Author: Trafficblast

At today’s Disney+ Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, Disney revealed premiere dates and new images for such shows as Loki, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Monsters at Work, and more.

Following Marvel’s The Falcon and Winter Soldier’s debut on Disney+ on March 19, it was revealed that Loki will premiere on June 11, 2021. Taking place after Avengers: Endgame, this series will see the return of Tom Hiddleston as Loki alongside Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant.

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which follows the elite and experimental clones of the titular Bad Batch, will see its first episode arrive on Disney + on May 4, 2021.

On March 26, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers will make its debut, and will be followed by Big Shot, a new series that stars John Stamos, on April 16, 2021.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series will return for its second season on Friday, May 14, and will follow the East High Wildcats as they prepare to perform Beauty and the Beast as their spring musical.

The second season of Zenimation will arrive on June 11 and will provide another mindfulness soundscape experience with scenes from eight decades of Walt Disney Animation Studios films.

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On June 25, The Mysterious Benedict Society will debut on Disney+ and follows a group of orphans who must “foil a nefarious plot with global ramifications while creating a new sort of family along the way.”

July 2 will see the return of everyone’s favorite monsters in Monsters At Work. It stars Ben Feldman as Tylor Tuskmon, but will also feature Billy Crystal’s Mike Wazowski and John Goodman’s James P. “Sulley” Sullivan.”

Turner & Hooch will premiere on July 16, and stars Josh Peck as Scott Turner, who also happens to be the son of Detective Scott Turner from the 1989 film on the same name starring Tom Hanks.

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Lastly, Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life will debut on Friday, July 23. This series will combine classic-style cartoon comedy with contemporary storytelling and will contain 36 seven-minute episodes.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

Disney+ has officially revealed a May 4 premiere date for Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an all-new animated series from Lucasfilm.

During the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour on Wednesday, Disney+ paneled some of its upcoming series and officially announced the release date for Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The Clone Wars spinoff series will debut on the streaming service on May 4, also known as Star Wars Day, a recurring holiday that celebrates the long-spanning intergalactic franchise.

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch as they find their way through a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars. Members of Bad Batch — a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew.

The troopers, formally known as the Clone Force 99 squad, were first introduced in the opening storyline of The Clone Wars: Season 7. Acting as both a sequel and a spinoff to the beloved CG-animated series, The Bad Batch series will pick up shortly after the end of the war, exploring the team’s new existence as mercenaries and their struggle to find a purpose.

The upcoming series is helmed by a number of Star Wars veterans, including executive producers Dave Filoni, Athena Portillo, Brad Rau, and Jennifer Corbett, together with co-executive producer Carrie Beck and producer Josh Rimes. Rau is also credited as the supervising director of the series, while Corbett is head writer. Both previously worked on Star Wars Resistance together.

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The Bad Batch is just the latest Star Wars series to be slotted into the Disney+ schedule, following two seasons of The Mandalorian. Fans can also look forward to a Rogue One prequel series focused on Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, an Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor, and a mysterious female-led series from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland.

For even more from the galaxy far, far away, read our roundup of Star Wars TV shows, video games, comics, and everything else coming out of the franchise this year.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Pokemon Go‘s next season of content kicks off on March 1, and it’ll include new Legendary Pokemon, as well as various events and in-game bonuses. Developer Niantic has now outlined some of the biggest events it has in store for the game throughout March, from the debut of Therian forms to new Bonus Hour events and more.

March 2021 Research Breakthrough Reward: Gible

As usual, Niantic is rolling out a new batch of Field Research tasks and rewards starting March 1. In addition to the standard rewards, the studio is offering a new Research Breakthrough encounter next month. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in March, you’ll earn a chance to catch the Dragon-type Pokemon Gible.

