14 Classic Stories That Disney Got Completely Wrong

When adapting a story, it makes sense to alter details here and there, particularly if you want it suitable for children. Some stories need more editing than others, but once you know the depths of how different Disney stories are to their original counterparts, you start to wonder what’s even left of the real tale.

We will always remember a story from its most iconic rendition, or at least for the one we witnessed first. In both cases, the answer to that question tends to be ‘the Disney version,’ but we need to remember there was an original out there, with an intention. These are the stories Disney changed the most, and not always for the better.

Hercules

Disney’s Hercules turns the Greek hero into a lovable underdog battling Hades. In mythology, Hades isn’t the main villain, Hercules isn’t Zeus and Hera’s estranged son, and many of his most famous stories are far darker.

The Little Mermaid

Disney gave Ariel a happy ending and a prince. In Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale, the Little Mermaid suffers heartbreak, fails to win the prince, and ultimately dissolves into sea foam.

Mulan

Disney’s version adds dragons, villains, and a romance subplot. The ancient Chinese poem focuses more on Mulan’s military service and loyalty, with no Mushu, no Shan Yu, and far less fantasy.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Disney transformed The Hunchback of Notre-Dame into a family-friendly adventure. Victor Hugo’s original story ends in tragedy, with major characters dead and little of the film’s optimism.

Pocahontas

The real Pocahontas was around eleven years old when she met English settlers. Disney aged her up, invented a romance with John Smith, and dramatically altered historical events.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Disney softened many of the grim elements from the Brothers Grimm version. The original queen faces a much harsher punishment, and several details are considerably more disturbing.

Cinderella

Disney’s Cinderella is based partly on Charles Perrault’s version, but other classic tellings are much darker. In the Grimm story, stepsisters mutilate their feet and suffer gruesome consequences for their actions.

Sleeping Beauty

The original tale behind Sleeping Beauty contains elements Disney wisely omitted. Earlier versions include betrayal, attempted murder, and situations far darker than the romantic fairy tale presented in the animated film.

Pinocchio

Disney’s Pinocchio learns valuable lessons before earning a happy ending. In Carlo Collodi’s original novel, the wooden boy is far more troublesome, and the story contains considerably harsher consequences throughout.

Tangled

Disney’s Rapunzel enjoys a relatively lighthearted adventure. In earlier versions of the fairy tale, Rapunzel becomes pregnant after meeting the prince, and the story takes a significantly darker turn.

Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s adaptation streamlines a complicated French fairy tale. Earlier versions contain additional siblings, extended family drama, and magical backstory elements that were removed to focus on the central romance.

Tarzan

Disney’s Tarzan focuses on family, adventure, and self-discovery. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s original novel is much more violent, with Tarzan displaying a ruthless survival instinct and participating in far deadlier conflicts.

Alice in Wonderland

Disney combined elements from both of Lewis Carroll’s Alice novels while simplifying much of the wordplay and satire. The result is memorable but considerably different from the source material’s literary complexity.

The Fox and the Hound

Disney’s film emphasizes friendship and reconciliation. Daniel P. Mannix’s novel is significantly darker, featuring a much bleaker tone and ending that differs dramatically from the one audiences remember.

Classic Photos of Peak Arcade Life from the 1980s

While there certainly are some arcades left in the world, the boom of ‘arcade life’ was, without a doubt, the 1980s. Kids and young adults would gather at these establishments and enjoy the wonderful pastime of video games, one quarter at a time.

There was a social aspect that was lost with time, particularly with the advent of the home console. Now, games are certainly social, but they don’t connect you as much with local communities. Going to the arcade was meeting like-minded individuals in your area, and these are the pictures that reminds us of the best of those days.

A Watchful Eye

Kids loved the arcade life more than anyone else, but it was important to have someone watching over you at that age. Here we have a kid going through a complex game with their guardians watching.

Innocent Violence

Age ratings weren’t a thing until Mortal Kombat came around, so before then, kids could access all sorts of violent games and have a blast. They weren’t full of explicit gore, but here we have a few kids enjoying Final Fight, a game not suited to them by today’s standards.

Nobody Around

It was hard to master a game at the arcade, not just for the money investment, but for the crowds that would gather wanting their turn on the machine. For this lucky guy, getting good at Karate Champ is no issue with nobody around.

Table Play

Today’s leisure parlors have tables for duo play, but they are mostly analog games that are more similar to pool than anything else. Back when everything needed to be an arcade cabinet, some arcades were set as tables. The light from the ceiling would often make visibility difficult, hence why they were discontinued.

Time Shared

Not all experiences can be shared, and the control scheme of arcade machines often made them a solo experience. But with racing games, sharing the wheel is almost natural, something this parent and child used as a bonding experience.

Arcade Stance

The main demographic for arcades were children and teenagers, the latter more than the former. As such, the cabinets were made with their heights in mind, something adults had to suffer through with the famed ‘arcade stance.’

r/OldSchoolCool/tellman1257, Raymond Cooper

Arcade Hunch

Some adults could spread their legs and get into the proper arcade height, but for particularly tall people, this wasn’t possible unless you wanted to do the splits. Bending over the machine was far more practical, and yet more taxing on your back as a whole.

Steven Spielberg

Arcades were popular all over the world, and with everybody as well. While Steven Spielberg wasn’t going to a town’s local arcade, he did have his own personal collection at his house, something anyone that can afford it would do.

Quarter Boys

Keeping people playing was part of the business, but having them go all the way to the counter for more quarters could make them think twice. That’s why there were people whose job was giving change to anyone that needed it on the spot.

Black & White

Taking pictures in black and white is an aesthetic nowadays, and with all the color pictures around of the arcade days, you’d think this was a style choice as well. But back in the 80s, people still had black and white cameras, since the ‘upgrade’ to color wasn’t as instant as many would have you believe.

Posing For The Camera

Arcade cabinets were everywhere, attracting potential customers. At this video rental store, these teens pose for a picture, eager to continue their games after the click is heard.

Teaching The Craft

Here, a grown teen shows a small child how the game is played. Here’s hoping the kid was paying attention, because his turn to play wasn’t going to come any time soon.

r/OldSchoolCool/BullBoyXVII, Ira Nowinski

Contagion

Many adults enjoyed some leisure time at the arcade, but pictures showing many of them at the same time are rare. Exactly where these cabinets are installed might shed some light as to why no children are around, but at least everyone is having fun.

Action Pose

Getting too much into the action of a video game can make us do silly things, like moving a joystick thinking that moves the character faster. Well, the same happened back then, but we would move our entire bodies to ‘avoid’ upcoming bullets.

The 15 Most-Modded Classic Cars

There are plenty of cars that are legendary, at least for our own cultural standards, because of their classic look, feel and style. Such a legacy attracts people wanting to build their own tale from that base, so enthusiasts all over the world grab these classics and make them wholly different.

Most modifications involve chasing more horsepower, improving handling, personalizing the appearance, or building something entirely unique. These cars offer the perfect combination of performance potential, aftermarket support, affordability, or cultural significance. These are the models people can’t stop tinkering with.

Toyota Supra Mk IV

The fourth-generation Toyota Supra is practically synonymous with car modification culture. Its legendary 2JZ engine can handle enormous power increases, making it one of the most commonly modified performance cars ever built.

Ford Mustang

Few vehicles have inspired more aftermarket parts than the Ford Mustang. From drag racing builds to restomods and track cars, every generation has attracted enthusiasts eager to customize performance and appearance.

Chevrolet Camaro

The Camaro has been a favorite among modifiers since the muscle car era. Owners routinely upgrade engines, suspensions, and bodywork, creating everything from vintage street machines to modern high-performance builds.

Nissan Skyline GT-R R32

Nicknamed “Godzilla,” the R32 GT-R became famous for its tuning potential. Its advanced all-wheel-drive system and turbocharged engine made it a natural platform for extensive performance modifications.

Mazda RX-7 FD

The RX-7’s lightweight chassis and rotary engine have made it a staple of tuning culture. Some owners preserve the rotary, while others perform engine swaps that push performance to extreme levels.

Honda Civic

The Civic’s affordability and enormous aftermarket support helped make it one of the most modified cars in the world. Everything from daily drivers to race cars has been built from humble Civics.

Nissan 240SX

Beloved by drift enthusiasts, the Nissan 240SX became a modification icon thanks to its rear-wheel-drive layout and adaptability. Engine swaps, suspension upgrades, and custom bodywork are especially common.

Volkswagen Beetle

The classic Beetle has been customized for decades. Hot rods, dune buggies, drag racers, and custom cruisers all trace their roots back to one of the most versatile automotive platforms ever created.

Jeep CJ-7

Off-road enthusiasts have spent generations modifying Jeep CJ models. Lift kits, larger tires, upgraded suspensions, and engine swaps have made the CJ-7 one of the most personalized vehicles on the road.

Datsun 240Z

The original Z-car offered attractive styling and strong performance at an affordable price. Enthusiasts quickly embraced it as a platform for racing, engine swaps, and extensive custom builds.

Chevrolet Corvette C3

The C3 Corvette became a favorite among modifiers thanks to its dramatic styling and V8 power. Owners frequently upgrade performance components while preserving the unmistakable look of the classic sports car.

BMW E30

The E30 generation of BMW’s 3 Series has become a favorite among tuners worldwide. Its balance, simplicity, and motorsport pedigree make it a popular choice for both street and track projects.

Mazda MX-5 Miata

The Miata’s lightweight design and affordability have encouraged endless customization. Owners routinely modify suspension, engines, and bodywork, turning the roadster into everything from autocross machines to track-day weapons.

Porsche 911

While many owners preserve them, countless Porsche 911s have also been heavily modified. Performance upgrades, widebody conversions, and restomod projects have become increasingly popular within enthusiast communities.

Mini Cooper Classic

The original Mini’s compact size and racing history inspired decades of customization. Performance upgrades, rally-inspired builds, and unique cosmetic modifications have kept the tiny British icon relevant for generations.

12 Conspiracy Theories That People Still Actually Believe

For some people, conspiracy theories are a way of life, a window into the real world that the ‘powers that be’ don’t want you to see. They control us through countless means so we stay as sheep, with the perpetual ‘them’ acting as both wolf and shepherd.

That sentiment is one anyone can sympathize with; the issue comes when discussing what is being actually believed in. We can all agree there’s something wrong in the world, some general injustice, but the shape of the Earth, lizard men, and fantastical creatures living among us are borderline too silly.

The Moon Landing Was Faked

Despite overwhelming evidence supporting the Apollo missions, some people still believe the Moon landing was staged. The theory argues that NASA fabricated the event, often citing supposed photographic anomalies that have been repeatedly explained.

The JFK Assassination Cover-Up

Few conspiracy theories have endured as long as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Many people remain unconvinced that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and suspect a larger plot.

Bigfoot Is Hiding in North America

Reports of a large, ape-like creature living in remote forests continue to fuel belief in Bigfoot. Enthusiasts point to eyewitness accounts, footprints, and blurry photographs as evidence of its existence.

