It’s a good time to be a sci-fi fan, regardless of what your preferred medium is. This week we’ve gotten a preview of one of the factions in Star Wars Outlaws, confirmation that Furiosa is going to be as intense as the other Mad Max movies, a look at Netflix’s latest sci-fi epic, plus some encouraging news about the beloved sci-fi comic Saga.
Meet the Ashiga Clan in Star Wars Outlaws
We learned more about one of the four main factions in the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws game, from an interview between Game Informer and some of the devs at Massive Entertainment. The Ashiga are a clan of Melitto – an insectoid species that’s been introduced in the Disney era – based on the planet Kijimi. “”It’s taking that principle of, ‘What would a crime syndicate that is essentially operating like an anthill – what is that like?” said the game’s narrative director John Björling.
Players will presumably be able to complete missions for the Ashiga to increase their reputation, and it sounds like those missions could potentially have a huge impact on the clan’s future. “”They have a long tradition and certain events in the recent history put them at a fork in the road where there are different ways they could go forward,” said Björling. We know that fork in the road is sowing division amongst the clan, and since Outlaws takes place shortly before Return of the Jedi, “recent history” may be referring to the impending collapse of the Empire.
Furiosa will be rated R
Here’s a bit of unsurprising news: The MPAA has officially given Furiousa an R rating. The upcoming film is a prequel to 2016’s Mad Max: Fury Road that once again sees writer-director George Miller exploring an apocalyptic wasteland. The movie will tell the origin story of Charlize Theron’s character from the 2016 film.
Furiosa is the first Mad Max film that doesn’t follow the man himself, but I wasn’t all that worried it would break with the franchise’s nearly 50-year tradition of R ratings. We can all rest assured that on May 24, the new movie will give us just as much bloody violence and over-the-top action as we’ve come to expect from Miller’s classic series.
New trailer for Atlas
Netflix dropped the trailer for its upcoming sci-fi movie “Atlas,” and it looks chock full of tropey goodness. Jennifer Lopez plays Agent Atlas Shepard, who’s spent years committed to tracking down an evil AI called Harlan (Simu Liu). Now she’s in a race to stop Harlan before he wipes out all of humanity.
The trailer does a good job of hiding the plot details while showing off all the sci-fi nuggets that will pull in viewers like me. We’ve got space. We’ve got robots. We’ve got giant mech suits powered by AI butlers. Sure, it looks a little corny, but I’ve already penciled it in as my Memorial Day plans.
Saga is coming back
If you’re a big comic book reader like me, then the biggest sci-fi news of the week comes from author Brian K. Vaughn. On Instagram Vaughn announced that Saga, the sci-fi epic he puts out with artist Fiona Staples, will be coming back from hiatus this July. Update your pull lists accordingly.
The series picks back up with issue 67, which means we’re well on the way to the planned finale at issue 108. In his post, Vaughn referred to this next arc as Saga’s “12th season” and said it will follow 12-year-old Hazel as she “embarks on the most important adventure of her young life.” Saga has been running since 2012, but if you haven’t already jumped on the train, now is a great time to catch up.
Published: Apr 26, 2024 10:00 pm