature Disney and Pixar heroines joining forces to conquer a darkness threatening the world. This new Disney game is an immersive adventure that combines roleplaying, storytelling, and cooperation. All of that comes in an approachable board game package.

The game’s cover art shows Disney heroines Maid Marian, Belle, Moana, and Violet. We do not see enough of Maid Marian from Robin Hood, and I’m happy to see her here wielding a badminton racket like a weapon. We don’t know too much about Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls, but here’s a brief description from Ravensburger:

In Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition), players work together to form dynamic alliances of Disney and Pixar heroines, including Moana (Moana), Violet (The Incredibles), Maid Marian (Robin Hood) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast). Materializing as radiant crystal versions summoned into the realm, the heroines drive back shadows of infamous Disney Villains and restore the Realm of Light. Along the way, the team explores a brand-new illustrated world and encounters familiar characters, items, and creatures on their quests. Fully designed and illustrated by women, the game’s diverse missions and modular board generate new adventures every time it’s played.

Ravensburger recommends the game for four players ages eight and up.

We look forward to seeing more illustrations and discovering more about the gameplay.

Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition) is now available for pre-order at Target.com. It will then be available for purchase at Target and hobby stores nationwide on July 21. The MSRP is $29.99.

The post Bring Light to the Dark with This New Disney RPG-Style Game, Available for Pre-Order Today appeared first on Nerdist.

Season one of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power introduced us to numerous societies and heroes of Middle-earth and beyond. The Dwarves in Khazad-dûm discovering mithril. The Elves in Lindon trying to ensure the survival of their race, with a master smith turning to outside help to do so. The Harfoots ending a long journey with a strange wizard, and one of them stepping on a new path. The Númenóreans answering Galadriel’s call to war and accidentally contributing to the rise of Mordor. The Southlanders losing their home. All separate groups and separate lives then, but with Sauron’s return, season two shows they will be separate no longer.

“As the season goes on, [we’ll start to realize] that this is not a story about several different worlds. This is a story about one world, and Sauron is the spine that connects all of it,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay said in a conference room adjacent to the show’s sets, surrounded by concept art and location models for the upcoming season.

Nerdist joined a group of journalists on The Rings of Power season two set in spring 2023. The crew had been shooting since October, over London’s dreary winter. Normally, production designer Kristian Milsted explained, you want to avoid filming in London during that time. But in this case, the gloomy cold and landscapes with dead trees suited the darker universe they’re establishing in season two. A season, executive producer Lindsey Weber said, that is more about villains. “Sauron is out and about and the people of Middle-earth are having to confront the fact that he’s back. Stakes are increasingly high, so the storytelling by its nature is a bit different. It’s certainly more intense.”

Season one of the fantasy series ended with Galadriel learning her friend Halbrand was actually Sauron, and that he’d returned to a place of power, in no small part, because of her actions. He traveled to the newly established Mordor. Gennifer Hutchison, who wrote the season one finale and the season two premiere, said there’s not a large passage of time between the two seasons. We’ll pick up not long after where season one wrapped. But first, a flashback.

The Opening of The Rings of Power Season Two

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay gleefully painted a picture of the beginning of season two. It starts with the ice fortress Galadriel visited in the season one premiere. When Galadriel and her forces entered the fortress, it was desolate. The only presence was evil and a snow troll. That was not always the case. Payne set the stage, “We open in the darkness. An orc is walking in, and we see there are thousands of orcs gathered here. And we see that it’s not ruined and cracked…”

The rest, well, it’s too full of spoilers to share. But know that we’ll see a key part of Sauron’s trajectory, as well as his complicated history with Adar. This will show us how Sauron came to the Halbrand guise, as well as how he came to meet Galadriel on the ocean.

Galadriel Reckoning with Her Choices

That beginning will re-contextualize season one, in terms of Sauron and Galadriel’s relationship. It will show where he was emotionally. He manipulated her and ultimately used her to access the Elves, but season one didn’t end exactly as Sauron hoped. He left Eregion with no allies, no army, no resources.

Payne said, “Season one was all about the heroes, and about setting the table with Galadriel, and with the Dwarves, and Númenor, and with the Southlanders. Season two is going to be all about the villains, and specifically, all about Sauron. And we’re going to watch as he uses deception, manipulation, lies, coercion, cunning, to start to set the chess pieces in motion, where he is going to go to this person over here, and set this group against that group over there. And start using people’s inherent trusts and mistrusts and fears against them, to start to set up the situations that are all beneficial to him.”

As we’ve since learned about season two, Sauron adapts the guise of Annatar, which means “Lord of Gifts.” His visage has become fair, more elf-like. We saw him get under Galadriel’s skin in season one, and now he’s going to do it with everyone. “Sauron’s able to take the things that you want to do that are good, and turn those against you,” Payne said. “It’s the ring personified. Literally, the ring offers you ultimate power. And when you give someone power, you see what’s really inside them. Because you see, ‘What would they will into being if they could will anything into being?’ And so when you see Sauron having relationships with people, he doesn’t have normal relationships, because he empowers them.”

Beyond Sauron and his obvious darkness, individuals have to reckon with the possible evil inside of themselves—like Galadriel. Payne said, “Galadriel made some pretty questionable choices in season one, and really empowered the Dark Lord to really rise from nothing on the rafts, to being at the point where he could, as Patrick said, have access to some of the big power players in Middle-earth. She’s got to deal with that in season two. Her friends might look at her differently and not trust her as much, and then she has to really come to terms with that.”

McKay continued, “What does it mean for the rest of the elves? How does Elrond feel about that? Elrond loves her and trusted her, and was worried about her, and everything he feared came true. That’s a lot worse, potentially. So what’s going to happen when he finds that out? But we’re talking a lot about darkness and horribleness and misery, and that’s all a part of it. Tolkien takes you there. But the other thing that we really love about Tolkien in this material is that there’s hope everywhere too. And we know there’s an unnamed wizard heading out to parts unknown, and exploring huge parts of the map we’ve never seen before on-screen. Or even in the books, only talked about in myth and rumor, perhaps that destiny is going to tie back into the rise of Sauron over here.”

The Adar of It All

The season two opening makes Adar an even more intriguing character. In season one, we saw him leading the orcs in season one and demonstrating compassion for them. Payne explained, “Adar is in an interesting and sort of vulnerable place. He just made Mordor and is the father of this entire orc nation. But when you do that, you also get a target on your back. You have a lot of land to protect now. And his ambitions aren’t over yet. His desire to make sure his children are safe is stronger than ever. But now, there’s other forces that… He’s on their radar. Before, he was going below it all. And there’s the Elves that know he’s there now. There’s Sauron that knows he’s there.”

Besides showing Adar’s current power struggle, season two of The Rings of Power will go deeper into his character. McKay said, “We know that he’s one of the first orcs. How did he become that way? And why? What does he really want? And how is his journey to pursue that going to test and twist him even further than he might already be?”

The trauma from season one is coming back to touch all of Middle-earth. Darkness is arriving for everyone.

The Rings of Power season two premieres on Prime Video on August 29.

The post THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2 Brings Villains Into the Light appeared first on Nerdist.

Around these parts we love fantasy stories, we adore cozy stories, and we can’t get enough of romance. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst promises to deliver on all fronts. It was the book’s gorgeous Ghibli-esque cover with sprayed lavender pages that caught my eye first. That alone feels like a warm hug. But once I read the description of the book about a librarian who returns to her home and goes on to open a secret spellshop, I became even more curious. We have an exclusive excerpt from The Spellshop that will have you ready to read more.

The story follows Kiela. She was a one-time librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium and worked there with her assistant Caz, a magically sentient spider plant. But her and Caz had to leave the library. Now they’re taking refuge in her childhood home and using some illegal magic to open the island’s first spellshop. Tor describes it as “a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic.” Yes, please.

Without further ado, here’s the excerpt from The Spellshop:

The Spellshop – Chapter 2

As the sun stained the horizon orange, Kiela sailed toward a little cove on the island of Caltrey. It was just a mile east of the village and its harbor, tucked behind a veil of rocks and trees. She aimed the boat between the rocks.

“You’re going to crash,” Caz observed.

“I’m not going to crash,” Kiela said. “I’m going to dock.”

Inside the cove, there used to be a wooden dock that belonged to her family’s cottage. She remembered she used to squat on the end and watch the fish dance in the water. At low tide, she’d be able to see crabs scuttling over the rocks, and at high tide, merbabies would swim around the dock posts, before they were called out to sea by their parents—a sighting that locals said was good luck. She wasn’t, of course, entirely certain the dock would still be standing, but she supposed she could drop anchor and they could wade to shore. Or she could just beach the boat, provided she could avoid slicing the hull on the rocks.

One hand on the rudder, she guided the sailboat around the rocks and into the cove. Caz clambered up the mast, using his ten- drils to climb, for a better view. With the light so low in the sky, the cove was coated in shadows. The water looked near black, and the trees, with the rocky cliffs behind them, cast even more shad- ows. It was silent, except for the lapping of the waves on the rocky shore and the call of an unseen bird from one of the pine trees. But despite the shadows, it didn’t feel unwelcoming. As they drifted deeper into the cove, it felt as if the shadows were embracing them, in the same way that a thick nest of blankets did on a chilly night.

Kiela spotted the old dock, right where it was supposed to be. It was more rickety than she remembered, though. About a third of the slats were missing, like the smile of an old man who’d lost some of his teeth. Luckily the posts were there, sturdy but coated in seaweed.

Using the pole, she sidled the boat up next to the dock and tossed a line around a post. Yanking on the line, she dragged them closer and tied a bowline knot. She remembered her mother teach- ing her how to make this exact knot on this very same dock. It felt both like just yesterday and a lifetime ago. She shook her head to chase the memory away. Clambering over the crates, Kiela pulled the sail down and wrapped it tight against the boom.

Caz was perched on one of the book crates. “I am not walking on that.”

“You’d rather swim?”

“I’d rather stay on the boat,” he said.

Kiela sighed and rubbed her eyes. She’d never felt this bone- marrow-deep tired before. Even when she stayed up all night with her books, it was never like this. Between the stress of their escape and the effort of their night-and-all-day sail, she felt like a book so well read that its pages curled and spine cracked. “I can carry you.”

He was quiet for a moment, then he said, “That’s undignified.” “You think the shrubbery is going to mock you?”

If he’d had eyes, she expected he would have rolled them at her. “Fine. Carry me. But only if you tell no one.”

