While promoting his recent appearance on What We Do in the Shadows, Mark Hamill generously fielded some questions about the current state of Star Wars, particularly the upcoming season of The Mandalorian.

While Hamill isn’t involved with the hit Disney+ series in any way — although, it does take place five years after Return of the Jedi, which makes a Luke Skywalker cameo entirely possible — he was prompted by his kids to watch the show, and he very much enjoyed the minimalist approach. “I thought it was more in theme with what George wanted originally,” Hamill told Entertainment Tonight. He also showed that he’s still very much steeped in Star Wars lore when asked about the recent news that Boba Fett is reportedly appearing in the second season of The Mandalorian:

“I thought he was a decade into getting digested at this point,” Hamill quips after learning of the bounty hunter’s rumored return. “There’s so many ways they can go and John Favreau and Dave Filoni are both the right people for the job. They know it better than I do.”

Hamill is, of course, referring to Boba Fett’s “demise” in Return of the Jedi when the iconic bounty hunter was unceremoniously knocked into the Sarlacc Pit by a blind Han Solo. However, since the early ’90s, there have been countless Star Wars novels and comic book series that featured Fett surviving his fate and bouncing around the galaxy, but those stories were deemed non-canon following Disney’s purchase of the franchise.

In other words, Temuera Morrion‘s reported casting as Fett would be the first official confirmation that the classic character crawled out of the Sarlacc Pit to bounty hunt again. And if that sounds confusing, just wait until the show has to explain why Boba Fett isn’t actually a Mandalorian despite looking exactly like one. It’s going to be nerdtastic.

(Via Entertainment Tonight)

Previously on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite: Jake Roberts reminded Brandi Rhodes why they call him “The Snake,” we plotted out Cody’s secret evilness, and Kenny Omega did a damn moonsault off a scissor lift.

If you’d like to keep up with this column and its thinly veiled Best and Worst format, you can keep tabs on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite tag page. You can keep track of all things All Elite here.

Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.

And now, the Ins and Outs of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite for May 13, 2020.

Mostly In: Stone Code

On this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, Cody Rhodes goes full Stone Cold Steve Austin by (1) driving a custom truck into the arena to stomp a mudhole in somebody’s ass — if you want to see Cody Rhodes stomp a mudhole in somebody’s ass, gimme a hell yeah — and by (2) being part of a championship match on pay-per-view with Mike Tyson handling the ceremonies. Not a fan of Tyson or the entire Mike Tyson “thing,” but maybe if you combine his tattoo and Cody’s it tells you the location of the Declaration of Independence.

Jake Roberts is wonderfully corrupt here, cutting a promo about how Brandi Rhodes deserved to have a snake briefly crawl on her because women are better off at home, and I quote, “wiping babies butts … diapering them.” He also directly states that watching Lance Archer wrestle gives him a boner, which makes me wonder if carrying around a snake in a bag and being untrustworthy is why they actually call him, “The Snake.” I also liked that in theory Cody would recklessly drive his cool truck into the arena and like, crawl out onto the hood so he could take a running dive into the ring onto Archer, but in practice, Cody’s just gently bumping a security railing and then getting out while ostensibly still in the back for the fight.

I feel like Cody could’ve just gotten out of the truck in the parking lot and walked around that barricade and it would’ve done the same thing. It’s dramatic, though, and dramatic’s the point. I like that Cody was actually pissed and wanted to just show up and fight this dude for helping humiliate his wife instead of, I don’t know, going to the ring at the top of the show to recap the past few Dynamites for the benefit of no crowd.

All In: The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My (Best) Friend

The opening match of the night pits a duo of best friends who hang out with a weird third wheel and might get randomly attacked by sociopaths taking on a duo of best friends who hang out with a weird third wheel and might get randomly attacked by a sociopath. One of the teams has a dinosaur. It’s fun when you’re running concurrent outside interference finishes, though. It becomes a game of which side can benefit the most from disadvantageous cheating.

