Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin has discussed his broken relationship with House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal, which the author has candidly described as "worse than rocky" and "abysmal."
While Martin's displeasure with House of the Dragon's ongoing story development is nothing new, a profile piece published today by The Hollywood Reporter includes eye-opening new detail from Martin on the breakdown of his relationship with Condal — and the extent to which HBO executives had to manage the pair behind the scenes of the show's production.
Martin's unhappiness with Condal appears to have reached its zenith during a contentious Zoom call where the showrunner laid out his vision for House of the Dragon's third season. Martin said he responded to Condal's plan with numerous objections, and ultimately stated: "This is not my story any longer."
"I hired Ryan," Martin said, reflecting on happier times. "I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought."
The profile piece notes an initial display of support by Martin for Condal towards the end of season one, when the latter had a falling out with his fellow co-showrunner on the series, Miguel Sapochnik. Martin says Condal asked for his support, which he gave, and Sapochnik departed the show shortly afterward.
"Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me," Martin continued, discussing how his relationship with Condal began to deterioate. "I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn't doing it. Other times, he would tell me, 'Oh, OK, yeah, I'll think about that.'
"It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes."
This then led to the now-infamous and swiftly-deleted blog post penned by Martin in September 2024, which publicly criticized House of the Dragon's direction and said more "toxic" changes from his books were to come. While offering praise for the series' writing, direction and acting, Martin slammed the plot decision to kill off a particular character and went into detail as to why he disagreed with the choice. At the time, Martin also suggested Condal had gone back on a promise to balance the change with another plot point — that had then seemingly been abandoned.
Within hours, the blog post disappeared from Martin's website, and HBO had issued a statement supporting Condal while attempting to lower the temperature. In today's profile piece, Martin says the blog post disappeared after HBO contacted Martin's manager, who had Martin's assistant remove the post while Martin himself was asleep.
"I would've put it back up, but then I would've looked like an idiot," Martin said of the incident. "And 80 percent of it was praise, but that's not what people focused on."
For his part, Condal has chosen not to comment further on the situation, but has pointed to a previously-reported statement he gave which claimed that Martin had become "unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way."
Martin is now back working on the show in some capacity, though the author said he was unable to comment on the specifics.
"George and Ryan had a disagreement on the direction of season three," an HBO source told The Hollywood Reporter. "At that point, it was clear that the process and communication with them was broken and needed a reset. So there was naturally a period where everyone took a step back for a while until we could figure out a new way forward."
As part of the same piece, fresh details have come to light on another HBO project — a proposed Game of Thrones sequel series starring Arya Stark. Still in its early stages of development, the idea would seemingly replace previous plans to develop a spin-off based around Jon Snow.
Image credit: Gerald Matzka/Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Even after the holidays and the many sale events leading up to them, January has had some surprises up its sleeve when it comes to video game deals, particularly over at Best Buy during its Winter Sale. The retailer has quite a few discounts worth checking out right now, including a particularly solid deal on Ninja Gaiden 4.
As part of Best Buy’s Winter Sale, Ninja Gaiden 4 has dropped to $39.99 for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Compared to its retail price of $69.99, this saves you $30 overall. Keep in mind that this sale only runs until January 19. Be quick to grab it before the discount disappears.
Ninja Gaiden 4 for $39.99
For those looking to jump into an action game right now, Ninja Gaiden 4 is certainly worth checking out. Our review from IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman said, “Despite its disappointing story and bland level design, Ninja Gaiden 4's excellent combat still make it one of the best 3D action games in recent memory.”
It even earned a runner-up nomination for Best Action Game of 2025, as it’s a “pure action fan’s action game, featuring some of the best melee combat we've seen in years, bolstered by aggressive enemy AI, excellent weapon design, and the ability to let your creativity run wild by giving you the freedom to hotswap between all of your weapons on the fly.” If that’s sold you, why wait to grab it? No better time than when it’s $30 off.
As mentioned earlier, January has seen quite a few video game deals catch our eye alongside this one. Also in Best Buy’s Winter Sale that’s worth a look is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which has dropped to $45, but that’s not all. Our breakdown of Best Buy’s Winter Sale highlights even more gaming goodies worth grabbing while they’re still discounted. Outside of Best Buy, Amazon even has some good offers available at the moment, including deals on Assassin’s Creed Shadows for PS5 and Donkey Kong Bananza.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further than Alienware's flagship Area-51 prebuilts. Following CES 2026, Dell has discounted an Alienware Area-51 AMD Ryzen X3D Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC to below $5,000 for the first time ever after an $800 discount. The Ryzen X3D Edition is essentially the second generation version of the Area-51 with a more powerful CPU replacement from AMD instead of Intel.
