Louie Anderson, a comedian, and three-time Emmy Award winner, has died from complications with cancer. He was 68.

Deadline confirmed with his publicist Glenn Schwartz that Anderson was hospitalized in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this week for treatment with large B cell lymphoma.

A veteran comic, Anderson was most recently seen in the FX black comedy Baskets for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Anderson played Christine Baskets, the mother of star Zach Galifanakis’ twin brothers Chip and Dale Baskets.

In a statement, FX said, “We are so deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend, Louie Anderson. For four wonderful seasons, Louie graced us and fans of Baskets with a bravura performance as Christine Baskets, for which he deservedly was recognized by his peers with the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.’

‘It was a risky role for him and he embraced it with a fearlessness and joy that demonstrated his brilliance as an artist. He truly cared about his craft and was a true professional in every sense. Our hearts go out to his loved ones and his Baskets family — Zach Galifianakis, Jonathan Krisel and Martha Kelly and all the cast and crew. He will be missed by us all but never forgotten and always bring a smile to our faces.”

Anderson was born on March 24, 1953 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. According to Deadline, Anderson was originally a counselor to troubled children before starting a career in comedy after winning the first-place trophy at the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition.

He debuted on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1984, kicking off decades of stand-up specials and becoming a mainstay on the comedy circuit. He made appearances in various comedies during the era including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ratboy, and Coming to America.

In 1995 Fox premiered Life with Louie, an animated comedy based on Anderson’s life growing up in Saint Paul. Anderson won two Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his performance on the show.

In 1999, Anderson become the host of a new version of Family Feud, which he hosted from 1999 to 2002. Anderson returned to the show in 2017 in Celebrity Family Feud.

Firmly established in the world of comedy, Anderson would make guest appearances on some of the biggest comedies airing in America throughout the eras. He made one-off appearances in shows like Ally McBeal, Scrubs, Joey, Young Sheldon, and Search Party.

On top of regular guest appearances, Anderson’s late-career highlight as Christine Baskets on the FX comedy would serve as a final, critically-acclaimed performance to a storied career that continued right up until his death.

Anderson is survived by his two sisters, Shanna and Lisa.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

(Photo by Greg Doherty/FilmMagic)

It might be hard to keep Marvel's upcoming movie and TV slate straight -- it's a lot to absorb, we know. But news of the next MCU movies and Disney+ TV series keeps coming, from all the Disney+ Day announcements that gave us new looks at Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel to new Secret Invasion casting reports to word of a fourth Captain America movie and Season 2 of Loki. There's even a WandaVision spin-off starring Kathryn Hahn's Agatha called Agatha: House of Harkness, a Spider-Man: Freshman Year animated series, and a Marvel Zombies show on the way! So let's take a look at what to expect...

We've done our best to wrangle and rein in all the upcoming Marvel projects that are in the works from the MCU. From the movies to the Disney+ shows, here's a quick rundown of everything on the MCU horizon. Click on through the slideshow below for a glimpse, or read on!

What Are the Next Marvel Movies Coming Out? 2022 Release Dates

For those keeping track, here's the full lineup of upcoming Marvel movies and shows:

• Moon Knight (Disney+, March 30, 2022)
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)
• Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)
• Ms. Marvel (Disney+, Summer 2022)
• Untitled Halloween Special (Disney+, 2022)
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)
• The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+, 2022)
• She-Hulk (Disney+, 2022)
• The Marvels (February 17, 2023)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (July 28, 2023)
• X-Men '97 (Disney+, 2023)
• Secret Invasion (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Blade (Date TBD)
• Deadpool 3 (Date TBD)
• Fantastic Four (Date TBD)
• I Am Groot (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Armor Wars (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Ironheart (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Echo (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Wakanda Series (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Captain America 4 (Date TBD)
• Loki Season 2 (Disney+, Date TBD)
• What If...? Season 2 (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Agatha: House of Harkness (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Spider-Man: Freshman Year (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Marvel Zombies (Disney+, Date TBD)
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 2 (Date TBD)

Here are the most definite projects that are currently in the works:

Moon Knight (Disney+, March 30, 2022)

Moon Knight will tell the story of Marc Spector, a mercenary left for dead and resurrected by a Moon God. Oscar Isaac will play the title role, while Ethan Hawke will play a villain that is said to be inspired by cult leader David Koresh. Here's how Marvel describes the show: "Directed by Mohamed Diab, the action-adventure features a complex vigilante who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. The multiple identities who live inside him are distinct characters who appear against a backdrop of Egyptian iconography." Jenny Slater will serve as head writer.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)

The sequel stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, with Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor also returning from Doctor Strange. Xochitl Gomez joins them, portraying America Chavez, a new fan-favorite from the comics. The events of the WandaVision series will lead into Multiverse of Madness, and the plot will also connect to the upcoming third Spider-Man film starring Tom Holland. Scott Derrickson was to return from the first film as director, but he dropped out in January of 2020 due to good old "creative differences." The good news is that Marvel has now tapped Sam Raimi as his replacement.

Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman (as a female Thor!), Chris Pratt, and Christian Bale as villain Gorr the God Butcher. Taika Waititi returns as director for what has been reported as being almost like an Avengers 5 due to the large cast. Even Russell Crowe has signed on to play Thor's fellow thunder god Zeus.

Ms. Marvel (Disney+, Summer 2022)

Coming to Disney+, this series will be about Kamala Khan, Marvel's first mainstream Muslim hero. Newcomer Iman Vellani will play the character, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American growing up in Jersey City. Here's how Marvel describes her: "A great student, an avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, she has a special affinity for superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel. But Kamala struggles to fit in at home and at school—that is, until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life is easier with super powers, right? The cast also includes Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Naki, Azher Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha. Episodes are directed by Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, Meera Menon and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy."

While we already received an initial teaser for Ms. Marvel, Disney+ Day 2021 gave us a brand-new look at the upcoming series.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)

Black Panther 2 has a release date and is now called Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but with the sad and untimely passing of series star Chadwick Boseman, it's difficult to know how director Ryan Coogler (back from the first film) will handle the situation. Kevin Feige has said he will not recast the character, nor will Boseman's likeness be recreated digitally.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+, Holiday Season 2022)

The Guardians of the Galaxy will be back for this holiday special, including writer/director James Gunn at the helm. Gunn confirmed the special is set in between the events of Thor: Love and Thunder and the third Guardians movie.

She-Hulk (Disney+, 2022)

A new Disney+ series, She-Hulk spotlights lawyer-slash-green powerhouse Jennifer Walters who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany will play the title character, with Mark Ruffalo reprising his role as Hulk/Bruce Banner, and Tim Roth returning as the Abomination. The series is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia; Jessica Gao is head writer. Disney+ Day 2021 shared the first footage of the upcoming series.

The Marvels (February 17, 2023)

Captain Marvel 2, which is now called The Marvels, is in the works with Nia DaCosta directing. Teyonah Parris will play an adult Monica Rambeau alongside Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, and the film will also feature Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani, who will be introduced in the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)

At one point, before James Gunn's temporary firing, Guardians Vol. 3 was meant to be the first, if not one of the first, films in Phase 4. With the deck reshuffled now, and James Gunn directing The Suicide Squad for DC before Vol 3., the next Guardians flick won't be out for a while.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (July 28, 2023)

The third Ant-Man movie will be helmed by Ant-Man director Peyton Reed and star returning favorites Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne/Wasp, Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne. Kathryn Newton joins the cast as Cassie Lang while Jonathan Majors portrays Kang the Conqueror.

X-Men '97 (Disney+, 2023)

X-Men '97 is a revival of the original X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s that will continue right where that storyline left off. The Wrap has also reported that many of the original voice actors from the first show will be returning to their characters, including Wolverine's Cal Dodd, Rogue's Lenore Zann, Beast's George Buza, and more. In addition to familiar voices, Jennifer Hale, Ray Chase, and many more will join the cast. Beau DeMayo will serve as executive producer and head writer.

Secret Invasion (Disney+, Date TBD)

Variety reported in September 2020 that Samuel L. Jackson would return as Nick Fury in a new MCU series on Disney+, with Kyle Bradstreet (Mr. Robot) reportedly writing and executive producing the project. Kevin Feige confirmed the series in December 2020, and announced that Ben Mendelsohn from Captain Marvel will also star as the Skrull Talos in this adaptation of one of Marvel's most iconic comics storylines, which explores a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years. Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman and Kingsley Ben-Adir are also expected to star.

Disney+ Day 2021 gave us our first look at the upcoming series in the form of an image featuring Samuel L. Jackson as a bearded, eyepatch-less Nick Fury.

