It seems that both an Overwatch cartoon and Diablo anime are in the works. Neither have been confirmed by Activision Blizzard yet but new evidence from a high-ranking employee makes it pretty likely they are in production.

Nick van Dyck, who is the president of the film and TV division of Activision Blizzard, says he has worked on both of these unannounced projects in his LinkedIn profile.

His profile lists him as being the executive producer of a TV adaptation of Diablo that is "rendered in anime style." Apparently it's in pre-production and will be distributed worldwide through Netflix. This isn't the first time we've heard about a possible Diablo animated series for Netflix.

If it really is coming, then it will probably look to follow in the very successful footsteps of the Netflix Castlevania animated series. Season 3, of which, is due out on March 5 and recently got a bloody, monster-filled trailer.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/01/diablo-4-reveal-trailer"]

More of a surprise is that Dyck's profile also says that he has "developed and sold an animated series based Blizzard's Overwatch franchise." Nothing else about this is revealed. The fact that this has been "sold" suggests it isn't another of Blizzard's in-house Overwatch short films and is potentially a larger project.

Both of these animated series make a lot of sense given that franchises have a new game on the way. Diablo 4 was announced at BlizzCon last year but there's no word on when it might launch. The same goes for Overwatch 2, which will add story missions alongside new heroes and modes to the first game's formula.

Hopefully the success of recent video game adaptations, like the Castlevania series and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, will carry over to these animated series.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=overwatch-2-gameplay-reveal-screens&captions=true"]

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Ubisoft has confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege will be available on next-gen consoles.

Roy Del Valle, the game's product manager, made the announcement yesterday, on the final day of the Six Invitational 2020 playoffs in Quebec, Canada.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/13/saving-siege-ubisofts-hard-fought-victory"]

He was invited onto a panel to talk about the major changes that will be introduced to Siege over Year 5 and Year 6 - across 2020 and 2021, essentially. In particular, he addressed why Ubisoft will only be releasing one new operator per season instead of the usual two from Year 5 Season 3 and beyond.

"When we look at the amount of stuff that the team can work on today there's no doubt that this is the right choice to go into the future with full confidence for Rainbow Six Siege," Del Valle said.

"This is allowing us to do a lot of things. It's allowing us to have a core gameplay focused philosophy, to dive deeper into those aspects. It's allowing us to polish a little bit more our operators, the operators that we're going to be bringing into the roster of 50+ operators that we have today."

"And this is a bit of a soft announcement," he continued, "but it's allowing us to work for next-gen, so we are on next-gen in the coming years."

No date as to when Rainbow Six Siege will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X has been given yet but Ubisoft is aiming for the launch of those consoles. The developer also wants to avoid fragmenting the community and told Windows Central that the next-gen versions of the game will have cross-generation multiplayer with the PS4 and Xbox One.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=rainbow-six-siege-tachanka-rework&captions=true"]

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are due out in holiday 2020 so, obviously, the next-gen versions of Rainbow Six Siege won't be available before that.

There's also the question of what the differences will be, if any, in the next-gen versions of Siege, especially as both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are backwards compatible anyway.

Regardless, Ubisoft will be looking to do what's best for all of its Siege players, especially after the hard fight it has had to grow the game over the past five years. Ubisoft stated during the same panel that it's committed to work on Siege for the next five, 10, or 15 years if it has to - however long people continue to play it. It was also revealed that Tachanka is getting a rework this year.

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

There are sendoffs, and then there’s whatever just happened on HQ Trivia’s final broadcast.

The popular live trivia game app company, which pitted contestants against countless others for a chance at real-world money, has shut down after a last-minute acquisition attempt fell through, leaving the company to lay off its 25 employees and shut its doors. What’s a broke company to do for their last ever broadcast? Host Matt Richards took $5 out of his own pocket for the show’s last prize pool.

And then he flipped off the audience and said he would crap on the homes of every troll in the game’s chatroom.

“Not going to lie, this [expletive] sucks,” Richards said. “This is the last HQ ever.”