Alienware Area-51 Ryzen Edition RTX 5090 Gaming PC
The Alienware Area-51 is Dell's flagship gaming PC. Unveiled during last year's CES, the Area-51 is a super-sized upgrade to the mainstream Aurora R16 system. The significantly larger chassis features more premium build quality and a redesigned cooling system with greater net airflow. In fact, this is the only model that Dell feels comfortable enough to equip with the hot and power hungry GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card. The first wave of Area-51 systems featured Intel CPUs exclusively, with AMD X3D options only available since late November.
This particular configuration is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB or DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Additional system details include a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system for the CPU and a massive 1,500W 80Plus Platinum power supply that allows plenty of headroom for future upgrades.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best gaming CPU for most people
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is considered to be the best gaming processor currently on the market and outperforms any Intel or AMD non-X3D chip in games thanks to AMD's 3D-V-Cache technology.
Although the 9800X3D is an absolute speed demon for gaming, it only has eight cores. If you regularly use your PC for non-gaming applications that benefit from as many cores as possible, then you can upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-core processor, which doubles the core count while offering similar gaming performance, for an additional $300.
The RTX 5090 is the most powerful graphics card ever
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although with this generation Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in hardware-based raster performance. If you want the absolute best performance for your gaming PC, there is literally no other option from any other brand.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
HBO is in "very early development" on a Game of Thrones spinoff starring Arya Stark, following the collapse of a previous sequel idea that would have featured Jon Snow.
The Hollywood Reporter broke word of the project today in a detailed profile of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who declined to comment on the unannounced project in detail.
Still, the report makes clear that this idea is being developed by HBO with a writer already on board (Quoc Dang Tran, who previously worked on Apple TV series Drops of God). No actors are cast, however — including Maisie Williams, who played Arya previously.
Firstly, it's reported that Harington personally pushed for a dark take on the series which saw Snow living alone "as a broken man with PTSD." After discarding his sword Longclaw and chasing off his direwolf Ghost, Snow would have spent time building cabins only to burn them down.
Most surprising of all was Harington's idea that he didn't want to play a hero, and wanted Jon Snow to ulimately die. Today's report states that it was HBO who ultimately baulked on continuing the project, considering Harington's take as too downbeat.
Still, Snow's character would have provided an easy route into the Game of Thrones world for new viewers — geographically separate, and alone from the rest of Thrones' surviving cast. Now, HBO reportedly hopes to pull off a similar trick with Arya — last seen by herself, setting sail for adventure — with a tale based in the continent of Essos.
How far this project develops still remains to be seen, but with a Marvel-style roadmap of upcoming seasons announced for House of the Dragon and new spinoff Knight of the Seven Kingdoms until 2028, it's clear HBO sees Game of Thrones as a major franchise for years to come.
Image credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The sequel to Todd Phillips’ smash hit Joker, the movie musical known as Joker: Folie a Deux, was far from the hit the original was, but some people liked it, namely Warner Bros. heads of film Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca, who stand by the 2024 box office flop despite its reception.
“I really liked the movie. I still do,” Abdy told TheWrap in a recent interview alongside De Luca, who added: “It was really revisionist. It may be that it was too revisionist for a global mainstream audience, but I thought that Todd and his screenwriting partner Scott (Silver) did the thing that most people making sequels don’t do, which is they decided to not repeat themselves. I do give them immense props for not repeating themselves, but it just turned out to not connect with the audience.”
The negative critical reception and financial failure of the film, which featured returning star Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, led to rumors that the two WB execs were potentially going to be ousted from their high profile positions at the time.
The shift in tone from gritty crime drama to introspective courtroom drama jukebox musical didn’t resonate with audiences, according to the box office. It amassed $207 million worldwide, which is a far cry from the original film’s enormous $1 billion box office. Plus, the film had a reported budget of about $200 million, so the gross alone is an easy financial failure before you even take the first film’s returns into account.
