The lawsuit aims to "stop Valve from promoting gambling features in its games, disgorge all ill-gotten gains, and pay fines for violating New York’s laws."
Star of the new action-packed thriller Normal, Bob Odenkirk, joined IGN Fan Fest 2026 to talk about his role in the creation of his character Ulysses, and why he does his own stunts.
"I like doing my own fighting. And if I'm doing my own fighting, they can keep the camera on me and I can play the guy. I can do his expressions," Odenkirk explained. "I wanted to play a guy who actually got hurt, who actually got worn down as you watch the movie. He gets tired. He gets hurt. He gets dinged up because I just feel like that is actually not something you've seen a lot of. Action stars that I know of, I don't know all of them, but the ones that I know are somewhat... they're machines. They never really get hurt. They never accrue damage. And I wanted to play a guy who in these movies starts with a little bit of self-doubt and also accrues damage along the way."
His character in Normal, Ulysses, is a man sent to be temporary sheriff to the town of Normal, Minnesota, and soon finds himself caught up in way more excitement than he was expecting.
Odenkirk also spoke about his character in Normal compared to Hutch Mansell from the Nobody movies. "Both guys are, for different reasons, holding back their reactionary impulses. In the case of Hutch, he's doing it to present as a family man and to live that life, to live a double life, forcing himself to hold that in. So that's nobody. In Normal, here's a guy who's a little bit broken when we meet him. And it's because he made a choice once before that just destroyed his life that he had, his perfect life. And so he's just gotten gun-shy. But believe me, by the end of the movie Normal, he's not gun-shy any longer. Is he gun-crazy? A little bit. He's a little bit gun-crazy."
Normal is directed by Ben Wheatley and also stars Henry Winkler and Lena Headey. It will be released in theaters on April 17.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026, check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
Samsung has officially announced its highly-anticipated Galaxy S26 lineup of smartphones with a release date of March 11. With the powerful new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip serving up meaningfully better performance, as well as a larger battery, more base storage, and other quality-of-life improvements, the Galaxy S26 is already turning some heads in the tech arena. And if you're interested in grabbing one, the entire Galaxy S26 family is already available for preorder.
You can preorder the Samsung S26 from the official Samsung site or via Amazon. If you're looking for the best bang for your buck, though, we'd recommend the latter, as Amazon is offering the most appealing deal for the Samsung S26: extra storage and a gift card. Those extras are going to be hard to pass up.
By preordering the Samsung S26 from Amazon, you can upgrade to 512GB at no additional cost while also netting yourself a $100 Amazon gift card. This deal is available across every phone in the Galaxy S26 family, including the Ultra, making this the most affordable way to get your hands on the most powerful device in Samsung's new lineup.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 is available in six colors: Black, White, Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Silver Shadow, and Pinkgold. Note, however, that Silver Shadow and Pinkgold are online exclusives that require you buy the phone directly from Samsung. So, if you're adamant about getting your hands on one of those two colorways, you'll have to pass on the Amazon deal.
Amazon's deal lasts until March 10, just one day before the phone's official release, so you've got a bit of time to make a decision. That being said, we don't know how long supplies will last, so it might be better to take the plunge sooner rather than later if you're in dire need of an upgrade.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 are also available to preorder
In addition to the new lineup of Galaxy phones, Samsung also revealed the new Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro. The new earbuds follow up the Galaxy Buds Pro 3 which were released back in 2024.
Similar to every other high-end GPU on the market, the AMD Radeon 9070 XT graphics card is selling for above MSRP in 2026. Fortunately, it's not as egregiously marked up as Nvidia cards, and now there's an even better incentive. For a limited time, you can purchase an AMD Radeon 9070 XT GPU on Amazon and get a free Crimson Desert code. Since Crimson Desert isn't out yet, you'll have to wait to download the full version of the game when it releases on March 19.
Buy an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU, Get Crimson Desert Free
The Radeon RX 9070 XT Received a 10/10 at IGN
The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the only 2025-released GPU that we gave a 10/10 score. Even though it costs $150 less than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, the 9070 XT beats it out in several of the games we tested. In a few benchmarks, the results aren't even close. The 9070 XT approaches the performance of the $1,000 RX 7900 XTX but with better ray tracing and upscaling performance than its predecessor.
