On Thursday, February 19, Vikings returns to the History Channel for a third season and it’s going to be a whopper. Until then, here’s a bit of info to help get you ready.

While awaiting the land he’s been promised by the English, Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), the “farmer who made himself a king,” turns his warriors towards the supposedly impenetrable city of Paris. Ever a warmonger, the new King can’t resist sieging the city and proving the strength and legend of his Norsemen. Family continues to play an important role for Ragnar, with his son Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) searching for his own place, his brother Rollo (Clive Standen) firmly at his side, and his former wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) now allied with him too.

Four new characters will join History’s hit scripted drama this season. Harbard (Kevin Durand), whose arrival has been dreamt of by Queen Aslaug, Siggy, and Helga, will turn up suddenly and have a profound effect on the three women. Kalf (Ben Robson) is Lagertha’s ambitious and perhaps duplicitous second in command. Emperor Charles of France (Lothaire Bluteau) will face off with the Vikings though he views the battle as spiritual, and his daughter, Princess Gisla (Morgana Polanski), may possess more courage and resolve than even he.

If you’re looking to catch up or just get a refresher, seasons one and two of Vikings are available on Amazon and Hulu. Check out the extended trailer for the new season after the break.

Kicking their Batman 75th anniversary celebration into high gear, DC revealed the new Batman Beyond animated short at WonderCon 2014. Though only a little longer than a minute, the short features the two original voice actors from the series, Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne and Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis. Check it out below, courtesy of Yahoo Movies:

Darwyn Cooke, the writer and artist of Batman Beyond, was commissioned to make this short. Batman fans were surely notice the Batman costumes from throughout the Caped Crusader’s history, including Adam West and the original comic book design by Bob Kane. This minute and 15 seconds was definitely a reminder of the genius of Batman Beyond and a great way to celebrate The Dark Knight’s 75th birthday.

The short airs on TV following Teen Titans at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, on Cartoon Network. Take a look after the break.

DC Universe will premiere its 20th animated original movie at WonderCon this Friday, April 18. Son of Batman will have its world premiere in the Anaheim Convention Center’s Arena theater at 6 p.m. A panel discussion with the cast and filmmakers will follow the screening.

In Son of Batman, Bruce Wayne (Jason O’Mara) learns he has a son, Damian (Stuart Allan), whose mother is Talia al Ghul. He takes the boy in to train him as the new Robin and father and son form an uneasy partnership to take down the criminal enterprise, Deathstroke. Sean Maher (Nightwing) and Xander Berkeley (Langstrom) also star in the movie produced by James Tucker and directed by Ethan Spaulding. Check out a clip from the film below:

An encore screening of the movie is also available Sunday, April 20, at 1:15 p.m. in the Arena. The animated feature, which is based on Grant Morrison’s DC storyline, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD May 6, 2014.

Check out the clip after the break.

At long last, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans can indulge in collectibles. Dark Horse Comics and Nickelodeon have announced plans for brand new products based on Avatar as well as The Legend of Korra.

Soon you can show off your Water, Earth, Air or Fire Nation pride with an array of merchandise including figurines, drinkware, coasters, magnets, playing cards, lunch boxes (pictured below), pins, plush, and limited-edition statues.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are some of the finest animated television shows ever created,” David Scroggy, Dark Horse Vice President, Product Development, said. “We feel a strong responsibility to bring forward the creators’ vision as accurately as possible in the style they have established, and we are excited to bring these products to fans.”

Friends, Shakespeareans, gamers, lend me your ears! IDW Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a Kill Shakespeare board game, based on the graphic novel series.

With a goal of $25,000, Kill Shakespeare is the first joint venture between IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games. The campaign includes perks such as lithographs, posters, custom dice and of course the game itself, at a deeply discounted rate. Stretch goals are also in place to expand game content to include additional characters and quests.

The game itself is a semi-cooperative board game where players are one of Shakespeare’s heroes battling against his villains while completing quests from the Bard himself.

Attention fans of Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling book series! Here’s your first look at actor Sam Heughan playing the charming Scottish warrior Jaime Fraser in Starz’s adaptation of popular novels.

For those of you not versed in the Outlander series, Jaime woos the married Claire Randell (Caitriona Balfe), who has suddenly jumped back in time to 1743. She is originally from 1943 where she’s  a combat nurse.

Starz’s Outlander is an adaptation of Gabaldon’s best-selling book series of the same name (the first book is re-titled as Cross Stitch in the UK). Equal parts romance, historical, and fantasy, the series began with Outlander in 1991 and  continues with Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

The the first of Outlander‘s 16 episodes will air starting in 2014.

When the Avatar dies, a new Avatar is chosen right away. When The Legend of Korra season one ended, fans had to wait a bit longer for the new season. Returning almost 18 months after the season finale of Book One: Air, Book 2: Spirits premieres this September on Nickelodeon and it looks incredible.

Those at the Korra panel at SDCC responded to a special screening of the first episode, “Rebel Spirit,” with roaring applause. Spirits picks up six months after Air with Republic City slowly returning to normal now that Amon and the Equalists are gone. But Korra has a new battle to face when the physical and spirit worlds collide, pushing her to discover more about both realms.

Book 2 will also explore the origins of the Avatar with Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead’s Glenn) voicing the very first Avatar, Wan. Ten thousand years before Korra’s time, Wan was just a teenage and skilled bender whose quest to bring balance between mankind and the spirits led to him become the first to master all four elements.

