The next Marvel Cinematic Universe show will premiere on Disney+ in November and, appropriately enough, Hawkeyehas a festive setting. Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) just wants to spend Christmas with his family, but his enemies have other plans.
The series marks the return of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. This time around, he has a new partner: Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), the self-professed "world's greatest archer." Hawkeye is said to center on the relationship between the two toxophilites, with Clint training Kate to take over as Hawkeye, as the character does in the comics. There are hints of that passing of the torch in the trailer. It shows the pair meeting for the first time and forming a bond as they work together to battle some goons.
There are a few nods to other parts of the MCU here, including the existence of a Broadway musical about Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) and a tip of the cap toward the "masked vigilante" Hawkeye battled in Avengers: Endgame. Something we don't see in the trailer is an appearance by Florence Pugh, who made her MCU bow as assassin Yelena Belova in Black Widowthis summer. She was cast in Hawkeye last December.
In any case, you won't have to wait too long to see what happens when Yelena, Clint and Kate encounter each other. The eight-episode first season of Hawkeye will debut on November 24th on Disney+.
Don't expect to stream Disney's next movies at home the moment they're available. The Vergereports Disney has revealed that all its remaining 2021 movies will debut in theaters first, including the animated robot comedy Ron's Gone Wrong (October 22nd), the Marvel blockbuster Eternals (November 5th) and a new adaptation of West Side Story (December 10th).
Outside of the animated musical Encanto (November 24th), which has a 30-day window, all of the movies will have a "minimum" 45-day theatrical run before they're available elsewhere. Disney didn't say when you might expect on-demand versions of these titles, whether on Disney+ or rival services.
This is partly a reaction to the relatively strong theater-only releases of summer extravaganzas like Free Guy and Shang-Chi. While COVID-19 still hurt box office numbers (Shang-Chi's $75.5 million US opening paled in comparison to multiple Disney 2019 releases), the revenue may have been enough to justify returning to pre-pandemic distribution.
There's also the matter of placating key factions. Disney said it has a way to pay talent fairly for hybrid theater-and-digital relases, but it wouldn't be surprising if Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow lawsuit plays a role in considering Disney+ launches. The company might not want to risk further trouble with actors and others whose income depends on theatrical performance. And then there's the theaters themselves. When chains like AMC vowed to pull Universal movies even when many locations were closed, Disney might not be willing to provoke a similar confrontation as theaters resume business.
This and Warner Bros.' 2022 return to theaters supports the expectations of many cynics — that studios only saw day-one streaming access as a temporary necessity that would disappear the moment it was reasonably safe to watch on big screens. That's not completely shocking when the movie industry's business model still revolves around theaters, but any fundamental shifts in strategy might not happen for a long, long time.
DJ mixes are mostly absent from "premium" streaming services. That's mostly due to the fact that properly sorting out royalties for all the samples is a nightmare. You can find them on platforms like SoundCloud (unless they get taken down), but these songs can have literally hundreds of rights holders between the DJ, original artist, labels and even a festival or venue. To remedy the problem, and to massively expand the amount of DJ-mixed content on the platform, Apple worked with both major and independent labels on a system that identifies and directly pays rights holders on a mix. What's more, the company leveraged Shazam technology to do it for Apple Music.
Apple explains that its new tool will let the streaming service ID and compensate individual creators in a DJ mix, even artists who recorded any sampled tunes. It's also the first major streaming service to do so. In collaboration with DJs themselves alongside festivals, clubs, promoters, curators and independent labels, the company says it's working with all parties involved to ensure fair compensation. Apple says this will give DJ mixes a longer shelf life when it comes to revenue since individual tracks, collections, compilations and even full festival sets will be available to stream like studio albums on Apple Music.
There are thousands of DJ mixes on Apple Music already, and the service says it's adding more all the time. The company has already commissioned mixes for Black Music Month and Pride in addition to housing content from Tomorrowland's 2020 and 2021 digital festivals. Thanks to this new system, there's about to be a lot more to choose from.
Starting this Friday, !K7's DJ-Kicks archive will be available for streaming. The label explains that 14 of those editions haven't been "in the market" for more than 15 years. Previously unavailable for streaming, Tomorrowland performances from Alesso, Charlotte de Witte, David Guetta, Diplo, Major Lazer, Martin Garrix, The Chainsmokers, Tiësto and more will be easily accessible. Mixmag is opening up its vault as well, and livestream platform Cercle will have a dedicated hub on Apple Music where listeners can stream archived mixes and live performances. And yes, much of this will be available for lossless streaming and you'll be able to listen offline too.
This isn't the first time Apple has dabbled in managing royalties for DJ mixes. In 2016, the company began working with Dubset to bring previously unlicensed content to Apple Music. Dubset used a Gracenote database of clips to identify and assign rights. The system even allowed original artists to prohibit their songs from being used in mixes and to limit how much of a track could be repurposed. Dubset was purchased by Pex in 2020, where the system is used to scan social media audio and video content for unlicensed material. Apple's new Shazam-based setup, on the other hand, compares all parts of a mix to Apple Music's library of 75 million songs.
