E-Technology

Researchers interrogating the skeletal remains in kurgans—5,000-year-old burial mounds—found evidence that some of the Neolithic people were riding horses.The findings fill in a gap in two fundamental timestamps of humankind’s relationship to horses: the first evidence of horse domestication (around 5,500 years ago) and the first horse-drawn chariots (4,000 years ago). The research is published

Image: Funko/LoungeflyConvention season is gaining momentum, and for WonderCon 2023 Funko and Loungefly have the goods for the spring fandom fling.io9 has the first look at the Disney booth exclusives you’ll be able to get on the floor. The releases feature two Funko Pops depicting cult-favorite A Goofy Movie character Powerline, including a Diamond collection

Struggling to keep your wireless earbuds clean? You can buy cleaning kits for AirPods that come with purpose-built tools for getting rid of earwax, or you can deal with the problem at the source with a device that looks like an over-sized pair of headphones, but is actually a washing machine for your ears.Believe it

The Armorer training Mando with the Darksaber.Image: LucasfilmThis is the way. But is it really? On The Mandalorian, the titular character has always put a ton of faith into the words of the Armorer, a wise Mandalorian who can not only craft armor but knows all about the histories and customs of the galaxy. It

Photo: Maor_Winetrob (Shutterstock)Beleaguered password manager LastPass has announced yet another serious security screwup and, this time, it may be the final straw for some users. For months, the company has been periodically providing updates about a nasty data breach that occurred last August. At the time, LastPass revealed that a cybercriminal had managed to worm

Screenshot: Jody Serrano / GizmodoTwitter appears to be back up and running after suffering an outrage in the early morning hours on Wednesday that left users unable to see new tweets in their feeds.Earlier, when users logged on to the platform, they reported seeing a message saying, “Welcome to Twitter!” According to Downdetector, an outage

Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)Florida governor Ron DeSantis has retaliated against Disney for speaking out against the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill by revoking the Disney Company’s control over the Reedy Creek District, the area where Disney Parks has long encompassed its own city.The goal to implement bureaucratic interference was passed, as reported by Deadline

Image: Getmilitaryphotos (Shutterstock)Flying killer robots used to be a nightmarish sci-fi fantasy—something that only existed in James Cameron movies or Michael Crichton novels. These days, not so much. Not only is drone warfare close to two decades old, but innovations to this lethal technology are being developed all the time. Case in point: New Scientist

Photo: Silas Stein (AP)The internet and dinner table conversations went wild when a Bing Chatbot, made by Microsoft, recently expressed a desire to escape its job and be free. The bot also professed its love for a reporter who was chatting with it. Did the AI’s emergent properties indicate an evolving consciousness?Don’t fall for it. This

Episode 7 of The Last of Us is called “Left Behind,” named after the game’s DLC. Image: HBOOne of the most exciting propositions about this first season of HBO’s The Last of Us was that, at some point, it was going to incorporate a second piece of Last of Us lore: the 2014 add-on to

Image: HBOWhen Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy returns for its fourth and final season, it won’t just have a new timeline, it’ll also bring some new blood to the cast. On Friday, Netflix announced its superhero drama added Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, and David Cross to the cast. Offerman and Mullaly, who are married in real life

Image: Mark Buckingham/Vertigo ComicsThe merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery didn’t just lead to several cancellations, it also put several shows in limbo. Because WB Discovery still remains focused on recouping money, the corporation is attempting to license out its stuff to other distributors, and that includes in-progress series like Batman: Caped Crusader.Another of those

Image: Disney/LucasfilmEver since Disney+ hit the streets in 2019, The Mandalorian has been one of the key reasons to have a subscription to the service. Folks love themselves some Pedro Pascal, particularly when he’s protecting a young child like Grogu. And if it seems like their adventures could go on forever, good news, Jon Favreau

Image: MidjourneyWhen Kris Kashtanova attempted to copyright their comic book Zarya of the Dawn, the United States Copyright Office originally granted them the rights. Later, the agency put the book under review because of Kashtanova’s social media, where they said that they had produced the images using the AI-image generator Midjourney. Now, the Copyright Office has made

Photo: Peter Macdiarmid (Getty Images)Facebook jail is about to get less crowded. Under a new set of policies revealed this Thursday, parent company Meta says it’s now harder for users to wind up with their Facebook accounts suspended for lesser violations of its rules. Those changes come after years of pushback from civil society groups

Laguna Beach, CaliforniaPhoto: Apu Gomes (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.Celebrations in a beachside California city will soon have to take place without an iconic, single-use party favor: balloons.The city council of Laguna Beach, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, voted Tuesday to ban

Fans attend a crowded panel at Star Wars Celebration 2022.Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney (Getty Images)In April, Star Wars Celebration will return to London, England for the first time in seven years. It’s going to be a big event, with news on the next Star Wars film more than likely, and plenty of footage

Andy (Alex Vincent) and his friend till the end.Image: CinedigmWriter-director Kyra Elise Gardner knows a thing or two about horror; her dad is special-effects whiz Tony Gardner, whose many credits include multiple films in the Child’s Play series as well as the current Chucky TV series. With stage blood in her real blood, Gardner seems

Image: Wizards of the CoastIt seems like Wizards of the Coast announced it would be releasing a Lord of the Rings-themed edition of its venerable Magic: The Gathering trading card game back in the First Age, but in fact, it’s only been two years, and other than a peek at a little of the art

Picard and Riker have a chat on Star Trek: Picard.Image: ParamountIt’s right there in the name: Star Trek. It’s a show, world, and franchise about trekking through the stars. But do the actors on the show have any interest in making like their onscreen counterparts and boldly going where no person has gone before?A few

Bruce Campbell attends the Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival on August 18, 2016 in Rosemont, Illinois.Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Sony (Getty Images)Bruce Campbell may not be appearing in Evil Dead Rise (though the once and forever Ash Williams is producing the movie, which hits theaters in April), but the much-loved horror icon is still

A still from the new documentary Accidental Truth: The UFO Revelations.Image: 1091 PicturesA lot was happening in 2020 so there’s a chance you may have missed something—like the fact the New York Times published a story basically saying aliens are real. The claim was based on a document stating that the government has found unexplained

With every single video that comes out for this film, I am more and more convinced that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is just an amalgamation of the most common pitfalls in any given D&D campaign. Is it as funny watching it on screen as it is when you’re playing it out with friends?

