From the classic Incredible Hulk TV series to the network hits Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. all the way through the violent Netflix street level shows that introduced characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage to streaming audiences, Marvel Comics have long inspired small screen adaptations. Previous attempts to connect the live action TV shows to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe have often stumbled and stalled — who remembers Runaways and Cloak and Dagger? — but in 2021 Marvel Studios embarked on a new era. This watershed moment began with the Mouse House stacking their flagship streaming service Disney+ with new series that were deeply interconnected to the multi-billion dollar film franchise for which Marvel Studios is best known.

With the charming Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man swinging onto our screens as the 13th Disney+ Marvel show in just four years, we thought it was the perfect time to look back on the Marvel Studios television that came before. Like the Avengers eating shawarma in the ruins of New York, the Marvel experts here at IGN came together and chopped it up, each ranking all 12 of the Disney+ Marvel TV shows so far and aggregrating that ranking. Stay tuned for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’s addition after the series is over.

14. Secret Invasion

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One of the biggest bits of news out of Star Wars Celebration is that Hayden Christensen will be returning as Anakin Skywalker in Season 2 of Ahsoka. Following the big reveal, we had the chance to speak to Christensen about playing Anakin again after nearly 20 years, why he likes when Star Wars goes dark, and even which Anakin meme is his favorite.

We began our chat talking about what other Anakin stories Christensen would want to bring to the screen, and he shared with us how much he would "love to get to do some more of the Clone Wars-era." This tracks as, besides that great scene in Ahsoka and some smaller parts in the films, most of the Clone Wars-era Anakin we've seen has been in animation, where he was played by Matt Lanter.

Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry Did Daredevil: Born Again Just Confirm A Popular Foggy Nelson Fan Theory?

This column entry contains spoilers for the series finale of Mythic Quest.

For those who may have missed it, Mythic Quest, Apple TV+’s beautifully weird show about a game studio and its messed up leadership, has come to an end. Apple TV+ announced that the series was cancelled after Season 4’s, uh, polarizing season finale about two weeks after it aired on March 26, leaving fans of the show somehow more frustrated than they were before. As a result of the cancellation, Apple TV+ has decided to pull the original ending entirely, replacing it with a different finale meant to “tie up loose ends”. But the change isn’t only unsuccessful, it also continues an ugly precedent in streaming.

The original finale was met with mixed response due to a sudden kiss between leads Ian (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao). Some found the out of the blue smooch jarring, while others have been waiting the duration of the series for it to finally happen. But the real ire came when fans learned that the shocking moment wouldn’t have any followup after the series’ messy leads finally made out. The original plan had been that Mythic Quest Season 5 would explore the fallout of Ian and Poppy’s kiss.

With future episodes off the table, series producers Megan Ganz, David Hornsby and Rob McElhenney issued a joint statement that ended with “Because endings are hard, with Apple’s blessing we made one final update to our last episode — so we could say goodbye, instead of just game over.”

The updated episode, released on April 18, removes the controversial kiss, swapping it out for a hug and returning Ian and Poppy to their previously existing status quo as they plan to continue work on their game expansion. Is the new ending more palatable? Perhaps. But no one has ever once described a good finale — season or series — as palatable. Big swings might not always work but they are, at least, always interesting. The update does nothing to assuage the disappointment of the cancellation and, worse still, the original ending no longer exists on Apple TV+ at all. This means that the change to the ending doesn’t just mean the series comes to a close with a whisper instead of a bang, it also opens a complicated can of worms when it comes to movie and TV curation and streaming as a whole.

Ultimately, the fact that Poppy and Ian work as characters because of their complicated platonic relationship doesn’t end up being what’s most important here. Hell, even the fact that they made a weaker ending for their series isn’t even the biggest issue. It’s that the original ending was removed entirely that leaves me with so much concern. Alternate endings existed long before streaming, though they’re mostly relegated to film rather than television. But removing access to the original ending entirely is a separate can of worms, one more akin to what Max and Netflix have been up to as they’ve started disappearing films and television series from their respective platforms.

When you exist solely in a digital space, erasure from platforms means that you simply cease to exist. Though there’s a chance that Apple TV+ eventually decides to add the original ending back or offer it later in special features should the series ever get a physical release, its current non-existence continues a frustrating trend in digital media. Having a boring ending is obnoxious in and of itself, but knowing that there was another one that dared to take a risk even when that risk didn’t ultimately pan out? Infuriating!

The change was made to “tie up loose ends,” but all it really accomplishes is watering down the final version for all to see. The creators may have instituted the change themselves, but erasing the original version entirely is a disservice to both them and the fans of the series. Said erasure feels especially egregious given that we were discussing Netflix playing with the Mandela Effect just last week when the streamer released two different versions of the same episode of Black Mirror to mess with fans’ heads. There is absolutely no reason that both versions of the finale can’t exist alongside each other.

It’s a pity that Season 4 of Mythic Quest came and went with little fanfare despite Apple TV+ having enough confidence in the story to give it a spinoff (an anthology series set in the world but without any of the existing characters), but it’s a much bigger bummer that we’re seeing the trend of art disappearance continue, whether that art is good, bad, messy or absurd notwithstanding.

With Sony revamping the service back in 2022, PlayStation Plus has changed a lot in the last few years. Learning from the success of services like Xbox Game Pass and implementing a library of games players could download and enjoy for one fixed cost, it's quickly become a go-to spot to catch up on old classics, play major new AAA releases, and generally scratch entries off your backlog without breaking the bank.

However, with such a wealth of games available on PlayStation Plus at any given time, you're spoiled for choice on where to start. So, to help you find some great games off the bat, here are a few of our recommendations for what to play on each PlayStation Plus tier right now.

PlayStation Plus Tiers

Following PlayStation Plus' revamp, the subscription service was split into three separate tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. So, let's quickly cover what each tier offers so you know what you're getting before you buy.

Essential - Essential gives you all the benefits PlayStation Plus used to offer before the introduction of the Game Catalog. You get online multiplayer, a small lineup of free games selected by PlayStation each month and exclusive discounts. It's worth noting that this doesn't provide access to PlayStation Plus' game catalog. It costs $9.99 a month, $24.99 for 3 months, and $79.99 for 12 months.

Extra - Extra is the step up from the Essential tier. It provides all the benefits of Essential plus access to the standard Game Catalog, which contains a selection of games released originally on the PlayStation 4 and 5. On top of that, you'll also be able to access the Ubisoft+ Classics collection. It costs $14.99 a month, $39.99 for 3 months, and $134.99 for a year.

Premium - Finally, Premium is the highest tier available and includes everything from Essential and Extra. On top of that, you get access to the Classic Collection, which contains a range of emulated PlayStation 1 and 2 games, as well as cloud streaming and Game Trials, which let you play a selection of newly released games for a limited amount of time. It costs $17.99 for a month, $49.99 for 3 months, and $159.99 for a year.

Now we've covered what each tier includes, let's get to what matters. What games should you be playing when you finally get your hands on the Game Catalog?

Best New Games To Play on PlayStation Plus

Looking to get started on some of the latest PlayStation Plus additions? Here are some highlights from the most recent batch of Game Catalog releases.

Blue Prince

Not only recently added to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog but also a brand new release in of itself, Blue Prince is a critically acclaimed puzzler where you enter the shifting hallways of Mt Holly; a mysterious manner hiding an array of secrets. Concocting an unusual cocktail by combining roguelike elements with a puzzle game, you'll be tasked with searching an ever-changing mansion that's full of tricky puzzles to conquer, all the while uncovering a rich story through clues left behind by the former owners. Blue Prince has already garnered huge buzz since its release, with our own review saying "If The Witness, Portal, and Myst are already emblazoned on the Mount Rushmore of first-person puzzle games, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blue Prince carved alongside them soon enough."

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

A hugely underrated hit from last year, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown marked Ubisoft's grand return to one of its most beloved franchises, and it did not disappoint. Harkening back to the series' roots with a stylish 2D perspective, The Lost Crown is a Metroidvania that sees players battle their way through an interlinked world, taking the fight to enemies in intense, acrobatic combat and navigating precise platforming segments. In essence, it took everything that made the Sands of Time trilogy great, then reimagined and refined it in a 2D perspective, with our review noting that it was "a worthy successor to the best of the Prince of Persia legacy."

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Tape 2

Although technically part of February's PlayStation Plus lineup, Don't Nod's latest cinematic, moral-choice driven drama, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, launched the second half of its campaign as free DLC earlier this month. Telling the tale of a group of rebellious misfits who uncover a mysterious supernatural phenomena during their teenage years, players take on the role of Swann as the story hops between a life-changing summer shared with her best friends in the 90s and a reunion between the group in the present day. As expected from Don't Nod, it features plenty of moral choices to fret over and an emotional coming of age story about found family, growing up and the regrets you try to leave buried in your past. If it's the kind of game that speaks to you, then it's definitely worth a look.

Best Games To Play on PlayStation Plus Extra

For those with PlayStation Plus Extra, here's a few recommendations for our favourite games currently available in the standard Game Catalog.

God of War (2018) & God of War Ragnarok

If you want to immediately dive into Sony's biggest and best AAA offerings, you can't go wrong starting with God of War (2018) and its sequel, God of War Ragnarok. Transforming the franchise's notoriously ruthless protagonist into a grieving father embarking on an adventure to scatter his wife's ashes with his son, God of War's recent reboot tells an immensely powerful story across its two critically acclaimed entries, reimagining Kratos as a distinctly human, flawed hero coming to terms with the weight of his past. Combine that with immensely satisfying, visceral combat, a creative adaptation of Nordic mythology and jaw-dropping visuals, and you have yourself a pair of absolute must-play adventures.

Bloodborne

As the cries for a remake or sequel make abundantantly clear, Bloodborne is a once-in-a-generation kind of RPG. Coming from the minds behind Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Sekiro, it's unsurprisingly a tough game, throwing players into a nightmarish Victorian realm swarmed by Cronenbergian monsters and tasking them with learning a combat style that's quick, precise and efficient to survive. But as with all of developer FromSoftware's releases, every area you conquer, secret you uncover and seemingly unbeatable boss you manage to topple brings a sense of satisfaction few games can rival. If you don't mind a steep learning curve, this Lovecraftian hellscape is among the best FromSoft has ever designed, and that's saying a lot.

Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

There are very few games quite like Disco Elysium. A surreal, otherworldly detective roleplaying adventure, it plants players in the boots of an amnesiac detective who has to solve the murder of a man found hanging behind a hostel. The problem is our hungover hero has no idea who he is, what he's supposed to be doing and, more crucially, is constantly hearing his emotions and thoughts warring for control in his head. It's a zany set up that leads to wholly unique adventure, as players explore and solve the case their way, building their stats, following leads and attempting to uncover key clues, with their actions affecting exactly how the story plays out. In short, it's one of the best RPGs ever made, and it's worth a try even if more technical roleplaying games aren't quite your cup of tea.

Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut

Sucker Punch finally answered the cries of players everywhere back in 2020. We'd been clamoring for a meaty, AAA samurai action extravaganza, and boy, did they deliver. Ghost of Tsushima not only immerses you in the fantasy of living out a classic samurai film from the perspective of its highly skilled hero; it takes that premise and turns it into a hyper-violent, immensely satisfying open-world adventure, as players fight to liberate the scenic island of Tsushima during the Mongol invasion. With stunning visuals, stylish combat, an emotional story and a vast world to explore, it's an easy recommendation, especially with its sequel, Ghost of Yotei, well on the way.

Inscryption

The latest release from developer Daniel Mullins, Inscryption is one of the most original and utterly unique horror games of the modern era, which is surprising considering its a rougelike card game. Handed a deck of bizarre cards, you find yourself trapped in a small log cabin with an ominous stranger, forced to keep playing an unsettling tabletop game with him while you try to stack the deck in your favour and solve puzzles. But the longer you play Inscryption, the deeper the rabbit hole goes, leading you to discover there's far more to its simple premise than meets the eye. It's hard to talk about why its so special without spoiling its best kept secrets, so trust us and give it a go. We promise you won't regret it.

Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

The original Shadow of the Colossus is an absolutely unforgettable experience, and, somehow, Bluepoint's 2018 remake of the same name takes that legacy and manages to preserve, refine and sand off the rough edges to make it even better. Tasking you with exploring an eerie forgotten kingdom in search of 16 ancient monsters lying dormant among its ruins, Shadow of the Colossus is essentially a multitude of jaw-dropping boss battles stacked back to back. You chart a dying world and face off against towering foes, figuring out how to scale them and chip away at their weak spots to bring them crashing down. It's part puzzle platformer and part high-stakes action game, and the cherry on top is a mesmerising story that's told largely through atmosphere and the state of the world itself. It's a classic for a reason, and with the remake making it more accessible than ever, it's a very easy recommendation.

The Last of Us: Part I

If you've owned a PlayStation for a little while, chances are you've already played The Last of Us' iconic first entry in some shape or form. But, if you haven't, The Last of Us: Part I is the definitive way to experience it. A from the ground up remake, Part I boasts visuals matching its absolutely stunning sequel, refined combat and AI, and plenty of major quality of life updates that make charting this apocalyptic hellscape even more intense, visceral and immersive. And that's without even mentioning that it's The Last of Us, so you'll be getting one of the best cinematic video game stories ever told. In short, if you haven't played The Last of Us before, Part I is a surefire addition to your download queue.

Undertale

Absolutely blowing up back in 2015 and amassing a ravenously passionate fanbase, Undertale is indie game royalty at this point, and it's not hard to see why. A heavily-meta riff on old school JRPGs that casts players as a child exploring a forgotten land teeming with quirky monsters, it initially seems like a sincere, emotional, tongue-in-cheek adventure with plenty of zany characters and heartfelt moments. But as you delve deeper into Undertale, you discover it's a game that reacts to how you engage with it. The more sinister you act within the game, the more you'll see the seedy underbelly and morbid secrets it's concealing beneath the surface. Whether your version of Undertale is a charming odyssey or a dark masterpiece, it's one of the most inventive games of the modern era, with a fourth-wall breaking story that simply has to be experienced.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

If you want a pure summer popcorn flick that looks gorgeous on a 4k TV set-up, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is easily a go-to pick. Insomniac's latest entry in its long-running action platformer series, it may be cliche to say, but Rift Apart truly is like playing a Pixar movie. And what's better, the entire thing is an absolute ton of fun, with satisfying shooting mechanics, rewarding exploration, and some of the best platforming in the series. If you want a charming adventure that runs, looks and plays like a dream, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a hearty slice of action platforming excellency.

Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 is front to back one of the best immersive sims ever made. From the moment you step foot on its sun-drenched but deeply corrupt shores, the coastal city of Karnaca is filled to the brim with inventive ideas, both through its dual protagonists' varied skill sets and the way they can interact with the world itself. From offering you a range of shadowy supernatural powers that you're welcomed to experiment with and combine to pull off creative kills, to the way each mission constantly reveals new routes to seek out your targets and execute the ultimate assassination, no one does it quite like Arkane, and this stealth action masterpiece is truly their magnum opus. So, if you want to dive into one of the last generation's finest offerings, do yourself a favour and get Dishonored 2 downloaded.

Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition

Ever wondered why "Silksong" trends every single time a publisher holds a game showcase? Well, it's because its predecessor, Hollow Knight, was so damn good. This action RPG casts you as a silent, sword-wielding bug venturing through a dark, forgotten kingdom on a quest to cleanse it of an infection that violently transformed its inhabitants. It's the set-up to a darkly beautiful masterclass in 2D metroidvania design, as our small but mighty hero takes on fearsome foes in incredibly challenging combat encounters while exploring, growing stronger and learning exactly how this kingdom fell to ruin. If you want to join the agonising wait to finally see Silksong hit shelves, get this downloaded and be prepared to lose all your free time until you hit the credits.

Returnal

One of the most underrated first-party games released in the last few years, Returnal is a roguelike shooter that's tough as nails but among the most satisfying games you'll ever learn to master. Planting you in the boots of Selene, a pilot who crash lands on a mysterious alien planet, you'll find yourself stuck in a time loop with only one escape route: fight your way through hordes of aliens to earn your freedom. What follows is a symphony of frantic, first-person bullet hell action, as players fight for their lives while bolstering their gear on each run, all in an attempt to push through the onslaught of monsters blocking their path. When you combine that with a very effective psychological horror story, this is a gem that you can't miss.

XCOM 2

If you love strategy games, XCOM 2 is among the finest the modern era has to offer. Firaxis' second foray into rebooting its classic series, this masterclass of a sequel sees players wage war across the tattered remains of Earth in a bid to rid it of its invading alien overlords. And, as expected from XCOM, that means building a team of personalised soldiers you begin to invest in and care for across dozens of hours before watching them be unceremoniously torn to shreds by a pack of ravenous chryssalids. XCOM's strength has always been its ability to organically create stories through the harsh consequences of its intense, fast-thinking tactical strategy gameplay, and XCOM 2 absolutely doubles down on that.

Best Games to Play on PlayStation Plus Premium

If you're subscribed to PlayStation Plus' highest tier, here's a few extra games you should check out that are exclusive to the Classics Collection.

The Sly Cooper Trilogy

If you want to play a trifecta of bonafide PlayStation 2 classics, Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper trilogy is absolutely among the Classics Collection's top shelf offerings. Widely remembered as one of the most colourful and character-filled mascot platformers of its day, each game has you take on the role of Sly Cooper: the titular raccoon thief who pulls off daring heists with his group of loyal friends. Sneaking through wacky levels, snatching treasure and taking down zany bosses, the trilogy still holds up to this day, and is an easy recommendation for those wanting to relive their childhoods or discover why the series still has such a passionate following all these years later.

Ape Escape & Ape Escape 2

Japan Studio recently had its most successful hit to date, with Astro Bot going on to win multiple game of the year awards and becoming a major success, and if you liked the studio's recent platforming nostalgia tour, it's well worth a trip down memory lane to revisit one of the their best former franchises. Ape Escape and its sequel see players take on a simple quest: enter a series of small open levels to catch mischievious apes that have broken free and are causing havoc. However, that simple concept soon unravels into utter carnage, as players tour bright, colourful environments while learning to outsmart their zany primate counterparts and send them hurtling into a well-placed net. Both games are pure, unbridled fun, and are well worth a play if you have the hours to spare.

Dino Crisis

Ever wondered what Resident Evil would be like if, instead of facing off against the shambling undead, you were pitted against dinosaurs? Well, Dino Crisis went ahead and answered that very specific question all the way back in 1999. Bringing all of the fixed camera angles, the tense survival horror action and the frantic resource management of the original Resident Evil games, it pitted you against blood thirsty dinosaurs roaming the halls of a mysterious research facility. In essence, it's Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park, and if that concept understandably sounds awesome to you, well, this is well worth investing a few hours to see if it clicks.

The Jak and Daxter Trilogy

While Naughty Dog may be remembered today for the cinematic setpieces and emotional stories of The Last of Us and Uncharted series, they also have a legacy of creating some of the finest platformers of the PlayStation 1 and 2 era. And if you want to get a taste of exactly why they earned such a stellar reputation, The Jak and Daxter trilogy is a great place to start. All three entries are some of the most finely designed and hugely fun platformers of their era, boasting imaginative open worlds, tons of collectables to find and, in the case of Jak 2 and 3, even some experimentation with Grand-Theft-Auto-esque mechanics and systems. They're all well worth a play if you're looking to indulge in some beloved PS2 hits.

LocoRoco & LocoRoco 2

Two of the best games to launch on the PSP, LocoRoco and its sequel are essentially pure, unfiltered joy condensed into two superb video games. Playing a small colourful blob across a series of 2D worlds, you don't control the movement of your character, but instead the angle of the screen, tilting it right or left to maneuver your way to the finish line while jumping and dividing your character into smaller blobs. It's a simple concept, but the amount Japan Studios does with this base premise is sensational, creating a series of inventive puzzles and platforming sections which show just how malleable the idea can be. If you never got to experience either of the LocoRoco games on your PSP back in the day, it should definitely be on your radar.

Dark Cloud

If you're looking to catch a game you may have missed upon release, then Dark Cloud is easily one of the most underrated gems on the entire platform. This PlayStation 2 cult classic dungeon crawler has one of the most compelling gameplay loops of its generation. The majority of the game is spent delving into procedurally generated dungeons, fighting enemies while upgrading your gear and searching for resources. However, once you leave these dungeons, you use the resources to repair the protagonist's destroyed village, stitching together both the hack and slash dungeon crawler and town builder genres as you try to keep your villagers happy and reassemble your home base. Considering Dark Cloud never found its true audience back in the day, it's definitely worth diving into now to see exactly what you missed.

