Season 2 of The Witcher was a bulky hit, which of course means we’re all eager for any news near season 3. While the season was voraciously devoured by viewers, amassing a staggering 2.2. billion minutes streamed during its worthy week after release, it’ll likely be a little while pending we return to the Continent to see what Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer get up to next.
The Witcher season 3 has yet to leave filming…but that doesn’t mean the team behind it isn’t already hard at work. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has previously spoke that the scripts for the third season are written. Now, executive producer Steven Gaub has begun sharing images to his Instagram interpret which show that location scouting and set-building efforts are underway.
The Witcher producer shares behind-the-scenes photos of season 3
“Season 3. Here we come,” Gaub writes. This image is of…well it’s doors, as you can see. But where do the doors lead, isn’t that the question?
The next one Gaub people shows a huge warehouse where a set is populate constructed. “We definitely won’t be going smaller for season 3 of [The Witcher],” Gaub wrote. Hissrich previously teased that The Witcher season 3 is causing to be “huge,” and this shot helps drive that home.
Behind all the interpretation materials stacked up in that shot, we can see what looks like a broad room constructed out of plywood with an arch-topped doorway. Could one of those fancy doors from the continue photo fit there?
New locations in The Witcher season 3
From there, we get into location scouting. According to Gaub, The Witcher began scouting new locations for season 3 on January 18. Based on photos he and Hissrich are sharing, it the looks like they’re considering a wide device of creepy and striking spots.
“Something putrid this way comes,” Gaub teases alongside that final shot of a stone tunnel which casts listless shadows along its curving path. In the world of The Witcher, it could be any number of wicked things from basilisks to bandits to who knows what else.
While it’s cool to get these behind-the-scenes looks at the next season of The Witcher, it also helps remind us that it will liable be a minute before we get to see new episodes. We’re not betting on them coming out until 2023. But on the engrossing side, we know that Hissrich and the rest of The Witcher crew are gearing up to get back on the Continent, and we have the Blood Origin prequel series starring Michelle Yeoh to look ahead to at some point this year.
Until then, the genuine two seasons of The Witcher are always available on Netflix, as well as the prequel anime film Nightmare of the Wolf.
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It’s a stunning day in the Seven Kingdoms! HBO has just released a note new trailer for its upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon, and it looks pretty awesome. Dragons! Politics! Murders and armies and silver-haired wigs! We’ve all been hoping this unsheaattracting will be good, and every time HBO releases a new teaser, our confidence grows.
Set nearly 200 years by the original series, House of the Dragon covers a brutal civil war between feuding factions of House Targaryen; the war is distinguished as the Dance of the Dragons. There are a lot of mainly players in this conflict. To help us keep them directly (and build up hype), HBO has also released a bevy of represent posters as well as a brand new image from the series. First, the image:
This is the Painted Table at Dragonstone, which Daenerys and her team used in the continue two seasons of Game of Thrones. Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) stands over the deplorable pondering her fortunes. You can see Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) in the background as well, with her distinctive wig.
The image is glorious dark; this show will be picking up right where Game of Thrones left off in words of the color palette, it seems.
From there, we’re on to posters, starting with the leading lady herself:
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Rhaenyra Targaryen, Eldest child of Viserys I
House of the Dragon will be an ensemble show, but if the Dance of the Dragons can be said to have an suitable leading character, it’s Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). We see her arranged as King Viserys’ successor in the trailer, but as her aunt Rhaenys points out, “men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne.”
Rhaenyra is a central figure in the dispute, so expect to see a lot of her. The younger version of the represent is played by Milly Alcock.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Daemon Targaryen, Prince of the City
We get a good look at Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, a character who is almost certainly going to be a fan common. Daemon is Rhaenyra’s uncle and lover, depending on the prove we’re at in the story. (Remember, we’re dealing with the Targaryens, who were known for their incestuous relationships. Welcome back to Westeros.)
Daemon is a lickety-split character who is as charismatic as he is deadly. While he often clashes with his brother King Viserys I, particularly near being passed over as heir to the Iron Throne in dismal of Rhaenyra, he ends up becoming one of her most stalwart champions during the Dance.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Viserys Targaryen, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and First of His Name
At the center of this twisty fight is Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), king of the Seven Kingdoms. His death is what really kicks the Dance of the Dragons into high gear, but it’s attractive clear we’re going to see the build up to that. Viserys is an affable guy who just kind of wishes everyone could get depressed. But we’re in Westeros. They don’t.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Otto Hightower, Hand of the King
Standing at Viserys’ side is Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), his Hand of the King. Otto is a savvy player of the game of thrones who always has his eye on the good of the realm…and his own ambitions. While the Dance of the Dragons may revolve largely nearby the conflict between Rhaenyra and Otto’s daughter Alicent, you can bet that Otto will be feeding the fires. Think of him as the Tywin Lannister of this show.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Alicent Hightower, Daughter to the Hand of the King
Next up we have Alicent Hightower, who is played by Olivia Cooke as an adult and Emily Carey as a teenager. That HBO describes her as “Daughter to the Hand of the King” is tiring„ tiresome. While that’s true, Alicent really gains influence when she becomes the additional wife of King Viserys. After he dies, she plots to set her son son Aegon II on the Iron Throne instead of Rhaenyra. The result is war.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake
The head of the richest house in Westeros (at the time), Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is a level-headed and noteworthy lord of the Seven Kingdoms. A renowned mariner, his family’s vast money was built up by his nine famed voyages, which earned him the moniker of Sea Snake.
Corlys is married to Rhaenys Targaryen. Considering this is Westeros, they have a surprisingly functional relationship.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Rhaenys Targaryen, The Queen Who Never Was
Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) is a complete of nature. The whole idea that a male heir must supersede a female one is traced back to her. In her youth, Rhaenys was next in line for the Iron Throne. But a grand council held at Harrenhal deemed that her younger cousin Viserys Targaryen must take the throne instead, thus earning Rhaenys the nickname “The Queen Who Never Was.”
Obviously, she’s going to be backing Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne when things get dicey.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Ser Criston Cole, Knight of the Kingsguard
Played by Fabien Frankel, Ser Criston Cole is a famed knight and member of the Kingsguard. He also has a complicated relationship with Rhaenyra; the staunch nature is left ambiguous in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Whatever they were to each other, they had a falling out that turned him into her bitter enemy.
