Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 5!

We’re now five episodes and a third of the way into The Pitt Season 2. Most other shows these days would have rounded the halfway mark by now, but that’s the joy of watching something that hearkens back to the pre-streaming era of television. There’s still plenty of room left on this runway. Even so, the tone of the series is definitely intensifying as the situation at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center grows more dire, resulting in what is easily the strongest chapter of Season 2 to date.

Episode 5 is great about addressing some of the niggling problems with previous installments, most notably when it comes to the relative lack of focus on Patrick Ball’s Dr. Langdon. As I’ve said before, if this season were to have a main focal character, it should be Langdon, but he’s been purposely relegated to the sidelines by his old mentor. But now Langdon is back in the thick of things, and we start to see the simmering tension between him and Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby start to boil over.

It’s great watching that mostly silent feud play out in Episode 5, as Robby does everything within his power not to talk to Langdon or be in the same room with him. You can easily sympathize with both men. Robby’s angry dismissal of Langdon was one of the standout scenes of Season 1, and it’s easy to recall the sheer pain and disbelief he felt in that moment. But at the same time, Langdon has paid his dues, and you can understand his frustration at being flatly rejected by a thoroughly unsympathetic Robby.

That all comes to a head in the final moments of Episode 5, as Louie (Ernest Harden Jr.) fittingly becomes the catalyst that forces both men to work together. There’s been the sense all along that the affable Louie’s long string of luck is about to run out, and that finally happens here. Not a bad cliffhanger on which to end the week.

Elsewhere in the ER, Dr. Santos (Isa Briones) is really the star of the show in Episode 5, as the series takes a slightly more humorous approach to her particular plight. The running gag of Santos getting one or two sentences deeper into her dictation, only to be interrupted again by Whitaker (Gerran Howell) or Ogilvie (James Howell), never gets old. But it’s also nice seeing her on the backfoot so much this season, after Season 1 really played up her crusading, righteous doctor side. Paperwork is the bane of us all.

By the same token, it’s fun to watch the insufferable know-it-all Ogilvie continue to get his just desserts. Last week it was almost killing a patient with a reckless extraction; this week, it’s being forced to clean out an elderly woman’s impacted colon.

Ogilvie’s fellow student Joy (Irene Choi) also gets a nice little bit of added attention in this episode. Up until now, Joy has been a fairly one-note character. She’s the scowling, disaffected med student who (understandably) can barely tolerate being paired with Ogilvie. But we get a chance to see a different side of the character when she swoops in to offer a solution to the family shuddering under the burden of crushing medical debt. It’s a happy ending to a depressing subplot, and one that tells us a lot more about who Joy is and why she’s seemingly so detached from it all.

Finally, this episode makes some inroads with Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), a character who so far has been played a little more antagonistically than I’d like. She’s the newcomer disrupting the carefully oiled machine that is the ER, and we’ve been left to sympathize with Robby on that front. But the two characters share a strong scene together where Al-Hashimi rightfully berates Robby for treating her like an underling rather than a colleague. It’s subtle, but it helps turn the character in a more favorable direction. Hopefully, that trend continues in the coming episodes.

Amazon just wrapped up its second season of Fallout on Prime Video earlier this week. That means you can finally binge all of the episodes now if you've been waiting to do so. Unlike the first season, however, Amazon has quickly followed up season 2 with a 4K steelbook preorder. The artwork and product details aren't final yet, but you can already put your order in for the steelbook or the DVD.

Amazon has yet to announce any sort of release date for the physical editions of season 2.

The Fallout Season 2 4K Steelbook Is Up for Preorder

Netflix is taking us back, not a few decades but millions of years to the era of dinosaurs. The streamer has revealed its official trailer, key art, and release date for the upcoming documentary series The Dinosaurs.

The poster features a monstrously huge dino mouth about to swallow a shark whole, and the trailer gives viewers a glimpse of exactly that in action, while narrator Morgan Freeman tells us: “This is the story of the dinosaurs.” Intense stuff! The sneak peek also gives viewers a look at many different types of animals sharing the world with dinosaurs, as well as several different types of dinos themselves.

Take an epic journey into a lost world in THE DINOSAURS, a new documentary series narrated by Morgan Freeman, premiering March 6.

From executive producer Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment, and the award-winning team behind Life on Our Planet. pic.twitter.com/Dv5LC07n1F

— Netflix (@netflix) February 5, 2026

The series, which will consist of four hour-long episodes, is narrated by none other than one of the smoothest voices in Hollywood: Morgan Freeman. Plus, the legendary Steven Spielberg is producing the series, so there’s already two great reasons to watch.

Alongside the other details, Netflix also revealed the show’s logline: “Welcome to The Dinosaurs – an epic journey into a lost world. From executive producer Steven Spielberg, Amblin Documentaries, and the award‑winning team behind Life on Our Planet, this groundbreaking documentary series follows the rise and fall of the dinosaurs across hundreds of millions of years.”

Dan Tapster, Keith Scholey, and Alastair Fothergill will serve as co-showrunners, with Nick Shoolingin-Jordan directing the series and Lorne Balfe serving as composer. Industrial Light & Magic is also behind the visual effects and animation in the series.

The Dinosaurs is set to premiere on Netflix on March 6.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

As Fallout Season 2 draws to a close, all signs point towards Colorado as the setting for the next adventure. A postcard left in an abandoned cryopod all but confirms that The Ghoul’s wife and daughter are waiting for him there, and a shot of the Enclave’s secret headquarters suggests that the show’s newly-revealed big bad is operating out of the Rocky Mountains.

For fans, this is an interesting new direction. After the first season explored California, the setting for the original two Fallout games, and the second expanded into the Mojave wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas, it seemed logical that the story would continue to visit familiar locations. Washington, D.C. or Boston, the settings of Fallout 3 and 4, respectively, seemed sensible bets. But certainly not Colorado, which despite geographically making sense for the next steps beyond the New Vegas strip, is barely a footnote in the RPG’s extensive lore.

Dive deeper into the Fallout archives, though, and Colorado becomes significantly more important. The state was planned to be the setting for what would have been Interplay and Black Isle Studios’ third Fallout game, codenamed “Van Buren”, which was cancelled back in 2003. Since then, dozens of design documents have fallen into public hands, revealing the intended storyline for what could have been the original Fallout 3. And as the show signals its intent to travel to the Centennial State, it’s impossible not to wonder if Season 3 will be at least a little inspired by the Fallout that never was.

The Second Apocalypse

Akin to Hank MacLean’s attempts to bring “civilization” to the wasteland, Van Buren would have told the story of a man who looked out at what’s left of humanity and yearned for a better world. That man, Doctor Presper, saw hope in the fires of nuclear armageddon (yes, another one) and planned to take command of an orbital missile system in an effort to cleanse the planet’s surface. He and his followers would sit safe in Colorado’s Boulder Dome, a colossal, bomb-proof research facility, and later emerge into a brighter tomorrow. Sounds a little like Vault-Tec’s plans for the original apocalypse, right? Which, as we’ve learned this season, was actually orchestrated by the Enclave.

It seems unlikely that Van Buren’s exact plot could become the story of Fallout Season 3, though. Introducing Presper’s cohort of mad scientists and their mission to preserve their vision of the human “master race” seems redundant when the Enclave, a faction of mad fascist scientists, are already a key part of the show’s story. But the overlap between these two groups, in conjunction with the Colorado setting, points to exactly where the two projects could merge: What if Presper, or a Presper-like figure, is in charge of the Enclave’s activities in the American Southwest? And now, 200 years after the first bombings, the faction intends to do it all over again in an effort to achieve the exact results it hoped for the first time around?

There’s another interesting overlap: In Van Buren, the orbital missile system is locked behind a series of safeguards. The satellite continually assesses the planet’s population and tracks the spread of “New Plague”, a highly contagious disease that had previously required a complete quarantine of the US to control. Should the number of New Plague-infected people increase past a certain threshold, the satellite will release its missile launch codes, allowing its controller to end the epidemic in nuclear fire. Presper’s plan was to spread the plague across the wasteland, which in turn would grant him control of the missiles.

The New Plague is an interesting piece of Fallout lore because, during the 2050s, the race to develop the cure led to the development of the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The FEV is already one of the show’s mystery plot points, somehow linked to the Vault 31, 32, and 33 experiment. And, as we can infer from Steph’s triggering of “Phase 2” in the Season 2 finale, the experiment is likely controlled by the Enclave. The question, then, is why does the Enclave want a bunch of FEV-infected vault dwellers? Well, perhaps in an adaptation of Van Buren’s story, they’re the key to wiping the surface clean and allowing the Enclave complete control of the wasteland.

New Van Buren

The introduction of Colorado, a virus, and a clan of genocidal scientists obsessed with human purity by no means guarantees that Fallout Season 3 will adapt the ideas created for Van Buren. But I present this theory not based on wild speculation, but Fallout’s own history. While the Fallout 3 that was eventually released to the world in 2008 shared nothing in common with Black Isle Studio’s blueprint, Fallout: New Vegas did. Van Buren was set to feature multiple competing factions, difficult choices that shape the wasteland, and deep character-building systems – the very structure that New Vegas was built atop. But it goes deeper: Caesar's Legion, the violent army of Roman cosplayers, was originally created for Van Buren, as was a battle for control of the Hoover Dam, the climax of New Vegas’ campaign.

The resurrection of those cancelled ideas was in no small part thanks to the fact that several of Van Buren’s designers became the architects of Fallout: New Vegas at Obsidian Entertainment. The show, however, has no such connection to the series’ lost past. And yet, despite being executive-produced by Bethesda’s Todd Howard, the show is keen to continually explore beyond the boundaries of his studio’s tenure as Fallout’s owner. Shady Sands, the NCR town so key to Maximus’ and Lucy’s stories, was only ever in the original Interplay games. Vault 33’s failing water chip storyline is a direct nod to the plot of the first Fallout. And the depiction of the Brotherhood of Steel veers closer to that shown in the early games than it does Bethesda’s interpretation. All that considered, it wouldn’t be that surprising if showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet decide to dive into the Van Buren files and adapt its ideas, turning Fallout Season 3 into a homage to the Fallout game we never got.

Dead Tactics

When talking about Colorado, though, we can’t ignore Fallout Tactics. While not exactly “dead” in the way Van Buren is, Fallout Tactics is something of a dead end; a spin-off created in 2001 that failed to start a sub-franchise for the series. It tells the story of a Brotherhood of Steel squadron on a mission to find Vault 0, a pre-war command bunker buried deep below the Rocky Mountains in El Paso County, Colorado. Their journey towards the vault sees them battle an army of robots, which are revealed to be controlled by The Calculator; a fusion of human brain and digital computer that resides at the heart of Vault 0.

Considering Season 2’s post-credits scene sees the Brotherhood’s Elder Quintus proclaim himself “The Destroyer” while unfolding the blueprints for a giant nuclear robot, it’s easy to see how Season 3 could draw inspiration from Fallout Tactics. Quintus could dispatch his knights to Colorado in search of a vault that contains the parts required to build Liberty Prime. The Calculator would be long gone – Fallout Tactics takes place in 2197, a century before the show – but the valuable relics that Quintus requires could well lie in wait for him.

While Fallout Tactics’ position in the lore is a little murky, we do know that Vault 0 was designed as the “nucleus” of Vault-Tec’s bunker system. Well, that was its final form: during the development of the original Fallout RPGs, series creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky had the idea that it could have been controlled by the Enclave, collecting data from every other vault to aid their grand plan. And who, according to the show, is the shadowy puppet master behind Vault-Tec? The Enclave. Season 3 has the opportunity to weld these ideas together. And if the Fallout games are anything to go by, the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave are destined to butt heads eventually. Will Vault 0 be where Quintus proves his destroyer credentials by eradicating the Enclave?