Originally slated to return this summer, the extra few months looks like it will be well worth it. The trailer is stunning in its teasing of storylines (Korra enters the Spirit World! Spirit Library with the terrifying owl!) and the beauty of the animation paired with the quiet musical score of the show.

The final season of Spartacus: War of the Damned begins January 25^th on Starz.  That’s tonight! We left off last season with Spartacus and his merry band of rebels facing the full might of the Roman legion, which are not against pulling shenanigans.

I was more than happy to sit down with Manu Bennett, who plays the undefeated Gaul and Spartacus BFF, Crixus.  Manu was passionate, assured, and especially candid as he spoke about his former co-star Andy Whitfield and what awaits Crixus in the new season. Generous to a fault, he also shared some spoils of war. (Note: This interview contains spoilers.)

The Flickcast: “Be Here Now” is emblazoned on your shirt.  Can you talk about why the phrase “Be Here Now” is important to you?

Manu Bennett: “Be Here Now” was a tattoo Andy [Whitfield] had on his forearm when he was going through his cancer treatment.  There’s a documentary that’s going to be coming out soon.

Rather than not being in the know about what happened to Andy, this documentary is for people who are really interested in the show and really fell in love with Andy and I know there’s so many people out there who did. I’m sure Andy would have liked everyone to go and watch this documentary to see what cancer can destroy in this life.

Funny or Die is known for bringing together some crazy casts for often hilarious internet videos. To capitalize on the current Olympic fever they have released one of their better videos yet.

Starring Sir Patrick Stewart, The Olympic Scalper follows a London ticket scalper as he looks to break scalping history at the games. The video also stars Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams, Olympian Ryan Lochte and the incomparable Simon Pegg.

The sketch is generally pretty damned hilarious, but the exchange between Pegg and Stewart had me in stitches. It is great to see these guys take the piss out of one of their mutual golden geese.

These little projects are exactly why new media on the internet is the way of the future. The internet is the wild west of filmmaking, anything goes and the fast gun stands above the rules we have grown accustomed to. I mean seriously, the fact that something like this exists for no other reason than to make you giggle for 3 minutes is pretty much proof positive that the world is a pretty splendid place.

Check out the video over at Funny or Die and stay tuned in to The Flickcast should any more slices of awesome come across our radar.

The Last of Us is one of the most anticipated games set to release in the next 12 months. From the creators of the Uncharted series, this new IP promises an epic story centered around a post-apocalyptic world, told in a cinematic and engrossing way.

Some crafty fans out there have marshalled that anticipation and turned it into a piece of internet gold. Using the still shockingly endless sandbox that is Little Big Planet 2, YouTuber theclassicevil  has crafted a recreation of the most recent The Last of Us trailer.

As a self professed Sony fanboy, this Sony on Sony IP love fest really does things for me. However, the creativity, and general hilarity, of this video has some heavy cross over appeal. Using Little Big Planet 2 in such a creative way illustrates a key point Sony proponents like to make.

The Playstation 3 era is being defined by its boundary pushing approach to tent pole IPs. Little Big Planet and Mod Nation Racers both emphasis creativity and community in their multiplayer experience.  Something that has never really existed on a console before. And on the other end of the spectrum is the games by Naughty Dog, the developer of The Last of Us, that showcase immersive entertainment experiences that give you all the best parts of playing a game, watching a movie and reading a novel all in one package.

Check out the trailer recreation after the jump.

Andrew Stanton might have taken a blow with the commercial dud that was John Carter, but he is still responsible for two of the greatest animated films of all time, Finding Nemo & Wall-E. If anyone deserves a do over pass, it is that guy.

Recently the director shared something rather fun with the guys over at LA Times Hero Complex:

The two-time Oscar winner was the guest after our Sunday matinee screening of the most cosmic of Pixar films and he mentioned that the editorial department at Pixar had a bit of fun by taking a reference model of M-O over to the Sears Portrait Studio where warm family memories are preserved forever, um … tasteful flair?

PIXAR has long been known for adding mountains of humanity to animated inanimate objects, and Wall-E might have been their pinnacle. It is amazing how much personality and soul they managed to put into these, mostly, speechless robots.

Clearly that humanity was fostered behind the scenes too, as evidenced by these silly pictures. It is amazing that these characters make so such of an impact that even reference models paraded around in a series of family portraits can provoke an emotion.

Take a look at these adorable pictures after the jump, and don’t forget to catch the next PIXAR film, Brave, in theaters June 22nd.

The internet is a many-splendored thing. You can get lost at one turn and find yourself staring at something all together unexpected and beautiful. Which is exactly what happened to me when I ran into the very fantastic art work if Daniel Araya.

First spotted by the eagle-eyed guys over at Bleeding Cool, this set of art work posits a word where the Justice League gets its own Pixar style big budget CG animated movie. Any fan of the iconic DC characters or just animation in general have to appreciate this experiment.

Just for fun I started doing concepts for a faux Justice League CG movie. I’ve always been a huge fan of Bruce Timm and the DC Timmverse he helped create, and I thought it would be cool to basically design the JLA movie that I would direct if given the chance. I didn’t do any huge drastic changes because I didn’t want to betray the characters in terms of who they are and what they’re about.

And cool it very much is. Of course we will NEVER see a Pixar Justice League film, mostly in the same way we will never get a Warner Bros. released X-Men film or a Pepsi brand Coke bottle. But it is fun to think what the possibilities would be if Warner Bros started doing some smart things with their DC stable and gave a guy like Bruce Timm the budget required to do a Pixar size film.