Keanu Reeves has revealed that filming Matrix Resurrections was a very different experience to previous Matrix movies, with very little rehearsal involved.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 57-year-old Matrix Resurrections star compared the original Matrix trilogy to the upcoming movie.

“[Wachowski was] more behind the monitor” but “still hands-on,” he said of the original movies. But with Resurrections, “[she was] participating more with the movement of the camera, and more interested in doing than rehearsing.”

He confessed that while shooting Matrix Resurrections they “barely rehearsed, if at all.”

Matrix Resurrections sees Keanu Reeves return as Thomas ‘Neo’ Anderson — the techno-messiah of the original Matrix trilogy who’s looking a bit worse for wear this time around.

“In a world of two realities — everyday life and what lies behind it —Thomas Anderson will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more,” reads the official synopsis. “Choice, while an illusion, is still the only way in or out of the Matrix, which is stronger, more secure and more dangerous than ever before.”

The Matrix certainly feels a lot different in its current iteration, with Morpheus (famously played by Laurence Fishburne) now played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, while other original characters such as Trinity and Niobe see the return of their original actors.

This has led some to speculate that the Morpheus we see in teasers is actually a new version of the iconic character — rebuilt by the machines.

But despite an impressive trailer, little else is known about Matrix Resurrections.

Director Lana Wachowski is keen to keep it that way, saying only that “the power of technology to trap or limit our subjective reality” plays an “important part of the new narrative” in the upcoming film.

“Art is a mirror,” said Wachowski. “Most will prefer to gaze at the surface but there will be people like me who enjoy what lies behind the looking glass. I made this movie for them.”

Matrix Resurrections heads to theatres and HBO Max on December 22, 2021.

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

Rocky IV star Dolph Lundgren says a full Ivan Drago spinoff could be in the works following his last appearance in 2018's Creed II.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 64-year-old Swedish actor and martial artist revealed that we may finally get another fight between Rocky and Drago.

“I think there’s some talk about doing a whole spinoff on Drago with MGM,” he said. “So, you may get more of that.”

Creed II starred Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, with Sylvester Stallone once again playing the young boxer’s mentor as the former Heavyweight champion turned coach, Rocky Balboa.

This time around, Adonis takes on the son of Ivan Drago – the former Russian champion, Rocky’s nemesis, and the man who ultimately killed Adonis’ father with a knockout blow during an exhibition match.

Of course, with Rocky and Drago both in the movie, fans were hoping for a rematch. But while a short fight was shot, it ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. “I thought it was a good moment,” said Lundgren. “It was also a fan moment. It was a quick little fight, and I thought it worked. But the director and MGM felt that it was extraneous and that it didn’t add anything.”

Despite the fight ultimately being cut, it looks as though Ivan Drago may get his rematch after all. But while Lundgren insists that an Ivan Drago project is in the works, nothing has been officially announced. Furthermore, Stallone says he officially retired his Rocky character in 2018.

Lundgren recently appeared in the Rocky IV director’s cut, Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut which added 40 minutes of never before seen footage.

“When I played the character, I did a backstory about how he was brought up by the state and they controlled him. He didn’t have much say,” he explained. “He wasn’t really an evil person; he was just a product of the system. He’s Frankenstein’s monster. He’s not Dr. Frankenstein; that was the Soviet Union. So, I always played that, and some of that came across in ’85. Sly and I are friends, but now, I guess he wanted to show the other side of the character. So, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.”

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

Rocky IV star Dolph Lundgren says a full Ivan Drago spinoff could be in the works following his last appearance in 2018's Creed II.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 64-year-old Swedish actor and martial artist revealed that we may finally get another fight between Rocky and Drago.

“I think there’s some talk about doing a whole spinoff on Drago with MGM,” he said. “So, you may get more of that.”

Creed II starred Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, with Sylvester Stallone once again playing the young boxer’s mentor as the former Heavyweight champion turned coach, Rocky Balboa.

This time around, Adonis takes on the son of Ivan Drago – the former Russian champion, Rocky’s nemesis, and the man who ultimately killed Adonis’ father with a knockout blow during an exhibition match.

Of course, with Rocky and Drago both in the movie, fans were hoping for a rematch. But while a short fight was shot, it ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor. “I thought it was a good moment,” said Lundgren. “It was also a fan moment. It was a quick little fight, and I thought it worked. But the director and MGM felt that it was extraneous and that it didn’t add anything.”

Despite the fight ultimately being cut, it looks as though Ivan Drago may get his rematch after all. But while Lundgren insists that an Ivan Drago project is in the works, nothing has been officially announced. Furthermore, Stallone says he officially retired his Rocky character in 2018.

