Nickelodeon is moving forward with a SpongeBob Squarepants spinoff. The network announced today that it’s given the green light to a spinoff series with the working title Kamp Koral.
The show focuses on a 10-year-old SpongeBob, and specifically his adventures at the sleepaway camp called Kamp Koral. Nickelodeon is producing 13 episodes for the animated series first season. Production is beginning this month, though there is no word yet on when the show will premiere.
“SpongeBob has an incredible universe to expand upon and the greenlight for Kamp Koral is a testament to the strength and longevity of these characters known and loved by generations of fans around the world,” Nickelodeon animation boss Ramsey Naito said in a statement.
In the show, SpongeBob and friends will do all sorts of wild and weird things like “building underwater campfires, catching wild jellyfish, and swimming in Lake Yuckymuck at the craziest camp in the kelp forest, Kamp Koral.”
SpongeBob series producers Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are Kamp Koral’s co-executive producers.
Kamp Koral is the first SpongeBob TV show spinoff. Further spinoffs focused on other SpongeBob characters are coming, according to Deadline. Additionally, a new movie called It’s A Wonderful Sponge will premiere in 2020.
Ubisoft has confirmed that Watch Dogs Legion will be revealed at E3 2019.
The official Watch Dogs Twitter account, which is now fully branded for and named Watch Dogs Legion, posted a cryptic teaser with a new logo. Accompanying the video were the words “God Save the NPCs. Reveal at E3. #WatchDogLegion #UbiE3”
For being one of the X-Men’s most notoriously complicated mutants, Jean’s story actually has a relatively simple start. She’s one of the original team members, introduced back in the very first issue back in 1963. She was the token girl on the otherwise all-male team back in the day, and the only mutant with telekinetic powers in the mix–the others, Iceman, Psyclops, Beast, and Angel all had largely physical powers. For years, this was as tricky as Jean got. She was known as Marvel Girl, and she could move things with her mind–no fuss, no frills.
Becoming The Phoenix
The simplicity didn’t last, however. Over time, more of Jean’s origin was revealed to be a somewhat insidious effort by Charles Xavier, who had clocked her as an up-and-coming telepath with potentially dangerous abilities. As she was enrolled in Xavier’s Academy For Gifted Youngsters, Xavier placed special telepathic blocks in Jean’s brain to limit her mutation to just telekinesis at first.
After a considerable amount of training and practice, her telepathic powers were eventually unlocked, allowing her to grow that particular skill as she participated in missions with the team–but eventually, Xavier’s fears began to become realities. It started slowly at first: During a mission set in space, Jean was forced to sacrifice herself to save her teammates, but in doing so, sent a massive telepathic plea out into the universe itself–a plea that was answered by a cosmic power known as the Phoenix Force, the manifestation of the power of creation and life itself in the universe.
The Phoenix Force took up residence inside of Jean, saving her from the near-death experience. She emerged with a new look and codename: Phoenix.
For a few fleeting moments, it actually seemed as though that was all there was to it. Jean seemed mostly fine, despite the trauma, and her revival was mysterious but not completely unheard of in superhero comics. But after some time, the truth came to light–sort of. The Phoenix Force had actually taken over Jean’s body and mind, creating a duplicate body to house her consciousness and the Force itself, along with Jean’s memories, while Jean’s real body was placed in a special stasis pod/cocoon to be healed.
Yeah. Look, X-Men stories are a lot of things, but simple ain’t one of them.
Enter Dark Phoenix
So anyway, Phoenix Jean–who, for all intents and purposes, was Jean, or at least, completely believed herself to be Jean–eventually started to experience strange visions of a past life where she was known as Lady Grey, the nefarious Black Queen of a group of evildoers called the Hellfire Club. The story of Lady Grey was, in fact, a complete fabrication by a villain known as Mastermind, who was specifically working to undermine Jean’s sanity. And that’s exactly what he was able to do. As the visions increased in frequency and intensity, Jean eventually accepted them as reality and succumbed entirely to a new evil alter-ego: Dark Phoenix, the full, unbridled potential of the Phoenix Force unchecked and given horrifying, hedonistic purpose care of the false Hellfire Club memories.
Dark Phoenix promptly became the single most powerful and deadly psychic in the universe–and we mean that in the most literal and comic book-y way possible. After turning on her friends and team, Dark Phoenix opted to leave Earth, getting herself pinged on the radar of a handful of alien races and committing a handful of casual planetary genocides on the way–you know, like you do–which specifically got her noticed by the Shi’Ar Empire, who deemed her a greater threat to the galaxy than Galactus himself.
The conflict eventually escalated so dramatically that the Shi’Ar nearly enacted “Plan Omega,” which would evolve destroying the entire solar system in an effort to destroy Dark Phoenix, but thankfully the X-Men were able to head things off before they went that far. After briefly regaining her sense of self and her human memories, Jean heroically sacrificed herself, forcing the Phoenix Force out of her body and saving the universe.
