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THE TWENTY-SIDED TAVERN Creates a Space for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Fans at the Theater

“We wanted to create a place for Dungeons & Dragons fans to feel seen and special,” explains Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern creator David Carpenter after a particularly rousing rendition of the performance concluded for the evening. Sadly, Carpenter notes, the theater isn’t a place that’s been traditionally associated with fans of this nerdy variety. But for Carpenter and co., that makes no sense. And they’re right. Given an experience as communal and theatrical as Dungeons & Dragons, the theater feels like the perfect next step to take the fantastical world. And that’s where Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern comes in.

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We at Nerdist were thrilled to attend an evening of Dungeons & Dragons theater to experience this great meeting of the minds for ourselves. Right away, the excitement among the varied audience was clear. High school-aged kids in wizard’s robes were lining up outside the theater, adults donning elf ears were rolling a mega-dice in the thematically decorated lobby, and folks more mundanely dressed were peppered between them.

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It’s clear that The Twenty-Sided Tavern is filling exactly the gap that it spotted from afar. Dungeons & Dragons fans are hungry to take their experience from the tabletop to a room full of like-minded people ready to participate in a game they know and love.

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Of course, like Dungeons & Dragons, no two nights of The Twenty-Sided Tavern roll out quite the same. In fact, each performance quite literally depends on the roll of the dice… And on the audience’s inclinations, thanks to a genius system called Gamiotics that allows the audience to make story decisions, participate in challenges, and make their voices heard via their phone browsers. These interactive components really center you in the action and tie you to your fellow man. And just what is the number of ways an evening of The Twenty-Sided Tavern can go? “Unlimited,” Carpenter and fellow creator Sarah Davis Reynolds reveal. To put more of a number on it, “Around 300,000.” That means you’ll have to buy a lot of theater tickets if you want to be a completionist. But that still doesn’t account for the individual decisions an audience makes together.

Bronwen Sharp

There are two kinds of audiences, the folks at Twenty-Sided Tavern reveal. Those who are more mechanics-driven and those who just want to have a good time. I was definitely part of a good-time audience, but that didn’t stop the Dungeons & Dragons mechanics from integrating themselves easily into the entire game, I mean, play. Happily, for novices and experts alike, The Twenty-Sided Tavern walks the audience through all the details they might need to know about D&D while keeping everything intricate enough that seasoned Dungeons & Dragons players won’t feel talked down to.

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This is not even to speak of the magic of audience participation, which results in you fighting a big bad that’s also known as a “haunting outlandish chinchilla” and sees audience members pulled on stage, or the absolutely gorgeous backdrop of the play. Using an incredible video wall and highlighting the work of many genius artists, the stage believably transforms into literally hundreds of different settings, helped along by additional special effects the DM can add at the drop of the hat. I really cannot underscore enough how lovely the screen is and what a veritable feast of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired art it purveys. But if you can get yourself to the theater to lay your eyes on it, I couldn’t recommend it more.

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It would also be remiss not to mention that Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is rip-roaring funny. The actors/comedians really are at the top of their game, cleverly combining Dungeons & Dragons references with modern nods to the world around us. Notable quips included, “Abercrombie and Leitch,” “Elven Klien,” and “Algar, not Al Gore, that’s someone else!”

Rotem Rusak

Finally, of course, there’s the clear heart of the game. Dungeons & Dragons is all about the friends you make and the characters you grow to love along the way. On our night of attendance, one of our party, Ethel the Grandma, was a huge hit. And, of course, there was a Lothario Bard who was cursed to speak in only five words by the wayward role of a die. A gorgeous kind of camaraderie grew between actors, audience, DM (expertly played by DAGL, and the game. It was the experience of playing Dungeons & Dragons, but it was magnified and celebrated under the spotlight. Truly a wonder to behold.

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“Going to Comic-Con felt like Christmas,” Carpenter noted to us, speaking of the wonderful sense of belonging that fans feel at large nerdy events. And we thought it could be Christmas every day.” Indeed, attending Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern feels like being a part of a massive celebration. The experience creates a wonderful evening dedicated to the magic, beauty, power, and connection that fans create when given the right space to do so. And we could not more highly encourage each of you to make a nerdy pilgrimage to attend.

