Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2256

GAME OF THRONES’ Emilia Clarke Joins the HAN SOLO STAR WARS Film

There’s a three-headed dragon running rampant inside our hearts and minds right now because Mhysa, the stormborn badass of Westeros and Essos herself, Daenerys Targaryen—otherwise known as actress Emilia Clarke—is joining the standalone Han Solo film. Game of Thrones meets Star Wars? THIS IS SERIOUS, you guys! (Seriously exciting!)

The news came late Friday evening, because Disney loves to confirm major news at the end of a long week. And though there are literally zero details as to what her role might be—don’t worry we’re going to speculate wildly—we’re deeply excited about this development and are going on record with the opinion that this is going to be the most fun Star Wars movie, ever. Why? Well, because Clarke joins a seriously exciting cast of actors in the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-helmed film, which stars Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, respectively.

Our hope is that Clarke will play a seriously regal villain with a knack for manipulation (and now, we don’t think she’s playing Sana Starros). I can totally imagine her going deeply toe-to-toe with Ehrenreich’s Solo with a lot of snarky banter.

Besides: homegirl clearly knows how to run the world.

Set before the original Star Wars trilogy, the untitled Han Solo movie is set for release in 2018. Are you excited for Clarke joining the film? Have any thoughts on who she might play? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: HBO

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist and creator/co-host of Fangirling! Find her freaking out about literally everything (it’s her way) on Twitter.

And here’s some totally super-real Star Wars movies still to come:

Skybound Introduces a New Subscription Mystery Box

Everybody wants in on the nerdy subscription box action, but why wonder which companies will participate each month when you can go straight to the source? Robert Kirkman and David Alpert‘s multimedia company Skybound is getting in on the action, and in keeping with the massive scale of licenses like The Walking Dead, it has an appropriate name: the MegaBox. With contents valued at approximately $90-$100 if they were offered at retail (and the majority won’t be), each mystery box is just $49.99, or $179.96 for a yearly subscription of four.

So what’s inside? You’re guaranteed at least the following four exclusive items: an T-shirt, enamel pin, special comic book, and a 5-inch McFarlane Toys action figure (most likely a Walking Dead variant, since that’s the only current McFarlane line in that scale, unless they surprise and debut a new one here first). Partners include Yesterdays for enamel pins, Image Comics, and others to be determined.

The first box will ship in December of 2016, and as of this writing, you have 26 days to get it in time for the holidays. I like to imagine they have a sort of twisted Santa’s workshop, where Rick Grimes points a gun at everyone and demands to know: “How many orders have yuh filled? How many people have yuh billed? Why?” You alone can help them answer those questions.

Is there room in your life for a Skybound MegaBox? Do you know someone who would want one? If it does well, will there be a second, spin-off box called “Fear the MegaBox”? These are things we ponder…and you should too, in comments below.

Image credits: photo by NRK P3 on Flickr; box image via MegaBox

A Tribe Called Quest Share Powerful “We the People…” Music Video

As if A Tribe Called Quest wasn’t already perfect. The hip-hop group just dropped a music video for “We the People…” and it’s exactly what you’d expect the video to be. That’s not the only news that will make you smile heading into the weekend. Daft Punk teamed up with The Weeknd for another single, Animal Collective shared a song they wrote for Red Dead Redemption, The Magnetic Fields dropped five songs at once, and Bruno Mars’ third LP can be streamed in full right this instant.

If you haven’t listened to the new album by A Tribe Called Quest, stop what you’re doing and put it on. We Got it From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service is a reminder of what made ’90s hip-hop great, what makes politically-charged anthems relevant, and why we can all get along if we try. Lead single “We the People…” just got a music video and it illuminated why this album, and the band at large, are making a much-needed comeback this year. In the clip, they take to the streets to gather people of all races to speak out for what they love. There’s also graffiti tributes filmed throughout the clip that honor the band’s late member Phife Dawg. Watch the video above and then head over to your streaming service of choice or a record store to hear their album in full. [Consequence of Sound]