The cycle of death and rebirth
But things don’t end there. Remember the original Jean Grey body that was left in a healing stasis? The disembodied Phoenix Force tried to possess that version of Jean–it doesn’t work, but it does bring that Jean back into play, prompting her to wake up and begin a new life with no memory of any of the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix events at all. Meanwhile, another, totally different duplicate Jean, a clone made by the villain Mr. Sinister, isn’t so lucky. A portion of the Phoenix Force found a home in that body and creates another version of Jean altogether, known as Madelyne Pryor.
So to recap, there are three Jeans in the mix here: the original Jean who was stuck in a healing coma for the events of the Phoenix saga, the duplicate Jean who was the embodiment of the Phoenix Force who became Dark Phoenix and died, and the clone of Jean who became the second Phoenix Force host, Madelyne Pryor.
Remember what we said about X-Men comics not being simple? Yeah. We really meant it.
After the Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean’s life never really went back to normal. She and her on-again-off-again flame Scott Summers were married for a while (though Scott also had a thing with Madelyne Pryor, too, which is a whole other can of worms) but their relationship eventually began to fail with a little help from the villain Apocalypse, who temporarily killed Scott and Emma Frost, with whom Scott engaged in a “psychic affair.”
Sometime later, Jean was killed yet again–this time by a former teammate named Xorn (who was actually Magneto, don’t worry about it)–only to be revived by the Phoenix Force all over again–sort of, at least. There are some alternate timeline shenanigans at play here that both do and do not negate her death. Ultimately, it was revealed that Jean bonded to the Phoenix Force to become a god-like entity known as the White Phoenix Of The Crown, and completely ascended to a higher plane of existence known as the White Hot Room, an extra-dimensional nexus that served as a sort of hub for the Phoenix Force and its hosts, rendering her somewhere between life and death. Though, as far as anyone was concerned on Earth, she was just the normal sort of dead.
She actually stayed dead for a while this time–kind of, at least. While Jean was technically dead for all intents and purposes, her consciousness still resided in the White Hot Room and would occasionally come into play in the form of psychic messages and manifestations (also through her various clones and time traveling pseudo-descendants like Hope Summers).
What about now?
That’s how things stayed for some time until she was finally resurrected again, by way of uh–an egg. Get it? Because the Phoenix is a bird? She even briefly had her very own team of X-Men after her resurrection, who acted as a sort of top secret mutant black ops unit trying to “heal” the world of its anti-mutant sentiments.
Oh, and there were a couple of time-displaced versions of her running around too, including the child version of herself brought to the present alongside all her original X-Men teammates. Kid Jean even got her own solo series for a while, which is something the adult version of herself never managed to nail down.
So what does this say about Jean’s turn as the Phoenix in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix live action movie? We can guess based on trailers that we’re going to see a pretty villainous turn for Jean on the big screen as is par for the course in the source material, but it’s difficult to guess just how this particular incarnation of the Phoenix Force is actually going to work. It seems like a safe bet to expect a major self-sacrifice moment from Jean by the end of the movie, but with news that the ending has been reshot, where things will end up is really anyone’s guess. It’s pretty unlikely that we’ll see big screen versions of any of Jean’s clones, though, if only for the fact that this particular arm of the X-Men cinematic universe is likely coming to a close thanks to the Disney/Fox buy out. But hey, anything’s possible.
While surprising at first, vampiric heartthrob Robert Pattinson (Twilight, High Life) is officially the Dark Knight. With news that Pattinson will lead a trilogy of Batman films, how he landed the role was “quicker than normal,” according to a Warner Bros. insider.
In a Hollywood Reporter post, director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) had a few actors in mind when penning the script. Among those actors was 33-year-old Pattinson, who has since disappeared into smaller movies after stealing teenage hearts in the Twilight series of the late 2000s. The Batman’s script called for a Bruce Wayne in his 30s. The story would focus more on how Wayne becomes the genius detective he is, instead of rehashing his origin story or displaying his later years as a grizzled crimefighter.
And so, according to sources familiar with Reeves and his thinking, the American director was attracted to Pattinson because the English actor deliberately sought out more lowkey roles in lesser-known movies. Despite ultimately winning the role as the Caped Crusader, Pattinson still had competition.
Reeves was also considering 29-year-old Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, The Favourite), who’s most known as the furry blue Beast in the X-Men franchise. THR notes that nothing prohibits Marvel actors from appearing in DC/Warner Bros. pictures and vice versa, but the cross-pollination could cause confusion between branding and characters. Though Hoult wasn’t eliminated because of this potential issue, what seems to have secured Pattinson the role as Batman was how convincing he was in the suit during screen tests.
