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Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order outperformed expectations and a sequel may already be coming, but now it seems Cal Kesti could appear in live-action.
It's sounding like there may be some internal conflict going on at Disney. Word is that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige is eager to get more openly LGBTQ characters in the MCU, but those plans are having the brakes put on them by the Mouse House. Sources close to WGTC - the same ones who said that National Treasure 3 was moving forward and that Marvel was planning a She-Hulk show, both of which turned out to be correct - are telling us that Disney are scared that the inclusion of too many LGBTQ characters may mean that Marvel movies will be unable to be screened in the increasingly lucrative Chinese market.
Legendary's Monsterverse has been building up to Godzilla vs. Kong for a long time. The movie will see the two cinematic titans going to toe-to-toe, with Kong's ferocity and agility a decent match for Godzilla's sheer destructive power. However, if things had gone to plan, we would have been gearing up to watch this very soon, as the pic was originally set to release this March but has been delayed until November due to reshoots.
Bong Joon-ho is having one hell of a month. Not only did Parasite win Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film, but it made history by becoming the first-ever foreign language movie to win Best Picture. That victory propelled it straight to the front lines of the culture wars, with the usual suspects immediately taking to social media to publish hot takes about why a non-English foreign pic shouldn't win the top prize in an American film award show.
With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker having now almost left cinemas, the 42-year Skywalker saga is over. It's been a hell of a journey, encompassing four great movies, two mediocre ones and three awful ones (I'll let you decide which go in which categories). To mark the occasion, Lucasfilm and Disney are releasing an extra-special 4K Blu-ray box set containing the full story, a lot of bonus features and a book full of beautiful Ralph McQuarrie (RIP) art. In total, fans will get a whopping 27 discs of material for the princely sum of $250.
Halle Berry's Sofia made quite the impression in John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Though she only appeared in three extended scenes, those may have been the best bits of the film. Berry's Sofia is a veteran assassin and manager at the Moroccan Continental who owes Keanu Reeves' John a favor. The pair bond over their love of dogs as they head out with Sofia's two Belgian Malinois hounds in tow to meet Jerome Flynn's villainous Barracuda. Barracuda then does the one thing you definitely don't want to do in a John Wick movie: he shoots one of the dogs.
Deepfakes are funny, impressive and scary all at once. Since the technology first appeared in 2018, it's quickly become more refined, allowing amateurs to recast popular movies with whatever actors they choose. I've seen Jim Carrey in The Shining, Bruce Lee playing Neo in The Matrix and, most horrifyingly, Sylvester Stallone taking over for Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. But the big one this week has been putting MCU buddies Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. in Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd's shoes in Back to the Future. If you somehow haven't seen it, check it out here.
Doctor Who seems to be going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. After season 11 broke ratings records, figures for season 12 have declined. I didn't think much of the opening two-parter, Spyfall and episode 3, Orphan 55, was pretty terrible. But things have picked up as the season has gone one, with the last episode The Haunting of Villa Diodati serving up a classic, well-executed haunted house story.
Netflix was hoping they'd have their own Game of Thrones with The Witcher, and they may have gotten their wish. Despite a middling critical reception, audiences worldwide quickly went head over heels for the show. Even now, more than two months after its release, The Witcher season one remains the most-streamed series in the world. The show has some real momentum behind it, with Netflix immediately beginning pre-production on a second season and planning out a seven-season story arc. They've also announced the animated show The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, to fill the gap between seasons.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was a real monkey's paw moment for fans of The Clone Wars' Ahsoka Tano. They got their wish that she'd appear in the movie, but it turned out to be a barely audible voice telling Rey to "find the light" amidst a chorus of dead Jedi in the film's finale. Being granted the same importance as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Yoda is pretty neat, but fans were ultimately disappointed that her inclusion meant that Ahsoka had died off-screen. They were even more dismayed when reports surfaced that they may have filmed a scene featuring the character, only to leave it on the cutting room floor.