Ever Wonder Who Played That Big Superhero Cameo In Shazam?

Ever Wonder Who Played That Big Superhero Cameo In Shazam?

Warning: SPOILERS for Shazam! are in play. If you haven’t seen the film yet, say the magic word and bookmark this story for future reading.

At the end of Shazam!, just when the audience thinks the film has played its last punchline with Billy Batson’s heroic alter ego having lunch with his foster family at school, there’s one last turn that drove audiences wild. In that moment, we see the last son of Krypton, Superman himself, standing with a lunch tray in hand. However, his head missing is from the frame, which lead the public to wonder who was really standing in that role. Well, we finally know who physically played that role, and it’s one of the film’s stunt men, Ryan Handley.

For those of you who thought that maybe Henry Cavill was standing in the lunch room of Fawcett Central, we’re sorry to let you down. But for those of you more interested in Handley’s previous credits, he’s also the stunt double for Zachary Levi’s Shazam in the David F. Sandberg-directed film. Ryan Handley has also served as a super heroic stunt man in films such as Suicide Squad, as well as both Deadpool movies. He can now add Superman to his list of superheroes played on screen.

As previously reported, Handley wouldn’t have had to fill in if the original plan for Shazam’s ending cameo were fulfilled. Henry Cavill was asked to fill the costume again, but because of scheduling issues, the Man of Steel star wasn’t able to oblige. Then, of course, there was the big announcement that Cavill is pretty much done with the character, although officially that still hasn't been confirmed. In any case, though this was kind of a sad happening, in a sense, producer Peter Safran thought the creative solution without Cavill’s participation actually helped the film’s ending work even better.

Which leads to Ryan Handley’s official confirmation of playing Superman in Shazam!, a fact that German film site Filmstarts confirmed directly from the studio itself. It certainly helps that Handley was already in superhero shape to bring Shazam to living, breathing life; so using him to play one of the Daily Planet’s finest was a convenient fix to a big problem.

Though it might be a good thing that Henry Cavill wasn’t on the set, because if he and Zachary Levi were to physically have an actual conversation about whether Batman or Superman was the better hero, we know exactly where both of them would land. Though, to be fair, it’d probably resulted in a scenario where both of their stunt doubles did their fighting for them, and since Ryan Handley played them both in Shazam!, it’d be a very interesting hypothetical fight.

Shazam! is currently in theaters, but if you’ve already seen it once, maybe even twice, you might be in the market for something new in theaters. In which case, feel free to visit out 2019 release schedule, as we’ve got everything you could need on the calendar for the year.

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Watch Chris Evans And The Avengers Cast Turn Infinity War Into A Cute Children’s Story

Watch Chris Evans And The Avengers Cast Turn Infinity War Into A Cute Children’s Story

Avengers: Infinity War may have been a movie full of comic book superheroes that kids love, but that doesn't mean it was a film suitable for all ages. Jimmy Kimmel apparently felt that small children needed a version of the story they could handle, and so a Jimmy Kimmel Live children's storybook has been created, and the Avengers themselves took time to read it to your little ones last night. Check it out in the video below.

The story of Avengers: Infinity War and the extermination of half the universe certainly sounds less terrible when it's spoken of in rhyming verse and accompanied by colorful pictures. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, and Don Cheadle are all on hand to tell parts of the story. It still ends the same way, which is probably going to make some children sad, but it leaves hope at the end teasing that Avengers: Endgame is coming to finish the story very soon.

There are some truly hilarious parts of the video. Everybody giving Thor a hard time for not going for Thanos' head is great, and something that Chris Hemsworth has certainly heard before. Hemsworth, for his part, has a pretty decent rebuttal, that at least Thor actually did some damage to Thanos and came close to succeeding, which none of the rest of the team really did.

Of course, Hemsworth himself has plenty of blame to throw around. He calls out Star-Lord for ruining the plan to get the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos' arm, which we've certainly also heard before.

The highlight of storytime, however, may be when every reader stops reading and calls out whoever wrote the verse of the book for trying to rhyme Groot with soot. Needless to say, it doesn't scan. Most of the team ends up mispronouncing soot to rhyme with Groot, but nobody is happy about it. There were plenty of other characters whose names could have been used if you can't find a suitable rhyme for Groot.

Jimmy Kimmel is certainly right in his introduction to the piece that it's no fun to see Spider-Man die. The end of Avengers: Infinity War, while being somewhat predictable for fans who were familiar with the source material, was no less shocking, even to them. The fact that a major Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ended with half of our favorite heroes turning to dust was still the sort of moment that blew people away.

What comes next, we're all still only guessing about. While we fully expect our heroes to win in the end, exactly how that will happen, or who will still be standing when it does, is fueling endless speculation. There's certainly no guarantee that if Avengers: Endgame becomes its own children's' book, that it will have any happier an ending.

We'll find out when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters April 26.

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How To Train Your Dragon 3 Just Crossed Another Box Office Milestone

How To Train Your Dragon 3 Just Crossed Another Box Office Milestone

Although Dumbo didn’t soar quite the way Disney probably hoped when it opened this past weekend, another family friendly film continues to fly high at the box office over a month after its release. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the final film in DreamWorks Animation and Universal/Comcast’s venerated series, crossed another milestone at the box office this past weekend: $500 million worldwide.

If you’re going to go out, do it on a high note, and How to Train Your Dragon 3 is doing just that, earning over half a billion dollars worldwide to date, according to Forbes. The animated threequel actually crossed a pair of box office milestones this weekend, with its roughly $4.2 million domestic haul, good for 7th place in its 6th weekend in release, pushing it past $150 million domestically.

These box office milestones are just the latest accolades that The Hidden World can claim after a domestic debut of $55.5 million that broke records for the franchise on opening weekend. The Hidden World is also the third-biggest film of 2019, and Toothless and Hiccup’s soaring performance thus far ensures that this $129 million film will be viewed as a success, but it may not wind up being the biggest movie in the franchise overall.

The first film in this franchise, 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon, finished its run just shy of the $500 million mark, earning $494.9 million worldwide with $217.6 million of that coming from the North American box office, according to Box Office Mojo. By passing the $500 million milestone, the third film has now eclipsed the original’s worldwide total, but is still a ways away from matching it domestically.

The original had a pretty close split in terms of domestic and overseas box office revenues, but the sequels have been much more heavily weighted towards the international box office. How to Train Your Dragon 2, which opened in 2014, still stands as the biggest film in the series overall, with a huge $621.5 worldwide haul, with less than 30% of that, $177 million, coming from the domestic box office.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has yet to match either the domestic or worldwide total of its predecessor with the biggest difference coming internationally, where How to Train Your Dragon 2 made close to $100 million more than the third film. So with The Hidden World winding down its run here and abroad, that $621.5 million may be out of reach.

It should be noted though that the second film also cost a fair bit more, so that narrows the gap between the two when all the numbers are being counted. And with over $500 million worldwide, sterling critical and audience reviews, and perhaps an Oscar case, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a great and successful way for this franchise to fly off into the sunset.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is now playing. Check out what we thought of the film and keep up with our 2019 release schedule to see all the movies headed your way this year.

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Wesley Snipes Is Playing A Villain On Screen Again And We Have The Details

Wesley Snipes Is Playing A Villain On Screen Again And We Have The Details

During his decades-long acting career, Wesley Snipes has played a variety of characters, many of whom have been good guys. However, he has occasionally taken on villainous roles, most notably Simon Phoenix in Demolition Man. Now, over 25 years after that Marco Brambilla-directed movie came out, Snipes is returning to antagonist territory with his upcoming movie, Payline.

