Emilia Clarke has admitted feeling "really pissed" at the expert who developed Game of Thrones' fictional languages, after reading that he thought her Dothraki pronounciation "sucked."
David J. Peterson, who HBO hired as a full-time linguist on its hit fantasy show, has now responded to Clarke's comments, saying that the actress had misunderstood what he meant, and that she "never had to be good at it," as his intention had never been that Daenerys Targaryen would speak Dothraki flawlessly.
The topic came to light this week as Clarke appeared on Late Night With Seth Myers, where the Game of Thrones star admitted being hurt by Peterson's comments in an article years prior.
"I put so much energy into learning Dothraki," Clarke said on Monday's episode of the chat show. "But the creator of the language, I read in an article, said I sucked at Dothraki. I was like, 'What, bro?!' It's not real! It's not a real language! I can't suck at it because me saying it on the TV, that's how it goes... Honestly, I was so hurt. And then really pissed."
Clarke appears to be referring to comments made by Peterson in a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, where he said the following:
"It's always funny to me to hear Emilia Clarke speak Dothraki. Of course, her character is not supposed to be fluent, and it really sounds... not fluent. It's great," he continued, "for her character, she understands and she can speak. She just doesn't sound quite right."
Now, after seeing Clarke discuss the matter publicly, Peterson has given a statement to Entertainment Weekly in an attempt to clear the air, insisting that the actress had done a "fine job... in that she was portraying a character who, through incredible hardship, is forced to learn a language she's never heard before and eventually becomes functionally fluent in the manner of a non-speaker — and in a relatively short amount of time.
“I think Emilia may have misunderstood what I said, because I've never criticized her Dothraki," Peterson insisted. "Why would I? Her character was never supposed to speak it like a first language, so she never had to be good at it.
"Criticizing any imperfections in her Dothraki performance would be like criticizing Colin Firth for stuttering in The King's Speech," he continued. "It would be entirely missing the point. In fact, grammatical and punctuation errors were built into many of her Dothraki lines — and these were included in the MP3s I recorded for her — for this very purpose."
In a 2013 blog post, Peterson also assessed Clarke's skills at High Valyrian — another fictional Game of Thrones language he helped develop. "I was delighted by Emilia Clarke’s performance," he wrote at the time. "She really does speak High Valyrian like a natural. She missed a word or two here or there, but such will happen. Overall, I'm extraordinarily pleased."
Some spoilers follow for Primal, though really nothing that the creator of the show doesn’t want you to know already! New episodes of Primal Season 3 are dropping weekly on Sundays on Adult Swim and Mondays on HBO Max.
With the return of Primal for a third season, creator Genndy Tartakovsky has done what seemed impossible – our favorite animated caveman Spear (sorry Captain Caveman) is back, despite having died in the Season 2 finale of the show. And not just that, but in doing so, Tartakovsky has also brought back from apparent near-death one of the greatest animated series of the 21st century.
Primal, of course, is about Spear (Aaron LaPlante), a Neanderthal living in a strange world where man, proto-man, dinosaur, and magical creatures all co-exist. On the dinosaur side, that includes Spear’s best friend Fang, the T-rex who he partnered with for Seasons 1 and 2. But Fang moved on after Spear’s death, which means our now-zombified hero is all alone. But for how long? Can Spear and Fang be reunited?
I spoke to Tartakovsky about that and much more, so read on for our full chat about Primal Season 3. Or watch the full conversation in the video above!
IGN: It felt like Season 3 was something that maybe wasn't going to happen for a while there. How did you come to the decision to bring the show back?
Genndy Tartakovsky: Well, I always wanted to do another season, but I always talked about an anthology type show, and Adult Swim was supportive of it. And so I started to develop it and I had all these ideas, but nothing was feeling right and I trust my instinct when it comes to that. So something was off. And then I started to think, “Oh, I just spent 20 episodes having these characters bond and having the audience like these characters and then I kind of end the show.”
And sometimes when you're making a show, it takes me two years and then you watch it in a week. So I suddenly started to have this awareness – “It's still so fresh.” Then all of a sudden this idea popped up of making Spear a zombie, and then all these story ideas and character things and emotional things came up. And then I wrote down like eight episodes instantly of what can happen. And when that happens, I know that there's something juicy there.
