FISCHER: Five Things For 2024

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

It’s a new year with a bevy of geeky things to look forward to. From video games to movies to television, here are five projects coming up in 2024 that have caught my eye.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Back in the chaotic days of 2020 the misleadingly named “Final Fantasy VII Remake” was one of the few things that made the idea of staying inside all day a lot more appealing. While not exactly a remake of original JRPG, the game was still a joy to experience.

This year, its sequel, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,” is promising to be even bigger and better. More characters, a more open world, and new insights about the mysterious story that will unfold over the trilogy of games.

Alas, while the game comes out on Feb. 29, I have no PS5 to play it on and will sadly have to wait for the PC release in, hopefully, 2025. Wish me luck that I can avoid spoilers until then.

Alone in the Dark

The original “Alone in the Dark” from 1992 heavily inspired the early Resident Evil games and now it looks like things have come full circle, with an upcoming entry that plays a lot like the “Resident Evil 2” remake.

Now that my beloved Resident Evil franchise has once again abandoned the survival/horror genre in favor of mindless action shooting gameplay, the original survival/horror pioneer is crawling back out of obscurity to reclaim its title.

2024’s “Alone in the Dark,” designated by year due to being the third time the franchise has used that exact title for a game, looks primed to provide all the puzzle solving horror that I crave. I was impressed by a short demo released last year and am greatly looking forward to seeing what the final product has to offer.

It also stars David Harbour for some reason, which I still find weird. Sure, games have been doing motion capture performances for years now, but somehow it’s still a novelty when somebody known for movies and television becomes a playable digitized character.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

In all honesty, “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” should be in this spot. However, the SAG-AFTRA strike last year has wreaked havoc on the movie release schedule. As a result, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” which was supposed to come out last month, has moved into Spider-Man’s March 29 release date. Meanwhile, the third movie in the Spider-Verse trilogy has yet to be rescheduled.

Regardless, it’s still a Sony movie in March I’m looking forward to. I love Ghostbusters and was pleasantly surprised by the 2021 revival, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

Now that the franchise has gotten all the “memberberries” out of its system, I’m curious to see what adventures the old generation, the new generation, and the rest of the movie’s admittedly kind of bloated cast get up to in this new installment.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Once upon a time, for a few years at least, the Christmas season meant holiday decorations, cheerful music, and waiting outside the theater for tickets to the latest installment of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

This year, that tradition continues. Granted, waiting in line outside the theater is a lost art in the age of reserve seating and digital sales, but nevertheless, this December will see Middle-Earth return to the big screen with “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” an animated feature directed by anime veteran Kenji Kamiyama.

I’m well aware that adaptations of the Lord of the Rings franchise haven’t exactly lived up to the bar set by the original film trilogy, but, messy as they are, I enjoyed The Hobbit movies and Amazon’s TV show and I will be in theaters for this, too.

Batman: Caped Crusader

Speaking of Amazon, while the company continues to make me question the value proposition of Amazon Prime by either raising prices or reducing features, it also keeps finding ways to make me want to stick around.

In this case, the notion that Prime Video will now start including ads really makes me consider doing away with the service once and for all. On the other hand, Prime Video is where “Batman: Caped Crusader” will be.

Helmed by Bruce Timm, co-creator of “Batman: The Animated Series,” the new show is set to be a spiritual successor of that franchise defining work.

Originally announced to premiere on HBO Max, the show was once feared lost to the chaos that has been the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. However, Amazon and its bottomless checkbook swooped in to save the day, reportedly picking the show up for a two-season order.

It’s not clear exactly when the show will launch, but at some point in 2024 we should have our first dedicated Batman animated series in a decade.

So there we have it. Five things I’m looking forward to in 2024.

Hopefully.

Last year’s list featured three projects for 2023 that didn’t materialize, including the new Ghostbusters movie. “X-Men ‘97” still has no release date set and the developers of “The Wolf Among Us 2” were laid off last year so who knows what’s going on with that game.

With luck, my predictions will be better for this year.

— Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and is just glad to be able to write this list without the new Zelda game being on it for the first time in years.