Month: April 2024

X-Men ’97 episode 5 delivered one of the most devastating moments in the revival series’ run, and in an even more shocking move, former X-Men ’97 creator Beau DeMayo has broke his silence to talk about the absolutely brutal episode. Neither Marvel nor DeMayo has revealed why he was unexpectedly removed from the animated series less than a week before its premiere. The two parties have remained silent, which makes DeMayo releasing a statement about the episode all the more surprising.

WARNING: Spoilers for X-Men ’97 Episode 5 below.

While visiting the mutant paradise of Genosha, the brewing Rogue, Gambit, and Magneto love triangle reaches a head only to become a tragically moot point. Just as Rogue is about to profess her love for Gambit and reject Magneto’s offer to serve alongside him as the Queen of Genosha, a massive multi-headed Sentinel kaiju attacks the island. It’s an attack like nothing before seen on the show as countless lives are lost from the sheer destruction. Even Magneto, an Omega level mutant, struggles to stop the onslaught, and that’s where things take a turn.

Not only does Magneto perish taking a final stand to defend the Morlocks, but so does Gambit in a last minute kamikaze blitz to bring down the kaiju. According to DeMayo, these heart-breaking deaths were the “centerpiece” of his pitch to Marvel for the revival series. He also wanted the brutal attack to invoke real-life events like 9/11, the Pulse night club shooting, and others.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

“Yes, it looked like Gambit’s story was going a specific direction. The crop top was chosen to make you love him. Him pulling off his shirt was intentional. There’s a reason he told Rogue any fool would suffer her hand in a dance, even if it ended up not being him suffering. But if events like 9/11, Tulsa, Charlottesville, or Pulse Nightclub teach us anything, it’s that too many stories are often cut far too short. I partied at Pulse. It was my club. I have so many great memories of its awesome white lounge. It was, like Genosha, a safe space for me and everyone like me to dance and laugh and be free. I thought about this a lot when crafting this season and this episode, and how the gay community in Orlando rose to heal from that event.”

DeMayo also wanted the episode to capture the feeling of going from a kid watching the original X-Men: The Animated Series in the ’90s to becoming an adult in an increasingly fraught world.

“Like many of us who grew up on the OG cartoon, the X-Men have now been hit hard by the realities of an adult and unsafe world,” DeMayo wrote. “Life’s happened to them. And they, like we did, will have to decide which parts of themselves they will cling to and which parts they’ll let go of in order to do what they’ve been telling humanity to do: face an uncertain future they never saw coming.”

You can see DeMayo’s full remarks on Twitter below:

(Via Entertainment Weekly, Beau DeMayo on Twitter)

Taylor Swift is just a few days away from releasing her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, and fans have spotted that her music returned to TikTok.

A few months ago, Universal Music Group (to which Swift is signed) removed all of their artists’ catalogs from the social media platform, citing issues with royalty payments and differing opinions about AI, according to Variety.

Now, Swift appears to be one of the first to have their music return on the site — seemingly because she owns her master recordings. Other artists like Ariana Grande, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, and more still do not have any songs listed for users to add to their videos.

Even with the TikTok ban from UMG, this also hasn’t stopped fans by finding loopholes, whether it’s singing covers of the songs, speeding up the audio, or uploading the original as a hidden sound (and praying it doesn’t get removed).

As someone who has seen videos with great Swift songs become audioless, it is nice to see that this has been reversed. This means she can also do more promotional stuff on the app in time for the album’s release. And hopefully, this will become the case with the rest of the major UMG signees, along with rising stars who rely on TikTok to grow their audiences.

The Tortured Poets Department is out 4/19 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

From the twisted mind, I mean, the imagination of John Krasinski comes the new trailer for IF. The live-action/animated fantasy comedy follows a young girl named Bea (played by Cailey Fleming, a.k.a. Lil’ Rey in Star Wars) and her neighbor Cal (Ryan Reynolds), who are both able to see everyone’s imaginary friends. Or IFs. Together, they try to reconnect the IFs with new kids.

Krasinski and Reynolds must have called in a lot of favors because IF has a stacked voice cast, including Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, George Clooney, Louis Gossett Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Jon Stewart, Bobby Moynihan, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, Matthew Rhys, and Blake Lively (that one was probably easy to arrange).

You can watch the new trailer above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

From writer and director John Krasinski, IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. IF stars Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, and the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell alongside many more as the wonderfully unique characters that reflect the incredible power of a child’s imagination.

IF opens in theaters on May 17.

There is no such thing as too much as Walton Goggins. He’s currently starring in three shows — Fallout, The Righteous Gemstones (Baby Billy Freeman remains the best named character on television), and Justified: City Primeval, assuming it returns for another season — but it could be nine, and no one would complain. Especially Michael Chiklis.

The actor shared a sweet tribute to his The Shield co-star on X. “Let me tell you something. I’ve seen a lot in my time in this business. It’s a hard road that people just can’t understand unless they’re in it. Anyone who’s had any level of success knows this. When one of the truly talented & genuinely good guys win? It makes you cry tears…” he wrote, adding, “…of joy. Walton Goggins is the genuine article. A brother. An uncle to my children. A great human being.”