This is the least expensive graphics card from either AMD or Nvidia that I would comfortably recommend for playing the latest and most demanding games in 4K at 60fps or higher framerates.
The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU is the best model to get
The Sapphire Nitro+ is widely considered the best models to get. Much like the high-end ASUS ROG Strix, the Nitro+ features a beefy vapor chamber cooling system, impeccable build quality, and as a result, high overclocking headroom and lower noise potential. It's usually a lot more expensive than other models but currently the price difference between this and the cheapest 9070 XT option listed on the page is only $80.
Crimson Desert is out on March 19
Crimson Desert is an upcoming open-world game for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X platforms that will be released on March 19. The studio, Pearl Abyss, also created the popular MMORPG Black Desert. Whereas Black Desert was a free-to-play game with microtransactions and gacha elements, Crimson Desert will be a primarily offline single-player experience with a retail price of $69.99. Getting it for free with your CPU upgrade, then, is a great perk.
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.
Open-world action-adventure game Crimson Desert is coming on March 19 and a new IGN Fan Fest 2026 behind-the-scenes look at the game gives the cast of voice actors a chance to add some more fuel to the hype fire.
Crimson Desert stars Rebecca Hanssen as the voice of the fighter Damiane, Stewart Scudamore as the orc with the impressive axe Oongka, and Alec Newman as main character Greymane Kliff Macduff. All three give an insight into working on the project and bringing their particular characters to life.
"Oongka is a nomadic warrior," Scudamore says in the clip. "I think he has a passion for everything that is fighting for the cause, for his people, for his tribe, and for the Greymanes. First impressions, you're thinking, what can I bring to the table that I can connect? What's the in? His DNA was very economical."
"With Oongka, what surprised me was that he was more of a philosophical orc," Scudamore continues. "He had that sort of world-wise nomadic element. And what I found challenging for Oongka is that he often communicated in grunt, but it was finding those levels of grunt that was challenging."
Crimson Desert will be released on March 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and the Mac App Store.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
Archenemies. Bitter rivals. Lifelong friends? The relationship between legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his supreme rival James Moriarty is the stuff of legend. Over the decades (and centuries), the dynamic between the two characters has served as the focal point of countless literary and on-screen adaptations. They’re the embodiment of good and evil. Holmes is moral and just; Moriarty cold and calculating. But the new streaming series Young Sherlock, premiering March 4 on Prime Video, puts a new twist on the classic rivalry.
Debuting at IGN Fan Fest 2026, a brand-new exclusive clip – which you can watch in the player above – shows the moment Sherlock Holmes meets his future adversary. And if the scene doesn’t scream “soon-to-be foes,” that was by design. I sat down with series star Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Harry Potter, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare), who plays Sherlock, to talk about his character’s relationship with Moriarty, working with Guy Ritchie, and what kind of Sherlock video game he’d like to see.
“Sherlock always needs a counterpart,” Tiffin says. “It is usually Watson. And in our story, having it be Moriarty, you realize they learn so much from each other. Enemies who used to be friends, that's just a fascinating thing to explore. So it is fun watching, knowing that this plane is going to crash and burn. They have slightly different approaches, but they still have loads of similarities and they make a great team. Butch and Sundance was a reference that our showrunner used a lot.
“I did some chemistry reads with people auditioning for Moriarty. We met with loads of people and everyone was really, really exceptional. And Dónal Finn [who plays Moriarty] came in and I think about 5 seconds into his first line, I was like, ‘This guy is going to make me look bad if I'm not careful.’ He is a sensational actor. We have very different approaches to acting. He's theater trained, and I've only done screen acting. We worked a lot of scenes in prep, making sure that we kind of finish each other's sentences or we sip our drink at the same time, stand up at the same time, sit down at the same time. And there are a few little moments where we try to create some kind of nuanced indications of their synchronicity because they are a great team.”
In the series, Sherlock Holmes is far from the detached and analytical detective we've come to know. As portrayed by Tiffin, he’s young, inexperienced, and somewhat cheeky. Tiffin says that while he wanted to make the character his own, he was definitely inspired by the renowned actors who’ve played Holmes on screen.
