Empire April 2022

BOB ODENKIRK IS, put simply, a legend. The star of Breaking Bad, its prequel Better Call Saul and last year’s surprise action breakout Nobody (best bus brawl ever), not to mention a dillion small but memorable comedy cameos, is a man who can portray a breathtakingly sleazy lawyer and make you like him. He continues to find the humanity in Saul Goodman, aka Jimmy McGill, a perpetually flop-sweating ambulance-chaser with zero capacity for embarrassment (“I once convinced a woman I was Kevin Costner,” Goodman revealed to Walter White, “and it worked, because I believed it”). He’s turned a truly pathetic loser into an icon, one of TV’s most nuanced characters. Legendary stuff. So when Odenkirk suffered a heart attack on the set of the final season of Better Call Saul back…

BOB ODENKIRK IS, put simply, a legend. The star of Breaking Bad, its prequel Better Call Saul and last year’s surprise action breakout Nobody (best bus brawl ever), not to mention a dillion small but memorable comedy cameos, is a man who can portray a breathtakingly sleazy lawyer and make you like him. He continues to find the humanity in Saul Goodman, aka Jimmy McGill, a perpetually flop-sweating ambulance-chaser with zero capacity for embarrassment (“I once convinced a woman I was Kevin Costner,” Goodman revealed to Walter White, “and it worked, because I believed it”). He’s turned a truly pathetic loser into an icon, one of TV’s most nuanced characters. Legendary stuff. So when Odenkirk suffered a heart attack on the set of the final season of Better Call Saul…

COMMENT OF THE MONTH ARRGHHH! ARRGGGHHHHH!! What have I done to piss you off? Breaking into my house and leaving a severed copy of the latest issue in my bed?! I got such a fright when I pulled back the covers to see a bloody Don Corleone staring back at me. I promise to read every single line of text in each issue, and continue to subscribe. What else do you want from me? Yours, scared (and mentally scarred). GORDON SMITH, GLASGOW The thing is, Gordon, there have been transportation problems of late, so we’ve been hand-delivering issues ourselves. Looks like this one came courtesy of Ben Travis. God only knows what he’d been up to. Picture house Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend! Valid for one year at 23 Picturehouse…

COMMENT OF THE MONTH ARRGHHH! ARRGGGHHHHH!! What have I done to piss you off? Breaking into my house and leaving a severed copy of the latest issue in my bed?! I got such a fright when I pulled back the covers to see a bloody Don Corleone staring back at me. I promise to read every single line of text in each issue, and continue to subscribe. What else do you want from me? Yours, scared (and mentally scarred). GORDON SMITH, GLASGOW The thing is, Gordon, there have been transportation problems of late, so we’ve been hand-delivering issues ourselves. Looks like this one came courtesy of Ben Travis. God only knows what he’d been up to. Picture house Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend!…

THIS MONTH’S FILM MOMENTS THAT MATTER IF YOUR EXPERIENCE of watching Spider-Man: No Way Home was enhanced by roof-raising cheers, you’re not alone. That was Benedict Cumberbatch’s experience, too. “That premiere, I will never, ever forget Jacob [Batalon], behind me, screaming, ‘Let’s goooooo!’ when certain reveals were revealed,” laughs Cumberbatch. “And he’s in it, for God’s sakes! It was infectious. It’s magic.” Even by the standards of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what No Way Home has done at the box office is remarkable. Currently at $1.7 billion worldwide and counting — which would be a huge sum pre-pandemic — in the midst of Covid it’s astonishing, with audiences flocking back to cinemas to revel in those reveals of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men, as they team up with Tom Holland’s MCU…

HUMAN MEI Turning Red’s concept is at once simple and surreal. When talented 13-year-old Mei (voiced by Rosalie Chang) experiences an extreme emotion, she turns into a giant red panda — it’s a device that director Domee Shi calls “magical puberty”. Pre-panda Mei, shown via the film’s opening montage, is proud of her accomplishments: she has perfect grades, perfect hobbies and is the perfect, dutiful daughter to her super-protective mother, Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh). “I wanted her to be like this dorky Canadian folk hero,” explains Shi. “She’s the girl I looked up to when I was Mei’s age – confident in her body, in herself, proud of being smart, a momma’s girl, and she has a tight squad of friends.” In other words, Mei’s got everything under control, making…