The Loch Ness Monster Is Real

For generations, people have claimed that a mysterious creature inhabits Scotland’s Loch Ness. Despite numerous searches and scientific investigations, believers continue to argue that Nessie remains undiscovered.

Chemtrails Are More Than Contrails

Some people believe the white trails left by aircraft are part of secret government programs. According to the theory, these “chemtrails” contain chemicals intentionally released into the atmosphere for various hidden purposes.

Paul McCartney Died and Was Replaced

One of pop culture’s strangest theories claims that Paul McCartney died in the 1960s and was secretly replaced by a lookalike. Fans continue searching for supposed clues in Beatles albums.

The Denver Airport Has Hidden Secrets

The unusual artwork, architecture, and underground infrastructure of Denver International Airport have inspired countless theories. Some believe the airport conceals bunkers, secret facilities, or evidence of larger conspiracies.

Reptilian Shape-Shifters Rule the World

Popularized by writer David Icke, this theory claims powerful world leaders are actually reptilian beings disguised as humans. It remains one of the most famous modern conspiracy beliefs.

Princess Diana Was Murdered

The death of Diana, Princess of Wales generated numerous conspiracy theories. Some believers reject the official conclusion of a tragic traffic accident and suspect a deliberate plot.

The Earth Is Flat

Despite centuries of scientific evidence demonstrating Earth’s shape, a modern Flat Earth movement still exists. Adherents argue that governments, scientists, and space agencies are collectively concealing the truth.

Elvis Presley Faked His Death

The King of Rock and Roll remains at the center of one of the most enduring celebrity conspiracies. Some fans believe Elvis Presley staged his death and lived in secret afterward.

The Philadelphia Experiment

This legend claims a World War II naval experiment accidentally rendered a ship invisible or teleported it. Although historians have found no evidence supporting the story, it continues to fascinate conspiracy enthusiasts.

Resident Evil’s Most Overdue Remake Is Finally Happening

Some announcements feel surprising. Others feel inevitable. The reveal of Resident Evil: Veronica at Summer Game Fest 2026 falls squarely into the latter category. For years, fans have viewed the survival horror cult classic as the missing piece of Capcom’s remake lineup, making its long-awaited return feel less like a shock and more like a correction.

Like the Resident Evil remakes before it, Veronica aims to strike a balance between nostalgia and reinvention. The eerie reveal trailer shows a modernized take on the original game, trading fixed-camera angles for a more immersive over-the-shoulder perspective, alongside updated gameplay mechanics, enhanced visuals, and a reworked narrative that expands upon the original game’s foundation.

The original game, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, launched on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000 and despite its clunky fixed-camera and tank controls, has continuously rooted itself as a fan-favorite installment. The game continues the stories of Clarie and Chris Redfield in the aftermath of the Raccoon City outbreak seen in the second game, taking place during the later half of Resident Evil 3.

The trailer for the remake begins with Claire investigating a dilapidated apartment building in search of her missing brother before slipping in a playful nod to Chris Redfield’s infamous “boulder-punching” reputation. From there, the scene shifts into a tense montage of reimagined locations from the original game.

Along the way, players will uncover more of Umbrella’s far-reaching conspiracies and eventually cross paths with one of Resident Evil’s most iconic and well-loved villains: Albert Wesker.

Unfortunately for eager fans, the ex-S.T.A.R.S. captain was not revealed in the trailer, but there was a brief appearance of another familiar foe, one that we saw not too long ago in Resident Evil: Requiem: the Grim Reaper of Umbrella himself, HUNK.

Well, maybe. The gas-masked figure could also be Umbrella security officer Rodrigo Juan Raval who captures Claire and utters the very same “Don’t move” warning heard in the reveal trailer, despite HUNK’s iconic red-tinted lenses being emphasized too.

As interesting as those character teases are, the bigger takeaway is how Veronica now fits into Capcom’s recent approach to the Resident Evil series as a whole.

Once widely expected to follow the Resident Evil 3 remake in 2020, the project was ultimately skipped over in favor of Resident Evil Village in 2021 and the Resident Evil 4 remake in 2023. That extended absence only reinforced the sense that a Code Veronica remake had been left outside Capcom’s modern remake cycle for too long (27 years to be exact).

Now with its return officially confirmed, Capcom is repositioning Veronica as a long-overdue addition to that remake lineup, framing the game once again as a pivotal segue that bridges the aftermath of Raccoon City’s destruction and Umbrella’s expanding global presence.

Scheduled for release in 2027, Resident Evil: Veronica will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC.

Masters of the Universe Features an Actually Great Jared Leto Performance

This article contains spoilers for Masters of the Universe.

Turns out Masters of the Universe doesn’t have the power after all. After getting trounced on opening weekend by Scary Movie, a movie no one seems to want or like, Masters of the Universe will probably not make back its nearly $200 million budget. There’s a lot of blame to go around, and we could point fingers at the fact that someone (probably IP-holder Mattel) thought He-Man could be Barbie, or the fact that the franchise’s target audience is pushing 50 and would prefer to watch movies at home after mowing the lawn.

That said, there’s one person we can’t blame, and it’s the same person who almost always deserves the blame. Masters of the Universe is the latest franchise flop to feature Jared Leto in a prominent role, following Morbius, Suicide Squad, and Tron: Ares. In almost every one of those cases, Jared Leto is a detriment to a movie, a terrible over-actor who seems difficult to work with and whose Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club ages worse each year. But he is genuinely great as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe, one of the film’s few consistent delights.

So-Called Star Power

The fact that Leto could be good on screen isn’t entirely a surprise. Even his greatest detractors have to admit that he’s great in My So-Called Life and David Fincher collaborations Fight Club and Panic Room (although half the appeal of the former comes from seeing him get pummeled for being too good-looking).

But most of his filmography is defined by poor choices in projects and worse decisions on screen. Lonely Hearts, Chapter 27, and Mr. Nobody sit forever unplayed on Tubi, and his tendency to overdo it stains even Blade Runner 2049, to say nothing of more flawed films like The Little Things. Leto’s off-screen behavior only exacerbates things, making his obnoxious behavior staying in character as the Joker the least of his issues.

On paper, Leto’s casting as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe sounds like a disaster. The franchise first came into existence as a toy line, and everything that followed—including the popular cartoon series that ran from 1983–1985—exists to advertise those toys. Skeletor may have been conceived as the ultimate embodiment of evil, the counter to He-Man’s square-jawed goodness, but he quickly became the paradigmatic cartoon villain: sniveling, comical, and cowardly.

By the time Leto took the part, Skeletor existed mostly as a meme, which means he may have felt the urge to play the character darker and more extreme than ever before. That must have been particularly true given the fact that fellow problematic fave Frank Lengella played the character with Shakespearean flair in the 1987 Cannon film. Before the new movie hit screens, one had to imagine Leto screaming at subordinates or tearing the skin off his face to go method for Skeletor.

The Greater of Two Ultimate Evils

Yet, what we get in Masters of the Universe is Leto being cartoony, self-aware, and genuinely funny. Take the character’s first major scene, after dethroning King Randor (James Purefoy). Skeletor delivers a triumphant monologue to the defeated king and then unleashes an evil laugh, a chilling cackle that builds and builds… until he realizes that neither Evil-Lyn (Allison Brie) nor any of the other minions are laughing with them.

The awkward banter that follows falls a bit flat, one of the many times director Travis Knight and his team of screenwriters get too condescending to the material. But Leto remains locked in, even as the scene itself breaks. He is ultimate evil, and he’s less embarrassed by the fact that he was caught babbling like a madman and more annoyed that his henchpeople don’t respect his power.

Even better is the movie’s stand out scene, when Skeletor invades the consciousness of He-Man (Nicholas Galitzine). As he forces He-Man to relive the various embarrassments he experienced as HR office drone Adam, Skeletor takes the form of onlookers. He suddenly appears in a black suit and tie, sitting across a restaurant booth on Adam’s terrible date. When Adam gets a dressing down from his boss (Sasheer Zamata), Skeletor bursts into the office wearing a short-sleeve button down and holding a mug of coffee, a la Bill Lumbergh from Office Space.

Silly as these scenes are, Leto keeps playing it straight. Skeletor doesn’t think these scenes are ridiculous. He thinks that they are one more opportunity for him to knock He-Man down a peg, to prove his superiority. And so Skeletor continues to growl monologues at his opponent, bragging about how Adam is weak and how only he, Skeletor, deserves to wield power.

Leto’s hardly the only charm that Masters of the Universe has. Generally, the costumes and art direction are delightfully candy-coated, Galitzine and Brie are game in very silly roles, and composer Daniel Pemberton channels peak Queen for something absolutely glorious. But none of these elements can overcome the film’s central flaws, its lack of thematic clarity and its overreliance on humor that’s too self-deprecating and cute.

Only Leto emerges unscathed, and we’re just as surprised as anyone else. Turns out, if you cover Jared Leto in special effects and surround him with a bunch of cartoon monsters, his over-acting fits right in.

Masters of the Universe is now playing worldwide.

Jacob Anderson Had Fun With the “Bitchier Side” of Louis in The Vampire Lestat

This article contains spoilers for the premiere of The Vampire Lestat.

The first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire detailed the turbulent relationship between the fiery Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) and the brooding Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) from Louis’ point of view. But in the third season of AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s book series, we switch to Lestat’s version of events following the pair’s reconciliation and the notable release of Daniel Molloy’s best-selling book about their relationship.

For the first time, we get to see how Lestat and other vampires perceive Louis rather than how he perceives himself, which Anderson says informed his portrayal of the character this time around.

“It’s something I’m very mindful of,” Anderson tells Den of Geek. “And it’s something that Sam’s had to be very mindful of and Assad [Zaman, who plays Armand] and Delainey [Hayles, who plays Claudia] – the way that these characters are framed – it’s such a deeply subjective show. It’s so deeply inside somebody’s mind and experience. That’s also part of the fun. You get to play a slightly different version of the character each time they appear, more or less.”

The Vampire Lestat‘s premiere catches up with Lestat as he makes his next move in a modern world where society isn’t quite convinced that vampires really exist, but Molloy’s interview has given them an inkling. Though Lestat and Louis are feeling amicable in the wake of their brutal split and renewed understanding during season 2, Lestat takes umbrage at certain aspects of Louis’ tale in Molloy’s book. Having been told from Louis’ perspective and therefore not events as Lestat remembers them, he disparages Louis’ interview in front of autograph hunters and sets the record straight by scrawling furious notes in his copy of the book.

But instead of hiding away until it all blows over, Lestat puts his ego front and center, joining a touring rock band and eventually going public with his true nature. It’s a move that further shakes up a historically secret vampire society after Molloy’s explosive interview. Rocking out on stage and goading local vampires, Lestat is done hiding. Yet he still keeps in contact with Louis, who seems much more light-hearted and casual than we’ve ever seen him before, even happy to banter with Lestat over the quality of his songwriting.

