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The news that Natalie Portman will not only reprise her role as Jane Foster in the upcoming film Thor: Love and Thunder but she will do so as the mighty Thor shook the Marvel Studios panel crowd at San Diego Comic Con 2019 like, well, a clap of thunder. It was all the more surprising given Portman’s reported behind the scenes issues while making Thor: The Dark World, leaving us under the impression she would never return to the part, but also because the character of Jane was undercooked in the first Thor, damsel’d in the second one, and completely absent in the third.Why would she want to return to such an underwhelming character? Well, after seeing how writer-director Taika Waititi was able to breathe new life into Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder in Ragnarok, creative lightning could conceivably strike twice when Portman picks up the hammer.

The Mighty Thor Comic Inspiration

The catalyst for Portman’s return was a certain Marvel comic book. While on the Hall H stage, Waititi shared how while making Ragnarok he read The Mighty Thor comic from writer Jason Aaron, drawn by Russell Dauterman with colors by Matt Wilson, the series featuring Jane wielding Mjolnir as the new Thor. Aaron’s Thor saga has been running almost a decade and in my humble opinion is the best ongoing superhero comic in recent memory, with Jane’s tenure as Thor proving to be the highlight.

The comic specifically follows the period where Thor finds himself unworthy to lift his hammer and Jane picks it up to carry on as Thor instead. She forms a close bond with Mjolnir that leads to a stunning revelation about what’s trapped inside, not to mention she’s able to wield the hammer in battle like Thor Odinson never could, sending it gracefully and dangerously looping through the air to create a bludgeoning ballet of death. She faces powerful foes like the Destroyer, Mangog, and even Odin himself, and even when she’s left beaten and bloody she never backs down from a fight. She proves herself worthy to the Thor pedigree, but what makes her different is that being a hero comes at a cost.

We learn that Jane has cancer, and transforming into Thor wipes Jane’s body clean of the chemotherapy medication meant to fight it, so every heroic transformation brings her one step closer to death. But that she still chooses to become Thor, every time, knowing the price she’s paying, proves without a doubt that she is worthy.

Now, Waititi won’t be able to directly adapt Jane’s comic story for a number of reasons. The MCU’s Mjolnir is currently a pile of rocks, Thor has already done the unworthy thing before, and so on. But given how in Ragnarok Waititi was able to catch everyone up to speed on Thor, reunite him with Loki, kill Odin, reveal Hela is his sister, destroy Mjolnir, and leave him stranded on Sakaar all in the first 25 minutes, we’re confident he’ll find a clever way of turning Jane Foster into Thor that’s fun for the whole family.

Marvel Phase 4: Official Lineup

Love and Thunder

But we’re less concerned with how Jane becomes the Goddess of Thunder and more with what kind of sparks will fly when the two exes meet again. Jane’s romance with Thor never really clicked, so Thor 4 is a chance for Marvel to make good on this iconic couple from the comics. Make us fall in love with them as a couple. Or, not. The subtitle may be “Love and Thunder,” but that doesn’t mean they need to hook up again. Ragnarok was a smash hit and Thor didn’t even have a love interest — although the chemistry with Valkyrie is noted — so the lesson may be that forging a new path for Jane might not involve getting back together with Thor and instead showing how both she and Thor can stand alone as two badass powerhouse superheroes without any smooching.

The Taika Touch

Thanks to Waititi, Thor went from being a stiff and uncompelling lead to one of the most engaging and uproarious fan favorite heroes in the MCU. That happened because Waititi worked with Hemsworth to break Thor down and rebuild him by embracing Hemsworth’s natural charisma and comedic timing, and now Waititi is poised to do the same for Jane Foster. Portman is doing just fine with her film career, what with her Oscar win for Black Swan and rave reviews for her performance in movies like Jackie and Annihilation, so it’s not like she needed to come back to the MCU, which means Waititi likely made an offer she couldn’t refuse as a performer. Okay, maybe there was a dump truck full of Marvel money involved, but we have to imagine that Waititi conceived a fresh take on Jane Foster that piqued Portman’s interest, one that makes use of her dramatic acting chops — and comedic flair. Lest we forget, Portman’s shockingly lewd rap featuring her defense of the Star Wars prequels is an all-time great SNL skit.