As you can imagine, all of the new content will be easy to find. Apple says DJs will have artist pages, if they don't already for any original music. And while the focus is on DJ mixes for now, the company says this system can be applied widely, for things like assigning royalties for hip-hop remixes and more.
It's been about a year since Sony first said that God of War Ragnarök was officially on its way, and today we're finally getting our first look at the game. As expected, it look like God of War, with the familiar dual-weapon wielding that Kratos excelled at in the 2018 game. His son, Atreus, looks like he's grown up in the last few years, and he's challenging his dear old dad's decisions as well as proving to be a more capable fighter.
As for the game's story, it looks to be setting up a conflict with the Norse pantheon of gods — just as Kratos destroyed all of the Greek gods in the first trilogy of games, he might be on that path again here. But he's definitely fighting it, while Atreus sounds like the one who is more convinced that full-on war is necessary here. As noted in an extensive blog post about the new game, a lot of the conflict seems to come from Atreus trying to understand what his now-dead mother wanted for him, after it was revealed he was part-giant at the end of the first game.
As for the enemies, Freya, an ally-turned-foe, will be a main antagonist, as will Thor. We only saw brief teases of each character, but both characters have lost family to Kratos and Atreus, and they seem about as thirsty for revenge as Kratos used to be when he was a Greek god. Particularly intriguing is the news that veteran actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Odin, king of the Norse gods.
Unsurprisingly, the game looks fantastic, with a variety of new environments and enemies as well as more ways to use Kratos' Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos. But the familiar boat returns, as does the disembodied head Mimir, so get ready for more story time and cutting remarks about Kratos' perpetually grumpy mood.
Sony unfortunately didn't have a release date to share; a year ago, the company said God of War Ragnarök would arrive in 2021, but the blog post said "see you next year" at its end.
We did learn in a post-show interview that Eric Williams, a longtime Santa Monica Studio veteran will be directing God of War Ragnarök, rather than Cory Barlog, who helmed the 2018 title. Williams has worked on every God of War title so far, so he seems a logical choice for the job. Williams mentioned that each game has historically had a different director, with Barlog the only one doing two installments. "You're really exhausted at the end of finishing one of these things," Barlog said, "so you've gotta con someone else into doing it, like him."
Bethesda has narrowed down the release window for Tango Gameworks' Ghostwire: Tokyo (which, if you remember, is a PlayStation 5 exclusive from a Microsoft-owned publisher). The supernatural action-adventure game will hit PS5 in spring 2022, after it was delayed from sometime later this year.
Another pretty terrifying trailer emerged during Sony's PlayStation Showcase too. It shows otherworldly beings possessing people and more of the first-person action you can expect from this paranormal tale. Fun for all the family.
Gearbox is finally ready to set a firm release date for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands — and offer a peek at gameplay in the process. The studio has revealed that its Borderlands fantasy spin-off will launch on PS5 (and presumably other platforms) on March 25th, 2022. The gameplay appears to have some very familiar elements, although not all of them are from Gearbox's sci-fi shooter.
Yes, to some extent it looks like Borderlands with crossbows — Tiny Tina even throws in guns just because. But there are also some tributes to role-playing game tropes, including silly top-down navigation, parties... and, of course, lots of loot. It looks promising, even if it's not a radical reinvention of the Gearbox formula.
Spotify has long had plenty of tricks up its sleeve when it comes to providing recommendations, and its latest one is about making your playlists even more banging. The Enhance feature offers personalized suggestions of tracks to add to your playlists.
Premium users in some markets will soon see an Enhance button at the top of each playlist. If you turn on the feature, Spotify will add suggested songs to the list, one after every two tracks and up to 30 in total. If you like the recommendation, just tap the plus button to keep it on your playlist permanently. The feature is designed to add suggestions that match songs you already have on the playlist.
Spotify is rolling out Enhance on iOS and Android in 40 countries over the coming month, including the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and much of Europe. It plans to expand the feature, which will evolve over time, to other countries later.
The company has added other playlist features in recent months, including Blend, a playlist that brings together songs from your listening history and a friend's. Also relatively new is the curated Notable Releases playlist, which includes new tracks from prominent producers and songwriters.
You no longer have to settle for watching tiny, random clips of the next Matrix movie. Warner Bros. has finally shared the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, the long-anticipated fourth movie in the sci-fi action series. As you'd expect, the preview marks the return of Keanu Reeves as Neo, who initially appears unaware of who he really is — he's even taking blue pills and visiting a therapist (Neil Patrick Harris). As you'd expect, though, he begins to question reality and finds the truth underneath, including a reunion with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).
You'll also see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a Morpheus-like figure, and Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones) enticing Neo to rediscover the Matrix. The title will also see Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson reprise their respective roles as Niobe and the Merovingian, while Jonathan Groff (Hamilton), Christina Ricci and Daniel Bernhardt are also poised to make appearances.