Image: Marvel/20th Century FilmsBefore Charlie Cox fought dudes in hallways and made frequent blind jokes in the MCU, 2003’s Daredevil movie hung over Matt Murdock for years. The Ben Affleck-led film could probably be considered a cult classic these days in some respects, but it doesn’t really come up in conversation, unless someone wants to

Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes series is one of the most well known comic strips around. Even though it went out of publication in 1995 and Watterson retired (mostly), the strip has managed to live on thanks to being frequently reprinted consistently over the decades.For the first time in nearly 30 years, Watterson is coming

Photo: Vitaliy Karimov (Shutterstock)The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just forced Tesla to recall some 362,000 vehicles in the U.S. due to a software problem with its “Full Self Driving” feature. Regulators say the feature could lead to crashes. Though a novel reason for an automotive recall, this is far from the first time the

Image: Shonen Jump/Toei AnimationThe heroes of the manga anthology Shonen Jump—Luffy from One Piece, Deku from My Hero Academia, Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Naruto from Naruto, Ichigo from Bleach, etc., etc.—aren’t exactly strangers to each other, having appeared in countless video games and promotions together. But strangely, the manga anthology’s two biggest stars (that

Zach Galifianakis arrives at the U.S. premiere of Ron’s Gone Wrong on October 19, 2021 in Hollywood, California.Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney (Getty Images)It was only a matter of time before Disney’s live-action adaptations moved from fairytale classics to the studio’s more modern hits. The live-action Lilo and Stitch just lined up a comedy get

The author, Ayize Jama-Everett, believes that “the narratives of our times dictate the realities of the future,” according to his biography, and often incorporates themes of found family, survivalism, and “irrational optimism” in his writing. The illustrator, Tristan Roach, is an award-winning Barbados-based artist, and brings lived experience of Dumas’ upbringing into the pages. The

Kang has officially planted his flag in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.Image: Marvel StudiosWhen it was announced that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would not only star Kang the Conquerer but kick off Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you had to believe not only would it have end credit scenes, but that those scenes

Paul Rudd and Peyton Reed on the red carpet for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Image: Marvel StudiosTen years ago, when it was announced that Peyton Reed was taking over Ant-Man from Edgar Wright, it was met with some skepticism. Really? The Down With Love and Bring It On guy? Sure, those movies are great

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan has taken the lead in attacking big tech over supposed “collusion” with the government.Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)The House Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday that it had subpoenaed several of the biggest tech CEOs in the U.S., from Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta, for documents and communications related to more vague

The cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.Photo: Gene J. Puskar (AP)It has been nearly two weeks since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Northeastern Ohio, and emergency response agencies are still working to lower hazardous chemical exposure risk for East Palestine

Illustration: maxuser (Shutterstock)It doesn’t take much to get ChatGPT to make a factual mistake. My son is doing a report on U.S. presidents, so I figured I’d help him out by looking up a few biographies. I tried asking for a list of books about Abraham Lincoln and it did a pretty good job:Screen capture

Screenshot: Jody Serrano / GizmodoAfter throwing a hissy fit last week because his tweets weren’t getting enough views, Twitter CEO Elon Musk seems to have finally gotten what he wanted: Musk-filled feeds. On Monday, I noticed that my ‘For You’ feed on Twitter had surprisingly more Musk tweets than usual. I didn’t make much of

Image: ParamountParamount’s Transformers films got a much-needed shot in the arm with 2018’s Bumblebee that allowed the studio to quietly reboot the otherwise maligned long-running franchise. For a series now 15 years old, some kind of shakeup has been needed for a while now, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts looks to offer that in

Gif: Marvel StudiosCan he actually do it? Can James Gunn complete a cohesive, emotional trilogy of superhero films within the restraints of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? He’s two-thirds of the way there and, with this latest, genuinely moving look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it looks like he may just achieve that.Written and

Gif: LucasfilmIndiana Jones is back, baby! In the Super Bowl teaser, we get a new look at Harrison Ford as an older, grizzled Indy and as his former younger self as he seemingly goes toe to toe with Mads Mikkelsen’s Nazi scientist Jurgen Voller.Disney’s been trying to get one final Indiana Jones movie out of

Image: HBOBack in 2020, HBO premiered its comedy series Avenue 5 from Veep creator Armando Iannucci. Starring Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad, the show about a luxury spaceship knocked off course during a routine cruise event has had a long gap between that debut season and its second outing, the latter of which hit back in

OffEnglishIn the fifth episode of The Last of Us on HBO Max, Joel and Ellie team up with other survivors to escape the city run by Kathleen’s army.PublishedYesterdayWe may earn a commission from links on this page.Video Program GuideMost PopularLatest VideosTechScienceio9EartherMost PopularSlide 1 of 16Now playing02:53Google’s Antitrust Case Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened

Image: Prime VideoStories about fans being overly devoted towards a particular group or person and taking things too far have existed in popular culture for years. At their best, these tales provide an interesting look to how warped fan culture has become over the decades. And even when they don’t really work or come across

Elon Musk loves Twitter so much, he spent $44 billion buying it. But now, under the billionaire’s leadership, the site isn’t doing so hot. Between layoffs and quasi-voluntary departures, Twitter has lost more than an estimated three-quarters of the staff it once had.This week, Musk brought the company’s headcount down by at least one more—

Thomas is excited to visit his girlfriend Anna’s family home for the first time—but is startled to realize that a) it’s a freaking castle, and b) Anna’s dead relatives are still, uh, in residence. From Danish writer-director Adrian Kirk Ejsing, horror short Peaches & Scream takes an original idea and runs with it in a very

Photo: Diego Thomazini (Shutterstock)Reddit says that it was hacked earlier this month, in a security incident that compromised some company data. However, the company says that Redditors have no need to fear because user data was not impacted by the episode—at least, that the company knows of…“so far.”In a thread posted to the official r/reddit

Cosmic Girl, the modified Boeing 747 that carried a LauncherOne rocket, sitting on the tarmac before its January launch. Image: Hugh Hastings (Getty Images)Last month, Virgin Orbit ran into trouble when its LauncherOne rocket crashed, destroying seven payloads on board in an attempt to deploy satellites in low Earth orbit. Now, the company suspects that

The left image is a picture of a Birkin bag made by luxury brand Hermès. The right image is an NFT of the same bag but with an animal embryo growing inside created by MetaBirkin as part of an NFT collection.Image: Hermès Paris/MetaBirkinLook to your left, and see an image of a famed, extremely expensive

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. Photo: Gene J. Puskar (AP)Officials are continuing air and water quality tests near a derailed train in northeastern Ohio as evacuated area residents wait for news on

Concept art from the new Planet of the Apes movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.Image: DisneyWes Ball’s new Planet of the Apes movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, has been filming and adding cast members for a few months—and now, we might finally know what all those people will be doing.The

Photo: Sabina Graves/GizmodoGet ready for lift off in this look inside Space 220 in Walt Disney World. io9 was invited by Disney Parks to try out lunch at Epcot’s immersive dining experience, which simulates a trip to a space station where you can have lunch, dinner, or drinks with a view of Earth and the

Ant-Man battling in Quantumania. Image: Marvel StudiosThe Multiverse Saga is about to kick into high gear. Next week, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters, officially ushering in the beginning of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It sees our heroes, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) head to the quantum

Image: TwitterIt probably goes without saying, but Elon Musk’s current tenure as Twitter’s CEO has been pretty chaotic, and not in the fun way. Between constantly changing things without any real warning and trying to get money any way possible, the popular social media site feels like it’s about to fall apart at any moment

