The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is set to expand further, with three new animated movies now in development.

Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation announced these new projects during a special presentation at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where they also revealed that Lauren Montgomery, who previously worked on the acclaimed Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, will direct the first of the three planned Avatar movies.

Several Avatar veterans are returning to assist Montgomery with the first title in the series. Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, who co-created Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, are re-teaming as producers on this project alongside Eric Coleman, who served as the executive producer and production manager of The Last Airbender series.

"As original creators, Mike and Bryan expand the Avatar universe with us, we're keeping it all in the family with Lauren bringing the same kind of expert, beautiful work she did on the original series to her new directing duties on the forthcoming theatrical," said Ramsey Naito, President of Animation & Development at Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation.

Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation's Executive Vice President of Movies and Global Franchises, Latifa Ouaou, will be overseeing the untitled, animated Avatar film, from its development through to production, alongside Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation's Vice President of Animation Jason McConnell.

All three films are being developed under the Avatar Studios banner, which was launched last year with the goal of creating original series and movies set in the beloved world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, for release on Paramount+, Nickelodeon platforms, and unspecified third-party platforms, as well as in cinemas.

It was also announced last year that Nickelodeon had started to lay the groundwork for an "Avatar Airbender universe" that would encompass multiple TV series and movies across a variety of platforms. Avatar Studios leaders Konietzko and DiMartino noted that "there are still many stories and time periods in Aang's world" to be covered on-screen.

Netflix also has a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender in the works, however, Konietzko and DiMartino previously departed that project, citing creative differences as the reason for their exit. Executive producer Dan Lin and his production company Rideback remain attached to the series, along with Nickelodeon.

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

Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has talked about his new Star Wars film, which will focus on a completely new cast of characters as it aims to expand the universe.

Speaking to Total Film, Waititi explained that his goal isn't to make a film that relies on references to pre-existing lore and canon, as doing so doesn't really let Star Wars grow.

"I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand," he said. "I don't think that I'm any use in the Star Wars universe making a film where everyone's like, 'oh great, well that's the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, that's Chewbacca's grandmother'.

"That all stands alone. That's great. Though I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it's a very small story."

Waititi said last August that he has a story locked in that matches his signature style but this "new characters" update is the most information he's given otherwise. He, LucasFilm, and Disney have all remained incredibly quiet about the film since it was announced in May 2020.

LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy did confirm that it's targeting a late 2023 release window but, even then, said "we haven't locked anything in".

The movie is otherwise lacking an official title or plot synopsis, though we do at least now know (sort of) where it stands in the overarching Star Wars universe - seemingly somewhere far, far away from anything established already.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Thumbnail Image by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords will have the original version's cut content added to the Nintendo Switch re-release in Q3 this year.

The content was removed from the original version of KOTOR 2 and includes new missions, dialogue, and other content that's woven throughout the entire game. Given how intrinsic it is to the game, players will need to start a fresh save file in order to experience it.

Eurogamer spotted a tweet from developer port developer Aspyr, which confirmed: "You will need to start a new game with the DLC content enabled to access the additional content, however after the DLC releases and you still wish to finish your non-DLC playthrough, you can access those base game save files by disabling the DLC in the in-game main menu."

The extra content – which will be added for free – includes a mission where players play as their droid companion HK-47 and explore a mysterious HK manufacturing plant, a new and improved ending that includes more party interactions and extra acknowledgement of the player's past choices, livelier crew conversations overall, and a variety of other quests and challenges across the galaxy.

The Switch version of KOTOR 2 was released on June 8 and only announced shortly before that, during Star Wars Celebration. In our 8/10 review of the original, IGN said: "If you like roleplaying games or if you like Star Wars, you'll be hard pressed to find a game as enjoyable as Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, it's got some technical problems and, sure, it starts fairly slowly but if you can see past those flaws, you're in for one hell of a treat."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Guillermo del Toro has shared new details about his stop-motion reimagining of Pinocchio, including how it differs from Disney's classic animated movie about the iconic puppet.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, del Toro discussed his approach to the story, and the themes he focused on in his upcoming animated movie for Netflix. He asserted that his version of Pinocchio remains family-friendly even though it is a significant departure from the adventure that audiences have come to know and love through adaptations of Carlo Collodi's 1883 book.