So if Waititi can capture the tragedy and heart of Jane Foster’s comic story, all while adding his signature sense of zany wonder, then she just might get the redemption her character deserves.

Marvel Phase 4 Comic Con Panel

Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

During EW’s Women Who Kick Ass panel at San Diego Comic Con 2019, actress Jeri Ryan spoke about how her character Seven of Nine — who originally appeared on Star Trek: Voyager and will be a part of the upcoming Star Trek: Picard show — unexpectedly became a relatable character for autistic people.Ryan first talked about how freeing it is to be on a sci-fi show where anything can happen, but how the characters are rooted in aspects of the real world that are relatable. Then she shared with the crowd how her part-Borg character has been interpreted through that lens.

“I play a character that started out as a person who became a machine and is now a little of both. And that became a whole different opportunity to show different sections of society representation of themselves,” Ryan said. “Personally, with Seven of Nine, I’ve heard from so many people who are on the autism spectrum, that they appreciate seeing a character who has the same struggles that they did. Because she didn’t have social skills. She didn’t know personal space boundaries. She didn’t understand social norms. So she had to learn all of that. And that’s very much the same kind of experience that a lot of those people have. And I know this because my son is on the spectrum. That was so meaningful to me, when these fans reach and say, ‘Thank you for showing me on screen, for letting me see that it’s not just me and that I’m not alone and I’m not the oddball, that I can see that represented and it gives me hope and it makes me feel not so alone.’ And I love that.”

Star Trek: Picard Photos

Indeed, Seven of Nine frequently struggled with how to interact with her crewmates after they rescued her from the Borg. Having spent her entire adult life cut off from humanity, she was ill-equipped when it came to social mannerisms, even while her high-functioning brain enabled her to frequently save the day on the show. As her journey continued over several seasons, she slowly began to form stronger bonds with those around her.

Ryan’s words moved the crowd and earned some hearty applause. Her story goes to show that while Star Trek may feature impossibly advanced technology and exploration of the cosmos, it’s ultimately rooted in the human experience.

Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

The sci-fi epic Gemini Man has been trapped in development hell for over two decades since it was originally conceived in 1997, but the film is finally coming to fruition now that technology, seemingly, has caught up to its high-concept premise. Directed by Academy Award-winner Ang Lee, the new Paramount Pictures movie stars Will Smith as an aging hitman (Brogen) facing off with a younger clone of himself (Junior), and pushes the bounds of known filmmaking technology to execute on that advanced sci-fi idea.But will the finished film actually work in execution as much as in conception? That’s what I set out to find out during a special footage presentation on the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles, where a select group of journalists, including myself, got a preview of a now-released behind the scenes featurette, three new clips, and a new trailer (which will be dropping on Thursday). Check out the new behind-the-scenes featurette of Gemini Man below:

All the footage, shot digitally at an extra-high frame rate of 120 frames-per-second, was presented in 3D. The good news is that science-fiction action movie is delivering heavily on the “action,” and the set pieces in this movie rival the impressive action sequences of last year’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The first clip showcased the film’s fight scenes as Brogen comes face-to-face with Junior, and they’re quickly locked in an intense firefight with a grenade thrown in for fun. Fast and slick, Lee’s choice to swap smooth cinematography for shaky shots adds to the feel and intensity. The action choreography is flawless, and the 3D conversion makes it pop.

The second clip, taking place in what was referred to as the “Bone Room,” really showed off Gemini Man’s technological achievements with young Smith and older Smith facing off up close. Brogen is analyzing Junior and trying to break down his genesis and why he’s being targeted. It’s strong work from both Smith (and Smith). We also got a taste of Smith’s dramatic performance, and it is on point. Again, the fight sequences are tight and executed with staggering accuracy. The digitally created Junior is immaculate. Punches land so convincingly, and look so natural, that it’s entirely believable that both versions of Smith are real to a breathtaking degree.