One week remains until The Weeknd drops Starboy, his Prince-influenced album that has fans curious about what to expect. The crooner dropped two tracks back-to-back, and both give you reason to groove. “Party Monster” was supposedly co-written with Lana Del Rey, but we’re stuck listening to “I Feel It Coming,” the collaboration between him and Daft Punk. Listen to it above and then wonder if Prince gives it a grin of approval up there in heaven. [Consequence of Sound]

Back in 2010, the world said hello to one of our favorite games: Red Dead Redemption. It’s since garnered a cult following of sorts, but it looks like the game came close to having a different type of cult following. Animal Collective recording music for the video game that wound up not being used. On November 17, the band shared a previously unreleased song that was recorded for the game called “Mountain Game.” It’s whimsicle and slow, but then sees their voices come crashing in, turning it into a classic, strange, delightful Animal Collective number. Give it a listen above. [Nerdist]

The easy road isn’t worth taking. Well, at least not if you’re The Magnetic Fields. The iconic indie folk-rock group love taking on impossible projects, like the 69 Love Songs LP which was exactly what it sounds like. Frontman Stephin Merritt announced a new full-length was on the way that saw him playing 100 instruments. That album is called 50 Song Memoir which is, again, exactly as it sounds. The band has shared five singles off that album, all of which are quaint, comical, and moving in their own way. The abbreviated years before each track title refers to the year of his life it addresses. Out of the five songs released, we chose to highlight “’86 How I Failed Ethics” because, well, it may be more relatable than some of us wish it to be. [Consequence of Sound]

For all the fame, radio slots, and singles he’s released, Bruno Mars makes it hard to believe he’s only just now rolling out his third album. 24K Magic comes out today, Friday, which means you can now hear it in full. From new singles “Versace On the Floor” and “Chunky” all the way to new cut “Calling All My Lovelies” which features Halle Berry, it’s an album of jams and moves that fill the void left in the four years since 2012’s Unorthodox Jukebox. Check it out above via Spotify.

Enjoy the weekend! We’ll see you back here on Monday for another Music Dispatch.

Image: Epic Records/A Tribe Called Quest

Is This DOCTOR WHO Christmas Special Clip Pointing to a Bigger Mystery?

It feels like it’s been a billion lifetimes since the last time Doctor Who was on air, but coming this December, we’ll have the Earth’s favorite timelord back on our TV (and some movie!) screens with “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.” Needless to say our two hearts (erm, wait—one. We have one heart because we’re definitely human and not at all a secret timelord) are exploding with excitement at the prospect of another jaunt through space and time with good ol’ Twelve. But as this new clip from the show seems to posit in our tinfoil-lined brain, something else wildly weird is underfoot in the Doctor’s universe—and not just because there’s a bunch of BRAINS WITH MINDS OF THEIR OWN IN JARS.

Teaming up with an investigative journalist (played by Charity Wakefield), the Doctor lands in New York (with Nardole in tow?!) at the same time a superhero (Justin Chatwin of Shameless and Orphan Black fame) also shows up to—we assume—thwart the same probably-alien attack on humanity.

Now here’s where we REALLY fall down the mysterious rabbit hole of over-speculation: this is now the second time we’ve seen a fictional character come to life in the world of new-era Doctor Who—Not the first in classic Who, but continuity-schmontinuity!—the first time being Robin Hood with Clara in “Robot of Sherwood.” And while that may just be a coincidence, maybe that’s just what Steven Moffat wants us to believe. We all know Moffat like to troll his audience and their expectations—and those of the Doctor himself—so I can’t help but wonder if this new superhero character isn’t connected to the appearance of Robin Hood (since the Doctor pointed out that he was a fictional character and it was weird to see him out in the world). Could fictional characters coming to life be someone messing with the Doctor on a much larger (read: longer) scale? Is this Harmony Shoal person a part of it? Is the fabric of our reality bleeding into some alternative universe/reality where everything fake in our world is real and everything real in their world is fake (leaving plenty of room for Moffat to remind us that the Doctor’s just a fictional character and we should chill out with all our mishegas)?

What do you think? Feeling as batty as we are? Think that it maybe all ties back to the sushi instead? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured Image: BBC America

Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist and the creator/co-host of Fangirling! Find her on Twitter campaigning for Hayley Atwell to play the Doctor.

