The daily gossip: December 12, 2019

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1. The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 are coming out on the same day
2. A Vacation spinoff is headed for HBO Max
3. Carice van Houten says she might be down for a Game of Thrones prequel
4. Get ready for Legally Blonde 3
5. Baby Yoda squeaked into Time's Person of the Year issue

published 12 December 2019

1. The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 are coming out on the same day

If you love Keanu Reeves, clear your schedule on May 21, 2021, because Hollywood is treating you to a double feature. Warner Bros. has announced that The Matrix 4 will arrive in theaters on that date, which also happens to be the date Lionsgate had previously scheduled for the fourth John Wick movie. Honestly: Just cut out the middleman and give us the John Wick vs. Neo movie of our collective dreams.

Let's hope Vacation is all you ever wanted, because you're about to get a lot more of it. The Griswold family — immortalized on the big screen in the movies Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Vegas Vacation, and an Ed Helms-starring reboot you probably forgot about — is bound for the small screen. The new TV series, titled The Griswolds, will premiere on the upcoming streaming service HBO Max, and promises to explore the family's "daily lives in the suburbs of modern-day Chicago," because nothing says "Vacation adaptation" like a bunch of people sitting around at home.

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The upcoming Game of Thrones prequel spinoff House of the Dragon is set hundreds of years before the events of the original series, which makes it rather unlikely that fan favorites like Tyrion Lannister or Arya Stark will be popping in for cameos. But one Game of Thrones actor who could actually, plausibly appear in House of the Dragon says she might be down to reprise her role: Carie van Houten, who played the "red witch" Melisandre. Melisandre was eventually revealed to be very, very old in one of many Game of Thrones plot twists that didn't actually go anywhere — but hey, at least that gives the spinoff something to explore.

Between HBO's Big Little Lies and and Apple TV+'s The Morning Show, Reese Witherspoon has spent much of 2019 on the small screen. But there's one big-screen character she's keen to revive: Elle Woods, the protagonist of 2001's Legally Blonde and its sequel. A third Legally Blonde hasn't formally been greenlit, but Witherspoon confirms that it's on her list: "We discussed it and thought, maybe it's time to revisit" — and given that the last Legally Blonde movie ended with Elle Woods setting her sights on the White House, the 2020 election could be about to get very interesting.

Despite the fact that Baby Yoda isn't, well, a person, Star Wars fans mounted an unlikely-but-inevitable grassroots campaign to make Time name him (or her?) Person of the Year. And while the honor ultimately went to climate activist Greta Thunberg, Baby Yoda did squeak into the issue alongside Disney CEO Bob Iger, who Time dubbed Businessperson of the Year. The illustration accompanying the article depicts Iger cradling Baby Yoda in his arms, which we're sure the Mandalorian himself will have absolutely no problems with.

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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.