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Earlier this year, HBO delivered the critically acclaimed series, The Last of Us, which set the bar for video game adaptations thanks for its faithful adherence to source material while also making well-received twists to the narrative. Now, fans are champing at the bit for details on when they can watch Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) continue their story after the Season 1 finale.

Just like Season 1 adapted the first game, The Last of Us Season 2 will start the Herculean task of adapting the award-winning sequel. We’ve rounded up details on what to expect and when show is expected to return.

Plot

As confirmed by series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us Season 2 will begin the work of adapting the sprawling second game in the series The Last of Us Part II. That installment is so huge, that Season 2 will only cover about half of the game. (There has been talk of possibly taking three seasons to adapt the massive sequel.)

In the Season 1 finale, Joel lied to Ellie about the Fireflies not being able to extract a cure for the Cordyceps virus from her. What actually happened is they would have to kill her to engineer an antidote, prompting Joel to shoot his way out and flee their compound. That deception will be a Chekhov’s gun going into the new season that will be set four-to-five years later.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Last of Us Part II video game to give you a hint of where the Season 2 story is going:

After slaughtering members of the Fireflies rebel group to save Ellie, Joel is now living in Jackson with his surrogate daughter, as well as Maria and his brother Tommy. When a violent event disrupts their peace, Ellie becomes obsessed with hunting down those responsible, even as she’s forced to deal with the physical and emotional repercussions of her actions.

At this point, we should highly caution you to be careful while looking around for plot details from the second game because there is a significant spoiler moment that occurs. (Don’t worry, we won’t tell you what it is.) The Last of Us Part II has been available on Playstation consoles for three years now, so there are plenty of YouTube videos and reviews that could easily spoil the events of Season 2 if you’re not aware.

Cast

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are, naturally, locked into reprise their roles of Joel and Ellie. Gabriel Luna is also expected to return as Joel’s brother Tommy. As of this writing, that’s the only cast that’s been officially confirmed.

However, recent uncorroborated reports have suggested that Kaitlyn Dever could play the key role of Abby in Season 2. Dever was a fan-favorite casting choice for Ellie heading into Season 1 and even auditioned for the part, which ultimately went to Ramsey. As of this writing, Dever joining the Season 2 cast is still just an unconfirmed rumor and should be treated as such.

Release Date

After seeing its production disrupted by both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, The Last of Us Season 2 will not start filming in Vancouver until January 2024. According to Variety, Season 2 is aiming for an early 2025 premiere barring any further delays.

Trailer

Considering production hasn’t even started yet, The Last of Us fans are going to be waiting a while before HBO releases a Season 2 trailer.

The Last of Us Season 1 is available for streaming on Max.

If you just couldn’t get enough of Sexyy Red’s delightfully unhinged approach to blunt, sexually explicit baddie rap, here’s some good news: the deluxe version of her debut album, Hood Hottest Princess, drops this Friday (December 1). Sexyy shared the tracklist for the upcoming reissue, which includes her new single “Free My N****” and such deliciously ratchet titles as “Booty Meat” and “Sexyy Red For President” (which… we could do worse).

When Does Hood Hottest Princess (Deluxe) Drop?

Hood Hottest Princess (Deluxe) is out on 12/1 via Open Shift.

Who Is Featured On Hood Hottest Princess (Deluxe)?

Features on the new tracklist include Chief Keef, 42 Dugg, G Herbo, Summer Walker, and Sukihana.

What’s The Tracklist for Hood Hottest Princess (Deluxe)?

See the tracklist for the album below.

01. “Sexyy Red For President”
02. “Booty Meat (F My Baby Dad)”
03. “Ghetto Princess” Feat. Chief Keef
04. “Sexyy Please”
05. “Hold On Yeah”
06. “Shake Yo Dreads”
07. “Perfect Match” Feat. 42 Dugg & G Herbo
08. “Free My N****”
09. “I Might” Feat. Summer Walker
10. “I Don’t Wanna Be Saved”
11. “Hood Rats” Feat. Sukihana

Sexyy Red’s breakout year has included a headlining tour, a meeting with Tyler The Creator, opening for Drake on tour, and the impending birth of Sexyy Red’s second child.

