Entertainment
X-Men Star Reveals Why Avengers: Doomsday Will Be A Total Disaster
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Right now, hopes for Avengers: Doomsday are higher than ever. Marvel bigwigs like Kevin Feige and the Russos are hoping that this film can overcome the dreaded superhero fatigue, excite the public, and transform the MCU back into a money-printing machine. After enduring years of duds like Eternals and Captain America: Brave New World, fans are just hoping to see something as cool as Endgame. Despite the collective hype, though, Doomsday is still a huge gamble, and if it fails, it may very well take the entire cinematic universe with it.
Unfortunately, there have been some powerful hints that Doomsday might spell doom for the MCU. For example, Nightcrawler actor Alan Cumming recently gave an interview to Deadline in which he talked about his experiences working on both X2: X-Men United and Avengers: Doomsday. While he tried to keep things positive about the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, he did say something a bit alarming. According to him, Doomsday is so confusingly chock full of different characters that the film feels like “superhero soup.”
Welcome, Crawler!
While plenty of normies know him from the excellent Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Alan Cumming first landed on geeks’ radar when he portrayed Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, one of the best superhero sequels ever made. Fans loved that film, but the actor apparently had a terrible time making it. Cumming cryptically told Deadline that “There were things that happened on the [X2] set that were just shocking to me” and that “The working environment was very, very wrong and very just unacceptable.” Comparatively, he found working on Avengers: Doomsday to be much more pleasant in almost every way.
However, the actor did have a few blunt notes about Marvel’s upcoming blockbuster. While he was happy to go back to playing Nightcrawler “because I really liked the character,” he declared that Avengers: Doomsday “is like superhero soup. There’s so many of them in it. I just can’t keep up.” He noted that reading the script was particularly difficult because “everyone’s got two names.” On top of that, “there were secret names in it because they didn’t want to let out that a certain character was coming back,” and they used different names in the script. Cumming ultimately wrapped his thoughts by saying, “It was so confusing.”
Is Marvel Doomed?
I’m as hyped for Avengers: Doomsday as the next nerd with an embarrassing amount of Marvel action figures and comic books. However, Alan Cumming’s interview has me very nervous about this upcoming blockbuster. I keep coming back to a simple thought: if the guy actually making this movie can’t keep track of the characters or plot, what chance do the rest of us have? Even if the plot of the movie is perfectly clear (which, given its crunchy connection to the Multiverse, is deeply unlikely), we’ll still be left with a big bowl of “superhero soup.”
That is, the film may very well be juggling far too many characters to do all of them justice, and we may be getting a bunch of crowd-pleasing cameos at the expense of telling a good story. Plus, Marvel is gambling almost everything on the idea that general audiences won’t get confused by seeing so many different character variations and alternate universes onscreen. Sure, Marvel superfans can keep up, but normies might get hung up asking why Captain America is back, why Iron Man is Doctor Doom, and (if plot reports are true) why the universes of their favorite old Marvel movies keep getting destroyed.
I’ve got my fingers and replica adamantium claws crossed that I’m wrong about all of this. Marvel used alternate universes quite well in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine, so there’s a chance that Avengers: Doomsday will be another critical and commercial Hulk smash of a movie. But with so many characters jammed into one movie to fight a Big Bad we haven’t even met yet, Doomsday looks like it’s on track to be a huge mess. And if Marvel spills this particular bowl of superhero soup all over the place, nobody will be coming back for more when Secret Wars rolls around!
Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for May 17, 2026
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move on to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity with how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible — and common — for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for May 17 Pips
Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. 6-4, placed vertically.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 4-2, placed vertically.
Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. 4-3, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 6-4, placed vertically; 4-3, placed horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for May 17 Pips
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically.
Mashable Top Stories
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 5-2, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically.
Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. 2-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. 6-0, placed horizontally.
Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 6-0, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 6-1, placed vertically; 3-1, placed vertically.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for May 17 Pips
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 6-5, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.
Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 5-0, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically; 6-5, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically.
Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 6-4, placed vertically.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5-5, placed vertically.
Not Equal: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically; 1-6, placed vertically; 0-6, placed vertically.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Will Ferrell confronts his look-alike during his SNL monologue
Saturday Night Live had its Season 51 finale over the weekend as former cast member Will Ferrell hosted the show for his sixth time.
However, before Ferrell could come out and perform his hosting duties, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers attempted a coup. Smith came out first to open the show, hitting the stage and acting as if he were Ferrell. There’s been a long-running joke that Ferrell and Smith, the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, bear a striking resemblance to each other, and SNL continued the gag on its final show of the season.
Shortly after Smith thanked the audience, Ferrell came out dressed exactly like Smith, claiming the drummer had attacked him backstage as part of his takeover attempt.
Ferrell convinces Smith to get off the stage but the former SNL cast member acts as if the whole ordeal has thrown for a loop and has trouble getting back to his duties as host. Ferrell decides to take questions from the audience, and the first question is from a very casual audience member – Sir Paul McCartney.
The legendary musician believes that Ferrell is actually the imposter Smith and demands Ferrell leave the stage and get back to his drum set, where he belongs.
Entertainment
Ghost of Jeffrey Epstein visits Trump in the SNL season finale cold open
Just because it’s the middle of Spring doesn’t mean we can’t get a little parody of “A Christmas Carol” on Saturday Night Live in May.
In the season 51 finale of SNL on Saturday, President Donald Trump, played by cast member James Austin Johnson, falls asleep in the Oval Office. However, Trump is soon visited by the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein, played by host Will Ferrell.
Ferrell’s Epstein gives Trump a look into the future, offering the president a peek at what his cabinet members, past and present, will be up to, ostensibly, after they leave their positions. The cold open also features Ashley Padilla as former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Colin Jost as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Aziz Ansari as FBI Director Kash Patel.
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