In a week that’s seen a Playstation Play and the unveiling of two new Pokemon games, gaming news has been rife. Yet, it’s also been the week that saw the BRITs change their eligibility criteria, the creators behind Avatar: The Last Airbender announce future products as part of the franchise and even the release title of the upcoming third Spider-Man movie. To find out more, read this week in news below:
Headlines of the Week
BRIT Awards Eligibility Criteria Change
In a historic moment for the BRIT awards, the eligibility criteria on nationality have finally changed for this year after key artists who missed nominations are now allowed to be considered.
Rina Sawayama, who’s phenomenal debut album SAWAYAMA was released last year, found herself unable to be nominated for the BRIT awards after the initial eligibility criteria didn’t consider her British enough. The Japanese-British singer, who only holds a Japanese passport (Japan doesn’t allow for duel-nationality) but has lived in Britain for the majority of her life, began to lobby for change when critics and fans alike believed her album was one of the best albums of 2020. After an initial wave of disappointment, the singer is reported to have met with award bosses to discuss her circumstances and the situations other singers find themselves in and what qualifies someone as being “British” enough to be considered for the award.
After her meeting with BPI (the organisation that handles both the BRITs and the Mercury Prize), an agreement was reached that allowed the rules for consideration to be altered, meaning that they would now only have to meet one of the following three criteria:
- They were born in the UK.
- They hold a UK passport.
- They have been a resident in the UK for at least five years.
It is the third criteria that Rina Sawayama finds herself and means that the next BRIT awards will see her capable of being nominated in the Best New Artist category.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Franchise Set to Expand
In surprising but well-received news, Nickelodeon has announced they are launching a new division dedicated to the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise.
The new division, named Avatar Studios, will bring back Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as chief creative officers. In a statement released alongside the news, DiMartino and Konietzko said, “It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since we created Avatar: The Last Airbender” and that “after all that time, there are still many stories and time periods in Aang’s world that we are eager to bring to life. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing community of passionate fans that enjoys exploring the Avatarverse as much as we do.” They went onto express how “excited” they were to be back with Nickelodeon, enabling them to do what “we do best in the biggest way possible. We can’t wait to build the great teams and productions to make all of this fantasy a reality.”
The first project expected to release from the new studios will be a feature-length film, but as of storyline, release-date or anything else, no other news has been announced. That said, most fans are excited to see DiMartino and Konietzko back at home on their amazing franchise working with what they do best.
Spider-Man 3 Nets Release Name and Date
In exciting Marvel news, the new name for the upcoming Spider-Man movie has been unveiled as Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The third movie in the Tom Holland led adaptation, will most likely pick up soon after the second film’s ending, promising charismatic shenanigans, great action sequences and a whole lot of heart in the process. The film’s name release comes about though after three fake names were unveiled by different cast members followed a little later by the film’s actual release name, which was revealed to fans through a humorous poke at leading man Holland’s rocky past with spoilers. While plot details remain sparse, speculation has been rife from the Sinister Six featuring as the villains of the film to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield making an appearance and hinting at a multi-verse crossover (although the latter has recently been dismissed by Holland himself).
Turns out we’ll just have to wait to find out more until the film releases on December 17th 2021.
Nostalgic News
Trailers of the Week
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl
Shadow and Bone
