Phasmophobia maker Kinetic Games has revealed it "wouldn't write off" a sequel to the viral hit ghost-hunting game, but is keen to keep working on the current version "until we're really happy with it."

In an interview with IGN to discuss today's launch of the Grafton Farmhouse map rework, art director Corey J. Dixon suggested the five-year-old game might finally exit early access next year alongside its well-publicized Horror 2.0 update, which is currently slated for 2026.

"We definitely have plans for 1.0, probably in line with our Horror 2.0 update, where we feel the game is feature-complete," Dixon said. "It doesn't mean we'll stop working on it — we still want map reworks and new maps and stuff in the future, so there'll be more stuff for the game. But I think once the Horror 2.0 has been redone, which is the next thing we work on after the [2025's] Player Update, the game will feel finished. Once that's in, I think it will be in a good spot."

"It's really difficult to know [when it may be finished]," he added. "Our community is constantly putting out, 'Oh, it should have this!' so we can look at that and just keep doing it! We'd love to work on it until we're really happy with it. We haven't set a date or an update that's like: we're done. I think we'll just know: there'll be that company-wide feeling that this project is done now, we've made it the best it can be, which is what [creator] Dan [Knight] wanted Day One. I think we'll know when we hit that milestone — I don't think we can plan for that."

As for Phasmophobia 2?

"I wouldn't write it off. It would be a fun challenge to see if we could do another one. There are a lot of things that I know we would change as a company if we went into Phas fresh. There's definitely things we would all probably say, 'Oh, let's not do that!' Or 'that would be awesome. We should do that instead.' So, yeah, you never know. It's definitely not off the cards."

Phasmophobia is a four-player online co-op psychological horror where you and your team of paranormal investigators enter haunted locations filled with spooky activity and gather as much evidence of the paranormal as you can. Since it launched in early access in 2020, spawning an entirely new genre of ghost hunting games in its wake, it's passed 23 million sales thanks to its blend of co-op horror and investigative gameplay. It also made IGN's 25 best horror games ever made list.

2025 has already been a productive year for Phasmophobia, not least because, though it's only August, we've already seen a major overhaul of the in-game journal, the release of the (terrifying) reworked Bleasedale Farmhouse, and now a revamp for the fan-favorite Grafton Farmhouse map has just gone live. There's also a new small map, Nell's Diner, on the way, too.

For more, check out IGN's interview with Phasmophobia art director Corey J. Dixon, where we talk about new maps, environmental storytelling, and what it's like working with Blumhouse Films on a movie adaptation.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

2025 has already been a productive year for Phasmophobia maker Kinetic Games, not least because though it's only August, we've already seen a major overhaul of the in-game journal, the release of the (terrifying) reworked Bleasedale Farmhouse, and now a revamp for the fan-favorite Grafton Farmhouse map has just gone live.

As we dive into the final half of the year — and get ever closer to spooky season — we sat down for a chat with art director Corey J. Dixon to talk about what's new, when Phasmophobia will finally feel finished, the possibility of Phasmophobia 2, and what it's like working with Blumhouse Films on a movie adaptation.

IGN: Tell us about the reworked maps. Why rework them at all?

Corey J. Dixon: [Creator] Dan [Knight] wanted Phas[mophobia] to be the best thing it could be. And with the amount of asset packs that he had to use to create the game, there was a feeling of it not being his own thing. The design and the game and everything else inside of it was his baby — and it was successful because of that — but anyone could recreate Tanglewood. They just needed to buy the asset. So Dan was like: 'I want to make this the best puzzle horror game I can. Let's rework the maps.'

I joined Kinetic Games about nine months after Phas came out, so it's just over four years now. Back then, there were only three of us. It was me, Dan, Ben [Lavender], and I was doing all the art myself. My first job was slowly replacing all the art assets, [and] we're still going four years later. But there's a lot more people now.

IGN: Why was Grafton next on the list to get a revamp?

