X

CNET Magazine catches up with Keegan-Michael Key

I got to see the comedian test his action hero moves, while our team talked with would-be Mars astronauts and doctors saving lives remotely.

Connie Guglielmo SVP, AI Edit Strategy
Connie Guglielmo is a senior vice president focused on AI edit strategy for CNET, a Red Ventures company. Previously, she was editor in chief of CNET, overseeing an award-winning team of reporters, editors and photojournalists producing original content about what's new, different and worth your attention. A veteran business-tech journalist, she's worked at MacWeek, Wired, Upside, Interactive Week, Bloomberg News and Forbes covering Apple and the big tech companies. She covets her original nail from the HP garage, a Mac the Knife mug from MacWEEK, her pre-Version 1.0 iPod, a desk chair from Next Computer and a tie-dyed BMUG T-shirt. She believes facts matter.
Expertise I've been fortunate to work my entire career in Silicon Valley, from the early days of the Mac to the boom/bust dot-com era to the current age of the internet, and interviewed notable executives including Steve Jobs. Credentials
  • Member of the board, UCLA Daily Bruin Alumni Network; advisory board, Center for Ethical Leadership in the Media
See full bio
Connie Guglielmo
2 min read

As a passionate sci-fi fan, I was pretty excited to get the inside scoop on what director Shane Black has planned for the reboot of the aliens-come-to-kill-us thriller Predator.

But Keegan-Michael Key, our cover pick for the summer issue of CNET Magazine, would only give me a few hints about what we'll see in The Predator, which hits theaters in September. Key plays an ex-Marine who joins a band of "burned out soldiers suffering from PTSD" to -- what else? -- save humanity from the scary looking hunter alien introduced in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic.

"Shane Black sent us a memo that was quite poetically written prior to shooting, and the gist of the memo was, 'I want a bunch of knights... who were rejects from the Round Table... knocking rust off their armor and going back into battle," Key told me in our cover Q&A, published Tuesday. "The beginning of the movie is like you're watching six stooges."

Key also explained what it is he loves about classic kung-fu action movies, how he let his Tesla down and what he loves and hates about tech (automated walkways at airports figure into that story). He also did a CNET Unboxing for us with his favorite gadget from when he was a kid growing up in Chicago (watch it below) and shared a few more details about The Predator, which also stars our spring 2016 magazine cover star Olivia Munn.

But Key isn't the only story sci-fi fans should check out in this issue. 

After trying out a meditation pod to help detox from her smartphone addiction, Shara Tibken traveled to Hawaii to get an insider's look at the months' long training that NASA puts would-be Mars astronauts through. And Erin Carson talked to NASA researchers and other companies working to help those astronauts be self-sufficient in space for their years' long missions.

keegancover

When it comes to health and medicine, the future is here. Patrick Holland spent time with cute furry robots that are filling in for live therapy animals. The robots are used  to comfort kids battling cancer and people suffering from depression and dementia. Abrar al-Heeti reports on the virtual front lines of patient care, where doctors are using WhatsApp and other telemedicine systems to help diagnose and treat patients thousands of miles away -- including in war-ravaged Syria.  

And if you're doing any summer travel, you might want to see what Lexy Saviddes found out about how cockpits of the future -- complete with 3D imaging tech called synthetic vision -- are aiming to make aviation safer than ever.

There's lots more in our summer issue -- and in every issue of CNET's magazine. I hope you'll take some time to add these stories to your reading list. 

The Smartest Stuff: Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you, and the things around you, smarter.