A throwaway answer during a video game livestream has put the newly crowned NBA champions in the awkward position of apologizing, in effect, for their own players. Taylor Swift was labeled a performative fan by two New York Knicks guards this week, and the team moved within a day to say she is nothing of the sort.

The remarks came on Thursday during an NBA 2K livestream, part of the league’s “Deflected” series. Guards Tyler Kolek and Miles “Deuce” McBride were playing the game when they were asked to name the “fakest celebrity Knicks fan.” Kolek went first. Some famous faces at Madison Square Garden, he said, “just want to be seen at the game, they’re not necessarily fans.” Then he added: “Maybe Taylor Swift?”

What the players actually said

The comments were softer than the headlines suggest. Kolek said he didn’t know whether he had seen Swift at any other games, then offered her an out: “I guess she’s got a lot going on, so she can’t come all the time.” He still landed on calling her appearances “a little performative.” He also predicted he would “get some hate from the Swifties.”

McBride said he agreed. He also named two celebrity fans he considers reliable, actor Ben Stiller and comedian Tracy Morgan, saying “everybody else is usually solid.” According to one report, McBride joked that Kolek was only trying to cushion the blow.

The Knicks respond

On Friday a team spokesperson gave the same statement to several outlets, including The Hollywood Reporter and the BBC. “Taylor Swift has been a Knicks fan for many years, has a long history with Madison Square Garden, and we are incredibly appreciative of her support of the organisation.”

The reaction also reached Kolek’s home. His girlfriend, Alexi Sousa, posted a TikTok describing herself as a Swiftie “waking up next to Tyler & seeing what he had to say about my girl.” She added that Swift is her “favorite celeb Knicks fan btw.” Swift had not responded publicly when the sources were published.

Is the performative fan label fair?

The record shows a mixed picture. Swift sat in the crowd for Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals in Cleveland, reportedly with Travis Kelce, and again at Game Four of the NBA Finals in New York in June. Kolek’s point that her sightings are sporadic is not baseless. But the team’s argument rests on a longer history than one postseason.

Swift was photographed at Knicks games in 2014, including a October matchup with the Chicago Bulls. In a TIME interview that November, she tied her interest in the team to friendly encounters with then-Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire and his wife at the Met Gala. She also recalled performing in the Garden’s halftime talent contest as a young girl. Asked why she supported a struggling team, she replied, “I love them, though. Why does that matter?”

Her ties to the arena go deeper than basketball. She has headlined there on tours, and in July she married Kelce at Madison Square Garden in a ceremony officiated by Adam Sandler.

Her Game Four appearance was also hardly passive. She wore a custom blue shirt reading “Stevie Knicks” alongside Este and Alana Haim and actor Mariska Hargitay. Alana Haim told Vogue that Swift texted her the pun and asked her to make the shirts, which she printed at home on $2.99 tees. The night itself was historic: the Knicks overcame a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 107-106, the largest comeback ever in an NBA Finals game, according to the NBA. They clinched their first title since 1973 in Game Five.

Why it matters beyond the quip

Celebrity courtside culture has long invited skepticism from players and fans who see seats as a place to be photographed. Kolek’s comment tapped into that. But naming the most famous woman in pop music as the example, in the same season she was at the center of the team’s championship celebrations, guaranteed a bigger reaction than a casual answer in a game stream would normally get.

The Knicks’ quick response suggests the organization saw little upside in letting the label stand. It also shows how a light-hearted question can become a public-relations matter once a name like Swift’s is attached. Whether she is a devoted supporter or an occasional visitor, the team has made clear which description it prefers. And on the court, at least, the champions have little to complain about from anyone who showed up for that comeback.

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File photo: Taylor Swift at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (3).png by iHeartRadioCA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Kimmarie Johnson, a model, actress and entrepreneur best known for small but memorable screen roles around the turn of the millennium, died Wednesday, Nov. 4, at age 50. Her niece, Rhonda Scott, told outlets including People and TMZ that Johnson suffered a “heart event” at her Los Angeles home on Oct. 27. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai and diagnosed with what the family described as a “heart aneurysm condition.”

