Germain Lussier

Delivering a third film in a trilogy is never an easy thing. But imagine going into it after the company making it fired you, and finishing it while you’re beginning to work for that company’s number-one rival. Those are just some of the innumerable pressures writer-director James Gunn had to contend with making Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The film was originally going to arrive several years ago, but Gunn was fired by Marvel after several (admittedly disgusting) old tweets of his emerged. As his Marvel cast and crew…

Screenshot: Marvel StudiosIt’s the bittersweet, powerful end of an era as Guardians of the Galaxy franchise director James Gunn—who’s now the co-head of DC Studios—bows out of Marvel. But he’s leaving on an excellently high note, as the first social media reactions to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (which opens May 5) suggest.Behind the Choice of the New Black Panther Stars like Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldaña (Gamora), and Dave Bautista (Drax) have all confirmed this is a farewell of sorts to the Guardians as we…

After what certainly feels like a long wait—with tumultuous times for its star and a regime change for its studio in the meantime—DC’s The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti (the It series), has finally screened for an audience at CinemaCon. How did Barry Allen’s big-screen solo sojourn (“solo,” but with assists from Batman, Supergirl, etc.) fare? Here are some early reactions!Spoilers of the Week March 7-11The first reactions are pouring in from Cinemacon 2023, and right now, they’re... surprisingly good? There was a lot…

A renegade nun is tasked by an all-powerful artificial intelligence to hunt down the Holy Grail, and that’s just the first episode. Peacock’s new show Mrs. Davis, which debuts April 20, is as wild and surprising as any show you’ve seen in recent memory. So, when given a chance to talk to co-creators Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez about it, io9 didn’t have to be artificially intelligent to say “Yes.”Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard Nerd Out About Jurassic Park's Returning HeroesLindelof most of you probably know. He…

Image: IlluminationThere was never going to be a world where Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. movie wasn’t going to be a big deal. But after that initial reveal where Chris Pratt got announced to play Mario alongside Charlie Day’s Luigi and Jack Black’s Bowser, the energy around the film has gradually shifted as more footage for it’s been released. Ahead of its release next week, it sounds like The Super Mario Bros. Movie is what some of its more recent promos have indicated: a pretty solid flick that’ll hit big with…

Chris Pratt is no stranger to massive fan franchises. He’s been a sitcom star, Marvel superhero, Jurassic Park employee, and even a Lego figure. And yet even with all that behind him, he thinks the role of Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the one that holds the most responsibility. “I loved Jurassic Park as a kid,” Pratt told io9 on video chat last week. “I was 13 years old when it came out. It was a big part of my childhood. I might have seen the movie five or six times through the course of growing up. Well, five…

Image: ParamountThese days, franchise sequels can take years to come to fruition. Writers toiling over the scripts. Long stints of pre-production in hopes it’ll make grueling, pressure-packed shoots go off without a hitch. Then there’s post-production, which includes effects, music, you name it. Again, for most big franchises, this takes years. But Scream is not like most big franchises. Scream VI, out this week, is coming out just over a year after Scream V.How and why did that happen, and is that accelerated timeline a…

For the past few years, as fans have watched the drama unfold at DC Films, David F. Sandberg has had a front-row seat. His latest film, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, is a follow-up to his 2019 hit, meaning it was put into production by the previous regime. The film was then delayed due to covid, had its release date shuffled a bunch, and eventually, one of the film’s producers, Peter Safran, became (along with James Gunn) the new head of DC. But Sandberg was not deterred. He made his movie, which brings back all of the…

Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni talking The Mandalorian.Photo: Jesse Grant (Getty Images)Though 2022 was filled with many fantastic Star Wars memories, very few of those centered on the Mandalorian and Grogu. That changes this week with the season three premiere of The Mandalorian, which picks up both from the end of itssecond season, which was over two years ago, as well as The Book of Boba Fett, in which both characters appeared in significant roles.The show’s return also marks the return of Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.…

Image: Marvel StudiosRight now, if you want to know about Kang’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the person to talk to is Jeff Loveness. Loveness, best known for his work on Rick & Morty, not only wrote Marvel’s current hit Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, he’s also writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the fifth Avengers film currently set for release May 2, 2025. And since that script is still being worked on, technically Loveness probably knows just a tiny bit more about it than even the man who hired him,…