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?
Entertainment
Gillian Anderson Reveals Offical X-Files LEGO Set
By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
LEGO has been making incredible licensed playsets for years, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, both Marvel and DC, and, you know, any other nerd franchise you can think of. Thanks to Brent Waller, an inventive Australian fan who happens to work as a 3-D artist, The X-Files made it through the LEGO Ideas process and will soon become a reality. To celebrate, LEGO brought back Gillian Anderson as Agent Scully for a fun sneak peek trailer:
Recreate Mulder’s Office In Your Office
The X-Files LEGO set clocks in at 1,478 pieces, and includes eight minifigs: Mulder and Scully, Skinner, The Cigarette Smoking Man (or Carl Busch to get around the whole “Smoking” thing), Mr. X, Agent Krycek, a Gray Alien, and best of all, The Flukeman. It’s a two-layered set with the FBI office on the bottom, and then a forest up top complete with a hovering UFO. As evidence that this was designed by a fan, Mulder’s office includes pencils sticking out of the ceiling and sunflower seeds. There are also new tiles that show the “I Want To Believe” poster and “The Truth Is Out There.”
Waller explained in interviews that he first put together Mulder’s office back in 2014 while watching the show. Trying to capture The X-Files in a single LEGO diorama is impossible, but when you think about it, the office and a UFO encounter do hit the high points. The minifigs changed from the original LEGO Ideas submission, and there’s no Tooms trapped in a vent, but it looks fantastic.
The LEGO Ideas Program Is Filled With 90’s Nostalgia
The X-Files set went through the LEGO Ideas program, where fans upload their designs, and if they earn over 10,000 votes, LEGO designers will take a look at it and see if it can become an official set. Also in the works from the program are the Griswolds’ House from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and the Megazord from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, while past sets were made including E.T., Jaws, Seinfeld, and Friends. To say that the LEGO Ideas program has been a hit would be an understatement.
Anyone who buys The X-Files set from August 4th through the 10th will also receive a bonus gift: Scully’s Lab from the FBI Academy. It’s significantly smaller, only 221 pieces, but can combine with the main set to add to the diorama. As for the price, The X-Files set will be available for $199.99, proving that, again, nostalgia comes with a price.
It’s great to see Gillian Anderson back as Dana Scully, even if it’s only for a commercial, but then again, The X-Files revival series wasn’t exactly beloved by fans of the original run. A new, updated take on the series is in the works by Black Panther writer/director Ryan Coogler. Recent rumors point towards it being a movie rather than an ongoing series. Until we know for sure, fans can finally enjoy putting together their favorite FBI field agents in LEGO form, and who knows, if the set does well enough, maybe we’ll get a LEGO version of the Peacock’s house from “Home!”
You can buy The X-Files set directly on LEGO.com.
Entertainment
New Trailer Reveals Perfect Adaptation Of The Most Iconic Batman Story
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Riddle me this, Bat-fans: what is the most iconic story to ever feature the Caped Crusader? There are many more obscure tales that might be the best Batman story (personally, I’m partial to Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth), but those aren’t the ones that completely changed this character’s trajectory. For my money (which admittedly doesn’t go nearly as far as Bruce Wayne’s), the most iconic story featuring the Dark Knight is Knightfall, which pitted this character against familiar foes and someone relatively new: Bane, a genius whose one and only goal is to break the Batman.
This was a comic that put Batman through the wringer and gave the center stage to Bane, who became such a prominent villain that he’d later headline Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. While that film captured some of the coolness of Knightfall, it only had surface-level similarities to the original comic. Eventually, many fans like myself despaired that we’d never see a faithful, onscreen adaptation of this iconic ‘90s tale. Fortunately, DC is here to prove us wrong: an animated Batman: Knightfall movie is dropping on August 25, and judging by the trailer, this is one film no Dark Knight fan will want to miss.
He Is The Knight
The premise of Knightfall is that a juiced-up genius, Bane, learns that Batman is secretly Bruce Wayne. He becomes obsessed with breaking the vigilante, but he decides to soften the Dark Knight up first by releasing almost all of his rogues’ gallery from Arkham. Batman is forced to fight a gauntlet of his worst foes, and waiting at the end of this gauntlet is the seemingly unstoppable Bane. The villain actually defeats our hero, leaving him broken. Bruce appoints an unstable new guy, Jean Paul Valley, to be the new Batman while he recovers. When Bruce returns, though, he discovers his replacement has become far scarier than any of the villains he fights.
In the original DC Comics, this story was split into three parts: Knightfall (showing how Bane breaks Batman), Knightsquest (showing Bruce recovering while Jean Paul learns to be Gotham’s hero), and KnightsEnd (where Bruce returns to claim the mantle of the Bat from his crazy replacement). That’s why this movie’s full name is Batman: Knightfall, Part I: the studio will be releasing two more movies that will presumably fill out the rest of the story. This first film will be focusing entirely on the earliest arc, where Batman must fight all the escaped Arkham villains and then fight, guano a gunao, with Bane.
The Bane Of Batman’s Existence
Judging from the trailer, it looks like the upcoming film will translate this arc very faithfully. It should be a real crowdpleaser, too, because the story is filled with one showdown after another between Batman and his most famous foes. As such, the original comic didn’t have that much of a story, and what little we got was primarily meant to give context to all the nonstop fighting. Still, Knightfall is notable for illustrating the toll that Batman’s endless crusade is having on his body and mind, and the trailer emphasizes the damage our hero has endured and how much his friends and family worry about him.
The trailer is filled with cool character moments and action sequences, and the animation looks beautiful (none of the stilted movement that ruined The Killing Joke). To me, what stood out the most was the voice work. Anson Mount (most famous for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is doing his best as Batman to channel the late, great Kevin Conroy (of Batman: The Animated Series fame). In his brief appearance, Pablo Schreiber does a great, broody job as Jean-Paul Valley. Unfortunately, Michael Mando’s Bane is pretty “meh:” his voice is neither deep nor goofy, and he sounds like a D&D DM doing a poor attempt at a creepy voice.
Bad Bane voice acting aside, the trailer for Batman: Knightfall, Part I looks very solid. Fans of the original comic can look forward to finally getting a faithful adaptation, and everyone else can get a stylish new introduction to this iconic story. Will this film successfully scratch the itch for fans as we wait for updates about DCU’s upcoming Batman film? We’ll find out together when Batman: Knightfall, Part I releases on digital on August 25.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for July 24, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re never lacking.
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: There’s more where that came from
The words are related to quantities.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe having more than needed.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is diagonal.
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NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is And Then Some.
NYT Strands word list for July 24
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Leftover
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Surplus
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And Then Some
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Spare
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Extra
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Unused
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Excess
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.
Gillian Anderson Reveals Offical X-Files LEGO Set
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