Ahead of Iron Fist‘s premiere on March 17, reviews for the new Netflix show came online–and they were probably not what Netflix would have wanted. A number of high-profile outlets wrote mostly negative reviews of the superhero action show.
Now, star Finn Jones (Game of Thrones) has responded. Speaking to Metro (via CBM), Jones started off by saying Iron Fist was made for fans, not critics, which might explain some of the lower scores.
“These shows are not made for critics, they are first and foremost made for the fans,” he said. “I also think some of the reviews we saw were seeing the show through a very specific lens, and I think when the fans of the Marvel Netflix world and fans of the comic books view the show through the lens of just wanting to enjoy a superhero show, then they will really enjoy what they see.”
“I think it’s a fantastic show which is really fun and I think it stands up there with the other Defenders’ shows without a doubt.”
For what it’s worth, critics were only shown six of the 13 episodes in Iron Fist‘s first season.
Entertainment Weekly said about the first episodes, “Iron Fist–devoid of vision, lacking in executional chops–barely even tries.” The Hollywood Reporter said, “Iron Fist feels like a step backward on every level, a major disappointment…” while Collider weighed in with, “Despite a very good cast and a great origin story, Iron Fist is predictable, a little hammy, and has no real sense of how to tell a cohesive story.” For more on the critical reaction to Season 1, go to GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Iron Fist is the fourth Marvel show made for Netflix, following Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. In addition to Finn, it stars David Wenham, Rosario Dawson, and Jessica Henwick.
The events of Iron Fist will tie into The Defenders, the superhero team-up show that will also feature Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. The first season is expected in late 2017–click here to see official images.
Iron Fist Season 1 hits Netflix in its entirety on March 17, 2017.
The next big Marvel movie, this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, will have a post-credits scene, director James Gunn has basically confirmed. Writing on Twitter, the director said you may want to stay in your seat after the credits roll–unless you really need to leave the theater.
“All I’ll say is, unless you have to rush out because your mother is dying, stay through the entire end credits,” he said to a fan who asked if there will be a post-credits scene (via Collider).
Unfortunately, that’s all there is to go on at this point, as Gunn did not share or even tease any details about what the scene may contain. One possibility is that the sequence may include a tease for 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, though this is not confirmed.
A new clip from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 aired during the Kids Choice Awards on Nickelodeon over the weekend. It has not been officially posted by Marvel, but you can find it on YouTube.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017. It stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, and Kurt Russell.
The first clip from the upcoming Transformers: The Last Knight has been released. The fifth movie in the blockbuster action series arrives in June, and this clip introduces two new characters–young star Isabela Moner and an Autobot called Canopy. Check it out below;
Transformers: The Last Knight opens on June 23, 2017. Mark Wahlberg returns from 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction and will be joined by Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Stanley Tucci, and John Goodman. It is directed by Michael Bay, who has previously stated that this will be his last movie in the series
In December, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke about what fans could expect from The Last Knight, part of which is set in the UK. “It’s going to have a different texture and different look, and a different kind of environment, so it’s going to feel very different,” he told Collider. “The kind of action we’re going to do there is going to be a little bit different and reflective of the place that we’re in.
“We’re constantly trying to do what haven’t done. It’s not necessarily bigger. Bigger is great, but it’s all pretty damn big. It’s really about being singular.”
A new trailer for this summer’s superhero movie Wonder Woman has come online. Posted during the Kids Choice Awards on Nickelodeon, the trailer shows more of the time before Wonder Woman left her home of Themyscira.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is almost here. Now, some new gameplay footage from the RPG has arrived.
During a PAX East panel this week, BioWare showed off the squadmate Liam’s loyalty mission, which you can see in the gameplay video below captured by DualShockers. There’s a good amount of combat in the video, including some sequences were the player dies, so we know what that looks like now. As usual, if you’re worried about any kind of story spoilers, you may want to avoid the video.
Mass Effect 3 did not have loyalty missions, but BioWare confirmed last year that Andromeda would. Loyalty missions were one the of best aspects of Mass Effect 2, as they let you take part in a missions designed to flesh out the backstory of your various squadmates, with each character getting their own.
“As a writer, one of the things I loved was the freedom to say, ‘I know this character is coming along,’ so they can carry a lot of the narrative,” creative director Mac Walters said in the past. “That made my job easier, but it also made it more fun, because I could tell a more specific story in one of those missions.”
With the launch of Mass Effect: Andromeda coming up very soon, new image and details about the spacefaring RPG have emerged.
