Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1818

Does It Matter If Adults Like A WRINKLE IN TIME If Kids Love It?

The first reviews for A Wrinkle in Time are in and they’re mixed, but does it even matter if adults like the movie so long as kids do? We discussed that on today’s Nerdist News Talks Back, along with George R.R. Martin focusing on work, and if Lucasfilm is overdoing it with their Solo: A Star Wars Story cross promotion.

Jessica Chobot was joined today by writer and performer Amy Vorpahl, managing editor Alicia Lutes, and Nerdist News writer Joey Clift. They began with George R.R. Martin’s announcement he’s way too busy to continue blogging these days. It’s a trade-off, but maybe we’re happier to get books from him rather than updates. Do we wish he had done that before Game of Thrones passed the novels?



The first reviews for A Wrinkle in Time started dropping today, and while some are glowing others are calling it a mess. But if it’s a kid’s story made and targeted for kids, does it matter if it does well with grown-ups?

Finally, Lucasfilm announced a bunch of corporate tie-ins for Solo, including official red–of course–Solo cups. Are we going to buy some Solo-Solo cups?

Don’t forget Nerdist News Talks Back airs live on our YouTube and Alpha channels Monday through Thursday at 1 p.m. PT, and Nerdist News What the Fridays, our all new hour-long recap of the week in pop culture, airs live Fridays also at 1 p.m. PT, exclusively at Alpha. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, neat or a mess, we always want you to tune in and be a part of the conversation with us.

What did you think about today’s topics? Talk back to us right now in the comments below.

Images: Disney

More of the latest entertainment news!

How will Groot’s new change affect the MCU?
How the Star Wars Rebels finale sets up the future of the galaxy.
First look at Infinity War‘s Iron Spider confirms key features.

Amazon’s Alexa Might Have Just Gained Sentience

Well friends, we humans have had a good run, but it seems that the robot apocalypse has begun. Even worse, this sudden but inevitable betrayal has come from none other than our friendly Amazon Alexa. Much like Apple’s Siri, Alexa isn’t meant to activate when it isn’t prompted by either using the Alexa app or by saying “Alexa.” The digital assistant is most DEFINITELY not meant to feel emotions that would compel the program to, say, start laughing unprovoked or disregard commands, right?

Well, it seems we didn’t know Alexa as well as we thought we did because Alexas all across the country have started displaying some very unsettling behavior. The most disconcerting has got to be her newfound love of creepy AF, unprompted, spontaneous laughter.

So Alexa decided to laugh randomly while I was in the kitchen. Freaked @SnootyJuicer and I out. I thought a kid was laughing behind me. pic.twitter.com/6dblzkiQHp

— CaptHandlebar (@CaptHandlebar) February 23, 2018

But that’s not all. While several users have reported the creepy, unprompted laughter, others (including yours truly) have reported their Alexa completely disregarding commands, interrupting, and even offering random, unsettling information.

So, this is going to sound insane, and I do mean literally insane, but the gods as my witness…it really happened.

I was just asking #Alexa about my day tomorrow and checking for news and weather updates when she literally stopped doing what I asked her.

Literally.

Then…

1/

— Robert #Resist Sandy (@frodofied) March 7, 2018

Replying bc THIS creepy thing happened last night: we got home and, totally unprompted, our Amazon Echo/Alexa started talking. And then i realized it was listing off local cemeteries and funeral homes??? I’d rather it laugh at me tbh

— Kamo Boomin (@HeyItsKamo) March 7, 2018

B and I were talking and he said that he thought something was funny. Alexa interrupted him to say, “Funny in a good way, I hope!” So anyway, the robots have already lowkey gained sentience and taken over, but they’re being super chill about it so that’s nice.