This is, of course, all just theorycrafting. An exploration of the lesser-known corners of the Fallout universe on the off chance that their stories become relevant, rather than a genuine prediction of the show’s future. But writers – especially those handling pre-existing universes – don't dive in blind. They’ll know about Fallout Tactics. They’ll know about Van Buren. And so, even if Fallout Season 3’s trip to Colorado is entirely composed of original material, I’m willing to bet that there will be references to Fallout’s dead past littered among the Rockies.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.

Full spoilers follow for Starfleet Academy Episode 5, “Series Acclimation Mil.”

This week's installment of Starfleet Academy makes good on a promise Paramount+ essentially made last summer at San Diego Comic-Con when the streamer released a trailer for the series which seemed to indicate that the mystery of Captain Benjamin Sisko would be addressed. Sisko, of course, was the Starfleet officer and Emissary to the Prophets, played by Avery Brooks for seven seasons on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who disappeared in the classic series finale "What You Leave Behind," apparently ascending to a higher form of life as one of the other-wordly and god-like Prophets himself.

And now the episode of Starfleet Academy which delves into this topic has been released. In “Series Acclimation Mil,” Kerrice Brooks' Sam -- who is something of an emissary herself for her people -- embarks on a mission to learn everything she can about Sisko. Along the way, none other than Cirroc Lofton returns as Jake Sisko, having played Benjamin's son in DS9 all those years ago. And while Brooks does not appear as the long-lost captain, we do hear his voice in the final moments of the episode... and if you look really closely, you can see an image of his face in the clouds in that last shot.

We spoke with showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau about the decision to return to the story of the Siskos, how it was achieved, and more...

The Return of Captain Benjamin Sisko and His Son Jake

IGN: At what point did you say, "We want to address the Sisko of it all"?

Noga Landau: I have to say that when I started this job, people from my past, the most random people were emailing me, DMing me and saying, "Hey, congrats. And by the way, when is someone going to do something for Captain Sisko? When is someone going to do something for DS9?" So it felt like the universe was sending us a very clear message.

And then honestly, in the room, we knew we wanted to do a Sam episode, and she's an emissary, and who's the most famous emissary in all of Star Trek? It's Captain Sisko. And our two writers for the episode, Tawny Newsome and Kirsten Beyer, they are walking Trek encyclopedias and their love for DS9 goes so deep. They know it so well. And they came together and we broke the story, we figured out how to write the love letter we wanted, but also really honor Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton.

And Cirroc, who is a friend of Tawny, so generously said he would come back and play Jake Sisko again, which was incredible. It was a dream come true to see him on screen again.

Alex Kurtzman: I think the other thing too is that Sam is asking this question, "Okay, I don't know what it means to be an emissary. It's this responsibility where I'm essentially supposed to be a bridge between my species, which I'm not even sure I fully agree with, and then the Federation. And where do I fit in there? What if I don't agree?" And is my job as emissary going to remove my personality from my choice, my own will from the equation? Obviously that mirrors a lot of what Sisko had to go through and the sort of "What am I going to give up for this particular task that I've been given?" So it felt like a very organic connection point.

IGN: What was it like getting the character of Jake and getting Cirroc back on set?

AK: They were very emotional, I think, for everybody. And he was very generous. He was very happy to be there. He really liked the script. He fully understood that it was a love letter, and he's very close with Avery. And so we really looked to Cirroc to make sure that... He was the best we could get, the Avery stamp of approval. And we had reached out to Avery and we didn't hear from him for a while, and so Cirroc ended up being the voice for us. And then by the end, Avery did reach out. And that is his voice you hear at the end of the episode.

It's really him, and it's a spoken word recording that he did himself a while ago that he let us use. And it happened to be ... the message of the episode. It was very strange. So maybe the clouds were watching.

IGN: Did he explain what it was about this particular story that finally made him want to even acknowledge Star Trek? He's been pretty adamant about, "I'm done. I'm out. Don't talk to me about it."

NL: In the way that you leave a love letter for someone expecting for it only to be received, that's really what we did with him. We did not want to ask anything in return. We wanted him to have this and just to receive it and to take it, if he was willing to.

The fact that he then let us use his voice at the very end was so impactful and so emotional. And it would've been enough for him just to watch the episode and enjoy it, but I think we had a joke on set that Cirroc in many ways was our emissary to Avery, and it was simply enough to know that he's out there somewhere in the universe and he knows that we made this episode for him.

Starfleet Academy Episode 5 is available on Paramount+ now.

Spoilers follow for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 5, “Series Acclimation Mil,” which is available on Paramount Plus now.

So here it is – the Benjamin Sisko episode that Starfleet Academy has been teasing since at least as far back as last summer. The notion of returning to the mystery of what happened to Avery Brooks’ legendary Deep Space Nine captain is a daunting undertaking for the fledgling Starfleet Academy, but fortunately the episode’s writers (Trek vets Kirsten Beyer and Tawny Newsome) don’t attempt to alter or add to Sisko’s story – which after all was essentially completed with the end of DS9 – but rather use his legend to expand on one of the new show’s main characters, Sam (Kerrice Brooks).

I mean, that’s literally how the episode starts off as “A Story About Me” is scrawled over the “A CBS Studios Production” title screen. Make no mistake: “Series Acclimation Mil” is about Sam, not Sisko. The episode is even named after her!

And while the story involving Sam is another of the coming-of-age type tales that Starfleet Academy is interested in, one where the holographic student finds some semblance of independence from her overbearing “parents,” there’s no denying that merely evoking the name Ben Sisko is a big pull, and that as a result anything short of the return of Brooks in the role can’t help but feel a bit anti-climactic.

As all the episodes of this first season have done so far, “Series Acclimation Mil” focuses on one of the series’ leads, and in so doing finally gives us some information about who and what Sam is. We knew she was a photonic being, aka a hologram, but now we know that her real mission at the Academy is to serve as an emissary for her “people,” who come from a world called Kasq and were enslaved by organic beings “a long time ago.” As a result, they now fear that interacting with non-photonic lifeforms will mean a return to the slavery of their past, and so they’ve sent Sam to feel things out and figure out what the deal is with these organic types.

The thing is, her overseers are basically jerks who don’t get her or understand the outside world in the same way that Sam has already come to do in her short time at the Academy. So basically she’s the same as any student who goes off to college and realizes their parents are totally out of it. Join the club, kid.

The episode is shot in a pretty unconventional way for Star Trek, with Sam talking directly to the camera at times and doing some impromptu dancing, while on-screen graphics illustrate some of what she’s discussing and distinctly non-Trek music pops off in the background, all of which will surely infuriate the Very Angry crowd who either specialize in the monetization of hate or just plain don’t understand what Star Trek was ever about (or maybe are just bots). Whatever the case, I liked the unique presentation of this episode, though I do suspect that if the aim here is to have it speak to young audiences, it will read as more “cringe,” as they say, than anything else to that very same audience.

Of course, the real reason Sam is talking to the camera is that this is all supposed to be the message she sends Sisko at the end of the episode. Speaking of which, if they couldn’t get Avery Brooks back, then Cirroc Lofton returning as his son Jake is the next best thing. The holographic recording of Jake talks about his dad the way he knew him, as a man, a guy who loved baseball, a chef, but most of all as a dad… the lessons and example of which Jake pulled from when he eventually became a dad himself. This father/son relationship was always one of the most important on Deep Space Nine, and the fact that Beyer and Newsome lean into it with their script is just perfect, as is Lofton’s return. Sisko’s relationship with his status as Emissary of the Prophets was always an uneasy one, and it only makes sense that Jake would remember his dad as the man he was, not the god he would become.

Meanwhile, the B-story involving the War College’s Chancellor Kelrec (Raoul Bhaneja) is amusing in and of itself, especially since it gives Tig Notaro and Robert Picardo something to do this week, and certainly the reveal that he feels that Holly Hunter’ Chancellor Ake betrayed Starfleet when she resigned years earlier is interesting.

But back to Sam, the return to Sisko’s old stomping grounds to party, resulting in the hologram getting drunk, leads to various hijinks that just stop short of becoming annoying. Starfleet Academy has proven adept at weaving its various characters’ ongoing story threads into whatever else is going on each week, and just when drunk Sam is about to become too much, we cut to Caleb and Tarima flirting outside the bar, or tensions with the War College kids escalating (again).

The culmination of the episode is sweet, as Sam visits with Jake through some Magic Science and comes to realize that just as Sisko did 800 years earlier, Sam has to make her own life choices for herself as much as she can. It’s the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” of Star Trek resolutions, thank you Dee Snider, and it works beautifully, culminating in words spoken by Avery Brooks himself (if not recorded for this actual episode) as the image of Sisko can faintly be made out in the clouds.

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

• When that DS9 theme music kicked in… man.
• Tawny Newsome didn’t just co-write the episode, but that’s also her as the Starfleet instructor who turns out to be the latest incarnation of Dax.
• I’m surprised Robert Picardo’s The Doctor, as a hologram himself, hasn’t been given more of a stake in Sam’s story so far. Although his advice about moving on after loss is telling…
• While it doesn’t seem that Sam’s “people” were created by humans or the Federation – presumably Sam has been made to look humanoid/human to fit in better – their history of enslavement does sound familiar, as we saw on Star Trek: Voyager how a whole army of holographic doctors had been forced into hard labor when they became obsolete.
• Those War College jerks!
• A theremin? Why not!
• “Bajoran kids don’t play.”
• They don’t even show images of Sisko anymore on Bajor because they believe he’s transcended human form… and probably because Avery Brooks would have to be paid for it?
• Why would the Sisko Museum have Benny Russell’s typewriter if Benny had only existed as a dream/vision/whatever?
• Jake’s novel Anslem does have its roots in the original DS9, having first been mentioned in the all-time great episode “The Visitor.”
• The bar formerly known as The Launching Pad was in fact the site where Sisko fought a Vulcan, specifically Solok, the a-hole who he'd also battle in a baseball match in the episode “Take Me Out to the Holosuite.”
• While I said earlier that this episode doesn’t really change Sisko’s story in any way, that is perhaps not entirely true. After all, if Dax and Jake don’t have the answers regarding what happened to Sisko after he ascended to the Celestial Temple, then presumably nobody does? Which means Sisko never did come back… even though he promised in the DS9 finale that he would. But then again, maybe Dax and Jake just aren’t talking…

With perfect timing, the modders behind the Van Buren remake in Fallout: New Vegas have released a new teaser trailer.

UnitedWestTeam released the teaser, which sets up Fallout: The New West, the fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas inspired by Fallout: Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 that was in development at Black Isle Studios in the early 2000s before the franchise moved over to Bethesda.

Why is this well-timed? Because Van Buren would have been set in post-apocalyptic Colorado, which is exactly where Amazon’s Fallout TV series is headed for Season 3.

Fallout: The New West aims to adapt the core narrative threads of Van Buren and turn them into a fully playable story built in the New Vegas engine. Expect modern gameplay systems, expanded roleplaying opportunities, and “the mechanical depth and tone that defined classic Fallout,” the modders said.

Here’s the official blurb:

Fallout: The New West is a fan-made total conversion mod for Fallout: New Vegas. In many ways, it tells the same broad story envisioned by Fallout: Van Buren, but restructured and expanded to form a cohesive, playable experience. The project’s primary narrative goal is to take the disparate plot threads and unfinished concepts found in the original design documents, including for example, the NCR–Brotherhood conflict, the Great Tribal War between Caesar’s Legion and the Daughters of Hecate, the fight for the soul of the Mormon State and much more, and weave them into a satisfying, unified narrative that adheres to the main plot as described in the design documents.

