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On the Billboard 200 chart dated July 18, Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, made its debut in the top spot. Its reign was short-lived, though, as it was quickly bounced from No. 1 the following week. Now, three months later, the album has returned to the top spot on the chart.

Shoot For The Stars knocked 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s Savage Mode II from No. 1 and has now spent two total weeks atop the Billboard 200. Its second week at No. 1 comes after it spent the previous thirteen weeks bouncing around between the second, third, and fourth positions. Interestingly, Lil Baby’s My Turn had a strikingly similar journey: It too debuted at No. 1 and then left the top spot for 13 weeks before returning to the top.

This news comes shortly after Lil Wayne hopped on a remix of Smoke’s “Iced Out Audemars.” Smoke and Lil Tjay’s collaboration “Mood Swings” also got new contributions from Summer Walker. Meanwhile, there was a bit of an indication earlier this month that Shoot For The Stars could return to the top of the Billboard 200: Spotify introduced a slew of new charts, and leading the inaugural Top 50 Global Albums chart was Shoot For The Stars.

Those of us who continued to watch Showtime’s Dexter well into its unremarkable, disappointing final season (back in 2013) all knew — as soon as Dexter showed up in Alaska as a lumberjack — that it was only a matter of time before the network brought it back. The biggest surprise here is not that Showtime is reviving Dexter as a limited series, but that it took this long.

The best news of all, however, is that — though we didn’t necessarily ask for its return — at least it is the show’s original showrunner, Clyde Phillips, who is resurrecting the series. Phillips ran the show for its first four seasons, and while Seasons 2 and 3 were not perfect, the series fell off a cliff after Phillips left, ending its run with Scott Buck as showrunner, and all that need be said about Scott Buck is that his next two shows were Inhumans and Iron Fist. In other words, his work on Dexter was not an aberration.

Knowing that Phillips is returning, we can also assume, then, that the revival will make logical sense (unlike that final season). That means we can expect Phillips to right some wrongs, and before we get to those wrongs, let me just quickly remind you how the original series ended: Debra dies in spectacularly anticlimactic fashion when she is shot by a serial killer and survives it, only to succumb to a massive stroke and fall into a coma. Before she dies, Debra confesses her love to Quinn (a terrible character by the end of the series), and it is Dexter who removes Debra from life support as a hurricane is bearing down on them. Meanwhile, Dexter’s on-again, off-again serial-killer girlfriend, Hannah, takes Dexter’s son, Harrison, and flees to Argentina, while Dexter takes a boat out into the sea in the midst of a hurricane. The waves should have killed Dexter, but instead, he relocates to Alaska and starts his life over again as a lumberjack.

With that in mind, there are three things that hardcore fans of Dexter probably insist upon fairly unanimously:

(1) Notwithstanding the ridiculous incestuous storyline between adopted brother and sister Dexter and Debra (all the weirder because Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter were going through a divorce in real life at the time), Debra obviously must return to the series. However, because Debra is dead, and because Clyde Phillips is smart enough not to try and put that toothpaste back in the tube, the only way to make that happen is for Debra to be Dexter’s dark passenger, the devil on his shoulder telling him what to do. She would be very well suited to that role.

(2) That brings us to the second thing that needs to happen: Hannah has to die. In fact, this can even be the main storyline. She continues to kill people, putting Harrison’s life in danger (or doing something that gets Harrison killed), and Dexter returns to avenge Harrison’s death. This works well with Debra as his dark passenger, because no one hated Hannah more than Debra (who was once poisoned by Hannah). She’ll be happy to encourage Dexter to kill Hannah, although I’m sure that Dexter will continue to wrestle with his sexual feelings toward her (Hannah was a terrible character, but Yvonne Strahovski, who played her, was terrific, and I’d love to see her return if she can schedule around Handmaid’s Tale).

(3) Meanwhile, the biggest mistake that Clyde Phillips must clean up is this: the revival must remain a limited series, and Dexter must be caught or killed. If they want to revive it again in a decade with Harrison (who would be in his early 20s by then), that’s fine. But Dexter must die. That was the single biggest problem with the way that the original series ended. Dexter had a code: yes, he was a serial-killing vigilante, but he only killed bad people. By the end of the series, he’d broken that code more than a few times, and by then, he deserved to be captured or killed. We wanted to see justice brought to Dexter.