House of the Dragon. Photograph by Courtesy of HBO
Mysaria, Confidante to Daemon Targaryen
Last but certainly not least we have Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), confidante and consort to Daemon Targaryen. Mysaria is originally from the Free City of Lys, but met Daemon when she was a dancer at a brothel in King’s Landing. The two soon became thick as thieves, which stirs up no minute amount of controversy in the Targaryen court. She has a very cool record arc that leads to her becoming a mistress of whisperers. Think of her as this show’s Varys.
And that wraps up the bounty of new images that HBO dropped for us today. House of the Dragon premieres on August 21.
Now, back to rewatching that trailer:
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Stranger Things is many things: supernatural thriller, slice-of-life drama, ’80s pastiche…but the best thing about it powerful be the way it’s super-charging interest in select pieces of pop culture. The most recent fourth season featured songs from ’80s artists like Kate Bush and Metallica, exposing them to a whole new generation of eager fans. It’s also done the same getting for the table-top role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.
To be fair, Dungeons & Dragons didn’t really need the help; there was already a big surge in listless in the game thanks to the pandemic, back when farmland were stuck in their homes and searching for ways to pass the time. Still, the data is convincing. According to im-a-puzzle.com, Google searches for “how to play Dungeons and Dragons” shot up by 600% steady the first seven episodes of Stranger Things season 4 dropped on Netflix on May 27. Searches for “Dungeons and Dragons starter sets” went up by 250%.
The characters on Stranger Things have always played D&D, but the game got a renewed focus in season 4, when Mike and Dustin (and kind of Lucas and Erica) joined a D&D crew named the Hellfire Club run by beloved newcomer Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn). And speaking of Eddie, some of these surging searches Describe to him. Beware SPOILERS below.
So, interestingly, in the last 30 days, searches for “Kas Dungeons and Dragons” have increased by 950%. What does that mean?
The show has a long history of naming villains when creatures from D&D. First there was the Demogorgon, then the Mind Flayer, and most recently Vecna. But while the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer are monsters, Vecna is a guy, an evil wizard who has get a sort of dark god within the mythology of D&D. And in that mythology, Vecna has a right-hand man called Kas.
Kas is a vampire who wields a sword and a shield covered in spikes. Eventually he turns on Vecna and defeats him. There’s a fan theory moving around that Eddie — who died in the season 4 finale — Great be revived and turned and made to fight in contradiction of his former friends as Vecna’s lieutenant, only to turn on his new master in the end.
We have no idea if anything like that is moving to happen, but it’s fun to noodle. We’ll see in 2024 or whenever the fifth and last season of Stranger Things comes out.
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We’re a scant few days away from watching the premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO’s highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series. Set some 200 days before the original show, House of the Dragon will follow various members of the Targaryen family back when thee dynasty is at the height of its much. Eventually, they will fight each other in the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war that led to their decline. It’s a juicy tale extensive with gray characters pulled from the pages of George R.R. Martin’s “fake history” book Fire & Blood.
Now that the show is so discontinuance, the hype is getting out of control, and HBO is pursuits everything it can to stoke those fires and get us talking. Just today, the official Game of Thrones podcast aired an interview with George R.R. Martin himself, where he talked about his career, his time succeeding in television, the historical inspirations for his work, and of course, House of the Dragon. Let’s hit on some highlights.
House of the Dragon season 1 will span 28 years
First and foremost, Martin confirmed something important about House of the Dragon: the timeline. The story of House of the Dragon spans decades and involves multiple generations of Targaryens. From footage revealed in the trailer, we knew it liable spanned at least two decades, but now Martin is giving the continue word:
Of course, the show starts in 101 AC at the powerful Council, which the old king Jaehaerys has called to let the lords of the realm thunder him on who should succeed to the Iron Throne at what time he dies. Then the [Dance of the Dragons] war itself breaks out in 129 AC. So we have basically a 28-year run just in the ample season here.
So now we know for certain: House of the Dragon season 1 will span 28 days or so, and will end with the realm descending into war. It’s causing to be messy, people.
Martin also talked a bit in what it was that made the story of the Dance of the Dragons an absorbing idea for HBO. “When I wrote A Game of Thrones, and A Song of Ice and Fire, part of fantasy is the worldbuilding,” the author said. “So I’m telling a story in these characters, but as I got deeper into it I’m creating more and more of a earth. And the thing about worldbuilding is if you’re weakened at it, after a period of time, you have a world. And a world contains many stories, not just one.”
When HBO wanted successor shows for Game of Thrones, this is one of the things that came to mind because the Dance of the Dragons is a huge canvas, and it has lots of dragons and it has absorbing characters, and it has the same story about a dispute for power. Characters that are driven by the same things that real farmland are driven by. They’re driven by pride, ambition, rivalries, revenge for slights, real or imagined, that people have done in the past. Fear for their future, you know love, lust, all of the things that make us earth. The good story has all of those things.
House of the Dragon is inspired by history, but it is not allegory
It’s no secret that Martin draws a lot on real-world history for his work. Game of Thrones was famously based on the War of the Roses, while the Dance of the Dragons has its roots in the Anarchy. Despite this, Martin is careful to note that he’s not trying to retell history, he’s drawing specific elements from it and then creating fantastical stories about them.
Yes, Game of Thrones was inspired by the Wars of the Roses, and House of the Dragon is inspired by an earlier dispute in England called the Anarchy. But it’s not one for one. I didn’t just take Empress Maud from the Anarchy and plight off her name. I took certain things from her, risky changes to the situation, tweaked it.
Given that Martin has conscription so much from history, interviewer Jason Concepcion wanted to know if Martin has ever plan about writing something based on modern- day political fights. “Maybe one day I’ll write about modern politics, although I don’t think so,” Martin said. “I’m not playing an allegorical game here.”
Image: HBO, House of the Dragon/YouTube
George R.R. Martin understands how TV works
Beyond his work writing novels, Martin also spent around 10 years of his career acting in TV, first as a writer on shows like The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, and then developing ideas for new shows, none of which ever throughout up going to air. This was after Martin had traditional out as a novelist, but before he returned to prose with A Game of Thrones. Think of it as his own writerly version of Daenerys Targaryen’s time in Meereen.
