Nerd News

The Adventure Zone: Balance is coming to an end all over again! The Adventure Zone: Story and Song is the final volume of the graphic novel adaptation of the critically acclaimed actual play podcast. To celebrate, Dan Casey sat down with Griffin McElroy, Clint McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy to dive deep into what to expect from the final volume; saying goodbye to Taako, Magnus, and Merle all over again; and much more.

The Adventure Zone: Story and Song is available from Macmillan and 23rd St. on July 14, 2026: https://bit.ly/TAZStoryAndSong

Listen to more of The McElroy Family’s excellent work at https://www.themcelroy.family/

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#podcast #boardgames #author #adventurezone

The post Quests N’ Answers: The Adventure Zone w/ The McElroy Family appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• Lionel Messi, a fútbol star known for playing for Barcelona and France, appeared in the new Spider-Man: Brand New Day teaser.
• The ad used the hype around the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Messi’s star status to promote the movie.
• Brand New Day will come out July 31.

Tuesdays are for spiders and soccer, with a new teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day coming out featuring a prominent fútbol star. Lionel Messi, known for his many years spent on the Barcelona national team (and a few with France), starred in the advertisement.

Marvel Studios

In the trailer, Peter Parker sees Messi using the Spider Tracker in hopes of spotting Spider-Man in New York City. Peter immediately goes, “gets” Spider-Man, and takes Messi for a swing around the city. With the 2026 FIFA World Cup underway, the advertisement was perfectly timed.

Who’s got next?#SpiderManBrandNewDay is in theatres July 31. Get tickets now. https://t.co/Gm9mNYmuub pic.twitter.com/uiQOtcBElX

— Spider-Man Movie (@SpiderManMovie) June 30, 2026

Brand New Day is the fourth Spider-Man movie in Tom Holland’s run playing the hero. The past three explored how he became Spider-Man, with the help of Iron Man. The most recent, No Way Home, brought in Marvel’s “multiverse” idea, with Peter Parker working with Doctor Strange to return the multiverse to normalcy. Past Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) made cameos during the movie and worked with Holland’s Spider-Man to save their universe.

Brand New Day comes after the events of No Way Home, which erased the memory of Spider-Man’s identity from the entire world. This includes Peter Parker’s closest friends, Ned and MJ. It also killed off Aunt May. This Spider-Man is now a lone wolf.

A forgotten Peter Parker lives alone as a full-time Spider-Man until mounting pressure triggers a dangerous change, and a powerful new enemy emerges.

Well, he’s not entirely alone. The trailer features cameos from characters like Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. Bruce Banner, the Hulk’s alter ego, is a science professor who helps Parker manage the changes occurring in his DNA. The Punisher also fights alongside Parker in his own anti-hero way.

RELATED ARTICLE

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Trailer Gives Us Hulk and the Punisher

The trailer indicates some fundamental changes to the version of Spider-Man that Tom Holland has been playing. It will also introduce a more adult version of Holland’s Spider-Man after playing a high-schooler for six movies.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes out in theaters on July 31.

The post Fútbol Star Lionel Messi Appears in BRAND NEW DAY Teaser appeared first on Nerdist.

Realta Fusion showed it could generate electricity from a fusion reaction, no steam turbine required.

Google is updating its image generator to make it faster and cheaper, making it a more useful tool for creators looking to make AI content.

⚡ Quick Take

• Gordon Cormier chatted with Nerdist about bringing Aang to life in Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender season two.

It’s time to dive back into a familiar world we love in a whole new way. Yes, Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender season two has arrived—and once again, it delivers the perfect blend of fantasy and realism. This season, the Gaang is older, and the stakes are higher. War is all around, and our favorite squad has seen battle in ways they never have before, a truth which threatens to steal away their hope and light. And still, within one another, there is the beautiful solace of friendship and love. In celebration of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender season two, we spoke to Gordon Cormier, who beautifully plays Aang in the series, about returning to the role and breathing life into the Avatar.

Netflix

As we stop from season one to season two of Avatar: The Last Airbender, what do you think has changed most about Aang, and what has kind of stayed the same?

Aang is a lot more grown-up physically, and I think that he’s matured quite a bit mentally. He can waterbend now, and he’s honestly just a lot more powerful, but I think the one thing that would stay the same is like his fun childlike spirit, his curiosity, and his seeking for adventures.