“Who am I going to tell? I don’t know anyone here and don’t want to.” She scooped him up, careful to gather all the soil that clung to his exposed roots. It felt like holding a very plump and very leafy toddler. His tendrils draped over her shoulders, and he grumbled as she adjusted her grip. “We’re going to lay low, keep to ourselves, and avoid trouble,” she said. “With luck, none of the locals will even know we’re here.”

Kiela tapped the nearest slat of wood with her toes. It seemed sound enough. Cautiously, she shifted her weight and was pleased when the dock held. Caz’s leaves flattened around her back. She carried him carefully as she stepped from slat to slat, testing each one before she trusted it. At last, she reached the shore.

He climbed down from her arms to the ground. Shaking out his leaves, he groomed himself with a tendril. He looked a bit like a cat licking his fur. “We won’t ever speak of that again.”

“Of course,” she agreed.

She looked up at the knot of greenery in front of them. There used to be a path, with stairs carved into the rocks, but all she could see was a tangle of vines cascading down the hill. Frowning at it, she paced in front of the green. The stone steps should still be there, if she could find— Ah, there!

Kicking away a few vines, Kiela uncovered the first step. “Found it.”

“Found what?” Caz asked.

“The way home.” She felt the word vibrate through her.

Step by step, she climbed, with Caz behind her, clearing the steps as best she could. Some, she was only able to uncover a few inches, but it was enough. By the time she reached the top, the sun was completely down.

Bathed in the silvery gray of twilight, the cottage waited for them. She wanted to feel as if they’d made it—she was home, they were safe, and everything would be easy from now on. But the cot- tage was nearly as enveloped in vines as the stairs. She couldn’t tell where the walls ended and the green began. Her former home looked one gulp away from being swallowed entirely.

“It’s nice,” Caz said.

“Now who’s lying,” Kiela said. “It has a roof. And walls.”

He was right about that. It could be worse.

An owl hooted much too close, and Kiela jumped. Caz skittered behind her. She forced herself to breathe and calm down. It didn’t look as if anyone was living in the house, which was good. She could have come back to find squatters. Or new owners, if the lo- cals had decided there were no more living relatives who might return to claim it. She couldn’t vouch for how many mice, birds, or other critters had taken up residence inside.

She wished they’d arrived earlier so it wouldn’t look so dark in there.

“Should we go in?” Caz asked.

Yes. Maybe. No. She wanted to retreat to the boat, sail back to Alyssium, and sequester herself in her nice, warm, safe cubicle deep within the stacks of books, where she knew what to expect out of every night and every day. If she went into this house, what would she find? And if she didn’t, what would happen then? She hated not knowing which was the right choice.

Have I made a terrible mistake coming here?

The owl hooted again. “We go in,” Kiela said.

They approached the front door. It felt like walking up to the mouth of a slumbering beast. It was ajar, with dead leaves clogging the entranceway. She nudged them out of her way with her foot and leaned against the door to push it open farther. It squeaked loudly, as if it hadn’t been moved in years, which was entirely possible.

Stepping inside, Kiela waited for her eyes to adjust. The last gasps of day shed a grayish light through the few windows that weren’t blocked by vines. It was enough to see shapes: chairs, she guessed, and a table. She matched the shadows to her memories and was surprised to find that it felt familiar, like a half-remembered old tale. The wood-burning stove was . . . ahh, yes, there, squatting like a hulking creature, with a chimney rising from its back. A daybed used to be in the front corner—that’s where she used to sleep—and her parents’ bedroom budded off the back. A kitchen area with a sink and a window that overlooked the back garden should be to her left, beyond the table. She couldn’t see that in the darkness, though, and it made her feel like she’d walked into a surreal kind of dream, with pieces of memories overlaid by shadows. She wondered how Caz felt about this place. “If you’d rather, we could spend the night in the boat, and explore this in the morning,” she offered.

“Sleep on the boat?” Caz sounded appalled. “With fish under us?” “You really have a thing about fish,” she said. “I had no idea.” “You hear stories,” he said darkly.

“Do you? Do you really?” She navigated across the room, leaves crunching underfoot, and found the daybed, exactly where she re- membered it. It seemed smaller, though. And dustier. Lifting the quilt, she shook it, and twigs, leaves, and dust flew into the air. She coughed.

Setting the quilt aside in a heap, she pushed her hands against the mattress. It hadn’t disintegrated, which was a plus. She sup- posed it would hold her, and under where the quilt had lain, it wasn’t that dusty, at least in comparison. It wasn’t as if, after sailing through the night and all day, she was particularly clean anyway.

“Hey, there’s a hole in the floor,” Caz said, pleased. “I can root here for the night.”

Could she sleep here? After their escape and long sail, she should be able to sleep anywhere. If mice or raccoons or whatever murder me in the night, at least I’ll get some rest. Gingerly, she lay down on the little bed. It creaked but didn’t collapse. The quilt was the vel- vety soft of worn cotton, and the mattress cradled her as she sank into it. It smelled like dust and a little like roses. She felt her neck and shoulders begin to unknot.

Outside, the owl hooted softly.

As dawn pried its fingers into the vine-covered cottage, Kiela opened her eyes. And screamed when she saw a man standing in the doorway with a scythe in his hands. She tried to jump to her feet, but the little daybed couldn’t handle the quick movement. It toppled over, and she spilled onto the floor.

The man rushed forward. Kiela screamed again.

He backpedaled. Leaned his scythe against the wall. Held up his hands, palms out. “Sorry. Very sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” He had a deep voice, soothing. She’d never seen him be- fore, which wasn’t a surprise since she hadn’t been here in ages. He wasn’t what she’d call handsome, but he didn’t look like a mur- derer either. Not that she knew what that would look like. He was tall, which wasn’t an argument for or against murderer. He must have had to duck through the doorframe. He also appeared stron- ger than the average library-goer. Judging by his arms, he looked as if he could pick up one of her book crates one-handed. Or crush her throat with his pinkie. None of that was at all reassuring.

She got to her feet and scanned the cottage quickly. She didn’t see the spider plant anywhere, and she felt panic rise up from her stom- ach. “Caz? Caz, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

Hands still out, the man said in the same soft, deep tone, “I didn’t hurt anyone. Or see anyone else. There was only you here when I came in.”

Her heart was thumping wildly in her rib cage, even though he hadn’t made any threatening moves beyond coming into the place where she was sleeping and scaring her half to death. It was terri- fying enough that he was large, male, and here. And I don’t see Caz. “Why are you here?” she demanded, trying (and failing) to keep the shake out of her voice. “Who are you? What do you want?”

Mildly, he said, “I had planned to ask you the same questions. This house has been abandoned for years, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t someone’s home.”

“It’s mine,” Kiela said. “My home. It was. Is.” “Ah,” he said.

He waited for her to explain further.

“My name is Kiela Orobidan. My parents lived here, and my mother’s parents before them. I was born here. We moved away when I was eight. Nine. But they never sold their cottage. It’s mine.”

“Ah.”

He wasn’t going to say more than that?

She saw a hint of movement out of the corner of her eye and glanced up at the rafters. Caz was there, draped around one of the cobweb-choked beams. He waved a tendril at her, and she exhaled. He’s okay. Just hiding. She wished she could have done that. “And you are?”

“Larran Maver. I live at the base of the cliff, near town. Noticed your boat in the cove and came to see who was using the old Orobidan cottage. Around here, we like to keep an eye out for each other.”

Outer islanders care for our own. She’d heard that dozens of times as a kid. This far away from the cities and the larger islands, they didn’t have much choice, but it was also a point of pride.

She supposed it was a reasonable explanation for why he was here. He couldn’t have known she’d be asleep on a dusty old day- bed. She still didn’t like the way he filled the entire doorway, block- ing the exit. “You mean you’re nosy.”

He smiled, and the expression transformed him from ordinary into stunningly handsome. It was like the sun coming out from be- hind the clouds over a stormy sea. She found herself smiling back without meaning to. As soon as she realized she was doing it, she frowned. “Sure,” Larran said, “that’s one word for it. We prefer neighborly, but ‘nosy’ is probably just as accurate.”

Still could be a murderer, she reminded herself. There was no law that said dangerous men couldn’t also be handsome. On the other hand, he hadn’t moved any closer since she’d screamed. In fact, in retrospect, he’d looked almost as spooked as she felt.

She was suddenly very aware that her hair was matted on one side, and her mouth tasted like peanuts. This wasn’t how she wanted to meet the neighbors. In fact, she’d been hoping to not meet them at all. It would have been simpler if she could’ve stayed unnoticed. Fewer variables; fewer problems. She wished he’d leave.

“What brings you back to Caltrey?” he asked.

Kiela considered a half-dozen answers, but she settled on the one that was simplest and required the least amount of reliving recent traumatic events. “I’d had enough of the city.”

“Ah.”

Miraculously, he seemed to find that answer both reasonable and sufficient.

“Would you like help . . .” He looked around the cottage, as if cataloging all the myriad things she could possibly need help with, which was, at a rough estimate, everything. “. . . settling in?”

Absolutely not. The last thing she wanted him to do was stay and help. The entire point of coming to Caltrey was to hide away in a place where she knew no one and no one knew her, and she and Caz and the books would be safe. “Thanks, but we—I have it covered.”

He raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t believe her, but he didn’t argue or try to convince her otherwise, which she appreciated. “Well, if you change your mind, I’m just through the woods, down by the shore.” He waved toward the northwest. “It’s the merhorse farm with the yellow house near the water. Drop by any time.”

She had absolutely zero intention of ever doing that, but she thanked him. Best not to be rude to their new neighbor. Especially if it got him to leave faster.

He left, taking his scythe, and she watched him out the window, through a hole in the ivy, as he strolled away. A few minutes later, the green had swallowed him entirely.

The Spellshop is available on July 9. Get a copy wherever you buy books.

The post This Excerpt From Cozy Romantasy THE SPELLSHOP Will Enchant You appeared first on Nerdist.

Middle-earth is a land undergoing transformation. Season one of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brought literal change to the landscape with the formation of Mordor. Then there is a more nebulous change afoot—the kind of change that comes with the return of Sauron, a powerful dark lord. Darkness is coming back to the land and will affect all its people. While visiting the set of The Rings of Power season two with a group of other reporters, Nerdist heard in multiple interviews how season two leans into that darkness.

We’ll see Sauron’s influence across the locations we visited in the first season. In Khazad-dûm, for example, production designer Kristian Milsted told us, “Certain things happen because of what happens in Mordor that brings conflict and darkness to this universe.” He continued, “We could look at what they did for Khazad-dûm in season one, and we could say, ‘Okay, now we’re going to give it a twist, and we’re going to make it more sinister, make it more dark.’ It’s about greed. It’s something that the dwarves are good at.”