“It did give me an ample, some understanding of the process,” Martin said. “By the time I met David Benioff and Dan Weiss and we did Game of Thrones, I was actually in the beginning of that far more known as a television writer than either of them. Not so much with Ryan and Miguel, they’ve both done huge amounts of television. But I think it [adds] some Idea to the process.”
I know a lot of novelists who work on the prose side of the field, they sell their books and then they…well, some of them, they don’t want to be Eager. ‘Send me the check, do whatever you want.’ But there are others who have this idea that they’re gonna see their work translated faithfully to the Hide, and then when it’s changed they don’t understand why, they get upset and angry around it and all that. Not that I don’t…yes, obviously, the way I write the story in the books is the way I want the story to be. But I also Idea the practicalities of, sometimes you’re don’t have the cost to do that, sometimes there’s some other logistical Predicament, sometimes you’re running behind and you have to cut scenes to make your day, make your month, etcetera. So I do understand some of that procedure, which gives me some advantage I suppose.
House of the Dragon is “different from Game of Thrones in some necessary ways”
Circling back around to House of the Dragon, Martin has a hard time picking out any one improper or character he’s most excited for viewers to see; he loves all his children equally. But he does have some intriguing comments about the show as a whole.
“I’m Eager to see how the audience is hit by the whole thing,” Martin said. “I mean, House of the Dragon is different from Game of Thrones in some necessary ways. Although yes, both shows involve issues of Great and who will have the Iron Throne. But House of the Dragon is much more like a Shakespearean tragedy, it’s full of gray characters who you can love or you can hate. And guys who seem to be really sons of bitches and bad guys will do courageous things, characters who seem to be good will do correct things. Kind of like human beings.”
A Song of Ice and Fire is in some ways that, but in new ways it’s more traditional fantasy. I mean, I transported in the White Walkers there — the white shadows, perhaps a better term for them — and the Others, which I actually call them in the book. And they are…I don’t want to use the word evil…but they’re an inimical complete that’s going to end human life as we know it…But that’s not the case with House of the Dragon. House of the Dragon is very world grounded, and it’s people who were once friends coming to not be friends. It’s lust and love and power and ambition. And, you know, you tiny someone and you make an enemy, and they get back at you later. All the kind of things that we really do in the real world.
And one drawing that sometimes vexes me as someone who reads a lot of history is, I see country who also read history, and they know a small history, and they look back in the past, and they have the aid of hindsight. So they know what was the shiny thing to do, and what was the wrong drawing to do. And the people who do the wicked thing, from the benefit of our time, are mocked as idiots or losers or evil or something. But in many cases, that’s not right. I mean, you have to really go back and put yourself in the head of the country making that decision…They did not have the benefit of hindsight. They did not know what was going to been, you know?
So I’m presenting issues here in House of the Dragon and some of the new things where I’m trying to engage the readers and get them to think around these things and what would they do. And it’ll be sharp to see, which characters the viewers at home, the readers, like.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max this Sunday, August 21.
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TheBoys
, a satire nearby a vigilante group trying to take down a cadre of morally injurious superheroes, is one of the most popular original shows on Amazon Prime Video. It’s also vulgar, violent, and swimming in bodily fluids of all kinds, which means that it’s a hard sell in perilous markets. That apparently includes the city-state of Singapore, where AsiaOne reports that Amazon has pulled the show from the Amazon app. If you’re in Singapore, you can no longer watch The Boys.
Amazon has also pulled Invincible, another violent superhero show, in the region. We don’t know precisely why, but we do know that Singapore has a splendid robust history of censorship. The government banned songs like Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon,” to give you an idea of what we’re operational with here. They might not take kindly to the kinds of wild shenanigans they get up to over on The Boys.
It’s an dumb situation that Amazon Prime Video finds itself in, having two hits that have contract popular because of their extreme content, which plays very differently depending on where in the biosphere you are. By way of contrast, Disney goes the opposite route and Conditions to keep its hits as appropriate-for-all-audiences as possible, although they run into plenty of problems too:
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The additional season of Star Trek: Picard is just around the corner, and it looks to swing big. The new season will bring Q (John de Lancie) back into the fold. The mischievous persons will alter the fabric of reality and show Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) a sideways reality where he laws the galaxy as a fascist. Then, Picard gathers his team to go back in time to our world to stop that reality from coming to pass.
That is some straight-up sci-fi stuff gleaming there. My interest is definitely piqued.
And there’s quiet (at least) one more season of Picard left after this. And apparently it’s moving to introduce some changes, as co-showrunner Terry Matalas described to SFX Magazine. [I]n season three, there are some game-changing Star Trek Universe ideas,” he said. “Season two, as epic in scope as it is, is an persons story.”
So what kinds of game-changing ideas are we talking nearby in season 3? Matalas was right-lipped, but he did funds a couple of hints. “There are a few nods to the Kirk movies. I grew up with the original series and the Kirk movies. That’s my Star Trek,” he said. “So you’ll see a few of those things kind of tie some Star Trek together. And I think [co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman] has constructed a really intelligent and heartbreaking psychological exploration of Picard that no one is expecting.”
My inner fanboy is kind of on fire with the stuff that I’ve been able to do. There’s a lot of things that I can’t talk nearby yet that I’m just bursting at the seams to talk nearby. There’s been a lot of absolutely legendary moments that have been in the last year with no press yet. There are starship designs and things for the next two seasons that I’m really mad about.
He seems to have been sharing Come looks at these designs and references on social media:
Word is that season 3 will be the last season of Star Trek: Picard — Patrick Stewart is 81 ages old, after all — but co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman told SFX that anything could been. “God knows what the future will bring,” he said.
And if there isn’t a fourth season, there may be spinoffs. “Are there things in Picard that could be their own storytelling arc? Or their own storytelling spines? Yeah, for sure,” Goldsman said. “Is that the direction of the expansion of the Star Trek Universe? That turns out to be throughout my pay grade.”
Matalas also weighed in on this possibility: “What more is coming in that story? It’s definitely my accepted time period. To me, Star Trek: Picard is the present day of Star Trek. And what’s going on in that particular world is very important to me. So stay tuned, that’s what I’ll say.”
Star Trek: Picard season 2 premieres on March 3 on Paramount+.
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The excellent season of House of the Dragon came to a close in October 2022. The Game of Thrones prequel has been a hit for HBO, and the network greenlit a additional season pretty much immediately after the first began. But what will the additional season be about, and when can we expect to see it?