“She radiated a light so strong and bright,” Scott said. “People who came in contact with her felt nothing but positive energy. We will miss her tremendously and will continue to honor her life forever.”

From Pittsburgh pageant winner to Hollywood bit player

Born Kim Marie Johnson on April 8, 1976, in Pittsburgh, she studied elementary education and child psychology at California University of Pennsylvania, according to Variety. She then moved to New York to pursue modeling, and Variety lists Vidal Sassoon, Oscar de la Renta and United Colors of Benetton among her clients. Other accounts note she also worked as a flight attendant.

Johnson won the Miss Pennsylvania USA title with no previous pageant experience. That earned her a place in the 1993 Miss USA competition, where she reached the final group. Outlets differ slightly on her placement: The Hollywood Reporter says top six, while Variety and Deadline say top five. The Independent calls her simply a finalist. Her 1996 move to Los Angeles marked the shift from modeling toward acting.

Kimmarie Johnson’s screen credits

Johnson appeared in a 1998 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Most sources give her character’s name as Judy, though Deadline lists it as Jane. The Hollywood Reporter cites Let’s Talk About Sex as her first credit that same year. In 2000 she played one of the disguised aliens in Dude, Where’s My Car?, billed as “Alien Jumpsuit Chick #5” according to Variety, and appeared in an episode of the Pamela Anderson series V.I.P.

Her other credits included Wanda at Large, Shadow Fury, Spanish Fly, The Summer of Massacre, Gang Warz and Carman: The Champion. The Independent notes she also had a handful of producing credits. Her last acting credit was a 2017 episode of Tucker’s War.

After the birth of her son, Cameron Nino, in 2003, Johnson scaled back acting. The Hollywood Reporter says she took classes at The Groundlings during that period. Deadline describes her son as an L.A.-based musician. He and her niece survive her.

A business beyond the screen

In 2011, Johnson launched the skin care line SkinGlow by Kimmarie, which The Independent reports she ran until her death. Social media accounts that appear to be hers showed recent activity, including modeling photos and behind-the-scenes videos. Friends and relatives have since left tributes. One commenter on a Facebook post recalled a recent get-together at Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center. A woman who said she was Johnson’s cousin wrote of the shock of her “sudden passing” and called her “always so supportive.”

Her career was built mostly on brief appearances, but the tributes suggest she left a stronger impression than her billing implied. A commenter on Deadline’s obituary who said they had worked with her called her “a ray of light,” echoing her niece’s words.

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File photo: Kimmarie DickClark.JPG by Frank Edward Johnson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Macklemore says that nine of America’s biggest arenas have refused to host his Free Palestine tour, and that the dates he was offered vanished once venues learned the concerts would benefit Palestinians. Madison Square Garden has pushed back, saying the issue is availability and the rapper’s draw, not politics.

The claims came in a seven-slide Instagram post on 6 November. They follow a turbulent autumn for the artist, who was removed from Ed Sheeran’s US stadium tour and then staged a sold-out run in Europe.

Which venues does Macklemore say turned him down?

Macklemore named nine arenas: Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, UBS Arena and the Prudential Center in the New York area; the Intuit Dome, Kia Forum and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles; San Francisco’s Chase Center; and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.

He said his team received available dates through the end of the year by mid-September. “But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table,” he wrote. “The conversations were all different, but the result was the same.” He added that in more than 20 years of touring he had never experienced anything like it.

The Independent reported that all proceeds from the benefit shows go to organisations providing humanitarian relief, medical aid and advocacy for Palestinians.

What does Madison Square Garden say?