Orange Cassidy’s doing his Orange Cassidy thing, helping out and being tranquilo, when Rey Fénix pops in from quarantined oblivion and karate kicks him in the fucking pineal gland. It looks like the Best Friends are going to fall victim to the damned numbers game, but MJF, scheduled to face Jungle Boy at Double or Nothing, runs interference on the Express. He sneaks up behind “Jungle Jack Perry” ( Jim Ross), shoves him into the post, and rolls him back into the ring. Chuck Taylor was definitely looking right at this but isn’t above taking a short cut to win a match — F.I.S.T. forever — so he Awfully Waffles Jungle Jack to win the match.

After the match, Luchasaurus discovers that Wardlow & Associates has beaten up Mark Stunt, because the AEW roster lined up by height for the chance to bludgeon this kid and they’re working their way down.

It turns out Wardlow’s just beating up Marko for a friend, as he’s given his spot in the Marko murder lottery to someone at the BOTTOM of the height chart, MJF. Maxwell’s going to make an example out of Marko next week, which should work well in tandem with his attack on Jungle Boy to give the MJF and Jungle Jack pay-per-view match some spice. I think the AEW equivalent to, “Is Cate Blanchett actually good or is she just tall?” is, “is MJF actually good or is he just loud?” Should be fun. I wonder if Marko’s ever going to stop being the sacrificial lamb and show up to work with a switchblade?

These two matches set up Orange Cassidy vs. Fénix and MJF vs. Marko Stunt for next week, revitalized Death Triangle’s on-hold beef with the Best Friends, and added heat to the upcoming MJF/Jungle Boy match. Compare and contrast that with Raw, who had their top tag title challengers pretend to suck at funny basketball.

All In: Hikaru Keeps It Simple And Clean

My favorite match of the week was probably the women’s division fatal four-way, with Hikaru Shida pinning Penelope Ford and thereby also defeating Britt Baker and Kris Statlander to send a message to Nyla Rose and build momentum for a no count-out, no disqualification match at Double or Nothing. Everyone got time to shine, and while it wasn’t perfect — more on that in a second — it was 10 and a half minutes of action and good character moments, such as Dr. Britt throwing the match so she can do invasive dental work on the alien who didn’t appreciate her nose-booping, and Penelope Ford being too horny to win matches. Hoping Shida manages to unseat Nyla at Double or Nothing, mostly because of how folks should’ve be licking their hands as a wrestling taunt and then touching people during a global pandemic. That’s mostly a joke.

A Night Of (Almost) Broken Necks

Last night’s Dynamite was sponsored by Necks. Need something to break? Try Necks!

The first dangerous moment came during the women’s fatal four-way, when Penelope Ford tried to hit Kris Statlander with a poisoned rana. It looks like Statlander either flipped too early, lost her grip on Ford’s feet, or maybe Ford just bent back at the wrong angle or something because Statlander backflips directly onto the top of her own head. Here it is in slow motion GIF form. It’s like an assisted version of Christopher Daniels hurting himself on Nitro.

Then, because his pants are completely full of crazy, Sammy Guevara decides to sell a Twist of Fate with a full-on headstand.

At least that one happened on purpose. Be careful with your necks! Health care’s already terrifying enough right now as it is!

Oh My God, You Killed Vanguard-1, YOU BASTARDS

Matt Hardy gets a measure of revenge on the Inner Circle by teaming up with Kenny Omega to defeat Proud and Powerful at the end of the night, but he’ll be forever scarred by what happens afterward: the tragic and unforgivable on-screen murder of sentient drone Vanguard-1 by the Inner Circle, Office Space-style.

It starts with Chris Jericho, wearing a “Pineapple Pete” t-shirt, easily defeating Pineapple Pete with the Judas Effect. Every time someone on commentary mentions a fan or wrestling in the crowd, the should have to fight them. I want to see if Tom Phillips could take Brock Lesnar Guy.

