Your weekly roundup of everything nerdy
While Kevin Feige offered details on the future of the MCU and DC dropped a first look at the Joker sequel featuring Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn, the social media world was in a bit of a tizzy. Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that Facebook and Instagram users will now be able to buy verification much like Twitter Blue. Speaking of Twitter, are you wondering why Elon Musk’s tweets keep popping up on your “For You” feed? That’s not an accident.
Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, the latest Tesla recall, Meta’s new subscription service, and Elon Musk telling Twitter engineers to boost his tweets. Here’s what you may have missed this week in geek.
Meta will now let you be verified on Facebook and Instagram by buying a subscription
Because it worked so well for Elon over at Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg has decided to also sell verification checkmarks over on Facebook and Instagram. The CEO unveiled the decision on February 19 saying that the subscription will provide “proactive account protection, access to account support, and increased visibility and reach.” It’s a surprising decision considering Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue subscription service kicked off disastrously with many accounts buying verification just to pose as companies and tweet racist things.
Our first look at Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel
Folie à Deux 🃏 pic.twitter.com/gEwSgsvpbP
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 15, 2023
Whether you like it or not, Lady Gaga will be playing Harley Quinn in Todd Phillips’ follow-up to Joker. We finally got our first glimpse of her in the role including Joaquin Phoenix returning as Arthur Fleck/Joker. Lady Gaga has received critical acclaim for her acting in recent years. Her role in A Star is Born nabbed her an Oscar nomination while her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci got her a Golden Globe nomination. Here’s hoping her version of Harley is as well-received.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gives updates on MCU projects
Kevin Feige has revealed that Marvel writers are “putting pen to paper” on the fourth Spider-Man film. He also confirmed that the next Deadpool movie, which will see the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, will be the MCU’s first R-rated film. Meanwhile, Blade, which had somewhat of a rough start, will start filming this year according to Feige.
Emma Corrin has been cast as the villain for Deadpool 3
Speaking of Deadpool 3, Marvel revealed another major casting announcement for the film. Emma Corrin, who famously played Diana in the fourth season of The Crown, has hopped on board and will play the film’s villain. Who that villain is remains to be seen, but it will be a treat to watch them play alongside Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen have “plans” that involve the MCU
Fans were more than pleased to see Sir Patrick Stewart reprise his role as Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. With Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine, people are also wondering whether he’ll back in the wheelchair for Deadpool 3. His only response was that he was “told to standby”. He was also asked about whether his good friend Sir Ian McKellen, who played Magneto opposite him, would ever return to the role in the MCU. After revealing that McKellen said he would have done a cameo as well, Stewart said, “ “But we’re not done, Sir Ian and myself. We’re… we got plans.”
Elon Musk asked Twitter engineers to boost his tweets because he wasn’t getting enough attention
Platformer and New York Magazine published reports on how Elon Musk ordered Twitter engineers to rework the algorithm so that his tweets would get more impressions. After Joe Biden’s tweet regarding the Superbowl got more impressions than the Twitter CEO’s tweet (which he has since deleted), Musk put his engineers to work. “
After Musk threatened to fire his remaining engineers, they built a system designed to ensure that Musk—and Musk alone—benefits from previously unheard-of promotion of his tweets to the entire user base,” reports Platformer. “Musk is now the only recipient of what is known internally as a ‘power user multiplier,’ which means his tweets are boosted by a factor of 1,000,” read New York Magazine’s article.
Tesla is recalling cars with its “full self-driving” system
Over at Elon’s other company, Tesla has announced that it will be recalling 362,000 cars with the “full self-driving system”. This comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. said that the cars cause “an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety based on insufficient adherence to traffic safety laws.” The New York Times said that despite the name, “neither system [referring to their other auto-drive system, Autopilot] can drive cars on its own, and Tesla tells owners of its cars to be prepared to take control at any moment while using its driver-assistance technology”. Tesla has issued 20 recalls since January 2022 according to PBS.
Eric E. Surbano
Eric can be found lost in his own world jamming with headphones on while writing when he’s not prepping for a DnD session or researching ‘Star Wars’ galactic history on Wookiepedia. A proud Ravenclaw, he loves playing (and writing about) video games, humming the ‘Doctor Who’ theme under his breath, and rewatching ‘Friends’, ‘New Girl’, and ‘The West Wing’.
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