IGN: Can you pinpoint where that idea came from?
GT: I think because in the first season we did an episode called “Plague of Madness” where we had kind of a zombie dinosaur. And the whole world has magic and all this pulp to it, and what's more pulpier than a walking zombie caveman? So it felt right.
IGN: Do you think there are any dangers in depicting Spear in this way? Because when you look at the poster, he doesn't seem human. I think when you watch the show, you probably find that that's not the case. But were there concerns about that?
GT: Yeah, for sure. I thought – you know that term jumping the shark – I was like, “Oh, did I do that maybe?” But it felt so right. And then when I talked to our other team members, they were like, “No, this is awesome.” And then when I talked about what we would do with it and the emotional journey that he's going to take, then everybody got really excited about it.
You know that term jumping the shark – I was like, 'Oh, did I do that maybe?' But it felt so right.
IGN: I've seen the first episode and I loved it, but is there a danger of undercutting what you did in the first two seasons and how you ended the story in Season 2?
GT: I hope that when you watch it and you … realize the timeline, especially in later episodes, it doesn't. It just becomes part of his weird journey through time here.
IGN: Yeah, he's been through so much, this guy, right?
GT: Yes. And that was the whole idea, is that you want to cheer for him like, “Oh no, now he's dead and he can't even be peaceful in death?” He's got to be like this now so you cheer for him to come back, if he does.
IGN: Can you talk about the actual animation of him, because he moves in a different way than the living Spear does. How much did you guys put into figuring that out?
GT: A lot. Because especially in the beginning he doesn't know who he is, right? All of his motor skills under a normal scenario aren't there, so he's like a baby in a way, learning to walk again. And you honor some of the zombie lore of how zombies walk and stuff, and so we did a little bit of that. And then through the season, you can see a change through it a little bit – without giving too much away. And it was fun to treat a zombie this way. I think as far as zombie stuff goes, usually you're not cheering for the zombies, you're cheering for the people to escape. And this is the opposite. So hopefully it'll be very interesting, especially for zombie genre fans.
IGN: I love the animation of the shoulders and even when he just plops down – he sits down at one point and he just kind of falls.
GT: Yeah, yeah. And that's really fun to do for his animation because it's more unique. And because Primal is the type of show that we could take our time, we could have him just walking with some cool music, and you get a lot of that.
IGN: So obviously Fang is not present. Fang went on to live the family life. How did that affect you guys creatively just in terms of telling this story, because Spear was always so intertwined with Fang?
GT: Well, I mean, you only watched the first episode, so I don't know if that's the right statement. [laughs] So no, you can't make any assumptions I think is the answer to that.
IGN: I have so many questions now because in Season 2 we get a time jump in the final moments… but we'll put a pin in that for now.
GT: All will be revealed as you watch, yes.
IGN: Can we talk about the art of storytelling without dialogue, which obviously you sort of mastered in animation. It's a thing you've done in so many of your projects. Where does that come from and why is it something you continue to go back to?
GT: I think it's the purity of movement, and I don't know if it's the Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery influences that really just did do gag – very low-verbal-driven cartoons. The true love of it probably came when I started doing Dexter[’s Laboratory], and it's my first show and it's something that I control, and then we hired composers to do music and all of a sudden I had a little like 10-second clip and the music was great and I was like, "Oh, I wish I did this for a minute. Then you could really feel it." And then I realized, "Oh right, that's what makes things cinematic." It’s when you have great music with a slow pan and you're telling something visually, and I think it started to grow from there. I was 26; I didn't know anything and I started to realize… Especially by the time Samurai Jack came, I got to create the time so music and effects can have the opportunity to tell their own story. And of course Primal's the epitome of that because it takes the visuals and the sound and unites them into its own thing.
IGN: Did you get pushback in the early days when you would try to do more dialogue-free stuff?
GT: No. My relationship with Cartoon Network was always so great. I got so lucky because the network was just starting, I was just starting, so there was 12 million viewers when Dexter premiered, which is nothing. And so we both learned along the way.
