Sisu 2: Meet the Man Who Can Stop the Immortal

Stephen Lang does not know why folks respond so enthusiastically when he plays villains. But he has a theory, and it involves you.

“It’s probably the eyes,” chuckles the star of Avatar, Don’t Breathe, and this weekend’s Sisu: Road to Revenge. “But when you are an actor, I think it’s almost the wrong guy to ask about that. Because the answer is invariably going to be ‘it’s my voice, it’s my eyes, it’s my smile.’ I don’t know why I’m effective, but I’m effective because you, the audience. You bring a lot to it.”

That might be, but Lang also offers more than most to whatever project he’s working on, and in the case of Sisu 2, a sequel to the surprise Finnish action hit, the American actor’s casting gave Road to Revenge an entirely different flavor. According to writer-director Jalmari Helander, the suggestion of Lang came from the sequel’s American distributors, Sony Pictures, but it also influenced what became the central crux of the film.

“I was thinking of a much younger bad guy,” Helander admits when we catch up with him at Fantastic Fest. “Like a more physical danger in a way. But I really loved the idea when—I think it came from Sony—they said ‘what about Stephen Lang?’ These both being old dudes, I find that really interesting.”

Indeed, whereas 2021’s Sisu captured the imagination of genre fans around the world by having Jorma Tommila’s Aatami Korpi wordlessly dismantle what seemed like the entire Third Reich in a fantasy vision of the final days of World War II in Nazi-occupied Finland, Sisu: Road to Revenge is both a grander and more intimate affair. After all, we are told as part of Korpi’s mysterious backstory in the first Sisu that he earned nicknames like “the Immortal” and Koschei (a powerful sorcerer is Slavic folklore) by bedeviling the Russian Red Army for years. The reasons for this, we cryptically learn, had something to do with what the Soviets did to his family.

In Sisu: Road to Revenge, we meet those Soviets, and one in particular played by Lang as the polar opposite of Korpi. While Tommila’s hero is the absolute quiet type—a conspicuous presence who has about as many lines of dialogue as Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp in a 1920s silent film—Lang’s Igor Draganov is a loquacious, grandstanding Red Army officer who perhaps never wanted to become the butcher of Finland. But due to the orders from his superiors he has a long, red-stained history with the Korpi family.

“They’re two sides of the same coin,” Lang observes. “They both persevere, they’re both relentless. The difference is this: Tommila has lost so much. He’s lost everything because he’s lost his family. Igor’s got nothing to lose and never has had anything to lose. And that’s a tough position to be in.”

Still, it was the finer details of Lang’s acting choices that attracted Helander to the casting, as well as opening up a character who is perhaps as much of an intellectual threat to Korpi as a physical one.

“Lang really wanted to have that mustache, and I think he looks really cool with that mustache,” the writer-director chuckles about his antagonist, even allowing there might be some echoes of Soviet Union despot Joseph Stalin’s appearance.

“Stalin has much in common with Igor, the callousness, the coldness,” Lang considers. “The calculating cruelty of it, that’s something we very much associate with Uncle Joe, you know?” 

Even so, the actor points out the movie is escapism and he wasn’t looking to make a historical statement with the character. In fact, the mustache in part came from having just immediately played a role that required copious amounts of facial hair. And “when you’re removing it for a new character, you do so in stages to see what looks right, and I thought the mustache was not a bad thing.” The image is further juxtaposed with glasses in Igor’s quieter scenes and the hint of a hunch. There is a deep exhaustion and perhaps intellectual resignation in the performance of a Russian officer who we meet imprisoned by his own government before being sent back into Finland to finish the job with the “Koschei.”

“He’s got a good bit of Dostoyevsky in him, doesn’t he?” Lang muses. “There’s something very Dostoyevsky about him… the Russian darkness that can be acknowledged in much of their literature is very present in the character. He’s an intelligent man but he’s devoid of feelings. Those feelings have all been systematically removed.”

Yet it feeds into a movie that all recognize as utterly madcap. The first Sisu was also of course grandiose in its aesthetics and stylings. Lang says that when he saw it, he’d “never heard this voice” from a filmmaker before. While the movie had influences of everything from Spaghetti Westerns to ‘80s action flicks, there was a droll playfulness to how it blended that impressed the actor. 

“That’s a word I would use to describe Jalmari as a filmmaker,” Lang says. “His humor, his wit is both sly and dry, and dry and sly.”

And in Road to Revenge the action is elevated to a near symphonic level of Looney Tunes excess. Helander tells us he actually drew on Buster Keaton silent films and Bugs Bunny antics while designing the set pieces of the sequel. He likewise winks to the most iconic truck chace in cinema history, courtesy of Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“I’ve seen that truck sequence a million times, so it’s definitely there, and it has the same kind of tone in a way,” Helander says. “And there is also a pretty clear homage to when he puts the hand grenade to the front wheel of the bike and it flips, which is directly from the third Indiana Jones film with the explosion in the air.”

The point of Sisu: Road to Revenge though is to be able to take it to a more outlandish place. The director smiles, for instance, that one of his favorite bits to write involved his truck being flipped almost upside down and turning its rear cargo into a projectile missile.

In many ways, it feels like the first Sisu’s cartoonish violence reaching its final form, and all while Helander kept it in his uncompromising Finnish sensibilities. Still, not all notes are bad ones. The director candidly admits he got a great piece of advice on the first film when Korpi’s trusted sidekick, a fluffy Bedlington Terrier, had a door left open to it for the sequel.

“In my original Sisu 1 script, the dog actually exploded,” Helander laughs. “But there were quite a few people who said that might be a mistake, so I didn’t blow the dog up. And I think it was a wise decision.” Between that and the casting of Lang, that’s two for two in the world of Sisu.

Sisu: Road to Revenge opens on Friday, Nov. 21.

Pierce Brosnan Would Consider a Return to Bond, But Not As 007

Never say never again… again? In most cases, actors who leave the role of James Bond abandon the tux and martinis completely exhausted and never wanting to return. Daniel Craig‘s colorful, evocative language and George Lazenby’s surprising abandonment of the role are the most famous examples of an actor forcefully leaving the part, but even Sean Connery, who did actually come back twice, only did so because producers met his exorbitant paycheck requirements.

The one exception to the rule is Pierce Brosnan, who had his run cut short after the abysmal Die Another Day. Brosnan reportedly wanted to stay in the part before he was replaced by Craig. But with Craig now definitively gone and Denis Villeneuve rebooting the franchise for Amazon, the streamer’s first since acquiring the rights from Eon Productions, would Brosnan return? The answer is “Yes,” but not in the way you’d think.

“Of course, people ask about Bond – ‘would you?’ and whatever – but that’s another man’s job,” Brosnan told GQ in a surprisingly candid interview. While that sure sounds like he’s dismissed the idea, Brosnan continued: “But the possibilities of working within the film, entertaining…,” he said, pausing as he considers working with Villeneuve. “So it’s going to be exciting to see what happens… I think everything changes, everything falls apart, so you just sit back and enjoy it all.”

Okay, that might be a frustrating answer for those who want Brosnan to definitively reclaim the part, but it is fitting for the latest 007 adventure. No Time to Die put a definitive cap on the previous Bond franchise, not just because it saw Craig’s Bond die in an explosion, but also because it marked the end of Eon’s shepherding of the franchise, a role they’ve enjoyed since introducing Connery as Bond in 1962’s Dr. No. Since then, only a handful of Bond adventures have been made outside of their auspices (including 1983’s Thunderball remake Never Say Never Again).

So as mutable as the franchise has been thus far, it’s all been run by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and his children. With Amazon MGM in control, there’s room for a different voice, for better or for worse. And as much as Villeneuve has a good track record, it’s not clear how his epic storytelling style will translate to the jet-setting super spy.

Or, to put it another way, there’s room to bring back Brosnan in some capacity, even if it’s not Bond. The franchise has recycled actors before, sometimes in major roles. The most notable example is Charles Gray, who first appeared as MI6 agent Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice (1967) before playing Bond’s arch-enemy Blofeld four years later in Diamonds Are Forever. Lest one think of such recasting as just a thing of the movie making past, Eon considered pulling an even bigger trick for Skyfall, getting Connery to play the groundskeeper Kincaid (the role eventually went to Albert Finney).

For his part, Brosnan isn’t worrying about those details, and prefers to take the long view. “Sometimes you entertain it and sometimes you just move on,” he said of such speculations. The Bond franchise “just really gets in the way of life… I’ve said everything I have to say about it,” he continued. But notice that he never said never, and that makes all the difference.

Daredevil: Born Again Producer Promises An Unrestrained Second Season

When Dario Scardapane came aboard as showrunner for Daredevil: Born Again, it was not unlike the bargains struck by the Satan that inspired Matt Murdock’s costume design.

Yes, Scardapane would get to tell a story about Daredevil, the Man Without Fear; and the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk, both played by fan favorites Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio. And yes, he would get to bring in Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to direct several episodes. He could even shape some of the plotlines. But he would have to work with footage shot under a previous showrunners’ regime, which Marvel famously scrapped during a work stoppage.

Not so for the second season. “The landscape was open, and that was so liberating,” producer Sana Amanat declared in Empire Magazine. “We were like, ‘We can do whatever we want.'”