And season two of Avatar: The Last Airbender, as you said, is a much darker, more adult chapter for Aang and Team Avatar than season one was. What do you think is driving Aang in season two, and what is he struggling with the most?

This season, he’s worried about the Great Comet that’s going to come back, and that’s what the Firebenders originally used to wipe out all the air nomads. I feel like that’s what’s driving him forward. Now there’s actual pressure, and we need to defeat the Fire Lord fast. There’s a time limit and a deadline. We don’t necessarily know how long this deadline is, but it’s definitely placing some pressure on him.

Netflix

Although the enemies become a bit more dangerous in season two, the most painful fights are the ones between the friend group. What do you think is the sort of cause of this friction that really seems to form between everyone this time around?

It definitely seems like a lack of communication and quite a bit of mistrust. I feel like all the characters are learning more about themselves. Like Katara and Sokka came from a small village in the Water Tribe. Aang was raised as an air nomad. Toph has been sheltered her whole life, so we’re all introduced to this giant city. All of a sudden, we realize that we all want different things, and we go out and seek what we want. We notice that we’re not really out for the same stuff. We all want something a little different. And then when we find out what we’ve all been doing, neither of us definitely agrees with each other about it, and it gets us in a lot of trouble, so it causes us to fight.

What do you think Aang learns that he wants in Avatar: The Last Airbender season two?

Well, Aang, weirdly enough, is searching for a father figure in season two of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For example, Long Feng, that’s kind of the person that he clings to. And when he finds out that Long Feng is actually the enemy and not a friend… It’s quite heartbreaking for him and the audience, but I feel like he’s searching for something that he had at one time, maybe with Gyatso, but he’s hoping that it’s something he can recreate.

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Zuko and Iroh’s Relationship Is Even Better in Live-Action AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

Aang also ends up spending some time with Uncle Iroh toward the end of this Avatar: The Last Airbender season. Do you think that he sees some of that energy in Iroh, and how does that relationship work with the sort of Fire Nation clashing?

Well, funny enough, I think that Iroh and Gyatso are, to just to Aang, but just in general, quite similar as people. But I think that with Iroh sitting on the other side, like he’s quite loyal to Zuko, not really loyal to the Fire Nation necessarily, but he definitely is Fire Nation… There’s just a little bit of clashing going on there. At the end of the day, though, he’s one of the good guys. He’s part of the White Lotus. He’s not one of the enemies, and he makes it quite clear.

In season one, I feel like the show really fleshes out the idea of a friendship possibility between Zuko and Aang. I feel like we spent more time with them on a camaraderie level in season one, maybe more than even in the cartoon, at that point. How does Aang feel about Zuko in season two of Avatar: The Last Airbender?

It’s a tricky one because in season one, yeah, Aang did try and reach out for that friendship, but it didn’t really work. Obviously, Zuko’s trying to capture me throughout almost the entire series, but I feel like Aang is definitely very forgiving. He’s the type to always give second, third, maybe fifth chances. But I think that if Zuko ever came around, he would definitely be skeptical, but I don’t think Aang’s heart would be closed off to

Netflix

And the relationship between Toph and Aang is also so fun and exciting to experience in live action. What do you think the relationship with Toph brings to Aang that he didn’t have before?

Tough love, honestly. Katara is like so nurturing, and Sokka is kind of like just the funny guy, but he’s not necessarily … He contributes so much to the show, but he doesn’t train Aang. That’s something that Katara, Toph, and Bumi have, Zuko eventually, that’s so special. But I think that she brings this educational experience, but also literally just the third element. She brings Earth to the TV show. When she shows up all of a sudden, that’s what it’s about. It’s about learning the third element, and that’s new for Aang, considering he’s only been working on the first two.

Earthbending is such a different movement set and look than water or airbending. What was it like to take on the task of kind of learning that style of movement?

Honestly, it was quite easy. I’ve wanted to learn earthbending from the start. Season one bootcamp, I remember I wanted them to teach me how earthbending looks so bad because I thought it just looked so cool. So I’ve been getting glimpses of it and almost studying it for the past two years, honestly, or the two years leading up to when we shot it. But Toph’s style of earthbending is also a little bit different, which is cool. She’s not necessarily super like… She’s not in the widest dance. She’s not always closed fist. She has this interesting style of earthbending, which definitely took me a second to pick up, but I feel like I was so excited to learn it that it just became easy.

