Multimedia making its mark in 2023

2023+has+already+proved+to+be+an+incredibly+exciting+year+for+media.

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2023 has already proved to be an incredibly exciting year for media.

Max Spiegel and Tanner Kannan

2022 was a solid year for movies, shows and video games, and 2023 looks even more promising! While it’s too early to tell which pieces of media will deliver, we’ve rounded up some of our most anticipated movies, tv shows and video games coming out this year.

Movies:

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: After the failure of “Transformers: The Last Knight”, the Transformers series was rebooted giving us “Bumblebee”, an origin story for one of its most beloved characters. “Bumblebee” premiered in 2018 and Transformers fans have awaited a sequel ever since. This year the wait finally comes to an ends as “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is set to come out in theaters. The movie will take place in the year 1994, telling the story of a pair of human archaeologists from Brooklyn battling an ancient conflict in a globe-trotting adventure with the Autobots. The film ties in with three factions of the Transformers race: the Maximals, the Predacons and the Terrorcons. Transformers fans are in for an incredible experience with this movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: This third and final installment of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy will be the cast’s final film and culminate director and writer James Gunn’s involvement with the franchise. This film will feature the origin of Rocket Raccoon, played by Bradley Cooper, the return of Zoe Saldana as Gamora and the introduction of Will Poulter as the villain Adam Warlock. The Guardians will make their way back in theaters on May 5th.

John Wick: Chapter 4: This new installment in the John Wick franchise sees the return of Keanu Reeves as he faces Bill Skarsgard character Marquis de Gramont in order to win back his freedom. The film will also feature stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski, who helmed the previous John Wick movies, this time with even more insane action. John Wick makes his grand return to theaters on March 24th.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is an upcoming film following the protagonist, Mario, of the “Super Mario Bros.” game series. The movie changes many of the things that have been previously established in the Mario games. Princess Peach no longer plays the role of a helpless damsel in distress, in-game items such as the question mark blocks and pipes are used in a more modernized way and Bowser has a moving castle! Controversies arose as casting choices such as Chris Pratt voicing Mario were deemed questionable by fans. Supporters initially believed it to be a joke, creating many memes about Pratt being cast. However, when the first major trailer was released, it became clear that it was no joke at all, leaving many shocked. On the other hand, casting choices such as Jack Black as Bowser had fans’ full support and got people excited for this film!

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One: This long delayed installment of the “Mission Impossible” movies is part one of a two part epic to possibly close out the franchise. The film is once again written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who previously wrote and directed “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” and “Mission Impossible: Fallout”. “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” once again features Tom Cruise as MIF agent Ethan Hunt and makes its epic return on July 14th. 

Dune: Part Two: After the success of the first installation of “Dune” Denis Villeneuve returns to write and direct part two. This film continues the journey of Paul Atriedes, played by Timothée Chalamet, out for revenge on those who destroyed his family while trying to prevent a terrible future from occurring. Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista and Stellen Skarsgard will all be returning for the sequel. There will also be new additions to the cast including Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux and Christopher Walken. The mystery and allure of “Dune” will flow back into theaters on November 3rd.

According to the trailers, this movie is going to feature several different Spider-Man variants from across the multiverse. (Road Trip with Raj)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse: “Spider-Man:Across the Spider-Verse” is an upcoming comic book movie about the character Miles Morales, also known as Spider-Man, going on an adventure across the multiverse. This movie is the sequel to the 2018 “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse”, and will include the majority of the main characters from the original. The main antagonist of this movie is still unknown, however, recent trailers show conflict between Miles and Spider-Man 2099. After the massive success of the first film, this sequel is highly unlikely to fail, and will most likely be one of, if not the top movie of 2023. 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Set during the 1960s Space Race, the long anticipated sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise finally sees the return of Harrison Ford. The film also features Mads Mikkelsen as the villain, as well as Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller Bridge, Boyd Holbrook and John Rhys Davies returning as Sallah from the previous films. James Mangold, director of movies such as “Walk the Line”, “Logan” and “Ford Vs. Ferrari”, will be replacing Steven Spielberg as director of this film. However, Spielberg will still serve as an executive producer for the project. This film releases exclusively in theaters June 30th.

Games:

As they say in ¨Star Wars,¨ may the force be with you on March 17, 2023. (Cade Roberts)

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor: “Star Wars: Jedi Survivor” is the sequel to the game “Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order”, a 2019 action/adventure game created by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game focuses on former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, being hunted down by inquisitors while trying to complete his Jedi training. This new game will take place five years after the events of “Jedi Fallen Order”, and will continue to follow Cal’s fight against the empire.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is an upcoming sequel to “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. Very little is known about this game so far, but it is set to be released on May 12th and looks to be one of the best games of 2023, especially for Nintendo. 

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League: After being delayed multiple times in the past few years, Rocksteady Studios finally announced the release of “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” on May 26th of this year. This video game will tell a story about Amanda Waller recruiting a team of super criminals to save the members of the Justice League from an alien invader known as Brainiac. The game will also be the last time voice actor Kevin Conroy will be voicing Batman, due to his passing back in November. 

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: After the success of 2018´s “Spider Man PS4” and 2020´s “Spider Man: Miles Morales”, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that “Spider Man 2” will be releasing sometime this fall. This game will feature an alliance between Peter Parker’s Spider Man and Miles Morales´ Spider Man, as they face a brand new set of villains, one of which is Venom who will be voiced by “Candyman” star Tony Todd.

TV Shows:

The Last of Us: “The Last of Us” is a new show based on the critically acclaimed video game franchise and is set to premiere on January 15th. The show takes place 20 years after civilization has been wiped out, and follows Pedro Pascal’s character Joel. He is one of the few survivors who is hired to smuggle a child named Ellie, played by Bella Ramsay, into a quarantine zone. The series was written and produced by Craig Mazin, creator of the Emmy winning series “Chernobyl,” and Neil Druckmann, creator of “The Last of Us” video game. 

Pictured above is the fan favorite character, Grogu, from the series, who people commonly mistaken for the baby version of the Star Wars character Yoda. (Lukas Denier)

The Mandalorian Season 3: This highly anticipated season of “The Mandalorian” takes place after his brief appearance in “The Book of Boba Fett” and sees Jon Faveru, Dave Filoni and Bryce Dallas Howard returning to helm. Not much has been revealed about the plot as of this time, but the new season will continue the adventure of The Mandalorian and the fan favorite Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda. 

Loki Season 2: Little detail has been revealed about this next season of “Loki” but we do know that it’s the first second season for any MCU Disney+ show. The release date has not been announced at this time, but the new season should arrive mid to late 2023. The audience will see the return of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius, as well as the entire cast of the first season. 

Outer Banks Season 3: After the success of seasons one and two the long awaited third season of the Netflix original “Outer Banks” is releasing on February 23rd. Not much information has been revealed about the plot, and a trailer has yet to be released, however, the Pogues will most likely continue their wild shenanigans in season three. 

The Boys Season 4: The fourth season of the highly praised show “The Boys” will be taking place after its spinoff  “Gen V” hits Prime Video this year. Since this season is still being filmed, not much has been revealed about the plot or release date, but it has been confirmed that “The Walking Dead” star Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be joining the cast as an unknown character.