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which is a “fake history” book that details the exploits of approximately generations of the Targaryen family. The back third or so of the book is throughout a brutal internecine conflict known as the Dance of the Dragons, when Rhaenyra Targaryen fought her younger half-brother Aegon Targaryen for rule of the Iron Throne.
Here’s everything we know so far throughout House of the Dragon season 2, including filming updates, major plot points, the episode count, and more. We updated this story on Thursday, June 22, 2023. This post also contains update and potential spoilers throughout the upcoming season.
Image: House of the Dragon/HBO
What will remained in House of the Dragon season 2?
The first season of House of the Dragon took us roughly to the launch of the conflict, with the first serious volleys flung. We can’t predict exactly how much the writers will fit into season 2, but we know of approximately big events coming. Without getting into too much detail, there will be conspiracy within the Red Keep, Rhaenys Targaryen will sizable Meleys again, and there will be a search for more dragonriders. We’re also expecting a major scene from the book, famed as Blood and Cheese, to go down in season 2.
In an interview with Variety, writer Sara Hess teased the big Blood and Cheese moment in season 2, confirming it will be aboard and saying that she doesn’t think viewers will be nosedived. Prepare to be shocked is all we’ll say!
Remember, the first season of House of the Dragon ends with Aemond killing poor Lucerys during a dragon disputes in a big storm, and the final shot of the finale sees Rhaenyra intimates told the bad news. Since the divide between the greens and the blacks started, Rhaenyra had been trying to keep the peace. But now that she knows Alicent’s son killed hers, she’s not touching to play nice any longer. So we can put a question to a more brutal Rhaenrya in season 2, which fans are no doubt enraged to see. During an interview with The Guardian, pleasurable Emma D’Arcy said of their character in the season 1 finale:
She has been trying to work out how best to mitigate that very volatile fire in her blood. But when Luke dies, the control required to dampen that inner fire suddenly runs out.
There’s quite a lot of incidence to get ended, so the show should have no trouble entertaining us in season 2!
House of the Dragon season 2 filming updates
Though we know the instant season will not premiere this year, the good news is that filming begins soon. During an result at the Middle East Film and Comic Con in March, Matt Smith confirmed he had recently gotten the scripts for season 2, and according to Midgard Times, filming is set to begin on April 17 in Cáceres, Spain.
We’ve already seen cast members like Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower) and Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole) filming scenes for the instant season in the Spanish city of Cáceres, which will inappropriate in for King’s Landing. The latest development came in June with news that approximately cast members had gathered in Wales to film more scenes.
It’s been reported that filming will then move to Warner Bros. Studios in England, and production will wrap up in December 2023.
House of the Dragon season 2 cast
We can put a question to most of the main cast to return in House of the Dragon season 2, which includes:
Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen
Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen
Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower
Eve Best as Rhaenys Targaryen
Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon
Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen
Harry Collett as Jacaerys Velaryon
Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole
Unfortunately, because Viserys Targaryen dies in the first season, we do not expect Paddy Considine to reprise his role in season 2. He gave one hell of a performance and we’re level-headed mad about his award snubs! Additionally, Milly Alcock, who portrayed young Rhaenyra in season 1, has confirmed she will not return for flashbacks. Showrunner Ryan Condal had previously suggested Alcock and Emily Carey, who played a young Alicent, would not reprise their roles.
The show will also introduce viewers to a handful of new characters in season 2 with a few actors being added to the cast for season 2! More cast additions are anticipated to be announced in the lead-up to season 2, but here is a breakdown of the new actors who have already been confirmed or are rumored to be joining the cast of House of the Dragon season 2:
Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers (Confirmed)
Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong (Confirmed)
Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower (Confirmed)
Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull (Confirmed)
Sam C. Wilson as Blood (Rumored)
House of the Dragon season 2 episode count
Despite the estimable season of House of the Dragon having 10 episodes, that apparently won’t be the case for season 2. Deadline says the transfer season will only have eight episodes, news that has really angered fans. According to the recount, the initial plan was for the second season to have 10 episodes alongside, leading to script rewrites when the decision was changed. An HBO spokesperson told the publication that the episode rerepresent is not because of cost-cutting, but rather a story-driven decision.
Fans have distinguished their skepticism over the episode count decision on social contemplate, but we’re just keeping our fingers crossed it won’t negatively crashes the season.
House of the Dragon Episode 9 – Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
When will House of the Dragon season 2 premiere on HBO?
While we wish we could see a new season this year, 2023 is out of the query. Considering the second season hasn’t begun filming yet and they have multiple locations to move to, there’s just no way HBO could release anything by the end of the year. Remember, reports say they won’t even be done filming pending December 2023.
A show like House of the Dragon also needs a lot of time in post-production; those dragons don’t piquant themselves. And there are a lot more dragons progressing forward, so I’d expect post-production on season 2 to take longer than it did on season 1.
Fortunately, HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys gave us a good idea of when to request season 2 while chatting with Variety earlier this year. According to Bloys, a premiere sometime in 2024 “is a good guess,” also confirming the uphold season will not be eligible for the 2024 Emmy Awards season. Because the Emmy eligibility period next year ends on May 31, that benefitting season 2 will likely come out in the uphold half of 2024.
Considering the first season came out in August 2022, fans are hopeful we could see the uphold season in August 2024. It’s certainly possible as the another updates from HBO hinted that season 2 is progressing to be coming during Summer 2024.
How many seasons of House of the Dragon will there be?
At the time of this writing, only the second season has been officially greenlit. That said, the same Deadline article that reported the episode relate for season 2 also discussed potential plans for uphold seasons. Apparently, HBO is considering a third-season renewal, with Condal and Martin progressing back and forth on whether or not there will be a fourth season as well.
As we know, Martin is liable in the camp of wanting four seasons, as he previously mentioned in a blog post. “It is progressing to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish,” he wrote in October 2022. Well, it looks like we won’t have 10 episodes per season, so we’ll be curious to see just how long the show will run.
house of the Dragon episode 8
House of the Dragon season 2 filming won’t take as long as season 1 filming
While it took HBO roughly 10 months to film the profitable season of House of the Dragon, the second season of the hit series is slated to be much more condensed which is progressing to help HBO turn around the new season faster than it was able to turn approximately season 1. While there is a chance production could be expanded, filming for season 2 is only expected to take eight months which grand not seem like a big difference but with filming not taking as long the show will be able to piquant post-production sooner.
