Nimona finally arrived on Netflix on Friday, after a long and complicated journey to be adapted. The animated film, which is inspired by ND Stevenson's graphic novel of the same name, was rescued by Netflix last year, after originally being greenlit and then canceled mid-production by the now Disney-owned Blue Sky Studios. With a near-decade from the Nimona graphic novel's creation to the film's debut, some of the story's elements, including LGBTQ+ romance and explorations of gender identity, have taken on a whole new meaning. Stevenson, who came out as transgender in in 2021, addressed that relevance while speaking to ComicBook.com about Nimona.

"I don't think it could be happening at a better time," Stevenson said in our interview, which you can check out above. "It truly is this story that has just gained meaning since the comic. And it does... A lot of things have fallen into place for me, clearly. But it's also a time in the world where it's just like we really need, I think that it asks people to have love and empathy, even if they don't fully understand. And I think that that's really, really needed right now in the world. Not only for people who identify in that way who are seeing themselves, but also for people who love someone who is trans or queer in some way and in some movie that just asks you to see people and listen. And I think we really need that right now."

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc. Nimona is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade.

"I just can't wait for people to sit, to meet Nimona, and what Chloe has done with Nimona," Ahmed told ComicBook.com in a separate interview. "It's just next level. We all know she's an amazing actor, but I just think this incredibly kind of sprightly, mischievous, hilarious character that she has brought to life. I honestly think is just kind of a classic personality, a classic character, and I just can't wait for people to meet her."

Have you watched Nimona yet? What did you think of the film? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona is now available to stream exclusively on Netflix.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken star Annie Murphy talked about female friendship in the animated movie. Comicbook.com's Aaron Perine interviewed the Schitt's Creek actress about her dynamic with Ruby Gillman as Chelsea. Mermaids and Kraken don't see eye to eye in the world of the Dreamworks animated feature. However, it seems like the two young girls try to break the cycle. Sometimes though, jealousy can drive a wedge in friendships that look to be going well. So, there's a familiarity to this Ruby Gillman friendship dynamic that will resonate with young viewers.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not the ideal female friendship dynamic," Murphy began. "Uh, it's kind of the opposite for a minute. There you feel like maybe it is. And it's this, you know, this girl who sees another girl for who she really is and decides to befriend her and encourage her and embrace her, which is great."

"That's what we want in female friendship! And then, it's just like, nope, that's not it at all," she continued. "But, the good news is that Ruby has real family who do love her for who she really is. So, she's okay, even though that relationship with Chelsea fell apart in a big way. She's got her real people with her."

Ruby Gillman and Positive Characters For Young Viewers

Lana Condor stars as Ruby Gillman in the movie and talked to Aaron Perine about how she strives to deliver characters that fans feel great rooting for. It's not hard to find a character Condor has brought to life that doesn't fit into this framework. Check out what she had to say about it down below.

"I think something that I've always really wanted in my career is... I really like playing characters, like goodhearted characters that, maybe will help? Like, I have a bunch of nieces and like younger cousins," Condor said. "I've always wanted to hope that they would watch something of mine and feel like, growing up, 'Like, I can be a good person,' you know? And so, I find that in Ruby a lot."

"I think we were able to portray the multitude of emotions that teenagers will go through. So, you ca have a really great day," she mused. "And in the same day, you could have the worst day of your life. I think that showing that there's dynamic range in young adults emotions. I think it's what makes her relatable."

How Does Ruby Gillman's Adventure Begin?

This summer, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she's part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed. Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I've Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible.

Will you be checking out Ruby Gillman this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

The Witcher season 3 is finally here, and Netflix has delivered the first chapter of the much-anticipated series. This is also part one of Henry Cavill's last season in the role of Geralt of Rivia, as Liam Hemsworth will be stepping into the role of Geralt in Season 4 and beyond. ComicBook.com's Matthew Aguilar sat down with Witcher stars Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, and Joey Batey about filming their last season with Cavill and how they are feeling about Hemsworth joining the series, and while there is a sense of loss, there is also a sense of excitement about the future.

"Excited. Yeah, can't wait to have Liam on board. Well, he is, but to meet him and have him as Geralt," Chalotra said. "It's going to be bizarre, and I feel like I'm definitely going to feel that loss. I think we all will. Henry's been incredible and carried the show, so definitely going to feel that, but very, very excited for what's to come. There's so much story to tell."

"I think it's always...it's intriguing and exciting to get to see another version of this, or interpretation of this character," Allan said.

"Yeah, very excited, and we'll all miss Henry greatly," Batey said. "And as you say, behind the scenes, he's always just been very, very supportive and funny, good-natured professional who was always the first to laugh on those bad days and to crack jokes, and that presence is cemented in the DNA of the show."

"Yeah, cemented in probably us playing our characters," Allan said. "I know that I won't be able to help but visualize him going forward. It's just that's been Geralt, but I'm still really excited to see something new as well."

It's definitely going to be different seeing someone else in the role of Geralt after having Cavill in those boots for three seasons, but if Hemsworth knocks it out of the park, the change could usher in a whole era for the series. In the meantime, you can find the official description for The Witcher Season 3 below.

"As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri's magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl's untapped powers; instead, they discover they've landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line - or risk losing each other forever.

The Witcher season 3 Chapter 1 (which includes episodes 1 through 5) is available on Netflix now, while Chapter 2 (which includes episodes 6 through 8) hits Netflix on July 27th.

What have you thought of The Witcher season 3? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things Witcher with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

Nimona arrives on Netflix this weekend, finally adapting the world of ND Stevenson's beloved graphic novel into film. At the center of Nimona is its titular character, a shape-shifting teenager who takes her world on a wild adventure. Chlo? Grace Moretz, who has been attached to the project for several years, manages to uniquely embody the unique spirit of Nimona, and now we know how she arrived at that performance. While speaking to ComicBook.com about Nimona, Moretz detailed the creative process of bringing her character to life -- including worrying that her improvisation and experimenting would be coming across as psychopathic.

"A little bit of the time it felt like black box theater, where you're just playing around and throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. And Nick and Troy are such incredible directors. And from the get go, the first things they said were, "We want you to go big, go small, go left, go right, do things that we don't even expect." They gave me the gift of saying, you're free to improv, you're free to expand this space and go for whatever you feel. There were times that I was sweating in there going, "Am I being a total and complete just psychopath right now?" And it wasn't until I saw the finished product that I was like, "Oh my God, thank God it works." I was like, "It works. Okay. Okay. Phew."

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc. Nimona is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade.

"I just can't wait for people to sit, to meet Nimona, and what Chloe has done with Nimona," Ahmed told ComicBook.com in a separate interview. "It's just next level. We all know she's an amazing actor, but I just think this incredibly kind of sprightly, mischievous, hilarious character that she has brought to life. I honestly think is just kind of a classic personality, a classic character, and I just can't wait for people to meet her."

Are you excited for Nimona? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, June 30th.

This week will bring the arrival of Nimona, the long-awaited film adaptation of ND Stevenson's graphic novel of the same name. Nimona enlists an all-star voice cast to bring its unconventional fantasy story to life, including actor and The Try Guys member Eugene Lee Yang. After appearances in Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Star Wars: Visions, Nimona marks Yang's biggest role yet -- and apparently, he has his sights set on another major franchise. While speaking to ComicBook.com about his role as Ambrosius Goldenloin in Nimona, Yang revealed that his dream is to join the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender in some way. This comes after Yang went viral in 2020 for cosplaying as several of the Avatar characters.

"Avatar The Last Airbender, full stop," Yang explained in our video, which you can check out above. "They know. We're talking a little bit, but talk about some queer world building. You got to get some queer people in it. That's pie in the sky for me. Pie in the sky."

Will There Be an Avatar: The Last Airbender Sequel?

This comes as the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise is going strong, with a live-action adaptation set to hit Netflix in 2024. The future of the saga also includes a new animated film and a new animated series about the Earth Avatar.

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc. Nimona is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade.

"I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity to work on this project and the fact that it's Goldenloin was hugely important," Yang said elsewhere in our interview. "And I think that they saw that I had a lot of experience personally that is reflected in the themes that Goldenloin's journey inhabits, duty versus love. That's the story of my life. So I think that that was something that I jumped at the chance to be able to lend that to his perspective."

Are you excited for Nimona? Would you want to see Eugene Lee Yang join the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, June 30th.

Jack Ryan is gearing up for its final season on Prime Video. John Krasinski's take on Tom Clancy's classic CIA agent has been going on missions for three seasons now, making him the most tenured Jack Ryan actor in history. That is no small feat either, as Jack Ryan has been a staple of the entertainment industry for decades. Veteran actors like Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford have suited up as the character in films like The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games while current stars such as Ben Affleck and Chris Pine have taken on the leading role in The Sum of All Fears and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, the cast of Jack Ryan Season 4 revealed when they were first introduced to Tom Clancy's most iconic character.

"Hunt for Red October was the first one. Clear and Present Danger and so on and so forth," Louis Ozawa, a newcomer to Jack Ryan this season, said. "And, I was also a fan of the first season of Jack Ryan."

"Clear and Present Danger was I think probably the first one and then I went to see, Hunt for Red October," Michael Pe?a, who is set to play Ding Chavez, said. "Then Jack Ryan Season 1, it was a little bit different because it focused mainly on him. I just love that show. I watched it in two days, the first season. I became a fan. It's lucky for us being in a show that you're a fan of. That hardly ever happens."

"It was actually a new experience for me. When I was in discussions about Season 1, I took a deep dive into the books and the movies," Abbie Cornish, who is returning to Jack Ryan for the first time since the first season, said. "I'd seen a couple of the movies, but I needed to refresh on those, and the books were a whole another experience for me, too."

"I was raised on Harrison Ford, like all the movies that he's done. So of course Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, those are in there," Betty Gabriel, who plays the Director of the CIA in Season 4, said. "I think what John brings to the table is really, it's really lightning quick and humorous, too."

Jack Ryan Season 4 premieres on Prime Video this Friday, June 30th.

Nimona arrives on Netflix on Friday, giving fans an opportunity to dive into a truly unique animated world. Inspired by ND Stevenson's graphic novel of the same name, Nimona had a years-long journey to becoming a reality, ending up being revived at Netflix after being canceled mid-production at Blue Sky Studios. Chlo? Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed, who star in the film as Nimona and Ballister Boldheart, have been attached to the project before that cancelation, and they're overjoyed to see it come to fruition. In separate interviews with ComicBook.com, Ahmed and Moretz spoke about the "relief" of Nimona becoming a reality.

"I can't believe that it's finally out there," Ahmed revealed. "We've been working on this for years. Literally, years and years. It's had some stops and starts. There was COVID. It was recording remotely. To see it all come together so beautifully, to see Troy and Nick's vision really kind of realized with so much heart and humor and action and fun and just mayhem. Just to see what Chloe has done with Nimona, and just that she's created one of the all-time great animated characters, I think. I almost can't believe it. Honestly, animation is kind of new to me. Just the process, just how meticulous it is, how much of a marathon it is. It feels incredible to finally have it out there."

"I mean, it is an exciting experience," Moretz explained in a separate interview. "It's a relief. And it's also a testament to who Nimona is. I mean, I think that the fact that Nimona perseveres in the way that she perseveres in life and the fact that the film persevered in the same way is just such a testament to the story. And to ND Stevenson who created this and just the life that the web comic had to being their thesis in college and then turning into the graphic novel, Nimona is just a character that has survived in so many ways that I feel really lucky to be a part of it."

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc.

Nimona is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade.

"I just can't wait for people to sit, to meet Nimona, and what Chloe has done with Nimona," Ahmed told ComicBook.com. "It's just next level. We all know she's an amazing actor, but I just think this incredibly kind of sprightly, mischievous, hilarious character that she has brought to life. I honestly think is just kind of a classic personality, a classic character, and I just can't wait for people to meet her."

Are you excited for Nimona? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, June 30th.

This weekend will see the long-awaited arrival of Nimona, an animated film making its debut on Netflix after a years-long production process. Based on ND Stevenson's beloved graphic novel of the same name, the project stars Chlo? Grace Moretz as Nimona, a shape-shifter who has a chaotic and delightful impact on the people around her. Nimona is Moretz's biggest comic book role after portraying Hit-Girl in the live-action Kick-Ass movies, but it sounds like she's willing to join that space in an even bigger way. While speaking to ComicBook.com about her titular role in Nimona, Moretz highlighted qualities from her character that could carry over into her dream superhero movie role.

"Yeah, I mean, I think I've always been attracted to villains and villainess, and I think that Nimona is like an anti-hero hero," Moretz said in our interview, which you can check out above. "I think there's something really fun in that. Even when she is such a good at heart, sometimes she's a little astray with the way that she goes about things, and I love that about her. She sticks to exactly who she is. So yeah, I'd love to play a hero/villain like Nimona."

Will Chlo? Grace Moretz Play a Superhero?

As Moretz told ComicBook.com in 2022, she did meet with Marvel to play a comic book-related role. Although she didn't name the character, she indicated that she'd be more than interested, depending on the project.

"Yeah, we've talked a little bit about it. I mean, I think for me, I would be really interested in playing a villain in Marvel or DC, and jumping into more of the darker side of the role. I love a superhero. I think that'd be really fun, too, but I think it's just all about finding the one that really matches what you're wanting to get across, and the scope of the character. I think it'd be really fun if it was the right role and the right project."

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc.

Nimona, which ended up at Netflix after being canceled mid-production at Blue Sky Studios, is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade.

"I just can't wait for people to sit, to meet Nimona, and what Chloe has done with Nimona," Ahmed told ComicBook.com. "It's just next level. We all know she's an amazing actor, but I just think this incredibly kind of sprightly, mischievous, hilarious character that she has brought to life. I honestly think is just kind of a classic personality, a classic character, and I just can't wait for people to meet her."

What superhero role would you like to see Chlo? Grace Moretz play? Are you excited to see her performance in Nimona? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, June 30th.

Mark Consuelos returned this week on Riverdale with Hiram Lodge paying Veronica a visit in "Chapter One Thirty: The Crucible". However, Hiram's visit ends up being far more than just some well-intentioned father-daughter time because, in any timeline, Hiram Lodge is, well, Hiram Lodge. Consuelos' appearance in "The Crucible" marks his final appearance as the character -- who was killed off in the 'present day' timeline in Season 6 and the actor spoke with ComicBook.com about getting to play the fan favorite villain one last time as well what it was like playing this specific version of Hiram and more.

Warning: spoilers for this week's episode of Riverdale, "Chapter One Thirty: The Crucible" beyond this point.

In this week's episode, Hiram unexpectedly comes to Riverdale to visit Veronica, but as always, he has an ulterior motive. The famous actor is revealed to have been flagged as a communist sympathizer -- this is Red Scare 1950s, after all -- following what he claims was just an innocent trip to Cuba for cigars and he needs Veronica to lie and say it was really just an innocent father-daughter trip. It turns out, however, that is a lie. Hiram is cheating on Hermione and there is much more to that trip than meets the eye -- including that he met with his mistress and he needs Veronica to cover for him not just because of the communist concerns but because of the morality clause connected to his acting career. Veronica ultimately agrees -- with stipulations -- but it ends up being for naught. The end of the episode sees Hermione arrive after Hiram has left to tell Veronica she's divorcing him.

Nicole Drum, ComicBook.com: I'm so excited to see you coming back to Riverdale. It feels like it wouldn't be the final season if we didn't get to see Hiram Lodge come back one more time. When did you know that you were going to get to come back?

Mark Consuelos: I got a call from Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], I think the season had started already, and I made my... I just accepted the fact that maybe I was the only character to die on Riverdale and not come back. I was like, "Alright, that's cool." Everybody that dies comes back over and over and over again. Maybe Hiram's the exception. He dies and that's just it. And I was cool with it, but when he called, he had me at, "Would you be interested?" I said, "Absolutely." I was like, "Yes, yes. The answer is yes." And he goes, "Don't you want to hear what the episode's about?" I'm like, "Sure, you can tell me what the episode's about, but I would love to come back."

So yeah, I jumped at the opportunity. It gave the opportunity to say... To see my old friends, to see the sets that I spent days and hours on, and the crew. It was not often that you get to say goodbye twice, so I just thought... I was extremely grateful for the opportunity.

And you get to play almost a slightly different version of him. This season with being set in the fifties, everyone's a slightly different version of their character, but Hiram is also very much a slightly different version of self, but at the same time, he's also same old Hiram in a sense. How did you approach this version of Hiram since he is Hiram, but also different Hiram?

Well, I'm glad you noticed a difference. He's showbiz Hiram, right? So, he's not this evil megalomaniac businessman where he's just crushing people. And that's by nine in the morning. He's crushed a ton of souls, and he's just this greedy, powerful man. Now he's like this showbiz guy, which obviously there's a lot of ego in that, but he had a bit of a more of a smile on his face, and I thought... I was so happy that I got to play this version of him. But you're right. At his core, I would say he's just as manipulative as the prior iteration of Hiram.

We do find out, as you say, he's still manipulative. We find out that the real reason he's in town is really because he is suspected of being a communist, and I think this is really interesting because it's very dead on with the timeframe obviously. The communism scare of that time period, because he'd gone to Cuba and oh, he's cheating on his wife, and there's that complicated situation with the morality clause. So much of this season and his predicament in this episode in particular is wrapped up in both this really interesting historical context, but there's also something very timely going on as well here. Talk to me a little bit about Hiram predicament in this episode, and it almost makes him human in a way that we haven't really gotten to see him be before except for when he died.

I totally agree. I thought that this was a much more human version of Hiram. And it's funny, just the historical references that they were making. I was wondering, when I was looking at KJ or at some of the younger casts, I'm like, "Did you guys even study this in history? Because I know I did. I knew all about this." We took a deep dive in McCarthyism. We took a really deep dive in this and I was a big history buff, so I was fascinated by this moment in history. So that made me smile a little bit, and I think a couple of them answered me, "Did this really happen?" "Yes! People were blackballed." Desi and Lucy were at the target of this actually. Lucille Ball, namely, which is... I guess their show is fashioned Hiram and Hermione Show is fashioned after that as well.

I don't know. I thought it was super, super interesting. I thought it was really, really smart the way they tied it together. I thought that some of his downfalls with power and money, they just switched over to him being more of a philander and more of a womanizer. And what that meant to Veronica and having those hard conversations between a father and a daughter when she's finds out that facade is... Has been shattered or this perfect family... Not that it was a perfect family, but none that she asks him some very, very tough questions and she's very powerful in the way that she makes him own up and accept to what he's done wrong.

So, I don't know. I thought it was extremely relatable in under the melting pot of this communist storyline. There was something really, really human, and really, really relatable to what predicament they were in.

I always love seeing your scene work as Hiram with Veronica. But I also really loved in this episode, we get to see you in the classroom with Veronica and her classmates, and you guys are doing the drama stuff, and you're particularly given Julian the what for with his monologue and such. I think this is a side that we never really got to see much of in previous seasons, this almost a lighthearted, this funny Hiram who is pushing the envelope a little bit with the kids and basically pointing out to them some of their flaws in a way that is really resonant. I just really loved that scene. You looked like you were having a blast in that classroom scene.

Oh my gosh. We laughed so much. I have not seen what they takes. They actually went with. We did so many different versions of that, and we played with it. M?dchen directed the episode. I said, "What if we did this?" And she said, "What if you do this?" So, I'm delighted. I can't wait to see what they actually took.

And you're right. We had a blast doing that scene. And he was such a good sport with me giving him such a hard time. He was such a good sport. But my God, he's such a... He's a really good actor.

Yeah, I think Hiram always gave the kids a hard time in the previous seasons, but Abe's usually met with, "I'm going to kill you if you don't get this right, or if you don't do what I say." Whereas this sitcom actor is giving this kid in class like this serious lesson in acting. It's hilarious. But he's given his chance to show what kind of acting prowess Hiram actually has. And I don't know. We died. We had such a good time filming that. I'm glad it came through.

What was it like getting to work with her as a director? It feels like it's such a perfect little nugget in this show.

I love M?dchen. She's such a fine actor. I think that actors that direct oftentimes have such a nice window in to push a few buttons, especially if they have a rapport with the actors and we have a nice rapport. I thought she did an amazing job. I think she's directed some other episodes as well.

And I think it's really great that Roberto hired within. I know Robin Givens directed an episode. Nathalie [Boltt] directed an episode or two. I just think it's really, really cool. I'm kicking myself that I didn't maybe ask to do one before I left in season five, because it's such hard work, especially with how many scenes Riverdale an episode of Riverdale has. It's unlike a lot of other shows. It moves. And they're on different sets and they're off and on. They're off and on location. So, it's definitely a big feat. And I don't know, I had such a good time. She did a wonderful job. I hope I get to work with her again in that capacity.

With Riverdale coming to end, this being the final season, as we will eventually look back on Riverdale, because it was such a cultural moment from the moment that TV show arrived up till now. It has said such a cultural impact. I was telling someone the other day, I'm like, "The show's been on the air long enough that we're literally seeing people who've grown up with this show to an extent." When you look back on this show, what do you hope its lasting legacy will have been?

I think you described it just beautifully the way it is. It's something that... It's a show that people will remember growing up watching. Especially with the core fans that they attracted initially. So, that young group of fans is now seven years older, and they're young adults now. And who knows where they are in their lives, but they'll have that cultural reference.

But not just the fans. We got to watch these young kids on the show grow up as well. Cami was just out of college. KJ was 19 years old, or 18 years old when he started. They're not kids anymore. So, I think that was also a beautiful little lining. You got to see these young actors at the beginnings of their huge careers that they're all going to have such an amazing careers. I can't wait to see what they do next. But I am just grateful to have been a small part of such an iconic show. I'll forever be grateful to have played Hiram Lodge.

