This article contains some spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.
So, HBO is turning Baldur’s Gate into a TV show. On its own, that’s quite an exciting proposition: a big-budget, live-action series set in Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic city? Yes please. But the project’s announcement, which came courtesy of Deadline, contains a line that immediately had me burying my head in my hands.
“The Baldur’s Gate TV series will be a continuation to the games,” says the report, “telling a story that takes place immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, as the characters — old and new — are dealing with the ramifications of the events in the third game.”
The ramifications of what events, exactly? The defeat of the Netherbrain? Or perhaps the enslavement of it in the name of the Absolute? Or Gale’s choice to turn into a magical nuclear bomb, sacrificing himself to save the city? These are just three of the many ways Baldur’s Gate 3 can end, and that’s before we consider the dozens and dozens of choices that you make on the way to that conclusion. There are approximately 17,000 variations of the game’s final cutscene. How could a TV show possibly “deal with the ramifications of the events of the third game” when every single player has their own version of events?
The answer, of course, is that showrunner Craig Mazin must decide what choices are “canon.” One half of the duo behind The Last of Us’ HBO adaptation must now set certain events in stone in order to create a baseline to build his story upon. But to decide upon a canon series of events for Baldur’s Gate 3 is not the same as, for instance, determining which of Mass Effect 3’s trio of concluding options would be the starting point for what comes next. It’s not a simple case of how the story ends, but everything that happened on the 100-hour journey up until that point, too.
The entire picture of Baldur’s Gate 3, the story any one player lived, is the result of hundreds of decisions, ranging from the tactical to the emotional to the completely unaware. For some, Minsc and his miniature space hamster, Boo, are vital parts of the story. Yet many won’t even know who he is, having passed by and never recruited him to their party. There are those for whom Shadowheart’s escape from the Church of Shar is a defining moment, yet others will have found an equally defining pathway in encouraging her to embrace the dark goddess. And for those players of a more chaotic leaning, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the tale of an unstoppable serial killer that greedily succumbs to their own Dark Urge, tearing limbs off wizards and letting goblins slaughter refugees. The game is less a single story with a handful of different outcomes, and more like hundreds of character threads that are entwined like rope. A rope that grows thicker and longer with every romance (steady now), argument, betrayal, and surprise you experience. To unravel all that and find a single golden thread for television seems at best foolhardy, at worst impossible.
Anyone who wants a sequel to Baldur's Gate 3 wants a follow-up to their own experience, not Craig Mazin’s.
None of this is to say that the show is guaranteed to be bad, or of poor quality. Considering Mazin’s prior work – in particular, Chernobyl – and HBO’s track record with fantasy programming, there’s every chance that Baldur’s Gate will be a fantastic show, at least when viewed in isolation. But it’s difficult to create that isolation when the project is explicitly a continuation of the journey so many of us undertook for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours. And because of Baldur's Gate 3's unrivalled branching RPG design, we have all become deeply attached to our own versions of this world and its characters.
It should be said that details of how the show will be structured are still incredibly thin. It will feature a group of new protagonists, so we don’t know to what extent the now-famous party of heroes and antiheroes that make up Baldur’s Gate 3 cast will feature. By being a “continuation to the games”, could it merely exist in a world where the Netherbrain once existed, and tales of heroes’ journeys to defeat it are muttered in the city's streets like mythical tales? Or will meetings with the likes of Wyll, Astarion, Lae'zel be little more than fleeting encounters, kept somewhat shapeless in an effort to remain relevant to most players’ memories of them? It creates a dilemma: purposefully keep things vague and potentially undercook the history of this world, or pick a defined canon that could alienate large portions of your viewership?
Television adaptations are, of course, designed with more than one eye on wider markets. HBO wants people who have never played Baldur’s Gate 3 to become invested in its world. But that begs the question: why a direct sequel? Why take place immediately after a story that a portion of your audience has no investment in? If half your audience has no attachment to those events, and the other half will almost certainly have experienced a different version of the events you’re building upon, who is winning here? Anyone who does want a sequel wants a follow-up to their own experience, not Craig Mazin’s.