I Am Groot (Disney+, Date TBD)

I Am Groot will be a series of shorts that will tell a story of Guardians of the Galaxy's Baby Groot's "glory days growing up, and getting into trouble, among the stars." These shorts will be directed by executive producer Kristen Lepore.

Ironheart (Disney+, Date TBD)

Ironheart will see Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart, a "genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man. While there is no release date for Ironheart, it has been confirmed that Williams will make her debut in Black Panther 2. In the comics, Williams was an engineering prodigy that used Stark's digitized consciousness as an AI to teach her to be the best Ironheart she can be. With the suit, she can fly and shoot out repulsor grenades, laser beams, precision missiles, and much more.

Echo (Disney+, Date TBD)

Echo is an upcoming series that will star Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez/Echo. Furthermore, Echo will make her debut in Marvel's Hawkeye. Echo is the adoptive daughter of Kingpin and has long been associated with Daredevil. She is a deaf Native American character who was created by David Mack and Joe Quesada and first appeared in Daredevil Vol. 2 #9 in 1999. Much like Taskmaster, Echo can copy the fighting style of her opponents and wound up joining the New Avengers as the first Ronin. Hawkeye has already taken on the Ronin namesake in Avengers: Endgame, so it will be interesting to see where they take Echo's story.

Agatha: House of Harkness (Disney+, Date TBD)

Kathryn Hahn's Agatha Harkness was one of the most beloved parts of WandaVision, and she will be returning in her own spin-off series on Disney+. WandaVision's Jac Schaefer will serve as executive producer and head writer.

Spider-Man: Freshman Year (Disney+, Date TBD)

Spider-Man: Freshman Year is an upcoming animated series that "follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, with a journey unlike we've ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots." It is yet unclear if Tom Holland will be reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in this series, but it is known that Jeff Trammel will serve as both executive producer and head writer.

Marvel Zombies (Disney+, Date TBD)

Following a possible introduction in the first season of Marvel's What If...?, Marvel Zombies will be a new animated series that "reimagines the Marvel Universe as a new generation of heroes battle against an ever-spreading zombie scourge." The show will be directed by executive producer Bryan Andrews.

So which movie or TV show are you most excited for? Are you stoked for Moon Knight or psyched for Doctor Strange and his Multiverse? Can you not wait to see Natalie Portman as Thor in Love and Thunder? Let us know below...

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Paramount+ has released a new trailer for the upcoming Star Trek: Picard Season 2, which is set to premiere on March 3 exclusively on the online streamer. The action-heavy trailer also includes the return of Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.

You can check out the trailer in the embed below. With Picard once again out in the stars, familiar faces like Goldberg’s Guinan and John de Lancie’s Q resurface to put the retired Star Fleet captain into peril, this time, the past.

Welcome to the road not taken. Stream the new season of #StarTrekPicard March 3 exclusively on @ParamountPlus. pic.twitter.com/Hj8qluTsIT

— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) January 21, 2022

Star Trek: Picard premiered in 2020 and saw the long-awaited return of Patrick Stewart as retired Captain Jean-Luc Picard. After the first season, he is thrust into a new adventure that takes him and his crew of new and familiar faces to the past.

With the second season on the horizon, Paramount+ is already working on the third season of Star Trek: Picard, which has resumed production after a COVID-19 outbreak on the set.

Star Trek: Picard is just one of several Star Trek shows currently in production. Star Trek: Discovery has been renewed for a fifth season, ahead of the fourth season premiere; and the comedic spinoff, Lower Decks, is also set to return for a fourth season this summer.

You can check out IGN’s review of the first season of Star Trek: Picard, where we called the series a bit rushed towards the climax, but thematically resonant throughout.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

The Legend of Vox Machina premieres with three episodes on Prime Video on Jan. 28, with three episodes debuting each subsequent week.

In the first episode of The Legend of Vox Machina, the gnome cleric known as Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson) asks her fellow band of adventurers if they should consider doing something good rather than trying to make their money from killing and swindling. Her response is met with apathy, as the party members that make up Vox Machina — the half-elf rogue Vax’ildan “Vax” Vessar (Liam O’Brien), the half-elf ranger Vex’ahlia “Vex” Vessar (Laura Bailey), the barbarian Grog Strongjaw (Travis Willingham), the bard Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegel), the gunslinger Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (Taliesin Jaffe), and the half-elf druid Keyleth (Marisha Ray) — dismiss the idea that making their money while being honorable is something worth pursuing.

This kind of exchange — sarcastic, funny, blunt, but also somehow endearing — is what Critical Role has built most of its success on. It’s also the basis of what makes The Legend of Vox Machina, the new animated show based on the first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series, so much fun. Stunning animation and dazzling score aside, the true strength of the three-episode premiere lies in the characters and voice actors behind them.

Critical Role, now an internationally known sensation that boasts its own company, tie-in merchandise, and Twitch and YouTube channels, has humble beginnings. For years, it was simply a group of friends who also happened to be skilled voice actors from properties like The Last of Us, Avengers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Overwatch, coming together to play a game of Dungeons & Dragons each week. But part of that show’s charm has always been the easy relatability of the characters, and the minds behind The Legend of Vox Machina realize that’s something that works just as well in animation as it does around a table.

That’s why, instead of a history of Exandria (the universe where the show takes place) or Tal’Dorei (the continent where Vox Machina has their adventures), we’re introduced to Vox Machina when they’re already a band of reluctant friends — if not slightly questionable mercenaries — playing drinking games and looking for their next job. Still, the writers are aware that we need to understand at least the basics of who these characters are, which is why, after the group travels to Tal’Dorei’s capital of Emon to accept that new job from Lady Allura Vysoren (Game of Thrones’ Indira Varma), we get a cleverly timed song from Scanlan. (And longtime Critical Role fans, or “Critters,” will delight in one of the many character in-jokes that happens during this particular segment.)

The first three episodes waste no time diving into the action, drawing us into a world where, whether you like it or not, you’re forced to root for this found family. This “trial by fire” approach is a smart move for a show that’s adapting a multi-year, 400+-hours-long campaign into 12 episodes of user-friendly story, as is the series enlisting Titmouse as its animation studio. The company behind hits like Big Mouth and Beavis and Butt-Head is a perfect choice for the kind of adult-oriented animated content that Legend of Vox Machina is producing; the cast has maintained that like its table game, the show won’t stray away from things like lewd language, sexual innuendos, and violence. And it absolutely delivers on that promise.

The Legend of Vox Machina’s base story follows what’s known as the “Briarwood arc,” the second part of Critical Role’s original campaign that puts fan-favorite Percy front and center. (The Briarwoods — Lady Delilah, voiced by Grey Griffin, and Lord Silas, voiced by Matthew Mercer — killed Percy’s family when he was young, leaving the exiled diplomat with a dark past.) Adapting this particular storyline is another smart move, as the Briarwoods are one of Critical Role’s signature villains who have ramifications across its gameplay universe. That means that there’s potential to set them up as long-lasting antagonists, especially given that Amazon has already renewed the show for a second season.

But the first two episodes deliver a brand-new story, with Vox Machina taking on a deadly threat to Emon at the behest of the Tal’Dorei council which, in addition to Lady Allura, includes General Krieg (David Tennant), Sovereign Uriel Tal’Dorei (Khary Payton), and Lady Kima of Vord (Stephanie Beatriz.) By Episode 3, and after more than a few battles that test their friendship as well as their talents, Vox Machina has warmed to the idea that they might actually be decent at this hero thing. So has the Tal’Dorei council, who invites the group to attend a fancy banquet. It’s during this half hour that the series evolves into its true potential, bringing out character backstories and finding a groove in its action that culminates in a truly epic fight sequence, one that will leave viewers eagerly anticipating the next installment.

One of the strengths of The Legend of Vox Machina is that it skillfully balances the fine line of pleasing hardcore fans while also making itself accessible those who might not have binged all 115 episodes of the original campaign. That’s not to say that the show doesn’t lean into fan service (in a good way), however. For devoted Critters, there are plenty of Easter Eggs and inside jokes; those who know the characters well will also get a lot of joy out of watching exchanges between certain party members who eventually become endgame. And while it’s a treat to hear voices of these characters come to life in this world, what’s even more delightful is how the show manages to make you feel like you’re discovering them for the first time.

Bailey’s elegantly voiced Vex’ahlia and O’Brien’s suave Vax’ildan somehow exude an even stronger bond in this new format, while the heartwarming friendship between Willingham’s brute Grog and Johnson’s sweet Pike comes alive in a way that feels genuinely earned. Ray’s quirky and awkward Keyleth, by far the most relatable of the crew, brings a poignant and earnest grounding to the druid, and Riegel’s boastful and cocky Scanlan shines brightly as a standout — as do his songs. Jaffe, meanwhile, imbues Percy with a distinct sense of curiosity and intrigue that entices us to peel back the layers of his past, even if we already know it. (And of course, we can’t leave out Vex’s armored bear Trinket: the true MVP of the group.)