Coming from Prima Games, the strategy guide sounds very in-depth. It will have step-by-step walkthroughs, illustrated maps that mention things like routes and structures, as well as a lot of information about your quad and combat tactics. Go to Prima’s website to learn more.
In addition to a standard edition, Prima will offer the Andromeda guide in a collector’s edition that comes with extras like commentary from developers, a hardcover, and a DLC code for a multiplayer booster pack. Additionally, a Pathfinder Edition comes with even much extras such as an Andromeda Initiative backback, an 11″ x 17″ galaxy chart, a 32-page field journal, and other bonuses.
Go to Prima’s website to see a full rundown of what’s in every bundle and to see some images.
According to Prima’s website, the Pathfinder edition launches on March 28, while the others go on sale when the game does, on March 21.
Did you step away this week? Here’s a recap of some of the week’s big news and other stories you may have missed.
THE BIG STUFF:
The next major PlayStation 4 update, 4.5, came out this week, adding support for external hard drives, a “Boost” mode for PS4 Pro, and a lot more. [Full story]
We learned even more about Mass Effect: Andromeda this week, including the fact that its multiplayer DLC maps will be free. Additionally, a new trailer showed off the Nomad vehicle, another video highlighted the Tempest, and the launch trailer arrived. You can see all of our Andromeda video and written coverage here.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered is getting a DLC pack next week in the form of the Variety Map Pack. Sound familiar? That’s the same name as the first one that came out for the original in 2008. And it has all the same maps, but with better graphics, of course. [Full story]
THE OTHER STUFF:
Hey, this is pretty cool. The MMO WildStar will let you push a character to level 50 for free. Get all the details here at Game Informer.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the next game from Koji Igarashi, is heading to Switch, apparently. Get the scoop here at Nintendo Everything.
Another cool thing: Joy Con controllers for the Nintendo Switch work as controllers for PC and Mac games. Sweet! TechCrunch has all the details.
With Game of Thrones set to return for Season 7 this year, we’ve now learned a little more about it. Harry Potter actor Jim Broadbent has revealed the character he’s playing in a new interview with ScreenCrush.
Korean developer Joycity has released a 3v3 basketball game called 3on3 Freestyle for PS4. It’s a half-court, arcade-style take on the game–and it looks pretty fun.
Why can’t you control the machines in Horizon Zero Dawn? Now we know, as the producer offered an explanation in this interview with Kotaku.
Not all of Nintendo’s ideas for Zelda: Breath of the Wild made it into the game–this new Kotaku report has an outline of what didn’t make it.
A movie theater with a playground in it. Movie purists may not like it, but it’s happening. Get all the details here at the LA Times.
The newest trailer for Better Call Saul Season 3 has arrived–and Gus Fring is in it! Watch it and get more details about the season, which premiere in April, here at EW.
Activision has again been named to Fortune’s annual list of 100 Best Companies To Work For, coming in at 66, moving up a number of spots from last year. Here’s the full list.
Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won’t see in actual comics. The reason you won’t is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.
Mike Henderson posted new art on his Instagram, including a Logan sketch.
Todd Nauck also posted Logan commissions along with some others on his Tumblr.
Joel Gomez posted Logan and Batman art on his Tumblr.
Chris Giarrusso put new art up for sale including Logan on his website.
Andrew Robinson posted commissions from Emerald City Comicon on his Instagram.
Dustin Nguyen posted a Joker and Harley sketch from ECCC on his Instagram.
Paolo Rivera posted a Captain America commission on his blog.
Ryan Ottley posted some of the weird commission requests he gets on his Tumblr.
Marcio Takara posted more daily warm-up sketches on his Tumblr.
Mike McKone posted a Batman/Superman commission on his Twitter page.
The PAX East 2017 trailer above shows off more gruesome executions like those we’ve seen in the past. It’s not for the faint of heart; a poor camper gets her jaw torn off, just to name one example.
We also get a first look at a new Jason Voorhees model from horror legend Tom Savini. The model is based on the events of Friday the 13th: Jason Goes to Hell and is the first new Jason model since the 2009 film reboot.
Friday the 13th: The Game features asymmetrical multiplayer that casts one player as Jason and the rest as campers. It’s coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One this year.
If you missed Final Fantasy XII’s original PS2 release, you’ll have a chance to play the remaster, The Zodiac Age, this summer. It’s the story of Vaan and company taking down the evil Judge Gabranth, all done through the game’s unique and deceptively deep Gambit combat system. We sat down with producer Hiroaki Kato and director Takashi Katano to talk about why now is the right time for a remaster and what it has to offer over the original game.