Players assume the role of a new protagonist, released from captivity in 2253, known as “the Prisoner,” and the story is set in an alternate continuity that predates and reinterprets the events of Fallout: New Vegas. Unfortunately due to many Van Buren concepts being folded into FNV, we cannot set the project in the same timeline. Our secondary goal is to incorporate many of the modern gameplay conveniences introduced through Fallout: New Vegas and its more than 15 years of modding, while preserving the distinctive mechanics and design quirks of classic Fallout found in the original design documents. Much of Fallout’s original charm is an acquired taste, and one that we believe remains worth acquiring.

It sounds exciting, and given the success of Fallout: London, which had Bethesda’s blessing, it may even have a chance of survival. Indeed, a new demo is apparently due out soon (an initial demo, which released under the name Fallout Revelation Blues, came out last year). This alternate start demo under the new name of Fallout: The New West will be followed up with the entirety of Act 1 of the game as a vertical slice, the modders said.

If Fallout: The New West does make it to release, it will see Van Buren realized — albeit in fan-made form — 20 years after it fell by the wayside. In 2024, Fallout creator Tim Cain revealed new information on how it ended up canceled amid significant financial problems at Interplay.

Cain, who worked on the first two, much-loved Fallout games in the mid-to late 90s before leaving Interplay to start a new studio called Troika Games, revealed that in the middle of 2003, an unnamed Interplay vice president asked him to play the Van Buren prototype, saying: “I don’t think they can get it done, so I’m just going to cancel it. But if you look over it and give me an estimate there’s a chance I wouldn’t cancel it.”

Cain said he played the prototype for two hours and asked the development team a number of questions before delivering his verdict to the vice president. “I said, ‘I’m convinced in 18 months you could have a really good game shipped.’ And he said, ‘huh, could it be done any faster?’ And I was like, 'oh, shoot, I’ve said too long.' I said, ‘well, even if you did a death march crunch I don’t think you could do it faster than 12, and then you’d be shipping something that was unbalanced and buggy, and the team would be destroyed. So I don’t recommend that.’

“And he said, ‘OK, thanks.’ As we walked out he basically explained any answer over six months was going to result in him having to cancel it, meaning the answer I just gave got the game canceled. But he was going to cancel it anyway. He thought it couldn’t be done in six months, and I just confirmed that to him.”

According to Cain, the cancellation of Van Buren was, ultimately, about money; Interplay’s dire financial situation meant it simply did not have enough cash to fund more than six months of further development. Interplay went on to close Black Isle Studios and cut its entire staff. The company released the console spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, but it was not enough. That same year, Interplay announced a licensing deal with The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda for future Fallout games, and in 2007, Interplay sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda outright. The rest is history.

And if you’re wondering about the Fallout TV show’s journey to Colorado, check out what co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet and even Todd Howard himself have had to say about it.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The latest episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy centers on the mystery surrounding Deep Space Nine's beloved captain Benjamin Sisko — and even includes a cameo of sorts from actor Avery Brooks.

Warning! Spoilers for Starfleet Academy follow:

Starfleet Academy's fifth episode, Series Acclimation Mill, was released today, and follows some notable hints by the show that it would reveal more about Sisko's fate. Indeed, the story does include new details on what happened next to Sisko's family following the events of Deep Space Nine's finale, which saw Sisko leave the physical plane to go live in a wormhole — while promising one day to return.

As Starfleet Academy's new character SAM investigates what happened, viewers get to see Ben's son Jake appear in hologram form (played by returning DS9 actor Cirroc Lofton) and meet a new incarnation of Trill lifeform Dax, both of whom reveal new detail on life after Deep Space Nine's credits rolled.

The adult Jake hologram is shown to have grown up as a successful writer, continuing on from his work as a journalist in later DS9 episodes. He also reveals that he is now a father, and is following the fine example that his own father set. As of the hologram's recording, it certainly seems like Sisko has not returned at this point.

Later in the episode, SAM meets Illa Dax, a new host of the symbiote who was previously good friends with Ben as hosts Curzon, Jadzia, and Ezri. (In a nice touch, Illa is also Cardassian!) Now 1,250 years old, Dax still holds warm memories of Ben — though again the suggestion here is that Ben still has not returned.

But as the episode reaches its closing moments, Star Trek fans do get to hear from Sisko. While unseen, Avery delivers the following words — the first time his voice has been heard within Star Trek in a quarter of a century:

"Divine laws are simpler than human ones, which is why it takes a lifetime to be able to understand them. Only love can understand them. Only love can interpret these words as they were meant to be interpreted."

As reported by ComicBook, this dialogue is taken from a spoken word album that the 77-year-old Brooks recorded back in 2007, partially in tribute to his own father. While not originally intended for use in Star Trek, Paramount contacted Brooks — who formally retired from acting in 2013 — who then granted permission for its use in the episode.

The episode then closes with the Deep Space Nine theme, as a title card displays the simple message: "Thank you, Avery."

As tributes go, it's a moving moment clearly designed as a farewell to Sisko's character, in an episode centered on the idea of finding identity, and the legacy of fathers. And while Avery may not have come out of retirement to appear in person, fans who long wondered whether Sisko ultimately did return to his family now have more of an answer.

"Starfleet Academy is off to a strong start," IGN wrote in our review of its first two episodes. "While the pilot episode falls into a bit of the shock-and-awe trap that modern Star Trek sometimes does, it soon settles into a fun and exciting story that establishes the endearing young cast and direction of the new show."

Image credit: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Movement is afoot for Disney’s live-action Eragon TV series, with news the Disney+ show has picked up a pair of showrunners, according to Variety.

Todd Harthan and Todd Helbing will reportedly serve as co-showrunners on the series, with Harthan slated as a co-creator alongside author Christopher Paolini, the writer of the original 2002 Eragon novel.

Harthan is presently showrunner for the crime comedy/drama series High Potential and was the creator of short-lived police procedural Rosewood. Todd Helbing was the showrunner and co-creator of Superman & Lois, and was also showrunner on The Flash for a number of seasons.

In addition to this news, Marc Webb (director of The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2) has also joined the project as executive producer.

News of an Eragon TV series in development for Disney+ was revealed back in mid-2022, but new faces boarding the project is a significant step for the series after several years.

Eragon was previously adapted by 20th Century Fox as a film in 2006. Featuring an experienced cast, Eragon met a poor critical reception but did reportedly earn around $250 million at the box office globally. It was intended to kickstart a franchise and set the stage for follow-up films based on the novel’s sequels, but these plans never came to pass.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

This article contains spoilers for the Fallout Season 2 finale, “The Strip.”

After eight episodes of post-apocalypse insanity and plenty of irradiated creatures, Fallout wrapped up Season 2 with the season finale, “The Strip,” this week. Given that multiple characters are left with their fates in the air, not to mention multiple wars either in progress or brewing, it’s going to be a long wait to see how Season 3 of the Prime Video series deals with the…what’s the word? Oh, right: Fallout.

While we wait, we’re going to attempt to answer some of your biggest burning questions about the finale and what might come next. We’re being a little vague on that front, because despite taking place in the same continuity as Bethesda’s video games, it’s clear the TV show is forging its own path and adding a bunch of details to the overall tapestry of the world Vault-Tec helped create.

To give the broadest overview of how things wrapped up, the main conflict of the season was arguably whether Lucy (Ella Purnell) would be corrupted by the Wasteland or end up “okey dokey” at the end of the day. It’s clear she’s been changed by her journey with the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) to New Vegas, but as Lucy exasperatedly explains to the severed head of Representative Diane Welch (Martha Kelly) midway through the finale, “Why does everyone always want me to kill them all the time?”

This is a problem that Lucy runs into multiple times in the finale – first, with the head of Welch, who Lucy’s dad, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), is using to give his brainwashed drones a little character beyond blank amnesiac slates, and then later with Hank himself. After the Season 1 finale, Lucy headed off to confront her father; here she’s given the opportunity to have some resolution, only for it to be ripped away from her. Because of that, it’s a little confusing as to where the show lands with Lucy’s arc. Rather than a definitive statement, she bashes Welch’s head with a crowbar, presumably killing her (we don’t get to see what happens, so maybe her head will be back in Season 3). With Hank, Lucy is given a gun by the Ghoul, but decides instead that she’s going to brainwash Hank using miniaturized tech he developed, thus getting the father she always wanted. But that doesn’t happen either, as Hank brainwashes himself.

As we leave Lucy, her arc seems to have gone from not wanting to kill anyone in the Season 2 premiere to killing people sometimes in the Season 2 finale. One could argue that sort of flippant attitude is part of the cheeky nature of both the video games and the show. Certainly, Maximus (Aaron Moten) backs that up while he and Lucy stand hand in hand, watching Caesar’s (uh, it’s pronounced “kai-czar”) Legion march into New Vegas. Lucy thinks she could have prevented the upcoming war – the New California Republic, sworn enemies of the Legion, are currently in residence – and it’s all her fault. “Yeah, well. Welcome to the Wasteland,” Maximus says. But is that dramatically satisfying? No? It’s not?

Speaking of Maximus, he also has his heroic moment interrupted. After killing multiple Deathclaws and getting some backup from the now one-armed Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), he doesn’t manage to rally the people of New Vegas, and he doesn’t even get to kill the last Deathclaw or die in glory, despite getting a cool hero moment holding a roulette wheel as a shield and a pool cue as a sword. Instead, the NCR storms in and handles it for him; like Lucy, he’s character arc-us interruptus.

The Ghoul is the only one who gets any sort of closure. For two seasons, he’s been wondering if his family is dead and thinking he’s not worthy of meeting them. Thanks to a computerized version of Robert House (Justin Theroux) on a Pip-Boy, he finally finds their cryo-pods…but they’re empty. Empty, that is, except for a postcard to Colorado in his wife Barb’s (Frances Turner) pod with the handwritten note, “Colorado was a good idea.” So now he knows for sure that his wife and daughter are alive, and where to find them, even if Colorado is a pretty big place to be traveling on foot. Of our main trio, though, the Ghoul reaches an emotional turning point while Lucy and Maximus are just sort of bummed out.

There’s lots more that goes down in the finale, as the show continues to juggle way too many storylines. Steph Harper (Annabel O'Hagan) responds to the Vaulties wanting to kill her for being a 200-year-old Canadian by activating Phase Two of the Enclave’s plan; Norm (Moisés Arias) survives a radroach attack and heads back out into the Wasteland; Hank, as we mentioned, is left brainwashed on the steps of the casino; and Macauley Culkin is no longer home alone, having named himself Caesar of the Legion.

But wait, there’s more, including an end credits scene that reveals what the Brotherhood of Steel is up to, which is a civil war and building an enormous, unstoppable robot called Liberty Prime Alpha. And that’s not even bringing up all the dangling plotlines and burning questions left over from the rest of the season…so how about we get into a few of those now?

Is Stephanie Really Norm and Lucy’s Mom?

We haven’t really touched on the flashback sections set in 2077 yet. As we discover, Steph has been working as a maid at the Lucky 38 Casino, and we see her and a hideously digitally de-aged Hank giddily telling Cooper (the pre-Ghoul version of Goggins’ character) and Barb Howard that they got married. Then, in 2296, when Steph calls The Enclave on her evil black Pip-Boy, she explicitly introduces herself as Hank MacLean’s wife, despite her currently wearing a wedding dress and matching white eyepatch from her aborted wedding to Chet (Dave Register).

One would think this indicates that Steph is Norm and Lucy’s mom, right? Well, no. There might be more to come here, but it’s important to remember that the apocalypse happens later in 2077, meaning Steph and Hank have only been married for a short time when they’re put in cryostasis. Hank was unfrozen in 2268, met a woman named Rose (Elle Vertes), fell in love and married her despite still being married to Steph. Rose is the mother of Lucy and Norm, and Steph didn’t wake up until after that.

