‘Minecraft’ DLC Update: Power Rangers Arrive in the Sandbox Game
Mojang, the developer of the game “Minecraft,” has recently put up an all-new Power Rangers skin pack that will let players dress characters on their “Minecraft” games as Blue, Pink, Red, Black, and Yellow Power Rangers.
To complete the experience, the Power Rangers downloadable content also comes with skins for some of the most famous villains of the franchise including Rita Repulsa, Bulk and Skull.
The Power Rangers skin pack is available on “Minecraft” Pocket, Console, and Windows 10 platforms for $2.99 and will take up a bit over 10 MB memory space.
One of the people who designed the skin pack, Mike Fielder, recalled how as a child he would go home from school and just be excited about watching “Power Rangers.”
“When I found out we would be working on a Minecraft version of some of the character line-up I was pretty excited and even more so when I found out Bulk and Skull would be included since they were my favourite characters. I had a blast creating Minecraft versions of these characters. I hope everyone who uses these skins has as much fun playing them as I did creating them,” Fielder shared through the official announcement of the DLC.
Though the developers did not mention it on their official blog post, the release of the Power Rangers skin pack on “Minecraft” is obviously not far from the recent premiere of the franchise reboot on the big screen.
The “Power Rangers” 2017 reboot opened in movie theaters across the United States last week. About a week since its release, the movie has reportedly racked up more than $73 million in box office worldwide. The movie’s plot features high schoolers coming to terms with their newly-found superpowers and stars actors Dacre Montgomery as Red Ranger, Naomi Scott as Pink Ranger, RJ Cyler as Blue Ranger, Becky G as Yellow Ranger and Ludi Lin as Black Ranger teaming up to defeat Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks).
‘Minecraft’ DLC Update: Power Rangers Arrive in the Sandbox Game
Minecraft’s Next Big Update Detailed
Minecraft‘s Discovery Update is coming to Windows 10 and Pocket Editions, bringing with it more exploration options and journeys into woodland mansions. Oh, and llamas.
“Barter with a cartographer for a treasure map,” and seek out your fortune, according to the official Minecraft blog. The maps lead you to woodland mansions where you can duke it out with Illagers, “villagers gone bad,” for treasure.
The Discovery Update is similar to the Exploration Update implemented in vanilla Minecraft back in November, which saw the introduction of llamas as tameable mobs used as pack animals. Llamas are part of the Discovery Update and have similar functionality to the Llamas in Minecraft on PC.
A new Adventure Mode is also coming with the update, “for folks who like to make custom games and scenarios.”
The Discovery Update beta is coming to the Android version of Pocket Edition “very soon,” and more information can be found on the official Minecraft blog “in the coming weeks.”
Minecraft consistently appears in the top of the NPD Group’s monthly US sales listings, and its popularity doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down. Minecraft is coming to Nintendo Switch, making it the first Nintendo portable to have a version of the game.
Games that are going to blow everyone away in 2017
There’s no denying 2016 was a fantastic year for video games. Honestly, the gaming industry is spoiling us rotten, and we’re thrilled. Want to get hyped for the amazing games 2017 has in store? So do we.
For some, Resident Evil 4 marks the spot where the franchise fell off the map: parts 5 and 6 were its most unremarkable installments. But with a jaw-dropping debut at E3 2016 during Sony’s press conference, Resident Evil 7 rekindled gamers’ desires to find themselves dangerously low on ammo while desperately fleeing shambling horrors and grotesque mutations. This chapter welcomes a new main character to the series, and in its biggest change yet, the game will play entirely first-person. Capcom even promises full virtual reality support, allowing players to play the game from beginning to end in VR.
Get ready for one bloody valentine. With so many alpha gameplay videos on YouTube, it’s easy to forget that For Honor has yet to be officially released. An online hack and slash game, For Honor pits factions of knights, vikings, and samurai against each other in a fight to the death. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, it looks to bring together the best aspects of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, War of the Vikings, and Samurai Warriors in one medieval fantasy setting. Closed beta starts in January (register here), with the official release slated for February 14, 2017.
Halo is one of the biggest video game franchises in history, and in 2017 it’ll return to its real-time strategy roots. It’s been a long time since the original Halo Wars hit shelves—Halo Wars 2 will drop almost exactly seven years after the release of its predecessor—but Total War developer Creative Assembly promises to make it worth the wait, putting the series in the capable hands of RTS masters.
Originality can sometimes feel like it comes at a premium in the game industry. That’s why it’s refreshing to see a game with as bonkers a premise as Horizon Zero Dawn: 1,000 years in the future, mankind has been reduced to a series of caveman-like tribal groups as the world has reverted back to a pre-historic landscape of lush greenery and dangerous wild animals…that are robots. Yep, a world where every animal is a robot. Unraveling that mystery should be as fun to as Horizon Zero Dawn’s gameplay looked in its E3 demo during Sony’s 2016 press conference. Guerrilla Games’ track record with the Killzone series proves they can create engaging gameplay, and they’re not slouching with the story, either, as they’ve brought on the writer of Fallout: New Vegas to pen the script.
It’s hard to blame Nintendo for keeping the Zelda franchise relatively unchanged for so long. If it works, don’t try to fix it; just add and modify and twist into new shapes to deliver new yet familiar experiences. It’s a different story for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which promises a more open and fully exportable world than any Zelda game before it and will be available on both WiiU and Switch. This latest entry shares more in common with Skyrim and Far Cry than traditional entries in the series. Dungeons can be explored in any order; the final boss fight could be fought, and won, at the start of the game, assuming players are crazy (and skilled) enough to pull it off. It’s a Zelda unlike any other: it hands you a controller and truly puts you in control.
The first game presented at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, 1 2 Switch is the spiritual successor to the underrated motion-controlled masterpiece WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Nintendo Wii. In a revolutionary twist on the concept of a video game, 1 2 Switch turns the screen into an accessory; players focus on each other’s eyes and faces. It’s a party game about reflexes, psyching your opponent out, and striking silly poses along the way. We can’t wait to try it. A Nintendo Switch launch title, 1 2 Switch hits shelves March 3, 2017.
The Ghost Recon series is taking a cue from Metal Gear Solid 5 and Grand Theft Auto 5 by removing the idea of levels and setting the upcoming Ghost Recon Wildlands in an enormous open world rife with Bolivian drug cartel baddies who are eagerly anticipating being shot in the back of the head as they stand around guarding an abandoned warehouse. Wildlands features a robust single-player campaign that will have gamers exploring every square inch of terrain for dozens of hours. But the online multiplayer co-op is where the game promises to shine, as you and some buddies can go on raids and chase down escaping drug traffickers from the comfort of your own underwear.
Commander Shepard isn’t the only thing the Mass Effect series is leaving behind. It’s abandoning the Milky Way galaxy and setting up shop on the Citadel in our celestial neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. All new planets. All new terrain. All new alien races. Actually, by definition, you will be playing the invading alien race of the series. Set centuries after the events of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the new series has you controlling a new protagonist, named Ryder, whose mission is to discover a new planet for the human race to call home.
Obsidian Entertainment’s South Park: The Stick of Truth surprised us in 2014. A mechanically sound RPG with a long campaign, enjoyable combat, hilarious writing, and fan service galore, Stick of Truth renewed gamers’ trust in the franchise. (If you played the mediocre South Park games for N64 and Playstation, you know all too well why they might have been skeptical.) A D&D parody, The Stick of Truth contained four classes (Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew), while the superhero-themed The Fractured But Whole features twelve (Brutalist, Blaster, Speedster, Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Mystic, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Commander, Netherborn, and Karate Kid). By all accounts, The Fractured But Whole is going to be bigger and better than its predecessor.
Rabid fans of the Persona series—is there are any other kind?—have waited eight excruciating years for the next official installment. The last to see release, Persona 4, came out in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. But 2017 will change all that with another turn-based RPG adventure for the PlayStation 4. In the new installment you’ll spend a year in the shoes of the new kid at Shujin High School as he and his fellow students use their “persona” powers, or manifestations of their psyche, to battle a shadowy group known only as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
Designers who worked on Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country have formed Playtonic Games to develop the upcoming Yooka-Laylee. Funded in 2015 by 80,000 Kickstarter backers, the game aspires to be a “collect-em-up for the modern era.” Note the hyphenated title. That’s no accident. It’s meant to make us nostalgic for the N64’s golden era—and it’s working. April 11 can’t arrive soon enough.
NetherRealm, the makers of Mortal Kombat, shocked the world with Injustice. Finally, we could live out childhood dreams of pitting Superman and Batman against one another in a fight to find out—once and for all—who would win. Or Superman vs. the Flash. Or Doomsday vs. Lex Luthor. Even better, the game was great. Injustice 2 will feature gameplay mechanics similar to the original, like the trait system and the game’s show-stopping super moves, while offering new twists, like a loot-dropping system that allows players to collect gear during fights that offer costume-specific upgrades altering play.
Don’t call Outlast fun; it isn’t fun. It’s stressful, upsetting, haunting, and the best first-person survival horror game this side of Alien: Isolation over the last ten years. Inspired by the Amnesia series, first-time developer Red Barrels’ first game surpassed its forebears in virtually every way, capturing the horror of being trapped among the violently the insane in an asylum. Trading the deranged sanitarium for an upside-down cross-burning, backwoods religious cult, Outlast II should be another not-fun masterpiece of survival horror. It’s already piqued gamers’ interest in unexpected ways: for instance, the original teaser featured a creepy reversed audio clip of a preacher menacingly reading from the Bible.