Tornadus, Thundurus, And Landorus Raids

The Legendary Forces of Nature–Tornadus, Thundurus, and Landorus–are returning to five-star Raids throughout March. The Legendaries will appear in their standard Incarnate forms during the first half of the month, and you’ll have a chance to catch Shiny variants of each. After that, the Forces of Nature will return to Raids in their Therian forms, which up until now have not been available in Pokemon Go. You can see the full March Legendary Raid schedule below:

• March 1-6: Incarnate Forme Landorus
• March 6-11: Incarnate Forme Tornadus
• March 11-16: Incarnate Forme Thundurus
• March 16-30: Therian Forme Thundurus
• March 30-TBA: Therian Forme Tornadus

Pokemon Spotlight Hours

Every Tuesday evening in March, Niantic will spotlight a specific Pokemon and bonus for one hour, from 6-7 PM local time. You can see the full schedule of March’s Spotlight Hours below:

Date	Spotlight Pokemon	Special Bonus
March 2	Krabby	2x transfer Candy
March 9	Drowzee	2x evolution XP
March 16	Voltorb	2x catch Stardust
March 23	Surskit	2x catch XP
March 30	Slugma	2x catch Candy

March Community Day

March’s Community Day is set for Saturday, March 6. The featured Pokemon this month is Fletching. All throughout the event, Fletchling will appear in the wild more frequently than usual, and you’ll have your first opportunity to catch a Shiny Fletchling in the game. On top of that, all players who can evolve Fletchinder (Fletchling’s evolved form) either during the event or up to two hours afterword will get a Talonflame that knows Incinerate.

March Bonus Hours

Niantic is testing out a new type of event in March: Bonus Hours. Similar to Spotlight Hours, these events will take place from 6-7 PM local time on Thursday evenings, and they’ll each make a specific in-game bonus active for one hour. Here’s the schedule of Bonus Hour events:

• March 4 – Team Go Rocket balloons will be appearing more frequently
• March 11 – You’ll earn more Candy when you catch a Pokemon of the same type as your active Mega-Evolved Pokemon
• March 18 – More Mega Raids will be occurring

New Team Go Rocket Special Research

Niantic is rolling out another line of Special Research revolving around Team Go Rocket. Players who complete the research will earn another chance to battle Giovanni, who will have new Shadow Legendary Pokemon in his possession each month. In March, the Team Rocket leader will be using Shadow Articuno, while Shadow Zapdos and Shadow Moltres will be at his command in April and May, respectively.

Those aren’t the only activities happening in Pokemon Go next month. Niantic teases that it will have other events during the month, including a new Incense Day revolving around Psychic and Steel Pokemon, as well as a Weather Week featuring weather-themed Pokemon spawns, avatar items, and more. Additional details about these will be announced at a later date. In the meantime, you can read more about March’s biggest events on the Pokemon Go blog.

Update: Paramount+ has officially greenlit a Frasier revival series, with star Kelsey Grammer set to return.

The new series is written by Chris Harris (How I Met Your Mother) and Joe Cristalli (Life in Pieces). Harris and Cristalli will also executive produce the series alongside Grammer and Grammnet Productions’ Tom Russo and Jordan McMahon.

“Having spent over 20 years of my creative life on the Paramount lot, both producing shows and performing in several, I’d like to congratulate Paramount+ on its entry into the streaming world,” said Grammer in a statement. “I gleefully anticipate sharing the next chapter in the continuing journey of Dr. Frasier Crane.”

The original story is below:

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Dr. Frasier Crane may soon be making house calls again. TV Line reports a revival of the critically acclaimed sitcom Frasier is currently in development at Paramount+.

While it sounds as though the new series is in the early stages of development and hasn’t yet been given an official greenlight, star Kelsey Grammer is said to be attached. Production could begin as early as this summer, once Grammer finishes filming his upcoming ABC sitcom with costar Alec Baldwin.

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TV Line’s sources note Paramount is also hoping to bring back costars David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin “in some capacity.” Unfortunately, with the passing of John Maloney in 2018, the revival will have to write out his character, Martin Crane.

Word of a possible Frasier revival first surfaced in 2018. At the time, Deadline reported the new series would be set somewhere other than Seattle, paving the way for a new supporting cast. It’s unclear whether that’s still the plan with the current incarnation of the series. But with Frasier making IGN’s list of cancelled shows that deserve revivals, we’re just glad to see progress on the new series.