A spokesperson for MSG Entertainment gave Variety and The Hollywood Reporter the same statement: “We have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability and he’s not an arena level act.” That is a direct rebuttal of the idea that the decision was political. Variety said it had contacted all nine venues, and The Hollywood Reporter said representatives for the other eight had not immediately responded. The sources contain no account from any other arena of why it declined, so Macklemore’s version of events is so far unconfirmed.

The “arena level” remark sits awkwardly beside the rapper’s recent results. According to the coverage, the Free Palestine tour sold out arenas in Dublin, Paris and London in late October. The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis called the London show “a triumph”, and the line-ups included Hozier and Kneecap, with appearances from actors Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon.

How the Sheeran split led here

The benefit shows grew out of Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour. He had spoken in support of Palestinians, including the occupied West Bank, during an opening set at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Sheeran said US venues had warned they would not host the shows if Macklemore stayed on the bill. “I am not complicit,” Sheeran said, adding that he has personal views on the conflict even though he chooses not to speak publicly.

The Hollywood Reporter says New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and other NFL owners told Sheeran they would not host his concerts with Macklemore on the bill. Kraft defended the decision at the time, citing Macklemore’s stage remarks and what he called “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery” that he said was offensive to the Jewish community. The sources do not include a response from Macklemore to that specific allegation, though his Instagram post frames his activism as solidarity with Palestinians and rooted in “love”.

After his removal, all four of the other opening acts and Sheeran’s live band quit the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.

A fight over who decides which causes are acceptable

Macklemore cast the alleged refusals as part of a wider pattern. “We’ve reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome and which human lives are worth defending,” he wrote, adding: “Today it’s Palestine. What will it be tomorrow?” He also said he no longer cared about burning bridges with industry figures who do not support Palestinians.

He pointed to signs of a shifting political climate, citing the Democrats’ showing in this week’s midterms and Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate win in Michigan. In his telling, El-Sayed won on a platform that included ending the war in Gaza, despite heavy spending against him by groups such as AIPAC.

Where could the tour go next?

Macklemore says the US dates are not dead. “We’ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place,” he wrote, promising “We will build our own stages.” That suggests open-air or non-traditional venues, though no dates or locations have been announced.

For now, the dispute comes down to competing explanations. Macklemore says the Free Palestine tour was shut out because of its cause. MSG says it is a matter of scarce dates and the size of his audience. Responses from the other eight arenas, if they come, will show whether the pattern he describes holds up.

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File photo: P2N2022Macklemore 1.jpg by Selbymay, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comedian Katherine Ryan has described a mix of “grief and relief” after Russell Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault, saying the verdict stirred up difficult emotions for many women who have been reacting privately and quietly. Brand, 51, will be sentenced on Monday.

Ryan spoke on her podcast, Telling Everybody Everything, after a jury at Southwark Crown Court found Brand guilty on Thursday of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared of two further rape charges and one other allegation of indecent assault. Brand denied all allegations of non-consensual sexual activity. The trial judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, told him to expect “a significant custodial term”.

Why Ryan says the verdict brings grief and relief

Ryan said the outcome left her “dysregulated again, caught off-guard, emotional”, and “in awe of the survivors who also had nothing to gain”. She noted that the women came forward even though Brand had “fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them”.

She was careful about how she framed her reaction. “I will never be someone who, like, dances on graves,” she said. “There has been some justice done today. There’s a level of relief, but there’s grief alongside relief.” She stressed that the court’s finding does not undo the harm, and that people who were hurt “will continue to carry that in some way, regardless of what justice is done.”

She also voiced a worry about what comes next. Brand, she said, has spent a long time cultivating the idea that the establishment invented the claims against him, and has cast himself as a martyr to a growing audience who still see the women as the villains.

The Roast Battle backstory

Ryan’s comments carry extra weight because of her earlier remarks. In 2022 she told Louis Theroux in a BBC interview that she had called a famous man a “predator” to his face while working on a TV programme, but could not name him because it was a “litigious minefield”. Speculation has long linked this to Comedy Central’s Roast Battle in 2018. The BBC and Variety both note that Ryan has not publicly confirmed that she meant Brand or named the show.

