The Icon. The Franchise. Wrestling legend Sting has officially signed with All-Elite Wrestling, but at what capacity has yet to be determined. Sting made his debut during Dynamite with all-new music and a video that showed an icy landscape, almost telling us that Hell has indeed frozen over.
The writing was on the wall back in October when suddenly Sting’s merch was removed from WWE’s shop site and for no given reason. Speculation was running wild then, but there were no hints or even teases of his coming to AEW and it left fans in shock of the man’s return. Sting even had new AEW merchandise at the ready for fans to buy.
It’s interesting to note that Sting, aka Steve Borden, is 61 years old. AEW has been utilizing the senior talent and established legends as mouthpieces or managers instead of being in-ring talent. The face-off with Darby Allin may have hinted at Sting’s future in the company.
Sting was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame back in 2016 and officially retired from competition. He had rarely been used on WWE TV since then but was featured in video games, action figures, and other pieces of merchandise since 2014. With his debut, Sting is one of the few wrestlers who have appeared in WCW, NWA, WWF, and AEW.
Activision’s Call of Duty-branded military veterans charity, the Call of Duty Endowment, has announced the details for this year’s C.O.D.E. Bowl event, which will be expanded from last year.
Held on December 11 and sponsored by USAA, the C.O.D.E. Bowl sees a big change this year in that all five branches of the US military will participate through their own eSports squads, while international military organizations will take part as well.
Three new teams from the US Marine Corps, US Air Force, and US Space Force will compete this year, while the UK’s British Army, Royal Air Force, and Royal Navy will also take part.
“We are proud to have the United States and the United Kingdom militaries come together to participate in the C.O.D.E. Bowl,” Call of Duty Endowment executive director Dan Goldenberg said in a statement.
Here’s how the actual C.O.D.E. Bowl will play out. The tournament begins at 10 AM PT on December 11, with eight teams in total competing in a Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War tournament. The teams consists of a popular Call of Duty streamer, a “top influencer,” and the soldiers from the US and UK. You can watch the tournament on YouTube and Twitch.
The list of participating military branches include the US Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force, while the UK participants include the British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force. The streamers who will play on their teams include Courage, LEGIQN, Huskerrs, Swagg, Espresso, Vikkstar, Tommey, C9Emz, Spratt, and others to be announced later.
Scuf Controllers is one of the sponsors of this year’s C.O.D.E. Bowl, and the company is donating all net proceeds from the event to the Call of Duty Endowment. Additionally, Ram Trucks is giving away a 2021 Ram 1500 Built To Serve special edition truck to a military veteran through the event.
Since its founding in 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment has helped place more than 77,000 military veterans in jobs, and the organization is aiming for this figure to reach 100,000 by 2024. According to Activision, the average cost to place a veteran in a job through the Call of Duty Endowment was $500 in 2019, which compares to thousands through the US government.
Elon Musk and his aerospace company, SpaceX, plan to launch two remote-controlled cars into space for a race on the surface of the moon next year.
Both of these RC vehicles will be sent to the moon in October 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has enlisted Frank Stephenson, who is best known for his design work at Ferrari, BMW, McLaren, and more, to design the cars, as reported by Business Insider.
“This is a project helping to develop the innovators of the future, allowing them to dream big and realize that nothing is impossible,” Stephenson said in a Moon Mark press release. “Space is a fascinating place, remaining untapped for budding designers and I’m very much looking forward to sharing some of my knowledge to those involved in this innovative project.”
Stephenson will design the cars with two teams of high school students. After eight weeks of qualifying challenges by high-schoolers from around the world, six teams of five members will compete to become the final two that race on the Moon, according to Moon Mark, which is a multimedia education company helping to make this race happen. It’s those two teams that will work with Stephenson.
“Their adventures will be captured, produced and globally distributed by Moon Mark,” the company said in a November 17 press release. “The final two teams will complete their racer designs in Houston, Texas, before being loaded onto the lander that will transport them to the Kennedy Space Center, and then to the moon.”
The two vehicles that the teams and Stephenson have yet to design and build will be carried in a Nova-C lunar lander created by Intuitive Machines aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Intuitive Machines is working with Moon Mark and Lunar Outpost, which is a space technology firm, to bring this off-world idea to life.
“Moon Mark’s mission of getting young people involved in aerospace and working toward utilizing space for the betterment of humanity is something that resonates with us,” Lunar Outpost CEO, Justin Cyrus, said. “We look forward to enabling racers on the Moon and being part of the journey to bring space to the world.”