Tyla is continuing her busy year by making an appearance on A Colors Show to perform a unique spin of her sing “On And On.” With just a dangling microphone in the room, it gives her vocals a crisp, crystal-clear sound that shows off just how talented she is.

“Let’s take it back in time / Party like it’s ’95,” she sings in the pre-chorus, making it a chill take on the carefree anthem. “I just wanna dance all night / You know that I like it like that / Let’s take it back in time / When the Parties were like ’95 / I just wanna dance all night / Tell them, ‘Turn the lights out.’”

The track has been rumored to be included on her forthcoming self-titled debut album, which has been suspected to be dropping in early 2024. At the very least, she has new music coming. Tyla made waves through the success of her song, “Water.”

“As soon as I heard ‘Water,’ I said, ‘It’s over.’ We have the song,” she told Rolling Stone about the experience of appreciating her song on first listen. “I would describe ‘Water’ as the song of the year… it’s the sound of Africa. It’s not only for Africa, but it’s for the world… It’s literally me [bringing] Africa to the world.”

Check out Tyla’s new “On And On” performance above.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce seem to be doing well. The Spotify-dominating pop star is reportedly planning to “hunker down” at the NFL player’s house in Kansas City, Missouri, during the holidays (the Eras Tour doesn’t resume until 2024). “Taylor’s still smitten with Travis. But she realizes that the hard work in their relationship is about to start as they will be spending weeks at a time together. Up until now it has been time snatched as they both have had such busy schedules,” an insider told the Daily Mail. “They finally have the time and opportunity to spend some for real quality time together.”

Paige VanZant isn’t buying it.

The UFC fighter turned self-proclaimed “queen of OnlyFans” shared her conspiracy theory about Swift and Kelce’s romance. “I think that the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce ‘love story,’ I believe it’s 100 percent fake,” she said on her Page and Austin podcast, according to the Daily Mail. “Come for me, ‘Swifties.’ I have UFC fans coming for me, I think I can handle the ‘Swifties.’ It is publicity. It is — one, it’s huge for the NFL because yes, the NFL is big.” VanZant added, “Think of the wives that are buying Travis Kelce jerseys now. It’s a huge publicity play on both fronts. It’s good for Taylor Swift, it’s good for the NFL, it’s good for Travis Kelce. There is so much strategic stuff that’s happening.”

Counterpoint: the NFL needs Taylor more than Taylor needs the NFL (look at the ratings for games where she’s in attendance), so there’s nothing in it for her — except meeting a handsome, successful, likable guy. This is the person who wrote “You’re Losing Me” we’re talking about. Just let her be happy, Paige, jeez.

(Via the Daily Mail)

Netflix’s Narcos and Narcos: Mexico came to a final crescendo a few years ago, years after Pablo Escobar bit it on a rooftop in the original series. The show remained a bingeworthy selection until the very end, and if six seasons wasn’t still enough in your mind, then the streaming service will soon have a treat for you on the drug-lording front.

Sofía Vergara has stepped into dramatic shoes for the first time to portray Griselda Blanco, the so-called “Cocaine Godmother,” in the fittingly titled Griselda limited series. This isn’t a direct crossover show, but I will say that it’s one of the few shows I’ve watched lately where it ended, and I thought, “Damn, a few more episodes would have been even better.” That is to say, this series certainly feels like a Narcos show in several ways that will quickly become apparent.

Plot

Vergara headlines while pulling executive producing duties for a series billed as a “cousin” to Narcos by Narcos: Mexico executive producer Eric Newman. He’s onboard for this limited series along with Narcos co-creator Doug Miro. Additionally, the Modern Family star underwent a hefty transformation in this role, spending hours in makeup and prosthetics each day.

Griselda ran the cocaine trade in-and-out of Miami in the late 1970s and 1980s after fleeing to the U.S. with her first three sons to escape her abusive husband. She soon found that she had the skills to run the joint on her own but of course, she ran into plenty of opposition in a male-dominated criminal underground. In other words, the fight to be taken seriously did not discriminate between legal and illegal professions. Once she did pass those obstacles, however, it was off to the races.