Chiklis said that there is “there is no one more deserving of their success” than Goggins. “Hard work, perseverance, deep talent, pazzazz and great Karma all coming together. Bravo Walt!” I’m sorry, but he’s not a Walt. He’s a Walton. And Walton is one of the best things about Fallout, and he’ll certainly be a highlight of The White Lotus season three.

All eight episodes of Fallout are available to stream on Prime Video.

The countdown to Coachella 2024 can be measured in days now, as this year’s festival runs from April 12 to 14 and then for a second weekend from April 19 to 21. The lineup is locked in, but some folks are wondering:

Is Taylor Swift Performing At Coachella 2024?

Swift is not currently listed on the 2024 Coachella lineup. But, as Just Jared notes, the fest is known for bringing out surprise performers, and Swift will be on a break from The Eras Tour by the time Coachella rolls around.

The publication also notes that Swift collaborators like Lana Del Rey, Jack Antonoff (with Bleachers), and Sabrina Carpenter (an Eras Tour opener) are performing at this year’s fest, so those sets would be good opportunities for a Swift cameo.

Furthermore, the fest’s second weekend starts on April 19, which is the release date of Swift’s upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department. Making waves with a surprise Coachella appearance would certainly be good album promo (not that Swift is ever facing a shortage of media coverage, but still).

Beyond that, a recent US Weekly report indicated that Swift and Travis Kelce are planning to attend the festival, so they can see Del Rey and Bleachers’ sets. The two will reportedly be renting a house in the area for one of the two festival weekends, per the report. Kelce also recently told People, “I am a Coachella guy. I love going to Coachella. I love live music in general. So you might see me pop up over there at some point.”

Rolling Loud has been on a tear since its establishment about a decade ago, with the first festival going down in Miami in 2015. Since then, the event has expanded to include editions in California, New York, Australia, Portugal, Toronto, Rotterdam, Germany, and Thailand. Now, the empire continues to grow: Today (April 11), organizers announced Rolling Loud Europe.

The inaugural event is set to take place at Racino, an open-air venue in Ebreichsdorf, Austria, which is near Vienna. The fest runs from July 5 to 7 this year and will be headlined by Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, and Playboi Carti.

Beyond the headliners, the lineup also features Gunna, Ice Spice, Offset, Don Toliver, Ski Mask The Slump God, Lil Tjay, Sexyy Red, Chief Keef, K-Trap, Unknown T, Destroy Lonely, Flo Milli, BabyTron, TiaCorine, Anycia, Money Boy, Gola Gianni, Ufo 361, Shirin David, Pashanim, Reezy, Rondodasosa, and Fresh.

Tickets go on sale starting April 12 at noon CET. Find more information on the festival website.

Rolling Loud co-founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif say in a statement, “We couldn’t be more excited to return to Europe. We’ve been blown away by the passion of the fans at our European shows, and we know our first show in Austria is going to keep the energy going.”

Check out the lineup poster below.

Coachella 2024 is days away, and Reneé Rapp is ready to leave it all out there. On Wednesday, April 10, Pop Crave posted a photo on X (formerly Twitter) of Rapp’s Coachella billboard. “GOOD T*TS AND BIG HEART,” the billboard displays, which is perfectly Reneé Rapp-coded.

Rapp is known for her blunt confidence and humor, so it wouldn’t be outlandish to think that she just decided to advertise her Coachella 2024 set with this as a standalone message. However, the truth is that it comes from the second verse of Rapp’s 2023 song “Tummy Hurts,” in which Rapp sings, “I just want some recognition / For having good tits and a big hеart / I can’t believe I let you hit it / In hindsight, that might be the worst part.” It’s a track from Rapp’s extremely successful debut studio album, Snow Angel.

Last week, similarly tongue-in-cheek billboards from Coachella 2024 headliner Tyler, The Creator. Rapp is scheduled to perform on Sunday, April 14, and Sunday, April 21.

Coachella 2024 will kick off at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California on Friday, April 12, with headliner Lana Del Rey, who will return on Friday, April 19. Tyler, The Creator will headline on Saturday, April 13, and Saturday, April 20. Doja Cat will bring it home with headlining sets on Sunday, April 14, and Sunday, April 21.

AEW made the decision to air the footage from the highly-publicized backstage fight between CM Punk and Jack Perry that occurred at All In last year in London. While the footage was aired as part of the build to an upcoming bout between FTR and The Young Bucks, all of the attention was on that particular clip, which directly led to Punk’s firing from the promotion and his eventual return to WWE.

The clip essentially backed up the version of the events that Punk laid out on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour last week, and in the aftermath of the clip hitting the internet, the always-outspoken Punk took to his Instagram Story and reacted to the whole thing. If you know anything about CM Punk, you will not be surprised to learn that he was not subtle here.

Punk was not the only ex-AEW wrestler to react strongly to the clip, as Shawn Spears — who is currently in NXT — posted this to his Twitter account.

