Yearly Archives: 2020

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Star Says The Gang Will Tackle the Pandemic

It's Always Sunny's Rob McElhenney, who recently unleashed a new "quarantine" episode of his Apple TV series Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, has assured fans that - yes - once Sunny returns, we're going to see an episode that takes on the COVID-19 crisis. In a recent chat with NME, McElhenney recalled Season 9 of Always Sunny, which had ‘The Gang Gets Quarantined." "Well, we actually do have an episode...where we quarantine ourselves in the bar," he said. "I think there’s a big flu going around Philadelphia or something like that. “When we come back, don’t worry, we will address all this in the way only Sunny can!” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/15/mythic-quest-ravens-banquet-official-quarantine-teaser-trailer-rob-mcelhenney-danny-pudi"] Though there's no official word yet from FX regarding new seasons, McElhenney insists that "Sunny very much still exists." "We’re still in active negotiations for season 15 and 16 and we’re hoping that as soon as we get out of Mythic Quest season, we jump right into something new with Sunny.' With Sunny now prominently in its second decade, how much more gas is in the tank? “How many years do I have on this planet? I’ll do it forever,” McElhenney said. "If people keep watching it and we keep having fun, why would we ever stop? It’s my dream job.” In other TV news, check out everything we know about Netflix's Umbrella Academy ahead of Season 2, Steve Carell talking about his new Netfix comedy Space Force, and more on Ruby Rose's exit from The CW's Batwoman. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=rick-and-morty-the-10-biggest-wtf-moments&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Killing Wolverine Was an Easy Choice for Logan Director James Mangold

After almost two decades of playing Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, Hugh Jackman's tenure as the iconic Marvel mutant came to an end in 2017's Logan, which saw our hero perish from wounds sustained while protecting young Laura (aka "X-23") and other mutant children from the Reavers. It's a decision that director James Mangold, who also helmed 2013's The Wolverine, says was logical. Comicbook.com spoke to Mangold, ahead of its upcoming Logan Watch Party, and he explained "The process is a lot less of a committee than you'd think. It was really Hugh [Jackman] and I at first. It seemed logical, that if it were going to be his last film, that he's either going to ride off onto the horizon or die, that you need to have some kind of curtain on his story." "You either have the Shane ending where he rides off on the mountain to parts unknown," he added, "which had largely been the way his character was resolved in every preceding movie, or you'd kill him." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-superhero-directors-cuts-you-can-stream-now&captions=true"] "The reason the choice was at our feet was because you needed the sense of closure," Mangold continued. "You needed some sense of an ending if you were going to end, if you were dealing with the legacy of Hugh's many performances and many films, and trying to set this part in some definitive way." Mangold's The Wolverine wound up on our short list of Best Superhero Director's Cuts that you can now stream, along with Zack Snyder's Watchmen, The Rogue Cut of X-Men: Days of Future Past and more. A few weeks back, we dug up Hugh Jackman's first filmed audition and screen test for 2000's X-Men for a loving look back at the actor's Weapon X legacy. In other comic book movie news, Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League is headed to HBO Max in 2021 after Warner Bros. spends around $20-30 million to complete hotly-anticipated project. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/21/justice-league-the-snyder-cut-official-hbo-max-announcement"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Killing Wolverine Was an Easy Choice for Logan Director James Mangold

After almost two decades of playing Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, Hugh Jackman's tenure as the iconic Marvel mutant came to an end in 2017's Logan, which saw our hero perish from wounds sustained while protecting young Laura (aka "X-23") and other mutant children from the Reavers. It's a decision that director James Mangold, who also helmed 2013's The Wolverine, says was logical. Comicbook.com spoke to Mangold, ahead of its upcoming Logan Watch Party, and he explained "The process is a lot less of a committee than you'd think. It was really Hugh [Jackman] and I at first. It seemed logical, that if it were going to be his last film, that he's either going to ride off onto the horizon or die, that you need to have some kind of curtain on his story." "You either have the Shane ending where he rides off on the mountain to parts unknown," he added, "which had largely been the way his character was resolved in every preceding movie, or you'd kill him." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-superhero-directors-cuts-you-can-stream-now&captions=true"] "The reason the choice was at our feet was because you needed the sense of closure," Mangold continued. "You needed some sense of an ending if you were going to end, if you were dealing with the legacy of Hugh's many performances and many films, and trying to set this part in some definitive way." Mangold's The Wolverine wound up on our short list of Best Superhero Director's Cuts that you can now stream, along with Zack Snyder's Watchmen, The Rogue Cut of X-Men: Days of Future Past and more. A few weeks back, we dug up Hugh Jackman's first filmed audition and screen test for 2000's X-Men for a loving look back at the actor's Weapon X legacy. In other comic book movie news, Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League is headed to HBO Max in 2021 after Warner Bros. spends around $20-30 million to complete hotly-anticipated project. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/21/justice-league-the-snyder-cut-official-hbo-max-announcement"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Mass Effect 2 Writer Reveals Origin of Hilariously Awkward Romance Prompt

Mass Effect 2 writer Patrick Weekes took to Twitter late last week to discuss how one of the game’s most infamously awkward romance prompts made it into the game, as first reported by Fanbyte.