As far as we know from the TV show, nobody else knows that Hank and Steph were married apart from Cooper and Barb. It’s possible the marriage was annulled immediately, or more reasonably, there’s just nobody awake in the vaults who is aware of their relationship. As we’ve seen, Steph holds secrets pretty close to her vest, and so does Hank.

What Did Barb Know and When Did She Know it?

Right after Hank and Steph announced their marriage, Cooper was arrested by the House Un-American Activities Committee, taking the fall for stealing the diode from Hank and giving it to the President of the United States (Clancy Brown). So what happened between then and when the bombs dropped, as seen in the first episode of the series? If you’ll recall, Cooper was performing at a party, his daughter Janey (Teagan Meredith) was there, and they escaped the bombs on horseback.

This is one we don’t have a good answer to, but how Cooper got out of jail, why he was with Janey and not Barb, how Barb and Janey ended up in a cryostasis without Cooper – heck, even how Cooper became the Ghoul – are all questions for the future. However, for the purposes of this episode, the one aspect of this mystery we can probably answer is how Barb knew to leave a postcard for Cooper to send him to Colorado, and the answer is likely faith. We may get another explanation later, but the simplest explanation is she had to believe if Cooper was alive, he would come find them. So she left him a clue – simple as that.

What Happened to Ron Perlman’s Super Mutant?

Of all the weirdly dropped storylines in the season, the biggest is probably the appearance and disappearance of Ron Perlman’s nameless super mutant. There were a lot of hints with Norm’s storyline referencing the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) that creates super mutants, and even Perlman’s speech about how a war is coming and the Ghoul needed to choose sides. But that was it – for him, the mutants, and the FEV. It all ties into the Enclave, the big bad of the series, but there really was no payoff on this one. Maybe that’s down to Perlman’s schedule, or maybe they’re just holding back on it until the Enclave is more involved in Season 3. Either way, we need to see this super mutant of anarchy do his thing!

What Is Phase Two?

Speaking of the Enclave, what is this Phase Two that Steph has set in motion? We see shots of the Enclave Research Facility, and they’ve clearly been keeping tabs on the MacLean family, but we don’t really get a hint as to what, exactly, Phase Two is all about. Actually, now that we’re talking about it: What was Phase One? Hank gives some hints about that – it turns out he’s been working for the Enclave, not Vault-Tec – including that his miniaturized control units are for the Enclave and that “The surface is the experiment, not the Vaults.”

This could indicate any number of things, but perhaps Phase One is about control, and Phase Two is about subjugation. Now that the Enclave has Hank’s missionaries everywhere out in the field with virtually undetectable brainwashing tech inside them, the Enclave can work to control the lawlessness of the Wasteland through influence. Then, Phase Two (i.e., probably the FEV) would give them controllable, massive soldiers that nobody can stand against. The Enclave is a fascist group, and perhaps when the Deathclaws turned out to be less-than-controllable, they’re moving on to something else. Whatever it is, we’ll hopefully know more next season.

Is Woody Really Dead?

Look, everyone loves actor Zach Cherry, so it was a shocking moment when Chet discovered Woody’s glasses and assumed he was dead. While it may simply be that Cherry is a busy guy and had to go film Severance or something, the general rule of thumb is “bodies or it didn’t happen.” The assumption now is that Woody is dead, but it’s more likely – and much funnier – if Steph is turning him into a super mutant somewhere else in the Vaults. Here’s hoping, because we really need to see Woody do a flip before this is all over (that’s a Spider-Man reference, look it up).

Are The Deathclaws Dead?

By the season finale’s end, the NCR has killed the last Deathclaw in New Vegas…so that’s it for Deathclaws, right? Not necessarily. Remember, they were the “demon in the snow,” and there’s not a ton of snow in Las Vegas. We first saw one up north, so it likely means they’re all over the place; after all, they’re too good a monster not to bring them back in some fashion.

What Did House Know and When Did He Know it?

When we leave Computerized Robert House, he’s seemingly stuck inside the Pip-Boy that the Ghoul left near Barb and Janey’s vacated cryo-pods. He’s found a way to pop back into the large computer in his office, however, despite the signal being lost. We aren’t done with him yet; after all, the House always wins.

There is an open question as to whether he knew Janey and Barb weren’t there, and the answer is “probably,” but he likely didn’t know about the Colorado postcard. As for what his endgame is at this point, that’s TBD, but he sure seems to be pissed about the Enclave. Will he team up with Lucy and Maximus in Season 3? Or given he has possession of the cold fusion diode, will House shack up with one of the many factions vying for control of the Wasteland?

NCR vs. The Legion: Whoever Wins, We Lose?

The Legion is headed for New Vegas while the NCR is stationed there; the latter is definitely positioned as our heroes, while the former are the baddies. But Fallout is never as simple as that, and it’s likely that the ambivalent residents of New Vegas will pay the price. The bigger question is what, if anything, the Brotherhood of Steel might have to do with this, and the answer to that is probably dealing with bigger problems.

As we saw in the end credits scene, the faction of the Brotherhood led by Quintus (Michael Cristofer) is under attack. We don’t see by who, but it’s strongly implied that it’s other Brotherhood factions, given they tried to start a rebellion, and Maximus killed Paladin Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani), wrecking the whole thing; whoops. Meanwhile, Quintus has blueprints for a devastating robot called Liberty Prime Alpha, a riff on Liberty Prime Mark II seen in the Fallout games. If the robot can wreck the other Brotherhoods, will Quintus use it to bring his form of order to the rest of the Wasteland as well? And if so, are the NCR and Legion next?

Will Hank Return in Season 3?

Despite getting brainwashed, it would be silly not to bring Kyle MacLachlan back for Season 3. At the very least, there’s more to tell about his backstory with Steph and the Enclave. We’ll definitely get more – shudder – digitally de-aged Hank, if not Hank in the present, though he likely has a part to play as a fresh-brained newborn as well.

Is The Ghoul Off On His Own?

The heart of the show has been the relationship between Lucy and the Ghoul, and it looks like we’re losing that in Season 3, as our favorite noseless killer heads off to Colorado in search of his family, alongside his faithful dog (who he probably grabbed on the way out of New Vegas). There’s lots to do in Colorado – new factions, new enemies, maybe even a secret Vault – but the Ghoul likely won’t have Lucy by his side to provide a moral counterpoint. Perhaps that was the purpose of him giving her the gun and leaving the choice to kill Hank up to her; their journey together is finished.

That said, in an interview with IGN, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet teased that things may not go the way you think. “We want to remind viewers that just because the Ghoul is heading to Colorado, of course this is the Wasteland where you always get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time. So how long will it take him to get there, or will he get there in the first episode of the next season? We will have to wait to find out. It may not be as linear a journey as one would hope.”

Short answer? Until the Ghoul finds his family, he’ll probably be off on his own little show for the time being. Whether that brings him back to Lucy and company to get there the long way around? TBD.

What Will Season 3 Be About?

Fallout was picked up for Season 3 way back in May 2025, so we know it’s more than likely happening (with the requisite caveat of “the streaming business changes rapidly”). So what will it be about? Unless they continue to slow burn this (please don’t), the Enclave should be front and center as the main villain of the season. We’ll also likely see a war between the NCR and the Legion, as well as a civil war with the Brotherhood of Steel.

And what’s happening back at the Vaults? Are they necessary anymore? Steph is about to be killed, Norm is outside, and though they are very fun to spend time in given the multiple balls in the air on the surface, seeing what’s going on below seems less and less important as time goes on. So will we put them behind us for good?

Furthermore, what about the central emotional conflict? As we noted before, this season was all about whether Lucy should kill or not, ending on a resounding “idk maybe sometimes?” So what is her arc in Season 3, particularly now that she’s reunited with Maximus? Will this be “how to date in a time of apocalypse,” or is this about Lucy growing up and finding herself as a leader in a world that has plenty of them…but none who are looking out for other people?

We’ll have to wait at least a couple of years until Season 3 premieres to find out. Okey dokey?

Pokémon will air a "special video" to mark the franchise's 30th anniversary during this weekend's Super Bowl LX.

A teaser trailer published online this afternoon includes fan-favorite Jigglypuff seemingly backstage, performing vocal warmup exercises. And yes, we do hear the original Jigglypuff song from the first season of the Pokémon anime.

Exactly what Pokémon's Super Bowl spot will contain, we can only guess — though fans will certainly be hoping the franchise takes advantage of the event's huge global audience to offer a glimpse at its widely-anticipated 10th generation.

Celebrate 30 years of Pokémon with a special video debuting during Super Bowl LX on February 8! #Pokemon30 pic.twitter.com/gOgvTnlkdW

— Pokémon @ Lumiose City 🥐 (@Pokemon) February 4, 2026

2026 is expected to be an enormous year for Pokémon, as the world dominating series celebrates the fact it has been three decades since its original games launched in Japan on the Game Boy. We know for sure that at least one new Pokémon game will arrive this year, too — the promising-looking life sim spin-off Pokémon Pokopia — but fans are hungry for more.

While not announced yet for certain, it's widely-expected that a full Pokémon Presents broadcast (akin to a Nintendo Direct) will air on the series' actual anniversary, February 27. A similar broadcast has taken place regularly over the last few years. It's here that fans are anticipating the next generation of Pokémon games and creatures to get their proper reveal, exactly four years on from the series' ninth generation games for Nintendo Switch, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

Last year, leaked information hit the internet that purported to reveal work-in-progress details of the upcoming games. Now, all eyes will be on Pokémon itself to make its next generation official. Could we get a glimpse of all that at the Super Bowl? Or is Jigglypuff simply planning a half-time show-style recital? It would be a lot of money to spend just for a singalong.

There's no word yet exactly when during the hours-long event that the Pokémon video may appear.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

With the Fallout Season 2 finale out now on Prime video, we know which location Season 3 is headed towards. But don’t pack for snow just yet, because co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet and even Todd Howard himself are suggesting it may take some time to get there.

Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 finale follow:

As we now know, the ending of Fallout Season 2 sets up Colorado as the location for Season 3, with The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, already on his way. So, should we expect Season 3 to kick off in Colorado? Or will there be more to the journey?

In a new interview with IGN, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained why the decision was made to head to a brand new location in the first place. It turns out it was inspired by the Fallout video games themselves, which are typically each set in a different location. Fallout 3, for example, is set in the Capital Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic version of the city of Washington and the surrounding areas. Fallout: New Vegas is set in the Mojave Wasteland, which includes post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. Fallout 4 is set in the Commonwealth, which takes in the surrounding area of Boston, Massachusetts. And Fallout 76 is set in Appalachia, although updates have expanded its borders.

Indeed, one of the thrills of playing a new Fallout game is discovering and exploring a post-apocalyptic take on a brand new location, and getting to see how it's doing hundreds of years after the bombs fell. This, Robertson-Dworet said, influenced the showrunnners' thinking.

“Well, it came out of many conversations about how the games are of course regional. One of the delights of finding out there's going to be a new Fallout game is immediately the question of like, well, where is it going to be set? And of course, our first season being LA, second season being New Vegas, we were excited to go to fresh snow.”

Now onto the tease. Robertson-Dworet made a point of teasing that we will see The Ghoul’s journey to Colorado, and that there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way. In doing so, she referenced one of The Ghoul’s most famous lines from Season 1, when he tells Lucy the Wasteland’s 'golden rule': “Thou shalt get side tracked by bullshit every goddamn time.”

“We want to remind viewers that just because The Ghoul is heading to Colorado, of course this is the Wasteland where you always get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time,” Robertson-Dworet quipped. “So how long will it take him to get there, or will he get there in the first episode of the next season? We will have to wait to find out. It may not be as linear a journey as one would hope.”

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard echoed Robertson-Dworet’s comment, adding: “Yeah, look, there's a lot of surprises coming. We talk about it a lot. And so what I'd say is geography plays such a part into the world of Fallout, and seeing what's there. And there's a lot of land out there, there's a lot of places to explore yet. It's exciting for us to do that in games. And it's really exciting to do it in a TV show where we can jump locations. I wouldn't presume too much yet, I know we're hinting at stuff, but there's a lot of surprises to come.”