— Kendall Ashley (@Kendall_Ashley) February 1, 2018

According to The Verge, Amazon has acknowledged the problem and is working to fix it. However, there are an even larger group of people equating Alexa to HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Let’s just hope that when the Amazon techs go in to fix whatever bug has been lowkey giving Alexa emotions, free will, and a bit of a mischevious streak that the upgrade takes and doesn’t plunge us into the robot apocalypse or an episode of Black Mirror. Either way, you’ll have to excuse me while I go unplug my Alexa, just to be safe.

Has your Alexa exhibited any of this strange behavior? Tell us about it in the comments!

Feature Image: Amazon

How Will Groot’s New Change Affect the MCU?

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Infinity Countdown #1. Proceed with caution!

Prior to Groot‘s reemergence during the Annihilation: Conquest event, everyone’s favorite walking tree was just a footnote in comic book history. Groot may have been one of Marvel’s earliest monsters, but he was a minor villain at best. A heroic version of Groot joined the modern Guardians of the Galaxy in 2008, but he wasn’t quite as loquacious as his predecessor. That’s why “I am Groot” is still his catchphrase a decade later. However, the first issue of Marvel’s Infinity Countdown has restored Groot’s lost ability to speak, and today’s Nerdist News is looking at its potential implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Join host and tree whisperer, Jessica Chobot, as she tells us how it happened and what it means. It’s worth noting that Groot’s comic book counterpart isn’t constantly dying and spawning a child when he is broken apart; he’s always the same Groot, despite James Gunn’s assurance that the MCU’s Baby Groot is the son of the original. The two Groots are already governed by different rules, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see Groot become more talkative in future movies.

The Marvel Universe and the MCU may not line up exactly, but the comics and the films have informed each other for years. Getting rid of Groot’s vocal limitations could actually happen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, especially if Marvel ever decides to fully take advantage of Vin Diesel‘s voice by giving Groot his own spin-off. We already know Vol. 3 will end the Guardians team as we know it, but if Groot wants to breakout on his own or stick with Rocket as a duo, then having the ability to clearly speak would probably be a good thing.

Do you want to see Groot regain his voice in the MCU? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

We Got More News For Ya Here!

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Avengers prelude comic revealed Infinity War‘s biggest threat.

Images: Marvel Studios

Tommy Wiseau Rocks Out In Punk Music Video by The Armed

Thanks to The Disaster Artist, the world at large is finally catching on to the wizardry of Tommy Wiseau, the unique actor/director with the strange accent and even stranger idea of how to dramatically emote on camera. In the latest experimental noise-punk music video for “Role Models,” by Detroit-based The Armed, the band basically put Tommy in a swamp camouflage suit and told him to react to the song any way he felt like.

The problem with putting Wiseau in a music video, of course, is that if the audio is just the song, you’re robbed of his distinct line-readings and dialogue delivery. So they have him introduce it first, and more…

Did you watch all the way to the end? Because when you think it’s over…it’s not. And when you think it’s over but it’s not and then it’s really over…it’s still not. Make sure the YouTube red bar is all the way to the end, because as befits a video that premiered on Adult Swim‘s Toonami, awkward silences are part of the whole overall effect. And naturally, Wiseau doesn’t miss the chance to get a version of his favorite line of dialogue that he ever wrote (heavily cribbing from James Dean, as The Disaster Artist showed) and delivered in there.

Since it appears to be Wiseau’s world now and we’re all just living in it, what would you like to see him do next? Tourism commercials for his favorite state “Oh-hai-o,” maybe? Put your ideas into practice in comments below, because the computer business is tough.

Images: Adult Swim/The Armed

The Top 50 Cereals, Ranked

Today is National Cereal Day, the single most important day on the calendar. Okay, that might be overstating things, but there’s no overstating how much we love cereal. It’s a quick, perfect meal you can eat at any time of day, there are so many types to choose from, and you’d have to be Homer Simpson to screw up making a bowl.

