The AEW Continental Classic is cementing itself as one of professional wrestling's biggest tournaments. When AEW President Tony Khan announced that his company would be running its first-ever round robin tournament, many fans drew comparisons to New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax. That summertime showcase has been a Far East tradition for decades. The G1's prestige has grown to the point that it is considered a career highlight just to be among the participating field, let alone win the entire thing. While the AEW Continental Classic still has years, possibly decades, until it can be spoken of in the same breath, the tournament got a big boost upon launch thanks to what will go to the victor.

Upon entering the AEW Continental Classic, NJPW STRONG Openweight and Ring of Honor World Champion Eddie Kingston declared that he will be putting both of his titles on the line. This led to the announcement that the tournament's eventual winner would become a Triple Crown Champion, officially tying themselves to all three promotions.

Rocky Romero Details AEW Continental Classic Conversations

How did New Japan Pro Wrestling get involved in the AEW Continental Classic?

Speaking to ComicBook.com, NJPW star and ambassador Rocky Romero detailed the conversation he had with AEW President Tony Khan about putting New Japan gold on the line in an All Elite tournament.

"Tony reached out and said, 'This is what I'm thinking. I think it would be cool if there was kind of a merging of the titles together in some kind of way,'" Romero recalled. "What better person and character to do that than Eddie, since he's important to both companies."

Kingston has been under AEW contract since Summer 2020 and has established himself as one of the company's hottest stars. His reach has expanded beyond his home company as well, as he is a regular on NJPW STRONG and Ring of Honor programming. Kingston's New Japan roots stretch deep, as he has touted his appreciation for the Far East style on a regular basis. He competed in the G1 Climax this past summer, finishing with eight points.

"We'll see who wins the actual tournament and who ends up with all three championships," Romero continued. "Hopefully it's somebody that's part of both companies now, New Japan and AEW."

While Kingston is the most regular competitor on both NJPW and AEW, just about every AEW Continental Classic has ties to each.

"The tournament field looks awesome. There's a lot of amazing wrestlers," Romero added. "The format of a league style is obviously kind of new in the US, if you're not a New Japan fan watching the G1. It hopefully opens the door for more people to watch New Japan and get into the G1 come summertime of next year."

The AEW Continental Classic continues this Wednesday on AEW Dynamite.

Mercedes Mon? will be back in a squared circle again soon. The former IWGP Women's Champion shared a vignette of herself resuming in-ring training last week, showcasing herself running the ropes for the first time since injuring her ankle this past May. Mon? was wrestling AEW's Willow Nightingale in the finals of a tournament to crown the inaugural NJPW STRONG Women's Champion when she hurt her ankle. This injury put Mon? on the shelf indefinitely and resulted in her not being cleared come events like AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door and AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts, two shows she was rumored to have been involved in if she was healthy.

Now that she is getting back into in-ring shape, questions are rising about where her next match will take place.

Latest on Mercedes Mon?'s NJPW Status

Whenever Mercedes Mon? steps back into the ring, it might be a surprise for everyone across the board.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, NJPW star and ambassador Rocky Romero noted that there remains "no update" on Mon?'s NJPW status.

"No update so far, but I saw the video and I liked it," Romero said of Mon?'s new vignette. "I'm glad that she's back into doing what she was put on this earth to do."

When he's not competing in the ring, Romero is one of New Japan's strongest liaisons. He helped foster NJPW's working relationship with AEW back in 2021 and played an instrumental role in bringing Mon? to the Far East when she became a free agent.

"Within a couple of months for sure," Romero said of how quickly Mon?'s debut this past January at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 came to be. "I can't remember the exact timeframe, but once we kind of all knew that we all wanted to do it, on her side and New Japan's side, everybody was in. We made some cool things happen. It worked out really easily."

Romero remains optimistic that Mon? still has more New Japan matches in her but admitted that there will be multiple companies vying for her services.

"I do hope that we would be able to work with her in the future, but she's also got so many options," Romero continued. "She's the number one free agent in the world right now, without a doubt. And I'm sure that AEW and WWE and Impact Wrestling and everybody under the sun is trying to see what Mercedes is going to do next."

These days, multiverse stories seem to be the big topic in Hollywood, but comic book films aren't the only ones tackling the subject. The Shift was released this weekend, and the faith-based sci-fi/thriller is a loose retelling of Job that follows Kristoffer Polaha (Wonder Woman 1984) as Kevin Garner, a man who travels dimensions to reunite with his true love, Molly, played by Elizabeth Tabish (The Chosen). The film also features Neal McDonough (Arrow) as the villainous "Benefactor" while Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) plays Gabriel, a friend Kevin makes in an apocalyptic landscape. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Astin and Polaha, and they believe Astin broke a world record while making the film.

"Post-apocalyptic cinema experiences are something that people are comfortable with, they like and they enjoy, but now with the way the world is trending, it somehow feels more and more kind of like immediate and relevant. And so I just felt like, I felt very mortal for most of it. You know, I'm eating all the time," Astin shared.

"I think we set a Guinness World Record for 'man on camera eating a taco and walking,'" Polaha added. "It is an amazing tracking shot. It's gotta be a minute long."

"Well Brad Pitt's eaten more than me," Astin replied, referring to Ocean's Eleven. "But walking and talking, yeah."

"You cross the street and you kind of say hello to some people," Polaha added. "In one shot," Astin confirmed. "In one shot. It's kind of brilliant," Polaha praised.

"And just as I'm ready for a gastronomic break, he like, grabs me and throws me into an alleyway," Astin shared. "Taco spins perfectly in the frame," Polaha added while both men laughed.

You can watch the interview at the top of the page.

What Movie Won the Box Office Weekend?

The Shift came in eighth at the domestic box office this weekend, earning $4.35 million.

Beyonc?'s new concert movie, Renaissance: A Film By Beyonc?, won its opening weekend at the domestic box office. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes fell to second place while the latest Godzilla movie from Japan, Godzilla: Minus One, came in at number three. Trolls Band Together scored the fourth place spot while Wish came in fifth, Napoleon came in sixth, Animal came in seventh, The Shift came in eighth, Silent Night ninth, and Thanksgiving at number ten.

Brock Heasley wrote and directed The Shift. The film stars Kristoffer Polaha, Neal McDonough, Elizabeth Tabish, Rose Reid, John Billingsley, Paras Patel, Jordan Alexandra, and Sean Astin.

The second season of Our Flag Means Death was a big one for Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill). Warning: Spoiler Alert! The pirate went through a lot this season, including losing his leg and ultimately losing his life. However, Izzy also got some tender moments this season, including getting to sing a rendition of "La Vie en Rose." O'Neill has a theatre background, but he revealed to ComicBook.com that he was nervous about the song because it had been a very long time since he sang in public.

"Do you know what? David [Jenkins] just called me, asked me if I was up to singing a song, and then landed that one straight away," O'Neill shared. "All my time playing Izzy, if I'd thought of the song for Izzy, it would never have been 'La Vie en Rose,' ever. Now, the only song I can think of for Izzy is 'La Vie en Rose.' He's brilliant at his music choices. He's got a really intuitive way of working through his music choices, David."

O'Neill continued, "I don't speak French at all, so it was an absolute nightmare learning it. My partner helped me 'cause they speak French, and my friend Jenna Russell, who's a wonderful actress in the UK, just played [?dith] Piaf so they helped me. Obviously, I destroyed all faith they have in humanity 'cause I'm terrible at languages, but we got there in the end, and I was very nervous. I haven't sang in public for over 20 years."

Con O'Neill Addresses OFMD Fan Backlash:

While some fans praised the emotional punch of Izzy's death, others were left outraged. Many fans took to social media to express their anger towards the choice to kill Izzy. During ComicBook.com's chat with O'Neill, he spoke about the fan response and his own thoughts on Izzy's ending.

"I've been told about it," O'Neill said when asked about the reactions to Izzy's death. "I always find it quite... 'cause Izzy wasn't particularly loved in Season 1, and so the overwhelming love I've had or he's had in Season 2 has taken my breath away, really. David Jenkins brought us all together. David Jenkins created the show that we all love. David Jenkins created the show that brought us the fandom and brought us... all of us."

O'Neill continued, "He didn't take it lightly. We talked about it a lot. Narratively, it made sense. I love playing Izzy with my heart and soul, and I'm sorry that people are upset. I'm genuinely sorry because I understand it. I didn't realize until Episode 6 dropped how much love there was for him. Then I started to get a bit nervous about how they would respond to Episode 8. But the reason I think it works is because David Jenkins has a plan. He has a narrative in his head, and whatever that narrative is, I'm up for it. I think Izzy's demise was although painful, essential to his narrative, so yeah."

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max.

The second season of Our Flag Means Death was a big one for Stede Bonnett (Rhys Darby) who managed to improve upon his pirate skills, which were notoriously abysmal throughout the first season. Stede even managed his first kill, and it was with a rather unusual weapon. Ned Low (Bronson Pinchot) attempted to overtake the Revenge while the crew was in the midst of celebrating Calypso's birthday. Ned shared some harsh words towards Ed/Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) which was the final straw for Stede. He made Ned walk the plank and ended up chucking a violin at his head, causing him to fall to his death. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Darby, and we asked about the violin and how many times he had to throw it.

"So it was a soft violin," Darby explained. "It was a fake one, and I threw it quite a few times because it wasn't an actual violin, it didn't throw as well. And I don't know how many people have thrown a violin at a target, but it's a weird shape, it doesn't float through the air perfectly. And yeah, I'm pretty sure that either he was actually there or there was someone there that I was throwing it at. I was definitely throwing it at someone. So it must've been him, and I think it's because it was soft and we needed to get the shot of it actually hitting him. So yeah, it was definitely about five times."

Rhys Darby Shares Hopes For OFMD Season 3:

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Things ended happily for Stede and Blackbeard in the finale of Our Flag Means Death. They decided to leave the pirate life behind and open an inn. However, Darby doesn't think that life is going to last long. In fact, he spoke to ComicBook.com about some ideas of what Stede and Ed could be getting up to in a potential third season.

"It's a difficult one," Darby began. "I don't know where they're going to go next if they carry on, because Stede has definitely had the ultimate journey. And I think there's moments where he must be pinching himself, 'This can't be right.' And I think when I think of these two characters, who are now very famous pirates in this region who think they're going to pull off being able to just open an inn and have a nice life, they're kidding themselves. And I think they're in this amazing honeymoon period where they're now going, 'Okay, we've basically gone through all of this tough stuff and together, and our relationship is at a point where we can actually now relax.' I think that's when they're going to have their hardest time because they've never had that before. And so that in itself would be fun to explore. How are they going to be together like this?"

He continued, "Is it going to work? And then at the back of their minds, they've got to be thinking, 'Wait a minute, aren't we real badass pirates? The British are not going to give up.' Everyone gets killed or taken in if you're a pirate in those days. So that, and the other element that I think Stede would be really missing - both of them - but particularly Stede, would be that he's seeing his family float off. Those are his new people, those people that really, that he loves and almost like his kids. And I think he's going to be worried, not that he's ever worried about his kids, but these people who I believe he has a connection to, and he feels responsible for them in some way, that they're going to have danger. As soon as you see that pirate ship head off, you think, 'Right well, it's literally a pirate ship, so it's going to be attacked at some point.' Now. Luckily, it's got some real kick-ass people on there now that are going to be more capable than he is."

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

Our Flag Means Death's second season recently came to an end on Max, and fans are eager to find out if the show will be getting a second season. While things did wrap up without any big cliffhangers like the show's first season, the cast clearly wants to see the show live on. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Ruibo Qian, who joined the show's second season as pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao. During in the interview, Qian shared a fun story about getting cast and revealed her fears about joining a series with such a devoted fan base. Qian also shared that she's opened to whatever might hold in Zheng's future, and talked about what it was like embodying such a well-rounded woman.

"I don't know," Qian shared. "I trust them all implicitly, the geniuses behind the series. So I'm like, 'Whatever the f*ck happens, I'm down.'I'm ready for all of it. Totally."

"Yeah, it's incredible," she added of playing Zheng. "I think that they did such a brilliant job writing this character. Even initially going into it, I personally had some reservations, not having read the rest of the script or anything, just being like, 'Well, how am I going to do this woman justice? How do I do right by her because she's a historical figure?' It's culturally, ancestrally important to me. But it all took care of itself because she is so well-rounded. There's all these aspects of her, just as in any human person, and I think it's brilliant to see how she can or cannot balance her work/life situation. It's brilliant. Yeah, it's amazing. It's such a gift as an actor to be able to do the whole gamut of emotions in that way."

Rhys Darby Shares Hopes For OFMD Season 3:

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Things ended happily for Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard/Ed (Taika Waititi) in the finale of Our Flag Means Death. They decided to leave the pirate life behind and open an inn. However, Darby doesn't think that life is going to last long. In fact, he spoke to ComicBook.com about some ideas of what Stede and Ed could be getting up to in a potential third season.

"It's a difficult one," Darby began. "I don't know where they're going to go next if they carry on, because Stede has definitely had the ultimate journey. And I think there's moments where he must be pinching himself, 'This can't be right.' And I think when I think of these two characters, who are now very famous pirates in this region who think they're going to pull off being able to just open an inn and have a nice life, they're kidding themselves. And I think they're in this amazing honeymoon period where they're now going, 'Okay, we've basically gone through all of this tough stuff and together, and our relationship is at a point where we can actually now relax.' I think that's when they're going to have their hardest time because they've never had that before. And so that in itself would be fun to explore. How are they going to be together like this?"

He continued, "Is it going to work? And then at the back of their minds, they've got to be thinking, 'Wait a minute, aren't we real badass pirates? The British are not going to give up.' Everyone gets killed or taken in if you're a pirate in those days. So that, and the other element that I think Stede would be really missing - both of them - but particularly Stede, would be that he's seeing his family float off. Those are his new people, those people that really, that he loves and almost like his kids. And I think he's going to be worried, not that he's ever worried about his kids, but these people who I believe he has a connection to, and he feels responsible for them in some way, that they're going to have danger. As soon as you see that pirate ship head off, you think, 'Right well, it's literally a pirate ship, so it's going to be attacked at some point.' Now. Luckily, it's got some real kick-ass people on there now that are going to be more capable than he is."

Are you hoping for a third season of Our Flag Means Death? If so, what do you think will happen to Stede and Ed? Tell us in the comments!

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

The second season of Our Flag Means Death has come and gone, and now fans are eager to find out if Max will be renewing the show for a third season. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Rhys Darby (Stede Bonnet), and he talked about the ending of the second season and how things left off with "a little bit of happiness." Warning: Spoilers Ahead! While Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill) sadly died, things did end happily for Stede and Blackbeard/Ed (Taika Waititi). They decided to leave the pirate life behind and open an inn. However, Darby doesn't think that life is going to last long. In fact, he has some ideas of what Stede and Ed could be getting up to in a potential third season.

"It's a difficult one," Darby began. "I don't know where they're going to go next if they carry on, because Stede has definitely had the ultimate journey. And I think there's moments where he must be pinching himself, 'This can't be right.' And I think when I think of these two characters, who are now very famous pirates in this region who think they're going to pull off being able to just open an inn and have a nice life, they're kidding themselves. And I think they're in this amazing honeymoon period where they're now going, 'Okay, we've basically gone through all of this tough stuff and together, and our relationship is at a point where we can actually now relax.' I think that's when they're going to have their hardest time because they've never had that before. And so that in itself would be fun to explore. How are they going to be together like this?"

He continued, "Is it going to work? And then at the back of their minds, they've got to be thinking, 'Wait a minute, aren't we real badass pirates? The British are not going to give up.' Everyone gets killed or taken in if you're a pirate in those days. So that, and the other element that I think Stede would be really missing - both of them - but particularly Stede, would be that he's seeing his family float off. Those are his new people, those people that really, that he loves and almost like his kids. And I think he's going to be worried, not that he's ever worried about his kids, but these people who I believe he has a connection to, and he feels responsible for them in some way, that they're going to have danger. As soon as you see that pirate ship head off, you think, 'Right well, it's literally a pirate ship, so it's going to be attacked at some point.' Now. Luckily, it's got some real kick-ass people on there now that are going to be more capable than he is."

Are you hoping for a third season of Our Flag Means Death? If so, what do you think will happen to Stede and Ed? Tell us in the comments!

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

Jon Moxley has been in the fight game for nearly two decades, but the Purveyor of Violence has no interest in slowing down. The former Dean Ambrose's career renaissance has been going strong since he hopped the guardrail at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, cementing himself as #AllElite at AEW Double or Nothing 2019. Moxley quickly established himself as a top dog of Tony Khan's start-up promotion, and within a year of his debut, Moxley was its champion. Even when the world shut down just two weeks into his reign, Moxley waved the AEW flag high throughout the empty arena era, embarking on one of the most critically-acclaimed babyface world championship reigns in recent memory.

Moxley's r?sum? has exponentially deepened since then. He reminded audiences of his reliability on multiple occasions throughout 2022 and 2023, taking AEW to the end zone when the company needed a quarterback.

"I think you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what I'm capable of. At least that's what I'm hoping for," Moxley, who turns 38 years old next Thursday, told ComicBook.com's Liam Crowley. "But then because I'm not 25 anymore, that's going to take even more work, even more effort mentally to navigate through all this. I want to get better every single year, every single month, every single day. I'm always trying to learn something. I try to surround myself with people and communicate with people that are of that same mindset."

