First MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION Trailer Hits!

masters of the Universe Revelation He-Man

Continuing from where the original animated series left off in 1985, Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a new sequel series developed by filmmaker and MotU fan Kevin Smith. Today sees its first trailer released in anticipation of the show’s July 23rd premiere on Netflix, when fans will get to see the first 5 episodes (with a further batch expected later this year).

As the trailer reminds us, it was Bonnie Tyler who was “holding out for a hero”, and in terms of desperately waiting for a worthy revival of He-Man, she’s not alone! Will it do the beloved property justice? July will bring us a definitive answer, but judging by this first teaser trailer, Smith and his team look to have made something very special indeed!

Check it out below and let us know your thoughts on our socials…

Did we even mention it stars Mark Hamill as Skeletor? How badass is that!

New Critical Role Show Launches

Hot on the heels of the end of Campaign Two, world famous gaming stream Critical Role have launched a new show; Exandria Unlimited.

Set in the same world as the previous two Critical Role campaigns, Exandria Unlimited has been described as a ‘mini-campaign’, and will only run for eight episodes.  It will explore the city of Emon and the aftermath of the Chroma Conclave’s attack. Set ten years after the last campaign, it will introduce new characters to the Critical Role canon.

And more surprisingly, the game will not be ran by Matt Mercer, who will instead be playing. Dimension 20 Games Master Aabria Iyengar will be in charge of the story and rules. Matt and Aabria will be accompanied by veteran voice actors Aimee Carrero (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Elena of Avalor) and Robbie Daymond (Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sailor Moon) along with Critical Role founders and veteran voice actors Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us, Infinity Train, The Avengers, Blindspot), Liam O’Brien (Spider-Man, Star Wars: Rebels, The Last of Us Part II).

The campaign begins from June 24th.  Exandria Unlimited will air Friday Mornings at 3am British Summer Time on Critical Role’s Twitch (twitch.tv/criticalrole) and YouTube (youtube.com/criticalrole) channels.

To find out more, check out these two new videos;State of Play. and Meet the Cast of ExU 

D&D Embraces Fans In Europe

D&D in Spanish

Dungeons and Dragons is the roleplaying game that has conquered the world, but not every country has access to the latest translations. Foreign language copies of the game sell-out very quickly and fans, especially those in Europe, have been eager for the latest rules and supplements.

Today, Wizards of the Coast have announced that French, Spanish and Italian readers will have access to new and updated printings of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual as well as the Essentials Kit. They’ll be on sale from September 24th. Localized versions of the Core Rulebooks Gift Set will be available late October.

The Spanish language version is primarily focused on European Spanish speakers, but every effort has been made to make it accessible to all Spanish speakers, no matter where they are from. The Spanish language books will be avaiable in Latin American countries a few weeks after their release in Europe.

In addtion Wizards of the Coast have said that they will be localising and releasing their latest and greatest titles on an approximately quarterly basis from 2022 onwards. Where possible, release dates will be aligned from next year so all fans can get their hands on the new books when they’re launched.

LAIKA STUDIOS RELEASING DELUXE BLU-RAY SETS

LAIKA

Stop-motion maestros LAIKA studios have announced that they will be releasing remastered blu-ray versions of four of their critically acclaimed animated adventures. Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings are being re-released as deluxe LAIKA Studios Editions.

All four of these films, as well as LAIKA’s most recent film Missing Link, were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in the years that they were released.

The new DVD and blu-ray combo sets will include a slew of new special features including never-before-seen storyboards, exclusive animation test footage, and interviews from those working with the studio. The new editions also include deluxe collectible packaging and essays on the films written by high-profile film journalists. These include forewords and analyses from Variety’s Peter Debruge, IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz, and Animation Magazine’s Ramin Zahed.

LAIKA’s rich collection of films consistently pioneer new techniques in stop-motion animation and visual storytelling. Coraline, based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name and directed by The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Henry Selick, was the first film of its kind fo be completely conceived and filmed in stereoscopic 3-D. Meanwhile, Kubo and the Two Strings – directed by Bumblebee’s Travis Knight – was the first film to be nominated for the Oscars for both the best animated feature and the best visual effects. This film also saw the LAIKA crew construct a puppet measuring over 16 feet tall and weighing over 180kg, the largest ever built for an animated film.

The deluxe editions of Coraline and The Boxtrolls will be available from August 31st via Shout! Factory, and can be pre-ordered now. The LAIKA Studios Editions of ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings will be released on September 14th. For anyone who has fallen in love with LAIKA’s consistently beautiful output and dazzling flair for blending this with heartfelt stories, they are a must-have new addition to your collection.

FIRST WAVE Added to Horror Channel’s Sci-Fi Zone

first wave horror

The Sci-Fi Zone strand on Horror Channel, which runs from 6pm to 9pm weekdays, will include First Wave from June 16th.

The show stars Sebastian Spence as Cade Foster, a former security specialist who is on the run after being accused of his wife’s murder. As well as prove his innocence, he is determined to reveal that there has been a vast infiltration of aliens on Earth. His partner in this endeavour is a hacker who works for the website Paranoid Times. As well as the police, the pair are being hunted by Joshua (Roger R. Cross), an alien who’s been tasked to assassinate them before they can expose the truth.