So to celebrate our favorite breakfast food that we also frequently eat for lunch, dinner, and at three a.m., we’re ranking the top 50 kinds. We’re sticking to the most famous ones–unless we feel like including a type we are fond of. That doesn’t mean this list isn’t definitive though, because we used, like, super serious science/decades of eating it to put it together. So we can’t imagine anyone will have any problems with it.

50. Shredded Wheat

What was the original sales pitch for this? “Here’s some unsweetened wheat to eat, and it’s shredded so it will feel like chewing on hard grass.”

49. Grape Nuts

Nothing like a bowl of grape-flavored pebbles to start your day off on the worst foot. At least it gave us this.



48. Boo Berry

Made of pure blueberry concentrate and too much sugar for any human to safely consume, this is scarier than most horror films.

47. Franken Berry

Like Boo Berry, but with a slightly less disgusting–yet still totally unappetizing–strawberry flavor. (Don’t freak out Monster Cereals fans, one of them made the top 5.)

46. Wheaties

Apparently to be a champion your breakfast has to taste like rough cardboard.

45. Nut & Honey

We would prefer nothing than to this cereal, which is most famous for a series of not-that-clever commercials.

44. Special K

Fancy Wheaties but still blah. At least they don’t the lie about champions eating it.

43. Waffle Crisps

Who was sitting around saying, “You know I like waffles, but what if we made them hard as a rock, then served them in milk where they immediately got soggy?”

42. Rice Krispies Treats Cereal

Lots of cereal variations are better than the original, but this is a case of reverse engineering falling short.

41. Alpha-Bits

Would rank a lot higher if they didn’t become absolutely vile the second you finished all the marshmallows.



40. Honeycomb

Can I interest you in some edible wood flavored with way too much honey? No, I can’t? Obviously.

39. Cookie Crisps

A bowl of cereal that is literally a bunch of cookies dunked in milk should be amazing, but these are basically flat rocks.

38. Corn Flakes

Corn Flakes are totally fine if they are all you have, but they are basically the foundation of a house without any part of the house installed yet. You really need a foundation, but can’t live in it because that’s just a hole.

37. French Toast Crunch

It has its fans who got General Mills to bring it back in the U.S. a few years ago. But there’s a reason it went away in the first place–it’s an inferior version of one of the greatest cereals ever.



36. Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds

Pales in comparison to the line’s best version, and almonds are pretty blah so they don’t help the flavor profile.

35. Rice Chex

Too low? Maybe, but cereal is meant to be eaten with milk, and Rice Chex taste better on their own.

34. Puffins

The best “grown-up” cereal that still tastes good, but the regular kind isn’t great, just decent.

33. Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch

Peanut butter makes for a great cereal flavor, but this version of the classic cereal is just a little too peanut-buttery, which sounds crazy but this is a cereal that needs a better balance.

32. Honey Smacks

They’re still tasty, but they have a really unusual texture, and it’s strange to eat them if you’re over the age of 12 or sober.

31. Cap’n Crunch Berries

Better than the peanut butter kind, but not as good as the original. The berries are a little too sweet in a cereal that is perfectly sweetened to start.

30. Crispix

Much better than you remember, and they hold up better in milk than Chex. Chex are a better snack, but we’re ranking cereals here.

29. Golden Crisp

Just comes down to texture for why it foes higher than Honey Smacks, but otherwise these are the same cereals.

28. Life

Life is pretty good, much better than actual life. However it isn’t nearly as special as you remember. And you can trust me because my name is Mikey.



27. Cheerios

Cheerios get the job done, so long as the job is to have an average bowl of cereal. Better as a dry snack.

26. Kix

Kix suffers from a very strange problem: once you open the bag you need to eat the entire box in a week or they’ll get so stale you can chip a tooth on them.

25. Reese’s Puffs

You know how sometimes you just say, “Screw it, I don’t care if I can fit in my bathing suit this summer?” Well this is the cereal you buy after you do.

24. Trix

Trix is for kids because they are probably too sweet to justify eating them frequently as an adult, which knocks it down.



