Month: January 2024

Over the past few years, athletic apparel companies have increasingly looked outside of the world of sports for endorser partnerships. Where once Nike blew its entire annual basketball sneaker budget to sign Michael Jordan, companies like Adidas, Champion, Nike, Puma, and Reebok have looked to entertainers like Pharrell, Saweetie, Travis Scott, Rihanna, and Cardi B to help move merch to fans who follow their faves’ moves like coaches watching game tape.

The latest rapper to secure a deal with Nike appears to be Megan Thee Stallion, who teased her upcoming collection with the Swoosh via her performance at New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Wearing a purple jumpsuit and matching sneakers, the Nike influence was subtle — aside from a conspicuously placed logo on the front — but Meg boosted the hype by posting some behind-the-scenes photos and videos on her Instagram. The caption tells fans to “stay tuned for the drop,” while a detailed closeup of her soles shows a custom “Hottie” brandmark. Unlike some rapper partnerships, though, this one makes perfect sense; Meg has long centered her workout routines on social media, making her a good fit for a sportswear partnership.

Meg joins two of hip-hop’s biggest names in her collaboration with NIke: Drake and Travis Scott, who both have collections with the sneaker giant. While Drake’s Nocta brand focuses on high-end sportwear, Travis’ sneaker collabs hae been among the most coveted releases in recent years. According to Kicks Finder, Meg’s collection will include the bodysuit, a jacket, sports bras, shorts, and a tee shirt… although the sneakers are curiously absent from the report. This could mean they were a one-off for Thee Stallion herself (like a Player Edition basketball shoe) or that Nike has other plans for a Megan Thee Stallion sneaker.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

With Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire now available for streaming on Netflix, Zack Snyder fans are chomping at the bit for the next installment in the director’s new sci-fi epic: Part Two: The Scargiver. Fortunately, the release date isn’t too long of a wait.

The Scargiver will start streaming on April 19, 2024, and Netflix already pumped up fans by dropping a trailer on Christmas morning. The film will reportedly wrap up the story that began in A Child of Fire, but Snyder has already hinted that the burgeoning sci-fi series could expand with spinoff series, films, or possibly both.

Here’s the official synopsis:

REBEL MOON – PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER continues the epic saga of Kora and the surviving warriors as they prepare to sacrifice everything, fighting alongside the brave people of Veldt, to defend a once peaceful village, a newfound homeland for those who have lost their own in the fight against the Motherworld. On the eve of their battle the warriors must face the truths of their own pasts, each revealing why they fight. As the full force of the Realm bears down on the burgeoning rebellion, unbreakable bonds are forged, heroes emerge, and legends are made.

You can watch the first official teaser below:

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver arrives April 19, 2024 on Netflix. Part One: A Child of Fire is now available for streaming.

Olivia Rodrigo recently appeared in a roundtable of fellow songwriters for The Hollywood Reporter, which included Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Jon Batiste, Cynthia Erivo, and Julia Michaels. During their group discussion, they were asked to recall the first album or song that they bought. Rodrigo praised another musician who inspired her a ton — especially very early on.

She goes on to describe the feeling of discovering Lorde through her album Pure Heroine and her hit song “Royals,” which is now over ten years old.

“I remember hearing that song on the radio at the time,” Rodrigo shared. “It was one of those pinch me moments where you always remember, a snapshot memory, like, ‘Oh my God, what is this?!’ Changes the trajectory of your life.”

“I remember listening to it as I first started writing songs and just being blown away by her lyrics that are just about being a teenager living in the suburbs,” she added. “I just remember never hearing my life be put into a song like that where it just made being young and doing these seemingly unimportant things feel so sacred.”

As for some of the other roundtable answers, Erivo listed Brandy’s Never Say Never, Dua Lipa was tied between Alicia Keys’ Songs In A Minor and Nelly Furtado’s Whoa Nelly, and Eilish mentioned Awolnation’s “Sail.”

Check out Rodrigo talking about Lorde around 6:50 in the full roundtable video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign‘s collaborative album Vultures may take a little longer to arrive. Originally announced last year, Vultures has seen numerous delays. Its most recent release date was slated for January 12, but it looks like listeners are going to have to wait a bit longer.

Yesterday, West’s frequent collaborator Malik Yusef shared a photo of Ty, featuring the singer recording vocals for the album, per HipHopDX.

A fan commented on the post, asking, “what song is he recording for?” Yusef replied, “all of em.”

The same fan asked if Ty is “redoing verses or making new ones?” Yusef answered: “both.”

Earlier that day, Forbes reported that “a representative for West explained that the album is not coming out on that date, and, for the moment, doesn’t have a release date.”