That circle is on full-display on AEW TV. Moxley heads up Blackpool Combat Club, a faction of technically-sound professional wrestlers bent on implementing violence in their in-ring styles. Longtime friends Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli stand tall with Moxley, while the younger Wheeler Yuta sponges the knowledge of his veteran stablemates.

Even if Yuta is in a position to learn the most, Moxley admits that he himself is still a student around his younger peers.

"You never know who you're going to learn from. I have my own coaches that I make sure that are always giving me feedback and ideas," Moxley continued. "William Regal will always be a guy like that for me. Josh Barnett's another guy like that. I try to keep myself in the student role as much as possible so that I'm always learning and getting better."

"Always learning" is no hyperbole either.

"This is a Kobe Bryant quote that was really smart where he said, 'If your entire life becomes about getting better at basketball, then the whole world becomes your library,'" Moxley added. "Because then everything gets framed as like, okay, how can this make me a better basketball player?"

Moxley applies that mindset to professional wrestling. While he does have a life outside of the squared circle, Moxley takes everything that his eyes come across and thinks about it can improve his in-ring career.

"If I go to jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, sparring, training pro wrestling, talking about pro wrestling, whether I'm f--king shooting videos back and forth, even if I'm just reading a comic book, my radar is still open," Moxley explained. "Maybe this character will say something to this character and that will be an idea that I could steal and then use for pro wrestling. I'm constantly taking in information and trying to assimilate it and use it all eventually to be used in the ring.

"I don't have many interests other than just the s--t that I like. If it doesn't involve arm bars and punching people in the face and wrestling and f--king barbed wire and chairs and s--t, then it's really not that interesting to me. I pretty much just do that 24/7."

Moxley currently sits atop the Gold League of the AEW Continental Classic with six points, tied with Swerve Strickland.

This article is Part 2 of Jon Moxley's interview with ComicBook.com. For the first half, click here.

The second season of Our Flag Means Death came to an end in October, and it had a much different finale than the first season did back in March of 2022. Warning: Spoilers Ahead! While the first season of Our Flag Means Death ended with Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard/Ed (Taika Waititi) being separated, the new season ended happily for the couple, who decided to leave their pirate life behind and open an inn. However, things didn't end happily for everyone. Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill) tragically died, which caused a bit of an uproar within the fandom. Considering television shows are being unceremoniously canceled left and right, many fans are pleased things ended so well for Stede and Ed, just in case the show doesn't get a third season. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Darby, and we asked if Stede and Ed's happy ending was important to him.

"It wasn't important to me personally, but I think it's important to the show because I remember when the first season finished, there were some fans that were left heart-wrenching and yearning for the return, and then it took so long to finally come back and stuff like that," Darby explained.

"And so I think it's nice for us all, especially the fandom, to have a little bit of a breather and go, 'Oh, okay, well we can, because if it went the other way or somewhere where they were separated' ... There was definitely heartbreak with Izzy, but I think, so it's not all wonderful, but there's certainly a little bit of happiness to be had, which I think is nice. A nice little payoff," he added.

When asked if the intensity of the Our Flag Means Death fandom has surprised Darby at all, he replied, "No, nothing surprises me anymore. It's bonkers, basically, and in a good way for the most part. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised with anything really."

Con O'Neill Addresses OFMD Fan Backlash:

ComicBook.com also had the chance to chat with O'Neill, and he spoke about the fan response to Izzy's ending.

"I've been told about it," O'Neill said when asked about the reactions to Izzy's death. "I always find it quite... 'cause Izzy wasn't particularly loved in Season 1, and so the overwhelming love I've had or he's had in Season 2 has taken my breath away, really. David Jenkins brought us all together. David Jenkins created the show that we all love. David Jenkins created the show that brought us the fandom and brought us... all of us."

O'Neill continued, "He didn't take it lightly. We talked about it a lot. Narratively, it made sense. I love playing Izzy with my heart and soul, and I'm sorry that people are upset. I'm genuinely sorry because I understand it. I didn't realize until Episode 6 dropped how much love there was for him. Then I started to get a bit nervous about how they would respond to Episode 8. But the reason I think it works is because David Jenkins has a plan. He has a narrative in his head, and whatever that narrative is, I'm up for it. I think Izzy's demise was although painful, essential to his narrative, so yeah."

You can watch our interview with O'Neill at the top of the page.

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

For her performance as Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist, Linda Blair earned herself a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award, and she went on to reprise the role for 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic and had a cameo in this year's The Exorcist: Believer. While there are a number of positive experiences she earned from the role, which includes amplifying her charitable work with the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, not everything that has happened in connection with the role has been positive, as her involvement in the controversial film also saw her becoming the target of various organizations. Additionally, being such a young actor and bringing such an intense storyline to life during a much different era of filmmaking means even her firsthand experiences with director William Friedkin brought with it some unexpected challenges. The Exorcist: Deceiver is set to hit theaters on April 18, 2025. You can learn more about the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation at its official website.

"It's never going to go away. And how incredible that, years later, people are still so involved that they share the project, the movie with their friends, their children?" Blair recalled to ComicBook.com of being so closely intertwined with the film and its legacy. "It is an adult film. I actually rewatched it the other night it was on TV and I just wanted to refresh my memories. And working with Max von Sydow, working with Jason Miller, working with Billy Friedkin, and they did a tribute to Billy Friedkin and it was fascinating. It was 1973 when he did this interview talking about all his movies. That was the person I worked with, not the one 30, 40, 50 years later that people got to know and meet after he's doing operas and different things. He's a very precise director and he embedded a lot in me, good and bad, that were very difficult. The project was not easy."

She continued, "That was an extremely rare, unique novel that Bill Blatty wrote and bringing it to screen was not without a lot of complications. The industry didn't want the movie. They fought hard, they got it made. But there's a lot of things that went into that left ... There's a lot of trauma there. I'll write about that in my autobiography, if I can ever get the time, so people could better understand the journey I had to go through, and post, for me, how the public treated me, how the churches treated me, religious groups and how they run this country. They can love you and they can hang you, and it's very dangerous."

Blair pointed out how, even at such a young age, her acting and modeling opportunities were merely a pathway to secure the funds to be able to explore animal-related endeavors as an adult. She would go on to launch the WorldHeart Foundation in 2003. Even with her cameo in this year's Believer, Blair was initially involved in the project to help consult with the film's young stars, though her one scene as Regan allowed her to offer audiences some closure on the character.

"That's a lot that I learned from coming out of it and I had nothing to do with it," Blair confessed. "I hope that people realize I worked very hard. I am proud of the film."

The Exorcist: Deceiver is set to hit theaters on April 18, 2025. You can learn more about the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation at its official website.

What do you think of the actor's remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

After earning worldwide acclaim for her performance as Regan MacNeil in 1973's The Exorcist, actor Linda Blair returned to the franchise for 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic. Both Blair and Regan were largely absent from the franchise for decades, though Blair did appear in a cameo in this year's The Exorcist: Believer. With Blair's priorities being her activism work with the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, this would call into question how either she or Regan would be involved in the planned Believer sequels. In regards to whether that would mean the franchise would find a new performer to play Regan or pivot away from the character entirely for those sequels, Blair noted that she's not aware of what the filmmakers aim to accomplish, but expressed how she knows just how passionate audiences can be for specific characters and specific performers and the complications that could cause. The Exorcist: Deceiver currently has a release date of April 18, 2025. You can learn more about the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation at its official website.

"Audience-wise, it's important to pay attention to your audience. That's with many movies, when you have a company that cares about the audience, about the actors that are part of the films or if there's a trilogy or in a comic book world, you've got all the different characters. People, really, I think, besides the Joker, which has changed so many times where they're like, 'Okay,' they enjoy each one, but there are those that a certain person, a certain character, that's who they are, and they don't want to see anybody else playing that particular part," Blair confessed to ComicBook.com on the topic of recasting. "As far as the new film went, we knew that it was important. The audience made it very clear online that Regan is the film. With Ellen Burstyn, there's no finer actress. I mean, she is incredible, incredible to be around, incredible to watch her work, incredible on screen. But the audience was mad, they wanted Regan."

She added, "What the production company felt, Blumhouse and David Gordon Green, they wanted to go a little different direction but still honor the legacy of the project. They realized that we better throw Linda in there. It was a lot of ask for me, but we all made the agreement that, by doing this, that it would bring light to the animals that I am so passionate to see that change made."

Ahead of the film's release, the filmmakers confirmed that Blair served as a consultant on the project to work with the young stars of the film, given her firsthand experience of bringing such a harrowing story to life. Were the series to find a new performer to play Regan, it wouldn't be the first time, as the first season of the TV series The Exorcist revealed deep into its storyline that the character played by Geena Davis was an adult Regan whose family had once again become the target of demonic forces.

"That was the point of doing it, to give some kind of relief to the audience that I was still supporting it and that I was alive and well, and that they would follow me off-screen and realize that whether it's Regan or Linda, we're all the same, that we care about the animals, and that was the point of doing it," Blair continued. "I'm not sure they know what they're going to do with their future projects. I only know that [the Llinda Blair WorldHeart Foundation] is my passion and my work. So I'm hoping that people will help me to make the changes that need to be made. Because if you love animals, you get it, you understand it, help me to realize I can stand up against those that are bullying and causing all the trouble. I can, but I need the support. You cannot do it, you can't go this alone."

The Exorcist: Deceiver currently has a release date of April 18, 2025. You can learn more about the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation at its official website.

What would you like to see happen in the franchise's future? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

The second season of Our Flag Means Death came to an end last month, and it featured the return of everyone's favorite pirates in addition to the debut of Ruibo Qian as Zheng Yi Sao, who was based on a real pirate queen. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Qian, and she talked about the Our Flag Means Death fandom and shared the "magical story" of how she was cast in the role.

"I collect fragrances, and this beautiful, incredible indie perfumer called Marissa Zappas, she was doing a giveaway on Fragrantica, which is an online fragrance community. I never really enter these things, but she had a fragrance called 'Ching Shih,' and it was about a female pirate. I was like, 'Oh, this perfume has all my favorite notes. This sounds pretty badass.' I wrote in the comments something like, 'I'm not trying to be a pirate, but I'm Chinese, I'm turning 40, and I want to embrace that power.' And I won the perfume," Qian shared.

"So it shows up and I look up the character, and I'm like, 'This woman is f*cking badass. I would love to play the character one day. Don't know how that would happen.' And forgot about it. And then two weeks later, I'm driving into a campsite at Big Sur, and I'm losing cell phone service by the second. I get an email from my agent saying, 'Can you tape this by tomorrow morning?' And I ended up taping the audition in the tent. And then the rest is kind of history," Qian added.

"But it took me a long time to figure out that Cheng Shih and Zheng Yi Sao were the same person," she continued. "It took me way too long to figure that out. My husband was helping me tape the thing and I'm like, 'What are the chances I have this perfume about a Chinese pirate, and now I have this audition for a Chinese pirate?' Anyway. It all came together ... Yeah, it was amazing. That was the extent of the research I did, really, and from the time that I won that fragrance to the time that I was in New Zealand shooting was less than two months."

You can watch our interview at the top of the page.

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

Taika Waititi is known for directing an array of films, including Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder. Soon, the creative will be moving on to Star Wars, and he recently teased that he wants his film to feel like the original trilogy and that he hopes his movie will "piss people off." Waititi is also an actor and recently returned to the role of Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death. Waititi's character has sparked a romance with Stede Bonnet, who is played by Waititi's real-life friend, Rhys Darby. The duo have worked together on many projects over the years, so ComicBook.com wondered if Darby could be popping up in Star Wars in the future. While chatting about Our Flag Means Death's second season, we asked Darby if he's a Star Wars fan and if his relationship with Waititi has changed or grown since making Our Flag Means Death.

"I love Star Wars. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, hello?" Darby shared.

"I think we're already close and we've always had each other's back," he added when asked about his friendship with Waititi. "We've been through this kind of big journey through the entertainment world and to America and stuff together in many ways, connected. But yeah, I think these roles have definitely shown us what we're capable of in a dramatic acting way that we haven't necessarily done before, and we've really enjoyed doing those things together. So it's advanced, not so much our friendship, but just our technique and our love of that acting craft. I think that's something that's really great to go through with a friend."

Our Flag Means Death Showrunner Talks Stede and Blackbeard's Romance:

The first season of Our Flag Means Death saw Stede and Blackbeard develop a romantic relationship. Showrunner David Jenkins previously opened up to Screen Rant about the development of that romance.

"They have a chemistry with each other that, when the first time they shot together, it was obvious. It was noticeable, the chemistry that they have. It was very easy. They both played kind of a heavy scene. I think one of your first scenes, [Rhys], was that one where he's in the bathtub. Immediately it was like, 'Oh, there's a shorthand there that's really lovely.' And you don't always get to see it, because Rhys and Taika are both used to coming into a scene, killing it by being absolutely hilarious, and then leaving," Jenkins explained.

"The thing that I noticed watching it was, and I know I said it to Taika and maybe Rhys, where it was like, 'You don't have to come into the scene and kill it, because you've got 10 episodes of scenes to do that. You don't have to do everything.' Because they're just amazing and they want to come in and destroy. I think, on this, where they're both the lead and we get to see so much of them, it's nice to see them, and to look at them, and watch them think. I haven't gotten the chance to do that as a fan. So, creating those moments was absolutely a joy."

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

William Friedkin's 1973 The Exorcist is not only a monumental achievement in the world of horror, but is considered one of the greatest American films of all time, thanks in large part to the profound performance by young star Linda Blair. With the film seeing her square off against iconic actors like Max Von Sydow, Ellen Burstyn, and Jason Miller, the opportunity would be a dream come true for a thespian of any age, but Blair was conflicted between the pull of Hollywood and her devotion to helping animals. Luckily, Blair learned she could use her celebrity to amplify her work with animals, as she would go on to launch the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation in 2003.

Focusing largely on dogs, the WorldHeart Foundation details that their mission is to "alleviate suffering, while rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming abused, neglected and abandoned animals. We aid in crisis situations, while educating, encouraging, and empowering the public to make a difference in the lives of those whom have no voice."

In addition to spreading awareness about abandoned animals through her own foundation, Blair has also lent her support to various pieces of legislation to protect both wild animals and domesticated companions.

ComicBook.com caught up with Blair to talk about spreading awareness, the WorldHeart Foundation, and her connection to The Exorcist franchise.

ComicBook.com: For people who might not know the difference between your foundation and other foundations, what do you feel it is about WorldHeart that really sets itself apart from what some of these other organizations might be aiming to accomplish?

Linda Blair: It's really quite simple to explain. When I was a child, I used to tell my mother that I wanted to be a doctor to the animals, and she would smile and she'd say, "Okay." Well, that's how I got involved with doing modeling commercials out of New York. She thought it was a way for me to save my money to go to the school of my choice, deciding on what I did want to be as an adult. That's how I got started doing modeling and commercials, little movies out in New York City. I was raised in Connecticut, and it was very similar to Oregon, a lot of woods, a lot of nature, so you're interacting with nature, so you start to understand it better than, let's say, in a city.

As I got older, when The Exorcist came along, and we'll talk about that later, it changed the course of my life. But inside, my spirit never changed and I always had animals. I got very involved with horses for many, many years. Then I was doing a play in Los Angeles called Women Behind Bars, and I would leave my Jack Russell at home. I had a dog door, and, unfortunately, on one occasion I came home and she was not there. Somebody had stolen her out of my backyard. I went on every TV show, any newspaper, flyers everywhere, begging to return her, and it devastated me for life.

I got involved with a group called Last Chance for Animals run by Chris DeRose who's a former police officer, and with him, we did a lot of different investigations about pet theft, about animal experimentation. It was very hardcore learning and quite shocking but I participated in stakeouts and many different things that people wouldn't believe that that's what I was doing, but it was necessary as part of the team.

Through that, you'll meet ... The Humane Society of the United States, for instance, all of us would come across each other, the ASPCA, trying to figure out how to make things better. Their presidents change constantly, their yearly fundraising. So one year it's agriculture, one year it's horses, one year it's dogs and cats, and they changed constantly. I didn't really understand. You meet a lot of good people.

As life went on and I'm volunteering, I questioned a lot of things, where money was going and why things weren't changing fast enough, things that I felt were quite simple. We protested against puppy mills in Pennsylvania. Where were the big groups? They could shut this down immediately, but they weren't and this upset me. I remember when Best Friends started, it was just what we call "tabling," you'd sit outside a store and raise money and that's how I got to know Best Friends.

Through the years, I worked with them for a very long time, and then I realized, in order to really make change, I needed to become my own foundation, and that's when I started the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation in 2003. From there, whenever we do interviews or whenever we're working on projects, I could speak out from a corporate point of view and not just as a civilian, so to speak, saying, "I don't like this or I don't like that." You become a corporation, a nonprofit, so that you can say, "This is what I am doing and the changes I see and the public that wants to donate can know that that's where their money is going."

There's a lot of charities, and when I was fighting the breed ban in 2005 in Sacramento, what that meant was they were trying to install a breed ban where you couldn't have pit bulls anymore. I knew if that happened, it would spread across America and they would kill off a perfect breed that had done nothing wrong other than bad people getting involved, such as dog fighting. Those are the people you need to go after, not the animals. I worked with that extensively. It's "go after the criminals and leave the animals alone." They are always just the subject of abuse in those situations. It's not their fault. If you abuse a teenager or a child, they're going to come out fighting at some point. So it's the same with the animals.

