Spoilers ahead for Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a very interesting place at the moment. The release of Avengers: Infinity War saw a ton of major character deaths, and fans are left wondering if any of their favorite fallen heroes might return to the world of the living in Avengers 4. The Surprise appearance of long lost character Red Skull certainly made it seem like just about any character could pop back up, but we now know one villain who is dead for good: Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaue. The one armedcharacter got the chop in Black Panther, and now the movie's executive producer Nate Moore has opened up about that choice. Spoiler alert: he's actually dead. [The decision] was made pretty early on because we knew ultimately that more than Ulysses Klaw, Killmonger was the main villain of the film. And he's actually dead. He's dead, dead. Which I think, honestly, was part of the sell for Andy in going, 'Oh, I get to play this character that gets to sort of shine very brightly and burn out quickly. Well, that's kind of fun.' And we only like to tell as much story as we have for a character and I'm not sure how much other story we would have for Klaw, but we were still lucky to have Andy involved. It looks like plenty of Marvel fans have asked about Klaw since his appearance in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, hoping in vein that the side villain might pop back up in a potential sequel. Ultimately it looks like he's dead for good, which is probably the right call by the studio. After all, stakes are important. Nate Moore's comments to Comic Book seems to put the fate of Klaw to rest. Although, he did seem thoroughly dead when his role wrapped in Black Panther. While Andy Serkis' character was T'Challa's original villain, the film ultimately needed to shift focus over to Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger. So the character got to kick some ass and steal some scenes, before being promptly shot in the head by Killmonger himself. While Ulysses Klaue's death seemed cut and dry, the events of Avengers: Infinity War put a lot into question. Red Skull's return caught everyone by surprise, and made it seem like dead characters could rise at any time. Furthermore, the fans are expecting at least some of the characters who perished during Thanos' finger snap to return, so more resurrections are definitely on the table. It just won't be Andy Serkis' villain, despite his wild performances in both Black Panther and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Black Panther is available now for home purchase, and Avengers: Infinity War is currently in theaters. Check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Rather than try to pack the tome that is Stephen King's IT into a single 120-150 minute-long movie, Warner Bros made the wise decision to split its adaptation of the 1986 novel into two movies. Last year's IT chronicled The Losers' Club first encounters with the eponymous entity when they were children, and next year, we'll see the protagonists return to Derry, Main as adults to confront Pennywise one last time in IT: Chapter 2. Over the last few months the sequel's cast has started coming together, and today Sinister actor James Ransone revealed that he's been brought on to play the adult version of Eddie Kaspbrak. Played by Shazam!'s Jack Dylan Grazer in IT, Eddie Kaspbrak was the hypochondriac of The Losers Club, although he later learned that rather than being truly sickly, his mother was the source of his "condition," as she believed that the only way she could properly protect him was to convince him he was ill. In the ITnovel, the grown-up Eddie ran a successful limousine business and married a woman named Myra (who was very similar to his mother), though it remains to be seen how much of Eddie's adult life from the source material will be kept intact for IT: Chapter 2. Regardless, looking at Grazer and James Ransone side-by-side below, the latter is an excellent choice to play the adult version of the former, so it was good to hear directly from the actor (via Comicbook.com) that he'll be taking part in the sequel. James Ransone's arguably best known for his role as Deputy So-and-So in the Sinister movies, while his other notable credits include The Wire, Generation Kill, Treme and Low Winter Son. The man has a deep background in the horror realm, so joining IT: Chapter 2 will be a good fit for him. Along with Ransone, so far only Bill Skarsgard and Jessica Chastain are confirmed to appear in IT: Chapter 2 as Pennywise and Beverly Marsh, respectively, although it was reported last month that Bill Hader and James McAvoy were in talks to join as Richie Tozier and Bill Denbrough, respectively. Assuming Hader and McAvoy are now part of the lineup, that leaves the adult versions of Ben Hanscom, Mike Hanlon and Stan Uris left to be cast. The adolescent actors from IT are also expected to briefly return for the sequel via flashbacks. Andy Muschietti is once again directing, and Gary Dauberman is working on the script with Jeffrey Jorgensen. IT: Chapter 2 will be released in theaters on September 6, 2019, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the sequel's development. If you're interested in learning what movies are coming out this year, you can look through our 2018 release schedule.

In the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the origin story reigned supreme. Alas, times have changed, and the format of these movies has changed with it. That's something that audiences will see with the release of Captain Marvelnext year, as Marvel producer Nate Moore recently opened up to CinemaBlend while talking about Black Panther's home release and explained that Carol Danvers' solo movie will feel very different from a typical origin story. Specifically, he noted that the progression of Carol Danvers' arc will feel different from what we've seen before, and the structure of the story will have a lot to do with that. According to the Marvel producer: I think there is a structure to origin films that audiences sometimes can get ahead of very quickly. So, if we do origin films, internally, we talk about how we can subvert that structure. For instance, Captain Marvel is an origin movie in that you haven't seen her before, but we think we've stumbled upon a structure there that isn't the traditional structure of what origin movies typically are, which is you meet the character, they have a problem, they get powers at the end of the first act, and the end of the second act they learn about the powers, the third act they probably fight a villain who has a function of the same powers. That's a lot of times what a typical origin movie is structured like, but as we introduce new characters moving forward, we want to find ways to subvert that structure, so at least the experience of the film feels new to audiences. We're very conscious of making sure that audiences don't get things that feel like they've seen them before. While Nate Moore wouldn't actually explain the specific differences between Captain Marvel and movies like Iron Man or Doctor Strange, he did offer up some valuable pieces of information about the upcoming origins --but maybe not so usual origins-- film. Captain Marvel won't follow those well-worn origin story beats of the hero discovering his or her powers, learning to use the powers, and then fighting a villain with similar powers. It's still an origin story because it will explore the origins of Captain Marvel in the MCU, but he says it won't be quite as predictable or follow the same notes as other stories like this. From what he told me, it also sounds like the setting will factor into the flavor of the Captain Marvel origin story, as well. Nate Moore continued his conversation with CinemaBlend and explained that the 1990s setting would similarly help make it feel like a unique narrative compared to other Marvel origin stories of a similar ilk. Moore explained: I think the way the film opens is much different than an origin movie, and because she is a heroine that you haven't seen before, we're able to tell this story structurally in a way that will feel unexpected and hopefully will keep audiences off balance. Still balanced enough that they can enjoy the film, but even just making it a period film is sort of interesting in that it's not just a function of the world as we know it in the MCU today. Warning: spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War! Read ahead at your own risk! Of course, it's also worth mentioning the fact that Captain Marvel does have the bonus of Avengers: Infinity War's lone post-credits scene. Nick Fury calls the seasoned hero to action at the end of Infinity War after Thanos unleashes the power of the Infinity Stones, and we see her logo pop up on the screen in the movie's final moments. We don't see the heroine at that moment, but it should help to lay the groundwork for her eventual arrival. End of Infinity War spoilers. We aren't getting into specifics about Captain Marvel's plot beyond basic character information and setting at this point, but the movie is filming right now, and Captain Marvel will official bow for audiences next year on March 8. For now, make sure to catch Avengers: Infinity War in theaters, and pick up your copy of Black Panther on Digital HD, Blu-ray, or DVD today!

Pretty much since Zombieland hit theaters in 2009, there has been talk of a sequel. At various points the movie has gone from seeming like it was mere months awayfrom shooting to looking like it would probably never happen, and up to this point, it hasn't. But like one of the undead that refuses to die, Zombieland 2 persists. Now with Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick's work showing up in this weekend's Deadpool 2, the possibility has once again been raised that the sequel may finally come to fruition in the not-too-distant future. Paul Wernick teased that Zombieland 2 may arrive just in time for the original's 10th anniversary, saying: The hope is that we're shooting that thing early 2019 for an October of '19 release. With the original cast, by the way. That's still over a year away, but we've waited this long, so what's a little bit longer if we finally get more brilliant horror comedy. I don't know why, but it seems like the turnaround time on reboots and long-awaited sequels these days is right around that decade mark. It would be rather fitting to have a new Zombieland arrive during the Halloween month to coincide with the original's 10th anniversary. It is important to note, though, that this is not definitive and is more 'hope' and 'may be' at this point than it is any sort of guarantee. However, the Zombieland writers sound optimistic that at long last, Zombieland 2 will happen. Just don't go counting your Twinkies quite yet. A proper Zombieland 2 is nothing without the cast, and Paul Wernick also offered some positive signs on that front, telling Vulture that the original cast will all be on board when shooting possibly commences next year. Zombieland 2 isn't worth having without Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock and the original actors playing them (as the Amazon series proved), so this is great news for fans. In the time since Zombieland's release, Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg have both scored Academy Award nominations, and Emma Stone has won an Oscar for Best Actress, so Zombieland 2 will have a lot to boast about with this talented cast. There is always the question of how much time is too much time for sequels, especially those in the comedy genre. The Anchorman, Zoolander and Dumb and Dumber sequels attest to this, yet I'm optimistic that Zombieland 2 can be a success. The first film was a hit, earning $102 million at the box office on a $23.6 million budget. We don't get nearly enough R-rated action comedies these days, and I imagine the fandom for Zombieland has only grown over the years. Also, public acceptance of R-rated fare such as Zombieland has only increased in the time since its release, ironically, in part due to Deadpool. With the writers and cast back on board, hopefully Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer, who is directing this fall's Venom, will also return for the sequel to keep the winning formula intact. We'll keep you updated as Zombieland 2 moves closer to becoming a reality. For all the latest movie news and why you should always limber up, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.