Mercer, who can usually be found playing multiple N.P.C.s (Non-Player Characters) during a normal campaign, takes on the impressive task of doing the same for the series. One of the most adept Dungeon Masters in the gaming sphere, Mercer further proves just how talented he is on every level by lending his vocals to multiple characters — some new and some familiar — each with unique tones and emotions. And yes, his likeness also gets drawn into the world in various scenes.

Vox Machina has never necessarily been the best band of adventurers, but they have always been the ones who are most willing to take a chance and roll the dice. That’s what makes them special — and that’s what makes this show, at least so far, unique.

Servant Season 3 premieres on Apple TV+ on Jan. 21.

The Turner family is whole again in Apple TV+’s captivating thriller Servant, but danger lurks in every shadow and crevice of the Philadelphia townhouse. Executive producer M. Night Shyamalan set the tone when he directed the pilot episode and the Season 3 premiere marks his fourth time behind the camera on this series. It is a confident return that immediately elevates the threat level by combining paranoia-laced warnings with chilling imagery. More questions than answers are thrown into the mix, but the mood-setting “Donkey” is a strong start.

“We’re going to be a family now,” Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) remarked in the Season 2 finale when she made good on her promise to bring baby Jericho home. A lot has transpired since the nanny first knocked on the Turners’ brownstone door and the lie that began it all has spiraled into kidnapping plots, the influence of a cult, and even murder. If the consequences weren’t so tragic it would be a farce and Servant keeps up the difficult balancing act in this new chapter.

While creator Tony Basgallop is still intent on keeping Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) in the dark about Jericho’s unusual resurrection, he did reveal a few nuggets regarding the Church of the Lesser Saints cult that took Leanne under their wing. The teenager’s arrival at the Turners was not sanctioned by the Church and defying their orders reflects Leanne’s power, or at least what is perceived to be capabilities that defy reason. Gifts from God (or someone else) are still a matter of speculation and her defiance at the end of the second season has been replaced by fear. Three months have passed and normalcy has resumed, but Shyamalan makes it clear this house is rotting from within.

In the previous two seasons, the small cast and reliance on the brownstone as the primary location has contributed to feelings of claustrophobia and a “horror begins at home” theme. Whenever someone travels beyond the street of the Turner residence, it is either via TV cameras for work or using FaceTime on the myriad Apple devices. The latter could come across as excessive product placement from the streamer, but the numerous iPhones and iPads fit the lifestyle and wealth of its characters. It is an effective approach to alienating characters and ramping up the tension, which continues in “Donkey” and adds to a heart-stopping sequence. It is a reminder of Shyamalan’s prowess in the thriller genre and his ability to transform the mundane into something terrifying.

The townhouse is an asset that goes beyond prime real estate and even after 20 episodes, there are unexplored crevices — or at least angles that haven’t been covered. Every inch of the luxurious floral wallpaper, expensive throws, and perfectly arranged toys highlights how Dorothy wants to be seen, but the sinkhole in the wine cellar is a stark reminder of the festering underbelly representing lies and dark forces swirling. The metaphor might be a little on the nose, but it also points to the perils of owning a home with Victorian-era plumbing. Moths escaping a crack in the wall are another unnerving addition, even if a logical explanation (albeit a disturbing one) is the source. Production designer Naaman Marshall has created a home that looks lived in and ready for an Architectural Digest magazine spread, while also giving the director a playground to ramp up the urban nightmare.

Creaking wooden floorboards, multiple levels (including the attic Leanne was locked in last season), and the bubbling sinkhole are design aspects that provide multiple options for Shyamalan’s roving camera. Extreme close-ups on Leanne’s face and feet during these heightened moments are part of the visual language first established by the director in the pilot, and our familiarity with these techniques doesn’t dampen their effectiveness. That’s particularly true when combined with Trevor Gureckis’ unsettling score, although the extreme food preparation close-ups have become a tad stale (pun intended).

Servant’s visual and soundtrack flourishes are vital to its signature disquieting atmosphere. However, the series would quickly lose steam if the four lead actors weren’t up to the challenge of trying to keep it together in the middle of this unnerving whirlwind. There is a rhythm to the performances and an expectation that while Dorothy and Sean (Toby Kebbell) attempt to play happy families, Rupert Grint’s Julian will be cracking dark jokes and indulging his sister’s every whim (including a very fun sing-along moment).

Secrets are the foundation of these relationships and the most compelling duo is still Free and Ambrose as Leanne and Dorothy. For the majority of the second season, the women were at odds (Dorothy literally tortured Leanne), but the attic captivity is no more, and it is as if this incident never occurred. Motherhood is central to this shift and Servant’s exploration of this role is anchored within this pairing. Whatever Dorothy experienced as a child is unclear, but it no doubt shaped her bond with Julian and the mother she wants to be. This is one of the unexplored areas that deserves attention this season.

Leanne’s pageant past and demanding stage mom recollections paint a picture of her unhappy childhood and inform the push-pull between the women caring for Jericho. A bathing suit gift in the premiere from Dorothy speaks to the mother-daughter bond both women lacked growing up — and desire in the present. Costume designer Sarah Duncan takes this further, signaling a shift in Leanne through clothing that is still demure but significantly less dowdy. Undoubtedly, this splash of elegance is a result of Dorothy’s sartorial influence.

The tightly wound pair could snap at any moment and Dorothy’s faux sunny outlook is in direct opposition to Leanne’s heightened anxiety levels. Conversations about going to the beach for the day or even the nearby park are full of double meaning that is elevated thanks to the nervous energy of the men in this equation. Julian almost died from a drug overdose last season after he snorted a copious amount of cocaine to dull the secrets buzzing around his brain. Making snarky comments as a defense mechanism can only sustain him for so long, and a stint in rehab and new girlfriend Vera (Sunita Mani) suggest Julian is turning a new page. Grint hasn’t toned down the acerbic tone in Julian’s voice, and sobriety hasn’t dulled his edges.

The writers do address Julian’s problematic romantic relationship with Leanne, which crossed a line at the end of Season 2, and while both characters were vulnerable in that scene, it didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. The jury is still out after the first outing, but the power imbalance feels less queasy in this episode. Thankfully, Sean’s affection for Leanne is purely platonic and Kebbell exhibits care in every interaction — while appearing like a man living on the edge of a life that could blow up at any moment.

Perceived and real threats are woven together, and the supernatural elements are still speculative. Every time it edges toward a concrete answer, something gets in the way, and while this is not a problem in the premiere, the second season stumbled thanks to pacing issues and contrived obstacles. Enough has changed in the interim that “Donkey” isn’t a case of repeating Season 1, and the prospect of a park location further adds to the unseen terrors hiding in plain sight.

The ambitious series has already been renewed for a fourth season, which means the planned 60-episode arc Shyamalan envisioned is on course and the wheels have yet to come off. This knowledge, coupled with the confident start to this middle chapter, ensures the underrated Apple TV+ gem remains a stellar offering in the streamer’s growing library and one that should be slept on no more.

Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina has lined up some major guest stars for its first season, with David Tennant, Stephanie Beatriz, and Tony Hale all on board to lend their voices.

Tennant will bring to life General Krieg, while Beatriz voices Lady Kima, and Hale takes on Sir Fince in Prime Video's upcoming animated series, which is based on Critical Role's popular D&D web series. Other members of The Council of Emon include Felicia Day as the Captain of Emon, Khary Payton as Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei, and Indira Varma as Lady Allura Vysoren.

They will be joined by several other supporting players, including Dominic Monaghan as Archibald Desnay, Gina Torres as Keeper Yennen, Sunil Malhotra as Gilmore, Stephen Root as Professor Anders, Grey Griffin as Delilah Briarwood, Rory McCann as Duke Vedmire, Kelly Hu as Dr. Anna Ripley, and Darin De Paul as Kerrion Stonefell.

The guest stars for the first season will be rounded out by Anjali Bhimani as Head Cleric, Eugene Byrd as Jarrett, Esmé Creed-Miles as Cassandra de Rolo, Bobby Hall aka Logic as Palace Guard, Max Mittelman as Desmond, Mason Alexander Park as the Tavern Keeper, Stacey Raymond as Bryn, and Tracie Thoms as the Everlight.

The core cast of Critical Role players from the live-streamed TTRPG series will reprise their D&D characters for the animated show, with Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham returning to their roles alongside Matthew Mercer who will voice Sylas Briarwood and several minor characters.

