Some people make TV watching an event, complete with refreshments, dimmed lights, and a snuggly pet. Others treat it like background noise, something to fill their ears while they work or do other things. Netflix is testing the perfect feature for those background-noise watchers: an audio-only mode.
Netflix is currently testing an audio-only mode on Android phones, Android Police reports. The feature is not yet available even to all Android subscribers, so you’ll have to check if you have it. If you do, the screen will show a “Video Off” button when you tap the screen in full-screen mode. Tapping the button turns on the audio-only mode, which just has a blank screen beneath the Netflix menu items.
This feature is, again, in testing. It may never roll out completely. If it does, though, it could pair well with the huge library of shows that offer Audio Description, in which a narrator describes what’s happening in between character dialogue. Together, these two features would turn a show like The Queens Gambit into a high-production-value audiobook. The mode will definitely save battery life since it’s not showing images, and we’re betting it’ll save on data, though we’re not able to verify that at this time.
Netflix has not yet commented on the future availability of this feature on other platforms or to all users.
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In a disappointing year, these films and shows stood out.
We surely don’t need to tell you that 2020 was a year full of disappointment. And not just in the countless movies and shows that were cancelled or delayed due to the pandemic–even among the entertainment that did come out, a lot of it was just plain not as good as we’d hoped it would be.
And that’s really the essence of disappointment. We aren’t saying these were the worst movies and shows of 2020–just the ones that totally failed to live up to our expectations. You might even find something on this list that you quite enjoyed, and in that case, well, me asking you not to yell at us about it in the comments probably won’t stop you, so you know what? Go right ahead.
It won’t change the fact that we had high hopes for these movies and shows, and in the end, we found them disappointing. After you’re done feeling disappointed too, check out some of our other end-of-2020 galleries:
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Lovecraft Country
HBO’s Lovecraft Country was an unfortunate case of simply trying to do too much with all the best intentions. Rather than updating the source material, the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, it tried to simultaneously rigidly adhere to the episodic, vignette-style storytelling passed down by the book and knit things together with a cohesive, overarching plot. The end result was a messy, confusing ball of yarn where nothing ever managed to click.
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New Mutants
To be fair, no one really expected much from the incredibly delayed New Mutants, so calling it a “disappointment” may be a bit harsh–but similar to Tenet, this movie was hit hard by the studio’s staunch refusal to provide an accessible home release during the pandemic. Depending on where you’re located, you may have been able to see the movie at a drive-in or in a “socially distant” theater, but chances are you had to wait a few months until it was available to watch at home, and by then, any chance of having a New Mutants conversation that would actually engage anyone was pretty much 0.
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Mulan
Disney’s Mulan does get some points for skipping the ill-fated theatrical release gambit and going straight to Disney+, but unfortunately even the accessibility and the overall nostalgia for the animated classic couldn’t redeem this one. In addition to behind-the-scenes controversies about production, live-action Mulan ruthlessly stripped the familiar story of its charm and fun, deleting every musical number and adding muddled messages about family, responsibility, and duty. This movie was anything but worth fighting for.
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Space Force
The thing about Space Force is it should have been amazing. Steve Carell teaming up once again with The Office creator Greg Daniels for a Netflix comedy poking fun at the ridiculous political climate we’re living in sounds like a wonderful idea. What’s more, it arrived in a year where Daniels delivered one of TV’s best new comedies in Amazon Prime’s Upload. Unfortunately, practically nothing about Space Force was entertaining. The comedy felt forced–outside of occasional moments provided by John Malkovich–the characters were underdeveloped, and there was nobody to actually root for. Unlike Carell’s portrayal of Michael Scott, his turn as General Mark R. Naird was uninteresting. It didn’t help that Carell used a bizarre and unnatural sounding accent for the entire season.
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Utopia
Utopia had all the ingredients for success: It was adapted from a cult hit British show by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn, it has a stellar cast including John Cusack, Jessica Rothe, and Rainn Wilson, and it oozes style. But for a show about a comic book that seems to predict global disasters, the series demonstrated a startling amount of disdain for its potentially nerdy audience. To top it off, the epic one-two-three punch of a mass shooting played for laughs, a brutal torture scene, and a cruel but pointless main character death all within the first two episodes provided viewers with the perfect excuse to stop watching the show entirely.