The third and final clip was less about action and gave the audience a chance to chew on more of the film’s dramatic performances with Smith’s Junior and his “father,” Clive Owen’s Clay Verris, coming face to face. The tension is tightly wound and the scene proves Ang Lee’s ability to balance the spectacle with depth and pull impactful performances from his cast. These are complex characters delivered with skill. It bodes extremely well for the finished product.

The trailer, set to be released this week, is more focused on showing off the dramatic beats in balance with the action, which does a better job of showcasing the strengths of the movie versus the first trailer, which was released three months ago. Take a look at newly-released images from Gemini Man below:

Gemini Man Gallery

If that’s the good news, the bad news is that, due to the frame rate, the image so crisp it becomes a distraction. For context, the industry standard for movie frame rates is 24 fps; Peter Jackson famously doubled that to 48 fps for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While the visual style created by the significantly increased frame rate might appeal to some people, I found the visuals took too long to adjust to while watching the portions of footage we saw. It’s always hard to judge a finished project based on small pieces in footage presentations, but my first impression after watching three scenes and the trailer is that I’m not entirely sure I like the stylistic choice.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer spoke to why it was important to the filmmaking team to shoot the movie in the higher-than-normal framerate. “What Ang Lee has done, visually, would be difficult to do at 24 frames,” Bruckheimer said, “but he did it at 120 frames which means you see every little thing. It would’ve been much easier to do this at 24 frames because we can hide a lot. There’s a diffusion to it. When you see this film, it’s lifelike. It is unbelievable what Ang has accomplished. You have to give credit to Skydance, to David Ellison, and to Paramount for taking this huge leap because they laid down a lot of money, praying and hoping that Ang was right on this and I don’t even think he was sure about this himself, but he delivered.”

As for the inclusion of 3D in the movie, I’m not convinced that its use in Gemini Man adds enough positives. While it does elevate and adds depth to the content, there’s already more than enough there to be visually processing. It takes a movie that is already big and in your face and makes even more so. While Lee used 3D very effectively in Life of Pi — it felt complementary to the film and it enhanced what was there — here it felt more like icing on an already amply iced cake. Since we didn’t get to view any footage in 2D, it’s unclear if, comparatively, it does elevate the content. That said, it certainly doesn’t spoil the experience; it’s one of those cases in cinema where just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

While I’m not sold on the increased framerate or addition of 3D, I am sure what is on screen is undeniably impressive and Smith’s performance appears to be one of his best, at least judging by the footage we saw. When it comes to the performance, having Smith play opposite Smith was quite a risk, but it appears to have paid off. Casting the right actor in the right role is hard enough, but when you’ve got to cast the same actor in two opposing parts, that’s even harder. The strengths and the vulnerabilities of both characters are very different, and Smith plays to them like a conductor handles an orchestra – both are accomplished performances. Not only that, but Smith plays against himself with an ease and an intensity that works perfectly. Neither role is less than the other, or feels incomplete; it never feels hammy or like a novelty. It’s one (two?) of the most engaging elements of the movie as a whole.

Watch the previously released Gemini Man trailer below:

“The younger character is not me. That is a 100 percent digital character. They didn’t take my image and just stretch out some of the lines,” Smith said at the presentation. “This is a CGI character, and that’s part of what is so spectacular about this. They’re using my performance to create the elements, so the skin is CGI, that’s not my skin, but the performance is all me. The special effects team at Weta has done something I’ve never seen done before.”

Weta Digital provides the digital effects that, rather then de-aging Smith to play Junior, actually create an entirely convincingly and insanely realistic new version of him. “Junior is twice as expensive as Will Smith,” Lee admitted. “There is one shot involving Junior that took me, and the hundreds of artists who worked on this, one year to get right. It’s a lot harder than using actors and a lot more expensive.”

