Between her supporting part in F9: The Fast Saga and her leading roles in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Shōgun, Anna Sawai seems to be poised for greater stardom in the future. However, Sawai recently revealed that she was forced to turn down a chance to audition in 2016's Suicide Squad, which could have helped her break out sooner.

At the time, Sawai was a member of a J-Pop girl group, FAKY, and under a strict contract that limited what she could do outside of music. Sawai shared the story during her appearance on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. She also recalled being excited about a "big audition" for Suicide Squad because the film's producers "were looking for a Japanese girl" to play Katana.

"I was like, 'This is my chance!' And then I go to my manager and he's like, 'You can’t audition,'" said Sawai. "They basically told me that if I'm gone for over a month, the girls [the other members of FAKY] are not going to have anything to do... It felt like they were really tying me down, and because of my contract, I couldn't leave until the time that I actually left [in 2018]."

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During Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Barriss Offee turned against the Jedi Order and framed her friend, Ahsoka Tano, for bombing the Jedi Temple. That ultimately led to Ahsoka leaving the Jedi behind. Barriss' fate after that series was left unknown, but her dark path will be revealed in the upcoming animated anthology series, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. In a new preview clip from the show, Barriss' crimes against the Jedi give her an opportunity to escape life imprisonment.

Barriss initially believes that her visitor, Lyn, has come on behalf of the Jedi Council. Instead, the Fourth Sister reveals that she no longer answers to Lyn before preparing to offer Barriss a place among the Inquisitors, the former Jedi who turned against their own kind and hunted them for the Empire.

The trailer for Star Wars: Tales of the Empire has revealed that Barriss' Inquisitor training will put her face-to-face with Darth Vader, the man who exposed her crimes to the Jedi when he was still Anakin Skywalker. Whether Barriss will recognize Vader as Anakin remains to be seen.

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Disney Dreamlight Valley fans are no strangers to quirky characters from Disney's roster of animated films, but few would've expected to see the one and only Oswald show up. This blast from the past is only available to those who purchased the A Rift in Time expansion, and we'll tell you how to befriend him below.

How to unlock Oswald in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Unlocking Oswald requires you to own the A Rift in Time expansion. You'll then need to progress the expansion's main story to Act II: The Spark of Imagination. At this point, you can accept a new quest from Merlin called "The Sunken Ruins".

Complete "The Sunken Ruins" to find yourself facing the rather in-depth quest "A Bit of Help From Your Friends", which itself branches into three time-consuming quests for Gaston, Rapunzel, and EVE. After completing these and working your way through the Ancient Ruins puzzles, you'll finally meet Oswald at the bottom of the ruins.

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I'm not very far into the Olympic Exclusion Zone in a run of Pacific Drive when the rain picks up. A T-shaped intersection looms just ahead, and as I make a right turn, the headlights play over the wreckage of a truck at the base of a hill, surrounded by trees. I bring the station wagon to a stop but leave it running and hop out, hustling over to the rusting hulk. Trucks are great finds, almost always full of junk I can use to upgrade my car or the garage that acts as my base of operations, and thus, always worth checking.

As I'm rifling through the menu that shows everything found within the truck, I hear it--some kind of high-pitched, siren-like sound coming from the woods behind me--and I freeze. My shoulders are tight and after a few seconds, I start to frantically check the area around me. Despite the hours I've spent driving around in the woods, the sound is like nothing I've ever heard in the Zone, or maybe anywhere. It has a distinctly mechanical, industrial tenor, something that sounds vaguely generated by a machine, but nothing about its oscillations or tone suggests what possible useful function a machine might undertake that'd generate such a noise. It feels...off. And it sounds like it's coming from just on the other side of the hill. Whatever is making that sound is somewhere in the woods, out of sight. But it is, distinctly, not far away.

The Olympic Exclusion Zone is a place where the rules of reality are easily bent.

I stand and listen, with rain falling all around me and only the headlights of the car illuminating the thin swathe of green between me and the road, for 10 or 15 seconds. The sound dies out and doesn't repeat. I wait, and wait, but at last...nothing happens.

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Later this month, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will give Anya Taylor-Joy's Imperator Furiosa an origin story that takes place years before her first appearance in Mad Max: Fury Road. But just because this is Furiosa's film, it doesn't mean that there's no sign of Mad Max himself. While speaking with EW, Furiosa director George Miller confirmed that there will be a brief appearance by his iconic character as an Easter Egg for fans. It may also lead to the next film in the franchise.

"In doing what we did in the preparation of Mad Max: Fury Road, we also wrote what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him in [that film]," said Miller. "And as we get towards the end of [Furiosa], the chronology, basically, we had to see that Mad Max was lurking around somewhere because we do know what happened. The writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that, which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance."

