Fear not, animation fans. Two of Fox’s heavy hitters are in no danger of cancelation any time soon. Deadline reports that both Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy have received two-season renewals on the network. They join The Simpsons, which already received its own renewal order for Seasons 31 and 32 back in 2019, as two more of the network’s major tentpoles.
President of Entertainment for Fox Michael Thorn offered this comment: “Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers are key pillars of our network’s success. By taking the genre to new heights and driving pop culture in meaningful ways, they’ve laid the foundation for making Animation Domination one of the most powerful program blocks in all of television. Both of these two-season renewals affirm once again our commitment to animation and empower us to continue in our build as the leader in the space with distinct and fresh new comedies. We’d like to thank Seth, Loren and their entire teams, not to mention our partners at 20th Television, and we’re excited to continue these great shows with them.”
The renewal marks Seasons 12 and 13 for Bob’s Burgers and Season 19 and 20 for Family Guy. The news comes just days away from the Season 11 premiere of Bob’s Burgers and the Season 19 premiere of Family Guy, both slated for September 27 on Fox. This appears to be yet another step in Fox’s expanding focus on its animation portfolio which includes newer shows like Bless the Harts, Duncanville, and the upcoming The Great North and Housebroken. Bless the Harts will also be making a September 27 return for its second season.
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The Fall 2020 TV season is upon us. While the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has halted many productions this year, we still have quite a few TV series to look forward to this season. In late September, look for Utopia (Prime Video) and Fargo Season 4 (FX).
October is packed with shows, including Monsterland (Hulu), The Walking Dead Season 10 Part 2 (AMC), The Walking Dead: World Beyond, The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix), Welcome To Blumhouse (Prime Video), Star Trek Discovery Season 3 (CBS All Access), Helstrom (Hulu), The Right Stuff (Disney+), and The Mandalorian Season 2 (Disney+). If you’re missing the MCU, WandaVision will be releasing by the end of the year.
Perhaps as was to be expected, more of the films slated for release this year have been delayed, and that includes Black Widow. With the next movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe pushed until 2021, that clears the entire year’s slate of Marvel films–making 2020 the first year since 2009 without any new Marvel movies to hit theaters.
That will come as a surprise one way or the other, whether you think it’s shocking it’s already been a decade of annual (or more frequent) entries or that it’s only been a decade. Either way, it seems fitting that what has been such a weird year will buck tradition in yet another way.
The release of new Marvel movies is like clockwork. This year will be not only the first time we’re not getting one in a given year in over a decade, it’s also the first time since 2012 that we’re not getting two (and the first time since 2016 that we’re not getting three in a single year). A new Marvel movie hits theaters almost as often as the seasons change. I clean the unfortunate gap between the counter and my fridge less often. Their debut is a signal that it’s a time for me to change my toothbrush head. It’s how I know it’s time to consider (but not actually follow through with) canceling my unused gym membership.
Marvel Movie Release Years
2008: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk
2010: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger
2012: The Avengers
2013: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World
2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy
2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man
2016: Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange
2017: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok
2018: Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp
2019: Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home
If such a break had to come, this is the best time for it. Avengers: Endgame wrapped up the years-long story that had been set up over the course of the first three phases of the MCU. Marvel and Disney could barely wait two months to get the next movie into theaters, with Spider-Man: Far From Home coming along and teasing some things that looked like they might never pay off due to the now-averted crisis with Sony. It was time for the brakes to be applied–and that was the plan, with Black Widow originally scheduled for a May 2020 release. It just turns out the hiatus will be much longer than intended.
As a prequel, it doesn’t feel as if Black Widow will be the main kicking off point for Phase 4, even if it is technically the first of its movies that will hit theaters (eventually). Whatever the case, it’s not as if fans were left dangling on a cliffhanger.
And beyond that, we’re not completely devoid of any Marvel-centric content right now. Game fans got a surprisingly solid story campaign to enjoy in Marvel’s Avengers, while Disney+ subscribers will get WandaVision later this year. That’s another new release, like Black Widow, whose function in the MCU’s broader canon that is unclear at this point, although the recent trailer was certainly intriguing (and, frankly, another more standalone story would be welcome after so much time was spent building up to Infinity War and Endgame).