“The thing that I think I’ve sort of noticed only this season is that Louis speaks slightly differently,” says Anderson. “Lestat kind of portrays Louis with a lot more love than Louis ever portrayed himself. Louis always thought of himself as this purely brooding, repressed, angry, wallowing-in-sadness being. And actually, Lestat gives him back some of his essence. Some of the more playful and also fiercer side of Louis that we haven’t really seen.”

Reid describes this as a “bitchier side” of Louis, to which Anderson adds, “It was fun to go there a little bit.”

As our reviewer noted, Reid and Anderson don’t have much shared screentime in the first half of The Vampire Lestat, but there’s a lot to look forward to in the back half, as Lestat and Louis “work through their shared grief” about losing Claudia. Season 3 of Interview with the Vampire is also set to introduce Sheila Atim as Akasha, the mother of all vampires from Rice’s Queen of the Damned.

New episodes of The Vampire Lestat premiere Sundays on AMC.

TV Premiere Dates: 2026 Calendar

Wondering when your favorite shows are coming back and what new series you can look forward to? We’ve got you covered with the Den of Geek 2026 TV Premiere Dates Calendar, where we keep track of TV series premiere dates, return dates, and more for the year and beyond.

We’ll continue to update this page weekly as networks and streamers announce dates. A lot of these shows we’ll be watching or covering, so be sure to follow along with us!

Please note that all times are ET.

Note: These are U.S. releases. For upcoming British releases, head on over here.

DATE	SHOW	NETWORK
Monday, June 8	Alice and Steve	Hulu
Wednesday, June 10	My Family Season 2	Netflix
Wednesday, June 10	Outlast: The Jungle	Netflix
Wednesday, June 10	The Rest Is Football	Netflix
Wednesday, June 10	Rosario Tijeras Season 5	Netflix
Wednesday, June 10	Every Year After	Prime Video
Wednesday, June 10	All the Queen’s Men	Paramount+
Thursday, June 11	Surviving Earth	NBC
Thursday, June 11	Sweet Magnolias Season 5	Netflix
Thursday, June 11	The Evil Lawyer	Netflix
Thursday, June 11	Viral Hit	Netflix
Friday, June 12	The Polygamist	Netflix
Saturday, June 13	My Adventures with Superman (12:00 a.m.)	Adult Swim
Tuesday, June 16	America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Season 3	Netflix
Thursday, June 18	I Will Find You	Netflix
Thursday, June 18	The Capture Season 3	Peacock
Friday, June 19	Oasis	Netflix
Friday, June 19	Sugar Season 2	Apple TV
Sunday, June 21	House of the Dragon Season 3 (9:00 p.m.)	HBO
Monday, June 22	Rhythm + Flow: Italy Season 3	Netflix
Wednesday, June 24	The American Experiment	Netflix
Wednesday, June 24	Another Self Season 3	Netflix
Thursday, June 25	FX’s The Bear Season 5 (9:00 p.m.)	FX \| Hulu
Thursday, June 25	Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2	Netflix
Friday, June 26	Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Happiness (9:00 p.m.)	HBO
Friday, June 26	Strung	Peacock
Saturday, June 27	Agent Kim Reactivated	Netflix
Monday, June 29	Adventure Time: Side Quests	Disney+ \| Hulu
Tuesday, June 30	Ruthless Season 6	Paramount+
Wednesday, July 1	Elle Season 1	Prime Video
Wednesday, July 1	X-Men ’97 Season 2	Disney+
Thursday, July 2	Survival of the Thickest Season 3	Netflix
Friday, July 3	Silo Season 3	Apple TV
Thursday, July 9	Little House on the Prairie Season 1	Netflix
Thursday, July 9	The Five Star Weekend	Peacock
Sunday, July 12	The Westies (9:00 p.m.)	MGM+
Wednesday, July 15	Ride or Die	Prime Video
Thursday, July 16	The Hawk	Netflix
Thursday, July 23	Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (9:00 p.m.)	HBO Max
Sunday, July 26	The Walking Dead: Dead City Season 3	AMC
Sunday, August 2	Lioness Season 3	Paramount+
Monday, August 3	Futurama Season 14	Hulu
Wednesday, August 5	Ted Lasso Season 4	Apple TV
Thursday, August 13	Tires Season 3	Netflix
Sunday, August 16	Lanterns	HBO Max
Wednesday, August 26	One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part Two	Netflix
Wednesday, September 9	Last Seen	Apple TV
Wednesday, September 16	South Park Season 29 (10:00 p.m.)	Comedy Central
Thursday, September 24	A Different World	Netflix
Thursday, October 15	Crystal Lake	Peacock
Wednesday, October 21	The Terminal List Season 2	Prime Video
Friday, October 23	Lupin Part 4	Netflix
Wednesday, November 11	The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power	Prime Video
Thursday, November 12	The Good Daughter	Peacock
Friday, December 25	Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	HBO Max

If we’ve forgotten a show, feel free to drop a reminder in the comment section below!

Want to know what big movies are coming out in 2026? We’ve got you covered here.

Ghostbusters: Night Shift Returns the Franchise To Animation, its Natural Home

For now four consecutive feature films, bustin’ has made audiences feel okay-to-bad. After the classic that is 1984’s Ghostbusters, the franchise has gone through multiple sequels and reboots, none of which have come close to recreating the magic of the first film. Conventional wisdom would say that Ghostbusters should be a one-off, and any attempt to expand the franchise wreaks of desperate IP-mining.

The announcement of the Sony and Netflix series Ghostbusters: Night Shift contradicts that wisdom. Night Shift will be an animated series, bringing the franchise back to its natural home. The series The Real Ghostbusters, which aired 150 episodes between 1986 and 1991, cemented the fact that the adventures of four regular guys dealing with supernatural effects work best as a cartoon.

To be clear, this does not mean that The Real Ghostbusters is better than the first Ghostbusters. The original Ghostbusters remains an incredible watch, despite its many flaws. The effects still look incredible, the jokes land, and the movie escalates the threat in way that satisfies blockbuster demands without compromising the everyman nature of the heroes.

It’s just that Ghostbusters shouldn’t work, and, by all accounts, barely made it to screen in the form that we know and love today. Originally, Dan Aykroyd—a true believer in all-things paranormal—designed a supernatural epic, and planned to cast his SNL co-stars John Belushi and Eddie Murphy. When Belushi’s death and Murphy’s rising star forced a change, the studio and director Ivan Reitman retooled, cutting down the script and giving Bill Murray plenty of space to riff.

We all know the result: an incredible comedy that somehow overcomes its jankiness, its pro-free-market, anti-EPA politics, and its absolute underutilization of Ernie Hudson to become an all-time great.

The Real Ghostbusters certainly had its own problems, including a copyright claim that forced them to add the confusing adjective to the title and Murray suing original Venkman voice-actor Lorenzo Music. But the series turned out to be exactly what the Ghostbusters needed, an engine for new spooky adventures for our heroes. Even the less-loved spin-off series Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) retained some of the charm of the first series.

At this point, we don’t know much about Night Shift other than the title and the creative team, but even that little bit of information has us feeling some optimism. The writing staff includes Elliott Kalan who, in addition to working on The Daily Show and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot, wrote the oft-memed X-Men panel of Sauron extolling to Spider-Man the virtues of turning people into dinosaurs instead of curing cancer.

Furthermore, Night Shift comes right after Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a movie that only worked when it was doing Stranger Things-style adventures with the younger cast. Gil Kenan, who directed Frozen Empire, will be producing Night Shift, along with Jason Reitman (who directed the dire Ghostbusters: Afterlife—which was co-written by Kenan).

With these elements in place, Night Shift has the potential to be a great Ghostbusters entry, continuing the legacy of the cartoon shows and delivering on the promise of the movies.

The Boys Creator Defends Its Divisive Series Finale

After The Boys concluded its fifth and final season on Prime Video, fan reactions online were mixed. Some felt the popular series ended on a high note, while others were disappointed by what it delivered, believing the show’s marketing had hyped a more explosive swan song for Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and the villainous Homelander (Antony Starr) following years of buildup.

The Boys creator Eric Kripke recently admitted to TVLine that he knows there are “a lot of unhappy people online,” but went on to make two points in defense of the finale.

“First, I’m just glad people are passionate, legitimately,” he said. “My job is to make people passionate about the work I put out. If they’re arguing about it and hating it and fighting, that’s all passion, man. You’re watching, and that’s all good. My job is to get an emotional reaction, not necessarily to dictate what that emotional reaction is.”

But Kripke explained that he has also learned many times that “the online world is not the real world.”

“We have way north of 60 million viewers, so that makes the online storm, which feels very all-encompassing, actually a fraction of a single percentage point,” he said. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, of course, and I’m sorry if I disappointed you, but it was the story I wanted to tell. You just have to put it into perspective of it being a reasonably small, vocal audience when the vast majority seem to be happily tuning in.”

Kripke also told the outlet that the writers had already worked out which characters were going to die in the series finale of The Boys, but that the hardest part of the writing process was making sure every character got “a moment to be cool” when Butcher and the gang finally went into the Oval Office to confront Homelander.

“They all deserve a moment to be cool, right? Everything from Ashley’s moment, to Huey having one last flash of genius with his understanding of electronics and equipment, to the ball gag, to Annie and The Deep, we made sure every hero had their moment.”

All episodes of The Boys are now streaming on Prime Video.

Sam Reid Reveals How the Gabriella Relationship Is Key to The Vampire Lestat

This article contains spoilers for The Vampire Lestat premiere.

In Anne Rice’s beloved book series The Vampire Chronicles, rebellious bloodsucker Lestat de Lioncourt gets drawn into some truly complex romances, but the third season of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire series, The Vampire Lestat, explores the most complex relationship of them all: the one he has with his mother.

It’s not until the final moments of the season 3 premiere that viewers get to meet Gabriella de Lioncourt (portrayed by Pride and Prejudice star Jennifer Ehle) after seeing Lestat intermittently text a mysterious lover throughout the episode. Fixated and yearning, Lestat clearly wants and needs to be reunited with this elusive figure from his past, as documentarian Daniel Molloy’s question of whether Lestat stuttered as a child is repeated until he finally does so when Gabriella emerges from the shadows.

Sam Reid, who plays Lestat in Rolin Jones’ triumphant adaptation of Rice’s books, understands his character’s nuanced and problematic past and present better than almost anyone, teases out how Gabriella factors into the restrained origins of Rice’s famous vampire.

“He didn’t know what to do with his life, and his mother took control of it and pushed him to become the thing that she wanted him to be or that she wanted to be herself,” Reid says. “He never got the chance to fully discover, and as soon as he got the chance to discover, he gets ripped away and turned into this other big monster, larger-than-life creature. That’s the thing. The joy of being able to play the fetus of what this overbearing character is. It’s really fun to go back-and-forth.”

