Netflix has renewed the Ricky Gervais show After Life for a second season to air in 2020. The renewal comes not long after the dark comedy’s first season premiered in February.
In a statement, Gervais said After Life–which features Gervais playing a character struggling to move on after his wife passes away and is known for its gallows humour–has generated a reaction unlike anything else he’s ever worked on. He said he’s excited to make an “even better” Season 2 but isn’t happy about having to try harder.
“I have never had a reaction like this before. It’s been insane,” Gervais said. “And heartwarming. But now I have to make sure the second season is even better so I’ll probably have to work much harder than usual. Annoying really.”
Gervais wrote and directed each of the six episodes in After Life’s first season, and he created the show. Season 2 will also be six episodes; a specific premiere date in 2020 hasn’t been announced.
To mark the announcement of Season 2, Netflix released the blooper reel for After Life Season 1, and it’s really great. You can watch the clip in the video embedded above.
Released less than two weeks ago, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest game from the studio behind Dark Souls and Bloodborne, From Software. And if you’re a PC gamer who’s held off on buying Sekiro (maybe it’s the price, maybe you just don’t enjoy dying over and over), there’s already a discount on the game at Amazon, where you can get the PC version for $5 off. This is a digital download that you can redeem on Steam. Amazon will mail you the PC retail box, which contains the Steam key. Considering the game is so new and still selling for $60 for all versions at other retailers, $55 is a solid price if you were planning to buy it on PC anytime soon.
In GameSpot’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review, critic Tamoor Hussain praised the game for its challenging, yet exhilarating combat, detailed environments, and satisfying stealth tactics. “More so than in previous games, From Software has honed in on the inherent tension found in the challenging nature of its games, and uses it to incredible effect,” he wrote. “Sekiro marries the developer’s unique brand of gameplay with stealth action to deliver an experience that is as challenging as it is gratifying.” The game received a 9/10.
Shazam is DC’s most fun movie yet–even more than Aquaman, which featured mer-men riding dinosaurs in large-scale underwater laser battles. That’s saying something.
This kind of thing doesn’t happen by accident. The tone of the early “DCEU” (or whatever we’re calling it nowadays) seems to have spewed forth directly from Zack Snyder’s gritty, color-desaturated brain–Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman are actually cited in the dictionary under the entry for whatever the polar opposite of “fun” is. Which isn’t to say that approach is ineherently bad–many fans have enjoyed the Snyder-fied versions of these characters. But following relative hits like Wonder Woman and Aquaman, Shazam is the latest DC movie to benefit from the guidance of a director who knows how to inject a little more fun into this universe: David Sandberg.
Sandberg’s previous directing credits include horror movies Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation. The Swedish director told GameSpot recently that he was excited to helm a movie with a lighter tone than what we’ve seen in the DC cinematic universe before.
“[Shazam] is such a unique character that it becomes a very different movie by default,” Sandberg said.
That has to do with Shazam’s origin: “Most superheroes get their powers or they get their moment when they’re older–they have this heavy responsibility suddenly,” the director continued. “For Shazam, he’s a kid and it’s like, ‘Holy s*** I have super powers!’ It’s such a different starting point and it’s such a fun thing to explore–OK, what would a kid do with these superpowers? Because he would be probably quite irresponsible, and he’d film it, and then he’d put it on YouTube.”
And that’s exactly what happens. Part of the reason Shazam works so well is that foster brothers Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zach Levi) and Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) do exactly what any teenage boys would do with the newfound power for one of them to transform into an adult: They buy beer, ditch school, and engage in various hijinks that have little to do with anything you’d expect from a “normal” superhero.
Another big reason is Zach Levi, who is pitch-perfect in the role of a teenage boy in an adult man’s body who finds himself suddenly empowered to do incredible things (see also, Levi’s role as a normal-dude-turned-super-spy on Chuck back in the 2000s).
“[Shazam] hits what I believe to be kind of the most iconic hero story of them all: It’s the kid who gets the magic word to be the super-version of themselves,” Levi told GameSpot. “At some point in our lives, we all have that incredibly vivid imagination and belief in that imagination. So I think we can all relate to that.”
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“And what comes with that is Big meets Superman–you get a grown-ass adult like me playing a 14-year-old kid,” the actor continued. “And that uniquely brings a level of humor and heart that, on those levels, I don’t think has necessarily been in DC movies.”
