There's only one more season left before Star Trek: Discovery bids farewell. The Paramount+ series is ending after season 5, which according to its official summary, "will find Captain Burnham (Martin-Green) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries." According to Variety, Paramount+ is also streaming the fifth season in 2024 as opposed to this year as previously expected. 

Star Trek: Discovery marked the first time the franchise has had a Black female lead and has prominently featured LGBTQIA+ characters. It also largely took on a more serialized format, wherein each episode is its own installment in a season's main storyline, unlike other entries in the franchise. That became a point of criticism about the series, however, until the showrunners changed course and embraced storytelling with an overarching plot in season four. 

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the series currently holds the distinction for being the longest-running drama on Paramount+ so far. Its debut back in 2017 led to record sign-up numbers for the streaming service then known as CBS All Access, and its success paved the way for other Trek shows, including Lower Decks and Prodigy.

Tanya Giles, chief programming officer at Paramount Streaming, said in a statement: "Star Trek: Discovery is a perennial favorite on the service, near and dear to the hearts of legions of ‘Star Trek’ fans as well as all of us here at Paramount+. The series and its incredible cast and creatives ushered in a new era for Star Trek when it debuted over six years ago, embracing the future of streaming with serialized storytelling, bringing to life deep and complex characters that honor Gene Roddenberry’s legacy of representing diversity and inclusion, and pushing the envelope with award-winning world-building. This final season will see our beloved crew take on a new adventure and we can't wait to celebrate the series’ impact on the franchise leading up to its final season early next year."

At the moment, Trek fans can watch Star Trek: Picard, which is streaming on Paramount+. Its third season will also be its last, but there are rumors going around that the service is developing spinoffs centering on characters from the show.

Spoilers for The Mandalorian seasons 1-3 and The Book of Boba Fett below.

Somehow, Grogu has returned. At least, that's what many people will assume when they tune into the first episode of The Mandalorian's third season. When last we left our lone bounty hunter and cub, Grogu was heading off to Jedi training with a creepy de-aged Luke Skywalker. Mando took off his helmet and braced for solitude. We all shed a tear. (How did a show manage to make us care so much for a monosyllabic man in armor and a green puppet? Bless you, executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.)

But at the start of this season, Mando (AKA Din Djarin) and Grogu are paired up once again, saving people from gigantic monsters, fighting space pirates and generally being adorable. To a casual viewer, it's like that dramatic season two finale was Jedi mind-tricked away. It turns out if you wanted to get the full story – which also explains why Din is flying a Phantom Menace-era ship, or why Grogu is becoming a more adept force user — you had to watch the final few episodes of The Book of Boba Fett.

Lucasfilm

If I wasn't already a hopeless Star Wars fan, I'd be pretty confused and annoyed. How are normal people supposed to know that The Book of Boba Fett basically served as a stop-gap between Mandalorian seasons? Disney didn't promote the connection between the shows much, so if you weren't reading geeky news sites, or talking to nerdy friends, it was easy to miss.

The first few episodes of Boba Fett made it seem like a far less ambitious series – did we really need to learn the specifics of how he survived the Sarlacc pit? And who cares about his future as Jabba the Hutt replacement? I've talked to several Star Wars fans who tapped out early on, only to catch up once they heard Mando and Grogu popped up. (Honestly, it almost seemed like Favreau and crew got tired of the Boba Fett story – so did we.)

It's not like I'm against the idea of narratives shifting between different shows and films. Everything Marvel's done since Iron Man has practically trained us to consume pop culture this way, with the rise of the Avengers initiative to the ultimate smackdown with Thanos in Endgame. The geeky side of me is overjoyed when I discover connections between films I love. (You should have seen me in the theater at the end of M. Night Shyamalan's Split.) But the idea that viewers have to keep tabs on everything is beginning to feel like homework, and it's particularly frustrating when one piece of media is inexplicably crucial to something that comes later.