Now, if they want to capture Dexter and bring the series back in the future with him as a sort of Hannibal Lector type character who helps the cops capture other serial killers, I’d be fine with that. But Dexter must finally face some consequences for all his ill actions. The blood slides must be found. There needs to be a manhunt, and he needs to be arrested and/or killed. If Masuka arrests and/or kills him, all the better!

That’s it. That’s all we ask: Debra needs to be Dexter’s Dark Passenger, Hannah must die, and we need to close the book on Dexter as a serial killer, either by arresting him or killing him. Don’t let us down, Showtime.

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ is ambitious and astounding and will undoubtedly blow your expectations away. Created by Misha Green, who’s working with Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark-fantasy novel as source material, the show counts horror visionary Jordan Peele and sci-fi maestro J.J. Abrams as executive producers. The show is full of literary and musical references, along with monsters, both in-your-face and figurative; we’ll discuss the resulting symbolism on a weekly basis.

Lovecraft Country‘s penultimate first-season episode performed its own retelling of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The show went operatic, as opposed to the cinematic approach that Damon Lindelof took with the burning of Black Wall Street in Watchmen, and the journey not only unearthed the Book of Names, but it allowed Montrose to gain some much-needed closure. Tic ended up being the “mysterious stranger” who had bashed racists with a baseball bat, Jackie Robinson-style, and the episode reinforced how Black history and horror are often interchangeable terms. My only complaint about last week’s episode was that Tic didn’t get to haul his new pet monster (conjured by Tic’s first successful spell) through the time portal. Yet the good news is that the creature came back for the season finale, “Full Circle.”

This episode felt strangely… simple. It’s the only Lovecraft Country installment that wasn’t jam-packed with arcs flying everywhere, but it did leave threads loose for the future. Mostly, it came down to Tic’s black-skinned shoggoth doing Dee’s bidding while she took out Christina. No longer immortal, the ultimate Karen’s number was finally up.

It’s a scene that reminds me of another recent season finale of an incredibly popular TV series, which I shall not spoil, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. I will also say that it’s awfully satisfying to see racists incoherently babbling while realizing that their grand designs have fallen apart. Leti informing Christina that all white people are now bound from magic was quite a flourish from this show.

Yep, Leti harnessed a spell more powerful than Christina could manage with the help of Tic and generations of women from Tic’s family — all the way back to Hanna, Tic’s ancestor who had swiped the Book of Names from Ardham manner back in the day. Yet another Karen goes down, with Christina representing the woman who used her white privilege to liberate herself from her patriarchial family (and society at large) while not giving a damn that she’s quite the oppressor herself.

So, we’ve got ourselves what appears to be a concrete ending for Christina, but we don’t really know some other fates. Someone’s mysteriously acquired a bionic arm, Ji-ah’s now joined the family, and uh, it’s a heck of a bold move to end the season with a dead leading man. Is Tic truly gone? I sure don’t doubt that he could be resurrected by magic. That would actually be one of the least batsh*t-crazy things this show has done.

Will Lovecraft Country receive another rodeo to tie up those loose ends? Ratings have been comparable to Watchmen, and even though the book’s source material has been exhausted, a Season 2 could very well happen. Jurnee Smollett’s pushing for this to come true, and creator-showrunner Misha Green told Alan Sepinwall that she’s in talks for Season 2 and has plans on where to go from here.

Fingers crossed on that note, but let’s check in on where everyone (other than Atticus and Christina) ended up, as far as we know.

Leti: It sure wasn’t looking good for the mother of the George Freeman 2.0 in this ^^^ scene, but Christina muttered a spell to reinstate Leti’s invulnerability (though the Mark of Cain), and she only did so to keep a lingering promise to Ruby. That was a big mistake on Christina’s behalf, although she was convinced by her own god complex at that point that nothing could destroy her. Little did Ms. Braithwhite know that a sex-tentacle monster had been hanging on the sidelines and was about to join the party.

Ji-ah: Seeing Atticus’ ex-lover pack up with the rest of the gang for the Ardham road trip? That was mildly surprising, but she ended up being the deus ex machina. Not everyone will love this, since Ji-ah was a peripheral character, and one who did not endure the horrors of the other characters in this scene, but Dee got the finishing move, so that helps. Anyhoodle, Ji-ah’s foxy tentacles helped incapacitate Christina long enough for Leti to finish screaming the climactic incarnation. In the process, Ji-ah came full circle back to that moment with Atticus in South Korea, where she told him, “We could be monsters or heroes.” At that point, Tic wasn’t yet aware that she killed men during sex, but as we saw earlier in the finale, she’s given up that habit for good. From here, I hope she becomes a full-on, sex-tentacle superhero.