The above exclusive image of King Durin III and Prince Durin IV does not show any obvious darkness, but one can certainly imagine the tone of the conversation between father and son. Nothing about it looks cheerful.

Flip through the gallery below to see more from The Rings of Power season two.

Click To View Gallery

The Rings of Power season two will premiere on Prime Video on August 29.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post Imagineers Bring New Orleans to Disney World with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure appeared first on Nerdist.

When I decorated my current home office, the first dedicated office space I’d had in years, I did so knowing how much time I’d spend in it. I made the space warm with a palette inspired by the earthy tones of Dagobah. Then I acquired shelves to hold my many, many books. I found the right desk and added décor that brings me joy. But one element was never quite right: my desk chair. I wanted something that fit the room’s aesthetic while also being supportive of the body I contort in unhealthy ways while I work and write. I went through two chairs that didn’t leave an impression until Secretlab sent me a TITAN Evo to try.

I hadn’t considered gaming chairs when I looked for the right addition to my office because when I play games, it’s usually while curled on my couch holding my Nintendo Switch Lite. Being so literal about a chair’s purpose was silly. If you’re sitting at a desk for hours on end, you benefit from an adjustable chair that offers support. Gaming chairs are ideal for this. After about a month of solid use, I can’t claim the TITAN Evo has cured my terrible posture, but I can say my bones are generally happier after a full day at my computer since I can adjust the chair to accommodate how I sit.

Set up is a process. The chair comes in a massive box, and I had to wait until I had assistance to move it into my office and assemble it. If you’ll be moving it up stairs, prepare yourself. Definitely put it together in the room you plan to leave it in. While it takes a little time to sort everything, it’s relatively straightforward. I recommend taking the time during assembly to understand which levers control the various parts of the chair.

While I wish I could say the TITAN Evo’s ergonomic touches alone were enough to sway me, they were not. It was the most comfortable chair I’d put at my desk by a factor of many, but it was plain. But then I added the Ahsoka Tano SKINS Secretlab also sent. Secretlab has a line of premium chair sleeves that enable you to personalize the Evo and give the chair some zhuzh equal to its comfortable design. Ahsoka is just one of the Star Wars SKINS available. Adding the SKINS sleeve over the chair’s back and seat was simple and quick. It hugs the existing chair structure in every spot, so there aren’t weird gaps or areas without coverage.

The Ahsoka design fits my office vibes perfectly. Having a chair that looks as nice as it feels to sit upon has made my time at my desk more appealing. My cat (also named Ahsoka) agrees. She’s never stolen an office chair from me like this before.

The post Secretlab’s TITAN Evo Gaming Chair Brings Ahsoka Tano to My Office appeared first on Nerdist.

Ravensburger has stretched and shaped Disney Lorcana since the trading card game’s first release in August. With the most recent set, Ursula’s Return, the gaming company released a standalone game that brings a whole new way to engage with Lorcana. Ravensburger sent Nerdist a copy of Illumineer’s Quest Deep Trouble for review. After putting in time trying to defeat Ursula, we collected our thoughts. Overall, Deep Trouble is a challenging battle and an excellent way for single players to access Lorcana.

What We Like About Illumineer’s Quest Deep Trouble

We love seeing a spin on the way players engage with Lorcana. Deep Trouble features all the same gameplay mechanics you’re used to from regular play, but the twist with Ursula makes it feel different and fresh. Ursula is a powerful villain, and the story and her deck reflects this. The dark nature of her deck adds a cool selection of beautifully creepy art to the game, too. This separate game enriches the lore of Lorcana, which we always enjoy seeing.

I appreciate how Deep Trouble allows for a single-player match or cooperative play with others. Having both options is helpful for those who may not play in a Lorcana league but still want to collect and play. The game’s set up is simple and quick to learn. Assuming you know how to play Lorcana, you’ll be up and running in less than 10 minutes.

Deep Trouble is a challenging game, as I guess it should be since you’re fighting Ursula. It’s a thing worth noting so you can set expectations. I was convinced I was doing something wrong because I lost so badly. Out of three solo games, I won against Ursula only once with the provided Amethyst and Steel deck. In the other two games and in another one with two players, Ursula won by hilariously large margins. I played all the games on the easiest mode. If you advance to more challenging modes, you’ll need your own custom decks to stand a chance—the rules for Deep Trouble even suggest this.

What We Don’t Like About Illumineer’s Quest Deep Trouble

My quibbles are largely related to design and packaging. Deep Trouble replaces the gift set for the Ursula’s Return release, so the packaging is similar to that of a gift set. However, this is its own game. Once you open the box, there’s nothing to contain the pieces in. You can use your own deck boxes and storage, of course, but I wish this came in a dedicated game box to hold the playmat, Ursula’s deck, the two player decks, and the encounter cards.

The playmat has only a single row to track lore. So basically, you can track Ursula’s lore. If you try to stack up the lore trackers for two players in that same row, you run out of space. Yes, there’s a place to track lore for Deep Trouble in the app, but I don’t want to default needing to have my phone out.

Illumineer’s Quest Deep Trouble is available wherever you buy Disney Lorcana.

The post DISNEY LORCANA’s ILLUMINEER’S QUEST: DEEP TROUBLE Is a Challenging Adventure appeared first on Nerdist.

Disney Lorcana: Ursula’s Return has been with us since May, and we’ve all been learning how this latest chapter plays into a building storm in the magical realm of Lorcana. Ursula is nothing if not persistent. She’s also, unfortunately, super powerful. The Disney Lorcana: Ursula’s Return Illumineer’s Trove reflects all things Ursula with its moody color palette and tendrils of a dark smoke. Ravensburger sent an Illumineer’s Trove to Nerdist for review, so let’s take a closer look.

Ursula’s Return Illumineer’s Trove

To review, here’s what comes with the Illumineer’s Trove:

• 8 booster packs
• 1 lore tracker
• 6 dice to track damage
• 6 card dividers
• 1 storage box

You’ll notice this chapter’s Illumineer’s Trove sadly does not bring back the lore booklet that digs into more of the story. Hopefully we see it come back in future sets or in another form.

The MSRP is $49.99. The booster packs alone make it worth it, but then for a little extra, you get themed items to zhuzh your gameplay and storage. These extras have increased in quality with each release. The storage box has splashy art with heroes and villains fighting and emphasizing that Ursula’s Return is about action and stopping Ursula. It’s quality and the kind of box I would find a purpose for if I didn’t need it for all my Lorcana cards.

While we’ve seen dividers and a lore tracker in a previous Illumineer’s Trove, these fit right into the darker theme of this release. Wisps of smoke or a dark mist wrap the lore counter, which shows numbers in a fuchsia color. The dividers are different in that, instead of marking the color of the ink, they’re for organizing your cards by rarity. With their muted colors, these dividers fit right into the overall vibe. And hey, I like them because maybe it will help me finally memorize the rarity symbols.

Finally, my favorite part of the Ursula’s Return Illumineer’s Trove: the damage counter dice. They’re swirled aqua and purple with gold numbers—lovely with just a hint of transparency, which I choose to interpret as light hitting the shallow depths of the ocean. Also, those are just some of my favorite colors. I’m never going to be mad about adding more dice to my collection.

The Disney Lorcana: Ursula’s Return Illumineer’s Trove is available from your local game store and mass market retailers now.

The post DISNEY LORCANA Gets Moody With URSULA’S RETURN Illumineer’s Trove appeared first on Nerdist.

In this modern world, you may not need to send many letters. Maybe you mail the occasional card to a friend. Perhaps you have that one bill you have to pay with a check. But wouldn’t you like an excuse to send more mail? The US Postal Service has just the thing. The USPS has announced Dungeons & Dragons stamps for 2024. Yes, D&D stamps! It’s a way to level up any envelope. The set of 20 stamps features 10 different designs that revisit decades of Dungeons & Dragons art.

The Dungeons & Dragons stamps celebrate 50 years of the tabletop roleplaying game. It’s only become more and more popular in recent years with its fifth edition. Jumping into D&D is easier than ever (as long as you can find folks to play with) and it’s an excellent way to escape the world and stretch your imagination. We know mage’s spells aren’t actually real, but we like the notion that adding a D&D stamp to any piece of mail gives it magical armor.

Take a closer look at each stamp in the collection in the gallery.

Click To View Gallery

The stamps feature art from:

• The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons
• Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons
• Wizards and Spells: A Young Adventurer’s Guide
• Player’s Handbook
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• D&D Basic Set
• Beasts and Behemoths: A Young Adventurer’s Guide
• Monster Manual
• D&D Starter Set

It seems very possible we’ll need a set of Dungeons & Dragons stamps to collect and a few sets to use for everything we mail in the next two years. The USPS will release the Dungeons & Dragons stamps during Gen Con, taking place in Indianapolis from August 1-4, 2024. They will be available at Lucas Oil Stadium as part of Gen Con and then the Indianapolis Main Post Office for those without Gen Con passes. Greg Breeding, the art director for the stamps, will be available for autographs at 10am on August 1 following the unveiling of the stamps at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Originally published on December 28, 2023.

The post DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Stamps Will Release at Gen Con appeared first on Nerdist.

Disney Parks announced in 2020 that they were reimagining Splash Mountain at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The new theme? The Princess and the Frog. The attraction is currently themed around Song of the South. You know, the deeply problematic and racist 1946 movie Disney will not even put on Disney+. And now, we know the name of the updated attraction and when we might expect to ride it. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open on June 28 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, with a later 2024 opening for Disneyland in California. You can check out everything we’ve seen so far from the ride, including some looks inside of it, below.

A Look Inside Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

First up is a neat look inside the ride. You can check out an abridged version from Walt Disney Imagineering’s Instagram below. Alternatively, you can go on a fuller adventure via YouTube. The section about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure begins around 16:15, and the look inside the ride itself kicks off at around 18:07.

The Tiana Animatronic Comes to Life and More

We also have a good look at the animatronic Tiana that will be a part of the new Disney attraction. Unlike the scary ones in Five Nights at Freddy’s, this one is actually cute.

You can also check out these wonderful new photos from Disney Parks Blog:

The Story of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

The story of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will pick up after the ending of The Princess and The Frog film—right after the final kiss. Featuring some of the incredible music from the animated feature, the attraction will follow Princess Tiana and Louis as they prepare for their first Mardi Gras performance. Given that Splash Mountain is adjacent to New Orleans Square in Disneyland, this story goes hand-in-hand with the area. The voice of Princess Tiana, Anika Noni Rose, will reprise her role for the re-themed Splash Mountain attraction.