TimeSplitters 2

If you want to take a trip back in time to one of the best shooters of its day, TimeSplitters 2 is a chaotic, tongue-in-cheek multiplayer carnagefest that absolutely holds up all these years later. Set across a range of time-warped zones, TimeSplitters was renowned for its chaotic arena-based showdowns and its range of wacky characters, leading to matches where you'd venture through the halls of a futuristic space station as a snowman with an AK-47 just for a monkey with a rocket launcher to blow you to smithereens. If that very specific scenario appeals to you, then it's absolutely worth spending a few hours checking it out.

What Games Are Coming to PlayStation Plus In The Future?

As of right now, we're still waiting to hear what's next for the PlayStation Plus Catalog. PlayStation usually announces what games will be hitting the service around two weeks in advance, so we'll be sure to update this section when we know more!

For now, the newest games to launch on the service include The Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Tape 2, Hogwarts Legacy, Blue Prince, Alone in the Dark 2, and EA Sports PGA Tour. PlayStation Plus Essential members can also redeem three new games from now until May 5. The current titles available to claim are: RoboCop: Rogue City, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory.

Callum Williams is an IGN freelancer covering features and guides. When he's away from his desk, you can usually find him obsessing over the lore of the latest obscure indie horror game or bashing his head against a boss in the newest soulslike. You can catch him over on Twitter at @CaIIumWilliams.

Every year but one for the last half-century, one of the biggest, baudiest, most excessive movies ever made graces the small screen, courtesy of the ABC network. As surely as the seasons change, come spring Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments returns to TV in a massive four-and-a-half-hour block of ad-supported religious television... and people are still watching. As recently as 2023, it topped broadcast TV viewership for the week of Passover. It’s a time of year I look forward to immensely.

Not that I’m watching it on ABC... who needs that many Ozempic commercials interrupting the 10 plagues of Egypt? But I still stream it just before Easter every year, just as I have since I was a little kid and it was on TV the Saturday night before we all got dressed up in our Easter best the next day.

1956’s The Ten Commandments is not a good movie, but it’s a massively important one, and it’s certainly one of my favorites. Its hammy, sometimes wooden, deeply pretentious and overly concerned with itself, with long pseudo-biblical narration in pretentious King James-ish tones. But it’s also huge, bawdy, violent, sensual, packed with Hollywood legends, and stunningly entertaining thanks to its colossal scale and its extraordinary commitment to exploiting its audience.

Now I want to be very clear here: I’m not particularly talking about the Exodus story. I’m talking about the film. I’m a Quaker, and I take Exodus with a lot of theological weight: Even if I doubt much of it ever happened historically, the story itself still says some very powerful, meaningful things. It lays a foundation for three great religions, and establishes the extraordinary character of Moses, a deeply flawed, deeply reluctant, and empathetic cultural hero. And The Ten Commandments themselves represent something quite powerful historically... a legal code that, while theistic, endeavors to be truly just, promoting a peaceful and civil society.

Full spoilers follow for Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 2, “Lux”.

Doctor Who’s latest episode, “Lux”, is a gloriously weird outing from showrunner Russell T Davies that delivers just the right balance of chaos and charm. But beyond the surface-level delights of its fourth-wall-breaking mischief, something about this episode is now rattling around in my brain and won’t sit still. Not only because it was entertaining, but because it might be the smoking gun for something far more ambitious and strange going on behind the scenes.

Over the past few weeks, an increasingly bold leaker known only as 'Andrew' has been dropping oddly specific plot details from Season 2 of Doctor Who (15th of the revived era, and 41st of the series overall). Detailed, beat-by-beat spoilers, including character returns, major twists, and even claims that Ncuti Gatwa is departing at the end of the season, with no replacement in sight and another Who-hiatus looming.

Normally, I’d file this under the usual noise and move on. Doctor Who fans and haters alike have always given off a bit of a doomsday cult vibe. But, “Lux” has since aired, and one of the leaks was bang on: The Doctor and Belinda literally break through a TV screen to chat with Doctor Who fans, as characters in the show, watching the episode. It’s an incredibly meta, knowingly cliché gag, and a great fourth wall-breaking moment. But most interestingly, one of the fans turns to the camera and says, “I knew this would happen because it leaked online. #RIPDoctorWho.”

So what’s going on here? That scene was filmed some two years ago (Season 1 and 2 had back-to-back production schedules) and will now certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. And yet, I can already see a few ways this might be playing out. First: Maybe it’s all just a coincidence. The leaks were unintentional, and that standout line in "Lux" is simply one of those absurd, once-in-a-blue-moon alignments of fiction and reality. The kind of mind-bending prediction you’d expect from The Simpsons, and one that’s got me spiralling into conspiracy territory with no one at the wheel. Still, weirder things have happened.

Second: Somehow, Russell T Davies had a prophet-like vision, saw it all coming two years in advance, and wrote it in. Yeah, that’s also a bit of a leap, so I highly doubt it.

Third: What if the leaks aren’t accidental at all? There were a couple from the opening episode that were accurate, and now some in the follow-up. Perhaps they were planted deliberately, but only small, mostly harmless titbits, and are meant to prime the fandom discussions without giving too much away. The rest? A bluff, just noise to muddy the waters.

But indulge me in a fourth scenario for a moment. What if there’s more to this? If the leaks were deliberate, I’m not entirely convinced the show would opt to only mess with the core fandom just the once. Stay with me here, but what if every single leak was planted as part of a larger meta-marketing campaign, with the story eventually folding that chaos into itself? Light the kindling with the line from “Lux”, and watch it burn all the way to the finale as fans try to piece the season together, matching it up to the leaked info and wonder if they are getting played, or if this is just one big mess.

It might sound outlandish, but Davies has already been gleefully rewriting the rules of Doctor Who since his return. He’s not just playing with form; he’s baked in fantastical elements, permanently swapped “gravity” for “mavity,” pushed the show into strange, reality-warping territory it’s never fully embraced before, and thrown in more than a few fourth wall breaks. What’s one more step over the edge to him? And now this? It’s just a bit too on the nose to ignore.

And what about that #RIPDoctorWho line? With no renewal announcement from Disney and radio silence from the BBC, Davies hasn’t exactly done much to quell fears of a looming hiatus, even hinting at a break in interviews like his recent one on BBC’s Newsround. So keeping that line in feels… deliberate. It could’ve been cut without fuss.

Just how far does this go? Is Davies, in a devilishly meta bid for buzz, deliberately feeding the idea that the leaks signal the show’s end? It’s also not the only reference to the show’s supposed “end” either, as “Lux” closes with Mrs Flood dropping this zinger: “If you want to see a good show darling, I can recommend this one. Better warn you though, limited run only, show ends May the 24th.”

On first impression, it’s just another playfully ominous line that harks back to the fourth wall breaks from earlier in the episode. But that May 24th date isn’t random: it’s when part one of the season finale airs, and it’s also the exact date the Doctor is trying to return companion Belinda to as part of the season's narrative arc. Doctor Who has flirted with airdate symmetry before, but never this overtly, folding it right into the script.

Taken together with the #RIPDoctorWho gag, these feel less like throwaway jokes and more like morbidly self-aware nods to show’s recurring death knells, written long before the current silence around its future. Or, perhaps more optimistically, these are meta breadcrumbs leading to something far bigger, like a surprise recommission waiting in the wings. Hopefully, it’s the latter.

Yet, if the show really is weaponising fan anxiety over its future, building an entire meta-marketing campaign around it years in advance… then it’s either a stroke of unhinged, runaway genius or the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Senior Editor, Commerce, for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.

Star Wars: Zero Company, Bit Reactor's upcoming new Star Wars tactics game, has been officially revealed at Star wars Celebration today for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S with a release window of 2026.

Zero Company takes place in the "twilight of the Clone Wars," and stars Hawks, a former Republic officer commanding an elite squad of operatives taking on a growing new threat. It's a single-player game, featuring turn-based tactics gameplay, and is said to incorporate "meaningful outcomes from player choices".

Gameplay will involve taking on various tactical operations and investigations all across the galaxy, and in between developing a base of operations and gathering intelligence through an informant network. Zero Company features a cast of brand new Star Wars characters spanning a range of different character classes and species, including a squad that players can swap in and out as they see fit. The main character, Hawks, is also customizable in both appearance and character class.

Star Wars: Zero Company is being developed by Bit Reactor, a new studio staffed with strategy game veterans, with support from Lucasfilm Games and Respawn Entertainment, and publsihed by Electronic Arts. This is the first we've seen of the game, after it was rumored for a long time and ultimately teased by EA just last week.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The Ahsoka panel at Star Wars Celebration 2025 was filled with teases for Season 2, a first look at Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll, stories from the making of the series, and much more. To ensure you don't miss a thing, we're here to break it all down in one place for you.

While we have yet to see footage of Season 2 of Ahsoka or get a release date, we did learn a bit about what we can expect in these new episodes and it's about time we jumped right in.

First Look at Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka Revealed at Star Wars Celebration

The Ahsoka panel at Star Wars Celebration gave us our first look at Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll in Season 2. For those unfamaliar, McCann is taking on the role after the passing of Ray Stevenson.

Stevenson died just three months before the premiere of Ahsoka, but his portrayal of Baylan was the high point of the series for many fans.

Ahsoka series creator Dave Filoni talked more about the challenge of moving on after Ray, especially because he was "the most beautiful person on screen and off." However, while it took some time, he is "confident Ray would be happy with the direction we've chosen."

For Filoni, Baylan is meant to be the parallel to Ahsoka in every way, and he's so grateful that "there's a blueprint for what this character should be because Ray had played him so iconically." Lastly, Filoni noted that he felt very fortunate to meet and cast McCann, as he knew his "whole focus was not letting Ray down."

Hayden Christensen Is Officially Returning as Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka Season 2

After playing an important role in the first season of Ahsoka, it was confirmed at Star Wars Celebration that Hayden Christensen will officially be returning as Anakin Skywalker in Season 2.

We didn't learn much about what Anakin's role will be in these new episodes, but Christensen did stop by the Ahsoka panel to discuss returning as the beloved character.

"It was a dream to get to do," Christensen said. "The way they conceived how to do it was brilliant in getting to explore the World Between Worlds. I thought it was all really exciting."

This was also obviously a big deal for Ahsoka series creator Dave Filoni as he joked he knew he needed to work with Christensen/Anakin again and had to "invent entire dimensions to make it happen."

For Christensen, one of the joys of returning as Anakin was being able to bring to life a version of the character from the Clone Wars that he really didn't get to play.