Weta worked to differentiate the aged version of Smith from his younger clone, but it wasn’t as easy as just modeling him off his real self from two decades ago. “We also looked at early performances and the movies we mostly stuck to [were] Bad Boys, Independence Day, a little bit of Men in Black, and one of his earliest films, Six Degrees of Separation. He was much skinnier at that time, though, so the morphology wasn’t quite right,” explained VFX supervisor Bill Westenhoffer.

Gemini Man hits theaters on October 11, 2019.

Simon Thompson is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter at @ShowbizSimon.

As dark as things got in “Hunted” and its immediate aftermath, The Amazing Spider-Man could probably do with a little palate cleanser. That’s just what this latest story arc has to offer. With an emphasis on C-List villains and goofy plot twists, the series is back to capturing the charm of the short-lived but much-loved Superior Foes of Spider-Man.Given how much this series has focused on characters like Boomerang and Beetle over the past year, the Superior Foes comparisons are basically inevitable. It’s been great to see that, even as writer Nick Spencer has set about crafting the next big chapter in Peter Parker’s life, he’s also carved out time to continue the ongoing struggles of Janice Lincoln and Fred Myers as well. Like Peter, both these characters have to decide what they want out of life and if they’re going to keep being defined by their failures. That all comes to a head for Janice and Fred in this issue as both Kingpin and the new Sinister Syndicate seek vengeance on Boomerang.

Spencer makes the most of this oddball, all-female supervillain team. In particular, this issues mines plenty of comedy out of the fact that Beetle treats the group less like an alliance of evil and more like a trendy new corporation fr upwardly mobile women with super-powers. There’s health care, W-9’s, 401K matching – the whole nine yards. Spencer also succeeds in giving each team member a distinct voice and personality. You don’t need to be familiar with characters like Scorpia or Lady Octopus to appreciate how they’re portrayed here.

This issue also makes it apparent how far Fred has come since making his debut as Peter’s slacker roommate back at the beginning of the series. Spencer frames these portions of the story through Peter’s eyes, allowing our hero to reflect on the fact that Fred Myers isn’t actually such a bad guy when he puts his mind to it. The playful, flirtatious banter between Fred and Aunt May helps highlight his change in fortunes and make him feel like a more integral member of Spidey’s supporting cast.

The only disappointment here is that the story doesn’t move at a faster clip. By the time Spencer and artist Kev Walker maneuver the Sinister Syndicate and Boomerang into conflict with one another, the issue is over. This is also a weird case where the cover art and the actual story have almost nothing to do with one another.

Spider-Man: 10 Essential Mysterio Comics

Walker makes for a surprisingly effective addition to the series’ art team. In the past, Walker has tended to work best with darker, more surreal stories, not so much bright, happy-go-lucky fare like this. It’s all about finding the right inker and colorist to bend Walker’s distinctive style in the right direction. But here, with Walker inking his own work and Laura Martin providing a vivid dose of color, the art strikes a happy medium between dark and kooky and sleek superhero action. Granted, Walker’s rendition of Peter himself sometimes looks a bit wonky, but in general this issue makes a smooth transition from Ryan Ottley’s recent chapters.

Among many other pop culture milestones, 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’ Marvels. That series more than earned its venerable reputation, showing just what sorts of high-minded Marvel stories were possible even as the mainstream superhero industry was circling the drain in the mid-’90s. And it’s safe to say Marvel readers had never seen anything like Ross’ amazingly detailed, almost photo-realistic painted art. Marvels Epilogue #1 offers one last opportunity to revisit this world and photojournalist Phil Sheldon through the eyes of the original creative team. It’s a welcome treat, albeit one that struggles to justify the high price of admission.Marvels Epilogue is exactly what the name suggests – an epilogue to the original miniseries. This standalone short story picks up with Sheldon story in the late ’70s Marvel era, with new heroes like the All-New, All-Different X-Men and Nova rising to prominence. Much of this story unfolds between the beats of an early Chris Claremont/Dave Cockrum installment of Uncanny X-Men, as Sheldon and his daughters attempt to enjoy Manhattan at Christmastime and walk right into the middle of a mutants vs. Sentinel conflict.

