Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver has revealed he and director Steven Soderbergh spent two years developing a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker follow-up called The Hunt for Ben Solo, but Disney said no to the proposal.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Driver said that because Disney had officially declined the movie, he was now able to talk about it.

Driver played Ben Solo / Kylo Ren in each of the three films in Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his final appearance in 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver said. He revealed he had been in talks about another Star Wars movie since 2021, and that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”

“I always said: with a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second,” Driver commented. “I loved that character and loved playing him.”

The idea was The Hunt for Ben Solo, a movie directed by Soderbergh set after The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, it’s hard to imagine Ben Solo in any future Star Wars film after his heroic death at the end of the movie (a fatally wounded Ben uses his remaining Force power to revive Rey and they kiss before he dies). But apparently Driver felt there was unfinished business for his character — and there’s an interesting line in the article that touches on how Driver felt the Sequel Trilogy played out for Kylo Ren:

Driver had undertaken the trilogy with an arc in mind for Ren that inverted the journey of Darth Vader. As the trilogy evolved, it didn’t play out that way.

The movie was pitched to Kennedy, Lucasfilm vice president Cary Beck, and Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni, and they were apparently interested. Scott Z. Burns was drafted in to write a script, which Driver described as “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.” Driver said Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and “totally understood our angle and why we were doing it.”

However, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman said no. "They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” he said. Soderbergh told AP: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.” Disney and Lucasfilm declined to comment.

Driver was described as feeling mystified by the decision, insisting the plan was to “be judicial about how to spend money and be economical with it, and do it for less than most but in the same spirit of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven.” He pointed to the much-loved Empire Strikes Back as being “the standard of what those movies were.”

Alas, Disney and Lucasfilm have gone on to take a very different direction. 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu will be the first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker came out in 2019. 2027 will see Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter. A number of other Star Wars movies are announced, but based on Lucasfilm’s track record, fans aren’t sure which, if any, will actually come out.

Last week, Star Wars creator George Lucas said he had let go of his instinct to manage the franchise, 13 years after selling the sci-fi universe to Disney. Lucas, now 81, sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion back in 2012, handing over everything from Industrial Light & Magic to Skywalker Sound as part of the deal. Since then, Disney has released the Sequel Trilogy, two A Star Wars Story films, and a number of TV shows set in the Star Wars universe, including The Mandalorian, Andor, and Ahsoka.

Last year, Lucas suggested Star Wars’ new bosses got a lot wrong with the Sequel Trilogy. “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was,” he said, “... who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force. When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”

In February, current Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy responded to reports that she was set to retire later in 2025 after it was indicated that the veteran film producer was looking to move on at the end of her contract this year.

Deadline reported that Kennedy was working with Bob Iger on a succession plan 13 years into the job, with Star Wars Rebels creator and current Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni apparently in a “strong position” to take on the role. However, she insisted: “The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring.”

"I will never retire from movies," she continued. "I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring."

As for Adam Driver, clearly he’s now done with Star Wars — despite Daisy Ridley's character Rey Skywalker in-line to appear in several upcoming Star Wars films. Ridley is already confirmed to be returning in one: the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed sequel to The Rise of Skywalker. It will tell the story of Rey as she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order roughly 15 years after the events of that film.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

In celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary next year, Walt Disney World and Disneyland's Soarin' will be transformed into Soarin' Across America in Summer 2026. This new "bi-coastal offering will showcase the United States - from sea to shining sea - highlighting some of the country's natural beauty and iconic cityscapes."

As detailed by Disney Parks Blog and a wonderful video that sees Patrick Warburton once again acting as our chief flight attendant for this experience, Soarin' Across America will be the new show to see at both Disney World's EPCOT and Disneyland's Disney California Adventure for a limited time.

As with other versions of Soarin', Soarin' Across America will feature everything that makes this attraction so beloved, including "the flight, the sights and score, even the scents!" Disney also shared that Walt Disney Imagineering is currently hard at work capturing more than a "dozen breathtaking locations for the new flight."

“Our goal was to offer guests a sampling of the diversity of America’s beauty and urban wonders with the hope it would paint an emotional portrait for the nation’s Semi-quincentennial celebration,” Tom Fitzgerald, Portfolio Executive Creative Director and Chief Storytelling Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering, said.

“Contrasting shots of different American locales — scenic wonders, amazing cities, and the beauty of the coasts. The use of the physical landscape of the United States as a unifying element,” Bernice Howes, Executive Creative Media Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, added. “Then, using continuous camera movement to smoothly transition between these scenes, linking them together to show the geographical ‘whole’ of the nation, from natural locations to large cities to national monuments that represent America the beautiful.”

Soarin' Across America is just one of the many ways The Walt Disney Company will be celebrating the United States' 250th anniversary and will be part of its new initiative called "Disney Celebrates America." This initiative will kick off on Veterans Day (November 11) and will run through the July 4, 2026, weekend.

“At its heart, America’s story is one of imagination, ambition, and possibility – the same ideals that have guided Disney since the beginning,” said Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “This celebration honors both a nation and a spirit that never stops dreaming about what’s next.”

'Disney Celebrates America' will culminate with a 24-hour, multi-platform broadcast of the same name, "highlighting America’s 250th anniversary events nationwide across Disney’s linear networks and streaming platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX and National Geographic, ending with a special evening fireworks broadcast from Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort."

Disney will also continue to support U.S. military service members, veterans, and their families, and it will expand its long-standing partnership with the nonprofit Blue Star Families with a $2.5 million donation to "strengthen military and veteran families across the country."