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Avenue 5
The prospect of Veep creator Armando Iannucci applying his formidable talents to a sci-fi comedy starring Hugh Laurie made Avenue 5 one of early 2020’s most anticipated shows. But while it definitely wasn’t the year’s worst space-themed sitcom (hello Space Force), the odd, uneven mix of dark humor and character drama simply didn’t work. HBO has renewed the series for Season 2, so hopefully Iannucci and his team get it right next time.
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Ratched
Ratched is a show that, on the surface, seems like a really interesting idea. A One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest prequel that focuses on the origins of Nurse Ratched, with American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy at the helm and Sarah Paulson playing the lead. What’s not to love? Unfortunately, pretty much all of it. From plot holes to flat out uninteresting characters and plots, Ratched doesn’t work like some of Murphy’s better projects–the aforementioned AHS and American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ, for instance. Paired with his other project in 2020, Hollywood, and it’s a less than stellar start for his creations under the Netflix banner.
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The Craft: Legacy
The Craft (1996) is one of the most beloved witch movies of its era–and for great reason. It’s hard to get better than the achingly ’90s aesthetic of the whole thing, on top of the iconic performances by scream queens like Neve Campbell and Fairuza Balk. Unfortunately, its successor, The Craft: Legacy, failed to hit the mark in any way, and instead of delivering a new take on a quotable cult classic, ground itself to a forgettable halt with cringe-worthy, dated dialogue and a frustratingly on-the-nose plot that never lived up to its name.
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Freaky
Serial killer Freaky Friday should be the greatest movie all the time. What’s more, the people swapping bodies are Vince Vaughn and Katheryn Newton, which means Vaughn spends much of the movie acting like a teenage girl chasing a brutal murderer. And yes, Freaky let us down–specifically because of Vaughn’s portrayal of Millie, the teen girl in question. There’s no nuance to what he’s doing, nor does it reflect–in any way–the version of Millie Newton plays at the beginning of the film. Instead, it’s as if he’s simply parodying teen girl stereotypes. That could have worked had the movie not introduced Millie as an awkward and downtrodden teen girl who didn’t fit in.
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Quibi
Yeah, an entire streaming service made the list. Quibi said it was going to change the way we watch content in 2020. What it failed to question, though, was whether we actually wanted that. We didn’t and in the end Quibi’s bite-sized shows, which lasted 7-10 minutes and could only be watched on your phone–landed with a resounding thud. You lasted less than eight months, Quibi. And, honestly, that was too long.
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The many “COVID endings” of 2020 shows
When a storm is coming, it’s easy to plug your ears and pretend everything will be okay. All of television production did exactly that in the early months of 2020, and our shows suffered for it. Rather than being put on hold, countless shows ended with hastily-produced episodes that left much to be desired. Shows from veterans like Grey’s Anatomy to freshman series like CW’s Nancy Drew ended on shoddy cliffhangers or simply just stopped. We’re glad they put safety over audiences’ satisfaction, and we blame the pandemic, not the shows themselves. But it was still a disappointing year for many series.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
If you missed these sleeper hits during your quarantine binges, now is the time to dive in.
Believe it or not, there were still plenty of TV shows and movies in 2020 that somehow flew under the radar, despite most of us having nothing better to do during lockdowns and quarantine than watch TV shows and movies, and despite there being many fewer releases than we’re used to.
If anything, 2020 was proof positive that even with a scaled back output, the entertainment industry is still providing way more content than any one person can possibly consume in a year–which might be great news for you, if you’re looking to send this year off with some new things to watch! We’ve compiled a list of our unsung favorites of the year, ranging from epic sci-fi miniseries to horror movies that were released directly onto streaming platforms. They’re things you may have heard of and forgotten about, like Devs, or things you may have missed entirely like Color Out Of Space, a Lovecraftian Nic Cage movie that actually did hit theaters–all the way back in January, a lifetime ago.
