Future Stories

The Scarlet Witch and her adoptive father, Magneto. Image: Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, Ariana Maher/Marvel Though the Scarlet Witch hasn’t technically been a mutant for some time now in Marvel’s comics, the Hellfire Gala event and its many invitations to non-mutant guests of the X-Men left little question as to whether the so-called “great pretender” would make an appearance at the function. As the Gala was winding down in the pages of SWORD #6 from writer Al Ewing, artist Valerio Schiti, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Ariana Maher, Wanda Maximoff showed up just in time to have a poignant heart-to-heart with Magneto, her adoptive father who wasted little time disowning her and her twin brother after their non-mutant status was revealed. Even though Magneto spent years insisting that Wanda was solely to blame for her mental breakdowns that ultimately led to M-Day, the pair appeared to be ready to make amends and start anew, fitting with the X-Men’s larger pro...

This is hell, and we are in it. Screenshot: Warner Bros. In some ways, Space Jam fans were dreading this since the moment the first trailer essentially turned “cartoons play sci-fi basketball” into “ what if Ready Player One had exclusive access to the Warner Bros. back catalogue? ” but truly, to see this Matrix riff in action is... well, it’s a lot. MovieClips has posted a clip from A New Legacy , giving us our first really good, extended look at a particular moment from the LeBron James/Bugs Bunny vehicle. It is, diplomatically speaking, a nightmare. An extended homage to The Matrix —a property of course, owned by your friends and mine, Warner Media —the clip sees Granny (Candi Milo) and Speedy Gonzales (Gabriel Iglesias) doing... something that requires being encountered by police, before breaking out into the requisite kung-fu and slow-mo that any Matrix reference circa 2002 would deem mandatory , but in 2021 just reads as incredibly, incredibly rote. Okay, I will say, t...

Han Solo on Star Wars Detours. Image: Lucasfilm Somewhere, 39 completed, official episodes of a Star Wars television show exist. A show George Lucas helped create. A show with Darth Vader, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi , and more. And yet, according to the show’s co-creator, odds are we’ll never get to see any of it. That show is called Star Wars Detours and it was announced back in 2012. Co-created by the Robot Chicken team of Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Detours was an officially licensed Star Wars animated comedy using characters from all the films up to that point. Lucas himself even gave his approval and consulted with Green and Senreich on the show. Brief glimpses were released (as well as a description Gizmodo truly trashed at the time ), but when Disney purchased Lucasfilm soon after the announcement, the show was shelved awaiting further actions. Now, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly , Green says that’s kind of where things still are almost a decade late...

Come take a ride with one of Miyazaki’s greatest films. Screenshot: Toho Hayao Miyazaki might be better known for the incredible body of work he developed over his entire career at Studio Ghibli , but the animator’s theatrical debut didn’t just form a foundational base for that career, it gave one of Japan’s most beloved gentlemen thieves his all-time greatest caper: Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro . And now, it’s coming to U.S. theaters for a limited run. Announced by GKids today, the new 4K restoration of the fantastical 1979 caper will return to steadily reopening U.S. theaters in a limited capacity next month, giving audiences a chance to see a formative moment in the beloved anime director’s career in its best possible light. Cagliostro , penned by Miyazaki alongside Haruya Yamazaki, follows Monkey Punch’s heroic thief Lupin and his retinue of mercenary thieves—legendary swordsman Goemon Ishikawa, master sharpshooter Daisuke Jigen, and occasional frenemy (and legendary...

Okily dokily. Image: Disney You know how Disney owns everything now ? Here’s another chance to see it on display in The Simpsons’ latest Disney+ animated short, which sees Tom Hiddleston ’s Loki taking a break from, well, Loki to visit Springfield and do things with Bart Simpson. In an emailed press release, Disney+ announced a new animated short called “The Good, The Bart, and The Loki.” Created in the vein of the previous Simpsons crossover short “Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens from Its Nap, ” this one places the All-American Sitcom Family in the path of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hiddleston reprises his role as Loki, who has been bouncing around the timeline in the Disney+ series Loki. Here’s a synopsis for the upcoming animated short: Loki is banished from Asgard once again and must face his toughest opponents yet: the Simpsons and Springfield’s mightiest heroes. The God of Mischief teams up with Bart Simpson in the ultimate crossover event paying tribute to t...

Detail from the cover of Far Out: Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy. Image: Night Shade It’s hot outside, possibly hot as hell depending on where you live —but one way to keep cool is to plop down in front of a fan or the air conditioner, or perhaps inside a walk-in freezer, and crack open a fresh new sci-fi or fantasy book. We’ve got you covered this month with palace intrigue, space battles , doomsday prophecies, reinvented classics, inter-dimensional serial killers, chatty ghosts, and so much more . Read on! Image: Montlake Song of the Forever Rains by E.J. Mellow A young sorceress with a magical voice goes on a dangerous undercover mission to stop a corrupt duke from stealing poison—but soon finds herself falling for the duke’s heir, who may not be entirely trustworthy. (July 1) Image: Custom House Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings by Earl Swift This nonfiction book focuses on the often-overshadowed histor...