Latest news with #WhatIf?
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Eyes of Wakanda' Will Rekindle Your Love for the Black Panther Universe
The late Chadiwck Boseman's final credited work as an actor came in four episodes of What If?, the Disney+ animated series exploring various ways that events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe could have unfolded differently. As we look back on the messy past five years of Marvel Studios, we can ask many different what-if questions. What if Disney executives hadn't demanded that Marvel begin churning out TV series for their new streaming service, overextending the team that had maintained such consistent quality control over the previous decade's movies? What if Covid hadn't made audiences more accustomed to watching movies at home, and less conditioned to simply go to a theater whenever a new Marvel release was out? What if the pandemic and the WGA and SAG strikes hadn't disrupted production repeatedly during this period? What if Marvel boss Kevin Feige hadn't so stubbornly insisted on sticking with the 'Marvel method' — putting projects into production without a script that everyone was happy with, then trying to fix things in postproduction — after it became clear that this approach was becoming less effective with each passing year? What if Feige had recognized sooner that TV shows should be made with empowered showrunners, rather than trying to outsmart a business that had been doing just fine the old-fashioned way? What if the movies and shows hadn't become so inextricably tied to one another that viewers began to feel like staying up to speed on them was all homework? More from Rolling Stone 'Thunderbolts*' Director on 'Collaborative' MCU and What He Hopes Stands Out on Rewatch Jeremy Renner Plans to Return to Marvel: 'My Body's Getting Ready' Julia Garner Says Madonna Biopic Is 'Supposed to Still Happen' One of the biggest of these is a sadly inescapable one: What if Chadwick Boseman hadn't died? Becasue Boseman kept his colon cancer diagnosis a secret, his death at the much-too-young age of 43 shocked everyone, and left Marvel with a gaping hole in the company's plans post-Avengers: Endgame. That movie ended with Tony Stark and Black Widow dead, and with Steve Rogers old and retired. Between the loss of these tentpole characters and some of the other early actors starting to lose interest, the MCU needed a new face, and it was clearly going to be Boseman. The success of the first Black Panther movie was staggering, as much for its cultural impact as for its box office, as audiences instantly fell in love with both T'Challa as a character and with the idea of Wakanda as a technologically-advanced paradise hidden within the heart of Africa. When I saw Endgame on its opening weekend, by far the loudest audience response — more than Captain America wielding Thor's hammer, or Tony Stark saying 'I am Iron Man' and snapping his fingers — was when Black Panther walked through a portal, alive and well and back in the fight. The other mistakes and problems wouldn't have gone away entirely. But having a character, and performance, fans cared about as much as Tony/RDJ in the early Marvel years, would have covered over a lot of those problems. If nothing else, it would have made the movies feel less scattered, as Marvel certainly would have come up with excuses for Boseman to cameo here and there in the same way Downey had in prior phases. While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a financial success, it was a movie few left the theater feeling thrilled about, even if we all understood that writer-director Ryan Coogler had an impossible task in making a sequel without Boseman. The first film offered only a taste of the vibrant culture and history of Wakanda, and audiences seemed ravenous for more. After Wakanda Forever, that hunger faded. Prior to last week's release of Fantastic Four: First Steps, Feige said that the company would be returning to its old quality-over-quantity philosophy, and that there would be years where only one new series would premiere on Disney+. So this year, which has already featured Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Daredevil: Born Again, and Ironheart, and will later give us Marvel Zombies and Wonder Man, is a last gasp of the company's old way of doing business. Ironheart was technically a spinoff of Wakanda Forever, though it downplayed its links to the film. But in the four-episode animated series Eyes of Wakanda, this year does offer a project set firmly in Black Panther's world, albeit centuries — and, at times, millennia — prior to the character's first film appearance in Captain America: Civil War. Ryan Coogler is one of many executive producers on the series, though the most hands-on one is director Todd Harris, while the four scripts are split between Geoffrey Thorne and Marc Bernardin. It's an anthology of sorts, with each episode taking place in a different time period, and with a different central character, even as the finale reveals that, to borrow a tagline from a much earlier period of Marvel TV, it's all connected. Though a Black Panther appears at one point, the focus this time is on the Wakandan secret police, the Hatut Zeraze, also known as the War Dogs(*). The opening episode takes place in Crete in 1260 BC, where we find that a former War Dog stole a lot of vibranium — the indestructible supermetal with a variety of nearly magical properties (Captain America's shield was made out of some) — and fled the isolated