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Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern is now playing in New York City’s Stage 42. You can purchase your tickets here.

⭐ (5 of 5)

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DEADPOOL Creator Rob Liefeld Talks About His Upcoming Final Wade Wilson Story

Creator Rob Liefeld made a name for himself in the early ’90s, first at Marvel Comics, and then later, as a founder of Image Comics and Extreme Studios. But of all his creations, none have become more iconic than “the Merc with the Mouth,” Deadpool. Now, after three decades, Liefeld is retiring from the character, with the new 5-issue series Deadpool Team-Up. For his swan song to Wade Wilson, Liefeld is teaming him up with some iconic Marvel heroes, and some very obscure ones. We got to chat with Liefeld about his grand Deadpool finale, the character’s early days, and his hopes for the upcoming film starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Marvel Comics

Nerdist. You created Deadpool back in 1991, for New Mutants. And now you’re telling your last Deadpool story with Deadpool Team-Up. Is this a story where you’re just letting yourself do everything you wanted to do with the character one last time?

Rob Liefeld: Yes. I did several hundreds of pages worth of Deadpool in the last several years, since about 2017. And it was a specific story I was telling about a character that had a grudge against Deadpool. But it was not as weird and crazy as this is. And I decided… “Deadpool doesn’t have enough of a rogue’s gallery because he had zero rogue’s gallery.’ I told Marvel, “How did you go 20 years and not give him a Joker, a Sabretooth, somebody like an echo?” And so that was my intent when I did Deadpool: Bad Blood, Deadpool: Badder Blood. Look, Deadpool: Bad Blood blew up, sold out, $25 hardcover, number one on the charts. It was very well received.

Marvel Comics

Then, I did the sequel. But I thought, “You know what?” We’ve all had talents and artists, maybe it’s a musician, sometimes it’s an athlete. They stay a little too long at the dance. And right before the year ended, Marvel said, “Can you do a story in this special that we’re putting out? We would like to include you.” So I did a 10-page story in Deadpool: Seven Deadly Sins. And I literally went back and touched on kind of a weird character that I had introduced in 2004 in the pages of X-Force. And that was when I thought, “If I want to go out, I’m going to go out weird.”

The reason that I approached it this way is that I think I’m doing work that I think is really accomplished in regard to how it’s all coming out. Everything comes together the way I see it in my head, which was not always that way. And we’ve all had artists that stayed too long, they slip. I’ve know artists that I was huge fans of that don’t draw or create images anything like the way that they used to. So I said, “You know what? I can’t do this forever, so I should go out on my terms.” I talked to Marvel about it. And the long answer is yes, this is super weird and strange, with obscure Marvel characters, which is the kind of stories that I grew up on.

Back in the early 90s, you were creating characters at Marvel and Image at lightning speed. Did you ever have any inclination back then that maybe Deadpool would be the one that stuck in the pop culture consciousness the way he did, or did it take you by surprise?

Liefeld: He’s on the cover [of his first appearance in New Mutants #98]. He’s in the front. If the artist puts the character in the front, that character is the one you’re supposed to connect to. I can tell you the process, and it’s very consistent over all these years. Cable came out of nowhere, completely a reflection of me, who I was. There’s another editor at Marvel who can attest to this, I was about to take over Alpha Flight. Guess who was going to be an Alpha Flight? Cable. He was part of my Alpha Flight proposal. Then they said, “Rob, we really want you to do New Mutants.” I said, “I have to bring Cable with me.” And so then I formulated Cable into the New Mutants. Sales went through the roof.

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They offered me X-Factor. There was no way I was doing X-Factor. I would’ve fallen flat on my face. I was not ready at that point in my career to do the original X-Men, to follow Walt Simonson, a god of comic books. And I said, “New Mutants, I can fix that house up. I can flip that. I can make that a fixer-upper, but I need all these things.” And Cable, boom, sales took off. And look, the last issue of New Mutants was the top-selling X-Men book of the month. That month, February 1991, New Mutants out-sells X-Men. No special bells, whistles, acetate, glow in the dark, scratch and sniff, nothing. It’s just a comic book with a story. And people showed up and they dug it.

