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The first season of The Mandalorian had no shortage of incredible action scenes that easily won over Star Wars fans. (Baby Yoda didn’t hurt either.) But with the upcoming second season expanding Mando’s world even further, showrunner Jon Favreau knew the action had to expand with it, so he secretly brought in Extraction director Sam Hargrave to take things to the next level.

In an interview with Collider, Hargrave revealed that Favreau reached out while he was still working on post-production for Extraction. That movie had yet to deliver Chris Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake to Netflix, but Hargrave was already a known quantity thanks to his work with Marvel. Not only was he as a stunt coordinator for several MCU films, but he was literally a stunt double for Captain America. In short, the guy knows his stuff when it comes to action scenes, and it’s that kind of expertise that Favreau wanted for season two of The Mandalorian.

We worked closely with the stunt team there, with Bryan Watson and the team that had done the first season; they did a really great job. You know, it was just to bring a little extra perspective, add a few things, things I’ve learned while working on superhero movies, little tricks which make the performances easier and using visual effects to enhance certain things. Just bringing a little bit of experience and knowledge to where we could take it to another level and up the ante. The next season is really, really cool. The way the story arcs is really cool. So we tried to have the action represent that and take it to the next level. I think we did that.

The Mandalorian Season 2 will premiere in October on Disney+.

(Via Collider)

Here’s a fun fact: In 2019, the year’s three longest-charting No. 1 songs — Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” and Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” — spent a combined 34 weeks on top of the Hot 100, or about two thirds of the year. This year’s Hot 100 has been much more of a revolving door situation, though. Outside of Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” which was No. 1 for 11 weeks between January and March, no song has spent more than two straight weeks on top. In fact, there has been a new No. 1 song in each of the past seven weeks. That includes the newly revealed June 13 chart, on which DaBaby and Ricch’s “Rockstar” is the latest chart-dominating single.

This is DaBaby’s first No. 1 single and Ricch’s second following “The Box.” Blame It On Baby, the album that “Rockstar” calls home, was also No. 1, albeit on the Billboard 200 chart.

If a song titled “Rockstar” at No. 1 sounds familiar, it’s because this happened fairly recently: Post Malone’s 21 Savage-featuring single “Rockstar” also topped the Hot 100, beginning in October 2017. The last time a song with a repeat title was No. 1 was Adele’s “Hello,” which topped the chart in November 2015, three decades after Lionel Richie’s “Hello” was No. 1 in May 1984.

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

Top Dawg Entertainment singer SiR has become one of the standard bearers for modern R&B by combining his forward-facing outlook with a fervent respect for the history of the genre. A prime example is his latest release for RCA Records’ Black Sounds Beautiful — a multimedia campaign celebrating Black Music Month — a smooth cover of the Isley Brothers’ 1978 single “Footsteps In The Dark.”

The cover features live instrumentation and a video directed by Peter Da Silva looking in on SiR’s studio recording process. It’s his third video of the year after “You Can’t Save Me” and “John Redcorn,” both from his 2019 album Saving Summer. SiR also appears in the video for his brother D Smoke’s “Lights On” alongside their fellow Inglewood native Issa Rae, who highlighted SiR in an episode of her HBO show Insecure as the musical guest for her character’s Inglewood Block Party. SiR also delivered an encore performance for Colors, singing “Wires In The Way.”

The Black Sounds Beautiful campaign will run throughout the month of June 2020, featuring concert footage and music videos on YouTube, artists’ commentaries on Instagram, and a Black Music Month 2020 playlist on streaming platforms highlighting RCA artists from throughout the label’s history.

Watch SiR’s ‘Footsteps In The Dark’ cover above.

For years, Converse was the biggest brand in basketball, inking endorsement deals with the biggest names in the NBA. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and just about every major star in the league in the early 80s was partnered with the Converse brand.

Now, 30-plus years later, Converse — a subsidiary of Nike now — is making its way back into the hoops scene and announced their latest athlete signing on Monday, as they’ve added Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud.

Cloud is coming off the best season of her career, averaging 9.0 points and 5.6 assists per game for the WNBA champion Mystics, upping her performance in the playoffs to the tune of 13.1 points and 6.2 assists per game. Not only is Cloud a rising star on the court, but the 28-year-old has found herself as a leading voice off of it, becoming a prominent figure in the WNBA in speaking out on social issues, most recently penning a piece for The Players Tribune on racial injustice and the importance of everyone to speak out on the issue.

That piece is referenced in Converse’s announcement, as they pledged $25,000 to an organization in Philly fighting for racial justice, and they are clearly bringing her on not just for her on-court abilities but because of her strong positions off the court. As Cloud told The Washington Post recently, her stance is clear, she’s going to speak out and use her platform, aligning herself with brands that are willing to commit to her passions off the floor as much as on it.

“A lot of times, athletes are afraid to use that platform in fear of consequences and not getting sponsors and getting backlash and not necessarily wanting to take on that role model role,” she said. “But at the same time, we do a disservice by not doing those things.”

Cloud joins Kelly Oubre Jr. and Draymond Green as recent signings to the Converse brand and will give them a major voice and presence in the women’s game.

