What One Really Cool Jacket in CoD: Warzone Says About Video Games in 2020

This article is part of a new initiative on IGN where we spend a whole month exploring topics we find interesting in the world of video games (and hope you will, too!). May is Development Month, where we'll tell untold stories from behind the scenes of our favorite games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] In the last few weeks, I’ve begun playing Call of Duty: Warzone almost daily. Social distancing and a committed squad of friends have absolutely contributed to that, but there’s something about its blend of ideas that really works for me. I love how it atomises long rounds into small bursts of action with its Contracts system; how tension and silliness seem to pop up in equal measure; and how it’s slightly upped the time-to-kill for a CoD game, turning many firefights into longer, more tactical affairs while keeping the terrifying gunmetal fanfare of its weaponry intact. But there’s one thing I love more than any of this; it is the tracksuit jacket worn by an Operator called Yegor. Specifically, the pink one.Every time a round of Warzone begins, you’re treated to a short clip of your squad lining up at the back of a paratrooper plane’s hatch and, if the right version of Yegor’s there (i.e. one where he bothered putting on a shirt), you’ll see something magical. His seemingly humdrum tracksuit top is positively alive with wind-caused ripples, sunlight bouncing off of its slick surface, as his knock-off Vladimir Putin face stares down with steely determination at the battlefield below. I mention the pink tracksuit in particular because I think you see more of the effect in action than on any other bit of clobber in his wardrobe. It looks really good, to the point where I began pointing it out every time my squad started a new round, and became quietly obsessed with not just how realistic it was, but how needless an addition it seemed to be. For a single miniature cutscene in a Battle Royale game – where you often barely have time to register an enemy’s presence, never mind their choice of athleticwear – it wasn’t just good; it was too good. I started to wonder who had made the decision to make Yegor’s jacket look so good, and then whose job it was to make Yegor’s jacket a reality. I wondered why they wanted to make Yegor’s jacket at all. I began to turn it into a proper noun in my head. This wasn’t Yegor’s jacket, this was Yegor’s Jacket, some kind of hidden message from its developers about the sheer amount of unseen work going into AAA-scale game design in 2020. I started talking about it so much that a friend asked a question I should really have asked to myself: “Why don’t you just email Activision and see if they can get someone to tell you why Yegor’s Jacket is so good?” So I did. Development_CODJacket_inline2“Yegor’s tracksuit,” says Infinity Ward studio art director, Joel Emslie, ignoring my chosen nomenclature, “is a love letter to a character that I created 13 years ago for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was for Zakeav’s son, one of the guys that you ride in a car with in the beginning of the game. For some reason tracksuits were big that year.” Charmingly unruffled by how stupid an interview request this is, Emslie finishes his reminiscence with a phrase that sounds almost philosophical – and that I, as the world’s biggest Yegor’s Jacket fan, very much appreciate: “That was then, Yegor is now.” Yegor is now, in as much as he’s emblematic of how much game developers are wringing out of current-gen console hardware in the tail end of its life. Can you imagine a virtual jacket that looked like this in 2014? I absolutely cannot. I can’t outright prove this, but I swear that the moment Yegor’s Jacket appears on my screen in all its polyester splendour, it’s always the exact moment that my otherwise unworried PS4 Pro decides to start screaming. There might be a reason for that: “When it comes to this tracksuit,” explains Emslie, “it uses cutting edge in-game physically based materials to render the fabrics to the highest quality we can deliver.” When I ask him if Warzone features the most realistic clothing yet seen in a game, he gives a more diplomatic response: “It is by far the most realistic clothing in a game that I have ever been a part of.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20work%20is%20totally%20fulfilling%20%E2%80%93%20even%20if%20it%E2%80%99s%20creating%20the%20perfect%20dirty%20boot."] Yegor’s Jacket is, by itself, a collaboration between artists, lighting designers, animators and more – and that’s a single part of a wider whole. Once I noticed how good that looked, I began to realise how good clothing looked across the board in Warzone (and the wider Call of Duty: Modern Warfare package): Ghillie suits flap in the rush of an open-topped ATV, heavy weaponry jingles against buckles on the backs of crouching operators, Zane’s improbable cape billows as he leaps off a building in search of another kill. Which begs the question – why is any of this in there at all? It seems a monumental amount of work for something relatively few players will actively notice, and even fewer will become obsessed by to the point of watching videos for glimpses of a single jacket that they can put in an article