Author: News Desk

The absence of Kevin Costner from the second half of Yellowstone‘s fifth season was one of the defining stories of the show’s second half. While many fans may have missed Costner and his character, John Dutton, there was at least one member of the cast who thought Costner’s absence made filming the show easier.

In an interview with Esquire, star Luke Grimes got candid about filming the final season. “Hopefully, everyone can see that it was time,” he told Esquire. “To be really honest, there was a part of Kevin being gone that meant some of the conflict was gone. Obviously, it didn’t make it super fun to be around. Not pointing any fingers, but it was actually the easiest season we’ve filmed.”

Costner didn’t return for the final season of Yellowstone because he was filming Horizon: An American Saga, his self-financed multi-part western. Costner’s John Dutton was the show’s central character through much of its run, but the show decided to move forward without him.

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Elsewhere in his interview with Esquire, Grimes said that Costner’s absence from the show gave his character Kayce a chance to step up.

“Kayce’s kind of the silent killer, and it’s great whenever he gets to use that energy for something good,” he explained. “He’s a character who is under his father’s thumb — just sinking into the background because he would rather be not noticed than have to do the s**t his dad wanted him to do. Now he gets to step up and figure everything out. So it was a nice payoff for me.”

The series finale of Yellowstone airs on December 15.

At Thursday’s Game Awards, two of the biggest reveals were new entries in the Okami and Onimusha franchises. It’s the first new title in either IP for 18 years, although there have been a few ports and remasters released over the years. The good news doesn’t stop there, though: Capcom has stated that it wants to continue bringing back its older properties and rebooting them.

According to its recent press release, Capcom “is focusing on re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a new title launch recently.” In this case, “recently” is a vague term. We’re approaching two decades without a new entry in either franchise, but these are both good places to start.

Capcom says it wants to broaden the range of titles it produces and make more money “by leveraging its rich library of content … in order to continuously produce highly efficient, high-quality titles.”

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If you aren’t familiar with Onimusha, it’s an action game that puts you in the role of a swordsman with supernatural powers and tasked with fighting endless waves of monsters. Capcom goes on to say that it hopes players look forward to a chance to “hack and slash” through hordes of foes.

Okami, on the other hand, is focused more on art than combat. You play as Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, who has taken on the form of a wolf. You fight your way across Japan in search of Celestial Brush powers that can help you advance farther into the game. It’s a colorful experience steeped in Japanese mythology, and it’s good to see the franchise earning another entry.

Capcom conducted a survey earlier this year asking players what franchises they would most like to see return. It’s no surprise that Mega Man, Dino Crisis, and other beloved games made the cut. For a long time, it seemed too much to hope these series might return, but now Capcom has dropped the barest hint that nostalgia might win again.

Warning: This article includes spoilers for Carry-On.

For an action movie predominantly set in an airport, Carry-On’s most memorable fight sequence occurs in a moving vehicle cruising on the highway. Stunt coordinator Dave Macomber had experience choreographing combat scenes in parked cars, but never ones that were moving.

“That one in particular was challenging,” Macomber told Digital Trends about the car crash sequence. “It came from the very specific demand that it be an unbroken shot in a moving vehicle going down a road.”

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Carry-On stars Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent assigned to work the security line on Christmas Eve. A mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails Ethan into letting a potentially dangerous package slip through TSA and make its way onto a plane. If Ethan fails to comply, the traveler will kill his pregnant girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson).

In the car scene, Detective Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) and Agent Alcott (Logan Marshall-Green) are heading to the airport to investigate a potential crisis involving Kopek. After discovering Alcott’s lies about his identity, Cole pulls out her gun and demands answers. Realizing his cover has been blown, Alcott attacks Cole, leading to an explosive fight sequence with the two characters battling for control of the gun.

Collet-Serra, an experienced filmmaker in this genre, tasked Macomber with staging an unbroken shot of a tight-quarters fight within a moving vehicle. For Macomber, there’s no better way to plan a fight than by re-creating it yourself.

