Neil Patrick Harris has revealed that Ncuti Gatwa will play the first gay Time Lord in the new series of Doctor Who.

After returning from shooting the new season of Doctor Who, Harris gave fans a little bit of insight into what they can expect from the 14th Doctor. He assured fans listening to Variety's Just for Variety podcast that Gatwa will usher in a new era of the seminal sci-fi series as he is not only playing a "sexier" incarnation of the Time Lord but will also be appearing as "the first gay Doctor."

"I got to meet and interact with him a bit and he's glorious," Harris said of the former Sex Education star. "He'll be the first gay Doctor, which is going to be super cool, a sexier Doctor."

Showrunner Russell T. Davis reportedly offered Harris a role on the series after they worked together on the British miniseries It's a Sin. Little is known about his character at the moment, aside from the fact that he will appear in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special opposite Gatwa and that he will be "the greatest enemy the Doctor has ever faced."

Harris shared a photo of himself in character wearing some crooked glasses, a bowtie, and a leather-strapped apron in an Instagram post acknowledging the casting news. "Thank you for inviting me into your Whoniverse, [Davies]," he wrote in the caption. "I'll try my hardest to do my worst. This Doctor has no idea what's in store. And even if he does… Who cares? Ha ha ha HA ha-ha-ha!"

This announcement arrived just over a month after the BBC revealed that Gatwa had been cast as the 14th Doctor, replacing Jodie Whittaker after her three-season tenure inside the TARDIS. Whittaker will star in one final episode later this year before she passes the torch to Gatwa for the 14th season, which is expected to air sometime in 2023.

The intervening time gives people a chance to catch up on the modern era of the British sci-fi show before Gatwa's arrival. Check out IGN's guide on how to stream every episode of Doctor Who, including those starring previous incarnations of the Doctor such as Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Cover image credit: Netflix.

Images of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer mode have been leaked through a very unlikely source – the LA Rams football team.

LA Rams player Cameron Dicker revealed a glimpse of the upcoming Call of Duty game’s lobby screen, which he appeared to be playing at an event.

“Having fun on the new @callofduty” he revealed in a now-deleted Instagram post (via Charlie Intel). It’s thought that the high-profile event gave LA Rams players a sneak preview of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.

But Dicker also included a screenshot with his post, and several other images from the event give us an insight into what to expect from the upcoming CoD sequel.

Breaking: Modern Warfare 2 MP lobby image via NFL player Cameron Dicker IG pic.twitter.com/K1ofMeoExH

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) August 3, 2022

Although other players also posted images on social media, it seems that their usernames have since been cropped out.

Notably, one player posted a screenshot of an in-game menu showing DMZ mode – a new Call of Duty gameplay mode which has been likened to Escape from Tarkov. DMZ is short for “demilitarized zone” in which players will experience “extraction missions”. A recent leak offered up more details… and now it looks as though its inclusion in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has been inadvertently confirmed.

The LA Rams event saw a flurry of social media posts from players, with some boasting about playing the as-yet-unreleased game. “Bout to tap in wit @callofduty Previewing unreleased game,” said one player.

Defensive Back Quentin lake even posted a video that shows a brief 1-second glimpse of its gameplay – although you can't make much out.

#ModernWarfare2 gameplay (few seconds) pic.twitter.com/TaZga2U4gh

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) August 3, 2022

All in all, the event feels like a bit of an own goal for Activision, which has seen several Call of Duty leaks over the past few weeks.

Want to find out more about Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2? Check out our preview of the Modern Warfare 2 campaign as well as an extended look at the CoD sequel’s gameplay.

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

We already knew that Pokémon Scarlet & Violet would be fully open world, and could be explored in any order – but now we know the game will include three main story campaigns, including the usual gym battling route.

Revealed in today's Pokémon Presents broadcast, we learned that journeys in the Paldea region will begin with your character joining a school (the Naranja Academy in Pokémon Scarlet, or the Uva Academy in Pokémon Violet).

From there, you'll be given a "special independent study project, known only as 'The Treasure Hunt'. The Treasure Hunt will see you exploring Paldea, where "three grand stories" are on offer, and can be approached in any order.

As you'd expect from the series, one of those stories revolves around becoming the region's best trainer, by beating the leaders of 8 Pokémon gyms. However, in the new games, there's no set path through those 8 gyms, meaning you can take them on in any order. In the latest gameplay, we saw Glaseado Gym, an ice-type location set in what looks like a ski resort.