The Legend of Vox Machina was originally intended to be an animated special, but the record-breaking Kickstarter fundraiser grew so large that the special also grew into an animated series, which was later picked up by Amazon. IGN previously spoke to some of the Critical Role cast about the Kickstarter's impressive success, and their excitement for the adaptation.

The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina will premiere on Prime Video on January 28, with batches of three episodes releasing every week, for four weeks. Amazon ordered two seasons of the animated series before the show had launched, meaning that a further 12 episodes will arrive at a later date to fulfil the second season.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The Squid Game universe has only has just begun, according to Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.

Sarandos acknowledged today that Netflix's most popular series ever will be returning another season, confirming earlier remarks from series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. According to Variety, the remarks came during Netflix's fourth quarter 2021 earnings interview, where Sarandos was asked about the show's future.

"Absolutely,” Sarandos said. "The Squid Game universe has just begun."

Squid Game was one of last year's breakout streaming hits and IGN's best television show of 2021, reaching a "mind-boggling" 214 million subscribers worldwide. It depicts a "candy-coated" battle royale in which 456 contestants are forced to play children's games for a large prize pool and their lives.

Hwang Dong-hyuk previously confirmed that Squid Game would be returning, and even said that talks are underway for a third season. He also said main character Seong Gi-hun will return.

"I will promise you this, Gi-hun will come back," Hwang said. "He will do something for the world."

Sarandos did not say when Squid Game Season 2 will premiere.

A live-action Godzilla TV series is in the works at Apple TV+, helmed by Hawkeye author Matt Fraction and Chris Black, a longtime veteran on Star Trek: Enterprise and Robert Kirkman's Outcast.

The new series is set in the current Legendary franchise, after the events of 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. It will follow a new family with a secret connection to Monarch, a shadowy organization working behind the scenes throughout Legendary's Godzilla trilogy.

"Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the series explores one family's journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch," the synopsis reads.

Chris Black will serve as showrunner, and both he and Fraction will serve as executive producers, with production being handled by Legendary Television. Toho's Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita will also executive produce, representing the owners of the Godzilla brand.

No title or release date has been confirmed, so consider this one firmly in the early stages of development. It follows in the footsteps of 2014's Godzilla, 2019's King of Monsters, and 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, which brought the kaiju legends to a head against each other and eventually Mechagodzilla. It'll be joining the fray alongside an animated Kong: Skull Island series set to debut on Netflix.

Meanwhile, Godzilla has found some success as an anime series on Netflix.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and Mecha Godzilla was just misunderstood.

Students from Warsaw University in Poland have created a fully detailed, to-scale map of The Witcher universe's continent, and it's a doozy that shows off the scale of Geralt's adventures from Kaer Morhen to Skellige and beyond.

Ever wondered how far it is from Beauclair to Novigrad or where exactly is Vengerberg? Check out this map of the world of The Witcher prepared by students of Warsaw University! 🗺️

High res: https://t.co/VmO22mned6 pic.twitter.com/XHAdYMhw1d

— The Witcher (@witchergame) January 20, 2022

Here's a more accessible version of the same map.

The map reads a lot like any other professionally designed map, just you know, with fantasy cities and countries. It even comes with a helpful set of symbols that divides cities by population scale, country borders, and even elevation.

The whole thing really puts Geralt's adventures into perspective. In The Witcher 3, a journey from Skellige to Kaer Morhen really only takes a minute while the game loads the aging fortress. On this to-scale map, it's a literal continent away in polar opposite corners.

I do also appreciate having the map to show how remarkably close Novigrad is to Oxenfurt, despite the cities feeling relatively distinct. It's like Novigrad is Chicago and Oxenfurt is Joliet.

You can also see how warfare through the centuries has influenced borders. In The Witcher 3, Nilfgaard has all but won the war for control of Temeria and subsequently Redania. It's easy to see how their southern position would given them a strong foot to start invading Cintra, Ciri's original home, and on towards Brokilon and Temeria. It's no wonder the Novigrad region took center stage, given its immediate proximity to Redania, where King Radovid exacts his lethal campaign against mages in the games.

The Witcher season 2 debuted late last year to generally positive reception, and season 3 is reportedly almost fully written. Star Henry Cavill has said he hopes the next season stays faithful to the books, and a map like this one certainly doesn't hurt.

You can also check out what The Witcher season 2 ending means for Geralt's next adventures.

Joseph Knoop is a freelance contributor for IGN

The Book of Boba Fett's most unintentionally illuminating line comes during the bounty hunter's meeting with the Twins, a pair of Hutts who have decided that fighting a war for Jabba's old territory isn't worth the hassle.

"Tatooine is a worthless rock," one of them says dismissively, advising Boba Fett to depart for more fertile territory. It's a statement that seems tinged with a certain amount of sheepish awareness on the part of the writers, acknowledging both Tatooine's relative insignificance and its outsized influence on the Star Wars universe.

Despite being described by Luke Skywalker as the planet furthest from "the bright center to the universe," Tatooine is arguably Star Wars' most famous planet, serving as the headquarters for Jabba's criminal empire and the home planet for both Luke and Anakin Skywalker. Over the years it has served as a kind of convenient catch-all for the galaxy's wild frontier, providing it a central place in the Star Wars mythos.

It has also come to represent a franchise trapped by its own history. This is especially apparent in The Book of Boba Fett, which has thus far been one long series of "Remember that?" moments aimed at fans, from Boba Fett's emergence from the Sarlacc Pit to random Max Rebo cameos. Even Tosche Station, where Luke so dearly wanted to pick up some power converters, makes an appearance. If The Book of Boba Fett feels shallow, it may be because it substitutes meaningful world-building for endlessly playing the hits like the alien band in the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Star Wars’ Endless Frontier

It wasn't supposed to be this way. As originally portrayed, Tatooine was a kind of jumping off point for Luke Skywalker's heroic journey — a humble origin that could contrast with his adventures among the stars. In Joseph Campbell’s classic story of a Hero with a Thousand Faces, Luke’s escape from Tatooine was meant to be the moment that he crossed the threshold and truly began his journey to become a mythic hero. Once Luke blasted his way out of Mos Eisley spaceport with Han and Chewie, its part in the story was finished, or so it seemed.

But George Lucas was an expert visual storyteller, and Tatooine was his masterpiece. The Tunisian desert provided the canvas on which Lucas would paint the Star Wars universe, from the hulking Sandcrawler to the bustling Mos Eisley spaceport. Its endless wastes and seedy towns were evocative of everything from Dune to John Carter of Mars to Yojimbo, with Tatooine being a stand-in of sorts for Arrakis, Mars, and even the deserts of Lawrence of Arabia. In the years to come, scenes like the one set in Tatooine's famous cantina would become synonymous with Star Wars — so much so that Lucas himself wouldn’t be able to resist returning to the planet for future installments.

With Star Wars largely dormant in the wake of Return of Jedi, Tatooine would become a popular setting for creators working within the Star Wars universe in the 90s and 2000s, appearing in a multitude of books, comics, and games. It was a useful way to provide a story with an injection of Star Wars arcana, grounding it in a place that fans would instantly recognize without having to do the work of building up a new world from scratch.

In hindsight, we should have been worried when George Lucas opted to return to Tatooine for The Phantom Menace, where it was established as Darth Vader’s home planet. It was in the prequels that Tatooine started to be the desert planet where everything seemed to happen, subsequently appearing in multiple movies and TV shows. Even The Force Awakens — itself a kind of off-color copy of A New Hope — had Jakku, which in essence was Tatooine with a crashed Star Destroyer.

Over time the Star Wars universe began to feel small, its heroes all seemingly connected in one way or another to the Skywalkers or Tatooine. Despite having an unlimited number of possibilities, Star Wars couldn’t help returning to the supposedly insignificant world its fans knew best. It was emblematic of Star Wars’ increasingly self-referential storytelling, which helped fuel marketing and nostalgia, but left the setting as a whole feeling increasingly stale.

When The Mandalorian came around in 2019, I quietly prayed that Mando and Baby Yoda would never make their way to Tatooine. I was among those taken by its first season, its episodic format lending a sense of texture to the universe that had been missing from the sequel trilogy. It brought back the sense of Star Wars being a “used universe,” its hero a sci-fi samurai out of a Kurosawa film. It made Star Wars feel new again.

But, it couldn’t last. Season 2’s premiere went right back to Tatooine, and as I feared, it established that Boba Fett had survived his turn in the Sarlacc’s belly (I had kind of hoped that his armor was just randomly around, but it wasn’t to be). The rest of the season exemplified Disney’s decisive pivot back toward fan-service, culminating in a finale that effectively mirrored the one scene in Rogue One that everyone liked. By the time Boba Fett shot Bib Fortuna dead and took his place on Jabba’s throne, it was clear that Disney was more than willing to embrace safe, marketable nostalgia — anything to avoid the fan backlash brought by The Last Jedi.