It doesn't help that The Mandalorian barely referenced The Book of Boba Fett during its introductory episode. Even a bit of a nudge during the "previously on" opening section would help. Instead, the premiere episode just wants to get us back to normal, with Mando on a video game-like quest and Grogu having fun along the way. It's a shame, since the end of season 2 made it seem like The Mandalorian would actually change things up moving forward.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, creator and executive producer Favreau said he appreciated being able to check in on characters between shows.  “I knew that I didn’t want to dedicate a lot of screen time within The Mandalorian to a period of time where there wasn’t a lot of character progression," he said. "Both [Din and Grogu] were kind of stuck, as far as character progression goes, until they were reunited. So, my feeling was that it would allow me to do both of those things and freed me up now two years later to have a whole new context for these two characters to have a relationship and move forward.”

But what Favreau saw as a problem, I see as an opportunity. In Book of Boba Fett, Din and Grogu's time apart is handled briskly. Neither can fully let each other go. That stalls Grogu's Jedi training, as that's mostly focused on detaching yourself from the world and emotional connections. (Did that really work so well for Anakin Skywalker? Come on, Luke.) Din, meanwhile, acts like an empty nester who's lost his life's purpose. This is all good material for drama, but Favreau cuts through it as quickly as possible on a spinoff show. What a waste.

I may be particularly annoyed by The Mandalorian's disjointed narrative after seeing how Marvel handled its latest big bad, Kang the Conqueror, in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In that film, Kang is introduced as a castaway, someone banished to the Quantum Realm because of his penchant for, well, conquering. But we never got a sense of his true motivation, his powers or what he's actually trying to accomplish.Perhaps that's because the folks behind Quantumania assumed you saw Kang's brief introduction at the end of the Loki streaming series, where he's presented as more of a trickster and vague threat.

Lucasfilm

If you didn't watch Loki and were confused by Quantumania, it's almost like Marvel is saying that's your own fault. To me, that's simply irresponsible storytelling.

Coming off of Andor, Tony Gilroy’s self-contained and trenchant exploration of the Star Wars universe, the simplistic and confusing nature of The Mandalorian feels like a letdown. The show was always a pulpy and almost video game-like romp. But after the end of season two, there was potential for something much greater. Instead, Favreau took the easy way out to deliver more of the same.

A Dead by Daylight movie is on the way. Production studios Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are teaming up with gaming studio Behaviour Interactive to oversee the film adaptation of the multiplayer horror title. In addition, the companies are beginning their search for a director and screenwriter as Hollywood (perhaps naively) hopes HBO’s excellentThe Last of Us ushers in a new era of video game adaptations worth watching.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Jason Blum and James Wan, two giants of the horror film industry, to further expand the Dead by Daylight universe,” said Stephen Mulrooney, Behaviour Interactive’s executive vice president. “At Behaviour, our motto is to create unique moments, together, forever. Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are the ideal partners to craft Dead by Daylight’s killer entrance onto the big screen.”

The game has been a horror / survival staple since its 2016 launch. The one vs. four multiplayer title splits teams into either survivors or the killer; the survivors aim to activate generators and escape while the killer seeks to hunt them down. It’s added DLC monsters through the years, including Freddy Kreuger, Pinhead, Leatherface, Evil Dead’s Ash Williams and a surveillance-happy tech executive. Strangely, it even has a dating-sim spinoff arriving later this year.

Mulrooney will co-produce with Atomic Monster CEO James Wan (who also directed The Conjuring and Insidious) and Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum. Blumhouse, which made Paranormal Activity and The Black Phone, is set to merge with Atomic Monster; the deal was announced last year and is expected close this summer.

Movies Anywhere announced Wednesday that it’s soon shutting down Screen Pass, its movie-sharing feature launched during COVID-19 lockdowns. The Disney-owned platform didn’t provide a reason for the closure.

