Batgirl has cast Tales of the City's Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, where she will represent the first transgender character in a DCEU film.

As reported by Variety, both Aquino and Yeoh are trans. In the comics, Alysia Yeof is a bartender who also happens to be the best friend and one-time roommate of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and she first appeared in Batgirl Vol. 4 #1 in November 2011. Aquino will bring her to life on HBO Max alongside Leslie Grace, who will play Batgirl.

Aquino's casting was first teased by Grace's Instagram story in January when she posted a photo of her and Aquino on what may have been Batgirl's set. She tagged Aquino and included the caption "Barbara and Alysia."

Batgirl is set to be released on HBO Max in 2022 and will be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Joining Grace and Aquino in Batgirl will be Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Brendan Fraser as Garfield Lynns/Firefly, and Jacob Scipio in an unknown role.

Grace recently revealed an image of herself as Batgirl and the suit looks to be very inspired by Batgirl comics, especially the "Batgirl of Burnside" issue. Grace also shared a quote from Batgirl, Year One, giving us more of an idea of what to expect from the hero.

Aquino is another step towards greater LGBTQ+ representation in the superhero genre, and follows CW's Supergirl introducing the first trans superhero on TV in Nicole Maines' Dreamer, CW's Batwoman being a lesbian played by both Ruby Rose and Javicia Leslie, Loki revealing he is canonically bisexual, Marvel having Brian Tyree Henry play the first openly gay character in the MCU, and more.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Batgirl has cast Tales of the City's Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, where she will represent the first transgender character in a DCEU film.

As reported by Variety, both Aquino and Yeoh are trans. In the comics, Alysia Yeof is a bartender who also happens to be the best friend and one-time roommate of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and she first appeared in Batgirl Vol. 4 #1 in November 2011. Aquino will bring her to life on HBO Max alongside Leslie Grace, who will play Batgirl.

Aquino's casting was first teased by Grace's Instagram story in January when she posted a photo of her and Aquino on what may have been Batgirl's set. She tagged Aquino and included the caption "Barbara and Alysia."

Batgirl is set to be released on HBO Max in 2022 and will be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Joining Grace and Aquino in Batgirl will be Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Brendan Fraser as Garfield Lynns/Firefly, and Jacob Scipio in an unknown role.

Grace recently revealed an image of herself as Batgirl and the suit looks to be very inspired by Batgirl comics, especially the "Batgirl of Burnside" issue. Grace also shared a quote from Batgirl, Year One, giving us more of an idea of what to expect from the hero.

Aquino is another step towards greater LGBTQ+ representation in the superhero genre, and follows CW's Supergirl introducing the first trans superhero on TV in Nicole Maines' Dreamer, CW's Batwoman being a lesbian played by both Ruby Rose and Javicia Leslie, Loki revealing he is canonically bisexual, Marvel having Brian Tyree Henry play the first openly gay character in the MCU, and more.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Mimas, a tiny moon orbiting Saturn, might be hiding an ocean under its frozen surface, according to new research published in the planetary science journal Icarus.

Mimas has a wobbly rotation that suggests it either has an elongated core or an internal ocean. Scientists have been skeptical about an ocean being the cause because Mimas is very small and, unlike other moons with oceans, it doesn’t have any markers on its surface indicating one.

Alyssa Rhoden, a specialist in the geophysics of icy satellites, was setting out to disprove the ocean hypothesis when she and her colleague Matthew Walker realized it might actually hold water. They used tidal heating models to find a plausible explanation for a liquid ocean beneath 14 to 20 miles of ice.

“I was saying Mimas can’t have an ocean, but what I was really saying was, for Mimas to have an ocean would really challenge our intuition about Mimas,” Rhoden told the New York Times. “And when I realized that, I thought, well, that’s not how scientists are supposed to work. We don’t come to a conclusion without actually testing the hypothesis.”

Mimas’ potential secret ocean could expand scientists’ conceptions of icy satellites. "If Mimas has an ocean, it represents a new class of small, ‘stealth’ ocean worlds with surfaces that do not betray the ocean’s existence," Rhoden said in a press release.

