Marvel Comics has announced King Conan, their latest new project featuring the iconic barbarian hero. However, this story has a unique selling point. It's poised to finally shed light on the last and least known chapter of Conan's life.

King Conan is written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Mahmud Asrar, the same team who launched Marvel's monthly Conan the Barbarian comic in 2019. This six-issue series picks up where their run left off in Conan the Barbarian #12, as an aging King Conan and his son, Prince Conn, sail west from Aquilonia and seek out new adventures in an unfamiliar land.

Conan creator Robert E. Howard never got around to chronicling this period of the character's long and bloody career before the author's death in 1936, and none of the movies, comics or other licensed stories have ever revealed what happened after Conan sailed west. It's unclear whether this series will actually depict Conan's death, but Marvel is ominously billing it as the Cimmerian's "last stand."

“I knew as soon as Mahmud, Matt and I finished 'The Life and Death of Conan' in CONAN THE BARBARIAN, one of the absolute personal highlights from my career as a comic book writer, that I wasn't done hanging out with everyone's favorite Cimmerian,” Aaron told Marvel.com. “As King Conan rode into the sunset at the end of that story, with his son, Prince Conn, by his side, I always knew where I wanted that story to take us next. Now at last comes that next chapter, as Mahmud, Matt and I reunite to reveal a pivotal moment in Conan's life as a king, as a father, as a mortal enemy of snake-worshipping Stygian wizards and as a barbarian who was born to chase the wind, even to the ends of the earth.”

King Conan #1 is slated to hit stores on December 15, 2021.

Marvel is also gearing up for Star Wars: Crimson Reign, a new limited series that builds on the fallout of the War of the Bounty Hunters crossover. The series will revolve heavily around the familiar movie character who recently made their surprise return in War of the Bounty Hunters.

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After Black Widow's release plans changed, Scarlett Johansson's team reportedly tried to negotiate a deal with Disney for the star to receive $100 million for the movie.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, "the calculation was based on what the star would receive in a hypothetical global box-office take of $1.2 billion," a sum that was estimated based on Marvel's past theatrical releases before the COVID-19 pandemic, plus Johansson's $20 million starting salary for her titular role in the movie.

The actress' representatives allegedly approached Disney with the $100 million figure as a "starting bid" after learning that Black Widow would be released as a Premier Access movie on Disney Plus the same day as it hit theaters — however, the report states that negotiations didn't get off the ground as Disney never made a counteroffer.

Johansson decided to sue Disney over the alleged Black Widow contract breach after the movie debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access, and Disney and Marvel were "unresponsive" to negotiations despite Johansson's contract reportedly assuring her that the movie would be released exclusively in theaters.

According to an email within the lawsuit, highlighted again in the recent WSJ report, Marvel Chief Counsel Dave Galluzzi is said to have told Johansson's representatives that there would need to be discussions if plans changed "as the deal is based on a series of (very large) box office bonuses" for Johansson.

The report notes that one of the reasons contract negotiations fell apart was because of uncertainty over who should lead the discussion. Disney CEO Bob Chapek was reportedly focused on pandemic-related company matters and passed the deal-making power to others in the organization, but Bob Iger and Alan Horn also reportedly stayed out of the dispute.

Disney later responded to Johansson's lawsuit, claiming they had "fully complied with Ms. Johansson's contract" and that Black Widow's release on Disney Plus Premier Access had actually "significantly enhanced" the star's ability to earn "additional compensation on top of the $20M" she received as her starting salary for Natasha Romanoff's solo outing.

For more on this story, go inside the Scarlett Johansson/Disney lawsuit and what it could mean for the future of Hollywood.

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

Bungie is hiring for a new senior executive who will help to bring Destiny's narrative from video games across to the world of TV, film, and more.

A career listing on Bungie's website for a new senior executive development role at the studio (spotted by TheGamePost) says that the successful candidate will "drive projects that extend the Destiny franchise into new categories including TV, films, books, comics, and audio formats."

