For years Grand Theft Auto fans have wondered whether Rockstar might take the franchise out of its traditional America setting into cities in other countries. But according to one former developer, that’s never going to happen — and fans just need to accept it.
In an interview with Gameshub, former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked at the company from 1995 to 2009, said there were “ideas” about post-Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City GTA games set in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul, but it was GTA: Tokyo that “almost actually happened.”
According to Vermeij, who left Rockstar just after finishing GTA 4, another studio in Japan was going to take Rockstar’s code and develop GTA: Tokyo (Vermeij didn’t say which studio). “But then that didn’t happen in the end.”
Why? It sounds like Rockstar came to the realization that American cities are the natural and best setting for GTA, and given it takes so long to release new games in the series, going international is too big of a risk.
“People love having these wild ideas but then when you’ve got billions of dollars riding on it it’s too easy to go let’s do what we know again, and also America is basically the epicenter of Western culture, so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven’t been there,” Vermeij said. “They have a mental image of the cities.
“I think it’s unlikely it’s going to be in Bogota next time, especially since there’s just more and more money involved as the project gets bigger. It doesn’t make sense to set it in some left-field location for novelty. GTA: Toronto? It just wouldn’t work.”
GTA 6 is of course set to return to Vice City, the GTA series’ fictionalized take on Miami, Florida. But then what? Will Rockstar ever take GTA international and set it across mainland Europe or in London?
“It’s just not realistic,” Vermeij countered. “I would love it, and if games still took a year to make then yeah sure, you can have a little fun, but you’re not going to get that when there’s a GTA every 12 years.
“You’re not going to set it in a new location. You don’t really need to either because the technology changes so much. Nobody is going to say that they’re not going to play GTA 6 because they’ve already played Vice City. That doesn’t make sense. It’s completely different.
“They’ll revisit New York again. They’ll go back to LA or maybe Las Vegas. I’m afraid we’re stuck in this loop of about five American cities. Let’s just get used to it.”
Speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast, Houser said that — GTA London apart — Grand Theft Auto remained firmly rooted in the United States because it leans so heavily on Americana.
“We made a little thing in London 26 years ago — GTA London — for the top-down for PS1. That was pretty cute and fun, as the first mission pack ever for PlayStation 1. I think for a full GTA game, we always decided there was so much Americana inherent in the IP, it would be really hard to make it work in London or anywhere else.
“You know, you needed guns, you needed these larger-than-life characters. It just felt like the game was so much about America, possibly from an outsider's perspective. But that was so much about what the thing was that it wouldn't really have worked in the same way elsewhere.”
Indeed, such is GTA’s relationship with America, built up over the course of its many video games, that a University of Tennessee history professor will teach a GTA college history class early in 2026. Professor Tore Olsson recently told IGN: “Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places. And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushima has informed their vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Just think of how many GTA veterans have recognized landmarks in Los Angeles and New York thanks to their hours in Los Santos and Liberty City!”
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.
CD Projekt has said huge discounts on Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition displayed on the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop this week were a mistake, but it will honor any sales made at the discounted prices.
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for Nintendo Switch 2 went on sale with a whopping 75% off in the U.S. earlier this week, making the normally $69.99 game just $17.49. Making this deal all the more eye-catching is the fact the Ultimate Edition includes the DLC expansion Phantom Liberty. This DLC normally costs around $30 (or around $21 with a discount), which meant the base game plus the DLC was cheaper than the DLC itself if you bought it with the discount. As you'd expect, plenty of people bought the game at that price. "I couldn’t believe it lmfao," one fan said. "I bought as soon as I saw the price. I had been waiting for it to go on sale but was amazed at the discount." Said another: "I was on the fence for a few hours, and would have skipped it if it was $20. So they got money out of people like me who weren’t super interested. Bought it on PC years ago and barely started it. Hoping the switch 2 edition/cross save gets me to finish the game."
Now, CD Projekt has corrected the discount so Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition costs $39.99 (a 42% discount). The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, meanwhile, now costs $14.99 with a 75% discount properly applied.
CD Projekt issued the following statement on social media:
The discounts for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition displayed on Nintendo Switch 2 eShop in the Americas on December 22, 2025 were incorrect.
The situation is a result of an error we made when submitting the discount. We have corrected the error and new discounts have now been applied.
Purchases made at the previous discount rate are unaffected by this change.
As you'd expect, CD Projekt's statement is going down well with fans of the company and its games, and in particular with those who jumped on the discount error before it was corrected. "At that price it's basically a no-brainer impulse buy. Props to CDPR for honoring it though, lot of companies would've just cancelled the orders and blamed a 'system error.' Makes me want to support them more," said one fan.
If you’re jumping into Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time this Christmas, check out our huge guide. Similarly, if you’re getting to grips with The Witcher 3, we’ve got a sweeping guide to help.
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.
Mario fans, here is something special for you today. An unofficial native PC port of Dr. Mario 64 has just been released, allowing you to experience this Mario game natively on PC. This is a must-have for everyone who wanted to play this 2001 tile-matching action puzzle game on PC. Dr. Mario 64 Recomp focuses … Continue reading Dr. Mario 64 Unofficial PC Port Is Available for Download→
The Fallout TV show is packed full of characters, factions, locations, and items familiar to any who has played the beloved RPGs. There are so many easter eggs to spot that we found 111 video game details in Season 1 alone. With season two heading to a fan-favourite part of the Fallout universe, New Vegas, naturally, a whole new flood of iconography is set to make its way from the games into the Prime Video series. So, we’ll be digging into each and every episode and picking out everything we’ve noticed that relates to the source material.
You can check out everything we found in episode one, but here, we’ll be taking a look at every video game easter egg and details we spotted in episode two of Fallout Season 2.
Characters, Factions, and Locations
1. Right at the start of the episode, we get a good look at some New California Republic rangers. They’re sporting the iconic duster jacket look from the Fallout: New Vegas box.
2. We can see that these soldiers are stationed at Shady Sands. This is a highly important location in both the games and show, as it isn’t only where Maximus grew up before its inevitable annihilation, but also features prominently in both Fallout 1 and 2.
3. Fast forward a minute or two, and we get to hear the “patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter” line, delivered by a mind-controlled wandering trader. This is a famous New Vegas quote said repeatedly by the NCR as they walk around the desert.
4. Right at the end of the episode, we also get our first glimpse of Caesar’s Legion as Lucy finds herself captured by the Ancient Roman-inspired faction. It looks like we’ll see a lot more of them next week, though.
5. One faction that features prominently in this second episode, though, is the Brotherhood of Steel. Split into Chapters, Maximus’ group is now calling the famed mysterious facility Area 51 its home. Though not featured in Fallout: New Vegas, there is a long-held myth about it being a military base in-universe among the community.
6. Three other Brotherhood Chapter leaders visit the base in the episode. One is from Yosemite. Are they stationed at Mariposa Military Base featured in Fallout 1?
7. Another hails from the Grand Canyon. Although not seen in the games, Fallout lore says that the region has been taken over by Caesar’s Legion. Perhaps in the 15 years between the New Vegas game and the show, a chapter of the Brotherhood has made a foothold there?
8. And last up is the Coronado Chapter. This location is not officially home to a Brotherhood base in the games, but is a part of the Fallout Senora fan project. Could this be a nice little nod to the mod?
9. During the Brotherhood’s heated conversation, there is also a mention of The Commonwealth. Within the context of the Brotherhood, this refers to the Commonwealth expedition force, the faction’s Boston-based chapter. It’s also the name of a region of the East Coast; first referenced in Fallout 3, it’s the area of the USA that encompasses Massachusetts and is the setting for Fallout 4.
Items and Iconography
10. Of course, it wouldn’t be Area 51 without talk of aliens. We see what we can only assume is an extra-terrestrial lifeform stored in a freezer at the base, which does fit in with what we know about the Fallout universe. The games have a long history of alien phenomena and, specifically, weaponry, turning up, especially in the Mothership Zeta DLC for Fallout 3.
11. A creature slightly more from our world is the Brahmin, a multi-headed bovine that serves as a workhorse for many traders and dealers around the wasteland.
12. Much more threatening are Radscorpions, larger-than-normal mutated scorpions that have the power to poison. We see Lucy and The Ghoul battle a nest of these partway through episode two.
13. That swarm of Radscorpions appear to have an alpha with them, though, as a much bigger, nastier version makes itself known. We can’t quite work out if this is a Giant Radscorpion or the much lesser-seen Radscorpion Queen, though. What do you think?
