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Yes, Giancarlo Esposito Knows Why Moff Gideon Wants Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian
“My four daughters watch this and obviously the world is like, ‘It’s the Baby Yoda show,’ and I’m never jealous or have any problem with that, but I have to say, two of my daughters texted me and two of them [called] me: ‘Papa, please don’t hurt that baby. Don’t hurt that baby.’ And I said, ‘I will squash that little big-eared bastard,'” Esposito told IGN (with a fittingly evil laugh), after we asked him about working with the creature the internet has affectionately dubbed “Baby Yoda” at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
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“Joke, joke, joke,” he quickly added. “You know, what we can do with technology today and what a human story we can make out of Mandalorian — this baby encompasses all of that, and we want to have that hope for our future, especially now in our world.”
The Mandalorian’s season finale was filled with a number of big surprises, including seeing Esposito’s character, Moff Gideon, cut himself out of a downed TIE Fighter with the ancient Mandalorian-made Darksaber.
“I found out early on and got completely excited by that because, and I didn’t realize until my dear manager Josh Kesselman mentioned to me that I’m the only person wielding this Darksaber in this particular episode… [and in] Season 1,” Esposito said of the hardware, adding that it’s an “exciting moment in time.”
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“I’m almost a little bit befuddled how to hold it and carry it because it’s iconic all on its own,” he admitted of the Darksaber, which has a storied history in the Star Wars universe.
Season 1 left us with plenty of questions about the show, especially why Esposito’s Moff Gideon wants Baby Yoda in the first place. It seems Esposito does know the answer to that question, and – steering clear of spoiling anything – did offer IGN some hints.
“I know … Like any great leader or scientist — clue, clue, clue — with someone who is advanced in a certain way, yeah, you could want to be their best friend, or you could want to co-opt what is inside them to figure out how to make all of us a little better at humanity. So it’s that power and control of a Moff leader who is trying to put the universe back together,” Esposito said. “But, how does he know everything? How does he know everything that’s going on? He’s a very interesting character and I’m so honored to be a part of this production.”
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Moff Gideon addressed The Mandalorian by his real name — Din Djarin – in the finale. So far, the two characters have only talked from afar – Gideon shouting ultimatums toward the seemingly trapped Mandalorian, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), IG-11 (Taika Waititi) and Baby Yoda/The Child – so IGN asked if there’s a possibility for flashbacks with his character and Pascal’s to dig into any potential history between them.
“I don’t know,” Esposito admitted, adding that he would like to work more with Pascal. “I am hoping for something of that nature. Wait ’til you see Season 2,” he added.
And while Moff Gideon doesn’t seem to have altruistic reasons for seeking out Baby Yoda, Esposito himself is a softie when it comes to seeing The Child on set, revealing how deeply he was affected by simply working with the ($5 million) Baby Yoda puppet on set.
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“Are you kidding me? It melts my heart, because the reality is, this little baby does things that you could never imagine and when you look at those eyes and that little body, how can you not help but fall in love?” he admitted. “Even me as Giancarlo, even me as Moff Gideon, I gotta walk away, I can’t look too much at that baby because that baby will put a spell on you.”
To further illustrate the power of The Child, check out George Lucas lovingly cradling Baby Yoda, why Disney is slapping Etsy creators with Baby Yoda copyright claims, and check out an adorable gallery of Baby Yoda photos below. Plus, see how IGN’s staff ranks The Mandalorian in our review roundup.
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Mortal Kombat Animated Movie in the Works With Joel McHale, Jennifer Carpenter
According to the announcement, a new Mortal Kombat animated film called Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is in development. The film is being directed by Ethan Spaulding (Batman: Assault n Arkham) with a script by Jeremy Adams (Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans).
