5 cultural events we actually care about in 2016

1. Star Wars: Rogue One Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens has bowled over critics and fans alike, we have to wonder if the next Star Wars can keep the momentum going. Someone’s going to drop the ball sometime — will it be Gareth Edwards with the story of the guys who stole the Death Star plans? Or will this Ocean’s 11- type caper be another hit?

2. Views From The 6 Drake has been teasing his official follow up to 2013’ s Nothing Was The Same for nearly two years now. With the NBA All- Star Game headed to Toronto, mysterious billboards popping up around the city and Apple Music’s mighty wind at his back, the time seems right for the 6 God to finally drop the year’s most anticipated album.

3. Viceland The 24- hour Vice channel is officially debuting next year, and it will be a reckoning for news/documentary TV, if not cable television as a whole. Vice seems to be the only brand that’s managed to convince young people to mass- consume anything resembling traditional media forms, or at least they’ve convinced advertisers and television networks they can influence millennials.

4. The High Mountains of Portugal The fourth novel by Yann Martel is, just like his breakthrough Life of Pi, an allegory of great love and great loss. It will track an entire century through three connected stories described as “part quest, part ghost story and part contemporary fable.” Martel’s first book still keeps selling; it recently surpassed nine million copies. His next, Beatrice and Virgil got disappointing reviews. The watch is on for a track- record tiebreaker.

5. Online Video The Daily Show started it. Jimmy Fallon mastered it. James Corden is using it. And not a Monday morning goes by without YouTube links of John Oliver rants being shared on Twitter and Facebook. Expect online video shorts to go beyond late night as content producers get increasingly desperate to reach a younger demographic.