Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Greetings, football fans! Before we enjoy the NFL opening weekend, let's dive into a new round of news, memes, and entertainment. This is the Friday edition of Evening Reading!
And, because it's the weekend, go find yourself something to play!
Let's catch up with a few of the other reveals from D23!
Marvel's Midnight Suns has been pushed back from October to December, but Marvel will look to make up for it with some animated shorts. They'll premiere on Halloween.
Red Hulk is coming to Marvel Strike Force!
Take a look at the Monsters Inc. track and racers coming to Disney Speedstorm.
The Toy Story Realm is coming soon to Disney Dreamlight Valley. (By the way, I've been rapidly falling down this rabbit hole, so send thoughts and prayers.)
Disney Mirrorverse has recruited some bad guys for its next update.
In non-D23 news, here's another peek at the campaign for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
And lastly, we're so focused on what Halo Infinite doesn't have and isn't getting, I guess we should look at something it is getting with this up-close look at Forge.
Scenes from D23 2022
The big Disney expo is this weekend, so I guess it's time to look at what we're missing!
We start on an emotional note, as we see Derrick Boseman accept the Disney Legend award on behalf of Chadwick Boseman, who left us way too soon.
Disney is about to go even bigger with Disney California Adventure's Avengers Campus.
And in more park news, here's a look at what's in the works for the eventual Splash Mountain replacement!
Plus, a look at some Moana integration for Epcot.
Second Dinner's Ben Brode is out there representing Marvel Snap!
If you can't get to the Dumbo ride, allow the Dumbo ride to come to you!
Disney celebrates its animation legacy.
And we wrap on a quick scene from Friday's Simpsons panel.
Oh, we got trailers, too!
Yeah, we should probably check out some of the new trailers, starting with Hocus Pocus 2!
Here's Disenchanted! (Not to be confused with Disenchantment, which is a great Netflix show from Matt Groening.)
And the first teaser for the live action version of The Little Mermaid.
Splatoon 3: Week 1
One of the biggest days of the year for Switch owners is here! Let's take a look at the first day of Splatoon 3 in the wild.
Ok, that's not an ideal start. Let's see if we can find something better.
If you have the Nintendo Switch Online app, you can score some free stuff!
Kit & Krysta are here to show you the way in single-player.
Just in case you missed the news yesterday.
So much for any skill-based matchmaking.
Unsurprisingly, Nintendo of America's Bill Trinen already seems to have this down.
Sus.
Learn how to use that Reefslider, because you can do a lot of damage with it.
Similarly, start laying out your Salmon Run strategies now.
Splatoon 3 about to be esports.
Lastly, anybody looking to get in on the VTuber craze, consider giving these a try.
EZRA'S BACK! (No, not Ezra Miller...)
Star Wars Rebels hero Ezra Bridger is finally going to be found alive after that show's series finale and they've found someone to play his live action counterpart.
Ezra Bridger is officially headed to live-action, with Eman Esfandi playing the Star Wars animated character in Ahsoka, the Disney+ series toplined by Rosario Dawson.
Esfandi’s credits include the Robert Rodriguez horror film Red 11, which screened at Cannes in 2019, as well as a small role in best picture nominee King Richard. He also appears in the upcoming gay military drama The Inspection, which is getting strong early reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival this week.
Ezra Bridger debuted in 2014 in the animated Star Wars Rebels, where he was voiced by actor Taylor Gray. The character grew from an orphan with a knack for the Force into a Rebel who trained in the ways of the Jedi. The geek culture-focused site Cinelinx first reported the news.
So there we all have it! We have an Ahsoka, we have an Ezra...
...all that's missing is a Thrawn.
Nothing but the Hotfix
Once again, I feel the need to say that I love the idea of randomizers! Running through a familiar game where everything's totally different than where it normally is greatly appeals to me and is a lot of fun to watch. So let's watch Rosecurel run through Kingdom Hearts 2 on Critical Mode where various elements are randomized.
GDQ's Hotfix shows air every week and you can catch them all at the Games Done Quick Twitch account.
Under the learning tree with Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai started a YouTube channel! Let's learn from his decades of experience together by looking at one of his latest videos. Tonight, we take a very fascinating look at the making of Kirby's Adventure, where Sakurai gives us first-person insight on why the game was made for the NES, where the idea for Copy Abilities came from, and the bizarre preamble to the game's development.
This week in Shaqnews
With NBA 2K23 about to come out, we look back at the leadup to the game from five years ago. It's also yet another reminder of the fun dynamic that Shaq had with the late, great Kobe Bryant.
IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!
You guys, I have to tell you, I started incorporating this into my Evening Reading posts, because professional wrestling is fun.
Professional wrestling was not fun this week. "IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!" is supposed to be a fun, facetious title, but it got way too real this week.
Having said that, how can I not touch on the elephant in the room?
We don't know what the situation is in AEW with CM Punk, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks. Everyone's suspended and it's possible that CM Punk probably isn't coming back. It sucks. I hate that this happened. Drama in pro wrestling isn't fun for anybody and everyone's calling this, without hyperbole, the biggest story in pro wrestling since Montreal... or at least they would if the Vince McMahon story didn't literally happen not even 45 days ago.
Having said all of this, God bless everyone on Wednesday for trying to have a good show.
And God bless Jon Moxley.
And also Chris Jericho.
Tonight in video game music
We're doing something a little different for this feature this week. Let's watch this behind-the-scenes look from Bandai Namco on the making of the orchestral soundtrack for Elden Ring.
That's your Evening Reading to send you into this second weekend of September! Keep the spirit of the classic Evening Reading alive by jumping into the comments about whatever you see here or whatever randomness you'd like to discuss. Join the conversation and dive into the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below. I'll see you all next week!