She-Hulk may be a single female lawyer, but she’s not based on Ally McBeal.

During an interview with Variety, writer and producer Jessica Gao explained why Ally McBeal wasn’t such a big influence on the upcoming Marvel series.

“I would say most of our writers’ room was a little bit on the young side to have really known that show during its heyday,” she explained.

Ally McBeal debuted in 1997, with 5 seasons of fourth-wall breaking from the show’s titular lawyer. But while fans can’t help but see the similarities, it looks as though Ally McBeal wasn’t such a huge influence on the show’s writing team.

“For the writers, it actually was not,” revealed Gao. “We never really talked about Ally McBeal or referenced her.”

Instead, the show was influenced by other popular fourth-wall-breaking shows, including Fleabag (obviously) and Better Call Saul.

“There were two shows that I referenced in my pitch and it was Fleabag and Better Call Saul, hopefully both for obvious reasons,” said Gao. The creator said at one point there might have been too much fourth-wall breaking, a creative tool Gao loves.

According to Gao, early versions of She-Hulk were too meta for Marvel’s liking.

“I might have really overdone it,” she said. “Because at a certain point, they even asked me to do a version where there was no fourth-wall breaking, but there was still kind of a meta kind of nature to it."

Gao revealed she "really love editor’s notes in comics, and so for a span of probably several months, there was going to be editor’s notes that kind of popped up in little text boxes on the screen, and then she would actually acknowledge the editor’s box and argue with the person who was writing the notes." However, that was perhaps too much.

Eventually, they settled in traditional fourth-wall breaking – much like Marvel’s Deadpool. But while Ally McBeal didn’t directly influence the show, its creators couldn’t let the ground-breaking comedy go unreferenced – during an early episode, Ally McBeal can be seen playing on a TV in a bar.

“But yes, people can’t help but make the comparison to Ally McBeal,” said Gao. “So, Ally McBeal playing in the bar was a choice made during post-production.”

Want to read more about She-Hulk? Check out the 7 must-read She-Hulk comics you should grab before the show, and watch the latest teaser for the upcoming show.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Amid growing concerns in the Marvel space over crunch at visual effects studios, She-Hulk writer Jessica Gao said the team was asked to write more scenes featuring She-Hulk's human form, Jennifer Walters, to cut down on VFX costs.

Speaking to Variety, Gao said at the beginning of the project, she was basically given free rein to write in whatever scenes she wanted.

"I had produced television before, so there is always a part of my brain that’s wearing the television producer’s hat of costs, and imagining a line producer screaming at me and blaming me for their ulcer," Gao said. "So, going into writing this, I was very aware of that, but I also had no clue how much the CG cost. I just knew CG was expensive. From the beginning, I asked Kevin [Feige], 'How much can we do? How cost-conscious should I be? Give me some guidelines.' And he said, 'If I’m gonna watch a show called She-Hulk, I want to see She-Hulk.' That kind of was the carte blanche to just write it however I wanted."

But things didn't stay that way. According to Gao, once production ramped up, the budget needed to be trimmed down. So, she had to cut the number of She-Hulk scenes basically every week once production began.

"Once we got into pre-production and production itself, once somebody had to sit down and start figuring out the cost of everything, it was like every week, I was told, 'Can you cut more She-Hulk scenes? Can you change more She-Hulk scenes to Jen? Can she be Jen in more scenes?' There were a lot of things that then had to be changed at the last minute to go from She-Hulk to Jen. Even in post, you know, we had to cut a lot of shots by virtue just because it was She-Hulk."

Gao has previously discussed the 'growing pains' of working on a project with a CG lead character, revealing that tough lessons were learned throughout the trial and error process. Fans initially slammed the She-Hulk series' first trailer for the quality of its VFX, but we'll see how the final product turns out when it releases on Disney+ later this week.

To prepare yourself for She-Hulk, check out the essential comics to read before the She-Hulk MCU series. Or, read up on how the show discusses Captain America's sex life, and star Mark Ruffalo's take on Marvel and Star Wars.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Amid growing concerns in the Marvel space over crunch at visual effects studios, She-Hulk writer Jessica Gao said the team was asked to write more scenes featuring She-Hulk's human form, Jennifer Walters, to cut down on VFX costs.

Speaking to Variety, Gao said at the beginning of the project, she was basically given free rein to write in whatever scenes she wanted.

"I had produced television before, so there is always a part of my brain that’s wearing the television producer’s hat of costs, and imagining a line producer screaming at me and blaming me for their ulcer," Gao said. "So, going into writing this, I was very aware of that, but I also had no clue how much the CG cost. I just knew CG was expensive. From the beginning, I asked Kevin [Feige], 'How much can we do? How cost-conscious should I be? Give me some guidelines.' And he said, 'If I’m gonna watch a show called She-Hulk, I want to see She-Hulk.' That kind of was the carte blanche to just write it however I wanted."