That's why I fought and I won. I stopped the breed ban in Sacramento, but it couldn't stop what's called BSL, breed-specific legislation. That would be German Shepherds, that would be Huskies, that would be Mastiffs, Dobermans, Rottweilers, any big breed dogs. From there, I wasn't home even a few weeks when Hurricane Katrina happened. I was called in because pit bulls, that was my breed that I was most familiar with and that is what was the most common breed in Louisiana. I was called in there and it was very devastating. I was able to help get the remaining 350 animals out. I ended up with 51, not by choice. We traveled to Mississippi and camped out with 51 dogs until I could get transport through Texas into New Mexico. From New Mexico, I got a motor home, I used one from another rescuer, and I transported the dogs and myself into California.

It was very difficult, left anybody that went there with PTSD, there's no doubt. It was way too shocking. That's why these emergency services explained that nobody's really coming. You need to make the proper choices ahead of a fire, ahead of a flood. And so through the years, during that time, I wanted to know, "Where should I tell the public to give their money for the human side?" I dictated where I felt that the money, "This group would delve out the money properly. This one, eh, not so sure." That's where everybody's questions lie years later. There's so many charities, whether they're animals, human, children, seniors, environment, and you need to do your due diligence to know who they are.

With me, people know who I am, they can see very well what I stand for. I was an environmentalist first, became a vegan. I wrote a book called Going Vegan, and it's for the sustainability of the planet, our oceans, our land, how we farm the animals.

I was watching a story the other day, they just rounded up the last of the mustangs in Colorado. It's not fair. There's plenty of land, but the farmers want it for cattle, and they took away the last of the mustangs. This needs to be looked into, and those are the people that I work with, the why and how to stop it because it's not fair. The mustangs were there way before the cattlemen were farming cattle. We need to cut back on the meat because there's a lot of questions on health, the connection, and that's why those of us that are vegetarian and vegan want to make a more sustainable planet and help people understand.

You've accomplished so much as a spokesperson for WorldHeart and I know you mentioned how, when you were a kid, you wanted to become a veterinarian. When you look back on your career, are there times where you wish that you had pursued a career in veterinary medicine? Or do you now see how much good, if not directly healing animals, seeing what you've been able to do through the WorldHeart Foundation, would you trade careers if you could do it all over again?

It's a question that I've asked myself many times. There was no choice on how my life went. It wasn't a choice. When we did The Exorcist and the world fame, popularity that came from it, but it was also so controversial because people didn't understand me.

Warner Bros. sent me all around the world; England, Australia, Japan. It was a different time. It was still very old-fashioned. For instance, when I went to Japan, they didn't speak English and I had to have an interpreter and it turned out she was a 15-year-old girl that was Warner Bros.' daughter, and she was the interpreter because she spoke English. I had to wear a kimono, it was very strict. A lot of people don't realize just 50 years ago how times were so different.

As it goes with the business, once you get that fame, the industry puts you to work. So the next movie I did was Born Innocent, which is about child abuse. Then [Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic], which was about teenage alcoholism. I opened up a whole world to everyone that none of us really knew. I was too young. We didn't know about child abuse and then laws were changed because of those movies and awareness was made of teenagers that we're becoming alcoholics. None of us knew.

I'm proud of the work, but my heart, as time went on, said, "But what about me? I still want to do more." I pursued my interest with veterinary medicine and with showing horses, I trained and showed horses, so I was working with the best and I was training for the Olympics. I was like, "Okay, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to just go into the world of horses." And we fought many laws. Stefanie Powers and I were part of the law that stopped the slaughter of horses for human consumption. They were sending them overseas to France and Japan. We were part of that law that made such a difference back then, but maybe 10 years ago, they overturned it.

It's a very political arena that we're in with the animals. I have continued my studies. Constantly, I work very closely with good vets. It's an interest that, some people like human anatomy, I like animal anatomy. I work very hard on the cancer, what was bringing in cancer and other illnesses with animals. And we found ... It's the food. Straightforward, it's the food. And I talk about it as much as I can with the foundation.

But you want a bigger audience so I can help more animals. That's really my frustration is that I want to help more, and all of this can change very simply, but we're fighting politics. There's a lot of politicians. There's a lot of large groups that are stopping the forward movement to make great change.

With the food companies, every corporation wants to have so many products in their corporation. They'll buy a brand name or they'll add a brand that they think would be good for their company. Again, it's just business, but it's not for the animals or it's not for people. Because people think, "Oh, well, it must be okay if this company owns it," but it doesn't mean that it is.

I try to promote products that I use and how I feed my dogs and how I've eliminated the cancer or reduced it in my feeding program. I would love to share it with all, but it's very difficult to get the attention. I always say to people, "Do you have a sick animal? By all means, email us and I'll talk to you the best I can about what my beliefs are that will help you to have a little longer time with your best friend."

You're so passionate about so many different causes with the environment, with animals, and you also know the importance of reaching as large an audience as possible, and your career in Hollywood has amplified your voice more than maybe some other activists. Since you have so many passions in various realms, do you think there's a project where you could finally blend together all of these different passions of yours, between the animals, veganism, the environment, the food, and then also just your passion for Hollywood and telling stories and acting? Is there a dream project that you haven't gotten to bring to life quite yet?

That's a wonderful question, and thank you. I had several projects at studios and when I was developing projects, they were what I felt my fans would like, but also something that meant something to the greater good. For various reasons, they weren't made, but we were in development. I was doing the show Scariest Places on Earth for Fox Family Channel. Fox Family Channel, I had, also, a two-movie deal with, and it was all good. Everything was moving forward in the direction I wanted, and they suddenly sold out of the blue. Fox Family just sold the company, and some of it went to Disney, some of it went other areas. Scariest Places went to Disney and they said, "We don't do reality TV," which is what they called it back then, "and therefore we're not going to move forward with it."

That was the same time I was fighting the breed ban, fighting down in Hurricane Katrina. When I got back from all of that, it took about a year before realizing, "Okay, things are needing to change. I need to get property to care for these animals properly." I bought this property with a plan of two years, change the laws, get to the bottom of all of this and educate people and then get back to work.

I am going on to my 17th anniversary, December 5th. I am very frustrated. I am sad. Do I miss work? Absolutely. Do I believe things can change? Yes, but I don't know how much longer that I can keep holding on. Work was always how I supplemented and helped my causes, and without having that income, I rely strictly on the public. I take care of my stuff, but I need the public to help me with this journey.

I feel that the project I created in the last two years, it's a competition game, animal-loving show with so many different elements, I didn't miss a beat. We have started to pitch at different studios, but the strike made it very, very difficult. Coming out of it, that's where we're at. I'm hoping that I can get to a good production company, to a good studio, and they will see what I see, that this would make great change for the animals, and it's entertainment and it's fun and it's real and it's loving and it's just a wonderful show. I'm hoping that I can get it produced and that the public will have something that they can enjoy and love.

Those of us that love our animals and understand, created by humans for humans, they're our best friends. They're there for us through thick and thin, and they serve us in every capacity. That's the changes that I want to see.

We have a great loss of veterinarians right now. They don't want to work for corporations. They find out when they get out of school, "Oh, wait, it's not quite what I thought, the job market." We're losing a lot of veterinarians in California, so we don't have the access to spay and neuter, vaccinations. What happened is there's an enormous amount of unwanted litters. There's people that are frustrated, losing their homes. They are literally dumping animals in the desert. They're tying horses to trees to let them die. It's really bad what's going on.

That's why I wrote to the governor a 14-page document outlining what laws could be supported, what could be done, but it must change. We are at an emergency crisis here and across the country, and all of us in rescue work together the best we can, with the shelters. The shelters, they started in 1860s, the Animal Protection League, and it was meant to help do spay and neuter, vaccinations, return animals home, and to stop the overpopulation back then. Years later, it's worse than ever. It's very sad, and that's what I'm fighting for right now, is to get everybody to understand what's happening and how they can support and help us to make change.

Something that's very clear from talking to you is how passionate you are about the animals, first and foremost, the top priority. Since you do have this built-in following from The Exorcist, and people were surprised to see you show up in The Exorcist: Believer this year when you were initially on set to just help work with the young stars of that movie. Now there's two more movies that are on the way and it sounds to me like your priority is not so much two Exorcist movies so much as these animal causes. I know they're still developing whatever they're developing, so for you, would you rather see a path forward where a new actor who you're a fan of comes in and takes over as Regan if they want to keep her a character in these upcoming movies? Or would you rather say, "I have a personal connection to this character, I'm focusing on the animals. Let's just pivot away from those characters," with those movies that they're working on in the future?

The reason I'm laughing is because I've heard everything since 1973 through the years. Audience-wise, it's important to pay attention to your audience. That's with many movies, when you have a company that cares about the audience, about the actors that are part of the films or if there's a trilogy or in a comic book world, you've got all the different characters. People, really, I think, besides the Joker, which has changed so many times where they're like, "Okay," they enjoy each one, but there are those that a certain person, a certain character, that's who they are, and they don't want to see anybody else playing that particular part.

As far as the new film went, we knew that it was important. The audience made it very clear online that Regan is the film. With Ellen Burstyn, there's no finer actress. I mean, she is incredible, incredible to be around, incredible to watch her work, incredible on screen. But the audience was mad, they wanted Regan.

What the production company felt, Blumhouse and David Gordon Green, they wanted to go a little different direction but still honor the legacy of the project. They realized that we better throw Linda in there. It was a lot of ask for me, but we all made the agreement that, by doing this, that it would bring light to the animals that I am so passionate to see that change made.

That was the point of doing it, to give some kind of relief to the audience that I was still supporting it and that I was alive and well, and that they would follow me off-screen and realize that whether it's Regan or Linda, we're all the same, that we care about the animals, and that was the point of doing it.

I'm not sure they know what they're going to do with their future projects. I only know that this is my passion and my work. So I'm hoping that people will help me to make the changes that need to be made. Because if you love animals, you get it, you understand it, help me to realize I can stand up against those that are bullying and causing all the trouble. I can, but I need the support. You cannot do it, you can't go this alone.

That brief appearance that you got to have as Regan, what did it mean for you? After the weight of your connection to The Exorcist for the past 50 years and you just took this gig when you were a young girl and you've accomplished so much and you came back for the first sequel, but everyone wants you for more movies. Emotionally speaking, what was that like to give this send-off to Regan and to get to share that moment with Ellen so that you can move on and focus your life back once again more on the animals than the connection to The Exorcist?

It's never going to go away. And how incredible that, years later, people are still so involved that they share the project, the movie with their friends, their children? It is an adult film. I actually rewatched it the other night it was on TV and I just wanted to refresh my memories. And working with Max von Sydow, working with Jason Miller, working with Billy Friedkin, and they did a tribute to Billy Friedkin and it was fascinating. It was 1973 when he did this interview talking about all his movies. That was the person I worked with, not the one 30, 40, 50 years later that people got to know and meet after he's doing operas and different things. He's a very precise director and he embedded a lot in me, good and bad, that were very difficult. The project was not easy.

That was an extremely rare, unique novel that Bill Blatty wrote and bringing it to screen was not without a lot of complications. The industry didn't want the movie. They fought hard, they got it made. But there's a lot of things that went into that left ... There's a lot of trauma there. I'll write about that in my autobiography, if I can ever get the time, so people could better understand the journey I had to go through, and post, for me, how the public treated me, how the churches treated me, religious groups and how they run this country. They can love you and they can hang you, and it's very dangerous.

That's a lot that I learned from coming out of it and I had nothing to do with it. I hope that people realize I worked very hard. I am proud of the film. It is an adult film and it's about good and evil, and that's what we're fighting right now, with the war and Israel. I wish that people could be more compassionate with each other.

I think people are starting to be ... They're confused and we all are. How could the world be getting as difficult as it is and why does it seem like the harder you try to do something good, it's a challenge? But good will always win over evil. And this has got to be the mentality that we all pull together and say, "We can do this. We can make change. We want positive. We don't want this negative." All of those that are doing wrong, the evil, they're damaged, they're all damaged people, and we are just the product in the way of their anger, and we've got to change this. And the only ones that can do it are the governments in fighting back, but we all need to be more kind to each other.

During this holiday season, get involved with a charity, volunteer. I don't care if it's children, I don't care if it's seniors, the environment, animals. Get involved, give your time, your finances, whatever you can do to help groups that you believe in to make the changes that are necessary.

I was part of Greenpeace for years, and then they dissolved and went into [the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society]. Paul Watson is his name and he's an incredible, incredible man, and certainly one of my mentors. But he's fighting for the oceans and to stop the slaughter of the whales. People don't realize how it's all connected and you don't get to go slaughter the ocean's creatures. You just don't. Enough is enough.

Just get involved, volunteer, help as you can. It's people that are struggling. I'm one of the first that used to tell people it was okay. I worked with Feed the Children, I worked with food banks way before it was okay. People were too humble to go and ask for help, and I'm like, "No." I went on TV and radio and everything, made appearances. "It's okay to ask for help. Let's donate to the food kitchens."

My mother used to volunteer at the food kitchen in Connecticut, and so she taught me how to give back and that these things are okay, and not everybody has as much, either privilege or opportunity, so you need to help them. And that's why I am like I am. You can thank my mother. And my dad was a Navy pilot, so he was military. So you've got somebody that's very military and very compassionate, and that's who I am. I haven't stopped yet. I'm like a superhero, but you don't need to be a superhero. And even superheroes fall on their knees and need help. And I'm asking for help for the animals and the environment.

You can learn more about the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation at its official website.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.

The second season of Our Flag Means Death came to an end last month, and the season saw the return of many fan-favorite characters in addition to some exciting newcomers. Ruibo Qian joined the cast as the private queen, Zheng Yi Sao, who was a real-life woman conqueror. In the new season, Zheng sparks up a romance with Oluwande (Samson Kayo), but the first season left another Oluwande romance up in the air after he kissed his best pal, Jim (Vico Ortiz). It's no secret the Our Flag Means Death fandom is extremely vocal, so when ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Qian, we asked if she was worried about how the fans would react to Zheng and Oluwande's romance.

"Oh, absolutely. I was like, 'I'm going to incur some serious wrath. I know. No. I'm so sorry,'" Qian recalled. However, many fans ended up shipping Zheng and Oluwande while Jim also got a new love interest, Archie (Madeleine Sami).

"And just so appreciative of the level of diversity on all fronts, from a gender perspective ... all of it. I think it's so brilliant and exactly the kind of humor and the kind of storytelling that I myself lean into. Yeah. It's been incredible," Qian when asked about being in such a diverse show that's also known for its queer representation.

"I think some of the existing crew had briefed me on the enthusiasm of the fandom, but any kind of briefing cannot prepare you for what it actually is. It's been so amazing, so humbling, and I'm so grateful. The fans are incredible and the art is incredible, and it's just such a beautiful, beautiful community."

You can watch Qian's interview with ComicBook.com at the top of the page.

Con O'Neill Addresses OFMD Fan Backlash:

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Sadly, Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill) did not survive the Our Flag Means Death finale. While some fans praised the emotional punch of Izzy's death, others were left outraged. SOme fans took to social media to express their anger towards the choice to kill Izzy. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with O'Neill and he spoke about the fan response and his own thoughts on Izzy's ending.

"I've been told about it," O'Neill said when asked about the reactions to Izzy's death. "I always find it quite... 'cause Izzy wasn't particularly loved in Season 1, and so the overwhelming love I've had or he's had in Season 2 has taken my breath away, really. David Jenkins brought us all together. David Jenkins created the show that we all love. David Jenkins created the show that brought us the fandom and brought us... all of us."

O'Neill continued, "He didn't take it lightly. We talked about it a lot. Narratively, it made sense. I love playing Izzy with my heart and soul, and I'm sorry that people are upset. I'm genuinely sorry because I understand it. I didn't realize until Episode 6 dropped how much love there was for him. Then I started to get a bit nervous about how they would respond to Episode 8. But the reason I think it works is because David Jenkins has a plan. He has a narrative in his head, and whatever that narrative is, I'm up for it. I think Izzy's demise was although painful, essential to his narrative, so yeah."

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

After a long wait, Our Flag Means Death finally returned for its second season on Max. The season came to an end in October and featured some big surprises. Warning: Spoilers Ahead! After Prince Ricky Banes (Erroll Shand) destroys Zheng Yi Sao's (Rubio Qian) fleet, the pirates fight against Banes' men in an attempt to return to The Revenge, which wasn't harmed along with the other ships. Sadly, Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill) was shot by Banes during their escape and he died in Blackbeard/Ed's (Taika Waititi) arms. While some fans praised the emotional punch of Izzy's death, others were left outraged. Many fans took to social media to express their anger towards the choice to kill Izzy. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with O'Neill and he spoke about the fan response and his own thoughts on Izzy's ending.

"I've been told about it," O'Neill said when asked about the reactions to Izzy's death. "I always find it quite... 'cause Izzy wasn't particularly loved in Season 1, and so the overwhelming love I've had or he's had in Season 2 has taken my breath away, really. David Jenkins brought us all together. David Jenkins created the show that we all love. David Jenkins created the show that brought us the fandom and brought us... all of us."