And don’t forget to check out some of our other 2020 wrap-up galleries:
Writer/director Alex Garland is best known for his movies Ex Machina and Annihilation but this year saw him jumping from the big screen to the small with a limited series for FX on Hulu called Devs. Conceptually, it falls right into Garland’s ouvre–it’s the story of a bleeding edge Silicon Valley tech company called Amaya and its mysterious Devs division as they work to develop a system that has the potential to not only change the world, but change history as well.
Devs is a lavish, poetic, and surprisingly human entry into Garland’s filmography that features some powerhouse performances by actors like Sonoya Mizuno, Allison Pill, and Nick Offerman. It’s somewhere between hard sci-fi and dream-like philosophy and available to watch in its entirety on Hulu, right now.
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The Vast Of Night
While The Vast of Night premiered at festivals in 2019, it didn’t get a wide release on Prime Video until May of this year, making it woefully easy to miss–but thankfully, just as easy to find and watch right away.
Set in 1950s New Mexico, The Vast of Night is a love letter to vintage sci-fi like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone. Its barebones budget was poured entirely into making it as stylish and artfully minimalistic as possible while maintaining a perfect, eerie ambience suited to a sci-fi mystery. Teenage switchboard operator Fay accidentally uncovers a radio signal that could be alien in origin with the help of disillusioned disc jockey Everett, sending the two of them on a whirlwind quest to find the truth in their small town.
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Dark
Don’t feel bad if you missed the conclusion of Dark’s 3-season run this year; it dropped over the summer, when everyone was more concerned about small things like the global pandemic and the looming presidential election. Besides, the whole thing was in German and the dub sucked, meaning you basically need to watch it with subtitles, which turns some viewers off. But this pitch-black time travel drama managed to weave one of the most complex, but somehow still cohesive, sci-fi stories we’ve ever seen.
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The Untamed
The Untamed has all the campy, low-budget charm of old school action shows like Xena as it follows the fictionalized, fantasy world of ancient Chinese cultivators–people who blend deep religious practice and spirituality to gain magical powers and work towards immortality. It stars two pop idols-turned-actors, Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan, as star-crossed lovers from two diametrically opposed cultivator sects as they are swept up in all the political and social drama of the world around them.
Think Game of Thrones mixed with a little Avatar: The Last Airbender, plus some of The Witcher for flavor and you’re on the right track as far as the overall feel.
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Mythic Quest and Ted Lasso
With all the stellar streaming services out there, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and even HBO Max, Apple TV+ is a tough sell. That’s why you shouldn’t feel bad about missing some of its best offerings, the video game development workplace comedy Mythic Quest and the feel-good sports comedy Ted Lasso. But if you’re at all considering an Apple TV+ subscription, these two alone are so delightful that they’re almost worth the price of admission.
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Possessor
As a filmmaker, Brandon Cronenberg is quickly carving out his own niche-within-a-niche, creating movies that totally seem like movies his father, the legendary David Cronenberg, might have made in his day. The younger Cronenberg’s latest, Possessor, is the freaky sci-fi horror story of an assassin (Mandy’s Andrea Riseborough) who possesses the bodies of unwitting accomplices and carries out grisly murders on behalf of shadowy clients. It’s arresting and horrifying in equal measure, but largely went under the radar this year.
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Raised by Wolves
For an HBO show, Raised by Wolves didn’t reach the hype levels of your Games of Thrones or your Lovecraft Countries. Even in that company, though, Raised is exceedingly weird. It tells the story of a pair of androids (Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim) attempting to restart humanity on a distant planet, whose lives are thrown into chaos when an ark ship full of religious zealots arrives. With Ridley Scott’s name all over it, it’s full of big ideas and unsettling imagery, and we’re looking forward to Season 2.