One would think that everything is just wonderful when you star in one of the biggest movies ever made, but there is at least one annoying downside to being Chadwick Boseman these days. Black Panther has been so insanely popular, that the actor behind T'Challa admitted on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that everywhere he goes, people ask him to do the "Wakanda Forever" salute. It's gotten so bad, he just assumes that he'll find himself doing it whenever he leaves the house. If I don't want to do it, I have to not leave the house, pretty much. I've been chased in cars. The simple move of crossing your arms over your chest might not seem like much, but apparently, it was what stuck with a lot of people following Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman told Jimmy Kimmel that he's been literally chased by people asking him to do it, which seems to take the obsession from the humorous to the scary. It's totally cool if you meet your favorite actor on the street and want to interact with them, but maybe don't chase them in cars, can we agree on that? On the more hilarious side of things, Boseman compares some of his fan interactions to the scene from Coming to America where Eddie Murphy's prince character gets recognized by one of his citizens while standing in line for the bathroom. While many people are asking Boseman for the Wakanda salute, some are apparently giving it to him, but in some fairly bizarre places. At this point, Chadwick Boseman better not expect the requests to die down anytime soon. He's gone straight from Black Panther to Avengers: Infinity War, a movie with a significant portion that takes place in Wakanda. First Black Pantherset every box office record, now Infinity War comes along behind it and resets most of them. By the time Chadwick Boseman stops being the biggest star in the world, Avengers 4 will be out and this will start all over again. In fact, Black Panther is on Blu-ray and Avengers: Infinity War has been out for weeks and people are still having a field day with Boseman having to do the salute. It's only actually been a few months, so hopefully, Chadwick Boseman is still enjoying the fans who are so excited to see him say "Wakanda Forever." Eventually, it will surely get old and he'll be less enthusiastic about doing it over and over again. Although based on the popularity of the first Black Panther movie, there's a pretty good chance that we'll be seeing a lot more of the character over the next few years, so perhaps he'll be doing this a lot. All we can ask is that you please not chase him in a car. It's not safe for you or the people around you.

Although superhero movies are everywhere, certain franchises rise above the crowd. Ryan Reynolds' antihero Deadpool was certainly a dark horse for a comic book blockbuster, although it ended up making massive amounts of money, despite an R-Rating and smaller budget. One aspect of Deadpool that is unlike any other comic book movie is its marketing, with the Merc with a Mouth appearing in tons of promotional videos and shorts ahead of each movies' release. Deadpool 2 has been delivering the same way, although no one expected for Celine Dion to release a music video with the character. Ryan Reynolds recently opened up about this process, and how he ultimately managed to get the pop icon involved, Of course, the studio piles up a whole bunch of sort of millennial, friendly type singers that are all incredibly talented, but we just thought, 'Let's go right to the legend. Let's see if we can get her.' So we got a way in through her manager. I sent her a long letter describing what Deadpool is and what we're hoping to do, and somehow she got... two hours later or something, she said yes. And then we said, 'How about a video?' and she said yes to that, too! Sometimes all you have to do is ask, and you shall receive. Ryan Reynolds and the team ultimately convinced Celine Dion (via her manager) to get involved in Deadpool 2's latest viral video, and it looks like it's paid off for everyone involved. Ryan Reynolds' comments to the Build Series further reveal just how involved he is in every aspect of the Deadpool franchise. He's credited as the star, a producer, and writer, which is already a handful. Add on brainstorming marketing plans, and the guy basically lives as Wade Wilson. While Reynolds could have easily stepped aside and let the studio bring in a younger pop star, he had a more classic idea. It all resulted in a hilariously bizarre music video, including Celine and a high heeled, dancing Deadpool. Celine Dion's inclusion in the music video shows what a good sport the 50 year old living legend is. Audiences were able to see her silly side through recent appearances on Jimmy Fallon's musical wheel of impressions, and the "My Heart Will Go On" singer doesn't seem to take herself too seriously. With Deadpool 2 mere hours away from debuting in theaters, it should be interesting to see what type of ridiculous references and cameos ultimately make it into the highly anticipated sequel. Early reception for the movie has been universally high, and it seems that the franchise really opens itself up to new characters and settings. But let's be honest: aren't we all here for the comedy? Deadpool 2 will arrive in theaters on May 16th. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Since superheroes really started to becoming popular in both big screen and TV storytelling, the phrase "strong women" has started being bandied about a whole lot. Strong women have sort of become a catch-all for a lot of things, things like kicking ass and standing up for yourself. Characteristics like having a sharp tongue or not taking crap. Facets that help define a lot about female characters with stronger personalities than they may have had in past generations of Hollywood blockbusters. If you ask Solo: A Star Wars Story's Emilia Clarke, however, she doesn't feel that catch-all phrase is at all a good thing for actresses, mostly because of what it oppositely implies. She said: If it's not strong, what is it? Are you telling me there's another option, that there's a weak option? You think a lead in a movie is going to be a weak woman? It just doesn't even bear having the conversation, so enough already with the strong women, please... I get very frustrated with that in particular because you don't get strong men, unless you are like physically strong. Emilia Clarke is a lady in movies and TV who also frequently happens to be a lead, earning fairly meaty roles, and she also told Variety at Cannes that unless she's "packing guns"---and not the kind with bullets -- in future movies, she really hopes she never has to hear that phrase come out of someone's mouth ever again. She has pretty "strong" opinions about the use of strong women, noting it's the fact that women often get that if they are playing mentally capable characters or just interesting characters in general and that it frustrates her that the opposite side of the coin is simply a "weak" female characters. Emilia Clarke was at the Cannes Film Festival when she explained how she feels every time she is asked how it feels to play "s strong woman" in an upcoming acting project. She also spoke out about what she'd like to hear instead, noting, I'm going to tell you how to play a woman, the end. That's it. Take the strong out of it. Find another adjective, dammit! I'm just playing women. In recent years, Emilia Clarke has played a lot of characters that are neither soft nor vulnerable. In Game of Thrones, she plays a leader who often has to make ruthless decisions, and has seen people she loves falter, including one of her dragons, for her gain. She's also played action-heavy characters, like Sarah Connor in Terminator: Genysis. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, we don't know a ton about her character Qi'ra, but we do know that she is a fighter, and someone who will make ends meet to "stay alive." It's not too much of a stretch to guess how many times she's already gotten a lot of "strong woman" comments for this one, especially since Solo: A Star Wars Story certainly hasn't spelled out the whole movie in its trailers. If you've seen previous interviews with the actress, it's a phrase she's asked about fairly often, too. We'll find out just what kind of character Qi-ra is when Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25th. In the meantime, you can take a look at what we know about the movie with our full guide.

The original Deadpool became one of the highest grossing R-rated movies ever made. It's looking like the sequel might be able to do even better. Deadpool 2 is opening in most foreign markets on the same day that it opens in North America, which means it's looking at an absolutely massive opening weekend. Domestic projections for the film have increased from $100 million to somewhere north of $130 million, and with foreign numbers expected to be between $175-$200 million, Deadpool 2 could make as much as $350 million worldwide when it opens, which is nearly half what the first movie made in its entire run, meaning the new movie could very easily surpass the box office total of the original. If reviews are anything to go by, then it's not too surprising that Deadpool 2 might surpass the box office success of the original, many critics think the sequel is a better movie. If audiences agree then we could very easily see the new movie set records, although, in many cases, the movie that will have to overcome in order to set those records is its own predecessor. Deadpool brought in a global total of $783 million, with just over $400 million of that coming from overseas. Global numbers are becoming more and more important to the overall box office, and all indications are they will be very good for the new film. Deadpool became a massive hit which was remarkable for a movie that came out in February and was also rated-R. Of course, Deadpool would go on to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie in the world, and the second highest grossing R-rated film in North America, behind only The Passion of the Christ. Could Deadpool finally overtake Jesus with the sequel? It seems quite possible. The original was only $17 million short of that record. Deadpool set an R-rated domestic opening weekend record when it opened to $132 million. Now, Deadline is reporting that $130 million is the low end of what Deadpool 2 is expected to do in North America, with the high end being as much as $150 million. That difference right there could be enough for Deadpool 2 to become the R-champion of the world. Helping Deadpool 2 will be a more or less complete lack of competition. The new comedies Book Club and Show Dogs are specifically designed to appeal to the sort of moviegoer that really doesn't care about the Merc with a Mouth. Avengers: Infinity War opening a week earlier than previously scheduled has given moviegoers an extra weekend to see the massive superhero movie. While the film is likely to still add to its own record-setting total, most of the fans who are the sort to check out Deadpool 2 opening weekend have likely already seen Infinity War. Deadpool 2 arrives in theaters on Friday.