That’s good news for fans of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. As much as Daredevil: Born Again pushed the superhero genre forward with an interesting story about a man who sees his return to heroism as a form of backsliding, it also felt constantly hamstrung by a procedural format that the previous producing team explored. For every great action sequence or powerful dramatic moment, there was a scene in which Matt lawyered in the courtroom or in which Wilson Fisk stumbled through some mayoral duty.

Worst of all, Scardapane had to work around the absence of Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. The two characters, played by Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll, were favorites in the Netflix Daredevil series. But when the series moved to Disney+ for Born Again, the original showrunners decided to ignore Foggy and Karen entirely and put Matt in a new milieu.

Scardapane was able to bring back Henson and Woll, but only for bookend episodes. We get to see the trio paling around for a few minutes in the premiere before assassin Bullseye kills Foggy. After that, Matt pulls away from Karen, who disappears from the series until the final episode… one of the new episodes that Scardapane shot with Benson and Moorehead.

So does the fact that Scardapane has complete control over season 2 mean that we’ll get more Karen? Even better, does that mean that Foggy Nelson can come back from the dead, much like his comic book counterpart has done again and again?

Amanat doesn’t say. But she does tease some big questions in light of the first season’s developments, in which Fisk uses his position as mayor to outlaw vigilantes and turn New York City into a police state. With Daredevil building a vigilante army to oppose him, the next season will raise big questions for the characters.

“What does it mean for Fisk when he’s gotten everything he wants?” Amanat asked, teasing season 2 of Born Again. “When you give a person whose thirst cannot be quenched his most valued treasure, is it enough? Or does he squeeze his treasure too hard?”

We don’t know yet what that means for Fisk. But for Scardapane and his team, hopefully that means cleaner action and a better season of television overall.

Daredevil: Born Again season 2 will premiere on Disney+ on March 4, 2026.

The Pope Is Right: Making Movies Is Godly Work

From time to time, cinephiles can be guilty of hyperbole. Maybe it isn’t entirely true that Martin Scorsese understands the human condition better than Homer, Shakespeare, or Austen. Perhaps it is a bit much to call the studio heads of RKO history’s greatest monsters for taking away The Magnificent Ambersons from Orson Welles. And it just might be overstating things to say that all of human suffering could be ended if everyone just sat down and watched Singin’ in the Rain together.

But when we said that cinemas were holy places, we were right on the money. Because that’s an opinion shared by the pope himself. During an address on November 15, 2025, Pope Leo XIV said (via IndieWire) it is “wonderful to see that when the magic light of cinema illuminates the darkness, it simultaneously ignites the eyes of the soul.”

“Indeed, cinema combines what appears to be mere entertainment with the narrative of the human person’s spiritual adventure,” continued His Holiness. “One of cinema’s most valuable contributions is helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes, and examine the world as if for the first time. In doing so, they rediscover a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest. I find comfort in the thought that cinema is not just moving pictures; it sets hope in motion!”

While it might be surprising to hear these words said by the actual pope, claims about the holiness of art are certainly nothing new. Composer J.S. Bach would sign his compositions with S.D.G. for the phrase “Soli Deo Gloria” (“to the glory of God alone”), and famously declared, “All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment.” T. S. Eliot, while ironically disparaging explicitly Christian literature in an essay entitled “Religion and Literature,” urged devout readers to see that all legitimate forms of art contained in them a call for higher purposes, claiming that “knowing what we are and what we ought to be, must go together.” Even outside of explicitly Christian terms, we’ve long known that art inspires in us larger feelings, whether that be something to be feared, as in Plato’s Republic, and sought out, as in William Wordsworth’s description of poetry in “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.”

For the Christian in particular, art is holy because it can relate the Imago dei, the image of God in humanity. By learning about one another as people, we can care about them, see beyond just our own situation and desires. This is what the famed critic Roger Ebert meant when he compared movies to “a machine that generates empathy.”

That idea is echoed in Pope Leo’s phrasing. Movies are motion pictures, images that neither stay static for mere contemplation, nor can they be subsumed by the demands of narrative or exposition. Each picture signifies a thousand words, even if the person being pictured speaks specific words that only make sense to one plot.

Steve Rogers might be talking specifically about his friend Bucky’s brainwashing at the climax of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but the way Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan move their faces signifies a connection deeper and more universal than that particular plot. Ariel crests the water at the climax of “Part of Your World” in The Little Mermaid because that’s what the choreography demands, but the tenor of her voice and the motion of her rise combine to stir something inspirational in us all.

In particular, the pope refers to movies as setting hope in motion, which is true even when a particular plot doesn’t explicitly invite such hope. David Fincher‘s Seven ends with Morgan Freeman as Detective Somerset reciting lines from Hemingway—”The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for”—before concluding, “I agree with the second part.” Even the most optimistic reading of those lines has to contend with the bleak world in which Somerset lives, a world in which people do good through torture and a genuine innocent ends up beheaded. But as we watch him move back into that dark, endlessly rainy night, we viewers get to leave the theater and enter into the real world, one that we can fight for to make into a fine place.

Whether you go to movies to see God reflected in the actors or you go just to see the pretty faces, the same is true. Movies show us humanity in motion and illuminated, help us see the best parts of ourselves, even when projecting the worst. Theaters are holy places, not just for those of us working on our next online screeds about Christopher Nolan, but for all humans.




Pluribus Shows How Independence Is Impossible in the Modern World

This article contains spoilers for Pluribus episode 3.

Watching Apple TV’s Pluribus is an interesting experience in that it practically forces viewers to ask themselves what they would do if they were in the protagonist’s shoes. Would we be like Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) – eschewing any help from the hive mind that has taken over humanity – or would we use the drones as servants and pretend that our infected family were still normal like the five English-speaking immune people elsewhere do? Those of us who value free will and individuality may confidently insist that we would follow Carol’s example, but her high moral ground may not be as solid as it at first appears.

With the hive mind in control of all infrastructure worldwide, Carol (and any other like-minded survivor of the viral apocalypse) would have a hard time staying off the grid. Although keeping away from the internet and all broadcast television may be simple enough since it’s unlikely those media will operate the same way under the new regime anyway. That’s where it comes in handy to own all seven seasons of Golden Girls on DVD!

But Carol can’t just pretend to be in her own bubble of existence when the power grid that allows her to bingewatch herself into oblivion is being maintained by the pod people. Their energy consumption are significantly reduced by enforced brownouts, and this version of Albuquerque doesn’t need lights at night since the city is free from the influence of criminals like Walter White, Gus Fring, and the Salamanca cartel from creator Vince Gilligan’s other ABQ TV universe. Carol must allow herself to be coddled in order to keep the lights on in her neighborhood.

Carol’s dependence becomes even more obvious when she chooses to go shopping rather than have a gourmet breakfast delivered to her front door. Given the more efficient (and probably more equitable) food distribution of humanity’s new setup, there’s no need to keep specialty organic markets like Sprouts open for affluent best-selling authors like Carol. In fact, delivering home-cooked meals arguably involves fewer brainwashed drones than stocking an entire grocery store with food that will undoubtedly spoil to preserve Carol’s illusion of independence.

And the irony of Carol choosing frozen meals prepared by others instead of fresh produce and other ingredients to cook for herself is lost on no one. Perhaps she thought that if she only visited Sprouts once to stock up with enough Lean Cuisine to last for months, she could live in denial that all of that food would be rotting on the shelf for her exclusive benefit. Whatever her reasoning, Carol’s inner conflict is clearly evident as she watches random Albuquerque residents stock the shelves. How can one of the last human individuals on Earth truly be free of hive mind assistance?

Perhaps the answer lies with another disgruntled immune person: the mysterious man from Paraguay. Zosia (Karolina Wydra) confesses that the collective didn’t even discover his presence until much later than the others like Carol, and that admission comes from those who successfully prioritized isolated humans like those on the International Space Station and in arctic research centers in the earliest part of their takeover. Might the Paraguay man have been off the grid, or could he perhaps at least have the skills to remain separate from this new unified version of humanity for extended periods of time?

We know from their broken phone conversation that Carol and the Paraguay man have one thing in common: their surliness. Because Carol used her final exchange with the mysterious stranger to curse him out, it’s possible that he’ll realize that he has found a kindred spirit in his American counterpart. It seems likely that he will be back in touch soon, and if he is, perhaps he could share the secret with Carol to being truly independent of interference so that the real work of saving humanity can begin.

But first, one more episode of Golden Girls…

New episodes of Pluribus release Fridays on Apple TV.

Daniel Craig Doesn’t Want Benoit Blanc to End

During an interview with Time Out about 2015’s Spectre, Daniel Craig did not even attempt to hide his disdain for the Bond franchise. When asked about playing 007 again, he said, “Now? I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists.” When asked if his statement meant he would never do another Bond film, Craig said, “If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for money.” When asked about his feelings bout the next actor to play Bond, Craig declared, “Look, I don’t give a fuck.”

Of course, Eon Productions did give Craig money enough to get him to return for No Time to Die, but that movie definitively put an end to his run on the character. But with the third outing of his other ongoing character imminent, one cannot help but wonder if Craig has as much disdain for Benoit Blanc as he did for James Bond.

The answer is: no! But he does have his conditions. Speaking with Variety about the latest Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man, Craig observed, “These movies have to work at a very, very high level, otherwise there’s no point in doing them…. So as long as they’re doing that, we’ll keep doing them.”