The Vampire Lestat opens with Lestat beginning a personal recollection of his “failures” during this era of stardom and debauchery, having seemingly moved on from his flirtation with becoming a rock star. Showrunner Rolin Jones says that one particular piece of Gabriella’s dialogue in Rice’s tome helped craft the energy between her and Lestat, framing the season around the vampire’s perceived failures.

“It’s something that Gabriella (or Gabrielle in the book) says to Armand about working your way through failure,” Rolin notes, adding, “It was such a curious thing for her to say in the book. It’s pretty clear she didn’t think much of Armand. And then you realize that Lestat is sitting in the room when she says that. That cracked open the entire thing for me. Anne had placed that there, for me, magically, about ‘this is where you’re going. This is what we’re going to do, Lestat. Work through failure. Find yourself on the other side of that.'”

Though there might be some crucial therapy that Lestat is working through with his mother at this stage in his long existence, Reid is aware that Lestat and Gabriella’s romantic relationship is still pushing boundaries. Rice wrote Lestat to be Gabriella’s maker, saving her from death as her health rapidly declined, but this created an uncomfortable and complex dynamic between the pair as they seesawed between being parent and child.

“There aren’t a lot of real-world analogues for it but if you separate them all, there are,” Reid explains. “There’s the mother/son, and then there’s lovers and maker and fledgling. You put the three of those things together and play them all at the same time. Which is what this show is most of the time – you’re playing like five things at the same time. It’s really fun. It’s so complicated, it’s such a messy thing.

“To do that with Jennifer was just a total joy. Pulling and pushing and seeing where we could go and how far we could go. It’s an amazing bunch of dynamics we play. It’s not done for exploitation or to be shocking. It is fundamental to the character and structurally who he is and why he is as fucked up as he is. I feel like you learn so much about these characters going through that. It’s very uncomfortable to watch. But the book series has never been comfortable. There’s nothing comfortable about it.”

Reid also credits Rolin and writer Hannah Moscovitch for giving “humanity and depth to the trauma of carrying an incestuous relationship around with you your whole life,” adding, “Because you need your mother. You need that maternal love. You need to be receiving that love. And when it’s a sexual love that you are given, it’s very, very complex. Your whole relationship with your sexual identity is tied in with your desire to be loved as a child. You can’t get a more desperate need for a character to be loved by the masses for who he is.”

New episodes of The Vampire Lestat premiere Sundays on AMC.

Autographed MrBeast Trading Card Highlights Topps’ Latest Set

Once solely the domain of baseball players and movie cowboys, trading cards have become a more inclusive medium in the internet era. Now industry titan Topps Chrome is paying homage to some of the creators that helped build that modern internet era.

Launching on Wednesday, June 10, the second set of “VeeFriends” trading cards from Topps Chrome will include 13 “Content Condor’s Favorite Content Creators” insert cards that highlight notable internet personalities such as Mr. Beast, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kam Patterson, Jake Paul, Livvy Dunne, Mel Robbins, Chris Brickley, Cody “Clix” Conrod, and Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson. The content creator cards will include one main set and one autography-only set. Den of Geek was provided an exclusive first look at the sure to be highly sought after autographed MrBeast card.

2026 Chrome VeeFriends, Content Condors Autograph Parallel

The nine Content Condor’s Favorite Content Creators cards will be accompanied by four other chase card formats: “Erupt!” cards featuring 20 characters from the VeeFriends universe, “Comic Clippings” cards featuring cutouts directly pulled from VeeFriends Comics Issues 1–10, “Manga Speckle” featuring 100 characters reimagined in a manga art style, and “Chalkboard” featuring 20 characters sketched in chalk lines.

While the secondary market will make clear which of the 13 inserts in this second set of VeeFriends cards is most valuable, a signed MrBeast card is certain to be in contention for the top spot. Jimmy Donaldson a.k.a. MrBeast is the most successful online content creator ever by almost any metric. With 497 million subscribers, his channel is the most popular on YouTube and his Prime Video reality competition series Beast Games concluded its second season in February with the crowning of a $5 million dollar champion.

“VeeFriends” is a character, storytelling, and collectible IP universe created by entrepreneur, author, and internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk a.k.a. Gary Vee. The brand features more than 250 colorful cartoon characters created and hand drawn by Vee. Every VeeFriend has its own personality and backstory and the characters are featured in comics, coloring books, trading cards, and other mediums. Vee has described the project as a cross between Pokémon and Sesame Street, with press notes stating that the VeeFriends bring “traits like empathy, patience, and kindness to life in ways that connect, resonate and inspire” while also giving “both kids and parents something to connect over.”

The second batch of VeeFriends cards will be available for purchase from Topps and Fanatics on Wednesday, June 10. The cards will also be available via VeeFriends live shows on Whatnot and Fanatics Live! and through retail sources Dick’s, Target, and Gamestop.

15 Actors Who Were Too Good for the Script They Were Given

Performers do what they can with the material they are given, that’s something we know. This is why, when we find a movie is lacking in quality, it’s good practice not to immediately blame the actors; they are only the face of the disaster we are witnessing in front of us.

There are actors, however, that give it their all even when the rest of the movie doesn’t meet their momentum. They were given scripts and situations that were either ridiculous, poorly executed, or a combination of both, and they rose to the occasion. In most cases, it wasn’t enough to save the movie, but their performances were memorable nonetheless.

Raul Julia in Street Fighter

Raul Julia’s final film role could have been a paycheck performance, but he committed completely. His portrayal of M. Bison brought charisma and theatrical energy to a movie that most critics considered a mess.

Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

While the film received mixed reviews, Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham became an instant classic. His scenery-chewing performance was so entertaining that many viewers remember him more vividly than the actual heroes.

Ewan McGregor in the Star Wars Prequels

The prequel trilogy has long been criticized for awkward dialogue, but Ewan McGregor consistently earned praise as Obi-Wan Kenobi. His charm and conviction helped elevate scenes that could easily have fallen flat.

Michael Sheen in Twilight

The Twilight films were rarely praised for their performances, yet Michael Sheen embraced the role of Aro with remarkable enthusiasm. His eccentric portrayal became one of the franchise’s most memorable elements.

Gene Hackman in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Even fans of Superman struggle to defend much of Superman IV. Gene Hackman, however, remained fully committed as Lex Luthor, delivering the same confidence and presence he brought to stronger entries.

Dennis Hopper in Super Mario Bros.

The 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation is often cited as one of the strangest video game movies ever made. Dennis Hopper nevertheless attacked the role of King Koopa with complete commitment, creating one of the film’s few memorable elements.

Willem Dafoe in Aquaman

While Aquaman was commercially successful, many critics found parts of the script uneven and overly busy. Willem Dafoe brought his usual intensity and professionalism to Vulko, making even exposition-heavy scenes feel important.

Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons

The 2000 Dungeons & Dragons movie is infamous among fantasy fans. Jeremy Irons responded by delivering an outrageously committed villain performance that remains far more enjoyable than the film surrounding it.

Tim Curry in Congo

Congo is remembered as a campy adventure with questionable dialogue, but Tim Curry fully embraced the chaos. His accent and larger-than-life performance became one of the movie’s most enduring talking points.

Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Nemesis

Star Trek: Nemesis divided fans and critics, yet Patrick Stewart continued to bring dignity and emotional depth to Jean-Luc Picard. His performance helped anchor a film many consider a disappointing finale.

Ben Kingsley in BloodRayne

Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne received overwhelmingly negative reviews, but Ben Kingsley approached the material with the seriousness of a prestige production. His performance often feels like it belongs in a completely different movie.

Oscar Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse

Buried under layers of makeup and a heavily criticized script, Oscar Isaac still tried to bring weight to Apocalypse. Many viewers felt his performance deserved a stronger film and better material.

Viola Davis in Suicide Squad

Viola Davis emerged from Suicide Squad with her reputation intact. Her portrayal of Amanda Waller projected authority and intelligence, making the character far more compelling than the script often allowed.

Frank Langella in Masters of the Universe

The live-action Masters of the Universe struggled critically, but Frank Langella approached Skeletor with complete seriousness. His performance remains one of the film’s most widely praised aspects decades later.

Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The fourth Indiana Jones film remains divisive among fans, but Cate Blanchett’s Irina Spalko is rarely blamed for its shortcomings. She embraced the pulp adventure tone and delivered a memorable villain despite the controversial story.

25 Vehicles Universally Loved By the Geeks

Not all heroes wear capes, or fly around with them. Some travel at Mach 3, break speed records, reach the Moon, or dominate battlefields. Across cars, aircraft, tanks, spacecraft, and even a few fictional machines, certain vehicles have earned near-universal admiration among geeks and engineering enthusiasts.

These aren’t necessarily the most practical or successful designs ever built. Instead, they stand out because of their innovation, performance, cultural impact, or sheer cool factor. We’re taking things that have appeared in history books, video games, movies, or science fiction classics; these machines continue to inspire fascination decades after their debut.

SR-71 Blackbird

Few machines inspire engineering enthusiasts quite like the SR-71 Blackbird. Capable of cruising above Mach 3 and outrunning missiles, it remains one of the most impressive aircraft ever built.

Ferrari F40

The Ferrari F40 is often considered the ultimate analog supercar. Lightweight, brutally fast, and designed with minimal electronic assistance, it represents everything gearheads love about performance driving.

Space Shuttle

For an entire generation, the Space Shuttle symbolized humanity’s future in space. Its combination of rocket power, orbital capability, and reusable design made it one of the most iconic vehicles ever created.

Supermarine Spitfire

The Spitfire’s elegant shape and legendary wartime service have made it beloved far beyond aviation circles. Many enthusiasts consider it one of the most beautiful aircraft ever to take flight.

B-2 Spirit

The B-2 looks like something from science fiction. Its flying-wing design, stealth capabilities, and mysterious appearance have fascinated military aviation fans since it first entered public view.

Bugatti Veyron

When it debuted, the Bugatti Veyron seemed almost impossible. A thousand-horsepower production car capable of exceeding 250 mph felt like a challenge to the laws of automotive engineering.

Lockheed U-2

The U-2 has remained in service for decades despite constant predictions of retirement. Its incredible altitude capabilities and Cold War history have made it a favorite among aviation geeks.

M4 Sherman

The Sherman may not have been the most powerful tank of World War II, but its reliability and production numbers made it legendary. Military history fans continue to admire its impact.

Panther Tank

The German Panther remains one of the most studied tanks ever built. Its balance of firepower, armor, and mobility helped establish its reputation among armor enthusiasts worldwide.

DeLorean DMC-12

The DeLorean became immortal thanks to Back to the Future. Between the stainless-steel body, gull-wing doors, and time-machine association, it enjoys a level of fame few cars can match.

Concorde

Concorde made supersonic passenger travel a reality. Even decades after its retirement, the sleek airliner remains a symbol of a future that seemed far more ambitious than the present.

F-14 Tomcat

The F-14 combined speed, firepower, and variable-sweep wings into one unforgettable package. Popular culture, especially Top Gun, helped turn it into one of history’s most beloved fighter jets.

