HBO Max Will Not Include These Banned South Park Episodes

South Park is now on HBO Max in its entirety... almost. The lineup on the new streaming service does not include five of the most controversial South Park episodes - as noted by THR, all five episodes include the depiction of religious figures, including the Prophet Muhammad. The revelation shouldn't be news to fans of the long-running animated comedy; all the South Park episodes featuring depictions of Muhammad have been unavailable to stream on services like Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, South Park Studios, Comedy Central, and Amazon Prime Video in the years following their broadcasts.

5 South Park episodes you can't stream on HBO Max:

[ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/04/south-park-trey-parker-reveals-his-favorite-episode-of-the-past-5-years] "Super Best Friends" portrayed a superhero team made up of religious figures such as Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, and Muhammad, the latter being strictly prohibited from being figuratively depicted in Islam. Even so, the episode aired without much controversy in 2005 and was only censored in later years. In IGN's "Super Best Friends" review, we said, "While this isn't one of South Park's best episodes of all time, it stands out because of the sheer audacity of incorporating just about all of the world's major religions in one silly joke." South Park then explored, in its own very meta way, the furor over depicting the prophet in the two-parter "Cartoon Wars," which chronicled the uproar over a cartoon's (in this case, Family Guy) attempt to broadcast an uncensored version of the Prophet Muhammad. The episodes explored the themes of censorship, free speech, and fear, but were also censored by Comedy Central to remove any on-screen depictions or mentions of Muhammad. These episodes were produced following the protests and violence sparked by Danish newspaper cartoon depictions of Muhammad, as well as the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim man who objected to van Gogh's short film Submission: Part 1. Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revisited the subject of censorship in episodes "200" and "201," the latter being deemed particularly incendiary and which saw Comedy Central beefing up security around their offices. Parker and Stone reportedly received death threats in response to the episodes. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=south-park-topical-episodes&captions=true"] Comedy Central also censored "201," which at the time prompted Parker and Stone to slam the network: "In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too."

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Premium PureArts Statue Teased

PureArts, the premium video game figurine company, has revealed a teaser for its next figurine project: Eivor from the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Max and Brian revealed the tease and unboxed PureArts’ Tekken Devil Jin sculpture today in Up at Noon. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/16/up-at-noon-at-five-live-playstation-5-memes-assassins-creed-statues-chicken-police"] PureArts is a Montreal-based figurine company has already worked with Ubisoft in the past to create figures for Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and Ghost Recon. You can find sculptures for past Assassins like Bayek, Altair, and Ezio. Now the studio will make a sculpture for the newest assassin Eivor. Here’s a small teaser from Up at Noon. CONFIDENTIAL_Teaser Eivor - Assassin's Creed PureArts has other partnerships with game studios like Bandai Namco and CD Projekt Red. The limited-edition Devil Jin statue was shown off today during the show as well as the Yaiba Kusanagi Sportbike for PureArts’ previously announced V figures. The Cyberpunk 2077 bikes are available for pre-order now. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=pure-arts-cyberpunk-2077-figurines&captions=true"] No release date or price was announced for the Eivor statue, but PureArts figures usually come with a premium price tag. Check out IGN’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla preview for more coverage on Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassins game set during the Viking conquest-era. Also check out our Cyberpunk 2077 preview after 4-hours of hands-on time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Premium PureArts Statue Teased

PureArts, the premium video game figurine company, has revealed a teaser for its next figurine project: Eivor from the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Max and Brian revealed the tease and unboxed PureArts’ Tekken Devil Jin sculpture today in Up at Noon. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/16/up-at-noon-at-five-live-playstation-5-memes-assassins-creed-statues-chicken-police"] PureArts is a Montreal-based figurine company has already worked with Ubisoft in the past to create figures for Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and Ghost Recon. You can find sculptures for past Assassins like Bayek, Altair, and Ezio. Now the studio will make a sculpture for the newest assassin Eivor. Here’s a small teaser from Up at Noon. CONFIDENTIAL_Teaser Eivor - Assassin's Creed PureArts has other partnerships with game studios like Bandai Namco and CD Projekt Red. The limited-edition Devil Jin statue was shown off today during the show as well as the Yaiba Kusanagi Sportbike for PureArts’ previously announced V figures. The Cyberpunk 2077 bikes are available for pre-order now. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=pure-arts-cyberpunk-2077-figurines&captions=true"] No release date or price was announced for the Eivor statue, but PureArts figures usually come with a premium price tag. Check out IGN’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla preview for more coverage on Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassins game set during the Viking conquest-era. Also check out our Cyberpunk 2077 preview after 4-hours of hands-on time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Torchlight 3: New Echonok Location Coming to Early Access This Month