Why the change in attitude? The answer may be with that “we” to whom Craig refers. Where the Bond franchise is a major moneymaking blockbuster franchise, then under the control of Eon Production heads Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, Knives Out is the brainchild of writer/director Rian Johnson. A series of Agatha Christie-style mysteries, the series stars Craig as the impeccably-dressed Benoit Blanc, a sleuth with an eye for the truth and a thick Southern drawl. Each entry inserts Blanc into a new group of weirdos, giving Craig plenty of space to show off the playfulness he exhibited in roles such as Joe Bang in Logan Lucky and William Lee in Queer.

Knives Out also lets Craig bounce off of other great actors, thanks to the films’ ensemble cast. The original film from 2019 sent Blanc to investigate the murder of a famed mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), letting him work alongside Ana de Armas as Harlan’s guileless nurse Marta as well as Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Jamie Lee Curtis, and others as back-biting members of Harlan’s family. Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, and Edward Norton get to join in the fun as bubble-headed disrupters in the 2022 sequel Glass Onion.

The upcoming entry Wake Up Dead Man, coming straight to Netflix after a brief theatrical run, slightly revises the formula by teaming Blanc with a kindhearted priest (Josh O’Connor), who must deal with the acolytes of his murdered superior (Josh Brolin), a group that includes Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, and Cailee Spaeny.

Thus far, the Knives Out movies have been a hit for Netflix, a surprise to everyone, including Johnson and Craig. “We made it with no ambition whatsoever,” observed Craig. “Just let’s do the best movie we can. And it became something, and then here we are.” And that “we” still includes Craig, at least for now.

Wake Up Dead Man plays in theaters on November 26, 2025, and arrives to Netflix on December 12, 2025.

The Legend of Zelda Movie’s First Photos Are a Breath of (Wild) Fresh Air

It is no secret that Nintendo is extremely protective of its brands, and none more so than The Legend of Zelda. While children of the ‘80s might have some fondness for the most obnoxious, nasally line-reading of “well, excuuuse me, princess!” there’s a reason the obscure 1989 Zelda cartoon from whence it sprang never got a second season. And it’s the same reason that there has not been a Legend of Zelda movie. Until now.

In the first images of young Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link, the once and future Hero of Time, and Bo Bragason as Princess Zelda, it seems probable that there will be no quippy catchphrases in Wes Ball’s anticipated Legend of Zelda movie, due out in summer 2027. The film, which began production this month in Wellington, New Zealand, appears determined to project a stoic majesty befitting the gaming franchise’s reputation among Nintendo fans and gamers in general, as well as something that visually feels a lot closer to, say, Lord of the Rings than the animated and pop-culture-referencing obsessed Super Mario movies being produced by Illumination Animation.

Our first images of Bragason and Ainsworth also deliberately evoke multiple eras of Legend of Zelda canon. The only 17-year-old Ainsworth’s Link is draped in the classic green tunic that the character has worn in most Zelda games going back to the original NES classic, The Legend of Zelda (1986). However, Bragason’s Zelda is adorned in a blue tunic that better resembles both Link and Zelda’s matching attire from recent Nintendo Switch era masterpieces The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) and Tears of the Kingdom (2023). The two also seem to have an intimate connection, with Link watching carefully over the princess, similar to the recent games where Link is introduced as Zelda’s champion and glorified bodyguard.

It is obviously far too early to speculate from these images alone as to whether this signals the movie is an adaptation of Breath of the Wild, but if we had to guess, we would suggest it is pulling from multiple eras. Personally, it might be wise to craft a narrative more reminiscent of Ocarina of Time’s nigh definitive telling of the Zelda legend in 1998, but with the setup and backstory of Breath of the Wild. Such a blending could go together as well as—well, green and blue tunics.

No matter the case, it is refreshing to see a Zelda adaptation tackling the material with the apparent weight and grandeur that Nintendo and its fans apply to the material. Both Bragason and Ainsworth are adorned with elfin ears and vaguely medieval fantasy costuming, and there is not a hint of self-deprecation or irony commiserate with how so many video game adaptations over the decades—or frankly plenty of modern video game and comic book movies—treat their source material. It would seem Ball is going for it in much the same way he maintained modern Planet of the Apes films’ sense of grounded conviction in 2024’s solid Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

It remains to be seen if Ball can actually make the material work, particularly when it is as porous and narratively ephemeral as the Legend of Zelda games. But the fact he isn’t going for the low-hanging fruit of self-effacement seen in Mario or Minecraft movies suggests the filmmaker’s approach is off to a good start.

The Legend of Zelda opens in theaters on May 7, 2027.

Marvel Needs to Leave Ryan Coogler Alone for Black Panther 3

At this point, we can be honest. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a bad movie.

Oh, it has its moments, particularly in the first half: the initial attack of the Talokans on the American ship, T’Challa’s funeral, every single thing that Angela Bassett does as Queen Ramonda. But the movie suffers from too much fragmentation, particularly on Marvel’s end. Instead of exploring the characters that director Ryan Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole brought to life in the first movie, we spend so much time with Everett K. Ross, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Riri Williams–characters who all had significant parts in upcoming Marvel projects.

Wakanda Forever isn’t the first bad Marvel movie, nor is it the first disappointing sequel. And so some may be tempted to put the blame on Coogler, who had the unenviable task of following up the culture-defining first movie and dealing with the unexpected death of his star. But any doubts about Coogler’s abilities have been firmly and forever silenced by Sinners, a triumphant piece of blockbuster filmmaking and celebration of the power of art. With the announcement that Coogler will be returning to helm Black Panther 3, Sinners proves that Marvel boss Kevin Feige needs to step aside and let Coogler do whatever he wants for the third Black Panther movie.

Marvel, of course, hasn’t been very hands-off with its creatives. From the very beginning, the appeal of the MCU came from Feige approaching his job like a showrunner on a television series. He came up with the major plot beats, and often even pre-visualized action sequences before a director was even chosen. He frequently worked with established screenwriters such as Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to elaborate the plots he put together. Directors, then, could add their own personal style, but only to the extent that that they did not disrupt what Feige put in place.

While that approach did mean the MCU sometimes lost strong filmmakers, such as Edgar Wright on Ant-Man and Ava DuVernay before Coogler on Black Panther, it also allowed for a house style that helped the regular viewer buy into a world full of gods and supersoldiers. Anonymous directors such as the Russo Brothers thrived by translating the high stakes of Avengers: Infinity War into something familiar and legible.

Which isn’t to say that Feige has never allowed a director to express themselves. Most obviously, the three Guardians of the Galaxy films are very much James Gunn movies and both of Taika Waititi‘s Thor outings bear his mark, for better or worse. Less heralded but nonetheless effective was Joe Johnston’s sepia-toned take in Captain America: The First Avenger and Sam Raimi‘s incredible music note sequence in his return to superheroes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

To be sure, Feige’s approach worked for quite a while. But it’s clearly started to break down. Whether due to changes in the industry or due to his needing to pay more attention to the Disney+ shows or due to actual superhero fatigue, the process is broken. Even largely well-received movies like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps shows its seams as something cobbled together in the edit, proving that audiences don’t find the superhero spectacle sufficient to overcome problems with basic storytelling.

The decline in Marvel quality particularly stands out in contrast to the success of Sinners. Coogler took an original concept about twins returning to the Mississippi home to open a juke joint, only to find it assaulted by vampires, and turned it into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster. Without sacrificing any of his technical mastery (see: the standout music through the ages sequence) or any thematic depth, Coogler made something dazzling, thought-provoking, and entertaining—just like Marvel is in its best moments.

Officially, no one has said anything about Feige demanding that Val or Riri get so much screen time in Wakanda Forever. Perhaps Coogler and Cole did find those characters just as compelling as Okoye and more interesting than M’Baku, the last of whom only gets one significant scene in Wakanda Forever. And if the choice to focus on Val, Riri, and Ross belonged Coogler and Cole, then they bear the blame for the film’s failure. But that’s not how Marvel operated in the past.

It must be how Marvel operates in the future, at least where Black Panther 3 is concerned. Coogler already made the best movie the MCU, one that transcended the confines of genre cinema and became a true cultural event. Then he did it again, making one of the best genre films of the past five years. Surely, that’s more than reason enough for the architects of the now flagging MCU to step aside, and let Coogler follow his muse. The MCU will be better for it.

12 Festive Facts About Home Alone That Will Get You in the Holiday Spirit

Since its 1990 release, Home Alone has become one of the most treasured and rewatched holiday films of all time. Written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, the hilarious tale of eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, left behind when his family travels to Paris, has quite simply endured, booby traps and all.

Still, there are plenty of behind-the-scenes facts to discover about the classic movie that you can fire off next time you’re sitting down to a traditional Home Alone rewatch. Here are just some of the best…

1. You Win Some, You Lose Some

Home Alone was a massive success for 20th Century Fox, grossing $476.7 million worldwide on a budget of about $18 million and spawning five sequels, but it could have been a huge dub for Warner Bros. instead, had the studio not handed the movie over to Fox after balking at some extra budgetary dollars. Whoops!

2. What If…?

The film only exists because of real-life parental paranoia. Writer and producer John Hughes conceived the story after worrying during a family trip to Europe that he might forget his kids, which led him to ask: “What if you left your kid behind?” When Hughes returned from the trip, he blitzed through a first draft of the script in nine days, which seems quick if you don’t know that he wrote The Breakfast Club and Weird Science in two.