And here’s a rundown of all those big ol’ Who rumors:

10 Dark Gems to Get You Hooked on Film Noir

We’re deep in the muddy heart of Noirvember, so you should already be brooding over a swirling snifter of bourbon and gritting your teeth through life’s mountain of regrets with a pile of dirty cigarettes at your feet, knowing but not caring that your failures will eventually overwhelm you.

But if you haven’t started celebrating yet, it’s time to get in the game with a few movies that will ease you into the pit of despair.

Despite usually focusing on detectives and dead bodies, a movie really only needs a pessimistic sense of despair to earn the “Film Noir” label. Doom has to hang over the characters’ heads and, almost always, come crashing down on them. Time to grab your umbrella.

The Third Man (1949)

Not just one of the finest films noir ever made, one of the finest films of any genre ever made, The Third Man is a stunningly gorgeous danger trip through Allied-controlled Vienna. The sardonic writer Graham Greene and director Sir Carol Reed absolutely nail this one to the floor. Joseph Cotten plays an American pulp western author visiting the Austrian capitol at the invitation of his old friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find that Lime has recently been struck by a car and killed. From that launch pad, the movie refuses to go where you think it will, and it turns everything on the screen — from Ferris wheels to mobs to medicine — into a weapon.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

No other movie uses characters riding off into the sunset as a middle finger like L.A. Confidential does. This modern noir classic (which inexplicably didn’t win Best Picture) is a masterwork of bruised egos, deadly alliances, and a plot thicker than concrete shoes. In true genre fashion, Detective Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) and Officer Bud White (Russell Crowe) start with a small investigation that spirals further and further out until it encompasses their personal lives as well as everything between the city limit signs. The kicker is that writer/director Curtis Hanson and co-writer Brian Helgeland build on the tropes to give us rich, intricate characters inside the revenge-fueled, communication-lacking madness.

Laura (1944)

One of the best gateway drugs, Otto Preminger’s shotgun blast of a detective story features a cop who falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s trying to solve. Then again, everyone falls in love with Laura. This film is largely about the danger of obsession and the illusion of desperate power that can lead someone to destroy someone they love so that no one else can have her. Nevermind that she’s her own woman. Dana Andrews is sure-footed as Detective McPherson, Gene Tierney is absolutely magnetic in flashbacks as Laura Hunt, and the entire story is rendered with the moody assurance of a mystery waiting for its biggest clue to drop.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

A fascist dirtbag cop, a trench coated woman running for her life down a highway, and a briefcase that could destroy the whole world — Kiss Me Deadly is an angry little movie. This ever-twisting plot is what must happen when you inhale asbestos for a decade and then finally exhale. Coming at the end of the first, post-War boom of film noir, you could argue that everything was ratcheted up to 11 in order to inject new life into the diminishing popularity of the genre, but you’ve gotta hand it to this incarnation of Mickey Spillane’s classic Mike Hammer character for embodying the abject fear and fatalism of the entire Cold War era. If you really want to watch the world burn, find a copy with the original ending.

Le Samourai (1967)

Drive, The American, Ghost Dog and even Se7en have borrowed more than a bit from Jean-Pierre Melville’s monastic assassin story. Frequent collaborator Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with soul-scorching eyes who is caught between a witness to his crime and a double-crossing employer. More than most, Le Samourai has a musical rhythm about it, the repetition of its sequences lining up almost like a poem’s rhyme scheme. It matches its methodical main character and the jazz pouring out of the nightclub he keeps going back to. More than simple loneliness, this meditation on living by the sword reflects the steely bliss of dying by it.

Brick (2005)

Rian Johnson is now living in a galaxy far, far away, but once upon a time he was cramming classic hardboiled situations into the modern mouths of high school students. A beloved cult film from almost the first minute it emerged from Sundance, Brick proved that you could update a dusty wardrobe without getting too cheeky about it — Johnson imbues a great love of genre into a sunny, dingy, California suburb, playing off the novelty of young people acting like tough adults without ever flinching toward cuteness. The tale of Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) digging for the truth of a stolen brick of heroin takes its ancestors seriously and relishes playing its role as Veronica Mars‘ evil twin.