Military families will also be offered special movie screenings of new releases on military bases and in key markets, live coverage of celebrations and activations featuring veterans and active military service members, special offers to Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line, and support for veterans entering the civilian workforce.

For more, check out all the biggest reveals from Destination D23, all the details on Disney World and Disneyland's ticket price increases, and our exclusive chat with Disneyland president Thomas Mazloum on the park's past, present, and great big beautiful DisneylandForward.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

There is no storyteller on Earth like Junji Ito. Since his professional manga debut in 1987, he's been terrifying readers with his macabre tales and chillingly iconic creations. The brilliantly talented mangaka has rightfully become one of the most well known horror storytellers of his generation, and for good reason. Junji Ito's beautifully illustrated comics hide deep, devastating secrets, and each tale he weaves haunts and horrifies in the most unique way.

Junji Ito Collections Available Now

To narrow down Junji Ito's massive oeuvre to just 13 of his most bone-chilling offerings was no easy feat. While most of the scariest Junji Ito's short stories can be found as scans online, his short stories are also compiled into physical collections. Some collections, like Tomie and Uzumaki, contain stories that follow a specific narrative, while others, like Shiver and Smashed, include standalone stories collected by theme.

The Scariest Junji Ito Stories

From ominous ghost stories, heart-twisting gothic horror, and grotesquely bizarre modern fables, here are the 13 most terrifying stories from one of the masters of horror manga, Junji Ito.

13. The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads

Ito often writes of love and how it can curse us. The first—and throughline—story from his Lovesickness collection is a great example of just that. We meet Ryusuke on a train. The teen boy is moving back to his hometown after years away, but the simple notion of it haunts him.

The devastating reason for that will soon be revealed, but in the meantime, his arrival coincides with a trend of young women seeking out "crossroads fortunes." Soon the bodies of school girls who ask strangers for their fortunes begin to turn up brutally murdered; but who is to blame? How does it connect with Ryusuke's pass? This wonderfully chilly mystery is one of the most memorable of Ito's tales and introduces one of his scariest creations.

12. Village of the Siren

Turning his hand to folk horror, Ito crafts another bleak homecoming in Village of the Siren. In the wake of a strange phone call from his parents and an ominous apparition at his window, Kyochi decides it's time for a family reunion. Alas, when he returns he finds that the once lively—though rural—village has turned into a ghost town.

Life now revolves around a strange factory of unknown origin, and even weirder are the all-consuming sirens that emanate from it each night. If you love a story about strange rituals, unusual cults, and the occult then this is the sort of story you'll gobble right up. If you enjoy horror that breaks taboos, then you'll certainly be satisfied as the death count here is huge and features a rarely seen demographic of victims.

11. I Don't Want to Be a Ghost

When Shigeru kindly picks up a beautiful wandering woman from the side of a road, his life is changed. Although Shigeru worries at first about her bloodied and disoriented state, she explains it away. Days later, the two begin a secretive affair despite the fact that Shigeru is married and expecting a baby. Blinded by his new acquaintance's beauty, he's willing to overlook how often his lover appears covered in blood and the fact that she claims to "love his ghosts." Her real desires are darker than anyone could have foreseen and Shigeru of course doesn't realize until too late.

10. The Strange Hikizuri Siblings

One of the funniest of Ito's creations, this bleakly humorous slice of life story follows an unhinged set of siblings who take great pleasure in tormenting and terrorizing each other and unsuspecting victims. Over two tales collected in Lovesickness, we meet some of the unlucky people who come into their path including an old school friend of their most beautiful member and a photographer. While their schemes can have deadly consequences, the Hikizuri siblings are generally rather hapless, though you wouldn't want to be invited to their table for dinner.

9. The Mystery of the Haunted House

The arrival of a haunted house turns a town upside down when derision turns to terror as each new visitor enters its doors. Two young boys become entangled in the proprietor's twisted games after they try to sneak in for free. Upon exploring the ghoulish halls they discover a true house of horrors, one filled with victims who claim to be the owner's family.

There's a dark comedy to this one, which comes from another of Ito's recurring characters, the scheming creeper Souichi Tsujii. But there's nothing funny about his heinous crimes. The Mystery of the Haunted House is a wild ride that will delight fans of haunt culture.

8. Honored Ancestors

Family often comes up in Ito's tale, and Honored Ancestors might feature his most psychedelically deranged yet. On a seemingly normal evening Risa is brought home by her close friend Makata who claims that the young girl is suffering from amnesia and couldn't remember where she lived. According to doctors, her amnesia has been caused by immense emotional stress.

Risa becomes more and more distressed as she becomes haunted by visions of a giant caterpillar... but what does it all mean? The truth revolves around Makata and his family's strange traditions which are revealed in Ito's dementedly awful fashion as the tale comes to a close. It's one family reunion that you'll never forget, though you'll wish you could.

7. Uzumaki

Likely the most famous of Ito's many works, Uzumaki has been deemed a classic for a reason. Weaving a supernatural curse into a ghost story that centers around a small town, Kurouzu-cho, which is haunted not by spirits but instead by spirals, this is a uniquely spooky tale. It also helps that Ito's distinctive linework does an epic job of making the usually unassuming shapes into something utterly terrifying.

Uzumaki features many of Ito's favorite themes like obsession, paranoia, and the mundane becoming utterly bizarre. The impact of Uzumaki cannot be overstated, with multiple video game and film adaptations and a highly-anticipated anime adaptation in development. Unfortunately, the most recent Uzumaki TV adaptation fell flat, scoring very low marks in IGN's own review.