“Just being a fan I subconsciously digested a lot of Sherlock,” Tiffin says. “Specifically, Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayals. But when I got the role, I'd already watched the films two or three times, so I didn't want to directly watch [them] again and draw inspiration and make notes. I felt like I'd, in quite a healthy general sense, digested what I needed to before getting the role. So when it came to preparing for the role of Young Sherlock, it was prep directly correlating to the script.”
Given the almost-superhuman abilities of Sherlock Holmes, it’s easy to consider the character among the ranks of quick-witted superheroes like Batman, Black Panther, and Iron Man. Tiffin says he took inspiration from those characters as well.
“it's something that I've thought about a lot,” Tiffin says. “When I think about why people gravitate towards this character, I think it's because he is as close to being a supernatural character who isn't a supernatural character. He's as close to being beyond human in his capabilities. He’s just skin and bone the rest of us, but just an exceptional intellectual person. He’s close to being [a superhero], but he's not. And I think that's what makes him so alluring and intriguing.”
Guy Ritchie, who directed Downey Jr. in two Sherlock Holmes movies, serves as Executive Producer of Young Sherlock. Tiffin, who had a role in Ritchie 2024’s film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, says working on Young Sherlock was the quintessential Guy Ritchie experience.
“When I worked on The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare, Henry Cavill had three pages [of the script] delivered to him about 20 minutes before shooting,” Tiffin says. "There were about four other actors [who] have no lines in response. We are just watching and listening, and we were all thinking ‘better him than me.’ [With Young Sherlock,] it became my turn. There's a scene at a party [where] Guy gave me a good two or three pages of dialogue with less than half an hour to learn, and it was terrifying. But if he gave you the option to just read the lines that you've learned the night before, you would always pick his. You're in good hands. He's asking a lot of you [but] he helps facilitate by knowing how he's going to edit it. So even if you feel like your acting might take a hit, you'd still want to do that. That's the biggest challenge with Guy: when he hands you dialogue last minute. But it's always for the best.”
Tiffin, who at times has been a big fan of Call of Duty and FIFA games, says he’d love to see his version of Sherlock Holmes adapted as a video game at some point.
“Maybe [like an] early Uncharted game,” Tiffin says. “You've got a mix of action, but you're also kind of puzzle solving. [Maybe] early Prince of Persia, the platform versions. I think there would have to be a lot of problem solving, I guess story mode. A single player combination of fighting and problem solving. I'd buy it, I'd play it."
Young Sherlock streams March 4 on Prime Video.
Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
A new exclusive clip for Devil May Cry Season 2 has a couple of new characters it wants you to meet: Ebony and Ivory, Dante's trademark guns from the games. Devil May Cry Season 2 arrives on Netflix on May 12, 2026, and will see Dante once again at odds with his twin brother, Vergil.
"The interesting part is that Vergil’s a guy who can stand completely still and still feel like the most dangerous one in the room," Adi Shankar, the showrunner and executive producer of the animated series, told Collider. "His presence does the talking."
Season 1 of the show focused on Dante's conflict with the terrorist White Rabbit and an impending apocalypse. Shankar promised Season 2 will continue to deliver plenty of surprises for fans. “I’m allergic to formula. I dislike when successful shows turn into comfort food," he said in the same Collider interview. "Devil May Cry won’t be TV that loops. My mission for Season 2 was to capture the feeling of a 2000s film franchise entry where the audience can’t predict the next turn.”
Johnny Yong Bosch will return as Dante, Robbie Daymond will lend his vocal cords to Vergil once again, while Scout Taylor-Compton is Lady, AKA Mary Ann Arkham.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
Lenny Kravitz is playing villain Bawma in 007 First Light, and the latest trailer shows that he can serve Bond bad guys with the best of them. We've had a glimpse of the charismatic pirate king before, but this extended look shows just what happens when you upset him. Spoiler, it involves crocodiles.
“I’ve met some folks that are… similar to his character," Kravitz told IGN in January. "I grew up in the Bahamas as well as New York City, and there were guys who had [Bawma’s] vibe and were doing similar things in the islands. He’s an interesting guy. We’re not quite sure how he’s going to turn.”