The superhero genre is firing on all cylinders, with notable projects from the MCU, the X-Men franchise, and the DCEU set for this year. Avengers: Infinity War is currently dominating the box office, but Deadpool 2 is right around the corner to offer up something wildly different. In fact, not only is Deadpool 2 different because of its hard R rating and smaller scale, Colossus actor Stefan Kapicic also thinks Deadpool 2 is a wildly different experience because of the film's off-kilter marketing. Kapicic opened up in a recent interview and explained: I'm a huge fan of Infinity War and I can't wait to see it. Then again, all the trailers are showing me something that I kind of expect. I get what I expect. But, in Deadpool, you always get so many more things with the trailer. There are new things in every trailer and everything that Ryan is doing [on social media]. That's why people are so excited about everything Deadpool does. It's hard to argue against that. The marketing team behind Deadpool 2 has definitely earned its paycheck, with trailers and marketing materials that have done far more than just sell a movie. While the trailers for Avengers: Infinity War largely telegraphed the major beats of the story (even if they were altered somewhat, with beats in the trailers not showing up in the movie), the marketing for Deadpool 2 has gone above and beyond to give fans a ton of extra content related to the movie. From posters meant to mimic works of art, to a freaking behind-the-scenes video featuring Celine Dion, and much, much more, Ryan Reynolds and co. really went all-out to make everything related to Deadpool 2 unexpected, and if what Stefan Kapicic is saying holds up, the movie should be the same. Beyond that, audiences have also enjoyed watching Ryan Reynolds simply do his Ryan Reynolds smartass shtick in the lead-up to the film's release. Between his TV appearances and his personal social media efforts, he has made a huge push to raise awareness about Deadpool 2 without showing much actual footage from the movie. Moreover, he has even had some playful fun at the expense of Avengers: Infinity War, even going so far as to mock the Russos' "Thanos demands your silence" gag with a social post of his own. Check out an example, below. Of course, it is absolutely worth mentioning that Stefan Kapicic was admittedly speaking in assumptions. As he noted in his remarks to Comicbook.com, he hasn't actually seen Avengers: Infinity War, yet. That said, a simple, side-by-side comparison of the marketing campaigns for these films will quickly tell you that Deadpool 2 is very much a different beast from the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster. Deadpool 2 and Avengers: Infinity War will go head to head this weekend when the Merc with the Mouth returns to the big screen on May 18. Ahead of Deadpool 2's release, make sure to check out our review and our comprehensive review roundupto see what critics have to say about it!

Major spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven't seen it yet, look away! It's no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a very secretive place. A ton of money, anticipation, and planning goes into each new blockbuster, so Disney and the studio are hoping to keep films' secrets until they finally arrive in theaters. No movie was quite as high stakes as Avengers: Infinity War, which combined 18 movies and a decade of filmmaking into one explosive ensemble project. There was a ton of conversation around just how secret the film's contents were, with many actors not being given much information besides their own scenes. This was certainly the case for actress Carrie Coon, who played Black Order villain Proxima Midnight. While she was involved in a ton of big scenes, it turns out Coon didn't know about Thanos' finger snap, and the myriad character deaths that followed. When asked about the big twist, she said: I didn't know that. They keep the story under wraps, even when you're working on it. I wouldn't have even known to ask [about how it ends]. I was just doing what they told me to do, acting with my video screen. But isn't that strange? Despite being onset for some major character deaths and interacting with the majority of the MCU's heroes, Carrie Coon wasn't privy to every secret hidden up the Russo Brothers' sleeves. Instead, Coon could sit in horror like the rest of us as half of the galaxy's inhabitants were killed with the snap of a finger. Carrie Coon's comments seem to indicate that the Leftovers and Gone Girl actress isn't quite as nerdy as the rest of us. Rather than trying to gather any informationfrom her time onset in Infinity War, she simply did her scenes as Proxima Midnight and didn't ask questions. But considering how tight security is on these projects, that's probably the right call. There is a certain irony that Carrie Coon had a role in Infinity War, especially considering her role in HBO's The Leftovers. That show focused on a world where 2% of the world's population mysteriously disappears. Thanos was able to take out 48% more people during his snap, but it's strange to see those two narratives colliding. In the same conversation with EW, the actress referenced how doom seems to follows her characters, saying: You know, in The Leftovers and Fargo, technology didn't work for either character [of mine]. And now we have this disappearance. So... I don't know what the universe is conspiring for me. While Carrie Coon's character don't always get a happy ending, the actress has managed to get involved in some truly exciting movie and TV shows throughout the years. Now the question is: what's next? Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters now. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

While not everybody is sold on the upcoming Han Solo movie, a lot of people are already in love with Donald Glover's portrayal of Lando Calrissian. It seems that number in this case also includes Lucasfilm. Reportedly, studio chief Kathleen Kennedy has mentioned what a lot of people have been asking for since about the time the first trailers for Solo: A Star Wars Story were released. Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian may be getting his own spin-off movie. According to Kennedy... We think that the next spin-off will be dedicated to Lando Calrissian. Of course, there are still many stories to tell about Han and Chewbacca, but Lando will be next. The reveal came when Kathleen Kennedy spoke to Premiere France. Based on the context of the quotes (originally in French), it sounds like this Lando spin-off will be "next" in the sense that it will be the chapter that follows Solo, not that it necessarily will be the next Star Wars movie to go into production or even the next Star Wars Stroy spin-off movie to come out. Although, it's so early that it's difficult to be sure of any of that. The question of what will come to the Star Wars universe after Episode IX is released has yet to be answered, but there are numerous potential answers. The current rumor has been that an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie is already in pre-production, though that has never been confirmed. We know that Star Wars: The Last Jedidirector Rian Johnson is working on a new trilogy and the pair behind Game of Thrones is also working on future films. We know Lucasfilm was working on a Boba Fett movie at one point, and rumors of that project have never entirely gone away. We can now add a Lando movie to the list of films we expect to see, with no idea when we actually expect to see them. From the first look at Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, a lot of fans got the feeling he would be perfect in Solo: A Star Wars Story. If Lucasfilm is ready to say that a Lando movie is on the way when it's not ready to commit to any direct sequels to Solo, then it would seem that the studio feels the same way. It's an especially strong vote of support considering that the general audience hasn't even seen the performance yet. Kathleen Kennedy says whether or not direct sequels to Solo happen will depend on audience response and box office success. And so it seems that we can all look forward to more Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian down the road, at some point, eventually. We don't know when we'll see Lando again after Solo: A Star Wars Story, but when we do, he'll take the lead. UPDATE: In the time since the story was originally published, LucasFilm reached out to Premiere and offered a clarification of Kathleen Kennedy's quote, saying Star Wars is interested in making a Lando movie when it's relevant. So, that may be next. It may be somewhere down the line, but given the early buzz about Lando, I think most people are crossing their fingers it'll be soon. You can read Premiere's explanation here.