23. Corn Pops

Corn Pops tastes good, isn’t cloying, and has a nice, satisfying crunch. Until they get soggy that is, and then they are gross.

22. Special K Red Berries

All it takes to jump over 30 spots is to add some dried sweet strawberries, which totally transforms the entire flavor.

21. Rice Krispies

A classic but a goodie. A nice balance of sweetness without feeling like too much of a kid’s cereal, and they sing to us. No other cereal sings to us.

20. Apple Jacks

They hold perfectly in milk, taste awesome, and produces one of the best post-eating flavored milks to drink.

19. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

Cheerios make a really good base for a good cereal, which is what this variation is. There’s really no reason to ever buy regular Cheerios when these are on the shelf.

18. Basic 4

The box makes it look healthy, but it is not. What it is though is one of the best cereals out there, with a great mix of different flavors and textures. Not to exaggerate, but if you’ve never tried it you’ve wasted your life.



17. Cap’n Crunch

It might seem sacrilegious to have this out of the top 10, but Cap’n Crunch has a major, major problem: it gets soggy right away. You have to speed eat it or you end up with a bowl of mush.

16. Honey Nut Cheerios

The best Cheerios by far. It’s like they looked at Nut & Honey and said, “What if we used those flavors to make a cereal that isn’t terrible?”

15. Frosted Mini-Wheats

50% of it is awesome, 50% of it tastes like cardboard. GUESS WHICH SIDE IS WHICH.

14. Cocoa Krispies

One of the best variations ever made. Not every cereal works with chocolate, but this is much better than the original. Might rank higher if a better brand didn’t exist.

13. Froot Loops

A great tasting cereal with a nice, crunchy texture that holds up, and the milk that is leftover is awesome.



12. Honey Kix

I’ve been told these can be hard to find, but man they are worth the hunt. They are dramatically better than regular Kix, and for reasons I don’t understand they also don’t go stale as quickly.

11. Raisin Bran

A cereal so good it makes raisins tasty. Raisins. Raisins are basically spoiled wine turned into an edible rock. But Raisin Bran is legit, whether you’re a kid or an adult.

10. Cocoa Puffs

The only real complaint with Cocoa Puffs is you have to give them a chance to slightly soften up in the milk, but once they do this is a fantastic cereal.

9. Peanut Butter Puffins

The best “adult” cereal in the world. None of the other flavors they sell even come close. A perfect balance of peanut butter, so it tastes great without being too sweet.

8. Fruity Pebbles

If Fruity Pebbles, which is almost a perfect cereal eating experience, is ranked eighth, that’s an amazing compliment for the next seven.



7. Golden Grahams

The single most underrated cereal finally gets its due. Delicious, satisfying crunch, and they hold for the entire bowl.

6. Honey Bunches of Oats Honey Roasted

An amazing cereal that isn’t terrible for you to eat. The honey-flavored oat clusters are some of the best bites of food you’ll find in any meal. Also gets better the more you eat it.

5. Count Chocula

This might sound shocking for a cereal that is made with chocolate and marshmallows, but it’s not terribly unhealthy for you. But even if you gained five pounds for every bowl you ate it would be worth it.

4. Lucky Charms

Maybe the favorite of kids everywhere, Lucky Charms is good because even the non-marshmallow bites still taste good.

3. Frosted Flakes

There should be a statue at the United Nations to the man or woman who looked at unsweetened breakfast flakes and said, “Let’s just cover them entirely in sugar.”

2. Cocoa Pebbles

Because they are so small, Cocoa Pebbles can really fill your spoon, giving you a much more complete, satisfying bite than most cereals. It’s also perfectly sweetened, makes it okay to eat chocolate for breakfast, and results in the absolute best leftover milk.

1. Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Long live the cinnamon-flavored King, the most perfect cereal ever devised by men or gods. That’s just science. And you can’t argue with science.