According to the Disney Parks Blog:

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will take guests on a musical adventure inspired by the beloved story and characters from the fan-favorite film. Picking up where the film left off, guests will join Princess Tiana, Naveen and jazz-loving alligator Louis on an adventure through the bayou as they prepare to host a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration where everyone is welcome. Along the way, guests will encounter familiar faces, make new friends and travel through the bayou to original music inspired by songs from the film as they are brought into the next chapter of Tiana’s story.

Disney Parks updated the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in 2017. The company removed the bride auction and give Redd the pirate a prominent role. The parks are making this much needed change to Splash Mountain.

When Will Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Open?

Splash Mountain closed in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom in 2023. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open at both parks in 2024. As mentioned above, it will first open in Walt Disney World on June 28.

Originally published on June 25, 2020.

The post Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Reveals a Look Inside the Ride appeared first on Nerdist.

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

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Will Get a Black and White (Chrome) Version Like Mad Max: Fury Road

Speaking to the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Miller confirmed that a black-and-white or black-and-chrome version of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was on the way. Miller noted, “We’ve done it already. It’s the last thing I did on the film, and I call it tinted black-and-chrome. It’s really interesting, I’m still trying to demystify why the black-and-white for me, has something more elemental to it. It’s not because they look like old black-and-white movies, it’s something else.” Perhaps, Miller opines, it has to do with the drama of the outcomes.

How Does Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Fit Into Mad Max‘s World?

Technically, we know Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga takes place 45 years after the Collapse. But when we look closer at the semantics of all the Mad Max movies and comic books, it doesn’t perfectly fit. But it turns out that’s not really a problem.

Via Polygon, we saw director George Miller’s comments about the original Mad Max: Fury Road movie. He noted:

All the films have no strict chronology. It’s probably after Thunderdome, but it’s an episode in the life of Max and this world. It’s basically an episode, and it’s us revisiting that world. I never wrote the story, any of the stories, with a chronological connection.

And we’re willing to imagine that extends to Furiosa, too. Emotional logic, live it, love it.

Watch 6 Minutes of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

You can now check out six full minutes from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. If that doesn’t get you revved up for the film, we don’t know what will!

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Trailer and Synopsis

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

Click To View Gallery

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

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

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Casting Updates

We recently learned that Immortan Joe will now be played by Lachy Hulme. Hulme replaces Immortan Joe’s original actor from Mad Max: Fury Road, Hugh Keays-Byrne, who passed away in 2020. Hulme will also play Rizzdale Pell, a gang member who follows Hemsworth’s Dementus in the movie.

More About Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Timeline, Recast, and Other Intel

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

Additionally, Miller has revealed why he chose to recast the role of Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Of course, Charlize Theron originally played the role in Mad Max: Fury Road. However, instead of using digital de-aging technology, Miller opted for a recast of the Furiosa role, bringing Anya Taylor-Joy into the prequel movie.

Miller shared the reasoning behind the recast with Empire Magazine, which we saw via IGN. He notes, “It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road]… I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.” And that’s really fair enough.

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

When Is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘s Release Date?

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

Originally published on November 30, 2023.

The post A Black and White/Chrome Version of FURIOSA Is Coming appeared first on Nerdist.

Jim Henson was a man with drive. He wanted to tell stories, to make things, and to experiment. Henson, who left the world far too young, was acutely aware of how time marched onward. He wanted to create as much as possible while he could. This is one of the constant threads throughout the documentary Jim Henson Idea Man. The documentary highlights Henson’s visionary genius, boundless creative energy, and his family life. We talked with director Ron Howard about exploring Henson’s extensive body of work and what he hopes people take away from the documentary.

Nerdist: What Jim Henson creation did you first experience?

Ron Howard: Now that I understand his creative journey, it was the character Rowlf on Jimmy Dean’s show and those funny songs that they would do together. We have a couple of them in our film. I remember seeing that and thinking that that was funny. And then other things, maybe a couple of those commercials—the outrageous commercials that are so non-politically correct today, but I think that’s probably it.

He meant so much to my family. Here’s the thing about what he brought to Sesame Street, was that adults would want to sit and watch it with their kids. It wasn’t just park the kids in front [of the TV], it’s that you wanted to see those funny little films that Jim made. You’d want to see those characters interact. That was a gift that Jim had given our family as well.

The documentary includes those commercials, the Muppets, everything. He was such a creative force who spoke to many audiences. What were the challenges of covering the breadth of his career?

Howard: Well, he was a social satirist and he brought that to children’s programming in a way that was so refreshing. Again, it would attract adults, but it also reached kids in an important way. But when you look at those commercials, they’re all satire. The Muppets, it’s all satire. He was a witty, funny guy. When you look at his home movies, even those are a little bit satirical. They’re certainly whimsical. He knew how to use fantasy humor, use the puppets as a way to unleash the audience’s disbelief and then get to us about our foibles and the truth of our existence and the human experience in ways that really resonated.

And he seemed to bring such a sense of play and curiosity to everything he did.

Howard: Yes, he thought life should be fun. He thought people should be treated well. He believed all these things and yet was a wildly productive person. He didn’t have to be a jerk to get things done. He just had to say, “Hey, come join me in my sandbox.” And people were working around the clock. So I think there’s a lesson in leadership there in our film as well.

You can see how much people liked working with him—people like Frank Oz.

Howard: Frank Oz gave us one of our really foundational interviews because he was such a key collaborator, and eventually they became like brothers. Jim was like an older brother to him. But just talking about Frank Oz, you forget that he spent all those years working with Jim and still had this remarkable career with Yoda and as an A-list Hollywood director, it’s kind of mind blowing, but I think Jim infused that sense of possibility and the thrill of productivity in many of the people that he worked with.

I definitely walked away from the documentary itching to create something. What do you hope audiences to take away from it?

Howard: I hope they feel the way I did, which is I had this opportunity to explore Jim as a potential subject, and I immediately realized that I thought I knew something about Jim Henson, but only a fraction. What I knew were these characters and these shows and these moments that we could certainly celebrate. But I recognize that there was so much we didn’t know about that was emotionally poignant.

His personal story, his family story as a son and a brother, and then as a parent and a husband, but also this archive full of hilarious, irreverent material that he had created that we knew nothing about. Some of it was deemed successful, some of it was never seen, and some of it was thought of as a misfire. It didn’t matter. He was going to create, and he was just going to trust that and keep going. And he was really an unstoppable creative force. But I think you said it, he loved creativity. I mean, the result was something that he certainly cared about, but he was working creatively as a way of life, not necessarily as the job that had to be done.

I admire that he seemed to be fearless. Just that attitude of I’m going to try something and see what happens without letting my doubts get in the way.

Howard: He was an amazing risk-taker, and I think it’s just a reminder to us that we need them. We need to create environments where they can have an outlet and can be seen. But of course, the internet provides that for a lot of people today in a way. There’s still something very modern about what he and Jane did in their late teens and early twenties, which was use the new tech TV to do these little five minute short pieces, somehow get them on the air and begin to develop their voice. And if you think about it, that’s a very contemporary creative approach to finding your voice today.

I imagine putting together a documentary is not a linear path, especially as you learn new details. What was it like to find the through line of the documentary?

Howard: The family story was the surprise, in that there was a narrative through line, and both Jim and Jane, their love story is really the foundation for the Muppets and everything that we love. It couldn’t endure, ultimately, yet, they handled the disintegration of their romantic relationship in such a admirable, constructive way. It just says a lot about them as individuals. But because neither of them really liked being interviewed, that was the documentarian’s task, was to keep finding ways to understand their relationship as the foundation of this family and also this company and this output of work.

That kept evolving, and Jane’s voice actually found its way into a more central position in the film, something we always wanted, but it was very late in the process that she really became as important a character as she is. I’m really grateful for it. It was a matter of finding more photographs, a couple of little interview snippets that were meaningful, little things like that, an audio tape that showed up late in the game. That why when you’re making a documentary, the research never really can stop.

After people watch the documentary, what do you hope they go explore of Jim Henson’s work that they may not know about?

Howard: It depends on what delights them in watching the film. I really hope that people go back and watch those Muppet episodes because we have great jokes and great snippets, but those are half hour episodes. I had sort of forgotten how good they are and how relevant because as a satirist, he wasn’t just talking about the moment. He was talking about human beings and the way we think. And so all of these characters, Miss Piggy, all of them, they reflect the human experience in an incredibly revealing and entertaining way.

Then I hope that the people who want to do a little deeper dive go and look at some of Jim’s experimental films, go and look at some of the fantasy shows that he did that are not so well known, but can be found and are really worth watching, because he was relentless with his creativity, and it’s really all valid and all interesting.

Jim Henson Idea Man will premiere on Disney+ on May 31.

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

Watch the sun-soaked, alligator-filled action here:

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

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

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

Originally published on December 4, 2023.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (TROP) season one ended with an important reveal for the audience and Galadriel: Halbrand is Sauron. Surprise! He wormed his way into Celebrimbor’s forge, but he left before the elf forged certain rings. We last saw the Dark Lord looking over the recently formed Mordor. We have The Rings of Power season two trailer and premiere date, and it looks like the Prime Video series is taking us right back into the looming battle of light and dark in Middle-earth and all the power struggles that come into play. And as for Hot Sauron? He’s now Hot Elf Sauron.

The Rings of Power Season Two Trailer Is Here with Rings On

J.R.R. Tolkien’s words say Sauron is frequently disguised in “a fair form” in the Second Age of Middle-earth. Charlie Vickers steps into that guise in this The Rings of Power season two trailer. Fans joked about Hot Sauron in season one, but now, Sauron takes on an Elvish appearance. His face is fair, framed by long blonde hair, and he looks quite different than he did as Halbrand.

Among the Elvish, Sauron is known as Annatar, or “Lord of gifts.” But we see the Elves seem to catch onto Sauron’s lies. Mordor still looms for him, as does what appears to be Barad-dûr.

The Rings of Power season two trailer also has a number of rings. We see the three Elvish rings, at least one Dwarvish ring, and also Celebrimbor with what are perhaps prototypes for the One Ring. We can’t wait to see how these objects will start to come into play as the story progresses. We also hope for prop replicas we can purchase, please and thank you.

The Rings of Power Season Two’s Synopsis

In addition to its exciting trailer, The Rings of Power season two has shared a synopsis for what’s to come. It reads:

In Season Two of The Rings of Power, Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.

While season one set up the world and the time period, season two of The Rings of Power seems to be leaning into the action. Between the all-important rings, battles, and more glimpses of Adar, the orcs, the Stranger, and an eagle in its teaser trailer, we’re in for a ride in The Rings of Power season two.

TROP‘s Second Season Release Date

The Rings of Power season two will premiere on August 29. We can’t wait for more of the series.

