Month: February 2022

Enlarge / Ewan MacGregor stars in the hotly anticipated spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi, debuting on Disney+ on May 25, 2022. (credit: Disney+)

Disney+ has dropped new poster art and announced a release date for its highly anticipated Star Wars spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first episode will drop on the streaming platform on May 25, 2022. We can't wait.

And yes, uber-fans, May 25 is the same date Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977 (back when it was known simply as Star Wars). That film celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut the night before Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California.

As reported previously, we first learned in August 2019 that the rumors were true about a Star Wars spinoff series featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's also when we learned that Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels, would reprise the part. The actor himself made a surprise appearance at the tail end of a showcase presentation at D23 Expo 2019, Disney's annual fan extravaganza. Then came the big news that his co-star Hayden Christensen would reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy called it "the rematch of the century" at the December 2020 Disney Investors Day.

Enlarge / Ewan MacGregor stars in the hotly anticipated spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi, debuting on Disney+ on May 25, 2022. (credit: Disney+)

Disney+ has dropped new poster art and announced a release date for its highly anticipated Star Wars spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first episode will drop on the streaming platform on May 25, 2022. We can't wait.

And yes, uber-fans, May 25 is the same date Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977 (back when it was known simply as Star Wars). That film celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut the night before Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California.

As reported previously, we first learned in August 2019 that the rumors were true about a Star Wars spinoff series featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's also when we learned that Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels, would reprise the part. The actor himself made a surprise appearance at the tail end of a showcase presentation at D23 Expo 2019, Disney's annual fan extravaganza. Then came the big news that his co-star Hayden Christensen would reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy called it "the rematch of the century" at the December 2020 Disney Investors Day.

Enlarge / What better way to celebrate 43.3 million copies sold than to add some paid DLC? (credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo fans who watched the game maker's latest announcement-filled Nintendo Direct video may have hoped to see reveals of previously announced Switch sequels like Metroid Prime 4 or the sequel to Breath of the Wild. Sadly, those long-awaited games failed to emerge once again, but Nintendo still delivered a few Switch surprises in its Wednesday presentation.

In a move we didn't necessarily see coming, Nintendo finally gave the whopping 43.3 million owners of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe something to look forward: the Booster Course Pass. This gargantuan 48-racetrack collection will retail for $24.99, and it contains remastered versions of tracks from every prior Mario Kart game, along with the mobile-only Mario Kart Tour. Its contents will drop as six separate collections of eight tracks each, with the first pack landing on March 18.

Time for your wildest Mario Kart racetrack predictions and requests. (credit: Nintendo)

Interestingly, the Booster Course Pass will come at no additional cost to anyone who subscribes to the $49.99 Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. The expansion pack appears to be Nintendo's response to complaints about this newer service tier's otherwise lean content.

Enlarge / Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (credit: Getty | Pool)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is standing by its mask guidance, despite more and more states easing recommendations as the wave of omicron cases continues to recede.

The CDC's current mask guidance says that people who are up to date on their vaccinations (i.e., vaccinated and boosted if eligible) should wear a mask in indoor public settings in any area that has substantial or high transmission. The agency defines substantial transmission as having between 50 to 99.99 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days. High transmission is having 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days.

Currently, 99.1 percent of counties in the entire country have high transmission. Thus, per CDC guidance, nearly the entire country should continue to recommend masking indoors.