It will take further study to confirm if there really is an ocean lurking beneath the surface, rather than a stretched core. "Mimas is a compelling target for continued investigation," Rhoden said.

Mimas is also compelling for its pop culture resemblances. Thanks to a huge impact crater on its surface, Mimas has been compared to the Death Star from Star Wars. It was also revealed in 2010 to have a temperature map that looks strikingly similar to Pac-Man eating a dot.

For more about icy celestial bodies, check out our articles about why some astronomers think Pluto should be a planet again and about Pluto’s own possible under-ice ocean.

Kait Sanchez is a freelance writer for IGN. Find them on Twitter @crisp_red.

Main image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A Super Nintendo classic was almost playable within Metroid Prime on Nintendo GameCube, until Nintendo stepped in and stopped it from happening.

In the latest episode of the Kiwi Talkz podcast, Metroid Prime developer David "Zoid" Kirsch shared insight into the development of Prime, including this retro easter egg. Zoid said he first played Super Metroid after he was assigned to work on development of Metroid Prime, but he completed the game twice in under a week because he loved it so much.

"I got assigned to Metroid, and I'm like, well I should probably play this Super Metroid since we're making kind of a sequel to it," Zoid said. "Holy crap, I missed [out on] this game! This game's incredible. I played through it twice in like three days, I just loved it."

This led Zoid to put Super Metroid into Prime itself through an unofficial SNES emulator. Nintendo ultimately rejected the idea because the emulator wasn't approved, but Zoid said this little side project led to the inclusion of the original Metroid from the NES.

"That started the idea churning, and Nintendo did have the NES emulation library that they had built for the GameCube, and so that turned into bringing the original Metroid to the game."

Super Metroid is still one of the greatest games ever made, coming in at #5 on our list of the top 100 games of all time. Metroid Prime itself came in at #42, so it would have been pretty wild to have to of the best games ever on the same disc back on the GameCube.

The Kiwi Talkz channel has been diving into the development of the Metroid Prime series over the past few months with developer interviews. A previous video revealed the extent of Retro Studios' crunch during the development of Metroid Prime.

Metroid fans are still anxiously awaiting Metroid Prime 4, the upcoming sequel announced way back in 2017. For now, players can enjoy Samus Aran's latest 2D adventure in Metroid Dread, which we awarded the best action-adventure game of 2021.

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

Suppose you are looking for a way to make the Nintendo Switch a lot more portable-friendly. In that case, this new Kickstarter campaign might have the answer: an all-in-one modular case that makes Nintendo's hybrid console more convenient as a companion gadget when traveling.

The G-Case by Plenbo is aimed to be the "all-in-one" solution for those that play their Switch primarily in handheld mode. Outside of adding additional protection to the back of the console, the G-Case includes a 5000mAh battery pack that provides up to 5 hours of additional battery life and the option to detach the battery pack and use it to charge other devices such as your smartphone or a tablet.

To minimize the number of items you are carrying, the G-Case also includes two cards slots: one on each side of the grip cases, allowing you to hold up to three Nintendo Switch games with the attachment.

The G-Case also allows you to detach the case and Joy-Cons themselves from the Switch. And the added option to connect the grips together is similar to Nintendo's official Joy-Con grip. The grips on the Joy-Cons are also replaceable with three grip sizes to fit most hands.

Some of the more interesting features on the G-Case include one model that offers Bluetooth connectivity. While the Switch already has built-in Bluetooth, there is an issue of latency; Plenbo claims that the G-Case's Bluetooth 5.0 will allow for a more seamless connection between the console and wireless headphones with audio latency down to 40 milliseconds. The G-Case also includes a kickstand, which might not be useful for OLED model owners, but is an added benefit for those that own the regular Nintendo Switch.