Both Hoult and Pattinson put on a previous Batman suit, common in the Bat-test–Christian Bale wore Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever suit before landing Batman Begins–and what Reeves was looking for were answers to a series of questions: Did they embody the character? How did their eyes look and act? Is there a specialness to them?
As one insider put it, “(Reeves) wanted very specific things. He knew what he was looking for.”
The Batman is scheduled to hit theatres on June 25, 2021.
Monster Hunter World‘s massive Iceborne expansion arrives on PS4 and Xbox One this September (with a PC release to follow). The DLC will make its playable debut at E3 2019, but ahead of the expo, Capcom has shared a new story trailer that sets the stage for the adventure and offers another look at some of the new monsters players will encounter.
Set after the events of Monster Hunter World’s main story, Iceborne takes players to an entirely new arctic region called Hoarfrost Reach, which is home to a diverse array of new and returning monsters. After arriving at the region, the Research Commission establishes a new camp called Seliana, which will serve as your base of operations during your Iceborne adventures.
Along with the new elder dragon Velkana, Iceborne introduces an “extreme” variant of the Legiana known as the Shrieking Legian. It also brings a couple of older monsters back; we got a glimpse at the Nargacuga during Sony’s latest State of Play broadcast, and the new trailer reveals the fearsome Tigrex is coming back as well. It appears some more fan-favorites will also return; the trailer ends with a fiery slash followed by Glavenus’s distinctive roar, teasing it may likewise be coming back in Iceborne. You can watch the story trailer above.
Capcom says the upcoming Iceborne expansion “rivals the volume of the original release of Monster Hunter World.” On top of all the new monsters, it adds a variety of new quests, gear and weapons to craft, and a new rank called Master Rank, which is similar to the G-Rank from previous games. Some of the game’s existing gadgets are also getting new upgrades; the Slinger, for instance, is getting a new Clutch Claw function that allows players to freely grapple and mantle enemies.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne launches for PS4 and Xbox One on September 6. The expansion is also coming to PC later this winter, although no date has been specified yet. You’ll need to own a copy of the base game in order to play Iceborne, but Capcom is releasing a new Master Edition that bundles both together for $60.
Star Trek continues to thrive on television, but the future of the long-running sci-fi series on the big screen is less clear. Although 2015’s Star Trek Beyond was not as successful as previous films, Paramount was still moving forward with a fourth film in the current reboot series. However, it was cancelled earlier this year, and now Chris Hemsworth, who had been initially cast in the film, has spoken about his decision not to appear it.
Hemsworth made a small appearance in JJ Abram’s first Star Trek reboot movie as George Kirk, and was set to reprise this role. His involvement was first announced back in 2016, but the Thor star has now told Variety that he ultimately turned the role down because he felt the script wasn’t good enough. “I didn’t feel like we landed on a reason to revisit that yet,” he said. “I didn’t want to be underwhelmed by what I was going to bring to the table.”
Interestingly, it was previously reported that Hemsworth stepped down from Star Trek 4 due to contract issues. According to a story in The Hollywood Reporter, both Hemsworth and Chris Pine, who plays James Kirk, believed that Paramount was forcing them to take pay cuts for the fourth film. Either way, in January it was reported that director SJ Clarkson has stepped down and the movie was “shelved.”
In related news, the rumours that Quentin Tarantino might make a Star Trek movie persist. In January 2018 it was reported that Tarantino had spoken to Abrams about a new story for a Trek movie, and last month the filmmaker stated that it was still “a very big possibility” that the movie could happen.
In terms of Star Trek on the small screen, the first teaser for the upcoming show Picard was released last week. As the title suggests, the series will focus on the iconic former Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard, with Patrick Stewart reprising his role from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It will premiere later this year.
Disclosure: CBS Interactive is the parent company of GameSpot.
The final content expansion of Destiny 2‘s current annual pass, Penumbra, drops today along with the Season of Opulence, which means the future of Bungie’s live service shooter is currently unknown to players. Or at least, that was the case before dataminers started digging through the game’s new patch, Update 2.5.0.1, and discovered what they say are details about Destiny 2’s next expansion.
According to a post on Reddit, the next new content to come to Destiny 2 is called Shadowkeep, and it’s due to drop this fall. The expansion will take players back to the moon, a Destiny 1 location that hasn’t been included in Destiny 2 so far, where they’ll fight new variations of the Hive. Here’s the full description on the image Redditors say they pulled from the new update’s files:
“The next chapter in the Destiny experience arrives this fall as terrifying shadows descend upon a forgotten moon. Return to the lunar surface. Journey deep into a mysterious enemy citadel. Become a slayer of nightmares.”
