Entertainment
The First MCU X-Men Team-Up Is Already A Disappointment
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
For Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, the X-Men are something of a Holy Grail. Before Disney bought 20th Century Fox, it was impossible for these mutants to appear alongside heroes like Captain America or the Hulk. After the purchase, it was possible for the X-Men to appear, but we only got small hints here and there, like an alternate-universe Xavier in Multiverse of Madness and Beast popping up after the credits in The Marvels. Relatively speaking, why has Marvel been holding back? Simple: they have been working on an X-Men movie that will bring the team into the MCU rather than just giving us more multiversal cameos.
After the Avengers: Secret Wars reboots this cinematic universe, future MCU movies will finally include everyone’s favorite merry mutants. Before that, though, we’re getting one last multiversal cameo, and it’s a doozy. Avengers: Doomsday will feature appearances from several iconic characters from the original 20th Century Fox films, including Professor X and Magneto. This is a big deal because it’s basically the first onscreen X-Men team-up in the MCU. Unfortunately, that team-up is destined to be a disappointment because most of the characters we are going to see have never had much chemistry together.
A Blast From The Past
The early X-Men movies copied the vibe from the original comics, presenting the team as a kind of found family (albeit a dysfunctional one). Cyclops and Jean Grey were like cool older siblings to the young students, while Storm was a really intense den mother. Wolverine, in turn, was basically a protective older brother to fellow newcomer Rogue. Charles Xavier, of course, was the father of the group, which is only fitting; after all, far too many of his young mutant charges had been rejected by their biological families. Xavier offered these gifted children the chance to start over with someone who truly cares about them.
What does this trip down memory lane have to do with Avengers: Doomsday? The earlier X-Men films leaned into their dysfunctional dynamics and allowed different characters to bounce off of each other in fun and exciting ways. For example, there’s a tense love triangle between Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine, and a slow-burn romance between Rogue and Iceman. But we’re not likely to get great interactions out of the X-Men in Doomsday because the team lineup is so dysfunctional. The film features Cyclops, Beast, Magneto, Xavier, Mystique, Nightcrawler, and Gambit. While these characters are interesting on their own, most haven’t had much onscreen chemistry in earlier films.
When Frasier Has The Blues
For example, Cyclops is here, and it will be exciting to see him kick some Sentinel butt. But he won’t have Jean or Wolverine to interact with, which is deeply unfortunate. Scott’s always been stuck with the straight man role, but that only works if he has someone else (like someone more passionate) to bounce off of. Out of this Doomsday lineup, Xavier is the only one he has much of a relationship with, and it looks like most of the professor’s time will be spent bonding with his favorite frenemy, Magneto, who himself has no other former Brotherhood villains but Mystique to interact with.
Beast is also here, and while Kelsey Grammar is perfect in the role, he didn’t interact with many team members back when he first appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand. That’s because he had long since left the school and become a politician. Like, Xavier is literally the only mutant that he previously spoke with who is returning for Doomsday. Similarly, while Alan Cumming is great as Nightcrawler, he mostly interacted with Storm and Jean Grey back in X2: X-Men United. Neither of them is in Doomsday, so we won’t be getting a tearful reunion or anything.
A Failed Gambit
Mystique will be in Avengers: Doomsday, and in the original films, her closest relationship was with Magneto. However, when we last saw them together, he abandoned her once she lost her powers, and she betrayed him by giving his location to the FBI. The upcoming film may retcon this. Otherwise, if this is supposed to be the same universe, we’ll have to re-establish her relationship with Magneto and everyone else. That goes double for Gambit, who never appeared alongside any of these characters and has only appeared in the MCU as a gag character in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Now, maybe Avengers: Doomsday is going to do an excellent job establishing the relationship between a bunch of characters who have never had much chemistry or shared much screen time, but that’s doubtful. After all, the X-Men are just one part of a film that will be crawling with cameos from so many other heroes and villains, leaving very little time to build new dynamics. This is basically the opposite approach of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which leaned into the existing relationships between Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and villains like Doctor Octopus. In Doomsday, almost all of these X-Men relationships must be built from the ground up.
Again, all of these X-Men performers are great on their own, but most of us were hoping to see a team that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Avengers: Doomsday drops December 18, and we’ll find out whether the first MCU team-up featuring these marvelous mutants is better than it looks on paper. If so, I’ll be happy to eat crow and admit I was wrong. If not, you can join the rest of me in hoping that the mutants will have much better chemistry in the upcoming X-Men film!