14. Back in Shady Sands, we see the foreshadowing Nuke arrive as Maximus’ father attempts to defuse it. This plump, green design of the explosive is the exact same as we see in the games.
15. A grown-up Maximus later comes face-to-face with some Feral Ghouls while out on a mission. The Brotherhood refer to them as Abominations, which is a catch-all term in the Fallout universe for some vicious creatures, but, interestingly, it doesn’t include ghouls in New Vegas, but rather things like Deathclaws and Centaurs.
16. Speaking of The Brotherhood, their signature vertibirds and airships can be seen high above the Nevada skies throughout the episode.
17. It seems that much of The Brotherhood’s mission in the desert circles around one of Fallout’s most prized power sources: Fusion cores. These fuel some of the more technologically advanced equipment found in the wasteland, including the Brotherhood Knights’ power armor. We can see one being used to power up the turbines that blow away the sand to reveal Area 51.
18. After her and The Ghoul’s face off with the Radscorpions, Lucy is given a choice not too dissimilar from what we’d expect from one of Bethesda’s RPGs: whether to give her only Stimpak to her radiated companion or a woman in need. Stimpaks are a player’s primary method of healing in the games.
19. The Fallout universe is also home to a fair amount of healthbar-draining heavy weapons, just like the one we can see some Brotherhood members investigating as they enter their new base. It’s a Cryolator, an energy weapon that freezes foes with a cryogenic spray.
20. That’s not the only piece of heavy artillery the Brotherhood discovers in Area 51 – we also see them messing around with a motorized Minigun, too.
21. Speaking of Brotherhood members messing around, things almost go disastrously wrong when we see them playing with a plasma grenade. These high-powered explosives possess the power to superheat those they impact and turn them into piles of green goo. Not exactly something to be throwing around between friends.
Music
22.“Lazy Day Blues” is the instrumental track performed by Bert Weedon that can be heard as Lucy and The Ghoul walk towards the abandoned hospital. This track is played on the radio in Fallout: New Vegas.
23. Another track from the games can be heard when “Ac-Cent-Tchu-ate The Positive” by Bing Crosby plays. This featured in Fallout 4 and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1945 Academy Awards after appearing in the film “Here Come the Waves”.
24.“You Belong to Me” is the song that opens the episode and is from 1952, with its most popular recording being performed by Jo Stafford. Though not actually in any Fallout games, versions can be heard in Bioshock Infinite, along with movies Natural Born Killers and Shrek.
25. The two other songs that can be heard in this episode also have no connection to Fallout, but are certainly representative of the ‘50s era stylings this world finds itself locked into. They are “Secrets” by The Dale Sisters and “Let’s Twist Again” by Chubby Checker.
And that’s everything we spotted in the second episode of season two of the Fallout TV show. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments. For more Fallout, check out our review of this episode, and stay tuned next week for all of episode three’s easter eggs.
This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 2, “The Golden Rule,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.
Last week I wondered if, by holding back the return of Maximus and the Brotherhood of Steel beyond the premiere, we’d have to spend a chunk of this week’s episode further recapping events and re-introducing ideas. Thankfully no such issues weigh down Fallout Season 2’s second chapter, “The Golden Rule,” which wastes no time not only expanding the scope of the Brotherhood, but also sowing the seeds of violent rebellion among its members.
Uneasy friction between factions is the defining factor of Fallout: New Vegas, the video game this season draws most heavily from, and it’s a great idea to replicate that in the movements of the Brotherhood, which turns out to be an uneasy alliance of multiple chapters rather than a unified force. Now conspiring with groups from the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Coronado, it’ll be fascinating to see how Quintus (Michael Cristofer) attempts to seize control of the Brotherhood from the Boston-based Commonwealth chapter – especially with the last-minute arrival of its liaison, Kumail Nanjiani’s Paladin Harkness.
The Elder Cleric’s first steps on that journey provide quite a spectacle. The circling vertibirds, spinning wind turbines, wide-angle desert shots, and Ramin Djawadi’s exceptional Brotherhood of Steel signature theme all combine to lend the reveal of Quintus’ new military base a little Dune-flavoured grandeur. Of course, Fallout can’t deliver all that with a completely straight face, so the base is Area 51 and there’s an alien hidden in the freezer – both among the episode’s funniest reveals. These sequences also never forget to emphasise that the Brotherhood’s incredibly imposing, efficiently violent, power-armoured knights are hilariously stupid. This episode is perhaps the best example so far of their child-like tendencies, with the warriors constantly beating each other up or fiddling with live plasma grenades.
With civil war brewing, it seems like the Brotherhood itself will have one of the season’s most significant storylines, rather than simply being the background fluff for Aaron Moten’s Maximus again. That’s not to say he’s been reduced to simply part of an ensemble, though. Now an obedient Brotherhood dog who’s totally numb to violence, he’s been crushed and reshaped by Quintus in the weeks that bridge each season’s events, so much so that the sneering Cleric finally admires him. Maximus has always been weak, unsure of what to do and easily manipulated, but it’s now clearer than ever that he has no control of who he is or his own destiny. Yes, he’s finally the knight he lied his way into becoming, able to kill a man twice his size, but none of it is his doing.
Maximus’ pathetic existence is made all the more tragic by the episode’s cold opening, which takes us back to his childhood in the ill-fated Shady Sands. Writer Chris Brady-Denton successfully captures the emotion of Maximus’ family saying their hurried goodbyes, knowing full well that they’re about to be nuked off the face of America. As the boy is bundled into the kitchen refrigerator (a tactic presumably taken from the Indiana Jones school of survival), his father reassures him that “you will be a good man.” How disappointed he’d be, then, to see what a spineless creature Maximus has become. The two time periods contrast perfectly, and establish the path down which Maximus must surely walk this season. It’s time to make dad proud.
Maximus has always been easily manipulated, but it’s now clearer than ever that he has no control of who he is or his own destiny.
Talking of proud dads, Shady Sands’ demise was, of course, the work of Hank MacLean. The flashback really does cement him as a truly evil piece of work, as this is the first time we get to see what the town had flourished into. Once little more than a few crop fields and buildings during the timelines of Fallouts 1 and 2, it became an incredible bastion of progress with access to clean water… and Hank took it all away in a flash. We always knew that he was motivated to do so because his wife and daughter ran away from his vault to live there, but Season 1 left the half-answered question of how the bombing was linked to Vault-Tec’s wider corporate plans. That question only gets more complicated now we’ve seen that the explosion was achieved through the use of the mind-control chips that Mr. House was testing in last week’s flashback. Hank, House, and Vault-Tec are all linked, but I don’t think the relationship between the three is as simple as the Season 1 finale’s board meeting made it seem – this will be a great mystery to be unpicked over the next few episodes.
Of course, anything with Kyle MacLachlan in it can’t be 100% sinister, and his mouse-testing trial-and-error montage is one of the episode’s comedic highlights. There’s so many fun details – the cheerful tune, the tiny rodent Vault-Tec office, the constant yo-yoing, and the perfect timing of each bursting mouse. And while it’s fun, it’s all in aid of showing how flawed the control-chip tech is. A similar trick is executed in the Shady Sands flashback, with the mind-controlled travelling trader repeating “Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter” on a never-ending loop. That’s a nod to the New Vegas video game, where budget restrictions meant dozens of characters across the wasteland would parrot the same line ad nauseum. But here, the meme becomes a smart, funny way to depict the tech’s deficiencies.
Also providing a few chuckles is Norm, who has found himself in charge of a gaggle of clueless middle managers after thawing the entire population of Vault 31 last week. In a smart recognition of how little screentime this storyline has, things move at a rapid pace, and the entire group are out on the surface before the credits roll. Norm’s story was a slow burn last year, and while it ultimately paid off, it did require patience as it built from frivolous distraction into one of the show’s key reveals. I’m pleased the momentum continues here, rather than being reset, and does so while still dropping a bunch of “idiot vaultie” jokes along the way. It fulfills the show’s more dedicated comedy needs without feeling inconsequential – something I hope the storylines of vaults 32 and 33, which are absent this week, will adopt when we rejoin them in later episodes.