“The first thing that I got going on was doing a mo-cap (motion capture) version of that here at my house,” Macomber said. “I have a couple of motion-capture suits and designed the fight in such a way that it would guide the viewer’s eye to be able to see the things that were happening outside of the car at the appropriate times.”

“There was a process that we went through where we did all the motion capture and sent it to Jaume. Then he gave notes, and then we continued to revise,” Macomber added.

Macomber is no stranger to executing massive stunts for action movies. The veteran stunt coordinator has worked on several action projects, including Avengers: Endgame, Jungle Cruise, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Macomber added another title, second unit director, to his resume on Carry-On. Taking on more responsibility is a privilege Macomber does not take lightly.

“I’m in a responsible position for people that are friends of mine that are potentially in danger all the time. I’ll be honest with you, that’s kind of a motivation to be in the position in the first place because I’ve seen enough things go sideways that I don’t want that to happen to my friends,” Macomber said. “At the same time, I’ve managed, on the projects that I’ve been on, to surround myself with people that I really enjoy, so it’s been great.”

Many former stunt performers, such as Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, and Sam Hargrave, have found success behind the cameras as action directors. Macomber credits a stunt performer’s versatility as to why they make for a great director.

“People like Chad, Dave, and Sam, they all have a great wealth of information at their disposal,” Macomber said. “When it comes time for them to sit in the main chair, they’re really well-trained because they’ve been doing it behind the scenes for a long time.”

Does Macomber want to add his name to the list of stunt performers who move on to direct feature films?

“I do,” Macomber said. “There’s a lot of us these days that are watching the success of those guys and saying, ‘Wow.’ It’s so cool to see people have those kinds of opportunities.”

Carry-On is now streaming on Netflix.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been the subject of speculation and rumors for a long time now, with fans looking for the slightest hint of news at every major gaming event. There have been several leaks, some more plausible than others, but two big leaks have emerged this weekend: one from Reddit, and another from Dbrand.

Reddit user u/NextHandheld posted a thread titled, “I’ve come from the future,” and claimed to have a finalized version of the Nintendo Switch 2 and its dock. They said proof would be posted on Christmas Day, but subreddit mods demanded proof or they would delete the account. Apparently u/NextHandheld had proof, because the mods allowed the post to remain up and said the evidence is substantial enough to believe.

The other leak comes from a Dbrand accessory listing, although it feels somewhat intentional. Take a look at the X post below.

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We will not be answering any questions at this time. pic.twitter.com/kBQcbB2PfV

— dbrand (@dbrand) December 12, 2024

Dbrand told Insider Gaming that the device inside the case is, in fact, the Nintendo Switch 2. The company, known for being blatantly irreverent, shared a link to the product page. On that page is a spinning animation that shows more details of the console inside, and it looks like all of the other Nintendo Switch 2 image leaks we’ve seen so far.

Another Reddit post from u/stardew92 had images from the most recent leak. These leaked images look a lot like the device inside the Dbrand case, and it matches the curved design that has been visible in other supposed Switch 2 leaks.

Returning to the original Reddit post from u/NextHandheld, they answered a lot of questions. The only proof we have is that the mods vouch for the evidence, so skepticism is suggested — but also know that these are the clearest details we’ve heard so far.

According to the post, the Nintnedo Switch 2 has a curved dock and Joy-Cons, but the basic build and design of the dock remains the same. It has two USB-A ports on the side, and then USB-C, HDMI, and Ethernet inside. There’s a new button beside the Home button that is labeled “C.” Users speculated that it could be a camera control button or a Cast function, allowing the Switch 2 to act like a Wii U gamepad.

As for when any official announcement, u/NextHandheld said “I’ve heard word it’s gonna be in January. Something about there being a Nintendo meeting, but I don’t have that info confirmed.”

As with any early leaks like this, take it with enough sodium to worry your cardiologist — but the evidence presented so far seems pretty solid, so it’s okay if you get a little excited about this.