The Witcher 3 was an astounding game with another great game hidden deep inside, like a Russian nesting doll of video games. This hidden game, a card game called Gwent, was originally made by a couple of designers at CD Projekt Red in their spare time. It impressed the higher-ups and made it into The Witcher 3, where it became something of an obsession among diehard fans, who loved it so much that many made their own standalone versions. Now it’s becoming a standalone title in the style of Hearthstone, but with a twist—this release is a collectable card game with single-player campaigns.
Announced by Kosuke Yabuki at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017, Arms looks like a mix of Wii Sports’ boxing, shooting, and WiiFit. The motion controls make use of the joycons’ gyroscopic technology. Expect to sweat as you dash and jump around, using jabs, hooks, and special attacks to beat your opponent to a pulp. And it’s all set in a bright, crisp art-style reminiscent of both Splatoon for the Wii U and Ready 2 Rumble: Boxing, a classic of the N64 era. Step into the arena in spring 2017.
Fullbright Company turned some heads after they departed Irrational Games and released Gone Home, a little game about 21-year-old girl who comes home from overseas and is greeted by an empty house she must explore to unravel the mystery of her sister’s coming-of-age story. The studio’s follow-up, Tacoma, takes place on a derelict space station 200,000 miles from Earth. As with Gone Home, players must explore the empty vessel to discover what happened to the crew. Players won’t encounter any actual people; instead, the ship has recorded the voices and movements of its crew members and replays them as holograms that the player must follow to unravel the ship’s mystery.
Technically, the latest installment of the Tekken series has already been out since February 2015…but only in Japan, where it had a limited arcade release. In 2017 it’ll finally reach western shores, and it’ll finally be playable on everything that can play video games, except the Wii U. According to its E3 2016 trailer, the seventh chapter of the long-running series will include a new addition to the roaster of classic Tekken characters: Street Fighter’s Akuma. Sadly, it’s rumored that he may be the only Street Fighter character making a cameo.
The segment on Splatoon 2 at the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 was one of our favorite highlights. Nintendo’s clever, family-friendly take on ruthless hardcore shooters, the squid ink-spattered Splatoon was a notable high-point of the Wii U’s short life span. New arenas, game modes, special weapons, and new types of inklings mean the turf war will be even crazier the second time around. The next one promises network play and local multiplayer, as well as multiple control schemes. Join the turf war this summer.
Inspired by old Mickey Mouse cartoons, Cuphead in Don’t Deal with the Devil aspires to be a playable old-timey cartoon with side-scrolling, platforming, retro charm. In development for several years, it’s the brainchild of first-time indie developer Studio MDHR. Rumor has it the designers are putting their finishing touches on the co-op mode. No further delays are anticipated—which is good news for Disney and Rayman Legends fans alike.
The long-awaited third installment in the Shenmue franchise will finally, mercifully be released in 2017. Yi Syzuki’s series, which began way back in the Dreamcast days, was years ahead of its time. Sadly, despite mounds of critical praise, it proved a commercial failure—which is why the gaming community was blown away when Sony announced during its 2015 E3 presser that a Kickstarter fundraiser had been started to gauge interest in a possible Shenmue 3. Within nine hours its $2 million goal had been surpassed; all in all, $6.6 million was raised, making it the most heavily funded game in Kickstarter history.
We know a lot more than we once did about Super Mario Odyssey. The game takes place in strange worlds beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, including one similar to our own. Mario wears a sentient cap with googly eyes on it. He uses the cap to perform special jumps. In combat, he makes like Oddjob from the Bond movies–or Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat–and flings it at his enemies. He also flies around in a tugboat-spaceship because of course he does. The gameplay looks even smoother than Super Mario Galaxy’s. Look for Mario’s familiar face this holiday season.
Suda51 is an oddball, but he makes compelling games. The No More Heroes games were blood-spattered reasons to get a Wii and a Wii U. Killer is Dead puts a purple-drenched, psychedelic spin on Seijun Suzuki’s already nonsensical–and just as brilliant–hit man movies. Whatever Suda51 is working on for Nintendo Switch, you can trust it will be both weird and worth a look.
Volition is taking a breaking from the wild and ridiculous Saints Row series to bring us…a Saints Row spinoff! Set sometime after the events of Saint’s Row: Gat out of Hell, Agents of Mayhem is an open world third-person action game that revolves around an anti-terrorist organization known as—you guessed it—Agents of Mayhem, who are trying to stop the evil terrorist organization Legion from destroying the world. Players can swap between one of three characters on the fly in the midst of battle. Perform a stun maneuver to freeze all enemies on the battlefield, and instantly swap in another character that can kill them all with a well-placed grenade. It may not be Saints Row, but for now it’ll do just fine.
Atlus’s Megami Tensei series, and its multiple spin-off series–such as the Persona games about teenagers who fight demons–are a lot of fun. These turn-based JRPGs have amassed a devoted following for being a weirder, headier alternative to the Final Fantasy series. A Shin Megami Tensei is early in development for Nintendo Switch.
Since we’re on the subject of Saints Row, why not mention a game similar in terms of tone and gameplay? By the time Crackdown 3 comes out, it’ll have been six years since its predecessor debuted. What has Ruffian Games been up to all this time? Well, truthfully, no one really knows. Not much has been revealed about Crackdown 3. But what we do know is exciting: it’ll feature an open world sandbox like the previous games in the series, for sure, and judging from the trailer shown off at Microsoft’s 2015 Gamescom presentation, gamers will be transported to a massively destructive city that you can level with your god-like powers.
Tom Hiddleston Explains Why He Was Cut from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
When Avengers: Age of Ultron hit theaters this past May, it marked the release of Marvel’s biggest film yet—in more ways than one. Not only was the scale of Age of Ultron massive, but the ensemble itself was stacked with brief appearances by fan favorite MCU characters, ranging from Idris Elba to Hayley Atwell. The ability to include so many different characters—from various worlds and time periods—was made possible by a series of dream sequences thanks to one Scarlet Witch. It added a wonderfully strange flavor to the Age of Ultron proceedings, and gave Joss Whedon the opportunity to have some fun with the headspace of his various Avengers.
But quite possibly the most popular MCU character of all was also supposed to be included, only to have his cameo nixed in post-production. We learned earlier this year that the Thor dream sequence initially had Tom Hiddleston’s Loki in the mix, but his character doesn’t appear in the final film. Speaking with Digital Spy recently, Hiddleston explains why:
“I was part of the dream sequence for the character of Thor. I shot for a day and enjoyed it very much, and then I received a phone call from Kevin Feige [who] said that in test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki’s role. They thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing people’s expectations so Joss and Kevin were like, ‘Let’s cut it because it’s confusing people.’… It made sense to me when I saw that film.”
Indeed it does make sense. Loki is really the only genuinely good villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is quite possibly the most popular character aside from Iron Man. So it makes sense that the arrival of such a beloved character would elicit expectations that he was somehow involved in the film’s overarching proceedings. But we’ll get to see Hiddleston’s Loki in all his glory return for Thor: Ragnarok, which recently landed a director in Taika Waititi. The Dark World sequel opens in theaters November 2017.
Tom Hiddleston Explains Why He Was Cut from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
Gotta Catch Em’ All – 12 Of The Strangest Pokémon Conspiracies Unwrapped!
Pokémon Go may have already overtaken Tinder and be creeping up on Twitter, but look up from catching that Dratini for just a second and pay attention! If you think finding a dead body during a stroll is bad, here are 12 Pokémon conspiracies that might just ruin your childhood – from mass genocide to possessed PokéBalls, the Pokémon fans sure have a warped mind when it comes to the cute pocket monsters. Whilst we patiently await Pokémon Sun & Moon, here is a run down of some of the craziest theories to come out of the long grass in the past 20 years…tin foil hats at the ready!
1. War Of The Worlds
Wow, there sure are a lot of children wandering around here, maybe it is because adults playing with anthropomorphic monsters is a bit weird, or maybe it is something all together more sinister! There is a theory that our heroes are left to potter around unsupervised because there simply aren’t enough adults around following a ‘Great War’. In fact, this one is so widely accepted, the theory has theories about the theory! It all comes from what Lt. Surge says to you way back when:
Hey kid! What do you think you’re doing here? You won’t live long in combat!
That’s for sure! I tell you what kid, electric Pokèmon saved me during the war!
Are Surge’s words just a coincidence? Well, let’s look at the facts. In the original games you play Red (you have no father), and your rival is an orphan. Most of the adults you meet are either very old, gym leaders, or have a military background. At this point, you realise there was the Great Kanto War, where the majority of adults were killed off! This would also explain the alarming amount of nurses and hospitals, plus why everyone is constantly battle-ready.
2. Bones
No, this isn’t a case for David Boreanaz, this is the rather grim tale of Cubone and its rather unusual headwear. When a mother Kangaskhan dies, the poor orphan is left to fend for itself. The orphan wears its mothers skull and becomes Cubone – when Cubone evolves into Marowak, the skull fuses with the head. Female (and only female) Marowaks can later evolve into Kangaskhans and the cycle starts again. The morbid theory hypothesises that as Pokémon is a kid’s game, this story was too much to take and so Kangaskhan was separated into its own form. You can go on to back up the theory with the fact that Kangaskhan relates to the word ‘kangaroo’ and Cubone knows the move ‘boomerang’…struth Sheila! There in a nine -minute video here for those who want to go into greater depth!