Deadline, however, reported in 2023 that she repeatedly called Brand a “sexual predator” while recording the series. It said her jokes did not make the final edit, and that Brand was later replaced on the show by Jonathan Ross. In a stand-up special last year, Ryan recounted being told that Brand had objected and wanted her to stop teasing him. She said she then had to “be nice” after the channel stepped in. The sources differ on how directly she has linked herself to the story, so those accounts are best read as reported claims rather than something she has confirmed in her podcast remarks.

Questions for the industry

The verdict has also prompted scrutiny of the people around Brand. Former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey asked on BBC Radio 5 Live how and why he was able to “get away with it so long”. She asked why nobody intervened and why senior executives who worked with him did not “call time”. Her own answer was that many were “partly mesmerised”: he seemed “cool” for a while, had charisma and brought in a young audience that broadcasters crave. As others have said, she added, “he did hide in plain sight.”

Adventurer Bear Grylls, who attended Brand’s baptism in the River Thames in 2024, also responded. He said the faith had seemed genuine at the time and that he would not want to discourage anyone from coming to faith. He added that “judgement is for the courts and God”, that it was right “justice has now been served”, and that the victims were “the heroes of the day”.

What happens next

The legal story is not over. The Metropolitan Police said Brand is being investigated over further rape allegations made by two women, and that he had previously been interviewed under caution about them. He has not been convicted of anything in relation to those allegations. He had earlier tried and failed to have the criminal case thrown out, arguing that publicity following a 2023 Channel 4 Dispatches, Times and Sunday Times investigation made a fair trial impossible. He denied the claims in that investigation, and none of the women featured in it were complainants in this trial.

For now, attention turns to Monday’s sentencing. Ryan’s reaction, a refusal to celebrate alongside an acknowledgment that something real has been established in court, reflects how many people are processing a verdict that brings both accountability and a reminder of the harm behind it. That balance of grief and relief is likely to shape the conversation long after the sentence is handed down.

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File photo: Katherine Ryan, Scoundrels, 2012(cropped).jpg by Paul Beavan from Andover, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Keanu Reeves is officially coming back as the world’s most famous retired hitman, with the John Wick animated prequel now confirmed and its star signed. Reports published on November 6 say Reeves has closed his deal to voice the character in the Lionsgate project, which turns to one of the most mythologized chapters in the franchise’s backstory.

What the John Wick animated prequel is about

The film will dramatize the “Impossible Task,” the single night in which John Wick eliminated all of his rivals to free himself from the High Table and leave the assassin underworld for Helen. The feat has been referred to throughout the live-action series but never fully shown, which makes it a natural target for a prequel.

According to Polygon, Lionsgate greenlit the movie last April, and Reeves only recently finalized his involvement. The Independent adds that he will also produce, alongside franchise veterans Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski. Stahelski, who directed the live-action films, is reported to be working on the animated project as well.

Who is making it

Shannon Tindle, known for Ultraman: Rising, will direct. The script comes from Ryan and Kaz Firpo, who co-wrote Marvel’s Eternals. The animation studio has not been named, and no release date has been announced, so it is unclear how soon audiences will see the finished film.

A franchise that keeps growing

Reeves’ return matters partly because John Wick appeared to die at the end of John Wick: Chapter 4. A prequel sidesteps that ending and lets the character stay in play without undoing it. The Independent describes the property as a billion-dollar franchise, and the studio is treating it that way, with several projects in motion at once.

Reeves has starred in all four main films and appeared alongside Ana de Armas in the 2025 spinoff Ballerina. Donnie Yen is leading a separate spinoff about Caine, the blind assassin he played in Chapter 4, which has recently wrapped principal photography. A fifth live-action John Wick film is in development, and the hotel-set series The Continental: From the World of John Wick arrived on streaming in 2023.

