Empire April 2023

A GROUCHY PEDRO Pascal, navigating an unrecognisable planet on a mercenary mission, dodging sci-fi dangers while chaperoning an adorable sidekick. Yes, The Last Of Us rocks. Wait, what did you think I was talking about? Ah, The Mandalorian. The return of the Beskar badarse is imminent. And now he comes equipped with a Darksaber (think a lightsaber, but dark) as well as being reunited with Grogu (50 years old, still burbling). With hype levels hitting hyperspace, we’re celebrating the coolest Star Wars show in the Outer Rim Territories with a big old blow-out event issue. Yes, your hunt for bounty is over. Over 20 pages of world-exclusive images and interviews, we chat to Mando masterminds Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about how they keep this show, plus several others, ticking…

HOLY COMPLIMENT, BATMAN! Shout-outs to Amon Warmann and Simon Crook for their articles on Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm and Jim Carrey respectively [issue #411]. Both articles were incredibly well written and contained a great deal of pathos. Moreover, the article on Jim Carrey really dived deep into his psyche and made me reevaluate just how impactful and important an actor he is. Keep up the great work. MARTIN SMITH, VIA EMAIL The last time Jim Carrey and Batman were mentioned in the same breath, it was far less flattering. Thanks for your kind words, Martin — have a Picturehouse membership on us as thanks. Empire’s star letter wins a Picturehouse Membership, plus one for a friend! Valid for one year at 26 Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK, including the…

THIS MONTH’S ESSENTIAL FILM AND TV NEWS AT SOME POINT in 2001, Louis Leterrier and Jason Statham had a bit of time off from creating car-nage aplenty on The Transporter in Paris. So the director and his star popped along to a cinema near the Champs-Élysées to check out a new release: Rob Cohen’s The Fast And The Furious. “We watched it and we looked at each other like, ‘This changes everything,’” laughs Leterrier. His instincts weren’t wrong. At the time, The Fast And The Furious was seen as an unexpectedly fun sleeper hit, a loose remake of Point Break with speeding cars and muscly stars, but over the years it turned into a series, which turned into a franchise, which turned into a billion-dollar behemoth. Now, it appears that…

WATCH OUT, KEVIN Feige. With James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm of a brand-new DCU (DC Universe), Warner Bros. clearly means to match Marvel step-for-step with a superhero-stuffed slate replete with big guns, small guns and obscure guns, all under the auspices of the biggest Gunn of them all. HEROES RELOADED While Gal Gadot may or may not be returning as Wonder Woman, DC’s other two A-list heroes are being placed at the centre of Chapter 1 of the DCU, aka the ‘Gods And Monsters’ phase. There are plans for two separate Batman projects — Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II will debut in 2025, and see Robert Pattinson return in a project that is seen, like Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie À Deux, as separate to the DCU.…

IT’S TIME FOR NON-WHITE ACTORS TO BREAK BAD AGAIN IN RECENT YEARS, the number of Black and brown heroes on screen has risen, and I’ve watched with gleeful excitement as Shuri, Miles Morales and more have taken centre stage and saved the day. But Black and brown villains are few and far between. It’s a point raised by Kumail Nanjiani, who recently described his desire to play the baddie, referencing Sebastian Stan’s creepy cannibal in Fresh. “He does these big Marvel movies, and then he’ll play a psychopath,” he said. “I was told that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast non-white people as bad guys.” Nanjiani has now got his wish, as slippery Somen Banerjee in Welcome To Chippendales. And with hype for Jonathan Majors’ big…

‘LAUNDROMAT POP & LOCK’ A lively opening number that, via the medium of pop and lock, introduces Michelle Yeoh’s laundromat owner Evelyn and husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), and their journey from China to the States in the hopes of creating a bright future for themselves. ‘MARCH OF THE FANNY PACK’ In the movie, an accessory-based showdown saw Waymond, armed only with his trusty fanny pack, take on a hoard of IRS cronies. This vibrantly choreographed version sees dancing bum-bags face their enemies, West Side Story-style. ‘HOT DOG FINGERS CONCERTO’ In one of EEAAO’s many multiverses, Jamie Lee Curtis’ IRS inspector plays the piano with her feet as her fingers are, obviously, hot dogs. For the musical, a custom piano is built to accommodate said fingers, resulting in an impassioned,…