Dee: After she’d been let down by all the damn grownups in this season, Atticus’ cousin got to do the final honors upon Christina with a newly acquired robot arm. Do I fully understand how the wacky spells during this episode resulted in Dee being able to command the black-skinned shaggoth now? Nope, but I’m pretty sure no one will be a better adoptive monster-mom than Dee will be. She’ll be fine. More on Dee in a moment.

Ruby: A very sad development went down for Leti’s sister. She’d finally gotten on board with Leti’s insistence that Christina must be stopped, but as we find out, Ruby ended up dead with Christina whipping up a potion to take over her body. Yeah, Ruby got the rawest deal of the season, it seems. She fell in lust with William, only to find out that she’d actually been having sex with Christina. And Ruby, unfortunately, bought into Christina’s bullsh*t to the degree that she couldn’t fully break free, though it does appear that the two felt genuine emotion toward one another. I’m not sorry to see Christina go, but I wish Ruby would have survived.

Hippolyta: Tic’s aunt has a lot of work to do at home to mend the damage she helped do to Dee by evaporating mid-season. Yes, we got a wild space travel episode (move over Vin Diesel and Tom Cruise) out of the deal, along with time portals, but damn lady, get it together with your daughter. I hope that Hippolyta teaches Dee everything about Hiram’s orrery, and then they can bond over a nice, ladies-only road trip to wherever Dee wants to go. Give the girl some ice cream, too. She’s been through a lot, and seeing mom learn to effortlessly draw the Orithya Blue Asteri character ain’t enough. Hopefully, Dee’s all-powerful arm can help get them past any road-bound obstacles.

Montrose: Yep, I sure am using a photo of Tic’s dad from early in the season, but he’s taken the most powerful journey of all. We saw him locked up by the Braithwhites and used as bait to lure Atticus to Ardham Manor. He heartbreakingly wrestled with his alcoholism while attempting to cope with George’s death and reckon with an estranged father-son relationship. Montrose came out, as well, and he made the journey back to 1921 Tulsa, where he tearfully delivered the monologue of the season. Michael K. Williams crushed this whole performance, and I truly feel like he’s the most deserving cast member when awards season rears its head.

Montrose ended the season in grief after (supposedly) losing his son, but he has a shot at being a “father” all over again when Leti’s baby is born. His reconciliation with Tic last week was beautiful, and Tic’s farewell note quoted a parting letter from a character in Montrose’s favorite book, The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas:

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”

Since Atticus previously verbalized his suspicions that Montrose loved The Count Of Monte Cristo because the protagonist successfully pursued revenge, I gotta wonder if a Season 2 will see Montrose pursuing some form of revenge for Tic’s death. You might be asking: revenge against whom? He’ll figure something out, no doubt.

Tic’s ancestors: Did Hanna, Hattie, and Dora all really disappear with a puff of smoke during a spell, or are they simply hanging out and waiting for more action? For that matter, did Tic actually kill Titus Braithwhite during that heart-extracting ritual? The dude was already dead, after all, and ghosts can always come back for more haunting. So many questions. We’ve got to have a Season 2 to answer them all. Let’s do this, HBO.

There was a lot for John Oliver to cover during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, including Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings (“She dodged almost everything she was asked, and partly because this hearing was preordained by the Republicans”) and Donald Trump’s town hall (Trump’s creepy smile looks “like someone dropped their dentures into a jack-o’-lantern on November 14”). But the majority episode was centered on something Trump did back in July, when his administration notified Congress and the United Nations that the U.S. is withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

Trump has called the WHO “literally a pipe organ for China,” which, as Oliver pointed out, is not “literally” true, “because the only thing that is literally a pipe organ for China is a pipe organ because that’s what the word ‘literally’ means.” He continued, “Over the last six months, Trump has constantly tried to deflect blame for his handing of the coronavirus onto the WHO, China, and the close relationship that he claims the two have.” The WHO — which is made up of 194 member states, or “nearly every country on Earth” — coordinates “global responses to a wide range of health issues, including altering the world to threats, fighting diseases, developing policy, and improving access to care.” It can also declare a “health emergency of international concern and issue recommendations” on how to respond to a crisis… like the one we’re facing now.