Baldur’s Gate won’t be the first show to tackle this problem. Just this year, the second season of Fallout told a story set after the events of Fallout: New Vegas, an RPG that also concludes with a number of very different, world-defining options. But Fallout has made a number of smart choices. Firstly, it’s not a sequel to the game; it’s just set in the same universe, and thus isn’t trying to continue the plot of New Vegas. Secondly, it’s set over a decade later, and purposefully leaves the events during that time a complete mystery. And so the show’s depiction of the game’s characters and factions doesn’t have to join the dots. Did you hand the Vegas Strip to the Legion in your playthrough? Well, in the 15 years since, they’ve succumbed to infighting and have fallen from their mighty position. You don’t need to know how it happened, it just did.
Using this method, Fallout (sort of) successfully ensures no one New Vegas ending is cemented as canon. Every outcome could have happened, but the result of your choices may not have endured for the 15 years between the game and the show. Larian Studios, the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3, understood the benefit of this kind of time gap; its gargantuan RPG is set more than a century after the events of its predecessor, ensuring it’s not restricted by the conclusion of Baldur’s Gate 2 and has space to create its own story. By starting immediately after the events of BG3, the show won’t have this luxury. It has to make a choice. It has to invalidate thousands of playthroughs. It can’t be the sequel to your experience of Baldur’s Gate 3.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The real lesson to learn from Fallout is that video game adaptations thrive best when they are decoupled from existing stories. So the big question is, why is this not just a Dungeons & Dragons show? You can set a D&D show in Baldur’s Gate. You can call a D&D show “Baldur’s Gate”. You can even include characters and reference (certain) events from Baldur’s Gate 3. But to purposefully shackle yourself to continuing the story of that game, rather than freely exploring its world, feels like purposefully rolling a critical fail on the first round of combat.
Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.
In January 2025, we informed you about a Next-Gen HD Texture Pack for Fallout: New Vegas. And that pack got even better. Modder ‘Montisz’ has released a new version of it, as well as an add-on for the Tales of Two Wastelands. For those who did not know, Tales of Two Wastelands is a mod … Continue reading Fallout: New Vegas’ Next-Gen HD Texture Pack Got Even Better→
It turns out the “Mal Reynolds” who issued Steam game Void War with a DMCA takedown was not a troll who also happened to be a huge fan of Firefly. It was actually Warhammer 40,000 owner Games Workshop, which took issue with an image of a shoulder pad.
Last month, IGN reported on Void War, a strategy game dubbed ‘FTL in a Warhammer 40,000 skin,’ after it was pulled from Steam. At the time, its developer, Tundra Interactive, suggested it may have been on the receiving end of a nuisance DMCA takedown from a troll claiming to be Games Workshop.
Void War is often compared to both indie darling FTL and Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop’s tabletop wargame set in the grim darkness of the far future — and it’s easy to see why. The gameplay looks incredibly similar to Subset Games’ hugely popular 2012 ‘spaceship simulation roguelike-like,’ and the aesthetic is very Warhammer 40,000. The voidships look like Imperial Navy Vessels. Some of the characters look like Space Marines. There’s an actual Psyker that’s called a Psyker. There are “Imperial Shrineworlds.” There’s even a mention of “Imperial astrogation authorities.”
Following the takedown, IGN asked Tundra Interactive for comment, and it responded with something quite unusual. It said that it had received a takedown notice from Valve stating that Games Workshop itself had claimed copyright infringement. But here’s what made this one odd: the claiming information came from Games Workshop’s public-facing infringements inbox and the name “Mal Reynolds.”
Mal Reynolds is a name that will be instantly familiar to Firefly / Serenity fans, because that’s the name of the main character, played by Nathan Fillion, in the beloved but short-lived sci-fi show. At the time, it was thought that it was unlikely that Games Workshop would have someone on its books named Mal Reynolds. But, well, it turns out Games Workshop really was behind the takedown, according to Tundra Interactive.
Tundra Interactive told IGN that Games Workshop eventually replied to the developer to confirm it was their notice, and that the concern was limited to a specific shot from one of the trailers on the Steam store page that it said could give the impression that Void War was associated with Games Workshop. The company specified that the element in question was “the oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim.” And, well, yeah, that Void War trailer did indeed have an image of a character who looked a lot like a Space Marine, complete with "oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim."
Tundra Interactive told IGN that it disagreed with Games Workshop's assessment here, but in order to get Void War back on Steam and to avoid a drawn out DMCA fight, it pulled the trailer. It may re-upload it in the future after making an adjustment, but its priority is getting back to work on Void War, the developer insisted. And, to that end, Void War is now back on Steam.
