Axiom Verge 2 heard you liked Metroid, so it put Metroid in your Metroid so you can blast baddies and hunt for hidden goodies across two sprawling 2D maps at the same time. Granted, opening a game review with an Xzibit reference in 2021 might be a bit outdated, but Axiom Verge 2 is anything but: it infuses its retro-inspired sequel with contemporary ideas like fast-travel to minimise backtracking and an optional approach to the bulk of its boss fights in order to make progression smoother for players of all skill levels. This focus on accessibility comes at a cost, though, resulting in a Metroidvania that’s consistently rewarding to explore but noticeably lacking in combat challenge and diversity.

Axiom Verge 2’s story is fleshed out by countless hidden notes and computer terminal messages, but I won’t even attempt to summarise it since it’s dense with the same sort of pseudo-scientific technobabble that pervades its 2015 predecessor. Lingo-heavy lore aside, I found the basic plight of its main character, Indra, more than enough to propel me forward through the roughly eight-hour adventure; after she arrives at an Antarctic research base looking for her missing daughter, one thing leads to another and she suddenly has the power to absorb the unique abilities of nanomachines known as Arms. That’s really all the setup and motivation I needed.

Into the Breach

Axiom Verge 2 may feature an entirely new lead character and setting, but what really sets it apart from the original game is the ability to phase in and out of the Breach; an alternate dimension running parallel with the main overworld sort of like Stranger Things’ Upside Down if it was being emulated on a Game Boy Color. Each side of the dimensional divide has its own unique map structure and feel; Indra’s world features arcane ruins and dimly lit caverns to explore, while the more abstract Breach consists of chunky, hypercolour platforms and pulses to the sound of a bouncing chiptunes soundtrack.

This contrast doesn’t just make for appealing shifts in aesthetics, it brings a literal extra dimension to navigating your way through Axiom Verge 2. Not only do you need to puzzle your way to unlock gates and uncover hidden power-ups within each separate world as per the tried-and-tested Metroid template, but you also use interdimensional tears to hop back and forth between realms to circumnavigate obstacles in one dimension by finding an alternate path in the other. Orienting yourself in two places at once inspires a degree of non-linear navigation that’s a consistently absorbing challenge as a result.

It’s also a mechanic that continues to evolve over the course of the journey. Initially, you can only shift from one world to the other at predetermined Breach gates on each map, but eventually Indra is given the ability to both reveal hidden tears and also manipulate the placement of a tear in order to crossover to more precise areas. Not being able to see exactly where you’re going does introduce some trial and error, but the ability to fast-travel to any previously discovered save point gave me the freedom to experiment with blind leaps between worlds, knowing that I could beam back for a do-over if I accidentally blinked into the wrong spot.

Even with double the map to cover, I found Axiom Verge 2 to be far more intuitive to explore than the original game. Each area of both maps feels far more distinct in terms of terrain, and a compass found early on subtly steers you towards your next objective. Any backtracking I did was typically with a clear purpose, to return to that suspiciously fragile-looking wall after I’d unlocked Indra’s shockwave power, perhaps, as opposed to pacing back and forth across multiple rooms because I had trouble distinguishing one from the next. Meanwhile, Indra only grows more fun to control over the course of the journey, consuming a steady diet of power-ups that transform her over time from humble platforming heroine to shapeshifting Swiss Army Knife equipped to scale almost every structure in her path.

Hack ‘n’ Slash

However, compared to its clever dual-world exploration, Axiom Verge 2’s combat is fairly one-dimensional. There’s certainly a healthy variety of enemy types to contend with in both maps, with mechanical kill-bots of all shapes and sizes in Indra’s world and a gaggle of more amorphous organisms in the breach, but the arsenal you’re given to tackle them with is surprisingly conservative compared to the the two-dozen or so different projectile types that could be bolted onto the original game’s transforming Disruptor rifle.

Indra begins with a pickaxe for close-up attacks and a boomerang for ranged assaults, while her drone – which she must pilot remotely through the Breach zones – can swing a tethered spinning blade and use a grappling hook to launch itself at enemies like a pinball. But despite the handful of additional melee weapons to find and the inclusion of a skill tree to upgrade basic attributes like attack speed and power, my simple slash-’em-up method for fighting didn’t ever change – because it didn’t need to. I never stopped to ponder if I should be using the bronze axe or if I should switch to the sickle sword because the right tool for the job always seemed to just be whatever I happened to have equipped at that moment. There were certainly visceral thrills to be had smashing my way through each roomful of robotic hordes, and the fighting is certainly fluid, but I wish I’d felt as inspired to cave in heads as I was figuring out ways to head into caves.

