Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Will Be Less Anime, More Global

The first season of Disney+'s Star Wars: Visions included involvement from some of the best Japanese animation studios in the world, but for its second season, the show is looking to go even bigger.

Speaking to Deadline, Executive Producer James Waugh said the next season of Visions will take a more global approach.

"The first anthology is anime because we all loved the style of it, but personally my intention for Visions was to always let it be a more broad palette, because there’s so much great animation work going on in the world," Waugh said. "There’s so many interesting voices in all sorts of other mediums that are really focused on animation right now."

There's plenty of precedent for great animation coming from all over the world. For example, last year's smash hit Arcane was developed by French animation studio Fortiche. Beyond the new partnerships with global studios, Waugh said they want those studios to take the ball and run with it, and really decide what Star Wars means to them and their cultures.

"And we really wanted [Visions] to be, in a way, a 'sub-brand' that allowed for different creators to come celebrate Star Wars from their own unique cultural perspective. And so Visions volume two is sort of a global tour of some of the most interesting animation studios on a global level. We have studios from Africa, Chile, England, Ireland, France, India… and the guiding light there was that we wanted their storytelling to be a reflection of what Star Wars meant in their culture, but also a reflection of the myths and stories that could only come out of their cultural context."

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 is coming to Disney+ in Spring 2023. The first volume contained nine episodes created by some of the most influential Japanese anime studios, with stories following Jedi, a rock opera, and more.

We were fans of the first volume in our Star Wars Visions review, saying, "With breathtaking animation in a wide variety of visual styles, Visions should please both avid anime watchers and casual fans."

Visions is just one in a handful of upcoming Star Wars series and movies. The next show set to release is Andor, which is heading to Disney+ next month.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Here’s the First Look at the New Addams Family

Netflix's new Addams Family series focused on daughter Wednesday Addams debuted its first look at the whole family today, including Morticia, Gomez, and Pugsley.

The streamer has shared the first full image of the Addams clan. The series will star Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams but include Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams in an absolute brilliant stroke of casting. Isaac Ordonez has also been cast as the brother Pugsley.

The series will focus on Wednesday as a high school student trying to master her psychic powers and solve a supernatural mystery that befell the Addams clan 25 years before the start of the show.

Tim Burton will make his TV directorial debut and will direct the season for Netflix. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Wednesday writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough revealed that Burton wanted a Gomez who closely resembled the Charles Addams cartoons, a shorter Gomez versus previous iterations.

The pair also said that Guzmán channeled the "incredibly debonair and romantic" elements of the character while also bringing something "very different and new" to the character.

According to the pair, the Wednesday series will live halfway between a sequel and reboot, and "lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it's its own thing."

No release date just yet, though Netflix will premiere the show sometime this year. It's also been announced that Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams in the 90s will also appear in the show.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Here’s the First Look at the New Addams Family

Netflix's new Addams Family series focused on daughter Wednesday Addams debuted its first look at the whole family today, including Morticia, Gomez, and Pugsley.

The streamer has shared the first full image of the Addams clan. The series will star Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams but include Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams and Luis Guzmán as Gomez Addams in an absolute brilliant stroke of casting. Isaac Ordonez has also been cast as the brother Pugsley.

The series will focus on Wednesday as a high school student trying to master her psychic powers and solve a supernatural mystery that befell the Addams clan 25 years before the start of the show.

Tim Burton will make his TV directorial debut and will direct the season for Netflix. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Wednesday writers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough revealed that Burton wanted a Gomez who closely resembled the Charles Addams cartoons, a shorter Gomez versus previous iterations.

The pair also said that Guzmán channeled the "incredibly debonair and romantic" elements of the character while also bringing something "very different and new" to the character.

According to the pair, the Wednesday series will live halfway between a sequel and reboot, and "lives within the Venn diagram of what happened before, but it's its own thing."