The end result is a charming throwback to an earlier period of Marvel;’s history. It’s a lot of fun to see Busiek and Ross work their new story into the fabric of an existing one. Ross is great about recreating key scenes and images from that X-men issue without losing sight of his own bold, powerful approach to storytelling. Some of the figures tend to be a little overly stiff and posed, but that’s basically par for the course with this brand of comic book art.

Better still, this epilogue does genuinely add something to the original series. It allows Marvel to end on a more optimistic and hopeful note. Rather than ending with the Death of Gwen Stacy and Sheldon’s disillusionment with the superheroes that he built a career around, we see an older Sheldomn getting back in touch with his original sense of wonder. It also creates a stronger bridge between the original series and the Ross-less sequel, Marvels: Eye of the Camera.

All the Creators Joining Forces for Marvel Comics #1000

That all being said, Marvels Epilogue reads more like a nifty bonus feature in a Marvels hardcover edition than something that demands its own comic. The actual story is a mere 16 pages long, leaving Marvel to pad out the latter half of the book with interviews, sketches and other supplemental content. Asking readers to pay $5 for so little new story content is a bit much. Better to wait until the contents of this issue do eventually make their way into a new collected edition.

As fans speculated, Jean Smart will be playing former Silk Spectre Laurie Juspeczyk (aka Laurie Blake) in Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series, Lindelof confirmed to IGN at HBO’s Television Critics Association presentation on Wednesday.A new trailer shown to critics at the panel featured a shot of Smart’s character, previously rumored to be FBI Agent Blake, juxtaposed against a pop art-style painting of the Minutemen that included a costumed Silk Spectre. In the footage, Agent Blake even admits that she used to dress up in costume and punch bad guys too.

The Comic-Con trailer for Watchmen released this past weekend doesn’t include those scenes with Smart but does feature more overt ties to the storyline of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal comic, including several shots of Doctor Manhattan, a shot of Nite Owl’s Owlship, more emphasis on Jeremy Irons’ Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias), and acts of violence being perpetrated by the terrorist group known as the 7th Cavalry, who have co-opted Rorschach’s mask for their own political ends.

HBO’s Watchmen Comic Con Trailer Gallery

Lindelof confirmed that the series is a sequel to Moore and Gibbons’ comic, and the plot of the original is sacred. “We re-explore the past, but it’s canon. One of the rules we have is everything that happened in those 12 issues could not be messed with, we were married to it, so there’s no rebooting it. Nixon was still president in ’85, he was reelected in ’88, he died in office and then as his vice-president, Gerald Ford became president and then was defeated in the election of ’92 by Robert Redford.” Fun fact, even though the show is set in 2019, Lindelof confirmed that Redford is still president “and has been since the early ’90s when they abolished term limits.”

Still, Lindelof said, “Whether or not it feels like it’s Watchmen is in the eye of the beholder,” insisting that he loves the source material and has a “tremendous amount of respect for it” but that, “I had to separate myself from this incredible reverence, because if I was too reverent, I wouldn’t be able to do anything that was risky… Hopefully once you’ve seen the grand plan you’ll have a more informed answer in terms of its conversation with the source material.”

Earlier in HBO’s TCA session, HBO programming president Casey Bloys responded to a suggestion that Alan Moore historically hasn’t been thrilled with adaptations of his work by conceding, “I think that remains the case, that he’s not thrilled.” Lindelof expanded on Moore’s relationship with the Watchmen TV series by revealing that he had reached out to the legendary writer to get his blessing on the project and was rebuffed.