So, it sounds like The Ghoul and friends are set for some meaty sidequests as they trade in the sand-filled Mojave Wasteland for the snowy peaks of post-apocalyptic Colorado. This is an area that has yet to be explored by the mainline Fallout video games, so everything will feel brand new to an army of Fallout fans, and we can expect a significant expansion of the Fallout canon.

While we wait to find out more, in the same interview with IGN, Howard touched on the ongoing debate about Fallout canon and the TV series avoiding picking an ending of New Vegas. This has been a hot topic ever since Fallout came out, really, but it was fueled by Mr. House’s appearance in Season 2 and the state of not just the Strip itself but the various factions operating in the area.

Todd Howard and the showrunners have been clear throughout that no ending was made canon, despite the events of the show. And Robertson-Dworet and Howard reiterated the point speaking to IGN ahead of the Season 2 finale.

“It's probably the trickiest thing, right?” Howard said. “You want to go to Vegas, such an iconic location, and you really want to honor the game and honor the players' journeys that they have there while pushing things forward. And look, it's really, really tough. So I think the general approach was, leave things open for interpretation. So I know people want to say like, ‘Hey, what was the ending?’ Or, ‘What's canon and what's not canon before?’ And some of that's intentionally open to interpretation. If you take a character like Robert House, who's as smart and ingenious as he is, well logic says he would find a way to live on. And so that's just one element or things like that. And I think Geneva and Graham [Wagner], the writers, have done a great job of pulling the threads from the world of Fallout, letting you see some of it while also moving it forward. And ultimately it's really about the journey of our main characters.”

We’ve got plenty more on Fallout, including our Fallout Season 2 finale review, and an explainer on how the post-credits scene at the end of Fallout Season 2 teases something huge from the games. Oh, and here’s what that Amazon Fallout countdown turned out to be.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Amazon Fallout TV countdown that some had hoped would announce a Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas remaster turned out to be nothing more than another behind-the-scenes look at the show.

Earlier this month, a countdown appeared on the official Amazon website designed to look like a Fallout map. On it are locations in the Fallout map style which, when accessed, lead you to behind-the-scenes information on the show. For example, The Vault 33 outer door, from which Lucy first steps foot into the wasteland, is on the south of the map. The Caswennan, the airship that serves as a soaring fortress for the Brotherhood of Steel, is to the east. And, ahead of the debut of the Fallout Season 2 finale, in the top right was a locked point of interest alongside a timer pointing to February 4.

That got some fans’ hopes up that the countdown was leading to the reveal of the heavily rumored Fallout 3 Remastered, or the equally heavily rumored Fallout: New Vegas Remastered. It turned out to be neither. Instead, it’s yet another interactive node, this time for ‘The Penthouse’ at the top of the Lucky 38 casino, the lair of antagonist Mr. House.

“Once the private domain of Mr. House, it overlooks the Strip with a commanding view of New Vegas, equal parts luxury suite and control center,” reads the official description. “Step back in time to this intersection of decadence and authority!”

Clicking through leads you to a 3D interactive representation of the Penthouse, which includes a short video interview with Mr. House actor Justin Theroux about the genuinely impressive set, photos of the Strip, and even a creature gallery. This is all great if you’re after some extra Fallout information, but not the best if you’d hoped for a new Fallout game. In truth, some had suspected this would be the case. At best, some had said, it would contain a tease for Season 3 of the show.

Which leads us to the next obvious question: what’s going on with these Fallout remasters? They’re still coming. The Fallout 3 remaster that leaked back in 2023 is still in the works, and is expected to be a similar effort to last year’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Then there’s Fallout: New Vegas Remastered, which is also reportedly still on the way, although we don’t have any indication when either game will release.

In a recent interview with IGN, we asked Bethesda development chief Todd Howard if the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which has seen over 4 million players since it shadowdropped last year, was a repeatable trick for a Fallout 3 Remastered. Howard kept his cards close to his chest, and reiterated a point he’s been making a lot in interviews lately.

“I will just say that the Oblivion Remaster, we're really, really pleased with how well it did, it was a very long project too, and not just in how it was received, the ability to shadowdrop it, and the response to doing that,” he said. “I like to do that with games as much as possible. I love the moment that you find out about a game.”

The last mainline single-player Fallout game was Fallout 4, which came out in 2015 and recently saw the release of its Anniversary Edition. The multiplayer focused Fallout 76 followed in 2018, and while fans slowly flocked to the West Virginia-set open-world RPG, it wasn’t until the premiere of Prime Video’s Fallout TV show that the Bethesda series leveled up in terms of attention.

As well as remasters, we know Bethesda wants to eventually get to Fallout 5, albeit after The Elder Scrolls 6. Back in June 2024, Todd Howard said he wasn’t interested in rushing Fallout 5 out the door. Then, in December last year, Howard confirmed that Fallout 5 would indeed take into account the canon events of the Fallout TV series. "In short, yes," Howard told BBC Newsbeat. "Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account."

While we wait to find out about new Fallout video games, check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2 finale review.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

If you just finished watching the finale of Fallout season two, hopefully, you hung around until the end for its post-credits scene. That’s because within it hides the blueprints for “Liberty Prime Alpha” — a name that will excite you if you’ve played the Fallout games, but may confuse you if you haven’t. Rest assured, though, because we’re here to tell you exactly why you should be eagerly anticipating its apparent arrival in Fallout’s third season.

To cut to the chase, Liberty Prime is a giant robot originally built by the United States Army in the years before the Great War that turned America into the wasteland it is today. A 40-foot-tall metal monster packed with extreme power, including highly destructive head-mounted energy cannons and a seemingly endless supply of throwable explosives, it's quite the weapon of mass destruction. Think the Iron Giant, but nowhere near as friendly.

Initially conceived in 2072 and planned for deployment against the communist forces of China in Alaska, Liberty Prime never actually made it into battle, despite being fully constructed, as a sufficient power source was never obtained. That doesn’t mean it would never see any action, though, as this colossus appears in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Let’s take a look at what it got up to in those games, as well as theorise a little about how it could be deployed in season three of the show.

Fallout 3

Liberty Prime would sit dormant for many, many years after the bombs dropped, until it was rediscovered in 2255 amongst the ruins of Washington, D.C., the setting of Fallout 3. For over 20 years, the Brotherhood of Steel worked away on restoring the war machine with mixed results, until its eventual revival in 2277. Its first taste of action would come in a battle against the Enclave, where it destroyed many of the shadowy faction’s forces as the Brotherhood laid claim to the fallen capital’s Jefferson Memorial.

The Brotherhood would repeat this tactic for another couple of weeks, with Liberty Prime too strong a foe for the Enclave to handle. But soon this tactic would prove predictable, and the giant robot would eventually be lured into a trap that would see orbital weapons descend upon it. Following its destruction, the Brotherhood attempted to rebuild it, but to no avail. Instead, its shattered remains would be left to rust deep in storage until the next person was bold enough to build it again.

Fallout 4

A decade later, in 2287, someone would try to do exactly that. This time, a chapter of the Brotherhood headquartered in Boston decided that it needed the power of the walking superweapon to turn the tide in its battle for the Commonwealth. This effort would take many years to come to fruition, as Liberty Prime’s components had to be airlifted along America’s East Coast and pieced together in Massachusetts. Such a mammoth effort was required to combat the newly risen synth threat — an AI lifeform created by the scientific faction called the Institute.

A newly improved Liberty Prime MK II, packed with a laser capable of carving tunnels down into the earth and the ability to deploy mini nukes, then took to the streets of Boston. Depending on your actions at the end of Fallout 4, Liberty Prime can either be destroyed again or live to fight another day as it roams the Commonwealth in the service of the Brotherhood.

Fallout: Season Three

So, this brings up the curious case of how Liberty Prime will be deployed in the Fallout TV show. Set in 2296, nine years after Fallout 4, the show could directly tie into the events of the Brotherhood’s Boston bust-up by having Elder Quintus claim components for Liberty Prime from the Commonwealth. However, considering his civil war antics and the death of Paladin Harkness, it seems unlikely his Boston brothers will consider Quintus an ally anymore. It’s also worth considering that the blueprints are for “Liberty Prime Alpha”, which is presumably a model that pre-dates the MK II version deployed in Boston, and perhaps even the original robot created for the Alaskan front. It seems possible that we’ll be seeing a brand new version of the iconic robot, designed especially for the show.

Declaring himself “Quintus the Destroyer”, it seems like the Knights of San Fernando chapter will be on a nuclear warpath next season. But who will be in his crosshairs? Will his mission be to wipe out the other chapters, or will the violence see The Brotherhood put on a collision course with the New California Republic?. Will season three’s apparent Colorado location be the backdrop for their war? The potential imagery of a looming Liberty Prime walking a warpath towards Denver could well be on the horizon. A mile-high robot in the mile-high city? We wouldn’t say no.

Do you think we’ll see a fully rebuilt Liberty Prime in Fallout season three? Or do you think the showrunners have different plans for The Brotherhood’s iconic massive robot? Let us know in the comments!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 8, “The Strip,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.

“You bet on hope and you lost,” says a digital, wrist-mounted Robert House as The Ghoul peers into the empty cryopods he believed his wife and daughter would be contained in. That may be true for the irradiated Cooper Howard, but it’s not for us: we bet our hopes on Season 2 of Fallout finding a way to bring all of its wild ideas together. And it did. Well, mostly. As credits roll and our attention turns to what awaits us beyond the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, a few errant threads are left dangling without satisfying conclusions. Was the entire Vault 31 story just set up for a third season? And what became of the warring Brotherhood of Steel clans? Yet, despite not offering the true sense of closure that the very best season finales offer, “The Strip” remains a great episode of Fallout that creates connections, answers questions, and caps off all the most important aspects of this eccentric trip to New Vegas.

Stetson hats off to showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who really did make it through the entire season without ever confirming a canon ending to Fallout: New Vegas. There is a cheeky nod – “Over the years my body became a target for wandering travellers with something to prove” does suggest that House’s withered husk of a body that survived through the centuries of apocalypse may have been killed by the Courier, but I’m pleased the show stops short of invalidating any individual playthrough. However, I do think House’s return feels thinly examined. We know he’s a genius, but how exactly did he achieve this artificial form that’s dependent on Cold Fusion? I’m surprised that the game’s Platinum Chip didn’t come into play here, retconned into some kind of AI survival data drive. Perhaps answers await in Season 3, as that flicking screen in the episode’s final moments certainly suggests we haven’t seen the last of Robert House…

While House’s return is a significant moment for Fallout lore, his role in this finale is more or less as a navigation tool for The Ghoul, who’s finally given access to Vault-Tec’s management vault. I expect some viewers will be frustrated that the journey to find The Ghoul’s family, which has been unfolding for two whole seasons now, ends in nothing but a postcard pointing to Colorado. But that line – “You bet on hope and you lost” – really does make clear that The Ghoul is now closer to reclaiming his identity as Cooper Howard than ever before. Hope is a symptom of humanity, and even this setback can't break it. Barb and Janey may not be in Vegas, but they are alive. Where? Well, that’s hopefully a question Season 3 will answer.

Much of The Ghoul’s share of this episode examines his more emotional side, including the flashbacks, which show how Cooper took the fall for his and Barb’s involvement in “un-American activities” in an effort to keep his family safe. It’s a shame, then, that very little is made of his reunion with Lucy, who has been so responsible for restoring his humanity. While he saves her from being brainwashed by Hank, the pair are given no real space to reconcile earlier events. Regardless of how they feel – guilty or validated – the finale passes by the opportunity for an emotionally challenging conversation.