Spoilers for Mass Effect 2 below:

In Mass Effect 2, if players opt for the female version of Commander Shepard, they’re eventually presented with the chance to romance Thane, the green-skinned drell assassin. Thane’s a bit of a complicated fellow. He’s an assassin who prefers to kill his targets up close and relatively painlessly, and being intensely spiritual, he prays for his forgiveness after each assassination. Unfortunately, Thane’s line of work eventually caught up to him and his family. His wife, Irikah, was killed by a band of mercenaries whose leader had been assassinated by Thane, and Thane left his son Kolyat in the care of his extended family. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/09/10/history-of-awesome-mass-effect"] As the player, we learn a lot of this during our major conversations with Thane, where the duality of Thane’s troubled life and his softspoken nature clash. Literally moments after Thane reveals details about his wife's tragic murder, the player is presented with two dialogue options: “Just focus on your son” and the laughably unsubtle “I want you, Thane.” Weekes took the opportunity to explain how a combination of a tight schedule, bug reports, and the restrictions of 2009-era game development (no major game patches) resulted in one of the franchise’s most awkward dialogue paraphrases.

"Late 2009. I'm on Mass Effect 2," Weekes says. "Given that we're only a few months from ship, Mass Effect 2 is also on me. I'm one of a few writers left on the project, tackling bugs. A bug comes in saying that there's a lack of clarity around the opt-in to Thane's romance -- you only get one chance to choose to romance him, and they're missing it, and therefore missing a bunch of content. And some folks are opting in by accident, too. Thane's writer has left the team, so I look at the conversation. It's a great conversation! But I can also see how you could look at the dialogue options and not realize that one of them is you saying, "Let's start a relationship." So, yes, needs to be fixed.

"2020 Brain: Wouldn't the big heart icon make that clear? Aha, but this is 2009. ME2 (and even ME3) didn't use icons to indicate that you were entering a relationship. No hover text on big choices, either! (See also, "How people accidentally ended up showering with Traynor.") "2020 Brain: Okay, so let's rewrite the end of the scene, touching the original writer's lines as lightly as possible, to add a clean chance to opt into a romance with Thane. "Aha, but this is LATE 2009. This scene is LOCKED. No dialogue changes possible. Game DONE, yo. Thane is talking about how his wife died. He's never told anyone. A Shepard who wants to romance Thane tells him she's there for Thane to lean on, whatever he needs. "Original paraphase was something like, "I'm here for you." The writer (Chris L'Etoile) did an amazing job. "But players who wanted to romance Thane didn't understand that this dialogue choice was their one and only chance to get onto a romance path with him. "And players who DIDN'T want to romance Thane didn't like stumbling onto it by accident. "2009 Me: So I have no heart icon, I can't change the dialogue at all. Literally I can do is change the paraphrase, and I have to change it so nobody has any doubt about what this line indicates. "2009 Me: Nailed it."
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"Did 2009 Me think this was a good paraphrase?" Weekes continued. "WOW NO! Was it the best 2009 Me could come up with to be 100% clear, with no other changes available and paraphrases limited to 30 characters? APPARENTLY YES! Every time I see this play on Twitch, the player makes fun of the paraphrase. "Subtle, Shepard!" And they are totally right! I wish we'd caught this earlier, so I could've changed the lines or done SOMETHING less clunky than this. But this is what last-minute fixes look like."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/09/9-live-action-game-trailers-better-than-most-video-game-movies"] Weekes finished their Twitter thread saying they're glad that game developers have the tools to include more explicit icons and text that makes it clear what you're character is getting into before committing to a dialogue choice. When asked what they'd do differently using that same 2009 tech, Weekes said they'd change the prompt to you "'You matter to me, Thane.' < 30 characters, about as clear, and much cleaner as a topic transition." Years later, it's still pretty funny. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he's here for you. Romance him on Twitter.