Lundgren recently appeared in the Rocky IV director’s cut, Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut which added 40 minutes of never before seen footage.

“When I played the character, I did a backstory about how he was brought up by the state and they controlled him. He didn’t have much say,” he explained. “He wasn’t really an evil person; he was just a product of the system. He’s Frankenstein’s monster. He’s not Dr. Frankenstein; that was the Soviet Union. So, I always played that, and some of that came across in ’85. Sly and I are friends, but now, I guess he wanted to show the other side of the character. So, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.”

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

Nicolas Cage is set to play the iconic vampire Dracula in Universal’s upcoming monster movie, Renfield.

The film stars Nicholas Hoult as Dracula’s notorious lackey, R.M. Renfield, who appeared alongside the Count in Bram Stoker’s original novel. The film will follow his exploits as the unhinged henchman and former asylum dweller.

But while the film is said to be set in the present day, little else is known about Renfield.

It is understood that Renfield will be an origin story of sorts, so it’s likely we encounter the title character during his time as an inmate of an insane asylum not far from Dracula’s first English home, Carfax. Renfield is set to be directed by Chris McKay, based on an original story outline from Robert Kirkman with a script by Ryan Ridley.

During the original novel, R.M. Renfield is thought to be suffering from delusions, but it’s later discovered that he’s actually under the influence of the legendary vampire himself, Count Dracula. However, details remain scarce (with nothing said of the upcoming film’s plot) and it’s currently unknown whether his psychologist, Dr. John Seward, has been cast in the movie, or whether he will appear at all.

It’s good news for Nic Cage fans though as the eccentric actor bags the literary role of a lifetime.

Nicolas Cage has seen something of a resurgence of late, with rave reviews for his recent starring role in Pig. He will next take to the big screen as himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – the upcoming action-comedy flick from director Tom Gormican.

Renfield also marks a return to major studios for Cage, whose last big studio flick was Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance in 2011. Since then, he’s starred primarily in quirky and often downright weird indie films.

Meanwhile, it looks as though Universal is continuing to grow its Monsters franchise, with an upcoming remake of The Wolfman following the successful reimagining of The Invisible Man.

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

Nicolas Cage is set to play the iconic vampire Dracula in Universal’s upcoming monster movie, Renfield.

The film stars Nicholas Hoult as Dracula’s notorious lackey, R.M. Renfield, who appeared alongside the Count in Bram Stoker’s original novel. The film will follow his exploits as the unhinged henchman and former asylum dweller.

But while the film is said to be set in the present day, little else is known about Renfield.

It is understood that Renfield will be an origin story of sorts, so it’s likely we encounter the title character during his time as an inmate of an insane asylum not far from Dracula’s first English home, Carfax. Renfield is set to be directed by Chris McKay, based on an original story outline from Robert Kirkman with a script by Ryan Ridley.

During the original novel, R.M. Renfield is thought to be suffering from delusions, but it’s later discovered that he’s actually under the influence of the legendary vampire himself, Count Dracula. However, details remain scarce (with nothing said of the upcoming film’s plot) and it’s currently unknown whether his psychologist, Dr. John Seward, has been cast in the movie, or whether he will appear at all.

It’s good news for Nic Cage fans though as the eccentric actor bags the literary role of a lifetime.

Nicolas Cage has seen something of a resurgence of late, with rave reviews for his recent starring role in Pig. He will next take to the big screen as himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – the upcoming action-comedy flick from director Tom Gormican.

Renfield also marks a return to major studios for Cage, whose last big studio flick was Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance in 2011. Since then, he’s starred primarily in quirky and often downright weird indie films.

Meanwhile, it looks as though Universal is continuing to grow its Monsters franchise, with an upcoming remake of The Wolfman following the successful reimagining of The Invisible Man.

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

Writer Steve Conrad has joined the crew of Dunk & Egg, HBO's new Game of Thrones spinoff based on George R. R. Martin's novellas. Conrad will join Dunk & Egg as writer and executive producer, Deadline reports. His major credits include Amazon series Patriot, Perpetual Grace LTD, The Pursuit of Happyness, and more. He also more recently wrote and co-directed Ultra City Smiths, the stop-motion detective noir mystery series on AMC.

Conrad has also written Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the Julia Roberts and Owen-Wilson led Wonder (based on the novel of the same name), and Nicolas Cage's The Weather Man.