The other two campaigns are more of a mystery, although there are some distinct possibilities for those hinted at in the new footage. One could revolve around the game's legendaries, Koraidon and Miraidon, who appear to partner with the player early on and are rideable Pokémon, able to act like bikes, gliders, boats, and can even climb mountains.

Another could revolve around the game's new battle mechanic, Terastallizing. This option allows any Paldea Pokémon in the game to turn into a new gem-like form, which makes them stronger and can even change their elemental type (connected to a new stat, Tera Type). The game will also introduce Tera Raid Battles, which can reward you with Pokémon that have rare Tera Types – in the trailer, we saw a water-type Gardevoir, for example.

No specific story reason was given for why Terastallizing is a part of the game – but the official webiste says the new Professor Sada and Professor Turo are researching the phenomenon, so it seems likely to form part of a story campaign.

We'll find out more when Pokémon Scarlet & Violet launch on November 18, bringing full 4-player co-op multiplayer into the series, too.

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.

The legendary Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet are living vehicles that can transform into bikes, boats, and planes.

As revealed in today's Pokémon Presents video, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will feature two new legendary Pokémon: Koraidon and Miraidon. All legendary Pokémon typically have interesting abilities, but the next game in the series is taking it one step further by making them mounts that can adapt to the many different terrains across the new Paldea region.

Across the ground, Koraidon and Miraidon can act as a living bike for speedy cross-country travel. Hitting water will see them transform into a boat-like vehicle, while taking to the skies will see wings deploy. It seems like almost any kind of terrain won't be an issue for Koraidon and Miraidon, since the gameplay footage showed them climbing straight up sheer cliff faces as well as more normal grass fields and gentle waves.

The official Pokémon website notes the three different travel modes, and they have different names for each Pokémon. Koraidon has three builds; Sprinting, Swimming, and Gliding builds. Miraidon has three pretty much identical modes; Drive, Aquatic, and Glide modes. The main difference seems to be that Koraidon uses its legs to sprint/paddle and wings to fly, while Miraidon is more mechanical in style, using its tail and throat as wheels.

The Pokémon Company describes Scarlet and Violet as an open world RPG, suggesting wide open spaces will be an important aspect of the game, as it was with the recent Pokémon Legends: Arceus. This may explain the need for a legendary Pokémon with such vehicle-like abilities.

It's currently unclear if you obtain your legendary Pokémon early in the game, so it may be that Koraidon and Miraidon are mid or late-game Pokémon, and that you have to explore Paldea with more traditional forms of transportation first. The Pokémon website does note that the three forms have to be learned, and so it may be that you access ground, sea, and air traversal over a period of time rather than right away.

We speculated that Scarlet and Violet's legendaries could be ridable vehicles back in June, where we also wondered if the gyms will have a motorsport theme. For more, check out the news that it will be 4-player co-op and the Scarlet and Violet memes that have already started happening.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

Nintendo Switch shortages should get better by the end of the year, after supply constraints hurt Nintendo's hardware sales in the last quarter.

The latest earnings report from Nintendo confirms that the ongoing chip shortage has been having an impact on sales, but the company reassured investors that it should be easier for fans to get their hands on a Switch by the holidays.

“Due to delays in the procurement of components such as semiconductors this year, we have not been able to conduct production as planned,” confirmed Nintendo. “However, we expect procurement to gradually improve from late summer towards autumn, giving us a clearer outlook regarding production for the remaining calendar year.”

According to the report, Nintendo's Q1 (April-June) Switch sales fell by 22.9% year-on-year, selling 3.43 million units. “Production was impacted by factors such as the global shortage of semiconductor components, resulting in a decrease in hardware shipments and subsequent decline in overall sales,” the company said.

Thankfully, Nintendo promises it’s getting on top of things to sort out supply issues by the holidays. “In preparation for the holiday season, we will leverage appropriate means of shipment, and work to deliver as many Nintendo Switch systems as possible to consumers in every region.”

As a result, Nintendo has made no changes to its financial forecast for this fiscal year.

It’s not just supply that’s causing the issue here – it’s also demand. Nintendo had a great year, with the Switch becoming the fourth-biggest console in US history, outselling the PS4. Throw in the fact that it’s also had a record-breaking year in software sales and it looks as though the Nintendo Switch is very much still in demand.

The good news for Nintendo this quarter is that sales of first-party games and software titles have increased year-on-year to the second-highest for a Q1 since the Switch was launched. There’s no slowing down on the games front, and with Splatoon 3, and Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet still to come, it’s looking like a big year for the Switch.

Nintendo isn’t the only company affected by these shortages, of course – Sony is also working to combat PS5 shortages before the holidays.