O'Neill continued, "He didn't take it lightly. We talked about it a lot. Narratively, it made sense. I love playing Izzy with my heart and soul, and I'm sorry that people are upset. I'm genuinely sorry because I understand it. I didn't realize until Episode 6 dropped how much love there was for him. Then I started to get a bit nervous about how they would respond to Episode 8. But the reason I think it works is because David Jenkins has a plan. He has a narrative in his head, and whatever that narrative is, I'm up for it. I think Izzy's demise was although painful, essential to his narrative, so yeah."

You can watch our interview with O'Neill at the top of the page.

Our Flag Means Death Showrunner Talks Stede and Blackbeard's Romance:

The first season of Our Flag Means Death saw Stede (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard (Waititi) develop a romantic relationship. Showrunner David Jenkins previously opened up to Screen Rant about the development of that romance.

"They have a chemistry with each other that, when the first time they shot together, it was obvious. It was noticeable, the chemistry that they have. It was very easy. They both played kind of a heavy scene. I think one of your first scenes, [Rhys], was that one where he's in the bathtub. Immediately it was like, 'Oh, there's a shorthand there that's really lovely.' And you don't always get to see it, because Rhys and Taika are both used to coming into a scene, killing it by being absolutely hilarious, and then leaving," Jenkins explained.

"The thing that I noticed watching it was, and I know I said it to Taika and maybe Rhys, where it was like, 'You don't have to come into the scene and kill it, because you've got 10 episodes of scenes to do that. You don't have to do everything.' Because they're just amazing and they want to come in and destroy. I think, on this, where they're both the lead and we get to see so much of them, it's nice to see them, and to look at them, and watch them think. I haven't gotten the chance to do that as a fan. So, creating those moments was absolutely a joy."

Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the show's cast.

Matt Reeves' The Batman was released last year, and it saw Robert Pattinson taking on the role of the titular hero. The DC film was mostly a hit with critics and audiences, and DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn confirmed earlier this year that a sequel to The Batman is still in the works. While fans wait for Part II, a new show set in the same universe is heading to Max. The Penguin will see the return of Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot. Now, fans are wondering who else might pop up in the show. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Con O'Neill about his role as Izzy Hands in Our Flag Means Death, but many will also know the actor as Chief Mackenzie Bock from The Batman. While O'Neill didn't say if he'd be appearing in The Penguin, he did tease the inevitable return of his character.

"You'll see Bock in one form or another," O'Neill teased. "Soon-ish," he added. "That's all I'm allowed to say, really."

O'Neill continued, "But yeah, listen, do you know what? I loved The Batman. I'm a Batman guy, always have been. Batman, Spider-Man, they were my things when I was growing up. I thought Matt wrote a beautiful script to a great movie, and I thought Rob smashed it out of the f*cking park. So I would absolutely be delighted to go back and do some more. I'm really proud of the movie, and I think they've really landed on something special with this version of Batman."

You can watch our interview with O'Neill at the top of the page.

What Is The Penguin About?

According to Max's Sarah Aubrey, The Penguin is going to further flesh out the seedy underbelly of Gotham and Oswald's inner circle.

"The goal of this show is to what Oz's life is like and that's very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can," Aubrey said. "As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It's a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It's very much going to be about Gotham at that street level because he's not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have."

Matt Reeves previously spoke about The Penguin and teased what Farrell's return to the role and spoke about working with producer Dylan Clark and showrunner Lauren LeFranc.

"Colin exploded off the screen as the Penguin in The Batman, and having the chance to thoroughly explore the inner life of that character on HBO Max is an absolute thrill," Reeves explained. "Dylan and I are so excited to work with Lauren in continuing Oz's story as he grabs violently for power in Gotham."

DC's The Penguin is expected to premiere in late 2024 on Max with The Batman -- Part II currently scheduled to hit theaters on October 3, 2025. You can watch Con O'Neill in Our Flag Means Death on Max.

Bruce Campbell has had multiple roles in multiple Marvel movies directed by Sam Raimi, from Spider-Man to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, it sounds like it may have actually been one recurring role. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Campbell ahead of the debut of his new show, Discontinued. During the interview, ComicBook.com asked about the theory that Campbell is a version of Mysterio, the illusionist villain played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man: Far From Home, from somewhere else in the multiverse, a theory that stems from Raimi's supposed plans to have Campbell play Mysterio Spider-Man 4, before the film was ultimately scrapped in favor of a franchise reboot. Campbell answered the question by first suggesting we may be overestimating his knowledge of the Marvel universe.

"You're assuming that I know anything about Marvel lore, and I appreciate that," Campbell said. "I watched Doctor Strange in a movie theater, and I was like, 'What the flying hell are they talking about?" And then there was a guy who was an assistant type guy, and I was talking to him about it, and I go, 'Man, there's a lot of words, a lot of dialogue,' and he goes, 'Oh, no, no. I needed all of that. I needed to know all of that. I'm so grateful for that movie.' And I'm like, 'OK pal.' So, yeah, I don't know."

Bruce Campbell is a Part of Marvel's Multiverse.

Despite that, Campbell explained that his cameos in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are all connected through the multiverse. "The cameos are like, in the Spider-Man movies -- if you know anything about the multiverse, you know now, retroactively, I'm in the multiverse now because of Doctor Strange. I'm not a pizza vendor, OK? That would be a massive mistake to think I'm just a pizza vendor, or an usher, or a ring announcer, or a ma?tre d'. It's called the multiverse, my friend. So, yes, he is the same character, but we don't know who he really is. It has not been revealed yet. I just got off the phone with the guys at Marvel, and we're getting close to finding out."

Does that mean he is a version of Mysterio from somewhere in the multiverse? Perhaps the same universe that Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, comes from? "I can't confirm or deny," Campbell says.

Bruce Campbell hosts Discontinued

Discontinued will premiere on Maximum Effort Channel on Fubo this Thursday, November 30th at 8:00 PM ET. Starting the following week, episodes will move to Wednesdays (12/6 being the first) at 9:00 PM ET. Maximum Effort Channel, curated by Ryan Reynolds and the Maximum Effort team in partnership with Fubo, is available to watch on Fubo as well as Amazon Freevee, LG Channels, Plex, Sling Freestream, Tubi, VIDAA, VIZIO Watchfree+ and Xumo Play.

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy movies are currently streaming on Netflix and Disney+. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is streaming on Disney+.

Few professional wrestlers possess the work ethic of Jon Moxley. The Cincinnati native has been all gas, no brakes since shedding his Dean Ambrose skin back in May 2019, with only a life-threatening staph infection taking him away from the ring since joining AEW upon the company's inaugural event. Moxley has headlined pay-per-views, reigned with the AEW World Championship on three occasions (an AEW record), and has constantly re-cemented himself as AEW's most reliable performer.

"I don't want to waste any time," Moxley told ComicBook.com's Liam Crowley. "I've definitely felt like I've been along for the ride and done the making towns, rockstar lifestyle thing for periods of time, and I've had a great time, but really I've wasted some time not necessarily growing and getting better. I don't want that to ever happen again. This could all get taken away at any moment. I could fall and crack my head open and be done tomorrow. I think I probably still got a hell of a lot of years left."

Moxley specifically has redefined what it means to maximize your minutes. Following AEW All Out 2022, Moxley was scheduled to take time off, but various suspensions and injuries within AEW's main event picture necessitated a top guy to step up.

"I feel like I thrive in those situations," Moxley said. "Scramble to the f--king jets and get Moxley in the air. Oh f--k, we don't have a main event. You've got to make people care about this and make this a main event in a week. I just pull main events out of my a-- when I'm in those situations. I feel more comfortable when I'm the guy with the ball in the fourth quarter. It's hard to not want to grab the ball and take the shot myself."

Those fourth quarters seem to come around for Moxley every couple of months. He put AEW on his back throughout the pandemic era, reigning with the AEW World Title "at a time when the world needed heroes." He saved AEW's summer in 2022 when the then-champion went down with a short-term injury. He paused his personal life in an effort to course-correct AEW following the aforementioned AEW All Out controversy. One common denominator in these next-man-up opportunities has been CM Punk, the polarizing former AEW star who recently returned to WWE.

"You don't want to know what I think. I didn't see it," Moxley said of Punk's "I'm home" promo on WWE Monday Night Raw. "You do not want to know what I think (laughs)."

It's been 14 months since Moxley's rain-checked his vacation, and he's still in no rush to reschedule.

"I don't even think I was going to go anywhere. I don't know, maybe at some point [I'll take time off]. I guess I feel that there's always something to do," Moxley said. "Oh, we need a main event. Oh, we got this Continental Classic. There's always something around the corner."

That Continental Classic is the latest high-octane environment Moxley is testing himself in. The round-robin tournament kicked off earlier this month, boasting a roster of 12 of AEW's best in-ring talents.

"We're only a couple days into it. It hasn't really formed an identity yet," Moxley explained. "I think it'll be the thing where all the talents involved and the human stories that play out throughout this thing and the excitement of the matches and so forth. I think that'll just kind of have to take on a life of its own. Right now, we've just created this monster, this animal, and set it free. We're waiting to see what it does.

"If it was going to be good and if it was going to become a thing that you'd want to become a part of in the future and be the thing that was a marquee event and something that wrestlers wanted to do in the future, we had to make it good. My only job is really to wrestle my ass off. That's easy enough. I can handle that. That's pretty much everybody's job. I think just straight-up in-your-face, one-on-one wrestling with a clear result is something that we need to always do. I think that's something we were founded on."

While tournaments have become commonplace in AEW, the Continental Classic is being built unlike anything else. The round-robin nature draws immediate parallels to New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax, a summertime showdown that is widely regarded as wrestling's most prestigious tournament.

"It's a completely different product, a completely different business plan, a completely different universe over there, comparing New Japan and American television," Moxley detailed. "You're not encumbered by commercial breaks. There's more shows right in a row. You're not at the mercy of a television schedule or anything. It is a little bit more of a challenge to do it on the television format as opposed to just once the G1 is going, it's just going and you're in."

Having the ability to compare the two is another reason why Moxley stands out in the AEW Continental Classic field. Moxley competed in NJPW's G1 Climax back in 2019, finishing with 10 points.

"I think I'm a lot better since then. I think I went into that with a lot of letting it play out and I just basically went in with nothing but my instincts," Moxley shared. "But I feel like I'm a lot smarter and have a lot more weapons and tools now four years later, but I like to get a chance to do something similar now. Something to really sink my teeth into and all these different opponents that have totally different styles to do all this different stuff. I feel even more prepared."

Moxley currently sits atop the Gold League with three points thanks to his pinfall victory over Mark Briscoe, a first-time matchup.

"Just the joy of going to the ring with a guy who's been doing it for over 20 years who's a total pro and just going out there with no stress, not having to talk a bunch or anything, and just go into the ring and letting a match happen," Moxley pointed to the tournament's ability to create fresh matches. "It was a rare thing to be able to do that. It is a real joy. It was in a great city like Chicago, too. So far it's been just a really enjoyable experience for me."

Ground-and-pound singles contests are a bit of a change of pace for Moxley as well. The "Purveyor of Violence" and "Death Rider" nicknames were not given to him hyperbolically, as Moxley has reminded audiences in his current run of what he's capable of in a death match capacity.

Moxley's violent style has raised the bar for death matches within AEW, and the company's roster has not shied away from the challenge of meeting it.

"I actually missed it. I had to catch up on it later," Moxley said of Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page's critically acclaimed Texas Death Match at AEW Full Gear earlier this month. "But that's an awesome thing where those Texas Death Matches have become kind of a go-to match for us for the ultimate, end-of-the-road match. That's the cool thing. We have to deliver on that and as the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher, it takes more creativity and everything to keep pushing the boundaries."

To Moxley, matches like Swerve vs. Hangman exemplify what makes AEW different from any other promotion in the game right now.

"When it comes to matches like that, that's one small thing that we can do differently than anybody else in this s--t. That was one thing I remember, telling (AEW President) Tony [Khan] that when I first came in. 'If you're going to put me in one of these matches, be careful what you wish for because I am not in the business of under-delivering.' I'm not spitting some taglines of like, I'm going to crush your skull with my fingers and pull out your eyeballs and all this s--t and then we're not going to do it," Moxley detailed. "AEW has been able to consistently deliver on that. I think it's very important for us to always remember where this started in the first place, which was the need in the industry for an alternative. We should always be different. We should always be thinking about what we can deliver that nobody else can. Otherwise, we're just another wrestling company, of which there have been a million.

"Not every single match needs to be chopping each other's heads off. But that's one small thing and I definitely feel like I've definitely held up my end on that in that small area of the business. If you can't be the first in a category, create a new category in which you can be the first."

When he's not chopping heads off, Moxley is doing quite the opposite backstage. Moxley has cemented himself as a leader in the AEW locker room, helping mentor younger talent by enriching their wrestling minds. For that reason, Moxley makes an effort to carry his behind-the-scenes values into his on-screen promos.

"There are people that will take what you say seriously and whether you like it or not, when you're at this level in the major leagues, you set an example for people, for the kind of person that you want to be and the kind of message you want to send and so forth," Moxley noted. "That has to be on your mind. If I go out there and the things I say and the things I do don't match up with who I am in real life, there's a problem there. There's athletes in the back and young athletes that I set an example for. There's kids I trained with that I set an example for. It's kind of always growing into that where it's kind of always peripherally on my mind, but I don't really think about it."

Moxley returns to the ring this Wednesday, November 29th when he faces Jay Lethal in another AEW Continental Classic contest on AEW Dynamite, airing at 8 p.m. ET on TBS.

Walt Disney Animation Studios recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The studio marked this milestone in various ways ranging from the short film Once Upon a Studio to the new animated feature, Wish. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wish producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones as well as directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. They all shared how they celebrated the company's big birthday and talked about Disney's history. For fun, we asked the creatives which animated Disney characters they'd most want to hang out with, and they all gave some good answers.

"Well, I mean, I feel like I'm a broken record because I always talk about them. But the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty. I also want to have tea and coffee with them because that's what they do. And I also want to steal their wand and make it yellow," Lancaster Jones shared.

"Look, only because I spent many years of my life, I'd like to sit down with Anna and Elsa," Del Vecho shared.

Frozen ended up being a popular answer, with Veerasunthorn saying, "I think I'll hang out with Olaf ... Yeah, he's funny. He's positive. He likes summer. I love snow cones. There are many things we can do, having fun with each other."

Buck, who co-directed Frozen and Frozen II, had some different ideas.

"I'm not going to say Olaf because I hung out with Olaf for about eight years, so I'm good. I'm trying to think of who would be like just... oh, just some of them would be so quirky."

After some more thought, he finally landed on his answer. "Baloo. I used it earlier, but he's also a great character to hang out. I mean, that's what he does. The first time you meet him, he's hanging."

"It seems like someone you can take a nap on," Veerasunthorn added.

"Float down the river. Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me?" Buck replied.

You can check out the interviews at the top of the page.

Will Jennifer Lee Co-Direct Frozen III?

ComicBook.com also spoke to Disney's Chief Creative Officer and co-director of Frozen and Frozen II, Jennifer Lee, about Wish. During the interview, we asked if directing was still on the table considering her current role at Disney.

"Well, I definitely know that I want to go back to filmmaking at some point," Lee explained. "I'm getting older, but I'm not old yet. Depends on who you ask. The Frozens were the only two I got to do, and I never really got to do a film from scratch. Wish is the closest thing to that, because Wreck-It Ralph, I was brought; on Frozen, I was brought on; Zootopia, I was brought on. So that is a hunger for me, and at some point, I definitely will go back. Right now, I'm having so much fun with the new generation. I do get to be a part of every film. I do get to be a part of Frozen. It all feels great. But yeah, it's there. I think I'll know the right moment."

"The only thing I can say is Bob has announced there's more Frozen. And I'll say what we are working on, I am very, very, very excited about. That's all I can say," Lee teased when talking to ComicBook.com in another interview back in September.

Wish is now playing in theaters. Which Disney character would you want to hang out with? Tell us in the comments!

Wish is now playing in theaters as Walt Disney Studios Animation Studios celebrates 100 years. Wish follows Asha (Ariana DeBose) as she learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler, Magnifico (Chris Pine). ComicBook.com had the chance to interview DeBose, and she talked about working in animation and revealed her go-to Disney karaoke song. During the chat, DeBose also opened up about loving Disney as a kid.

"Yes. Oh, I was a Disney kid," DeBose shared. "I wore out my VHS's of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. My grandmother was very annoyed with me. But I don't know. Every step in my journey, every chapter of my life, there's been a Disney animated film. A character that has taught me a lesson, inspired me, reminded me of something, or even just reminded me to believe in myself. And it didn't matter for me, at least at the time, I could always see within the storytelling that even if they looked different from me, that there was something that connected us all in a way. Which I think is cool, because you really get that in Wish. We're all stars and we're all native of stardust. And I was like, it sounds cerebral and magical, but it also feels true."

You can watch our interview with DeBose at the top of the page.

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish here: In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Wish is now playing in theaters.

Wish is now playing in theaters, and the film is currently getting mixed reactions, earning a 50% critics score and 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie lost the holiday weekend box office to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, but you never know what kind of box office life an animated film may have over time. Disney is no stranger to sequels, and some fans may be wondering if Asha (Ariana DeBose) could be seen again in the future. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wish directors, Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, and we asked if a sequel could be on the horizon.

"One never knows," Buck said coyly when asked about a Wish sequel.

As for the directors' next projects, Veerasunthorn is just excited to share Wish with the world.

