WIRE Buzz: Crossdressing Cloud in Final Fantasy VII trailer; Jurassic World 3 dino teased; more

They’ve been clamoring for it for months, and today legions of Final Fantasy fans finally found their fantasies fulfilled: Crossdressing Cloud and other throwback favorites from the original Final Fantasy VII are alive and well in 2020, and they’ll be included in Square Enix’s ambitious, multi-chapter remake.

After tons of fan speculation and hand-wringing over whether the remake could delicately update some of the 1997 game’s most memorable characters and moments while navigating a slate of present-day sensibilities, the studio has dropped a meaty trailer filled with nearly all-new footage. The nearly 4-minute clip assures players not only that Cloud will still get his quality time with Don Corneo and the Honey Bee Inn, but that the previously missing-in-action Red XIII is returning to the party — and yes, he even speaks. 

While the trailer is loaded with I-spy moments and nostalgic nods to the original, not all of the characters and events it shows appear during the original game’s early Midgar portion — which is what the studio says the upcoming game will cover. Sephiroth making his voice heard, battling with Jenova, and more — there’s plenty here that may (or may not) suggest that some of the new footage is aimed at showing what’s in store beyond this spring’s first arrival, in what the studio is touting as an episode-based remake series, with each story-advancing installment landing like a full-scale AAA game, and each the length of a standalone RPG.

There’s tons more to look out for in all this new footage (the whole thing is framed by a new theme song from legendary FF composer Nobuo Uematsu), so we’re really just scratching the surface here. But it’s definitely safe to say the new clip brings FFVII’s cyberpunk dystopia even further into the present world of cutting-edge graphics, obscuring our memories of the blocky pixels and left-to-the-imagination sprites of its iconic predecessor. Following a recent delay that pushed the game’s arrival several weeks from its planned March 3 debut, the first installment of Final Fantasy VII Remake is slated to release for PlayStation 4 on April 10.

You could blink and miss it, but the brief practical puppetry footage that Jurassic World 3 director Colin Trevorrow is sharing on Twitter serves up a mind-bendingly realistic (and cute) tease of all the effort that’s being put into the film trilogy’s final movie.

Captioning his short set video with “next steps,” perhaps to suggest the adorable baby triceratops puppet in the clip still has some growing up to do, Trevorrow showed off the animatronic creation’s lifelike head-wagging abilities, which astound even in this early stage of development.

Other than the observation that this little fella is halfway behind bars, there’s no other context yet for what it might mean. And there’s still plenty of time between now and the movie’s summer 2021 release for our new dino pal to get some color and maybe even play a key role in the trilogy’s final chapter.

Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, and Isabella Sermon — and returning Jurassic Park originals Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and BD Wong, Jurassic World 3 thunders to life in theaters on June 11 of next year.

Not that we need new proof after three decades that there’s anything The Simpsons won’t do for a laugh, but the show’s new crossover home at Disney appears to be opening up easy access to make good on some pretty far-fetched (and funny) ideas. 

TV Line reports that husband-and-wife duo Cobie Smulders and Taran Killam, who both just happen to have regular Marvel gigs (Smulders as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, Killam as a spinner of Spider-Man comic book yarns), are teaming up to voice a pair of Avengers-style superhero roles for an upcoming Simpsons episode.

Smulders and Killam will reportedly play heroes named Hydrangea (Smulders) and Airshot (Killam), wacky Avengers-inspired icons in The Simpsons’ phony Vindicator cinematic movie-verse. Via the report: “When two movie execs (played by, wink, wink, Marvel auteurs Joseph and Anthony Russo) discover Bart has seen the [Vindicator] movie, they will stop at nothing to keep ‘Spoiler Boy’ from ruining the pic’s top-secret plot for fans.”

As previously reported, Marvel creative chief Kevin Feige will also appear in the March 1 episode, titled “Bart the Bad Guy,” as Chinnos — the main Vindicator alien supervillain. With the Russos as well as Smulders and Killam on board, it sounds like a Marvel-ous ride — so long as Bart doesn’t spoil it.