If you like your crime thrillers with a dash of high-concept sci-fi, then Jason Starr's upcoming novel The Next Time I Die might be up your alley. The book has already been optioned by Gil Adler Productions Group ahead of its June 28 release, and IGN can now debut an exclusive excerpt from the story.

The Next Time I Die revolves around an attorney named Steven Blitz, who is stabbed to death in the act of stopping a violent crime. But instead of the afterlife, Steven wakes up in a parallel reality where his financial woes and crumbling marriage are wiped away. There's just one problem - in this life Steven is anything but a good man, and he'll have to uncover the truth about his alternate self even as he tries to understand the nature of his new reality.

ScreenRant previously previewed the first two chapters of The Next Time I Die, and now IGN can debut Chapter 3. Check out the slideshow gallery below to read all three chapters [note - beware of some NSFW language ahead!]

The Next Time I Die is being published through Hard Case Crime. Adler, whose producer credits include DC movies like Superman Returns and Constantine, hints that the novel could form the basis of a new streaming film or series in the near future.

“Once my team and I started reading, we couldn’t stop,” said Adler in a press release. “We usually can tell where a plot is heading, but this book has genuine surprises and twists you just don’t see coming! Move over Harlan Coben, this sci-fi thriller will be the next ‘big deal’ on a streaming service.”

IGN also recently debuted a new excerpt from Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith, a novel that offers new insight into Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian's exploits 20 years after Return of the Jedi.

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

If you like your crime thrillers with a dash of high-concept sci-fi, then Jason Starr's upcoming novel The Next Time I Die might be up your alley. The book has already been optioned by Gil Adler Productions Group ahead of its June 28 release, and IGN can now debut an exclusive excerpt from the story.

The Next Time I Die revolves around an attorney named Steven Blitz, who is stabbed to death in the act of stopping a violent crime. But instead of the afterlife, Steven wakes up in a parallel reality where his financial woes and crumbling marriage are wiped away. There's just one problem - in this life Steven is anything but a good man, and he'll have to uncover the truth about his alternate self even as he tries to understand the nature of his new reality.

ScreenRant previously previewed the first two chapters of The Next Time I Die, and now IGN can debut Chapter 3. Check out the slideshow gallery below to read all three chapters [note - beware of some NSFW language ahead!]

The Next Time I Die is being published through Hard Case Crime. Adler, whose producer credits include DC movies like Superman Returns and Constantine, hints that the novel could form the basis of a new streaming film or series in the near future.

“Once my team and I started reading, we couldn’t stop,” said Adler in a press release. “We usually can tell where a plot is heading, but this book has genuine surprises and twists you just don’t see coming! Move over Harlan Coben, this sci-fi thriller will be the next ‘big deal’ on a streaming service.”

IGN also recently debuted a new excerpt from Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith, a novel that offers new insight into Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian's exploits 20 years after Return of the Jedi.

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

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are open to the idea of continuing their characters' stories for a second season of the Disney+ Star Wars series.

Speaking with British GQ, McGregor reflected on returning to his Star Wars role for the first time in 17 years on the set of Obi-Wan Kenobi alongside Christensen. He also indicated that he would don the Jedi robes again if the opportunity arose. "I really hope we do another," he said. "If I could do one of these every now and again — I'd just be happy about it."

McGregor also mentioned what it was like to reunite with his Star Wars prequel trilogy co-star after all of this time, and how he felt in his first scene with Christensen suited up as Sith Lord Darth Vader. "I got a jolt of fear that made me six years old again," he admitted. "I've never experienced that before. I just about crapped my pants."

It seems that Christensen isn't quite ready to hang up his helmet either. Speaking to RadioTimes, the actor expressed his desire to reprise his Star Wars role for a second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi or another project that involves his character, noting that Lucasfilm billed Obi-Wan as a six-part limited series but there may be more stories to tell yet.

"Well, it was definitely conceived as a standalone story. But I would love to continue with this character. You know, I think there's certainly more there to explore and I would be so excited to get to do so," he told the outlet, adding that if there was a second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he "would certainly be open to" returning for more episodes.

