David Harbour has dropped out of an upcoming movie starring Pedro Pascal, Eva Victor, Olivia Wilde, and Matthew Lillard, allegedly to rest after feeling “overwhelmed” by the wrapping up of Netflix show Stranger Things.

Harbour, who plays Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, has exited Behemoth!, the drama from Rogue One writer and Andor creator Tony Gilroy, Variety confirmed.

Variety said “multiple insiders familiar with the project said Harbour was overwhelmed by the series wrap of Stranger Things — a monthslong episodic rollout and global water cooler moment with intense press scrutiny — and stepped away from the project to rest.”

It is not known who will now play David Harbour’s recast character.

Stranger Things came to an end on New Year’s Eve with a 2-hour finale that saw Hopper and the rest of the characters finally defeat Vecna. It closes the door on a show that began on Netflix nearly a decade ago, with the weight of expectation of a huge online fandom that has spent years digging through every detail.

In June last year, Harbour indicated that he was ready to be hanging up the badge. "You get to a certain point where you’re like, 'How much more story is there?' You’re having to play a lot of the same beat," Harbour told Scarlett Johansson during a conversation for Interview Magazine. "And there’s a feeling where you’re like, 'I want to take a risk. I want to do something that people haven’t seen me do before.' So yeah, after 10 years, it’s like, 'Okay.'"

Two years prior, Harbour said he didn’t want to be tied to the Netflix show forever, and even suggested he’d give up TV acting altogether once Stranger Things wrapped up.

He said: "It’s a funny position I’m in, which I never thought I would be in. The first year of Stranger Things, I remember having a discussion with a publicist and her saying: ‘maybe you don’t want to be associated with the show so much.'

"I was like, ‘Why? I love this show. I love the character.’ And I do love the show. And I do love the character. But I don’t want to be just that character. I don’t want to be just that guy."

Harbour compared himself to George Clooney during his time playing Doug Ross on medical drama series ER, saying the now incredibly successful and famous film star was once just "the guy from ER.”

"I'm trying to navigate some of that, and it’s tricky because you don’t want to s**t on the people that love you for this thing that you did that you also love," Harbour added.

"But at the same time, you kind of want to leave the nest. I got more in me. I got different stuff in me, and I want you guys to see that. I don’t want people yelling ‘Hopper’ on the street every five minutes the rest of my life."

The most expensive Pokémon card in the world has been put up for sale by Logan Paul, the wrestler and influencer who previously paid $5.3 million for it.

Paul's mint condition, PSA 10-rated Pikachu Artist holds the Guinness World Record as the most expensive Pokémon trading card in existence — but it seems like the card could now be sold for an even higher amount.

If you have a few million dollars spare to make a bid, Paul has said he'll add to the card's value by throwing in a bejeweled chain (which he says is worth another $75,000) and hand deliver it to the auction's ultimate winner. Paul wore the card and chain during his WWE debut at WrestleMania 38, and again for his bout against Anthony Joshua in Miami last month.

Now Stranger Things has come to an end, fans are wondering what’s next from the wider Stranger Things universe. Some have speculated that a sequel of sorts could be in the works, one that checks in on the main characters maybe a decade after the events of the Season 5 finale.

But the Duffer brothers, co-creators and showrunners of Stranger Things, have ruled a sequel out, saying making such a thing would come across as a “gross cash grab.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Duffer explained why the Season 5 finale works as the definitive end for the story.

“Mike’s closing the basement door,” he said. “We’re closing the door on the story. That’s one reason we had the closing credits the way we did, because it was a way of saying: ‘this is finite. This is the end of their story. It’s the end of the story of Mike and Eleven and Joyce and Hopper. So, no, there’s no plan or intention to tell the story because it’s a coming-of age story. Ultimately, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the show always was. When he closes the door to the basement, he’s closing the door on his childhood and he’s moving onto adulthood.”

Matt Duffer went on to wonder out loud about the prospect of a sequel that revisits the characters years later, but ultimately ruled it out.

