A new week means a new batch of content served up on Netflix. With winter starting to recede into the rear-view mirror, that also means the slow but steady dawn of marquee, exciting and also classic titles onto popular streaming services. This week sees a long list of new additions, from Batman and Friday the 13th movies to a Notorious BIG documentary
The first of the month is typically when most additions to streaming services take place, and March is no exception with a whopping 21 newcomers on Netflix. If you’re a fan of hip-hop, you’re in luck, because the first of the month sees the debut of the new documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell. The film is about the life and career of one of the most influential rappers of all time, the Notorious B.I.G. The documentary “celebrates [Biggie’s] life via rare behind-the-scenes footage and the testimonies of his closest friends and family.”
The first of the month also brings two-thirds of the Christopher Nolan-directed rebooted Batman trilogy: 2005’s Batman Begins and 2008’s The Dark Knight. Long before the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe” was a thing, these movies represented an important foothold for comic-book movies. These were the films that helped popularize, for better or worse, the phrase “gritty reboot,” but beyond all that–these are both very good films, whether you’re a Batman comics fan or not. Christian Bale does an impressive double-duty as tortured billionaire Bruce Wayne and the reclusive superhero, and it is legitimately plausible to enjoy these films as legitimate films.
On March 5, Pokémon Journeys continues with Part 4. The series takes Ash and Pikachu as “they embark on adventures across multiple regions in the Pokémon world, meeting new characters and discovering more Pokémon along the way.”
Game of Thrones and Carnival Row actor Indira Varma is joining the cast of Disney+’s Obi-Wan Star Wars series, according to a report from Deadline.
Varma’s character details remain under wraps, and production is reportedly beginning this spring. She will be joining Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen on the new show, with both actors reprising their roles. McGregor returns as the titular Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Christensen will be playing Darth Vader.
The series will take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Deborah Chow will be directing Obi-Wan. Chow has already been involved in Disney+’s Star Wars universe, directing a couple episodes of The Mandalorian.
“I’m more excited about doing this one than I was doing the second and third one that we did before,” McGregor told the Empire Podcast. “I’m just excited about working with Deborah Chow, and the storylines are going to be really good I think. I’m just excited to play him again. It’s been long enough since I played him before.”
Ubisoft has released a new patch for Rainbow Six Siege, which adds Fuze back to the game, though only on the PC test server. The patch also implements several bug fixes.
Fuze was removed from all Siege playlists (except for Custom) via an update on February 26. Picking the operator was causing an issue that would make Siege crash. The bug attached to the operator is now supposedly fixed, though Ubisoft is keeping him on the test server for now.
As mentioned before, the patch also fixes several in-game bugs. Among them is a bug that was affecting Flores, Siege’s latest operator, who was added in Year 6, Season 1: Crimson Heist. The patch fixes a bug that prevented players from hearing Flores’ RCE-Ratero Charges going off on the other side of a wall.
The cast of the upcoming Borderlands movie just got a tiny bit bigger: Avengers: Infinity War’s Ariana Greenblatt is set to join as the character Tiny Tina, according to The Hollywood Reporter–and confirmed by Gearbox via Twitter. Already, director Eli Roth has enlisted an impressive stable of actors to fill out his Borderlands world, including Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, and Jack Black lending his voice to Claptrap.
The actress played the role of Young Gamore in flashbacks of the MCU movie and has also appeared in Love and Monsters and will feature in the upcoming In The Heights. In a statement, Roth said, “Ariana is a spectacular new talent in cinema. She has already worked with many of my close collaborators and everyone raves about her. She blew us all away in her audition, and I cannot wait to see her bring the wild, insane, and unpredictable Tiny Tina to the big screen. She’s going to blow up on screen like one of Tina’s grenades.”
Tiny Tina first appeared in Borderlands 2 as an NPC and also popped up in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3. In the games, she’s voiced by Ashly Burch (Mythic Quest) and is a teenage demolitions expert, which should provide for some very entertaining on-screen moments.
While there is still no release date for the Borderlands movie, which has been in the works for years, the steady stream of casting announcements certainly points to the likelihood that production will begin sometime soon. Meanwhile, the Borderlands 3 video game is gearing up to launch its Designer’s Cup update this month, which will include a new raid.