Frasier itself is a spinoff of the NBC sitcom Cheers. In both shows Grammer played Dr. Frasier Crane, a psychiatrist who hosts a call-in radio show. Grammer won four Emmys for his portrayal, as did Pierce, who played Frasier’s younger brother, Niles Crane. The show aired for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004 on NBC. If you’re wondering why the revival series is in the works at Paramount+ rather than NBCUniversal’s own Peacock, Paramount holds the rights to Frasier.

Paramount+ launches on March 4. This new streaming service is essentially a rebranding of the current CBS All Access service, and will “feature content from ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of broadcast, news, sports and entertainment brands.” Paramount+ is also scheduled to launch in international markets in 2021, beginning with Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics. The service will launch alongside the streaming debut of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

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

A new promotional video for Destory All Humans‘ 50% off sale on Steam includes a peculiar cameo that seemingly teases a possible remake for the action-adventure game’s sequel.

In the video, revealing a midweek discount for Destroy All Humans on Steam (which also includes sales across other platforms like PlayStation and Xbox), protagonist Crypto-137 is interrupted toward the end by a clone. The clone asks if he is done flaunting yet, to which 137 says for the “little tadpole” of a clone to wait his turn because 137 is “only getting started.”

Fans of the series would immediately be able to recognize the clone, but for the uninitiated, its Cryptosporidium-138, the main protagonist of Destroy All Humans 2. What gives 138 away is his outfit, which differs from 137 in that it’s darker and clad in gold accenting instead of blue.

THQ Nordic hasn’t publicly announced anything about a potential Destroy All Humans 2 remake yet, so it’s unclear if this teaser is a nostalgic cameo to get fans reinvested in the series or something else entirely. Senior producer Martin Kreuch recently told IGN that developer Black Forest Games may be onto something and “may have more intel to share soon.”

Originally launched in 2006, Destroy All Humans 2 is a sequel in the action-adventure series. It follows Crypto-138, who poses as the US president 10 years after the first game’s events.

On Wednesday, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige took questions at the first Disney+ Television Critics Association panel where he shared details about the company’s upcoming plans for the MCU.

Feige kept things mostly spoiler-free but gave insight into the development of ongoing Marvel shows like WandaVision, and provided updates on upcoming programs including She-Hulk and Moon Knight. And Feige left things open for future plans by acknowledging the fanbase for non-Disney+ shows like Netflix’s Daredevil and ABC’s Agents of SHIELD.

Feige’s plans for the MCU on Disney+ are already well underway. The TCA panel was hosted over Zoom, but Feige answered press questions from the set of Ms. Marvel, which he says is finishing up shooting. Hawkeye is also currently filming, with Jeremy Renner returning as Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld joining him as Kate Bishop.

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Beyond that, Feige also said She-Hulk will begin production “in a few weeks” and a “week or so after that” Moon Knight will also go into production.

Disney+ is clearly a big focus for Feige as more MCU shows enter the production pipeline. Some of these shows are being looked at as part of multi-season series, though Feige didn’t reveal which ones:

“Some of the shows that I mentioned that we’re about to start filming, we are keeping in mind a structure that would lead into a season two and a season three in a more direct way, than, say, a show like WandaVision, which clearly goes into a feature, but it is new.”

Feige was referring to how Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Wanda Maximoff, is already slated to appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness directed by Sam Raimi. So while there’s no season two of WandaVision planned, characters jumping from a show to a movie is part of the MCU connectivity.

“Sometimes it can go into a feature then back into a series,” said Feige. “We’ve announced that Ms. Marvel, after her debut on Disney+, will be going into the second Captain Marvel film, but sometimes, and yet to be announced, we are thinking of and planning second seasons for some of the upcoming series.”

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Feige also acknowledged the popularity of some non-Disney+ shows, though he made no mention of whether they will join the MCU. Feige said there are “legions of Agents of SHIELD fans and Daredevil fans, Jessica Jones fans and Luke Cage fans” who would disagree with one reporter’s assertion that Disney+ is Marvel’s first successful TV venture.

But whether these shows will join the MCU remains unknown. Though if you know about the big WandaVision spoiler, you’ll know something like that isn’t impossible.

Outside of Marvel’s TCA panel, Loki has received an official release date in June, a month delay after previously being announced for May. In non-TCA Marvel news, it was finally revealed that the title of the next Spider-Man movie is Spider-Man: No Way Home.

