Spotlight
Catch up on all of Popverse's PAX East 2025 coverage!
We were at the four-day Boston gaming event from start to finish, and we want to tell you all about it
Graeme McMillan
X-Men was "the most disappointing creative experience" Jonathan Hickman has ever had, the Marvel writer reveals
"It's really, really difficult for me to talk about it or think about it in any kind of positive aspect," Jonathan Hickman says about the fact that he didn't get to finish the X-Men story he started with 2019's House of X/Powers of X dual miniseries
Graeme McMillan
Experience Critical Role's Age of Umbra actual play earlier than expected with special Session Zero coming May 22
Session zero will see Critical Role's Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham create their Daggerheart characters with GM Matthew Mercer
Grant DeArmitt
Wicked comes to NBC with a live musical spectacular starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande ahead of Wicked: For Good flying into theaters
Director Jon M. Chu promises appearances from the movie's cast as well as "surprise guests" in the fall live event on NBC and Peacock
Graeme McMillan
DC Studios head James Gunn is "pre-writing" his next movie now that Superman is almost finished (and almost in theaters)
Gunn also offered updates on the status of Superman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and how ready the Superman trailer is
Graeme McMillan
Yoshitaka Amano returns to the Final Fantasy series to paint his favorite video game creation of all time for the upcoming Magic: The Gathering crossover
Yoshitaka Amano returns to Final Fantasy to paint his favorite character - and this time he's drawing her more realistically than he did when he first created her.
Chris Arrant
Latest
Playing Star Wars' Anakin Skywalker was a dream gig for Ryan Phillippe - but he told he was too old, especially for Natalie Portman
Imagine if Ryan Phillippe had said Anakin's iconic "I hate sand" line from Star Wars: Episode II. What a world.
The Final Fantasy 10 laughing scene meme has turned into a cardboard classic with Magic: The Gathering crossover
Remember Tidus's weird laugh in Final Fantasy X? There's a Magic: The Gathering card for that now
A romantasy book con descended into Fyre Festival-like chaos so bad the organizer says it's refunding "every attendee, author, and vendor"
A Million Lives Book Festival, a romantasy book convention in Baltimore, left authors and attendees alike scandalized by the poor event planning
How Andor introduced a new kind of Star Wars hero
What Star Wars: Andor teaches us about everyday rebellion.
And Just Like That... season 3 release date: The latest Sex and the City revival series returns to HBO
HBO refuses to let Sex and the City end, bringing back the revival series back for a third season.
The Chi season 7 release date: Showtime brings us back to the South Side of Chicago again in May 2025, with a potential season 8 on the way
The new season of The Chi is coming and might not be the last season of Showtime's hit drama.
Love, Death + Robots season 4 release date: Volume 4 of the sci fi anthology series comes to Netflix this May
The Netflix series aims to open up a "boundary-less world" in Love, Death + Robots season 4.
Ex-Daredevil showrunner partners with Michael B. Jordan for even more boxing than his Marvel Studios show in first Creed spinoff
The Rocky spin-off gets its own spin-off as Delphi looks set to debut on Amazon's Prime Video service sometime in the future.
Spider-Noir first look serves up Sin City vibes that the Nicolas Cage show has always deserved
Based on the Spider-Man Noir comic, the upcoming live-action series sees Nic Cage reprise his role from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Another One Piece actor - this time Joe Manganiello - has confirmed that season 3 is happening before Netflix has mentioned it
The Sir Crocodile actor said he'd be back on set for season 3 of One Piece later in 2025, all while we're still waiting for an official release date for season 2.
EC Comics returns to cosmic horror with anthology series Cruel Universe 2, launching this summer from Oni Press
The first issue of EC Comics' Cruel Universe 2 features work from Greg Pak (Incredible Hulk), Ann Nocenti (Daredevil), Kano (Action Comics) and The Walking Dead's Charlie Adlard
Every new Marvel Snap card and location being added during the May 2025 X-Men season
Let's go back to school and add some of the lesser-known mutants from the Marvel universe to your Marvel Snap deck.
The first Stranger Things game has been stripped from Steam, and now users are saying its basically unplayable
Has Stranger Things 3: The Game been banished to the Upside Down as part of Netflix's new gaming push?
The Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set has been in development for 4 years - and MTG's creators enjoyed FF XVI like fans to get a genuine feel for it
The sleepless weekend inside Wizards of the Coast offices (and employees' households) when Final Fantasy XVI was released.
The Alexandria RPG Library at PAX East connected me to the tabletop games of yore
The Alexandria RPG Library is a massive collection of out-of-print TTRPG books, and I went nuts at PAX East over them
Why HBO series The Last of Us season 2 expands on Dina's game backstory, according to Dina herself, Isabela Merced
The Last of Us, season 2, episode 5 gives us character details we didn't know about Merced's Dina. Their inclusion, says the actor, informs both her relationship to Bella Ramsey's Ellie and the show's take on trauma
Dead by Daylight's Five Nights at Freddy's map changes the killer queue forever
Not only will Dead by Daylight soon introduce Five Nights at Freddy's Springtrap - it will also add a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria map AND a gaming mechanic for which fans at PAX East 2025 went wild
Wednesday season 2 might not have been the reason Jenna Ortega didn't do Scream VII, but it was the reason she didn't do You season 5
You showrunner Michael Foley recently revealed the schedule conflict between You's final season and Wednesday's sophomore appearance on Netflix
Driving century-old cars, talking to local historians, learning Sicilian swears - How Mafia: The Old Country's devs brought the game back in time
I'm just saying, I don't know of a Mario Kart dev team that ever got behind the wheel like the Mafia: The Old Country folks did
HANK: Drowning on Dry Land is Batman: The Animated Series, if Batman could manipulate time and was always drunk
Playing HANK: Drowning on Dry Land at PAX East 2025 brought me back to a beloved part of my childhood, while giving me something I haven't seen in gaming before now
Legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's massive flop Megalopolis is the new Apocalypse Now... says Francis Ford Coppola himself
"Apocalypse Now was a big flop, it got terrible reviews, everyone said it was the worst movie ever made. And yet people never stopped going to see it," explains the director in a recent interview
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Popverse Picks: The best Stephen King movie & TV (and more) adaptations, from one King fan to another
It's maybe the greatest horror movie of all time, but King himself doesn't like it - so let's just skip Stanley Kubrick's The Shining altogether and get into some other things based on Stephen's works, yeah?
Grant DeArmitt