Coming to Netflix this December, GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO reimagines the classic tale in a stop-motion adventure featuring an all-star voice cast and del Toro's uniquely extraordinary vision. pic.twitter.com/xwxgU4nQ3J

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) June 14, 2022

"We couldn't be more different than any other version of Pinocchio in our spiritual or philosophical goals, or even the setting," del Toro said, acknowledging that his film is a very different take on the tale of the wooden puppet — one that will be "for both children and adults that talk to each other" and will tackle "very deep ideas about what makes us human."

"I've always been very intrigued by the links between Pinocchio and Frankenstein," del Toro added. "They are both about a child that is thrown into the world. They are both created by a father who then expects them to figure out what's good, what's bad, the ethics, the morals, love, life, and essentials, on their own. I think that was, for me, childhood."

Del Toro's Pinocchio takes place in Italy between World War I and World War II at a time when government officials are looking for army recruits and decide to target the wooden boy. "He is recruited into the village military camp," the filmmaker noted. "Because the fascist official in town thinks if this puppet cannot die, it would make the perfect soldier."

The stop-motion movie adaptation of Pinocchio features a star-studded cast that includes Ewan McGregor as the voice of Sebastian J. Cricket. His character is the only mystical being in the picture, as del Toro was keen to make it feel as close to "the real world" as possible, which meant removing the talking animals, magical transformations, and Pleasure Island.

"Many times the fable has seemed, to me, in favor of obedience and domestication of the soul. Blind obedience is not a virtue. The virtue Pinocchio has is to disobey. At a time when everybody else behaves as a puppet—he doesn't," he explained. "I don't want to retell the same story. I want to tell it my way and in the way I understand the world."

Del Toro directed the film alongside Mark Gustafson and co-wrote it with Patrick McHale. Del Toro is also producing the film, along with Lisa Henson, Alex Bulkley, Corey Campodonico, and Gary Ungar. The movie will arrive on Netflix this December following the release of Disney's live-action retelling of Pinocchio in September.

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

Lollipop Chainsaw is seemingly making a return, following an announcement on Twitter from the game's executive producer.

As spotted by Siliconera, Yoshimi Yasuda said simply: "Lollipop Chainsaw is back by Dragami Games. Please look forward to it." The veteran developer was previously CEO of Kadokawa Games (who published the original in 2012) but left to start Dragami Games in May 2022.

Yasuda didn't share further details on the nature of the game - whether it's a sequel, remake, remaster, reimagining or anything else - but it would be the first chance for players to try the franchise in more than a decade. The original doesn't exist outside of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware, as it lacks a PC version and isn't available through any form of backwards compatibility.

Lollipop Chainsaw はドラガミゲームスで復活させます。楽しみに待っていてください…!!!

Lollipop Chainsaw is back by Dragami Games. Please look forward to it.#ロリポップチェーンソー
#DragamiGames pic.twitter.com/RlcLrxMkKK

— 安田善巳 (@yasudaD5) June 14, 2022

Lollipop Chainsaw is a hack and slash action game in which high school cheerleader Juliet Starling must fight through hoards of zombies using the game's titular chainsaw (and with her boyfriend's severed, still-living head attached to her belt). The game was a collaboartion between No More Heroes' Suda51 and James Gunn, who'd go on to direct Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.

The game picked up a cult following but in our 5/10 review, IGN said: "Lollipop Chainsaw doesn’t even attempt to differentiate itself from the genre, and most of what it does try new in the realm of its characters and writing ultimately ends up taking away from an incredible-on-paper action game."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Arkane Austin has a lot of experience open-ended gameplay design, but when it came to designing Redfall's open world, the famed studio behind Prey had a unique problem ⁠— Redfall's open world was actually a bit too open.