Torchlight 3's final location, Echonok, will be added to the Steam Early Access version of the game on June 30. Echonok makes up the third and final act of Torchlight 3, and its addition will add story content, new environments, new dungeons, new enemies, new bosses and Echonok-specific loot. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/25/torchlight-3-echonok-reveal-trailer"] Echonok will see players attempting to put an end to the game's Netherim invasion once and for all, travelling to Mount Echonok to defeat Veriss, who holds the means of permanently merging the human and Netherim worlds. Getting there will take the adventurers through the home of the Voltura, a race of bird-machine hybrids that really aren't happy to see you there. Torchlight 3 is in Early Access on Steam this year, and is aiming for a full release on PC, PS4 and Xbox One this year. You can check out gameplay footage of the new area in our interview with director Max Schaefer below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/25/torchlight-3s-creators-also-made-diablo-2-heres-how-they-differ"] There's more to see from today's IGN Expo, and we're running the Summer of Gaming throughout June – here's the Summer of Gaming full schedule. All month, we're supporting some incredibly important causes – the World Health Organisation and The Bail Project – if you are able, help us support them too at donate.ign.com. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.  

Torchlight 3: New Echonok Location Coming to Early Access This Month

Torchlight 3's final location, Echonok, will be added to the Steam Early Access version of the game on June 30. Echonok makes up the third and final act of Torchlight 3, and its addition will add story content, new environments, new dungeons, new enemies, new bosses and Echonok-specific loot. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/25/torchlight-3-echonok-reveal-trailer"] Echonok will see players attempting to put an end to the game's Netherim invasion once and for all, travelling to Mount Echonok to defeat Veriss, who holds the means of permanently merging the human and Netherim worlds. Getting there will take the adventurers through the home of the Voltura, a race of bird-machine hybrids that really aren't happy to see you there. Torchlight 3 is in Early Access on Steam this year, and is aiming for a full release on PC, PS4 and Xbox One this year. You can check out gameplay footage of the new area in our interview with director Max Schaefer below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/25/torchlight-3s-creators-also-made-diablo-2-heres-how-they-differ"] There's more to see from today's IGN Expo, and we're running the Summer of Gaming throughout June – here's the Summer of Gaming full schedule. All month, we're supporting some incredibly important causes – the World Health Organisation and The Bail Project – if you are able, help us support them too at donate.ign.com. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.  

Following Splash Mountain Redesign, Fans Call for Disney to Change Jungle Cruise Next

Reacting to Thursday's announcement that Disney's Splash Mountain is being changed into a Princess and the Frog attraction, many social media users, including celebrities, are calling on Disney Parks to update, re-theme or outright remove other attractions and rides they find offensive due to outdated and insensitive depictions of indigenous peoples, including Jungle Cruise. Not long after the news broke about Splash Mountain -- which fans petitioned Disney to change due to its origins in the racist and banned 1946 film Song of the South -- "Jungle Cruise" trended on Twitter with social media users calling for the pun-laden riverboat ride to be overhauled, if not closed entirely. Jungle Cruise has been a Disneyland staple since 1955, with versions also appearing at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. The cruise -- which takes park visitors down several rivers in Africa, South America, and Asia -- includes animatronic human characters, depicting some native populations as headhunters and including insensitive period language (the ride is set during the 1930s) from white characters who refer to the indigenous characters as "savages". Other Disney theme park attractions cited by social media users as problematic and in need of overhauling or removal include Peter Pan's Flight -- which, like the 1953 film it's based on, features stereotypical and insensitive depictions of Native Americans -- and the Enchanted Tiki Room, which includes characters that rely on a number of ethnic stereotypes. Some also included the Hall of Presidents in their criticism. Both Peter Pan's Flight and the Tiki Room were among the original attractions when Disneyland opened in 1955. Disney has yet to comment on calls for Jungle Cruise and other attractions to be reimagined or removed, but complicating matters for Disney when it comes to Jungle Cruise is the fact that the studio has a major movie coming out next year based on the ride. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/disneys-jungle-cruise-official-trailer-2"] The Jungle Cruise movie, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, is a comedic period romp that sees the main characters on a supernaturally-tinged adventure. The movie was meant to open next month but the coronavirus pandemic forced Disney to postpone Jungle Cruise's release to July 30, 2021. Given that the movie's plot is original, it's not clear yet what, if any, elements from the ride itself may have ended up in the movie -- let alone if any of them are patterned after the problematic parts of the attraction. Still, if the movie does have any such elements, the filmmakers have time to address them before Jungle Cruise opens next year. Disney has altered their theme park attractions before due to public outcry, most notably the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in 2017. And like that ride, the company obviously hopes for a blockbuster Disney movie to increase attendance to the theme park attraction that inspired it. However, if that attraction is steeped in controversy and/or closed for an overhaul at the time the movie opens, Disney would likely have yet another quandary to contend with.