Corey J. Dixon: We do what we feel is best for players. Asylum was the most repetitive map. It was absolutely huge before. I'd had chats with Dan where he's like, 'Oh yeah, it took me so long, like I was just copy-pasting rooms because I'd made it so big,' and it just wasn't that enjoyable to make. That was the first target — we felt that that was the most repetitive, and could have the biggest uplift.

So we did that one first, and then the farmhouses. There are two farmhouse maps, but they were almost identical. We had so many players who couldn't even tell the difference between Bleasdale and Grafton because they were the same asset pack. So we had the conversation, and I suggested that we should really spread them apart. Let's make one of them this kind of ornate, mansion-y, bigger map, and then take the other one in the opposite direction. Let's ruin it, destroy loads of it — give it that abandoned ghosthunting experience that a lot of people do in real life. I think it's worked — they feel completely different now.

IGN: Do you have plans to rework anything else?

Corey J. Dixon: Earlier this year, we announced we would be doing Tanglewood, and that's a fan-favorite map. Everyone absolutely loves Tanglewood. So we'll have to make sure we maintain a balance of, you know, giving it a fresh coat of paint, but not changing too much, because we know how much players absolutely adore it. But I'm pretty sure we'll find that balance.

IGN: How do you manage demand from players who want smaller maps with those who want much bigger ones?

Corey J. Dixon: It's a combination of things, the first mainly being the community. We've got statistics on what maps people play. We know that people play small maps, and we hear people talk about small maps all the time. That's a massive factor. We want to update and add things that players want to play. We understand there is a community of players that do like the larger maps, but the bigger the map, the longer it takes to make or redo. So, for us, if we're going to do, for example, three maps in a year, and if we [chose] a large map, that might mean we only get to do one or maybe two a year. So players are missing out because we're doing something that takes much longer.

It's kind of weighing up what the benefit is for the community versus how long it takes. We would like to rework all of the base game maps eventually — it's just how long that takes, and in what order.

IGN: Have you ever considered expanding beyond four-player co-op?

Corey J. Dixon: A lot of the community have asked for that, especially on the big maps! Yeah, more players means you'll find the ghost and identify it quicker. But it's not really something we're looking into. The whole game is locked in around four players. And it's a 10-year project. Now, for Dan, he's [already] worked on the game that long, and the code base is kind of locked in, there's a lot of linking, intertwining systems, and it all kind of works together. So even if we wanted to do that, it would be an absolutely huge project.

IGN: You've also recently revealed that the next new map coming to Phasmo is Nell's Diner. Tell us about it.

Corey J. Dixon: We planned for a new, small map this year and, again, looked at the community. People suggest things all the time. We have a massive list that has all of the things the community has suggested, so we reference that and see what we think, what we think would work or not.

We need to make sure that small maps make sense, because the way that the game plays, you're restricted in what kind of maps you can do. A lot of people have suggested a theater or an amusement park, and while those would be absolutely amazing art tasks — they'd be so fun to make, gameplay-wise — they'd be really difficult. Massive open spaces mean you don't have ghost rooms, and you need to have things on the floor or things for the ghost to interact with. So a diner just kind of made sense. You can split it up into these nice little chunks — you've got the dining area, the counter, the kitchen, the staff areas at the back, and then some toilets. It's a perfect little, small map.

It's also a familiar thing. People love the house maps because they play Phas in a familiar environment, which is just a house that doesn't look creepy or abandoned. They stop playing [for the night] and walk around their house at night and go, 'Oh my God. This is so similar. This is my house, and I'm scared of looking around at night.' And a diner is very familiar for a lot of people.

The theming is super unique. We've never done a retro American style or really embraced the culture of it all. Shout out to the art team!

IGN: Is that because you have a bigger team now? One of the criticisms we see is about the pace of development, which has felt sluggish at times.

