Marvel president Kevin Feige has addressed a number of concerns that have been voiced by Chinese audiences ahead of the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

As reported by Variety, Feige participated in an interview with Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou during the U.S. Shang-Chi premiere this week, in which he responded to some of China's biggest gripes surrounding the MCU feature and assured fans that careful consideration had been given on the road to taking the comics to the big screen.

In particular, Feige stressed that the upcoming Phase 4 movie doesn't feature Fu Manchu, a character who serves as Shang-Chi's father and primary nemesis in the comics who has been on the receiving end of backlash for years, with many seeing the character as a racially insensitive caricature. Feige confirmed he doesn't appear "in any way, shape or form."

"[Fu Manchu] is not a character we own or would ever want to own. It was changed in the comics many, many, many years ago. We never had any intention of [having him] in this movie," Feige emphasized, adding: "Definitively, Fu Manchu is not in this movie, is not Shang-Chi's father, and again, is not even a Marvel character, and hasn't been for decades."

Instead of Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi's father in the movie is Wenwu, portrayed by Tony Leung. As explained in a recent featurette, our titular hero will find himself returning to his father's world after running away in his youth, which is quite a different story to the one sometimes told in the comics that sees the character abandon his Chinese roots to embrace the West.

"That's certainly one of the elements we've changed," Feige stated, reassuring potential moviegoers. "All of our comics go back 60, 70, 80 years. Almost everything has happened in almost every comic, and we chose the elements that we like to turn into an MCU feature. So that story is not what this is about.

"That sense of running away… is presented as one of his flaws," he added, noting the narrative change. "It is a flaw to run away to the West and to hide from his legacy and his family — that's how the movie is presented. And how he will face that and overcome that is part of what the story's about."

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set for a wide theatrical release on September 3. The movie doesn't yet have a release date in China despite it being an important market for movies, with its box office previously taking $629 million for Avengers: Endgame, making it the country's highest-grossing foreign film ever, plus the sixth-largest earner overall.

For more on the MCU film, get a glimpse of the movie's dragon character in the latest poster, check out our explainer on Shang-Chi himself, and if the Ten Rings are actually magical.

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

Splitgate, the portal-based shooter from 1047 Games, will remain in its open beta period for the 'foreseeable future' after its recent unexpected popularity has seen more than 10 million users download the game in under 30 days.

In a press release, 1047 Games announced that Splitgate will remain in open beta as the studio continues to work on scaling the game. The game's surge in popularity has caused a string of server queues and wait times for players hoping to access the Halo-like shooter.

1047 Games has been active in addressing the strain on its servers through social media and the game's official Discord channel, whilst at the same time working to increase player capacity on the game. In just the past four weeks the studio's team of just 30 people has increased its server capacity to now support up to 175,000 concurrent players, and significantly reduced player wait times.

It took a few weeks, but our server situation is better than ever! We can now support 175k concurrent players! And the server improvements are only going to continue. https://t.co/E2sWrxQevx

— Splitgate (@Splitgate) August 15, 2021

CEO and co-founder of 1047 Games, Ian Proulx, shared in the press release his thoughts on the game's overwhelming popularity and what it has meant for scalability. “This has been the most surreal time of my life,” said Proulx. “The fan support has been incredible as we work to improve the player experience. We never dreamed of having to scale this big this quickly, and as a result we have had to overcome challenges to keep up with player demand. We met several major milestones in a short time, creating a stable platform where fans can expect to find a server to play on relatively quickly, and I’m proud of what our team has accomplished - but there’s a lot more to come!”

Proulx continued, “In looking at the issues facing the scalability of the game’s backend, the process includes far more than simply dealing with server capacity. We are focused on keeping the game stable for fans, and iterating on the game’s concurrent capacity in order to minimize player wait times. We want to do this the right way, and we want to be prepared for massive scale when we officially launch, all the while continuing to improve the beta with frequent updates, additional features, and improvements to server capacity.”

1047 Games says that it has several content updates planned for fans across the rest of the year whilst further changes to the game's backend framework continue to be rolled out. Splitgate's first content update will feature on the game later today (August 19) and will bring with it a Ranked Duos mode as well as increased server capacity. 1047 Games will be announcing further updates in weeks to come including what the company describes as a 'significant announcement' at Gamescom 2021.