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Tales from the Loop
If you’re a fan of horror and sci-fi art, there’s a good chance you’ve run into the work of Simon Stålenhag at some point. He may not be a household name but his art, typically featuring some deeply surreal (but eerily familiar) landscapes invaded by retro-futuristic technology or monsters, has an instantly recognizable aesthetic. And it’s that aesthetic that inspired Amazon Prime’s Tales from the Loop, a series set within Stålenhag’s worlds, populated by Stålenhag’s creatures, told in the style of something like The Twilight Zone. It’s episodic, haunting, and at times deeply moving–don’t sleep on this one.
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Synchronic
Directing duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson haven’t disappointed yet, and their next movie, Synchronic, may be worth checking out when it hits digital on-demand services on January 12 (it’s currently out in a limited number of theaters). The indie time-travel drama features Anthony Mackie as a terminally ill man who discovers a street drug that can send users back in time, and uses it to try and rescue his friend’s (Jamie Dornan) daughter (Ally Ioannides). Benson and Moorhead’s previous movies include excellent sci-fi/horror mash-ups like Resolution and The Endless, so this should be a good watch in January.
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The Trial of the Chicago Seven
Aaron Sorkin’s second turn in the director’s chair proved to be an emotional retelling of the true story of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War activists and protestors who were tried in federal court in the late ’60s. It didn’t make many waves, but it’s streaming now on Netflix, and definitely worth a watch.
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Color Out of Space
January 2020 feels like a million years ago, a time when we still had hope, because the rest of the year hadn’t happened yet. Also, Color Out of Space, which is maybe the best H.P. Lovecraft adaptation yet made, had just been released, and we were still riding the high from infamous cult director Richard Stanley returning from a nearly-two-decades-long filmmaking hiatus to make a cosmically weird sci-fi horror movie starring Nic Cage.
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Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens
Comedian turned actor Awkwafina has been having an incredible run and her Comedy Central series (that is now available to watch on HBO Max) Nora From Queens is absolutely no exception. The perfect blend of raunchy and heartfelt, the series tackles everything from accidental arson to dating app invention, you know, normal Millennial stuff.
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Fargo Season 4
The sprawling scope of the latest season of Fargo was a lot to take in. Still, it managed to present an ambitious and satisfying take on the series’ particular focus on organized crime, all while being something of a loose prequel. Focusing on two crime families in Kansas during the 1950s–the African-American gang the Cannon Limited, and the Italian-American Fadda Family–their ensuing conflict reveals that in the pursuit of success in America, the most underprivileged often have to fight amongst themselves to get ahead. Oh yeah, and there’s an awkward nurse moonlighting as a serial killer thrown into the mix. With particular shout outs to Chris Rock, E’myri Crutchfield, and Jessie Buckley, the ensemble cast dug deep in playing off the oddities and hypocrisy of life in the 1950s, all with the show’s signature American-Midwest stylings and humor were firing on all cylinders. The season’s standout episode was East/West, which not only served as a surprisingly touching tribute to The Wizard of Oz, but also allowed two of the season’s lesser-seen characters to shine.
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Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey managed to sneak in under the wire as one of the year’s only superhero releases and theatrical blockbusters before the quarantine shut down most of the entertainment industry–and, despite getting a wide release, it still struggled to perform in the box office. However, those low numbers were anything but indicative of the movie’s success in the DCEU at large. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn shined as a larger-than-life live-action Looney Tune, surrounded by a cast of supporting characters that we can’t wait to see more from in the future.
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Palm Springs
Andy Samberg was once known for rapping about his private parts and mugging for the camera, but he’s slowly become one of the most entertaining and underrated actors in Hollywood. Nowhere is that more apparent than 2020’s Palm Springs, a movie we’re afraid to even describe lest we spoil the twist. Samberg takes an inherently silly concept and, with help from co-star Cristin Milioti, turns it into a smart, funny, and touching metaphysical love story
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Stargirl
The formula for DC superhero shows is well-worn by Arrow, Flash, and the rest of the Arrowverse. This year, though, brought us a new contender in Stargirl. Stargirl began life on the now-defunct DC Universe streaming service before shifting to the CW. It tells the story of a young girl saddled with a lot of responsibility in a very weird town, but grounds the goings-on by always tying back to the theme of family–even for the genuinely scary villains. Great performances from Brec Bassinger and Luke Wilson bring a surprisingly well-crafted show to the next level.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
Cyberpunk 2077 is filled with choices, and while not all of them matter or have a big impact on how the game shakes out, some are monumental. A lot of these choices are reflected in Cyberpunk 2077’s ending–what you decide to do and who you decide to do it with alters your options as you approach Cyberpunk’s final act, while also changing what you might see when the dust settles.