Genshin Impact has, in terms of both spending and impact, been one of the biggest games of 2020. The title, which took top honors in Google Play and Apple’s game of the year lists, has reportedly brought in a huge amount of money every day since its release.
According to SensorTower, which tracks mobile spending and engagement, their stats suggest that Genshin Impact has brought in $393 million since it launched on September 28. which averages out to over $6 million every single day. Despite releasing late in the year, it’s reportedly the second-highest grossing mobile game of the year, behind Honor of Kings ($467 million).
$120 million of this revenue is said to have come from China, and $98 million of it from Japan. It’s worth noting that these numbers are based on SensorTower’s estimates, rather than hard figures released by developer miHoYo, so they might not be the exact numbers.
These figures only account for the mobile versions of the game, too–the PC and PS4/PS5 iterations of Genshin Impact have likely been very profitable, too.
Genshin Impact is a gacha game, so it makes its money from microtransactions. If you haven’t played yet and you’re worried about the game’s monetization model, you can read GameSpot’s full breakdown of how it works.
Genshin Impact earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review. “While there’s a lot to do, having several chunks of Genshin Impact gated off until you’ve reached a higher rank is an obnoxious restriction for an open-world game to have–and once you finally do see what lies in those unexplored areas, it’s often a bit underwhelming,” wrote reviewer Heidi Kemps.
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Watching movies in 2020 is, simply put, weird. Here in the US, the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic means that theaters have, with few exceptions, stayed empty. Theater chains like AMC are hurting. That means we’re doing most of our watching at home on services like Google Play. Despite the shift, Google’s best-seller list is a mix of this year and last year’s releases similar to last year’s list.
Where the weirdness of 2020 starts to come in is that Trolls World Tour was released exclusively as a premium video on demand rental, while Sonic the Hedgehog and Bloodshot both found themselves moving to the same model shortly after their releases due to the pandemic. The Invisible Man fell victim to the same thing, though it did well in drive-in theaters as the weather warmed up.
The list shakes out with six movies from 2020 and nine from 2019. The 2019 list featured eight 2019 films, six 2018 films and, somehow, one 2017 film. What will be really interesting to see is what this same list looks like next year. Assuming things start to return to normalcy throughout the year, studios have tons of movies–at least 56–waiting in the hopper for a theatrical release. We’ll have to wait and see if cinemas return to normal next year, and what impact that will have on stories like Google Play.
The PlayStation 5 has finally arrived, ushering in the next generation of gaming from Sony. The console is selling very well, and stock has sold through at most retailers. As such, this video we’re about to share might be difficult to watch for those who remain in the hunt for a next-gen system.
Someone has acquired a PS5 only to place it into one of those machines that destroys everything. It is a terrifying video, with the cracking and crunching sounds standing out as particularly painful to hear as the console gets literally shred to pieces. Have a look:
So who’s trying to get the shredded parts and build a PS5? 🤦♂️(Via u/cheeseinmya**) pic.twitter.com/8ie9qlSsVf
Sony has promised that more PS5 units will be available for purchase later this year, so if you’ve been shut out thus far, there is still hope. You can follow GameSpot’s PS5 ordering page to stay up to date on how to get a console for yourself when they become available.
As 2020 comes to an end, stores and outlets are starting to release their game of the year lists. Both Google Play and the Apple App Store have weighed in and announced the game of the year on their platforms, and the same game has taken top honors for both storefronts–Genshin Impact.
Google Play has given the game top honors, citing the game’s size and enjoyable combat as factors “Genshin Impact blew us away with its sheer scale and ambition,” the description reads. “Combat is fast and fluid, with each fight a spectacle to behold. Quite simply, this is the best game we’ve played this year.”
Apple did not delve into their reasoning, but also selected the game as the year’s best. Several other games were honored in their app awards, too. Legends of Runeterra was declared the year’s best iPad game, Disco Elysium took the Mac award, Dandara Trials of Fear claimed the Apple TV top spot, and Sneaky Sasquatch was declared the best game of 2020 on the Apple Arcade service.
The entertainment industry may have ground to a halt in 2020, but there’s plenty to look forward to in 2021 and beyond.