But all Trump sees is “something that involves shared sacrifice, trade-offs, and complexity, and [he] decided to just blow it up because he either doesn’t understand it, doesn’t care, or both,” Oliver said. The WHO isn’t perfect, but “the solution clearly isn’t to walk away. It’s to try and fix them but the only way for the U.S. to have a say in how that happens is to have a seat at the table and we’re about to give that up.” Oliver called called abandoning the organization, especially “in the midst of pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans and a million people around the world, one of the most ill-advised, dumbest things we can possibly do — and I mean that f*cking literally.”

Watch the segment above.

Cardi B’s Twitter account is a must-follow for anybody who wants to know what’s going on in her life, as the rapper often uses the platform to let fans know what she’s up to. That changed over the weekend, though: Cardi has deleted her account after calling out her fans for harassing Offset since her and his recent reunion. Accessing her @iamcardib page currently results in the message, “This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another.”

In an Instagram Live session before she deleted her account, Cardi had some harsh words for her followers, saying, “A whole bunch of 15-year-olds telling me how to live my life like I’m motherf*cking Ariana Grande or something. Like I came from Disney or something. I’m so tired that because of y’all, I’ve gotta continuously explain myself. I didn’t put my divorce out there, a f*cking court clerk put it out there. And because people are making rumors up, ‘Oh, this guy has a girl pregnant,’ this and that, I have to address it.”

She went on to address her fans’ treatment of Offset, saying, “Y’all want to be f*cking harassing this n****. Bro, if I work things out, why are you going to this n****’s Twitter to harass him? That sh*t don’t make no f*cking sense. […] I’m tired of it. […] I do whatever the f*ck I want to do. Like, I love my fans and I’m grateful and thankful for everything you do, but some of y’all really be acting like I be sleeping with y’all. And Offset is not the only f*cking problem that I deal with. To be honest with you, my marriage is one of the least worries that I have right now.”

Watch the video above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The third episode of the newest The Walking Dead spin-off, The World Beyond, was really not much better than the second episode, which ended with the four main characters going to sleep under a toxic cloud of smoke from a literal tire fire.

The third episode picked up in the middle of that tire fire, and most of the episode entailed our foursome continuing on through to the other side of that fire. They were joined here by the older kids, Felix and Huck, and to be honest, none of the six should have survived. Not because of the zombies, but because they spend a full day inhaling smoke from a tire fire, which may have been one of the most ridiculous storylines in the history of The Walking Dead universe (and that includes the ocean zombies in Fear the Walking Dead). It is tantamount to a shark movie where teenagers survive a shark attack by swimming through battery acid and surfacing unscathed.

It’s not just the bad story, either. The acting continues to suffer, the writing is painful (there’s a scene, for instance, where Elton cannot even discern the meaning of “haul ass” even within the obvious context), and the pacing is sluggish. Three episodes into a 20-episode limited series with a pre-planned arc, and The World Beyond still doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. The most incongruous thing about it, however, seems to be its attempt to appeal to The CW crowd with young actors and angsty teen storylines in the flashbacks, while the show’s other storyline is squarely aimed at longtime fans of The Walking Dead, most of whom are probably not terribly interested in watching Riverdale meets the zombie apocalypse.

What’s interesting, however, is how much better, and how much more grown-up the CRM storyline is on The World Beyond. It’s almost as though it exists on a different show aimed at a completely different demographic. Many fans of The Walking Dead are watching The World Beyond for one reason only: To learn more about the CRM and the whereabouts of Rick Grimes. Showrunners Scott Gimple and Matthew Negrete are (slowly) delivering on that storyline, but it still requires that we sit through 55 minutes to get to that final five minutes concerning the CRM.

Here’s what we learned: The CRM did, indeed, kill all 9,000 or so members of the Campus Colony. We don’t really know why, except that to Elizabeth, the Campus Colony posed a threat to the CRM. One of the CRM soldiers disagreed with Elizabeth about whether the Campus Colony was actually a threat, and he was stripped of his position, imprisoned, and possibly killed.