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Universal and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions have announced the title for the next movie Peele will produce: Him. The title is news, but we knew about the film’s setting. The psychological horror will be set in the world of football. Yes, football. Justin Tipping will direct the film, which stars Marlon Wayans. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wayans will play a legendary quarterback who must train a rising young athlete. Tyriq Withers plays the mentee, who trains at the aging athlete’s isolated compound.

Uh-oh. We can see where the psychological horror is coming in. Is it ever a good thing when a location is isolated in this context?

Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, comedian Jim Jefferies, Guapdad 4000, and Tierra Whack also star in the film. Him comes from a Blacklist script by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie. Peele will produce the movie alongside Ian Cooper, Win Rosenfeld, and Jamal Watson. Executive producers include David Kern and Kate Oh.

Him is scheduled to release on September 19, 2025.

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

Click To View Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fantasy Springs opens at Tokyo DisneySea on June 6.

The post Tokyo Disney’s TANGLED Ride Looks Like a Stunning Journey appeared first on Nerdist.

The time has almost come for Disney Lorcana’s next set to arrive. The trading card game from Ravensburger continues to take inspiration from Disney animation to build a thoughtful game with consistently beautiful artwork. Ursula’s Return marks the fourth chapter of the game and brings with it more teamwork, strategy, boosting Hero cards, and playing with the Resist and Challenge keywords. Ravensburger sent Nerdist the Disney Lorcana: Ursula’s Return Starter Decks, which combine Amber & Amethyst and Sapphire & Steel inks. They follow the general features of each ink, but if you’re at all a fan of Encanto, Amber & Amethyst will have your heart. Here are other highlights from the Ursula’s Return Starter Decks.

Ursula’s Return Amber & Amethyst Starter Deck

Okay, okay. Did I enjoy the cooperative nature of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs cards when they released in Rise of the Floodborn? Yes. Their abilities interacted and boosted each other in helpful ways if the right cards ended up in your hand at the right time. But it meant flipping through a lot of characters who look quite a bit alike. The Ursula’s Return Amber & Amethyst Starter Deck brings the same kind of dynamics but with the family Madrigal from Encanto. The variety of the characters, who are much more vibrant than the dwarves from Snow White, along with unique support abilities make for a magical deck with so much opportunity. The main drawback, if you can call it that, is Encanto songs will be in your head every time you pick up the deck.

As with any deck you build, the Ursula’s Return Amber & Amethyst Starter Deck has its hurdles. Mirabel Madrigal, Gift of the Family, can’t add lore to other Madrigals if you don’t have them in your hand. However, the 60-card deck has 23 Madrigals (if I counted correctly). I’m not calculating probabilities, but odds of having a Madrigal in your hand seem solid—especially if you can use your MacGuffin at the beginning to redraw some cards in hopes of getting a Madrigal. You can use the Madrigals to stack lore and get ahead quickly. Protect these angels with whatever you can.

Remember to try out the new Sing Together mechanic too, which lets you use multiple characters to sing one song.

The Ursula’s Return Amber & Amethyst Starter Deck includes the below cards. Cards marked with an * are from a previous release.

3x Agustin Madrigal – Clumsy Dad
1x Ariel – Singing Mermaid
2x Félix Madrigal – Fun-Loving Family Man
2x Julieta Madrigal – Excellent Cook
2x Mickey Mouse – Leader of the Band
3x Mirabel Madrigal – Gift of the Family
1x Mirabel Madrigal – Prophecy Finder
3x Prince Eric – Seafaring Prince
2x Rolly – Hungry Pup*
2x Sebastian – Court Composer*
3x Stitch – Alien Dancer
2x Heal What Has Been Hurt*
2x Healing Glow*
1x Look at This Family
2x Lost in the Woods
3x Antonio Madrigal – Animal Expert
1x Bruno Madrigal – Out of the Shadows
2x Camilo Madrigal – Prankster
2x Dolores Madrigal – Easy Listener
3x Elsa – Queen Regent*
2x HeiHei – Persistent Presence*
1x Isabela Madrigal – Golden Child
2x Luisa Madrigal – Magically Strong One
3x Marshmallow – Terrifying Snowman
1x Pepa Madrigal – Weather Maker
2x The Queen – Hateful Rival*
2x Tick-Tock – Ever-Present Pursuer
2x Poor Unfortunate Souls
3x Casa Madrigal – Casita

Ursula’s Return Sapphire & Steel Starter Deck

This deck does not have the Madrigals, so it’s slightly less delightful. However, as someone who played exclusively Sapphire & Steel for a while, I see a lot of potential here. Rather than a group of characters unifying the deck, a type of characters stand out: Heroes. Characters with the Hero descriptor bring multiple layers of stalwart and true with Resist and Challenger abilities. The Ursula’s Return Sapphire & Steel Starter Deck is the kind of deck that makes you feel pumped up to play—like you’re doing a training montage to “Eye of the Tiger” and so ready to quest while challenging your opponents.

Most of the cards here are fierce and ready to conquer the day, but you have some possibilities for lore as well. One of my favorites is Rapunzel, Appreciative Artist. She costs five ink, has three lore, and if you have a Pascal in play, she gains ward. Then you have the Dig a Little Deeper song card that lets you look at the top seven cards of your deck (seven!) and keep two. The catch is it costs eight ink and it’s not inkable. But you can use the Sing Together mechanic. It’s the kind of card you likely won’t get on the table often but when you do, it will be very satisfying.

Like I said, a lot of potential.

The Ursula’s Return Sapphire & Steel Starter Deck includes the below cards. Cards marked with an * are from a previous release.

• 2x Mickey Mouse – Detective*
• 2x Pascal – Inquisitive Pet
• 1x Prince Phillip – Gallant Defender
• 1x Rapunzel – Appreciative Artist
• 2x Sisu – Wise Friend
• 2x Transformed Chef – Castle Stove
• 2x Dig a Little Deeper
• 2x Seldom All They Seem
• 3x Aladdin – Resolute Swordsman
• 3x Ariel – Determined Mermaid
• 1x Hercules – Beloved Hero
• 3x Kida – Royal Warrior*
• 2x Li Shang – Imperial Captain
• 2x Ling – Imperial Soldier
• 3x Mickey Mouse – Standard Bearer
• 2x Mulan – Armored Fighter
• 1x Philoctetes – No-Nonsense Instructor
• 3x Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw*
• 1x One Last Hope
• 2x Smash*
• 3x Imperial Bow
• 3x Thebes – The Big Olive

Ursula’s Return will release at local game stores, Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Paris, and select Disney Store retail locations on May 17, 2024. It will then be available from mass market retailers on May 31, 2024.

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Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi put the emphasis on choice and how moments big and small shape someone’s path. That series of animated shorts showed us why Count Dooku decided to pursue the dark side and how Ahsoka Tano chose to return to the fight and battle the Empire. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire also tells a story of choices, in this case those of Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee. The shorts reveal how their characters’ paths intersected with the Galactic Empire’s. We talked to Diana Lee Inosanto and Meredith Salenger about the return of their characters and the decisions they make.

Tales of the Empire – Morgan Elsbeth’s Past

“My anger gives me strength.”

From her first appearance in The Mandalorian, it seemed like Morgan Elsbeth was carrying a chip the size of the galaxy on her shoulder. A Nightsister without a clan, we saw her help Grand Admiral Thrawn bring the Great Mothers from Peridea to the known galaxy in Ahsoka. But Tales of the Empire shows Morgan’s past and the massacre she witnessed on Dathomir, including her mother’s death.

Inosanto, who also plays Morgan in live-action, says, “When I first read it, I loved so much that they were going to go into her origins because it wasn’t really clear if she had really truly witnessed what happened on Dathomir, although I assumed that she was likely there. But when I found out they were going to do this, just starting out the gates, and then how she would meet Thrawn and how they would form their alliance… I love that we get to see a little bit more Dathomir and Nightsister culture.”

She explains she particularly enjoyed seeing a little of Morgan’s relationship with her mother. “It just tore at me because you think about this—what a moment of chaos and that would shape Morgan for years to come,” Inosanto explains. “And to me, it makes sense that she would hold the armor of anger, I call it, and carry that forward. And that’s what gave her the strength to one day visualize with the help of the Great Mothers that her vision was really to try to restore Dathomir and particularly the Nightsister culture.”

What Morgan might be carrying with her is something Inosanto has considered over her years playing the character. Tales of the Empire brought it more sharply into focus. She wrote a journal about Morgan and what she saw to get in touch with Morgan’s pain and fear, which becomes almost like a weight. “You have to make it come through the character,” Inosanto says. “Then, at the end of the day, once you’re done, you let it go. And I even have, part of my process is I also have a soundtrack for Morgan. Because of the emotional content, whether I was on the set or even before walking in the recording room, I will listen to particular music that sets a tone and it has a certain mood, and that way it helps me trigger whatever it is that music triggers in my brain to stay in contact with that emotional content for Morgan.”

We see much of Morgan’s combat prowess in live-action, leveraging Inosanto’s martial arts talents. She says, “My martial arts training is really my heritage, it’s my culture. And I never thought that what dad gave me—my father’s Dan Inosanto and he’s a pretty well-known martial artist out there in the world, and my godfather’s the late Bruce Lee. My father has, like Dave Filoni with George Lucas, he’s always tried to carry the torch of my godfather’s teachings. I’m so lucky that I had this and that I can’t believe that I am now within my favorite universe, and I had the ability to share my heritage with the world through a character like Morgan.”

That all translated to animation. “I was so touched by [director] Steward Lee —my understanding is he oversaw the fight sequences in Tales of the Empire, and he had martial arts training. The team studied my martial arts on YouTube, my battle sequences on Mandalorian and Ahsoka, and they beautifully brought it together. And I see the homage to my godfather and my dad, so it’s quite surreal. They did it so beautifully and without mo-cap.”

Tales of the Empire – Barriss Offee Becomes an Inquisitor

“It seems fear is not your ally, but your master.”

The last time we saw Barriss Offee in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the former Jedi was in jail for bombing the Jedi Temple. She tried to frame Ahsoka, but the Republic eventually figured out Barriss was the real culprit. Tales of the Empire sees her take the opportunity to leave prison by joining the Empire’s Inquisitorius—a group working for Darth Vader to hunt Jedi who survived Order 66. Salenger thinks Barriss saw the opportunity to get out of her prison cell and took it. She says, “I think her time stewing in jail after she was incarcerated—she had time to stew on her actions and formulate what she really believes.”