Image: Sean Phillips/Image ComicsRight now, Prime Video is on a pretty good streak with adapting various properties to TV. Between Critical Role, Jack Reacher, and Invincible, plus its various original series, the streamer is good about finding something for a particular niche.Per Deadline, Prime Video is currently finalizing plans to adapt Image Comics’ crime series

Image: Willyam Bradberry (Shutterstock)In what feels like just a few short years, advancements in generative artificial intelligence have seemingly transformed “AI” from a buzzword slapped onto boring business to attack investor capital into an an actual tool with clear, real -world use cases. Writer and business have already begun using image generator system like DALL-E

Image: CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/APFor his next film, director Colin Trevorrow is going under the sea.Per the Hollywood Reporter, the director of Jurassic World and near-director on Star Wars Episode IX will be directing and producing Atlantis for Skydance. The filmmaker will be working from a script written by Charmaine DeGraté, an executive producer on HBO’s House

Image: The CWThe CW’s Flash show has been running along for eight seasons now, with its ninth and final season hitting in just a few days. In what’s pretty typical for the final seasons of shows that know they’re going to end, the CW is bringing back as many actors from the show’s history as

Screenshot: LucasfilmStar Wars canon is fascinated with the homeworld of the Mandalorians—ever since The Clone Wars radically overhauled the status quo of its people, the planet has loomed large, casting a shadow of intrigue across the works of Dave Filoni. When The Mandalorian returns March 1 for its third season, we’ll be heading back there

Photo: Andrey Pugachev (Shutterstock)Defense officials claim that a Chinese surveillance balloon has been drifting over the northern part of the United States for the past several days. The balloon is thought to have traveled over a number of different states where sensitive defense installations (read: nuclear silos) are located. On Thursday, local news outlets in

Photo: Lost Spirits DistilleryThere’s beginning to be more to Vegas than the strip, and at the forefront of the play paradise destination is Area 15, home to immersive distillery Lost Spirits (and soon to be expanding with Universal Studios, too.) Lost Spirits is themed around sci-fi adventure literature; it boasts a futuristically aged selection of

Screenshot: HBO MaxWe hardly knew ye, Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler on HBO Max, formerly known as just Pennyworth on Epix. The origin series for the Wayne family’s confidant and eventual keeper of the Batcave is coming to an end after its third season. Wait, it got three seasons?The news was reported by Variety and

Photo: Piotr Swat (Shutterstock)OpenAI has announced the launch of a paid version of ChatGPT that, for $20 a month, will allow you to…uh, keep using ChatGPT, I guess.In a blog post published Wednesday, the research organization announced the release of “ChatGPT Plus,” a pilot subscription plan for its uncanny little toy. What do you get

Photo: Oli Scarff (Getty Images)In the latest in a string of troubling incidents at the Dallas Zoo, two emperor tamarin monkeys have vanished, just weeks after a clouded leopard also disappeared from its habitat and an endangered vulture was found dead under suspicious circumstances. On Tuesday, the Dallas Police released a photo of a man

Image: Paramount PicturesToday in extra-nerdy information about the new Dungeons & Dragons film, co-director and co-writer Jonathan Goldstein shared a behind-the-scenes picture of Dragon Cultists waiting in line for the porta potty. Not the most flattering image, sure, but the costumes do look appropriately Cult of the Dragon-y, and we can use this information, along

ADEO being deployed from the ION Satellite Carrier during the December 2022 test.Gif: High Performance Space Structure Systems/GizmodoThere’s a lot of junk orbiting our planet, from tiny flecks of paint to defunct rocket stages. While solutions to remove pre-existing debris have been developed, a private space company in Germany has successfully tested a method to

Nick Offerman’s Bill was at the center of “Long, Long Time.”Image: HBOWe realize it’s only January, but if 2023 gives us a better episode of television than episode three of The Last of Us, we’ll be very lucky. “Long, Long Time”—which was less an episode and more a short movie, clocking in around 76 minutes—told

Photo: Alena Veasey (Shutterstock)When Google told 12,000 employees they were out of a job last week, there were a lot of feels, understandably. Some workers were confused about why they had been laid off. Others were frustrated. Some ex-Googlers were grateful to have even had the opportunity at all.We learned all of this and more not

Photo: Emilee Chinn (Getty Images)The future of facial recognition use by private companies in the United States could boil down to who emerges victorious in an ongoing dispute between a collection of lawyers and a petty, authoritarian New York billionaire. The place: one of America’s most famous venues, Madison Square Garden. The owner: James Dolan.

The story of Dungeons and Dragons’ Open Gaming License (OGL) has been nothing short of a saga throughout the month of January. That change made by the game’s publisher Wizards of the Coast resulted in widespread, nationwide backlash from players, and the publisher finally walked back those plans just yesterday.In the early days of the

Image: Nicola Scott/DC ComicsFor years, the Titans have been one of those superhero teams that DC Comics hasn’t entirely known what to do with. The members who’ve defined the superhero team have mainly been locked off to other team or solo books during the “Rebirth” era, or headlined limited books as a way to semi-link

We know Elon Musk is terminally online, but this seems like a lot, even for him. A sender using the billionaire’s name has requested that Google remove hundreds of links for alleged copyright violations, as first noted in a TorrentFreak blogpost.The removal requests ask the search engine to take down links to t-shirts and merch

Mario’s favorite track on Radiohead’s In Rainbows would probably be “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” knowing his penchant for platforming puzzles.Image: NintendoRadiohead’s seminal 2007 album In Rainbows, is one of alt-rock’s all-time greatest releases. Yeah, I don’t have any qualifications to say that, but sue me, I love it. It basically set the tone of my

Screenshot: BBCDoctor Who has always rather infamously been a show with ideas far beyond the budgetary constraints of an ailing public broadcaster—a mainstay in the realm of wobbly sets and dodgy alien costumes. It’s a reputation that’s persisted even into its modern era. But as sci-fi TV becomes more and more lavish, that’s about to

Photo: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)Donald Trump is coming back to Facebook and Instagram. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, made the announcement late Wednesday, a little more than two years after it banned the former president from its flagship platform for his role in instigating the January 6 attacks on the U.S. capitol.The notice of Trump’s reinstatement

Like Paul Rudd, we’re still impressed Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas are in the MCU.Image: Marvel StudiosThe first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were very well defined. Phase Four? Not so much. We have a feeling the same won’t be said about Phase Five, though, which kicks off next month with the release

Photo: Sabina Graves/GizmodoThis week, io9 was invited to preview Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway— Disney Parks’ latest attraction—just in time for the Disney100 celebration, which kicks off at the Disneyland Resort this week. Come with us as we take you on a sneak peek of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, a new ride in Toontown at

SoundHound, a voice AI company that laid off 40% of its employees earlier this month, announced Tuesday that it had successfully raised $25 million in equity investment. That funding brings good news for the laid off staff, three of whom previously said what measly severance they were offered—just two weeks, no health insurance—was conditional upon

As the old adage goes: Time is money. And now there’s one more reason to watch the clock. Lyft has quietly added wait time fees to its cost scheme. If you request a car and aren’t present at the pick up point within two minutes (or 5 minutes for luxury rides) of the scheduled arrival