There were a lot of unknowns when WandaVision first started. From the show’s retro sitcom vibes to Vision’s apparent resurrection, we’ve been kept guessing across each episode. Now that the finale is right around the corner, however, we’re running out of time to get official answers–and we’ve still got some major questions.
We can assume that WandaVision is meant to have some sort of cliffhanger ending. Kevin Feige already confirmed back at SDCC 2019 that Wanda would be making her way to the upcoming Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness movie, and the name alone has some major implications. But other headscratchers–like the status of some of Westview’s more colorful residents, the situation revolving around Pietro’s return, and the future of fan-favorite side characters like Agent Woo, Darcy, and Monica–will hopefully be addressed sooner rather than later. After all, we have no guarantee that anyone other than Wanda has a movie in their immediate future.
Here are our 14 biggest questions for the WandaVision finale, which will hit Disney+ on Friday, March 5. Let us know your theories in the comments below.
1. Is Pietro really from the multiverse and was he summoned by Wanda’s chaos magic, or is his casting just a meta joke?
Agatha’s speech at the beginning of Episode 8 left us scratching our heads. She talks about her ability to mind control and shape shift things, and explains that she just needed a “weak mind” to create “Fake Pietro” because real Pietro was on a different continent and full of holes. She makes no mention of the fact that we, the audience, know that “Fake Pietro” is actually a version of Pietro from another movie universe. This makes us wonder: Was Evan Peters just cast as a gag for MCU fans and a nod to the time honored sitcom tradition of recasting characters? Or is he actually the start of the Fox X-Men being brought into the fold?
2. If Wanda was a witch since birth, did Pietro always have his speed?
Among the numerous retcons and additions to Wanda’s history in Episode 8 was the confirmation that Wanda’s powers have always existed, even before her contact with the Mind Stone. She was a “baby witch,” as Agatha said, using her abilities even before she knew what she was doing. This makes us wonder about Pietro and his abilities. Was he always a speedster? Did he just not realize it yet?
3. Why did Hayward fake the footage of Wanda’s break-in?
Hayward was invested enough in getting Darcy and co. to believe that Wanda had Vision’s corpse within the Hex that he doctored footage of her breaking in and stealing it. Why bother going that far to frame her when there were already stakes (like the civilian lives at risk within the Hex that had been the focus up to that point)?
4. Why was Hayward tracking Vision’s “vibranium” in the Hex when he already had his body?
In Episode 6, Darcy discovered that Hayward had been tracking the vibranium that composes Vision’s body inside the Hex. But in Episode 8, we learned that Wanda actually left Vision’s body at SWORD headquarters, and Hayward was still in possession of it. So what was Hayward really tracking inside the Hex? Was it Wanda’s new version of Vision, or something else entirely? And if it was Wanda’s new Vision, what was the goal? Did Darcy misinterpret her discovery? Did someone plant fake information for her to find?
5. Can Wanda actually produce vibranium? What is the extent of her powers?
If Hayward really is tracking the version of Vision that’s inside the Hex by its vibranium signature, does that mean Wanda is able to produce the mythical substance through chaos magic and force of will alone? That could have huge implications in the MCU’s future.
6. Will Wanda’s kids be able to exist outside the Hex?
We know that Vision can’t exist outside the Hex, as we witnessed his body begin to disintegrate when he tried to escape. What about Wanda’s kids, though? Wanda sure seems to think that Billy and Tommy are her real children, and not just another “magical” trick she conjured up. We’re not so sure, although it would be unusually cruel to finally give her a family and then rip them away in the finale when the Hex inevitably comes down–though that was what happened the first time the twins existed in the comics, so we won’t rule it out. Maybe Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will be about Wanda journeying through parallel dimensions trying to find them.
7. Who was Woo’s witness protection person?
Agent Woo (Randall Park) initially appeared at Westview because someone in the FBI’s witness protection program had been living there and was now, naturally, missing. Was that just an excuse to get Woo, a well-liked side character from the Ant-Man movies, in the show? Or will that minor plot thread wind up mattering? Could it have something to do with the more mysterious Westview characters like Dottie or Herb?
8. Why did Wanda’s “Hex” make some people unable to remember that Westview existed, while others were immune to that effect?
In WandaVision’s fourth episode, Agent Woo and Monica Rambeau arrive outside the Westview Hex to begin investigating just what is going on inside. They discover that some people, including the cops posted outside the town, don’t even remember that Westview exists. Others, however–like Woo himself–are immune to this effect of Wanda’s magic. Will that strange detail ever be explained, or are we overthinking this?