Corey J. Dixon: Oh, yeah. Definitely. If you compare our updates this year to last year — I think last year was just the console update, and then we did [new map] Point Hope. This year, we've already done the Bleasdale update. Grafton. The Chronicle update — which was a huge shake-up of the gameplay — came out a couple of months ago, and we're still on track with our roadmap. We did Easter, we've got the Halloween holiday, and then Nell's Diner as well.

IGN: You recently said the diner was a chance to use a little environmental storytelling, too?

Corey J. Dixon: We're trying to push that as much as possible. Phas doesn't have a story, per se, but even back when I did the asylum map, I tried to add a bit of storytelling there about, like, maybe there's an origin story there for one of the ghosts, or maybe it's just a crazed lunatic.

We're trying to let players think about what happened here without being too hand-holding. We've dropped these little bits and pieces around, and people absolutely love it. We did some stuff in Bleasdale that even referenced Grafton. [Our community] absolutely loves it. So we're just trying to push that Phas is not just a ghost-hunting game with these environments that look pretty but don't mean anything. It's a living, breathing world. We've got a lore update coming at some point that's just going to push the storytelling in the game as far as we can.

IGN: Does this mean we're closer to a 1.0 release? Phasmophobia's been in early access since its 2020 debut.

Corey J. Dixon: We definitely have plans for 1.0, probably in line with our Horror 2.0 update [slated for 2026] is where we feel the game is feature-complete. It doesn't mean we'll stop working on it — we still want map reworks and new maps and stuff in the future, so there'll be more stuff for the game. But I think once the Horror 2.0 has been redone, which is the next thing we work on after the [2025's] Player Update, the game will feel finished. Once that's in, I think it will be in a good spot.

It's really difficult to know [when it may be finished]. Our community is constantly putting out, 'Oh, it should have this!' so we can look at that and just keep doing it! We'd love to work on it until we're really happy with it. We haven't set a date or an update that's like: we're done. I think we'll just know: there'll be that company-wide feeling that this project is done now, we've made it the best it can be, which is what Dan wanted Day One. I think we'll know when we hit that milestone — I don't think we can plan for that.

IGN: How do you keep the horror sequences fresh (and scary) for veteran players while keeping the gameplay loop simple enough for new ghosthunters?

Corey J. Dixon: We just try and maintain a balance. Like with the Chronicle update, we wanted to make it make sense. Before, something would be dropped on the floor, and you take a photo and go to the person you're selling them to, and say: 'I promised the ghost threw this! It wasn't me!' So that was the main goal of the update: let's make the evidence system make sense, right?

People come up with crazy ideas, and some of them are great. Going back to the first anniversary, and we did a mini update where we redid the journal, because that was a big pain point for players. And people were posting designs on Reddit. It meant that when we came to do it, we had tons of reference, and we knew what players wanted feature-wise, and we just had to make it kind of look pretty, and we haven't touched it since. The community's great, it's almost like you don't need anyone [on the development team] with a brain now. We could just be developers that don't have any thought, and we just follow the Reddit thread and just churn out stuff, because there's so many good ideas on there!

When we got to the gameplay design of the Chronicle Update, it was just about maintaining that interest for new players, but having it complicated enough so that experienced players would enjoy it as well. With the unique and duplicate system, you can go in and take whatever photos, videos, and sounds you want, and not worry about the unique and duplicates, and you'll still get a pretty good payout.

But veteran players with thousands of hours [in the game] — they know every nook and cranny. They can kind of curate their own really difficult game mode in custom difficulty, and they can go for a perfect investigation, and they can make each game the hardest they want it to be, and then end up with these huge payouts. The custom update is kind of 'play your way.' We noticed so many people were making their own little challenges, and we were like, let's just put it in the game. Let's just spend the time and put it in. We did a few updates to get the rewards right, but now it's super solid. It's rewarding when it needs to be, and it's less rewarding when it doesn't. I'm really happy with how that turned out.

IGN: Given how much Phasmophobia has changed since its launch half a decade ago, have you ever considered starting from scratch with a sequel?