We’ve compiled all the information you need to know to help you decide how to work through Cyberpunk’s endgame, either to get the ending that best fits your take on protagonist V, or to help you see each and every variation. Be sure to consult our side quest guide that runs down everything you should do before the Point of No Return, so you can make sure to unlock all the possible ending options.
Obviously, this post containsmassive spoilers. We’ll try to keep non-essential information to a minimum, but if you want to experience the end of Cyberpunk 2077 organically, we recommend you stop reading now.
How To Choose Which Ending You Get In Cyberpunk 2077
There are a couple of places where your choices influence how the finale of Cyberpunk 2077 plays out. It all starts with the conversation you have with Hanako Arasaka after the Point of No Return, in the Nocturn OP55N1 main job. Not long after that, you’ll return to Vik’s ripper doc operating room, and then accompany Misty up to the balcony to make a decision about how to proceed.
Here, you get several options based on what you’ve done during the game. If you started any romantic relationships with other characters, you’ll have a chance to call them one last time. After that, you’ll have to choose which path to take to Mikoshi.
The default path, if you unlocked none of the others, is to take Hanako’s deal. If you completed Johnny’s side quests Chippin’ In and Blistering Love, Johnny will try to convince you to let him take control of V’s body and assault Arasaka Tower with Rogue. And if you completed Panam’s quest line, you’ll have the option of calling in help from the Aldecaldos.
There are also two less-obvious paths–one of which is a secret, high-level challenge–that we’ll discuss below.
Hanako’s Deal
If you accept Hanako’s agreement, you’ll get a corporate-focused ending in which you help her combat her brother, Yorinobu, for control of Arasaka. The plan is for V to testify about Yorinobu to the Arasaka board. Note that if you take on this ending, you’re basically turning your back on Johnny. This option might represent your best chance of getting the biochip removed, but it stops you from getting the opportunity to destroy Mikoshi.
Make the choice to deal with Hanako and you’ll get an endgame that’s heavily predicated on helping her wrest control of the corporation from her brother, Yorinobu. The missions that take you to the ending also go a little differently depending on your choices during the story mission Play It Safe. If you saved Takemura during that mission, he’ll be around to help you, which can make this ending significantly easier. If not, you’ll have to deal with Hellman, who’s a lot less useful. Here’s what you need to know to save Takemura.
Once you complete the endgame missions, you’ll enter the epilogue mission, called Where Is My Mind. It sees V head to an Arasaka orbital station to get the surgery he needs to save him from the biochip. You’ll have one more choice that determines your final ending: V can either join the Secure Your Soul program, which turns them into an engram like Johnny was, or can return to Earth and an uncertain fate. Again, if you saved Takemura, he’ll play a role in the epilogue. It’s also worth noting that saving Takemura and choosing this ending unlocks an Achievement/Trophy dubbed The Devil.
Your Pal Panam
Completing Panam’s questline will have gotten you in good with the Aldecaldos, allowing you to call in a favor and get backup from the Nomads to fight your way into Arasaka Tower. You’ll spend a bunch of time with the Aldecaldos on this one across multiple missions, with some extra story beats if you’re also in a romantic relationship with Panam.
Over the course of a few missions, you’ll eventually fight into Arasaka and find your way into Mikoshi, with the help of Alt Cunningham. When you get to Mikoshi, you’ll have another choice that dictates the ending: Venture into Cyberspace with Alt and allow Johnny to take over your body, or return to your body and face an uncertain fate. Each choice will result in a different epilogue mission, giving you a sense of the consequences of your actions. If you choose for V to return to his body, you’ll get the All Along the Watchtower epilogue, which will heavily feature the Aldecaldos. If Johnny takes the body, you’ll see the New Dawn Fades epilogue.