2020 was a year full of delays and postponements across most entertainment, and TV was no exception. It felt as though everything from superheroes to sci-fi was put on hold or shoved into the indefinite future thanks to production shutdowns and schedule shuffles. It’s not all doom and gloom, however–with any luck, 2020’s misfortune will make for a jam-packed 2021 with all the projects we were looking forward to watching this year settling into their new time slots in the near future.
Unfortunately, one of the byproducts of 2020’s massive upheaval is a lot of “to be determined” premiere dates, even into next year. And while we’d love to give you some guarantee that everything on this list will absolutely, positively be hitting small screens in 2021, we’re not oracles. That said, we’ve done our best to keep our ears to the ground and or eyes on the horizon in terms of tracking productions picking back up and filming progressing through the pandemic uncertainty. Rest assured, we’re looking forward to shows like Lord of the Rings, Y, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as much as you are.
The good news is that there are a handful of up-and-comers who have locked in their premiere dates, like WandaVision, the MCU’s first streaming TV show, heading to Disney+ on January 15 and Cobra Kai Season 3, which is set to hit Netflix on January 8.
Check out those and more here in our breakdown of 2021’s most anticipated shows to look forward to.
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Cobra Kai Season 3
Netflix, January 8, 2021
The first two seasons of the Karate Kid spin-off Cobra Kai screened on YouTube Premium, but for Season 3, the show is moving over to Netflix. This is great news for fans of the continuing adventures of Daniel and Johnny, 30 years after the original hit ‘80s movies. And fans of the films who haven’t had the chance to see Seasons 1 and 2 will also be able to catch up on those on Netflix too.
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Wandavision
Disney+, January 15
With The Falcon and the Winter Soldier delayed until next year, WandaVision will be the first MCU show to hit Disney+. We’ve known for some time that it wouldn’t be a standard superhero show, and the recent trailer revealed just how strange it promises to be. Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) are now living in suburbia, trying to maintain “normal” lives, and much of the trailer suggests this will be presented in a classic sitcom format. But as MCU fans know, Vision was killed in Infinity War–something the trailer alludes to–and things are definitely not what they seem.
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Lord of the Rings
Amazon Prime Video, TBD
Peter Jackon’s Lord of the Rings films elevated fantasy as a pop culture genre and cemented Tolkien’s seminal series as essential for new generations. Those movies may be decades old, but they hold up just as well now, so it’s a good thing that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show isn’t a reboot or re-telling of the same story. Instead, it’s set thousands of years earlier. The cast and talent involved are largely unproven, but then, so were the creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones at one point, so we’re looking forward to this one nonetheless.
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The Wheel of Time
Amazon, TBD
If Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show is a disappointment, the streaming service will have a backup: the upcoming Wheel of Time adaptation. We don’t know much about the series, an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s 14-book fantasy epic. Last we heard, they were still announcing casting choices. But we’re hopeful we might see the show in 2021.
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Avatar: The Last Airbender (live-action)
Netflix, TBD
Netflix is working on a live-action adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. This isn’t the first time such a thing has been attempted, but there’s a good chance this will be better than the loathed 2010 movie (low bar, we know). That said, the cartoon’s original creators cast some doubt on that notion recently. Time will tell, and we’re hoping to see this show in 2021.
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The Witcher Season 2
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Cassian Andor show
Disney+, TBD
Rogue One’s Cassian Andor may have met a tragic fate at the end of his debut movie, but that won’t stop him from getting his own spin-off series on Disney+. The untitled project is returning Diego Luna to the role of Cassian, the resistance spy who helped secure the plans for the original Death Star at the cost of his own life. Though not much is known about the show, it can be safely assumed to be set some time before the events of Rogue One, and is confirmed to be a spy thriller in tone and genre, in keeping with Andor’s character. Alan Tyduk is returning to voice Cassian’s droid pal K-2SO, and Genevieve O’Reilly is returning as Mon Mothma as well. A premiere date has yet to be announced for the project.
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Parasite show
HBO, TBD
We learned in early 2020 that HBO has a Parasite series in the works, and we’re still hoping to see it in 2021. The show will relate in some way to the lauded 2019 Bong Joon-Ho film of the same name, though at the time of the series’ announcement, it was unclear whether it’s an English-language remake, a continuation of the movie’s story, or something else.
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The Expanse Season 6
Amazon, likely 2021
Amazon announced that The Expanse will return for a sixth–and final–season before Season 5 had even begun streaming on the Prime Video service. We don’t know much about it yet, as we’ll have to wait and see what happens in Season 5. But given what a good home Amazon has been for the series (after rescuing it following its cancellation by Syfy), we’re expecting more greatness. If production goes smoothly and Amazon sticks to a consistent release schedule, we’re expecting The Expanse to release in late 2021.