Meanwhile, it’s clear that Elizabeth is also feeling conflicted about murdering 9,000 people for the greater good, but she remains steadfast in her mission. “We have energy, water, medicine, transport, the council, the school, currency, economy, the council, agriculture, manufacturing, law. We are the last light of the world, the last hope.” Elizabeth seems to believe that the 200,000 people in the CRM represent the future of mankind and that it is incumbent upon her to snuff out any present or future threats to the CRM. How the Campus Colony falls into that category remains a mystery, as does Elizabeth’s decision to orchestrate Iris and Hope’s journey away from the Campus Colony before she had its citizens exterminated.

In either respect, the last five minutes of The World Beyond with Julia Ormond — who is so far ahead of everyone else on this show — almost make bearable sitting through emo teenagers kill zombies in a tire fire. Almost. Ninety percent of The World Beyond is bad, but like any self-respecting longtime fan of TWD, I’m going to stick with it for clues about the whereabouts of Rick Grimes, because the CRM is every bit as menacing as Isabel (possibly Elizabeth’s daughter) promised over on Fear the Walking Dead.

There has not been a shake-up at the top on Fear the Walking Dead, and it doesn’t appear that the writer’s room had a major overhaul between the fifth and sixth season. However, through the first two episodes of the season, at least, the series has hit its highest gear yet, as it continues to tell narrowly focused, stand-alone stories that will eventually connect all of the disparate characters and storylines.

This week’s episode, “Welcome to the Club,” zeroes in on Alicia and Strand, who have been sequestered together in what appears to be villainous Ginny’s home community, where they have been relegated to latrine duty. Cleaning up people’s sh*t does not suit them, however, and when Strand pops off on one of the rangers, he and Alicia are reassigned to another task in a separate community: They are forced to clear scores and scores of zombies trapped in a factory and covered in molasses. The molasses is an interesting wrinkle because it is both slippery — causing people to fall — and sticky, making it difficult to escape the grasp of the zombies (the storyline also reminds me, vaguely, of the Great Molasses Flood that killed 21 people in Boston in 1919).

Relocated to what appears to be a sort of prison colony, Strand and Alicia also reunite with Charlie and Janis (and if you only vaguely remember Janis from Season 5, leave it that way. The less said about her and Tom, the better). Strand decides, however, that he’s had enough, and he initially tries to orchestrate a break-out with the help of Dakota, Ginny’s younger sister, who seems to revere Strand and Alicia. He eventually allows Alicia to talk him out of the reckless plan, but Strand does manage to lead Alicia, Charlie, Janis, and several of the other prisoners toward completing their mission of clearing the molasses zombies. It requires that Strand make a ruthless human sacrifice of one of the prisoners in order to lure the zombies away from two rangers who were killed by zombies, allowing Janis and Alicia to take possession of their guns and mow down the zombies. It’s a Season 1 Strand move to throw an innocent at the wolves to save himself, and I love it: we have all very much missed this Strand.

Meanwhile, his plan is the sort that probably should have gotten them executed. Instead, Ginny admires Strand’s ingenuity In fact, she promotes him to lead an army of his own, though the purpose of the army remains vague and unclear (Ginny’s motivations, however, seem to mirror those of Elizabeth in the CRM). Surprisingly, he chooses not to include Alicia in that army and instead to send her away, because Alicia brings out Strand’s humanity, and Strand decides that his humanity is getting in the way of his ability to escape and save the rest of his people (Strand without his humanity is also a far more interesting character). Mostly, I think, it means that Fear will be able to do a stand-alone episode where Alicia and Strand are paired with other characters.

Meanwhile, we also get to see Daniel, who works as a hairdresser in Ginny’s community. He puts on the act of a doddering old man whose memory of the last several years has been erased, and he maintains the act for Charlie, Strand, and Alicia, despite their attempts to trigger his memory. However, in the episode’s final scene, the act finally falls in truly dramatic fashion when the newly reborn Morgan pays him a visit outside the community in one hell of a crowd-pleasing reunion. “You look like you could use a haircut,” Daniel says, dropping the ruse, as newly bad-ass Morgan peers out from beneath his cowboy hat.

Six seasons in, and maybe Fear the Walking Dead has finally found its stride. Let’s hope that it can maintain it as the series shifts focus to stories about some of the other weaker characters. Next week, it appears that Morgan is going to get that haircut, and we’ll also see a story unspool with Dwight (and maybe the return of Sherry!) and Althea, who hopefully will finally have dropped the video camera act. Next week’s episode is directed by Colman Domingo, and it’s also worth noting that this week’s excellent episode was directed by Lennie James, who has fully become the Rick Grimes of Fear, and it’s never been as good as it is right now (knock on wood).