People still cross the street when they see me coming. They're so afraid of him. And I'm like, "I'm the nice guy. I swear I'm not... I'm nothing like this guy." I understand him because I'm a dad and I would kill for my family. I would kill, but I'm not... I'm not that guy. So, not often do you get to play a character where people cross the street when they see you coming.

All I can say is Long Live Hiram Lodge.

Indeed. Indeed. Long Live Hiram Lodge.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The wait for ATEEZ's anticipated new music is finally over, as The World Ep.2: Outlaw is finally out in the wild. With the additive track Bouncy leading the way, ATEEZ looks to have another collection of hits on their hands, and in the midst of their incredibly busy schedules ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to the group all about the new music, but that's not all. Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung, and Jongho also happen to be Marvel fans, and so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn a bit more about their love of the Marvel Universe and the heroes that call it home.

First though we wanted to know about the first half of their latest tour, which featured stops in the United States, Europe, Seoul, and Japan. They are set to head to Asia and Latin America next, but for the first half, we wanted to know what their favorite memories from their experience so far and what they had taken away most from the tour.

"Well, before all else, I want to say that we're always so happy to be able to go to so many countries and perform in front of fans that we don't get to see often," Hongjoong said. "In terms of what we take away, I think that comes naturally when we perform on stage, check over our performances, and communicate with the fans on tour. We learn from our performances and interactions to know what we can improve on and add to make it better. Besides that, some of my favorite memories come from the time during tours between shows when we can experience and enjoy the different places that ATINY live in first hand."

"I want to first thank all the ATINY who came out to see us," Wooyoung said. "There were some countries that we were visiting for the first time, so it was a very meaningful tour. We're so excited to see ATINY at our upcoming shows too!"

The World EP.2: Outlaw hit the ground running with the aptly titled Bouncy, a track that more than lives up to its name, and the track came together pretty organically. "BOUNCY is a song that came together really naturally. It's a track that was born out of the perfect combination of EDENARY's sound direction and ATEEZ's performance spectrum," Hongjoong said.

When we asked about interesting points to your new music overall, Yeosang said "I'd say an interesting point to our new music is how the words 'Cheongyang gochu (Cheongyang chili pepper)' was implemented into the song. It's a story that Hongjoong talked to me about before and it's actually really funny." Jongho said, "I guess I'd say the part where all the songs on this album have really different, but bold and strong colors."

Now, we had to talk a little Marvel, as there's a definitely love of the Marvel Universe and some of its most iconic heroes within the group. While there were a few picks, Spider-Man and Iron Man happened to come up the most, though there was also some love for Marvel's famed archer Hawkeye, and the Captain himself Captain America.

"Iron Man," Hongjoong said. "He's the first Marvel character I came across, and I love that he has his own sense of humor but maintains a weight to his words and actions." For Seonghwa, it was an easy answer. "Of course, it's Spider-Man! Yunho is a big fan, but I am, too. I watched the movie over five times," Seonghwa said. Yunho's answer also came easily, saying, "I am steadfast on Spider-Man. ATINY knows this about me too!"

"Iron Man is my favorite," Yeosang said. "I personally like robots and [*SPOILER ALERT*] I thought Iron Man was so brave and amazing when he sacrificed himself for everyone in the last fight with Thanos. For San, it's all about the star-spangled Avenger. "Captain America. There's something wonderful in the romance of his story," San said.

While Mingi isn't as big into Marvel, he does still appreciate one particular hero. "I'm not as into Marvel characters like the others, but I do like Hawkeye," Mingi said. "I like him because I think he's the most realistic amongst them."

Wooyoung keeps it simple, and you can't argue with the reasoning. "Iron Man," Wooyoung said. "For the simple reason that the suit is so cool!" Jongho agrees and for similar reasons. "I think I like Iron Man the most. I remember watching the scene when I was younger in one of the movies where Iron Man puts on his suit and I thought it was the coolest thing," Jongho said.

Mingi also added that if a Marvel hero were to get an anime, it would be Hawkeye he'd love to see in that spot. "Hawkeye. I think it'd be interesting to see an anime adaptation with a more realistic character from the Marvel series as a hero," Mingi said.

We've got more from our full interview with ATEEZ coming to ComicBook.com very soon, and you can listen to and download The World EP.2: OUTLAW in its entirety right here. You can also watch the official MV for Bouncy right here.

Do you want to see some ATEEZ and Marvel crossover down the line? Let us know in the comments!

Riz Ahmed has had a pretty eclectic career over the years, between Oscar-winning work and massive blockbusters. Two of the biggest films Ahmed has been in might be 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in which he played Resistance cargo pilot Bodhi Rook, and 2018's Marvel picture Venom, in which he played the villainous Carlton Drake / Riot. With the third Venom movie just beginning production this week, and the Rogue One prequel series Star Wars: Andor gearing up for its second season, there are definitely narrative opportunities for Ahmed to possibly appear in either role. While speaking to ComicBook.com about his role as Lord Ballister Boldheart in the upcoming Netflix movie Nimona, Ahmed revealed that he would gladly continue "working with great people" on either project, but he also recognizes a reprisal of his characters might not be needed.

"I'm always interested in working with great people on anything that feels like I could be helpful," Ahmed explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "At the same time, I also realize that being a team player means you come in and you do a bit, and it has a start and an end."

What Is Nimona About?

In Nimona, when Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chlo? Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem -- who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona's the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc -- for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to...just wreak serious havoc.

Nimona, which ended up at Netflix after being canceled mid-production at Blue Sky Studios, is directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The film also stars Eugene Lee Yang as Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, Frances Conroy as The Director, and Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade. It is based on N.D. Stevenson's beloved graphic novel of the same name.

"I just can't wait for people to sit, to meet Nimona, and what Chloe has done with Nimona," Ahmed said elsewhere in our interview. "It's just next level. We all know she's an amazing actor, but I just think this incredibly kind of sprightly, mischievous, hilarious character that she has brought to life. I honestly think is just kind of a classic personality, a classic character, and I just can't wait for people to meet her."

Do you want to see Riz Ahmed return to the Star Wars or Marvel universes? Are you excited to see his performance in Nimona? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Nimona will debut exclusively on Netflix on Friday, June 30th.

All Elite Wrestling has quickly become the land of factions. The wrestling promotion was essentially founded on the momentum of The Elite and went on to create dozens of groups in its first few years on television. The debut episode of AEW Dynamite saw the creation of Chris Jericho's Inner Circle, a unit that is spiritually succeeded today by the Jericho Appreciation Society. Stables like Death Triangle and House of Black have found success in the trios division. Units like the Blackpool Combat Club have dominated across company lines, regularly racking up victories in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

One stable that started out white hot but quickly fizzled out was The Pinnacle. Maxwell Jacob Friedman's first faction saw him enlist the talents of FTR, Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard to join him and Wardlow in a war with Inner Circle. The Pinnacle saw immediate success, main-eventing AEW Double or Nothing just weeks after assembling on AEW Dynamite but would see start-stop momentum after the Inner Circle feud ended.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Shawn Spears reflected on his time in The Pinnacle, noting he believes the faction lost steam due to AEW as a company growing rapidly.

"I just think [AEW] grew fast. When you have more guys coming in, or more opportunities for the company to branch out, there's just a lot going on," Spears said. "When there's a lot going on and there's one man at the helm, not every storyline is gonna take precedence. Things are gonna slip through the cracks. Things are not gonna maybe have the long longevity that one would've hoped or the promise of time that at least was an idea beforehand."

Following the Inner Circle feud, The Pinnacle operated as less of a cohesive team and more as MJF and Wardlow's lackeys. Friedman moved on to a feud with CM Punk while Wardlow dominated local talent in weekly squash matches. FTR backed up MJF in his segments against Punk, whether it be a trios match or a beat down, and Spears accompanied Wardlow to the ring for his quick bouts. Spears re-aligned with MJF when he began feuding with Wardlow but quietly left television after MJF lost to Wardlow at AEW Double or Nothing. FTR also ditched The Pinnacle on their own as well, leading to the group ending without a true blow-off.

"I think Pinnacle could have done a lot more," Spears continued. "I think we all think that. Everybody in the group thinks that, but this is the wrestling industry. Things move fast. Things move on. Unfortunately, some things fall through the cracks and unfortunately, Pinnacle was just one of those things."

AEW Dynamite airs tonight at 8 PM ET.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken star Lana Condor shared what makes her character so endearing. The To All The Boys I've Loved Before actress sat down with Comicbook.com's Aaron Perine to discuss the new Dreamworks movie. It's no secret that Condor has played a lot of endearing young women in her career. But, for Ruby, she thinks the teenage kraken is special because she's showcasing a wide range of emotions for younger viewers. It also feels like the star used her desire for goodhearted girls on-screen to help guide her performance too. Check out what she had to say about Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken down below!

Condor began, "I think something that I've always really wanted in my career is... I really like playing characters, like goodhearted characters that, maybe will help? Like, I have a bunch of nieces and like younger cousins. I've always wanted to hope that they would watch something of mine and feel like, growing up, 'Like, I can be a good person,' you know? And so, I find that in Ruby a lot."

"I think we were able to portray the multitude of emotions that teenagers will go through. So, you ca have a really great day," she continued. "And in the same day, you could have the worst day of your life. I think that showing that there's dynamic range in young adults emotions. I think it's what makes her relatable."

What Is The Core of Ruby's Story?

Universal describes the story: "This summer, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she's part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed. Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I've Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible."

"She's math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White, Ralph Breaks the Internet), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she's prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Oscar(R) nominee Toni Collette, Knives Out), has forbade Ruby from ever getting in the water. But when she breaks her mom's #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Academy Award(R) winner Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas."

How Did She Get Kraken Powers?=

"The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. There's one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school's beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Emmy winner Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek) just happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves most."

Who Else Stars In Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken?

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken stars an extraordinary cast that includes Emmy winner Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) as Ruby's supportive dad, Emmy nominee Sam Richardson (Veep) as Ruby's enthusiastic uncle and Blue Chapman (Council of Dads) as Ruby's cool little brother. Directed by Academy Award(R) nominated filmmaker Kirk DeMicco (Vivo, The Croods) and produced by Kelly Cooney Cilella (Trolls World Tour, Trolls), with Faryn Pearl (The Croods: A New Age, Trolls World Tour) serving as co-director, the film features a comedic powerhouse supporting cast, including Emmy nominee Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth), Emmy nominee Nicole Byer (Nailed It!), YouTube Diamond creator Liza Koshy (Liza on Demand), Ramona Young (Never Have I Ever), Eduardo Franco (Stranger Things) and Echo Kellum (Arrow)."

Are you thinking of checking out Ruby Gillman this weekend? Let us know down in the comments!

Shawn Spears is nearing the end of his in-ring career. The Perfect 10 has been in the wrestling business for over two decades now, wrestling a relentless full-time schedule for both WWE and AEW. While in Vince McMahon's sports-entertainment empire, Spears competed as Tye Dillinger for five years in NXT where he totaled nearly 400 matches during that span. Now being 42 years old, Spears has started to conceptualize how he anticipates his wrestling days finishing up.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Spears noted that he's thought about his last match "a little bit" but is expecting his actual retirement bout to be somewhat of a secret.

"I don't think it'll be announced as a last match. I won't announce it as a last match. I'll just have the match. I'll know when I'm done, and then I will just be away, and that'll be it," Spears said. "I'll just ride into the sunset on my own. That would kind of be a perfect full circle moment, because in this industry, you're on your own a lot. It'll mean the world to me, but people won't know that it'll be the last match."

Outside of the ring, Spears is now a father. He and wife Cassie Lee (formerly known as Peyton Royce in WWE) welcomed their first child earlier this year.

"It is changed my perspective on life in general and professional wrestling life. I'm more about now setting a good example," Spears said of becoming a dad. "I've been very driven, gung ho, tunnel vision [in wrestling]. Nothing else around me really mattered. When he came along, he's the path. He's the tunnel. Wrestling, I love it, and it is a wonderful part of my life, but that's it. It's just a part of my life. He is going to be with me much longer than wrestling will be.

"As long as my wife and son are happy and healthy, my job as a man and as a person who's employed is done. That's it. That's all I can control. It has made me happier. It has made me see things a little more clearer. When you hold your own, it just, it just switches everything."

AEW returns to television this Wednesday for AEW Dynamite at 8 PM ET on TBS.

"Nostalgia" is the watchword that guides the outfitting of Paramount+'s Star Trek; Strange New Worlds, according to costume designer Bernadette Croft. Having previously been an assistant to Star Trek: Discovery costume designer Gersha Phillips, Croft moved on to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds when work on the spinoff series began. Now in its second season, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. As Croft tells ComicBook.com in an interview via video call, much of her work on the Star Trek streaming series is about modernizing the look of the original 1960s series, whether that developing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' classy but casual iteration of the Starfleet uniform and bringing the Klingons back closer to their original sense of fashion.

"Leaning into the nostalgia, elevating some of those original ideas that the costume designer at the time, William Ware Theiss, had, updating the fabrics, the technologies that we use, the processes, and leaning into color a little bit more, the vibrancy," Croft says of her work. "Other shows are a little darker, a little more monochromatic in terms of the grayscale and you can't really see what's going on sometimes. But on Strange New Worlds, it is just a little bit more powerful because you can see all that color and that vibrancy.

During our conversation, Croft touched on her approach to the Klingons, bringing Star Trek: Lower Decks' animated designs into live-action for the crossover episode, why the show brought back the green tunic that appeared seemingly at random in Star Trek: The Original Series, and why the fairytale-like "The Elysian Kingdom" is being submitted for Emmy Awards consideration. Here's what she had to say:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. How familiar were you with that series before starting to work on Star Trek yourself? Were you a fan? Did you have to do some homework or did you immediately have ideas about how things should look?

Bernadette Croft: No, I definitely had to do my homework. I didn't grow up watching it. My mom did. She loved it, but I wasn't really introduced to Trek until I worked with Gersha Phillips on Discovery. I was her assistant costume designer, and I, later on, co-designed a couple of episodes with her. So I'll have to thank her for opening me up into this magical world because since then I've like devoured most of Star Trek and I just love it, especially Lower Decks. That's my favorite Star Trek show. I'm glad that I found that later in life.

Since you mentioned Lower Decks, were you the one responsible for translating those beautiful animated costumes into the beautiful live-action costumes that we see in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 trailer? What challenges were there in adding a dimension, literally, to that look?

We're essentially inspired by animation, these tiny little figures, and we have to transport that idea to human people. Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid are both quite tall humans -- Jack Quaid's like 6'3', 6'4", or something like that -- so we had to make sure we honor the animation, but also for it to make sense in our Strange New Worlds visual landscape.

The fabric is actually the same as our Strange New Worlds uniforms, we just backed it with neoprene to make it a little bit more buoyant. It floated off the body a little bit, and it's very, very smooth. We didn't add any microprint because our series creator was just like, "Let's just leave that out. Let's just make it really simple." So we honored them there and didn't add any microprint like we do on our Strange New Worlds uniforms.

We just had to really look at the details: the Lower Decks have an emblem on the sole of their boot, Mariner kind of folds her uniform three-quarters of the way up, and little things like that -- she's kind of a bit more nonchalant, she's got that scrunchy in her hair -- there were all these little details that we had to really pay attention to.

Speaking of Starfleet uniforms. What was the mission brief when it came to the uniforms we see in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the changes made from the Enterprise uniforms we saw in Star Trek: Discovery to something that looks more like the uniforms in Star Trek; The Original Series? What was the idea there, and were there any particular challenges, or problems you had to fix as you went?

The biggest issue was that we were developing these costumes during COVID, so a lot of our manufacturers were closed. It was really hard to get materials. Whenever we ordered something online, it came sometimes, and then sometimes it just didn't, it didn't show up. But luckily, Gersha was working on Discovery at the time, so we actually borrowed a lot of fabrics from her, like trims, zippers, thread, all of the basic things that we needed to get our costume shop off the ground.

But in terms of the design, we knew it was going to be important. We knew Strange New Worlds had to lean into the nostalgia of the original series, but still elevate it for today's audiences. And I think today's audiences, they expect a certain level of production value, and we wanted to pay tribute also to what Gersha has done on Discovery with that more of a heroic silhouette. It's a little bit more formal, but we also wanted to make it casual. So linking those two shows together, that was a bit of a challenge.

I think, in the end, we offered up 30 options to our showrunners and they essentially chose what we see on our screens today, and I think they made a great choice. I think it's still simple, it's classic, it's casual, it's still colorful, but we've got the detail, like the micro-print, the silhouette's really strong, and the actors have said that it's comfortable. So we've got that on our side as well.

Is the COVID-19 pandemic part of why you turned to 3D printing for certain pieces? I know you sued it for some of the crowns and jewelry in "The Elysian Kingdom." Or was there more to it than that?

We want everything to be unique, memorable. We want to add that production value. So certain detail we often have to hand sculpt, but with 3D printing it's much faster. When you don't have a lot of prep time for episodes -- for us it's like two weeks -- we need to make sure we infuse these episodes with as much detail, as much production value. So often 3D printing is the way to go, and it really is essential for us to keep on budget, to keep within the timeframe, but also to infuse that detail to ground the costumes in something that seems realistic, I would say.

What was your reaction when you first saw the script for "The Elysian Kingdom"? Were you surprised by suddenly having to craft all of these fairytale looks for this sci-fi show?

No, I literally thought it was a dream come true. I love fantasy. I was a fantasy kid, more so than sci-fi as a kid, so I thought they were delivering us gold. I was like, "Thank you very much for this costume episode." The costumes are so vivid, they're whimsical, they're eclectic. I designed the episode through the eyes of Rukiya, who's the 10-year-old girl in the episode, and I think kids just have such a vivid imagination, and they don't think genre, they don't think a specific time period, they just think whatever is fantastic. So that was my design brief, just design fantastic costumes that could be in this fantasy world in space. So I was really thankful to Onitra Johnson and Akela Cooper for that wonderful script. And it happens again in Season 2. We've got some really amazing episodes that are costume-heavy, which we always love. Not every episode is like that, obviously, but we really love it when we can really show what we can do.

I was going to ask about that. So then Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is going to give us another episode on that same level, costume-wise, as "The Elysian Kingdom"?

Yeah. I think the most extreme would probably be the Rigel VII costumes. That was an episode where the team, they're in disguises, they have to go to Rigel VII to this planet. We can tell by what they're wearing that the planet's got maybe extreme weather conditions. We can tell that it's kind of a bit of a medieval look. And when they land, they're expected to work under these conditions, and so their costumes emulate those conditions. So they're rough around the edges. The fabric's weathered, it's worn, it's broken down. The mud on the boots, you can see all that. So it's lots of detail that we wanted to infuse there. The guards' costumes were influenced by ancient Mongolian armor. It was an eclectic moment where we could bring a few elements together for this world, for Rigel VII.

Even Episode 1 was really fun. Those rebel Klingons in that down-and-dirty, gritty flea market scene, all of those kinds of costumes were fun to do as well. There are a few ones coming up. The crossover episode's really fun. And there's another one I can't really say, but yeah, you'll come to it.

You mentioned the Klingons. They look much closer to how they appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series here than they did when they appeared in Star Trek: Discovery. What was the approach there?

It came from our showrunners, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers. They wanted me to lean into the nostalgic TOS but elevate it. The Klingons were a real highlight. They're such an infamous and beloved alien, and in The Original Series, the costumes were these stretchy black and gold that looked like dance costumes. The belt buckle was bubble wrapped, and it was just painted. That was okay for the time, but I couldn't do that for today's audiences, there's no way. I had to elevate it to infuse more details. So what I did was I used the original palette, so the black and the gold, the original square neckline, but I made it more like a hard armor with this exoskeleton detail over the top that was hand sculpted by our sculptor, Alex Silberberg, and I think it makes them look a little bit more intimidating. It's just a little bit more memorable to TOS rather than Discovery.

It's clear that storytelling is baked into your design work, such as you infused the Rigel VII costumes with a bit of worldbuilding, and created the look of "The Elysian Kingdom" from a specific character's perspective. Was that part of what drew you to this kind of design work? Or was that something you had to learn as you were working on these kinds of series?

Going into it, we were definitely told it was re-imagining, that we could bring elements from the past but still make it our own. I've been really lucky enough that our showrunners are so open to ideas. It's not as if no idea is passed away. Everything's carefully considered. It's been just a wonderful journey, and I think Gene Roddenberry's original vision for the show was to inspire, uplift, make you think, and ultimately leave you with this optimistic view. So for me to work on a show that's positive, and it's this amazing legacy, it's just such an honor. So yeah, I jumped at the chance to be able to contribute to it visually.

I thought it was fun that you also brought back that green wraparound uniform Captain Kirk sometimes wore on Star Trek: The Original. It was a completely unnecessary thing to do, but I think fans really appreciated seeing it. Did you all talk about the purpose of that uniform and why it should show up in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?

Akiva really wanted us to pepper that green wrap jacket somewhere in the show. It was just one of those things that I think tickled his fancy. It's just like, that's a funny thing that they did. Why not? Let us do that too. So I did some research, and it's hard to decipher why they did that. One idea was that William Shatner kind of just changed shape over time, so it was to hide his physique a little bit more, but we don't really know, so we just did our Strange New Worlds version of it. We made the shoulders a little stronger. The fabric wasn't as Kermit the Frog green, it was just a little bit more olive, and we just did our version of it. And it's funny, in TOS, there are several of the green wrap jackets, so we might be doing several of them too as seasons go on. We don't know, we might do that.

"The Elysian Kingdom" is the episode that's been submitted for Emmy consideration. Why that episode? Is it simply the episode where you and your team got to flex your skills the most?