Netflix

The best part of an adaptation is retaining some of the original moments but changing others. What is your favorite Aang moment this season that’s straight from the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon, and what is your favorite kind of original to the live-action moment that you got to experience?

If I’m being honest, I can’t really recall any one-for-one line or one-for-one shot, but I remember the training montage from season two, which we kind of recreated. For example, in the animated series, this training montage was with Aang and Toph in the desert. And it was kind of all the same stuff, but in our live action, it’s within our little… It’s in our home in the backyard. I’m basically getting trained. But our training montages are very similar, just in different locations because of changes that we’ve made to the series. But I really like the way that we did it, and I think it gives us this fresh perspective, or I don’t know, almost like a new training montage is what it feels like, but it breathes life into the old one, at the same time.

It lets us see it twice, I feel like. We got to see it in the animated series and we don’t need to watch it exactly the same again. Now we get to watch a slightly different version, but it’s new. It’s different.

Losing Appa is a really harrowing experience in the cartoon, but even more devastating in live action, but of course, you don’t actually have an Appa to build a relationship with on set. So what were those scenes like to bring to life?

When I was interacting with Appa, it was always like a tennis ball, a giant blue circle, or sometimes a giant blue opa, but it really just helped me train my work with my imagination. I feel like that’s a very useful tool for an actor to have, and I had a lot of time to practice and develop it on this show, which I’m really grateful for. Hopefully, I could carry it on to whatever is next. But I learned a lot about just really building what Appa would look like in live-action in my head, studying photos of him so I could actually see him there on the day, even though I’m really just looking at a blue screen, a tennis ball, or someone in a blue tube.

Netflix

Stepping into this older Aang this season, what do you think he ultimately fears the most, and what do you think gives him hope in Avatar: The Last Airbender season two?

I think Aang fears failure. The idea of failure is really scary because his failure is the world’s failure. The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, I was going to say Air Nomads, but, no. Everyone is kind of relying on him to claim the victory, but if he doesn’t do that, the Fire Nation takes over, and everything’s really bad. So I feel like that’s his fear, that’s what’s driving him forward. But I hope he finds it in his friends. I think that his friends give him a lot of hope. I think that if he was doing this by himself, I don’t think he would be able to do it. I think that his friends drive him forward, they motivate him, and they honestly just keep him in check.

And finally, looking ahead to season three, are there any moments that you’re particularly excited for people to get to see going forward?

Honestly, the end of the season two cliffhanger, like the end of season two ends with Aang maybe dying. Yes, we’ll figure that out. But if he’s alive or dead where it picks up, like if he’s alive, how is he going to rebuild? How is he going to go forward? How is he going to defeat the Fire Nation? Are there going to be any more avatars? He died in the avatar state. That’s like a crazy thing. That could be the end of the Avatar Cycle… Or not. We don’t know. So I think just the cliffhanger that Netflix left everyone on for season two, it’s going to carry on in season three and be super awesome. And I’m really excited for the fans to see it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender season two is now streaming on Netflix.

The post Gordon Cormier Talks Breathing New Life Into Aang for AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Season 2 appeared first on Nerdist.

A new video shows the final production version of the upcoming Clicks Communicator, a BlackBerry-like smartphone that runs modern apps.

Nvidia AI chip competitor Etched says it has already booked $1 billion under contract for the inference systems powered by its chip.

Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 5 brings stronger agentic capabilities, lower pricing, and improved safety, positioning the model as a cheaper alternative to Opus, GPT-5.5, and Gemini Pro.

Acti is betting the smartphone keyboard is the next home for AI assistants. The startup's new keyboard for iOS and Android works across apps and lets users create custom AI-powered shortcuts using natural language.

The updates include translations, new tools for hosts, and more.

Anthropic's Claude Science is a workbench that gives scientists one environment to do computational research, saving them from the need to bounce between databases, pipelines, and tools.

But the company is still claiming that New Glenn will return to flight this year.

⚡ Quick Take

• Topps celebrates Doctor Doom in new One World Under Doom cards for their Marvel Chrome 2026 trading cards.
• The cards depict a famous series where Doom becomes Sorcerer Supreme to fight vampires.
• The cards will drop July 1.

