Gizmodo

Released in 1993, horror comedy Leprechaun featured a post-Willow Warwick Davis playing against type as the title monster, and introduced the world to a pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston. It spawned an eight-film franchise-all of which are now on Hulu-and io9 was excited to chat with Mark Jones, who wrote and directed the...Read more...

Being Spider-Man is about so much more than webbing up bad guys. Spider-Man is the neighborhood guy. He gives back to the community. He protects the community. There's swinging, there's fighting, there's dangling, and sure, sometimes he has to traverse the multiverse and see all his alternative versions.

Late last year, a communications satellite unfurled its giant wings, stretching out a 693-square-foot (64-square-meter) antenna array in low Earth orbit. Once fully deployed, BlueWalker 3 became one of the brightest objects in the night sky, outshined only by the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and seven stars, according to new...Read more...

A famous NASA spacecraft will continue exploring the outer reaches of the solar system thanks to an extended lifeline. This decision overturns NASA's earlier proposal to change the mission's course and transfer it to a different division.Read more...

Castlevania: Nocturne is here, and ready to usher in a new generation of monster-slaying heroes and suitably monstrous threats for them to slay. But now that Netflix and Powerhouse Animation's latest entry in the video game adaptation saga is streaming, we spoke to some the team behind the show to learn about the...Read more...

Spotify is going full-steam ahead with artificial intelligence. After releasing an AI-powered DJ earlier this year, the streaming service is now testing ways to automatically generate playlists with a user prompt.Read more...

The early 2000s were the birthplace of the modern internet-especially social media and the creators that power its endless algorithmic engines. It's been close to two decades since those strange days when MySpace ruled the webways and Facebook still had a the" in its name, but looking back eeks a twinge of memory...Read more...

Let's get streaming! Welcome to io9's latest edition of the Nerd's Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you'll like most. (And sometimes, just the ones that we like most.)

When you think Casper" you think friendly. You think animation. Maybe you even think of Devon Sawa and Christina Ricci. What you don't think of is actually being scared, but maybe that'll change after you watch this trailer.Read more...

For the decade that the Chromebook line of ultra-cheap laptops has been around, the company has left the ChromeOS-based design to linger without many major updates. Now the tech giant is here with Chromebook Plus touting a new hardware standard and a few software tweaks the company promises will be a step up for...Read more...

In a blog post published today, crowdfunding site BackerKit announced it will no longer allow solely" AI-generated content on its platform. This new policy aims to address growing concerns regarding ownership of content, ethical sourcing of data, and compensation for the process of creating content." This policy...Read more...

The city of lights is beset by bed bugs. Sightings of the tiny urban pest in public places throughout Paris have apparently increased as of late, and officials are calling for aggressive action to curtail the menace in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

You'd think a Pikachu in a grey felt hat wouldn't be able to spark crowd-swelling hysteria, but if the last few years have proven anything, Pokemon has developed a concerning relationship with speculative markets that can turn even the most humble cross-promotional event into an absolute headache. Or maybe more of an...Read more...

A Lyft passenger lived every pet owner's worst nightmare this weekend after a driver drove off with his cat. The two were eventually reunited, but not before the cat's owner and Lyft itself whipped up the public to help find the feline.Read more...

Google's next big phone and watch are set to be unveiled this week, or at least, Google is going to either confirm or deny the tsunami of leaks detailing what's coming with the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Watch 2.Read more...

George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards shared-world universe series continues with a new graphic novel arriving October 3. George R.R. Martin Presents: Wild Cards: Sins of the Father is written by Melinda M. Snodgrass and illustrated by Michael Komarck and Elizabeth Leggett, and io9 has a preview to share today.Read more...

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to two scientists whose vaccine breakthrough contributed to developing the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Professor Katalin Kariko and Professor Drew Weissman received the honor on Monday for their groundbreaking findings" in a paper that went largely unnoticed until the COV...Read more...

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Leave The World Behind, based on the novel by Rumaan Alam, has a terrifying new trailer. An cyber-thriller, the story takes place in the near future as something kickstarts the apocalypse in the middle of Amanda and Clay's luxury rent-a-mansion vacation. Check out the new trailer below.Read more...

Get a look at the return of Shining Vale. Venture to a creepy alien world in a new look at Max animated series Scavengers Reign. Plus, what's coming on Gen V and American Horror Story: Delicate. Spoilers away!

After chasing an old-school scammer in 2002's Catch Me If You Can, Tom Hanks is now on the hunt for those using AI to recreate his likeness. The actor took to Instagram this weekend to warn his fans about some shady entity using his AI-generated likeness to peddle a dental plan.Read more...

After a few weeks of user complaints, Apple now claims the 100+-degree iPhone 15s are due to a round of glitches in iOS 17 and in a few specific apps. The company is still emphasizing it's not some sort of hardware hangup caused by the new titanium frame or 3nm processor in the Pro and Pro Max models.Read more...

Even before the Barbie movie became one of the biggest films of 2023, it was clear Mattel was going to use that as a jumping off point to bring more of its toys to the silver screen. The company's never been shy about what toys are getting the movie treatment, with the most well-known of the bunch being one focused on ...Read more...

September can sometimes be a dead month for movies, but for 2023, this month is ending with two pretty big tentpoles in the theaters.

If you're behind on what's happening with the robot uprising, have no fear. Here's a quick look at some of the weirdest and wildest artificial intelligence news from the past week. Also, don't forget to check out our weekly AI write-up, which will go into more detail on this same topic.