And New Mutants #100 was after issues 99 and 98. With issue 98, they let me write the book and I said, “I’m bringing a whole bunch of stuff with me.” Look at all those… In ’98 and ’99, you got Deadpool, Shatterstar, Domino, Feral. I just crowded. I had very little time to work, but it is of legend at Marvel. They got the most mail on a new character in a decade with Deadpool. X-Force #1, suddenly he had to be on a trading card in X-Force going out at 5 million copies.

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They said, “Rob, you need to move up. You have him appearing in issue seven. We can’t wait that long.” I love that they were able to have the data in their hands and say, “Rob, this character’s working with the fans.” So that’s why the cover of X-Force issue 2 is not Cable. It’s Deadpool. Like you said, I was super prolific. I was built for this shit, dude. I was built in a lab to make comic books and I was up for it. And yes, I knew Deadpool would be popular because he’s red and black like Spider-Man. I literally was thinking “Todd [McFarlane] is having a lot of success with Spider-Man. And not only that, Eric Larsen, my two peers, they’re both kicking ass on Spider-Man. And do you know how much easier it is to draw Deadpool than to draw Spider-Man?

Look, a face, eyes, nose, it’s harder to draw Josh Brolin than it is to draw a red shape with big black eyes. And I’m like, “Now I got my own Spider-Man, except he has guns and he has swords.” Because the G.I. Joe generation, Snake Eyes, we love that stuff. And boom, he clicked. And like I said, there’s a reason. People forget. I get called out all the time. People say “you didn’t have Deadpool tied into Weapon X.” I’m like, “Oh, so you never read X-Force number two that came out in 1991?” And then they go, “I thought Grant Morrison made this connection.” No, it was me. It was me. I was making those connections.

In the previews for this series, it shows Wade teaming up with characters like Spider-Gwen, the Hulk, and Wolverine. Why make your last Deadpool story a team-up title?

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The thing is, when I was a kid, Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One were both showcases for Spider-Man and the Thing, because Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were the top two franchises in the mid-70s. And Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One always had them standing next to relatively obscure characters because they wanted to use the showcase to feature the other characters in the deep bench of the Marvel universe. So while Wolverine and some of the popular characters would pop up every now and then, they’d do some really weird characters I would never have heard of if I didn’t buy Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One. And both of those had really long runs and I wish that those books were still out.

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But when I told Marvel, “Hey, I want Deadpool in a story with Ral Dorn.” And they’re like, “Rob, who is that?” I think, “I have these people at Marvel who don’t know who Dragon Lord is.” I say, “This is by Steve Ditko. He freaking created Spider-Man for you. You should know these things.” So then I built the story around Dragon Lord who appeared once in this one annual, but has magic multidimensional realms, dragons. And I figured this is a total change of pace. This is not the Deadpool that I’ve done before.

Obviously, a character like Wolverine seems like a no-brainer for this book, but any particular reason why you had Hulk and Ghost Spider?

She’s super cool, and I want to draw her before I retire. That’s it. The reason Hulk is in there because I can work Hulk into anything. And I’ve drawn Spider-Man. Instead, I want to do Spider-Gwen. So Crystar and Dragon Lord are my weird obscure characters. Then there are your Liefeld creations like Major X and Lady Anime who are introduced in previous works I’ve done that I’ve pulled in. And then you’ve got your big bold Marvel names with Hulk, Wolverine, and then obviously, now Spider-Gwen.

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I did a five-issue G.I. Joe Snake Eyes book because I had to do it before my career was over. I crossed it off the bucket list. I have kind of done everything and I’m going to go back to just doing my own stuff and finish my career doing stuff like that. Really, I do believe it’s been an amazing career. Marvel and I have gotten along so great, especially the last decade has been so much fun. My readers, the publisher, everybody has been fantastic. It is a really fun place to work, and I think they always just let me do my own thing. Every time I’m worried about fitting into continuity, they say, “Rob, just do whatever you want.” That’s what every artist lives for. “Do whatever you want.” It’s a very nice existence.

I’m an ‘80s kid, so I am very familiar with Crystar, the Crystal Warrior comics and toys. It was a fairly short-lived action figure line from that time, and it had an accompanying Marvel series, The Saga of Crystar. And he’s part of this new mini-series too. I was one of five kids who loved those toys and comics. Was it difficult to get Crystar involved in this series, since he’s technically not a Marvel character?