He’s been Marvel Comics’ greatest villain since he first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 way back in 1962. And few can challenge him for that title. We’re talking about Victor von Doom, the iron-fisted ruler of Latveria, and occasional God Emperor of Battleworld. Soon, Robert Downey Jr. will portray the mad monarch Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, raising his popularity profile even more. But before that, Topps Trading Cards honors one of the greatest modern Doctor Doom stories of recent years, One World Under Doom, with a new series of Chrome 2026 Marvel Comics cards. And you can exclusively check out several first images in our gallery down below:

Click To View Gallery Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps Topps/Marvel Comics Marvel Comics/Topps

And below is the card back description for the Topps Doctor Doom One World Under Doom cards:

To stop a vampire onslaught, Doctor Strange gave up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to Victor von Doom. Later, Doctor Doom magically takes over every broadcast medium on the planet and declares himself Emperor of the World and ruler of this new United Latveria. As Earth’s Mightiest Heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four scramble to fight back, world leaders shockingly welcome him with open arms. All hail Emperor Doom! 

These insert cards spotlight key figures and scenes from the recent One World Under Doom event, by writer Ryan North and artist R.B. Silva, capturing the scope and impact of Doctor Doom’s reign. This insert features a variety of cover art from the event, which was published in 2025. The artwork features iconic moments from the Marvel Comics event. This includes Doom wielding his full Sorcerer Supreme magic against the Dark Lord Dormammu, and fighting Red Hulk. Of course, Doom also takes on his oldest adversaries from the Fantastic Four, like Reed Richards and the Thing.

Topps/Marvel Comics

Fans can collect a dynamic 200-card base set filled with iconic heroes, villains, and fan-favorite characters pulled from across Marvel’s rich comic history. The new One World Under Doom cards appear in the 2026 Topps Chrome Marvel Comics, dropping on July 1.

The post Doctor Doom Reigns in New Topps Chrome Marvel Cards (Exclusive) appeared first on Nerdist.

The company may finally be ready to try to deliver on Elon Musk's years-long promise of launching a robotaxi network of its own.

X has launched a hosted MCP server, making it easier for developers to connect AI applications with the company’s API.

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat’s Sam Reid and Jennifer Ehle talk about Gabriella and Lestat’s relationship.
• Ehle reveals that Gabriella has had an agenda for Lestat since she first came to him.
• Reid notes that Gabriella tries to fit Lestat into the mold she wants him to fit, but it doesn’t always feel right to Lestat.

In The Vampire Lestat/Interview with the Vampire, murmurs of the Great Conversion have existed since the series’ earliest season. But up until The Vampire Lestat, none of our main vampires appear to have given it too much thought. Louis idly discussed the Great Conversion as a disorganized movement, Armand never really brought it up, and Lestat seemed to disdain the thought of it… Or at least he did. Only Talamasca agent Raglan James seemed truly concerned by the proposition. And now, it seems like that concern has merit. Because we finally have a vampire who is interested in the Great Conversion, and she’s a dangerous one. The Vampire Lestat‘s Gabriella has been bringing up the Great Conversion every chance she gets this season. And in episode four of The Vampire Lestat, Gabriella finally makes a play to convince Lestat to really fuel the vampiric movement. She wants him to offer communion to the lost vampires out there. But where will this desire for the Great Conversion lead Gabriella, Lestat, Louis, and the rest of the vampires out there? Here’s what Jennifer Ehle and Sam Reid had to say about it.

AMC

Jennifer Ehle reveals that the Great Conversion was always on Gabriella’s mind in The Vampire Lestat. “I think in this season, when she comes for Lestat this time, from the end of episode one, when he’s called her, and she arrives, I think she definitely has an agenda.” Ehle shares of Gabriella from the very beginning. “She wants to realize what she has wanted for a couple of hundred years, which is to sort of flip the power on earth and erase all morality and mortality, really.”

And we see, as Ehle suggests, that indeed Gabriella’s hunger for “the devils to rule” stretches all the way back to her time alive in the 1800s. But at that time, Lestat seems to feel her vision of a decimated world is just an idle fantasy, a whimsy of where their lives may go. But Gabriella, instead, abandons him for many years after expressing her wish.