"Wow. At this moment that we just finished Wish... I just want to live in this moment as the film's about to come out into the world. I'm so excited for people to see this, to experience all the hope, the joy, the inspiration, all the things that Disney movies have been giving me throughout my life. And I hope people take that away from this film as well."

"And then after that, she wants a nap," Buck joked. "Yeah, I do want that. That sounds great," Veerasunthorn replied.

Wish Directors Reveal How They Celebrated Disney's 100th:

"We had a little thing across the lot," Buck shared with ComicBook.com. "There was a 100th celebration just a few weeks ago, and everybody could sign this big kind of fairytale book. And this is just a personal thing, and I wrote on it, it was to Walt, and I said, 'Thank you for making my life so magical.' Yeah, because a lot of people say, 'Thank you for making my childhood so magical.' And I'm like, no, he made my whole life magical."

"Well, this year we got to visit Walt's original office across the street, and I don't know why I have never been there before and that was my first time and I was like, 'How fitting?' This is the 100th year, and this man who has started it all had worked here," Veerasunthorn added. "All the stuff on the wall and in the office. This feels, this energy of someone who had persevered throughout, against all odds, and was able to create this animated feature-length film that everyone came to see at the time when people were like, 'That's never going to work.' And he started this studio that had brought so much joy to the world."

Wish is now playing in theaters.

Steve-O is known for pulling crazy stunts, and his latest special, Steve-O's Bucket List, is no exception. The Jackass star's latest venture sees him crossing off extreme items on his bucket list. Steve-O may have a reputation for doing some pretty shocking things, but he's also known for something a little more wholesome: a love for animals. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Steve-O, and we asked if there were any organizations he wanted to shout out, and the star revealed he has plans to open his own animal sanctuary.

"What do we want to shout out, honey?" Steve-O asked fianc?e, Lux Wright. "Safe House Survivors. They're the three women that are in China doing all of the frontline, saving all the dogs," Wright chimed in.

"I mean, what I want to shout out is the fact that Lux and I have finally purchased our big property for opening our animal sanctuary," Steve-O added. "But yeah, so we've got a big ranch in Tennessee. We call it The Radical Ranch."

"We don't know yet," he added when asked if people can come visit the ranch. "We don't know. For all we know, it might be an off grid, bug out doomsday prepper spot with a bunch of animals where we hide out and live in a bunker. But it also might be really helpful to bring people to bring in revenue to help pay for everything. One way or another, the animals come first and the involvement of people is very much a question mark."

You can watch Steve-O talk about Radical Ranch in the video at the top of the page.

What Is Steve-O's Bucket List?

You can read an official description of the special here: "If you thought Steve-O was crazy before, then get ready for his unrated Steve-O's Bucket List, his new stand-up special filmed in front of a sold-out London crowd. With a complete disregard for societal norms, laws, and his own well-being, Steve-O is in top form as he brings his multimedia comedy tour straight into your living room with his hilarious stand-up and stunts deemed 'too extreme' for Jackass... oh, yeah... and it's a love story too! Steve-O's Bucket List not only pushes him to his limits but also finds him his 'happily ever after' that will melt your heart or passed out on the floor."

Steve O's Bucket List is now available on SteveO.com.

A true all-star team is taking on one of literature's iconic stories for BOOM! Studios, a team that includes Award-winning writer Tom King (Wonder Woman, Mister Miracle), Eisner nominated artist Peter Gross (Lucifer, American Jesus), Eisner-nominated colorist Tamra Bonvillain (Once & Future), World's Finest), and Eisner-nominated letterer Clayton Cowles. Their newest creation is Animal Pound, a modern retelling of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm that will hit stores this December. ComicBook.com had the chance to sit down with King and Gross to discuss what led to adapting such a renowned story and how they are bringing the concept and the ideas at the center of it into the modern day, and real-world events had an important role to play in bringing this project to life.

"This is one of those ideas that, where you have something in the back of your head that you need to write something but you don't know what it's about," King said. "I knew, Peter's heard me say this all before, but after January 6th, I live in Capitol Hill. I saw it personally after the sort of events, after the world sort of seemed to fall apart in the middle of all of that, and it seemed very dangerous. After it didn't quite go away, after the threat that the January 6th posed was still around, I knew I wanted to write about it the same way."

"When I did Mister Miracle, I wanted to write about how bizarre the world suddenly seemed and how it seemed like we were all locked in a dream, but I had no idea how to write about that. One day my kids were reading Animal Farm, they're 12 and 13, and I mean, that's a great book and it's a metaphor about how communism becomes fascism," King said. "But when I was looking at it and being like, That's not the threat we're facing today. We're not dealing with an ideal utopian communism and the traps we're dealing with something else, something different, something from within the system, not from without."

"So I was like, there should be sort of an Animal Farm about today, a warning as much as Orwell's work served as a warning of what could happen, another sort of warning," King said. "And that's a stupid arrogant thought, and I really should have thrown that in the trash and been like, 'Tom, you're not a good enough writer to do this.' But then I was like, 'Oh,' I got so motivated. I was like, 'Tom, you've got to do...' This is how I ended up joining the CIA. I get so pissed off about something, I was like, I just got to do something. I can't just sit in my room and I just need to do something."

"And so this idea came into my head to do something about, to use animals as an allegory again, but instead of using farm animals, because I've never lived on a farm, to use pound animals because I've grown up with cats and dogs and spent a lot of time trying to get my dog from various pounds around. So I've spent a lot of time, and to use that as a metaphor for a different kind of fascism. Fascism that comes from within, that takes advantage of the system to corrupt democracy," King said. "And it just came to me all in one single day. I literally called the editor that day. I said, 'I have an idea. It's really stupid. You'll never want it. It's too ambitious.' And BOOM! said, 'Let's try it.' And that's how it started."

Gross already wanted to work with King on a project, and when he heard it was Animal Pound, that pretty much sealed the deal. "Well, first of all, they said Tom and I thought, 'Okay, I would love to do something with him.' I hadn't worked with him before and I'm kind of semi-retired or I want to be. And then when they said Animal Farm, that just appealed to me so much because I knew his take on it would be really interesting and coming from a great space," Gross said.

"And like he said, you get so mad, you just want to do something, and I just want a chance to dig into stories that have something to say about now. I mean, there's so much going on. Like Tom talked earlier with someone about having troops on his block after January 6th, and I lived three blocks from where George Floyd was murdered, and we had the same thing happen after that. We had National Guard, armored trucks roaring in front of the yard and soldiers on every corner for a week and stuff," Gross said. "And so just the opportunity to talk about what's going on in the country, even if it's in a subversive, allegorical way, is just such a rare opportunity that I was instantly on."

King and Gross are using the original story to build theirs, and there will be elements that readers will recognize from Orwell's original story, but there will also be some larger differences.

"I mean, the first story is almost like a perfect little diamond. I don't want to in any way say there's something wrong with it, and we use it as inspiration in a way to build our story. Animal Farm begins with an inspiring speech from the Lenin pig or the Marx pig, depending on how you read it, and then flashes forward to a revolution," King said. "We start in a very similar way with a speech from a George Washington-esque dog or Abraham Lincoln dog, and then we flash forward to the impact of that and how those ideals get corrupted. So we use it very much as a model, but then we go off because just thematically, ours starts as a democracy, not as sort of a utopian farm. It starts in a different place, and so the deterioration is to a different place as well."

After the concept was cemented, it was time to create the characters that would bring it to life, but Gross wasn't sure what style would end up fitting the series. At one point they thought a more cartoony style would win out, but things ultimately ended up going a different way.

"Initially I did a bunch of sketches and we didn't know how the animals were going to be," Gross said. "Was it going to be kind of cartoony? I think we thought that. It ended up being more realistic, which I think we both think works better. And I mean, it was hard. It's all set in the same place, and I like that. I like it when comics are more like a play than cinema, actually."

"I always think of them as a play, and I like that aspect of it. I mean, I'm still filling it out. I wish I could draw two or three issues before I had to commit to anything. The way it is when you're working at something new, you realize something should be like this and you're on page 25 and you've got 14 pages with that character on before, but it's going pretty smooth," Gross said.

As for what fans can expect from the series, King said, "This will be a complete beginning-to-end story that starts with a revolution that's similar to the American Revolution. The idea of people overthrowing a king, or in this case the humans from a pound. And then we will see how American history and how the rules that are set up, as our rules were set up in the Constitution, could lead to another crisis much later on that possibly destroys the whole system. So it's about how people who have the best intentions in the world creating society based on equality and freedom, how those very ideals can be used against it to create the exact opposite, a society based on fascism and class differences and tribalism."

Animal Pound will hit comic stores on December 20th.

What do you think of Animal Pound? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things comics with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

DC's Blue Beetle featured a bevy of thrilling action sequences, but some of the most unforgettable moments from the film were the ones grounded in emotion and family. The death of Jaime's father Alberto Reyes (Dami?n Alc?zar) is one such moment, and the scene carries immense emotional weight in the moment but also throughout the rest of the film. While the scene itself was tragic, creating it was the exact opposite. In an interview with ComicBook, Xolo Maridue?a was asked about filming that sequence, and Maridue?a knew it was a character-defining moment. Thankfully he didn't have to go to a dark place to make it all work, and a surprise from the cast and crew truly brought things full circle for him.

"It was definitely those types of scenes are like the biggest scenes. When you're reading the script and you're thinking 'ah, this is a character-defining moment'. You know, after your dad dies, you're not the same for the rest of your life, right? So it was something, it was exciting to get to act that out personally for me," Maridue?a said. "I don't know, that feels like the greatest pain that one could have, so getting to explore that, having not been through that yet thankfully, was so fantastic."

"Dami?n, the guy who played my father, was such a generous... he had such a levity and lightness to him that I think was so comforting, and we banged it out in one day. It was one of those things where we're like, we're here, let's just run through the whole thing. Luckily I didn't have to go to any dark place," Maridue?a said.

There was also a surprise that awaited him in the house, and it brought in elements of his own childhood to bring things full circle for him and for the character.

"They did surprise me. I guess they asked my family for videos of me as a youth, so when we got to set we were on the carcass of the house, which was like the floor and some of the walls and just like the furniture. On the TV there were videos of me and my family when I was like 1, 2 years old, s*** I had never seen before. So being in that space and knowing it was full circle for these two characters was beautiful," Maridue?a said.

The official description for Blue Beetle reads, "Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero BLUE BEETLE."

In addition to Maridue?a (Cobra Kai), Blue Beetle stars Adriana Barraza (Rambo: Last Blood, Thor), Dam?an Alc?zar (Narcos, Narcos: Mexico), Elpidia Carrillo (Mayans M.C., the Predator films), Bruna Marquezine (Maldivas, God Save the King), Raoul Max Trujillo (the Sicario films, Mayans M.C.), with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (Monarch, Dead Man Walking), and George Lopez (the Rio and Smurf franchises). Blue Beetle also stars Belissa Escobedo (American Horror Stories, Hocus Pocus 2) and Harvey Guill?n (What We Do in the Shadows).

Blue Beetle is now available to stream on HBO Max.

What did you think of Blue Beetle and that scene in particular? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things DC with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

Austin and Colten Gunn are far from a nostalgia act. The second-generation stars are the sons of WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn, and while they do subtly pay homage to their father in some ways, The Gunns have blossomed into their own. Much of that is thanks to Bullet Club Gold, AEW's spin-off faction of the historic New Japan Pro Wrestling stable. The Gunns linked up with Jay White and Juice Robinson earlier this year and have donned the black and gold ever since. In a company inundated with factions, the bang bang gang have stood out amongst the rest thanks to their charisma, match quality, and perhaps most crucially, their branding.

The Gunns Remastered DX's Catchphrase For Bullet Club Gold

Among that branding includes a cornucopia of catchphrases. Top-shelf gunslingers. High-rolling with the bang bang gang. And if you're not down with that, we got two words for ya: suck it guns up.

That prompt was made famous by Billy Gunn in D-Generation X. While crowds have been trained to respond one way, The Gunns have successfully remastered it in Bullet Club Gold's image.

"The other catchphrase sucked and the guy who said it sucks," Austin Gunn told ComicBook.com. "What the bang bang gang does is we take something that wasn't cool and we make it cool, because we are actually cool. We don't force it down people's throats. We're cool in general. We don't have to prove it. We know we're cool."

Adding a fresh coat of paint is a recurring theme with Bullet Club Gold. Before this spin-off made its way to AEW, many fans felt the faction was on life support, as it had lost a significant amount of the magic it once had when stars like Finn Balor, AJ Styles, and Kenny Omega were leading it. The mainline Bullet Club in NJPW is currently in its biggest reset yet, with David Finlay leading multiple new recruits like Clark Connors, Gabe Kidd, and Alex Coughlin.

"The Bullet Club, you add 'Gold' to the end of it, now it's cool because we're in it," Austin continued. "You take that catchphrase that sucked before, I'll take it over from here kid. We just made it cool again. We're taking everything that you give to us and we just make it cool. That's it."

AEW Dynamite returns tonight at 8 PM ET on TBS.

The Naughty Nine premieres tonight on Disney Channel and viewers will be delighted to meet Danny Glover as Santa Claus. In the Disney Channel Original Movie, the beloved actor is the man in charge up at the North Pole. ComicBook.com interviewed The Naughty Nine costume designer Julia Caston about working with Glover and his interactions with the cast and crew. When a star of that caliber steps onto set, it inspires everyone to bring their A-game. With Santa, Caston said that she really wanted to communicate him being in his off-time, while still keeping his gentlemanly leisure feel. Read about her process down below.

"Oh yes, he was so wonderful to work with and it was a surprise when they told me the casting. I was so happy to hear that it was somebody as amazing as Danny Glover and it's so great," Caston began. "So yes, this is an Alberto [Belli] thing. We work together to come up with the look we really wanted because its the day after Christmas, right? So, Santa would kind of be on his off hours. What does he look like on his off hours?"

"And we decided that we kind of wanted him to be, a gentleman. We wanted him to have an elegance about him. We wanted him to be relaxed, but with fabrics that were rich, right? We wanted him to feel cozy," she continued. "He's just based on a very elegant, trendy kind of well-fitted. I was like, he's incredibly like put together. He's just like, you walk in his office and he's like, oh no, I got a handle on this thing."

"It was fun. And we also wanted to do justice to the actor as well. The idea for this kind of grew. We had discussions before he was cast, but then once he was cast, we're like, 'Let's grow this into his very nattily dressed gentleman on his days off," the designer added. "So, that's how that came about. It was really fun to work with him. When we heard I was like, 'This is great!' He's so wonderful and he's such an acting icon. He's so incredible and what a what a win for us. It elevated the whole movie, in a way I thought."

How Do The Naughty Nine Assemble Their Christmas Looks?

Elsewhere in our conversation with Julia Caston, we talked about tackling the look of Christmas in The Naughty Nine. They had Santa covered, but young actors like Winslow Fegley, Imogen Cohen and Ayden Elijah are all in the mix too. How did the costume designer dream up how these young adventures would look? Well, it comes down to some collaboration with director Alberto Belli and some classic color influences.

"How do I conceive it? Okay, so. Well, you know, I met with the director Alberto and I Listen to his concept and think what he wants to do with it. He was really interested in creating this kind of magical, elevated, special place that we had never seen before," Caston revealed. "He did that with the the scenery and just how his vision was very clear that he wanted it to be elevated. He wanted it to be on trend and he wanted it to have a little fashion. He wanted it to have a little like fabulousness, right? So taking that on, and then listening."

"Reading the script and everything, I just I just was like oh how do I make these characters pop a little bit? Let's get him a little edge. Let's give him a little fun. And ,I wanted the kid that watched it to think, 'That's cuter than the normal elf!' You know? I wanted them to feel. I've never seen a tracksuit elf for a or a racing suit elf. I wanted to take the characters that were being played by all these great actors and give them a little nuance," she added.

Caston continued, "So they all were different and they all felt like they had personality. And so that's, how I went about it was just like listen to Alberto's vision and then add to it. Or elevated it, you know? Just try to make it what he wanted."

The Naughty Nine Is Out Today!

"Mischievous fifth grader Andy finds himself without a visit or presents from Santa on Christmas morning. Realizing he must have landed on the "naughty list" and feeling unfairly maligned, Andy pulls together a team of eight other "naughty listers" to help him execute an elaborate heist at the North Pole to get the presents they feel they deserve. Along the way, the group comes to realize that the very best way off the naughty list is to redirect their unique talents for good -- instead of mischief."

The Naughty Nine premieres on Disney Channel today and will release on Disney+ Thanksgiving Day!

Are you surprised by Glover playing Santa Claus? Let us know in the comments!

The ComicBook Nation Crew Reviews The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and talk to DC's Tim Sheridan about his new comic series Alan Scott: The Green Lantern!

PLUS: MCU Casting is ramping up with Pedro Pascal joining Fantastic Four and Invincible's Steven Yeun playing Sentry??? There's also talk about Netflix's new series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the MonsterVerse continuing with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and predictions for AEW's Full Gear event!