nation. Though the thief is confronted in the premiere, much of the vibranium winds up scattered around the world. In each episode, we see a different agent traveling to a far-flung locale to retrieve an artifact. One episode is set during the Trojan War, where a Wakandan soldier is fighting alongside Achilles and Odysseus because there's some vibranium behind the walls of Troy; another begins in China in 1400 AD, and involves another Marvel character who's part of a tradition that stretches back many centuries. (*) Like a lot of the Wakandan history and culture presented in the films, the Hatut Zeraze were introduced in a Nineties comics run by writer Christopher Priest. All but one episode takes place largely away from Wakanda itself, but we nonetheless learn a lot about what Wakanda means to each of the show's heroes. And we get lots of glimpses of Wakanda's ahead-of-its-time tech — though it seems to be too far ahead of its time, at least relative to what we've seen in the films. The agent in the Trojan War episode has what's basically a primitive BlackBerry, able to text messages back to his superiors on another continent. The 1400 AD episode shows that the Wakandans have already built powered aircraft and monorail trains, long before those appeared in the outside world. It's a fun way to illustrate how superior Wakanda was to the rest of the world for so long — and also how different the planet might have become if T'Challa's predecessors hadn't insisted on keeping Wakanda hidden all that time. But Wakanda in the movies isn't substantially further along than it seems to be in 1400. If you follow the technological curve presented by the show, the country circa Avengers: Infinity War should have been powerful enough on its own to defeat Thanos without breaking a sweat, and prevent half of life in the universe from being temporarily turned to dust. Where Eyes of Wakanda shines brightest is in its animation, and how that animation is used to portray action. The character designs are all visually striking, with exaggerated facial features presented at extreme angles, and every person clearly delineated from one another, no matter their background or how prominent they are in the story. And the fight scenes — of which there are thankfully many — are fluid, clear, and thrilling. Whenever Boseman or, in Wakanda Forever, Laetitia Wright, has the mask on and is in action, the Black Panther of the films is a largely CGI-generated character, able to move with speed, grace, and power that even the most athletic actor or stunt performer wouldn't be able to match. This goes to even further extremes in cartoon form, with the agents and some of their opponents defying multiple laws of physics with the way they strike, dodge, leap, and run. The stories themselves are fairly thin, and hit similar thematic beats a lot from one episode to the next, but the action elevates the whole thing. Disney+ is releasing all four episodes at once. The streamer has done Marvel binge releases, or quasi-binges, in the past, though usually with projects the company isn't very enthusiastic about. Ironheart was released in two chunks a week apart, while all the Echo episodes came out on the same day. Wright will be back as T'Challa's sister and successor Shuri in Avengers: Doomsday, so Marvel clearly isn't done with Wakanda yet. But with the new less-is-more strategy, this might be our last project primarily set in this world for a while. The reality where Chadwick Boseman is still with us would be more appealing for so many reasons. Spending more time in Wakanda isn't terribly high on that list, but Eyes of Wakanda suggests there's a lot more there than we've been able to see without him. All four episodes of Eyes of Wakanda begin streaming Aug. 1 on Disney+. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century Solve the daily Crossword
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How to get the new X-Tron and Yggroot skins in Marvel Rivals Season 2.5
Image via NetEase Games. Those who have been waiting for new skins of Ultron and Groot in Marvel Rivals, have good news as the wait is finally over. NetEase Games has recently announced brand new skins for these two popular characters of the game in its Season 2.5. The mid-season refresh will bring Ultron in the game as a playable character. Along with it, the Season 2.5 patch will introduce new team-up abilities and pose nerfs and buffs to several characters. However, the announcement of the new skins of those two heroes is surely going to be a treat for the fans. Marvel Rivals announces new X-Tron and Yggroot skins for Ultron and Groot in Marvel Rivals Just like everyone anticipated, NetEase Games has recently announced that that two new skins for Ultron and Groot are coming into the game respectively. These two skins will be available from May 30 at 7 PM PT. The upcoming skin of Ultron is named X-Tron, which give him a more fearsome look. This skin is more metallic than his usual appearance with a red cape, along with an Arc-reactor kind of object on his chest, with reddish-black arms and a red face,, which kind of reminds us of Ironman. This skin is also reminiscent of his multiverse-destoryer look from What If? Season 1 Episode 8. On the other hand, Groot gets a more grim and serious look in his upcoming Yggroot skin, which is kind of unusual as compared to his previous avatars. Groot's new skin will wield a silver-grayish texture along with crystal blue patches all over his body. Except for the looks of the new skins, NetEase Games hasn't revealed further details, like pricing and all. However, both the skins are expected to arrive as respective bundles, each shaving individual Emote, Nameplate, and Spray. In order to acquire these skins, players need to head to the Store tab when on or after May 30. In this tab, players will need to tap on the Featured section, where these two new skins will be showcased for purchasing. Read More: Marvel Rivals early Season 2.5 patch notes - Times of India Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Korea Herald