6. Fashion Model

While many of Ito's stories are slow burn haunters, this is a more in your face horror tale that reveals its monster from the earliest pages. Like our next entry, Tomie, Fashion Model has become one of Ito's most popular long-running tales. When a young man sees a bizarre model in a magazine whose mouth is filled with dagger-like teeth, he becomes consumed by her image. He can't stop thinking about her, about why she was hired, and why she fills him with an all-consuming existential terror.

Life moves on, and he and some friends begin casting for a student film. It's here that the model reemerges back to the forefront of his life in brutal and all too real fashion. This is a great entry into both the Ito and monster horror canon.

5. Tomie

Probably Ito's most famous creation, the stunningly beautiful Tomie was murdered by her classmates only to reappear the next day. Since then she's been terrorizing readers and lovestruck men for years. There's a collected edition of Tomie tales where you can read her story from her earliest to most recent appearances, and each one is more delightfully dark than the last. Her ever shifting true face is the thing of nightmares, but Ito's striking illustration style has also made her a perennial pop culture figure.

Even if you've never read an Ito story, you've likely already seen Tomie as a sticker, tattoo, or t-shirt. Ironically, in her stories it's near impossible to catch her beauty in an image unless you want to see her true face too.

4. House of the Marionettes

Puppets have always held a particularly creepy place in horror and Ito uses that to his advantage here in this ghastly story about a strange family obsessed with marionettes. It all begins when a young girl named Kinuko befriends the son of a family of puppeteers. Becoming close with one of the two sons, Haruhiko, she visits the home immediately becoming wary of a large marionette named Jean-Pierre.

Years later Haruhiko and Kinuko reconnect and get married. But when they're called back to the former's family home, they make an awful discovery. This is one of the most classical of Ito's stories, but it will still shock and surprise at every turn.

3. Used Record

Eerie and atmospheric, Used Record tells the story of an odd record which hypnotizes and entices the listener. When Ogawa buys the vinyl, she quickly becomes obsessed as does her friend Nakayama when she hears it. Soon, all the pair can do is listen to the song again and again. But there's only one copy, which means that the girls are on a tragic path.

The thing that makes this story so terrifying is the relatable fact that we've all had that one song that we can't stop listening to. Ito just takes it to the next, supernaturally nightmarish level. And for that reason, this wonderfully drawn tale ends up being just as addictive as the song at its center.

2. Greased

Growing up above her family's barbeque restaurant by Mount Fuji, Yui is sick of the grease that has slowly but surely accumulated, coating their home. While she worries abouts its effects, her violent and abusive brother Goro embraces the cooking oil that creates it, drinking it from the bottle until his face becomes covered in large, grotesque pustules.

Goro's obsession with the grease and his sister's hopes of surviving it are deeply entangled in this, one of Ito's most stomach-churning tales which will threaten both your lunch and your sleep cycle. Truly, this is the kind of story you have to mentally prepare to read, so don't take checking this one out lightly.

1. The Hanging Balloons

What makes The Hanging Balloons Ito's scariest story? Well, it's one of his most bizarre—which is where the mangaka excels—and it also manages to feel utterly claustrophobic and inescapable in the best way. After the unexpected suicide of a celebrity school girl inspires a spate of copycat deaths, people begin to report seeing imposing balloons in the sky.

But these are no ordinary balloons. In fact, reports claim it's the giant inflated head of the woman who died. Many more of the balloons soon appear, chasing those whose faces they wear. Instead of strings, metal nooses swing beneath them. What is their purpose? If they catch up with those who they resemble, they catch and hang them... This is a psychedelic night terror come to life.

What's Next for Junji Ito?

As of right now, there no upcoming Junji Ito stories in the works, according to the official page at Viz.com. The most recent new release is the Moan: Junji Ito Story Collection that just came out in early October. It features six new stories from the legendary author. Here's a quick synopsis of what to expect from the product page:

"A dark evil lurks in the unreachable depths of a pipe, groaning out moans that echo through the house of a germophobe mother and her daughters. In another tale, flowers blooming in the shape of eyeballs are only the beginning of the strange phenomena surrounding a mysterious transfer student. Could he have supernatural abilities? Also, a man in a village deep in the mountains shares memories of his wife. What happened to her after she said she would give freely of her blood?"

Outside of the manga, a Junji Ito Crimson TV anime was announced during Japan Expo 2025. There aren't yet any details about cast or an official release date, though.

Rosie Knight is an Eisner-winning journalist, author and comics writer. She co-hosts Crooked Media’s X-Ray Vision podcast, discussing pop culture from superhero movies to prestige television to the best fantasy novels and, of course, comics.

Full spoilers follow for Season 3, Episode 2, "Monster Traits."

Last week's One Punch Man Season 3 premiere saw heroes and villains alike sit around indoors engaging in a cornucopia of exposition. It was far from a triumphant return to the engaging blend of humour and action fans were waiting for. But now that the table's been set, there's a lot more to dig into this week in Episode 2, “Monster Traits.”

If you've been looking for some new manga to add to your shelf, the latest Amazon sale is actually quite tempting. For a limited time you can get 50% off select manga when you buy another at full price on Amazon. Only certain editions and volumes apply for popular manga like Berserk and One Piece, but there are some really good collections and deluxe editions included in this promotion as well. You can check out the full list of manga included in this sale for yourself or dive into some of the best things I managed to find below.