Reviews were wholly negative for the project — IGN said the film “[wasted] its potential” at the time of release — and it failed to receive any major awards nominations, unlike its predecessor, which was recognized for two Academy Awards out of a solid nine nominations.
However, according to these execs, these incidents come with the territory of their jobs. “You get a veteran’s thick skin,” De Luca said. “I’ve certainly had flops in my history. I have been lucky enough to have hits in my history. But I try to remember something someone told me once: Everyone has flops, but not everyone has hits. You just try not to torture the ones that don’t work.”
In January last year, Lady Gaga opened up about the negative reception to Joker: Folie à Deux after a period of silence following its release. “People just sometimes don’t like some things,” Gaga said. “It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
“When that makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of,” Gaga said of the fear of failure. “It’s part of the mayhem.”
Elaborate movie tie-in popcorn buckets are all the rage these days at movie theaters. These buckets are pricy — clearly a cash grab in the era of dwindling ticket sales — but they’re often cleverly designed, and they act as collectibles for fans of the franchises they represent. It seems that the people at Amazon have noticed this trend and wondered: what if we made an expensive popcorn bucket for a TV show? The result is a Fallout-themed popcorn bucket (see it at Amazon) for fans of the popular Prime Video show.
The bucket is designed to look like a rusty barrel, painted with chipping blue paint and emblazoned with “VAULT-TEC” on its side. Though I’m somewhat annoyed by the entire concept of the thing, I have to admit it looks pretty great. This Amazon-exclusive collectible is up for preorder now for $24.99. It releases January 29, just in time for the Fallout season 2 finale, which airs February 4.
The bucket is smaller than it might appear, with dimensions of 8.27 x 8.27 x 10.24 inches, meaning it’s not quite a foot tall. However, I doubt many people will actually make popcorn and eat it out of this thing while watching Lucy MacLean, Maximus, and The Ghoul go about their business in the Wasteland. It’s a collectible, meant to be placed on a shelf for display. And if it looks as good in person as it does in the pictures, it should appeal to plenty of Fallout fans.
In other Fallout collectible news, you can pick up four new Fallout TV Funko Pop figures: a giant Deathclaw, the robo-cowboy Victor, as well as Hank MacLean in Power Armor and Caesar. Those are out May 24. And if you’re a super-fan, you can preorder a working Pip-Boy replica from the IGN Store, set to release in June. In the meantime, you can check out our reviews of all the Fallout episodes that have been released so far.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros., has revealed the reason why the series' food various items each heal your character by a specific amount.
Writing this week on Twitter/X, Sakurai simply dropped the detail out of nowhere — 25 years on from when food was first introduced to Nintendo's hit fighting series, back in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
In short, the more calories a piece of food is likely to have, the more it has been programmed to heal. So, while a bunch of healthy grapes might heal your character by 4% in Smash Bros. Ultimate, a pizza or stack of pancakes will heal by 7%.
While some had guessed the logic previously, this is fans' first official confirmation why Smash Bros.' foodstuffs act this way. And, peering at the Smash Bros. Wiki page on food, the theory generally stands up to reality.
Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced 28 food types, a total that increased to 36 in Smash Bros. Ultimate — though the actual range has varied over the course of the franchise.
Looking just at Ultimate, then, low healing items include cherries (1% damage healed), kiwis, lemons and tea (all 2%), a lollipop (3%) and cola (3% — guess it's diet).
Mid-tier healing items include squash soup (4%), cheese, chocolate and dumplings (all 5%), plus a hot dog, corn dog, cherry pie and popcorn (all 6%). Curiously, a salad heals by 5% — though its image shows it is covered in some kind of dressing.
Undo your top button and we're onto the top-tier foodstuffs by damage healed, such as the hamburger, pancakes and pizza (all 7%), spaghetti (8%), strawberry shortcake (10%), steak (11%) and turkey (12%). Curiously, bread is also in this category (at 10%) — though it is the whole loaf.
So, next time you're playing Super Smash Bros. and food items spawn on-screen, head for the tastiest-looking, highest calorie option. Wombo combo? Popcorn combo, more like.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Now here is something that completely passed under my radar. In 2025, Accidental Studios released a demo for its upcoming psychological horror game, Subliminal. And, as you will see in the video featured below, this is one of the most photorealistic games using Unreal Engine 5. Subliminal is a psychological horror game inspired by the … Continue reading Subliminal May Be One of the Most Photorealistic Unreal Engine 5 Games Yet→
With 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (review) now hitting theaters, audience members might be scratching their heads regarding the character known as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal. Played by Sinners' Jack O'Connell, Jimmy leads a gang known as, well, The Jimmys... and he is not to be trifled with.
