Paramount Chief Brian Robbins has given an update on JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie, revealing that they're currently "deep into it" and edging closer to the "starting line."

Robbins announced the new Star Trek film with Abrams at Paramount's Investor Day in February, but it's been relatively quiet on the bridge ever since. In a recent interview with Variety, however, Robbins confirmed that steady progress is being made on the movie and they're "excited" about the direction in which it is going, now that the Kelvin crew is on board.

"We're deep into it with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we're getting close to the starting line and excited about where we're going creatively," Robbins revealed before explaining why they decided to bring back Chris Pine and the rest of the Kelvin universe cast. "I'm a research nerd, and what the data tells me is that the audience wants that cast in this movie."

The last we heard, talks were underway with Chris Pine to reprise his role as James T. Kirk in the next Abrams-produced Star Trek film, with the intention of also bringing back the rest of the cast from the reboot trilogy, including Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Lieutenant Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, John Cho as Sulu, and Simon Pegg as Scotty.

Filming was scheduled to start in late 2022 and it sounds like they may be on target to set their phasers to stun and start the cameras rolling before the end of the year, under the direction of Matt Shakman, who apparently inspired fresh interest in the Star Trek franchise following his much-talked about run on Disney Plus' WandaVision miniseries.

The Star Trek script is being written by Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, based on a prior draft by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but the original concept for the fourth Star Trek saw Captain Kirk contending with the legacy of his own father, who heroically sacrificed himself aboard the USS Kelvin during battle.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Don't expect Stranger Things to switch to weekly releases for its fifth and final season.

Speaking to Variety, Netflix’s head of scripted series for U.S. and Canada Peter Friedlander confirmed that there are no plans to switch over to weekly releases, and it will stick with releasing all (or at least most) of its episodes on the day it premieres..

“For the fans of Stranger Things, this is how they’ve been watching that show, and I think to change that on them would be disappointing,” he said. “To not give them exactly what they’ve been expecting — which is Stranger Things is a seasonal experience, they go through that with them — I think that it would be an abrupt change for the member.”

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about which is the best way to release a modern TV season – in its entirety, like Netflix, or following the classic weekly release of broadcast TV. While some streaming shows have seen great success with weekly releases, it looks as though Stranger Things won’t follow suit. That said, it's worth noting that Stranger Things 4 has split its season into two distinct sets of releases – although this is seemingly more about giving the team time to finish the final episodes, rather than a conscious decision to keep fans hanging on.

It looks as though the binge-watch model will remain at Netflix at large. At least, for its scripted shows:

“We fundamentally believe that we want to give our members the choice in how they view,” he explained. “And so giving them that option on these scripted series to watch as much as they want to watch when they watch it, is still fundamental to what we want to provide. And so when you see something like a batched season with ‘Stranger Things,’ this is our attempt at making sure we can get shows out quicker to the members.”

Friedlander says that it’s all about “servicing” the needs of Netflix subscribers in the most expedient way:

“That’s what you see [with Stranger Things] and that’s what you see with Ozark,” he said. “So, we have had some experimentation in that space. But it’s also, you’re giving multiple-episodic-viewing experiences, it isn’t a standalone.”

“So, it really does, what we think, honors our relationship with our members and what their expectations are. There have been other types of launch cadences, but that’s connected to an unscripted approach or a competition approach.”

It's true that Netflix already has adopted a weekly release schedule for some titles, such as The Great British Baking Show, largely due to the show’s licensing deal. These also seem to be restricted to reality or competition-based shows. But it looks as though Stranger Things, and Netflix’s other scripted dramas, won’t be getting those weekly water cooler moments.

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

Don't expect Stranger Things to switch to weekly releases for its fifth and final season.

Speaking to Variety, Netflix’s head of scripted series for U.S. and Canada Peter Friedlander confirmed that there are no plans to switch over to weekly releases, and it will stick with releasing all (or at least most) of its episodes on the day it premieres..

“For the fans of Stranger Things, this is how they’ve been watching that show, and I think to change that on them would be disappointing,” he said. “To not give them exactly what they’ve been expecting — which is Stranger Things is a seasonal experience, they go through that with them — I think that it would be an abrupt change for the member.”

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about which is the best way to release a modern TV season – in its entirety, like Netflix, or following the classic weekly release of broadcast TV. While some streaming shows have seen great success with weekly releases, it looks as though Stranger Things won’t follow suit. That said, it's worth noting that Stranger Things 4 has split its season into two distinct sets of releases – although this is seemingly more about giving the team time to finish the final episodes, rather than a conscious decision to keep fans hanging on.