“We wanted more than just a one-sided villain, like we wanted to have some kind of charisma," added 007 First Light Director Hakan Abrak. "He has more sides to him that could maybe turn out surprising in the story. You’ll need to wait to see that until the game comes out.”
007 First Light will be released on May 27, 2026, so while you wait check out our first big preview from last year.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.
Whether you’re looking to entertain the whole family with Shrek 4-Movie Collection in 4K Ultra HD or want to do things solo and delve into The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Manga Box Set, the deals are solid today. I love nothing more than a solo movie theater day, and with AMC Stubs A-List for $0.99 for the first month, you don’t need to break the bank to watch all the latest movies. Plus, don’t forget to grab all the ridiculously great PS5 game discounts right now. Check out those deals and more below:
TL;DR - The Best Deals Today
27% Off Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Switch
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Switch is only $43.99 at Walmart and Target, down from $59.99. This open-world adventure follows Link in post-apocalyptic Hyrule, where you get to explore stunning, vast locations, solve complex puzzles, and raid enemy camps. In our review of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it earned a rare 10/10 rating, with Jose Otero calling it “evocative, exhilarating, and a masterclass in open-world design.” You can even grab the Upgrade Pack for $10 to play the Switch 2 Edition of the game; it’s a better deal than grabbing the Switch 2 version outright.
Get AMC Stubs A-List for $0.99 for the First Month
AMC has a pretty awesome promo going on for those considering becoming a Stubs A-List member. For just $0.99 for the first month, you’ll enjoy access to up to four movies per week in any format, including Dolby Cinema and IMAX. A three-month commitment is required, and you’ll be charged a price starting at $19.99 plus tax after the first month, depending on where you live. This offer is only valid for new members or former Stubs A-list members who cancelled their membership over 180 days ago.
PlayStation 5 Video Game Deals
PlayStation Direct launched an awesome sale on PS5 games and other retailers have followed suit. Notable discounts include God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West - Complete Edition, Death Stranding 2, and more from PS Direct. While Astro Bot, Returnal, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound are on sale at Amazon, or you can score Ghost of Tsushima - Director's Cut, The Last of US Part 1/Part 2, and Gran Turismo 7 for $30 from Best Buy. There are some incredible deals worth grabbing.
The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Manga Box Set Hits Low Price
The Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Manga Box Set - Deluxe has dropped to its lowest price on Amazon. The original Japanese cyberpunk comic series by Shirow Masamune has its edited pages restored. Plus, the Deluxe Edition localizations of The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor and The Ghost in the Shell 2.0: Man-Machine Interface are also included. Each series is bound in hardcover and comes in a premium slipcase with new illustrations from Masamune. That’s not all, as 11 exclusive posters and a set of multicolored Fuchikoma robot stickers come with this box set.
New Low Price for the Shrek 4-Movie Collection - 4K Ultra HD + Digital [4K UHD]
Any fans of the iconic grumpy green ogre will want to grab this Shrek 4-Movie Collection in 4K Ultra HD + Digital [4K UHD]. This collection includes the original Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After. With awesome voice talents, hilarious storylines, and legendary soundtracks, it’s a fun watch for kids of all ages. You can grab this 4-disc 4K UHD collection with a few cool bonus features for only $27.93 on Amazon for 60% savings. That’s its lowest price ever
27% Off MTG x Final Fantasy VII Commander Deck - Game Edition
The Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy VII Commander Deck - Game Edition is a solid deal. Not only do you get the fantastic Limit Break Commander Deck, which includes 100 cards, 2 foil Legendary Creature cards, a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack, and more, but it also comes with an exclusive promo card and Final Fantasy VII game download code. There's a lot of value in this package.
$28 Off Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Amazon Exclusive Edition for Nintendo Switch
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Amazon Exclusive Edition for Nintendo Switch is only $31.99 when you clip the coupon, down $28 from the list price. This action-packed racing game, full of familiar faces, doesn’t stick to the track. You’ll be flying through the sky, the sea, space, and even time, and you can design your own vehicle to tackle every one of these unique twists and turns. In our review of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Jada Griffin found the game “fires on all cylinders with a fantastic roster, excellent courses, and a lengthy list of customization options.”
