Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 6

This Adorable Spinning Pikachu Video Captures Hearts

It’s no secret that life can get a little rough sometimes. For most of us who are feeling down in the dumps, scrolling the internet is the perfect pastime. The numerous stack of fun, care-free memes out there serve as the perfect distraction from the everyday stressors of life. One interactive viral video in particular is sparking joy among Instagram users. The video portrays one of our favorite cuddly, yellow friends, Pikachu, as he happily spins through a lush forest. The adorable animation is sure to make you crack a smile. Take a look!

Set to the catchy sound of Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” the video prompts viewers to “take a spin” with the lovable, electrifying character. And it’s easy! All you need to do is follow the instructions on the screen: place your thumbs on the two circles, sit back, and watch Pikachu go!

The video was posted on Instagram by David Ashby, a freelance 3D animator and Pokémon enthusiast. The caption reads, “Hold on tight and spin with your bestie! Pikachu is loving it!” Pokémon lover or not, this spinning Pikachu has definitely struck the hearts of many.

Instagram

If spinning with Pikachu wasn’t enough, Ashby has loads of other fun, Pokémon-themed content on his page. For instance, play a game of ping pong with Farfetch’d, boop the loveable Eevee, or go on a joyride (or lack thereof) with Snorlax! Whatever your prerogative, there’s tons of interactive animations for the masses to enjoy.

So, if life’s got you down and you need a quick pick-me-up, take a spin with Pikachu! Not only is it a cute, interactive distraction from the daily monotony of life, but it is sure to lift (no pun intended) your spirits.

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Henry Cavill Injured During HIGHLANDER Training, Production Delayed to 2026

There can be only one… way to start production on the new Highlander reboot: Henry Cavill has to be available. At the moment he is not. It turns out that even Immortals can get hurt. Cavill injured himself while training for the film, which now won’t start shooting until 2026.Netflix

Deadline first reported Cavill sustained an injury while prepping for director Chad Stahelski’s upcoming Highlander remake. While the nature of his injury is still unknown, it’s serious enough that shooting is likely not going to commence for a few months. The Hollywood Reporter says the movie had been ready to begin principal photography this month. Now filming is likely to begin at the start of 2026.

Cavill himself confirmed his injury on his Instagram with quite an extravagant post where he dramatically quotes William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus.” The poem, of course, is about conquering all obstacles in your path.

The film, from Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists, will see Cavill take on the role of Connor MacLeod. Christopher Lambert originally played the iconic Immortal in the classic 1986 film. Plenty of other big names are joining Cavill in the movie. It will also star Russell Crowe as Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, played by Sean Connery in the original. Karen Gillan has joined to play Heather, “MacLeod’s mortal wife and the love of his life.” And Dave Bautista signed on as the film’s main villain, the infamous Immortal called The Kurgen.

20th Century Studios

This temporary delay is a big deal on its own. But it’s also slowing down the studio’s big plans for the property. Highlander is launching a whole new franchise. Stahelski will oversee both John Wick and Highlander after recently signing a new deal with Lionsgate. But you can’t launch a whole franchise if you can’t make your first film, and until Cavill can swing a sword and fight The Kurgen, that’s not possible.

But Highlander fans know MacLeod will ultimately be fine. The only “injury” that can ever really stop an Immortal is the kind that would delay the movie forever.

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Darth Vader Plays ‘Imperial March’ with Rubber Chickens

Ah, the rubber chicken. Once a staple of comedians in the Vaudeville age, it’s now the symbol of hack jokes and dated comedy. But they still manufacture these things, and someone’s buying them. Enough for someone in the year 2025 to make a video on the internet of themselves in a Darth Vader Halloween costume, “playing” rubber chickens to imitate John Williams’ iconic “Imperial March.” The video short in question comes from the YouTube channel Vinheteiro, which mostly specializes in piano playing videos. But some of the channel’s shorts are just pure silliness, like the one of Darth Vader playing with rubber chickens.