Written by Rob Robol and Jay S. Boyd, Payline is described as a casino heist story in the vein of “Oceans 11 meets Free Fire.” The movie is about a small-town casino that turns into a battleground after two groups of criminals try to rob it on the same night. In addition to performing on camera, Snipes will also executive produce Payline for Dawn’s Light Media and Maandi House Studios alongside Alexander Ferguson, while Allan Ungar (who worked on that Uncharted fan film Nathan Fillion starred in), Richard Switzer and Jason Cherubini (the latter two are from Dawn’s Light) are attached as producers.

No specific details were provided about who Wesley Snipes is specifically playing. If I had to guess, he’s either the leader of the gang that’s being framed as the “bad guys” in this heist or he’s the manager/owner of this casino these groups are breaking into. In any case, since this is Snipes’ first villain role since Demolition Man, this is surely a momentous occasion for him. Here’s what the actor had to say about Payline overall:

We at Maandi House Studios along with our sister companies and strategic partners are extremely excited to be working with Dawns Light Media on the kind of action film not seen in years. This is a vehicle to demonstrate the next generation of indie-film making in a 5G powered world. It is our goal to show how a 100% Certified Renewable Energy film production can show love for the environment, community and still produce a kick-ass popcorn movie.

Although he’s stretching his villainous muscles again for the first time in nearly three decades, Wesley Snipes will arguably always be best known for his time as a superhero, having played Eric Brooks, a.k.a. Blade, across three movies from 1998 to 2004. Snipes has expressed interest numerous times over the years in reprising Blade for a fourth movie, though there’s still no indication that will happen. In any case, Payline allows him to once again operate on the side of corruption rather than justice.

In recent years, Wesley Snipes has appeared in movies like The Expendables 3, Chi-Raq, Armed Response and The Recall, as well as the TV series The Player. Along with Payline, his other upcoming projects include the Netflix movie Dolemite Is My Name, where he’s playing D’Urville Martin alongside Eddie Murphy’s Rudy Ray Moore; the RZA drama Cut Throat City, which also stars Terrence Howard, T.I. and Eiza Gonzalez; and the TV series Paper Empire, which also stars Robert Davi, Denise Richards and Robert Knepper.

Payline’s release date hasn’t been announced yet, so stay tuned for that information. In the meantime, you can find out what movies are hitting theaters later this year in our 2019 release schedule.

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Netflix New Releases: Movies And TV Shows Coming To Netflix Streaming In May 2019

Netflix New Releases: Movies And TV Shows Coming To Netflix Streaming In May 2019

May tends to mark the beginning of the summer movie season under the old tradition of Memorial Day being the first big weekend of that timeframe. With the movie market being what it is today, that old tradition has moved to the beginning of the month, with the end of April looking to steal that honor really soon. But do you know who always seems to be bringing a party to its movie library on a monthly basis? Netflix!

If you want to see what came online in April, you can head over to our official rundown of the titles that were added throughout this past month. But as far as the month of May is concerned, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see some of the big debuts taking place through its 31 days of adventure. Here now is what's coming to Netflix for May of 2019.

Week of May 1

Angels & Demons – 5/1/19

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – 5/1/19

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me – 5/1/19

Casper – 5/1/19

Chasing Liberty – 5/1/19

Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion Part 1 & 2 – 5/1/19

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat – 5/1/19

Dumb and Dumber – 5/1/19

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – 5/1/19

Gosford Park – 5/1/19

Gremlins – 5/1/19

Hairspray (1988) – 5/1/19

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – 5/1/19

Her Only Choice – 5/1/19

Hoosiers – 5/1/19

Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer: Season 2 – 5/1/19

John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky – 5/1/19

Just Friends – 5/1/19

Knock Down The House - NETFLIX FILM – 5/1/19

Munafik 2 - NETFLIX FILM – 5/1/19

Revolutionary Road – 5/1/19

Roswell, New Mexico: Season 1 – 5/1/19

Scarface – 5/1/19

Scream – 5/1/19

Snowpiercer – 5/1/19

Taking Lives – 5/1/19

The Da Vinci Code – 5/1/19

The Dark Crystal (1982) – 5/1/19

The Matrix – 5/1/19

The Matrix Reloaded – 5/1/19

The Matrix Revolutions – 5/1/19

To Rome With Love – 5/1/19

Wedding Crashers – 5/1/19

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – 5/1/19

Zombieland – 5/1/19

Colony: Season 3 – 5/2/19

Olympus Has Fallen – 5/2/19

A Pesar De Todo - NETFLIX FILM – 5/3/19

All In My Family - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Alles ist gut - NETFLIX FILM – 5/3/19

Cupcake & Dino - General Services: Season 2 -- NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Dead to Me - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - NETFLIX FILM – 5/3/19

Flinch - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage - NETFLIX FILM – 5/3/19

The Last Summer - NETFLIX FILM – 5/3/19

Mr. Mom – 5/3/19

Supernatural: Season 14 – 5/3/19

True and the Rainbow Kingdom: Mushroom Town - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Tuca & Bertie - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Undercover - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/3/19

Like Arrows – 5/4/19

Week of May 5

Abyss - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/6/19

The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution – 5/7/19

Queen of the South: Season 3 – 5/7/19

Lucifer: Season 4 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/8/19

Bathtubs Over Broadway – 5/9/19

Insidious – 5/9/19

Dry Martina - NETFLIX FILM – 5/10/19

Easy: Season 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/10/19

Gente que viene y bah - NETFLIX FILM – 5/10/19

Harvey Girls Forever!: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/10/19

Jailbirds - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/10/19

Pose: Season 1 – 5/10/19

ReMastered: The Lion's Share - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/10/19

Shéhérazade - NETFLIX FILM – 5/10/19

The Society - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/10/19

Wine Country - NETFLIX FILM – 5/10/19

Week of May 12

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/12/19

Malibu Rescue - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/13/19

revisions - NETFLIX ANIME – 5/14/19

Still LAUGH-IN: The Stars Celebrate - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/14/19

Weed the People – 5/14/19

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed! – 5/15/19

Good Sam - NETFLIX FILM – 5/16/19

Take Me Home Tonight – 5/16/19

1994: Limited Series - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

Chip & Potato - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

It's Bruno - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

Maria - NETFLIX FILM – 5/17/19

Morir para contar - NETFLIX FILM – 5/17/19

Nailed It!: Season 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

See You Yesterday - NETFLIX FILM – 5/17/19

The Rain: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

Well Intended Love - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

White Gold: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/17/19

The Blackcoat's Daughter – 5/18/19

Week of May 19

Prince of Peoria: Part 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/20/19

Rosario Tijeras (Mexico Version): Season 2 – 5/20/19

Arrow: Season 7 – 5/21/19

Moonlight – 5/21/19

Wanda Sykes: Not Normal - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/21/19

A Tale of Two Kitchens - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/22/19

One Night in Spring - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/22/19

The Flash: Season 5 – 5/22/19

Riverdale: Season 3 – 5/23/19

Slasher: Solstice - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/23/19

After Maria - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/24/19

Alta Mar - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/24/19

Joy - NETFLIX FILM – 5/24/19

Rim of the World - NETFLIX FILM – 5/24/19

She's Gotta Have It: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/24/19

The Perfection - NETFLIX FILM – 5/24/19

WHAT / IF - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/24/19

Week of May 26

Historical Roasts - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/27/19

Outlander: Seasons 1-2 – 5/27/19

Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – 5/28/19

Chopsticks - NETFLIX FILM – 5/30/19

My Week with Marilyn – 5/30/19

Svaha: The Sixth Finger - NETFLIX FILM – 5/30/19

The One I Love - 5/30/19

Always Be My Maybe - NETFLIX FILM – 5/31/19

Bad Blood: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/31/19

Black Spot: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/31/19

How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/31/19

Killer Ratings - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/31/19

When They See Us - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 5/31/19

May TBD

Charmed (2018): Season 1

DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4

The Mechanism: Season 2 -- NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Supergirl: Season 4

The movies heading to Netflix next month are pretty varied, with old favorites coming in with the new and exciting content the streaming giant is promising. With originals like the Amy Poehler-directed ensemble comedy Wine Country or the Spike Lee produced sci-fi drama See You Tomorrow, audiences will get a chance to see something new that's not heading to the movie theater.