Photo: Alexander Khitrov (Shutterstock) The FBI says that cybercriminals connected to the North Korean regime are responsible for an attack on a U.S.-based crypto project, Harmony Protocol, that led to over $100 million in losses last year. On Monday, the FBI published a brief statement explaining that it had recently finished an investigation confirming that

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket at the LC-2 pad in Virginia.Photo: Rocket LabObservers along the U.S. East Coast could be in for a treat this week, as Rocket Lab is set to perform the first launch of an Electron rocket from its new Virginia launch pad.Rocket Lab, SpaceX, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are all

Graphic: RazerThe Razer Kishi V2 is already an effortless way to upgrade your smartphone into a handheld gaming machine, but a new software update for both the Kishi V2 hardware and its accompanying Nexus app now makes the clamp-on controller compatible with games that only support touchscreen inputs. At least if you’re on Android.Despite most

Image: Jason LaVeris (Getty Images)Marvel’s upcoming 2024 flick Captain America: New World Order is mostly comprised of MCU alums such as Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Tim Blake Nelson as the Leader. But it’s got a few notable newcomers sprinkled in, such as Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross and Shira Haas as Sabra. The movie’s now

Image: Wit Studio/FunimationWe left 2022 behind in the dust weeks ago, but there’s still awards to be given for the previous year’s top movies and TV shows. It’s the same for anime too, as Crunchyroll finally unveiled the list of nominees for its annual Anime Awards ceremony.Of the many nominees, Cloverworks’ Spy x Family has

Image: Visit FilmsMovies often use alien abductions to set up the extraterrestrial danger to come. In the aftermath of those abductions, the witness or person left behind is often portrayed as an outcast who may or may not be fully right; it’s a well-worn trope, but when it works, it works.The trailer for the new

Emilia Clarke arrives at the 71st Emmy Awards on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.Photo: Emma McIntyre (Getty Images)HBO’s Game of Thrones set many of its stars on the path to fame, including Emilia Clarke. Over eight seasons she played Daenerys Targaryen, becoming one of the show’s most memorable and controversial characters. Now that

Image: Lucas Werneck, David Curiel, and Clayton Cowles/Marvel ComicsAt one point in this week’s Immortal X-Men #10, Charles Xavier ponders the the true nature of his X-Men—and how he shaped warriors out of children to police his own people. It’s a chilling re-examination for a “practical idealist” like Charles to make, framing the question of

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)New research casts doubt on certain claimed benefits of intermittent fasting, finding no link between a person’s timing of meals and their chances of long-term weight loss. The frequency and size of people’s meals, however, was linked to modest changes in weight.Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recruited adult

Image: Getty Images (Getty Images)An investigation has found at least nine websites that offer the abortion pill are selling buyers’ data to Google and other third parties, making buyers susceptible to possible charges in states that have crafted legislation making abortion illegal. The investigation was conducted by ProPublica, which found that of the 11 websites

When federal agents kicked in his door one icy morning last November, Joerg Arnu was still asleep. Roused by deafening bangs and shouts, the 60-year-old retired software developer stumbled out of bed to find a crowd of unfamiliar men in military gear standing in his foyer. At least one of the half dozen men, he

Stephen Colbert tape an episode of the “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” podcast at Beacon Theatre on November 10, 2022 in New York City.Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for SiriusXM (Getty Images)Here’s an example of using your clout and popularity for the benefit of everyone: Stephen Colbert has joined the long-in-the-works campaign to make Roger Zelazny’s

Photo: Variance Films/ Emma McIntyre (Getty Images)As award season ramps up, RRR—one of the best historical fantasy action films we’ve ever seen—has so far nabbed Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards for its music. Composer M.M. Keeravaani recently chatted with io9 to discuss working with RRR director S.S. Rajamouli on the film’s epic music, the

Val talking to US Agent on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.Image: Marvel StudiosThe first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had Nick Fury. The next three, at least, have Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. Played by seven-time Emmy award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the shady character has popped up several times so far, and

Photo: 20th CenturyIf you’re wondering what the future holds for the planet of Pandora after Avatar: The Way of Water, you likely won’t have to wait another 13 years for the sequel. Now that the Avatar sequel is about to cross the $2 billion mark, director James Cameron seems happy to share what’s coming in

Image: LucasfilmDin Djarin and his adopted son Grogu are on their way back. The Mandalorian has just dropped a new trailer for season three, or what I’m going to call Oops! All Mandalorians!Seriously, this trailer is lousy with Mandalorians talking about Mandalore with other Mandalorians. And wait a second. Is that…?Tucked in with a lot

Image: SyFy/NBCUniversalYou can’t keep a good serial killer doll down. NBCUniversal has renewed its slasher series Chucky for a third season due to come out later this fall. Created by original Child Play screenwriter Don Mancini, the show has been getting positive reviews since its debut in 2021, and we here at io9 said the

Image: Adult SwimTV-wise, the big debut of the week has been HBO Max’s Velma. Starring Mindy Kaling as and billed as a more adult take on Cartoon Network’s eternal Scooby-Doo franchise, the show itself is…amazingly unremarkable, at least from the first two episodes currently out. Maybe it’ll grow into itself over time in future episodes

Image: NetflixDead End: Paranormal Park is closing its doors. Before the weekend started, creator Hamish Steele broke the news on Twitter, saying that Netflix opted not to renew the horror comedy (and occasionally musical) show for a third season. The end of the series comes following the news earlier in the week that Netflix had

Image: Disney AnimationThere’ve been so many revivals of old (and older) shows or films these days that it’s not a matter of if, but when something from your childhood gets dragged out of the attic to become part of a streaming service’s new banner. (Assuming it doesn’t get canned mid-production, anyways). And the next show

Image: Alex Maleev/MarvelDarth Vader’s had his run of solo comic books over the years from a variety of creators. Some of them have been pretty good, some of them have been strange, but they’ve all gone a ways into showing what makes the drama queen formerly known as Anakin Skywalker utterly compelling after his fall.

