I hope it was a very happy Thanksgiving, y’all! With new movie trailers and gaming updates, this week brought plenty to try and keep up with from the entertainment world. Let’s recap what you may have missed!
Moana 2 Takes Thanksgiving By Storm
The highly-anticipated Disney sequel raked in $28 million on just Thanksgiving Day, breaking the record set by Frozen 2 in 2019!
Pokémon Company Breaks Guinness World Record
The Pokémon Company International broke the world record for the longest unboxing livestream video in a 24-hour marathon. Content creators from across Europe worked together to open more than 1,500 booster packs.
The company attempted (and broke) the record to celebrate the release of the latest TCG set Scarlet & Violet – Surging Sparks.
League of Legends Unveils New Seasonal Model
In January 2025, Riot Games will launch the first season of League of Legends’ brand-new seasonal model, according to a news release. The new structure will introduce three seasons across the calendar year and will last about 16 weeks (and include about eight patches). There will be a rank resent to both visible rank and MMR “at the beginning of each year in January.”
“Each season will center around a unique theme, following specific champions across different regions within Runeterra, which will connect to an overarching narrative that spans the year,” the release said. There will be skins to celebrate each season theme including a “wide variety of skinlines unrelated to the season.”
The January 2025 theme will be Welcome to Noxus. Noxus champions in League of Legends lore include Leblanc, Katarina, Vladimir, Swain, Sion, Talon, Mordekaiser, Riven, Talon, Cassiopeia, Darius, Draven, Rell, Samira, Kled, Briar, and Ambessa.
Players will have the opportunity to earn three Victorious skins over the year, with one available per season. To unlock each season’s skin, players must win 15 Ranked games during that season.
There will also be a new Battle Pass with a free and paid option, along with a streamlining of the loot and crafting system. The paid option of the Battle Pass will be “priced similarly” to the Event Pass, and pass rewards will “[eliminate] the need for Event Tokens and the Event Shop.”
Riot will introduce six Battle Passes per year that will last eight weeks, noting that “most rewards that were previously scattered across various systems will now be consolidated within the free track of the Battle Pass.”
Progress across systems like Honor and Champion Mastery will also contribute directly to the pass. In total, players will have the opportunity to earn 12 skins per year with the free pass, with half of these skins themed to the season.
To mirror the visual update that Caitlin during the first season of Arcane, Viktor scored his own with the second season that released in November. The Visual and Gameplay Update (VGU) includes new art and an updated backstory for Viktor which aims to better align him with the character in the show and “largely retain his core gameplay apart from a slight functional and thematic change to his ultimate, which will now get larger with every kill until the end of the ability’s duration.”
The new season will also include the new jungle monster Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin. Riot adjusted the times for Rift Herald and Baron Nashor to the 16-minute mark and the 25-minute mark, respectively.
“Atakhan will spawn once per game at the 20-minute mark on either the top or bottom side of the map depending on which has seen the most champion damage and kills by the 14-minute mark. To signal where Atakhan will appear, his arena will spawn, permanently altering the map with two new walls,” Riot said in the news release.
Atakhan will cause Blood Roses to spawn in areas where champions were slain, and teams who collect them will earn a small amount of XP and a permanently stacking Adaptive Force buff. The monster will spawn in one of two forms based on the level of action in the game.
Higher action games spawn Ruinous Atakhan, who grants Bloody Petals to the team who defeats him and spawns a grove of Blood Roses in the area for anyone to collect. Taking down Ruinous Atakhan also grants increased effects from all Epic monster rewards. Voracious Atakhan spawns in lower action games and imparts a one-time Rebirth buff, which resurrects its bearers in base upon taking fatal damage, to the team that takes him down.
Riot outlined some other gameplay updates coming include new game mechanics, items, and runes:
- Nexus turrets will now respawn after a set time after they’re destroyed, but the time-frame was not revealed.
- New game mode called Swiftplay that will be “a potential replacement for Quickplay. ” Riot said “select regions” at the start of the year.
- “Swiftplay is designed to offer a lower-stakes experience compared to Summoner’s Rift while providing more strategic elements than ARAM. Swiftplay will retain core elements of League of Legends, such as farming, snowballing, and teamfighting for objectives, but with adjustments to ensure a competitive experience for all players, including ramping gold and XP for all players as the game progresses.”
- Summoner Spell Teleport “will no longer instantly blink the champion after its channel, but instead, the champion will visually travel across the map. Unleashed Teleport will cause the champion to travel at a faster rate while teleporting.”
- Noxian-themed boot upgrades unlocked through a new mechanic called Feats of Strength
- New item Bloodletter’s Curse reduces the target’s magic resistance from repeated ability hits.
- New minor runes that will rebalance vision-related options in the Domination tree: Deep Ward, Sixth Sense, and Grisly Memento.
- The Axiom Arcanist, a brand-new addition to the Sorcery tree that makes ultimate abilities more powerful.
Official Dexter: Original Sin Trailer
Showtime and Paramount+ dropped the official trailer for fans of the dark series Dexter ahead of the Dexter: Original Sin premiere on December 13. Paramount+ subscribers with the Showtime plan will get the show on December 13 and the series will make its on-air debut on December 15 at 9 p.m. CST.
The show is set in 1991 Miami and follows Dexter Morgan as “he transitions from student to avenging serial killer.”
When his bloodthirsty urges can’t be ignored any longer, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness. With the guidance of his father, Harry (Christian Slater), he adopts a Code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.
New Paramount+ Series to Star Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan
Variety reported the news about Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan joining the show, outlining the gangster drama series was being developed with the title The Donovans. The report said it will be a U.S.-spinoff of the Showtime series Ray Donovan. The show was also reportedly filming under the working title The Associate.
The series “[showcases] two generations of gangsters, their businesses, the relationships they weave and the man they call to fix their problems,” according to IMDB.
Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr in ‘Beatles’ Movies
Ringo Starr told Entertainment Tonight that he thinks “it’s great” Barry Keoghan is rumored to portray him in a biopic. Sam Mendes is directing the four biopics dedicated to each of the members of the Beatles, and the films will be set from the perspectives of John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Netflix Limited-Series Adaptation of Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You
The streamer greenlit I Will Find You, which will be the first U.S. scripted series under mystery and thriller author Harlan Coben’s creative partnership with Netflix, according to a news release. It will be an 8-episode limited series.
Netflix released the show’s synopsis: An innocent father serving life for the murder of his own son receives evidence that his child may still be alive—and must break out of prison to find out the truth.
Robert Hull (God Friended Me, Quantum Leap, Alcatraz) is the show’s Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Showrunner alongside Coben under the banner of the author’s company Final Twist Productions. Bryan Wynbrandt (Quantum Leap), Steven Lilien (Quantum Leap), and John Weber will also serve as executive producers.