Porsche 911

For decades, the Porsche 911 has proven that evolution can be just as exciting as revolution. Its distinctive silhouette and performance pedigree have earned fans across multiple generations.

A-10 Thunderbolt II

The A-10 is loved largely because it appears purpose-built for one job and does it exceptionally well. Its massive cannon and rugged design have earned near-mythical status among military enthusiasts.

Toyota AE86

The lightweight AE86 became a hero car thanks to motorsports, drifting culture, and anime. Its reputation for balance and driver engagement continues to attract enthusiasts decades after production ended.

Lamborghini Countach

The Countach looked like a spaceship when it debuted. Sharp angles, scissor doors, and outrageous styling made it the dream car hanging on countless bedroom walls during the 1980s.

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 transformed air travel and became known as the Queen of the Skies. Its distinctive hump and enormous size made it instantly recognizable around the world.

Saturn V

The Saturn V remains the most powerful rocket ever successfully flown. It carried astronauts to the Moon and remains one of humanity’s greatest engineering achievements.

McLaren F1

The McLaren F1 achieved legendary status through innovation and performance. Its central driving position and record-breaking speed helped establish it as one of the greatest supercars ever produced.

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Even though it’s fictional, the Enterprise deserves a place on any geek vehicle list. Few spacecraft have inspired generations of engineers, scientists, and science-fiction fans quite like Star Trek’s flagship.

Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor

The F-22 combines stealth, speed, agility, and advanced technology into a package that aviation enthusiasts often describe as the closest thing to a real-life sci-fi fighter.

Mazda RX-7 FD

The FD-generation RX-7 is beloved for its stunning design and rotary engine. It remains one of the most recognizable Japanese sports cars ever produced.

Apollo Lunar Module

The Lunar Module may look awkward compared to sleek spacecraft designs, but it accomplished something no other vehicle has done: landing human beings on the Moon.

Nissan Skyline GT-R R34

The R34 GT-R became a global icon through motorsports, video games, and movies. Its combination of technology and performance made it one of the most celebrated Japanese cars ever built.

Millennium Falcon

Another fictional entry that transcends its source material, the Millennium Falcon perfectly captures the appeal of a vehicle that looks unreliable but somehow always gets the job done. For many geeks, it is the ultimate spaceship.

How 30 Years in the Trenches with Spielberg, Aliens, Indy and Dinosaurs Led to Disclosure Day

David Koepp was only 29 years old when he first sat down with Steven Spielberg. Despite having a recent hit under his belt, 1992’s dark comedy Death Becomes Her, Koepp was largely an unknown in Hollywood. And Spielberg—who was then in the process of looking for a new screenwriter on a project called Jurassic Park—was not.

Yet based purely on the strength of an initial pitch in his office about dinosaurs and the theme park tourists they would eat, Spielberg liked what he saw in the energetic scribe.

“I think he takes me seriously, and he took me seriously from a young age,” Koepp says about the seeds of their decades-spanning collaboration. “I was 29, and early on in your career you’re looking for that kind of confidence from somebody, anybody. Please. And he gave it to me. So I think I’ve rewarded it.”

By Koepp’s own estimation, he and Spielberg have a lot in common. They enjoy popcorn entertainment, the thrill of spitballing audience-friendly ideas, and have developed a bit of a constructive candor (“He gives me notes in a way that is ultimately encouraging rather than discouraging, even when he’s telling me you need to start over.”) However, the screenwriter allows that he’s a little more cynical than the director. “Steven’s more hopeful. That actually makes for a nice combination.”

It’s a combo Spielberg’s maintained on a lot of his most populist movies during the past 30 years. It continued of course in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), the only other dino flick Spielberg helmed, but also War of the Worlds (2005) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). And now it is perhaps reaching its apotheosis in this week’s highly anticipated Disclosure Day, their first film together not based on a book or within a long-running franchise, In fact, it is an original story concocted by Spielberg—a rare thing that’s only occurred a few times in movies like Poltergeist (1982), A.I. (2001), and… Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

For Koepp, that connection crystallized the day he received an email from his friend, as well as a detailed treatment for what would become Spielberg’s fourth alien movie (or fifth if you count Indy 4).

“We bat ideas around a lot,” says Koepp. “That’s one of the things I love about Steven. His favorite part of the process is still making them up. So we throw ideas around, but what was unusual about this email was getting stuff this formed. This is 40-some pages long, and it was largely the movie you see. It had a beginning, middle, and end.”

Initially, Koepp assumed Spielberg would write the full screenplay himself, however as he took on more notes from Koepp—suggestions that this section of the story should be sped up, those characters should be combined, etc.—the more it became apparent Spielberg was looking for more than just advice. Eventually, four weeks into correspondence, an email came asking if Koepp would write it. “I thought you’d never ask,” Koepp typed back.

While the pure Spielbergian nature of the ending scene in Disclosure Day remains largely untouched from that first treatment—though Koepp hints he came up with the film’s superb final piece of dialogue—much of the rest of the action-packed narrative about a series of events leading to the government disclosing aliens exist, and that they’ve been visiting us for a long time, went through a lengthy metamorphosis. One element that Koepp particularly brought to the fore was the daily anxieties and rigamarole endured by Emily Blunt’s central heroine, Margaret Fairchild, a thirtysomething television journalist anxious about moving on from her lot as a local weatherwoman in Kansas City, Missouri.

There’s a lot of quick-witted but detailed worldbuilding early in the movie about the type of person who might be particularly enamored with disclosing the truth, and it’s a career path that Koepp has intimate familiarity with in his family and professional life. Indeed, Koepp’s screenplay for 1994’s underrated newsroom comedy, The Paper, remains a personal favorite for this writer.

“Spoken like a journalist,” Koepp chuckles when we mention admiring the film. “My wife was a producer at ABC, so I have some knowledge of that through her and was able to ask her questions about character stuff. So yes, I thought of [The Paper], but I love journalists, and I love journalists not just because I’m married to one and my brother’s one. I love them because they’re very goal-directed. They’re great characters in movies because they want to find out, and so they are driven to find out, which makes for great storytelling.”

The search for truth is also apropos in a movie about the fallout that would come from total, even radical transparency. While the plot of Disclosure Day is being kept under careful wraps, it is fair to say that an extralegal government conspiracy, led by a lifelong believer in the system played by Colin Firth, experience a breach within their midst when a former employee (Colman Domingo) orchestrates an Edward Snowden-like operation to extract evidence of not only UAPs, but cover-ups, manipulated alien technology, extraterrestrial autopsies… and even interrogations of little gray men.

“You know those stories where they say ‘everything you thought you knew was wrong?’” asks Koepp. “We wanted to tell a story that said, ‘Everything you thought you knew was right.’ I viewed this as a sort of unified theory of everything for UAPs. This is a story that encompasses all the lore we’ve heard, aside from the preposterous ones that are clearly reality challenged, but we wanted to incorporate all the lore into a credible story where it fit together.”

David Koepp in Disclosure Day — David Koepp on the set of DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg

The process of making it, has even led some folks to muse that the characters resemble its makers, specifically critics who’ve noted the similarity between Spielberg and Domingo’s older, commanding yet empathetic leader who believes in total disclosure. Koepp says any overlap was unintentional, but he can’t help but see a bit of Steven in Domingo’s performance—as well as an unlikely avatar for himself.

“It’s funny, I was watching a cut of the finished movie a few weeks ago, and I was watching the scene between Colman and Colin Firth where they debate the central issues of the movie, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, most of what Colman says is Steve’s viewpoint, and most of what Colin says is my viewpoint.” That give-and-take has long existed between the longtime collaborators, although it was different on this one given Spielberg’s own personal stake.

“It’s something he had carried around in his head for decades,” Koepp notes. “So in the beginning, I felt a particular obligation to not fuck it up. But then over drafts, it became my story too. At first, you’re always trying to be deferential to where the idea comes from. With Jurassic Park, I’m trying to respect the book as much as possible; War of the Worlds, same thing; Indiana Jones? Talk about deferential. That was a hard one. But in this, I’m helping this guy tell his story, even as it grew into my story too.”

It’s a tale about aliens, about secrets, and about a kind of spiritual coda to dreams Spielberg first shared with the world nearly 50 years ago in Close Encounters—although as Koepp is quick to point out not literally so (don’t expect a Richard Dreyfuss cameo). But it’s also about embracing, and more keenly empathizing with the unknown instead of fearing it. That’s a far cry from Spielberg and Koepp’s War of the Worlds film 21 years ago. The mission state also is in deliberate conflict with our current cultural moment.

“It feels so terribly precarious right now,” Koepp says, “and divisions are so sharp. Wouldn’t thinking about things from the other person’s point of view help? I think also having empathy for the extraterrestrials is important in this movie… they’re vulnerable creatures like us.”

Disclosure Day is in dialogue with Spielberg’s older films, but Koepp’s as well, especially whenever he’s collaborated on or off-screen in the last 30 years with the man in the beard. Hence before the conversation ended, we felt obliged to raise a query we’ve long wondered: Whose idea was it for Koepp to play, and be named, “Unlucky Bastard” in the second Jurassic Park movie when Koepp appeared on-screen as the one San Diegoan to end up inside a T-Rex’s tummy?

“That was mine!” laughs the writer. “That was one of my best character names ever! Yes, I wrote that part for myself and said, ‘Steven I’ll give you this rewrite if you’ll agree to let me play Unlucky Bastard.’ Happily, he agreed.” According to Koepp, if you’re going to write yourself a cameo, you must be killed off, preferably in a gruesome fashion.

“I haven’t been in a movie since because I don’t know how you top getting eaten by a T-Rex,” Koepp observes. “I really can’t walk through the background. So I’ve retired.”

Disclosure Day opens on Friday, June 12.

15 of Area 51’s Geekiest Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories can be harmful to some people, but in the realm of make believe, anything can be used to have a bit of fun. And among the many things conspiracy theorists love to run around with, Area 51 is the biggest and most discussed aspect by a wide margin.

These are the wild goose chases people on the internet love to go in, often with little to no evidence other than what they think the government is hiding from us. Most of these theories are incredibly unlikely, but as it happens with all probabilities: it’s low, but it can never be zero.

Reverse-Engineered Flying Saucers

One of the oldest Area 51 theories claims the facility houses crashed alien spacecraft recovered from incidents like Roswell. According to believers, engineers have spent decades attempting to reverse-engineer technology far beyond human understanding.

Alien Autopsies

Some conspiracy theories go beyond spacecraft and suggest Area 51 contains preserved extraterrestrial bodies. These claims often involve secret autopsies, biological research programs, and government efforts to hide evidence of alien life.

The Secret Stargate Program

Borrowing heavily from science fiction, this theory claims Area 51 contains portals capable of transporting people across vast distances. Some versions even suggest the technology was acquired from extraterrestrial civilizations rather than developed on Earth.