In a new interview with IGN, Redfall designer Harvey Smith talked about designing the Massachusetts town in which Arkane's new supernatural shooter is set, describing it as "very open." Redfall is an on-foot game he says, and the team has worked to make sure that the setting's design fits within that dynamic.

But at first, Redfall was "too open," Smith says.

"It was like there was not enough blocking you or channeling you, but it's very, very open rooftops and alleys and streets of this small town, Redfall, Massachusetts, which is like a fishing community, a tourist community — quaint, historic, New England stuff with this stealthy takeover by vampires. But the one thing that we do in terms of that gating pretty heavily is we divided the world into two districts. District One is the first half of the missions, and it's the downtown part of Redfall, while District Two is more rural. It's farms, lighthouses, churches, things like that."

Arkane has worked to refine the town's design, with the end result being an open world co-op game in which multiple players work together to take back Redfall's neighborhoods from the vamps. In so doing, they are free to venture off on their own, but at the cost of potentially making things more difficult for themselves; as they say in Dungeon & Dragons, you should never split the party. It's very much in keeping with Arkane's earlier games, where players are encouraged to explore, experiment, and develop unique solutions to their problems.

"What would the Arkane DNA look like in the open world?" Smith asks. "The way we do resources, scrounging for ammo and medical stuff and lock picks, and the way we approach buildings — there's multiple entries and problem to gameplay encounters, there's multiple ways you can approach it. What would it be like to work together?"

He continues, "Because if you play solo, it's a lot spookier, it's a lot more atmospheric, it's more slow-paced. As soon as you add another person, you're not really afraid anymore because you have a friend there, but there's got to be something to make up for that. So the social aspect, the narrative changing in terms of the banter between the characters, just the fun of playing with another person... Layla drops the elevator and everybody can get on the roof or get up to a higher vantage or whatever. There's lots of little synergies like that that are good."

Redfall takes aim at a 2023 release date

In the rest of the interview, Smith talks about how the various characters work together, and how Redfall has some "very dynamic systems" driving the narrative design as characters get to know each other over time. That said, Smith says Arkane is deemphasizing branching missions this time around, meaning Redfall won't have multiple endings in the traditional sense.

Redfall was first announced as an Xbox exclusive during its E3 2021 showcase, after which it dropped out of sight. It reappeared with a new gameplay trailer at Sunday's Xbox + Bethesda Showcase, in the process confirming that Redfall will be a classic Arkane single-player game even when playing co-op.

Redfall was slated to release in 2022, but was pushed to 2023 along with Starfield, joining a long list of games that have been delayed. Still, there's plenty to look forward to in the world of games, so keep an eye on all the rest of our coverages as the Summer of Gaming continues.

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.

Sonic the Hedgehog won't be kissing any more humans if Sega veteran Takashi Iizuka has his way.

Iizuka has worked on the franchise since 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and told Axios what the two critical rules for a project featuring the Blue Blur are – alongside an additional, unofficial one regarding the infamous smooching scene from 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog.

In the game, the very human Princess Elise the Third used the Chaos Emeralds to save Sonic's life and kissed the anthropomorphic hedgehog as she did. Though he didn't work on that particular entry, Iizuka said "I don't think we'll be doing that again".

The other rules are more on brand, with the first simply being "speed". Iizuka said the games need to be built around Sonic moving quickly - he quite literally "gotta go fast" - while the second rule is that he cannot swim. Even in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games franchise, Iizuka pointed out, Sonic has to use a flotation device in swimming events. The more you know!

All of these rules will, of course, be applied in Sonic Frontiers, the latest entry in the franchise and first with open world elements. First teased in May last year, it also features extensive combat that was actually based in part on the Sonic Movie,

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Screenshots of what rumors say is a new, already complete Fire Emblem game have seemingly leaked online.