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Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.

Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, launches on PS5 and PS4 sometime in 2021. Without a doubt, it’s one of the most anticipated releases of this year, and with a PS5 State of Play livestream scheduled for this Thursday at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET, it’s possible we’ll learn even more details about the upcoming open-world adventure. In any case, PlayStation is clearly preparing for increased hype around the game, as new Horizon Forbidden West merch is available now from the PlayStation Gear Store. The Gear Store ships to the US, Canada, and Mexico–and most recently, it now ships to Europe as well.

The new Horizon merch line has released under developer Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Raw Materials brand and adds three T-shirts as well as three pieces of drinkware to the Gear Store’s Horizon collection. Each of the new tees is made of 100% cotton and features imagery from the game. There are also two new mugs and a water bottle, each of which has a minimalistic Horizon design and is vacuum-insulated to keep drinks hot or cold.

In addition to the new Horizon Raw Materials merch, the PlayStation Gear Store has brought back previously released Horizon products, like The Sunhawk graphic novel, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game, and the Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete OST vinyl. So if you’re on edge waiting for news about Forbidden West, you can at least tide yourself over with some Horizon retail therapy. You can check out the full Horizon Forbidden West and Zero Dawn collection below. In some cases, merch is available for cheaper elsewhere (like Amazon), so we’ve linked that where possible.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is celebrating this week’s launch of Bravely Default II with a new Spirit Board event. The event kicks off at 10 PM PT tomorrow, February 25, and introduces the four Heroes of Light from Square Enix’s newest Switch RPG as Spirits.

The heroes are paired up to make two different Spirits: Seth & Gloria and Elvis & Adelle. Each of those will appear periodically on the Spirit Board throughout the event. You’ll also earn extra Spirit Points each time you defeat the new Bravely Default Spirits. The event runs until 10 PM PT on March 2.

Bravely Default II launches for Switch on February 26. Despite the number in its title, it’s actually the third proper installment in its series thus far, following the original Bravely Default and its sequel, Bravely Second. Bravely Default II is also a self-contained adventure, featuring an original cast of characters and story.

Ahead of Bravely Default II’s release, Square Enix recently shared a new trailer explaining the game’s battle system. A free demo for the game is also available on the Switch eShop, and everyone who downloads it before Bravely Default II launches will earn 100 bonus My Nintendo Platinum points. You can read more about the upcoming RPG in our Bravely Default II preorder guide.

Smash Bros. Ultimate’s next DLC fighters are Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The newcomers were first revealed during Nintendo’s February 2021 Direct presentation, and game director Masahiro Sakurai will give us an in-depth look at them during a dedicated Smash Bros. stream next week, on March 4. The two-in-one character is slated to arrive sometime next month.

The inaugural Gayming Awards, which was presented by EA Games and streamed exclusively on Twitch, have awarded Supergiant Games’ Hades its first Game of the Year.

Hades, Tell Me Why, and If Found… all led the way with two wins each at the Gayming Awards 2021, and most of the winners were chosen by an international judging panel of LGBTQ+ video game industry professionals. The LGBTQ Streamer of the Year Award and the Readers’ Award were decided by public vote.

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“I am so proud to be able to say we have held the world’s first LGBTQ video game award show,” The Gayming Magazine founder and editor Robin Gray said. “2020 was truly a watershed moment for LGBTQ inclusion in games and to be able to celebrate it with everyone, although virtually, was amazing! Congratulations to all the winners, well done to all the nominees and thank you again to all our sponsors! See you in 2022!”

The full list of winners of the Gayming Awards 2021 are as follows;

• Game of the Year: Hades
• Gayming Icon Award: Robert Yang
• Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award: Hades
• Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award: If Found…
• Industry Diversity Award: I Need Diverse Games
• LGBTQ Streamer of the Year: DEERE
• Best LGBTQ Character Award: Tyler Ronan – Tell Me Why
• Authentic Representation Award: Tell Me Why
• Best LGBTQ Narrative Award: If Found…

Hades was IGN’s Game of the Year for 2020, and it also took home the Best Indie Game and Best Action Game awards at The Game Awards 2020.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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