A Larger World

And so we come to Book of Boba Fett, a show that attempts to combine one of the most fan-friendly characters with the most fan-friendly planet and as many references as can be managed in seven episodes. Tatooine itself takes on the quality of a theme park, with almost every scene serving as some kind of callback to a previous piece of Star Wars media. Even the spider droid briefly glimpsed in Return of the Jedi makes an appearance.

It’s probably not a coincidence that its single best elements — Boba Fett bonding with the Tusken Raiders and the train heist that ended Episode 2 — are the sequences that drew more from classic cinema than established Star Wars stories. Scenes like Boba Fett riding around on a Bantha and blowing up trains does indeed feel like something straight out of Lawrence of Arabia. It helps to lend some badly-needed texture to the Star Wars universe, even when it continues to be trapped within the limited confines of Tatooine.

But such moments are the exception rather than the rule. By and large, The Book of Boba Fett is happier referencing other Star Wars stories than the sci-fi canon that inspired the franchise in the first place, with even the Tusken storyline amounting to an extended callback to A New Hope, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and even Clone Wars. Watching The Book of Boba Fett, I’ve found myself kind of hoping that Boba will just say “Screw it” and follow the Twins to Nal Hutta, which is relatively fertile ground as far as Star Wars settings go, and every bit as much of an epicenter of criminal activity. But then how could you have Danny Trejo as a Rancor trainer?

I fell in love with Star Wars in part because it provided such a vast and original galaxy to explore, taking decades of cinema and literature and weaving it into something entirely new. If Disney is looking for a way forward, the solution may be to take a cue from Luke and look over the horizon to the many worlds still unexplored, drawing from our collective myths rather than old Star Wars stories.

In other words, Star Wars should complete what was begun in A New Hope. It should leave Tatooine behind and not look back, and in so doing truly take its first step into a larger world.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

This review contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Peacemaker, “The Choad Less Traveled,” which airs on Jan. 20 on HBO Max. To catch up, check out our spoiler-free review of the three-episode premiere.

Peacemaker slows down a bit in its fourth episode to work on fleshing out its characters more. The result is somewhat uneven, as attempts to make Peacemaker and Vigilante more sympathetic don’t quite feel earned and a final twist has little impact. That said, the team’s dysfunction still keeps the series fun and entertaining.

“The Choad Less Traveled” picks up right after the disastrous assassination of the Goff family, with the Project Butterfly team speeding away with the senator’s superpowered bodyguard, Judomaster, who is somehow not dead despite the beating he sustained. The primary difference between superheroes and vigilantes is that superheroes work with the cops to send their enemies to prison while vigilantes just kill them, a point driven home by Peacemaker and Vigilante eagerly pulling out guns and offering to execute Judomaster.

It’s surprising that not even Harcourt accepts that solution, particularly since the decision to try to keep Judomaster captive given her lecture on hard choices just a few minutes later. But Peacemaker fighting with his dad’s nosy neighbor about why he’s better than Batman because he’s killed all his supervillains continues the theme in a hilarious fashion, an in-universe version of an argument fans and critics of the Dark Knight have been having for decades.

After chiding Peacemaker for hesitating to kill an entire family, Murn promises to finally explain what butterflies are later that night, but of course events conspire to string the mystery along even further. Peacemaker learns about the terrible bit of improvisation that got his dad arrested for his own crimes and, against the wishes of the rest of the team, goes to visit him, unintentionally but extremely predictably spilling details on their mission. Even though she’s not sure if she’s cut out for this line of work, Adebayo shows she’s inherited some of her mother’s manipulative ruthlessness as she slickly convinces Vigilante to kill Auggie.

Robert Patrick continues to deliver the best performance of the show in his callous dismissal of his son and his smooth handling of Vigilante’s attempts to goad him into attacking him. Even in the face of what seems like a full-on alien invasion, Auggie looks like the most dangerous character. It also seems inevitable we’ll eventually get to see him in the extremely imposing White Dragon costume on display in his lab while Peacemaker giddily loots his selection of helmets. Those weak points in the armor Vigilante points out feel like obvious foreshadowing to be used in a future confrontation.

Considering the flashbacks showing just how much abuse Auggie put Peacemaker through and that he doesn’t seem to actually share his father’s racism, it’s baffling why he has such filial loyalty. But considering that he’s a murderous jerk, it’s also hard to care too much about his trauma and attempts to break free of that cycle. It’s a testament to John Cena’s charm that his redemption is working as well as it does, showing how much he feels trapped by his life as a killer. Given the option to kill the butterfly from the Goff mission or turn it over for inevitable dissection, he chooses to get high with it instead. It’s a weirdly touching gesture — one man who most people consider to be a monster unwilling to pass that judgment on what seems like a monster until he has more evidence.

The first Suicide Squad film gave detailed intros for all the main characters and then added on Slipknot just to blow him up to demonstrate the power of the Amanda Waller’s bombs. Murn has always felt like the Slipknot equivalent in Peacemaker since most of the rest of the team appeared in The Suicide Squad and the other newcomer, Adebayo, has received extensive character-building scenes. Murn hasn’t been developed much besides having a dark past, and though the weird lines about how he’s never shared anything with anyone mostly just seemed like him being an entirely closed off tough guy. However, it’s finally confirmed that that’s the case because he’s a legitimate alien.

This is played like a big reveal, but in any secret invasion plot there’s pretty much got to be a mole, and Murn is the least surprising person for it to be. What’s potentially more intriguing is Judomaster’s line that “the butterflies are not what you think.” Are they at war with each other? Seeking refuge from a greater threat? Given what we now know about Murn, whatever he reveals might also disclose more of his agenda. Also, here’s hoping we get more of Judomaster in general. His fights and insults are consistently hilarious.

The Star Wars Black Series Bo-Katan helmet is the latest entry in a very solid collection of premium electronic helmets from Hasbro's top-end Star Wars collectibles line.

This helmet is based on the version seen in The Mandalorian, making it realistic as opposed to a hypothetical Clone Wars version, which would be cool, don't get me wrong, but naturally lean towards an animation style.

Preorder the Bo-Katan Black Series Helmet

If you're unfamiliar with the Black Series helmet line, they're basically cosplay-level replicas of the movie and show props, with tons of awesome details to add further to their sense of authenticity.

In the case of the Bo-Katan helmet, there's an eletronic rangefinder similar to the one found in the now-hard-to-find Boba Fett helmet. (Well... it's hard to find at retail pricing). Basically you flip down the rangefinder and there are 2 LEDs "that flash in a hunting pattern." There's also a "white LED-illuminated heads-up display."

On top of aesthetic touches, the Black Series helmets are padded, quite nicely I might add, making them comfortable to actually wear. And the padding isn't that weird black foam from Halloween costumes, it's actually great quality and fits with the overall aesthetic theme of the piece.

The Bo-Katan Black Series Helmet joins the Leia Organa Black Series Lightsaber in release later this year.

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

The Shenmue anime will premiere on Saturday, February 5 on both Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, with the two services splitting the dubbed and subbed versions of the show.

Shenmue the Animation is based on the popular Sega video game franchise and will be an adaptation of the events from the video game. Set in 1986, martial artist Ryo Hazuki trains under his father until one day a mysterious man murders him.

Now Ryo must travel from Yokosuka to Hong Kong to uncover the mystery of his father’s death.

Adult Swim will premiere an English dubbed version of the series while Crunchyroll will stream a subtitled version worldwide outside of Japan and China.

The voice cast includes Austin Tindle as Ryo Hazuki, Scott Gibs as Lan Di, Ryo’s father’s murderer, Natalie Rial as Shenhua a young girl from a rural village, and Cat Thomas as Nozomi Haraski, Ryo’s classmate and admirer.

Shenmue was created by famed game developer Yu Suzuki who envisioned a free-flowing cinematic game. The first Shenmue game was released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast to critical acclaim. A sequel was released in 2001.

After over a decade, a third Shenmue game was successfully crowdfunded and finally released in 2019. It was one of the fastest-funded video game projects ever to go up on Kickstarter. You can check out IGN’s review of Shenmue 3 here and how it feels like a game stuck in time.

Shenmue the Animation is directed by Chikara Sakurai who worked on the second season of One Punch Man, and with animation from Telecom Animation Film.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Fans of classical fantasy haven’t been able to revisit J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe in live-action since 2014, when the last Hobbit film was released. Thankfully, Amazon is producing a full-length television series, titled "Rings of Power," set in Middle-earth’s Second Age, starring a whole new cast of characters that we’ve yet to see onscreen. (Well, most of them, if rumors of a young Aragorn showing up are true.) As the show's development speeds up, there’s been a bit of casting news to give us little hints of where this Lord of the Rings series’ plot may go. So we went ahead and rounded up every confirmed character and actor that’ll be playing a role, as well as a few players from the movies who've confirmed that they're not coming back.

