
From film to TV, gaming to comics and everything in between, here’s what you might have missed in pop culture news this week.
TV
Ahmed Best, known for his role as Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels, is returning to a galaxy far, far away, but not how you would expect. Disney+ has just announced a new kid’s game show, Jedi Temple Challenge, which will be hosted by Best and is designed to “test a Padawan’s connection to the Force in three locations — a forest planet, onboard a Jedi star cruiser, and inside a Jedi temple — immersing them and the audience in a fun, humorous, and exciting competition”.
Sherlock masterminds Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are ready to sink their teeth into their three-part remake of Dracula and have an official New Year’s Day release date on BBC One. Aussie audiences will be able to catch the mini-series via Netflix, though no official streaming release has yet been announced.
Your New Year is gonna suck but never fear… #Dracula, a three day reign of terror, starts 1st January on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. pic.twitter.com/SNuSUjQoEO
— BBC One (@BBCOne) December 3, 2019
Tomek Bagiński, executive producer of The Witcher on Netflix, has revealed in a recent interview that they’re not trying to rush the story and that the first season, which is scheduled to drop on December 20, will not cover the entirety of the first book. The Witcher has already been renewed for a second season, and creators have stated they have years worth of material at their fingertips.
Titans season two has now wrapped up in the US, and the show’s second season saw a number of new characters added to the roster including Connor Kent (a.k.a. Superboy), Krypto, Rose Wilson (a.k.a. Ravager), Bruce Wayne, as well as the villains Deathstroke and Dr. Light. Another character, who was only glimpsed in passing, was Starfire’s evil sister, Blackfire (played by Damaris Lewis), but now Blackfire is reportedly joining season three as a series regular, most likely in the capacity of the new season’s chief antagonist. There is no word yet as to when Titans season two will begin airing on Netflix.
Lamenting the loss of their beloved friend, the cast of SyFy’s The Magicians is now preparing to deal with a problem they never expected after returning magic back into the world. Thanks to a new season trailer, now it would seem there is “too damn much” of it and both Earth and Fillory are in jeopardy.
FILM
Director Wes Ball, known for his work on The Maze Runner films, has reportedly been handed the reins on a new film set in the Planet of the Apes franchise. It is unclear whether this film will be a fresh reboot or a continuation of the previous films, but either way it will mark the first Apes film made under Disney’s new ownership of Fox Studios.
So far, most of what we’ve seen concerning the MCU’s Phase 4 has been focused on the upcoming Disney+ series, but now a new trailer has dropped for the first official film of Phase 4, Black Widow. Rumoured to be taking place after the events of Captain America: Civil War and before Avengers: Infinity War, this film will see Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff face her past and team up with Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov/the Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). The good news is that we’ll get to see it first, as Black Widow is planned for an April 30 release in Australia, and then May 1 for the UK and US.
One unexpected success story from earlier this year was the Robert Rodriguez-led Alita: Battle Angel, and whilst early box office predictions expected the film to bomb, it did in fact manage to turn a tidy profit, and whilst critics were divided, audience scores for the film almost universally praised the movie as the best live-action anime adaptation to date. Now the film’s producer Jon Landau has put the call out to fans in an interview, asking them all to speak up and let Disney know they want to see a sequel. Whilst the original film was left wide open for a follow-up, questions about whether we would ever see a second Alita film were raised as soon as Disney purchased Fox.
Two weeks until the Skywalker saga comes to an end, and the fresh TV spots are now rolling out thick and fast. The latest spot gives a good look at the freshly repaired Skywalker lightsaber, which was destroyed in The Last Jedi, being held by Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia.
Bond. James Bond. A new trailer for No Time to Die, which will be the last time Daniel Craig will get to say those words on screen, has hit the internet, promising an action-packed final ride for Craig as the British super spy. No Time to Die is set for an April 2020 release.
Wonder Woman 1984’s Gal Gadot has promised something big is coming this weekend as part of her appearance at Brazil’s CCXP, and has put out a call for fans to post their best power pose to the official Wonder Woman twitter page. Rumours are this will finally lead to our first trailer reveal.
Tweet us a photo of your Power Pose using #WW84 and #CCXP for a chance to be featured! pic.twitter.com/TDg0xT6fCp
— Wonder Woman (@WonderWomanFilm) December 2, 2019
Australian animated children’s film Alice-Miranda Friends Forever has premiered on Stan this week. According to Cinema Australia, “The Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Girls Academy is a place of friendship and fun, but also of high drama, mystery and intrigue.”
GAMING
Cover art for a previously unannounced Resident Evil 3 remake has been leaked on PSN. The leaked art has given us a sneak peek at potential redesigns for Jill, Carlos and Nemesis. While a remake is yet to be announced by Capcom, it is possible we will hear something before the end of the year; perhaps at the Game Awards on December 12, where Capcom have been nominated for their remake of Resident Evil 2.
Resident Evil 3 Remake cover art has appeared on PSNhttps://t.co/rG5UBaXiEH pic.twitter.com/4btaentlgI
— Nibel (@Nibellion) December 3, 2019
A free update for Super Mario Maker 2 dropped earlier this week, which added a whole bunch of new items and enemies to play with. Amongst the new items is the Master Sword, which will turn Mario into an 8-bit version of Link from the Legend of Zelda series. As Link, you’ll be able to use your sword, shield, bombs and bow and arrows to navigate course levels. The Master Sword, along with other additions such as enemies Spike and Pokey, objects like frozen coins, P blocks and dash blocks, will also give characters plenty of new ways to design their levels.
Attendees at a Kingdom Hearts 3 Orchestra performance in Osaka, Japan last weekend have heard details about the upcoming KH3: ReMind DLC. Announced at the performance were features such as a photo and slideshow mode, for posing characters and capturing images. New settings, known as fast pass mode and ‘black code’ will also be released, which will allow players to adjust the difficulty settings of their game. While Square Enix hasn’t officially announced any of these details, we’re expecting to hear more before the end of the year.
Due to a thriving player base on PC, CD Projekt Red has announced that the Witcher card game Gwent is going to be shutting down on consoles. The announcement to discontinue support was made on the game’s website on Thursday and matchmaking will no longer be supported on PS4 or Xbox One after December 9. Console players aren’t entirely out of luck though, as they’ll have between December 9 and June 9 to copy their progress over to their GOG account.
COLLECTIBLES
Hot Toys have released an exceptionally detailed 1/6th figure of Rey as depicted in the final chapter of the Skywalker saga, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.
If all you want in your life is your own Baby Yoda, you’re in luck! Funko has announced an adorable 10” The Child Pop! Vinyl of the iconic character from Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Other exciting announcements from Funko this week included new Pop! Vinyl for The Waterboy, Ice Cube, Iron Maiden and additions to Pop! Movies for IT Chapter 2.