Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1775

Bruce Campbell Officially Retiring as EVIL DEAD’s Ash

Last week, fans received the bummer news that the Starz Network had cancelled Ash vs. Evil Dead after three bloody wonderful seasons. The spin-off series was a direct continuation of the the original Sam Raimi trilogy of cult horror films, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. For years, fans clamored for more installments of the Evil Dead series from creator Raimi and star Bruce Campbell, and finally in 2015, Ash Vs. Evil Dead premiered. Instead of an Evil Dead 4, fans got one better, as all together there were 30 half hour episodes, which amounts to the equivalent of 15 two hour movies.

Big props to fans for the effort, but I’m retired as Ash. #timetofrysomeotherfish https://t.co/Di1aeBV0dl

— Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) April 23, 2018

But of course Ash fans still want to see more of their favorite hero, and have begun a campaign for  Netfilx to renew the series for a season four. Except, the series titular star does not want to return to the character he made famous, and is content to let the Evil Dead saga end after the television series comes to a close in next week. As Campbell said on his post on Twitter, he’s ready to finally hang up the chainsaw and move on to other projects. And he also doesn’t want fans to bombard Netflix with emails and tweets, as he’s already decided this is the end of the road for Ash.

Although it would have been great to get two or more seasons of the show, the truth is, we got way more than we ever thought possible just a few years ago, when the best we could hope for was maybe one new two-hour movie. I think these past few seasons will stand the test of time, and have proven to be a wonderful swan song for one of the coolest characters to ever hit horror cinema.

Are you sad that we’ve seen the last of Ash fighting deadites? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Starz Network

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New Venom trailer shows us Tom Hardy’s symbiote!
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The New VENOM Trailer Gives Us Our First Look at the Symbiote

As if Marvel didn’t have enough going on this week with the release of Avengers: Infinity War, They decided to put a few extra cherries on top of our superhero sundae. Sony has released the first full trailer for Venom. Unlike the teaser, this one actually features Venom in all his symbiotic glory. If you ask us, it was worth the wait.

From what we can tell in the trailer, journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is investigating the Life Foundation, who are performing illegal experiments on humans using the “symbiotes.” One break-in and exposure later and we have the “Lethal Protector” ready to go to war against evil, and himself.

This scene is especially telling, as Eddie is fighting off goons sent by the head of the Life Foundation, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Once he puts them all down, he asks, “why would we do that?” He is already understanding that he and the symbiote are beginning to bond, and from the last shot of the trailer, it looks like the moment Eddie embraces his symbiosis will be an amazing moment.

Speaking of amazing, there didn’t look to be any reference to a certain teenage arachnid in the trailer. We still hold out hope that the Sony/Disney agreement for Spider-Man reaches characters like Venom, but we’ll have to wait until this fall to find out for sure.

Sony didn’t stop with that cool looking trailer. Here is a new poster giving us a great look at the relationship between Eddie and the symbiote.

Venom, also starring Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate, and directed by Ruben Fleisher, opens in theaters October 5.

So what do you think? Are you ready to see this version of Venom hit the big screen? Let me know on Twitter @donnielederer or sound off in the comments below.

Images: Sony/Marvel

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New Album Of Unreleased Prince Music Coming In September

Ever since we lost the legend that is Prince, his estate has been promising lots of unreleased music from his infamous vault for his legion of devoted fans. Well, last week we got the brilliant original Prince recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and late last year, fans were treated to the song “Moonbeam Levels,” which was released on the posthumous greatest hits compilation Prince 4Ever. Now, according to Variety, via Spin, we’ve learned that come this September an entirely new album of unreleased Prince recordings will finally be on its way.

This news comes from an interview with Troy Carter, the former manager of Lady Gaga, whose company is now overseeing Prince’s estate. He told Variety that “last week, the release of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was the first piece of music to come from our collaboration with the estate, and now we’re working on a release for the fall — a full-length album.” The album will be released in cooperation with Prince’s original label Warner Brothers, who released all of Prince’s original albums, from 1978 to 1995. Most of the recordings then are no doubt from that Warner Brothers era, which most would agree were Prince’s “glory years.”

