Category: Games

Will Apu be written off The Simpsons? No. At least not anytime soon. That’s according to series creator Matt Groening, who said at the D23 Expo this weekend that Apu will stay on the show.

“Yes. We love Apu. We’re proud of Apu,” Groening said, as reported by Variety.

Much of the debate around The Simpsons and Apu specifically has come from Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu. The movie explores Apu as a character and focuses on him as a stereotype. Series producer Al Jean explained previous (via Variety) that he watched this documentary and spoke with The Simpsons writers about it.

He said he takes the matter “very seriously.” Some people are offended by Apu and others aren’t, so that makes it a “difficult choice” to make about the future of Apu on The Simpsons, Jean said. “I don’t want to offend people but we also want to be funny. We don’t want to be totally politically correct,” he said. “That has never been us. It’s given us a lot of thought.”

Apu voice actor Hank Azaria has said he’s willing to step down from voicing him in light of the blowback.

Going back to Groening, addressing the Apu situation in 2018, he said, “People love to pretend they’re offended.” He commented again later, saying people today have an “outrage of the week” and then move on to being upset about something else.

“I think particularly right now, people feel so aggrieved and crazed and powerless that they’re picking the wrong battles,” he said.

Castlevania showrunner Adi Shankar told IndieWire in 2018 that he heard from multiple sources that The Simpsons would eliminate Apu going forward. However, Al Jean responded on Twitter to say Shankar isn’t a spokesperson for the show.

The Simpsons Season 30 wrapped up in May this year; Seasons 31 and 32 are currently on the way, bringing the show up to 713 episodes.

In other news, The Simpsons producers have said Disney–which now owns the property–has been receptive to having talks about a Simpsons Movie sequel or spin-off series.

The Simpsons is one of the longest running and most popular shows in the history of television, and it could get even bigger with a second movie and/or a spin-off.

There was one very popular movie, The Simpsons Movie that was released in 2007, but it never got a sequel. Not only that, but The Simpsons has spawned no spin-off series (though creator Matt Groening went on to make the Netflix animated series Disenchantment). That could change in the future, however, as key talent from the show spoke at D23 Expo this weekend about how a second movie or a TV series spin-off haven’t been ruled out.

According to Variety, executive producer Al Jean told an audience that the producers “have talked about” making a second Simpsons movie or a spin-off in their discussions with new owners Disney. The House of Mouse acquired The Simpsons when it purchased the majority of Fox’s entertainment assets.

“I think Disney would be supportive of anything we wanted to do, maybe a crazy limited series with a side character or a movie that we surprised you with; they’ve been really creatively supportive and this is going to afford so many new ways to do the show than just the traditional format,” another executive producer, Matt Selman, said.

Disney’s buyout of Fox, which was one of the biggest deals in the history of the entertainment industry at $71 billion, also gives the House of Mouse franchises like Family Guy and Deadpool. In the wake of the buyout, Disney announced layoffs that reportedly impact “thousands” of people.

2007’s The Simpsons Movie made a gargantuan $527 million against a reported budget of $75 million. One of the reasons why there never was a sequel was because the same team behind the show also made the movie–while still working on the show. It was an enormous challenge that the producers were not pushing too quickly to jump back into.

But now, some 12 years later, Simpsons creator Matt Groening says the team is almost back to a place where they might consider making another movie.

“We’re almost recovered. No doubt there will be another Simpsons movie one of these days. Disney wants something for its money,” Groening said.

A Simpsons short, Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, was released in 2012; it was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, but it didn’t win.

As for a potential Simpsons spin-off TV show, there are no details about what this might look like or what characters it could focus on. Another property that Disney got from the Fox buyout, Family Guy, released a spin-off show called The Cleveland Show. It ran for four seasons from 2009-2013.

World of Warcraft Classic is officially launching very soon on August 27, and ahead of that, developer Blizzard has announced some important changes and updates.

Starting off, Blizzard will eliminate the previous character limit of three per account. At launch, players can make up to 10 characters per realm; that works out to 50 across all Classic realms.

On top of that, Blizzard announced it will open four more Classic servers to help what are expected to be potentially lengthy queues at launch. The four new servers can be seen below. All the names are pretty good, but “Bigglesworth” probably takes the cake.

New WoW Classic Servers

For those lucky enough to be playing WoW Classic early, Blizzard said if players see servers marked with “Full” or “High” population, they should try to play on any of the new realms.

“We urge players on realms marked Full or High to plan to play on one of these new realms to avoid the longest queues, and to help spread the player population as evenly as possible and provide the best play experience for everyone,” Blizzard said.

WoW Classic bills itself as “Azeroth as it was.” Blizzard says players can expect a “faithful recreation of the original World of Warcraft,” featuring character models, combat mechanics, and skill trees that are as they were more than 10 years ago. Access to WoW Classic is included with the standard WoW subscription fee.

The sequel to Suicide Squad that’s being directed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn has landed another big-name actor. Deadline reports that Nathan Fillion is joining The Suicide Squad in an unspecified role. It would be just the latest time Gunn has cast Fillion in one of his movies, as Fillion also had parts in Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither, and Super.

He has some experience with superhero movies, too, as he voiced Green Lantern in the animated movie Justice League: Doom and others. Fillion is perhaps best known for his roles in Castle, Firefly, and Serenity. He also plays Edward Buck in the Halo video game series and Cayde-6 in Destiny. Fillion also appeared as Nathan Drake in an Uncharted fan film.

The new Suicide Squad movie is a “total reboot,” and not a sequel to David Ayer’s 2016 film. Gunn wrote the script and will direct the movie. He reportedly signed on to the movie in the midst of his fallout with Disney, though Gunn has since been re-instated to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The 2016 Suicide Squad received mixed reviews, but it was a massive commercial success. It made more than $746 million worldwide, and it won an Oscar for Makeup and Hairstyling.

The Suicide Squad enters production in September and is slated to hit theatres in August 2021. It stars a number of actors from the original, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, in addition to newcomers like Idris Elda, David Dastmalchian, and Steve Agee.