As Norm sees the ocean and sky for the first time in his entire existence, his sister continues her long walk to find dad almost 300 miles inland. Slightly frustratingly, Lucy and The Ghoul are once again stuck in recap mode this week, as they go on a side quest that closely echoes the events of last season’s trip to the Super Duper Mart, where Lucy could have abandoned The Ghoul after he betrayed her, but instead gave him the life-restoring drugs he needed. It’s largely the same story here – Lucy is poised to leave him for dead after yet another bout of needless violence, but she promises to return for him, proving that she’s “nothing like” him in the process. The parallel between these two scenes is made all the more clear by having the duo’s original tiff in the “previously on Fallout” recap, and so once again it feels like this relationship is treading water… or perhaps it’s such an incompatible pairing that growth is impossible. Only with the entire season in the rear-view will we know if this sense of arrested development worked or not.
That’s not to say Lucy and The Ghoul don’t have any fun, though. Far from it. We have an enjoyably chaotic run-in with radscorpions, a quintessential Fallout monster brought to life with some top-notch visual effects. Also brought over from the games is the classic “choose between these two people in need” dilemma, in which Lucy must decide which dying person is most deserving of her final stimpack. Of course, to have Lucy pick the tunic-wearing woman, seemingly the obvious choice between a vulnerable mortal and a 200-year-old mutant, only for that choice to lead her right into the den of Caesar’s Legion, New Vegas’ cruellest faction, is a wonderful translation of the video games’ unforeseen consequences. Next week’s episode, where we’ll learn more of Lucy’s infamous captors, is sure to be a treat.
The second teaser trailer for Avengers: Doomsday is currently playing in front of Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters. This time, it’s Chris Hemsworth’s Thor who enjoys the spotlight, as he prays to his late father and seeks to reunite with his daughter Love (India Rose Hemsworth). Clearly, all is not well in New Asgard.
In fact, the biggest takeaway from this brief new footage is that Thor himself is mired in a newfound darkness. As far as we’re concerned, that can only mean good things for Doomsday. Thor is a character who needs a little darkness to balance out the levity, and it’s about time that Marvel remembered that.
Thor’s Inconsistent MCU History
Hemsworth’s Thor is certainly one of the most prominent characters in the MCU. He’s headlined no fewer than four solo films and played a key role in all four Avengers movies. Yet as often as Thor pops up in the MCU, Marvel seems to have a real problem with nailing down his characterization and striking a consistent tone with his adventures.
Look at how wildly different those Thor movies are in terms of style and voice. The original two are far more dramatic, even Shakespearean. That approach worked out pretty well for 2011’s Thor and much less so for 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. It helps that the former had a director of Kenneth Branagh’s stature at the helm.
But the franchise took a decidedly more comedic turn when Taika Waititi took over with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi really leaned into Thor’s sillier side there. A lot of MCU fans seemed to connect with that approach, certainly, judging from the critical and commercial reaction. But even if Ragnarok proved to be the most purely entertaining Thor movie to date, it does raise the question of how silly is too silly. At times, the film undercuts its more dramatically weighty moments. Case in point, no sooner does Asgard explode into fiery ruin than Waititi’s Korg pops in with a goofy one-liner.
Despite adapting some of Marvel’s absolute best Thor comics, Love and Thunder squandered that material on a script that is far too inane and joke-y for its own good.
Ragnarok’s successor, 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder, doubled down on that approach, much to its detriment. Despite adapting some of Marvel’s absolute best Thor comics (Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder and The Mighty Thor), Love and Thunder squandered that material on a script that is far too inane and joke-y for its own good. Can a superhero movie become so silly that it’s no longer even funny? Yes, apparently.
Of Thor’s numerous MCU appearances, only one movie has really managed to nail his characterization and strike that critical balance between humor and pathos. That would be 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. If Ragnarok undercut the drama in Asgard’s destruction, Infinity War at least explores the emotional fallout well. Hemsworth delivers his best Thor performance here, painting a portrait of a weary king trying to put a good face on things despite falling so fast and so far.
Even the sequel, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, struggled a bit in carrying that torch. For every scene that really dials in on Thor coming to terms with his absolute failure, there are three or four fat jokes. Still, it’s clear that directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely understand the character better than anyone in the MCU at this point.
Thor in Avengers: Doomsday
That’s one major advantage of the fact that Avengers: Doomsday is getting the majority of the band back together. The Russos are back in the directors’ chairs, and McFeely is co-writing alongside Loki’s Michael Waldron. The potential is there to finally right the Viking ship and restore Thor to the cinematic greatness he enjoyed in Infinity War.
If this new teaser is any indication, they’re well on their way to achieving that goal. The second teaser is similar in style to the first Steve Rogers teaser, striking a somber mood and dialing in on one character. We see Thor praying to his late father, Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, as he seeks to be reunited with his adopted daughter, Love.
“Of all the crowns, the kingdoms, the pride, I ask for none,” Thor says in his monologue. “Father, hear your son. I am not worthy of life, but still, I beg you to let the thread lengthen. Not for thunder, not for war… let me remain long enough to see my Love once more.”
Now this is a proper thunder god. The quips and the humor are finally gone, replaced by a father deeply committed to the singular mission of reuniting with his daughter. This is a Thor who has a regal quality, yet is humbled by his past failures and losses. The pained, grieving hero of Infinity War is finally back.
Obviously, we can only judge Hemsworth’s Thor so much by a single, minute-long teaser. We still don’t know exactly how Thor fits into the plot or what his exact beef with Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom is (we can hopefully speculate more on that front when the rumored Doom-centric teaser hits next week). And, to be sure, Hemsworth is going to be jockeying for screen time with a massive cast of heroes. Will there even be room to give Thor the attention he deserves?
But this teaser is nothing if not an encouraging sign for Thor fans. After a big misstep with the most recent Thor film, things look to be getting back on track as the Odinson reunites with his Avengers buddies. And, with any luck, a few tears will be shed when Thor inevitably reunites with his wayward brother, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
Full spoilers follow for Pluribus Episode 9, “La Chica o El Mundo,” which is available now on Apple TV.
And then there was one! Er, two!
Finally, after nine episodes of being very lonely on opposite sides of the globe, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) and Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) have met face to face. And it did not go well at all. Big surprise.
But before we get to those two, “La Chica o El Mundo” (or “The Girl or the World”) begins with a look at Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), the Peruvian girl who is one of the 13 uninfected and who Carol met back in Episode 2. She’s the one who actually expressed interest in joining the Others, aka the Joined, and here we see that the hive mind has finally figured out how to make that happen. “We would never hurt you,” Kusimayu’s family and friends – or former family and friends? – tell her. And they don’t physically hurt her, to be sure. She simply inhales the live virus, which transforms her into one of them. So why is the scene so horrifying, then?
Man, the way the lovely tribal singing that the village folk have been aurally caressing Kusimayu with just abruptly stops once she’s joined… it’s ghastly. As the villagers, including the now joined Kusimayu, proceed to completely shut the place down – in silence but with a smile, always with a smile – drives home yet another danger behind the Kepler-22b virus: the complete and under destruction of human cultures. Just ask that baby goat that goes running after Kusimayu when she opens the animal enclosure in one final betrayal of her former way of life. Baaaaaa.
From there we return to Carol and Zosia (Karolina Wydra), the strangest couple in Albuquerque, who are watching a satellite image of Manousos’ ambulance as his arrival grows nearer (“And he’s in an ambulance?” “Long story,” Zosia says in that disarming way of hers).
(Of note is the fact that the title card tells us that this is happening some 60 days after the Joining, whereas the previous scene with Kusimayu takes place 71 days before. We’ve seen this kind of time-shifting put to use before, mostly to convey the most important aspects of Manousos’ story as compared to Carol’s, since they didn’t really line up in a linear way for the viewer. And by the end of this episode, Carol will catch up to Kusimayu’s latest development too. It’s just a cool way that creator Vince Gilligan and his writers have been crafting this story.)
These two clashing was inevitable. They’re just too similar, too hard-headed. And that’s surely why they’re the only ones who can save the world.
But back to Carol and Manousos’ first meeting. Boy, could it have gone any worse? By which I mean, could it have gone any better… for we, the viewers, that is? I mean, how freaking awkward is it when they greet each other outside the house? Sure, the language difference was always going to make things tough, but we’re talking about two of the last 13 people on Earth with free will… and possibly the last two who actually give a damn about that very concept. This could’ve been a Hollywood-style meet-up, complete with soaring fanfare as they ran and hugged each other. But nope, instead we get “I no dangerous” and instant disagreements. And it only gets worse from there… This guy snaps his fingers at Carol!? Man!
It’s hilarious, but these two clashing was inevitable. They’re just too similar, too hard-headed. And that’s surely why they’re the only ones who can save the world.