The development team at 1047 Games are certainly striving high with the FPS title. In a recent Q&A, the team discussed its hopes to bring the title to other platforms including a possible port to mobile and Nintendo Switch. For more on Splitgate, make sure to check out our review-in-progress for the game where we have so far awarded it a 7/10.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN who spends a lot of his time in Splitgate tentatively shooting through blank enemy portals. You can follow him on Twitter.

Skyblivion is a mod that’s very easy to explain: it’s aiming to bring the entirety of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion into the engine used by The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. But the reality isn’t that the team of volunteers making it simply wants to upscale the 2006 game we already know – they want to make the dream version of the game that Bethesda’s developers had in their heads back when they came up with Oblivion.

In a way, the Skyblivion team is treating Oblivion like a sketch, and painting in new details drawn from a number of sources. Seen in a recent dev diary, areas like the city of Leyawiin have been fully redesigned based on unused Oblivion concept art, bringing to life ideas that could never be realised in the original game. Others, like the Fall Forest, have been expanded and enriched with more foliage and areas of interest, with the Skyblivion team guessing at what the original designers might have aimed for with more technological grunt at their disposal.

This mixture of realising unused ideas and adding modern sheen to areas left fairly basic is part of the Skyblivion team’s philosophy. “We are definitely taking some creative freedom here and there,” project lead K Rebel tells me over email. “If we didn’t, you might as well replay the original Oblivion. Rest assured, though, that we are approaching this as fans of Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls games.”

You can see a Skyblivion quest in action below:

“Our cities, interiors, dungeons and environments are larger and filled with a lot more detail than anything in Oblivion, and in many cases Skyrim too,” K Rebel continues. “This already feels like we added some ‘cut content’, as I’m sure the original developers would have loved to create a bigger and more detailed world, but in the end were held back by the technology of the time. For example, a lot of the fortresses from the original Oblivion were singular towers, which in a lot of cases we have rebuilt into actual fortresses that are inspired by the stories you can find about them.”

It’s not just the world that will see those improvements, but the game’s mechanics, too. “Our approach to this project is similar in a lot of ways to any other AAA game's development cycle. We focus our efforts redesigning areas of the game that need it the most, such as environments and unique weapons. Nobody likes finishing a long questline only to receive a generic sword, or exploring through empty forests.”

For the initial release, at least, there is a line being drawn on what can be added, though. The first goal – and one the team’s been working on for many years already – is to bring to life a new version of the original Oblivion, while keeping its basic make-up intact. “Anything else that wasn’t part of the original game won’t be touched until after our first public release,” K Rebel explains. “We have recovered a big list of [cut] quests, for instance, but unless our questing department has time to spare before the release these won’t be added until later.”

That goes for the original game’s DLC, too – the 1.0 version of Skyblivion will include the team’s take on the base version of Oblivion, so don’t expect to be able to use the infamous horse armour right away.

Even while still in development, Skyblivion feels like a fascinating mixture of homage and fan fiction, resulting in something that doesn’t sit totally comfortably in either camp. I ask whether K Rebel sees this game as designed for those who already love Oblivion, or those who never played it: “It depends. I think that people who have recently played through Oblivion will be able to really appreciate Skyblivion on a new level, as they can clearly see how much work has been put into remaking this game. On the other hand, I think a lot of people, including myself, would kill to be able to re-experience Oblivion for the first time again – and on top of that a version of Oblivion which has much improved environments, better unique weapons and is overall a less janky and buggy experience (although a lot of this jank is what gave Oblivion its goofy charm).”

Of course, the worry that hangs over any project like this is that, no matter the good intention, a developer or publisher might see it as theft rather than tribute. Thankfully, the Skyblivion team doesn’t see trouble on its horizon. “There has been some contact with Bethesda, but projects like these are in a bit of a legal grey area,” K Rebel admits. “Bethesda allows us to do what we do but won’t openly support it. Having that said, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to a number of Bethesda employees, some of which even worked on Oblivion, and they had nothing but kind things to say about our project, which has been very humbling to say the least. A takedown is something I can safely say I never see happening.”

