The box office might remain in the clutches of big comic book movies from Marvel or DC, but one of the most anticipated sci-fi sequels on the horizon, Dune: Part Two, is slowly creeping its way toward us. According to Rebecca Ferguson, this outing is going to blow everyone away, especially those who thought Denis Villeneuve was only going to repeat himself with the second installation.
In other news, the Stranger Things prequel play is here and teasing to reveal juicy tidbits about the history of Hawkins and its ultimate fate, while Star Wars writers reveal the limitations Disney puts on Darth Vader’s portrayal, and the most avid conspiracy theorists from the darkest recesses of the MCU community come forth again with a bizarre proposition — that Taika Waititi purposefully turned Thor: Love and Thunder into a disappointment.
Check out all of these developments from around the sci-fi sphere in today’s roundup down below.
This is the staggering number of Spider-People in Across the Spider-Verse
That sequence in Across the Spider-Verse will probably go down as one of the most epic moments in comic book history, if not break the record for the largest number of on-screen cameos from different versions of a superhero character. Now, according to what one of the movie’s directors has told us, you can actually count to more than 600 spiders in that chase scene. If this isn’t the most revolutionary animated feature in history, we don’t know what is.
Disney takes lore accuracy seriously, but don’t take our word for it; ask the writer who works on the Darth Vader comics
You might think that the Mouse House doesn’t mind occasionally playing a little fast and loose with the galaxy far, far away canon, but the folk at Lucasfilm take their job very seriously. Marc Bernardin, who recently worked on a Darth Vader comic mini-series, learned that the hard way when he realized he had to play by strict rules when it came to the Dark Lord’s powers.
“It was odd, the things that they did have parameters about. ‘Darth Vader isn’t that powerful. Darth Vader can’t quite do that. Darth Vader’s use of the Force manifests this way, not that way,’ sort of small, in-world canon things,” He revealed. Great to know that at least some studio folks are just as nerd-tastic as we are.
Speaking of Star Wars, the new open-world game raises questions about its real prospects
Star Wars: Outlaws is a new open-world action-adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment. At first glance, this title is everything you’d want from a single-player story-driven actioner set in the galaxy far, far away, but the 10-minute gameplay demo during the recent Ubisoft showcase doesn’t really sell us on its premise or design philosophy. Will this be a simple cash-grab attempt only bearing the name of Star Wars, or will it imitate the success of other contemporaries like Battlefront or Jedi Fallen Order?
Fortunately for Zack Snyder fans, Netflix plans to turn Rebel Moon into a cinematic universe of its own
Snyder fans will never get the version of SnyderVerse that they daydreamed about for years, but Rebel Moon is a franchise that can satiate every tired trope the director utilizes in his storytelling and filmmaking. Snyder himself has hinted in a chat with Empire that Netflix wants to turn this into a fully-fledged franchise, consisting of several movies and maybe a couple of spinoffs. Knowing Netflix, though, the continuation of those plans depends entirely on how the first movie performs.
In the latest episode of why Thor: Love and Thunder went wrong, fans speculate that Taika Waititi ruined the film on purpose
Love and Thunder was supposed to replicate the success of Ragnarok and become one of the best MCU movies to date. Now, fans think of it as one of the worst, a misfire even more terrible than 2013’s Dark World. There are many reasons why the fourth Thor entry failed to meet expectations — terrible CGI and too many quips being the least of them — but some fans still seem to think Taika Waititi’s genius should’ve prevented such a disaster. One of them even went so far as to suggest the director did it on purpose, though even the community has to admit that this is grasping at straws.
Stranger Things play gets a new trailer that teases revelations about Hawkins and its future
A new West End stage production of Stranger Things is soon opening to the public. This new story is a prequel set in Hawkins and promises to reveal new tidbits about the lore and the history of unusual occurrences in this cursed town. The team has also promised that the play will include nods to the show’s future — or more specifically, the final season — which is currently in production. Though the last run is still a long way away, this will hopefully appease the thirst of the fandom to some degree, so make sure to check out the teaser here.
Rebecca Ferguson says Dune: Part One has got nothing on the sequel, and we don’t know whether to be excited or scared
Dune: Part One may not be the perfect sci-fi movie, but many people will agree that it’s as good as it’s going to get when it comes to Frank Herbert’s classic novel, and that’s saying something about Denis Villeneuve and his filmmaking chops. Now, the visionary director is busy developing the sequel, Dune: Part Two, which will bring the novel to a close. A few days ago, Warner Bros. released an official trailer and sent the internet into hype overdrive, but Rebecca Ferguson is here to make sure it stays that way.
The actress, who portrays Paul Atreides’ mother in the films, recently told Collider that Part One is nothing compared to what’s next. “But dude, number one is phenomenal and big and grandiose, and then you go close-ups and the imagery and the acting,” she said. “Yeah, it’s all great. It’s [expletive] nothing compared to number two. Number two, it’s like a [expletive] gut punch. It’s unreal.”