Axiom Verge 2 attempts to inject some strategy into fights by giving Indra the ability to hack enemies and other objects, but I found this feature much more useful for passive jobs like triggering switches to open doors or to hijack moving platforms than I did for any meaningful combat gains. If you’re close enough to latch onto an enemy within Indra’s small hacking radius, you’re likely close enough to slash them to bits rather than take that extra step to hack their movement speed in order to slow them down first. And if you happen to take a few blows in the process, you can be guaranteed that seemingly every other enemy you dispatch will leave enough health orbs behind to keep you continuously topped up anyway.

Boss Fight or Flight

Boss fights are similarly straightforward, should you choose to take them on. While the standard approach to boss fights in Metroidvania games is to trap you in a fenced-off area and force you into a claustrophobic confrontation with a monolithic monster, Axiom Verge 2 allows you to take a pacifist’s approach if you’d prefer. With rare exception, you can just evade each boss entirely and continue on your way to your next story objective, which will likely be a welcome feature for people who tend to bounce off these kinds of games when the going gets tough. (The couple of boss encounters that are mandatory grant you with unlimited respawns to help get you through.)

The problem is that if, like me, you relish the tension and eventual dopamine hit of toppling a towering behemoth often by the skinniest sliver of your health bar, then you’ll likely be disappointed in Axiom Verge 2’s boss battles. While they certainly look imposing, from a marauding mechanized bull to a downsized Death Star, few require much in the way of strategy beyond maybe a quick hack to short-circuit their defence systems followed up with some frenzied slashes until they explode. There are no distinct waves of attack to analyse and adapt to, nor is there any requirement to experiment with Indra’s expanding set of abilities in order to overcome them. I went into Axiom Verge 2 hoping for the next Hollow Knight, but what I got instead was a series of hollow victories.

While there aren’t individual difficulty modes to select, you can hop into the pause menu and increase the enemy damage multiplier to up the challenge a bit. But this just makes the combat more attritional as opposed to making it any more dynamic.

I found the boss fights to be so underwhelmingly innocuous and repetitive, in fact, that I didn’t actually realise I was fighting Axiom Verge 2’s final boss until after I’d beaten it and was suddenly watching the credits roll. It brought the experience to what felt like a very abrupt ending, and left many of the power-ups I acquired deep in the latter half feel significantly underused. I admittedly went back to my pre-end boss save game and spent another few hours hunting for secrets by using these late-game abilities, like breaking up into a cloud of nanites to pass through steel grates into walled-off areas or piloting a remote-controlled boomerang to hit otherwise unreachable switches. These power-ups were certainly fun to use, but scouring the two maps for more skill upgrades after I’d already comfortably beaten the biggest enemy threats only felt worthwhile mainly from a completionist’s standpoint.

When Marvel Studios rolled out the massive slate of film and television projects making up the MCU’s Phase 4 at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con – that feels like a decade ago, doesn’t it? – perhaps the most surprising reveal was an animated series based on a cult favorite comic book series.

Marvel’s What If…?, which is now available on Disney+, offers a re-imagination of some of the biggest moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Essentially, the series shows how events we all saw occur in the movies played out in other realities, in other corners of the multiverse. In other words, it follows the same template as the comic book which inspired the series.

Launched in 1977 as a double-sized 50-cent comic, What If…? showcased an alternate take on a different Marvel Comics story in each issue. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four that time he broke into the Baxter Building back in the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man? What if Captain America hadn’t fallen into the ice near the end of World War II? What if the Watcher were a standup comedian?!

(Yes, somehow Marvel actually published that one.)

In the letters column of the very first issue (“Why Not?” may be the best letters column name in Marvel history, by the way), “Rascally” Roy Thomas, the legendary Marvelite who conceived the idea for the series and scripted many of the early chapters, wrote how the concept was inspired by Stan Lee’s approach to storytelling in the nascent days of the Marvel Age. In 1965, when Thomas arrived at the Marvel offices as a diehard comics fan looking to study at the feet of the new masters, he became tied at the hip to Stan “The Man.” No one worked closer with him than Thomas, who would succeed Lee as writer of the Avengers and eventually replaced him as Editor-in-Chief when Stan was bumped to publisher.