No release date just yet, though Netflix will premiere the show sometime this year. It's also been announced that Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams in the 90s will also appear in the show.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Better Call Saul and Fleabag Were Bigger Influences on She-Hulk Than Ally McBeal

She-Hulk may be a single female lawyer, but she’s not based on Ally McBeal.

During an interview with Variety, writer and producer Jessica Gao explained why Ally McBeal wasn’t such a big influence on the upcoming Marvel series.

“I would say most of our writers’ room was a little bit on the young side to have really known that show during its heyday,” she explained.

Ally McBeal debuted in 1997, with 5 seasons of fourth-wall breaking from the show’s titular lawyer. But while fans can’t help but see the similarities, it looks as though Ally McBeal wasn’t such a huge influence on the show’s writing team.

“For the writers, it actually was not,” revealed Gao. “We never really talked about Ally McBeal or referenced her.”

Instead, the show was influenced by other popular fourth-wall-breaking shows, including Fleabag (obviously) and Better Call Saul.

“There were two shows that I referenced in my pitch and it was Fleabag and Better Call Saul, hopefully both for obvious reasons,” said Gao. The creator said at one point there might have been too much fourth-wall breaking, a creative tool Gao loves.

According to Gao, early versions of She-Hulk were too meta for Marvel’s liking.

“I might have really overdone it,” she said. “Because at a certain point, they even asked me to do a version where there was no fourth-wall breaking, but there was still kind of a meta kind of nature to it."

Gao revealed she "really love editor’s notes in comics, and so for a span of probably several months, there was going to be editor’s notes that kind of popped up in little text boxes on the screen, and then she would actually acknowledge the editor’s box and argue with the person who was writing the notes." However, that was perhaps too much.

Eventually, they settled in traditional fourth-wall breaking – much like Marvel’s Deadpool. But while Ally McBeal didn’t directly influence the show, its creators couldn’t let the ground-breaking comedy go unreferenced – during an early episode, Ally McBeal can be seen playing on a TV in a bar.

“But yes, people can’t help but make the comparison to Ally McBeal,” said Gao. “So, Ally McBeal playing in the bar was a choice made during post-production.”

Want to read more about She-Hulk? Check out the 7 must-read She-Hulk comics you should grab before the show, and watch the latest teaser for the upcoming show.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Better Call Saul and Fleabag Were Bigger Influences on She-Hulk Than Ally McBeal

She-Hulk may be a single female lawyer, but she’s not based on Ally McBeal.

During an interview with Variety, writer and producer Jessica Gao explained why Ally McBeal wasn’t such a big influence on the upcoming Marvel series.

“I would say most of our writers’ room was a little bit on the young side to have really known that show during its heyday,” she explained.

Ally McBeal debuted in 1997, with 5 seasons of fourth-wall breaking from the show’s titular lawyer. But while fans can’t help but see the similarities, it looks as though Ally McBeal wasn’t such a huge influence on the show’s writing team.

“For the writers, it actually was not,” revealed Gao. “We never really talked about Ally McBeal or referenced her.”

Instead, the show was influenced by other popular fourth-wall-breaking shows, including Fleabag (obviously) and Better Call Saul.

“There were two shows that I referenced in my pitch and it was Fleabag and Better Call Saul, hopefully both for obvious reasons,” said Gao. The creator said at one point there might have been too much fourth-wall breaking, a creative tool Gao loves.

According to Gao, early versions of She-Hulk were too meta for Marvel’s liking.

“I might have really overdone it,” she said. “Because at a certain point, they even asked me to do a version where there was no fourth-wall breaking, but there was still kind of a meta kind of nature to it."

Gao revealed she "really love editor’s notes in comics, and so for a span of probably several months, there was going to be editor’s notes that kind of popped up in little text boxes on the screen, and then she would actually acknowledge the editor’s box and argue with the person who was writing the notes." However, that was perhaps too much.

