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When the first trailer for Doctor Strange hit in 2016, it sparked a significant controversy that still exists to this day after Marvel decided to cast Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One. In the comics, The Ancient One is a Tibetan man who trains Stephen Strange in the mystical arts and sets him on the path to becoming Sorcerer Supreme. However, Marvel wanted to avoid the stereotype of the magical old Asian man, so they cast Swinton in the role to shake things up. Unfortunately, it did not go over well, and Marvel and Swinton faced considerable backlash for whitewashing the character.

It also didn’t help that C. Robert Cargill, one of the Doctor Strange co-writers, said the decision to cast Swinton was because of China. “The thing about the Ancient One is it is Marvel’s Kobayashi Maru,” Cargill told the Double Toasted podcast in the days following the uproar. “There is no other character in Marvel history that is such a cultural landmine, that is absolutely unwinnable.”

However, with five years between now and the Ancient One controversy, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is admitting that the casting decision could’ve been handled better. Via Men’s Health:

“We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge,” Kevin Feige told Men’s Health in a new cover story on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu. “We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

Despite the misstep with Doctor Strange, Feige is confident that Marvel is making better decisions with Shang-Chi, particularly with the casting of Liu.

“It’s about having a foot in both worlds,” Feige told Men’s Health. “In the North American world and in China. And Simu fits that quite well.”

(Via Men’s Health)

Netflix’s popular Black Summer was a quick-and-dirty-style zombie series that, while technically a prequel to Syfy’s Z Nation, ended up being the show that Fear The Walking Dead fans would have preferred before the AMC spinoff series improved dramatically this year. With that said, genre watchers will undoubtedly look forward to the return of Black Summer, which is now pretty much Black Winter, as if survivors weren’t having a miserable enough time already. This trailer follows up on a heck of a season finale moment, in which Jamie King’s character found her daughter in the stadium, where she probably shouldn’t be, considering that the military was supposed to save everyone.

That’s dark stuff and the confirmation that there was no plan to save mankind. So, expect a new batch of episodes full of cold-blooded fresh challenges while violent militias get down with their bad selves. Jamie King is back in action mode (she told Collider that she nearly lost a hand while filming Season One), and the trailer doesn’t reveal much else, other than humanity as an even bigger threat to humanity than zombies. Also, we get a lot of views of the snowy expanse while the group takes refuge at a giant house while, again, humans are bigger d*cks than the undead.

Oh, and Jamie King’s character gives a warning to her daughter, which makes me think this show might go off on a bender with that character, assigning her a grave importance in an apocalypse that won’t be ending anytime soon, if they’re keeping with Z Nation continuity. Get ready for Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead, too, landing on May 21. Lots of zombies on Netflix this summer!

Netflix’s Black Summer streams on June 17.

Hollywood will put up with a lot of bad behavior if it results in a blockbuster movie (see: the careers of Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein). But tell someone that a well-respected director—even one whose casts and crews have nothing but praise for their on-set leader—issued a “no chairs” rule on the set of a film and people lose their sh*t.

Just ask Christopher Nolan, who incited a media firestorm when Anne Hathaway casually mentioned that the Tenet director bans chairs from his sets. While Nolan and his PR team have since set the record straight that it’s Nolan who doesn’t use a chair, Zack Snyder is proudly flaunting the anti-chair stance he took while filming Netflix’s Army of the Dead.

While sitting down for an interview with The Playlist’s “Fourth Wall” podcast, Snyder shared some of his golden rules of moviemaking and how those translated to the making of his new Netflix zombie-heist-thriller, which stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Garret Dillahunt, and Tig Notaro (looking super hot). In addition to co-writing, directing, and producing the film, Snyder served as both its DP and camera operator. That’s a lot of jobs, so Snyder wanted to make sure he was available to his actors and create as open an intimate set as possible. That’s where the whole “down with chairs!” rhetoric came from. As he shared during the interview:

“There’s no sitting down, like, I banned chairs from the set. But the nice thing is, it’s really intimate. I can just talk to the actors right there, I’m not back in a monitor across the room. It was definitely the most purely engaged I’ve been making a movie.”

While we’re not exactly sure how being engaged and standing on your feet all day are related, we’re willing to take Snyder’s word for it (unless #HotTig tells us differently).

Army of the Dead premieres on Netflix on May 21. You can watch the trailer below—just be sure to let us know if you see any chairs.

(Via IndieWire)

Jeopardy! has been on the air in one way or another since the ’60s, and over the years, many pop culture figures have had the honor of being mentioned on the trivia program. This usually elicits an excited reaction, as it did from Olivia Rodrigo, who found her way onto an episode of the show this week.