“As the experience continues to evolve, we want to notify you that effective May 1 users will no longer be able to use the Screen Pass feature to send a Screen Pass,” the announcement reads. “For Screen Passes sent prior to May 1, recipients will still be able to accept and finish watching the movie before their passes expire. As of June 1, the Screen Pass feature will no longer be supported.”

Screen Pass lets users send three movie passes monthly to friends or family without sharing login info. As long as you’ve redeemed a code with the service in the past six months, it lets you send a link through text, email or instant message that gives the recipient seven days to accept and 14 days to begin watching; once the movie starts, they have 72 hours to finish.

Movies Anywhere, launched in 2014, syncs digital film and television purchases across platforms like the Apple TV app, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu and Microsoft. Fortunately, the platform’s core service remains intact, but sharing your purchases with friends will soon require you to be in the same space (or explore alternate methods).

Netflix has released a trailer for Money Shot, a documentary about Pornhub (arguably one of its biggest competitors for people's attention). The film features interviews with performers, activists and former employees. It promises to delve into many of the scandals and successes the porn colossus has experienced over the almost 16 years it has been around.

The trailer suggests the film will explore issues such as alleged sexual exploitation and accusations that Pornhub has hosted non-consensual pornography. Pornhub owner MindGeek has faced a lawsuit over its alleged monetization of child porn. In 2020, the site removed all uploads from unverified users.

The documentary seems to go beyond Pornhub to examine other facets of the sex industry. The trailer, for instance, touches on the fact many sex workers and porn performers have lost their accounts on social media platforms. Meanwhile, one interviewee suggests that critics aren't just attacking porn, but the very idea of self-expression. 

The clip suggests that Money Shot takes a far-reaching look at Pornhub and the broader industry. You'll be able to find out for yourself just how tactful and measured the documentary's approach is when it hits Netflix on March 15th.

The DownDetector pages for Twitter are exploding in activity — again — and users are sharing that the social network seems to be broken for them. Over the past couple of hours, thousands of users reported having issues accessing the website and its apps. Many trying to access Twitter.com have reported seeing a "Welcome to Twitter" message, while both Android and iOS timelines remained stuck in the past. 

Twitter's Support account has yet to issue a statement, but some parts of the website are working just fine. Users can still tweet if they want to, or read and respond to their notifications. If they need to see the latest tweets ASAP, they can switch over to Tweetdeck to see them. The outage comes shortly after the company reportedly laid off more employees. 

According to various sources, Twitter released around 200 people on Saturday night, a week after the company's Slack was taken offline. Twitter Blue head Esther Crawford is believed to be one of the affected personnel. It's unclear at the moment if the layoffs have anything to do with the outage, but since Twitter has no PR team, we'll have to wait for the company to issue a statement. 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is bumping up its release date. The animated adventure will now open on April 5th in over 60 markets (it was previously slated for April 7th). Giving the movie a five-day opening over Easter weekend is an old Hollywood trick that could help pad its initial earnings and lead to marketing-friendly headlines touting its early success.

The film stars the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Chris Day as Luigi, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong and Jack Black as Bowser. It was initially scheduled to release in December, but Illumination and Nintendo announced early last year they were pushing it back to this April. Throughout April and May, the movie will release in ten additional Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European markets; Japan’s release is timed to coincide with the Golden Week Holidays on April 28th.

The movie will mark Mario’s first big-screen starring role since 1993's ill-fated Super Mario Bros., starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi, which bombed at the box office but became something of a “so bad it’s good” cult classic in later years. Before that, children of the late 80s and early 90s enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, a live-action / animated series starring Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells.

The upcoming Mario film could be a barometer for audiences’ appetites for video game movies. Hollywood adaptations of gaming IPs have a long track record of (rightfully) bombing with box offices and critics. Still, HBO’s excellent The Last of Us series has been a notable exception that Nintendo and Illumination would love to continue on the big screen.