Salenger felt thrilled to come back to the role of Barriss. The Jedi Padawan’s last appearance on screen was in 2013. She was more of a rule-follower than Ahsoka, which made sense with Barriss’ Master, Luminara Unduli, being far more level-headed than Anakin Skywalker. But Barriss fought against the hypocrisy of the Jedi; she didn’t agree with the Jedi being soldiers. Yet, she used violence to show her discontent. “I think her inner turmoil and anger and upset and frustration led her to do something that she typically wouldn’t have chosen to do,” Salenger says of Barriss’ actions towards the Jedi. “And at the beginning of Tales of the Empire, she’s presented with a choice, which is come join the Inquisitors. You either stay in jail for the rest of your life or you get killed, or you do what you have to do to survive. And I don’t think it was a choice that she wanted to make.”

“Ultimately, I mean in anyone in Star Wars, your choices that you make define your destiny. And you always have a choice. She has a choice. She could’ve stayed in prison and died, but there’s also a thing where you think you can get out of something. You can do something bad and perhaps affect change later,” Salenger continues.

It doesn’t take long for Barriss to fully understand the path of an Inquisitor and that it comes with a cost. While Lyn, the Fourth Sister (seen in Obi-Wan Kenobi), seems to revel in the Inquisitor’s missions, Barriss can’t understand. Salenger says, “Barriss is presented with the same thing that Lyn was initially presented with. It’s so conflicting for her because she does have this moral center. She had it from the beginning. She was raised by the Jedi. She was given to them as a child to be trained and to have a thoughtfulness and a nobility to her, and a set of morals and an intense desire to do what’s right. That intense desire is… It’s just so conflicting for her to do things you don’t really want to do.”

Barriss comes to a fork in the road and decides to go on the run. She makes another choice, a choice to refocus towards the light. Salenger notes, “What I like most about Barris is that she actually feels. She’s so deep. She doesn’t want anyone to be hurting. She wants to change people’s perspective. She’s trying to change people’s perspective from the very beginning. When the Grand Inquisitor first makes her have to fight her fellow Jedi who’s been captured and she’s like, ‘We don’t have to do this.’ She’s always trying to get out of the thing that is not good. She’s always trying to do the right thing and then ultimately, it comes down to saving yourself.”

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is streaming now on Disney+.

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LEGO and Star Wars frequently team up on the screen, but a new LEGO special is really mixing things up. LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy shows a galaxy where space and time have fallen apart. The pieces crumble and put unlikely characters in equally unlikely situations. That means, among other things, we finally get to see Darth Jar Jar.

Hearing “Mesa going to hurts yousa” in Ahmed Best’s familiar Jar Jar voice was not on our Bingo card.

The synopsis for the special says:

In “LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy,” the entire Star Wars Galaxy gets completely mixed up when an ordinary nerf-herder, Sig Greebling (Gaten Matarazzo), unearths a powerful artifact from a hidden Jedi temple. He finds himself thrust into adventure in a new, wondrously wild and twisted version of the galaxy where good guys are bad, bad guys are good, and the fate of all depends on Sig becoming the hero who can put all the pieces back together.

The special has one heck of a voice cast. Gaten Matarazzo (Sig Greebling), Tony Revolori (Dev Greebling), Bobby Moynihan (Jedi Bob), Marsai Martin (Yesi Scala), Michael Cusack (Servo), Ahmed Best (Darth Jar Jar), and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) all appear.

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy has four parts. All of them debut on Disney+ on September 13.

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What do you think of when you imagine Jedi robes? The simple brown and ivory ensemble is immediately recognizable as being the outfit of a keeper of peace in the galaxy far, far away. It represents the Force and that the being wearing the robes is likely someone you can trust. The robes also just look super comfortable—like, probably the most cozy outfit in all of Star Wars. And that’s what Secretlab is capturing with their newly announced Secretlab SKINS Jedi Edition. This precision-fit chair sleeve fits right over the Secretlab TITAN Evo Series gaming chair, and the Jedi Edition brings a little light side to it.

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Secretlab added the Jedi SKINS in honor of May the Fourth. The celebration of Star Wars Day always brings a slew of new products, but this one is a highlight. The gaming chair company designed the sleeve to mimic the robe-like texture of a Jedi’s signature look. It’s a unique knit for maximum comfort. The front features the Jedi Order emblem, while the back of the sleeve says “May the Force be with you” in the Star Wars alphabet Aurebesh. Like other SKINS, the Jedi Edition can fit over TITAN Evo Series gaming chairs in under three minutes.

The Jedi design is just the latest addition to the Secretlab Star Wars SKINS collection. Other SKINS feature styles based on stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the Empire. Each has all the details you’d expect. It will shock no one who knows me to hear that the Ahsoka SKINS, with its stripes and markings to match the Togruta’s face, is my favorite. Though the calming vibe of the Jedi SKINS might change my mind.

Visit Secretlab’s website to shop for the Jedi and other Star Wars SKINS. They’re all compatible with your TITAN Evo Series chair.

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Lucasfilm surprised us on Thursday morning with an announcement for a new series of shorts. Following in the footsteps of Tales of the Jedi, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire will take a journey into the Galactic Empire with six episodes. The series of shorts will follow two characters: a young Morgan Elsbeth and former Jedi Barriss Offee. Like Tales of the Jedi, Tales of the Empire puts the focus on choice and how characters’ choices affect their destinies. And yes, Tales of the Empire confirms that Barriss Offee did indeed pursue the path of becoming an Inquisitor!

One-time Jedi and friend of Ahsoka Tano, Barriss betrayed the Jedi in the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Disillusioned with the Jedi Order and the Republic, the Padawan bombed the Jedi Temple and let Ahsoka take the fall. The act led to Ahsoka’s false imprisonment and eventual departure from the Jedi Order. We never learned what happened to Barriss, though many fans believed she turned to the Imperial Inquisitorius. The Star Wars: Tales of the Empire trailer confirms this. We don’t know why or if she goes on to officially become an Inquisitor, but we see her working towards it, and we can’t wait to see what happens. A new clip from the series even shows us Barriss taking her first steps toward darkness.

Then there’s a young Morgan Elsbeth turning to Grand Admiral Thrawn and asking to serve the Empire. That’s likely the beginning of their close relationship that we later see play out in Ahsoka. Morgan is carrying no small amount of anger over what happened to her Dathomirian sisters and she has a plan for revenge.

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The official synopsis for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi states:

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is a six-episode journey into the fearsome Galactic Empire through the eyes of two warriors on divergent paths, set during different eras. After losing everything, young Morgan Elsbeth navigates the expanding Imperial world toward a path of vengeance, while former Jedi Barriss Offee does what she must to survive a rapidly changing galaxy. The choices they make will define their destinies.

Dave Filoni created the series and is the supervising director. He is also an executive producer along with Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck. Josh Rimes serves as co-executive producer and Alex Spotswood is the senior producer. The talented voice cast includes Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), Meredith Salenger (Barriss Offee), Rya Kihlstedt (Lyn aka Fourth Sister), Wing T. Chao (Wing), Lars Mikkelsen (Thrawn), Jason Isaacs (Grand Inquisitor), and Matthew Wood (General Grievous).

When Is Star Wars: Tales of the Empire‘s Release Date?

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire will premiere on Disney+ with all six episodes on May 4 to celebrate May the Fourth Be With You. And as for Tales of the Jedi, we learned at Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2023 that a second season was in the works. Hopefully we’ll learn about that release date soon.

Originally published on April 4, 2024.

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Universal Orlando has big things ahead with the opening of Epic Universe in 2025. The new theme park will bring some beloved worlds to life, including the Dark Universe, How to Train Your Dragon, and Super Nintendo World. In its latest round of reveals, Universal has pulled back the curtain on Super Nintendo World to share details about the attractions and shopping. Both Universal Studios Japan and Hollywood have Super Nintendo Worlds, but Orlando’s Epic Universe will see the US debuts of a couple attractions.

It all begins with going through the green pipe portal to Super Nintendo World. Like in other parks, Super Nintendo World in Epic Universe will have an immersive design that brings in elements from the games. Peach’s Castle, Mr. Beanpole, Piranha Plants—they’re all here alongside Goombas and spinning coins.

Super Mario Land’s Rides and Food

Click To View Gallery

In the Super Mario Land portion of Super Nintendo World, here’s what visitors can enjoy:

• Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge: Guests are invited to join Team Mario and battle Team Bowser for the Golden Cup in this groundbreaking attraction that fuses augmented reality, projection mapping technology and elaborate environments to bring the fun of the Mario Kart video game series to life in a compelling ride-through experience.
  Guests up for the challenge will enter through Bowser’s Castle – where they’ll wind its corridors and get a glimpse of Bowser’s deceptive plans to stack the odds in his favor – before boarding their kart and heading to the starting line. Then, guests steer through a variety of Mario Kart courses – collecting coins, tossing shells at Team Bowser, dodging obstacles, and more – as they join their favorite characters and compete to help Team Mario win the race.
• Yoshi’s Adventure: The delightful Yoshi’s Adventure attraction will make its US. debut when Super Nintendo World opens at Universal Epic Universe. On this family-friendly ride, guests of all ages will enjoy breathtaking views of Super Mario Land as they join Yoshis and travel through Mushroom Kingdom landscapes in search of glowing eggs – encountering many familiar characters along the way.
• Toadstool Cafe: At Toadstool Cafe, guests can enjoy a variety of tasty dishes inspired by the world of Super Mario and its characters, including Mario and Luigi-themed burgers, Super Mushroom Soup, Piranha Plant Caprese, Fire Flower Spaghetti and Meatballs and so much more. Guests will also get glimpses of several Toads cooking up culinary creations through various virtual windows as they dine inside the restaurant.
• Yoshi’s Snack Island and Turbo Boost Treats: Guests can also pick up delicious treats, snacks and beverages at these walk-up dining locations.
• 1-UP Factory and Mario Motors: Guests can shop for souvenirs, apparel, toys and more inspired by their favorite Super Mario characters and adventures within these retail locations.
• Meet and Greets: Guests can meet, greet and interact with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad throughout various areas in Super Mario Land.

Donkey Kong Country

An entrance at the edge of Super Mario Land will lead guests to Donkey Kong Country. It’s a tropical landscape with waterfalls and lush trees with landmarks such as The Golden Temple. Here’s what Universal has announced for Donkey Kong Country so far:

• Mine-Cart Madness: Guests will hop into a mine cart and careen through the jungle to help Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong protect the coveted golden banana on this first-of-its-kind family coaster. Utilizing an unprecedented ride system, innovative technology and a unique coaster design, Mine-Cart Madness will send riders on a thrilling adventure where they will experience the jaw-dropping maneuvers that they’ve seen Donkey Kong and the mine carts perform in the video games – including getting blasted out of a barrel, seemingly jumping over gaps as they speed along a rickety track, and so much more.