That’s assuming, of course, that the pair can agree on what saving the world actually looks like. We learn here that Manousos thinks, initially at least, that if the Joined can’t be reverted to their non-hive forms, then they are better off dead. Carol on the other hand argues that they’re still human, and besides, they wouldn’t even hurt an ant. “And isn’t it evil to value a man the same as an ant?” Manousos replies.
Now that he’s in town, Manousos takes to running his own tests to figure out how to un-join the Joined, though he’s more willing to push boundaries. It starts with his finally talking to representatives of the collective, specifically Zosia, which Carol does not appreciate one bit. But this also leads to a moment that is surely important to Carol’s mission against the hive mind, as painful as it may be: Zosia tells Carol that the Joined, and by extension Zosia, love Manousos as much as they love her. And it’s not just the statement of fact that is so painful but Carol, but also the casual way that Zosia unloads that information on her. Like, of course they love them the same, Zosia seems to say. Isn’t it obvious?
The funny thing is, Manousos just might be closer to figuring out the key to undoing all of this, or at least he has a better theory than Carol ever did. His whole mysterious radio frequency/coaxing the individual back plan is interrupted here by Carol’s shotgun, sure, but it seems like as good an approach as any. And he was sure to warn the whole world to lie down before he started, too.
And so this leads to Carol and Zosia’s turn in paradise, travelling the planet and living the perfect life. The girl or the world? Carol seems to have made her choice… which feels very un-Carol-like. Maybe she just had had enough. Maybe she wanted a quote/unquote normal life with a loving companion again. Maybe she disliked Manousos and his approach enough that she was willing to overlook the bigger problems of the Joined. But even if the bombshell about her frozen eggs hadn’t been revealed, it’s hard to believe that she wouldn’t have made it back to Manousos eventually.
But that bombshell did drop, and it’s both heartbreaking and terrifying for Carol. There’s a ticking clock for her now, and she’s got nowhere to go but home… to her new best friend, like it or not: Manousos. Oh, and an atom bomb too.
Questions and Notes From Kepler-22b
I’m surprised the frozen eggs thread has played out as expected. Seems a bit on the nose, really, with all the times they were mentioned prior to this. I figured we were in for more of a swerve.
“I mean, it’s not like he’s dangerous, is he?” Huh, Manousos apparently has a darker history than we realized, at least judging by Zosia’s response here.
By the way, why does Manousos carry a machete instead of, I don’t know, a gun? Certainly he’d have a better chance of defending himself with the latter. Unless the whole “is he dangerous” thing connects to some kind of history with that blade…
“You know what, you can get right back into your ambulancia and fuck right off. I’m finito!” Who hasn’t said this once or twice themselves?
Carol’s phone translating everything even after Manousos drops it in the drain is just the perfect touch to their inaugural meeting.
Yes, that’s the Golden Girls DVD menu playing when Carol wakes up on the couch. “Thank you for being a friend [Manousos]!”
Radio frequencies to bring individuals back from a hive mind state! It’s not quite the same, but it is reminiscent of the classic Star Trek episode “This Side of Paradise.”
I’ve enjoyed watching this season and writing about it, so hopefully I’ll be back for Season 2!
Spider-Man is one of the few Marvel heroes with a supporting cast and rogues gallery wide enough to support an entire cinematic universe. Or so execs at Sony thought when they launched their Spider-Man Universe of spin-off movies and TV shows. But now there are only a handful of projects left on that slate, the most notable of course being Tom Holland next live-action Spidey movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Meanwhile, Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven came, went, and will never be forgotten, the Venom trilogy has run its course, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is getting another sequel after Across the Spider-Verse, and the Spider-Man Noir series is in the works with Nic Cage playing the title character.
While the latest word is that Sony is stepping on the brakes on new Spider-Man villain spin-off movies, there are still some projects moving forward (and several that are in limbo).
To help make sense of the various Spider-Man-adjacent projects in development, we're breaking down every Sony Marvel movie or show that's either been officially announced or rumored to be in the works. Check out the slideshow gallery below or scroll down to get the scoop on Spidey's cinematic future.
What Are the Next Spider-Man Spin-Off Movies and TV Shows Coming Out? 2026 Release Dates
Here's a quick bullet list of all the movies and TV shows that are in various stages of development:
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (In Production) - July 31, 2026
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (In Production) -June 18, 2027
Spider-Noir/Spider-Man Live-Action Noir Series (In Post-Production) - Date TBD
Silk: Spider Society Series (Status Unknown/Possibly Dead)
Untitled Female Cast Into the Spider-Verse Spin-Off (Status Unknown/Possibly Dead)
Read on for more details on each project.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31, 2026)
Status: In Production
It was unclear after Spider-Man: No Way Home's release in 2021 when the next appearance of Tom Holland's wallcrawler would come. When Sony and Marvel made a new deal in 2019 to continue to share the character, which allowed No Way Home to be made, an MCU crossover film was also said to be part of that agreement. What that crossover film might be and what it's status is remains unclear, although it seems almost certain that Holland will appear in Avengers: Secret Wars at the very least.
In September, 2024, THR had the news that Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) will be directing Spider-Man 4 with Holland returning as Peter Parker. Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers are writing the script and Kevin Feige is producing once again with Amy Pascal. That October, Holland confirmed that production would begin in Summer, 2025. A release date of July 31, 2026, has since been confirmed, and Stranger Things' Sadie Sink has been cast in an undisclosed but presumably major role.
During No Way Home's press tour, Pascal said that the thinking is that there will be at least three more Spider-Man films starring Holland. It should be noted, however, that has not yet been confirmed by Sony or Marvel.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (June 18, 2027)
Status: In Production
The third Spider-Verse film is called Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (dropping the Part One and Part Two from the Into the Spider-Verse sequels' titles that had previously been announced). Obviously Across the Spider-Verse, the second film in the series, leaves a lot of questions that will need to be answered in Beyond. Beyond the Spider-Verse was expected to be released on March 29, 2024, but in July of 2023, Sony changed several of its slate's release dates, including this film. It is now expected to be released on June 18, 2027. Learn more about the Spider-Verse here.
Spider-Noir/Spider-Man Live-Action Noir Series (Date TBD)
Status: In Post-Production
Following the announcement of Silk: Spider Society (see below), word came that Spider-Man Noir is the second series to come about from Sony and Prime Video's new partnership. The Spider-Man Noir series is a live-action show set in this Depression-era version of the Marvel Universe, though Peter Parker himself reportedly won't be the main character. Nic Cage has been confirmed to be returning as the character, who he voiced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, for the live-action show.
Previously called simply Noir, and more recently Spider-Noir, the show comes from Into the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and 22 Jump Street writer Orien Uziel, who writes and executive produces. Steve Lightfoot (Netflix's The Punisher) was hired in December, 2023, as co-showrunner and executive producer with Uziel. Noir will debut in the U.S. on MGM+’s linear channel, followed by a global launch on Prime Video.
Silk: Spider Society Series
Status: Unknown/Possibly Dead
A more recent addition to Spider-Man's world, Silk is a heroine who was bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. Resurfacing after a decade spent locked in an underground bunker, Cindy Moon has followed the example of Spider-Man and become a costumed superhero. Cindy has actually made small appearances in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War (played by Tiffany Espensen). But we assume the role will be recast for any new Silk project.
Silk was originally announced as a movie, but eventually evolved into a series that was meant to air on MGM+ and Prime Video (the first in a new partnership between Sony, MGM and Prime Video). Into the Spider-Verse's Angela Kang was to serve as showrunner, and the series would follow Cindy's origin story as she escapes imprisonment, comes to terms with her powers and seeks out her missing family. However, in May of 2024, Variety reported that the show was dropped by Amazon/MGM+ and that Sony would be trying to shop it to other buyers. There has been no word on the show since then.
Untitled Female Cast Into the Spider-Verse Spin-Off
Status: Unknown/Possibly Dead
An Into the Spider-Verse spin-off featuring an all-female cast was said to be in the works at one point, with Spider-Gwen expected to make her return. Other characters like Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman, Madame Web, Silk and even Black Cat might've been featured. Not much has been heard of this project since it was first revealed in 2018, however, and it seems likely to have died on the vine (web?).
Unrealized Spider-Man Spin-Off Projects
There has been a host of rumored or reported Spider-Man spinoff movies over the years that have never actually gotten made. Along with Venom, one of the earliest Spider-Man spinoff movies Sony pursued was Silver & Black, a team-up film featuring mercenary Silver Sable and master thief/occasional Spider-Man love interest Black Cat. While Sony went as far as hiring director Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Secret Life of Bees) and dating the film for a February 2019 release, it was eventually canceled. Last we heard, the studio was reworking Silver & Black into solo movies for the characters, though it's unclear if there's any movement on these projects at this point. In 2020, reports indicated that Black Cat and Silver Sable might become TV projects for Sony instead.