One thing to note about this sale is that it's a little bit different from how Amazon has handled BOGO promotions in the past. You will need to manually clip the coupon before you can get access to the discount, rather than simply adding two eligible items to your cart. You can do this by clicking the giant 'apply promotion' button at the top of the sale page or redeeming the coupon code on one of the sales pages.

Amazon Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off Manga Sale

One of the major downsides of this sale is that there aren't that many first volumes available. The One Piece series, for example, only has volume 35, 26, and 20 included in the sale. So you can't realistically get started with that manga at a discount. And for the manga that does include a volume 1 in the sale, the second volume is almost never included. The only exception to this is the Elden Ring manga titled The Road to the Erdtree.

If you're a fan of Elden Ring, both volume 1 and 2 of the official manga are included in this promotion. The story follows Aseo, a Tarnished who begins his journey through the Lands Between as he tries to become the next Elden Lord. There are a total of five volumes available in the series, but only the first two are included in the sale. With the 50% discount applied, you can currently get copies of volume 1 and 2 for only $16.55.

Another manga based on video games that's worth picking up in this sale is the Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask / Link to the Past Legendary Edition. It contains two full volumes of the Legend of Zelda manga that follows the story of Link that appeared in each of those games. This is the only volume included in this sale, however, so you'll need to find something else to buy with to get the full discount.

With Halloween just around the corner, I also wanted to highlight some of the Junji Ito collections featured in here. Ito crafts some of the most horrific manga stories imaginable in the best way and these collections are a great way to enjoy them. Included in this sale is the most recent release: Moan, which just came out earlier in October.

Do You Need to Be a Prime Member?

The good thing about Amazon's buy one, get one sales is that you do not need to have an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of the savings. You do need to be signed into an Amazon account to actually claim the coupon, but a Prime membership is not required after that. If you don't have Prime, however, you will be subject to the usual $35 minimum order for free shipping.

In so many ways, Ninja Gaiden 4 is exactly what I wanted it to be. It’s a collaborative effort between Team Ninja and Platinum Games, two of my all time favorite developers; it builds off the combat from Ninja Gaiden 2, which has the best action of the series in my eyes; and it comes packed with small touches that make it a bit more approachable without sacrificing the tough-as-nails difficulty that longtime fans like me expect. But while I’d even go so far as to say this combat system is among the very best I’ve ever seen, Ninja Gaiden 4 stumbles in many other areas – from its bland new lead character, to its uninspired level design, to its predictable story that falls completely flat. The action is still so good that a lot of those shortcomings get deflected like bullets against Ryu Hayabusa’s sword, but others slip through that defense and wound what is otherwise an incredible revival for the Master Ninja.

Story has never been a selling point of the Ninja Gaiden series, so it didn’t come as a surprise to me that Ninja Gaiden 4’s plot was one of its weakest elements. It introduces us to our new protagonist, Yakumo, a skilled ninja of the Raven Clan whose initial goal to kill a priestess of the Dark Dragon instead quickly turns into a mission to escort her to a handful of magic seals in an effort to really for realsies kill the Dark Dragon for good this time.

What follows is an extremely predictable 10-hour campaign with attempts at big emotional moments that fall flat because the legwork to make you care about these characters is never done. There is some banter that happens between Yakumo, his handler, and the other members of his little Raven Clan squad, but it’s never charming or endearing, and certainly never develops to a point where I ever got a real sense that these characters were actually close. Yakumo primarily communicates with grunts, growls, acknowledgements of the mission objectives, and angry threats, and as a result just comes off as a lame edgelord most of the time.

You do get to play a couple of chapters as Ryu toward the end, and while these are a welcome reprieve, they also feel like a huge missed opportunity. His levels have him retracing Yakumo’s steps, fighting through the same environments, mostly the same enemies, and the same bosses, but this time with fewer combat options since Ryu only has access to one weapon, a far less interesting Gleam Form to replace Yakumo’s Bloodraven Form, and just four returning Ninpo super attacks. Imagine Dante’s missions from Devil May Cry 4, except he doesn’t get any new weapons, his playstyle is almost exactly the same as Nero, and there’s none of the cool Dante trash talk.

I am willing to forgive an action game for a lot if the action itself is good, and fortunately Ninja Gaiden 4’s combat isn’t just good, it’s phenomenal. It’s incredibly fast, the enemies are intelligent and won’t let you do the same thing over and over again, there’s a great deal of flexibility that allows you to change up your approach to each fight, it looks slick as hell, and it has that trademark Team Ninja fluidity mixed with the over-the-top craziness that Platinum Games is renowned for. It just checks every single box.

The secret sauce here is enemy aggression. Enemies are absolutely ruthless in Ninja Gaiden 4. They don’t politely wait their turn as they attack from off screen, hit you with unblockables, grab you if you try to turtle up, armor through your regular attacks, and overwhelm you with sheer numbers. It’s a style of combat that is totally unique to this series, and that suffocating pressure from enemies is what makes every combat encounter such a thrilling fight for survival.

All of that may sound brutal, but Yakumo’s own toolset is extremely powerful as well. You have the iconic Flying Swallow technique that allows you to zip towards an enemy, potentially slicing their head off in just a single hit; the Izuna Drop air combo that ends in a flying piledriver that will instantly kill most enemies in a single blow; the plethora of powerful unlockable attacks for each weapon; and most importantly, ultimate techniques that let you absorb essence from defeated enemies to charge up a flashy combo that is completely invulnerable, can hit multiple enemies, and does extremely high damage.