Bungie itself doesn't appear to be hiring for positions to create the new range of Destiny products in-house. Instead, the new executive's role will be to "identify, select, guide, collaborate, and provide feedback to third parties and partners enabling them to tell additional myths in the Destiny universe that delight our fans while capturing the hearts and minds of new audiences."

In terms of the expansion, it would seem that Bungie is open to exploring a number of different avenues. As a requirement, the new executive will need to have been credited on a number of films/series with "experience in animation, scripted television development or current programming," also listed. Bungie also notes that additional credit may be awarded to a suitable candidate with experience in fictional novel and graphic novel publishing.

Although Bungie hasn't confirmed any details surrounding Destiny's potential expansion as a television series, the listing seems to suggest that a move toward the format would take the form of an animated series as opposed to a live-action show.

With Destiny already a globally recognized franchise with an incredibly devoted community behind it, some fans may fear that a move to other formats under incorrect supervision could be detrimental to the game's lore and characters. With this in mind, it seems that Bungie is looking for someone already heavily invested within the Destiny Universe. On top of extensive multimedia experience, Bungie requires applicants to have a passion for the Destiny Universe and says that an ideal candidate will have spent hundreds of hours playing Destiny and exploring its world.

In other related news, Destiny 2 recently launched into its latest Season of the Lost update and announced details surrounding the game's upcoming Witch Queen expansion, which is due out February 22. As Bungie looks to take Destiny to new mediums, perhaps we'll see Savathûn and her siblings make their debut elsewhere on other formats in the future.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sony has acquired UK developer Firesprite, marking the third studio acquisition from Sony this year alone.

As noted on the PlayStation Blog, Firesprite has worked closely with Sony, creating several titles together. Most notably, the developer helped to create The Playroom and The Playroom VR. Firesprite is also the developer behind The Persistence, a horror shooter originally released on the PS4 as a PSVR title before becoming a non-VR version on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC two years later.

"We’ve had the pleasure of working with many talented developers and publishers across the industry and PlayStation, in particular, has been a friend and co-development partner for the best part of a decade," Firesprite Managing Director Graeme Ankers said in the announcement post.

It's something of a full circle moment, as Firesprite was formed by members of the disbanded Sony Liverpool after it closed in 2012. With over a 250-person team, Firesprite marks a major addition to PlayStation's stable of developers, too. In an interview with GameIndustry, Firesprite confirmed that it would work on games outside of the genres currently covered by Sony's other in-house studios.

This marks the third studio Sony Interactive Entertainment has purchased in 2021. In June, Sony acquired Housemarque, the Finnish developer that released the PS5-exclusive Returnal earlier this year. In July, Sony announced that it had acquired Nixxes, a Dutch studio that specializes in porting games to PC. Firesprite becomes the 14th studio in the wider PlayStation Studios stable.

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

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.

Diablo 2: Resurrected won't feature ultrawide monitor support when it launches on September 23 due to the discovery that the wider screens break AI mechanics within the original game.

Following the technical beta for Diablo 2: Resurrected, developer Vicarious Visions and Blizzard Entertainment took to updating fans on a number of in-game features that the team has revisited. As well as briefing players on changes that had been made to console lobbies and offering more insight into the removal of TCP/IP support (which it dropped back in August), Blizzard also updated fans on the subject of ultrawide monitors and why players won't be able to utilize the full width of their 21:9 screens when the game launches.