Well, interestingly, this episode wasn't eligible this last year's Emmys because of the way our series was delivered. Only the first seven, I believe, episodes were up for Emmy consideration last year. So this year my favorite episode happens to be eligible, so it's a no-brainer for sure. I think it encapsulates all of what Star Trek stands for, and for me, technically, it showcases the skill and talent of my team.

We handcrafted every single thing on the costumes, or 3D printed it. Even the Crimson Guards, the armor, there's like 150 leather pieces that are constructed by Jennifer Johnson, our key effects builder. It's just amazing what the team could do, considering we didn't have a lot of time, and I loved how they really rose to the occasion at this moment. It is just that warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia. It reminds you of a kid. It's really vivid. It's whimsical. It gives you that optimistic view of the future in a way. I was really happy that there was a chance to have it up for consideration at least.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, being more episodic than Star Trek: Discovery or Star Trek: Picard, brings new elements in with almost every episode. With all of that, is there a guiding theme that you follow to keep the show looking cohesive and make sure all of those aliens of the week or whatever else still feel like they fit into the world of the show?

I would say "nostalgia," for sure. Leaning into the nostalgia, elevating some of those original ideas that the costume designer at the time, William Ware Theiss, had, updating the fabrics, the technologies that we use, the processes, and leaning into color a little bit more, the vibrancy. Other shows are a little darker, a little more monochromatic in terms of the grayscale and you can't really see what's going on sometimes. But on Strange New Worlds, it is just a little bit more powerful because you can see all that color and that vibrancy. So I would say nostalgia is that North Star for us.

Has there been an instance where the nostalgia became too much and you had to pivot or to something different? Maybe on a previous interaction of the uniform, or some other situation where that fondness for the classic look became a stumbling block?

There wasn't really a stumbling block, it's just making sure things look cohesive and professional. The miniskirts, for instance, that was a moment where when Gersha and I were first discussing the costume, maybe we shouldn't do that because they were really wonderful at the time and a real showstopper, but it doesn't really resonate in today's society, and it can be seen as sexist. So we were thinking maybe not the miniskirts. But then Rebecca Romijn showed us this other way of thinking, which is you can still be professional, you just maybe have to tweak it somehow. So we just put leggings under the little tunics that we do. We've made it unisex so any gender can wear the uniform.

I would say little moments like that where certain things happen in the '60s that should maybe stay in the '60s. We'll just pivot, as you say, to something that resonates with today's more mature audiences who expect story, they expect character, and they're very smart. They're not going to see the gimmicks and just think, "Oh, I'm being played here." They expect more from storytelling.

On the flip side of the nostalgia, has there been any particular alien species in Star Trek that's been especially fun to work on? Or maybe the flipside of that, where there's one that's been particularly challenging?

I think whenever there's a legacy alien, you have to look at all the different iterations of the alien. We have meetings about the alien, how prosthetics are going to do their work, hair and makeup, costumes, and what the props department going to do. We all want to be on the same page. So legacy aliens do require a lot more consideration. When aliens are new to this series or to canon it's that spark of excitement. You can think of anything here. We're establishing something that may have to be redesigned in other Star Trek shows to come. You never know. So a real highlight for me from Season 1 was the Deleb aliens. They're in Season 2, and they weren't featured highly, but I think they were so intricate and beautiful.

They were a desert-dwelling, alien race, so I leaned into inspirations from nature, organic rock formations, the veins of a leaf, or a very natural palette, and looked at fashion designers like Iris van Herpen and the way that she does folds and pleating, and all of her kind of work is very alien in a way. It was really a wonderful alien to bring together, and our textiles team, headed by key technical artist Anna Pantcheva, did such a wonderful job. She did ice dying and bleach dying. She covered things with silicon, embroidered in a very organic way to make them look alien. So yeah, very proud of those aliens.

How to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 debuts new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. The second season will stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with a premiere date still to be announced. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is also streaming on Paramount+. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.

It takes a village to bring a Marvel Studios production to life, but the same can be said for just one individual character. Guardians of the Galaxy is made up of two completely computer-generated heroes in the forms of Rocket Raccoon and Groot. Unlike their MCU CGI counterparts like Mark Ruffalo's Hulk and Josh Brolin's Thanos, the actors tasked with voicing these characters are not the same actors that are providing motion-capture on set. Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel lend their chords to Rocket and Groot, but it is Sean Gunn and Austin Freeman that provide the physical embodiments of the fan-favorite pairing.

Sean had being doing on-set motion-capture for Rocket since the character was introduced in 2014 while Austin's first experience as Groot came in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special ahead of his reprisal in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Austin detailed his collaborative process with Sean.

"I got to work with Sean a lot. We shot Guardians 3 over about seven months. I think it was late October, early November when they started some of the blue screen stuff with Rocket and Lylla and Tefs and Floor. So they had some of that stuff going before very, very early November when principal photography started," Austin said. "I worked with Sean basically the whole time, and I got to ask him just some tips. 'Okay, you've been doing this since the beginning. What are some things that you do?'

"He was really open and was able to talk with me about just how the movement is captured into the performance. And he was there, he was doing all of the stuff for Rocket. There were some stand-in things that happened when he was playing Kraglin, but he was there doing everything."

Beyond the Rocket motion-capture, Sean fulfills the live-action role of Kraglin in the Guardians franchise. The latest film had him triple dip, as he also provided the voice of Young Rocket in flashback scenes.

"He has a great kind of, it's his voice, but it's almost like a blend of his voice and almost like an imitation of Bradley Cooper that he does too that's like Rocket's voice," Austin said of Sean's vocal work. "It was almost like we had Bradley on set too, which was kind of interesting. He was really cool. It was great to talk with the two when we were working together."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently in theaters.

Things have never been better for the Carlson Twins, more famously known as WOW Women of Wrestling's Miami's Seet Heat, as they sit atop the WOW Tag Team Division as Champions. They are also two parts of the ever-powerful and influential Fab 4, a faction that continues to cement its reign over Women of Wrestling. For Miami's Sweet Heat, the focus now becomes creating WOW history as the longest reigning Tag Team Champions, and in an interview with ComicBook.com, Laurie and Lindsey discussed their future goals, what lies ahead for the Fab 4, Comic-Con hopes, and their own journey to Women of Wrestling.

"I just feel every day grateful to be a part of WOW and this opportunity. Coming from the Indies, when we started wrestling, COVID hit and there weren't any opportunities at that time so you're just wrestling in your garage," Laurie said. "So, just seeing three years ago to now we're at WOW, and my grandma can watch me on TV, my parents. It's really awesome."

"It's still surreal and it's very awesome to see this big platform for women because women, as we should be, are the main event and we take over the whole show," Laurie said. "And I think to see women get the chance to be at the forefront, it's a really fabulous thing, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we continue to do at WOW and how many other people we can impact, and really to impact a generation of women and everyone else is what we're doing."

"I feel the same way, and it's cool now because I think the fans are really investing in us as the characters. And of course, everyone loves the Fabulous 4" Lindsey said. "We're the best faction and the best at WOW, Women of Wrestling. But it's cool to see the fans really invest in us and the characters and what we do."

"When Lana scouted us and found us, we were just ecstatic because she is a legend at WOW," Lindsey said. "And she is just on this high pedestal to us. To be a part of her faction... And then you have the World Champion, Penelope Pink, and the powerhouse Vickie Lynn, I feel like right now we're on top of the world and it's going to be very hard for anyone to bring us down."

"And we've all grown together over the season. We've got to know each other more through all the matches, and I just feel like now we're almost unstoppable," Laurie said.

Characters in Women of Wrestling come along pretty organically, and the same is true of Miami's Sweet Heat. That said, the duo wanted to spotlight just how crucial Selina Majors has been to so many in WOW. "Selena Majors is absolutely amazing at what she does," Lindsey said, with Laurie adding "She really has an eye, a vision. She sees somebody and makes something come to life."

As for the Fab 4, they don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon, and as they've collected a bevy of Title gold already, the focus now becomes staying at their lofty spot atop the mountain. "I think for Miami's Sweet Heat and for the Fabulous 4 it is to stay on top of the mountain. And for these other people that want to reach us, know that they can't because they can't be as fabulous as us and as good as us," Lindsey said.

"Yeah. I think our goal as a faction and as a tag team is to be the longest-reigning Tag Team Champs. We're trying to make history," Laurie said.

While Miami's Sweet Heat looks to take down their current run of challengers, there are two match-ups that would be dream scenarios for them, and both involve former WOW Champions. "I think for Lauri and me, our dream match would be to wrestle a former Tag Team. One of our favorite Tag Teams at WOW is Caged Heat, so I think that one would be at the top of the list and that would bring a lot of heat and a lot of history," Lindsey said. "Also to wrestle the former World Champion The Beast. I think that would be a really cool experience to go against The Beast.

The stars of WOW are already superheroes, so Comic-Con offers the perfect type of crossover. Comic-Con is a favorite of both stars, as they were able to hop in the ring at a previous Comic-Con and would love to make it happen again in the future "We are superheroes. I loved when we got to wrestle at Comic-Con," Lindsey said. "It was so cool, meeting all the Comic-Con fans. That was a really cool experience."

"I wish we could go to all the Comic-Cons," Laurie said. Lindsey added, "I would love to go to every single Comic-Con and wrestle." If that happens, they agreed that having some Marvel or DC gear for the occasion would only make the event even better. "Yeah, that's a great idea," Laurie said. "Absolutely. Really deck it out," Lindsey said.

Hopefully, that happens a reality down the line, but in the meantime, you can watch Miami's Sweet Heat every week on WOW Women of Wrestling. You can check your local listings for WOW right here, and you can check out clips and more on their official YouTube page right here.

What do you want to see next for Miami's Sweet Heat? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

DC fans got their first glimpse at Tom King and Daniel Sampere's upcoming Wonder Woman run in the just-released Wonder Woman #800, which also allowed fans to get to know Wonder Woman's daughter Trinity a bit before the run takes off later this year. Trinity will be a major factor in King's upcoming Wonder Woman run, but Diana is still front and center. Earlier this year King spoke to ComicBook Nation all about the new series, and during our conversation, he revealed his goal in exploring the character and what type of Wonder Woman book fans can expect.

"I kind of write two kinds of comics, if you follow my career. I write these kind of deconstruction kind of sad dude looking outside of window comics, which I love. Things like Mister. Miracle. Human Target. Vision. Which are deconstructions of super heroes where I'm sort of taking them apart, figuring out what makes them tick, and having fun at the same time. And then I've written things like Superman: Up In The Sky and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which are not that," King said.

"They deal with trauma. They're huge big stories, they're epic, and they have huge ups and downs, but the point of those stories is to say this character is almost perfect, is wonderful, and has such strength in them that comes from a legacy of being in all this media and having all these writers that my goal as a writer is to show you how awesome they are. And so that's what Wonder Woman is," King said.

"It's not a deconstruction. I'm not tearing her apart and seeing how sad I can make her," King said. "Even in a way I did to Batman. The point of this book is to show you how awesome Wonder Woman is. It is to show you a kick-ass warrior. It is to show you someone who fights for peace. It's to show you someone who is a rebel against the system, so that's all of it. This is to put the highlight on a character who doesn't need to be fixed. So that's the intention for the book."

King also wants to reaffirm Wonder Woman's place in the DC Trinity, as she is just as important and iconic as Superman and Batman. "Sometimes Wonder Woman can fall out of the trinity. I think people go to Batman and Superman first. She deserves to stand up there, because I remember my daughter dressing up as Wonder Woman for three years in a row, and what it meant for her to ask for a lasso and my wife ended up buying a rope and painting it. Like, I want her to be worthy of sort of that, of what my daughter sees in her, and that's my goal," King said.

You can get a glimpse at King's Wonder Woman run in Wonder Woman #800, which is in stores this week and introduces a first look at Wonder Woman's daughter Trinity. You can find the official description for Wonder Woman #1 below.

"After a mysterious Amazonian is accused of mass murder, Congress passes the Amazon Safety Act, barring all Amazons from U.S. soil. To carry out their plans, the government starts a task force, the Amazon Extradition Entity (A.X.E.), to remove those who don't comply, by any means necessary. Now, in her search for the truth behind the killing, Wonder Woman finds herself an outlaw in the world she once swore to protect! Writer Tom King (BATMAN, MISTER MIRACLE, SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW) and superstar artist in the making Daniel Sampere (DARK CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, ACTION COMICS) join forces for this action-packed relaunch and the beginning of what will undoubtedly become a groundbreaking run on the character."

Wonder Woman #1 hits comic stores on September 19th.

Are you excited for King's Wonder Woman run? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things DC and Wonder Woman with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

Few directors have as unique of a style as Wes Anderson. The critically-acclaimed filmmaker has established a definitive style over the course of the 21st century which can best be defined as a throwback formalism layered with absurdist humor. Anderson's distinct tone and color palette has been utilized for original stories exclusively, barring 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox, and is back on full display in his latest picture, Asteroid City. This has led to film fans attempting to replicate Anderson's style on social media to reimagine some of Hollywood's most famous movies including X-Men and Star Wars.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, the Asteroid City cast theorized what projects from their pasts they would most like to see get a Wes Anderson makeover.

"He would've done a very different version of Marriage Story," Scarlett Johansson said, referencing her Best Picture-nominated film from 2019. "Although he's worked with (Marriage Story director) Noah [Baumbach] obviously before, so maybe that could have been an interesting thing for him to have interpreted."

As Johansson alludes to, Anderson and Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach have come together on projects in the past, notably co-writing The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox.

"It's a weird thing because in a way, I just wanted to do the ones he made," Anderson's most frequent collaborator Jason Schwartzman said. "Gosh, I can't imagine."

"Cadillac Records. Want to go back?" Jeffrey Wright asked Asteroid City co-star Adrien Brody.

"That'd be amazing. We did Cadillac Records together," Brody replied. That would be kind of great. We should pitch it."

Cadillac Records (2008) was a biopic that chronicled the life of record-company executive Leonard Chess, played by Brody, from the 1940s until the late 1960s. Wright starred alongside Brody in that film as Muddy Waters.

"He could take a crack at American Splendor," Hope Davis added, pointing to the author Harvey Pekar's biopic from 2003 which fuses live-action with both documentary and animation. "That would be a cool one to have Wes put his vision on. I mean, his vision is so unique and the stories that he creates are so unique. It's hard to imagine. I think really only I think American Splendor that he could do that one.

"I'd be curious to see if he could do Fargo," Stephen Park mentioned. "That would be really cool. Or Do The Right Thing. Wes Anderson Do The Right Thing, that would be great."

Fargo (1996) is a Coen Brothers black comedy crime film that deals with a fabricated kidnapping and ransom. It went on to win Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Do The Right Thing comes from the mind of Spike Lee and spotlights a Brooklyn neighborhood's brewing tension between its African-American and Italian-American residents.

Asteroid City is playing in theaters now.

Wes Anderson is reuniting with a bulk of familiar faces to build one of the most star-studded ensembles in recent memory for Asteroid City. As is a trademark of Anderson-directed pictures, Asteroid City takes a simple concept and executes it with a layer of absurdity, but below the surface lies a deeper meaning. One of those deeper meanings comes in a thought-provoking statement uttered by Tilda Swinton's Dr. Hickenlooper to Jake Ryan's Woodrow Steenbeck when she remarks that his "curiosity is [his] greatest asset."

Speaking to ComicBook.com, the Asteroid City cast took this concept and applied it to their own careers, revealing what they believe to be their greatest assets as storytellers.

"My greatest asset is lately my choice of collaborators," Jeffrey Wright said. "You don't do these things alone, and the collaboration can be everything. It can be miserable if you don't choose wisely, and it can be extraordinary when you do. I think I've had the opportunity now over time to recognize better those who I want to work with and have the space and the opportunity to work with a great group of collaborators. If you look at this [ensemble] led by Wes, it doesn't get much better than that."

"Curiosity is great," Stephen Park said, agreeing with Hickenlooper's initial statement. "I don't know if I can improve upon that."

"Openness," Hope Davis, who plays Sandy Borden in Asteroid City, added. "You have to be open to the world and to what's coming at you next and be flexible and ready to jump."

Adrien Brody, the most experienced Wes Anderson collaborator of this bunch, echoed much of what Wright said but also pointed to the ability to choose being key to delivering a good story.

"I think that with time and age and experience, you do learn that the collaborative nature of this work is so essential to creating great work," Brody echoed. "I do immerse myself in anything that I do wholly. It is to be able to make those choices, but to also have a degree of luck of having those paths connect at the right time because some of those choices are out of your hands, as we know, is the greatest key to doing meaningful work."

Asteroid City has its wide theatrical release this Friday, June 23rd.

While Showtime's Yellowjackets is no stranger to shocking twists and developments, there was one moment in Season 2 of the hit series that was so stunning it has been a topic of conversation since it happened in episode 2, "Edible Complex". The moment is when, in the 1990s storyline, the survivors in the Canadian wilderness finally resort to cannibalism to survive by eating Jackie (Ella Purnell). Jackie had died at the end of Season 1, but it was months before the survivors finally dealt with her remains and when they went to burn her body on a pyre, a deluge of snow ended up cooking the body instead -- and prompting the macabre feast.

While the moment is horrifying, it's also visually unsettling for viewers in part because of how the corpse looks and while part of the credit goes to the practical faux corpse created for the series, credit also goes to VFX artists for enhancing its appearance to make it look, well, edible. Speaking with ComicBook.com Marshall Krasser, FuseFX VFX supervisor who worked on the second season of Yellowjackets, explained how they enhanced the practical prop to make Jackie more appealing so that viewers would understand just how the survivors were able to give into that urge.

"In that particular case, what they were trying to convey was initially the actors smell it, so smell starts whetting their appetite because they're very hungry. earlier in the scene, or one of the sequences, there was a hanging bear carcass that actually had too much meat on it," Krasser said. "We had to go in and remove some of that so the hanging carcass was more bones. The idea is that you understand, as a viewer, that they're running out of food. There's not much left. They're getting very hungry. When it comes out there, the smell comes in and then they see this succulent thing on the barbecue thing."

Krasser explained that for inspiration on how to make the corpse look "succulent", they looked at various roasted meats -- including Thanksgiving turkeys -- to get a good reference for the skin.

"What we guided to for that was we first went out and looked at Thanksgiving turkeys, roasted turkeys, as the skin looked," Krasser said. "Then, we were doing further research because actually pig flesh is not far from human flesh. We ended up a lot of that referencing roasted pigs and using that look and that succulent, that juicy feeling. We could basically augment what they've done on set just to make it a little more appetizing, and I think help the viewers understand a little bit more how you could do cannibalism. But, if you're very hungry and something looks really good and it smells really good, at a certain point your primal instinct takes over."

Krasser also explained that they did look at references for real burned human skin as well, but also explained that the real work not only for that moment but for Yellowjackets on a whole is for the VFX to be seamless and go unnoticed by viewers.

"One thing that people in the visual effects industry and supervisors like myself and other people say, we hope that nobody ever looks in our search history because we Google some very weird stuff," Krasser joked. "In a situation like this, yes, charred humans, burnt humans. Yes, you do look at that and as we were doing this, we always throw on the disclaimer for the more squeamish, this is at least PG-13 or more. Some people get very, very squeamish with some of the stuff. We try not to put those people on the shots. Like I said, it's going out and especially with Yellowjackets, it's supposed to be seamless. You're not really supposed to think about the visual effects of it."

What is Yellowjackets Season 2 About?

Yellowjackets begins in 1996, as a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness and the remaining team members are left to survive for nineteen months. The series chronicles their attempts to survive while also tracking their current lives in the 2020s.

"Are we gonna get weirder? Probably!" series co-creator Ashley Lyle previously said of the show's future. "Will the fallout of *redacted*'s death affect our (anti)heroes in massive ways? Will our girls' struggle to survive against the elements (and themselves) get even down and dirtier? Do we still have to tell the story of Pit Girl? You betcha! In short, making a show is wild. It can be thrilling and sometimes heartbreaking. And as an obsessive tv watcher myself, I know that being a fan is weirdly similar. Just know how grateful we are for everyone who spent their valuable time with us. If it brought you joy, or made you laugh, or think, or cry, or just provided a respite from real life, that makes all the craziness feel worthwhile. All we can do is tell the story we needed to tell. Here's to S3, hive. BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ."

Is Yellowjackets renewed for Season 3?

Yellowjackets was renewed for a third season well before Season 2 even premiered, in part because the show has been repeatedly breaking viewership records for Showtime.

"With Yellowjackets' runaway success in Season 1 and the pent-up anticipation for Season 2, we wanted to maximize the momentum by fast-tracking Season 3 now," Chris McCarthy, President/CEO of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, explained last year. "The show's ambition is only exceeded by its execution, and I thank the incredible creative team behind it, including Ashley, Bart, Jonathan, eOne, and the Showtime team, for turning this into such a success."

What did you think about the cannibalism scene in Season 2's "Edible Complex"? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

The second season of Showtime's Yellowjackets took viewers deeper into the mystery of what happened to a high school girls' soccer time in the 1990s after their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, leaving them stranded for over a year and how what happened in that wilderness has impacted them in the present day. Specifically, Season 2 saw some dark turns, particularly in the 1990s timeline with the starving survivors resorting to cannibalism and then, in the season finale, sees their only source of shelter -- the cabin -- burn to the ground.

To bring these stunning moments -- as well as other scenes and sequences -- to life in the hit series, Yellowjackets uses a mix of both practical effects and digital effects. The two types of effects work together to bring the harsh realities of being stranded in the woods in the winter to life in a way that is just as unsettling as some of the show's more supernatural-tinged storylines. ComicBook.com recently sat down with FuseFX VFX supervisor Marshall Krasser who worked on Season 2 of the series to talk about how they helped augment the practical effects to bring the sometimes horrifying world of Yellowjackets to life, including the stunning cannibalism scene in the season's second episode as well as the shocking cabin fire in the season finale.