"All of this had been presented well in the animated world, but I was really excited to do that in live action," Christensen said. "As much as I love the traditional Jedi robes I wore during the prequels, it was exciting to get to see Anakin with a new look."

Ahsoka Will See the Return of Many More Familiar Faces

The Ahsoka panel didn't feature a traditional trailer, but it did give us a glimpse into what we can expect from Season 2 and who we can expect to see return. The trailer had no moving footage and was just filled with images, but it did confirm Sabine, Ezra, Zeb, and Chopper will all be back.

Elsewhere in the panel, it was revealed that Admiral Ackbar will have a big part to play in the upcoming story and will face-off against Grand Admiral Thrawn. There will also be incredibly adorable Loth-Kittens and, according to Filoni, "X-Wings, A-Wings, and Wings I can't tell you about."

We don't yet know when Ahsoka will be returning to Disney+, but it was shared that the team is still re-writing episodes leading into production starting next week.

Behind-the-Scenes Stories Reveal More About Ahsoka

Alongside the big reveals for Season 2, we learned a lot more about Ahsoka, its inspirations, and more from the actors and creatives who brought it to life. It all began with Filoni sharing that he has been very inspired by Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazki in his life and that his favorite movie is Princess Mononoke. In fact, that film is the reason Ahsoka has two wolf fangs on her cheeks.

Filoni was joined by Jon Favreau and Rosario Dawson on stage and they talked a bit about how the Ahsoka series was brought to life. It all began after Season 1 of The Mandalorian and happened when Filoni and Favreau were taking about what they should bring to life next.

Filoni's love for Ahsoka Tano is no secret as he helped create her with George Lucas, and the pair agreed they should play with the idea of bringing her to live-action. This led to them doing an episode for Season 2 of The Mandalorian featuring her after finding the right person and aesthetic for the character.

We all know now that Rosario Dawson was the one chosen to play Ahsoka in live-action after Ashley Eckstein played her so wonderfully in the animated world, and Dawson talked about what it was like to find out she'd be playing the character.

This all happened after the big online push for Dawson to play Ahsoka, and Filoni and Favreau both agreed she'd be great for the character. When it was time for Dawson to get the role, she said they showed her art and drawings they had done of her as the character and she needed to mute herself on the video call because she was jumping up and down and freaking out.

Even still, they were treating this Ahsoka apperance as a one-off as they still weren't sure they could make Ahsoka work long term.

"Even if this never happens again, I’m so grateful," Dawson said. "It was just so magnificent on so many levels. To see the fan reaction that allowed this story to continue was a dream come true.”

As we all know, Ahsoka's journey would continue far beyond that one episode. While there was still doubt they could get Ahsoka on screen on a day-to-day basis as it was a complicated thing, it all proved to be worth it in the end.

"When we started to move into the Ahsoka episodes with revisted characters like Bo-Katan, everything shifted toward a continuation of what Dave and George had done with animation while culminating storylines that already been established," Favreau said.

For the team, Ahsoka is not so different from watching A New Hope as it it starts in the middle of Ahsoka's journey and there is so much that came before and after. It just made perfect sense.

There is also so much yet to learn about Ahsoka, and Dawson is just as excited about us as getting to explore and fill out her story.

"I did not know where this character was going in live action," Dawson said. "I could understand her fear, anxiety, and stress and desire to help from afar. She wasn't willing to take over the mentor role herself, so it became a wonderful thing that I got to explore."

For more, check out why Ahsoka delivers such a powerful testament to Anakin Skywalker's legacy and all the biggest news from The Mandalorian & Grogu and Andor panels.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

This review contains full spoilers for Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 2, “Lux”.

Following a disappointing season premiere, this week’s Doctor Who is a meticulously crafted descent into a retro-tinged nightmare, where daring storytelling collides with a pervasive, unsettling atmosphere. The TARDIS doesn't arrive in the expected sun-drenched glamour of 1952 Miami, but rather in its subtly sinister twilight. It’s a period setting rendered in immaculate detail: pastel hues, sharply tailored costumes, and a lovingly recreated slice of mid-century Americana. Drawn into a mystery surrounding 15 missing patrons at a once-bustling picture house, what begins with echoes of a standard Doctor Who caper, even cheekily evoking Scooby-Doo, quickly spirals into something far stranger and more ambitious.

That ambition is most profoundly realized in the work of director Amanda Brotchie and animators Framestore, whose contribution to this episode is fantastic. With fine finesse, they’ve managed to channel the kinetic energy and whimsical charm of the Fleischer Studios' animated heyday, crafting an unsettling combination of colorful whimsy and insidious presence in the form of Mr. Ring-a-Ding. Masterfully embodied by Alan Cumming, who delivers a tour-de-force vocal performance, the villain feels like he's stepped directly out of a 1930s cartoon reel, not just in style, but in physics, posture, and that off-putting grin. It’s classic rubber-hose animation, brought to life and warped just enough to feel wrong, possessed, and dancing to a silent, unsettling rhythm, tactically amplified by Murray Gold’s wonderfully creaky and classically Hitchcockian score.

If there’s a bum note to this, it’s the reveal that Mr. Ring-a-Ding is Lux, another all-seeing, all-knowing cosmic deity – a character type Doctor Who is certainly guilty of overindulging in these days. It’s hardly a fatal flaw, and the nightmarishly animated devil still manages to exert a captivating influence over the episode. Moreover, the reveal lends to a fitting end for the villain, with the god of light released to join the celestial tapestry above us in a surprisingly poetic send-off. But fingers crossed we don’t see another one-off fantastical god in disguise anytime soon.

The animated brilliance of “Lux” extends beyond Mr. Ring-a-Ding. Amid the episode’s chaos, the Doctor and Belinda are unexpectedly thrust into a cartoon reality, a turn in the story that transcends mere gimmickry. The resulting sequence is a delightfully bizarre and frenetic experience, brimming with quippy puns and one-liners delivered with the pace and precision of the best early Simpsons episodes. After the pun-laden stumbles of the season opener, it’s a relief to see Russell T Davies wield his wordplay with actual purpose: Not just twisting phrases for plot’s sake, but crafting lines that carry rhythm, wit, and a surprising amount of heart. Crucially, the inherent absurdity of the sequence never undermines the episode's sincerity, maintains tension, and exhibits a pacing that is atypical of Doctor Who, a show often constrained by its tight runtime. Against all odds, it not only works, but ends before it wears out its welcome.

That goes double for the episode's even bolder swing: a gleefully clichéd fourth-wall break where the Doctor and Belinda crash straight through a television screen into a modern-day living room, startling a set of bewildered Doctor Who fans mid-episode. With the fans decked out in stereotypical Who-dress-up – Tom Baker's scarf, Matt Smith's fez – it does come off as a bit too on the nose at first. However, the reveal of Mr. Ring-a-Ding's involvement and the fact that it’s actually part of the illusion swiftly recontextualizes the scene. As a result, it feels a lot more affectionate without pandering, folding fandom into the fiction, and smartly avoiding any strained winks or jabs. To my surprise, the whole detour ends up doing more than simply breaking the fourth wall; it starts to toy, with real intent, at the boundaries between fiction and reality, going so far as to brazenly acknowledge the online leaks that spoiled the scene’s very existence. It caught me off guard in a way the show rarely does, and I still haven’t quite decided whether it’s genius or not.

Yet, beneath all the meta references and structural flair, “Lux” is ultimately anchored by a powerful emotional core that pulses throughout the episode. While some of the dialogue still feels a little janky or rushed in places, and the supporting cast remains one-note – more functional than fleshed out – the episode’s simple, chaotic center still shines. Plus, any shortcomings on the periphery are quickly eclipsed by the leads, who make the episode feel like a stage built just for them. Ncuti Gatwa delivers yet another standout performance as the Doctor, carefully channeling the mischief of the character’s past incarnations with the warmth and gravitas of a silver-age superhero. There’s real conviction in his quieter moments, like promises to a grieving mother and reflections on how his humble police box gives people hope. It all lands like a statement of intent for Doctor Who itself. Gatwa’s scenes with Varada Sethu aren't drowned out by exposition but resonate with a dynamic rhythm shared by equals. I also especially love that Belinda being a nurse isn’t treated as a throwaway backstory – it’s embedded in her every instinct as a character, shaping how she operates. (It’s already propping up some great interactions with the Doctor.) The fact that she’s only been in the TARDIS for two weeks is astonishing. She somehow already feels foundational.

It was just revealed at Star Wars Celebration that Hayden Christensen will officially return as Anakin Skywalker in Season 2 of Ahsoka.

While we didn't learn much about what role Anakin will play in Season 2, it will undoubtedly be exciting news for fans that Ahsoka's time with her former master has not yet come to an end.

Christensen stopped by the Ahsoka panel at Star Wars Celebration and shared what it was like returning to the character.

"It was a dream to get to do," Christensen said. "The way they conceived how to do it was brilliant in getting to explore the World Between Worlds. I thought it was all really exciting."

Ahsoka series creator Dave Filoni then joked that he had to find a way to work with Christensen/Anakin again and had to "invent entire dimensions to make it happen."

Christensen also shared that he and the team had many conversations about what else Anakin was up to during the Clone Wars.

"All of this had been presented well in the animated world, but I was really excited to do that in live action," Christensen said. "As much as I love the traditional Jedi robes I wore during the prequels, it was exciting to get to see Anakin with a new look."

Later in the panel, Filoni talked about how their shared work experience with George Lucas helped form a bond when determining how to bring back Anakin. This let them fill in each other's gaps in knowledge and let them create a really full interpretation of the character.

"I always have George's voice in the back of my head saying, 'faster, more intense!'" Christensen added.

For more, check out why Ahsoka delivers such a powerful testament to Anakin Skywalker's legacy, the first look at Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka Season 2 and all the biggest news from The Mandalorian & Grogu and Andor panels.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

Star Wars Celebration has given us our first look at Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll in Season 2 of Ahsoka. For those unfamiliar, McCann is taking over as Baylan following the death of Ray Stevenson.

While we have yet to see McCann in action, the Ahsoka panel at Star Wars Celebration gave us a first-look image that you can see below.

Stevenson, who was also known for his work in Thor, RRR, Punisher: War Zone, Rome, and more, passed away from a brief illness three months before the premiere of Ahsoka. For many, Stevenson's portrayal of Baylan was the series' high point so far.

Ahsoka series creator Dave Filoni shared that losing Ray was obviously one of the biggest challenges in developing Season 2, especially since he was "the most beautiful person on screen and off."