Corey J. Dixon: I wouldn't write it off. It would be a fun challenge to see if we could do another one. There are a lot of things that I know we would change as a company if we went into Phas fresh. There's definitely things we would all probably say, 'Oh, let's not do that!' Or 'that would be awesome. We should do that instead.' So, yeah, you never know. It's definitely not off the cards.

IGN: What about a Nintendo Switch 2 version?

Corey J. Dixon: We want what's best for the game, and if the opportunity arises, we'd love to. But there's no news or anything I can share.

IGN: Before we go — the Blumhouse movie adaptation. How can Phasmophobia's genre-defining gameplay translate to a movie?

Corey J. Dixon: We've got a really good partnership with Blumhouse. It's brilliant. It will be a Phasmophobia film, it won't just be a ghost hunting film — we're going to make sure it's a film that fans want to watch, and we're going to work with them really closely. They're really willing to work with us, and, obviously, we want to work with them. So yeah, we've got a really good partnership, and I think fans are going to love it when it comes.

Phasmophobia's Grafton Farmhouse reworked map is now live across all platforms, including PC via Steam, PS5, PS VR2, and Xbox Series X and S.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Star Wars' John Boyega has said he expected a more dramatic relationship to develop between his character Finn and Daisy Ridley's Rey throughout the saga's sequel trilogy — rather than the simple friendship viewers got instead.

Speaking at Fan Expo Boston, Boyega said he had picked up on hints that his character was secretly Force-sensitive from the script of his first movie in the series, The Force Awakens, and believed that this plotline would be developed further in subsequent films — before taking more of a tragic turn.

Comparing his idea for Finn and Rey's relationship to Star Wars' classic Obi-Wan and Darth Vader showdown, Boyega said he thought the pair were due to become antagonists — which would certainly have provided Finn with more of a story arc.

"I think I assumed he was Force-sensitive from The Force Awakens script, or at least by the time I got to the end of The Force Awakens script. I thought they were planning dual Jedis," Boyega said (thanks, ScreenRant).

"I actually thought that they would Obi-Wan and Darth Vader us a bit," he continued. "That we would turn against each other or something along those lines."

Alas, this plot thread was not to be, and Finn's nascent Jedi abilities — well, he does at least wield a lightsaber at one point — are then largely ignored. Two films later, viewers get a couple of vague hints in The Rise of Skywalker, but these also ultimately go nowhere. (Remember those bits where Finn tells Rey he has a secret, without ever actually revealing it? Yep, that's about all we got.)

Finn is introduced as a character with a fresh perspective on the usual good-versus-evil events of the Star Wars films, being a former Imperial Stormtrooper. But beyond a rivalry with his former commander Captain Phasma (a plot thread that is swiftly wrapped up in The Last Jedi), this is largely left unexplored.

The Force Awakens sees Finn form his strongest bond with Rey, something else that gets short thrift in later movies. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker focus Rey's storyline squarely on her relationship to past Jedi, such as Luke, and her pairing with Kylo Ren — with whom she forms a deeper bond as their relationship to each other and both sides of the Force grows.

Boyega's character meanwhile spends much of The Last Jedi on a side-quest to the casino city of Canto Blight alongside fellow rebel Rose — who later stops him from sacrificing himself during that film's climactic battle.

Finn is then given even less to do in The Rise of Skywalker, which awkwardly sidelines Rose and leaves the former Stormtrooper as something of a sidekick to pilot hero Poe. Quite why Finn's Force sensitivity is hinted at but never confirmed on-screen remains something of a mystery — with director J.J. Abrams only confirming this had indeed been the character's secret in a subsequent interview.

Certainly, Finn never gets anything quite as dramatic to do as a showdown on a lava planet with a former friend and mentor. And while Rey is set to return in at least one future Star Wars film, it's less clear what the future might hold for Boyega's character, and his hopes of wielding a lightsaber once more.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Monster Hunter Wilds’ crucial update 1.021 goes live tomorrow, August 13 (Tuesday August 12, 2025 7.30pm PT), and ahead of that Capcom has released early patch notes alongside a message to the community apologizing for the state of the game.