Here’s Tundra Interactive’s statement in full to IGN:
To recap, the initial takedown was triggered by a DMCA notice attributed to Games Workshop. At the time, we could not independently verify the submitter beyond the name and contact email Valve included. The contact email was GW's public infringements inbox, and the name listed was “Mal Reynolds,” which is also a fictional character from the sci-fi TV show Firefly.
After over a week of no response, Games Workshop eventually replied to our email and confirmed the notice was theirs. They said their concern was limited to a specific shot from one of the trailers on the store page, arguing that certain elements could create the mistaken impression that Void War is associated with Games Workshop, specifically what they described as “the oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim.”
All of the artwork in the trailer is original work created by our artists. While we disagree with their assessment, the simplest way to get the game back up and avoid getting bogged down in DMCA process was to remove that trailer and move on. We may re-upload an updated version later after we find time to adjust that shot, but for now our priority is shipping content and finishing multi-language font support so we can finally deliver proper translations.
Thanks for your patience, and thank you for the overwhelming support. o7 commanders.
All’s well that ends well? Perhaps. Certainly this case shows that Games Workshop and “Mal Reynolds,” who I’d love to meet one day, are keeping a close eye on video game characters and their shoulder pads. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise, given Games Workshop's history of stringent IP protection. Be warned! The Inquisition is always watching.
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.
FED Fitness, one of Amazon's biggest marketplace sellers of fitness equipment, is hosting a Valentine's Day Sale on its own site, with prices lower than what you can get from Amazon. Currently there are two coupons: a 15% off code "FEDLOVED15" and a stackable 5% code "IGN" for a total of 20% off sitewide.
This sweetens the deal on top of already reasonable retail pricing compared to brands like Peloton, Bowflex, and NordicTrack. FED's product selection is pretty diverse and includes adjustable dumbbells, power towers, folding treadmills, rowers, ellipticals and more. We all know how heavy fitness equipment can get, but fortunately all orders ship free from FED Fitness.
DB1 52.5-Pound Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair)
There's no need to pay $500 for the Bowflex SelectTech adjustable dumbbells when there are equally well-built options at a much lower price point. For a limited time, FED Fitness is offering its own DB1 Adjustable Dumbbells (52.5 pounds each or 105 pounds total) for about $315 with free delivery.
Each FED Fitness DB1 dumbbell is adjustable from 5 pounds all the way up to 52.5 pounds. The adjustment mechanism works similarly to the Bowflex SelectTech series; you turn a dial in 2.5 or 5 pound increments which locks in a specific combination of plates that add up to the desired weight. Unlike traditional free weights that take up a decent chunk of space, these adjustable dumbbells are neatly contained in a compact package that measures just 16" square.
Flybird WB6 Foldable Adjustable Weight Bench
The Flybird WB6 weight bench would make a great complement to the dumbbells. It's 96% pre-assembled out of the box so you can set it up in just a few minutes. This robust bench boasts a maximum weight capacity of 880 pounds and plenty of adaptability options, including 120 degrees of incline for the set back, 25 degrees of incline for the seat cushion, and 86 degrees of incline for the leg rollers. The bench also folds completely flat for compact storage.
Sportsroyal PT4 Assisted Power Tower
The Sportsroyal PT4 is FED's highest end and most feature-rich power tower, yet it still comes in at under $300 after coupons are applied. It's the perfect way to work on your pull-ups, dips, and leg raises. If you can't do several pull-ups in quick succession, this power tower will help you get there thanks to weight assistance for pull-ups and dips. The counter-balance is provided by a nylon rope system; each rope offers 22 pounds of weight and they can be added or removed to adjust the total amount of resistance. This pull-up machine also offers ample adjustment options to cater to different sizes.
Yosuda TM2 Foldable Brushless Treadmill
Foldable and Easy-to-Assemble
Nothing beats the convenience of a treadmill when you're trying to get your steps in. FED's Yosuda TM2 model goes a step further by offering a steel unibody z-frame design that can fold flat and easily stows away when you're not using it. The 1.25HP brushless motor is smooth and silent and offers a top speed of 8.7 miles and up to 18% motorized incline. The 18" wide track has shock absorbing pads to keep your joints in check, since running is harder on your knees than other forms of cardio. Many people shudder at the thought of installing a treadmill, but fortunately FED states that the Yosuda TM2 assembles in eight easy steps with a grand total of just 14 screws. Talk about a relief!