Filoni and the team then revealed a bit more about what we can expect from Season 2, including that Hayden Christensen will return as Anakin Skywalker alongside Admiral Ackbar, Zeb, Chopper, and more.

In our review of Ahsoka's first season, we said it "struggles in its early episodes as the series works to get viewers up to speed on characters and concepts introduced in Dave Filoni’s animated Star Wars shows. But once the actors and cosmic plots are really given time to shine, Ahsoka finds a wonderful mix of rich lore, humor, and big battles that make it feel like classic Star Wars while also forging a path to something new."

For more, check out where Ahsoka ranks on our list of the best Star Wars Disney+ live-action TV shows and our explainer of the ending of Season 1 of Ahsoka.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

We’re on Day 2 of Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan, and IGN has all the details on the Andor: Season 2 panel happening right now! Stars Diego Luna, Genevieve O’Reilly, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Alan Tudyk, and creator Tony Gilroy were on hand to tout the new season, which launches its first episode on Disney+ on April 22. (Andor Season 2 will make its broadcast debut on ABC and FX on Wednesday, April 23, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.)

Follow along below for live updates:

Diego Luna Says to Watch Rogue One After Andor Season 2

Diego Luna took the stage to inform the fans in attendance that Season 2 is “so big in every possible way. Everything matters so much because we’re getting close to Rogue One. We have all the characters from Season 1 plus many new characters. Many familiar faces you might be expecting. It’s going to be intense.”

Luna added, “Then when you finish watching the season, you should go to Rogue One because you're going to see (it as) a different film.”

Gilroy said that with Season 1’s storyline, “we took a whole year to do the whole season. Season 2, we’re going to do 4 years in one season. Each three episodes represent one year. We’re dropping them three a week. It’s basically like dropping a movie every week. We try to find the most important three to four days (story-wise) in each year to land on.”

Andor Season 2 Will Be "More Ambitious"

Executive producer Sanne Wohlenberg said this season is “wider, larger, more ambitious. Our extraordinary team really outdid themselves.” The second season boasts 140 sets across 7 stages. 2 backlots, 700 costumes for principals, 150 creatures, 30 droids ad 4100 VFX shots!

Gilroy said that “we’ll follow everyone you like and love. Cassian’s at center, but there’s a chorus all around him. We will tell every story full out. We go all in on all of them all the way.”

“For Mon Mothma, we start somewhere, this season takes us to whole new worlds. Whole new characters. We start in Chandrila. We start with a wedding and all the complications that brings.
Then we drive and we reach. For Mon, in particular, we see her have to work under the eyes of the Empire. We go to some dark places this season. She must step out of the shadows and risk everything to speak some truth.”

Deep Diving Into Andor Season 2 Characters

As for Dedra Meero’s arc this time around, Denise Gough said, ”We found out where Dedra comes from in this season. A little bit about maybe what makes her who she is. Things get real strange. Just to be part of this thing, every character is so fully drawn. I’ve never been part of such an ensemble. Dedra really shows herself this season. It wasn’t so much girl boss. It was much more fascist this season.”

Kyle Soller said the relationship between Dedra and his character Syril Karn is “really weird." Syril starts out the season feeling really good about himself. Promotion, new friends, on a new planet. Flexing the small amount of power he has in his little pocket of the Empire. Trying to flex this [Soller then pointed to Gough].”

Soller added, “It’s an amazing relationship because them coming together and opening themselves up to each other ultimately forces them into extreme situations that they never anticipated. So it’s pretty spicy.”

“When we first meet Bix in season 2, she’s left her home,” said Adria Arjona. “She’s really trying to reconstruct herself. Coping with everything that happened with Dr. Gorst. You get a sneak peek into this special relationship that starts forming (with Cassian). In this season, you really get to see these two characters come together.”

K-2SO Is Back on the Screen!

Andor Season 2 sees Alan Tudyk reprise his role from Rogue One as the droid K-2SO. Tudylk said: ”I always held up hope that K-2SO would return. I really wanted it to happen. I held out for my own spinoff, K2-Fast, K2-Furious. But Tony is a better writer. He has made an amazing show. We get to see how K and Cassian meet and the birth of K-2SO will be seen this season. It’s beyond anything I could have hoped. It feels like a very important series and it’s great to be a part of.”

K-2SO and Tudyk’s absence was keenly felt by Luna. “I missed Alan badly. It was seven very tough years. I was laughing the moment i saw him back in his very tight suit. We spent a lot of time in a cockpit. He’s the most generous and nicest partner you can have in a scene. He was always finding a way to make it more interesting, more fun. As an actor, that's beautiful. I never knew it was going to be so much fun. K is a character that has a soul. Alan took the character to another level. It was nice and awful to see how that character gets born.”

The Andor panel then concluded with an exclusive treat for the fans there: the screening of the first episode of Season 2! (Look for IGN’s review next week.)

For more Star Wars Celebration coverage, find out the latest on The Mandalorian & Grogu, the Ryan Gosling-starring Star Wars: Starfighter (and when it happens on the timeline), Star Wars Outlaws, and the new Darth Maul animated series.

Let's make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in Sinners. The answer is yes, in a big way, since it has one of both.

Full spoilers for the movie follow!

Set in 1932, writer-director Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (review) involves twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) returning home to the town of Clarksdale, Mississippi, after seven years away in Chicago. World War I veterans who then made a living as criminals – it’s mentioned they worked for Al Capone – the two are now opening a juke joint in an old sawmill they bought from a local named Hogwood (David Maldonado).

Sinners: The Plot (and a Vampire Plot)

Hastily gathering everything they need in the hours before opening night, while reuniting with those they left behind, the two enlist their talented young musician cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), and local legend Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to provide music at the club; their friend Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to work the door as security; and a healer Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) to make food. Smoke and Annie have a romantic history but also the painful shared connection of the baby they had together who died tragically young. In the meantime, Stack has an unplanned reunion with Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who still is angered by him leaving her with little notice seven years before, though, still drawn to him, she decides to go to the club.

Others of note at the club are Pearline (Jayme Lawson), a singer eventually convinced to join Sammie and Slim onstage – who also makes some private, physical “music” with Sammie behind closed doors – and married grocery store owners Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo (Yao), with Grace hired to make a sign for the juke joint and then sticking around to help tend bar while Bo plays cards.

Everyone is having a blast until the arrival of the vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and two others he recently turned. Though they keep their true nature hidden, everyone is worried why three white people are trying to go to a Black juke joint in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, fearing things could easily go bad. They are denied entry as a result, but when Mary – who has a half-black grandfather but is white-passing – offers to go outside to speak to the still loitering trio to discern if they mean any harm or perhaps should be allowed to come in and spend their money, she is attacked and bitten by Remmick. Now transformed into a vampire, she gets an unaware Cornbread to invite her back in, before seducing Stack into a back room, where she bites him in turn.

The discovery of Mary biting Stack, and then seeing her survive multiple gunshots from a distraught Smoke as she flees back outside, are enough for the knowledgeable Annie to quickly realize they are dealing with vampires. Soon, Stack has risen from the dead as a vampire himself, joining Remick outside alongside a now disturbingly large group of fellow vampires, with many more having been grabbed and turned when the club was abruptly closed in the wake of Stack’s death. Their numbers also quickly come to include Cornbread and Bo, who both were outside and unaware of the true nature of the threat they faced.

We learn these vampires share a hive mind of sorts and are able to access each other’s memories. Having discarded petty human grievances like racism, they all act blissfully happy - and Remmick seems to perhaps mean it when he says he wishes to spread fellowship and love. You just have to die first to get it.

Sinners Ending Explained

These vampires are pretty traditional when it comes to the rules, with garlic harming them, wooden stakes killing them, and an inability to enter a building unless they are invited in. Gearing up with guns, which can at least temporarily slow a vampire down, and wooden stakes to kill them at close range, Smoke, Annie, Sammie, Grace, Slim and Pearline all each eat a clove of garlic to prove they are human. They then plan to simply wait out the night until the vampires have to leave when the sun rises - until Remmick and the now-vampired Bo insinuate through the door that they will go find Grace and Bo’s teenage daughter, Lisa (Helena Hu), if they’re not let in.

Deciding to try to protect her daughter at all costs, Grace, against the wishes of the others, purposely screams to the vampires to come in, intending to force a last stand that she hopes will kill the vampires and save Lisa, no matter what else happens to those in the club, herself included. In the ensuing mayhem, as the vampires storm the juke joint, Grace is killed, burning to death alongside a vampire, while Pearline and Annie are both bitten. Pearline is turned as a result, but keeping an earlier promise that he wouldn’t allow her to become a vampire, Smoke stakes Annie through the heart before her human body fully perishes - causing legitimate anguish for both Stack and Mary, signifying that they truly wanted their friends and family to join them as vampires.

We recently asked Ryan Coogler about Remmick’s desire to unite everyone… even if it’s by vampiric means. “I love this character,” he said. “I love him presenting as one thing. Not just in terms of the vampirism, but presenting as one thing and being something completely different. Their fear of him being this racist guy, and learning that his view on race is the opposite. That, to me, was very powerful if he actually identifies with these people. These are the people he wants to hang out with.”

Remmick’s main target is Sammie, who has a rare ability to pierce the veil of time through the music he creates. This was vividly depicted earlier in the film in a manner we in the audience and Remmick could see, but not the humans inside the club, as musicians from across time joined Sammie as he played.

Coogler also spoke to IGN about the significance of this moment. “Just vampirism wasn't enough, he said. “There had to be other supernatural elements to this. … Why did juke joint culture develop in the 1930s? It's because these people were denied this. And they were born at a time where they weren't going to see more freedom. That was their luck. This is what they got. Maybe their grandkids will. And how cool would it be if they can party with those grandkids. That concept was how we built that scene, man.”

Now, Remmick wants to turn Sammie, believing he can help Remmick see his own ancestors again. When Sammie flees outside, desperately wading through a nearby pond, Remmick follows. Meanwhile, inside the club, Smoke and Stack fight, with Smoke finally getting the better of his brother, pinning him down and holding a stake above him for the killing blow.

Trying to escape through the water, Sammie smashes his guitar into Remmick’s head, slowing him down, but Remmick then overpowers him and is about to bite him when he’s staked from behind, through his back, by Smoke. Remmick screams in anguish, only to then realize he’s lost track of time and the sun is rising. The other vampires, who’d gathered to watch Remmick turn Sammie, all scream as they try and fail to run back indoors to safety, but instead all explode into flames before a startled Smoke and Sammie.