Yusef also weighed in on this, when a fan asked “Is that Forbes article legit?” The former GOOD Music rapper simply replied, “Naw.”

Though it’s not clear which parts of the article to which Malik was referring. At the time of writing, neither West nor Ty have issued a direct update on Vultures.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Like all Zack Snyder movies, Rebel Moon has proved to be a decisive release from the director. Despite overwhelmingly negative reviews, the film brought in significant views for Netflix during its holiday weekend debut.

However, like all Snyder movies, there is a director’s cut on the way. In fact, an extended version of Rebel Moon was baked in from the start. Snyder revealed back in August 2023 that Netflix gave him the freedom to craft extended cuts for both Rebel Moon installments, so naturally, fans are curious how those versions will improve on the original films.

Unfortunately, a release date for the Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire director’s cut has not been announced. There were uncorroborated reports of the extended version arriving before the release of Part Two: The Scargiver in April, but nothing has been confirmed as of this writing.

Paul Tassi at Forbes speculates that release strategy will no longer be the case because it might encourage fans to skip the original version of The Scargiver and wait for the director’s cut. (Although, that could happen anyway given A Child of Fire’s tepid reviews.)

As for what to expect from the A Child of Fire director’s cut, here’s what Snyder told Tudum:

I think it’s a legitimate extended universe version. You really get to see a lot. It’s just more painted-in all the way. The director’s [cut] is a settle-in deep dive, which I have notoriously done throughout my career. I don’t know how I got into this director’s cut thing, but what I will say about it is that, for me, the director’s cuts have always been something I had to fight for in the past and nobody wanted it. It was this bastard child that I was always trying to put together because they felt like there was a deeper version.

“It’s really a revelation because it gives that second kick at the can for big fans, like a real discovery that they would not [otherwise] get,” Snyder said. “I’m really excited about it!”

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire is now streaming on Netflix.

(Via Forbes, Tudum)

Among my many faults as a human being is the fact that I can’t remember my first celebrity crush. But I’m guessing it was either Phoebe Cates in Gremlins or the lady gremlin from Gremlins 2: The New Batch. One of those is probably accurate. Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling not only remembers his first celebrity crush, proving that he is more talented, more handsome, and has a better memory than me, he remembers the exact moment when he felt ~things~ for the first time. It involves the Muppets.

The Barbie star was asked by W magazine to name his first cinematic crush. “I saw Raquel Welch on The Muppet Show when I was young,” he replied. “She was dressed like a cavewoman. She was dancing with a big puppet spider, and I liked it. I liked it more than anything I’d ever liked before.” Some people had the One Million Years B.C. poster; others rewatched The Muppet Show on VHS.

Here’s the musical number that influenced Gosling to make La La Land (I assume):

When Welch passed away last year, she received a tribute post from the Muppets’ Facebook account. It reads, “We’ll never forget our remarkable friend Raquel Welch, one of our favorite guests on The Muppet Show. From dancing with a giant spider to inspiring Fozzie Bear, and duetting with Miss Piggy, Raquel could do it all!” We should all be so lucky.

(Via W magazine)

Amazon’s Reacher series has already been confirmed to have more longevity than the Tom Cruise movies of yesteryear. Shortly before the ridiculously (and understandably) successful show returned for Season 2, star Alan Ritchson confirmed that he was already filming the third season. He even announced this news from the set.

Currently, the show’s still parceling out the second season on a weekly release schedule, but that early renewal is a source of TV viewer optimism. While Reacher and his old Army unit work to take down whomever has targeted the Special Investigators, we can at least rest assured that there shall be more on the way. Let’s discuss what has been revealed about the third round so far:

Plot

The Amazon series wisely departed from the second Tom Cruise Reacher film by hopping ahead (from the mutual first-book, Killing Floor, adaptations) all the way to Lee Child’s eleventh Jack Reacher novel, Bad Luck and Trouble. The show had preemptively ensured that this leap would flow smoothly by inserting Army Master Sergeant Francis Neagley (Maria Sten) into the first season for a hot minute or few (in the source material, she didn’t actually surface until the sixth book). That way, the audience wouldn’t find it too far fetched for her to put out a flare for her old Army boss when members of their unit began to mysteriously be tossed out of helicopters by Robert Patrick.

Where will the third season go? There’s been no definitive clues yet, other than knowing that there are 27 other Jack Reacher books to choose from, and the show will probably continue to ignore Never Go Back, since that was the subject of the second, not-too-successful Cruise movie. Ritchson recently confirmed only that he couldn’t say much yet, but that there will be “a new world” for the brick sh*thouse to confront in Season 3. We have already seen him focus on family and his past, but we will see Reacher get “sucked into” something more random. Here’s what Ritchson told Comic Book:

“I will say there’s a lot of classic Reacher stories which are just adventures that he gets sucked into in a big way,” Ritchson told us. “And we get to enjoy Reacher in a new world. It may not have anything to do with family, with his past, he’s just living that adventure out and that’s kind of the direction that we’ve gone and it seems to really be working.”

