Month: May 2022

Star Wars fans are going to have to wait a little while longer for a new season of The Mandalorian. After taking a year off to make room for the spinoff series, The Book of the Boba Fett, the adventures of Mando and Grogu will miss their normal fall release schedule as Lucasfilm essentially confirmed rumors that the flagship series will slip into next year.

During a panel at the Star Wars Celebration event, The Mandalorian Season 3 release date was revealed to be February 2023. As of this writing, there is no specific date, but it would appear that the series experienced some delays from both the pandemic and star Pedro Pascal‘s increasingly busy schedule. (He recently filmed the HBO series The Last of Us based on the popular Playstation video game.) The lack of a teaser also suggests the new season still has a ways to go on production.

For fans looking to get their Mando/Grogu fix, the two were prominently featured in the back half of The Book of Boba Fett. In fact, the episodes are required viewing going into The Mandalorian Season 3. In the episodes Mando, real name: Din Djarin, is excommunicated from what’s left of his clan after revealing that he removed his helmet. On top of that, he’s in possession of the legendary Darksaber, which makes him a target for other Mandalorians who seek the blade’s power.

Meanwhile, Grogu has forsaken his Jedi training and chosen to be with Din instead of learning the ways of the Force from Luke Skywalker. The two are now locked on a collision course to the planet Mandalore where they will either be embraced into the warrior race, or viewed as its greatest threat.

The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2, along with The Book of Boba Fett, are available for streaming on Disney+.

(Via Variety)

(Spoilers for Ozark will be found below.)

Netflix’s Ozark ended surprisingly (and shatteringly) in some regards. Although it really wasn’t shocking that they chose to kill off Ruth Langmore, it was pretty wild that the entire Byrde family lived. Showrunner Chris Munday defended this development by likening the Byrdes’ eventual resilience to that of capitalism, and of course, there’s plenty of people who wouldn’t mind seeing them eventually fall, which is what might fuel an appetite for a spinoff. Mundy previously said there’s “definitely” room for that (with definitely no Ruth), although nothing is set in stone even though it’s been discussed.

At the time, Mundy clarified that any spinoff “would be its own distinct thing.” Yet Byrde patriarch/sometimesdirector Jason Bateman’s got a new Variety feature interview, and he sounds like he’s open to the possibility of more (episodes or a movie), even though it really doesn’t sound like anything with the Byrdes would happen again. But you never know, so he’s still here for it:

Any job or work environment that was positive, and where you loved the people you were working with and you loved the product you were creating, you’d love to return to it. It’s hard to maintain something that is really pleasurable all the time. And we had that with “Ozark.” So I’d do it again in a second, because what we had just doesn’t happen often.

Well, I wouldn’t mind seeing a followup with Wendy and Marty in counseling, after she saved his butt countless times but still manages to be pretty insufferable. You gotta admire Wendy’s game, though, and Netflix probably wouldn’t mind seeing those Ozark viewing numbers again. And hey, maybe change the color palette to purples or reds next time? That’d eff everyone up.

(Via Variety)

In today’s episode of “this sounds like a Mad Libs sentence,” the Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon will star alongside 2002’s most popular rapper Fat Joe in a Fox animated workplace comedy. Honestly, this could work!

Variety confirmed that the duo will play the lead voices in The Movers, a half-hour comedy that will explore New York City through the eyes of the 78th-ranked moving company in Manhattan. Considering there are probably 867 moving companies in that general area, maybe they won’t be so bad!

The story is based on an original idea from Sarandon’s son Jack Henry Robbins, who is credited as a co-creator and executive producer alongside Dannielle Uhlarik. The series will be produced by Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment, which also produces the hit show Bob’s Burgers.

Fat Joe will also serve as an executive producer on the project. Known for his catchy hip hop tracks from the early 2000s, the rapper has appeared in a slew of movies and tv shows over the years including Happy Feet, Night School, and Spike Lee’s Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. Most recently, he has been the host of the podcast The Fat Joe Show.

Sarandon has been working on a second Fox series, a country music drama called Monarch which is set to premiere this fall and fix the Nashville-sized hole in the hearts of country music fans everywhere.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, also known as simply Ellen, debuted on September 8, 2003. Today, though, the daytime talk show’s run comes to an end with the airing of the final episode. At the time of the show’s debut, Billie Eilish was a few months away from turning two years old, a fact that came up when Eilish sat down with DeGeneres for an interview on today’s series finale.