Director Yuya Tokuda confirmed update 1.021 expands the endgame, adds 9★ Monsters and Talismans, and makes improvements to weapon balance, quality of life changes, and optimizations.

Monster Hunter Wilds update 1.021 Required Space (Current Update Only)

• PlayStation 5: Approx. 3 GB
• Xbox Series X|S: Approx. 2 GB
• Steam: Approx. 2 GB (With High Resolution Texture Pack: Approx. 6 GB total)

Of particular interest to PC players will be Capcom’s effort to improve “stability.” Monster Hunter Wilds has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam for all reviews, but recent reviews are ‘mostly negative.’ In his letter to the community, Tokuda apologized for the delay for these fixes.

Despite reviewing well initially, Monster Hunter Wilds’ endgame content is sorely lacking compared to past games, so the many fans who play Monster Hunter over time, with friends, are struggling. It's also suffering from severe performance issues on PC that have yet to be fully resolved. Despite new content and seasons, fans remain unsatisfied with the state of the game, to the point where some are taking things too far and apparently harassing and threatening individual Capcom team members over it.

Last month, Capcom said it would release the endgame content expansion much sooner than expected after Monster Hunter Wilds experienced “soft sales.”

Tokuda began his message to the community by apologizing for the time it’s taking to make improvements to the game, but insisted Capcom is committed to the cause. To that end, Title Update 3 is scheduled for release at the end of September, and Title Update 4 is due out this winter. “For our fourth title update this winter, on top of new monsters, we are also considering additional weapon-related end-game features,” Capcom said.

The release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps has brought Marvel’s first family into the MCU, but it has also sparked a reappraisal of 2005’s Fantastic Four movie and its sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer.

That’s according to Michael Chiklis, who played The Thing 20 years ago in both movies. Speaking to Collider, Chiklis said critics got both movies wrong, and pointed to the audience reception and the money the movies made collectively at the box office as evidence that they “got a lot right.”

“There were a lot of people, I think, critically who got it wrong,” he said. “They really maligned our films, and they were very underrated considering… they were very loved by the audience. It was one of those cases where critics weren’t great to those films, but the audience was, and that still remains.”

2005’s Fantastic Four (which stars a young Chris Evans as the Human Torch before he would go on to play Captain America in the MCU), has a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ ‘Tomatometer,’ which means 28% of critics gave Fantastic Four a positive review.

That’s the collective reception from critics, but what about the audience score? That’s 45%, according to Rotten Tomatoes’ ‘Popcornmeter.’ What does that mean, exactly? 45% of users rated Fantastic Four 3.5 stars or higher. Rise of the Silver Surfer fared better, with a 37% Tomatometer rating, and a 51% Popcornmeter.

According to Chiklis, the recent release of the MCU Phase Six kickstarter The Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally caused people to acknowledge both movies were “really good.”

“I’ve always sort of quietly gone like, okay, say what you want to say, but the people see it,” he said. “And now all these years later, people are sort of acknowledging like, hey, these films are family-friendly, fun movies… they got a lot right. They may be imperfect, but they’re really good movies.”

And then there’s the box office for the movies. “We made three quarters of $1 billion, those two movies,” Chiklis said. “So, you know, all those people can’t be completely out of their minds, you know what I mean?”

According to Box Office Mojo, Fantastic Four grossed $333,535,934 at the global box office during its theatrical run, whereas Rise of the Silver Surfer made $301,913,131.

Ioan Gruffudd, who starred alongside Chiklis as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic, recently told Vulture they originally planned to make three Fantastic Four films, but the trilogy plan was ditched.

“The mindset was that we were going to do three, and I think the second movie was equally successful as the first and equally enjoyable for the fans," Gruffudd said.