3. Koff It Up
Team Rocket’s Pokémon choices were never going to be the best of the bunch, but a big purple ballooon…really?!? Both Koffing/Weezing can only be found in the Pokémon Mansion – an abandoned lab from the original games, so what was T.R. up to in there? Reddit tells us that evil Team rocket were trying to recreate a ghost-type Pokémon by cloning their gaseous forms. Whatever they were cooking up in there, it looks like they ballsed it up, ending up with two gaseous fart bags instead of the intended ghost-type. Also, if you look at the skull and cross-bones on the Pokémon’s chests, it would suggest man-made. The symbol is the universal mark for toxic, so unless Koffing/Weezing have some pretty clever birth marks, it looks like someone made them this way!
4. Million Dollar Bill
Think before you heal! Ever wonder how the Poké-Center will heal your Pokémon and let you go on your way without so much as a dime? Sure, we have Obamacare, but what pays to keep the lights running and the Nurse Joys joyful? You may just be a child, so you aren’t going to foot the bill, but someone has to! Enter mommy dearest. As you trot around having the adventure of your life, your mom waits at home as the bills pile up. Now not only a widow, but in over her head with hospital bills!
5. Ground Zero
Whilst Pokémon Go is currently getting itself into hot water for people collecting at the 9/11 memorial, this isn’t first time the games have caused controversy at Ground Zero. If great wars and bankrupting your mother weren’t bad enough, how about a Poké-world where 9/11 still happened, thanks to the twisted theory sets the Black and white games in a post-9/11 aftermath. The theory is so controversial, Cracked did an article including it in ‘The 9 Most Offensive 9/11 References in Pop Culture’. Director Junichi Masuda even revealed that the Unova was based on New York City, but was the mistake intentional? You can clearly see Unova’s pond match up to Central Park, but what about that desolate wasteland in the middle…is this Ground Zero?
6. Mew Gotta Be Kidding Me?
What would you rather be, a wobbly blob of jelly, or the rarest Pokémon of them all? Sure, Ditto can mimic the other 721 Pokémon, but by all accounts this little sludge monster is a failed clone of Mew. Mew contains the DNA of all other Pokémon and can reproduce asexually…you know who else can do that?!? Ditto! If you still aren’t convinced, both share nearly identical colour palettes, have a common weight of 8.8.lbs and are the only two Pokémon who can learn the transform move naturally. The difference is that Mew in incredibly rare, whilst Ditto is in abundance on Cinnabar island, could the experiments have escaped the lab? Ditto isn’t exactly a positive case for cloning – it is Dolly the Sheep all over again.
7. Clefable The Friendly Ghost
The ghost Pokémon have always provided us with more questions than answers, like are they just other Pokémon in dead form? There are some pretty great theories, like that Voltorb is simply a possessed Poké-ball after a Haunter became trapped inside, however, our favourite ghost theory is Clefable and Gengar. Ever noticed how Gengar and Clefable look oddly similar? Well Creepypasta has cracked the mystery – your angry Gengar is just a Clefable shadow! Known as the shadow Pokémon has lead people to ask, “Just what is Gengar the shadow of?” Not quite as simple as Peter Pan and his shadow, but Gengar bears more than a slight resemblance to the giant Kirby wannabe. To put the icing on the cake, before the release of Pokémon X and Y, both Gengar and Clefable were unable to hit each other with STAB attack…have you ever tried to stab your shadow?
8. The Missingno-Link
An abbreviation of ‘missing number’, Missingno was the more than helpful glitch in the original games. Aside from the joy of getting one over on the game and giving you unlimited Master Balls or Rare Candy, Nintendo actually acknowledged the existence of the mystery Pokémon. It is believed that Missingno was an underdeveloped Pokémon that creators tried to remove from the game, but ultimately got stuck in the code. A more disturbing theory is that a Missingo is what happens to a Pokémon when it spends an extended amount of time trapped in its Pokéball, which would also explain why Pikachu is so reluctant to go inside.
9. Fly Me To The Moon
Of all the places to visit in the Pokémon world, Mt. Moon is one of the strangest, but also most rewarding locations in the Kanto region. Who can pass up on finding a Helix Fossil, or grabbing a Moon Stone, but where did it all come from? Some people hold that Mt. Moon was once an active volcano, hence all the Pompeii style fossils. However, I always prefer the theory that Clefairies came from space and populated the mountain. The Clefairies landed in their spaceship and brought their precious Moon Stones with them to feel more like home.
10. You Rock My World
So, in Reddit’s warped world, gym leader/travelling companion Brock is in fact Pokémon’s very own Medusa – cursed with the mystic eyes of a Gorgon. If you have ever wondered why Brock’s eyes always appear closed, it is because he has the ability to turn you to stone. The wacky doesn’t stop there – ‘Medusa Brock’ also explains why he is the owner of the rock gym and would imply that Onix was never actually a rock-type.
The theory does tend to lose traction though, as on several occasions you see Brock open his eyes. Just like above, Officer Jenny manages to escape rock free. Another joker says that maybe Brock’s eyes always look closed because he is constantly being maced for his advances on women!
11. R.I.P Raticate
Finally, these last two take the conspiracies to an all together darker area of the Poké-world (you have been warned). Back to the original games and oh, this guy again! Blue/Gary Oak was a pain in the backside of the Pokémon games, always popping up with a Bulbasaur to whip your Squirtle just when you least expected it. With some cunning tactics and a well stocked Poké-army, Blue wasn’t that hard to defeat. Blue’s Ratatta is at the forefront of his battle team all the way up until your fight on the S.S. Anne, where it becomes a Lv.16, newly evolved, Raticate – think of the pride on your rival’s face with his sparkly new Raticate.
You (obviously) kick his ass and carry on with your luxury cruise. The next time Blue pops up, where is Raticate? When you meet after the S.S. Anne it is in Lavender Town, the last resting place for dead Pokémon – in the madness of the cruise and overcrowding, Blue/Gary couldn’t get Raticate to a Pokémon Center in time and he passed away. Why the S.S. Anne wouldn’t have somewhere to heal on board is beyond me, but if it didn’t, and Raticate really did die, are you the game’s ultimate douchebag?!? Redditor WideEyedEspurr has since gone on to debunk the popular theory, mainly pointing out a kids game is unlikely to paint the main hero as a rat-squashing killer!
12. Grey’s Ashatomy
The first rule of storytelling is that it is never just a dream. Finally, for the biggest mindf**k of all theories and one that is pulled straight from the pages of some St. Elsewhere storyline – the whole series is taking place in Ash’s coma. After Ash is attacked by a group of Spearows, then struck by lightning during Ep. 1, he is rushed to the nearest hospital, but never wakes up. All those he meets on his travels represent a part of his life. Brock is his repressed sexuality, Pikachu his humanity and Team Rocket the parts of himself that he doesn’t like. Like the constants from LOST, Jenny and Joy were two women he knew before his accident, helping him remain grounded as he travels further into his own coma psyche.
Mewtwo, everyone’s favourite psychic cat, is an electronic impulse that the doctors apply to Ash’s brain to help bring him from the coma – this is how Mewtwo is able to ‘talk’. Coma theory also nicely explains why all the Jenny and Joy’s are all the same, as well as why Ash never ages, or accomplishes becoming a Pokémon master. Probably the most easily debunked of all the theories, but the one which ties up the lose ends that the other theories leave as question marks Maybe all of Pokémon takes place inside a young boy’s snow globe?
Aside from the may ghosts and goblins, the world of Pokémon can be a pretty scary place – it appears you can’t go for a cycle without ending up locked in a coma, or fighting a great war. Why can’t everyone just go back to swapping shiny Charizards and trying to train an unruly Pikachu. Ok, article over, back to discovering Dugtrios in the maternity ward and Sandshrews down your pants in Pokémon Go.
Gotta Catch Em’ All – 12 Of The Strangest Pokémon Conspiracies Unwrapped!
Where are the kids from Jurassic Park now?
Steven Spielberg changed the game 22 years ago when he released the dinosaur epic Jurassic Park, which remains one of the most successful and popular movies Hollywood has ever seen. Among those featured in the movie were kid actors Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards, who played the forever-traumatized grandchildren of Richard Attenborough. In the two decades since becoming famous for running from velociraptors, where are they now? We dug up some pretty interesting facts to catch you up to (carbon) date.
Now, here’s something that’ll make you feel super-old: Richards, now 36 (!) tied the knot with her hubby, Mark Bolton, in 2013, and is currently expecting her first child, due in November 2015. “My husband and I are thrilled,” Richards told PEOPLE in June. “This is really a wonderful moment for us. It’s super exciting.”
According to PEOPLE, over the years Richards shifted from acting to painting, which is now her main professional focus. “I love to work with people in the art and express their story on canvas and my impression of them and what they want to express and use oils, brushes, canvas to create something that will last the generation,” she revealed. Now reportedly in South America for her art tour, Richards says she’s living a “much quieter” but “still very rich” life compared to her days in the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. “My life story these days, I still experience the red carpet as an artist,” she said. “But on a day-to-day basis I live kind of a country life.”
According to a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Richards sent Spielberg a watercolor self portrait of herself that was inspired by one of the scenes in Jurassic Park, which now hangs in Spielberg’s office. For his part, Spielberg is a pretty good gift-giver, too. “He never fails to send me something around Christmas,” Richards said. “When he finds people he likes, he’s really good at keeping in touch.” And here we thought we couldn’t love Spielberg more than we do already.