Dunk & Egg is a prequel series of novellas set prior to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones. The novellas follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (the titular Dunk) and Aegon V Targaryen (Egg) 90 years prior. Martin released the first novella in 1998, the second in 2003, and the third in 2010 before they were collected into a special edition titled "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

The series was announced in early 2021, so cast and further crew details remain scarce. It's possible that the series may still get scuttled, but the inclusion of Conrad shows that HBO intends to follow through on its plans for multiple Game of Thrones spinoffs in the wake of its divisive 2019 finale. HBO is also producing a separate spin-off titled "House of the Dragon" based on the Targaryen family set 300 years prior to Game of Thrones. HBO previously canceled another Game of Thrones prequel project starring Naomi Watts in 2019.

If you thought the spin-offs ended there, HBO is also working on three animated spin-offs, one of which will be set in the kingdom of Yi Ti (inspired by Imperial China), and a spin-off focusing on Princess Nymeria.

Despite the apparent flood of Game of Thrones series on the way, Martin recently told Insider that he wished the core series had run for a total of 10 seasons to avoid the ending feeling abrupt and curtailing certain plot threads.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/spin-off for IGN.

Square Enix has warned players ahead of Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker Early Access period that its servers may be congested.

The team is anticipating more simultaneous logins than usual, so the servers have been optimized ahead of Endwalker's release in order to increase login caps. Due to the ongoing shortage of semiconductors, Square Enix was unable to add new Worlds, but will still be considered later.

When a World reaches its maximum player cap, then a login queue will appear. Even if it isn't counting down, the process is still functioning and it will admit players in order. Players who have the full version of the game will be prioritized over the ones playing the free trial version. Players will be able to log into less-crowded Worlds within the same data center as their homeworld, but during peak suggestion times, players may still experience login queues while using this feature.

In terms of characters, new ones cannot be created in a World that is experiencing congestion. Creating new characters requires them to be logged in to the World so that they can be added to the database and go through the entire creation process. Players may also experience an "Error 2002" when selecting a character in the selection menu. This is also due to high traffic or when a login queue exceeds 17,000 players. In order to avoid this, players will simply just have to wait before trying to log in again.

Additionally, any players who are inactive for 30 minutes will automatically be logged out in order to reduce the amount of server congestion. Square Enix also mentions changes to instanced content, which is a copy of an area created for a small number of players. Player traffic will be staggered during main scenario and quest progression and a queue is being put in place just in case congestion does occur. Players will be given a queue number and will also just have to wait to be admitted into instanced areas.

Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion releases on December 7 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. It was originally supposed to launch this month but was delayed by two weeks.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN

Spider-Man: No Way Home still isn't out for over two weeks, but the ticket presales are already off the charts. Deadline reports that No Way Home's first day of presales on Fandango have surpassed 2019's Avengers Endgame, which ended up opening at $357 million. No Way Home also passed Black Widow's first day presale in just two hours, which held the previous record for 2021.

No Way Home's presale also beat out huge pre-pandemic blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and three recent Star Wars movies: The Last Jedi, Rogue One, and The Rise of Skywalker.

The numbers spell good things for the movie industry's bounceback from COVID-19, as No Way Home is beating presale numbers for multiple pre-pandemic movies. Other MCU movies, including Shang-Chi, are also seeing box office success amidst the continuing Coronavirus pandemic.

The Spider-Man franchise generally pulls in great box office numbers. Far From Home was the most successful Spider-Man movie at the box office, bringing in over $1.1 billion, good for the 25th highest-grossing movie of all time.

The early success in presales makes sense for this film, given the anticipation surrounding three generations of Spider-Man characters coming together. In fact, multiple theater websites crashed after tickets went live yesterday, leading to scalpers selling No Way Home tickets for thousands of dollars.

While Spider-Man star Tom Holland says they treated No Way Home as the "end of a franchise," we recently learned Holland will continue on as the MCU's Spider-Man after No Way Home.

For more to ready while you wait for the big premiere date, check out five burning questions we have after the No Way Home trailer, or read up on J.K. Simmons' new take on J. Jonah Jameson

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

A slew of new details about Call of Duty: Warzone's new Pacific map has been revealed. A new blog post from Activision shows off numerous new pictures and the actual in-game map of Caldera, the Pacific island replacing the fictional eastern European region of Verdansk.

At a glance, the map looks roughly the same size as Verdansk, which was already pretty huge. The image also shows off the named points of interest, such as the mountain "Peak" sitting in the northern center, the sandy shores of the "Beachhead" to the east, and a new airfield to the southwest. Why an oceanside resort is placed next to a submarine pen, I can only guess. Caldera is set in the Pacific theater of 1944, so expect plenty of familiar WWII iconography.