One of the aphorisms Thomas picked up from Stan was the “What If?” maxim, which he explained in more detail from that 1977 column:

“The way he would plot most of those early issues, he said, was simply to ask himself the kinds of questions the readers must be asking themselves. What if, for instance, Thor and the Hulk fought it out to see which of them was the most powerful? What if the Fantastic Four went broke?”

Years later, Thomas used that as the jump-off point for a comic that would offer up new spins to some of the most important stories in the Marvel canon. The original What If…? series was not always a light affair. Many of the storied ended in tragedy that varied in size from personal sacrifice to cosmic genocide; others were a bit silly. But as Thomas wrote in that very first issue, “That’s the nice thing about the ‘What If’ idea. You can take it anywhere.”

All that said, here are nine wild, weird and wonderful What If…? comics stories to dig up and enjoy!

What If…? #3 (Vol. 1) – What If the Avengers Had Never Been?

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would feature prominently in several What If…? stories, but this one was the best scripted tale. Co-written by Jim Shooter and Gil Kane (who also penciled the story that was inked by a young Klaus Janson), it showed how a simple question by Giant-Man could lead to the Avengers splitting up right after the Hulk bailed.

Left on his own, Tony Stark is forced to come up with a desperate plan to stop the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner, who have reluctantly teamed up to exercise their bad intentions on humanity. After convincing young sidekick Rick Jones and the now-retired Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne to put on custom suits of armor he built, Iron Man leads the team into battle. During the fight, which features some epic Kane layouts, Stark gives up the remaining power in his suit to recharge Giant-Man’s so he has a chance to stop the Hulk and Subbie. Without that power, the chest device that kept Stark’s heart beating stopped. Iron Man had made the ultimate sacrifice. As MCU fans know, it would be the first time, but not the last, he would do that.

What If…? #10 (Vol. 1) – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?

This was one of several OG What If…? stories that would eventually happen in the primary Marvel world of Earth-616. Here, it’s Jane Foster, in a Norwegian cave, who finds the cane that turns out to be Mjolnir, the enchanted hammer of Thor. Thordis, as Jane calls herself, runs into trouble with the gods rather quickly: Loki manipulates Odin into banishing Thordis to Earth, making the God of Mischief Asgard’s favorite son.

While all that’s happening, Sif and Dr. Don Blake suddenly become an item as Sif tries to connect with Blake’s disguised true self, that of the Mighty Thor. The story ends with Mjolnir back in the hands of Don Blake, who transforms into Thor and Odin admitting he badly misjudged Jane Foster. Jane was no longer Thordis, but she is a goddess, because something else Odin admits at the end is that he has feelings for her. So yes, she winds up marrying Odin! Yeah, it’s a little creepy.

What If…? #11 (Vol. 1) – What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?

The flat-out weirdest of the early What If…? books, this story takes place on an Earth where the FF are actually four members of the famous Marvel bullpen – Stan Lee as Mister Fantastic, “Fabulous” Flo Steinberg as the Invisible Girl, Sol Brodsky as the Human Torch, and Jack Kirby as the Thing!

It was as meta as any comic Marvel had put out. In the story, the Fantastic Four comics exist, but on that world, the people that created the comics are actual superheroes. Even comic book villains like the Sub-Mariner have real-life counterparts. It’s an incredibly goofy story that also features the original “Secret Invasion” by the Skrulls, but part of the reason it’s so memorable is that it was written and drawn by the “King” himself. Up to that point, it had been eight years since Kirby had drawn an FF story. This wild and wooly alternate reality tale would mark Kirby’s return to the characters (outside of some covers) he helped create back in 1961. It would also be the last time he worked on the First Family of Marvel.

What If…? #13 (Vol 1.) – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?

The first dozen issues of the first iteration of the series had leaned heavily on Spider-Man, the FF and the Hulk for inspiration. But by issue #13, Thomas trotted out his favorite Cimmerian for a tale he had long wanted to do.

Here, the timeline diverged when a frayed rope snapped and Conan fell through the Well at the Center of Time that was controlled by the wizard Shamash Shum-Ukin. It dropped him in the middle of Manhattan, where he encounters punk rock musicians, gets confused for Schwarzenegger and Stallone, and strikes up a, ahem, friendship with a female cabbie named Danette. Thomas, the longtime scripter of the Conan comics, even linked his arrival to the infamous 1977 NYC blackout.