Free Game with Discounted 27" Samsung G5 OLED Gaming Monitor
Amazon discounted the 27" Samsung G5 OLED gaming monitor to the lowest price ever. It’s $200 off list price at $349.99, making it one of the least expensive OLED monitors you can buy. But to sweeten the deal even further, this already awesome deal also comes with a free game code for Resident Evil Requiem.
With this QHD display, you’ll get a quantum-dot OLED panel with deep blacks, near-infinite contrast, and a wide color gamut for a stunning picture. The near-instantaneous response times, 180Hz refresh rate, and Nvidia G-Sync support solidify the Samsung G5 OLED as a top-tier gaming monitor.
Lowest Price Ever on the Super7 ULTIMATES! Toho Godzilla Figure
Super7, the toy design company behind many of the top high-end, vintage-inspired figures, has its 7-inch ULTIMATES! Gray scale Toho Godzilla discounted by nearly 20% on Amazon. This Godzilla '89 Thirsty for Blood Figure features an interchangeable head and claws to match iconic moments from the comic. It features some incredible detail, sure to entice any King of the Monsters fans.
MTG: Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box Back Down to Low Price
The Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box is back down to its lowest price ever on Amazon. For just $124.98, you’ll get 30 Play Booster packs, making each about $4.16, which is a solid deal. Each pack even guarantees a foil. This is a really fun set that features creatures throwing spells; a nice departure from the most recent Universes Beyond Sets featuring Avatar, Spider-Man, and Final Fantasy.
MTG x Universes Beyond Preorders
If you’re interested in the upcoming Universes Beyond sets, MTG x TMNT and MTG x Marvel Super Heroes, these preorders are worth grabbing below. The TMNT Booster Box got a nice discount ahead of the release next Friday. Amazon even has a nice preorder price guarantee. Whether the price goes up or down, you’re paying the lowest amount.
Season 2 of the Apple TV Monsterverse show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters launches on Friday, February 27, and Fan Fest 2026 gave us a look at the chaos those super-size scamps are getting up to now. Spoiler: tentacles.
Those appendages belong to Titan X, who is the real headliner for the new season and a new addition to the Legendary Monsterverse. Its official description suggests that it's going to prove a worth adversary for Kong and Godzilla: "In addition to Kong, Season 2 will feature Godzilla and introduce a new Titan: the enigmatic Titan X, now officially on the loose. Titan X isn’t just another monster; it’s a living cataclysm. When its massive bioluminescent form breaks the surface of the ocean, the world seems to hold its breath. In Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Titan X stands at the center of the mystery – an ancient force emerging from the deep, its purpose uncertain, its power unmatched, its awe and terror in equal measure."
If you need a recap, Season 1 continued the story of the 2014 Godzilla movie and the covert organization known as Monarch, combining it with flashbacks to the early days of the monster monitoring outfit. In the 2015 storyline, Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) searched for the truth about their father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), while the 1950's timeline followed Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), a cryptozoologist and scientist studying big old beasties.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
What's cooler than vampires? Rockstar vampires. The follow-up series to Interview with the Vampire gets meta with the Vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) seeking to control his own narrative by starting a band, and we'll get to see it happen in June 2026 when the series premieres on AMC. A new sneak peek at IGN Fan Fest 2026 revealed the date, along with Lestat and Louis being adorable on FaceTime.
On February 13, we got a coppery taste of what is to come, with the first official single from Lestat de Lioncourt, with Long Face releasing on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and more. The track is performed by Reid as Lestat, and written by composer Daniel Hart. AMC also released a statement from Lestat himself about the song and its composer.
"Long Face is the first song Daniel Hart ‘produced’ for my album. He decided early on to steal where he could from Bowie because he hasn’t had an original idea for five years now (is that his Green Knight score fading in the rear view?). As for Long Face, the bass should have walked down with the guitar at the end instead of pedaling on E. Predictable. Like everything Daniel Hart touches."
At San Diego Comic Con 2025, the stars of the show – Reid, Jacob Anderson (Louis) and Eric Bogosian (Daniel Molloy) – spoke about the new season of The Vampire Chronicles, the change from the focus on Louis to Lestat, and the movement between the different eras in Lestat's life.