The last major question is when we might be able to try Skyblivion for the first time – and it’s really the only question K Rebel can’t give me an answer for. The project lead explains that the team has an unwritten rule not to promise a date, but that they are working on a public road map to make the road to the finish line a little clearer.

It’s a fair answer (if a slightly unsatisfying one for those excited by the prospect of the mod) – this is a team made up purely of volunteers, working on the game in their spare time. It’s a mammoth project, and one that K Rebel says takes up practically all of their spare time. So why take it on? In a way, it seems to be that making the dream version of Oblivion is, in itself, the dream:

“I think once you get to a certain age, everyone is going to try and chase their childhood. When I read comments on our updates I think that’s something that our ‘fans’ are the most excited for – reliving a memory from the past. For me personally though, the project started out as a dream to work on my own game and make it what I wanted it to be. This soon grew into a massive project that we want to work on together and are able to make it everything we want it to be in an Elder Scrolls game. We may not get paid for our work but it’s a really unique experience to be able to work with like-minded individuals and work purely on something out of love and passion.”

Skyblivion is looking for volunteers to join its development team - you can sign up here, or follow the team on Twitter.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

It seems unfathomable that ten years after the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched, the game could still have any secrets yet to be uncovered. But following on from yesterdays developer revelations about a bee derailing one of the most well-known (and memed) openings in video games, another development secret has been revealed, this time regarding the game’s treasure hunting foxes.

The story comes by the way of Joel Burgess, who was a developer at Bethesda during the creation of Skyrim. In a series of tweets, he outlined one of the games biggest post-launch rumours about mysterious foxes that would appear and lead players to treasure chests and other goodies.

Alright, so inspired by @NPurkeypile's bee post yesterday, here is one of my favorite bits of Skyrim oral history - the myth of the treasure fox.

I've told this story before in talks/etc, but I don't think I've shared it with twitter. Here goes. pic.twitter.com/7uaUlbpmQ8

— Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) August 18, 2021

Burgess outlined that after the game released, a number of players would tip each other off that if you followed the game's many foxes, they would lead you to areas of the map filled with treasure. Since this had never been a deliberate feature that had been added into the game, Burgess was naturally confused, and quickly sought to uncover how and why this was happening.

From consulting with other members of the development team, Jean Simonet, Jonah Lobe, and Mark Teare, it quickly became apparent that the culprit was not part of the game’s script at all, but part of the navmesh system, “an invisible 3D sheet of polygons that is laid over the world, telling AI where it can and cannot go”. Once spooked, the foxes were supposed to flee along a generated path, using the navmesh for guidance. But for some reason, the fox would automatically flee towards the area with the largest number of triangles on the navmesh.

Skyrim uses something called 'navmesh' for AI navigation.

For non-dev folks, this is an invisible 3D sheet of polygons that is laid over the world, telling AI where it can and cannot go.

This red stuff is navmesh. You can read about it here: https://t.co/3vutoKhEHk pic.twitter.com/W37PHbxeDi

— Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) August 18, 2021

The answer to this strange behaviour was eventually discovered: it was happening because the fox fleeing would travel 100 triangles away, as opposed to using real-world measurements, such as 100 metres away.

"You know where it's easy to find 100 triangles? The camps/ruins/etc that we littered the world with, and filled with treasure to reward your exploration," said Burgess.

Areas of interest like camps and treasure caches contained large numbers of triangles due to the increase in detail, and so in its hunt for a lot of triangles to travel over in order to flee, the foxs' AI routine pretty much always took them to a camp or something similar. In Burgess’s words: “foxes aren't leading you to treasure - but the way they behave is leading them to areas that tend to HAVE treasure, because POIs w/loot have other attributes (lots of small navmesh triangles) that the foxes ARE pursuing”.

So there you have it: another story of how tricky and unpredictable game development can be. And another example of how, ten years after launch, games can still throw up surprises, quirks, and interesting tales here and there.

For more from Skyrim, check out the news of it receiving an FPS boost on Xbox Series X, our favourite console-friendly Skyrim mods, and the copy of Skyrim that sold for $600.

Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman.

DC and Warner Bros Home Entertainment have unveiled the main cast for Catwoman: Hunted, an new anime-style film that premieres next year.

The line up for DC's latest animated feature, as announced by The Hollywood Reporter, will star Elizabeth Gillies (Victorious, Dynasty) as Catwoman. Stephanie Beatriz, best known for her portrayal of Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will play Batwoman.