No doubt the Black Widow delay was in some part made for financial reasons–Tenet hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as many people understandably stay away from theaters–but it’s nonetheless welcome news that people aren’t being asked to go and sit in a room together. That said, there is a certain comfort in seeing the nonstop procession of Marvel movies hit theaters, and the prospect of now going almost two full years without one is just the latest indication that 2020 is not a normal year on any front.
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Earlier this week, Microsoft announced another massive acquisition with the purchase of Bethesda and all its properties and studios. Since then, a rumor has suggested that the Xbox parent company was preparing another big announcement at the Tokyo Game Show, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Rumors suggested that Microsoft was lining up a purchase of Sega and its properties, which today include everything from Sonic the Hedgehog to Persona 5. An announcement at the Tokyo Game Show would’ve made sense too, given Microsoft’s struggles in Japan with regards to Xbox sales. In a summary of what to expect from its showcase, Microsoft shot down the rumors entirely.
…and btw, there won’t be any new acquisition news at the show ⛔
The rumors became so widespread on social media that it quickly became a running joke. Some unearthed a tweet from Sega’s Twitter account from August that was argued as a hint for the announcement, while others embraced the absurdity with connections to some of Microsoft’s latest Xbox products.
The Xbox Tokyo Game Show showcase will include some new looks at Microsoft Flight Simulator, some Japanese Minecraft creator showcases, and more. It will not include any new next-generation news, with Microsoft also confirming that the stream will only be broadcast in Japanese.
After its purchase of ZeniMax Media and its subsidiaries, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella did state that the company was looking at acquiring more studios in the future. Over the past two years, the Xbox Game Studios brand has grown significantly, now including Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Obsidian, and Double Fine. With the purchase this week, that now includes id Software, Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studios, and MachineGames.
The Xbox Series X and Series S both went up for pre-order this week, with available stock still fluctuating at a variety of retailers. To keep up with where you can get your preorders in for an Xbox Series X or Series S, check out our preorder guide for notifications on stock.
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After stepping down as CEO from Blizzard Entertainment in October 2018 and leaving the company entirely in April 2019, former company president and co-founder Mike Morhaime is still working in the industry. Despite his apparent absence or silence, Morhaime has now established a new company.
Dreamhaven is Morhaime’s new base of operations. It’s a company that will “create and publish original games for players around the world” and aims to “empower creators, help bring their ideas to life, and create original gaming experiences that foster meaningful connections between players,” according to a blog post. In announcing this new publishing house, Dreamhaven also unveiled two new studios.
Moonshot Games is led by three ex-Blizzard developers who worked on titles such as Command & Conquer, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm. The studio is also comprised of other employees who contributed to “some of gaming’s most popular franchises.” These franchises weren’t specified in the blog post.
The other development house, Secret Door, is similar to Moonshot. It’s also composed of developers who worked on Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, as well as Starcraft II and Warcraft III. Secret Door also has employees with “extensive industry experience [that] are beginning to explore new game experiences together.”
Neither team has confirmed whether it has games in development.
Morhaime’s Dreamhaven is joined by Ben Thompson (Hearthstone creative director), Dustin Browder (Starcraft II lead designer), and Jason Chayes (former Blizzard Entertainment executive producer) at Moonshot and Alan Dabiri (Heroes of the Storm game director), Chris Sigaty (StarCraft II executive producer), and Eric Dodds (original Hearthstone game director) at Secret Door. Morhaime also expressed excitement at the prospect of Dreamhaven’s potential to bring people together through the power of games.
“I’m excited to team up with such talented people who care deeply about games and their communities,” said Morhaime. “I’ve always believed in the power of games to bring people together regardless of backgrounds or boundaries. With Dreamhaven, we look forward to creating and sharing new experiences with players everywhere.”
In other Blizzard news, the company announced that Blizzard Online (or BlizzConline, as Blizzard calls it) will take place in February 2021. The event will be hosted remotely and is expected to feature news about Blizzard’s upcoming games, such as Diablo IV and Overwatch 2.
A new update is out for Pokemon Cafe Mix, the free-to-play Pokemon puzzle game for Switch and mobile. The update introduces a new team function that lets players cooperatively clear team challenges, and the first of these features a very hungry Snorlax.
For 300 golden acorns, players can create their own team, separate from their friends list. Each team can hold up to 30 players, and those who form their own teams will receive 300 golden acorns for each member they recruit (up to a maximum of 10,000 golden acorns). Players can also join existing teams either by searching for a specific one (via their team name or ID) or by selecting one from a randomly compiled list.