Which will probably be a great change of pace once the excitement of Avengers: Endgame starts to die down. Meanwhile, interesting picks like the industrial musical documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, or old favorites like Scarface and Scream, are also available for the curious movie lover to enjoy on their own comfortable couch.

However, TV has some pretty amazing surprises in its own debuts, as not only is She's Gotta Have It back for a second season of complicated love, but Lucifer is finally arriving as Netflix's latest network pickup turned original series. Also, if you've been waiting for more of Hasan Minaj's trademark snark and wit while breaking down the news, Patriot Act will be back with Volume 3 closer to the beginning of the month.

As far as broadcast TV offerings go, DC fans will get the latest seasons of Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash and Supergirl this month. Also, if you're a Riverdale fan who's behind on Season 3, you'll get your chance to catch up not too long after the finale airs. Finally, if you've been putting off exposing yourself to the Outlander phenomenon, you're about to lose your last excuse, as the first two seasons will be on Netflix in May.

Keep in mind, all of the titles listed above are subject to change. So if you're dead set on watching certain titles, be sure to check for their availability through your Netflix profile. And if you're still making your way through this month's new additions, take a look at our list of the best and brightest to be added to the platform in April.

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Marvel Is Making A Supercut Of Stan Lee Cameos And Unused Footage

Marvel Is Making A Supercut Of Stan Lee Cameos And Unused Footage

It's a very exciting time to be a Marvel fan. Avengers: Endgame is days away from arriving in theaters, and Disney's merger with Fox means that comic book favorites like the Fantastic Four and X-Men may make their way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And although there's plenty to celebrate in the world of Marvel comics, it's sad that visionary Stan Lee is no longer with us to enjoy it all.

But while Stan Lee passed away in November, he's still got a few more appearances on screen. Lee was known for his fantastic Marvel cameos, able to steal the show with one quick line reading. And it looks like Marvel Studios has found another way to honor him, by compiling all his cameos and even some unused footage into one epic tribute. As Kevin Feige recently revealed:

We’ve put a video together. We’ve never done this before, a behind-the-scenes of every cameo. All the B-roll that was shot and his stand-ups there. His passing was very emotional for all of us, but it suddenly all came back to me just when I watched it.

Well, this is exciting. In addition to compiling Stan Lee's countless cameos, it looks like the new tribute video will also include deleted scenes and B-roll of the comic book visionary at work. In short: excelsior!

Kevin Feige's comments to EW are sure to delight the generations of Marvel fans who are missing Stan Lee during this exciting time in film history. Avengers: Endgame will be the cumulation of 21 movies and a decade of filming, and Stan Lee was there throughout almost all of it. The comic book creator always delighted in seeing Marvel's finest on the big screen, and Endgame has been teased to be bigger and better than anything we've seen before.

Given how delightful Stan Lee was up until his death at age 95, many moviegoers who would love to see extra footage of the Stan the Man in action. Many of his MCU roles included one liners, but that doesn't mean those were the only lines offered. Typically Lee tried a few different versions of his cameos, so there should be plenty of unused footage to mine from. So while Avengers: Endgame may be his final cameo in the MCU, the public should expect new clips from him regardless.

Related: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Director Reveals Stan Lee's Cut Lines

The stakes for Avengers: Endgame are already sky high, but Stan Lee's cameo gives the upcoming blockbuster yet another goal to live up to. Luckily for us all, Endgame looks like it will do just that. The early response from the movie's premiere is overwhelmingly positive, and The Russo Brothers might just top the massive success of Infinity War.

Stan Lee will return to screens when Avengers: Endgame arrives on April 26th. In the meantime, check out CinemaBlend's Endgame death pool, and be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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New Avengers: Endgame Image Reveals Kraglin’s Location

New Avengers: Endgame Image Reveals Kraglin’s Location

Massive spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

Avengers: Endgame has been in theaters for weeks, and the public is still making revelations about the behemoth blockbuster. The Russo Brothers threw everything and the kitchen sink into the movie, including countless cameos, time travel, and some gutting character deaths. And every major MCU character appeared in the film's final battle sequence, thanks to some magical portals and the dusted characters' resurrection.

Moviegoers were delighted to see so many characters in one place, and the Endgame's last battle was a visual masterpiece with more action than one set of eyes could truly take in. A video from the set revealed that actor Sean Gunn played Guardians side character Kraglin in the movie, although the fandom has had trouble tracking him down in the theatrical cut. But a new photo may have revealed where Kraglin was during the final war against Thanos. Check it out.

So THAT'S why we didn't spot Kraglin in those insanely epic Avengers: Endgame battle shots. Because he wasn't on the ground with the majority of heroes, and was instead piloting one of the Ravager vehicles that were shown above the rubble.

This new image comes to us from Instagram, and shows actor Sean Gunn recording his quick cameo as Kraglin in Avengers: Endgame. We see the actor surrounded by green screens, with Kraglin piloting some sort of intergalactic motorcycle. What's more, he's got a fancy new finn atop his head, as he's still wielding Yondu's arrow as his primary weapon.

Kraglin piloting a Ravager vehicle certainly explains why he wasn't given any super epic moments during the galaxy's last stand against the Mad Titan. From the set image, it looks like Sean Gunn recorded a brief feature for his signature Guardians of the Galaxy character, although it ended up on the cutting room floor. Although even if his shot was cut, Kraglin could have been featured in a more subtle way.

As previously stated, the Avengers: Endgame conclusion featured countless characters, all involved in a complicated action sequence that is a visual masterpiece. But The Russo Brothers and their team(s) of visual affects artists may have missed a subtle opportunity to include Kraglin in the battle. Because even if his solo shot was cut, the battlefield could have seen Thanos' forces being killed by Yondu's arrow. The iconic weapon leaves a red trail behind it, so the hardcore fans would have figured it out, and likely lost their minds.

Related: Avengers: Endgame Writers Reveal If Captain America Could Wield The Infinity Gauntlet

While Kraglin wasn't shown in Avengers: Endgame, Sean Gunn did a ton of work for the acclaimed blockbuster. Gunn is Rocket's stand-in during scenes, acting opposite his scene partners, including the Guardians and Avengers. Eventually the visual affects bring Rocket to life, and Bradley Cooper's voice is edited into the final cut.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Rotten Tomatoes May Be Making Even More Changes To Combat Trolls

Rotten Tomatoes May Be Making Even More Changes To Combat Trolls

Rotten Tomatoes recently made changes to its users reviews after a deluge of trolls opted to give Captain Marvel some negative nods before the movie had even opened in theaters. The review aggregate service said the changes were not made to accommodate Captain Marvel specifically and will continue to be a part of Rotten Tomatoes moving forward. However, now it looks as if the site may not stop at changing the windows in which users are allowed to review.