“I mean, I guess a sequel could be about a midlife crisis,” he said. “That just sounds really uninteresting! (Laughs.) Grandpa Hopper? I don’t know how that would read as anything but a gross cash grab to me. I wish I could talk a little bit more about the [live-action] spinoff, but I’m not allowed to yet. But Ross and I are really excited about exploring new characters and a new mythology, but still very much are interested in telling a story in the spirit of Stranger Things. It feels like with this final season, we finished saying everything we wanted to say about these characters, this story and the Upside Down.”

While details on the live-action Stranger Things spinoff are thin on the ground, we do know one thing about it: it will answer what’s inside the briefcase we see in the Season 5 finale, as well as other loose threads.

“The spinoff is going to delve into that and explain that, and you’re going to understand it,” Matt Duffer said of the briefcase rock. “But it’s a completely different mythology. So it’s not a deep exploration of the Mind Flayer or anything like that. It’s very fresh and very new, but yes, it will answer some of the loose threads that are remaining.”

The Duffer brothers are working on the spinoff as we speak, and described it as a “clean slate.”

“Completely new characters, new town, new world, new mythology,” Matt Duffer said, adding: “No common characters.”

Netflix actually has two announced Stranger Things spinoffs in development, the first of which is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series due out at some point this year. This is set in the same universe between Seasons 2 and 3, and follows the original characters as they “fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.” The second spinoff, which the Duffer brothers are referring to above, is an unnamed live-action series. And if you’re really desperate for more, there’s a making-of documentary due out on Netflix on January 12.

Image credit: Netflix.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Southern California police are investigating a wave of similar burglaries involving trading card businesses in a bid to establish whether they are linked.

Thieves made off with thousands of dollars' worth of trading cards over the weekend, targeting a trading card store in Simi Valley, California, in the early hours of Sunday morning, January 4.

As reported by KTLA, the thieves targeted rare Pokémon and sports trading cards at Simi Sports Cards, making off with "almost every card" in just three minutes. You can see the robbery take place in the Instagram footage, below.

Owner Jake Miller said: “They took single cards from our show cases [after] busting them open. We have five display cases in here, and they were all full — almost every card was stolen. It’s several hundred cards, as well as some sealed boxes."

The store isn't certain of the exact amount taken, but Miller estimates it'll cost around $50,000 to put things right and upgrade the store's security systems.

"Card stores in greater Los Angeles and Ventura County are being hit RELENTLESSLY and we were once again victim this weekend," reads the Instagram post. "Sunday morning at 3:30am we were broken into by a group of 5 thieves who stole most of our singles inventory. Simi Valley was once known for law and order, what is happening?"

The Simi Valley Police Department said it was aware of similar burglaries involving trading card businesses that occurred over the weekend in surrounding communities. "SVPD Property Crimes Detectives are working closely with neighboring law enforcement agencies to determine whether these incidents may be connected," it said in a statement published online.

That's a reference to a man who reportedly purchased a rare Pokémon card "worth six figures" from a store in LA's Sawtelle neighborhood and, that same day, was tracked to his vehicle and robbed at gunpoint. It's unclear whether the two incidents are related, or indeed if either crime is connected to the same thieves who targeted a different store in Burbank just last month, stealing $100,000 in merchandise.

NEW: Burglars ransack card shop and steal $100,000 worth of rare Pokémon and sports cards

The owner believes the thieves knew exactly where the merchandise was and planned the job ahead of time

They got away with about $100,000 in merchandise

Police believe the same crew may… pic.twitter.com/zMIurJ86U9

— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) December 6, 2025

This recent spate of thefts is just the latest example of how Pokémon cards are now considered high-value goods by thieves. In December 2024, it was reported that Japanese crime syndicates were now using Pokémon cards to launder money. And in the U.S., this is just the latest incident similar to many others over the past 12 months. Until Pokémon's popularity fades — and there's no sign it'll do that anytime soon, with a big new wave of games expected next year — it seems likely this will continue.

Anyone who may have information related to the burglary or who observed suspicious activity in the area is encouraged to contact the Simi Valley Police Department: 805-583-6950.

Image credit: Simi Sports Cards Instagram.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

A day on from the official reveal of LEGO Smart Brick, the company has responded to concerns that its big announcement poses a risk to its core basis in physical play.