It looks as though the binge-watch model will remain at Netflix at large. At least, for its scripted shows:

“We fundamentally believe that we want to give our members the choice in how they view,” he explained. “And so giving them that option on these scripted series to watch as much as they want to watch when they watch it, is still fundamental to what we want to provide. And so when you see something like a batched season with ‘Stranger Things,’ this is our attempt at making sure we can get shows out quicker to the members.”

Friedlander says that it’s all about “servicing” the needs of Netflix subscribers in the most expedient way:

“That’s what you see [with Stranger Things] and that’s what you see with Ozark,” he said. “So, we have had some experimentation in that space. But it’s also, you’re giving multiple-episodic-viewing experiences, it isn’t a standalone.”

“So, it really does, what we think, honors our relationship with our members and what their expectations are. There have been other types of launch cadences, but that’s connected to an unscripted approach or a competition approach.”

It's true that Netflix already has adopted a weekly release schedule for some titles, such as The Great British Baking Show, largely due to the show’s licensing deal. These also seem to be restricted to reality or competition-based shows. But it looks as though Stranger Things, and Netflix’s other scripted dramas, won’t be getting those weekly water cooler moments.

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

Hideo Kojima's next project may be a horror game called Overdose, starring Death Stranding actress Margaret Qualley.

Reported by repeated leaker Tom Henderson for Try Hard Guides, the news apparently stems from early footage showing a third-person character played by Qualley, exploring dark corridors using a flashlight. The footage reportedly ends with a jump scare, a game over screen, and the title screen.

Henderson has since said that Kojima Productions has asked him to remove the story from publication, lending weight to the truth of the leak.

The report is temporarily down as I've added a small update but it needs to be approved (the beauty of writing at 6am).

The update just says "Update - Kojima Productions have since asked for the publication of this report to be removed which we have declined." on the report.

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) June 8, 2022

Henderson says this doesn't appear to be a Death Stranding sequel, despite the inclusion of Qualley, and the fact that Norman Reedus seemingly leaked the existence of that game last month.

Kojima famously began work on Silent Hills for Konami before falling out spectacularly with the developer and leaving to form his own company. Ever since, fans have wondered about a Kojima horror game, particularly after his P.T. demo became a phenomenon of its own. Back in 2017, the legendary developer said he didn't want to make a another horror, but we've since heard he's had casual chats with horror mangaka Junji Ito about reuniting.

Since Death Stranding was released, Kojima has hinted repeatedly about new projects, saying he's scrapped a major project, considered working on smaller, even episodic games, and gotten fans talking by just posting the contents of his desk. Hopefully, we discover something a little more concrete soon.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

A Joker sequel is officially in the works and director Todd Phillips has revealed the title for the sequel will be Joker: Folie à Deux.

Phillips, who directed and co-wrote the first Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, is teaming up again with co-writer Scott Silver on the sequel. Phillips shared the red script cover on his Instagram page.

While plot details are scarce, Folie à Deux is defined as a psychological disorder where the same or similar mental disorder affects two or more people. Given that the Joker is known for having psychologically dependent relationships with characters like Batman and Harley Quinn, this title seems fitting.

The first Joker movie was released in 2019 as a standalone film set outside of any of the main Batman movie timelines. The origin story follows Arthur Fleck, a lonely party clown in Gotham City driven to the brink as he undergoes a transformation into the Joker.

The film was heavily influenced by movies like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, both directed by Martin Scorsese.

While there weren't plans for a sequel originally, Warner Bros. reportedly signed Phillips to write a sequel, and Phillips said he needed time to think of ideas for another installment. He previously said he would not return for a sequel unless he could find "some thematic resonance" like in the first movie.

Phoenix himself said he didn't know about any plans for a Joker sequel, but said that there were more stories they could explore for the character.

Joker was critically acclaimed at launch and went on to earn 11 Oscar nominations, taking home awards for Best Actor and Best Original Score. IGN gave Joker a perfect score calling it "a film that should leave comic book fans and non-fans alike disturbed and moved in all the right ways."

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

The first trailer for Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam movie will premiere tomorrow, June 8.

Johnson has been preparing to unleash his anti-hero, Black Adam, on the world for years now. Despite sharing sporadic updates on the film for a while, this will be the first proper trailer for the upcoming superhero movie.

To placate fans before the trailer Johnson also shared the first official poster for Black Adam you can check out below.

The world needed a hero

It got Black Adam

World premiere trailer of #BlackAdam⚡️ drops TOMORROW.