3. Potty Mouth Pesci

Joe Pesci’s time on the movie as one of the villainous Wet Bandits later led to several revelations. The role of Harry Lime had originally been offered to both Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz before Pesci accepted, but since he’d just finished Goodfellas and was used to relentlessly swearing, Pesci had to make up a gibberish language to use instead of dropping F-bombs when he was annoyed. This all led to Lime’s signature Yosemite Sam-style muttering.

4. Finger Food

Pesci also really bit Macaulay Culkin’s finger during a rehearsal and avoided interacting with him off‑camera so that Culkin’s fear of him seemed real. No word on whether he went full method and left some taps running around the neighborhood, though.

5. All Mapped Out

The map that Kevin uses to plot his incredible booby traps in the house looks like it was drawn by a real child because it was. Culkin drew it himself for authenticity.

6. Let It Snow

The movie couldn’t afford snow for scenes shot outside the house, but when a blizzard hit on the second day of shooting, the crew had to keep begrudgingly adding snow as filming continued, including fake snow made from potato flakes.

7. Anyone for Tennis?

Catherine O’Hara, who co-stars as Kevin’s panicked mom, often had to deliver her lines in scenes with child actors via a tennis ball on a stand rather than the actual child, because restrictions on child working hours meant the kids weren’t always present when her close-ups were filmed. But her time with Culkin certainly left a lasting impression – he’s been known to still call O’Hara “Mommy” when he runs into her.

8. Cheap Candy

The late John Candy filmed all his scenes as polka king Gus Polinski in a single day and improvised his iconic monologue. The beloved actor was reportedly only paid scale rate for the cameo, earning just $414. Columbus says Candy was still bitter about it when they worked together again on a different project later.

9. Spider Sense

The tarantula placed on Marv’s face during the film’s climactic home invasion was a real spider, but actor Daniel Stern only agreed to the shot if it was just one take. He also had to mime his terrified reaction rather than scream because that might have frightened the spider. Weird to think that the tarantula could have been the one bricking it at that particular moment, but there we go.

Speaking of Marv, the scene where he steps on Kevin’s ornaments barefoot wasn’t as painful as it looked: the ornaments had to be made out of candy so that Stern didn’t cut his feet. Mmm, forbidden, delicious foot ornaments…

10. Marley Saves the Day

Old Man Marley, the elderly gentleman who tells Kevin his distressing backstory and eventually rescues him from the Wet Bandits, may seem integral to Home Alone and its satisfying ending now, but the character wasn’t originally supposed to be in the movie. Columbus only added him in later to give the film more emotional depth.

11. Gym a Tonic

The power of set design makes viewers feel as if all of Home Alone’s interior scenes are shot in a real, cozy house, but Columbus and co. filmed the basement stuff in a pool at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and built interior sets in the school’s gym.

12. One Tree Kill

The tree Kevin chops down in the backyard scene was an actual tree on the property of a house in Winnetka. The house’s owners only discovered this after seeing the film and being amazed at how realistic the tree felling was. Returning home to check the backyard, they finally noticed the missing tree. Hey, they probably got over it eventually!

Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill Will Revisit Doctor Who with ‘The Pondcast’

In a lot of ways the world of Doctor Who is like the proverbial Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never really leave. Former Who actors regularly return to the flagship series for anniversary specials and guest spots, occasionally pop up on spinoffs, star in Big Finish audio dramas that expand the world and stories of their former characters, and show up at conventions where all anyone wants to talk about is their time in the world of the TARDIS. It’s honestly one of the best things about the franchise, this way that it kind of makes family of us all. 

Now former companions Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are reuniting for an exciting new kind of treat: A rewatch podcast that looks back on and shares stories from their time on the show. The duo played (eventual) husband and wife Amy and Rory Pond for two and a half seasons opposite Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and starred in stories that ranged from the genuinely terrible (“Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”) to the near-sublime (“The Girl Who Waited”). 

Speaking to the Radio Times, the pair confirmed that the project, which is set to be called “The Pondcast,” will see them both reflect on their experiences as part of Doctor Who (which, let’s not forget, took place just as the series’ was finally exploding in popularity in America.) 

“We really get on and we catch up quite often. We had such a good time [on Doctor Who],” Darvill said. “It was so long ago and we’ve forgotten so much that happened, but it was such a formative thing, that we feel now that we’re able to look back and celebrate it.”

As for the show itself, it sounds relatively low-key, though former showrunner Steven Moffat is already confirmed to have taken part.

“I’ve not seen half of it, so we’re going to rewatch it and talk about it. We’ve recorded a few episodes already and it’s really fun,” Darvill said. “It is just me and Karen messing around so I’m not quite sure how many new facts you’ll get, but it’s really nice to kind of go back and reminisce about it.”

Both actors have gone on to significant personal success since their time in the TARDIS concluded, with Gillan taking on a major role in the MCU (she’s Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy films) and Darvill has appeared in everything from Broadchurch to Legends of Tomorrow. 

There’s just one little problem they’re going to likely going to need someone like the Doctor’s to help them solve: The name The Pondcast is actually taken already. It belongs to — and I swear I am not making this up – a show that’s focused on the turtle and tortoise community and which has already recorded over 100 episodes. I guess Amy and Rory are going to have to brush up on their herpetology?  

The Pondcast doesn’t have a release date yet but recording is currently underway. 

Edgar Wright Explains That Creative Running Man Cameo

This article contains slight spoilers for The Running Man.

The 1987 movie The Running Man may be a delightfully weird bit of Arnold Schwarzenegger cheese, but it doesn’t have much to do with the 1982 novel that Stephen King published under the pen name Richard Bachman. For his 2025 adaptation, Edgar Wright has tried to stick closer to the source material, but he couldn’t resist winking to his predecessor.

Early in the new movie, Bobby T (Colman Domingo), the charismatic host of the television show The Running Man, tells protagonist Ben Richards (Glen Powell) and his fellow contestants Laughlin (Katy O’Brian) and Jansky (Martin Herlihy) about the huge cash rewards they win for each day they stay alive. To illustrate the point, one of the women on stage flashes a handful of highly-coveted new dollars, each emblazoned with Arnold’s image.

“I thought it was a nice little nod,” Wright admitted to The Hollywood Reporter, in which he also recalled his admiration to the 1987 movie. “[Co-writer] Michael Bacall had written the idea about a new currency, ‘new dollars,’ into the script.” While Wright intended to cameo to be a nod to the previous version of The Running Man, he also notes that the fact that Arnold is portraying a president references a different beloved movie from the era. “It’s a shared joke with the Demolition Man universe,” he explained; “In Demolition Man, they mention President Schwarzenegger, so it’s my little shout out to both Arnie and Daniel Waters [screenwriter of Demolition Man].”

In the 1987 movie, Schwarzenegger played a very different type of Ben Richards than the man portrayed by Powell. In addition to his greater size and signature accent, Schwarzenegger’s Richards is a former cop who ended up on the deadly gameshow as part of his punishment for refusing to kill rioters. Most of this Richard’s battles take place in an arena, where he goes one-on-one against outsize personalities such as Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) and Fireball (Jim Brown).

Despite his fondness for the Schwarzenegger movie, Wright wanted his version to more closely follow the novel, if only because it allowed his film to be fresh and different. “The best remakes of films or the best new adaptations are where you’re doing something radically different with it. David Cronenberg’s The Fly is a great example. It’s wildly different to the 1958 one, but I can enjoy both,” he explained. “This felt like a fresh movie because the source material hadn’t been fully adapted, and most of the characters in the book are not in the 1987 film.”

And so Wright’s movie brings in King characters missing from the movie, most notably Michael Cera as nerdy revolutionary Elton Parrakis and Daniel Ezra as rebel and critical theorist Bradley Throckmorton. Moreover, Wright tries to retain more of the bleak anger of King’s novel, to varying degrees of success. But even then, he can’t help but share some love with the Schwarzenegger Running Man, even if it’s just high-dollar cameo.

The Running Man is now playing in theaters.


Dungeons & Dragons Duo’s New Star Trek Movie Can Bring Fun Back to the Franchise

The Star Trek universe giveth, and the Star Trek universe taketh away. Hot on the heels of the announcement that the Kelvinverse timeline of feature films was finally dead dead comes the news that Paramount has a brand new Trek movie in the works—and one that sounds like something fans haven’t gotten the chance to see in far too long.

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been tapped to write, produce, and direct a brand new Star Trek film for the studio. Per Deadline, who first broke the story, the forthcoming installment will offer a completely new take on the franchise universe, unburdened by any sort of connections to current television series, previous films, or other projects that may or may not have sputtered out at various points in the development pipeline. (Sorry to Noah Hawley and Quentin Tarantino, I guess.) Virtually nothing is known about its plot, but the report suggests the film will likely introduce new characters to the franchise, though we don’t technically know if that will be in primary or supporting roles.

Goldstein and Daley have already proven themselves capable writers who can put fresh spins on preexisting IPs. The pair wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming, and though they’ve only directed three films, those include Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the wildly underrated Game Night (“Oh, no… he died!”). All of this probably gives us a pretty good idea of how the pair might approach tackling the world of Trek, and I think we all have to admit that it’s probably a good idea to get some fresh eyes on this franchise.

With the television universe busy slotting various series into gaps of existing canon (waiting on that Star Trek: Year One announcement any day now), it’s well past time to let the film side of things, well… boldly go. Tell different kinds of stories! Take some risks! It’s a big, bold, beautiful universe out there, and surely there’s got to be some pocket of it that doesn’t care at all about any singular event from James T. Kirk’s personal timeline.