There is even footage that shows fans in the arena on Wednesday night in Charleston watching the footage and chanting Punk’s name.

Our own Raj Prashad spoke to AEW CEO Tony Khan in the lead-up to Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, and while Khan called Punk’s comments on Helwani’s show “interesting timing given where everything stands,” he claimed that the decision to air the footage was in an effort to promote the upcoming match at AEW Dynasty on April 21.

“It’ll be a must-see segment when the Young Bucks play this footage and talk about what happened at Wembley Stadium and how it relates to what’s coming up next for the Young Bucks in AEW,” Khan told Uproxx Sports. “I think that it will create a lot of interest in what this is all about. And I think the Young Bucks will have an explanation for why they think this is important and why it’s relevant to what’s going on at AEW Dynasty on pay-per-view.”

As AEW builds toward its Dynasty pay-per-view in St. Louis on April 21, the promotion used Wednesday night’s Dynamite to unveil behind-the-scenes events at All In from Wembley Stadium last year in an effort to move the rivalry forward between the Young Bucks and FTR. The Bucks took the spotlight Wednesday night, showing the video incident involving “The Scapegoat” Jack Perry and “the other individual,” CM Punk.

The Bucks claimed Punk tried to make the entire show about himself and that he was good friends with FTR, theorizing that maybe FTR were the masterminds behind this entire thing, and that while they were dealing with the fallout from this incident, they were thrown off from their game. They continued by saying that if you look in the history books, FTR beat the Young Bucks at All In: London, but there should be an asterisk because it threatened to take down the biggest show of all time.

FTR came out afterward and vented about the Young Bucks dragging video back up from eight months ago. Cash Wheeler continued and said they need to beat the Young Bucks at AEW Dynasty because they’re “petty, little bitches.”

The release of this footage comes one week after CM Punk shared his side of the story on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, offering details about his backstage scuffle with Jack Perry following his infamous “cry me a river” comment. We didn’t have audio, but Punk’s description of the incident doesn’t seem far off from what played out on television (H/T Wrestling Inc for MMA Hour transcription).

“I walk up to him and I’m like, ‘Jack, why do you insist on doing this dumb internet s*** on TV?’ He’s like, if you have a problem, do something about it.’ I was like, ‘Come on man. I can f***ing kill you. What are we doing? … I thought I was doing the responsible thing. I didn’t punch anybody. I just choked somebody a little bit. Samoa Joe was there, told me to stop. I quit. I turned to Tony and said, ‘This place is a f**king joke. You’re a clown. I quit.’”

Speaking to Uproxx Sports ahead of the show, AEW CEO Tony Khan said it was important for the Young Bucks to explain why this footage is relevant. When asked on his reaction to Punk speaking out and if that impacted the release of this footage, Khan says, “That was interesting timing given where everything stands.”

“For us, this is a decision based on the timing of our upcoming pay-per-view, AEW Dynasty, and given where the Young Bucks stand going into the World Tag Team Championship Tournament finals at AEW Dynasty,” he said. “This was the right time and place for them to play this footage and talk about why it’s relevant to them and AEW going forward and what this means going into AEW Dynasty.”

The Bucks and FTR’s showdown will be their fourth under the AEW umbrella, and Khan expects another spectacle.

Lil Dicky joined Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce for this week’s episode of New Heights, and the episode was packed with Lil Dicky’s signature self-deprecating charm. Around the 40-minute mark, Jason asked Lil Dicky whether he’d had a “welcome to the industry” moment.

“Another story I’ve never told that just came into my head that’s perfect for this moment,” Lil Dicky said. The Dave mastermind then took the audience back to the 2015 BET Experience Sprite Celebrity Basketball Game. Back then, Lil Dicky still had imposter syndrome and did not feel like he belonged on the same roster as Floyd Mayweather, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, and John Wall.

“I don’t know how I got in the game to the point where I actually put a lot of stock and import in this game,” he explained. “I got there an hour early to warm up because I literally thought a way that I could get ahead in this industry faster will be, like, scoring 30 points in this game.”

Instead, Lil Dicky was on the bench, and while Chris Brown called Lil Dicky “a dope rapper” pre-game, he also rained on Lil Dicky’s parade. John Wall was the team’s coach and eventually told Dicky he could go in as a substitute for Brown.

“I walk up to Chris, and I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m in for you,’” Lil Dicky said. “And he goes, ‘I’m not coming out.’ Then, there’s 11 guys on the court. Everyone is matched up. I’m clearly the odd man. I look to John Wall, like, ‘Coach!’ And John Wall brings me back over. [The] first thing I say is, like, ‘John, get a grip and have some authority on your team.’ It’s humiliating to send me out there and then pull me back in. It’s so emasculating.”

Once Lil Dicky finally got in the game, he was rewarded by getting “fouled so hard by Deontay Wilder — at the time, heavyweight champion of the world.” He concluded, “I get up. I missed two free throws, and then I played one more meaningless minute. I moved to the end of the bench and just chose not to even make myself available for the rest of the game.”

Watch the full New Heights episode above.