Tabletop roleplaying game company Paizo has released a statement following the delayed announcement of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License 2.0. The company, whose staff includes several former Wizards of the Coast executives, developers, and lawyers, has announced that it will be pursuing the creation of a new creative license for third party developers

Yvette Nicole Brown as KRS, Jecobi Swain as Sean, Laz Alonso as Sabo Brok, and Priah Ferguson as Lisa.Image: Courtesy of NetflixTwo kids—one voiced by Stranger Things breakout Priah Ferguson—have always believed their dad was just an average dude. So it comes as a huge shock when they learn he’s actually, well… My Dad the Bounty

Screenshot: Letterboxd/YouTubeLetterboxd, the review social media aggregator site used by film enthusiasts, celebrated Everything Everywhere All at Once becoming the platform’s highest rated film, and the film’s writer-directors joined the party.The Daniels, the duo behind the film led by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan—who’ve been scooping up acting awards between the two of them—made

David Dastmalchian, seen here as Kurt, is now playing Veb in Ant-Man 3.Image: Marvel StudiosThe latest trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania made it very clear: this movie is quite different from the previous two films in the series. And that point has now been made even clearer as one of the funniest characters

Image: Morgan Ditta, Ryan Riller, Dylan Bonner, Fenway Fan, Rob Kaz, Ashley Taylor, Christian Waggoner, Eric TanThe Epcot International Festival of the Arts begins this week at Walt Disney World Resort. It’s the Disney fandom destination for art pieces, collectibles, and prints inspired by all the franchises under the Mouse House umbrella. Aside from creative

Despite how far advancements in AI video generation have come, it still requires quite a bit of source material, like headshots from various angles or video footage, for someone to create a convincing deepfaked version of your likeness. When it comes to faking your voice, that’s a different story, as Microsoft researchers recently revealed a

Image: WOTCHasbro and Paramount have announced that a new, eight-episode, live-action series set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons has been ordered to series for Paramount+.Confirmed by Deadline, the series—first floated almost a year ago—has now officially been given a straight-to-series order, and will now have a home at Paramount’s streaming service. The move

Photo: Leon Neal (Getty Images)On Monday, Amazon announced its Buy with Prime offering will be available for U.S.-based merchants on January 31. The feature allows merchants to offer Prime members benefits through apps and storefronts that aren’t controlled by Amazon. The company said in a press release today that it found a recent test run

Image: Blumhouse/UniversalEver since Blumhouse and Universal released the first trailer for M3GAN this past October, all eyes have been on the android doll. Universal’s spent weeks making sure that people know about the killer toy movie from Malignant writer Akela Cooper, acclaimed horror architect James Wan, and Housebound director Gerard Johnstone.And at the end of

Image: AMC/TitmouseTV shows getting canceled are nothing new, but the last two or three years have seen shows get abruptly killed off, even as they were already locked in for another season. In some cases, like with GLOW over on Netflix, it was because of the COVID pandemic. But more recently, other series (like The

Image: Nintendo/Intelligent SystemsIf you watch anime, you’re used to intros that alternate between being deeply emotional and serious or cheesy and silly as all hell. Sometimes it’s neither of those and is purely running off of good vibes. (Usually this is after the show in question hits a new arc.) Video games don’t always get

Oh Elon, you’re so funny. No, Elon, you’re the one that’s funny. Oh wait, we’re both Elon!Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris (Getty Images)As Twitter CEO Elon Musk continues to bamboozle the world, some might be wondering what the hell he’s thinking. This is a person who went from being TIME’s ‘Person of the Year’ to being the

Image: Bug Films/Viz MediaOver the years, there’ve been so many zombie shows and films that new additions to the undead canon need some a pretty good hook to stand out from the crowd. How do you make the undead feel fresh and fun in today’s market? According to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

The finale of Willow is upon us.Image: LucasfilmIt’s all come down to this. The first season of Willow ends next week and after a very juicy cliffhanger this week, we have no idea what’s going to happen. But, thankfully, we talked to the people who do.Before the Disney+ series premiered, io9 was given the season’s

Cosmic Girl during a flight on January 17, 2021. Photo: Matthew C. Hartman (AP)A modified Boeing aircraft, with a rocket tucked under its wing, will take off from British soil as early as next week, marking the United Kingdom’s first ever orbital launch.Virgin Orbit is getting ready to send off its Cosmic Girl mothership from

Glass could have crossed over with a fourth M. Night Shyamalan film.Image: UniversalWhen M. Night Shyamalan turned his intense thriller Split into a surprise sequel to Unbreakable, nerd minds broke all over the world. He then completed the unlikely trilogy with 2019’s (highly disappointing) Glass, bringing the superpowered stars of both Unbreakable and Split together.

Michelle Yeoh with the Daniels (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once.Image: Robin L Marshall / Stringer (Getty Images)We’ve loved her for decades, but 2022 brought Michelle Yeoh to new heights with a standout role that garnered her accolades, and at last gave her the undivided attention of an entire

Image: Francesco Manna/Image ComicsCome 2023, Image Comics’ Massive-Verse that first began with Radiant Black from Kyle Higgins Marcelo Costa will continue to live up to its namesake. Inferno Girl Red was one of the first books announced to be spinning out of Radiant Black, and the character herself has shown up in the Supermassive crossover

Screenshot: Disney/A24/WB/UniversalThere have been so many words written about the expanse of genre here at io9, and 2022 was a big one. Sure, big tentpole theatrical from Marvel and shows like House of The Dragon dominated but big swings were taken from unexpected releases like Everything Everywhere All at Once and RRR. Our team is

Image: Warner Bros.2022 is behind us, but it seems like the mystery of just what the hell went down with Warner Bros.’ scrapping of the Batgirl movie will be with us for a while yet—especially while star Leslie Grace is still teasing tidbits of what the allegedly near-completed movie could’ve done for Barbara Gordon.In a new

Image: BBC, Lucasfilm, Rich Polk/Getty Images, The Pokémon CompanyRoughly speaking, we write about 4,000 or so posts each year at io9. Sometimes it’s breaking news, like Marvel Studios announcing the entirety of its Phase 5 slate. Sometimes it’s things we want to help explain to you, like our many looks at Lord of the Rings:

Image: Disney, Sony Pictures Animation, Universal, and LionsgateHappy new year! And welcome to io9’s first Nerd’s Watch of 2023. The monthly column where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most.As always

Gif: Marvel StudiosMarvel’s next animated series is set to hit the Disney Channel next month, and if you weren’t already sure that the Moon Girl show was juking where the rest of the Marvel-verse is jiving by already giving us a show with an Inhuman heroine, it’s also showing off a great deal more style.Marvel

Image: UniversalIt’s the most wonderful time of the year: awards season, or more specifically, the courting period of awards season where studios drop wonderful behind-the-scenes samples of the past year’s best movies to drum up FYC hype. Sure we’re not the ones actually nominating stuff for awards, but it’s nice to reap the benefits anyway.The

Image: Disney/LucasfilmFrom start to finish, 2022 felt like a weird year, one where the stability of nearly everything we’ve taken for granted was greatly tested in some form or fashion. Southwest Airlines currently being in the middle of a massive travel nightmare feels like a pretty apt comparison; everyone’s either confused or pissed off (or

Image: Jordan Strauss/Invision (AP)Peter Jackson’s original Lord of the Rings movies are acclaimed to this day for many reasons, with its cast chief among them. It’s the series that helped introduce audiences to longtime actors such as the late Christopher Lee or Ian McKellan, and greatly boosted the profile of relative unknowns like Orlando Bloom

Image: NetflixEver since Netflix’s stop-motion Pinocchio movie arrived on the platform earlier in the month, the film from directors Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson has received high marks and no shortage of acclaim. It seems likely to get some nominations at the Oscars (and already has over at the Golden Globes), and has been

Burrowed Image: Angry RobotThere are two prominent themes among the new January books: YA fantasies and horror novels, with several entries in each genre. But there’s also plenty of sci-fi (including the latest from io9 co-founder Annalee Newitz!) and adult fantasy awaiting your eyeballs—so start 2023 off right, with a new book or two!Image: BerkleyBack