Nicole Drum, ComicBook.com: There's always a few things that strike me when I prepare for interviews, but I think a lot of casual movie and television audiences, when they think of VFX, they fall into a couple of camps. They either think of more of those fantastical effects, like you see in superhero movies or they don't understand the distinction between practical effects and what VFX does and can do and how they work together, especially with stuff like Yellowjackets. Give me a bird's eye view of what you do for Yellowjackets.

Marshall Krasser, FuseFX: I worked with Kent O'Connor. Kent was the show visual effects supervisor. He was the one working with the show runners and directors and editors and he would be on set. In this particular case, basically, we were given a chunk of work and said, "Okay. Yeah." We had a script and we have to look at the script, break down the script, figure out what's needed, assist Kent with that type of stuff and put it together. As far as the difference between special effects and visual effects, special effects is basically anything that is caught in camera on set on the day, or sometimes they'll do an element shoot separately, whereas us, we're all in post-production. We deal with afterwards, if they need to, let's just say, add a dinosaur, that's where we come in. We would help add the dinosaur in, and that being said, though, the visual effects works in conjunction with the special effects supervisor and make a determination where it makes the most sense. Sometimes, a stunt or something is too dangerous, so you can't put a person at risk. That's where visual effects comes in and assists.

I myself am a fan of getting as much in camera as we can. Real is always good and we're just there to augment, which is some of the stuff that we did do in Yellowjackets, specifically with the charred body feast. Special effects had, basically, a body, a mannequin there that they had treated, so that they had done makeup effects on top of that type of stuff. When you get it in camera and get it in post, sometimes it doesn't get everything across that you want to. In that case, they called on us to come in and basically make it a little bit more appetizing.

I was going to say, that was actually one of my questions. I hate myself for saying this, but it actually looked like it looked good. That sounds terrible to say, but I knew logically speaking, I know that's obviously a prop. I know that there's makeup involved in that. I know that, but that only takes you so far and as someone who knows her roasted meats, I know had to be a little extra that made that look weirdly delicious.

On those, in that particular case, what they were trying to convey was initially the actors smell it, so smell starts whetting their appetite because they're very hungry. Earlier in the scene, or one of the sequences, there was a hanging bear carcass that actually had too much meat on it. We had to go in and remove some of that, so the hanging carcass was more bones. The idea is that you understand as a viewer that they're running out of food. There's not much left. They're getting very hungry. When it comes out there, the smell comes in and then they see this succulent thing on the barbecue thing.

What we guided to for that was we first went out and looked at Thanksgiving turkeys, roasted turkeys, as the skin looked. Then, we were doing further research because actually pig flesh is not far from human flesh. We ended up a lot of that referencing roasted pigs and using that look and that succulent, that juicy feeling. We could basically augment what they've done on set just to make it, like I said, a little bit more appetizing, and I think help the viewers understand a little bit more how could you do cannibalism? But if you're very hungry, and like I said, something looks really good and it smells really good, at a certain point your primal instinct takes over.

Yeah, absolutely, when it looks like that, and if you have a frame of reference for what roasted meat looks like, it's hard to battle that in your brain. But I've got to ask from a professional, how weird was it, making human look good. That's got to be the trippiest thing.

Well, it is a thing. One thing that people in the visual effects industry and supervisors like myself and other people say, just we hope that nobody ever looks in our search engine history because we Google some very weird stuff. In a situation like this, yes, charred humans, burnt humans. Yes, you do look at that and as we're doing this, we always throw on the disclaimer for the more squeamish, this is at least PG 13 or more. Some people get very, very squeamish with some of the stuff. We try not to put those people on the shots ... with visual effects, especially Yellowjackets, it's supposed to be seamless. You're not really supposed to think about the visual effects of it.

Pretty much all of the flying over in the mountains and the stuff, we augmented that with the snowstorms. That's all been digital enhanced with snow. Sometimes it was made a little bit more snowy in visual effects, and especially the cabin. The cabin was a set piece in a stage, so it had a few trees around it and then had a blue screen in behind it. We basically replaced the blue screen, put the forest in there, added a lot more snow and falling snow. Sometimes when they were drifted into the cabin, the drifts going up on the side of the cabin, and, of course, the big kind of finale with the burning of the cabin.

Again, they did burn the set piece, but they could only go so far and they pulled back as much as they can, but then, again, we took over the camera. There, again, Kent was really good about getting us elements. He took a drone out into the snowiness of British Columbia and lined it up, and basically flew a few passes, and luckily, we got one that tied in well with the pullback and come up. At the end sequence there, the sky was augmented and the smoke plume and stuff like that, but for the most part, what you're seeing there is, as they say on the license plate, beautiful British Columbia from a distance, even though we're supposed to be someplace else in Canada, but it's the same type of idea.

We did a lot of the environments. When you're looking down the cliff, we had to make the cliff extension down or the side view when I think they're throwing the poo bucket over the side. There was just a little bit of them in the right-hand corner. Everything else, then, was done with our digital map painting and reference photography and snow and everything else added in that way.

That's impressive, because so much of what you're mentioning... Again, logically, I know some of it has to be added because obviously you're not putting these actors in the middle of a super frigid forest like that because that's just uninhabitable. The Canadian wilderness is cold business. I can't see anybody being out there filming in that. Logically I know they're not out there being blue lipped and frozen. That's makeup, that's stuff added after, maybe. I'm sure the breath was probably even partially added, to an extent.

Pretty much all the breath was added for the most part, unless they were actually out on location. They did shoot some stuff on locations around BC, but that was the one thing. We did a lot of breadth additions to that, and it took some time to get it. I had initially done breaths years ago on the movie RENT. The movie rent, they basically had filmed in San Francisco, but they had filmed it in a sound stage and it was really hot and it was supposed to be New York and cold and winter. We had to add a lot of breaths. You come in and figure out ways to do that.

A good way to do it is how do you time your breaths? Where do you need it? I came up with the idea, if you put your hand over your mouth as you talk, you'll find out there's certain words that no breath comes out. Other words you feel like, that word, that one. You feel more of the breath power, and it is just an interesting thing because you don't think about it. You just think that when you're talking, you're exhaling, but it doesn't happen that way. That type of thing was dealt with.

We also did some work on an ear patch with the future barbecue queen, and the ear came off. Her ear was there, so we had to remove her ear and then put the broken piece ear in there and augment that type of stuff. We, ourselves, FuseFX did not work on the moose.

When they're tracking him, we see the moose tracks, and you pan around and look at that. They had tried to do something practically, but it wasn't real snow that it was going in, too quiet, and it just did not read like moose prints. I myself now live in BC and actually live in the interior of BC. I have some remote property and went up. I know I have moose on my property, and then driving around was able to find some actual moose prints to photograph as reference.

We used that as a reference on what the moose prints would actually look like because it's in snow. You can make something up, but like I said, there again, if you can find real world references it's what you really should do. But there's other little things, like when Christina Ricci realizes that the door had been broken in that she was staying in. She goes up to look at the doorframe and they had painted it a different color, but it didn't show up quite enough once they did their digital intermediate color climbing work. What we ended up doing was going in and painting that area they had painted to make it a little bit more evident that it had been freshly redone. Stuff like that, people would never guess, would never catch that.

There was also when the fork got stuck into the hand. They had a prop fork that they stick in and they had some practical blood, but we did augment it with some splashes and had more blood coming down. Also, the young girl's face. It was normal and suddenly all got grotesque and stuff, that was another thing that we worked on. Yeah, a wide variety of stuff, but it was great working with Kent and his team there, because it was also with the snow pyre stuff when we come flying in up over it and then there's a thing of snow that falls down. They needed more snow coverage, so we had to do digital snow on top of that to augment what they had because they couldn't get enough weight on it. If they, got too much weight, the branch would've fallen down. Plus, what was there we had to change because it looked like it was setting on a piece of cardboard or something. There's a lot of those seamless little effects that we were involved with.

Is there any fact or detail that was particularly challenging that you feel like... They're all probably some level of challenge, but one that was really difficult to get that you're happy with how it came out?

Yeah, I think, believe it or not, even though it's simple, it's getting that ear tracked to the head was just really, really difficult because just the movement and the recreation that had to happen on that. It's one of those things that the way it was initially planned to be shot got changed, just before they started shooting it. Yeah, just because we didn't have specific little track markers to go with, so you had to look for freckles or look for any other skin imperfections to try to track. That one, like I said, was particularly crazy.

Every shot, for the most part, always has a certain level of challenge, which is what makes the job still interesting, exciting because it's a whole new set of problems. Problem solving is what you have to do. It's just a matter of looking at everything and trying to solve the problems, but that's why we got a great team. For the end cabin stuff, well, we brought in Richard Greenwood to do additional VFX supervision on that one because he had done those type of work before. He focused on that, and he continued to work with Tyler Kehl. He was our visual effects producer and they kept things rolling through on that while I was working on seeing on other episodes and other aspects of the show. It just goes on.

We had a really good, like I said, rapport with Kent and then Lynn Whitlock was the official effects editor. We communicated with her a lot. Basically, it was a lot of back and forth and we would run ideas off them or they would say, "Hey, what do you think about this? How do you think we could solve it?" Yeah, I think we're there to basically solve problems and give solutions and help tell the story.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Pixar Animation Studios' latest film, Elemental, is now in theaters, telling the story of Ember (Leah Lewis), a short-tempered fire person and the more go-with-the-flow water person Wade (Mamoudou Athie) who begin to discover that while all the elements in Element City are different, they have a lot in common as well. The film is very much a rom-com, but it's also a story with other layers as well: a story about family, about self, and about finding your own path while still honoring the one that came before you.

ComicBook.com recently sat down with writers Kat Likkel and John Hoberg to talk about how they not only got involved with Elemental, but how they helped craft this multifaceted story, drawing on their own experiences to create a tale that has such wide appeal.

Nicole Drum, ComicBook.com: how did you guys come to be involved with Elemental?

Kat Likkel: You know, working with Pixar is working with the Secret Service. You're suddenly tapped on the shoulder and they're like, "We'd like to meet with you." And I think it actually initially started with Dan Fogelman, who's a friend of ours who wrote Cars. And at one point a few years ago ... 2012 [when we were working on Dan Fogelman's] The Neighbors, we saw him on set one day and he went, "Oh, by the way, I just want you to know that Pixar gave me a call to ask about you guys." And we were like, "Oh wow, that's interesting." And that was in 2012. And he's like, "Pixar is weird. You may hear from them, you may not." And so, it's like we totally forgot about it until suddenly we got a call.

John Hoberg: Yeah, in 2019 we went to the Austin Film Festival and we were on a couple panels, and we got a call from our manager saying that ... It was Mary Coleman who was the head of finding writers at the time, and she wanted to have a meeting, like a breakfast meeting. And we showed up and it was her and a woman, Megan, who's at Pixar. And they had a stack of scripts, they had pulled a bunch of stuff and they'd read everything. And it was like, "Oh wow, this is a serious meeting. This isn't just a meet and greet coffee." And we had a great meeting. And then they were talking about how they'd love to work with us and maybe we'd have to move to the Bay Area if you do it. Would we do that? And we're like, "Yes." And they said, "Well, we might have a job opening in a week, it might not come for years, but you're in our minds now."

And about two or three weeks later we got a call that Pete Sohn wanted to meet. And we weren't allowed to know what the movie was, we weren't allowed to know anything. And they sent a car at 7 in the morning. You get on a plane, you show up there, you're whisked off to the studio, you get a quick tour. And then we had an hour and a half lunch with Pete, still not knowing what the movie was. And looking back, he was asking us lots of questions about our family and really about our relationship, because we're obviously married, and our relationship looking back in relation to Wade and Ember in a lot of ways. And then a couple weeks after that we found out that they wanted to hire us. It was just pure chance. It was unbelievable.

So, after you got brought onto it, what was the process like with this story? I'm a sucker for a good rom-com. but I also kept noticing there's elements of a heist film in here, sort of. There's almost a coming-of-age drama going on here, there's other elements to it. And I know those things don't just happen. There's a process that goes into it. So, walk me through the process of developing this. Definitely not a straightforward rom-com. There's layers, just like an onion, there's layers.

John: One of the things that we talked a lot was, what is Ember's want? Which is so key when you're coming up with one of these stories. And it took a little bit to really get it down to super simple words, in a way. And what Ember wants is to be a good daughter. At her core she wants to be a good daughter. And the obstacle to getting there is Ember. And at first, she thinks the obstacle's her temper, but then it's revealed that actually the obstacle is, she wants to be a good daughter but she doesn't want to do the thing that she thinks is the only way to be a good daughter. So, while I think it's a great question 'cause you're dead on, which is, yeah, it is, it's got romantic elements, but it's not like, "I want to find love," which to me is a straight romantic comedy. That's a straight story, is, "I'm looking for a partner."

And this is really, she grows with Wade to discover who she really is. And so, they are kind of on a buddy comedy journey in a way that becomes romantic. And there is a little heist vibe to it and there is an action vibe to it. And that was, through the development you do so many versions. I think they had done three before we showed up, and then we came in and I think we did eight versions. And they were all trying different ways to find that balance that you're pointing out.

Kat: Which is not unusual for Pixar, honestly. Their iterative process, which is such an amazing way to do a film. And Pixar has the luxury to do it. I think not every studio has the luxury to be able to do that kind of thing, but it's one of the things that makes Pixar films so good.

John: But one of the things that Pete was saying earlier when we got there is, he's like, "Yeah, it's a romantic story where I'm looking for the Wade and Ember love story." But he kept saying, "But in some ways I want it to be a love triangle between a dad, she's choosing between a dad and this boyfriend." And one of the biggest challenges, how do you make the dad ... The easier move would be to make the dad a bad guy and he actively wants to shut down this romance. And so, we all worked really hard. There is no villain, although Bernie is, he's an antagonist, but he's out of the best of intentions.

Kat: He's the obstacle. He's the obstacle but not the villain.

John: Yeah. And so that was one of the things that we really had to work out a little bit. Because Pete really wanted to, rightfully, it was like the more we talked about his relationship with his dad, his dad was just such a lovely man. And it felt like, how do you show family pressure from someone who means it well, who's actually dealing with their own trauma with their own parent because they feel like they haven't lived up to what they're meaning to do? But then while trying to break free of that, somehow, they're imposing it on their daughter. So, it gets very complicated in a way, and a very good way.

So that was a lot of the working it out. And the last thing I'll say, Kat, I don't mean to monopolize here, is there was this question of, is it a romance or is it an immigration story? And at one point someone said in this process, "Look, it's either/or." And Pete's response was, "But when you're second generation and you feel this responsibility to carry on when your parents have sacrificed, there is no either/or. Everything is part of that." And I think that was what was really important for him to get across.

Absolutely. One thing I also thought was interesting, because it is very much an immigration story and it's a first gen kind of story. But something I thought was interesting watching it is that it works on other sort of "first gen" levels -- I know personally for me, I am a first gen in the fact that I am the first person to leave my family's rural community. I am the first person to go to college. I'm definitely the first person to get an advanced degree. And I think capturing that, there's a lot of generational trauma that goes into that. How did you guys dig into that in a way that didn't present that as a villainous situation?

Kat: Yeah. I think I had a not dissimilar situation. My family is Dutch and they came, my grandfather came here. And so, my parents, my grandfathers on both sides came here, and so my parents were born in the US but they grew up there in a very strong immigrant community. And so, they brought a lot of that to me and my family. And it's a struggle when you have a generation that thinks differently about so many things, and I think thinks protectively. Because it's like you've left one place that might have been unstable or there was no economic opportunity, whatever it is, and come to another place that, when you arrive at a new place, it's equally precarious because you have to build up everything from scratch. And so, I think you become very protective. This is what I saw in my parents, at least.

They became very protective of who they wanted us to be and what they felt was going to be best for us. And believe me, when I decided that I wanted to go into the creative arts, that I wanted to be a writer, my family was ... My mother one time in tears called me up and said, "I will pay for you to go back to college if you will just give up this writing thing." And it was the hardest thing in the world to say no. And I think no matter who you are, whether you are an immigrant or your family has been here since time immemorial, those kind of disagreements with what we want for ourselves and what our parents want for us is relatable, whether it's about this specific issue or not.

John: Kat, you talking about that reminded me of something your mom said at one point, which is, and she was in her 70s when she was like, "You know what? I finally decided that the voice of my dad judging me or my kids, I'm finally getting rid of that." And it took her into her 70s to not feel like she was trying to live up to the expectation that her long deceased father had for her life. And we had a lot of talks like that with the story team when coming up with this, where it was sort of like, wow, we unintentionally carry on all of these burdens and things we're trying to live up to. And then we pass them along. And I think one of the thoughts was, how can a whole family heal from that one trauma? So that became the north star, I think, at a certain point when we figured out the ending of the movie.

On the flip side of things, there's Wade. He cries all the time and I love him for that. But how as writers, I feel like that's got to be such a jarring gear switch. Because Wade is the man who is so in touch, him and his whole family are so in touch with their emotions. And I'm like, "Wade is who I wish I was some days. I am definitely more of an Ember." But I wish I were because he is super in touch with his feelings. But he is also really insightful about it as well. How did you guys find the voice of Wade in the writing? Because I feel like that had to be such a challenge.

John: I do think for Wade, here's where our breakthrough was with Wade, and it didn't happen until ... 'Cause I feel like early on as you figure these characters out, Wade was, he wasn't a fully developed person. He was kind of along for the ride. And then we started to get into this idea that he has some regrets of his own. And in this case his father had died and he'd never said anything. And one of the things that when Kat and I were working on this we kept as our north star with Wade, and it goes back to his element, the go with the flow quality of who he is, which Pete was always great about, always grounded in the element that they're part of.

But with Wade, when you first meet him even, he's sucked in, right? Water takes him, puts him in down into a thing, and he's sucked into Ember's thing. He's doing what he thinks he's supposed to do, he's in a job he doesn't even like, he's clearly just going with how things are. And you even find out this big regret of his life is he never said anything to his dad. Clearly when they had a tough relationship, he never went against whatever that flow was and said, "No, I need to talk to you." And through getting to know Ember, there's a moment where you see there's a bunch of water gushing through and Wade actually stands up and pushes against it. The scene I'm talking about, I don't know how much I can say, I don't want to ruin anything. And it's really the first time you see anything where he's actually going against the flow.

And then as the movie progresses from there, you start to see he's going against the flow. And Ember has changed him to make him go against the flow. And I think that's where we were able to do the silliness of his emotion but know that deep down inside, he's really struggling with this inability. He admires it in Ember, this ability to stand up. 'Cause she's always doing things and making things and trying to solve things. And he admires that and that rubs off on him a little bit. And so, I think the real person grounding in that is where we can then take him to silly places, because deep in our heart, we know he's somebody who needs something that he knows he needs to change in himself.

Kat: That's the key to any comedy, is ground what it is that that character wants so deeply in that person's soul that they will go to ridiculous lengths, they will do crazy things, they will put themselves in terrible situations because that need is so deep. It's the secret to a character like that.

What would you guys say the most challenging aspect of working on the script for this movie was for you guys?

John: Well, you do so much writing and rewriting. And I think that was, as far as what I didn't personally expect going into it. I remember we talked to Dan Fogelman, our friend, and he's like, "I think you guys will fit in really well here." 'Cause we've all worked together. He's like, "But it's going to be different than anything you've ever done. It's very unusual. You're trying to chase a director's vision, but you're also working with story team, and they're not storyboard artists. They are actually part of the story breaking process." And so, you really are this team, but then you're the people who then go write the pages and then come back. And we had this light bulb moment where one of the story artists was trying to explain what they meant and then they suddenly were like, "Hold on." And they went "Sh," really quickly did a sketch and showed everyone, everyone was like, "Oh, that's what you mean."

Kat: "Oh, got it."

John: And Kat and I had this light bulb moment like, "Oh, they don't sit there and spend six weeks drawing the perfect thing to show you. That's how they communicate." And a superpower we have as writers, especially who have worked in half-hour where you have to make changes on the fly in front of an audience sometimes, is we can write well quickly. And so, we made an agreement with Pete and we're like, "It's a vulnerable thing we're going to be doing. But sometimes, if you're cool with it, in 25 minutes we could write up a scene to give you a sense of what we're thinking. It is not perfect. It will be 70% as good as it could be, but it's our version of sketching." And Pete, to his credit, was like, "Absolutely." And so, we created this back and forth where we could try and just take big swings at stuff that Pete would know we didn't spend six weeks on it, so if he didn't like it, he'll just be like, "Eh." Rightfully. If you're taking chances, there should be things that don't work. There really should be. But in a way that was the biggest challenge that became the biggest reward, which was, how do you generate that much material? And then it became, as long as you're true to a character and you're true to what you're trying to get across, you will find other options. And it's okay. If it's great it'll come back, and if not, it will go by the wayside. So, to me that was the biggest challenge I felt.

Kat: I think one of the big challenges writing this movie was the pandemic itself. We were up at Pixar when we first started hearing about the weird, "Huh, people are getting this weird flu," whatever. And then suddenly at a certain point it was clear we had to break up the whole team and everybody was going to go home. And what was amazing to me in this whole process and tells you how mobile and quick-moving Pixar can be, within I think five days all of us had all the equipment at our houses that we needed, including the story artists, who have giant pieces of equipment. John and I, we take our laptops and dusted, we're set. Just give us a Zoom link and we're okay. But the story artists had so much that needed to be shipped and we all needed to be able to link up together. And it was amazing how quickly that happened and then how seamless the process was from there. And it's a credit to Pixar and their team and the way they work and their mobile thinking, and the Pixar process has taught us a lot about our own writing and the way we approach it now, the way we think about things. We always think we can always draw another sketch. There's always another draft you can do. You can always take another angle on a scene. There's no harm to it, it's just a pencil and paper. We can do it. So, it has, I think, infused our own work I think going forward from now on.

