The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have revealed details of their canceled Star Trek 4 script, which would have been like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in space."

Following the finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Payne and McKay sat down with Esquire to discuss the Prime Video show, but they also shared a few exciting details on what could have been if their Star Trek project had actually seen the light of day.

It had been previously reported that Star Trek 4 was going to somehow bring together Chris Pine's James T. Kirk and his father George Kirk, played by Chris Hemsworth, but Payne and McKay give us a much clear picture of the story that never was.

"The conceit was that through a cosmic quirk in the Star Trek world, [Pine and Hemsworth's characters] were the same age," McKay said. "It was going to be a grand father-son space adventure—think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in space. We were really thrilled about it. We had an original villain and a really cool 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque sci-fi idea at the core."

While this concept would have potentially been great to see on the big screen, its cancelation may just have led to McKay and Payne finding their way to the Rings of Power.

"We worked on it for two and half years with Lindsey Weber, our non-writing executive producer on Rings of Power, and an amazing director, S.J. Clarkson," McKay continued. "The movie eventually fell apart and it really was a heartbreak for us. It’s part of what led us here, because it got us thinking, 'Gosh, with a big IP title, big movie stars, and a story that we all felt had the chance to be terrific, it couldn't come together.' We felt the winds were shifting against big movies, which is part of what made us start taking TV seriously. That led us to Rings of Power. But we would have loved to make that movie."

The pair didn't stop there, however, as Payne then gave more details on how exactly this film would have played out.

"There’s an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called 'Relics' where they find Scotty, who's been trapped in a transporter for a couple of decades, and they're able to have cool adventure with him," Payne said. "Our conceit was, 'What if right before the Kelvin impacted with that huge mining ship, George Kirk had tried to beam himself over to his wife's shuttle where his son, Jim Kirk, had just been born? And what if the ship hadn’t completely exploded—what if it left some space junk?'

"Think about when you send a text message and you’ve typed it out, but you haven't quite hit send. On the other side, they see those three little dots that someone has typed. It’s like the transporter had absorbed his pattern up into the pattern buffer, but hadn’t spit him out on the other side. It was actually a saved copy of him that was in the computer."

In closing, McKay shared how Pine's James T. Kirk and his crew would have found his father's pattern.

"So the adventure is that Chris Pine and the crew of the Enterprise have to seek out the wreckage of the ship that his father died on because of a mystery and a new villain," McKay said. "In the ship, they stumble across his father's pattern. They beam him out and he has no idea that no time has passed at all, and that he's looking at his son. Then the adventure goes from there."

Star Trek 4 was officially announced in 2017, and it's had a bit of a bumpy ride since then. It was reportedly cancelled in 2019, but it was given new life when it was announced that WandaVision director Matt Shakman would be directing this next installment. Unfortunately, Shakman recently dropped the project to focus on directing Marvel's Fantastic Four.

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.

General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross will return to the MCU, reportedly played by Harrison Ford.

According to reporter Jeff Sneider, the Indiana Jones star will be suiting up as the infamous Marvel General following the death of original actor, William Hurt.

“We're hearing Harrison Ford HAS, in fact, been cast as Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, who is expected to make his first appearance in... CAPTAIN AMERICA 4,” said Sneider via Twitter.

The news was confirmed by /Film who also added that Ford will be appearing in Marvel’s Thunderbolts – the upcoming new supervillain team-up movie that will bring an end to Marvel’s Phase 5.

General Ross has already appeared in the MCU, first in the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, and then in Captain America: Civil War, the final two Infinity Saga Avengers films, and Black Widow.

However, original actor William Hurt died earlier this year, leaving Marvel no choice but to recast if they wanted Ross to appear in the Thunderbolts movie – a bit of a given, considering the name.

At the moment, Ford’s role in the upcoming movies remains unclear, but the character ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross does often take a similar role to Suicide Squad’s Amanda Waller in the comic books. But there’s also a more fan-pleasing version of Ross that may be coming…

A recent episode of Marvel’s She-Hulk teased a “Red Hulk” – and this is exactly what happens to Ross in the comic books. Created as part of a super soldier program by Intelligencia (an organization that also appeared in She-Hulk), the Red Hulk debuted in 2008. He soon became a fan favorite, as a more tactical, weapon-toting Hulk.