Miller also clarified that this previously untold Mad Max story isn't written down as a script yet. But that's next on the agenda for Miller.

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Take-Two Interactive is reportedly shutting down two of its studios: Roll7 and Intercept Games. The former is known for Rollerdrome and OlliOlli while the latter was working on Kerbal Space Program 2.

According to Bloomberg, Take-Two will be offering severance agreements to the developers at Roll7. Additionally, since Intercept Games is based in Seattle, Washington, Take-Two is subject to the WARN act, which states that employees must be given at least 60 days notice before being laid off.

As a result, a notice was filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department today that stated Take-Two would be laying off 70 employees, which is roughly the number of people at Intercept Games.

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Prior to Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox's entertainment assets in 2019, Josh Brolin was one of the few actors with a foot in the MCU and in the X-Men-related films. Brolin portrayed Thanos starting in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy before playing Cable in Deadpool 2 in 2018. Given Cable's connection to Deadpool, it was largely assumed that Brolin would at least make an appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine. But during his recent appearance on The Playlist's Bingeworthy podcast, Brolin expressed his disappointment that he won't be coming back.

"I so wanted to be in that movie," said Brolin while promoting the second season of his Prime Video series, Outer Range. "[Marvel] is a more complex labyrinth than Outer Range will ever be, my friend... And I will never know where that went or what that is or what I’m involved with or what I’m not involved with--the MCU being involved now. Cable was a lot of fun. I really liked doing that role. That was a lot of fun."

Regardless of being left out of the sequel, Brolin expressed his admiration for the film's stars, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

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The developer of Horizon Call of the Mountain, Firesprite Studios, has laid of the game's director, Alex Barnes. It's unclear how many other developers aside from him were impacted by Firesprite's latest redundancies.

Barnes announced his departure on Twitter yesterday, saying that he had been let go from Firesprite after nearly seven years of working there. "The people at Firesprite and Guerrilla that pulled together to build Horizon Call of the Mountain were some of the most talented and dedicated developers I've had the pleasure to work with," he explained. "It has been the honor of a lifetime to have been a Game Director with a team like this."

Back in February, Sony laid off around 900 employees, and Firesprite's next project, which was reportedly a Twisted Metal game, was apparently canceled. However, the Horizon online game is reportedly still in production.

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AirBnb has announced it's summer lineup for it's Icons experiences which includes the X-Mansion from the X-Men '97 on Disney+. Bookings will open later today as Jubliee, who will play host to you and seven guests will explore the mansion that includes characters' bedrooms, Cerebro's station, Beast's lab, and even the Danger Room. AirBnb has done a few pop culture-themed listings before with Barbie's Dreamhouse, Shrek's Swamp, and the Home Alone house.

Icons will be featured in their own category on Airbnb’s website. Most Icons will either be free or priced under $100 per guest, but the process of getting one is different than landing a regular reservation. There will be a countdown display until the time each Icon goes live, and guests can request to book through the app. Lucky guests who are picked will get a digital golden ticket, and there will be more than 4,000 tickets available in 2024.

Separately, additional guests will be able to partake in a two-hour X-Men experience at the X-Mansion as a day trip. Check out some photos below of what you can expect. You have to appreciate the detail and the illustrated feel of the environment.

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Deep and expansive storytelling is one of the elements that has made so many people die-hard fans of CD Projekt Red's RPGs. In both The Witcher series and in the more recently released Cyberpunk 2077, it's the rich worlds and fascinating characters that draw players in and keep them exploring for tens or even hundreds of hours. You can get even more out of the worlds of CD Projekt Red's games with the Humble Comic Bundle, which offers 19 Witcher and Cyberpunk digital comics for less than a dollar each.

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The Comic Bundle on Humble offers six comics telling stories in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, alongside seven based on CD Projekt Red's take on The Witcher. It also includes two graphic novel versions of Witcher short stories written by Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of the novels on which the Witcher games are based, as well as The World of The Witcher and The World of Cyberpunk 2077, two books that dig into the lore of each respective world. Finally, there's Gwent: Art of the Witcher Card Game, which gives a closer look at CD Projekt's other game addition to the Witcher world.

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Destiny 2's Brave arsenal is complete this week with the release Blast Furnace, one of the best pulse rifles to ever hit the game. Originally released in the Season of the Forge with the rest of the Black Armory weapons, Blast Furnace was disappointingly sunset with the Beyond Light expansion. But this deadly accurate pulse rifle is back, ready to help you menace Guardians and aliens alike with lethal headshots at long ranges.