Anyway, Jericho offers up a non-blood and non-guts-related challenge to The Elite: face the Inner Circle in a STADIUM STAMPEDE match, this spring. It’s almost like some sort of … spring Stampede. Involving a couple of guys from Winnipeg! So maybe it’s a Canadian Stampede? What a nice surprise on the same night In Your House returns as a concept. Vanguard-1 foolishly flies in to accept on The Elite’s behalf, as their official spokesperon is now a toy that learned to dream and feel, and Jericho beats it to death with a baseball bat. Talk shit get hit, you glorified Flutterbye Fairy.

My favorite part is Jake Hager draping the tiny Inner Circle t-shirt over Vanguard-1 like he’s a dead body, and the entire team getting down into a broken camera with propellers’ face to trash talk it. Wrestling is deeply, fantastically weird. COVID-19 took us from War Games to a quest to avenge the death of a quadcopter, but they’re making it work.

All In: Bro Down

Dark Order truther Christopher Daniels comes face to face with the man he thought didn’t exist, The Exalted One, gets his finisher buried with a one-count kickout, and gets his head taken off (figuratively, which I feel the need to add during this era of on-screen kayfabe wrestling deaths) with a discus lariat. It’s a nice callback to the feud that was probably going to happen before the world got fractured, and Daniels does everything in his playbook to make Brodie Lee look as indomitable as possible. This all sets up Jon Moxley arriving to try to get back his stolen AEW World Championship, but being unable to do so because Brodie’s got an entire multilevel marketing scheme full of dorks in masks. Next week Moxley will have to face “10,” who is the enemy that shows up when you’ve gone through two stages of Dark Order cronies and need a visual indicator that they’re getting harder.

Moxley’s gone from Jericho to Jack Swagger to Luke Harper. I hope his next three feuds are against Matt Hardy, Shawn Spears, and Dustin Rhodes. Maybe by then Erick Rowan and No Way Jose will be over here with monster gimmicks. This is meant to be sarcastic but none of this is a bad idea.

All In: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

AddMayne

Pdragon619

Insisting on being called AEW champion without earning it is the kind of Incel entitlement that’s perfectly on brand for the Dark Order

Mox storming in like a Chad to beat up the entire AV club

Real Birdman

I don’t want, I NEED Broken Matt Hardy throwing a bunch of smashed drone bits into a lake ASAP

I just want Brodie Lee to show up with a new 7 foot tall creeper with a giant red beard sticking out of his mask & nobody to address it

dannibalcorpse

more like vanguard done amirite

Mr. Bliss

Schiavone might be commentating with Excalibur but you know he’s thinking about Jericho the whole time.

SexCauldron

And thus begun Drone Whacking day in Florida

FeltLuke

Excuse me, I have to go update Jericho’s Wikipedia to note that he once committed Technocide.

JayBone2

Luchasaurus, Damascus Hardy and JR are all best friends and in their spare time (when not in quarantine) play shuffleboard, bridge and watch Murder She Wrote. They hate that Country Charm Buffet is closed right now too.

That does it for this week’s column. Thanks for reading about Dynamite! Leave us a comment below, give the column a share on social media, and make sure you’re back here next week for the emotional ramifications of drone murder, lucha libre Orange Cassidy, and the latest, critically acclaimed installment of Marko Stunt Gets Put In A Grave. See you then!

It’s hard to picture James Cameron sinking into a La-Z-Boy in front of the TV, mostly because I always imagine him on a submarine. But when he’s not exploring the Mariana Trench or promising that Avatar 2 will make you “sh*t yourself with your mouth wide open,” he’s organizing movie nights with his family. Empire caught up with Cameron to ask him how he’s been staying during lockdown, and like the rest of us, he’s been watching movies, including a surprise answer for one of his favorite guilty pleasures.

“One of my guilty pleasure films that I actually think is quite beautifully made is Resident Evil,” he said. “Watching Michelle Rodriguez in that film, moving like this feral creature, is joyful.” Who knew Cameron, who would later cast Rodriguez in Avatar, was such a fan of video game adaptations? I wonder what he thinks of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

Cameron is also trying to expand his kids’ “horizon a little bit”:

“They got a hankering for a Western the other night and I said, ‘What about True Grit with John Wayne?’ They said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘Alright, we’re watching True Grit.’ They absolutely loved it. My teenage girls are very horse-oriented, and now they know who John Wayne is.”