According to Blizzard, the issue mainly stems from the game's AI not registering players at distances available to those using 21:9 ultrawide screens. The update post expands on issues caused by ultrawide screens in the game:

"Ultrawide monitor support being modified was a subject we saw heavily discussed across our channels following the Beta. In the Technical Alpha, players with Ultrawide hardware saw their full 21:9 screens utilized during that test. However, during that test we identified limitations affecting those players and others. For example, the AI failed to sense the player and trigger attacks. Furthermore, players with 21:9 monitors were able to pull many more monsters into battle at a range limit beyond the original game’s intention. In a scenario where players (for example: playing a ranged class) were attacking monsters, players with 21:9 monitors could hit enemies with that extra screen space, but the monsters would not pull or react, but could still be defeated. Ultimately, the AI doesn’t register getting hit from that additional distance a 21:9 monitor provides. That’s not intended, especially if you’re sharing a game with a 16:9 user. To protect the integrity of everyone’s experience and promote an equal playing field for all, those with Ultrawide monitors will be able to have their game screen purview extended to 19:9 (the maximum length of the in-game limitation zones) with a vignette on the sides of the game screen."

Blizzard acknowledged that players are likely to have paid top-dollar for their ultrawide monitors and in doing so may feel irritated by the inclusion of black bars on the screen during their playthrough. In response to this, Blizzard has said that that it will continue to "explore possible solutions that don’t change how the game is played."

Elsewhere in the post, Blizzard said that two of its core principles for the game are "protecting the authenticity of the original Diablo II experience and making it more accessible in this modern age." Whilst finding a way to include ultrawide monitor support would arguably lean into the latter, a future patch to address the issue currently looks far from certain.

To read more about the upcoming remaster for Diablo 2, you can check out this piece that details everything you need to know about the game.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

A newly discovered glitch in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gives a one-finger salute to gravity, opening up fresh possibilities for speedrunners to beat the game as quickly as possible.

As reported by Kotaku, speedrunner LegendofLinkk recently shared a new glitch on Twitter that allows Link to fly around the map as they please – and explained how to achieve it with relative ease:

Unpause, Aim your Bow and cancel with B, head over to a ledge link will climb up, start holding B and climb the ledge, if you go neutral on the control stick or stop holding the B button link will start falling normally.

— LegendofLinkk (@iLegendofLinkk) September 4, 2021

Previous means of getting around the map in the air have been affected by both gravity and stamina bars, whereas this new glitch allows players to remain at a consistent height as they travel freely above Breath of the Wild's open-world landscape.

The glitch is new enough not to have a formal concensus around its name – although some have taken to calling it bow lift smuggle sliding (BLS Sliding) – but it's already being widely hailed as a game-changer for speedrunning in the game. YouTuber and speedrunner JoeDun, who managed to complete a 100% no damage run of the game earlier this year, made a video on the new BLS Sliding tactic, saying it "might be the start of something amazing" for the speedrunning community.

JoeDun spoke further in the video about how the changes could affect different areas of speedrunning within the game. "What does this mean for Breath of the Wild speedrunning?" he says. "Well, a lot [...] my favorite category 100% might actually be changing a lot just due to this trick alone. Since you can basically use anything you can pick up to start this trick, things like the letter quest and Ruta will be super easy and fast". JoeDun went on to speak about a number of other popular speedrunning categories that could be opened up to new possibilities following the discovery of the glitch.

Twitter user @RicitosDeCaoba further suggested that BLS Sliding could even bring about its own speedrunning category in the game as it's used by more and more players, suggesting that this would be similar to "no limit" runs attempted by players in the game.

And I believe that new category will be the same as the "no limit" runs but including the new glitch, so... I don't know, time will tell. Depending on how broken is comparing to bomb launch.

— ☀️Helienne☀️Se pronuncia /E-lién/ (@RicitosDeCaoba) September 7, 2021

How truly useful the new glitch is will likely be found out over the coming weeks, as speedrunners across the community look to integrate it into their runs. For now, it seems that members of the community are getting to grips with the new skill and enjoying exploiting it for every grain of time it saves.

Some more speed! pic.twitter.com/7xXJ1aF5SH

— Ferrus Cube (@Ferrus_Cube) September 4, 2021

For more on Breath of the Wild, you can check out our dedicated page for the game where you'll be able to find a range of the latest news and clips surrounding the title and catch up with the story so far.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.