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
We've all been there. As has, apparently, popular streamer Northernlion, who just discovered his 165Hz monitor has been set to 60Hz for who knows how long, maybe even a decade.
"It looks like your display has a 165Hz mode, but is currently running at 60Hz. Using the highest refresh rate your display supports is generally recommended for an optimal gameplay experience," Northernlion said, reading a notification that popped up when loading into a game of Counter-Strike. "Is this good?"
"It's gonna change your life, in a good way," one of his teammates responded.
The clip appears in Northernlion's stream from today, starting at around the 1:44:25 mark. Upon updating his refresh rate both on the Windows level and in-game, NL was blown away by the upgraded visual experience – which his hardware had been capable of all along.
"This looks incredible!" he said, a few seconds into his first match with the settings fixed, "It looks like I just got a PlayStation 7."
While it's fun to enjoy some schadenfreud that even someone like Northernlion, who obviously has a lot of experience with the platform, can fall prey to one of the pitfalls of PC gaming, let this serve as a PSA of things to look out for:
Besides making sure your monitor's refresh rate is properly set, another common mistake is not enabling XMP, without which keeps your RAM shackled to its base speeds instead of the overclocked speeds advertised on the box. And perhaps worst of all, make sure your display cable is plugged into your graphics card, not the motherboard's video port. After all, if you've shelled out the cash for a discrete GPU, you want to make sure you're not bypassing the card entirely.
For more tech and hardware coverage, check out our guides to the Best Gaming Tech you can buy.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.
HBO Max just picked up one of the more unique animated movies from the past couple of years. Boys Go to Jupiter technically premiered back in 2024 at the Tribeca Film Festival before getting a limited theatrical release in late 2025. The film, which currently sits at a 93% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, features a stacked voice cast with the likes of Julio Torres (Problemista director and star) and Eva Victor (Sorry Baby director and star), but has gotten the most attention for its unique art style.
Boys Go to Jupiter is the first feature-length film written, produced, and directed by 3D artist Julian Glander, who has previously produced shorts for Adult Swim and graphics for artists like Clairo and Dua Lipa. He also happened to develop the indie game Art Sqool. If you’re familiar with any of these projects, you’ll recognize the trend of Glander’s surreal, almost plastic-like animation style.
While Boys Go to Jupiter had a relatively quiet initial release, trailers spread on X after the announcement of the streaming release date. Users were quick to remark that much of the movie’s unique animation style is reminiscent of the art we often see in indie games. Others saw a more glaring parallel with the “corporate art style” made infamous by company logos and presentation decks over the past decade.
Either way, it’s still a unique style to see from a feature-length film, and a welcome addition to HBO Max’s animation catalog.
In recent years, HBO Max has had a complicated reputation when it comes to animation. On the one hand, it notoriously removed a massive slate of Cartoon Network shows. On the other hand, it still maintains one of the widest streaming libraries for animation, including North American TV hits like Smiling Friends, and a relatively recent deal with GKIDS to bring rare anime movies to streaming for the first time.
The service picking up the streaming rights Boys Go to Jupiter, regardless of your feelings about its particular art style, seems like a good sign for the streamer’s support of animation. For the time being, at least. Warner Bros. is officially being acquired by none other than Netflix, a deal that’s expected to be finalized in the next year, which still leaves some questions about how exactly Netflix intends to handle the HBO Max catalog. For now, Netflix has confirmed (to some extent) that they will continue with 45- day theatrical releases for Warner Bros. films.
Blythe (she/her) is an Audience Development Coordinator at IGN who, when she isn't following streaming news, spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further than Alienware's flagship Area-51 prebuilts. Following CES 2026, Dell has discounted an Alienware Area-51 AMD Ryzen X3D Edition RTX 5090 gaming PC to $5,049.99 after a $600 discount. The Ryzen X3D Edition is essentially the second generation version of the Area-51 with a more powerful CPU replacement from AMD instead of Intel.