Plus, there’s really something to be said for simply letting the Star Trek franchise have fun again. Say what you want about the silliness of its plot, but Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a straight banger that manages to have an amazing time with a story that literally revolves around saving the whales, of all things. In recent years, many of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ best and most exciting episodes (the musical, the live-action crossover with an animated series) have come from the show simply deciding to embrace the inherent ridiculousness of its own premise. Heck, one of the most memorable Star Trek episodes of all time is still the Original Series installment where some fuzzy aliens won’t stop having sex! 

It’s possible to tell simple, enjoyable, relatively low-stakes stories in this universe that are a good time in their own right. And that’s exactly what one has to hope Goldstein and Daley are planning to do here. Strong, character-based stories with witty humor are kind of their whole deal, after all, and it’s a vibe this universe could desperately use more of. A fun space adventure grounded in an optimistic view of humanity’s best potential instead of its inevitable failings feels like exactly what Star Trek—heck, all of us—needs right now. 

Pluribus: The One Note Vince Gilligan Had for Rhea Seehorn

Vince Gilligan knows about complicated characters. And he knows how people sometimes misunderstand those characters. Gilligan is, of course, best known for creating Breaking Bad, the hit TV series about a high school chemistry teacher who became a drug lord and, along the way, a hero to thousands of viewers. But the same principles are true of Jimmy McGill, the sympathetic figure who hides behind the slick persona of Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul, and certainly of his latest protagonist, romance author turned sole hope for humanity Carol Sturka.

For actor Rhea Seehorn, Sturka is a tricky character who took some time for her and Gilligan to figure out. But Gilligan’s guidance primarily came in one note. “But I do remember him reminding me that she is a very reluctant hero,” Seehorn recalled to Hollywood Reporter. “Her behavioral norms before are not relevant or not working anymore.”

The first half of Pluribus‘ premiere followed Sturka and her agent Helen (Miriam Shor) as they went on what the former considered a miserable book tour. Dismissing her own series of steamy pirate adventure novels as trash and unmoved by the fans who clearly love what she does, Sturka remains unsatisfied. But none of that matters when a virus quickly overtakes all of humanity, giving them a hivemind and making them all docile, indistinct, and, at least by their telling, happy. The one person immune to this virus (that we know of in that moment, at least): the miserable, and now heroic, Carol Sturka.

According to Sheehorn, it took some time for her and Gilligan how to remain true to Sturka’s misery while understanding that she’s the protagonist and hero in the series. “We found her over the course of the episodes. We had to figure out who this person is in this new world,” she said, adding: “The frustration is, ‘My God, does it really have to be me?'”

Although only three episodes of the Apple TV series have been released thus far, Pluribus is already winning over audiences. We here at Den of Geek called it a “must-watch,” adding to the chorus of praise. Because of its strange sci-fi premise, which continues to mutate with each episode, Pluribus makes for gripping television.

And, Sheehorn pointed out, it makes for relatable and entertaining television. “There’s so much drama in that, there’s also so much comedy,” she says of Sturka’s plight. “We’ve all been in situations where you feel like you’re the only one screaming that the barn is on fire and everyone’s like, ‘Just have a drink. What is your problem?'”

In other words, Carol Sturka is just like everyone else, including Gilligan’s other protagonists: complicated, relatable, and deeply human.

The first three episodes of Pluribus are now streaming on Apple TV.







Doctor Who Spinoff Sets UK Airdate, US Fans Will Have to Wait

American Doctor Who fans will have to polish off their spoiler-dodging skills if they want to experience spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea without knowing some of the story’s biggest twists in advance. The five-part series will officially begin airing on BBC One and BBC iPlayer with a two-episode premiere on December 7, leaving U.S. fans (and pretty much anyone who doesn’t happen to live in the United Kingdom) out in the proverbial cold for what will likely be months to come.

Disney+, which still controls the rights to broadcast the series thanks to its original partnership deal with the BBC that has since gone up in flames, doesn’t seem particularly pressed about airing it, and has only said that the show will be available “in 2026”. They’ll get to it when they get to it, okay? The break-up is clearly not going all that well.

To be fair, this sort of airing schedule isn’t unusual — we’d all just gotten used to not having to really deal with it anymore. In the early days of the modern reboot, the series aired in America on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) and would often premiere months after its original U.K. broadcast. (And with terribly inserted commercial breaks!)

But in recent years, the show had finally begun to transmit on the same day and date in both countries — thanks to time differences (and what seems to be a profound lack of network interest), the show even dropped several hours ahead of its BBC One airings for U.S. viewers during the Disney+ era. Hardcore Whovians who’d basically spent years using livestreams or VPNs to watch the British broadcasts were finally able to relax. It was, honestly, a golden time for all of us. But nothing lasts forever, it would seem. 

The series stars Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and franchise regular Jemma Redgrave in a story that will theoretically explore how Earth copes with an alien threat when the Doctor’s not around to help. This will involve the return of the classic monsters known as the Sea Devils (sorry…I mean, Homo Aqua), who are apparently quite pissed that humankind has spent centuries polluting the seas they call home. Human negotiator Barclay (Russell Tovey) and don’t-call-her-a-Sea-Devil ambassador Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) will have to come together in order way to find a forward for both their species that avoids a potentially cataclysmic conflict. 

They’re also totally going to make out. No spoilers, obviously, but that series’ poster could not be more Rose-and-Ten-from-”Doomsday”-coded if it tried. (Don’t believe me? Just look at that second shot!) Seriously, folks, what are we even doing here? 

The War Between the Land and the Sea will premiere its first two episodes on Sunday, December 7 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The second two episodes will broadcast the following week, with the series’ finale slated to hit just before Christmas on December 21. 

Before The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan Almost Made This Brad Pitt Epic

The first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, a costume epic with big-name stars like Matt Damon and Tom Holland, a complex work of classical literature: The Odyssey is obviously the type of movie that only someone like Christopher Nolan could make in 2026. Not only does Nolan have the skill and experience working with multiple time-frames to bring Homer’s epic to modern audiences, but he has the name and cache to get studios to back him, especially after his 2023 triumph Oppenheimer.

But Christopher Nolan wasn’t always THE Christopher Nolan, which meant that he couldn’t always do epics the way that he wanted. That was certainly the case back in the early 2000s, when Nolan almost helmed a very different movie based on Greek classics. Before helming Batman Begins, Nolan was planning to make Troy, the 2004 film starring Brad Pitt as hero Achilles.

While the idea of Nolan making a Greek epic completely tracks today, that certainly wasn’t the case back in the early 2000s. After a solid calling-card movie Following, Nolan piloted two well-received mystery films, Memento and Insomnia. Even if they had their stylistic flourishes, particularly the backwards plotting of the former, both of those movies were grounded in the present reality, and had far more in common with Raymond Chandler than Homer.

Instead, Troy went to a director more associated with big action, the German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen, who previously helmed The NeverEnding Story and The Perfect Storm. Under Peretersen’s watch, Troy became pure Hollywood spectacle. An adaptation of The Illiad, Troy showed how an alliance between King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) of the Greeks and King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) of the Spartans leads to an attack on Troy, lead by Priam (Peter O’Toole). The battle builds to a face of between Achilles and Trojan warrior Hector (Eric Bana).

Clearly green lit after the success of Gladiator, Troy had a massive budget and incredible locations, shot in Malta and Moracco. But while the film earned more than double its budget, it failed to win over critics, who dismissed it as pretty but forgetable, and found Pitt particularly ill-suited to the role.

Disappointing as Troy was to most involved, things worked out well for Nolan. According to Batman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer, “Batman was a consolation prize for [Nolan] because he had been developing Troy.” When Warner Bros. took Troy from him and gave it to Petersen, they gave Nolan Batman instead, Goyer explained.

From there, we know what happened. Batman Begins and the Dark Knight trilogy proved a more natural progression from Memento and Insomnia, and Nolan proved he could do mythic storytelling on a massive scale. The success of those films paved the way for Inception, Interstellar, and eventually Oppenheimer, cementing Nolan as one of the most compelling filmmakers working today.

Then, and only then, could Nolan mount a production as massive of The Odyssey, a movie that promises to make Troy a footnote in cinema history.

The Odyssey releases July 17, 2026.

Monarch Season 2 Trailer Confirms the Return of Another Famous Kaiju

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the most underrated branch (tentacle?) of Legendary’s onscreen Monsterverse, is finally returning to us next year — and it’s bringing King Kong along with it. 

A more grounded, human-focused series than some of its big-screen siblings, the Apple TV series digs into the shadowy origins of Monarch, even as it explores the impact of living in a world where kaiju roam freely on the larger human population. Told in a dual timeline format, the series’s first season followed a pair of siblings as they worked to uncover their family’s unique connection to the mysterious organization, a search that led them into a world of monsters and tied their fates to that of the mysterious Army officer Lee Shaw (portrayed by Kurt Russell in the present day, and his son Wyatt in a series of 1950s flashbacks.) 

Season 1 concluded with the elder Shaw appearing to sacrifice himself to save the rest of the main characters and escape the Hollow Earth through a dimensional portal. (Just go with it, it makes sense in context.) This portal, however, doesn’t return our heroes to their present day; rather, it deposits them on Skull Island in 2017, two years before Ghidorah’s emergence in the film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and where, as all good movie watchers know, King Kong is busy ruling the roost. 

