However, impressive as it may have been, the execution clearly wasn’t perfect; a notion subsequently driven home by a YouTuber who created a more impressive deepfake version of the Luke scene. The folks at Lucasfilm seem to agree with that assessment, since they’ve hired the creator. The YouTuber, who goes by “Shamook,” revealed in a video comment that a mysterious recent drought of content on the channel was attributed to having been hired by the Star Wars studio, stating, “As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilm a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content....

Even before the internet made information about the original and prequel trilogy easy to come by, Star Wars was the most dissected franchise in motion picture (and pop culture) history. With every bit of minutiae relating to the film’s production having been analyzed to death by this point, what, if anything, is there to learn about Star Wars that we haven’t already heard a million times before? Enter Brian Volk-Weiss....

It was heartbreaking on multiple levels. Adil & Bilall had already proven themselves adept big budget filmmakers on the brilliant Bad Boys for Life while the eye-catching cast included J.K. Simmons getting another go as Commissioner Gordon, Brendan Fraser continuing the “Franaissance” as villain Firefly, and Michael Keaton donning the Batsuit for the first time in nearly two decades. Arguably the saddest aspect, however, was the fact it robbed Leslie Grace of a potentially star-making turn as Barbara Gordon, with the In the Heights actress in danger of being forever associated with the most infamous superhero movie to never see the light of day....

The popularity of the Pokémon Trading Card Game was not an accident. While some might be quick to call it an overnight sensation, that actually sells short the effort that went into the Pokémon TCG (and the games it was based on). Released in Japan in October 1996 (just 8 months after the debut of the first Pokémon games), the Pokémon TCG was one of the first major additions to what would become a vast pipeline of Pokémon merchandise....

“Find Me” introduces a new character named Leah (Lynn Collins), who played a major part in this once-unseen period in Daryl’s life before he returned to the settlements. There’s a suggestion in the episode that Leah may also play a part in Daryl’s future, perhaps even as a character in the Daryl and Carol spinoff that will premiere in 2023, but that remains to be seen. The episode also finally reveals how Daryl first met his trusty companion Dog....

Let it be said that to the very end, Zack Snyder did it his way. In an era where superhero entertainment, and all other branded media, is shaped by what conference rooms think fans want, Snyder somehow pushed through a transgressive view of DC icons like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman that was brooding, unsettling… and memorable. Fans certainly haven’t forgotten Snyder’s self-described “deconstructionist” Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or that it was meant to carry onward into Justice League....

This is of course good news for movie theaters and horror aficionados. Indeed, Halloween Kills is the biggest horror movie and R-rated release since the COVID-19 pandemic began, even outgrossing the PG-13 rated A Quiet Place Part II, which earned $47.6 million in its opening weekend. Yet what’s striking about the debut is it earned these kind of numbers despite being a day-and-date release, with Halloween Kills beating expectations while premiering simultaneously on NBC-Universal’s new streaming service, Peacock....

Despite the fact that his career is a fairly young one, Andrew Horton is being faced with dramatic challenges on Jupiter’s Legacy, not the least of which stems from the fact that his character, Brandon Sampson (aka Paragon) is the son of the world’s greatest heroes, the Utopian (Josh Duhamel) and Lady Liberty (Lesie Bibb). The good news is that he’s had no problem rising to the meta-human challenge. Besides starring in the short films Ladies First and Breach, Horton made a guest appearance on the TV series Doctors and in the films It Came from the Desert and How to Talk to Girls at Parties....

Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 Episode 3 What DC’s Legends of Tomorrow just pulled off should be impossible. Usually milestone episodes are treacly retrospectives, bordering on clip shows, that are self-congratulatory throwaways. They’re not supposed to be high points of the entire series. But that’s exactly what Legends of Tomorrow episode 100 was: easily one of the best episodes this show has ever aired. It might even be the outright best....

FOX’s mind-melting, X-Men-adjacent Legion TV series is returning soon. Hurrah! It would be something of an understatement to say that we’re really looking forward to the return of Dan Stevens’ David Haller, Aubrey Plaza’s Lenny and Noah Hawley’s truly terrific writing. However, by the time that Legion season 2 kicks off (its American premiere date of April 3rd will be followed by a UK debut on April 17th), it will be over a year since Legion season 1 came to its brain-bothering conclusion....