Popverse Jump: Spy x Family is going to end with Loid realizing he loves being a dad or I'm going to riot
Twilight's journey in Spy x Family is inevitably heading toward him realizing that being a dad is important to him and I can't wait to see it happen.
Trent Cannon

How to be a D&D Dungeon Master, according to Wizards of the Coast's game director James Wyatt and principal game designer James Wyatt
At MCM x EGX 2024, Wizards of the Coast held a TED Talk-level explanation of how to be a D&D DM - and we have it for you.
Chris Arrant
PAX East 2025

The Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set has been in development for 4 years - and MTG's creators enjoyed FF XVI like fans to get a genuine feel for it
The sleepless weekend inside Wizards of the Coast offices (and employees' households) when Final Fantasy XVI was released.
Chris Arrant

The Alexandria RPG Library at PAX East connected me to the tabletop games of yore
The Alexandria RPG Library is a massive collection of out-of-print TTRPG books, and I went nuts at PAX East over them
Jules Chin Greene

Dead by Daylight's Five Nights at Freddy's map changes the killer queue forever
Not only will Dead by Daylight soon introduce Five Nights at Freddy's Springtrap - it will also add a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria map AND a gaming mechanic for which fans at PAX East 2025 went wild
Grant DeArmitt

Driving century-old cars, talking to local historians, learning Sicilian swears - How Mafia: The Old Country's devs brought the game back in time
I'm just saying, I don't know of a Mario Kart dev team that ever got behind the wheel like the Mafia: The Old Country folks did
Grant DeArmitt
PAX East 2025

The Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set has been in development for 4 years - and MTG's creators enjoyed FF XVI like fans to get a genuine feel for it
The sleepless weekend inside Wizards of the Coast offices (and employees' households) when Final Fantasy XVI was released.
Chris Arrant

The Alexandria RPG Library at PAX East connected me to the tabletop games of yore
The Alexandria RPG Library is a massive collection of out-of-print TTRPG books, and I went nuts at PAX East over them
Jules Chin Greene

Dead by Daylight's Five Nights at Freddy's map changes the killer queue forever
Not only will Dead by Daylight soon introduce Five Nights at Freddy's Springtrap - it will also add a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria map AND a gaming mechanic for which fans at PAX East 2025 went wild
Grant DeArmitt

Driving century-old cars, talking to local historians, learning Sicilian swears - How Mafia: The Old Country's devs brought the game back in time
I'm just saying, I don't know of a Mario Kart dev team that ever got behind the wheel like the Mafia: The Old Country folks did
Grant DeArmitt
Magic: The Gathering

The Final Fantasy 10 laughing scene meme has turned into a cardboard classic with Magic: The Gathering crossover
Remember Tidus's weird laugh in Final Fantasy X? There's a Magic: The Gathering card for that now
Jules Chin Greene

The Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set has been in development for 4 years - and MTG's creators enjoyed FF XVI like fans to get a genuine feel for it
The sleepless weekend inside Wizards of the Coast offices (and employees' households) when Final Fantasy XVI was released.
Chris Arrant

Prepare for a new kind of Chocobo Racing that even Post Malone might play, as the Golden Chocobo will be the ultra-rare card in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set
There are said to be only 77 Golden Chocobo cards in existence. If you find one, let me know.
Chris Arrant

Affinity for complexity: A Wizards of the Coast executive revealed how they gauge how complex (or how simple) to make a Magic: The Gathering set like Final Fantasy
The Complexity Dial isn't a new card in Magic: The Gathering - it's an internal mechanic Wizards of the Coast uses to make the best product for fans.
Chris Arrant
Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Matters: What Thunderbolts* says about the MCU
How Marvel Studios' Beef-ed up the MCU Phase 5 with Thunderbolts* and what it means for the new Avengers movies to come.
Chris Arrant

Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* movie puts the final nail in the coffin for the Joss Whedon-era superhero film
Thunderbolts* has freed the MCU from the prison of Joss Whedon-esque dialogue dating back to 2012's The Avengers
Jules Chin Greene

Marvel Matters: After Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts*, I see Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom assembling his own team with the Cabal
MCU fans have spent all this time speculating on the next Avengers, but we need to think about the villains creating their own Avengers.
Chris Arrant

Marvel Matters: The cursed chalice of Marvel Studios' success, and the broken cinematic universe dreams it gave Hollywood
The Icarus effect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how cost Warner Bros., Sony, Universal Pictures and more billions of dollars.
Chris Arrant
Final Fantasy

The Final Fantasy 10 laughing scene meme has turned into a cardboard classic with Magic: The Gathering crossover
Remember Tidus's weird laugh in Final Fantasy X? There's a Magic: The Gathering card for that now
Jules Chin Greene

Prepare for a new kind of Chocobo Racing that even Post Malone might play, as the Golden Chocobo will be the ultra-rare card in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy set
There are said to be only 77 Golden Chocobo cards in existence. If you find one, let me know.
Chris Arrant

Affinity for complexity: A Wizards of the Coast executive revealed how they gauge how complex (or how simple) to make a Magic: The Gathering set like Final Fantasy
The Complexity Dial isn't a new card in Magic: The Gathering - it's an internal mechanic Wizards of the Coast uses to make the best product for fans.
Chris Arrant

The Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy crossover set deserves Final Fantasy XVI’s creepy villain, Ultima, immortalized in card form
Just look at this guy! Ultima, from Final Fantasy XVI! Who WOULDN’T want a Magic: The Gathering card of him?
Jules Chin Greene