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Fox is pricey, real pricey right now: Pro 6:04 PM ET Wed, 9 May 2018 | 04:34 Twenty-First Century Fox said Wednesday its cable business posted its "highest earnings ever" in the fiscal third quarter. Executive chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement that double-digit growth in domestic affiliate revenue helped drive strength in its cable division. Fox's cable unit reported revenue of $4.42 billion, topping a StreetAccount consensus estimate for $4.39 billion. That represents nearly 10 percent year-over-year growth for Fox's cable network programming. Here's what each business unit reported in revenue compared with what analysts expected, according to StreetAccount consensus estimates: Cable network programming: $4.42 billion vs. $4.39 billion expected Television: $1.15 billion vs. $1.25 billion expected Filmed entertainment: $2.24 billion vs. $2.19 billion expected The Murdochs said Fox is creatively "firing on all cylinders." They said they expect continued momentum with the upcoming release of "Deadpool 2." Fox's earnings come as investors look for updates on a pending sale of most of the company. In December, Fox's board approved Disney's $52 billion stock bid to acquire Fox assets including television and film studios, cable channels including FX and National Geographic, and 22 regional sports networks. While Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said he's confident that the Fox deal would close, Comcast is interested in those same parts of the Murdoch media empire. CNBC reported Monday that Comcast plans to make a competing all-cash bid for Fox if the Justice Department approves AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. In a Wednesday call with analysts, the Murdochs declined to comment on "a further offer" for Fox assets. If a sale is completed, Fox would also shed its stake in Hulu and international properties Star India and Sky. Fox has a 39 percent stake in U.K.-based satellite broadcaster Sky and is trying to win regulatory approval to buy the 69 percent it does not currently own. In its Wednesday release, Fox said it remains committed to that bid and expects regulators to sign off on the deal. Fox emphasized that Comcast has "just begun its regulatory process" and that it's "reasonable" for Comcast to go through a "robust regulatory review." Fox's management is said to believe that a smaller company focused on news and sports would be more competitive in the current media landscape. Fox News has dominated Nielsen ratings, consistently ranking as the most watched cable news network in America. And Fox Sports said in January it would pay more than $3 billion to broadcast "Thursday Night Football" for five seasons. CNBC previously reported that fear of being outspent on content was one of the main reasons Murdoch considered selling much of Fox. Tech giants like Netflix and Amazon have committed billions to licensing and producing content for their streaming services, making the bidding wars increasingly competitive. Keeping up with Silicon Valley-style cash burn requires a certain footprint that Fox doesn't have. In November, CNBC also reported that Fox's senior management didn't see a way to gain the necessary scale through acquisition. Here's how the company did on the top and bottom line compared with what Wall Street expected: Adjusted earnings: 49 cents per share vs. 53 cents per share forecast by Thomson Reuters Revenue: $7.42 billion vs. $7.40 billion forecast by Thomson Reuters In the year-ago quarter, Fox reported adjusted earnings of 54 cents on $7.56 billion in revenue. Shares of Fox made slight gains in extended trading. — CNBC's David Faber and Alex Sherman contributed reporting Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com. Comcast is also a co-owner of Hulu.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images A South Korean Air Force T-50 trainer jet, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Lockheed Martin Corp. A South Korean defense company poised to win part of a multibillion-dollar Pentagon contract paid $150,000 to a firm set up by President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The arranged payment from Korea Aerospace Industries, or KAI, to Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, was for "legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production costs," a KAI representative told Reuters. KAI did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CNBC. Michael Cohen allegedly received $500,000 from Russian oligarch 11:10 AM ET Wed, 9 May 2018 | 01:53 The revelations about KAI's relationship with Cohen came after Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for a porn star suing Cohen and Trump, released documents that said Essential Consultants received hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals and companies. Telecom giant AT&T and Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis have also acknowledged paying Cohen's firm for consulting services meant to give an insight into Trump's approach to policy. The Korean defense company, partnered with Lockheed Martin to build the T-50A trainer jet in hopes of securing a U.S. Air Force contract worth roughly $16 billion. Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's top weapons supplier, entered the T-50A into the bidding contest. The plane is a version of KAI's T-50, which is used in South Korea as well as several other U.S. partner nations. Lockheed told CNBC in a statement, "We had no knowledge of a business relationship between Korea Aerospace Industries and Mr. Cohen, and are not aware of any connection that it may have to the U.S. Air Force Advanced Pilot Training competition." The companies are widely expected to win the lucrative contract for the delivery of 350 aircraft. Meanwhile, Boeing partnered with Swedish aerospace firm Saab to develop a brand-new design. The T-X trainer program award, the Air Force's largest ongoing aircraft competition, is expected to be announced later this year. The trainer aircraft will replace the Air Force's aging T-38 trainers that have been in the U.S. military's portfolio since the 1960s.

The lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen "appears to be selling access to the president of the United States." Michael Avenatti, Daniels' lawyer, also said that Trump and Cohen should immediately release bank statements that could shed light on a series of payments made to Cohen's shell company. "This is an enormous amount of money," Avenatti said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show. "You've got millions of dollars that are ... being deposited into this account," Avenatti said. "Michael Cohen appears to be selling access to the president of the United States." Later Wednesday, a senior official at Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis told NBC News that Cohen had reached out to Novartis shortly after Trump's election "promising access" to the new administration. Cohen and his attorney did not respond to a request for comment to NBC News. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked Wednesday if Trump was worried about major corporations paying his lawyer, said, "I haven't heard the president expressed any specific concerns about that." An estimated $4.4 million or more has been identified as flowing through Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants, which was created in October 2016, a month before Trump's election, according to a report by Avenatti's firm. Cohen said Wednesday that Avenatti's "document is inaccurate," according to NBC News. He did not elaborate on what was supposedly wrong about the document. Lucas Jackson | Reuters Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti leaves federal court in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., April 26, 2018. Also on Wednesday, Avenatti scoffed at the claims being made by the various companies about why they paid Cohen. Avenatti on Tuesday released an investigatory report that says Essential Consultants received about $500,000 from a company that Avenatti claims is controlled by a Russian oligarch, as well as payments from pharmaceuticals giant Novartis, telecommunications behemoth AT&Tand defense contractor Korea Aerospace Industries. In an AT&T email to employees, which was obtained by CNBC, the company said it hired Cohen as one of several consultants in the wake of Trump's election. Here is the memo in full: "From: T Now Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:10 PM Subject: Perspective on the news Perspective on the news To: All U.S. AT&T employees Late yesterday, many media outlets reported that in 2017, AT&T hired Michael Cohen, a former lawyer with the Trump Organization. We want you to know the facts. In early 2017, as President Trump was taking office, we hired several consultants to help us understand how the President and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement. Companies often hire consultants for these purposes, especially at the beginning of a new Presidential Administration, and we have done so in previous Administrations, as well. Cohen was one of those consultants. Cohen did no legal or lobbying work for us, and our contract with Cohen expired at the end of its term in December 2017. It was not until the following month in January 2018 that the media first reported, and AT&T first became aware of, the current controversy surrounding Cohen." "We now have multiple different things supposedly that Michael Cohen was doing for all these companies," Avenatti said. "Now we hear from Novartis that he was hired on health-care matters. Evidently, he's a doctor. One of the companies mentioned they hired him for real estate matters. He's a real estate agent. Another company stated that they hired him for accounting advice. Evidently, he's an accountant." Avenatti's comments came hours before Novartis revealed it had paid Cohen up to $1.2 million for work that he quickly proved unable to do.That is three times what Avenatti's probe had found Novartis gave Cohen. Amir Levy | Reuters President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen is pictured entering a restaurant in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 10, 2018. Within weeks of being created by Cohen in October 2016, Essential Consultants was used to pay Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her agreement to not publicly discuss an alleged sexual encounter she claims she had with Trump, the actress has said. Cohen confirmed he paid the money, but the White House denies any such affair. Rudy Giuliani, an outside attorney representing Trump in the special counsel's Russia probe, has said that Trump reimbursed Cohen for his porn star payoff. Avenatti's new report detailed payments to Essential Consultants that were not previously known. On Wednesday, Reuters reported, quoting a source, that AT&T paid Cohen more than the $200,000 identified by Avenatti's report. The company confirmed to CNBC again on Wednesday that it made the payments in exchange for "insights" into the Trump administration, but did not detail the total amount paid. Dow Jones, citing a source, reported that AT&T paid Cohen's company up to $600,000. Columbus Nova, the investment management firm that Avenatti alleges is controlled by Russia oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, disputed his claim, saying the firm is "solely owned and operated by Americans." The firm also has claimed that it hired Cohen as a consultant for possible sources of capital and potential real estate investments and other ventures. The "claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved in or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue," an attorney for Columbus Nova said. Novartis says that it was using Essential Consultants for consulting on issues related to American health policy. The company also said it was contacted last November by special counsel Robert Mueller's office, and "provided all the information requested." Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion by members of Trump's campaign in that meddling. Novartis in a statement to CNBC said it had paid $100,000 per month to Essential Consultants under the terms of the contract signed in February 2017, despite the fact that the company quickly learned that Cohen was unable to do the work expected. Novartis said it had to continue paying him until the contract ended this past February because the agreement could only be terminated for cause. While the company did not reveal how much Cohen ended up being paid in total, it could have been $1.2 million. A KAI spokesman said it signed a contract with Essential for "legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production costs."