She also loved becoming known as the “Cocaine Godmother” and even chose the first and middle names “Michael” and “Corleone” for her fourth son. This, of course, was not a subtle move, yet in the series, it takes years for dogged detectives to piece together her culpability, and part of that slow pace was owing to the police force being a so-called “boy’s club,” too. In other words, few could fathom how a woman was running an $80 million per month cocaine empire in her heyday. Let’s just say that she was a talented recruiter:

Griselda was also a killer who ordered many merciless hits on her enemies and those who would stand in her way. It’s estimated that she was actually responsible for somewhere between 50 to 250 murders. She was very persuasive and charming, which was not great for her enemies when it came to her ruthlessness and savage ways. Naturally, she also had some fatal vulnerabilities — along with growing notoriety — that eventually kicked off her empire’s crumble, even after she ran though at least 20 aliases. No one could ever accuse her of not being prolific. From Netflix’s description of this show:

La Jefa is coming. Sofia Vergara transforms in this series, inspired by Griselda Blanco, a woman who rose from obscurity to become ‘the Godmother’ of the underworld. Witness her lethal blend of charm and ruthlessness in this captivating series.

Cast

The ensemble cast not only includes Vergara but also Vanessa Ferlito as Carmen and Juliana Aiden as a detective who works to take down Griselda’s empire. Some familiar faces (to Narcos audience) will also appear. Those include Alberto Guerra, who will portray one of Griselda’s husbands, Darío Sepúlveda, and Christian Tappan as Arturo Mesa, a supporter of Griselda in Miami’s cocaine trade.

Release Date

January 25 is when the binging shall begin on this series.

Trailer

A full trailer has arrived to highlight how Pablo Escobar couldn’t have all the chaos in the coke trade.

Griselda streams on January 25, 2024.

For Kaytranada, this year has more or less been defined by collaboration. He even welcomed a few familiar faces to join his Coachella set. This summer, he and Aminé joined forces to drop their Kaytraminé album, which Uproxx’s Aaron Williams dubbed “not just the album of the summer, but the literal soundtrack of it,” and subsequently toured in support of it. And if that weren’t enough, Kaytranada produced on Victoria Monét’s Grammy-nominated album, Jaguar II.

Kaytranada had no other choice but to punctuate 2023 with a collaborative single. The good news is that he decided to offer up a double single. Even better news? A full-length Kaytranada album is expected to drop in 2024, as per press release.

On Thursday morning, November 30, Kaytranada shared “Lover/Friend” featuring Rochelle Jordan, and the B-side is “Stuntin” featuring Channel Tres. Each song also has an instrumental version available to enjoy.

“Lover/Friend” is as scintillating as its title suggests — a classic will-they-won’t-they elevated by unique production and gorgeous vocals. The press release correctly describes it as “quintessential Kaytranada, providing the producer’s trademark bounce with enough space to let Jordan’s vocals shine.”

“Stuntin” is also bouncy but exists on a totally different wave, as Tres’ sultry voice delivers a confident message in an assured but hushed tone.

Listen to them below.

The first season of Peacock’s true crime anthology series, Dr. Death, focused on the former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, aka Dr. Death, who was the subject of the Wondery podcast of the same name. Duntsch was accused of injuring over 30 patients before his license was eventually revoked. Season two will tell the story of a different doctor with a similar set of deadly skills.

Dr. Death season two will follow Paolo Macchiarini, an Italian thoracic surgeon accused of research fraud. At one point, Macchiarini was a world-renowned regenerative researcher who worked on various trachea transplants though it was later revealed that he falsified some of his credentials while working. Macchiarini was accused of unethically performing experimental and dangerous procedures, which resulted in the deaths of several of his patients. Macchiarini was also the subject of Netflix’s Bad Surgeon: Love Under The Knife.

Edgar Ramirez portrays the celeb doctor, while Mandy Moore plays journalist Benita Alexander, who begins a relationship with Macchiarini before his lies begin to unravel with deadly consequences. Here is the official description:

The line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about Paolo into question.

Luke Kirby, Ashley Madekwe, and Gustaf Hammarsten also star in the limited series. Season one is streaming now, and you can catch season two of Dr. Death on Peacock on Dec 21.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Fortnite players recently had a field day, after someone turned Eminem’s rap battle from 8 Mile into an actual in-game experience. Recently, the rapper collaborated with the video game to offer users the chance to play as him with new skins being added — and they sure got creative.

