News Pluribus So You’ve Watched Pluribus Episode 1 and Have Some Questions Reactor has got you. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 7, 2025 Credit: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Apple TV Warning! This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Apple TV’s Pluribus! You are doing yourselves a disservice if you read more without watching. Go watch a great show and then come back here for more. Apple TV didn’t reveal much in the lead-up to the premiere of Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus. One of the trailers did hint that something… not great would happen to the world, especially from the point of view of Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn. And much like Carol, you might be asking what she asks at the end of the trailer linked above: What the fuck is going on? The talk Carol has with the Secretary of Agriculture (or whatever) on C-SPAN at the end of the first episode explains a lot (and also evokes a similar scene from Jurassic Park), but there are likely more than a few moments you may still be wondering about. Here’s our take on some questions you may have after watching episode one. Credit: Apple TV So, what the fuck happened to everyone? As C-SPAN guy explained, the lab researchers fabricated the RNA sequence that was being transmitted in space. They infected rats with the sequence, a rat bit a person, and then the doughnut-licking ensued. The virus (or whatever) didn’t just take control of a person — it erased a person’s sense of individuality and connected every member of humanity into a hive mind that wants all living things, including Carol, to be happy. That hive mind also houses every person’s memories, skills, and experience, meaning, for example, that a TGI Friday’s server can fly a plane, no problem. It’s also why they all knew Carol’s name right after the turning. How did everyone suddenly turn so quickly? Remember those infected licking all those swabs for those petri dishes? And remember those planes flying overhead in a row as Carol and Helen talked outside the bar? Those planes were crop-dusting humanity — apparently it doesn’t take much alien virus to turn someone — leaving Carol as the only uninfected in the U.S. How did Helen die? Helen, Carol’s partner, was infected like everyone else. It’s clear though that many people didn’t survive the transition — if you were on the freeway, for example, when you got crop-dusted, odds are good that you’d died when your car crashed. Helen fell down and smacked her head pretty hard on the pavement when she was turning, so the head trauma likely caused her death (though perhaps some people just don’t survive the infection, full stop). What’s Carol gonna do now? We’ll have to watch and see! One thing that’s clear is that she’s far from safe: the infected want her to join them, after all. All they want is for Carol to be happy! “Come join us, Carol!” they think. “Why wouldn’t you want to join us? We’re living the dream!” In the meantime, however, they’ll do anything and everything they can to make Carol happy. How that plays out, I’d venture to say, will be a major consideration of the season. [end-mark] The post So You’ve Watched <i>Pluribus</i> Episode 1 and Have Some Questions appeared first on Reactor.

News Mass Effect Amazon’s Mass Effect Adaptation Will Tell a New Story Set After the Original Trilogy Mass Effect will follow in the footsteps of Amazon’s Fallout adaptation by creating some distance from the games. By Molly Templeton | Published on November 7, 2025 Credit: BioWare Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: BioWare A year ago, Amazon MGM Studios announced yet another video game adaptation: Mass Effect. The popular games series follows a soldier in the 22nd century who battles aliens and machines; the game lends itself to articles like Polygon‘s “To all the Krogans I’ve killed before.” It is one of those alarming games where your choices determine the story. As an anxious person, I have not played it, but I am quite intrigued that some very brilliant writers have penned novels set in its universe. A few months ago, Amazon MGM Studios announced the adaptation would have as showrunner Doug Jung, known for writing Star Trek Beyond and The Cloverfield Paradox; he joined previously announced writer Daniel Casey, one of the people responsible for sending Dominic Toretto’s friends to space in F9: The Fast Saga. But nothing has been said about the series’ plot, timeframe, story, or … any details, really. Today, for N7 Day (a fan celebration named for protagonist Commander Shepard’s military rank), Mass Effect executive producer Mike Gamble announced a key detail on the BioWare blog: The writers room is going strong, and we’ve got a lot figured out about how it fits within the Mass Effect canon, and where it sits in respect to the new game. The show will explore a brand-new story within the universe’s timeline, and will be set after the original trilogy. It won’t be a retread of Commander Shepard’s story – because after all … that’s YOUR story, isn’t it? This is a smart choice for an adaptation of a game series that relies on player choices; there’s no way to retell the games’ story without rejecting some of those choices. But stretching off into the future (as they did for the fourth game, Mass Effect: Andromeda) allows the writers and showrunner to work in the same sandbox without stepping on too many toes. (Some toes always get stepped on where adaptations are concerned.) According to IGN, “Back in August, Amazon was spotted as having listed a Q4 2026 production date for the series—meaning that it is still a year away from shooting.” So it’ll likely be a minute before many more details are revealed.[end-mark] The post Amazon’s <i>Mass Effect</i> Adaptation Will Tell a New Story Set After the Original Trilogy appeared first on Reactor.