However, Marvel’s Hulk roles often involve a lot of motion capture work… and it’s unclear whether or not Ford will don a motion capture suit to bring Red Hulk to the big screen. Either way, it sounds as though ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross will return. Whether or not we get the Red Hulk remains a mystery.

Want to read more about Marvel’s Thunderbolts? Check out what you need to know about the supervillain team as well as a look at its MCU line-up.

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

General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross will return to the MCU, reportedly played by Harrison Ford.

According to reporter Jeff Sneider, the Indiana Jones star will be suiting up as the infamous Marvel General following the death of original actor, William Hurt.

“We're hearing Harrison Ford HAS, in fact, been cast as Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, who is expected to make his first appearance in... CAPTAIN AMERICA 4,” said Sneider via Twitter.

The news was confirmed by /Film who also added that Ford will be appearing in Marvel’s Thunderbolts – the upcoming new supervillain team-up movie that will bring an end to Marvel’s Phase 5.

General Ross has already appeared in the MCU, first in the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, and then in Captain America: Civil War, the final two Infinity Saga Avengers films, and Black Widow.

However, original actor William Hurt died earlier this year, leaving Marvel no choice but to recast if they wanted Ross to appear in the Thunderbolts movie – a bit of a given, considering the name.

At the moment, Ford’s role in the upcoming movies remains unclear, but the character ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross does often take a similar role to Suicide Squad’s Amanda Waller in the comic books. But there’s also a more fan-pleasing version of Ross that may be coming…

A recent episode of Marvel’s She-Hulk teased a “Red Hulk” – and this is exactly what happens to Ross in the comic books. Created as part of a super soldier program by Intelligencia (an organization that also appeared in She-Hulk), the Red Hulk debuted in 2008. He soon became a fan favorite, as a more tactical, weapon-toting Hulk.

However, Marvel’s Hulk roles often involve a lot of motion capture work… and it’s unclear whether or not Ford will don a motion capture suit to bring Red Hulk to the big screen. Either way, it sounds as though ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross will return. Whether or not we get the Red Hulk remains a mystery.

Want to read more about Marvel’s Thunderbolts? Check out what you need to know about the supervillain team as well as a look at its MCU line-up.

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

We already knew that Razer was teaming up with Verizon and Qualcomm to make a 5G gaming handheld dedicated to cloud gaming. And today, the gaming peripheral maker officially unveiled the device as part of its RazerCon 2022 event.

The Razer Edge includes a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 2400x1080 resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. The device runs Android 12 OS, features 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 128GB of storage, and uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 chipset. Unlike the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld, the Razer Edge offers two configurations: a Wi-Fi-only model and a 5G model.

Razer says the Edge will have "thousands of AAA games" that will be compatible with the device, such as Android games, pre-installed launchers like the Epic Games Store, remote play apps, and cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

A closer look at the device, it closely resembles a smartphone connected to a Razer Kishi. This is no surprise, as the Razer Edge is a small little tablet that comes bundled with a Razer Kishi V2 Pro controller. According to Razer, the controller offers "advanced-haptic feedback" in addition to a 3.5mm audio port — which is a plus considering the original Kishi and the Kishi V2 lack a headphone jack.

Razer did not give a firm release date but said the device will launch sometime in January. If you are attending CES 2023, the company confirmed that the Razer Edge will be available, and attendees will have a chance to go hands-on with the device.

The Razer Kishi will launch in the US first, and its retail price starts at $399.99 for the Wi-Fi-only model, with no pricing yet announced for the 5G variant. While the device is not due for another few months, Razer is taking preorder deposits, where you only need to put down $5 to reserve your unit.

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

We already knew that Razer was teaming up with Verizon and Qualcomm to make a 5G gaming handheld dedicated to cloud gaming. And today, the gaming peripheral maker officially unveiled the device as part of its RazerCon 2022 event.