“I particularly loved working with Doug Jones [as the Silver Surfer] on that movie, who’s just a terrific artist and an expert in the field of movement. If you want to witness somebody bringing a character to life physically, he’s just untouchable. So there was definitely that sort of momentum, and the plan was to do three movies, but these decisions are beyond my control.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is under a box office scrutiny of its own, despite already outperforming every other Fantastic Four movie with $434.2 million globally. After starting strong, weekend two and three have seen sharp declines, to the point now where First Steps is unlikely to beat DCU kickstarter Superman. The question is, will Marvel Studios see it as a box office disappointment ahead of next year’s Avengers: Doomsday?

Photo by Chris Polk/FilmMagic.

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.

Simon Pegg has described Quentin Tarantino's plans for an R-Rated Star Trek movie as "bats*** crazy," and offered a hint of how he thought the project might have been received by fans — had it ever come to be.

As unbelievable as it might sound, Tarantino was attached to direct a big screen Star Trek project for several years, after the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction director personally approached Paramount with an idea for a Captain Kirk spin-off.

But despite years of work and a team of writers working on the idea (including Twisters scribe Mark L. Smith and Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce), the project ultimately never came to fruition — and Tarantino confirmed in 2020 he was no longer on board.

Now, speaking with Collider, Star Trek and Mission Impossible star Simon Pegg has described the idea as "everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be."

"That was what we call in the business bats*** crazy," he continued, without divulging quite what the story of the movie would have entailed. "I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see Star Trek through his lens. I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing."

Details on the project have always remained hazy, though Mark L. Smith has previously hinted that the plot would have involved Captain Kirk and time travel, with elements drawn from classic gangster movies. Meanwhile, Tarantino himself previously described it as "Pulp Fiction in space."

Despite numerous Star Trek TV shows launching over the past decade, the franchise's future on the big screen has remained far more nebulous. The last proper Star Trek film to release in theaters was 2016's Star Trek Beyond, the third and (currently) final in the series' Kelvin reboot timeline, in which Pegg starred as Scotty.

Since then, numerous ideas for further Star Trek films have been floated — including a string of attempts at getting a fourth movie in the reboot series made, but to no avail.

Earlier this year then saw the launch of Star Trek: Section 31, a television movie starring Michelle Yeoh's character Philippa Georgiou from Star Trek: Discovery, albeit to strongly negative reviews. IGN's Section 31 review returned a 2/10 score, and described the project as something that would "infuriate Star Trek fans and bore everyone else."

Image credit: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Developer Remedy believes the release of its first self-published game and Control spin-off, FBC: Firebreak, "succeeded technically," but acknowledged it "underperformed" on Steam, admitting that "commercially, we were unsatisfied."

In a statement to investors, the studio reiterated Firebreak topped 1 million players. However, the majority of those players were on console — via PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscription — even though PC was "planned as the primary consumer sales channel."

"The game’s initial onboarding experience and mission structure resulted in high early player drop-offs and an influx of negative reviews," the financial statement said. "As players spent more time in the game and we released updates improving the game, sentiment in reviews turned more positive.

"Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak. Thus far, FBC: Firebreak’s commercial performance has largely been driven by the Xbox and PlayStation subscription service agreements. A considerable portion of the revenues from these agreements will still be recognized throughout the contract period."

Remedy promised big changes last month. The pledge came after Remedy posted a candid statement shortly after Firebreak's launch, acknowledging "not everything had gone well."

The studio did, however, note that FBC: Firebreak was designed to evolves over time, and believes it's a solid game "despite the rocky launch." A larger "Major Update" scheduled for late September will be the next key step for FBC: Firebreak, which Remedy "expects to drive interest in the title." It said it remains "committed to continuing to work on FBC: Firebreak, engaging with the community, and expanding the game."

In its financial results for the first half of 2025 and the second quarter, Remedy reported a revenue boost during both periods, following increases in game sales and royalties. The quarter once again operated at a loss — although at $580,000, this was not as sharp as last year's $3.7 million loss — and across the first six months of the year, revenue was up 43.4% to $35.1 million.