Players on a team will work together to collectively complete new team events. The first such event runs from September 24 to October 8 and features the notoriously gluttonous Snorlax. If teams can raise Snorlax’s satisfaction level by the end of the event, the Pokemon will join their staff. The Pokemon Company says more team events will be held in the future.
Beyond the new team function, Pokemon Cafe Mix has added 50 new Regular Orders and 25 new Master Orders. A Team Order Pack is also available to purchase with real money, and it includes 13,400 golden acorns, an assortment of items, and Snorlax Maniac Pikachu as a new staffer. You can read more about the update on the official Pokemon website.
In other Pokemon news, Pokemon Go recently kicked off a Team Rocket event that makes Jessie and James appear more frequently until September 30, when the duo will be leaving the game. The Legendary Articuno is also appearing in Raid Battles again until September 25. Meanwhile, the series’ latest mainline installments, Pokemon Sword and Shield, are slated to receive their second DLC expansion–The Crown Tundra–sometime this fall.
The Hill House follow up show debuted its first horrifying trailer, and it was packed with moments you may have missed.
If you’re anything like us, you’ve been eagerly awaiting the next season of Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House, a show that debuted to rave reviews back in 2018. In fact, it even managed to earn GameSpot’s top honor for TV shows that year. Shortly after it premiered, it was announced that the series would be taking up an anthology style, with a new season tackling yet another spooky literary classic, retold with a modern and unfamiliar twist.
Now, after a little over a year of waiting, the show’s first trailer has finally arrived. Season 2 of Hill House is called The Haunting of Bly Manor and it looks just as creepy and unsettling as you might expect. Fans of Hill House will no doubt recognize some familiar faces–though they’re no longer playing members of the dysfunctional Crane family–along with some newcomers to the mix as we plunge into the heart of yet another terrifying haunted house.
Were you able to catch every creepy detail in the trailer? We combed through it frame-by-frame to piece together what might actually be going on on the grounds of Bly.
The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere on Netflix October 9.
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1. Flora at the lake
The Haunting of Bly Manor is based on Henry James’ Turn of the Screw–but if this show is anything like its predecessor, the Haunting of Hill House–which was based on Shirley Jackson’s book of the same name–we can expect some healthy deviation from the source material.
Still, this trailer is full of little moments and themes that will undoubtedly seem familiar to anyone familiar with James’ work, including this opening moment of a young girl–Flora–standing at the edge of a lake with what looks like some seriously ominous intent. In the original work, Flora is found by a lake, presumably speaking with a “ghost,” or so her new nanny believes.
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2. A doll house
There aren’t many things creepier than doll houses in horror movies. Flora owns one–and she’s holding what looks to be a truly horrific porcelain baby as she splits her time playing with it and staring at a closed door. Also worth noting that there are plenty of other, non-doll house sized dolls in her room, too. If we had to guess, we’d say this is probably going to take a turn for the worst at some point in the show.
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3. Put on a “happy” face
The next shot is an unusual one. It seems to be in first person perspective, with someone–a child maybe? Certainly someone at Flora’s height, though it’s hard to tell if they’re just crouching down by the moment itself–watching Flora as she approaches. She puts what looks like a mask on their face as the voice over says “there you are, now let’s come up with a story.”
One element of Turn of the Screw that should be kept in mind here is the theme of narration–unreliable or otherwise. In the novel, the story is dictated by an unnamed narrator based on letters left behind. It’s possible that we’re seeing the show’s interpretation of that element, with Flora acting as a sort of storyteller for whatever events transpire in the house.
That, or she’s just being a creepy kid. Who can say?
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4. At home at Bly
If you hadn’t already put it together, it looks like Flora’s doll house is designed to be a replica of her actual house–the sprawling Bly Manor, which we see here from the outside.
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5. Meet the “Governess”
Here’s a familiar face for Hill House fans. Nell Crane herself, Victoria Pedretti, is featured in this show in a new role. In the novel, she’s called a “governess,” but here, in the synopsis of the show, she’s called an “au pair,” which is basically just a fancy way to say live-in nanny.
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6. Someone’s gravely wounded
Moments after the au pair says in voice-over that she “knows what loss is,” we get a disturbing shot of a bloody hand trembling on a bed. It’s impossible to see who it belongs to or what happened, but easy to assume it’s nothing good.