Case aside, Plenbo has also announced additional items that complement the G-Case, such as a carrying case and a wireless controller adapter designed for PC, an Android TV box, and the Switch compatible with other devices such as the PlayStation 5. This includes the OneDock, which includes one USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI 2.0 ports and allows players to connect the Switch to a TV without a docking station.

The project has already reached its funding goal, but if you are interested in preordering the device, you can pledge $79 to receive the case itself. Or $169 to receive the unit and additional accessories, such as the OneDock brick. Important to note, howver, if you decide to back the project, there may be some "unforseeable" issues as noted on the G-Case's "Risks and challenges" section of the Kickstarter page.

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

One of the most common complaints about the emergence of NFTs is that it's an unregulated landscape where fraud and theft are easily committed. There are countless stories of artwork being stolen, or new scam tokens. This time, an entire video game has fallen victim.

Outerverse publisher Freedom Games and developer Tbjbu2 released a statement on Monday alleging that an NFT scam has been imitating the two companies to promote something called "Outerverse Metaverse & Decentralized Platform Gaming," featuring blockchain technology and NFT integration.

This version uses real assets from the original Outerverse and adds a layer of NFT and blockchain integration, something the real Outerverse has never done. "This is patently false," said Bryan Herren, director of marketing at Freedom Games. "There is absolutely no NFT integration in the real Outerverse or with any other titles from Freedom Games."

The imposter game which markets itself at Outerverseswap.com advertises that players can trade tokens and "play and earn" an "$OUTERVERSE" token.

A "buy now" link on the site takes users to a crypto exchange platform called PancakeSwap. Ironically, a button labeled "play Outerverse" redirects back to the same landing page.

"It's unfortunate that people are taking advantage of my passion project to try and make a quick profit, and it's generally sad to see lots of scams rise up from what I had hoped would be a positive innovation like Bitcoin," Tbjbu2 said in an email to IGN. "I spent a huge amount of time making this game as good as possible and it's not acceptable that people think they can use my work for their benefit."

Freedom Games says it has attempted to contact the web hosting company hosting the imposter Outerverse but holds little hope that action will be taken considering other complaints against the firm hosting the game have gone unanswered. Freedom Games says its legal team is currently looking into other options.

"Freedom Games will continue to do everything within its power to protect the developers we support," Herren said. "Likewise, Freedom Games will always vigorously protect its copyright and trademarks, to safeguard our community to the best of our ability."

IGN has reached out to individuals behind the imposter Outerverse for comment but did not receive a reply as of publishing time. As of this writing, the imposter Outerverse's roadmap claims that they'll release their game in "phase four," but appears to be in only "phase two," which consists of launching their crypto exchange pages.

The real Outerverse game was released in Early Access this month exclusively on Steam and Epic Games Store. Outerverse is a voxel art-based game focused on crafting, not unlike Minecraft, but with an emphasis on designing automated machines and later using them to defeat giant boss creatures. A series of quests guide players into space, where they can fly ships and witness "cosmic events."

The use of NFTs in video games has risen in the past year, but not without controversy. Originally touted as a way to ensure artists get paid for their work, plenty of NFTs have been found to use art taken without permission of the original artist, NBC reports.

Meanwhile, some major video game companies have begun utilizing NFTs, but either backing down after fan criticism or quietly moving on to other ventures. The developers behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 announced plans to implement NFTs in their first-person shooter but walked those plans back within an hour. Ubisoft on the other hand announced Quartz, a blockchain-powered NFT cosmetic system for its games, starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

A recent survey from the Game Developers Conference also found that only 28% of game developers are interested in NFTs, but only 1% are using them now.

Star Trek fans are in for another blast of nostalgia in 2022. Playmates Toys has reacquired the Trek license after a 12 year hiatus, and they have plenty of new figures in the works spanning multiple eras.

The first wave of new Playmates figures will focus on major characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: Discovery. Get a closer look at these new reveals in the slideshow gallery below:

The Star Trek Universe line focuses on 5-inch scale figures, roughly the same size as Playmates' iconic Trek toys from the '90s. That said, toy technology has come a long way since then, so these figures are much more detailed and realistically proportioned. Each figure features 14 points of articulation. Alongside these figures, Playmates will also be releasing an 18-inch replica of the classic Enterprise ship and an Original Series-inspired phaser toy.