Gaslight (1944)

More difficult to watch by the day, this remake of a movie based on a Patrick Hamilton play features a woman (Ingrid Bergman) driven mad by her husband’s (Charles Boyer) insistence that she can’t trust her own eyes or mind. From the attic where they’ve stored her murdered aunt’s belongings, Bergman’s character hears footsteps, watches the gaslights dim and brighten, and personal belongings seem to go missing, but her husband continually questions her version of the odd occurrences until she’s not quite sure what’s going on. Big surprise: what’s actually going on is heinous.

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

Denzel Washington is rough and ready in this swampy slog through the Los Angeles underworld of 1948. Largely following the template for despairing mysteries, the Carl Franklin-directed film turns convention on its head by concerning itself more with people’s motives than a spotlit reveal of the answers. Devil in a Blue Dress bakes racial tensions and biases — both overt and invisible — into its characters’ motivations, leaving any sense of fairness and justice at the lobby door. The performances are mostly knockouts (especially Don Cheadle’s scene-slaying Mouse), and it echoes the enduring skin-deep ethical problems from 70 years and just a few minutes ago.

Chinatown (1974)

Required viewing and the pinnacle of the neo-noir movement, Roman Polanski’s exploration of exploitation and greed embodies the Leonard Cohen lyrics from Everybody Knows that everybody’s been sharing since his death: “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded / Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed / Everybody knows the war is over / Everybody knows the good guys lost / Everybody knows the fight was fixed / The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.” In the film, private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a fundamentally bad guy with a good heart, driven by his disbelief in what everybody already knows.

Touch of Evil (1958)

Out to prove that darkness doesn’t only live in the big city, Touch of Evil opens with a bang when a car bomb kills two people in a U.S.-Mexico border town. With a cast boasting Janet Leigh, Charlton Heston, and Marlene Dietrich, this is writer/director Orson Welles at his meanest. Welles also co-stars as a cholesterol-laden detective charged with solving the murder even as drug enforcement cop Miguel Vargas (Heston) is investigating him. It’s a brutal, exquisitely shot movie that should make you want to take a shower after watching it.

Think this list is too short? You’re right. The good news is that there’s insanely long list of great noir films to dig into. Which are your favorites?

Images: London Films, 20th Century Fox, United Artists, Warner Bros., S.N. Prodis, Focus Features, MGM, TriStar Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures

SUPERGIRL Meets ARROW and DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW in New Preview

Later this month, alien invaders are coming to The CW and it’s going to take the heroes from all four of the network’s DC shows to save the world. Because Supergirl lives on her own alternate Earth, she’s never met the Green Arrow or the heroes from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. But in the first preview scene from the upcoming crossover, the Girl of Steel leaves quite an impression on her new allies.

Entertainment Weekly debuted the new video, which plays off of last season’s crossover between Supergirl and The Flash. Because of that story, Barry Allen already knew that he could trust Kara, and Vibe’s powers once again allowed him to travel between the worlds to get her help. Note that Team Arrow and the Legends weren’t exactly impressed, until Supergirl briefly demonstrated what she can do.

Remember how the Flash’s speed caused John Diggle to freak out two years ago? That’s still one of the more hilarious moments in the show’s history. But after all of this time, and everything else he’s seen, Diggle’s almost non-reaction to Supergirl is pretty funny as well. It’s interesting to see that Thea Queen and H.R. Wells are also appearing in the crossover episodes, but there’s no sign of The Flash‘s Caitlin Snow in this clip…possibly because of her Killer Frost transformation.

The Heroes vs. Aliens storyline is loosely based on the Invasion miniseries by DC Comics, which featured the alien race known as the Dominators as they attempted to neutralize the threat of humanity’s metahumans and subjugate the planet. The crossover will begin on Monday, November 28 on Supergirl, and continue for three consecutive nights in The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

What did you think about this preview? Ignite your heat vision and leave a comment below!

Image: The CW

GAME OF THRONES Re-Throned: “Valar Morghulis” (S2, Ep10)

Winter is coming, but not soon enough. So to help pass the time until season seven of Game of Thrones, we’re doing a weekly re-watch of the series, episode-by-episode, with the knowledge of what’s to come and—therefore—more information about the unrevealed rich history of events that took place long before the story began. Be warned, though: that means this series is full of spoilers for every season, even beyond the episode itself. So if you haven’t watched all of the show yet immediately get on that and then come back and join us for Game of Thrones Re-Throned.