Hierarchy of power in the DC Universe will change. #ManInBlack@SevenBucksProd@WBPictures@DCComics pic.twitter.com/Df8qsfX95l

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) June 7, 2022

Black Adam is based on the DC Comics character of the same name. While Black Adam is typically an enemy of Shazam, this upcoming film will not actually feature the character played by Zachary Levi. Instead, Black Adam will put Johnson's ancient character against the Justice Society of America.

They include Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Qunetessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. Check out the full Black Adam cast here.

Black Adam has been in development since 2017. At DC FanDome in 2020, the studio finally revealed the Black Adam vs. JSA plotline.

Black Adam is one of a handful of DC films currently in development alongside a sequel to Shazam, as well as movies starring The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Batgirl.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Batman director Tim Burton still hasn’t gotten over the nippled Batsuit of Batman Forever.

During an interview with Empire Magazine, the 63-year-old filmmaker had some strong words for Warner Bros. who replaced Burton for the third film after Batman Returns was “too dark”.

“They went the other way,” said Burton. “That’s the funny thing about it. But then I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Okay. Hold on a second here. You complain about me, I’m too weird, I’m too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go f**k yourself.’ Seriously. So, yeah, I think that’s why I didn’t end up [doing a third film.]”

Batman Returns was met with concern from Warner Bros.

Essentially, they thought the critically acclaimed Batman sequel was just too dark and didn’t want to make another sequel with Burton at the helm. After he left, Burton was replaced by Joel Schumacher who, let’s face it, made some definite… choices.

But the conversation about Batman Returns being too dark reminded Burton of The Batman. “It is funny to see this now, because all these memories come back of, ‘It’s too dark,’ So, it makes me laugh a little bit.”

Although Burton is yet to see the recent Batman film, his observations about the film being too dark are clearly reminiscent of his own experiences with the err… Dark Knight.

“I’m not just overly dark,” Burton explained. “That represents me in the sense that… that’s how I see things. It’s not meant as pure darkness. There’s a mixture. I feel really fondly about [Batman Returns] because of the weird experiment that it felt like.”

As for the bat nipples, those were the work of Schumacher and his lead sculptor, Jose Fernandez.

“It wasn’t fetish to me, it was more informed by Roman armor — like Centurions,” Fernandez told Mel Magazine about the legendary nipples. “And, in the comic books, the characters always looked like they were naked with spray paint on them — it was all about anatomy, and I like to push anatomy. I don’t know exactly where my head was at back in the day, but that’s what I remember. And so, I added the nipples. I had no idea there was going to end up being all this buzz about it.”

It turned out that Schumacher was a big fan… and made them even more prominent in the sequel.

“I didn’t really care or think much about it,” Fernandez said about the nipple controversy. “Whenever I had a chance, I’d explain where the concept came from — from Roman armor — but after a while, it got its own life and I just let it be. I couldn’t think of it much more after that.”

Read more about the dark knight’s latest outing with IGN’s The Batman review, as well as our list of 10 things you didn’t know about the Batman reboot, and a wild detail about Paul Dano’s Riddler.

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

Days Gone developer Bend Studio officially has a new logo, and to celebrate, the PlayStation Studios developer offered a few more tidbits about its next project.

The new logo is split into a graphic and a workmark, and is intended to reflect a "new identity" as the studio moves forward on its next project. Associate art director Shay Casey went in-depth on the new logo in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

We set out to create a new identity that would be cutting-edge, abstract, and minimalist. It should feature simple, high-tech geometry but also represent the constant motion of creativity. Ideally it would be the kind of logo that is recognizable to gamers on the street without the need for a wordmark. Over time it should be easily identified as a symbol of gaming just like a certain swoosh is of sportswear.

With those objectives in mind, we are illustrating Bend Studio’s technical innovation with a forward directional look. The letterforms are cut to run parallel to the leading edge of the outer symbol triangle but still maintain the stability of our mid-weight non-italicized font. The Cascade icon in the center of the symbol is an abstract representation of the many mountain peaks that are the center of our lives in Central Oregon and define our skyline. Additionally, there is a small break in the "I" that represents one of the lumber mill smokestacks that speaks to Bend’s history as a logging town before its current existence as an outdoor enthusiast destination.

In addition to the logo announcement, Bend Studio also revealed a few more tibits about its unannounced IP, including confirmation that it will feature multiplayer. Bend Studio also reiterated that the new game will "build upon the open-world systems of Days Gone," which were famous for being more granular than your typical open-world game, requiring the hero, Deacon St. John, to find fuel for his motorcycle among other tasks.