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Liefeld: They do own him! No, Marvel owns Crystar, and they let me know, “Rob, if you want him in this bizarro story…” And I said, “He’s in.” Like I said, it’s just a really fun romp. I’m not trying to do anything k-e-w-l. There is no cool in my game. I’m just having fun with bizarre old Steve Ditko characters and designs and worlds and names. And then, of course, Crystar, I hit the mother load. I’m like, “I just drew pages this week of Wolverine and Deadpool popping Crystar in the face and him popping them back.” And I’m like, “I am in the sandbox. I’m a kid.”

So yeah, I was in high school when Crystar was part of that giant toy explosion. And what are we in right now? Because I’ve done this on my podcast. I mean, Transformers, ThunderCats, Gatchaman. It’s like all the toys are back. And so here’s one from the drawer. I found out yesterday, that half the people like you know who Crystar is, half the people are like, “What the heck is a Crystar??”

What do you feel has changed the most about yourself as a creator in the three decades since you started out, and what of those changes are you bringing to your last Deadpool story?

Liefeld: I don’t think I’ve changed all that much. I think part of the appeal is I never took a big swing in a different direction. The guys that I like kind of stayed the same as they were when they came in. John Byrne actually radically changed. And I have been on the record, I have a podcast, I talk on social media. I believe John Byrne had some glorious deal with the devil. I don’t care that I’m saying it out loud. For 10 years, he did this incredibly perfect commercial work. Then he changed his work. It wasn’t the way he drew, it was the way he laid out pages. The way he told stories, it’s totally different.

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George Pérez was pretty much the same all the way through. George Pérez when he passed, he was at his peak. He stayed in a certain lane. And look, we all have bands that we love, and you look forward to their new album and you’re like, “Oh shit, they went in a totally different direction. This doesn’t sound anything like my favorite hits.” I respect them for doing that, but I would rather “Can you come back and give me something that sounds a little like the familiar sounds that I loved you for in the first place?”

Ok, last question, I know you really can’t say anything. But on a scale of 1-10, just how stoked should fans be over Deadpool and Wolverine?

Okay, I’m going to answer this very, very carefully. So I’m on the set of Deadpool one, very fortunate. Visited all three sets, hung out on each of them, never gave up any secrets, never spoiled anything. When I was there on the set of Deadpool one, I was looking at the playback on the monitors, and I’m said, “Oh wow, this movie’s going to open at $65 million.” This is February and March of 2015. I think “Shut up Liefeld. Don’t you know you don’t talk about box office while you’re making a movie? Shut up. You’re jinxing it.” Then I think, “Come on. I know what’s commercial. I know this is going to open to $65.” Well, they’re right. I did. I jinxed the hell out of that movie. It opened $135 million instead of $65 million.

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Deadpool & Wolverine, the stuff that I was there in London watching them film has not been revealed in any trailer, in any teaser. And towards the end of the day when they were setting up a new shot, I think “Are they really doing this? Oh my gosh. I didn’t even know they were going there.” If they’re going to tell me that I’m jinxing the movie, I can’t possibly say more than [director] Shawn Levy has. Shawn is out there talking the movie up all the time. Here’s the deal. I think that this movie is going to be an absolute crowd-pleaser. I know comic books. I’ve lived comic books. I’ve lived comic book films. My kids grew up and love them. I don’t know how this does not completely satisfy. But I know theater owners need people.

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We love the theater experience. Deadpool & Wolverine I think is going to contribute positively in a time of great need. And I’m going to tell you when I was at CinemaCon in Vegas, the guy who’s making all of the custom popcorn buckets and Slurpee cups and stuff you have not seen, they wouldn’t let it on the show floor. And they kept opening up suitcase after suitcase saying, “We can show you this because you created Deadpool. We can show you this.” And it’s going to overwhelm, but I think collectors are going to go crazy for it.

The best part is that the theaters are going to have all that money pumping in, because I want theaters to stay open. Deadpool & Wolverine is going to be great for everybody’s bottom line. And we’ve had a drought. I’m so glad that Kevin Feige was honest in Empire Magazine saying “You have to be living under a rock to not know that we haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire.” I’m now paraphrasing, but it was something along those lines. And this is a crowd-pleaser. I think you are going to dig it the most.