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

House of the Dragon co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik has confirmed that nine dragons will be unleashed in the first season of the HBO series and that each one will have "its own personality."

Sapochnik told Empire Magazine that nine of the 17 dragons in HBO's House of the Dragon will glide, swoop, and soar across our screens during the first season of the Game of Thrones prequel series, which is set to premiere on August 21, and that they will be an eclectic group as each mythical monster will have its own defining characteristics to set them apart from the rest.

"Each new dragon has its own personality. That's what's going on now in our last part of the animation – we're applying personal character traits to each of the dragons," Sapochnik explained. "One of them's got a [bad] leg. Another one's much more like an eagle, because she's kind of neurotic. And another one's like a curmudgeonly old granny."

Sapochnik also touched on the challenges the team faced in bringing the beasts to life. He said one of the biggest hurdles was trying to pull away from the iconic Drogon model to establish an array of different designs for the titular dragons in the Game of Thrones spin-off series, as he admitted that they kept returning to the outer appearance of the very familiar firebreather.

"I've got a book which has hundreds of [concept] designs," he said. "The first thing you want is not to do Drogon. So I came up with a whole theory about how there were three different kinds of dragons, based on their different skulls. We came up with all kinds of stuff. But in the end, we ended up back at Drogon. There's something about Drogon. It's like the Millennium Falcon. It hit something."

Based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, the 10-episode first season will flesh out the tales behind the Targaryen family, who ruled Westeros before the events of Game of Thrones. Set 200 years before the show, it will show the beginning of the end of the Targaryen reign, leading up to a civil war waged between family members – and the seeming death of dragons in the fantasy world.

The highly anticipated series officially wrapped filming in February. Since then, we have learned that the first season will incorporate multiple time skips, that it may serve as a foundation for other Westeros stories, and that its redesigned Iron Throne includes 2,500 swords. We'll find out how all of that comes together when House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

It looks as though EA is still trying to make amends for that joke about single-player games, with CEO Andrew Wilson calling them "really, really important."

During a recent earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson reassured investors that single-player games are still a major part of the company's output… despite what it may say on Twitter.

“As we think about single-player games, we think it's a really, really important part of the overall portfolio that we deliver in fulfillment of those core motivations.”

Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11. https://t.co/PNg4FKOgfB

— Electronic Arts (@EA) July 1, 2022

EA recently came under fire after making a controversial tweet that mocked single-player games. The tweet itself was a poorly-executed response to a recent meme, but soon had gamers and industry figureheads alike wondering why EA had posted it. After all, the company has published plenty of critically-acclaimed single player games including Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and The Sims 4.

Now, the company is clearly trying to play it down:

“The way we think about this is really less about which game, and more about which motivations these games fulfill,” said Wilson. “So, we know that our players, they have these core motivations; inspiration, escape, social connection, competition, self-improvement, creation; these things that bring us together as players of games and the creation of worlds and the building of characters. And the telling of stories is really important in the fulfillment of some of those motivations.”

Even worse than being torn apart on social media, EA also came under fire from its own employees about the joke. According to USA Today, EA employees disliked the tweet, largely because the company’s social media is managed by a team that sits outside of the games industry.

“They’re all new and most of them, to my knowledge, aren’t really game industry people,” explained one of USA Today's sources. “The person who posted that tweet didn’t know and wasn’t supported properly to ensure something like this didn’t happen.”

However, EA still made clear that live service games are the dominant force when it comes to business:

“As we think about the model impact and the financial impact of that, the first thing to always keep in mind is that live services still encompass ... over 70% of our business, and that has been a proven, very reliable, highly recurring revenue stream and that will still be the predominant driver in our P&L (profit and loss) long-term," sad EA CFO Chris Suh.

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

Star Wars star John Boyega isn’t joining the MCU, despite rumors to the contrary.

During an interview with Men’s Health, the 30-year-old British actor denied rumors that he’s already secretly been cast in one of Marvel’s upcoming projects.

“That’s not in the vision for me now,” he says. “I want to do nuanced things. I want to donate my services to original indie films that come with new, fresh ideas, because I know it’s real hard to top Iron Man in that universe.”

It’s not the first time Boyega has been linked to the MCU. Back in 2016, he was rumored to have joined the then-upcoming Black Panther movie.

However, his concerns about Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy might make it difficult for the actor to board a Disney property. Especially after he was critical of their “diverse” representation.

“It's so difficult to manoeuvre,” he explained. “You get yourself involved in projects and you're not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It's not good. I'll say it straight up.”

