It’s been a rough new year for many Australians, with bushfires continuing to rage across the country. In true Aussie fashion though, many have been keen to pitch in and lend a helping hand for those in need. Also joining the cause and contributing to those affected, alongside millions of everyday Australians, are none other than Marvel’s God of Thunder, Chris Hemsworth, and DC’s Clown Princess of Crime, Margot Robbie.
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@redcrossau @wireswildliferescue @salvosau @nswrfs @cfavic
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TV
Marvel Studios has kicked off the new year by releasing a sneak-peak for everything they have planned for both the big screen and Disney+ throughout 2020. Dubbed Earth’s Mightiest Show, the official YouTube special revealed a new look poster at the upcoming The Falcon and The Winter Solider series planned for release in the second half of this year.
Disney has also officially revealed that the second MCU series planned for Disney+, WandaVision, has also had its official release date moved up from 2021 to sometime later this year.
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Over to Netflix, fresh off the success of its debut season of The Witcher, it appears there’s a new job opportunity for those with a penchant for slaying monsters. Over on the official Netflix site, a new job opportunity has been posted for Associate Witcher. Having your own horse and swords is a must.
Netflix also revealed a new trailer for their adaption of Joe Hill’s acclaimed comic book Locke & Key. The US supernatural/horror premieres on the streaming service on February 7 and, according to its official synopsis, “follows three siblings who, after the murder of their father, move to their ancestral home only to find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers and abilities.”
Moving to Amazon, a new trailer has been released for Jordan Peele’s (director of Us and Get Out) new series, Hunters, due for release on February 21. Partially inspired by true events, the show follows a group of vigilante Nazi hunters living in New York in the 1970s.
The CW has recently released a new plot synopsis for its forthcoming Arrow spin-off Green Arrow and the Canaries, where Oliver Queen’s daughter takes up her father’s mantle in 2040. It is expected that Arrow’s second last episode will serve as a back-door pilot for the new Arrowverse series.
FILM
Less than a month to go until Harley Quinn returns to the silver screen, and a new Birds of Prey trailer has dropped finally showing Ewan McGregor’s comic accurate Black Mask.
After years of delays, the final film in Fox’s X-Men franchise finally has a release date and a new trailer. The House of Mouse has surprised everyone by finally giving the film its intended cinema release two years after it was first planned. What’s more, the film’s director Josh Boone has insisted the version getting released is his own originally planned cut which is intended to be more horror themed. New Mutants finally hits cinemas on April 3.
What happens when Gotham’s Caped Crusader meets Marvel’s God of Thunder? Looks like audiences will get a chance to find out as Christopher Nolan’s own Batman, Christian Bale, is reportedly in talks with Marvel Studios to join the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder opposite Chris Hemsworth. At the moment no details have been released concerning the role Bale is being eyed for.
And in other Gotham City-related news, Matt Reeve’s new Batman, Robert Pattinson, is now officially ready to don the cowl, as principal photography on The Batman has started in London and Londonites are beginning to flood social media with candid shots of Gotham City marked police cars and news vans as filming is currently taking place in various locations across the city. A few lucky fans have even managed to grab a glimpse of Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne and Colin Farrell’s Penguin in these first few early days of shooting.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen, the young star who played Black Manta in Aquaman and who was recently added to the cast of the Matrix 4 has shown himself getting in shape for the upcoming action film. It has previously been rumoured that Abdul-Mateen has been cast as a younger version of Laurence Fishburn’s character Morpheus.
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Back at it. Matrix Mode 💪🏿WOAH!
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Daniel Craig may be done with the role of James Bond after this year’s No Time to Die, but it looks like he’s just getting started in the role of private investigator Benoit Blanc from last year’s Knives Out, written and directed by The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson. Reports are that Johnson has already been tasked with writing a sequel which will provide a new mystery for Craig’s PI, with the potential for more yet to come.
Whoa! Ed Solomon, writer of the upcoming Bill and Ted Face the Music shared a new look from the upcoming threequel. The still shows two generations of Wyld Stallyns getting ready for some old school garage rock.