No one ever drew Conan as well as legendary artist John Buscema did, and this issue features some of his best work. The contrast of Conan against the concrete jungle of Manhattan and all its dangers proved to be a great showcase of Buscema’s linework. Often, What If…? stories had grand, galactic consequences. But Conan’s adventure in the Modern Age is a remarkably intimate tale that holds up as well as any other issue in the series.

What If…? #19 (Vol. 1) – What If Spider-Man Had Never Become a Crimefighter?

In the Marvel Universe, there’s no dead like “Uncle Ben” dead. Ben Parker’s murder at the hands of a burglar that Peter Parker failed to stop in a moment of selfishness came to define Spider-Man’s mission statement: “With great power there must also come great responsibility.”

This comic showed how different Peter’s life would have been had he stopped the burglar back at the TV network studio and prevented his uncle’s death. But the big twist is what a miserable person Peter Parker turned out to be. Instead of fighting crime with his powers, he turns to acting and becomes obsessed with fame and fortune. He turns his back on Uncle Ben and Aunt May, who wanted him to use his intelligence to pursue a career in science.

Eventually, he becomes a promoter for other heroes like the FF, the X-Men and Daredevil, but years of self-serving actions and sheer greed come back to haunt Pete in the end. It’s none other than J. Jonah Jameson, driven to insanity by Spider-Man’s ruthless pursuit of glory, who winds up showing Peter how he threw away all his potential. Yeah, it’s a complete downer of a story, which happened often in this series (though there was a slightly less depressing version of a “What If Uncle Ben Lived” story in issue #46). But it was a solid example of what was the unofficial What If…? mission statement: Showing how a split-second decision could start a domino effect and completely upend one’s destiny.

Still, seeing Peter Parker turn out like this remains a real punch to the gut.

What If…? #27 (Vol. 1) – What If Phoenix Had Not Died?

This issue is in the running for the most bleak installment of the series. In this alt-world, Jean Grey does not die on the blue area of the moon as in Uncanny X-Men #137. Here, she is given a psychic lobotomy by the Sh’iar after the X-Men are beaten by the Imperial Guard (similar to the original ending Chris Claremont/John Byrne had planned before Jim Shooter intervened).

After several years, the Phoenix force is reignited during a battle with Galactus and Terrax. Jean stops them both, but just as it happened before, she would soon be overtaken by Dark Phoenix. The most shocking moment in the story comes when Jean incinerates poor Kitty Pryde in front of the rest of her shocked teammates. She winds up killing them all as well, before eventually consuming the Earth and, finally, the universe. You know, I get that the code of the Watchers is just to observe. But if ever there was a time for Uatu to make an exception, it probably would have been here.

What If…? #31 (Vol. 1) – What If Wolverine Had Killed the Hulk?

This 1982 issue was released just seven months before Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s groundbreaking Wolverine limited series. The Canadian mutant was quickly ascending to comics’ A-list, and this comic only bolstered his cred with fans.

Leaning into the berserker rage aspect that made Wolverine the most dangerous X-Man, the story pivots at a key moment from the character’s debut appearance in The Incredible Hulk issues #180-182. As the two battle in the Canadian wilderness, something inside Wolverine snaps. Instead of trying to just beat the Hulk, he goes for the jugular in a very literal sense. Thanks to some carefully inserted expository dialogue from writer Rich Margopoulos, we learn that Logan’s adamantium claws can’t do much damage to the Hulk’s ultra-tough skin. His neck is a different matter.

Kudos to Bob Budiansky, a workhorse artist for Marvel back in the Bronze Age, for expertly illustrating the brutality of Wolverine’s fatal attack on the Hulk without resorting to a bloody scene. From there, the story shows how Logan’s deadly temper leads him to kill a civilian. Now an outlaw, he joins with Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and is sent to join the X-Men with the goal of betraying them. But just as in Marvel world we know, Logan develops feelings for Jean Grey. When Magneto attacks, Wolverine can’t stand by and let her be hurt. The fight ends with both men killing each other. Wolverine dies a hero. (Remember, this was 1982, so writers hadn’t “powered up” Wolverine to the point where his healing factor had made him virtually invulnerable.)

The story was a fairly by-the-numbers production, but it had great significance. The depiction of Wolverine killing one of Marvel’s big guns – the Hulk had his own television show at the time and his comic was a top seller – was a signal of Logan’s soaring popularity.

