Hello and welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things that are happening! It’s been a strange week for many of us but some things remain reassuringly constant: as Jessica Mason observed in The Mary Sue, Supernatural has a gif for this. Season 5 episode ‘The End’, which aired in 2009, featured a postapocalyptic world in which prophet Chuck Shurley advised Dean to ‘Hoard toilet paper… like it’s made of gold’. Time for a rewatch?

We might be stuck rewatching old episodes of our favourite shows for a little while; like many other movie and television productions across the world, production came to a halt this week on the current (and final) season of Supernatural with just two episodes left to film. Producer Jim Michaels tweeted a reassuring message to fans:

When it is safe to return to work, we will finish what we have started. #SPNFamily #Supernatural @cw_spn https://t.co/km93uukFyb — Jim Michaels (@TheJimMichaels) March 17, 2020

As well as production delays, the Covid-19 situation has seen the postponement of numerous festivals, conventions, and movie releases. As well as the new James Bond film, No Time To Die, which has been delayed until November, Disney is holding off on the live-action Mulan, and X-Men movie The New Mutants, which has already seen a series of delays, had its April release date cancelled.

On the other hand, some studios have opted to hurry forward the release of some titles to streaming: Birds of Prey, the Harley Quinn movie that’s still showing in some theatres, will be digitally available from March 24. And new forms of entertainment have been springing up into the void that the others have left! Twitter is hosting Covideo Parties, art clubs and bedtime stories for bored children (or just those who like to be read to sleep). Culture adapts pretty quickly, it seems!

Something else to do when you need to spend more time at home than you’d anticipated: play video games. Fortunately, Animal Crossing has a new edition (‘New Horizons’) scheduled for March 20, and the fandom is bubbling with anticipation. GQ, reviewing the new game, describes Animal Crossing as ‘not so much a game as it is a lifestyle’, commenting on its ‘peaceful relaxation vibe’ (just what’s needed in the current circumstances!). Elsewhere, NewsDio has been speculating that one of the update’s new villagers is named after a grandmother who hit the news last year for having racked up over 3,500 hours playing the original game. And finally, fans Channy and Kimberley have put together a fanvid featuring character Tom Nook advertising some of the in-game technology, in the style of an early iPhone ad. It’s cute!



Sticking with video games, Alex Kane in Forbes published a nice article this week about an Elder Scrolls zine put together by female and femme nonbinary fans to mark International Women’s Day (March 8th). Kane comments on the game’s global fandom, picks out some notable fan creators, and talks to the zine’s editor, Lady N, about her role. He also links to the zine, which is available as a downloadable PDF.

That’s it for this week: but there’s never been a better time for fanworks recs. Let us know in the comments what you’ve been enjoying – longfic? Hurt/comfort? Whatever it is, we want to hear about it!