Now that IO Interactive (IOI) has wrapped up Hitman: World of Assassination, it’s moving on to the next logical step: a James Bond game. But the studio is also moving in a more surprising direction, as it announced today that it’s making an online fantasy RPG. “This idea — that a diverse group of individuals with different skills and strengths can work together and become more than the sum of their parts — is what inspires us,” the studio wrote in a blog post.

Of course, IOI didn’t go into much detail about the project, which it describes as “just the start of our journey into this new world we are making.” However, it did say memories of tabletop fantasy RPGs influenced the decision. “From the Fighting Fantasy books compelling you to choose your path, alone, against wizards, lizards, and thief kings. To the togetherness, camaraderie, agony, and delight found around the tabletop. For some it meant taking the role of a game master: Part storyteller, part AI opponent, part guide, part villain. For everyone around that table it meant creativity, imagination, building a world together, and a shared goal in creating a great game experience.”

The indie studio says the game will be a new IP designed to “entertain players and expand for many years to come.” It says all of its studios, including locations in Copenhagen, Malmö and Barcelona, will work together on the project.

IO Interactive

IOI will develop the RPG alongside its upcoming James Bond game, codenamed “Project 007,” which it’s working on with license holders MGM and Eon Productions. It seems a natural fit for the studio, as it could take the beloved core Hitman gameplay, create a new story with new maps, add a James Bond coat of paint and have a game many people would love to play. (It could change its formula more than that, but it won’t need a radical departure.) IOI has said its title would be its own Bond story that won’t use the likenesses of any established Bond actors; the studio even said it could become another spy trilogy. The title doesn’t yet have a release date.

Meta is joining Google, Microsoft and other big names in throwing its weight behind ChatGPT-style AI. Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that his company plans to develop "AI personas" in the long term. It's currently investigating helpers for multiple media formats. You could see advanced chat features in Messenger and WhatsApp, or unique Instagram filters and ads. Video and "multi-modal" content could also benefit, Zuckerberg says. In the near future, you'll see an emphasis on tools for creation and expression.

The social media giant is also pooling its generative AI teams into a single group to help "turbocharge" efforts in the emerging field, the executive adds. He doesn't provide more details, and cautions that there's a "lot of foundational work to do" before the most advanced projects come to fruition.

The company isn't new to some level of user-facing AI. It introduced chatbots to Messenger in 2016, for example. This represents a significant expansion, however, and isn't surprising given the industry's growing focus on generative AI. Internet behemoths like Google reportedly feel competitive pressure from OpenAI's ChatGPT, as it could theoretically undermine search and other key businesses. Zuckerberg said during Meta's latest earnings call that he wanted the firm to be a "leader" in generative AI, but this may also represent a defensive tool. 

The shift doesn't come at a great moment, however. Meta's revenues are still shrinking, and its pivot to the metaverse is costing billions of dollars at its Reality Labs unit. It recently slashed over 11,000 jobs to cut costs and weather a rough economy. While platforms like Facebook and Instagram continue to gain users, the company isn't as stable as it once was.

Spotify is waving goodbye to its heart icon. The company is combining the icon, which enables you to quickly save music to your library, with the "add to playlist" prompt under a single plus button.

The plus button works a little differently on Spotify than it does on Apple Music, where tapping it a second time on an album or playlist downloads it to your device. When you tap Spotify's plus button once, you'll add a song, playlist, podcast or audiobook to your library. The plus button will then turn into a green check. If you tap the checkmark on the Now Playing view, you'll be able to add the song or podcast episode to a playlist rather than just saving it to your Liked Songs or Your Episodes.

Spotify

Spotify says the plus button will streamline how folks save songs and podcasts. It wrote in a blog post that user research showed the button "helped save time and gave users the ability to add to multiple playlists at once." It could come in useful, for instance, if you're listening to a radio station or Discover Weekly and encounter a song you like that would work well on one or more of your playlists. 

The plus button is starting to roll out on Spotify's iOS and Android apps today. It'll be available to all Spotify users in the coming weeks.