Variety reported in March 2018 that director Spike Lee was in talks to direct a Nightwatch film, though Lee has since said he is not attached. The vigilante hero wears a durable nanotechnology costume that enhances his strength by stimulating his adrenal glands, but apparently is not capable of getting him out of development hell.
Another fairly recent addition to the Spider-Man universe, Jackpot has often fought alongside Spider-Man in defense of New York City. When she was first introduced, readers were led to believe she was actually Mary Jane Watson in disguise. Instead, it was eventually revealed that Jackpot is an identity used by two different women - genetic researcher Sara Ehret and her admirer, Alana Jobson. It was reported in August 2018 that a Jackpot movie was in development, and in 2020 further news came that Marc Guggenheim was writing the screenplay. No cast or director have been revealed so far and this one also seems unlikely to happen at this point.
At CinemaCon 2022, Sony announced El Muerto, a Spider-Man spin-off movie starring musician, producer, actor, and wrestler Bad Bunny as the title character. El Muerto is a wrestler with superpowers whose mask and abilities are passed down from generation to generation. The film was reported to have a release date of January 12, 2024, at that time, and yet as of April, 2023, filming had still not begun and Bad Bunny's publicist said the film was "at a standstill," only to later clarify that it was "in development." On June 21, 2023, a Sony press release said that the film had moved to a TBD date. And in September, 2023, Bad Bunny seemed to tell Vanity Fair that he had dropped out of the film. Hmmm...
Sony Pictures Entertainment execs clearly have plans for the Marvel characters they have the rights to. “We have the next seven or eight years laid out as to what we’re going to do with that asset, and that will not only be on the film side -- it’ll be on the TV side,” said Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tony Vinciquerra. “Our television group will have its own set of characters from within that universe that we will seek to develop.” Of course, that was in 2019, so we're already six years into his seven...
Could the Olivia Wilde-directed Spider-Woman movie that was reported on in 2020 still be in the works? Or the Roberto Orci-scripted Marvel project that was also rumored that year? How many of the projects already reported on fall under Vinciquerra's plans, or have been dropped by now? Madame Web probably already knows, but for the rest of us, time will tell.
I have a bad habit of telling myself I am just browsing, then somehow ending up reinstalling a 100-hour RPG. This Christmas Eve of delights did not help my self control. There are some genuinely sharp discounts across every platform here, including a couple of games I happily paid full price for years ago and never regretted.
In retro news, I'm celebrating the 26th birthday of SWAT 3, a cop-centric inspiration for the tactical CQC antics of your modern Rainbow: Six Siege. It sure had a strange path to becoming a shooter, however, as it's technically the seventh installment of Sierra's old-as-the-hills (or mountain, as it were) Police Quest adventures. From there, it morphed into an isometric SWAT tactics game, and then this: a po-po RoE shooter where, ideally, you'll arrest perps instead of installing blowholes in 'em.
While Sierra certainly wasn't the first to kick the door in on this sub-genre, the pretty peerless solo, co-op, and TDM offered here stacked up tighter than SWAT 3's more remembered rival of the day, Rogue Spear.
Cyberpunk 2077: Ult. (-34%) A$79 This is the full redemption arc in one box, including Phantom Liberty. It runs better than it ever has on Switch hardware and the writing is still preem.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Rem. (-19%) A$69 These remakes are pure nostalgia filtered through gorgeous modern pixel work. Old school systems, timeless charm, and surprisingly cosy pacing.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (-29%) A$49.90 Three PS1-era platformers rebuilt with real care. It is colourful, breezy, and still secretly demanding if you chase 100 percent.
Everybody's Golf Hot Shots (-44%) A$39 Arcade golf at its most relaxing. Easy to play, hard to master, and dangerously good at making you say one more round.
Ni No Kuni: WotWW (-33%) A$59.90 Studio Ghibli gorgeousness, heartfelt storytelling, and a battle system that rewards patience. Still one of the most charming RPGs of its generation.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero (-21%) A$79 A love letter to Budokai Tenkaichi fans. Ridiculous spectacle, huge rosters, and exactly as subtle as a Super Saiyan entrance.
Sonic Frontiers (-76%) A$23.90 Messy but fascinating open zone Sonic. When it clicks, it really clicks, especially the soundtrack and boss fights.
Monster Hunter Wilds (-64%) A$41.90 Capcom refining its loop yet again. Great onboarding, satisfying hunts, and that familiar just one more kaiju energy.
Gotham Knights (-71%) A$32.20 Sure not the Arkham sequel I wanted, but a solid co-op brawler with a surprisingly earnest take on Bat family drama.
Dead Space Rem. (-61%) A$43.40 One of the best remakes ever made. The atmosphere is oppressive, the sound design is evil, and it still absolutely holds up.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Next-Level Ed. (-73%) A$30 Borderlands filtered through tabletop chaos. Goofy writing, flexible builds, and much better pacing than its predecessors.
Xbox One
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (-92%) A$7.80 Spectacle dogfighting with melodrama to spare. It looks great, sounds incredible, and makes you feel like Mav'.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War (-71%) A$15.70 The Nemesis system still carries this. Orc rivalries, revenge arcs, and emergent nonsense you will talk about for years.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human (-61%) A$39 Parkour first, zombies second. Night runs are still terrifying and the movement alone makes this worth a look.
Gran Turismo 7 (-38%) A$78 A stunning celebration of car culture. Even if you are not a petrol head, the craftsmanship is undeniable. Phenomenal in VR.
LEGO Horizon Adventures (-63%) A$21.90 Aloy gets the plastic fantastic treatment. It's light, funny, and everything clicks. Ha. Pun.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (-70%) A$17.90 Pixar looks with Souls-lite combat. Tough but fair, and emotionally sincere in a way few games attempt.
Outer Wilds (-40%) A$18.50 One of the smartest games ever made. Do not read guides, just trust your curiosity.
Lies Of P (-40%) A$51.10 A grim fairy tale Soulslike that absolutely earns its difficulty. Tight combat and exceptional art direction.
Unicorn Overlord (-65%) A$33.20 Vanillaware doing what they do best. Strategy depth wrapped in absurdly detailed 2D art.
PS4
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (-92%) A$8.90 Same brilliant aerial action, still runs beautifully, still unforgettable. Brilliant in PSVR.
Just like I did last holiday season, I'm getting festive with the LEGO section. In Mathew Manor, my sons and I are again racing / rating 2025's batch of LEGO Advent Calendars. Basically, we open the City, Harry Potter, Minecraft, and Star Wars ones daily and compare the mini-prizes for "Awesomeness" and "Actual Xmas-ness". 2024's winner was the Lego Marvel one, but, weirdly, there's no 2025 equivalent. So it's anybody's race this year.
Here are the cheapest prices for the four calendars we're using. Score them yourself or just live vicariously through our unboxings.
Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube.
Some may say we are in a renaissance of video game adaptations as we've been treated to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a third Sonic the Hedgehog film, and TV series based on The Last of Us and Fallout, and will soon be getting adaptations of God of War, Mass Effect, and so many more. The best part? A lot of these look so much better than video game adaptations we’ve gotten in the past.
How many will actually make it through development and see the light of day remains to be seen, and only a fraction of these have actual release dates. But we're watching these projects, and we're tracking them!
For the purposes of this list, we classify a “video game movie” or "video game TV show" as an actual adaptation of an existing video game, so something like Wreck-It Ralph (which is just a movie about video games) wouldn’t qualify. They don’t have to be faithful adaptations – they just have to be based on a real game.
Click on through the slideshow below for a glimpse, or read on to find out about the biggest projects with definite details. And if you see something incorrect, missing, or in need of an update, let us know in the comments!