Speaking to IGN, LEGO exec Federico Begher, SVP of Product, New Business, said that the impending arrival of smart elements in LEGO sets was a huge moment for the company, and one it had been working towards for a long period. At the same time, however, Begher was keen to respond to some of the technology's less-enthused early reactions, which have questioned whether LEGO was risking its core principals as a physical toy company.

"It's a big part of the future," Begher told IGN. "[But] I mean, it's very important to be clear that this does not mean that we're leaving our core proposition behind, which is some of the questions and concerns I've heard, like, 'are you leaving what's been successful in the massive move into this?'"

There is a mysterious countdown timer on Amazon’s official website for its Fallout TV series that is set to unlock when the Season 2 finale comes out — but fans think it might also signal the shadowdrop of a Fallout 3 or New Vegas remaster.

The countdown is live now on a website designed to look like a Fallout map. On it are locations in the Fallout map style which, when accessed, lead you to behind-the-scenes information on the show. For example, The Vault 33 outer door, from which Lucy first steps foot into the wasteland, is on the south of the map. The Caswennan, the airship that serves as a soaring fortress for the Brotherhood of Steel, is to the east. And up there in the top right is the locked point of interest alongside the timer, which points to February 4.

The Stranger Things final battle was inspired by Baldur’s Gate 3, the Duffer Brothers have revealed.

Warning! Spoilers for Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 8, The Rightside Up, follow:

In the finale, our heroes travel to The Abyss for a final showdown against Vecna, whose base of operations turns out to be the Mind Flayer itself. The final battle involves our heroes taking on the Mind Flayer from various positions and using various weapons, while a smaller strike team heads inside to face off against Vecna himself and rescue the kidnapped children.

It turns out Matt Duffer, co-creator and co-showrunner of Stranger Things, was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 when he and his brother, Ross Duffer, were working out how the final battle would go down, and Larian’s much-loved party-based role-playing game influenced how it would play out.

In an interview with Variety, Matt Duffer pointed to D&D and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Baldur’s Gate 3 is of course an official D&D video game, using its rules for combat and set in its universe).

“We were thinking about D&D, and I was playing Baldur’s Gate 3 at the time, and we felt it was very important that the only way for them to defeat it was for the entire party to work together,” Matt Duffer explained.

“Everyone had fully realized — either through self-acceptance or they’ve resolved all their various issues — moving into that final battle, they’re absolutely primed. They’re the ultimate team, and it’s the party working all together to defeat this thing. And they each have their own individual skills, right? And that’s where I go back to Dungeons & Dragons, and something like Baldur’s Gate. Because that’s how you take down these monsters that seem otherwise unstoppable. Lots of video game references were applied to that final battle.”

In Baldur’s Gate 3, players control not only their created character, but its now-famous companion characters in combat. The likes of Shadowheart, the half-elf Cleric, Astarion, the high elven Rogue, and Karlach, the Tiefling Barbarian, all bring different skills to the table, and finding ways to make the most of them in tough boss fights is part of the fun.

Similarly, the heroes of Stranger Things bring their own skills to bear in the final battle. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) uses her powers to carve a path inside the Mind Flayer and battle Vecna. Meanwhile, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) suggests the others spread out, flank it on all sides, “Just chip away at its hit points.”

Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), doing her best Rambo impression, uses her gun skills to get the Mind Flayer’s attention, while the rest of the team ambush it from above. Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) uses a flame thrower, while others throw molotov cocktails and other bombs. Steve and Dustin strike from below using melee weapons. Then Will comes in with his powers to help finish the job.

Following the Duffer Brothers’ revelation, Larian boss Swen Vincke took to social media to say, “That’s pretty cool.” Larian publishing director Michael Douse added: “Damn now I really should watch Stranger Things…”

Still, some fans have taken issue with the Stranger Things final battle, wondering where all the Demogorgons were when Vecna needed them most. The Duffer Brothers have an explanation for that. We’ve also got the first details on the live-action spinoff, an explainer on the Stranger Things 'Conformity Gate' theory, which is currently doing the rounds on social media, and Sadie Sink's interpretation of Eleven's ending.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded just around the corner, we're starting to get a better idea of what to expect when the new update goes live on January 8.

