Everyone’s noticing how the industry is shifting — including major A-Listers like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who recently opened up about the fact that Netflix wants to change how films are being made.

During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast promoting their new Netflix film The Rip, Damon revealed that the streamer wants to make it so that action set pieces in films occur during the beginning section of the runtime because audiences give a “very different level of attention” to movies at home versus in theaters.

“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third,” Damon explained on the podcast. “You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’”

However, Affleck noted that there are still successful projects that don’t adhere to those new rules, projects like the acclaimed miniseries Adolescence, which consists of episodes shot in one continuous take.

“But then you look at Adolescence, and it didn’t do any of that shit,” Affleck said during the appearance. “And it’s f—king great. And it’s dark too. It’s tragic and intense. [It’s about] this guy who finds out his kid is accused of murder. There are long shots of the back of their heads. They get in the car, nobody says anything.”

Damon called this kind of project the “exception” to Netflix’s new way of thinking, while Affleck affirmed that the success of the show “demonstrates you don’t have to do” what Netflix wants in order to draw audiences in and keep them there. Many films prove this theory right every day, and ultimately, it comes down to having a well-crafted, unforgettable story at the center of your project — that’s the only thing that will truly make audiences see the merit in the work, the only foolproof method.

Damon and Affleck’s new film, The Rip, was written and directed by Joe Carnahan and stars Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, and Kyle Chandler alongside the Good Will Hunting stars. The movie is now available to stream on Netflix.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

DC Universe chief James Gunn has suggested fans won’t get an update on the Brave and the Bold Batman movie until after The Batman 2 comes out next year.

The Batman 2, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, is set to launch five-and-a-half years after The Batman, on October 1, 2027. Writer-director Matt Reeves has said he set out to make a trilogy of Batman films as part of his Batman Epic Crime Saga, and as of 2024 that plan was still on.

The Batman films exist in a universe separate to the ongoing DCU, and given Gunn has ruled out Pattinson’s Batman crossing over, we’re set for a new actor to play the Caped Crusader for the Brave and the Bold.

It’s a film with a great deal of expectation behind it, but it seems a long way away. Asked on social media when fans can expect to see a Brave and the Bold update, Gunn indicated that nothing will be released until after The Batman 2 is done and dusted.

“I'm dependent on when there's an actionable script ready so there is no way of me guessing this,” he said. “Also, frankly, we're well into Batman 2, and I wouldn't want to cloud the Batsphere until after that.”

Given The Batman 2 comes out October 2027, it looks like we won't get an update on The Brave and the Bold until early 2028 at the earliest.

Gunn then committed to never releasing two Batman movies in the same year. “I think both Batman and WW [Wonder Woman] are incredibly important,” he said in response to another fan. “But I'm also not going to have two Batman movies come out in the same year.”

Gunn finds himself having to navigate two takes on Batman at the same time. If Reeves gets to make his third Batman film, we could see The Brave and The Bold sandwiched between a pair of Robert Pattinson Batman movies, potentially confusing the audience.

While promoting the rebooted DCU kickstarter Superman last year, Gunn admitted: "Batman's my biggest issue in all of DC right now." As of February 2025, The Brave and the Bold was said to be in “very active development,” and the story was “coming together very nicely.” But is The Flash director Andy Muschietti still directing? At the time, Gunn and Safran were said to be developing the script, and planned to show it to Muschietti "when we have it in a place where we think it's ready to go... and see if it's a fit for him.”

As for The Batman 2, in an update last year, Reeves acknowledged how long it was taking to get the sequel in a position to start filming. “It’s been a journey that is taking longer than I would’ve wanted for a lot of reasons, a lot of personal reasons,” Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter. “But [the] most important reason is getting it to a place where I just felt like it was the best script we could possibly write.”

Reeves also spoke about Pattinson’s response to the script — which, believe it or not, was mailed to him in a privacy pouch complete with coded entry (that Pattinson almost couldn’t open, mind you) to keep all of the exciting details completely under wraps.

“He’s Batman, and if he doesn’t like it, not good,” the Cloverfield director said of Pattinson’s feelings on the script. “I was super excited. I thought that he really would [like it] because the things that it does for his character, for Batman and for Bruce, have never been done before in this way. I had a feeling that he would respond in this way, but the fact that he did was incredibly encouraging.”

He added: “Obviously because of what the first movie was and what this movie is, which is so much a detective story, the idea of trying to protect the secrets of the movie is super important because it’s a mystery. It would be an extra level of heartbreak if that part of it started getting out.”

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.

Nintendo allegedly expressed dissatisfaction at Sega during the development of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, after seeing Sonic's foot placed ahead of Mario's.

The incident has come to light in an Arcade Attack Retro Gaming Network interview with Sega veteran Ryoichi Hasegawa, who worked on the Wii and Nintendo DS sports minigame classic ahead of its release back in 2007.

According to Hasegawa, Nintendo insisted that Sega change artwork set to be used for the game's cover that depicted Mario's foot placed behind that of Sonic's.

We already knew that Bungie’s delayed extraction shooter revival, Marathon, was toying with a March 2026 release window and a $39.99 price point, but it seems as though an advertisement on the Xbox Store has prematurely announced the big day: March 5, 2026.

It was Redditor TheJuiceBaba who spotted it first, providing a recording of a now-deleted Marathon teaser trailer on Xbox, which ended with: "Coming March 5, 2026. Pre-order now."

In news unlikely to surprise you, shortly thereafter the trailer was yanked from Xbox, and TheJuiceBaba's post is nowhere to be seen (if not quite before people were able to rip and mirror it), giving us our strongest hint yet that the trailer could be authentic.

Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development and has suffered multiple delays. At the end of last year, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge, and the studio found itself battling yet more accusations of plagiarism back in May after an artist accused Bungie of lifting aspects of her artwork for Marathon (the issue has since been resolved).

Last June Marathon was delayed into 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to feedback from playtests. Things went dark until Marathon re-emerged in October, when Bungie announced the extraction shooter was ready for a limited, invite-only playtest for players in North America and Europe across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.

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