Author: Trafficblast

Harry Potter Getting a TV Series… But It’s a Quiz Show

Harry Potter is getting two Wizarding World TV specials as part of a five-night event on HBO Max.

If you didn’t pick up the latest issue of The Daily Prophet this morning, then you might have missed the news about WarnerMedia’s plans for the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO Max will be playing host to an unscripted Harry Potter quiz show and a retrospective special, which will air over five nights on the streamer.

The quiz show will see Harry Potter superfans competing to answer trivia questions faster than the speed of Hermione Granger’s lightning-quick hand-raising in Professor Snape’s potions class. The four one-hour challenges will take place over four consecutive days and will finish with a retrospective special, airing across HBO Max, Cartoon Network, and TBS, with international viewing plans to follow.

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“To celebrate the dedicated fans old and new who have passionately kept the Wizarding World magic alive in so many forms for decades, these exciting specials will celebrate their Harry Potter fandom in a must-see multiplatform TV event,” Tom Ascheim, president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics, said about the upcoming specials, which will feature some very special guests.

“All Potter fans can gear up for this ultimate one-of-a-kind celebration by embracing their inner Hermione Granger and studying their Wizarding World knowledge,” he added, extending an invitation for people to submit applications via WizardingWorld.com. “For fans who have always wanted to discover what it might be like to take the O.W.L. exams, this is as close as they are going to get!”

Those watching from home may also want to scrub up on their spells and spend some time studying everything from their Snitches to their Quaffles, as the epic quiz competition series will also include an online play-along component for Muggles, aka non-magic folk, which promises to make the contest as challenging as the Quidditch World Cup, no matter where you are in the world.

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This comes shortly after a report emerged about a Harry Potter TV series being in early development at HBO Max. Sources indicated that “broad ideas” for the project had been discussed, but that no deals had been made. HBO Max and Warner Bros. commented on the speculation, telling THR, “There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform.”

However, it’s possible that HBO Max and Warner Bros. were giving a response based on a very different definition of “in development” at the time as there have been talks of Harry Potter offshoots for a while. WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar previously teased the expansion of the Wizarding World franchise for HBO Max and Warner Bros, noting a lot of “potential” for sequels and spinoffs.

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

R.L. Stine’s Fear Street to Be Released as 3 Netflix Movies Over 3 Weeks

A Fear Street movie trilogy, based on R.L. Stine’s book series, will be released on Netflix over three consecutive weeks, beginning on July 2.

Netflix has revealed that scary season will arrive a little earlier this year as the streaming service will be playing host to “an epic summer movie event” comprising three Fear Street movies. The first of the trilogy, Fear Street Part 1: 1994, will drop on Friday, July 2, with Fear Street Part 2: 1978 coming just one week later on July 9, and the final installment, Fear Street Part 3: 1666, on July 16.

The movie trilogy is directed by Leigh Janiak (Scream: The TV Series), and will introduce “a new brand of horror to the next generation,” with the story told across three movies spanning more than 300 years. It opens in 1994, with a group of teenagers who discover that the terrifying events that have haunted their town for generations​ may all be connected — and that they may be the next targets.

“We filmed all three Fear Street movies over one crazy, bloody summer,” Janiak said of the production, which wrapped back in 2019. “It’s a dream that audiences now get to experience the story in the same way – back to back to back, with only a week of waiting in between. I can’t wait to welcome everyone into the world of Fear Street in 1994, 1978, and 1666!”

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“Fear Street fans are in for a treat–and some major surprises,” R.L. Stine added. “Readers know that the book series is rated PG. But the movies are rated R. That means a lot more thrills–and a lot more terror! I have seen Leigh Janiak’s epic trilogy releasing on Netflix in July and I can tell you the scares and the SCREAMS are more than I ever expected. What fun to see the horrors of Shadyside come to life!”

At the very beginning of the year, Netflix vowed to release at least one new movie a week throughout 2021 for a total of at least 70. Fear Street was one of the projects announced as part of that line-up, together with several large-scale, star-driven movies like Red Notice and Don’t Look Up, which both appeared on the streaming service’s sizzle reel for its 2021 movie slate.