about said jacket. The answer, for Emslie, is to create an experience that feels more whole. “Early in development for Modern Warfare & Warzone, we challenged ourselves with what could be referred to as a gold diorama. This was a very small sample section of the game to stress test our techniques and some of our early development infrastructure. It included an exterior scene in overcast daylight, a couple of vehicles, and few characters. The scene was set on a hilltop in the Isle of Skye, Scotland and so it made perfect sense that there should be some wind to add visual stimulation to everything in the scene. “This opened the door for some creative solutions to create windblown clothing and props worn by our characters. When we saw how effective the look of all these things together could be, we decided to get as much of that into the game as possible. There are so many moments where our characters are riding shotgun on a helicopter or tac-rover. It really adds a sense of reality to the characters and what they wear.” Essentially, it lends an almost invisible verisimillitude, something your brain registers as feeling real, without it necessarily having to notice it directly. The more work put into making the stuff that grounds you in the game world, the more you’re likely to feel immersed by it all. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/23/call-of-duty-warzone-review"] The process for getting to that point is pretty fascinating. Like many AAA games, Infinity Ward’s artists have begun 3D scanning real-life objects – after all, if you’re trying to build realistic looking clothing, why not use the real thing? It lifts my heart to know that, somewhere in Los Angeles, there’s a real Yegor’s Jacket sitting in a big cupboard (Activision, I will pay for that, get in touch). “It required us to build out a physical wardrobe collection right next to the model shop,” says Emslie. “It has it all. From full body jumpsuits down to the smallest props like a piece of glint tape on a helmet. This isn’t completely unique, but we not only built out a collection, we processed the clothing and props like a Hollywood prop house would do for a feature film. The entirety of our collection is processed by our artists to make it all look used and lived in.” Those scans come in ‘clean’, with artists asked to dirty them up once they’re in the system, and make them look like they’ve actually been worn. But even that wasn’t quite realistic enough for Emslie and his team, with something about that invented grime giving away its virtual creation. “I can think of a few moments early on where I stopped an artist from painting dirt onto a character and encouraged them to take the boots out for a hike or drag them through a dirt patch outside. If there is a way to get dirt into a pair of gloves or get the perfect patina onto a tactical helmet, we find a way. The result is a very natural look that seats the characters into the environments very convincingly.” It’s fascinating to me to think of quite how much work is being put into these less-noticed elements, and the sheer level of expertise artists are bringing to elements of games that are designed to be somewhat invisible to the player. I ask Emslie how people get into this kind of work – in a way, the business of not being noticed: “I think the people that are most successful at getting into various jobs usually have a healthy curiosity and fascination with the work itself. All of this takes a massive amount of time and effort. The work really needs to hold your interest to a point where you could lose track of time and almost sink into a trance. Anyone can get into a line of work. Staying in the line of work and being successful with something like this means you probably love it.” Seemingly sensing that I’m going to ask if it’s satisfying to know that a piece of work may never be consciously noticed, Emslie adds: “The work is totally fulfilling – even if it’s creating the perfect dirty boot.”But what about when people do notice the work? What about when someone becomes obsessed with a fictional Ukranian just because of his choice of top? “We are creating what I can consider the largest catalog of unique characters I’ve ever been a part of. The most rewarding moments for me are when someone relates to a character in the narrative or makes a connection to an Operator that they feel represents how they want to look in our game.” That’s mission accomplished, I guess – it might not be for reasons other than that his jacket is really fluttery and shiny, but I’m yet to play as any Operator other than Yegor, simply because of his look. I have one more question for Emslie – well, a question and a compliment. Who, specifically, made Yegor’s Jacket, and can I congratulate them? “We are in the middle of our stay at home instructions and it’s been a while since we were all together in the art pit. I can’t remember who exactly crafted that particular jacket, but I will be certain to ask now that you’ve mentioned it and deliver the compliment.” I’ll try too: in case you’re reading this, anonymous Yegor's Jacket Designer, good work. I noticed. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News, and he just remembered he wrote a whole article about a game character's sandals once, too. Follow him on Twitter.