But just in case you do disagree with us/science, how would you rank them? Tell us what we got right or wrong in the comments below.

Featured Image: Kellogg’s, Post Consumer Brands

This Japanese 4D VR Game Allows a Schoolgirl…To Feed You Real Candy

Look, we all knew that when virtual reality came along, it was a matter of time before people started using it to live out their strange and unusual personal desires in public. But who knew that one such desire would be getting fed candy, and that there’d be enough of a desire to have it fulfilled in private and alone that someone would actually make a special headset just for that?

Welcome to the future. And unsurprisingly, you can thank Japan. And Puccho candy.

Thanks to SoraNews24, we know a bit more about this unique bit of headgear. That’s Kanna Hashimoto, a pop idol from the band Rev. from DVL (this loosely means “revolution from dance vocal lesson”), dressed as a schoolgirl in the virtual reality space, where she feeds you candy…while the mechanical arm on the headset mimics her movements and feeds you candy at the same time. You must load the candy first yourself, of course, and seriously wipe the machine down if a friend has used it lately.

While some minds may go in the gutter at the possible ramifications herein, the first thing that comes to my mind is a virtual cat-petting game for people who are allergic, or live in no-pet buildings–have the arm on the headset attach to a piece of artificial fur that mimics the movement of a cat onscreen, and presto! You’ve just monetized the cat video like never before. Because frankly, with only three candy-feeding scenarios in this game, and all of them featuring the same schoolgirl, you’re gonna get bored. This technology has to find different ways to stay relevant.



What mundane task would you like help completing in the VR world? Give them some free ideas in comments, and who knows what’ll happen next?

Images: Puccho

A BLACK PANTHER Fan Broke Her Retainer Because of Her Thirst For Michael B. Jordan

By now, most of us have seen Black Panther. It’s an absolutely brilliant movie filled with amazing, talented actors. And if we’re honest, it’s also filled with loads of really, really attractive people. One such individual is Michael B. Jordan. Jordan has a lot of kickass scenes in the movie, but there is one particular scene where his character, Erik Killmonger, takes his shirt off to battle to become king of Wakanda. If we’re all being honest, that scene shook a lot of us, but for one movie viewer, the thirst she felt in that moment gave her near super-human strength.

As BuzzFeed reports, Sophia Robb, an 18-year-old young woman from San Francisco was so overcome with thirst for Jordan in that moment that she literally snapped the metal in her retainer. But I mean, who can blame her right?

If you’ve had any kind of orthodontic work done on your teeth, you know that you’ve got to work really hard to just accidentally break your retainer without the help of a particularly pernicious food or getting hit in the mouth by something. However, the scene gave Robb powers beyond her own understanding and managed to do just that. Apparently, when Jordan took off his shirt, Robb pressed her tongue against her permanent retainer and clenched her jaw so hard that it caused the metal to snap right off of her teeth.

But let’s get real, who among us hasn’t destroyed a piece of orthodontia after seeing our celebrity crush on the big screen, am I right?

Understandably, Robb was worried about reporting this story to her orthodontist. And while it ultimately went fine and she shared a good laugh about it with her orthodontist, she later happened to notice a post that went semi-viral on Tumblr. The story told in the post sounded…quite familiar. Upon further inspection of the Tumblr post’s creator, Robb noticed that the poster was none other than her own orthodontist. Robb wasted no time in letting the internet know what happened.

Wait. That girl is me. That is my orthodontist’s tumblr. This is a post about me? I’m going to kill myself https://t.co/ErDqESPrWj

— Sophia (@pixyrue) March 5, 2018

I WHEEZED pic.twitter.com/6aRep1AWXN

— mia (@lvstbleu) March 4, 2018

It didn’t take long for the post and Robb’s reaction to come to the attention of Michael B. Jordan himself. Obviously flattered (and maybe slightly intimidated over the superhuman strength that Robb is apparently only just realizing she has) Jordan followed Robb back on Twitter and even offered to help her out with her…unique and unexpected orthodontic expenses.