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7. And here’s Miles
There are two children in Turn of the Screw–Flora, who we’ve met, and her older brother Miles, who we finally see here. Like everyone else in the trailer, he doesn’t seem to be having a great time. Notably, the voice-over here is the au pair saying “your parents loved you so, so much.” In Turn of the Screw, Miles and Flora were orphaned after their parents tragically died. We can assume that is something being brought over from the source material.
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8. In the graveyard
Flora seems to be the conduit for most of the creepy stuff in this trailer, including just casually hanging out in a graveyard. The au pair seems to be trying to comfort her about the death of her parents; “in a way they’ll always be here.” Sounds like a recipe for ghosts to us.
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9. Meet Mrs. Grose
T’Nia Miller, a newcomer to the Hill House anthology universe, plays Mrs. Grose, another character from the novel. Mrs. Grose is the housekeeper of the manor–and judging by this introduction, where she seems to be looking at a strange crack in the wall, she’s not having a very great time of it either.
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10. Lady by the Lake
The lake is a featured part of the Turn of the Screw story, but it’s impossible to tell how it’s going to be used in the show. In this blink-and-you-miss-it moment, we can see a figure standing by it (or maybe in it?) in the dead of night. In the original story, the au pair believes she sees the ghost of the children’s last caretaker, a woman named Ms. Jessel, standing by the shore. Our best guess is that this figure is either Jessel herself, or Jessel’s ghost.
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11. An assortment of nightmares
It’s difficult to make out what exactly is going on in these next brief clips but they’re certainly very ominous. Hill House fans are sure to recognize the face of Oliver Jackson-Cohen, however, who played the youngest Crane brother, Luke.
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12. “Someone else’s dream”
Here’s our introduction to yet another new face for the anthology. Rahul Kohli plays the manor’s chef, Owen. We don’t know much about him yet, but apparently he is someone who Mrs. Grose is able to confide in as she goes through whatever breakdown she seems to be experiencing.
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13. Dolls again
If the doll house itself wasn’t creepy enough, it looks like Bly’s basement is full of dolls, too. And one of them moves. Great.
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14. Even more nightmares
We have to give credit to whoever cut this trailer together–it does a fantastic job of not giving much away. These rapid-fire clips feature tiny moments like Miles flicking a lighter, someone walking toward that spooky lake, Flora getting a bath (while staring at something over the au pair’s shoulder), and the dollhouse opening by itself. We have no idea what any of this might mean for the show, but even stripped of context, it’s pretty chilling.
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15. Drowning?
It’s difficult to make out exactly what’s happening here but we can see that the au pair is being dragged underwater by the neck by–well, something. If we had to guess, we’d say that the lake is home to someone or something that isn’t exactly friendly. This shot immediately jumps to the au pair staring into a full bathtub–so maybe it’s every body of water that represents some sort of ghostly threat in the house.
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16. There’s something behind Flora
It’s very difficult to make out but it looks like there’s someone–or something–crawling around behind Flora. To her credit, she doesn’t seem phased by this at all–classic creepy kid in a horror story move right there.
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17. The thing in the lake
That’s definitely not a normal person surfacing from the lake water. We can’t make out too much, but it seems to have skin where its eye sockets ought to be.
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18. There’s something wrong with Mrs. Grose
As Mrs. Grose says “the dead” in voice over, we get a series of even more nightmarish moments, including her having some sort of fit or migraine–she’s rubbing the back of her head as her neck snaps back, seconds before it cuts to a clip of a man apparently getting sucked back into the house. It’s hard to make any real guesses as to what this might mean, but another major theme in Turn of the Screw is the idea that the “supernatural” events of the story may actually exist within the characters’ heads. We could be seeing some representation of that here–maybe there’s something physically going on in Mrs. Grose’s brain.
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19. Cool, another doll
This trailer just keeps raising the bar on creepy dolls. This one looks almost like a voodoo doll–very homemade–and it features a woman with no real face. Maybe it has something to do with the thing in the lake?
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20. “I’ve seen things”
Oliver Jackson-Cohen’s character narrates that he’s “seen things,” and that its like he’s “in hell.” So whatever is going on, it’s likely not isolated to one character’s experiences or delusions–something might be physically wrong with Mrs. Grose, but this character is also being put through the ringer. This is said over some creepy clips of feet walking, doors glowing, people drowning, and kids fighting.
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21. Hey, it’s Hugh Crane!