Though it has its detractors, the film of The Notebook remains one of the more popular sudsy romances of the modern age, so powerful that it turned the source’s author, Nicholas Sparks, into a cottage industry for far longer than he had any right to be. But it was almost very different. Instead of starring Ryan Gosling as Noah, the lowly lumber mill worker who catches the eye of Rachel McAdams’ heiress, the film was nearly headlined by no less than George Clooney.

The former Batman let that tidbit slip while speaking to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming film The Midnight Sky, which, like The Notebook, features two actors playing the same character at different times. “I was going to do a movie years ago called The Notebook, that Ryan Gosling actually did, and I was going to do it with Paul Newman,” he told the publication. There was one problem, though: Both actors were too famous.

“Paul and I talked about doing it, and we were sitting there one day and I was looking at him and I go, ‘I can’t do this movie, Paul … He was like. ‘Why?’ I was like, ‘Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old. You got blue eyes, I got brown eyes. You’re too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30, it’s never gonna work.’ And he’s like, ‘I guess you’re right.’”

Mind you, this was an early incarnation of the project, which had been in the works since the novel’s publication, in 1996. It was already known that one version was to star Tom Cruise and be directed by than Steven Spielberg. Clooney told EW that “10 years later they made it,” so while the math is a bit off, it’s safe to assume his involvement came very early on.

But it all worked out just fine: The older Noah wound up being played by the legendary James Garner and Gosling, then a scrappy up-and-comer, was elevated to the A-list. And then, in 2011, Gosling made The Ides of March for Clooney, who also co-starred. But next time you watch it, try to picture From Dusk Till Dawn-era Clooney doing the moody cross-class love stuff.

(Via EW)

New York Jets safety Marcus Maye used his butt to pick off an attempted deep ball by Ryan Fitzpatrick. I don’t have much more to say here, let’s get to the video, because it is wild.

Beyond the … let’s call it unusual circumstances under which Maye reeled in this pass, this is some extremely good defensive backing by the Jets safety. Right as he began covering Dolphins receiver Preston Williams, Maye made it a point to be physical with him — although nowhere near overzealous to the point that he could tempt a flag — and got his head around to see where the ball was in the air. Then, as Fitzpatrick underthrew it, he made an excellent play on the ball and did everything he could to stay between Williams and the ball.

And then, of course, there was how he made this pick happen. Dude pinned a football with one hand against his butt! This is insane! He ultimately popped it up into the air, needing to fend off a teammate who looked like they really wanted to get credited with the pick on this one, and finished the job by corralling the ball with his left arm. This is, unquestionably, the second most famous play in Jets history that prominently involves a butt.

It’s been over seven years since Bruce Willis last played John McClane, the terminally unlucky yet resourceful cop of the Die Hard series, the first of which rebranded him from wisecracking TV star to action god. Given our current movie-scape’s love of revivals and reboots — as well as society’s yen for AARP-aged a*s-kickers, like Liam Neeson — another big screen spin with McClane isn’t out of bounds. Till then, you’ll have to subsist on this most leftfield return: As caught by Variety, Willis has exhumed the character for a super-sized commercial for batteries.

Somehow it’s taken 32 years for the DieHard battery brand, first established in 1967, to put two and two together — and fork over what looks like a generous amount of money — and get John McClane to hock their wears. The new ad, which runs some two minutes, begins mundanely: Willis’ McClane needs a new car battery. It’s not long for some unnecessary window breaking, and from there things quickly escalate.

Willis isn’t the only original Die Hard vet who returns. The bad guy is played by Clarence Gilyard, who appeared as Theo, the sarcastic techie and the only member of Hans Gruber’s thieving faux-terrorist cell that doesn’t die. Instead, he’s incapacitated by De’voreaux White’s Argyle, John’s limousine driver who, incidentally, also returns. There’s a chase, there’s a big explosion, there’s some Willis smirking, and it all looks incredibly expensive.

The commercial was shared by Willis’ daughter Rumer, whose hashtag, “DieHardIsBack,” may have been a touch misleading to people who may not have been expecting a commercial for car batteries.

Does this mean a Die Hard 6 is on the horizon? Who knows? But maybe if enough people buy car batteries, capitalism will help the pushing-70 actor to lean more on the McClane who can figure out headache-inducing puzzles.

(Via Variety)