Elemental is now playing in theaters.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One star Hayley Atwell is no stranger to action, having played Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and particularly got some major action moments in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness where she played the Captain Carter iteration of the character from another world in the multiverse. However, according to Atwell, her work in the MCU is very different from the style of action in Mission Impossible -- so much so that she said it was like doing an entirely different genre. Speaking with ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis, Atwell explained how it was her drama school training as well as the Mission Impossible team that had the bigger impact on her role.

"I think because they're so different it feels almost like you could compare it to me doing a period drama adaptation of a book," Atwell said. "It's just because the taste, the style, the filmmakers themselves are so different and so brilliant in their own unique ways that I think my background in drama school training had meant that I developed this kind of work ethic that is about manipulating the body in being able to know how to make it do things safely, but through the right kind of education and training. And so, with Mission, we had these experts in stunts. We had Wade Eastwood and his team and I trained with them every day for five months. And whether that's mixed martial arts, sleight of hand tricks, drifting in a car, everything was curated in this kind of bespoke program to make sure that I was doing it in a safe and sustainable way. And they knew, they were like, 'look, she doesn't like doing high kicks. We can't make her do them. She's never gonna get her leg that high up there. So, let's find the style that actually she will want to kind of come into work and do every day.'"

Atwell Has Cast Doubt on an MCU Return

While Atwell remains a fan favorite among MCU actors and fans would love to see her return as any incarnation of Peggy Carter in future installments of the franchise, Atwell herself has cast doubt on her return.

"It's so funny, because, you know, I did that 10 years ago, and I love her because I love the people, and you never know [if there could be more]," Atwell said previously. "It depends on what Marvel, and what the audiences, want... I'm a custodian of her. Compared to the rest of my career and everything I've done or my stage work and doing Mission: Impossible now and all the diversity of roles I've played, and the diversity that I get to explore, and to be able to play more complex roles and villains and lots of different things -- she is not mine anymore. She lives in the world of people that have taken her into their heart. And that's beautiful. But it's kind of like: yeah, you can't control the impact a particular role has on the rest of the world."

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Completely Changed After a Screening

According to director Christopher McQuarrie, after Edgar Wright saw a screening of the film, it underwent major changes.

"Edgar came to one of the later screenings [of the film] and asked one simple question about a specific sound - kind of an audio cue - and I thought I'd addressed that note," McQuarrie said. "It was so obvious to me. But it wasn't obvious to Edgar."

"And when I asked the audience, it wasn't obvious to them either. Nobody thought to bring it up until Edgar did. And that changed the entire movie," the director added. "It changed the entire movie for the better. You just need honesty and clarity and awareness. No one person, Tom [Cruise] included, can really sit there, and look at the movie 24 hours a day, objectively. Tom and I will just look one another in the eye, and say, 'do we want to change this? Or is this what we prefer?'"

What is Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One About?

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, which premieres in theaters on July 12th. It's the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two.

Wes Anderson keeps a tight circle. The critically-acclaimed director has often recycled the same leading stars over the years, working with the likes of Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright on a number of occasions now. That said, his most frequent collaborator is Jason Schwartzman. The two began working together in 1998 with Rushmore, which was Schwartzman's first feature film and Anderson's second directorial endeavor. Schwartzman and Anderson would go on to work together seven more times, with their latest project coming in the form of Asteroid City.

Speaking to ComicBook.com at the Asteroid City press junket, Schwartzman reflected on his 25 years of working with Anderson, sharing an anecdote about how the director has retained his sense of child-like wonder.

"One thing that's the same is, on Rushmore, there's a scene where I drive a go-kart, and we were shooting it that day, and he drove up next to me on this go-kart was like, 'Follow me,' and he took off in this go-kart, and I was like, 'Oh, s--t. Okay,'" Schwartzman recalled. "We left the set and everyone's like, 'Where are they going?' We drove all around. We raced all around Houston. He was dying laughing, and I could see this joy on his face. He loves to be part of this. He loves to be in the movie. That a prop is not just a prop, it's a thing you can get in and be in and feel."

While that particular experience came when Schwartzman and Anderson were just beginning their film careers, Schwartzman emphasized that Anderson still carries that magic with him on every subsequent project.

"He has that still with every [project]," Schwartzman continued. "The sense of just sheer exuberance and there's no other place he'd rather be. I think the only difference is like now he doesn't have to steal a go-kart to go have it. You just have to borrow a golf cart and just drive down Asteroid City Way."

Asteroid City has its wide theatrical release this Friday, June 23rd.

[This story contains spoilers from the Fear the Walking Dead midseason finale.] "I don't die. Everybody else does, but I don't." The words that Morgan Jones (Lennie James) carried over from The Walking Dead proved prophetic on Sunday's "All I See Is Red" episode of Fear the Walking Dead, where Morgan made his exit -- but did not die. After finally laying his walker wife Jenny and his zombified boy Duane to rest back in King County, Morgan thought he was past having to "clear." But then Morgan lost Grace (Karen David) to a walker's bite and their daughter Mo (Zoey Merchant) to PADRE. Trapped in a cycle he thought he'd broken, Morgan's mantra repeated itself: "I lose people, and then I lose myself."

"It's like I see red. It's all I see, and all I do is kill. Again and again. Until I've cleared. Walkers, people, I don't see no difference. All I see is red," Morgan told Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), who lost herself when she kidnapped baby Mo and took her to PADRE seven years earlier. But he helped bring her back, so Morgan's last episode sent him into zombie-infested swamps with Madison to rescue his child, sent by Shrike (Maya Eshet) to clear a walker herd and retrieve coordinates PADRE needed to seed new settlements across the country.

Morgan's fear of losing Mo made him see red, and in his maddened mental state, he saw flashes of the people he's lost: his mentor Eastman, who taught him Aikido and that "all life is precious." Benjamin of the Kingdom. Mo's birth parents, Isaac and Rachel. John Dorie and John Dorie Sr. Nick and Alicia Clark. Grace. Jenny and Duane. After he endangered his daughter when walkers swamped them on the sinking houseboat where they ended up while escaping PADRE seven years ago, Morgan eventually broke the cycle when Madison told him: "You never really lose people, Morgan. None of us do."

By letting go and breaking free from the cycle, Morgan didn't lose Mo -- or himself. In the end, Morgan's journey on Fear the Walking Dead came full circle: he left with Mo to return to the Alexandria Safe-Zone and find Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). It was Rick who sent Morgan off from The Walking Dead to Fear the Walking Dead with the words, "You can hide, but you can't run."

While it was Rick who brought Morgan back from Fear, James will not be crossing over to another Walking Dead spin-off: the actor is hanging up the stick and laying Morgan to rest as he departs the Walking Dead Universe after 13 years. ComicBook spoke to James about Morgan's ending, if the door is open for a potential Morgan and Rick reunion, and why James' Walking Dead future is clear.

COMICBOOK: Morgan Jones doesn't die.

LENNIE JAMES: Well, on this one, there's two ways to go. Either you die or you don't [laughs].

Just to be clear -- this is your exit from Fear the Walking Dead. We won't be seeing Morgan in the final six episodes?

LENNIE JAMES: You will not.

You're tying up 13 years of threads from Morgan's series journey on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. Why was midway through Fear's final season the right time to leave?

LENNIE JAMES: I think it's just the way the story panned out for the final season. I mean, on one level, you'll have to ask [showrunners] Andrew [Chambliss] and Ian [Goldberg] that question. I think it was to do with timings, when was best for the story they wanted to tell in the final season and in a way, to dedicate a chunk of the first six episodes to Morgan's story and then continue as they mean to go on.

[Walking Dead Universe chief content officer and executive producer] Scott M. Gimple put Morgan on this trajectory in The Walking Dead's "Clear" episode a decade ago. How collaborative was the process between you, Andrew, Ian, and Scott coming up with Morgan's ending for this episode?

LENNIE JAMES: I think everybody had an input. I mean, that's pretty much been how the process has been all the way along. There are different stages in which you find out what the creators, what Scott has in mind for your character. And you get to, or at least we do, we get to voice an opinion at different stages. Sometimes, as with all of us, sometimes those discussions change. Sometimes things stay the same. It truly is one of the things I've enjoyed most about being in The Walking Dead Universe is that collaborative process. And you're absolutely right in the sense of my character's link and bond with Scott. I mean, I think until I came over to Fear and some of, most of, if not all of, Morgan's pivotal episodes on The Walking Dead were written by Scott.

You mentioned things change along the way. Was there ever an alternate ending in mind for Morgan? Because this is Walking Dead, one where Morgan dies?

LENNIE JAMES: From the moment we started seeing scripts, the ending was as the ending is.

The episode ends with Morgan leaving to look for Rick Grimes. As he says, it wouldn't be the first time they found their way back to each other. Is there an open door there for Morgan to return to The Walking Dead Universe and reunite with Rick?

LENNIE JAMES: In all honesty, every and anything is possible. And I know it's something that a certain percentage of our fans would like. I would show up to work with Andy again any time. But anybody who knows me knows I'm fiercely protective of Morgan's story. And as far as I'm concerned, at this particular moment in time, this is the end of the road for Morgan. You'll only see him again if a story comes up within the universe that is just too good to say no to.

"All I See Is Red" brings Morgan full-circle back to your very first episode of Fear the Walking Dead, where Morgan ran away from his people at Alexandria. Now he's going back home to right his mistake. In your mind, what does Morgan and Mo's feature look like?

LENNIE JAMES: That's a very good question. I think they have a long way to walk. That's the first stage of it. And we know that Morgan has done it once before, so he knows what's ahead. I think on one level, as he did before, he's walking into the unknown. He doesn't know, should he come across Rick again, should he bump into Rick again, what state that he's going to be in. What has happened to him over the years that they haven't been in contact?

He's also walking now with extra responsibility, but he's also walking now as a man who has buried, literally buried, a lot of the ghosts and pressures that were haunting him. And he's hopefully put them to rest. So wherever he ends up, one of the things I liked about this final chapter for Morgan is that, you are right, it is like a reverse of how we started in Fear the Walking Dead. But he's certainly walking away a better man than he arrived.

Getting into the Morgan and the Mo of it all. There's a line that Morgan's mindset hooks on this episode, which is Madison telling Morgan, "You never really lose people, none of us do." What does that realization do to Morgan?

LENNIE JAMES: Well, I think it's something that has been gnawing away at him from when he first heard it from Alicia, when Alicia first told him that this was something that her mom said. I think it is the thing that has quietly and secretly been at the heart of what's been eating away at Morgan is just when you thought it couldn't get worse, that he finally kills his wife because his wife attacks his son. You find that there's another layer, which is that his son is still walking the earth. And I think in part, what Madison says operates on two levels. One is that he has to go back and he has to make that right. And two is that it's okay to hurt about the people and mourn the people that you've lost. You don't have to run away from that. You can sit with it, you can live with it, you can recover from it, you can absorb it. And I think that's in large part what it feels like for Morgan.

Let's piggyback off of that. Morgan fears losing Mo and losing himself. But by not letting her go, he almost loses her on the houseboat. It's not until Morgan realizes that he can let her go and not lose her that he breaks the cycle, which ultimately brings them together. What do you think Morgan's ending looks like here if he doesn't break that cycle?

LENNIE JAMES: Well, we've seen what Morgan's ending would've been. We've seen him lost, we've seen him broken. It would've been some more terrible version of that because I think to a certain extent, Mo is a victory for Morgan because he's lost everybody else. He's lost Jenny, he's lost Duane, he's lost Grace, he's lost John Dorie. I think he's in a position where if he doesn't win with Mo, it is pretty much a different ending. It's pretty much an ending ending, I would imagine.

We've seen Morgan as "Clear" Morgan, the peaceful warrior Morgan, the morally-gray Morgan. Here, he ultimately realizes that "all life is precious" isn't about killing or not killing -- it's about what you do with the time and the people that you have. How would you describe who Morgan is now at the end?

LENNIE JAMES: I'm not sure I can describe it any better than you just did, actually. I think that you are absolutely right that -- I personally, Lennie, not Morgan, have always believed that "all life is precious" isn't about whether you kill or you don't kill. "All life is precious" is about how you live your life. What is the focus of your life? You can live a life, particularly in the apocalypse, where death comes easy. What Morgan's saying is we should strive for death to come hard. We should strive for anyone's death to matter, for it to count, and that we should take a responsibility for the lives we take and the lives that we protect. And I think when he walks away with Mo, Morgan is at a stage possibly for the first time where he can actually put that belief into practice.

Let's talk about that. How do you feel about how Morgan's story ends here? The final scene in Eastman's graveyard felt like the perfect sendoff for the character.

LENNIE JAMES: I hope so! It's been a long, old road with Morgan. There are many different ways it could have ended. I think that the boys, our showrunners, not necessarily went for a happy ending because there's no happy endings in the apocalypse, but went for one that offered some kind of hope. Morgan is one of the people that I believe people would wish for hope for him. And I think that's what this ending gave him, strangely.

Can you reflect on your time as Morgan on The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead? At the end here, what are you going to miss most?

LENNIE JAMES: The people that I was working with, the cast, the crew, our directors. I mean, I know it's a cliche, but both -- I have direct experience of it because on leaving The Walking Dead, I missed the people, the crew, the folks I saw every day, the actors that I worked with, the friends I made. That familiarity that everyday-ness, I really missed. And I've missed that on leaving Fear, because obviously I left and they carried on for a few. I've had it twice, so I know exactly what I've been missing and what matters. Because neither show, it's not going down a mine, it's not being a police officer, it's not life-endangering, but it is nonetheless hard work. We shoot most of our episodes outside in not easy weather conditions in either Texas or Georgia. And it takes a real commitment for the people who put it all together. And those are the people that I'm going to miss.

I'm going to miss the routine. I'm going to miss the stories we tell. I'm going to miss hanging out, I'm going to miss sharing at close proximity in the lives of people I really, really like. And there's a lot of them I'll keep in contact with. There's a lot of them who have become friends for life, but there's still an absence. There's still a [feeling of] something has ended and I'm not exactly mourning it, but I am missing it.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 returns with its final episodes later in 2023 on AMC and AMC+.

Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Marvel fans are eager to find out who will play the Fantastic Four in Marvel Studios' upcoming cinematic reboot introducing "Marvel's First Family" to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Vanessa Kirby has finally commented on rumors that she may be playing the Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Rumors have been circulating that Kirby is on the shortlist of potential stars to play the MCU's Sue Storm (played by Jessica Alba and Kate Mara in the past Fantastic Four movies). Kirby is currently doing press for Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning, Part One, where she reprises her role as "White Widow" Alanna Mitsopolis opposite Tom Cruise. Speaking to ComicBook.com Brandon Davis (video forthcoming), Kirby addressed the rumors ("Oh, yes! I've heard about those rumors," Kirby's Mission: Impossible co-star and the MCU's Mantis Pom Klementieff, sitting beside Kirby, interjected during the interview) succinctly.

"It would be an honor," Kirby says. That doesn't tell us much, but it isn't a denial or an outright claim of ignorance, and it does suggest she'd be game to play Sue Storm if the opportunity arose, despite Kirby remaining straight-faced. For her part, Klementieff seemed excited about the prospect, telling Kirby, "We could work together!"

Who will play Sue Storm in Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four?

Kirby isn't the only actress supposedly vying for the role of Sue Storm in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lily James (Pam & Tommy), Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout), Phillipa Soo (Hamilton), Saoirse Ronan (See How They Run), Jodie Comer (Free Guy), and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) have all been mentioned as potential casting choices within the online rumors mill (though Brosnahan may end up joining the new DC Universe as Lois Lane instead). Director Matt Shakman spoke to ComicBook.com about how many casting rumors have swirled around the Fantastic Four movie.

"There are a lot out there, man. They really are. It's pretty crazy. As I learned from WandaVision, too, it is so lovely to see the level of engagement that fans have with this material, because I'm a fan too, and I have been reading Fantastic Four since I was a kid," Shakman said. "I love these characters. I love the chance that we have to bring them to the MCU and I really want to get it right and I know that everybody out there is really excited and feels passionate in the same way wanting to get it right. And so I encourage it. I think it's great. But yeah, I have no early answers for anyone today about casting."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Fantastic Four

Matt Shakman (Marvel's WandaVision, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Game of Thrones) is directing Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four, with Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer writing the script. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige remains guarded about potential casting.

"I think the MCU is a beautiful combination of both [established actors and fresh faces]," Feige told ComicBook.com in 2021 of his approach to casting the Fantastic Four. "I think you look no further than Simu [Liu] in Shang-Chi, like Chris Hemsworth [Thor], like Tom Hiddleston [Loki], like Tom Holland [Spider-Man], an actor that hadn't been seen by a tremendous amount of people before, or you have a Benedict stepping into Doctor Strange or Christian Bale stepping into Gorr in our Thor [Love and Thunder] film." It is always a beautiful combination of both, and it really is about the search for the best actor for the job whether that actor is known to the world yet or not."

Marvel Studios recently shuffled several of its upcoming film release dates. Fantastic Four is now set for release on May 2, 2025.

With the upcoming movie Surrounded, director Anthony Mandler had a lot of wells to draw from. Written by Andrew Pagana and Justin Thomas, the new western stars Black Panther's Letitia Wright as Moses Washington, already a pretty major deviation from the westerns of the past. Speaking with ComicBook.com in a new interview, we asked Mandler if there was any specific Westerns that he grew up with that he deliberately drew inspiration from, his answer revealed him to be a filmmaker fully in control of his process but also someone with a deep understanding of the genre.

"Well, I've been saying this a lot today. I wrote my senior thesis at film school on the western, on Shane to Unforgiven exploring the sort of tropes and the reversal; sort of going from the classic western to the anti-western. And so those have always had a huge influence on me. And the Western is a movie that I've always wanted to make. So when I saw the opportunity with Surrounded to take those tropes and sort of turn them on their head and, and drag the audience in the deep water of character. That was really what brought me in."

Wright stars in the film alongside Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell as Tommy Walsh, Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan as Wheeler, Stranger Things star Brett Gelman as Mr. Fields, and in one of his final film roles, the late Michael Kenneth Williams as Will Clay. MGM describes Surrounded as follows:

"Five years after the Civil War, freedwoman and former Buffalo Soldier Moses 'Mo' Washington travels west to lay claim on a gold mine disguised as a man after her stagecoach is ambushed by a group of murderous thieves. Mo is forced to hold legendary outlaw Tommy Walsh captive while the remaining surviving passengers seek out help."

Surrounded will be released digitally by MGM on June 20.

Elemental is the latest film from Pixar Animation Studios, and it transports moviegoers to Element City, a place where a host of elements live and work. The movie follows Ember (Leah Lews), a short-tempered fire-person whose parents left their fire-based home in search of a new life before she was born. The film emulates what life is like for immigrants in a new city, and the movie does a unique job of creating an entire way of life for each element. The fire language used in the film is especially interesting, so ComicBook.com asked director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream about the creation of the language.

"Yeah, there is," Sohn said when asked if there's a guide to the fire language. "In the Art Of book, they have a little breakdown of the language, but it really started off in a silly way. I remember pitching to the gang about if the parents were fighting next door, it should sound like a fireplace, like a roaring fireplace, like the pops and crackles of that. And then we actually tried sound effects over the language, and it didn't work. But then David Peterson and the language team took just the vocal things that we can do that sounded like fire, and then built the language from there."

Ream added, "Originally, we were going to have a little bit more of the Firish in the movie. And then as things happen, it just was not as big of a part as originally we thought. But yeah, we have a whole alphabet and everything. One of my favorite anecdotes is I went to UC Berkeley, so we have 'Go Bears' in Firish."

The Unsung Heroes of Elemental's Production:

We spoke with Sohn and Ream and asked them if they wanted to shout out anyone from the production.

"I think Steve Schaffer, our editor and their team, Ben Morris and Claire," Sohn shared. "That edit team," Ream chimed in. Sohn explained, "Look, this took seven years, and that team has been holding the fort for that long cutting. And the way these things get made are, it's very, very violent. You're building something, you're destroying it, setting it on fire, then rebuilding it again. And that team did it all throughout with us the whole time. My heart, forever grateful."

Ream added, "I'm going to throw out our sets department, too. They had a big hill to climb ... And so big heart, big love to our sets team."

When we asked the film's stars, Mamoudou Athie (Wade) and Leah Lewis (Ember), the same question about unsung heroes, they sweetly called out Ream.

"There's so many people: all the animators, the executives, the producers. We've spoken about Denise Ream ad nauseam, but she's a remarkable person. The tenderness, just the lead in the way that she does. Denise Ream is a national treasure. I love her so much," Athie shared. "National treasure, that's a good word for it," Lewis added.

"The animators as well, the writers, everybody involved. It's hard to, because we haven't met every single one of them, so you can't listen by name, but you see the movie. You see it's another level of technology and then creativity that's... Go on," Athie added.

Leah explained. "No, but he's telling it all, because I think what a lot of people don't realize is how many people go into making a film like this. Mamoudou and I took a trip to Pixar a couple weeks ago. Could have been two months ago, don't remember. We actually got to meet some of the animators and see the different people that were assigned different scenes of the movie. It wasn't even like, okay, one person was doing this part of the movie. It was like, no, this was my scene. This was my part. He showed us a little video of Wade and they had this avatar on the side, and he would click the mouse and make the hand move. Then we'd see Wade's hand move. I was just like, what is that? There was just so much that I think even him and I are still learning."

Athie concluded, "I don't get it. It's beyond my capacity ... It's incredible. I don't understand how they do it."

Elemental is now playing in theaters.