The Razer Edge includes a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 2400x1080 resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. The device runs Android 12 OS, features 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 128GB of storage, and uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 chipset. Unlike the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld, the Razer Edge offers two configurations: a Wi-Fi-only model and a 5G model.

Razer says the Edge will have "thousands of AAA games" that will be compatible with the device, such as Android games, pre-installed launchers like the Epic Games Store, remote play apps, and cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

A closer look at the device, it closely resembles a smartphone connected to a Razer Kishi. This is no surprise, as the Razer Edge is a small little tablet that comes bundled with a Razer Kishi V2 Pro controller. According to Razer, the controller offers "advanced-haptic feedback" in addition to a 3.5mm audio port — which is a plus considering the original Kishi and the Kishi V2 lack a headphone jack.

Razer did not give a firm release date but said the device will launch sometime in January. If you are attending CES 2023, the company confirmed that the Razer Edge will be available, and attendees will have a chance to go hands-on with the device.

The Razer Kishi will launch in the US first, and its retail price starts at $399.99 for the Wi-Fi-only model, with no pricing yet announced for the 5G variant. While the device is not due for another few months, Razer is taking preorder deposits, where you only need to put down $5 to reserve your unit.

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

Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor has shared that she didn't reprise the role for Bayonetta 3 as she was offered only $4,000 to do so. Furthermore, she has asked fans to boycott the game and donate to charity instead.

Taylor took to Twitter to share a few videos of her speaking to a camera and share her side of the story following the announcement that Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale would be replacing her in Bayonetta 3. Taylor has voiced the character since the original game, and couldn't stay silent anymore after how she was treated.

Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

"The Bayonetta franchise made an approximated $450 million, and that’s not including merchandise," Taylor began. "As an actor, I trained for a total of seven and a half years – three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Lambda with voice coach Barbara Berkery, and four and a half years with the legendary Larry Moss in Los Angeles. And what did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game as a buyout, flat rate, was $4,000 USD.

"This is an insult to me. The amount of time I took to work on my talent, and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans. I am asking the fans to boycott this game and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game donating to charity. I didn’t want the world. I didn’t ask for too much. I was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral."

She continued to share that many know she is "more a lover than a fighter," and that many may not see her as Bayonetta in real life. However, she has realized she is more like the character than she knew.

"I understand that boycotting this game is a personal choice and there are those that won’t, and that’s fine. But, if you are someone who cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game," Taylor said. "I decided to do it to stand up in solidarity with people all over the world who do not get paid properly for their talents.

"Fat cats cream off the top and leave us the rotten crumbs. You know, in England right now, there are nurses going to food banks to feed their children. This is not right, this is not acceptable. It impacts mental health. Because of it, I suffered from depression and anxiety. I worried that I was going to be on the streets. That terrified me so much that once, I was suicidal.

"I am not afraid of the non-disclosure agreement, I can’t even afford to run a car. What are they going to do, take my clothes? Good luck to them. Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power, and stands up for what’s right, and in doing this, you stand with her."

In her third video, Taylor shared that she had to reaudition for the role as "sometimes voices change with time," and she passed with "flying colors." Following her audition, she was sent a "insulting offer." In response, she wrote to Bayonetta 3 executive director Hideki Kamiya to ask him for "what i'm worth."

"So, I got a friend who has been in business in Japan to write in Japanese to him," Taylor said. "I know he read it, because I got a reply! I got a reply, saying that he 'values greatly the contribution to the game and the fans really want me to voice it over, and the memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta is a memory I hold dear.' So, I thought, ‘Great! Thank god!' That is when they offered me $4,000 USD. And you know, Platinum had the cheek to say that I was busy, that they couldn’t make it work with Ms. Taylor’s schedule. Well, I had nothing but time."

Taylor then spoke about Hale replacing her and saying that, while she wishes her all the best, "she has no right to say she is Bayonetta."

"They now have a new girl voicing her over, and I love actors and I wish her all the joy in the world and all the jobs, but she has no right to say she is Bayonetta," Taylor said. "She has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta. Any more than I have the right to sign as Eva Green, even though I was her parrot in Golden Compass. That betrayal is hers, and hers alone. They’ll probably try to do a spin-off with Jeanne, don’t buy that either."