9. Where have Dottie and Herb been and why did they seem important at first?
Most of Westview’s residents are simply hapless citizens of the real town who Wanda incorporated into her sitcom dream world when she took the place over. There are a couple, however, who initially seemed to be more important and/or know more about the Hex than they were letting on. Specifically, in Episode 2, it seemed important that Wanda get Dottie’s approval, and Dottie was shown later in the season to be one of the only residents whose real identity couldn’t be pinned down. In addition, in Episode 3, Herb almost let something slip to Vision, showing an apparent ability to almost resist Wanda’s powers without Vision needing to mind-zap him. Is there more to any of these seemingly minor characters?
10. Did Vision really write Wanda the note that sent her to Westview?
It was revealed in Episode 8 that Wanda traveled to Westview because of a note that appeared to be from Vision. But that doesn’t necessarily seem in character for the synthezoid–and besides, when did this mysterious letter appear? Our first sighting of it was on the passenger seat of Wanda’s car. It was already open, implying that Wanda had already viewed the note. But when she looked at it after leaving SWORD HQ, she appeared surprised to see it. We find the whole situation confusing. And, given the fact that Wanda and Vision’s lives were bogged down by house arrest and conflict during Captain America: Civil War, and then later fugitive status (for Wanda at least) during Infinity War, when did Vision have the time to go real estate shopping?
11. What’s Monica’s deal now?
Passing in and out of Wanda’s hex throughout these episodes has apparently given Monica Rambeau powers of some kind. She was even able to semi-effectively resist Wanda’s abilities in Episode 7. However, those powers have yet to really be defined. What exactly is Monica capable of now? Which of her many comic book personas (Photon, Pulsar, Spectrum, etc.) will she adopt in the MCU? Will the events of WandaVision lead to her joining the Avengers–especially if SWORD is pretty much evil? Speaking of which:
12. Is SWORD evil in the MCU?
In its MCU incarnation, SWORD stands for Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Department (a slight change from the comics, where the “W” stands for “World”). There’s another difference, though: So far, in the MCU, SWORD looks like it’s shaping up to be a villainous organization. There’s definitely something up with Director Hayward, who has spent most of his scenes in these episodes so far lying through his teeth. The Episode 8 stinger revealed that SWORD has revived Vision’s real body, which definitely can’t be good. Is Hayward a full-on villain? If so, is all of SWORD evil, or is this more of a SHIELD situation, where a normal organization has been infiltrated by nefarious forces? And if that’s the case, who can we speak to in the MCU about upping the security or vetting process of employees at shady government agencies?
13. Is Mephisto in this show or not?
Thanks to leaks and rumors, we’ve been looking forward to the reveal that Marvel comics big bad Mephisto is somehow behind the events of WandaVision. However, going into the finale, we still haven’t caught a glimpse of the villain. Is Hayward really Mephisto in disguise? Is the devil-like villain hiding somewhere else in the show? Or is he not actually involved at all? We’ll know one way or another after the finale.
14. What exactly is the “scarlet witch” and why did Agatha use the phrase?
At the end of Episode 8, Agatha called Wanda “the scarlet witch,” implying that’s the name for a witch who uses chaos magic–and not a unique moniker for Wanda herself. Wanda has never actually been known by any alias or superhero identity in the MCU, although that’s easy to forget, since fans often refer to her as Scarlet Witch. Now that it’s been officially uttered in WandaVision, will the name stick, or was it just an Easter egg?
Fortnite is changing yet again, as Epic Games has announced the first details on patch 15.50, which arrives very soon in the battle royale game.
The update removes the Hand Cannon from play, while “another item” is coming back. However, Epic did not announce what this item is. It only said, “Spread the news!”
A new update rapidly approaches. v15.50 is scheduled for release on March 2. Downtime will begin at approx. 4 AM ET (09:00 UTC). pic.twitter.com/CCuZwikUfn
v15.50 brings: 🔫 The Hand Cannon heads back to the vault, while another item returns. Spread the news! 🏝 New Island size in Creative & localized Featured Creative Hub support!
Additionally, update 15.50 adds a new island size to the Creative mode, while there will also be localized featured creative hub support with this update.