“I don’t think that I’ve made peace with it, and that’s the way he would want it too. It’s an ongoing wrestling match, he’s a genius, maybe the greatest writer in the comic medium … he’s made it very clear that he doesn’t want to have any association or affiliation with Watchmen ongoing, and that we not use his name to get people to watch it.” Still, Lindelof pointed out that back when Moore was writing his legendary comics runs in the ’80s, if someone had told him “you’re not allowed to do this because Superman’s creator doesn’t want you to do that or Swamp Thing’s creator doesn’t want you to do that,” Moore would’ve said “f–k you, I’m doing it anyway,” due to his “rebellious, punk-rock spirit.”

“I’m channeling the spirit of Alan Moore to tell Alan Moore ‘f–k you, I’m doing it anyway!” Lindelof laughed.

Watchmen TV Show Cast and Characters

HBO announced on Wednesday that Watchmen will be premiering in October, with a specific date yet to be announced.

With reporting by Terri Schwartz.

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Remedy Entertainment’s upcoming third-person shooter Control has gone gold, according to a developer on the team. Effectively, development on the game has completed and discs are ready for manufacturing and distribution. Everyone can rejoice and wait with bated breath as the game’s August release date inches closer.

Remedy’s game director Mikael Kasurinen tweeted that Control is “done,” noting that the work the Finnish studio’s put in over the past three years was “an achievement from the best dev team on the planet.” Control is headed to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 27.

Ville Ruusutie, Remedy’s principal animation programmer, offered some additional context on Kasurinen’s news. In a tweet of his own, Ruusutie said the team “lost animation middleware and wrote new from scratch” while noting it was a “big risk” but thinks the studio has done well considering some of the “big tech challenges” Remedy has faced working on Control.

Control comes three years after the studio’s last outing, Quantum Break. In Control, you play as Jesse Faden, the Federal Bureau of Control’s new director, exploring the Oldest House and harnessing supernatural abilities to defeat enemies and find her brother. We found it to be Remedy’s most interesting game since Alan Wake after spending some time with it, saying, “Control is being designed with a Metroidvania-like structure that requires you to re-examine previously explored locations when new skills are unlocked, and the thought of incorporating an alternate dimension into this concept is very intriguing.”

Though Control is headed to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the game will be a limited-time Epic Games Store exclusive. PC requirements have been revealed, and while one of them is a mandatory Epic Games account, Control will arrive on Steam in Summer 2020.

Pokemon Masters, the new Pokemon mobile game from DeNA (the studio behind Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, and other Nintendo mobile titles), is coming to iOS and Android soon. The Pokemon Company has previously said the game would launch sometime this summer, but we may now know its exact release date thanks to the App Store.

While the official Pokemon website still lists Pokemon Masters as “planned for Summer 2019,” the game is expected to launch on August 29, according to Apple’s digital storefront. GameSpot reached out for clarification, and a PR representative for The Pokemon Company confirmed the game’s tentative release date is August 29; however, the rep noted the release date is subject to change, and it will be officially announced once it is finalized.

Meanwhile, certain countries will be able to play Pokemon Masters a little early. A “preview version” of the title is launching for Android devices in Singapore this week. The preview version will also come to Canada, although no specific date was announced. Progress made in the preview version can be carried over to the full game when it launches later this summer.

If you’re eager to jump into Pokemon Masters, pre-registration for the title is now live on the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. Everyone who pre-registers for the game will receive a notification when it is available to download. Like many other mobile titles, Pokemon Masters will be free to download and play, with optional microtransactions. You can read more details on the official Pokemon website.

Pokemon Masters is set in a new island region called Pasio, where famous Pokemon trainers from around the world have gathered to participate in the Pokemon Masters League tournament. Each trainer has one partner Pokemon, forming a “Sync Pair,” and you can team up with other Sync Pairs to engage in three-on-three Pokemon battles and earn Gym Badges. You can take a look at some of the confirmed Pokemon Masters Sync Pairs so far in our gallery. For more on the title, check out our Pokemon Masters hands-on impressions.