In the clip, Eminem faces off against Marvel’s The Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie, who was the same actor he rapped against in the actual movie. So, it’s close enough.

Eminem’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, even gave his approval after replying to a Twitter post. “I mean… wow!” he wrote.

It’s also worth noting that the turnaround to do this was incredibly fast, as the Eminem skins only went live on Fortnite yesterday (November 29). This offered three choices of outfits for players, including one of him as Slim Shady, “a Rap Boy costume, and a Marshall Never More” one, according to HipHopDX.

“B just like me,” Eminem captioned with a preview of the Shady look on Instagram.

As a partner with the company, he will also be appearing at Fortnite‘s Big Bang event, where fans can catch a virtual concert — putting him among previous ones like Travis Scott and more.

Check out the Fortnite recreation of Eminem’s 8 Mile rap battle above.

There’s a meme that’s been circulating on the internet for the past decade or so making light of the fact that urban club promoters will put literally anything on their flyers to make their events relevant. Examples range from Martin Luther King Jr. in a durag (for MLK Day parties, of course) to flavor of the month video vixens who certainly won’t be attending.

But that tendency apparently came back to bite a party promoter in Atlanta after they referenced recent public discord between trap rap OG T.I. and his song King Harris to promote an event in the city. A video of T.I. reading the club’s employees the riot act surfaced online, drawing amused and amazed reactions from fans on social media who couldn’t help noting the rapper “stands on business.”

But why was T.I. so angry that his son was on the flyer? The trouble goes back to another viral video that captured the 18-year-old King arguing with his parents about his upbringing during a recent Atlanta Falcons game. In the video, King tries to assert his hood credentials to a father who literally sold drugs to make a living (by the way, the video was shot in a suite at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium), eventually getting so heated at his parents’ joking provocations (he sucked a pacifier ’til he was 12, according to Tiny) he appears to physically challenge his father. While the video is hard to make out, from the audio, it doesn’t sound like that went well for him.

Obviously, this is an embarrassing situation for the family — especially for T.I., who’s had something of a rough couple of years in the public eye (partly his own fault) — so it makes sense he wouldn’t want other folks making light of his troubles. Undoubtedly, when he got wind of the club flyer, which PhotoShopped him putting King in a chokehold, he wasn’t too happy about it. In the video posted online, T.I. tells club employees “ain’t nothing goin’” until the flyer is changed. To make a long story short, the flyer was changed.

If there’s a lesson in this, it’s probably to remember that despite the money and notoriety, entertainers are people too, and deserving of some amount of decency and privacy. You might think everything is fair game, but if they disagree, it can go badly for you — expeditiously.

Despite the pandemic, Spider-Man: No Way Home swung into theaters and broke some box-office records as audiences flocked to see Tom Holland return as the web-slinger alongside some familiar faces. After making a fateful decision, Holland’s Spider-Man is last seen swinging into the night with a new costume that is easily the most comics-accurate version of Spidey’s suit to ever be seen on the screen. And that’s the last anyone has saw of him.

For two years now, Holland has yet to resurface in the MCU, and there has been little talk about a fourth movie in the franchise, even though Marvel and Sony were quick to tout that there will be a new film as No Way Home became a smash hit. Well, we finally got an update from Holland, and from the sound of things, it might be a while until we see him return as Spider-Man if he even returns at all. (Yikes.)

Here’s what Holland told reporters at the Critics Choice Association press conference via Collider:

All I can say is that we have been actively engaging in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character. Whether or not we can find a way to do justice to the character is another thing. I feel very protective over Spider-Man. I feel very, very lucky that we were able to work on a franchise that got better with each movie, that got more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare, and I want to protect his legacy. So, I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It will have to be worth the while of the character.

While that’s probably not the hopeful update Spidey fans were looking for, Holland did make it clear that if a solid story for Spider-Man 4 is cracked, he’s definitely on board.

“If we can figure that out, I would be a fool not to put the suit back on again because I owe everything to Spider-Man,” Holland said. “I love the character and the people I get to work with. So, I would love to tell another story, but I’ll only tell it if we can find the right one.”

(Via Collider)