News Sigourney Weaver Sigourney Weaver Reflects on What Made Ripley Work as a Sci-Fi Action Hero The legendary actress also draws an interesting comparison between Ripley and her Mandalorian and Grogu character. By Molly Templeton | Published on November 7, 2025 Screenshot: Lucasfilm Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Lucasfilm Sigourney Weaver is a treasure, full stop. The iconic roles she’s played—from Ellen Ripley in Alien to Gwen DeMarco in Galaxy Quest and well beyond—have made her a science fiction legend. She’s practically invisible in her latest franchise role, as teen Kiri in the Avatar films, which reunite her with her Aliens director James Cameron. But Weaver herself is all over the place lately: appearing at New York Comic Con; being interviewed for anything and everything related to Alien and its various related projects; and, soon, making her way to a galaxy far, far away in The Mandalorian and Grogu. In a new interview with Empire, Weaver spoke at length about the process of making Avatar: Fire and Ash, but also about the enduring appeal of Ripley as a character—which Weaver partly chalks up to her vulnerability and self-doubt. “I don’t think she ever has that certainty,” she says, relating a conversation she had with Alien co-star Ian Holm. “It’s complete improvisation from beginning to end. She never feels like she’s doing the right thing, or that there is a right thing, or a great path to some logical ending. It’s all chaos. It’s overwhelming, and all you can do is put one foot in front of another.” Weaver approached the movie like it was theater work, which is where she was comfortable: “I tried not to think about the responsibility and pretended I was doing a play. I had a lot of confidence in a certain kind of theatre, and so just thought, ‘Oh, this is such a strange movie. It’s the Off-Off Broadway of movies.’” She also notes that Alien writers Walter Hill and Dan O’Bannon wrote Ripley “like a guy,” saying, “And I think that’s the secret to writing any character — you write the individual, and all these cultural requirements of what a woman should be sort of go.” Intriguingly, this seems to be the case with her Mandalorian and Grogu character too. “I think Jon Favreau thought, ‘Okay, we want this very strong character. Let’s make it a woman,'” Weaver says. “I’m not sure it was supposed to be a woman. I think again, these days, they often think, ‘What do I need to do to make this seem more timely?’, and now, because women are doing everything, hooray for us. [But] I just fell in love with the script and said, ‘I don’t know anything about this world.’ Jon said, ‘Well, you can watch the series,’ and I said, ‘Oh, there’s a series?!’” The cultural juggernaut of The Mandalorian only reaches so far, it turns out.[end-mark] The post Sigourney Weaver Reflects on What Made Ripley Work as a Sci-Fi Action Hero appeared first on Reactor.

Books reading recommendations Five SFF Stories About the Power of Fire Sometimes destructive, sometimes giving warmth and light, always a bit magical. By Ratika Deshpande | Published on November 7, 2025 Photo by Jamie Street [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Jamie Street [via Unsplash] I am fascinated by all the different ways that we can perceive, interpret, and understand fire. For historians, it’s a tool that changed humankind. For the arsonist, it’s a weapon. For the cold, it’s life-giving warmth. For the lost or stranded, it’s hope. And for the writer of speculative fiction, it’s an element that can come alive, literally, figuratively, and/or spiritually to bind and to protect, or to curse and to kill, as in the following stories: “The Fires of Mercy” by Spencer Ellsworth The assassin, a mind-eater, and her men had gone to the palace to kill everyone living there, as revenge for the emperor’s lack of belief in the Thirteenth Prophet. She spared one woman, however, along with her child—the heir, still only a baby—and escaped with them into the desert. She carries with her a pendant, a forbidden weapon that could end the world with fire. A weapon that wasn’t made to be used—unless her men have been stripped of those secrets of her Order which must never be known to anyone. She knows her men will follow her, to finish their job. And so as they run out of food and water and strength, she decides it’s better that the mother and the child die by her hand, for “each act of war must have at its heart an act of mercy.” But what is mercy, exactly? And how does our interpretation of it affect the consequences? A vivid story that keeps you tense throughout. “Our Fire, Given Freely” by Seth Dickinson Rider Bray was made “şövalye, first of all the Horse People” by the Queen. The people of her retinue give their fire—their strength—to her every morning so she has the power she needs to fight the war against the King of Emmer Wheat for her Queen, who also receives the tribute of fire from all her subjects.  