Time Travel Experiments

A favorite among geekier conspiracy circles, this theory argues that Area 51 scientists have discovered ways to manipulate time itself. Supposed evidence usually consists of alleged whistleblower stories and highly speculative interpretations of physics.

Recovered UFO Pilots

Rather than merely storing alien bodies, some theories claim living extraterrestrials have been housed and studied at Area 51. These stories often suggest governments secretly communicate with visitors from other worlds.

Testing Captured Alien Weapons

According to some believers, Area 51 is where scientists analyze and reproduce advanced alien weaponry. Theories range from directed-energy devices to technologies capable of ignoring known laws of physics.

The Underground Megacity

Many conspiracy enthusiasts argue that the visible base is only a tiny portion of the facility. They claim a vast underground complex stretches beneath the Nevada desert, containing laboratories, hangars, and entire hidden communities.

The Moon Landing Headquarters

A classic theory claims Area 51 helped stage or coordinate the Apollo Moon landings. While the idea has been widely debunked, it remains one of the most famous conspiracies connected to the facility.

The Men in Black Connection

Some UFO researchers believe the mysterious Men in Black are linked to Area 51 operations. Depending on the version, they are described as government agents, aliens, or something in between.

Weather Control Technology

This theory suggests Area 51 experiments involve manipulating storms and climate systems. Believers often connect unusual weather events to secret technologies allegedly being tested far from public scrutiny.

Interdimensional Visitors

Not every theory focuses on extraterrestrials. Some claim Area 51 studies beings from parallel dimensions rather than other planets. This idea combines UFO lore with concepts from theoretical physics and multiverse speculation.

Anti-Gravity Research

Reports of unusual aircraft have fueled theories that Area 51 scientists have mastered anti-gravity technology. Enthusiasts point to the strange flight characteristics reported in some UFO sightings as supporting evidence.

Hidden Space Fleet Projects

One of the more ambitious theories claims Area 51 is involved in developing secret spacecraft for missions beyond Earth. Some versions even describe hidden fleets operating throughout the solar system.

The Alien-Human Treaty

A long-running conspiracy theory alleges that world governments reached agreements with extraterrestrials decades ago. Area 51 is often portrayed as one of the primary locations where this secret cooperation supposedly occurs.

Artificial Intelligence Beyond Public Knowledge

Some modern theories have shifted away from aliens and toward advanced computing. They suggest Area 51 houses artificial intelligence systems far more sophisticated than anything publicly acknowledged, operating years or even decades ahead of known technology.

The 15 Best Soccer Movies and Shows to Get You in the World Cup Mood

The Soccer World Cup is right around the corner, and the excitement is being felt all around the world. If the previous World Cup is any indication, the matches to come are going to be some of the most incredible displays of Soccer that we’ve ever seen. Many of us can’t wait, but what to do with that built up emotion?

Well, we can always turn to fiction and documentaries to carry us from match to match. These are some of the best movies and shows based on the game we know and love, from all over the world where fans live. If you want to live and breathe the sport, give these choices a watch.

Ted Lasso

What began as a joke character evolved into one of television’s most beloved sports series. Ted Lasso combines soccer action with optimism, humor, and memorable characters, making it perfect viewing before a major tournament.

Bend It Like Beckham

This beloved sports comedy follows a young British-Indian woman pursuing her dream of playing soccer despite family expectations. Its charm, humor, and love of the sport have made it a modern classic.

Goal! The Dream Begins

One of the few films to fully embrace professional soccer culture, Goal! follows Santiago Muñez as he chases a career with Newcastle United. It remains a favorite among fans of the sport.

The Damned United

Michael Sheen stars as controversial manager Brian Clough in this acclaimed drama. Rather than focusing on players, the film explores the intense pressure, politics, and personalities that shape professional soccer behind the scenes.

Blue Lock

This anime takes a wildly exaggerated approach to soccer, imagining a ruthless training program designed to create Japan’s ultimate striker. The result is part sports drama and part psychological battle royale.

Shaolin Soccer

Stephen Chow’s cult classic combines soccer with martial arts and absurd comedy. Its over-the-top action and creative matches make it one of the most entertaining soccer films ever produced.

Sunderland ‘Til I Die

This documentary series follows English club Sunderland through one of the most turbulent periods in its history. The emotional connection between a struggling team and its supporters is the show’s real focus.

Welcome to Wrexham

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s ownership of Welsh club Wrexham inspired one of the most popular sports documentaries in recent years. The series captures both the business and emotional sides of soccer.

The English Game

Created by Julian Fellowes, The English Game dramatizes the origins of modern soccer in Victorian England. It explores how the sport evolved from an elite pastime into a game for everyone.

Next Goal Wins

Based on a true story, this film follows American Samoa’s national team after one of the worst defeats in international soccer history. It focuses on perseverance, pride, and the joy of competition.

All or Nothing: Arsenal

This behind-the-scenes documentary gives viewers unprecedented access to Arsenal’s locker room and training ground. It provides a fascinating look at how a major club operates throughout an entire season.

Green Street Hooligans

While not centered on matches themselves, Green Street explores English soccer hooligan culture. The film offers a darker look at the passion and tribal loyalty that can surround the sport.

Maradona: Blessed Dream

This dramatized series chronicles the life and career of Diego Maradona. It covers both his rise to soccer superstardom and the personal struggles that followed.

Becoming Champions

Each episode of this documentary series focuses on a different World Cup-winning nation. It is an excellent choice for viewers looking to revisit some of the greatest moments in soccer history.

Captains of the World

Released after the 2022 World Cup, this documentary series follows several national teams and star players throughout the tournament. It provides an inside look at the pressure of competing on soccer’s biggest stage.

15 People Share Their Most Pedantic Star Wars Nitpick

Nitpicking is when you apply criticism to something based on the tiniest detail possible, about aspects of a thing that, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really matter. Now, doing it knowing it is nitpicking, well that’s just good old fun. It isn’t something that truly bothers you, it’s something you’re ‘complaining’ about for fun!

This is what users of X did about one of their favourite franchises: Star Wars. They shared their ‘plot holes,’ inconsistencies and overall nonsense that they found throughout the Jedi saga. If you’re a fan of the galaxy far far away, you’ll find some of these nitpicks quite hilarious.

The X-Wing’s Surprisingly Specific Notifications

Apparently an X-wing cockpit has enough dashboard space to notify pilots whenever another squadron member switches off their targeting computer. That’s useful information exactly once in the entire trilogy, making its inclusion feel hilariously specific.

Why Can GNK Droids Feel Pain?

GNK droids exist to carry power around and make “gonk” noises. Yet they visibly react when harmed, implying they possess pain sensors and programming to interpret suffering. Why would anyone deliberately install that feature?

Lightsabers Seem Terrible for Hand Safety

Real swords have guards for a reason. Most lightsabers do not. Given how often blades slide against one another during duels, it’s remarkable that Jedi aren’t constantly losing fingers and hands by accident.

Everyone Forgot the Lars Family Immediately

Luke’s aunt and uncle have just been murdered, while Leia has witnessed the destruction of her entire home planet. Yet the emotional focus quickly shifts to mourning Obi-Wan, whom they barely knew.

Chewbacca Got Robbed

At the end of A New Hope, Luke and Han receive medals while Chewbacca stands nearby with nothing. He helped destroy the Death Star and save the galaxy, yet apparently wasn’t worthy of formal recognition.

Whose Year Are We Talking About?

Characters constantly refer to years, ages, and timelines despite living across thousands of planets. Since a year depends on a planet’s orbit, there must be some galactic standard calendar that nobody ever explains.

The Death Star Exhaust Port Problem

The Empire built a moon-sized battle station packed with advanced technology, then left a tiny but catastrophic vulnerability accessible from space. For something so expensive, basic engineering oversight seems strangely absent.

The Mystery of the Other Threepios

If Anakin personally built C-3PO from spare parts, why do similarly named protocol droids appear elsewhere? Either Anakin accidentally recreated a standard model, or protocol droid naming conventions are more repetitive than expected.

Why Doesn’t R2 Just Talk?

Many droids speak Basic fluently, yet astromechs communicate exclusively through beeps and whistles. Since translators clearly understand them, some fans wonder why nobody ever installed a normal voice synthesizer in R2-D2.

Han Somehow Escaped His Handcuffs

When Han Solo is lowered toward the carbon-freezing chamber, his hands are bound in front of him. Moments later, he is frozen with both arms dramatically reaching outward. Somehow he got free just in time.

Luke Was Waving That Thing Around

The first time Luke activates a lightsaber, he immediately starts swinging it around despite having no idea what it is. Obi-Wan’s calm reaction seems surprisingly relaxed for someone introducing a teenager to an energy blade.

Stormtrooper Armor Seems Useless

Stormtroopers wear full-body armor, yet they routinely fall after a single blaster shot. The armor clearly offers some protection in expanded lore, but the films make it look like decorative plastic.

Leia’s Force Powers Go Missing

At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Leia somehow senses Luke’s location through the Force. Then Return of the Jedi arrives and she spends most of the movie acting like that never happened.

Why Did Everyone Abandon Wheels?

The Republic used wheeled and treaded vehicles, which are generally faster, cheaper, and more practical. Yet the Empire and First Order remain obsessed with giant walkers that seem vulnerable to extremely basic battlefield tactics.

Watto Shouldn’t Be Flying

Watto’s tiny wings somehow keep his entire body airborne for extended periods. Star Wars has space wizards and faster-than-light travel, but some fans draw the line at a flying junk dealer who ignores aerodynamics.

Anthony Head Was a Father Figure to an Entire Generation of Genre Fans

Teen supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a formative force in the world of genre television. It made lead Sarah Michelle Gellar a star, helped shape over two decades worth of similar shows that followed in its wake, and became beloved by a legion of dedicated viewers who can still almost certainly recite the “Into every generation a Slayer is born” monologue that once opened the show by heart. But it’s been a particularly rough year to be a Buffy fan, as several of the series’ core original cast members, including Michelle Trachtenberg and Nicholas Brendon, have passed away within the space of the last 16 months. Now Anthony Head, who played Watcher Rupert Giles, has joined them, and his death at the age of 72 has left a generation of fans in mourning.

Initially a British stage actor who broke out after a series of surprisingly sexy coffee commercials, Head was a performer who did it all over the course of his long career, playing roles that ran the gamut in terms of tone and content. He was a ruthlessly gleeful alien villain on the Doctor Who episode that brought Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith back to the franchise. He played difficult dad King Uther Pendragon on beloved BBC fantasy series Merlin, and, most recently, Rebecca’s dirtbag ex-husband on Ted Lasso. He even had an iconic West End turn as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a stage revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The man contained multitudes.

But for many of us, Head wasn’t just a performer; he felt like family. Thanks to his role as Giles on Buffy, he not only helped reimagine the role of the mentor figure in the genre television space, but he did it with rare warmth and style, taking a character who could have been little more than a caricature — a token grown-up set as an antagonist to the series’ teen heroes, there to lecture about duty and rules or, worse, to serve as the butt of age-related jokes — and infusing him with emotional depth, moral complexity, and lots and lots of unexpected heart.