Entertainment
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 23, 2026
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you’re a frequent flyer.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
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Yellow: Rounded
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Green: Nervous Nancy
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Blue: Catch a flight
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Purple: Math words
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Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Spherical things
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Green: In an anxious state
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Blue: Parts of an airport
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Purple: Ending in geometry terms
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections #1138 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Spherical things: BASEBALL, GLOBE,
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In an anxious state: EXCITED, FEBRILE, FRENETIC, INTENSE
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Parts of an airport: PINS, SNAPS, TWEETS, VINES
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Ending in geometry terms: APPOINT, DEPLANE, FELINE, JANGLE
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for July 23, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re a veteran.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Hail to the chief petty officer
The words are related to the military.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe military titles.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.
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NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Navy Ranks.
NYT Strands word list for July 23
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Recruit
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Admiral
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Ensign
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Navy Ranks
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Lieutenant
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Commander
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
The World’s Richest Man Just Promised An AI Version Of The Odyssey, But It’s Never Going To Happen
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Every day, we get another reminder that the internet isn’t real life. For example, right-wing voices have been hating on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey for months, backlash that mysteriously began when the director cast a Black woman and a trans man in prominent roles. The haters spent plenty of time, energy, and endless social media posts trashing the film and predicting it would fail because it’s woke garbage. Of course, when the movie actually premiered, it was a critical darling that made over a quarter of a billion dollars in its first weekend.
In a sane world, that would have ended the discussion. The movie thousands of people thought would fail succeeded; end of story, right? Well, you’re not in a sane world, bucko, you’re in Hellworld. Case in point? Spurred on by comments from his loyal army of sycophantic followers, Elon Musk has now pledged to use his pet AI Grok to create a more “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey. His fans are excited, but I’ve got some bad news: not only would such a film be a critical and commercial flop, but there’s no way in hell this movie ever comes out.
The Odyssey: Video Game Cutscene Edition
Why am I so confident that Elon Musk’s Grok-powered version of The Odyssey will never come out? Simple: while Musk has achieved massive financial success (he was, for a moment there, the world’s first trillionaire), he has spent much of the last decade promising things that just never happened. Like, he previously promised SpaceX would be landing humans on Mars by 2025 at the latest; not only did that never happen, but SpaceX’s stock value is currently tumbling following several engine failures and an aborted flight.
The list goes on. Fully self-driving cars straight out of a sci-fi movie? He made the promise, but that never happened. The Hyperloop, announced in 2013? The project shut down in 2023. The pledge to have a million robotaxis on the streets by 2020? Yeah, that project died quietly amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. For all of his successes, this is who Elon Musk is: a relentless hypeman who promises more than he can deliver and tries to cover up his failures with more breathless announcements that he thinks his biggest fans will respond well to.
This AI Movie Is Its Own Trojan Horse
That’s what this AI Odyssey announcement is about. After years of being lauded by liberal fans as a real-life Tony Stark, Musk went fully right-wing, complete with pivotal endorsements of Donald Trump and a temporary role in Trump’s government. As such, Musk has become one of the most popular figures in conservative circles. While his political allegiances shifted, one thing never changed: Musk’s absolutely palpable desire for people to like him. Accordingly, he spends plenty of time on X, engaging with conservative fans and platforming both conservative thoughts and movies (like Citizen Vigilante). By and large, his fans hate Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, so he has pledged to give them an alternative.
Once again, Musk is telling his fans what they want to hear. Hate that “woke” movie everyone’s talking about? Well, he’ll make his own, and he’ll do it without help from Hollywood! That’s the promise, at least, and Musk’s fans are eating this up with a fork and spoon. None of them seem to think that this project, like so many others, will quietly disappear. Or that the man who has spent years running a social media platform into the ground might not actually be the best guy to deliver an actual film and not sloppy shorts that look like a PS4 cutscene.
Elon Musk’s Movie Is Already History
But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Musk actually makes his more “historically accurate” version of The Odyssey. Why does anyone think this thing will be watchable, much less better than Christopher Nolan’s version? Not only does the proof of concept suck, but Musk’s rejection of Hollywood has seriously reduced his talent pool for things like voice acting, art design, and so on. Plus, the very announcement brings up an obvious question: why has Musk given himself until the end of the year to make this film? Nolan shot a real movie with real people in only three months, so why will it take Grok’s prompt engineers almost twice as long to make their own?
The answer is simple: this movie is never going to see the light of day. Elon Musk’s biggest fans are frothing at the mouth about Nolan’s The Odyssey right now, but soon enough, they’ll have something new to obsess over, like Spider-Man saying something too woke in Brand New Day. As they move on, the once and future (?) trillionaire will move on as well, making even more promises he never plans to keep. With any luck, all of the people demanding an AI version of The Odyssey will start clamoring for an AI adaptation of another ancient text. May I suggest The Bible, complete with a historically accurate, very brown Jesus Christ?
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for July 23, 2026
MLS to investigate Inter Miami over Casemiro signing