With a bottle of champagne sitting front and center before the camera, Richards and co-host Anna Roisman proceeded to give not one single crap for their final broadcast, cracking jokes, swearing loudly, all while seemingly a bit drunk. The pair also jokingly begged the viewers to hire them and verged on tears every now and then.

Some choice quotes.

“I was never allowed to plug [expletive] on HQ. Please follow my podcast. Unemployed With Anna Roisman.” - Roisman.

“I used to never wear pants here when I started at HQ Trivia.” - Richards

“Should HQ shut down? No, yes, or [expletive] no!” - Richards, posing a trivia question to the audience.

“I met a couple that told me HQ was part of their foreplay.” - Richards.

HQ Trivia launched back in 2017, quickly skyrocketing to popularity with trivia lovers everywhere hoping to make a buck. Original host Scott Rogowsky proved popular as well. So popular that he announced last April that he was leaving HQ Trivia to focus on a baseball show on the sports streaming service DAZN. The loss of Rogowsky, internal struggles at the company, and the introduction of an unpopular points-based scoring system helped bring the app’s popularity crashing down. HQ’s former CEO and co-founder Colin Kroll also died of a drug overdose in December 2018.

The crew closed out the broadcast with an emotional rendition of “Memory” from the musical Cats, before Richards sprays the studio and himself with the champagne.

At least the hosts can say they went out with a bang, and then some.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

An early, playable Xbox build of Starcraft Ghost, the canceled third-person shooter set in Blizzard’s Starcraft universe, has reportedly leaked online, according to Kotaku. The footage gives us a major look into Blizzard’s troubled offshoot game.

Images of Starcraft Ghost appeared on Twitter user Andrew Borman’s feed Sunday morning, who said that the images were posted anonymously in Xbox forums.

Who would have thought a month ago that Starcraft Ghost would leak in some form? pic.twitter.com/24wCp4XBsE

— Andrew Borman (@Borman18) February 16, 2020

If a couple of screenshots aren’t enough for you, another person has uploaded about 11 minutes of footage from Starcraft Ghost to YouTube. YouTuber Leers Meneses shared the footage, which appears to be from the third mission of the same game that Borman earlier tweeted about. [caption id="attachment_2303930" align="alignnone" width="720"] Screenshot: Starcraft Ghost from Leers Meneses[/caption]

In the footage, we can see Starcraft Ghost protagonist Nova running around a very early 2000’s 3D alien planet, climbing some ledges, and firing on a massive alien with her Gauss Rifle, which, instead of firing projectiles, appears to call down a Hammer of Dawn-style energy beam. Nova later ziplines across a battlefield.

[caption id="attachment_2303929" align="alignnone" width="720"] Screenshot: Starcraft Ghost from Leers Meneses[/caption]

The gameplay itself seems pretty bog standard, even by early 2000s standards (to say nothing of the usual Blizzard polish), which may indicate at least one reason the game struggled to reach completion. Meneses says he used a modded Xbox 360 to access the game.

Another user by the name of Delso Bezerra appears to have uploaded separate footage of Starcraft Ghost as well. The footage shows a noticeably more visually polished version of Starcraft Ghost, featuring a lot of similar running and shooting gameplay.

[caption id="attachment_2303927" align="alignnone" width="720"] Screenshot: Delso Bezerra[/caption]

Kotaku later updated its story saying a source had provided a link to the build of Starcraft Ghost that people have managed to get their hands on, saying it was from a dev kit of the game.

