George R.R. Martin and Sean Bean Made Epic Cameos on Jimmy Fallon
A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin and Ned Stark actor Sean Bean both made epic cameos on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
These two pivotal players in Game of Thrones appeared in a sketch themed around the show. While the first two thirds of this sketch simply involves Fallon and friends dressed up in Game of Thrones garb discussing how long they’ve had to wait for Season 8 to begin, the cameos start at around 3:20 in the video below.
Bean first appears in modern clothes, delivering the line “Patience, my lord. Your temper will not hasten the end you seek. The premiere is coming. But until then, we mustn’t lose our heads.” This joke is, of course, a reference to Stark being beheaded in the show’s first season.
Hawkeye Series Reportedly in the Works for Disney+
The upcoming Disney+ streaming service will reportedly receive a Hawkeye limited series, with Jeremy Renner set to star.
Reported by Variety, the limited series is expected to follow Clint Barton who will pass the torch to a new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. In the comics, Bishop is a member of the Young Avengers, and like Barton is highly skilled at archery. She also typically carries two battle staves and several trick arrows, and is skilled in fencing, jujitsu, boxing and more.
For more on Kate Bishop, check out our explanation piece on this Young Avenger.
American Horror Story Season 9 Title Revealed
American Horror Story’s ninth season will be a slasher film homage, and it has quite the Orwellian subtitle.
American Horror Story: 1984 received a brief teaser this morning, with a young woman being chased through a forest by a knife-weilding villain. The teaser ends with the knife plunging through the front door of a small cabin with the young woman screaming on the other side. The teaser is accompanied by the song Six Feet Under by Billie Eilish.
Don’t put anything past us. #AHSFX #AHS1984 pic.twitter.com/39XPXyKehv
One Game of Thrones Death Was a Mystery Even to the Cast
In honor of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, IGN is taking a look back at some of the iconic characters who've fallen along the way, and the lasting impact they had on the story. These heroes and villains may not have made it to the end of the road, but their lives weren't in vain - they stand as a fitting reminder that when you play the game of thrones, you win, or you die.
Considering how duplicitous Maester Pycelle was on Game of Thrones, it's impressive that he lasted as many seasons as he did. Pycelle had an unseen hand in many power moves in King's Landing and sat on the Small Council for much of the series' run.
Even with his manufactured persona as a diminutive, subservient, and oafish servant to the Crown, Pycelle's smarts couldn't keep up with the major players in the game of thrones. Below, star Julian Glover recalls his character's many manipulations -- and many encounters with the ladies of King's Landing -- in Part 10 of our retrospective series, "When I Died on Game of Thrones."
Ubisoft CEO Says Longer Game Lifespans Isn’t Just About Making Money
These days, more and more big budget games are turning into what’s called “games-as-a-service,” lengthening their lifespans and introducing new content on a regular basis in order to keep players enticed for more than just its first week. Think Destiny, Fortnite, and now Ubisoft’s The Division 2. While the growth of games-as-a-service hasn’t always been a favorite trend among gaming audiences, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot thinks it’s about way more than dollar signs.
“Because we put a lot of time and effort into creating universes, cities, and worlds, what we try to do is give possibilities to stay there for a long time, with lots of different gameplay and the possibility to be with your friends,” Guillemot said on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered. “Why do you want to redo everything each year if you can improve and increase the experience in one game? It's easier for us to improve and increase the number of possibilities that the game can bring rather than starting from scratch.”
Will Captain America Finally Lift Thor’s Hammer in Avengers: Endgame?
“Chekhov's gun” is a storytelling rule that says if a gun shows up, then it should eventually be used, otherwise it shouldn’t be in the story. Which means, if you set something up, be sure to pay it off. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s one setup in particular involving the mighty Mjolnir that promised a monumental payoff, but it never happened.
Let’s call this a case of “Chekhov’s hammer.”
The Case of Chekhov's Hammer
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve Rogers is able to lift Thor’s hammer just a smidge. The others tried with all their strength to no avail, but when Cap makes the unliftable hammer budge, Thor reacts with a hilarious look of concerned disbelief. But by the end of the movie, Cap never picks up the hammer to, you know, smash robots. We got the setup, so where was the pay off?
Scientists Have Revealed the First Photo of a Black Hole
Scientists and researchers working as part of the Event Horizon Telescope project have revealed the very first photograph ever taken of a black hole.
The photograph depicts a ring of light surrounding a shadow, which researchers at EHT explain is caused by “gravitational bending and capture of light by the event horizon”.
“We have taken the first picture of a black hole," said EHT project director Sheperd S. Doeleman of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian. "This is an extraordinary scientific feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 researchers."
Credit: Event Horizon Telescope
Apex Legends’ Quitter Penalty Was Accidentally Made Live by Respawn
Apex Legends recently had a Quitter Penalty feature added to the game which would penalize those who left games early in succession, but it turns out this was not supposed to go live and Respawn has no "ETA for if or when this would come out for real."
As reported by Game Informer, this feature was accidentally included in a recent patch and would give players a five-minute cooldown between matches if they were found to have quit mid-match for three or more times in a row.
This penalty would not apply to players who quit without a full squad or for those who have already been eliminated. The focus of this would be for those who are constantly quitting and leaving their teammates in a tough spot.
Mark Hamill Believes Star Wars Fatigue is a Real Possibility
Mark Hamill has suggested that audiences may be experiencing ‘Star Wars fatigue’ in the wake of the numerous Star Wars projects coming out of Disney.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter on the Awards Chatter Podcast, Hamill said: "I'm not gonna tell
how to run their business, but is there a possibility of 'Star Wars fatigue'? Yeah, I think there is. I've experienced it, to a certain degree. But they never listen to my ideas anyway, so who needs 'em?"
The comment came as the podcast discussion covered the box-office underperformance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which grossed almost $393 million worldwide, offering a slight return on the film’s $250 million budget and multimillion-dollar marketing campaign.
Secret Message in Borderlands 3 Art Teases the Return of the Destroyer
The Borderlands 3 Twitch page features the game's box art, and fans that have taken a real close look at it have spotted a hidden Morse code message that raises questions about the Destroyer and the first vault hunter.
One such fan, YouTuber Joltzdude139, decided to decode the dots and dashes barely visible in the artwork on the Twitch channel's offline screen.
Placed on either side of the Psycho, the first message reads, "Where is the first vault hunter?" The message on the right of the image reads, "Who is the Destroyer?"