Meanwhile, all over the land, the people starve and fall sick, devoid of their fire. But Rider Bray has been given her role by the Queen and it is the war she must care about, above all else. Still, she can’t ignore that reality anymore once she meets Marantic Lind, who has somehow managed to convince the Walkers and the Horse People to work together. He thinks he can help the Queen end the war—and do much, much more—but as a şövalye, Rider is resistant. There’s a reason the fire is given to the şövalye. What would become of those like her, if she were to listen to Marantic Lind—and if, despite her reservations, he turned out to have a better approach? “Fireskin” by Joanne Rixon One day the warrior Aun-ki wakes up to find that her skin has become hot as fire—anything that touches it burns and leaves behind blisters. Even the lightest fabrics on her skin hurt; the water she bathes in turns to steam. Court magicians and healers and alchemists fail to help her, and as she hides away from the world, people start to speculate what could have cursed her and what could treat it.  To seek a cure, she takes leave of her king, whom she’d served loyally in battle, most notably by defeating the Great Winged Lion Chiar-shu. She travels to icy lakes and holy places, but the fire remains. As she attempts yet another journey to seek a cure, she comes across a village where things are very, very wrong. She’d been on a quest to help herself, but Aun-ki the warrior may yet have a lot of work to do. An engrossing tale that had me rooting for Aun-ki, sharing her frustrations, and finding myself heartbroken at the bittersweet ending. A wonderful story! “After the Fire” by Aliette de Bodard Jiaotan finds herself woken up from hibernation by the ship’s Mind; there are repairs to be done. But that’s the job of Sukuang, her sister and an engineer. Why didn’t the ship wake her up instead?  As Jiaotan makes her way to the navigation room, she discovers that Sukuang is already up—but she’s not fixing the ship. She’s considering suicide, haunted by the destruction they all brought upon earth before they left, for the human-made White Fire that killed the planet and everyone on it, except those who left on the ship.  Jiaotan, only a poet, knows that seeking death is not an answer, despite her grief—which she’s aware of, now that she’s awake and conscious. But then, what is the answer that they’re headed towards? And would it really help? The Fire left its mark on everyone, after all… “Daughter, Mother, Charcoal” by Akis Linardos The fire in the hearth keeps the people safe from faerie who lure women and girls with their song. Only the men are immune, and so only they can go out to work and put food on the table. The women and girls must never leave their house. They must tend to the fire by giving it life from their own body.  At present, the narrator’s mother performs this task. Next, it would be our narrator’s turn. She has to accept her role, but there’s only so long one can spend trapped inside four walls. So one night, our narrator takes a candle, steals the fire from the hearth and steps outside, to see what’s so dangerous about the faerie. The answers are both exciting and disappointing. So she continues sneaking out. But then the fire starts to weaken. Is she responsible? And what would happen if she has to forget everything she wants and take up the responsibility of keeping the fire ablaze, to keep them all “safe”?[end-mark] The post Five SFF Stories About the Power of Fire appeared first on Reactor.

News Predator: Badlands Predator: Badlands‘ Director Explains Why He Decided Not to Put Amber Midthunder in the Movie Don’t worry, there’s a plan for Naru. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on November 6, 2025 Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Dan Trachtenberg’s latest movie, Predator: Badlands sees a young Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) as the protagonist on a planet where everything wants to kill him. His companion is the top half of an android named Thia (Elle Fanning), whose maker is a direct reference to the Alien franchise. And while the trailers show some other humanoid folks, it appears that Trachtenberg’s previous statement that Badlands takes place in the future and there are no humans in the movie seems essentially true. That hasn’t stopped speculation, however, that Prey star Amber Midthunder, who played Naru in that film, may appear in Badlands. This speculation is supported by the fact we see Naru in stasis in Trachtenberg’s other Predator film this year, the animated Killer of Killers, but in a recent interview with Dexerto, Trachtenberg confirms that Midthunder is not in Badlands, but that he has plans for the character. “There’s a bigger plan down the line,” the writer-director said. “I did think about the pairing, before it was Thia, but then I thought, ‘Well, now then, I’m not doing the premise.’ And I really wanted to do the premise, that Predator’s the protagonist and [there’s] no humans in the movie. And so it became… further down the line that we can do some cool things, maybe.” It seems extremely likely that we won’t see Midthunder in Predator: Badlands when it premieres in theaters on November 7, 2025. It does sound, however, like the odds are good we’ll see her as Naru again sometime in the future. [end-mark] The post <i>Predator: Badlands</i>‘ Director Explains Why He Decided Not to Put Amber Midthunder in the Movie appeared first on Reactor.