Unlike most talk show interviews, understandably, this one ended up being mostly about the host instead of the guest. Regardless of DeGeneres’ attempts to steer the conversation towards Eilish, the singer could help but bring it back to DeGeneres, reflecting on how the show has been around for as long as she can remember, making her daytime TV debut on Ellen, and the love she has for DeGeneres.

Eilish has popped up on Ellen multiple times over the years, first with her debut on the October 10, 2018 episode when she performed “You Should See Me In A Crown.” She also appeared on the April 1, 2019 episode and the May 11, 2021 episode, as well as, of course, today’s show.

Elsewhere during the episode, Pink stopped by to perform “What About Us,” one of DeGeneres’ favorite songs. Jennifer Aniston, who was DeGeneres’ first guest on the show’s debut episode, also had a chat on the series finale.

Check out clips from the episode above and below.

Swedish House Mafia is undeniably a supergroup, and the trio’s gifts extend beyond the boards and line notes. The talented musicians are officially partnering with IKEA, as announced back in September 2021, to provide three versions of the iconic FRAKTA bag focused on musicians and creators. One bag is catered toward cords and cables, the second can carry up to 100 vinyl records, and the final is the traditional FRAKTA bag.

The three bags, set to arrive this coming fall, will all be in Swedish House Mafia’s signature color black. The collection will also include over 20 furniture pieces, interior products, and home styling accessories for “creators with limited means but unlimited creativity. ” The furniture pieces are set to be revealed on June 9 at IKEA Festival during Milan Design Week.

Swedish House Mafia is coming off of the successful release of their latest album Paradise Again this past April led by singles “Moth To A Flame” featuring The Weeknd and “One Symphony” featuring Jacob Mulhrad. The album also features ASAP Rocky, Ty Dolla Sign, Sting, and 070 Shake. They are coming off an exciting time headlining Coachella for two weekends. Now the group is not only providing quality sounds but useful products for their peers.

Check out the three FRAKTA bags above.

Already in the midst of his 133-date The Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, Weird Al Yankovic just won’t quit. The comedian, who will be played by Daniel Radcliffe in the upcoming biopic that he penned (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), has now announced a one-of-a-kind graphic novel where illustrators and cartoonists have visually interpreted 20 of Weird Al’s iconic parody pop songs.

“It’s such an incredible honor to see my song lyrics brought to life by some of my all-time favorite cartoonists and illustrators,” Yankovic said in a statement. “I’ve actually been playing the long game — the only reason I spent four decades in the music business is so that one day I could have my very own graphic novel.”

Out November 23rd via Z2 comics, the graphic novel is dubbed The Illustrated Al: The Songs of “Weird Al” Yankovic. The book comes in a standard hardcover edition, a “Deluxe Edition” with additional art prints, a record player slip mat and trading cards, and the ultimate “Super Deluxe Pack” which also includes coasters and a Yankovic-branded mini-accordion.

Some of the artists featured in The Illustrated Al include Bill Plympton, Aaron Augenblick, Peter Bagge, Steve Chanks, Danny Hellman, Felipe Sobreiro, Gideon Kendall, Michael Kupperman, Wes Hargis, and others. The book’s cover art is by Drew Friedman and Mike & Laura Allred, and the foreword was written by comedian Emo Philips.

Pre-order The Illustrated Al here and check out the “Super Deluxe Pack” below.

Warning: this Star Wars battle contains zero Ewoks. A Star Wars superfan (not confirmed but assumed given the context) made a short film depicting a battle to defeat the Empire that was not seen in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. The short film shows X-Wings for the Rebellion battling to defeat the Empire over the city-planet Coruscant. The animated short film, which takes place after the Rebellion defeats the Empire at Endor as seen in Return of the Jedi, was directed by Star Wars superfan and X-Wing fanatic Christopher Parks who shared the film on YouTube account NobleEngine.

The filmmaker described the project in the YouTube description:

This is a passion project of about 4 years in the making. I was a big fan of the X-Wing PC games as a kid and also really enjoyed Michael Stackpole’s X-Wing book series. I’ve always had an interest in those New Republic adventures which is chiefly why I decided to make this short. I hope you all like it!

