Back to the Future

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy with Star Wars fans at the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker.Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez (Getty Images)We’ll never understand how certain pockets of the internet vilify Kathleen Kennedy. Since Kennedy became the president of Lucasfilm in 2012, she’s been instrumental in bringing one of the most famous franchises in the world back to prominence on the big screen and beyond. Under Kennedy we finally got to see what happens after Return of the Jedi, the first Star Wars TV show, what…

Polite Society, Suzume, Kids vs. Aliens, They Cloned Tyrone, and When Evil Lurks are on the listImage: Amazon, Crunchroll, Shudder, NetflixNo one can see every movie that comes out in a year. Heck, no one can even see all the good movies that come out in a year. These days, even if it’s literally your job, so many movies come out from all across the world, and on so many different platforms, that even if you spent all day every day watching, you’d probably still miss a few.Even so, we know there are movies that, if you…

Back to the Future: The Musical is back...to the stage.The adaptation of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s 1985 sci-fi film has recently started previews for its Broadway run. Performances will play at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre from now until its official opening on August 3, and will replace the West End production that’s set to wrap on July 23. Both the musical’s Twitter account and Likes have also started posting pictures online to bring attention to the new version, some of which you can see below. Instant Food -…

Despite what the commercials, trailers, and posters are telling you, The Flash is not a movie about Batman or Supergirl. They’re both very much in it, sometimes more than once, and maybe after years of controversy and delays, Warner Bros. thought their inclusion would help get people into the theater. It probably will.But, as the title succinctly suggests, The Flash is very much about “The Flash,” and those other characters are there merely to enrich a very personal story with the type of big-screen bombast fans expect…

Mulan, 101 Dalmatians, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Maleficent are all on the list.Image: DisneyDisney is a company that always looks at its past to find its future. It brings back characters, concepts, stories, and more; time and time again, it attempts to transport you back to the way you felt when you were a little kid. That’s always been Disney’s thing. But, for the last 15 years or so, it’s been going a step further and remaking its classic animated movies in live-action, which had been a very…

“Franchise.” It’s a word you hear more often than not these days when talking about movies. “It’s part of a franchise” or “We want it to start a franchise.” Franchises are prized in Hollywood because it means much of the hard work is already done; making a new Marvel movie or Star Wars movie is a no-brainer because the interest from the public is already in place. There’s no need for true ground-up creation. That happened a long time ago, and whatever follows reaps the benefits.Despite this neverending reliance on…

Everyone has their favorite pop culture vehicle, but for me, few are as cool as the DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II. Sure, the original one is awesome, and the Western flair of the third one is slick, but we’re talking the flying, Mr. Fusion-having, neon-lights-buzzing version that takes Marty, Doc, and Jennifer back to the future of 2015. It’s iconic.Which is certainly why Bottleneck Gallery and Vice Press are teaming up with one of io9's favorite artists, Tom Whalen, to pay homage to the best time machine in…

Image: ParamountThe Flash movie has been in development for a long time and burned through so many directors before WB eventually settled on It’s Andy Muschietti to take the reigns. Included in that mix of would-be filmmakers are John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who were attached back in 2018. That lasted for roughly a year before the two left the project over creative differences, which eventually led to them writing and directing Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.Goldstein and Daley never really…

Photo: Cheryl Eddy/GizmodoMembers of a very specific, very passionate fandom niche descended upon a historic movie theater in Orinda, California in May this year for the first-ever Krofft Kon—a day honoring the works of 1970s TV legends Sid and Marty Krofft. Both brothers (who are 93 and 85) were on hand, as were performers notable for their work in the duo’s colorfully weird, puppet-filled, fantastically psychedelic children’s shows, including H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, Lidsville, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.…

Photo: Universal Studios Orlando ResortExperience your own Amblin cinematic adventure at the Great Movie Escape at Universal Orlando Resort. io9 was invited to try out the new interactive escape rooms inspired by Jurassic World and Back to the Future at CityWalk and chat with Universal Creative about its collaboration with two of Universal Pictures’ biggest franchises.“We work directly with the filmmakers,” shared Nate Stevenson, show director at Universal Orlando Resort’s Creative Development Group. “All the scripting…