Visitors can also expect a selection of tropical menu and merchandise offerings in the middle of the jungle – all inspired by the Donkey Kong Country video game franchise and its characters. More details will be shared in the coming months.

Epic Universe‘s 2025 opening can’t come soon enough.

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If you’ve played Stardew Valley, you know how big an element food plays in the game. You grow it on your farm, you forage for it, you fish for it. Then you craft meals and use them to win the hearts of your fellow Pelican Town villagers. Or maybe you keep those meals for yourselves to provide plenty of energy for long expeditions in the mines. Whatever your motivation for learning recipes in the game, you don’t need any reason to prepare them in real life besides the fact that you want to. The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook by game creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone and Ryan Novak gives you all the reasons you need to pretend to be The Queen of Sauce. You can get started now because we have your exclusive look at recipes for the Strange Bun and Void Mayonnaise.

The Stardew Valley cookbook follows the seasonal vibes of the popular video game. Recipes are divided by the time of year and taken from the in-game meals and food. This cookbook is more than only recipes, though. You get photographs, original illustrations, and lots of little character notes. For this Stardew Valley enthusiast who has put hundreds of hours into different farms, it’s delightful.

You can get a taste of the illustrations and photographs in The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook in these Strange Bun and Void Mayonnaise recipe pages. We know almost no characters like these items in the game, but out of the game? Both recipes sound delicious.

Click To View Gallery

And here are the recipes:

Strange Bun and Void Mayonnaise

LOBSTER IN A SOFT BUN WITH A GARLIC MAYONNAISE DIP

From the Kitchen of: Shane

Yield: Makes 6 Buns

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup (120 ml) WHOLE MILK

1 2/3 cups (230 g) plus 3 tablespoons BREAD FLOUR

3 tablespoons UNSALTED BUTTER, at room temperature, plus more for greasing

3 tablespoons MALTED MILK POWDER

2 tablespoons packed DARK BROWN SUGAR

KOSHER SALT

1 (1/4-oz; 7 g) packet INSTANT YEAST

1/2 cup (120 ml) BUTTERMILK, at room temperature

2 LARGE EGGS, at room temperature

1 cup (140 g) ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

2 whole LOBSTERS (about 1 1/2 lb; 680 g each)

1/2 cup (l stick; 110 g) SALTED BUTTER

FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER

6 large SAGE LEAVES, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons finely grated LEMON ZEST

2 GARLIC CLOVES, finely grated

VOID MAYONNAISE, for serving (recipe follows)

Special Equipment:

6-cup JUMBO MUFFIN TIN and 6 (6-inch; 15 cm) WOODEN SKEWERS

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the whole milk and 3 tablespoons of the bread flour until smooth. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until thick and like cake batter, 7 to 9 minutes. Transfer the milk mixture to a small bowl and let cool until just barely warm to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.

Lightly grease a large bowl with a little butter.

In another large bowl, whisk together the malted milk powder, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, the yeast, buttermilk, and 1 egg until well combined. Add the remaining 1 2/3 cups (230 g) bread flour, the all-purpose flour, and the milk mixture. Use a rubber spatula to stir the ingredients together until mostly combined and resembling a very shaggy dough. (There will still be a good amount of flour at the bottom of the bowl, and that is okay as long as the mixture is no longer wet.) Using your hands, continue to mix until you have a fairly smooth dough. Add the 3 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, using your hands to work the butter into the dough before adding more. Every time you add more butter, the dough will start to feel greasier, but that is okay. Use one hand to knead the dough while you use your other hand to hold down the bowl. Use the rubber spatula to scrape down the sticky side of the bowl as needed. Continue kneading the dough in the bowl until it is no longer wet and sticky, 3 to 5 minutes.

Turn out the dough onto a clean flat surface and continue kneading (now with both hands) until smooth and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, place it in the greased bowl, and turn to coat with the grease. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature until puffed to almost double its size, about 2 hours.

Lightly grease the cups of a 6-cup large-cup muffin tin.

Deflate the dough and gently press it into a rectangle (the size really doesn’t matter). Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Use your hands to roll each piece into a 16-inch (40 cm) rope about 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) thick.

Starting at one end, roll each rope into a semi-conical spiral shape with a larger base and 2 coils that get slightly smaller as you work upward. The second coil will be almost the same size as the base, but the third coil on the top will be much smaller than the first two. Tuck the second end of the dough into the top of the bun and place the buns into the muffin cups as you form them. Nudge a 6-inch (15 cm) wooden skewer pointed side up into the very center of each bun.

Let the buns rest, uncovered, at room temperature until puffy and squishy like jumbo marshmallows, about 1 hour. The fully puffed buns should fill most of the muffin cups. After they puff up, the buns might end up leaning over. Use the wooden skewers to gently lift the buns and coax them so they sit straight again. Don’t be concerned if they are not perfect; the imperfection will add to the “strangeness” of the buns.

About 40 minutes into the buns’ second proof, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining egg and a splash of water. Brush the egg wash lightly onto the risen buns. Bake the buns until golden brown all over and the dough is cooked through, about 30 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once after 20 minutes. Transfer the buns from the muffin cups to a wire rack to cool completely.

Remove the wooden skewers and use a small paring knife to make a roughly 2-inch (5 cm) opening at the top of each bun, then use your fingers to carefully hollow out the buns, leaving a 1/2-inch (1.3 cm) wall on the sides and bottom. (Save the bun tops and any extra pieces to make fresh bread crumbs, if desired.) Loosely cover the buns.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Fill an extra-large bowl with ice water and season it generously with salt.

Add the lobsters to the pot, cover with a lid, and boil until the shells are bright red and the meat is cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the lobsters directly to the ice bath to cool.

Pat the lobsters dry with a kitchen towel. Remove the meat from the claws, tails, and legs and roughly chop into bite-size chunks; you should have about 2 1/2 cups (340 g). Chill the lobster meat.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the salted butter. Add several large grinds of black pepper and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until light brown specks start to form and the butter smells nutty, 7 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the sage, lemon zest, and grated garlic, and warm for 1 minute in the residual heat. (Be careful during this step because the mixture will get quite foamy and might sputter.) Add the lobster and stir to combine in the warm butter sauce. Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.

Divide the lobster mixture among the 6 hollowed-out buns. Drizzle any extra butter sauce over the lobster and serve immediately, accompanied by the mayonnaise.

VOID MAYONNAISE

Makes 1 scant cup (190 g)

5 black garlic cloves

1/4 teaspoon food-grade finely ground activated charcoal powder

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 large egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Kosher salt

3/4 cup (175 ml) neutral oil, such as light olive oil

Use the back of a large kitchen knife to smash the garlic until it forms a paste (about 2 teaspoons). Transfer to a small bowl.

In a medium bowl, combine the activated charcoal and 2 teaspoons of the lemon juice. Whisk until the charcoal is dissolved. Add the egg yolk, Dijon mustard, and a large pinch of salt, and whisk again until smooth.

Very slowly, begin to drizzle the oil into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking constantly and vigorously. At the beginning, you want to add the oil nearly drop by drop to form an emulsion. Make sure any oil you add is incorporated into the egg mixture before adding more.

When you have added nearly half the oil, increase the speed at which you add the oil but still add it slowly and continue to whisk constantly and vigorously. At this point, your arm will be tired, but muster your strength and persevere (or ask a friend to help out).

When the mixture is thick and creamy, add the remaining 1 teaspoon lemon juice, a small splash of water, and the black garlic paste. Whisk until smooth. If the mayonnaise is super thick, whisk in additional water, a small splash at a time, until you reach your desired consistency. Season to taste with additional salt, if needed.

Reprinted from The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook by ConcernedApe and Ryan Novak. © 2024 by ConcernedApe LLC. Published by Random House Worlds, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook arrives on May 14. You can place a pre-order now.

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It’s hard to believe, but The Phantom Menace arrived in theaters 25 years ago. It premiered on May 19, 1999. As the first news Star Wars movie in nearly 20 years, the film had a lot to live up to, especially since it explored the origins of Darth Vader. The movie marks the in-universe beginning of the Skywalker saga. The Phantom Menace will be returning to theaters soon to celebrate the milestone anniversary on May 3. That’s right before May the 4th, a.k.a. Star Wars Day. Hasbro has several new items for that special day, including an absolutely perfect retro collection multipack of action figures for The Phantom Menace.

This multipack comes with action figures for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Queen Amidala, Darth Maul, Jar Jar Binks, and a battle droid. In other words, it’s the ideal The Phantom Menace action figure sampler pack. It’s made all the cooler by the retro sculpt style. The lightsabers look like they’re from the ’70s and just look at Qui-Gon’s fabric cape! Take a closer gander at the figures in the gallery below.

Click To View Gallery

Inspired by the design of 1970s Kenner Star Wars action figures, these 3.75 inch scale The Phantom Menace figures each have five points of articulation. Each figure is individually packaged on a cardboard back within the box. The packaging has classic Kenner branding and a weathered look. As usual with these figures, the cardboard backing also has a large “Retro collection” label that takes away some of the coolness. However, if you’re like me, you open your action figures so the packaging doesn’t matter anyway.

Other items in the Hasbro May the 4th release include an Epic Hero series stormtrooper, Epic Hero series Paz Vizsla, a Vintage Collection Jango Fett, a Black Series Droideka, a Black Series Darth Vader, and a Vintage Collection Mandalorian.

This multipack of The Phantom Menace action figures retails for $59.99 and is available in stores now.

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Keefe Sencen is a key character in Shannon Messenger’s Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Since the first book in the fantasy series released in 2012, his character has taken all kinds of delicious twists and turns. From devil-may-care troublemaker to serious spy, Keefe always surprises. We’ll learn a lot more about the Keefster in the next book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities, Unraveled. This is book 9.5, a full-length novel that bridges what happened in Stellarlune (book 9) and what will happen in book 10 of the series. It’s told from Keefe’s point of view, and appropriately, Keefe takes center stage on the cover. Take a look at the cover of Unraveled, Keeper of the Lost Cities book 9.5.

Jason Chan’s art sets the tone for the book, but don’t take it from me. Shannon Messenger tells Nerdist, “Since this is book 9.5 in the series, and written in a new character’s POV, we wanted a cover that matched the others—but also made it clear this book is a little bit different. So there’s no Sophie this time (gasp!) and we went with a human city for the setting, because Unraveled is all about Keefe’s adventures in the human world. I love how the final art captures both the scene and the mood of the story—and how could I not adore a cover that’s totally Keefe! Keefe! Keefe! Jason Chan never ceases to amaze me with how perfectly he draws my characters and his absolutely breathtaking imagery.”