What to watch for next

Plenty remains unannounced. Without an animation studio, a release date or a full voice cast, the John Wick animated prequel is still at an early stage of public detail. Its form will be the interesting question. Animation is not bound by stunt choreography or budgets, and the Impossible Task, a one-night rampage against an entire criminal order, could be staged on a scale live action would struggle to match. Fans will be watching for whether the film keeps the series’ tightly choreographed, gun-fu style.

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File photo: Keanu Reeves at TIFF 2025 02 (Cropped).jpg by Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

Among the many surprises of a Democratic wave in Texas, one stands out for fans of anime: the newly elected Texas attorney general, Nathan Johnson, spent years writing the music for the English-language version of Dragon Ball Z.

Johnson, a Democrat and sitting state senator, defeated Republican Mayes Middleton in the November 3 midterm election. According to IGN, he will be the state’s first Democratic attorney general since 1994. He won on a night when, as The Independent reports, Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Governor Greg Abbott and James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat. Variety adds that Democrats also took control of the U.S. House and Senate nationally.

From Law Office to Funimation’s Score Desk

Johnson represented Texas’s 16th Senate district from 2018 and, per his campaign website cited by Variety, passed 134 bills over four sessions. Before that he practiced law and ran a music-production company. That company scored 67 episodes of Funimation’s in-house English dub of Dragon Ball Z, plus five films: The World’s Strongest, The Tree of Might, Broly – Second Coming, Fusion Reborn and Wrath of the Dragon.

IGN recounts how he got the job, drawing on a 2012 interview with the fan site The Dao of Dragon Ball. Johnson was close to giving up on music when he called about renting an office near his home. The man who answered, Robert Cocanaugher, turned out to be both the landlord and a Funimation co-founder. Johnson says he had never seen an anime or scored anything commercial. He called the episode “one of the most bizarre collisions of circumstance I’ve ever experienced.” IGN notes he was the second composer on Funimation’s dub, and the last, since the company’s music branch was later cut to save money.

Why the Texas Attorney General’s Past Resonates

Polygon places the work in a pivotal moment. Funimation’s dub replaced an earlier version, produced by Ocean Group, that was criticized for heavy cuts and edits imposed by Saban Entertainment. The Funimation version, which aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block, became the one many Western viewers remember. It helped build the audience that now makes anime a mainstream global phenomenon.

Johnson has leaned into that legacy. In a June 22 Facebook post, he wrote: “If you grew up watching Dragon Ball Z, you might know me better than you think.” The post accompanied a conversation with state Sen. Taylor Rehmet. In it he recalled his then one-year-old son on his knee as the screen exploded with action, saying, “Oh, Daddy, Goku!” The work, he said, earned him “street cred with my kid’s friends” and “a cultural connection that very few people have had the opportunity to have.” He also said the experience shaped his direction and still connects with many Texans.

A Footnote to a Political Upset

The anime credit is a sideshow to the election’s main story, and no source suggests it swayed the vote. Still, it gives the incoming Texas attorney general a rare biography: a lawyer who set his career aside for music, then landed a job on one of the most recognizable animated series of its era. Polygon also points out a possible mix-up. Another Nathan Johnson, Nathan Tyler Johnson, is a well-known film composer who scores the movies of his cousin, director Rian Johnson. The two are different people.

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Channel 4 has ended Married at First Sight UK after a decade, ruling out a return even though one of its own commissioned reviews said the show could carry on with changes. The announcement on 5 November follows allegations aired by BBC Panorama in May, in which two women said they were raped by on-screen husbands and a third alleged a non-consensual sex act. The three men involved deny the allegations.

The fallout is wide. A sixth series that had already been filmed will not be broadcast, and a spin-off that was in pre-production has been dropped. Earlier series, pulled from streaming and linear services after the Panorama programme, will stay off Channel 4’s platforms.