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

The ESA And IGDA Are Partnering To Support Indies At E3 2021

The Entertainment Software Association, the industry body responsible for making E3 happen, has announced a new partnership with the International Game Developers Association, which it hopes will increase the presence of indies at E3. The partnership will begin with E3 2021, which is due to run entirely online from June 12 to June 15, but the intention is for it to continue and grow with subsequent years’ events.

“We are reimagining E3 in a variety of ways, and part of that is engaging with indie developers by offering opportunities to help highlight them and their work on a global stage,” said ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis. “Indie developers are a critical part of the video game industry, and we’re thrilled to expand our offerings to create opportunities to showcase their work worldwide.”

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The partnership will help IGDA members to get their work seen on one of the biggest stages in the industry, with membership to the nonprofit open to anyone making games on any scale. IGDA members will be offered “special packages and opportunities to be included in E3 2021,” though neither organization has yet specified what these opportunities may involve. In the past, indies have mainly been shown at E3 as part of showcases by larger publishers such as Microsoft or Sony.

With E3 2021 taking place entirely online, the bulk of the event will consist of a livestream including the usual press conferences, game reveals and announcements, and special guests. E3 has also announced that it will host a special portal and supporting app that will allow developers to showcase their games virtually. The online format has the potential to make showing a game at E3 more accessible for indie devs around the world, without the need for expensive travel and booth setups.

E3 will run entirely online this year from Saturday, June 12 to Tuesday, June 15. Here’s everything you need to know if you want to follow along.

GTA 5 Player Becomes First To Beat The Game Without Taking Any Damage

For the first time ever, a player has completed Grand Theft Auto V without taking any hits or damage. The feat was accomplished by UnNameD, who posted the full run on YouTube with a comment saying it took 48 attempts to finally complete the game with no hits.

To make sure absolutely no damage was taken during the run, UnNameD used a mod that gives the player just 1HP, ensuring any hit would be a one hit KO. Trevor’s special “Red Mist” ability was also disabled, and UnNameD additionally didn’t use body armor for the full run.

The run is impressive for a game like Grand Theft Auto 5, where shootouts are often chaotic and a single stray bullet has the potential to end a promising run. Besides shootouts, players aiming for a no-hit run on GTA also have to be careful drivers, with even low-impact car crashes having the potential to deal damage. A few players in the speedrunning community have been aiming for a no-hit run on GTA V, but UnNameD is the first to show proof of completion.

The full 9-hour run has been posted to YouTube, though if you only have the time to watch some of it, the most difficult shootout missions including The Paleto Score and Derailed are included near the end of the second video.

After first releasing all the way back in 2013, GTA V is being re-released this year on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Rockstar recently confirming a release date of November 11. A standalone edition of GTA Online will also release on the same day.

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Shrek Skyrocketed Smash Mouth Into A Different World, The Band Says

Memes come and go by the week and even by the day. But even though the years started coming and they didn’t stop coming, both the film Shrek and Smash Mouth’s megahit All Star have stayed around, working across age groups and demographics. In a new interview, the band talked to Rolling Stone about how the song and its addition to Shrek came about and how it changed the band forever.

All Star was not written for Shrek, but the two are nearly inseparable at this point. That almost didn’t happen.

“When DreamWorks came to us, some of us were a little apprehensive,” said former Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp. “Because once you get your song into a family movie, you merge into this Disney zone. It’s like you’re out of Warped Tour Land and Credibility Land.”

The union eventually came together thanks to the persistence of DreamWorks and some unexpected outside circumstances.

“As we were getting ready to put [the 2001 self-titled album, Smash Mouth] out, 9/11 happened. We have a single called ‘Pacific Coast Party,’ that’s basically ‘Hey, we’re all partying over here on the West Coast,’ and the East Coast was in rubbles,” said band manager Robert Hayes. “We decided to hold off on that, which seemed like a good time to go back to Dreamworks and say “Hey, we’ll do this for this Shrek movie.”

The band was almost too late, as Dreamworks had closed production on the movie, but the band convinced the studio to open up the film; the band provided All Star for the opening sequence, and their cover of I’m a Believer for the closing sequence.

“We had no clue how big Shrek was going to be,” said lead singer Steve Harwell. “We had no clue. That was just a launching pad. The song was already a number one single, and then Shrek came out and we sold millions of records off that alone.”