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Clarice
CBS, TBD
Cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter got his own TV show a few years ago, and now it’s the turn of his Silence of the Lambs nemesis, FBI Agent Clarice Starling. Clarice stars Rebecca Breeds (Pretty Little Liars) in the title role, and the show is set six months after the events of Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal showed that there was plenty of mileage left in that character, so with any luck this new look at Starling should prove to be a successful new addition to the roster of great crime TV shows. It also stars Kal Penn (Designated Survivor), Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead), and Nick Sandow (Orange is the New Black).
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Y
FX, TBD
Y: The Last Man is one of Vertigo’s most beloved comic books. The series followed a man (Yorick) and his monkey (Ampersand), who were the last two males on the planet after a disease wiped out everything with a Y chromosome. Getting this comic adapted has been a bumpy ride, though. It was a TV show, then a movie, then a TV show once again. Most recently, Eliza Clark (The Killing) has taken over as showrunner, writer, and executive producer. Comic creators Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra spoke about the show at NYCC 2019 saying this will be the series comic fans deserve. Let’s hope FX does this amazing comic justice.
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AHS Season 10
AMC, TBD
It’s almost nine years since the hugely popular anthology show American Horror Story premiered, and the series doesn’t show signs of finishing any time soon. In January, it was renewed for another three seasons, and Season 10 will arrive this year. The only image we’ve seen from the new season so far is this poster, which suggests an aquatic horror theme. The cast this time includes Home Alone star Macauley Culkin, as well as Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd, Finn Wittrock, Lily Rabe, Adina Porter, Leslie Grossman, and Angelica Ross. And fans will be excited to learn that series favorites Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters are also returning.
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I Think You Should Leave Season 2
Netflix, TBD
Tim Robinson’s sketch show I Think You Should Leave was bizarre, easily one of the weirdest sketch comedy series in years. Robinson’s unique brand of humor is absurdist and pushes the envelope for how far it’s willing to go to deliver its comedy. While we don’t know a lot about the upcoming season, series co-creator Zach Kanin told Variety that The Lonely Island will be involved.
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
CBS All-Access, TBD
For many viewers, the best thing about Star Trek Discovery Season 2 was the addition of Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike. Mount wasn’t the first actor to play Pike, but his charming, charismatic performance made him an immediate fan favorite, and there were demands for him to get his own show almost as soon as that season ended. In May 2020, it was confirmed that this is happening, and Mount, Ethan Peck (as Spock), and Rebecca Romijn (as Number One) will return for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The new show will be set a decade before the original Star Trek series, and will follow the trio on adventures around the galaxy in the Enterprise.
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Falcon and Winter Soldier
Disney+, 2021
Disney+ may not pump out the quantity of original content that Netflix does, but it does have the most-hyped shows and movies, primarily from the worlds of Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was set to debut in August 2020, but will now arrive in 2021. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan return to play their respective roles, and they’ll be joined by Daniel Brühl reprising his role of Zemo from Captain America: Civil War.
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Batwoman Season 2
The CW, TBD
There’s a pretty big change in the second season of The CW’s Batwoman. Ruby Rose played the hero in Season 1, but she has now quit the series and the role of Kate Kane wasn’t recast. Instead, a new character is taking on the Batwoman mantle. Ryan Wilder has been created specifically for the show, and will be played by Javicia Leslie, best known for her roles on CBS’s God Friended Me and BET’s The Family Business. Wilder is described as “likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed,” and while we won’t know what villains or adventures she will get involved in, it’s exciting to see what Leslie will bring to the role.
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MODOK
Hulu, TBD
We got a first look at Hulu’s upcoming Marvel TV show, MODOK, at 2020’s New York Comic-Con, where we learned that it was going to be a Robot Chicken-like stop-motion animation extravaganza featuring one of the Marvel Universe’s weirdest villains. MODOK is, essentially, a floating head with baby limbs whose only real mission is to prove his intellectual superiority while also ruling the world. In this show, however, he’s also a family man–which is sure to make for some truly absurd hijinks for everyone involved. Currently MODOK has no release date on the schedule, but is set to hit Hulu some time in 2021.
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What If…?