Kamiya has since responded to these allegations with a short Tweet, saying, "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES."

We will update this story as it develops.

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.

Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor has shared that she didn't reprise the role for Bayonetta 3 as she was offered only $4,000 to do so. Furthermore, she has asked fans to boycott the game and donate to charity instead.

Taylor took to Twitter to share a few videos of her speaking to a camera and share her side of the story following the announcement that Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale would be replacing her in Bayonetta 3. Taylor has voiced the character since the original game, and couldn't stay silent anymore after how she was treated.

Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

"The Bayonetta franchise made an approximated $450 million, and that’s not including merchandise," Taylor began. "As an actor, I trained for a total of seven and a half years – three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Lambda with voice coach Barbara Berkery, and four and a half years with the legendary Larry Moss in Los Angeles. And what did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game as a buyout, flat rate, was $4,000 USD.

"This is an insult to me. The amount of time I took to work on my talent, and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans. I am asking the fans to boycott this game and instead spend the money that you would have spent on this game donating to charity. I didn’t want the world. I didn’t ask for too much. I was just asking for a decent, dignified, living wage. What they did was legal, but it was immoral."

She continued to share that many know she is "more a lover than a fighter," and that many may not see her as Bayonetta in real life. However, she has realized she is more like the character than she knew.

"I understand that boycotting this game is a personal choice and there are those that won’t, and that’s fine. But, if you are someone who cares about people, who cares about the world around you, who cares about who gets hurt with these financial decisions, then I urge you to boycott this game," Taylor said. "I decided to do it to stand up in solidarity with people all over the world who do not get paid properly for their talents.

"Fat cats cream off the top and leave us the rotten crumbs. You know, in England right now, there are nurses going to food banks to feed their children. This is not right, this is not acceptable. It impacts mental health. Because of it, I suffered from depression and anxiety. I worried that I was going to be on the streets. That terrified me so much that once, I was suicidal.

"I am not afraid of the non-disclosure agreement, I can’t even afford to run a car. What are they going to do, take my clothes? Good luck to them. Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power, and stands up for what’s right, and in doing this, you stand with her."

In her third video, Taylor shared that she had to reaudition for the role as "sometimes voices change with time," and she passed with "flying colors." Following her audition, she was sent a "insulting offer." In response, she wrote to Bayonetta 3 executive director Hideki Kamiya to ask him for "what i'm worth."

"So, I got a friend who has been in business in Japan to write in Japanese to him," Taylor said. "I know he read it, because I got a reply! I got a reply, saying that he 'values greatly the contribution to the game and the fans really want me to voice it over, and the memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta is a memory I hold dear.' So, I thought, ‘Great! Thank god!' That is when they offered me $4,000 USD. And you know, Platinum had the cheek to say that I was busy, that they couldn’t make it work with Ms. Taylor’s schedule. Well, I had nothing but time."

Taylor then spoke about Hale replacing her and saying that, while she wishes her all the best, "she has no right to say she is Bayonetta."

"They now have a new girl voicing her over, and I love actors and I wish her all the joy in the world and all the jobs, but she has no right to say she is Bayonetta," Taylor said. "She has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta. Any more than I have the right to sign as Eva Green, even though I was her parrot in Golden Compass. That betrayal is hers, and hers alone. They’ll probably try to do a spin-off with Jen, don’t buy that either."

Kamiya has since responded to these allegations with a short Tweet, saying, "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES."

We will update this story as it develops.

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.

Following a bug found in its Ver1.2.1 update, Nintendo has taken the Nintendo Switch Sports servers offline while it works to fix the problem. This means online play and save data backup are both currently down.

Nintendo shared the update on Twitter, saying this bug has been causing the game to close during the pre-match loading screen for some players.

"A bug has been found in the #NintendoSwitchSports Ver1.2.1 update which causes the software to close during the pre-match loading screen," Nintendo wrote. "This is unfortunately affecting both online and offline play modes. We have therefore temporarily suspended the rollout of this update.

