Gizmodo

A new craze is sweeping across tabletop RPG twitter, and game designers and players are all getting in on planning #Dungeon23–a commitment to create a megadungeon in 2023 by creating a new room every single day. The premise is simple, but a blank page can often be the death of creativity. Here’s how to get started,…Read more...

We love toys here at io9, and when we’re not writing about them, we’re probably playing with them. It’s been a killer year for cool nerdy collectibles, so here’s just a few of our favorite things we picked up in the proverbial toy aisle this past year.

Even though a chilling bomb cyclone hurtled across the United States, audiences still found a way to make it out to the movies during Christmas and Christmas Eve, says The Hollywood Reporter. While Avatar: The Way of Water continued to bring in the big bucks, other films like Puss in Boots, Black Panther: Wakanda…Read more...

There’s a lot of Star Trek, and a lot of it is very watchable—especially in the iconic sophomore series The Next Generation, which helped truly catapult the franchise into the pop culture stratosphere. Asking a Trek neophyte to dive into over five days of TV is a daunting task, however. So why not just give them an …Read more...

The Frasers are back, and hoo boy, they sure look like they’re in for a heap of... dreams about electric lightning? Even though I believe early 20th-century nurse Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and 18th-century Scottish Highlander Jamie (Sam Heughan) are currently living somewhere on the American frontier during the…Read more...

What would you do if you saw a self-driving car hit a person?Read more...

In my big age, 22 years after the release of Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas live-action film take on the Dr. Seuss classic, I finally caught a detail that unlocked the whole film for me. Sure, I knew the horniness between Jim Carrey’s Grinch and Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier is one for the…Read more...

My condolences to the children of Iceland. While many Christmas celebrations around the world are full of tidings of comfort, joy, and rampant consumerism, for young Icelanders it’s a time of terror, where you’re lucky to escape with your life… or a potato. At least, that seems to be the case according to this…Read more...

Dana James (Mallori Johnson), the lead character in Octavia Butler’s Kindred—now an FX series streaming on Hulu—is a lost woman. After she impulsively sells her family’s Brooklyn brownstone, she moves to Los Angeles to pursue TV writing. But her pursuit is limited to taking notes of old reruns of Dynasty rather than…Read more...

Come 2023, the BBC’s sci-fi series Doctor Who will be a whopping 60 years old. The network has spent months playing coy about what awaits in the 60th anniversary special, but it decided some kind of present was in order, hence the special’s first trailer.

It’s the big day, folks: a very special birthday to one of the most important religious figures on the planet, the child of the Virgin Mary. We’re talking about the vampire Camilla, of course. Who else could it have been?

Since I was a boy, I’ve always dreamed of blasting xenomorphs on LV-426 with the Colonial Marine Corps. That’s not just because the characters from James Cameron’s Aliens—like Hicks, Vasquez, and Hudson—were cool, it’s because the weapon they had was even cooler. The M41-A Pulse Blaster has always been one of my…Read more...

These days there’s no shortage of Christmas-themed horror movies, especially ones that feature a killer dressed as Santa Claus. But in the slasher genre’s earliest days, that hadn’t yet become a trope—1972's Tales From the Crypt gave us a red-suited maniac, to name maybe the most notable early example, and 1980's To…Read more...

The Planet of the Apes franchise has been on ice since the reboot films wrapped up with 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes. Fox is preparing to start the films up again in 2024, meaning we’ll see what the series is like now that Disney has a hold of it. And with Disney comes Marvel, which means some new comics.

There’s so many live service and online games out there that hearing about one you’ve never really put much thought into can often be a pleasant surprise. Maybe what you hear about catches your attention for a few days, maybe it gets you to dip into said game to see what it’s all about. That’s more or less what I’m at…Read more...

Every year starting in mid or late November is right around the time that TV networks put out holiday specials or festive episodes. Much of them are new, and some of them are so old you could probably reenact them without much effort. But more often than not, they’re memorable in some form or fashion.

The cast and crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spent months being fairly direct about their feelings on continuing the film without original leading man Chadwick Boseman, and more vaguely about what the sequel would’ve been like had he not unexpectedly passed in 2020. Even as the film has become a pretty solid…Read more...

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, where this week while we wait to unwrap some toys from Santa this weekend, we’re looking at all the toys we want to get our hands on in 2023! This week, Gondor calls for aid, Hasbro adds another member to its plastic Fantastic Four, and dine in Trek style. Check it out!

As 2022 stumbles towards its conclusion, Christmas time is with us once again. I’m warming my feet by the fireplace, the family dog is drifting off to sleep beside me, and the sounds of a petty argument between my brother and sister waft in gently from the other room. It’s been a long year of writing articles about…Read more...

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter vacation at major theme parks and fan-tastical destinations, with lots of merriment to be had into the new year. The Grinch continues his reign on both coasts at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood. Fantasmic returns at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios with the Frozen…Read more...

It’s the holiday season and now, maybe more than ever, kids around the world are begging their parents for the next shiny gadgets and gizmos. While there’s no shortage of enticing new tech toys to choose from, recent revelations unearthed from The Facebook Papers and academic research show the potentially troubling…Read more...

Late last month, Elon Musk decided to start a feud with Apple. What feels like a million years later, Tesla has introduced a $300 wireless charging mat that promises some of the features that were supposed to be included in Apple’s AirPower.Read more...

Researchers examined the wall paintings from a palace at Amarna, an Ancient Egyptian capital, and managed to identify some of the animals in the artworks.Read more...

2022 was a strange year in animation—the medium has never felt both as strong and as vulnerable as it as this year, with dozens of incredible films and TV shows releasing alongside news of cutbacks and dismissals of their creators by a wider industry that just can’t seem to understand animation’s worth. In a year…Read more...