ComicBook Reviews The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

If you're a fan of The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is going to transport you back to Panem with great ease. The film is daring, engaging, tense, and even occasionally funny. It's no easy feat to make a prequel that's just as good, if not better, than the films that came before. However, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes manages to outshine both Mockingjay films while giving The Hunger Games and Catching Fire a run for their money. Not only is The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes faithful to the book, but it showcases one of the best casts of the year. If you have any affection for this franchise, you won't want to miss the newest installment on the big screen.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Swerve Strickland has arrived. The former NXT North American Champion joined All Elite Wrestling back in March 2022, signing his contract at AEW Revolution. His first couple of months saw him form an impromptu tag team with Keith Lee, a partnership that led to the duo capturing the AEW World Tag Team Championships that summer. After losing the straps and going their separate ways, Swerve began fronting Mogul Affiliates, a new faction that initially struggled to find its footing. Upon merging with Ring of Honor's The Embassy, the new-look Mogul Embassy began to gain momentum with Swerve firmly in the driver's seat.

That momentum is currently at a fever pitch thanks to Swerve's rivalry with "Hangman" Adam Page. Swerve began targeting Hangman in the lead up to AEW WrestleDream, taking exception with what he perceived to be the former AEW World Champion's recent complacency. While he secured a pinfall victory over Hangman at that pay-per-view, Swerve's career-defining victory was this past weekend when he defeated Hangman in what many are calling the greatest death match of all time at AEW Full Gear.

Swerve Strickland Embraces His Villainous Role

The Mogul is all about being the bad guy.

Swerve Strickland is no stranger to playing a heel inside the squared circle, but his recent run has revved up the sinister to a new level. Speaking to ComicBook.com, Swerve says he only sees himself and AEW TNT Champion Christian Cage as the ones embracing the evil.

"For the guys in our position that are like me, competing in that realm, is just myself and Christian," Swerve said. "That's another legend that's been doing this for 30 years. I'm in a really good spot right now. Once again, I say I'm a new face of that role of villain, that face of evil in a sense. You don't really see guys that look like me in that position rank that high, and especially in this industry, it's very unique."

Swerve's persona is not the only thing that has evolved. The former AEW Tag Team Champion has noticeably bulked up in 2023, which was a calculated change he made this past spring.

"I went with a personal trainer of mine that I really just stumbled upon, just mutual friends of ours in the gym, and I told him my target weight. He was like, 'Oh man, I can get you there in six months.' Sure enough, he got me there within three," Swerve said. "It was literally thousands of reps. It was exhausting. It was strenuous.

"It got to a point where I'm now able to bench 315 pounds, and I've never been able to get over 200. It was just constant work, getting to the gym where I didn't want to. It was just a lot of sacrifice and moving my time around and knowing how much I wanted to dedicate to my physique, and to my personal trainer who I don't want to let down. I went from 199 pounds in March, which was Revolution to Double or Nothing, I was 225."

AEW returns to television this Wednesday with AEW Dynamite on TBS at 8 PM ET.

WIsh is heading to theaters next weekend, and it stars Ariana DeBose as Asha, a girl who learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler, Magnifico, who is voiced by Chris Pine. The voice cast also includes the talents of Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guill?n, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, and Jon Rudnitsky. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to interview Wish producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones who spoke a little bit about the film's casting process.

"I mean, we all started with Asha because we wanted to find the point of view of who is wishing on a star," Lancaster Jones explained. "It wanted to be a very relatable character that we could all see ourselves in. And then we found Ariana, who's the most genuine, cool, enthusiastic person ever. And she just brought a lot to the table and she brought in the different flavors of the character. So I believe she really took the character to a different level. And then Chris Pine..."

"Yeah, certainly the casting process is very different because we started in the pandemic," Del Vecho added. "So oftentimes we listen to voices and we have an idea of what the character is. We've already designed the character and we start to listen to voices against the character. And Magnifico was tricky because Magnifico has to be charming and handsome and believable because you have to believe that people would move from anywhere and willingly give him their wishes to protect. But he also has to sing, and he also has to have enough gravitas that when he devolves into a true villain, that they can carry that. And Chris, once we heard Chris, it was no question that he was the right casting."

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish here: In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Wish opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

Steve-O's newest special, Steve-O's Bucket List, is now available to watch on SteveO.com, and it sees the 49-year-old Jackass star crossing off some extreme items on his bucket list. Steve-O is known for doing wild and gross stunts, so it's no surprise that he often gets some shocking requests from fans. In fact, he used to frequently kick fans in... a sensitive area. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Steve-O about his new special, and we asked if any fan stories come to mind.

"But yeah, people have asked outrageous stuff," Steve-O shared. "Very recently, somebody said, 'Hey, I'm a transgender person. Can I ask you to kick my penis off?' I can't even remember the nuts and bolts of it all, but there was a prosthetic penis that was attached. The person was very familiar with the stages of my career and fully aware that I have retired from kicking people in the nuts. They started the request by saying, 'I know you've retired from nut-kicking, but I'm trans, and can I ask you to kick my d*ck off?' I declined to do that, but there was a pretty crazy video that we made nonetheless."

Steve-O added, "Yeah, I mean, it's pretty just rad. I tell these stories and it occurs to me that in some ways I feel quite uniquely qualified to bring joy to people."

Steve-O Talks Jackass 5:

During Steve-O's chat with ComicBook.com, he explained why he's hesitant to make another Jackass movie

"No, I've heard nothing of that," Steve-O added when asked about Jackasss 5. "I know that Knoxville, and thank God, Knoxville is not trying to risk his life anymore or hit his head anymore. That's just the one important thing. Knoxville hitting his head has really lost its fun for us."

"Yeah, trust me, I was there," he added when we mentioned Knoxville's injury in Jackass Forever. "I was like, 'Why are we doing this? Come on man. Why are we doing this?'"

What Is Steve-O's Bucket List?

You can read an official description of the special here: "If you thought Steve-O was crazy before, then get ready for his unrated Steve-O's Bucket List, his new stand-up special filmed in front of a sold-out London crowd. With a complete disregard for societal norms, laws, and his own well-being, Steve-O is in top form as he brings his multimedia comedy tour straight into your living room with his hilarious stand-up and stunts deemed 'too extreme' for Jackass... oh, yeah... and it's a love story too! Steve-O's Bucket List not only pushes him to his limits but also finds him his 'happily ever after' that will melt your heart or passed out on the floor."

Steve O's Bucket List is now available on SteveO.com. Stay tuned for more from our interview with the Jackass star.

Found debuted on NBC last month, and the new procedural follows a team led by former kidnap victim Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) as they try to find missing persons who fall through the cracks of the system. The series also stars Agents of SHIELD alum Brett Dalton as Mark Trent, a cop who often toes the line in order to help Gabi with her cases. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Dalton, and we asked him about the current state of network television, whether he thinks Found could get a 22-episode second season, and his future hopes for Mark.

"That is a good question. And unfortunately, the creators don't ask me my opinion on any of this, but I would love to do 22," Dalton shared. "I think that it deserves 22 and it can hold up to 22. I agree with you that everything is changing right now. And so even to have 13, we feel very lucky," he added.

"Whatever they take me back for, I will do. But of course, I would love a full season, and you are right. And actually speaking to your point too, I feel like even though this is a procedural and it is on network television, I do think that this is not just a garden variety procedural where we solve some random case. I do think that this is stepping up with the network television game and trying to bring something relevant, and it's not shying away from a very sensitive topic. And it's doing something, it's a procedural with purpose."

"Yeah, very much so," Dalton replied when asked if he has hopes for Mark's development. "I mean, we're not going to know everything in the first season. I do think that there's a lot in season two that will be explored with Mark. I can't say too much, but he has a different backstory than everyone else. Everyone else on that team is a kidnap survivor, and so their trauma has bonded them and they're all pulling in the same direction. They all have intimate knowledge of what it's like to be on both sides really. Not on both sides, but kidnapped and then also the one solving the case."

"But yeah, I think that it's going to be really interesting to see where this goes. Clearly, Trent is drawn to Gabi, and he relates his best, but she has gone through experiences that he can only imagine. And I think that he views himself as a protector and a safe harbor in these wild seas. And he's there with his arms open as a very patient person who really just wants the best for Gabi and her team," Dalton continued. "But I think that we will see, because there is a big secret that she has hiding in her basement, and it's not just sitting there patiently reading."

Found's eighth episode airs on NBC on November 21st, and the first seven episodes are available to stream on Peacock.

Wish is heading into theaters this weekend, and it marks the latest feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The new film is an animated musical that's meant to follow in the footsteps of the many projects released by the company over the last 100 years. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with the creatives responsible for bringing the film to life and they talked about everything from the movie's soundtrack to the beloved heroines of Disney. We also spoke with the film's stars, Ariana DeBose (Asha) and Chri Pine (Magnificao), and they shared their experience working in animation.

"No," DeBose revealed when asked if she got the chance to work with any of her co-stars. "My work was mainly with [songwriters] Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice and [directors] Chris Buck and Fawn [Veerasunthorn], and our producers and our writers, our writing team, our incredible writing team. So that was very different and it required me to rely on my sense of creativity and imagination. But that was a really fun exercise, and that was very inspiring to me. So while it was strange, it felt like coming home. Because I think that's probably what I did as a kid."

"It's different," Pine said of the animation process. "That's more the case I find in a film where you see more people. When I go into a booth once every month or something, you see about five of the same people and they're all the pivotal characters there. There's the engineer, the sound editor, the writers, the two directors. There's the people that are really, even if it's a vocal thing, it's Julia and Ben. So they're all essential. There is not one missing link or necessary link."

Wish Producers Tease Magnifico:

ComicBook.com also had the chance to chat with Wish's directors, Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, as well as producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones. During the interviews, they talked about bringing Pine's Magnifico to life, and listening to Disney fans who were clamoring for a specific kind of villain.

"First of all, we are fans ourselves, even though we're working for Disney Animation, we all love it," Del Vecho explained. "And Disney villains have evolved over time and some villains are revealed, but there's something delicious about knowing that someone's the villain from the beginning. What makes this one unique is he's also charming and charismatic and you actually watch him evolve as more pressure is put on him. And I believe you may not like what he does, but you'll understand the 'why' because we can all relate to it, the pressure that he must feel."

"Well, Magnifico was born out of the want to do a villain that hearkens back to some of our older villains, and it's a villain that is the villain from very early on, and that it's a villain that you love to hate," Buck shared. "They come on the screen and you're like, 'Yes, yes. This scene's going to get real now.' So that was our desire. We are big Disney fans ourselves, and we had also heard from many fans about wanting another villain."

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish here: In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Wish opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 was a game-changing season for Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome. The season began with Mariner and her fellow lower deckers promoted to lieutenants junior grade. Despite her best efforts at self-sabotage, Mariner's commanding officer refused to demote her back to ensign, leading Mariner to commit escalating acts of unnecessary danger as she reckoned with trauma from her past, both fighting in the Dominion War and the death of her friend, Sito, while on a covert mission for Starfleet Intelligence. Ultimately, during a knife-rain delay in a life-or-death duel with a Klingon, Mariner unburdened herself and realized the best way to honor Sito's memory is to be the best Starfleet officer she can be.

It's a heck of an arc, and it should leave a lasting impression on Mariner through Star Trek: Lower Decks's future. ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Newsome - who is also writing for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy -- about Mariner's big season, what the future holds, and that live-action crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Before we get into Star Trek: Lower Decks, let's talk about the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover. Technically, that wasn't the first time you got to dress up as Mariner since you did cosplay at Comic-Con. A significant difference between dressing up in costume at Comic-Con and getting the official Star Trek treatment? How vastly different were those experiences?

Tawny Newsome: It was vastly different. Bernadette Croft, the costumer for Strange New Worlds, is incredible. That whole team is incredible. That uniform felt so expensive. It was so perfectly tailored to my body. We filmed for a couple of weeks and then -you might be the first person I'm telling this, so I hope I don't get in trouble, but - we got COVID. Jack and I got COVID, and we had to shut down filming. I don't think we gave it to anyone else, thank God, but we had to shut down.

And so, then we came back a month later to finish filming it, and I was like, "That costume is not going to fit. I have not been doing the same activities in my life. There is no way." And when I put that costume on, it fit, I was like, "Oh my God, thank God. Thank God." I was so worried because it's down to the millimeter, it feels like. It was incredible.

Onto Star Trek: Lower Decks, when you signed up for the Star Trek comedy cartoon, were you expecting to have to go as deep and dramatic as that conversation with the Klingon during the knife rain? What was your reaction to reading that and realizing, "Oh, I've got to do that"?

I thought it was really well-earned. I think for a silly little 22-minute comedy that packs all the funny that it does, packs all the action, and all of the respect for canon that our show does, that's a lot. I don't think that we would've earned an emotional deep dive like that any earlier. I think we had to wait until Episode 9 Season 4, I really do.

I think that by doing that, we had so much energy and excitement and understanding of who Mariner is, and where she's come from, and why she's like this, it was like a little key that unlocked something huge. I saw it in the fandom. I saw people's reactions to be like, "This makes so much sense," that of course this would basically give her PTSD from the Dominion War and dealing with her friend dying. Of course, no wonder. She's not just acting out for no reason. This is a real reason.

I think that Mike and the writers played it really smart and really earned that moment. He told me he was going to do something like it, I think way back in Season 3. He told me his long game plan for it, and I was like, "Genius. This will satisfy a lot of the people who've been wondering why Mariner's acting the way she is." I was thrilled when I saw how the scene came together.

The way we recorded it, we did it a bit differently too. Mike and I read it together and we recorded it like it was a live-action scene. We weren't just doing repetition on each of the lines to get coverage. We were acting through the whole scene. It felt more similar to how you film live-action stuff.

When he told you about the scene, did he mention that it was going to tie into the original "Lower Decks" episode? I know you're a Star Trek fan from long before this. What did that mean to you, to see that line drawn?

Yeah, he did. I didn't know about the Locarno of it all, but he said, "My long game plan is to tie Lower Decks to the episode "Lower Decks," and make you friends with Sito, the ensign who died." And I was like, "That's genius. That's so smart. That will be so satisfying for the fans." And that's all I knew.

Then, to see that it was Locarno, I loved it because it's like Lower Decks is Wrath of Khan. Because I remember when I first saw Wrath of Khan, I was like, "That guy from that one episode is now the villain for this whole huge film that's become this critically acclaimed, heralded film?" And that's what Lower Decks did. We took that one guy who looks a lot like Tom Paris, for reasons we won't talk about, and we made him our big bad of Season 4. It's very fun.

You got to play Mariner on the other end of the spectrum too, after having that breakthrough, because you got that really sincere, inspiring speech to all the people stranded on that planet, the kind of speech you expect the captains on the show to give. Having played this character for so long, what did that moment feel like? Did it feel like, "Oh, she's arrived, she's fully formed now." Was it a little weird to play that sincerely after being on the other side of Mariner for so long?

No, it didn't feel weird because I feel like she's always had that in her. It's just her tactics weren't always as eloquent. For me, from a storytelling standpoint, it felt like the third beat of a very funny runner. That runner is, we've seen Ransom now twice throughout the season start his, "Though we come from different worlds," speech. I think we saw it first in episode 103, and then we saw it again in that episode where there was the volcano and the baby. He starts the cliche Kirk/Picard/Captain speech, "Though we come from different worlds..." And then we fade out and it's like a little Lower Decks-y joke.

Then I love that, in my mind, it's almost the third beat of that multi-series long runner is Mariner doing the real version of that speech. That just speaks to what type of show this is, that we can set up a long - and I don't know if that's what the writers were intending, but that's what I got from watching it - we can set up this long thing that's tongue-in-cheek, but then pay it off with something real and emotional. That's the magic of Lower Decks.

While also being a show where you can describe an episode as, "The one with the volcano and the baby." Which is its own sort of special, I would think.

But when you describe "serious Star Trek," you sound just as nuts. So, that's not unique to Lower Decks. The one where a Rumpelstiltskin chases Miles O'Brien around the space station? That's in an hour-long drama, my friend.

I don't know if you've seen scripts from Season 5 yet, I know Mike McMahan was deep into writing them, but how different do you think playing Mariner is going to feel after what she experienced in Season 4?

We're fully back. We just got back into the recording of 5. I've read the scripts, I've read almost all of them, and recorded I don't know how many, but we're in the middle somewhere, and it's great. I think the biggest thing that I've noticed is they've had to balance Mariner's need for pushing back against authority but doing it with the newfound responsibility of managing... What word do you use in the military? Managing ensigns.

Delegating? Organizing?

Commanding.

Commanding, I guess, yeah.

Leading missions. God, I would suck in the military. I'm like, "What do you do? You hold a rehearsal for your cadets, what do you do?"

She's got to balance that type of responsibility and that type of maturity with still her very Mariner-like tendencies of instigating a little bit of chaos, but also breaking rules that don't serve people in order to make Starfleet better. I think that has found some really nice fertile ground that we get to see Mariner behaving a little differently in season five.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 is currently in production.

Star Trek: Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome isn't leaving the USS Cerritos anytime soon. Newsome has played Beckett Mariner through four seasons of Star Trek's first animated comedy and is currently recording lines for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5. Amid that, she's also joined the writers' room of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, the upcoming live-action Star Trek series focusing on a young adult audience. ComicBook.com spoke to Newsome recently and asked about how her work voicing Mariner in Lower Decks might influence her contributions to Starfleet Academy. Newsome took the opportunity to address some speculation she's seen about her commitment to Lower Decks now she's writing for Starfleet Academy.

"One thing I do want to say because I have seen fans speculate that I'm not going to be as available for Lower Decks: full cards on the table, Lower Decks takes priority," Newsome says. "That was my job first. That's my priority, and everyone involved with both shows is understanding of that. I'm not going anywhere on Lower Decks is what I want to say."