Bend Studio says it will reveal the new game "when the time is right."

As for Days Gone, we were lukewarm on it in our review, but its unique direction has won it a smaller but passionate fanbase over the years. Former director Jeff Ross, who has since moved on to Crystal Dynamics, has said that the proposed sequel would have gone in a more "technical direction."

While Bend Studio toils away on its new, Sony is full speed ahead elsewhere, having recently hosted a State of Play that included in-depth looks at a number of major third-party projects, including Final Fantasy 16. Its next big in-house project is God of War: Ragnarok, which is rumored to be out later this year.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Things are looking pretty grim in the DC Universe lately, what with all but one member of the Justice League being annihilated by Pariah in the recent Justice League #75. But there is a glimmer of hope as DC kicks off its massive Dark Crisis crossover. The first issue introduces a brand new incarnation of the Justice League to fill the void left by the old one.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Dark Crisis #1!

As the Crisis event in the DCU, Dark Crisis is about the fallout of the Justice League's destruction and Pariah's attempt to destroy reality and restore the multiverse as it existed prior to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. Of the many heroes who confronted Pariah and his brainwashed team of villains in Justice League #75, only Black Adam has survived. In the absence of Kal-El, Bruce Wayne, Diana of Themyscira, Barry Allen and the other elder statesmen of the DCU, new Superman Jon Kent is forced to shoulder his father's heavy burdens.

Jon wastes little time after the Justice League's collective funeral before attempting to build a new Justice League. Surprisingly, though, that new roster doesn't include a Wonder Woman, a Batman, a Flash or a Green Lantern. New Wonder Girl Yara Flor makes it clear she already has her hands full. And as for Luke Fox, the newly minted Batman of New York City? He views teaming up with other heroes as a mistake that got Bruce Wayne killed.

In the end, Jon assembles a surprisingly eclectic bunch of heroes that includes both established veterans and young up-and-comers. And if the new League can't have a Batman, at least it has Robin and Harley Quinn.

For those keeping score, the new Justice League roster includes:

• Superman (Jon Kent)
• Supergirl
• Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)
• Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi)
• Killer Frost
• Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
• Booster Gold
• Frankenstein
• Aqualad (Jackson Hyde)
• Harley Quinn
• Robin (Damian Wayne)

This might just be the most unusual Justice League lineup since the classic Justice League International series from the late '80s (which, fittingly, also featured Blue Beetle and Booster Gold).

It quickly becomes clear this new team has its work cut out for it, however. Even as Pariah himself continues plotting to rewrite reality, Deathstroke is leading an all-out war against any heroes still foolhardy enough to put on their costumes in the wake of the Justice League's defeat. Issue #1 ends with Deathstroke's army launching an attack on Titans Tower and Deathstroke himself executing a defiant Beast Boy. It seems Justice League #75 was just the start of a very bloody year in the DC Universe.

What do you think of the new Justice League roster? Is Harley Quinn cut out for the biggest super-team around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Elsewhere in the DCU, an upcoming Batman comic will showcase "the scariest Riddler of all time," and Joker artist Lee Bermejo is returning to Gotham City in the graphic novella Batman: Dear Detective.

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

Despite 1-2 Switch's lukewarm reviews, Nintendo reportedly began development on a sequel, and the process apparently hasn’t exactly gone as the company expected.

According to a report by Fanbyte, the sequel is rumored to be titled Everybody’s 1-2 Switch and features more simple party games similar to its predecessor: bingo, musical chairs, and a family-friendly version of spin the bottle where players compliment each other.

Everybody’s 1-2 Switch, however, reportedly makes these minigames accessible to a larger number of players by implementing smartphones in a way similar to the Jackbox Games series. The use of smartphones allows up to 100 players to play at a time, a stark departure from the original title’s mostly two-player minigames.

Despite Nintendo’s apparently high hopes for the game, playtesters’ feedback was reportedly poor — some players were said to have referred to the gameplay as “tedious” and didn’t even want to finish playing rounds of the game.

After receiving unexpectedly negative feedback, Nintendo is now said to be unsure of what’s in store for the future of Everybody’s 1-2 Switch. While Nintendo reportedly prepared cover art and placed it in empty boxes, it’s unclear if the game will ever reach shelves or will be scrapped entirely.

Some sources told Fanbyte that the game could still be released at Nintendo’s full $60 price, while others have suggested that the sequel might be tied into Nintendo Switch Online.

We gave the original 1-2 Switch a 6.8, calling some of its minigames “memorable” but overall concluding that “the novelty quickly wears off.”

IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment and will update this story with any response.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.