Starcraft Ghost was announced in 2002, and was originally going to launch on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Blizzard first worked with developer Nihilistic Software, then later Swingin' Ape Studios. After several delays in development, the game was put on an indefinite hold in 2006. Former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime put the final nail in the coffin of Starcraft Ghost by confirming its cancellation in 2014.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/05/10/the-13-biggest-games-that-never-came-out"]

All that said, it looks like this Xbox build of Starcraft Ghost is now out in the wild proper now, so hardcore fans will almost certainly be able to get their hands on it if they know where to look.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Here's some interesting news that blends the worlds of Star Wars and WWE... According to Mat Men Pro Wrestling, and confirmed by ProWrestlingSheet's Ryan Satin (who's appeared several times on FS1's WWE Backstage), WWE Superstar Sasha Banks has filmed scenes for Season 2 of Disney+'s The Mandalorian - which is set to premiere October 2020. No other details are known about Banks' role at this time, or how prominently she might be featured, but Banks has been off of TV for a number of weeks now, since January 3, supposedly healing up from an ankle injury. Whether or not the injury is legitimate is unknown, but she has had ample time for side projects is she has in fact been cast on The Mandalorian. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=most-devastating-finishing-moves-in-wwe-history&captions=true"] Walt Disney boss Robert Iger has teased that Mandalorian spinoffs are a "possibility" after Season 2, heavily implying that the show might utilize more familiar Star Wars characters and allow them to headline their own shows after being introduced in the flagship Star Wars series. Banks is a four-time Raw Women's Champion though her time off TV caused her to miss WWE's annual Royal Rumble PPV, where her best friend Bayley successfully defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Lacey Evans. What kind of role would you like to see Sasha Banks' play on The Mandalorian? A fellow bounty hunter? An Imperial assassin? Someone who gets chocked out by The Child? Let us know! [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/03/the-mandalorian-season-1-review"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Ubisoft has announced that Tachanka, Rainbow Six Siege’s beloved-but-terrible Operator, will be reworked and overhauled this year. The new design completely removes his turret, although he’ll remain a destructive defense operator. Announced at the Six Invitation as part of the roadmap for Years 5 and 6, Ubisoft explained that Tachanka is finally going to be redesigned. The new ‘Chanka will still have his DP28 LMG, but rather than used in a turret form it will instead be carried as a primary weapon. His gadget is a new Kulakov incendiary grenade launcher that can be used for area denial. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=rainbow-six-siege-tachanka-rework&captions=true"] “His main problem was having that turret tying him down to one location,” explains Alex Karpazis, Art Director for Rainbow Six Siege. Originally, Tachanka’s gadget was a deployable MG turret that forced him to stay still. “The biggest thing was lifting that LMG off the turret and have him be more mobile.” The LMG can be used to cause some incredible damage to a map’s soft walls. A demonstration video shows the gun being shot to create a circle in some drywall in order to cut a large opening. “There’s some crazy destruction you can do, but never on the level of Tachanka,” Karpazis says. “The design team thought it worked super well with the legend of his weapon. And it ties in well with his kit. He can roam, and he can make holes to shoot his incendiary grenades through.” While the LMG is clearly an iconic part of Tachanka’s kit, it won’t be his only option. “We’re not getting rid of the other main weapons,” says Jean-Baptiste Hallé, lead game designer for Rainbow Six Siege. “The current plan is to still have the SMG with an ACOG scope, but you have to be mobile in this game which is why we removed the turret.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/15/rainbow-six-siege-iana-and-oryx-gameplay"] The LMG is a remix of the old, but the Kulakov Incendiary Grenade launcher is something brand new, not just to Tachanka but to Siege as a whole. “So the incendiary grenade launcher is something we thought fit really well with his subtle character,” Karpazis jokes. “It’s something that means he can take more control of a map, he can lay down fire and take control of the flow of where attackers can approach from.” “It’s a sort of alternative to Smoke,” says Hallé, comparing the area denial fire bombs to the British Operator’s toxic gas. “It’s not that easy to play with because the patch of fire it leaves is really small, but the fun of it is you can spam a lot of them. You can block a hallway with them and you can bounce them off walls, so there’s a lot of skill with how you play with his grenades.” Perhaps most exciting of all, though, is the potential of finally seeing what is underneath that bucket-like helmet. “With the new rework of him we decided to make a face behind his helmet,” Karpazis says. Whether that’s viewable with cosmetics, or if there will be a helmetless Elite skin, we’ll just have to wait to find out. The team has been playing around with this version of Tachanka for a while, and have found some fun combos to make with him. “When you have a Goyo and you mix that with a Tachanka, there’s fire everywhere,” Karpazis says with a smile. “And that makes it pretty safe when triggering Goyo’s shields. Tachanka and Goyo are a match made in heaven.” He’s a formidable opponent for attackers, then. “In terms of countering, you have to be careful with your positioning because he can kill so much time now,” Karpazis explains. “So maybe it’s best to avoid him rather than go on a head-to-head confrontation.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/24/rainbow-six-sieges-game-designers-rate-igns-operator-ideas"] This rework has been a long time coming, but it simply took this long for the team to be able to see the character with fresh eyes. “In the past we said we wouldn’t touch him because we couldn’t find the right way to do it,” Hallé explains. “But we’ve gone back to the drawing board because now is the time to revisit existing content. Our eyes were fresh on him and we’ve nailed what made his identity. The whole thing started to make sense when we took the LMG out of his turret and made it his primary.” Tachanka may be the first major rework in some time, but he won’t be the last. “We have other operators on our watch list,” Hallé says. “If you regularly look at our graphs when we release our notes, if you look at the operators who have the lowest pick rate and highest frustrations, you'll have a pretty good idea of who may be on our watch list.” A quick look at recent frustration graphs reveal that Jackal, Blitz, Clash, and Echo all score pretty high, and so based on that evidence there’s a good chance that some of these Operators may undergo some form of redesign over the course of the next couple of years. For more on Rainbow Six Siege, check out what Operators and map is coming in the first season of Year 5 - Operation Void Edge - or take a deeper look at the full story of the game’s development in our documentary: Saving Siege. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer, and soon to be Tachanka convert. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Ubisoft has announced a new roadmap for Rainbow Six Siege, which covers the next two years of updates. The content plan includes 10 new operators, eight reworked maps, a new system to tackle player toxicity, a battle pass for every season, and a plethora of core gameplay tweaks. The plan, announced at the Six Invitational 2020, deviates from the traditional 12-month Siege roadmap typically outlined in February of each year. Instead, Ubisoft has opted for a 24-month plan that gradually shifts away from what players usually expect from each season. The key difference is that Siege will start to offer just one new Operator per season, rather than two, starting half way through Year 5, and continuing into Year 6. Replacing that second Operator per season will be an increase in “core gameplay” adjustments and reworks. “The idea is that we’re going to revamp gameplay systems that impact your round every time that you’re playing,” says Jean-Baptiste Hallé, lead game designer for Rainbow Six Siege. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/15/rainbow-six-siege-iana-and-oryx-gameplay"]