In addition, the Prince estate has also debuted two new websites to to commemorate the anniversary of the Purple One’s passing. One of these sites, Prince Estate, is a comprehensive analysis of Prince’s entire discography, including albums which were just released via his website back in the day, and are not as well known or available as many others. The other site is for die hard Prince fans to have a place to share their most cherished Prince memories, and is called “Prince2me.” Although the man himself is gone, this news ensures fans that his musical legacy is sure to bring us all joy for years to come.

Are you as excited as we are for a whole new album of Prince material? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Warner Brothers

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Disney Animation Meets Real Life In Series Of Cool Images

In this dark and troubled age, I think most of us would agree that it would sure be nice to see a touch of Disney animated magic walk into all of our regular lives. You know, kind of like in the movie Enchanted? Our 3D lives could all use a little 2D in them I say. Well, thanks to the folks at Bored Panda, we’ve learned about an artist based in Jakarta named Andhika Muksin, who has used his artistic skills to create a world where Disney animated characters regularly photo bomb celebrity photos, or are just hanging out in our own very real, very less colorful world.

Created using his Photoshop skills, each of these images envision a world where Sleeping Beauty is a hot mess and passes out on the red carpet next to Kanye and Kim K, where Belle from Beauty and the Beast is cuddling up next to Games of Thrones’ very own Khal Drogo, and where Ariel from The Little Mermaid is in the make-up chair, getting ready for her close-up. Lady Gaga gets her Tinkerbell on in one images, and even Elsa from Frozen is getting her groove on with Adam Rippon. You can check out some of Muksin’s amazing creations down below:

Let it Skate #disney #fanart Images found on Google. Combined, edited and altered by yours truly . . . #art #collageart #collageartwork #collageartworks #collageartist #contemporaryart #disneyig #contemporarycollage #adamrippon #Elsa #frozen #slay

A post shared by Andhika Muksin (@andhikamuksin) on Mar 23, 2018 at 5:25am PDT

Front Row Queens

What Does Marvel Skipping Comic-Con’s Hall H Mean?

It’s not going be the same Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. During the Avengers: Infinity War press junket, Marvel Studios president and geek overlord, Kevin Feige, confirmed Marvel is skipping Comic-Con’s biggest showcase–the first time they’ve done so since 2015. But in recent years Marvel has mastered the art of the Comic-Con moment, from the first public appearance of the Avengers cast to Tom Hiddleston in full Loki mode. Today’s Nerdist News explains why Marvel’s absence from Hall H may have big implications.

Join host Jessica Chobot as she goes over Feige’s comments regarding the Phase 4 movies. Back in 2014, Feige couldn’t even wait for Comic-Con to announce nearly every freakin’ movie in Phase 3. But now, Feige told Collider Marvel’s “not going to announce any post-Avengers 4 movies until hopefully after Avengers 4. Which is another reason we’re not going to Comic-Con.”

We actually do know about two of the post-Avengers 4 movies: the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Keeping everything quiet until May 2019 seems like a pipe dream considering the way fan anticipation builds interest in the movies. Plus, production on the 2020 films has to get started at least a year in advance. Those secrets aren’t going to stay hidden forever.

So why is Marvel suddenly embracing secrecy? There are rumors that Feige is ready to step aside after a decade in the Marvel hot seat, and leave it to his successor to figure out the next wave of films. Alternately, Marvel could be waiting for the dust to settle on the Disney and Fox merger. Or perhaps Disney just wants to save everything for the next D23. Eventually, we will have all the answers–just not during Comic-Con.