Although we don't yet have all the details, we should expect four multiplayer maps for Black Ops 7 at launch, plus new POIs on Haven's Hollow Resurgence and Verdansk maps in Warzone. There's also some updates for Zombies, including the Astra Malorum Round-Based Zombies map and Exit 115 Survival map, plus "reward-filled weekly challenges," new weapons, modes, camos, events, and more.

While pre-load is not live yet across all platforms, it is available for players on Battle.net, where it looks like it's a 175GB download (redownloading the game), although that will depend on what game modes you have/want installed. On Xbox, the download looks to be around 170GB, so whatever you're playing on, it may be worth double-checking how much space you have ahead of time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded start times:

Depending on where you are in the world, Season 1 Reloaded is set to go live on:

Thursday, January 8, 2026:

PST (San Francisco):

• 9am

CST (Mexico City):

• 11am

EST (New York):

• 12pm

GMT (London):

• 5pm

CET (Paris):

• 6pm

Friday, January 9, 2026

JST (Tokyo):

• 1am

CST (Beijing):

• 1am

AEST (Sydney):

• 4am

NZST (Wellington):

• 6am

Maps

Players will fight across a suite of new core Multiplayer maps with Season 1 Reloaded, including the high-rise, neon-soaked rooftops of Yakei alongside the return of two of the most iconic maps in Black Ops history: Meltdown and Fringe.

Zombies, on the other hand, will see the Zarya Cosmodrome location from Ashes of the Damned become a Survival map, and a Directed mode has been added to the Astra Malorum map, so buddies can now jump and help each other complete the main story quest.

Campaign

Two new world events have been confirmed, but we only have details of one: the Wraith Wing world event. This advanced Guild aircraft appears to have cloning capabilities with lethal consequences as this squadron seems hell bent on eliminating as many JSOC Operators as it can. Disable it, fire at the exposed aircraft, and down that bird.

Weapons

So far, we only know of two new weapons unlocking in Season 1 Reloaded:

• Hawker HX (Sniper rifle, FKA Ballista sniper)
• Sturmwolf 45 (submachine gun, FKA UMP45)

Fallout Collab

Okie dokie - stay focused, stay alive ☢️@FalloutonPrime is coming to Call of Duty in Season 01 Reloaded 💥 pic.twitter.com/uyFl3mRDkG

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) December 17, 2025

Yes, it's true — Microsoft is bringing two of its hottest gaming franchises together for a Fallout Season 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 crossover event. While details remain sparse, we've seen a brief video teaser which shows silhouettes of Fallout TV series characters The Ghoul, Lucy, and Maximus in the smoke of war, with bullets whizzing by in the background.

"Okie dokie — stay focused, stay alive," the text on the post reads. "[Fallout TV show] is coming to Call of Duty in Season 01 Reloaded."

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Recent Battlefield 6 Steam reviews have fallen to 'Mixed,' with players pointing to bugs, “aggressive monetization,” and generative AI content as player numbers dwindle amid the long wait for Season 2.

Battlefield 6 took off with the strongest start the EA FPS franchise had seen in years when it launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on October 10. Although the time since has seen Battlefield Studios’ new installment fall out of (and back into) favor with fans, the rough patch it currently finds itself in is undeniably its longest yet.

Just as Battlefield 6 clawed its way to general positivity following the mid-November launch of its Season 1: California Resistance update, December saw the start of an influx of new negative Steam reviews and a continued decline in concurrent player numbers on Valve's platform. That’s at least partly thanks to the release of the final Season 1 chapter, Winter Offensive, which focused on limited-time, snowy versions of existing multiplayer maps, but it wasn’t the lack of new locations driving this downward trend.

The December 9 1.1.3.0 update’s Ice Lock event and Ice Climbing Axe melee weapon came side-by-side with a glitchy main menu, game-breaking stuttering issues, and a subtle (and unintentional) infantry movement nerf. BF Studios was quick to deliver on its promises to fix many of the issues plaguing players across PC and consoles despite the impending holiday break, but Winter Offensive has since proven to be the last crack in the steadily weakening dam keeping displeased Battlefield 6 fans at bay.