Returning to the moon tracks with Destiny 2’s story ever since Forsaken. In that expansion, the Hive attacked the Dreaming City and are responsible for a time loop that keeps the location locked in a three-week cycle–something players have ostensibly been trying to break since the expansion was released. The Hive have a major presence on the moon in Destiny 1, so returning to that location would make sense as part of wrapping up the Dreaming City story.
The question is, what exactly is Bungie’s plan for Destiny 2 going forward? One assumes the developer still means to release a Destiny 3, as was the plan before its split with Activision. Holding that game until the release of a new console generation would also make sense. But does that mean Bungie means to launch a new annual pass that would carry the game into 2020? Or is there another, larger expansion on the way, more akin to Forsaken? And just how big will Shadowkeep end up being, anyway?
The leak might tell us what to expect, but it seems we’ll still be waiting for Thursday’s announcement from Bungie for the full details of Destiny 2’s next chapter.
The Season of Opulence is here. As is usually the case with new content drops in Destiny 2, this one comes with an increase in the total Power level you can reach with your weapons and armor. The best way to climb to the new Power cap of 750 is with Powerful gear drops, and one route you can take to get them is the weekly Ascendant Challenge in the Dreaming City. As always, we’ve continued to rotate through the available Ascendant Challenges; the specifics of what you have to do are the same, but it’s not immediately obvious where you need to go or what’s going to happen inside. Below, you’ll find a guide to help you out.
Before you try to tackle the Ascendant Challenge, the same requirements as always hold true; most notably, you need a Tincture of Queensfoil. This is a consumable item that you’ll happen upon while playing in the Dreaming City, although you can also buy them. Using a Tincture gives you the Ascendance buff, which allows you to see a Taken portal. It’s this portal you must go through to complete the Ascendant Challenge. Along with a Tincture, you have to grab the Ascendant Challenge bounty from Petra in the Dreaming City; it’s through this that you actually get your Powerful gear.
For the current challenge, the portal is located in Rheasilvia. In the northeast corner, head inside a building and go straight as far as you can. Turn right, and then go left in the next area to reach Harbinger’s Seclude. Go up a set of stairs and out the doorway on the right. Head straight through this area, through another doorway, and continue straight in the next zone. At the end of a bridge you’ll see a statue covered in Taken Blight balls; look for hidden Ascendant platforms to appear in the big open area in front of the statue starting on the right side of the room that will take you to the top, or jump up the blights themselves to reach the portal on top of the statue’s head. Check out the video above for a walkthrough. If you struggle to get up, take out your ghost and you’ll see some invisible platforms just off the slide of the area that can help you get up.
Going through the portal transports you to the Keep of Honed Edges in the Ascendant Plane. Platform your way across a series of rocks and you’ll find an area with three knights who are immune to damage. Kill all of the other enemies and the barrier protecting a sword will go away, allowing you to pick up the relic.
At this point, more enemies spawn in and one knight will begin attacking you. Kill the knight, and the other two will join the fray along with additional enemies. Take them all out, and you’ll again have to platform across a series of rocks, now with enemies to make things more challenging. There is debris moving through the area, and at least certain things you step on will disappear after a short period of time, so make sure not to linger. Make your way toward a platform with a large blue object on it to complete the challenge.
As in previous weeks, the chest you receive at the end of the Ascendant Challenge isn’t anything special. But the bounty you get from Petra offers Powerful gear for completing it; this can help to boost your Power level, so ensuring you have the bounty is essential.
Meanwhile, the quest for Thorn should keep players busy for a bit. It also represents another step forward in one of the biggest, most interesting running stories in all of Destiny lore–check out our lore catch-up guide for everything you need to know about the famous gun, its famous wielder, and what’s going on with the Drifter as the Season of the Drifter continues.
A new Jumanji video game is coming from Bandai Namco, based on the movie franchise with a new sequel coming this fall. Jumanji: The Video Game will hit PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on November 15.
The game follows the four heroes introduced in 2017’s Jumanji movie: Dr. Smolder Bravestone, Ruby Roundhouse, Franklin “Mouse” Finbar, and Professor Shelly Oberon. Each one has their own special set of skills to contribute to the team. You’ll be seeking the Jewels of Jumanji and fighting through creatures, traps, and marauders to find your way back home.
In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, four teenagers entered the world of a retro video game–as opposed to the board game concept of the original film. And each in-game avatar had their own special abilities, like martial arts expertise or zoology. A sequel is coming in December. A teaser released alongside the announcement doesn’t show much, but does reveal characters in the likenesses of the actors who played them in the movie: Jack Black, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Karen Gillan, and Kevin Hart.
“Jumanji is a property we have been eager to work with for a long time,” said Outright CEO Terry Malham, in the announcement. “Our specialty as a video game publisher is in producing high-quality interactive-entertainment for the whole family to enjoy and there is no brand more exciting for families right now than Jumanji.”