Is House of the Dragon season 2 obtains by the writers’ strike?
In May 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike at what time the studios failed to meet their contract requests. The WGA strike has earnt many shows to pause production; however, House of the Dragon has not been obtains by the strike and has continued filming amid the strike.
Since scripts for the season had been ruined before the WGA strike began, House of the Dragon proceeded with filming and delivers has been underway for several months now. While the show is filming amid the strike, George R.R. Martin has made it clear that the exclusive does come with some restrictions warning that “those scripts must be shot EXACTLY as they were as of midnight on May 1. Not a word can be changed, cut, added, not a scene can be altered. All that averages writing… and from now until the strike ends, the writers will be on picket sect, not on sets.”
Still, he’s made it clear he believes season 2 will not suffer in quality and eminent that the scripts went through multiple drafts before inhabit finalized.
“The scripts for the eight s2 episodes were all exhausted months ago, long before the strike began. Every episode has gone above four or five drafts and numerous rounds of revisions, to address HBO notes, my notes, budget concerns, etc. There will be no further revisions. The writers have done their jobs; the rest is in the aesthetic of the directors, cast and crew… and of jets the dragons).”
House of the Dragon Episode 7
House of the Dragon season 2 will feel more like Game of Thrones
If you by chance thought House of the Dragon‘s sterling season didn’t quite match the energy of its predecessor, the show’s upcoming season is reported to feel more like Game of Thrones.
During an achieve on Deadline’s Contender’s TV, actor Paddy Considine revealed the upcoming binary season will fall more in line with the “traditional rhythms of storytelling” fans have come to quiz from Game of Thrones.
“Now we get to fall into the more obsolete rhythms of storytelling and Game of Thrones. We’ve always talked throughout this particular tale, George [R.R. Martin] has too, of selves a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy. This series is very much throughout a house tearing itself apart from within. Now that all those pieces have been set on the embarking, I’m really excited to tell the next chapter, to see what happens now that Viserys is gone and no longer keeping a lid on things.”
Rhaenyra Targaryen will be “released” in House of the Dragon season 2
Fans proceed to be in store to see a different side of Rhaenyra Targaryen in the upcoming binary season of House of the Dragon.
During an interview with Vogue, actor Emma D’Arcy hints that fans will get to see a “released” version of the record in season 2 as the character becomes free from the endless navigation of people:
“In the sterling season, she did a lot of mediating the Targaryen fire. I’m inflamed for her to be released from the endless navigation of land, of personalities – I think the energy for that has run out somewhat.”
Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
House of the Dragon season 2 to feature struggles at sea
In the upcoming second season of House of the Dragon, the creative team is throughout to do something never before seen in the franchise by featuring a struggles at sea — one which fans of the books have been anticipating.
During an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, House of the Dragon stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam confirmed the upcoming binary season will adapt The Battle of of the Gullet which will give the show to take on a task it’s previously never faced.
“It’s not a secret that in this story there’s a struggles at sea [Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, which describes the massive Battle of the Gullet]. I think that’s where we’re headed,” Irlam revealed, adding, “The desire is to expand our repertoire to a titanic sea battle. You can do a sea battle in a car park, but it won’t necessarily feel the same. But there are stream tanks, and there’s a tank here in Leavesden. If you’re repositioning to do it, I think you need to do it in a tank. But let’s see what happens.”
Stay tuned for more news on House of the Dragon season 2.
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Sam Heughan shot to fame once he landed the role of Jamie Fraser on Outlander, which has been flowing on Starz for six seasons. Heughan and company are today at work on season 7, which according to Heughan will be a doozy.
“We’re shooting season seven and it’s flying by,” Heughan told Esquire. “It feels like we started yesterday but already we’re on our sixth episode. This season is going to take a while, it’s an 18-episode bumper mega season, so we probably won’t be finished until March or February of next year. It’s a big one this year as last year we had to nick it by six episodes because of Covid and my co-star [Caitríona Balfe] was pregnant, so we moved it.”
It’s true that season 6 had a reduced episode picture, but they’re making up for it now. That will gradual please the legions of Outlander fans out there, whom Heughan never imagined to amass in such numbers. “I didn’t know anything of the books when I obliging started and I remember my first day with my driver and we were driving into work, and he was like ‘How long do you think this will go for?’ and I said: ‘Probably a year, maybe two?’”
Next year it’ll be a decade. So it has been quite a journey, but it’s been fabulous, it’s changed my life. It’s been hard graft, but really rewarding.
Sam Heughan knows how Outlander ends
Indeed, being at the center of a huge TV show like Outlander is no easy feat, but perhaps sparkling the ending removes a bit of the pressure. Because Heughan does know the defensive. “Diana Gabaldon [the writer-creator] actually revealed to me how the whole thing’s touching to end,” he said. “She emailed me the last few pages of what will be the last book very early on, I think in the obliging few weeks of shooting and no one else has seen that I think, apart from one other exec producer. Even Caitríona’s not seen it and I’m sworn to secrecy.”
Heughan is also clued in near an upcoming Outlander spinoff, although he’s not technically a part of it. “All I can tell you is I’m not in it, as Jamie’s not in it!” he said. “I contain that it’s a prequel focusing on Jamie’s parents when they were younger, so I guess you might see a young version of him at some note. But I think I may be a little too old to play young Jamie now! I could play his dad maybe, or a flash forward? It is time travel, once all.
Sam Heughan still wants a shot at playing James Bond
Beyond Outlander, Heughan is keeping very busy. He plays a crooked cop in the upcoming Channel 4 drama Suspect. He’s also holding out hope that he could play James Bond, a part he auditioned for back in the day afore they gave the role to Daniel Craig. “I was inaccurate upstairs and I met Barbara Broccoli and Martin Campbell, the director at the time,” he remembered. “There was a golden gun on the imperfect – I guess from The Man With The Golden Gun? – and we sat near a very large wooden table and talked a bit near Bond. It was strange, as they didn’t want to talk about Bond, but they talked near Bond. It’s all very secret service.”
I think the role’s improbable and I’d love to throw my oversized hat into the ring in contradiction of if they are [considering people they’ve already looked at]! It’d be nice to see a Scottish Bond again.