In the Buffyverse, characters subvert many archetypes and the show revels in crafting complicated characters who refuse to fit neatly into the predefined boxes — the sidekick, the comic relief, the bad boy, the mean girl — that so often litter teen TV. Its traditional Chosen One hero is an unapologetically feminine former cheerleader who may look like the girl who always dies first in these sorts of stories, but is actually more than capable of kicking ass in her fashionable high-heeled boots. Her best friend is a shy, seemingly helpless nerd who becomes an ultra-powerful witch by learning to claim her own power (both figuratively and literally speaking). And her brooding vampire love interest isn’t the bad boy he initially seems to be, but rather an existentially troubled former mass murderer trying to get his shit together, penitentially speaking.

In the world of the show, Giles is a Watcher, a fancy name for Buffy’s assigned guardian, the person meant to educate and train her in all the ways of being a Slayer. A prim, tweed-wearing librarian, the character leans into all of Head’s inherent Britishness: A dry comment, a pointed eyeroll. Giles initially seems to be something of a relic, the onscreen stand-in for an inflexible, frequently archaic system that refuses to see the girls they train as anything more than a duty to be managed or a weapon to be forged. But that was never who Giles was, because Head’s emotionally complex performance always centered the character’s most human traits. A mentor who sees Buffy as a person, not merely as a Slayer, he comes to love her for all the things that make her herself, not the supernatural abilities that make her exceptional.

Yes, Giles is a capable mentor, a walking library of vampire fun facts and deep-cut supernatural lore who helps Buffy and her friends solve a myriad of dangerous problems. But unlike many classic authority figures in the genre space, he isn’t overly stoic, rigid, or removed. For all his magic and historical knowledge, Giles doesn’t always have all the answers, and must find his own way to navigate love, loss, and failure in much the same way Buffy and her friends do. (Just with less homework and/or extracurricular activities.)

Humanized by his ex-rebel with a dark magic past and vulnerable in a way that few men on TV during this time period were allowed to be, Giles frequently second-guesses himself, acts selfishly, and makes mistakes, sometimes all within the same episode. Yet he is also Buffy’s staunchest supporter and advocate, not only prepared to die for her (season 1’s “Prophecy Girl”), but kill for her if need be (season 5’s “The Gift”). And Head makes it all look effortless, deftly shifting between genuine sincerity, fierce protectiveness, and the biting humor that gave him many of the show’s most memorable one-liners.

Buffy’s actual dad, Hank Summers, only appears a handful of times on the show — and one of those episodes takes place in an alternate reality and therefore doesn’t really count — so it makes sense that Giles eventually becomes a sort of surrogate stand-in, both a father figure and a trusted confidante who pushes the Slayer to become her best self without asking her to sacrifice the spirit that makes her so special. It’s evident from very early on that Buffy is the most important person in Giles’ life, and their relationship ultimately forms the emotional heart of the show. Say what you want about the (still ongoing!) debate about who Buffy should have ended up with romantically — Team Angel, for the record, but it really doesn’t matter — her most important relationship was always the one she shared with her Watcher, and the warm, lived-in chemistry between Head and Gellar carried over into every interaction between the pair, whether it was Giles making a fool of himself for Buffy’s benefit or refusing to judge her for making the same kind of reckless teenage choices he once did.

In many ways, Anthony Head didn’t just play a father figure to Buffy Summers on TV; he filled a similar role in the hearts of many of the impressionable young nerds watching along at home during Buffy’s heyday. Don’t we all still wish we had a Giles in our own lives — fiercely protective, patient, endlessly loving and loyal, most especially if and when we probably don’t deserve it? We have the actor who brought him to life to thank for that, and the performance helped teach us how to stand against the forces of darkness in the first place.

Masters of the Universe Can Point the Way for Thor 5

Even a few months ago, if I told you about a movie that had a blond guy with gigantic muscles, a rainbow bridge between dimensions, and endless monsters and spaceships, you’d think I was talking about Thor. But this weekend, the description fits a non-Marvel flick, Masters of the Universe.

The similarity between the two properties isn’t entirely a coincidence. Masters of the Universe started out in 1982 as Mattel’s attempt to cash in on the popularity of Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars, launching a toy line that was part sword and sorcery and part sci-fi. When Mattel teamed with DC Comics to expand the stories that began as minicomics packed in with the action figures, they drew inspiration from not just Jack Kirby‘s original Thor comics at Marvel, but the Fourth World Saga that Kirby created at DC.

With the Thor franchise in a bit of a lurch after Taika Waititi‘s take has ended with Love and Thunder, Masters of the Universe can give the MCU some direction… provided that they don’t repeat the cinematic He-Man’s biggest mistake.

The Reign of King Kirby

Masters of the Universe takes place on the planet Eternia, where the lazy and weak Prince Adam transforms into He-Man when called upon to defend Castle Grayskull from the evil Skeletor. Aiding He-Man are his fellow warriors, such as the weapons master Man-at-Arms, the captain of the guard Teela, and the wizard Orko. Skeletor has his own horde of henchmen, including the hairball Beast Man and the robot pirate Trap Jaw.

Originally, Marvel’s Thor took the Norse mythology and gave it a superhero spin by tying the God of Thunder to frail human doctor Donald Blake. When the trickster Loki or the evil duo of Enchantress and Executioner threatened Asgard or Midgard, Donald Blake would tape his cane on the ground, transforming it into Mjolnir and summoning Thor.

Kirby used Thor as a place to indulge not just his love of high fantasy, but also to explore some of the scientific concepts he was also putting into Fantastic Four with Stan Lee. Kirby took those concepts even further when he went to DC, where he brought with him a rejected Thor pitch about Ragnarok brining an ending to Asgard and their rebirth as New Gods. The Fourth World saga introduced the warlike Orion and his father Darkseid, the former raised on the peaceful world of New Genesis while the latter holds tyrannical rule on Apokolips.

The mixture of high fantasy and science in Kirby’s work has continued to influence pop culture. Walt Simonson built on it for his acclaimed run on Thor, which released simultaneously with the first Masters of the Universe toys, and was the chief inspiration of Taika Waititi’s films. When Cannon Films produced a Masters of the Universe movie in 1987, director Gary Goddard looked not to the toys but to Kirby’s Fourth World as a source.

Kirby’s work forever links Masters of the Universe to Thor (and, by extension, The Fourth World). Now that Thor needs direction, Marvel may find it in the imitation.

Who Has the Power?

In its best moments, Masters of the Universe is unapologetically goofy. It features a mostly-naked super strong guy doing objectively awesome things, sometimes set to Queen’s theme from The Highlander. He punches monsters, lifts heavy stuff, and shouts catchphrases. He visits places called Snake Mountain and rides in spaceships, flying across a colorful sky.

Those scenes show exactly what the big screen Thor movie could be. While the original Thor film and its first sequel, The Dark World, have their charms, they never entirely captured the mix of sci-fi and fantasy the property required. They made that combination a little too grounded, a little Shakespearean; a decision that minimized the silliness. Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder maximized the silliness, but only to make fun of it. The films constantly seemed to be apologizing for the fact that it was about Thor.

Sadly, Masters of the Universe too often made the same mistake. An early sequence of Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) struggling to wrest the power sword from comic shop statue invites viewers to condescend to the whole idea of muscley barbarians, in the same way that awkward banter between Skeletor (Jared Leto) and Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) poke fun at bad guys who like being bad guys.

If they ignore all of those winking jokes, then whoever makes the next Thor movie has a perfect model in Masters of the Universe. Just let Chris Hemsworth play Thor as a muscle-man who likes to battle frost giants and massive serpents. If his next baddie is the Absorbing Man, then let the Absorbing Man be a strong bald guy in striped pants, who swings around a ball and a chain. Don’t make jokes about, don’t try to class it up. Just let it be the dumb, awesome adventure that so many Thor comics have chronicled.

Masters of the Universe didn’t quite hit the mark, but came closer than any Thor film so far. All the more reason for the original to give it a shot, letting the God of Thunder prove that he had the power long before He-Man ever existed.

Masters of the Universe is now playing in theaters worldwide.

New Supergirl Clip Might Be Hiding a Man of Tomorrow Connection

In the latest clip from Supergirl, Earth gets a new hero in the form of Kara Zor-El, cousin of Superman. But did she bring something more sinister with her?

The scene in the clip comes directly from Supergirl’s first appearance in 1959’s Action Comics #252, by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. But where Plastino drew Supergirl emerging from a rocket, not unlike the one that baby Kal-El took to Earth, Milly Alcock arrives via a silver sphere, with a very unsettling pattern. The sphere consists of hexagons, a pattern new to Supergirl’s rocket, but not to DC Comics. In fact, the hexagons bring to mind the villain of the next Superman movie, Brainiac.

Those just paying attention to the images that James Gunn has been sharing to social media may be surprised by the connection. Most often, Gunn and outlets covering Brainiac news (Den of Geek included) use images that portray the villain as a green-skinned humanoid, often in a purple suit. That depiction does indeed come straight from the comics, starting with Brainiac’s first appearance just a year prior to Supergirl, in Action Comics #242, also by Binder and Plastino.

Traditionally, Brainiac hails from the planet Colu, a planet of super-intelligent humanoids who enhance their brains with cybernetic parts. But in 1982, DC Comics revamped Brainiac for the Bronze Age. In Action Comics #544 (1983), by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane, Brainiac melded with a world-destroying machine to gain a new skeletal form. Not only did he have a hexagon pattern around his skull, sometimes colored silver and sometimes colored gold, but he flew a giant ship with the same design.

Brainiac did not stay in his robotic form for long, soon returning to variations of his green and purple look. But the robot form may be important to Man of Tomorrow, for a few different reasons.

Gunn has described Man of Tomorrow as not just a sequel to Superman, but also a Lex Luthor story, in which Nicholas Hoult plays co-lead as Superman must team up with his archenemy to fight Brainiac. In the influential 1986 Alan Moore and Curt Swan story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Brainiac possesses Lex Luthor to combine his intellect with that of Superman’s greatest enemy. How does he do this? By using his robot form and attaching his hexagons to Luthor’s head.

Recently, set photos from Man of Tomorrow have shown Hoult as Lex wearing his warsuit, a green and purple mech outfit. That suit comes straight from the comics, first appearing in 1983’s Action Comics #544, the same issue that introduced Brainiac’s skeletal form.

Interesting as these connections are, they still leave a question. Why would Kara be in a Brainiac ship? For a possible answer, we need to look past the comics, to the cartoons. Superman: The Animated Series offered a compelling revision to the origins of both Superman and Brainiac. Here, Brainiac was first an AI used on Krypton, who turned against his masters and lied about the dire state of the planet. Brainiac eventually took humanoid form to fight against Superman. Years later, Smallville repeated the plot, casting James Marsters as the human form that Brainiac takes after arriving on Earth from Krypton.