What Are the Next Video Game Movies and TV Shows Coming Out? 2026 and Beyond Release Dates
For those keeping track, here's the full lineup of upcoming video game movie and TV show adaptations:
Video Game Movies in 2025 and Beyond
Return to Silent Hill (January 26, 2026)
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 3, 2026)
Mortal Kombat 2 (May 15, 2026)
Resident Evil (September 18, 2026)
Street Fighter (October 16, 2026)
The Angry Birds Movie 3 (January 29, 2027)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (March 19, 2027)
The Legend of Zelda (May 7, 2027)
A Minecraft Movie 2 (July 23, 2027)
Five Nights at Freddy's 3 (TBA)
Elden Ring (TBA)
Call of Duty (TBA)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (TBA)
Ghost of Tsushima (TBA)
Horizon Zero Dawn (TBA)
Grow a Garden from Roblox (TBA)
Helldivers 2 (TBA)
The Sims (TBA)
Martha Is Dead (TBA)
Riders Republic (TBA)
Gears of War (TBA)
Sleeping Dogs (TBA)
Phasmophobia (TBA)
Death Stranding (TBA)
Death Stranding: Mosquito (TBA)
Days Gone (TBA)
Dredge (TBA)
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu 2 (TBA)
Stray (TBA)
BioShock (TBA)
El Paso, Elsewhere (TBA)
Split Fiction (TBA)
Space Channel 5 (TBA)
Comix Zone (TBA)
Watch Dogs (TBA)
Video Game TV Shows in 2025 and Beyond
Fallout: Season 2 (December 17, 2025)
Devil May Cry Anime Season 2 (2026)
The Last of Us: Season 3 (2027)
Ghost of Tsushima Anime (2027)
The Witcher: Season 5 (TBA)
God of War (TBA)
Far Cry (TBA)
Mass Effect (TBA)
Live-Action Tomb Raider (TBA)
Beyond: Two Souls (TBA)
Gears of War (TBA)
Assassin's Creed (TBA)
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (TBA)
Overcooked Reality TV Show (TBA)
The following titles have been reported to be in development in the past but their status is currently unknown and they may no longer be actually happening:
Announced Video Game Movies (Status Unknown)
Mega Man
Just Cause
Duke Nukem
Gravity Rush
Dead by Daylight
It Takes Two
Sifu
Slime Rancher
Ark: Survival Evolved
Pac-Man
Streets of Rage
Sniper Elite
Toe-Jam and Earl
Jak and Daxter
Half-Life
Saints Row
Portal
Yakuza
Beyond Good & Evil
Firewatch
Metal Gear Solid
The Division
Just Dance
Dragon's Lair
Announced Video Game TV Shows (Status Unknown)
Horizon Zero Dawn
A Plague Tale
Nier: Automata: Season 2
Disco Elysium
Hunt: Showdown
Alan Wake
System Shock
Grounded
Life Is Strange
My Friend Pedro
Skull & Bones
The following are the most definite projects that are currently in the works.
Fallout: Season 2
Release Date: December 17, 2025, on Prime Video
The first season of Prime Video's Fallout series was a huge success. In our Fallout TV show review, we said, "A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout is among the best video game adaptations ever made."
Fallout will be back for another season in December and it will bring us back to New Vegas, with familiar faces like Ella Purnell's Lucy, Walton Goggins' Ghoul, and the goodest girl Dogmeat alongside new faces like Justin Theroux's Mr. House and a 'crazy genius-type character' played by Macaulay Culkin.
Return to Silent Hill is the upcoming film based on Silent Hill 2 and is "a mythological love story about someone so deeply in love, they're willing to go to hell to save someone." The film will see Jeremy Irvine and Hanna Emily Anderson taking on the lead roles and a recent Silent Hill Transmission gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the movie. A first look at the terrifying Pyramid Head was also revealed earlier this year.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Release Date: April 3, 2026
September 2025's Nintendo Direct revealed the next Super Mario Bros. movie will be The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and we are very excited. A sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie must have been the easiest decision for Nintendo as was seen by over 168.1 million people worldwide and made over $1.349 billion at the global box office.
Mortal Kombat 2
Release Date: May 15, 2026
Mortal Kombat 2 will be released in theaters on May 15, 2026, and the synopsis teases that our "fan favorite champions—now joined by Johnny Cage himself—are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders."
Karl Urban plays Johnny Cage and Adeline Rudolph will be taking on the role of Kitana, and they'll be joined by Tati Gabrielle's Jade, Damon Herriman's Quan Chi, Martyn Ford's Shao Kahn, Desmond Chiam's Jerrod, Ana Thu Nguyen's Sindel, CJ Bloomfield's Baraka, Lewis Tan's Cole Young, Hiroyuki Sanada's Scorpion, Jessica McNamee's Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks' Jax, Ludi Lin's Liu Kang, Josh Lawson's Kano, Tadanobu Asano's Raiden, Chin Han's Shang Tsung, Joe Tsalim's Bi-Han, and more.
Street Fighter will be making its way to the big screen next year from Bad Trip's Kitao Sakurai. As for who will star in the film, a recent trailer revealed the following;
“Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury,” the official plot synopsis reads.
The Angry Birds Movie 3
Release Date: January 29, 2027
Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Rachel Bloom, and Danny McBride return as Red, Chuck, Silver, and Bomb for a third Angry Birds movies. John Rice (The Angry Birds Movie 1, Beavis & Butt-Head Do the Universe) directs from a screenplay by Thurop Van Orman (The Angry Birds Movie 2!).
Sonic the Hedgehog 4
Release Date: March 19, 2027
The Sonic movies are going strong (Sonic 3 is at the top of our best video game movies of all time list!), so it's no surprise that a fourth film is in the works. There aren't many details available about the project yet, but based on the Sonic 3 post-credits scene, expect Amy Rose and Metal Sonic to show up.
The film will be directed by Wes Ball and will star Bo Bragason as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link. and it's all being co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Nintendo will be financing more than 50% of the movie and the theatrical distribution will be done by Sony.
"The Legend of Zelda follows Link, a young warrior destined to protect the magical kingdom of Hyrule from the forces of darkness," the official description reads. "The land is under threat from Ganon, a ruthless warlord who seeks the Triforce — an ancient relic said to grant limitless power. To stop him, Link must embark on a perilous journey, battling monstrous creatures, exploring treacherous dungeons, and solving intricate puzzles to uncover sacred artifacts that can aid him in his quest."
Netflix’s The Witcher returned for its fourth season, and it did so with a new Geralt of Rivia as The Hunger Games’ Liam Hemsworth replaced Henry Cavill. You can watch all of those episodes now while knowing a fifth and final season is also in the works.
God of War TV Series
Release Date: TBA on Prime Video
Prime Video has officially announced that a God of War live-action series is in the works from Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions. The show will follow the story that began in 2018’s God of War and will see Kratos and Atreus traveling to the highest peak in the nine realms of Norse mythology to spread the ashes of their late wife/mother.
At CES 2024, Sony confirmed writing was underway for the series. In October 2024, it was reported that Ronald D. Moore (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) had replaced the show's previous producers Rafe Judkins, Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus as showrunner.
Far Cry TV Series
Release Date: TBA on FX and Hulu
Noah Hawley (Alien: Earth, Fargo, Legion) will be turning Far Cry into a TV series for FX and Hulu, along with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob Mac (aka Rob McElhenney). Mac will also star in the series, which is in early days at the moment but is sure to be a major push for FX considering how much attention Alien: Earth received. Each season of the show will focus on a new setting, similar to the games.
Activision and Paramount Pictures announced that Yellowstone creator Tyler Sheridan and Lone Survivor's Peter Berg are on board to lead the upcoming Call of Duty movie. Sheridan will write and produce and Berg will write, direct, and produce.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Release Date: TBA
Even before Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was out, it was confirmed the game would be getting a film adaptation. Developer Sandfall Interactive has partnered with Story Kitchen to bring this to life, but we don't know much else at this point.
Mass Effect
Release Date: TBA on Prime Video
A Mass Effect movie adaptation was in the works at least as far back as 2010, though it never wound up happening.
In December, 2021, however, it was reported that Amazon was working on a deal to adapt the game as a TV series. It once again took a while, but in November 2024, it was confirmed that Amazon MGM studios had begun development on the TV version. Daniel Casey (10 Cloverfield Lane) will write and executive produce the show, while other producers include EA/BioWare's Michael Gamble, who's leading development on the next Mass Effect game, and Avi Arad, who was part of that initial movie announcement all those years back.
Stahelski also mentioned he is looking at ways to "expand further" into sequels and TV. So, expect a lot of Ghost of Tsushima in the future!
Ghost of Tsushima Anime
Release Date: 2027
A Ghost of Tsushima anime is on the way from Sony and Aniplex and it is set to launch exclusively on Crunchyroll in 2027. Instead of adapting the main game, this anime will instead focus on the Legends co-op multiplayer portion that was added post-launch.