The Stand: First Images of Stephen King Miniseries Released

The first images from the CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand have started to appear, with new photos from the set offering a first look at the main cast of characters, including Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg. Vanity Fair shared the exclusive reel of photos showcasing "the good, the bad, and the otherworldly" in the upcoming series, created by Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell, who is also serving as showrunner alongside Taylor Elmore. Whoopi Goldberg is among those pictured; she is starring in the series as 108-year old Mother Abigail, a blind prophet who is essential to humanity's fight for survival after a devastating plague sweeps the globe. "She is very, very righteous and very good. But really flawed I feel," Goldberg said of Mother Abigail. "She doesn't listen when God is talking to her. And she tends to go her own way because she's been like this her whole life. It takes her a little while to figure out that there's something bigger than her." Alexander Skarsgård also makes his debut as the iconic villain Randall Flagg, a charismatic rockabilly demon who is "galvanizing as a leader." His true power is said to be his ability to bring out the worst in his followers. "He's so charming and he's so handsome, and so powerful—I mean genuinely powerful, able to perform these sort of miracles where he could levitate himself and he has these actual powers," Elmore said of Skarsgård's character. "And yet he needs this adulation and this kind of worship from these people whom he's summoned to him." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-stephen-king-remake-so-far&captions=true"] Elsewhere, Heather Graham's Rita Blakemoor is pictured alongside Jovan Adepo's Larry Underwood, a struggling, drug-addicted musician who finds his true calling after civilization collapses. Owen Teague's Harold Lauder, Odessa Young's Frannie Goldsmith and Nat Wolff's Lloyd Henreid also make appearances. These ragtag bunch of characters are placed in a post-apocalyptic world after a pandemic of a weaponized strain of influenza almost wiped out the entire world population, though the show, just like the novel, will focus on a variety of themes borne outside of the virus. "It's about the fundamental questions of what society owes the individual and what we owe to each other," said Cavell. "Over the last however-many years, we have sort of taken for granted the structure of democracy. Now, so much of that is being ripped down to the studs. It's interesting to see a story about people who are rebuilding it from the ground up." The Stand is expected to air on CBS All Access later this year. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

LEGO Super Mario Power-Up Packs Let You Change Mario’s Costume

Nintendo has revealed a new set of Power-Up Pack costumes for LEGO Mario, which introduce a variety of new game mechanics to the physical toy set. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/lego-mario-new-lego-super-mario-power-up-packs-trailer"] The Power-Up Packs each include a hat and a set of dungarees for the LEGO Mario figure to slot into, and each new costume allows him to do new things. The Fire Mario suit grants him the power to throw fireballs at enemies, activated by tilting the figure forward. The Propeller Mario suit allows Mario to fly and collect coins from mid-air. Cat Mario, meanwhile, lets the plumber climb walls while making vaguely adorable/somewhat creepy cat noises. Finally the Builder Mario suit lets you perform a damaging jump which awards coins as Mario smashes back down onto the ground. The Power-Up packs will be available starting August 1. As they are just suits, they all require the Starter Course pack to work. That pack includes 231 pieces used to build a physical Mario level, as well as the interactive LEGO Mario figure itself. That starter course can then be combined with Expansion sets such as the Piranha Plant Power Slide and Bowser’s Castle. Mario’s adventures through them can then be augmented with the use of the new Power-Up packs. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=lego-super-mario-first-look&captions=true"] LEGO Super Mario is designed as a bridge between video games and toys. Playing with the sets combines physical blocks, the use of the ‘mechanics’ provided by the interactive figure, and a player’s imagination. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Henry Cavill Is Now an Easter Egg in One of His Own Favourite Games