Secret Invasion star Olivia Colman says that her character is "dismissive" of The Avengers. Comicbook.com's Brandon Davis interviewed the Sonia Falsworth actress with Samuel L. Jackson. Colman explained, "Um, but they're, they're a little frivolous. Uh, I don't know. I've never thought about that. What she thinks of them in her way. I imagine she's a little bit dismissive." In all the material surrounding Secret Invasion, the MCU's resident hero team is nowhere to be found. For some reason, Nick Fury can't call in his allies for this silent war against the Skrulls. It's worth noting that her character doesn't seem to have much trust in the heroes that the former SHIELD commander used to summon against big threats.

In contrast to a lot of the Disney+ projects, except for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we're keeping things pretty "grounded." There is probably a little room for both in the current slate of MCU projects. One quick look at the movies and TV shows to hit next and things are decidedly tilted toward some more ground-level heroing with titles like Ironheart, Echo, Daredevil Born Again, Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts.

Don't Expect Secret Invasion To Play Like Other Marvel Favorites

Secret Invasion has been billed as the most "mature" Marvel series yet. From the first reactions to everything shown to press at the premiere, that does seem to be the case. But, the actors themselves are beating that drum too. Cobie Smulders is back as Maria Hill, and she's promising an exciting tone for Secret Invasion.

"I'm really excited about it and it's a very different tone that I have seen, especially like having Sam in anything is just a thrill to watch but I think it really like just sets his character up in a really interesting way that I've always wanted to see, so I was really excited about that," Smulders told TV Line "I would like to say it's the most depth I've been able to show off Maria Hill."

"I think that's the beauty of the series that Marvel is doing, is you're able to really like get the backstory of these characters like what is, what are the conversations that happen when they're just sitting around drinking coffee," she added. "You know, it's not like we gotta get the guy to go do the thing like we gotta save the world, again, you know it's like, well, let's just have a chat. Let's go for a walk, you know, so we get to have those kinds of moments and be a little bit more intimate with the characters, so it's really exciting."

Jackson and Colman Happy to Be Working Together

Secret Invasion has been getting lauded for this stacked cast since the moment the ensemble was announced. Comicbook.com also asked about getting Colman into the fold as Falsworth and how Jackson has been catching her up so far. It's apparent just how much everyone working on this one really loved pulling this together.

"No, of course not," Jackson told us. "I just, I know this is how we're going to do it in this moment. You know, there was nothing like 'This is how we do it. Here is a whole new genre, whole new story, a whole new way of looking at what was happening in this world and she killed it."

"But we were so excited to meet each other. I think we both got quite giggly and clappy. But I do remember there was a great big Sam's hand went we're going to have fun and coming from, you know, a man who's down so many of these films who is clearly universally adored on set as well," Colman chimed-in. "Everyone sort of doing their job and then they sort of perk up because Sam's arriving on set and just go we're gonna have a good time. It was such a lovely, a lovely welcome."

Colman Is A Huge Presence In Secret Invasion

The MCU's top superspy Nick Fury is back in Secret Invasion, the limited series premiering June 21st on Disney+. Samuel L. Jackson returns in the new Marvel Studios series, showcasing Fury's attempt to get to the bottom of a Skrull invasion that goes all the way to the most powerful positions in various governments and organizations on the planet. In Secret Invasion, Fury teams with allies Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), while James Rhodes AKA War Machine will appear in a mysterious capacity. Other newcomers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe include Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Do you think any Avengers will show up in Secret Invasion? Let us know down in the comments!

In just a matter of days, audiences will be treated to Secret Invasion, the latest live-action Disney+ series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Secret Invasion will follow a crop of established MCU characters and new faces, and it sounds like that resulted in a unique rapport on set. While speaking to ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis about Secret Invasion, Talos actor Ben Mendelsohn offered high praise for his onscreen daughter, G'iah (Emilia Clarke).

"One of the great gifts, for me on this was having this fabulous person and fabulous actor come in and inhabit Talos' daughter, and just be able to bring that whole dimension to it," Mendelsohn explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "People haven't seen it, so, you know, you ain't getting nothing from me, right. But we do deal a lot more with what's going on. I mean, one spoiler. I will give you. There is an invasion in the show, right? It is a secret. That's the other part of it. But getting to deal with the rifts, the fault lines of that invasion, we get to explore different starts to that. But this gangster here."

"We had a good time," Clarke echoed. "We had such a good time."

What is Secret Invasion about?

The MCU's top superspy Nick Fury is back in Secret Invasion, the limited series premiering June 21st on Disney+. Samuel L. Jackson returns in the new Marvel Studios series, showcasing Fury's attempt to get to the bottom of a Skrull invasion that goes all the way to the most powerful positions in various governments and organizations on the planet. In Secret Invasion, Fury teams with allies Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), while James Rhodes AKA War Machine will appear in a mysterious capacity. Other newcomers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe include Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Are you excited for Disney+'s Secret Invasion series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Secret Invasion is expected to debut on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 21st. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can do that right here.

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While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an ever-expansive world with a seemingly limitless talent pool, the multi-billion dollar franchise will occasionally have actors double up on roles. Gemma Chan famously played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel before she fronted Eternals as Sersi. Michelle Yeoh had a brief cameo as Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ahead of her featured part in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as Ying Nan. Most recently, Linda Cardellini lent her voice to Lylla in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, her second MCU role, as fans know her as Laura Barton in various Hawkeye-related projects. Interestingly enough, Cardellini was not the only MCU talent to take on a second role within Vol. 3.

While fans know Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, various actors have done motion-capture work for the tree throughout his on-screen appearances. The latest actor to take on that task was Austin Freeman. Freeman had been no stranger to Marvel Studios when he was cast in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as he had appeared in one episode of Loki Season 1.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, Freeman revealed that his work on Loki essentially landed him the Groot motion-capture part in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

"My agent pitched one person, wasn't quite right, and then he pitched me and the casting director was like, 'Oh, that's perfect. He's just done Loki, so I think that'll be an easy transition. Let me reach out to some of the producers on that and see if they'll say something,'" Freeman recalled. "What I've been told is that the producers from Loki, I'm not sure which ones, but they spoke on my behalf and said that they loved working with me, that Tom [Hiddleston] loved working with me, which is always just so nice to hear that your work and your professionalism is noticed. Basically I got the role without auditioning for Groot. That was a direct kind of transition from Loki right to that, which was really cool."

Freeman played Randy in the second episode Loki Season 1. This brief role saw him as a Roxxcart employee who briefly gets possessed by Sylvie where he became a vessel for the Loki Variant to communicate with Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief.

"When we worked together on the episode, the cool thing was I didn't really know what to expect, I'd never met him before, but he was so nice," Freeman recalled during him time sharing the screen with Hiddleston. "We sat in the chairs for 30 minutes before we were shooting our scenes and just kind of talked shop a little bit and talked character stuff for him, what Loki was for him, his backstory that he had created, and then just some things that he did that he loved and how this role had kind of changed his life. And then we just got to kind of play, which is cool. I got to go toe-to-toe with one of the best actors in the world and was like, that was super fun. And then that directly led to Guardians, which was really cool too. So it was exciting."

Freeman can be seen in both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, in theaters now, as well as in Loki Season 1, currently streaming on Disney+.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is being released in theaters this month, and last night was the film's big premiere in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with the film's cast in addition to director James Mangold. The interview happened to take place on the 42nd anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, so we asked Mads Mikkelsen (J?rgen Voller), Shaunette Ren?e Wilson (Agent Mason), Boyd Holbrook (Klaber), and Mangold about their first Indy experiences.

"I'm old enough that it came out when I was a teenager," Mikkelsen shared. "I did not go to the movies. I waited when it came out on a DVD and my brother and me, we rented it together with five other films and we ended up watching Indiana Jones five times."

Wilson added, "I probably watched it first time as a kid with my brother and maybe my dad on some old AMC channel back in Brooklyn, and was just enthralled by the adventure and the stunts and the scope of what the film is."

When asked if they freaked out when they saw Harrison Ford in the classic Indy outfit, Holbrook replied, "Yeah. It's pretty surreal." Wilson added, "I geek out watching because I don't think he got into the outfit when I was shooting with them." Holbrook explained, "Yeah. The first time, it was in Sicily and he was just hanging out on the wall, just leaning, just hanging out."

"It's on this day that I went and saw it in Middletown, New York at the Orange County Cinema. I was alone on the first matinee. And blown away," Mangold shared. "It's crazy," he added when asked how it feels to be making his own Indy film. "I mean, on the simplest level, if you go back to the 17-year-old sitting there, I knew I wanted to be a movie director, although seeing Raiders was only galvanizing that feeling. But if you told me that I'd be making a movie with those people on the screen, that would blow my mind."

Harrison Ford Remembers Raiders of the Lost Ark's Release:

"I don't remember what people thought. I do remember what I thought," Ford shared with ComicBook.com. "I remember that there was that pleasure. There was pleasure. There was laughter, there was popcorn being sold and people were happy and families were going. I was very excited."

The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm's latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist J?rgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is set to be Ford's final appearance as the iconic archeologist.

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the cast and director of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is hitting theaters later this month and it is set to star Harrison Ford as the titular hero. The new film will also feature an exciting line-up of new additions, including Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw, Indy's goddaughter. This week, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Ford and Waller-Bridge and we asked about how they created their onscreen chemistry.

"Well, we've both been written characters that are in contest, so banter for the sake of itself is often not so satisfying," Ford explained. "But these are all it's full of story. I mean, the relationship is characterized by the story that we're involved in, the quest that we're on, and by her personality disorder," he joked. "But also by the wit of our screenwriters. And we're lucky to have characters written that have a real contest. It's not just bitchy talk, there's some real substance between these things."

Waller-Bridge joked back, "Whereas in real life, it's just bitchy talk between the two of us. That's all it is."

Harrison Ford on De-Ageing Indiana Jones:

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is expected to feature a de-aged Harrison Ford in the opening sequence. When the trailer for the fifth movie was released, fans were pleasantly surprised by how good the de-aging looked. During a recent interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ford explained how they de-aged him for the film.

"That is my actual face. At that age," Ford shared. "They have this artificial intelligence program. It can go through every foot of film Lucasfilm owns, because I did a bunch of movies for them. They have all this footage, including film that wasn't printed ... They could mine it from where the light is coming from, the expression. But that's my actual face. I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make it. It's fantastic."

"My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, 'Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,'" Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy previously told Empire. "We're dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, 'I'm in an Indiana Jones movie.'"

What Is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny About?

The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm's latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist J?rgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is set to be Ford's final appearance as the iconic archeologist.

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Elemental is the latest film from Pixar Animation Studios, and it's the first animated feature to star Jurrasic World: Dominion's Mamoudou Athie and Nancy Drew's Leah Lewis. The duo plays Wade and Ember, a water-based man and a fire-based woman who spark an unlikely romance in Element City. In honor of the new film, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Athie and Lewis, who talked about the challenge of their first big animated roles, and explained how they created their characters' onscreen chemistry despite not working together during their recording sessions.

"I actually love a challenge," Lewis explained. "Yeah. This was quite daunting, being like, 'Okay, how am I going to literally lead a Pixar film?' I also think it was incredibly exciting. When you plug in and you're like, 'Okay, we're here. I'm dialed in.' I just got to experiment. Again, Peter, our director, was so wonderful with encouraging, stepping outside of the box, trying different things, and also getting to know us as human beings and seeing what he could draw from our personal lives."

She continued, "I think it required a great deal of effort to make sure that what I was saying was actually coming through in the animation, because they didn't really even show us anything played back. I think one of the funnest challenges was just finding the voices and just finding all the different efforts. I'm like, 'How do I run outside of a train? How do I bump into water? How do I fit into this tiny little crevice when I'm chasing Wade?' All those things were such a challenge to find in a good way."

Athie added, "Yeah. How to talk of a snow globe in your mouth."

"Zip, nada. That was all Peter Sohn," Lewis revealed when asked how much she and Athie worked together. "We spent the most time with him, Denise Ream, John [Hoberg] and Kat [Likkel], our writers, and then Kara Brownie, our script supervisor. It was all of them, but especially just Peter, who was able to direct us in the right way. He played mock Wade for me, mock Bernie, mock Cinder, and he was great at pulling that emotion out of me as well."

What Is Elemental About?

Elemental is an all-new original feature film that transports moviegoers to Element City, a place where a host of elements live and work. The trailer showcases each element--air, earth, water, and fire--and what sets them apart according to Ember (Leah Lewis), a quick-witted and fiery woman who's always stayed close to home in Firetown. In Elemental, she finally ventures out of her comfort zone to explore this spectacular world born from the imaginations of Pixar's filmmakers and specifically crafted for the big-screen experience. Element City is inspired by big cities around the globe and embraces theorized contributions from each elemental community--from giant pine-tree-like buildings and waterfall skyscrapers to a tornado-shaped arena called Cyclone Stadium. The film also stars Mamoudou Athie as Wade, the watery and lovable man who helps Ember get out of her comfort zone.

Elemental opens in theaters on June 16th.

Elemental director Peter Sohn was in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and was giving some insight into that film. While the Pixar project is primed to hit theaters, the filmmaker plays Ganke Lee over in Sony Pictures' Spider-Verse. Comicbook.com's Jamie Jirak spoke to Sohn about being Miles Morales's roommate at Visions. Of course, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse centers around the Web-Slinger's story. Characters like Ganke were assumed to have a bigger role this time around. While that may have been the expectation, things quickly spiral on our young hero when The Spot emerges and he has to go galloping around the Multiverse to fix it.

"It was done a while ago, and I didn't even think it would be even in there, but it just feels like an honor that they included it," Sohn revealed. "I heard that Jorge Gutierrez is also... Did you know this? Anyways, it's really are. I love those guys. They're amazing. They're really brilliant. Kemp, who also co-directed, worked on Soul. He was the co-director on Soul as well. And so it's just cool to see just the Pixar family over there for sure."

What's Next For Miles Morales After Across the Spider-Verse

Our young Spider-Man has been left in quite the bind by the end of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. However, the creators have teased that there are big things they've been saving for the third entry. That's hard to believe considering the scale and size of the second film. But, the sky is truly the limit for Beyond the Spider-Verse.

"I mean, you saw it in the film, there was cool stuff to be seen. I think everything's on the table," co-director Joaquim Dos Santos explained to Collider. "I can't give you an answer. I wouldn't dare give you an answer for fear of being, like, sniped right here on the spot, but yeah, I mean, that's the exciting thing of these films.

He added, "Look, I'm a man of a certain age, and in my mid-forties, the idea that I would be seeing a film like this, so beyond what I could imagine, even when I was a kid, it's the stuff that I would draw in school on my notebook paper, and now it's happening. So I think everything's up."

The Core Aim of The Spider-Verse Trilogy

While all of these multiverse shenanigans are a hoot, the core of the Spider-Verse trilogy really rests with the Morales family. Without the effective links between Miles and his parents, none of this works. The love between these people was shown in great detail during Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and you should expect even more in Beyond the Spider-Verse.

"I think all these trailers do," Dos Santos explained when asked about Beyond the Spider-Verse's upcoming trailer. "I mean, look, I don't think we'd be doing our job if we didn't try to wow at every turn. I think one thing that we are incredibly cognizant of is, as big and as crazy as the film got, what we're really locked in on is the journey of Miles and his family and his relation to his friends. So absolutely all the visuals are gonna be there, but I think continuing that journey and that sort of love affair that we have with Miles, with his journey, I think that's gonna be the thing that really sort of grabs people."

Are You Excited For Miles Morales' Next Adventure?

Miles Morales returns to the big screen with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse now playing in theaters after premiering on June 2nd. Miles (Shamiek Moore ) reunites with fellow heroes Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld ) and Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) for another web-swinging adventure through the multiverse, finding himself at odds with the Spider-Society led by Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac ). Other new heroes include Spider-Woman Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), and Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), while new villain the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) also enters the fray. The sequel to Sony Pictures' hit 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, and written by the team of Chris Miller, Phil Lord, and Dave Callaham.

Did you notice him popping-up in Spider-Verse? Let us know down in the comments!

When it comes to franchises, Mads Mikkelsen is unmatched. The actor has had roles in Casino Royale, Doctor Strange, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, and soon he will be seen in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Mikkelsen, and we asked if there were any other franchises he's eager to join. The actor also talked about getting the chance to play one of the most notorious types of villains: a nazi in an Indy film.

"No, not really," Mikkelsen said when asked if he wants to join any other franchise. "We talked about it. I mean, there are genres I haven't touched upon and I do love zombie films. I would love to be in a zombie film." He added, "But not the ones where they're really fast. They've got to be slow ... You have to be able to outrun them. I don't like the other ones."

"My first Nazi," Mikkelsen joked when asked about playing the villain in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. "It was due. No, I mean, it's wrapping up this franchise, it's wrapping up the beautiful journey of Harrison and Indiana Jones, and the script was just so beautiful and so touching, so that helped a lot. But he could have said, 'Indiana Jones, Nazi,' and I would've said, 'Yes.'"

Mads Mikkelsen On Working With Harrison Ford:

Last year, Mikkelsen spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and teased that the new Indy movie has an "original feel." During the interview, Mikkelsen also talked about working with Ford.

"It was the first time I met him, and he's an insanely powerful person," Mikkelsen said when asked about Ford's reported shoulder injury. "Not just as an actor, but physically. I remember the first day we were shooting, it was a night shoot, then we stopped at 5 a.m. - and then he got on his mountain bike and went biking for 50 kilometers [31 miles]. Harrison is a monster of a man, a very nice monster."

"[Raiders of the Lost Ark] was one of my favorite films, and it just oozed that golden period of serials from the 1940s -- and that's in the fifth film as well," Mikkelsen recalled. "They're going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic... It felt like a Spielberg film, though it's obviously James making it with the same vision."

What Is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny About?

The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm's latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist J?rgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is set to be Ford's final appearance as the iconic archeologist.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits theaters on June 30th.

Elemental is the latest film from Pixar Animation Studios, and it's the second feature to be directed by longtime animator and voice actor, Peter Sohn. Previously, Sohn helmed The Good Dinosaur and has spoken about how legendary director John Ford was an influence when they were making the film. This week, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Sohn alongside producer Denise Ream, and we asked if there were any directors that influenced Elemental.

"The visuals were definitely a combo of Gordon Willis and how he would shoot the cities between The Godfather and Manhattan and those movies, for sure. There was that. There was [Jean-Pierre] Jeunet. There's a lot of French love in this, for sure, in terms of how they made cities like postcards in some of their movies," Sohn explained.

Ream added, "We watched so many movies for reference, for culture clash. That was also a big part of it. Romantic comedies, we watched. Sohn continued, "Yeah. There is a director, though, that I don't talk about a lot, but it was Norman Jewison. He did Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck." Ream explained, "Oh, both of us, that's one of our favorite movies individually."

Sohn shared, "And there was so much about that movie, about understanding, healing, these two characters that had holes in their lives and this healing that was going on, and really understanding how they sort of created that electricity between those two people that we liked a lot." Ream concluded, "It's one of those I can watch over and over."

What Is Elemental About?

Elemental is an all-new original feature film that transports moviegoers to Element City, a place where a host of elements live and work. The trailer showcases each element--air, earth, water, and fire--and what sets them apart according to Ember (Leah Lewis), a quick-witted and fiery woman who's always stayed close to home in Firetown. In Elemental, she finally ventures out of her comfort zone to explore this spectacular world born from the imaginations of Pixar's filmmakers and specifically crafted for the big-screen experience. Element City is inspired by big cities around the globe and embraces theorized contributions from each elemental community--from giant pine-tree-like buildings and waterfall skyscrapers to a tornado-shaped arena called Cyclone Stadium. The film also stars Mamoudou Athie as Wade, the watery and lovable man who helps Ember get out of her comfort zone.

Elemental opens in theaters on June 16th.

Shaunette Ren?e Wilson would love to revisit the world of Black Panther again with the Dora Milaje. She played one of the Wakandan warriors in the first film and would be interested in a return. Comicbook.com's Jamie Jirak spoke to her ahead of Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny. When asked about revisiting Black Panther in the future, an eager Shaunette Ren?e Wilson replied, "Oh my God. Yeah." It's not hard to see why people would be wondering about anyone who picked up a spear during the first movie and its sequel.

Ren?e Wilson continued, "Oh, absolutely. That is easy. Without question for sure. And like a kid of a '90s, it's such a beautiful time." With so much smoke around further adventures surrounding Wakanda, it would be easy to see every actress that has played a Dora Milaje member at some point in the MCU coming back in some capacity. However, nothing has been officially announced by Marvel Studios yet. So, we wait for all those warriors to have another day in the sun.

Marvel's Rumored Okoye Disney+ Series

An Okoye project has been an open secret for almost a year and change now. Multiple outlets have reported on the series being developed around Danai Gurira. However, Marvel itself has been mum on the surrounding details. In fact, the most direct acknowledgement of Okoye's adventures on Disney+ was an admission from the actor herself on the Stephen Colbert Show late last year.

Gurira subtly teased the host, "I have been told that I can gently allude to this possibility, just gently!" Now, that's about as close to an outward announcement as you're going to get in the world of TV interviews. There's also the presence of the Midnight Angels inside the MCU to hint where the wind might take Okoye in the event of more adventures. It's pretty clear that the western world wants Vibranium at all costs by the end of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It's up to the people of the fictional nation to keep it out of the wrong hands.

What's Going On With Black Panther 3?

After the success of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a lot of fans are wondering what's going on with Black Panther 3. There's virtually no world where the third one doesn't happen. So, the question is more of a when, not an if. Series star Letitia Wright also talked about how things were going with Black Panther 3 on a red carpet this year.

"I think it's already in the works," Wright told Variety. "You know, we just had a terrific two years of just bringing it out and everybody coming together to support it. We need a little bit of a break, we need to regroup, and Ryan [Coogler] needs to get back into the lab so it's going to take a while, but really excited for you guys to see that."