Mass Effect 2 Writer Reveals Origin of Hilariously Awkward Romance Prompt

Mass Effect 2 writer Patrick Weekes took to Twitter late last week to discuss how one of the game’s most infamously awkward romance prompts made it into the game, as first reported by Fanbyte.

Spoilers for Mass Effect 2 below:

In Mass Effect 2, if players opt for the female version of Commander Shepard, they’re eventually presented with the chance to romance Thane, the green-skinned drell assassin. Thane’s a bit of a complicated fellow. He’s an assassin who prefers to kill his targets up close and relatively painlessly, and being intensely spiritual, he prays for his forgiveness after each assassination. Unfortunately, Thane’s line of work eventually caught up to him and his family. His wife, Irikah, was killed by a band of mercenaries whose leader had been assassinated by Thane, and Thane left his son Kolyat in the care of his extended family. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/09/10/history-of-awesome-mass-effect"] As the player, we learn a lot of this during our major conversations with Thane, where the duality of Thane’s troubled life and his softspoken nature clash. Literally moments after Thane reveals details about his wife's tragic murder, the player is presented with two dialogue options: “Just focus on your son” and the laughably unsubtle “I want you, Thane.” Weekes took the opportunity to explain how a combination of a tight schedule, bug reports, and the restrictions of 2009-era game development (no major game patches) resulted in one of the franchise’s most awkward dialogue paraphrases.

"Late 2009. I'm on Mass Effect 2," Weekes says. "Given that we're only a few months from ship, Mass Effect 2 is also on me. I'm one of a few writers left on the project, tackling bugs. A bug comes in saying that there's a lack of clarity around the opt-in to Thane's romance -- you only get one chance to choose to romance him, and they're missing it, and therefore missing a bunch of content. And some folks are opting in by accident, too. Thane's writer has left the team, so I look at the conversation. It's a great conversation! But I can also see how you could look at the dialogue options and not realize that one of them is you saying, "Let's start a relationship." So, yes, needs to be fixed.

"2020 Brain: Wouldn't the big heart icon make that clear? Aha, but this is 2009. ME2 (and even ME3) didn't use icons to indicate that you were entering a relationship. No hover text on big choices, either! (See also, "How people accidentally ended up showering with Traynor.") "2020 Brain: Okay, so let's rewrite the end of the scene, touching the original writer's lines as lightly as possible, to add a clean chance to opt into a romance with Thane. "Aha, but this is LATE 2009. This scene is LOCKED. No dialogue changes possible. Game DONE, yo. Thane is talking about how his wife died. He's never told anyone. A Shepard who wants to romance Thane tells him she's there for Thane to lean on, whatever he needs. "Original paraphase was something like, "I'm here for you." The writer (Chris L'Etoile) did an amazing job. "But players who wanted to romance Thane didn't understand that this dialogue choice was their one and only chance to get onto a romance path with him. "And players who DIDN'T want to romance Thane didn't like stumbling onto it by accident. "2009 Me: So I have no heart icon, I can't change the dialogue at all. Literally I can do is change the paraphrase, and I have to change it so nobody has any doubt about what this line indicates. "2009 Me: Nailed it."
EYpiItUUMAAjvVj

"Did 2009 Me think this was a good paraphrase?" Weekes continued. "WOW NO! Was it the best 2009 Me could come up with to be 100% clear, with no other changes available and paraphrases limited to 30 characters? APPARENTLY YES! Every time I see this play on Twitch, the player makes fun of the paraphrase. "Subtle, Shepard!" And they are totally right! I wish we'd caught this earlier, so I could've changed the lines or done SOMETHING less clunky than this. But this is what last-minute fixes look like."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/09/9-live-action-game-trailers-better-than-most-video-game-movies"] Weekes finished their Twitter thread saying they're glad that game developers have the tools to include more explicit icons and text that makes it clear what you're character is getting into before committing to a dialogue choice. When asked what they'd do differently using that same 2009 tech, Weekes said they'd change the prompt to you "'You matter to me, Thane.' < 30 characters, about as clear, and much cleaner as a topic transition." Years later, it's still pretty funny. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he's here for you. Romance him on Twitter.