Richards’ movie career pretty much began and ended with the Jurassic Park franchise. She last appeared in a movie in the 1997 sequel, The Lost World. Subsequent acting gigs were on an incredibly smaller scale; TV movies like Broken Silence: A Moment of Truth Movie (1998) and Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001) are among the titles. No, we’ve never heard of them either.
Also in her interview with The Wall Street Journal, Richards—who graduated from Skidmore college in 2011—admitted she hasn’t altogether ruled out a return to acting. “Sometimes I’m on the the pulse of what’s happening in Hollywood,” she said, “but other times, I’m just totally absorbed by what I’m creating on the easel.” Adding to PEOPLE, she said: “If some great role or project finds me, absolutely that could be a nice thing to do, for sure.” Here’s hoping she paid attention to Jurassic World’s record-breaking box office returns…
Minecraft’s Discovery Update On The Way, Here’s What It Adds
Mojang has announced the next update for Minecraft‘s Windows 10 and mobile versions. Update 1.1, which is also known as The Discovery Update, is focused around things to uncover.
“There are many mysterious and wondrous things to uncover,” Mojang said in a blog post. “Barter with a cartographer for a treasure map, sling your supplies into a llama’s pack (or into a shulker box) and embark on an epic quest to locate the dank and dangerous forest mansion.”
The Discovery Update also introduces new Enchantments, including Frostwalking (lets you walk on water) and Mending (keeps your sword sharp). Mojang also confirmed that if you defeat the monsters within the mansion mentioned above, you’ll receive the “Totem of Undying” that keeps you alive when you should otherwise have perished.
Additionally, the update adds new features such as the ability to dye your bed a new color or build with new glazed terracotta and concrete blocks. The update also lets you change the movement properties of mobs, if that’s what you want to do.
Finally, Mojang teased that this is “just the start” for new features in The Discovery Update. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Discovery Update will be available on Android for testers “in the near future.” It’s also coming to iOS and Windows 10, though there is no word yet on consoles.
At the end of February, Microsoft, which owns Mojang and Minecraft, announced that the game had sold 121 million copies, with 55 million people playing everything month.
Minecraft’s Discovery Update On The Way, Here’s What It Adds
Power Rangers come to Console, Pocket and Windows 10!
Assemble these superpowered skins today!
Mighty Morphing Power Rangers? How about… Miney Morphing Power Rangers? Hmmm, maybe not.
What’s got us so excited we’re throwing out puns this awful so early in the week? A new skin pack in Minecraft of course! The Power Rangers pack launches today on Console, Pocket and Windows 10 Edition. Go go, MINEY Morphing Power Rangers! (Hey, it’s catching on!)
You won’t just find the brightly-coloured buddies in the pack either. Every good superhero team needs an equally bad rogues gallery of cackling villains, so you’ll find skins for wrong un’s like Rita Repulsa, Bulk and Skull terrorizing the pack too. Initiate Megazord sequence!
“As a teen I remember getting out of school, grabbing a snack and settling into the cartoon line-up,” explains Mike Fielder, one of the artists who worked on the skin pack. “Part of that routine was watching Power Rangers. When I found out we would be working on a Minecraft version of some of the character line-up I was pretty excited and even more so when I found out Bulk and Skull would be included since they were my favourite characters. I had a blast creating Minecraft versions of these characters. I hope everyone who uses these skins has as much fun playing them as I did creating them.”
So next time your parents hassle you for watching too much TV after school, kindly remind them that Mike now gets to make skins in Minecraft for a living. Or respect your elders and just try some of these Power Rangers skins for free right now!
Glide Mini Game on Consoles Tomorrow
Woosh! Test your elytra skills in tomorrow’s free update
We’ve got a pretty swish update soaring onto consoles tomorrow, bringing with it a free, all new Mini Game. It’s called Glide and it’s designed to test your aeronautical skills to the very limit. Strap on a pair of elytra and hone your swooping skills on an exhilarating aerial track – the first in a series of free tracks to be released.
Beat the clock in the Time Attack mode, using thermal drafts and speed boosters to your advantage, or go for points in Score Attack by hitting all the hoops. Careful study may reveal sneaky shortcuts to refine your runs, so keep your eyes peeled! You can choose to beat your personal best in solo play, pit your wing-skills against other players online, or – on Xbox One and PS4 – take a swing at the all new Glide leaderboards. This update also boosts the number of PS4 and Xbox One players possible in both Glide and Battle up to 16, and all platforms get a more spacious lobby, too!
You can watch us livestream the game mode TODAY at 4pm BST (8am PDT). Check out our channels on Beam or Twitch.
I had a chat with 4J’s art director David Keningale and level lead Michael Hansen about the mode and launch track. How did it all come about?
“Putting the Elytra in for the Console Edition Christmas update was the big driving force,” says David. “The cogs were already turning while we were building the elytra tutorial level. That said, we assumed it would be a ring-based flight course, like PilotWings. It was only as we were building the tracks that we realised just how much fun Time Trial was – and that inspired us to add more shortcuts in order to make it even more fun.”
While the team explored a few different ideas for the launch track (some of which survive as forthcoming challenges) it was the track inspired by their Battle map, Cavern, which got the best reception in testing.
“We put Battle’s Cavern map into the track – it took less than three seconds to fly through! We quickly realised that Glide’s maps would have to be huge.”
“We wanted to create a track which was almost like a journey to finding the Cavern Battle map,” explains Michael. “The whole theme of the map is based on the architecture of that Battle map, so they linked together really nicely.”
“We actually thought, hey, this will save us some work!” says David. “But then we put Battle’s Cavern map into the track as a test. It took less than three seconds to fly through! We quickly realised that Glide’s maps would have to be huge.”
And so they are! The launch track is a giant descending spiral, that moves from open areas, to tight bore-holes, before opening up again, the path regularly split by columns and other highly face-plant-able hazards.
“You start off in the Overworld, in a great canyon,” says David. “From there we wanted to introduce familiar terrain with little elements from Cavern, just to sort of hint as to the region you’re in, and as you descend the architecture gets more elaborate and less ruined. It’s almost like an archaeologist’s journey. We started off the build by digging tunnels, and trying to get interesting flight paths, and then we looked at where we could open up the map more. There’s a large atrium with some really tall architecture that works really well from that aspect, creating a crossroads between lots of a little shortcuts and different routes.”
“The thermals give you that roller-coaster feeling. You’re flying down, and it’s getting frantic and tight and then all of a sudden you get this lift up.”
The use of thermals to give the player lift allows for an interesting variety in the terrain, rather than a continual angular plunge.
“The thermals basically give you that roller-coaster feeling, you know?” says David. “You’re flying down, and it’s getting frantic and tight and then all of a sudden you get this lift up and then you sort of pause and then you dive down again. It gives you both adrenaline boosts and little breaks in the downward trajectory, giving you a chance to look around a little and see what’s going on.”
You’ll need to keep an eye out for those shortcuts – some aren’t obvious at all, and may take a fair bit of practice to master.
“We put the map into test with the Microsoft Test Team,” recalls David, “and though the test team loved it straight away, we had some of the senior members at Microsoft complain that some of the shortcuts were actually impossible. So we sent over a video of how to do those shortcuts – that’s when the competition really ensued. We ended up leapfrogging each other with our best times!”
In the Score Attack mode, you get to choose between different routes marked by rings – the level of difficulty and point value indicated by their colour and decreasing size: green for easy, yellow for middling, blue for hard.
“These routes all overlap, so you can get scores by switching between routes,” says David. “But, if you want the challenge, you can also just go for the yellow or blue rings. They’re much harder to get. You’ve got to be much more skilled in order to get them all.”
Glide has pretty much taken over the Mojang office – if you’re anything like us, you’ll be quickly fixated on taking down your friends scores, eking out every precious second from the course. Look out for more tracks in the near future – some free, some as part of a Season Pass. You can get a glimpse of these at the end of the trailer.
“The first DLC pack going out will be themed around beasts,” says David. “We have a kraken-themed level which takes inspiration from Battle’s Cove map. You burst out into a huge open area with two battling ships and a giant, giant kraken that you fly right up and over. It’s a really great experience. Then we have an exciting glacial track that uses the Ice Spikes biome as inspiration. We have lots of yetis running through the map and giant fossils for you to avoid and to fly through. And the final one uses the Chinese Mythology pack – you’ll be flying alongside dragons and around the fantastic, epic terrain of China!”
Keep your eyes on the skies for free maps, too – like the forthcoming Temple-inspired track, which sweeps through jungle canyons, mines and archaeological dig-sites!
We hope you enjoy the new mode! Just don’t beat my score.
Girl In the Spider’s Web Director Explains Reason For Recasting
Yesterday, fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy were treated to some news — not only is a fifth book being written for the series, but the Hollywood adaptation of the book series is finally getting a continuation. The new book is untitled, and will be written by David Lagercrantz, the same man who penned the fourth book, The Girl In The Spider’s Web, after Larsson’s passing. The new movie, meanwhile, will be a sequel and reboot, based on the most recent novel, and passing over the events of the second and third books in the series. The film will be directed by Fede Álvarez, and is going to begin production this fall for an October 2018 release date.
As a reboot, rather than a direct sequel, there will be changes to the franchise, including a new cast — which the director has now confirmed, along with an explanation for his decision to re-cast. Álvarez tweeted about his reasons in response to a question from a fan, who tweeted “Awesome news! But I’m a little disappointed that Mara & Craig won’t be returning, what’s your reason?”. Álvarez’s response was simple:
The first adaptation of the series (in English), was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, in 2009. It starred Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist — the two key players in the series. An earlier Swedish adaptation of the trilogy saw Lisbeth played by Noomi Rapace and Blomkvist played by Michael Nyqvist. While Mara and Craig would still be potentially available to reprise their starring roles in a new movie, the confirmation of a re-cast puts the emphasis on rebooting the franchise, rather than creating a more direct sequel.