Do you think the Okoye Disney+ series will be announced this year? Let us know down in the comments!

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is hitting theaters later this month, and it marks the first movie in the Harrison Ford-led franchise to be directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Logan director James Mangold took over the production, and it won't be his last project with Lucasfilm. It was announced during Star Wars Celebration this year that Mangold would be helming a Star Wars film about the original Jedis. In honor of the new Indy film, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Mangold, and we asked if he was feeling ready to make the Lucasfilm transition from Indiana Jones to Star Wars.

"Well, I think the simplest level is movies are all about people and I've gotten to know everybody involved in all walks of life at Lucasfilm and Disney and that certainly makes it easier," Mangold explained. "And the amount of trust and the amount of the freedom they give you to me is honestly the most important aspect of making a movie like this. Because where big movies can get into trouble is when they become committee films. And we all know what those films feel like and look like and to me, they're not only, I don't enjoy those kinds of movies so much, but on another level, I certainly don't want to make one because I don't feel connected to what I'm doing. I'm just performing a service, enacting what a committee has come up with. For me, if I'm not involved in the writing and what the story is, I don't know why I'm there directing it."

James Mangold On Wanting To Explore the Dawn of the Jedi:

"Well, I've talked to [Lucasfilm] before and even worked a bit before on other projects," Mangold shared with io9. "And I'm always interested in what's going on there and have friends who work on other Star Wars projects. But I understood that much of what they were doing was kind of continuing the saga forward."

He added, "So when I mentioned to Kathy [Kennedy, Lucasfilm president] the idea that I had about going backward -- really far backward -- I was surprised that it excited her and the other wonderful people she works with at Lucasfilm ... For me, it's about, I want to be part of the saga, but I also don't want to be holding so much lore in the air that you can hardly tell a story. And what I really wanted to do, what I told her, was just can we make a kind of the Ten Commandments of the Force, you know? A kind of origin story of how the Force came to be known, understood, wielded, and harnessed."

What Is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny About?

The iconic Harrison Ford returns for one last adventure when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres in theaters on June 30th. Lucasfilm's latest film in the long-running franchise sees Dr. Jones team up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in a race against nefarious forces to secure a powerful artifact. The duo will go up against the mysterious former Nazi-turned-NASA scientist J?rgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and the film also features stars Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, and John Rhys Davies. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is directed by James Mangold and is set to be Ford's final appearance as the iconic archeologist.

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with James Mangold and the cast of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Chuck Norris is ready to do a sequel to his 1992 adventure action comedy-drama Sidekicks. Norris was recently at Nashville Comic-Con and during the panel ComicBook.com's Chris Killian had to ask a thought-provoking question about Norris's career: "What do you feel is your most underappreciated film? For me, it has to be Sidekicks, which was such a fun film, and an ingenious concept and felt in a lot of ways like a movie that was before its time."

Norris seemed to appreciate that shoutout to Sidekicks, revealing that he would actually be game for a sequel!

"I agree, Sidekicks is one of my films that holds a special place in my heart and if I were ever offered a sequel, I would absolutely take up that offer. It's a film that inspires hope and courage, especially to the youth."

What Is Sidekicks About?

Synopsis: Barry (Jonathan Brandis) is an asthmatic kid having trouble in life. He lives with his father (Beau Bridges), a computer programmer, in Texas. Barry is struggling to get by in life, dealing with his rough school life, bullies, as well as his health. Barry's only source of enjoyment is fantasizing that he is with Chuck Norris. Barry becomes sick of getting picked on by the bigger guys, and decides to learn karate, in hopes of one day meeting the great Chuck Norris.

Sidekicks debuted at no. 2 at the box office when it was released in the spring of 1992. It only made $17.18 million during its theatrical run and was also hit hard by critical reviews. Even legendary critic Roger Ebert couldn't give the film too much praise - and he was one of the nicer reviews:

"Sidekicks" is sweet but predictable, the kind of movie where you enjoy the ride but recognize the terrain. Remember the old comic book ads where the bully kicked sand into the eyes of the 90-pound weakling? But then, after the weakling got himself into shape, he came back to beat the bad guy and win the admiring praise of the girls? "Sidekicks" tells the same durable story, and it still works about as well as it ever did.

Would A Sidekicks Sequel Work?

It's arguable whether or not Sidekicks has gained any more fame or acclaim in the years since its release - and that lack of exposure might be fair. Sidekicks was something of a vanity project for Norris: the film was conceived, produced, and financed by Norris and his friend, Houston, TX, furniture store owner Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, as a further measure of Chuck Norris's "Kick Drugs out of Schools" campaign. The film was directed by Chuck's brother, Aaron, and required the martial arts star to play... himself.

While the premise of Sidekicks is one that could be easily remade with a modern martial arts action star, the legacy of Norris, as well as the death of his young co-star Jonathan Gregory Bandis, would definitely hang in the air.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns to Paramount+ on Thursday, offering Star Trek fans more of what they loved about the first season. That's according to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds co-showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman, who took some time to talk with ComicBook.com about the second season of the highly-acclaimed Star Trek: Discovery spinoff. which brings back the cast of the first season minus the deceased ship's engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak). Carol Kane's Pelia takes over as Enterpirse's new Chief Engineer, and we made sure to ask Myers and Goldsman whether the position will continue to have a high turnaround rate.

The new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season also brings back Paul Wesley as Lt. James T. Kirk in a recurring role, which the showrunners touch on as well. Here's everything they had to say ahead of the season premiere:

We get more of Paul Wesley's Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 and he's more familiar than the slightly grimmer Kirk from an alternate universe we met in the first season's finale. How would you describe Kirk's role in Season 2?

Henry Alonso Myers: Well, we will see some alt-universe, and we will see something that is a little more recognizable, and for us, the huge fun of this is no one spent a lot of time talking about what the emotional life of Kirk was prior to before we meet him. That was really our opportunity to dig into it and imagine how he eventually became the person that he would be, but he isn't there yet. We love Paul. He's fantastic. He's been really a joy to work with.

I'm going to run a pet idea of mine by you to get your thoughts. Star Trek: Picard Season 3 had that Easter egg where we learn that Kirk's body is on ice. I've had the idea that there's an opportunity for someone to resurrect and rejuvenate Kirk, and let Paul Wesley go play him in the 25th century. Is that a thought that's crossed either of your minds at this point?

Akiva Goldsman: Well, it hasn't until now.

Feel free to run with it. I give it to you freely.

AG: Thank you. Good idea.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 was a huge success. It became the highest-rated Star Trek series on Rotten Tomatoes. It was a big deal, and fans took to it immediately. Has the success of the first season changed anything about your approach to the second season? Are you allowed to take bigger risks? Have you incorporated any feedback you've gotten from fans or elsewhere? Or is it pretty much business as usual for you?

AG: Well, I think what's interesting is, Henry always says, "It's Season 1, just more, bigger, better." And I think the answer to the question is sure, some. It helped us some, for sure, because we were doing a few things that are atypical. We were jumping around the genre, although if you're a TOS fan and even, to some extent, if you know Next Gen, you see more of that but it's not typical in television today. We were going back to episodic, and unlike Disco, we are an ensemble piece, but we don't service the ensemble each episode. We pointedly choose a hero narrative eye and move through it. So it was a little wacky, or at least maybe it was for folks who weren't us, and maybe we even thought it was a little wacky but believed in it. So what happens when it lands positively is it gives you permission to really do that. So as Henry says, we just are doing it more.

HAM: There was also some production stuff that was unique and new to us in Season 1 that we really just wanted to make sure that we knew how to make it work. Once we realized, "Okay, we've got it, we're going to make it work," let's try to do it more challengingly, do things that we wouldn't necessarily have been able to pull off Season 1. There are definitely a few of those. When you're bigger and you have more strength to do it, you want to try it, because what's the point of not giving it a go, and trying to make it as good and as interesting and as big and as crazy as you can possibly get?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is episodic, but there was an arc to Season 1, particularly with Pike dealing with his own mortality. Is there a connective tissue or throughline, either thematic or a particular arc, that you think connects all these episodes this season? Or is it possibly even more episodic than the first one?

HAM: Well, it was very important to us, and the same as the first season, to have each of the characters going on a journey, but you don't necessarily have to know what that is and follow it super tightly in order to watch from episode to episode. Each episode is its own unique story, but the lives of these people are real and they have a place to go. We tried that in Season 1. It has this very Next Gen quality where one day we go on this person, one day we follow that person.

It was a great opportunity to have. We have this terrific cast and it's a great opportunity to try to give everyone a chance to do something big and real, because you just get better performances from actors, and our actors are great. We're so lucky to have every single one of them. And why would you not try to give everyone a moment, or a couple of moments, to really make it work for them? We knew that was working, and it's a great way to give each individual episode that has its own flavor its own unique emotion at the core of it.

AG: And remember, you've seen the first half, which would typically be where the setups live. The second half would typically be where the payoffs live. By the time you finish the season, you will feel the same sort of character draft that has pulled you through, actually with maybe even a little more, because we're probably trying, now realizing we can get away with it, to service that idea with more than one.

We have a new ship's engineer this season with Carol Kane as Pelia. She's bringing a very different energy than what we got from Bruce Horak as Hemmer last season. Why did you decide to go in that direction, which continues this trend I've noticed of funny women as engineers in sci-fi, with Tig Notaro, and over in The Mandalorian, you've got Amy Sedaris? Can you say how many generations we are away from Mr. Scott? Is this going to be a situation where there's a new one every season?

AG: ...

HAM: ...

AG: Look how quiet we are. Aren't we quiet?

Here's what it's not. It's not Spinal Tap. We're not killing an engineer every season. I mean, I pitched it, but we're not.

HAM: The big thing was we zigged in one season, and we wanted to try to zag, which was like, how can we find a person who doesn't feel like we've seen them before in Star Trek, and who might give us a unique and interesting perspective? We had a version of a character, and we were very lucky in that we were talking with our casting people and they were like, "What about Carol Kane for this?" And it suddenly snapped. And she, of course, brought her own unique and delightful perspective to it.

As a show, we probably are slightly more interested in making sure comedy is present than some of the other Trek shows, just because that's part of what we have, and that's something she happens to be very good at, so it was fun to be able to lean on her in that way. It's important to us to have different genres that have different areas of emotion that we're exploring, some of them funny, some of them scary, and that one speaks to a different kind that we didn't get to see as much. We're trying to give the show a unique and specific look and feel.

You mentioned a couple of times that you're exploring different genres in different episodes. One genre I noticed comes up a lot, or at least it is a kind of mode that's present across episodes, is romance. There's a lot of it compared to other Star Trek shows -- Disco has some, but it hasn't been a huge focus for Star Trek, but there are some very romantic, relationship-focused episodes here. Was that the intent, or did you get taken in that direction unexpectedly?

AG: Well, I think that we are trying to tell real emotional stories. That's what we go for, especially because for those folks who know canon, not that that is in any way necessary, but for those who do, the endings are written. So how do we make the beginnings and middles dynamic? And we do that by having people have real human or alien emotions so that they can connect to each other.

And there's also seemingly a truth, which is if you're on a ship in the middle of space for a really long time, and it's life and death, you're probably going to kiss someone. And so there's kissing, and we like it. And we like the fact that people can have a real range of emotions. I mean, God knows people punch each other all the time in TV shows. They should be able to kiss each other too.

HAM: The other thing is that if you just look at some of those elements, they're all things, in The Original Series, that they go into. Part of what we wanted to do was try to imagine the depth that lead them there. I mean, T'Pring is in the original show. Chapel-Spock is in the original show. We wanted to say, "Okay, so Chapel and Spock have this initial way of behaving toward each other in the original show. What if we ihave a chance to deepen that, imagine why it would be that way, where they came from? What would a modern audience expect from this that they wouldn't necessarily expect from the original show? And let's try that."

You mentioned canon. That's something where you work with it, you work around it, and sometimes you work through it.

HAM: Correct.

We get some significant first meetings this season. I won't spoil what those are in this interview, but you build episodes for some of them and then some of them are surprisingly understated, the way handled them. What were the conversations like in the writer's room about how to handle those moments, and have there been conversations about how to dole those moments out, so that they're not all upfront, and there are other cool moments like that to look forward to in the future?

HAM: Well, we had an opportunity for a lot of these to show something that was familiar to people. But it was, again, not to come back to this a lot, but Akiva and I discuss this a ton, but we really want this to be a show that you don't necessarily have to recognize to get something out of it. And I think that that actually, in a weird way, is almost a great freedom because it allows us to imagine a deeper, more complicated approach to relationships that they probably weren't concerned about back in the '60s, because they were making a different show at a different time with different ideas. That's the opportunity that we got, and so we also don't want to alienate people. We don't want to make it so that you have to know everything in order to appreciate the show. We wanted to give a special gift to the people who know about it, but also give a scene that makes perfect sense to people who don't.

AG: Henry is fond of saying, and I really agree, that the characters don't know that their encounters are full of portent -- because I know which moment you're talking about -- and so in fact, for them, it was, "Hey, hey," right? They don't know, and you want to keep your audience and your characters together. That's your most successful narrative engine unless you're on purpose putting them at a distance. And we like to do that. We like to have the experience of the characters and the experience of the audience be similar. So we don't want to be winking at the audience at the expense of the character's experience of the moment.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Release Date

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Thursday, June 15th. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with the premiere date to be announced later. New episodes of the 10-episode season will then debut weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is already streaming. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.

Star Trek fans already know Christina Chong from her role as Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh, the Enterprise's Chief of Security, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This week, they'll get to see, or rather hear, a different side of Chong when she releases her debut single, "Twin Flames," from her EP of the same name. Between the music release on Friday and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premiering on Paramount+ on Thursday, it's going to be an eventful week for Chong, but she still found some time to speak to ComicBook.com via video call about how all of this is happening.

During our conversation, Chong revealed the surprising way that this EP came about, helping her achieve a longtime goal of hers. She also touches on how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds viewers will see something different from La'an in the show's second season. Here's what she had to say.

Christina Chong's Twin Flames

You have a big week ahead of you. We've got Strange New Worlds Season 2 about to debut. You've got an EP coming out. We've got music, we've got acting. Which of these two things came first for you? Were they a package deal? What's the balance there?

Christina Chong: Neither came first. My first love was dance. That's how I started, and it was always the dream to be a dancer. When I went to performing art school, I then got into acting and singing because you had to; it was a musical theater course. And then acting took over because also, I don't know, I just felt like my first musical theater job I was given, they told me they gave me the role because I acted it, and I was like, "Oh, interesting. Okay." And you know when somebody tells you you're good at something, you're like, "Oh," you start to believe it yourself and believe in yourself and believe that you can do it. So then I started going down that route and then went into TV and film in order to fast-track getting leads in musical theater. So the idea was always to do West End, Broadway as a lead. But then I got into TV and film, and then, I was like, "Oh, this is kind of great."

There was a fork in the road when I was a teenager, I'd been discovered by an A&R guy who'd also worked with Amy Winehouse, Lucie Silvas, and he was like, "Look, if you want to do this pop career, then you need to do it now, otherwise you're going to be too old." But I'd already booked a musical theater gig in Germany for over a year, and I was like, "Oh, I can't turn that job down on a dream of something that may or may not happen."

So I said to myself, "One day, I'll come back to it." And Star Trek, in the strangest of ways, has given me the means and the opportunities to actually go into that for the first time. And so the time to come back to it is now, on Friday, to be exact.

For those who only know you as an actor, what would you say the biggest influences are on the music you're putting out? How would you describe the sound of your music?

For me, what was really important, I was like, "If I'm going to do this music thing, I have to be authentically me, and I don't want to go around copying anybody or grabbing somebody else's style." There were influences, of course. I love Amy Winehouse. Her influence is in the way that she's so real with her lyrics and the way she's so real with who just she is or who she was.

Then more sound-wise, there'd be certain tracks that'd be like, "Oh, I love how that track does this," certain artists here and there, and then I would pull bits of inspiration from different places for one track. But the most important thing was it's got to come from me. It's got to be my words. I'm used to hiding behind a character, which it's actually quite nerve-racking.

But the story behind the EP is about an intense romantic relationship with a guy who I'm not with anymore, but who I called my twin flame. There's this idea that there are people who are two parts of the same soul, so to speak, and then you meet in lifetimes, meet up again. And so it's kind of like the breakup, getting together, the breakup, the healing, and then the other side of the healing, the rebirth of who I am after that.

I was connected with them very randomly. It was very serendipitous, the connecting of how I got to work with Jake Gosling, who is the producer. He's worked with Amy Winehouse, he's worked with everyone, Lady Gaga, all of these places and people. And when I was at his studio, he puts up Polaroids of everyone he's worked with, and I turned up to the studio the first day to write my first-ever song, and I'm like, "Oh my God, this is really intimidating. I don't know what I'm doing here."

But it all came about very randomly. I was looking for a stylist for San Diego for last year at Comic-Con and, randomly, a stylist had tagged me mistakenly in an Instagram post. She was meant to tag her client but instead, she tagged me and went to bed. And then the next day, I wake up and I'm like, "That's not me. Hello." And she's like, "Oh, I'm so sorry." I was like, "Actually, are you free these dates?" And she was like, "Yes, I am."

So we got together and I just happened to tell her that I wanted to go into singing and she's like, "Oh, I know somebody. I have a friend who's a singer-songwriter. I'll put you in touch." Little did I know her friend was the fianc?e of Jake Gosling.

She hadn't even heard me sing at this point, but she said -- I don't even know why, I didn't ask -- she said, "I just had this feeling you could." And so she's been instrumental. Olga, my stylist, has been instrumental in helping this happen and helping me along the journey.

Your EP has four original songs on it. Why did you choose this song, "Twin Flames," to be your debut single and to make a music video?

Well, it made sense because I only wrote four songs with Jake, and as we were doing it, we were like, "Hang on a minute, this is a story. This is circular. You could keep going." And with every relationship, there's that same pattern, right? The meeting, the breakup, the healing. Now I'm on the other side, I can meet somebody. So actually, not only did I think it was the one that would probably make the most impact in a visual way because obviously there are flames and the one that I felt most that I could choreograph something cool to, and therefore have a music video to go alongside it, it was also the first step and the beginnings of that relationship. So it made sense to release them in order of how it happened.

Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh in Star Trek: Strange: New Worlds Season 2

You're not the first Star Trek star to put out music, going back to William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. More recently, Isa Briones did a song for Star Trek: Picard, singing "Blue Skies" for Season 1, and then Alison Pill had a musical number in Star Trek: Picard Season 2. Do you think there's any chance that we'll see your musical talents put to use in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, or do you think that that is a part of you that is not a part of La'an Noonien-Singh?

I mean, listen, if that were to happen, I wouldn't say no. It's kind of part of the plan, if I'm honest, James. "Hey guys, I can sing. Can La'an sing?" But she had that little bit in season one, right? With the Princess and stuff. They didn't know I was going to do that, I just did it on the day. But I mean, listen, anything goes. That's an idea, maybe even to just pitch my songs for a future season of Star Trek. But yeah, I mean, that would be the dream to have all of it come together because the path that I originally set out was musical theater. So if I had that opportunity to come back around to that and do all three, that would be, "Okay, I can give up now." I wouldn't, but I could give up.

Everybody loves to ask about musical episodes ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer did it years ago. Do you think there's enough musical theater energy in the Strange New World's cast that they could pull that off? It's so episodic compared to the other shows that if any of these Star Trek shows could do it feels like Strange New Worlds would be the one.

I mean, listen, never say never. We've got Celia Rose Gooding who has a Grammy. Rebecca sang in the Short Treks thing, didn't she? Ethan's sound, I'm sure Ethan can sing because he has a great -- wait, he sang, didn't he? In Season 1 with the egg, when he helped Uhura open up the egg, the humming. I'm sure Anson can rock out something. I don't know how that would come about or how it would happen, but that would be incredible if that were to be in a future season.

What can you say about what fans should look forward to with La'an's story in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2? How is it different from what we saw in Season 1?

She's much lighter this season. That's the journey. There's trauma still there, but we're not playing that anymore. It's simmering underneath. We're moving on. She's lighter, there's romance, there's more fun for her. We see the height of it, I would guess, in Episode 9, which is my favorite episode, which nobody's seen, and when you see it, you'll understand why it's my favorite episode.

I'm looking forward to that because I've seen Episode 3, which is something, so the fact that you picked 9 over 3 makes me think nine must be something else.

Yeah, it's something that's never been done before. With the Lower Decks episode, everyone's like, "Oh, wow, amazing," and it is amazing, but this is equally amazing, just in a different way. It will be a lot of fun. I can't wait for the fans to see that episode.

Is there anything else you like to say or add or let the fans know?

The song will be out at midnight in whatever country you are in on Friday -- so first Thursday night, Friday morning. Spotify and iTunes, SoundCloud, and yeah, social's ChristinaChongx. And if you like the music, please share it.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Release Date

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Thursday, June 15th. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with the premiere date to be announced later. New episodes of the 10-episode season will then debut weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is already streaming. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.

Heather Graham definitely had Austin Powers to thank in part for making her a breakout movie star of the 1990s. Graham starred as CIA agent "Felicity Shagwell" in the Austin Powers sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, one of Austin Powers (Mike Myers) love interests/teammates throughout the series, alongside the likes of Elizabeth Hurley's Vanessa and Beyonc?'s Foxxy Cleopatra.

During a press junket for her new horror-thriller film Suitable Flesh, Heather Graham addressed the rumor that there was more to Felicity Shagwell's story revealed in the final Austin Powers movie, Goldmember - only for it to end up being a deleted scene. Turns out that it's true, even if it wasn't all that significant:

"Yes, there was a scene and I was at a party and we're having a great time. I mean, I was -- she's doing great, you know, and they [Austin and Felicity] just see each other. And to be honest, I'm like trying to remember what it was. But basically, like, she's fabulous and she's at this party and they say hi, but... I'm glad that you love that movie."