The addition of Kong to Monarch’s season 2 kaiju roster isn’t shocking — season 1 closed with a dramatic shot of the giant simian—but the new teaser hints he’ll certainly be playing a major role in the events to come, likely much in the same way that Godzilla served as an overarching presence throughout season 1 in both present-day and flashback form. The show’s dual timeline storytelling also provides plenty of opportunities for the show to explore the events surrounding Bill Randa’s (Anders Holm) initial decision to visit Skull Island in the 1970s. 

Per Apple’s press release, season 2 will “reunite our heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and a new, mysterious village where a mythical Titan rises from the sea.” (Presumably that’s the tentacled creature we get a glimpse of in the trailer.) The streamer has also confirmed that, despite his character’s apparent onscreen death, Kurt Russell will indeed be back as the elder Lee Shaw, proving once again that no one is ever really gone for good in a world where things like giant kaiju exist. (Or at least when we don’t see an actual body.) 

Other returning cast members include Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, and Joe Tippet, alongside series newcomer — and Prey star — Amber Midthunder. Godzilla himself isn’t listed on the cast sheet, but I think it’s a given that this series can’t exist without our favorite giant lizard. As for other kaiju on the horizon? Here’s hoping. (I’m still waiting for my Mothra origin story, guys.) 

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 will premiere on February 27, 2026.

Miles Teller Blames One Person for Fantastic Four Failure

With the Fantastic Four now firmly ensconced in the MCU, the 2015 misfire Fantastic Four mostly lives on as a meme. All over the internet, one can find images of Miles Teller‘s Reed Richards asking his friend(?) Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) to “say that again,” after the Thing says the word “fantastic” in the movie’s final scene.

While it’s often used to belittle the movie, the scene is actually one of the few times in which the team actually feels close to the brightly-colored family of adventurers depicted in the pages of Marvel Comics. But to hear Teller tell it, Fantastic Four 2015 should have been so much better. “I think it’s unfortunate because so many people worked so hard on that movie,” Teller said on Radio Andy (via Entertainment Weekly). “And, honestly, maybe there was one really important person who kind of f—ked it all up.”

Teller doesn’t name any names, but it’s not hard to figure out who he’s referring to. Director Josh Trank famously refused to support the movie back when it released in the summer of 2015, and even took to Twitter to bash the finished product. In a now-deleted tweet, Trank claims that he “had a fantastic version of [the movie]” that “would’ve received great reviews,” hinting that the studio took the project away from him. “You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.”

Trank’s problems with the movie don’t just extend to its release. Hired by Fox off his successful found footage superhero film Chronicle, Trank had a darker take on the material than one usually associates with the Fantastic Four. Trank described his version as a David Cronenberg-inspired body horror movie, specifically citing Scanners and The Fly as influences. For his part, screenwriter Jeremy Slater imagined something more faithful to the comics, with the Fantasticar, Galactus, and Dr. Doom becoming the Herald of Galactus.

While Slater, who would go on to work on Moon Knight for the MCU, had a vision closer to what would be in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Trank’s approach is clearly driving the 2015 movie. Most of the film finds the quartet horrified by what they’ve become, and the stand-out scene—in which Doom (Toby Kebbell) walks down a hallway and explodes heads with his telekinetic powers—is directly taken from Scanners.

Yet, there’s no question that the finished movie is unsatisfactory, in part because it feels like one short first act, a long second act, and no proper finale. And given similar complaints about studio interference launched by Zack Snyder and David Ayer at the time, Trank certainly isn’t alone in claiming his superhero vision was taken from him.

Whatever the reason, Teller isn’t too worried about dwelling on what went wrong, and instead turns his attention toward those who tried to make it work. “The casting, I thought, was spectacular,” he said, referring to co-stars Bell, Michael B. Jordan, and Kate Mara. “I love all those actors.” And given the current MCU’s tendency to bring back stars from even little-loved projects (see: Chris Evans as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine), maybe Teller can reunite with those actors again in a future project. Then, maybe the film’s legacy will be more than a silly meme.

The Running Man Ending: Examining the Changes Made to Stephen King’s Book

This article contains full spoilers for The Running Man.

During the climax of the new movie The Running Man, runner Ben Richards gets his stomach sliced aboard an airplane. It seemed bad on screen, but trust us that every single person who has read the 1982 Stephen King novel of the same name started squirming in their seats. That’s because King, writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, devotes many, many words in the novel’s climax to describing how Richard’s entrails keep spilling out, dragging on the floor and getting caught on the furniture.

Despite the nastiness of his wound, the Ben Richards of the movie, played by Glen Powell, doesn’t really have to contend with his innards becoming outtards. While hardly the most important issue, this shift highlights one of the problems with Edgar Wright‘s update on The Running Man, especially its ending. The new movie has no interest in the nasty parts of the story, trying to sell us hope when anger is required.

Two Types of Terrible End

Credited to Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, the screenplay for the new Running Man more or less follows King’s novel, certainly more so than the 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (who does get a cameo as the picture on New Dollars, this world’s valuable currency). That similarity continues through the end of the story, in which Richards kidnaps a middle-class woman called Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones onscreen) and commandeers a jet plane by pretending that he has explosives.

Once on board, network executive Killian (Josh Brolin in the movie) reveals that he knows that Richards doesn’t have a bomb because he didn’t set off any alarms. But instead of blowing up the plane immediately, Killian offers to hire Richards as the new hunter, replacing his current star Evan McCone (Lee Pace). And it’s here that Wright and King deviate.

In the novel, Killian tells Richards that his wife Sheila and daughter Cathy have died in an accident that had nothing to do with the network. The news breaks Richards, and though he tells Killian that he accepts the new job, he then goes on to kill McCone and the pilots. After forcing Amelia to use a parachute to jump out of the plane, Richards drives it into the Games Building. The last thing Killian sees, the book tells us, is Richards staring at him through the cockpit window, a middle finger extended.

In the new movie, when Richards refuses the offer, Killian shows him footage of McCone and his Hunters killing Shelia (Jayme Lawson) and Cathy. The enraged Richards then kills McCone, who we learn is a former runner who took Killian’s offer, and forces Amelia out of the plane. After McCone’s death, Killian repeats his offer and even plays doctored footage of Richards as new network hero Hunter 6. When Richards still refuses, Killian airs a deepfake of Richards threatening to fly the plane into the network building and then blows it up with a missile.

Bleak as that sounds, its not the end of Wright’s movie. Instead video from Richards’ ally Bradley (Daniel Ezra) appears. In costume as the rebel leader the Apostle, Bradley shows how Richards escaped and that the real conversation between he and Killian has been recovered. Not only does this realization spark a revolution, driven by chants of “Richards Lives!,” but a follow-up scene finds Shelia and Cathy alive and shopping at Whole Foods-like store when they see a masked Richards standing across the street.

Yes, Wright took the gut-spilling nihilistic ending of the novel and replaced it with gauzy feel-good nonsense combined with revolutionary hope.

False Hope in Hollywood

The new movie’s hopeful ending is a major change from King’s novel, but it’s just the most obvious part of a more subtle distinction. Wright and Bacall want to tell a rousing story abut the little people rising up against the system while King’s novel has no hope for humanity.

Anger drives King’s version of Richards and keeps him going not just through the challenges posed by Killian and the network, but also by his fellow man. The more rich you are, the stronger the class consciousness in King’s novel. His Evan McCone is not a scared survivor of past games, but a pampered strong man who gets bested by Richards because he confuses his social standing for overall superiority. King’s Amelia spends most of the novel refusing to believe Richards’s account of the network and government’s actions, and only helps him out of sheer exhaustion, not because of a change in perspective. Richards manages to destroy Killian and the Games Building, but it costs him his life and, one senses, creates no systemic change.

But the movie imagines Richards as someone always trying to help others, and they reciprocate by usually trying to help him. That different take on human goodness is perhaps most clear in the movie’s standout moment, in which Richards fights against cops alongside Elton Perrakis (Michael Cera). King describes Elton as a morbidly obese and pathetic man who contends with his overbearing racist mother.

In the movie, Cera plays Elton as a slight spitfire who laments the loss of his mother’s mind. The movie has sympathy for Mrs. Parrakis (Sandra Dickinson) when she reports Richards to the authorities, because she’s in the throes of dementia, exacerbated by watching the FreeVee. Moreover, Elton’s ready for a fight, leading to an ecstatic sequence in which he shouts ACAB slogans while taking down the fascist thugs.

King allows readers no such pleasure. Mrs. Parrakis is just a bitter, angry woman who calls the police because she blames poor people like Richards and Black people like Elton’s friend Bradley for ruining the country and putting her in such dire straits. She, like almost every other character in the novel, doesn’t see other oppressed people as her allies.

Maybe because the new film believes in the mobilization of the proletariat—or more likely because it’s a Hollywood blockbuster made by Paramount Pictures—the new Running Man refuses to demonize anyone beyond a few big bads. If we could just stop them, if the people could just see the truth and get together, then we can all live happily ever after, just like Cathy and Shelia. Ben can even be a big damn hero without going boom.

Richards Lives?

At this point, though, we need to channel our inner Apostle, jump out and shout, “Hold up!” Yes, the narrative of The Running Man explicitly states that the happy ending is the real ending. But there’s potentially another way to read the final scenes.