A new report indicates that Rotten Tomatoes is looking at “additional measures” in terms of user reviews. Per THR those measures will likely include adding an additional layer of security so that users have to verify they’ve seen a movie before they can review it on Rotten Tomatoes.

This move hasn’t been made by the aggregate site yet, so it’s hard to tell exactly what that would like for regular users who leave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s possible that if the additional layer of security is kind of a pain in the rear, it could deter both avid users and trolls.

Still, the whole Captain Marvel brouhaha led to a really low audience score for the new Marvel movie early on. At one point it was running at just 33% with over 58,000 reviews.

At the time of this writing, following Rotten Tomatoes’ user score change led by parent company Fandango, Captain Marvel is running at 62% with 64,385 reviews. If that math doesn’t totally add up, it should be noted that number only happened after Rotten Tomatoes literally went through and purged reviews that had been written and kept on the site even after the policy change last week.

Originally, users were able to reveal their excitement or lack thereof in a project ahead of its release, but a couple of weeks ago, Rotten Tomatoes said it would be changing its pre-release function and that comments would be disabled until a movie was released. For Captain Marvel this was a hassle and eventually some reviews had to be dropped from the site because people had been allowed to review prior to the rule change; presumably, this would not be an issue for future movies.

In fact, Rotten Tomatoes' decision has also had a bit of a chain effect, as YouTube also mentioned changes to its platform to combat trolls related to the same Marvel flick.

All in all, none of the trolls really had a huge effect on Captain Marvel fans. The movie nabbed an A CinemaScore and has gone on to already make $500 million worldwide, which is an incredibly quick period of time to achieve that number. That's the good news. However, what will be most interesting to see will be if Rotten Tomatoes complicates its user review process if it will have an effect on the engagement and user reviews people are willing to put on the site.

If you’ve left a review on Rotten Tomatoes before, is the process already a hassle? Would adding another step make you more or less likely to leave a user review? Let us know, and in the meantime, be sure to check out Clark Gregg calling Marvel trolls "butthurt."

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The Original Aladdin Has Flaws The New Movie Will Need To Deal With

The Original Aladdin Has Flaws The New Movie Will Need To Deal With

Disney’s upcoming line-up resembles quite a few titles that stood on my childhood shelf of movies and didn’t collect dust for long, namely 1992’s Aladdin. Between the catchy songs, Robin Williams’ iconic performance and the fun, animated, magical world, I know I’m not the only one who couldn’t stop watching the Disney classic over the years and even noticed a few scratches in the magic lamp upon repeated viewings.

Enter the new live-action Aladdin remake coming in May. Yes, I’ve already been burned before by the uninspired 2016 Beauty and the Beast release but here I am getting excited about what’s to come from the House of Mouse’s new take on the beloved animated film. While Will Smith’s Blue Genie scared me for a minute there with his first CGI reveal, the most recent full trailer sold me on just being a kid for a couple hours and giving it a good shot. But, there are some glaring issues from the original that the upcoming musical has a chance to fix. Let’s talk them through:

What Culture Is Aladdin Depicting?

So we know Aladdin lives in Agrabah, the “city of mystery” and it has some Middle Eastern flavor to it, but that’s about it. Since it’s a fairytale complete with magic carpet rides and a monkey who turns into a cute elephant who wears a vest and little hat, does it really matter where Aladdin takes place? You bet it does! Even if the movie runs with maintaining Agrabah as a completely fictional hodgepodge of Arabic and Indian cultures, as the original did, it needs to set this up in some way if it wants to dodge coming off as culturally insensitive.

Think about how Black Panther’s Wakanda worked: it’s a completely fictional depiction of a country in Africa, but it’s been celebrated especially for how it empowered African cultures and uniquely represented them. The live-action version of this fun Disney musical would be a great opportunity to do this for Middle Eastern cultures, which are also significantly underrepresented in Hollywood.

Aladdin derives a lot of themes from the 18th century Middle Eastern famed book of folk tales, The Arabian Nights. Paying a bit of homage and putting a bit more effort into portraying the culture the story is based on would be a great step forward for the next iteration of the movie and add some more depth to the story Disney started. The studio has vastly improved its portrayal of a variety of cultures, even from the ‘90s to today, and I hope they show this off a bit in addition to being as accessible to audiences as the animated movie was.

The Blue Genie Is The Whole Show

Let’s face it, without Robin Williams’ incredibly energetic and lovable performance as the Blue Genie in Aladdin, it just wouldn’t be as highly regarded by audiences as it still is today. The Genie is an absolute scene stealer who is the heart, comedic relief and sidekick of the movie all at once. Williams absolutely carried that movie, and even improved many of his scenes by improvising comedic bits for the character. Don’t get me wrong, in the context of the animated classic this certainly worked in favor of Disney and is where the movie’s most memorable strengths lie (besides a few outdated references).

With Robin Williams out of the picture, though, how does the Disney story hold up? I have some concerns about the couple we’re rooting for (which I’ll get to in a moment) and Jafar is quite the typical power hungry villain. The Genie show and flashy musical numbers are a really effective way for the movie to cover up some of the weaknesses of Disney’s take on Aladdin. I hope the remake will opt for striking a balance between giving the Genie the floor and showing that the movie's other characters have more to give.

For instance, what about Aladdin’s backstory? I’m sure he does a little more than steal bread and lie to his crushes. And, there’s got to be a lot more to Princess Jasmine than meets the eye. What would happen if The Little Mermaid was all about Sebastian because Ariel wasn’t interesting enough to the writers or Olaf became the heart of Frozen because the writers didn’t know how to depict an interesting sister relationship? Here’s hoping the new Aladdin filmmakers saw this potential problem and didn’t give Will Smith all of the load.

Aladdin and Jasmine’s Relationship Is Problematic

Okay, so Disney doesn’t have a great track record of creating believable romances...they are fairytales, after all! But, their love stories, which we once idealized, can look more ridiculous the older we get. So, isn’t part of the point of a remake (besides the loads of cash these movie attract) for Disney to attempt to work on this a bit? The studio has done this with their recent animated movies, so I wouldn’t expect anything less from live action.

I thought the live-action Cinderella did a wonderful job of this, as it focused more on Prince Charming’s story and the pair seemed to form a genuine bond aside from the wonder of the ball. On the other hand, the live-action Beauty and the Beast didn’t do much else not to convince me that Belle has a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. Unless Disney decides to take a hard look at the romance created in Aladdin and change around a few things, the movie isn’t going to land with audiences.

In the animated movie, the romance doubles as a message about being true to yourself instead of pretending to be someone else in a relationship, and that’s a great topic for the movie to touch on! However, when Jasmine finds out he’s the “street rat” she loved already, the movie just glosses over it. Not to mention that Aladdin’s about to sign up to marry her and rule all of Agrabah after not even feeling comfortable in his own skin a few minutes ago. Wait… what? Disney has a wonderful opportunity to make the intended message of Aladdin (cue Genie saying “beeee yourself” as a bee) stronger by giving actual Aladdin and Jasmine character arcs instead of everything wrapping up with a pretty bow after they get rid of Jafar.