Tawny Newsome is bringing her lifelong Star Trek fandom to Starfleet Academy

Newsome went on to to say that she doesn't necessarily feel like her time working on Star Trek: Lower Decks is having a particular influence on what she's bringing to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Rather, it's her lifelong love of Star Trek that's coloring her work.

"I don't know that Lower Decks itself is influencing my work [on Starfleet Academy], but just my lifelong fandom and my tendency to always gravitate towards a lot of the fun and funny in a lot of these storylines, that influences all of my work," she explained. "I'm always just pushing for fun and funny and silly and with a little bit of pathos that sneaks up on you and gives you some meaning where you didn't expect it."

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's Writers' Room

Newsome sounds as if she's enjoying her time in the Starfleet Academy writers' room. She went on to praise showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau for the team they've assembled.

"I'm always just pushing for fun and fast and funny, and really holding onto canon," she says. "I love this world for a reason, so the canon's super important to me, and we've got a room full of people also doing that. We've got a room full of the loveliest people in the world. I keep shouting this: Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, our two showrunners, really did a no-assholes rule for this room, and everyone is delightful. I think that the rest of Hollywood should take note because I don't know how the f*** they did that. It's great."

What is Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

In early 2023, Paramount+ greenlit Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which had been rumored since at least 2018, with plans to enter production in 2024 (though those plans were made before the strikes and may have since changed). Kurtzman and Landau are showrunners of the series, which will follow the coming of age of Starfleet cadets attending Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. They have not yet specified in what era of Star Trek the show is set. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is expected to debut on Paramount+ in 2025. Here's the synopsis for Starfleet Academy from Paramount+:

"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will introduce us to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself."

Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 is currently in production.

This September marked ten years since Agents of SHIELD debuted on ABC. The Marvel series followed the events of The Avengers (2012) and saw the return of Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson. The series also starred Chloe Bennet as Skye/Daisy Johnson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Brett Dalton as Grant Ward, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, and Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons. Five out of the original six cast members remained part of the series throughout its entire run with the exception of Dalton. However, after departing at the end of the third season, Dalton did make a surprise appearance in the fourth season and remained close with the rest of the cast and the show's creators. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Dalton about his new series, Found, and we brought up Agents of SHIELD's 10th anniversary. Unfortunately, the show's special day happened during the SAG strike.

"It was. We couldn't even tweet about it really. Not tweet, but we couldn't even post about it," Dalton shared. "If you know of something, please let me know," he joked when asked if there will be a reunion. "I'm still in touch with those guys. It would be wonderful. I have thought about that myself. We are in a time of reboots, and this would be a perfect time, in my opinion, to bring it back."

"Unfortunately, I played a character who died three separate times, so they would have to do some sort of time travel thing, but that's also not off the table," Dalton added. "So they have my number and I would just love to see Grant Ward in some way, shape or form pop up in either a TV show or a movie. And maybe if I put it out there now, it will actually happen. So get to work on that Jamie and ComicBook.com."

What Is Found About?

You can read an official description of Found here: "In a riveting new drama, brilliant recovery specialist Gabi Mosely and her team are dedicated to finding America's missing and forgotten people. They'll stop at nothing to solve these cases because for them, it's personal - every member of the team has firsthand experience with a mysterious disappearance. But Gabi has a chilling secret of her own that could unravel everything... she's got her childhood kidnapper locked up in the basement, helping her crack every case."

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Brett Dalton. Found's eighth episode airs on NBC on November 21st, and the first seven episodes are available to stream on Peacock. Agents of SHIELD is streaming on Disney+.

Wish is heading to theaters next week, and it's the latest in a long line of animated musicals from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film follows Asha (Ariana DeBose) as she learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler, Magnifico (Chris Pine). Disney has already released many songs from the film, which were written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Disney Animation's Chief Creative Officer and Wish co-writer, Jennifer Lee, as well as producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones. We brought up the success of Encanto's "We Don't Talk About Bruno," and asked about their favorite songs from Wish.

"I have to say I don't have a favorite, because I absolutely love them all, and I'm not just being cheesy," Lee shared. "I mean, I will say 'This Wish' was the first, and it was written before I even wrote the script, so that gets so much credit for being an anchor for me. But every one of the songs, they were all so dynamic, so different."

She continued, "The collaboration with Julia, it was beyond my wildest dreams. She is such a fantastic storyteller herself as a songwriter who also has had a career as long as mine, I mean in terms of at least over a decade of bringing other people's vision out, for helping them do that as she writes for others. So to collaborate, she understood right away what, as a storyteller, I needed when I write, versus what she needs to do as a songwriter. She always brought back songs that not only were far more than I ever imagined they could be, but then re-inspired the story, so it helped me write as a writer and it helped Allison Moore, as well, who wrote with me."

"We would always come back, and we've got a song, 'We got it. We got it.' And then we'd go, 'Okay, we've got to change this. We've got to change this. Now we've got this, and this could lead to this, and now we don't have to write that scene, because the song already did all the work.' We just had such a fun time with every song," Lee added.

"Look, we have many favorites and we joke that every time Julia writes a song, it becomes our new favorite song," Del Vecho shared. "We start singing it. It's hard. It's hard to pick out. It's hard to know which ones will. I think all the songs are going to resonate with everyone. If you ask which one is the standout, it's hard to predict that."

You can watch our interviews with the Wish creatives at the top of the page.

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish here: In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Wish opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

Brett Dalton is best known for playing Grant Ward in Agents of SHIELD, and the actor has returned to television in NBC's new procedural, Found. The series follows a team led by former kidnap victim Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) as they try to find missing persons who fall through the cracks of the system. In the show, Dalton plays Mark Trent, a cop who often toes the line in order to help Gabi with her cases. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Dalton about the series, and he spoke about the importance of spotlighting "underserved communities."

"I mean, I'm happy to be a part of something like this," Dalton shared. "I haven't seen any of these stories on screen ever. This felt just like a project with purpose, with a perspective, and it's shining a spotlight on underserved communities. And it's also a bit of a sensitive subject with having kidnappers and stuff. I think that that can be sensitive, that can be triggering, but it's handled with such dignity and care that I felt like this is something I would like to be a part of. And it's awesome. It's the most diverse, talented cast I've been a part of. It's really incredible."

He added, "So even though we're handling things that aren't always fun to look at, it's really important."

"Oh, of course I have," Dalton replied when asked if he's gotten an education while making Found. "And a lot of it is fairly disturbing. I didn't realize that that many kids were lost each year or have gone missing each year, almost a half a million, which is a pretty staggering number. And then over half of those have been children of color. And as I said, these sort of children who, it feels like, fall through the cracks, and many of them are... The first 48 hours of any missing persons case are the most important. And if the wheels of justice are not paying attention, that time gets wasted. And if they're categorized as runaways instead of missing persons, then that also is wasted time and brings the chance of them being recovered down significantly. So that's the unfortunate part."

Dalton continued, "When I was a kid, there still was, I think that was kind of the end of having children printed on milk cartons, but all of those kids were blonde hair, good-looking, and got all of this attention. But at the same time, there were so many that didn't get nearly the amount of attention or hype, and that was happening in the background with seemingly nobody really caring. And that's the unfortunate thing."

What Is Found About?

You can read an official description of Found here: "In a riveting new drama, brilliant recovery specialist Gabi Mosely and her team are dedicated to finding America's missing and forgotten people. They'll stop at nothing to solve these cases because for them, it's personal - every member of the team has firsthand experience with a mysterious disappearance. But Gabi has a chilling secret of her own that could unravel everything... she's got her childhood kidnapper locked up in the basement, helping her crack every case."

Stay tuned for more from our interview with Brett Dalton. Found's eighth episode airs on NBC on November 21st, and the first seven episodes are available to stream on Peacock.

Steve-O's newest special, Steve-O's Bucket List, is now available to watch on SteveO.com in partnership with Moment and Patreon. In the new special, Steve-O crosses off some NSFW goals and is joined by a few familiar faces. You can see him reunite with some of his Jackass pals, including Chris Pontius, Dave England, Preston Lacy, and Ehren McGhehey. The film also features appearances by comedian Bill Burr, Jay and Silent Bob's Jason Mewes, and big names from UFC including Chuck Liddell, Ronda Rousey, and Jon Jones. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Steve-O about his new special, and he talked about getting people in for cameos.

"Yeah. Doing something with poop, you definitely call Dave [England]," Steve-O explained. "Preston Lacy has been the driver a lot of the times. Way back in the day, we did a box cube disco rollerblade thing, and Preston drove for that. On my second comedy special where I was duct taped to the billboard truck, Preston drove that all the way to Denver. So yeah, Preston's always going to be my driver. Pontius dressed up as a nurse, made a lot of sense. Danger Ehren was a pretty random one. There was the stuff I filmed with Wee Man that wasn't that good. But yeah, overall, man, I loved it. I love them all."

"Yeah, I definitely asked everybody myself," he added of the non-Jackass cameos. "Let's not forget the heavyweight king of comedy, Bill Burr, flying the helicopter."

In the special, Steve-O gets a vasectomy, and he told us a special story about the doctor who did the deed.

"The doctor was so great, and we learned after that at that time, the doctor knew that he didn't have long to live, that he was dying of cancer," Steve-O shared. "Filming with him really represented this bright spot, this joyful moment in what was otherwise a very sad time. In the waiting room after the procedure, it's all his family there. They were all there and they're all laughing and it's just so much joy. We learned that really not that long after that the doctor passed. That's why the very first credit at the end is in memory of the doctor."

He added, "We only spent that one day with them, but for the rest of that whole tour tour, whenever we were even remotely near, his family members would come out on the tour."

You can watch our chat with Steve-O at the top of the page.

Steve-O Talks Jackass 5:

During Steve-O's chat with ComicBook.com, he explained why he's hesitant to make another Jackass movie

"No, I've heard nothing of that," Steve-O added when asked about Jackasss 5. "I know that Knoxville, and thank God, Knoxville is not trying to risk his life anymore or hit his head anymore. That's just the one important thing. Knoxville hitting his head has really lost its fun for us."

"Yeah, trust me, I was there," he added when we mentioned Knoxville's injury in Jackass Forever. "I was like, 'Why are we doing this? Come on man. Why are we doing this?'"

What Is Steve-O's Bucket List?

You can read an official description of the special here: "If you thought Steve-O was crazy before, then get ready for his unrated Steve-O's Bucket List, his new stand-up special filmed in front of a sold-out London crowd. With a complete disregard for societal norms, laws, and his own well-being, Steve-O is in top form as he brings his multimedia comedy tour straight into your living room with his hilarious stand-up and stunts deemed 'too extreme' for Jackass... oh, yeah... and it's a love story too! Steve-O's Bucket List not only pushes him to his limits but also finds him his 'happily ever after' that will melt your heart or passed out on the floor."

Steve O's Bucket List is now available on SteveO.com. Stay tuned for more from our interview with the Jackass star.

Ming-Na Wen is a Disney Legend who is best known for voicing Mulan in Mulan, playing Melinda May in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, and Fennec Shand in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Currently, you can hear her lend her voice to the new film Pencils Vs Pixels, a documentary about animation's switch from 2D to 3D. While the movie doesn't focus solely on Walt Disney Animation Studios, the company's history is a main focus of the documentary. ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Wen about the project, and we asked what she's hoping to see from Disney in the future.

"Well, they're always evolving," Wen explained. "The fun thing about seeing this documentary, for me, was actually learning a lot about the evolution of the 2D to the CGI formats and how Roy E. Disney really helped to resurrect the Disney franchise with Little Mermaid and then Lion King and Mulan. I think it will now go more towards melding the two art forms together because the soul and the authenticity of 2D animation was missed a lot. Just the CGI, I think people got too much of it, and now there's a beautiful blend of the two. So I am looking forward to future animations where you get to see that. And I'm sure there's going to be other technology with AI coming in that will blow people's minds. And I can't wait for all of that."

Wish Producers Reveal Their Hopes for Disney's Next 100 Years:

Walt Disney Animation Studios is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and over the last century, the studio has released over 60 films starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. Their latest feature, Wish, is coming to the big screen next week and follows Asha (Ariana DeBose) as she learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler, Magnifico (Chris Pine). ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with the film's directors, Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn; producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones; and writer/executive producer, Jennifer Lee, who is also the Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Studios Animation. We asked each creative what they were hoping to see over the course of Disney's next 100 years.

"Oh gosh, there's so many things," Lee replied when asked about her hopes for the studio's future. "Well, you know what I love? Instead of the 'dead mom,' the mom is the lead. We love to joke about it, and the innocence of why so many times characters did not have the mom around. And it's like, well, everyone knows moms solve all the problems. I love moms. And so I'd love a film that tackles that in a wonderful way and celebrates that in a way that relates to all ages, too. And I think moms can be that."

Lee added, "There's so many I think that are just fun opportunities ... but that was the first one that popped into my head."

"Look, the imagination of Disney is boundless," Del Vecho began. "I will say that as a studio, we've really grown. We've become more diversified than ever, and I think that's only elevating the stories that we're telling in the stories we will tell in the future."

"Yeah, I agree with that," Lancaster Jones added. "I mean diversity, but in every way. I think something beautiful about Wish is that interaction between the different generations as you see with Chris and Fawn and how it's not just one perspective. We work as a community and you see all of these perspectives and points of view make their way in one way or another into a movie."

Pencils Vs Pixels is now available to rent on various streaming platforms. Wish opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

Chris Pine will soon be heard in Wish, the new animated film that was made to honor Walt Disney Animation Studios' 100th anniversary. The movie is quite joyous, and it's not the only film Pine made this year that fits that description. Earlier in 2023, Pine could be seen in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which was a hit among critics and audiences alike. ComicBook.com recently got the chance to speak with Pine about Wish, and we asked what draws him to these joyful projects.

"We live in a really not joyful world so much, and so I think I'm drawn to things right now that make people smile or make people giggle that aren't so serious," Pine explained. "I think there's room for all sorts of films, but I have recently really been pulled towards things that have really nice messaging because there's a lot of sh*tty messages in the world."

You can watch our interview with Pine at the top of the page.

Chris Pine Addresses Sag Strike Ending:

After 118 days, SAG-AFTRA's historic strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came to an end last week. During ComicBook.com's interview with Pine, we asked the actor about the strike and he spoke about all of the actors who struggled without work.

"Well, I had the great... I live in an odd world, I have the luxury of not having to work," Pine explained. "So I think what I'm most happy about is all of that feeling of ranker and sadness and desperation that I was feeling from some of our other people in the ranks can now be assuaged a bit and they know that they have something to look forward to. It's nice to feel our community unified once again."

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish here: In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the creatives behind Wish, which opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

The next Coheed and Cambria album, Vaxis - Act III, is on the way, says frontman Claudio Sanchez. That's not all that surprising. Sanchez has long said that the Vaxis, the sequel to The Amory Wars story, is a pentalogy. The saga began with Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures in 2018, introducing new lead characters Sister Spider and Nostrand. Vaxis - Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind followed in 2022, continuing their story and delving into the mind of their son, the story's title character, Vaxis. When ComicBook.com spoke to Sanchez about the crowdfunding campaign for The Amory Wars: No World for Tomorrow, adapting The Amory Wars' finale into comic book form, he also confirmed that work on Vaxis - Act III is coming along, but there's still a way to go.

"Vaxis III is very much percolating as well, and next year we'll probably do some preliminary touring that'll lead to a release," Sanchez said. "I'm not sure exactly when that release is because there still is a lot of work to do in terms of recording it and illustrating the novella. We've started down those paths, but they take some time, as well as writing the novella, of course. Things are going to happen hopefully in the next year or so."

Sanchez confirmed that he and his wife, co-writer Chonda Echert, have been splitting their time between scripting the No World for Tomorrow comic book and developing the story for Vaxis - Act III. While that can be tricky, Sanchez also said that it has allowed him to ensure that these stories resonate with one another.

"[W]hat makes No World so exciting to see now come out is its connection to subsequent stories like Vaxis III and the first story, Year of the Black Rainbow, as well as the connection to The Afterman because the last record has that Incredible Hulk #180 ending, where you have the Wolverine silhouette in the doorway, but this is the Afterman making an appearance at the end of Vaxis II in a very Wolverine fashion -- though not a silhouette, you see him but it feels like that to me," Sanchez explains. "All these stories are now going to make so much sense when they come out once No World starts and Vaxis III happens, and with the idea of adapting Year of the Black Rainbow, everything is going to connect so much more than it's ever before. That's thrilling to me because it's going to be a domino effect of 'this is all making so much sense to me' and I can't wait to see how it ends with Vaxis IV and V."

Coheed and Cambria playing When We Were Young 2024

In addition to preliminary plans for Vaxis - Act III, Sanchez and his bandmates in Coheed and Cambria (guitarist Travis Stever, drummer Josh Eppard, and bassist Zach Cooper) are headed to 2024's When Were Were Young festival, playing the celebration of early 2000s emo, pop-punk, and post-hardcore for the first time as it enters its third year as an annual event. Coheed and Cambria will play the entirety of their third studio album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, at the event. The album has a 77-minute runtime and includes Coheed and Cambria's best-known single, "Welcome Home."

My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy are headlining 2024's When We Were Young festival. Tickets for the event go on sale on November 24th.

The Amory Wars: No World for Tomorrow's crowdfunding campaign is live now on BackerKit. Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures and Vaxis - Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind are available now.

