Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi asked Natalie Portman if she’s ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie… forgetting that she was already in three of them.

During an interview with Rolling Stone, the 46-year-old filmmaker revealed the awkward moment when he asked Natalie Portman if she wanted to join the series, as he works on his own Star Wars film.

“Natalie said to me, ‘What do you do next?’” he explained. “And I said ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies.’ I forgot about those ones. [Laughs]”

Waititi own Star Wars film is a project shrouded in secrecy. There’s been almost nothing revealed about the film since it was originally announced in 2020, and the filmmaker himself still doesn’t know if it’s going to be made.

“I’m trying to write the ‘Star Wars’ idea at the moment,” he said. “I’ve got to see how that goes, because once I submit it, that might determine when it gets made or if it gets made, even.”

It’s said that the currently untitled Star Wars film will match Waititi’s signature style – a good sign for fans of his previous work such as What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. But as for any concrete details, those are yet to come.

Although the film is expected to appear in theaters sometime in 2023, even that isn’t certain. “Yeah. Well, not 2023, but late 2023,” said Lucasfilm boss, Kathleen Kennedy. “We haven't locked anything in.”

Still, it sounds as though he’s already eyeing up talent for the film, and with Natalie Portman a potential candidate, you have to wonder whether Waititi’s Star Wars will feature a strong female lead like Rogue One. But honestly, that’s little more than speculation at this point.

Either way, it sounds as though Portman herself won’t be appearing in the film – unless of course, they can figure out a way to write Princess Amidala into the movie. I just wouldn’t bank on it.

Find out more about Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie and how it ties into the galaxy far, far away, as well as his appearance voicing a familiar droid in The Mandalorian.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Thumbnail credit: Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty

Not everyone loves Avatar, and it looks as though detractors have been quite vocal, but director James Cameron isn’t really that bothered ahead of the upcoming release of its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.

During an interview with Empire Magazine, the 67-year-old filmmaker said he thinks opinions change when people rewatch the original:

“The trolls will have it that nobody gives a shit and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie,” he said. “Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh, okay, excuse me, let me just shut the f**k up right now.’ So, I’m not worried about that.”

Avatar was originally released in 2009 to huge commercial and critical success. The film made a staggering $2.84 billion at the worldwide box office, making it the highest-grossing film of all time.

It’s also an incredibly long film, clocking in at 2 hours 42 minutes… and the sequel might even surpass that. But Cameron says that audiences have to get over long runtimes. And it’s okay to use the bathroom.

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” he said. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a f**king break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”

Cameron revealed that Avatar 2 is “currently coming in at around three hours.”

IGN’s own review called Avatar “a landmark in motion picture history, a film that will be remembered 70 years from now as redefining the boundaries and possibilities of cinema much the way that D.W. Griffith's films did. It helps audiences take a giant step forward in their suspension of disbelief in what is ‘real’ onscreen while raising the bar for what mass appeal genre movies can be and achieve.”

Find out more about the upcoming Avatar sequels with a who’s who of the Na’vi tribe, as well as our first glimpse of the long-awaited sequel.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Update 07/06/2022: Microsoft has released a statement to IGN saying it will fully cooperate with the UK government's Competition and Markets Authority and welcomes the scrutiny.

"We will fully cooperate with the CMA’s merger review. We expect and think it’s appropriate for regulators to take a close look at this acquisition," said Lisa Tanzi, corporate vice president and general counsel. "We have been clear about how we plan to run our gaming business and why we believe the deal will benefit gamers, developers, and the industry.

"We’re committed to answering questions from regulators and ultimately believe a thorough review will help the deal close with broad confidence, and that it will be positive for competition. We remain confident the deal will close in fiscal year 2023 as initially anticipated."

Original Story: The UK government is launching an investigation into Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The Competition and Markets Authority – which is responsible for ensuring fair competition between businesses in the UK – and ultimately that consumers are not exploited through means such as monopolisation – has opened an enquiry with an initial decision due on September 1.

As reported by CNBC, the investigation will "consider whether the deal could harm competition and lead to worse outcomes for consumers – for example, through higher prices, lower quality, or reduced choice." The Authority will spend the next two weeks collecting information and perspectives from involved parties.

While there have several complaints made because of the deal already (including by U.S. senators, the city of New York, and the U.S. Justice Department), a UK government watchdog launching an investigation into the $68.7 billion deal is a pretty significant move.

The decision in September will either determine that there's no issue, or will proceed into a more serious and in-depth phase two probe.

Microsoft's deal to purchase the Call of Duty publisher was made in January but it will likely be early 2023 before it officially goes through. Stockholders of Activision Blizzard approved the acquisition in April but there is still scepticism regarding the likelihood of it actually happening, heightened perhaps today by this UK government enquiry.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

A streamer has leaked that She-Hulk is officially coming to Marvel's Avengers – while live on Xbox's Twitch channel with a Crystal Dynamics developer.

TechniqTV was guest streaming on the channel with Avengers' lead designer Brian Waggoner for less than an hour before he let slip that She-Hulk was coming to the game, with the clip later being shared by Miller on Twitter (below).

Despite there being no official word the character was coming to Avengers, Techniq asked if fans wanted a fun fact about She-Hulk. "I don't know if I can say this. I think it was public knowledge," he said. "I'll just say this. I don't like the face that Brian is making."

He went on to explain that his own acting coach is the voice of She-Hulk, though Techniq caught on neglected to mention the actresses name in case it wasn't public.

Whoops! This happened on the official Xbox Twitch channel today. pic.twitter.com/yDPqb0kKW0

— Miller (@mmmmmmmmiller) July 5, 2022

"Nope. No. We have never announced She-Hulk," Waggoner clarified as the stream grew painfully awkward. The full conversation can still be seen on Xbox's channel (at around 52 minutes) where Techniq grew sheepish and claimed he doesn't know if it's true or not. "We're working on our next hero," Waggoner added. "We haven't said who it's going to be yet."

Jane Foster became playable in Avengers last week – just in time for her reappearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor: Love and Thunder – so the timing would line up for She-Hulk to appear in the game close to her MCU debut on August 17.

We'll have to wait for official word from Crystal Dynamics to learn when (and officially if) She-Hulk is arriving in the game, but it would certainly make sense to see her next month.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has seen a new sneak peek, showing off many of its characters, locations, and even a glimpse at the show's Ents.

At time of writing, the teaser is currently available only on the Prime Video service itself. It begins by showing off Middle-earth's landscapes, before we see Lenny Henry's Sadoc Burrows announce, "The skies are strange." What follows is a montage of the show's characters watching a comet on its way down through the atmosphere.

Perhaps most notably for fans, we see our first glimpse at Ents, Middle-earth's beloved race of tree people (you can see them in the first image of the slideshow below). As pointed out on Reddit, the shot in question actually previously appeared in the show's Super Bowl teaser, but the Ents have since been added to it.

This sneak peek is in fact a trailer for a trailer – we'll be getting a new teaser for the show on July 14. Whether it will build on this minute-long peek, or offer a totally different approach is unknown right now. That teaser will be followed by a first look at the show as part of its appearance at San Diego Comic-Con.

This sneak peek follows IGN's exclusive reveal of the show's Orcs, who will be shown as a race taken almost to the point of extinction and scattered across the lands.

We're slowly learning more about the Lord of the Rings prequel ahead of its September 2 release. In development since 2017, The Rings of Power will focus on the Second Age, and it's shaping up to be one of the most expensive shows ever made, with just one season reportedly costing $465 million.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].