Drug giant Novartis revealed Wednesday that it paid President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen $1.2 million for health-care policy consulting work that he proved "unable" to do. The company also said it has been questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller's team about the payments to Cohen. NBC News reported later Wednesday that a senior Novartis official said that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's election "promising access" to the new administration. Novartis said it signed a one-year contract with Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants, for $100,000 per month in February 2017, shortly after Trump was inaugurated as president. Novartis said it believed Cohen "could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. health-care policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act." But just a month after signing the deal, Novartis executives had their first meeting with Cohen, and afterward "determined that Michael Cohen and Essentials Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated." Getty Images Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Donald Trump, arrives at the United States District Court Southern District of New York on April 26, 2018 in New York City. But Novartis kept paying Cohen. "As the contract, unfortunately, could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018," Novartis said. That means that Cohen was paid up to $1.2 million for his work. Buffett’s love/hate relationship with Airlines. See where he stands. Explore Now On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, said investigators for his law firm had found that Novartis had paid Cohen's shell company nearly $400,000 in four installments last year. Avenatti said that AT&T paid $200,000 to Essential Consultants in four installments of $50,000 each per month. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that a source had said Cohen was actually paid more than that because Essential Consultants had a year-long contract with AT&T. If Cohen was paid for the full year by AT&T at a rate of $50,000 per month, he would have received $600,000. AT&T on Wednesday declined to reveal when asked by CNBC how much it had actually paid Cohen under the contract, which it said the company entered into because it wanted "insights" on the Trump administration. Essential Consultants was created in October 2016, on the eve of the presidential election. Shortly after its creation, Essential Consultants was used to pay Daniels $130,000, Cohen has admitted. Daniels said the money was in exchange for her agreement to not talk to others about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Trump. The White House has denied the president had sex with the adult film actress. Novartis also said it was contacted by Mueller's team last November, and was asked about the deal with Cohen. Novartis said it cooperated with those queries "and provided all the information requested." Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as possible collusion by the Trump campaign in that interference. Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York for issues related to his business dealings. The payment to Daniels is among the areas being eyed by investigators in that probe. Here is the full statement from Novartis on Wednesday: In February 2017, shortly after the election of President Trump, Novartis entered into a one year agreement with Essential Consultants. With the recent change in administration, Novartis believed that Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act. The agreement was for a term of one year, and paid Essential Consultants 100,000 USD per month. In March 2017, Novartis had its first meeting with Michael Cohen under this agreement. Following this initial meeting, Novartis determined that Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further. As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018. The engagement of Essential Consultants predated Vas Narasimhan becoming Novartis CEO and he was in no way involved with this agreement. Contrary to recent media reports, this agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders. Suggestions to the contrary clearly misrepresent the facts and can only be intended to further personal or political agendas as to which Novartis should not be a part. In terms of the Special Counsel's office, Novartis was contacted in November 2017 regarding the company's agreement with Essential Consultants. Novartis cooperated fully with the Special Counsel's office and provided all the information requested. Novartis considers this matter closed as to itself and is not aware of any outstanding questions regarding the agreement.

An ancient horse burial at Tombos along the Nile River Valley shows that a member of the horse family thousands of years ago was more important to the culture than previously thought, which provides a window into human-animal relationships more than 3,000 years ago. The research findings are published in Antiquity. The Tombos horse was discovered in 2011, and members of the Purdue team -- professor Michele Buzon and alumna Sarah Schrader -- played a part in the excavation and analysis. The horse is dated to the Third Intermediate Period, 1050-728 B.C.E., and it was found more than 5 feet underground in a tomb. The horse, with some chestnut-colored fur remaining, had been buried in a funeral position with a burial shroud. "It was clear that the horse was an intentional burial, which was super fascinating," said Buzon, a professor of anthropology. "Remnants of fabric on the hooves indicate the presence of a burial shroud. Changes on the bones and iron pieces of a bridle suggest that the horse may have pulled a chariot. We hadn't found anything like this in our previous excavations at Tombos. Animal remains are very rare at the site." Buzon, a bioarchaeologist, has worked with Stuart Tyson Smith, anthropology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for 18 years at this site in modern-day Sudan, and both are principal investigators on the project. Buzon uses health and cultural evidence from more than 3,000-year-old burial sites to understand the lives of Nubians and Egyptians during the New Kingdom Empire. This is when Egyptians colonized the area in about 1500 B.C. to gain access to trade routes on the Nile River. Over the years, hundreds of artifacts, including pottery, tools, carvings and dishes were unearthed at this burial site for about 200 individuals. "Finding the horse was unexpected," Schrader said. "Initially, we weren't sure if it was modern or not. But as we slowly uncovered the remains, we began to find artifacts associated with the horse, such as the scarab, the shroud and the iron cheekpiece. At that point, we realized how significant this find was. Of course, we became even more excited when the carbon-14 dates were assessed and confirmed how old the horse was." Schrader, who graduated from Purdue in 2013 with a doctoral degree in anthropology, is an assistant professor of human osteoarchaeology at Leiden University in The Netherlands. Schrader is lead author on this article, and she helped frame this find within the context of Nubian history. Once the archaeologists discovered the horse, Sandra Olsen, curator-in-charge at the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas and a well-known ancient horse expert, was invited to Purdue to analyze the horse skeleton. Buzon coordinated the analysis between the team, and she established the chronology of the horse via radiocarbon dating. "The horse was treated well in life, seeing as how it lived to a mature age," Schrader said. "It also was important to the people of ancient Tombos because it was buried -- a rite that is usually reserved for humans. Furthermore, the fact that one of the earliest pieces of iron from Africa was found in association with the horse reiterates how special it was to the people. It is also important to assess the context of Tombos with regard to the horse -- the horse is an important and rare find. The fact that it is buried at Tombos indicates that this town may have served an important function in the post-colonial Napatan Period."