Right after Richards rejects Killian’s Hunter 6 offer, he’s given a chance to address the nation. Looking directly at the camera, and thus directly at the audience, Richards explains that the network controls everything that we see, that the truth cannot be found on a screen. “Turn it off,” he commands the real and fictional audiences.

From there, we get the ending described above: Killian airs footage of the plane being destroyed, a revolution against the network, Shelia and Cathy go shopping. It’s exactly what a Hollywood movie thinks we want to see. But hasn’t this movie been constantly telling us that big corporations hide the truth by tailoring images? Hasn’t the film told us that we cannot trust what we see? Doesn’t the Apostle break the fourth wall right after the plane’s explosion to tell us that everything we’re seeing is fake? And didn’t Richards look right at us and tell us that we need to turn it off because everything onscreen is a lie?

If that’s the case, then the unbelievably happy ending on screen belies a conclusion even more despairing than the one imagined by King. No matter what Richards does, the network remains in control. Not only does it give us images of Shelia and Cathy as happy capitalists, but it also harnesses all the revolutionary furor caused by Richard’s rebellion. Read this way, The Running Man has a metatextual ending that’s self-aware and disheartening in a way that no Hollywood film has attempted since The Matrix Reloaded.

Running from the Hard Truth

Of course, this metatextual reading goes against the explicit story in the film. And one need only glance at the largely negative response to the movie’s ending forming online to see that most read the ending straight and find it extremely dissatisfying, and rightly so. Strangely, it’s easy to see why even a filmmaker like Edgar Wright, who has done smart work in the past, would put such a saccharine ending over the one written by King. Oppression and inequality have only grown more pronounced in the real world, expanding as screens allow us to see more, but to also dismiss what we don’t like as “fake news.” Perhaps Wright and Bacall thought we needed more hope than anger in this moment?

But the hope offered by the closing of The Running Man is cheap, unearned, and unsatisfying. Perhaps what we really need is the anger of King’s book, the willingness to turn a dyspeptic eye toward the world and acknowledge all the messiness that it involves. Let us see all the gory guts of the world, even if it makes us squirm.

The Running Man is now playing in theaters.

Sonequa Martin-Green Leaves Door Open for Starfleet Academy and Discovery Crossover

One of the best things about the larger Star Trek universe is how interconnected its worlds can be. Easter eggs abound. Plot threads can cross series. The actions of characters from centuries prior can often continue to shape those who come after them. And sometimes it gives fans a chance to see familiar faces from a previous property pop up somewhere new. It’s part of the joy inherent in this world—we never really say goodbye to any part of it.

Still, the choice to set Star Trek: Starfleet Academy immediately following the events of Star Trek: Discovery is, admittedly, a somewhat controversial one. The show’s later seasons took place in the 32nd century in the wake of an event known as The Burn, which fractured the Federation and essentially ended Starfleet Academy as it had been known up until that point. The new series will chart its rebirth, following the first class of cadets to come through the institution in over a century and all their subsequent personal, professional, and academic dramas. 

But its position in the timeline means that it’s a series that’s ripe for potential crossovers in a way that the bulk of its predecessors were not. (That wonderfully weird Star Trek: Strange Worlds meets Star Trek: Lower Decks episode aside.) After all, the Discovery crew is still living and working for the Federation during this time period — and some are already slated to appear on the show! Tig Notaro and Oded Fehr are already both set to return as Jett Reno and Admiral Charles Vance, and Mary Wiseman’s Lt. Sylvia Tilly will also appear in an episode of the series’ first season. (Which makes sense, given that she herself is now an Academy instructor.) But what about everybody else? 

The Discovery crew was in and out of Federation headquarters constantly during that show’s final seasons, and since the Academy itself is basically a mobile teaching starship in the form of the USS Athena, it’s not like they have to wait around home base for the occasional run-in with a legacy character or two. The odds that someone might run into a character like Ambassador Saru (Doug Jones) or his new wife, T’Rina (Tara Rosling), who’s still the President of Ni’Var, are probably more than decent. But what about the Discovery’s captain? Is it possible we might see Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) again? After all, there’s plenty of time between the setting of Starfleet Academy and the events we saw in the epilogue to the Discovery series finale “Life, Itself.” 

TrekMovie.com reports that it seems as though the door is open when it comes to Burnham’s potential involvement. In the most recent issue of former TVLine reporter Matt Mitovitch’s subscriber-only Inside Line column, a commenter wondered about the likelihood of the actress somehow finding her way to the world of Starfleet Academy. Mitovitch took the question to Martin-Green herself during a promotional event for her new CBS series, Boston Blue. And though the actress has had five years of training when it comes to dodging speculative questions from Trek fans, her answer still sounded relatively optimistic about the prospect. (At least, when compared to some of her former co-stars‘ comments on the subject)

“When I brought your Q to Martin-Green after the recent Boston Blue event, the way she giddily lit up made clear that she is well-versed on the overlapping timelines,” Mitovitch reported. “‘Let me tell you something—it would be so much fun. I’ll put it like that,’ the Discovery alum answered. ‘And I will also say that [co-showrunner] Alex Kurtzman did it on purpose. He put SFA in the same timeline so that there would be the potential for crossovers. There’s a lot of opportunity there, and that’s exciting.”

Granted, that’s a lot of words to say very little of substance, but it seems almost impossible that this isn’t something that Kurtzman and company already have been thinking about to some degree or other. Plus, wouldn’t we all like to see Burnham go toe-to-toe Holly Hunter’s Chancellor Ake at some point?

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will premiere on January 15, 2026.

Rian Johnson Has a Wild Way to Save Poker Face from Cancelation

Poker Face has been canceled by Peacock. After two seasons, the Columbo-inspired mystery series created by Rian Johnson has possibly met its end, despite strong reviews from critics. But that’s not the part that’s going to make you say, “Bullshit.”

Rather, it’s the interesting idea that Johnson has for the future of the series. According to Deadline, Johnson isn’t deterred and plans to shop the series to other networks. “We’ve been germinating this next move together since writing the season two finale. We love our Poker Face and this is the perfect way to keep it rolling,” he said.” Give us a beat and we may just see Charlie Cale again down that open highway.” But Johnson said that if we do see Charlie again, she won’t be played by Natasha Lyonne. Instead, Johnson plans to recast the human lie detector with Peter Dinklage.

Poker Face premiered on Peacock in 2023, introducing us to Charlie Cale, a rumpled woman with the ability to recognize any lie. Whenever someone lies to Cale, she cannot help but respond by saying, “Bullshit.” The ability gets her a good job working for the mob at one of their casinos, but when the gangster’s son (Adrien Brody) goes too far, Charlie has to tell the truth, which sends her on the run from the mob throughout the first season and most of the second.

Despite that overarching narrative, most episodes of Poker Face followed their inspiration Columbo and told stand-alone “Howshecatchem” stories. Each episode opened by introducing totally new characters, played by guest stars ranging from Chloë Sevigny and Cynthia Erivo to Tim Russ and Justin Theroux, and shows how one of them kills the other. Then, the episode shows how Charlie came to find herself among those characters, eventually recognizing a lie and then confronting the murderer.

In the same way that his Knives Out films proved to be a hit, Poker Face quickly resonated with viewers excited for a return to ’70s style episodic TV. The series garnered a number of nominations over its two seasons, and won awards from Television Critics Association, the American Film Institute, and the Primetime Emmys.

However, one did get the sense that the series was starting to sour at the end. Within the world of the show, the second season abruptly did away from the “on the run from the mob” conceit midway through. Further, the final episodes pit Charlie against an assassin who could successfully lie to her, thus betraying the show’s main idea. Off the screen, Lyonne has recently drawn fire for her continued defense of AI and her strange claim that the late David Lynch agreed with her.

Clearly, Johnson thinks that the concept still has life in it, even if it needs a change. And with his latest Knives Out mystery Wake Up Dead Man coming soon to Netflix, he’ll certainly have a platform to make his case. And if there’s one thing that Poker Face has taught us, it’s that we should never count out Charlie Cale, no matter who she (or he) may be.

Poker Face is now streaming on Peacock.

The Wuthering Heights Trailer Is Peak “I Can Fix Him” Fantasy

The trailer for Emerald Fennell’s already controversial feature film adaptation of Wuthering Heights is here, and if this clip is anything to go by, the capital D-discourse around the movie is definitely not going to get any less divisive any time soon.

Plenty of Emily Brontë purists will — and quite rightly, if we’re honest — find much to complain about when it comes to our first real look at the movie, from its anachronistic costumes and vaguely inaccurate casting choices to its almost complete lack of the soulful grief that infuses so much of the original novel.

But for plenty of folks (read: me), there’s also something wildly appealing about its completely unhinged and vaguely demented approach to its source material, which here is reimagined as an almost peak rehabilitation fantasy. Fennell seems to want to sell us a Cathy and Heathcliff we can root for, or that at least will somehow be better together than they are apart. (To which, I say: Good luck, babe.)

The idea that some women prefer bad boys isn’t exactly new. In fact, it’s so prevalent that a lot of fiction in recent years has taken things one step further, embracing the idea that what women really love are the problematic heroes, the kind with deep-set emotional issues and psychological traumas that are probably best treated with therapy rather than a wedding band. The kind of man that needs saving — from his past, from himself, from his inner demons. Heathcliff, one of the most universally acknowledged Problematic Men in all of literature, can perhaps be read as a kind of prototype for this movement.