I don’t know if we’re ready for all the antics Keefe will run into as he tries to navigate the world of humans. But if there’s one thing we can say about Keefe, it’s that he’s always trying his best. We can’t wait to spend time with his perspective. He’s been through a lot, but Keefe usually manages to be entertaining in spite of it.

The description for Unraveled states:

Please be careful. Please be happy. And PLEASE forget all about me. It’ll be better for everyone that way.

Those were the last words Keefe Sencen wrote to Sophie Foster before he ran away to the Forbidden Cities. He didn’t want to leave, but it was the only way to keep his friends safe while he figured out how to control his scary new powers and searched for answers about his past.

What he found was so much more than adventures in Humanland.

Where did he go? What did he do? And who did he meet while the rest of his friends worked to solve the mystery of Stellarlune? The answers go far beyond anything anyone could have ever imagined, and give Keefe the power to change his destiny.

Oh boy, Humanland. While I will miss the Lost Cities, I’m curious to spend more time in the world I know. Unraveled, Keeper of the Lost Cities book 9.5, will arrive on November 12, 2024. It can’t get here fast enough. You can place a pre-order now.

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Disney animated movies wouldn’t be the same without adorable animal companions helping out the protagonists. Actually, all the critters have to do is appear and look cute and/or menacing, and we’re sold. It’s been a delight to see our favorite Disney animals in Disney Lorcana, the trading card game from Ravensburger. The next set of Disney Lorcana, Ursula’s Return, will have animal companions too, obviously. Today we can reveal five of the animal companion cards from Ursula’s Return. All of these buddies are making their first appearance in Lorcana, too!

Click To View Gallery

We have an Emerald Cri-Kee (Mulan), an Emerald Jaq (Cinderella), a Ruby Khan (Mulan), a Steel Rajah (Aladdin), and an Amethyst Tick-Tock (Peter Pan). We know Tick-Tock isn’t an animal companion in the traditional sense, but we still wanted to show him off. After all, he’s only a crocodile doing what crocodiles do. Even if he does eat people, Tick-Tock has his charms.

Of these cards, Cri-Kee jumps out. With a value of three lore, Cri-Kee will be excellent at questing. Plus, when you play this little one, all of your other characters get an additional three strength—not just one, all of them. Played at the right time, Cri-Kee could help your characters throw down in some challenges. We also appreciate Jaq simply for this line on his card: “Teamwork makes the cheese work.”

These animals join a ton of new faces from movies like Encanto and Fantasia, along with new Floodborn heroes. Rise of the Floodborn saw Ursula freed from the Illuminary and now she’s ready to take over Lorcana. Ursula’s Return sounds a lot like it’s going to be Ursula’s revenge. We’re eager to know more about how gameplay will evolve with this fourth release of Lorcana. We won’t have to wait for too long. Ursula’s Return will release at local game stores, Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Paris, and select Disney Store retail locations on May 17, 2024. It will then be available from mass market retailers on May 31, 2024.

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Jim Henson was a visionary artist, someone who brightened the world with his creations and stories. His creative mind breathed life into Sesame Street, The Muppets, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal. Henson shaped many a childhood with his joyful spirit. A new Disney+ documentary from director Ron Howard will look back at Henson’s career and home life. The trailer for Jim Henson Idea Man promises an intimate glimpse into Henson’s history, and it’s making us feel all the feelings—especially with its blatant use of “Rainbow Connection” to compromise our hearts (in the best way).

Since the trailer puts us on the verge of tears, we know we’ll need tissues when we watch the documentary. The documentary trailer promises conversations with Henson’s family and long-time collaborators such as the inimitable Frank Oz and even Labyrinth‘s Jennifer Connelly. Howard made Jim Henson Idea Man with the full participation and cooperation of the Henson family. That means the footage will include never-before-seen personal archival home movies, photographs, sketches, and Henson’s personal diaries. Now if Disney can only release a book to go with the documentary!

It seems like this documentary is going to be an in-depth and inspiring look at an iconic person who was taken from the world too soon. Henson passed in 1990 at only 53 years old. We’re sure Jim Henson Idea Man will only encourage others to pursue their passions and add more positivity and joy to the world. Goodness knows the world could use it.

The original documentary from Disney Branded Television is produced by Imagine Documentaries. Howard also serves as a producer alongside Brian Grazer, Sara Bernstein, Margaret Bodde, Justin Wilkes, Mark Monroe, and Christopher St. John. Paul Crowder, Meredith Kaulfers, and Michael Rosenberg serve as executive producers.

Jim Henson Idea Man premieres on May 31 on Disney+.

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Who doesn’t want to live like a Hobbit? Moving into a Hobbit hole in the Shire’s rolling hills and tending a garden and brewing ale sounds like a dream. Like Bilbo Baggins says, “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.” Maybe you aren’t able to run away to Hobbiton in real life, but a new video game will let you imagine a more straightforward existence as a Hobbit. Tales of the Shire from Private Division and Wētā Workshop is a Hobbit life sim that allows to you farm, fish, decorate your home, and explore the place you live. It looks enchanting.

This is exactly how I want to experience the world of Middle-earth. The Lord of the Rings is full of danger and battles, but I want to sit by a warm hearth and read a book. Traveling to the Hobbiton set is a long-held dream of mine. Tales of the Shire will give me a taste of what that might be like. The game is the latest in a long line of life sims that offer escape—games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Disney Dreamlight Valley. Even Dungeons & Dragons is working on a game that’s part life sim.

Your goal as a Hobbit is to bring the community of Bywater together. Tales of the Shire‘s description states:

Create and personalise a Hobbit with an array of customisations to experience the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved Middle-earth universe your own way. Settle in and decorate a cosy Hobbit home, choosing from an array of furniture and home décor to create your unique, humble abode. Then head outdoors to Bywater for plenty of cooking, fishing, foraging, gardening, and more relaxing activities in the Shire. Toss your lure to catch trout from the glistening waters of Bywater Pool, gather wild mushrooms, and then use the collected ingredients to bake a succulent pie to serve for luncheon. With a full belly, stroll back outside to explore the Shire and build relationships with the Bywater locals by helping them to build a garden, sharing one of the many daily Hobbit meals, and more.

Tales of the Shire will debut in 2024 on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

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Prime Video’s adaptation of Fallout only premiered one week ago. That’s hard for us to believe. Maybe that’s because time has no meaning when all you’ve been doing is thinking about Fallout. The TV series has added to the game’s canon by answering big questions, exploring the origins of Vault Boy, and so much more. And this journey through the Wasteland will only continue because Amazon has officially renewed Fallout for season two.

The news of Fallout season two comes after we learned in early April that the post-apocalyptic series would relocate filming to California for its second season due to a $25 million tax credit. But now, it’s official. That’s good because we have many questions after the ending of season one. Many.

Amazon reports the series lands among Prime Video’s top three most-watched titles ever and the most-watched season globally since The Rings of Power. Based on all the chatter we’ve seen about Fallout, we’re not surprised. Executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy said in a statement: “Praise be to our insanely brilliant showrunners, Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] and Graham [Wagner], to our kick-ass cast, to Todd and James and all the legends at Bethesda, and to Jen, Vernon and the amazing team at Amazon for their incredible support of this show. We can’t wait to blow up the world all over again.”

The story based on the video game from Bethesda took many paths through the Wasteland. It also showed the past and the choices that led to the bombs dropping. We can’t wait to see more of Ella Purnell’s Lucy, Walton Goggins’ the Ghoul, and Aaron Moten’s Maximus.

Here’s hoping Prime Video will air season two of Fallout weekly instead of dropping the whole season at once. We want to make the travels through the Wasteland as long as possible

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We’re only a month away from new Doctor Who. We got to know Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor in “The Church on Ruby Road.” That 2023 Christmas special also introduced Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday, his companion. The duo is set for all kinds of adventures in season one of Doctor Who. Before we even got to those adventures though, we heard rumors in early 2024 stating Millie Gibson had already departed the role ahead of the second season and that the Doctor would get a new companion. And on Friday afternoon, we got confirmation from Bad Wolf and BBC that Andor‘s Varada Sethu would be joining the series as the Doctor’s new companion in season two.

The news states Sethu’s joining the show “alongside current companion Ruby Sunday.” So, Gibson is not leaving the show after all. A photo from a season two table read shows Sethu with Gatwa and Gibson. We love that the Doctor will have two companions by his side throughout season two, and we can’t wait to see them all in action.

In a statement, Sethu said, “I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is such an honour to be a part of the Whoniverse, and I’m so grateful to the whole Doctor Who family – because that is what they are – for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel so at home. I couldn’t ask for a better team than Ncuti and Millie to be on this adventure with. This is SO much fun!”

Showrunner Russell T Davies, who has worked with Sethu before, said, “Right now in the studio, shooting for 2025, we’ve got Ncuti, Millie and Varada fighting side by side—we need all three, because the stakes are higher than ever!”

Doctor Who season one will hit Disney+ on May 10, 2024 with its first two episodes. The second season is currently set to come our way in 2025.

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Not long before Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stomped into theaters and brought the beloved Titans to the big screen, we saw them in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The Apple TV+ series from Legendary Entertainment explored a key mystery of the Monsterverse with its first season. That story will continue because Apple TV+ has renewed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for season two. Additionally, the streamer has struck a new multi-series deal with Legendary that includes multiple spinoff series based on the franchise. We’ll take all the Monsterverse they can give us.

While Monarch: Legacy of Monsters did feature Titans, it put the emphasis on the human story. Two siblings, Cate and Kentaro, searched for their missing father and as a result, stumbled upon some Titan-sized family secrets. Their journey led them to the organization known as Monarch, a complex group that keeps an eye on the monsters lurking on our planet. Season one of the show ended with a little bit of a time jump and more questions that need to be answered.

Morgan Wandell, head of international development for Apple TV+ said in a release:

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has left an indelible imprint on the hearts, minds and imaginations of audiences around the world, led by the brilliance of Chris, Matt, Kurt, Wyatt and the incredibly gifted talented cast and creative team. We couldn’t be more excited for viewers to not only have the chance to experience even more thrills in season two, but to embark on epic, new journeys in the franchise, as we expand Legendary’s Monsterverse.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two is executive produced by Chris Black, Matt Fraction, Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell from Safehouse Pictures, Matt Shakman, Andrew Colville, and Jen Roskind. Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita executive produce on behalf of Toho Co., Ltd., the owner of the Godzilla character.

We don’t know a release date or details about the story yet, but we’re already looking forward to more Monarch.

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

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