This is a drama born in reaction to the ‘post-truth era’, repeatedly staging misgivings about the ongoing conflict between PR manipulation and unflattering realities. As such, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see the tagline for series six “Lies cost lives” intended as a critique of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Underneath the trappings of this high-tension, high-action, twist-packed thriller is real concern about what people in power are getting away with....

“Next season on Batwoman on The CW, actor Camrus Johnson will graduate from ‘guy in the chair’ to ‘guy in a mask; when his character, Luke Fox, fulfills his destiny to become Batwing. This is the first time the character has ever appeared in live-action form and, frankly, his small-screen arrival is long overdue.” Read more at Inverse. If you’re looking to support actual LGBTQ+ businesses this Pride month, our friends at The Mary Sue have put together a starting list....

“Spider-Man’s rich history transcends comic books—as one of the most popular superheroes of all time, he has swung out of the pages of his Marvel adventures into films, games, and television—and even there, transcended the barriers of live-action and animated formats. The latter of which has perhaps provided some of the webhead’s finest stories.” Read more at Gizmodo. This year marks the 20th anniversary of How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey....

“As more people focused on indoor activities to pass the time during a year-long pandemic that’s still not over, a lot of them turned to gaming to pass the time. But how exactly did 2020 reshape the way we play video games? We asked, and more than 2,900 Inverse readers responded.” Read more at Inverse. For fans of Nickelodeon’s golden age shows, here are some fun facts about this kids’ TV channel in the ’80s and ’90s....

Read more at Inverse Ana de Armas stole the show as Paloma in No Time To Die, but her character’s appearance was cut way too short. Read more at The Mary Sue Den of Geek’s X-Files expert Matt Allair is working on a supernatural terror tale! Check out his GoFundMe page for details on this paranormal graphic novel project. “Hi, My name is Matthew Allair, and I am a writer who is working on a group of prose horror, science fiction, and fantasy tales to try and get published in a literary book....

“In WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s defense, he’s right. At a time when people across the globe are still grappling with the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, entertainment executives are sharing their reads on the larger situation as it impacts consumers’ relationships with their respective companies.” Read more at Gizmodo. Fans of Friends, rejoice! BestValueSchools.org is reportedly paying people $1000 to binge seasons 1 through 5 of the TV sitcom. Read more at Mental Floss....

“Flesh-and-blood actors have many physical limitations, which means that adapting cartoons for the big screen in a live-action format runs the risk of diminishing their zaniness and elasticity. John Goodman’s career offers two different examples of how a cartoon adaptation can succeed or fail.” Read more at Inverse Drew Barrymore’s Ever After is the perfect modern adaptation of Cinderella. Read more at The A.V. Club We kind of wish the Marvel’s Squirrel Girl series actually got to see the light of day....

At 7:59 pm last night, a frantic text arrived. “LOKI IS D.B. Cooper?,” it asked incredulously. That the mysterious message arrived from my friend Brian, the world’s biggest Predator fan and a manager at my local comic shop, indicated that big happenings were afoot in the Marvel Television Universe (yeah, the MTU is now, especially after yesterday, a thing). You see, he knew that D.B. Cooper is an obsession of mine, one that I’ve written about on this very site before....

Lucifer Season 3 Episode 7 “You forgave the devil. Why can’t you forgive me?” Life is all about second chances, and when a reporter for a local paper decides to expose the man sleeping with his wife as a fraud, his desire to win back the woman he loves produces an unexpected result. While not one of the season’s stronger episodes, “Off the Record” nonetheless gives us a tiny peek inside Dr....

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have big plans for the folks at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. However, these plans have come in a most unexpected way. The first Marvel Studios X-Men project isn’t a movie, a live action TV series, or even a reboot. It’s a continuation of what is probably the best known and most beloved interpretation of the franchise of all time: the 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series which ran for five seasons beginning in 1992....