Henry Cavill has been turned into an Easter Egg character in Total War: Warhammer 2, one of his favourite games. The star of The Witcher on Netflix has previously made clear how much he likes Creative Assembly's game, telling GQ he'd completed the game with six different races. He even made clear in that interview how much he looks forward to new DLC for the game arriving. Well the latest DLC, The Warden and The Paunch arrives tomorrow, May 21, and Cavill should be more excited than ever, as the expansion adds a character based on the actor and his recent work. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/09/25/total-war-warhammer-2-review"] As pointed out by PCGamesN, the new DLC includes a High Elf Loremaster simply named Cavill, who comes with a trait called White Wolf that gives him a bonus when fighting against large enemies (like monsters, perhaps), and even includes the flavour text "Wind's howling" (based on an oft-quoted line from The Witcher 3). If that wasn't evidence enough, PCGamesN talked to the game's director, Richard Aldridge, who confirmed the homage: "So when when I saw a certain Mr. Cavill mention that he enjoys nothing more than firing up Total War: Warhammer or painting a few models in his spare time, I thought it would be fun to somehow inject him into the game [...] With the Warden and the Paunch coming up, it felt like a good time to include Henry, and what better way than having a mighty Loremaster of Hoeth by your side with a few personal special traits to play with when starting a campaign as Eltharion?” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/04/henry-cavill-was-the-first-choice-for-the-witcher"] Cavill (the real one, not the elf one) is a major gaming fan, who said he "lived and breathed" the Witcher games to prepare for his onscreen role as Geralt of Rivia, and has been painting Warhammer models to pass the time in quarantine. We here at IGN are also fans of Total War: Warhammer 2, awarding it a 9.1 review, calling it "a league above anything we’ve seen in the entire Total War series before in both design and presentation." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News and he aspires to one day be an Easter Egg in Dynasty Warriors. Follow him on Twitter.

Gears of War 3 Was Ported to PS3, But Was Never Going to See Release

Epic Games created a PlayStation 3 port of Gears of War 3 as part of its internal Unreal Engine testing process, but never had any intention of releasing the Xbox 360-exclusive game on the platform. The discovery of the PS3 port comes from new footage released by a former hacker known online as PixelButts. The footage, which shows a rough, buggy version of the game playing on PS3 hardware, was posted to YouTube. While the footage shows Xbox button prompts, a report from Kotaku reveals that the build is indeed running on a PlayStation 3, demonstrated by a further video sent to Kotaku by PixelButts that shows the game booting up from the PS3’s cross media bar. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2011/08/22/gears-of-war-3-intro-cinematic"] Epic Games revealed to Kotaku that the build is real. “This footage is a byproduct of Epic’s internal Unreal Engine 3 testing process, which utilized both Gears and Unreal Tournament, and was never part of any actual product work for PlayStation 3,” said a representative from the developer. The build was acquired via a data breach of Epic back in 2011.While there have previously been videos of Gears of War 3 running on a PS3, those were apparently created by hackers developing their own port using the files from the hack. PixelButt’s video differs as this is actually a PS3 build created by Epic itself for the Unreal Engine 3 testing process. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-gears-of-war-review-ever&captions=true"] Allegedly, this version does not run on standard retail PS3 consoles and requires the extra RAM that can be found in the PS3 devkit. However, PixelButts adjusted the way Unreal Engine 3 loads data and managed to make the build work, albeit with performance issues. If you’d like to get a little more up to date with Gears of War, then check out our review of the latest game in the series, Gears Tactics. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Horror Legend Jamie Lee Curtis to Make Feature Film Directorial Debut