The movie premieres theatrically on December 22nd. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max for a month if you subscribe to the ad-free tier — the last movie to have that option before Warner Bros. switches back to a theater-first strategy in 2022.
Other than some developer tests, Twitter has only ever offered you one way to react to tweets: the classic heart "Like" emoji and prior to 2015, the "Favorite" star button. Now, the social media network might be finally expanding that range as it's testing a new feature called "Reactions" with additional emoji over the coming days.
In Turkey only for a limited time, the company is testing four new emojis on top of the heart icon: 😂, 🤔, 👏 and 😢, aka "tears of joy," "thinking face," "clapping hands" and "crying face." Back in 2015, Twitter tested a wider variety including the the "100," "heart eyes" and other emoji. However, this time it wanted to "find emoji that are universally recognizable and represent what people want to express about Tweets," the company said.
Twitter
Twitter narrowed it down to those additional four after conducting surveys and researching what the most common words and emoji are in Tweets. It found that the most popular one is the laughing emoji, and that people want to express reactions centered around "funny," "support/cheer," "agreement" and "awesome." It also identified "entertained" and "curious" as the top emotions people feel when reading tweets.
Its surveys also revealed that "frustration" and "anger" were common emotions experienced by users. While some people wanted to express disagreement with Tweets, the company decided not to incorporate that. Rather, it's trying to see if the new, more positive emoji will drive "healthy public conversations." It's also likely related to the high levels of polarization and toxicity on the site, something that Twitter has been keen to reduce over the past several years.
More specifically, Twitter said that reactions will help people better show how they feel in conversations "while also giving those Tweeting a better understanding of how their Tweets are received." The new reactions will be available in Turkey only for a limited time on Twitter for iOS, Android and the web over the coming days. However, it added that "based on this test, we may expand the availability of the Reactions experiment to other regions."
The fifth episode of Marvel’s alternate universe anthology program on Disney+ is a star-studded affair, bringing back Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan and Mark Ruffalo to voice their characters surviving in a world overtaken by the undead. (No Tom Holland, though.) This adventure’s point of divergence takes place during the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, leading up to the events of Infinity War. It’s the biggest What If...? yet, in both cast and concept, and it also sheds a light on some characters still waiting for their day in the spotlight.
Janet Van Dyne contracts the zombie plague in the Quantum Realm and, when rescued, ends up spreading it to her husband and Scott Lang and things escalate from there. Even the Avengers end up infected, leaving the task of saving the world to characters who weren’t officially part of the team, like Wasp, Winter Soldier and Spider-Man. They’re joined by supporting characters like Sharon Carter, Okoye, Kurt and Happy Hogan. Bruce Banner is there too, but without the help of the Hulk. Just like in Infinity War, he refuses to emerge, leaving Bruce mostly defenseless.
Marvel Studios
The episode also gives us a darker take on the Vision and Scarlet Witch, one that has a lot more meaning if you’ve watched all of WandaVision. There’s also a nod to The Falcon and Winter Soldier, when zombie Sam Wilson gets cut in half. Bucky finds himself unfeeling about the whole thing, likely because this version of the characters haven’t had time to bond the way their live-action counterparts have.
Without Captain America and Iron Man to take the reins, the role of leader falls to, well, no one, really, with this motley group of heroes and side-characters operating as a collective. It seems to work for the team for the most part, though they ignore Peter Parker’s advice not to split up with disastrous results.
Marvel Studios
In fact, Peter is the star of the show here, despite his actor being unavailable to voice him. Just as he was in Infinity War, the kid is a solid team player who more than pulls his weight in combat. But this is also the first time we get to see other heroes interact with him on a more personal level. He isn’t just Tony Stark’s mascot here, instead the team ends up looking to him for moral support, the way they might have once admired Steve Rogers. It’s a nice glimpse of what Peter can be free of Iron Man’s shadow, a thread that will be more fully explored in this December’s No Way Home.
Marvel Studios
In the teaser for the upcoming Eternals film, one of the characters, Sprite, asks who will lead the Avengers now. Though the answer is unlikely to come out of that particular movie, this most recent What If…? suggests a few intriguing possibilities. While Peter forms the heart of the team here, a lot of the thinking falls to Bruce Banner. He’s a character that’s gone underused in the MCU thus far, thanks to Universal holding the film rights. A lot of his development has had to happen off-screen, but starting with 2018’s Thor: Ragnarok and continuing with the upcoming She-Hulk show, he’s gently getting nudged to the forefront of the Avengers. With Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow dead and Thor off in space, he’s the natural choice to take the reins as one of two OG team members left (and if you’ve seen Shang-Chi, it seems he may already have).
Marvel Studios
Ultimately, like all What If…? episodes this installment doesn’t actually matter to the grander MCU, though its open-ended nature raises the possibility of a sequel — and given how many Marvel Zombies comics are out there, it’s almost guaranteed we’ll see this reality on Disney+ again. But for fans who don’t care for this week’s horror elements the story is still a valuable tease for how a post-blip, second generation Avengers roster could function.