Levi knows that Shazam isn’t the first DC movie to exist on the lighter side of The Dark Knight, but he said they “played with the dials” and turned the “humor and heart” up to 11.
“I think what we accomplished–I hope what we accomplished–was similar to what Deadpool did in the Marvel universe, where they were kind of their own little viewpoint,” Levi continued. “They were very self-aware and irreverent and commented on the whole universe, but were also in their own little pocket…There’s an intelligence and an irreverence, and an awareness, about [Shazam], and about the genre itself–we’re able to have fun, by commenting on the genre sometimes within the film, and give a different perspective on the DC universe. I think that’s kind of ultimately what we tried to pull off.”
Fans who enjoy this lighter take on the DCEU might hope that it’s a sign of things to come, and Levi agrees that the future should be more fun. “I think we should all be having more fun all the time,” he said. “I think that the world would be a much groovier place if people felt more joy. And I’m all about helping to do that.”
It took far longer than necessary, but The Walking Dead has finally kicked the Commonwealth storyline into high gear. Issue #189 and #190 deliver some of the payoff readers have been waiting for months to see. And even as the undead become a bigger threat to our heroes than they have in years, this issue serves as a necessary reminder that humanity is always its own worst enemy.
Long-simmering tensions have finally boiled over as Mercer leads a revolt in the Commonwealth and Rick is offered the chance to rule in Pamela’s stead. It’s the latest compelling wrinkle in a very long, twisting journey for Rick. Short of Michonne, he’s probably benefited the most from this extended story arc. His single-minded focus on preserving peace and the rule of law has continuously backfired. He’s had to make impossible choices and even kill a close friend, and the events of this issue force him to question whether any of those sacrifices were worth it in the end. For all that this series has faltered in its sluggish build-up, it has at least re-energized Rick as a protagonist.
Disney unveiled new footage from their upcoming live-action remake of Aladdin at CinemaCon on Wednesday, including the film’s version of the iconic “Friend Like Me” musical number.
What was immediately apparent is that, unlike Jon Favreau’s upcoming Lion King remake, Aladdin doesn’t appear to be quite as much of a shot-for-shot remake of the original animated film. (It should be noted the visual effects in the footage shown were not final.)
The shot selections and backgrounds of the new “Friend Like Me” scene were markedly different from the animated version; indeed, matching what animators did in that particular sequence and with a performer as wild as Robin Williams always seemed impossible. So the remake — and new Genie actor Will Smith — is definitely doing its own albeit familiarly energetic thing.
The first trailer for the Dragon Quest animated movie, Your Story, has come online, providing a first look at the upcoming film that’s based on Dragon Quest V. Not only that, but the movie has been confirmed for an August 2 release in Japan.
There is no word as of yet about if it’ll be released in other territories. Whatever the case, the visuals in the movie look great, and fans may be happy that it’s based on Dragon Quest V, which critics generally agreed told a strong, compelling story.
Your Story’s script was written by Takashi Yamazaki, with music from Koichi Sugiyama that was performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, according to Nova Crystallis. Dragon Quest video game series creative Yuji Horii is attached to the movie in a supervisor role.
Hearthstone’s next expansion, Rise of Shadows, is out on April 9 (April 10 in ANZ), and we’ve now seen every single card it has to offer.
The verdict? It’s shaping up to be a powerful set of cards, with really interesting synergies. But don’t take my word for it, have a look through the cards yourself!
I’ve broken the set up to create a slideshow for each class, as well as one for all the neutral cards and one for the Lackeys and Lackey-generating cards. The class and neutral galleries are ordered by rarity, with legendary cards first, then epic, rare and common. Enjoy!
Cam Shea is Editor in Chief for IGN’s Australian content team and can’t wait to see what happens in Taipei later this month. He’s on Twitter.
Disney screened footage of their new interpretation of The Lion King at CinemaCon on Wednesday, an almost shot-for-shot, line-for-line remake of the scene where Mufasa teaches young Simba about the circle of life.
Just as in the 1994 original, this version opens with a rambunctious young Simba (voiced by JD McCrary) waking up his parents and Mufasa (once again voiced by James Earl Jones) telling his wife Sarabi (voiced by Alfre Woodard) that before sunrise Simba is her son.
Everything plays out just as fans of the animated movie will remember, as Mufasa explains to Simba that everything the light touches is his kingdom and that one day it will all be Simba’s.
And, of course, Mufasa goes on to explain how all animals — even those who eat each other, as lions do antelopes — are connected in the circle of life.