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Malaysian artist puts a cheeky spin on classic folktales in debut show
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (The Star/ANN) — Aimman Hafizal has taken his time to reach his first solo exhibition. The 30-year-old artist, who has regularly teased his work on social media and participated in group shows, isn't one to rush things. For his debut solo exhibition, "What If? — A Journey Through Folktales," he draws inspiration from local folklore and classic Malay proverbs, reimagining them with a playful twist. He is showcasing eight acrylic on canvas works, each set against a backdrop of "imaginary lands." The first piece visitors will notice in the gallery is "Fast & Fearless," where Aimman reinterprets the classic race between the rabbit and the tortoise — but with fast cars. "The original story, as we know, has the tortoise winning, and even the rabbit had a chance to win if it fulfilled its potential. In my universe, however, the two are very competitive, driving speed cars and are neck and neck. In reality, everyone has the potential to compete at a high level — it's just a matter of reaching that potential," says Aimman in a recent interview at the gallery. As a young boy growing up in Muar, Johor, Aimman developed a love for art through anime and manga, while Malay folk tales, rich in storytelling and moral lessons, shaped his imagination. School art competitions kept him busy, giving him the space to expand his drawing style. As he gained more experience in the art scene — exhibiting everywhere from cafes to — galleries — Aimman found inspiration from a wide range of artists. "For local artists, I admire Khalil Ibrahim (1934-2018), a legendary name known for elevating figurative painting through batik. Internationally, I look up to Eko Nugroho from Indonesia; I'm inspired by how he has expanded his art beyond painting into areas like fashion and merchandise," he said. Aimman, based in Shah Alam, holds a Master's degree in Fine Art and Technology from UiTM (Jalan Othman in Petaling Jaya). In 2019, he joined the Saung Banon Arts Residency program in Yogyakarta, an experience that strongly shaped his art and storytelling style on canvas. "Malaysia is also rich with interpretations of folklore, whether through artists or craftsmen. I was drawn by the way these stories could be carried into the modern era, and many of the exhibition's themes revolve around that idea. 'What If?' shows them all compiled together as a series," he says. Throughout his exhibition at G13 Gallery, he explores cross-cultural themes, blending Western fables with local traditions, and credits his upbringing for inspiring the works he now brings to canvas. What stands out in Aimman's work is his use of purple, red, and blue tones against dark backdrops, with lighter outlines. Balancing the cartoonish and surreal, his art evokes an alternate universe where Maurice Sendak-inspired charming critters invite closer inspection. "I developed this art style during my internship at Saung Banon Arts. It was close to nature — with padi fields, gardens, and small animals — which gave me plenty of inspiration over three months of work, along with valuable advice from my art mentor (Dr. Alexandri Luthfi)," he says. Aimman notes that Malaysia shares much of its culture with Indonesia through history, which is reflected in the repetitive lines and floral motifs often seen in his art. "But once I returned to Malaysia, I began adding more pop culture elements and characters to the artwork, thinking more deeply about storytelling," he says. Aimman's new artworks could double as a comic series, with characters whose stories evolve over time. One example is "Komodozilla: Hero Or Villain?", the third in a series about Komodo, an eager villager aspiring to be a hero. "In this story, Komodo discovers a fruit that makes him a giant. Although he hopes to use his new powers for good, he realises the villagers have fled in fear. It ties to the Malay proverb: Malang Pak Kaduk, ayamnya menang, kampungnya tergadai — a reflection on hollow victories," he explains. In "From Jaws To Claws," inspired by the well-known story of Sang Kancil and Sang Buaya, Aimman draws from the Malay proverb: "Keluar mulut buaya, masuk mulut harimau." "The kancil escapes the crocodile, but ends up in a tiger's cave. I wanted to show that no matter how slick and crafty the kancil thinks he is, there's always a greater challenge or danger ahead," he says. A particularly personal piece, "The Fungiverse" is inspired by the proverb: "Bagai cendawan tumbuh selepas hujan." Each mushroom character represents an artist Aimman has met along his journey. "I spent more time on this artwork because it involved interviewing people about their favourite animals for their 'fursona' — a popular online trend. As I added more characters, they began to mushroom, serving as a reminder of how many others are on the same journey as me in my career as an artist," he concludes.
