Author: James
That’s the hallmark of a truly great fantasy series. Growth never stops. Indeed, Critical Role shows no signs of scaling back, with two animated series, multiple spin-off comics, and even an all-new non-Exandrian setting in Campaign 4. As you may remember from Popverse recently, the popular D&D Actual Play series is expanding within its own organization, with a focus on bringing new faces to the table beyond its core initial cast. And now it looks like the show is putting its money where its mouth is, tagging three brand new Campaign 4 players to represent the show at this year’s…
Tony Award-nominated animation legend Roger Allers, best known for co-directing Disney’s 1994 animated hit The Lion King and co-writing the hit Broadway musical, passed away last Saturday (January 17, 2026) at his home in Santa Monica, California. He was 76 years old. The exact cause of death has not yet been determined. He is survived by his husband, Genaro Pereira, and two children, actress and director Leah Allers and son Aidan Allers. Allers played a key role in defining the Disney animation renaissance of the ’80s and ’90s with his directorial, story and creative contributions to films such as The…
If there’s one thing the success of Avengers: Endgame and the excitement for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday shows, it’s that fans still love a good old Marvel team-up. This lesson is not lost on Marvel Comics or writer Chip Zdarsky. Chip Zdarsky promises that this summer’s Avengers: Armageddon storyline will feature the comic book Marvel Universe coming together for the first time in a while. “There’s an isolation between the X-Men and the Avengers and, for example, Spider-Man. We want to avoid that a little bit, and we want these characters to interact more,” Zdarsky revealed in an interview on…
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth provided the first insight into the company’s recent Reality Labs shakeup, publicly acknowledging that Metaverse’s efforts suffered from a “lack of focus” that ultimately negatively impacted the user experience on Quest. Bosworth spoke last week at Axios House in Davos, Switzerland with the World Economic Forum, discussing some of the issues that led Meta to refocus its Metaverse and VR strategy. This included layoffs affecting 10 percent of the Reality Labs XR team. Meta has refocused its approach, narrowing down and realigning its VR and Metaverse efforts while doubling down on AI and smart glasses. Bosworth,…
New York City has been inundated with emergency warnings in recent days as it prepares for the worst snowstorm in years. As a result, my newsfeed has been dominated by cold-weather tips, soup recipes, puffer coats, and shovel recommendations. Perhaps that’s why I and other viewers had almost no idea that this week’s episode would serve as an effective season finale for Potomac, and that next week’s episode would be entirely dedicated to Karen’s return. Did anyone here know this? I was certainly surprised when I saw a lame end-of-season recap shot scroll by while the women were commiserating outside…
Have you ever felt like a job was made for you? It’s a common feeling for the cast of Critical Role. The cast includes veteran voice actors, who are so prolific in the industry that their names are sometimes cited as reference material for audition breakdowns. “It’s funny because sometimes agents will tell me about acting mistakes or casting mistakes, and they’re like, ‘We’re really looking for something that sounds like Laura Bailey,’ and I’m like, ‘Can I email her?'” Marisha Ray said during the Critical Roles Spotlight panel at New York Comic Con 2023. Producers apparently make calls like…
A group of modders wearing their best reverse engineering goggles have successfully ported the bird-and-bear platformer Banjo-Kazooie to PC. We’ve added a ton of extra extras to ensure you won’t be disappointed in your childhood or adulthood. Their work is called Banjo: Recompiled and was released over the weekend. Watch on YouTube This recompiled version of the N64 classic was realized using N64: Recompiled and is primarily the work of modder Wiseguy. If you bring in your game files via a legally obtained ROM of the North American 1.0 version, it will work on Windows, Linux, and Mac. If you…
I like hightailing. I like that it plays smoother and has more weight than Minecraft, but also matches the exploratory high of creeping through haunted caves or stumbling upon unplundered ancient ruins. I like that it can be done effortlessly on the steam deck. And I like the pace of updates. At the current pace, we’re getting one substantive patch per week. It’s fair to say that for an early access game like Hytale, regular content insertion is essential. Like it or not, that sense of purpose is currently driven solely by the primate brain’s desire to climb rare mineral…
Bridgerton Season 4 comes at the perfect time to distract us all from…well, everything. When it comes to good old fashioned escapism, some people can do worse than Bridgerton. Netflix’s hit series offers an alternate version of history where racism doesn’t exist and we get to spend all our time watching very sexy people doing very sexy things. In fact, that’s how the characters feel as well, and the actor who played Queen Charlotte in Season 4 of Bridgerton admits that all of this is a bit of a distraction for the monarch. In an interview with Digital Spy, Golda…
Rian Johnson says Kathleen Kennedy’s departure from Lucasfilm was an opportunity for new filmmakers to find a place in the Star Wars universe. The news that Kathleen Kennedy would be stepping down as president of Lucasfilm was not entirely unexpected. There have been reports and rumors about it long before the announcement became official in January 2026. This is a big change for the studio, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson hopes it will bring a new take on the Star Wars universe. In an interview with Variety after Kathleen Kennedy was confirmed to be leaving Lucasfilm…