Latest Sci-Fi News: Vladimir Putin is smirking at Tom Cruise over this cinematic achievement as MCU fans prepare for the franchise’s first F-bomb

via Tom Cruise/Twitter

Vladimir Putin’s fragile ego extends beyond his warmongering ways apparently, as he recently made sure to remind us the new Russian sci-fi thriller, The Challenge, is the first movie to shoot in deep space, beating Tom Cruise — who has long wished to surmount this challenge — to the punch.

In other news, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been confirmed to feature the MCU’s first F-bomb drop in a scene involving Star-Lord and Nebula, so fans now have one more reason to be stoked about this final outing.

Speaking of the acclaimed filmmaker, it has been reported that Warner Bros. is trying to shift the blame of Shazam! 2’s abysmal box office performance to Gunn’s DCU takeover, proving once and for all that Warner execs really have no clue as to how this medium works, or what fans really want from it.

Lastly, we meander through the galaxy far, far away fandom to see what folks are talking about following The Mandalorian finale, and it seems the show has left most of them with a burning question that has nothing to do with the plot or its ramifications. Check out all of these beats in today’s sci-fi roundup down below.

Warner Bros. is trying to blame James Gunn for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, as if the director could change anything about a movie he had no hand in making

Shazam! Fury of the Gods bombed for a number of different reasons, but according to a new report by TheWrap, Warner Bros. is adamant to lay the blame at James Gunn’s door for announcing the DCU reboot at an inconvenient time. The execs make it seem like Zachary Levi’s controversial comments, the movie’s own sense of overwhelming mediocrity, and even the company’s lackluster marketing campaign had nothing to do with its utter failure at capturing people’s attention, proving once and for all that they don’t really understand genre filmmaking.

James Gunn gets a lot of flak these days for glossing over the SnyderVerse and essentially dismantling any plans for its potential resurrection, but perhaps Warner Bros. doesn’t deserve to have either Gunn or Snyder at the helm with all their wonted meddling. Gunn assures us that he has absolute creative control over the DCU reboot, but how long will that be the case until the shareholders and other top execs decide to butt in again?

The Mandalorian fans have a burning question following the season 3 finale

After refusing to rejoin the Jedi Order and returning to Din Djarin, Baby Yoda has now embarked on another journey as a Mandalorian apprentice. There are certainly a lot of implications about a Force-user, and one as powerful as Grogu, joining the Mandalorian creed, but many fans are inclined to ask the really important questions. Like, how will Grogu’s huge ears fit into a Mandalorian helmet? And if it does, how is it going to look? Are his ears going to obtrude from the helmet or simply bend inside it at an odd angle? We need answers, Lucasfilm, and we need them now!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will drop the MCU’s first F-bomb, and fans are pretty worked up about it

The third and final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy has the distinct honor of featuring the MCU’s first F-bomb. After more than 30 films, that’s a monumental achievement, so of course it was going to happen under James Gunn’s watch. Now, we do have a clip showing Star-Lord (because who else would it be?) casually swearing the forbidden word in a conversation with Nebula, but fans can’t wait to actually see it in the movie with more context, where it’ll no doubt be infinitely more hilarious.

Vladimir Putin celebrates beating Tom Cruise in this very crucial respect

Tom Cruise is a living legend in cinematic stunts, always attempting the impossible to make his ventures as realistic as humanly possible. He has also expressed serious interest in shooting a movie in space, and plans to accomplish this in the near future. But unfortunately, his project won’t go down in history as the first to have done this, with the new Russian sci-fi movie The Challenge taking that prize home.

Even Vladimir Putin can’t help but smugly celebrate this achievement. “We are the first to have shot a feature film in orbit, aboard a spacecraft. Once again, the first,” He said in a statement following The Challenge’s release, ensuring the world that he can actually commemorate something besides committing war crimes on a weekly basis.