Spider-Man 3 is often lambasted as one of the worst Spider-Man movies of the Sam Raimi trilogy partly due to the rushed inclusion of Venom. It turns out Raimi himself still doesn't understand Venom and has never seen Tom Hardy's version of the anti-hero.

In an interview with Uproxx, Raimi lamented that he didn't really get Venom and found the character quite difficult:

"It was really more just that I didn’t understand the character that well. It wasn’t close to my heart. The best thing I like about Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man is that they made relatable characters that I understand. Even if they were confused, like Norman Osborn, they still have goodness in their heart. They want them to do the right thing, or Peter Parker. Or even J. Jonah Jameson has goodness in his heart. When I read about Venom, which I hadn’t read as a kid, I had to catch up on it when they wanted him to be in the movie. I didn’t recognize enough humanity within that character to be able to identify with him properly. That’s really what it boils down to."

Raimi famously didn't want to include Venom in Spider-Man 3, but caved due to pressure from then-Marvel Studios President Avi Arad. Speaking with Collider in 2007:

"But when we were done [writing the script], Avi Arad, my partner and the former president of Marvel at the time, said to me, Sam, you're so, you're not paying attention to the fans enough. You need to think about them. You've made two movies now with your favorite villains, and now you're about to make another one with your favorite villains. The fans love Venom, he is the fan favorite. All Spider-Man readers love Venom, and even though you came from '70s Spiderman, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom, listen to the fans now. And so that's really where I, I realized okay, maybe I don't have the whole Spider-Man universe in my head, I need to learn a little bit more about Spider-Man and maybe incorporate this villain to make some of the real diehard fans of Spider-Man finally happy."

Unfortunately, despite Raimi's efforts to include Venom in the movie, critics and fans decried the lack of character development that was afforded Sandman and Harry Osbourne's Green Goblin.

Since then, Tom Hardy's portrayal of the famous symbiote in both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage has brought a bit of redemption to the character (as far as the box office is concerned). In the same interview, Raimi said he had not yet seen Tom Hardy's Venom movies, which have found success as a kind of screwball comedy featuring Eddie Brock and The Symbiote.

"That makes sense. I’m glad they were able to make a success out of that," Raimi responded after the premise was described to him.

After being away from superhero movies, Raimi is continuing the multiverse shinanigans with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This sequel to Strange's previous solo film has the former Sorceror Supreme face off against Karl Mordo and Scarlet Witch.

Catch up on Doctor Strange's story here and read about how Rick & Morty "trained" one Multiverse of Madness writer.

David Matthews is a freelance writer at IGN.

Following his work on the acclaimed Disney Plus series Loki, Michael Waldron's next MCU foray will be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, for which he thanks his time writing on Rick and Morty as prep.

In an interview with Slash Film, Waldron revealed he was tasked with tying together not just the MCU films and Disney Plus series, but also the various other universes including Spider-Man and X-Men. Finding a writer experienced with the multiverse and the intricacies of trans-dimensional travel is no easy task.

But Waldron thanks his experience writing for ‘Rick and Morty’ as a test course for writing Multiverse of Madness.

"It was the perfect training ground. Because every week in that show, we take a big sci-fi concept that frankly, you could probably write a movie about, you could write some kind of high concept spec about at least, and we basically blow it apart in the first five minutes of the show.

"Really, you've got to explain it to the audience quickly and then shift it to the background so they can get swept up in the adventure, in the rest of what's just a 22-minute episode. And so 'Rick and Morty' trained me in how to introduce these big sci-fi concepts in ways that were digestible, palatable to the audience, and without getting them bogged down in the boring details."

Before serving as executive producer and head writer of Loki, Waldron had worked on the Adult Swim series, Rick and Morty for years. In an interview with Bleeding Cool, it was revealed that Dan Harmon chose Waldron to be the series showrunner of Rick and Morty season 5 before Waldron ultimately accepted to take on Loki.

Waldron had come on board of the project after the original director of Doctor Strange, Scott Derrickson, had officially left the project and was replaced by director Sam Raimi. The collaborative minds of both Waldron and Raimi spent months salvaging and reshooting Multiverse of Madness.

