The first season of Star Trek: Picard has now ended and provided a surprising twist to the synthetic plot line of the ten episodes we've seen so far. Picard, having persuaded Soji to turn off the beacon bringing a deadly form of synthetic life into the universe, collapses as the result of a fatal brain abnormality, and seemingly dies. However, Patrick Stewart's character is then resurrected through a new synthetic body, meaning that we'll be getting more adventures from the captain in season 2 of the series.
The rise of Thanos was one of the best-orchestrated storylines in the MCU to date, culminating in the double-punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. We're now hearing that Marvel are getting closer to introducing Kang the Conqueror as the next super-villain for Phase 4 and beyond of the MCU though, with the goal of providing a threat just as impressive as the Mad Titan. While we already told you that the studio had plans for Kang last year, some new commentary on The Observer suggests that Disney will set up Kang through the next few years' worth of projects.
The coronavirus has already had a devastating effect on the entertainment industry in 2020, causing cancellations, delays, and other shutdowns around the world. And now we're hearing that The CW have decided to delay the season finales of The Flash, Supernatural, and Legacies, the result of not being able to resume ongoing production. Although frustrating, the news makes sense given the uncertainty around when some semblance of normalcy will be possible, and we may still get these finales in 2020.
It appears that Warner Bros. are keen to expand on the success of Joker for more standalone movies and television series set outside the main DCEU and Arrowverse canon, with several of them reportedly set to appear on new streaming platform HBO Max. In fact, according to our sources - the same ones who told us the Guardians will cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder and Aladdin 2 is in development, both of which we now know to be true - WB want to adapt Batman: White Knight. Even better, though, is that one actor that they're eyeing is Matt Damon, who they want to play the Joker and Jack Napier in the limited series, which will apparently be its own thing and completely separate from the DCEU and the Jokerverse.
It's been a while since we've had much information on the future of Titans, with a confirmed third season reportedly to include Barbara Gordon, and a major DC Universe villain as the chief antagonist for the team. According to our sources, the same ones who recently broke stories about Ahsoka Tano and The Mandalorian, as well as news on Space Jam 2, we could be getting an even bigger Titans enemy in the future. More specifically, we're hearing that Darkseid will appear in season 4, after being teased in season 3.
Although production is currently experiencing delays as a result of the coronavirus, The Boys season 2 is still on track for a 2020 release on Amazon Prime. Executive producer Eric Kripke, who recently discussed the new extremes that the second season is going to achieve, and teased new character Stormfront, has now put out some fresh images from the series. The shots, which you can catch below, show returning characters Homelander and Billy Butcher, and while not revealing much, at least demonstrate that progress is being made on the show.
It's been a while since we've had new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and we were expecting the CBS All Access series to resume this year. The premiere of the new season could be delayed, though, as part of the rapidly increasing number of productions hit by the coronavirus. While shooting has wrapped on the next batch of episodes, post-production is slowing down as a result of crew members working from home, meaning that we'll still get more Star Trek: Discovery, just possibly a bit later than we originally hoped.
With Star Trek: Picard nearing the end of its first season, the series has been raising a number of questions about the world that its story takes place in. As well as seemingly retconning the events of previous episodes in the franchise, the show has also been delving into darker areas of the series' universe. However, this week's episode, "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1," created a plot hole around the growing number of synths on the show, and what we've heard about them so far.
One of the consequences of coronavirus has been a lot more people staying at home and streaming Netflix and other platforms. On top of the large numbers of people using web meetings and other video and audio streaming tools, Netflix bingeing is putting a significant strain on the internet's capacity to handle so much traffic. And to prevent further crashes and network overload, they're being asked to slow down streaming to ease the burden on providers.
With so many people now stuck at home, it was only a matter of time before internet traffic was going to peak and cause problems. In Europe, this has been the case with video streaming, whereby the sudden increase in people watching Netflix and other platforms is causing issues with networks across the region. To tackle this, Netflix have now announced they'll be slowing their bit rates in European markets to take some of the pressure off the currently overworked network.