On the May 18 episode, the $800 question in the “Playing Today’s Hits” category read, “Olivia Rodrigo’s first hit single is this breakup song that debuted at No. 1 in 2021.” The correct answer, of course, was “Drivers License.” Rodrigo caught wind of the shout-out and was naturally excited. She took to her Instagram Story to share a photo of the clue and write, “omfg. jeopardy is my fav show.”

While this is the first time Rodrigo has been mentioned on the show since her music career took off in a major way, she has actually been referenced on the show once before. On the June 25, 2019 episode, Rodrigo popped up on the $1,000 question in the category “Teens On TV.” The clue was, “Madison Hu plays Frankie & Olivia Rodrigo is Paige on this Disney Channel show with a ‘AA’ rating.” The answer was Bizaardvark, which ran from 2016 to 2019.

The first round of the Western Conference playoffs this year features a rematch from last year’s bubble playoffs between the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers and fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks. Both teams have top-10 offenses, while the Clippers have a top-10 defense compared to the Mavericks settling in as the 21st-ranked defense on the year.

Last year’s series was tense, going six games and signaling Doncic’s full-on arrival among the league’s best players in almost averaging a triple-double and hitting a game winner in Game that elicited a rare double ‘BANG’ call from Mike Breen.

So can round two live up to last year and will the result be any different? Let’s dive in.

Matchup To Watch

The matchup to watch in this series starts and ends with Luka Doncic vs. the combination of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. It seems highly likely that for every minute he’s on the floor, Doncic is going to be marked by one of Leonard and George. He’s already too good to be stopped entirely, but the Clippers have the personnel as well equipped as any team in the playoffs to make Doncic work for every point and every assist.

It also stands to reason that both teams will have counters already lined up based on last year’s playoff series. Dallas’ Rick Carlisle is too crafty and smart a coach to not look at last year’s series, factor in some differences between how L.A. played this seaons, and come in with a plans A through Z. On the other sideline, Tyronn Lue wasn’t the Clippers’ head coach last year, but he was on Doc Rivers’ staff and has been through the process of game planning for the playoffs both as a player and as a head coach in the past. Some of the counters might end up being simple — think trying to force a switch so Doncic is guarded by a big or a smaller guard — but it could decide the series.

On the flip side: Leonard averaged 31.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game against Dallas last year with Maxi Kleiber primarily defending him. Leonard can be that good again and maybe even better considering he shot under 30% from three in last year’s series. If he goes off, and if George isn’t a no-show late in the series, then maybe Los Angeles has an advantage Dallas can’t overcome.

Series X-Factor

There are two big name players that could credibly be called x-factors in this series. On one hand, there’s Paul George looking to makeup for last year’s poor showing. On the other hand, there’s Kristaps Porzingis, who wasn’t healthy for most last year’s series.

But let’s look more at the Clippers’ rotation choices at two positions: point guard and center. Tyronn Lue has three options he can go to at the former — Rajon Rondo, Reggie Jackson and Patrick Beverley. Rondo was acquired specifically to be Playoff Rondo (patent pending), so it would seem likely that he will play a large chunk of the minutes. Jackson, meanwhile, played the bulk of the minutes all year, so maybe Lue feels comfortable with him. Beverley, on the other hand, just came back from injury. It’s entirely possible Lue changes up who he uses on a game-to-game basis.

At center, Serge Ibaka just came back from injury and hasn’t played big minutes since returning, but would seem to be a good matchup with Porzingis when he plays the five and spaces out further. If healthy, he’s also probably better equipped to switch onto Doncic in a pinch. But Ivica Zubac has been solid all year and has a career-high true shooting percentage just a shade below 70%. He’s probably earned real playoff minutes even if Ibaka has versatility that Zubac does not. How Lue deploys his rotation at those two positions will be important and telling, not just for this series but potentially further down the road.

One Stat To Know

Per Cleaning The Glass, the Mavericks are +3.1 points per 100 possessions with Doncic on the court and just +.6 per 100 possessions when Doncic sits. Doncic plays an overwhelming amount of the time — he was on the court for almost 70% of Dallas’ possessions this year — and will probably play even more in the playoffs.

But there’s a very thin margin here for the Mavericks. And for them to win the series, the margins probably have to get even higher. Even if Doncic gets bumped up to around 40 minutes a night, there’s eight minutes a game where Dallas has to lean on Jalen Brunson, Tim Hardaway Jr., and/or Kristaps Porzingis to carry lineups and keep the game in play for Doncic to pull Luka Magic out of his hat. For what it’s worth, Doncic played 35.8 minutes per game in last year’s series with L.a.

