HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well, we’re now in the sci-f-isounding 2023, and surely are all due robot dogs any day now. Until they arrive, a huge thank you for joining us for another year. Empire is one big family, as Vin Diesel would say if he were typing this (while swigging a fridge-fresh Corona), which makes us all relatives. Sorry we didn’t get you anything for Christmas, but we do promise to do our absolute best to entertain you over the next 12 months, while delivering state-of-the-art movie and TV news, and striving to affix the correct number of stars to every new release. If there’s anything you’d like us to be doing differently, do drop us a line at letters@empiremagazine.com.
Also: Happy New Phase! Thanos may be space-dust, but a new intergalactic mega-bastard with a fancy throne has risen up to take his place, and Marvel’s Phase Five is where it’s all going to kick off. Our cover star Kang, as played by Jonathan Majors, is primed for mayhem on a spectacular scale, and first on his to-do list is a face-off with the MCU’s most pocket-sized hero, Ant-Man. From page 52, Chris Hewitt speaks to Majors to get intel on why we should all be scared right now, plus the stars facing down Kang, from Paul Rudd to Michelle Pfeiffer.