"... When COVID came down and delayed us several months, it gave Sam and me the opportunity to say, 'all right, well, now we have the time. If we wanted to start over from scratch, what would our version of the movie be?' And Marvel was fortunately very supportive of that," Waldron reveals. "And he and I set to work and kind of created our own thing."

Delays caused by the pandemic were a blessing as the two had been given more time to execute their vision. Waldron accredits his adaptive skills working in TV as preparing him for the crunch.

Christian Angeles is a Freelance Writer for IGN.

Six years after being delisted, the original Forza Horizon made a brief reappearance on the Xbox Store on Saturday, according to a variety of Twitter users who managed to successfully access the popular Xbox 360 racing title.

Forza Horizon was initially delisted from all storefronts in 2016, but eagle-eyed fans reported the game showed up for $19.99 for a short while before disappearing again a few hours later. It's unknown whether the relisting is indication that Xbox is planning to bring the game back to the store or if someone at Xbox just made a mistake that caused it to pop back up for a little while.

Either way, the eventual removal of Forza games is a common practice for Microsoft, as the third party licensing deals run out for the series' wide selection of cars, tracks, songs, and more. In September 2021, Forza Motorsport 7 became the most recent game in the franchise to be delisted – 4 years after it was released on Xbox One.

Developer Turn10 is hard at work on an upcoming reboot of the mainline Forza Motorsport series, though news about the game has trickled out very slowly since its original reveal back in 2020. What we know so far is that it will act as a fresh start for the franchise, leveraging the power of the Xbox Series X – meaning that the game won't land on Xbox One. It will also launch on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

In the meantime, fans can get their hands on the team's well-received sandbox racer Forza Horizon 5, which we gave a perfect score in our review, calling it "a deep and nuanced car nirvana for revheads and auto geeks to endlessly collect, tinker, and experiment."

Billy Givens is a freelance writer at IGN.

Meghan Markle is the latest creator to fall victim to Netflix's animation budget cuts, with her planned show Pearl being canceled before even being released. The series, executive produced by the Duchess of Sussex, is the latest Netflix animated series to get canned, joining other shows including Bone.

The series was meant to be about a 12-year-old girl named Pearl, who on a journey of self-discovery, sought to get inspiration from extraordinary women in history.

Markle described the show’s premise this way: “Like many girls her age, our heroine Pearl is on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to overcome life’s daily challenges.”

Originally reported by Deadline, Pearl was but one of many works planned by Archewell Productions, the studio created by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, after the couple left their royal duties and moved to the U.S. With plans to make Netflix original programming including documentaries, features, and children's shows, it’s reported that Netflix still has every intention to move forward with its original programming with Archewell Productions, just minus the children’s animated series planned to be Pearl.

Already in 2022, the company has already canceled nine original series including Space Force, Raising Dion, Pretty Smart, On The Verge, The Baby-Sitters Club, Archive 81, Another Life, Gentefied, and Cooking with Paris. Last week, two other planned children's animated series were canned, including Dino Daycare and Boons and Curses.

The cancellations follow Netflix's recent subscriber drop, which saw its share price drop to its lowest price since 2018.

Blogroll Image Credit: Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Christian Angeles is a freelance writer for IGN.

14 years after Avatar: The Last Airbender ended its run on Nickelodeon, it seems fans have more options than ever when it comes to collectibles. Dark Horse is kicking off a new line of Avatar statues, beginning with two of the most popular characters from the animated series.

Dark Horse will release two Avatar: The Last Airbender statues in October 2022. Both are cast in PVC and targeted at the more affordable side of the market. First, take a look at the Prince Zuko statue:

Dark Horse's press release reads, "As a young prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko was originally the bitter enemy of Avatar Aang and his friends. After much internal struggle, he realized it was his responsibility to end the Fire Nation’s reign of terror. Now, as a lifelong friend to the Avatar and reigning Fire Lord, he strives to lead his people into a new era of peace."