I say all of this out of love for the original Aladdin because it still is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. Since I’m going to go see it again in live-action form, I’m sure I speak for a lot of fans when I say I’d love to see Disney elevate the movie higher than the animated classic was by not sweeping these few flaws under the rug. Do you think the live-action Aladdin will address these issues? Sing your song in the comments below.

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Marvel Asked For Loki To Be 'A Villain As Good As Magneto,' Thor Writer Reveals

Marvel Asked For Loki To Be 'A Villain As Good As Magneto,' Thor Writer Reveals

One of the strongest criticisms of the MCU for a long time was that it had a villain problem. Despite producing iconic heroes left and right, Marvel Studios could never quite create a memorable villain. During the early phases of the MCU, the notable exception was Loki, who would be labeled as Marvel's best villain before he finally got some competition. Apparently, Marvel knew early on that it had to nail Loki, and executives told Thor screenwriter Zack Stentz that his top priority was making Loki as good a villain as Magneto.

Way back in the early days of of the MCU, Marvel Studios knew that it was building up to The Avengers. As such, studio execs had the idea that Loki would the villain of that film, but they were also aware that they weren't super great with making good villains. Iron Monger, Whiplash, and the Abomination were forgotten as soon as people left the theater.

So, if Loki had to be their Big Bad of Phase One, they needed to get it right. Here's what the studio told Zack Stentz when he was writing the screenplay for Thor.

It's a complicated issue because we had a very clear mandate when we were writing Thor. They already knew that they were building towards The Avengers and they already had the notion that Loki was going to be the villain. They knew that their villains thus far in the MCU had been a bit underwhelming, and they said -- one of the executives literally said, 'Look, if you fail at everything else, give us a villain as good as Magneto in Loki.' We need someone at that level because that’s going to be our villain for The Avengers.

Back in 2011, The Dark Knight's Joker was the villain to beat, but before that film came along, Magneto was probably the best modern day comic book movie villain. He appeared in every X-Men movie, he had cool powers, and the audience could sympathize with his rationale because of his sad backstory.

Loki certainly has the audience's sympathy. Zack Stentz told The Fanboy Podcast that while writing the character, he knew that one of the most important things for making Loki a great villain is that he had to be relatable.

We always put a lot of effort into our villains, but in this case we really worked hard giving Loki an interesting story and making him sympathetic at the same time as he's doing these terrible things.

I would say that Zack Stentz and his fellow Thor writers certainly gave Marvel what they wanted. Loki went on to become a huge hit with fans, and even after all these years he's still in the Top Five of MCU villains. Of course, a lot of the credit also goes to Tom Hiddleston for his performance as the character.

Loki's movie future was made unclear by Avengers: Endgame, but the character will be the star of his very own mini-series on Disney+, which doesn't have a release date yet. Magneto, currently played by Michael Fassbender, will be seen on screen again soon in Dark Phoenix, which opens in theaters July 7.

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Robert Downey Jr. Shares Behind The Scenes Photo Of Avengers: Endgame With Spider-Man

Robert Downey Jr. Shares Behind The Scenes Photo Of Avengers: Endgame With Spider-Man

Among the most heartbreaking deaths in Avengers: Infinity War, and certainly the most meme’d, was Peter Parker's, who didn’t feel so good and faded to dust in Tony Stark’s arms. Given that, we are especially eager to see Peter Parker brought back to life and reunited with his mentor once more in Avengers: Endgame. While we wait for that emotional moment, Robert Downey Jr. has shard a behind the scenes look from the film of himself with Spider-Man. Take a look:

One of the best things about the MCU is the fun pairings of actors and their characters, and although Iron Man and Spider-Man is one of the newer ones, first coming in Captain America: Civil War, it is easily one of the most entertaining. We see their great dynamic here, as Tony Stark is attempting to be his normal snarky self with Robert Downey Jr. sarcastically saying how stoked he is to be in the photo.

But he can’t help but smirk next to his mentee, Tom Holland’s overly enthusiastic Peter Parker, who is genuinely stoked to be standing next to ‘Mr. Stark.’ The upside down internship certificate is a nice touch too. What a fantastic duo these two are and if Robert Downey Jr. leaves the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Endgame, more of this pairing will be one of the top things we’ll have to lament.

This picture is a cool behind-the-scenes look at a shot from the most recent Avengers: Endgame trailer where Tony is holding a photo of himself and Peter Parker with the internship certificate. Every hero seems to have one person in particular who was snapped away that most affected them, and with Pepper alive, for Tony, that’s Peter Parker. You can the image of this scene from the teaser below:

This scene reminds us how Tony Stark at times attempted to use Spider-Man and provide some guidance to Peter Parker, while pretending not to care and not being overly affectionate towards the kid. But it’s clear now that Tony Stark does care about Peter Parker very much, and he’s the person he most wants to avenge and bring back. That makes their potential reunion all the more anticipated.

As Tony Stark hashtags in his Instagram post, the reunion of these two characters can heal the internet, which has spent the last year laughing through the pain at poor Peter Parker who didn’t want to go. To do that though, they’ll have to heal the divisions in the team and band together to topple Thanos for good.

Avengers: Endgame closes out The Infinity Saga when it opens on April 26. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all of this year’s biggest movies.

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Samuel L. Jackson Reveals Why Nick Fury Hasn't Brought Up Captain Marvel Before

Samuel L. Jackson Reveals Why Nick Fury Hasn't Brought Up Captain Marvel Before

While all hope seemed lost following the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the post-credits scene gave us all hope when Nick Fury was able to get a message off to Captain Marvel. While this made fans very excited for the upcoming, and now soon to release Captain Marvel movie, it did raise one question. "You're calling her NOW?" It seemed like there had been some times in the past that a hero like Carol Danvers would have been useful, but Samuel L. Jackson says all those other problems the Earth has seen were no big deal compared to this one. According to Jackson...

She said only in emergencies. Other emergencies could be handled by the people who were present. It’s just an alien invasion, that’s something that could be handled. Half the population wasn’t dying and flicking off and doing whatever. We finally have an emergency that I feel warrants her presence. This is unprecedented. How are you gonna fight that? I can’t fight that. If I’m not here, I need to find someone to come here who can handle it. All those people are ineffective. They’re great for normal, everyday world disaster. But intergalactic badass who has all the Infinity Stones needs a bit more.

Clearly, Nick Fury has a very specific definition of "emergency" and even alien invasions and A.I. gone mad doesn't actually qualify. It certainly makes some sense. Fury's plan to create "The Avenger Initiative" comes at a point after the events of Captain Marvel so clearly, Fury isn't looking to call in his new friend at the first sign of something normal humans can't handle. He's planning on using others for those problems.

At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, it doesn't seem that Nick Fury is really clear on exactly what is going on, but he knows that Earth's Mightiest Heroes are dealing with it, and when people start to turn to dust, he knows they've failed. At that point, the only option left is to grab your pager.

Samuel L. Jackson's opinion on why he never called Danvers before isn't the only one that makes sense. Director Anna Boden tells IGN that Fury likely didn't want to reveal her existence to the world unless it was necessary. Her co-director Ryan Fleck says Fury was probably considering pushing the panic button ion the first Avengers, but eventually decided against it.

By the time things escalate to the actual alien invasion, if the Avengers can't do the job, it's probably not going to matter too much.