The new Fortnite update is slated to roll out on March 2, beginning with downtime that starts at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET. It’s not precisely clear how long the downtime will run for.
For the second year in a row, the in-person San Diego Comic-Con event has been canceled. Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, Comic-Con International released a statement explaining it will instead host a virtual event in July, possibly in addition to another event in November 2021.
Details about November’s in-person event are limited. It will take place over the course of three days, but specific details are still coming. Comic-Con’s website will be updated with more info as it comes.
The virtual show will take place July 23-25. Because of “limited financial resources” for CCI, the show has been reduced to a three-day event. And much like 2020’s event, it will feature panels for a variety of movies, TV shows, comics, and cultures. Take a look at the full statement below.
As COVID vaccines are administered across the nation, July feels far away, but CCI feels it will be “too early to safely hold an in-person event of the magnitude of Comic-Con. For this reason, we have made the challenging decision to postpone Comic-Con 2021 as an in-person gathering until our 2022 dates, and once again hold this year’s celebration as the free online Comic-Con@Home.”
If you already have a badge for 2021–because your 2020 badge rolled over to this year–it will be rolled over until 2022, or you can request a refund here.
Microsoft has announced a livestream event for Tuesday, March 2, during which it will showcase the content coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection in Season 6.
The stream kicks off at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET and is slated to run for one hour. During this livestream, developers from 343 Industries will provide an “early look” at the Season 6 content before jumping into live multiplayer against fans. Anyone who is lucky enough to be group with a developer from 343 will receive the rare Ice Unicorn nameplate.
Tomorrow from 2PM to 3PM PT, join us for an MCC Playdate! We’ll be taking an early look at Season 6, then going head-to-head with the community with the Ice Unicorn Nameplate up for grabs when you match in with us. Follow now and be ready when we’re live: https://t.co/dda9QxxAU8pic.twitter.com/sxvARcbcrY
This broadcast will take place on the official Halo Twitch channel, so you can bookmark it now to get ready for the big show.
While this broadcast doesn’t begin until March 2, the internet is already flooded with coverage of the Season 6 MCC update as Microsoft has begun to allow public testers to try it out. Season 6’s content includes two new Halo 3 maps from the canceled free-to-play Halo Online, along with Halo’s take on Fortnite’s back bling. The Season 6 update also introduces more weapon and vehicle skins, along with animated visors to customize your Spartan with.
There has been a lot of Halo news lately; check out the stories linked below to catch up with the latest developments across the franchise.
Animal Crossing fans are known for being fanatically devoted to the series, but devotees of the musical megahit Hamilton might give them a run for their money. Now, a fan of both who goes by “Guitar_Knight14” has recreated the first act of Hamilton in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it’s an impressively detailed effort.
The YouTube video of the performance clocks in at over an hour, and runs from the play’s opening number to the close of the first act, ending with the song “Non-Stop.” The sheer amount of effort that went into the video is mind-boggling, with a villager cast in each part, detailed choreography for each song, and even a facsimile of an audience. Guitar_Knight14 has a Patreon you can contribute to if you want to see Act 2 before its official release. It’s not necessarily clear how this performance will deal with certain mature themes of songs like “Say No to This,” but we’re excited to find out.
Developer and publisher Bohemia Interactive has released the patch notes for the latest update for DayZ. The update implements several bug fixes.
There are two lists of patch notes, as the update for the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game is slightly different than the one for PC. Specifically, on consoles, the update fixes a client crash issue that would pop up when base building objects.
On all systems, the update addresses bugs that prevented weapons from spawning with attachments, caused flag poles to refresh more often than they should, stopped you from switching to VSS iron sights while using PSO optics, and a few other issues. The full patch notes for both consoles and PC are listed below.
DayZ March 1 Xbox One/PS4 Update
Weapons would not spawn with attachments
The truck battery could not be charged using the battery charger
The flag pole was refreshing bases more often than designed (every server restart)
The universal flashlight could be attached to handguards without a rail
The player could not switch to VSS iron sights when using PSO optics
A client crash related to attachment slots on base building objects
DayZ March 1 PC Update
Weapons would not spawn with attachments
The truck battery could not be charged using the battery charger
The flag pole was refreshing bases more often than designed (every server restart)
The universal flashlight could be attached to handguards without a rail
The player could not switch to VSS iron sights when using PSO optics