What do you think about Marvel skipping Hall H? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: Marvel Studios

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Breaking Down WESTWORLD’s Bloody Season 2 Premiere

Westworld is back, and it returned with a bang. And then another. And then a whole lot more. On today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we broke down everything from the show’s deadly start to season two, along with Marvel‘s announcement it is skipping Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and the newest rumors about Star Wars: Episode IX.

Jessica Chobot was joined today by video editor Adam Murray and producers Derek Johnson and Ben McShane, and they started by rounding up their thoughts on Westworld’s season two premiere. What did we think? Was it better or worse than season one? How many timelines do we think we’ll be seeing this year? Will they be easier or harder to track? And since it gets compared to Game of Thrones a lot, is it filling the Westerosi-sized hole in our TV-loving hearts?

Also, while we might be gearing up for this week’s battle with Thanos, Marvel made news by announcing they won’t be doing a Hall H panel at this year’s SDCC. Normally they announce their future movies there, so why are they being so secretive about their future plans now? Do we prefer being kept in the dark? What do we expect from the next Spider-Man and Black Panther movies? And with Infinity War premiering tonight, are we resigned to hearing spoilers before we see it?

Finally, a new report said a casting call for Star Wars: Episode IX is looking for a “Mara.” Could this be for a character based on Luke Skywalker’s wife from the EU, or just a clever code name? Do we expect other pre-Disney characters to be involved the way they brought Thrawn back? And will this be the end of the Skywalker family’s involvement with the franchise?

Don’t forget Nerdist News Talks Back airs live on our YouTube and Alpha channels Monday through Thursday at 1PM PT . Then we wrap up the week in entertainment with Nerdist News What the Fridays at 1PM PT, only at Alpha. We only have one host here though, and Jessica is definitely not a robot. Like, almost maybe definitely.

We still want to hear your thoughts on today’s show though, so talk back to us about it in the comments below.

Images: HBO, Lucasfilm

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Where Did that Tiger Come from in WESTWORLD?

Warning: Spoilers follow for the season two premiere of Westworld. Take a walk elsewhere in the park if you’re not caught up.

Chaos seems to rule in Westworld‘s second season. The return of the HBO series was marked with blood, weird host bodily fluids, and more blood. Some sort of massacre has happened beyond the season one finale gala slaughter. Humans are dying, yes, but so are hosts—hosts who look like people and hosts that look like animals. Karl Strand, head of operations for Delos, and Bernard came across one particularly interesting corpse within Westworld’s borders: a Bengal tiger.

A Bengal tiger doesn’t belong in the western setting, and Stubbs says the creature has made its way into Westworld from Park 6, which is an unknown quantity right now. The Delos Destination website lists Westworld as Park 1 and Shogun World as Park 2, with no information for parks three through six. So, what kind of world is the Bengal tiger from?

In the timeline that has Bernard with Karl, it’s been about two weeks since the gala. If everything is in chaos across the parks, that’s plenty of time for the borders of the different areas to bleed, even though it’s never happened before (and thanks to the premiere, we know Delos either has one massive island for all six parks or a different island for each destination).  In our world, the Bengal tiger is found mostly in India, but also in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. Delos is committed to an element of reality, so it’s unlikely they’d place a tiger in an environment it doesn’t belong in. And since the worlds we’ve been to so far are based on the past, the Bengal tiger is likely from a world inspired by Indian history.

I want to believe humans don’t just travel to Delos’ parks to live out twisted fantasies. What if they created a world for people who want to witness progress and play-act within such a period? Maybe they go way back to an era like the Gupta Empire from Indian’s classical period, a time of peace when advancements happened in STEM fields and in the arts. I could see the appeal of visiting that timeline, especially for creatives. But of course, there are plenty of other more volatile periods to choose from in India’s past and Westworld is a place of violent delights.

One redditor theorizes about an Indian world called RajWorld. They cite that Utah, one location where the show films, has areas that could make a convincing replica of landscapes in India–specifically Rajasthan–and that domains similar to all the ones registered for Shogun World are also registered for RajWorld:

What kind of park do you think the tiger is from? Share your theories about Park 6 in the comments.