Operators and Maps

Operator reworks and re-balances will be applied throughout a season, rather than just at the start, which should keep the flow of content feeling more continuous. Those reworks have yet to be entirely detailed, but it’s been confirmed that Siege’s long-term joke Operator, Tachanka, is getting an overdue complete overhaul. The roadmap will deliver eight maps over the two years, with all of them being reworks rather than new locations. Year 6 maps have yet to be announced, but Year 5 will see, in order, reworks of Oregon, House, Skyscraper, and Chalet. While only Oregon has been detailed so far, as part of the Operation Void Edge presentation, and is a small but impactful change, it seems as if House will be a more major rework than those seen through Year 4. “We didn’t want to lose too much of [House], but it really was too small,” explains Alex Karpazis, Art Director on Rainbow Six Siege. “So we wanted to grow it a little bit more, provide more mobility, but still have it as a great introduction map for new players.” When quizzed about why Siege seems to moving entirely away from new maps for the next two years, Hallé says “We’ve observed that the enthusiasm from our player base when they get a rework, when they see that the problematic parts have been fixed or changed, that has a better level of success.” “You don’t have to learn the map from the ground up,” he adds. “You’re still familiar, but it’s also fresh and new.” A map ban phase will be introduced to Ranked play, akin to the pick and ban system used for Operators. A selection of three maps will be provided for teams to decide upon, which will allow more player agency in determining the location of each match.

