WIRE Buzz: Rise of Skywalker trailer goes viral; The Good Place first look; more

Franchises that were once thought over and done with return in today’s WIRE Buzz with renewed strength. Street Fighter and Star Wars show up in full force after hanging around longer than anyone anticipated, while Gunpowder Milkshake adds an actress to its action-centric cast whose addition makes the film feel timeless. Oh, and The Good Place is getting back to the afterlife.

First, let’s talk about the end of the Skywalker saga. According to Deadline, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has already become a landmark with its teaser trailer alone. That trailer, which debuted at Chicago’s Star Wars Celebration (where SYFY WIRE was in the room), shocked the world with its title, its characters, and yes, its ominous laugh. It also did huge traffic — more even than its new trilogy companions.

With 111M views in just 24 hours, it beat out Stars Wars: The Last Jedi’s 91M and more than doubles that of Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ 24-hour total. Those are great numbers for Star Wars (which aren’t necessarily great numbers compared to the juggernaut that is the MCU, but what are?), but you also have to factor in all the people watching the livestream — people seeing that trailer the moment it launched. Those numbers help bump its total as well as explain its virality, which is beating out all the modern Star Wars films as well.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters Dec. 20.

Next, the assassin thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, has some equally awesome news: Angela Bassett is joining the cast.

Deadline reports the actress will be joining the likes of Karen Gillan and Lena Headey as Anna May, “one of the unassuming leaders of a massive armory.” The female-focused film, from directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, is supposed to span multiple generations — making it sound like it encompasses a legacy of a hired killer underworld like John Wick. It also boasts stars with resumes from Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Game of Thrones, so it’s certainly not lacking in the badassery department.

No word on when the film begins production.

But, The Good Place knows exactly when it returns to production, releasing an entire video dedicated to updating fans about its fourth season.

Take a look:

There’s not much here about the afterlife-based NBC comedy, but at least fans get a glimpse of all their returning favorites (Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto) hanging out behind the scenes on set. The show’s plot is so complex that it’s actually unclear what set they’re on — or, more accurately, what that set signifies at the present part of the story, since there’s been plenty of Good, Medium, and Bad Place-hopping — but it’s good to see some familiarity, at any rate.

The Good Place returns this fall.

Finally, while Mortal Kombat’s new game may be dominating the video game headlines, a different fighting game is making waves in the world of cinema: Street Fighter. That’s because some fans of the franchise just dropped a short film (which also works as a trailer for a supposed upcoming feature film) called Street Fighter: Genesis.

Check it out:

From Moving Box Studios, this footage shows Ryu (Marc Canonizado) being hunted by the cigar-chomping M. Bison (Roy Elghanayan), while flaming fists and electric abs bolster some cool-looking fights. And yes, there’s a Hadouken.

The film was written and directed by Joe Zohar and also stars Sage Northcutt, Seth Petruzelli, Kyle Devero, Kaden Vu, Colin Bryant, Antuone Torbert, and Daniel Lue. And no, sorry, there’s no Jean-Claude Van Damme.

The full film is planned to drop some time in 2020.