Horizon Zero Dawn Movie and TV Show
Release Date: TBA
Horizon Zero Dawn has had both a movie and a TV show in the works, but the TV show has had a bit of a rocky road. In July 2024, it was reported that the series was no longer moving forward at Netflix. It may show up again in the future, but it wasn't a great sign.
PlayStation and Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls could be getting a TV series from original star Elliot Page. Reports indicate that Page’s Pageboy Productions has acquired the rights tor the project, which is said to be in early development.
EA's long-running life simulation series The Sims is getting the big-screen treatment from Loki season 1 director Kate Heron and Margot Robbie's production company Lucky Chap. We have yet to learn anything else about the project, but it should be welcome news for fans nonetheless.
MCU star Simu Liu got fans excited when he said he was working with the rights holders to bring Sleeping Dogs to the big screen, and it turns out he is actually set to produce the film and play the lead role of Wei Shen.
"The film promises to delve into the mysteries surrounding the apocalyptic event called the 'Death Stranding', which blurred the lines between life and death, and brought forth nightmarish creatures into a world on the brink of collapse," the official synopsis reads. It was also confirmed it will "tell a story you haven't seen in that world."
Dredge, the part creature collector and part eerie horror Lovecraftian fishing game, will be getting a big screen adaptation from Story Kitchen. The media company wants fans to think of this film as "The Sixth Sense on the water. A grounded atmospheric cosmic horror blend of HP Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway."
Overcooked Reality TV Show
Release Date: TBA
A24 and Netflix will be bringing us a reality TV show based on the chaotic cooking game known as Overcooked. It is said to be an unscripted format show like Nailed It! and Floor Is Lava, and the kitchen will have crazy obstacles pop up to impede the chef's progress in crafting the perfect meal.
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu 2
Release Date: TBA
Legendary Pictures announced a sequel to Detective Pikachu in January 2019, two months before the original hit theaters. 22 Jump Street's Oren Uziel wrote a draft of the screenplay, and in 2023 it was revealed that Jonathan Krisel is directing and Chris Galletta is the latest writer to take on the follow-up.
There's always a lighthouse, and apparently there's always a BioShock adaptation in the works. After a previous attempt to bring the beloved first-person shooter to film form fell apart at Universal years ago, Netflix and Take-Two announced in early 2022 that a BioShock film adaptation is in the works for the streaming service. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is on-board to direct the film and Logan and Blade Runner 2049 writer Michael Green will pen the script for the story that will be “really true to the game itself.”
In October 2023, it was confirmed the was still in the writing stage but that the team was very optimistic about how the project was going, and in July 2024 producer Roy Lee said the film was still in the works but with a reduced budget.
El Paso, Elsewhere
Release Date: TBA
Strange Scaffold's third-person neo-noir shooter, El Paso, Elsewhere, is getting the big screen treatment, and LaKeith Stanfield is said to be in talks to star and produce the project alongside Lorenzo di Bonaventura's Di Bonaventura Pictures and Colin Stark. The film would follow protagonist James Savage as he navigates a monster-filled world and tries to stop his vicious ex-girlfriend and the demons he is battling inside.
Split Fiction
Release Date: TBA
Earlier this year, Story Kitchen was in the process of gathering a team together to work on an adaptation of Hazelight Studios' Split Fiction. Reports say Sydney Sweeney may star in the film, Wicked director Jon M. Chu will direct, and Deadpool and Wolverine's screenwriter Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are also on board.
Netflix has announced that it will produce a live-action Assassin's Creed series, executive produced by Ubisoft's Jason Altman and Danielle Kreinik, which will be the first of multiple new projects. The live-action series will be an "epic, genre-bending live action adaptation." The collaboration will "tap into the iconic video game’s trove of dynamic stories" to create live-action, animated and anime series.
Splinter Cell Movie and Splinter Cell: Deathwatch TV Series
Release Date: Presumed Cancelled for the Movie, TBA for the Series
Back in 2012, it was reported that Tom Hardy was going to be starring as Fisher in a film adaptation of Splinter Cell, but we haven't heard any meaningful updates since around 2015 when Hardy said filming would begin in early 2016. As for the show, in 2021 Netflix gave a first look at what the animated series adaptation would look like. It's titled Splinter Cell: Deathwatch and Liev Schreiber will reportedly voice Sam Fisher.
Which of these video game movie or TV show adaptations are you most looking forward to? Let's discuss in the comments!
Note: This story was updated on 12/23/2025. It was originally posted on 10/21/2021.
Want a free iPhone? Metro by T-Mobile has an awesome promotion happening now until we ring in the New Year. With it, an iPhone 16e will be yours at no cost and with no trade-in or activation fee required. It’s a $600 value, and all you need to do is bring your old phone number when switching to one of Metro’s select plans.
Those who’ve been in the market for a new phone carrier will appreciate Metro’s lack of contracts, full upfront pricing, and 5-year price guarantee, so you know exactly what you’re getting. Plus, perhaps best of all, Metro is covered by T-Mobile’s 5G network, which is the best in the nation according to an Ookla Speedtest.
Get a Free iPhone 16e When You Bring Your Number to Select Metro Plans
To receive an iPhone 16e on Metro by T-Mobile, you must bring over an existing number from another carrier when signing up for Metro’s $50 per month phone plan. Now, you’ll need to pay $55 for the first month of service, but after that, it will be only $50 per month when using Auto Pay. $99.99 will also be due upfront for the iPhone 16e, after an instant rebate of $500 is applied. After three months of service, you’ll receive a $100 virtual prepaid Mastercard to reimburse you for the phone. Just be sure to complete the required form. After that, you’ll be free to spend that $100 anywhere a Debit Mastercard is accepted.
If you don’t have an existing phone number to transfer, you can still get the iPhone 16e at a discounted price.
However, this deal is not nearly as great; $300 will be knocked off the price tag, making the phone only $299.99 when activating a new line on Metro’s $50 per month Auto Pay plan.
The iPhone 16e is a top-notch smartphone that Apple dropped in February 2025. While it may be Apple’s more budget-oriented phone, it has some serious performance chops. An A18 processor is packed in. It’s not the same chip variant as the iPhone 16, but the iPhone 16e packs just as much power for a smooth app experience, and it even runs Apple Intelligence well. A long battery life, a sharp display, and solid cameras are other notable highlights, making it a great all-around phone option for average users.
Metro by T-Mobile Phone Plans
All of Metro by T-Mobile's phone plans offer unlimited text, talk, and 5G data with a 5-year price guarantee and no activation fee. The lowest-priced plan starts at just $40 per month with Auto Pay. T-Mobile Tuesday is also included, offering freebies and discounts on food, gas, movies, and more. Additionally, Scam Shield protects you from robocalls, spam, and scams.
Opting for the $50 per month Auto Pay plan provides additional benefits, including hotspot data usage, a 100GB Google One membership, and upgraded phone deals. To get the most out of your plan, the $60 per month Auto Pay plan is your best bet, as it also includes Amazon Prime and Unlimited international texting in addition to everything else. Adding more lines to any of these plans significantly decreases pricing per line.
Maybe you don’t need a new phone? Well, if you’re okay with using your current phone rather than upgrading, you can score a solid deal on a phone plan. One line of unlimited text, talk, and 5G data is available for just $25 per month with Auto Pay. Plus, there’s no activation fee, and you can still enjoy T-Mobile Tuesdays and Scam Shield protection.
Other Phone Deals
If you’d rather be on Metro’s more affordable $40 per month plan with Auto Pay, there are still phone deals to be had. When you switch your existing phone number over from another carrier, you can get the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G or the Motorola Moto G completely free. Don’t have an existing number to switch over? The TCL K11 could be yours at no cost if you’re a new customer or adding a new line.
IO Interactive has announced that its upcoming James Bond game, 007 First Light, has been delayed until May 27th, 2026. The game was meant to come out on March 27th, 2026. This means that 007 First Light has been delayed by two months. IO Interactive stated that the dev team needs a bit more time … Continue reading 007 First Light Has Been Delayed Until May 27th→
NVIDIA has released a new hotfix driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 591.67 fixes three specific issues that plagued its graphics cards. So, let’s take a closer look at them. The NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 591.67 fixes a bug that could cause slight banding on gradients … Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 591.67 Released & Detailed→
Modder ‘mstewart401’ has released a new version of his RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for the first Unreal that adds support for the Return to Na Pali expansion. As such, you can now experience both the main game and the expansion pack with real-time path tracing. Created by mstewart401, this mod adds real-time Path Tracing … Continue reading Unreal RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod Now Supports the Return to Na Pali Expansion→
From scoundrels to Jedi masters to bounty hunters, we've cooked up a list featuring all the upcoming Star Wars TV shows and movies. While some are locked and others are just industry reports that haven't been confirmed by Disney, one thing's for sure - there are passionate plans in the works to give us a lot more of Star Wars, whether it's a story centered on beloved characters or an entirely new cosmic adventure.