The film also features voice work from The Walking Dead's Lauren Cohan, will take up the role of Alfred Pennyworth's daughter Julia. Veteran voice actor Steve Blum - best known for his work as the voice of Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bepop and as Wolverine across a number of different X-Men - will play Soloman Grundy.

DC's nefarious Black Mask will feature in the film, played by Jonathan Banks of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame. Other stars include Keith David as DC kingpin Tobias Whale, Zehra Fazal as Talia al Ghul and Nosferata, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Barbara Minerva / Cheetah, Jonathan Frakes as Boss Moxie and King Faraday, Kelly Hu as Cheshire, Eric Lopez as Domino 1, Andrew Kishino as Mr. Yakuza and Domino 6, Jaqueline Obrados as La Dama, and Ron Yuan as Doctor Tzin.

According to THR, the film starts with Catwoman stealing a priceless jewel, which for one reason or another puts her on a treacherous path up against the film's many foes. With a whole host of criminal masterminds up against Catwoman, it will be interesting to see how the film shares the spotlight between its consortium of supervillains.

As for its reported anime style, the film is set to be directed by Shinsuke Terasawa. He is known for his work as a director and animator on projects including Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Ball Z, and Gintama. Meanwhile, the script is being written by Greg Weisman, who has worked on a number of animated shows before, including Young Justice and Marvel's The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Catwoman: Hunted which is expected to premiere in early 2022. For more DC-related news, make sure to check out the news of the DC comic character that seemingly came out as bisexual in a recent issue.

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

Marvel has released a new trailer for Eternals, and it shows off more of the group's powers, and the Deviants they're fighting off.

The new trailer, below, not only shows off some of the relationships between the Eternals, but a lot more action – including showing us their powers in action. We see Ikaris firing cosmic energy from his eyes, Thena manifesting weapons, and Makkari running at super-speed.

We also get a good look at the Deviant threat, seemingly including Kro, the Deviant leader who has a previous relationship with Angelina Jolie's Thena. And above all of that, we also get a glimpse at a Celestial, the cosmic gods that (in the comics) created both the Eternals and the Deviants.

As we learned about yesterday, it also dives a little deeper into why the group of extraterrestrial superheroes weren't a part of the MCU before now. The new trailer features Kit Harrington's Dane Whitman asking Gemma Chan's Cersei why the Eternals didn't become a part of the fight against Thanos, or any other human war. The reply: "We were instructed not to interfere in any human conflicts unless Deviants were involved." That instruction is implied to have come from the Celestials themselves.

The trailer also comes alongside a new poster showing off the entire cast of heroes in their costumes:

Eternals arrives on November 5, and if you feel like you need some background info on the new super-group, we have a full Marvel's Eternals explainer. You can also look back at the official Eternals teaser trailer and watch this who's who breakdown of the trailer after that.

For more, read IGN's explainer of Kit Harington's Black Knight character and then check out this story about how Eternals has a similar style to Nomadland. Listen to Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani explain why each cast member was selected for the movie after that.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Disney has revealed more about its new Genie Service for Walt Disney World and Disneyland and the new paid Genie+ and Lightning Lane system that is set to replace FASTPASS, FastPass+, and Disney MaxPass in Fall 2021.

As detailed on Disney Parks Blog, Disney Genie is a new digital service that is built into the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps and includes personalized itineraries that can help you plan each day at the parks, a way to join virtual queues at certain attractions, the ability to make dining and experience reservations, and much more.

Discover Disney Genie service, a great new offering designed to make planning your best Disney day at @WaltDisneyWorld Resort or @Disneyland Resort that much easier. It’s all coming this fall. https://t.co/jtwe1XBdwH pic.twitter.com/vS6AkEuVCB

— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) August 18, 2021

Guests can tell Disney Genie what their "wishes" are for a trip, whether they include Disney Princesses, Star Wars, certain types of foods or restaurants, etc. The service will then help plan out a day, and it will update throughout the day so you know exactly what's next. It also has forecasted wait times, restaurant waitlists, a virtual assistant, and more.

