Month: December 2020

Enlarge / Space is mind-bogglingly big... but what happens there may not stay there.

The science fiction space opera is by now a well-known genre, and yet somehow The Expanse is hard to describe. Let me try to sum it up at its most basic: The Expanse is a show about space. It is a show about society, about resources, about people with passions and problems and desires and—most especially—about what happens when all those things collide.

It is also, in a word, excellent. The Expanse's fifth season is the best since its first, a long-awaited high-stakes payoff to several seasons' worth of setup. If you drifted away from the show during earlier seasons, like something accidentally dropped in microgravity, this new season makes it worth finding a way to come back.

The setup

For the first few seasons, The Expanse was concerned entirely with our own solar system. In its vision of the 24th century, we have fairly widespread access to spacefaring technology, just all at sublight speeds. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn might be accessible, but not so much the stars beyond.

We knew it was coming, and now we have confirmation: a new Mass Effect game is on the horizon. It was announced with a teaser trailer during last night's Game Awards broadcast.

What we have is a short trailer with no gameplay but one that still makes a few things clear about the direction of the series. The new game will be made by BioWare under the EA umbrella, and the foremost revelations are that it seems to be set in the same galaxy as the original trilogy of games, it occurs immediately after the conclusion of Mass Effect 3, and it appears to feature at least one returning character (Liara T'Soni).

As for what gameplay looks like or where the story goes from here, it's anyone's guess. We don't want to spoil anything here, but each of the Mass Effect 3 endings left the game's setting unrecognizable compared to how it appeared during the course of the trilogy—hence BioWare's decision to set the poorly received follow-up Mass Effect: Andromeda in a completely different galaxy with a new cast of characters.

Among the many (many!) tidbits unveiled during Disney's Investor Day was a lengthy teaser trailer for Loki, the Marvel spinoff limited series featuring Tom Hiddleston's charismatic trickster demigod and (adoptive) brother to Thor, last seen in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel Studios had vowed to provide "hefty" budgets for its various limited series, like WandaVision (which also has a new trailer), and this Loki teaser definitely has the high cinematic production values to show for it.

(Some spoilers below for Avengers: Endgame in particular.)

Marvel Studios announced the development of its various limited series for Disney+ in 2018, all featuring supporting characters from the films who were not given their own standalone films within the MCEU. Details have largely been kept tightly under wraps, but we do know that both Loki and WandaVision will tie into the forthcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Fan favorite Loki has always been one of the most multi-layered, psychologically complex characters, so we're keen to see what the limited series has in store for him.