But the concept remains popular, and there’s admittedly something quite powerful in the idea that love — love with the singularly right person — can fix the most broken of souls is still the foundation of half of the modern-day romance publishing industry today. So, it’s probably only natural that Fennell is as susceptible to it as anyone else. Savior complexes, we apparently all have them! But can she make the ultimate bad boy hot again? (Even if he’s actually abusive and manipulative and cruel?) Is Heathcliff a character that’s possible to “fix”?

Look, if the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein has taught us anything, it’s that Jacob Elordi can be hot in any form. He’s at Gothic Romance Final Boss levels of swoon in this trailer, as Heathcliff smolders in the rain, dramatically rides off into the literal sunset on horseback, and delivers lines like “So kiss me, and let us both be damned” without a single hint of irony or archness. For those of us (cough cough me again cough) who spent our youth loving movies like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Kenneth Branagh’s take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this melodramatic asshole is basically our dream man. And apparently, he’s Fennell’s, too. 

The trailer—once more, completely unironically!—refers to Wuthering Heights as “the greatest love story of all time,” leaning into the star-crossed vibes of Cathy and Heathcliff’s romance and referencing several of the novel’s most iconic lines. (“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” is an all-timer of a sentiment, and I will not be taking questions at this time.) Fennell seems to be approaching this story like she’s remaking Romeo & Juliet on acid—there’s licking of walls, artfully placed fingers in mouth, even shots of sensual breadmaking.

But for all the dizzingly strange visual elements and gorgeously out-of-place costumes, the trailer seems strangely honest and straightforward about one thing: the achingly romantic nature of Cathy and Heathcliff’s forbidden relationship. That Fennell ships it is evident; that she believes in the power of love to save a pair of broken and awful people, even more so. But it’s definitely weird that the film appears to be intentionally leaving out—or has at least declined to mention in its marketing materials thus far—the fact that their love story is also deeply and thoroughly toxic. Yes, their unabashed longing for one another can be read as a form of Peak Romance, but in the novel, their inability to be together is also what turns each of them into the absolute worst versions of themselves, ruining multiple lives (including their own!) in the process.

To be fair, it’s probably too soon to fully tell how this Wuthering Heights will handle its depiction of the (considerable) parts of Brontë’s novel in which Cathy does not appear, and where the full scope of Heathcliff’s viciousness is made plain. But since its twisted romance vibes definitely lean more toward the tragic than the cautionary tale, a not-so-small amount of viewers may well find themselves taken aback by how decidedly dark this story has the potential to become. Or maybe we’ll all end up wanting our own Heathcliff-style fixer-upper in the end.

Wuthering Heights will be released on February 13, 2026. 

Ruth Wilson’s Return Makes the Next Luther Film a Must-Watch

Idris Elba is officially set to put his signature tweed overcoat back on for another Luther movie. But while many people are likely eager to see the gritty detective (anti?) hero back on the crime-solving beat once more, it’s the return of Elba’s co-star, Ruth Wilson, that’s really the most exciting piece of this announcement. Yes, somehow, some way, Alice Morgan is coming back to our screens, and all is now right with the British mystery world once more. 

The original Luther series ran for five seasons between 2010 and 2019, followed by the feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun in 2023. Netflix’s first outing in the Luther universe was decidedly mid, a film that couldn’t decide if it was more interested in appeasing longtime fans or targeting newcomers to the franchise. It also lacked Wilson’s Alice, whose complicated and obsessive relationship with Luther (not to mention her generally psychotic demeanor toward… well, pretty much everything) was a big reason the original series was so successful. 

This latest sequel will reportedly pick up directly after the events of Fallen Sun, but it’s got its own set of initial problems to solve—namely that it looked a whole lot like Alice Morgan died during her last appearance on the show. In the finale, she murdered Luther’s partner as payback for his lying to her. (Their relationship is really complicated, okay.) This all culminated in a dramatic face-off between the pair at a construction site, where it certainly looked as though Alice fell to her death. Granted, we only briefly saw her body, and this has never been a series that’s been terribly concerned with things like internal narrative logic, but it is something they’ll presumably have to deal with fairly early on. 

But the return of Wilson is fantastic news for this new installment’s likely quality. Alice has always been Luther’s most interesting character, a wild card capable of shaking up the status quo at any moment. She occupies a strangely liminal space within the world of the show, one part overt antagonist, one part uncomfortable accomplice, and even sometimes both at once, depending on her mood. Wilson and Elba’s fantastic chemistry is reason enough to tune in on its own, and the complicated, obsessive dance between their characters is the sort of relationship the franchise has never managed to duplicate or equal elsewhere

Beyond Wilson’s return, we don’t know much about what this next Luther installment will involve. It will once again be written by series creator Neil Cross, and what we do know is that its story will see a new wave of brutal, seemingly random murders hit London. Luther is secretly called back into service, because of course he is, but how can he save the day when everyone on all sides seemingly wants him dead?

Filming on the as-yet-unnamed sequel is set to begin in February 2026. 

George R.R. Martin Calls Out a Controversial Spider-Man Story

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is coming to theaters next year, a brand new big-screen adventure starring Tom Holland as our favorite wall-crawler. But even that movie can’t distract from the comic book series One More Day, which preceeded the storyline that inspired the new movie. It may be almost two full decades since One More Day released, but fans are still irritated about the conclusion of that story, in which Peter Parker makes a deal with the satanic Mephisto to save the life of his beloved Aunt May. All it cost was his marriage to Mary Jane.

Those disgruntled fans include Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who expressed his irritation to Popverse. “I do have frustrations with it, too, I have to admit,” he said. “I don’t like retcons. I don’t like reboots. You know, I’m watching, I’m following a character or a superhero or something for years, sometimes decades, and then they come and say, ‘Oh, no. None of that stuff happened. We’re just going to start the whole thing over again.’ That always annoys the hell out of me.” And when asked for an example, Martin offered just one: “Peter Parker married Mary Jane.”

One More Day definitely came out of an impulse to say “none of that stuff happened.” The most immediate problem that Marvel needed to deal with was the fact that Spider-Man had unmasked on live television during the Civil War crossover, revealing to the world that he is Spider-Man. Although that made for some fun beats in which people who hated Spidey but loved Peter or vice versa had to deal with the reveal, the decision undercut the essential blue-collar nature of the character.

Yet, for Marvel editorial at the time, Spider-Man’s identity reveal was just the latest in a long line of bad decisions involving the character. Originally created by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby, Spider-Man was a gangly teenager who had to balance his superheroing with high school, social calls, familial obligations, and work. That dynamic more or less stayed in place as Peter graduated and went to college.

However, editorial felt that Peter’s dynamic changed for the worse as he got older, especially when he married actress/model Mary Jane and later had a child with her. Marvel had tried a few different ways of dealing with the issue before One More Day, including revealing that he was in fact a clone of the real Peter Parker in the infamously convoluted Clone Saga and introducing a teen Peter in the Ultimate Universe. But when all of these issues reached a boiling point, Marvel decided to use magic to reinvent the character, erasing the marriage as well as all knowledge of his secret identity and making him a single young person in NYC.

Since One More Day, Peter and Mary Jane’s status has been on an off, at least in the real world. But in the pages of the new Ultimate Spider-Man series by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto, Peter and Mary Jane are indeed happily married with two kids. That is a reboot, one of the dreaded rewritings of history that Martin despises, but it does restore a marriage he likes, so will he allow a retcon this time?

Someone should ask Martin about that… after he finishes The Winds of Winter.

Win a Copy of There Is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM in our Penguin Random House Giveaway

They’re all around us, hiding in plain sight. One could be in the room with you right now, just to your left. You could be seeing it this very second, but from one heartbeat to the next, you’ll forget that you did. If you wrote down what you saw, the page would appear blank moments later. These things feed on what makes you you: your memories, your sense of self, your connection to the world, and you’ll never even know it happened.

Welcome to the world of There Is No Antimemetics Division, the cult phenomenon by the author known as QNTM, now reimagined and expanded into a full-length novel from Penguin Random House. To celebrate its release, Den of Geek is giving readers a chance to win one of five free copies. To enter, simply visit Den of Geek’s Instagram page, find the post promoting the giveaway, and leave a comment. That’s it! No secret codes, no bureaucratic clearance, no memetic inoculations required.

There Is No Antimemetics Division has earned a devoted following for its chillingly clever take on the idea of an invisible, unknowable enemy. Humanity is under assault by malevolent “antimemes,” ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself. They’re predators equipped with the ultimate camouflage, living black holes for information that consume our awareness of their existence. The Antimemetics Division endeavors to study, contain, and neutralize these threats, though its operatives can never quite remember what it is they’re fighting.

QNTM invites readers to enjoy his beloved piece of online storytelling, now transformed into an entirely new reading experience for its print debut. So if you’re drawn to stories that challenge perception, twist logic, and make the forgettable unforgettable, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Quickly now! Before your memory fades, head on over to Instagram, find Den of Geek’s giveaway post, and leave a comment. Five winners will be chosen to receive a free copy of There Is No Antimemetics Division from Penguin Random House.

Participants can also sign up for more information from QNTM and the Random House Publishing Group, including updates on upcoming releases and exclusive offers (see PRH’s privacy policy). You may also contact Penguin Random House, Inc. by mail at 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

And if you don’t win, have no fear… you probably won’t remember entering anyway.