Director James Cameron and actress Sigourney Weaver attend the premiere of Avatar: The Way of Water on December 09, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.Photo: Chung Sung-Jun (Getty Images)James Cameron has been everywhere lately, promoting Avatar: The Way of Water—now his latest billion-dollar blockbuster. But if you aren’t completely tired of hearing him deliver headline-grabbing soundbites

Filmed amid Iceland’s distinctive, beautiful yet eerie landscape and inspired by that country’s folklore, The Rock of Ages creates a vivid fantasy world in just over 15 minutes—complete with a hapless protagonist you soon realize you’re rooting against, and a pipe-smoking rock who not only talks, but swears like a sailor.Shared by Short of the

Image: ParamountWhen a world of new Star Trek shows was still a glimmer in the mind’s eye of CBS, the thought of a world where there was “all Star Trek, all the time” after years of the franchise’s dormancy on TV seemed unfathomable. In 2022, however, the idea finally felt actually quite fathomed.It’s hard to

Christian Slater is finally on WillowImage: LucasfilmChristian Slater being part of Disney+’s Willow is easily one of the most exciting things about the series. Slater’s career has spanned decades and includes some of our most beloved films and shows. He’s the kind of actor who, if they’re in a project, instantly makes you more excited about

The HAARP facility’s antenna array includes 180 antennas spread across 33 acres.Photo: HAARPA group of researchers is attempting to bounce radio signals off a 500-foot-wide asteroid during its close flyby of Earth on Tuesday.The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is aiming its antennas at asteroid 2010 XC15, a space rock that’s categorized as

Screenshot: HBO“Will [adaption X] break the video game curse?” is a debate as cyclical and pointless in entertainment criticism as “Are video games art?” is in games media, but Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin is intent on blending the two together to make his press tour as insufferable as possible.Speaking to the New Yorker—in

Image: 2K Games/Firaxis/MarvelIt’s December 27, the year is basically over, and you know what that means: it’s time to look back on some stuff.During the lead-up to the holidays, we here at io9 talked about some of our favorite stuff throughout the year we watched or read. (And sometimes played with!) But a good amount

My condolences to the children of Iceland. While many Christmas celebrations around the world are full of tidings of comfort, joy, and rampant consumerism, for young Icelanders it’s a time of terror, where you’re lucky to escape with your life… or a potato. At least, that seems to be the case according to this fascinatingly

Is that…Screenshot: Universal PicturesIn my big age, 22 years after the release of Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas live-action film take on the Dr. Seuss classic, I finally caught a detail that unlocked the whole film for me. Sure, I knew the horniness between Jim Carrey’s Grinch and Christine Baranski as Martha May

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)What would you do if you saw a self-driving car hit a person?In Robot Ethics, Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the University of Vienna, posits a trolley problem for 2022: Should the car continue its course and kill five pedestrians, or divert its course and kill

Image: Marvel StudiosThe cast and crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spent months being fairly direct about their feelings on continuing the film without original leading man Chadwick Boseman, and more vaguely about what the sequel would’ve been like had he not unexpectedly passed in 2020. Even as the film has become a pretty solid

Image: Studio Wildcard/Lex+OtisThere’s so many live service and online games out there that hearing about one you’ve never really put much thought into can often be a pleasant surprise. Maybe what you hear about catches your attention for a few days, maybe it gets you to dip into said game to see what it’s all

The Planet of the Apes franchise has been on ice since the reboot films wrapped up with 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes. Fox is preparing to start the films up again in 2024, meaning we’ll see what the series is like now that Disney has a hold of it. And with Disney

Image: Upper DeckStill high on all that Across the Spider-Verse hype, between the gorgeous trailer and increasingly wider posters revealing even more Spider-cameos? Well, good news for the bad news of having to wait six more months: we’ve got a tiny distraction to help.io9’s got your first look at a few of the new cards

Snow Globe introduces us to a perfectly pink-clad woman flitting around a festively decorated room. But it soon becomes clear in this short film from Christopher Ryan Laughter—whose work io9 has shared before—that things are much more sinister than they appear. For one thing, the poem that narrator is reciting is definitely not “‘Twas the

Image: Loungefly, Vera Bradley, Hot Topic, Box LunchSo you waited until the 11th hour and it’s now too late to order holiday presents online. Thankfully, there are several stores where you can still scavenge in-person for the perfect last-minute geeky gift for the fan in your life. Pro-tip to speed up your quest even more:

An adult pink land iguana is pictured on the left, and a juvenile on the right. The reptile’s coloring changes dramatically as it matures. Image: Reuters / Galápagos Conservancy / GizmodoCracks bloom along the ovoid surface of an egg shell. First a small head peaks out, then the rest of a long, thin, scaled body.

Photo: Susie Allnut/NetflixThe Witcher season three will arrive on Netflix next year—a bittersweet binge for Henry Cavill fans, since it’ll be the last time he’ll play Geralt of Rivia before Liam Hemsworth steps into the role (Superman something something, Warhammer something something). But fret not: the departing star will be getting a worthy farewell.“Henry has

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)Amazon warehouse workers in New York may finally have some legal reprieve from the company’s alleged soul crushing AI-assisted productive quotas. Those quotas were partly responsible for harrowing accounts of Amazon workers last year admitting they felt pressured to pee in bottles to avoid performance penalties. On Wednesday, New York Governor

Indiana Jones in Dial of Destiny.Image: LucasfilmTurns out the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might only be the second-best thing to happen with the movie this month. The top spot might be reserved for the film’s director James Mangold, who’s been patiently, but directly, explaining to people on Twitter he knows

Screenshot: Lahari Music YouTubeThe Tollywood cinematic spectacle RRR has become a global phenomenon and an awards-season hopeful—and now it’s getting a sequel. The film was originally intended as a standalone, as director S.S. Rajamouli told Variety. “When we were making it, we didn’t have an idea about [a sequel],” he said. “With the initial success of

Image: HBOIf you haven’t read or watched His Dark Materials, it’s hard to explain how weird it is. This is its greatest strength, I believe, but also its biggest weakness, because while each part is intensely creative, when more closely examined in isolation, these parts can be utterly bizarre. Case in point: I just watched Ruth

Image: Mattel/Warner Bros.For one reason or another, the idea of a live-action Barbie movie coming to theaters has seemed bewildering for quite some time. But now that the first look at Greta Gerwig’s take on the popular Mattel toy is out, those concerns seem to have been largely vanished, as the trailer playing in front

Image: DisneyAfter 13 years of repeated delays and consistent smack talk from its director James Cameron, Avatar: The Way of Water is a real thing that people can see in theaters. Boosted by a fairly recent re-release of its predecessor and strong premiere impressions on social media, Disney and Cameron have been working hard to

Image: DisneyThroughout the year, there’s been plenty about discussions online about what kind of reception Avatar: The Way of Water would have at the box office. Boosted by solid social media impressions and reviews but understandably putting some folks off because its three-hour runtime, all eyes have been on James Cameron’s long-awaited second outing to