Naturally, Zuko will be joined by one of his element-bending rivals, but perhaps not the one you're expecting. Katara is the other release planned for the first wave:

Dark Horse's press release reads, "As the last known Waterbender in her war-ravaged Southern Water Tribe, Katara held onto hope in a hopeless world until she discovered the long-lost Avatar. Now, she’s a waterbending master who helped end the Hundred Year War and will always jump into harm's way to fight injustice."

The Zuko statue measures 6.5 inches tall, while Katara measures 8 inches tall. Both are priced at $59.99 and are slated for release on October 26, 2022. Both are currently available for preorder through the IGN Store and other online retailers.

In other Avatar news, Netflix announced the live-action adaptation in 2018, when Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino were on board to helm the series. However, the original creators departed the project due to creative differences. Now, Albert Kim is serving as showrunner alongside Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore, and Michael Goi. You can check out IGN's full breakdown of the live-action Avatar cast.

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

Square Enix's decision to sell a trove of franchises and studios to Embracer Group has yielded some interesting info, including the lifetime sales of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Following Embracer Group's agreement to purchase Eidos Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, and Crystal Dynamics, from Square Enix, the company shared a timeline of the Tomb Raider franchise. According to the timeline, Tomb Raider has sold 88 million units since its inception in 1996, with 38 million of the lifetime sales coming from the Reboot Trilogy alone, which includes Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Additionally, the franchise saw more than 53 million paid mobile downloads from entries such as Lara Croft: Relic Run and Lara Croft: Go.

The timeline shows other Tomb Raider games like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris spinoffs, as well as games before the 2013 reboot, including Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos explains that the Tomb Raider brand is a strong one, saying, "This is just looking at the games. We still have an entire transmedia world out there, known for films, new series coming, comics, and looking across what the possibilities are for this franchise, I tell you the best is yet to come."

Last month, Crystal Dynamics announced that it is currently working on a new Tomb Raider game utilizing Unreal Engine 5.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Louis Leterrier, the director behind The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton and the first two Transporter movies, has signed on to replace Justin Lin as director of Fast X.

Variety reports that Leterrier beat out several other candidates for the job and is Universal picture’s first choice to replace Lin on the upcoming Fast finale. Leterrier’s resume comes stacked with credits in action films, which is appealing for a candidate looking to board Fast.

Aside from The Incredible Hulk, which introduced the character into the MCU despite later films recasting Norton with Mark Ruffalo, Leterrier directed action films like Unleashed, and Clash of the Titans, as well as Netflix shows like Lupin and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

It’s unclear how much input Leterrier will have once he takes over. Variety reports that “about every creative element” on Fast X has already been established by Lin, and while the main production was paused, the second unit continued filming after Lin left and stars like Charlize Theron and Jason Momoa are already on set ready to shoot.

Leterrier was brought in quickly because reports suggest each day production remained paused, it cost Universal up to $600,000 to $1 million per day. Plus stars like Momoa, Theron, and Brie Larson have busy schedules that require them to be available for other projects.

Lin, who directed several Fast movies already including Fast Five and Tokyo Drift, returned to the franchise for F9 and was set to direct the finale before abruptly leaving. Lin cited “creative differences” but remains an executive producer on the movies.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

(Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is anticipating that the chip shortage, which has been negatively impacting many industries including the games industry, will remain an issue well into 2024.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Gelsinger told the outlet that the chip shortage might drag on for two years due to the strain on key manufacturing tools. "[W]e believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024," Gelsinger told CNBC.

Gelsinger previously predicted several times that he expected the chip shortage to drag into 2023, with the first mention of it coming last July during the company's Q2 earnings call. In October 2021, he reiterated that the supply chain issues could extend into 2023.

Despite the chip shortage remaining an issue across various industries, Gelsinger noted how Intel's own chips are doing very well and are close to meeting the demand for its own chips, as he said during the company's Q1 2022 earnings call a few days ago.

Since 2020, the chip shortage has remained an ongoing issue. Most prominent examples of the supply chain issues include the sale of the latest gaming consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, along with new desktop GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. Though in recent weeks, it appears that the supply for Xbox Series X consoles, at the very least, is getting better and more regularly stocked at various retailers.