Alienware Area-51 Ryzen Edition RTX 5090 Gaming PC
The Alienware Area-51 is Dell's flagship gaming PC. Unveiled during last year's CES, the Area-51 is a super-sized upgrade to the mainstream Aurora R16 system. The significantly larger chassis features more premium build quality and a redesigned cooling system with greater net airflow. In fact, this is the only model that Dell feels comfortable enough to equip with the hot and power hungry GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card. The first wave of Area-51 systems featured Intel CPUs exclusively, with AMD X3D options only available since late November.
This particular configuration is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB or DDR5-6400MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Additional system details include a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooling system for the CPU and a massive 1,500W 80Plus Platinum power supply that allows plenty of headroom for future upgrades.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the best gaming CPU for most people
The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is considered to be one of the best gaming processors on the market and outperforms any Intel or AMD non-X3D chip in games thanks to AMD's 3D-V-Cache technology.
Although the 9800X3D is an absolute speed demon for gaming, it only has eight cores. If you regularly use your PC for non-gaming applications that benefit from as many cores as possible, then you can upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16-core processor, which doubles the core count while offering similar gaming performance, for an additional $300.
The RTX 5090 is the most powerful graphics card ever
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has emerged as the most powerful consumer GPU on the market. Although with this generation Nvidia has prioritized software updates, AI features, and DLSS 4 technology to improve gameplay performance, the 5090 still boasts an impressive 25%-30% uplift over the RTX 4090 in hardware-based raster performance. If you want the absolute best performance for your gaming PC, there is literally no other option from any other brand.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price.
Dell and Alienware Coupons
Alienware Aurora Gaming Laptop Deals
Alienware's newest mainstream gaming laptop is dubbed the "Alienware Aurora" and it replaces the previous generation's x16 and m16 series of laptops. It comes in two models: the 16 and 16X. The 16 is the more economical model, but gamers should definitely opt for the higher-end 16X model. If you're looking for build quality and performance on par with the previous generation m16, then the 16X is its spiritual successor. It features an anodized aluminum lid and base, a higher quality display, a more powerful CPU, and a GPU that isn't throttled for maximum gaming performance.
Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming PC Deals
The Aurora R16 is Alienware's bread and butter gaming PC. It can be equipped with an Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card all the way up to an RTX 5080 and the prices for Cyber Monday are extremely competitive with other brands. For example, currently Alienware has the least expensive prebuilt RTX 5080 gaming PC that I've found anywhere. Most of these systems are customizable, however it's not difficult to upgrade your own RAM and storage yourself.
Alienware Area-51 Gaming PC Deals
If you're seeking the absolute best of the best in PC gaming performance, look no further. Dell unveiled the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC at CES 2025. The chassis is a super-sized upgrade to the Aurora R16 system with aesthetic and cooling redesigns. The internal components have been refreshed with a new motherboard, faster RAM, and bigger power supply to accommodate the new generation of CPUs and GPUs. With a high-end system like this, it's only fitting that it be equipped with an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 graphics card, so these are the configurations I've listed here. Note that Dell Outlet refurbished PCs come with the same warranty as buying new.
Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptop Deals
Alienware 18 Area-51 (18")
Alienware 16 Area-51 (16")
The Area-51 is Alienware's new flagship gaming laptop for 2025. It features an anodized aluminum shell for both the lid and bottom chassis with a gorgeous iridescent finish. The frame is made of a durable and lightweight magnesium alloy. Cooling has been upgraded with generous amounts of copper and a new thermal interface material to better transfer heat away from your hottest components as well as more fans and bigger cutouts for greater airflow. Dell claims that the laptop can handle a higher power ceiling of up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.
Design-wise, the Area 51 has a sleeker, more contoured shape compared to previous models, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the traditional squared off design. The hinges are internally positioned so that they're near invisible. There's a transparent window on the undercarriage to show off the internal components. As befits an Alienware laptop, there's plenty of RGB illunimation, although most of it can be turned off if you want your laptop to be a bit more subtle.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Disney+ pricing has been a bit all over the place recently. The service raised prices across all of its streaming plans (including Hulu) last October, before offering a pretty solid Cyber Monday deal in November. Over the holidays, the streamer returned to its aforementioned increased pricing.
Fortunately for anyone trying to cut down on subscription costs this year, Disney+ has been one of the first streaming services to offer a real discount in 2026.