Fans have already started to speculate about who might pick up the titular role for the upcoming thriller, with both Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman rumored to be in the running. There is no news yet about who might be picking up the mantle of Blomkvist, although there is bound to be plenty of speculation on that front as well, at least until Sony makes some official casting announcements.
It’s exciting to see the Millenium series return to the big screen, especially as many wondered if it would ever happen. If the upcoming film makes its planned release date, there will have been almost 10 years between the first movie and its sequel — a huge gap, but one that the popularity of the series will no doubt overcome. It makes a lot of sense to make the sequel a reboot, as well, rather than attempting to pick up where the first left off, as this will give Álvarez a chance to put his own stamp on the series.
However, some will remain disappointed that the cast who made the original film so great will not be returning, especially as both Mara and Craig have expressed their willingness to return for a sequel in the past. Readers are also less than thrilled to hear that the film will skip two entire books to focus on the fourth installment, and it’s worth questioning how difficult it will be to include the salient plot details from those novels in addition to the plot of the fourth. For now, however, we’ll just be keeping an eye out for news of the new cast for The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
Girl In the Spider’s Web Director Explains Reason For Recasting
James Gunn: Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is a ‘Self-Enclosed Story’
At this stage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is somewhat difficult to look at any of their films as single movies. In almost every instance, these films do tell their own individual stories, but also spend a great deal of time setting up what is to come. This has worked well in the past, with Captain America: Civil War for example having a great standalone story while also setting the stage for Phase 3. However, it has also seen movies like Iron Man 2 or Avengers: Age of Ultron spend a great deal of timing just setting up what else is coming.
Guardians of the Galaxy is the best example so far of a movie that exists largely on its own, but even then, an appearance by Thanos and the presence of Infinity Stones bridges the cosmic adventure to the core MCU storyline. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will have neither Thanos nor the Infinity Stones, it was still thought that it would set up what else is to come, like the team’s next appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, in some regard. But, director James Gunn says that will be far from the case.
Gunn spoke to The Daily Beast about a variety of topics, but was specifically asked about how connected the sequel would be to the MCU at large. In a somewhat surprising response, he states that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does not service the larger universe in any way, but also that he’s never been asked to do so:
There is not a single thing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which was ever dictated by the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are things that I did in the movie that they’re going to have to deal with, now, in Infinity War. But it was pretty much understood that the Guardians are my guys, so they’d have to deal with whatever came from that. So there was nothing. It’s a 100 percent self-enclosed story about the Guardians of the Galaxy, very much like Dr. Strange was.
Never has [Feige] told me that anything has to be in my film. I mean, I know what their plans are. But there’s just nothing I do to service that within Vol. 2’s story; all that’s important is Vol. 2. Everything about Vol. 2 is what’s important. He’s never told me anything hasn’t fit in on the second movie. On the first movie, there were some more technical weird things that we had to deal with, and I was a bit more bashful about getting my way. But now, it’s not part of the conversation.
It would not have come as a surprise to many if he simply said this is a standalone movie, but Gunn makes it clear that people expecting heavy handed setups to these characters’ futures in Infinity War and beyond will be disappointed. However, this lack of connectivity is not coming at the expense of the MCU. As he says, he knows what Marvel Studios is planning, especially since he will serve as an executive producer on Infinity War and the Untitled Avengers followup, so any worry that he will surprise the creative team in charge is unwarranted.
Surely there will be some that wish some small nods to the larger universe could be included, but that may not have been best for this story. Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive hit because it was self-contained, so Gunn doubling down on this concept for the sequel should not be surprising. Plus, audiences have recently responded extremely positively to superhero adventures like Logan and Deadpool, not just because they are R-rated, but because they are single stories that don’t require a universe to support them.
That all said, while the film itself may not spend time teasing the future for these characters or introducing characters/locations just for them to be used in Infinity War, that does not necessarily mean that the mid- and post-credits scenes could not provide this service. Gunn recently confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will include a post-credits scene, and with Infinity War being just a year away upon this film’s release, while also being the Guardians’ next appearance, a subtle tease of their larger future could be in play and still prove these statements to be true.
James Gunn: Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is a ‘Self-Enclosed Story’
The Batman: Production Won’t Start Until 2018; Casting May Begin This Year
Warner Bros. is currently working on bringing back a solo Batman franchise to the big screen. Ben Affleck has already made his debut as the Dark Knight in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and his performance was one of the standouts from an otherwise divisive film. This brought about much excitement for his solo film, The Batman, but after being bombarded with questions about the state of the film and dealing with a number of personal issues, he decided to walk away from directing duties.
Upon this revelation, it became less and less likely that The Batman could meet a previously “confirmed” 2018 release date. But, some still held out hope it could be possible after Warner Bros officially set Matt Reeves as the director. However, with his work on War for the Planet of the Apes taking precedence right now, The Batman won’t get off the ground until next year at the earliest.
Variety reporter Justin Kroll gave some insight to the production status of the highly anticipated blockbuster on Twitter today. According to what he has heard, Reeves will not be able to turn his attention to the film until after his current blockbuster is finished. Not only will this delay the supposed start of filming, but also withhold any casting announcements until later this year.
Dating back to last year (when Affleck was still attached to direct), plans were in motion for The Batman to begin filming this spring or summer, depending on which cast member was to be believed. This new report does come directly on the heels of Joe Manganiello saying production could still begin this summer. With so much changing recently behind-the-scenes, it is possible that he was not up to date on the latest developments, as Kroll’s report directly contradicts Manganiello’s statements.
This latest report is hardly surprising however. Even if Reeves spent part of his remaining time on War for the Planet of the Apes working on The Batman, he would not be able to give his full attention until after the press tour anyway. If he is in fact contracted to remain solely focused on his current film, then there is no chance any Batman news comes out in the coming months. This is something to keep in mind throughout the summer as there will undoubtedly be rumors about different actors possibly joining the film.
With production potentially starting in 2018, this should give Reeves and crew plenty of time to hit a 2019 release date. WB has also previously announced a June 14, 2019 date for an unannounced DC film. If Batman starts filming at the beginning of 2018, this very well could be the film’s ultimate landing spot – or at the very least a targeted date that could shift by a few weeks down the road. Regardless, it will be some time before a release date or any other concrete news will come out for The Batman, as long as everything runs smoothly from here on out.
The Batman: Production Won’t Start Until 2018; Casting May Begin This Year
Supergirl/Flash Musical Crossover Video Offers New Story Details
It has not escaped notice for many fans of the Arrowverse that a number of the actors cast in the various shows have a history with musicals. Colin Donnell, John Barrowman, Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdes, Victor Garber, Arthur Darvill, Ciara Renee, and Jeremy Jordan have all starred in Broadway musicals. Supergirl and The Flash actors Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin both were on the musical show Glee, and Jeremy Jordan and Jesse L. Martin were also on a musical series, Smash – along with Broadway star Andy Mientus who has appeared on The Flash as The Pied Piper. It seemed like only a matter of time before a musical episode happened – and now the wait is almost over.
On the March 20th episode of Supergirl, ‘Star-Crossed’, the crossover will kick off, and then most of the story will be told in The Flash episode ‘Duet’. It also is technically a bit of a crossover with Legends of Tomorrow, with Victor Garber returning to The Flash to participate. As will John Barrowman, who signed one of several contracts which lets him move between all the Arrowverse shows though he has mostly been seen on Legends of Tomorrow.
DC All Access has now released a video from the set of ‘Duet’ where they talked to several of the participating actors and learned a few things about the musical. Possibly the most telling hint came from Darren Criss, who is playing the episode’s guest villain, the Music Meister. It’s quite the reunion for Criss – also a Broadway alum – who was on Glee with Benoist and Gustin and went to college with Valdes, and he revealed a bit of what his character is up to:
“So the Music Meister has plans for them, he’s kind of stringing all of the main character along. Particularly the couples, to maybe teach them a lesson? That’s what he says.”
Speaking of couples, Candice Patton spoke about how she will be involved, as the daughter of a gangster and not Iris. That fits in well with what was already revealed, the Music Meister traps Barry and Kara in a fantasy world where the people they know are there, but not as themselves. Since Martin is playing a gangster, it sounds like Patton is still his onscreen daughter in this fantasy, even if they are not specifically Joe and Iris West.
Gustin and Benoist also spoke a bit about the duet they are singing in ‘Duet’. While they did not use the song’s name, it has previously been announced that they are singing a song called “Superfriends” which is co-written by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Rachel Bloom. Gustin called it “a fun, comedy song” and mentioned that there was a lot of space within it to improvise.
With the sheer amount of singing and dancing talent in the cast, ‘Duet’ is poised to be an amazing treat for fans of Supergirl and The Flash.
Supergirl continues Monday, March 20 with ‘Star-Crossed’ at 8pm on The CW. The Flash Tuesday, March 14 with ‘Into the Speed Force’ at 8pm on The CW, with ‘Duet’ at the same time on March 21.