Like passionate foodies who know the best places to eat in every town, Silk Road nomads may have been the gastronomic elites of the Medieval Ages, enjoying diets much more diverse than their sedentary urban counterparts, suggests a new collaborative study from Washington University in St. Louis, the Institute of Archaeology in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and Kiel University in Germany. "Historians have long thought that urban centers along the Silk Road were cosmopolitan melting pots where culinary and cultural influences from far off places came together, but our research shows that nomadic communities were probably the real the movers and shakers of food culture," said Taylor Hermes of Kiel University, lead author of the study forthcoming in Scientific Reports and a 2007 graduate of Washington University. Based on an isotopic analysis of human bones exhumed from ancient cemeteries across Central Asia, the study suggests that nomadic groups drew sustenance from a diverse smorgasbord of foods, whereas urban communities seemed stuck with a much more limited and perhaps monotonous menu -- a diet often heavy in locally produced cereal grains. "The 'Silk Road' has been generally understood in terms of valuable commodities that moved great distances, but the people themselves were often left out," Hermes said. "Food patterns are an excellent way to learn about the links between culture and environment, uncovering important human experiences in this great system of connectivity." Said Cheryl Makarewicz, an archaeology professor at Kiel and Hermes' mentor: "Pastoralists are stereotypically understood as clinging to a limited diet comprising nothing but the meat and milk of their livestock. But, this study clearly demonstrates that Silk Road pastoralists, unlike their more urbane counterparts, accessed all kinds of wild and domesticated foodstuffs that made for a unexpectedly diverse diet." "This study provides a unique glimpse into the important ways that nomads cross cut regional settings and likely spread new foods and even cuisine along the Silk Roads, more than a thousand years ago," said study co-author Michael Frachetti, associate professor of anthropology at Washington University. "More specifically, this study illustrates the nuanced condition of localism and globalism that defined urban centers of the time, while highlighting the capacity of more mobile communities -- such as nomadic herders -- to be the essential fiber that fueled social networks and vectors of cultural changes," Frachetti said. For this study, human bones exhumed at archaeological digs in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were transported to Kiel University in Germany, where they were analyzed by Hermes. To be thorough, he also collected previously published isotopic data for the time period to bring together a complete regional picture. "Prior to this study, there were massive gaps in what we knew about human dietary diversity along the Silk Roads," Hermes said. "The datasets were simply not there. We were able to greatly increase the geographical coverage, especially by adding samples from Uzbekistan, where many of the important routes and population centers were located." The study draws upon field work and museum collections as part of a longstanding scientific partnership between Washington University and the Institute of Archaeology in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The study's assessment of individual dietary regimens is made possible by studying the isotopic signatures in ancient human bones, allowing the researchers to unlock a trove of information about the food sources, including the proportions and types of plants and animals consumed by individuals over the last decades of life. Stable isotope analysis is the "gold standard" for tracing ancient diets. Makarewicz, a specialist in the technique, has applied it to understanding major evolutionary transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture in the Near East. She is starting a new interdisciplinary ERC research project exploring the spread of herding across Eurasia. Other co-authors include Elissa Bullion, a doctoral student in anthropology at Washington University and two researchers from the Uzbek partnership: Farhod Maksudov and Samariddin Mustafokulov. Hermes, who has worked with Frachetti on archaeological digs across Central Asia for more than a decade, used these isotopic analysis techniques on human bones recovered from about a dozen nomadic and urban burial sites dating from the 2nd to 13th centuries A.D. The burial sites were associated with a wide range of communities, climates and geographic locations, including a recently discovered settlement high in the mountains of Uzbekistan, the Otrar Oasis in Kazakhstan and an urban complex on the lowland plains of Turkmenistan. While previous archaeological excavations at these sites have confirmed the ancient presence of domesticated crop plants and herd animals, their importance in urban diets was unknown. Isotopic analysis, however, shows how important these foods were over the long-term. "The advantage of studying human bones is that these tissues reflect multi-year dietary habits of an individual," Hermes said. "By measuring carbon isotope ratios, we can estimate the percentage of someone's diet that came from specific categories of plants, such as wheat and barley or millet. Millets have a very distinctive carbon isotope signature, and differing ratios of nitrogen isotopes tell us about whether someone ate a mostly plant-based diet or consumed foods from higher up on the food chain, such as meat and milk from sheep or goats." This study discovered interesting dietary differences between urban settlements along the Silk Road, but surprisingly little dietary diversity among individuals living within these communities. Perhaps driven by the limits of local environments, food production networks or cultural mandates, most people within each urban setting had similar diets. Diets of individual nomads within the same community were found to be much more diverse. These differences, perhaps a function of variable lifetime mobility patterns, the availability of wild or domesticated food options or personal preferences, suggest that nomadic groups were not as bound by cultural limitations that may have been imposed on urban dwellers, Hermes said. "Nomads and urbanites had different dietary niches, and this reflects a combination of environment and cultural choices that influenced diet across the Silk Roads," Hermes said. "While many historians may have assumed that interactions along the Silk Road would have led to the homogenization of culinary practices, our study shows that this was not the case, especially for urban dwellers." For now, Hermes, Frachetti, Makarewicz and their collaborators in Samarkand look forward to applying these isotopic techniques to new archaeological mysteries across Central Asia. "We hope our results lead to a paradigm shift in how historical phenomena can be examined through the very people who made these cultural systems possible," Hermes said. "The results here are exciting, and while not the final word by any means, pave a new way forward in applying scientific methods to the ancient world." "For close to 10 years our academic collaboration has yielded fascinating new discoveries in archaeology and has also fostered new international partnerships, such as the one spearheaded by Taylor Hermes, to carry out archaeological science at Kiel," Frachetti said. "This international approach is what enables us all -- as a team -- to maximize the scientific potential of our collaborative fieldwork and laboratory studies in Uzbekistan for the advancement of historical and environmental knowledge more globally."

Careful examination of numerous fluted spear points found in Alaska and western Canada prove that the Ice Age peopling of the Americas was much more complex than previously believed, according to a study done by two Texas A&M University researchers. Heather Smith and Ted Goebel both were involved with the study that was associated with the Center for the Study of the First Americans, part of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M. Smith is now an assistant professor at Eastern New Mexico University. Their work has been published in the current issue of PNAS(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Smith, who worked on the study as part of her Ph.D. at Texas A&M, and Goebel, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M, believe the findings could change how we view the traveling patterns and routes of early humans from 14,000 to 12,000 years ago as they settled in numerous parts of North America. Using new digital methods of analyses utilized for the first time in such a study of these artifacts, the researchers found that early settlers in the emerging ice-free corridor of interior western Canada "were travelling north to Alaska, not south from Alaska, as previously interpreted," says Goebel. "Although during the late Ice Age there were two possible routes for the first Americans to follow on their migration from the Bering Land Bridge area southward to temperate North America, it now looks like only the Pacific coastal route was used, while the interior Canadian route may not have been fully explored until millennia later, and when it was, primarily from the south. "The findings of these fluted spear points provide archaeological evidence supporting new genetic models explaining how humans colonized the New World." Traditional interpretations of the peopling of the Americas have predicted that early inhabitants migrated from Siberia through Alaska, and then followed the ice-free corridor that gradually opened in western Canada to reach the Great Plains of the western U.S. But newer genetic studies of ancient Siberians, Alaskans, and Americans, as well as the discovery of new sites south of the Canadian ice sheets predating the opening of the ice-free corridor, suggest instead that the first Americans passed along the Pacific coast. "The key is that the projectile points are related in their technology and morphology, and the way in which some of these characteristics vary forms the pattern of an ancestral-descendent relationship. This suggests that the people who carried the artifacts to these locations were related as well." adds Smith. "It shows that these early people in western Canada and Alaska were descendent of Clovis (the first settlers of North America) and they used the same type of weapons to hunt for food, especially bison. These makers of fluted points were not just all over mid-continent North America but were also migrating northward back to the Arctic." These artifacts can be used to document migration patterns of prehistoric peoples, she says. "The spear points prove that the peopling of the Americas was much more complex than we had believed and that these early settlers went in a lot of different directions, not just south. We now have a better picture of what weapons they used to hunt and where their travels took them." "This is tangible evidence of a connection between people in the Arctic and the Mid-continent 12,000 years ago, a connection which may be either genetic or social, but ultimately, speaks volumes of the capability and adaptability of early cultures in North America," she notes.

A recent study indicates that volcanic eruptions in the mid 500s resulted in an unusually gloomy and cold period. A joint research project of the Chronology Laboratory of the Finnish Museum of Natural History and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) suggests that the years 536 and 541-544 CE were very difficult for many people. An extended period of little light may make it difficult for humans to survive. The level of production of plants is dependent on the amount of available sunlight. Food production, i.e, farming and animal husbandry, rely on the same solar energy. Humans, meanwhile, become more prone to disease if they are not exposed to enough sunlight to produce vitamin D. "Our research shows that the climate anomaly, which covered all of the northern hemisphere, was the compound result of several volcanic eruptions," says Markku Oinonen, director of the Chronology Laboratory. The aerosols that were released into the atmosphere with the eruptions covered the sun for a long time. The exceptionally poor climate conditions were significantly detrimental to farming and reduced the production of vitamin D among the populace. This means that the people who were already weakened by hunger also had to grapple with a compromised immune system. Trees are a record of the past The study is based on dendrochronology or tree-ring dating. The series of annual growth rings from subfossil -- or intact -- tree deposits covers the past 7,600 years. The trees are often found on the bottom of small lakes, and Luke has been taking samples and recording the findings since the 1990s. "Researchers have put together an annual growth ring calendar of treeline pine spanning more than 7,600 years. Various historical events can be contrasted with the calendar. The growth ring calendar is an important indicator of global climate change," says researcher Samuli Helama from Luke. The samples in the recent study were dated with the help of the growth ring calendar at Luke, and sample shavings were carved out of them for each calendar year. The Chronology Laboratory then conducted isotope analyses on the samples. Carbon isotopes indicate summer weather The results of the study are based on the analysis of the variation of carbon isotopes in the annual growth rings of trees. The variety in carbon isotopes reflects the photosynthesis of the trees, which in turn is largely dependent on the amount of solar radiation available during the summer. The new study tracks the correlation of carbon isotope variation and volcanic eruptions from the 19th century until recent years, and shows the dramatic reduction in available sunlight in 536 as well as between 541 and 544 CE. The variation of summer temperatures was similarly reconstructed on the basis of the density of the trees' annual growth rings. Hard times brought the plague The unusually poor years coincide with the bubonic plague epidemic that devastated the Roman Empire. The epidemic caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium began in 542 CE and killed approximately half, or more, of the inhabitants of what was then considered the Eastern Roman Empire. The plague spread through Europe, from the Mediterranean, possibly as far north as Finland, and had killed tens of millions of people by the 8th century. The study was conducted as a consortium project by the University of Helsinki and Luke, with participation from researchers of the University of Eastern Finland, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Geological Survey of Finland and the University of Turku. The research was funded by the Academy of Finland.