The sixth and final part of Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped on Disney+ on June 22, and it featured a major Star Wars cameo that is sure to get viewers talking. IGN scored the episode a 9 out of 10, calling it "a near-essential piece of Star Wars viewing" that "elegantly ties a bow on the stories it began, while enhancing the ones that are yet to come."

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

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi!

The season finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi just featured the return of a major Star Wars figure.

It’s no surprise that Disney’s latest Star Wars spin-off has featured plenty of nods and winks to characters from across the franchise. We’ve seen the return of Darth Vader, among others. There’s even an interesting Easter egg for fans of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

But now, it looks as though a legendary character from the galaxy far, far away is back.

That’s right – Qui-Gon Jinn is back, played by Liam Neeson.

Of course, the last we saw of poor Qui-Gon was in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, in which the Jedi master was slain by Darth Maul in the lightsaber duel to end all duels. His body was later cremated on a funeral pyre… and this is where it gets interesting.

Qui-Gon trained to retain an eternal consciousness – much the same as Master Yoda, Obi-Wan, and even Luke Skywalker. But this usually means that the Jedi’s body disappears upon death, in the same way that Obi-Wan disappears when he’s struck down by Vader in A New Hope.

However, Qui-Gon’s training was incomplete.

Qui-Gon’s body remained when he was struck down by Darth Maul, leaving many fans to assume that he had not achieved eternal consciousness, and thus could not return as a Force Ghost like the other Jedi.

Now, it looks as though that’s not the case.

I can’t help thinking that Star Wars fans will be divided on whether or not this is a good thing. After all, it kinda breaks the logic behind the mystery of the disappearing Jedi bodies.

Still, it’s great to see Liam Neeson back as Qui-Gon Jinn, and fans of the prequel series (yes, there really are some) will no doubt love this little cameo. To see what we thought of the episode, check out our Obi-Wan Kenobi season finale review.

Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi alongside Benny Safdie, Joel Edgerton, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Sung Kang, and Hayden Christensen.

Deborah Chow directed the series based on scripts by Joby Harold, Andrew Stanton, Hannah Friedman, Hossein Amini, and Stuart Beattie.

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

Léa Seydoux will be perfecting her sand walk for Dune: Part Two. According to Variety, the 36-year-old No Time to Die star has been cast in the second part of director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, Dune.

She’ll be playing Lady Margot – the Bene Gesserit wife of Count Hasimir Fenring, both of which have a prominent role in Frank Herbert’s original 1965 novel. However, neither of them appeared in David Lynch’s 1984 film adaptation.

The original novel sees Lady Margot leave a coded message to Jessica which is found when House Atreides arrives on Arrakis.

The message warns of a plot by the Harkonnens to depose Atreides and take back the planet, warning that both Leto and Paul are in grave danger. Later, she becomes involved with Feyd-Rautha and uses her Bene Gesserit skills to plant a command in Feyd’s mind to enable Paul to defeat him in battle… but Paul is able to overcome him without it.

Lady Margot is described in the novel as "golden-haired and willowy, her perfection of figure clothed in a flowing gown of ecru—simple fitness of form without ornament. Gray-green eyes stared back at him. She had that Bene Gesserit serene repose about her that the young man found subtly disturbing.”

A good fit for Seydoux, then, who sprung to prominence following her role in Blue is the Warmest Color, and is perhaps best known for joining the Bond franchise with Spectre.

Other recent additions to Dune: Part Two include the legendary Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV as well as Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan. Notably, Villeneuve finally found his very own Feyd-Rautha in the form of Elvis star Austin Butler.

Elsewhere, Josh Brolin recently confirmed that his character Gurney Halleck will be getting a lot more action scenes in the upcoming sequel, which will also feature “much more Harkonnen stuff”.

Dune: Part Two stars Timothée Chalamet, Austin Butler, Rebecca Fergusson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Léa Syedoux, and Christopher Walken.

Denis Villeneuve will direct the film based on a script he co-wrote with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth.

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

When Final Fantasy 16 was first revealed, many fans immediately assumed that it would follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and be a large-scale open world RPG. According to producer Naoki Yoshida, though, that won’t be the case.

Instead, Yoshida says, Final Fantasy 16 will focus on area-based design in a manner that sounds similar to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which was likewise assumed to be a pure open world world game when it was first announced last year. But while Final Fantasy won’t be a traditional open world game in itself, Yoshida does say that it will take a lot of inspiration from triple-A open world RPGs, though he doesn’t name any specifics.

