ENTERTAINMENT

Marvel Television has reportedly paused work on three shows: Nova, Strange Academy and Terror, Inc.

Sources told Deadline that the projects were never greenlit and may still come out, but Marvel has shifted its priorities.

The change in strategy comes as Marvel Studios prepares to launch Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again. This week, Marvel Studios’ head of streaming and TV Brad Winderbaum revealed the company is exploring the opportunity of reuniting the street level heroes of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist, better known as The Defenders.

Marvel Studios is now taking the approach of developing more shows than it makes, but, as Winderbaum told Screen Rant last year: “We’re really being careful about what we choose to do next.”

The news about Nova is particularly surprising, given just two months ago we heard that former Criminal Minds showrunner Ed Bernero was on board as a writer and a showrunner, with Nova confirmed as a series for Disney+. Check out IGN’s article on everything you need to know about Nova for more.

Strange Academy was expected to revolve around a magic school founded by MCU mainline character Doctor Strange, with Wong in charge. There’s no information on Terror, Inc., however.

Here’s what we know for sure when it comes to Marvel TV shows: Daredevil: Born Again hits Disney+ on March 4, Ironheart, on June 24, and Wonder Man is due out in December. Three MCU films are due out this year following the launch of Captain America: Brave New World: Thunderbolts in May and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Image credit: Marvel via Getty Images.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Overwatch 2 Season 15 appears to be going down well, improving sentiment around what was once the worst ever user-reviewed game on Steam.

We’re now nearly nine years out from the debut of Overwatch in 2016, and two-and-a-half from the launch of Overwatch 2. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 became the worst user-reviewed game on Steam ever, with most of the negative reviews focused on monetization after developer Blizzard was heavily-criticised for forcing its premium predecessor to update into a free-to-play sequel, rendering the original Overwatch unplayable back in 2022.

Overwatch 2 subsequently endured a number of controversies including the cancellation of its long-awaited PvE Hero mode — the one feature, players said, that justified the sequel’s existence.

But while Overwatch 2 still has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam for all reviews, recent reviews have shown an improvement to ‘mixed.’ That means 43% of the 5,325 user reviews left in the last 30 days were positive.

That might not sound like much to crow about, but for Overwatch 2, which has endured overwhelming negativity since its release on Valve’s platform, it’s a significant milestone.

This improvement has to do with the recent launch of Season 15, which made a number of dramatic changes to Overwatch 2. While the roadmap ahead includes much of what you’d expect to see in terms of new content, the core gameplay itself has seen a seismic shift, including the additions of hero perks and the return of loot boxes.

“They just released Overwatch 2,” reads one recent positive review. “The recent update is what the game should always have been before corporate greed got in the way.”

“For once, I must come to Overwatch’s defense and say they really have stepped up their game,” reads another. “Going back to what worked in Overwatch 1 while introducing new and fun mechanics to the game. A certain game made them LOCK IN and I couldn’t be happier. Now we just gotta wait for next season with an actual cooler battlepass.”

That’s a reference to the hugely popular Marvel Rivals, a similar competitive multiplayer hero shooter from NetEase that’s seen 40 million downloads since launching in December.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller discussed the new reality Blizzard finds itself in, with Marvel Rivals now out in the wild and attracting tens of millions of players.

“We’re obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we’ve never really been in before, to this extent where there’s another game that’s so similar to the one that we’ve created,” Keller said.

You’d think this would be a bad thing for Overwatch, then, but Keller called the situation “exciting,” and even said it was “really great” to see Marvel Rivals take ideas established by Overwatch in a “different direction.”

Still, Keller admitted Marvel Rivals’ success had forced a change in attitude within Blizzard when it comes to Overwatch 2, saying: “this is no longer about playing it safe.”

Of course, it’s way too early to declare Overwatch “back,” and there is a push and pull with Overwatch 2’s Steam user reviews that suggests it’ll be extremely difficult for the game to improve upon ‘mixed,’ no matter what Blizzard does. Meanwhile, Season 15 has caused an uptick in players on Valve’s platform, with peak concurrent player numbers almost doubling to 60,000. It’s worth noting that Overwatch 2 is available on Battle.net, PlayStation, and Xbox, and neither Blizzard, Sony, nor Microsoft make player numbers publicly available.

For context, Marvel Rivals, which launched a new mid-season update itself recently, had 305,816 peak concurrent players on Steam over the last 24 hours.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

George R. R. Martin has issued the strongest tease yet that an Elden Ring movie may come to pass, but has acknowledged a significant blocker to his potential involvement with it.

The Game of Thrones creator famously dreamed up the world and history of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, which went on to become one of the best-selling games of 2022. FromSoftware and publisher Bandai Namco leaned heavily on Martin’s involvement in promotional material, and the game credits begin by saying the Elden Ring world was created by FromSoftware chief Hidetaki Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin.

So, would George R. R. Martin be interested in coming back for a sequel to Elden Ring, if he’s asked? That’s the question IGN put to the man himself as part of IGN Fan Fest 2025. In his response, Martin sidestepped Elden Ring 2, but did drop a big hint that an Elden Ring movie could be in the works.

“Well, I can’t say too much about it, but there is some talk about making a movie out of Elden Ring,” Martin said.