Because the next best thing to watching new episodes is re-watching old ones.

——

Season 2, Episode 10: “Valar Morghulis”

Original Air Date: June 3rd, 2012

Director: Alan Taylor

Written by: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Like The Sopranos before it, Game of Thrones often uses its second to last episode of the season for its big, shocking spectacle, and lets the next deal with the fallout. Season two’s fantastic finale, “Valar Morghulis,” did address the ramifications of the Battle of Blackwater Bay, but it did so much more.

Many important plot points are put in motion here, like Jaqen giving Arya the Faceless Men coin, Tyrion learning his life is in danger from his own family, Jon being embraced by the wildlings, and Winterfell falling to Roose Bolton’s bastard. Of course, the best scene is the amazing final one, when Edd, Grenn, and Sam hear the third blast of the horn, which hasn’t been blown in thousands of year because it indicates White Walkers (they only knew that cause Sam read it in a book). It is still horrifying all these years later, as we get to see just how real the threat of the Others and their giant army of dead really is.

Ever since their introduction in the show’s first scene, the White Walkers have been mockingly discussed, and are only shown in a few brief glimpses, surrounding the sacrifice of Craster’s sons, but here they come roaring (screeching) back, and it is wonderful and terrible.

But since we’re looking back to look ahead, it’s Daenerys‘ trip to the House of the Undying to get back her dragons that we’re most interested in. Book readers know Dany has a number of visions to analyze (many of which have already been proven true), but there are only three in the show’s adaptation.

The first sees her enter an abandoned Iron Throne room in King’s Landing, where the roof has been torn apart and it is seemingly covered in snow. I say seemingly because I am not fully convinced it isn’t really ash. The color palate used in her visions is unnatural, so while it seems as though winter has come to King’s Landing, it could just as easily be the remnants of a massive fire. Could it happen from an even larger explosion of wildfire than we saw at the Sept of Baelor, or is this a clue as to what Daenerys and her dragons might bring to the capitol?

Of course, it might be snow filling the room, and the next vision she has would indicate that King’s Landing is not far from being swallowed up by the Long Night itself, since she leaves the Throne Room and walks through the gates of Castle Black, beyond The Wall, where a horrible storm is raging. Will the events at King’s Landing directly impact the war with the the dead that is coming, and must Daenerys realize she doesn’t belong in King’s Landing, but rather north, leading the way?

Finally, she enters a tent with Khal Drogo and her son, and while Drogo’s presence feels real, the calls of her dragons, and her vows to see her journey through until the end, draws her back. In an episode where Robb Stark breaks his vow and marries Talisa, seeing her sacrifice personal love and want in the name of duty portends well for all of the living that might need her to save them.

Yet, even though it’s natural to try to decipher as much as we can, it is possible we are reading too much into all of this. Earlier in the episode, a defeated and angry Stannis tells Melisandre that everything she saw in the flames was wrong, and that she can’t know what will happen. If Game of Thrones has taught us anything it’s that prophesy can lead us astray even easier than it can guide us down the right path.

The important lesson isn’t what we think we can learn from her visions, because we’re more likely to be wrong than right, but instead what she learned about sacrifice and facing an enemy you can’t always see.

Season two’s finale remains as fantastic as ever, leaving us craving what comes next. Daenerys refused to touch that Iron Throne in the House of the Undying, but she’s closer now to the real one than ever before. Hopefully she remembers what it took to get here, and what it took to defeat the wizards of Qarth, otherwise what she saw that day will not be a warning, it will be a reality.

But what did you think of this episode? What did you see in her visions? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: HBO

Watch a Real-Life Reinhardt Rocket Hammer from OVERWATCH Destroy a Car

If you’re playing Overwatch and you feel like holding the line and going beast mode on your opponents with something big and heavy, playing as Reinhardt with his Rocket Hammer is the way to go. If you’re experiencing the same urges in real life, now, thanks to the Hacksmith, choosing to play as Reinhardt with his Rocket Hammer is still apparently the way to go.