On the plus side, Fury was right, and the Avengers were able to handle all threats prior to Infinity War. If the Earth had been invaded by aliens, Fury probably would have really wished he'd used that pager.

Expect said pager to play a small role in Captain Marvel, as we'll probably learn where it came from. Assuming it works, we'll see the results of pressing that button when Avengers: Endgame comes out in a couple months.

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How The Russos Make Sure Their Marvel Movies Feel Different From One To The Next

How The Russos Make Sure Their Marvel Movies Feel Different From One To The Next

Despite the fact that they started their Marvel Cinematic Universe journey with zero previous blockbuster experience, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have, to date, helmed three of the best films in the entire franchise. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War are individually absolutely outstanding pieces of big screen spectacle, and each one has made a distinct and separate impact on the Marvel world at large.

This isn’t easy for many reasons, but particularly because this is a brand that has created more than 20 movies in the last decade, and with each new release comes the demand to experience something fresh and brand new. For the Russos, however, there is a key way to getting that done, and they spoke with me about it this past weekend at the Los Angeles press day for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. Said Joe Russo,

I think we always try to put psychological realism in our movies, and that's the one concept, if you go back and look at Winter Soldier, Civil War, and Infinity War, is there is a level of psychological realism beyond these fantastical costumes and fantastical circumstances that people are behaving in a way that feels psychologically truthful. And I think that tone is one of the ways that you can alter movies that are in a series from one another. It's one of the more significant ways you can do that. And trying to distinguish Endgame from Infinity War, I would certainly say that Endgame has a very different tone than Infinity War had.

Admittedly the Russos haven’t yet gone to the extreme of making a super fun, colorful adventure along the lines of Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy, but there is definitely a noticeable gradient in the tone of their Marvel Cinematic Universe features. What’s more, there has also been a significant progression. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a dark movie, playing with the aesthetic of a 1970s conspiracy thriller, but things get significantly darker in Captain America: Civil War when our heroes turn on each other and eventually disband. And as melancholy as that film gets, it still can’t hold a candle to Avengers: Infinity War, which features one of the most devastating endings in blockbuster history.

This, of course, leads us to Avengers: Endgame, and keeping in mind the Russos’ past, their comments about the film are exceptionally curious. There’s been some expectation that the upcoming sequel would share tonal qualities with its predecessor, given that the lead characters are all trying to pick up the pieces of their world after half their friends turned to dust, but Joe Russo’s comments suggest otherwise. But what does “a very different tone” mean, exactly? Does it mean that it’s going even further into the darkness than what we’ve previously seen them do in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Or could it be that Avengers: Endgame is actually way more of a funny, fun ride than the marketing has suggested?

It’s an interesting mystery, and one that won’t have its answer revealed in the various trailers for the film. To date we have maybe seen a grand total of five minutes of footage from the blockbuster, and that equates to a little less than three percent of the full three hour movie. As we’ve seen with plenty of trailer remixes in the past, it’s possible to create any kind of tone with any kind of footage, so it’s not impossible that every preview we’ve seen for Avengers: Endgame has been hiding the blockbuster’s true nature.

We already thought that we know jack diddly about what to really expect from Joe and Anthony Russo’s fourth Marvel movie, but this quote honestly takes that sentiment even further. Fortunately, we won’t be tortured by this for too much longer, as Avengers: Endgame will be hitting theaters worldwide in less than three weeks – specifically on April 26th.

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How Captain America Holds Back Thanos In Avengers: Infinity War

How Captain America Holds Back Thanos In Avengers: Infinity War

Some SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame to follow.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos beats the brakes off of the Hulk in hand-to-hand combat and, with an assist from Peter Quill, defeats the Guardians of the Galaxy and members of the Avengers in the battle on Titan. Yet, towards the end of the film, in a scene from the trailers that at the time seemed to herald his death, Captain America holds back Thanos’ gauntleted hand.

Not to take anything away from Steve Rogers, but no amount of Super Soldier Serum should have made him able to physically withstand Thanos to that degree, especially after the feats we had already seen the Mad Titan pull off. But there is an explanation for how Captain America holds Thanos back in Avengers: Infinity War, as screenwriter Christopher Markus explained:

I think in that moment, Thanos is impressed by Steve's will. He's like, 'I can't believe this guy who apparently has no powers is trying this.' He's almost like, 'Really? Really?'

Steve Rogers is giving his all in that moment, and he has always shown an ability to punch above his weight and ‘do this all day’, but that does not account for what happens in this moment in Infinity War. Instead, holding back Thanos is more the result of Thanos not going all out than Cap being any sort of physical match for him.

As Christopher Markus told The Hollywood Reporter, in that moment, Thanos is impressed by the display of will and courage from Captain America. The fact that a puny human, devoid of any cosmic-level powers would challenge him in such a way catches Thanos off guard and that results in him kind of taking things slowly and pondering Cap for a moment.

You can see this in Josh Brolin’s Thanos performance too. When Cap first holds back Thanos, the Mad Titan appears surprised and curious. He is impressed with Captain America’s strength of will, and given his conversation with Tony Stark on Titan, we know that Thanos appreciates and respects those who put up a good fight against him.

Eventually Thanos gets over being flabbergasted by Cap and tires of him. He then actually exerts some force and easily overpowers Cap before knocking him out. So, as strong as he is, it was never a case of Captain America truly matching Thanos in a game of strength. But just the mere fact that Cap’s will impressed Thanos, he of “the hardest choices require the strongest wills,” says a lot about Steve Rogers.

Cap’s resistance against Thanos is also not an instance of the Infinity Gauntlet in some way sensing Cap is worthy to wield it and tempering its power. The Infinity Gauntlet is not Mjolnir, which evaluates a person and judges them worthy or not. As we saw in Avengers: Endgame, you either can withstand its power or you can’t.

You can see Cap’s rematch with Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, now playing. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of summer’s biggest movies and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest news from the MCU.

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How The Curse of La Llorona Is Connected To The Conjuring Universe

How The Curse of La Llorona Is Connected To The Conjuring Universe

Very mild spoilers ahead from The Curse of La Llorona.

The Curse of La Llorona hasn't been heavily promoted as a Conjuring movie, but it is quietly haunting The Conjuring Universe as the sixth entry in the series. The horror film marks the directorial debut of Michael Chaves, whose follow-up film is The Conjuring 3, which comes out in 2020.

The Curse of La Llorona recently screened at South by Southwest, confirming how the movie connects to the Conjuring universe. The movie is set in Los Angeles in 1973, and has the connective tissue of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), who returns to the story from Annabelle. In this film, Father Perez talks to Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) about his evil doll case, and the doll is flashed on screen to further drive home the connection (per Bloody Disgusting).

The 2014 Annabelle movie was also set in Southern California, with the story in 1967. The Conjuring, which came out in 2013, was set in 1971. The Conjuring 2 was set in 1976 and 1977. So The Curse of La Llorona appears to fit into the timeline between between the first two Conjuring movies, just a few years after Father Perez's experience in Annabelle.

Since The Curse of La Llorona just screened, critics and fans have been sharing their early thoughts online. CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell felt the film compared poorly to previous Conjuring movies, although he had fond words for Linda Cardellini:

Perri Nemiroff of Collider also had some measured praise, calling it a solid start for future Conjuring 3 director Michael Chaves:

Erik Davis of Fandango had a much simpler warning about the movie -- it may leave you afraid to visit your own attic:

The Curse of La Llorona was produced by James Wan, who directed the first two Conjuring films before passing the reins to Michael Chaves for the upcoming third movie. This is the sixth film in The Conjuring Universe after The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle: Creation, and The Nun. It precedes Annabelle 3, aka Annabelle Comes Home, which just announced its title and June 28, 2019 release date. The Conjuring 3 is reportedly scheduled for September 11, 2020. The Crooked Man should be following them at some point, but there's no set date right now.