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Alongside McHale (Community) and Carpenter (Dexter), other voice talents will include Jordan Rodrigues as Lui Kang; Patrick Seitz as Scorpion and Hanzo Hasashi; Steve Blum as Sub-Zero; Artt Butler as Shang Tsung; Darin De Paul as Quan Chi; Robin Atkin Downes as Kano; David B. Mitchell as Raiden; Ike Amadi as Jax Briggs; Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro; Grey Griffin as Kitana and Satoshi Hasashi; and Fred Tatasciore as Demon Torturer.
There’s already a logo for the animated film.
New Line is currently filming a new live-action Mortal Kombat film set to be released in 2021 and it’s unclear if these two films are directly related to one another. You can check out the Mortal Kombat live-action cast here.
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Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat is thriving in the video game scene as NetherRealm Studios’ latest release, Mortal Kombat 11, was the fifth best selling game of 2019. Read IGN’s Mortal Kombat 11 review here.
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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.
National Treasure 3 Is Officially Happening
It has been 13 years since Nicolas Cage gallivanted around America unlocking historical secrets in the National Treasure series. Luckily for fans, a third movie is in the works.
While details are scarce, National Treasure 3 is in pre-production for Disney, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bad Boys for Life’s Chris Bremner will be writing the third film in the series (he is also working on Bad Boys 4). Jerry Bruckheimer will produce the latest National Treasure adventure.
At the time of this writing, there’s no indication as to whether or not Nicolas Cage will reprise his role as the eccentric Ben Gates. Both films starred Cage alongside Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, and Jon Voight.
Together, both 2004’s National Treasure and 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets grossed over $800 million worldwide. The road to a third movie has been a rough one. Bruckheimer confirmed the film would happen back in 2010, and a few years later, writers were hired for it. News about the film went dark after that. However, during this time, Walt Disney Pictures had a few failures like The Lone Ranger and the infamous John Carter movie, which may have swayed the company away from making another National Treasure movie.
Luckily, National Treasure 3 is now underway, and hopefully, it will be as glorious as the first two movies.
Netflix’s The Witcher Season 2 – What We Want
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Bad Boys 4 Officially In The Works
Following a shockingly enjoyable third installment, Bad Boys For Life, Michael Bay’s cult classic franchise Bad Boys is on track for a fourth film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Writer Chris Bremner, who worked on Bad Boys For Life, has been tapped to write the script for the film. Stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are, naturally, expected to return. According to THR, the plan for the fourth film is to eliminate the “time lag” between installments, referencing the 17-year gap between Bad Boys II, released in 2003, and Bad Boys For Life in 2020. Of course, this likely means we’ll be seeing the return of some of the franchise’s newer characters introduced in For Life as well, like Venessa Hudgens, Charles Melton, and Alexander Ludwig–but a complete cast list for the project has yet to be revealed.
In GameSpot’s review of Bad Boy’s For Life, Chris E. Hayner said: “Ultimately, Bad Boys for Life is better than practically anyone could expect. While it would have been easy to rely on the nostalgia of seeing the iconic trio of Smith, Lawrence, and explosions on-screen together again, the new film strives to be so much more and manages to pull it off. And what’s more, it also provides a blueprint for what the franchise could become in the future, should audiences want to see more.
Bad Boys For Life hits theaters today, January 17, 2020.
Oscar Isaac To Star In Big Screen Adaptation Of Ex Machina
Hot off of a run on the latest Star Wars trilogy, actor Oscar Isaac has signed on to an adaptation of one of the best comic series of the early 21st century, Ex Machina–now called The Great Machine for the big screen.
Isaac has signed on to play the lead character Mitchell Hundred. In addition to starring, Isaac will also produce The Great Machine alongside Jason Spire and Vaughan.
In the Ex Machina comic–written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Tony Harris–Hundred is the first and only superhero who becomes mayor of New York City after the events of 9/11. The book primarily revolves around politics, with the flashbacks to Hundred’s time as a superhero, The Great Machine–a superhuman who can talk to and control machines. The series ran for 50 issues at Wildstorm Comics, a DC Comics imprint.