“We’ve found in our extensive user research that many of the younger generation of gamers have never played a Final Fantasy or don’t have any interest in the series. To create a game that might excite and resonate not only with our core fans, but also with that new generation, we played a lot of games ourselves, and so yes, in [Final Fantasy 16] you’ll find inspiration from recent triple-A open world RPGs,” Yoshida says.

“However, to bring a story that feels like it spans an entire globe and beyond, we decided to avoid an open world design that limits us to a single open world space, and instead focus on an independent area-based game design that can give players a better feel of a truly 'global' scale."

Square Enix offered a better picture of that world in an update that went live last October, when it introduced Final Fantasy 16’s six realms. Modeled after traditional European fantasy, each nation will have a “Dominant” – a special person who holds the power of an Eikon, a special summon that “can level nations.”

The Eikons were showcased during Sony’s recent State of Play event, and Yoshida also revealed more information about how they will figure into the combat and more.

Square Enix’s decision to avoid going with a traditional open world is surprising in light of current trends, but fans will also recall that Final Fantasy 15’s open world was generally criticized as barren and under-developed (even if the fishing was pretty fun). Final Fantasy 16 might have been an opportunity to address those criticisms, but as is so often the case with this series, Square Enix opted to go in a different direction.

Final Fantasy 16 was first announced for PS5 back in 2020, but despite “basic development” already having been completed, it quickly vanished from the collective radar. It finally reappeared earlier this month with a new trailer, screenshots, and a post introducing the development team.

Final Fantasy 16 is currently set for Summer 2023, but for series fans who can’t wait that long, Square is also rolling out a Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 remaster, which is due later this year. In the meantime, check out everything new we learned from our interview with Yoshida in the wake of the new trailer.

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.

After a long period of relative silence, Square Enix recently showed off a brand-new Final Fantasy 16 trailer along with a release window. To follow up from the trailer, IGN had the opportunity to speak with producer Naoki Yoshida, who is currently spearheading the project along with an all-star team of developers.

In the course of speaking with Yoshida, we learned plenty about Square Enix's upcoming mainline Final Fantasy project, including confirmation that it won't be an open world RPG after all. Here are the main highlights.

Final Fantasy 16 Producer Reveals New Details on Combat, Summons, and Party Members

Naoki Yoshida confirmed that Final Fantasy 16 will have a form of party-based combat with AI characters, and he also discussed how Eikons — Final Fantasy 16's version of summons — will figure into the gameplay.

"We didn't want to overwhelm users in our newest trailer, so we focused solely on Clive's battles. That said, for most of his journey, Clive will be accompanied by one or more companions," Yoshida says. "These companions will participate in battle, as well as trade banter with Clive. That said, the party members will be AI-driven so as to allow players to focus solely on controlling Clive."

Final Fantasy 16 Producer Confirms It Won't Be Open World

Final Fantasy 16 won't be following in the footsteps of its predecessor and won't be offering a true open world. Instead, it will divide up its regions into more contained areas while still taking inspiration from other triple-A games, Yoshida said.

"To bring a story that feels like it spans an entire globe and beyond, we decided to avoid an open world design that limits us to a single open world space, and instead focus on an independent area-based game design that can give players a better feel of a truly "global” scale," he explains.

Final Fantasy 16's Puppy Has a Name, And He May Be a Party Member

Remember the pup from Final Fantasy 16's very first trailer? Naoki Yoshida revealed his name while teasing that he may have a much bigger role to play in the gameplay.

"Well, let's just say he’s more wolf than dog—and his name is 'Torgal,'" Yoshida told IGN. "As for him being a party member, you'll just have to wait and see. We'll have more info on parties soon."

On top of the new trailer, Square Enix also revealed new characters while providing more detail on the background of the world. Final Fantasy 16 was previously revealed to be a PS5 exclusive with a Medieval European setting.

Final Fantasy 16 is currently slated to release in Summer 2023. A PC version may follow, but it remains unconfirmed. While you wait, check out the rest of our Summer of Gaming coverage, which includes a brand-new reveal for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

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.