"The tone of the show now is so different and it's heightened in such a different way that I think that it's apples and oranges, but they're also telling the same story," said Anderson.
"We'll see a lot of the past," added Reid. "That's kind of one of the joys of the show is how jarring those jumps are going from the 1790s into today.
"[Showrunner] Rolin [Jones]'s done a wonderful job of integrating the two time periods simultaneously as we go along," Reid continued. "So it's not quite like the books where you get a bit at the beginning and a bit at the end and a whole bunch in the middle. It's intertwined through the beautiful songs written by Daniel Hart. So it's a really really hard book to adapt, I don't think anyone could have done it better than Rolin Jones and [executive producer] Hannah Moskovich."
The original Interview with the Vampire novel was published in 1985 and had its first iconic adaptation with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst in 1994. AMC's series version first hit screens in 2022, and scored a full-blooded 9 in its IGN review.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
IGN just debuted the newest trailer for Mortal Kombat 2, which hits theaters on May 8, 2026. Like the first, this trailer focuses heavily on Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage, one of the new kombatants joining the fight in the sequel. All signs point to Johnny being the de facto main character this time around, and we think that’s a very good sign for the movie.
Let’s break down where 2021’s Mortal Kombat went astray and why the sequel is showing every sign of getting back on track, with a lot of help from Mr. JC himself.
Why 2021’s Mortal Kombat Didn’t Quite Work
1995’s Mortal Kombat still stands as one of the best live-action video game movies released so far. It says a lot about the state of the genre that it peaked so early and has had so little to offer since, but there’s no denying the fact that MK ’95 just got a lot right. It faithfully adapted the premise of the games, basically playing out like a more high-concept version of Enter the Dragon.
And crucially, it did so by striking just the right tone with the source material. The 1995 film is nothing if not a campy, silly martial arts romp. It’s got multicolored ninjas, a rubber, four-armed miniboss monster, and Christopher Lambert hamming it up as a thunder god. It’s got a mid-’90s techno/industrial mash-up soundtrack that goes way harder than it has any right to. The movie treats the source material with reverence, but it never behaves as if that source material is high art. Mortal Kombat is best when it allows itself to be silly and campy.
That’s something the franchise occasionally loses sight of. Certainly, the less said about the dreadful mess that is 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the better. The games themselves have tended to strike the right balance between building up the surprisingly complex lore of this universe and wallowing in the campiness of it all. But then you have something like DC’s Mortal Kombat X prequel comic, which became entirely too enamored with said lore and forgot to just tell a fun, goofy story about colorfully clad fighters eviscerating one another.
That’s an area where the 2021 movie reboot never really found its footing. On paper, the reboot had a lot going for it. It had much better special effects and production values than its predecessors. It also took a fairly novel approach to the script, focusing not on the interdimensional martial arts tournament, but on the eternal rivalry between Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion and Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero. In a perfect world, the reboot would have been a great showcase for how far the video game movie genre has come since 1995.
But in execution, not all the right ingredients were there. Mortal Kombat ’21 is exactly what Mortal Kombat shouldn’t be - too serious by half and too absorbed in the mythology of this universe. The film mostly leaned on Josh Lawson’s Kano to provide the humor and camp absent everywhere else, but that only served to make Kano feel like the odd man out. It also tries to cram entirely too many characters into a conflict that really boils down to the family drama between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, leading to a great many MK icons feeling like underdeveloped hangers-on.
And don’t even get us started on Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, the central protagonist of this grim little conflict. As an original creation for the film, Cole is meant to be the stand-in for the audience - the outsider suddenly thrust into a world of deadly martial arts duels and conflicts between realms. But Cole is also a character with zero charisma or depth. There was nothing to endear the character to the audience, and the whole movie suffered as a result.
Mortal Kombat ’21 is far from the worst video game movie ever released. It has its definite merits, particularly when it comes to the well-choreographed, hyper-violent fight scenes. And at least they kept the classic ’90s theme song. But it ultimately falls short of the bar established by the original film. It’s not as fun or campy as MK ’95, and it plays things a little too straight with the franchise and its mythology. Fortunately, that seems to be a mistake Warner Bros. aims to correct the second time around.