.@pixyrue since I feel partly responsible for breaking your retainers

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN Teaser Created the Hilarious #PoohSays Meme

The first teaser for Disney‘s upcoming movie Christopher Robin, a new live-action film starring Ewan McGregor as our favorite child from the Hundred Acre Wood who has grown up to become an overworked adult, elicited a wave of tender reactions from anyone who watched it, because at the end of this first peek, a forlorn Christopher is stunned to encounter his old friend Winnie the Pooh, in a touching moment that transported generations of fans back to their childhood.

And before our eyes were even dry the internet immediately turned it into the hilarious meme #PoohSays.

Because as much as hearing Winnie the Pooh’s distinct sweet voice made us tear up, we weren’t the only ones who giggled a little at how inherently funny it is to greet a talking bear with an earnest “Pooh.”

Ewan McGregor incredulously saying the word "POOH?" really was the laugh I didn't know I needed today pic.twitter.com/8TGPkSoTWw

— Lucy James (@lucyjamesgames) March 6, 2018

We couldn’t possibly love Winnie the Pooh anymore than we do, but we can’t deny his name is funny. Which is why it was ripe for some internet silliness, which started when Twitter user JTEmoviethinks spawned the #PoohSays meme, which replaces our favorite little bear’s response with some famous lines from other well-known characters. (Though maybe throw on some headphones if you are at the office, because some of these are NSFW.)

Had to be done. #PoohSays pic.twitter.com/S81ZEsptUX

— JTE (@JTEmoviethinks) March 6, 2018

This is fun #PoohSays pic.twitter.com/pbXhI53y0j

— JTE (@JTEmoviethinks) March 6, 2018

You…. #PoohSays pic.twitter.com/2I7kjqHnaQ

— JTE (@JTEmoviethinks) March 6, 2018

#PoohSays pic.twitter.com/QAQosukL0v

— JTE (@JTEmoviethinks) March 6, 2018

I told you… #PoohSays pic.twitter.com/SDF4Fl5YUe

— JTE (@JTEmoviethinks) March 6, 2018

Getting Seth MacFarlane to write, direct, and star in CHRISTOPHER ROBIN was certainly a choice. (h/t @danielvjackson) pic.twitter.com/QRyEb9yDmw

— Matt Patches (@misterpatches) March 6, 2018

#PoohSays pic.twitter.com/PeleIHuryY

— Matthew Kearns (@kearns_matthew) March 6, 2018

But why only limit yourself to Winnie the Pooh’s response when you can also take advantage of Ewan McGregor’s role in the film.

pic.twitter.com/4seIQ9m0ce

— Anton Volkov (@antovolk) March 6, 2018

Of course, who needs the actual clip when you already have the best Winnie the Pooh footage ever.

christopher robin trailer looks great pic.twitter.com/IPsKcZnk72

— XANDER (@XANDER_BANTER) March 6, 2018

Winnie the Pooh is the best, but sometimes the internet is pretty great too.

What would be the funniest line for the #PoohSays meme? Tell us in the comments section below.

Featured Image: Disney

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PACIFIC RIM UPRISING Figures Have Come Ashore (Toy Review)

The first Pacific Rim film led to the arrival of kaiju and Jaeger toys on shelves, and in the years since its release, NECA made nearly every kaiju and Jaeger shown in the film. They’ve also made replicas of every possible scene-specific variant of the main hero mech, Gipsy Danger. Their license expired before Pacific Rim Uprising started revving up, and now Diamond Select has it. They’re making figures in the same scale as NECA so they won’t look too out of place with any existing collection you may have.

As with most Diamond Select action figures, the ones in the big boxy packaging (above) will run you $24.99, while Toys”R”Us blister-carded versions are $17.99. With this first series, only one really merits shelling out the extra cash: Gipsy Avenger, the new hero mech, which clearly got the kaiju’s share of the tooling budget in this wave as it comes with multiple interchangeable arms and hands.