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Now, though, things are different. Gabriella comes to Lestat at the end of The Vampire Lestat episode four, just when he’s ready to give up on his band and music, and suggests, “You’ve been hearing them. You’ve been reaching them. They are lost, and angry, and tired of enduring. Your music speaks to them. They long for communion.” Clearly, she’s not ready for Lestat to stop consolidating the vampiric collective with his songs. And Lestat appears to bend to her cajoling, returning to make more music that speaks directly to the vampire soul at the end of the episode.

But, as Sam Reid shares, “Sometimes the suit that Gabriella puts in him in does… He sort of outgrows and doesn’t really fit anymore, and Lestat keeps returning to it, because that is, unfortunately, a very safe space for him, because he’s looking for that maternal acceptance and love. So, actually, the actor, the rockstar, the Brat Prince, the leader, all of these things, that is the kind of vicarious life that Gabriella’s built for him, so she can kind of use that as a conduit to experience it himself.”

And Jennifer Ehle agrees with this assessment: that, largely, Gabriella is thinking first of herself and is keenly aware that her hold on Lestat is not as absolute as she hopes it could be. She notes, “She wants to use him very much. She needs him very much to realize her dream of vampires living in the light.” But that could all fall apart if someone who sees Lestat better than she can, namely, Louis, interjects.

About Louis and Lestat’s relationship, Ehle notes, “I think she’s threatened by it. She’s threatened by it as somebody who loves him and who wants to be the primary relationship in his life, wants to be the most important person to him in any room, but there is somebody else. And Louis having Lestat’s ears can really just sap her power.”

For now, Lestat and Louis aren’t speaking on The Vampire Lestat, and Gabriella is back in control of Lestat, aiming him toward the Great Conversion. But will she succeed? And what are the ultimate consequences if she does? We’ll have to wait and see.

The Vampire Lestat airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and 12am PT on AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.

Rotem Rusak is Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She is in awe of the beautiful season of TV that is The Vampire Lestat.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post Jennifer Ehle and Sam Reid on Gabriella, Lestat, and The Great Conversion in THE VAMPIRE LESTAT appeared first on Nerdist.

Stealthy startup Arcturus uses lasers to infuse carbon nanomaterials into copper, dramatically improving its ability to conduct electricity.

Users will be able use AI to create newsletters based on their recordings.

Engineers on the new team will embed within companies to deploy purpose-built agents, focusing on fast deployments and customer self-sufficiency.

⚡ Quick Take

• Stranger Things: The Complete Scripts, Season 5 is the perfect addition to your collection that will help you relive the final season.
• This book has a forward by the Duffer Brothers that reveals how they came to the show’s conclusion.
• It will release on July 14, but pre-orders are available now.

Stranger Things 5 gave fans a bittersweet ending to a series that captured hearts a decade prior. We literally watched this ensemble of kids grow up on our television screen as they told a powerful story about friendship, love, and heroism. It was indeed like watching a D&D campaign unfold each season. Of course, there are many quotes and epic moments that the Duffer Brothers gave to us, and now you can read through every line and scene with Stranger Things: The Complete Scripts, Season 5. 

Random House Worlds/Netflix

This book is the latest and final one in the collection of complete scripts from Random House Worlds for this beloved Netflix series. The blue bracelet on its purple cover is significant as the one that Hopper’s daughter Sara once wore that he passed down to Eleven. It’s a representation of their unbreakable bond and love, which became such a foundation of the series. We don’t know if Eleven is truly alive or not but if she is, we are sure that she keeps this with her to remind her of the found family and friends that she made in Hawkins. 

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Stranger Things: The Complete Scripts, Season 5 gives fans a deep behind-the-scenes look at every episode as well as a foreword from the Duffer Brothers. The duo talk about how they knew that the story would end with one last D&D game before Mike and his friends closed the chapter on their childhood. And, while they didn’t foresee Holly’s major role in season five, they did know that she would pick up the D&D mantle with her new friends. Will we get more stories about them in some fashion? Maybe. We’d love to see Delightful Derek again. But, even if we don’t, we can read through that emotional scene as much as we want to with this script book. It’s the perfect addition to a collection, indeed. 

Random House Worlds

Stranger Things: The Complete Scripts, Season 5 arrives on July 14, but you can order your copy right now.

The post STRANGER THINGS: THE COMPLETE SCRIPTS, SEASON 5 Book Is a Collector’s Dream appeared first on Nerdist.