We have to admit, this video did give us a chuckle. Mainly with how accurately the toy chickens mimic John Williams’ legendary piece from The Empire Strikes Back score. As Star Wars fans, however, we do have a quibble here. Lord Vader throwing all the rubber chickens off the table after the music plays? Doesn’t feel very Darth Vader-like to us. If anything, it feels like the kind of tantrum that his grandson Kylo Ren would have in The Force Awakens. “Mad Vader” just stands there and uses the Force to choke you. He doesn’t throw things around willy-nilly like a Sith brat.

YouTube/Vinheteiro

This is not the only rubber chicken symphony from the Vinheteiro channel. They’ve also done a video with James Horner’s Academy Award-winning theme from Titanic. Even more hilariously, Bonnie Tyler’s ’80s pop hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” got the rubber chicken treatment. And we’ve got to say, it sounds pretty much spot on. But what about other John Williams scores? We can already close our eyes and hear symphonic rubber chicken versions of Superman, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and even E.T. We have a feeling some will be here before we know it.

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Where Can You Watch 28 DAYS LATER on Streaming? (And Free!)

23 years later, 28 Days Later is back in the public’s eye. Of course, for some horror fans, the movie never fell off the radar. The movie, of course, brought fresh life to the zombie genre, and its impact can be seen across our modern-day landscape in beloved properties such as The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, and more. But even for some horror die-hards, it’s been a while since they watched the movie, let alone for those fans who are in the more general pop-culture-loving crew. But with 28 Years Later leaving a big impact on current audiences, it’s natural to want to know where you can watch 28 Days Later, so you can remind yourself how the franchise began and what exactly has already taken place in its world. Luckily for you, 28 Days Later is available to watch on streaming… And it’s even available for free!Sony Pictures

Where Can You Watch 28 Days Later on Streaming?28 Days Later Is Now Streaming on Netflix

Yes, 28 Days Later is officially on Netflix for your viewing pleasure. If you have a Netflix subscription, you can watch 28 Days Later at any time. Additionally, 28 Days Later‘s sequel, 28 Years Later, will also be arriving on Netflix soon. The movie will hit streaming on September 20.

You can watch 28 Days Later on Netflix here: https://www.netflix.com/title/60027998

28 Days Later Is Also Available to Watch on Pluto TV (For Free!)

28 Days Later is also available to watch on a free streaming service called Pluto TV. Pluto TV is a FAST channel, which means you’ll get ads while watching Cillian Murphy struggle to survive in a zombie-ridden landscape, but you won’t have to pay.

The link to watch 28 Years Later on Tubi is here: https://pluto.tv/us/on-demand/movies/682ca9d27de8748e63f096a4

If you’d rather not have ads, the good news is that 28 Days Later, being over 20 years old, is not that expensive. It’ll set you back $3.99 to rent the movie on Google Play Movies, Apple TV, Prime Video, or Fandango at Home. And that way, you won’t risk the jump scare of an ad in the middle of an emotional moment. If you’d like to purchase 28 Days Later to watch again and again, it’s only 10 bucks on Prime Video at the time of this writing.

What Is 28 Days Later About?Sony Pictures

The official description of 28 Days Later shares, “An infirmary patient wakes up from a coma to an empty room … in a vacant hospital … in a deserted city. A powerful virus, which locks victims into a permanent state of murderous rage, has transformed the world around him into a seemingly desolate wasteland. Now, a handful of survivors must fight to stay alive, unaware that the worst is yet to come.”

RELATED ARTICLE

28 YEARS LATER and Counting: The Undying Influence of Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND

Although the movie is full of scares and zombies, it’s also surprisingly emotional and a beautiful dive into questions of humanity, nature, and how the component parts of the universe all fit together. It doesn’t hurt that it features a young Cillian Murphy, who absolutely nails his performance of main character, Jim.

How Does 28 Days Later Relate to 28 Years Later?

28 Days Later takes place 28 days after the outbreak of the Rage Virus in the franchise. Meanwhile, 28 Years Later takes place 28 years after the same outbreak. Both take place in the UK, which has been quarantined by the rest of the world to stop the spread of the Rage Virus. And yes, the UK is an island and can thus be easily be cut off from the rest of Europe and its surrounding nations. (We’re sharing a handy quick UK-splainer below, in case it’s helpful.)