As for other games? The studio confirmed Control 2's development is "on track" and meeting milestones as the focus is now on "gameplay, environments, and missions." The Max Payne 1 & 2 remake project remains in full production as "collaboration with Rockstar Games remains close and productive."

"FBC: Firebreak is a compelling co-op shooter that, despite its good looks, doesn’t have the depth to keep things interesting long-term," we wrote in IGN's FBC: Firebreak review, awarding it 6/10.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Alan Tudyk has made an explosive allegation surrounding his involvement with I, Robot, claiming his name was pulled from the film’s publicity because his performance as Sonny the Robot scored higher with test audiences than Will Smith.

Alex Proyas’ 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot sees Smith’s Detective Del Spooner investigate the alleged suicide of U.S. Robotics founder Alfred Lanning, believing a human-like robot called Sonny (Tudyk) murdered him. Tudyk voiced Sonny and provided the motion capture for the CGI character.

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds has dropped a huge tease that fans are taking as a signal he will appear in next year's Avengers: Doomsday.

This morning, on Instagram, Reynolds posted an image of the Avengers logo with Deadpool-style graffiti spray painted over the top. The paint is Deadpool-color red, and could be seen as both copying the "A" for Avengers, as well as the traditional "A" anarchy logo.

Reynolds' foul-mouthed mercenary was last seen in 2024's $1.3 billion grossing Deadpool & Wolverine, though was not among the many stars confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday during Marvel's big chair reveal.

Still, the success of last year's Deadpool & Wolverine — as well as the character's penchant for multiverse shenanigans — has prompted fans to speculate that he would pop up again soon somewhere, either in Avengers: Doomsday or the subsequent Avengers: Secret Wars.

For now, Marvel is believed to only be shooting scenes for Doomsday, with the timing of Reynolds' post strongly suggesting he's set to return for that, rather than later down the line. Indeed, some fans are eagerly anticipating a second big reveal of Avengers: Doomsday cast members, perhaps via a second set of chairs, as production continues.

Avengers: Doomsday filming has now been underway for several months, with members of Sam Wilson's Avengers, The Thunderbolts/New Avengers and The Fantastic Four spotted on set together in previously-leaked pictures. We also know that numerous members of the legacy X-Men team have also been filming — though that still leaves plenty of MCU characters yet to be confirmed.

Could there possibly be room for more Marvel characters? Fans certainly hope so, and both Reynolds' Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine sit atop many lists. After all, with Doomsday featuring a trip back to the old Fox universe and its original team of X-Men featuring Patrick Stewart's Professor X, James Marsden's Cyclops and Ian McKellen's Magneto, surely a reunion should be on the cards?

Image credit: vancityreynolds.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Sometimes a bargains haul comes along that perfectly aligns with my bad habit of adding more to my backlog than I clear. This idle Tuesday's mix is an irresistible blend of heavy hitters and cult curios that deserve a spot in anyone’s library. As per always, I’ve found myself revisiting old favourites and even picking up a few oddities I’d somehow missed.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 42nd birthday of Mario Bros., the arcade cabinet that launched a plumbing empire. Partially inspired by some of Joust's mechanics (and an Italian-American landlord hounding Nintendo for rent), Mario Bros. was a non-scrolling arena affair that was quite addictive, especially in simultaneous two-player. Interestingly, it was made by a tiny team of just five people, all of whom were credited in its great, great, great, (great) grandchild, Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Sadly, we rarely see such a lineage occur in modern game development, given how lay off happy this bloody industry has become.

Aussie birthdays for notable games.

This Day in Gaming

Aussie birthdays for notable games.

- Mario Bros. (ARC) 1983. Get

- Warlords III (PC) 1997. Get

- Trials HD (X360) 2009. Sequel

- Hacknet (PC) 2015. Get