GameSpot: Why bring back Final Fantasy XII over other mainline titles?
Kato: Several reasons, but since we worked on the original XII, we have a lot of memories associated with that title. And when Final Fantasy X came out as an HD remaster on the PS4 and became a successful title, we thought that maybe we should bring this one back as well. So we brought together the core members of the original development team.
And then another reason was that when we created the original XII, we actually made it relatively high spec. So we were always thinking that we wanted to create an HD version of it sometime in the future. But if we did that, I wanted to have the original members work on it as well. It was difficult trying to find a time when everyone could work together again, just because everyone was on different projects.
We’ve seen a lot of love for XII from our readers and viewers. Why do you think that is? Is it a cult following? Is it people who missed this the first time around? Why the sudden surge in popularity?
Kato: When we released the original, it was around when the PS2 was changing into the new generation of PS3s. So we really utilized the PS2 system to its fullest, to the maximum.
The mechanic that we had in there, called the Gambit System, was very unique. There were no other games that had that kind of system at that time. So with the unique game system and world that we created in XII, I believe it left a strong memory inside of people.
I feel like there are similar thoughts about Final Fantasy IX, since that released at the end of PS1 life cycle. Do you see those parallels as well?
Katano: I worked on VIII and then X, so I wasn’t really on IX, but in general, the change from PlayStation 1 to 2 was really big, and then compared to that, PS2 to PS3 was not as much. So there probably is a little bit of a difference there. From PS1 to PS2, what you could do in a game just drastically changed. But from PS2 to PS3, especially when PS3 had just come out, it was more about increasing the expressiveness of games, like adding shaders and being able to do more with the game system. Games that utilized physics came out later, but initially it wasn’t like that.
Kato: It’s weird for us to call our title a masterpiece ourselves, but usually, the titles that are called masterpieces come out at the end of the generational cycle, just because it takes so much time to develop a game.
For people who played the original, what’s going to be new for them this time?
Kato: The Zodiac Age is based on the International Zodiac Job System, which was only released in Japan. So especially for the Western audience, we changed the entire gameplay balance. The battle design was passed onto Hiroyuki Ito. We talked about Final Fantasy IX earlier, and he was the game designer for that title as well as The Zodiac Age. He’s historically worked on battle design for the past Final Fantasy titles.
And for those who missed it the first time around, what do you hope will hook new players?
Kato: How fun it is to play an RPG. From fighting, to field exploration, to character growth, The Zodiac Age has all that. It will feel good to have your characters grow. And while you’re leveling up your characters, you’ll find more items that you want to equip and then use them to fight stronger enemies. And so all the elements that you would consider normal for an RPG are included in this game in a really great balance.
You’ve commented before that you’d like to see another Final Fantasy game use the Gambit System. Is that still something you want to see? Maybe a Revenant Wings 2?
Kato: I feel that the Gambit System is very complex, so it’s been really hard to implement that in other titles. But I do really want to utilize the mechanics somehow, maybe in a different form. It’s very difficult to develop around, so that might be a difficult thing to do.
There’s a bit of a running joke that Final Fantasy XII’s plot is essentially Star Wars. How do you respond to that?
Kato: [Laughs] I’ve heard that as well. But we weren’t really thinking about that during development. One thing we were thinking about was creating an easy-to-understand plot line that you could really just grasp immediately. And Star Wars in a sense does have that too. But because Star Wars is such a great title, such a great film, that also means that Final Fantasy XII is a great title, right? [Laughs]
So not including XII, which Final Fantasy is your favorite?
Katano: My favorite title is Final Fantasy V. That job system is just superb. The person who created it is actually Ito, whom we mentioned earlier, and he just brought over all that experience from the past. But I was a student when I played it, and I was just surprised that there was something that fun to play. I was just so immersed in it, and I’d play for hours and hours.
Kato: [Laughs] Oh, that must be why you’ve ended up here.
And which Final Fantasy do you want to see remastered next?
Katano: The PlayStation 2 would probably be the only hardware that we could really remaster from. Anything before that probably wouldn’t be a remaster anymore, but a remix because of all the polygon models and sprites, like Final Fantasy VII. That’s probably why they’re doing a remake, instead of like a remaster.
Kato: [Laughs] I’d love to see a remaster of Final Fantasy I and all the numbered titles, but that would be difficult to do.