Having Leonard and George to turn to is obviously a massive advantage for the Clippers. Tyronn Lue can stagger his two stars and have at least one of them on the floor for every minute of the game if he so chooses. Rick Carlisle just doesn’t have that luxury unless Porzingis plays at a level that he hasn’t before. For what it’s worth, lineups with Porzingis and without Doncic were dead even per 100 possessions this year. Only one, however, played more than 100 possessions for the entire season. Finding ways to steal some minutes with Luka on the bench will be Dallas’ only real shot at this series, which they’ve struggled to do at points during this season.

Sharon Van Etten has been in a collaborative mood lately. She recruited a bunch of artists to cover her songs for the recent Epic Ten reissue, and now she has teamed up with Angel Olsen on a huge new single, “Like I Used To.”

Van Etten said of the track, “Even though we weren’t super close, I always felt supported by Angel and considered her a peer in this weird world of touring. We highway high-fived many times along the way…. I finally got the courage in June of 2020 to reach out to see if she would want to sing together. I got greedy and quickly sent her a track I had been working on.”

Olsen also added, “I’ve met with Sharon here and there throughout the years and have always felt too shy to ask her what she’s been up to or working on. The song reminded me immediately of getting back to where I started, before music was expected of me, or much was expected of me, a time that remains pure and real in my heart.”

Furthermore, Van Etten wrote of Olsen on social media, “I have loved @angelolsenmusic’s music for a long time. I have been to her shows and cried in the audience. I have cheers’d her post show on the road. She has sent me inspirations and support in my high and lows along the way. I never thought I would get the courage to send her an unfinished song and ask her to do a duet with me and here we are. Thank you, Angel, for calling my bluff and lifting me up, and making this song better than it ever could have been. I hope you all enjoy this collaboration that has spanned a year in the making. I am so happy to share it with you.”

The song was produced by John Congleton, who knows both artists well at this point: He previously worked with Van Etten on Remind Me Tomorrow and with Olsen on Burn Your Fire For No Witness and All Mirrors.

Watch the “Like I Used To” video above.

Okay, there are a lot of super hero movies, like… a lot a lot. However, of these countless, action-packed adventures, a frankly staggering amount are about one caped crusader in particular: Batman. Now seeing as he does have a few dozen handfuls of movies about him, Bruce Wayne doesn’t need much introduction and you probably don’t need to hear about Thomas and Martha Wayne getting murdered again. However, there are some stories about the “dark knight” we haven’t heard enough about, and with all the recent announcements regarding up both upcoming live-action and animated Batman films, we’re getting antsy to see them._ Here are just a few of the stories that are great enough to grace the big screen — and fingers crossed one day they do.

1. The Black Mirror
The Black Mirror — much like quite a few Batman stories, honestly — isn’t a perfect story. I mean, for starters the way it portrays mental health leaves much to be desired. However, it’s a really interesting story about the power of empathy and has a lot of compelling beats throughout. The story takes place after Bruce Wayne hangs up the cowl and decides to focus on training the next generation of crime fighters. In his place, he leaves Dick Grayson, who is struggling with some major imposter syndrome in his new role as the Batman. The story kicks off when Detective Jim Gordon’s son, Jim Gordan Jr., returns to Gotham after being sent away from his home due to his psychotic tendencies. The overarching story focuses on these two men — the “son” of Wayne and the son of Gordon — and their drastically different views on humanity and compassion. It’s a pretty dark story, but it’s a pretty good one as well.

2. The Court of Owls
The Court of Owl storyline proves once and for all that the most terrifying villains are the ones that are ageless and engrained in a society — the ones that have always lived among us and are just out of reach of the law. In Gotham City, the Court of Owls exists as an absurd legend, accompanying nursery rhyme and all, and Bruce Wayne never put much stock into it. However, in these comics, Wayne comes to discover the secret society exists, and is comprised of many of Gotham’s rich and powerful families. Using their combined influence, these individuals have been terrorizing and pulling the strings of the city for centuries, and make for an army that is subtle, vast, and suffocating. In addition to containing all this political intrigue and a strong message regarding the abuse of power and wealth, the story is also visceral, high-stakes, and captivating.