Core Gameplay Reworks

Ubisoft is also planning several major feature overhauls, with plans to make elements like the preparation and support phases more engaging. The first change to be announced is Ping 2.0; an Apex Legends-like system that allows attackers to mark defender equipment such as Kapkan and Frost traps. “It will give you more impact as an attacker during the preparation phase because you are able to pinpoint the position and the nature of gadgets and share it with your teammates,” explains Hallé. There will also be new secondary gadgets introduced, such as a new hard breaching option, and a proximity alarm that can be used to help defenders track attacker movements. A new replay system is also in the works, which Ubisoft notes will be a helpful tool for those looking to learn from their defeats. What will perhaps bring the biggest sense of relief, though, is news that Ubisoft is working on a player reputation system. “It’s a system we’ve seen used by our competitors and it gives good results when it’s well done,” Hallé says. “We know it’s going to be a tough one, but we think in the long run it will help fight against problematic behaviour and encourage the positivity we want to see in our community.” While the team does not have the specifics locked it at current, the core idea is that players will have a reputation score that will be clearly visible. “A certain amount of what you can do will be tied to that score,” Hallé reveals. “Maybe if you get a bad score, certain playlists will be forbidden.” Each season will feature some kind of core gameplay change, which the team explained could not happen were it not for the reduced Operator count. Ubisoft also promises that being able to focus on a single Operator will allow the character to be more polished upon release.

Arcade Playlist

The two-year plan puts increased emphasis on events and a new Arcade Playlist. “These are smaller events that happen more frequently, with gameplay modifiers to freshen up the experience and let us test some things,” Hallé explains. The first event will be Golden Gun, a homage to N64’s GoldenEye, in which all players are solely armed with a hilariously overpowered gold-plated Desert Eagle that needs reloading after every shot. Events have become a relatively common part of Siege, from Halloween-themed game modes to highly competitive map designs such as the SI’s Stadium, but the Year 5/6 roadmap promises a new one each season, as well as a playlist that will allow players to freely engage in a far more ‘fun’ version of Siege. “The great thing about events is we get to have a petri dish of testing,” says Karpazis. “Bulletproof glass [from Stadium] is something we thought worked really well, and we’ll be looking at it in the future for sure.” Effectively, the Arcade Playlist is a guinea pig lab for the team’s wilder ideas that may eventually transition to the core Siege modes. There’s also the promise of the Rainbow Six Cup, currently in the prototyping stage, which Hallé describes as a mini tournament. A team of five will subscribe to a Cup event and play against other similarly ranked teams, with the winners being crowned Cup winners, at least until the next event when it all starts afresh. While all these changes are exciting for the future of Siege, it’s not hard to notice that the two-year plan overlaps with the advent of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Ubisoft refuses to be baited into giving any details away, but it does promise that PS5 and Xbox Series X is part of its plan for the future of Rainbow Six Siege. “It is absolutely a part of Rainbow’s plan,” says Hallé. “We have a firm intention of heading to next gen.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/17/rainbow-six-siege-the-tournament-of-champions-official-cinematic-trailer"]

Pro League Esports

Big changes are being implemented for the Pro League. After the conclusion of the current season, the league will transition to a regionalised program that focuses on the four regions of Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, with the latter being split into North and South divisions. Each season will be divided into quarters, with the first three concluding with a Major, and the final quarter being the regional finals and the Six Invitational. A new points system for esports teams will be implemented that rewards consistent performance rather than purely victories. This will prevent those who win a Major ‘resting on their laurels’ for the rest of the season. “A team winning a major will be getting 600 points, which is a lot, but it’s not enough to qualify them for the Invitational,” explains Wei Yue, Esports Director at Ubisoft Montreal. In each region, only the top eight teams in a stage will score points, meaning it’s vital to stay competitive. The top four teams in each stage go on to the Major, and the top 16 scoring teams after all three Majors then go on to compete in the Six Invitational. For more on Rainbow Six Siege, check out our rundown of everything arriving in Operation Void Edge, along with fresh gameplay of the new Operators, Iana and Oryx. And if you want the full story of the game’s development, check out Saving Siege, our documentary on how Rainbow Six became one of the world’s biggest shooters. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Nvidia, makers of graphics cards for gaming PCs the world over, is teasing a Cyberpunk 2077-themed GPU.