But things didn't stay that way. According to Gao, once production ramped up, the budget needed to be trimmed down. So, she had to cut the number of She-Hulk scenes basically every week once production began.

"Once we got into pre-production and production itself, once somebody had to sit down and start figuring out the cost of everything, it was like every week, I was told, 'Can you cut more She-Hulk scenes? Can you change more She-Hulk scenes to Jen? Can she be Jen in more scenes?' There were a lot of things that then had to be changed at the last minute to go from She-Hulk to Jen. Even in post, you know, we had to cut a lot of shots by virtue just because it was She-Hulk."

Gao has previously discussed the 'growing pains' of working on a project with a CG lead character, revealing that tough lessons were learned throughout the trial and error process. Fans initially slammed the She-Hulk series' first trailer for the quality of its VFX, but we'll see how the final product turns out when it releases on Disney+ later this week.

To prepare yourself for She-Hulk, check out the essential comics to read before the She-Hulk MCU series. Or, read up on how the show discusses Captain America's sex life, and star Mark Ruffalo's take on Marvel and Star Wars.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Ever since the cancellation of Disney's DuckTales reboot, there hasn't been much reason for Disney Afternoon fanatics to celebrate. But there is one ray of light on the horizon, as Diamond Select Toys is teasing a new statue featuring the one and only Darkwing Duck.

IGN can exclusively debut the Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama, which painstakingly recreates the feathered hero's look from the original animated series.

This statue was Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios. It measures about 9 inches tall including the diorama base. DST hasn't confirmed whether there are other characters planned in the Darkwing Duck line, but fingers crossed Launchpad gets a statue next.

The Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama is priced at $59.99 and is expected to ship in Spring 2023. Preorders haven't opened just yet, but you'll be able to preorder through the Diamond Select website and various other retailers beginning on Friday, August 19.

In other Darkwing Duck news, the series is getting its own reboot on Disney+, with The Boys' Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg among the producers attached. Unfortunately, there's been little word on the new series since its original announcement in 2020.

In other collectibles news, Dark Horse recently unveiled a new wave of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt figures.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Ever since the cancellation of Disney's DuckTales reboot, there hasn't been much reason for Disney Afternoon fanatics to celebrate. But there is one ray of light on the horizon, as Diamond Select Toys is teasing a new statue featuring the one and only Darkwing Duck.

IGN can exclusively debut the Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama, which painstakingly recreates the feathered hero's look from the original animated series.

This statue was Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios. It measures about 9 inches tall including the diorama base. DST hasn't confirmed whether there are other characters planned in the Darkwing Duck line, but fingers crossed Launchpad gets a statue next.

The Darkwing Duck Gallery: Darkwing Duck PVC Diorama is priced at $59.99 and is expected to ship in Spring 2023. Preorders haven't opened just yet, but you'll be able to preorder through the Diamond Select website and various other retailers beginning on Friday, August 19.

In other Darkwing Duck news, the series is getting its own reboot on Disney+, with The Boys' Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg among the producers attached. Unfortunately, there's been little word on the new series since its original announcement in 2020.

In other collectibles news, Dark Horse recently unveiled a new wave of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt figures.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

AMD has announced a new hardware event for the end of August, where the company plans to unveil its next-generation PC products. The presentation will air on Monday, August 29 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET.

In a new press release, AMD notes that the presentation will focus on its upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors. AMD originally teased the Ryzen 7000 series during its keynote presentation at CES earlier this year, where the company confirmed the Ryzen 7000 line will support its new Zen 4 architecture built with TSMC's 5nm process.

Join us on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. ET for “together we advance_PCs,” a livestream premiere to unveil the next generation AMD PC products.

• Read the press release: https://t.co/n76RbJDMz0
• Watch on the AMD YouTube Channel: https://t.co/wo5iHJ7sJy pic.twitter.com/mc7CjoFdvM

— AMD Ryzen (@AMDRyzen) August 16, 2022

The next-gen Ryzen chips are also confirmed to use a new AM5 socket and will support PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 RAM. Important to note, that the next-gen Ryzen processors will only support DDR5, unlike Intel's Alder Lake CPUs, which support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM.

At this year's Computex, AMD shared more info on the next-gen Ryzen CPUs, which included confirmation that the chiplets will have integrated RDNA 2 graphics. As a refresher, RDNA 2 is the graphical architecture that found in AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, in addition to the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Steam Deck.