Eventually, they settled in traditional fourth-wall breaking – much like Marvel’s Deadpool. But while Ally McBeal didn’t directly influence the show, its creators couldn’t let the ground-breaking comedy go unreferenced – during an early episode, Ally McBeal can be seen playing on a TV in a bar.

“But yes, people can’t help but make the comparison to Ally McBeal,” said Gao. “So, Ally McBeal playing in the bar was a choice made during post-production.”

Want to read more about She-Hulk? Check out the 7 must-read She-Hulk comics you should grab before the show, and watch the latest teaser for the upcoming show.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

She-Hulk Writers Added More Jennifer Walters Scenes to Save CGI Budget

Amid growing concerns in the Marvel space over crunch at visual effects studios, She-Hulk writer Jessica Gao said the team was asked to write more scenes featuring She-Hulk's human form, Jennifer Walters, to cut down on VFX costs.

Speaking to Variety, Gao said at the beginning of the project, she was basically given free rein to write in whatever scenes she wanted.

"I had produced television before, so there is always a part of my brain that’s wearing the television producer’s hat of costs, and imagining a line producer screaming at me and blaming me for their ulcer," Gao said. "So, going into writing this, I was very aware of that, but I also had no clue how much the CG cost. I just knew CG was expensive. From the beginning, I asked Kevin [Feige], 'How much can we do? How cost-conscious should I be? Give me some guidelines.' And he said, 'If I’m gonna watch a show called She-Hulk, I want to see She-Hulk.' That kind of was the carte blanche to just write it however I wanted."

But things didn't stay that way. According to Gao, once production ramped up, the budget needed to be trimmed down. So, she had to cut the number of She-Hulk scenes basically every week once production began.

"Once we got into pre-production and production itself, once somebody had to sit down and start figuring out the cost of everything, it was like every week, I was told, 'Can you cut more She-Hulk scenes? Can you change more She-Hulk scenes to Jen? Can she be Jen in more scenes?' There were a lot of things that then had to be changed at the last minute to go from She-Hulk to Jen. Even in post, you know, we had to cut a lot of shots by virtue just because it was She-Hulk."

Gao has previously discussed the 'growing pains' of working on a project with a CG lead character, revealing that tough lessons were learned throughout the trial and error process. Fans initially slammed the She-Hulk series' first trailer for the quality of its VFX, but we'll see how the final product turns out when it releases on Disney+ later this week.

To prepare yourself for She-Hulk, check out the essential comics to read before the She-Hulk MCU series. Or, read up on how the show discusses Captain America's sex life, and star Mark Ruffalo's take on Marvel and Star Wars.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

She-Hulk Writers Added More Jennifer Walters Scenes to Save CGI Budget

Amid growing concerns in the Marvel space over crunch at visual effects studios, She-Hulk writer Jessica Gao said the team was asked to write more scenes featuring She-Hulk's human form, Jennifer Walters, to cut down on VFX costs.

Speaking to Variety, Gao said at the beginning of the project, she was basically given free rein to write in whatever scenes she wanted.

"I had produced television before, so there is always a part of my brain that’s wearing the television producer’s hat of costs, and imagining a line producer screaming at me and blaming me for their ulcer," Gao said. "So, going into writing this, I was very aware of that, but I also had no clue how much the CG cost. I just knew CG was expensive. From the beginning, I asked Kevin [Feige], 'How much can we do? How cost-conscious should I be? Give me some guidelines.' And he said, 'If I’m gonna watch a show called She-Hulk, I want to see She-Hulk.' That kind of was the carte blanche to just write it however I wanted."

But things didn't stay that way. According to Gao, once production ramped up, the budget needed to be trimmed down. So, she had to cut the number of She-Hulk scenes basically every week once production began.

"Once we got into pre-production and production itself, once somebody had to sit down and start figuring out the cost of everything, it was like every week, I was told, 'Can you cut more She-Hulk scenes? Can you change more She-Hulk scenes to Jen? Can she be Jen in more scenes?' There were a lot of things that then had to be changed at the last minute to go from She-Hulk to Jen. Even in post, you know, we had to cut a lot of shots by virtue just because it was She-Hulk."