After showing up briefly in the previous film, last summer's 28 Years Later, Jimmy and his band of "Fingers" take center stage in The Bone Temple, along with Ralph Fiennes' Dr. Ian Kelson, who also returns from that earlier film. Other Jimmys include Erin Kellyman as Jimmy Ink and Alfie Williams as newcomer to the gang Spike, also back from 28 Years Later.
But why does O'Connell's character dress the way he does, and who is Jimmy Savile, the real-world and highly controversial British celebrity who he's based his identity on? We've got the lowdown right here...
Note that the following does NOT include spoilers for The Bone Temple!
If you’re not from the UK, 28 Years Later's bizzare final sequence probably (and understandably) meant very little to you. But anyone who does call the island kingdom home will instantly recognise who O’Connell and his pals are cosplaying as: Jimmy Savile, one of Britain's most prolific sexual predators. During the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Savile was a household name, having hosted some of the country’s most-watched TV shows, Jim’ll Fix It and Top of the Pops. The former saw him work extensively with children for nearly two decades. Savile’s crimes only became widespread public knowledge after his death in 2011. Extensive investigation by both the police and BBC reporters led to hundreds of allegations of abuse, involving both children and the elderly. There have since been multiple documentaries about his criminal activities, including the Netflix show Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.
O’Connell’s character is the grown-up version of Jimmy, the little Scottish boy who had a quite terrifying ordeal while trying to enjoy an episode of the Teletubbies during 28 Years Later’s opening sequence (he still wears the crucifix pendant that his dad gave him before being attacked by the infected). The credits of that film reveal that as an adult he goes by the name Sir Jimmy Crystal, and interviews from around the time of the film's release explained that he’s a cult leader with a dark past. The cast list also notes that every member of his cult is named after Savile in one way or another. There’s Jimmy Jimmy, Jimmy Ink, Jimmy Jones, Jimmy Fox, Jimmima… you get the idea.
Very little is revealed about the Jimmys in their first appearance in 28 Years Later, but it's clear that they’ve been causing chaos in England. There are multiple occasions on which the word “Jimmy” can be seen in the environment. The most prominent comes during the film’s first act, when Spike and Jamie discover an infected man hanging upside down inside a house; “Jimmy” has been carved into his chest. At another point, the camera lingers on a house with an exterior wall bearing the message “Behold, he is coming with the clouds” – beside that lettering is another piece of graffiti, simply stating “Jimmy.”
With so little concrete evidence to work with, there are many ways you could interpret the Jimmys. Regardless of your theory, it’s worth considering that the Rage virus outbreak began in 2002, and so the widespread allegations against Savile had not yet begun when the apocalypse kicked off. As such, the Jimmys may see Savile as something of a heroic or comedy character, just as he was to thousands of real people before the truth was revealed. Taking inspiration from his Jim’ll Fix It TV show (which, along with the Teletubbies, Jimmy may have watched in his youth), the cult may be going around “fixing” Britain.
We'll have more on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple over the weekend, including a chat with O'Connell and director Nia DaCosta about how Jimmy wound up this way, so be sure to check back then!
Amazon has revealed a first look at Sophie Turner as Lara Croft in the new Prime Video Tomb Raider series.
The image, below, was released to coincide with the start of production. Turner, famous for playing Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, plays a new take on Lara Croft, although with many of the features fans of the world famous archaeologist and adventurer as she appears in the original Tomb Raider games will know well.
The series stars Turner as Lara Croft, alongside recently announced cast Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Martin Bobb-Semple, Jack Bannon, John Heffernan, Bill Paterson, Paterson Joseph, Sasha Luss, Juliette Motamed, Celia Imrie, and August Wittgenstein. Weaver will play Evelyn Wallis, a new character not featured in the original games who is described by Amazon as a “mysterious, high-flying woman who is keen to exploit Lara's talents.”
Unlike Weaver, Isaacs will play a character who is canon to the franchise: Croft’s uncle, Atlas DeMornay. Two other canon roles have been cast: Bill Paterson (Lord Lyman Beesbury in House of the Dragon) will play Winston, the Croft family’s longtime butler, while Martin Bobb-Semple takes on the role of Zip, Croft’s right-hand tech support and close friend.