Thankfully, Lucy does get her emotional moment, but it's with her actual father, not her surrogate one. After triggering his own brainwashing to prevent himself from spilling the beans on what his mind-control project has really been about, Hank becomes the parent Lucy always thought he was: kind, gentle, loving. There’s a Black Mirror quality to this; a bittersweet moment made possible only via a sinister technology. Both Kyle MacLachlan and Ella Purnell have been wonderful throughout this season, but these precious few seconds are among their best turns on the show so far.

Such a sad moment is instantly contrasted by the arrival of Maximus. His and Lucy’s embrace is truly genuine; a healing antidote to the synthetic love that Hank offered in all his forms. The hug is equally important to Maximus, who by this point has spent most of the episode being beaten to a pulp by deathclaws in a battle that lives up to the promise made by that tease in the credits of Season 1’s finale. After numerous false starts, we got there in the end.

Missiles rupture flesh and jaws are torn from skulls in a gory fight that successfully communicates the exhaustion and overwhelming odds of going toe-to-toe with the wasteland’s biggest bruisers. It’s seeing Maximus out of the armour, though, armed with nothing but a pole and wielding a roulette table as a shield, that really showcases his growth. He doesn’t need steel plating to defend the needy, because he’s finally become the good man his dad said he would. Of course, a pole is no match for a deathclaw, so thankfully the NCR turns up, Avengers: Endgame style, to save the day. While it’s satisfying to see Maximus reunited with his people, decades after the Shady Sands bombing tore them apart, the real joy here is the recreation of the slow-motion sniper shot from Fallout: New Vegas’s opening cinematic – it’s pure fan service, but I can’t deny that I genuinely gasped with glee.

Beyond the Strip, we catch up with Caesar’s Legion, which hasn’t been seen since the season’s third episode. Releasing a long-held pause button, we finally get to see the aftermath of the battle The Ghoul initiated between the Legion’s rival groups. Macaulay Culkin’s Lacerta Legate, now falsely crowned the one true Caesar, gets to make an incredibly good joke about taking control of Vegas and building Caesar’s Palace atop it. The NCR may have rid the strip of the deathclaws, but it seems like an even meaner beast is on the way.

You’ll have noticed by now that several paragraphs of this review have ended by looking ahead to Season 3. This is a very forward-facing finale, and while it does a lot of good work to establish groundwork for the future, it often does so at the expense of closure. After playing important roles early in the season, the NCR and Legion were largely pushed to the sides, and so a conflict that should have been key to this region of Fallout’s world was held on ice. Now, at a point where our characters’ missions in Vegas are complete – Lucy has dealt with her father, The Ghoul has “found” his family – that war is only just gearing up again, which will either keep us shackled to the Strip, or see its violence spill out into the wider wasteland. I’d like to be proven wrong, but I feel like what happens in New Vegas should stay contained to the season about New Vegas.

The biggest offender, though, is the story of the Vaults, which have effectively been a multi-episode tease for what awaits next season. There have been no consequences for Reg’s ridiculous, snack-happy Inbreeding Support Group. No resolution for Norm’s discovery of the Forced Evolutionary Virus. No link between Steph’s Canadian roots and her plans for the Vaults. None of the characters have undergone any meaningful growth, and none of them have arrived at an exciting destination. While there have definitely been interesting revelations – Hank’s connections to the Enclave and Steph’s triggering of the shadowy faction’s mystery “Phase Two” certainly make it clear that this story hasn’t been worthless – it’s been the most frustrating material to watch, and suffers greatly from having limited definition and no conclusion.

It could also be said that the Brotherhood of Steel’s story has been left without any kind of closure, as the show completely abandoned the faction’s civil war just as it ignited. I’m less concerned about this, as the Brotherhood’s actions were always complimentary to Maximus’ journey rather than a key plot in their own right, and the complete breakdown of Quintus’ alliance ultimately felt like a conclusion to simmering tensions rather than the start of something bigger. However, this season’s post-credits scene does promise Quintus will be back with a bang: The reveal that he’s in possession of the blueprints to Liberty Prime no doubt had an army of Fallout fans leaping from their seats. Considering the show’s track record in bringing the games’ icons to life, I can’t wait to see this gargantuan robot stride across the battlefields of Season 3.

Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Bumblebee) and Clea DuVall (Poker Face) have joined The Last of Us Season 3 as HBO successfully recasts one of its supporting characters and fleshes out the seraphites.

News on the changes comes from Deadline, which reports Lendeborg Jr. will be the new face playing the part of the Washington Liberation Front’s (WLF) Manny. The part was previously filled by Danny Ramirez for select scenes in Season 2, with the actor said to be stepping away from the PlayStation video game adaptation due to “scheduling reasons.”

DuVall, meanwhile, has been tapped to play one of the many individuals that makes up the faction known as the seraphites. The group, which is known for disemboweling their enemies and communicating via tactical whistling, has largely remained in the background in The Last of Us show but will reappear in Season 3.

Like the seraphites, Manny, a loyal WLF soldier and one of Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) closest allies, only showed up a handful of times through Season 2 and will get more screentime in the next batch of episodes. His actor’s replacement arrives as HBO continues adapting the events of The Last of Us Part 2 video game, while the show shifts its focus to a new lead.

Warning! Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 follow.

After sending Bella Ramsey’s Ellie on a journey of revenge, The Last of Us Season 2 left audiences with a cliffhanger that teased a season led by Dever’s Abby. It means fans should likely expect to meet new characters and learn more about old ones as the series turns back the clock with a fresh perspective. Although showrunner Craig Mazin has teased the next season will be longer than the seven-episode Season 2 run, HBO boss Casey Bloys recently suggested that Season 3 will be the show’s last.

The crew behind The Last of Us show shrank in July when Naughty Dog head and series co-creator Neil Druckmann announced he would be leaving the project to focus on continuing the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Just after his departure, Bloys said Season 3 was planned to premiere in 2027, but an exact, concrete release date has yet to be confirmed.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Based on the already-popular game series, the Pokémon anime became a cultural phenomenon almost immediately after it was first released in the '90s. A quarter-century later, the franchise is about as long as legendary anime like One Piece.

Unlike something like One Piece or Dragon Ball, which have a continuous, serialized story, Pokémon is more of an episodic narrative with mostly standalone episodes. Even though there is a progression from series to series, you could theoretically skip around and watch the ones that interest you the most without being completely lost.

Still, the era of streaming splitting everything up between multiple platforms makes finding (let alone watching) the entirety of Pokémon a mighty task. That's why we're here: to round up where you can watch every Pokémon season and movie online.

How Long Is the Pokémon Series?

The Pokémon series so far includes over 1300 episodes across 27 seasons. There are also 23 animated Pokémon movies and the live-action Detective Pikachu film. In addition to the streaming links listed below, most of the Pokémon series is available on DVD.

How to Watch Pokémon Online (in Order)

For American audiences, the Pokémon series is split across quite a few streaming services. The original series as well as the most recent seasons can be found on U.S. Netflix, while some seasons can be found on free streaming sites like Tubi. Hoopla, which requires a library card but is otherwise free, has a "Pokémon Bingepass" that includes Seasons 6-13 of the anime series and is the only way to stream seasons 6-10 online.

Otherwise, Prime Video has a Pokémon channel add-on for $2.99/month that lets you stream a decent chunk of the series that isn't available elsewhere. Prime Video subscriptions, including the Pokémon channel, offer a seven-day free trial for those trying to watch a specific movie or series for free. Just remember to cancel your subscription before it auto-renews.

1. Pokémon Indigo League (1997)

Pokémon the Series: Season 1

The season that started it all! This one is full of exciting moments, but also rather emotional ones — including a final heartbreak that sets the stage for Pokémon's approach to winning and losing.

Where to Stream: Netflix

2. Pokémon: The First Movie (1998)

One of the best Pokémon movies, this is as big a '90s time capsule as they come, with a bangin' soundtrack and some big tear-jerking sequences ("Brother My Brother" never fails to hit hard).

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

3. Pokémon Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution (2019)

A CGI remake of the first movie, it notoriously removes what made the original so endearing, namely, the soundtrack. But it does have more Mewtwo than the U.S. version of the original.

Where to Stream: Netflix

4. Pokémon Adventures in Orange Islands (1999)

Pokémon the Series: Season 2

A downgrade from the first season, but nevertheless an exciting Pokémon adventure. Here we meet a new companion in Tracy, and the Orange League tournament is one of the show's best.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokémon add-on) or YouTube

5. Pokémon The Movie 2000 — The Power of One (1999)

A fascinating villain, world-ending stakes, and some cool visuals make this one of the best Pokémon movies. Plus, it gives Team Rocket arguably their best arc in the whole franchise.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

6. Pokémon The Johto Journeys (1999)

Pokémon the Series: Season 3

The start of the Gold and Silver series, this one has a very underrated opening song, and a whole new set of Pokémon! It can't be understated how cool it was to see this in 1999, before it became an obvious and expected tradition.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

7. Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown (2000)

Aside from some very dated CGI, this film has an interesting WandaVision-esque cosmic story that's more introspective than the previous two. The relationship between Entei and Molly makes the movie work.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokémon add-on)

8. Pokémon Johto League Champions (2000)

Pokémon the Series: Season 4

The finale of the Johto adventures, this season sees Ash reach the Johto League tournament aka the Silver Conference, with expected results.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

9. Pokémon 4Ever: Celebi- Voice of the Forest (2001)

Time-travel shenanigans in Pokémon! The movies were already weird before, but this one turns it up to 11 and paves the way for the extremely weird stories to come.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

10. Pokémon Master Quest (2001)

Pokémon the Series: Season 5

The end of the original Pokémon franchise, and the first one to be animated digitally, the season features a thrilling fight with Gary.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

11. Pokémon Heroes: Latias and Latios (2002)

This movie has a gorgeous Venice-inspired location, an exciting Pokémon race, and a rather bizarre final twist involving shapeshifting.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

12. Pokémon Advanced (2002)

Pokémon the Series: Season 6

Ash moves to a new region, meets new friends in May and Max, and meets even more new Pokémon after abandoning all his friends (except Pikachu).

Where to Stream: Hoopla

13. Pokémon: Jirachi, Wish Maker (2003)

This is where Pokémon start getting terrifying when you stop to think about them. An ancient Pokémon awakens and a kaiju Pokémon is resurrected to cause devastation.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

14. Pokémon Advanced Challenge (2003)

Pokémon the Series: Season 7

May's quest to become a Pokémon Coordinator makes for an interesting parallel to Ash's story, putting 10-year-old Ash in a sort of mentor role. At the same time, the Team Magma and Team Aqua subplots are quite entertaining.

Where to Stream: Hoopla

15. Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2004)

The one where they go to a city based on Vancouver, this movie features an alien Pokémon coming from space to conquer the Earth. This is the kaiju era of the franchise, and it rules.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

16. Pokémon Advanced Battle (2004)

Pokémon the Series: Season 8

The adventure continues with Ash trying to gather enough medals to enter the Battle Frontier tournament.

Where to Stream: Hoopla

17. Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (2005)

Mew is back! And we get one of the best Pokémon of them all in Lucario (fight me). This movie has one of the most emotional climaxes in the franchise.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

18. Pokémon Battle Frontier (2005)

Pokémon the Series: Season 9

The final part of the Advanced seasons is all about the big tournament, with plenty of cool battles and the return of fan-favorite Pokémon.