Losing Steam

Complaints related to Winter Offensive, compounded with longtime desires to see things like bigger Conquest maps, additional grounded skins, and other highly requested features, resulted in the beginning of the general decline in favorability, including for those on Steam. December 10, one day after the update’s launch, saw 652 negative reviews and 474 positive reviews logged in English. That’s a shift from the previous trend, which had seen favorable scores outweighing the negative each day.

The weeks leading to this point saw Battlefield 6 boasting “Mostly Positive” reviews in nearly all languages (save for Simplified Chinese, which has remained at “Mostly Negative” since late October). SteamDB’s user tracker has all reviews reaching positivity of 69.8% from December 2 – December 8, with that number since falling to 68.4%.

Amid the debate about Arc Raiders players who focus on the PvP aspect of the game and little else, the boss of Embark Studios has made the developer’s position clear: this is not a game about killing other players, and it doesn’t want to “foster” that type of gameplay.

Arc Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure in which players scavenge the remnants of a devastated world, but the main threats are Arc’s machines and, as Embark Studios puts it, “the unpredictable choices of fellow survivors.”

Arc Raiders’ player versus environment versus player gameplay has resulted in a number of viral clips showing how friendly encounters can quickly devolve into a fight to the last. Yes, you can play solo or in parties up to three, working as a team to progress through the game. However, other players are a constant threat. This has sparked a vociferous debate within the community about the etiquette that has formed in-game, with a retired pro gamer going viral for relentlessly killing casual Arc Raiders players.

Meanwhile, Embark recently confirmed that Arc Raiders does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’ This means that if you’re big into PvP, you’ll be matched up with players who are like-minded. Similarly, if you prefer PvE, you’ll be matchmade with players who tend to avoid conflict with other players.

But according to Patrick Söderlund, CEO of Embark Studios, the developer won’t add a PvP leaderboard or other systems that promote PvP, because that’s not what Arc Raiders is about.

In a recent interview / video playthrough of the game with Games Beat, Söderlund explained the studio’s position.

“We've had several discussions about Nemesis systems and all types of things,” he said. “I don't know where the team are on them right now. I think one of the beauties of this game is the fact that we don't have those leaderboards and it's not competitive.

“We don't want to necessarily foster that type of gameplay. The game isn't about shooting other players. You can do that if you want to, but the ethos of the game has never been to go in and shoot players. It's a part that we use to craft tension.”

Söderlund revealed that Arc Raiders spent quite a bit of time during development not having other players at all. But Embark added other players into the game, supported by subtle signaling so you know players were about, to create this important element of tension.

“The game was without other players for a long time,” Söderlund said. “And yes, there were instances where the game was fun and there were areas where it worked quite well. But also the minute you added other players and then use subtle ways of signaling — you don't know how many players are on the server, you don't know how many players have died, you don’t know how many players are around you — but we signal to you that there are other players. You hear them shooting. That's why audio is a very important part of this game. You hear them encountering Arc and other players. You see the raider flares as they go down.

“At one point — it was funny — I came back into a playtest and the raider flares were gone. I'm like, ‘Why did you remove those?’ And they're like, ‘Well, well…’ So I just said, ‘Just bring them back.’ They're such an iconic part of this game.

“And they also signal to other players that action is happening somewhere. It makes it feel populated in an important way. And you also know that there could be a downed raider somewhere. Should I go there? Should I take the risk and go there to see whether I can find something, or have they been brought back to life? There's a tension element in that that's very important.”

Söderlund went on to suggest that private game servers are “absolutely something we could consider.” Private servers are something fans have been wondering about ever since Arc Raiders came out last year. Their addition would, theoretically at least, allow those who are big into PvP to perhaps create servers where that’s the focus.

For now, though, Arc Raiders won’t shake your hand for your player-killing exploits, or give you the chance for online glory through leaderboards. The emphasis here is PvE — with a dash of PvP thrown in.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.