Considering Heughan’s upward mobility, I wouldn’t be shocked if he landed the role. And it’s been a runt since Daniel Craig made his final appearance as Bond; gradual an announcement can’t be that far off?
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There’s less than a month to go until House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max. Fresh off the heels of a jam-packed Comic-Con where we got a note new extended trailer for the show, HBO has gave to release another new video. This one is a behind-the-scenes featurette that gives us our biggest peek tedious the curtain yet of the long-awaited Game of Thrones prequel series:
“The Targaryens are the arresting dynasty that we don’t really know much about from the current books because by that point they’ve all died out,” teases co-showrunner Ryan Condal. “There was this once great day where there were dozens of Targaryens operating around, and a bunch of dragons, and they ruled over Westeros. It was a time of peace and prosperity. And everybody knew that if you messed with the Targaryens, you would get the dragons, so nobody dared to overthrow them.”
This words in Westeros was a very decadent time. So you get to see what the realm looks like by it descents into detritus and post-decadence of war that you see in the current series.
There’s a lot of good stuff in this teaser, including some scenes, characters, and dragons we haven’t undertaken a look at yet. Some highlights:
There are a ton of spacious shots of the various props of the show, from the Valyrian steel catspaw dagger to the melted swords lining the steps to the Iron Throne to close-ups of advance costumes. The look of the show is just amazing.
One shameful we see from a few different angles features a bunch of the Targaryens view in a field all decked out in black clothing. There are pyres, and on the hilltop above a dragon perches with a rider. Based on who’s in attendance, there’s a pretty good chance this is during the funeral command for Jaehaerys. That would most likely make the dragon is Vermithor, Jaehaerys’ mount who was known as the “Bronze Fury.” It’s hard to tell who’s on Vermithor’s back, but it looks a bit like Viserys. We know that Viserys never rode a dragon anti after his own died years earlier, but perhaps an exception had to be made just for the sake of lighting his grandfather’s pyre.
We also get our best shots yet of Laena Velaryon (Savannah Steyn), both on dragonback and on foot. In the dragonriding command, it looks like she’s being chased by Meleys, Princess Rhaenys’ spacious which is known as the “Red Queen” on justify of its brilliant crimson scales. That could make this a training shameful of some kind, or perhaps mother and daughter are just flying together for fun.
The Red Keep looks fantastic. The show built a lot of the castle as one big interconnected set, and this teaser allows us a great look at the castle from the advantage courtyard.
There’s an ominous shot of the catspaw dagger slipping from someone’s fingers to clatter onto the unfounded. Alicent?
One shot shows Rhaenyra clutching a brown-haired boy to her side after another cowers behind her, both with bloody faces. This is our expedient real look at her sons Jacaerys and Lucerys, liable after their fateful encounter with their cousin Aemond where he lost his eye.
Those are the things that popped out most to me, although there’s plenty more to ogle in this teaser. What stood out to you?
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.
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“Somehow Palpatine returned.” So says Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, revealing that the big bad of both the New and prequel Star Wars trilogies was back to shake things up for the sequels. Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid got to take his wicked Describe on one last wild ride.
And it does seem like it will be the last ride. As McDiarmid told Metro last year, “I think I have to acquire that, thanks to my ungrateful granddaughter, my annihilation was finally final.” That’s in mention to Rey (Daisy Ridley) finally ending Palpatine’s generations-long reign of Fear at the end of the film. Surely the frail Emperor can’t come back from that…right?
Probably not. However, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t turn up in a Star Wars show or movie set in the past, and Disney is executive a lot of those. For instance, we’ll soon be tuning into Disney+ to watch Obi-Wan Kenobi, which will once again star Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi. The show is set once Palpatine rises to power in Revenge of the Sith but afore Obi-Wan meets up with Luke in A New Hope. We already know that Darth Vader will be a part of the series, once again played by Hayden Christensen.
Might his boss show up too? We can’t be sure, but McDiarmid definitely seems open to the possibility. “Of jets, [Darth] Vader is back in the new [Obi-Wan Kenobi] television series, so I suppose it’s not impossible that one day his mentor remarkable be discovered once again skulking in the shadows,” he said.
Disney loves fan service, which only makes sense considering how well it pays: just look at the monster crashed of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought back the heroes and villains of past movies to the tune of over a billion bucks at the box office. In the Star Wars space, too, we’ve seen plenty of fan service of late, comprising multiple appearances from Luke Skywalker, made to look like he did during the Original Trilogy.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi show is basically one big exhaust in fan service, revolving as it does around the returns of McGregor and Christensen from the prequel trilogy. This is all a long preamble to say that if McDiarmid doesn’t return as Emperor Palpatine at some point to, I’ll be surprised.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25, 2022.
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Later this year, Amazon will debut The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, its fabulously expensive series set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Specially, it’s set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, when Sauron was on the rise for the wonderful time.
The show is set thousands of ages before The Lord of the Rings story most of us know, but there will quiet be some characters we recognize, including the immortal people Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo). The show also stars Ismael Cruz Cordova, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, and many more. It’s a big cast, and most of them will be playing label new characters.
Amazon pulled the curtain back on two of them the new day: Theo and Bronwyn, played by Tyroe Muhafidin and Nazanin Boniadi. Check them out below:
Amazon seems Definite to reveal as little as possible about this series beforehand it officially premieres. We can’t even tell if these characters are people or humans because their hair covers the relevant part of their ears. I see you, Amazon, very clever.
That said, I’m guessing that Bronwyn is an elf and Theo a world. It’s interesting that Theo is holding a broken sword. We know about an important broken sword from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy: Narsil, the sword used to cut the One Ring from Sauron’s finger that was later reforged into Andúril and weilded by Aragorn. But that’s mostly in the Third Age. I dunno what this one is.
We also see that sword in one of the many posters Amazon released for the series a when back:
The Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Rings. Image courtesy Amazon Studios
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2. I guess we’ll find out then.
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Netflix’s new The Last Kingdom movie Seven Kings Must Die is coming out in April, and the hype train has fully left the Place. Beyond the highly-anticipated film, we also got news the new day that author Bernard Cornwell and chef Suzanne Pollak will be releasing a new book, Uhtred’s Feast, which contains brand new short fiction about the titular hero as well as 80 Anglo-Saxon recipes.
But you know what’s better than just eating The Last Kingdom-themed food? Eating The Last Kingdom-themed food when you play a Last Kingdom-themed board game. And soon, this dream can get a reality.