So far, aside from taking place in the same universe and being on the same timeline, 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later have no overt connections in character or plot. But Cillian Murphy’s Jim will feature heavily in the 28 Years Later trilogy at some point. So it’s worth watching 28 Days Later as a refresher.

For more on 28 Years Later, make sure to read our review.

REad next:

28 YEARS LATER Is Not the Follow-Up You Might Expect (Review)

And if you haven’t watched 28 Days Later yet, we highly recommend you choose one of the options above and stream it immediately.

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HIM Movie Ending, Explained

Since we first saw HIM‘s trailer, we felt great excitement at the prospect of the movie. A football horror movie makes all of the sense in the world to us. The sport lends itself well to a tradition of violence, mythology, ritual, and more. And, indeed, the Justin Tipping-directed and Jordan Peele-produced film understood its assignment. The HIM movie takes on a truly wild journey. And toward the end, the movie becomes truly chaotic, bloody, and fast-paced. And so, to help you take it all in, we’ve broken down the ending of the HIM movie into all its component parts. What does the ending of HIM mean? What even happens in it? And what’s the fate of our favorite almost-football star, Cameron Cade? We have all these answers and more. Here is the HIM movie’s ending, explained.

What Literally Happened In HIM‘s Ending? We Explain to Our Best Understanding [image error]Universal Pictures

Hoo boy. HIM’s ending is a doozy. The movie itself is divided up by days that Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) spends training with the current GOAT/HIM, the Saviors’ Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), with each day bringing Cameron Cade closer to the possibility of becoming a professional football player for the “League” and representing a specific lesson Cameron learns. At this time, Cameron Cade is still recovering from a brain injury he was left with after a mysterious attack, but sees this pseudo-training camp with Isaiah White, which quickly shifts from normal to torturous, as his only way to advance in the sport. As we enter the ending sequence of HIM, we also enter into the last “Day” of the movie, Day 6 or “Sacrifice.”

Cameron Is Injected with the Blood of HIM

The ending of HIM, I would say, begins with Cameron Cade waking up from unconsciousness, a result of the intense events of the movie’s Day 5: Vision. The evening before, Cameron attended an arcane kind of welcome party with all the bigwigs of the football team… Where his health specialist was ritually murdered, potentially as punishment for warning Cameron to run away. After the drink and demons of the party, Cameron finds himself on ice, a special bag of Isaiah White’s blood, one that we were introduced to earlier in the movie, getting injected into his veins.

Universal Pictures

Cameron tears the blood out of him, and it seems like he can barely move, but his medical trainer left him one more gift. A syringe that says “Run” on it. After crawling over to it, Cameron injects the vial into him, and seemingly recovers from his numbness, but he doesn’t run.

Cameron Confronts Isaiah and Learns the Meaning of HIM

Ironically, snagging one of Isaiah’s football trophies to destroy him, Cameron confronts Isaiah about the madness of the last days. But finally, at the end of HIM, Isaiah paints us a picture of what has been happening. Basically, through a series of ostensibly demonic rituals or some kind of dealing with strange gods, powerful blood has been passed down from great athelete to athelete throughout the ages of the Saviors team history. This blood makes whichever player possesses it the golden boy of football for a period. This elaborate plan, it seems, was created and carried out by the owners and others in charge of the team.

Once injected into a player, this blood allows them to become the GOAT or “HIM.” But it turns out, there can only be one HIM at a time. And now that Cameron also has the HIM blood in his veins, he and Isaiah can’t both go on. Only one of them can continue to play football; the other one must die.

Universal pictures

But it turns out there can be more than one meaning to the “Greatest of all Time.” “What’s the opposite of a Savior?” Cameron asks Isaiah before killing him. “A nice guy.”

Cameron Rejects the Saviors’ Contract and… Kills Everyone at the End of HIMUniversal

After Cameron kills Isaiah, technically, he’s become HIM. But it seems like, as with every good demonic ritual, a contract needs to be made. As the ending of the HIM movie comes to its last act, Cameron emerges into the light and finds himself in a twisted, ritualistic ceremony yet again. Faceless cheerleaders and masked band members play him down toward the owners of the team and his agent, all of whom hungrily await his arrival.