Playmates will be leaning into the nostalgia angle with these releases. Figures based on the classic shows and movies will be packaged on vintage-inspired card-backs, while contemporary characters like the Star Trek Discovery crew will have new, modern packaging.

While Playmates wasn't the first company to release Star Trek toys, their toyline is arguably the most iconic, and certainly the most comprehensive. Playmates first wave of Trek figures hit stores in 1999. The company continued to release new figures inspired by The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the Original Series throughout the '90s, until the line was finally shuttered in 1999. Playmates briefly began releasing new Trek figures in 2009 alongside the movie reboot, but the rights then shifted to other manufacturers like McFarlane Toys and Diamond Select.

Trek fans can expect the first wave of Star Trek Universe figures to hit stores in July 2022, with more to come in 2023.

There's plenty of other Trek content to look forward to in the months and years to come. We recently got our first look at Star Trek: Resolute, a new adventure game set shortly after the finale of The Next Generation. Meanwhile, Paramount+ recently revealed a trailer and release date for Picard: Season 2 and announced Discovery has been renewed for a fifth season.

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

Here we go again. After it was revealed Matt Reeves' The Batman will be the longest Dark Knight movie ever, an even longer version of the upcoming superhero movie exists.

THR reports that early test screenings of The Batman clocked in at a whopping four hours long. While we learned last week that the version of The Batman most audiences will be seeing in theaters clocks in at nearly three hours, this implies there's somewhere around an hour of footage left on the cutting room floor.

Even at just under three hours, it's still the longest Batman movie ever made, outpacing Christopher Nolan's trilogy, Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, and Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever.

The news of a four-hour version inevitably brings to mind the infamous Zack Snyder cut of Justice League, which features a runtime of four hours and two minutes.

After years of fan outcry, DC and Warner Bros released Snyder's cut of Justice League. Snyder originally departed production in 2017, with Warner Bros. giving the reins over to Joss Whedon. Whedon was later accused of creating a hostile working environment and threatening actors' careers, including Wonder Woman's Gal Gadot.

Of course, the movement to release the Snyder Cut was a mix of negative reception to Whedon's cut of Justice League, Snyder's fan following as a director, and the perception that Warner Bros. was hiding an alternate cut of the film.

But Snyder's circumstances were unique. Directors often create multiple cuts of a film to test, and that doesn't necessarily mean a longer cut is a "director's cut." While the process of test screenings is complicated, it's intended to find a version of the film audiences like best.

We also know The Batman will have some horror elements akin to the infamous Zodiac Killer. You can also check out the new Batman theme by composer Michael Giacchino, which reminds us of the animated series and Danny Elfman's classic Batman score.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

A new gameplay overview of Elden Ring has revealed FromSoftware's focus on making sure players aren't overly stressed while playing the game – but seemingly without reducing the difficulty you'd expect from Souls game enemies.

Speaking during Taipei Game Show, producer Yasuhiro Kitao repeatedly explained how elements of the game had been tooled to reduce player stress – in effect making the game difficult in the right places, but gentler in how you reach them.

"With the game's world being so large, that can produce real depth and breadth of enjoyment, but it can also lead to unnecessary stress for some players," explained Kitao. "The dev team has been very careful to avoid that where possible."

Interviewer Misuzu Araki replied: "With battle already being fairly difficult, I can understand wanting to reduce stress elsewhere." Kitao agreed: "Yes, especially as the enemies are so strong."

With that in mind, it seems Elden Ring's enemies and bosses will be as tough as you'd hope/fear from a new game from the Dark Souls developer, but Kitao made clear that a number of changes have been made to how you get to them.