None of this is new to Ninja Gaiden 4, and in fact is just a basic overview of what’s always been great about the combat in this series. But it’s important to talk about because my biggest concern coming into Ninja Gaiden 4 was that it would feel less like Ninja Gaiden and more like a Platinum Games game – not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not what I’d want out of a return I’ve been waiting 13 years for. Fortunately, that’s not the case. This is a Ninja Gaiden game through and through with a light touch of Platinum flavor to enhance it even further.

That flavor mostly comes in the form of one big addition to the combat system: Yakumo’s Bloodraven Form. By holding down the left trigger, Yakumo will transform his weapon into a slower, more extravagant version with a completely new set of moves and the ability to break an enemy’s guard or interrupt their super attacks. These attacks are sick as hell, and definitely bring to mind some of Bayonetta’s Wicked Weave heavy attacks, especially the Rapier that turns into a huge drill, or the staff that turns into a giant hammer.

But more than being cool to look at, they add a new dimension to combat that forces you to be reactive to how the enemies are dealing with your offense. If you go into autopilot and spam light attacks, enemies will block your strikes and deliver a damaging counter of their own. But if you notice that they’re flashing white and shrugging off your attacks, you can hit them with a Bloodraven Form attack to not only deal big damage, but also open them up to even more punishment after breaking their guard.

Bloodraven Form moves are tied to a meter that drains pretty quickly, adding an extra layer of resource management I enjoyed. These blood infused attacks are also generally pretty slow, which makes them a bit risky to try and interrupt a faster armored attack. So you need to decide whether to risk wasting your meter by pre-emptively using a blood attack to try and catch an armored move during its initial animation, whether to risk your health by trying to wait and react to one of their slower and more telegraphed armored moves, or or whether to use the meter defensively instead to try and perfectly block otherwise unblockable techniques. Whatever the case, having multiple different options to deal with a challenging combat encounter is crucial in a game like this, and Ninja Gaiden 4 is stacked with options to play around with.

One departure from previous games is that instead of individually upgrading your weapons and having each improvement come with new moves and increased power, this time around you must buy all of your upgrades a la carte. Universal upgrades that affect every weapon cost Ninja Coin, which is a currency gained primarily from completing side missions, optional Purgatory challenges, and as a reward for completing a chapter. Weapon specific techniques on the other hand must be purchased with Weapon EXP, which is gained simply by fighting enemies. The better you perform, the more Weapon EXP you get. I enjoyed always having something new to unlock the whole way through, even though I do think Ninja Gaiden 4 is a little stingy with your starting set of upgrades.

Baseus recently released a new "ultra mini" variant of its Picogo MagSafe power banks, and it certainly lives up to its name. Right now you can save 40% off the 5,000mAh Qi2-certified model when you apply coupon code "NCC6Q5A5" in cart, dropping the price to just $29.99 with free shipping. Baseus makes solid power banks and I recommend them as a less expensive alternative to Anker.

Baseus Picogo Ultra Mini 5,000mAh Qi2 MagSafe Power Bank

Black Friday deals are arriving at Best Buy sooner than you'd think. The tech retailer put out a press release this week to announce a new Halloween savings event as well as the rest of its holiday shopping calendar for 2025.

According to the schedule, early Black Friday deals will begin at Best Buy on October 31 and will run through November 19. Following that, the full Best Buy Black Friday sale will kick off Thursday, November 20 — one full week before Thanksgiving.

Despite the lack of details, we can look at last year's Best Buy Black Friday ad to get an idea of what to expect in 2025. Last year, some of the best early deals were on popular Apple devices, headphones, TVs, and major appliances. You can likely expect something similar this year with Best Buy offering similar discounts, likely on previous generation tech in those categories. This will probably include the Apple Watch Series 10 and the 10th generation iPad, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Early deals are generally a good time to find deals on older tech at Best Buy, with many of the best discounts saved for the official Black Friday sale down the line. This makes it a surprisingly good time to buy a TV if you aren't looking for the latest model. Best Buy will usually have some great deals on TCL and Hisense TVs before Black Friday.

Battlefield 6 is giving fans some of the most cinematic FPS action they’ve seen in years, but one of its hard-to-reach Recon skins has the community in stitches.

Die-hard fans of military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield have spent the last few years arguing about what place — if any — goofy skins have in their favorite video games. Although EA and Battlefield Studios’ latest has largely dodged the conflict with its commitment to a more grounded approach to cosmetics, it’s not managed to emerge from the wreckage completely unscathed.

A Song of Ice and Fire has been solidified as a defining work of fiction over the past 27 years. George R.R. Martin’s fantasy book saga ascended into the zeitgeist through an ongoing series of bestselling novels and HBO's adaptation of unprecedented success. And its pop culture prevalence persists thanks in part to HBO's excellent follow-up series, House of the Dragon and the upcoming Knight of the Seven Kingdoms spinoff.

With House of the Dragon Season 3 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms both coming out in 2026, now is a great time to dive into the source material and visit Westeros through the lens of its architect. For those who’ve yet to read A Song of Ice and Fire novels (and its companion books), we’ve put together this guide on how to read all the Game of Thrones books in chronological order.

Jump to:

• Game of Thrones books in chronolgical order
• Game of Thrones books by release date
• Upcoming GoT books

How Many Game of Thrones Books Are There in the Series?

George R.R. Martin has published five novels in his A Song of Ice and Fire saga. He’s working on two future volumes in the series: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. And while those books are still in the works from Martin, fans continue to worry that they will never actually be finished.