Will Heather Graham For Austin Powers 4?

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, was released in the summer of 1997. It was followed by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, and Austin Powers in Goldmember in July of 2002. The Austin Powers films earned $53 million, $206 million, and $213 million (respectively) at the worldwide box office. There's been talk of doing Austin Powers 4 ever since - even though nothing has materialized.

When ComicBook.com asked Mike Myers last year about rumors that Austin Powers 4 was making progress, the comedic icon would only say that "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a program, should it exist or not exist." He then added that "I would love to," return to the Austin Powers franchise.

Heather Graham echoed a similar sentiment, telling reporters that she too would be down to return to Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell - if Mike Myers and director Jay Roach come up with a great idea for Ms. Shagwell: "I mean, I love Mike Myers, Jay Roach. It was such a special experience getting to be part of that. Yeah, I loved it."

So far, it seems that Roach is the least enthused about jumping back into Austin Powers:

"I wouldn't say never never...I'm always game for whatever [Mike Myers] wants to do," Roach said in a 2020 interview. "It does depend on Mike having something that he's inspired about, and so far, after all these years, it hasn't quite clicked yet."

You can watch Heather Graham in Suitable Flesh

Scarlett Johansson's days as Black Widow may be in the rear view, but a future still awaits her at Marvel Studios. In the months that followed the release of Black Widow, Johansson's eighth outing as Natasha Romanoff and the first time that she suited up as her in a solo project, Marvel President Kevin Feige revealed that the two were working together in a producing capacity on a "non-Black Widow related top-secret Marvel Studios project." Following that quote, Marvel announced its Phase 5 and parts of its Phase 6 slate eight months later, but Johansson's mystery project was nowhere to be found.

Beyond Feige's lone quote about the mystery project, Johansson has been relatively quiet on the Marvel front since. Her latest MCU comments came on fellow Marvel star Gwyneth Paltrow's podcast where she re-emphasized that she is done playing Black Widow, saying that that "chapter is done." While that may be true from an acting standpoint, Johansson still has a future with her longtime collaborator.

Speaking with ComicBook.com at the Asteroid City press junket, Johansson noted that her mystery Marvel producing project is still in the works but progress has been paused due to the WGA writers' strike.

"It is still happening. Yes," Johansson said. "It is still happening, [but] not currently because nothing is happening right now. We're all sort of in this holding pattern as we wait out the writers' strike and potentially our own guild strike, and so on and so forth."

Per the strike, all Hollywood projects still in the writing phase on pre-production have gone on an indefinite break. While some blossoming films like James Gunn's Superman: Legacy are able to continue progress because final scripts were submitted before the strike commenced, anything that was still in the midst of the scribing process cannot complete their scripts until the strike ends.

Johansson's allusion to "potentially our own guild strike" is in reference to the looming possibility of SAG-AFTRA, the actors' guild, going on strike as well. SAG-AFTRA announced last week that 97.91% of the guild supported the authorization of a strike. They will reportedly go on strike if contract talks are not resolved by June 30th.

Johansson added that developments were happening shortly before the WGA strike began on May 2nd.

"Right before the strike, we were in the middle of developing it, and now everything is at a simmer," Johansson added.

Details beyond the fact that it is happening have been kept close to the vest. Since Johansson's tenure as Black Widow concluded, Marvel Studios has expanded its storytelling mediums tenfold, relying more on Disney+ for multi-episode narratives as well as one-off special presentations. While all of her Marvel Studios acting work came on the big screen, there's every possibility that Johansson's secret project could take her to the television realm.

Johansson has collaborated with Feige for well over a decade now. She made her Marvel debut in 2010's Iron Man 2 and went on to be a foundational piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her relationship with Marvel parent company Disney hit a speed bump in Fall 2021, as she filed a lawsuit against the house of mouse for Black Widow's release rollout going against what was specified in the initial contract. Johansson was promised a full theatrical release but the film was instead given a hybrid drop, with viewers able to stream it on Disney+ for an additional fee on the same day it hit theaters. The lawsuit was settled in September 2021.

Johansson can next be seen starring in Asteroid City, which hits limited theaters on June 16th before expanding to a wide release on June 23rd.

Bass Olusanmokun returns as Dr. Joseph M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. In addition to the typical complications that stem from playing a healer enlisted in Starfleet, M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' first season focused on trying to save his daughter from her illness. That arc concluded with the fairytale-inspired episode "The Elysian Kingdom," which may leave fans wondering what's next for M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. Speaking to ComciBook.com during the season's press junket, Olusanmokun teased that M'Benga is still working through the weight of his daughter's journey and that viewers will learn more about his past.

"He's trying to move forward with his life," Olusanmokun says. "He's trying to soldier on. He's trying to go forward with this horrible, traumatic event, the loss of his child. So going forward, he's simply trying to serve his shipmates, serve Starfleet, and find his way, in the world. There will be more revelations of his past, shared history, so that's what you'll be seeing of him, quite a bit more of his past."

Playing a Healer In Starfleet

Along with Olusanmokun, ComicBook.com also spoke to Jess Bush, who plays M'Benga's nurse in the Enterprise's sickbay, Christine Chapel. Bush told us about what it is like to play a Starfleet medical officer.

"You know, we see Chapel and M'Benga pushed to violence, and investigating what emotionally is going to take Chapel to that point, seeing as she's a healer, is very interesting and like navigating and investigating that was really, really great, and how we support each other in that space too, because obviously, we understand each other as healers probably more deeply than anyone else with our shared history," Bush said. "So choosing to enter a space that is going against our oath in that way is super complicated, yeah."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La'An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 also brings back special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and adds Carol Kane in the recurring role of Pelia.

CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are co-showrunners. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Release Date

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Thursday, June 15th. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with the premiere date to be announced later. New episodes of the 10-episode season will then debut weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is already streaming. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.

Ted Lasso has come to a close, for now. The smash hit Apple TV+ series aired its Season 3 finale earlier this month, concluding the three-season arc that series developer Brendan Hunt and company had laid out from the beginning. The emotional Ted Lasso finale saw Jason Sudeikis's titular character leave AFC Richmond in favor of returning to the United States to be with his family once again, which left the club in the hands of Brett Goldstein's Roy Kent. The rest of the ensemble received their closure as well, with the likes of Hunt's Coach Beard getting married and Phil Dunster's Jamie Tartt making amends with his father. While many of the subplots are bow-tied, a couple Ted Lasso narratives end with a tease of what could come.

Speaking to ComicBook.com at the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts premiere, Ted Lasso star Cristo Fern?ndez hopes to see some of those teases realized in the future.

"I think there's potential to so many stories. It's the end for now, as you said. I just hope there's more too," Fern?ndez said.

The biggest of those teases comes in the form of Keeley Jones (June Temple) pitching an AFC Richmond women's team to club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham).

"I hope there's a spin for the woman's team. I hope there has spin for Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein). I hope there's spin for Rebecca, for Dani," Fern?ndez continued. "There's potential to do many things, but for now I'm just grateful to have been part of it and forever grateful with Jason, Brendan, Joe [Kelly], Bill [Lawrence], the writers for giving me the opportunity."

His future on the AFC Richmond pitch may be uncertain, but Fern?ndez is quickly becoming a busy man in Hollywood. He had a small role in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, is in production on Disney+'s remake of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and just lent his voice to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Fern?ndez emphasized that he is grateful to be part of these big franchises but added that he hopes he will soon have the opportunity to tell his own stories.

"I hope Transformers, Ted Lasso allows me to tell more stories also, the ones that I'm trying to create," Fern?ndez added. "And thanks to everyone else supporting and cheering."

Ted Lasso Season 3 is now streaming in full on Apple TV+. Fern?ndez can be heard as Wheeljack in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, currently in theaters.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead season 8 episode 5.] Grace was living on borrowed time -- and that time ran out on Sunday's "More Time Than You Know" episode of Fear the Walking Dead. Since season 5, former power plant worker Grace (Karen David) feared she was terminally ill with radiation poisoning from killing walkers contaminated by the Texas nuclear plant meltdown. Seven years and one nuclear-zombie apocalypse later, Grace revealed to her partner Morgan Jones (Lennie James) that she was sick: "The radiation's caught up with me. I'm paying the price for chasing the dead."

"You once told me that no matter what was coming, I had to live. So that's what we're going to do," Grace told Morgan, helping him put his zombified family to rest at King County. Not wanting to waste any more time after being separated by PADRE for the past seven years, Grace would spend however much time she had left with Morgan and their daughter Mo (Zoey Merchant).

But when a walker bit Grace on the side, accelerating her ticking clock from months to a day, Morgan and Mo raced against time to get the fever-stricken Grace to June (Jenna Elfman) and receive radiotherapy treatments to stop the infection from spreading. As June tended to the zombie-bitten Finch (Gavin Warren), it became clear that the radiation treatment didn't work. The radiation only managed to stave off the infection for a brief time. And Grace's time was running out.

In the end, the attempt to save her mother's life wasted what little time Grace had left with Morgan and Mo. "You gave us more time, Mo," Grace said in her dying moments, recalling how she and Morgan made a suicide pact as nuclear warheads detonated seven years earlier. "When your father and I were thinking of ending things, we came so close to doing it. Do you know why we didn't? Because we heard you crying. You gave us a reason to live." Grace's time on Fear the Walking Dead ended with the words: "You gave us more time than you know."

Below, Karen David talks to ComicBook about her time on Fear the Walking Dead, Grace's death, and why she's exiting the show with no regrets -- only "bittersweet heartache" for Grace.

COMICBOOK: How are you feeling?

KAREN DAVID: Bittersweet, you know, coming to the end of this journey.

I'm sad to see Grace go, but I felt this was such a great showcase for you and your character. I think [showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg] made Grace suffer so much these past few seasons because you're so good at playing those dramatic beats and tearing hearts out.

KAREN DAVID: [Laughs] They really put me through it! Because maybe they know that I love to cry, you know?

Let's start off with the story of when and how you found out about Grace's fate in this episode.

KAREN DAVID: Well, we always have sort of a debrief at the start of filming a new season, and at the end of filming a season. And at the end of each season, I always knew that Grace was on a ticking time bomb, so to speak, right from day one, because of the nature of her storylines. We all knew that from day one when we met Grace that she had been exposed to copious amounts of radiation. So it was just a matter of when.

But at the end of each season, I would say to Ian and Andrew, and I'm like, "And then Grace dies?" And they'd be like, "Nope. Why are you saying that? No, not yet. Not yet. We still have many more stories to tell for Grace." And that made me really happy, because I really do feel, as an actor, you never know how long you are given to tell the story. And for me to have had four seasons with Grace, I have been able to do things I've never done before as an actor. And I really feel that I got to do a lot with Grace. As painful and poignant a journey that she's had, it's been an absolute thrill for me.

But nothing really, truly prepares you for the final, final moments, until you actually see it. And for me, even though Ian and Andrew told me that this final season that would be happening for Grace, I always thought that it would be her succumbing to her radiation. I never thought it would be through a walker bite. So that really threw me off. I was not expecting that at all. And I just thought, well, it certainly raises the stakes even more, as opposed to her just succumbing to her radiation, that now, she really is on borrowed time.

And yet, so devastated. I felt naturally devastated for Grace. And I was telling my mom when we were talking about it, about my journey playing Grace, is that Grace has had such -- it's like you said -- she's had a very, very painful, traumatic journey. I mean, all the characters have. And it just made me, especially in the final episode, if there were any brief seconds of levity that I could grab for Grace, that became very, very important for me.

Because, albeit on one hand, I could count the amount of times where she's had moments of lightness and joy, from the shopping mall episode back in season five and her and Morgan are on a carousel, and talking about candy beansies, cooking Pad Thai for the gang, it's just these moments that I had to hold onto for Grace, to help me as an actor help Grace arrive at a place in her final moments on the show. And her final moments with her family, with her daughter, with the man that she loves, to arrive at this place of peace and acceptance of letting go, knowing that her daughter and her partner, her husband, are going to be okay. They have each other, and they have their love together as a family. And that is something that will never, ever die and will live within them, as they carry on as a family together without her. So it was a big journey for me to arrive, from when they first told me to those final days that I had on set.

Grace's ending is tragic. She has enough time left to reflect on her life's regrets as she slowly dies from a walker's bite. How do you feel about Grace's time ending this tragically on Fear of the Walking Dead?

KAREN DAVID: If I'm just looking as a bystander, I'm just heartbroken for her. I'm devastated. She was very much trying to create a home at the [repeater] station, and she's trying to create whatever time she has left, this sense of family. She knew that this was her last chance and opportunity to be a mother, to know and to have this family that her and Morgan have always wanted together. So I was really heartbroken. I was heartbroken about Grace's journey, all in all. But there are a lot of people in life that have very painful journeys.

For me, it was just really important to question and to ask myself what kind of legacy I wanted to leave for Grace in this expansive and amazing universe that is The Walking Dead. That's kind of what we all talked about in this final season, the cast. What kind of legacy did we want to leave for our characters and bringing our storylines to a closure? And for me, it was very much for Grace to be this symbol of hope, and strength, and courage.

I've learned so much from playing her. I've learned so much from breathing life to her. She's taught me a lot. And she's also reminded me a lot of things about the fragility of life and how precious life is, and how life is too short not to do the things that bring you joy and make you happy, and to follow the things that you're deeply passionate about. And for Grace, it was family. It was family. It was about being a mother in whatever time she had left. And that reminds me, too, as a daughter, with my parents who are seniors, to embrace every moment that I have with them and my family.

But I also am reminded about Grace's resilience. I don't think she even knew how strong she was. I don't think she even realized how courageous she was. But it was through the love, and being seen by someone like Morgan who gave her the ability to love again, not only self-love, but to love another, and to have hope in her heart, and to have faith and belief that she needs to still be here. She has a purpose. And that renewed her sense of wanting to live, of wanting to carry on, of wanting to march forward. And she did. And here we are seven years later in the storyline, and she's around, until now. I don't think she would've held out that long had she not met someone quite as miraculous as Morgan.

As you mentioned, when we meet Grace in season five, she knows the clock is ticking. She asks the question: "What do you do with the time that you have left?" How do you think Grace answers that question, had she known that she did have another seven years left to live? What do you think she does differently?

KAREN DAVID: I'd like to think that if Grace had another seven years, if she had the gift of time, it would be all about experiences. Besides the fact that our show is set in an apocalyptic backdrop, it forces each of our characters to really focus on what matters most. Because it's not about material things anymore, it's about survival. And for her, if given more time, it, without question, would be about the experiences that they have together as a family, and with friends, and about living -- living each day to the fullest, doing things together. All of a sudden, everything just has new meaning.

I mean, it did for her, anyway. Things that we take for granted, of breathing, of being able to walk, of being able to see, of being able to do, I don't know, going, having, planting plants and having a garden. It's these moments that mean so much more in this apocalyptic backdrop. But also, to someone like Grace, it's the little things that count. She reminds me that it's not the material things. The only thing that you truly can take to your deathbed are the memories, are knowing that you are loved, knowing that you loved back, knowing that the time spent with people that mattered most to you, those are the things that matter.

So I'd like to think that that's exactly what Grace would do, is go live her life with Morgan and Mo, and watch their daughter grow, and become -- hopefully, I'm sure -- this incredible young woman that Grace and Morgan would've hoped her of wanting to be.

On that note: The pain of losing a parent causes Mo to go back to PADRE, and then losing Grace and Mo at the same time causes Morgan to relapse into "Clear" Morgan who says, "I don't die." What can you say about what Grace's death does to Mo and Morgan moving forward?

KAREN DAVID: Well, the loss of any character, the gravity of that is so much. But I think for Morgan and Mo, they know that Grace would want them to move forward in their life with peace. She wants to give them every reassurance that she's okay. In whatever other realm she is in, she is reunited with her other baby girl, Athena. She's in this other afterlife, and she's okay. And that's really important that they know that, so that they can go and live. She wants them to live, to seize every moment and to live whatever time they have left in this realm, to live and to embrace each moment together as a family.

We talked about Grace's regrets and the experiences that she's missing out on. When you look back at your time on the show, as you're exiting, are there any regrets? Maybe something you or your character wanted to see happen before Grace's time was up?

KAREN DAVID: You know, I'm really blessed to be able to say this, but I did everything I wanted to do with Grace. I really did. To have four seasons to bond with this character and breathe life into her has been such an honor. And to tell her story has been such an honor.

I guess my only bittersweet heartache is how I would've loved her to have had more time with her family, especially them reuniting within the throes of PADRE. I would've loved for them to have had more time together. But she embraced with the time that she had.

And she has no regrets. And I have to remind myself that -- that Grace has no regrets, because a mother will do anything to protect her family, and especially her child. And Morgan would do the same, both of them. They made a lot of sacrifices at the cost of them being apart, as we know now, from episode one in season eight, seven years being estranged because they had to. They couldn't let PADRE know how invested they were with this little girl. It was to protect her. Everything was to protect Mo. And that's exactly what Grace did in the end. And she wouldn't have changed it any other way. Knowing that her daughter's safe and that Morgan's safe, that gives her peace. So I'm at peace with that.

And I'm really happy that I was able to tell this story, these final moments, with our amazing director, Heather Cappiello. [Writers] David Johnson and Calaya Michelle Stallworth, they wrote such a beautiful ending for me. And gosh, did I ever feel every moment, every beat, every pause, every word unspoken, every lump in my throat, every tear that came out. There's a lot of Karen there, too, because it was a reminder to me that my time is coming to an end in this chapter. But I feel like I've graduated from this incredible school, Academy of Walking Dead Universe, and I wear that badge very proudly.

And it takes a village to breathe life into what Grace has become, from where she started to now. And I'm so grateful to our creatives. I'm grateful to our incredible cast. Everyone's such a loving, supportive, family unit. We have become family for life and friends for life. And to have had a scene partner like Lennie for the past five years has been utter joy, and has totally ruined me for life. But he is family for life. And for that, I'm truly, truly grateful. These gifts that we're able to take away from this chapter just mean everything to me. The fans have been so amazing, and they have embraced Grace and I right from day one, and I love them. And knowing that they're on this journey with me for whatever comes next, I'm just so, so, so grateful.

New episodes of Fear the Walking Dead premiere Thursdays on AMC+ and Sundays on AMC. Stay tuned to ComicBook/TWD and follow @CameronBonomolo and @NewsOfTheDead on Twitter for more TWD Universe coverage.

Lieutenant Erica Ortegas, played by Melissa Navia, made an impression on fans despite being the only Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast member not to receive an episode focusing on them in the series' first season. That will change in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, which debuts on Thursday on Paramount+. Since the show's renewal became public, there have been promises that Ortegas would get more attention in Strange New Worlds' sophomore outing. Speaking to ComicBook.com during the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 press junket, Navia credits the fans with the increased spotlight on Ortegas but still thinks they'll want more by the time the season ends.

"I'm so unbelievably happy that fans expressed this desire to see more Ortegas, that there wasn't enough, and I think they're going to get a lot more in season two," Navia says. "But still, somehow, the more I think about it, I'm like, 'They're still not going to be happy,' which is good because that means we just have more to give them.

As far as what fans can expect from Ortegas in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Navia says, "What we see is we see such a confident, lovably cocky pilot of the Enterprise, and what we see in Season 2 is we see that that comes from a place of not being perfect, but demanding the best of yourself. And so we see her in situations in Season 2 where she suddenly does not think she is capable of doing what she has always been able to do, where she finds herself questioning things and trying to move forward. She has a back story as a soldier and with the war and how she discusses that with her crewmates. So we're going to see more of that camaraderie, more of that interplay, more of the relationships and what ties her to some of her crewmates.

As Navia describes it, digging into Ortegas is like peeling back layers of an onion. A really awesome onion.

"We're going to see that when somebody looks so awesome on the surface, they are that awesome, but there are all these layers underneath that contribute to that, and so we're definitely gonna see more of that," Navia says. "And I can't wait to hear what fans have to make of it and I can't wait for them to still be like, 'Not enough, more Ortegas.' Shout it from the rooftops, guys. Just peeling back layers"

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La'An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 also brings back special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and adds Carol Kane in the recurring role of Pelia.

CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are co-showrunners. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Release Date

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Thursday, June 15th. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with the premiere date to be announced later. New episodes of the 10-episode season will then debut weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is already streaming. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.

In Star Trek, it's been said that risk is a Starfleet officer's business. While that can often mean endangering their own life, it can also mean being put in situations where they are encouraged to act violently against others. While Starfleet takes these situations seriously, they can be even more complicated for Starfleet's medical officers, who also have to weigh their oaths as healers against the harm they may inflict on others. While some of Star Trek's doctors relish the opportunity to kick a little ass, others are more conflicted. Star Trek Strange New Worlds star Jess Bush told ComicBook.com about how this weighs on her character, Nurse Christine Chapel, and her colleague, Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), in the show's second season.

"Absolutely. You know, we see Chapel and M'Benga pushed to violence, and investigating what emotionally is going to take Chapel to that point, seeing as she's a healer, is very interesting and like navigating and investigating that was really, really great, and how we support each other in that space too, because obviously, we understand each other as healers probably more deeply than anyone else with our shared history," Bush told us during the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds press junket. "So choosing to enter a space that is going against our oath in that way is super complicated, yeah."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cast

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La'An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 also brings back special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and adds Carol Kane in the recurring role of Pelia.

CBS Studios, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry Entertainment produced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are co-showrunners. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Release Date

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria on Thursday, June 15th. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with the premiere date to be announced later. New episodes of the 10-episode season will then debut weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is already streaming. It is also available as home media on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4k UHD.