With a Ryzen-focused hardware event scheduled for later this month, AMD will likely share more information on specs, pricing, and when these new chips will release. We know that the company previously said that the Ryzen 7000 line would launch sometime in the second half of 2022.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

AMD has announced a new hardware event for the end of August, where the company plans to unveil its next-generation PC products. The presentation will air on Monday, August 29 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET.

In a new press release, AMD notes that the presentation will focus on its upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors. AMD originally teased the Ryzen 7000 series during its keynote presentation at CES earlier this year, where the company confirmed the Ryzen 7000 line will support its new Zen 4 architecture built with TSMC's 5nm process.

Join us on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. ET for “together we advance_PCs,” a livestream premiere to unveil the next generation AMD PC products.

• Read the press release: https://t.co/n76RbJDMz0
• Watch on the AMD YouTube Channel: https://t.co/wo5iHJ7sJy pic.twitter.com/mc7CjoFdvM

— AMD Ryzen (@AMDRyzen) August 16, 2022

The next-gen Ryzen chips are also confirmed to use a new AM5 socket and will support PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 RAM. Important to note, that the next-gen Ryzen processors will only support DDR5, unlike Intel's Alder Lake CPUs, which support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM.

At this year's Computex, AMD shared more info on the next-gen Ryzen CPUs, which included confirmation that the chiplets will have integrated RDNA 2 graphics. As a refresher, RDNA 2 is the graphical architecture that found in AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, in addition to the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Steam Deck.

With a Ryzen-focused hardware event scheduled for later this month, AMD will likely share more information on specs, pricing, and when these new chips will release. We know that the company previously said that the Ryzen 7000 line would launch sometime in the second half of 2022.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Underwater snow on Earth could aid in the search for life beyond our planet by shedding light on the alien nature of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.

Europa’s vast subsurface ocean is considered to be one of the most promising locations in our Solar System when it comes to the hunt for extraterrestrial life. However, this salty, pitch-black realm is locked away beneath a dense shell of water ice that is estimated to be a staggering 10 - 15 miles thick.

Thankfully the world-spanning natural barrier has done little to dissuade NASA from planning an ambitious multi-billion dollar mission to visit the moon. Enter the Europa Clipper.

The cutting-edge spacecraft is slated to launch in October 2024 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and will then spend roughly five and a half years in interplanetary space before finally arriving at Jupiter in April 2030.

After rendezvousing with Jupiter, the spacecraft will carry out numerous close proximity flybys of Europa. During this time it will probe the moon with a suite of scientific instruments ranging from cameras and spectrometers to ice-penetrating radar, hunting for clues that Europa could be habitable.

The scientific community’s understanding of the makeup of Europa’s ice shell will make a significant difference in how they interpret the data collected by the future spacecraft.

In order to better understand Europa, a team of scientists led by Natalie Wolfenbarger of the University of Texas at Austin turned to one of the most alien environments on Earth — the frigid ocean beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Underwater Snowrise

In this place — where the temperature, pressure and composition is thought to be similar to that of Europa’s ocean - researchers have observed snow forming underwater.

These flakes then drift upward to gather on the underneath of the shelf, where it adds to its already monumental mass and creates a strange upside down landscape of peaks of gorges.

The team behind the new research believe that a similar process may be at work in the subsurface ocean realm of Europa, and that, by examining it, they can gain a greater understanding of what the thick outer shell is made of.

The authors of the study — which was published in the scientific journal Astrobiology — analyzed two distinct methods by which liquid is known to transform into ice underwater. The first — known as frazil ice — sees flakes crystalize in a supercooled column of water. The second type of ice, known as congelation ice essentially grows directly from the bottom of the ice shelf.

Vitally, both of these processes create ice that has a lower salt content than seawater. If the same were true on Europa, this would mean that the gigantic crust is much purer than previously thought.

Speaking to IGN, Wolfenbarger explained that this is good news for scientists hoping to peer through the moon’s crust to observe the ocean-ice boundary using the instruments aboard the Europa Clipper.

Salt, when trapped in ice, can heighten the overall electrical conductivity of the material, making it harder for radar instruments to penetrate deep beneath the surface. The presence of salt also encourages the formation of brine, which would lower the signal strength of the radar.

The salty study could also alter the scientific community’s understanding of some of the key characteristics of the icy moon, including the nature of the tectonic activity that deforms the icy crust, and the manner by which heat transfers throughout the enormous structure.

Anthony Wood is a Freelance science writer for IGN.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Underwater snow on Earth could aid in the search for life beyond our planet by shedding light on the alien nature of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.

Europa’s vast subsurface ocean is considered to be one of the most promising locations in our Solar System when it comes to the hunt for extraterrestrial life. However, this salty, pitch-black realm is locked away beneath a dense shell of water ice that is estimated to be a staggering 10 - 15 miles thick.