Supergirl/Flash Musical Crossover Video Offers New Story Details
Marvel’s Iron Fist Banner Features Avengers Tower
Thanks to Marvel’s unprecedented partnership with Netflix, the superhero studio has been able to mirror their cinematic success with serialized storytelling. Fans and critics held their breath when Daredevil debuted in 2014, and were pleasantly surprised when the show’s bareknuckle adaptation proved to be just what comic readers and TV viewers had been hoping for. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage raised the bar even higher, blending social commentary into the fantastical story to highlight issues like rape and police brutality, respectively. Even Daredevil dealt with issues like gentrification while providing a look at one of the few superheroes with a disability.
With the final Defender just on the horizon, Iron Fist has always seemed like the riskiest bet. Not only are his mystical origins a far-cry from the street-level action we’ve seen so far (give or take a clan of undead ninjas), but the character has long been controversial. While audiences have been repeatedly assured everything will be fine, the initial reviews for Iron Fist have confirmed many people’s worst suspicions. Still, we have hope it can improve. In the meantime, Marvel aren’t slowing down their marketing ahead of the series’ Friday debut.
IGN has a new banner from the show that mirrors similar promo images for Daredevil and Jessica Jones. The heavily-photoshopped art features Danny Rand, along with Colleen Wing and the Meachum family. It also highlights Danny’s neighborhood and teases one of the MCU’s landmarks. Check it out below:
As you can see, the Avengers Tower is quite visible, as it was in the previous banners. Sadly, we’ve never seen the tower in the actual shows. Despite Marvel’s claims that all of their series take place in the same universe, we’ve not had more than a few passing references to the events of the MCU films in the Netflix series. While inserting Avengers Tower into a shot would presumably not be too difficult, Marvel have chosen to forego that Easter egg so far.
As we await the premiere of Iron Fist, we’re learning quite a lot about it. We know, unfortunately, that both Danny’s costume and the dragon Shou-Lao won’t appear in the first season. Given the poor reviews, one has to wonder whether a second season will even happen. There’s always the chance for a Heroes for Hire series, which could further explore Danny’s backstory while allowing him to suit up. On top of that, we’ve also been given a better look at Colleen Wing, who may just prove to be the future of the franchise. There are even more comic characters being teased as set to appear on the show, so if nothing else, this show will be for the fans.
Iron Fist season 1 premieres on March 17th. The Defenders will arrive sometime in the summer, with The Punisher coming later this year. Daredevil seasons 1 and 2, Jessica Jones season 1, and Luke Cage season 1 are now available on Netflix. Premiere dates for the newest seasons of Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Luke Cage have not yet been revealed.
Fantastic Beasts Sequel Begins Filming August 2017
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them proved to be a welcome and successful return to the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling’s creation. To date, the movie has pulled in over $812 million at the box office, and recently became the first movie within the Harry Potter universe to win an Oscar. It’s fair to say the future looks bright for the four remaining movies in the franchise, too, since audiences really warmed to the characters of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), her sister Queenie (Allison Sudol), and No-Maj Jacob (Dan Fogler).
Fantastic Beasts 2 is set to arrive in 2018, and though Newt Scamander will feature, the movie looks set to focus much more heavily on the rise of the dark wizard, Gridelwald (Johnny Depp), and in particular his relationship with a young Dumbledore (yet to be cast). Following on from news that Fantastic Beasts 2 would start filming this summer, and according to My Entertainment World (via Heroic Hollywood) it now looks certain that it will start shooting this August in Paris and the U.K..
New York is not listed as a filming location this time around. Though it was already known that Fantastic Beasts 2 would be set mainly in Europe, since that was where Grindelwald conducted his reign of terror, it wasn’t known if New York and in particular, MACUSA, would feature at all. That means, then, that somehow Jacob, Queenie and Tina find themselves in Europe; not much of a stretch for Tina since we know she goes onto marry Newt, but it’ll be interesting to see how or if Queenie and Jacob end up there (let’s hope so).
It also paves the way for Credence Barebone to have an interesting journey of some kind, since director David Yates has confirmed that when the obscurus was obliterated, bits of it remained, meaning Credence can return. There was also a scene cut from the ending of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which showed Credence leaving New York on a boat. Given his eerie infatuation with Percival Graves, who turned out to be Grindelwald, and the fact that Grindelwald knows Credence is an obscurus, it seems like only a matter of time before the pair meet again.
Elsewhere, Zoe Kravitz has confirmed that she will also have a bigger arc in the subsequent Fantastic Beasts movies, as Leta Lestrange. Teasing her “complex relationship” with Newt Scamander, Kravitz hinted at having a much larger role than just appearing as a moving photograph. It could well be that her relationship with Newt, and in turn, his relationship with Dumbledore, will all tie in together, as Dumbledore tries to stop Grindelwald’s rise to power.
Inhumans Set Photos Tease Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Connection
When Marvel brought Nerd Christmas early in the summer of 2008 by teasing the rise of the Avengers in the tag at the end of Iron Man, even they didn’t fully envision the shared universe they were on the brink of creating. A few years later, The Avengers finally saw a number of their films and heroes join forces for an unprecedented blockbuster that finally proved Marvel and superhero movies were here to stay. Since then, the company has only reached new heights, while virtually every other studio taking steps to build their own shared universe.
Marvel have taken things a step further, spinning off the adventures of Agent Phil Coulson into ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Along with their group of Netflix shows, the TV side of Marvel is said to exist in the same universe as the movies. While it’s merely been alluded to on Netflix, S.H.I.E.L.D. has built entire episodes and seasons around the events of Marvel movies. Given this shared continuity, many have wondered how connected the upcoming Inhumans show will be to S.H.I.E.L.D. when it premieres on IMAX screens later this year. Not only will both show eventually share a network in ABC, but S.H.I.E.L.D. actually introduced the concept of the Inhumans to the Marvel Cinematic Universe some years back.
Since then, charatcers like Daisy “Quake” Johnson from the Marvel comics (played by Chloe Bennet on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) have even been altered to match their Inhuman heritage on TV. While we haven’t heard any official confirmation of the two ABC Marvel TV shows being intimately connected or sharing characters, a new batch of set photos from @CrlRbs (see below) provides us with one direct connection between the two series.
The beginning of production has also given us our first looks at the announced Inhumans cast in action. We’ve already seen Black Bolt and Lockjaw, and yesterday gave us our first look at Crystal in a very comics-accurate costume. We’ve also heard a rumor about Hawaii’s famous Diamond Head volcanic crater being used as a filming location, possibly to house the Inhuman city of Attilan. With filming continuing out in the open, we’re likely to get a lot more looks at the upcoming show in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned.
When are The Flash, Gotham City Sirens, and Man of Steel 2 Arriving?
Among the many DC Extended Universe films that are currently in some stage of development without an official release date is The Flash solo movie, as well as the Suicide Squad spinoff Gotham City Sirens and a direct followup to Zack Snyder’s Superman movie reboot, Man of Steel. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too, as the list of DCEU movies that are actively moving forward without a firm launch date in place (yet) includes director Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the Dwayne Johnson-headlined Black Adam movie, a Birds of Prey film and a Nightwing solo movie from The LEGO Batman Movie‘s director, Chris McKay.
Over the past year, there’s been much in the way of reported activity on a number of those same DCEU movies. The Flash, for example, was seemingly all ready to begin filming at the beginning of this year, before writer/director Rick Famuyiwa stepped down in late 2016. Meanwhile, Gotham City Sirens (by most accounts) continues to make steady progress forward, with not only a director (Suicide Squad helmsman David Ayer) but also a screenwriter (Tomb Raider reboot writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet) and one of its three central stars (Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) in place already. As for Henry Cavill’s Superman: a Man of Steel 2 script is in active development and has been since last fall, but there hasn’t been a major update on the project since.
We may now have some fresh details concerning the release date windows for the three aforementioned DCEU films, thanks to “leaked” information that was posted on a DCEU sub-Reddit (via Screen Geek). According to the post, Gotham City Sirens is targeting a February 2019 theatrical release date, putting it a few months ahead of the current release date for the Shazam movie. Man of Steel 2, meanwhile, is supposedly taking the November 2019 release date previously reserved for Justice League 2, while The Flash is apparently being put on the back-burner for a 2020 release (the same year that Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps movies are scheduled for).
While this information should (obviously) be taken with a healthy helping of salt – given that it comes from Reddit – there is fair reason to believe that it’s accurate. For starters, this comes from the same source that claimed Joe Manganiello is playing Deathstroke in the DCEU, long before the news was made official. Moreover, these release date windows more or less align with other recent progress updates concerning these three DCEU installments.
It’s to be expected that Gotham City Sirens would be fast-tracked ahead of the Suicide Squad sequel’s release, given the popularity of Robbie’s turn as Harley Quinn from Ayer’s (yes, Oscar-winning) first Suicide Squad movie. The early 2019 date would give the film sufficient time to make its way down the pipeline, thus avoiding the blowback that Warner Bros. and DC endured for Suicide Squad‘s rushed development process. Alternatively, with The Flash struggling to hold onto a director and now undergoing rewrites, the movie (once scheduled to arrive in March of 2018) is unlikely to hit theaters until 2019, at the earliest.
As for Man of Steel 2: with many DCEU fans wanting to see a truly Superman-focused followup to Man of Steel (e.g. not the shared universe launchpad that was Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice), WB and DC have good reason to prioritize getting such a project off the ground at last. Snyder is following up Justice League with his passion project The Last Photograph rather than Justice League 2 and Man of Steel 2 reads as being a sensible replacement for the latter. That said: with so many films currently in the pipeline, the larger game plan for the DCEU may be equally fluid right now.
When are The Flash, Gotham City Sirens, and Man of Steel 2 Arriving?