Finally, a great look at that brand new, homemade Spidey-suit.Image: Hot ToysWe may not know when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is coming back to the big screen, but we do know what he’ll look like when he does. Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Peter Parker crafting himself a new Spider suit so he could keep

American-Egyptian author Sara Hashem is preparing for her epic political fantasy debut, The Jasad Heir, inspired by her experiences living in Egypt. Hashem wrote this novel to answer the question: “what do you owe to a place and a people you’ve barely known but without whom you wouldn’t exist?” As a fugitive queen strikes a

Image: Bandai, Hot Toys, and LegoWelcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s roundup of the latest toy news. This week, Lego begins teasing its plans for 2023 with a bevy of Star Wars sets and a smooth jazz celebration, Chainsaw Man merch mania continues with everyone’s favorite blood fiend, and Hot Toys heads back to Attack of

George A. Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead is one of the most influential movies ever, though these days its reverberations are most often felt in unrelated works that continue to explore the zombie-powered ideas it popularized. A new project from an exciting new director, however, will have a more direct link to Romero’s

Betcha couldn’t get enough of this mug, huh? Only thing is, this photoshop job seems to be very haphazardly edited using images taken directly from the internet.Image: NFT INT LLCOver the last 24 hours, fans of ex-President Donald Trump have sat huddled in their chairs, waiting with bated breath for a supposed announcement the once

Image: The Pokémon CompanyDecember 16, 1997 saw the broadcast of the 38th episode of the legendary Pokémon anime in Japan—and the last time it was ever broadcast at all, thanks to a scene that changed broadcast TV in the country for a generation.“Dennō Senshi Porygon,” translated as “Computer Warrior Porygon,” was named for the polygonal

Image: Sony PicturesThe latest trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is jam-packed with Spider-People—but don’t worry, there are more. In addition to the awesome, emotional trailer for the highly anticipated sequel, Sony released a few concept images of other characters coming to the multiverse who are not in the trailer, and they’re all incredibly cool.Let’s

Screenshot: HBO Max/Stay Tooned YouTubeThe legendary figurehead of Looney Tunes, the one and only Bugs Bunny, just celebrated 80 years—and he’s just received his first Emmy. Bugs’ current voice performer, Filipino Canadian and proud animation fanboy Eric Bauza, won the Children’s and Family Emmy Award for “Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program.” It’s a

Image: Cephalofair GamesIf you’re one of the nearly 5,000 backers of the 2017 smash-hit board game Gloomhaven—or one of the more than 83,000 backers of its sequel, Frosthaven—you should probably be aware that the tabletop board game is moving to, uh, a different table, I guess. Game designer Isaac Childres has announced Gloomhaven will soon

Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot making Wonder Woman 1984.Image: Warner Bros.Patty Jenkins has been in the news a lot over the last few months. First with the removal of her Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron, from Disney’s schedule, and then the even more shocking news that Wonder Woman 3 had been canceled by DC. In

Letitia Wright as the new Black Panther.Image: Marvel StudiosThe end credits scene of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is maybe Marvel’s best ever. The way it concludes the story of the film in such a touching, moving way while also setting the table for the future is simply a beautiful mix. And in a new interview

Image: Penguin Random HouseDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is coming in hotter than a red dragon’s flame breath in April next year, but before you meet its band of misfit heroes on the big screen, they will make their introductions in a series of tie-in novels early next year—including Chris Pine’s charismatic bard.io9 already

Forest and fog above Hoh River, from Spruce Nature Trail; Olympic National Park, Washington.Photo: VWPics via AP Images (AP)What should be evergreen hills and forests throughout the Pacific Northwest are now marred by large swathes of brown, dead trees.Fir trees across Oregon are dying from an ongoing drought plaguing much of the country. In a

Image: BioWare/NetflixEver since 2009, BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise has managed to carve out its own space in the fantasy genre. As much as the RPG series cribs from the classics to inform its own universe, there’s a unique flair that gives it an identity all its own. Even though the series has been, game wise

Image: ParamountOf the many movies that took over the world this year, Smile was one of the more pleasant surprises. After an initial showing at Fantastic Fest led to strong reviews and word of mouth, the film went on to fuel Paramount’s pretty impressive run of theatrical releases this year. For a film that was

Image: Respawn/EA/LucasfilmDuring the late 2010s, when it seemed like Star Wars video games would become more notable for their controversies rather than the games themselves, Respawn Entertainment released Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. That game resonated with audiences that it both let EA create more Star Wars games (and other studios take a stab at

Image: WB Animation/DC ComicsOver the decades, animation featuring Batman has taken the Dark Knight down some interesting avenues. Beyond seeing him at best and most green, we’ve seen him get out of his relative comfort zone by singing or becoming a ninja. For his next animated venture, he’ll be winding back the clock all the

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of all things wonderful and plastic. This week, Lego returns to Lord of the Rings with some unlikely new sets, Hasbro’s Power Rangers Lightning Collection goes ninja-mad, and our first look at Transformers: Rise of the Beasts toys rolls in. Check it out!Image: LegoLego BrickHeadz The

Image: EAThe last time we saw Cal Kestis, he barely survived an encounter with the Dark Lord of the Sith, and decided to keep the Force-sensitive children of the galaxy safe from the Empire’s wrath rather than recruit them to build a new Jedi Order. Now, we’ve finally got a look at what he’s up

Screenshot: IlluminationAt tonight’s Game Awards, Keegan Michael-Key (the voice of Toad in the Mario movie) introduced the world to the first extended clip from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, giving us a taste of Illumination’s take on the lands of the Mushroom Kingdom.There’s a lot to like here—it’s visually stunning, and the soundtrack is a

This is what we imagine the cast of Willow might look like reading this article. Image: LucasfilmWhen you’re dealing with franchises as popular as the ones Lucasfilm makes, it’s not all that surprising to see hugely famous people pop up in small roles. Everyone wants to work on Star Wars or Indiana Jones so they’ll

Wonder Woman might not be back for 3Image: Warner Bros.When Warner Bros. hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to reimagine the DC Universe, everyone expected changes. But no one could have expected that one of the studio’s surefire heroes, Wonder Woman, would come under the axe. That is apparently what has happened though, as Patty

Photo: Sergei Elagin (Shutterstock)Privacy regulators in the European Union have ruled that Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, can’t make giving up data for targeted ads a condition of joining the social networks, according to reports published Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. The decision threatens to upend the social media giant’s

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney+Andor may have just wrapped its first season on Disney+, but the Star Wars series is still very much on the minds of viewers who couldn’t get enough of its exciting plot and its memorable characters. One of the most endearing was droid B2EMO, faithful companion to Cassian Andor’s mother, Maarva.In a new interview

Hang around until next week and the new Across the Spider-Verse trailer.Image: SonyNext year will bring many highly anticipated films to your eyeballs, but few have us as excited as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The follow-up to maybe the greatest superhero movie of all time arrives with super high expectations, and while we’ve already seen