“It skyrocketed the band into a different world,” Camp said.

“It’s a double-edged sword for the band,” Hayes added. “Some of the guys totally embrace it and they love it. A couple of the other guys hate being associated with a movie all the time.”

While the band has some philosophical differences on the success of the song, manager Hayes found the common point between them.

“From a managerial standpoint, I can say this: they sometimes really hated making the money, but they never hate spending it,” Hayes said.

The interview dives deep into the memes that Shrek and All Star have spawned, from “Mario, You’re a Plumber,” a 2009 parody of the song, to Neil Cicierega’s Mouth Sounds, which remixed and recontextualized the song by mashing it up with tracks like Modest Mouse’s Float On, the Full House theme, and Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. The band isn’t always thrilled with how memes use the track, but also say they know it’s done from a place of love.

“Sometimes I feel like it’s a little disrespectful, and at the same time I feel like it’s an honor to have people go out of their way to do this,” Harwell said. “I get more enjoyment out of seeing other artists cover it at concerts. I think that’s a really cool thank you, to us. But I think any time anybody goes out of their way to make their own version of it, that’s also a thank you because they go out of their way to do that. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t love it.”

Rolling Stone‘s oral history of the song is wide ranging, covering the band’s early years and shift from punk to pop, the song’s origins, and its long legacy for the band, and well worth the read.

Destiny 2 PSA: Save Your Iron Banner Bounties, They’re Currently Bugged

Destiny 2‘s first Iron Banner event of the Season of the Splicer is here, adding four new weapons to the game’s loot pool. But while you can earn those guns in specific ways, two of them are currently not dropping properly when you complete Iron Banner bounties or spend Iron Banner tokens. If you’re looking to pick up either Riiswalker or Archon’s Thunder, hold onto your stuff for a bit.

Bungie tweeted about the issue soon after the start of the new Iron Banner event on Tuesday, May 18, and soon after that released an in-game warning to keep players from spending their tokens or turning in their bounties. The developer hasn’t released any information on when players can expect a fix.

Riiswalker, a shotgun, and machine gun Archon’s Thunder are two guns that are new to Destiny 2 and the Iron Banner with the Season of the Splicer. You can earn both from the Iron-Handed Diplomacy quest that runs throughout the season, but you should also be able to earn additional copies of the guns, complete with different perks and stats, by just playing Iron Banner matches, spending tokens with Iron Banner vendor Lord Saladin, and completing Iron Banner bounties. Currently, none of those sources are providing the guns, so you won’t receive all possible rewards if you turn in those bounties or spend tokens before the situation is corrected.

You can still earn two additional guns that Season of the Splicer has added to the loot pool: Finite Impactor and Occluded Finality. These two, a hand cannon and sniper rifle, respectively, and were released with the Warmind expansion in Destiny 2’s first year, but they’ve been out of the game for quite a while.

So you can still nab lots of copies of those two guns by playing Iron Banner matches. If you want everything that’s coming to you, though, wait on spending your tokens and turning in your bounties until Bungie has this issue under control.

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New Fortnite Catwoman Skin Is Available Now

Catwoman is back in the Fortnite Item Shop, but this time it’s a brand-new Catwoman skin never seen in the game before. However, it won’t be new to all eyes, as this Catwoman skin is based on the anti-hero’s Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point appearance.

Catwoman arrives alongside today’s release of issue three in the six-part series, which tells the story of Batman arriving to the Chapter 2 Fortnite map. It’s there where he meets, and sometimes battles, characters both from the Fortnite world and even other licensed properties. In the third issue, Batman takes on GI Joe’s Snake Eyes, who was a recent Fortnite cosmetic back in Season 5.

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The Catwoman Zero bundle includes the Catwoman Zero skin plus her Grappling Claw Pickaxe for 1,500 V-Bucks, or players can get just the skin for 1,200 V-Bucks, while the Pickaxe alone will cost 800 V-Bucks. North American players who buy the comic through their preferred comic books retailers or access the digital issue via a DC Comics Infinite subscription will also receive a code for Catwoman’s Grappling Claw Pickaxe.

As this is the third issue, faithful readers are halfway to earning all six DC Comics bonus items. Once all six are redeemed on a single account, players will then gain free access to a seventh bonus item, the yet-to-be-revealed Armored Batman skin due later this summer.