Rogue’s Raid
Johnny has a plan of his own: You take Misty’s pills, give Johnny control of your body, and let him raid Arasaka Tower just like he did 50 years earlier. Johnny’s plan is to call up Rogue and blast straight into the tower. You’ll team up with another mercenary, Weyland, who will accompany you into the tower. After you arrive, Weyland will get himself into trouble, and whether you choose to go after him will affect how the mission plays out.
Eventually, you’ll get to Mikoshi, and as with the Panam ending, you’ll face a choice: send Johnny into Cyberspace and return V to his body, or allow Johnny to take the body while V heads to Cyberspace. If Johnny takes the body, you’ll see the New Dawn Fades epilogue, same as with the Panam path. If V returns to his body, he’ll become a Night City legend in the Path of Glory epilogue.
Path of Least Resistance
There’s one ending that lets you skip all the finale missions, if you like, and opt to end V’s journey rather than endanger anyone else. When you head to the roof of Misty’s building to make your choice, choose one of the three options–but then choose the option, “Could just put all this to rest.”
As you might have guessed, on that path, V decides not to fight his fate, opting instead to end things without ever making an attempt at Arasaka Tower and removing the biochip. Instead, he ends his life with his handgun, taking you straight to the end credits and a series of messages from characters you’ve interacted with. They’ve all heard what happened to V and have their various opinions on what happened, with a few making some pretty good points about how your decision has had effects beyond what you might have considered.
The Secret Ending
There’s one more ending you can unlock, dubbed Don’t Fear The Reaper, but it’s tough to find and tougher to complete. This ending requires you to have a solidly positive relationship with Johnny and gives you a chance to assault Arasaka Tower without risking the lives of anyone else–putting you at a significant disadvantage. As Johnny notes, it’s essentially a suicide run, and it’s the most hardcore endgame approach available.
Unlocking The Secret Ending
Before heading to the Point of No Return in Nocturne Op55N1, raise your relationship with Johnny to 70% or higher.
You can track this at the top of the menu screen–it’s the number beneath the Samurai logo, labeled You Only Live Once. We’re not entirely sure how you can raise this number effectively, but we do know that you’ll need to complete all of Johnny’s side quests starting with Chippin’ In. In general, you want to treat Johnny as a friend and confidant in dialogue choices, especially during the end portion of Chippin’ In and during his other side quests. In general, try not to be antagonistic to Johnny during quests to continue to increase the number.
Continue through Nocturne Op55N1 until you reach the rooftop conversation with Johnny.
Choose to let Johnny take on Arasaka Tower with Rogue. When Johnny asks if you’re sure, just wait–it’ll be about five minutes.
After a while, Johnny should offer you another option to take on Arasaka alone, with no backup. Choose this option to access Don’t Fear The Reaper.
The thing about his ending is that it’s extremely difficult. You’ll face a mess of top-tier enemies without anyone to help you, making this one of the toughest missions in the game. What’s more, if you die, the credits will roll. You only get one shot at the Don’t Fear The Reaper quest (at least, unless you load a save to before Nocturne Op55N1), so make sure you’re very ready. We recommend you craft top-tier equipment and complete as many side quests as you can in order to increase V’s level and make yourself as resilient as possible.
Finishing the Secret Ending unlocks content you can’t get any other way, so it’s worth doing if you’re especially hardcore about the game.
Roll Credits
There’s one last aspect of Cyberpunk 2077’s ending that changes with your choices: the end credits. After the epilogue mission, you’ll get a series of voicemail messages that give you a sense of where each character has ended up in their post-V life, or of how your decisions impacted them. You’ll also see a few characters whose stories you impacted along the way, like Jefferson Peralez if you completed the Dream On quest, or members of the Aldecaldos if you completed Panam’s character arc. There are variations on these messages based on your path through the game and the endgame, and depending on how much information a character has about your final choices.
