Guardians of the Galaxy: James Gunn’s Drax & Mantis Film Not Ruled Out

James Gunn has confirmed that he once had an idea for a Guardians of the Galaxy spin-off movie focused on Drax and Mantis, which was “never ruled out.”

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the filmmaker verified a recent report, exposing his idea of a Drax and Mantis team-up movie, while suggesting that it “could be amazing” if the project was ever actually greenlit.

This comes shortly after Dave Bautista, who plays lovable lug Drax in the Guardians movies, expressed his interest in Gunn’s potential spin-off movie while simultaneously turning down the possibility of his character appearing in a Disney+ series.

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“I wouldn’t do a series because Drax as a series would be really rough with the make-up and everything, it would just be too tough. What I would like to do is, honestly, and this is not my idea, I’m stealing this idea, James Gunn had the idea to do a Drax/Mantis movie, and that’s what I’d be up for because there’s just too much fun there,” Bautista said in a recent interview with Collider, even though the movie didn’t end up making it into Marvel’s schedule.

This isn’t the first time that the idea of a Guardians spin-off movie has been bandied around; a Groot/Rocket buddy movie was once deemed a “highly possible” release to follow Avengers: Infinity War. Gunn also suggested that he would like the Ravagers to star in a standalone movie as an expansion of Vol. 2’s post-credit scenes.

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Before any of that, however, Gunn is expected to move onto Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though it could be a long way off, as Gunn previously apologised for Guardians 3’s absence from Phase 4 of the MCU. However, it sounds like it could be worth the wait, as Karen Gillan, who plays Nebula in the MCU, claimed the script for Volume 3 is the best of the trilogy.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

The Last Of Us TV Show Writer Confirms He Won’t Change Ellie’s Sexuality

On Twitter, Craig Mazin, the writer and producer of the just announced The Last Of Us HBO show has confirmed that he will not be changing Ellie’s sexuality, much to the relief of fans.

Ellie’s sexuality has been a divisive issue among fans ever since it became apparent that Ellie was gay in the first DLC, Left Behind. Ellie’s sexuality has been further confirmed by the marketing for The Last of Us Part II, with an early trailer showing her kissing another woman. Ellie is a rare example of a gay protagonist in a major AAA game, and Mazin clearly recognizes the importance of representing this in the series.

The feeling of being included in media is a big deal to those who have been marginalized in the past, ignoring that part of Ellie’s character would be a shame.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Wonderful 101: Remastered Kickstarter Passes $2 Million, Adds More Stretch Goals

The Wonderful 101: Remastered has surpassed $2 million in funding on Kickstarter, unlocking a new mission and extra stretch goals.

Unlocked by reaching this new funding goal is Luka’s Second Mission, of which we only have a vague description to guess at what it might be: “Our young hero is back and ready for more adventure.”

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Some idea might be gleaned by looking at Luka’s First Mission, which was unlocked when Kickstarter funding reached $1.5 million, and is said to be a “brand new 2D side scrolling adventure starring a young hero.”

Luka appears in the original game as a young, aspiring boy who encounters the Wonderful Ones several times throughout the story. He is eventually inducted into the team under the alias Wonder Googles on account of his goggles that fire laser beams.

Developer PlatinumGames has now revealed two more stretch goals as the Kickstarter enters its final hours. The first, unlocked at $2.25 million, is orchestral recordings for the songs “The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 101” and “Tables Turn.”

The second new goal, unlocked at $2.5 million, is new languages added to the game. No specific languages are mentioned by Platinum asks for fans to let the studio know which languages they most want the game to support if this stretch goal is reached.

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The Wonderful 101: Remastered was the first of four big announcements that Bayonetta and Nier: Automata developer PlatinumGames has for 2020. The second was a self-published game currently known as Project G.G.. The third announcement was the opening of PlatinumGames Tokyo which will be developing live-service games.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered already has a release date. It will be released for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Steam on May 19 in North America and May 22 in Europe.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Spenser Confidential Review

Mark Wahlberg goes home to the streets of Boston in Spenser Confidential, a Netflix Original Movie inspired by the late Robert B. Parker’s literary private eye and the 1980s TV series Spenser: For Hire. It’s a competently made vehicle for Wahlberg to once again play a Boston tough guy but the movie itself isn’t thrilling or compelling enough to fully click as a murder-mystery, working marginally better as a buddy flick thanks to Wahlberg’s banter with co-star Winston Duke, who plays his newfound ally, Hawk.

Loosely inspired by Ace Atkins’ Spenser novel Wonderland, Spenser Confidential really doesn’t require any previous knowledge of either the books or the TV show to understand it. Even if you do have such knowledge the film makes so many changes to fit Spenser to Wahlberg’s screen persona that it could just as easily not be a Spenser story at all. This film — which reunites Wahlberg with director Peter Berg for the fifth time — follows ex-cop Spenser as he readjusts to life after a few years in prison for assaulting his former commanding officer. No sooner has he returned to South Boston than Spenser learns that very same cop has been executed. Spenser has an alibi but when another cop shows up dead the conspiracy widens. Driven by both his innate curiosity and strong moral code, Spenser quickly gets on the bad side of dirty cops, street gangs, and the city’s power brokers in his pursuit to bring justice.