Settling a Score

With only Smoke and Sammie left alive, Smoke tells his cousin to go home, saying he’s going to stay behind to take care of some unfinished business. Earlier, Remmick had told Smoke and Stack how, thanks to the shared memories he has with those he’d turned – including Hogwood’s nephew – he now knew that Hogwood was actually a Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard who, after selling the brothers the old sawmill, intended to return with his men and betray and kill the pair along with anyone else they found.

Preparing for Hogwood’s arrival, Smoke opens a trunk he’d mentioned earlier, which turns out to contain weapons - both military ones representing the brothers’ time in the army and a tommy gun representing their time with Capone. When Hogwood and his men show up, Smoke is lying in ambush and kills them all, though he is shot in the gut in the battle.

When he walks over to a wounded but still alive Hogwood, he demands a cigarette from him, and then lights it and begins to smoke it, only to fall to the ground, clearly close to death himself from his own gunshot. He then sees a vision – or perhaps their true spirits, from beyond – of Annie sitting next to him on the ground, nursing their baby boy. He asks to hold the baby, and she tells him to put out the cigarette first. When the rage-filled Hogwood interrupts this to scream one last litany of racist hatred at Smoke, Smoke unloads the rest of his ammo into Hogwood, killing him.

He then turns back to Annie and the baby, puts out the cigarette, and takes his son in his arms to hold, enjoying his time with his family as his life on Earth comes to an end.

We then pick up where the film’s prologue began, with a battered, bruised and bloody Sammie (who has four long claw marks on his face now thanks to Remmick) wandering into his father’s church in the middle of service, still clutching his guitar handle - the only part of his instrument he still has. His father tells the shocked parishioners to leave. Uncertain of what his son has gone through, he tells him to let go of the guitar handle, having always felt his son’s love of the Blues would lead him down a dark path. Instead, we cut to sometime later, and see Sammie is driving away, leaving Clarksdale behind, with his guitar handle on the car seat next to him.

We asked Coogler about the importance of Blues in the film. “I think that the music is an affirmation of humanity,” said the filmmaker. “It's a rebellion against the situation that these people were in. And had been in generationally. But it's also a celebration of that beauty. It's the full dose, the full human condition. Whereas the church is somewhat edited, the bad parts cut out. And there's an inherent room for the accusation of hypocrisy there when you cutting out the bad, and not acknowledging the bad. There's no hypocrisy in the blues as it was. It accepts you.”

We then cut to a Blues club looking decidedly different and more modern than anything we’ve seen in the film, as onscreen text tells us it’s 1992 Chicago. A band performs on stage and the old man playing the guitar has several large scars on his face, letting us know this is Sammie and that he kept playing music for the rest of his life. And the closing credits begin…

Does Sinners Have a Mid- or Post-Credit Scene?

It sure does! In fact, the film has one of those mid-credit scenes that actually feels like the proper final scene of the movie itself rather than just a fun bonus. To use a comparison from Ryan Coogler’s pals at Marvel Studios, where he learned a thing or two about credits scenes, this is like the one in Spider-Man: Far From Home with J. Jonah Jameson’s news report, where it would be a genuine shame to miss if you leapt out of your seat immediately. Coogler does his best to let you know to stick around though, intercutting the initial closing credits with additional shots of the older Sammie (Buddy Guy) playing his guitar on stage.

But then the credits pause, as we move to after Sammie’s show, where he sits at the now empty bar with a drink. An employee tells him that a couple of people asked to meet him and he says sure. And when the door opens, in walks… Stack and Mary! They’re now sporting their 1992 finest, with her in black, wearing sunglasses, and Stack showing off a bright, colorful shirt and a flattop haircut. The bartender at first is smitten by Mary, then backs off in fear over the look she gives him and leaves the room.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. The story of Aang and friends has been adapted into a movie, a live-action series, and multiple video games. But the end of that story isn't actually the end of the story. There have since been a series of graphic novels that continue Aang's journey after the fall of Firelord Ozai and before the start of The Legend of Korra.

There have been five Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels released since the end of the animated series, and a new box set was just released that features all of them. Not only that, Amazon just recently dropped the price down to $83 in a historic new low.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Omnibus Boxed Set Sale

Here's your best opportunity to sign up for an Audible membership at a stellar price. Starting now and running through April 30, you can sign up for three months of Audible Premium Plus for just $0.99 per month. Premium Plus is Audible's highest tier plan and normally costs $14.95/mo. As a additional subscription perk, you get a free audiobook of your choice for each of those three months and you get to keep them indefinitely.

Both new and currently expired Audible customers are eligible

Anyone who doesn't currently have an active Audible membership should be eligible. That includes new subscribers as well as existing members whose subscriptions have since expired. There's always a small your-mileage-may-vary disclaimer with these types of promotions, but fortunately it's easy to check if you qualify: log into your account, and if you see the $0.99/mo banner right on Amazon's Audible page then you're eligible for this promotion.

3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 per Month

My standing desk was the most expensive purchase I made for my office when I had to start working from home. Whether it’s gaming or working at my computer, the constant sitting was beginning to take its toll on my lower back, and that made it ideal to switch to a standing desk. And if you find yourself looking to transform your workspace, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is a good choice, designed with the user in mind. From its built-in cable management to its ability to preset your perfect desk heights, not to mention how easy it is to assemble, it’s an investment worth making.

Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro – Putting It Together

The instructions for the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro show the number “2” with two people holding a box. So, it was easy to assume that I needed someone else to help me move the two boxes the desk came in (57lbs for the desktop and 85lbs for the frame) up a flight of stairs. And, I did. But from there, outside of one of the pages marked with the same two-person icon when you need to unpack the desktop and when the desk needed to be flipped upright, there were no other demarcations for two people on the other pages.

I am 5’4” and I don’t usually struggle when it comes to picking up and assembling things around the house. However, assembling the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is solidly a two-person job, if you want to hit the suggested 15 to 30 minute assembly time.

Admittedly however, I like to make everything hard for myself and that means I put the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro by myself and was too stubborn to ask for help once it was upstairs. This made my solo assembly time just about 45 minutes. This was due in large part to trying to balance the two legs of the frame and move the heavier elements while holding another element upright.

The truth is, though, as hard as it was to manage putting together the base without a large wingspan myself, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is very simple to assemble. This is thanks to the detailed instructions that took the time to include diagrams of every piece of hardware, desk part, and tool used (which was just an Allen wrench).

Additionally, the decision to package each of the hardware pieces in individual plastic bags allows for you to easily remove the specific part you need for each step, reseal the bag, and ultimately not have any mistakes of mixing up parts or misplacing them. It’s clear that a lot of thought was put into the instructions, which focus on delivering visual and numbered text instructions as well, that help guide people through the process versus the meme that Ikea’s barebones instructions have become.

While maneuvering the desk’s heavier parts is difficult to do alone, the actual nuts and bolts of assembling the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is as easy as can be, making the sub-30-minute completion time an honest representation if you have either the strength, wingspan, or another person to help.

Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro – Desktop Surface

The Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro’s surface itself is designed so that you don’t need to use a mousepad or desk mat while working. The desktop itself is sleek and smooth and fairly durable. The HDF wood has a powder-coated finish that easily allows the mouse to glide on the surface and helps you keep a minimalist aesthetic. But what really matters compared to the lower-end SmartDesk 5, which is made with MDF wood, is that HDF wood has a higher water resistance and, because it’s denser by nature, makes it more durable. We can all only avoid a spilled drink for so long, making this a solid feature. Additionally, one of the easily missed functional design choices is that the edge of the desk is rounded, allowing you to rest your forearms without applying direct pressure from a hard edge.

However, not using a pad underneath your mouse feels awkward to me. This feature is something you can do, but not necessarily something I’d recommend. Though what you use your desk for specifically will dictate how much mileage you get before adding your desk mat back in.

During the workday while I’m head-down in spreadsheets and other tasks, it’s perfectly fine as a capable desk for the work environment. However, my post-work gaming sessions helped highlight the difference in terms of ease-of-use and functionality. A personal choice more than anything else, the surface texture that eliminates the need for a mousepad at the very least makes it easy for you to achieve that clean girl desk aesthetic you see on Instagram that prioritizes simplicity over clutter – or in my case a giant desk mat with obnoxious anime print on it.

If I have one large critique, it’s that the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is short when it comes to its side-to-side length, which limits what you can do with it. I have a three-monitor setup that could barely fit on the desk, and that also left little to no room for my filing storage. Because of this, I decided to use it as a work station for this review, housing only my 32-inch monitor, laptop, keyboard, mouse, and laptop dock. While I’m let down by the length of the desk, which only comes in at 53 inches, the depth is something to highlight. At 29 inches, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro’s depth allows for desktop management without needing to mount your monitors for more space. And while I was using it as a workstation with one monitor, it was ideal, even if my gaming setup was too much for it to handle length-wise.

Need a better chair, too?

Check out our roundup of the best gaming and office chairs!

Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro – Cable Management

The cable management system is where the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro really shines. Under the desk surface, there is a built-in hook and cable tray that swings down when open and is held in place by two bolts. When you open it and let it swing back, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro has a space dedicated to hold the desk’s power brick and a surge protector. But what’s smart about this design is the addition of metal dowels that allow you to wrap cords around to tuck them neatly into place. When you’re done organizing, you’ll just pull it back up and bolt it shut – all doable with your hands.

I am notorious for having bad cable management, so much so that I am no longer allowing myself to set up electronics in the house alone. Under my current desk, I’ve done my best to just shove cables into any small wedge and tie them off in precut holes in the furniture itself. And still, it’s a hellscape, to say the least. When I set up my Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro, I was still in a cable-ridden hellscape, don’t get me wrong. But instead of a chaotic web of black and white cords that would have been in plain view, the panel system allows me to hide my shame in peace.

Additionally, because the built-in hook and cable tray is large, you’re able to house multiple cables of varying sizes, and this ultimately deals with the biggest issue I have experienced using every standing desk whether in an office or at home. The length of the cable dictates just how high you can raise the desk before you yank something out of the wall or off of the desk itself, but the size of the tray allows you to house nearly everything, and at the very least, prioritize the shortest cables, helping mitigate this fear. Because they’re stationary in that spot, you can raise the desk as high as you want without worrying about cable restrictions.

The Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro also comes with a set of zip ties and a row of silicone cable clips to help you keep things organized. The reason this is interesting is that when I ordered my original standing desk, I needed to choose several add ons like a powerstrip, cable management supplies, and even add on the thin ledge attachment that I could clip below to house a powerstrip. The Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro, however, doesn’t try to make organization a “premium” feature, it’s simply part of the whole product, and that goes a long way.

Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro – Desk Height

When it comes to adjusting the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro height, you can preset three heights that work for you. My choices were dictated by my sitting height, my standing height, and the height I need when walking on my underdesk treadmill. The in-desk design of the keypad makes it seamless and allows the user to have effortless control. Even if you don’t create saved height profiles, the fact that there is a number display means that you can keep track of the height settings that works for you.

Additionally, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro features anti-collision which stops the motor and prevents the desk from continuing to move if it detects harsh contact, and it’s meant to prevent damage and accidents. This feature can also be adjusted to your desired sensitivity, so while the recommended setting is 1, you can adjust it to your desired sensitivity. That said, the anti-collision is extremely sensitive, and anything above a 1 setting gets frustrating really quickly. While it’s not a feature I find too much use for, those in a home office who often have children or extremely curious pets will find this valuable.

To cap it all off, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is really quiet. The whirring of the motor I heard whenever I lifted my old desk is gone. And while it wasn’t always distracting and a rather small element to call out, the near-silent motor is another feature dedicated to adapting to buyers’ lifestyles and usage needs.

Entertainment has hit critical mass over the last decade, with more shows and movies being produced and released than ever before. It’s impossible to keep up with everything hitting the digital space, whether it be Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) or a traditional streaming network. With that in mind, we figured it was well past time for us to whip up a little something to help you keep up (and catch up) with all there is to watch in the big, wide world of digital viewing. And thus, the Streaming Rewind was born!

We’ll update this list at the end of each week so you can check out what you may have missed, and what’s coming up on the weekend. We’ll keep it a mix of popular releases and noteworthy lesser-known titles to help you find what’s worth taking the risk on as well as dive into a few things that we loved and why we loved ‘em, or just break down a show or movie that left us with some opinions. Sometimes, we’ll even have guest entries from other members of the IGN staff. If you’re not interested in all that and just want to see a bulleted list of what’s out there, pop on down to the New and Noteworthy and ICYMI sections.

Captain America: Brave New World (Digital and Demand)

While it would have been nice if Sam Wilson got his own Captain America movie rather than the Thunderbolt Ross/Red Hulk movie we actually got, Captain America: Brave New World smashes its way onto digital and demand this week if you’ve been waiting on catching up with the latest chapter of the MCU. Though it’s one of the weaker entries to the franchise, it still features strong performances from Anthony Mackie (Cap), Carl Lumbly (Isaiah Bradley), and Harrison Ford (President Ross).

Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 Comes to a Close (Disney+)

Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again has come to a close. Though Season 1 had to be frankensteined a bit behind the scenes with multiple creative teams being brought in to salvage the project, they managed to deliver a relatively connected and engaging new entry into the live-action Daredevil pantheon. Things come to a close with the city of New York and its subsequent heroes on their backfoot, but never forget that the arc of the universe bends towards justice.

The Woman in the Yard (Digital and Demand)

While The Woman in the Yard was met by a mixed reception, I found Jaume Collet-Serra’s exploration of grief and depression engaging. While it definitely should have ended about three minutes earlier than it did, Danielle Deadwyler grabs the audience’s attention as Ramona, pulling us along with her flawed character as she faces off against Okwui Okpokwasili’s Woman in the wake of her husband’s death.

#1 Happy Family USA (Prime Video)

The animated #1 Happy Family USA is a weird one, but it’s worth giving a few episodes a watch to see if you’re on its wavelength. Co-created by and starring Ramy Roussef as the voice of Hussein, the series follows a Muslim-American family as they navigate life in America post-9/11. The juxtaposition of normal teen life like having a crush on your hot teacher or just figuring out who you’re going to be crashes against the Hussein family reality of fearful neighbors, FBI surveillance and all of the ugliness that came along in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy – all depicted through a comedic lens.

New and Noteworthy This Week:

• Captain America: Brave New World, April 15 — Digital and demand
• The Woman in the Yard, April 15 — Digital and demand
• Government Cheese, April 16 — Apple TV+
• #1 Happy Family USA, April 17 — Prime Video
• The Rehearsal, April 20 — Max

ICYMI:

If you had too much going on last week, here are some of the notable things that premiered or debuted on streaming and digital that you may have missed.

• Novocaine, April 8 — Digital and demand
• Mickey 17, April 8 — Digital and demand
• The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6, April 8 — Hulu
• Black Mirror Season 7, April 10 — Netflix
• Hacks, April 10 — Netflix
• Yellowjackets Season 3 Finale — Showtime
• Doctor Who Season 2, April 12 — Disney+
• The Last of Us Season 2, April 13 — Max

The best LED strip lights can truly transform any space, softly illuminating any area, be it your office, desk, or kitchen. If you really want to make an impact, RGB lights can enhance your gaming PC setup. Whether you’re looking to add a subtle glow under your cabinets or create a vibrant RGB light show in your gaming room, the possibilities are endless.

TL;DR – The Best LED Strip Lights:

Just like smart light bulbs, LED strip lights are savvy investments that can help you save money in the long run. By pairing your lights with a compatible sensor or lighting up smaller areas with fewer LEDs, you can optimize energy usage and reduce your electricity bills. With a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors available, you can easily find the ideal option to complement your space. Plus, many LED strip lights come with user-friendly apps that allow you to customize the lighting effects to suit your specific needs and preferences. (Here's where to find them in the UK.)

1. Philips Hue Bluetooth Smart Lightstrip Plus

Best LED Strip Lights

2. Wyze Light Strip Pro

Best Budget LED Strip Lights

3. Corsair iCUE Lighting Node

Best LED Strip Lights for PC

4. Elgato Light Strip Pro

Best LED Strip Lights for Streaming

5. Govee RGBIC LED Strip Lights M1

Best LED Lights for Gaming Setups

6. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite

Best LED Strip Lights for TV

7. Nanoleaf Shapes Triangles and Mini Triangles Smarter Kit (17 Pack)

Best LED Strip Accent Lighting

8. Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip

Best Smart LED Strip Light

9. Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro

Best Outdoor RGB Strip Lights

How to Pick the Best LED Strip Lights

Depending on what kind of vibe you want to create, you’ll want to focus on the brightness and color temperature of your chosen lights.

Brightness is measured in lumens; this allows you to gauge how bright the lights will be. Generally, higher lumens mean brighter lights. When it comes to color temperature, LED strip lights come in different options like warm white, cool white, and daylight. The color temperature can significantly impact the mood and ambiance of your space, so think about the atmosphere you want to create.

If you prefer a consistent color throughout, single-color LED strips might be the best choice for you. On the other hand, if you want the flexibility to change colors, RGB strips are an excellent option. RGB strips offer a wide range of colors and can be controlled with a remote or even a smartphone app, giving you ultimate control over your lighting.

One of the biggest things people overlook when picking the best LED strip lights is the length of the light strip versus the size of the space they're looking to fill. Measuring your space first will help you determine the appropriate length and ensure the strip fits perfectly in your chosen location.

Strip Light FAQs

Do LED strip lights use a lot of electricity?

No. LED lights draw much less electricity than standard lights or bulbs. While you might not use strip lights to light your entire home, they're fantastic for accent lighting and creating an ambient environment.

Can you cut LED strips?

It depends. Some LED strips can be cut without ruining the circuitry and others cannot. You should carefully read the product information before doing so. If the LED strips you purchase can be cut, the product will explicitly indicate the specific lines you need to cut along.

Do LED light strips get hot?

LED light strips can get a little warm to the touch, but certainly not as hot as a standard light bulb.

Where to Get the Best LED Strip Lights in the UK

Brian Barnett writes reviews, wiki guides, deals posts, features, and more for IGN. You can get your fix of his antics on Twitter (@Ribnax) or check out his show on Twitch (The Platformers).

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

If you've been waiting for one of the more affordable Blackwell cards to come back in stock at a reputable retailer, here's your chance to pick one up at list price. Amazon currently has the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Windforce OC 12GB Graphics Card exclusively for Amazon Prime members for $609.99 with free shipping. This is an excellent GPU for gaming at up to 1440p with high framerates and supports the latest DLSS 4 technology.

Note that the suggested launch price of a GeForce RTX 5070 card is $549.99. There are a few models at that price point but they have been extremely hard to find in stock. This Windforce model is priced higher because it's an OC version. That said, this is currently the lowest price you'll find for a standalone 5070 GPU.

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Windforce OC GPU for $609.99

LEGO has a seemingly endless amount of sets. The toy company has collaborated with practically every major franchise and puts out a number of new builds each month. Unfortunately, LEGO doesn't just continue making every new set forever. Alongside every addition to the LEGO family comes the departure of several others. Sets get retired just as fast as new sets arrive to replace them. If there's a LEGO build you love, it could potentially disappear forever within a year if you don't pick it up before its expiration date.

While there are still ways to buy LEGO sets that have long been retired, your best bet is to pick them up while they are still available at major retailers and haven't been marked-up by resellers. Depending on the popularity of the set, you can sometimes find them at Amazon even months after LEGO removes them from its website. I've gathered some of those options right here to give you a chance to pick them up before they're gone forever.

Retired LEGO Sets Still Available at Amazon

Some really cool sets were retired near the beginning of 2025, including builds that have been consistently popular but have just outlived their shelf life. The LEGO Taj Mahal for example is one of the best LEGO Architecture sets we've ever seen come out of that line, depicting one of the seven wonders of the world. There's also the Sonic Green Hill Zone set that IGN actually had the chance to build back in 2022 when it first came out. It's a fun tribute to the iconic video game level from the series. It is one of our favorite Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO sets and is great for any fan of the franchise. And the last, very noteworthy, LEGO set on this list worth pointing out is the Loop Coaster. It is the largest LEGO set on this list at a whopping 3,756 pieces and sets at about three feet high.

If you want to keep better track of what LEGO sets are retiring, I'd recommend checking out the Brick Economy website, which includes the full list. This is a great resource for collectors so they can keep tabs on any of the more expensive sets they have their eye on. One of the best times to buy a LEGO set at a discount is right before it gets retired.

Which LEGO Sets Are Retiring Soon?

It's fairly easy to find out what LEGO sets are retiring soon thanks to LEGO's "Last Chance to Buy" page that features all of them. Unfortunately, LEGO does not put the actual date that a set will be retired on this page, so it's hard to decipher when exactly each option will be officially removed. The safe assumption is that if it's on this page, it could be gone by the beginning of the month as the new sets become available.