Spy x Family was one of the biggest anime of 2022, and audiences became delighted with the weekly exploits of Loid Forger, Yor Briar, Anya, and their dog, Bond. Fortunately, season two isn't that far out-it premieres next week exclusively on Crunchyroll starting Saturday, October 7.

Once it became clear the Hollywood strikes would be going on longer than anyone initially believe, Democratic senators in California wrote up a bill to compensate workers on strike. With backing from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the hope was that it would be passed and provide money to anyone out of work in the...Read more...

Watching the Saw movies isn't for everyone-across the now 10-movie franchise, audiences have seen people mutilate themselves in order to stay alive or die trying in some pretty grisly fashion. For those who loves these movies or to see people get messed up, that's part of the appeal. But when you're the one involved...Read more...

BioWare's 2003 game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most well-known video games to bear the franchise's name, and players were delighted to hear it would be coming to the current gaming generation. But much like Star Wars Eclipse, whose existence had to be reconfirmed by developer Quantic Dream...Read more...

At a time when folks are tying a movie's runtime as part of their interest in seeing it in the theater, blockbuster tentpoles can sometimes run fairly long. At two hours or more, superhero flicks can run long in the the tooth. So if such a thing matters to you, you'll be pleased to hear that the upcoming The Marvels ac...Read more...

In 2019, animator and illustrator Vivienne Medrano (aka VivziePop) released the pilot for her upcoming animated series Hazbin Hotel. Animation fans took the show fairly well and at time of writing, it's racked up 90 million views on YouTube. The following year, A24 opted to pick up the pilot for a full-blown show, and...Read more...

There are few places in this world where dead things are offered such a promoted place among the living. If I had to arrange my mind to any, my first thought lands on the Catacombes de Paris, the old quarries turned morbid gallery for the shelves of anonymous bones. In that enormous memento mori, the skulls of...Read more...

Get ready for some SuperSize collectibles from Super7, which are available as of today.

The summer season has ended, but spaceflight continues to be hot, with new views of our Moon and Jupiter's moon Io, the much-anticipated return of an astronaut and an asteroid sample, and important new rocket engine tests, to name just a few of the many moments that captured our attention in September.Read more...

Watching the Meta Quest 3 being announced by Meta made me realize something - the hardware available for virtual, augmented and mixed reality is finally catching up with the big idea pitches everyone had about this concept called the metaverse" a couple of years ago.

Orbit Books, an imprint of Hachette, has developed a free virtual event series for aspiring science-fiction and fantasy writers. Attendees can attend any of the 14 sessions-which are spread out over six weeks in October and early November-for free. The topics range from nitty gritty advice on worldbuilding to a panel...Read more...

Universal Pictures has a long horror legacy that encompasses the original Universal Monsters films, Chucky, events like Halloween Horror Nights, and new Blumhouse terrors like M3GAN and the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy's.Read more...

Nowhere is safe from microplastics. Tiny plastic pieces are in waterways, in our bodies, and now researchers have found microplastics in clouds on top of Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama.Read more...

From its new headquarters in the U.S., Tokyo-based startup ispace will develop its Apex 1.0 lunar lander to transport NASA payloads to the Moon in 2026.Read more...

Nocturne, the new successor series to Netflix's excellent animated Castlevania adaptations, plays with its legacy in some truly smart ways-both as a successor show metatextually, and narratively as its heroes navigate being part of a generational supernatural conflict. But one of its greatest moments is a fascinating...Read more...

The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope launched from Earth on July 1 and has since been getting set up to begin its investigation of the dark universe. But the instrument commissioning hasn't been rainbows and butterflies, as the telescope's engineers and scientists have worked to untangle several issues...Read more...

BeReal's active users appear to be exiting the platform in droves, with the number of active users dropping by 18% since it peaked in November of last year. The app gained a substantial number of active users in 2022 but now has a shrinking userbase that's far smaller than its social media counterparts, according to a...Read more...

A new era of Doctor Who means a new version of the 60-year-old series' legendary theme song, and before fans hear it across the trio of anniversary specials set to broadcast in November, they'll get to experience it in style... if they turn their radio on, that is.

A week before it was set to launch to a distant metal rich asteroid, NASA's Psyche spacecraft is forced to remain grounded until the space agency resolves an issue with its thrusters.Read more...

Once among the star companies championing a deal to create a private successor to the International Space Station, talks between Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Sierra Space regarding the Orbital Reef project now appear to be souring.Read more...

The kids are not all right and are being subject to a firehouse of pinging in the thick of the Information Age. A new report reveals that children are getting upwards of 4,500 notifications a day and have some predictable favorite (and least favorite) apps.Read more...

The feast and famine of Lego releases continues as, after last month's Star Wars blowout, October is looking like a quieter month in terms of sheer volume of sets to tempt your wallet. But that doesn't mean there aren't heavy hitters among those to come!

On Wednesday, the organized workers of board game bar/cafe Hex & Co. delivered a letter to one of the owners, Dr. Jon Freeman, asserting their right to collectively bargain, and asking him-and co-owner Greg May-to voluntarily recognize the union. They have given Freeman and May until the end of the month to respond.Read more...

Letterboxd owners sold a majority stake in their social film discussion and discovery platform to Tiny for a whopping $50 million, the company announced on Friday. Tiny, a Canadian technology investment and holding company, acquired a 60% stake in the platform, but the owners noted in a press release that they'll...Read more...