It seems that one of the most viscerally satisfying aspects of Overwatch is simply bludgeoning things with Reinhardt’s giant Rocket Hammer, and engineer / YouTuber the Hacksmith took it upon himself to bring those same delights into real life. And because the Pontiac Sunfire is apparently not such a great vehicle — according to the Hacksmith, don’t get angry at us Pontiac Sunfire owners all 12 of you! — he decided to put the “Hammer DOWN!” on one of them.

In the “Make it Real” video above, we see the Hacksmith and a few of his friends — we can only assume they are there as support heroes — absolutely annihilate the Sunfire. And because the mondo crusher weighs in at a tank-tingling 60 pounds and gathers extra go from a solid fuel rocket, it doesn’t take long for the poor little Pontiac to look something like Deadpool’s face (sorry Deadpool). Also, at around six minutes into the clip the Hacksmith uses heavy machinery to dismember the Sunfire because why not?

If you want to see how the Hacksmith built Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer, you can check out the build video below. It’s a quick watch, and the final product includes a 3-D printed handle, a whole lot of plasma-cut steel, and the use of a single G-class model rocket — the largest model rocket the Hacksmith could legally buy — placed in the center of the hammer’s rear for propulsion.

What do you think about the Hacksmith’s Reinhardt Rocket Hammer build? Avoid lying down on the job by giving us your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: the Hacksmith

Relive 10 Years of TRANSFORMERS History in THE LAST KNIGHT Featurette

If you had to use one word to describe Michael Bay movies—especially the Transformers franchise—that word would be big. The explosions are big, the Autobots and Decepticons are big, the story is big, and even the manner in which the film is created is big. Bay and IMAX have been partnering for the past decade to both revolutionize the IMAX and film industry at large. And with Transformers: The Last Knight hitting theaters in June of 2017, it looks like Bay has truly outdone himself this time around.

In the above clip, IMAX CEO Greg Foster explains how their partnership with Bay really pushed IMAX to improve its 3D capabilities and become more nimble without compromising resolution. That work and growth is definitely evident in the Transformers films. While some of Bay’s Transformers films have received mixed reviews from fans and critics, you can’t deny that those movies are visually stunning—you can’t take your eyes off the screen when the action’s happening.

For The Last Knight, Bay pushed IMAX and 3D technology even further, rigging up IMAX 3D cameras that allowed him to shoot 3D in real time. That’s a huge advancement for Bay and IMAX 3D, and will likely change the way large-scale action movies are shot and watched for years to come.  And, if nothing else, it looks like we’re in for a badass and amazing adventure when Transformers: The Last Knight hits theaters this summer.

What did you think of the featurette? Do you like how Michael Bay has helped the IMAX 3D industry grow, or are you over 3D films? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

Feature Image: Paramount Pictures

Prepare for the FANTASTIC BEASTS By Playing CASES FROM THE WIZARDING WORLD

Tomorrow (or late tonight, depending on when you go) fans will travel back to J.K. Rowling‘s world of witchcraft and wizardry with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. To entertain you during the excruciating wait, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developer Mediatonic have just launched a mobile game for iOs and Android called Fantastic Beasts: Cases From the Wizarding World–and it’s actually pretty cool. Check out the trailer at the top of the page.

Yes! Now we have something to play while we wait in line at the theater. In Cases from the Wizarding World, fans will join the Ministry of Magic to investigate “unexplained happenings that could only be caused by magical creatures”. The game fits into the hidden object genre and gives you the opportunity to cast familiar spells, encounter fantastic creatures, and venture to familiar locations like the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley.

“So the idea behind it was that we wanted to create a game different from any other experience,” Mary Casey, director of product at WB Games San Francisco, told the folks at Pottermore. “We wanted to place you, as a player, into the wizarding world, and create something you could really reach out and touch.”

There will be references and details that are sure to excite folks who read the original books and watched the films. According to Casey, everyone who worked on the game is a huge fan of Rowling’s world. To add that extra bit of authenticity, the team “spent a lot of time at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London in Leavesden to get in a lot of little references. Everything from Bertie Bott’s to Butterbeers”–oh my!

Will you be playing this? Cast your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: Warner Brothers