What If…? #44 (Vol. 1) – What If Captain America Were Revived Today?

The original “hero out of time,” Cap was a favorite of writers who pitched What If…? stories. This one takes a detour at the moment in Avengers history (Avengers #4 to be precise) where the team was due to discover Steve Rogers frozen in ice. In this reality, they don’t find him. But a Captain America does come out of suspended animation in this alt-world; the bad news is that it’s the lunatic 1950s version of Cap who is revived.

A little backstory: William Burnside and his “Bucky,” Jack Monroe, were created by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema during their halcyon 1970s run on the Captain America title as a way to retroactively explain away the 1950s-era Cap comic book adventures. The homemade super-soldier serum Burnside created gave them powers to pretend to be Cap and Bucky, but it also made both men insanely dangerous. The FBI put them in suspended animation to take them off the board.

In What If…? #44, Burnside and Monroe are awakened by members of a corrupt group looking to seize power in America. With Cap on their side, free speech and activism are soon wiped out in the U.S. The country becomes a fascist state with open racism and xenophobia, with illegal immigrants vilified for allegedly taking jobs from “real Americans.” The group’s motto? America First. If all this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve perhaps recently seen a popular Cap meme surface as real-life political debates mirrored what happens in the story.

When the real Steve Rogers is discovered, it is that passionate speech he gives that convinces people that the real Captain America has returned. For its powerful themes and its enduring relevance, this story is a strong contender for the best What If…? story of all time.

What If…? (Vol. 2) #20 – What If the Amazing Spider-Man Had Not Married Mary Jane?

More than a decade before Joe Quesada ordered the undoing of the Peter Parker/Mary Jane wedding, writer Danny Fingeroth and artist Jim Valentino split up the beloved couple. This is the only issue on this list not from the first What If…? volume (in fact, it’s the only two-parter in the series’ history). The What If…? series has always found great success in using Spider-Man’s personal life for its alternate scenarios. “What If Gwen Stacy Had Lived?” from the first volume is a great example. This tale was especially bittersweet.

The turning point here occurs in events first detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #292, as Spidey fought Spencer Smythe’s Spider-Slayer robot. In the original timeline, Peter was able to prevent MJ from being hurt. In this reality, she almost died. That forced Peter to decide that it’s too dangerous for MJ to be in his life, so he says “no” at the altar.

Enter Felicia Hardy.

The Black Cat and Spidey soon reconnect and actually get married in a shotgun wedding, but because Peter is worried about his secret identity, no one knows they are husband and wife. Until, that is, when Felicia decides to confront Mary Jane and rub her nose in the fact she’s wearing Peter’s engagement ring. A shady character overhears and figures out Spidey’s secret identity, which soon ends up in the Vulture’s deadly hands.

The highlight of this story is how unhinged a jealous Felicia becomes. She knows she’s the “fallback girl” for Spidey, that MJ will always be his true love. And it drives her mad. The Cat dies in the end, but finds redemption before she does by saving Mary Jane’s life. In this world, though, there is no second chance for Peter Parker and Mary Jane as they go their separate ways.

But shockingly, there is a happy ending for Spidey as he winds up finding love with a most unlikely person: Silver Sable!

What are your favorite What If…? stories from the comics? Let’s discuss in the comments!

And for more on the show, check out our article on how to watch Marvel's What If…?, dig in on the returning cast from the movies (and those who didn't return), or watch the show's executive producer discuss the ripple effect that making Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa become Star-Lord instead of Black Panther has on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Scientists have calculated the probability that the potentially hazardous Bennu asteroid hits Earth between 2021 and 2300 after studying it for more than two years.

NASA revealed this information in a press release today, saying that while Bennu's chances of hitting Earth are still very low, the organization has narrowed down its impact probability. It did this by studying its size, shape, mass, composition, spin, and orbital trajectory.

"Using NASA's Deep Space Network and state-of-the-art computer models, scientists were able to significantly shrink uncertainties in Bennu's orbit determining its total impact probability through the year 2300 is about 1 in 1,750 (or 0.057%)," the release reads. "The researchers were also able to identify Sept. 24, 2182, as the most significant single date in terms of a potential impact, with an impact probability of 1 in 2,700 (or about 0.037%)."

OSIRIS-REx spent more than two years in close proximity to Bennu before it finally left the area on May 10 and it studied virtually everything it could about the asteroid. It even grabbed a sample of the asteroid's rock and dust, which will make its way back to Earth aboard OSIRIS-REX on Sept. 24, 2023.