The primary software and workflow consisted of an animation pipeline in Blender that would be exported and rendered in Houdini using the GPU renderer Redshift. Final compositing was finished in After Effects.

Apart from a few kitbash sets, all assets were modeled and textured (Substance Painter) from scratch since the making of the spaceships is part of the fun.

You may not have heard of Kidd Kenn before, but thanks to the doors opened by openly queer artists like Lil Nas X and Tyler The Creator, you’re likely to hear a whole lot more from him soon enough. Hailing from Chicago, the 19-year-old rapper makes his UPROXX Sessions debut with “Body,” his self-praising new single. It’s a song he says he made “so people could feel confident about their body, any color, any shape, any size.”

Signed to Island Records at just 16 years old, Kidd Kenn has been buzzing on social media ever since, releasing a string of fan-favorite EPs and collaborating with stars like Rico Nasty and Cupcakke. He’s also received co-signs from Cardi B, Latto, and Nicki Minaj, and became the first openly gay rapper to appear in the BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher. Along with Saucy Santana, he’s helping pave the way to a more inclusive future in hip-hop music.

Watch Kidd Kenn perform “Body” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Kellyanne Conway has been heavily promoting her new book, Here’s the Deal, about her time working with Donald Trump. However, unlike most recent tell-all books, Conway has been reluctant to trash Trump. In fact, earlier in the week, she stopped by The View, where she was booed for saying she wished Trump won the 2020 election and accused Joe Biden of “hiding in the basement” during his campaign. Despite speaking glowingly of her old employer, Conway is facing his wrath for committing the grave, cardinal sin of conceding that he lost.

According to Conway’s book, she claims that, unlike other advisors, she told Trump that he lost the 2020 election. In a new post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump blasted Conway’s narrative and said that if she had told him he lost to Biden, he would’ve sent her packing. Via The Daily Beast:

“Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election. If she had I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer – she would have been wrong – could go back to her crazy husband,” Trump wrote, referring his former adviser and campaign manager’s fervently anti-Trump husband George Conway. “Writing books can make people say some very strange things.”

As most people remember, the Conways were an interesting situation during Trump’s administration. While Kellyanne worked dutifully for the former president and repeatedly defended him in the press, her husband George was a vocal critic who often lambasted Trump on Twitter. According to Kellyanne’s book, Trump got so upset by George’s mean tweets that he whined to Melania about it. Reportedly, Melania told Trump, “We don’t control our husbands — and you don’t control us!”

Provided that exchange actually happened — a big if considering everyone involved — we’re guessing Melania’s advice didn’t go over well.

(Via The Daily Beast)

“Ozymandias” is the greatest episode of television of all-time.

That’s according to IMDb users, at least. The Rian Johnson-directed, Moira Walley-Beckett-written season five episode of Breaking Bad (which we were lucky enough to see being filmed) is the only episode of any show with a perfect 10 out of 10 rating on the online database. Other episodes have gotten close to matching it, however, including the midseason finale of Better Call Saul.

“Plan and Execution” has a sparkling 9.9 rating, putting it in the top 22. In fact, that 9.9 is a feat only three episodes of Breaking Bad pulled off: the aforementioned “Ozymandias,” season four’s “Face Off” (the title should be a clue for what happens in that episode), and season five’s “Felina,” one of four series finales in the top-25. The others: “Victory and Death” from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, “Re;” from Code Geass; and “Everyone’s Waiting” from Six Feet Under. (In case you were wondering, “Made in America” has a 9.3.) Now, you could argue that there’s recency bias to the 9.9 rating for “Plan and Execution,” and it could drop to a 9.8 or — god forbid — a 9.7. I would agree with you.

But also: it’s a really good episode of television (although I still prefer “Chicanery”).

Here are the highest-rated episodes of Better Call Saul:

1. “Plan and Execution” (9.9)
2. “Chicanery,” “Bagman,” “Bad Choice Road,” “Rock and Hard Place” (9.7)
3. “Winner” (9.5)

And the highest-rated episodes of Breaking Bad:

1. “Ozymandias” (10.0)
2. “Face Off” and “Felina” (9.9)
3. “To’hajiilee” (9.8)

The final season of Better Call Saul continues on July 11.