Martin has published several ASoIaF companion works as well, including three Dunk & Egg novellas (collected in 2015’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), three Targaryan-focused novellas (collected and expanded upon in 2018’s Fire & Blood), and a world compendium titled The World of Ice & Fire. More on all of these below.

Game of Thrones Book Sets

If you're a fan of physical media, one of the best ways to enjoy the Game of Thrones books is as a set. There a few different book sets that you can buy to get all of the books all at once, but the most display-worthy set is the leather-bound version that was meant to sit upon a shelf.

How to Read the Game of Thrones Books in Chronological Order

With series newcomers in mind, these brief plot synopses contain only mild spoilers such as broad plot points and character introductions.

1. Fire & Blood

Fire & Blood, the source material for HBO’s House of the Dragon, is a history of the House Targaryen 300-year reign in Westeros. Unlike the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Fire & Blood isn’t told from the perspective of characters involved in the plot; rather it’s framed as a recounting of the Targaryen dynasty by a character named Gyldayn, an archmaester of the Citadel who lived toward the end of the Targaryen reign into Robert Baratheon’s.

While this sets Gyldayn’s act of writing around the start of A Song of Ice and Fire (ASoIaF), the actual events recounted in the archmaester's history begin 300 years before A Game of Thrones and span roughly 150 years – the second 150 years of the Targaryen reign are expected to be covered in Fire & Blood Volume 2.

Fire & Blood spans the lifetimes of six Targaryen rulers, beginning with Aegon I Targaryen and his conquest of Westeros. Within these 150 years, The Dying of the Dragons (aka The Dance of the Dragons) occurs, which is the tale told in HBO’s House of the Dragon.

Fire & Blood includes and expands upon three ASoIaF novellas previously published by Martin: The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens (2013), The Rogue Prince (2014), and The Sons of the Dragon (2017).

The recently published The Rise of the Dragon, meanwhile, is a condensed and illustrated version of Fire & Blood.

2. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a collection of three novellas starring a hedge knight named Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his squire Aegon V Targaryen (Egg). Their adventures are set roughly 90 years before the events of A Game of Thrones, and will serve as the basis for the next Game of Thrones TV adaptation, also called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

It’s not essential reading, as it’s not part of (or even set during) the mainline novels, though the novellas are great for anyone looking for further adventures and/or new perspectives in the Seven Kingdoms.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms compiles three novellas: The Hedge Knight (1998), The Sworn Sword (2003), and The Mystery Knight (2010).

3. A Game of Thrones

The book that started it all in 1996, A Game of Thrones is the first ASoIaF novel. It's the reader’s introduction to the world of Westeros, its surrounding regions, its prominent families, and many of the colorful characters that comprise the series’ heroes and villains.

A Game of Thrones is set during the reign of Robert Baratheon, following Robert’s Rebellion and the end of the Targaryen dynasty. It sets into motion the War of the Five Kings, during which five men stake their claim to the Iron Throne. Political scheming, backstabbing, familial strife, and bloodshed follow – themes common throughout the entirety of ASoIaF.

The story is told through points of view that alternate from chapter to chapter. Excluding the prologue, the point-of-view characters in A Game of Thrones are Eddard Stark, Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen, whose story unfolds across the Narrow Sea in the eastern continent of Essos.

Martin’s novella Blood of the Dragon is largely repurposed material from the Daenerys chapters in A Game of Thrones, hence its exclusion from this list.

4. A Clash of Kings

A Clash of Kings continues the War of the Five Kings. The pronounced kings rally their banners, the Lannisters attempt to solidify their power in King’s Landing, Jon Snow marches north of the Wall with the Night’s Watch, and Dany navigates a foreign land.

Excluding the prologue, the point-of-view characters in A Clash of Kings are Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Theon Greyjoy, and Davos Seaworth.

5. A Storm of Swords

The third ASoIaF novel, A Storm of Swords, essentially brings the War of the Five Kings to an end, save for some lingering claimants and conflicts.

As the war dies down in the Seven Kingdoms, the Stark children navigate crises near and far while Jon Snow ventures with wildlings beyond the Wall. In the East, Dany learns to lead.

Excluding the prologue and epilogue, the point-of-view characters in A Storm of Swords are Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Davos Seaworth, Jaime Lannister, and Samwell Tarly.

Martin’s novella Path of the Dragon is largely repurposed material from the Daenerys chapters in A Storm of Swords, hence its exclusion from this list.

6. A Feast for Crows

Picking up after the events of the previous novel, A Feast for Crows runs concurrently with the fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons. Several of the series' most beloved characters – Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen – are saved for the following book, which focuses on the characters at the Wall and across the Narrow Sea. In their absence, Feast focuses on new and returning characters politicking in King’s Landing, the Iron Islands, and Dorne as winter arrives in Westeros.

"It dawned on [Martin] that the book had become too big to publish in a single volume,” the author published in an afternote for A Feast for Crows. As such, the story was split into two books (Feast and Dance) with each book telling “all the story for half the characters, rather than half the story for all the characters.”

Excluding the prologue, the point-of-view characters in A Feast for Crows are Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Jaime Lannister, Samwell Tarly, Cersei Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, Aeron Greyjoy, Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Asha Greyjoy, Areo Hotah, and Arys Oakheart.

Martin’s novella Arms of the Kraken is largely repurposed material from the Iron Islands chapters in A Feast for Crows, hence its exclusion from this list.