The Brave arsenal weapons, like this week's other storied weapon, Luna's Howl, all first require you to complete a quest to unlock them. That'll get you a curated version of Blast Furnace, after which you can farm your preferred god rolls. Here's what you need to know to get Blast Furnace and which rolls you should be chasing.

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• How To Unlock Blast Furnace

How To Unlock Blast Furnace

It's the case with all the Brave arsenal weapons released in Into the Light, you can get Blast Furnace by completing quests in the Hall of Champions and taking part in the new Onslaught activity. You'll first need to complete the Feats of Strength quest with Lord Shaxx in order to unlock the full potential of the Hall of Champions. That also means knocking out the first weapon-specific quest you can pick up from Shaxx's right-hand bot, Arcite 99-40, called Stranger Danger.

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AFK Journey, like many other live-service games--such as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail--has codes players can input into the game to receive rewards for their account. Rewards can be a variety of goodies such as weapons, characters, and materials, but in AFK Journey's case, it is Diamonds and Gold.

These codes tend to be used one time per AFK Journey account. This guide will cover how to redeem codes in AFK Journey and list all currently redeemable codes to enter alongside what will be earned for each code entered.

Table of Contents [hide]

• How To Redeem Codes In AFK Journey

How To Redeem Codes In AFK Journey

In the main menu for AFK Journey:

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Batman has a long history in animation, and many years before the '90s animated series raised the bar for the medium, he was protecting Gotham in a classic TV show. One which you can now own on Blu-ray, as The New Adventures of Batman on Blu-ray is now up for preorder at Amazon ahead of its June 25 release. This complete collection includes all 16 episodes of the 1977 TV series. If you want to add more Batman animated goodness to your order, Batman: The Complete Animated Series on Blu-ray is discounted to only $28.79 at Amazon. Meanwhile, Batman Beyond: The Complete Series is down to $36.29.

Preorder at Amazon The New Adventures of Batman: The Complete Collection

One of the notable things about this series is that it reunited Adam West and Burt Ward, years after they'd hung up their bat-tights after starring in the live-action TV series. Like other cartoon shows of the era, there's a goofy element in it, as the fifth-dimensional imp Bat-Mite features prominently in the show. Batman's biggest bat-fan, Bat-Mite always ended up creating more problems, resulting in the wackiest of hijinks. Batman and Robin also tangled with several of their more iconic rogues, including the Joker, Catwoman, and Mr. Freeze.

Still, this animated series is all-ages fun, and if you're not ready to scar your kids yet with some of the more intense episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, this is a good-natured alternative to consider. Beyond the full spread of episodes, there's only a single extra on this disc, a short documentary called The Dark Knight Revisited.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Season 3 Reloaded update is live, and it adds plenty of new content for players to sink their teeth into, ranging from a wacky-sounding Minefield game mode to giving players a "grind to keep you busy for Seasons to come" in the form of Weapon Prestige Camos.

Season 3 Reloaded adds two new maps to Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer. One, Grime, takes players to the streets of London. The other, Checkpoint, will be familiar to Warzone players, as its the Stronghold area of Rebirth Island repurposed into a 6v6 multiplayer map. One new weapon, the bullpup BAL-27 assault rifle, is also now live, and can be unlocked via the classified sector of the Season 3 battle pass.

As for new modes, Modern Warfare 3 now has three more of them: Escort, Minefield, and Arcade. Escort sees teams alternate in escorting a MAW to its destination amidst opposition from the enemy team. Another, Minefield, certainly sounds like it will keep players on their toes, as killed opponents will drop mines around their body upon death. Last but not least, Arcade will see players battling it out for control of powerful weapons with "game-changing modifiers" sprinkled across the map.

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Director Barry Jenkins, known for helming Oscar-winner Moonlight, was prepared like Scar to defend Mufasa: The Lion King, which just received its first teaser trailer. The filmmaker responded to a social media post that said the prequel/sequel is just another cog in Disney CEO Bob "Iger's soulless machine."

Spotted by The Hollywood Reporter, Jenkins took exception to the comment on X (formerly known as Twitter), which also said the director was "too good and talented" for Mufasa. "There is nothing soulless about The Lion King," Jenkins replied. "For decades children have sat in theaters all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy."

There is nothing soulless about The Lion King. For decades children have sat in theaters all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy.

— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) April 29, 2024

It may come as a surprise that Jenkins is helming Mufasa, as it's his first time directing again on the silver screen since 2018's If Beale Street Could Talk. Before that, he helmed 2016's Moonlight, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. However, Jenkins announced his involvement with The Lion King prequel back in 2020. Mufasa serves as a prequel and sequel to the photorealistic The Lion King remake from 2019.