Tenet’s John David Washington Admits the Movie’s Plot Confused the Actors

With the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's Tenet raising way more questions than answers -- as the release date still stands at July 17, 2020 -- star John David Washington recently revealed that he and the other actors were often just as confused about the movie's plot as fans watching the teaser. Speaking to Geoff Keighley during the trailer launch on Fortnite (via Comicbook.com), Washington said, "Every day I had questions for [Nolan]. But he was very gracious, and he answered them very calmly and patiently." "It was important that the actors could track the story correctly," Washington laughed, "so we could tell it the best way we could, and he was very patient with us. I say that very politely." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/tenet-official-trailer-2"] "Really, it's interesting, because there are just little nuggets of information and just breadcrumbs of information about the movie that I'm surprised [Nolan] was willing to reveal," he continued. "And I love that he did." As Christopher Nolan advocates for Tenet to only be shown in theaters, AMC Theaters, a month ago, released a statement indicating they won't be reopening movie theaters until closer to the release of major summer blockbusters like Tenet. A month previous to this, Nolan wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about the importance of saving and supporting movie theaters. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tenet-cast&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Tenet’s John David Washington Admits the Movie’s Plot Confused the Actors

With the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's Tenet raising way more questions than answers -- as the release date still stands at July 17, 2020 -- star John David Washington recently revealed that he and the other actors were often just as confused about the movie's plot as fans watching the teaser. Speaking to Geoff Keighley during the trailer launch on Fortnite (via Comicbook.com), Washington said, "Every day I had questions for [Nolan]. But he was very gracious, and he answered them very calmly and patiently." "It was important that the actors could track the story correctly," Washington laughed, "so we could tell it the best way we could, and he was very patient with us. I say that very politely." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/tenet-official-trailer-2"] "Really, it's interesting, because there are just little nuggets of information and just breadcrumbs of information about the movie that I'm surprised [Nolan] was willing to reveal," he continued. "And I love that he did." As Christopher Nolan advocates for Tenet to only be shown in theaters, AMC Theaters, a month ago, released a statement indicating they won't be reopening movie theaters until closer to the release of major summer blockbusters like Tenet. A month previous to this, Nolan wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about the importance of saving and supporting movie theaters. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tenet-cast&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

John Wick Creator Wants to Adapt Two Very Weird Video Games for TV

John Wick franchise creator Derek Kolstad says he’s interested in adapting two peculiar video game IPs for television: The popular survival-horror/Disney parody Bendy and the Ink Machine and the shoot-em-up about a talking banana, My Friend Pedro.

Kolstad made the remark in an interview with Comicbook.com, revealing that he’s working on pitches for both shows in between his many other current projects.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/20/my-friend-pedro-review"]

"Well, I am doing A Company Man for David Leitch. I'm doing A Map From Nowhere for Chad Stahelski over at New Line. Both of them are remakes of movies that I fucking love. I've got A Darker Shade Of Magic, over at Sony, which has been a joy, with Victoria Schwab," Kolstad told Comicbook. "I'm going out with a pitch for a television series based on the My Friend Pedro video game, as well as for Bendy and the Ink Machine. I am playing any... It's funny, the reason I'm answering it this way, literally, I have these Post-It notes on my computer of, 'This is what I'm working on today.'"

"To be honest, I love it all," Kolstad continued. "Those are at the forefront, but at any given moment, people are jumping on the horn and we're talking The Janson Directive or we're talking Death Machine, we're talking actors with IP, sound men. I got to tell you, man, I'm still a little kid at this and I f****** love it. If I can emulate and replicate any success I've had with John Wick elsewhere, I'm going to be that 11-year-old that snuck into an R-rated movie, giggling." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/11/21/bendy-and-the-ink-machine-launch-trailer-pegi"]

Bendy and the Ink Machine debuted in 2017, releasing episodically until a complete and updated version was released. The game told the story of a retired animator named Henry Stein, who visits his old studio after receiving a mysterious invitation from his former boss Joey Drew. Upon arriving at the studio (designed to look eerily similar to Steamboat Willy-era Mickey Mouse cartoons), Henry discovers that some malevolent force has warped the facility and spawned monstrous versions of classic cartoon creations. The game proved massively popular fodder for Youtubers, with its unique visual style and survival horror scares, and spawned a merchandise line, a mobile spin-off, a short prequel installment, and an upcoming sequel.

My Friend Pedro is, somehow, even sillier than a horror game about a Mickey Mouse parody. It follows an unnamed protagonist as he violently murders enemies at the behest of a sentient talking banana named Pedro. It, uh...goes places. The gameplay itself would put even John Wick to shame, with the player character performing dazzling feats of ballet to pull off increasingly crazy trick shots throughout each level. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-delayed-movie-due-to-coronavirus-so-far&captions=true"] Given that Kolstad is just in the pitching process, it’s unclear if we’ll ever see either adaptation hit the big or little screen. Kolstad certainly already has plenty of upcoming projects on his plate, including the now delayed release of John Wick Chapter 4, which was pushed back to May 27, 2022.