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The whole mystery that the movie hinges on has all the stakes of standard ‘80s/‘90s crime thrillers or countless TV procedurals. You can identify exactly whodunit and why from the get-go so you spend the next 100 minutes going through the motions to get to a conclusion that was obvious from Act One. The action scenes are fine if uninspired; the best parts being seeing Wahlberg’s Spenser getting his ass handed to him by various groups of toughs or, in one of the more amusing sequences, a guard dog. Even though it’s firmly established that Spenser is a trained boxer, the use of Wahlberg as a punching bag is a fun recurring gag throughout the film.

While the mechanics of the murder mystery element of Spenser Confidential are formulaic, at least the personalities of the cast help elevate the other aspects of the movie into something a bit more engaging. As Hawk, Winston Duke forgoes the stone-cold delivery made famous by Avery Brooks on Spenser: For Hire in favor of playing him as a giant who eats greens and drinks oat milk, hipster habits totally foreign to Spenser. Duke’s Hawk may be kinder and gentler than his TV predecessor but he also makes the character far more real and accessible than Brooks’ more cartoonish but way cooler incarnation.

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(It should also be noted that the original Spenser was a thoughtful soul who loves poetry and quotes famous authors; the closest Wahlberg’s Spenser gets to that is being called “bookworm” in the prison library for reading up on tractor-trailer trucks. Also, Spenser wasn’t a Boston native like Wahlberg’s version.)

Other supporting players include Alan Arkin doing his best Alan Arkin impression as Spenser and Hawk’s curmudgeonly benefactor Henry, while comedian Iliza Shlesinger proves an underutilized scene-stealer as Spenser’s brash ex-flame, Cissy. Cissy may be a cliche Tough Boston Girl but at least she generates some laughs at the tough guys’ expense. Wahlberg, Duke, Arkin, and Shlesinger all have a fun chemistry together that a stronger and more engaging story would have helped showcase all the more.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 7, Episode 3 Review

Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 7, Episode 3. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 7, Episode 2.

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The Clone Wars is certainly living up to its name in Season 7. This first story arc is very heavy on both clones and wars. But as is too often the case with arcs that stretch out into four full episodes, the formula is starting to wear thin as we get closer to the end. Even as it finds new ways to spice up Captain Rex and Bad Batch’s mission, “On the Wings of Keeradaks” misses some key storytelling opportunities.

The good news is that this episode doesn’t fall into the same patterns as the previous two chapters when it comes to the action scenes. Rather than showing scene after scene of Rex’s team shooting down ineffectual droid enemies in narrow corridors, Episode 3 focuses on both opening up the scale of the action and mixing up the scenarios facing our heroes. Where Episode 2 sometimes struggled to create a legitimate sense of danger (particularly with a Jedi as powerful as Anakin backing up the team), this followup is much better about creating a sense of a small team facing overwhelming odds.

That’s especially true in the climax of the episode, where our heroes join forces with the Poletecans to face the full might of the Techno Union. That battle scene is pure Star Wars, with heroes triumphing against a vastly larger force and causing plenty of destruction along the way. This sequence, as much as any other, really showcases the improved animation style in Season 7. Especially comparing the series as it is now to the original Clone Wars movie or Season 1 episodes, it’s amazing to see how far the technology powering the series has come.

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That same sense of danger and overwhelming odds is also apparent in the opening sequence, as the clones stall for time while Rex and Tech liberate Echo and Wat Tambor’s minion’s cut their way through. The opening is vaguely reminiscent of the cellblock shootout from A New Hope in that regard. Wrecker is even teed up to make a heroic sacrifice here. While that death doesn’t come to pass, the possibility is upsetting enough. This Bad Batch storyline has done a very efficient job of introducing these new characters and making us care about them in a short span of time. What are the odds all four of them make it out alive next week?

Unfortunately, this episode’s relentless focus on action and lopsided battles prevents it from accomplishing the one thing that’s most important right now. “On the Wings of Keeradaks” does surprisingly little to actually take advantage of Echo’s return. Echo himself seems to shrug off his long captivity with ease, reverting almost immediately to his old dynamics with Rex and Anakin. We don’t get a clear sense of the psychological toll of his captivity or what Rex is feeling now that his hopes have been realized. As long as this story arc is, you’d think there’d be more time to slow down and deliver those little character moments that made the first two episodes so enjoyable. Hopefully Episode 4 can make up for lost time on that front.

It’s also disappointing how this episode deals with the notion of the Poletecans being caught in the crossfire. There’s something tragic about the way the way they’ve been unwillingly dragged into the Clone Wars despite their best efforts to remain safe and isolated. But rather than treat them as unfortunate collateral damage in Rex’s selfish rescue mission, this episode depicts the Poletecans as reluctant soldiers who just need a good pep talk. It feels like there should be a little more nuance to this conflict – a greater emphasis on how the heroes of the Republic can bring devastation despite their best intentions. But that’s always been a flaw with The Clone Wars. For all its efforts to make good on the idea of there being “heroes on both sides,” too often it reverts to a “Republic good, Separatists bad” mentality.