Cameron learns that this cadre of people has been grooming him to become HIM since his youth. It’s not outright stated, but the movie implies that the team even killed his father so Cameron would continue to play football. And Cameron’s agent, the Saviors’ owner, and the rest, absolutely were responsible for his head injury, which allowed them to isolate him for this final psychopathic training camp.

Universal Pictures

Ultimately, though, Cameron sees them for what they are and the farce they’ve turned his beloved game into. At the end of HIM, he refuses to sign their contract. Instead, he proceeds to brutally murder every single person that has blood on their hands, including Isaiah White’s terrifying influencer wife, Elsie, the owner of the Saviors team, and all the other smug people at the table. It’s a symphony of blood and guts as Cameron turns the brutal precision and strength that football has imbued him with into exactly what the owners have been trying to get him to become: a primal force. The only person Cameron doesn’t literally kill at the end of HIM is his agent.

The Gods Don’t Like Not Receiving Their HIM

But it turns out, you can’t really leave a ritual half-baked. Whatever demonic forces or football gods the Saviors were messing with don’t enjoy seeing their ceremony go unfulfilled, and someone must pay. Unseen powers drag Cameron’s agent into the center of the ceremonial field and destroy him.

RELATED ARTICLE

HIM Trailer Is Gorier in 2 Minutes Than Most Horror Movies in 2 HoursWhat Does HIM Ending’s Mean?

Well, HIM‘s ending has a series of complicated meanings. However, in broad strokes, HIM‘s ending appears to examine how powerful networks of power are embedded in the sports complexes of America, particularly in football. Young athletes are consumed by their desire to play, to achieve, and to transcend, and they are pulled into a world where they put their minds and bodies through unimaginable stress. HIM‘s final scene also touches on the veins of violence that run through football. And the inequalities that plague the game, as players, especially those from marginalized communities, twist their bodies up and put themselves in incredible danger while the, typically old, white, and rich, owners of the teams profit without ever getting their hands dirty. HIM‘s ending poetically paints a picture of all these themes through Cameron’s bloody dance of extrication.

HIM‘s Ending Reveals What the Movie’s Title Means

HIM‘s ending also finally let us know what the movie’s title, HIM, refers to. As Isaiah explains, whoever has the blood of the collective GOATs, is “HIM”—the blessed player, the player who can do no wrong, the player who transcends. Once you have the blood, you become HIM.

Of course, we like to think, Cameron becoming HIM means it can also just refer to being awesome and not giving in to something that feels wrong, however tempting it might be.

Were Supernatural Forces at Work in HIM?

Yes, magic, demons, and some kind of supernatural forces were absolutely at work in HIM. Although it felt as though Cameron’s head injury, the drugs he was taking, and the absolute deprivation that he was putting himself through could have been responsible for the visions he was seeing in the movie… And that Isaiah and his wife, Elsie, could just be psychopaths, the end of HIM makes it pretty clear. It’s not just crazy people and a bad trip, but literal demons, gods, or some kind of Other force at work in the film. HIM is a supernatural horror, and we love it.

Universal PicturesWhat Happens to Cameron Cade After the End of the Movie?

Of course, the ending of HIM might leave you with a few questions about what happens to Cameron Cade at the end of the movie. But only a few of them will have answers.

Does Cameron Cade Die at the End of HIM?

No. Although the final sequence of the movie does take place in a setting that echoes “heaven” a little bit, Cameron Cade appears to be alive and well as the credits roll. Cameron does not die in HIM.

Does Cameron Cade Get to Play Professional Football At the End of HIM?

The million-dollar question. We’d like to think that despite the head injury, the murderers, and the blood rituals, Cameron Cade does get to play professional football with some less insane team after the end of HIM. But sadly, we just don’t know.

Does Cameron Cade Go to Jail at the End of HIM?

Again, we’d like to think he doesn’t. There were witnesses to his murders, but do any of those people really want to start explaining how they were a part of a demonic cult in the middle of the desert? Hopefully not. The worst part about being part of intense supernatural events is that it’s tough to explain afterward. But with any luck, the demons will clean up after themselves, and no one will bother Cameron.