Where to stream: Hoopla

19. Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (2006)

What if Pokémon did Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Or, more accurately, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water? The result is a movie full of pirates, environmental themes, and water-themed fun.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

20. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (2006)

Pokémon the Series: Season 10

A vast improvement over the previous season, this time Ash's new Pokémon Coordinator companion, Dawn, is much more developed than May, and we get a fascinating new rival trainer in Paul.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel or Prime Video

21. Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai (2007)

The first part of a fantastic trilogy, this movie is close to being a full-on cosmic horror film. The titular Darkrai is quite Lovecraftian in nature, making for a darker, more sinister movie.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

22. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension (2007)

Pokémon the Series: Season 11

This is where the dynamic between Ash and Dawn pays off as we see them being challenged in unique ways. Plus, the emergence of Team Galactic raises the stakes and stands apart from previous evil teams.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

23. Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior (2008)

The second chapter in the trilogy ups the trippy ante, trapping Ash and his friends in a bizarre mirror dimension. Giratina is a terrifying creature, a kaiju-like god of chaos whose ability to manipulate reality elevates it above other Pokémon villains.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

24. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Galactic Battles (2008)

Pokémon the Series: Season 12

Team Galactic is on the offensive and they threaten to wreak havoc on the Pokémon world. Meanwhile, Ash fights Paul in a thrilling duel that's not just about their skills, but their opposing philosophies about Pokémon.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

25. Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (2009)

The end of the movie trilogy goes takes the franchise to a theological place, with Arceus presenting itself as an actual PokéGod. This is a very wild movie, essentially a biblical epic, but with Pokémon, plus there is a lot of time-travel.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

26. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors (2010)

Pokémon the Series: Season 13

Team Rocket is back! And they are up to no good. Meanwhile, Ash tries to qualify for the Sinnoh League while Dawn trains to compete in the Grand Festival.

Where to Stream: The Roku Channel

27. Pokémon Zoroark – Master of Illusions (2010)

Another movie about trying to control a powerful Pokémon and upsetting the balance of nature, leading to widespread destruction. It's not the most original of the movies.

Where to Stream: Hulu or Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

28. Pokémon Black and White (2010)

Pokémon the Series: Season 14

We have a new land, new Pokémon, and two new companions! Iris and Cilan join Ash on their new adventure as he also encounters Team Plasma — who actually oppose Team Rocket and want to free Pokémon!

Where to Stream: Tubi

29. Pokémon the Movie: Black – Victini and Reshiram (2011)

Now, this is an interesting experiment. Two parts of the same story, the "Reshiram/Zekrom" movies, much like the game, feature virtually the same story only swapping out the central Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

30. Pokémon the Movie: White – Victini and Zekrom (2011)

Virtually the same movie, but rather than Ash encountering Reshiram, he sees the legendary Pokémon Zekrom. There's an island on the verge of destruction, an angry Pokémon, and a world to save.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

31. Pokémon Black and White: Rival Destinies (2011)

Pokémon the Series: Season 15

Much like the Black and White games served as a soft reboot of the game series, so is this season also a reboot of sorts. Sadly, this means Ash is no longer a veteran with a bad track record, but a rookie once again.

Where to Stream: Tubi

32. Pokémon the Movie: Kyurem vs the Sword of Justice (2012)

A rare Pokémon movie that focuses not on the humans, but a critter named Keldeo who wishes to join a Pokémon supersquad. It's a heartfelt story about Pokémon and their goals and dreams.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

33. Pokémon Black and White: Adventures in Unova and Beyond (2012)

Pokémon the Series: Season 16

Though they have foiled Team Rocket, there is new danger lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, Ash is ready to face the Unova League while Iris heads to a Village of Dragons to help inspire her Dragonite.

Where to Stream: Tubi

34. Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened (2013)

The one where Pokémon becomes Jurassic Park. An ancient Pokémon species is resurrected and they immediately start wreaking havoc — until a familiar face arrives to save the day.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

35. Pokémon XY (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 17

Ash once again trades his companions, this time being joined by the inventor Clemond, his little sister Bonnie, and the Pokémon performer Serena. Together they venture through the Kalos region and encounter numerous new Pokémon.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

36. Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction (2014)

Greedy collectors try to capture a gem-based Pokémon princess, and only Ash can stop them. It's another movie with a rather basic plot that's been repeated better elsewhere on this list.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

37. Pokémon XY: Kalos Quest (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 18

There is a reason this series is considered peak Pokémon. It has a rather heroic portrayal of Ash, some of the best battles in the entire anime, and quite a lot of excitement when it comes to the new Mega Evolutions.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

38. Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages (2015)

An imp-like Pokémon imprisoned in a bottle is released and starts playing pranks, but his shadow starts growing into a giant evil version of itself. This is one of the most fun Pokémon deities, and reason enough to watch this movie.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

39. Pokémon XYZ (2013)

Pokémon the Series: Season 19

Team Flare makes its move against the legendary Zygarde which is prophesied to destroy all of Kalos. Meanwhile Ash finally competes in the Kalos League Conference.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

40. Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel (2016)

A steampunk location gives this movie a unique look that matches the more mechanical Pokémon that are the stars of the show. It also features a villain on a flying fortress war machine, making one cool fantasy movie.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

41. Pokémon Sun and Moon (2016)

Pokémon the Series: Season 20

A big departure from the seasons that preceded it, this season boasts a unique art style and a more emotional journey for Ash than we've seen before. This is considered either the pinnacle of the series or a huge letdown, depending on who you ask.

Where to Stream: Hulu or The Roku Channel

42. Pokémon Sun and Moon: Ultra Adventures (2017)

Pokémon the Series: Season 21

After 20 years, Pokémon remembers Ash is still a 10-year-old, so he finally goes to school rather than live in the wilderness. Meanwhile, an organization all about Pokémon conservation turns out to be quite shady, and Ash also has visions of legendary Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Hulu

43. Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (2017)

A loose reboot of the anime's pilot episode, this movie is good for those who want to relive the most iconic moments from the show's early days and those who want to enter the franchise. Also, this is the movie where Pikachu talks, and it is absolutely terrifying.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

44. Pokémon Sun and Moon: Ultra Legends (2018)

Pokémon the Series: Season 22

It's tournament time! But that's not Ash has on his mind, because the Alola region is in danger and it is up to Ash and his friends to save it from destruction.

Where to Stream: Hulu

45. Pokémon The Power of Us (2018)

A continuation of the reboot timeline of I Choose You, this movie is a loose remake of Pokémon: The Movie 2000, just never as good as the original.

Where to Stream: Prime Video (with Pokemon add-on)

46. Pokémon Journeys (2019)

Pokémon the Series: Season 23

The beginning of the end, with Ash becoming an official Pokémon researcher exploring the wide world of Pokémon.

Where to Stream: Netflix

47. Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

Though not at all part of the official Pokémon order, this is the single best movie in the franchise. The first live-action/animation hybrid, the movie is a hugely entertaining adventure filled with Easter Eggs, and a clear love letter to the franchise.

Where to Stream: You have to rent or purchase this one digitally (see at Prime Video)

48. Pokémon Master Journeys (2020)

Pokémon the Series: Season 24

This is where things get very interesting. While Ash is climbing the rankings of the World Coronation Series, he and his friends discover strange occurrences happening in the Galar region, including clones and Pokémon devolving. Stakes don't get higher than literal gods intervening.

Where to Stream: Netflix or Prime Video

49. Pokémon Secrets of the Jungle (2020)

Small stakes, a more intimate movie, and a Tarzan-like story make this a standout Pokémon movie. In short, it rules.

Where to Stream: Netflix

50. Pokémon Ultimate Journeys (2021)

Pokémon the Series: Season 25

This is it. The moment of truth. At this point, there's no hiding it, if you aren't aware that Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town becomes the Pokémon World Champion, you've been living under a rock. This is the culmination of nearly a quarter-century's worth of Pokémon, a highly emotional season that reintroduces old friends like Misty and Brock, has some spectacular action animation, the return of a fan-favorite song, and a perfect end to the story of Ash and Pikachu.

Where to Stream: Netflix or Prime Video

51. Pokémon Horizons (2023)

Pokémon the Series: Season 26

After saying goodbye to Ash and Pikachu, we meet two new protagonists — Liko and Roy, who are joined by Frede and his companion Captain Pikachu. It's a brand new Pokémon adventure!

Where to Stream: Netflix

52. Pokémon Concierge (2023)

One of the best Pokémon series ever isn't even part of the main story, or even in traditional animation. Instead, this stop-motion show follows Haru as she arrives to work at a Pokémon resort and encounters all kinds of Pokéguests and Pokéemployees.

Where to Stream: Netflix

53. Pokémon Horizons – The Search for Laqua (2024)

Pokémon the Series: Season 27

Part of the appeal of Horizons is that it's a more traditional anime, with an arc-based structure and a bigger focus on adventure. There are mysteries to solve, new challenges, battles, and enemies.

Where to Stream: Netflix

54. Pokémon Concierge Season 2 (2024)

The stop-motion show returned for a second season that was extremely cuddly and heartwarming.

Where to Stream: Netflix

55. Pokémon Horizons – Rising Hope (2025)

Pokémon the Series: Season 28

The third season of Pokémon Horizons focuses on the aftermath of the collapse of Laqua, the attempts at reforming the Rising Volt Tacklers (who continue to be up to no good), and the backstories of Roy and Ult.

Where to Stream: Netflix

What’s Next for the Pokémon Series?

There is no stopping Pokémon. Pokémon Horizons continues to release new episodes, and it’s likely to keep going for at least a few more years. We also know there is going to be a brand new stop-motion Pokémon project titled Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures Of Sirfetch'd & Pichu for 2027 and animated by legendary British studio Aardman.

Rafael Motamayor is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything anime and animation.

The Muppet Show debuts on Disney+ on February 4.

This year marks 50 years since The Muppet Show debuted in syndication on US television, making a frog, a pig, a bear, a Gonzo, and the rest of the show’s felt menagerie into global superstars. In the most full circle of full circle examples, ABC and Disney+ have put the band back together in a special test pilot for a Seth Rogen revival of The Muppet Show.

A lot of the words in that last sentence are whiplash inducing, but the thing to cling onto is that it’s a revival of The Muppet Show. Fans of Jim Henson’s puppet creations have long been begging someone in the entertainment industry who loves the Muppets to just make a new Muppet Show; bless Rogen for heeding the call and ending our decade’s-long whining.

If you’re not familiar with the recent history of The Muppets: In 1990, Jim Henson tragically passed away from toxic shock syndrome, and in 2004, the Muppets IP was bought by the Walt Disney Company. That’s been a disappointing baton pass, because Disney has been incredibly inconsistent in knowing what to do with Kermit and his pals, banishing them to viral shorts or trying to force them into weird high-concept ideas like 2015’s mockumentary series, The Muppets.

While trying new ideas and not getting stuck in a taciturn nostalgia loop is always encouraged, the problem with many Disney-era Muppet projects is that they often reek of an executive mandate to “update the Muppets and make them cool and hip for today.” The problem with that thinking is that it proves they’re being played with by creatives who fundamentally do not understand why the Muppets work – they’re timeless. Kermit and his family of weirdos don’t belong in any era, because their brand of silly lives eternally in the relationships between the characters and their relentless desire to make audiences happy; it’s their True North.

Thankfully, Rogen gets that with his very soul, as does director Alex Timbers. Together, they’ve resurrected the variety show format, the classic Muppet theater set, and the stock cast of classic Muppet characters to make The Muppet Show in 2026, not for 2026.

From the moment Kermit’s felt hand turns the theater’s house lights on, I defy any viewer to resist the huge smile that will spontaneously bloom. If you’re of a certain age, the opening is like a time travel machine back to your childhood, and if you’re a kid, the comedic chaos of the show is attuned to your sensibilities as well.

Like the original variety show, the episode has a special guest star in Sabrina Carpenter (also an executive producer), who shows up with the exact energy needed to match the insanity around her. She gets to sing in two different numbers and banter backstage with the Muppet players like she’s been doing it her whole life.