Gao has previously discussed the 'growing pains' of working on a project with a CG lead character, revealing that tough lessons were learned throughout the trial and error process. Fans initially slammed the She-Hulk series' first trailer for the quality of its VFX, but we'll see how the final product turns out when it releases on Disney+ later this week.

To prepare yourself for She-Hulk, check out the essential comics to read before the She-Hulk MCU series. Or, read up on how the show discusses Captain America's sex life, and star Mark Ruffalo's take on Marvel and Star Wars.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Darkwing Duck Gets a Heroic Statue From Diamond Select Toys

Ever since the cancellation of Disney's DuckTales reboot, there hasn't been much reason for Disney Afternoon fanatics to celebrate. But there is one ray of light on the horizon, as Diamond Select Toys is teasing a new statue featuring the one and only Darkwing Duck.

IGN can exclusively debut the Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama, which painstakingly recreates the feathered hero's look from the original animated series.

This statue was Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios. It measures about 9 inches tall including the diorama base. DST hasn't confirmed whether there are other characters planned in the Darkwing Duck line, but fingers crossed Launchpad gets a statue next.

The Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama is priced at $59.99 and is expected to ship in Spring 2023. Preorders haven't opened just yet, but you'll be able to preorder through the Diamond Select website and various other retailers beginning on Friday, August 19.

In other Darkwing Duck news, the series is getting its own reboot on Disney+, with The Boys' Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg among the producers attached. Unfortunately, there's been little word on the new series since its original announcement in 2020.

In other collectibles news, Dark Horse recently unveiled a new wave of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt figures.

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

Darkwing Duck Gets a Heroic Statue From Diamond Select Toys

Ever since the cancellation of Disney's DuckTales reboot, there hasn't been much reason for Disney Afternoon fanatics to celebrate. But there is one ray of light on the horizon, as Diamond Select Toys is teasing a new statue featuring the one and only Darkwing Duck.

IGN can exclusively debut the Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama, which painstakingly recreates the feathered hero's look from the original animated series.

This statue was Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios. It measures about 9 inches tall including the diorama base. DST hasn't confirmed whether there are other characters planned in the Darkwing Duck line, but fingers crossed Launchpad gets a statue next.

The Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama is priced at $59.99 and is expected to ship in Spring 2023. Preorders haven't opened just yet, but you'll be able to preorder through the Diamond Select website and various other retailers beginning on Friday, August 19.

In other Darkwing Duck news, the series is getting its own reboot on Disney+, with The Boys' Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg among the producers attached. Unfortunately, there's been little word on the new series since its original announcement in 2020.

In other collectibles news, Dark Horse recently unveiled a new wave of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt figures.

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

AMD to Hold a Hardware Event for Ryzen 7000 CPUs on August 29

AMD has announced a new hardware event for the end of August, where the company plans to unveil its next-generation PC products. The presentation will air on Monday, August 29 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET.

In a new press release, AMD notes that the presentation will focus on its upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors. AMD originally teased the Ryzen 7000 series during its keynote presentation at CES earlier this year, where the company confirmed the Ryzen 7000 line will support its new Zen 4 architecture built with TSMC's 5nm process.

The next-gen Ryzen chips are also confirmed to use a new AM5 socket and will support PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 RAM. Important to note, that the next-gen Ryzen processors will only support DDR5, unlike Intel's Alder Lake CPUs, which support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM.

At this year's Computex, AMD shared more info on the next-gen Ryzen CPUs, which included confirmation that the chiplets will have integrated RDNA 2 graphics. As a refresher, RDNA 2 is the graphical architecture that found in AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, in addition to the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Steam Deck.

With a Ryzen-focused hardware event scheduled for later this month, AMD will likely share more information on specs, pricing, and when these new chips will release. We know that the company previously said that the Ryzen 7000 line would launch sometime in the second half of 2022.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.