On another front, I guess they released a new still from Bill and Ted Face the Music today 🙂 pic.twitter.com/224zelWcGK
— Ed Solomon (@ed_solomon) January 3, 2020
James Cameron’s return to Pandora has been a long time coming, but we now have our first official look at concept art from Avatar 2
In the #Avatar sequels, you won’t just return to Pandora — you’ll explore new parts of the world.
Check out these brand new concept art pieces for a sneak peek at what’s to come. pic.twitter.com/bfZPWVa7XZ— Avatar (@officialavatar) January 7, 2020
In news that broke earlier today, it seems Scott Derrickson is stepping away from his role as director on Marvel’s Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, citing creative differences. What this means for the future of the film is uncertain, however it appears to have been amicable, with Derrickson staying on as EP for the film.
Marvel and I have mutually agreed to part ways on Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness due to creative differences. I am thankful for our collaboration and will remain on as EP.
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I ᴚ ᴚ Ǝ ᗡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) January 10, 2020
And in local screen news, Australia’s dark crime thriller And Behold is already entering into the 2020 festival circuit. The short film is a follow-up from writer and director James Gorter’s King of the Jungle. Cinema Australia depicts its synopsis as the story of a “young couple attempting to escape their fate of violence, as forces outside their control pull them into a dark crime-filled underworld”. An official premiere will occur later this year.
GAMING
Dell has revealed a prototype Alienware handheld device. The concept known as UFO was revealed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is a fully functional Windows 10 PC shrunk down, with a 1200p eight-inch display unit and two detachable side controllers. While specs for the UFO have not yet been revealed by Alienware, attendees had a chance to play titles such as Mortal Kombat 11, Rocket League and F1 2019. As the device is only a prototype, we’re unsure as to whether this handheld computer will ever be made into an actual product. Even if this model doesn’t hit the market in the future, it proves that there might be big contenders for the handheld market on the horizon.
Introducing #ConceptUFO, our vision for a handheld gaming PC. Explore the details that went into making this innovative design. @Formula1game https://t.co/plRqDvxsD8 pic.twitter.com/tx3apeHNhl
— ALIENWARE (@Alienware) January 7, 2020
From the publisher of Stardew Valley, UK-based developer Chucklefish is currently working on its third in-house title, Witchbrook. The new life simulator is going to bring all our Harry Potter dreams to life as its being described as Stardew Valley meets Hogwarts. Witchbrook will feature the classic 32-bit top-down world, much like Stardew Valley, with a magical school curriculum to attend, people to meet and build relationships with and other special school activities. No release date is confirmed for the title yet.
In the early hours of the morning, Nintendo ran a Pokémon Direct, outlining their plans for 2020. Two new areas for Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Isle of Armour and The Crown Tundra, were announced, alongside the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass. Bringing 200 more of our beloved friends into the Galar Region, along with some new Gigantamax forms for some old favourites (Rillaboom getting his Phil Collins on among others), access to these two new areas and a whole lot more, the Expansion Pass looks to be the way of the future for the Pokémon franchise. Be sure to download the update now to get your hands on that awesome Galarian Slowpoke!
ANIMATION
Ten years after its first series aired, Higurashi: When They Cry is getting a sequel! There’s currently no release date confirmed, but considering the 10-year gap, it would be pretty neat to hit people’s nostalgia for this show by starting the new series on April 4th, the same day the original started airing in 2006.
GKids has released the first trailer for their dub of Weathering With You, the latest Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, 5 Centimetres Per Second) film. Notable celebrity inclusions to the cast are Riz Ahmed (Rogue One, Venom), Alison Brie (Community, GLOW), and Lee Pace (The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy).
Quibi, a new short-form mobile streaming service, has greenlit Gloop World, a new claymation series created by Rick and Morty‘s Justin Roiland. Gloop World follows the lives of anthropomorphic blobs and roommates, Bob Roundy and Funzy, as the pair navigate suburbia and the outskirts of Gloop World.
On the Disney+ animated front, whilst Star Wars fans are lamenting the end of season one of The Mandalorian, they won’t have too much longer to wait for the much-anticipated return of the Clone Wars animated series, featuring fan favourite Ahsoka Tano, whose voice could be heard along with other former Jedi by keen-eared fans in the climactic finale of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. Reports are that the 12-episode-long season season of Clone Wars will premiere on the platform on February 17.