For those who want a bit more out of their Disney experience, there are paid options to help guests ride the rides they want in a less stressful way. Genie+ will be available to Walt Disney World guests for $15/ticket/day, while those at Disneyland will have to pay $20/ticket/day. Once purchased, this will allow guests to make one ride selection at a time throughout the day - "from classics like Haunted Mansion to thrill rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and newer favorites like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run."

As to why there is a price difference between the two parks, Disney Parks, Experience, and Products chairman Josh D'Amaro shared the reasoning on D23.com.

"When we went into the pandemic, at Disneyland MaxPass was priced at $20, and we know that was working well," D'Amaro said. "So we are starting with Genie+ at $20. At Walt Disney World, the product is just coming in so it’s new for a lot of our fans. We also know that the length of stay at Walt Disney World is longer. So we’re thinking about pricing as related to all those factors."

Those who purchase Disney Genie+ will also gain access to Disney parks-themed audio experiences and "photo features to capture your memories - augmented reality lenses for those visiting Walt Disney World Resort and unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads from your day if you are visiting Disneyland Resort."

If that isn't enough, there will also be Lightning Lane selections that come with another charge on top of Genie+. Highly demanded attractions, including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom Park and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure, will soon feature a Lightning Lane entrance for guests who want to pay extra. While pricing hasn't been revealed yet for these, Disney did say that guests will be able to book two of these attractions per day and that "pricing for this option will vary by date, attraction and park and will be announced closer to launch."

Lightning Lane selections are made on the same day as your visit, and can be used across parks. Some rides, like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, will continue to use a traditional standby queue or a virtual queue.

Disney is also making changes to its Disability Access Service (DAS) program, and will allow guests to enroll in the program before they arrive and for DAS participants to select attractions within the app.

For more on new things headed to the Disney parks, be sure to check out Disneyland's new Magic Key Annual Pass program and the latest information and the first official look at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a two-night Star Wars experience headed to Walt Disney World in Spring 2022.

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.

This article has been updated since its original publication on August 16.

What a difference an article makes.

Dune director Denis Villeneuve recently revealed Zendaya will play a leading role and not the lead role in the planned sci-fi sequel, as we originally reported here.

However, IGN has learned an important distinction (via IndieWire): Zendaya will be the lead female protagonist in Dune, Part Two, and not the lead protagonist. Timothee Chalamet's Paul Atreides remains the central focus of the sequel, which is in keeping with the scope of Chani's role in Frank Herbert's original novel.

Our original story below has been updated to reflect that clarification.

Speaking with Italian magazine Il Venerdì di Repubblica, per DuneInfo (and translated independently by IGN), Villeneuve expressed his eagerness to work on Dune: Part 2 and even confirmed that Zendaya would emerge as a protagonist of the adaptation's next installment, with Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides remaining the main focus of the upcoming release.

"I'm honoured to present on-screen two talents [Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya] that are so explosive, and I can't wait to shoot the second part of Dune to get them back together. Knowing that in the next chapter Zendaya will be the [female] protagonist of the story," Villeneuve explained, briefly touching on the prospect of the Spider-Man actress' enhanced role.

Villeneuve's upcoming Dune movie is the first of a planned duology adapting Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel, which chronicles a power struggle between the warring houses of Atreides and Harkonnen in a distant future where a psychotropic "spice" known as Melange is the most coveted resource in all the universe.

In the movie, Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, a gifted scholar and warrior whose very existence threatens the balance of power in the galaxy. He is forced to grow up quickly when his family encounters major hardships in their move to the desert planet Arrakis, where he must unite the free tribes of Dune and restore the honor of House Atreides.

Zendaya stars opposite Chalamet, portraying Chani, a girl who first appears as a recurring presence in Paul's dreams. She is instrumental in helping Paul learn the ways of the Fremen and seize his destiny as an intergalactic revolutionary.

In addition to Chalamet and Zendaya, Dune also stars Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica Atreides, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Dr. Liet Kynes, and Javier Bardem as Stilgar, amongst others.

Dune has been in production for several years now. It was originally set for a November 2020 release, but was subsequently delayed a year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite reports of a 45-day exclusive theatrical release window, it is currently set for a same-day release in theaters and HBO Max.

If you want to know more, here's everything you need to know about the movie, and why the adaptation will be split across two movies. Dune will be out on October 22.

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