Andrew Webster
A new foe has appeared.
It may be called the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but Nintendo’s next film is giving off some Smash Bros. vibes now that we know Fox McCloud will make an appearance.
Entertainment
The Verge’s entertainment section collects the latest news from the worlds of pop culture, music, movies, television, and video games. Whether you want to know what to watch on Netflix or how to make the most of your streaming service budget, the entertainment section acts a reliable source. There’s simply too much to read, watch, hear, and play. Let us be your tour guide.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Sean Hollister
It pays to erect a giant Evangelion statue in your Japanese town.
20-foot tall Evangelion statue: $326,000. Visitors: ≈51,800 from April to January. Payoff: $6.9 million in economic impact. I’d vote for one in my town!
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
HBO’s Harry Potter series premieres this Christmas.
HBO has released the first trailer for its upcoming Harry Potter series, which will help fund executive producer J.K. Rowling’s ongoing crusade against transgender people. In addition to dropping the trailer, HBO has also bumped the series’ premiere date up to December 25th 2026.
Terrence O'Brien
Spotify starts rolling out SongDNA to lead you down musical rabbit holes.
It’s like liner notes meets Wikipedia. Premium users can tap a SongDNA card at the bottom of the Now Playing screen to show the writers, producers, and other contributors, as well as any samples or interpolations. Spotify says you can then tap on those to expose connections to other artists and songs:
It’s an interactive way to follow the connections between tracks and see how artists, eras, and genres intersect, giving you a deeper understanding of how what you’re listening to came together.
Andrew Webster
It’s a big week for For All Mankind news.
The show returns for season 5 on Friday, and Apple just announced that it would be coming back for one last season after that. Now we have the first teaser trailer for Star City, a spinoff that shows the other side of the alternate reality sci-fi story. It starts streaming in May.
Terrence O'Brien
Nilay Patel
It’s easy to fill a platform with content if you just steal it.
The proliferation of automated podcast tools has reached a sadly inevitable outcome: WebinarTV is scraping open Zoom meeting links and turning call recordings into content for its platform without telling anyone. (Or paying for anything, of course.) Our friends at 404 Media have the whole story.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Andrew Webster
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The Punisher’s coming back for One More Kill.
Though we knew Jon Bernthal was co-writing a Punisher-focused streaming special for Disney Plus, the streamer has just announced that it will premiere on May 12th, right as the second season of Daredevil: Born Again comes to a close.
Andrew Webster
8
Verge Score
A loving tribute to Akai’s glory days that shows the competition how it’s done.
Terrence O'Brien
Cameron Faulkner
Just a few hours left to get $8 off Disney Plus and Hulu for three months.
The cheapest Disney Plus and Hulu bundle plan typically costs $12.99 each month (and has ads). But until 11:59AM ET today, new and eligible returning subscribers can get in on a deal that knocks $8 off monthly for three months. You’ll have paid just $15 when the discount ends, then the monthly price will go back to normal.
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Charles Pulliam-Moore
Wonder Man is coming back for a second act.
Though Disney almost put an end toMarvel’s Wonder Man series before it got a chance to stream, the studio is bringing it back for another season according to Variety.
The author explains why you should never approach writing a book like a movie.
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Some expansive Xbox news.
Later this week Xbox will hold its latest games showcase. Unlike the Developer Direct in January, which focused on titles from Xbox studios, this stream will cover upcoming third-party titles, including the upcoming Expanse game. You can watch it live on March 26th at 1PM ET.
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Emma Roth
North Carolina man pleads guilty to AI music streaming fraud.
Last week, Michael Smith pleaded guilty to creating hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and then using bots to stream the songs “billions” of times. The scheme allowed Smith to earn over $8 million in royalties, according to the DOJ.
Not even Spotify is safe from AI slop
Elizabeth Lopatto
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
In the not too distant future you could be watching this long lost MST3K episode.
Episode K03, Star Force: Alien Fugitive II, from the show’s original run on Minnesota’s KTMA in 1988 was found at a garage sale in Minneapolis. It was then digitized and uploaded to YouTube by a fan. And now, you can enjoy it, in all it’s admittedly rough glory.
On Version History: how to play your voice like an instrument, with a little help from Chromeo.
David Pierce
Of the many developers I spoke to at GDC, nearly every one disavowed using AI in their projects.
Jay Peters
T.C. Sottek
The planets, but make it fashion.
Wisdom Kaye is one of the most impressive creators I’ve had the joy to experience, and one of my favorite TikTokers. If you want to go down an incredible rabbit hole just go watch all of his videos. (Here’s one of my favorites.) But this one is for the ages — he just styled the solar system. If you’re not blown away you’re living in another galaxy.
Terrence O'Brien
Of course he did.
Everyone was a bit caught off guard when the DOJ settled its antitrust suit against Live Nation. There was speculation that Donald Trump intervened to push for a settlement. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that was indeed the case:
After the trial began in March, Trump began calling around to ask why it hadn’t been settled. What’s the holdup? he wanted to know, according to people familiar with the matter. It was an extraordinary role for a president to play in a routine antitrust investigation.
On March 5, both sides met at the White House to hash things out, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Ghost in the Machine director Valerie Veatch wants you to understand how race science has shaped this moment in tech.
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Geoffrey Bunting
Jay Peters
Marty Supreme will stream on HBO Max starting April 24th.
Been meaning to catch the film, maybe I will once it’s available to stream. My colleague Kevin Nguyen reviewed it last year.
Marty Supreme is a good time
Kevin Nguyen
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Bari Weiss is laying off another 6 percent of CBS News employees.
Though CBS News’ ratings have already plummeted in the wake of Bari Weiss’ big-brained plan to remake the division in her own image, she’s sticking to her guns and sending out pink slips to dozens of now-unemployed staffers.
Major CBS News Layoffs Begin Under Bari Weiss’ Restructuring Plan
[The Hollywood Reporter]
Jay Peters
Vampire Survivors’ deckbuilding spinoff launches on April 21st.
Vampire Crawlers will cost $9.99 on PC and consoles, and it’s coming to mobile later this year. There’s a demo on Steam you can try right now, it’s good!
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