7. A Dance with Dragons

A Dance with Dragons brings back the beloved point-of-view characters missing from Feast and picks up after the events of the third book, A Storm of Swords. As Martin notes in his prelude to A Dance with Dragons, Feast and Dance “are parallel… divided geographically, rather than chronologically.” However, it does eventually move beyond the events of Feast, making it the novel set furthest in the ASoIaF chronology.

In a Dance with Dragons, a new Lord Commander runs the Night Watch, Dany navigates the burdens of power, the Greyjoys move east, a Martell flies too close to the sun, Brienne reunites with an old friend, Arya continues her training, Tyrion's on the lam, and a new claimant to the Iron Throne appears.

Excluding the prologue and epilogue, the point-of-view characters in A Dance with Dragons are Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Bran Stark, Arya Stark, Theon Greyjoy, Quentyn Martell, Davos Seaworth, Barriston Selmy, Asha Greyjoy, Cersei Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Jon Connington, Victarion Greyjoy, Areo Hotah, and Melisandre.

A Dance with Dragons was published in 2011. Readers have been waiting 11 years for its follow-up, The Winds of Winter (more on this below).

Bonus: The World of Ice & Fire

The World of Ice & Fire is a companion compendium to the ASoIaF novels. It’s a great coffee table book, full of illustrations and a deep history of Martin’s world dating back to the arrival of the First Men in Westeros during the Dawn Age (some 12,000 years before A Game of Thrones).

The Winds of Winter

Martin has two novels left to publish in his planned seven-book A Song of Ice and Fire saga. The sixth (and next) book, The Winds of Winter, will pick up after the events of A Dance with Dragons.

Martin has already published several blogs about and preview chapters from Winds, revealing there will be point-of-view chapters from Tyrion, Cersei, Sansa, Arya, Theon, Barriston Selmy, and others.

The author said with The Winds of Winter, ASoIaF will move "further and further away from the television series." More recently, Martin said the novel, despite being "13 years late," is "still a priority," and admits he doesn't feel great about missing deadlines and disappointing fans. He previously said he was 75% done with Winds and predicted it will be over 1,500 pages.

A Dream of Spring

The final ASoIaF book is to be titled A Dream of Spring, should Martin complete and publish it.

Fire & Blood Volume 2

In addition to writing the mainline saga, Martin has confirmed he is working on the second volume of Fire & Blood. The Targaryen history is planned as a two-part series, with this second volume presumably covering the second 150 years of the family's 300-year reign.

Future Dunk & Egg Novellas

Martin has also expressed his desire to write additional Dunk & Egg novellas. He said these wouldn’t be published until he completes work on Winds of Winter, though “it has always been [his] intent to write a whole series of novellas about Dunk and Egg, chronicling their entire lives.”

The fourth Dunk & Egg novella (unfinished as of 2024) is set in Winterfell, according to Martin, and involves “a group of formidable Stark wives, widows, mothers, and grandmothers that I dubbed ‘the She-Wolves.’” He added, “The final title, when I finish the story, will be something different. There's also another Dunk & Egg novella that I've got roughed out in my head, with the working title ‘The Village Hero’. That one takes place in the Riverlands. There's no telling when I will have time to finish either of these, or which one I will write first. I don't expect I will know more until I've delivered The Winds of Winter.”

Martin has “notes and fairly specific ideas” for other Dunk & Egg adventures in addition to the tentatively titled She-Wolves and Village Hero. Martin even provided potential titles for these stories in a comment on his blog: The Sellsword, The Champion, The Kingsguard, The Lord Commander, “and several more in between.”

An HBO series following the duo's adventures is in the works, with Season 1 being an adaptation of the first novella, The Hedge Knight. Development on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is being led by Steve Conrad (Prime Video's Patriot), and the show is expected to premiere on Max and HBO in 2026.

For more, check out the best fantasy books reading list or pick up one of the best reading lights.

Jordan Sirani covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Ahead of the holiday season, Amazon just dropped the price on a current generation LG OLED TV. Right now you can order a massive 77" LG Evo C5 4K OLED Smart TV for $1,996.99 with free delivery. The 77" size is rarely discounted to under $2,000 and if you simply cannot wait until Black Friday (for example, you want to get it in time to watch Ohtani in the World Series), then you won't find a better price on a comparable TV. The C5 is LG's current generation 2025 model.

77" LG Evo C5 4K OLED Smart TV for $1,997

Humans like to consider themselves the top of the food chain, and while that idea might work on Earth, we barely scrape by in the galactic gladiator competition. The Predator franchise, which began with the classic Scwarzenegger film in 1987, is all about the "Yautja" - towering trophy-seeking hunters from space who travel to different worlds for lethal competition and have been known to kidnap species for hunts back on their home planet.

Two initial Predator films in 1987 and 1990 created a baseline for the Predator saga. Since Xenomorphs from the Alien moves are also a cinematic scourge for humanity, it made perfect sense in the 2000's to create a shared universe with two Alien vs. Predator flicks. In the following decade, directors such as Robert Rodriquez, Shane Black, and Dan Trachtenberg all put their spins on the franchise.

With Predator: Killer of Killers now streaming and Predator: Badlands arriving later this year, it's a better time than ever to binge the original sci-fi classics. If you want to watch every Predator movie in order, we've got you covered! Below you'll find the full timeline of the Predator movies and where to watch them online.

Jump to:

• How to watch in chronological order
• How to watch by release order

You can also check out our guide to the Alien movies in order to incorporate the whole timeline.

How Many Predator Movies Are There?

There are a total of eight movies in the Predator franchise — four in the mainline series of films, two Alien crossovers, one prequel, and one anthology film. A new mainline Predator movie is set to release later in 2025.