Deadpool Team-Up #1 goes on sale on August 28.

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Jeffrey Wright Will Reprise His THE LAST OF US PART II Role for the TV Series

The casting director for HBO’s The Last of Us television adaptation did a pretty masterful job of assembling the right people to assay the game’s various characters. Pedro Pascal was Emmy nominated for his portrayal of Joel, even. Many of the actors from the game appeared in the series playing other roles. Most prominently these include game-Ellie Ashley Johnson playing Ellie’s mom, and game-Joel Troy Baker as cannibal James. For season one, only Merle Dandridge as Marlene played her exact game character. Season two will add Jeffrey Wright to that list.

MGM/Naughty Dog

According to Variety, Oscar nominee Wright will play Isaac in the TV series’ second season. He also played Isaac in the controversial 2020 video game, The Last of Us Part II. The character is “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy.”

When you have an actor of Wright’s calibre both familiar with the property and the character, it’s a no-brainer to try to bring them aboard. We’re even more psyched now for The Last of Us to return in 2025.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Rob McElhenney Will Cameo in DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, Reveals Ryan Reynolds

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have had great ventures together. We’ve seen them unfold on the popular series Welcome to Wrexham. And now, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Rob McElhenney will join Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine. In the latest episode of Welcome to Wrexham, which we saw via The News, Reynolds revealed, “Because of my busy schedule, I had to invite my cochair, Rob McElhenney, to the set of Deadpool in London to discuss all things that are Wrexham… And, yes, I did have to promise him a role in the upcoming Deadpool film. Now, I can’t necessarily tell you which character Rob plays in Deadpool for fear of being shot down by the Marvel drone that follows me and my kids around.” Deadpool & Wolverine is slated to have many cameos, and we can now count McElhenney in their number.

Marvel Studios/FX

In the episode, Rob McElhenney couldn’t reveal his outfit because it would be a tease of his Deadpool & Wolverine role. “It’s super comfortable making superhero movies,” McElhenney noted. To which Reynolds snarked, “Thanks for doing a cameo. … For the record, Rob has never asked me to be on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Mythic Quest or his podcast or any of his other multimedia ventures.”

But what role will McElhenney actually play in Deadpool & Wolverine? That remains a mystery. Although, we might be inclined to say a TVA agent.

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THE GARFIELD MOVIE Post-Credits Scene Teases a Sequel

The Garfield Movie has hit theaters to mixed reviews, but we at Nerdist enjoyed it well enough. And that’s good news because The Garfield Movie post-credits scene teases, you guessed it, a sequel. This isn’t necessarily spoilery, but look away if you wish to know nothing.

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The Garfield Movie features a plethora of after-the-credits scenes and moments. At the start of the credits, The Garfield Movie homages cat and pet videos. That’s fair enough because the Garfield franchise and YouTube cat videos seem to have a shared basic core. Once the credits start, we get to catch up with some of our favorite characters from the movie and what they’re up to. We get to see Ethel and Otto live happily ever after. We hear a smashing song from the villainous cat Jynx, played by Hannah Waddingham and her endearing henchman. And, of course, we get more of Garfield and Odie.

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But then, when the credits are finally over, The Garfield Movie comes out with its real post-credits scene. The Garfield Movie ends with a Garfield comic strip of its very own. The strip shows Garfield snarking at the audience. “What are you still doing here?” The Garfield Movie comic asks. “Oh, I know. You’re waiting for the sequel.” You caught us.

We do love that The Garfield Movie‘s after-the-credits scene is actually an after-the-credits comic strip. That’s a fun homage to the franchise’s roots. But does The Garfield Movie need a sequel? That’s a more complicated question. Still, with this post-credits sequel tease, we bet it will get one. At least, the powers that be want us to start thinking about what’s next. What if the Garfield movie’s sequel just took the form of cat video-like shorts? That could be fun. We’d also take a sequel centered on Obie. We guess one movie was never going to be enough to feed Garfield’s appetite.

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Every MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Character Who Appears in FURIOSA

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga brought viewers back to the Wasteland to show us the painful road that led her to become an Imperator. But Furiosa wasn’t the only character from Mad Max: Fury Road to appear in the prequel. Plenty of other important figures from George Miller’s seminal action film also returned for his new entry. What other familiar faces made the trip back with the film’s namesake? These are the important Fury Road characters who also starred in Furiosa.