Disney's Wish is heading to theaters next week, and the animated film stars Ariana DeBose as Asha, a girl who learns a dark secret about her kingdom's wish-granting ruler. Back in the day, most Disney heroines were princesses, but there have been a lot of characters recently who don't fall into that category such as Asha and Encanto's Mirabel. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Walt Disney Animation Studios' Chief Creative Officer and the co-writer of Wish, Jennifer Lee, along with Wish producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones, and directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. We brought up how Mulan is always clumped in with the princesses, but now that she's paved the way for more non-princess characters, should there be another moniker for the studios' heroines?

"We have two queens in Frozen," Lee pointed out, referring to Anna and Elsa being considered "princesses." When asked if Asha would be part of a hypothetical princess movie like the fan-favorite scene from Ralph Breaks the Internet, Lee replied, "Well, you'll always get from me is what is important to me, but this is just me, is as a kid especially, the more you could connect me to the unique qualities of that character, the more I was excited."

She continued. "With Frozen ... everything that's connected to Frozen is Frozen, so you can really immerse yourself. I'd love the same for Asha, but at the same time, I think all these heroines are so wonderful together and deserving together. There's a label of 'Princess' ... maybe it's that we're redefining what that means. Really, what we did with Frozen is, the responsibility they carried by being in charge of their kingdom added so much to their story, and I think what I love is where Asha ends up is something really special. I mean, that's directly connected to all our heroines in its own way, so I think it's fun to see how they'll find each other."

"I don't know. I mean, when we start these movies, it really is all about the story," Buck explained when asked about the "princess" moniker. "It's really about how this character fits into the story. And we love all our princesses 'cause they're amazing. I know that you grew up on-"

"Yeah, the '90s," Veerasunthorn replied. "And then Raya was also a princess. I'm like, 'Yes, two princesses in that movie.'" She added, "Yeah. And we love these qualities of aspirational young women who has all this determination. They're very sure of what they want to do and they pursue it. And we see that in Asha as well. And Asha's specificity comes so much from collaborating with Ariana DeBose who brings joy, exuberant personality, and quirkiness. Someone who's not afraid to be who she is, very comfortable in her own skin and say what she wants and express herself. And those qualities we find that in Ariana and we're like, 'Ariana is Asha. Asha is Ariana.'"

"You know, I think it's phenomenal that we kind of look at them together because they are role models for so many people," Lancaster Jones shared. "So in that level, I think it's cool. But I also like the independence of each character and let them be their self."

"I think that's the key is each character deserves to have its own identity," Del Vecho added. "So it's hard when you group them in. You don't want to sort of just make them all the same. So I think the key is making sure they keep identified as who they are. "

Stay tuned for more from our interviews with the creatives behind Wish, which opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is deep into the "Multiverse Saga," which means actors from various Marvel projects could easily show up at any unexpected time. In fact, the mid-credit scene of the recently-released film, The Marvels, brought in a Marvel character from outside of the MCU. There's been a lot of debate over the years as to whether or not Agents of SHIELD is MCU canon, but with the current state of the franchise, it's been confirmed that everything is canon within the multiverse. That means, the upcoming film Avengers: Secret Wars could have some exciting and unexpected cameos. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Agents of SHIELD star Ming-Na Wen, and we asked if she thinks anyone from her TV team could cameo in the Avengers film.

"You can ask, and I will just say we can continue to hope, but the likelihood right now, no," Wen admitted.

You can watch our interview with Wen at the top of the page.

Clark Gregg Claps Back at Bob Iger:

It was announced earlier this year that Disney CEO Robert Iger has extended his contract through 2026. Around that time, Iger also blamed the launch of Disney+ and the COVID-19 pandemic for the creative and financial issues facing Pixar and Marvel Studios.

"[Marvel] had not been in the TV business at any significant level. Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention," Iger said.

This quote caught the attention of Agents of SHIELD star Clark Gregg who had a short but sweet reaction. Variety shared Iger's quote and Gregg replied, "Bro..." Of course, saying Marvel hasn't made TV "at any significant level" is certainly insulting to those who spent seven years making Agents of SHIELD. You have to respect Gregg for his simple (and hilarious) reply.

What Is Pencils Vs Pixels About?

You can currently catch Ming-Na Wen in the new film Pencils Vs. Pixels, a documentary about animation's switch from 2D to 3D. You can read the official description of Pencils Vs Pixels below:

"Pencils Vs Pixels is a celebration of the unique magic of 2D hand-drawn animation and an exploration of how the Disney Renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s led to an animation boom that was quickly upended by the computer animation revolution that followed. Narrated by Ming-Na Wen, Pencils Vs Pixels features many of the legendary artists who brought these now-classic films to life as they guide us through the last few decades of animation and into the future that's yet to come."

Pencils Vs Pixels is now available to rent on various streaming platforms. Stay tuned for more updates about the MCU.

The Marvels star Iman Vellani revealed her favorite X-Men scenes she'd like to see in the MCU. ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast sat down for a lengthy interview with the Ms. Marvel actress. Over the course of our talk, she discussed Jonathan Hickman's recent run with the X-Men and lamented how far away from something like that the MCU really is. But, there's a ton of stories that Marvel Studios has to choose from when forming their take on the mutants. With that feature being a ways away, Kevin Feige and company have ample time to get their ducks in a row. But, Iman Vellani will be waiting there with some notes if they need them.

"Oh wow. There's so many. I have been reading a lot of X-Men lately, so forgive me," Vellani began I mean, okay, Krokoa in recent memory, honestly, what they're doing in the comics, it'd be sad for the end of that era, but that would be one, just like a whole gorgeous jungle-y island full of X-Men and all those portals. It's so beautifully drawn in Hickman's Run. I would love to see that adapted on screen"

Iman Vellani Excited About Mutant Possibilities

Later in our conversation, the Ms. Marvel actress would also praise Grant Morrison's work with the X-Men. It seems like some of that DNA is already working its way into the MCU with the costumes in Deadpool 3.

"There's specific scenes from Grant Morrison's run that just adjust that scene. I want to see a lot of Emma Frost, her with the Stepford Cuckoos," she mused. "Their interactions are always my favorite. I love them calling her old, and she's like, 'I'm 27 actually,' and everything to do with her nose job. She's just such a specific character. There's moments with her and Angel and they're in a fitting room and they're trying on clothes. I just love those very grounded X-Men moments and then they go fight crime at the end of the day. It's amazing."

Check Out The First MCU Mutant

In The Marvels, (now in theaters), Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson ) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani ) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol's estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris ). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as "The Marvels."

The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury , Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton , Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson . Produced by Marvel Studios , The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.

What are you hoping to see with the MCU X-Men? Let us know down in the comments!

Last month, Walt Disney Studios Animation celebrated 100 years. The studio has marked this milestone in various ways ranging from the short film Once Upon a Studio to the upcoming animated feature, Wish. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wish producers Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones as well as directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn. We asked both duos if they celebrated Disney's anniversary in a special way.

"Oh, absolutely," Lancaster Jones shared. "And they actually had a very cool celebration here at the studio, and I think it's really cool that the studio is really embracing the movie Wish as kind of like the jewel of the celebration because we really worked hard to create something that evoked Disney emotionally. So words like 'hope' and 'joy.' So yeah, to me, I think Wish is our way to celebrate."

"I think, yeah, the whole making of this movie for us was a celebration," Del Vecho added. "Everybody wanted to be a part of it. Everybody wanted to contribute to this movie. It literally was a joy for us to all work on this project."

"We had a little thing across the lot," Buck explained. "There was a 100th celebration just a few weeks ago, and everybody could sign this big kind of fairytale book. And this is just a personal thing, and I wrote on it, it was to Walt, and I said, 'Thank you for making my life so magical.' Yeah, because a lot of people say, 'Thank you for making my childhood so magical.' And I'm like, no, he made my whole life magical."

"Well, this year we got to visit Walt's original office across the street, and I don't know why I have never been there before and that was my first time and I was like, 'How fitting?' This is the 100th year, and this man who has started it all had worked here," Veerasunthorn added. "All the stuff on the wall and in the office. This feels, this energy of someone who had persevered throughout, against all odds, and was able to create this animated feature-length film that everyone came to see at the time when people were like, 'That's never going to work.' And he started this studio that had brought so much joy to the world."

You can watch the interviews at the top of the page.

What Is Wish About?

You can read the official synopsis for Wish below:

In Wish, Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force--a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe--the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico--to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award(R)-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha's favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar(R)-winning director Chris Buck (Frozen, Frozen 2) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon), produced by Peter Del Vecho (Frozen, Frozen 2) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (Encanto).

Jennifer Lee (Frozen, Frozen 2) executive produces -- Lee and Allison Moore (Night Sky, Manhunt) are writers on the project. With original songs by Grammy(R)-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus a score by composer Dave Metzger.

Stay tuned for more from our interviews from Wish, which opens only in theaters on November 22nd.

Ming-Na Wen is known for an array of roles, but many fans knew her first as the voice of Mulan. Wen has gone on to voice the Disney character in multiple projects in addition to various other voice roles. Currently, you can hear her lend her voice to the new film Pencils Vs. Pixels, a documentary about animation's switch from 2D to 3D. Not only does Wen narrate the film, but there's also an animated version of her that shows up in the end credits. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wen about the project, and she explained how she got involved and revealed what she thinks of her animated self.

"Well, I'm good friends with one of the creators and producers of it, Tom Bancroft. We go way back to our days of putting Disney's Mulan together. And he has a twin brother, Tony, who helped to direct it as well, Mulan anyways. And I'm on the board of their studio Pencilish. So I just love 2D and when he asked me if I could help out, I didn't hesitate," Wen shared.

"You know what, I did not negotiate for that," Wen said when asked if she got to keep any art of her animated self. "Yes, I'm going to text him as soon as we're done with this interview. No, I completely trust his abilities. He's such an incredible artist. And I just got giddy every time I saw the different versions of her. And I'm like, 'I wish I had beautiful hair, big, big, big hair.'"

Wen continued, "But what I really loved was the very end, there's a little tag thing where animated me and Tom, we do a cute little skit and it turned out great. I was so happy that it actually was funny."

You can watch our interview with Wen at the top of the page.

What Is Pencils Vs Pixels About?

You can read the official description of Pencils Vs Pixels here: "Pencils Vs Pixels is a celebration of the unique magic of 2D hand-drawn animation and an exploration of how the Disney Renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s led to an animation boom that was quickly upended by the computer animation revolution that followed. Narrated by Ming-Na Wen, Pencils Vs Pixels features many of the legendary artists who brought these now-classic films to life as they guide us through the last few decades of animation and into the future that's yet to come."

Pencils Vs Pixels is now available to rent on various streaming platforms.

Austin and Colten Gunn are currently on the run of their careers. The second-generation tag team joined Bullet Club Gold earlier this year, aligning with Jay White and Juice Robinson, immediately inserting themselves into the main event and becoming a staple of weekly programming. The Gunns are no stranger to stables, as the brothers had already been in two groups prior to the Bang Bang Gang. Upon entering AEW, Austin and Colten formed a trio with their father, WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn, collectively calling themselves Gunn Club. Years later, Austin and Colten aligned with Stokely Hathaway's The Firm, a "stable on retainer" for MJF.

While The Firm debuted in AEW in a big way, helping MJF become No.1 Contender to the AEW World Championship at AEW All Out 2022, the faction quickly fell off the rails, with some of that to blame on injuries and suspensions surrounding their planned storyline.

The Gunns Reflect on Working With MJF in The Firm

Austin and Colten Gunn are no stranger to their AEW Full Gear opponent.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, The Gunns reflected on their brief history alongside MJF, blasting the AEW World Champion for being untrustworthy.

That you can't trust MJF. That's it," Austin said when asked what he learned from working in The Firm. "But you know who I can trust? Juice Robinson and Jay White and my brother [Colten]. That's all you need. You don't need to add more people in our gang. Nobody belongs in our gang. We have our gang set and that's it. The Bang Bang Gang rules. Every single episode of Dynamite, Rampage, Collision you put us on, we're taking over. You can't trust MJF at the end of the day. That's why he has no friends."

"Behind the scenes, we took that card and we joined The Firm," Colten added. "He was masterminding all this and every single promise he made never came true because he's a liar and a fake. That's what we learned from The Firm."

Alongside The Gunns and MJF in The Firm were Big Bill, Ethan Page, and Lee Moriarty, three stars that Austin and Colten never got the opportunity to develop legitimate chemistry with. The quite opposite can be said for their new stablemates.

"We do everything together. When we're backstage, we're hanging out. When we're traveling, we're on the same planes," Austin said of Bullet Club Gold. "It's like when you go out and you meet a brand new friend for the first time and you just connect right off the bat. That's how it was with the Bang Bang Gang."

"We have a group text and that thing goes off all day about how we're going to continually take over AEW. I mean it's just literally from the first second we just felt like we all clicked and connected and you can't find that," Colten added. "It just happened organically and like you said, it feels like we've been together for years and it's been what? Two, three months maybe? You can see that on the screen that we're just very connected and we work well together."

The Gunns challenge MJF and a mystery partner for the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship this Saturday at AEW Full Gear: Zero Hour, the pay-per-view's pre-show that will air on AEW's social channels.

Ming-Na Wen is known for an array of roles ranging from Mulan to Melinda May, but these days many know her best as Fennec Shand. Wen's character debuted in the first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian and she went on to appear in Season 2 of the series as well as The Book of Boba Fett. However, she was entirely absent from the third season of The Mandalorian. Now, fans are wondering when she's going to show up again. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wen about Pencils Vs. Pixels, a new documentary about animation that's narrated by Wen. During the interview, we asked the star if she knows when she will be seen in Star Wars again.

"No, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed," Wen said. "I keep sending out good energy. I miss being her. Now that the strike is over, I think it's going to be fun and accelerated to try to get every production back online. And I certainly pray and hope that Fennec comes back, but unfortunately, that is ... unless I cosplay myself," Wen joked.

"Well, I get a lot of fans asking if there could be a spinoff of just vetting. I'm like, why not? I don't know. Yeah, any reason to just do Star Wars again," Wen added.

Earlier this year, Wen recalled being disappointed that she wasn't in The Mandalorian's third season. However, she also made it clear that she trusts filmmakers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and she understands why her bounty hunter wasn't involved in the recent episodes. The actor also expressed how her being such a fan of the franchise means that she wants to be involved in as many projects as possible.

What Is Pencils Vs Pixels About?

You can read the official description of Pencils Vs Pixels here: "Pencils Vs Pixels is a celebration of the unique magic of 2D hand-drawn animation and an exploration of how the Disney Renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s led to an animation boom that was quickly upended by the computer animation revolution that followed. Narrated by Ming-Na Wen, Pencils Vs Pixels features many of the legendary artists who brought these now-classic films to life as they guide us through the last few decades of animation and into the future that's yet to come."

Pencils Vs Pixels is now available to rent on various streaming platforms. Stay tuned for more updates about Star Wars.

Iman Vellani revealed that there was another version of The Marvels' Young Avengers scene. ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast caught up with the Kamala Khan actress to talk about Ms. Marvel uniting the Young Avengers. The first person on her list: Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop. One of the last moments of The Marvels is Kamala cornering Hawkeye and channeling Nick Fury to assemble a new team. These younger Marvel heroes have been stacking up for a while and now it looks like they might be ready for primetime. Vellani told us there was a version of this scene where the team was already put together. But, it'll never see the light of day.

"Yes, I mean, it was like pretty much the same lines," Vellani explained. "I think they were trying their best to incorporate as many as they can. But, I think its better that we see Kamala actually form the Young Avengers starting from the beginning. Because, there was a version where they already exist and I was like, 'That doesn't make any sense' and they were like 'We know, we're not gonna film this.'"

"But, yeah, I think it was really fun and I loved working with Hailee for just that one day that I got to meet her and see her and talk to her. She's so... it was nice just having someone to relate to about the super suits and... you know, where the future of the Young Avengers lies. So, yeah I'm very excited. Hopefully, that turns into something real.... It's my favorite part about the first Avengers film too. When Nick Fury and Scarlett Johansson, they all gather together, and they're like 'we're a team now.'"

Iman Vellani Excited About Mutant Possibilities

Earlier in the MCU conversation, Iman Vellani told ComicBook.com about the day they shot Ms. Marvel's mutant reveal. Apparently, the young actress could barely contain her excitement. It was a huge honor for her to be the first Mutant in the MCU. But, Vellani had to calm down to actually get those words out.

"The hardest part was when we were filming it," Vellani told us. "First of all, I couldn't keep it together. Every single time Matt Lintz would say 'mutation' -- which still makes me giddy every time I say the word -- I would just break. They even did his coverage first so I could hear it enough times, so that by the time the camera rolled around to me, I was normal. It didn't work. First take, I was gone. It was just so cool! And it was one of the last things we shot, and it was nighttime in Atlanta.

"It was such like vibes, you know? It was very cool. But again, we didn't know if that was gonna make it into the cut," she added. "I think that was like the most annoying thing, filming it, because it was so cool, and I was having so much fun, and I just wanted people to see my excitement over it. And what an honor, you know, to use that M word for the first time in the MCU. So I'm very glad it made it in."

What's Going On With Kamala Khan?

In The Marvels, (now in theaters), Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson ) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani ) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol's estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris ). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as "The Marvels."

The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury , Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton , Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson . Produced by Marvel Studios , The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.

When do you think we'll see Young Avengers? Let us know down in the comments!