First Wave ran for three seasons and was created by Chris Brancato and executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

Season One begins on Wednesday June 16th in the Sci-Fi Zone, alongside Space: 1999 and Star Trek: Voyager.

For more information, head over to http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/ Tune in on Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 68, Freesat 138.

Key Art and Trailer Unveiled for Netflix’s FEAR STREET Trilogy

fear street key

Netflix has unveiled the full trailer and key art for the upcoming Fear Street trilogy, based on the books by R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) at the virtual fan event Geeked Week (@NetflixGeeked) Debuting weekly from July 2nd, the films span over 300 years.

In 1994, a group of teenagers discover the terrifying events that have haunted their town for generations may all be connected – and they may be the next targets. Based on R.L. Stine’s best-selling horror series, FEAR STREET follows Shadyside’s sinister history through a nightmare 300 years in the making.

FEAR STREET PART 1: 1994 (available worldwide on July 2nd)

A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.

FEAR STREET PART 2: 1978 (July 9th)

Shadyside, 1978. School’s out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.

FEAR STREET PART 3: 1666 (July 16th)

The origins of Sarah Fier’s curse are finally revealed as history comes full circle on a night that changes the lives of Shadysiders forever.

Check out the images below (click to expand):

Find out more by heading to www.netflix.com/FearStreet.

Images ©Netflix

 

fear street key

Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance Trailer Launches

Enjoy this all new trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, a heart-pounding, kill-everything-moves action-brawler with co-op inspired by the co-op classic of the same name. Voiced by Flight of the Conchord’s own Jermaine Clement, this video explains the story behind the action as you control legendary heroes and take on epic monsters. Available from June 22 for PC, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One Consoles, Xbox Series X|S.

 

 

 

 

D&D Charity Stream to Raise LGBTQ Awareness

Wizards Pride

Webcomic heroes Penny Arcade have teamed up (again) with Wizards of The Coast to support Lambert House, a US based charity that provides a safe-space for young LGBTQ people.

The star-studded live stream starts at Midnight (UK Time) on Wednesday June 9th, and can be found via twitch.tv/dnd and twitch.tv/pennyarcade.

The show will feature Star Trek Discovery star Anthony Rapp as a tiefling bard, Omega Jones (aka the Critical Bard) as a reborn satyr warlock, comedian AJ Lamarque as a human town crier,  D&D games designer Jeremy Crawford as a gnomish artificer and artist and designer Trystan Falcone as a wood elf druid.

Actor, comedian and all round fantastic person Kate Welch will be the Dungeon Master.  Kate has had plenty of experience wrangling celebs for D&D, so this one should be fun to watch. Give-aways of D&D and Elderwood Academy merch will also feature in the show.

In addition, D&D and Magic Pride t-shirts can be purchased at https://mtgproshop.com/pride/, with all proceeds going to the Lambert House.

Lambert_House

Magical Schools Come to Dungeons and Dragons

Strixhaven

Wizards of the Coast, who produce the world’s most popular roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, have announced a ‘magical school’ inspired setting for their game today.  Strixhaven A Curriculum of Chaos will detail a multiverse spanning magical college. The reality breaking school features five colleges, each founded by an elder dragon: Silverquill, Prismari, Witherbloom, Lorehold  and Quandrix. Each college is in constant conflict with each other, of course.

If this all sounds a little familiar, it may be because Strixhaven started out as set for Magic The Gathering.  We can’t think of any other reason why a setting for a magical college might seem familiar.

The book won’t be out till November 16th, but in a surprise move, Wizards of Coast have already released playtest rules on their Unearthed Arcana website here. Typically these playtest rules don’t feature much in the way of setting information in them, but they’ve decided to make an exception here.  Pre-orders for the book are already available on Amazon and we expect  the book will contain new character options, monsters, mechanics, story hooks and fabulous art-work.

Let’s take a sneak peek at the normal art cover (without any logos).

Strixhaven

THE MUNSTERS Add a Zombie to the Family!

zombie munsters

We’ve been writing about The Munsters returning to our screens for nearly ten years now, going all the way back to when Bryan Fuller was in charge and developing a reboot for NBC titled Mockingbird Lane. That project itself took a fair while to gestate, but sadly, only the pilot ever aired as a Halloween special in 2012. It wasn’t all bad though – Fuller went on to create the cult favourite Hannibal next, so if you’re a Lecter lover you have Mockingbird Lane’s failure to thank!

If we thought those years of writing about The Munsters were over, we were very wrong, because it seems Rob Zombie has been fighting tooth and nail to persuade Universal he’s the right guy to introduce a modern-day audience to the sixty-year-old property. Announcing on his Instagram recently, Zombie revealed that he’s finally won the studio over with his vision…

Whether you’re excited about a Zombie-led Munsters reboot at this stage will depend on your relationship with his movies so far – from his debut House of 1000 Corpses in 2003, right up to his House of 1000 Corpses  sequel 3 From Hell in 2019. While many of us were disappointed by the latter, we’re happy to keep an open mind until we start to learn more about his approach to the material. In the meantime, let’s have some fun and start fan-casting this film! Let us know on our socials which of your favourite actors you think should move into 1313 Mockingbird Lane, and which character Sheri Moon Zombie should play!