Prompted by a FamiBoards post from industry insider Emily Rogers, which included several purported details of a new game, Reddit user miasmadelta posted what they claimed were screenshots from it alongside further details. The screenshots were then shared by FavorDish on Twitter (below).

"I can confirm that this is a brand new [Fire Emblem] game, and it has been completed for quite some time now. I'm not sure what the delay has been in announcing it," said miasmadelta. "Interestingly, some aspects of it seem to be reused from the cancelled Wii [Fire Emblem] game. Additionally, the rumours of [a Fire Emblem 4] remake are real as well."

For those who haven’t seen, there are apparently new Fire Emblem leaks going around. Marking as spoilers in case you don’t want to see, but if you do look at them, what do you think?#FireEmblem #FEHeroes pic.twitter.com/xFFoAHanwv

— Dish (@FavorDish) June 15, 2022

The posts claim the game is a brand new entry in the series with multiple new characters and a summoning mechanic that allows players to bring in past Fire Emblem characters - though apparently it isn't like mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes (which includes a similar mechanic).

The main character apparently features red and blue hair (as seen in the alleged screenshots) and the roster of other characters seemingly includes regularly recurring character Anna.

The posts also said that Gust, the developer best known for its Atelier franchise, has been helping with the new Fire Emblem game, though it is mainly being developed between Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo (who worked on Fire Emblem: Three Houses together) and has been completed for more than a year.

All of this information needs taken with a pinch of salt until Nintendo itself confirms it, but the post suggested the publisher was waiting for a big Nintendo Direct presentation to announce it. Given that the company is yet to hold its usual E3-adjacent Nintendo Direct, however, a confirmation of a new Fire Emblem could be on the way soon.

Based on its rccent release schedule, a new entry may not be too far away. The last mainline game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, was released in 2019, while Fates was released in 2015, and Awakening in 2012. In our 9/10 review of the previous game, IGN said: "Fire Emblem: Three Houses offers an incredible amount of choice, and a story that deserves to be viewed from more than one angle."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

What's the best way to follow up an Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland? What about a Gran Turismo movie directed by District 9's Neill Blomkamp?

IGN understands that Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are currently working on an adaptation of PlayStation's famous racing series with an eye toward an August 11, 2023 release date. What's more, it's based on a true story.

The story features a teenage Gran Turismo player who becomes an actual professional race car driver after winning a series of competitions. It appears to be based on the story of Jann Mardenborough, a British driver who began competing in events such as the F3 European Championship after winning the GT Academy reality show at the tender age of 19.

The Gran Turismo movie was first reported to be in the very early stages of development back in May, joining adaptations of Horizon and God of War.

The new movie follows Uncharted, released in February, which has gross $400 million globally to become the fourth highest-earning video game adaptation worldwide. The screenplay will be penned by Jason Hall.

PlayStation released Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on March 4, where we praised it as both a celebration of cars and the series itself on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.

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.

What's the best way to follow up an Uncharted movie starring Tom Holland? What about a Gran Turismo movie directed by District 9's Neill Blomkamp?

IGN understands that Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are currently working on an adaptation of PlayStation's famous racing series with an eye toward an August 11, 2023 release date. What's more, it's based on a true story.

The story features a teenage Gran Turismo player who becomes an actual professional race car driver after winning a series of competitions. It appears to be based on the story of Jann Mardenborough, a British driver who began competing in events such as the F3 European Championship after winning the GT Academy reality show at the tender age of 19.

The Gran Turismo movie was first reported to be in the very early stages of development back in May, joining adaptations of Horizon and God of War.

The new movie follows Uncharted, released in February, which has gross $400 million globally to become the fourth highest-earning video game adaptation worldwide. The screenplay will be penned by Jason Hall.

PlayStation released Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on March 4, where we praised it as both a celebration of cars and the series itself on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.

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.