He’s certainly in no hurry to pick up a lightsaber again, and it sounds as though Boyega would rather concentrate on other, independent films. Boyega will next star in Breaking by director Abi Damaris Corbin and is expected to reteam with Joe Cornish on the upcoming Attack the Block sequel.

Additionally, Boyega is set to star in the Netflix sci-fi comedy, They Cloned Tyrone.

He describes the film as a “unique and strange story that blew me away.” It features Boyega alongside Jamie Foxx as a variety of different-aged clones of the same person. “Pimp. Prostitute. Try to uncover a mystery in the ’hood. That’s all I’m giving you,” he said of the movie.

Want to find out more about the MCU? Check out our full list of everything Marvel announced at San Diego Comic Con and our rundown of every loose end in the MCU.

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

Alongside a brand-new trailer, FX has announced that the fourth and final season of Atlanta will premiere on September 15, 2022.

The premiere date for the last season of Donald Glover's award-winning series was announced during FX's presentation at the 2022 virtual TCA Press Tour, per Variety. The first two episodes of Atlanta's 10-episode final season will debut on Thursday, September 15 at 10 pm ET/PT before being made available to stream on Hulu the very next day.

We be in the city. OFFICIAL TRAILER for #AtlantaFX: The Final Season. September 15 on FX. Stream on @Hulu. pic.twitter.com/LdxidH63oI

— AtlantaFX (@AtlantaFX) August 2, 2022

To coincide with the release date announcement, FX also debuted a trailer for the final season that sees Glover's Earn, Brian Tyree Henry's Paper Boi, LaKeith Stanfield's Darius, and Zazie Beetz's Van return for more critically acclaimed adventures in their hometown where they will be stepping out for, what executive producer Hiro Murai calls, "the greatest hits season."

"Season four, we're back in Atlanta again and it was kind of a homecoming season and it was really lovely," Murai previously teased. "We got to say goodbye properly to the city and the show, I think it'll feel a little nostalgic too because I don't think you've seen Atlanta during the summer since season one. It's kind of like the greatest hits season."

The release of Atlanta's fourth and final season comes around four months after the finale of the third season, which premiered earlier this year, nearly four years after Atlanta's second season aired in 2018. Both seasons three and four were originally scheduled to air in 2021, but production was reportedly postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atlanta was renewed for a fourth season in August 2019, ahead of Season 3. At the time, each season was expected to consist of eight episodes. However, at Glover's request, the third season's episode count was increased to 10 episodes "because things went so well in the writers room," according to FX President John Landgraf. Consequently, the final season was also extended to 10 episodes.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

More than two years after the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the video game industry is still adapting to the impact of the deadly virus on work culture. Speaking during today's earning's call, though, EA Chief Operating Officer Laura Miele said the company has found its "new ryhthm" in the COVID era.

"Yes, we did see initially some disruption in how our teams make games...But I am just blown away by the ingenuity and creativity of our teams and how they have adapted," Miele said during the call.

According to Miele, "more people are coming back" to the office on a regular basis, and EA has "seen a lot of progress in working out the rhythm and process in how our teams make games." CEO Andrew Wilson was among those recently in the UK visiting the company's racing teams, which includes the recently-acquired F1 22 developer Codemasters.

But even if more employees are returning to the office, EA says it is still supporting work from home.

"Sometimes it's more meaningful for them to be in the office together, sometimes it's better for them to be at home," Miele said, explaining that more intensive parts of the development cycle may have different staffing requirements.

In a separate interview with IGN that went up earlier today, Madden 23 senior producer Clint Oldenburg talked about how the team has adapted since the pandemic.

"I think the biggest change for our team is a result of the pandemic, like everywhere else. We don't have a central team, per se, all in the studio all at one time together anymore, but the working world has changed," Oldenburg said.

"We're now in a hybrid working environment, just like everyone else, so we have workers that are fully remote. We have workers that are hybrid. We have workers that are always in the studio. And from a team standpoint, that's probably the most significant change, but I wouldn't say that that's had neither a negative nor positive impact on what we do day to day. It's just different. We have to work differently, and we have to work smarter, and we have to work more collaboratively than we ever had before."

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a unique challenge for game development, forcing studios to rethink everything from motion capture studios to testing. Even now, the pandemic is still causing delays throughout the games industry.

In the meantime, EA has managed to continue to rolling along thanks to the success of its sports titles even as it has contended with a dry spell in releases. Responding to acquisition rumors, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that the publisher "couldn't be in a stronger position as a standalone company."

Its next release is Madden 23, which is due out in early access on May 16.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.