Maybe don’t introduce them to the “1971 Playboy interview” section of his Wikipedia, though. In 50 years, Cameron’s kids will have kids, and this same story will happen, except replace “John Wayne” with “Milla Jovovich.” Future-kids know nothing about great cinema.

(Via Empire)

The Last Dance has given us so many memorable moments over the past month, it’s hard to know how we’re supposed to fill the void after the upcoming finale this Sunday. In terms of sheer entertainment value, it’s no surprise that some of the best content has come from the bitter rivalry between Michael Jordan’s Bulls and the Bad Boy Pistons.

In a previous episode, Jordan balked at Isiah Thomas’ revisionist explanation about why he refused to shake hands with the Bulls after they ousted him from the playoffs in 1991, subsequently giving birth to the greatest MJ-related meme since the Crying Jordan.

But in hindsight, it’s impossible not to view the Pistons has a necessary evil and an inescapable part of his origin story, the perfect foils to push Jordan to even greater heights. It’s even gotten to the point where even Thomas and the Pistons take a certain amount of credit for Jordan’s greatness.

On the latest episode of People’s Party with Talib Kweli, John Salley offered up a slightly different take on Jordan’s feelings toward those notorious Pistons squads.

“[Michael] loved everybody,” Salley said. “He hated Bill Lambeer. Well, no one liked Bill Laimbeer at the time. I just started liking the cat like a week ago. But MJ loved our competitive spirit. He liked that that was a challenge. He liked that he had to get up for it.”

While it’s true that Jordan would later embrace former Bad Boys like Salley and Dennis Rodman, who would go on to help the Bulls win championships, there’s clearly no love lost between Jordan and Isiah Thomas or Bill Lambeer. Jordan put it bluntly in an earlier episode when he said the hate still carries “to this day.”

But given his penchant for using even totally imaginary slights as motivation, it’s not a stretch to think that Jordan likely appreciates all the fuel it added to his competitive fire.

The Trump Administration has approved the largest solar power project in U.S. history. The $1 billion Gemini Solar Project constructed by Solar Partners, XI LLC (Arevia) will be located in the desert just north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The plant will span approximately 7,100 acres of federal land and generate enough electricity to power 260,000 homes in the region.

When it’s completely finished in 2022, the solar project will become the eighth-largest solar-producing facility in the world.

The project will produce power for NV Energy, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. It will work to meet Nevada’s requirement to have 50% of the state’s energy produced by renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

The solar farm’s energy may also be shipped out to Southern California.

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via Bureau of Land Management

The project will annually offset over 380,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the equivalent of taking 83,000 cars off the road.

The plant will have a 380-megawatt battery storage system that will hold power created during the day to be released when demand peaks in the early evening.

“Despite the challenges of the coronavirus, we’re pleased to see that Nevada will soon be home to one of the biggest solar projects in the world,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement.

“The solar industry is resilient and a project like this one will bring jobs and private investment to the state when we need it most,” she continued.

The decision is surprising given Trump’s history of standing against renewable energy.

Trump has incorrectly stated that solar power is “not strong enough and it’s very very expensive.”

He also significantly hobbled the solar industry in 2018 by placing 30% tariffs on solar imports. The tariffs have since been reduced to 20%, but the economic damage has been significant. The tariffs cost more than 62,000 U.S. jobs and cost $19 billion in new private sector investment.

The goal was to inspire U.S. panel production but that has actually decreased since the tariffs went into effect.

The decision to build the solar panel farm show’s the administration’s lack of cohesive energy policy but it’s a definite positive in an era when the federal government has taken a firm stance against clean, renewable energy.

In spite of the Trump Administration’s war against renewables, the country had made significant strides when it comes to solar installations.

According to the EIA, a division of the Department of Energy, the U.S. produced about 11% of the world’s solar energy in 2018 and it accounted for about 1.8% of the U.S. energy mix in 2019.

“Solar accounted for 40 percent of all new electric generating capacity added to the grid in 2019, more than any other energy source,” the non-profit The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said in a report. That was enough energy to power 14.5 million American homes.