What Does it Mean That HIM’s blood Is Still Inside Cameron?Universal Pictures

Cameron told Isaiah that having the blood of HIM inside of him was cheating. And yet, it still seemed like players’ bodies wore out even with the blood. And Isaiah must have still lost SOME games. Did having the HIM blood really do or mean anything? And since Cameron didn’t complete his part of the ritual, what repercussions will there be that the blood is still inside of him? Will the football god strike Cameron down or lift him up? We guess we’ll have to wait for the sequel for that. Kidding! Some questions are best left unanswered.

RELATED ARTICLE

HIM Tackles Hero Worship and the Body Horror of Football in Brutal Fashion (Review)

Hopefully, that helped you parse the ending of HIM. Now get back to the theater and watch it again. Ready, set, hike!

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HIM Highlights an Important Team From Real Life Football History

I nerd about many things, like Doctor Who, plants, and horror movies. But one thing that really brings me joy is when a TV show or film infuses real life history into a fictional world. Whether it is the Match Girls’ strike in Enola Holmes 2 or the travel guide for Black people featured in Lovecraft Country, it is an opportunity to teach viewers something new. In HIM, the football horror movie starring Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers, we get a real life history lesson about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s impact on the sport. 

In the film, Isaiah gives Cam a quick history lesson about football. He mentions the Carlisle boys and how they dominated college football decades before the sport became a global powerhouse. They would beat white schools with moves that were so clever that the sport tried to say they were illegal, like the forward pass, only for those same moves to become a part of how the game is played today. Of course, their history is largely not included in what most people are taught about football’s origin story. And, that history my friends is the truth. 

Universal pictures The Carlisle Boys From HIM Are an Important Piece of Real Life Football History 

In the late 1870s, the US government started an off-reservation boarding school in Carlisle, PA for Native American and First Nations people. (Yes, I know. I know. Smh.) Less than two decades later, in 1893, the school developed a football team that competed alongside teams from prestigious schools like Princeton, Yale, and Penn State. Their playbook gave rise to many trick plays that are common today like the hand-off fake and overhand spiral throw. Legends like Pop Warner and Jim Thorpe, who played for the Carlisle football team, were a part of its short yet impactful legacy.

Needless to say that people who weren’t Carlisle fans were not happy about this group of Native American players stomping all over white teams. Those wins were a glorious act of defiance and perhaps vengeance against those who had stolen their land while also contending with the abhorrent “savage” stereotypes in a sport that hinges on physical contact. The school eventually closed in 1918 at the end of World War I and mostly faded from history books for obvious reasons. 

Why Justin Tipping Included the Carlisle Football Story in HIM

Now, director Justin Tipping is bringing the story of the Carlisle football team to the masses in HIM. “I did a lot of research when I got this movie,” Tipping told Nerdist. “I had known about the beginnings of the sport being tied to military and Civil War vets coming back and thinking their sons weren’t masculine enough and using war tactics to create this game. But when I kept going farther back when I was doing research, I discovered there are accurate historical facts that back up [that] the Carlisle Indian boys were undersized and they had to come up with creative ways to try to beat the boys at Yale… the hardest part was getting all this information across in a minute…”

He continued, “But Pop Warner was one of the coaches at Carlisle that perfected the spiral forward pass with the Native American boys. And it felt like this film, in terms of taking on an institution or systemic haunting of people that just are going to use you for profit and move you through a commodity, I would be remiss not to include that story and those voices and that perspective because that’s where it was coming from… It’s almost a warning. I think in my mind when I was making that scene, [Isaiah’s] telling [Cam], ‘Don’t be a mascot,’ but also aware that he’s within a paradigm and structure that is inescapable.”  

That small moment is just a drop in the well of how HIM explores so many themes about using athlete bodies in a consumerist manner and why people agree to it. Hopefully, this inclusion of the Carlisle football team will honor their legacy.

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What Does the Spinning Football Mean in HIM? We Asked Justin Tipping to Explain

HIM spins the horror genre on its head with a story that tackles our collective obsession with professional football and the brutality that its players endure for our entertainment. And, because it exists in the Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw universe, there are moments in this movie that are up for wide interpretation and dissection. One of them happens very early on in the film when its protagonist Cam (Tyriq Withers) throws a football. The ball lands upright on the ground and spins continuously, causing Cam to stare at it in confusion until he’s struck on the head by someone in a costume. It’s the beginning of his twisted journey into the world of Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). 