The Curse of La Llorona opens in theaters on April 19, yep one week before Avengers: Endgame. Pray for it. The horror movie is just one of the many films releasing in theaters in 2019.

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Keira Knightley Says She Only Watches Her Films Once

Keira Knightley Says She Only Watches Her Films Once

We all have favorite actors that we love to see in movies. We'll watch our favorite performances and favorite stories again and again. However, not every actor who makes those movies is quite as excited to watch them as the rest of us. Keira Knightley recently admitted that she doesn't like to watch herself on screen and will usually only watch her films once. According to Knightley...

No, yeah. I dunno, it’s just weird. It’s like hearing your own voice. I dunno and I only see the bad bits. So, I’m like, ‘Oh, why did I do that?’

As somebody who regularly has to transcribe interviews I have done, I know exactly how strange, and largely off-putting, hearing your own voice can be. It seems that for Keira Knightley, the experience is only amplified. She not only has to hear her own voice, but see herself on screen and watch all the decisions that she made, including the ones she wishes she could do over.

Knightley says she only watches her movies once "if that." I would assume that question comes down to whether or not she attends the premiere of her movies. If she makes it, that's probably the only time she ever sees the film in question. If she doesn't for whatever reason, then she probably never bothers to go back and see the final product.

Knightley is far from the only person who avoids watching her own work. Many in Hollywood have talked about how they rarely if ever watch themselves. Putting yourself up on the screen like that makes an actor quite vulnerable. However, it probably doesn't necessity feel that way when you're shooting the movie. As long as you never go back and watch the movie, you don't realize how much of yourself you're putting out there. Honestly, it's far better than if she loved her own movies so much that she watched them a lot. If that happened, we'd have to worry.

Check out Keira Knightley's full comments on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the clip below.

Of course, one has to wonder if Keira Knightley might start watching more of her movies again over the next several years. She has a three and a half year old daughter, as she told Jimmy Fallon, and one has to assume that as that girl gets older and begins to understand just what it is her mother does, the kid is going to want to watch those films. As she becomes old enough to see them, Knightley might find her movies on in her house whether she likes it or not. Whether or not she likes that. Perhaps by then she'll be more comfortable with them.

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Watch The Awesome Trailer For Universal’s New Jurassic World Ride

Watch The Awesome Trailer For Universal’s New Jurassic World Ride

Last year, the legendary theme park attraction Jurassic Park: The Ride sailed its final voyage through Isla Nublar and closed down for refurbishment at Universal Studios Hollywood. That refresh was in the name of an updated attraction that swam in the same waters, but in service of promoting the Jurassic World franchise.

Now we have our first hint at what the updated attraction will look like, with the trailer below. Dear readers, welcome, to Jurassic World: The Ride:

The trailer starts out simple enough, with a western being filmed on the Universal Studios backlot. But before things get too shooty, an astronaut runs into frame with a familiar one word warning: “Run!” As one would expect, the chase scatters a bunch of other costumed actors running through the Universal lot, which results in Roberta the Tyrannosaurus Rex breaking through the Universal Studios arch.

It’s at this point that Jurassic World: The Ride finally shows itself through our first look at what exactly will be part of this new theme park attraction; and it’s here where we see something rather interesting. Pictured in the video is a boat that looks like one of the boats last seen in the Jurassic Park: The Ride attraction, only this time it’s stopped in the middle of the attraction.

Conveniently enough, the boat is stopped in front of a Mosasaurus tank, just in time for the beastie to charge towards the glass and make a hole. Water squirts out, the audience looks frightened and the boat moves on to bigger, scarier thrills, like the previously confirmed showdown between the famed T-Rex and “new behemoth dinosaurs.”

While Jurassic World: The Ride sounded pretty intense when described in the vaguest of terms, this new ride’s promise of more realistic terror is even more promising. The footage of how the ride’s supposed to work only makes for more excitement, as it looks like a digital screen approach similar to the Fast & Furious: Supercharged or Skull Island: Reign of Kong attractions, which be used to show some of the creatures at hand.

Though we wouldn’t count out any thrills and spills using original, or brand new, animatronics in Jurassic World: The Ride, as even those updated attractions still retain an actual physical element to their thrills. Of course, this is all speculation at this moment, but for now, taking a look into the world of this future adventure 65 million years in the making has us longing for our first chance to take that ride for ourselves.

Jurassic World: The Ride does not have an official opening date past the originally specified timeframe of this summer. However, Universal Studios Hollywood recommends checking back on their official website for any future updates.

And if you still want to ride Jurassic Park: The Ride, it’s still in operation at Universal Studios Japan, as well as Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando for the time being. Which has us wondering if any revamps to the latter park’s attraction could involve Roberta squaring off against Fluffy from the Harry Potter series. Just a suggestion, Universal.

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How Does One Return The Soul Stone? We Asked The Avengers: Endgame Writers

How Does One Return The Soul Stone? We Asked The Avengers: Endgame Writers

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. If you have not yet seen the film, read on at your own risk!

While we don’t actually see it play out, Captain America takes on one hell of a mission at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Needing to shut down off-shoots in reality, he volunteers to travel in time and put the Infinity Stones back where they belong – ultimately also deciding to live out a normal life with Peggy Carter and fully experience the second half of the 20th century. Most of the trip is pretty straight forward, from bringing the Tesseract back to the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in 1970, to bringing the Power Stone back to Morag in 2014, but of the individual six missions, the returning of the Soul Stone would seem to be a strange and unique challenge.

As audiences will remember, unlike most of the Infinity Stones (which could be taken by the Avengers provided they had proper containment), the Soul Stone was a bit trickier to acquire. Rather than simply being recovered from an amulet or extracted with a special device, obtaining the ingot not only required a trip to the mysterious planet Vormir, but also making an important sacrifice. Knowing this, an interesting question is raised about Captain America’s final mission: how does one go about returning the Soul Stone?

This is a matter that vigorously rolled around in my head following my first screening of Avengers: Endgame, and I was fortunate enough to recently have the opportunity to ask the perfect people about it. Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for the latest episode of our HeroBlend podcast, and I made it a personal priority to ask them about the Soul Stone. It was a question that they not only appreciated, but also had an answer for, explaining,

Stephen McFeely: It's a good question. I think it is an everlasting exchange.

Christopher Markus: There's a slot.

Stephen McFeely: That's right. Yeah, that's right. It's like an old time bank. It's a pneumatic tube.

Christopher Markus: You put it back, but you don't get anything in return. It's not like a pawn shop.

There was some hope among fans that Captain America returning the Soul Stone to Vormir would potentially mean the resurrection of Black Widow, who died so that the Avengers could acquire the key treasure during their time heist, but that’s evidently not the case. While Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely's answer was a tad jokey, it seems that once that particular trade is made, there are no takebacks - so despite Cap making the effort to fix the timeline, that particular death is permanent.

This information also seems to confirm that the upcoming Black Widow movie will definitely be a period piece that will be set prior to the events of Avengers: Endgame. This is something that has been rumored for a while now, but if the titular heroine is most definitely dead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe then there really aren’t any other story options available to the filmmakers.