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The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include albums from the prolific Buffalo spitter Conway, Atlanta trap crooner Future, the witty and worldly Deanté Hitchcock, Chicago spark plug Polo G, and Brooklyn drill adherent Sheff G. As quarantine continues, it appears Drake has, as usual, led a trend of big-name artists throwing up their hands and unleashing their back-stocked material — social distancing-induced tour cancelations be damned.

While some of the biggest artists in other genres continue to hold back their new music in hopes of a return to normalcy (and the sort of promo tour that supports their entire operation and recoups their recording losses), the guerrilla nature of lots of rap recordings these days allows for rappers to cut costs and makes putting out records profitable (enough) to justify letting their latest work loose on the world. When Drake released his Dark Lane Demo Tapes a couple of weeks ago, it seems it was a signal to other rappers to open the floodgates, prompting a spate of releases from other established A-listers like Lil Durk, Future, Nav, and more. Projecting out into the near future (no pun intended), we can expect releases from Gunna, Run The Jewels, and others who have decided that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Conway — No One Mourns The Wicked

Conway is living up to the “Machine” epithet of his moniker, as he’s already on his second release of 2020 after March’s Lulu EP with The Alchemist. This time around, he’s linked up with former satire blogger Big Ghost for a nine-song full-length project. If you haven’t gotten enough of Griselda Records’ grimy aesthetic from Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris last month, this one is for you.

Deanté Hitchcock — Better

Atlanta’s own Hitchcock distinguished himself last year with a feature on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation, locking down a major label deal and a string of high-profile feature credits from the likes of Childish Major, H.E.R., and more. That streak continues on his major-label debut with 6lack, JID, Miguel, and Young Nudy. He’s going to be one to watch, for fans of Dreamville, Outkast, and JID’s Spillage Village collective.

Future — High Off Life

Beginning with Drake collab “Life Is Good,” Future has low-key owned 2020, popping up on features from RMR, DaBaby, Nav, Drake, and more, all while re-releasing his most beloved mixtapes to streaming services for the first time since 2015. His new project is sure to extend the trap pioneer’s legacy, while recording in quarantine may have given him some new perspectives.

Polo G — The GOAT

Polo G was one of the breakout stars of 2019, exploding into the mainstream with his tracks “Finer Things,” “Pop Out,” and “Heartless,” and landing his debut album, Die A Legend, on numerous year-end lists. He seeks to repeat the feat with The GOAT, which finds him incorporating both turn-up party tracks like the Mike Will Made-It-produced “Go Stupid” with Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa and moody introspection on “DND.”

Sheff G — One And Only

Brooklyn, stand up. While the biggest borough may have lost its brightest breakout star earlier this year with the death of Pop Smoke, his fellow grime purveyors have picked up the torch to carry the subgenre forward. While Smoove L, Fivio Foreign, 22Gz, and others haven’t quite garnered the same level of attention as Pop, it’s only a matter of time until one of them breaks out and Sheff G has just as much opportunity as anyone if any of the songs from this set catch on the way “Welcome To The Party” did.

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

The Last Dance has kept sports fans captivated over the last month, as it’s the exceedingly rare new sports thing that folks can consume during the NBA’s COVID-19 hiatus. The 10-part docuseries will come to an end on Sunday evening, and ahead of the final two episodes, prop bets have popped up for those who want to channel their inner Michael Jordan and gamble on something that doesn’t necessarily call for gambling.

The reason props have been unveiled for the final two episodes is, unlike the first eight, screeners have not been sent out for the final two and, thus, there’s not any leaked footage on the interwebs.