Hmmm. As long as the man is still smashing bad-guy faces and eating the junkiest food imaginable while (amusingly) staying ripped, viewers will surely be up for the leading man’s new location and challenges.

Cast

Alan Ritchson will obviously be back as The Big Guy. This next season will presumably feature a whole new cast of supporting players, but of course, no one would be upset if the show somehow worked Willa Fitzgerald’s Roscoe back into the show. There’s no telling whether that’s possible, especially considering that we don’t know which book the season will cover and whether she could feasibly be written into that particular story. It’d also be swell if we could see Neagly (Maria Sten) make at least a one-off appearance in each season, but that’s (at this point) wishful thinking as well.

Release Date

We can expect things to happen relatively quickly, given that Season 1 debuted in February 2022, and Season 2 followed in December 2023, even with massive Hollywood strikes swallowing up several months in the interim. Since Season 3 is already filming, one can bet that Amazon wants to hit this show hard and fast, and probably for as many seasons as possible.

Trailer

Naturally, no trailer exists for a third season yet. However, there’s never a bad time to rewatch the recent clip of Reacher (and friends) beating the hell out of a biker gang that asked for it.

So far, a highlight of the set of albums that are expected to be released in 2024 is Kid Cudi’s Insano. As fans wait on that, they may be wondering:

Will Kid Cudi go on tour in 2024?

It appears so, yes.

Currently, Cudi’s website does not list any upcoming tour dates, and none have been officially announced elsewhere. But, on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday (January 2), somebody asked Cudi if there will be a world tour in support of the album. He responded, “Yes!! Startin in June!”

Aside from his own tour dates, Cudi is set to open a couple of shows for Red Hot Chili Peppers this summer. In December, Cudi said that in support of his upcoming memoir, he plans to do “a little tour to bookstores around the globe doing signings.”

Meanwhile, another fan asked Cudi yesterday about when he’ll reveal the Insano tracklist and Cudi replied, “Day before the album. Features will be hidden. Ull discover when it drops.”

Somebody else asked Cudi what makes Insano stand out from his previous albums and he answered, “None of my albums was I truly this happy. None. Thats why this one means more than anything else. I went in surrounded by light. I hope u enjoy it.”

One comic book property is enough for Steven Yeun.

Contrary to reports, the Invincible actor will not star in Marvel’s Thunderbolts. No reason was given, although it could be a scheduling issue. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “like many tentpoles, Thunderbolts was struck by last year’s dual writers and actors strikes, which put schedules in disarray across Hollywood. Thunderbolts was initially slated for July 2024, but was pushed back a year to July 2025 and has yet to begin filming.”

Yeun was reportedly set to play Sentry, as revealed by Invincible and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. “I don’t think this is a spoiler or anything that will get anybody in trouble,” he said. “We’ll see. I don’t care. I don’t work for Marvel. What are they going to do to me?”

Even without Yeun, who starred in one of the best television shows of 2023 (Beef), Thunderbolts still has a stacked cast, including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Harrison “What’s a Red Hulk?” Ford, and Ayo Edebiri in an undisclosed role. The biggest shame about Yeun no longer being involved with the film is how fun he and Edebiri would have been on the press tour together. We need to hear his Irish accent.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Ciara is of course married to football star Russell Wilson, but it turns out that’s actually not her only familial connection to the sports world: In a new clip from the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Ciara finds out that she is related to a former New York Yankees all-time great.

In the clip shared by Ciara on social media, Ciara turns a page of a book being presented to her, and when she sees what’s on it, she immediately looks up and exclaims, “What the world?!” The photo was of Derek Jeter, and host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. explained, “That is your DNA cousin.” Ciara replied, “You are kidding me. Derek Jeter,” adding, “That’s crazy.”

In a voiceover, Gates explained share a “long, identical stretch of DNA on their 14th chromosome, DNA which we know Derek inherited from his mother.”

Ciara wrote while sharing the clip, “The moment I learned @DerekJeter was my cousin! Crazy! Thank you @drhenrylouisgates for such an incredible experience! This was a dream come true to learn about my family genealogy!”

The episode aired last night (January 2), and in the same one, Alanis Morissette made a surprising discovery of her own, learning that she’s a distant cousin of actress Claire Danes (as Entertainment Weekly notes). She said, “I’ve worked with her before, I heart her so much. Now I’m about to explode into confetti!”

Watch the full episode here.