Elden Ring's new ability to summon and ride a horse, for example has been touted as a major part of that focus. "Horses provide a stress-free method of traveling across the long distances the player needs to travel in the game," explained Kitao. He continued that your horse's ability to travel up air currents was also a part of that thinking: "That system was introduced as a means of quickly and enjoyably moving vertically upward in order to explore those higher areas."

On the theme of getting around Elden Ring's huge map, Kitao also explained that fast travel to locations you've already visited was introduced as a way of combating stress, and offering freedom to players. That freedom itself is a way of allowing the player a smoother journey through the world, allowing you to turn back from an area you might be finding to tough, try somewhere else, and return later on having leveled up your character. As an example, Kitao pointed out that the Stormveil area (and boss) from the game's Network Test could be avoided completely in full game, or returned to much later.

In terms of regular enemies, Kitao said it was a major challenge to balance the map feeling too empty, or too full of encounters: "The challenge was to place enemies in a way that would keep players interested, but still provide them with a low-stress experience. This applies to item distribution too, as well as in-game events. Fine tuning these placements and timings has been ongoing until the very end."

He also confirmed that in-game time of day or weather effects won't alter enemy placements 'significantly' (although a "very small" number of enemy types will appear only at night): "Changing enemies for all times of day would create a kind of pressure on users to play the game at various different times," explained Kitao. "We felt this was a stress our users could do without."

Perhaps the biggest change to the established 'rules' of a Souls game comes in how the game deals with checkpointing in certain particularly difficult areas. As with previous games, players collect experience – now called 'runes' instead of 'souls' – that are dropped when they die, but can be collected again. However, the process of respawning can now be a little different:

"With the map being so vast, [traveling back to collect runes] can become an unwanted stress for the player," said Kitao. "With that in mind, we have identified a number of difficult spots, places with lots of enemies or powerful foes, as points at which many players will die and need to re-attempt that challenge. The player is able to select the option of respawning very near the spot of their death for these locations. This kind of measure is another example of the team's efforts to implement systems to mitigate player stress caused by the sheer magnitude of the game map."

It's clear, then, that Elden Ring will be a game that allows you to get to those difficult fights more smoothly than previous games, simply because of the sheer distances involved. It's also going to let you choose what you want to play along the way a little more freely – with Kitao making clear that the game can be finished in 30 hours, but with dozens of hours of extra content to play on top of that.

The interview also revealed that the game has finally gone gold, and shouldn't suffer any more delays to its February 25 release date – so you'll get to experience all this new open world has to offer very 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.

Elon Musk's brain chip company Neuralink appears to be gearing up to launch its first-ever human trials, with the firm now looking to recruit a director to run the tests.

According to The Guardian, the entrepreneur, who owns a variety of science-based start-ups, is preparing to take Neuralink's brain chip research to the next stage by hiring a mission-driven Clinical Trial Director to begin human testing. The company is moving toward potentially finding a way to use the technology to treat people with brain and spinal injuries.

"You'll work closely with some of the most innovative doctors and top engineers, as well as working with Neuralink's first clinical trial participants," per the advert. "You will lead and help build the team responsible for enabling Neuralink's clinical research activities and developing the regulatory interactions that come with a fast-paced and ever-evolving environment."

Neuralink previously conducted trials of its neurotech on pigs and monkeys, including one test that involved implanting a chip into a monkey's brain. Using the device, the primate found a way to interact with a computer and play video games such as "mind pong," proving humans may eventually be able to use the chip to control computerized devices with their minds.

"First Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs," Musk tweeted last year, reinforcing the company's goals. "Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again."

Musk co-founded the Silicon Valley tech company in 2016 and continues to build out its team. Another recent job advertisement on the Neuralink website reveals that the organization is currently on the lookout for a Clinical Trial Coordinator who will support future studies as the company moves towards testing its brain-computer interface in human trials.

In addition to exploring neural networks, Musk is keen to revolutionize space technology. The billionaire businessman has announced plans to launch a dogecoin-funded satellite to the moon this year, but not before he's raced remote-controlled cars on the lunar surface. There's also plans to return to the moon in 2024, and SpaceX is building the lunar lander for that.

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