What Does the Spinning Football Mean in HIM? Justin Tipping Weighs InMonkeypaw Productions

What is the significance of that football spinning in HIM? It is certainly not something that would normally happen in our world. We find out that Cam has gone through several head injuries, so it could’ve been spinning less time than what we witness onscreen. He increasingly becomes more of an unreliable narrator in the film, after all. Or, to quote OJ from Nope, maybe HIM’s spinning football is a sort of “bad miracle,” a phenomenal moment that is actually a harbinger for something disastrous. 

There’s also the possibility that it is a representation of the mental spiral that Cam will endure throughout the events of the film. Like the stitches in a football, Cam has staples in his head, an injury that causes the lines between reality and fantasy to blur. One thing is for sure: director Justin Tipping isn’t gonna tell you what to make of that scene. 

“I’m hoping it’s an open interpretation,” Tipping told Nerdist. “… I guess that’s another moment that’s very hard to calibrate tonally, but you’re in the Monkeypaw universe. So it walks the line of ‘this is just a bad miracle’ or ‘something else is at play.’” 

So, let the theories and analysis commence. Justin Tipping can’t wait to hear your thoughts about HIM and the spinning football conundrum.

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PEACEMAKER’s Sasha Bordeaux Reveals Comics-Inspired Superpowers

The character of Sasha Bordeaux, played by Sol Rodriguez in season two of Peacemaker, has appeared mainly as an agent of A.R.G.U.S., answering only to director Rick Flag Sr. She didn’t seem to have all that much in common with her DC Comics counterpart, aside from working for a fictional government agency. But in episode five, an action scene revealed that Sasha is actually a cyborg. She uses enhanced cybernetic vision as part of an operation to capture Christopher Smith. This cyborg reveal is actually something very in keeping with the character’s comic book origins, and may hint toward her ties to the DCU Batman.

DC Studios/HBO/DC ComicsSasha Bordeaux’s Origins in Batman Comics

Sasha Bordeaux, created by writer Greg Rucka and artist Shawn Martinbrough, first appeared in Detective Comics #751, back in 2000. She was a former Secret Service agent who became a private contractor. WayneCorp CEO Lucius Fox hired her to be Bruce Wayne’s personal security. Unlike in The Dark Knight trilogy, Fox was unaware of Bruce Wayne’s secret identity at the time in the comics. Bruce does his best to hide his true identity from Bordeaux, but being a good agent, it’s not long before she discovers the truth of his late-night whereabouts.

DC Comics

Once she discovers the secret, Batman decides to train her even further. Eventually, she goes out on patrol with him, and the two fall in love. Although Bruce Wayne being Bruce Wayne, he still dates other women, among them Selina Kyle. When Bruce Wayne is framed by the assassin David Cain (father of Batgirl/Cassandra Cain) for the murder of his ex, Vesper Fairchild, Sasha Bordeaux is also implicated and arrested. All of this takes place in the 2002 Bruce Wayne: Murderer? storyline, which ran through the Batman titles. While in prison, another prisoner attacks Sasha, nearly killing her. The government agency Checkmate saves her, then fakes her death, and she soon becomes an operative working for them.

Sasha Bordeux Becomes a Cyborg During Infinite CrisisDC Comics

Because of her new life as an agent of Checkmate, she tells Bruce that they can’t ever be together. Yet she still harbors feelings for him, and secretly gives him intel on government operations that could derail the superhero community. During the events of 2005’s Infinite Crisis, the A.I. known as OMAC sends one of his drones to attack her, and it impales her. But it didn’t kill her, instead spreading its programming into her bloodstream, transforming her into a cyborg. With her new abilities, she helps Batman and the Justice League heroes to stop the OMAC army, and becomes the Black Queen in the Checkmate organization. As Black Queen, she becomes romantically involved with the hero Mister Terrific, also part of Checkmate.