The first of the issues granted early access to Rebirth Harley Quinn, who will go on sale sometime in June, according to Epic. We’ve also seen the Batman Zero skin in the game alongside the second issue, while Deathstroke, who is heavily involved in the comic’s story, is rumored to be a future Fortnite skin as well. The next comic crossover skin will arrive in two weeks alongside the fourth issue, though players looking for more DC heroes can also checkout the new Beast Boy skin.

While there was no major game patch this week, Epic did launch a new LTM called Impossible Escape, which is giving out cosmetics for winners and seems to be taken with a heightened level of seriousness within Epic, perhaps spelling a game mode that won’t be so limited after all.

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Nintendo Switch Online Adding More SNES And NES Games On May 26

Nintendo is adding more SNES and NES games to its Nintendo Switch Online library on May 26. Four more SNES games and one additional NES title hit the service next week, bringing the total number of games across both libraries to more than 100.

The four SNES games include Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, the platformers Joe & Mac and Spanky’s Quest, and the puzzle game Magical Drop 2. The sole NES title this time around is Ninja JaJaMaru-kun. You can take a look at each title in the trailer below.

Japan has a slightly different lineup of games. In particular, the Japanese service is adding Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, the series’ acclaimed Super Famicom installment, as part of its next games update. Like many other old Fire Emblem titles, however, Genealogy of the Holy War never received an official localization, so it’s easy to see why it isn’t arriving in other territories.

The SNES and NES game libraries are available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service. Individual subscriptions cost $4 for one month, $8 for three months, and $20 for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual family plan that costs $35 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts.

New Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Amiibo Figure Revealed

Nintendo is releasing a new Amiibo figure alongside The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD this July. The figure features Zelda with her Loftwing and allows you to travel between the surface and the sky quickly.

As Nintendo details in the trailer below, scanning the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo while you’re on the surface will let you return to the sky from anywhere, without having to use a Loftwing statue. If you scan the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo again while in the sky, you’ll return to the same location on the surface as before.

Given how often you’ll need to travel between the surface and the sky often over the course of the game, this is a handy ability, although it’s curious to see it locked behind an Amiibo figure. It’s also unclear if the game will be compatible with any existing Zelda Amiibo, or if the Skyward Sword Link figure will receive a reprint.

Nintendo hasn’t announced pricing details for the new Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo, but it launches alongside the game on July 16. Also releasing that day is the Zelda Joy-Con set. The right Joy-Con is themed after the Master Sword, while the left is based on the Hylian Shield.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is a remastered version of the Wii game, which originally released back in 2011. As Nintendo revealed during its February 2021 Direct presentation, this version features a new button-only control scheme which lets you swing Link’s sword using the right control stick rather than motion controls. Skyward Sword HD is up for preorder at various retailers and on the Switch eShop.

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Everything To Know About Call Of Duty: Cold War’s Mid-Season 3 Update

Call of Duty’s mid-season 3 update is dropping new game modes, 80s action stars, and limited-timed changes to Warzone. The John Rambo Pack includes the operator with two finishing moves, special blueprints for the Combat Knife, an LMG, and assault rifle. Die Hard’s John McClane also joins season 3 with his own operator bundle. It’ll include blueprints for the Fara 83, MP5, and one for an undisclosed tactical rifle that could be the AUG.

Limited time events and locations are coming to Warzone including Die Hard’s Nakatomi Plaza with missions such as disarming C4 on the building’s roof, finding special supply boxes and “interrupting an arms deal gone wrong.” The location will also include the Nakatomi Plaza vault that can be opened by players using special keycards. Also coming to Warzone is a smaller battle-royale mode called Power Grab with 100 players and no Gulag. Players can be revived with a Kill-Confirmed like system.

Cold War is getting new content including two new maps, Duga and Black Ops 2’s Standoff remake, the new killstreak Combat Bow, a new weapon the Ballistic Knife. Keeping in them, new game modes Die Hardpoint and Rambo’s Gun Game will be added to the mix. New secondary weapons that will also crossover to Warzone are the Baseball Bat and AMP63: Pistol. Finally there is a new Main Quest for Zombies. Make sure to head on over to GameSpot as the Season 3 progresses to find out more.