Bleeding Edge Is Pretty Fun Once You Overcome Its Steep Learning Curve

Given my penchant for shooters as opposed to melee-focused action games, I’m a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed playing Bleeding Edge. At a press preview event, I played Ninja Theory’s hero-focused multiplayer game for the first time (I missed chances at E3 and the open beta weekends) and Bleeding Edge impressed me with its satisfying combat and a surprising attention to sound design.

After spending 90 minutes with the game, it’s so immediately apparent that Bleeding Edge started out as a multiplayer online battle arena game. Success is almost totally dependent on teammates communicating with each other and fulfilling the established roles of a balanced unit.

Might Be Too Role-Focused For Its Own Good

Every character in Bleeding Edge fits into one of three classes: damage, support, or tank. Bleeding Edge seems entirely dependent on a team fulfilling an exact quota: one damage, one tank, one support, and a fourth player who changes their role to fulfill the needs of the team. Bleeding Edge’s meta allows for experimentation (in that you can pair different damage, support, and tank characters with one another), but it’s a rigid level of choice–going without any one class will screw over your team.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Bleeding Edge’s Next Fighter Is a Dolphin in a Mech Suit

Bleeding Edge’s official release is just around the corner, but before that developer Ninja Theory decided to introduced a neat new character for us to look forward to at a preview event in San Francisco. Mekko is a dolphin from Japan who gets around in a mech suit equipped with a tank and uses experimental technology to communicate with humans. You’ll have to wait until sometime shortly after the March 24 launch to play this ranged tank, but until then, we have a rundown of his kit and tips for you to keep in mind for when he’s available.

Mekko is one of the few “advanced” characters. He’s equipped with an automatic sonar gun that has good but limited range and even more limited mobility. Evasion is important in Bleeding Edge, and Mekko’s generally lacking mobility is what can make him a challenge to play. Evade is swapped out on Mekko for an ability called Bubble Block. This is a bubble shield that absorbs damage and, as damage is taken, fills two Power Orbs. A filled Power Orb can be consumed to give a bonus to one of Mekko’s specials. The bubble does have an automatically recharging duration meter that limits the bubble from being kept up indefinitely.

mekkkoooooSpeaking of which, here are Mekko’s specials as they were shown in the preview:

  • Lifeline – Connect a lifeline to an ally. Mekko takes 40% of their incoming damage. Press the mapped button again to wind the ally in. With Power Orb: Grant the target a shield.
  • Safety Zone – Mark out a Safety Zone that grants Mekko and his allies armor and lifesteal. With Power Orb: Reduces healing received for enemies inside the area.
  • Surge – Surge forwards, knocking enemies in your path. With Power Orb: Also generate life while traveling.

Mekko’s two supers are interesting zoning tools. The first, Sonic Barrage, lets Mekko emit a controlled sonic blast that deals heavy damage and pushes enemies back. It doesn’t slow Mekko in any way while it’s firing, so this super can be used aggressively to control a large area. Then there’s Exclusion Bubble, which does exactly what you’d expect it to do. Mekko traps a targeted enemy inside the bubble. The enemy doesn’t take any damage and their teammates can destroy the bubble.

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If you’re interested in playing Mekko, I’ve gathered a few basic tips you might want to keep in mind when you take him into battle. These are based on my experience with Mekko in three games and things I noticed while evaluating replays:

  • Keep your bubble up in combat, but don’t keep it up so long that you allow it to pop. You’re usually much better off pulsing the shield rather than leaving it up continuously (unless you’re taking excessive damage from multiple sources at once).
  • You always want to play as a team, but consider keeping especially close one or two of your lower HP teammates. Your Lifeline allows you to take their damage and allows you to pull them out of a sticky situation. If you’ve got a Power Orb ready, you can give them a shield too.
  • Use the tether to pull a teammate up to a higher level for a high ground advantage.
  • Mekko has so many easy ways to improve armor through the Bubble Block and Safety Zone, so you’re the one who should be standing on points! Surge provides for decent escape too.
  • Try to save Mekko’s Surge to hit a line of enemies and keep the Bubble Block shield up while doing so.
  • Doing damage with the Sonic Barrage super is great, but you’ll likely want to pick the Exclusion Bubble more often than not. It’s expectedly great for removing a key tank from a fight so your attackers can focus on killing the enemy supports and attackers.
  • If you’re thinking of using Sonic Barrage to knock enemies out of depositing power cells in Power Collection, instead consider using Surge to do the same thing and use Exclusion Bubble to split up the fight.
  • You can Surge through the air if you jump then use Surge.
  • Safety Zone moves if it’s placed on a moving surface.

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Mekko is an interesting tank in a literal tank with a lot of great combo potential. I’ve only scratched the surface of how he can play well with others, and I look forward to seeing where he excels. For more on Bleed Edge, be sure to keep up with our review in progress.

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Miranda Sanchez is an executive editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.