Below I've gathered some of the most intriguing sets that are getting retired. There is a slew of Nintendo LEGO sets as well as some Star Wars and Marvel options worth a final look.

Easily the biggest news to come out of Star Wars Celebration 2025 was the reveal that Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy is directing Star Wars: Starfighter, a new standalone, live-action film starring Ryan Gosling. Starfighter is shaping up to be the next Star Wars film released after 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, with production starting this fall for a May 28, 2027 release.

But beyond those basics, we know very little about the plot of Starfighter right now. Lucasfilm only revealed one crucial detail - the film is set about five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That places Starfighter further down the Star Wars timeline than any Star Wars movie or series to date.

What do we know about this period of Star Wars lore? Not a whole lot, frankly. That said, we can certainly speculate based on how The Rise of Skywalker ends and how the pre-Disney Legends universe handled this era. Let’s take a closer look at the big questions that linger after The Rise of Skywalker and how Starfighter may address them.

The Star Wars: Starfighter Games

First, we’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on the fact that Star Wars: Starfighter shares its name with a short-lived series of games from the PS2/Xbox era. The original Star Wars: Starfighter was released in 2001, followed by the sequel Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter in 2002.

The new movie might share a name with these two games, but we wouldn’t expect it to borrow much, if at all, from the games in terms of plot. The original Starfighter game is set during Episode I, showcasing some of the other heroic pilots before and during the Battle of Naboo. Jedi Starfighter, meanwhile, takes place during Episode II, focusing on Jedi Master Adi Gallia and Nym, a pirate character introduced in the first game. The new movie is set many decades after the two games, making it very unlikely it’ll adapt plot points from either one.

That being said, it’s always possible that the Starfighter movie could take a page from Jedi Starfighter in terms of its ship-to-ship combat. Jedi Starfighter was notable for introducing Force powers into the mix, allowing Adi to supplement her ship’s traditional weapons with abilities like a Force shield, lightning, and a shockwave. Could the movie do something similar? Is Gosling’s character a Jedi and a hotshot pilot? It’s certainly possible, and it would be one way of spicing up the fight scenes in the movie.

The Fate of the New Republic

The Rise of Skywalker may end with a final victory over Emperor Palpatine and his Sith Eternal, but the movie doesn’t really give us much insight into the state of the galaxy after the Battle of Exegol. The fate of the New Republic after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens remains unclear. In the first chapter of the Sequel Trilogy, we see the First Order unleash its Starkiller Base superweapon, destroying Hosnian Prime and killing off the heads of the New Republic in one fell swoop. Most of the Sequel-era Star Wars projects have focused specifically on the conflict between Leia’s Resistance and the First Order, meaning we don’t have much insight into what became of the New Republic after its leadership was lost.

It’s possible that the New Republic still exists in the time of Star Wars: Starfighter, but we’d imagine it’s been greatly weakened. As it is, the Republic was already struggling prior to the rise of the First Order. As seen in the novel Star Wars: Bloodline, the New Republic government is eventually racked by conflict between Populists (who believe individual member planets should remain sovereign) and Centrists (who favor a stronger government and a larger military). That conflict may well carry over as the New Republic struggles to regroup and rebuild.

It also remains to be seen if some remnants of the First Order still persist five years after Palpatine’s defeat. Certainly, it’s not as if the Empire was wiped away after the Battle of Endor. It took years of fighting until the Rebellion finally conquered the Empire, and even then, they had the Imperial Remnant and Grand Admiral Thrawn to worry about. We may find that some traces of the First Order remain and have rallied around a surviving figurehead following Supreme Leader Kylo Ren’s death.

And that’s not even getting into the galaxy’s pirate problem. As seen in The Mandalorian and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, piracy is a real threat in the chaotic years after the Empire’s fall. As the New Republic struggles to establish a foothold, many pirates and smugglers take advantage of the lawlessness on the fringes of the galaxy. We have to assume that this problem has only grown in scope after The Force Awakens.

All of this is to say that there’s likely to be a power struggle in the galaxy during the era of Star Wars: Starfighter, leaving ample room for the sort of epic space battles fans have come to expect. Gosling could be playing a New Republic pilot fighting to restore law and order to a chaotic galaxy. In that sense, Starfighter could potentially be a replacement for Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie. Gosling’s character could also be a homegrown defender of a world trying to defend itself without the Republic’s protection. For all we know, he could be an ex-First Order trooper like John Boyega’s Finn.

Given that Starfighter is being billed as a standalone movie, we don’t necessarily see it being the one to establish the next overarching Rebels vs. Empire or Resistance vs. First Order-style conflict for the franchise. More likely, it’ll explore the lingering fallout of the conflict in The Rise of Skywalker, centering around a villain taking advantage of the current power vacuum in the galaxy.

Rebuilding the Jedi Order

Luke Skywalker began the New Republic era with high hopes, seeking to rebuild the Jedi Order that Palpatine destroyed and mentor a new generation of Force-sensitive pupils. For a while, his plans worked. We see Luke building his new Jedi Temple in The Book of Boba Fett, and we know from various books and comics that Luke established a decent-sized school over the years.

Unfortunately, it all went to hell when the Skywalker family curse struck. Corrupted by Supreme Leader Snoke/Palpatine and spurred on by Uncle Luke himself, Ben Solo lashed out and destroyed Luke’s temple, killing many students in the process. He then joined up with the Knights of Ren and became Kylo Ren, chief enforcer of Snoke’s First Order. His Jedi Order in shambles, Luke retreated to Ahch-To to live out the last of his days as a cranky, milk-guzzling hermit.

So what’s become of the Jedi? Many died in Ben’s attack on the Temple, but we can’t imagine all of them were killed, any more than Order 66 successfully purged every last Clone Wars-era Jedi. There’s still the question of what’s up with Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano and if she’s alive and active during the Sequel era. Don't forget, her voice is heard among the Force ghosts at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, but Dave Filoni has also hinted that Ahsoka isn’t dead.

We know that Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker is setting out to rebuild the Jedi Order (again) and carry on Luke’s legacy. That’s going to be the focus of the New Jedi Order movie directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. However, that film is set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, putting it a full decade after the events of Starfighter.

It remains to be seen whether Starfighter will address the current state of the Jedi at all. It may depend largely on whether Gosling’s character is Force-sensitive or not. If he is, we could see Ridley playing a small role in the film as Rey reaches out to this promising pilot. But if not, it may be that Starfighter is like Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story - the rare Star Wars film that mostly ignores the Jedi in favor of ordinary heroes.

Are the Sith Still Around?

Just as we’re waiting to see what the state of the Jedi Order is post-The Rise of Skywalker, there’s also the question of whether there are any Sith characters still active in the galaxy. That movie cemented Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine as the central villain of the entire Skywalker Saga, revealing he cheated his apparent death aboard the Death Star and was the secret hand pulling Supreme Leader Snoke’s strings. But with Palpatine dead and gone for real now (presumably), is there anything left of the Sith? Or did this ancient order finally die out along with him?

If the classic Expanded Universe is any indication, Palpatine won’t be the last Sith Lord. The various Star Wars Legends novels chronicled many conflicts in the years and decades after Return of the Jedi. Meanwhile, Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Legacy comic dealt with the rise of Darth Krayt and his army of Sith loyalists more than a hundred years after the events of the movies. There are always those hungry for power and ready to be seduced by the Dark Side.

This is definitely not the last time the galaxy will be threatened by a villain skilled in the ways of the Dark Side, whether or not they specifically call themselves Sith. As much as the Prequel movies hammer home the idea that the Sith follow the Rule of Two, the Clone Wars animated series showed us that Palpatine had multiple Dark Side rivals, including the Nightsisters of Dathomir and his former apprentice, Maul. It stands to reason that there are other players out there who might see an opportunity now that Palpatine is gone. Maybe he had another apprentice. Maybe there are surviving members of the Knights of Ren. Maybe another of Luke’s pupils has turned to the Dark Side.

Again, though, the real question is whether Star Wars: Starfighter is going to dive into any of this. If Gosling isn’t playing a Jedi character, there may be no reason to touch on the current state of the Sith in Starfighter. We may have to wait for the New Jedi Order movie or Simon Kinberg’s Star Wars trilogy instead.

Could Poe Dameron or Other Sequel Trilogy Characters Return?

Star Wars: Starfighter features a brand new lead character and is set in a period we haven’t seen in the movies or shows yet. It’s also a standalone movie, meaning we shouldn’t necessarily expect tons of familiar faces to show up and fight alongside or against Gosling’s character. Still, this is Star Wars. The movies rarely waste an opportunity to throw in cameos and callbacks. If we got a Darth Maul cameo of all things in Solo: A Star Wars Story, then surely someone from the Sequels is bound to show up in Starfighter, right?

Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron seems like the most likely candidate. He’s probably the best pilot in the galaxy now that Han Solo is dead, and he’s a decorated hero who survived many run-ins with the First Order. We have to assume Poe has some part to play in rebuilding the galaxy and restoring the New Republic, meaning he’s in a great position to lend a helping hand in whatever predicament Gosling’s character finds himself.

We could also see everyone’s favorite Wookiee making a return appearance. What is Chewbacca up to these days? Is he still Rey’s copilot, or have they parted ways now that she’s focused on rebuilding the Jedi? What if Gosling’s character, through a twist of fate, finds himself piloting the Millennium Falcon alongside Chewbacca? It would certainly be comforting to have that tether to the Skywalker Saga movies.

There’s also room for Boyega to return as Finn, especially if the film specifically deals with a conflict involving remnants of the First Order. Finn was frustratingly underutilized in The Rise of Skywalker, but that film did hint that he’s become a bit of a folk hero to those Stormtroopers deserting their posts and rebelling against the First Order. Has Finn continued to seek out like-minded soldiers and help them overcome their conditioning like he did? What if Gosling’s character is one of those troopers?

And then there’s Rey. As we’ve already discussed, whether or not she appears in Starfighter may largely depend on whether Gosling’s character is revealed to be a Jedi or not. Lucasfilm clearly has plans for Rey going forward, but Starfighter may not be part of those plans.

Which surviving character from The Rise of Skywalker would you most like to see in Star Wars: Starfighter? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know in the comments below.

For more on the future of the Star Wars franchise, find out why Lucasfilm needs to stop announcing movies and just make them, and brush up on every Star Wars movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.