The DCU Future of Sasha Bordeaux DC Comics

We now know that Sasha Bordeaux is a cyborg in Peacemaker. Certainly, her higher-up position in A.R.G.U.S. echoes her role in Checkmate in the comics. But how much of her past from the comics translates to James Gunn’s DCU? In the DCU, Economos reveals she was injured in a plane crash, and A.R.G.U.S. replaced half her body with machinery. So, that part differs. Unless it was a WayneCorp plane. But we think it’s entirely possible that she once dated our (currently) unknown DCU Batman in the past. And maybe even Mister Terrific as well, who was a big part of Superman. We know that there are lots of surprises in store for the final episodes of Peacemaker season two. And we may find out how this version of the character connects, or doesn’t, to some famous DC heroes.

Peacemaker season two drops new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max.

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DC’s Brand New BATMAN #1 Issue Sells Over 500k Copies

DC Comics is having a banner year. Beginning last year, the brand new Absolute imprint, which rebooted the characters in grittier, darker, and totally different ways, proved a massive hit. The initiative began with Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman #1 and went on to feature ongoing titles of all the major DC heroes. Each of those #1s sold well into the hundreds of thousands and have continued to clean up in 2025. For much of the year, as well, Batman #158 sat high atop the single-issue sales charts. That issue saw DC chief Jim Lee return to drawing duties for a sequel to his and Jeph Loeb’s landmark Hush saga.

But now, as we saw in The Hollywood Reporter, DC’s brand-brand new Batman #1 has crossed the 500,000 issue mark. This overtakes #158 and is unlikely to face much competition before year’s end.

DC Comics

Batman #1 represents only the fourth time in the title’s 84-year history to restart with a new number one. This new run comes from writer Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) and longtime DC artist Jorge Jimenez. According to DC, this title “reimagines Gotham City with a superhero-forward tone, a sleek new Batmobile, and a vivid blue-and-gray costume that signals a shift in both style and storytelling.”

The first printing of Batman #1 has sold out in print format. A second printing will hit stores October 15. This good news for Bats comes ahead of Batman Day, the IP holiday which will take place September 20. And that’s not even the last Batman comic with a lot of hype behind it to come out this year. DC and Marvel’s team-up Deadpool/Batman #1 just came out as well. Now all we need is DC Studios to put the Dark Knight in something and we’ll have everything we’ve ever wanted.

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 Letterboxd.

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THE BATMAN – PART II Features Villains ‘Never Done in a Movie’

Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part II is finally getting ready to go into production early next year. Reports are coming out that the film is aiming for an early spring 2026 production start. But we know very little about Reeves’ follow-up to 2022’s The Batman. All we know is that Robert Pattinson has read the script, which is under airtight security. But podcaster Josh Horowitz did get one big nugget of information out of Reeves at the Emmys red carpet. Via Variety, we learned that Reeves told Horowitz that the sequel would feature villains that “have never really been done in a movie before.”DC Comics/Warner Bros.

So, time to put on our tinfoil nerd hats. With nine live-action Batman films in existence (eleven if you count team-up films like Batman v Superman and Justice League), most of Batman’s major villains have appeared on the big screen at this point. Most, but certainly not all. Reeves has suggested that the villains in The Batman – Part II have ties to Bruce Wayne’s past. That puts Hush, as well as the Court of Owls, at the top of our list. Both are relatively recent additions to DC Comics Batman lore, first appearing in 2002 and 2011, respectively. We have a strong feeling it’s one (or both) of them. Especially as they are more “grounded” villains, and have deep ties to the Wayne family.

Another possibility is the mad psychologist, Dr. Hugo Strange. There were rumors last year that he was going to appear in The Penguin, but that never happened. Maybe Reeves is saving him for The Batman – Part II? Deathstroke feels too comic-booky and superpowered for Reeves’ mob-ridden Gotham, and probably fits in more with James Gunn’s DCU. Black Mask is another iconic Bat villain who has never appeared in a Batman film, but he did show up in Birds of Prey, so that might count against him. Whomever the villain (or villains) may be, we certainly hope they don’t forget Penguin and Riddler, who stole the show in the previous film. Reeves definitely left those characters alive for a reason.

The Batman – Part II hits theaters on October 1, 2027.

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