Read on for every actor and character we know about so far in the Amazon Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

Who We Know WILL Be Part of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings

Joseph Mawle as the Villain

Joseph Mawle is probably best known for his small, but meaningful role in Game of Thrones as Benjen Stark, uncle to the Stark children and brother to Sean Bean’s Ned Stark. He’s also had roles in Sense8, Birdsong, 2015’s In the Heart of the Sea, and in the current MotherFatherSon series.

It’s been reported that Mawle is playing the role of a villain in The Lord of the Rings. Considering Amazon’s series is set during the Second Age, that could mean a lot of things. The Second Age ends with the defeat of Sauron’s armies at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, so it’s entirely possible that Sauron may play a role. If Amazon is aiming for a smaller scale villain, the Second Age was also when the Ringwraiths were created, and encapsulates the War of the Rings between Sauron and the Elves. If that’s all a bit confusing, just read our explainer on Middle-earth’s Second Age and what it means for Amazon’s show.

Why does the Second Age matter in Middle-Earth lore? Check out the video below.

Robert Aramayo

Aramayo is best known for playing a young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, via flashback. He also plays Sgt. Major Atkins in The King's Man. Mindhunter fans will recognize him as serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley.

Aramayo is rumored to play a character codenamed Beldor, who fans believe may be Elrond, owing to his character description implying he's a politically savvy, but reserved man.

Morfydd Clark

Clark's credits include The Personal History of David Copperfield, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and Crawl.

Clark confirmed to Esquire she will play a younger version of Galadriel, queen of the elves, who went on to aid the Fellowship after their deadly journey through the mines of Moria.

Benjamin Walker

Walker is arguably most known in geek film circles for playing Abraham Lincoln in, you guessed it, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He also played superpowered empath Erik Gelden in Jessica Jones season three.

Ismael Cruz Cordova

Cordova is a Puerto Rican actor, with credits including Miss Bala, The Catch, and the Twi'lek Qin in Disney Plus' The Mandalorian.

Cordova is rumored to play a character named Calenon, a brooding but handsome soldier and adventurer.

Markella Kavenagh as Tyra

Markella Kavenagh has previously starred in smaller series like The Cry, Romper Stomper, and Picnic at Hanging Rock. Deadline reports she'll be playing a character named Tyra, though we still don’t have any confirmation of that from Amazon, of course. According to CBR, leaked audition tapes point towards Tyra being an elven character, with a caring personality. Audition tapes are often placeholders, especially with spoiler-sensitive series like this, so don’t put too much weight in it just yet.

Maxim Baldry

Baldry is a British actor, with credits including Strike Back, Mr. Bean's Holiday, and a single episode of Doctor Who.

Baldry is rumored to play a young version of Isildur, the ancestor of Aragorn and king who secured Sauron's ring for himself.

Ema Horvath

Horvath's credits include The Mortuary Collection, What Lies Below, Don't Look Deeper, and more.

Horvath is rumored to play an original character named Shay, daughter of Elendil, the Numenorean king who was slain by Sauron during the final battle for the ring. This would also make her a sibling to Isildur.

Nazanin Boniadi

Boniadi's credits include Homeland, How I Met Your Mother, and Hotel Mumbai.

Cynthia Addai-Robinson

Addai-Robinson's credits include Starz' Power, CW's Arrow series (where she played Amanda Waller) Chicago Med, and other television series and films since 2002. It's currently unknown what role she'll be playing in Rings of Power.

Trystan Gravelle

Gravelle is a Welsh actor, with credits including 2017's Beast, Sky's A Discovery of Witches, and 2011's Anonymous. It's unknown what role he'll be playing in Rings of Power.

Peter Mullan

Mullan is a Scottish actor known for his role as Syd in Children of Men, Ted Narracott in War Horse, and Ridgeway in Underground Railroad. He also played James Delos in HBO's Westworld and Jacob Snell in Ozark.

Augustus Prew

Prew's credits include Kick-Ass 2, The Morning Show, the Borgias, and others.

Charles Edwards

Edwards is a British actor known for playing Princess Elizabeth's secretary Martin Charteris in The Crown. His other credits include a small role in Batman Begins, HBO's The Witches, and Downton Abbey.

Lenny Henry

Henry is a British actor, perhaps most known for playing the shrunken head in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He's also starring in the upcoming Witcher: Blood Origin series. His other credits include Broadchurch, The Pirates clay animation film, and The Syndicate.

Alex Tarrant

Tarrant's credits include Vegas, SeaChange, and NCIS, Hawai'i

Simon Merrells

Merrells is a British actor, with credits including History Channel's Knightfall, Spartacus' Marcus Crassus, and Amazon's Good Omens.

Lloyd Owen

Owen is a British actor, with credits including Apollo 18, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, and perhaps most interestingly for IGN readers, the calamitous corporate executive Ted Faro in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Thusitha Jayasundera

Jayasundera is a Sri Lankan actor, with credits including Jackie Chan's The Foreigner, Humans, and Broadchurch.

Other actors

Other cast members of Rings of Power include: Lloyd Owen, Amelie Child Villiers, Geoff Morrell, Kip Chapman, Sara Zwangobani, Will Fletcher, Fabian McCallum, Will Fletcher, Maxine Cunliffe, Leon Wadham, Peter Tait, Ian Blackburn, Anthony Crum, Daniel Weyman, Owain Arthur, Tom Budge, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Megan Richards, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete.

Who We Know WON'T Be Part of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings

Andy Serkis as Gollum

The man behind many digital faces won’t be reprising his role as Gollum/Smeagol. For one, Smeagol was born in the Third Age, well after the period of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series. Serkis himself has been pretty frank about not appearing in the new series, and he cites a good reason.

"Oh boy, listen, I mean ... I don't think so," Serkis told CinemaBlend. "And if I was anyone making those, they're obviously going to want to start fresh and create something brand new. And that's how it should be."

Serkis continued his thoughts by citing The Jungle Book and its various reinterpretations (including the version he directed).

"That's what you do with great, classic pieces of work," Serkis said. "Like [The Jungle Book]. It bears repetition, and it bears reinterpretation. And I think it needs a fresh pair of ears and eyes, and I'm sure that's the way they'll go."

Orlando Bloom as Legolas

Orlando Bloom went on record earlier in 2019, stating that he hadn’t had any conversations about appearing in Amazon's show.

"I don't know how they're going to approach it, I haven't had any conversations about that," Bloom said, but pointed out that he's probably done everything there is to do with Legolas as part of Peter Jackson's films. "I like to think of myself as ageless, but I don’t know where I would fit in that world. If you're saying as Legolas, they probably have a 19-year-old kid who’s ready to go and he’ll do a great job."

Logistically, this is another tough one. J.R.R. Tolkien never gave concrete details on Legolas’ age, but educated guesses from the fan community estimate he’s more than 5000 years old by around the time of The Fellowship of the Ring. That puts his birth somewhere around the end of the Second Age at the earliest. He’s never mentioned during the Last Alliance of elves and men either, so don’t expect him to play even a tertiary role.

Peter Jackson Isn’t Involved

Jackson, who directed all three original Lord of the Rings films and all three Hobbit films, told French publication Allocine that he won’t be involved with Amazon’s show.

“I’m not involved at all in the Lord of the Rings series," Jackson said. "I understand how my name could come up, but there is nothing happening with me on this project."

Will Poulter

Though he was originally brought on to play an unidentified role, Poulter confirmed to NME that a scheduling conflict made it impossible to continue. Poulter's credits include Netflix's Bandersnatch, Midsommar, and Maze Runner.

Who's RUMORED to Be Part of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings

A Young Aragorn

Previous rumors indicated that a young Aragorn might factor into Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series, but unless they’re using him as a framing device, we can assume he won’t make an appearance. The rumor came from a fan outlet known as The One Ring, which has been reliable in the past, but this one just doesn’t check out.

Aragorn was also born well into the Third Age, and though he’s lived a life far longer than a normal human (thanks, Dunedain blood!), you can’t simply have him appear a couple thousand years before he was actually alive.

You can read more details about The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power here, or check out how the crew made the opening credits sequence using zero CGI.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/resident Gollum for IGN.

Update: With the recent reveal of the official plot synopsis for Amazon's Lord of the Rings series and the debut of the series' full title, we thought it was the perfect time to dig in on what the Second Age of LOTR is all about. Read on to learn more about the marvelous world author J.R.R. Tolkien created.