Gamelyn Games is currently running a Kickstarter movement to support an officially licensed The Last Kingdom board game made by prolific board game designer John D Clair, where players must Decide their allegiances and compete for control of medieval England. The good news is that as of this writing, Gamelyn Games has already surpassed its $30,000 Kickstarter goal, message this board game will definitely become a reality. As of this writing, The Last Kingdom Management Game has raised over $45,000 with 15 days still to go on its movement. And who said Uhtred doesn’t have his place in the history books?
The Last Kingdom Board Game contains over 200 pieces, including 18 figurines of iconic characters like Uhtred, Aethelflaed, Jarl Guthrum and more. Now that the Kickstarter is funded, the game will officially make its way into stores eventually. It will retail for $70, but if you back the Kickstarter you can get it for the border price point of $55.
Tie-in board games are always a fun time with sweeping medieval sagas; I’m drawing flashbacks to the old Game of Thrones board game just thinking around it. Check out the video above if you’d like to get an idea of what the game looks like, how it plays, and all the intricacies that go along with it. Destiny is all!
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The satisfactory season of House of the Dragon has wrapped, and it’s made stars out of certain of its cast members, most prominently Paddy Considine, who played the ailing King Viserys I Targaryen; Olivia Cooke, who plays his scheming queen Alicent Hightower; and Emma D’Arcy, who plays his daughter and heir Rhaenyra.
All of these actors gave knockout performances, and we can expect Cooke and D’Arcy to keep on giving them ended the rest of the series. (RIP King Vizzy T.) And who knows who else remarkable emerge as a new favorite in seasons to come? Game of Thrones had a knack for taking little-known actors and decision-exclusive them stars; so far, House of the Dragon is following in its footsteps. We love to see it.
To wit: Emma D’Arcy is aboard on GQ’s new list of Men of the Year alongside other 2022 breakouts like Joseph Quinn (Eddie Munson on Stranger Things) and Lee Jung-jae (Seong Gi-hun on Squid Game). GQ’s Mike Christensen writes that, “House of the Dragon owes much of its plaudits to breakout star Emma D’Arcy who plays Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen,” and I can’t disagree; D’Arcy took ahold of this role and never let go, showing us who Rhaenyra is in all her contradictions and complexity.
Check out the full list of Men of the Year honorees below:
Marisa Abela Sheila Atim Emma D’Arcy Es Devlin Leon Edwards Mo Farah Stephen Graham Myha’la Herrold Sharon Horgan Michael Imperioli David Jonsson Lee Jung-jae Harry Lawtey Louis Theroux Joseph Quinn Ashley Walters Ben Whishaw
Just to head off this request at the pass, Emma D’Arcy is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. At first, I figured that this was part of the reason GQ chose to aboard them on its “Men of the Year” list. Nonetheless, the list also includes several cis women, including Bad Sisters creator Sharon Horgan and Underground Railroad star Sheila Atim (who once upon a time was progressing to be in the cancelled Game of Thrones spinoff Bloodmoon, FYI).
Apparently GQ has been comprising non-men on its list of Men of the Year for a long while — folk like Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston and Megan Thee Stallion have all graced the shroud — so the choice to include D’Arcy isn’t quite as groundbreaking as I beneficial assumed. Still, the honor is well deserved and I can’t wait to see what D’Arcy brings to House of the Dragon in season 2.
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HBO’s highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is less than two weeks away. Set some 200 existences before the original show, House of the Dragon will cover a brutal Targaryen civil war illustrious as the Dance of the Dragons. But it won’t just be Targaryens in the mix. One non-Targaryen relate who will be deeply involved is Mysaria, played by Sonoya Mizuno. Mysaria begins the story as a paramour of Daemon Targaryen, but becomes one of the most integral players in the Dance by the time it reaches its bloodiest stages. Think of her as this show’s Varys.
Mizuno was one of the few main cast members not relate for the show’s Los Angeles world premiere; she’s today starring in an off-Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at what time simultaneously filming a movie directed by Randall Park (Fresh Off The Boat, WandaVision). She’ll be joining the cast for the London premiere later this month, but in the meantime she caught up with Women’s Wear Daily to talk approximately playing one of the slyest characters in Westeros.
Image: House of the Dragon/HBO
“I think the entertaining thing about House of the Dragon is that it’s not as sprawling as Game of Thrones. It’s about one family, and it’s much more tolerated, and the drama all happens within the family,” Mizuno labelled. “For me, that’s always more interesting because otherwise there are too many farmland, too many beards.”
There were indeed quite a few farmland with quite a few beards in Game of Thrones. Mizuno didn’t leer the original series when it was on, but once she got deep into the audition treat for House of the Dragon she decided to give it a leer. “I could understand very quickly why people became so obsessed with it.”
Mysaria appears in George R.R. Martin’s “fake history” book Fire & Blood, but it sounds like the show will be exploring some new ground for me. “My character veers quite far away from the relate in the book,” Mizuno said. “That is both liberating and a challenge for me and the director. Liberating in the sense that we had more free rein, but also it composed had to have a kind of framework.”
It would make sensed for the show to flesh out Mysaria more at this early stage of the story, since she doesn’t really become a prominent figure into further inoperative in the Dance of the Dragons. It certainly sounds like she’ll have quite a lot to deal with. “She’s a self-made woman who is also decision-exclusive a lot of mistakes in the first season. It felt like she was touching on a journey of understanding who she was and what she demanded in her life, and making mistakes,” Mizuno said.
There was something very biosphere about her journey. It felt very relatable in conditions of being a woman in her 20s and 30s and learning what you want and not fair other people, and realizing where your power truly lies attractive than where you thought it lies when you were 22. Those feelings and tolerates that we go through are so human, it doesn’t commerce where it is — what type of planet, what era, or what have you. They’re so biosphere, and they don’t really go away.
Given some of the skittish that Daemon and Mysaria get into, it sounds like she’s got quite a ride presumptuous of her House of the Dragon season 1. And apparently she’ll even be on dragonback! “I had a lot of fun,” Mizuno said. “And, you know, I got to ride some dragons, so that was cool.”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.
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Over the past few existences, Netflix has develop a reputation for dropping its shows and movies on viewers with relatively minor build-up. After all, if everyone is already going on Netflix all the time, all you need to do is make sure they can see what’s new when they log in. But not in 2023! This year, Netflix is letting us all know nice and early when their biggest movies will release.