Study lead Davide Farnocchia said NASA's never modeled an asteroid's trajectory to this level of precision — a very high degree of certainty through 2135 — before. The measurements OSIRIS-REx took allow NASA to determine Bennu's orbit over time and whether or not it will pass through a gravitational keyhole, which is "an area in space that would set Bennu on a path toward a future impact with Earth if the asteroid were to pass through them at certain times due to Earth's gravitational pull," during its 2135 approach.

The team also studied the Yarkovsky effect and how it effects Bennu.

"Among those forces, the Sun's heat plays a crucial role," the release reads. "As an asteroid travels around the Sun, sunlight heats up its dayside. Because the asteroid spins, the heated surface will rotate away and cool down when it enters the nightside. As it cools, the surface releases infrared energy, which generates a small amount of thrust on the asteroid."

Study co-investigator Steve Chesley said the Yarkovsky effect affects all asteroids, including Bennu. OSIRIS-REx gave NASA the first opportunity to measure this effect as Bennu traveled around the Sun. Chesley said the effect on Bennu is equivalent to "the weight of three grapes constantly acting on the asteroid." They also said that effect is tiny but significant in determining Bennu's future impact over the decades and centuries to come.

Other include the Sun's gravity, the planets, their moons, and other asteroids in its path. The team also studied the pressure of solar wind, the drag caused by interplanetary dust, and Bennu's particle-ejection events. They even had to take into account the force OSIRIS-REx exerted on Bennu when it collected the rock sample and left the asteroid's surface.

"Although a 0.057% impact probability through the year 2300 and an impact probability of 0.037% on Sept. 24, 2182, are low, this study highlights the crucial role that OSIRIS-REx operations played in precisely characterizing Bennu's obit," the release reads.

For more about asteroids, read this story about a metallic asteroid between Mars and Jupiter that has an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion and then read about how humans could live on a floating asteroid belt in space. Check out this first look at an asteroid sample from space after that, then read about how a meteorite piece found in Africa could be from an ancient planet.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

HBO Max has released a clip from Season 3 of Titans, featuring Jason Todd (Curran Walters) and Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) debating whether or not they should go after the Joker.

The first three episodes of Titans Season 3 will debut on Thursday, August 12, with subsequent episodes launching weekly every Thursday through October 21 on HBO Max.

IGN can exclusively reveal this exciting clip from Titans Season 3, courtesy of Warner Bros. Television, in the video below or at the top of the page:

"Titans follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find where they belong. In Season 3, circumstances draw our heroes to Gotham City, where they will reunite with old friends and face new threats," according to a synopsis from HBO Max.

In other Titans Season 3 news, Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser is joining the cast as Scarecrow, along with Boyhood's Savannah Welch as Barbara Gordon.

What did you think of the clip? Let us know in the comments. Be sure to check out the first three episodes of Titans Season 3 when it debuts on HBO Max on Thursday, August 12.

David Griffin is the TV Streaming Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Sources have confirmed that Lucasfilm is looking for an actress to play a live-action version of Star Wars Rebels' Sabine Wren in the upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka series.

As reported by Slashfilm, The Hollywood Reporter published an article about Marvel's What If…? series and they were discussing animated characters who have made the jump to live-action when they threw in a line that, "[Roasrio] Dawson is leading a live-action Ahsoka spinoff for Disney+, with sources saying Lucasfilm is looking for an actress to star opposite Dawson as Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren."

For those unfamiliar, Sabine Wren is a human female Mandalorian warrior who was one of the main characters of Star Wars Rebels. Without spoiling too much, the end of Rebels saw Ahsoka and Sabine together, which would make her addition to this new series make total sense.

There have also been a ton of hints in The Mandalorian that we may see a live-action version of Sabine, as the first trailer for The Mandalorian's second season and other promo images have featured a ton of graffiti, which is very important to Sabine's character. Furthermore, Sabine Wren was once the holder of the Darksaber, the weapon that Moff Gideon had control of in The Mandalorian.

Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that Star Wars: Ahsoka is set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, and that Rangers of the Old Republic, the Ahsoka series, and The Mandalorian, would all culminate in a "climactic story event."

Rosario Dawson first appeared in the 13th episode of The Mandalorian, and she will once again become Ahsoka for this new show on Disney+, perhaps with a few friends as well.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.