In 2014, Isaac also starred in the Alex Garland film Ex Machina–a movie that has nothing to go with Vaughan and Harris’ comic. Obviously, the name of the comic has to be changed for the big screen, as it would be a bit confusing if there were two movies titled Ex Machina and both of them starred Isaac.
The Great Machine isn’t the only Vaughan adaptation coming soon. His brilliant comic series Y: The Last Man is coming to FX, but it’s still in pre-production. “It’s in pre production,” chairman or FX Networks and FX Productions John Landgraf explained at the TCA winter press tour. “Eliza Clark is is running that show with Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson. We’ve seen, five [or] six scripts now. That’s that’s all I can say. We haven’t scheduled because it hasn’t gone into production yet. We changed showrunners and did a big sort of reboot on it and so that was a big redevelopment. But that seems to be going well.”
Mortal Kombat Animated Movie Perfectly Casts Johnny Cage
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is the latest animated feature under production from Warner Bros. Animation. Set to come out in the first half of 2020, the movie has cast two major characters.
Joel McHale (Community) and Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter) have joined the project to voice Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade respectively, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While we won’t see McHale on the big screen as Cage–as it’s an animated movie–his voice should do the Hollywood superstar/Earth-realm savior justice. Also, McHale totally looks a bit like Cage, so that’s a nice bonus. They’re joining a long list of familiar faces from the video game series–which you can see below.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge Cast:
- Joel McHale as Johhny Cage
- Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade
- Patrick Seitz as Scorpion and Hanzo Hasashi
- Steve Blum as Sub-Zero
- Jordan Rodrigues as Lui Kang
- Robin Atkin Downes as Kano
- Artt Butler as Shang Tsung
- Darin De Paul as Quan Chi
- David B. Mitchell as Raiden
- Ike Amadi as Jax Briggs
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro
- Grey Griffin as Kitana
The upcoming movie is written by Jeremy Adams and will be directed by Ethan Spaulding: two creators who have worked with Warner Bros. Animation previous. Mortal Kombat’s Ed Boon is signed on as a creative consultant for the project.
At this time, there are no story details for the animated feature, but it’s a safe bet to say the film will revolve around the murder of Hanzo Hasashi, how he becomes Scorpion, and his return…for revenge.
Scorpion’s Revenge isn’t the only Mortal Kombat movie in the works. Warner Bros. has a live-action film underway, which is shooting in southern Australia. Most of the casting has been revealed, including Kano, Sonya, Sub-Zero, Lui Kang, and Jax. The live-action Mortal Kombat movie will arrive in March 2021, about a year after Scorpion’s Revenge.
Xbox One’s Elite Series 2 Controller Gets Rare Discount At Amazon
The Xbox One’s Elite Series 2 controller is one of my favourite pads and a huge improvement over the first Elite controller. It is quite an expensive piece of gaming tech, though, which makes it a bit of a hard sell for most gamers. However, if you’re subscribed to Amazon Prime, you can snag yourself an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller with a $20 discount.
While currently listed at $177.07, you’ll see the Prime-exclusive discount at checkout, dropping your price to $159.99. As usual, you’ll get free one- or two-day Prime shipping. Because this is Amazon, there’s no knowing exactly when this deal will end, so don’t wait if you’ve been holding out for a discount on the Elite Series 2.
The great thing about the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller is that it works with PC as well as Xbox One, and Microsoft has confirmed it will also be compatible with Xbox Series X when that console launches later this year.
Xbox Elite Series 2 controller | $160 ($180)
Some of the improvements from the first Elite controller include adjustable analog-stick tension, a third trigger stop, and two more customizable control presets, in addition to Bluetooth connectivity and a rechargeable USB-C battery that lasts upwards of 40 hours. The controller’s case even comes with a charging dock, giving you the ability to keep your controller covered and safe while it charges.
If you want to take a closer look, check out our Xbox Elite Series 2 controller gallery, which shows the pad up close and goes into detail on its deluge of features.