A.P. Bio has been renewed for Season 4 by Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. The sitcom stars Glenn Howerton as a disgraced former academic who coasts into a biology teaching position at a school in his home town and then goes to great lengths to avoid teaching them anything.
The show also features Patton Oswalt as the school’s principal, along with Paula Pell, Lyric Lewis, Mary Sohn, and Jean Villepique. The trailer, below, announces that the show will be back in 2021, but does not show any footage.
A.P. Bio ran for two seasons on NBC before being cancelled. It was then revived by Peacock for Season 3, and has seemingly done well enough to receive an extra season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Season 4 will consist of 8 episodes, the same number as Season 3.
One of Peacock’s big drawcards, a Friends reunion special, was hugely delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The streaming service is likely to get a boost in 2021 thanks to the addition of Netflix’s previous most-watched show, The Office, to its list of programs.
Zack Snyder’s heavily anticipated directors cut of Justice League may be arriving sooner than expected, as the director casually responded to a comment on his Vero account that indicates we may see at least the first part in March 2021.
As spotted by TechRadar, Snyder responded to a fan’s inquiry by saying, “I understand and of course respect your feelings and I just hope I can wipe that Version out of existence with what you see in March.”
Matthew Adler is a Features, News, Previews, Reviews, and Wikis writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.
Nintendo has announced that a roughly 15-minue Super Nintendo World Direct will take place on December 18 at 3pm PT/6pm ET/11pm GMT that will show more of Universal Studios Japan’s newest theme park area.
Nintendo also was careful to mention that “no game content will be featured,” so it looks to only show more of the much-anticipated theme park area that is set to open to the public on February 4, 2021.
The Mario Kart-themed ride will put visitors in the driving seat and includes AR and projection mapping to bring the beloved action of the Mario Kart series to life, all through the help of a wearable Mario’s hat that has a built-in AR screen.
Super Nintendo World was set to open ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Summer 2020, but it was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, a Mario-themed cafe and store inside Universal Studios Japan did open and gave guests a glimpse of what they can expect from this new area.
Hollywood is struggling in modern times to show diversity that matches its audience, whether it comes to race, gender, or ability. Now, the remake of The Stand, which is airing on CBS All Access, is under fire for casting actor Henry Zaga in the role of deaf-mute character Nick Andros, with members of the Deaf community releasing a statement in response to the move.
70 members of the Deaf community signed a statement this week calling the casting of a hearing actor in the role “not acceptable,” THR reports. Signing members include directors and actors of screen and stage among others, such as actor Antoinette Abbamonte (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and director Jules Dameron (Reverse Polarity).
“We will not endorse, watch, or support your miniseries on CBS All Access,” the letter reads. “We will share our displeasure of the casting decision and airing of the miniseries on CBS All Access with our Deaf community, signing community, friends, and family of Deaf individuals; together we make up 466 million worldwide.”
The letter states that no Deaf professional actors were contacted to audition for the role of Nick Andros on The Stand, and that “the decision was made without respect to and for Deaf professionals, union and non-union alike.”
This isn’t the first time this particular casting decision made the news. In 2019, a Deaf man named Jared Perez-DeBusk reached out to director Josh Boone on Instagram, where Boone justified the decision through the character’s speaking parts, as well as noting that actor Harry Zaga worked extensively with ASL experts and member of the Deaf community to correctly portray the character.
The character, Nick Andros, is deaf-mute character, but speaks extensively during dream sequences and plays a pivotal role in the plot. This can be a difficult situation to navigate; Netflix’s Daredevil likely could not have cast a blind man in the role of Matt Murdock due to the extensive stunt work involved in that production. But Perez-DeBusk pointed out that if Zaga worked extensively to portray a Deaf character, a Deaf actor could’ve worked to portray a hearing one. Actor Rob Lowe portrayed the character in the 1994 mini-series.
This is just the latest instance of Hollywood’s continued inability to cast characters with an eye toward diversity. Actors like Halle Berry and Jared Leto have come under fire for playing (or considering playing) transgender characters, as did Scarlett Johansson’s infamous portrayal of Japanese character Motoko Kusanagi in the Ghost in the Shell film.