Intel has also been one of a few companies that has been investing exponentially in new production lines, though these new fab locations are not expected to open for another 2 to 3 years. The most notable location Intel announced back in January was in Ohio, which will be home to the "largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." At the same time, other new fabs currently under construction are located in Arizona and Germany.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is anticipating that the chip shortage, which has been negatively impacting many industries including the games industry, will remain an issue well into 2024.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Gelsinger told the outlet that the chip shortage might drag on for two years due to the strain on key manufacturing tools. "[W]e believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024," Gelsinger told CNBC.

Gelsinger previously predicted several times that he expected the chip shortage to drag into 2023, with the first mention of it coming last July during the company's Q2 earnings call. In October 2021, he reiterated that the supply chain issues could extend into 2023.

Despite the chip shortage remaining an issue across various industries, Gelsinger noted how Intel's own chips are doing very well and are close to meeting the demand for its own chips, as he said during the company's Q1 2022 earnings call a few days ago.

Since 2020, the chip shortage has remained an ongoing issue. Most prominent examples of the supply chain issues include the sale of the latest gaming consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, along with new desktop GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. Though in recent weeks, it appears that the supply for Xbox Series X consoles, at the very least, is getting better and more regularly stocked at various retailers.

Intel has also been one of a few companies that has been investing exponentially in new production lines, though these new fab locations are not expected to open for another 2 to 3 years. The most notable location Intel announced back in January was in Ohio, which will be home to the "largest silicon manufacturing location on the planet." At the same time, other new fabs currently under construction are located in Arizona and Germany.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Update: 08/26/2022: Embracer Group has now completed its purchase of Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal, and Eidos-Montréal following a near-four month acquisition process.

The colossal video games holding company announced the update on its website, saying plainly that "all conditions for the transaction, including regulatory approvals, have now been fulfilled and the transaction may be completed. Embracer has, therefore, today completed the acquisition."

It can now shift its focus to acquiring the several other companies it has since purchased, including the owner of The Lord of the Rings and Chivalry developer Tripwire Interactive.

Original Story: Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal, and a "catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from Square Enix Holdings" for $300 million.

Embracer shared the news in a press release, saying this acquisition includes roughly 1,100 employees across three studios and eight global locations. The deal, if it goes through, is expected to close during Q2 of Embracer's financial year 2022/2023.

”We are thrilled to welcome these studios into the Embracer Group. We recognize the fantastic IP, world class creative talent, and track record of excellence that have been demonstrated time and again over the past decades. It has been a great pleasure meeting the leadership teams and discussing future plans for how they can realize their ambitions and become a great part of Embracer,” says Lars Wingefors, Co-founder and Group CEO, Embracer Group.

”Embracer is the best kept secret in gaming: a massive, decentralized collection of entrepreneurs whom we are thrilled to become a part of today. It is the perfect fit for our ambitions: make high-quality games, with great people, sustainably, and grow our existing franchises to their best versions ever. Embracer allows us to forge new partnerships across all media to maximize our franchises’ potential and live our dreams of making extraordinary entertainment,” says Phil Rogers, Square Enix America and Europe CEO.

Once this deal goes through, Embracer will have more than 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers, and 124 internal studios. It also confirmed it has more than 230 games in development at those studios, and more than 30 are AAA titles.

This news comes shortly after Crystal Dynamics announced it was developing a brand-new Tomb Raider game on Unreal Engine 5. No further details were given, but the team did say it was planning to "push the envelope of fidelity."

Crystal Dynamics is also the studio behind Marvel's Avengers and it has been helping Microsoft's The Initiative develop the new Perfect Dark game.

Eidos Montréal is the studio behind Thief 4, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and more, and it is "working on a host of AAA projects including both new releases from beloved franchises and original IP."

Square Enix Montréal is responsible for such games as Hitman GO, Tomb Raider GO, and Deus Ex GO, and it will continue to work in the mobile space building games based on AAA IP.

Embracer is no stranger to acquisitions, as it has been undergoing a rapid expansion over the past few years. Some of the other companies it has acquired/owns are Dark Horse Comics, 3D Realms, Ghost Ship Games, Gearbox, THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, Koch Media, and many more.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.