If you're wondering what these points of interest will look like in action, Activision released numerous new screenshots showing off each major location.

Activision also announced that Call of Duty: Vanguard owners will receive access to the Caldera map 24 hours early, on December 8. Players who don't own Vanguard will simply be dropped onto the smaller Rebirth Island in the meantime. Once Caldera releases for all players, Rebirth Island will be disabled for an unspecified time, but Activision says it will return later in season one.

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific will also attempt to streamline Warzone's meta. The new battle royale map will launch with 40 weapons, 38 of which are from Vanguard, and more than a dozen operators based on Vanguard characters.

Loadouts will only be able to contain Vanguard weapons, and players will only be able to find Vanguard weapons scattered around the map. So don't expect to bring your near-future weaponry into battle. Activision is also altering the speed and radius of circles to account for aerial dogfighting.

Other new features and changes include:

• Any player who wins a gulag match will respawn with any weapons and equipment they acquired in the gulag, rather than a default pistol.
• The Dead Silence perk is receiving a nerf.
• Stopping Power Rounds are disabled.
• Nerfs to stun grenades, heartbeat sensors, and dual-wield melee weapons like the Kali Sticks and Sai.
• Loadout Drop Markers can only be purchased from Buy Stations after the Loadout Drop event occurs in-match.
• Buffs for the snapshot grenade, the stim, decoy grenade, and increased damage to "most lethal equipment."
• Gas masks won't interrupt "as many" actions as they previously did.
• The addition of gas canisters containing the same poison gas in the circle, but with a much smaller radius. You can also pick up and throw gas canisters.
• Shallow water can hide footsteps (although not entirely), even on players you're tracking via the Tracker perk. Crouching in knee-high water will give you the Cold Blooded perk. Fire-based weapons will also trigger smoke when making contact with water.

New Contract types include:

• Supply Drop, which drops a single crate of valuable loot for all players onto the map, but only the team who started the contract can see its exact location on the map.
• Big Game Bounty: Targets the player with the highest kill count, but only once per game.
• A "Top Secret" Contract that Activision has redacted any info on.

Keep in mind that the previously announced kernel-level driver will be required for all PC players in Warzone's next update, and will come to Vanguard's multiplayer at a later date.

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific launches on December 8 for Vanguard owners and December 9 for all other players. In the meantime, Activision is handing out some serious bans for Warzone cheaters, including all past, present, and future Call of Duty games.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/operator for IGN.

With 2021 coming to a close Netflix is looking ahead to 2022. The streamer announced new release dates for highly-anticipated shows like Vikings: Valhalla and revealed some more genre shows coming next year.

Vikings: Valhalla is a spinoff of History’s popular Vikings series. While streamers like Netflix are known for rescuing shows from cable, Vikings held a proper season finale in 2020 before planning a new spinoff at Netflix. Vikings: Valhalla will premiere on Netflix on February 25, and there are new photos from the show you can see in the gallery below.

Vikings: Valhalla is set 100 years after the end of the original series in the early 11th century. The series will follow famous Vikings like Leif Eriksson, his sister Freydis Eriksdotter, and a Nordic prince named Harald Sigurdsson. This is also a time where the Vikings and English royals will be at odds over supremacy.

Netflix also announced release dates for Archive 81 which will premiere on January 14, 2022, In From the Cold which will premiere on January 28, 2022, and Raising Dion Season 2 which will premiere on February 1, 2022.

Archive 81 follows an archivist named Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) whose job is to restore a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994. These tapes were created by a documentary filmmaker named Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi) investigating a cult. As work on restoring the tapes continue, Dan believes he can rescue Pendras from her terrifying end 25 years ago.

In From the Cold stars Margarita Levieva as Jenny, an American woman and single mom with a dark history as a Russian spy with special abilities given to her by the KGB. She’s tasked by the CIA to solve the mystery behind a series of bloody incidents involving someone with her abilities.

Finally, Raising Dion is a continuation of Nicole and Dion who developers superhero-like abilities. Set two years after the defeat of the Crooked Man, Dion continues to develop his powers while meeting other superpowered students like Brayden.

These shows only cover Netflix’s first two months of 2022. Netflix announced a wider slate of genre shows coming out that year, but without release dates. They include previously announced shows like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, The Sandman, and Resident Evil, as well as The Cuphead Show!, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and a new Mike Flannigan horror series, The Midnight Club.

Meanwhile, Netflix is set to end 2021 with The Witcher season 2 coming in December. Netflix also recently released the live-action Cowboy Bebop which you can check out our review here.

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