The Campy Appeal of Johnny Cage
It took five years, but Warners is finally releasing a sequel to the Mortal Kombat reboot in May 2026. Mortal Kombat II is again directed by Simon McQuoid, though this time the script is written by Jeremy Slater. Much of the cast from the original film are returning, such as Sanada’s Scorpion, Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks’ Jax, and Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang, but there are plenty of new additions to the mix as well, including Damon Herriman’s Quan Chi, Martyn Ford’s Shao Kahn, and CJ Bloomfield’s Baraka.
But easily the most significant newcomer this time around is Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage. As in the games, Cage is presented as a washed-up action movie star unwittingly dragged into the tournament between Earthrealm and Outworld. Urban has been the focal point of the film’s marketing so far, with Warners even going to the trouble of commissioning a short film that acts as a faux-teaser trailer for Cage’s magnum opus, Uncaged Fury. All signs seem to point to Cage being the main character in the sequel, supplanting Tan’s Cole Young this time around. Cole is reportedly still appearing in MK II, but you wouldn’t know it based on the trailers.
Right away, this looks to be an example of the sequel trying to make up for past mistakes. Cole clearly wasn’t working as a protagonist and audience stand-in, so McQuoid and Slater are pivoting to a character fans are much more intimately familiar with. Already, it’s obvious that Urban’s Cage has the charisma Cole himself was sorely lacking in the original movie. He’s a self-absorbed narcissist who wants nothing to do with the larger-than-life conflict unfolding around him, even though he may be just the right guy to save our dimension.
Or not. The new trailer shows Lin’s Liu Kang battling Ford’s Shao Kahn in what we assume is the climactic final battle, so the game may still be sticking to a more traditional version of the MK mythos in that regard. But regardless, Cage is being positioned as the audience stand-in this time, and we can’t imagine a better character for that role.
The trailers are crammed with Cage’s one-liners and snarky comments toward his fellow MK fighters. It really feels as though the sequel has developed a self-deprecating sense of humor that the previous film lacked. And that’s exactly what needed to happen. The sequel isn’t sticking to the overly grim tone of the first, but veering into the campier direction of the original 1995 film. And it’s all anchored by what is already shaping up to be one of Urban’s more memorable movie performances.
Nor is it just Cage himself who seems responsible for this shift in approach. In general, the trailers are more stuffed with the familiar MK elements fans know and love. There are more iconic catchphrases and special moves from the games. Nearly every action shot in the trailer hearkens back to the games in some way, whether it’s Liu Kang summoning a Fire Dragon against Shao Kahn or Kitana performing her deadly Fan Lift. Mortal Kombat II shows every sign of leaning into the sillier trappings of the games in a way the 2021 film never fully committed to. And in the process, it’s telling a much more complete and cohesive story about the conflict between realms. It doesn’t come across as a sequel so much as the first proper film in this series, making the 2021 original more of a prologue.
This all seems to be a very intentional shift on the part of the filmmakers. Back in a 2022 interview with The Direct, Slater revealed that the new screenplay is a result of lessons learned from the 2021 movie.
“I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.' So we’re really looking at this as a chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable."
Slater added that the sequel is definitely veering in a different tonal direction, one that embraces the more outlandish qualities of the MK games.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily going to have the same tone as the MCU, but it’s definitely going to have some of my sensibilities. That was part of my pitch to them. This is Mortal Kombat. We have guys who are ripping off their faces and breathing fire—it’s a weird universe, let's embrace some of that weirdness, and let’s make a Mortal Kombat sequel that no one is expecting and that can kind of sneak in and blow everyone away.”
The jury is still out until the sequel actually lands in theaters, but between Slater’s comments and what we’re seeing of the Johnny Cage-heavy trailers, it really looks as though the Mortal Kombat franchise is getting back on the right track on the big screen. With any luck, we may soon have a new contender for the best live-action video game movie. It’s about time.
But let us know your thoughts on Mortal Kombat II. Do you think it’s shaping up to be an improvement over the original? Is Johnny Cage exactly what this series needed? Sound off in the comments.
On March 17, Street Fighter 6 is getting a new DLC character: the pro wrestling-inspired Alex, and All Elite Wrestling's own Kenny Omega is the man behind the motion capture. At IGN Fan Fest 2026, he explained how the opportunity to do the motion capture actually came out of a simple misunderstanding.