Click right through the scruffy-looking slideshow below to see what's coming, and a couple of "maybes" too...
What Are the Next Star Wars Movies and TV Shows Coming Out? 2026 Release Dates
For those keeping track, here's the full lineup of upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows:
Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian & Grogu Movie (May 22, 2026)
Maul: Shadow Lord Series (2026)
Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi (2026)
Star Wars: Starfighter (May 28, 2027)
Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 (In Development)
Taika Waititi's Star Wars Movie (In Development)
James Mangold's Dawn of the Jedi Movie (In Development)
Dave Filoni's Mando-Verse New Republic Movie (In Development)
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order Movie (In Development)
Simon Kinberg's Star Wars Trilogy (In Development)
Carlton & Nick Cuse's Star Wars Series (In Development)
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Movie (Status Unknown)
The Mandalorian: Season 4 / The Book of Boba Fett: Season 2 (Status Unknown)
Star Wars: Lando Movie (Status Unknown)
Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic TV Series (Presumed Canceled)
Untitled J.D. Dillard/Matt Owens Movie (Presumed Canceled)
Rian Johnson's Star Wars Trilogy (Presumed Canceled)
Kevin Feige's Star Wars Movie (Canceled)
David Benioff & DB Weiss' Star Wars Movies (Canceled)
Here are the Star Wars projects that are closest to becoming a reality (or at least appear to be) at the moment...
The Mandalorian & Grogu Movie (May 22, 2026)
Lucasfilm turned heads with the announcement of a Mandalorian spinoff movie separate from Filoni's Mando-Verse New Republic crossover film. Dubbed The Mandalorian & Grogu, this film will be helmed by The Mandalorian co-creator Jon Favreau. It's assumed the movie is taking the place of The Mandalorian: Season 4.
Filming wrapped at the end of 2024, meaning this will wind up being the first Star Wars project to hit the big screen since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. The Mandalorian & Grogu has a May 22, 2026 release date.
Maul: Shadow Lord Series (2026)
The Star Wars franchise will remain in the post-Clone Wars, pre-A New Hope era for its next animated series, which focuses on the former Darth Maul as he seeks to rebuild his criminal empire in the age of the Empire. Lucasfilm teases the series will showcase Maul "plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire." Sam Witwer will reprise his role as Maul. Look for it to debut on Disney+ in 2026.
Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi (2026)
The animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions is getting a miniseries spinoff called Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi. As the title suggests, this series will be a continuation of Production I.G.’s “The Ninth Jedi” shorts from Visions Season 1 and 3. It’s a natural choice, as there’s clearly far more story left to tell in this bleak yet adventurous take on the Star Wars mythos.
Star Wars: Starfighter (May 28, 2027)
The next Star Wars movie hitting theaters after The Mandalorian and Grogu is Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Deadpool & Wolverine's Shawn Levy and starring the Driver himself, Ryan Gosling. The film is set roughly five years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, putting it further down the Star Wars timeline than any movie or show to date.
There are few details on what the film would be about, but Levy has been developing the project with scripter Jonathan Tropper since 2022. Tropper previously worked with the director on This Is Where I Leave You and The Adam Project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the prospective movie would be unrelated to the Skywalker Saga and would be a standalone story.
Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 (In Development)
When Ahsoka: Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, it was unclear whether those loose ends would be picked up in a second season or feed directly into Dave Filoni's Mando-verse movie. But Lucasfilm has now confirmed Ahsoka: Season 2. There's no release window yet, though the series likely won't return before late 2025 at the soonest.
Taika Waititi's Star Wars Movie (In Development)
Disney has confirmed that Thor: Ragnarok's Taika Waititi has been tapped to direct a live-action Star Wars movie. Waititi is also co-writing the film alongside 1917's Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Nothing else is known about the film yet, including when it's set in the Star Wars timeline or what release date it'll end up claiming. In 2021 Waititi revealed he's cracked the story for his movie, but the actual script is still in its early stages. In May, 2022, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that this would be the next Star Wars film released, while in March, 2023, Variety reported that this could be the project that snaps up the currently empty December, 2025, release date on Lucasfilm's slate. In February, 2025, however, Kennedy confirmed that she still hasn't seen a finished script from Waititi, saying “if we ever do get a script from Taika, it’s going to be fantastic.”
James Mangold's Dawn of the Jedi Movie (In Development)
At Star Wars Celebration 2023, we learned that Logan director James Mangold is directing a movie about the very first Jedi Knights. Little is known about the movie, other than that it's set roughly 25,000 years before the other films and will be "biblical" in scope.
Dave Filoni's Mando-Verse New Republic Movie (In Development)
Dave Filoni will make the jump from Star Wars shows to the big screen. Filoni is directing a movie set after the events of Return of the Jedi. The film is said to tie together shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order Movie (In Development)
Ms. Marvel's Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is directing the first Star Wars film set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Daisy Ridley will return to reprise the role of Rey Skywalker, with the film focusing on Rey's efforts to rebuild the Jedi after the final battle with Emperor Palpatine. It's expected that other actors from the Sequel Trilogy will also return.
At various points in its development, Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, and then Steven Knight, were attached to write the film. However, all have since left the project. Still, reports indicate that Rey as a character is still a major priority at Disney. In January, 2025, George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum) was the latest writer hired to script the film.
Simon Kinberg's Star Wars Trilogy (In Development)
Deadline reports that X-Men producer (and Star Wars Rebels co-creator) Simon Kinberg has been tapped to oversee a brand-new trilogy of Star Wars films. Kinberg will write the trilogy and produce alongside Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy. Deadline's sources give conflicting reports as to what the trilogy will actually be about, though. It may be a direct continuation of the Skywalker Saga, effectively making Kinberg the architect of Episodes X through XII. However, others claim the trilogy will focus on a new storyline, coexisting alongside other in-development projects by James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and Dave Filoni. IGN has since confirmed that the latter is the case.
Carlton & Nick Cuse's Star Wars Series (In Development)
Variety reports that Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse is developing a streaming Star Wars series with his son, Watchmen and The Leftovers writer Nick Cuse. That's virtually all we know about this mysterious project, as there's no word on the plot, timeline, characters, or other story details yet.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Status Unknown)
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was given the reins of a Star Wars theatrical film, which was originally slated to hit theaters in Christmas of 2023. Kathleen Kennedy teased, "This story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill ride. The legend of Rogue Squadron has been long beloved by Star Wars fans, and will move us into a future era of the galaxy."
However, as of November 2021 the film was no longer on the production schedule while Jenkins reportedly focused on Wonder Woman 3 (which has since been cancelled). Industry insider Matthew Belloni reported the film was the latest in a long line of Star Wars projects hampered by "creative differences." And in March of 2023, Variety reported that a source has stated that the film is no longer in active development. In April of that year, Kennedy told IGN the following: "Rogue Squadron, that definitely is something that we still talk about. Whether it's a movie, or whether it ends up being in the series space, that's definitely something."
The Mandalorian: Season 4 / The Book of Boba Fett: Season 2 (Status Unknown)
There's currently no word on a fourth season of The Mandalorian or a second season of The Book of Boba Fett. The announcement of The Mandalorian & Grogu may mean the former series has ended its small-screen run, and we're not holding our breath for more The Book of Boba Fett at this point.
Star Wars: Lando Movie (Status Unknown)
While Lucasfilm seems to have no plans for a sequel to 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian was supposed to get his own live-action series at one point. The project was announced in December 2020, and was being developed by Dear White People's Justin Simien. However, Simien eventually departed the project, with Glover and his brother Stephen Glover taking over as writers. And in the fall of 2023 Stephen revealed that Lando is now expected to take shape as a movie rather than a show.
Amidst a series of major delays at Disney, the release dates for the next two Star Wars movies now stand at May 22, 2026 (The Mandalorian & Grogu) and December 17, 2027 (title unknown). Additionally, a Star Wars title originally planned for December 18, 2026, was replaced by Ice Age 6 in November 2024.
Lucasfilm has also said there are several unannounced films in development. What could they be? Only time... and the Force... will tell.
Which Star Wars project are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!
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