Warner Bros. Pictures[image error]Immortan JoeWarner Bros. Pictures

The Citadel leader wasn’t a major character in Furiosa, but he was still an important one. The main villain of Fury Road was an uneasy associate and rival of Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus.

While Immortan Joe looked the same he sounded different. That’s because Lachy Hulme played the younger version of the character. He replaced the late Hugh Keays-Byrne in the role. The Mad Max stalwart (Keays-Byrne was also the villain in the original 1979 film) passed away in 2020.

Rictus ErectusWarner Bros. Pictures

Furiosa marked the return of Nathan Jones as Immortan Joe’s big dumb son Rictus Erectus. The prequel strongly suggested the simple-minded man-child was a pedophile (we fortunately didn’t have to find out for sure), making his demise in Fury Road even more satisfying.

The People EaterWarner Bros. Pictures

Furiosa brought back Fury Road‘s detestable, gluttonous warlord and his fake gold nose, John Howard’s The People Eater. The prequel revealed something new about him, too. He was not the original Immortan Joe ally charged with running Gas Town. He originally served alongside Joe at the Citadel.

The Bullet FarmerWarner Bros. Pictures

The war-loving Bullet Farmer (a pre-Wasteland ally of Immortan Joe) was back for Furiosa with his unique bullet keffiyeh. The prequel showed how he briefly lost the Bullet Farm to Dementus, but was a big part of Immortan Joe winning the 40-day Wasteland war that followed the Bullet Farm’s fall. Richard Carter played the Bullet Farmer in Fury Road but passed away in 2019. In Furiosa, Lee Perry assays the role.

Organic MechanicWarner Bros. Pictures

Furiosa provided the backstory of how Angus Sampson’s Wasteland “doctor” ended up in the service of Immortan Joe. He originally worked for Dementus, but the Citadel’s leader instantly recognized the Organic Mechanic’s value and claimed him as part of the deal Immortan Joe made with Dementus. The Organic Mechanic was immediately tasked with delivering the babies of Joe’s slave-wives.

The Prime ImperatorWarner Bros. Pictures

Richard Norton’s Prime Imperator, leader of Immortan Joe’s Imperators in Fury Road, briefly appeared alongside Immortan Joe during his negotiations with Dementus in Furiosa. While Norton’s role in the prequel was significantly smaller than his first appearance (even if this younger version of the character had way more hair), it did reveal just how long he served as one of the Citadel’s highest ranking soldiers.

Doof Warrior (Coma)Warner Bros. Pictures

The Wasteland’s greatest musician, Coma, made a brief cameo atop the Doof Wagon towards the end of Furiosa, because nobody rocks harder than the Doof Warrior.

ValkyrieWarner Bros. Pictures

In Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa reunited with her old friend The Valkyrie (Megan Gale), after finally making her way back to the Vuvalini, a group that also appeared in both films). The opening of Furiosa showed Little Valkyrie (Dylan Adonis) was there when bandits stole Furiosa from the Green Place, making their eventual reunion decades later in Fury Road even more powerful.

Mad RockatanskyWarner Bros. Pictures

We knew going into the film Max Mad himself would make a cameo in the film, but it wasn’t much of one. We only saw the franchise’s namesake from behind in a brief shot reminiscent of Fury Road‘s opening. During his brief appearance he watched a battered Furiosa making her way home, unaware of their future connection.

The Five WivesWarner Bros. Pictures

The film ended with the plot that drove Fury Road, as it showed Furiosa hiding Joe’s Five Wives into her War Rig. The movie only showed them briefly, but it was enough to remind us how important they were to Furiosa’s ultimate redemption.

War Boys and Rock Riders

Two important groups from Fury Road also revved up their engines in Furiosa. Immortan Joe’s War Boys were once again big parts of the action. And the prequel also featured The Rock Riders, who controlled that vital pass in Fury Road.

BONUS: A Fury Road Alum Plays the Comics and Video Game Character Scabrous Scrotus in Furiosa Warner Bros. Pictures

Immortan Joe’s eldest son Scabrous Scrotus made his movie debut in Furiosa after previously appearing in the Fury Road comic series and 2015 Mad Max video game. What made the sociopathic killer’s big screen debut extra special, though, was who played him. Josh Helman was under that prominent brow, and he also played the War Boy Slit in Fury Road.