An international, interdisciplinary group of scholars working along the East African coast have discovered a major cave site which records substantial activities of hunter-gatherers and later, Iron Age communities. Detailed environmental research has demonstrated that human occupations occur in a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, adding new information about the habitats exploited by our species, and indicating that populations sought refuge in a relatively stable environment. Prior to this cave excavation, little information was available about the last 78,000 years from coastal East Africa, with the majority of archaeological research focused on the Rift Valley and in South Africa. Humans lived in the humid coastal forest A large-scale interdisciplinary study, including scientific analyses of archaeological plants, animals and shells from the cave indicates a broad perseverance of forest and grassland environments. As the cave environment underwent little variation over time, humans found the site attractive for occupation, even during periods of time when other parts of Africa would have been inhospitable. This suggests that humans exploited the cave environment and landscape over the long term, relying on plant and animal resources when the wider surrounding landscapes dried. The ecological setting of Panga ya Saidi is consistent with increasing evidence that Homo sapiens could adapt to a variety of environments as they moved across Africa and Eurasia, suggesting that flexibility may be the hallmark of our species. Homo sapiens developed a range of survival strategies to live in diverse habitats, including tropical forests, arid zones, coasts and the cold environments found at higher latitudes. Technological innovations occur at 67,000 years ago Carefully prepared stone tool toolkits of the Middle Stone Age occur in deposits dating back to 78,000 years ago, but a distinct shift in technology to the Later Stone Age is shown by the recovery of small artefacts beginning at 67,000 years ago. The miniaturization of stone tools may reflect changes in hunting practices and behaviors. The Panga ya Saidi sequence after 67,000, however, has a mix of technologies, and no radical break of behavior can be detected at any time, arguing against the cognitive or cultural 'revolutions' theorized by some archaeologists. Moreover, no notable break in human occupation occurs during the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 74,000 years ago, supporting views that the so-called 'volcanic winter' did not lead to the near-extinction of human populations, though hints of increased occupation intensity from 60,000 years ago suggests that populations were increasing in size. Earliest symbolic and cultural items found at Panga ya Saidi cave The deep archaeological sequence of Panga ya Saidi cave has produced a remarkable new cultural record indicative of cultural complexity over the long term. Among the recovered items are worked and incised bones, ostrich eggshell beads, marine shell beads, and worked ochre. Panga ya Saidi has produced the oldest bead in Kenya, dating to ~65,000 years ago. At about 33,000 years ago, beads were most commonly made of shells acquired from the coast. While this demonstrates contact with the coast, there is no evidence for the regular exploitation of marine resources for subsistence purposes. Ostrich eggshell beads become more common after 25,000 years ago, and after 10,000 years ago, there is again a shift to coastal shell use. In the layers dating to between ~48,000 to 25,000 years ago, carved bone, carved tusk, a decorated bone tube, a small bone point, and modified pieces of ochre were found. Though indicative of behavioral complexity and symbolism, their intermittent appearance in the cave sequence argues against a model for a behavioral or cognitive revolution at any specific point in time. Project Principal Investigator and Director of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Dr. Nicole Boivin states, "The East African coastal hinterland and its forests and have been long considered to be marginal to human evolution so the discovery of Panga ya Saidi cave will certainly change archaeologists' views and perceptions." Group Leader of the Stable Isotopes Lab Dr. Patrick Roberts adds, "Occupation in a tropical forest-grassland environment adds to our knowledge that our species lived in a variety of habitats in Africa." "The finds at Panga ya Saidi undermine hypotheses about the use of coasts as a kind of 'superhighway' that channeled migrating humans out of Africa, and around the Indian Ocean rim," observes Professor Michael Petraglia.

A new study has discovered that horses were first domesticated by descendants of hunter-gatherer groups in Kazakhstan who left little direct trace in the ancestry of modern populations. The research sheds new light on the long-standing "steppe theory" on the origin and movement of Indo-European languages made possible by the domestication of the horse. The domestication of the horse was a milestone in human history that allowed people, their languages, and their ideas to move further and faster than before, leading both to widespread farming and to horse-powered warfare. Scholars from around the world have collaborated on a new inter-disciplinary research project, which was published in the journal Science 9 May 2018. The researchers analysed ancient and modern DNA samples from humans and compared the results -- the 74 ancient whole-genome sequences studied by the group were up to 11,000 years old and were from inner Asia and Turkey. Professor Eske Willerslev, who holds positions both at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Copenhagen, jointly led the study which looked at archaeological findings, history, and linguistics. Much of the study builds on questions raised by scholars of Indo-European studies at the Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen. A number of conflicting theories have been presented about who first domesticated the horse, with previous studies pointing to people of the pastoralist Yamnaya culture, a dominant herding group who lived in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Dr. Guus Kroonen, historical linguist at University of Copenhagen, explains: "The successful spread of the Indo-European languages across Eurasia has puzzled researchers for a century. It was thought that speakers of this language family played a key role in the domestication of the horse, and that this, in combination with the development of wheeled vehicles, allowed them to spread across Eurasia from the Yamnaya culture." However, as this study shows, domesticated horses were used by the Botai people already 5,500 years ago, and much further East in Central Asia, completely independent of the Yamnaya pastoralists. A further twist to the story is that the descendants of these Botai were later pushed out from the central steppe by migrations coming from the west. Their horses were replaced too, indicating that horses were domesticated separately in other regions as well. No link between Botai and Yamnaya cultures The study does not find a genetic link between the people associated with the Yamnaya and Botai archaeological cultures, which is critical to understanding the eastward movement of the Yamnaya. Apparently, their eastward expansion bypassed the Botai completely, moving 3000 kilometres across the steppe to the Altai Mountains in Central and East Asia. Professor Alan Outram from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter and one of the paper's authors, states: "We now know that the people who first domesticated the horse in Central Asia were the descendants of ice age hunters, who went on to become the earliest pastoralists in the region. Despite their local innovations, these peoples were overrun and replaced by European steppe pastoralists in the middle and later Bronze Age, and their horses were replaced too." Languages spread through exchanges between several cultures The authors also demonstrate the oldest known Indo-European language, Hittite, did not result from a massive population migration from the Eurasian Steppe as previously claimed. In contrast to a series of recent studies on population movement in Europe during the Bronze Age, the new results from Asia suggest that population and language spread across the region is better understood by groups of people mixing together. Gojko Barjamovic, Senior Lecturer on Assyriology at Harvard University, explains: "In Anatolia, and parts of Central Asia, which held densely settled complex urban societies, the history of language spread and genetic ancestry is better described in terms of contact and absorption than by simply a movement of population." He adds: "The Indo-European languages are usually said to emerge in Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BCE. However, we use evidence from the palatial archives of the ancient city of Ebla in Syria to argue that Indo-European was already spoken in modern-day Turkey in the 25th century BCE. This means that the speakers of these language must have arrived there prior to any Yamnaya expansions." The study also shows that the spread of the Indo-Iranian languages to South Asia, with Hindi, Urdu and Persian as major modern offshoots, cannot result from the Yamnaya expansions. Rather, the Indo-Iranian languages spread with a later push of pastoralist groups from the South Ural Mountains during the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Prior to entering South Asia, these groups, thought to have spoken an Indo-Iranian language, were impacted by groups with an ancestry typical of more western Eurasian populations. This suggests that the Indo-Iranian speakers did not split off from the Yamnaya population directly, but were more closely related to the Indo-European speakers that lived in Eastern Europe. Unique collaboration between the humanities and the natural sciences In this study, geneticists, historians, archaeologists and linguists find common ground -- pointing to increased interaction between the steppe and the Indus Valley during the Late Bronze Age as the most plausible time of entry of Indo-European languages in South Asia. Several authors of the paper had radically conflicting views before the final interpretation was achieved. Lead author on the article, Peter de Barros Damgaard, who is a geneticist working at the University of Copenhagen comments: "The project has been an extremely enriching and exciting process. We were able to direct many very different academic fields towards a single coherent approach. By asking the right questions, and keeping limitations of the data in mind, contextualizing, nuancing, and keeping dialogues open between scholars of radically different backgrounds and approaches, we have carved out a path for a new field of research. We have already seen too many papers come out in which models produced by geneticists working on their own have been are accepted without vital input from other fields, and, at the other extreme, seen archaeologists opposing new studies built on archaeogenetic data, due to a lack of transparency between the fields." "Data on ancient DNA is astonishing for its ability to provide a fine-grained image of early human mobility, but it does stand on the shoulders of decades of work by scholars in other fields, from the time of excavation of human skeletons to interpreting the cultural, linguistic origins of the samples. This is how cold statistics are turned into history." Guus Kroonen adds: "The recent breakthrough in ancient genomics poses challenges for archaeologists, linguists and historians because old hypotheses on the spread of languages and cultures can now be tested against a whole new line of evidence on prehistoric mobility. As a result, we now see that geneticists are driven by key questions from the humanities, and that research within the humanities is energized by the influx of new data from the sciences. In the future, we hope to see more cross-disciplinary co-operations, such as the one leading to this study."