Disney+, TBD
Since the 1970’s, Marvel ‘s “What If…?” comics series has theorized about what would happen if key events in Marvel history had turned out differently. What if the Avengers didn’t exist? What if Captain America became President? What if Uncle Ben didn’t die? Marvel will be applying this concept to the MCU in their upcoming animated series on Disney+ of the same name. Featuring vocal performances from the original film actors, “What If…” will feature cosmic historian The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) as the series’ narrator. The first episode will ask: What if Peggy Carter took the Super Soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers? Sounds intriguing.
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Loki
Disney+, TBD
Thanos killed Loki in Avengers: Infinity War. But then, Avengers: Endgame gave the God of Mischief an out, when he stole the Tesseract after the Battle of New York and escaped custody. Tom Hiddleston will reprise his role as Loki, who exists in a new, alternate timeline that’s unburdened by the events of Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. Expect lots of Easter Eggs and additional subversions of established events.
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Law & Order: Organized Crime
NBC, TBD
Originally scheduled for Fall 2020, the latest iteration of Law & Order is expected to debut later this year. Starring a returning Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, who we haven’t seen since Season 11 of Law & Order: SVU, the show will deal with Stabler’s personal life and his new role as head of the NYPD’s organized crime unit. In other words, it’s Law & Order; some iteration of it has been on the air for the past three decades. You know what to expect at this point.
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House of the Dragon
Has enough time passed since the Game of Thrones series finale for the public to embrace another Westeros adventure? We’ll find out when House of the Dragon debuts on HBO. The show will trace the history of the Targaryen family–specifically, it’ll focus on King Viserys I (Paddy Considine)–who ruled Westeros two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones–and his children, who fought for the throne in a bloody civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Unfortunately, we’re not expecting to see it until 2022.
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Halo show
Showtime, TBD
Production on the Halo TV show began in 2019, but was subsequently shut down in 2020 due to COVID. 343 Industries’ Kiki Wolfkill gave an update over the summer, and we’re still hoping to see the series in 2021.
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Cowboy Bebop (live-action)
Netflix, TBD
There have been some really unfortunate live-action anime adaptations in recent years, from Ghost in the Shell to Death Note. However, we can’t help but look forward to seeing a new take on one of our favorites, Cowboy Bebop. While casting news has emerged as recently as November, there’s no release date yet for Netflix’s live-action adaptation, but we have high hopes that it might stream in 2021.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
The runtime for the upcoming superhero movie sequel Wonder Woman 1984 has been revealed, and it’s longer than the first one. The movie clocks in at 2 hours and 31 minutes, according to listings on cinema pages. This compares to 2 hours and 21 minutes for the 2017 film.
Director Patty Jenkins explained to Collider that her first cut of Wonder Woman 1984 was longer, coming in at 2 hours and 45 minutes before it was cut down in the editing process.
Comparing to other DC movies, Wonder Woman 1984’s 151 minutes is one minute shorter than the theatrical edit of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. For further comparison, Joker (122 minutes), Suicide Squad (123 minutes), Shazam (132 minutes), and Aquaman (142 minutes) were all shorter.
Looking outside DC, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame was a behemoth of a film, running for 3 hours and 2 minutes. The supersized length was driven by the fact that it was the culmination of a numerous storylines dating back more than a decade.
Wonder Woman 1984 will be available on HBO Max in the United States on Christmas Day, so viewers will be able to pause the film to reload on snacks or use the bathroom. The movie will also play in cinemas, but whether or not you feel comfortable with that is another question.
Wonder Woman 1984 brings back Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, with new cast members joining such as Kristen Wiig (Cheetah) and Pedro Pascal (Maxwell Lord).
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Fall Guys looks set to get another major crossover costume, and this time it’s one of gaming’s biggest heroes. The game’s official Twitter account has released a sneak peek, and it looks very familiar.
Unless we’re very much mistaken, it looks like Doomguy. Publisher Devolver Digital, by the way, seems to agree. The framing of the figure is very close to keyart from 2016’s Doom, used as the cover image for some iterations of the game, too.
The tweet suggests that we’ll know “soon”, so we don’t expect a long wait for confirmation and a look at the costume. To add further fuel to the fire, the official Doom Twitter account has more-or-less confirmed that it’s a Doom costume.
While some replies to the tweet have suggested that the costume could be Iron Man, our money is firmly on Doomguy–Fortnite seems to be the place for Marvel crossovers right now.