He was just one more Fury Road actor we got to witness in a film that brought back so many great stars and characters.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist with real Imperator potential. Maybe. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Chris Hemsworth Declared ‘Second Best Chris’ By AVENGERS Co-Stars

Who is the best Chris? That’s a debate that has raged on for millennia, it seems. But as Chris Hemsworth received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he was sadly roasted by his Avengers co-stars, namely Robert Downey Jr., and declared “the second-best Chris.”

Downey Jr. teased, “What is Chris Hemsworth? Renner says, ‘Absurdly, annoyingly amazing.’ Ruffalo came in strong with ‘friend from work.’ Scarlett got to the heart of it with ‘sensitive leading lady.’ Captain America calls him the ‘second best Chris.’ And I’ll bring it to the here and now: There is no one who deserves it more. He is ‘Hollywood star recipient.'”

At least it’s good to know that the cast of the Avengers is keeping the spirit of the team alive. Sorry to second-best Chris, Chris Hemsworth.

Marvel Studios

Of course, the answer to “Who is the best Chris?” is one that lives purely in the eye of the beholder. But seeing the team ribbing each other again sure does make us wish we got to see a little more slice of life with the OG Avengers team.

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ATLAS Is a Trite and Tonally Confused Mess

Atlas, Netflix’s new sci-fi space war movie about artificial intelligence gone rogue, is such a trope-filled mess, it would be easy to say it feels like an A.I. wrote the script. It would also be accurate. When it ended I genuinely checked to see if the film lists real human writers in its credits. It does, but that does not make me feel better about mankind. Atlas is tonally confusing and rampant with cliché ideas. It also thinks it’s a good idea to keep Jennifer freaking Lopez in a glorified chair for more than half its runtime.

It’s hard to quantify Atlas because it has no idea what it actually is. It never decides if it’s trying to be a fun, schlocky, big budget elevated B-movie or if it’s a more serious action film full of important social commentary. I’m not even sure its stars know, because their performances indicate they were all acting in a different movie.

Lopez prevents this bizarre film from being a disaster with a good showing as Atlas Shepherd, a brilliant, funny, introverted analyst with a troubling past that makes her hate artificial intelligence. She’s strong, vulnerable, and charming. She’s having a good time most of the time. The other times she’s giving the part the emotional heft it needs. Meanwhile, Mark Strong and Sterling K. Brown play military commanders who are clearly in a far more serious film. That might not seem so out-of-place opposite Lopez if not for the fact the usually fantastic Simu Liu plays the first and leading A.I. terrorist, the cartoonish villain Harlan, as though he’s hoping Atlas will end up on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Netflix

Like a lot of this film, I’m confused by Liu’s choices. I honestly don’t know if he is bad or if he gave the exact performance director Brad Peyton wanted. Either way it doesn’t work.

In fairness to Liu, very little in this movie works. The predictable script is riddled with ideas about artificial intelligence and sci-fi points that were trite 30 years ago. It’s also a CGI-fest of varying quality where a million things go “boom” without much of it mattering but most of it feeling silly. The screenplay, which also features some hammy dialogue, also has plot holes so big you can fly an intergalactic spaceship through them. At one point an A.I. supercomputer with all of the knowledge in the world doesn’t know something everyone does because the plot needs it not to know. That supercomputer also forgets a “step” during a clearly defined, easy procedure. It’s not funny in anyway, despite trying to be. It’s just needlessly stupid.

Netflix

“Needlessly stupid” is also a perfect way to describe what the movie asks of its star. Jennifer Lopez spends more than half the film, and roughly 50 straight minutes at one point, in a mech suit. From her chair she navigates a knockoff Pandora planet while endlessly talking to an A.I. program that has the most uninteresting, bland, robot voice imaginable.

That voice choice is actually an interesting idea (maybe the film’s only). By not having it sound human, Atlas forces us to reckon with what it really means to be alive. A robot who can think and feel on its own while clearly being a robot is harder to accept as alive than one who sounds like us. The problem is that idea doesn’t work on screen. The voice is instantly boring, even grating, even before most of the movie is Lopez and “Smith” having a continuous, (not-so) witty back-and-forth.