All of the following prop bets come via BetOnline:

Episode 10 average viewership: Over/Under 6 million

Episode 9 and 10 metered market rating in Chicago: Over/Under 12 market rating

First person shown:
Phil Jackson, 3/2
Jerry Krause, 2/1
Scottie Pippen, 3/1
Jerry Reinsdorf, 4/1
Dennis Rodman, 5/1

How many people will be shown with cigar in mouth? Over/Under 3 different people

How many times will the “f” word be said? Over/Under 2½

Will Michael Jordan be shown in a Wizards uniform?
Yes +150 (3/2)
No -200 (1/2)

Will Michael Jordan cry while being interviewed?
Yes +110 (11/10)
No -150 (2/3)

Based on what we know about this series, it seems safe to say the ratings will be through the roof for the final two episodes (although the second episode each night has seen about a 200,000 viewer dip from the first, so 6 million might be tight), there will be a bunch of cigars (the real number is O/U 2 because Jordan is going to have a cigar in his mouth at some point and they’re showing them win a title, so there will be celebration footage that will surely feature cigars), and there will be plenty of profanity. Also, Jordan being shown in a Wizards uni seems like some solid value. Of course, prop bets on an ESPN documentary are not canon, but if you were to wager on anything, those in particular seem like the most sensible bets.

The 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers were among the worst teams in franchise history, winning just 21 games that season as Kobe Bryant was limited to playing less than half the season due to injury and the rest of the roster struggled mightily.

That also happened to be Jeremy Lin’s lone season in Los Angeles, and even though Kobe was hurt and not around the team for a good portion of the season, he did make sure his presence was felt. Lin joined Danny Green on the “Inside the Green Room” podcast this week and recalled Kobe showing up to practice the day before the trade deadline to the surprise of his teammates, and when prompted on why he was there, he offered an extremely Kobe answer.

“He comes in, sweatsuit [on], he has a sling around for his hurt shoulder, he has his shades on, his Kobe shades,” Lin recalls. “And he walks in and everyone’s like, ‘Ohhhh’ and Booz, Carlos Boozer, is like ‘Kob! Good to see you bro! Dang, we haven’t seen you in a bit, how come you came today?’ And he was just stone-faced, and he was like, ‘I just came by to say bye to some of you bums who are going to get traded tomorrow.’ [laughs] And then he sits down at the table where you control the scoreboard at the practice facility and he said a couple words to the coach, and then he left. And I remember one of my teammates was just like ‘I lost all motivation to practice.’”

It is extremely on brand for Kobe, and is especially topical right now as we all just watched an episode of The Last Dance where they dove into Michael Jordan’s penchant for belittling teammates in practice. Kobe, of course, modeled so much of his game and mentality after Mike and picked up the mantle of being the most demanding star in the league when it came to how he treated and handled his teammates.

It’s a tactic that can only work for a select few that have such unimpeachable work ethic and the skill to match that their teammates can’t ever really fire back at them for being hypocritical with their demands — which is often lost in the deification of both — but it’s clear that, at least now, Lin can look back and laugh at the moment. It also could’ve just been Kobe cracking back at a question of why he was finally popping in to visit the team with a witty comeback, but somewhere in there was at least a little bit of seriousness from Kobe in calling them bums — although the funniest part of the story might be that the Lakers didn’t even make a trade that year,.

Hailing from Atlanta, R&B sister duo Chloe x Halle has been busy. Not only was Halle cast as Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, but the sisters have been busy making music. Signed to Beyonce’s label, the duo tease a new era of music with the snapping number “Do It.”

“Do It” arrives as the lead single off Chloe x Halle’s sophomore record, Ungodly Hour. The duo’s mesmerizing harmonization melts over a fluttering backbeat. “I beat my face / Moving fast ’cause the Uber on the way / Taking pictures make sure you can’t see no lace,” they croon at the single’s hook.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the project, Chloe said she and her sister aim to showcase their talent through a collection of catchy numbers: “My sister and I, we are such music heads of real musicality and I feel like we kind of showed that on our first album, The Kids Are Alright. And for this one, we really just wanted to show how we could pair our musicianship with a few bops and letting people enjoy themselves and have fun as well as the lyrics and the messaging of the album. We called it Ungodly Hour because it’s okay to not be perfect all the time. It’s okay to have those moments of self reflection when you just don’t feel okay.”

Listen to “Do It” above.

Ungodly Hour is out 6/5 via Parkwood Entertainment. Pre-order it here.