Final Fantasy 16 was first revealed nearly two years ago, with Square Enix claiming that "basic development" was already completed. Despite that, Square Enix has been comparatively silent on the newest entry in its long-running franchise until very recently, when it finally released a brand-new trailer featuring Eikons – its version of summons.

The trailer shed more light on what to expect from the still-mysterious Final Fantasy 16, but it left fans with plenty of other questions. How will Eikons feature in the combat? And will Clive work with a party – a staple going back to the series' original NES days – or will he be flying solo?

Speaking with IGN in a new interview, producer Naoki Yoshida provided some more insight into how combat, summons and other mechanics will work in Final Fantasy 16, in the process confirming that it will once again feature party mechanics in one form or another.

"We didn't want to overwhelm users in our newest trailer, so we focused solely on Clive's battles. That said, for most of his journey, Clive will be accompanied by one or more companions. These companions will participate in battle, as well as trade banter with Clive. That said, the party members will be AI-driven so as to allow players to focus solely on controlling Clive," Yoshida explains.

While Yoshida wouldn't confirm one way or another, one of those party members could include Torgal, the wolf-pup from the original trailer. Yoshida said fans will have "wait and see" regarding whether the pup will eventually play a role in the combat, promising more info on parties soon.

Final Fantasy 16's Combat Will 'Translate Summons Into Player Actions'

One way or another, it seems like it will be at least somewhat similar to Final Fantasy 15, which also featured AI-controlled party members. This has been a trend in the series since it moved away from turn-based combat, with even Final Fantasy 7 Remake embracing action-based combat.

On that note, Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been widely praised for balancing depth and nuance with speed and excitement, Yoshida says that Final Fantasy 16 will play somewhat differently.

"[Final Fantasy 7 Remake] would not exist without the original [Final Fantasy 7], and those original systems ultimately influenced what Remake became. [Final Fantasy 16], however, is a completely new game with a completely different concept. In order to take the series in a new direction, rather than build off old battle systems, director Hiroshi Takai and battle director Ryota Suzuki made real-time action their focus," Yoshida explains. "Translating traditional summon abilities into player actions, and allowing for the real-time swapping and chaining of these abilities in battle has allowed us to create a system that not only looks great, but feels really good to play."

Summons featured heavily in Final Fantasy 16's most recent trailer, replete with the customary pyrotechnics that fans have come to expect from such sequences. Ifrit, Ramuh, Bahamut, and Shiva – all of whom appeared in the trailer – have been Final Fantasy mainstays for many years now, and their importance has grown alongside the franchise's leap in fidelity.

In Final Fantasy 16, Eikons are akin to weapons of mass destruction, wielded by "Dominants" capable of leveling nations. Many fans compared their visually spectacular sequences to watching the likes of Godzilla, but Yoshida says the "battle type and scale are somewhat fluid."

"Eikons appear in many different situations and iterations. There is no one design concept that covers all of them. Some will face Clive as fierce enemies, some will be friends and come to Clive’s aid," Yoshida explains. "There will also be times where the player will control an Eikon in real-time, battling other Eikons. The battle type and scale are somewhat fluid, and change seamlessly in real-time depending on the battle… keeping things at maximum excitement while maintaining immersion. These varied types of Eikon-driven action-oriented battles are one of the main selling points of [Final Fantasy 16], and we’ll be bringing more to you in the coming months about them."

Final Fantasy 16 Won't Be a 'Final Fantasy Theme Park' This Time

While Final Fantasy 16 will no doubt be compared to more recent single-player entries from the series, its connections to Final Fantasy 14 can't be ignored. Final Fantasy 16 features an all-star cast of developers from within Square Enix, many of whom worked on Square Enix's acclaimed MMO, starting with Yoshida himself.

Nevertheless, Yoshida says fans should expect Final Fantasy 16 to be a very different experience.

"The development concepts for [Final Fantasy 14] and [Final Fantasy 16] are inherently different. [Final Fantasy 16] does something that no Final Fantasy before it has — take aspects of the entire series and incorporate them into what we like to call a 'Final Fantasy Theme Park.' However, while that is a [Final Fantasy 14] concept, it is not a specific [Business Unit 3] development team characteristic," Yoshida says.