Why Channel 4 says Married at First Sight has “run its course”

Chief executive Priya Dogra, who was only weeks into the job when the scandal broke, framed the decision as an editorial one rather than a finding of wrongdoing. She said the reviews made no finding that Channel 4 breached Ofcom’s code or that the format is inherently unsafe. But she said putting every recommendation into practice would mean a level of intervention, monitoring and supervision that “provoked fundamental questions” about what the show is for.

The broadcaster said series six would not air because it was made before the strengthened protocols existed. Dogra repeated her apology for “the distress those women have clearly felt” and said the show’s budget would go into new programming. The incoming programmes chief, David Brindley, starts in January.

What the two reviews actually found

Two separate pieces of work were commissioned. The first, by law firm Clyde & Co, looked backwards at the welfare protocols in place when the allegations arose. It reportedly drew on more than 30,000 documents, 20 hours of footage and 15 interviews. It found no breach of Ofcom’s code, but said there were isolated occasions when the welfare framework was not fully applied. In one, contributors who broke the rules on prohibited substances were given a “first and final warning” rather than being removed. It also said Channel 4 and production company CPL could have carried out a more structured review across several series.

The second review, led by former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey, looked forward. It praised the existing protocols as thorough but concluded that parts of the format raised the show’s risk profile. Intimacy was a central focus, it said, and some elements could implicitly pressure contributors to be intimate. It also reported that contributors could become so dependent on production that they lost touch with reality. It noted that Channel 4’s close involvement had at times led to a lack of objective scrutiny of production decisions.

Her proposals included:

• separate bedrooms on wedding nights and honeymoons, with couples opting in to share;
• CCTV in the apartments, monitored by a welfare team, plus panic buttons, safe words and lockable en-suite bathrooms;
• scrapping “Intimacy Week” and letting contestants leave independently;
• fewer couples per series;
• in-person rather than video-call psychological testing at casting, with assessments that consider issues such as misogyny and attitudes to consent.

Heggessey told BBC Radio 4 the changes would have altered the format and nature of the show, and that she “completely understood” Dogra’s decision not to proceed.

Criticism and unanswered questions

The reviews were not asked to investigate the Panorama allegations themselves, and Channel 4 said those remain a matter for the relevant authorities. Deadline reported that one cast member was arrested on suspicion of rape over the summer; no one has been convicted of any offence in connection with the programme. Ofcom opened its own investigation in July and says it will weigh the reports as it strengthens guidance for broadcasters.

Lia Perin, the lawyer for one of the contributors, said the findings “raise more questions than they answer”. She argued that the risks were built into a format designed to create drama and should have been tackled long before serious allegations emerged. She called the recommendation for more consent training “especially troubling” for a programme built around intimate relationships.

The picture from CPL and Channel 4 has shifted. CPL’s lawyers previously described its welfare system as “gold standard” and said it acted appropriately. Channel 4 initially told Panorama the allegations were “wholly uncorroborated” before commissioning a review. Culture committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage said axing the show “makes sense” and that reality TV contestants have often been treated as a commodity, with duty of care “a slogan rather than a genuine principle”.

The cancellation closes one of Channel 4’s biggest reality hits. The harder question is whether the wider industry will adopt the safeguards that Channel 4 judged too heavy for Married at First Sight to survive.

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Maya Hawke has become the first actor attached to Legendary Entertainment’s live-action Magic: The Gathering film, a project that has already outlasted several studios and more than a decade of false starts. The news, first reported by Deadline and later confirmed by other trade outlets, gives the long-troubled adaptation its first piece of casting.

What we know about Maya Hawke’s role

The details are thin. Variety says Hawke “will star” in the film, and, citing Deadline, expects her to anchor an ensemble that has yet to be cast. IGN, relaying the same Deadline report, says sources describe her part as a “key” one and that producers wanted her to get the first offer. The Hollywood Reporter says there is no word on what character she will play, and Variety likewise says her role and the plot remain under wraps.