Thankfully the world-spanning natural barrier has done little to dissuade NASA from planning an ambitious multi-billion dollar mission to visit the moon. Enter the Europa Clipper.

The cutting-edge spacecraft is slated to launch in October 2024 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and will then spend roughly five and a half years in interplanetary space before finally arriving at Jupiter in April 2030.

After rendezvousing with Jupiter, the spacecraft will carry out numerous close proximity flybys of Europa. During this time it will probe the moon with a suite of scientific instruments ranging from cameras and spectrometers to ice-penetrating radar, hunting for clues that Europa could be habitable.

The scientific community’s understanding of the makeup of Europa’s ice shell will make a significant difference in how they interpret the data collected by the future spacecraft.

In order to better understand Europa, a team of scientists led by Natalie Wolfenbarger of the University of Texas at Austin turned to one of the most alien environments on Earth — the frigid ocean beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.

Underwater Snowrise

In this place — where the temperature, pressure and composition is thought to be similar to that of Europa’s ocean - researchers have observed snow forming underwater.

These flakes then drift upward to gather on the underneath of the shelf, where it adds to its already monumental mass and creates a strange upside down landscape of peaks of gorges.

The team behind the new research believe that a similar process may be at work in the subsurface ocean realm of Europa, and that, by examining it, they can gain a greater understanding of what the thick outer shell is made of.

The authors of the study — which was published in the scientific journal Astrobiology — analyzed two distinct methods by which liquid is known to transform into ice underwater. The first — known as frazil ice — sees flakes crystalize in a supercooled column of water. The second type of ice, known as congelation ice essentially grows directly from the bottom of the ice shelf.

Vitally, both of these processes create ice that has a lower salt content than seawater. If the same were true on Europa, this would mean that the gigantic crust is much purer than previously thought.

Speaking to IGN, Wolfenbarger explained that this is good news for scientists hoping to peer through the moon’s crust to observe the ocean-ice boundary using the instruments aboard the Europa Clipper.

Salt, when trapped in ice, can heighten the overall electrical conductivity of the material, making it harder for radar instruments to penetrate deep beneath the surface. The presence of salt also encourages the formation of brine, which would lower the signal strength of the radar.

The salty study could also alter the scientific community’s understanding of some of the key characteristics of the icy moon, including the nature of the tectonic activity that deforms the icy crust, and the manner by which heat transfers throughout the enormous structure.

Anthony Wood is a Freelance science writer for IGN.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Overwatch 2 will include cross-progression across all formats. Starting today, you'll be able to merge console and PC accounts from the original game, carrying all your collected progression with you to the new version.

Overwatch 2 will essentially replace the original Overwatch when the game is launched on October 4, 2022. The game will feature cross-progrssion across all formats, and Activision Blizzard has announced that you will be able to merge multiple accounts to bring across your existing Overwatch progression into the sequel.

“With the launch of cross-progression, players can merge multiple Overwatch accounts to carry progression and in-game cosmetics into Overwatch 2 on a single profile,” said an official statement. “Starting August 16, every player with a linked console account will be prompted at login to identify, select, and confirm the accounts you want to merge. Once you approve, we will prepare your accounts to be merged during the release of Overwatch 2.”

Overwatch 2 requires all players to have a Battle.net account, even on consoles. Essentially, progress from your linked console accounts will be stored on your Battle.net account which allows Overwatch 2 to share cosmetics and unlocks across the various linked accounts.

However, be warned – there’s only one opportunity to merge your console accounts, so make sure you double-check the accounts you want to merge before you accept.

Here’s the full process of merging your accounts:

• Log into Overwatch on your console account
• Follow on-screen prompts to scan a QR code on your phone
• Enter the code displayed on your console to link/create a Battle.net account
• Confirm your account on your next game login to merge.

That should be it – your console account will subsequently be merged with your Battle.net account. But once you’ve merged a console account with Battle.net you’ll be unable to add any other accounts from the same platform. Make sure you’re merging the correct account!

You can merge accounts from Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC but only one per platform. Account merging is currently the only way for console players to carry over their progress into Overwatch 2, but PC players should see their progress automatically carry over into the upcoming sequel.

Once merged, all the items in the Hero Gallery of all your linked platforms will appear in the Battle.net account – letting you access any cosmetics that you’ve unlocked across the various platforms.

The merge also carries over in-game stats, with playtime and number of wins made up as a sum of all your totals, while stats such as highest accuracy and kill streaks will take the highest value from all merged accounts.

Want to read more about Overwatch 2? Check out Overwatch 2’s content roadmap to see what’s coming up, as well as why Overwatch is ditching its loot boxes.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.