Jamie Lee Curtis is set to co-write and direct an eco-horror film, titled Mother Nature, as part of a new first-look deal with Blumhouse. Deadline reports that Curtis, who is widely regarded as one of the ultimate scream queens for playing Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise, recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Jason Blum's Blumhouse via her production company Comet Pictures. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/10/26/jamie-lee-curtis-on-the-evolution-of-halloweens-laurie-strode"] The first project under the deal, which is for both film and television, is the just-announced Mother Nature feature film, which is said to be a horror story "centred around climate change." Curtis will be directing the film based on a script that she is co-writing with Russell Goldman, the new Head of Film and TV Development at Comet Pictures. "I'm 61 and my motto now is: 'If not now, when, if not me, who?' I'm excited to have a creative home to explore my own ideas and others. Jason and his team have made me feel welcome. Comet is ready to bring these stories to screen life," Curtis said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "Jamie is a force of nature and was a real partner on Halloween. So it's both an honor and incredibly apt that she's making her first feature film as a director with Mother Nature," Blum added in a separate statement about the new project, which is being kept largely under wraps for now. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=horror-movie-franchises-that-never-stopped-being-entertaining&captions=true"] Jamie Lee Curtis and Blumhouse had a hugely successful collaboration on the 2018 revamp of Halloween, which starred Curtis and was directed by David Gordon Green. The film had the biggest box office debut ever, for any movie in any genre, to feature a female lead character over 55 years of age. It also went on to become the highest-grossing instalment in the horror franchise, earning more than $255 million worldwide. Curtis and the Blumhouse team are bringing two more sequels to our screens over the coming years. Halloween Kills is currently scheduled for release on October 16, 2020, while Halloween Ends is set for October 15, 2021, just under one year later. Curtis is also serving as an executive producer on both of those fearsome flicks. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Embracer Group Has 69 Unannounced Games in Development

Embracer Group - which owns the likes of Volition (Saint's Row, Red Faction), Tarsier (Little Nightmares) and Experiment 101 (Biomutant) - has 118 games in development, 69 of which are currently unannounced. The Swedish holding company (which was formerly known as THQ Nordic) revealed the news in its financial earnings report, which you can check out on the Embracer Group website. "I genuinely believe that we have one of the industry’s most exciting pipelines of upcoming games, engaging over 3,000 game developers across the world," the report reads. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/19/snowrunner-accolades-trailer"] The report mentions that, with the recent acquisition of Snowrunner developer Saber Interactive, the holding company now has 118 games in development, with 69 of those games unannounced. The holding company expects "substantial growth" in the current fiscal year, supported by upcoming releases such as Biomutant, Destroy All Humans!, Wasteland 3 and more. For more on Destroy All Humans!, check out our interview with Black Forest Games from Gamescom 2019. The report also mentions "a host of other titles that have not yet started their marketing campaigns" and refers to the beloved franchises within in its wheelhouse that the company expects will bolster their upcoming performance, such as Saints Row, Metro and Dead Island. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/21/destroy-all-humans-remake-preview"] Embracer Group also dwelled on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on its wokflow. "Rapid transformations to online and social distancing workflows has in general gone smoothly and have mostly only caused minor operational interruptions," the report reads. Closing out the report, Embracer Group revealed that it has raised 1.6 Billion Swedish Krona (approximately $166 million USD) for further acquisitions, and mentioned "several ongoing discussions" with studios, franchises and publishers in the games industry, suggesting there might be some more big names joining Embracer Group in the near future. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Reports: Call of Duty 2020 Is Called Black Ops Cold War

New reports suggest this year's Call of Duty game will be titled Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and will return to the Black Ops sub-series' historical setting. The title was posted by Call of Duty leaker Okami on Twitter, and backed up by sources of Eurogamer. Eurogamer added that it will return to the series' roots, but didn't specify any specific events or locations – the real-life Cold War is regarded as having lasted from 1947-1991. Whether this is a reboot of the sub-series, or a prequel to the Black Ops story - which has since headed into the future - is still unknown. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/10/20/call-of-duty-black-ops-4-review"] Activision had already formally announced the expected 2020 instalment of Call of Duty, but didn't confirm which of its studios would act as the lead developer. Rumours at the time suggested Treyarch would be the lead, which feels ever-more likely, given it created the Black Ops sub-series. Sledgehammer and Raven are rumoured to be support studios on the project. Those same rumours claimed this was a Black Ops game set in the Cold War, and that it would restore a single-player campaign after Black Ops 4 dropped the feature. The reports coincide with the recent opening of Call of Duty: Warzone's bunkers, which have also seen dataminers discovering what seems to be a model for a Cold War-era spyplane, the U-2. We'd already heard that Warzone will evolve to accommodate multiple games in the series, with Infinity Ward's Taylor Kurosaki saying the battle royale mode "will be the through-line that connects all of the different various sub-franchises of Call of Duty." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News, and he was only this morning listening to excellent new Cold War-themed podcast Wind of Change, and is now hoping this game will feature Scorpions on the soundtrack. Follow him on Twitter.