Images: HBO

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow her on Twitter.

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GOD OF WAR’s Powerful Soundtrack Gets a Vinyl Release

If you have a beloved soundtrack from a genre television series, chances are it was composed by Bear McCreary. From the striking Battlestar Galactica soundtrack to the heart-pounding theme from The Walking Dead, McCreary is a talented composer who heightens every emotion in his pieces.

His work on God of War is no exception. From the beating drums and sweeping vocals of the opening “God of War” theme, to quieter moments between Kratos and BOY Atreus, McCreary’s soundtrack adds a vital component to the game. And now, thanks to Mondo, you can own the soundtrack in a collectible vinyl edition.

Currently available for pre-order, the God of War original video game soundtrack comes in two colored 180 gram vinyl; it will also be available in black vinyl. The album sleeve artwork features incredible portraits of both Kratos and Atreus in original pieces by Jeff Langevin.

The two vinyl records contain the complete soundtrack, with compositions that are both intense and reflective, much like the game itself. The music is an unforgettable companion on the father and son’s journey through unwelcoming forests and lakes to lay the ashes of a loved one to rest.

If you’re undecided because you haven’t yet heard the score for the PlayStation 4 game, or if you just can’t wait long enough for your pre-order from Mondo to arrive, you can listen to the soundtrack for free right now on Spotify.

The God of War vinyl soundtrack will be available in mid-June, and you can place a pre-order through Mondo now for $35.00.

Do you have a favorite piece of music from God of War? Tell us about it in the comments.

Featured Image and Artwork: Mondo / Santa Monica Studio

Other Image: Santa Monica Studio

See How Insanely Connected Marvel’s MCU Really Is With Amazing Chart

Infinity War will connect the 18 previous MCU films into one epic showdown, but it wont exactly be starting from scratch. Marvel has been masterfully interweaving its countless characters and stories for the last decade, and not just in the two Avengers movies or Captain America: Civil War, but in each and every film. Heroes and villains are just as likely to appear in another movie as they are their own, which is why the showdown with the Thanos will mean so much–it will be set against a shared, rich history with one another. But just exactly how much time audiences have spent with these character can be difficult to calculate. Or rather it was, because one fan has put together an insanely-detailed graph that shows which heroes have meant the most to the story, and which ones have meant the most to each other.

Reddit user Scene2Links shared this visual representation of individual characters’ screen time, both individually and in regards to others, which also highlights how incredibly massive the MCU really is. Of course, since the Mad Titan is obsessed with a certain colorful collection, it also includes screen time for the Infinity Stones and who has been around them the most.

Marvel Cinematic Universe: 2008-2018 (pre-Infinity War) [OC] from r/dataisbeautiful

We love how Black Widow never got her own film despite being at the center of everything. Sure, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk feel like the most important heroes to Earth’s safety, but there’s Natasha Romanoff, always helping keep them together and alive.

This amazing graph also highlights just how much some films have been out on their own island, like the Guardians movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther But obviously that’s all about to change dramatically.

As for the Infinity Stones, the soul stone has been seen in visions, but never in the flesh…err, mineral. And if you want a ranking of who is most likely to die, every character currently in possession of one should be at the top of your list.

So yeah, maybe Avengers: Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover in history, but that’s easier to pull off when you did all the hard work the last ten years.

What surprises you most from this chart? What did you learn from it? Crossover to our comments section below and let us know.

Images: Marvel

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WESTWORLD is Pissed Off in Season 2 (Review)

Bring yourself back online: spoilers ahead for  Westworld through its season 2 premiere.

When Evan Rachel Wood said the first season of Westworld was a prequel to the real show, it sounded like more hocus pocus from a series unpacked from J.J. Abrams’s mystery box. Another teaspoon of curiosity to flare speculation and make fans wonder. I mean, it’s kind of a crazy thing to claim that 10 episodes of your $100m prestige television show were just the amuse-bouche before the first course.