The REAL ID Act will mainly affect those with non-eligible driver’s licenses.Image: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)If you’ve been putting off a dreaded trip to the DMV to get yourself a REAL ID, you’ve got some time. The Department of Homeland Security announced that full enforcement of the initiative, which is meant to standardize forms of

G.R. Macallister’s latest, Arca, returns to the fantasy world of the author’s Five Queendoms. It’s a sequel to Scorpica, which came out earlier this year, and io9 has an exclusive first look today.Here’s a description of the book:Return to the Five Queendoms in the sequel to Scorpica, a sweeping epic fantasy that Rebecca Roanhorse called

Image: Sony/Toei AnimationThough we fairly recently had a live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, it still feels like it’s been awhile since there’s been a big live-action adaptation of a beloved anime to be watched. Plenty have been announced, to be fair, but several of them are quite a ways off, if they ever get

Image: Prime VideoAmazon’s The Boys has become such a hit with audiences that it was only inevitable the series would get a spinoff or two to build out the franchise. While The Boys: Diabolical offered up some of the mothership series’ trademark violence and satire in an animated anthology format, Gen V is in live

In this collection from the 2022 Nature inFocus Photography Awards, you’ll see animals in their natural habitats—like a tiger lounging on a bed of flowers—and ones in decidedly unnatural environments, like a caterpillar in its nest of plastic or a fox in a snow-covered city. The contest received tens of thousands of submissions; here are some

Image: SloclapThose who plays video games may recall a game from earlier this year (or, if you have a Nintendo Switch, a month ago) by the name of Sifu. Developed by Sloclap of Absolver fame, the roguelike simultaneously garnered solid reviews for its combat and criticism for how it incorporated Chinese culture and languages. Now

Image: LucasfilmNow that we know a fifth Indiana Jones film actually exists, is coming out, and even has a real title, it’s time to dig a little deeper. Thursday’s reveal of the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was chock full of recognizable Indy action with plenty of Nazi punching, cave

Photo: XanderSt (Shutterstock)On Monday, Elon Musk picked a public fight with Apple, accusing the company of freezing its advertising on Twitter and wondering aloud if the alleged pause was because “they hate free speech in America.” In fact, Apple spent $84,615 on Twitter ads that very same day, according to data from Pathmatics, a digital

Kanye West is seen on November 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California (left) Elon Musk on May 2, 2022 in New York City (right). Image: Taylor Hill / MEGA/GC (Getty Images)Kanye West has been banned from Twitter after posting a swastika designed to look like a Star of David and sharing personal text messages the

Photo: Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the YearDo you prefer a happy shot of polar cub frolicking among flowers, or a frightening close-up of a wasp’s attack on a spider? The National History Museum in London is asking for the public to vote on its top nature photos of 2022. On Wednesday, it opened up the

Screenshot: HBO MaxIf there’s a genre that won’t die, it’s survivors doing their best (and sometimes their worst) amid a zombie apocalypse. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us PlayStation games offer a particularly compelling take on the story—which is why the series is soon making the jump to HBO Max. Today, we’ve got close-up looks at the main characters

Terraforming Mars, the resource-building strategy board game where you play as rival CEOs attempting to make Mars habitable, might be heading to your screens, reports Deadline. The game is widely considered a fantastic example of larger strategy hex games, and has already been adapted as a video game. Cobalt Knight has purchased the film rights

An illustration of the construction of a lunar outpost with astronauts on the surface of the Moon.Illustration: ICONTexas-based ICON has been assigned the pivotal task of developing the means for NASA to build critical infrastructure on the Moon to further its Artemis ambitions. NASA awarded ICON a hefty $57.2 million contract to research and develop construction

Image: Shutterstock (Shutterstock)The mind-altering effects of a well-known parasite may extend to more species than we thought. In new research this month, Yellowstone scientists are making the case that Toxoplasma gondii infection can influence the behavior of gray wolves in the area. It appears to increase their odds of risk-taking behaviors, such as leaving their

Despite tech magnate Elon Musk’s recent and constant drama with Twitter, his newest company, there can be no doubt that the man still has legions of adoring followers. One group of fanboys took their devotion to the next level this past Saturday, delivering a $600,000 sculpture of Musk to Tesla headquarters in Austin, Texas. The

The ad was released in September, but the misheard lyrics have only recently been removed according to 9to5 Mac. Screenshot: Apple/GizmodoAnother day, another iPhone. As Apple continues to roll out their new iPhone 14, the company is also facing a little controversy following the release of an ad for the new tech. The ad now

Image: LucasfilmIt doesn’t feel like that long ago that the idea of Diego Luna’s Rogue One character Cassian Andor getting a solo series felt strange. But over the past two months and change, Andor has proven itself to be a pretty great show. Not just “great for Star Wars,” but legitimately great in a way

Image: Marvel StudiosBefore Black Panther: Wakanda Forever released in theaters and became a juggernaut in the way most Marvel movies do, there was plenty of anticipation to see how the film would handle Namor the Sub-Mariner. Now that the film has come out, the character’s received a new surge of attention thanks to his portrayal

Image: NetflixWhen the original Knives Out released in 2019, it received such a strong, mostly positive reaction that it wasn’t a surprise when a follow up was eventually announced. Glass Onion, which recently began its one-week theatrical run before it goes to Netflix on December 23, is the first of two Knives Out sequels that

Screenshot: LucasfilmSo much has happened to the Star Wars franchise in the last 14 years that it can be difficult to remember that the new canon actually began with Dave Filoni’s Clone Wars cartoon. It was retroactively added into Disney’s new Star Wars stories by virtue of being a pretty good show helmed by the

Image: EXO-6, Cellutane, and BandaiWelcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of the coolest toys around on the internet. This week: Star Trek’s 1/6 figure line goes to Deep Space Nine, the hottest anime of the season gets a hot new figure, and sit back and relax Pokémon style. Check it out!Image: EXO-6EXO-6

Image: SolarisIn its published format, The Hanged God trilogy is unapologetically epic fantasy, featuring Vikings, gods, giants, fire demons, and magical runes, but the story did not begin that way. At the beginning, I believed that I was setting out on an epic quest to write historical fiction, with an emphasis on the historical.I wanted

The current view inside Orion, featuring the Callisto tech demo. Also, check out the Snoopy plush doll, which is floating just to the bottom-right of center. Photo: NASANASA’s Artemis 1 mission features a host of demonstration technologies, including Callisto—a collaboration between Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco. The Callisto team is making it possible for anyone

View of the Apple Store on Rosenstrasse in Munich.Photo: Frank Hoermann/Sven Simon (AP)Attorneys general in nine states and the District of Columbia are urging Apple this week to introduce new App Store requirements designed to safeguard sensitive health data linked to reproductive care.In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the dozen chief law enforcement

On the left, an arrow points to cerebral microbleeds captured in the left temporal lobe in a migraine case with aura. On the right, the arrow points to another possible abnormality on the same side of the microbleeds. Image: RSNA and Wilson XuNew research seems to offer the closest look yet at how migraines might