"While we investigate to find a solution, #NintendoSwitchSports servers will be temporarily taken offline and online play will not be available during this time. Save data backup is also temporarily suspended. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."

There has been no timetable given for a fix, but we will update this story as soon as an update is given.

In our Nintendo Switch Sports review, we said that it "successfully recaptures the party game magic of Wii Sports, but quickly falls victim to a lack of depth that holds it back from achieving greatness."

That lack of depth will be addressed this holiday when Golf arrives to Nintendo Switch Sports as a free update. The Golf mode will include 21 holes from the original Wii Sports series alongside a new Survival Golf mode. The update was initially set to arrive this fall, but was delayed by a bit.

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.

Following a bug found in its Ver1.2.1 update, Nintendo has taken the Nintendo Switch Sports servers offline while it works to fix the problem. This means online play and save data backup are both currently down.

Nintendo shared the update on Twitter, saying this bug has been causing the game to close during the pre-match loading screen for some players.

"A bug has been found in the #NintendoSwitchSports Ver1.2.1 update which causes the software to close during the pre-match loading screen," Nintendo wrote. "This is unfortunately affecting both online and offline play modes. We have therefore temporarily suspended the rollout of this update.

"While we investigate to find a solution, #NintendoSwitchSports servers will be temporarily taken offline and online play will not be available during this time. Save data backup is also temporarily suspended. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."

There has been no timetable given for a fix, but we will update this story as soon as an update is given.

In our Nintendo Switch Sports review, we said that it "successfully recaptures the party game magic of Wii Sports, but quickly falls victim to a lack of depth that holds it back from achieving greatness."

That lack of depth will be addressed this holiday when Golf arrives to Nintendo Switch Sports as a free update. The Golf mode will include 21 holes from the original Wii Sports series alongside a new Survival Golf mode. The update was initially set to arrive this fall, but was delayed by a bit.

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.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a striking image of a pair of stars surrounded by 17 wave-like rings. The star system is made up of two stellar bodies, one of which - known as a Wolf-Rayet star - is likely doomed to end its existence by collapsing into a super-dense black hole.

Wolf-Rayet stars live incredibly violent, and relatively short lives. They are born with a mass the equivalent to 25 times that of our Sun. However, over the course of tens of thousands of years, they forcefully expel much of their mass into the surrounding circumstellar environment. To date, roughly 600 of these rare stars have been discovered.

The JWST recently captured an image of the star system Wolf-Rayet 140, in which one of these mass shedding stars is orbiting in a binary system alongside a companion with a mass around 30 times that of our Sun.

When at their most distant, an expanse of 1.9 billion miles separates the two stars. However, once every eight years, their orbits bring the two enormous heavenly bodies to within a distance of just 93 million miles of each other - a little more than the average space between Earth and our home star.

At this point, fast flowing streams of particles blasting out from the surfaces of the stars - which collectively are known as stellar winds - slam into the mass of gas and carbon being cast off by the Wolf-Rayet.

This material is compressed and transformed into dust by the relentless onslaught of the stellar winds, thus creating the rings observed by the JWST in the present day.

The authors of a new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, believe that the rings have been able to preserve their well defined shape thanks to the pressure of the stellar winds that created them, which effectively clear out any debris that could disrupt their structure.

Prior to being imaged by Webb, astronomers using ground-based telescopes had only been able to spot two dust rings surrounding the binary system. However, the keen infrared abilities of the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) - which is capable of observing relatively cool objects against the backdrop of space - revealed a more complete view of the scene.

“We’re looking at over a century of dust production from this system,” comments lead author of the new study Ryan Lau, of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. “The image also illustrates just how sensitive this telescope is. Before, we were only able to see two dust rings, using ground-based telescopes. Now we see at least 17 of them.”

According to Lau and his co-authors, the rings we see in the new image were likely created over the course of the roughly 130 years prior to the point that the light left the system. Each ring marks an eight year period, as reliable as a cosmic metronome.

However, this is probably not the full story of Wolf-Rayet 140, as there are likely fainter rings beyond the outer boundary that cannot be seen, even by the powerful gaze of NASA’s latest flagship telescope.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JPL-Caltech