"[Final Fantasy 16] is its own entity, separate from [Final Fantasy XIV] and the other games in the series, so you won’t find as many 'tributes' as you will in [Final Fantasy 14]. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be some easter eggs, though! That said, [Final Fantasy 16]’s main focus will be on maintaining that series-wide feel of 'playing a movie' rather than drawing from past titles."

Despite the differences, Square Enix has no doubt that Yoshida and the rest of the development team can carry over some of the magic from the MMO, which keeps growing with each new expansion.

We'll be able to see for ourselves soon enough when Final Fantasy 16 launches in Summer 2023. In the meantime, check out everything we learned from our interview with Yoshida, as well as the rest of our ongoing coverage of the Summer of Gaming.

Photo Credit: Johnny Cullen

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.

When Final Fantasy 16 was first revealed way back in 2020, a noticeable element was a puppy barking as two of the game’s major characters – Clive and Joshua – meet one another. Veterans of the series will recall that Final Fantasy has a long history with loyal dogs, so what’s the deal with Final Fantasy 16’s extremely cute little pup?

Speaking with IGN in a new interview following Final Fantasy 16’s latest trailer, producer Naoki Yoshida teased a bit more info about the franchise’s newest canine.

“Well, let’s just say he’s more wolf than dog—and his name is 'Torgal,'" Yoshida says. “As for him being a party member, you’ll just have to wait and see. We’ll have more info on parties soon.”

While Yoshida isn’t ready to go into more detail, it seems as if Torgal will definitely have a part to play in the story, and possibly the gameplay as well. Whatever his role ends up being, Torgal will join a proud lineage that includes Umbra, Lunafreya’s dog who can span time and space in Final Fantasy 15; Interceptor, the Doberman Pinscher who lives to gnaw on enemies in the Final Fantasy 6, and Darkstar, who teams up with Rufus Shinra to make your life miserable in Final Fantasy 7.

According to Yoshida, Final Fantasy 16’s battles will feature “one or more” A.I. companions who will participate in battle and trade banter with Clive. We’ll see whether one of those A.I. companions ends up being Torgal.

Either way, our interview with Yoshida brought with it lots more info about Final Fantasy 16, including confirmation that it won’t be open world and additional insight into the role Eikons – Final Fantasy 16’s version of summons – will end up playing. It roughly coincides with the release of Final Fantasy 16’s newest trailer, which broke a long period of silence after its initial reveal.

Final Fantasy 16 is currently slated for release in Summer 2023. For more info, check out everything new we learned from our interview with Yoshida.

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.

Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox is being awarded an honorary Oscar.

The award, which is to be presented to Fox on June 15, 2022, will honor the 61-year-old actor for his tireless efforts to combat Parkinson’s disease, which he has battled since 1991.

“Michael J. Fox’s tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson’s disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions,” said Academy President David Rubin.

Fox is best known for the role of Marty McFly in the hit family sci-fi flick, Back to the Future. However, he’s also known for his portrayal of attorney Louis Canning in the hit CBS drama, The Good Wife.

Additionally, Fox made a memorable cameo appearance in Scrubs.

Of course, Fox is no stranger to awards, with five Emmys, four Golden Globes, one Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and a People’s Choice award already under his belt. Additionally, he won GQ’s Man of the Year award.

The honorary Oscar is awarded “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.” And in Fox’s case, to honor his work in the fight against Parkinson’s disease.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s back in 1999 and went public with his diagnosis in 1998. He went on to set up the Michael J Fox Foundation – an organization dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s.

The foundation itself drives progress in the field by funding promising research, accelerating the pipeline from scientific studies to pharmaceutical treatments.

Alongside Michael J. Fox, Euzhan Palcy, Diana Warren, and Peter Weir will also be honored with honorary Oscars.

“Euzhan Palcy is a pioneering filmmaker whose groundbreaking significance in international cinema is cemented in film history. Diane Warren’s music and lyrics have magnified the emotional impact of countless motion pictures and inspired generations of musical artists. Peter Weir is a director of consummate skill and artistry whose work reminds us of the power of film to reveal the full range of human experience.”

The awards will be presented at the Academy’s 13th Governors Awards on Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Los Angeles.

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