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Kiel has successfully reconstructed genomes from Stone Age and Medieval European strains of the hepatitis B virus. This unprecedented recovery of ancient virus DNA indicates that hepatitis B was circulating in Europe at least 7000 years ago. While the ancient virus is similar to its modern counterparts, the strains represent a distinct lineage that has likely gone extinct and is most closely related to chimpanzee and gorilla viruses. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most widespread human pathogens known today, affecting over 250 million people worldwide. However, its origin and evolutionary history remain unclear. Studying the evolution and history of the virus has to date been especially difficult, because until now viral DNA had not been successfully recovered from prehistoric samples. In the present study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal eLifeand is due to be published on May 10, 2018, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University, not only recovered ancient viral DNA from skeletons but also reconstructed the genomes of three strains of HBV. The ancient history of hepatitis B For this study, the researchers analyzed samples from the teeth of 53 skeletons excavated from Neolithic and medieval sites in Germany. The remains dated from around 5000 BC to 1200 AD. The researchers screened all samples for viral pathogens and detected ancient HBV in three of the individuals. Full HBV genomes were recovered from these samples, two of which were from the Neolithic period, dating to about 7000 and 5000 years ago, and one from the medieval period. The Neolithic genomes represent the by far oldest virus genomes reconstructed to date. Interestingly, the ancient virus genomes appear to represent distinct lineages that have no close relatives today and possibly went extinct. The two Neolithic genomes, although recovered from individuals that lived 2000 years apart, were relatively similar to each other in comparison with modern strains, and were in fact more closely related to modern strains of HBV found in Chimpanzees and Gorillas. In contrast, the medieval HBV genome is more similar to modern strains, but still represents a separate lineage. This is the case even when it is compared to two previously published HBV genomes recovered from mummies dating to the 16th century. The HBV strains found in these mummies are closely related to modern strains, suggesting a surprising lack of change in the virus over the last 500 years. These findings point to a complicated history for the virus, which may have involved multiple cross-species transmission events. Long and complicated evolution of one of today's most common viruses "Taken together, our results demonstrate that HBV already existed in Europeans 7000 years ago and that its genomic structure closely resembled that of modern hepatitis B viruses, despite the differences observed," explains first author Ben Krause-Kyora, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Kiel University. "More ancient precursors, intermediates and modern strains of both human and non-human primate HBV strains need to be sequenced to disentangle the complex evolution of this virus," he adds. New tool for studying the evolution of blood-borne viruses Johannes Krause, senior author and director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, emphasizes the most important implication of the study. "Our results reveal the great potential of ancient DNA from human skeletons to allow us to study the evolution of blood-borne viruses. Previously, there was doubt as to whether we would ever be able to study these diseases directly in the past," he explains. "We now have a powerful tool to explore the deep evolutionary history of viral diseases."

How does the sound of a tiny tremor of the earth differ from the sound of a huge passing whale? That is one of the things that scientists had to figure out while listening for the sound of methane release from the sea floor. A recent study in Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystemsstrongly links methane leaks from the seabed off Western Svalbard with tremors of the Earth. "We can't say if the micro-earthquakes or other micro seismic events are causing the methane leaks or if it is the other way around. A possible explanation is that the build-up of methane below the ocean floor creates bubbles. They could cause very weak tremors as they migrate, expand and release gas into the water column in the area." says Peter Franek first author of the study, and researcher at CAGE Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate. The study area is a host to hundreds if not thousands of known methane leaks. They are associated with temporal changes in dissociation of gas hydrates -the icy substance that contains huge amounts of methane. This causes methane release from the seafloor, and potentially into the atmosphere. Unique study The tremors described in this particular study are called short duration events, and are definitely not caused by the same mechanisms as proper earthquakes. Short duration events are only detectable due to a novel use of highly sensitive listening devices. "This study is unique because we are using instrumentation and techniques commonly used for earthquake research. We use them to identify tiny earth movements generated by the circulation and release of gas from the seafloor. Very few in the world are working with this approach at such a scale." says researcher and co-author Andreia Plaza Faverola at CAGE. The underwater world is full of different natural sounds that can be recorded by cutting-edge underwater technology such as ocean bottom seismometers (OBS), that include hydro- and geophones. An OBS was placed at the ocean floor at 400-meter water depth offshore Western Svalbard, and recorded every sound from the seabed and ocean for a full year. It was then retrieved by the research vessel Helmer Hanssen from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Whale calls -- an interesting interference All sounds within a given frequency range were recorded for this study. Scientists then needed to differentiate between the sounds of methane associated tremors and other recurrent sounds. "It turns out that fin whales are abundant offshore Western Svalbard and communicate with each other within the range of our investigation. It was an added pleasure for us to record their activity as well as the activity of the methane seeps themselves." says co-author of the study professor, Jürgen Mienert at CAGE. Fin whales are some of the largest animals in the world, only surpassed in size by the blue whale. Peter Franek says that the scientists clearly were able to make out the calls of the fin whales to such detail that it might be useful even to the biologists who wish to study movement and sound communication patterns of these majestic animals. "OBS is a non-invasive tool primarily designed for recording natural, non- biological or man-made seismic and acoustic signals. Unexpectedly, it can be used to study communication between whales. It can give a more detailed insight on call patterns, respiration times and swimming speeds of fin whales in their natural habitat, without disturbing them with any human presence."

Signs of a 1755 earthquake that was strong enough to topple steeples and chimneys in Boston can be seen in a sediment core drawn from eastern Massachusetts' Sluice Pond, according to a new report published in Seismological Research Letters. Katrin Monecke of Wellesley College and her colleagues were able to identify a layer of light brown organic-rich mud within the core, deposited between 1740 and 1810, as a part of an underwater landslide, possibly unleashed by the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake. The Cape Ann earthquake is the most damaging historic earthquake in New England. While its epicenter was probably located offshore in the Atlantic, the shaking was felt along the North American eastern seaboard from Nova Scotia to South Carolina. Based on contemporary descriptions of damage from Boston and nearby villages, the shaking has been classified at modified Mercalli intensities of "strong" to "very strong," ((VI-VII) meaning that it would have caused slight to moderate damage of ordinary structures. New England is located within a tectonic plate, so "it is not as seismically active as places like California, at an active tectonic plate margin," said Monecke. "There are zones of weakness mid-plate in New England and you do build up tectonic stress here, you just don't build it up at the same rate that would occur at a plate boundary." With few faults to study, however, researchers like Monecke and her colleagues are looking for signs of seismically-induced landslides or the deformation of soft soils to trace the historic and prehistoric record of earthquakes in the region. Monecke hopes that the new Sluice Pond core will give seismologists a way "to calibrate the sedimentary record of earthquakes in regional lakes," she said. "It is important to see what an earthquake signature looks like in these sediments, so that we can start looking at deeper, older records in the region and then figure out whether 1755-type earthquakes take place for example, every 1000 years, or every 2000 years," Monecke added. The researchers chose Sluice Pond to look for signs of the Cape Ann earthquake for a variety of reasons. First, the lake is located within the area of greatest shaking from the 1755 event, "and we know from other studies of lakes that have been carried out elsewhere that you need intensities of approximately VII to cause any deformation within the lake sediments," Monecke said. Sluice Pond also has steep sides to its center basin, which would make it susceptible to landsliding or underwater sliding during an earthquake with significant shaking. The deep basin with a depth of close to 65 feet also harbored a relatively undisturbed accumulation of sediments for coring. Through a painstaking analysis of sediment size and composition, pollen and plant material and even industrial contaminants, the research team was able to identify changes in sediment layers over time in the core. The light brown layer deposited at the time of the Cape Ann quake caught their eye, as it contained a coarser mix of sediments and a slightly different mix of plant microfossils. "These were our main indicators that something had happened in the lake. We saw these near shore sediments and fragments of near-shore vegetation that appear to have been washed into the deep basin," by strong shaking, said Monecke. In an interesting twist, land clearing by early settlers from as far back as 1630 may have made the underwater slopes more susceptible to shaking, Monecke said. Sediment washed into the lake from cleared land loads up the underwater slopes and makes them more prone to failure during an earthquake, she noted. For that reason, the sediment signature linked to prehistoric earthquakes may look a little different from that seen with the Cape Ann event, and Monecke and her colleagues are hoping to sample even older layers of New England lakes to continuing building their record of past earthquakes. The research team is taking a closer look at a more famous New England body of water: Walden Pond. "It got slightly less ground shaking [than Sluice Pond] in 1755, but it might have been affected by a 1638 earthquake in southern New Hampshire," Monecke explained. "We already have sediment cores from that lake, and now we are unraveling its sedimentary history and trying to get an age model there as well."