House of the Dragon is still on track to last four seasons, showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed in a press conference following the series' finale on Sunday.

Condal's answer came in response to a question about whether or not the Game of Thrones spinoff, which just wrapped up its second season, will last for five seasons. Both Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin and HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi have previously said they expect it to last a minimum of four seasons, with Orsi saying it "could be more."

Condal, however, hedged in his response, saying, "No, I think it's four."

His team is currently in the midst of writing Season 3, which is expect to start production in "early-ish 2025." That would likely put the premiere date for House of the Dragon's third season at some point in 2026.

House of the Dragon Seasons 3 and 4 will retain the same "cadence"

As for how many episodes the final two seasons will be, Condal said he hasn't had conversations with HBO about it, but added, "I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from Season 2 on."

At eight episodes, House of the Dragon's second season was two shorter than its first. Naturally, plans can change, but with the story it's based on already complete, it faces a less formidable task adapting its source material than its parent series did.

In the meantime, we were broadly positive on House of the Dragon's Season 2 finale in our review, writing, "It felt like loads of pieces were moved into place for the future, a really exciting future at that. And then, yet again, it proved to be all cliffhanger for next time, and a season finale needs to do more than that."

We have tons of House of the Dragon Season 2 coverage here on IGN, including 54 changes from Fire & Blood in Season 2 and our ranking of its various villains. House of the Dragon is currently available for streaming on Max.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

A new John Wick TV series is in development according to Deadline, this one set directly after the events of John Wick: Chapter 4. While it doesn't yet have a home, Lionsgate Television is said to be actively shopping the series to various streaming services.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the latest in what has become the shockingly long-running Planet of the Apes series, which now sits at four movies and counting. And if its creators have anything to say, it's far from finished. In fact, we might only be at the midpoint.

In a new THR interview on the occasion of Kingdom of the Planets of the Apes' release, creators Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa, who penned the original Rise of the Planet of the Apes, hinted at what's to come for the franchise. According to Jaffa, Kingdom of the Planets sets the foundation for "at least two more movies with the characters," which would in effect make it the beginning of another trilogy.

But they might not even be done after that.

"When you first came up with this idea, the Apes franchise way back, you saw nine movies. We thought, 'This is crazy ambitious.' But here we are. We’re at four," Silver says.

Jaffa, for his part, envisioned nine movies, adding, "I don’t know if we’ll make it to nine. I would love it. We’ve spoken to not just Wes and Josh and [producer] Joe Hartwick Jr., but to Steve Asbell and Scott Aversano at 20th about what these next movies can be."

Where the series goes next, it will be a remarkable run for the Planets of the Apes saga, which kicked off with 2011's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the latest movie in the series, featuring a lush post-apocalyptic world fully ruled by intelligent apes. It stars Owen Teague in the lead role as Noa, a young chimpanzee hunter, who joins in a journey with a young woman named Mae (Frey Allan).

Sins of a Solar Empire 2, the anticipated strategy sequel by Ironclad Games that is being published by Stardock, is finally releasing on Steam this summer. But unbeknownst to many fans, it effectively stealth launched on the Epic Game Store more than a year ago — a release that publisher Stardock has mostly declined to publicize until now.

Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is the sequel to the cult-favorite PC strategy game released in 2008. Like the original, it will combine elements of real-time strategy with 4X empire-building, but practically speaking it's an excuse to see a lot of cool spaceship battles. The new game will add support for multiple cores — yes, the original is that old — while refining numerous elements of the game, such as orbiting planets.

The sequel was quietly released into early access in late 2022, leaving some fans confused over the nature of Stardock's relationship with Epic and leading to speculation over whether an exclusivity arrangement was in place. Asked for clarification, Epic declined to comment on terms with developers and publishers.

Several months after its initial release, Stardock removed the early access flag but otherwise remained silent. It wasn't until Wednesday's announcement that Sins of a Solar Empire 2 went public with a major announcement to fans and the press.

In a statement sent to IGN, CEO Brad Wardell explained why Stardock held back its marketing push until now. "We view Sins 2 as an ongoing service that continues to evolve over time, which you can see with our regular update cadence over the past 18 months since the game first appeared on Epic Games Store," Wardell said.

"Epic has been and continues to be a great partner, but we know that many of our fans are dedicated to Steam for their libraries and we know we only get one shot at a Steam release, so we decided to wait on doing any marketing push until we were ready for that. We’ve been working on a massive update for the past several months to coincide with the Steam release, and this will also be made available to our Epic fans for free."

Sins of a Solar Empire 2 hopes to match the content of the original

Elsewhere, Wardell talked about Sins of a Solar Empire 2's evolution since its late 2022 release, telling PC Gamer that its goal was to release Sins of a Solar Empire 2 1.0 with "the same or more content as the original release of Sins of a Solar Empire 1.0."

"Once we hit that milestone in early 2023, we turned off the early access flag and began working on what amounts to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion feature/content parity which we will reach this summer and is the version being released onto Steam and as part of a massive free update for Epic users," he said.

"We are aware that most people who have played Sins of a Solar Empire think of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion as the definitive version which is why we have waited until we had reached that level of content to begin our larger public awareness campaign."

While Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is technically out of early access, it's far from feature complete. Among other things, Stardock is still planning to add the Advent Unity race, which will become available alongside the Steam release. As previously mentioned, the new content will be made available free to users who already own Sins of a Solar Empire 2 on Epic Games Store.

"With new ways to play, new tactical options, and new strategic elements, the time is right to bring Sins of a Solar Empire II to a new audience on Steam,” said Stardock publishing director Brian Clair in a release. “We’ve spent the past year bringing free monthly content updates to the game on the Epic Games Store, where it’s been positively reviewed by fans, and look forward to sharing all that work with Steam players while continuing to bring even more new content to the game.”

Sins of a Solar Empire 2's Steam release date is currently listed as Q3 2024. For more, check out our list of the best PC games to play right now.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Warner Bros. has confirmed Parasite and Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-Ho's upcoming sci-fi movie Mickey 17 will hit cinemas (including IMAX) on January 31, 2025.

Until today, Mickey 17 had been without a release date for the past six weeks. The film was previously intended to arrive on March 29, 2024, but in January Warner Bros. brought forward the release of Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire to that date and removed Mickey 17 from the schedule.

Based on the Edward Ashton novel Mickey7, Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a crew member on a space colonisation mission who is known as an 'Expendable'. Expendables are sent on suicide missions, though when one dies they are regenerated in a new body with most of their memories.