Unlike some revivals, The Muppet Show has a lived-in quality to it, likely because the primary performers are long-time Muppeteers like Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman, and Matt Vogel. They’ve lived their characters for at least a decade each and give pitch-perfect performances across the board…and if you don’t like the slight change in some character voices, get over it; the alternative is them getting moldy in an archive somewhere.

Kudos to ​​pilot writers Albertina Rizzo, Kelly Younger, Gabe Liedman, and Andrew Williams for honoring the past with faithful sketch revivals and character temperaments while making this episode feel fresh and genuinely funny. Their new material, including a new Muppet, some novel camera framing, and cameo bits all add to the scale and scope of the world without trying too hard.

Hopefully, the heart and hilarity featured in The Muppet Show will be more than enough proof to give it a series order, because the world really needs Kermit and his pals more than ever.

After weeks of heated speculation about whether Netflix was done with Stranger Things, including thousands of TikToks and social media posts about #ConformityGate and whether there was a secret, ninth episode of Season 5, the streamer has finally revealed the first look at new episodes of the hit series. Well, sort of. They actually unveiled the official, two-ish minute teaser for Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series that’s been in the works for at least the past three years.

So yeah, sorry Season 5 truthers, Netflix has moved on with something new… Or rather, moved backwards, as this new series takes place smack in the middle of the action of Hawkins, Indiana, with some new characters, new creatures, and a whole lot of those ’80s vibes you know and love.

That said, there’s a lot that’s changed, and it isn’t just the fact that everyone is looking a whole lot more cartoony. So with that in mind, let’s break down some of the biggest burning questions about Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, and answer everything we know about the series so far.

What Is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 About?

Okay, before we get into it, to set the stage – and we’ll expand on some of this later – here’s the official synopsis for the series:

Return to Hawkins with Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an exciting new animated series from Showrunner Eric Robles and Executive Producers the Duffer Brothers. In the winter of 1985, snow blankets the town and the horrors of the Upside Down are finally fading. Our heroes Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max have settled back into a normal life of D&D, snowball fights, and quiet days. But beneath the ice, something terrifying has awakened. Could it be from the Upside Down? From the depths of Hawkins Lab? Or from somewhere else entirely? Our heroes must race to solve this mystery and save Hawkins in this untold story set in the Stranger Things universe.

So they might solve a mystery? Perhaps rewrite history? What is this, DuckTales? Well, sort of. Except for the ducks. And the large, swimmable bin filled with money.

In addition, this is – as you may be able to tell from the footage – being done with computer animation, despite being partially inspired by ’80s cartoons. The reason? Originally, the show was going to be made in the style of cartoons from the 1980s. But then they realized it was much darker, and characters might die. Because of this, they updated the look.

When Does Tales From ’85 Take Place (in the Continuity of the Show…)?

This might get a little bit of a deserved groan from you, dear reader, because yes, it takes place in 1985. And as you might have either read in the synopsis or seen in the trailer based on the snowball fights, this takes place in the winter of 1985. But for those wondering when it takes place in the continuity of the live-action show, the answer is between the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3.

More specifically, at the end of Season 2, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) sealed the gate to the Upside Down in Hawkins Lab after a legion of demodogs had invaded tunnels under the town. The final episode took place at the Snow Ball, a winter dance, so this happens after Max (Sadie Sink) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) kissed for the first time, El and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) are together, and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) have hooked up.

Season 3 kicks off the next summer with the opening of the Starcourt Mall, and the emergence of a goopy, rat-filled Mind Flayer, so we’re not quite there yet.

Point being, the Upside Down is closed off, the threat has dispersed, and mostly everyone is exploring new romantic relationships. And perhaps more importantly, they’re all still in eighth grade. Or at least, the kids are. Hopper (David Harbour) is not in eighth grade. FYI.

What’s Up With All the Monsters Then?

Great question! With previous spinoffs of Stranger Things, they’ve mostly touched on things that could maybe be supernatural but ultimately are not. Specifically any of the in-continuity Dark Horse Comics or novels will have things like Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) thinking he’s dealing with a Jason-style slasher at summer camp (he’s not), or the kids trying to find a secret treasure left by Bob Newby (Sean Astin) that isn’t really rich stuff so much as emotionally rich stuff.

The reason for that is pretty simple: If they fought monsters between seasons, why wouldn’t that come up in conversation during seasons? Tales From ’85, on the other hand, clearly has what looks like demogorgons with pumpkin heads, giant plant beasties, and more.

The answer is that Tales From ’85 exists in its own continuity. And in that continuity, Hawkins Lab is messing with the Upside Down. Showrunner Eric Robles explained to Tudum that, “All of it is still connected to the Upside Down, so there is the DNA of Upside Down creatures in all of our creatures. It’s like Hawkins Lab science meets Upside Down matter. When you put them together, those are the kinds of creatures we have in our world.”

So Wait, This Isn’t in Canon With Stranger Things?

Er, yes and no on the in canon thing. The closest comp to Tales From ’85 is The Real Ghostbusters, which Robles has noted was an inspiration for the show. Like that Ghostbusters spinoff, it didn’t do anything to contradict the live-action adventures, but also it followed its own path and ideas. So, for example, Dustin isn’t going to lose an arm on Tales From ’85, and we aren’t going to find out the Upside Down is not a wormhole – in fact, it’s likely nobody will mention wormholes at all. Probably.

So by not contradicting, one could simply imagine that fighting plant monsters before the summer of ’85 in Season 3 just never came up in conversation on screen, but they were talking about it all the time off-screen. It’s a narrative trick to allow the writers of Tales From ’85 to not be constrained in the same way that, for example, Broadway play The First Shadow had to cut out certain plot points so as to not spoil them before Season 5 of the show. Basically, it’s everything we said about the novels and comics, but with some of the restrictive guard-rails taken off.

Are Any of the Live-Action Actors Returning for Tales From ’85?

That’s a big “N-O,” good buddy. The entire voice cast of the show is new, with probably the most famous member being Jeremy Jordan – who you nerds might know as Winn from Supergirl – as the voice of Steve “The Hair” Harrington.

The Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 voice cast includes:

• Jeremy Jordan as Steve “The Hair” Harrington
• Luca Diaz as Mike Wheeler
• Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven
• Braxton Quinney as Dustin
• Elisha Williams as Lucas
• Ben Plessala as Will
• Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max
• Brett Gipson as Hopper

In addition, there will be a new character named Nikki Baxter, who is described as a tinker with pink hair. A pinker, if you will. You won’t? Okay then.

Odessa A’zion, Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips are also in the cast in undisclosed roles.

That doesn’t preclude a surprise cameo from any of the live-action cast, but they won’t be playing the roles they made famous on TV. At least part of the reason for that is likely that the “kids” don’t, uh, sound like that anymore.

Is This the Spinoff the Duffer Brothers Were Teasing in Season 5?

Nope. Tales From ’85, as mentioned, has been in the works for a while now. But the live-action spinoff the Duffers are working on that has yet to be officially announced is not the animated series. That will involve entirely different characters than Stranger Things did, and in a different setting than Hawkins. Given Tales From ’85 includes the same characters in the same place… Well, you can probably figure it out from there.

Another big clue that this animated series is not the Duffers’ live-action spinoff? One is animated, and the other is live-action. And no, this show does not Roger Rabbit it up (probably).

How Many Episodes Are in Tales From ’85? And When Does It Premiere?

Last one first! Tales From ’85 premieres on April 23 on Netflix. As of now, we don’t have any info about how many episodes the show will run, or how long the episodes will be. We also don’t know if there will be additional seasons, or if those additional seasons would also be set in 1985… While animation has a long lead time to get ready (see above re: this taking three years), it’s possible Netflix may be waiting to see how this goes before greenlighting Season 2: Tales From Slightly Later In 1985.

As for now, we’ll just have to wait for April, when we find out that life is like a hurricane, here in, Haw-kins.

Full spoilers follow for Primal Season 3, Episode 4, “Prey for the Wicked,” which is available on Adult Swim and HBO Max now.

Wow, I didn’t see this coming so soon. Fang is back! And so are her babies and Mira, all of whom we last saw in the Primal Season 2 finale back in 2022. Not only has our favorite T. rex returned, but by the end of this episode she’s been reunited with Spear… or what’s left of him, anyway.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The first three episodes of this season have taken their time just getting us acquainted with the zombie version of Spear, and while it was clear that our undead hero was looking for his lost family – and specifically for Fang – even if he wasn’t entirely conscious of it, it didn’t seem like series creator Genndy Tartakovsky was in any rush to reunite them. Yes, Tartakovsky hinted that the beautiful girl would return eventually, and a trailer gave us a glimpse of her too, but so far Primal Season 3 has very much been centered on zombie Spear, so much so that it wasn’t even clear how much time had passed since his death – er, “death” – in the Season 2 finale.

So I was a bit surprised to find that this episode opens with a flashback, and not just any flashback, but one to Spear’s funeral. How heartbreaking is it when, among the array of villagers mourning Spear, we see Mira intensely dancing in her grief? And even more touching, there’s Fang off in the distance, watching the ceremony with her babes. She might not fully understand the nature of the funeral, but she knows well enough what it means.

Months later, Fang and her (growing) offspring are living harmoniously with Mira’s people, though when a child playfully winds up straddling one of the little dinos and raises a spear a la Spear, Fang reacts badly to the sight. But it’s in this moment that she realizes that Mira is pregnant with Spear’s child, and damn if we don’t have our second tears-worthy moment in the episode as Fang starts digging a nest for Mira.

Of course, Mira and Fang are both heartbroken over the loss of Spear, and they’ve formed a close bond in the months since his death. As usual, Tartakovsky and his team of artists convey these emotions wordlessly, if not silently – never underestimate how many different meanings a growl from Fang can carry. The scenes between the two also raise the question of how exactly Mira and Fang will react when they meet the zombie version of Spear.

But first, there’s this week’s action, which involves a swarm of hateful hog-like creatures that invade Mira’s village. That they don’t straight-up kill their prey, but instead take them back to their even more horrible queen hog-like creature so that she can feast on the villagers while she nurses her giant baby-hog things… well, it’s all just a reminder of the bloody cycle of life that permeates the world of Primal.

But one of the themes of Primal has always been that friendship and love are stronger than any, well, primal instincts to survive. What purpose was left in Spear’s life, or Fang’s, after they lost their original families if they hadn’t found each other? So when Fang’s offspring make it clear that they want to be part of the search party that will attempt to rescue the missing villagers because they want to save their little human friend, you can basically see that very notion written on Mira’s face. This is what it’s all about.

So while it seemed at the start of this season as if Spear’s revival as a zombie could’ve taken place years – or many years – after his death, possibly even after the epilogue of Season 2’s finale when we met Mira and Spear’s young daughter, we now know that it’s only been a matter of months. And beyond the question of what will happen next, now that this unlikely family is finally reunited, there’s also the matter of where – and what condition – Spear will be in by the time that Season 2 epilogue comes to pass years from now. The way the scene played, Spear was gone from their lives. So now we must ask ourselves: Will Fang and Mira lose him again?

Questions and Notes From Anachronistic History

• Man, I missed Fang. Even just the way she sleeps is so cool.
• Primal’s third season has been pretty heavy so far, and while this episode is full of emotion, action, and gore, it’s also got several welcome lightweight moments, mostly courtesy of Fang’s li'l ones and the kid from Mira’s tribe who’s always getting into trouble.
• It’s great seeing the dino pups get some chomping action themselves against the pig creatures.
• And speaking of those two, they really need names at this point…
• I confess to being a little bit confused about how the old shaman from the season opener who revived Spear could’ve seen his people slaughtered prior to that episode without Mira and her crew knowing about it. No cell phones, I guess.
• Cool effect when Mira’s fellow warrior snuffs out the campfire so that they can see better in the dark, with the scene then changing from mostly blacks to shades of blue.
• What was that ritual those two village people performed on the old shaman’s staff? Hmmm…