The New Day‘s podcast, Feel The Power, is usually upbeat and funny, but in the latest episode, the team gets serious about the issues that have inspired thousands of Americans to protest, donate, and speak out over the past couple of weeks. In “A Conversation About Racial Injustice,” Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E, joined by Sporting News combat sports editor Andreas Hale, talk about the death of George Floyd, their own experiences with racism, and more. It’s a moving conversation and one that Woods hopes some listeners can use “to educate yourselves on someone else’s life experience.”

Woods opens the show, which runs just over an hour and eight minutes, by priming the audience for a more serious episode than usual, saying the podcast is “normally tons of laughs and stuff, but we’re not really laughing right now.”

Early in the show, Big E talks about watching the video of George Floyd’s death, saying “I can’t think of anything that’s hit me like this… I haven’t been able to get this out of my mind.” He continues:

It’s not the first time and it’s not the second time… I’ve seen and heard these stories from my parents and their parents and their parents before them, and I cannot accept living in a country where this is acceptable, where it takes two days to get an arrest for this man.

It was videotaped. It was clear as day. That bothers me. That hurts me to my very core, to my soul, that this is what it took: two days of anger and frustration, and people saying this has to be enough. How long can we allow this to happen?

Kingston brings up the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, echoing Big E’s statement that he “could have been any of us.” He says part of why he related to Arbery, who was killed while jogging, was because he recently started running in his neighborhood and that videos like those of the deaths of Floyd and Arbery are “scary, especially when you have kids.”

Kingston goes on to talk about a reply he saw to a post “condemning all of this:”

Somebody had written, ‘Oh, well, make sure you raise your kids right and they shouldn’t have to worry.’ In theory, that should be the case, but that has nothing to do with anything. You could be the best person in the world, the best scholar or the best businessman, at the top of your class in whatever it is that you do, and the fact that you look at certain way will trigger somebody to pull up on you in a van with guns.

The New Day and Hale go on to think about experiences with racism as children and teenagers, black families independently having “survival conversations” across America, feeling like they have to work to be seen as “non-threatening,” and more. Big E talks about the need for education about racist incidents in American history that aren’t widely known about, something he also tweeted about recently, and says “I don’t have all the answers, but what I’m asking for at a very minimum is empathy.”

Kingston comments twice during the episode that he’s encouraged by the amount of people who aren’t black talking and taking action. “It’s very refreshing, in a sense, to see that so many people who are not African-American coming to the aid and really wanting to know what they can do,” he says, and later adds “This is the closest thing I’ve seen to being the beginning of that change. I just really feel now more than ever that this is the start of something.”

Woods says he thinks part of why Floyd’s death inspired to much action is that the coronavirus pandemic slowed the world down, which caused people to stop and think more than they usually would. He closes the episode’s conversation by encouraging people to have their own and not be distracted from the issues at hand. Woods urging listeners to “talk to your friends, talk to your families, and keep the conversation going.”

John Prine died in April following hospitalization in intensive care after contracting the coronavirus. The singer had previously battled cancer twice and had one of the most celebrated careers as a songwriter. In his final years, Prine was still selling out tours across the country as a revered figure in American folk music. Now, Prine’s life and legacy will be remembered through a special tribute show.

Musicians and celebrities are coming together to celebrate Prine’s life and career. Produced by Prine’s family and his label Oh Boy Records, the tribute show will feature memories and songs along with rare and never-before-seen footage of the singer. Along with memorializing Prine, the tribute show will be a fundraiser for non-profit organizations NAMI, Alive, and Make The Road New York.

Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine will see a host of musicians, actors, and friends of Prine. The show features longtime friend Bill Murray, who recently recalled a heartwarming story of how Prine’s music helped pull him out of a depressive episode. Along with Murray, some other guests include Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, Kurt Vile, Jason Isbell, and Kevin Bacon.

Watch a trailer for John Prine’s tribute show above.

Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine premieres 6/11 at 7:30 pm ET. Watch it here.

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

During a Black Lives Matter protest in London, Star Wars actor John Boyega delivered a rousing, passionate speech where he grappled with the very real possibility that he might not have a career after openly standing up against racism and police brutality. “I’m speaking to you from my heart,” Boyega said. “I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*ck that.”

Fortunately, Boyega was wrong, and within hours of his rousing speech, some of the biggest players in Hollywood from Jordan Peele to Lin-Manuel Miranda showed up in force to have his back. Even Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, and Lucasfilm got in on the act, and Boyega was very grateful. In a new statement posted to Instagram, the Attack the Block actor shared his heartfelt thanks and his commitment to keep fighting injustice.

I believe any great movement starts with a renewal of the mind. I know you’re all thinking, what’s next? Where do we go from here? Because I’m thinking the same shit! Conversations about black businesses, ownership and support are happening, and I will continue to have these conversations with the full intention of birthing ideas that are sustainable and tangible. Let’s increase our knowledge! I’m excited to see an awakening happening in all of us! I’ll continue to use my platform to fight against the injustices and inequalities in our community, no matter what. Nonetheless, one man can’t do it alone – I need you, and we need each other! We need everyone, across industry’s, soci-economic backgrounds, countries, to unite with a shared goal of REAL change.

You can read Boyega’s full statement below:

(Via John Boyega on Instagram)

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