Additionally, Jack Bannon, John Heffernan, Celia Imrie, Patterson Joseph, Sasha Luss, August Wittgenstein, and Juliette Motamed have joined the cast in various roles that have been created specifically for the series, which will “reinvent the franchise on a massive scale” and will interconnect “live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”
Tomb Raider cast:
The following cast are confirmed in canon roles from the Tomb Raider video game franchise:
Martin Bobb-Semple is Zip. Zip is Lara Croft’s long-standing tech support and friend.
Jason Isaacs is Atlas DeMornay. Atlas is Lara’s uncle.
Bill Paterson is Winston. Winston is the long-standing Croft family butler.
The following cast are confirmed for roles to the Tomb Raider universe:
Jack Bannon is Gerry. Gerry is Lara’s personal pilot and snack collector.
John Heffernan is David. David is an exhausted government official who finds himself tangled up in Lara's unusual world.
Celia Imrie is Francine. Francine is the Head of Advancement at the British Museum, focused solely on raising funds and glasses of champagne.
Paterson Joseph is Thomas Warner. Thomas Warner is a senior government official brought in to clean up an almighty mess.
Sasha Luss is Sasha. Sasha is a fierce, deeply competitive new adversary of Lara’s.
Juliette Motamed is Georgia. Georgia is a devoted, by-the-books curator at the British Museum, dedicated to the ‘proper’ preservation of history.
Sigourney Weaver is Evelyn Wallis. A mysterious, high-flying woman who is keen to exploit Lara's talents.
August Wittgenstein is Lukas. Lukas is an illegal raider who shares history with Lara in more ways than one.
The series is led by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) serving as creator, writer, executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Chad Hodge as co-showrunner and executive producer. Jonathan Van Tulleken serves as director and executive producer. The series is produced by Story Kitchen, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, and Amazon MGM Studios.
We’re still no closer to knowing when Tomb Raider will release, but we did get confirmation of two new Tomb Raider video games at last month's The Game Awards. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a reimagining of the first game in the series, is due out at some point in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. And the brand new game Tomb Raider: Catalyst is due out at some point in 2027. Alix Wilton Regan will now play Lara Croft in both games, replacing Camilla Luddington, who portrayed Lara Croft in the Survivor Trilogy.
Credit: Jay Maidment for Prime Video.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The last few years have marked a very strange journey for Norman Osborn in Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man comics. Once the undisputed king of the hill when it comes to Spider-Man villains, Norman has seen his sins erased and his mind restored, becoming an unlikely ally to Peter Parker in the process. That relationship will continue to evolve in The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity, as the former Green Goblin becomes a mentor to heroes like Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity is a five-issue series that spins directly out of Joe Kelly's ongoing The Amazing Spider-Man series. The book is co-written by Kelly and Jordan Morris (Predator: Bloodshed), with art by Pere Pérez (The Amazing Spider-Man: Torn) and covers by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Todd Nauck.
Marvel's official logline for Spider-Versity #1 teases, "Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Silk, Araña, Spider-Boy and Spider-Girl have one thing in common – THEY AREN’T READY. According to former Resolute Spider-Man NORMAN OSBORN. So he and Spider-Woman are going to TRAIN THEM to meet the next threat – the only way the Green Goblin knows how. Because the next threat might well BE the Green Goblin!"
IGN had a chance to speak with Kelly and Morris to learn more about the new series and what happens when Osborn tries to mentor a younger generation of heroes. Unsurprisingly, one of the main selling points for both writers with this series is the opportunity to write Norman Osborn in a more heroic light. This is a man who once murdered Gwen Stacy and orchestrated the Clone Saga, yet now he's doing his best to live by Peter Parker's example.
"Norman is a fascinating character, truly one of the great comic book villains of all time," Morris tells IGN. "I’m trying to look at him like Pete would. Norman has done so many terrible things, many of them to Pete specifically, but Pete believes in people and their ability to be their best selves. When I’ve been writing for Norman, I’ve been trying to summon my inner Pete and view this guy not as one of the worst villains in history, but as someone who has made mistakes, identified them as mistakes and is actively trying to change. I think there’s something heroic about taking steps to be a better person and I want to give Norman credit for that."
