Game of Thrones' Final Season Might Be … Funny?
Happy Monday, and welcome to another edition of The Monitor, WIRED's look at all that's happening in the world of pop culture. Hollywood is in a bit of a post-Oscars lull, but that doesn't mean all's quiet—hey, Steven Spielberg and Netflix have already gone a few rounds since last week. What else? Well, Edge of…
Cantina Talk: Here's What One Dude Has Seen of Episode IX
You're not alone if you're thinking that the Star Wars franchise is seeming just a little bit … more compressed lately. The animated series Star Wars Resistance just brought its first season to an end by stepping into the shadow (and runtime) of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in doing so left only the…
How Do Viral Videos Make Money? YouTubers Share Their Secrets
For anyone who doesn't work in the vast world of online videos, the idea of "YouTube stars" is baffling. What's even more astounding is that so many of those YouTubers can make a living simply from viral videos. An entire career just based on posting funny things on the internet, where so many people do…
While You Were Offline: 2019 Is Just the Runway for 2020
Finally, we've made it to 2019—a year that will bring events better than any that came in the last 12 months simply because they won't be happening in 2018. Almost immediately, it’s obvious that things are better, because … the US national debt is higher than ever? No, that's not right. Maybe it's because Apple's…
The Streaming Service Trying to Take Queer Content Global
Revry's "office" in Glendale, California feels an awful lot like off-campus college housing. There's a fireplace that looks like it hasn't seen a flame in decades. There's a slightly tattered leather couch, some pillows featuring Wonder Woman, Star Wars, and Steve Jobs. A copy of the club-kid makeup portrait book Getting Into Face sits the…
Hitman 2 Is My 'Forever Game'
Everyone is pining for a forever game. Hitman 2 might be mine. I first heard the term "forever game" during the press buildup for No Man's Sky. It denotes the idea of interactive infinity—a game that you can play forever, the one game to rule them all. A forever game means that you don't need…
Give Sandra Oh the Emmy, but Killing Eve Deserved More Nominations
All week, WIRED's Culture team will be writing endorsement letters for various Emmy nominees in advance of next Monday's awards ceremony. Next up: senior associate editor and aspiring assassin Angela Watercutter. In the spring of 2018, nearly three decades and some 75 roles into her career, Sandra Oh gave the performance of a lifetime. That’s…
Watch the New Men in Black International Trailer Now
It's time for the final pre-holiday edition of The Monitor, WIRED's roundup of the latest in the world of culture, from box-office news to announcements about hot new trailers. In today's installment: the Men in Black are back; To All the Boys I've Loved Before is officially a Netflix franchise; and Aquaman is doing swimmingly…
Jack Dorsey Has Problems With Twitter, Too
It contributes to filter bubbles, he said. It risks silencing people, he said. And when it’s not silencing them, it might be incentivizing them to behave badly, or basely, he said. His biggest criticism of the social media site he runs was that it could be nudging its users in the wrong directions. “What does…
Cantina Talk: Is Episode IX Called Balance of the Force?
Following a down period for rumormongering around December's Star Wars: Episode IX, things have really picked up in the last couple of weeks. Now all kinds of potential plot points, costume designs, and even maybe-possibly-kinda movie titles are being thrown around with wild abandon. Fans won't know for sure until the end of the year,…