So while some headlines frame it as a lead role, the reporting supports a narrower reading: Hawke is the first name on a film that is meant to feel like an ensemble piece. Her exact billing and character are unconfirmed.

Hawke is best known for Stranger Things. Her film credits include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Asteroid City, Do Revenge and Maestro, and she voiced Anxiety in Pixar’s Inside Out 2. She is also set to appear in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, among other upcoming projects.

A director who actually plays the game

Matt Johnson, the Canadian filmmaker behind BlackBerry and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, is directing and co-writing with Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. Variety reports that Johnson is a longtime fan of the game. He shared a story about entering a major tournament in Detroit while half-seriously planning to drop out of film school and go pro. By his telling, a brutal losing streak ended that plan within hours.

That background could matter for a franchise where fans are famously protective of the lore. IGN suggests that Johnson’s comedy credentials and the ensemble framing point toward something in the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. That is the outlet’s inference, not anything the studio has said about tone.

Why this adaptation keeps stalling

The casting news lands against a rough history. According to IGN, Hasbro struck a deal with Universal in 2008 to turn several of its brands, including Magic, into films, but that effort was canceled by 2012. Fox picked up the rights in 2014, attached Simon Kinberg as a supervisor and brought in a Game of Thrones writer. It still went nowhere, and the game’s lead designer, Mark Rosewater, confirmed the project was dead in 2022. Netflix also explored a live-action film and an animated series in the early 2020s, with no result.

The current effort is structured differently. Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment announced their partnership in 2025, and Vulture reported Johnson’s involvement in July 2026. IGN also notes that crew members from the Dune films, including storyboard artists, costume designers and location scouts, are reportedly contributing. The film is intended as the start of a broader film and TV universe.

Hasbro and Legendary’s bigger bet

The game launched in 1993 and has grown into a sprawling business spanning digital games, publishing, live events and consumer products. It has also produced crossover card sets tied to Final Fantasy, Marvel, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons and The Lord of the Rings. The Hollywood Reporter notes that this brand recognition is part of what Hasbro hopes to turn into a screen franchise.

Legendary brings a track record with game and book adaptations, including A Minecraft Movie and the Dune series. Hasbro is also pursuing a Clue reimagining with Sony and a Monopoly film with LuckyChap and Lionsgate. A release date and the rest of the cast have not been announced.

For now, the signing of Maya Hawke is the clearest sign that this version of Magic: The Gathering is moving from announcement to production. Whether it can succeed where three earlier attempts failed will depend on who joins her and what the film turns out to be.

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File photo: Maya Hawke @ Sid The Cat Auditorium.jpg by Justin Higuchi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cynthia Erivo has been cast as Afeni Shakur, the mother of Tupac Shakur, in the Snoop Dogg biopic from Universal Pictures. The casting, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, adds one of the film’s most significant supporting roles to an already crowded ensemble.

Who Was Afeni Shakur?

Afeni Shakur was a former Black Panther and political activist, and she is more than a footnote in the story of West Coast hip-hop. Her son made her the subject of several songs, including the 1995 single “Dear Mama”. After his death in 1996, she set up the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, which supports young people interested in the arts, and oversaw his estate. She also founded the label Amaru Entertainment to release his previously unheard music. She died in 2016 at the age of 69.

The Cast Around Erivo

Erivo joins a long list of names. Jonathan Daviss, known for Outer Banks, plays Snoop Dogg, while Camron Jones takes on Tupac. Myles Bullock plays Dr. Dre, Lauren London plays Snoop’s late mother, Beverly Tate, and Laya DeLeon Hayes plays his wife, Shante Broadus. Tre Hale is Suge Knight, Algee Smith is Warren G, Olly Sholotan is Kurupt, Corey Champagne is Nate Dogg and Jonica Booth is The Lady of Rage. According to Rolling Stone, the musician SwayvoTwain will play Notorious B.I.G.