Nvidia posted a blurry photo of the GPU following a brief exchange between the Nvidia and Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter accounts. The Cyberpunk account started by coyly asking Nvidia if they had ever considered releasing a limited edition Cyberpunk 2077 GPU, to which the Nvidia account with a couple emojis and a simple message: “Stay tuned…”

Here's the image from Nvidia's Twitter:

 

As one Reddit user pointed out, it appears we might be back in ye olden days of 2007, when GPUs frequently came with character art on them. We don't currently know what stats this GPU will boast, but we'll update this article when Nvidia finally releases more info.

It’s not the only thing Nvidia is working on. Nvidia GeForce Now has re-entered the market as a serious competitor to Google Stadia. GeForce Now, uh, now streams the games you already own for $4.99 a month. You can check out what we thought about how easy it was to setup, how well the streaming works, and whether it’s worth subscribing to in our review of Nvidia GeForce Now.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/10/nvidia-geforce-now-review"]

As for Cyberpunk 2077, we’re still waiting for it to release on September 17 following its delay. In the meantime, you can buy Cyberpunk 2077 Funko toys in April. You can also read up on why CD Projekt Red decided to delay Cyberpunk 2077. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Sonic made a rather large BOOM! at the box office over this President's Day Weekend, racing past its initial predictions of $40-45 million to (b)ring in an estimated $57 million. Worldwide, it's brought in $100 million, making it the best showing of all time for a video game movie, according to Variety. With Monday being a holiday, Sonic is expected to pull in $68 million domestically. Warner Bros.' Birds of Prey took in a decent $17.1 million over the weekend, which was enough to land it in second place Monday is expected to bump the take to $19.6 million. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/13/sonic-the-hedgehog-review"] Doing very well for themselves over the Valentine's Day/President's Day cluster were Blumhouse's Fantasy Island, which earned $12.4 million, and The Photograph, starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, which grabbed $12.2 million. Both films cost very little to produce. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/14/blumhouses-fantasy-island-review"]

North American Box Office Estimates

Bad Boys for Life and 1917 continued their strong showings in the Top 10 while Bong Joon-ho's Parasite received a nice box office bump following its history-making Oscar win for Best Picture. Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Downhill debuted to a disappointing $4.6 million. Here are the Top 10 North American box office estimates for the (2-day) weekend (via Box Office Mojo)

• 1. Sonic the Hedgehog $57,000,000
• 2. Birds of Prey $17,115,000
• 3. Fantasy Island $12,400,000
• 4. The Photograph $12,270,000
• 5. Bad Boys for Life $11,305,000
• 6. 1917 $8,090,000
• 7. Jumanji: The Next Level $5,700,000
• 8. Parasite $5,500,500
• 9. Dolittle $5,050,000
• 10 Downhill $4,671,000

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/15/sonic-responds-to-ign-comments"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Nikita Pearl Waligwa, a co-star of Disney’s 2016 film Queen of Katwe, has died, according to a Deadline report citing Ugandan media. Waligwa reportedly died due to a brain tumor.

[caption id="attachment_2303869" align="alignnone" width="720"] Nikita Pearl Waligwa, as Gloria in Queen of Katwe.[/caption]

Queen of Katwe told the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy rising from the poverty of the slum her family lived in. Waliga starred as Gloria, a friend of Phiona who introduces her to chess and its rules. Waligwa starred alongside well-known actors like Lupita Nyong’o, playing Phiona’s mother, and David Oyelowo, her chess teacher.

Waligwa was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016, spurring her family to get the young actress medical treatment in India. By 2017, she had evidently recovered from the tumor, but it returned this last year.

When IGN reviewed Queen of Katwe back in 2016, we credited the film for breaking Disney’s live-action slump at the time, calling it an unconventional feel-good tale. Queen of Katwe was Waligwa's only known acting credit, according to IMDb.

Waligwa was 15 years old.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.