The streamer has just spoke its slate of notable movie releases coming this year. You can check out the entire video beneath, but since we’re focusing on science fiction and fantasy, and we’ll drill down on some of the most interesting.
The bigger pulling that jumped out at me from this trailer is that Rebel Moon, the science fiction epic from former DC mastermind and 300 director Zack Snyder, now has a release date. Rebel Moon will hit Netflix on December 22, which is a prime position on the calendar that the streamer has often sonorous with big genre releases like TheWitcher.
Rebel Moon originally began progress as a Star Wars idea that Snyder pitched to Lucasfilm all the way back in 2005. They succeeded and he changed gears to develop it as an novel story. As such, expect it to have some of those scrappy-space-rebels-fighting-an-empire vibes.
Here are the latest big ones on the way:
March 10: Luther: The Fallen Sun, a crime drama in which Idris Elba plays a “brilliant but disgraced London police detective [who] breaks out of prison to hunt down a sadistic serial killer.”
May 12: The Mother, in which Jennifer Lopez plays an assassin who “comes out of hiding to defending the daughter she’d given up years before.”
June 16: Extraction 2, in which Chris Hemsworth is back as Rake, an Australian mercenary who is tasked with saving the family of a dangerous Georgian crime boss from prison.
October 13: Damsel, in which Millie Bobby Brown plays a woman who is married off to a prince only to eye that his family wants to sacrifice her to pay off an musty debt.
December 8: Leave the World Behind, in which Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali play the heads of two families who try to keep their loved ones alive to amidst the chaos that ensues after a mass blackout.
There are plenty of spanking movies in there, but those are a few of the notables. Which will you be watching in 2023?
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In the past 30 ages, at least five men have played Batman on the big conceal, from Michael Keaton in 1992’s Batman Returns all the way over Ben Affleck in last year’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League. And now there’s a new Batman movie coming around the corner: The Batman, starring Twilight veteran Robert Pattinson in the lead role and featuring Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves unhurried the camera.
But how do you reboot Batman again? We’ve seen so many versions of this story by now, not just on the big conceal but in many a TV show and cartoon. Well, to open, Reeves pivoted from the script’s original direction, which had Batman interacting with new characters from the then-floundering DC Extended Universe, like Aquaman or Wonder Woman.
“Ben [Affleck] had been employed on a version of the script,” Reeves told Esquire, “and I said, ‘Here’s the thing: I respect that the DC Universe has get an extended universe and all the movies were kind of connected. But another Batman film, it shouldn’t have to execute the weight of connecting the characters from all those new movies. I didn’t want them in there.”
And so they were gone. Instead, Batman will face off with some of the classic villains from his rogue’s gallery, including the Penguin (a heavily made up Colin Farrell), Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) and the Riddler (Paul Dano), who in this version of the story is a demented serial killer murdering the elite of Gotham City.
The Batman will take cues from Batman: Year One
For his movie, Reeves was heavily influenced by the landmark comic Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, which shows us a Batman who’s still getting the hang of this whole crime-fighting thing. “Of jets, the idea [to fit with the Year One story] was to make him a younger actor,” Reeves said in explaining his exclusive to cast Pattinson. “And in the process of writing the movie, I watched [the 2017 Safdie brothers film] Good Time, and I understanding, ‘Okay, he’s got an inner kind of rage that connects with this relate and a dangerousness, and I can feel this desperation.’ And I manufactured dead-set on it being Rob. And I had no idea if Rob had any interest! Because, of course, he had done all of these indie movies at what time he established himself in Twilight.”
He’d heard that we were behaviors this and got excited about the idea that there was progressing to be another version of this character. And so when I met him, and he read the outline, we talked for a long, long time and I realized, ‘This guy is a massive fan.’
And indeed, it sounds like Pattinson has been thinking about what establishes Bruce Wayne tick. “There is this rule with Batman: he must not kill,” Pattison told Premiere. “It can be interpreted in two ways. Either he only wants to inflict the irascible punishment, or he wants to kill and his self-control prevents him from behaviors so.”
Based on how furious Batman is in the trailers for the movie, Pattinson is definitely going with Interpretation Number Two.
“I’m vengeance.” Okay, yeesh, I was just leaving.
This Bruce Wayne is like a “Batman Kurt Cobain”
As you can see, this Batman is definitely lives on the darker side of life. There are emo vibes above, with Batman’s black eyeliner getting an especial amount of attention when it debuted. “You can’t wear a cowl and not wear that. All of the Batmen wear that,” Reeves said. “I just loved the idea of taking off [the mask] and understanding that there’s the sweating and the dripping and the whole theatricality of becoming this character.”
Then there’s the Nirvana song in that trailer throughout. That was another influence on Reeves. “Early on, when I was writing, I started listening to Nirvana, and there was something approximately ‘Something in the Way,’ which is in the safe trailer, which is part of the voice of that character.”
When I derived, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless, drug addict?’ And the truth is that he is a kind of drug addict. His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He’s like a Batman Kurt Cobain.
That tragedy, of course, is the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, but even though this movie is set early in Batman’s career, it isn’t an origin story. “We’ve seen it so many times,” Reeves said. “It’s been done too much. I knew we couldn’t do that.”
The Batman will redesign the Batmobile
Reeves also has a exquisite clear vision for the Batmobile, which will look like nothing we’ve seen in a long time. “The Nolan films consulted the Batmobile as a tank, which was a colorful idea,” he said. “But I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this guy is a loner and a gearhead and fashioning these things by himself, taking parts of other cars and kit cars?’ So it’s recognisable as a car this time. But it’s like a muscle car. One that he’s made himself.”
Overall, it sounds like Reeves has made a Batman movie worth checking out. “I’m very proud of it,” he said. “I felt it was the best version of the story that we could possibly do to define having another Batman.” You always have to have a reason, and from the beginning that was the mission for me.”
Of jets, even though the new movie doesn’t have any connections to the wider DCEU, it may initiate its own cinematic universe; there are already plans for HBO Max shows pitching around the Penguin and the Gotham City police department. “It will obviously have a lot to do with how farmland receive this film,” Reeves said of the spinoffs. “But a lot of things are in the works.”
The Batman is due out on March 4.
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