Of course, there is also still another major component that needs to be discussed here, which is that Captain America returning the Soul Stone would presumably also result in a reunion with his World War II nemesis, Johann Schmidt a.k.a. the Red Skull. Because of the way things play out in Avengers: Endgame, it’s a situation that is simply left to our imaginations, but one has to figure that Steve Rogers would be pretty damn surprised to discover the fate of the former head of Hydra following his handling of the Tesseract in 1945.

That being said, the writers of the latest Marvel Studios blockbuster definitely wish it was a reunion that they could have somehow included in the movie. After all, in addition to writing both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, they also penned the scripts for the entire Captain America trilogy. I asked Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely if the 2019 film had ever included a scene where Cap and Red Skull were reunited, and they explained what happened thusly:

Christopher Markus: That was hard for me personally to get over.

Stephen McFeely: That's right. That's true. I remember.

Christopher Markus: Because I very much wanted like, 'How are we not getting Cap into space to see the Red Skull?’ And it just otherwise was not the story to tell for Cap, but it is extremely tempting.

And while one could hope that perhaps someday we’ll get to see a movie that features Captain America’s version of Infinity Watch, it sadly sounds like that’s never going to happen. This is specifically because directors Joe and Anthony Russo have confirmed Chris Evans’ retirement playing the character, and that’s most definitely a film that you couldn’t make without him. Perhaps the actor will eventually change his mind and decided that he really misses the character, but for now audiences should really just feel satisfied with the perfect send-off that he gets in the new film.

This particular conversation is just a taste of the awesome, deep dive discussion I got to have with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely about Avengers: Endgame, so do yourself a favor and listen to the HeroBlend interview in full by clicking play on the embed below!

Does this take on the Soul Stone jive with your own personal theories following Avengers: Endgame? Are you like Christopher Markus and truly wish that a Captain America-Red Skull reunion happened on the big screen? Let your voice be heard in the comments section below.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters all around the world, and we’re really only just getting started with our in-depth analysis and what the movie means for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We have many more features and articles coming your way in the next few weeks, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend – and be sure to subscribe to our HeroBlend podcast so that you’ll get to listen to new episodes as they are released every Friday!

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Mark Hamill's Answer To A Luke And Leia Question Was Perfect For Game Of Thrones Fans

Mark Hamill's Answer To A Luke And Leia Question Was Perfect For Game Of Thrones Fans

Star Wars fans seasoned enough to have seen the original trilogy play out in movie theaters were surprised to learn Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia were actually twins -- not to mention the children of Darth Vader. It was quite a twist, and it certainly changed the dynamic between Luke and Leia.

In the first Star Wars movie, Luke was pretty obviously crushing on Leia. She later even kissed him on the lips. The relationship took on a new level of Game of Thrones awkwardness when the big reveal was announced -- and Leia responded by saying somehow she'd always known Luke was her bro. (Really, girl? OK.)

Welp, Luke didn't always know, and neither did Mark Hamill, who had this classic response when a fan asked when he learned about the sibling twist:

Yeah, maybe George Lucas should've stepped in and told Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher to save room for the holy ghost in that steamy photo.

If anyone understands inappropriate twin lust, it's a Lannister. Since the final season of Game of Thrones is now airing, Star Wars fans couldn't help but reply with references to Jaime and Cersei Lannister:

Jaime and Cersei Lannister started Game of Thrones as the twin couple who were caught, um, together at the end of the very first episode. Now the Lannisters are estranged -- although Cersei is pregnant with Jaime's baby -- and it's Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen who are the new incestuous relations gettin' it on. Dany and Jon just found out she is his biological aunt, and at least there's some awkwardness there. (He's uncomfortable that they're related; she's just upset that his claim is now stronger than hers.)

Star Wars and Game of Thrones have another thing in common in that they are ending their main sagas this year, but have more spinoff projects in the works.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the end of the Skywalker Saga, and will include both Mark Hamill's Luke and Carrie Fisher's Leia. We lost Fisher during filming for The Last Jedi, but The Rise of Skywalker is using previously unseen footage from The Force Awakens to keep Leia in Episode IX. Luke apparently died in The Last Jedi but will still be back for the final movie, along with the also presumed dead Emperor Palpatine. Sadly, Mark Hamill never got the Luke/Leia/Han reunion he wanted (or at least we don't think he did).

Mark Hamill previously talked about a recurring silly fight he had with Carrie Fisher on Luke's royal status. He has none, as Fisher kept trying to point out, despite Hamill wanting Luke to be a prince alongside her princess. Maybe Fisher had some Game of Thrones to her in that respect, too -- the ladies want to rule!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20. Game of Thrones Season 8 continues Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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Tim Miller Reveals Terminator In Dark Fate’s Cool New Ability

Tim Miller Reveals Terminator In Dark Fate’s Cool New Ability

Although Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face is the one folks usually envision first when thinking about Terminators, as we’ve seen numerous times over the decades, that’s not the only visage these cybernetic assassins use. This year’s Terminator: Dark Fate will throw several new Terminators into action, including one played by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor Gabriel Luna. What distinguishes this Terminator model from the others? Well, he has the ability to split himself in two!

During the Paramount presentation at CinemaCon today, Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller came out to plug his latest movie, which he worked on closely with the man who launched this sci-fi saga, James Cameron, who is serving as a producer on Dark Fate. One of the things he revealed is how Gabriel Luna’s Terminator can duplicate itself. This is a byproduct of Luna’s Terminator either being a T-1000 model or a more advanced model with those same liquid metal properties. The T-1000 model was previously played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Lee Byung-hun in Terminator Genisys.

There was also footage from Terminator: Dark Fate screened that showed Gabriel Luna’s Terminator in action. One shot began with him starting as a black puddle and then rising up to assume his human form. Later on, he was seen chasing after Natalia Reyes’ Dani Ramos and Mackenzie Davis’ Grace. Then another Terminator that was basically an all-black metal skeleton showed up, indicating that this could be the Luna duplicate, and that Dani and Grace are now being attacked on two fronts. Fortunately for them, Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor arrives with guns blazing to help the other women out of their troublesome predicament.

The T-800 model may still be the most common Terminator model that Skynet churns out, but there’s no denying that the T-1000 is an even greater killing machine. Its shapeshifting abilities allow it to disguise itself as anybody or anything it sees, as well shrug off all physical injuries. Robert Patrick’s T-1000 was only finally defeated by being pushed into a vat of molten steel, while Lee Byung-hun’s iteration was neutralized when it was caught in a shower of hydrochloric acid. Presumably Gabriel Luna’s model shares these few weaknesses, but the fact that it can split itself in two means that even if the Terminator: Dark Fate protagonists manage to destroy one copy, they’ll have to put just as much effort, if not more, into taking out the other. Talk about upping the stakes!

No specific plot details for Terminator: Dark Fate have been revealed yet, although rather than follow the events of Terminator Genisys, this movie is a direct sequel to The Terminator and Terminator 2, and will ignoring the other sequels. Along with Linda Hamilton reprising Sarah Connor, Arnold Schwarzenegger will return once more to play an older T-800 model. Diego Boneta and Enrique Arce are also part of the main cast, and Jude Collie serves the body double for the young John Connor, with Edward Furlong’s facial likeness from Terminator 2 being digitally applied.

Terminator: Dark Fate hits theaters on November 1. Be sure to look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out this year.

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