They were always very supportive, and then when I told them about Samurai Jack, they were really interested in it. I remember this moment where in the first episode there's a seven-minute training sequence, right? And there's not one word in it. And they were visiting from Atlanta in our LA studio and I showed it to them without music, with no sound and everyone was flabbergasted because they'd never seen anything like that, and the artistry, of course, was really well done. And so we all knew we had something special. They were always supportive. Nobody said like, "Well, let's throw in a couple of one-liners here."
IGN: What do you think of the state of getting your product in front of people's eyeballs these days? Because things have changed so much from those early days of Cartoon Network where now everything is streaming and there's no monoculture – everything's so fragmented. Do you as a creator feel it's harder to get your work out there?
GT: I've been lucky. People are still buying and I have my relationships – Sony for features, Adult Swim, HBO, whatever for TV stuff, streaming. The one thing that's different that took me a minute to get over is branding, because in the early ’90s it was all about “We need the Cartoon Network brand,” “We need the Nickelodeon brand,” “Pixar brand.” Everybody was very brand loyal. And now you can make a show for anybody. It doesn't matter.
You used to watch Cartoon Network and you knew what show you were going to get. You could watch Disney Channel and you kind of knew what show you were going to get. Now those lines are blurred, right? And so the branding of movies also is different. That's something that's changed the culture quite a bit.
IGN: And maybe it's more creatively freeing.
GT: Yeah. Certainly there's more buyers when you're thinking like that. So Warner Bros. makes a Batman show, which always used to be for Fox back in the day. Now it's not on HBO Max – Batman is on Amazon. So it's kind of crazy.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rockstar has launched an official marketplace where creators can sell mods.
The Cfx Marketplace, described as a "curated digital storefront where talented FiveM/RedM creators can share and sell their work," is currently only open to a select few creators, but players running their own servers can choose from hundreds of mods — some free, some not — to add new maps, scripts, characters, clothing, vehicles, and more to their games.
Now, as part of that relationship, select creators worked with Rockstar to build and supply the new mod superstore as it rolls out "in phases to ensure the best experience for both creators and server owners."
As one happy player said, the official marketplace makes it "much easier to find some trusted creators and hopefully more competition." "Amazing idea! Hope this will be a better way for both creators and server owners to reach more people and find what they need," added another.
Right now, there are hundreds of mods to choose from, some of which are free, and others, most typically bundles, are available for upwards of $450. The Attractions & Parks Bundle, for instance, includes a Theme Park, Water Park, and Maze Bank Theme Bank for $137.99.
Right now, most mods seem to be for GTA 5, but Cfx.re has mods for both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, so we may see more Red Dead 2 mods as the marketplace expands.
Grand Theft Auto is an enduring juggernaut, with GTA 5 having sold 220 million copies to date. Rockstar is yet to detail how GTA Online will change as a result of November's release of GTA 6, but it seems likely the Cfx Marketplace lays the groundwork for a similar offering in whatever's next for the game.
It also seems in preparation for whatever other plans Rockstar has for monetising GTA RP when GTA 6 comes out. GTA fans had begun speculating about what Rockstar RP servers would look like when the company announced it was working with Cfx.re back in 2023. That excitement then only increased when popular musician Faheem Rashad Najm a.k.a. T-Pain teased in 2024 that he was working on GTA 6 but had been asked by Rockstar to stop engaging with RP servers like nopixel.
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.
The director of the Stranger Things documentary has cast doubt on the fan suggestion that the Duffer brothers might have used ChatGPT to write their scripts.
Martina Radwan’s Stranger Things documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, launched on Netflix this week, and fans have spent their time digging into every detail and pausing to take a closer look at each frame as they continue to process the divisive finale of the hit show.
Social media is awash with shots of the documentary that show a laptop with what appears to be a ChatGPT tab alongside a Google Doc in which Matt and Ross Duffer are working on the finale script. This has now turned into an accusation that Matt and Ross Duffer used ChatGPT to write the script itself. Netflix and the Duffers have yet to comment on the ChatGPT question specifically.