Power Rangers Director Explains Zords’ ‘Practical’ Design
Power Rangers is less than two weeks away and already fans are barely able to contain their excitement. In anticipation of the film, Twitch is currently streaming every episode of the show. Meanwhile, a new TV spot has given us our best look yet at the fully-formed Megazord. We also learned yesterday from director Dean Israelite that the movie will in fact have a post-credits scene, which could very well set up a sequel. While the movie might still flop, all signs are pointing towards the beginning of a new franchise for Lionsgate.
Though there are sure to be a number of classic moments from the franchise that we’ll never see on screen, the new movie will also be fleshing out the mythos of the Rangers in a number of ways. Part of that is down to the design of the film itself. We’ve already seen how different villains like Rita Repulsa and Goldar will look in the film. That more alien and organic design will also be carrying over to everyone from Alpha 5 to the Zords themselves. We’ve had a pretty good look at the updated Zords so far, in everything from TV spots to posters. Now, we’ve got a little more insight into the concepts behind their redesign.
During an interview with Collider, Israelite discussed how the new look for the Zords came about, and how the film will expand their backstory.
“The idea is the Zords are machines that take on the form of the most powerful organisms of the planet they’re on. When these Zords came to Earth, dinosaurs reigned supreme and so they took on the image and the spirit of these dinosaurs – that’s the mythology that we’ve put into the movie. But in the concept that we’ve created they’re meant to be inspired by those animals – not an actual, literal, version of it, and so we decided we wanted to take certain liberties, too.”
Israelite went on to talk about trying to craft a unique aesthetic for the movie, in order to separate it from things like Transformers and Star Wars. In doing so, he and the crew tried to craft an organic look for everything, as opposed to simply designing mechanized monsters. In focusing on the more alien elements of the Zords, some liberties had to be taken with the final look of the dinosaur-inspired robots to make them function in a more pragmatic way.
“The other component of it is almost more of a practical component. We look at these renderings and we create a 3D space and we look at how they should move, and you learn a lot from that. And the mastodon is so big that we realized that with added legs it would just move better in a CG environment, and we’d be able to make it a more nimble machine. So it felt kind of like practical; if you were an alien creating this machine, you would want those added limbs.”
Of course, Israelite isn’t using ‘practical’ in the usual sense when it comes to movies. Unlike Fury Road or The Fast and the Furious franchise, Power Rangers won’t be telling their story using very many practical effects. But though the Zords will be all CGI, Israelite’s comments tease the idea that from an alien design point, the giant robots will move in a way that makes sense. Part of that was redesigning the Zords to look like mechanized creatures that could actually run, jump, and fight.
And while we’ve known for some time that the film’s aesthetic would have a more otherworldly bent, all this talk of alien design and an updated mythology make it seem as though the movie might dive into the history of the Power Rangers in new and exciting ways. Over the years, the various TV shows have expanded the lore of the Rangers, but the new film may mark the most concise and cohesive origin yet for the Rangers and their mighty Zords. Whether that holds true or not, we’ll know in a couple of weeks once Power Rangers lands in theaters.
The X-Men Movies’ Alternate History Lessons
When the first X-Men movie dropped into theaters back in 2000, with a modest budget and few stars, few could have predicted the unbelievable cultural impact that the film would have. Back then a sequel wasn’t a sure thing, but Bryan Singer’s little mutant sci-fi film paved the way for superhero cinema as we know it today. Since then, Fox has released nine more movies in the X-Men universe, culminating in Logan — a tense, heartbreaking finale to the X-Men as we know them, finally bringing the series full circle. Throughout these films, the series has weaved together a complex continuity, with characters that grow old, change, die, and inspire others.
There have certainly been continuity errors throughout the X-Men series. Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the X-Men films weren’t planned out in advance, so mistakes were made along the way. But in the long road from X-Men to Logan, a fascinating, mutant-influenced alternate history has been developed, full of intriguing divergences from our own version of history — along with similarities that call attention to our greatest societal mistakes. The X-Men’s mutant conflicts have always been used as a political allegory for real life issues, and the movies have taken this to the next level, through the use of prequels, back stories, and peeks into the future, with major events tied to specific dates.
But this raises an interesting question: if one lived in the X-Men movie universe, and was sitting in Logan’s history class as a student of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, what sort of lessons would they be learning?
Alternative History Lessons
Since the X-Men movies were not made in chronological order, it requires some work to put the X-Men history book together. And their history, of course, isn’t over: while we now have a definite endpoint in the future of 2029, there’s plenty of still unknown time between then and the 1990s, when the next X-Men sequel will come out. But since Logan tells the story of a day when the X-Men are no more, and thus gives us a conclusion, we can now look over the entire alternate history of this movie universe from the beginning until now.
All of the best alternate history theories pivot around a single change, and how that one change impacts everything. You know, the butterfly effect. What would happen if the Nazis won WWII? How would today’s music scene be different if Kurt Cobain hadn’t committed suicide? The key is to start with one change, drop that single stone into the river, and watch the ripples spread.
In the X-Men universe, that single change to the timeline is easy to pinpoint: the existence of mutants.
Lesson #1: Ancient Egypt & Apocalypse
So, how would history students study Apocalypse?- what would the textbooks say? In the pre-Days of Future Past timeline, he never rose up again, so he would likely be viewed as a mythological god, discussed in the same chapter as Ra, Anubis, and Set.
Really, there’s no way that En Sabah Nur wouldn’t be a major mythological figure that history students would write papers on. After all, the guy singlehandedly constructed the pyramids with his powerful telekinetic abilities. His fearsome appearance would likely be depicted in countless relics, murals, statues, scrolls, and so on. In X-Men: Apocalypse, Moira MacTaggert even proposed the notion that the biblical “Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” were named after his horseman, not the other way around.
But in the X-Men universe, contemporary historians probably don’t think that En Sabah Nur was a mutant. In fact, they probably don’t believe he actually existed in real life. There would be some historians who would propose the “Maybe Apocalypse was a mutant?” theory, but these ones are outliers, most likely mocked by the scholarly community. Even in the post-Days of Future Past timeline, the general public wouldn’t have any reason to associate the big blue mutant overlord with the historical En Sabah Nur.
Lesson #2: Magneto Studies
After Apocalypse, the timeline wasn’t much influenced by mutant activity (at least, not that we know of) until the mid-20th century, when mutants began to emerge more frequently. When WWII came along, it played a key role in shaping the single most controversial mutant of the 20th century -a figure who would certainly be discussed in history classes for decades to come, and who would the singular focus of millions of magazine articles, research papers, and books.
That man, of course, is Erik Lehnsherr.
Lehnsherr’s story began when his family was murdered in the Holocaust, decades before mutant powers become public knowledge. This event scarred Lehnsherr for life, and eventually led to him becoming Magneto, who in the X-Men universe would certainly be seen by authorities and the news media in the same context as Osama Bin Laden. Unlike the universally reviled Bin Laden, however, there would probably also be studies and news analysis pieces debating whether there were merits to Lehnsherr’s argument, and whether perhapshis cause was justified, if not his methods. Some would argue that he was a terrorist, others would say he was a freedom fighter.
If there were a college course devoted to the subject of “Magneto Studies,” it would certainly begin with the Holocaust, at which point the next important point in history would be the Cuban Missile Crisis. In X-Men: First Class, the incident itself was actually manipulated into happening by Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club. But the point where history started really diverging from our timeline was in that single moment where Magneto took control of all of the missiles, turned them around, and got ready to make his first massive strike on human society. Even though this bloodbath was halted, this was the first time in history where mutantkind was truly unveiled to the world’s governments, and Magneto didn’t set the best first impression.
Only one year later, Magneto was implicated in the murder of John F. Kennedy Jr., his metal-controlling powers offering the best explanation ever for the oft-disputed “magic bullet” theory. Based on Charles and Hank’s discussion of Erik’s imprisonment in Days of Future Past, it can be reasonably assumed that Erik Lehnsherr’s supposed guilt in the assassination was common knowledge, even if his mutant powers were not (yet).
Lesson #3: Anti-Mutant Prejudice Begins
Once we get to 1973, when Days of Future Past takes place, the history book gets complicated. Due to time travel interference, the entire course of history was changed. Because the new X-Men movies are taking place on the altered timeline, much of history from 1973 onward is unknown to us. For that reason, when studying a hypothetical X-Men history book, it’s necessary to continue on with the original timeline. Also, for the sake of argument, it’s conceivable that Xavier may want to teach his students about the original timeline, so that they could know what to watch out for.
In any case, 1973 is a pivotal year. In the original timeline, Mystique assassinated Trask and was captured, eventually leading to the development of Sentinels modeled after her powers. Soon after, the world truly learned about mutants, and opinions began to form. The human/mutant conflict erupted.
According to 25 Moments, a cool viral marketing website that Fox released in conjunction with Days of Future Past, by the mid-1970s Professor Charles Xavier was presenting himself before the U.S. House of Representatives, where he pleaded for basic mutant rights. In 1977, Pietro “Peter” Maximoff decided to compete in the Olympics. When Quicksilver broke eight world records, it ignited a massive controversy that resulted in a complete ban from mutants participating in sports.
In the 1980s, the televangelist Bob Bell began an organization called “The Human Majority,” which believed mutants were a curse. The Chernobyl catastrophe caused the spread of new mutant births all over Eastern Europe, included Piotr Rasputin/Colossus. Germany formally adopted anti-mutant policies, and a resulting mutant riot led to more bloodshed; in this universe, the Berlin Wall was never knocked down.