Get 1 Month of Hulu and Disney+ for $9.99
New and eligible returning subscribers can get one month of ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu for $9.99, a solid $3 off the standard pricing of $12.99. A whole cup of coffee, I know. Eligible returning subscribers, in this case, means anyone not already subscribed to Disney+ or any of its many bundle options. And, yes, unfortunately the deal is only available for the version of the bundle with ads.
While not exactly an eye-watering discount, the couple bucks could certainly be worth it if you’re looking to test out the waters of a new streaming service or catch up on a particular streaming release. The discount lowers the bundle price to $2 less than standalone Disney+ or Hulu, so if anything draws you to either of those two services, it’s worth it to pick up both. Otherwise, the only way to get a proper Disney+ free trial is through Hulu + Live TV.
According to the Disney+ website, the discount lasts until February 17, giving you a couple weeks to think about what you could do with an extra $3.
What's on Disney+ and Hulu?
As a taster, new additions to Disney+ this month include the The Muppet Show reboot, which we said "deserves two flippers up and a Kermit flail" (positive, it rocks). Disney+ is also home to the MCU, and it’s a better time than ever to catch up on some homework ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. Of course, you’ll also get the full slate of Star Wars, Pixar, National Geographic, and all things Disney.
Hulu, on the other hand, has streaming exclusives like The Handmaid’s Tale, Shogun, and Only Murders in the Building. It’s also the streaming home for the Predator franchise, with exclusive releases like Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. It’s a little all over the place, but there’s some value to that when you're trying to find new things to watch.
Blythe (she/her) is an SEO Coordinator at IGN who, when she isn't following streaming news, spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.
Live-action Masters of the Universe movie director Travis Knight has teased that Jared Leto’s Skeletor is “the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”
The filmmaker behind the live-action adaptation opened up about how he and the cast are reimagining He-Man and other ‘80s icons during a recent interview with Empire. Knight says he worked with the controversial actor to bring the infamous cackling sorcerer to life without sacrificing the qualities that helped him stand the test of time.
“Skeletor was a really interesting villain,” the director said when describing the original Masters of the Universe cartoon. “He looked cool. He was scary. He was funny. He was insecure. And then of course he had this distinctive voice.”
“I wanted someone to craft their own version of that,” he added.
Leto seemed like the perfect fit, with Knight saying the Tron: Ares and Morbius actor approached the Masters of the Universe movie team first “because he loves Skeletor and has his own history with the character.” With the film’s only full trailer largely keeping the muscly blue villain out of the spotlight, it’s unclear exactly what his version of Skeletor walks, talks, and acts like, but the director offered a few teasers.
And ultimately we landed on something that I’m really happy with. Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.
“He wanted to swing for the fences,” Knight said of Leto. “And ultimately we landed on something that I’m really happy with. Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”
Outside of Masters of the Universe, the actor has remained a divisive figure in the entertainment world for years. While moviegoers were left split regarding his portrayal of characters like The Joker and Michael Morbius, curiosity became concern when it was revealed that he once sent his Suicide Squad castmates items that ranged from questionable to grotesque.
For now, it’s unclear how much of the actor’s face will appear in Masters of the Universe, with the trailer showing a Skeletor that adopts the skull head from his most iconic incarnations. His voice remains a mystery, too, though it sounds like Knight has at least done his best to steer away from something too radically different in the past.
“I said, ‘F**k that shit. Skeletor has a skull face,’” Knight told Empire when referring to a previous design with a golden skull mask. “That’s just the way it is. It’s a living, talking, emoting skull, and that’s that.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Finally, Illumination and Nintendo have given people what they want out of teaser for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie: we've finally seen how the film handles Yoshi eating someone and pooping them out as an egg.
What, that wasn't your first question too when Yoshi was teased at the end of The Super Mario Bros. Movie? Okay, maybe I'm a bit juvenile. But it's a fun little stinger on the end of a new, 30-second trailer for the film released today. At the tail end of the trailer (see what I did there?), we see Yoshi face off with Kamek. As the two clash with each other in slow motion, Yoshi opens his big mouth and swallow Kamek whole, before turning his butt to the camera. We hear the "egg" sound effect, and then it cuts to a Yoshi egg wearing Kamek's glasses being flung into a cockpit, before Yoshi joints it in the driver's seat. It's very silly!