Netflix

Also sometimes the movie asks her to square up and robot box ten minutes before she delivers a big emotional speech about whether computers have souls. Atlas is like if Blade Runner, Castaway, and Starship Troopers got drunk together on a case of original Four Loko. That sounds fun until you remember those movies shouldn’t even be hanging out together let alone drinking poison.

Ultimately Atlas either needed to be much dumber or much smarter to be good. It also needed to let Jennifer Lopez walk. But its biggest sin might be what it ultimately says about the possibility of artificial intelligence at a time when corporations are force feeding useless A.I. garage down our throats. Despite its lazy comic book baddie, this film loves artificial intelligence. It loves it and its possibilities oh so much. And it thinks its affection for A.I. will give the movie a heart it desperately wants to have.

Like humor, action, ideas, and insight, it does not have any heart. All it has to offer is proof humans are still entirely capable of making a bad movie without A.I.

Atlas ⭐ (1.5 of 5)

Atlas hits Netflix on May 24.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who typically loves Simu Liu in everything. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The US Department of Justice Sues Live Nation and Ticketmaster Over Alleged ‘Monopoly’

It’s pretty accurate to say that most mega corporations are evil. But some of them are truly worse than others. Live Nation and Ticketmaster fall into that category with their horrible ticketing practices. Anyone who has gone to a concert in recent years has quickly noticed that an array of fees, often adding up to a ticket price or more, are tagged on to a purchase. And, they essentially have the monopoly on the event ticket business. It has gotten so bad that the United States Department of Justice has sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. (Thanks to Variety for bringing this to everyone’s attention!)

Prime Video

This act is a federal statute which “prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace.” If this suit is successful, it can change how Live Nation—which owns Ticketmaster—operates. Here’s an official statement from the attorney general: 

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators. The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services.”

Of course, Live Nation had a response to the suit: 

“The DOJ’s lawsuit won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows. Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin. Our growth comes from helping artists tour globally, creating lasting memories for millions of fans, and supporting local economies across the country by sustaining quality jobs. We will defend against these baseless allegations, use this opportunity to shed light on the industry, and continue to push for reforms that truly protect consumers and artists.”

While I don’t see Department of Justice as a hero here, I absolutely hope that this leads to changes at Live Nation that make going to shows more fair and affordable for all.

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THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY Will Return in 2025, Offers Peek at Ongoing Production

The Walking Dead universe has been relatively quiet since the finale of Richonne’s The Ones Who Live series. We know that Carol and Daryl will be back on our screens this summer for TWD: Daryl Dixon’s second season. It’s wild that the show is already coming back considering Dead City came out first. But, never fear Negan and/or Maggie fans. The Walking Dead: Dead City gave us some insight into its ongoing production with a behind-the scenes video that ended with the revelation that the show will have release date sometime in 2025. The show was recently filming in Worcester, MA, among other locations.

The clip features a few fun moments, like Lauren Cohan slaying a walker and Jeffrey Dean Morgan peeking at the camera through a clapperboard. We see glimpses of a few other returning characters like Armstrong, The Croat, and La Dama. In case you forgot, Maggie traded Negan for her son Herschel and he’s now a crime leader under La Dama. And, based on this behind-the-scenes clip from Dead City, it seems Negan could be reverting back to his old Savior ways. Maggie is also not having a good time, according to the following synopsis: 

In season two, in the growing war for control of Manhattan, Maggie and Negan find themselves trapped on opposite sides. As their paths intertwine, they come to see that the way out for both is more complicated and harrowing than they ever imagined.

Concerning the 2025 release date for Dead City, it is anyone’s guess when we will see those episodes. The Walking Dead main series used to come out in the fall, and rotate with Fear the Walking Dead. But, those shows are gone now. The only thing we have is the spinoffs. As far as we can tell, there will not be another season for The Ones Who Live. And we don’t know if Daryl Dixon will go for a third round. Perhaps AMC is cooking up some sort of The Walking Dead anthology or something to release in early 2025 leading up to Dead City. We shall see.

In the meantime, we can’t wait to see if Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a villain or an antihero in The Boys season four.

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