As the streaming wars heat up, Amazon is betting big on The Lord of the Rings. The company is spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing a prequel series set long before the events of the movies. This series, dubbed The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, will be set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, an important time that literally reshaped the face of the planet.

And now casting news is pouring in on the show, with Game of Thrones’ Benjen Stark, Joseph Mawle, hired to play -- it seems -- the series’ villain. Will Poulter will play protagonist Beldor and Markella Kavenagh has been cast as Tyra.

If you're not familiar with the extensive backstory behind The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, don't worry. Here's everything you need to know about Middle-earth's Second Age and what it could mean for the plot of the prequel series.

The Second Age: The Basics

The fantasy universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien is much bigger than just the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. The land of Middle-earth is part of a larger world called Arda. Over the course of several decades of work (much of which was only published posthumously), Tolkien created a detailed history of Arda, ranging from the creation of the universe all the way up to humanity's modern era. The recorded history of Arda is divided into four Ages, each of which span many hundreds or thousands of years.

Learn about the Lord of the Rings show's setting here:

The Second Age is a period only briefly glimpsed in the Lord of the Rings movies. This setting spans a long period of time in between the banishment of Morgoth (the original Dark Lord) and the first defeat of his servant Sauron. The Second Age is defined by key events like the rise and fall of the kingdom of Númenor, the creation of the Rings of Power and the formation of the Last Alliance that temporarily saved the world from Sauron's wrath. This is the setting of Amazon's Lord of the Rings prequel series.

The Second Age: Major Events

The Second Age begins in the aftermath of a catastrophic war over mystical jewels known as Silmarils and Morgoth's banishment from Arda. In this new era, both men and Elves begin leaving Middle-earth and venturing west. Many Elves retreat to a place called the Undying Lands (the place Frodo and Bilbo are taken to at the end of Return of the King), while a group of men called the Edain settle on an island called Númenor. While initially benevolent, the Númenóreans become more warlike due to their jealousy of the elves' immortality.

Watch the trailer for the Middle-earth: Shadow of War game here:

The Second Age is where Sauron begins consolidating his power and filling the void left by his master, Morgoth. Skilled at flattery and deceit, Sauron manipulates the Elves into creating the Rings of Power and giving him the weapons he needs to dominate Middle-earth. The rings are forged by an Elf Lord and master jewel-smith named Celebrimbor (a character who plays a major role in the 2014 video game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel). Only too late does Celebrimbor discover Sauron's true nature and the real purpose of these powerful artifacts.

The reign of the Númenóreans culminates with the rise of a king named Ar-Pharazôn. Sauron convinces Ar-Pharazôn to turn against the Valar (basically Tolkien's version of angels) and attempt an invasion of the Undying Lands, where the Númenóreans might find the immortality they so crave. This is one of the few instances where Ilúvatar (or the God of Tolkien's fantasy universe) directly intervenes in mortal affairs. Ilúvatar annihilates Númenor in an act so destructive it transforms Arda from a flat plane into a globe. This act also cuts off the Undying Lands from the rest of the world, forever denying men the chance at immortality.

Sauron himself is nearly destroyed in this attack, but his spirit survives and he soon begins building a new army in Mordor. Fortunately, not all men were destroyed along with Númenor. A group called the Faithful, led by King Elendil (the distant ancestor of Aragorn), return to Middle-earth and create the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Along with his sons, Isildur and Anárion, and the Elven kings Gil-Galad and Elrond, Elendil forms the Last Alliance and wages a long, costly war against Sauron.

Lord of the Rings fans probably know what happens from there. Sauron is defeated but not destroyed, Isildur claims the One Ring and the Second Age makes way for the Third.

The Rings of Power: Amazon's Prequel Series

Even knowing that Amazon's Lord of the Rings prequel series is set in the Second Age doesn't tell us a great deal about the plot. For one thing, the Second Age lasts for almost 3500 years. More importantly, this is an era of Middle-earth history that isn't very well-defined. Tolkien never actually published any books after completing the Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1955. Most of what we know about the Second Age is taken from posthumous works like The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth series, all of which were compiled by Tolkien's son Christopher using unpublished manuscripts and earlier drafts of the LotR trilogy.

Learn how Amazon could produce at least five seasons of the LOTR show:

Basically, there isn't one set story or a specific cast of characters Amazon can rely on when creating the prequel series. Though Amazon has revealed a sizable cast for Season 1, none of the actors have confirmed roles yet. We may see certain key events like the fall of Númenor or the formation of the Last Alliance play out over the course of several seasons, but the series will also need to introduce new plot points and characters to fill in the blanks and turn the broad strokes of Tolkien's writing into a complete, cohesive story.

We also don't know if the prequel series will attempt to chronicle the entire scope of the Second Age or focus on one, specific conflict. Showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have hinted the series may be taking the first approach.

"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics,” Payne and McKay said in a statement. “The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.”

One possibility is that the series will explore multiple, distinct time periods. Amazon has reportedly committed to five seasons and a potential spinoff, so it's possible each season will focus on a different pivotal event from the Second Age.

Early rumors suggested the prequel series would focus on a young Aragorn. While Aragorn wasn't born until several thousand years after the end of the Second Age, these rumors could still pan out. The series could use Aragorn's story as a framing device, with the king-to-be learning about the history of his people and the mistakes made by previous kings like Ar-Pharazôn and Elendil. This might be an ideal way of introducing viewers to the complex history of Middle-earth while giving them a familiar character to latch onto.

For more on what we do know about the prequel series, read our breakdown of the creative team, find out how many episodes will be in the first season and learn why Orlando Bloom probably won't be back as Legolas.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

French actor Gaspard Ulliel, one of the stars of Marvel's upcoming Moon Knight series, has reportedly died at the age of 37.

According to Deadline, Ulliel was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Grenoble after suffering a serious head injury during a skiing collision in the Savoie region of the Alps on Tuesday. The actor's family and local agent have reportedly since informed the news agency AFP that Ulliel has not survived the tragic accident.

Ulliel is perhaps best known for his role as the young Hannibal Lecter in 2007's Hannibal Rising, which served as an adaptation of Thomas Harris' 2006 novel of the same name. He also starred in the likes of Saint Laurent, It's Only the End of the World, and A Very Long Engagement, for which he won a César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2017.

It's understood that he had also recently completed work on Marvel's Moon Knight series alongside Oscar Isaac's mercenary-turned-vigilante Marc Spector/Moon Knight and Ethan Hawke's villainous mad scientist Arthur Harrow. A former listing on Ulliel's talent agency page showed the actor as taking on the role of Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man in the series.

French prime minister Jean Castex shared a tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing that Ulliel "grew up with cinema and cinema grew with him."

Ulliel is survived by his long-term partner Gaëlle Piétri and their six-year-old son Orso.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Thumbnail image credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for La Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco.

Earlier today, Prime Video shared the title treatment for their upcoming series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Centering on the Second Age storyline from J.R.R. Tolkein’s books, the show is believed to explore major players like Sauron, Galadriel, Elrond, and more during their formative years during a time when Middle-earth was at peace. (You can read the official synopsis of Rings of Power here.)

There’s much theorizing to be done about all of the adventures we could see in the first expansive look at the Second Age — something that occupies the appendices of Tolkein’s saga — but for now, we want to take an exclusive look at the making of this impressive title treatment.

Back in late 2021, we had the opportunity to witness part of the filming of the title sequence right here in sunny Los Angeles (under strict COVID protocols, of course). Looking at the video, it’s easy to assume that it’s your standard CGI opening credits sequence. But one doesn’t simply digitally create an opening for a Lord of the Rings property.,

Special Effect Advisor Douglas Trumball made sure of it, in fact. Trumbull has always had a practical-first mindset, which he broke down for IGN. “I always try to find an organic — or analog — solution instead of the knee-jerk reaction to use computer graphics,” he said. “The reason for this is: every time I try this, I get some delightful result that is, in some respects, unexpected. There are magical things that happen in nature — gravity, fluids, lighting — that one couldn’t really design using computer graphics.”

Watch this exclusive behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power title sequence:

A whole lot of small details came together to create what can only be described as literal movie magic. For starters, the hills and valleys you see throughout the title treatment are actually a huge (sustainably sourced) hunk of reclaimed redwood. And that water? That’s actually molten metal.

“There was a desire in shooting this title reveal to have a wash of water come through, which I thought was a very beautiful idea,” Trumball explained. “The question was ‘well, would it be water, or would it be something else?’ to give the ‘burbling’ effect. That’s a very difficult thing to do with computer graphics because it’s in the realm of fluid dynamics which are very hard to calculate. They’re some of the most challenging elements of computer graphics to execute and you can wait days and days for some frames to render. Whereas, if you’re on a set and you have REAL hot, molten metals and super cold water interacting with this, you’re almost CERTAINLY going to get some surprising visual effect which — on camera — will look really great, particularly if it’s shot at 5000 frames a second.”