Warhammer 40,000 might be one of the biggest and best known wargames around, having made the leap from the tabletop to video games, books, comics, and now, with the help of megafan Henry Cavill, an Amazon streaming franchise of TV shows and movies. But it and its grand, densely written world are still difficult to…Read more...

A major hack affecting password manager giant LastPass appears much worse than first thought. In an update announcement two days before Christmas, LastPass CEO Karim Toubba admitted the attackers were able to successfully copy a backup of customer vault data. With that data in hand, the attackers can potentially…Read more...

The Muppet Christmas Carol is among the most beloved holiday movies ever; It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas is among the weirdest. But many Jim Henson fans also hold 1977's Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, based on the 1971 book by Russell and Lillian Hoban, near and dear. Its heartwarming riff on O. Henry’s “The…Read more...

We know at least one other DC hero who won’t be showing up in The Flash. You’ll have to wait a week longer to see Adam Driver’s sci-fi dinosaur movie 65. Plus, Diego Luna talks why Andor could only be two seasons, and what’s coming on Doom Patrol. ‘Tis the season for spoilers!

It’s not often you see a company give a group of strangers on the internet $50,000 and tell them to do something cool. On Reddit this week, we got a dose of the internet as good and pure force, just in time for the holidays.Read more...

So you waited until the 11th hour and it’s now too late to order holiday presents online. Thankfully, there are several stores where you can still scavenge in-person for the perfect last-minute geeky gift for the fan in your life. Pro-tip to speed up your quest even more: order pick-up exists!Read more...

Snow Globe introduces us to a perfectly pink-clad woman flitting around a festively decorated room. But it soon becomes clear in this short film from Christopher Ryan Laughter—whose work io9 has shared before—that things are much more sinister than they appear. For one thing, the poem that narrator is reciting is…Read more...

Still high on all that Across the Spider-Verse hype, between the gorgeous trailer and increasingly wider posters revealing even more Spider-cameos? Well, good news for the bad news of having to wait six more months: we’ve got a tiny distraction to help.

The notorious Russian politician Dmitry Rogozin, former director general of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said he was injured during an attack in Donetsk on Wednesday after someone leaked his whereabouts.Read more...

As tumbleweeds blow through the empty halls and vacant office spaces of Twitter headquarters, somehow, somewhere, Elon Musk found even more people to fire.

ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok, admitted this week a handful of its employees, some based in China, inappropriately accessed TikTok data of U.S. users and two journalists when conducting an investigation attempting to snuff out the source of a damning leak.Read more...

The Woman King and The Underground Railroad actor Thuso Mbedu is joining Stranger Comics to pen a new tale in the publisher’s Tales of Asunda afro-fantasy series, and io9 has your first look.Read more...

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In an effort to avoid drawing more water from the drought-stricken Colorado River, Arizona officials are looking as far as Mexico for reliable water supply.Read more...

Some colleges are now restricting TikTok access on campus following a government crackdown in several states. Lawmakers have accused TikTok of reporting user data to China, and in recent weeks have moved to ban the app on state-issued devices. South Dakota was the first state to pass the ban with 13 other states soon …Read more...

With Netflix’s Dragon Age: Absolution, BioWare’s fantasy-RPG franchise makes a gradual return after having been previously in a bit of franchise limbo since 2015. The series hasn’t completely gone away thanks to comics and some books, but Absolution marks a real sense of change for the series ahead of the release of…Read more...

Failed crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried heard the news no young man wants to hear Thursday: “sorry son, you’re moving back in with your parents.” For all the young people who lived with their folks into their 20s, let’s just hope for his sake that the old man didn’t get rid of his old childhood bed.Read more...

Remember March 2020, when we were all stuck inside watching a kooky gay big cat owner do battle with another kooky tiger-print-wearing big cat sanctuary owner? One of those catty characters just scored a big win in Washington.

The original Arduboy made headlines as a credit card-sized handheld you could keep tucked away in your wallet for gaming emergencies, but it was also a great way to get started coding through the Arduino platform. The Arduboy Mini offers the same experience—8-bit gaming and portability—in an even smaller device. It’s…Read more...

Severe cases of strep A appear to be climbing in parts of the world outside of the UK, where the surge was first reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as several children’s hospitals in the U.S. have documented an increase, while doctors in Montreal, Canada recently reported a possible rise…Read more...

As we cozy up beside a roaring fire for some quality family time, or opt to just stay home to avoid the crowds and arctic temperatures spreading across the country, we’ve rounded up some of the more classic oldie but goodie Christmas films that can keep you company.Read more...

Even bad movies can have good moments—a standout scene, a big reveal, something impactful that sticks with you. In 2022, movies (some bad, but mostly good) were filled with unforgettable moments. We’re talking animals jumping out of trucks, pirate ships flying through the air, John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic being…Read more...

On Friday, Google announced its machine learning tool called Magritte was going open source. According to information sent to Gizmodo, the tool detects objects inside images or video and automatically applies blur when they appear on screen. Google mentioned the object does not matter, and blur can be applied to, for…Read more...

In an interview with NME, Charlie Cox discussed what he thinks the new Daredevil is going to look like now that Disney is producing the show. “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won’t be as…Read more...

Earlier this week, Arianespace’s Vega-C rocket suffered a fatal anomaly that resulted in the loss of two satellites. The rocket, which debuted a few months ago, was meant to fill a major gap for the European space industry, but is now grounded pending an investigation.Read more...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took a break from hunting serial killers this week to post a public service announcement: if you’re not using an ad blocker, what are you doing?Read more...