Another familiar face–or two of them–for Hill House fans. Henry Thomas played the young Hugh Crane in the show. Here he seems to have a very maniacal looking twin or doppleganger, tormenting him.
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22. More ghosts
Be sure to take the time and notice some of these split-second spooks, like a child in a nightgown wearing some sort of porcelain or plastic mask and a man with glowing eyes looming over the au pair’s shoulder. Also in this montage: the au pair apparently bound and gagged, someone being dragged back to the manor at night, some polaroid photos being snapped that we can guess will develop into something horrifying later, Mrs. Grose screaming, and a crayon drawing that reads “come home.” All of this is played as Owen says “the people? They’re born here, they die here.”
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23. Let’s get surreal
These next few clips skew more toward the surreal than the spooky. We see what looks like Miles confronting someone who might be another child or maybe even a doppelganger–maybe it has something to do with the other double we saw tormenting Henry Thomas’s character; a woman watching what looks like water closing in from the ceiling of her bedroom (there’s that drowning motif again), and the au pair panicking in what looks like a child’s closet.
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24. A ghost in the daylight
The poor au pair sees–and feels–a hand while washing the dishes in the kitchen. Notably she’s standing there in broad daylight, surrounded by people. Like Hill House before it, Bly Manor is very likely going to keep the scares coming, even when you least expect them.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda includes some big notable properties like The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Fallout, but it also includes new games in development like Starfield. The space-faring game from Bethesda Game Studios was a topic of discussion in a roundtable interview with Xbox and Bethesda executives.
The Starfield exchange takes place between Microsoft’s Larry Hryb and Bethesda’s Todd Howard. Hryb pointedly asks what’s up with Starfield, prompting Howard to joke that “it’s got really good hype for a game no one has seen.” He mentioned, offhandedly, that some people at Microsoft actually have seen it.
“I would say that it’s a really exciting project that we’ve been doing for a long time,” Howard went on. “Once we got on the new systems, the things we found we could do–it’s a major engine rewrite on that game. People who know me, I like to wait as long as possible to show stuff. So we’re closer to showing it than we were in the beginning of this conversation. And we’ll see when. I think it’s going to be something really, really special, and we’re excited to work with Xbox on that.”
Howard appears to be referring to the engine overhaul he referenced in the announcement. That’s said to be the largest engine revision since Oblivion. It will be used for both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. Though Howard had touted its close working relationship with Microsoft in the same announcement, the engine overhaul isn’t necessarily tied to Microsoft hardware.
The conversation then turned to Xbox Game Pass, which makes sense as we already know that Starfield will be offered on the subscription service. Bethesda mentioned it explicitly in the acquisition announcements, although the game still has no scheduled release target.
Netflix has released a nightmarish new trailer for The Haunting of Bly Manor – the second season of Mike Flanagan’s horror anthology series which began with The Haunting of Hill House.
The latest trailer plunges the Bly Manor residents into an abyss of sinister secrets and dark tragedies from the centuries of love and loss that possess the haunted building at the centre of the new season, which is scheduled to hit Netflix on October 9, with nine brand new episodes for audiences to unlock.
Watch the new trailer for The Haunting of Bly Manor below:
The returning stars will portray new characters in the upcoming season, which is set in 1980s England. The story will follow the unexplainable events that occur after Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate’s chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T’Nia Miller).
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has confirmed that Bethesda will continue to run semi-independently after the company’s acquisition by Microsoft.
Speaking to CNET, Spencer made clear that, while Bethesda games will adopt some of Xbox’s new practices – including launching into Xbox Game Pass and becoming playable through game streaming – the company will retain some of the autonomy that resulted into some of the biggest games of all time: “It is about the culture of those teams,” Spencer explained. “They’re not about becoming us.”
The specifics here aren’t clear, but it seems likely that that Microsoft will allow for Bethesda to retain the development culture at its studios, as well as the existing connections between individual studios and the wider Bethesda Softworks organisation.
The implication here may be that, while Bethesda’s 8 studios are now owned by Microsoft, they may not become a part of the formal Xbox Game Studios group (the listed publisher for Microsoft’s other owned studios). Apart from a difference in development oversight, this could also have some effect on whether Bethesda games become Xbox exclusives – it may be that Bethesda is able to choose to continue releasing games across all platforms.
There’s much still to learn about Bethesda’s status as a Microsoft company after the planned acquisition goes through in the second half of 2021, but here are the 5 biggest takeaways from the move.
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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 [email protected].