3. Knightfall

While we definitely saw elements of Knightfall in The Dark Knight Rises, we’ve yet to get a proper adaptation of its iconic storyline. Perhaps some of this oversight comes from the fact that this slow burn of a story takes place over the course of six months, as Batman overcomes not only a pretty major physical injury (see above image), but nurses a few mental ones as well. Now you might be asking just who watched over Gotham during Batman’s forced timeout, and the answer to that is none other than the “hero” Azrael, which leads to even bigger troubles for Bruce Wayne. You see Azrael believes that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures, and his heroism turns into brutal terror while Wayne is away, causing Gotham City to lose its trust in its vigilantes. It is because of the lessons learned in Knightfall the “bat family” (Robin, Batgirl, etc…) is created, and the Batman story was forever altered.

In the most inclusive move yet by the toy-brick company, LEGO has unveiled a new LGBTQ set that will arrive in time for this year’s Pride Month in June. The set is called “Everyone Is Awesome,” a clever callback to “Everything Is Awesome,” the hit song from The LEGO Movie. The set features eleven LEGO minifigures representing all colors of the LGBTQ rainbow.

“We’re super excited to reveal our new set – LEGO Everyone is Awesome! Because we celebrate every LEGO builder,” LEGO wrote on its official Twitter account, along with photos of the Pride-themed set.

The “Everyone Is Awesome” set is already receiving praise from LGBTQ groups, who are happy to see the Denmark-based company foster an accepting environment for children. Via CNN:

“Having LGBT-inclusive toys creates a space for families to let LGBT children know that they are loved and accepted,” Joe Nellist, from the UK’s LGBT Foundation, told CNN. “Growing up in a world which often tells you there is something ‘wrong’ with you can lead to a person developing a deep sense of shame — something we know can have a long-lasting impact on both mental and physical health.”

According to the set’s designer, Matthew Ashton, he was happy to celebrate LEGO’s passionate fanbase of all ages and all backgrounds. “We share love for creativity and self-expression through Lego bricks and this set is a way to show my gratitude for all the love and inspiration that is constantly shared,” he told CNN in a statement.

(Via LEGO on Twitter)

Kid Cudi is just a few months removed from releasing his December 2020 album Man On The Moon III: The Chosen. That’s not stopping him from working on new music, though, as he already has something new cooking. He revealed as much late, late last night, when he took to Instagram to share a snippet of fresh music for his fans who were still awake long after the sun had set.

At 3:18 a.m. last night, Cudi tweeted, “Who’s up?” About 20 minutes later, he followed that with, “Check my story on instagram.”

Fans who were up and checking in on Cudi at that hour were pleased to find that Cudi had taken to Instagram and shared a 30-second video of himself dancing to a new song he’s been working on.

On Twitter, Cudi noted, “Im still writin!! Wasnt sure about it and wanted to get ur opinions. Tell me what u think!! I love you!!” He also added, “I like doin this in the late night hours. Not so many eyes, just the lucky few.”

This new music comes not long after he performed on Saturday Night Live. Notably, he wore a dress on stage, a choice that drew praise from Pete Davidson.

Check out the new snippet above.

Former President Barack Obama’s never too far away from public view these days while weighing in on everything from UFOs (which he does take seriously) to Amazon Prime’s The Boys (he’s definitely a fan, and Homelander actor Antony Starr loves it). Barack was certainly never been a Trump fan, and he’s expressed disapproval of his follow-up prez’s policies, but we’ve never really heard 44’s unfiltered take on 45, until now.

The Guardian details key excerpts from a new book, Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump, by The Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere. The book’s arriving with a May 25 release date, and contains claims that Obama called Trump a “corrupt m*therf*cker” along with “madman,” “that f*cking lunatic,” and “racist, sexist pig.” Here’s how that all apparently went down:

“He’s a madman,” Dovere reports Obama telling “big donors looking to squeeze a reaction out of him in exchange for the big checks they were writing to his foundation.”

“More often: ‘I didn’t think it would be this bad.’ Sometimes: ‘I didn’t think we’d have a racist, sexist pig.’ Depending on the outrage of the day… a passing ‘that fucking lunatic’ with a shake of his head.”

Obama’s strongest remark, Dovere reports, was prompted by reports that Trump was speaking to foreign leaders – including Vladimir Putin, amid the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow – without any aides on the call.

“‘That corrupt m*therf*cker,’ he remarked.”

Weirdly enough, I can totally hear Obama saying “m*therf*cker” in my head even though Obama has never come close to uttering that word in public. And if you’ve had the same thought, too, we’re not alone. Now, if you’d like to hear how Stephen Colbert also imagines Obama saying, “m*therf*cker,” check out the clip at the 3:30 mark below.

(Via The Guardian)