Fans accuse the Duffer Brothers of using AI to write ‘Stranger Things’ final season after spotting ChatGPT tabs in behind-the-scenes documentary. pic.twitter.com/gxmYW2OCUJ
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Radwan cast doubt on the fan claims, insisting that at no point did she witness an “unethical” use of generative-AI in the writers room.
“I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?” Radwan said when asked about the moment in the documentary. “Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, ‘We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.’ But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?
“How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.
“Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools… while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.”
Radwan was then asked directly if she witnessed an unethical use of generative-AI in the writers room.
“No, of course not,” she replied. “I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think ‘writers room’ means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development. And, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back [to the script]. I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.”
The Stranger Things Season 5 finale, which left it up to the audience to decide whether Eleven was alive or dead, has proven so divisive that some fans have concocted stories about secret 'Snyder cuts' and theories about a ninth episode that would have revealed the show’s true ending. Both were proven to be fake. Still, a petition to release this supposed “unseen footage” gained nearly 400,000 signatures — despite being debunked by the cast. Some fans are even using generative AI to make alternative Stranger Things endings.
But all is not lost for Stranger Things fans. Netflix has two announced Stranger Things spinoffs in development, the first of which is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series due out 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 is an unnamed live-action series.
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.
Rockstar has pulled a fan-made mission in Grand Theft Auto Online designed to replicate the real-life assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Variety reports that a user-created level named "We Are Charlie Kirk" was recently pulled from the game, and that Rockstar has now added "Charlie Kirk" to its list of banned words — meaning that players will no longer see missions labelled with his name.
It's unclear how quickly Rockstar acted to remove the mission, though footage of it was uploaded to YouTube that's now over a month old. Rockstar added the ability for players to create and publish their own in-game missions as part of the A Safehouse in the Hills update that launched on December 10 — meaning this content was made within a day or two of the mode going live.
Today, IGN has seen that footage of "We Are Charlie Kirk" mission still exists on YouTube, where we have spotted similar footage of at least one other fan-made GTA Online Charlie Kirk assassination level that existed at one point, too.
Both missions feature similar gameplay, where the player takes on the role of Charlie Kirk's murderer. Completing each mission requires the player assassinate Kirk at long range from a nearby rooftop, with the levels' layouts familiar to anyone with knowledge of the killing.
Rockstar has not yet commented on its removal of Charlie Kirk-related content from GTA Online, though it appears to have an uphill battle on its hands to remove similar missions appearing in future. A quick check of the game's mission directory shows other examples exist, including "Charlie Kirk assassination" (written in Korean and apparently created by a South Korean player) that still appears when you search in English for "Kirk." A translated description of the mission reads: "Kill Charlie Kirk to gain money and fame."
Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering will kick off 2026 with a return to Lorwyn, and Lorwyn Eclipsed might be the most excited I've seen the community since, well, Edge of Eternities (the last Universes Within set).
It's a trip back to a simpler time, without bagels (Spider-Man), bending (Avatar), or the Buster Sword (Final Fantasy) - just fantasy creatures throwing spells at each other all day long.
Not only is it the first set of a packed year, but it marks big changes to the product lineup. Theme decks are back for Standard play, while a new Draft Night boxed product encourages players to, well, draft cards to build their decks.
Then there's our first Commander decks since Edge of Eternities, and both look pretty great, actually.
Here’s everything on offer, and where you can find it if you're looking to lock your preorder in ASAP. Just be warned that prices are all over the place, and many products are running low on stock ahead of release.
The preorder price guarantee means you may pay less, too, and each pack has a guaranteed foil. Since we published this article, though, they've been flying off shelves - you'll need to move fast to secure one.
Bundle
As is the case with pretty much any Magic set, a Bundle is available, too. This one includes 9 Play Boosters, a deck box, 30 lands and a spindown life counter.
After no Commander Decks for Marvel’s Spider-Man or Avatar: The Last Airbender, they’re back with Lorwyn Eclipsed.
Blight Curse is a Jund (Black, Red, Green) deck which promises -1/-1 drain and creature combos, while Dance of the Elements is a rare five-color precon with a gameplan of summoning huge elementals and sacrifice.