Predator Movies in (Chronological) Order

1. Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)

Killer of Killers is an anthology film featuring different iterations of Predators doing what they do best across three different timelines. The first two timelines, set in the Viking Age and Feudal Japan, take place hundreds of years before even the prequel Prey. The third timeline, however, is set after World War 2, after Prey and before the original Predator. I'd argue Killer of Killers is best enjoyed with context from the original movie, but the animated anthology can be watched at any point in a Predator marathon.

Read IGN's review of Predator: Killer of Killers

2. Prey (2022)

Prey is a prequel and therefore designed to be watched after everything else (especially Predator 2) but if one is truly looking to take in the Predator franchise in chronological order this is the place to begin. Set in 1719, across the the Great Plains, Prey follows a young Comanche woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder), who gets more than she bargains for when she accompanies her brother on a hunt and winds up in the crosshairs of a (more primitive) Predator. Determined to prove herself, Naru sets her sights on taking the alien stalker down in this fresh and thrilling take from the three-decade saga.

Read IGN's review of Prey

3. Predator (1987)

It all started with 1987's Predator, directed by Die Hard's John McTiernan and starring heyday Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke, and Shane Black (who would direct his own Predator film many years later). Predator is an awesome action classic where a near-unstoppable military rescue team gets their asses handed to them by a terrifying invisible force in the jungles of South America. When the attacker is revealed to be an alien hunter out on its own version of a sinister safari, Schwarzenegger's Dutch must figure out how to ambush and defeat a monster light years ahead of him in tech and tactics.

4. Predator 2 (1990)

A few years later, Predator returned to multiplexes for more massacres and mayhem, but this time with a complete change of cast and setting. Taking place amongst a near-future heatwave/crimewave -- 1997 Los Angeles -- Predator 2 follows cops played by Danny Glover, Bill Paxton, Ruben Blades, and María Conchita Alonso as they attempt to not only deal with a bloody Cartel war on the streets, but a badass alien Predator too, stalking the cityscape for victims.

5. AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

After 14 years -- with novels, comics, and video games keeping the franchise flames lit -- Predator came back in a huge way with a full crossover movie, merging with the Alien saga, which hadn't been dormant but definitely struggled to find its footing in the '90s. Alien vs. Predator, from Resident Evil/Event Horizon's Paul W. S. Anderson, was a big hit, injecting new life into both sci-fi/horror properties. Set in "present day" America, AVP introduced a nasty bit of history connecting the Yautja and Xenomorphs. Namely that Predators had been conducting hunts on Earth for centuries using humans as breeding bodies for Xenos, and then hunting down the Xeno swarm for "right of passage" sport. Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova, and Ewen Bremner star.

Read IGN's review of AVP: Alien vs. Predator

6. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)

The sequel to AVP, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, picks up right where AVP left off, so timeline-wise this is all the same battle. Not as successful as its predecessor (hence it being the final crossover film) Requiem delivered an Alien-Predator hybrid, known as the "Predalien," as it attacked a small Colorado town and a Predator "cleaner" being dispatched to take down this new monstrosity.

Read IGN's review of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem here.

7. Predators (2010)

The only Predator movie to not take place on Earth, Predators, from Robert Rodriguez, looked to shake up the formula a bit by bringing audiences to a distant planet, a Yautja game reserve. With a killer cast including Adrien Brody, Walton Goggins, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, and Alice Braga, Predators showed fans how humans, specifically "established killers," are abducted and used for sport between two warring Yautja tribes.

Timeline-wise, this is a tricky one. It's never clearly stated when this all happens. Meaning, the Earth year. But it's easy enough to just assume it's 2010, when the movie was released. Or, in the very least, based on the characters, the early 21st Century. So Predators can fit into your chronological viewing plans here, at number six, or you can save it for last.

Read IGN's review of Predators

8. The Predator (2018)

Despite Predators being a modest hit it would still be eight years before a new Predator film hit the big screen and with 2018's The Predator, director/co-writers Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) would take the franchise back to its original formula (which he himself starred in) by presenting a squad of unstable soldiers -- played by the likes of Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane and Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen -- who take on a pair of rampaging Predators and thwart their Yautja schemes (which involve DNA splicing). The film ends with a tease for more, while alternate/unused endings featured time traveling versions of both Alien's Ellen Ripley and Rebecca "Newt" Jorden in a new grab for crossover gold.

Read IGN's review of The Predator

How to Watch the Predator Movies by Release Date

If you're looking to watch all the movies in theatrical release order, the correct list is below:

1. Predator (1987)
2. Predator 2 (1990)
3. AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
4. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
5. Predators (2010)
6. The Predator (2018)
7. Prey (2022)
8. Predator: Killer of Killers (2025)
9. Predator: Badlands (2025)

The Future of the Predator Franchise

Predator: Badlands, in theaters November 7, 2025, will star Elle Fanning and feature Predator as the protagonist, according to director Dan Trachtenberg. The movie's first teaser appears to show Elle Fanning's character "rebooting" like a Weyland-Yutani synth, pointing to a connection with the Alien movies.

The more recent official trailer suggests even more Alien references, while also showing off the surprisingly communicative Predator himself. In a conversation with IGN, Trachtenberg also mentioned James Bond and World of Warcraft as references for the new movie, so in my opinion, it's shaping up to be something special.

Matt Fowler is a freelance entertainment writer/critic, covering TV news, reviews, interviews and features on IGN for 13+ years.