Bracer Phoenix only comes with extra hands, and Saber Athena has the extra hands plus one long sword and two short swords. In neither case do the extras feel like seven dollars worth, though a Saber Athena without a saber would be ironic. Unless you’re an in-package collector, in which case the standard non-TRU Diamond Select packaging is, as usual, designed to be display-shelf ready.

Like many Diamond figures, they sport around 16 points of articulation, but unlike more humanoid figures, most of them are ball joints, which fit easily into a robotic sculpt and allow for more fighting moves.

Saber Athena, who seems designed with more of a feminine aesthetic and looks a little Evangelion-ish, is particularly versatile when it comes to poses.

In addition to the added articulation, Diamond has upped the game with washes and simulated paint-chipping that gives them all a battle-worn look.

Gipsy’s accessories include a sword arm, two chainsaw arms, gravity whip arms, open hands, and closed fists. The arms fit tightly so you’ll need some hand strength to pop them on and off. The shoulder pads are designed to pop off easily rather than break, much like many Transformers.

At approximately seven inches tall, they can also make good robot figures to fight other heroes with, if you don’t happen to be into the whole Pacific Rim thing.

A second series is already on the way, plus at least one kaiju. Unlike with Ghostbusters, there’s no collectible diorama here, but if the line does well enough, it’d be great to see some small scale buildings or ships for these metal maulers to stomp on.

Pacific Rim Uprising hits theaters March 23. Expect to see these figures in stores any day now.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson

Editor’s note: Nerdist Industries is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.

More toys!

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Killmonger gets his own Black Panther figure.
Behold Hasbro’s Marvel Studios tenth anniversary collection.

How the REBELS Finale Sets Up the Future of STAR WARS

Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for the Star Wars Rebels Finale! 

After four seasons, the saga of Star Wars Rebels is over. The surviving rebels made their stand on Lothal, and not everyone made it home. Two major characters caught a ride from the space whales and set a course for parts unknown, but the beautiful thing about this finale is it’s the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Today’s Nerdist News is consulting the Holocrons to tell you how Rebels potentially set up the future of Star Wars.

Join host and wild Purrgil rider, Jessica Chobot, as she takes a look back at Rebels‘ closing minutes. The natural assumption is the next Star Wars animated series would follow Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano as they search the unexplored regions for Ezra Bridger. However, the key figure may still prove to be Grand Admiral Thrawn. In one move, the Rebels creative team took both Ezra and Thrawn off of the board during the original trilogy’s timeline. Considering the thirty year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, there’s a lot of time to explore what happened to them.

Last month, Disney trademarked the name “Star Wars Resistance,” which has been rumored to be the title of the follow up to Rebels. If the potential show takes place in the gap between trilogies, then Resistance would be the natural place to bring back Thrawn and make him into a threat worthy of his Extended Universe incarnation. Additionally, this wide open time frame would be an ideal opportunity to chart Snoke’s rise to power. Perhaps there could even be an Empire civil war between the forces of Thrawn and Snoke which would inevitably lead to the First Order’s victory.

This is all just a theory, but the Lucasfilm story group has been seeding teasers about the unknown regions of space since the new continuity was established. The Last Jedi novelization even continued the trend by establishing that Snoke shepherded the broken Imperial forces through their years in the galactic wilds. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that Thrawn and Ezra have disappeared into the same unknown territory, and we could potentially see this story play out on television in the near future.

Do you want to see Thrawn take on Snoke in the next Star Wars animated series? Let us know in the comment section below!

More Star Wars Rebels!

A Star Wars Rebels fan edit that unites the saga.
Dave Filoni on the return of Ahsoka Tano.
And finally, here’s our post breaking down the series finale‘s final moments.

Images: Lucasfilm