They’re both up for $49.99 on Amazon, but there’s every chance one (or both) spike in the coming weeks.
Up next, Collector Boosters are where you’re likely to find the more sought-after variants of Lorwyn Eclipsed cards, with these packs full of foils, full-arts, and special treatments.
They’re not going to come cheap, however, and they're sold out at Amazon already. With launch closing in, there's every chance more stock arrives, though.
Draft Night Box
To my knowledge, this is a debut for the Lorwyn Eclipsed set, and this Draft Night box is still without a price on Amazon.
It contains 12 Play Boosters, 1 Collector Booster, and 90 basic lands so that players can draft a 40-card deck with friends and pit them against each other, and the winner gets the Collector Booster.
Theme Decks
Finally, Lorwyn Eclipsed is bringing back Theme Decks for Standard play, and I’m pretty excited to have an easy way to jump into the format since Commander can be overwhelming to newcomers.
They come in Pirates (Izzet) and Angels (Selesnya) forms, with both available right now. If you’re interested, they're $23.99 each.
UK Preorders
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Bandai Namco has released the Overview Trailer for CODE VEIN 2. This trailer spotlights key features that you will utilise to survive the post-apocalyptic world in CODE VEIN 2. The trailer shows a deep look at several systems and features of the game, starting with combat. In CODE VEIN II, the combat is designed to … Continue reading CODE VEIN 2 Overview Trailer Showcases New Combat Gameplay→
NACON has revealed the PC requirements and released a PC demo for its upcoming Styx game, Styx: Blades of Greed. This PC demo will allow you try it before purchasing it. Moreover, your demo saves can be transferred to the full game whenever you buy it. In Styx: Blades of Greed, you will play as, … Continue reading PC Demo & PC Requirements for Styx: Blades of Greed→
This deal makes for $25 off both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, and $15 off the Switch version. They won't stay at this price for long, though, as Best Buy's Winter Sale only lasts until January 19. Now is the time to make a move on it if it's been on your radar.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for $45
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a game we think is well worth adding to your library. IGN's Jada Griffin had a lot of praise for it in her review, saying it "fires on all cylinders with a fantastic roster, excellent courses, and lengthy list of customization options." If it sounds like a perfect pick to get you through these winter months, now is as good a time as any to put it in your shopping cart.
It's not the only exciting game deal Best Buy has to offer right now, either. The Winter Sale also features discounts on Ninja Gaiden 4, Borderlands 4, and quite a few more. The retailer has even dropped the price of the digital and disc Fortnite Flowering Chaos PS5 console bundle, which is a sweet little surprise after holiday sales. Again, it only runs until January 19, so grab your favorites while they're still available.
Kiefer Sutherland was arrested after allegedly assaulting and threatening a ride-share driver in Hollywood, according to local police.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Sutherland "entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats" in an incident near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue around midnight on Monday, according to NBC4. The LAPD said the victim was not injured in the incident, which is now under investigation.
The 59-year-old former star of hit TV series 24 was released after paying a $50,000 bond, and is now due at Los Angeles Superior Court on February 2. Sutherland's representatives have yet to comment.
Sutherland is famous for playing special agent Jack Bauer on 24, a role for which he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe, the U.S. president in Designated Survivor, and Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5. In film, he starred in The Lost Boys (1987), Stand By Me (1986), and The Three Musketeers (1993).
Sutherland voiced and provided motion capture for Big Boss/Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5, replacing David Hayter in a decision that proved controversial with fans. Explaining the decision, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima said "I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance, expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words.”
Sutherland has a history of arrests. In 2007 he was sentenced to 48 days in jail for driving under the influence and violating probation. Two years later, Sutherland was arrested for head-butting Proenza Schouler founder Jack McCollough at the Mercer Hotel in Manhattan. The charges were dropped after Sutherland and McCollough issued a joint statement in which he apologized.
Sutherland appeared in last year's Stone Cold Fox alongside Jessica Jones star Krysten Ritter. He is set to appear alongside Al Pacino in the mob thriller Father Joe from The Fifth Element director Luc Besson.
Photo by FOX Image Collection via Getty Images.
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.
Connexion