Of course, you can’t repeatedly pour molten metal into a piece of wood and expect it to survive the experience. But the production team was ready! Additional plates needed for the project were made out of compressed sand.

This allowed production to shoot multiple pours with the Phantom Flex 4K camera until they got the exact effect they were looking for, as well as opening up the opportunity for the team to shoot the treatment in a whole host of languages.

A Phantom Flex 4K isn’t the kind of camera you sneeze at. Director Klaus Obermeyer broke down what made him go with that specific rig. “We wanted to capture something that was not visible with the human eye,” he explained. “The molten metal, and its characteristics, are made exceptionally fascinating when you shoot ultra-slow motion which enables you to see the swelling, cooling, and undulation and energy of the molten metal in a way that you could never experience with normal human perception. The only camera that was capable of shooting a high enough frame rate to enable that outcome was the Phantom Flex 4k.

How were the effects achieved, you wonder? That’s where the magic comes in. In order to accomplish the mystical twinkles that jump from the river of metal, the team used a whole host of different mix-ins that resulted in different kinds of effects.

In addition to playing with different kinds of metal (aluminum and bronze) for the pours themselves, the crew also experimented with things like sparkler dust, argon pours, liquid hydrogen and more.

Foundryman Landon Ryan — the owner of the shoot location and metal fabrication expert — gave us insight on what it was like collaborating on a project like this.

“This is the first time I’ve ever worked on a production,” explained Ryan. “I’ve never seen molten metal like this. I’ve always been acutely aware of how metal functions. But this is another level. It’s a deeper understanding. I’ve never been able to slow down physics. At this juncture it was a way to view a world that is impossible to see with the naked eye.”

Fans of the Peter Jackson films may note the shift from gold to silver in the title treatment, but everything you see in these few moments is a part of a greater plan by the team behind the project. You can expect the silver to play an interesting role in the series to come…

In the meantime, what do you think of the title “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” and all of the practical work that went into creating the effects in the video? Sound off in the comments!

Amazon Studios officially announced the title of its forthcoming Lord of the Rings television series: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series will premiere on September 2, 2022, on Prime Video.

The epic fantasy show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, a relatively unexplored portion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga mostly chronicled in the appendices of his novel. The show takes places thousands of years before the events depicted in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies.

You can see a title reveal in the reveal video below:

"This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien's other classics,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay said in a statement. “The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.”

They added: “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring - but before there was one, there were many... and we're excited to share the epic story of them all."

In the title video, various shots of Middle-earth are seen as molten metal is poured into a forge and cooled to create the series’ title in silver, its lettering in Elven script. Over this, a female voiceover – a young Galadriel perhaps? – recites Tolkien’s epigraph to Lord of the Rings:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The voiceover omits the passage’s next lines – “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them” – which were famously heard in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, suggesting that’s a story we already know.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

In addition to Payne and McKay, the show’s executive producers include Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producer Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip serves as co-executive producer and also directs episodes along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

Check out how they made the Lord of the Rings title sequence as a practical effect:

Season One of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power wrapped filming in New Zealand in August 2021. Envisioned as a multi-season saga, Season 2 will film in the U.K. Amazon Studios previously announced that pre-production on Season 2 will begin in early 2022.

King of the Hill is set to make a comeback, 25 years after Fox launched the original animated sitcom and introduced us to Hank and the gang.

You may want to meet us in the alley because the word on the street is that King of the Hill is being revived. According to The Hollywood Reporter, original series creators Greg Daniels and Mike Judge have reunited to form their own animation company called Bandera Entertainment that has more than a dozen animated series in various stages of development.

Daniels and Judge haven't shared any official details about the return of King of the Hill, other than to say that something is in the works. Other projects at Bandera include Netflix's newly ordered Bad Crimes, starring Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus, and Freeform's previously announced Praise Petey, headlined by Schitt's Creek vet Annie Murphy.

"We were very excited to go into different tones and different styles and try to expand the animation art form," Daniels said of Bandera's animation slate. "We're in a golden age for content, right? That's animation, too. That was one of the things we were talking about in founding the company: 'Let's push animation into all these different genres.'"

King of the Hill aired for 13 seasons on Fox between 1997 and 2009, making it one of the most successful animated sitcoms to debut in the wake of The Simpsons. The series follows the mundane day-to-day struggles of Hank Hill, his family, and the many other eccentric personalities in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas, the heartland of America.

Writer Brent Forrester previously teased the possibility of a King of the Hill revival in March last year when he revealed that both Daniels and Judge were locked in "hot negotiations" to revive the popular Fox series, which would see Hank Hill and his family drawn back to life at a time when the "characters have all aged 15 years" following the events of the series finale.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

This review contains spoilers for episode 4 of The Book of Boba Fett, 'The Gathering Storm’, now available to view on Disney+. To remind yourself of where we left off, check out our review of The Book of Boba Fett episode 3.

Ever since The Book of Boba Fett began there’s been a niggling feeling that something has been missing from Fett’s story. But chapter four, “The Gathering Storm,” has finally delivered it: motivation.

Crumbs have certainly been left over the last three episodes hinting at Boba’s purpose for displacing Bib Fortuna and taking over as daimyo in Mos Espa via his sojourns to the past in his bacta tank. Now writer Jon Favreau has effectively pulled those loose threads together to give meaning to his present-day movements.

As with most Star Wars stories, there’s a strong colonial undercurrent to Boba’s mission to take back control of Tatooine from invading outsiders who are claiming ownership over the planet’s natural resources. The massacre of the native Sand People weighs heavily on Boba, and Temuera Morrison shrouds himself with this survivor’s guilt in every sorrowful glance. But Boba also uses that grief, and the lessons his dearly departed friends taught him about community strength, solidarity, and loyalty to drive his mission against the Pyke Syndicate’s stranglehold over spice production and commerce.

The origin story of his and Fennec Shand’s partnership has been a long-time coming, especially for this reviewer who has been eager to see more from the formidable Ming-Na Wen. It doesn’t disappoint. The cyberpunk is strong in one cool scene depicting the operation that gives Fennec the robotic modifications that saved her life. One of the great things about these Disney+ series is that the aesthetically-diverse cultures explored in the comics can be realised on screen, and so we get ‘00s Hacker-esque techno music pumping out the speakers as a dreadlocked mechanic gives Fennec a technological upgrade. The body shop has a tattoo parlour feel and, for many an inked individual, Boba’s words to Fennec about her mods, that “with time you start to crave it,” will probably ring true.

What’s really impressive about Wen’s performance is how little she gives away. Even as she agrees to help Boba with his plan to get his Firespray gunship back from Fortuna’s castle, her stern expression is unreadable. She’s somewhat like Batman in that regard, giving only the slightest indication of her mood; a nod here and a small smirk there, but mostly remaining guarded but neutral. This ambiguous demeanour only intensifies the notion that Fennec’s loyalty to Boba could be transient, and makes his trust in her all the more honourable.

Of course, when she’s in battle mode, there’s nothing but deadly determination in her gaze. The brilliantly executed, humorous and thrilling heist sequence shows off all the reasons why she’s one of the deadliest assassins around: a silent attack from behind, expert marksmanship, quick thinking to adapt to the changing offence, and the type of agile hand-to-hand combat that almost has you feeling the kinetic energy rippling off each blow she lands on a Gammorean guard.

Boba and Fennec make a good team but there are still so many questions hanging over who she is other than a killer. She is, of course, a rightly paranoid person — you’d have to be in her business — and has built walls around herself for protection. But when she tells Boba “people like us don’t get to decide when we’re finished,” it suggests what she is truly seeking is freedom and autonomy, and her lifesaver is offering some form of that.

This episode implies the rest of the season will be forward-facing now that Boba has fully healed from the Bacta tank, thus ending this flashback framing device. That’s no loss as plot progression is exactly what this show needs to make the weekly investment worthwhile. Looking back, the past events definitely could have been cut down to get to this point quicker, but several teases hint at some exciting things to come. Fennec’s suggestion that a Nikto speed biker gang couldn’t have taken out a Tusken tribe begs the question: who could? Was it the Pyke Syndicate as retribution? Is it another clue that Crimson Dawn is the true wielder of power on Tatooine under the leadership of Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra?

Now with Krrsantan on Team Boba, maybe a few of his comic book comrades like Doctor Aphra might turn up. And with the whistle of pan pipes from The Mandalorian theme tune heard in the final few seconds, the arrival of Din Djarin and other allies to join Boba’s tribe seems imminent.