The casting is notable because Tupac’s relationship with Snoop is part of the story. Reports say the two met around the 1993 film Poetic Justice and later worked together, including on “2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted”. They drifted apart amid the East Coast/West Coast rivalry, but remained friends, and Snoop visited Tupac in hospital in his final days. Afeni sits close to that history.

Production and Release Details

Craig Brewer directs from a script by Joe Robert Cole, co-writer of both Black Panther films. Snoop Dogg is a producer alongside Brian Grazer, the producer behind Eminem’s 8 Mile, with Death Row Pictures president Sara Ramaker and Imagine’s Allan Mandelbaum also credited. The film will draw on music from across Snoop’s career. Filming began in September 2026 in California, and the release is set for August 6, 2027. The project was first announced in 2022 and billed by its makers as the “definitive” film about the rapper and entertainment mogul.

Snoop himself has promised the film will be rated R. Erivo had not publicly commented on the casting at the time of the reports.

What Else Is on Erivo’s Slate

Erivo is busy. She also executive-produces Prima Facie, the screen version of the acclaimed one-woman play. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and reaches UK and Irish cinemas on November 13. She stars in the action-thriller Karōshi too, due February 5. Last month she told The Hollywood Reporter she has an “internal metronome” for choosing roles and says no to a lot of projects, which suggests the Afeni part appealed for a reason.

With production under way and nine months or so until release, the Snoop Dogg biopic now has a cast that spans the main figures of West Coast rap in the 1990s, plus an Oscar-nominated actor in a key role.

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File photo: Cynthia Erivo – Wicked-FYC-1.jpg by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Scarlett Johansson has admitted that her still-unrevealed part in The Batman: Part II left her wrestling with “a lot of existential angst,” offering a rare glimpse into a production that has otherwise stayed tightly under wraps.

The actress made the remarks in an Entertainment Tonight interview, published Wednesday, while promoting her new film Paper Tiger. Asked which of her upcoming franchise roles, in The Exorcist: Martyrs or the Batman sequel, pushed her furthest out of her comfort zone, she picked Gotham.

“Hard to crack”: what Johansson actually said

“Probably the role in The Batman, because it gave me a lot of existential angst, for some reason,” she said. She added that it was “very hard to figure out,” and that she could not say whether the difficulty came from the character itself or from “where I am in my life.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, she also called it “a tough role in a lot of ways.” Beyond that, she kept her answer short: “That’s all I can say about it.”

That reticence is consistent with how the project has been handled. Director Matt Reeves confirmed in May that Johansson had joined the cast, but the character has never been officially named.

The guessing game around her character

Speculation has filled the gap. IGN notes that rumours have linked her to either Gilda Dent or Poison Ivy. The Independent reports that she is expected to play Gilda Dent, which would put her opposite Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent. Neither outlet presents the casting as confirmed, and Johansson’s comments do not settle the question.

Her description is notable in its own right. The sequel is her first DC project after years as Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A role that left her with existential angst is a long way from the familiar franchise territory she knows. Robert Pattinson, returning as Bruce Wayne, has also teased that the film shows “an understanding of Bruce Wayne and Batman’s psychology” he doesn’t think has been seen before. That suggests a psychologically heavy tone.

A production with a few bumps

The interview lands amid an unusual stretch for the film. Production briefly paused in October when Reeves stepped away to deal with a family matter, according to DC Studios. Later that month, Steven Soderbergh stepped in, with the studio’s support, to help finish the final stretch of principal photography. IGN reports that filming has resumed in the UK and that Reeves is expected to take back the director’s chair once the film reaches post-production.

Other additions to the cast include Charles Dance, Brian Tyree Henry and Sebastian Koch. Despite the disruption, The Batman: Part II is still scheduled to reach cinemas on 18 February 2028.

For now, Johansson’s comments give fans one concrete clue: whoever she plays, the part demanded more of her than she expected. Whether that existential angst translates into a standout performance will not be clear until the film arrives.

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File photo: Scarlett Johansson-8588.jpg by Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.