Rainbow Six Siege Could Be Getting a Splinter Cell Operator

The next operator coming to Rainbow Six Siege could potentially be related to Ubisoft's Splinter Cell franchise. Windows Central first spotted a post from Rainbow Six Siege dataminer Zer0Bytes_ on Reddit, who appears to have found a set of strings in the game's code that reveal the codenames for future Year 5 operators. The Year 5 Season 3 Operator is referred to as "Scout - ECH (Echelon/Third Echelon)" which suggests that the next in-game agent could be a part of the top-secret NSA organization that Splinter Cell Sam Fisher was a part of. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/18/rainbow-six-siege-steel-wave-operators-gameplay-gadgets-and-starter-tips-video"] Some have pointed out that this doesn't line up with the Year 5 roadmap for Rainbow Six Siege, which lists the Season 3 operator as "Classified" and offers a logo for Nighthaven, a suspect in-game organization. However, Rainbow Six Siege Product Director Roy Del Valle told Windows Central in a previously unpublished interview that the logo "shouldn't be there." "As of late, the last two weeks or something, we tweaked some things on the narrative that you'll discover, and you'll be very happy with, that does not necessarily strictly link to Nighthaven," Del Valle told Windows Central in February. This suggests that the development team's plans for the Season 3 operator may have changed since the roadmap was circulated, which makes the Splinter Cell crossover more viable. To add fuel to the fire, Siege game designer Jean-Baptiste Halle gave an interview to Dualshockers, posted just yesterday, that appears to support the idea of operators from other Ubisoft games. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/04/09/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-wildlands-special-operation-1-splinter-cell"] Dualshockers asked Halle which character from other Ubisoft franchises they think would work in Siege, to which Halle responded: "There is a lot of characters in Ubisoft's portfolio that could make very interesting additions in our roster", and continued, "Just keep an eye on the next Operator additions this year and you might get some interesting new people coming into the roster." Halle added, "That's all I can say so far." Halle's allusion to near-future Operator additions certainly suggests that one of the upcoming characters may well be related to a Ubisoft franchise, and all signs point to Splinter Cell. Of course, you still have to take this report with a big pinch of salt as nothing is confirmed just yet, but it's worthwhile knowledge for Splinter Cell fans keen to hear more about the franchise's future. Ubisoft hasn't released a Splinter Cell game since 2013's Blacklist, but has been very much keeping the series in the public eye, with references popping up in Assassin's Creed, and Sam Fisher's appearance in Ghost Recon Wildlands. The creative director of the last two Splinter Cell games has recently returned to Ubisoft. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Bane Movie Masks Selling Out During Coronavirus Pandemic

Bane masks are selling out amidst the coronavirus pandemic. With many Americans still required by local governments to wear face masks or coverings while out in public, one of the most popular masks being sold online is of Tom Hardy's incarnation of the DC supervillain in The Dark Knight Rises. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both cloth and plastic Bane masks -- none of which are medically approved for pandemic protection, mind you -- have been selling out online. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/19/ranking-the-batman-movie-villains"] The trade claims Costume.com, BuyCostumes.com and HalloweenCostumes.com are all sold out of plastic Bane masks, while Etsy is selling over 150 variations of cloth Bane masks. "Looking at sales figures, the adult mask had quite a sales spike in April and early May, which is unusual for this time of year," Costume.com spokesperson David DeJac told THR. DeJac added there are still full Bane costumes available which indicates that consumers were just interested in having the mask. For more of our COVID-19 coverage, learn about how you can help and stay safe during the pandemic, and find out about all the movies and shows delayed and affected by the production shutdown. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ranking-the-batman-movies&captions=true"]