Superman has already established that the Kryptonians of the new DCU aren’t as benevolent as their comic book counterparts. Supergirl will probably give us a slightly more likable take, given that Kara grew up in Argo City, a portion of Krypton that survived the planet’s explosion, and we’ll spend more time with her parents, Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham). But that doesn’t exempt them from birthing Brainiac, even unintentionally.

If they did, Superman’s happy reunion in Supergirl may turn out to be a nightmare in Man of Tomorrow.

Supergirl arrives in theaters on June 26, 2026.

Masters of the Universe Reminds Us That Not Every Silly Thing Needs to Be a Joke

This article contains spoilers for Masters of the Universe

In the first big payoff moment of Masters of the Universe, kindhearted HR rep Adam Glenn (Nicholas Galitzine) raises the power sword into the air and declares, “By the power of Grayskull… I have the power!” Where once stood a milquetoast man in a powder pink shirt now stands a certified hunk, all rippling biceps, with a tiny metal plate over his impressive pecs and a loin cloth keeping the movie PG-13. Now in He-Man mode, Adam lunges toward his enemy, a blue-skinned pirate guy with a red metal mouth and retracting weapons on his arm, who goes by the name Trap Jaw (Sam C. Wilson).

The scene looks every bit like the toy line adaptation it is, the big-budget effects only intensifying the feeling that you’re watching a five-year-old bash his action figures together. And it absolutely rules. The fight works so much better than the scene leading up to it, when Adam tries to employ his corporate conflict resolution skills to talk Trap Jaw out of the battle, if only because Masters of the Universe stops making self-aware quips about how silly the whole thing is.

Bested By Barbie

It’s hard to blame director Travis Knight and his screenwriting team, which includes frequent collaborator Chris Butler as well as Adam Nee, Aaron Nee, and Dave Callaham, who have worked on the script through previous iterations. Masters of the Universe is extremely silly, a property that began as a toy line transparently designed to appeal to little boys who like Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars. It combines outlandish concepts, such as a guy who fights by extending his neck really, really far, with the most obvious execution, naming that guy Mekaneck (James Wilkinson). Others include a guy who rams people called Ram-Man (Jon Xue Zhang), a skeleton man called Skeletor (Jared Leto), and Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie), who is indeed evil.

Furthermore, Masters of the Universe enters a cinematic landscape defined by self-awareness. Love or hate it, nerd culture still exists in the shadow of Joss Whedon, who wrote characters that were both pop culture savvy and unimpressed with the whole thing. Whedon brought that approach to movies by writing and directing the first two Avengers movies, in which Tony Stark dismissively refers to the team as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” dismissing the tagline that debuted in 1963’s Avengers #1.

Moreover, Masters of the Universe sits in the shadow of Barbie, a wildly successful adaptation of Mattel’s other toy line. Greta Gerwig and co-writer Noah Baumbach filled their movie with jokes about the appropriateness of a pregnant doll sold to kids or the uselessness of Alan. But those quips came with a point.

Take one of Barbie‘s best gags, when Stereotypical Barbie bawls about never being conventionally attractive enough, a claim undercut when Helen Mirren’s narrator interjects to point out that Margot Robbie is the definition of conventionally attractive. That’s a metajoke about the silliness of the story and the scene, but it has a point, one tied to the history of the toy line. As a product, Barbie has reinforced limited standards of beauty, and the knowing gag operates less as the filmmakers’ condescension and more like their acknowledgment that these toys matter, that they have larger social effects. The film feels an obligation to address those effects, and it does so through a metajoke.

Get More Stupider

Masters of the Universe has no such obligations. The screenplay tries to say something about how Skeletor uses power to hurt and how He-Man uses power to help, and how listening and friendship is its own type of power. But all that falls flat, for the exact reason stated by the film. Adam tries to talk it out with a blue-skinned pirate monster or to an evil wizard with a skull for a face, who openly declares that he loves being evil. By the climax of the film, even He-Man says “The time for talk is done,” and wallops Skeletor with his bare fists.

In short, He-Man doesn’t have same cultural impact as Barbie and doesn’t have nearly as much to say about masculinity. Moreover, attempting to talk about masculinity and power undermines the sole reason for Masters of the Universe‘s existence, the opportunity to watch crazy musclemen beat each other up.

The same is true of the metatextual jokes in Masters of the Universe. Yes, we all know that it’s silly for Ram-Man to slam into people with his head. And, yes, all of us grown-ups now realize that the name “Fisto” has an extreme double entendre. But when Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) declares that he’s going to fist all the bad guys and tells Ram-Man to “give them head,” we don’t need him to then stop and apologize with embarrassment.

Thinking of Barbie while watching the toys duke it out on screen, one cannot help but recall that old schoolyard taunt and think, at least in the case of Masters of the Universe, maybe boys should go to Jupiter to get more stupider.

What’s Best in Life is Dumbest in Life

In its best moments, Masters of the Universe recognizes what it is and embraces it without embarrassment. Daniel Pemberton’s synth score and the bright costumes bring us right back to the matte-painted worlds that the toy line was trying to emulate, movies like Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster, and The NeverEnding Story. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t wink when Conan told us what is best in life. He just talked about crushing and driving enemies and hearing women’s lamentations, in a way that was unironic, problematic, utterly stupid, and utterly awesome.

So few movies get to be so stupid and cool, especially on a studio level. Time and again, today’s movies have to make sure everyone knows that we’re all smarter than the material, even though the studio happily takes your money for engaging the material. More than almost any other IP, Masters of the Universe has the power to ignore the pretensions and just be dumb fun. The movie’s makers should have used it.

Masters of the Universe is now playing in theaters worldwide.

Documentary Stealing Magic Takes on Trickery Within the World of Illusions

Magicians have been using the art of illusion to deceive the mind for centuries, yet it appears that even they can fall victim to trickery. In Fish Bowl Films and Magic Castle Entertainment Production’s documentary Stealing Magic, the audience will follow British illusionist Andi Gladwin as he launches a multi-year global investigation of an online piracy ring whose mark is any and everyone with a magic trick.

Gladwin teams up with magicians from across the world to follow a trail of encrypted messages, aliases, and suspicious transactions through an underground marketplace built on stolen magic. The team of magicians faces intimidation, threats, and the possibility that the traitor is one of their very own. Check out an exclusive first look below:

The film explores the behind-the-scenes of what makes magic, well, magic. It’s about the value of creativity and how those who are willing to fight for it have to go up against those who use their sleight of hand to, literally, steal magic.

Stealing Magic director Matthew Testa has worked on numerous notable projects, including Manifesto of a Serial Killer (2023), The Toolbox Killer (2021), the miniseries The Witnesses (2020), Gold Rush (2010-2011), and the 2017 documentary Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story.

In a press release provided to Den of Geek, Testa notes that he came into the project with a limited understanding of magic and used his magical naivety to understand the community of illusion artisans, highlighting them in a way that shows the core of the trade.

“The film became not just an investigation into piracy, but an exploration of the people behind the illusions — creators whose work is often invisible even as it inspires wonder around the world,” Testa says.

With the idea of uplifting a community whose livelihood and integrity were being breached, Testa set out to create a renewed appreciation for the artists who spend their lives creating wonder, and the Jason Bourne-like lengths they will go to protect it.

The documentary explores, at its essence, the lack of protections that has created a billion-dollar global market. Kearney, a management consulting firm, estimates that globally, internet piracy costs the entertainment industry around $75 billion annually.

In a world that is already talking so much about the theft of intellectual and creative property at the dawn of the age of AI, the lack of protections for creatives is jarring.

With a 1-hour and 27-minute runtime, Stealing Magic explores the magic community’s identity, dedication to the craft, and the real impacts piracy has on not only the livelihood of creatives but also the price of leaving fantasy unprotected.

Stealing Magic premieres Friday, June 5 at the Tribeca Film Festival.

10 Reasons Why Xbox Lost The Console War

The console war was the constant back and forth of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to be the main household name for the video game console. It’s been a long time coming, and it hasn’t always been these three, but they are the main names associated today to this ‘console war,’ but it seems to be finally over.

Nintendo was never seemingly interested in this competition, since they were doing their own thing, and it was enough to be in a ‘second place’ of sorts (except in Japan where it is the undisputed number one). But the Xbox console could never achieve even a fraction of the PlayStation success, and after a few decades, Microsoft and Xbox seem to have thrown the towel. But how did we get here?

The Xbox One Reveal Disaster

Microsoft’s 2013 Xbox One reveal remains one of the biggest public relations missteps in gaming history. Early messaging focused heavily on television features, always-online requirements, and restrictions on used games. Sony’s response was simple, clear, and overwhelmingly popular with consumers.

Sony Dominated the Exclusive Game Conversation

Throughout much of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation, Sony consistently delivered critically acclaimed exclusives. Games like God of War, Spider-Man, and The Last of Us Part II helped define the platform while Xbox struggled to match that level of consistency.

Too Many Promising Studios Were Closed

Over the years, Microsoft acquired and later shut down several talented studios. Closures involving teams behind beloved franchises created the perception that Xbox lacked a long-term strategy for nurturing exclusive game development.

The Halo Decline Hurt the Brand

For years, Halo was Xbox’s defining franchise. While later entries still attracted audiences, many fans felt the series never fully recaptured the cultural dominance it enjoyed during the Xbox and Xbox 360 eras.

The Kinect Gamble Backfired

Microsoft invested heavily in Kinect technology and initially bundled it with the Xbox One. While innovative, the accessory increased the console’s price and failed to become the revolutionary platform feature the company envisioned.

PlayStation Built Stronger Global Momentum

Xbox remained highly competitive in North America, but Sony often performed much better in Europe, Asia, and other international markets. That broader global appeal helped PlayStation build larger audiences and stronger long-term market dominance.

Mixed Messaging Confused Consumers

During several key moments, Microsoft struggled to communicate its strategy clearly. Changes involving digital ownership, exclusives, subscriptions, and platform identity sometimes left players unsure exactly what Xbox wanted to be.

Too Few Must-Have Exclusives

While Xbox offered quality games, many players felt there were fewer console-selling exclusives compared to PlayStation. When consumers can play most major third-party releases elsewhere, exclusive content becomes one of the strongest reasons to choose a platform.

The Brand Shifted Away from Consoles

In recent years, Microsoft has emphasized ecosystems, cloud gaming, PC integration, and Game Pass rather than console sales alone. It reduced the sense that Xbox hardware itself was the company’s primary focus, and damaged the brand so highly the new leadership is now walking those claims back.

Game Pass Changed the Battle, But Not the Winner

Xbox Game Pass is widely regarded as one of gaming’s best subscription services. However, despite its popularity, it arrived after PlayStation had already built a significant lead. The service improved Xbox’s position but did not fully reverse years of lost momentum, and the pricing was not something that would last. With several price hikes, Game Pass no longer is what was promised.