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Sony has introduced a new way to invite other players into multiplayer sessions on PlayStation 5. Soon, you'll be able to send a link to other players to do that.

The feature is set to come out in the upcoming months. Players will be able to generate a sharable link on their PS5 consoles and the PlayStation App. It can be sent to other PS5 players through any messaging or social media platform. The person who opens it can then join the multiplayer session, even if they aren't friends on PlayStation Network.

Sony has also created a unique widget for invites shared on Discord where it dynamically refreshes to show the status of the session.

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With Star Wars Day arriving this weekend (May 4), we've seen no shortage of early discounts and deals for Star Wars video games, merchandise, and other collectibles. However, Star Wars is also getting a unique collaboration, as Truff has teamed up with Lucasfilm to bring fans a Darth Vader-themed hot sauce. Speciality food and condiment collaborations with major franchises have a tendency to sell out, so if you're interested in Truff's (pricey) Star Wars-themed hot sauce, you may want to order soon.

Truff Star Wars Dark Side Hot Sauce $40

The Dark Side Hot Sauce features a flavor profile built around ghost peppers and black winter truffles. Those two unique ingredients should combine to give you a strong kick of heat mixed with an intense earthy note. It's also gluten-free and vegan, so it's safe for those with these dietary restrictions. However, unless you really love the bottle--and it indeed looks awesome--you should probably stay away from Dark Side Hot Sauce if you aren't a fan of very spicy sauces.

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Truff notes that this is one of their hottest sauces to date. On the Scoville Scale, the Dark Side clocks in at a staggering 800,000 to 1 million SHU. That puts it in line with a standard Ghost Pepper, so again, you might want to reconsider tossing it on your food if you're used to spice from jalapeno peppers or habanero peppers, as this is well beyond your run-of-the-mill heat.

While the hot sauce itself is a great gift, it's the Star Wars packaging that really seals the deal. The hot sauce bottle features a black and red design with Darth Vader's helmet serving as its cap. You'll also get a custom box that makes this a cool gift for friends and family.

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Fanatical is celebrating the arrival of May with the appropriately named May Madness Sale. This annual event is one of Fanatical's biggest sales each year, with discounts on thousands of PC games. In addition to the deals that will be available for the next couple of weeks, the sale features 24-hour Flash Deals each day starting at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET.

The limited-time deals for May 1 are definitely worth checking out, as the selection includes two recently released games. Persona 3 Reload is on sale for only $42.69 (was $70), and Dragon's Dogma 2 is discounted to $56, which is the lowest price we've seen on the PC version of Capcom's RPG since its March launch.

Along with discounts, Fanatical is giving shoppers who spend over $12 a chance to spin the Fanatical Wheel and earn a variety of free games, coupons, or other special bonuses. The biggest prize available on the wheel is the Star Prize, which gets you the Razer Edge cloud streaming handheld. All purchases also include a 5% off voucher for your next full-priced order.

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Marvel Rivals is inspired by Overwatch, but one area where the game stands out is in its decision to utilize a third-person perspective as opposed to the first-person viewpoint of Blizzard's hero shooter. Why third-person? According to NetEase Games, using a "third-person shooter" foundation as its combat core allows for players to fully embody the superheroes and villains they're playing as, especially when combat isn't limited to guns.

Executing ranged and melee attacks using quick targeting necessitated the use of a third-person viewpoint and was decided early on in the development of Marvel Rivals. At the same time, NetEase ran into a few challenges when adopting this system, as Marvel characters come in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

"We've been playing around with camera rules, tweaking positions, adjusting FOV (field of view), and fine-tuning hero performances to make sure they all shine," NetEase wrote in a developer diary on the Marvel Rivals Discord. "Another challenge is encouraging players to switch from FPS to TPS. If you're used to FPS games, leaping into our TPS realm might feel a bit like going into a whole new world!"

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Starfield's recently announced May Update--an enormous update full of quality-of-life improvements--is set to go live on May 15, but it's far from the only thing Starfield fans have to look forward to. In a YouTube video highlighting the new update, Bethesda also revealed that another long-awaited feature is finally in the works: a vehicle that will allow players to drive across the surface of the game's 1,000+ planets.

"The team is working on our first land vehicle, so you can drive around on planets," lead creative producer Tim Lamb revealed near the end of the video. "Obviously, we're [also] working on more quests and the massive Shattered Space expansion."

Starfield launched in September 2023 with no vehicles (or alien mounts) available for players to make use of when traversing the game's many planets. At the time, game director Todd Howard indicated that Boost Packs--jetpack-like devices that can be found throughout the game--should be enough to get players where they want to go.

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