Kelly adds, "It's been the fun kind of challenge for me since I took on the book. Norman was left in this 'sin-free' status quo, but he's still an egotistical and entitled dude who's quick to anger... and also, he wants to live up to Peter's example. Characters like that who are at odds with their own nature are juicy to write.
Given the turbulent history between Spidey and Norman, it's safe to assume that there will be a lot of friction between Norman and his young charges. Not everyone is thrilled at the idea of the ex-Green Goblin calling the shots.
"The younger Spiders all have their own take," Morris says. "Some of them are stoked, some are more wary (specifically the ones Norman has killed before). To a certain extent, they’re all students of Pete. Even the ones who haven’t trained with him specifically see him as a role-model. Since Pete has forgiven Norman, the other Spiders are willing to give him a chance. Even though certain members of the team are more prickly, they all share the try-and-see-the-best-in-people ethos that is so important to Pete."
"Not to mention that he handed them their webs the first time they crossed paths!" Kelly says. "'Complicated' is a word that comes to mind."
Perhaps the most immediately fascinating thing about Spider-Versity is the idea that Norman will be teaching Gwen Stacy. This is the version of Gwen from Earth-65, not the one Norman killed, but still, we have to imagine there's a lot of bad blood between these characters worth exploring.
"The Norman/Gwen relationship is FASCINATING and something the team has been talking about a lot," Morris says. "Yes, there’s gallons of bad blood. Not only does Gwen have the rockiest history with Norman but her armor is a little thicker than some of the other Spiders to begin with. It would be very understandable for her to just kick his butt and be done with it, but in the recent pages of Amazing Spider-Man, Norman has done some truly heroic things. Gwen will be keeping an eye on Norman for sure but I think deep down she wants him to have changed."
Also intriguing is the fact that Norman will be partnered with a veteran Spider in the form of Spider-Woman Jessica Drew. How does she deal with this unlikely alliance and the idea of becoming colleagues with Norman Osborn?
"Spider-Woman is here to keep an eye on the kids and generally be awesome at all times," Morris says. "She’s skeptical of Norman’s 'let’s train the Spiders' proposal but she definitely knows the value of a good team-up. She’s been an Avenger, S.W.O.R.D agent, S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and should probably be given honorary X-Men status at this point. The Spiders team up fairly often but it’s almost always impromptu, disorganized and more than a little chaotic (Spiders gonna Spider, after all). Jessica is of course wary of Norman, but she sees this as a potential path to the Spiders leveling up so, to her, it’s worth the risk."
With Kelly co-writing the series, we were curious just how closely Spider-Versity connects to The Amazing Spider-Man. What threat is Norman trying to prepare his students for anyway?
"Joe and Co. have been doing some truly wild and wonderful stuff in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man," Morris says. "As a reader, there’s been moments in every issue that have sent my jaw directly to the floor. It’s not only a big story for Pete but for so many of the characters in his extended cast. So yes, this story will be dealing with some of the more delightfully bonkers elements of Joe’s run so far. If you’ll allow me a brief detour to geek out a bit: I’ve been a reader of Joe’s for years. He’s written some of my favorite comics ever. To be able to tell this story with him has been such an honor. I absolutely cannot believe this is happening."
Morris continues, "Anyway, what were we talking about? Ah yes, the specific threat. I don’t want to say too much and spoil the surprise but yes, there’s a very cool big bad in the shadows that will put this new Spider-team to the test. The Spiders want to be on the level of teams like The Avengers and X-Men but that means going up against the kind of threats those teams deal with on the reg. Does that wet your whistle? Seriously, how wet is your whistle right now?"
Kelly adds, "Spider-Versity spins directly out of the events of Amazing Spider-Man, and Norman has a definitive threat in mind that he's trying to protect the young Spiders against. One he knows intimately. But even for a master planner like Norman, things may perhaps go awry, and the kids will face some unexpected threats. Nothing like learning on the job!"
Finally, Morris praised Pérez's artwork on the series, saying "I’m beyond stoked to be working with Pere on this book! I’m such a fan of his work on Marvel’s recent TVA mini-series. His team-up action is awesome and his characters are so wonderfully expressive. So far he’s nailing not only the thwip-heavy Spider fight scenes but the comedy and drama bits as well. I can’t wait for readers to see this gorgeous book!"
The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Versity #1 will be released on April 22, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
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