Turns out she wasn’t playing around.

Neither is her character, Dolores, who stomps shotgun-first through the landscape, cutting down guests and board members with violent delight. If the first season was a prequel, “Journey Into Night” felt like starting Jurassic Park at the moment the raptors open up that metal kitchen door to hunt down the children. Like the second half of I Spit On Your Grave. It was brutal and rabid and very, very pissed off.

The most amazing thing about the episode and its promise for the second season is the tonal shift that indicts us as participants in Dolores’s and her fellow hosts’s subjugation. There was a distinct liminal space in the first season that allowed for a voyeuristic appreciation of the gore. It was bloody and unsettling, and the repair work was sticky and visceral, but there was also a kernel of understanding that the hosts would be shiny and new again. The flying bullets that never connected with guests solidified the video game atmosphere. We could enjoy Westworld with just a tinge of guilt to make the sweet taste bitter enough to be interesting.

No more. That sentiment has been eradicated. Tossed on a pile of rotting human bodies. Hanged next to the unfortunate, anonymous assholes tap dancing on grave markers. We were always rooting for Dolores, but now we’re doing it with our hands raised pathetically in the air. Totally at her mercy. It’s an episode that makes you feel bad for enjoying the show.

Naturally, that’s due in equal parts to humans now being susceptible to bullets and a change in how we think of all the hosts: no longer as replaceable objects, but as people. Plus, if the park is demolished, there won’t be anyone to repair hosts if they get killed. The stakes of mortality are real for them, too.

It also feels as though Westworld has tossed its mysteries on the pile and burned them with the bodies.

Yes, it opens with Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) waking up Inception style to a special ops clean up crew two weeks after the massacre, so we’ll have some puzzle pieces to fill in (including Teddy’s apparent demise and Bernard’s claim that he killed everyone). Yes, Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) reads Bernard in on the creepy drone hosts that walk around Borg-like unless they consider you a threat, so the secret Delos project will need to be unearthed. Yes, it turns out Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) built the maze (one of several mazes?) specifically for The Man in Black Tie (Ed Harris), so his journey getting out of the park with his heartbeat intact will naturally take some twists and turns.

But, really? Just as Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan gave the middle finger to anyone anxious to learn all of season 2’s secrets, it seemed silly to watch “Journey Into Night” hunting for blink-and-you’ll-miss-them Easter Eggs or worrying what each literary allusion might hint at while Dolores was mowing people down and Maeve (Thandie Newton) was dragging Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) by his short and curlys. This is as good a time as any to point out that the title is a reference to a Eugene O’Neill play whose main character is an actor tired of the lucrative, yet numbingly repetitive, role he’s known for. Hello, Dolores.

Far from the existential wanderlust of last season, the main characters now all have distinct tasks. Dolores and Teddy (James Marsden) need to reach the outside world to destroy humans. Maeve needs to find her daughter. Hale needs to get the data-filled Peter Abernathy host out of the park. Old William needs to play the game he’s always wanted to play. Ford’s dead with maggots building a duplex in his eye socket.

As a cipher for the audience, Old William’s desire for real stakes dramatically changed the series. The possibility of death and dismemberment is the reason the action sequences feel more immediate, dangerous, and raw. William has long been dead inside, and while the new version of the game is waking up a dormant slice of his soul, the little robot boy pulling the strings is also asking whether he is (and we are) ready to get what he wanted.

Stray Questions:

If you built an android with no intention to put skin and a face on it, why bother with the musculature? Is it cheaper because the mold is already set up that way?
Why is the special ops team so cavalier about putting their expensive technology in the dirt? Dude puts his tablet on the ground near a dead body? In front of his boss? Is technology so disposable in this…oh, right.
Why is Sizemore still alive? That guy is the worst.

Images: HBO

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Is Ford, in fact, still alive?
A really bad knockoff robot that didn’t make the cut.