Lesson #4: The New Millennium Begins
Any study in 21st century mutant history would be closely tied in with Magneto Studies. While Charles Xavier was an equally important historical figure, his role was quieter, whereas Magneto was busy mounting violent offensives against the human race. Since the US Government had an anti-mutant agenda, it would have used Magneto’s image as a propaganda tool to fuel anti-mutant sentiment. Holding up Magneto as a symbol of mutantkind would allow politicians to pass controversial policies like the Mutant Registration Act, whereas devoting any attention to Xavier and Jean Grey’s pleas for peace could potentially lead to pro-mutant sympathy.
Thus, Magneto was the single most controversial mutant in history, and the most prominent. And his actions in the 21st century were a big reason why.
First of all, there was the Statue of Liberty incident. This didn’t claim too many lives thanks to the X-Men, but it still would have been a huge deal in the news. Keep in mind, at this point Magneto was a wanted felon – the mutant who murdered JFK. His mutant terrorist group barging into the Statue of Liberty and flashing some weird lights at the top would be scary stuff to people sitting at home. In X2: X-Men United, viewers see the near-extinction of mutants, immediately followed by Magneto causing the near-extinction of humans, but Lehnsherr’s involvement in this would not have been clear to the general public.
The miraculous thing is that after all of this went down, the United States actually started to turn around in its stance on mutants. A pro-mutant president was elected to office, and Hank McCoy was even appointed to the position of Secretary of Mutant Affairs. Things were looking up for the first time in history.
Flashforward to San Francisco, 2006, where it all came crashing back down.
When Worthington Labs announced a mutant “cure,” Magneto sprang back into action. After gathering a massive army of mutants behind him, including the Phoenix, Magneto staged his first true act of war against the human race: he tore the entire Golden Gate Bridge off of its roots, and then unleashed hundreds of bloodthirsty mutants upon the Worthington Labs facility on Alcatraz.
Consider the scale of this for a moment. Forget that the X-Men intervened to save the day, or that Wolverine stopped Jean Grey from blowing up the entire city, because the news media and general public wouldn’t know any of that stuff. What they would know is that the most wanted man on the planet had just destroyed a national landmark in the name of war — most likely killing thousands.
In the X-Men universe, this “Golden Gate Bridge Attack” would have been their 9/11. In this one action, Magneto implicated all of mutantkind as being enemies of the American people. The bomb had finally dropped.
In the X-Men universe there was never any “War on Terror,” because the “War on Mutants” took its place. Mutants were questioned, deported, subjected to police brutality, killed in hate crimes, and thrown into Guantanamo Bay. Every mutant was accused of being a secret agent for Magneto, and forced to register. And sure enough, what did all of this end up leading to?
Sentinels.
Lesson #5: The Future That Almost Was, And Then Wasn’t
Days of Future Past paints a pretty clear picture of what happened at this point. The Anti-Mutant movement reached fever pitch, mutants were thrown in concentration camps, the US government commissioned Sentinels from Trask Industries… and oops, there goes the world. After almost all of the mutants have been eliminated, the Sentinels then turned their guns on the humans.
Until the X-Men sent Wolverine back in time. The efforts of Xavier’s team saved the entirety of humanity from themselves. This would be the final history lesson for students at Xavier’s school, at which point they’d be dragged to Professor Beast’s science class so they could learn weird, confusing lessons about time travel.
However, for human students, their lessons would continue all the way to 2029, which we now know as the endpoint. By then, a new question has arisen:
Lesson #6: Where Did All the Mutants Go?
While the future world depicted in Logan isn’t so great, it’s certainly better than the post-apocalyptic scenario featured in Days of Future Past. Logan shows a country where corporate greed, genetically engineered crops, and anti-immigrant nationalism have choked the life out of the economy, easily making it the most political X-Men movie to date. While people in this society are getting by, they’re struggling, and it shows. Mutants, once poised to take over the human race, have mostly died out, and no new mutants are being born, thanks to Zander Rice’s high fructose corn syrup.
But what’s most significant here, as far as the history of the X-Men, is that at this point the context in which mutants are viewed has entirely changed. Now that they’re no longer a “threat” for human survival, people have become nostalgic about mutants, and celebrate their past achievements, or are excited when they run into one of them. The X-Men have become iconic heroes of the past, pop culture icons whose past heroism is never questioned. Comic books are made of them. Parents probably brag to their kids about the time “the X-Men saved me.”
Strange as this might seem, it’s actually quite realistic. Real life heroes and social movements are often controversial in their time — but in later decades, these figures become celebrated as icons. It makes sense that in this universe the X-Men would be treated the same way. Even though the mutant gene was suppressed, and even though the X-Men never lived to see themselves accepted, their legacy will live on… and in the history books, they will be forever memorialized as the heroes that they really were.
Until the next timeline change, that is.
Skull Island: King Kong’s Backstory Explained
The new King Kong film, Kong: Skull Island, effectively recontextualizes the story of the mighty gorilla. Instead of merely remaking the primal fairy-tale once again, Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ version reworks the tale of the giant primate into something fresh. Almost the entire movie takes place on the titular island, with the story following a group of explorers trying to survive the strange prehistoric creatures that live there and get to the other side for rescue. This quest is hampered by the maniacal Col. Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), who develops a grudge match with Kong after several of his men are killed in the first encounter with the primal beast. Unlike the original, capturing this jungle ruler isn’t an option and the movie goes the long way around when it comes to explaining why.
Part of the new MonsterVerse that launched with 2014’s Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island introduces the King to the fold with a new backstory that mixes some classic elements with new mythology, in order to set the universe up for the long-haul. The crux of this is the hollow earth theory, which theorizes a whole other world is lurking below the planet’s surface. Bill Randa (John Goodman) is a scientist who, along with the organization Monarch, has become obsessed with the idea that the world once belonged to giant monsters, and some of those monsters are still around. Randa is convinced that one such creature attacked a boat he was serving on in the navy and left him as the only survivor, and he’s dedicated his life to proving it.
Randa’s search leads him to Skull Island, a previously completely uncharted region of the South Pacific ocean. Randa and his assistant, seismologist Heuston Brooks (Corey Hawkins), believe Skull Island to be an entry point through which the entities that live under the earth’s crust can come up, and after some last-ditch scientific funding and the enlisting of a military escort, they embark to explore it. To get seismic data as quick as possible, they drop bombs on the island’s surface when they first arrive to get a read on whether the earth below is hollow.
Their hypothesis is proven correct but quickly draws the attention of Kong – which was the real motive behind the bombing of the island. The giant gorilla makes swift work of the helicopters that the scientists and their escort arrive in. Once they’re stranded in various parts of the isle, the scientific team and the soldiers work their way around the forests and jungles, encountering giant spiders, pterodactyl-like birds and massive water beasts – seeing first-hand the kind of life that exists around a hollow earth waypoint.
No other monsters are mentioned specifically until the post-credits sequence, but the overt implication is that all the monsters of the MonsterVerse will come from places like Skull Island – mysterious pieces of land where the ground is thin enough for these possibly prehistoric beings to break through. Godzilla hinted at a similar story, though kept it contextual to Godzilla as a “great equalizer” that was there to keep us in check, riffing on the lizard being an embodiment of nuclear paranoia. Monarch is the same company seen in Godzilla, and some of the same language is employed in Kong: Skull Island – specifically, the idea that we share the planet with ferocious entities beyond ourselves.
King Kong’s cinematic history began in 1933, and the giant ape has been portrayed in many different movies over the years (some good, most pretty bad). Initially Kong is painted as the brute Godlike animal with allegiance to no other living creature, but gradually he’s revealed to be the protector and lode-bearer of the island’s eco-system. Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) find a completely isolated tribe of indigenous people, with whom John C. Reilly’s Hank Marlow has lived for years after his plane crashed. As with previous iterations the tribe still regard King Kong as sacred, but here it’s retooled as respect for their eco-system and its balance, rather than as a violent or sacrificial religion. The tribe are shown to be completelu pacifist and in harmony, having built a wall to keep out anything that Kong himself hasn’t killed that would try to to hurt them.
The main threat to this tribe – and, indeed, to anyone else unfortunate enough to land on Skull Island – is a race of monsters dubbed “Skull Crawlers” by Marlow, who play an important role in the rebooted Kong’s backstory. Both of the Kong’s parents died keeping bigger Skull Crawlers at bay, leaving him the only one who can stop them – and even then, only by killing them while they’re still young and weak.
The movie also takes care to establish another key fact about Kong: that he is relatively young, and is still growing. This is important because Kong will eventually face off against Godzilla, whose current incarnation is around 350ft tall, and could therefore crush classic portrayals of King Kong under one foot. Since Kong: Skull Island is set in the 1970s, and Godzilla was set in the modern day, the already massive Kong can spend several more decades growing before he has to fight the King of Monsters.
One important questions remains: the question of why Kong and Godzilla will end up fighting, since both creatures are portrayed as being fairly benevolent – a balancing force against monsters like the M.U.T.O.s and the Skull Crawlers. Beyond his initial (arguably justified) rampage against Packard’s men, Kong appears to be relatively docile, submitting to Weaver’s touch and even protecting her from the adult Skull Crawler towards the end.
In one of the movie’s most striking images, Kong allows the surviving characters to fly away, watching and roaring as they leave. He has a purpose to continue to serve on the island as its great guardian, saving it from whatever other oddities happen to emerge from the ground. But while the island’s visitors may have pledged to keep it a secret, it seems unlikely that Skull Island will remain undisturbed by the outside world for much longer.