This wasn't the only new clip we saw. The trailer opens with Bowser Jr. yelling, "The great battle of my life draws near!", which we haven't heard before, followed by a clip of a bunch of airships (Bowser Jr.'s armada?) surrounding an ominous looking planet. We also get a brief look at Yoshi sitting on a motorbike saying "Vroom vroom".
Perhaps the most interesting bit apart from the egg is Peach and Toad getting a bit of a spotlight, journeying together in a neon-lit, cyberpunk city that appears to be just chock full of NIntendo references. The clips go by fast, so fans will have to do the detailed spotting work here in the coming days, but I immediately saw a big N64 logo in the shot of them peering over a balcony into the city.
Peach and Toad entering some sort of arcade-themed bar in a neon lit city, bar's largely full of Bowser cronies, looking out over the city, giant N64 logo spinning slowly on top of a building to the left side. There are also a number of pixelated figures in a bar (?) the pair visit just before, references to the old-school style of Mario games. Along with a gaggle of Bowser enemies all sitting around having a drink and looking astonished to see Peach and Toad burst in. I'm sure that'll go well for everyone.
Illumination and Nintendo have been trickling out the Mario excitement for several months now with teaser after teaser, giving us new voice actors, character appearances, and yes, tons and tons of references to just about any Mario game you can think of. We won't have to wait long for the rest, as the film drops April 3, 2026 in the U.S. and April 24 in Japan.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Resident Evil: Requiem is just a couple of weeks away, and while the first few trailers definitely made it look like a beautiful game, the Switch 2 trailer that debuted earlier this week, well, didn't. But, the way I see it, that's excellent news, especially for anyone on a budget gaming PC.
Ever since the RE Engine came to prominence starting with Resident Evil: Biohazard, Capcom has been impressing me with just how good it can make games look, without making them too demanding. Now, obviously, I haven't had the chance to test Resident Evil: Requiem performance yet myself, but just looking at both the system requirements and the Switch 2 trailer, it seems like Capcom is continuing this trend.
Capcom hasn't revealed what resolution and settings either of these spec sheets are targeting, but even if that recommended build is just for 1080p Ultra at 60 fps, the Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and Radeon RX 6600 are very attainable graphics cards. That's not to mention only requiring a Core i7-8700 or Ryzen 5 5500 and 16GB of RAM, which is a very low bar to clear.
What Kind of Performance Can I Expect?
Again, because Capcom hasn't revealed any specific settings that the system requirements are targeting, I can't say for sure, but from my time testing Resident Evil Village for TechRadar when it came out, I was able to get nearly 60 fps at 4K with an RTX 3060 – and the 3060 is very much not a 4K graphics card.
However, it's important to note that the requirements for Requiem are a bit heavier than they were for Village. The biggest difference is that instead of asking for a Radeon RX 5700 or a GTX 1070 for Village, Requiem is asking for an RTX 2060 Super or a Radeon RX 6600. And while the performance gap between these graphics cards isn't huge on its own, the key difference is that Requiem is recommending a ray tracing-capable GPU – Village didn't.
That makes a lot of sense, given the visual quality of some of the trailers that have come out for the game, but it may leave some folks with older GPUs out in the cold. It's very likely that with an older non-RT GPU, the game will look a lot like the Nintendo Switch 2 footage. The bright side here, though, is that the GTX 1660 and Radeon RX 5500 XT sneak in the minimum specs, so you'll still be able to play the game, it just might not look too great.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Equivalent
It's important to highlight that the Nintendo Switch 2 is able to run Resident Evil: Requiem, even if it wouldn't quite meet the system requirements if it were a PC. The Tegra T239 SoC in the handheld is roughly the equivalent of a mobile RTX 3050 – which is weaker than the desktop-class GTX 1660 Capcom is requiring. I wouldn't get too caught up in this detail, though.
Primarily, that's because the Nintendo Switch 2 is a console and every single unit will be running the exact same hardware. That means when Capcom was porting Resident Evil: Requiem over to the Switch 2, it was able to fine-tune the build to the exact hardware, likely finding optimizations that wouldn't be there for the PC version.
Still, just going by the Switch 2 trailer earlier this week, it does seem like Capcom just barely managed to squeeze the game onto the handheld. But even if it is rough, I'm looking forward to seeing just how well it runs on the Nintendo console.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
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