"When the news broke and they told me, we signed the NDAs and we know who the characters are and Alex will, in fact, be one of them. And they said, 'For you being such a good sport, it'd be cool if we put a move of yours in,' maybe one or two or a taunt or something," Omega told IGN.
"I had said, 'Wow, that would be great. I just don't know when I could fit that into my schedule to do the mocap for it.' And they'd said, 'Oh, wait, you do the mocap for it?' I said, 'Yeah, is that what you were talking about, or no?' They said, 'Oh my, if you would do the mocap for it, that would be awesome.' And so a misunderstanding on my part is what led to me actually going to the studio and doing a slew of mocap for the character. If there was ever a better time to be stupid, that was one of them, because it worked out in my favor completely to not understand what they were talking about at that moment. So because of that one discussion, I got invited back to the next year's Tokyo Game Show. And then before doing the game show, I stopped over at Osaka, where they do the mocap for Capcom. And we hammered it out in one day. It was a grueling 10- or 11-hour shoot. I remember losing like 8 or 9 pounds of water weight, but it was so worth it and so fun."
He also revealed that the developers were open to suggestions – he can see how his ideas were incorporated into the final game animations – and that wrestling without an audience wasn't as alien of an experience as people might expect.
"I think because of COVID, I got used to wrestling and performing in front of no one. It reminded me of being back into an empty arena and just having cameras all around me, but there's no sound. There's no adulation. There's no people. I see staff here and there, but it brought back memories of the COVID era, for sure."
Alex first appeared in 1997 Street Fighter III: New Generation in arcades. Early concept art shows the professional wrestler character was initially positioned as the new face of the franchise. In Street Fighter 6, his super moves include Raging Spear, Sledgecross Hammer, and The Final Prison. He also has an alternate level 2 super called the Omega Wing Buster, which is a sequence of moves inspired by Kenny Omega's own trio of signature moves, including the V-Trigger, Snap Dragon Suplex, and of course, the One Winged Angel.
This is just the latest news from IGN's Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of games and entertainment.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She's been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
Another television goodbye, and trust me, they never get easier. HBO has revealed that Industry will return for Season 5 — but it will be the show’s final season as well.
The series will air its Season 4 finale on March 1, and there’s no exact release date for the final season just yet, but no matter when it hits our screens, it’s going to be a doozy. HBO’s logline for Season 4 proves just that.
“At the top of their game and living the lives they set out to have as Pierpoint grads, Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) are drawn into a high stakes, globetrotting cat-and-mouse game when a splashy fintech darling bursts onto the London scene,” according to a press release from the network. “As Yasmin navigates her relationship with tech founder Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and Harper is pulled into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella), their twisted friendship begins to warp and ignite under the pressure of money, power, and the desire to be on top.”
The series — which was created by Mickey Down & Konrad Kay, who also write on the show — stars Myha’la, Abela, Harington, Minghella, Ken Leung, Toheeb Jimoh, Charlie Heaton, Kiernan Shipka, and Kal Penn.
“For four seasons, Industry has thrilled us while examining power, money, politics, and class,” EVP of programming and head of drama series and films at HBO Francesca Orsi said in a statement. “Under Mickey and Konrad’s ambitious and singular vision, it has solidified itself as an important contemporary, genre-bending drama in HBO’s lineup that keeps viewers on the edge of their seat week after week.”
She added: “It is gratifying that viewers and critics have recognized season four as bigger and more thrilling than ever, buoyed by career defining performances from our magnificent cast. We are so proud we can announce the fifth season of this terrific show, which Mickey and Konrad have decided will take us to the end of Industry’s story.”
“This March marks a decade since we first began to conceive of the world of Industry and it exists because of the unwavering faith and vision of our partners and former partners at HBO,” Down and Kay said in their own statement. “For some time now we have been thinking about how best to end the show on an unparalleled high. Unlike some of our characters, we know when to leave a party.”
See? Even if they do know when to leave a party, it’s definitely going to be a doozy until the lights come on. What else would you expect from this series?
Image credit: Simon Ridgway/HBO.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
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